External Enemies Research Articles

Audiovisual Production by the Contemporary European Extreme Right: Filmic Inheritances and Intertexts to Spread the Hate

This article analyses the narrative techniques of major far-right political parties in contemporary Europe, based on their promotional videos on YouTube. It argues that the construction of their discourse is based mainly on cinematic references that connect with both the post-modern epic and the propaganda machinery of the Third Reich. Their visual motifs are thus positioned on two intertextual axes: post-classical cinema and Nazi propaganda. To support this hypothesis, a qualitative methodology of discourse analysis is applied, with special emphasis on the textual analysis of both formal features (staging, framing, and editing) and thematic content (the political messages conveyed). After offering a brief outline of the current state of the dissemination of right-wing extremist messages on YouTube, the article examines a sample of 53 of the most important institutional videos by the 12 far-right parties that have been most successful in their respective national elections. The results confirm that their visual motifs evoke three of the most characteristic fields of signification of the extreme right: the construction of the leader, the idea of nation, and the creation of an external enemy. In all three cases, a series of images is used with the aim of both captivating the audience with historical-military references and appropriating stylistic features from the nationalist iconography of the Heimat, which inspired many of the UFA films of the Nazi era.

Humour and satire in everyday life in 1920s Soviet society

In the Soviet society of the 1920s, humour and satire existed on two levels: official and unofficial. They have rather diverse forms. At the official level, there were, first of all, satirical articles, humoresques, and cartoons in the newspapers. Newspapers were an integral part of Soviet everyday life. Secondly, there were the performances of propaganda teams (the «Blue Blouse» in particular). These performances took place at any venues: in working clubs and village halls, on the factory floors, in different offices. The repertoire of propaganda teams always included satirical couplets directed against «internal and external enemies». At the unofficial level, there were witty-ditties, funny couplets, and anecdotes. They have various contents: from everyday and romantic issues to political problems. Therefore, at this level humour and satire expressed a critical attitude to the government and popular protest. At each level, humour and satire had their own goals and fulfilled various functions: from ideological to relaxational.

조선후기 압록강 하안의 신도(薪島) 범월과 신도진(薪島鎭)의 설치

The Shindo island of Joseon was located on the Abrok-gang riverline which faced Chinese dynasties, first Ming and later Qing. Fishery was good in the area and there was also ample land that could be cultivated. So the Chinese people would frequently cross the border to come here, and engage in illegal activities. The Joseon government recognized Shindo as part of its territory, but was unable to actually move some Joseon people there and establish administrative control over the island. As a result, the island became a hotbed for illegal fishery and trades, and an island frequently violated by the Chinese via illegal trespassing.<BR> In order to put an end to all these illegal activities continuing on the Shindo island, the Joseon government decided to initiate a Suto(搜討) search and investigation. Such investigation seems to have begun around the latter half of 17th century when the Qing government’s ban on the sea was lifted, and was to be conducted ‘three times a month(月三搜討).’ Yet such plan was not successfully implemented, and the Joseon government finally decided in 1808–with the Qing’s approval- to establish a Naval headquarters (“Jin”) on Shindo, which was located near one of the farthest positions of the northern part of the Korean peninsula.<BR> The “Shindo-jin” office was a reestablishment of the Yongcheon area’s Migot-jin office, which had originally been maintained as an on-land facility. An administrative office was built on Shindo, and people were ordered to live there. The office itself was established not to defend the area from external enemies, but to monitor and minimize all the illegal trespassing and smuggling, so not a lot of soldiers were required. Unlike other naval facilities, only around a hundred soldiers were stationed at Shindo-jin.<BR> Meanwhile, the functions of the original Migot-jin also needed to be maintained. So the Joseon government had the Shindo Cheomsa official to man Shindo from March to September, and then regulate the Migot-jin area from October to February. In other words, the Shindo Cheomsa had to regulate the late Migot-jin on land and the new Shindo-jin on an island, and as a result the Shindo-jin in the 19th century had to be operated with two centers: one on the island(Dojin, 島鎭) and one on the land(Yukjin, 陸鎭). Shindo-jin served as an important checkpoint on the farthest North region of the West sea throughout the 19th century, and in the early 20th century actually enabled Joseon to have an upper hand in a series of territorial disputes with China over areas such as Hwangchopyeong and Shindo.

Пограничная армия поздней Римской империи в середине IV в. (на примере Исаврии и рейнской границы): к вопросу о методах размещения войсковых подразделений

Introduction. During the whole 4th c. the Late Roman frontier military units constantly took part in military campaigns against different enemies of the Empire, hovewer the author of this paper asks the question how precisely frontier military units managed their service, i.e. which functions they exercised and how they interacted to local civilian population of the province where they stood in. The author believes that a set of functions depended foremost on the location landscape. Methods and materials. The author applies the comparison approach, i.e. compares the peculiarities of two regions where the frontier armies stood: Isauria at the southeast of Asia Minor (mountain landscape) and Upper Germany at the Rhine frontier (mainly plain territory). The source accounts are “The Life of St. Conon of Isauria” (hagiography), an important inscription of Julian the Caesar (future Emperor Julian the Apostate) from Upper Germany (epigraphy) and the work of Ammianus Marcellinus “The Deeds” (Res gestae). Analysis. The author compares evidence on the military arrangement of two provinces and considers how their frontier units defended these lands from external and internal enemies, how they interacted to local population and how precisely they located in its forts. Conclusions. As a result the author concludes that the Roman administration could not place a large number of regular military units in Isauria, because this province had not enough fertile plain lands, this region suffered from the lack of food supply. The hard and cruel mountain landscape enforced to make the bands of irregular city militia – in the case of Isaurian assaults citizens formed military detachments, which were temporarily attached to regular units called vexillations. In contrast, at the Rhine frontier, where there were enough fertile flat lands, the Roman administration might place many regular units and, moreover, this region received detachments from expeditionary troops. In other words, the Roman administration had enough food supply to maintain a high number of regular frontier garrisons.

Deciphering the Mediterranean Policy of France through the lens of Islamophobia, Populism, and Turkey

France’s Mediterranean policy can be analyzed from a historical perspective and through the actual conjuncture related to its geopolitical and geo-cultural elements, such as the West-East civilization dilemma and colonization background. Although these two elements are complementary to each other, they intersect with the political and economic interests of the Turkish state in the region. France’s policy has become intertwined with its involvement in the Eastern Mediterranean dispute against Turkey as a result of the natural gas discovery in recent years in the region. France’s identification of Turkey as an ‘external enemy’ reflects the former’s political and economic concerns in regard to the Mediterranean gas reserves. Therefore, the envisaged French leadership in the region insists that the EU adopt an exclusionary political approach toward Turkey with the political and diplomatic support of France for Greece and Cyprus. The existing regional problems, however, need to be resolved on the basis of equity, not by ignoring the rights of the parties, but by integrating them. This is necessary for the peaceful resolution of these concerns

La violencia política del liberalismo exaltado durante el Trienio Liberal. La defensa del régimen constitucional desde Barcelona

El presente trabajo analiza la violencia política ejercida por los liberales durante el Trienio Liberal y establece distintas categorías en el análisis de la misma. Se pretende también dirimir cuál fue la actitud de las autoridades frente a la violencia, y de qué modo se relacionó esta con la extensión del miedo al enemigo interior en la retaguardia liberal. El estudio valida la hipótesis de que la violencia política se incrementó en la medida en que las autoridades liberales se sintieron amenazadas por los enemigos interiores y exteriores. También contribuyó a esa violencia la presión del liberalismo exaltado en el marco de sus demandas de justicia popular, o revolucionaria, contra los enemigos del régimen liberal. Paralelamente, el conflicto contra los realistas rompió el equilibrio entre los poderes institucionales, lo cual incrementó significativamente el nivel de violencia, hasta que se impuso el poder militar con el apoyo del liberalismo exaltado y popular.

Elite Change and the Inception, Duration, and Demise of the Turkish–Israeli Alliance

Abstract This article investigates the emergence and puzzling termination of the Turkish–Israeli alliance (1996–2011). While a litany of studies has offered changing material circumstances, the conservative agenda of Turkey's AKP government, and other exogenous factors as possible explanations, these fail to capture the complexity of the situation. Instead, this article applies a modified neoclassical realist framework of analysis that longitudinally recontextualizes the alliance. Specifically, in both its inception and collapse, Turkey's elite decision-makers faced no apparent external threats and were free to pursue their favored foreign policy. Domestically, however, Turkey's elite structure was decisive. In the 1990s, the old elite used their institutional power to restrain emerging elites and used their alliance with Israel as a pretext to do so. A decade later, a new elite seized institutional power. No longer restrained domestically, and absent external enemies, the new elites targeted Israel as a menace to win further domestic support, but this eventuated in a series of events that led to the termination of the alliance. Overall, the article concludes that alliance policy can become erratic at the intersection of permissive international environments and elite-induced domestic conflicts.

External Security Strategies of Belarus

Under President Lukashenko, three Belarusian national security strategies have been announced: the first in 1995, the second in 2001 and the third in 2011. The first proposal, formulated after Lukashenko’ victory in the presidential elections in 1994, outlined Belarus as a neutral state, unbound to any military block in the absence of external enemies. The direction of the foreign policy pursued by the president of Belarus was reflected in the second strategy, where security against NATO and EU member states was sought in a federal state with the Russian Federation. Under the third national security scheme Belarus was to remain in Russia’s military security system. Nevertheless, an important security factor was considered to be the modernisation of the economy with foreign capital participation and the need to diversify the supplies of fuels, thus reducing the country’s dependence on its earlier partner. The subsequently issued documents: the military doctrine of the State, whose assumptions were published on 20 July 2016, and the Concept of security of the Belarusian state borders for the period 2018–2022, prioritised further development of relations with the Russian Federation and the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. A new element of the 2019 defence plan is the prevention of external aggression and internal disturbance that contribute to the destabilisation of the state.

Your Patriotism Will Not Protect You: Anti-Masking Movements and the "War on Terror".

Your Patriotism Will Not Protect You: Anti-Masking Movements and the “War on Terror” Yoshiko Iwai (bio), Zahra Khan (bio), and Sayantani DasGupta (bio) “The war has changed,” declared an internal Center for Disease Control (CDC) document cited in The Washington Post on July 29, 2021.1 The Post article describes the CDC’s new guidance, including mask-wearing practices, as “a strategic retreat in the face of the delta variant.” Rather than framing the change in policy as proactive and logical scientific practice in the face of an evolving health threat, this language invokes all mitigation practices—including vaccinations, social distancing, and masking—as a militaristic “retreat.” The imagery is binary, one of victories and losses such that public health efforts, including masks, are associated with shame, if not outright defeat. Military metaphors have long been ubiquitous in medicine. Chemotherapy “carpet bombs” cancer, doctors and nurses are “heroes on the front lines,” while disease, and oftentimes patients, become “the enemy.” Susan Sontag famously discussed the problems of this metaphorical language in Illness as Metaphor, and this framing has become even more dangerous in the COVID-19 pandemic.2 The authors of this essay previously discussed the dangers of the militaristic #healthcareheroes metaphor that emerged in the COVID-19 era.3 We examined how this metaphor became a call for self-sacrifice on the part of healthcare workers while they lacked essential personal protective equipment (PPE), and yet were celebrated with costly military flyovers. For us, military metaphors of healthcare heroism not only demanded self-sacrifice, and even death, but framed any critique of “fighting on the frontlines” as unpatriotic, such that physicians and nurses publicly discussing workplace safety and PPE shortages risked being seen as traitorous to [End Page 212] their profession and to the nation-state. While military metaphors, and metaphors in medicine in general, can be used to arouse and heighten sensorial or emotional experiences, they are often at the expense of the nuance that is required to implement public health measures that function beyond the scope of political parties. Military metaphors also invoke xenophobia, whereby borders—either nationalistic or corporeal—must be protected from external enemies. Yet, masks, which very literally protect the corporeal borderland of the nasopharynx from the virus, have become coded as anti-American and a symbolic attack on individual freedom.4 Over the past months, some groups of anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers have joined together to defend their self-interests, emphasizing personal choice and freedom, and using misinformation to misrepresent science. This has raised significant concern among the medical and scientific communities over the spread of the delta variant.5 While we acknowledge that many historically marginalized communities have reason to be skeptical of medicine, in the space of this brief essay, we would like to address a particular community: virulent anti-maskers who have framed masks as a sort of terroristic threat to the nation-state. The anti-masking movement arrived with COVID-19. Media coverage of quarantine protestors showed them wearing camouflage gear and bulletproof vests, armed with nooses, axes, and guns, protesting mask-wearing mandates.6 While former President Trump repeatedly pointed fingers at China, and COVID-related anti-Asian hate crimes rose in the U.S., these protesters carried to the fore of American consciousness racist imagery and slogans, including, “Muzzles are for dogs and slaves, I am a free human being” and the infamous Nazi phrase from Auschwitz, “Arbeit Macht Frei.”7 Although some healthcare workers stood in counter-protest to these events, they were verbally attacked, abused, and intimidated. One illustrative photograph, taken by Alyson McClaran, captures an irate, unmasked white woman leaning out of an SUV with a sign that reads “Land of the Free,” actively berating a nurse in scrubs and a mask as he stands quietly at an intersection in Arizona. Among the abuses this woman apparently hurled at the nurse was the racist suggestion to “Go back to China.”8 How can we understand this troubling movement? In “Of Ziplock Bags and Black Holes: The Aesthetics of Transparency in the War on Terror,” Rachel Hall argues that the aesthetics of transparency belongs to governments who “understand security in terms of visibility...

Образ богатыря в мансийских героических песнях (сюжет о защите от внешних врагов)

Образ богатыря в мансийских героических песнях (сюжет о защите от внешних врагов)

The Far East during the Great Russian Revolution (1917—1922)

The publication is devoted to the history of the Far East during the Great Russian Revolution (1917—1922). Attention is drawn to the fact that in the period from February to October 1917, dual power arose in the Far East — a kind of form of social compromise. The path to power of the Soviets went through one of the most difficult and tragic periods in the history of Russia — the period of the Civil War, which, according to the modern historical and cultural standard, is considered as part of the Great Russian Revolution. During the Civil War, various political forces launched a struggle for the implementation of their own model of the state structure of Russia. This period is characterized by almost complete disintegration of the state, mass destruction and casualties, a sharp weakening of the country&amp;apos;s international position. This state of affairs was taken advantage of by external enemies (and former allies) of Russia. Intervention during the Civil War had a significant impact on its course, duration and fierceness. This process was attended by 14 foreign countries, including such as England, the USA, Japan, France. It is emphasized that Japan played the greatest role in the intervention in the region. The features of the partisan movement, the role of the buffer state — the Far Eastern Republic (FDA) in the victory over the interventionists and representatives of the white movement are considered.

Cholera w Paryżu w 1832 r. i jej rewolucyjna (anty)kontekstualność

Cholera in Paris in 1832 and its revolutionary (anti-)context Experience of the real threat to public health constituted by the cholera epidemic of 1832 in Paris is presented in this article in terms of its revolutionary import and significance. Among these, the following should be noted: the concept of an internal and external enemy, which, as many thought, led to the appearance of the disease; the significance of rumour, which contributed to violent events and disturbances; casting suspicion on persons who were seen as suspect poisoners; the collective dimension of death as a result of infection; and the general inspection of the dead and the printed lists of their names Events that shocked public opinion and dramatic images meant, on one hand, a calling up and contemporary realization of revolutionary imaginings. However, the essence of experience and post-revolutionary consciousness was concentrated on unwanted consequences: violence, disarray, chaos, and destruction. As a result, there was a reluctance to make a direct comparison between the cholera epidemic and various aspects of it to revolutionary events. Metaphors of and comparisons to the Jacobin terror were not supposed to encourage a repetition of this but rather to reflect the scale of horror felt at the appearance of cholera and its extent. At the same, one must note that alongside revolutionary echoes, there emerged a modern perspective resulting from an awareness of the consequences for urban life of the existence of great social differences. Harmful and unhealthy living conditions, especially in Parisian districts where there was want and poverty, produced hot-beds of cholera. There was a realization of the necessity of improving sanitation and hygiene, introducing city cleaning, building water and sewage systems, all of which marked the beginning of the re-building of Paris. In the press, memoirs, diaries, medical printed material and brochures, and in literature, there is a reflection of the variety of imaginings linked to the past and tradition of revolutionary Paris in the face of the appearance of cholera. Revolutions, with their myths, rituals, symbolism, and their ludic and carnivalesque elements, became a distinctive matrix, sometimes inverted, through which interpretations and definitions were offered of what animated the inhabitants of Paris. There is no doubt that the 1832 cholera epidemic became one of those experiences.

Marginal memories of Lebanon�s civil war: challenging hegemonic narratives in a small town in North Metn

This article focuses on the �hidden public culture� formed by individual memories of violent conflicts, with particular reference to the Lebanese Civil War (1975�90). Taking memory as a terrain through which individuals can contest authoritarian governance and repressive memory scripts, the article argues that personal memories of ordinary citizens can contribute to illuminate the power relations that structure war memorialisations. Through a series of interviews, the article analyses militia practices in a small town in North Metn to challenge the idea that militias were merely defending a territory from external enemies. Militia abuses against the populations they were meant to defend during the Civil War are also used as a starting point to reflect on Lebanon�s present. This case study is then used as a starting point to advocate for the use of personal memories in the research of violent conflicts as a way to broaden our understanding of conflict�s lived experiences.

Героические меморативы в российском топонимиконе

We consider the place of heroic memoratives in the toponymic space of Russian Federation (at the level of oikonymy, urbanonymy, oronymy). The purpose of research is to show the effective role of commemorative practices, which are part of the state toponymic policy and aimed at preserving the historical memory of the heroic past of our country for posterity, using the example of Russian toponymy. We conclude that the state ideology is one of the main reasons for the ap-pearance of toponyms-memoratives, gives the main categories of heroic personalities after whom geographical objects were named (heroes of military battles of the initial period of Russia before the 18th century, Patriotic War of 1812, October Revolution of 1917 and Russian Civil War, Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, fighting in “hot spots” in peacetime, heroes of labor). In conclusion, we note that in the names of geographical objects considered, different historical epochs were intertwined, in which our ancestors showed courage and heroism in defending the Fatherland from external and internal enemies, and also performed labor feats for the benefit of their native country.

The Way to Decoding Pathogenesis and Conquering of National Afflictions, Viral Hepatitis and Liver Cancer.

Viral hepatitis and liver cancer are worldwide health problems, and they have been called national afflictions in Japan. We have been studying the mechanism of hepatocarcinogenesis, chiefly using experimental animal models, starting from clinical observations of patients. Observations of the early development of liver cancer in young patients with chronic hepatitis B with minimal hepatic inflammation and fibrosis, as well as the frequent development of hepatic steatosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C, prompted us to study direct roles of hepatitis viruses B and C in such liver pathogenesis. In addition, our establishment of a new paradigm, “hepatitis C as a metabolic disease,” further led us to elucidating the mechanism of nonviral, metabolism-associated liver cancer. Most hepatologists may appreciate a conquest in the war against viral hepatitis and associated liver cancer. However, even if we conquer the external enemies, hepatitis viruses B and C, an intrinsic enemy, metabolism-associated liver disease, would be waiting for us as an alternative cause of liver cancer. Confrontation of liver cancer has never ended.

Orthodox military clergy in World War I

The article is devoted to the consideration of the role of military priests during World War I. The starting points are the assertions that with the arrival of Christianity on the territory of Russia, the state power received a powerful tool of patriotic education, motivation and stimulation for the processes of defending a civil position during hostilities during various years in opposition to an external enemy, a mechanism for calling not only military intelligentsia, but also ordinary citizens and ordinary soldiers to fight for the Motherland, family, and Russian land. However, today among modern researchers there is no single point of view regarding the role of military clergy in World War I, and the opinions of researchers about the importance of the military clergy in this historical period differ dramatically. On the basis of the analysis, it was found that the participation of the military clergy in the context of World War I had both positive and negative factors of influence on maintaining the fighting spirit, patriotic mood, dedication and desire to protect the Motherland at all costs among members of the army of the Russian Empire. Despite the presence of a complex of negative tendencies in the influence of the clergy during World War I, which was due to a combination of additional external and internal factors of the disintegration of the institution of the clergy at that time, one cannot deny the invaluable contribution of the military clergy to Russia’s achievements in World War I.

Архивные документы Российского государственного архива социально-политической истории как источник изучения экономической преступности в годы Великой Отечественной войны 1941-1945 гг.

The article determines the value and prospects of using historical sources stored in the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI) for disclosing problems of economic crime in 1941–45. Understanding modern dangers of corruption, illegal enrichment, and malfeasance requires studying the historical experience of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. It was a time to confront not only a strong external enemy, but also internal challenges, including, in particular, activation of criminal elements in the economic sphere. Despite an abundance of legal and historical publications devoted to economic crime and combating it, a whole layer of archival documents remains outside the field of research. The study has been carried out on the basis of institutional methodological approach using source heuristics, source analysis, historical-comparative method. The documents revealed in the RGASPI consist of previously unpublished materials of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Party Control Commission under the Central Committee of the CPSU, regional and city party committees (obkoms and gorkoms), and political departments of various agencies, through which transportation and distribution of food and industrial goods was conducted, as well as fragments of national leaders’ personal funds. The analyzed documents reflect criminal acts characteristic of the war period: speculation, embezzlement, bribery, malfeasance of high-ranking officials. The aforementioned delicts are reflected in the minutes of meetings, reports, certificates, and directives describing in detail the most common types of economic crime and measures taken by the authorities to curb it. The study concludes that the identified documents possess a high degree of objectivity and confirm the thesis of numerical growth and expansion in range of economic crimes in the context of a social wartime crisis. As main strategy for combating the growth of economic crimes throughout the war, the national leadership used a tough punitive policy, but these measures did not give tangible results. The effectiveness of domestic policy measures aimed at ensuring protection of state and personal property of citizens decreased due to deterioration in the quantitative and qualitative composition of the judiciary and political pressure from the party leadership, as well as selective nature of Soviet justice and use of unnecessarily harsh punishments, while deviance resulted from need and hunger.

Educating young people to patriotism in the epic "Forty Girls"

People are born and raised from an early age and watch the nature of the place where they work. He learns language and customs. He also learns the words mother, father, country, homeland in his native language for the first time and communicates with each other. They are committed to self-sacrifice in their homeland. He amasses wealth for his country and people, creates wealth, protect his homeland from external enemies.

Creating the Internal Enemy: Opportunities and Threats in Pro and Anti-LGBT Activism within South Korean Protestantism

In recent years, South Korea has experienced significant mobilization against LGBT rights, mainly emanating from conservative Protestant forces. This anti-LGBT mobilization has been attributed to the need to create an “external enemy” as a means for covering up internal scandals. This study examines how the Protestant anti-LGBT movement creates an “internal enemy”, too, by fighting against pro-LGBT activism and attitudes within its faith. Applying the contentious politics and movement-countermovement frameworks to the study of religious conflict, the article uncovers the mechanisms at work in the complex interactions among anti-LGBT, moderate, and LGBT-affirmative actors. The analysis of five cases – heresy trials against a pro-LGBT pastor, conflicts at Christian universities, vilifications of a progressive Christian online newspaper and a church association, and the controversy around a moderate junior pastor – shows that perceived and deliberately created threats play a productive, opportunity-like role in religious contention over LGBT issues. Longstanding religiopolitical cleavages come to the fore, too, involving conflictual relations with state actors external to Korean Protestantism.

Demythologization of the «controlled chaos» as a tool for geopolitical war: economic and sociocultural markers

Through the example of ten countries of Asia, Africa and the former Soviet Union, where the so-called «color revolutions», coups d’etat and civil wars occurred in the past decades, the inconsistency of particular foundations of the theory of «controlled chaos» have been ascertained. The reasons for prolonged social turbulence in these countries are, in the first instance, intrinsically conditioned. They are related to existing fundamental social and economic problems within these countries. The role of the external interference in the matters of sovereign states in the contemporary political discourse is grossly exaggerated. A particular interest for our research presented a «decade of revolutions» - a time of growth, culmination and decline in the social tension. Chronologically, the revolutionary «outbursts» are arranged as follows: Ukraine - 2004, 2014; Armenia - 2018; Georgia - 2003; Kyrgyzstan - 2005, 2010; Lebanon - 2005; Syria - 2011; Egypt - 2011-2013; Tunisia - 2010-2011; Myanmar - 2007; Vietnam - 2018. «Controlled chaos» is an exquisite yet paradoxical and utopian in its substance metaphor which disguises a natural human striving to put the blame for their misfortunes on anyone else except themselves. A search for an external enemy, which represents a historically well-proven political technology, averts the public attention of the country, which remains in a turbulent condition, from real issues and allows corrupt elites to continue satisfying their materialistic aspirations thus plunging the country into the state of decline.