Archive for the ‘Communism’ Category

At age 9, golfer Alex Cejka and his father escaped Communism – Akron Beacon Journal

Alex Cejka doesnt think about the danger anymore.

He knows the treacherous journey his father led him on as they escaped Communist Czechoslovakia when he was 9 formed him as a person. But Cejka, 51 and in his second season on the PGA Tour Champions, wont say it still drives him.

Everybody has some kind of a story, Cejka said. That formed me in my early years, to appreciate everything you have, for the chances you are given, youve got to work on those chances, nobody gives you anything for free, youve got to earn everything.

Cejka (pronounced CHAY-kuh) and his dad traveled by foot and train, by swimming and biking through Yugoslavia, Italy and Switzerland before settling near Frankfurt, Germany. His father, an engineer with multiple college degrees, was forced to work in a restaurantbusing and cleaning tablesbefore he found a better-paying job.

My dad taught me a great lesson when we came when I was a young kid. We came to a different country, I didnt know how to speak the language, I didnt have any money and my dad didnt have any money, Cejka said Thursday at Firestone Country Club. You learn to fight, the survival is there, and that shows it doesnt matter if you are 15 or 23 or 40, that drive is there.

The whole trip, the whole situation formed me into a person who thrives, doesnt want to give up, if I fail, Ill try again. But I dont want to say its somewhere in the back of my mind. I was just too young to understand what situation my dad was in or how difficult or challenging or what dangers there were, but I think the whole trip formed me. It was tricky.

Inspired by German star Bernhard Langer to abandon ice hockey and soccer for golf, Cejka has called on all those lessons during his professional career.

He turned pro in 1989 and earnedthe first of 11 international victories in the 1990 Czech Open. He joined the PGA Tour in 2003, but in 2013 and '14 was forced to step downto theKorn Ferry Tour, wherehe wononce. Cjekas only victory on the PGA Tour came in the Puerto Rico Open in 2015, when he picked up a $540,000 first-place prize.

His PGA Tour earnings totaled nearly $13 million, but on the Champions Tour he picked up the pace, winning two majors in 2021.

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Coming into this weeks Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, Cejka had earned over $2.3 million in two seasons and stood 14th on the 2022 Schwab Cup list with two top 10s and seven top 25s in 13 events.

In his return to Akron for the fourth of five senior majors, Cejka fired a 6-under 64 on the famed South Course Thursday to claim the first-round lead.

Cejka knows whats working for him on the Champions Tour.

It's a big difference if you play on this tour or if you play on the PGA Tour against 23-year-old kids who hit it 50 yards past you, make every putt, make every chip, he said. The last couple years on the PGA Tour I played good, but the courses were just too long. You know, too much pressure. You're trying to make the cut and you're annoyed even if you make it but you finish 50th because physically, you just can't beat those guys on a weekly basis.

I can have a good week and I can finish up there, but that's not what we play for playing 30 tournaments and finish once up there. Those guys are just super good. The game has changed in the last couple years, everybody hits it so far now. So it's really pleasant to play like guys my distance with no cut. It's a totally different mindset than teeing it up on the PGA Tour on Thursday and you know you have to shoot 6 under to make the cut. That's the only difference.

Cejka has also found the lifestyle suits him. He and his wife travel by RV, which is parked across the street from the Firestone clubhouse. They bring their smallest dog on the road as well.

Its a great spot, I love it here, he said.

Cejka qualified for the World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational at Firestone in 2003 and 2004, but was not in the field for the 2021 Bridgestone Senior Players. He loves the test of the difficult old course.

It's a great course. I played here a long, long time ago … I want to say 20 years ago maybe, and it was back then already really, really tough, really narrow, Cejka said. I just told myself I've got to miss it in good spots and I did. My thinking was great, my execution was great today.

Cejka is pushing for his third senior major with the same drive he learned when he was 9.

It made me what I am now, still humble, still appreciate every chance, he said. Im on it now. After playing so many years on the PGA Tour, you are 50 and you can still have a second chance. And Im playing here with guys Ive known for 20, 30 years who are major champions, my heroes when I was young, they are Hall of Famers.

You know what an honor it is for me to play with guys like this? It doesnt matter if its Fred Couples or Bernhard Langer or Vijay [Singh], you name them all.

"Weall want to beat each other. We are great friends. But when we step up there, everybody has an ego. Most of us dont do it maybe for the big money anymore, but its our drive, its our ego and you want to play good. That'swhat were here for.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com.Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.

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At age 9, golfer Alex Cejka and his father escaped Communism - Akron Beacon Journal

Jyoti Basu Birth Anniversary: Remembering the beacon of Indian Communism – Free Press Journal

While reading Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri's 'The Lowland', you're instantly taken to the 60s Naxalite movement in Kolkata.

The Naxalbari movement also saw differences in the Communist Party of India. Two years after the India-China War of 1962, the party split, leading to the formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and Jyoti Basu, the beacon of Indian Communism, became one of the founding members of its politburo

Jyoti Basu had many achievements to his name, such as being Indias longest-serving chief minister (overtaken by Pawan Kumar Chamling) and a beacon of Indias Communist movement. But in 1996, he came close to adding another feather to his cap almost becoming Indias first Bengali and Marxist prime minister, eventually losing out to H.D. Deve Gowda when his Communist Party of India (Marxist) decided not to join the United Front government.

His watch saw many big initiatives, such as land reforms, minimum wages for agricultural labourers, a three-tier panchayati system, dole for the unemployed and widows, and the establishment of a separate department for youth services, as per his obituary in Frontline magazine.

Today, let's remember the Leftist stalwart and CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu on his birth anniversary.

Basu had served as the chief minister of the state from 1977 to 2000. Basu ruled West Bengal for 23 uninterrupted years between 1977 and 2000, and was known for his realpolitik at the height of the Vietnam War, he renamed the Calcutta street on which the American consulate stood after Communist icon Ho Chi Minh, and then went to Washington to seek investment.

Born into an upper middle-class family in Calcutta, Basu was introduced to politics through the Communist Party of Great Britain, becoming acquaintances with Harry Pollitt, Rajani Palme Dutt, Ben Bradley and other leaders. He also attended lectures of Harold Laski, a Marxist poet who later became chairman of the British Labour Party, and involved himself in organising various activities of Indian students in the UK.

The turning point in his political life came in 1938 when he joined the London Majlis and became its first secretary. The main function of the Majlis was to organise meetings of Indian leaders visiting England with those of the Labour Party and other Socialists, and this brought Basu into contact with the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose and Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.

Leading light of the Indian Left

Having developed a firm belief in the Communist ideals, Basu returned to India in 1940 and joined the Communist Party of India, also becoming secretary of the Friends of the Soviet Union and Anti-Fascist Writers and Artists Association in Calcutta.

In 1977, after the Emergency, the Left Front came to power in West Bengal, with Basu, who had switched to the Satgachia constituency, becoming CM.

He retired from active politics in 2000, leaving the Left Front government in the hands of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who ruled for 11 more years. Basu remained a member of the CPI(M) politburo till 2008, and a special invitee of the partys central committee till his death.

Basu suffered multiple organ failure on 1 January 2010, and passed away on 17 January 2010.

As per his wishes, his body and eyes were handed over to SSKM Hospital, Kolkata, for research.

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Jyoti Basu Birth Anniversary: Remembering the beacon of Indian Communism - Free Press Journal

Lil Wayne’s Net Worth and How Much He Earned the Year He Wore a ‘Communist’ Shirt – Showbiz Cheat Sheet

The rapper Lil Wayneis considered one of the best-selling musical artists ever. Despite his talent and success (as marked by his impressivenet worth), his career has been marked by controversy. However, sometimes his statements seem a little contradictory,leaving people more confusedthan anything.

Lil Waynes talent was evident early in his life.Celebrity Net Worthreports that as a child, the future star (then known as Dwayne Michael Carter Jr.) was placed in the gifted program at school. He wanted to be a rapper from an early age, and he clearly showed his aptitude for it. In fact, Carter was only eight years old when he wrote his first song.

Within about a year, he drew the attention of Birdman, the owner of Cash Money Records. His career was on its way, but his life wasnt easy. At 12 years old, Carter attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest.

Fortunately, he was rushed to the hospital. He was still as committed as ever to pursuing his dreams. When Carter was 15 years old, he joined the group Hot Boys. Just two years later, he went solo. His debut album,Tha Block Is Hot, drew attention, butTha Carter, released five years later, truly made him a star.

Despite a career filled with controversy, feuds, and legal problems, Lil Wayne has amassed an impressive net worth of $170 million. However, his wealth didnt stop him from once appearing to embrace a belief that seems contradictory to hislavish way of living.

In 2009, British singer Jay Sean collaborated with Lil Wayne on a song called Down. According toVice, the song seemed to partly respond to the economic anxiety that so many people were going through at that time. Perhaps that anxiety is why Carter wore a shirt in the video that was emblazoned with the word COMMUNIST.

His lifestyle doesnt align with a worldview that says all property should be publicly owned. For example, hes known for lavish expenditures, such as when hebought a $2.7 million Bugatti Veyron. Not only that, but the year he wore that shirt, he earned $18 million.

Carter doesnt seem actually to believe in the tenants of communism. But this wasnt the only time hes puzzled or even angered fans with his statements.

Over the past few years, Lil Wayne took political stances that upset many of his fans.The Daily Beastreports that in 2016, he made disparaging statements about the Black Lives Matter movement. He insisted that it had nothing to do with him, even saying that because of his wealth, he dont see none of that.

Before that, Carterupset people even morewhen he compared a sex act to the brutal lynching of Emmett Till. He did walk that statement back after realizing how out of line he was. But he doesnt always retract what hes said.

Then, in 2020, he shocked many fans by appearing toendorse then-President Trumpfor reelection. He posted a picture of him shaking hands with Trump just days before the election. He referred to their great meeting and claimed that Trumps policies would give the community real ownership.

Lil Wayne has been relatively apathetic about politics for most of his life. But when he does make statements about where he stands, he often seems to leave people with more questions than answers.

RELATED:Lil Wayne Details Childhood Suicide Attempt and Opens Up About When He Knew He Needed Help

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Lil Wayne's Net Worth and How Much He Earned the Year He Wore a 'Communist' Shirt - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

The road to communism in China – Philstar.com

For several months the Russian invasion has virtually monopolized international headlines and the attention of world leaders. It seems that during this period, China has disappeared from the front pages of major newspapers. However, the recent visit of Xi Jinping to Hong Kong has revived interest in China, especially in Xi and his future plans.

Two years ago, the burgeoning pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong was brought to a halt by strong arm tactics of mainland China. In this recent visit, Xi Jinping again virtually laid the law for Hong Kong with his statement that this territory must be ruled by patriots. Officially, Xi was in Hong Kong to celebrate the 25thanniversary of the colonys return to China.

However, Xi used the visit to warn against any future challenges to Beijings authoritarian grip on this former British colony. The new head of Hong Kongs government, John Lee, played an instrumental role in crashing the 2019 pro-democracy protests.

In spite of accusations that Xi Jinping was going against the original agreement of a one-nation, two-systems government for Hong Kong, it is clear that he is determined to continue the crackdown on any dissent. It should be remembered that when the British left the colony on July 1, 1997, there was a commitment that for 50 years, Hong Kong would be granted a certain degree of autonomy.

These recent developments have placed Hong Kongs role as an international capital for business and finance in jeopardy. The system of capitalism is now considered in peril by some observers. During his visit, Xi said, All Hong Kongers should be able to respect and safeguard the fundamental socialist system of the nation. At the same instance, John Lee said that the system had overcome foreign interference that had threatened the national security of the country.

This has led geopolitical observers to discuss Chinas move to reintroduce communism in China. There has been a barrage of new regulations that has stifled the decision-making of large China-based businesses like Alibaba and Tencent. It is noticeable that these large Chinese corporations have stopped expanding in many new areas in the world. It has been said that China hopes to replace these large capitalist companies with a new generation of businesses that is more aligned with the goals of the Communist Party.

In terms of the communist ideology, the path to communism is not direct but must be taken one level at a time. A decade ago, Zhao Ziyang, who was then Communist Party chief, had said that China must be freed from the restrictions of orthodox socialist principles. This allowed China to introduce capitalism and to repudiate the Maoist ideology. The dramatic economic growth in China is the result of this return to market economy.Today, under Xi Jinping, Zhaos beliefs have been repudiated. Xi has vowed to put China back on the path of socialism and eventually, communism.

Early this year, Xi Jinping said that the Partys goal was forging ahead to a higher level of socialism. He has often urged party members to have faith in the lofty ideal of communism.

I can remember that sometime in the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping, the countrys paramount leader at that time, said: The basic completion of socialist modernization would take at least a hundred years.Communism was then considered a very long-term goal. But this has changed under Xi Jinping, who believes that socialist modernization, another term for communism, would be completed by 2035.

There is much speculation on why Xi has insisted on a zero-COVID policy, on cracking down on pro-democracy sentiment in Hong Kong and on bringing large business firms under the firm control of the Communist Party.

Personally, I attribute this to the fact that towards the end of this year, there will be a major Communist Party Congress. At the same time, this will also be the end of the unprecedented ten-year term of Xi as head of China. It is clear by now that Xi is aiming for another five-year term which he hopes to ratify at this Congress. It seems to me that all these moves are geared towards laying down the groundwork for an extension of Xis term on the grounds that he will be a necessity and ultimately will be beneficial for the Communist Party and for China.

The biggest obstacle to Xis coronation as the president for life is the need to reduce the tremendous gap between the rich and the poor in China. I believe that this is the reason that Xi has been talking a lot about the need for common prosperity. Officially, the Communist Partys goal is to put common prosperity in place by 2050. I believe that Xi Jinping is aiming to be the next Mao Zedong without the need for mass violence.

The coming Party Congress will be very critical for Xi Jinpings ambition to be ruler for life.

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Young Writers Hangout on July 23 with returning author-facilitator Kim Derla, 2-3 pm. Write Things six-day summer workshop Writefest is on its last three days this week. Contact [emailprotected].0945.2273216

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The road to communism in China - Philstar.com

Count Istvn Plffy, Hungarian aristocrat who fled the country in 1956 and worked in advertising and information systems in Britain obituary – The…

Count Istvn Plffy, who has died aged 89, stood as a candidate in the Hungarian parliamentary election in 2018 aged 85. Though he was not elected, he was immensely proud of standing in a constituency that his grandfather had represented from 1872 until he died in 1933. He stood for Momentum, a party of young people which rejected the Right-wing policies of the prime minister, Viktor Orbn.

Plffy was born into one of the oldest aristocratic families in Europe. When writing his family history, he chose the somewhat tongue-in-cheek title The First Thousand Years. His great passion was history, and he liked to say that he received his education at the hands of the vagaries of history. The Second World War broke out on his first day at school; the Nazis marched into the territory of their Hungarian allies in 1944 and, soon after, he was to become a victim of Soviet communism.

Though born into the purple of Hungarian aristocratic life on both sides of his family, Plffy only enjoyed the benefits which that station offered for a few years of his boyhood. By the time he was 15, he had been declared by the new Communist regime to be a class enemy and an enemy of the people. He was expelled from his private school and compelled to work as an unskilled labourer. He was later sent as a prisoner to a forced labour camp before escaping to England in 1956.

Count Istvn Plffy ab Erdd was born in Budapest on 22 May 1933, the son of Count Ferenc Plffy ab Erdd and Countess Jlia Apponyi de Nagy Appony. His fathers family claimed descent from a Swabian knight who had settled in Hungary around the year 970.

His mothers family was ennobled in the 13th century. His mother, who was related to Queen Geraldine of Albania, married Patrick Leigh Fermors great friend, Elemr von Klobusiczky, immortalised as Istvan in his book Between the Woods and the Water.

Both families produced legions of soldiers and diplomats in the service of Hungary. Therefore it delighted Pista Plffy when he was press-ganged into the new communist-led army and given the lowest possible rank in the hope of humiliating him. This move did not have the desired effect. You see, he joked with friends, I am the first Plffy in history to be in the army and not be a general.

In the long line of ancestors, in which he took pride, it was his maternal grandfather, Count Albert Apponyi, of whom he was most proud. It fell to him to lead the Hungarian delegation at the Peace Conference at Versailles in 1919; on his shoulders rested the terrible burden of returning to Hungary with the dictated terms of the Treaty of Trianon. This instrument reduced the ancient kingdom of Hungary to a mere rump state.

The outbreak of the Hungarian Uprising in 1956 allowed him to escape Hungary. Tall, elegant and with a decidedly aristocratic roll to his pronunciation of the letter r, Plffy cut an unusual dash at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he read Moral Sciences.

He felt comfortable in England. His great-uncle, Count Albert Mensdorff, had been Austrian ambassador. Istvn already spoke English fluently, and there was a ready-made group of Hungarian migrs willing to welcome him.

He was grateful to Cambridge for absorbing this exotic Hungarian aristocratic exile. At Trinity Hall, he had an unusual encounter with CS Lewis when, on an after-dinner stroll back to his rooms, the tongue-tied and slightly nervous Plffy broke the ice by asking Lewis if he thought the English obsession with the weather had anything to do with the sinking of the Spanish Armada.

Lewis remained silent, but the next day sent Plffy a note saying he had found a reference in a medieval play showing the English obsession with the weather predating the Armadas sinking by several centuries.

On leaving Cambridge, Plffy was at a slight loss as to how he might use a degree in Moral Sciences. A friend advised him to try advertising, because that profession is not too fussy about degrees and probably considers Moral Sciences to be all about being a good person. A few years spent in the advertising industry provided him with an income but little intellectual satisfaction.

He was a regular patron of Londons famous Hungarian restaurant, the Gay Hussar in Soho. He once arrived for lunch to find a delegation from the Hungarian Communist Party being entertained by some diplomats. The Hungarian head waiter, sensing the potential sensitivity of the situation, asked him if he wished to be seated as far away as possible from the group. Plffy replied: Not an inch, put me right up against them.

He found his intellectual metier in the emerging computer industry and applied his intellect to designing information systems for libraries; as a private consultant, his clients were as diverse as the British Museum Library and the Shah of Iran. Before the fall of the Shah, he spent several years travelling to Iran to develop the computer system for a proposed National Library. He also advised the Iranians on how they might apply developing computer technology to modernise their blood transfusion service.

With the collapse of Communism in 1989, Istvn Plffy returned to his native Budapest, where he bought a flat on the Rzsadomb, a hill in Buda overlooking the city. There, in his book-lined rooms, he was regularly sought out by historians such as Norman Stone or by those who were simply curious to know about a man who had survived the vicissitudes of communism without bitterness.

A son and a daughter survive him. His wife predeceased him.

Count Istvn Plffy ab Erdd, born May 22 1933, died July 2 2022

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Count Istvn Plffy, Hungarian aristocrat who fled the country in 1956 and worked in advertising and information systems in Britain obituary - The...