kafkaestblog

Not that it is any surprise that Kafka’s name might arise in discussions about Trump. But, when it is the NPR that does the connection, the revelation does take on more gravitas.

Not to imply that Trump is a character straight out of Kafka, of course. Kafka’s bizarre imagination was a bit more ethereal. Trump is too much with us.
DE

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America
‘Kafka Is Present In U.S. Elections’: Mexican Reaction To Trump’s Visit

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August 31, 201612:52 PM ET

Eyder Peralta
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Alicia Lopez Fernandez paints a piñata depicting Donald Trump at her family’s store, Piñatas Mena Banbolinos, in Mexico City in 2015.
Marco Ugarte/AP

At some point today, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

It was a hastily arranged visit by a presidential candidate who has spent much of his campaign insulting Mexico and its people.

“I love the Mexican people, but Mexico is not our friend,” Trump tweeted last year. “They’re killing us at the border and they’re killing us on jobs and trade.” Earlier this summer, Trump joked about a Mexican attack on U.S. soil.

So, how’s his visit going over down there? Here are some reactions:

— Raúl Benitez Manaut, a professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, told the website Animal Politico that the author Franz Kafka must be playing some role in the U.S. presidential election.

“I’m not even going to think about wasting neurons to rationalize Trump’s visit,” he said. “The only thing we need is that they announce that gas prices will go up because the wall is going to cost too much and we all have to pitch in.”

— Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, was more direct. He told Lopez Doriga Digital: “Trump has nothing to do; these are desperate moves. What I don’t understand is why we fell for this trap, why we let him fool us.”

On Twitter, Fox said that Mexico did not want Trump and would never trust him.

“I told you, Trump,” he tweeted, “that ‘a fish dies by his own mouth.’ Now you should quit out of dignity for yourself, get back to your ‘business.’ ”

— Margarita Zavala, a potential presidential candidate in Mexico, tweeted: “Mr. Donald Trump, even though you have been invited, know that you are not welcome. Mexicans have dignity and we repudiate your hateful discourse.”

— Roberto Gil Zuarth, the president of the Mexican Senate, tweeted: “Inviting Donald Trump legitimizes his demagogy and hate. He threatens us with war and walls, but we open up the National Palace.”

— Enrique Ortiz Garcia, a historian, dug into colonial history to explain Trump’s visit:

The caption reads, “And then the foreigner arrived who at first we thought was Quetzalcóatl.”

It’s in reference to Hernando Cortés’ arrival in Tenochtitlán. According to some Spanish texts, the Aztecs at first confused Cortés with an important deity.

Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, welcomed the Spanish conquistador and tried to buy him off. But that backfired; Montezuma lost his empire and the Spanish began their colonial rule.

— At Mexico City’s Angel of the Independence, protesters gathered. One of them called on his president to cancel his invitation. Trump, he said, is an affront to all Mexicans.

— Enrique Peña Nieto explained his thinking with his own tweet. “I believe in dialogue in order to promote Mexican interests across the world and especially to protect Mexicans wherever they may be,” he tweeted.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/31/492091611/kafka-is-present-in-u-s-elections-mexican-reaction-to-trumps-visit?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160831
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And my original post:

All governments hate Franz Kafka

Source: WHEN THE GOVERNMENT HATES YOU

At those times I perceive I have made a brilliant observation, I often quote: “Thank God I got a degree when it meant something.” This usually annoys those who hear me but, I confess, I don’t really care. And I have yet to be smeared with the accusation that my education comes from the largess of Wal-Mart.
DE
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On hiring faculty off the tenure track That’s part of the business model. It’s the same as hiring temps in industry or what they call “associates” at Walmart, employees that aren’t owed benefits. I…

Source: Noam Chomsky: The Death of the American University

Source: Goose Lane Editions

An Elephant in search of answers.

Source: Goose Lane Editions

Please, Ladies and Gentlemen, I think it’s time to

– please, if you don’t mind – it really is time to begin our –

thank you, that’s much better – time for our meeting to start.

As you can see by looking around, this gathering is exclusively for Department heads. There will be no minutes taken. These projections are for your ears only. Not only would we not wish another company to get them, but there is a chance the general public may become concerned, little realising the economics of our endeavours. A brief history of colours, dyes and artificial essences will give us a place to start. Run the strawberry jam, please.

As you can see, Ladies and Gentlemen, the colours on the slide are excellent. The rich red hue of the strawberries is exactly the colour you’ll find in the jar. We spent years developing that dye. Also, the years that went into getting the artificial taste and smell to adhere to the colour is something that most people would not imagine.

Of course, even with our best efforts, there has always been a problem with that cloying, rather heavy sensation on the tongue. That has been offset by the addition of more sugar. We had complaints when the product was first introduced, but it appears these have now disappeared with new generations who know nothing different. People just accept that strawberries, strawberry ice cream, and strawberry jam all have their own tastes. Next slide, please.

Oh, yes – well, we’ll pass over this slide quickly. I just put that in to show you we finally managed to get rid of the strawberries altogether. As you can see on the close-up, the red glob is really made from compressed fibres – as one of our chemists said, more straw than berry. Even the seeds are produced and added with a gum mixture. We have found that bone meal seems to last best of all.

Now, this next lot we are very proud of. Bronson, these should be of particular interest to you, since they deal with our fast food chain. The buns are made of very porous fibre, almost like real dough. The brown colouring gives them a nice toasted look. The meat patty is still half real – we can’t seem to budge the government on that. Still, being able to advertise 100% all beef helps – as long as the fat, bone, guts etc that goes into it all comes from a cow, we’re home free. Notice the use of the black lines of dye, to make it appear the meat has just come off the grill.

Ah!

This interesting experiment has been done with some of our ever-thick milk shakes. We wanted to see how long the latex used to keep it together would hold up under the combined attacks of various strawberry, chocolate, etc. dyes, the fats and gums of the milk mixture, and the acids from the artificial flavours. You’ll be pleased to know that some of them still were thick after four months of refrigeration. It is easy to see how latex based paints can last for so many years. We are now experimenting with making our french fries out of pulped wood chips. Texture, flavour and colour have all been overcome, but there still seems to be some unfortunate reactions to the hot fat.

DE