PAKET UMROH BULAN FEBRUARI MARET APRIL MEI 2017

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Perempuan China Terobsesi Memiliki Hidung seperti Menara Eiffel

Saco-Indonesia.com — Pada umumnya perempuan Asia terlahir dengan hidung yang bisa dibilang tak terlalu bangir alias pesek, yang menyebabkan kebanyakan dari kita berlomba-lomba memancungkannya lewat bedah kosmetika.

Perempuan Korea, China, dan Thailand paling terkenal gemar “memugar” wajah demi mencapai kesempurnaan fisik. Bahkan kabarnya, kebiasaan ini sudah dimulai saat usia mereka menginjak 17 tahun. Bagi mereka, operasi plastik tidak lagi dipandang sebagai tren ekstrem, melainkan sudah menjadi kebutuhan.

Seperti dikutip dari DailyMail, sekarang bentuk hidung seperti menara Eiffel sedang digandrungi para perempuan China. Menurut mereka, bentuk hidung seperti itu dapat mencurahkan rezeki.

Dibandingkan perempuan pekerja, ternyata jumlah pasien untuk bedah kosmetik hidung menara Eiffel ini didominasi dari kalangan mahasiswi. Tujuannya supaya lebih mudah memperoleh pekerjaan kelak jika mereka lulus kuliah!

Apa pasalnya? Ternyata salah satu syarat tak tertulis bagi perempuan dalam melamar kerja adalah harus memiliki paras cantik dan penampilan yang menarik. Nah, mayoritas calon pekerja yang lulus seleksi, menurut data statistik yang diperoleh dari sebuah sumber anonim, mengatakan bahwa mereka yang memiliki hidung seperti perempuan Eropa-lah yang memiliki peluang lebih besar untuk mendapatkan pekerjaan.

Maka, saat ini semakin banyak klinik kecantikan yang menawarkan prosedur operasi hidung menara Eiffel. Salah satunya adalah klinik Wang Xumings “Eiffel Tower”.

“Keindahan menara Eiffel menginspirasi kami, prosedur ini tidak menambahkan formula apa pun pada hidung dan wajah, tapi kami merekonstruksinya supaya lebih memikat sesuai pilihan pasien,” ujar Dokter Bedah Wang Xuming.

Masih menurut Dokter Wang, tekanan menjadi pengangguran di masa resesi seperti sekarang dan jumlah pengangguran yang tinggi sangat memengaruhi kepercayaan diri banyak mahasiswi. Namun, mereka yang beruntung memiliki wajah cantik, apalagi bila mirip-mirip perempuan Eropa, tak perlu khawatir, karena lebih cepat mendapatkan kerja. Kenyataan seperti inilah yang kemudian menumbuhkan obsesi perempuan untuk mengubah wajah alamiah dengan wajah artifisial.

Biaya yang diperlukan untuk memiliki hidung menara Eiffel relatif lebih mahal, yakni 7.400 euro atau senilai dengan Rp 240 jutaan. Meskipun begitu, pasien perempuan yang ingin melakukan pembedahan terus meningkat jumlahnya.

DIBALIAK MAKNA MAKANAN TRADISIONAL

Dulu,dikampung saat ada acara perhelatan, sebelum acara utama di kemukakan sebelumnya disuguhkan kepada undangan makanan tradisional yang dihidangkan oleh anak-anak muda yang memakai peci dan sarung dipinggang. Makanan tersebut dihidangkan dengan dulang yang berisikan : KALAMAI, NASI LAMAK, PINYARAM,dan ANAK INTI . Orang tua-tua selalu mengingatkan kepada generasi muda bahwa hidangan yang disebut SIJAMBA LANGKOK tersebut adalah makanan adat yang penuh simbol dan filosofinya dan tidak dapat diganti dengan bentuk lain. ********** Sijamba langkok adalah simbol dari urang ampek jinih yaitu : (penghulu,malin,manti dan dubalang) dalam bentuk makanan adat seperti : KALAMAI merupakan simbol dari penghulu dengan filosofinya dipacik baganggam taguah . Kato penghulu manyalasai. NASI LAMAK merupakan simbol dari malin dengan filosofinya dipacik arek diganggam taguah, suluah bendang dalam nagari, nan tahu dihala nan joharam. Kato alim kato hakikat. PINYARAM merupakan simbol dari manti , dengan filosofinya pipih nan buliah dilayangkan . Manti adalah urang yang arif bijaksano, nan tahu tinggi nan jo randah. Kato manti kato bahubuang. ANAK INTI merupakan simbol dari dubalang dengan filosofinya bulek nan buliah digolongkon. Dubalang berfungsi untuk parik paga dalam nagari, tahu jo ereang nan jo gendeang. Kato dubalang kato mandareh. Apabila kita tilik jumlah pinyaram dalam piring sebanyak 8 buah, melambangkan adalah undang-undang nan salapan, sementara 12 buah anak inti didalamnya adalah undang-undang nan 12 baleh. Keduanya disebut dengan undang-undang duo puluah. Undang-Undang Nan Duo Puluah. UU ini mengatur tentang tuduhan, kejahatan/kesalahan dan cemooh. Undang-Undang Dua Puluh dibagi atas dua bagian besar, yakni Undang-Undang Dua Belas dan Undang-Undang Nan Delapan. Undang-undang nan salapan, namo kasalahan supayo jaleh, sadang panyatokan kasalahan, iyolah undang-undang nan duo baleh. Kalau batamu di nan salapan, basuo pulo di nan duo baleh, baru marupo kasalahan mamanuhi adat nan babakeh. Pantun diatas menyatakan bahwa undang-undang nan salapan berisi nama kesalahan yang sudah jelas, sedangkan undang-undang nan duo baleh memperjelas dari suatu kesalahan. UNDANG-UNDANG NAN SALAPAN UU Nan Salapan adalah UU yang menyatakan kejahatan atau kesalahan besar yang disebut juga dengan "Cemo nan bakaadaan", yang artinya perkiraan orang banyak terhadap seseorang yang melakukan kejahatan, yang dibuktikan dengan "basuluah matohari, bagalanggang mato urang rami". 1. DAGO-DAGI MAMBARI MALU. adalah membantahi adat yang sudah biasa, atau bisa juga diartikan dago adalah bawahan kepada atasan sedangkan dagi salah atasan kepada bawahan. Seorang panghulu yang bersalah biasanya akan dihukum malam, artinya disuruh berhenti jadi panghulu dengan diam-diam, tak perlu diketahui oleh orang banyak karena akan memperoleh malu. Jadi cukup yang bersangkutan sendiri mengundurkan diri sambil mengatakan, "bukiklah tinggi, lurahlah dalam. 2. SUMBANG SALAH LAKU PARANGAI. Sumbang adalah perbuatan yang salah dipandang mata namun belum dapat dijatuhkan hukuman secara adat. Misalnya sering bertamu ke rumah seorang janda yang tidak pada waktunya, merebut istri orang. Sedangkan salah adalah perbuatan yang sudah dapat dijatuhi hukuman, contohnya "manggungguang mambaok tabang", artinya melarikan istri orang atau mengawini seseorang yang melanggar adat. 3.SAMUN SAKA TAGAK DI BATEH. Samun ialah mengambil barang orang dengan paksa ditempat yang sepi, sedangkan saka adalah menyamun (merampok) dengan membunuh atau memukul korbanya dengan alat sehingga dapat menyebabkan kematian. Hukuman bagi samun adalah "andam" atau dipenjara kemudian dapat dibebaskan kembali, sedangkan hukuman bagi saka adalah "andam karam" atau dipenjara seumur hidup. 4. UMBUAK UMBI BUDI MARANGKAK. Umbuak maksudnya menipu orang dengan rayuan-rayuan atau tipu muslihat, sedangkan umbi menipu orang dengan jalan kekerasan dan ancaman. 5. CURI MALIANG TALUANG DINDIANG. Curi adalah mengambil harta benda orang lain dengan cara bersembunyi yang dilakukan pada siang hari, sedangkan maling adalah mengambil pada waktu malam hari. Sebagai bukti bahwa ada kemalingan pada suatu rumah adalah "taluang dindiang", atau rusaknya dinding atau pintu yang digunakan oleh maling untuk masuk ke dalam rumah. 6. TIKAM BUNUAH PADANG BADARAH. Tikam adalah menikamkan senjata atau benda tajam kepada orang lain sampai luka yang dibuktikan dengan terlukanya anggota tubuh dan darah yang meleleh serta senjata yang digunakannya berdarah. Sedangkan bunuah adalah menikam senjata atau atau tidak kepada seseorang untuk melenyapkan nyawa orang lain, yang dibuktikan dengan mayat yang terbujur. 7. SIA BAKA SABATANG SULUAH. Sia adalah menyulutkan api kepada suatu barang tetapi tidak sampai menghanguskan atau hanya sebahagian yang terbakar. Sedangkan baka adalah membakar sesuatu dengan tujuan untuk menghanguskan sampai menjadi abu. 8. UPEH RACUN BATABUANG SAYAK. Upeh adalah ramuan yang dijadikan racun yang dapat mematikan, baik dalam seketika atau dalam waktu yang lama. Sedangkan "tabuang sayak" adalah tempat menyimpan upeh atau racun tersebut yang digunakan sebagai alat bukti. UNDANG-UNDANG NAN DUO BALEH 1.ANGGANG LALU ANTAH JATUAH. Misalnya kita lewat di jalan kampung. Sepeninggal kita ada rumah orang dijalan tersebut yang kehilangan, sedangkan tidak ada orang lain yang lewat jalan tersebut. Tentu kecurigaan orang akan jatuh kepada kita. 2. PULANG PAGI BABASAH-BASAH. Misalnya kita ketemu dengan orang yang pakaiannya basah kuyup. Satu hari kemudian, kita mendengar di kampung lain ada orang yang kehilangan (dimaling), dan malingnya lari setelah jatuh ke dalam kolam. Tentu saja kita akan curiga kepada orang yang kita temui dalam keadaan basah tersebut. 3. BAJALAN BAGAGEH-GAGEH. Misalnya ketika duduk di warung kita melihat ada orang yang berjalan cepat dan tergesa-gesa sehingga orang di warung tercengang dibuatnya. Tak berapa lama kemudian, terdengar kabar ada kemalingan atau kebaran di suatu tempat, tentu pikiran orang yang ada di warung, orang yang berjalan cepat-cepat tadilah pelakunya. 4. KACINDORONGAN MATO URANG BANYAK. Misalnya pagi hari kita bersama-sama duduk di warung, kemudian melihat seseorang pulang pagi dan berjalan cepat-cepat, sehingga semua pandangan mata orang yang duduk di warung tertuju kepadanya. 5. DIBAOK RIBUIK DIBAOK ANGIN. Ada seseorang yang menganiaya orang lain, kemudian diketahui oleh orang lain. Orang tersebut tentu akan menceritakan kejadian itu kepada yang lainnya sehingga orang sekampung akhirnya tahu kejadian itu. 6. DIBAOK PIKEK DIBAOK LANGAU. Misalnya ada orang yang membunuh, kemudian mayat korbannya dibuang ke semak-semak belukar. Perbuatan itu diketahui oleh seseorang. Walaupun awalnya dia takut untuk menceritakan kejadian itu kepada orang lain karena diancam oleh pelaku, lama-kelamaan tentu dia akan menceritakan juga kejadian itu kepada orang lain sehingga akhirnya khalayak umum tahu dengan kejadian tersebut. 7. TATUKIAK JAJAK MANDAKI. Adalah jejak yang tinggal ketika seseorang melakukan suatu kejahatan, misalnya mencuri pada suatu rumah. Walaupun begitu, tentu tidak bisa menuduh seseorang hanya dengan jejak yang tertinggal. 8. TADORONG JAJAK MANURUN. Sama dengan "tatukiak jajak manurun", yaitu jejak yang tinggal ketika seseorang melakukan suatu kejahatan. 9.BAJUA BAMURAH-MURAH. Biasanya, orang yang mengambil milik orang lain akan menjual barang yang dicurinya dengan harga murah agar cepat dibeli oleh orang lain, karena apabila barang tersebut lama berada ditangannya, tentu akan cepat ketahuan bahwa dialah yang mengambil barang tersebut. Sipembeli, (seharusnya) tentu merasa curiga dengan harga tersebut, dan dia (juga seharusnya) akan mencari informasi tentang identitas penjual barang. Apabila dia mendengar ada orang kehilangan barang yang sama dengan yang ditawarkan pemuda tersebut, orang akan menarik kesimpulan bahwa barang tersebut adalah hasil curian. 10. BATIMBANG JAWEK DITANYOI. Pengertiannya dalam bahasa Indonesia adalah berselisih faham atau bisa juga diartikan dengan menjawab bertele-tele. Misalnya, ada kasus kemalingan kemudian pihak berwajib menanyai beberapa penduduk. Ketika tertanya kepada pelaku pencurian, tentu saja jawaban yang akan diberikannya bertele-tele sehingga aparat segera mengambil kesimpulan bahwa dialah pelaku pencurian itu. 11. LAH BAURIAH BAK SIPASIN. Misalnya seseorang melakukan pencurian, ketika sedang beraksi, tersenggol benda tajam sehingga melukai tangannya dan darahnya ada yang tercecer. Ketika aparat berwajib melakukan pengusutan, tentu salah satu bukti yang bisa digunakan adalah darah yang tercecer tersebut. 12. LAH BAJAJAK BAK BAKIAK. Maksudnya disini adalah, ketika seseorang melakukan pencurian kepergok oleh orang lain sehingga penduduk beramai-ramai dapat menangkap pelaku pencurian tersebut. Di Pandai Sikek dikenal salah nan salapan sebagai berikut : Salah kato , Salah rupo , Salah cando, Salah raso, Salah cotok, Salah lulue, Salah tariak, Sumbang Salah . Empat salah patamo seperti : Salah kato, salah rupo, salah cando, salah raso, tamasuak kasalahan ringan nan cukup disapo (ditegur) sajo, dan diubahi. Salah cotok, salah lulue, salah tariak, pernah diberi sangsi nan barek . Salah cotok bakuduang paruah Salah lulue babadah paruik Salah tariak mangumbalikan. Sumbang-salah adolah kasalan nan paliang barek: sudahlah sumbang, salah pulo. Biasonyo mambaie dando ka nagari.> DIBALIAK MAKNA MAKANAN TRADISIONAL

KEMENSOS LAKUKAN BEDAH KAMPUNG

saco-indonesia.com, Menteri Sosial Salim Segaf Al Jufri juga mengaku telah memiliki 10 program untuk dapat menciptakan kesejahteraan masyarakat di 2014 mendatang . 10 Program itu di antaranya; Program Keluarga Harapan (PHK), RS Bedah Kampung, Kelompok Usaha Bersama (KUBE), Pelayanan Kesejahteraan Sosial Anak, Rehabilitas Sosial, Pelayanan Sosial Lanjut Usia, Pemberdayaan Komunitas Adat Terpencil, Taruna Siaga Bencana dan Perlindungan Pekerja Migran Bermasalah.

"Ekspektasi 2014 kita kesejahteraan sosial. Bagaimana ending-nya kita bisa berbagi kepada masyarakat dengan cara apa? Memunculkan ide-ide yang brainstorming," kata Salim di Gedung Kemensos, Jakarta, Selasa (24/12).

Pihaknya juga akan melakukan bedah kampung untuk dapat menangani persoalan kemiskinan. Program tersebut diharapkan agar dapat memperbaiki kesejahteraan masyarakat.

"Bedah kampung adalah jalan pembuka bagi pembedah masalah sosial, di mana semangat kesetiakawanan sosial, peduli dan berbagai menjadi dasar dalam pelaksanaannya," ujarnya.

Salim juga menambahkan, sesuai dengan UU No 11 Tahun 2009 tentang Kesejahteraan Sosial, pihaknya juga berjanji akan tetap fokus dalam kampanye di sektor kementerian, pemerintah daerah (Pemda), dunia usaha, media massa, pegiat kesejahteraan sosial, dan dunia pendidikan yang bertujuan untuk memberikan pelayanan kepada masyarakat.

"Melalui kampanye program yang terarah, sehingga nyata peningkatan kesos akan berhasil," imbuh Salim.

Editor : Dian Sukmawati

HARI INI RATU ATUT AKAN DIPERIKSA OLEH KPK

saco-indonesia.com, Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) terus akan mendalami keterlibatan Gubernur Banten, Ratu Atut Chosiyah, dalam kasus dugaan suap penanganan sengketa Pilkada Lebak dan dugaan korupsi proyek pengadaan alat kesehatan (alkes) di Provinsi Banten.

Pasalnya, lembaga pimpinan Abraham Samad itu telah kembali memeriksa Ratu Atut sebagai tersangka, Jumat (20/12/2013).

Kuasa hukum Ratu Atut, Firman Wijaya, juga mengaku belum bisa memastikan kehadiran orang nomor satu di Banten itu ke Gedung KPK, meski pihaknya juga sudah menjalin komunikasi.

"Belum bisa dipastikan, apakah ibu besok hadir atau tidak. Tadi sih sudah komunikasi tapi belum ada kepastian," katanya.

Menurut Firman, kalau kakak ipar Wali Kota Tangerang Selatan (Tangsel) Airin Rachmi Diany ini akan memenuhi panggilan KPK, tentu pihaknya akan mendampingi.

"Kalau hadir saya akan dampingi," tukasnya.

Namun, secara terpisah, juru bicara Ratu Atut, Ahmad Jajuli, telah mengatakan, bila Ratu Atut akan segera memenuhi panggilan KPK sekitar pukul 10.00 WIB.

"Ya, Insya Allah hadir pukul 10.00 WIB pagi didampingi oleh para pengacara dan Kepala Biro Hukum Setda Banten," kata Jajuli.
Saat ini, sambung Jajuli, kondisi kakak kandung tersangka Tubagus Chaeri Wardhana alias Wawan itu juga dalam keadaan kurang sehat dan sedang dalam tahap pemulihan. Ini terjadi karena dampak penetapannya sebagai tersangka.

"Sekarang sedang dalam pemulihan kondisi kesehatannya dan persiapan besok (hari ini) ke KPK," tuturnya.

"Ya tentu karena ada tekanan psikologis atas musibah yang telah menimpa beliau," tandasnya.

Sementara itu, ketika disinggung ihwal kesiapan Ratu Atut bila ditahan KPK seusai pemeriksaan, Ahmad tidak menanggapinya karena tidak ingin berandai-andai.

Yang jelas, ujar Jajuli, Ratu Atut juag akan mengikuti dan menghormati proses hukum yang sedang berlangsung di KPK.

"Beliau menghormati proses hukum yang sedang berjalan. Tapi tidak tepat kalau berandai-andai tentang apa yang akan terjadi besok (hari ini). Tentu kami juga berharap tidak ada penahanan," imbuhnya.

Seperti yang telah diketahui, Ratu Atut telah ditetapkan oleh KPK sebagai tersangka dalam dua kasus, yang meliputi dugaan suap terhadap mantan Ketua Mahkamah Konstitusi (MK) Akil Mochtar atas penanganan sengketa Pilkada Lebak. Di mana, Atut disangkakan telah memiliki peran dalam upaya pemberian suap senilai Rp1 miliar kepada Akil melalui Wawan dan pengacara Susi Tur Andayani. Keempat orang tersebut kini sudah berstatus sebagai tersangka.

Kasus lainnya, yakni  dugaan korupsi proyek pengadaan alat kesehatan (alkes) di Provinsi Banten.

Atas perbuatannya gubernur perempuan pertama di Indonesia itu telah dijerat dengan Pasal 6 ayat (1) huruf a Undang-Undang Nomor 31 Tahun 1999 tentang Tindak Pidana Korupsi juncto Pasal 55 ayat (1) ke-1 KUHP.

Editor : Dian Sukmawati

G.O.P. Hopefuls Now Aiming to Woo the Middle Class

WASHINGTON — The last three men to win the Republican nomination have been the prosperous son of a president (George W. Bush), a senator who could not recall how many homes his family owned (John McCain of Arizona; it was seven) and a private equity executive worth an estimated $200 million (Mitt Romney).

The candidates hoping to be the party’s nominee in 2016 are trying to create a very different set of associations. On Sunday, Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, joined the presidential field.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida praises his parents, a bartender and a Kmart stock clerk, as he urges audiences not to forget “the workers in our hotel kitchens, the landscaping crews in our neighborhoods, the late-night janitorial staff that clean our offices.”

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a preacher’s son, posts on Twitter about his ham-and-cheese sandwiches and boasts of his coupon-clipping frugality. His $1 Kohl’s sweater has become a campaign celebrity in its own right.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky laments the existence of “two Americas,” borrowing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s phrase to describe economically and racially troubled communities like Ferguson, Mo., and Detroit.

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“Some say, ‘But Democrats care more about the poor,’ ” Mr. Paul likes to say. “If that’s true, why is black unemployment still twice white unemployment? Why has household income declined by $3,500 over the past six years?”

We are in the midst of the Empathy Primary — the rhetorical battleground shaping the Republican presidential field of 2016.

Harmed by the perception that they favor the wealthy at the expense of middle-of-the-road Americans, the party’s contenders are each trying their hardest to get across what the elder George Bush once inelegantly told recession-battered voters in 1992: “Message: I care.”

Their ability to do so — less bluntly, more sincerely — could prove decisive in an election year when power, privilege and family connections will loom large for both parties.

Questions of understanding and compassion cost Republicans in the last election. Mr. Romney, who memorably dismissed the “47 percent” of Americans as freeloaders, lost to President Obama by 63 percentage points among voters who cast their ballots for the candidate who “cares about people like me,” according to exit polls.

And a Pew poll from February showed that people still believe Republicans are indifferent to working Americans: 54 percent said the Republican Party does not care about the middle class.

That taint of callousness explains why Senator Ted Cruz of Texas declared last week that Republicans “are and should be the party of the 47 percent” — and why another son of a president, Jeb Bush, has made economic opportunity the centerpiece of his message.

With his pedigree and considerable wealth — since he left the Florida governor’s office almost a decade ago he has earned millions of dollars sitting on corporate boards and advising banks — Mr. Bush probably has the most complicated task making the argument to voters that he understands their concerns.

On a visit last week to Puerto Rico, Mr. Bush sounded every bit the populist, railing against “elites” who have stifled economic growth and innovation. In the kind of economy he envisions leading, he said: “We wouldn’t have the middle being squeezed. People in poverty would have a chance to rise up. And the social strains that exist — because the haves and have-nots is the big debate in our country today — would subside.”

Continue reading the main story

 

Who Is Running for President (and Who’s Not)?

Republicans’ emphasis on poorer and working-class Americans now represents a shift from the party’s longstanding focus on business owners and “job creators” as the drivers of economic opportunity.

This is intentional, Republican operatives said.

In the last presidential election, Republicans rushed to defend business owners against what they saw as hostility by Democrats to successful, wealthy entrepreneurs.

“Part of what you had was a reaction to the Democrats’ dehumanization of business owners: ‘Oh, you think you started your plumbing company? No you didn’t,’ ” said Grover Norquist, the conservative activist and president of Americans for Tax Reform.

But now, Mr. Norquist said, Republicans should move past that. “Focus on the people in the room who know someone who couldn’t get a job, or a promotion, or a raise because taxes are too high or regulations eat up companies’ time,” he said. “The rich guy can take care of himself.”

Democrats argue that the public will ultimately see through such an approach because Republican positions like opposing a minimum-wage increase and giving private banks a larger role in student loans would hurt working Americans.

“If Republican candidates are just repeating the same tired policies, I’m not sure that smiling while saying it is going to be enough,” said Guy Cecil, a Democratic strategist who is joining a “super PAC” working on behalf of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Republicans have already attacked Mrs. Clinton over the wealth and power she and her husband have accumulated, caricaturing her as an out-of-touch multimillionaire who earns hundreds of thousands of dollars per speech and has not driven a car since 1996.

Mr. Walker hit this theme recently on Fox News, pointing to Mrs. Clinton’s lucrative book deals and her multiple residences. “This is not someone who is connected with everyday Americans,” he said. His own net worth, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is less than a half-million dollars; Mr. Walker also owes tens of thousands of dollars on his credit cards.

But showing off a cheap sweater or boasting of a bootstraps family background not only helps draw a contrast with Mrs. Clinton’s latter-day affluence, it is also an implicit argument against Mr. Bush.

Mr. Walker, who featured a 1998 Saturn with more than 100,000 miles on the odometer in a 2010 campaign ad during his first run for governor, likes to talk about flipping burgers at McDonald’s as a young person. His mother, he has said, grew up on a farm with no indoor plumbing until she was in high school.

Mr. Rubio, among the least wealthy members of the Senate, with an estimated net worth of around a half-million dollars, uses his working-class upbringing as evidence of the “exceptionalism” of America, “where even the son of a bartender and a maid can have the same dreams and the same future as those who come from power and privilege.”

Mr. Cruz alludes to his family’s dysfunction — his parents, he says, were heavy drinkers — and recounts his father’s tale of fleeing Cuba with $100 sewn into his underwear.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey notes that his father paid his way through college working nights at an ice cream plant.

But sometimes the attempts at projecting authenticity can seem forced. Mr. Christie recently found himself on the defensive after telling a New Hampshire audience, “I don’t consider myself a wealthy man.” Tax returns showed that he and his wife, a longtime Wall Street executive, earned nearly $700,000 in 2013.

The story of success against the odds is a political classic, even if it is one the Republican Party has not been able to tell for a long time. Ronald Reagan liked to say that while he had not been born on the wrong side of the tracks, he could always hear the whistle. Richard Nixon was fond of reminding voters how he was born in a house his father had built.

“Probably the idea that is most attractive to an average voter, and an idea that both Republicans and Democrats try to craft into their messages, is this idea that you can rise from nothing,” said Charles C. W. Cooke, a writer for National Review.

There is a certain delight Republicans take in turning that message to their advantage now.

“That’s what Obama did with Hillary,” Mr. Cooke said. “He acknowledged it openly: ‘This is ridiculous. Look at me, this one-term senator with dark skin and all of America’s unsolved racial problems, running against the wife of the last Democratic president.”

Richard Suzman, 72, Dies; Researcher Influenced Global Surveys on Aging

At the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Suzman’s signature accomplishment was the central role he played in creating a global network of surveys on aging.

Jayne Meadows, Actress and Steve Allen’s Wife and Co-Star, Dies at 95

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Dean Skelos, Albany Senate Leader, Aided Son at All Costs, U.S. Says

Over the last five years or so, it seemed there was little that Dean G. Skelos, the majority leader of the New York Senate, would not do for his son.

He pressed a powerful real estate executive to provide commissions to his son, a 32-year-old title insurance salesman, according to a federal criminal complaint. He helped get him a job at an environmental company and employed his influence to help the company get government work. He used his office to push natural gas drilling regulations that would have increased his son’s commissions.

He even tried to direct part of a $5.4 billion state budget windfall to fund government contracts that the company was seeking. And when the company was close to securing a storm-water contract from Nassau County, the senator, through an intermediary, pressured the company to pay his son more — or risk having the senator subvert the bid.

The criminal complaint, unsealed on Monday, lays out corruption charges against Senator Skelos and his son, Adam B. Skelos, the latest scandal to seize Albany, and potentially alter its power structure.

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The repeated and diverse efforts by Senator Skelos, a Long Island Republican, to use what prosecutors said was his political influence to find work, or at least income, for his son could send both men to federal prison. If they are convicted of all six charges against them, they face up to 20 years in prison for each of four of the six counts and up to 10 years for the remaining two.

Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, of Long Island, who serves as chairman of the Republican conference, emerged from a closed-door meeting Monday night to say that conference members agreed that Mr. Skelos should be benefited the “presumption of innocence,” and would stay in his leadership role.

“The leader has indicated he would like to remain as leader,” said Mr. LaValle, “and he has the support of the conference.” The case against Mr. Skelos and his son grew out of a broader inquiry into political corruption by the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, that has already changed the face of the state capital. It is based in part, according to the six-count complaint, on conversations secretly recorded by one of two cooperating witnesses, and wiretaps on the cellphones of the senator and his son. Those recordings revealed that both men were concerned about electronic surveillance, and illustrated the son’s unsuccessful efforts to thwart it.

Adam Skelos took to using a “burner” phone, the complaint says, and told his father he wanted them to speak through a FaceTime video call in an apparent effort to avoid detection. They also used coded language at times.

At one point, Adam Skelos was recorded telling a Senate staff member of his frustration in not being able to speak openly to his father on the phone, noting that he could not “just send smoke signals or a little pigeon” carrying a message.

The 43-page complaint, sworn out by Paul M. Takla, a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, outlines a five-year scheme to “monetize” the senator’s official position; it also lays bare the extent to which a father sought to use his position to help his son.

The charges accuse the two men of extorting payments through a real estate developer, Glenwood Management, based on Long Island, and the environmental company, AbTech Industries, in Scottsdale, Ariz., with the expectation that the money paid to Adam Skelos — nearly $220,000 in total — would influence his father’s actions.

Glenwood, one of the state’s most prolific campaign donors, had ties to AbTech through investments in the environmental firm’s parent company by Glenwood’s founding family and a senior executive.

The accusations in the complaint portray Senator Skelos as a man who, when it came to his son, was not shy about twisting arms, even in situations that might give other arm-twisters pause.

Seeking to help his son, Senator Skelos turned to the executive at Glenwood, which develops rental apartments in New York City and has much at stake when it comes to real estate legislation in Albany. The senator urged him to direct business to his son, who sold title insurance.

After much prodding, the executive, Charles C. Dorego, engineered a $20,000 payment to Adam Skelos from a title insurance company even though he did no work for the money. But far more lucrative was a consultant position that Mr. Dorego arranged for Adam Skelos at AbTech, which seeks government contracts to treat storm water. (Mr. Dorego is not identified by name in the complaint, but referred to only as CW-1, for Cooperating Witness 1.)

Senator Skelos appeared to take an active interest in his son’s new line of work. Adam Skelos sent him several drafts of his consulting agreement with AbTech, the complaint says, as well as the final deal that was struck.

“Mazel tov,” his father replied.

Senator Skelos sent relevant news articles to his son, including one about a sewage leak near Albany. When AbTech wanted to seek government contracts after Hurricane Sandy, the senator got on a conference call with his son and an AbTech executive, Bjornulf White, and offered advice. (Like Mr. Dorego, Mr. White is not named in the complaint, but referred to as CW-2.)

The assistance paid off: With the senator’s help, AbTech secured a contract worth up to $12 million from Nassau County, a big break for a struggling small business.

But the money was slow to materialize. The senator expressed impatience with county officials.

Adam Skelos, in a phone call with Mr. White in late December, suggested that his father would seek to punish the county. “I tell you this, the state is not going to do a [expletive] thing for the county,” he said.

Three days later, Senator Skelos pressed his case with the Nassau County executive, Edward P. Mangano, a fellow Republican. “Somebody feels like they’re just getting jerked around the last two years,” the senator said, referring to his son in what the complaint described as “coded language.”

The next day, the senator pursued the matter, as he and Mr. Mangano attended a wake for a slain New York City police officer. Senator Skelos then reassured his son, who called him while he was still at the wake. “All claims that are in will be taken care of,” the senator said.

AbTech’s fortunes appeared to weigh on his son. At one point in January, Adam Skelos told his father that if the company did not succeed, he would “lose the ability to pay for things.”

Making matters worse, in recent months, Senator Skelos and his son appeared to grow wary about who was watching them. In addition to making calls on the burner phone, Adam Skelos said he used the FaceTime video calling “because that doesn’t show up on the phone bill,” as he told Mr. White.

In late February, Adam Skelos arranged a pair of meetings between Mr. White and state senators; AbTech needed to win state legislation that would allow its contract to move beyond its initial stages. But Senator Skelos deemed the plan too risky and caused one of the meetings to be canceled.

In another recorded call, Adam Skelos, promising to be “very, very vague” on the phone, urged his father to allow the meeting. The senator offered a warning. “Right now we are in dangerous times, Adam,” he told him.

A month later, in another phone call that was recorded by the authorities, Adam Skelos complained that his father could not give him “real advice” about AbTech while the two men were speaking over the telephone.

“You can’t talk normally,” he told his father, “because it’s like [expletive] Preet Bharara is listening to every [expletive] phone call. It’s just [expletive] frustrating.”

“It is,” his father agreed.

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Taiwan party leader affirms eventual reunion with China

BEIJING (AP) — The head of Taiwan's Nationalists reaffirmed the party's support for eventual unification with the mainland when he met Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of continuing rapprochement between the former bitter enemies.

Nationalist Party Chairman Eric Chu, a likely presidential candidate next year, also affirmed Taiwan's desire to join the proposed Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank during the meeting in Beijing. China claims Taiwan as its own territory and doesn't want the island to join using a name that might imply it is an independent country.

Chu's comments during his meeting with Xi were carried live on Hong Kong-based broadcaster Phoenix Television.

The Nationalists were driven to Taiwan by Mao Zedong's Communists during the Chinese civil war in 1949, leading to decades of hostility between the sides. Chu, who took over as party leader in January, is the third Nationalist chairman to visit the mainland and the first since 2009.

Relations between the communist-ruled mainland and the self-governing democratic island of Taiwan began to warm in the 1990s, partly out of their common opposition to Taiwan's formal independence from China, a position advocated by the island's Democratic Progressive Party.

Despite increasingly close economic ties, the prospect of political unification has grown increasingly unpopular on Taiwan, especially with younger voters. Opposition to the Nationalists' pro-China policies was seen as a driver behind heavy local electoral defeats for the party last year that led to Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou resigning as party chairman.

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Jack Ely, Who Sang the Kingsmen’s ‘Louie Louie’, Dies at 71

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Elizabeth Brown Pryor, Biographer of Clara Barton and Robert E. Lee, Dies at 64

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Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Children playing last week in Sandtown-Winchester, the Baltimore neighborhood where Freddie Gray was raised. One young resident called it “a tough community.”

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Rhapsody, a Lofty Literary Journal, Perused at 39,000 Feet

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Last summer at a writers’ workshop in Oregon, the novelists Anthony Doerr, Karen Russell and Elissa Schappell were chatting over cocktails when they realized they had all published work in the same magazine. It wasn’t one of the usual literary outlets, like Tin House, The Paris Review or The New Yorker. It was Rhapsody, an in-flight magazine for United Airlines.

It seemed like a weird coincidence. Then again, considering Rhapsody’s growing roster of A-list fiction writers, maybe not. Since its first issue hit plane cabins a year and a half ago, Rhapsody has published original works by literary stars like Joyce Carol Oates, Rick Moody, Amy Bloom, Emma Straub and Mr. Doerr, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction two weeks ago.

As airlines try to distinguish their high-end service with luxuries like private sleeping chambers, showers, butler service and meals from five-star chefs, United Airlines is offering a loftier, more cerebral amenity to its first-class and business-class passengers: elegant prose by prominent novelists. There are no airport maps or disheartening lists of in-flight meal and entertainment options in Rhapsody. Instead, the magazine has published ruminative first-person travel accounts, cultural dispatches and probing essays about flight by more than 30 literary fiction writers.

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An airline might seem like an odd literary patron. But as publishers and writers look for new ways to reach readers in a shaky retail climate, many have formed corporate alliances with transit companies, including American Airlines, JetBlue and Amtrak, that provide a captive audience.

Mark Krolick, United Airlines’ managing director of marketing and product development, said the quality of the writing in Rhapsody brings a patina of sophistication to its first-class service, along with other opulent touches like mood lighting, soft music and a branded scent.

“The high-end leisure or business-class traveler has higher expectations, even in the entertainment we provide,” he said.

Some of Rhapsody’s contributing writers say they were lured by the promise of free airfare and luxury accommodations provided by United, as well as exposure to an elite audience of some two million first-class and business-class travelers.

“It’s not your normal Park Slope Community Bookstore types who read Rhapsody,” Mr. Moody, author of the 1994 novel “The Ice Storm,” who wrote an introspective, philosophical piece about traveling to the Aran Islands of Ireland for Rhapsody, said in an email. “I’m not sure I myself am in that Rhapsody demographic, but I would like them to buy my books one day.”

In addition to offering travel perks, the magazine pays well and gives writers freedom, within reason, to choose their subject matter and write with style. Certain genres of flight stories are off limits, naturally: no plane crashes or woeful tales of lost luggage or rude flight attendants, and nothing too risqué.

“We’re not going to have someone write about joining the mile-high club,” said Jordan Heller, the editor in chief of Rhapsody. “Despite those restrictions, we’ve managed to come up with a lot of high-minded literary content.”

Guiding writers toward the right idea occasionally requires some gentle prodding. When Rhapsody’s executive editor asked Ms. Russell to contribute an essay about a memorable flight experience, she first pitched a story about the time she was chaperoning a group of teenagers on a trip to Europe, and their delayed plane sat at the airport in New York for several hours while other passengers got progressively drunker.

“He pointed out that disaster flights are not what people want to read about when they’re in transit, and very diplomatically suggested that maybe people want to read something that casts air travel in a more positive light,” said Ms. Russell, whose novel “Swamplandia!” was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize.

She turned in a nostalgia-tinged essay about her first flight on a trip to Disney World when she was 6. “The Magic Kingdom was an anticlimax,” she wrote. “What ride could compare to that first flight?”

Ms. Oates also wrote about her first flight, in a tiny yellow propeller plane piloted by her father. The novelist Joyce Maynard told of the constant disappointment of never seeing her books in airport bookstores and the thrill of finally spotting a fellow plane passenger reading her novel “Labor Day.” Emily St. John Mandel, who was a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction last year, wrote about agonizing over which books to bring on a long flight.

“There’s nobody that’s looked down their noses at us as an in-flight magazine,” said Sean Manning, the magazine’s executive editor. “As big as these people are in the literary world, there’s still this untapped audience for them of luxury travelers.”

United is one of a handful of companies showcasing work by literary writers as a way to elevate their brands and engage customers. Chipotle has printed original work from writers like Toni Morrison, Jeffrey Eugenides and Barbara Kingsolver on its disposable cups and paper bags. The eyeglass company Warby Parker hosts parties for authors and sells books from 14 independent publishers in its stores.

JetBlue offers around 40 e-books from HarperCollins and Penguin Random House on its free wireless network, allowing passengers to read free samples and buy and download books. JetBlue will start offering 11 digital titles from Simon & Schuster soon. Amtrak recently forged an alliance with Penguin Random House to provide free digital samples from 28 popular titles, which passengers can buy and download over Amtrak’s admittedly spotty wireless service.

Amtrak is becoming an incubator for literary talent in its own right. Last year, it started a residency program, offering writers a free long-distance train trip and complimentary food. More than 16,000 writers applied and 24 made the cut.

Like Amtrak, Rhapsody has found that writers are eager to get onboard. On a rainy spring afternoon, Rhapsody’s editorial staff sat around a conference table discussing the June issue, which will feature an essay by the novelist Hannah Pittard and an unpublished short story by the late Elmore Leonard.

“Do you have that photo of Elmore Leonard? Can I see it?” Mr. Heller, the editor in chief, asked Rhapsody’s design director, Christos Hannides. Mr. Hannides slid it across the table and noted that they also had a photograph of cowboy spurs. “It’s very simple; it won’t take away from the literature,” he said.

Rhapsody’s office, an open space with exposed pipes and a vaulted brick ceiling, sits in Dumbo at the epicenter of literary Brooklyn, in the same converted tea warehouse as the literary journal N+1 and the digital publisher Atavist. Two of the magazine’s seven staff members hold graduate degrees in creative writing. Mr. Manning, the executive editor, has published a memoir and edited five literary anthologies.

Mr. Manning said Rhapsody was conceived from the start as a place for literary novelists to write with voice and style, and nobody had been put off that their work would live in plane cabins and airport lounges.

Still, some contributors say they wish the magazine were more widely circulated.

“I would love it if I could read it,” said Ms. Schappell, a Brooklyn-based novelist who wrote a feature story for Rhapsody’s inaugural issue. “But I never fly first class.”