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Show Host - Jon Patch
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson author of "Beasts" will join Jon and Talkin' Pets this Saturday 3/8/14 at 5 PM EST to discuss and give away his new book
“Masson brings the behavior of his animal subjects vividly and enchantingly to life…Truly fascinating.”
– Dr. Jane Goodall on The Evolution of Fatherhood
“A masterpiece…the most comprehensive and compelling argument for animal sensibility that I've yet seen.”
– Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, on When Elephants Weep
“Masson's rare combination of passionate advocacy and scientific perspicacity makes this book unusually powerful. As a psychoanalyst, he addresses the psychological and emotional barriers that keep people from adopting a compassionate lifestyle - and one so manifestly in their own interest, as well as society's and the planet's.”
The Atlantic on The Face on Your Plate
What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origins of Good and Evil
by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
Bestselling author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson has delved deep into the unexplored territory of animal emotions, but in his new book he tackles the wildest creature of all – humans. BEASTS: What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origins of Good and Evil (Bloomsbury; March 4, 2014) is an illuminating account of the relationship between humans, animals, and our perception of violence.
A given person might say they fear shark attacks more than his fellow man, but there is a glaring discrepancy with this prevalent misconception: sharks, orcas, big cats, and other fearsome predators are not nearly as aggressive as humans. We are the only species responsible for killing over 200 million of our own members in the last century alone.
Masson has taught us how to explore human emotions through animal behavior – the way dogs love, cats practice independence, and elephants grieve for their lost ones. In BEASTS, Masson examines the difference between the unchecked aggression and predatory behavior that separates humans from animals, and who the real beasts are.
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, an ex-psychoanalyst and former director of the Freud Archives, is the author of numerous bestselling books on animal emotions, including Dogs Never Lie About Love and When Elephants Weep. He lives in New Zealand, but will be traveling to the U.S. at publication.
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Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Christian Doctor Who Heals Rape Victims
10Oct 2018 by Richard Lovell No Comments
A Christian gynecologist who has dedicated his career to caring for victims of rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been awarded a 2018 Nobel Peace Prize.
Denis Mukwege, nicknamed “Dr. Miracle” for his specialized procedures, was a co-recipient for the annual honor alongside Nadia Murad, a Yazidi activist who survived rape and kidnapping by ISIS in Iraq. The Nobel committee said both winners modeled “efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.”
Over the past 20 years, Mukwege has treated tens of thousands of women in Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, many of who had been gang raped by militants in the midst of the country’s conflict, left scarred and stigmatized.
His faith influences his approach to caring for patients holistically, “not only to treat women—their body, [but] also to fight for their own right, to bring them to be autonomous, and, of course, to support them psychologically. And all of this is a process of healing so women can regain their dignity,” he told NPR.
Mukwege is the son of a Pentecostal minister and was inspired to pursue medicine after traveling with his father to pray for the sick. Panzi Hospital, which he founded in 1999, is managed by the Pentecostal Churches in Central Africa (CEPAC).
If Christians do not live out the practical implications of their faith among their communities and neighbors, “we cannot fulfill the mission entrusted to us by Christ,” he said at a keynote for the Lutheran World Federation last year.
Further, the 63-year-old doctor advocates out of a Christian understanding of men and women as equal in dignity before God. He wears a button on his lab coat that says, “Stop Raping Our Greatest Resources, Power to the Women and Girls of the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
“It is up to us, the heirs of Martin Luther, through God’s Word, to exorcise all the macho demons possessing the world so that women who are victims of male barbarity can experience the reign of God in their lives,” Mukwege told the Lutheran assembly.
Christian groups have joined alongside Mukwege’s crusade against sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the DRC, where violence has threatened the population for decades. (As CT reported, 3.9 million were killed and more than 40,000 raped in the decade since fighting began in 1996. It has gone on long past the official end of the civil war in 2003.)
“Dr. Mukwege’s incredible work with survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo inspires me, and many of us,” Rick Santos, president and CEO of the Christian nonprofit IMA World Health, said in a statement on Friday. “We are honored to call him and Panzi Hospital a partner in the effort to eradicate SGBV in a place where it is so pervasive.”
Violent rape has left thousands of Congolese women bearing long-tem physical consequences, including fistula, which leads to incontinence and infection, as well as injuries that complicate childbirth.
Once the only doctor in the province to treat these women, he has become “likely the world’s leading expert on repairing injuries of rape.” The Pentecostal hospital also offers the patients therapy, legal assistance, community resources, and help reintegrating into their community.
Mukwege challenged fellow Christians to consider “the credibility of the gospel in the 21st century, to liberate the grace that we have received by making the church a light that still shines in this world of darkness through our struggles for justice, truth, law, freedom, in short, the dignity of man and woman.”
Christianity Today covered the ongoing DRC violence in a 2006 cover story, Hope in the Heart of Darkness.
The magazine also previously featured 2011 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian activist and prayer warrior.
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A high school student directs for a good cause
Posted Tuesday, April 16, 2013 12:05 pm
Carie Monroe directing a dress rehearsal of Little Women, her senior project at Tiverton High School
Janice Lee Kelly
Sarah Bertness
When Tiverton High School student Carrie Monroe started brainstorming on her senior project, she knew she wanted to incorporate both her lifelong passion for theater and her goal to work in special needs education. The project, a graduation requirement in Tiverton, encourages students to undertake a “learning stretch,” working with a mentor, and presenting a finished product at the end of the academic year.
Carrie decided to mount a stage production in her community, her first undertaking from the director’s chair. She approached her own director, Boston-based Emerald Theatre Company co-founder Scott Saposnik, about overseeing the project. “His level of professionalism opened up the theater for me,” says Monroe on her decision to ask Saposnik to mentor her project.
Monroe knew she wanted to put on a show that was family-oriented, and decided on a production of Louisa May Alcott’s classic Little Women. To raise funds for the play, Carrie baked over 95 pies and sold every last piece, with the community coming out in huge support of her directorial debut to benefit the Autism Awareness Foundation.
When finding a venue, Carrie’s selfless community service efforts came into play. A long-time volunteer at Circle of Friends, a monthly social event held at the Little Compton Community Center for people with disabilities and their families, the LCCC gladly donated the space.
After months of initial planning, Monroe held auditions in January. A long-time actor but first time director, Carrie said the process has given her a new sense of confidence in herself. She has been humbled by all of the community support she’s received.
Billed for the first week in May, the production is fast approaching and Carrie could not be more eloquent and excited when speaking about her hard work coming to life on the stage. “There’s an adrenaline rush,” says Monroe, “and of course some jitter bugs.” With lines learned and costumed dress rehearsals, Carrie has watched an idea over a year in the making become a reality that she’s excited to share with her community. Little Women will be playing May 3-5. For more information call 401-297-1142 or visit the Little Compton Community Center website.
Live From The Jewelry District
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The HawkCast
E161: Ryan Day – Buckeye Football’s New Head Coach
http://media.blubrry.com/thehawkcast/p/content.blubrry.com/thehawkcast/day_061819_audio.mp3
On the same day that legendary coach Urban Meyer announced his retirement – Dec. 4, 2018 – Ryan Day was named to succeed him.
As an NFL quarterbacks coach, Day worked with Colin Kaepernick and Blaine Gabbert in 2016 with the 49ers and he helped Sam Bradford to a record-setting 2015 season with the Eagles as he completed 65 percent of his passes – an Eagles single-season record – and threw for 3,725 yards. Both figures were career highs at the time for Bradford.
In addition to his two NFL seasons as a quarterbacks coach, Day has 15 years of collegiate coaching experience, including offensive coordinator positions at Temple and Boston College, as well as positions with Florida – as a graduate assistant under Meyer – and at his alma mater, New Hampshire.
He coached receivers for a year under Al Golden at Temple University (2006) and for five seasons at Boston College (2007-11). Day worked three years as Steve Addazio’s offensive coordinator: in 2012 he ran the offense and coached receivers at Temple and in 2013 and 2014 he was quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at Boston College.
In 2014, Day’s Boston College offense ranked second in the ACC and 21st nationally with 254.4 rushing yards per game, and in 2013 Eagle running back Andre Williams rushed for more than 2,000 yards on his way to unanimous All-America honors while being named a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. As an assistant coach he coached there on three separate occasions – one including the 2007 season when quarterback Matt Ryan threw for over 4,500 prior to becoming the third overall pick in the 2008 draft.
Day is a native of Manchester, NH. He was a three-year starting quarterback at New Hampshire when Chip Kelly was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He was a team captain as a senior and earned his degree in business administration in 2002. He has a master’s in administrative studies from Boston College (2004).
Day, and his wife, Christina, who uses the nickname “Nina,” have three children: Ryan Jr. or “RJ”, Grace and Ourania.
Follow Ryan on Twitter @ryandaytime
Posted by A.J. Hawk in podcasts / Comment
E160: Dr. Chrisanne Gordon, MD – Traumatic Brain Injury Survivor
http://media.blubrry.com/thehawkcast/p/content.blubrry.com/thehawkcast/gordon_050919_audio.mp3
Her resume appears as preparation for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): training in science, internal medicine, and treatment of trauma; expertise in physical medicine and rehabilitation. She was already widely published in these fields, an invited lecturer and speaker, Board-certified in rehabilitation medicine, holding appointments at the Ohio State University (where she received her Doctor of Medicine), Riverside Methodist Hospital/Dublin Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Memorial Hospital of Union County in Marysville, Ohio; medical adviser for Columbus-area corporations such as Honda of America, Compuserve, Careworks of Ohio, to name a few.
In 1996 she suffered the TBI discussed in this episode, and spent the next 2 years calling on all of the resources she had – mental, physical, financial, and spiritual – to work through her own recovery and find a new “normalcy.” Dr. Gordon is dearly familiar with the many obstacles to recovery from a TBI, including the profound depression that is generated when you are “out of your brain.” She has even written a book for which she is uniquely qualified as both a physician and a TBI survivor.
Buy her book: Turn The Lights On!
Visit her website: ChrisanneGordonMD.com
Your email will never be shared with a third party. We'll only use it to notify you of our launch and of special events taking place in your city. You'll have the opportunity to unsubscribe at any time, immediately, once you receive your first email.
© The HawkCast
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World Guides
Central&South America
Travel&Taste
HomeTravel ChannelWorld Guides— Africa— Asia— Middle East— Europe— North America— Central&South America— OceaniaTravel&TasteMagazineCity Guide
Destination Milan: Church of San Bernardino alle ossa
Milan is rich in places hidden and unknown to its own inhabitants. One of these is the small church of San Bernardino alle Ossa, with its ossuary built by the Confraternity of the Disciplines, which is today one of the most disturbing, macabre and at the same time astonishing places in the city of Milan.
Destination Milan: Cimitero Monumentale (Monumental Cemetery)
The Cimitero Monumentale, inaugurated in 1866, was born as a cemetery open to all Milanese "to all forms and all the fortunes", but it is clear from the very beginning the will to make it become "Monument" of milanesity, place of civic memories and as such, devoted not only to sorrowful but to a wider audience.
Destination Milan: Piazza degli Affari
In the area that already in the early Middle Ages hosted the mint - from which the name of Via Moneta - from 1928 to 1940 arose a small neighborhood dedicated to finance.
Destination Milan: Basilica di San Vittore al Corpo
Built around the 8th century to accommodate the bodies of S. Vittore and S. Satiro, in the area where were some small Christian parish churches and the imperial mausoleum.
Destination Milan: Church of San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore
Built at the beginning of the 15th century on the remains of an ancient place of worship, the church was annexed to Monastero Maggiore, the monastery of the Benedictine Order demolished in 1799, of which today remains the entrance cloister, an integral part of the Archaeological Museum.
Destination Milan: Galleria Vittorio Emanuele
The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the so-called Milan lounge, was built because in the first half of the nineteenth century the city watched enviously the urban evolution of the great European capitals and wished to be up to date.
Destination Milan: Sforzesco Castle
Castello Sforzesco goes along with the history of Milan for 750 years and has been a decisive place on many occasions. The first construction was designed by Galeazzo II but it was Francesco Sforza (from which the name) to give it the present form.
Destination Milan: Navigli
You almost never think of Milan as a water town, but it is so. Navigli canal’s system was born with the ambitious project of linking Milan with Lake Como, Adda, Lake Maggiore and Po, coming to northern Europe and then to the sea.
Destination Milan: The Last Supper (Cenacolo Vinciano)
The Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci is jealously guarded inside the refectory of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.
Destination Milan: Duomo of Milan
What can be more representative of Milan than the Duomo? The church dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente, built by the will of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, is the symbol of the city as well as one of the first things to see as soon as you step into Milan.
(c) 2015-2016 Kitabu Srls - Milan - Italy - contact@traveltv.me
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JOHN VERNON Died Feb. 1, 2005
Classically trained Canadian actor John Vernon died at age 72. Mr. Vernon underwent heart surgery last month and complications arose. Mr. Vernon appeared in or did voice work on over 200 films, TV shows and Video Games. He is probably best known for his performance as Dean Wormer in "National Lampoon’s Animal House." In that role, he delivered the immortal line "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son." Mr. Vernon reprised the role in the short lived TV spin-off "Delta House."
Though Mr. Vernon may be best remembered for his work in a comedy, he was first and foremost a dramatic actor. He spent five years with The Stratford Festival in Canada. In Canada, Mr. Vernon is best remembered for his lead role in the TV series "Wojeck." Long before "CSI" of "Quincy," John Vernon played a forensic pathologist who solved crimes. Mr. Vernon was nominated for a Best Actor Gemini for his work in the Canadian TV mini-series "Two Men." The Gemini is Canada’s version of the Emmy Award in the US.
My first memory of John Vernon was as the Mayor in Don Siegel’s classic "Dirty Harry." Clint Eastwood’s character Harry Callahan was first introduced in a tart conversation with Vernon’s Mayor. Mr. Vernon fed Clint Eastwood a straight line that led to one of the funniest, albeit dark lines in any film.
Mayor: Callahan, I don’t want any more trouble like you had last year in the Filmore district. Understand. That’s my policy.
Callahan: Yeah, well when an adult male is chasing a female with the intent to commit rape, I shoot the bastard. That’s My policy.
Mayor: Intent? How did you establish thtat?
Callahan: When a naked man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher knife and a hard-on, I figure he isn’t out collecting for the Red Cross.
Mayor: (After Callahan leaves his office) I think he’s got a point.
John Vernon would work with Clint Eastwood five years later in the outstanding Western "The Outlaw Josey Wales." Vernon played one of his many villains in the post-Civil War epic. Vernon would also reteam with "Dirty Harry" director Don Siegel in the over-looked Walter Mathau crime caper "Charley Varrick" and "The Black Windmill."
John Vernon was blessed with a deep baritone voice. His vocal talents were used behind the scenes in several films and TV series. John Vernon received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. While in school, he was given the voice role of Big Brother in the original film version of "1984." During the 1960s he provided the voices of such cartoon superheros as "Iron Man," "Dr. Strange," "Dr. Doom," "Sub-Mariner" and "The Hulk." He also did voice work on the adult cartoon "Heavy Metal." Most of his work during the last ten years was voice work for cartoons and video games.
In addition to Don Siegel, John Vernon worked with some of the best directors of his day. He appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s flawed thriller "Topaz." John Borman directed him in the superior original version of "Point Blank" opposite Lee Marvin. He also worked with George Cuckor (Justine), Abraham Polonsky (Tell Them Willie Boy is Here) and Andrew V. McLaglen (One More Train to Rob) among others.
Other notable film and TV credits include "Killer Klownes From Outer Space," "I’m Gonna Get You Sucka," "Airplane II," "The Blue and the Gray," "The Sacketts," "Brannigan," "Quincy," "Kung Fu," "ChiPs," "Gunsmoke" and "Bonanza."
FRANCO MANNINO Died Feb. 1, 2005
Sicilian composer Franco Mannino died of complications following surgery at age 80. Mr. Mannino was a frequent collaborator with film director Luchino Visconti. Mr. Mannino published over 600 musical compositions. That does not include his over 100 film scores. He won the David di Donatello Award for Best Score for his work on Visconti’s 1976 film "L'Innocente." In addition to his long collaboration with Visconti, Mr. Mannino worked with such directors as John Huston, Antonio Margheriti and Ricardo Freda. Mr. Mannino scored John Huston’s off-beat adventure film "Beat the Devil." He scored a number of films for Ricardo Freda including the influential horror film "I, Vampiri." "I, Vampiri" is regarded as the first of the modern cycle of vampire films, coming out one year before Hammer’s better known "The Horror of Dracula." Master of horror Mario Bana was the cinematographer and directed a number of scenes. Among the many films of Visconti that Mr. Mannino either scored or orchestrated are "Death in Venice," "Ludwig," " Bellissima" and "Conversation Piece." He was also the music consultant for the documentary "Luchino Visconti." Mr. Mannino was the Principle Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Mational Arts Centre in Ottawa Canada for much of the 1980s. Mr. Mannino won the "Columbus" prize in the US in 1950.
DEBRA SUE GENOVESE Died Feb. 1, 2004
Booking agent and producer Debi Genovese died at home. Her age and cause of death were not disclosed. Ms. Genovese was a one-time assistant to "Billy Jack" actor/director/writer/producer Tom Laughlin. Ms. Genovese later worked for Burt Sugerman for whom she booked acts and then produced the concert TV series "The Midnight Special." Ms. Genovese also booked talent for the TV series "Solid Gold" and for Don Cornelius’s "Soul Awards."
FRANK J. FLYNN Died Feb. 1, 2005
Studio musician Frank Flynn died of natural causes at age 88. Mr. Flynn spent 40 years playing music for both TV and films. Mr. Flynn served his country in the US Army-Air Corp during WWII.
WOLFGANG BECKER Died Feb. 1, 2005
German TV director Wolfgang Becker died at age 94. Mr. Becker was best known for directing crime shows on TV. He worked on the popular series "Der Kommissar" and "Derrick." He also directed a number of the Made for TV "Tatort" movies. Mr. Becker was not the same Wolfgang Becker who directed the award winning film "Good Bye Lenin!"
CLAIRE GARTRELL DAVIS Died Feb. 2, 2005
Filmmaker Claire Gartrell Davis died at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Ms. Davis was the president of the New York Film and Video Counsel. She co-directed the documentary "The Cross and the Bodhi Tree: Two Christian Encounters with Buddhism." Her other film credits include the documentary "Rajmohan Gandhi: Encounters With Truth" as well as the animated short subjects "Enter Hamlet" and "New York Experimental." Ms. Davis was a former director of the Union Theological Seminary Film Department. Ms. Davis has sat on the juries of film festivals the world over as well as for the Emmy Awards and CINE. She was recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities in the field of documentary filmmaking. Rev. Gary Ritner warmly remembered his good friend. He told me "Her enthusiasm for life and meaningful films as well as her love for a good story and good company placed her at the scene of hundreds of gatherings in the filmmaker world."
GOFFREDO LOMBARDO Died Feb. 2, 2005
Award-winning Italian producer Goffredo Lombardo died at age 84. Mr. Lombardo produced a number of important Italian films of the post WWII era. Mr. Lombardo is the man credited with discovering actress Sophia Loren. Mr. Lombardo won three David di Donatello Awards for Best Production. Those are the Italian equivalent of a Best Picture Oscar in the US. Mr. Lombardo’s greatest film was Visconti’s "The Leopard." In addition to the Donatello Award, the film won the Palm d’Or at Cannes. You owe yourself the pleasure of seeing this rich film. Criterion released a beautifully restored DVD of the four-hour film last year. Among Mr. Lombardo’s other credits are "The Naked Maja," "Sodom and Gomorrah," "The Angel Wore Red" and "The Four Days of Naples." Mr. Lombardo was the son of silent film actress Leda Gys and producer and studio founder Gustavo Lombardo.
MALCOLM HARDEE Death Confirmed Feb. 2, 2004
British wildman Malcolm Hardee drown in the Thames River. He was 55 years old. Mr. Hardee was reported missing the night of January 31. His body was recovered on February 2. No foul play is suspected. Mr. Hardee appeared in a number of British TV shows, but he was best known for his on and off stage antics. Mr. Hardee’s comedy bordered on Anarchy. He had a naked dance troop called "The Greatest Show on Legs." Mr. Hardee was known to end his shows by standing naked before audiences with fireworks shooting out of his backside. He also did a famous imitation of French president Charles De Gaulle by using his genitals! One of Mr. Hardee’s most famous antics involved stealing the birthday cake from Queen frontman Freddie Murcury’s 40th birthday party. Mr. hardee’s credits include appearances on "The Black Adder," "The Comic Strip Presents" and "The People vs. Jerry Sadowitz."
MAX SCHMELING Died Feb. 2, 2005
Famed German boxer Max Schmeling died at age 99. Mr. Schmeling was best known as the man who knocked out Joe Louis. Schmeling knocked out Louis in a 1936 fight. Two years later, Louis returned the favor during the first round of their rematch. Though Hitler tried to use Schmeling as a propaganda toll, Schmeling disavowed the Nazis. He actually risked his life hiding Jews from capture. Mr. Schmeling appeared in several films usually playing himself. He was married to actress Anny Ondra from 1933 until her death in 1987. Mr. Schmeling used his fight money to buy a Coca-Cola franchise in Germany. He remained a lifelong friend with Joe Louis and even paid for Mr. Louis’s funeral.
BIRGITTE FEDERSPIEL Died Feb. 2, 2005
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1955 film "The Word" in one of the most emotional moving films about faith ever made. The haunting film remains with you long after it ends. Danish actress Birgette Federspiel won the first of her two Bodil awards as Best Actress for her memorable work in "The Word." She won again four years later for "A Stranger Knocks." The Bodil Award is the Danish equivalent to the Oscar. Birgette Federspiel died at age 79. Ms. Federspiel appeared in over 50 films during her 60-year career. She was also an accomplished stage actress. She also starred in the Oscar winning Best Foreign Film "Babette’s Feast." Ms. Federspiel had a nice supporting role in the 1972 sci-fi film "Z.P.G.," which starred Oliver Reed.
MALOU HALLSTROM Died Feb. 3, 2005
Malou Hallstrom, TV producer and ex-wife of director Lasse Hallstrom was found dead by her male companion in a bathtub in Stockholm. The 63 year-old producer’s death is under investigation. No decision as to whether the drowning was accidental or the result of foul play will be announced until after an autopsy. Though it appears that Ms. Hallstrom fell asleep in the tub. Ms. Halstrom edited her ex-husband's feature film "ABBA: The Movie." The film dealt with a Brisbane disc jockey trying to con his way into an interview with the Swedish mega-Pop group during their 1977 tour of Australia. Ms. Hallstrom was very involved in producing shows for Sweden Television.
JEFFREY ROBBINS KANE Died Feb. 3, 2005
Renowned pastel and oils artist and former actor Jeffrey Robbins Kane died from AIDS at age 40. Mr. Kane’s artwork is found in the collections of a number of Hollywood celebrities as well as in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Metropolis in San Diego. Mr. Kane was a former actor. He appeared in the MJ McDonnell short film "The Big Bowling Ball," which costarred James Remar and the story’s author Anna Nicholas. Mr. Kane also appeared in HBO’s "Tales From the Crypt" and the Soap Opera "Another World." Prayers of comfort for his family and friends.
FRANK RIO Died Feb. 3, 2005
Vaudevillian turned talent agent Frank Rio died at age 80. Mr. Rio was part of the specialty act The Rio Brothers. He performed with his father Eddie Rio and Uncle Larry Rio. The trio appeared in several films during the 1930s and 40s. Their film credits include the short film "Will Bradley and his Orchestra Featuring Ray McKinley present Boardwalk Boogie" and the features "Paramount Headliner: The Star Reporter," "New Faces of 1937," "Casa Manana" and "Hollywood Varieties." Mr. Rio later worked with pwerhouse agency IFA, later to become ICM. He also worked for the William Morris Agency. His clients included Bob Hope, Henry Mancini and Whitney Houston.
OSSIE DAVIS Died Feb. 4, 2005
"The Client" was filmed in my home town. Actor Ossie Davis played a judge in the film. His courtroom scenes were filmed in Division 1 of Shelby County General Sessions Court. That was the courtroom my late father Jim White, presided over for 18 years. My father was touched by the generosity of spirit that Mr. Davis showed him. He also earned my father’s admiration for his valiant acts in the war for Civil Rights. Dad cherished the photo at right, taken during filming of "The Client." When my dad introduced me to Mr. Davis, I was struck by how tall he was. Mr. Davis towered over my dad and me and I’m not a short person. That’s the way Ossie Davis was on screen. He usually towered over the material and the other performers he worked with. Award-winning actor/writer/director Ossie Davis was found dead in his hotel room in Miami at age 87.
Ossie Davis appeared in nearly 200 films, TV shows and documentaries. He was a long-time activist in the Civil Rights Movement. Mr. Davis and his wife actress Ruby Dee also proved that a Hollywood marriage can last. The couple wed in 1948! They worked together countless times in film, on stage and the small screen.
Mr. Davis’s career started in the late 1930s. After a time out during which her served as a medical technician in WWII, Mr. Davis returned to the stage. He was one of the pioneers who paved the way for hundreds of Black actors and actresses to break free from the Hollywood half-wit stereotype of Black people.
Not only was Ossie Davis one of the most accomplished actors of his time, he also wrote and directed. Mr. Davis wrote the play "Purlie Victorious." He adapted his play to Broadway as the musical "Purlie." He received a Best Musical Tony nomination for his writing. Mr. Davis was also nominated for a Tony for his acting in the Musical "Jamaica." Mr. Davis was nominated for three regular Emmy Awards for his work in "King," "Teacher, Teacher" and "Miss Ever’s Boys." He won a Daytime Emmy for the children’s special "Finding Buck McHenry."
Among Mr. Davis’s credits as a film director are two of the best films to come out of the Blaxploitation era. Davis wrote and directed the groundbreaking "Cotton Comes to Harlem." The film introduced Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques as police detectives Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. The movie spawned one sequel. Mr. Davis also directed Paul Winfield in "Gordon’s War," a tale of a Vietnam vet who takes on drug dealers and pimps in his neighborhood. Both films were unjustly lumped under the Blackploitation umbrella. In fact, they were excellent movies that still hold up today.
One of Mr. Davis’s first films is a personal favorite of mine: "Fourteen Hours." He played a cab driver watching the drama unfold as Richard Basehart’s character threatens to jump to his death off of the ledge of a New York hotel. That movie was also Grace Kelly’s film debut. Mr. Davis worked with director Spike Lee on seven films including "Do the Right Thing," "Get on the Bus," "Jungle Fever" and "Malcolm X." Mr. Daivs also did fine work in several TV mini series including "Roots: The Next Generation" and "Stephen King’s The Stand."
Other film credits include "Bubba-Ho-Tep," "Grumpy Old Men," "Joe Versus the Volcano," "Harry and Son," "Let’s Do It Again," "The Hill" and "The Cardinal."
GERARD GLAISTER Died Feb. 5, 2005
Writer/director/producer Gerard Glaister died at age 89. Mr. Glaister produced a number of BBC TV series during a 50-year-career. Among the 23 TV series produced by Mr. Glaister are "Colditz," "The Brothers," "The Long Chase," "Skorion" and "Howard’s Way." Mr. Glaister also wrote and directed episodes for a number of the series he produced. Mr. Glaister served his country in the RAF during WWII.
MERLE KILGORE Died Feb. 6, 2005
Composer and actor Merle Kilgore died of complications from cancer at age 70. Mr. Kilgore co-wrote the classic Johnny Cash hit "Ring of Fire" as well as "Woverton Mountain" and "Johnny Reb." Johnny Cash’s future wife June Carter wrote "Ring of Fire" with Mr. Kilgore. The song "Ring of Fire" has been featured in a number of films including "U-Turn" and "Roadie." Mr. Kilgore appeared in several films. His credits include Robert Altman’s masterpiece "Nashville," "Nevada Smith" and "Coal Miner’s Daughter."
ARMAND KAPROFF Died Feb. 6, 2005
Master cellist Armand Kaproff died of old age at 85. Mr. Kaproff was one of the most in demand cellist in Hollywood. He was part of both the CBS and NBC orchestras. He also worked of Disney. Mr. Kaproff worked with such composers as Bernard Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini, Toscanini and Leopold Stokowski. Mr. Kaproff recorded for such varied pop and rock artists as Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Barbara Streisand and The Rolling Stones.
JOAN WEIDMAN Died Feb. 6, 2005
Joan Weidman died of cancer. The former cinematographer/producer was the president if International Film Guarantors one of the leading completion bond corporations in the entertainment industry. Ms. Weidman produced the films "Crack House" and "Natural Causes." She was the cinematographer on several films including "Goldy" and "Goldy 2." Ms. Weidman also provided additional photography on the Making Of documentary "SPFX: The Empire Strikes Back."
JOHN PATTERSON Died Feb. 7, 2005
Award-winning director John Patterson died of prostate cancer at age 64. Mr. Patterson won a DGA award and was nominated for two Emmy awards for his work on HBO’s "The Sopranos." Mr. Patterson directed 13 episodes of the groundbreaking cable TV series. He also directed each of the series season finales. Though he directed three low budget features, Mr. Patterson worked primarily in TV. Among his many credits are "The Rockford Files," "Eight is Enough," "ChiPs," "Hart to Hart," "Knot’s Landing," "Magnum P.I.," "Hill Street Blues," "MacGyver," "LA Law," "Law & Order," "Profiler," "Early Edition," "C.S.I." and "Six Feet Under." Mr. Patterson served his country in the USAF as a B-52 bombardier.
KEITH KNUDSEN Died Feb. 8, 2005
I guess the trend of famous rock stars dying didn’t end with January. Keith Knudsen, the drummer for The Doobie Brothers died of pneumonia at age 56. Mr. Knudsen joined the band in 1974 and played on many of their biggest hits. Mr. Knudsen appeared with the band on a number of TV shows including "Saturday Night Live," "What’s Happening" and "The Grammy Awards." Mr. Knudsen later formed the band Southern Pacific with ex-Dobbie Brother guitarist John McFee. Prior to his time with "The Dobbie Brothers," Mr. Knudsen recorded with Lee Michaels of "Do Ya Know What I Mean" fame.
LADA BABICKA Died Feb. 8, 2005
Animator Lada Babicka died after a lengthy career as a cel artist. Mr. Babicka’s credits include "The Little Mermaid," "Batman: The Animated Series," "The Adventures of Batman and Robin," "Oliver & Company" and "The Pagemaster." He worked for Disney, Filmation, Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera. Mr. Babicka was a member of The Animation Guild, Local 839.
ARTHUR MILLER Died Feb. 10, 2005
"I’m not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman!" Playwright Arthur Miller captured the frustration of American life, the slow grind to the grave like no other American author. The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright died of heart failure at age 89. Arthur Miller’s "Death of a Salesman" is probably the greatest American play of the past century. Elia Kazan directed the original Broadway production in 1949. That play, along with Miller’s "The Crucible" won the Tony Award for Best Play. Mr. Miller won the very first Best Author Tony in 1947 for his play "All My Sons." He won his second writng Tony for "Death of a Salesman." In 1999, Mr. Miller was given a Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award. On the personal side, Mr. Miller was the envy of every hot-blooded man in America during the 1950s when he had the pleasure of Marilyn Monroe in his matrimonial bed.
Miller’s play "All My Sons" was the first screen adaptation of his works. Edward G. Robinson starred as the industrialist with a deadly secret that is coming back to haunt him. Burt Lancaster starred as Robinson’s son who discovers his father’s tragic flaw. "All My Sons" was remade as a 1986 TV movie starring James Whitmore and Aiden Quinn as the father and son. There was also a Made for TV version of the play in Sweden in 1965. Swedish TV also remade the play in 1979.
"Death of a Salesman" has been translated to the big screen and TV thirteen times! The first film version in 1951 starred Fredrick March and Kevin McCarthy as Willy Lomen and his son Biff. The movie was nominated for five Oscars. There was an Argentine TV version in 1957. 1961 saw TV productions of the play in Swedish and Finland. Lee J. Cobb was nominated for an Emmy for his performance as Willy Loman in the 1966 US TV version of Miller’s play. Miller Won an Emmy for this version. Actor Rod Steiger played the part in the UK’s 1966 TV version. Miller’s play was produced on West German TV three times: in 1963, 1968 and 2001. West Germany co-produced with the US the 1985 TV version starring Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich as Willy Loman and his son Biff. That version won three Emmy Awards and was nominated for a total of ten. A 1996 British TV version followed. In 2000, Brian Dennehy starred in yet another TV version. The year before, Mr. Dennehy won a Tony Award in the 50th anniversary Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman."
Miller’s other famous work was "The Crucible." The play was written at the height of the HUAC hearings. Miller’s tale of the Salem Witch Trials of the 1600s also dealt with the witch hunts lead by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. The play was filmed four times. The first version was a German/French co-production starring Simone Signoret and Yves Montand. Ms. Signoret won a BAFTA for her work in the 1957 film. An American film version was not produced until 1967. George C.Scott and Colleen Dewhurst were both nominated for Emmy Award for their work. The TV movie also starred a bewitching Tuesday Weld. The Brits produced a TV version in 1980. The Oscar-nominated 1996 film version starred Winona Ryder, Daniel Day-Lewis and Joan Allen. Mr. Miller was nominated for both an Oscar and a BAFTA for his adaptation of his own play.
Mr. Miller’s most infamous film was "The Misfits." Written for wife Marilyn Monroe, the movie had a troubled production history. It was the final film of the King of Hollywood: Clark Gable. Gable died of a heart attack just a few weeks after shooting wrapped. Many contend that his death was brought on by the grueling stunts he performed as well as dealing with Ms. Monroe’s less than professional behavior on the set. Gossip and legend aside, "The Misfits" is still a good movie. Not a classic, but a very good movie. John Huston directed. The film also co-starred Montgomery Cliff, Thelma Ritter and Eli Wallach. Mr. Miller also did some uncredited work on his wife’s 1960 comedy "Let’s Make Love."
Miller and Monroe divorced in January 1961. In 1962, Mr. Miller wed photographer Inge Morath. They remained married until her death in 2002. The couple met on the set of "The Misfits." They had two children. One son was born with Down’s Syndrome. Miller put his son in an institution and never visited. His wife visited Daniel on a weekly basis. Their other child is actress Rebecca Miller, wife of actor Daniel Day-Lewis.
Mr. Miller adapted Kenrik Ibsen’s "An Enemy of the People" to the screen. It was turned into a Made for TV movie and later, a little-seen theatrical version starring Steve McQueen. I actually saw the Steve McQueen version in a fleabag motel in Barstow California when my car broke down for several days on the way to Disneyland.
Miller won his second Emmy for writing the excellent TV movie "Playing for Time." Vanessa Redgrave starred in the 1980 movie which told the true story of Fania Fenelon, a Jewish woman who survived Auschwitz by playing music for the Nazis.
HUMBERT BALSAN Died Feb. 10, 2005
Actor turned producer Humbert Balsan committed suicide at age 50. Mr. Balsan specialized in producing films for Arab filmmakers, most noatably with Egyptian director Youssef Chahine. Mr. Balsan also co-produced several of the Merchant/Ivory films. Among his numerous credits are "Le Grand Voyage," "The Bathers," "Jefferson in Paris," "Mr. & Mrs. Bridge" and "Quartet." Mr. Balsan also acted in numerous films including "LouLou," "Chanel Solitaire" and "Lancelot du Lac." Prayers of comfort for his family and friends.
YABO YABLONSKY Died Feb. 10, 2005
Writer/director Yabo Yablonsky died of cancer at age 73. Mr. Yablonsky wrote and directed one of the most bizarre and inept films of all time. "The Manipulator" starred Mickey Rooney and 70s cult actress Luana Anders. Rooney is a loony tune who thinks he is a movie director from the 40s. He kidnaps Ms. Anders. This is the kind of film they will be playing in Hell. You will be strapped down and forced to watch it for centuries on end. Mr. Yablonsky stuck to writing after this misguided little film. His writing was not bad. "Revenge for a Rape" was an excellent entry in the ABC "Tuesday and Wednesday Movie of the Week" series. Mike Conners is great as a man who tracks down the three men who raped his wife. Mr. Yablonsky’s best-known film is John Huston’s "Victory." Despite a good story, great director and cast, the film left me feeling empty. Many other critics felt the same way. Mr. Yablonsky’s other credits include "Portrait of a Hitman," "Lena: My 100 Children" and an episode of the great TV series "Crime Story."
STAN RICHARDS Died Feb. 11, 2005
British TV actor Stan Richards died of emphysema at age 74. Mr. Richards had suffered from chronic respiratory problems for several years. Mr. Richards played Seth the Gamekeeper in the long-running British TV series "Emmerdale Farm." Mr. Richards was a regular on the series for 25 years! He left the series in 2003, but made a final guest appearance last December. Mr. Richards also had recurring roles on the TV series "Coronation Street" and "All Creatures Great and Small."
BRIAN KELLY Died Feb. 12, 2004
Actor Brian Kelly died of pneumonia two days shy of his 74th birthday. Baby Boomers fondly remember Brian Kelly as Porter Ricks, the caring and strong dad on the hit TV series "Flipper." For four years Mr. Kelly raised his sons Bud and Sandy and led them on numerous adventures with the lovable dolphin Flipper. Mr. Kelly also appeared in the feature film "Flipper’s New Adventures." Mr. Kelly appeared in a number of other films and TV series before his acting career was cut short by a motorcycle accident that left him partially paralyzed. Mr. Kelly was set to star in the film "The Love Machine" but was replaced by John Phillip Law following the motorcycle accident. Mr. Kelly turned to real estate but kept his fingers in Hollywood. He was one of the executive producers of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic "Blade Runner." Mr. Kelly was once married to 60s actress Laura Devon. His nephew is the Tony nominated actor Brian d’Arcy James. Mr. Kelly served his country in the Marines during the Korean War.
HARRY BAIRD Died Feb. 13, 2005
Actor Harry Baird died at age 73. Mr. Baird was one of a number of talented Black actors who never really got his due. He appeared in a number of films and TV shows during the 50s, 60s and 70s. Mr. Baird co-starred in the BARTA Best Picture winner "Sapphire" in 1959. I remember him best as part of the ensemble cast in the superior original version of "The Italian Job." He made his film debut in "Third Man" director Carol Reed’s "A Kid for Two Farthings." He was a regular on the TV series "White Hunter" and "U.F.O." Mr. Baird had the distinction of starring in the little seen 1968 French film "The Story of a Three-Day Pass." That film was directed by American director Melvin Van Peebles. Van Peebles traveled to France in order to be treated as an equal among men. There he directed what was the first movie directed by a Black American! Mr.Baird’s other credits include "The Mark," "Tarzan the Magnificent," "The Road to Hong Kong" and Hammer’s "The Oblong Box."
LUCIA DE JESUS DOS SANTOS Died Feb. 13, 2005
In 1917, three children claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary at Fatima Portugal. The children said that the Virgin Mary appeared to them six times. The final vision was supposedly witnessed by nearly 50,000 people. Lucia de Jesus dos Santos and her two cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marta were the subject of worldwide speculation and adoration. Ms. Dos Santos became the Nun Sister Lucia. She died at age 97. Sister Lucia’s cousins died during the worldwide flu epidemics of 1919 and 1920. The Catholic Church beatified the two cousins in 2000, the last step before Sainthood. Actress Susan Whitney portrayed Sister Lucia in the Oscar nominated film "The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima." Actress Inis Orsini played her in the Spanish/Portuguese co-production "Our Lady of Fatima." The events were also the subject of the films "Aparicao" and "The Third Secret of Fatima."
DICK WEBER Died Feb. 13, 2005
The world’s greatest profession bowler, Dick Weber died at age 75. I can remember many a Saturday afternoon watching Mr. Weber bowl perfect games on ABC’s "Wide World of Sports." Fans of "Late Night with David Letterman" will remember Mr. Weber’s many appearances where he would drop bowling balls off of tall buildings into various items like watermelons or TVs. Mr. Weber won over 30 Bowling titles during his career.
JASON BYCE Died Feb. 13, 2005
Actor/teacher Jason Byce died of the incurable blood cancer multiple myeloma at age 60. Though Mr. Byce appeared on Broadway, TV and in films, he may be most recognizable for a Polander All Fruit TV commercial. Mr. Byce was the guy sitting at the fancy dining table with a group of society snobs who made the social faux paux of asking "Would ya please pass the jelly?" Mr. Byce taught musical theater at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. His film and TV credits include "The Program," "All My Children" and the TV series version of "In the Heat of the Night."
JOHN LYKES Died Feb. 13, 2005
Actor John Lykes died of undisclosed causes at age 60. Mr. Lykes appeared several films and TV shows during the 1980s. His credits include "Tapeheads," "Night Court," "Fame," "Moving Violations," "MacGyver," "Murder, She Wrote," "Alice" and "Home Improvement." Thanks to Artnet.com for the use of Mr. Lykes photo!
ALEC STALL Died Feb. 14, 2005
Extreme skier Alec Stall was killed by an avalanche while filming a scene for an up-coming documentary on the sport. The 23-year-old skier was knocked off of Mt. Mansfield in Vermont. The film was being shot by Meathead Films, a company started by several of Mr. Stall’s friends from college. Meathead Films has produced the extreme skiing films "Schooled" and "Epoch." Prayers of comfort for his family and friends.
OTTO PLASCHKES Died Feb. 14, 2005
Producer Otto Plaschkes died of a heart attack at age 75. Mr. Plaschkes was an Austrian Jew who fled the Nazis as a child. His love of film led him to seek work at Ealing Studios during it’s heyday. He began as a cutter. Mr. Plaschkes was an assistant director on Otto Preminger’s "Exodus." He was a production assistant on David Lean’s classic "Lawrence of Arabia." Mr. Plaschkes produced a number of notable films. His production credits include "Georgy Girl" and "Butley," both of which starred Alan Bates. "Butley" was one of the films produced as part of the American Film Theater series. Mr. Plaschkes was incolved in several films from that series including "The Homecoming," "Galileo," "In Celebration" and "The Sailor's Return." Mr. Plaschkes’s other credits include the hit comedy "Hopscotch," which starred Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson, Robert Ludlum’s "The Holcroft Covenant," "The Bofur’s Gun," the 1984 version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles," the 1986 version of "The Sign of Four" and "A Separate Peace."
NAJAI TURPIN Died Feb. 14, 2005
Middleweight boxer Najai Turpin committed suicide at age 23. The young boxer shot himself in front of his girlfriend following an argument. Mr. Turpin was one of the hopefuls in the up-coming boxing reality show "The Contender." The show debuts on March 7. His episodes Mr. Turpin’s episodes will be aired and the producer is setting up a fund for his orphaned 2-year-old daughter. "The Contender" will be hosted by actor Sylvester Stallone. Prayers of comfort for Mr. Turpin’s family and friends.
PIERRE BACHELET Died Feb. 15, 2005
Composer Pierre Bachelet died at age 60 of an undisclosed illness. Mr. Bachelet composed the music for the erotic films "Emmanuelle" and "The Story of O." His score for "Emmanuelle" was used in nine of the sequels. Mr. Bachelet was nominated for the French Cesar Award for his score for "Les Enfants du Marais."
NICOLE DEHUFF Died Feb. 16, 2005
Actress Nicole DeHuff died of asthma, brochitis and an aggressive staph infection at age 31. Ms. DeHuff co-starred in the hit comedy "Meet the Parents." She played the sister of Ben Stiller’s girlfriend. Ms. DeHuff’s character was given a black eye by an over-enthusiastic Ben Stiller during a game of water volleyball. Ms. DeHuff’s other film credits include "Suspect Zero" and the upcoming "Unbeatable Harold." She appeared on several TV series including "C.S.I." and "C.S.I.: Miami." Prayers of comfort for her family and friends.
GERRY WOLFF Died Feb. 16, 2005
German actor Gerry Wolff died of heart failure at age 84. Mr. Wolff’s wife of 53-years died of heart failure last month. Gerry Wolff was a German born Jew who’s family escaped Hitler to the refuge of England. Mr. Wolff appeared in over 70 films and TV shows during his lengthy career. His best known film was "Naked Among the Wolves" which dealt with a group of prisoners hiding a small Jewish boy from the Germans at the Buchenwald death camp. He was the father of writer/director/actor Thomas Wolff.
HANK STONECIPHER Died Feb. 16, 2005
Construction coordinator Hank Stonecipher died at age 82. Mr. Stonecipher had a lengthy career behind the scenes in the TV industry. He worked on a number of popular TV series and Made for TV movies including "Hart to Hart," "Starman," several of the "Police Story" TV films," "Mike Hammer," "Switched at Birth" and "The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story." Ironically, Mr. Stonecipher died two days before the real Uli Derickson! He was a member of I.A.T.S.A. Local 44.
FRED CRAMER Died Feb. 16, 2005
BAFTA and Emmy nominated special effects coordinator Fred Cramer died at age 74. Mr. Cramer was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Special Effects for Rolland Joffe’s "The Killing Fields." His Emmy nomination came for the great HBO docudrama "The Tuskegee Airmen." Fred Kramer designed the flameguns used by the Sandmen in "Logan’s Run." The guns were actually functional guns that fired flames! Mr. Cramer added his special magic to a number of well known films including "The Deer Hunter," "Good Morning, Vietnam," "Silver Streak," Blake Edward’s "10," "Inchon," "Twister," "I’m Gonna Get You Sucker" and the overlooked 70s gem "Mother, Jugs and Speed." He was a member of I.A.T.S.A. Local 44.
PETER FOY Died Feb. 17, 2005
Aerographer Peter Foy died of natural causes at age 79. Mr. Foy was the theater industry’s foremost expert on ‘flying’ actors with wire rigs. He founded the company Flying by Foy in 1957. Mr. Foy was the man who made Mary Martin fly in her famous run on Broadway in "Peter Pan." Mr. Foy’s harnesses and rigs have been used on such films and TV shows as "The Flying Nun," "Fantastic Voyage," "Superman" and "The Wiz." Mr. Foy served his country as a navigator in the RAF during WWII.
DAN O’HERLIHY Died Feb. 18, 2005
Oscar-nominated, Irish-born actor Dan O’Herlihy died of an undisclosed illness at age 85. Mr. O’Herlihy was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for playing the title role in Luis Bunuel’s "The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe." Last December I took the wife and lids with me to Atlanta to visit my daughter in the hospital. Thanks to modern technology we can watch DVDs in the care. The first movie we watched during the drive was the VCI release of "The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe." I never saw this version growing up. It is a spectacular film with a wonderful performance by Mr. O’Herlihy. This was also director Bunuel’s first English language film. Mr. O’Herlihy had some tough competition for the Oscar that year. He lost to Marlon Brando in "On the Water Front." Horror fans may remember Mr. O’Herliky as the demonic CEO in the flawed but worthwhile "Halloween 3: Season of the Witch." The film has nothing to do with Michael Myers. That may be why it is an object of scorn to others. Had the film been titled something else, it might have developed a greater fan base. In the film Mr. O’Herlihy plays a Halloween mask manufacturer with plans to destroy our children. It is a dark movie worth seeing.
Among Mr. O’Herlihy’s over 150 film and TV credits are a number of true classics. He played McDuff in Orson Welles 1948 version of "MacBeth." He worked with Bette Davis in "The Virgin Queen." Mr. OP’Herlihy gave a fine supporting performance in the 50s melodrama "Imitation of Life." In 1964 he appeared in one of the best thrillers ever made. "Fail-Safe" tells basically the same story as Kubrick’s "Dr. Strangelove." "Fail-Safe" is however a very serious film. It still packs a wallop today.
Among Mr. O’Herlihy’s other notable credits are "Robo Cop" and "Robo Cop 2," the excellent TV mini series "QBVII," "100 Rifles," "Twin Peaks," as FDR in "MacArthur," "The Last Starfighter" and as Joe Kennedy in "The Rat Pack."
ULI DERICKSON Died Feb. 18, 2005
Flight attendant/heroine Uli Derickson died of cancer at age 60. Ms. Derickson was on board T.W.A. Flight 847 on June 14, 1985 when two gunmen hijacked the plane. The terrorist shot US Navy diver Robert Stetham and dumped his body on the tarmac in Beruit. During the remainder of the ordeal, Ms. Derickson risked her life to prevent further bloodshed. Her heroic intervention led to the release of the remaining hostages unharmed. Ms. Derickson’s heroics became the subject of a made for TV movie starring Lindsay Wagner. "The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story" received five Emmy nominations including one for director Paul Wendkos.
KIHACHI OKAMOTO Died Feb. 19, 2005
Award-winning Japanese director Kihachi Okamoto died of throat cancer at age 81. Mr. Okamoto won the Best Director and Best Screenplay Awards of the Japanese Academy for his 1991 crime/comedy "Rainbow Kids." Mr. Okamoto directed over 50 films during his lengthy career. His crime noir film "The Big Boss" is generally considered his best work. Mr. Okamoto was drafted into the Japanese army in the middle of WWII. He returned to that trying time as a director. Mr. Okamoto directed several war films including "Desperado Outpost," "The Battle of Okinawa" and "Japan’s Longest Day."
RICHARD LUPINO Died Feb. 19, 2005
Writer/director/actor Richard Lupino died of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at age 75. Mr. Lupino was the cousin of actress Ida Lupino. He was a classically trained actor who appeared on Broadway as well as on many noted stages around the world. Mr. Lupino appeared in numerous TV shows dating back to the 1950s. His film and TV credits include "Father Goose," "Midnight Lace," "Never So Few," "Strategic Air Command," "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour," "77 Sunset Strip," "Thriller," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "One Step Beyond." Mr. Lupino was also an author who wrote ten novels.
SANDRA DEE Died Feb. 20, 2005
Golden Globe winning actress Sandra Dee died of kidney disease. Some sources state that Ms. Dee was born in 1942 while others claim it was 1944. Ms. Dee was either 60 or 62 years old. Sandra Dee enjoyed a meteoric rise as a teen idol during the late 1950s. She was one of the top ten box-office draws during her heyday. Girls wanted to look like her and boys wanted to date her. Sandra Dee personified the wholesome girl-next-door in such films as "Gidget," "Tammy and the Doctor," "A Summer Place," "The Reluctant Debutante" and "Tammy Tell Me True." Occasionally she received roles that showed her range. She held her own opposite Lana Turner and Dan O’Herlihy in the Oscar nominated melodrama "Imitation of Life." Peter Ustinov cast her as Juliet in his Cold-War/comedy update of the Shakespeare play, which Ustinov called "Romanoff and Juliet." Despite her virginal screen image, Sandra Dee was a normal woman. She married actor/singer Bobby Darin. The couple appeared together in three films: "Come September," "If a Man Answers" and "That Funny Feeling." The marriage lasted a little over six years. Following her divorce, Universal Studios dropped her from her contract. Good girls don’t get divorces! What a hypocritical double standard. Especially in Hollywood! Sandra Dee continued to work sporadically, but her time on the top ended with her divorce. In 1970 she starred with Dean Stockwell in a so-so adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s "The Dunwich Horror." During the 1970s Ms. Dee appeared in a couple of entertaining Made for TV movies. In "The Daughters of Joshua Cabe" Buddy Ebsen plays a mountain man who hires a hooker and two thieves to pose as his daughters in order to get around some homestead law. It was nice to see Ms. Dee play against type. Karen Valentine and Lesley Ann Warren played the other so-called daughters. The following year Ms. Dee appeared in the first film about the Apollo 13 disaster: "Houston We’ve Got a Problem." She also appeared in the pilot film for the TV series "Fantasy Island." Ms. Dee won a Golden Globe as Most Promising Newcomer in 1958.She gained exposure to a new generation through the Broadway play and film "Grease" because of the song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee."
We all have a movie that touches us, or which draws us back to a special time in our life. A reader in San Francisco named Janet shared her memories of watching Ms. Dee act in the film "Portrait in Black." I thank her for letting me share it with you:
Anyway, no one mentions it, but Sandra Dee was in a movie called "Portrait in Black" which was filmed here in San Francisco in 1960. I am especially fond of this movie because I was a 12-year old Sandra Dee fan when I saw it being filmed near my elementary school in Pacific Heights. Miss Dee was of course wonderful and my friends and I got a kick out of watching take after take of her trying to park a little sports car in front of the mansion where the movie was being filmed.
The film also stars Lana Turner, Anthony Quinn, Anna May Won, Lloyd Nolan, and John Saxon. It has some fine San Francisco scenery from the period, which brings back many memories of my fair city when I was growing up, much as "Vertigo" does for me.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON Died Feb. 20, 2005
Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson pulled his latest and last act as a wildman by shooting himself in the head. He was 67 years old. Dr. Thompson was the father of "Gonzo Journalism." His work focused on him as much as whatever subject he was observing. His best know work was the classic "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." He also wrote the excellent look at the famed California biker organization "Hells Angels." Actor Bill Murray played Dr. Thompson in the 1980 misfire "Where the Buffalo Roam." Thompson was an executive consultant on that film. His best known book "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was filmed in 1998 and starred Johnny Depp. Dr. Thompson co-wrote the pilot film for the TV series "Nash Bridges" with his neighbor Don Johnson. He was the inspiration of Garry Trudeau’s "Doonsebury" character Duke. Dr. Thompson’s antics were too numerous and detailed to try and summarize in this small space. Read "Fear and Loathing." Prayers of comfort for his family and friends.
JOHN RAITT Died Feb. 20, 2005
Singer/actor John Raitt died of pneumonia at age 88. Mr. Raitt was a famed singer on Broadway. He starred in Rogers and Hammerstein’s "Carousel." He was the father of the excellent Bonnie Raitt. Mr. Raitt’s success on Broadway didn’t translate into a successful film career. He starred opposite Doris Day in "The Pajama Game." It was his only starring film role. Mr. Raitt appeared in small parts in several films during the late 40s and early 50s. He was, however a very popular guest on a number of TV shows during the 1950s and 60s. His TV credits include Ed Sullivan’s "Toast of the Town," "The Dinah Shore Chevy Show" "Shirley Temple’s Storybook," "General Electric Theater," "Death Valley Days," "Shower of Stars" and "The Bell Telephone Hour."
TINA LEIU Died Feb. 20, 2005
Actress/DJ/singer Tina Leiu died of a pulmonary edema at age 29. Ms. Lieu co-starred with her husband/director Jon Hacobs in the up-coming movie "Hey DJ." Ms. Leiu was a regular on the HBO erotic series "Hotel Erotica." Ms. Leiu’s other credits include "Chained Heat III," "Hell Mountain," "Miami" and "Devil and Angel." According to Ms. Leiu’s website, she was a genuine Samoan Princess! Ms. Leiu had success in Germany with the club band "Spankox." Ms. Leiu fell ill with a virus that attacked her heart in 2003. She battled back from the life-threatening illness, but was left much weaker than before. Prayers of comfort to her family and friends, especially her young son.
GUILLERMO CABRERA INFANTE Died Feb. 21, 2005
Cuban novelist G. Cabrera Infante died of septicemia at age 75. Mr. Infante was an early supporter of Fidel Castro, but became one of his harshest critics. Mr. Infante had lived in exile in London for nearly 40 years. Though he is best known for his novels including "Three Trapped Tigers," Mr. Infante was also a screenwriter. Among his credits is the cult classic and personal favorite of mine "Vanishing Point." Mr. Infante adapted writer Malcolm Hart’s story of the last of the free spirits. "Vanishing Point" was an unusual mish-mass of fast car chases, religion, philosophy, drugs, sex and rock and roll. Mr. Infante’s other film credits include "Wonderwall: The Movie" and the upcoming production "The Lost City." Mr. Infante adapted the novel "Under the Volcano" into a screenplay in 1972. His adaptation was not the version filmed by John Huston in 1984. Mr. Infante’s papers including his movie scripts are located at Princeton University.
DR. GENE SCOTT Died Feb. 21, 2005
Pastor Gene Scott was not your run-of-the-mill televangelist. Being an insomniac, I’ve channel surfed across decades. I came across Dr. Scott’s show back in the early 1990s while I was going through my first divorce. While I can’t say that Dr. Scott’s teachings lifted my spirits, he sure was entertaining. Dr. Scott sat in the middle of his low tech set, smoking cigars and going on and on about how the mathematics found in the pyramids of Egypt could unlock the mysteries of the Bible. I liked the way he raised money. The guy would stop in the middle of a talk and say that he needed donations. He wouldn’t start talking again until a goal was met. Dr. Scott wouldn’t spend extra time pleading with the viewers for more money. He’d just sit there smoking his cigar until the goal was met. Once the money came in, he’d go back to his teaching. I can’t say that I agree with his take on Christianity, but Dr. Scott sure was a colorful figure. Famed director Werner Herzog’s documentary "God’s Angry Man" had Dr. Gene Scott as it’s subject. Dr. Scott died of complications following a stroke at age 75.
DON HIGGINS Died Feb. 21, 2005
Emmy Award winning sound editor Don Higgins died at age 80. Mr. Higgins won an Emmy Award for his work on the TV bio-pic "The Amazing Howard Hughes." He was nominated for another Emmy for the mini-series "Dallas: The Early Years." Mr. Higgins was a sound effects editor on Irwin Allen’s TV series "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." His film credits include Ken Russell’s "Altered States," "Once Bitten" and "The Letter." Mr. Higgens claimed that he was the first editor to bring a computer in the editing room and was fired for doing so.
LEE EUN-JOO Died Feb. 22, 2004
South Korean model turned actress Lee Eun-joo committed suicide by hanging herself. Ms. Eun-joo was 25. Ms. Eun-joo first gained critical notice as a naïve screenwriter who falls for a manipulative ladykiller in "The Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors." She also starred in the hit drama "Bungee Jumping of Their Own." Ironically Ms. Eun-joo’s final screen appearance in "The Scarlet Letter" was as a woman who commits suicide. Ms. Eun-joo was a gifted pianist. Prayers of comfort for her family and friends.
HEATH LAMBERTS Died Feb. 22, 2005
Actor Heath Lamberts died of kidney failure and cancer at age63. Mr. Lamberts was primarily a stage actor. He created the role of Cogsworth in the original Broadway version of Disney’s "Beauty and the Beast." Mr. Lamberts’ film and TV credits include "Nothing Personal," "Ordinary Magic," "Tom and Huck," "Eerie Indiana," "Road to Avonlea" and "Law & Order." Mr. Lamberts costarred with Blythe Danner and Alan Alda in the overlooked thriller "To Kill a Clown." Lambert and Danner played a couple who are menaced by crazed Vietnam vet Alda.
MARY ETHEL GREGORY Died Feb. 22, 2005
Actress Mary Ethel Gregory died at age 79. The Utah actress appeared in a couple of my favorite films. She played killer Gary Gilmore’s aunt in the excellent TV mini-series "The Executioner’s Song." Actor Eli Wallach played her husband. Ms. Gregory also had a nice supporting role in the wonderful TV adaptation of Stephen King’s "The Stand." She played Alice Underwood, the grandmother of fictional rock star Larry Underwood played by Adam Storke. Ms. Gregory’s other credits include "Footloose," "Double Jeopardy" and the Ted Bundy TV mini-series "The Deliberate Stranger." Ms. Gregory was also active in regional theater in Utah.
TRUDE RITTMANN Died Feb. 22, 2005
Broadway dance and vocal arranger Trude Rittmann died of respiratory failure at age 96. She worked on most of the greats of the Broadway musical theater during the last century. She collaborated with Rogers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe, Irving Berlin and others. Her film credits include "The King and I," "Camelot" and the 1960 TV version of "Peter Pan."
WILFRED LOEFFLER Died Feb. 22, 2005
Cinematographer Bill Loeffler died of cancer at age 74. Mr. Loeffler won an Emmy for his work on the HBO series "Inside the NFL." Mr. Loeffler was a cinematographer for NFL Films for over 30 years.
SIMONE SIMON Died Feb. 23, 2005
French actress Simone Simon died at age 94. The sexy actress was best known for her starring role in producer Val Lewton’s original "Cat People." Ms. Simon played the sexually frigid woman who feared she was turning into a panther. "Cat People" is among the best films of producer Lewton. Though great directors like Robert Wise and Jacques Tourneur actually directed Lewton’s films, the producer got top billing. His moody atmospheric films proved that true terror could be achieved through suggestion. Simone Simon was the most provocative leading lady Lewton ever featured. Ms. Simon made a cameo in the not quit as good sequel "The Curse of the Cat People."
Simone Simon was discovered at a sidewalk café in France. A chance meeting with director Viktor Tourjansky led to her being cast in his 1931 film "The Unknown Singer." Ms. Simon appeared in 15 films in Europe before coming to America. For two years she worked in American films, but did not achieve any real success. She played opposite Jimmy Stewart in "Seventh Heaven" and in five other films. Ms. Simon returned to France and starred in Jean Renoir’s "The Human Beast." She quickly reestablished her place as an European star. That success was short lived as German tanks overran Paris.
Back in the US, Ms. Simon appeared in her two best films. Ms. Simon garnered critical praise as the Devil’s seductress in "The Devil and Daniel Webster." Ms. Simon turns in an amazingly erotic performance, made all the more remarkable considering the constraints of the Production Code. Ms. Simon followed "The Devil and Daniel Webster" with "Cat People." Unfortunately Ms. Simon was never given another role in US films that utilized her talents. After appearing in several b-movies, Ms. Simon returned once more to France. She appeared in Max Ophuls’ Oscar-nominated and BAFTA winning "La Ronde." She retired in 1956 except for a cameo in the 1973 film "The Woman in Blue."
JOANNE BROUGH Died Feb. 24, 2005
TV producer Joanne Brough died of throat cancer at age 77. Ms. Brough worked her way up in the TV industry from an employee of a local TV station to a network executive. She was a producer of such shows as "Falcon Crest," "Washington Mistress," "Dallas" and "This is Kate Bennett." Ms. Brough left the US in the early 1990s to produce TV shows in Jakarta, Indonesia. She left Indonesia in 1998 when political violence threatened outsiders.
EDWARD PATTEN Died Feb. 25, 2005
I believe it was the comic strip "Doonesbury" that had a running parody of Gladys Knight and the Pips. I remember one strip that focused on the Pips choreography. In the forth frame of the strip, the three guys perform a spin while one of the characters has a thought balloon that says "Here’s the money." I guess the idea of the cartoonist was that it was easy to be a Pip. Gladys did all the work and the Pips road her coattails. The truth was far from the comic strip image found in "Doonesbury." Edward Patten and his cousins Gladys Knight and William Guest were the core of Gladys Knight and the Pips. Mr. Patten was the man who did the choreography and made sure the bills got paid. He was the backbone of the Pips. Mr. Patten appeared as part of the group on a number of TV shows including their own short-lived variety series. Their credits include "The Gladys Knight and the Pips Show," "Soul Train," "The Flip Wilson Show," Ed Sullivan’s "Toast of the Town," "Benson" and "American Bandstand." The band had a number of hit songs including "Midnight Train to Georgia." Their music was used in the film "Claudine." Mr. Patten died of complications following a series of strokes. He was 65. Spin… take a bow!
PIERRE TRABAUD Died Feb. 26, 2005
French actor Pierre Trabaud died at age 80. Though he appeared in a number of films during a career that started in the 1940s, Mr. Trabaud was best known for his voice over work. He played the voice of Daffy Duck, Popeye and Lucky Luke in France. He also did voice work for the X-rated cartoon "Shame of the Jungle." The US version featured voice work by John Belushi and Bill Murray. Mr. Trabaud’s best know live action work was in the classic French children’s film "War of the Buttons." Mr. Trabaud was briefly married to "The Pink Panther" co-star Capucine.
BRANDON MILLER Died Feb. 27, 2005
Brandon Miller died at age 30. Mr. Miller was the former assistant to a number of notable industry figures. Her worked for director John Schlesinger during the late 1990s. Mr. Miller also was an assistant to actress Marsha Mason and worked with both Shirley MacLaine and Paul McCartney. Mr. Miller moved into the corporate world where he was an executive with Estyle, the company behind Babystyle. Prayers of comfort for his family and friends.
SHELLEY HULL Died Feb. 27, 2005
Producer Shelley Hull died of emphysema and pneumonia at age 85. Mr. Hull was the son of "Werewolf of London" and "Objective Burma!" star Henry Hull. Shelley Hull had a long and successful career as a TV producer. His numerous credits include such TV hits as "Starsky and Hutch," "Charlie’s Angels," "The Mod Squad," "The Rookies," "7th Heaven," "The Over the Hill Gang" and "The Guns of Will Sonnett."
CHRIS CURTIS Died Feb. 28, 2005
Chris Curtis, drummer for the 1960s band "The Searchers" was found dead at home at age 63. No cause of death was reported. Mr. Curtis was a member of British Invasion band "The Searchers." The band took their name from John Ford’s classic John Wayne Western. The band had a string of hits that included "Needles and Pins," "Don’t Throw Your Love Away" and "Sugar and Spice." The band appeared in 1963 comedy "Saturday Night Out." They also performed on the British TV show "Ready Steady Go." Curtis left "The Searchers" in 1966. In 1967 Curtis met organist Jon Lord at a party. Curtis told Lord his concept for a band. Curtis’s band was to be a three-man ensemble called "Roundabout." Curtis left shortly thereafter in a haze of drugs. John Lord and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore stayed together as the core of what would become "Deep Purple." Curtis moved on to producing records and eventually made his living as a civil servant.
CYRIL FLETCHER Died Jan. 1, 2005
British comedian/talent agent Cyril Fletcher died at age 91 after a short illness. Mr. Fletcher’s career began on stage in the British Variety houses, what we in the US called vaudeville. He appeared in films and on TV. Mr. Fletcher’s first TV appearance was in 1937 TV series "Tele-Ho!" He married actress Betty Astell. The co-starred in the film "A Piece of Cake," which Mr. Fletcher also wrote. He and his wife starred a talent agency. One of his contributions to the world of comedy came as a talent scout. He discovered Sir. Harry Secombe, later to gain fame and amuse millions as part of "The Goon Show" with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. Mr. Fletcher appeared in the 1947 film version of "Nicholas Nickleby." He also appeared on the popular 1970s and 80s TV show "That’s Life."
SHIRLEY CHISHOLM Died Jan. 1, 2005
Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to the US House of Representatives died at age 80. Ms. Chisholm was elected to Congress in 1968 and served for 14 years. She sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1972. Her 1972 presidential bid was the subject of Shola Lynch’s critically praised 2004 documentary "Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed." The film’s title came in part from Ms. Chisholm’s autobiography "Unbought & Unbossed." Ms. Chisholm’s campaign was also the subject of the 1972 German documentary "Shirley Chisholm for President."
ROBERT R. FORTIER Died Jan. 1, 2005
Actor Robert R. Fortier died at age 78. Mr. Fortier appeared in nearly 40 films and TV shows. He had bit parts in five films by Robert Altman including "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and "A Wedding." Mr. Fortier also appeared in the horror film "Incubus," which was the first film shot in the artificial language Esperanto. His other film and TV credits include "Heaven Can Wait," "Show Boat," several episodes of "The Outer Limits," "Star Trek," "Gunsmoke" and "Bonanza."
PAUL MANNING Died Jan. 2, 2005
Emmy-winning producer Paul Manning died of colon cancer at age 45. Mr. Manning was nominated for two Emmy Awards and won once for co-producing the hit TV series "E.R." Mr. Manning also wrote several episodes. He also wrote 20 episodes for the TV series "LA Law." Mr. Manning also worked on the family TV series "Clubhouse." Mr. Manning wrote the pilot episode of the TV series "The Adversaries." Prayers of comfort for his family and friends.
BARBARA PILAVIN Died Jan. 2, 2005
In the great B-movie "Vice Squad," Wings Hauser created one of the greatest movie villains of all time. He played a killer pimp named Ramrod. Ramrod took pleasure out the smallest things. In one scene, a homeless woman passes him on the street. He pulls out a cigarette lighter and pushes it near the old woman. Hauser’s eyes light up and he tells the woman "I’m the devil baby!" The woman reacts as if Hauser truly is the Devil. The homeless woman was played by character actress Barbara Pilavin. Ms. Pilavin died of complications following a stroke at age 81. She appeared in over 50 films and TV shows during her career. Ms. Pilavin appeared in a number of Italian films including Vittorio de Sica’s Oscar winning Best Foreign Film "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis." In "A League of Their Own," Ms. Pilavin played the older version of Helen, the first base woman played by Anne Ramsey as a young woman. Other credits include the horror film "Frightmare," Charles Bronson’s "10 to Midnight," "Homer & Eddie," "NYPD Blue," "Just Shoot Me!," "Charmed," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Eerie, Indiana."
TERESA BLAKE Died Jan. 2, 2005
One of the pleasures I’ve had in writing this column is getting to know many people with an interest in the biographic history of film folk. Many people I’ve met only in cyber-space. One such person is Emmy-winning make-up artist and film historian Michael F. Blake. Anyone who purchased the great "Lon Chaney Collection" DVD set last year is familiar with Mr. Blake’s film expertise. I offer Michael and his family my deepest condolences on the loss of his mother. Teresa Blake died of heart failure at age 91. She was the widow of prolific film and TV actor Larry J. Blake. Ms. Blake appeared as herself in Kevin Brownlow’s excellent documentary "Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces."
C.M.PENNINGTON-RICHARDS Died Jan. 2, 2005
British cinematographer/writer/producer/director C.M. Pennington-Richards died at age 93. Mr. Pennington-Richards was one of the foremost Black and White cinematographers in film history. The 1951 Alastair Sim version of "Scrooge" is by far the best film adaptation of Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol." In addition to the great lead performance, the film works because of Mr. Pennington-Richards’ moody, eerie photography. His other notable cinematographer credits include the original film version of "1984," Edward Dmytryk’s "Obsession" and "Tarzan and the Lost Safari." As a writer, Mr. Pennington-Richards was less prolific, but he did write the excellent "Guns at Batasi." Mr. Pennington-Richards was a busy film director also. His TV director credits include the series "Danger Man," "Ivanhoe" "A Challenge for Robin Hood," "The Invisible Man" and "The Buccaneers." He also directed the films "Mystery Submarine," "The Oracle" and "Hour of Decision" among others.
FRANK KELLY FREAS Died Jan. 2, 2005
Illustrator Frank Kelly Freas died of natural causes at age 82. Kelly Freas was the man behind Mad Magazine’s mascot Alfred E, Newman. Though he didn’t invent the character, Mr. Freas refined him and made him his own. Mr. Freas’s death brought back a flood of memories from my childhood. I thought of my long ago friend Dale Berryhill and his big brother Wayne. Wayne was the guy that introduced me to Mad Magazine. He also introduced me to the fact that all you needed was a camera to make movies. We spent hours filming army me and hot wheels car as we blew them up with firecrackers. Once Wayne tied a lawnmower body to the back of his bicycle and gave all the kids a thrill ride down a steep hill near our house. Being the klutz that I am, I was the kid that fell off and was skinned up from head to toe. Wayne came over to my house later with his camera. He wanted to film my cuts. The way he explained it to my mom was, that when I healed, he would film me being shot with a toy machine gun. My current wounds would fill in for the bullet holes later on. Needless to say, my Mom wasn’t to happy about his influence on me. Wayne was a lot like Alfred E. Newman. He didn’t worry about a thing. It’s funny how memories come back like that. I wanted to include Mr. Freas in this column when I first heard of his passing. His artwork has entertained me for most of my life. The problem was, I couldn’t find a single movie credit for Mr. Freas. Reader Tim Grover contacted me about Mr. Freas. Like me, he was a big fan. I explained my dilemma. This is the Hollywood Obituary column. I needed a movie connection. Mr. Grover and I decided to step up our research. I then remembered a terrible movie I saw back in 1980. "Up the Academy" was a comedy directed by Robert Downey Sr. The film was produced by Mad Magazine. Once they saw the final product, the disavowed the result and removed their name from the project. I went to see the film on the strength of a teaser trailer that included the image of Mr. Freas’s masterpiece: Alfred E. Newman. There were also movie posters that carried the "What, Me Worry" kid’s face. Of course those were all pulled. Menawhile, Mr. Grover responded with some research of his own. A picture of a werewolf drawn by Mr. Freas was featured in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." Mr. Grover also pointed out a fact he found in a reference book which stated that Mr. Freas had drawn pre-production illustrations for the project that became "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." Next to Alfred E. Newman, Mr. Freas most widely circulated illustration is probably the cover of Queen’s album "News of the World." The illustration was a reprise of a cover Mr. Freas did for "Astounding Science Fiction" magazine in 1953. Thanks for the trip down memory lane Mr. Freas and thanks for adding color to our lives.
UPDATE: I was contacted by Mr. Feas's widow, illustrator and classical music broadcaster Laura Brodian. Ms. Brodian informed me that her late husband painted the lobby poster for the sci-fi film "The Wizard of Speed and Time." After the film's LA premiere it was released directly to video.
STANLEY WATT Died Jan. 2, 2005
Broadway actor Stanley Watt died of cancer at age 74. In addition to his work on Broadway, Mr. Watt did narration for documentary films for National Geographic, A&E and the Discovery Channel.
WILL EISNER Died Jan. 3, 2005
Comic book pioneer Will Eisner died of complications following heart by-pass surgery at age 87. Mr. Eisner’s career spanned seven decades. In the 1940s he created "The Spirit." In the 1970s he pioneered the graphic novel. His character "The Spirit" was translated to film in the 1963 film "Adventures of the Spirit" and the 1987 TV movie "The Spirit." Mr. Eisner appeared as himself in the documentaries "Comic Book Heroes Unmasked," "Comic Book Confidential" and "The Masters of Comic Book Art."
WARREN KEMMERLING Died Jan. 3, 2005
Character actor Warren Kemmerling died at age 76. Mr. Kemmerling appeared in nearly 100 films and TV shows during his lengthy career. He was on the board of directors of the Screen Actor’s Guild for close to 40 years. Among Mr. Kemmerling’s many credits are the films "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," the American version of the 1984 Japanese remake of the original "Gojira" (Godzilla to the uninitiated), Alfred Hitchcock’s final film "Family Plot," Ron Howard’s first film "Eat My Dust," the excellent Sidney Potier religious allegory "Brother John," the hilarious black comedy "The Loved One" and "The Cheyenne Social Club." He also appeared in a number of great Made for TV movies and mini-series including "The Execution of Private Slovak," "How the West Was Won," "Raid on Entebbe" and "King." Mr. Kemmerling was a familiar face on the small screen for three decades. He appeared on some of TV’s most popular shows including "Gunsmoke," "I Dream of Jeannie," "Bonanza," "The Jack Benny Program," "LA Law," "The A-Team," "The Rockford Files," "The Waltons," "Route 66," "Mission Impossible" and many others. Mr. Kemmerling served his country as a US Marine during WWII. Thanks for your service to our country.
ROBERT GOTTSCHALL Died Jan. 3, 2005
Robert Gottschall died of natural causes at age 89. To call Mr. Gotschall just an actor would be to short-change his long and rich life. He was an actor. Mr. Gottschall acted under the name Robert Shaw beginning in the 1930s. His film career included roles in several films by American master director John Ford. Mr. Gottschall appeared in Ford’s classic "The Grapes of Wrath," "Young Mr. Lincoln" and "Tobacco Road." He also appeared in the Ford directed military training film "Sex Hygiene"! Other credits include "The Great Profile," which starred John Barrymore, Henry King’s "Captain from Castile" and "Honeysuckle Rose." As a child, Mr. Gotschall was a batboy for a Texas League Baseball team. During an exhibition, the young boy played a game of catch with Babe Ruth. Ruth, Gehrig and the rest of the world champion Yankees signed the ball. You can still see the ball today in the Legends of the Game Museum in Arlington, Texas. Mr. Gotschall served his country in the US Army during WWII. He rose to the rank of Lietenuant Colonel and turned the military into a 26-year career. Mr. Gotschall outlived his wife of 62 years by almost two months. He leaves two sons, sculptor Robert Gottschall, Mark Gotschall and a daughter, musician/composer Nancy Brundrett.
HUMPHREY CARPENTER Died Jan. 4, 2005
British biographer Humphrey Carpenter died of heart failure at age 57. Mr. Carpenter had also been suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. Mr. Humphrey may be best know for his biography of J.R.R. Tolkien. His biography of the author of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy was just one of many books written by Mr. Humphrey. He appeared in several documentaries about J.R.R. Tolkien including "Tolkein Remembered" and "An Awfully Big Adventure: J.R.R. Tolkein."
DANNY SUGERMAN Died Jan. 5, 2005
Danny Sugerman, former manager of rock band The Doors and author of the great Jim Morrison biography "No One Here Gets Out Alive" died of lung cancer at age 50. Mr. Sugerman became friends with Jim Morrison and The Doors when he was still a young teen. His excellent book chronicals his amazing relationship with the band during their heydey. He was the technical advisor on Oliver Stone’s bio-pic "The Doors." Mr. Sugerman also wrote and produced the concert video "The Doors: Live in Europe 1968." His book "Wonderland Avenue" was also the source for a 2001 film. Mr. Sugerman’s widow is Fawn Hall of Iran-Contra fame.
RENE LE HANAFF Died Jan. 5, 2005
French editor/director René Le Hanaff died of natural causes. There is some dispute as to his age. It has been reported that he was either 102, 104 or 105! Mr. Le Hanaff was associated with two of France’s top directors in the 1930s: René Clair and Marcel Carne. He edited Mr. Clair’s first sound film "Under the Rooftops of Paris." His second film with Mr. Clair was the excellent comedy "Liberty for Us." The film pre-dated Charlie Chaplin’s classic "Modern Times." The producers of Mr. Clair’s film sued Chaplin for plagiarism. The case was settled out of court. He also edited René Clair’s romantic comedy "July 14." As he did with René Clair, Mr. Le Hanaff collaborated with director Marcel Carne. His credits with Ms. Carne include the excellent thriller "Daybreak." In addition to his work with other directors, Mr. Le Hanaff directed fourteen films himself.
GABRIELLE DAYE Died Jan. 5, 2005
British character actress Gabrielle Daye died at age 93. Ms. Daye was a regular on the long-running British TV series "Coronation Street" for eight years. She was a respected actress on stage, screen and TV. Her film career dates back to the 1940s. Among her many film and TV credits are the excellent rue-life crime drama "Ten Rillington Place," Lindsay Anderson’s dark comedy "O Lucky Man!," the Oscar winning "Sunday, Bloody Sunday," "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and "Z Cars." On stage, she acted with most of the greatest British performers of the past century.
ERNEST LENART Died Jan. 6, 2005
German actor Ernest Lenart died at age 92. Mr. Lenart was primarily a stage actor. He worked in his native land, but fled to the US after the rise of Hitler’s Nazi Party. He had a supporting role in the excellent Made for TV movie "21 Hours at Munich" which dealt with the massacre of the Israeli Olympic team by PLO terrorists. Other credits include the WWII film "Target Unknown," and episode of the great TV series "Millennium," "Walk on Water" and the TV mini-series bio-pic "Wagner."
SINDHU Died Jan. 6, 2005
Indian actress Sindhu died of cardiac arrest at age 32. The star of nearly 60 films and TV series in India was out raising money for the victims of last year’s tsunami. After walking for several miles, she collapsed and was rushed to a hospital where she died. Prayers of comfort for her family and friends.
RICHARD CLARKE Died Jan. 7, 2005
British stage and screen actor Richard Clarke died of colon cancer at age 70. Mr. Clarke appeared on Broadway in nearly 20 plays. Although most of his work took place on stage, Mr. Clarke did appear in several films and TV shows. His credits include the great Titanic film "A Night to Remember," "Midnight Cowboy," "John and Mary," the TV version of "The Elephant Man," "Meet Joe Black" and the TV mini series "The Kennedys of Massachusetts."
WARREN SPEARS Died Jan. 8, 2005
Choreographer/dancer Warren Spears died of undisclosed causes at age 50. Though born in American, Mr. Spears transplanted himself to Denmark where he was the artistic director and choreographer of the New Danish Dance Theater for 12 years. Prior to moving to Denmark, Mr. Spears was part of the Alvin Ailey dance group. He appeared in director Lars von Triers innovative and highly original digital movie "Dancer in the Dark." The movie starred Bjork, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse and Peter Stormare.
EVERETT WILSON Died Jan. 8, 2005
17-year-old Everett Wilson was killed in an automobile. The driver of the car was arrested for DUI. Mr. Everett and his twin brother Ronald were one set of several twins who played Bill Cosby’s infant grandson Nelson Tibideaux on the hit TV series "The Cosby Show." Prayers of comfort for his family and friends.
BADJA D’JOLA Died Jan. 8, 2005
Actor Badja D’jola died of a heart attack at age 56. Mr. D’jola appeared in nearly 50 films and TV shows during his career. His best role was as Leon Issac Kennedy’s boxing opponent in "Penitentiary." Mr. D’jola played the bad-ass character "Half Dead." It is a great performance in a so-so movie. He also had a nice supporting role in Wes Craven’s "The Serpent and the Rainbow." Mr. D’jola’s other film and TV credits include "Mississippi Burning," "A Rage in Harlem," "The Lonely Guy," "The Last Boy Scout," "NYPD Blue," "Rosewood," "The Hurricane," "Night Shift," "The Waterdance," "ER," "The X Files," "Millennium" and "Roc."
HASKELL GORDON Died Jan. 8, 2005
Actor Haskell Gordon died of respiratory failure at age 83. Mr. Gordon was primarily a stage actor, but he did appear on TV. His small screen credits include "Route 66" and the Soap Opera "One Life to Live." Mr. Gordon appeared in the original Broadway productions of "1776" and "Sugar Babies." I never met Mr. Gordon, but if he was anything like his brother, director Stuart Gordon he must have a very nice gentleman. Stuart Gordon directed the cult classic "Re-Animator." I had the pleasure of meeting Stuart Gordon several years ago in Chicago.
GONZALO GAVIRA Died Jan. 9, 2005
Sound effects editor Gonzalo Gavira died of circulatory problems at age 79. Mr. Gavira was part of the Oscar-winning team that created the demonic sounds for the blockbuster film "The Exorcist." Robert Knudson and Christopher Newman were awarded the Oscar for the team’s effort. Mr. Gavira created special sound effects for the movie such as for the scene in which Linda Blair’s head turned 360 degrees. Mr. Gavira was nominated for a BAFTA for the same film. He was given two special awards for his lifetime of work at Mexico’s Ariel Awards. Mr. Gavira worked on over 60 films around the world. His credits include Alejandro Jodorowsky’s cult classic "El Topo," Sergio Leone’s "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly," "The Towering Inferno," "Mark of the Devil 3" and "Deathstalker 3."
KOJI HASHIMOTO Died Jan. 9, 2005
Japanese director Koji Hashimoto died of from injuries sustained in a fall while mountain climbing at age 68. Mr. Hashimoto directed the 1984 remake of "Godzilla." He also directed the sci-fi film "Sayonara Jupiter." For most of his career, Mr. Hashimoto was an assistant director. He worked on many of Toho Studio’s monster movies. The second movie I ever saw in a theater was "King Kong vs. Godzilla." Mr. Hashimoto began his AD career working on that epic monster battle. Mr. Hashimoto’s other AD credits include "Gihidra: The Three-Headed Monster," "Frankenstein Conquers the World," "Monster Zero," "Atragon 2," "Godzilla’s Revenge" and "Tidal Wave." Mr. Hashimoto’s work wasn’t restricted to giant rubber monsters. He was Akira Kurosawa’s AD on "Dodes’ka-den."
ERWIN HILLIER Died Jan. 10, 2005
Austrian cinematographer Erwin Hillier died at age 93. Mr. Hillier was one of the most influential cinematographers in the history of British film. He was one of a group of artists working on the early films of Powell and Pressburger productions who invigorated British film. Along with Alfred Hitchcock’s early work, the Powell/Pressburger team produced films that showed that the British film industry could consistently produce films that rivaled or even surpassed those made by their American cousins. Erwin Hillier’s first job was an assistant camera operator of Fritz Lang’s macabre 1931 masterpiece "M." The chilling story of a child murderer played by Peter Lorre is as powerful today as when first released. "M" is a complete film in every respect. The cinematography, direction and acting fuse to terrify and rivet the audience. Mr. Hillier moved to England and worked on the Powell and Pressburger films "The Silver Fleet," "I Know Where I’m Going" and "A Canterbury Tale." Mr. Hillier’s early Black and White photography is among the best in motion picture history. He was also quite good when working in Color. Among his more memorable film credits are "The Dam Busters," "The Long and the Short and the Tall," "Operation Crossbow," "The Quiller Memorandum," Ray Harryhausen’s cowboy and dinosaurs fantasy "The Valley of Gwangi," "The Shoes of the Fisherman" and "A Boy Ten Feet Tall." Mr. Hillier was nominated for a BAFTA for his work on "A Boy Ten Feet Tall."
BUNTY WEBB Died Jan. 10, 2005
Canadian actress Bunty Webb died just shy of her 74th birthday after a lengthy illness. Ms. Webb was very active in regional theater in Canada. In addition to her work founding and encouraging regional theaters, she worked in numerous films and TV shows. Among her many credits are "A Simple Wish," "Double Jeopardy," "Tommy Boy," "Sing," "Higher Education," "Bedroom Eyes," "Maniac Mansion" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."
AMRISH PURI Died Jan. 11, 2005
Legendary India screen villain Amrish Puri died of a brain hemorrhage at age 72. Mr. Puri appeared in more than 200 Bollywood productions. In addition to his highly successful career in his native country, Mr. Puri appeared in two well-known international productions. He was the evil priest Mola Ram in Steven Speilberg’s "Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom." He was the guy who met a nasty end when he fell off the river gorge suspension bridge. His performance was one of the highlights of an otherwise disappointing sequel. He had a rare good-guy role in Sir Richard Attenborough’s Oscar-winning bio-pic "Ghandi." Mr. Puri won numerous acting awards for his deliciously evil performances.
JIMMY GRIFFIN Died Jan. 11, 2005
Oscar-winning composer and co-founder of the 1970’s soft-rock band "Bread" Jimmy Griffin died of cancer at age 61. Along with David Gates, Robb Royer and Jim Gordon, Mr. Griffin founded the band "Bread," which had a string of hits during the early 1970s that included "Baby, I’m-a Want You," "Make It With You" and "If." Mr. Griffin shared the Best Original Song Oscar with fellow "Bread" member Robb Royer and Fred Karlin for the song "For All We Know." The song, performed by "The Carpenters" was used in the film "Lovers and Other Strangers." Mr. Griffin was also a member of the country music band "The Remmingtons." Mr. Griffin appeared in two films in the early 1960s: Frank Sinatra’s lone directorial attempt "None But the Brave" and the teen comedy "For Those Who Think Young."
SPENCER DRYDEN Died Jan. 11, 2005
Spencer Dryden, former drummer for the psychedelic 60’s band "Jefferson Airplane" died of cancer at age 66. Mr. Dryden replaced the band’s original drummer in 1966 and left the band in 1970. "Jefferson Airplane" recorded such hits as "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love." He was a member of "The New Riders of the Purple Sage" after leaving the "Jefferson Airplane." Mr. Dryden was the nephew of screen legend Charlie Chaplin. Mr. Dryden appeared in a number of documentaries with "Jefferson Airplane." In fact he appeared in three of the best Rock films ever made: "Monterey Pop," "Woodstock" and "Gimme Shelter." He appeared with "The New Riders of the Purple Sage" on the TV series "Beat Club." Mr. Dryden had been in ill health for some time. He had also lost his home and possessions in a house fire in 2003.
THELMA WHITE Died Jan. 11, 2005
Actress Thelma White died of pneumonia at age 94. Ms. White starred in the 1936 cult-classic "Reefer Madness." Though the film was made as a serious warning against the dangers of marijuana, its naïve propaganda and ridiculous claims made the movie a favorite on the college midnight movie circuit in the 60s and 70s. I must admit laughing through the film several times back in the days that I inhaled. Ms. White came to film from the world of vaudeville and radio. She appeared in a number of B-movies during the 30s and 40s. After a crippling illness ended her acting career, Ms. White became an actor’s agent for such folks as James Coburn and Robert Blake.
SAL PACINO Died Jan. 12, 2005
Pacino family patriarch Sal Pacino died of a heart attack at age 82. Mr. Pacino was the father of Oscar-winning actor Al Pacino (Scarface) and filmmaker Roberta Pacino. If the old cliché that a man’s greatest legacy is his children is true, then Mr. Pacino has indeed left a rich legacy. However, in researching Mr. Pacino’s life it becomes clear that he had a full, rich life in his own right. Mr. Pacino was a theater actor and director in the 1950s. He then began a 30 year career in the insurance field. He was a night club owner and late in life returned to acting. An accomplished dancer, Mr. Pacino appeared as a swing dancer in the film "Younger and Younger." He appeared as himself as one of the fit senior citizens in the workout video "Richard Simmons and the Silver Foxes: Fitness for Senior Citizens." Though Mr. Pacino usually appeared in smaller roles, he did have a leading role in the crime comedy "Soldati, I." Mr. Pacino’s widow, actress Katherin Kovin appeared with her husband in a number of films. Mr. Pacino’s daughter Roberta and her husband Mark Oliver Richman own the film production company "Quarter to Three Films." The company took its name from a Frank Sinatra song that was one of her father’s favorites. Prayers of comfort for his family and friends.
DANNY BENSON Died Jan. 12, 2005
Sound engineer Danny Benson died of esophageal cancer at age 65. Mr. Benson did sound work for film, TV and stage. He was the sound engineer for the legendary comedy improv group "The Committee" during the 1960s. "The Committee" featured Howard Hessman and Ed Greenberg among others. They were featured in the film "Billy Jack." Mr. Benson also worked on the classic Lenny Bruce animated short film "Thank You, Masked Man." Mr. Benson’s film credits include "The Right Stuff," "The Dead Pool," "Birdy," "Maxie" and "Die Laughing." Mr. Benson also worked on the PBS TV series "Sesame Street."
RUDOLPH MOSHAMMER Died Jan. 14, 2005
German fashion designer Rudolph Moshammer was murdered in his home at age 64. Mr. Moshammer was strangled with a phone cord by a man who claimed that Mr. Moshammer had paid him for sex. Mr. Moshammer’s clients included actor/governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Mr. Moshammer appeared in a number of German TV series and films, usually playing himself.
CARL MOHNER Died Jan. 14, 2005
German actor and respected painter Carl Mohner died of Parkinson’s Disease at age 88. Mr. Mohner appeared in over 60 films and TV series during his life. During the 1960s, he took up painting. His works are found in some of the best art collections in the world including the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. Mr. Mohner may be best known for his role in the WWII thriller "Sink the Bismark." He played Captain Lindemann, commander of the feared German battleship. He also starred in one of the best ‘perfect robbery goes wrong" films, the frech crime classic "Rififi." If you are a fan of Kubrick’s "The Killing" or Tarantino’s "Reservoir Dogs," you owe it to yourself to catch Jules Dassin’s "Rififi." Mr. Mohner also wrote and directed "The Istanbul Adventure." Among Mr. Mohner’s other credits are "The Fall of Rome," "Carmen, Baby," "Callan," "The Babysitter" and "Cave of the Living Dead."
CLINT PRENTICE Died Jan. 14, 2005
Actor and LA civil servant Clint Prentice died at age 77. Mr. Prentice acted in New York and LA. He appeared in the crime film "Angel’s Hill." Mr. Prentice worked as a Welfare Administrator for the County of Los Angeles for 27 years.
JACK KINE Died Jan. 14, 2005
British TV special effects pioneer Jack Kine died at age 83. Mr. Kine worked for BBC TV for 40 years. He co-founded the BBC’s Visual Effect’s Department. My love of more mature science fiction was sparked by the film "Quatermass and the Pit." The film dealt with the discovery of a ancient Martian spacecraft uncovered by a crew dig a subway tunnel in London. The taut thriller features some creepy Martians designed by Mr. Kine. He was particularly associated with the early years of the long-running TV series "Dr. Who." Mr. Kine and his co-worker Bernard Wilkie created hundreds of effects, quite often breaking new ground in their field. Thanks for making the ‘fantastic" a little more real. Mr. Kine also authored the book "Miniature Scenic Modelling."
DEEM BRISTOW Died Jan. 15, 2005
Actor Deem Bristow died of a heart attack at age 57. Mr. Bristow was best know to fans of the video game Sonic the Hedgehog. He provided the voice of the villains Dr. Eggman and Dr. Robotnik since the games inception. Mr. Bristow provided voices for a number of other video games. His film and TV credits include "Problem Child," "Terminal Exposure" and "Glitch!"
DAN LEE Died Jan. 15, 2005
Animator Dan Lee died of cancer at age 35. Mr. Lee designed the character Nemo for Pixar’s "Finding Nemo." Mr. Lee’s other credits include "A Bug’s Life," "Monsters Inc." and "Toy Story 2." Prayers of comfort for his family and friends.
RUTH WARRICK Died Jan. 15, 2005
Emmy-nominated actress Ruth Warrick died of pneumonia at age
88. She made her film debut in the ultimate indie film "Citizen Kane." Ms. Warrick played the put upon first wife of Orson Welles’s character Charles Foster Kane. Ms. Warrick was a member of the famed Mercury Theater. Ms. Warrick is probably best known for her work on several popular Soap Opera’s. She was one of the original cast members of "All My Children." She also worked regularly on "The Guiding Light," "Loving," "As the World Turns" and "Peyton Place." Ms. Warrick was nominated for several Emmy and Daytime Emmy Awards. In 2004 she received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy. Ms. Warrick starred in Walt Disney’s now politically incorrect "Song of the South." Other film credits include "Daisy Kenyon," "The Great Bank Robbery," "The Corsican Brothers," "Journey Into Fear," "China Sea" and "Three Husbands."
ELIZABETH JANEWAY Died Jan. 15, 2005
Author Elizabeth Janeway died at age 91. Ms. Janeway wrote seven novels during her career. Later in life, she wrote several books in support of the woman’s rights movement. Ms. Janeway’s book, "Daisy Kenyon" was turned into a film by director Otto Preminger. The film starred Joan Crawford and featured Ruth Warrick in a supporting role. Ms. Warrick died the same day as Ms. Janeway.
AGUSTAN GONZALEZ Died Jan. 16, 2005
Award-winning Spanish actor Augustan Gonzalez died of pneumonia at age 74. Mr. Gonzalex appeared in more than 180 films during his long and distinguished career. He was nominated four times for the Best Supporting Actor Goya. In 1982 the Cinema Writers Circle Awards presented him the Best Supporting Actor Award for his work in "El Poderoso Influjo de la Luna." His lengthy list of credits includes "Belle Epoque," "The Beehive," "Gary Cooper, Who Art in Heaven," "Chocolate," "The Nest" and "That Man in Istanbul."
ROGER IBANEZ Died Jan 16, 2005
Spanish actor Roger Ibanez died at age 71. Mr. Ibanez was born in France to Basque/Spanish parents. He was a staunch opponent of former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Mr. Ibanez appeared in several weel-known European films. His credits include Bunuel’s "That Obscure Obect of Desire" and Pierre Granier-Deferre’s "Le Train."
VIRGINIA MAYO Died Jan.17, 2005
Screen star Virginia Mayo died of heart failure and pneumonia at age 84. Ms. Mayo was one of the biggest stars in the Warner Brother’s stable of actors during the 1940s and 50s. She appeared in over 70 films and TV shows during her lengthy career. Ms. Mayo starred opposite James Cagney in my all-time favorite film: Raoul Walsh’s "White Heat." The blond bombshell had much more than looks. She was also an accomplished actress who got better over time. In "White Heat," she played the wife of Cagney’s psychopathic Oedipus-conflicted gangster Cody Jarrett. Ms. Mayo turned in a great performance as a no-good moll. Of course, Cagney's performance overshadowed everyone else in the film, so you have to watch close to appreciate Ms. Mayo’s work. She rivialed Jane Greer as one of Film Noir’s all-time bad girls. Ms. Mayo also did a good turn as a bad girl in William Wyler’s 1946 classic "The Best Years of Our Lives." She played the two-timing wife of returning Army/Air Corp officer Dana Andrews. It is a small but vital role in Wyler’s three-hour ensemble piece. Ms. Mayo held her own against such stars as Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, Hoagy Carmichael and Dana Andrews. The following year, Ms. Mayo made a big impression as Danny Kaye’s co-star in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." She co-stared with Danny Kaye in five films including "A Song is Born." Ms. Mayo married actor Emmy-nominated Micheal O’Shea in 1947. The couple met on Ms. Mayo’s second film, the bio-pic "Jack London." Her future husband played the title role. The couple was married until Mr. O’Shea’s death in 1973. She never remarried. Virginia Mayo’s other credits include "The Girl From Jones Beach" opposite Ronald Reagan, "The Princess and the Pirate" opposite Bob Hope, "The West Point Story" also with James Cagney, "Captain Horatio Hornblower" opposite Gregory Peck and "Along the Great Divide" opposite Kirk Douglas. Ms. Mayo slowed her career down in the early 1960s. She appeared more on TV than in the movies, although she continued to appear in films until 1997. Ms. Mayo was adept at song, dance and drama. She appeared in a number of Western films. In 1988, she was awarded the Golden Boot Award for her lengthy career. Ms. Mayo had a successful life both on and off screen. To quote her "White Heat" co-star, I guess you could say she "Made it Ma! Top of the World!"
BASIL HOSKINS Died Jan. 17, 2005
British stage actor Basil Hoskins died at age 75. Mr. Hoskins was a classically trained actor who spend decades trodding the boards in England and the US. He appeared with Lauren Bacall in her hit musical "Applause." Mr. Hoskins talents ranged from Shakespeare to musicals to Soap Opera doctors. His film and TV credits include "Cold Comfort Farm," the Tony Perkins horror film "Edge of Sanity," "The New Avengers," "The Avengers," "Flame Over India" and "Desert Attack." Mr. Hoskins was the life partner of the late actor Harry Andrews.
LAMONT BENTLEY Died Jan. 18, 2005
What a terrible month for young actors and automobile accidents. 31-year-old actor Lamont Bentley was killed in a one-car accident. He is the third young actor to die in a car crash this month! Mr. Bentley was thrown from his car after it went off of the freeway. Mr. Bentley was best known for his supporting role in the UPN TV series "Moesha." He played Moesha’s friend Hakeem. Mr. Bentley had a number of film and TV credits. He appeared in the excellent horror anthology "Tales From the Hood." Mr. Bentley also appeared in the so-so Dr. Dre/Snoop Dog comedy "The Wash." In the Made for TV bio-pic "Too Legit: The M.C. Hammer Story," Mr. Bentley played slain rap star Tupac Shakir. Prayers of comfort for his family and friends.
GABRIELLA BRUNE Died Jan. 18, 2005
British actress Gabriella Brune died at age 92. Ms. Brune’s film career dated back to the 1930s. Her film credits include "The Wife of General Ling," "The Titfield Thunderbolt," "A Run For Your Money," "Mandy," "The Green Pack" and "The Public Eye."
CAL BOLDER Died Jan. 19, 2005
Actor/body builder Cal Bolder died of cancer at age 74. Mr. Bolder appeared in several films and TV series during the 1960s. Fans of bad movies know Mr. Bolder as the muscular monster in "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter." Other credits include "Heller in Pink Tights," "One of Our Spies is Missing," "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," "Bonanza" and the "Friday’s Child" episode of "Star Trek." Mr. Bolder also published a novel titled "Last Reunion" under his real name E.C. Craver. Mr. Bolder served his country in the US Marine Corp.
CHUCK OLIN Died Jan. 20, 2005
Chicago documentary filmmaker Chuck Olin died of a blood disease at age 68. Mr. Olin started his film career as an assistant to fellow Chicago filmmaker Philip Kaufman on the 1967 Jon Voight comedy "Fearless Frank." After this one venture into commercial movies, Mr. Olin set his sights on the world of documentary films. He produced and directed a number of films including "The Murder of Fred Hampton," "In Our Own Hands: The Hidden Story of the Jewish Brigade in World War II," "Box of Treasures," and the Emmy-Award winning "Palette of Glass: The America Windows of Marc Chagall."
PARVEEN BABI Died Jan. 20, 2005
Indian actress Parveen Babi was found dead in her apartment. The 50-year-old former sex symbol suffered from schizophrenia and had been a recluse for a number of years. Ms. Babi was a major Bollywood star during the 1970s and 80s. She was one of the first Indian actresses to openly flaunt her sexuality. She broke many of the taboos of Hindi films. Unfortunately, Ms. Babi died alone, forgotten by those who worked with her during her heyday. She withdrew from the public light as her mental illness took over her life. She converted to Christianity toward the end of her life. Ms. Babi appeared in over 50 films during her short but extremely successful film career.
BEVERLY DENNIS Died Jan. 20, 2005
Actresses turned psychotherapist Beverly Dennis died of multiple myeloma at age 79. Ms. Dennis appeared in several films in the early 1950s including William Wellman’s "Westward the Women" and "Take Care of My Little Girl." Ms. Dennis was also a regular on the TV series "The Red Buttons Show." She replaced actress Dorothy Jolliffe in the role of Red Buttons’ wife. Ms. Dennis fell victim to the HUAC blacklist. She left the show after one season and was replaced by actress Betty Ann Grove. Ms. Dennis and her first husband, actor Russell Dennis, were both blacklisted and their careers ended before they really took off. Ms. Dennis went back to school and started a second successful career as a psychotherapist. She was the mother of the current Psychedelic Furs keyboardist Amanda Cramer.
ROBERT DWAN Died Jan. 21, 2005
Writer/director Robert Dwan died of pneumonia at age 89. Mr. Dwan directed Groucho Marx during the entire 14-year Radio and TV run of the quiz show "You Bet Your Life." Mr. Dwan was also a writer for Art Linkletter’s "People are Funny." Mr. Dwan also directed a TV version of "The Mikado." Grouch Marx also appeared in that production.
STEVE SUSSKIND Died Jan. 21, 2005
Yet another actor has been killed this month in an automobile accident. Actor/singer Steve Susskind was killed in Sunland California at age 62. Mr. Susskind was one of the founders of the Doo Wop group The Roomates. Along with Jack Carlson, Bob Minsky and Felix Alverez, Steve Susskind recorded several songs including "Band of Gold." Their biggest hit was "Please Love Me Forever" on which they backed 14-year-old singer Cathy Jean. The record producers released the song as being recorded by Cathy Jean and the Roomates. The fact is that their tracks were recorded separately. The Roomates disbanded in 1964. Jack Carlson shared the following with me:"We had a 40 year Roomate reunion at Steve's this past May and enjoyed reliving the fun we had singing back in the 60's in New York City. We hadn't all been together since 1964. It was a wonderful time." Mr. Susskind was a board member of AFTRA. Mr. Susskind had an additional and successful career as an actor doing both live action and voice acting. Horror fans will remember him as the pot smoking hippie Harold Hatcher in "Friday the 13th:3D." He also appeared in the lame horror film "House." Among Mr. Susskind’s many voice work credits are Disney’s "Monster’s Inc.," "Osmosis Jones" and "Challenge of the Gobots." Other film and TV credits include "Star Trek V: The Voyage Home," a priest on several episodes of "Friends," "Melrose Place," "Wings," "Married With…Children," "The Jeffersons" and "Archie Bunker’s Place." Prayers of comfort for his family and friends.
PATSY ROWLANDS Died Jan. 22, 2005
British actress Patsy Rowlands died at age 71. Ms. Rowlands was best known for her work in the British "Carry On" comedy film series. Ms. Rowlands appeared in nine films, a documentary, a TV special and an episode of the TV series version of the "Carry On" films. Her "Carry On" credits include "Carry On Again Doctor," "Carry On Loving," "Carry On Matron" and "Carry On at Your Convenience." She appeared in nearly 80 films and TV shows during her career. Other credits include Roman Polanski’s "Tess," "Tom Jones," "A Kind of Loving," "Z Cars," "Danger Man" and "The Avengers."
CONSUELO VELAZQUEZ Died Jan. 22, 2005
Composer Consuelo Velazquez died of heart failure at age 84. Ms. Velazquez wrote numerous songs, but was best known for the ballad "Besame Mucho." The song was recorded by numerous artists from Placido Domingo to The Beatles. The song was featured in several films including George Stevens classic "Giant." Ms. Velazques contributed songs to over 30 films and TV series.
JOHNNY CARSON Died Jan. 23, 2005
TV legend Johnny Carson died of emphysema at age 79. Next to Lucille Ball, Johnny Carson was the most influential performer in the history of entertainment TV. Hey folks, this is my column and that’s my opinion! Johnny Carson ruled the world of late night TV for 30 years as host of NBC’s "The Tonight Show." Johnny Carson was an everyman. He came into our homes, made us laugh and exposed us to more entertainers than ever before. He was a star maker. Johnny Carson had a quality that made you welcome him into your home. Though he was a very private man, he appeared on TV as someone who would be glad to have a beer with you. Maybe it was his self-deprecating humor. The secret to Johnny’s success is that he made his guests look good. Though David Letterman comes close to capturing Carson’s secret quality, those who followed Carson vie for the spotlight with their guests. He knew what made entertaining TV. Johnny spared no expense with The Tonight Show Band. Carson’s third band leader, Doc Severinsen was an amazing jazz and pop musician. I always envied the studio audience who got to hear the band play during commercial breaks. Then there was Johnny’s sidekick Ed McMahon. Say what you will about the man, he was a perfect foil for Johnny Carson’s subtle humor. Ed’s intro "Heeeeere’s Johnny" entered the vernacular. Stanley Kubrick’s "The Shining" is proof. Johnny Carson exposed America to the big stars, the oddities, the wonders of nature (that includes Carol Wayne as well as the animals from the San Diego Zoo) and common folks with uncommon stories. Johnny Carson’s comedic timing was impeccable. He was also a pro at recovering from a joke that bombed. Mr. Carson’s death brings back memories of my father. I knew that I was growing up in the eyes of my dad when he began to let me stay up and watch Johnny Carson with him. Some of my earliest "Tonight Show" memories were of a young Joan Rivers joking about a padded bra that was so thick that she once fell over and bounced right back up, of Jimi Hendrix experiencing an equipment malfunction halfway through his song (Flip Wilson was the guest host that night), of the numerous and hilarious conversations with actors Burt Reynolds and Robert Blake. I remember being the class clown in fifth grade by doing my Art Fern imitation. We all have our memories. I grateful to him for mine.
PHILIP DEGUERE JR. Died Jan, 24, 2005
Writer/producer/director Philip DeGuere Jr. died of cancer at age 60. Mr. DeGuere created the TV series "Simon and Simon." He was nominated for and Edgar Allen Poe Award" for producing and episode of the series. Mr. DeGuere’s other producing credits include the TV series "Baa, Baa Black Sheep," "Max Headroom," the 1985 version of "The Twilight Zone," "Whiz Kids" and "Air America." He also directed episodes of "Baa, Baa Black Sheep," the Made for TV movie "Dr. Strange" and two episodes of the 19856 version of "The Twilight Zone." Mr. DeGuere also had many writing credits. In addition to writing for those shows he produced and directed, his other writing credits include the great Western TV series "Alias Smith and Jones," "Baretta," "Magnum P.I.," "JAG" and "The Dead Zone."
RAY PETERSON Died Jan. 25, 2005
Country music composer Ray Peterson died of cancer at age 69. Mr. Peterson score Top 10 hits singles for "Tell Laura I Love Her" and "Corrina, Corrina." He also had a hit single with "The Wonder of You," long before Elvis scored a hit with the same song. Mr. Peterson had a song featured in the comedy "One Way Wahini." The 1994 Whoopie Goldberg film "Corrina, Corrina" also featured Peterson’s song. He appeared in the documentary "At the Drive In." He also performed on Ed Sullivan’s "Toast of the Town."
VICKKI LA MOTTA Died Jan. 25, 2005
The ex-wife of boxer Jake La Motta died at age 75. Ms. La Motta had undergone open-heart surgery six months prior to her death. The turbulent abusive relationship between Jake and Vikki La Motta was the subject of Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece "Raging Bull." Robert De Niro and Cathy Moriarty portrayed the couple. Ms. La Motta landed on her feet after she left her once abusive husband. She posed for Playboy at age 51 and proved that she was still a beauty. Ms. La Motta began her own successful cosmetics company. Ms. La Motta appeared as herself in the documentary "Sports on the Silver Screen."
RUDI FALKENHAGEN Died Jan. 26, 2005
Popular Dutch actor Rudi Falkenhagen died of throat cancer at age 71. He may be best known to international audiences for his role as the father of one of the lead character’s in Paul Verhoven’s excellent 1980 film "Spetters." Mr. Falkenhagen did the voice of McQuack in the Dutch version of "Darkwing Duck." He also had a supporting role in the Klaus Kinski sci-fi thriller "Lifespan." Mr. Falkenhagen appeared in over 30 films and TV series during his career.
JOSIE MCAVIN Died Jan. 26, 2005
Oscar and Emmy winning set decorator Josie McAvin died at age 85. Ms. McAvin was the only person from Ireland to win both the Oscar and an Emmy. Ms. McAvin was nominated for three Best art Direction-Best Set Direction Oscars for her work on "Tom Jones," "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and "Out of Africa." She won her Oscar for "Out of Africa." Ms. McAvin won the Outstanding Individual Achievement in Art Direction for a Miniseries or a Special Emmy for the mini-series "Scarlett." "Scarlett" was the sequel to "Gone With the Wind." Ms. McAvin’s other credits include "The Mark," "Sinful Davy," "Ryan’s Daughter," "Heaven’s Gate," "Educating Rita," "The Dresser," "The Dead" and "Michael Collins."
PAUL PARTAIN Died Jan. 27, 2005
Actor Paul Partain died of cancer at age 58. Mr. Partain played one of the most annoying, yet memorable characters in film history. The character Franklin Hardesty may not grate on movie-goers nerves the way Jar Jar Binks does, but he sure came close. Paul Partain played the doomed, wheelchair bound Franklin Hardesty in Tobe Hooper’s classic 1974 horror film "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Despite the character’s whining, you still hate it when he finally meets the chainsaw-toting monster Leatherface in the woods. Mr. Partain was able to take this pathetic character and make him sympathetic. The claustrophobic film grows to a crescendo of terror that really gets going at the point that Partain’s character is killed. His death scene is terrifying as his character is the most vulnerable of all the victims. Tobe Hooper’s film traps the viewer in an unrelenting journey of terror. The movie builds slowly. Mr. Partain’s character is trapped in his chair from the outset. As things go wrong for Franklin, his sister and her friends, the movie-goer develops a kinship with Franklin. Suddenly our theater seat is as confining as Franklin’s wheelchair. We are trapped under Mr. Hooper’s masterful cinematic manipulation. Suddenly, we are thinking the thoughts Mr. Partain’s character has been voicing. We are not happy and wish we could leave. Too bad, too late. Paul Partain served his country in Vietnam. He made his film debut in Sidney Lumet’s "Loving Molly?" He worked with Peter Fonda twice. First in "Outlaw Blues" and then in the cult classic "Race With the Devil." Mr. Partain also had a supporting role in the William Devane/Tommie Lee Jones revenge thriller "Rolling Thunder." He returned in one of the "Chainsaw" sequels. Mr. Partain joined original "Chainsaw" actors Marilyn Burns and John Dugan in a cameo for "The Return of the Chainsaw Massacre." In numerous interviews, Paul Partain was revealed to be an intelligent, thoughtful and talented man. The world of horror films is sadder today for his passing.
JONATHAN WELSH Died Jan. 27, 2005
Award-winning Canadian actor Jonathan Welsh died at age 57 of an unspecified illness. Mr. Welsh won the Canadian Gemini Award as Best Supporting Actor for his work in the TV series "E.N.G." The Gemini Award is Canada’s award for outstanding work in English language TV. There is a separate award for the French language TV in Canada. Mr. Welsh’s other film and TV credits include "Starship Invasions," "Switching Channels," "Agency," "City on Fire," "Mafia Princess," "Total Recall 2070" and "Milgaard."
NICOLE DUFRESNE Died Jan. 27, 2005
Actress and playwright Nicole DuFresne was murdered during a robbery in New York. Ms. DuFresne, her fiance and another couple were approached by a group of men demanding money. Ms. Dufresne is reported to have asked the men "What are you going to do, Shoot us?" Not a question I’d recommend asking a person pointing a gun at you. Ms. DuFrensne was 28 years old. Ms. DuFresne gained recognition in the world of theater for co-writing the play "Burning Cage." She acted in numerous plays in the US and Canada. Ms. DuFresne appeared in several indie and student films. Her film credits include "The Prescribed Method," "7 Stories" and "Pretty." Prayers of comfort for her family and friends during this tragic time.
EMILY BERNSTEIN Died Jan. 27, 2005
Studio musician Emily Bernstein died of liver cancer at age 46. Mr. Bernstein was the principle clarinetist with the Pasadena Symphony. She also played with the Los Angeles Opera. She also played on the soundtracks of a number of films. She was not the daughter of the late composer Elmer Bernstein. While Mr. Bernstein’s daughter shares the same name and is also involved in movie music, the two women are different persons. Ms. Bernstein’s film credits include "The Terminal," "Seabiscuit," "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Conspiracy Theory."
KAREN BACH Died Jan. 28, 2005
French adult film actress Karen Bach committed suicide at age 31. Ms. Bach took an overdose of pills after writing a suicide note for her parents. I used the word "actress" for a reason. Ms. Bach was the co-star of the controversial 2000 film "Baise Moi." The tale of two women who go on a murder spree is one of the most challenging films ever made. "Baise Moi" was either hailed as a masterpiece or condemned as an indulgent exercise of excess. The two lead actresses both came from the world of adult film. Ms. Bach delivered a stunning performance as Nadine, a woman whose soul had been eroded by degradation. Her character only felt alive when killing or screwing strangers. "Baise Moi" was Ms. Bach’s final film. I don’t know why she took her own life. Ms. Bach chose a tough profession. In one film, she showed that she had the potential to rise above the work she usually did. Prayers of comfort for her family and friends.
JACQUES VILLERET Died Jan. 28, 2005
Award-winning French comedic actor Jacques Villeret died of internal bleeding just shy of his 54th birthday. Mr. Villeret was a popular actor in France for nearly 30 years. He appeared in nearly 90 films, TV series and documentaries during his career. Mr. Villeret acting was recognized with three nominations for Cesar Awards, the French equivilent of the Oscar. Mr. Villeret won the Best Actor Cesar for the hit comedy "The Dinner Game." He also won the Best Actor award at the Lumiere’s for "The Dinner Game." He also won the Best Supporting Actor Cesar for his work in Claude LeLouch’s "Robert and Robert." His third nomination was as Best Supporting Actor in the comedy "Waiter!"
JIM CAPALDI Died Jan. 28, 2005
Rock drummer Jim Capaldi died of stomach cancer at age 60. What a month for the world of rock. Mr. Capaldi makes the third major rock star from the 1960s to die so far this year. Mr. Capaldi was one of the founders of the great British band "Traffic." Traffic was created by Capaldi, Steve Winwood, Dave Mason and Chris Wood! The band was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. Traffic appeared in the 60s teen comedy "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush." They were also the subject of the 1972 concert documentary "Traffic Live at Santa Monica." Though the band broke up in the early 70s, the reunited in 1994 to appear at "Woodstock 94." The band also reunited to appear at the tribute concert for George Harrison one year after the former Beatle’s death. The concert was filmed as the TV documentary "Concert for George."
ALAN JAMES Died Jan. 28, 2005
Railroad manufacturer turned movie producer Alan James died of heart failure at age 74. Mr. James turned to the film business late in life. He produced three films: "Without Evidence," "Morgan’s Ferry" and David Mamet’s "Lakeboat House."
EPHRAIM KISHON Died Jan. 29, 2005
Oscar nominated writer/director Ephraim Kishon died at age 80. Mr. Kishon was best known as Israel’s leading satirist. He wrote 700 books that have sold 43 million copies worldwide! Mr. Lishon was also a world class chess player, having created his own computer chess game. Mr. Kishon survived the horrors of the Nazi death camps, once because the camp commander wanted someone to play chess with. Mr. Kishon wrote and directed a number of films. The 1970 comedy "The Policeman," which Mr. Kishon wrote and directed was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar and won the Golden Globe in the same category. Mr. Kishon was competing with himself that same year at the Golden Globes. His film "The Big Dig" was also nominated for Best Foreign Film. Mr. Kishon also wrote and directed the 1964 film "Sallah," which featured "Fiddler on the Roof" star Topol. "Sallah" was also nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar and Golden Globe. It won the Golden Globe.
DARRYL ARMSTRONG Died Jan. 29, 2005
Canadian actor Darryl Armstrong died at age 23. His death is still under investigation by the Toronto police. Mr. Armstrong was found under a bridge in that city. Though some news reports stated that Mr. Armstrong jumped from the bridge, the police are investigating the possibility that he may have been the victim of a hit-and-run driver. Mr. Armstrong appeared in episodes of the TV series "Queer as Folk" and "Degrassi: The Next Generation." Prayers of comfort for his family and friends.
TONI BERGER Died Jan. 29, 2005
German actor Toni Berger died of natural causes at age 83. Mr. Berger appeared in nearly 100 films and TV series during his lengthy career. He worked with director Ingmar Bergman in "The Serpent’s Egg" and "From the Life of the Marionettes." In addition to his many film roles, Mr. Berger was very active in the folk theater scene in Munich.
TRICIA GOKEN Died Jan. 29, 2005
29-year-old script supervisor Tricia Goken, along with her fiancée Denis Tri was killed in an automobile accident. Ms. Goken was the script supervisor on such films as "Felicity" and "Alias." Other credits include "The Keening," "All Over the Guy" and "The Road Home." Prayers of comfort for the family and friends of the couple.
RON TOMME Died Jan. 29, 2005
Soap opera actor Ron Tomme died at age 73. Mr. Tomme played Bruce Sterling on the long running soap opera "Love of Life." Mr. Tomme appeared on the show from 1958 through 1980! He also appeared on "The Guiding Light," "Ryan’s Hope" and several episodes of "Dallas."
JOAN TOMPKINS Died Jan. 29, 2005
Actress Joan Tompkins died of natural causes at age 89. Ms. Tompkins career spanned six decades. She worked on stage, radio, TV and in film. Ms. Tompkins was the widow of "Little House on the Prairie" actor Karl Swenson. Ms. Tompkins appeared in over 70 films and TV shows. She was a regular on the soap opera "General Hospital." Old-time radio fans may remember her as the lead in "This is Nora Drake." The daily 15-minute radio serial ran on both NBC and CBS radio in 1947 and 48. CBS then became the sole broadcaster of the show through the end of its run in 1959. Ms. Tompkins appeared on Broadway in "Fly Away Home" with Montgomery Cliff, "Pride and Prejudice" and "My Sister Eileen." Her film and TV credits include the nice little thriller "Zig-Zag," "Popi," "The Christine Jorgenson Story," "Perry Mason," "Mission Impossible," "Night Gallery" and "Bonanza." Mr. Tompkins retired from acting following the death of her husband in 1978.
RON FEINBERG Died Jan. 29, 2005
Prolific character and voice actor Ron Feinberg died at age 72. Mr. Feinberg provided voices for numerous animated characters during his lengthy career. He was also a familiar face to TV viewers through his live action work. Mr. Feinberg's voice credits include "Hong Kong Phooey," "The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour," "Spiderman," "The Incredible Hulk" and "Transformers." As a character actor Mr. Feinberg appeared as General De Gaulle in "The Missiles of October." He appeared in director L. Q. Jones cult classic "A Boy and His Dog." Other credits include the original version of "Brian's Song."
COLEY WALLACE Died Jan. 30, 2005
Boxer Coley Wallace died of heart failure at age 77. Mr. Wallace was the only boxer to ever defeat champion Rocky Marciano. He did it when both fighters were amateurs during a Golden Gloves tournament. Mr. Wallace appeared as heavyweight champion Joe Louis in the bio-pic "The Joe Louis Story" and Martin Scorsese’s "Raging Bull." Mr. Wallace’s other film credits include "Carib Gold" and "Rooftops." He also appeared on Ed Sullivan’s "Toast of the Town." Mr. Wallace’s pro-boxing record was 20 wins and 7 defeats. He lost his biggest fight against Ezzard Charles in 1953.
MARTYN BENNETT Died Jan. 30, 2005
Composer/musician Martyn Bennett died of cancer at age 33. Mr. Bennett was a musical prodigy who began playing bagpipes at age 10. Mr. Bennett scored the short sci-fi short film "Im." Mr. Bennett also scored a number of plays. He had the honor of playing the bagpipes at the world premiere of Mel Gibson’s "Braveheart." He fought Hodgkin’s lymphoma since 2000. Prayers of comfort for his family and friends.
ERICH KAESTNER Died Jan. 31, 2005
Camera designer Erich Kaestner died at age 93. Mr. Kaestner was co-designer of the Arriflex 35 and Arriflex 16 hand-held motion picture cameras. Mr. Kaestner was awarded two scientific and technical Oscars during his career. Sometimes, the artists need to pause and reflect on the artistry of the engineers that make movie magic possible. Thank you for your life’s work Mr. Kaestner.
WARREN ROTHENBERGER Died Jan. 31, 2005
Cameraman Warren Rothenberger died at age 82. Mr. Rothenberger was a combat photographer assigned to Patton’s Third Army during WWII. Mr. Rothenberger was awarded a Bronze Star for his work during some of WWII’s bloodiest battles. Mr. Rothenberger worked as a camera operator on a number of well known films. His credits include the James Bond film "Live and Let Die," "Aaron Loves Angela," "Popi" and "Trading Places.
MITZI LUUKKONEN Died Jan. 31, 2005
Painter Mitzi Luukkonen died at age 87. Ms. Luukkonen worked at several animation studios including Hanna-Barbera, Disney and for Ralph Bakshi. She was a member of I.A.T.S.E. Local 839.
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Workshop shines light on RI’s connection to slavery
in Business, Culture, Economy, Featured, News, Technology
One of Rhode Island’s claims to fame is being the “Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.”
The mills and dams from that accomplishment are still standing, molding the cityscapes of the Ocean State.
A legacy less spoken of is Rhode Island’s stature as the home of this country’s slave trade.
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“More than 60 percent of every slave ship that left North America, left from a port in Rhode Island,” Christy Clark-Pujara, who is an assistant professor of history in the Afro-American Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told NBC 10 News on Friday.
That means almost every part of colonial Rhode Island’s economy was dependent on slaves.
“When you have shipbuilders, sailors, coopers the are making barrels. Foodstuffs are filling these slave ships. It was the center of the economy,” she said.
It funded infrastructure, as well.
“Duties that were paid on slaves paid for public work projects throughout the state,” she said. “The streets of Newport were paved with duties paid on slaves.”
Back to the water-powered factories that sprung up along Rhode Island rivers, the workplaces were all white, with no people of color allowed.
But the cotton that was spun into thread, and then into cloth, was all connected to slavery.
Joey DeFrancesco, also a historian and tour guide, explained.
“That cotton is all being picked, sorted, packed up and shipped up north from southern slave plantations,” DeFrancesco said.
Most Rhode Islanders are not aware of how much the state, as well as the nation, relied on slavery and its products to create the wealth that made America so powerful. That’s not an accident, according to historians.
“Slavery has always been a part of the history of this place,” Clark-Pujara said. “It hasn’t always been part of the stories that people chose to tell about Rhode Island.”
DeFrancesca said the reason is simple, noting that people are more comfortable when they “pretend it was just a southern problem pretend it was a sin that didn’t stain Northern hands.”
The problem with ignoring the history is that racial discrimination persists because white people are ignorant of the inherent advantages they’ve reaped from, initially, the free labor, and then later, from a paucity of opportunity.
“The racial disparities that we see in education, incarceration, home ownership are legacies of hundreds of years of discrimination,” said Clark-Pujara. “It isn’t as if some people worked hard and were smart with their money and others were just layabouts. Other people had opportunities that others didn’t.”
For a just society to emerge, she said, there must be as conscious an effort to undo the disadvantages imposed on black Americans, as there was a systematic effort to deny political and social rights to former slaves.
The Dig podcast put together a three-day symposium on the role of slavery in the state’s economy from May 2 to May 4. Click here to learn more.
Turn to 10
Tags: IndustrynewsRhode IslandWorkshop
Mississippi River reaches record level in northern Illinois
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Authorities in the United States have launched small-scale operations to arrest undocumented immigrants over the weekend in an apparent start to President Donald...
Mattis to Reassure Nervous Asian Allies
Asian Company Invest In America As Trump Takes Office
Trump lost: 9th Circuit Court declines restoring travel ban
Central Intelligence: Gina Haspel new Deputy chief
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Home / Letter Box
Friday, June 14, 2019 | 13:48:56
(VOVWORLD) - First on our show today, we’d like to welcome Mr. Brian Penney of the US. Mr. Penney says he listens to us regularly on the frequency of 7315 khz but this is the first time we have received his feedback.
B: In his letter dated May 24, Mr. Penney wrote: “I was very fortunate to be able to catch your English broadcast via WRMI this evening. I listen to your broadcast on shortwave multiple times a week and I always enjoy your program. The quality and diversity of your programming is greatly appreciated. Thank you for continuing to find the importance of broadcasting on the shortwave bands.”
A: Thank you, Mr. Penney, for tuning in to VOV. We’ll confirm your reception report with a QSL card and send you some souvenirs from VOV. We hope to hear more from you.
B: This week, we also received the first letter from Jess Moralez of the US. She listened to our program from 11:50 to 12:00 UTC on May 22 on the frequency of 9840 khz and wrote: “I enjoyed your program very much. You were reading the mailbag from shortwave listeners. You were asking listeners to send in more input and more topics about Vietnam. The male and female announcers were very pleasant and have very good English.”
A: Thank you, Ms. Moralez, for your feedback on our program. Our mailbag has been broadcast every Wednesday for many years now. It is like a forum where we can exchange with our listeners, listen to their feedback on the program to learn how they feel about it and find out about their impression of Vietnam through our stories. With this segment, we feel closer to our listeners when they share stories about themselves, about their hobby of dxing, and about their own cultures and people. We hope our listeners in turn feel closer to us.
A performance of Vovinam, Vienam's martial arts
B: This week, Balamurali N.S of India sent us an email and asked about the national sport of Vietnam.
A: In Vietnam, we don’t name any one sport our national sport but there are many types of sports that we’re very proud of. One of them is Vovinam, a Vietnamese form of martial arts, which has been spreading throughout the world during the last 80 years.
B: Vovinam was invented by grandmaster Nguyen Loc 80 years ago. Vovinam’s principles include “to live for oneself, to help others live and to live for others”. Practiced with or without weapons, its aim is to train for physical strength and a sound mind, discipline, and moral strength. Vovinam students study human behavior, fellowship, and unity.
A: After more than eight decades of development, Vovinam has to date attracted over 4 million practitioners in more than 70 countries and territories. The martial art, based on the principle of combining the poles of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’, is practiced with and without weapons. It is not only about the training of the body but also of the mind. Introduced to Algeria in the 1970s, Vovinam has become popular there and is now being practiced by over 20,000 people across the African country. The strong growth of the art form can be seen through the establishment of the world federation, as well as continental federations in Asia, Europe and Africa.
Vovinam has to date attracted over 4 million practitioners in more than 70 countries and territories.
B: Vovinam has developed in many countries with hundreds of schools in Poland, Belgium, Russia, France, and ASEAN members. The first world championship was organised in 2009, marking a turning point in its history.
A: Most recently, the Vietnamese martial arts world cup was held for the first time in Marseille, France, from May 31 to June 2. The tournament gathered nearly 300 athletes representing 18 countries worldwide.
B: President of the Vietnam Traditional Martial Arts Federation Hoang Vinh Giang said that the federation set a target of Vietnamese martial arts being practiced and competed in 100 nations and territories by 2030.
A: This week, we received different reception reports on our broadcasts on the frequency of 7220 khz. Listening to our broadcast at 16 hours UTC on June 2, Shyamal Kumar Banerjee of India reported good reception. But Siddhartha Bhattacharjee of India said the reception the same day was weak.
B: From Pakistan Abid Hussain Sajid reported good reception on the frequency of 7220 khz for a VOV broadcast on May 31.
A: Many listeners in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan commented on our Letter Box last week with a story about Eid-al-Fitr, the main religious festival of Muslims around the world which is held after a month of fasting to pray to Allah for happiness, prosperity, and world peace.
B: Mr. Ashik Eqbal Tokon wrote: “After Eid Greetings to you all from Bangladesh. First of all, congratulations on receiving the National External Information Service Award 2018 in 14 different categories. As one of your old and regular listeners, I have always followed your two important and attractive features, Colorful Vietnam and Discovery Vietnam along with Letter Box. Your News and Current affairs are always in depth providing updates on Vietnam and the world. I like it very much. Could you give a news brief on the Imperial City of Hue.”
Hue imperial relic site was listed as a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 1993.
B: Hue city was Vietnam’s capital during the Nguyen Dynasty from 1802 to 1945. Its imperial relic site was listed as a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 1993.
A: The name Hue first appeared at the end of the 15th century during the reign of King Le Thanh Tong. In 1636, the Palace of the Nguyen Lord was located in Hue and later moved to Phu Xuan, now Hue’s inner city. In the early 18th century, Phu Xuan was the political, economic and cultural center of the region then dominated by the Nguyen lords. From 1788 to 1801, the city was the capital of the Tay Son regime.
B: From 1802 to 1945, Hue was the capital of a reunified Vietnam under the rule of 13 Nguyen kings. During this period, many architectural works of great value were built. The north bank of the Perfume River is home to the citadel, the royal city and the forbidden purple city of Huê. The new capital was designed in harmony with Eastern and Western philosophy and respecting Vietnamese geomancy and the surrounding landscapes like Ngu Binh Mountain, the Perfume River, and the Gia Vien and Boc Thanh islets. The citadel is built on the banks of the Perfume River and is surrounded by wide moats that delimit a square with a perimeter of more than 10 km and walls 6 meters high. The citadel is accessible by ten fortified gates, each with a bridge.
Inside Thai Hoa palace, Hue Imperial City
A: Inside the citadel are the "royal city" and the "forbidden city" separated by seven barriers. West of the citadel on the banks of the Perfume River are the tombs of the Nguyen kings, built in the classical Vietnamese architectural tradition. The Perfume River, Ngu Binh Mountain, Thien Mu Pagoda, Bach Ma Mountain, and Lang Cô and Thuan An beach compose a magnificent landscape.
B: The World Heritage Committee, at its 17th meeting in Colombia in 1993, named the Hue monuments a UNESCO World Heritage. Recently, Hue was included in the new global checklist of best travel journeys for people in their fifties, "with a successful career and enough money in hand." The U.S magazine Travel + Leisure suggests the exploration of the UNESCO heritage sites in central Vietnam, such as the Hoi An ancient town, Hue Imperial Citadel and My Son Sanctuary.
A: We’d like to thank you all for sending feedback on our broadcasts on shortwave and on the internet. We promise to send you our verification cards to confirm your reports. We welcome your feedback at: English Service, VOVworld, the Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. You’re invited to visit us online at vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs. Check out our VOV Media App available on both the IOS and Android platform to hear our live broadcasts. We look forward to your feedback on the mobile version of vovworld.vn. Once again, thank you all for listening. Goodbye until next time.
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Bolton: International court 'dead to us'
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is pledging to use "any means necessary" to protect American citizens and allies from International Criminal Court prosecution.
President Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, says the court is "illegitimate" and "for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us."
Bolton delivered his remarks Monday to the conservative Federalist Society in Washington.
He says that the court threatens the "constitutional rights" of Americans and U.S. sovereignty.
The ICC, which is based in the Hague, has a mandate to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
President Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute that established the court, but his successor, George W. Bush, renounced the signature, citing fears that Americans would be unfairly prosecuted for political reasons.
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Whistleblower Blawg
Brought to You by Clayton Wire of OGBORN MIHM LLP
Attorney Clayton Wire
Ogborn Mihm LLP
MenuHomeAttorney Clayton WireWhistleblower ProtectionsOgborn Mihm LLP
May232017May 23, 2017May 26, 2017NoCommentby Clayton Wire
The Same Action Defense Under SOX is a Daunting Burden
Posted in Retaliation, Sarbanes Oxley Act, Section 806
Whistleblower retaliation claims under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) are governed by a two stage burden-shifting framework. In the first step the whistleblower must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that her protected activity was a contributing factor in the adverse action taken against her. The second step is an affirmative defense, commonly referred to as the “Same-Action Defense.”
The Same-Action Defense
The “same-action defense” is a statutory defense that allows the defendant-employer to avoid liability “if the employer demonstrates by clear and convincing evidence that the employer would have taken the same unfavorable personnel action in the absence of” the protected activity. 49 U.S.C. §42121(b)(2)(B)(iv); see §1514A(b)(2)(A) (claims under §1514A “shall be governed under the rules and procedures set forth in section 42121(b) of title 49,” i.e. AIR-21’s anti-retaliation provision). The “same-action defense” does not involve an analysis of the contributing factor causation standard. See Palmer v. Canadian National Railway, ARB No. 16-035, 2016WL6024269, at *37 (ARB Sept. 30, 2016) (“[t]he question in the same-action defense requires the ALJ to determine whether [the employer] would have terminated Palmer even if Palmer had not [engaged in protected activity], not whether the [protected activity] was a factor in his termination.”).
No Consideration of Associated Facts
Under the “same-action defense,” the employer may not use facts logically connected to the protected activity to establish its affirmative defense. In Speegle v. Stone & Webster Const., Inc. the ARB described the “same-action defense” analysis as “focus[ing] on what would have happened in the ‘absence of’ the protected activity.” ARB Case No. 13-074, 2014WL1758321, *7 (ARB April 25, 2014). The ARB found error when the ALJ “only excis[ed] the protected activity without also removing the facts logically connected to the protected activity.” Id. (emphasis added). Instead, “[t]o properly decide what would have happened in the ‘absence of’ protected activity, one must also consider the facts that would have changed in the absence of the protected activity.” Id. Under this analysis, “there are facts that necessarily become unavailable for [the defendant] as it tries to prove what it ‘would have’ done in the absence of the protected activity” Id. at *8. Thus, the defendant in Speegle was unable to use the context created by the protected activity, the history of events incorporating the protected activity, and the events that would not have occurred but for the protected activity. See id.; see also DeFrancesco v. Union R. Co., ARB Case No. 13-057, 2015WL5781070, *9 (ARB Sept. 30, 2015) (employer’s evidence insufficient because it could not show “through factors extrinsic to DeFrancesco’s protected activity” that it would have taken the same adverse action).
In Cain v. BNSF R. Co., the ARB applied Speegle, holding that “the employer must prove what it ‘would have done’ even in the ‘absence of’ the protected activity, which includes consideration of the facts that would have changed in the absence of the protected activity.” ARB Case No. 13-006, 2014WL4966163, *6 (ARB Sept. 18, 2014) (emphasis added). Subsequently, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the ARB’s decision in Cain. See BNSF R. Co. v. U.S. Dept. of Lab., ARB, 816 F.3d 628 (10th Cir. 2016).
The “Clear and Convincing” Standard is Intentionally Difficult
Further, the “same-action defense” imposes the heightened “clear and convincing” evidentiary burden on defendants. The “clear and convincing evidence” standard is the intermediate burden of proof, in between “a preponderance of the evidence” and “proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” See Addington v. Texas, 441 U.S. 418, 425 (1979). To meet the burden, Porter must show that “the truth of [his] factual contentions are highly probable.” Colorado v. New Mexico, 467 U.S. 310, 316 (1984) (internal quotation omitted). “Quantified, the probabilities might be in the order of above 70% . . .” U.S. v. Fatico, 458 F. Supp. 388, 405 (E.D.N.Y. 1978) (Weinstein, J.), aff’d, 603 F.2d 1053 (2d Cir.1979); see also Palmer, 2016WL6024269, *34 (quoting id.). “[I]t is not enough to show” that the employee’s conduct “provided a sufficient independent reason to . . . fire him.” Speegle, 2014WL1758321, *7. Rather, the employer must show that it “would have done so . . . solely based” on the proffered non-retaliatory reason. Id.
Given the restrictions on the “same-action defense,” it is difficult for defendant employers to avoid liability once the whistleblower establishes that their protected activity was a contributing factor in the adverse action. This extraordinarily difficult standard was no accident. In adopting the AIR-21 standard for SOX retaliation claims Congress expressed its intent that whistleblowers must be afforded significant protection. Coupled with this difficult affirmative defense standard is the “contributing factor” causation standard, which is discussed in other posts on this site. When combined, the “same-action defense” and “contributing factor” causation standard make the SOX anti-retaliation provision a strong tool for whistelblowers who suffer retaliation.
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hindimovieslink4u.net on In-House Counsel as Whistleblowers Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
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Benjamin Rayner
Air & Space Magazine Article
June 10, 2018 By Benjamin Rayner
Read about how Executive Director, Ben Rayner, began his career in water safety and how it inspired him to create WET, Inc. This article was printed in Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine in Dec. 2014.
How to Survive A Helicopter Crash _ Flight Tod ay _ Air & Space Magazine
WET Training; In Action!
April 17, 2018 By Benjamin Rayner
WET Exec. Dir. Ben Rayner, training fourth graders from Guilford Troop 475 at the Westbrook, CT YMCA. Your donations allow us to provide the education and training that will help save the life. Thank You!
When Should You Swim For It?
December 10, 2017 By Benjamin Rayner
Should I Swim For It?
By Ben Rayner
So you find yourself alone in the water far from safety, when do you swim for it? The decision can be a matter of life or death in an emergency.
There are a number of variables; are you injured? when did you last eat? (You’ll need those calories), how cold is the water? Your movements may be of benefit, but it will cost you energy, energy that you need to survive.
Today’s thinking is to swim only short distances for very specific reasons; to get to something good (Safety) or to get away from something bad (Fire/fuel, debris).
Don’t swim for swimming sake. If possible, adopt the HELP position or Carpet Formation, or simply float on your back. (See RISAA Nov. 2017, issue 227) Your survival instinct may be telling you to do something, but in many cases staying put is the best alternative. Also, rescuers will be looking for you close to the sinking or overboard location. The farther you swim from that locale, the harder it will be for rescuers to find you.
If you are with other survivors, always swim as a group toward the target. In case histories where one individual was tasked with trying to swim for help or a life raft, they either perish or are the only survivor.
The best technique is the “Chain Formation”. With all survivors facing the same direction hook your legs around the person in front of you, and your feet should go underneath the person who is two in front of you. The person at the head of the chain is the captain and should shout out a cadence with as few syllables as possible, such as, “arms up-stroke” or simply “arms-stroke”. This formation works most effectively when it is done in unison. The person at the end of the chain should not stroke, but keep the chain together and lightly flutter kick so as to lessen the drag.
The benefits; all survivors are together, and the sharing of body heat. Like any movement, however, this formation will still be an energy drain.
I instruct all my students to go with the flow. Humans are not efficient in the water, even a strong swimmer can only mange one mile per hour or so. Just a half-knot current, will rapidly exhaust you. If forces are pushing you, even if it is away from land or safety, go along for the ride.
Case histories can be found of people making epic swims, but they are truly the exception rather than the rule. For every case of a victim attempting and making a long swim, there are dozens, in which people have perished when attempting to “make it” by swimming.
Also, swim on your back if you have a flotation device. Natural swimming styles with a donned vest will be very difficult to manage and burn far more energy. Simply lay on your back, utilize slow lazy back strokes, and conserve those calories.
The Chain Formation is the most efficient method to move as a group. Remember: Swim short distances, to get to good, or away from bad.
Ben Rayner is a former underwater-egress and sea-survival instructor. He is also an award-winning investigative journalist as senior staff writer at Shore Publishing in Madison, Connecticut. His articles and features have seen print in a wide variety of publications, including Sailing magazine, Air Beat magazine, Atlantic Coast Fisheries News, and the Block Island Times. Rayner is executive director of Water Emergency Training, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives through drowning-prevention education and training. www.wateremergencytraining.org/
Cub Scout Troop 475 of Guilford
December 4, 2017 By Benjamin Rayner
WET had an awesome training session with Cub Scout Troop 475 of Guilford this past weekend at the Valley Shore YMCA in Westbrook, CT. The scouts were able to learn several hands-on techniques to stay safe in the water, including the HELP position and the Carpet Formation. They were also able to achieve their water safety pins. Thanks to Linda Van Steenbergen and all the parents of Troop 475 for their help and interest.
Above: Scouts learning the multi-survivor hypothermia mitigation technique called the Carpet Formation. This skill floats survivors in the warmest part of the water column, survivors share body heat, and it makes you a bigger target for rescuers.
Above: Scouts performing the Heat Escape Lessening Posture (HELP) position. This technique is used for a sole survivor. It minimizes movement and saves energy. Enhanced with a contractors grade 3 mil trash bag, it is even more effective. Called the “poor man’s wetsuit”, the bags work in a similar fashion and can maintain core temps far longer than without it.
Above: Executive Director, Ben Rayner, giving the Scouts sound advice on staying away from any moving water, river, currents, and rips. And to stay away from cool and cold water. More people die every year in America from drowning than they do from distracted driving, and often it is due to low water temps. Let’s get the word out and lower all those numbers!
WET also wants to thank Chris and Pat at the Valley Shore YMCA for allowing us use of their incredible facilities, and for giving us the opportunity to spread the word about water safety!
New London Day: Drownings Can Be Prevented
November 20, 2017 By Benjamin Rayner
Kindness in Real Life: Drowning deaths can be prevented
The towel extraction technique allows for easy removal of an unconscious person from the water, especially over a pool or boat edge. (photo courtesy of Ben Rayner)
Published November 13. 2017 9:56AM | Updated November 13. 2017 10:08AM
Since February 2017, eastern Connecticut has witnessed at least five tragic drownings that all could have been prevented. The victims ranged in age from 10 to 63 years old.
These incidents occurred in ponds, rivers, estuaries, the sound and the open ocean. Unfortunately, the common denominator was lack of knowledge about the hazards of the water.
According to the CDC, drowning is among the leading causes of accidental death for children 14 and under. The main cause of this is supervisory inattention. Drowning is also a leading cause of death for males 18 to 30 years of age.
Water Emergency Training is a non-profit dedicated to drastically reducing the number of these drownings through education and training.
Just a few moments of inattention is all it takes for a tragedy to occur. In the time intakes to go inside and use the bathroom or to fix a cocktail a child can be unconscious and drowning. This very tragedy happens every day in America.
Recently I was fishing at Esker Point in Groton. While I fished I observed two women lying on their towels one of whom was asleep and the other reading a book, both with their backs to the water.
Innocent enough.
But there was a small toddler, maybe 2 years old, who was joyfully playing in knee deep water. This is just how a tragic drowning occurs.
Swimming lessons are an essential first step, but they not enough on their own. It is not possible to “drown-proof” a child or anyone else. Every day in this country someone who was considered a “strong swimmer” drowns. Pay attention and know what to do if an emergency arises.
Another misconception is how long it takes to drown. If you go into 60 degree water or less, your survival time isn’t measured in hours or even minutes, it’s often measured in seconds.
Boating deaths also make up a large percentage of drownings. Whether kayaking, power boating or sailing, anyone on a vessel needs to understand the basics of water safety.
It is essential that you not only get certified in basic boating skills, but also in general water safety, including local waterway knowledge. Always wear a life vest, especially if you are in a kayak or canoe. Two years ago I witnessed a woman in her 60s or 70s paddling a kayak 300 yards off of Groton Long Point with no vest, in October.
At WET, Inc. we can help you and your family stay safe by giving you the knowledge and training needed to prevent a water emergency and to help you survive if one is unavoidable.
Ben Rayner is a former survival instructor. He is executive director of Water Emergency Training Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to preventing drownings. For more information visit www.wateremergencytraining.org.
Kindness in Real Life is a regular feature in which we encourage writers to tell about kind acts being done in the community. To submit your own story and photos, email Lee Howard at l.howard@theday.com.
JT’s Story
October 14, 2017 By Benjamin Rayner
In keeping with our mission, Water Emergency Training presents survivor stories and the lessons learned to be a strong voice for how to stay safe in the water. Please contact us at info@wateremeregncytraining.org/ if you would like to share your story of survival, water emergency experience, or knowledge.
A honeymoon in Hawaii; golden sunsets, beautiful blue waters, scented breezes, what could possibly be hazardous in such an inviting paradise? Unfortunately, the Hawaiian Islands despite their enticing beauty can be deadly for locals and tourists alike. In 2014, my old friend JT Moye and his wife Debbie were faced with a dire water emergency while on their honeymoon on the island of Maui that almost cost JT his life.
JT is someone who is in excellent physical shape, both he and his wife, Debbie, know how to swim, and they were not engaging in activity that appeared to be dangerous or foolhardy.
According to JT, he and his wife were enjoying an ideal honeymoon, relaxing and taking in the sites. They had decided to go on a snorkeling adventure not far from their hotel in the inviting waters of Napili Bay. (I have actually been to this beach myself, and it is not overly hazardous. In light of the fact that the infamous blowhole at Nakelele is just a short drive up the coast and is a very dangerous spot. Napili doesn’t have overt postings or warnings about any hazardous conditions.)
“We were snorkeling in the bay, on our own, not with a group. So it was just the two of us, but there were people around so we felt safe,” JT recalls.
In JT’s case, pure exhaustion was the main culprit in his drowning.
“We had been in the water about 45 minutes, I was starting to get tired, but not overly so. We were getting ready to go in. Debbie was ahead of me. Then my snorkel got filled with water and I just couldn’t clear it,” JT says.
In an attempt to clear the device JT had to tread water and soon was exhausted from the effort of staying afloat and trying to breathe.
“I knew I couldn’t panic, so I tried to just lay on my back and calm myself, but the waves washed over me into my nose and mouth and after that I went under and blacked out,” says JT.
Thankfully Debbie recognized his distressed and swam back and pulled JT’s airway above the surface. She then had the arduous task of getting an unconscious person out of the water and onto a safe surface. JT recalls, “She got me to some rocks, but we were still very far out. Other people then came to help with jet skis and surfboards while Debbie called 911.”
JT remained unconscious for most of the ordeal and only realized what had happened when he regained consciousness the next day.
Like many drownings, JT was hospitalized for several days, he was released, but had to be readmitted for another three days after developing pneumonia. Though not the usual outcome after a water emergency, problems such as pneumonia can develop after a drowning incident. Anyone with unusual symptoms after a drowning incident, such as mental confusion, frothing around the mouth or nose, or coughing should seek medical attention immediately.
According to JT, exhaustion was the main factor in his incident, “I was just exhausted from trying to fix the snorkel and treading water. It all just built up very quickly,”
JT’s incident highlights the importance of not only knowing the waters in which you recreate but making sure you have the energy and stamina not just to get to a spot in the water but to get back.
JT says, “I am really lucky. Debbie saved me, Debbie was a girl scout! I didn’t panic and she didn’t panic and that’s what I think saved me. We have both developed a real respect for the ocean. I am very, very grateful that we came back together. We heard tons of horror stories about couples on vacation, families on vacation that had members that didn’t come back. We are both really grateful.”
It only takes seconds for a water emergency to arise and JT’s experience highlights this. A beautiful day can turn tragic in a matter of seconds and a little forethought about conditions, currents, and local knowledge can be a life saver.
JT says he learned several valuable lessons that day, “Always respect the ocean, and always respect the skills of others. It takes skills to surf and snorkel and swim, you just can’t do it without practice and training.”
JT says that the main lesson learned is to take a course or to go with a group or someone with local experience when entering the water. Whether snorkeling, kayaking, SUP-ing, surfing, or any water activity, if you are unfamiliar with the area make sure you know before you go. A small bit of knowledge can go a very long way to helping keep you safe whether on the water or an outdoor activity.
JT and Debbie are all smiles after their harrowing ordeal on a quiet Hawaiian beach. Their experience could have been a tragic one and is a great lesson for anyone swimming or involved in water activities at an unfamiliar spot.
Sea Scout Training
September 27, 2017 By Benjamin Rayner
9/25/17-An honor to train Sea Scout ship # 584. What a great group of folks, some mariners in the making! Special thanks to Marshall Parsons and Jim McCabe from Sea Scouts for the opportunity to be a part of their training.
Off New London in the Thames, beautiful sunset on one side and sea fog closing in on the other.
What Does Drowning Mean?
It may seem like a question that has an obvious solution, but what is drowning? The answer is not as easy as you might believe. In fact, as a writer and researcher, I am learning new information about water safety all the time and WET wants to share these valuable insights.
Drowning, like cardiac arrest, or a car accident does not imply death. Just as you can suffer cardiac arrest or be in a car accident and still survive, drowning is defined the same way. In medical speak there is no such thing as a near-drowning, all drowning incidents, whether fatal or not, are defined as drownings. Also, terms such as dry drowning and secondary drowning are not considered proper definitions and are not used by medical professionals such as the World Health Org., the Red Cross, and the CDC, despite their common usage in the media.
Dry drowning is a term that was coined due to the fact that somewhere between 10-20 percent of drownings victims, when autopsied, show no evidence of water in the lungs. One theory is that some form of laryngeal spasm occurs that closes down a person’s airway causing them to suffocate rather than drown. However, most medical professionals seem to disagree with this theory. More than likely this is just a simply matter of misdiagnosis. Very often little water enters the lungs in a drowning and this might be overlooked in an autopsy, seeming to indicate a lack of water in the lungs when there actually is a small amount present.
Secondary drowning, a term which I have used myself for years, also is not medically correct and should not be used to describe drownings. Secondary drowning describes the events that can occur shortly after victims are rescued from a water emergency. Though not the usual outcome, some survivors of a drowning can have symptoms worsen shortly after rescue. Despite the fact that there is no recorded instance of a person dying days or weeks later after a drowning incident, when displaying no adverse symptoms at the onset, victims can worsen and even perish after rescue due to the aspiration of water and the complications that arise from it. However, this normally happens minutes to hours after removal from the water. Claims of fatal outcomes days or weeks later have been shown to be misidentifications of other medical issues.
But in does happen. In the mid-1990s while on a surf trip to a remote area of the Pacific coast of Costa Rica I witnessed an event in which two people were rescued from heavy surf. The two victims, a man and a woman, were dragged up the beach by a group of good Samaritans. Unfortunately, within a few minutes both developed worsening symptoms and tragically both died as a result of the emergency. (I was not trained or experienced in water safety at that time. There were other rescuers who had far more advanced training than I did at the time, and they were in charge of the situation and did their best to keep these two people alive. Even with my current training, even a doctor, would not have been able to save these victims. The closest hospital was an hour and a half away, and that was a clinic with little ability to deal with such a dire circumstance.)
The reason for this post-rescue complication is that when water enters the lungs it interferes with a surfactant that coats these organs. This leads to interference with oxygen exchange, which can then lead to the development of pneumonia and other medical complications that can be fatal. This is compounded in salt water, which irritates the lungs more strongly than fresh water causing people to perish from drowning even after rescue.
To review, there is no medical definition for dry drowning, secondary drowning, or near drowning. All drownings are just that, drownings. They have three outcomes, a fatality, drowning with illness or injuries, drowning without illness or injuries.
Information from The International Life Saving Association was cited for some sections of this article. For more info please visit their site, www.ilsasurf.org or read their very informative white paper, Drowning in a Sea of Misinformation: Dry Drowning and Secondary Drowning. It is available on their website.
It is important that if you or a loved experiences a water emergency or a drowning incident, especially if no emergency responders have seen and or treated the victim(s), to make sure that the person is seen by a medical professional. Symptoms of a submersion or immersion quite frequently include, coughing, foam or froth in the nose or mouth, and unusual mental incoherence. However, if these symptoms worsen you should seek medical attention immediately. Also, any child that is involved in a drowning incident should be seen by a medical professional immediately, regardless of the level of symptoms.
The above photo demonstrates the towel extraction technique. This is a very useful skill when trying to extract heavy victims from the water or when attempting to pull an unconscious victim out of the water and over an edge like the pool in the photo. The design of above ground pools make it extremely difficult to get an unresponsive person out of the water and to safety. The towel extraction is an excellent method for these scenarios. For more on this and other safety techniques browse our site or buy the new book, Water Safety by Ben Rayner.
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Home » Blogs Page » Featured, Picozzi Rock Gossip » Pete Was Bored?
Pete Was Bored?
“Magic Bus” was released as a single in the U.S. 50 years ago today (July 27th, 1968). Pete Townshend wrote the song because he had nothing better to do. The studio version was included on The Who’s fourth American album, a studio record oddly titled Magic Bus: The Who on Tour. It was not live. Ironically, the version most people know is the live version from Live at Leeds.
“Magic Bus” was written around the time of The Who’s 1965 debut album in Pete Townshend’s London apartment, where he’d set up his own demo studio. He explains how he came to write the song, which the band recorded three years later.
“I’d come back from gigs and I’d kind of be in this room all on my own and all I had to do was, really, make demos. And sometimes I didn’t have a song in my head – I certainly didn’t have a ‘My Generation’ or a ‘Kids Are Alright’ or an ‘I Can See for Miles’ – but I wanted to pass the time and I wanted to play. Some quite interesting songs came out of that requirement to just knock something out, which will enable me to make a demo. I’d chug away with the guitar and I’ll say the first thing that comes into my mind.”
Photo: Robin Wong/PRPhotos.com.
Copyright © 2019 Full Power Radio. All Rights Reserved. Development by Frankly Media.
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Today’s 12 Hottest TV Superstars
Diversity rules at 2016 Emmy Awards ceremony
Today's 12 Hottest TV Superstars, Today's Superstars, Z: Homepage Featured Posts
Earlier this year, diversity was a hot topic during the Academy Awards ceremony, where many members of Hollywood's elite made note of the lack of diversity amongst the nominees. Diversity was also in the spotlight during this years Emmy Awards, though for a much different reason. The…
HBO wins big and Viola Davis makes history at 67th Emmy Awards
There's no bigger night in television than the Primetime Emmy Awards. The 67th edition of the awards show took place on September 20, and HBO shows took home some of the biggest honors. Among the winners were "Game of Thrones"…
David Letterman retires from “Late Show”
Today's 12 Hottest TV Superstars, Today's Superstars Main, Z: Homepage Featured Posts
David Letterman’s final "Late Show" show aired on May 20th. The popular comedian hosted a late-night TV talk show for 33 years, the longest reign of any late-night host. Throughout his long career, Letterman had the responsibility of keeping American’s spirits light through…
Stars come together for ‘Saturday Night Live’ 40th anniversary
Stars past and present united in New York to celebrate the 40th anniversary of "Saturday Night Live" at a special edition of the show on Sunday. Among those who showed up were cast members from the show's history, former hosts and famous musicians.…
Tiny Fey, Amy Poehler star at Golden Globes
The Golden Globe Awards are known for being more casual and unpredictable than other awards ceremonies. This year's event honoring movie and TV stars was no different. Former Saturday Night Live stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted for the third…
Stephen Colbert moves from ‘Report’ to ‘Late Show’
Today's 12 Hottest TV Superstars, Today's Superstars Main
Stephen Colbert ended his nine-year run hosting "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central on Dec. 18 with a celebrity-filled singalong. The comedian, who pretended to be a loud and opinionated cable news host on the show, will drop the character…
Sofia Vergara is once again the highest-paid TV actress
Sofia Vergara is taking over TV. The "Modern Family" acress earned an amazing $37 million from June 2013 to June 2014. No TV actor — man or woman — earned more. And this is Vergara's third straight year as the…
Final season of ‘Parks and Recreation’ begins in January
Today's 12 Hottest TV Superstars, Today's Superstars
The cast of "Parks and Recreation" wrapped up filming in December, and fans of the popular NBC comedy only have to wait until Jan. 13 for the show's seventh and final season. The end will come quickly, though. The network…
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A most violent year: 2015 saw changes for domestic abuse victims
Published Friday, December 18, 2015
EDMONTON -- The crooked middle finger on Maria Fitzpatrick's left hand is a reminder of the secret she didn't share with many people.
There were other broken bones, black eyes and bruises that healed. There were the times her husband raped her and threatened to kill her and their two daughters.
Three decades after escaping her violent marriage, Fitzpatrick -- a newly elected Alberta politician -- stood up in the legislature and told her story to the world.
With a knot in her stomach, the 66-year-old grandmother brought many to tears with her speech in November. She ended it with an appeal for support of a new law allowing victims of domestic violence to break housing leases without penalty.
In the '70s, an apartment Fitzpatrick shared with her abusive husband was rented in her name and she feared that if she skipped out she wouldn't be able to rent anywhere else. The women's shelters she fled to only let her stay for two weeks. Then she and her children would have to go home again.
"I will be horrified if anybody in this chamber votes against this bill," Fitzpatrick said.
She received a standing ovation and the bill passed.
Several high-profile crimes in 2015 shone a light on the scourge of domestic violence in Canada. Provincial governments across the country have proposed changes to better protect domestic abuse victims and advocates hope that push continues in the year ahead.
Manitoba has introduced new legislation to make it easier for courts to grant protection orders and -- in what it calls a first in Canada -- will confiscate guns from anyone named in such orders. It also plans to change its Employment Standards Code so victims of domestic violence can take time off work without losing their jobs.
The changes came too late to help two women killed in Winnipeg this year.
Selena Keeper had applied in the spring for a protection order against her boyfriend. And, although she told court he regularly beat her -- even when she was pregnant -- she wasn't granted one because it was determined she was not in imminent danger. She was beaten to death in October; her boyfriend is charged with murder.
Camille Runke did get a protection order against her estranged husband, a gun owner. She called police 22 times to report violations of the order and was shot in October outside her workplace. Her husband later committed suicide.
In Saskatchewan, the government decided to start reviewing deaths linked to domestic violence, a process already in place in other provinces.
One of the reviews is likely to be the case of Latasha Gosling and three of her children, who were slain in April in their mobile home in Tisdale, Sask. A friend reported that Gosling had just broken up with her boyfriend, who others described as controlling and jealous with mental issues. Relatives of the woman said her killer took pictures of the bodies and sent copies to the children's biological father before taking his own life.
The worst mass murder in Edmonton's history left eight victims. Phu Lam gunned down his estranged wife, son and others before killing himself last December. Court records revealed that Thuy Tien Truong previously told police her husband had threatened to kill her after finding out his son was not his biological child.
The crime had police and community groups calling for more public awareness of domestic violence.
The latest statistics available show 126 people were killed during domestic violence in Canada in 2013. Alberta's Family Violence Death Review Committee, which is examining the Edmonton mass murder and other cases, counted 97 domestic homicide victims in the province between 2008 and 2014.
"Every time I hear about a homicide related to domestic violence, it saddens me and shocks me," said committee member Debra Tomlinson, head of the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Centres. "At the same, I feel encouraged that we're recognizing the death was related to domestic violence."
Tomlinson has seen more awareness of the issue in recent years, and hopes that will lead to more people recognizing abusive relationships and more victims seeking help.
Fellow review committee member Lana Wells, a University of Calgary researcher, said the answer starts with gender equality.
She's recommending Ottawa increase parental leave and make it mandatory for fathers to take it. Men who do more parenting and housework may better appreciate their spouses, she said.
Wells also wants to see more support for fathers and education for boys about healthy relationships. She said Alberta is the first province to specifically include an "engaging men and boys" strategy in its domestic violence plan, which she recently presented at the United Nations.
"When you have healthy dads raising healthy children, they usually end up in healthy relationships."
Fitzpatick, who has received countless messages since her speech, agrees that better parenting and gender equality are key.
"If we can do this, the entire world would be a different place."
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Back to Departments Back to Department of Labor
A key element of the Department of Labor, the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) promotes job-training initiatives and programs across the country. ETA’s largest task is to distribute funding that helps Americans receive employment training, either as first-time workers or those transitioning into new lines of work as a result of job displacement. One such program advocated by the Bush administration resulted in ETA distributing millions of dollars in grants without competition or oversight by labor officials, resulting in criticism from Congress and government auditors.
The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) was formed in 1975 in the Department of Labor (DOL) during the administration of President Gerald Ford. ETA took over from the Manpower Administration and absorbed all of its duties in becoming DOL’s main office for assisting job training and employment development throughout the US.
During the 1980s ETA underwent several organizational restructurings. The Office of Trade Adjustment Assistance was moved into ETA from the Bureau of International Labor Affairs in 1981. The following year, ETA officials created the Office of Comprehensive Employment and Training, the Office of Employment Security and the Office of the Associate Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training by combining the functions of several existing divisions with ETA. Two other, smaller reorganizations were conducted in 1984 and 1989.
Records of the Employment and Training Administration, National Archives
The Labor Department in the Carter Administration
The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) implements job-training initiatives and programs for the Department of Labor. ETA’s largest task is to distribute funding that helps Americans receive employment training, either as first-time workers or those transitioning into new lines of work as a result of job displacement. The office also helps state and local governments provide unemployment assistance to individuals. ETA operates numerous subsections and programs to carry out its mission, including:
Policy Development & Research formulates ETA’s “big picture” perspective on labor and job training. It recommends legislative changes and options for policy initiatives and coordinates new regulatory actions for ETA. The office has two main divisions:
Division of Policy, Legislation and Regulations (DPLR) develops policy recommendations on new and existing legislation for workforce investment system programs. It also coordinates the development, publication and implementation of new federal regulations affecting job training. In addition, DPLR produces research, demonstration and evaluation reports. DPLR performs all of its functions through the Policy Initiatives, Legislative Activities, Regulatory Activities, and ETA Advisories sections.
Division of Research and Evaluations operates pilot projects and conducts applied research for experiments aimed at developing new knowledge in the field of employment and training. This division includes the ETA Research Publication Database and information on Research, Demonstration, and Evaluation Projects. Other information can be found in the National Agricultural Workers Survey, which provides demographic and employment characteristics of the US crop labor force, as well as on ETA’s Five-Year Research Plans and Operating Plans.
Workforce System
This office oversees the many operations of ETA that directly impact workers seeking job training. The Division of Adult Services manages programs that help millions of Americans receive workforce preparation and placement services through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult Program, WIA Dislocated Worker Program, Core One-Stop Services, National Farmworker Job Training Program, Senior Community Service Employment Program, Indian and Native American Program and Disability Program Navigators. The Division of Youth Services coordinates programs designed to help young people enter the workforce. The Business Relations Group works with employers to implement two key initiatives: Partnerships for Jobs and the High Growth Job Training Initiative. The Partnerships for Jobs Initiative is designed to connect large, national businesses with the training, education and employment services available at state and local One-Stop Career Centers. The High-Growth Job Training Initiative, a major policy decision by President George W. Bush, focuses federal funding towards job training that helps workers gain employment in key economic sectors, such as health care, information technology and advanced manufacturing.
Office of Foreign Labor Certification helps businesses import skilled labor through work visas. The office does not issue visas (that responsibility lies with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services). Instead, it provides information through offices in Washington, DC, Chicago and Atlanta on the foreign labor certification process and how employers may apply to bring foreign workers into the US for employment.
Workforce Security has little to do with security and everything to do with producing information. All of the subsections of the Office of Workforce Security are responsible for dispensing information of one kind or another on performance management (of unemployment insurance programs run by states), unemployment insurance operations (helping workers find the right program to apply for) and historical legislation that deals with job training and employment development.
National Response is a key office within ETA that tries to help the economy during significant job-loss periods or episodes. The Office of National Response dispenses National Emergency Grants to states experiencing tough times due to recessions (large layoffs), natural disasters or military base closures. States are also assisted by the Office of Rapid Response, which sends out teams to work with employers and unions to organize public and private resources to minimize the impacts of job losses. A third segment of the Office of National Response is the Division of Trade Adjustment, which seeks to help American workers who lose their jobs as a result of companies moving their operations outside of the US.
Office of Apprenticeship provides a variety of information and services to help workers gaining on-the-job training opportunities.
Job Corps is an educational and vocational training program administered by the Office of the Secretary of the Labor Department that helps young people (ages 16 through 24) find employment. ETA does not administer Job Corps but merely provides information about it on its web site.
Outreach provides workforce information and materials to the media, education communities, businesses, industries and individual citizens. It also coordinates local and national ETA outreach activities.
Where Does the Money Go:
From 2000-2006 ETA distributed $55.2 billion in grants and contracts to 2,553 recipients
in support of job training activities and unemployment assistance, according to FedSpending.gov. Of this total, more than 90% went to various state and local government agencies, with the remainder parsed among non-profits and higher education among others. The top 10 recipients were:
California Employment Development Dept.
Texas Workforce Commission
New York State Dept of Labor
Illinois Dept of Employment Security
New Jersey Dept of Labor
Pennsylvania Office of Employment Security
Washington Employment Security Dept.
Louisiana Dept of Employment & Training
Georgia Dept of Labor
Right to Employment Administration
Examples of smaller recipients, all of whom were beneficiaries under the High Growth Job Training Initiative, are National Retail, Downriver, Good Samaritan, Shoreline, Maryland Department of Labor, Manufacturing Institute, Service Employees International Union, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Career Firms and Brevard. These recipients were studied by the Labor Department’s Inspector General as part of a
critical assessment
(PDF) of ETA’s grant giving (see Controversies).
Controversies:
ETA Slammed for Poor Oversight of Funds
As part of President Bush’s High Growth Job Training Initiative, the Employment and Training Administration doled out $271 million in grants over seven years to a wide range of private companies, non-profits and governmental agencies, all with the expressed purpose of increasing high-demand job opportunities for American workers. But two audits by the Labor Department’s Inspector General (IG) found that ETA made little effort to follow up on how government funds were used. Nor did ETA bother to use competitive biding criteria to find would-be recipients.
Democrats blasted ETA and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. “This report reveals a double insult for American taxpayers–not only did the Bush administration’s Labor Department handpick the organizations to receive DOL grants, but many of those organizations failed to deliver measurable results,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA).
Brent Orrell, acting assistant secretary for ETA at the time the April 2008 report was released, defended his office’s work, claiming it was “not necessary or valuable” to measure and evaluate all grant results. Orrell, who stepped down a short time later, argued ETA’s approach was “prudent, necessary, and successful.”
The April 2008 report followed on the heels of another IG report that was released in November 2007. The first report found that ETA had failed to follow government procurement procedures when giving out grants. Many decisions were not adequately justified or documented, and in some cases matching-grant funds were not collected by recipients.
Oversight Lax on Labor Grants, Audit Says (by Carol D. Leonnig, Washington Post)
Inspector General Report, November 2007 (PDF)
Inspector General Report, April 2008
Congressional Oversight:
House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Colombia; Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
House Committee on Education and Labor
House Committee on Ways and Means
House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies; Committee on Appropriations
Senate Special Committee on Aging
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies; Committee on Appropriations
Former Directors:
Brent Orrell (Acting) (January 2008 to May 2008)
In his capacity as Deputy Assistant Secretary for ETA, Brent Orrell served as acting head of the agency from January to May 2008. Orrell graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in European History in 1986.
From 1987 to 2001, Orrell worked for several members of Congress. From 1989 to 1996, he served as deputy legislative director to Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA) where he handled health care, welfare, judiciary and other domestic policy issues. From 1996 to 1998, Orrell served as legislative director to Senator Dan Coats (R-IN). He was the lead staff person overseeing the Project for American Renewal, an omnibus legislative package designed to highlight and support the work of religious and community organizations. He also oversaw the creation of REAL Life, a separate faith-based and community package more narrowly tailored to the economic, social and educational problems of urban areas. Orrell also worked as legislative director to Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and as administrative assistant to Congressman Gil Gutknecht (R-MN).
Orrell then joined the Bush administration and helped implement the President’s controversial faith-based initiative as the director of the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the Labor Department. Working with ETA, he was responsible for designing the initiative’s first mini-grants program to fund small faith-based and community organizations that provide job development services to poor and under-served communities. He was the principle author of the Ready4Work, a three-year, $32.5 million demonstration project to faith-based and community groups assisting men and women who are returning from prison.
Ready4Work was the basis for the President’s four-year, $300 million request to Congress for a comprehensive prisoner re-entry program that was announced in the January 2004 State of the Union Address. Orrell also designed and implemented Touching Lives and Communities, a technical assistance program encouraging state and local workforce development officials to partner with faith-based and community organizations in the delivery of formula grant-funded job development programs.
Orrell then moved over to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the US Department of Health and Human Services as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and External Relations in June 2005, before returning to DOL as deputy assistant secretary for ETA. Orrell left ETA in May 2008 shortly after the release of a critical report by the department’s inspector general regarding the administration of hundreds of millions in job-training grants (see Controversies)
Official Bio
Emily Stover DeRocco (June 2001 to January 2008)
A native of Pennsylvania, Emily Stover DeRocco served as Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training until January 2008. DeRocco graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and received her Juris Doctorate degree from the Georgetown Law Center in 1982. She was admitted to the Bar of the District of Columbia in 1983.
DeRocco served in the Reagan administration under cabinet officers at the Department of the Interior and the Department of Energy. She also spent more than 10 years as the executive director of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies.
While leading ETA, DeRocco implemented a “demand driven” workforce investment system that linked employment, education and economic development. Under her watch, ETA dolled out hundreds of millions of dollars in job-training grants as part of President Bush’s High Growth Job Training Initiative—a program that was soundly criticized by the Inspector General of the Labor Department after DeRocco left the administration.
DeRocco left ETA to become president of the Manufacturing Institute’s National Center for the American Workforce and a senior vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers.
Emily DeRocco To Head National Center For The American Workforce (Manufacturing.net)
Sheila Thomas 4 years ago
I would like to get more information about ETA and how I can benefit from landing a job in Administrations.
Heather 4 years ago
I need information about ceta grant money that was given to the state of massachusetts during 1975-1977. My father was hired full time in Marlborough, Ma. and was paid by this grant. He needs payroll records to prove he worked (for the purpose of retirement.) The City of Marlborough does not have any records so he must have been paid from whatever government agency that disbursed the funds. Please help??
Ann Morris 5 years ago
I am looking for my payroll information from 1975 and 1976 when I worked under a CETA grant at North Shore Community College in Beverly, MA - now located in Danvers, MA. The college does not have my payroll records. I have written to Social Security and spoken to personnel as numerous agencies with no success. I am employed as a teacher and wish to purchase my public service from these years for the Mass Teacher's Retirement system. Can you provide information as to where my payroll records may be? Thank you.
christine hauray-gilbert 7 years ago
i need information about ceta grant money that was given to the state of massachusetts in 1976. i was hired as a full time teacher in arlington, ma. (1976-1977 school year) and was paid by this grant. now i am trying to find records of who paid me and how much i was paid. the town of arlington, ma. says they do not have records of paying me. so i must have been paid from some government agency that disbursed the funds. can you help me? thanks.
Suggested Reforms
Annual Budget: $8.4 billion for administration and $38.3 million for payment of unemployment benefits
Official Website: http://www.doleta.gov/
Wu, Portia
Previous Assistant Secretary
On December 12, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Portia Y. Wu to be assistant secretary of Labor for the Employment and Training Administration (ETA). This agency administers job-training initiatives, including paying for training for first-time workers or retraining for those seeking new skills because of job displacement. Wu was confirmed by the Senate April 2, 2014.
Wu was born July 23, 1970, in New Haven, Connecticut, to An-Ya Shih Wu and Tom Wu, both of whom were physicians. Both of her parents spent most of their careers working at the Veterans’ Administration hospital in Albany, New York.
Portia Wu grew up in Delmar, New York, winning a $300 first-prize in a piano competition when she was in 10th grade. Wu graduated from Bethlehem Central High School in 1987. She went on to Yale, from where she graduated in 1991 with a B.A. Wu then went to Cornell, where she received an M.A. in comparative literature in 1993. She then returned to New Haven for law school, receiving her J.D. from Yale in 1998.
Wu clerked until 1999 for Judge Richard Paez, then serving on the bench of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Later, while on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Paez wrote the opinion blocking many of the provisions of Arizona’s anti-immigrant SB 1070 law.
After her clerkship, Wu went into the private sector, working as an associate in the law firm of Bredhoff & Kaiser until 2003. Wu then took a post as a Congressional staffer, working for the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and its chairman, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), and later Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). She served as labor and pensions counsel, chief labor and pensions counsel and labor policy director and general counsel during her tenure, which ended in 2010.
Oates, Jane
Former Assistant Secretary
Jane Oates, President Obama’s choice to head the Employment and Training Administration, was confirmed by the Senate on June 12, 2009. She began her career as a special education teacher, and once helped advise the company behind the controversial Channel One program, before serving as a top aide on Capitol Hill and to the governor of New Jersey.
A native of Philadelphia, Oates attended Boston College, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts. She attended graduate school at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania, earning a Master of Arts.
Oates began her career as a middle-school special education teacher, working in public schools in Philadelphia and Boston. In October 1989 she was appointed to a panel of educators who advised on the content of the Channel One daily news show for use in classrooms across the country. The Channel One program provoked considerable controversy because each show contained two minutes of paid advertising for products ranging from candy bars to acne medicine.
Oates later worked at Temple University, serving as director of field services in the areas of human services and education, before moving to Washington, DC. In 1997 she went to work on Capitol Hill for Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). Her title was senior policy advisor on higher education, national service, adult literacy, education research, and workforce issues. In this capacity Oates was the chief of staff to the Democratic members of the HELP committee on two reauthorizations of the Higher Education Act, the reauthorization of the Office of Educational Research, the creation and implementation of the Workforce Investment Act, and The Carl Perkins Vocational Education Act.
Oates left Washington, DC, in March 2006 to become a senior policy advisor on higher education for Governor Jon Corzine (D-NJ). She also became executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education.
Oates has served on the New Jersey State Employment and Training Commission, the State Commission on Adult Literacy and Education, New Jersey High School Redesign Task Force, and the Public Sector Work Group, along with chairing the State Educators Health Benefits Commission and The Governor’s Schools Board of Overseers.
D.C. Public Schools will Teach all Second-Graders to Ride a Bike
New Rule in Germany Limits Sales of Sex-Themed E-Books to 10pm to 6am
What Happened to the 6-Year-Old Tibetan Boy the Chinese Government Kidnapped 20 Years Ago?
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Photoshops his Hair Color to Mock Turkish Mayor
Mystery Artist Calls Attention to Unfixed Potholes by Drawing Penises around Them
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← From The Pink Pistols
Gun Control Groups are a “One Trick Pony” →
Orlando est Charlie
Posted on June 13, 2016 by Sean Caranna
Since 2014 terror attacks outside the Middle-East and North Africa by Islamist extremists have skyrocketed!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Islamist_terrorist_attacks
United States April 15, 2013 – Boston Marathon bombings. Two brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnev, planted two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The blast killed 3 and injured 183 others.
United Kingdom May 22, 2013 – Two men with cleavers kill British soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich.
France May 23, 2013 – 2013 La Défense attack. An Islamic extremist wielding a knife attacked and wounded a French soldier in the Paris suburb of La Défense. 1 wounded.
Kenya September 21, 2013 – Westgate shopping mall attack, 67 killed, 175 wounded.
China March 1, 2014 – A group of 8 individuals attacked civilians at Kunming Railway Station, 28 dead, 143 wounded.
China April 30, 2014 – Two assailants attacked passengers and detonated explosives at the Ürümqi railway station, 3 dead, 79 wounded.
Belgium May 24, 2014 – Jewish Museum of Belgium shooting. Gunman opened fire at the Jewish Museum in Brussels killing 4 people.
China July 28, 2014 – Attack in southern Xinjiang left 37 civilians dead and another 13 injured. A gang armed with knives and axes attacked a police station and government offices in Elixku Township, and some moved onto Huangdi Township, attacking civilians and smashing vehicles as they passed.
Australia September 23, 2014 – 2014 Endeavour Hills stabbings. Numan Haider, an
Russia October 5, 2014 – 2014 Grozny bombing. 5 officers and the suicide bomber, were killed, while 12 others were wounded.
Canada October 20, 2014 – 2014 Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu ramming attack. Lone attacker used his car to run over two Canadian soldiers. 1 killed, 1 injured
Canada October 22, 2014 – 2014 shootings at Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Lone attacker shot a soldier at a war memorial and attacked Parliament. 1 killed, 3 injured.
United States October 23, 2014 – Zale H. Thomson, also known as Zaim Farouq Abdul-Malik, attacked four New York policemen in the subway with a hatchet, severely injuring one in the back of the head and injuring another policeman in the arm before being shot to death by the remaining officers, who also shot a civilian.
Russia December 4, 2014 – 2014 Grozny clashes. 26 total dead, including 14 policemen, 11 Jihadist from Caucasus Emirate, 1 civilian
Philippines December 9, 2014 – In the 2014 Bukidnon bus bombing 11 people died and 43 were injured.
Australia December 15–16, 2014 – 2014 Sydney hostage crisis. A lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, held hostage ten customers and eight employees of a Lindt chocolate café at Martin Place in Sydney. Police treated the event as a terrorist attack at the time and designated as a terrorist attack by the state government. 3 dead 4 injured.
France December 20, 2014 – 2014 Tours police station stabbing. A man yelling Allahu Akbar attacked a police office with a knife. He was killed and three police officers were injured.
France December 21, 2014 – 2014 Dijon attack. A man yelling Allahu Akbar ran over 11 pedestrians with his vehicle. 11 injured
France January 7–9, 2015 – A series of five attacks, including the Charlie Hebdo attack, in and around Paris kill 17 people, plus three attackers, and leave 22 other people injured.
Denmark February 14–15, 2015 – 2015 Copenhagen shootings. A gunman opened fire at the Krudttoenden café and later at the Great Synagogue in Copenhagen, killing two civilians and injuring five others.
France April 19, 2015 – A 32-year Frenchwoman is murdered by a gunman whose plot to attack a church is foiled shortly after.
Bosnia and Herzegovina April 27, 2015 – At the Zvornik police station terrorist attack in the city of Zvornik, Republika Srpska, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, an armed member of a wahhabist movement opened fire on the police. In the shooting, a police officer was killed, two others were injured, and the attacker was killed by police.
United States May 3, 2015 – Two gunmen attacked the Curtis Culwell Center during a ‘Draw Muhammad’ cartoon art exhibit in Garland, Texas . 2 dead (perpetrators) 1 injured.
France June 26, 2015 – Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack – Beheading in a factory near Lyon, head marked with Arabic writing and Islamist flags. Gas canisters planted provoked a fire. 1 dead, 11 injured.
United States July 16, 2015 – 2015 Chattanooga shootings On July 16, 2015, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire on two military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He first committed a drive-by shooting at a recruiting center, then traveled to a U.S. Navy Reserve center and continued firing, where he was killed by police in a gunfight. Four Marines died on the spot. A Navy sailor, a Marine recruiter, and a police officer were wounded; the sailor died from his injuries two days later.
France August 21, 2015 – 2015 Thalys train attack Shooting and stabbing in train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris injures 5. The incident is believed by French police to be an Islamist terrorist attack.
Germany September 17, 2015 – Rafik Y, an Islamist of Iraqi descent attacked and injured a police officer with a knife in Berlin. 1 injured, 1 dead (perpetrator).
France November 13, 2015 – A series of terrorist attacks in Paris kill 137, and wound 368. They involved a series of coordinated attacks which consisted of mass shootings and suicide bombings. This incident was the most fatal event on French soil since World War II.
Bosnia and Herzegovina November 18, 2015 – A lone wolf Islamist killed two soldiers and injured civilians in Sarajevo. 3 dead 5 wounded.
United States December 2, 2015 – In the 2015 San Bernardino attack, married couple Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik shot and killed 14 people and injured 22 others in a killing spree that the FBI was investigating as “act of terrorism”.
Russia December 29, 2015 – A gunman opened fire on a group of local residents who were visiting a viewing platform at the fortress in Derbent, Dagestan, southern Russia, killing one and injuring 11. ISIL claims responsibility.
France January 7, 2016 – In the January 2016 Paris police station attack an Islamist from Morocco wearing a fake explosive belt attacked police officers with a meat cleaver. He was shot dead.
France January 11, 2016 – A 15-year old Turkish ISIL supporter attacked a teacher from a Jewish school in Marseille with a machete. 1 injured.
Indonesia January 14, 2016 – In the 2016 Jakarta attacks 4 assailants kill 2 and injure 24 in a terrorist attack in Jakarta. The attack was orchestrated and financed from ISIL in Syria.
Belgium March 22, 2016 – 2016 Brussels bombings includes two suicide bombings in Brussels Airport and one bombing in Brussels Metro that resulted in 35 deaths and more than 300 wounded.
United States June 12, 2016 – At least 50 people were killed and 53 injured in a mass shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The shooter, Omar Mateen, pledged allegiance to ISIL/ISIS.
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Interim chief executive at Great Western Ambulance Service
The former chief executive of West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Anthony Marsh, has taken up the role of interim chief executive for the Great Western Ambulance Service.
He will be supported by Tamar Thompson, who has held a similar role with Hereford & Worcester Ambulance Service NHS Trust and is currently Chief Operating Officer/Director of Nursing for West Midlands South Strategic Health Authority. The move follows the departure of Tim Lynch to take up a new executive position with the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Tony FitzSimons, chairman of the GWAS, said, "This is a great opportunity for Great Western Ambulance Service. Anthony Marsh has extensive experience in the NHS. West Midlands Ambulance Trust is one of the highest performing ambulance trusts in the country, and Anthony is cognisant of the challenges that ambulance trusts are facing nationally as we transform the way we deliver emergency and urgent care.
He added, "The Board and I are confident that Anthony's appointment gives us the strongest leadership possible to take on the challenges that we are facing, and provides us with a strong interim arrangement to allow us to undertake a robust process to appoint a permanent chief executive."
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Tributes have poured in for Charles Starr Curry, who edited the A&T for nearly 50 years, following his death on Saturday. Known for his fierce independence, generous nature, sense of fun and love of all things mechanical, he was 98. After taking over the editor’s chair in 1966, he made the A&T one of the
Enabling development of exciting technologies and business initiatives BUSINESS and civic leaders gathered for the much-anticipated launch of the A&T’s new entrepreneurial hub in New Milton created in partnership with business development company IncuHive. Beer from an IncuHive nano-brewery was poured to toast the opening of the new facility hosting offices, investment opportunities and the
ONE of the UK’s last independent local newspapers is looking to secure its long-term future with the launch of a large and diverse business incubation hub at its HQ in New Milton, Hampshire. The New Milton Advertiser and Lymington Times will officially open IncuHive New Milton on Thursday 8th November offering 21st century facilities for entrepreneurs, including a manufacturing lab, office
Plans unveiled for hi-tech hub to grow businesses and jobs THE New Milton Advertiser and Lymington Times is celebrating its 90th anniversary with the unveiling of a new business hub to create jobs, support entrepreneurs and put the newspaper on a firm footing for the future. After relaunching in colour in January, the Advertiser and
THE New Milton Advertiser and Lymington Times will relaunch in full colour in January to celebrate the newspaper group’s 90th anniversary. The independent and family-run publications, known collectively as the Advertiser and Times (or A&T for short), have in one form or another been an enduring feature of local life in the New Forest and
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Rhapsody of Fire – Dark Wings of Steel – AFM Records – Release 22-11-2013
Mention Italy and power metal in one sentence and chances are high that Rhapsody (of Fire) will be the first band that people think off and with good reason. Since releasing their first album “Legendary Tales” in 1997 this band has been on the forefront of symphonic power metal, crafting a giant fantasy story that has spanned a lot of albums. In 2011 the band dropped a bombshell on their fans when they announced an amiable split between the two main writers of the band, Luca Turilli and Alex Staropoli. Both would continue with their own version of the band, Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody and Rhapsody of Fire. Luca released his “Ascending to Infinity” last year and now it’s Alex’ turn.
Rhapsody of Fire is:
Alex Staropoli – Keyboards
Fabio Lione – Vocals
Alex Holzwarth – Drums
Oliver Holzwarth – Bass
Roberto de Micheli – Guitars
Dark Wings of Steel
The big question after the split is whether or not the sound of the band would drastically change. The intro song “Vis Divina” starts off with female chants and dramatic keyboards to ramp up the expectations. What is it that will await us when the band starts? “Rising From Tragic Flames” takes away all doubts, this is still the Rhapsody of Fire we have known and loved for so many years! We get shredded with furious guitar riffs in the same way as the band has often done before and as soon as the keyboards start blaring we are immediately taken back to the Enchanted Lands. Fabio Lione’s expansive vocals paint the canvas laid by the instruments. It’s Rhapsody of Fire through and through.
Even though Luca Turilli is gone and Tom Hess quit earlier this year the guitar parts are played by someone highly familiar with this style of music. Roberto de Micheli actually played in the band’s past when it was called Thundercross. He delivers great work, although I have to say that his skill in solos is below that of Luca, but that might just be the Luca-fan in me talking. How different is the style when “Angel of Light” starts off. This one starts off with more of a heavy metal vibe, followed by the soft and emotional vocals of Fabio before overwhelming us with a massive keyboard-created wall of sound. Then it continues in the symphonic heavy metal vein with slow guitars, the occasional choir and a drapery of keyboards. With a length of seven minutes this is the second longest song of the album. Rhapsody of Fire take their time to create musical visions of an enchanted world on this album, as there are quite a few songs that go over the five minute mark. No twenty minute epics this time around though.
“Tears of Pain” has a darker sound than before, yet does not keep this up all the time as the band often goes for the bombastic sound that they’re known for. Again we notice a clear change in guitar playing when compared to older albums. I would really like the band to explore their darker side more, like they did “When Demons Awake” from the “Power of the Dragonflame” album and “Aeons of Raging Darkness” from the previous album. Following this is “Fly to the Crystal Skies” which again starts off with more of a symphonic heavy metal vibe. I wish they’d taken that sound all the way through, but it continues on in typical Rhapsody of Fire fashion. The soft guitar and keyboard solo section is a nice breather. Calling it ‘typical Rhapsody of Fire’ would make it seem that it’s a very boring song, yet the opposite is true for me. The band is still great at what they deliver and I love the new music a lot whereas they have disappointed me in the past when they went for too much of a soundtrack type of sound. It’s just that when they do stray from the usual path, they sound a lot more interesting.
“My Sacrifice” sets a medieval vibe with the acoustic guitar and the subdued keyboard intro, coupled with lamenting vocals. But as soon as the lead guitar kicks in the song gains more and more of a dramatic sound. It has quite a diverse structure as if several songs have been cut up and put together. Rather than sounding schizophrenic it actually makes the song more interesting and enthralling. Finally we get up to speed when “Silver Lake of Tears” starts. I always found that the band excelled in its faster songs. Fabio gives slight hints to the more raspy side of his voice here and it would have been great if he used more of his broad range of singing. One of the reasons that I like the faster songs more is because the solos have a lot more energy and fire in them. The effect is even bigger here because two sections get broken up by a more subdued part with vocals. Of course it wouldn’t do to create an album without a song sung in Italian, which is what we get with “Custode di Pace”. I have no idea what’s being sung here, but I love the full emotion with which Fabio sings. Despite it being a very slow and soft song there’s enough to be listened at in the guitar sections which spice up the song. Following up is the up-tempo song “A Tale of Magic” which wakes you up right away. Like I said before, I enjoy the faster songs of the Rhapsody of Fire and they deliver great work with the title-track “Dark Wings of Steel”. It’s clear that we’re nearing the end of the story because the music has become a whole lot more dramatic here. While this song is perfect the way it is, I wonder if it could have benefited from being expanded upon. The dramatic and heavy sound is continued in the final song “Sad Mystic Moon”. While it is one of the slower songs on the album, it still manages to give the album good closure. The overall change in the guitar style seems even more apparent here than before. Perhaps these are signs of what the band will sound like on the next album?
All doubts about the band can be laid aside. Under Alex Staropoli’s guidance Rhapsody of Fire have managed to create an album that is at the same time unmistakably Rhapsody of Fire, yet also manages to feel fresh and new, with a lot of things that might hints at how the overall sound could change for the next albums. I had expected there to be a lot of focus on the keyboards, but they are actually rather subdued as if Staropoli didn’t want to get flak for hogging the stage light. Despite that, it really is one of the band’s stronger albums.
The question on everyone’s mind will probably be who made a better album, Luca or Alex? While I highly prefer Luca’s guitar play to Roberto’s, he has also played it rather safe with his “Ascending to Infinity” by not straying from the beaten path at all. While “Dark Wings of Steel” also stays close to the classical sound, the seemingly simple change of guitarists has given the album a different feel in several places. So who has won? I could say that I slightly prefer this album, yet in all fairness it is the fans who have won. Now they have two great bands born from one and both have shown their right to exist with great albums. Recently Luca Turilli announced his new album… It’s a great time to be a fan of Rhapsody (of Fire).
Vis Divina
Rising From Tragic Flames
Angel of Light
Tears of Pain
Fly to Crystal Skies
My Sacrifice
Silver Lake of Tears
Custode Di Pace
A Tale of Magic
Sad Mystic Moon
www.facebook.com/rhapsodyoffire
www.rhapsodyoffire.com
Tekst Robert Popovic
darkfirerecordsrhapsodysteelWINGS
Eerste 3 namen Dokk’em Open Air bekend
Malevolence – Reign of Suffering – Siege of Amida Records – Out now
Weeping Silence – For the Unsung – Ravenheart Music – Out now
livereviewer January 15, 2013 January 31, 2016
LINGUA MORTIS ORCHESTRA – reveal details on the new album
livereviewer May 12, 2013 January 31, 2016
Killer Be Killed – Title – Nuclear Blast – Out Now
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News and Podcasts
ProgRock.com
Ep. #328: December Music Mixer
We spent the first portion of this month’s music mixer talking about the band Jolly, and their deployment of a new business model using Patreon. You can check out this exciting new way to support bands here.
Next up on the discussion was the new Steven Wilson EP and tour. The initial information on the EP can be seen below, and newer tour dates and information is being released regularly on his facebook page here.
22nd January will see the release of a new Steven Wilson album “4 ½”, so titled because it forms an interim release between Steven’s recently released fourth album Hand. Cannot. Erase. and the next studio album.
4 ½ comprises 6 tracks with a total running time of 37 minutes. 4 of the songs originated during the sessions for Hand. Cannot. Erase., and one from the recording sessions for the previous album The Raven that Refused to Sing. The final track is a version of Don’t Hate Me, a song originally recorded by Porcupine Tree in 1998, and is based on a live recording made on the recent tour of Europe with additional recording later done in the studio. The vocals on this new version are sung as a duet between Steven and Ninet Tayeb.
Also appearing on the album are members of Steven’s band over the last few years; Adam Holzman, Nick Beggs, Guthrie Govan (Official), Dave Kilminster, Craig Blundell, Marco Minnemann, Chad Wackerman, and Theo Travis.
4 ½ will be released by Kscope on CD, 180 gram vinyl, and blu-ray, with all formats housed in a beautiful die-cut sleeve photographed by Lasse Hoile and designed by Carl Glover. The blu-ray (audio only) edition includes high res stereo, a 5.1 mix of the album, and a bonus 5.1 mix of the new version of Lazarus (recently included on the Transience vinyl compilation). The vinyl edition will include a download code for the album in a choice of FLAC or mp3. The album will also be available digitally on 22nd January from iTunes, Amazon.com, Google Play & Apple Music.
Steven Wilson – “4 ½”
1. My Book of Regrets (9.23)
2. Year of the Plague (4.15)
3. Happiness III (4.31)
4. Sunday Rain Sets In (3.50)
5. Vermillioncore (5.09)
6. Don’t Hate Me (9.34)
Next on the docket was a hypothetical look to the future and the next Transatlantic tour. The band has used both Ted Leonard and Daniel Gildenlow on previous tours as the extra man, so the question is, who does the band turn to on the next tour?
Then we turned our attention to Blind Guardian, their latest album Beyond the Red Mirror, and the subsequent tour. In a rare occurrence, Mason got to see this tour, and so did Joe, so Nick was the odd man out of that discussion. Of course we all gave some input on the album itself, which can be purchased here.
What came next was a general discussion on the merits of waiting in line before shows, or tailgating, as it pertains to meeting other fans and fantastic people. That tied in nicely to an event that had plenty of waiting, Cruise to the Edge 2015. In that discussion we talked about the number of guests compared to the total the ship could hold, and further research has found the double occupancy capacity of the Norwegian Pearl is 2,394. However it should be noted that cabins can, and will often have more than 2 people in them.
Finally, we talked about the first song released from the new Dream Theater album, The Astonishing. You can check out the video for “The Gift of Music” video below, and the interview we referenced during the show here.
Thanks for listening, and we will see you again in January! If you have anything you’d like us to discuss, please leave a comment or hit the email button at the top of the page!
http://media.blubrry.com/wpapu/p/www.wpapu.com/sounds/Mixer328.mp3
Posted on 2015-12-06, 1:45 pm By Rush3737
No comments yet Categories: Podcasts, Show Tags: mixer, Podcast, show
Ep. #367 featuring Haken
Few bands have a longer or more storied career with When Prog and Power Unite than Haken. Our program was broadcasting the band even prior …
Ep. #366 featuring Mystery and ProgStock
Another year, another new prog festival. Now in its second year I got to visit ProgStock in Rahway, NJ for the first time this past …
Ep. #365 featuring Lux Terminus
Sorry for the wait! Going forward I’m going to try (I know, said it before!) to do this on something of a more regular basis, …
Review: Iris Divine – The Static and the Noise
Review: MindMaze – Resolve
Review: Pain of Salvation – In the Passing Light of Day
Interview: Arjen Lucassen of Ayreon and Star One
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« Millennials: Why is everyone so afraid of them? – Bizwomen
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5 Stereotypes of Millennials at Work
This article titled “Millennials at work: five stereotypes – and why they are (mostly) wrong” was written by Aisha Gani, for theguardian.com on Tuesday 15th March 2016 11.01 UTC
Millennials will make up half of the global workforce by 2050. Although generalisations are not helpful, broadly speaking members of this generation, born between 1980 and 1994 and also known as Generation Y, are bound together by the fact they have come of age during a severe financial crisis, have been both the pioneers and guinea pigs of technological change, and are more plugged into a global network than their predecessors.
Now they’re in the workforce, it should be no surprise that they are working differently too. But often those differences are reduced to lazy stereotypes. So what are the myths about millennial workers, and how true are they?
1. Millennials set the bar too high because of a sense of entitlement
“The millennials I know are not willing to settle for mediocre careers – they’re working hard to find work that they are passionate about, even if it means doing a boring low-paid job on the side,” said Sofia Niazi, 29, over a coffee in a small bookshop near Waterloo, London.
Niazi, who is highly qualified with multiple degrees, saw getting a teaching qualification as a pragmatic decision. “For Generation Y, the generation who have lived on precarious zero-hours contracts and are confronting impossibly high rents, there is a lot more insecurity and anxiety,” she said.
As well as working full-time as a teacher, Niazi is a freelance illustrator and co-founder and editor of OOMK, a small, alternative magazine.
She says the fact that work doesn’t pay as well as it used to and no longer guarantees much in the way of security means millennials feel it should at least be fulfilling or it simply isn’t worth it.
“Before, if you were slaving away at a job you didn’t enjoy, at least you could rest assured that you were paying off a mortgage and that eventually there would be some return on your hard work,” she said.
“When you know all the money you earn is not going to guarantee you any security in later life then I think you are less willing to do an unsatisfying job. I think that’s why the idea of ‘playbour’ [work that feels like leisure] is quite important for Generation Y.”
Here then is the paradox of the way work is viewed by many in this generation: they do not want to settle for an unsatisfying job that will barely allow them to get by but, at the same time, they have no choice but to take an unsatisfying job so they can afford to pursue their passion.
It is this desire to match personal values with work that marks out Generation Y, according to Peter Fleming, professor of business and society at Cass Business School in London. “There’s an existential element that is quite prominent in the way Gen Y chooses to work who say: ‘I’m not willing to give up most of my life for this because I’m a person, a human being that wants to be happy.’”
2. Millennials are lazy
When Joel Stein, an American journalist and a member of Gen X, penned his Me Me Me Generation (subscription required) column in Time magazine, he caused a stir. He wrote: “Millennials got so many participation trophies growing up that a recent study showed that 40% believe they should be promoted every two years, regardless of performance.”
Millennials naturally see things slightly differently. Presenteeism doesn’t make sense to people used to working on the move. Why be anchored to your desk for eight hours when you can reply to those emails and start drafting notes during your commute into work, or even in a cafe? That’s not laziness, that’s just working smarter, as millennials may see it.
“I’ve worked 60 hours per week in insane jobs to scrape money together to live in London,” said Annaliisa Asveit, a former office worker turned musician and sheep-cheese seller. “I know what hard work means.”
Annaliisa Asveit. Photograph: Tom Silverstone/Guardian
Yet millennials themselves hold a more negative view of their generation than Generation Xers, baby boomers or other age groups do of their own peer group, according to research by Pew Research Center, the US thinktank. In a poll, 59% of 18- to 34-year-olds described their generation as self-absorbed, 49% said they were wasteful, and 43% described their generation as greedy. On top of this, only 36% of millennials see themselves as hardworking and 24% see themselves as responsible.
This may say more about the problematic nature of the label “millennial” than anything else. As Leigh Buchanan, editor-at-large at Inc magazine, says: “One of the characteristics of millennials, besides the fact that they are masters of digital communication, is that they are primed to do well by doing good. Almost 70% say that giving back and being civically engaged are their highest priorities.”
About half of millennials globally have shunned work, and even potential employers, that conflict with their beliefs, according to Deloitte’s millennial survey. This suggests millennials don’t have a problem with standing their ground when asked to do something that goes against their values.
3. Millennials work to live rather than live to work
As a student, Ann-Victoire Meillant co-wrote From Millennials with Love, a collection of experiences of her peers in the workplace. “What we found in our research and from contributors is that we didn’t like the phrase work/life balance, but instead were talking about work/life integration.”
“I love what I do. If my client calls me at 10 o’clock in the evening, maybe it’ll bother me if it’s every day, but if it’s once in a while, I’m super happy that I’m able to help with something important to them,” said Meillant, a human resources consultant working in Paris.
For Mihalis Monemvasiotis, 29, work life, creative ambitions and social life are intertwined.
Milhalis Monemvasiotis. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian
“Finish working at five? How can you finish work at five?” asked the young filmmaker, bemused as he sat back in his chair sipping his coffee in a central London cafe. “Some people are just waking up at 5pm – I have to Skype people in New York at that time, and stay up late waiting for people to wake up in Tokyo.”
Monemvasiotis, who is originally from Greece but lives in London, has blended his work and social lives. He is co-founder of a production company, Pied Piper Pictures, and has also founded Eleven Campaign, a non-profit organisation using football to aid social cohesion – and is able to do most of his work at home equipped with only a phone and laptop.
Sometimes he finishes for the day at 9pm; other times it’s midnight. “In order to have jobs, you have to chase them. Freelance is good money when it comes, but I’ve invested all my savings and time in the organisation and am living month to month,” Monemvasiotis said.
4. Millennials are compulsive job-hoppers
Just as millennials enter the workforce in greater numbers, there is a stack of literature characterising them as job-hopping, needy, deluded narcissists. Books such as Generation Me by Jean Twenge and Not Everyone Gets a Trophy by Bruce Tulgan suggest that millennials are the worst possible employees.
But while it is true many may have one foot out the door – and according to a Deloitte survey two of every three millennials hope to move on from their current employer by 2020 – young people moving on isn’t exceptional to Generation Y. Figures on job tenure for Americans in their 20s today are almost exactly the same as they were in the 1980s. Job-hopping, it appears, is a common feature of being a young worker and not specific to this particular crop.
Different managers deal with Generation Y in starkly contrasting ways, says Prof Susan Murphy, who specialises in leader development at the University of Edinburgh business school.
“Half of managers will say, ‘I really like that millennials demand a different kind of work life’,” said Murphy. “There’s another group who talk old-person style, who think: ‘Those young whippersnappers, I put in tonnes of hours, I can’t understand why they don’t put in tonnes of hours.’”
Tanya de Grunwald, the founder of careers website Graduate Fog and author of How to Get a Graduate Job Now, said attitudes about job loyalty were formed early in a millennial’s career. “I’ve noticed two distinct types emerge,” she said. “If they find a good job fast after graduation, and they feel valued and appreciated in that role, they will typically stay for a long time. They will become institutionalised fairly quickly and be keen to progress within their current organisation, rather than seeking roles externally.
“I’ve noticed that graduates whose career gets off to a bumpier start – say with a string of internships, temp work or freelance work – tend to develop a tougher, more casual attitude towards their employer, and be more likely to switch jobs more regularly,” she said.
Speaking under the glass towers of Canary Wharf, Patrice Thompson, 23, an LSE graduate and a sales support associate in the City, said going to university just after the financial crisis showed her peers that loyalty didn’t always pay off – people who had worked for a company for decades were made redundant.
“I think, as millennials, we’re cautious. This job might not be for ever and we need to develop ourselves, grow, and pursue self-employment so we’re not just reliant on one particular institution.”
This feeling of lack of certainty could make them anxious, said Thompson, who gave a TED talk on intergenerational harmony in the workplace. “They are constantly connected and can see see what everyone else is doing. What’s Kim Kardashian doing? What’s Justin Bieber doing? What’s Beyoncé doing? We’re constantly comparing ourselves with our peers, family members.”
Patrice Thompson. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian
The characterisation of Generation Y as needy employees who crave constant positive feedback may not be far from the truth, however. Of those millennials who said they planned to leave their company in the next two years, 71% said it was because their ”leadership skills were not being fully developed”.
5. Millennials have little time for experienced colleagues
Other things millennials value in the workplace are “reverse mentoring” – the opportunity to teach skills to older colleagues as well as learn from them – and more time spent discussing new ways of working, mentoring and developing leadership skills.
It is this that Chris Gale, 21, has found so enjoyable about his job as a public sector auditor at Grant Thornton, the financial consultants.
He is able to offer social media coaching to older colleagues, which he sees as valuable experience: “I mean for someone my age it’s rare to be in a position where I’m sat down with a senior partner showing them how to develop their online profile, and I just don’t think that kind of role reversal would have happened a few years ago.”
Source: 5 Stereotypes of Millennials at Work
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Stacey Dooley "On The Frontline With Women Who Fight Back"
. Monday, 26 February 2018 . book review / feminism / lifestyle
I have always been a big fan of Stacey Dooley and her work presenting documentaries for the BBC. So when I saw she was releasing her first book, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I devoured the book as quick as I could and just had to share my thoughts on it. Particularly with International Women's Day approaching (8th March 2018), it seemed appropriate to be discussing a book that places the spotlight on incredible women in the most horrendous of circumstances.
"Some of the documentaries I've worked on have taken me to really high-risk places. I've been on police raids to bust paedophile gangs and visited seedy, backstreet brothels in gang-controlled slums. I should be used to shocking situations by now. But this is the first time I'm going to a war-zone - it doesn't get scarier than Iraq, especially if you're a woman."
I had no idea that Stacey's career with the BBC started rather accidentally. She saw a flyer over 10 years ago asking 'Do you like fashion? Do you like travel? Do you like shopping?' And as she ticked all three of those boxes she called the number on the flyer only to discover that the BBC were looking for young people to go out to India and explore the conditions under which the 'fast fashion' clothes they purchased were produced. This turned into the 2007 series 'Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts' which kickstarted Stacey's career with the BBC and has resulted in her becoming one of BBC3's most celebrated presenters.
The first thing I loved about the book was that it re-enforced the opinion I had developed of Stacey while watching her on screen - she's an ordinary, down to earth woman and despite having made a career out of being a video journalist, she doesn't come across as a journalist. By that I mean that her presence on screen is very human; she isn't just this shadow of a person narrating what is happening but gets truly immersed into the people and their story. I find it very hard to watch documentaries when the presenter is almost removed from the situation despite being sat there in front of people telling their stories. You can see on camera that Stacey truly cares for the people she interviews and this came across in her book too. She isn't afraid to show her emotions when appropriate, but doesn't let them stop her creating the hard-hitting documentaries she is known for. This also comes through her writing, as it is clear that she truly cares about the women by the language she uses to the describe them.
A testament to Stacey's own style of presenting was clear in the section of her book when she discussed her most recent trip to Iraq and meeting a Yazidi woman named Shareen. Stacey wrote about the experience of arranging to meet with a ISIS fighter convicted of his crimes and sentenced to life. She and Shareen were given the opportunity to interview him and ask him why he did the heinous things he did. Stacey gave Shareen every opportunity to change her mind if she decided she did not want to see the man. Despite the fact it made incredible, compelling footage, she allowed her good human nature to shine through and prioritised the welfare of Shareen over getting a good shot.
The book is written in the style of how Stacey speaks, and for me, that makes it even more engaging. I feel like I'm sat having a chat with her over a tea of tea while she tells me about her experiences. She even discusses how her style of presenting was initially criticised and is able to admit herself that she agreed with them on elements. It takes a particularly self-reflective person to be able to listen to harsh criticism of themselves, pick out the important themes and work on those issues.
Another element of the book that I love is Stacey's outlook on people who say awful things about her online - "I just feel sorry for the trolls though, because I think they're sad lunatics, sat in their bedrooms, having a wank, keyboarding." In the social media centred world that we now live in, it can be difficult to switch off from criticism. In days gone past a TV personality might receive criticism from professional critics in a newspaper, but now anyone can criticise you at any time and on multiple different forums. I admire that Stacey is able to take such a brilliant attitude to people who spread hate as it is an important message to remind those reading her book. It's also a good reminder to the people that leave those kind of comments; it may seem as though the person will never see the nasty thing you said, but there's a very good chance they will and they are still human.
The book is broken down into chapters, each focusing on a different topic that she has covered in documentary form. I love that the chapters are named after the women which she encountered and have particularly impacted upon her in each of the countries visited. Stacey comes across as empathetic, without being patronising, and empowers women to speak up for themselves - rather than her simply speaking up for them. Both in her book and in her documentaries, Stacey gives women a platform, something that I imagine a lot of the women she has worked with have probably never had before.
I consider myself to be a feminist, and while there are many issues that face me as a white woman living in England, I am aware that I am very privileged in other respects. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to better educate themselves about the issues that affect women across the world. Stacey covers issues such as sex working in Russia, the high levels of domestic violence and femicide in Honduras and the incredible Yazidi women fighting back against ISIS in Syria.
On The Frontline With Women Who Fight Back is available on Amazon. Please note, this is an affiliate link. If you do decide to purchase the book based on my recommendation I would really appreciate you doing so through this link, as it means I earn a small commission. But feel free to purchase it independently if you wish to.
Alisha Valerie Gerrard 26 February 2018 at 17:08
I really want to read this book so much, I adore Stacey Dooley! Thank you for sharing 🌸✨
With love, Alisha Valerie x | www.alishavalerie.com
Anomalous Chloe 26 February 2018 at 17:37
I can't recommend it enough! And she's fab isn't she! ❤
Chloe Metzger 26 February 2018 at 19:58
Keep meaning to pick this us as I love Stacey's documentaries. I completely agree with you about how she comes across as caring rather than just there for information. I'll definitely be picking this up!
www.chloemetzger.com
Definitely do! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! ❤
secondstartotheright 27 February 2018 at 14:17
I'm such a huge Stacey Dooley fan and her book is firmly on my radar. Sounds like an amazing book! Her Isis documentaries are so, so fascinating but utterly heart-breaking.
http://www.jennyinneverland.com
I was just in utter shock the whole time I was watching her documentaries on ISIS - she was so incredibly brave to go out there! ❤
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Home > Social Studies > Holidays > Presidents Day > Abraham Lincoln > The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln > The Conqueror of a Great Rebellion
Chapter XII. The Conqueror of A Great Rebellion
The presidential election of 1864 took place on November 8. The diary of one of the President's secretaries contains a curious record of the way the day passed at the Executive Mansion. "The house has been still and almost deserted. Everybody in Washington and not at home voting seems ashamed of it, and stays away from the President. While I was talking with him to-day he said: "It is a little singular that I, who am not a vindictive man, should always have been before the people for election in canvasses marked for their bitterness. Always but once. When I came to Congress it was a quiet time; but always besides that the contests in which I have been prominent have been marked with great rancor."
Early in the evening the President made his way through rain and darkness to the War Department to receive the returns. The telegrams came, thick and fast, all pointing joyously to his reelection. He sent the important ones over to Mrs. Lincoln at the White House, remarking, "She is more anxious that I am." The satisfaction of one member of the little group about him was coupled with the wish that the critics of the administration might feel properly rebuked by this strong expression of the popular will. Mr. Lincoln looked at him in kindly surprise. "You have more of that feeling of personal resentment than I," he said. "Perhaps I have too little of it, but I never thought it paid. A man has not time to spend half his life in quarrels. If any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him." This state of mind might well have been called by a higher name than "lack of personal resentment."
Lincoln and Johnson received a popular majority of 411,281, and 212 out of 233 electoral votes--only those of New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky, twenty-one in all, being cast for McClellan.
For Mr. Lincoln this was one of the most solemn days of his life. Assured of his personal success, and made devoutly confident by the military victories of the last few weeks that the end of the war was at hand, he felt no sense of triumph over his opponents. The thoughts that filled his mind found expression in the closing sentences of the little speech that he made to some serenaders who greeted him in the early morning hours of November 9, as he left the War Department to return to the White House:
"I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but while deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. . . . It is no pleasure to me to triumph over anyone, but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of humanity."
Mr. Lincoln's inauguration for his second term as President took place at the time appointed, on March 4, 1865. There is little variation in the simple but impressive pageantry with which the ceremony is celebrated. The principal novelty commented on by the newspapers was the share which the people who had up to that time been slaves, had for the first time in this public and political drama. Associations of negro citizens joined in the procession, and a battalion of negro soldiers formed part of the military escort. The central act of the occasion was President Lincoln's second inaugural address, which enriched the political literature of the nation with another masterpiece. He said:
"Fellow-countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
"On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it--all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
"One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.
"Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered--that of neither has been answered fully.
"The Almighty has his own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of offenses! For it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet; if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations."
The address ended, the Chief Justice arose, and the listeners who, for the second time, heard Abraham Lincoln repeat the solemn words of his oath of office, went from the impressive scene to their several homes in thankfulness and confidence that the destiny of the nation was in safe keeping.
Nothing would have amazed Mr. Lincoln more than to hear himself called a man of letters; and yet it would be hard to find in all literature anything to excel the brevity and beauty of his address at Gettysburg or the lofty grandeur of this Second Inaugural. In Europe his style has been called a model for the study and imitation of princes, while in our own country many of his phrases have already passed into the daily speech of mankind.
His gift of putting things simply and clearly was partly the habit of his own clear mind, and partly the result of the training he gave himself in days of boyish poverty, when paper and ink were luxuries almost beyond his reach, and the words he wished to set down must be the best words, and the clearest and shortest to express the ideas he had in view. This training of thought before expression, of knowing exactly what he wished to say before saying it, stood him in good stead all his life; but only the mind of a great man, with a lofty soul and a poet's vision; one who had suffered deeply and felt keenly; who carried the burden of a nation on his heart, whose sympathies were as broad and whose kindness was as great as his moral purpose was strong and firm, could have written the deep, forceful, convincing words that fell from his pen in the later years of his life. It was the life he lived, the noble aim that upheld him, as well as the genius with which he was born, that made him one of the greatest writers of our time.
At the date of his second inauguration only two members of Mr. Lincoln's original cabinet remained in office; but the changes had all come about gradually and naturally, never as the result of quarrels, and with the single exception of Secretary Chase, not one of them left the cabinet harboring feelings of resentment or bitterness toward his late chief. Even when, in one case, it became necessary for the good of the service, for Mr. Lincoln to ask a cabinet minister to resign, that gentleman not only unquestioningly obeyed, but entered into the presidential campaign immediately afterward, working heartily and effectively for his reelection. As for Secretary Chase, the President was so little disturbed by his attitude that, on the death of Roger B. Taney, the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, he made him his successor, giving him the highest judicial office in the land, and paying him the added compliment of writing out his nomination with his own hand.
The keynote of the President's young life had been persevering industry. That of his mature years was self-control and generous forgiveness. And surely his remark on the night of his second election for President, that he did not think resentment "paid," and that no man had time to spend half his life in quarrels, was well borne out by the fruit of his actions. It was this spirit alone which made possible much that he was able to accomplish. His rule of conduct toward all men is summed up in a letter of reprimand that it became his duty, while he was President, to send to one young officer accused of quarreling with another. It deserves to be written in letters of gold on the walls of every school and college throughout the land:
"The advice of a father to his son, 'beware of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in, bear it that the opposed may beware of thee,' is good, but not the best. Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite."
It was this willingness of his to give up the "lesser things," and even the things to which he could claim an equal right, which kept peace in his cabinet, made up of men of strong wills and conflicting natures. Their devotion to the Union, great as it was, would not have sufficed in such a strangely assorted official family; but his unfailing kindness and good sense led him to overlook many things that another man might have regarded as deliberate insults; while his great tact and knowledge of human nature enabled him to bring out the best in people about him, and at times to turn their very weaknesses into sources of strength. It made it possible for him to keep the regard of every one of them. Before he had been in office a month it had transformed Secretary Seward from his rival into his lasting friend. It made a warm friend out of the blunt, positive, hot-tempered Edwin M. Stanton, who became Secretary of War in place of Mr. Cameron. He was a man of strong will and great endurance, and gave his Department a record for hard and effective work that it would be difficult to equal. Many stories are told of the disrespect he showed the President, and the cross-purposes at which they labored. The truth is, that they understood each other perfectly on all important matters, and worked together through three busy trying years with ever-increasing affection and regard. The President's kindly humor forgave his Secretary many blunt speeches. "Stanton says I am a fool?" he is reported to have asked a busy-body who came fleet-footed to tell him of the Secretary's hasty comment on an order of little moment. "Stanton says I am a fool? Well"--with a whimsical glance at his informant--"then I suppose I must be. Stanton is nearly always right." Knowing that Stanton was "nearly always right" it made little difference to his chief what he might say in the heat of momentary annoyance.
Yet in spite of his forbearance he never gave up the "larger things" that he felt were of real importance; and when he learned at one time that an effort was being made to force a member of the cabinet to resign, he called them together, and read them the following impressive little lecture:
"I must myself be the judge how long to retain in, and when to remove any of you from his position. It would greatly pain me to discover any of you endeavoring to procure another's removal, or in any way to prejudice him before the public. Such endeavor would be a wrong to me, and much worse, a wrong to the country. My wish is that on this subject no remark be made, nor question asked by any of you, here, or elsewhere, now, or hereafter."
This is one of the most remarkable speeches ever made by a President. Washington was never more dignified; Jackson was never more peremptory.
The President's spirit of forgiveness was broad enough to take in the entire South. The cause of the Confederacy had been doomed from the hour of his reelection. The cheering of the troops which greeted the news had been heard within the lines at Richmond, and the besieged town lost hope, though it continued the struggle bravely if desperately. Although Horace Greeley's peace mission to Canada had come to nothing, and other volunteer efforts in the same direction served only to call forth a declaration from Jefferson Davis that he would fight for the independence of the South to the bitter end, Mr. Lincoln watched longingly for the time when the first move could be made toward peace. Early in January, 1865, as the country was about to enter upon the fifth year of actual war, he learned from Hon. Francis P. Blair, Sr., who had been in Richmond, how strong the feeling of discouragement at the Confederate capital had become. Mr. Blair was the father of Lincoln's first Postmaster-General, a man of large acquaintance in the South, who knew perhaps better than anyone in Washington the character and temper of the southern leaders. He had gone to Richmond hoping to do something toward bringing the war to a close, but without explaining his plans to anyone, and with no authority from the government, beyond permission to pass through the military lines and return. His scheme was utterly impracticable, and Mr. Lincoln was interested in the report of his visit only because it showed that the rebellion was nearing its end. This was so marked that he sent Mr. Blair back again to Richmond with a note intended for the eye of Jefferson Davis, saying that the government had constantly been, was then, and would continue to be ready to receive any agent Mr. Davis might send, "with a view of securing peace to the people of our one common country."
Hopeless as their cause had by this time become, the Confederates had no mind to treat for peace on any terms except independence of the southern States; yet, on the other hand, they were in such straits that they could not afford to leave Mr. Lincoln's offer untested. Mr. Davis therefore sent north his Vice-President, Alexander H. Stephens, with two other high officials of the Confederate government, armed with instructions which aimed to be liberal enough to gain them admittance to the Union lines, and yet distinctly announced that they came "for the purpose of securing peace to the two countries." This difference in the wording of course doomed their mission in advance, for the government at Washington had never admitted that there were "two countries," and to receive the messengers of Jefferson Davis on any such terms would be to concede practically all that the South asked.
When they reached the Union lines the officer who met them informed them that they could go no farther unless they accepted the President's conditions. They finally changed the form of their request, and were taken to Fortress Monroe. Meantime Mr. Lincoln had sent Secretary Seward to Fortress Monroe with instructions to hear all they might have to say, but not to definitely conclude anything. On learning the true nature of their errand he was about to recall him, when he received a telegram from General Grant, regretting that Mr. Lincoln himself could not see the commissioners, because, to Grant's mind, they seemed sincere.
Anxious to do everything he could in the interest of peace, Mr. Lincoln, instead of recalling Secretary Seward, telegraphed that he would himself come to Fortress Monroe, and started that same night. The next morning, February 3, 1865, he and the Secretary of State received the rebel commissioners on board the President's steamer, the River Queen.
This conference between the two highest officials of the United States government, and three messengers from the Confederacy, bound, as the President well knew beforehand, by instructions which made any practical outcome impossible, brings out, in strongest relief, Mr. Lincoln's kindly patience, even toward the rebellion. He was determined to leave no means untried that might, however remotely, lead to peace. For four hours he patiently answered the many questions they asked him, as to what would probably be done on various subjects if the South submitted; pointing out always the difference between the things that he had the power to decide, and those that must be submitted to Congress; and bringing the discussion back, time and again, to the three points absolutely necessary to secure peace-- Union, freedom for the slaves, and complete disbandment of the Confederate armies. He had gone to offer them, honestly and frankly, the best terms in his power, but not to give up one atom of official dignity or duty. Their main thought, on the contrary, had been to postpone or to escape the express conditions on which they were admitted to the conference.
They returned to Richmond and reported the failure of their efforts to Jefferson Davis, whose disappointment equalled their own, for all had caught eagerly at the hope that this interview would somehow prove a means of escape from the dangers of their situation. President Lincoln, full of kindly thoughts, on the other hand, went back to Washington, intent on making yet one more generous offer to hasten the day of peace. He had told the commissioners that personally he would be in favor of the government paying a liberal amount for the loss of slave property, on condition that the southern States agree of their own accord to the freedom of the slaves.* This was indeed going to the extreme of liberality, but Mr. Lincoln remembered that notwithstanding all their offenses the rebels were American citizens, members of the same nation and brothers of the same blood. He remembered, too, that the object of the war, equally with peace and freedom, was to preserve friendship and to continue the Union. Filled with such thoughts and purposes he spent the day after his return in drawing up a new proposal designed as a peace offering to the States in rebellion. On the evening of February 5 he read this to his cabinet. It offered the southern States $400,000,000 or a sum equal to the cost of war for two hundred days, on condition that all fighting cease by the first of April, 1865. He proved more liberal than any of his advisers; and with the words, "You are all against me," sadly uttered, the President folded up the paper, and ended the discussion.
* Mr. Lincoln had freed the slaves two years before as a military necessity, and as such it had been accepted by all. Yet a question might arise, when the war ended, as to whether this act of his had been lawful. He was therefore very anxious to have freedom find a place in the Constitution of the United States. This could only be done by an amendment to the Constitution, proposed by Congress, and adopted by the legislatures of three-fourths of the States of the Union. Congress voted in favor of such an amendment on January 31, 1865. Illinois, the President's own State, adopted it on the very next day, and though Mr. Lincoln did not live to see it a part of the Constitution, Secretary Seward, on December 18, 1865, only a few months after Mr. Lincoln's death, was able to make official announcement that 29 States, constituting a majority of three- fourths of the 36 States of the Union, had adopted it, and that therefore it was the law of the land.
Jefferson Davis had issued a last appeal to "fire the southern heart," but the situation at Richmond was becoming desperate Flour cost a thousand dollars a barrel in Confederate money, and neither the flour nor the money were sufficient for their needs. Squads of guards were sent into the streets with directions to arrest every able-bodied man they met, and force him to work in defense of the town. It is said that the medical boards were ordered to excuse no one from military service who was well enough to bear arms for even ten days. Human nature will not endure a strain like this, and desertion grew too common to punish. Nevertheless the city kept up its defense until April 3. Even then, although hopelessly beaten, the Confederacy was not willing to give in, and much needless and severe fighting took place before the final end came. The rebel government hurried away toward the South, and Lee bent all his energies to saving his Army and taking it to join General Johnston, who still held out against Sherman. Grant pursued him with such energy that he did not even allow himself the pleasure of entering the captured rebel capital. The chase continued six days. On the evening of April 8 the Union Army succeeded in planting itself squarely across Lee's line of retreat; and the marching and fighting of his Army were over for ever. On the next morning the two generals met in a house on the edge of the village of Appomattox, Virginia, Lee resplendent in a new uniform and handsome sword, Grant in the travel-stained garments in which he had made the campaign--the blouse of a private soldier, with the shoulderstraps of a Lieutenant-General. Here the surrender took place. Grant, as courteous in victory as he was energetic in war, offered Lee terms that were liberal in the extreme; and on learning that the Confederate soldiers were actually suffering with hunger, ordered that rations be issued to them at once.
Fire and destruction attended the flight of the Confederates from Richmond. Jefferson Davis and his cabinet, carrying with them their more important state papers, left the doomed city on one of the crowded and overloaded railroad trains on the night of April 2, beginning a southward flight that ended only with Mr. Davis's capture about a month later. The legislature of Virginia and the governor of the State departed hurriedly on a canal-boat in the direction of Lynchburg, while every possible carriage or vehicle was pressed into service by the inhabitants, all frantic to get away before their city was "desecrated" by the presence of the Yankees. By the time the military left, early on the morning of April 3, the town was on fire. The Confederate Congress had ordered all government tobacco and other public property to be burned. The rebel General Ewell, who was in charge of the city, asserts that he took the responsibility of disobeying, and that the fires were not started by his orders. Be that as it may, they broke out in various places, while a mob, crazed with excitement, and wild with the alcohol that had run freely in the gutters the night before, rushed from store to store, breaking in the doors, and indulging in all the wantonness of pillage and greed. Public spirit seemed paralyzed; no real effort was made to put out the flames, and as a final horror, the convicts from the penitentiary, overpowering their guards, appeared upon the streets, a maddened, shouting, leaping crowd, drunk with liberty.
It is quite possible that the very size and suddenness of the disaster served in a measure to lessen its evil effects; for the burning of seven hundred buildings, the entire business portion of Richmond, all in the brief space of a day, was a visitation so sudden, so stupefying and unexpected as to overawe and terrorize even evildoers. Before a new danger could arise help was at hand. Gen. Weitzel, to whom the city surrendered, took up his headquarters in the house lately occupied by Jefferson Davis, and promptly set about the work of relief; fighting the fire, issuing rations to the poor, and restoring order and authority. That a regiment of black soldiers assisted in this work of mercy must have seemed to the white inhabitants of Richmond the final drop in their cup of misery.
Into the rebel capital, thus stricken and laid waste, came President Lincoln on the morning of April 4. Never in the history of the world has the head of a mighty nation and the conqueror of a great rebellion entered the captured chief city of the insurgents in such humbleness and simplicity. He had gone two weeks before to City Point for a visit to General Grant, and to his son, Captain Robert Lincoln, who was serving on Grant's staff. Making his home on the steamer that brought him, and enjoying what was probably the most restful and satisfactory holiday in which he had been able to indulge during his whole presidential service, he had visited the various camps of the great Army, in company with the General, cheered everywhere by the loving greetings of the soldiers. He had met Sherman when that commander hurried up fresh from his victorious march from Atlanta; and after Grant had started on his final pursuit of Lee the President still lingered. It was at City Point that the news came to him of the fall of Richmond.
Between the receipt of this news and the following forenoon, before any information of the great fire had reached them, a visit to the rebel capital was arranged for the President and Rear Admiral Porter. Ample precautions for their safety were taken at the start. The President went in his own steamer, the River Queen, with her escort, the Bat, and a tug used at City Point in landing from the steamer. Admiral Porter went in his flagship; while a transport carried a small cavalry escort, as well as ambulances for the party. Barriers in the river soon made it impossible to proceed in this fashion, and one unforeseen accident after another rendered it necessary to leave behind the larger and even the smaller boats; until finally the party went on in the Admiral's barge rowed by twelve sailors, without escort of any kind. In this manner the President made his entry into Richmond, landing near Libby Prison. As the party stepped ashore they found a guide among the contrabands who quickly crowded the streets, for the possible coming of the President had already been noised through the city. Ten of the sailors armed with carbines were formed as a guard, six in front, and four in rear, and between them the President and Admiral Porter, with the three officers who accompanied them, walked the long distance, perhaps a mile and a half, to the centre of the town.
Imagination can easily fill in the picture of a gradually increasing crowd, principally of negroes, following the little group of marines and officers with the tall form of the President in its centre; and, when they learned that it was indeed "Massa Lincum," expressing their joy and gratitude in fervent blessings and in the deep emotional cries of the colored race. It is easy also to imagine the sharp anxiety of those who had the President's safety in their charge during this tiresome and even foolhardy march through a town still in flames, whose white inhabitants were sullenly resentful at best, and whose grief and anger might at any moment break out against the man they looked upon as the chief author of their misfortunes. No accident befell him. He reached General Weitzel's headquarters in safety, rested in the house Jefferson Davis had occupied while President of the Confederacy; and after a day of sightseeing returned to his steamer and to Washington, there to be stricken down by an assassin's bullet, literally "in the house of his friends."
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Biography – CALLIÈRE, LOUIS-HECTOR DE – Volume II (1701-1740) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography
CALLIÈRE, LOUIS-HECTOR DE (usually spelled Callières but he signed without the “s”), chevalier, captain in France, governor of Montreal, governor general of New France, knight of the order of Saint-Louis; b. at Thorigny-sur-Vire, province of Normandy, on 12 Nov. 1648; d. at Quebec on 26 May 1703.
The family came originally from the province of Angoumois where, in 1490, the king’s commissioners recognized the nobility of Jehan de Callières. Two years later, by his marriage to Perrette Du Fort, this Jehan de Callières came into possession of the seigneury of Clérac in Saintonge which subsequently became the family’s principal place of residence.
Jacques de Callières, the father of Louis-Hector, was born in Touraine at an unknown date. He became a follower of the powerful families of Matignon and Orléans-Longueville whose protection enabled him to become brigadier-general in the royal army and governor of the town of Cherbourg in Normandy in 1644. While holding this position he found time to indulge his taste for literature. He wrote several books, including a Lettre héroïque à la duchesse de Longueville sur le retour de M. le prince, and was also a founding member of the academy of Caen in 1652. He died at Cherbourg in 1662. In 1643 he had married Madeleine Potier de Courcy, daughter of the seigneur of Courcy, near Coutances. Two daughters and two sons were born of their marriage.
François, the eldest, was elected to the French Academy in 1689 and also served with distinction in Louis XIV’s diplomatic corps. He was sent to Poland in 1670 to promote the candidacy of the Duc de Longueville to the throne of that country and was one of the three French plenipotentiaries who negotiated the treaty of Ryswick in 1697. Afterwards he became one of the king’s four private secretaries and in 1701, thanks to his ability to imitate the royal handwriting and to his mastery of the French language, succeeded Toussaint Rose as the secretary “who held the pen.” His duties, designed to save the monarch time and fatigue, consisted of writing in a hand and style similar to those of the king letters and memoirs to dignitaries and foreign heads of state and of signing them with the royal name. Such a position of trust gave Callières great power which he frequently used to further the career of Louis-Hector in Canada.
The latter had entered the French army towards 1664 and had participated in several of the military campaigns of Louis XIV. The name of his regiment is not known for certain. The minister of Marine referred to him as a former infantry captain in the Régiment de Navarre when he appointed him to succeed François-Marie Perrot* as governor of Montreal in 1684, but Callière himself stated that he had served in the Régiment de Piémont. Like his brother, Louis-Hector had an able mind and his dealings with the Indians showed that he was a skilful negotiator. He soon impressed Governor Le Febvre* de La Barre as a man of much experience, prudence, and wisdom. As for his personality, it can best be described as the opposite of mellow. He had the sense of discipline and the habit of command of the career soldier, an inflated feeling of self-importance, and a cantankerous disposition that was not improved by recurring attacks of gout.
The recent outbreak of the Iroquois war had enhanced the importance of the government of Montreal. Because of its geographical location, Montreal was not only the area most exposed to Iroquois attacks but also the base where all offensive operations against these Indians were organized. Thus, the governor of this district had to act as a military leader and also take measures to assure the safety of the civilian population. Callière showed that he had the will and the ability to assume such responsibilities; Brisay de Denonville informed the minister that “in this place [he is] governor, commissary, keeper of stores and munitions, and does any job connected with the service.” Soon, the governor came to regard him as the colony’s ablest military officer and he did not hesitate to increase his powers. He annexed both shores of the St Lawrence as far as Lac Saint-Pierre to the government of Montreal after detaching them from that of Trois-Rivières. To prevent discord from breaking out in the colony should the position of governor general become vacant through death or disease, he asked the minister of Marine to name Callière second in command in all of Canada. The ministry at first balked at this request but finally granted it in 1687.
Meantime, New France was being faced with a mounting Iroquois threat which it found nearly impossible to contain. In 1687, seconded by Callière and Rigaud de Vaudreuil, the newly arrived commander of the troops, Denonville had invaded the territory of the western Iroquois at the head of a large army. The expedition, however, totally failed to intimidate the Five Nations and also underscored the difficulties and hardships of wilderness campaigning against such an elusive foe. The experience was not lost on Denonville and Callière. To crush the Iroquois, the two men worked out a scheme that was not lacking in originality and boldness: the conquest and occupation of New York. The memoirs which Callière personally presented at Versailles early in 1689 enumerated the principal advantages France would derive from the possession of this colony: the subjugation of the Iroquois who, finding themselves deprived of their supply of English arms and ammunition, would be obliged to come to terms with the French; the security of the cod-fisheries; and the possession of a fertile province with one of the finest harbours in America. To execute this design, the governor of Montreal asked for two frigates and an army of 2,000 men. With this army he would capture Albany and then proceed to attack New York on the land side while the two frigates blockaded the harbour and bombarded the town. Louis XIV approved the project after making a few modifications in it and decreed that Callière would become the governor of the conquered province. However, a series of delays seriously retarded the arrival of the ships off the North American coast and the whole enterprise had to be abandoned.
There was to be little rest for Callière after his return to Canada late in 1689. France and England were now at war and the conflict with the Five Nations was entering a new and more violent phase. Iroquois war parties prowled in the district of Montreal and constantly threatened the lives and properties of the population. Callière, however, had put the area in a state of defence. Montreal had been enclosed with a strong palisade, and redoubts made of staves fourteen feet high had been built on each seigneury to provide the inhabitants with protection against Iroquois forays. Callière was also kept busy organizing military expeditions and sending them in pursuit of the Iroquois whenever their presence was reported in his district. On occasion, he commanded these expeditions personally, but most of the time they were led by Vaudreuil or veteran officers of the colonial regular troops. Knowing that Montreal was in good hands, Buade* de Frontenac intervened but little in the affairs of the upper colony and spent most of his time in Quebec where he devoted his attention to the war’s strategical aspect. In 1694, partly no doubt as a result of the governor’s good reports, Callière was awarded the coveted cross of Saint-Louis, an honour for which Frontenac had to wait until 1697.
Callière did not fully reciprocate Frontenac’s esteem for he had serious doubts about the soundness of the governor’s war policy. On several occasions, Frontenac had ordered a virtual cessation of hostilities to allow Iroquois deputies to come to Quebec with peace proposals. Callière for his part greatly doubted that the Iroquois sincerely desired peace. In his opinion, their real aim was to keep the French inactive so that they might rest their forces, garner a good stock of furs, and negotiate a peace settlement with the western allies of New France. Then they might resume the war more vigorously than before. This assessment, as events showed, was a fairly accurate one and by 1696 Frontenac decided that the military expedition favoured by Callière could no longer be deferred. On 4 July an army of over 2,000 men, made up of colonial regular troops, militiamen, and Indian auxiliaries left Montreal. Later that month it disembarked on the south shore of Lake Ontario and advanced on the Onondaga settlements. Callière, suffering from gout, came in front on a horse which had been specially transported for him from Montreal on a flatboat; Frontenac, feeling the weight of his 74 years, was carried along behind the army in an armchair. Although this force failed to make contact with the enemy, it ravaged the territory of the Onondagas and Oneidas and struck a terrible blow at the fighting spirit of the Iroquois.
When Frontenac died on 28 Nov. 1698, Callière automatically became acting governor general, but Vaudreuil was a contender for the permanent commission. Callière, however, was able to outmanoeuvre his rival. Using speed and secrecy he gave his application to an envoy, Augustin Le Gardeur de Courtemanche, and sent him to France by way of the English colonies. The time thus gained proved decisive. Courtemanche reached Versailles a few hours before Vaudreuil’s emissary, Charles-Joseph Amiot de Vincelotte, and handed Callière’s dispatches to his brother François who then took them to Louis XIV. When Pontchartrain, Vaudreuil’s protector, approached the monarch with the news of Frontenac’s demise, he was informed that His Majesty was already aware of the development and had granted the position of governor to François de Callières for his brother.
Meantime winter had closed in and sealed off the colony from the outside world. What had happened in France would not be known before spring, but until then Callière was the acting governor and he lost no opportunity to impress his dignity upon his political rivals. He behaved insufferably towards the intendant Bochart de Champigny who was a Vaudreuil supporter; he obliged the Conseil Souverain to register his provisions, as acting governor, although there was absolutely no need for such a formality; finally, on one occasion when he reviewed the troops, he insisted upon the salute that was reserved for field marshals. For Vaudreuil, the naval commissary Tantouin de La Touche, and the comptroller Le Roy de La Potherie, all this was simply too much and they sent their indignant protests to the minister. La Potherie was especially scathing in his remarks. Unlike Vaudreuil, who was “very much a gentleman,” the comptroller claimed that Callière was “hard and insensitive” and had not earned the esteem of four people in the whole colony. As for the Iroquois, he added tartly, it was fortunate that they were at present holding their peace for Callière was in no condition to lead an army against them, being “in bed all year, stricken with gout and another infirmity which prevents him from sitting.” It must have come as no surprise to anyone when both Champigny and La Potherie left the colony shortly after Callière’s appointment was made official.
Callière became governor two years after the treaty of Ryswick had ended hostilities between England and France. The main problem now facing him was the negotiation of a firm treaty between the Iroquois, New France, and all her Indian allies. This task was enormously complicated. Bellomont, the governor of New York, maintained that the Iroquois were British subjects who were included in the terms of the treaty of Ryswick and he made every effort to thwart their negotiations with the French. Furthermore, Callière had to deal with some thirty different tribes, many of whom had been warring on one another or on the Iroquois since time immemorial. To bring about a reconciliation under such circumstances required consummate diplomatic skill.
Resolving these problems took almost three years. The Iroquois, out of consideration for the English, were at first reluctant to negotiate with the French. In 1699, three of their deputies called on Callière and attempted to move the site of the talks to Albany, but the governor replied that these could be held only in Montreal. In subsequent meetings, to induce the Iroquois to send an official delegation to Canada, Callière taunted them with Bellomont’s claim that they were British subjects without the right to speak for themselves and threatened them with an invasion of their cantons if they refused to enter into negotiations. The western Indians, however, who had not discontinued their raids on the Iroquois, finally settled the matter. The Iroquois initially asked the English to grant them protection against these attacks, but when it became evident that no help was forthcoming from that quarter they had no choice but to turn to the French.
In July 1700, two Onondaga and four Seneca chiefs arrived in the colony, announced their desire for peace, and asked Callière to allow Father Bruyas, Chabert de Joncaire, and Paul Le Moyne de Maricourt – three men who enjoyed great prestige among the Iroquois – to accompany them to their cantons to speak in favour of a treaty. Callière agreed to this and their mission was crowned with success. The three Frenchmen were back in the colony in September with a 19-man delegation representing all the nations except the Mohawks, and 13 French prisoners liberated by the Iroquois as proof of the sincerity of their intentions. These delegates met with those of the mission Indians, Abenakis, Hurons, and Ottawas and peace terms were agreed upon. Callière then announced that a great assembly would take place the following summer when all prisoners would be exchanged and the treaty solemnly ratified.
Early the following summer the deputies began to arrive in Montreal. As their canoes came in sight of the town the occupants raised their paddles in salute and the French cannon returned the greeting. By July, 1,300 Indians of over 30 different tribes from areas as far apart as the Atlantic coast and the headwaters of the Mississippi had assembled and the sessions began. For several days delegation after delegation appeared before Callière with its charges and counter-charges, claims and counterclaims. As expected, the return of the prisoners proved to be the most troublesome point. Many of them had died or been killed in captivity; others had been adopted and would not be given up. It is no small tribute to Callière’s ability that he was able to prevail upon the deputies to leave this problem to him to settle as best he could. With this matter disposed of, the treaty could be drawn up. All the tribes agreed to live at peace with each other and not to strike back when attacked as in the past, but to take their grievance to the governor of New France who would obtain redress. Equally important, Callière extracted a promise from the Iroquois to remain neutral in any future conflict between the French and the English. Thus, New York was stripped of its first line of offence and defence and the governor of New France became the arbiter of peace over a vast portion of North America.
Meantime, Callière was reaping the results of the reckless overtrading in beaver which had marked the Frontenac era. The market in France was saturated with this product, prices in Canada were falling as a result, and Louis XIV decided to take drastic measures to reduce the flow of beaver pelts into the colony. In May 1696 he issued an edict that suppressed the 25 fur-trading licences (congés), abolished the principal western posts, and ordered the coureurs de bois to return to civilization. Callière immediately realized that this legislation threatened to undermine New France’s network of alliances with the Indian tribes. Low prices in Montreal might well drive the natives to Albany into the arms of the English; moreover the abolition of the posts and licences made it more difficult to control the allies and facilitated English infiltration of the west. The governor did something to offset the effects of tumbling prices when, in typically strong-handed fashion, he compelled the newly established Compagnie de la Colonie to sell merchandise to the Indians at special rates; but he was unable to convince the minister of the need to re-establish the posts and licences.
Callière, however, did not elude the royal instructions, but made a resolute attempt to enforce the ban on trade in the west. In 1699, he confiscated the trade goods that two Montreal merchants were endeavouring to send to their agents at Michilimackinac. The following year he arrested La Porte de Louvigny, the commandant of Fort Frontenac, for having illegally engaged in the fur trade. Such sternness probably shocked a population which had grown accustomed to Frontenac’s laxity, but it also yielded appreciable results. In 1699 and 1700, Champigny and Callière reported that coureurs de bois were returning to the colony as they exhausted their supplies of trade goods. But a radical reorientation of France’s western policy would soon ruin this attempt to revive Colbert’s old compact colony system.
In 1700 and 1701, Louis XIV decided to consolidate his control of North America from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico by founding new settlements at Detroit and on the lower Mississippi in Louisiana. The reasons for the foundation of Louisiana lay in European dynastic politics. Charles II, the last of the Spanish Hapsburgs, had died on 1 Nov. 1700, and bequeathed to Louis XIV’s grandson, Philippe d’Anjou, the entire Spanish inheritance. By founding a colony on the lower Mississippi that would protect Mexico from the aggressive designs of the English plantations on the Atlantic coast, Louis XIV hoped to demonstrate to Spain that now that it was under a Bourbon king it could rely on French support. As for Detroit, memoirs submitted by Cadillac [Laumet] seemed to prove among other things that a post there would block English expansionism in the region of the Great Lakes. Thus, by means of these two new settlements, France hoped to control all of North America west of the Appalachians and close it to the English.
Callière had serious misgivings about this general policy but he was unable to have it modified. Although he thought that the Detroit project was good on the whole, he did detect two “major obstacles.” First, the Iroquois might take offence at a settlement built on their hunting grounds and renew their war on Canada. Second, and here Callière uncovered the basic flaw, Detroit would draw the western allies close to the Iroquois cantons. Such proximity would facilitate the growth of trade relations between them and commercial intercourse might eventually give rise to a political connection. Much more important for the preservation of the west, he thought, was the re-establishment of the old trading posts and of the licences. All Pontchartrain would state in reply was that the Detroit project should be put through unless “insurmountable difficulties” were discovered. Thus, Callière deferred to ministerial wishes and cooperated with Cadillac to assure the success of his venture.
If Callière had reservations about Detroit and Cadillac, he felt nothing but hostility towards Louisiana and its founder, Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville. Detroit, although it had some objectionable features, was at least under Canadian jurisdiction, but Louisiana was a separate colony carved out of territory hitherto governed from Quebec. This in itself would probably have sufficed to annoy Callière; but to make matters worse the new colony soon became a refuge for renegade coureurs de bois and a competitor of Canada for the fur trade of the interior. The angry governor urged the court to adopt measures to correct this situation which, he claimed, was ruining his colony. He suggested that Louisiana be placed under his command, that coureurs de bois who retired there after violating the laws of Canada be arrested, and that Louisiana be forbidden to receive beaver pelts and be permitted only the trade in buffalo hides and other products of the southern part of the continent. The minister, however, refused to grant Callière jurisdiction over Louisiana because it was much easier to send orders there directly from France than by way of Quebec. He also refused to arrest the coureurs de bois who had deserted from Canada since he wished to make use of them to begin the settlement of the new colony. Orders were issued to compel these people to pay their Canadian debts and to prevent Louisiana from receiving beaver, but they do not appear to have been enforced.
Callière, therefore, had little influence over decisions affecting western policy, but he played an important role in shaping the strategy followed by New France during the War of the Spanish Succession. When this conflict broke out in 1702, Pontchartrain urged the governor to conclude an offensive alliance with the Iroquois and authorized him to strike a major blow at the English colonies. Callière, however, did not share this aggressive mood. The colonial budget, in his opinion, would have to be increased by 50,000 to 60,000 livres to finance a large-scale military operation. As for the Iroquois, the most that could be expected from them for the time being was the neutrality they had promised to observe in 1701; incursions against the upper New York settlements, he thought, would almost certainly induce these Indians to break their agreement with the French in order to come to the aid of their old allies. Against New England, on the other hand, the governor authorized the Abenakis to resume the border warfare interrupted by the treaty of Ryswick, The speech he made to a group of these Indians who appeared at Quebec in December 1702 suggests that his strategy here was dictated by the need to make the French alliance profitable in the eyes of this fierce tribe. In this speech, he informed the deputies that the plunder they would gather on their raids, joined to the gifts they would receive from the French, would enable them to live more comfortably in time of war than in time of peace. Callière’s views on the conduct of the war were approved by Pontchartrain and became the basis of French strategy in America for the duration of the War of the Spanish Succession. A truce with New York was to be combined with a little war on New England.
On Ascension day in May 1703, Callière was attending high mass in the Quebec cathedral. Suddenly he suffered a haemorrhage and began to vomit blood. He was immediately taken back to his residence at the Château Saint-Louis, but it was already apparent that the end was near. On 25 May the notary Louis Chambalon was summoned to the dying man’s bedside to draw up his last will and testament. Being the apostolic syndic of the Recollets, Callière asked to be buried in their church and left them the sum of 1,200 livres for the completion of their convent. He directed that his wardrobe and silverware be divided between his secretary, Hauteville, his maître d’hôtel, Beaufort, and his valet, Gillet. Since he had not married he left all his other possessions to his brother François. Feebly, in an almost illegible scrawl, the governor signed the document which Chambalon held out to him. The following day he was dead.
Callière had been the type of governor whom people fear and obey but do not love. Many had resented him for his severity, his imperious ways, the inflexible manner in which he enforced royal orders; but they had also respected him for his integrity and his high concept of public duty. There were no doubt some who breathed a sigh of relief at his passing, but those who appreciated sound government paid him high tribute. Father Charlevoix* stated that Callière was “justly regretted as the most accomplished General the colony had yet had, and the man who had rendered it the most important services.” In her annals of the Quebec Hôtel-Dieu, Mother Juchereau de La Ferté wrote: “all those who knew his ability feel that we did not deserve such a governor.” These testimonies were not undeserved. Callière had been one of the principal artisans of the French victory during the second Iroquois war, the diplomat who negotiated the great peace of 1701, and the strategist who shaped New France’s policy for the War of the Spanish Succession. In the history of the colony, there probably never was an abler and more devoted servant of the French monarchy.
Yves F. Zoltvany
AJQ, Greffe de Louis Chambalon, 25 mai 1703. AN, Col., B, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17; 19, 20, 22, 23; C11A 6–21; C11E, 14; D2C, 49; F3, 2, 6, 8. BN, MS, Cabinet des titres, dossiers bleus, 148. Charlevoix, Histoire. “Correspondance de Frontenac (1689–1699),” APQ Rapport, 1927–28, 1–211; 1928–29, 247–384. “Un éloge funèbre du gouverneur de Callières,” APQ Rapport, 1921–22, 226–32. Juchereau, Annales (Jamet). La Potherie, Histoire (1753). Le Blant, Histoire de la N.-F., 270n. NYCD (O’Callaghan and Fernow), IX, X. “Testament de Louis-Hector de Callières, gouverneur de la Nouvelle-France,” APQ Rapport, 1920–21, 320ff. Eccles, Canada under Louis XIV; Frontenac. Giraud, Histoire de la Louisiane française, I. Lanctot, Histoire du Canada, II. C. Vigen, Notice sur les de Callières de Normandie et leurs rapports avec ceux de Saintonge (Ligugé, s.d.). “Le frère de notre gouverneur de Callières,” BRH, XXXIII (1927), 48–51. M. Godefroy, “Le chevalier de Callières, gouverneur de Canada (1648–1703),” Revue catholique de Normandie, VIII (1898–99), 5–19; 158–70, 228–41, 310–24, 456–69; IX (1899–1900), 5–17. H. Jouan, “A propos de Jacques-François et Louis-Hector de Callières,” Mémoires de la société académique de Cherbourg (1890), 1–18; “Les de Callières (Jacques et Louis-Hector): Un nouveau point douteux d’histoire locale éclairci,” Mémoires de la société académique de Cherbourg (1891), 52f. (This very short note contains an extract from the birth certificate of Louis-Hector de Callière, proving that he was born at Thorigny-sur-Vire, in the province of Normandy, on 12 Nov. 1648.) H. Moulin, “Les deux Callières, Jacques et François,” Mémoire de l’Académie des belles-lettres de Caen (1883), 136–56. Benjamin Sulte, “La famille de Callières,” RSCT, 1st ser., VIII (1890), sect.i, 91–112; “La signature royale,” BRH, XXI (1915), 75–77.
Revised 1982
Armed Forces – French – Army: officers
Office Holders – French Régime – Colonial administrators
North America – Canada – Quebec – Québec
AMIOT DE VINCELOTTE, CHARLES-JOSEPH (Vol. 2)BRUYAS, JACQUES (Vol. 2)BUADE, LOUIS DE, Comte de FRONTENAC et de PALLUAU (Vol. 1)LA PORTE DE LOUVIGNY, LOUIS DE (Vol. 2)LAUMET, de Lamothe Cadillac, ANTOINE (Vol. 2)LE GARDEUR DE COURTEMANCHE, AUGUSTIN (Vol. 2)LE MOYNE DE MARICOURT, PAUL (Vol. 2)LE ROY DE LA POTHERIE, Bacqueville de La Potherie, CLAUDE-CHARLES (Vol. 2)More
PERROT, FRANÇOIS-MARIE (Vol. 1)RIGAUD DE VAUDREUIL, PHILIPPE DE, Marquis de Vaudreuil (Vol. 2)TANTOUIN DE LA TOUCHE, LOUIS (Vol. 2)BOCHART DE CHAMPIGNY, JEAN, Sieur de Noroy et de Verneuil (Vol. 2)BRISAY DE DENONVILLE, JACQUES-RENÉ DE, Marquis de Denonville (Vol. 2)CHABERT DE JONCAIRE, LOUIS-THOMAS, Sononchiez (Vol. 2)CHAMBALON, LOUIS (Vol. 2)CHARLEVOIX, PIERRE-FRANÇOIS-XAVIER DE (Vol. 3)JUCHEREAU DE LA FERTÉ, JEANNE-FRANÇOISE, de Saint-Ignace (Vol. 2)LE FEBVRE DE LA BARRE, JOSEPH-ANTOINE (Vol. 1)LE MOYNE D’IBERVILLE ET D’ARDILLIÈRES, PIERRE (Vol. 2)ALOIGNY, CHARLES-HENRI D’, Marquis de La Groye (Vol. 2)AOUENANO (Vol. 2)BEAUHARNOIS DE BEAUMONT ET DE VILLECHAUVE, CLAUDE DE (Vol. 2)BEAUHARNOIS DE LA CHAUSSAYE, FRANÇOIS DE, Baron de BEAUVILLE (Vol. 3)BIZARD, JACQUES (Vol. 1)BLAISE DES BERGÈRES DE RIGAUVILLE, RAYMOND (Vol. 2)BOUILLET DE LA CHASSAIGNE, JEAN (Vol. 2)BÉCART DE GRANVILLE ET DE FONVILLE, CHARLES (Vol. 2)CARHEIL, ÉTIENNE DE (Vol. 2)CHARDON, JEAN-BAPTISTE (Vol. 3)CHARLY SAINT-ANGE, JEAN-BAPTISTE (Vol. 2)CHARON DE LA BARRE, FRANÇOIS (Vol. 2)CHAUCHETIÈRE, CLAUDE (Vol. 2)CHAUDIÈRE NOIRE (Vol. 1)CHICHIKATELO (Vol. 2)CLÉMENT DU VUAULT DE VALRENNES, PHILIPPE (Vol. 2)COUC, ELIZABETH (Vol. 3)COUILLARD DE LESPINAY, JEAN-BAPTISTE (Vol. 2)DANEAU DE MUY, NICOLAS (Vol. 2)DAVIS, SILVANUS (Vol. 2)DESJORDY DE CABANAC, JOSEPH (Vol. 2)ENJALRAN, JEAN (Vol. 2)ESTIENNE DU BOURGUÉ DE CLÉRIN, DENIS D’ (Vol. 2)GARNIER, JULIEN (Vol. 2)JARRET DE VERCHÈRES, MARIE-MADELEINE (Madeleine, Madelon) (Tarieu de La Pérade) (Vol. 3)JOANNÈS DE CHACORNACLE (Vol. 2)KONDIARONK, Le Rat (Vol. 2)KOUTAOILIBOE (Vol. 2)LA CROIX DE CHEVRIÈRES DE SAINT-VALLIER, JEAN-BAPTISTE DE (Vol. 2)LA FRENAYE, FRANÇOIS DE (Vol. 2)LE MOYNE DE LONGUEUIL, CHARLES, Baron de Longueuil (d. 1729) (Vol. 2)LE PICARD DU MESNIL DE NORREY, JACQUES (Vol. 2)LE SUEUR, PIERRE (Vol. 2)LE VERRIER DE ROUSSON, FRANÇOIS (Vol. 2)LEGARDEUR DE SAINT-PIERRE, JEAN-PAUL (Vol. 2)LENEUF DE LA VALLIÈRE DE BEAUBASSIN, MICHEL (d. 1705) (Vol. 2)LENEUF DE LA VALLIÈRE DE BEAUBASSIN, MICHEL (d. 1740) (Vol. 2)MALERAY DE NOIRÉ DE LA MOLLERIE, JACQUES (Vol. 2)MARIAUCHAU D’ESGLY, FRANÇOIS (Vol. 2)MARTEL DE BROUAGUE, FRANÇOIS (Vol. 3)MARTEL, RAYMOND (Vol. 2)MAUMOUSSEAU, FRANÇOISE (Vol. 2)MISCOUAKY (Vol. 2)MOG (Vol. 2)MONSEIGNAT, CHARLES DE (Vol. 2)NORO (Vol. 2)OHONSIOWANNE (Vol. 2)OUNANGUISSÉ (Vol. 2)OUTOUTAGAN (Vol. 2)PERREAULT, HYACINTHE (Vol. 1)PIOT DE LANGLOISERIE, CHARLES-GASPARD (Vol. 2)PROVOST, FRANÇOIS (Vol. 2)RIGAUD DE VAUDREUIL DE CAVAGNIAL, PIERRE DE, Marquis de VAUDREUIL (Vol. 4)ROBINAU DE PORTNEUF, RENÉ (Vol. 2)ROUER DE VILLERAY, LOUIS (Vol. 1)RUETTE D’AUTEUIL DE MONCEAUX, FRANÇOIS-MADELEINE-FORTUNÉ (Vol. 2)SARRAZIN, MICHEL (Vol. 2)SCHUYLER, PETER (1657-1723/24) (Vol. 2)TAFFANEL DE LA JONQUIÈRE, JACQUES-PIERRE DE, Marquis de LA JONQUIÈRE (Vol. 3)TAREHA (Vol. 1)TEGANISSORENS (Vol. 2)TONATAKOUT (Vol. 2)VACHON DE BELMONT, FRANÇOIS (Vol. 2)WENEMOUET (Vol. 2)
LE FEBVRE DE LA BARRE, JOSEPH-ANTOINE
BRISAY DE DENONVILLE, JACQUES-RENÉ DE, Marquis de Denonville
BUADE, LOUIS DE, Comte de FRONTENAC et de PALLUAU
AMIOT DE VINCELOTTE, CHARLES-JOSEPH
CHABERT DE JONCAIRE, LOUIS-THOMAS, Sononchiez
LAUMET, de Lamothe Cadillac, ANTOINE
LE MOYNE D’IBERVILLE ET D’ARDILLIÈRES, PIERRE
CHAMBALON, LOUIS
LE MOYNE DE LONGUEUIL, CHARLES, Baron de Longueuil (d. 1729)
SARRAZIN, MICHEL
SCHUYLER, PETER (1657-1723/24)
VACHON DE BELMONT, FRANÇOIS
JARRET DE VERCHÈRES, MARIE-MADELEINE (Madeleine, Madelon) (Tarieu de La Pérade)
TAFFANEL DE LA JONQUIÈRE, JACQUES-PIERRE DE, Marquis de LA JONQUIÈRE
RIGAUD DE VAUDREUIL DE CAVAGNIAL, PIERRE DE, Marquis de VAUDREUIL
KONDIARONK, Le Rat
Yves F. Zoltvany, “CALLIÈRE, LOUIS-HECTOR DE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed July 17, 2019, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/calliere_louis_hector_de_2E.html.
Permalink: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/calliere_louis_hector_de_2E.html
Author of Article: Yves F. Zoltvany
Title of Article: CALLIÈRE, LOUIS-HECTOR DE
Publication Name: Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2
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Great Western Steak & Hoagie Company - Serving Venice Since 1973
I've been a big fan of Great Western Steak & Hoagie Company ever since I moved to Venice in the 90's, but that makes me a rookie, as they've been serving up their wonderful steak sandwiches on the corner of Lincoln and Superba since 1973.
The spot was actually a sandwich spot before that as well, run by Philly people that had relocated here, but THIS incarnation has been around since Richard Sohn took it over in 1973, and ran it for 25 years. One of his early workers, Sergio Perez, Sr., took over the business with a partner 20 years ago, and he now owns and operates this Venice institution with his son, Sergio Perez, Jr. Perez, Jr. was essentially born in the shop, and says it was "my after school, my detention, my suspension, my 'you're gonna come work and peel a sack of onions so you don't do that mistake again' job. Helping my Dad saved me. Growing up in Oakwood, lots of those friends are gone or in jail, but I learned to respect EVERYONE in the Community ... Black, white, and brown ... and you get it back."
That sense of Community isn't felt as much these days, but Perez agrees that the "Heart and spirit is still here." The sidewalk in front of the shop used to have so many drug addicts and hookers cruising up and down, police thought they had a piece of it. You couldn't walk there after dark. He grew up having drive-by drills at Broadway Elementary during their lunch hours, so "you grew up knowing the dangers of Venice, but you didn't want to live anywhere else." Kind of like now.
The menu at "Hoagies" (as pretty much everyone calls it, and how they answer the phone) has never changed, and people would be mad if it did. They even got upset just when they changed the menu hanging inside! Change is hard, but it also speaks to how beloved a place it is. Perez, Jr. told me, "You see things come and go, and it hurts, because you lose people. We don't get having $300 t-shirts on Lincoln, but you can come here and get a meal for under $10, and we're gonna keep doing it, because we're a staple." They truly are.
While Perez, Jr. and I sat outside at one of the outdoor tables at Hoagies and chatted, I could tell how much this place truly means to him and his family. He got on a roll, and I sat there, listening and nodding in full agreement, almost getting emotional. He spoke enthusiastically and seriously, "We provide a service, we're here for you, we were a part of your growing up, and that's what we do it for. It hits your core when you grow up with something and it stays the same. Everything changes, but if ONE place stays the same, it lets you know that it will be o.k. ... . Nostalgic places are around for you to feel that way." We've all got ours. "In chains, you're just a number, but we have camaraderie. You can vent, reunite, catch up, GATHER ... It's important. And it's important to a lot of people."
NBA stars (Kobe, Robert Horry - my favorite, who would wait outside in his car for people to leave before coming in, so as not to make a fuss). Biggie Smalls' kids and wife, Faith Evans are regulars who live off of their sandwiches. Philly transplants (as the sign says, "It's 3,000 miles to Philly, eat here!"). Venice locals. Kids from Animo Venice ("We provide a sanctuary for them as they flirt with independence. It's that sacred walk between school and home."). Single parents, maybe not connecting with their kids, but they can sit down and relate over a cheesesteak, "and that's all that matters then." It's clearly more than just slanging sandwiches for this wonderful Venice family. And it is a legit family affair. They are there every single day, and they love it. Their history is right there on the ceiling for all to read.
The Perez family doesn't own the land, but the Korean family who sold it to them does, and they love the place, so it looks to be safe, but if ever forced to move, they've got ideas. They could be in the new football stadium (They could be there - a second location - even without moving, Magic Johnson, give them a call!). They could be a food truck. They could move over to Hampton, closer to the beach. There are options, but we all know no one wants them to change. They get offers to buy the place every day, and they just tear them up. "It's not about money, it's about a fulfilling, meaningful life. I don't want to knock anyone else's hustle, but you can't know what it means to us. Like, you went to Hoagies, and now it's a good day." I love them. Perez, Jr. told me they're toying with the idea of having merch, like shirts and trucker hats, but "It would piss me off so much if I saw some fake hipster wearing one, so we haven't done it yet." Haaa. I get it - and definitely want one.
As much as Hoagies gets from Venice, it also gives it all back. They sponsor a toy drive every Christmas, with bands and a party in the parking lot. They are involved with the Venice Car Club, with Perez, Sr. riding in a low-rider in the Cinco de Mayo parade, and donating gift certificates to the raffles. They want to utilize the parking lot space more for community events too (he's thinking something for the homeless that are their neighbors), so add Hoagies to your list of cool spots to host a shindig.
"In Venice, you grow up knowing 'crazy' is really just hard times, so you want to say hi, help them, feed them ... it's understood that they need help. Venice makes you aware of these things. You're more careful. It gives you a thicker skin. It's all we know and how we roll." And have been for 45 years.
Cheesesteaks. Burgers. Hot dogs. Chips. Homemade lemonade. Sodas. That's it. But it's so much more. The murals on the walls are all by local artists. You will see locals at the tables. It's still cash only, but if you don't have cash and need to go across the street to get some, they'll put extra cheese on for you while you walk. The prices are weird, like $3.54 for a hot dog (dinner under $5!) and 7.63 for this one sandwich, but that's because they've gone up in increments since 1973.
"These aren't Philly Cheesesteaks, they're VENICE Cheesesteaks. Philly people say, 'You took me home today', but the vibes and feelings and the simplicity of knowing that you'll get what you want is Venice. We know how bad it can get, and we're aware of the tightrope walk between good and bad, but we're here for you. The whole spirit of Venice unites, binds us to do better together, so that EVERYONE can rise, and all of us are up there!" That really is the spirit, and it does not go unnoticed by locals. During the Superbowl this year, Hoagies had to close down because they ran out of all their supplies, even though they had ordered way extra. During the World Series Game 7, I walked to Hoagies, and while every t.v. in town was tuned in to the game as I passed by, the phone was ringing off the hook at Hoagies, where they were listening on the radio. They're simply a part of our lives here in Venice, and we're so lucky to have them.
They feel lucky too. Perez, Jr. loves the skatepark. "Every single sunset I go down there and say thank you to the sun, and welcome to the moon." He likes La Fiesta Brava and Casablanca and the Indian place at the beach, but really, "The sunset in Venice is where I like to be." Me too, brother.
Even running the same ad in the Beachhead since the early days, Great Western Steak & Hoagie Company has been a solid mainstay for Venice every day they've been open. Stop in, say hi, eat a great, affordable meal, and say thanks. This is the kind of joint that keeps Venice real.
Long live Hoagies!!
Great Western Steak and Hoagie Company
1720 Lincoln Boulevard
#310-450-4545
10-10 every day.
Labels: Cheesesteaks, community, family, Great Western Steak & Hoagie Company, Hoagies, Jr., lincoln boulevard, neighborhood, Philly, Sergio Perez, spirit, sports, Sr., Toy drives, Venice, Venice Car Club
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Tuomas Juntunen
A sweep is as lucky as lucky can be
27 August 2009 | Authors, Reviews
Jari Järvelä. Photo: Ville Palonen
The heroine of Jari Järvelä’s new novel begins telling the story of her life from inside an oven, beneath which a murderer is stoking a fire: a gripping start.
The reader of Mistä on mustat tytöt tehty? (‘What are black girls made of?’) has to wait until the end of the novel to find out what happens to the captive female chimney sweep, Katariina or ‘Rööri’ (‘Pipey’). In those moments in the oven, Pipey’s life flashes before her eyes.
In his previous novels, Jari Järvelä (born 1966) has concentrated on exploring people on the margins of Finnish history; rather than portraying the lives of significant figures, he chooses instead to depict everyday people and their day-to-day lives.
In his recent trilogy, Järvelä gave an account of the years between Finland’s independence in 1917 and the beginning of the Second World War. (The final part of this trilogy, Kansallismaisema [‘National landscape’, 2006] was featured in Books from Finland 4/2006). Since 1995 his output has included seven novels, collections of short stories and radio plays.
In Mistä on mustat tytöt tehty?, Järvelä depicts the time from the war years until the beginning of the 1980s, and Helsinki and the most obnoxious years of punk rock and anarchy, which the novel’s protagonist and narrator Pipey enjoys to the full.
This time the grass-roots view of the world typical of Järvelä’s novels is swapped for a bird’s-eye perspective: at the centre of the novel, on the roofs high above the city, is the fast disappearing world of chimney sweeps, a profession that once enjoyed the respect of the nation, particularly that of women. The old saying goes that meeting a chimney sweep on the street brought you good luck – better still, if you managed to touch him. Järvelä also alludes to the sexual connotations of pipes, flues and chimney sweeping. The author makes use of the spectrum of humour and comedy, from naïve jokes and below-the-belt humour to dramatic irony and elements of satire.
Järvelä is a passionate storyteller who latches on to small anecdotes and extrapolates them to absurd dimensions. In his novels, comedy is always coupled with tragic destinies. In What are black girls made of?, Pipey’s father is crippled at a very young age: trapped in a collapsed chimney stack, the young chimney sweep is forced to saw off his own leg.
In addition to its often hilariously over-the-top anecdotes, other important elements in the novel are the characters, the people who have shaped Pipey’s life. Aside from her chimney-sweep father, this motley crew of vivid characters includes her father’s constantly changing lady-friends, Pipey’s ‘mothers’, her half-sister Karoliina, the complete opposite of Pipey and her eternal competitor, and the children from the yard, in particular Osku, who thinks of himself as Tarzan (‘Orzan’) and who later becomes Pipey’s fiancé. Pipey’s friends at work and in her punk circles are also very colourful personalities.
This tragicomic novel also gives rise to a variety of serious interpretations. The anarchic Pipey can be seen as a feminist figure crossing boundaries and subverting traditional gender roles. Järvelä is not usually considered a social critic, but this novel examines changes in the structure of society through its depiction of the changes in the cityscape and in everyday life. The novel can even be read from a psychoanalytical perspective.
Järvelä clearly has a firm grasp of the practical and technical aspects of working as a chimney sweep, as he does of the cultural phenomena that characterised the 1960s and 70s. With skill and devotion he describes both the lives of working people and a burgeoning youth underground culture. Järvelä paints a breathtaking and exhilarating canvas full of intricate details and unexpected turns.
Translated by David Hackston
Tags: novel
Tuomas Juntunen: In the Congo (Archives online)
Maria Säntti: Endurance tests (Archives online)
Jari Järvelä: A roof with a view (Fiction)
Also by Tuomas Juntunen
Happy days, sad days - 28 February 2013
Riku Korhonen: Nuku lähelläni [Sleep close to me] - 28 February 2013
The ruins of civilisation - 31 August 2012
Out of the body - 13 January 2011
A hard day’s night - 30 June 2008
Scholar and critic Tuomas Juntunen (born 1976) lives in Helsinki. His dissertation on the works of the author Juha Seppälä (in the Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian studies at University of Helsinki) was published in 2012.
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Tuneage Tutelage - Delta Blues Series - Howlin' Wolf
Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Tuesday, April 22, 2008
I had promised this next installment of Tuneage Tutelage – The Delta Blues a while ago, but due to the old iMac dying and getting the new one and then having to transfer everything and because I tend to just be a lazy-ass sometimes schedule too many things at one time, I have not gotten to it until now.
Then we had problems with music, but are trying something new. PLEASE tell us if you hear the whole song or just 30-seconds of the song.
http://www.howlingwolfphotos.com
On June 10th, 1910 in White Station, MS, Chester Arthur Burnett was born to Gertrude Jones and Leon “Dock” Burnett. Named for the 21st President of the United States, Chester was given the nicknames “Big Foot” and “Bull Cow” as a child because of his massive size. He eventually grew to be well 6’3” and weighed about 275 pounds.
When Chester was still young, Leon left the family and moved into the Mississippi Delta. Gertrude was a very religious and a very strict woman. Her relationship with her son was strained from early on. While he was still a child, Gertrude threw him out of the house for refusing to work around the farm.
Chester moved in with his uncle Will Young, a man described by those that knew him as “The meanest man between here and hell.” This description seems to have fit perfectly, as stories tell us he was abusive to the young Chester.
When he was 13-years old, fed up with the abuse from his uncle, Chester took off walking barefoot some 85 miles to find his father in Ruleville, MS where he was welcomed into their home on the Young & Morrow Plantation. There he met his half-sister and step-siblings and found a warm home in which to live.
There are a number of different stories regarding his nickname. One was that his grandfather (John Jones) gave Chester the nickname he would carry the rest of his life – HOWLIN’ WOLF. The story says that granddad would tell Chester stories about the wolves that roamed that part of Mississippi and warned the young rebellious boy that if he misbehaved, they would get him.
Another bases the nickname on Chester’s trademark growl, which he fashioned after the “blue yodel” he learned from Jimmie Rodgers.
Around this time he began listening to Charley Patton and when he was 18 his father bought him a guitar and Chester began taking lessons from Mr. Patton who lived and worked on the Dockery Plantation nearby.
Chester began listening to and learning from the great Delta musicians who lived on the plantations and played in the local juke joints. They included, besides Patton, Mississippi Shieks, Tommy Johnson and Jimmie “the Singing Brakeman” Johnson. He learned the harmonica from Rice Miller (known as Sonny Boy Williamson II), who was dating Chester’s step-sister Mary for a period of time.
For awhile, he played music while wearing tiny wire-rim glasses and a dark suit like the only known photo of Lemon Jefferson.
Drafted in 1941, Wolf went into the Army Signal Corps and spent his time in the service mostly in the Pacific Northwest at Fort Lewis, Washington and Camp Adair, Oregon. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1943 and was discharged from the Army, and soon moved with his girlfriend to a house in Lebanon, Tennessee.
In 1945, his girlfriend also suffered a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized. Wolf left Tennessee and returned to playing music, and helping his father on his farm during the spring and fall. The rest of the year, Wolf was traveling through the South, playing with Delta blues men such as Willie Brown and Son House.
In 1948, Wolf moved to West Memphis, Arkansas, where he put together a band that included harmonica players James Cotton and Junior Parker and guitarists Pat Hare, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, and Willie Johnson. He also got a spot on radio station KWEM, playing blues and endorsing farm gear.
Ike Turned spotted Wolf and brought him to Sam Phillips, the famous record producer, who went into the studio with him and recorded some material.
These first recordings were in 1951 when he was simultaneously signed to Modern Records and Chess Records. That August, Chess released the song “How Many More Years”. Around the same time, Wolf recorded some cuts for Modern with Ike Turner. Eventually, Chess won the war of the record labels and he moved to Chicago in early 1953.
Wolf formed a band that eventually included Hubert Sumlin who became the only regular member for the remainder of Wolf’s recording career (except for a short time when Sumlin went to work with Muddy Waters).
At that time, Muddy Waters was making a big name for himself and the two, who were friends, began a competition that lasted for years. This competition began as Wolf tried to obtain songs written by Willie Dixon at the same time Muddy was hopeful to record them for the label they shared, Chess.
Some feel the rivalry between Wolf and Muddy pushed each of these men to greater success than if the rivalry had not existed.
In the 1950’s, Wolf had four songs chart on the Billboard National R&B charts; they were “How Many More Years” (1951 - #4); the flip side “Moanin’ At Midnight” (1951 - #10); “Smokestack Lightning” (1956 - #8) and “I Asked For Water” (1956 - #8). In 1958 the album Moanin’ At Midnight was released containing previously released singles and a couple of new tunes.
In 1962 the album Howlin’ Wolf was released. Many refer to this album as “The Rocking Chair” album due to the photo on the cover of an acoustic guitar leaning against a rocking chair. The album contained four songs which have become iconic in the annuals of rock and roll, having been covered by a multitude of British and American artists. They are “Wang Dang Doodle”, “Goin’ Down Slow”, “Spoonful”, and “Little Red Rooster”.
The relationship with his mother was never mended. A while after finding success in Chicago, Chester went home to visit his mama and find some peace in their relationship. It is said she drove him from the house, refusing to accept any of the money he offered her since it came from “the devil’s music”.
Chester Burnett was a rarity among those who came out of the Delta with music in their soul in that he avoided the pitfalls of alcohol and gambling and actually saved his money. At one point, Howlin' described himself as “the onliest one to drive himself up from the Delta.” This he actually did, with $4,000.00 dollars in his pocket and piloting his own automobile.
Many who tried to escape the hard life of the Delta by traveling the “Blues Highway” were not as successful as Howlin' Wolf. The “Blues Highway” still exists today, though it is a bit more modern – even becoming a 4-lane highway in spots – then it was back then. Highway 61 stretches from Vicksburg, MS to Memphis, TN, traveling through the infamous town of Clarksville, MS.
COUCH NOTE: I am planning a trip sometime in the early fall to just get in the car with the Tuneage loaded up and a number of rolls of film and discover the heritage that exists along this stretch of road. I will be sharing it with you all when it happens.
Wolf met his wife Lillie when she attended one of his shows in Chicago. From an urban family, Lillie was more refined than most of the women in Wolf ’s life, but they built a strong bond, which lasted until his death. They raised two daughters, Bettye and Barbara. After their marriage, Lillie managed their finances giving Wolf the ability to pay his band members more than others could at the time.
Several musicians who played with both Muddy and Wolf say Wolf was a more professional band leader. Wolf paid his people on time and withheld unemployment insurance and even Social Security, which some of his band members are drawing today.
Wolf also stood up for his band and wouldn’t be taken advantage of. Jimmy Rogers, who played for years in Muddy’s band, said, “Wolf was better at managing a bunch of people than Muddy or anybody else. Muddy would go along with the Chess company. [But] Wolf would speak up for himself.”
In the early 60’s Wolf traveled to Europe to appear with the American Blues Festival tour, making a name for himself on the other side of the Atlantic.
He seemed to understand that these young rock artists were the next generation of musicians as he was after the great Delta blues artists and he built strong relationships with many of them.
This led to the 1970 album The Howlin’ Wolf London Sessions, recorded in London with Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Ringo Starr and Steve Winwood among others.
In the early 70’s his health began to deteriorate. Having already suffered a heart attack a few years before, an auto accident in 1970 caused irreparable damage to his kidney, necessitating frequent dialysis treatments.
Despite failing health, Wolf continued to play live and released three final albums; the 1972 Live and Cookin’ at Alice’s Revisited (a Chicago blues club), a second London album London Revisited with Muddy Waters and his last studio album Back Door Wolf.
His last performance was in Chicago in November of 1975 with B.B. King. Two months later he passed from kidney failure. His wife Lillie was laid by his side when she passed in 2001.
Chester “Howlin’ Wolf” Burnett was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall Of Fame in 1980. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame under the “Early Influence” category in 1991 and in 2003, he was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame.
The Howlin’ Wolf Blues Society was formed in West Point, MS in 1996 and the Howlin’ Wolf Blues Festival is held each year since 1996.
It does not matter if you are a fan of rock, soul, alternative, metal, or folk, Howlin’ has been covered by them all. Here are just a few examples:
Howling Wolf
Albert King
This song was also used as a basis for the Led Zeppelin song, "The Lemon Song"
"SPOONFUL"
"SMOKESTACK LIGHTNING"
"BACK DOOR MAN"
"LITTLE RED ROOSTER"
* Howlin' Wolf: vocals, harmonica, acoustic guitar
* Eric Clapton: lead guitar
* Hubert Sumlin: rhythm guitar
* Steve Winwood: piano, organ
* Bill Wyman, Klaus Voormann, Phil Upchurch: bass
* Charlie Watts, Ringo Starr (credited as "Richie"): drums
* Ian Stewart, Lafayette Leake, John Simon: piano
* Jeffrey M. Carp: harmonica
* Joe Miller, Jordan Sandke, Dennis Lansing: horns
We will give you more music from Mr. Chester Burnett tomorrow...
Delta Blues Series, Howlin' Wolf, Tuneage Tutelage
Posted on Wed Apr 23, 05:47:00 AM CDT
Great music.. but the firt two don't work.
Maybe you can find a player that would put all of them in a "jukebox"...
I am always fascinated by the stories behind the music, and this is a great one!
Man...ya gotta love the "Howlin' Wolf"! Wouldn't you give anything to hear these guys in their prime with today's technology in instruments and sound?
Well apparently frickin imeem has gone to only playing snippets on the blogs now--last Friday it was playing the whole song--I know because i played the marvin gaye Tammi Terrell song about fifty times. Well at least folks can download them *sigh*
awesome tutelage sugar.
ANNDI: They work for me here. Are you not hearing anything or just 30-seconds?
DANA: TY...glad you enjoyed.
DRILLERAA: Funny, not sure I would want the technology...it would change the 'rawness' which is the beauty of the music IMHO
TURNBABY: I am wondering if you heard the whole song Friday since you uploaded it...I hear the entire songs here.
I love the blues and Howlin' Wolf, but Albert King is one of my All-Time faves. Cheers Vinny!!
TURN: See I hate that people can download the songs... I like lifelogger because it is streaming and does not put the music out of my control.
Excellent tutelage!...(hearing the 30 sec. clips out here in The Delta)
Posted on Wed Apr 23, 12:28:00 PM CDT
I love these posts...will be back later tonight from home when I can concentrate & listen!
PHRANKIE: Wish they played fully....dang it all
TUG: TY and unfortunately, you might not be able to listen, but come back tomorrow and there is something special planned
While I'm not much of a Blues fan I like Burnett's stuff... Thanks for sharing Vinny! ;D
Oh I am with you on the technology view, Bond. To me it would be like erasing history. I don't want to hear a cleaned up version of any of the old blues greats. That echoy scratchy sound is like ghosts of the past singing in your ear.
THE TEACH: Glad you enjoyed...More music tomorrow in a new format.
STARRLIGHT: Yup Yup... The rawness of the recording adds to the rawness of the music...
RRRROOOWWLLLL!
Bud Weiser, WTIT Says:
You did yourself proud with this post today. I am partial to this type of post, but you exceeded expectations and that is a great thing. Thank you for the class today, Professor!
what a great post and some musical history. I love what's behind the music as well... that was fun!
Outstanding.
My good gracious you have been busy. I disapeared. I was wounded and retreated fast. I'm back. It's over, 'nough said.
KB: Yup....Cougars AND Howlin' go RRRROOOOOWWWWWLLLLL
TRAVIS: THank you very much Sir...hope you like tomorrow's
LU': Very happy you are back...Glad you enjoyed.
Posted on Thu Apr 24, 11:58:00 AM CDT
BUD: TY Sir...from a musicologist such as yourself that means a lot
LEELEE: So glad you enjoyed...
Posted on Thu Apr 24, 07:24:00 PM CDT
I am ashamed to say I had never heard of this fellow - but I'm making up for it now! He's awesome!
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Copley model village
In 1837, Jonathan Akroyd bought a mill and land at Copley from Richard Kennett-Dawson.
Another mill with a grand triumphal arch was built nearby in 1847, and Jonathan Akroyd. The only existing accommodation for the workers was a row of 18th/19th century cottages, others had to travel some distance to the mill. With the dual intent of providing a labour source and improving social conditions – conceived a model housing scheme for the company's employees.
Jonathan died in 1847, a few months before building on the new village began. The work was completed by his son, Edward, in 1849. The design was by Scott and Crossland. The original name for the village was Copley Mills.
The first row of 36 houses cost £120 each to build. There were originally 112 back-to-back houses, and 24 through-houses were built later.
Copley had four shops, its own school in 1849, its own library in 1850, and its own co-operative society until 1968. In the 1860s, the annual rent for a house was £5 15/- or £4 for the later, cheaper houses.
The streets have names such as Calder Terrace, St Stephen's Street, and Railway Terrace - not as imaginative as those at Akroydon. Most of the buildings in the area are listed.
Akroyd built a parsonage in Wakefield Road and paid the salaries of ministers to the new village. One of these, Rev James Hope planned a new church for the village – Parish Church of St Stephen – which was built in 1863.
After Edward Akroyd's death in 1887, the mills, houses and school were sold.
In 1967, the back-to-back houses were knocked through and modernised. New houses were built on the site of the Sunday School for St Stephen's church which had been demolished in 196?.
The mill was taken over by the Yorkshire & Lancashire Tulketh Group, but was finally demolished in 1975. A housing estate now stands on the site
See Copley Gas Works and St Stephen's Church
© Malcolm Bull 2019
Revised 17:03 /21st January 2019 / mmc1650 / 6073
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Ann Conrad is an Indianapolis native who has BA and MA degrees from Ball State University with majors in piano and voice. She recently retired after a 38 year career as choral director at Carmel High School where she served as director and accompanist for many of the 11 CHS choirs including the award-winning Ambassadors and Accents show choirs. She received the James B. Calvert Award for excellence in music education and was recognized by the Mayor of Carmel for her contributions to the arts in the community.
She has served as the Music Director of the Young Artist Program of Civic Theatre and as a guest clinician on audition techniques. In addition to teaching private voice lessons at Carmel Music Center and Park Tudor School, Ann is in demand as a judge for show choir competitions in the area and works as an accompanist for singers and instrumentalists.
Ann is an accomplished performer with credits in musical theatre, opera, and jazz. During the holiday season, she appears more than 60 times throughout Central Indiana as her alter-ego, Mrs. Claus! Ann lives in the Arts and Design District of Carmel with her musician husband Charles.
Click here to go back to the Teacher Directory.
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Movie Review: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - Innocence and Horror Overlap to Create a Powerful Story
Mark Herman's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, adapted from the 2006 book by John Boyne, is a riveting look at the Holocaust from the perspective of Bruno (Asa Butterfield), an 8-year-old German boy. Bruno's father, Ralf (David Thewlis), is a Nazi soldier who has just been promoted. His wife (Vera Farmiga), is proud of her husband's advancement, and oblivious to the horrors the Nazis are secretly perpetrating against the Jews in the name of the Fatherland. The promotion forces Bruno and his older sister to move to the country with their parents. When Bruno spies a faraway farm populated by strange workers in pajamas through his bedroom window, he asks his mother if he can go play with the kids in the pajamas. His mother and father have a quick argument, which leads to the boarding up of said window. Ralf has been given the post of commandant over a concentration camp, a fact that Bruno's mother never wants her son to find out. Bruno, intrepid explorer that he is, ends up meeting a boy, Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), on the other side of the electrified fence surrounding the camp. He visits the boy daily, providing food and learning about Shmuel's second-class status as a Jew. While Bruno tries to reconcile the denigrating daily life his friend faces at his father's camp with the kinder image he has of his dad, Bruno's mom's sanity starts to erode as the full impact of the atrocities committed on the Jews is slowly revealed to her. Boyne's story is moving, but even though the film seems to be earning recommendations by family groups, caution should be used when taking anyone under fifteen to see it. The film's ending is strong. It does not shy away from bringing the full horror of the Nazis' campaign of terror right to the commandant's family's doorstep. Thewlis is particularly effective in this scene, as a man who has made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of a way of life that helps him repress his own feelings of inadequacy. The film's power lies in the juxtaposition of an innocent's comprehension of the horrifying events that surround him. Again and again, director Herman reminds us of these twisted overlaps. The pedestrian buildings of the camp almost look innocuous when surrounded by the beautiful countryside. It is only the dark smoke of the crematorium slicing its way across the sky, while Bruno swings on a spare tire from a tree, that signal the sickening cruelties of the camp. The kindness of Pavel (David Hayman), the family's Jewish servant, when patching up Bruno's knee after a fall, is shown in relief to the same man being beaten to death by a young Nazi soldier (Rupert Friend) after he accidentally spills the soldier's wine glass. Herman never lets you forget that the Nazi's ideology may not only have been beyond the boy's comprehension, it may be beyond most of humanity's. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas opens Friday, November 7th, in limited release in theaters across the country. Still provided courtesy of Miramax Films.
Labels: Asa Butterfield, David Hayman, David Thewlis, Film Review, Holocaust, Jack Scanlon, John Boyne, Mark Herman, Nazi, period drama, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Vera Farmiga, war, World War II
MovieMan0283 said...
This sounds like a great movie - I wonder why it's become so controversial (guess I'll have to see it to find out). David Thewlis is a great actor and I'm always fascinated by films which show a child's outlook onto world-historical events...as you suggest, it's a successful metaphor for the way some of these events are beyond ALL of our comprehension.
(Anything you can do about the Tom Cruise trailer playing every time one tries to navigate the blog?)
By the way, I'm back on Twin Peaks again...I found the season two premiere much more lackluster than I remember but just watched the second episode and enjoyed it.
I don't mean to be so cold-hearted, but this seems like every other "typical" Holocaust movie and highly redundant. I realize I'm judging it without seeing it, which is never fair to the film involved, but it looked prototypical for every other film that deals with the Holocaust anymore.
The only one that broke out of that mold recently (at least to me) was Lajos Koltai's extraordinary FATELESS...it presented a new look and a new perspective. Telling me it is beyond comprehension (true as it may be) is old news.
Again, I admit to judging without seeing, but that was my gut reaction to the preview. From your take on it, it doesn't sound like I'm all that off-base although, I suppose, just because its familiar doesn't mean it can't be effective.
On some level, I agree with you. My mistake was in not clarifying from what position I was approaching it. But I approached this movie with kid gloves... literally.
What I mean, is that it seems to be directed at children, and I tried to view it on that level. When seen on that level, it is a horrific film that plays a bit like a morality play or fable. And unlike say, The Diary of Anne Frank, the climax packs a huge visceral punch.
Had I approached it as an adult, I may have had the same qualms as you. Seen from that perspective, it's certainly no Night Porter or even a Schindler's List. But since having children, I've learned to be able to switch that "kid glove" switch off and on, sometimes because I find such films to be good prospects in terms of educating my sons on certain difficult subjects in the future.
Bottom line: I think it was fashioned as a children's movie (albeit older children), and as such, it works.
Makes sense...I just put it into Holocaust film territory, sort of assuming no WW2 movie is "for kids" but I understand what you're saying.
Dean Treadway said...
It is interesting to have a movie like this, as you say, for children. However, I think THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK works very well in that regard, even if it is in B&W. My problem with BOY is...wouldn't have some guards seen these kids at the fence? Seems like a logic jump that might be a little hard to handle. How does the movie solve this problem (or does it)?
Dean:
They handle it about as well as you've surmised... not very well. But the film has such a Grimm's Fairy Tale feel to it, that you are willing to suspend your disbelief.
BTW, I meant no disrepect towards the Anne Frank film. But the ending to Striped Pajamas simply rips into your gut, in such a way, that I felt advising caution was necessary when addressing young viewers.
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Breaking Down the Sweet 16: West
The West region still has a little bit of everything: defense (Wisconsin), a rematch of a single-digit game in November (Arizona-San Diego State), and a team that ended Doug McDermott’s college career (Baylor). It starts back up on Thursday, so here is a breakdown of the two matchups:
(6) Baylor (26-11) vs. (2) Wisconsin (28-7)
Thursday, March 27, TBD 7:47 PM, Anaheim, CA; TBS.
Background: Baylor made the Elite 8 in 2010 and 2012, so they hope to stick to the script in 2014. The Bears have won 12 of 14 including a pair of tourney game by an average of 22 points. Wisconsin began last week with a 40-point win over American, then fell behind to Oregon by double-digits in the 1st half before turning it on after halftime en route to an 8-point win. The Badgers are 0-3 in the Sweet 16 since 2008, but this year’s edition is much more effective on the offensive end. Neither team will enjoy a home-court advantage out in Anaheim after having very supportive crowds in their first two games in San Antonio (Baylor) and Milwaukee (Wisconsin), respectively.
Difference Maker: The Baylor backcourt of Kenny Chery and Brady Heslip, specifically their three-point shooting. It will be very interesting to see which tandem shows up: the one that scored 20 points on 3-14 field goals (including 0-7 3PM) with two assists and four turnovers against Nebraska, of the one that scored 31 points on 10-17 FG (including 9-12 3PM) with six assists and two turnovers against Creighton.
Baylor wins if: they continue to get balanced scoring (four players with double-digits against the Huskers and 5 players with double-digits against Bluejays).
Wisconsin wins if: they continue to make shots from behind the arc (10 against the Eagles and 11 against the Ducks).
Prediction: Wisconsin did not lose to a single non-conference opponent this year, and I think their streak will live on if they can defend the three point line.
(1) Arizona (32-4) vs. (4) San Diego State (31-4)
Thursday, March 27, 10:17 PM, Anaheim, CA; TBS.
Background: Xavier Thames showed why he was named Mountain West POY by scoring 23 points against New Mexico State and 30 points against North Dakota State. Pac-12 POY Nick Johnson is averaging 17.5 points in a pair of wins over Weber State and Gonzaga. Aztec coach Steve Fisher is trying to make his 1st Elite 8 in 20 years, while Wildcat coach Sean Miller is shooting for his second Elite 8 in the past four years. Arizona beat San Diego State by nine points back in November, but Brandon Ashley played in that game and Dwayne Polee did not, so this could be a whole new ballgame in the only Sweet 16 game featuring a pair of 30-win teams. Even though the Aztecs have the shorter commute to Anaheim, both teams will enjoy plenty of on-site support from their boisterous fan bases.
Difference Maker: San Diego State forward Josh Davis. He was my difference maker twice last week and responded with 14 rebounds against the Aggies and 13 rebounds against the Bison. He only had two points and four rebounds in his previous meeting against Arizona, but with Ashley out due to a broken foot you should expect Davis to be all over the boards at both ends of the court.
Arizona wins if: they continue to play elite defense (allowed 59 points on 30 FG% to the Wildcats and 61 points on 41 FG% to the Bulldogs).
San Diego State wins if: they continue to get some offense from their bench (23 points against New Mexico State and 20 points against North Dakota State).
Prediction: Arizona by single-digits in a relatively low-scoring affair, but if the Aztecs can hold onto the ball then it should go right down to the wire.
JonTeitel
Who’s Got Next? Wake Forest Finally Searches for a New Coach
Breaking Down the Sweet 16: East
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http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/309837
Will Chuck Lorre Kill Charlie Sheen, err, Harper?
Posted Aug 2, 2011 by Steffan Ileman
Rumour has it that Chuck Lorre, the producer of Two And A Half Men, will kill Charlie Harper in the sitcom’s new season. An unlikely historic take on the Charlie Sheen affair. Test your HQ (Humour Quotient) with a new perspective on history.
Charlie Sheen in March 2009
According to a leak floating around Hollywood, Chuck Lorre has decided to kill the series’ lead character Charlie Harper to pave the way for an Ashton Kutcher takeover. The first episode will start with a memorial service in honour of Charlie. The Malibu beachfront house will be put up for sale and snapped by Ashton Kutcher, the new bad boy, who will take a liking to Alan and Jake and will let them stay, although most of the audience seems to agree that the grown-up Jake isn’t so cute any more.
Plausible? Well, with all the Bourbon he consumed Charlie’s liver could have quit any time. It was a miracle that his promiscuity didn’t get him syphilis or AIDS. Yes, he paid for it when he couldn’t get it free. He could’ve been murdered by one of the hearts he broke, was there a vindictive hot-blooded Latino among his exploits? Or, his heart could simply have stopped with the combination of booze and Viagra. Yes, he lately needed help from Pfizer to maintain his reputation as a breeder bull that had no intention to reproduce.
The audience is divided over whether the younger Ashton Kutcher of "Hey Dude, Where's My Car" fame is a shoe-in for the self-righteous wickedness of Charlie Sheen’s character that compelled so much laughter. What about Charlie’s girlfriends who are somewhat too mature for the Dude Guy? Well, if Kutcher’s real life is any indication, the "Black Hawk Down" hero goes for older women. He landed his chopper on Demi Moore. He’ll probably get a hold of Charlie’s phone book and make a move on the boobilicious. Charlie also had mommy issues.
Charlie Sheen was fired from his job as the sitcom’s Charlie Harper after he publicly made highly offensive remarks about his boss and producer, Chuck Lorre. Chuck Lorre has produced some of TV’s most successful comedies such as “Dharma and Gregg” and the currently running “Mike and Molly”. Lorre is generally well-liked by his colleagues and actors he works with. He publishes a vanity card at the end of each of his productions, which outlines his personal experiences, opinions and philosophy.
Here’s the possible take of another wicked historic character on Lorre’s predicament with Sheen, in a parallel reality...Watch this new perspective on history, and see if you are Two And A Half Men material.
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© 2019 The Children's Prize All rights reserved
Koohi Goth Hospital: On Obstetric Fistula & Restoring Dignity
“Why do women have to leak for thirty long years before finally finding their way to us?” said Dr. Shershah Syed, President of the Pakistan National Forum on Women’s Health (PNFWH).
While on a visit to Pakistan, we had the opportunity to meet a key partner organization working with Dr. Anita Zaidi and her VITAL Pakistan team. This organization, named Koohi Goth Hospital, was established in 2005 and is a project of the Zafar and Atiya Foundation Charitable Trust. This is a family foundation with generations of physicians who are all heart and soul, and deeply committed to vulnerable and underprivileged communities serving poor women and children.
Originally displayed on the Pakistan National Forum on Women’s Health website.
While touring the Koohi Goth facility and learning more about their work, we had the opportunity to spend some time with the amazing and inspiring Dr. Shershah Syed and his team which included Dr. Saboohi Mehdi and Sarwan Kumar. Dr. Syed shared with us the rich family history that has infused his profession. The foundation’s work is unwavering in its commitment to education and health. One of the most striking features shared was the lack of payment for services provided while at Koohi Goth Hospital, a true indication of their mission to provide care for the poor and under-served at no cost.
At its essence, the fundamental belief in the human dignity of each person they service and that education and health are basic human rights became evident as we walked the corridors of the hospital, meeting women of all ages that were being trained as community health workers, midwives, technicians etc. Their and training being provided free of cost and in fact students were rewarded with a living area and a stipend/scholarships during their stay. The emphasis on human dignity was most profound as the discussion shifted to stories of women that experienced obstetric fistula. See story below.
Koohi Goth Hospital offers fistula services and have also incorporated a social integration program to further help the women cope with the depression associated to their experience. In fact, the origins of Koohi Goth Hospital focused on the taboo disease known as the Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF), Recto Vaginal Fistula (RVF) among other gyno-related problems. Koohi Goth Hospital continues to actively work towards the elimination of RVF and VVF and the protection women from other labor related complications and gynecologic diseases.
What’s a fistula or an obstetric fistula?
Obstetric fistula is a connection between the vagina and rectum or bladder that is a direct consequence of prolonged or obstructed labor. Women are left incontinent (having no or insufficient voluntary control) of urination or defecation. This condition can be extremely stigmatizing and difficult to live with, leaving these women incapable of leading normal lives.
Why is there an international day to end it?
Because this is a preventable condition that chronically affects some of the most poor and marginalized women in the world, women who live in rural areas where in obstetric care is poor, or non-existent, and skilled labor is difficult to reach. This type of childbirth-related devastation can be fully spared.
Obstetric History Lesson at Koohi Goth Hospital
How many women are affected?
According to the World Health Organization, between 50,000 to 100,000 women worldwide develop obstetric fistula each year. However, these estimates are based on scanty data and need to be updated. According to the Fistula Foundation, over one million women suffering from obstetric fistula worldwide. Fistula is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
The Koohi Goth facility is a 200-bed healthcare center, with about 70-beds currently functional, and providing Obstetric & Gynecological services at no charge and without any discrimination of race, color, caste, or creed. Located in the outskirts of Karachi and conveniently built only 2 kilometers from the National Highway, the hospital serves as a true oasis for maternal health and women’s health in Pakistan. The facility is staffed 24-hours a day by world and country renown specialists like Dr. Shershah Syed, founder of Pakistan National Forum on Women’s Health, who volunteer their time in order to improve maternal health and save the lives of women and children.
Koohi Goth Hospital Courtyard
We want to honor the work of Dr. Syed, his incredible and noble family, and all the staff at Koohi Goth Hospital for the transformative work they are doing every single day. No woman should have to endure the pain, suffering, and social ostracization that follows an obstetric fistula. Working in collaboration, we can save more lives, and help improve the health of women and children who most need it. Thank you!
by childrensprize
Families Matter: Global & Contemporary Insights
The International Day of Families provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families. The theme for 2015 is: Men in Charge? Gender Equality and Children’s Rights in Contemporary Families. Within the context of the development goals, this theme is timely and spot on! Discussion of future goals to elevate health, gender equality and children’s rights involves engaging more men in charge. This year, as we build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we have an opportunity to share more stories that celebrate leadership in supporting families with their social and economic successes. Happy International Day of Families from the Children’s Prize!
Below are a couple of examples from the Children’s Prize portfolio illustrating how dynamic leadership makes a positive difference:
Aleyda K. Mejia (center), Children’s Prize Director, is accompanied by father and daughter during 2014 Pakistan field project visit.
During our visit to Pakistan, in 2014, we met with a father and his daughter and had an opportunity to learn about their incredible story.The young lady to the right will be the youngest midwife trained in the local community of Rehri Goth. Her family lives in a very conservative part of the village, and her father played a critical role in ensuring that she’d pursue her midwifery studies. He stood firm for both himself and his daughter. In tears, he explained how proud he was that his daughter would have this opportunity through Dr. Anita Zaidi's Children's Prize project. Not only will a select group of women in the community receive valuable and life-saving training, but the experience will also provide them with an income.
Women acting out a Drama about birth in Uganda.
Meet our partner Safe Mothers Safe Babies (aka SAFE)! Located in Uganda, their project includes Save for SAFE Deliveries and Save for SAFE Families, primary ways that Safe Mothers, Safe Babies seeks to help women and their families prepare for birth and health emergencies. In this region of the country, as in many similarly disadvantaged locations, families do not have enough money to pay for transport and medical supplies during birth and medical emergencies. It can take hours, or even days, for them to borrow enough money from relatives and neighbors to save enough to secure transportation. During a health emergency or a complicated delivery, those hours and days can result in significant injuries or death to women, babies, and children.
Saving boxes painted and ready to be sold.
To address this issue, the Save for SAFE Deliveries and Save for SAFE Families projects encourage a culture of saving to prepare for the expenses of childbirth and childhood illnesses. Working in partnership with SAFE community groups, we work to normalize the idea that everyone will need to get medical care at some point and that the best thing to do is to prepare for that event. Pregnant women, their partners, and families of young children are educated about maternal, child, and family health. We target the ENTIRE family - incorporating men in the discussion - because they are often the decision-makers and could equally benefit from saving for health emergencies. We normalize this idea by encourage families to purchase a savings box (at cost, about $0.40) and deposit a small amount of money in the box every day. The boxes are made by the community groups using materials that SAFE supplies; the groups chose to use boxes that have to be broken open to access the money as a way to deter spending. Best part of it all? It's works! Women have expressed both joy and gratitude for having saved enough money to cover some of the expenses of motherhood that would have otherwise negatively affected their chances and their newborn baby’s chances of surviving birth.
"On my last born I did everything I was told, because I was told to save, told to call the eRanger [motorcycle ambulance] when I reached the time to go to the health center to deliver, and then I did everything I was told. I felt so happy because before I wasn't comfortable, I was moving on a boda boda [motorcycle taxi]. But now I get my baby well, I take good care, and I get good care because I follow all what I was told to do. I had money to [go] and even to eat something because I saved my money."
SAFE eRanger user and her newborn with eRanger driver
#ChildrenFirst: Reflections from the UNICEF Annual Meeting 2015
The 2015 UNICEF Annual Meeting was both a celebration and movement to put #ChildrenFirst. Held at the Times Center in NYC on Friday, May 8th, the day-long meeting was filled with inspiring discussions and video clips illustrating the impact UNICEF made in the past year. The auditorium was filled with people from all sort of backgrounds and UNICEF Affiliations including young ambassadors, college students, fellows, board members and supporters. At 9:00 AM, Caryl M. Stern, President and CEO, took the stage and excitedly commenced the event. She reminded us of the UNICEF mission to “advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.”
"The investment in children is paramount to global stability. 14 million children. Each one has a name. Each one has a story. When children's lives are at stake we do not have the luxury to do one or the other. We do both." - @CarylStern
Caryl Stern speaking at UNICEF Annual Meeting
Voices from the Field panel was moderated by Dr. Richard Besser (@DrRichardBesser), Chief Health and Medical Editor of ABC News, and included:
Barabara Bentein (@bbentein), UNICEF Deputy Global Emergency Coordinator
Robert G. Jenkins (@RobertG_Jenkins),@UNICEFJordan Representative
Christine Munduate, @unicefhonduras Representative
Afshan Khan, Director, Office of Emergency Programmes (EMOPS), UNICEF
From Left to Right: Moderator Dr. Richard Besser and Panelists Afshan Khan, Barabara Bentein, Robert G. Jenkins, and Christine Munduate.
The Panel reflected on UNICEF’s past year and quick response to over 294 emergencies in 98 countries. UNICEF sites must constantly fight against corruption, violence, organized crime, dysfunctional governments and significant structural inequities that highly impact the work they do. These barriers to health and socio-economic empowerment are far too common for many organizations or individuals dedicated to global development or, more specifically, improving child health. Despite these barriers to progress, UNICEF has successfully managed to impact millions of families and children through measles vaccinations, feeding the malnourished, providing clean water, and increasing access to formal and informal education. And we must continue to do more, for “we live in an increasingly globalized world. What affects one part of the world will affect another,” as stated by Afshan Khan, UNICEF Director, Office of Emergency Programmes (EMOPS).
The final and highly energized panel at the meeting was all about UNICEF Kid Power. This is an effort to get students in America to stay active through a dual purpose innovative tech solution that simultaneously tackles malnutrition in the developing world. The program focuses on educating children in elementary and secondary schools about malnutrition and encourages healthy competition between schools and groups to get active. Each participant wears a Kid Power Band to track his or her steps and collect points that can be converted into “life-saving nutrition packets for malnourished children in developing countries.”
UNICEF Kid Power Bands
The annual meeting served as a reminder of the power of #storytelling. Every panelist, every speaker, every audience member had a story to tell. The stories brought to life children and families, they were made relatable in an effort to connect with those who may have never experienced the harsh realities of an impoverished livelihood. "Children give me hope. Even in the most difficult situations...they give me strength." Cristian Munduate, @unicefhonduras
Like the work of UNICEF, the Children's Prize also focuses on supporting projects and leadership that improves child health ensuring that more children survive and thrive. Through our community-based work we agree, #ChildrenFirst. If you have a moment, we encourage that you learn more about grassroots leaders whose work ranges from prevention of prenatal complications, to perinatal care packages, access to clean drinking water and Kangaroo Mother Care:
Nepal, Dr. Joanne Katz, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
Kenya, Dr. Abdhalah Ziraba, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC).
Angola, Lynn Cole, RISE International
Uganda, Jaqueline Cutts, Safe Mothers Safe Babies (SAFE)
Pakistan, Dr. Anita Zaidi
Midwife Feature: Innovative deployment of community-based portable ultrasounds
2014 Winner: Dr. Joanne Katz, Johns Hopkins University
“These are women who usually deliver at home or in facilities that cannot take care of these problems. By knowing in advance about these concerns, they can plan to deliver in a facility with the right staff and equipment to help save their lives and those of their infants. As technology becomes more portable and prices lower, it is important to try out life saving equipment to make sure it works as intended and can be effectively used in resource limited settings,” said Dr. Joanne Katz.
Today, May 5, 2015, is recognized for highlighting the work of midwives around the world. On this International Day of Midwives, we’d like to recognize and appreciate the work of our 2014 Winner, Dr. Joanne Katz and her team in rural Nepal. Their work focuses on assessing the feasibility of expanding antenatal care coverage and ultrasound access to low-resource communities through the deployment of Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs).
Proper care during labor and delivery can reduce the increased likelihood of mortality and morbidity from occurring in the first few hours of life. In addition, a significant number of expecting mothers around the world continue to deliver at home. With intrapartum-related complications being a major cause for neonatal deaths worldwide, this project is focused on training ANMs to identify a set of key factors of intrapartum-related neonatal, fetal and maternal death. Typically, these outcomes are thought to only be identified in a facility setting.
In early 2015, nurse midwives were trained to use portable ultrasounds to uncover common risk factors during home visits. The goal is to examine the sensitivity and specificity with which the nurse midwives are able to detect conditions that may lead to delivery complications as well as compare the early neonatal mortality and stillbirth rates between those who received an ultrasound exam through the study and a separate comparable group.
Thank you, team, for your work in ensuring healthy mothers and children!
Dr. Joanne Katz is Professor and Associate Chair at the Department of International Health of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Innovators of Global Health: Reflections from the 2015 GHIC Conference
The Global Health & Innovation Conference (#GHIC) is one of those events that we look forward to attending every year, and we highly recommend it to all. Hosted by Unite for Sight, GHIC is described as the world's leading and largest global health conference convening thought leaders and changemakers from all sectors of global health, international development, and social entrepreneurship. We couldn’t agree more with this description, and this focus on diversity makes GHIC appealing for our work at the Children’s Prize. There’s opportunity to connect with students and professionals through the numerous talks, workshops, pitches, poster sessions and coordinated networking events. This year, the theme was Focus on Quality: Evidence- and Outcomes-Based Conference and here are some reflections of the experience.
The Honorable Minister of Health of Rwanda, Agnes Binagwaho, M.D. at the 2015 GHIC Conference. Photo credit: Chelsea Ducharme twitter.com/@chelduch
We listened to high profile and engaging speakers at GHIC. We especially enjoyed the compelling keynote address from the Honorable Minister of Health of Rwanda, Agnes Binagwaho, MD. Dr. Binagwaho spoke about the essential principles that have improved health in Rwanda, including how to harness the power from traditional values to create a system of health that meets the people where they are. She focused on the importance of thinking of health as “multisectoral” because the social determinants of health are greatly impacted by sectors other than those within health. She stressed the need to abolish the double standards of health, as she eloquently stated: “We live in one world, not three.”
During the conference we had an opportunity to listen to Jeffrey Sachs’s inspiring presentation on the current status of the United Nation’s plan to improve the state of the world’s vulnerable population through the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals and emphasize the need for a new funding mechanism. The need for a Global Fund for Health.
From the poster session to the pitch presentations, Unite for Sight has provided a successful platform for the exchange of ideas and formation of partnerships. It is an exciting time to be investing in global health and global philanthropy, and conferences such as the #GHIC truly embody this. The transition to a healthier, more sustainable and inclusive world will require the help, dedication and hard work of many. GHIC provided an opportunity to listen and engage with other professionals doing transformative work that will improve health and increase access to opportunities to ensure “Health for All.”
Leveraging funding to achieve these goals is a major component of global health; it is essential for the creation and implementation of programs that aim to successfully strengthen a health system. With that in mind, the Children’s Prize will be searching for solutions-focused innovative minds with an actionable plan to reduce key health indicators, such as under 5 mortality rates, and increase child survival. One winner will be awarded a $250,000 to implement their project. Are you turning ideas into concrete solutions in the child health space? Then this opportunity is for you! For more details on how to apply, visit childrensprize.org.
Shout-Outs to Young Innovators
GHIC Innovation Prize Winner: Lucy Topaloff, from Miraclefeet, pitched the Miraclefeet Brace that offers a treatment for children with clubfoot in developing countries. The organization prides itself on three important identifiers for a sustainable treatment plan: low-cost, comfortable, and accessible. And we love it too! Congratulations!
Katelyn Chan, from PremieBreathe, spoke about a low-cost (approximately $500) solution to reduce neonatal deaths. PremieBreathe is a respiratory device prototype that warms and humidifies air for infants in respiratory distress. This is a simple, yet effective, technological solution to a major problem in health for areas that cannot access adequate health care. The Children’s Prize would love to see how this is implemented!
Kunmi Sobowale, from Motherhood Savings Today (MOST) discussed a microfinance intervention to improve birth outcomes and early childhood development. Motherhood is expensive, and to mitigate the costs of some of these health issues introduced by poverty, early childhood savings during the prenatal period can make a world’s difference in the life of a mother. Excellent work, Kunmi!
Dartmouth Researchers Win Quarter Million Prize to Reduce Neonatal Mortality in Haiti
Children’s Prize Foundation Announces Quarter-Million Dollar 2016 Competition
Ready to win the 2016 Children’s Prize? We’d like to help!
Meet the 2015 Children’s Prize Finalists
2015 Children’s Prize Round 1 Proposal Feedback
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By Cycling News October 12, 2013 1:23pm
Updated: October 12, 2013 3:06pm
Santambrogio: The affection of the internet saved me
Italian threatened suicide following EPO positive
Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) won the 14th stage of the Giro d'Italia, finishing first atop the Jafferau
Mauro Santambrogio has thanked the “affection of the internet” for saving him after he appeared to threaten suicide in a post on Twitter on Thursday night. The Italian rider tested positive for EPO at this year’s Giro d’Italia and admitted that he had struggled to cope with the widespread condemnation of his peers and the cycling public.
Santambrogio a man rediscovered at Bardonecchia
Santambrogio suspended by UCI for EPO positive
Report: Santambrogio could be cleared of doping
Yellow Fluo rises from the ashes of Vini Fantini
Scinto grateful for YellowFluo's Giro d'Italia wildcard invitation
Report: Santambrogio confesses to UCI CIRC doping Commission
On Thursday evening, Santambrogio – whose Twitter account had not been updated since the day news of his positive test broke in June – posted the chilling message “Goodbye world,” followed shortly afterwards by “I can’t do it any more.”
Santambrogio’s tweets provoked an avalanche of responses, from journalists and fellow riders, as well as from cycling fans, and a couple of hours later, he posted to allay their fears. “I have to and I will win this race,” he wrote. “Thank you for helping me reflect and for saving me.”
On Friday afternoon, Santambrogio spoke with Gazzetta dello Sport journalist Ciro Scognamiglio near his home in Inverigo, in the province of Como, and explained what had driven him to that point.
“I touched rock bottom and maybe I even went below that. But now I feel better,” Santambrogio said. “I understood that I was doing something stupid, something that was bigger than me. The affection that I felt around me on the internet saved me.”
Santambrogio won stage 14 of the Giro d’Italia in the snow atop the Jafferau and finished the race in 9th place overall, but his startling performances throughout the early part of the season had already aroused much suspicion from observers. On June 3, it was announced that Santambrogio – like his Vini Fantini-Selle Italia teammate Danilo Di Luca – had tested positive for EPO.
“I was condemned as a sportsman but above all as a man, and it’s the latter that really hurt me. It’s wounded me deeply. I’m not a criminal,” said Santambrogio of the reaction to his positive test. “In an instant, I went from the stars to the gutter. It’s that I had become a champion at the Giro but in my own way, within my environment, I felt like a little god. I lost everything and I became an outcast.
“My world is cycling and being away from it hurts me. On Sunday I started watching the Tour of Lombardy, my favourite race, my home race. But I couldn’t do it. I switched it off and I went to bed.”
B sample
Although immediately fired by his Vini Fantini-Selle Italia team, Santambrogio’s case remains in the balance, given that the UCI has yet to confirm the analysis of the B sample. In September, it was reported that the low levels of EPO in the A sample – believed to indicative of micro-dosing – were such that they might not be repeated in an analysis of the B sample, in which case Santambrogio would be cleared.
Santambrogio stopped short of confessing to Gazzetta on Friday, although he did admit that “it wasn’t easy to live with the reputation of being an eternal second, even if a lot of the races I lost were to champions.”
Vini Fantini manager Luca Scinto called on Santambrogio to confess but stressed that saving the man was more important than condemning the rider. “Let’s leave the rider aside and think about the man,” Scinto told Gazzetta. “I’m ready to help him, I’ve invited him to my house next week and I really hope he comes. Beyond that, if he has made a mistake, it’s right that he admits it.”
In the months since the Giro, Santambrogio has worked occasionally as a baker, after a friend suggested it as a way of filling his sleepless nights. “I did it a few times, from 2 or 3 at night until 10 or 11. I even learnt the trade, but to tell the truth, I still see myself as a cyclist,” he said.
“The affection I felt on the 'net after what I wrote did me a lot of good. Maybe I can’t do it on my own, so I’ve asked for help from a psychologist, who I will see this evening [Friday]. I want to make it. I have to make it.”
Italian emerges to win stage and move up to fourth at Giro d'Italia
Teammate of Di Luca positive on stage 1 of Giro d'Italia
Gazzetta dello Sport claims low levels of EPO in sample leaves case in doubt
September 04, 2013 8:44am
Italian team promises new internal rules after doping cases
Team to publish blood profiles online following 2013 positives
Italian's 18-month ban to end on November 2
Mauro Santambrogio
Vini Fantini
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Dan Lambert Guitar
Guitar Rebuilding
Dan Lambert
The Blue Hand http://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/01_The_Blue_Hand.mp3
One Word Titlehttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/02_One_Word_Title.mp3
Up A Notchhttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/03_Up_A_Notch.mp3
Turning Green Blueshttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/04_Turning_Green_Blues.mp3
3 Dogs, 2 Handshttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/05_3_Dogs_2_Hands.mp3
Running In Shallow Waterhttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/06_Running_In_Shallow_Water.mp3
Helicopter Heavenhttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/07_Helicopter_Heaven.mp3
Juan The Fiddlerhttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/08_Juan_The_Fiddler.mp3
Swinging On A Riffhttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/09_Swinging_On_A_Riff.mp3
The Vigilhttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/10_The_Vigil.mp3
East Of Hopehttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/11_East_Of_Hope.mp3
Twin Forkshttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/12_Twin_Forks.mp3
Dances With Himselfhttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/13_Dances_With_Himself.mp3
Howling Wildernesshttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/14_Howling_Wilderness.mp3
Jam In The Basementhttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/15_Jam_In_The_Basement.mp3
Once A Minorhttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/16_Once_A_Minor.mp3
The Old Countryhttp://www.danlambertguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/17_The_Old_Country.mp3
The Clearing is a collection of acoustic guitar pieces written and performed by Dan Lambert. James Sollis, author of The Guitar in Jazz and The Guitar Players states in the liner notes to The Clearing, “…some influences are obvious, others not. Robert Nighthawk still peeks out from time to time, as do Leo Kottke, Django, Don Rich, Keith Jarret, Bix and Trane, and the rock Dan grew up with. The most recent strong influence, evident in virtually every piece here, is Celtic music. Dan’s spent a lot of time of late in the UK, in Scotland, Northern England and Wales, and he’s been listening fulltilt to fiddle players, bagpipes, small pipes, accordians.”In discussing the pieces on The Clearing, Dan writes about “High Moors”, I’m fascinated by the high, open moorland of the UK. Walking by myself up on the hills, the springy feel of the heather underfoot – the isolation or aloneness is intensified in those high, craggy, rolling, sometimes featureless expanses. I feel at home, like I belong. The middle section of this song has a mid-Eastern, African, Moorish feel.”
“Like Lonnie Johnson, like Bix, Bird or Ornette Coleman, Dan Lambert exists to bring something into the world that’s not been there before. As with any serious artist, his reach forever exceeds his grasp – and we’re all the richer for it.” — James Sollis author of The Guitar in Jazz and The Guitar Players
Plaids The Blue House
© Dan Lambert Guitar 2015
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Nile Cruises
Cairo Luxor SharmElSheikh Taba Hurghada
Discover Egypt Useful Information Red Sea Therapeutic Tourism Ecotourism Oases Night Life Egypt Map
From Chairman Office Modern Lotus Travel SiteMap
Cairo Luxor SharmElSheikh Taba Hurghada Car Rental
More than one reason to choose the Red Sea
Crystal clear water with soft vivid colors of corals to be found nowhere else in the world. Sharks, Manta Rays, Napoleon Wrasses, Turtles plus an unbelievable variety of tropical fish all within short distances of the towns make the Red Sea area a diving heaven. Diving is not the only way to discover and enjoy the beauty of the Red Sea - snorkeling is another alternative.
The Red Sea thermal and geological conditions combine to bless and please windsurfers with a wide range of all year round consistent winds, suitable for all ages and levels. Activities in and around the water abound and include other water sports such as parasailing, sailing, water skiing, banana boats & rings, pedals, canoes, glass-bottom boat, and moreover beach buggies and 4x4 safari trips.
All of the above make the Red Sea a multi-faceted and exciting destination.
Holiday Spots in the Red Sea
El Ain El Sukhna
The Arabic word for "hot spring" - was named after a nearby sulphur spring. Close enough to Cairo for a day trip, this popular weekend resort has fine beaches, coves and coral reefs
El Gouna 25 km north of Hurghada. It is a tourist resort recently developed to offer ultra-modern facilities. It consists of several tourist resorts, international hotels of different categories, diving centers and a golf course
Hurghada Is the capital of the Red Sea Governorate and the most popular and accessible holiday destination. It has more than 50 km of coastline, attractive bays and fine sandy beaches and calm shallow waters which are features of this area. It has the largest selection of international hotels and tourist villages and is a complete resort town. Day trips to Cairo and Luxor by road are organized from Hurghada to explore the Land of the Pharaohs in more detail. Click here for more information regarding our all inclusive Azur Resorts.
Sahl Hashish
Located 24 km from Hurghada center where one can treat oneself to the luxury of Egypt's all-suite Oberoi Resort. Several suites have a private swimming pool. Enjoy its picturesque ambience and carry home colorful memories of a Red Sea retreat.
Situated 35 km south of Hurghada, well know for its sandy beaches, fascinating underwater world and its crystal clear waters. It is a complete and self contained resort that offers all facilities needed for an enjoyable vacation
Soma Bay
In a tranquil and secluded setting 45 km south of Hurghada, Soma Bay is the perfect gateway destination to the warmth of the sun and the enticement of clear blue waters. With an adjacent 18 hole golf course designed by the legendary Gary Player.
Located 65 km south of Hurghada. It has seen tremendous tourism development and hotels, tourist villages and other centers have been built. There are also natural treatment centers using mineral water, coral mud and medicinal sand treatments as a cure for rheumatism.
Located 80 km south of Safaga, one of the Red Sea ports from which Queen Hatshipsut (one of the ancient Egyptian rulers during the New Kingdom 1575 - 1308 BC) launched her expedition to the land of Punt (nowadays Somalia). A quiet resort with sandy beaches, clear waters, coral reefs and places for accommodation.
Marsa Allam
Located 65 km from Al Qusseir. A virgin destination and a unique location in the southern most stretch of the Red Sea coastline. backed by mountains, open deserts, oasis, rare wildlife, gold and emerald mines and historical treasures from Pharaonic, Ptolemaic, Roman and Islamic eras of history.
Located to the southeast of the Sinai Peninsula and has the most popular tourist area "Neama Bay" with its concentration of hotels, diving centers, shops and restaurants. It is known for its rich coral reefs, many of which are accessible. Its water is filled with underwater life, making it a snorkeling and scuba diving paradise
Located 100 km northeast of Sharm el Sheikh and famous for its golden beaches and deep diving sites.
Windsurfing is popular there. Assala, one of its small districts, has Bedouin camps and a restaurant promenade
Located 65 km north of Dahab where the desert mountains reach the sea. The desert safari is highly recommended in this area and a visit to its Great Coloured Canyon, the most beautiful in the whole world is not to be missed.
An international border town. Its majestic mountains overlook the tourist facilities and its coastline is among the most picturesque in Sinai. The famous Salah el Din Fortress is located here on Pharaoh's Island
St. Catherine
St. Catherine About 225 km north of Sharm el Sheikh, it stands on a high plateau and is an important site for religious tourism. Its monastery is one of the oldest in the world as it dates from 342 AD. There also rises Moses Mountain where God spoke to Moses. The whole area was declared a protectorate in 1987.
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SRK’s New Importer Simplifies Data Preparation to Further Elevate Self-Service BI for Business Professionals
DrivenBI, provider of SRK, the cloud-native self-service BI platform that empowers business professionals without IT’s constant support, announced its new data import utility. The DrivenBI SRK Importer provides an easy way to connect to the most commonly used data sources such as CSV/XLS files, SQL databases (Microsoft, Oracle, etc.), 3rd party Web services (Salesforce and social media), or network devices (meters or IoT).
With the launch of the new SRK Importer, the self-service paradigm now seamlessly extends to data preparation as well, allowing business professionals to easily import the data they already have on-hand into SRK without involving any programming or requiring any technical skills. And the data importer also takes advantage of DrivenBI’s collaboration features, making the real-time status of imports easily viewable and actionable from anywhere at any time.
Data preparation is an essential step to getting started with any type of business data analysis. The traditional way of data preparation (namely, ETL) has its challenges, as these tools are designed and implemented with technical professionals in mind. As a result, they inevitably require an exorbitant amount of time and resources from the IT department to set up before business users can even begin to benefit from the data analysis. Furthermore, ongoing investment of more time and resources are necessary to maintain it.
“The term self-service has been devalued in the BI world as these systems continue to remain far too complex and require continuous support from IT departments,” said Ben Tai, CEO of DrivenBI. “Some vendors have started to put emphasis on self-service when it comes to building analysis, but none have even begun to think about self-service when designing and implementing the data preparation component. And why should they, as most charge a considerable fee for this. Our one-of-a-kind data import utility is free and simple enough for business professionals to use.”
Loading data into a BI platform does not have to be a complicated technical challenge. 80% of the source data required for building business analysis are typically coming from existing reports in the form of spreadsheets or residing in SQL databases. With the SRK Importer, bringing data from these places into a BI platform can be accomplished by clicking a few buttons rather than creating a data warehouse or writing programs. Traditional data preparation tools are designed with a very technical user interface. For example, many require designing data models and writing code to load data from its source into the destination. DrivenBI’s SRK Importer offers a much more user-friendly interface throughout the data preparation process.
Other BI tools also have the tendency to bundle hordes of data connectors to all sorts of data sources. While that may deliver a powerful first impression, the tradeoff is not trivial: 1) Those seemingly all-powerful tools are not free, or the free edition only offers very limited functionalities that are hardly useful for a real BI project. Customers end up paying for functions which are seldom (if ever) used, on top of the potential ongoing maintenance cost for those connectors, and 2) Bundling too many functions overcomplicates things; as a result, those tools require users to write code to load data. With DrivenBI SRK Importer, loading data from commonly used sources, and even typical data transformation/cleansing tasks, can be easily accomplished via a user-friendly, point-and-click user interface.
In cases where clients want to load data from their legacy or proprietary systems, the plug-in enabled architecture of SRK Importer would allow DrivenBI to quickly build custom connectors per clients’ needs easily.
The SRK Importer further expands self-service to data preparation, enabling business professionals to import the data they need when they need it. This includes running multiple import tasks at the same time, or scheduling them at various time intervals from minutes to daily, weekly, or certain days of certain months. Since the SRK importer taps into the SRK Collaboration Hub, users can be notified in real-time – when data imports complete, or when and where errors occurred during import. The SRK importer allows users to easily pinpoint and clean up bad data and then quickly re-import only the problematic portion of the data. They no longer need to run to IT and ask them to check logs and/or re-import the entire set of data over and over again.
SRK Importer is available to all SRK users at no additional cost.
Link: http://insidebigdata.com/2016/11/10/drivenbi-srks-new-importer-empowers-self-service-bi-data-preparation-for-business-professionals/
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Tag: anarchy
The Principle of Freedom
August 16, 2012 March 24, 2018 Joseph Dewey
Principle Four: The Principle of Freedom
The principle of freedom is a mystery just as most principles are. Why? Because it takes a certain degree of consciousness to apply the second key of judgment to understand and apply it.
When freedom is discussed among all people of divergent views it is interesting to note that all of them see themselves as struggling for freedom, even those who are enslaving others. Hitler often spoke of freedom. The Taliban speaks of their own freedoms. The Old South maintained they needed slaves to insure their own freedom. Abraham Lincoln noted this and observed that some people have a pretty strange idea of what freedom is.
Some think that freedom can only exist in a state of anarchy, but this is illusion for it takes a number of laws to insure the maximum freedom of the whole.
Others think we need laws to cover every detail of living to insure freedom, but too many laws and rules hinder freedom.
There are those who think life is not fair so they make restrictive laws to make everyone equal thinking greater freedom will result. This usually results in less fairness and diminished freedom for the whole.
The problem with freedom is that people view it from their own restricted vision. Instead of looking at it from its effect on the whole they look at it from the view of their own little isolated world. It may be true that a man could have had a slave and the slave helped him have a temporary increase in his own physical freedom, but the whole was less free.
The problem with freedom is we are looking for the manifestation of maximum freedom for the whole and to obtain this there has to be some restrictions on the individual. For instance, the individual burglar must not be given the freedom to break into homes. On the other hand, too many restrictions will suffocate freedom. Only those who see the fine point of balance in the middle and how the whole is affected will understand.
What is true freedom then? Again, it is the removal of restrictions either imaginary or real, so the power of decision has complete freedom within the sphere of its plan. Thus the true principle of freedom lies in the idea that the soul energy to accomplish is released so its life can flow through the ideas and thoughts of the pilgrim until all desires are fulfilled.
No matter what your belief system there will come trials in harmonizing the Principle of Freedom with personal feelings.
He who believes in the Principle of Freedom yet is against abortion must allow the woman her freedom of choice whether that choice be right or wrong.
He who believes in the Principle of Freedom yet is against gays living together must allow them that freedom of choice whether that choice be right or wrong.
He who believes in the Principle of Freedom yet is against illegal drugs must allow the user his freedom of choice whether that choice be right or wrong.
He who believes in the Principle of Freedom yet is against Neo-Nazis promoting their doctrines must allow them that freedom of choice whether that choice be right or wrong.
He who believes in the Principle of Freedom yet is against cutting down trees must allow others the freedom of choice within their own sphere whether that choice be right or wrong — as long as no great harm is done to the earth.
He who believes in the Principle of Freedom yet is against rules being laid down in a school, group or business must allow others freedom of choice within their own sphere of activity whether that choice be right or wrong — for the seeker retains the choice to work for another company, join another group or take another class.
Each potential disciple will have some final temptation to support the unreasonable restriction of others in the name of promoting his personal desire to see that which is good triumph. The deception is that true good can only magnify in an atmosphere of maximum possible freedom.
So the principle that the gathered lights will always apply is maximum freedom for the whole. The only time any freedom is taken away from the individual is when it increases the freedom for the whole. Like I say, we take away the burglar’s freedom because the burglar takes away the freedom of the whole so by taking away the burglar’s freedom we increase the freedom for the whole. The principle involved with freedom is the wholeness aspect; maximum freedom for the whole. The seat belt law is a simple little thing but it’s totally unnecessary to have a $200 fine for a seat belt infraction. It may force us to buckle up but on the other hand it creates big brother telling us what to do with outward authority over our lives.
What we need to develop is power to have our on personal freedom and do what is right because we decide to do what is right. We do right because we see what is right; to help our fellow man because we want to help our fellow man. By doing these things we can enhance the flow of the energy of God because the energy of the Holy Spirit operates on total freedom.
Where freedom is taken away, the Holy Spirit does not flow. People have gone to very oppressed nations and visited them, particularly Russia when it was totalitarian and was in full power-it’s a lot better now than it was-but when people have gone and visited these oppressed nations, people look depressed, they don’t talk to each other, there is no flow of ideas. They’re afraid that somebody will report what they’ve said. They’re afraid all the time. There is a spirit of fear. They’re doing what’s right maybe, according to the state, but they have no freedom.
The greatest evil is always generated when people are forced to do what is right. The force to do what is right has so much power behind it because they say, “We need to create a law to make this happen.” People say, “That would be good. Let’s go ahead and do it.” They don’t even think about the principle of freedom involved. They never argue the principle of freedom. When our legislators are talking about passing laws, they never think they’re taking away freedom. The argument is always over making people do what’s right. If they would only argue over what the maximum freedom would be generated. How can we make the law so freedom will not be infringed, freedom of the whole will be amplified rather than held back. There are, like I said, a small handful of laws for robberies and rapes and murders and these types of laws, are good for people but there are so many laws that infringe freedom.
The principle of freedom applies to a lot of things, even teachers, such as myself. If a teacher such as myself didn’t believe in the principle of freedom then he would attempt to set himself up as an authority over a group to control them.
“The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.”
— Sir William Preece, chief engineer of the British Post Office, 1876
Go to Principle Five
Posted in PrinciplesTagged anarchy, freedom, Princile of FreedomLeave a Comment on The Principle of Freedom
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The Character Gap - A Review
March 06, 2018 by Andrew Spencer in Ethics, Book Review
Sometimes psychological findings are presented as if they are deterministic: Murderers kill because they have a particular personality. Thieves steal because their minds work a certain way. Mothers love their children because of predetermined evolutionary conditions of our ancestors’ ancestors. Those who are obese have something their chemical makeup that makes them eat too much. Thus it has always been, and thus it shall ever be.
When information is presented this way, it often leaves readers under the impression there is no path toward forming character. Behaviorally, our DNA is our destiny. This puts Christians, among others, in a spot of trying to argue against the trends of science because we believe that people can and do change. Thankfully, there are ongoing discussions in moral psychology and cognate fields that seem to point toward the possibility of real change and not simply coping strategies.
Christian Miller’s recent book, The Character Gap: How Good Are We?, is a prime example of using the empirical data from psychological research to show how humans can become better people. His presentation indicates that there are certain character traits tied to particular vices and virtues, but he also extends hope that character can be formed through purposeful effort.
The book is broken into three distinct parts. Part One contains two chapters and offers an introduction into the ongoing research on character and its importance. Chapter One deals with a basic overview of character. Chapter Two describes why character is so important.
Part Two consists of five chapters; it describes the shape of character in the modern world. In the third chapter, Miller shows the conditions that encourage people to help others. Chapter Four delves into the character that enables some people to harm others spontaneously and other people to be willing to harm with only minor encouragement. This chapter explains some of the results from the infamous Milgram experiment, and more recent research that continues to support those earlier conclusions. The fifth chapter surveys the psychological roots of lying, especially the motivations that undergird it. Interestingly, people tend to lie more to those to whom they are closer. Chapter Six explores the foundations of cheating. He shows that we are all likely to cheat at times, but rarely cheat as often as we have opportunity. In the seventh chapter Miller ties these elements together. The results of his research indicate that most of us believe we are good and virtuous, but very few of us are. We are not typically as bad or as good as we have the opportunity to be.
Had Miller left the book at that point, it would have been very unsatisfying. However, Part Three of the book is an explanation of how humans can improve their character. Chapter Eight gives several examples of ways that character can be shaped, like doing nothing, labeling people as virtuous, and “nudging.” These techniques have been shown to have some effect in some cases in resulting in better behavior, but they rarely result in exemplary moral character. The ninth chapter offers multiple stronger methods for shaping character. Having (and being) role models, choosing better situations (aka, avoiding temptation, and being self-aware are three of the more promising means of shaping character positively. Chapter Ten works through character formation in a Christian context, where Miller shows how a healthy Christian community, informed theologically, can engender improved character in people. It is encouraging that he allows space for sanctification through the Spirit, though, understandably, he does not delve into the mechanics of that process.
The Character Gap is an encouraging book in several ways. It takes the evil in the world seriously, recognizes the bentness of humans, and unveils the reality of our own inconsistencies. Thankfully, however, he does not leave the reader in the muck and mire, but offers legitimate ways to improve. For non-religious readers, this will focus on structuring life toward community or self-chosen goals. For religious readers, the norms are already provided, but the empirical data he provides can inform the selection of behaviors. For example, the reluctance to help is often driven by others not helping. The logical response (if we want to be helpers) is to seek to always be the first to offer help or actually help and to surround ourselves with people who are helpers. Miller highlights the importance of creating structures that encourage good behavior, which is why our Bibles should be placed in prominent places: not so that we show off the Word to others, but so that we are more likely to partake of the divine revelation ourselves. There are dozens of other examples of ways that empirical data can shape how we structure our lives to help form us for good in this volume.
One of the more interesting aspects of this volume--which I’ve discovered to be consistent within the fields of organizational, behavioral, and moral psychology--is the promotion of a three-part character. According to Miller, someone who is virtuous, (1) does good actions, (2) does those actions in the right circumstances, and (3) does good actions for the right reason. True virtue is founded on a pattern of behaviors with these three elements. This is particular interesting as this formulation echoes the triperspectivalism of John Frame and the ethical framework of David W. Jones. The names for the aspects are different, but the parts correspond. This may be empirical evidence for the validity of these ethical schemas.
The limitations of this volume are caused by its format. The Character Gap is a popular level book that summarizes and makes accessible some of Miller’s more academic research. As such, there are times where the reader has to take Miller at his word, because the evidence is buried in a source called out in an endnote, and that source is barricaded behind a pricy paywall. However, it seems that Miller is arguing in good faith and so many of his conclusions are so commonsensical that there is little reason to doubt his findings. This is a helpful book that will inform the casual reader and can point the more engaged student toward further study.
Christian Miller has produced an excellent, accessible volume on human character. His arguments are well-supported, lucid, and offer hope for progress in character formation. Miller’s book should inform future discussions in Christian ethics and, perhaps, raise interest in the psychological study of character among moral theologians.
The Character Gap: How Good Are We? (Philosophy in Action)
By Christian B. Miller
NOTE: I received a gratis copy of this volume with no expectation of a positive review.
Oxford University Press, Character, Ethics, Psychology, Christian Miller
Ethics, Book Review
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1. Nathan Finn of Southeastern Seminary and First Baptist Durham Fame, writes about how Chuck Colson helped shape the way he thinks. To be clear, for Nathan, this occurred on the college campus not from experience in prison.
I was raised in Southeast Georgia, close to the buckle of the Bible Belt. I came of age in the mid-1990s, when the Christian Coalition was at the height of its influence, Newt Gingrich was making contracts with America, and it seemed like national revival was closely tied to the fortunes of the Republican Party. Those were heady days for politically conservative evangelicals, Bill Clinton’s presidency notwithstanding. I was a proud member of the College Republicans and listened regularly to D. James Kennedy and James Dobson on American Family Radio.
I was also what my friend Bruce Ashford calls a “cultural anorexic.” To my thinking, American culture was decadent and should be avoided by believers—with the exception, of course, of voting for Republican politicians. I didn’t listen to secular music for a couple of years. I didn’t watch any R-rated movies and avoided most PG-13 movies. I even avoided G-rated movies (at least the ones made by the Walt Disney Company). I wore a lot of Christian t-shirts and rocked a “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelet. As I have reflected on those years, I think I meant well. I really wanted to honor God. But I was an arrogant, condescending, and pretty ignorant religious reactionary.
All this began to change the summer between my junior and senior years of college. Simply put, I discovered Chuck Colson. Previously, I had listened to the “Breakpoint” radio program, so I knew Colson’s name. But that summer, I read his book How Now Shall We Live?. Next, I read The Body: Being Life in Darkness. I started subscribing to Christianity Today, and Colson’s columns became a monthly highlight. I started reading every essay of Colson’s that I could find on the internet. By the time I graduated from college, by God’s grace—and with Chuck Colson’s help—I was no longer a religious reactionary.
Through his writings, Colson taught me three lessons that have continued to shape how I think about the relationship between faith and culture.
2. Joe Carter from Acton Institute evaluates a recent OpEd that calls for government bailouts of students who went deeply into debt for low-value and low-opportunity degrees:
In reality, though, student loan forgiveness would make the economy worse off. Mr. Hopp doesn’t seem to care about the “corporations doing the lending” because he fails to recognize that corporations are just people. The money was lent by people who expected to get repaid so that they could spend the money on “things like houses, cars, plane tickets”—or expensive private colleges for their kids. If they don’t get paid they are much worse off.
Why not just have the government pay the loans? Because, again, “government” in this case is just another word for “American taxpayer.” Every dollar that the American taxpayer gives to pay off someone’s student loan debt is one less dollar they can use for “things like houses, cars, plane tickets.”
What Mr. Hopp’s is really asking for is a redistribution of income from people who didn’t make bad educational decisions to people who feel entitled not to pay their debts. Mr. Hopp is making the case that he and millions of other Americans should be freeloaders. They want the taxpayer equivalent of moving into their parent’s basement and living rent-free.
The one thing I agree with Mr. Hopp about is when he says, “We need to have a serious conversation about student loan debt.” Indeed, we do. The main thing that needs to be said is that if you take out a loan to buy luxury goods (like expensive colleges) you have a moral obligation to repay it. It’s time we start expecting that all Americans—especially those who want to lead our churches— to start acting like adults instead of whiny, entitled children.
There are many issues of economic and social justice that should be of concern for Christians. Paying back the student loans of middle-class snowflakes who feel “called” to make bad decisions is not one of them.
3. From First Things, the importance of keeping Catholic schools Catholic:
This has been the issue in the U.S. bishops’ contest with the Obama administration over the HHS contraceptive/abortifacient mandate in Obamacare: Will Catholic institutions and Catholic employers be able to conduct their affairs according to the Church’s settled convictions, protected by the robust definition of religious freedom contained in the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act? Or will the government attempt to coerce those institutions and businesses into becoming de facto extensions of the state insofar as the delivery of certain “reproductive health services” is concerned? That question of identity, or integrity-in-mission, will be the issue in other culture-war assaults on Catholic life; one of the next lines of battle involves employment practices in Catholic schools. Will the Church be allowed to staff its schools with teachers who teach and live what the Catholic Church believes and teaches, hiring those who meet those criteria and declining to employ those who don’t? Or will the state try to coerce Catholic schools to employ teaching staff according to other criteria?
This is going to be a nasty fight, given that “tolerance” has become the all-purpose bludgeon with which the sexual revolution, in all its manifestations, beats its adversaries into submission or drives them into catacombs. All the more reason, then, to be grateful for the courageous leadership shown by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, whose San Francisco archdiocese is arguably ground zero of the culture war that cannot be avoided—and that must be fought if Catholic institutions are to remain free to be themselves.
4. Why the university is not (or should not be) a complete free for all. On order and tension in the academy:
Universities were founded to sustain faith by reason—to maintain order in the soul and in the commonwealth. My own university, St. Andrews, was established in the fifteenth-century by the Scottish Inquisitor of Heretical Pravity to resist the errors of the Lollards, the levellers of that age. The early universities’ teaching imparted both order and freedom to the intellect: that was no paradox, for order and freedom exist necessarily in a healthy tension.
But in our day, as in various earlier times, many universities have lost any clear general understanding of either freedom or order, intellectually considered. So it seems worth-while to review here the relationship between order and freedom, and the part of a university in maintaining the tension between the two.
Indulge me first in some observations concerning the connection between faith, order, and freedom, all of which are intertwined in university studies. In recent generations, many professors have failed to apprehend the connection. Let us commence with that popular but vague term “freedom.”
Freedom is normal for mankind. I mean that ordered liberty is natural for truly human persons. Yet, human freedom, like much else in human normality, is denied at least as often as it is affirmed.
5. 40 motivational speeches in 2 minutes, in honor of the last day of my final PhD seminar:
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Many cyclists are rejecting cycling helmets, but Hövding is using sensors to provide a different solution
Written by: James Scotlock | Published: 07 May 2018
I now wear a helmet, mainly because of starting a young family who will need my financial input for ...
Posted by: John Moss
As cycling becomes more popular, the number of accidents involving bikes on our roads increases. In 2016 in the UK there were 102 cyclist deaths, 3,397 serious injuries and nearly 15,000 more minor injuries. A high percentage of these involved head injuries.
But as important as it is to protect one’s head while cycling, not everyone is willing to wear a traditional helmet. Whether because of comfort, fashion or the ongoing debate about how effective polystyrene and polyurethane helmets are, many prefer not to don a helmet before jumping on their bikes.
For this reason, Hövding, has been trying to offer an alternative since 2012 in the form of an airbag ‘helmet’.
First devised in 2005, Hövding’s cycling airbag is now in its second generation and has sold nearly 90,000 units worldwide.
Hövding chief executive, Fredrik Carling (pictured, left) says: “Our main aim has always been to make cycling more accessible while keeping people safe. We know that half of our customers never wore head protection before discovering our product.”
So what gaps are Hövding’s technology filling? Helmets today are moulded and mostly produced in expanded polystyrene or polyurethane, but the materials and design have some drawbacks. They don’t protect the jaw, the back of the head, the neck or ears in case of a collision with a sharp object. And, because the cover and the body of the helmet is made of an inelastic hard material, they don’t absorb the force of the collision optimally. So even if the head is not injured, there is still a risk of brain damage in more serious accidents.
“Stanford University conducted some research that looked at the effectiveness of a number of head protection products and compared Hövding directly to cycling helmets. This was done via a simulation of the most common cycling accident – a single fall.
“This study found that Hövding provides eight times better protection against a risk of concussion and head injuries than that of traditional helmets,” says Carling.
Swedish insurance firm Folksam, also conducted tests into the airbag technology compared to traditional helmets. It found that in impact tests run at 25km/h conventional helmets achieved g-forces of 196-294 g, Hövding’s airbag achieved 65 g.
Much of that improvement is due to the elasticity of the airbag material, but it wasn’t as simple as taking technology from other industries, such as automotive, and directly applying it to Hövding’s system.
“The outer fabric of our airbag is taken from the automotive industry. It is highly tear and abrasion resistant, however it leaked air too fast. We understood early on that it needed to be different from airbags, as they only need to absorb acceleration for a short period of time.
“We needed to have an airbag that stayed inflated for longer. Hence an inner plastic bag was added to keep the air inside the bag for longer. Hövding retains its protective capacity for 5-10 seconds, in order to withstand multiple impacts – for example a car’s windshield, followed by rolling off the bonnet and then onto the road,” explains Carling.
Once the airbag technology had been defined, it was the turn of the underlying algorithms that determine situations such as whether a crash is happening and controlling whether or not the helmet is inflated.
Carling is less willing to comment on the base software and whether Hövding used code already available and built it up from there, or whether the firm started from a blank sheet of paper. However, the system does take information from both an accelerometer and gyrometer, collating measurements and assessing the situation.
The underlying algorithm was written based on a huge amount of data accumulated during the first generation airbag’s development.
“We mapped all known bicycle accidents using available statistics. We then re-enacted them with stuntmen and stuntwomen. Over 2,000 accidents were staged in this manner. We also collected general data and movements from everyday cycling, for example without people coming off their bikes. Both of these steps were taken with the very same sensors that can be found in the collar today,” says Carling.
The onboard sensors and software take 200 readings a second, comparing it to the accumulated data and underlying algorithms to decide if an accident is going to occur. Should it detect something, the bag can inflate in 0.1 seconds.
False positives are obviously of most concern, not only because they will reflect badly on the technology, but also because once the airbag fires it cannot be used again and has to be replaced. This is expensive for the end user when the technology costs £219.
Smoothing out the software so it could differentiate between a real accident and the general unevenness of cycling was a challenge and has been noted as such by some that have tested the device.
“It was a very complex process. It took us five years to refine and perfect the technology. Only a very small number of the 87,000 airbags that the company has sold worldwide have inflated accidently. We call it a faux positive inflation. From our experience, in the vast majority of these cases, it happens when a cyclist is trying to avoid an accident,” says Carling.
Hövding does receive data back from units that have fired and this is fed back into the development programme and used to improve future generations of the airbags.
“We have a team of in-house mathematicians and programmers who then review the new data. It’s collated and fed back into the programming on our internal system for it to be plugged in and analysed,” says Carling.
The data isn’t just used to improve the airbag’s algorithms in the event of an accident, but also so it can remain stable even when cyclists are riding different types of bicycles and the nuances between them.
“Our initial model, the Hövding 1.0, hadn’t been programmed to read foldable or electric bikes. Since the release of our 2.0 model in 2012, this has been upgraded to include those two types of bike,” says Carling.
The hardware of Hövding’s airbag is unlikely to change dramatically as it is a known quantity, but the company will continue to feed data back into its software, developing updates and making improvements.
If cycling is to continue its rise in popularity then safety will become an increasingly important aspect for discussion, and technologies that protect riders’ heads will be at the top of the list.
http://hovding.com
I now wear a helmet, mainly because of starting a young family who will need my financial input for some time, on the basis of the published data about severe head injuries. But there is no published data on the relative incidence of all accidents of those who cycle with helmets compared to those who don't. If helmet wearers have more accidents per cyclist than non-helmet wearers then the statistic needs to be refined.
In support of this, I cycled in London for at least 30 years without a helmet and now that I wear one find that it muddles the sound field generated by what is happening behind me. I can no longer rely so effectively on the eyes to look forward and the ears to "look" backwards, which means my eyes have to break contact with what is happening in front of me more frequently. This is inherently less safe.
John Moss
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Love & Money: Meet the wives whose husbands committed white-collar financial crimes
Love & Money is a MarketWatch series looking at how our relationship with money impacts our relationships with significant others, friends and family.
Lisa Lawler, 61, thought her husband’s affair was the final nail in the coffin for ending her 26-year marriage. Then, a month after he moved out in 2006, she learned he had embezzled $2.5 million from the health-care company he worked for in Massachusetts.
“I got a call from him saying, ‘You have to get home immediately,’ Lawler says. “I was afraid something happened to our son.”
She raced home and he sat her down to reveal the news.
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Slávik Award
Miss Slovakia
L+S Theater
Úvodná stránka > Sport > FK Dukla Banská Bystrica
FK Dukla Banská Bystrica
Novinky z FK Dukla
www.fkdukla.sk
Philosophy of the Club
“Dedicated work with children and teenagers is the best investment in the future”, says engineer Richard Čech, general director of the Dukla Football Club (FC). This is also the basic philosophy of the Dukla football club. The development plan for teenage football in 2008-2013 focuses mainly on an effective system of identifying new talents and on education and training of talented athletes from their early childhood until they enter the junior category. This system should provide the club with a solid base of good players that can support the A-team in the highest football league. The most talented athletes can then join the national teams. Another important initiative by the club is “Vision 813” – a project whose goal is to reverse the domestic-foreign players’ ratio to 70:30 within the next five years.
The club also wants to bring football fans back to the stadiums. This way, sponsors can be satisfied not only with the good matches resulting from the club’s long-term, systematic work with children and juniors, but also from strong attendance at games.
The main goal of the football development program is to support and train talented players from Central Slovakia and other Slovak regions in preparation for active involvement in the Dukla Banská Bystrica FC and on the national team. The main long-term goals are:
to strengthen and stabilize the club’s position in the region of Banská Bystrica and to broaden its activities within the Slovak Republic;
to expand the club’s international level activities by offering players and coaches, by promoting the FC Dukla trademark and by providing players for the Slovak representation teams; trade of players, participation in UEFA cups and international tournaments for juniors;
to maintain continual contact with the world of football (league, representation, football union);
to support the the club’s long-term domestic expansion (training center, construction of a new football stadium, hotel, commercial and conference center); and
to expand abroad.
Štiavničky Stadium
Capacity of the stadium: 10,000 visitors
Seats: 7380
Size of the playing field: 105 x 68m
Lighting: 1400 Lux
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Regulation of Homeopathic Products
by Ken Harvey
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow
School of Public Health, La Trobe University
My colleagues and I have been researching the regulation of complementary medicines in Australia, including homoeopathic products. We have been intrigued by the availability and active promotion of products such as Homoeopathic DHEA (dehydro epiandorosterone), HGH (Human Growth Hormone) and and melatonin. Homoeopathic products are exempt from regulation by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) if they fulfil the definition of such products in the Therapeutic Goods Regulations. That is:
1. They are formulated for use on the principle that they are capable of producing in a healthy person symptoms similar to those which it is administered to alleviate, and
2. They are prepared according to the practices of homoeopathic pharmacy using the methods of serial dilution and succussion (hitting each diluted solution in a certain fashion).
http://web.archive.org/web/20110218185232/http://www.tga.gov.au/docs/html/homeopat.htmClearly, the products listed above do not fulfill the first definition of a homoeopathic product as they are promoted on the basis of their conventional medical (allopathic) effects of relieving symptoms rather than the homoeopathic principle of producing similar symptoms.
For example, the promotion for Bioglan DHEA homoeopathic notes that, “DHEA is short for dehydro epi andorosterone, which is an important hormone produced by the adrenal glands. Production of this hormone peaks at age 25 and declines steadily thereafter”. It claims “Bioglan DHEA assists in the maintenance or improvement of general well-being”. Each tablet is said to contain: 6x homoeopathic potency of 3mg Dehydro epi androsterone (DHEA).
http://web.archive.org/web/20060820011253/http://www.bioglan.com.au/vitamin.asp?productID=31Blue Roc (Formerly Optigen) HGH homoeopathic promotion states, “HGH - Human Growth Hormone production begins to decline with age. It is suggested it declines severely after the age of 30 and by the age of 60 plus, the production rate is reduced by half. It is suggested that HGH therapy could delay the effects of Ageing process”. Each tablet is said to contain 6X + 12C HhGH 8mg (24IU) Somatotropin (recombinant Human Growth Hormone) Hand Succussed (unbuffered HhGH).
http://tinyurl.com/yolbnc
Pretorius Melatonin Homoeopathic is claimed to be, “useful for establishing sleep patterns to overcome jet lag”. Each tablet is said to contain 3mg melatonin 6X.
http://www.pretoriusvitamins.com.au/vitamin.asp?productID=70
Given the dilutions involved, none of these products can contain pharmacological activity. A 1X dilution is a 1:10 dilution. A 6X preparation results in a final concentration of 0.000001 of the original. A 1C dilution is a 1:100 dilution. A 12C dilution cannot possibly contain any of the original molecules according to the traditional laws of chemistry. However, homoeopathy practitioners apparently believe that when the last molecule is gone the diluent retains a “memory” of the original substance. It is also unclear how a 6C and 12C dilution can coexist as is claimed for the Blue Roc (Formerly Optigen) HGH homoeopathic preparation.
In short, the sponsors of these products have mixed allopathic and homoeopathic concepts in such a manner that neither evidence-based medicine or traditional homoeopathic practice (regardless of its validity) can justify the claims made. It is doubtful that many consumers understand the subtleties of 6X & 12C dilutions. Rather, they are likely to look at the claims made for compounds they recognise, such as human growth hormone or melanin, and make their decision to purchase on this basis.
In my opinion, the current regulatory system supports sponsors making money out of water and consumers being sold a lie. In correspondence with the TGA they suggested that complaints about such products might be sent to the Complaint Resolution Panel that administers the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code. Accordingly, a set of illustrative complaints has been submitted arguing:
1. That these products and their promotion breach the Therapeutic Goods Regulations 1990 (Part 1, Regulation 2, page 15) and thus the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code Section 4(1)(a) because while they are advertised as homoeopathic products they do not comply with the definition of such products contained in the Therapeutic Goods Regulations.
2. The promotion of these products also breaches the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code Section 4(1)(b), 4(2)(a), 4(2)(c), because they make claims that cannot be justified by either scientific evidence (or traditional homoeopathic practice).
However, given the large backlog of complaints currently confronting an under-resourced and overloaded Complaint Resolution Panel it is unlikely that any public ruling on these matters will be available within the next 4-6 months.
Increased regulation of homoeopathic products was recommended in 2003 by the Expert committee on complementary medicines in the health system.
http://web.archive.org/web/20110303130424/http://www.tga.gov.au//docs/html/cmreport.htmIn my opinion, the failure of the TGA to act on these matters is yet another example of the current regulatory imbalance between supporting a profitable complementary medicines industry and protecting consumers.
Dr. Ken Harvey
http://www.medreach.com.au
VOIP: +61 (03) 9029 0634; Mobile +61 (04) 1918 1910
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- Neil Postman in The End of Education
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THE GOOD GUYS
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Joaquin Murrieta
for the enjoyment of
Cabernet/Merlot/Syrah
This full-bodied dry wine presents aromas of juicy blackberries, cassis, mocha and spices. On the palate,
it showcases polished tannins and a smooth finish. Oak: Medium | Body: Full | Sweetness: Dry
December bring a blend of: CABERNET MERLOT SYRAH
Named for Joaquin Murrieta
Murrieta reportedly went to California in 1849 to seek his fortune in the California Gold Rush. He encountered prejudice and hostility in the extreme competition of the rough mining camps. While mining for gold, he and his wife supposedly were attacked by American miners jealous of his success. After he and his family experienced much abuse and ethnic discrimination, at the hands of the european locals, they were run out of the settlement.
He then linked up with a gang of other disabused forgein nationals.
He and his band attacked miners, settlers and wagons in California. They also stole horses, driving them from Contra Costa County to the Central Valley via the remote La Vareda del Monte trail through the Diablo Range. The gang is believed to have killed up to 28 Chinese and 13 Anglo-Americans. By 1853, the California state legislature considered Murrieta enough of a criminal to list him as one of the so-called "Five Joaquins" on a bill passed in May 1853. The legislature authorized hiring for three months a company of 20 California Rangers, veterans of the Mexican-American War, to hunt down "Joaquin Botellier, Joaquin Carrillo, Joaquin Muriata [sic], Joaquin Ocomorenia, and Joaquin Valenzuela," and their banded associates. On May 11, 1853, the governor John Bigler signed an act to create the "California State Rangers," to be led by Captain Harry Love (a former Texas Ranger and Mexican War veteran).
On July 25, 1853, a group of Rangers encountered a band of armed Mexican men near Arroyo de Cantua on the edge of the Diablo Range near Coalinga, California. In the confrontation, three of the Mexicans were killed. They claimed one was Murrieta, and another Manuel Garcia, also known as Three-Fingered Jack, one of his most notorious associates. Two others were captured.
Edward (Ned) Kelly
Chardonny/Semilion
This dry wine features refreshing aromas of white flowers, golden delicious apples, lemon custard, and vanilla. Enjoy freshness on the palate, with a touch of oaky flavours. Oak: Light | Body: Medium | Sweetness: Dry
January bring a blend of: Chardonnay and Semillon
Named for Ned Kelly
The Kellys were a poor selector family who saw themselves as downtrodden by the Squattocracy and as victims of police persecution. While a teenager, Kelly was arrested for associating with bushranger Harry Power, and
served two prison terms for a variety of offences, the longest stretch being from 1871 to 1874 on a conviction of receiving a stolen horse. He later joined the "Greta mob", a group of bush larrikins known for stock theft.
A violent confrontation with a policeman occurred at the Kelly family's home in 1878, and Kelly was indicted for his attempted murder. Fleeing to the bush, Kelly vowed to avenge his mother, who was imprisoned for her
role in the incident. After he, his brother Dan, and two associates—Joe Byrne and Steve Hart—shot dead three policemen, the Government of Victoria proclaimed them outlaws.
Kelly and his gang eluded the police for two years, thanks in part to the support of an extensive network of sympathisers. The gang's crime spree included armed bank robberies at Euroa and Jerilderie, and the killing of
Aaron Sherritt, a sympathiser turned police informer. In a manifesto letter, Kelly—denouncing the police, the Victorian government and the British Empire—set down his own account of the events leading up to his outlawry.
Demanding justice for his family and the rural poor, he threatened dire consequences against those who defied him. In 1880, when Kelly's attempt to derail and ambush a police train failed, he and his gang, dressed in
armour fashioned from stolen plough mouldboards, engaged in a final gun battle with the police at Glenrowan. Kelly, the only survivor, was severely wounded by police fire and captured. Despite thousands of supporters
attending rallies and signing a petition for his reprieve, Kelly was tried, convicted and sentenced to death by hanging, which was carried out at the Old Melbourne Gaol. His last words were famously reported to have been,
"Such is life".
Enrico Alfano
Featuring aromas of black cherries, dark berries, dried pink and purple flowers, and spices – this dry wine will be the perfect complement to your meaty dishes! It offers a broad texture, as well as polished tannins on the palate.
Oak: Light | Body: Full | Sweetness: Dry
February bring Italian Nebbiolo
Named for Enrico Alfano
Enrico Alfano was considered a leader of a mafia-type group called the Carmorra: Alfano was charged with the murder of Gennaro Cuocolo and his wife, suspected of being police spies, on June 6, 1906. Alfano was tried and found guilty. After his release, Alfano left Naples and went from village to village to elude arrest. The Carabinieri located him in San Leucio, near Caserta, but he managed to escape. He fled to Rome, obtained a false passport and sailed for the United States. He disembarked on March 17, 1907, in New York disguised as a member of the ship's crew, posing as a stoker. In New York he began to run a gambling den in the basement of 108 Mulberry Street. He became one of the primary underworld targets of police sergeant Joseph Petrosino of the New York City Police Department, who believed Alfano to be a big player in the New York branch of the Camorra. Alfano was rumoured to have been responsible for the murders of a New York police sergeant and a rival Camorra boss and his wife. He was deported back to Italy.
Many considered Alfano in the light of a demigod, as he was thought to invulnerable to bullets and able to escape his pursuers. He was caught, a trial against Alfano expanded to a tribunal against the Camorra, where he was found guilty. He maintained his innocence , and after the illegitimacy of the trial was discovered, he was released after serving 27 years of a 30 year sentence. After his release in 1934, he was never seen or heard from again.RQs 2019 - 4FUGITIVES: Discover 4 great wines.
José (Tragabuches) Ulloa Navarro
This dry wine unveils aromas of black and red berries, black pepper and spices from oak. On the palate, it presents woody flavours and polished tannins for a bold finish. Oak: Heavy | Body: Full | Sweetness: Dry
March brings Monastrell
Named for José (Tragabuches) Ulloa Navarro
Born José Mateo Balcázar Navarro changed his name to José Ulloa Navarro under the protection of a ruling by Carlos III authorized the gypsies to take the name they desired. The nickname of Tragabuches was inherited from his father, who obtained it, according to tradition, by eating a newborn donkey.
He started as a bullfighter, taking advantage of the fact that his baptismal godfather, Bartolomé Romero, was a relative of Pedro Romero and his brothers, who had founded a famous school of bullfighting in the city of Ronda .
It was in Salamanca where José (Tragabuche) started his life as a bullfighter. Yet after only two years he abandoned his career as a bullfighter and began life as a smuggler. José (Tragabuche) was in charge of obtaining the goods in the nearby enclave of Gibraltar and his partner was in charge of distribution.
As a smuggler he continued until 1814 , when an old companion of the Romero squad invited him to a bullfighting celebrations, on the occasion of the return to Spain of King Ferdinand VII , the celebrations were to be held in Malaga . When he was going to Malaga, his horse knocked him down and the fall caused him an arm dislocation, so he was forced to return to Ronda. Upon his return, he discovered that his wife was unfaithful with a sacristan known as Pepe "El Listillo". After beheading Pepe, he threw his unfaithful wife from the balcony, causing her death as well, after which he fled to the sierra rondeña and became a bandit.
José (Tragabuche) joined one of the most feared bands of bandits of his time, where he would remain until 1817 . In 1817, all the members of the gang were captured and executed, with the sole exception of José (Tragabuche), whose trail is lost since then.
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How to Draw.ca
Mechanical Drawings
Crayon Portraiture
Examples In Line-shading And Drawings For Line-shaded Engravings
Although in workshop drawings, line-shading is rarely employed, yet where a design rather than the particular details of construction is to be shown, line-shading is a valuable accessory. Figure 295, for example, is intended to show an arrangement of idle pulleys to guide belts from one pulley to another; the principle being that so long as the belt passes to a pulley moving in line with the line of rotation of the pulley, the belt will run correctly, although it may leave the pulley at considerable angle. When a belt envelops two pulleys that are at a right angle to each other, two guide pulleys are needed in order that the belt may, in passing to each pulley, move in the same plane as the pulley rotates in, and the belt is in this case given what is termed a quarter twist.
It will be observed that by the line-shading even the twist of the belt is much more clearly shown than it would be if left unshaded.
An excellent example of shading is given in Figure 296, which is extracted from the American Machinist, and represents a cutting tool for a planing machine. The figure is from a wood engraving, but the effect may be produced by lines, the black parts being considered as simply broad black lines.
Fig. 295.
The drawings from which engravings are made are drawn to conform to the process by which the engraving is to be produced. Drawings that are shaded by plain lines may be engraved by three methods. First, the drawing may be photo-engraved, in which process the drawing is photographed on the metal, and every line appears in the engraving precisely as it appears in the drawing.
For this kind of engraving the drawing may be made of any convenient size that is larger than the size of engraving to be produced, the reduction of size being produced in the photographing process. Drawings for photo-engraving require to have the lines jet black, and it is to be remembered that if red centrelines are marked on the drawing, they will be produced as ordinary black lines in the engraving.
The shading on a drawing to be photo-engraved must be produced by lines, and not by tints, for tints, whether of black or of colors, will not photo-engrave properly.
It is generally preferred to make the drawing for a photo-engraving larger than the engraving that is to be made from it, a good proportion being to make the drawing twice the length the engraving is to be. This serves to reduce the magnitude of any roughness in the lines of the drawing, and, therefore, to make the engraving better than the drawing.
The thickness of the lines in the drawing should be made to suit the amount of reduction to be made, because the lines are reduced in thickness in the same proportion as the engraving is reduced from the drawing. Thus the lines on an engraving reduced to one-half the dimensions of the drawing would be one-half as thick as the lines on the drawing.
Drawings for photo-engraving should be made on smooth-faced paper; as, for example, on Bristol board; and to make the lines clean and clear, the drawing instruments should be in the best of condition, and the paper or Bristol board quite dry. The India rubber should be used as little as possible on drawings to be photo-engraved, because, if used before the lines are inked in, it roughens the surface of the paper, and the inking lines will be less smooth and even at their edges; and for this reason it is better not to rub out any lines until all the lines have been inked in. If used to excess after the lines have been inked in it serves to reduce the blackness of the lines, and may so pale them that they will not properly photo-engrave.
To make a drawing for an engraver in wood it would be drawn directly on the face of the box-wood block, on which it is to be engraved. The surface of the block is first whitened by a white water color, as Chinese white. If the drawing that is to be used as a copy is on sufficiently thin paper, its outline may be traced over by pencil lines, and the copy may then be laid face down on the wood block and its edges held to the block by wax, the pencilled lines being face to the block. The outline may then be again traced over with a pencil or pointed instrument, causing the imprint of the lead pencil lines to be left on the whitened surface of the block. If the copy is on paper too thick to be thus employed, a tracing may be made and used as above; it being borne in mind that the tracing must be laid with the pencilled lines on the block, because what is the right hand of the drawing on the block is the left hand in the print it gives. The shading on wood blocks is given by tints of India ink aided by pencilled lines, or of course pencilled lines only may for less artistic work be used. Another method is to photograph the drawing direct upon the surface of the wood block; it is unnecessary, however, to enter into this part of the subject.
The third method of producing an engraving from a drawing is by means of what is known as the wax process. Drawings for this process should be made on thin paper, for the following reasons: The process consists, briefly stated, in coating a copper plate with a layer of wax about 1/32 inch deep, and in drawing upon the wax the lines to compose the engraving, which lines are produced by means of tools that remove the wax down to the surface of the copper.
The plate and wax are then placed in a battery and a deposit of copper fills in the lines and surface of the wax, thus forming the engraving. Now if the drawing is made on thin paper, the engraver coats the surface of the drawing with a dry red pigment, and with a pointed instrument traces over the lines of the drawing, which causes them to leave a red imprint on the surface of the wax, and after the drawing is removed the engraver cuts these imprinted lines in the wax. If the drawing is on thick paper, this method of transferring the drawing to the wax cannot be used, and the engraver may take a tracing from the drawing and transfer from the tracing to the wax. It is obvious, also, that for wax engravings the drawing should be made of the same size that the engraving is required to be, or otherwise the tracing process described cannot be used. Figure 297 represents an engraving made by the wax process from a print from a wood engraving, and it is obvious that since all the lines drawn on the wax sink down to the surface of the copper plate, the shading is virtually composed of lines, the black surfaces being where the lines have been sufficiently close together and broad to remove all the wax enclosed within those surfaces.
The wax process is, however, more suitable for engravings in plain outline only, and is especially excellent when the parts are small and the lines fall close together; as, for example, in Figures 298 and 299, which are engravings of a boiler drilling machine, and were produced for the American Machinist by tracing over a wood engraving from London, "Engineering" in the manner already described. The fineness and cleanness of the lines in the wax process is here well illustrated, the disposition of the parts being easily seen from the engraving, and easily followed in connection with the following description:
The machine consists of two horizontal bed-plates A 1 and A 2, made with V slides on top, and placed at right angles to each other. Upon each of the bed-plates is fitted a vertical arm B 1 and B 2, each of which carries two saddles, C 1 and C 2, these being each adjustable vertically on its respective arm by means of rack and pinion and hand wheels D 1 and D 2. The saddles are balanced so that the least possible exertion is sufficient to adjust them. The vertical arms, B 1 and B 2, are cast each with a round foot by which the arms are attached to the square boxes E 1 and E 2, which are fitted to the V slides on the horizontal beds A 1 and A 2, and are adjustable thereon by means of screw and ratchet motion F 1 and F 2. Each of the square boxes has cast on it a small arm G 1 and G 2, carrying studs upon which run pinions gearing into the circular racks at the foot of the vertical arms. The square boxes have each a circular groove turned in the top to receive the bolts by which the vertical arms are connected to them, and thus the vertical arms, and with them the drill spindles N 1 and N 2, are adjustable radially with the boiler—the adjustment being effected by means of the pinions and circular racks. The pinions are arranged so that they can be worked with the same screw key that is used for the bolts in the circular grooves.
The shell to be drilled is placed upon the circular table H, which is carried by suitable framework adjustable by means of screw on a V slide I, placed at an angle of 45° with the horizontal bed-plates. By this arrangement, when the table is moved along I, it will approach to or recede from all the drills equally. J 1 and J 2 are girders forming additional bearings for the framework of the table. The bed-plates and slides for the table are bolted and braced together, making the whole machine very firm and rigid. Power is applied to the machine through the cones K 1 and K 2, working the horizontal and vertical shafts L 1 and L 2, etc. On the vertical shafts are fitted coarse pitch worms sliding on feather keys, and carried with the saddles C 1 and C 2, etc. The worms gearing with the worm wheels M 1 and M 2 are fitted on the sleeves of the steel spindles N 1 and N 2. The spindles are fitted with self-acting motions O 1 and O 2, which are easily thrown in and out of gear.
The machine is also used for turning the edge of the flanges which some makers prefer to have on the end plates of marine boilers. The plates are very readily fixed to the circular table H, and the edge of the flange trued up much quicker than by the ordinary means of chipping. When the machine is used for this purpose, the cross beam P, which is removable, is fastened to the two upright brackets R 1 and R 2. The cross beam is cast with V slides at one side for a little more than half its length from one end, and on the opposite side for the same length, but from the opposite end. The V slides are each fitted with a tool box S 1 and S 2, having a screw adjustment for setting the tool to the depth of cut, and adjustable on the V slides of the cross beam to the diameter of the plate to be turned. This arrangement of the machine is also used for cutting out the furnace mouths in the boiler ends. The plate is fastened to the circular table, the centre of the hole to be cut out being placed over the centre of table; one or both of the tool boxes may be used. There is sufficient space between the upright brackets R 1 and R 2, to allow that section of a boiler end which contains the furnace mouths to revolve while the holes are being cut out; the plate belonging to the end of a boiler of the largest diameter that the machine will take in for drilling. The holes cut out will be from 2 feet 3 inches in diameter and upwards. Power for using the turntable is applied through the cone T. The bevel wheels, worms, worm wheels, and pinions for driving the tables are of cast steel, which is necessary for the rough work of turning the flanges.
Fig. 299. (Page 275.)
As to the practical results of using the machine, the drills are driven at a speed of 340 feet per minute at the cutting edges. A jet of soapsuds plays on each drill from an orifice 1/32 in. in diameter, and at a pressure of 60 lbs. per square inch. A joint composed of two 1-inch plates, and having holes 1 and one-eighth in. in diameter, can be drilled in about 2-1/2 minutes, and allowing about half a minute for adjusting the drill, each drill will do about 20 holes per hour. The machine is designed to stand any amount of work that the drills will bear. The time required for putting on the end of a boiler and turning the flange thereon (say 14 feet diameter) is about 2-1/2 hours; much, however, depends on the state of the flanges, as sometimes they are very rough, while at others very little is necessary to true them up. The time required for putting on the plate containing the furnace mouths and cutting out three holes 2 feet 6 in. in diameter, the plate being 1 and one-eighth in. thick, is three hours. Of course, if several boilers of one size are being made at the same time, the holes in two or more of these plates can be cut out at once. The machine is of such design that it can be placed with one of the horizontal bed-plates (say A 1), parallel and close up to a wall of the boiler shop; and when the turning apparatus is being used, the vertical arm B 2 can be swiveled half way round on its square box E 2, and used for drilling and tapping the stay holes in marine boiler ends after they are put together; of course sufficient room must be left between bed-plate A 2, and the wall of boiler shop parallel with it, to allow for reception of the boiler to be operated upon.
It would obviously be quite difficult to draw such drawings as in Figures 298 and 299 on thin paper, so as to enable the drawing to be traced on the wax direct by the process before described, unless indeed the draftsman had considerable experience in fine work; hence, it is not uncommon to make the drawing large, and on ordinary drawing paper. The engraver then has the drawing photographed on the surface of the wax, and works to the photograph. The letters of reference in wax engravings are put in by impressing type in the wax, and in this connection it may be remarked that the letters I and O should not be used on drawings to be engraved by the wax process, unless they are situated outside the outlines of the drawing, because the I looks so much like part of a dotted line that it is often indistinguishable therefrom, while the O looks like a circle or an ellipse.
Examples In Engine Work Line Shading
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Malta Digital Innovation Authority revealed: providing…
Malta Digital Innovation Authority revealed: providing legal certainty in a regulatory vacuum
Helena Grech Friday, 16 February 2018, 14:54 Last update: about 2 years ago
Government has launched a policy document which seeks to set up the Malta Digital Innovation Authority alongside other legislation to provide legal certainty in the sphere of Blockchain technology and by extension cryptocurrencies.
Blockchain technology forms part of the wider Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and has so far not been regulated by any institution or body around the world. It is a technology that is an ever-growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using something called ‘cryptography’. Each record has a link with the previous record, or block, and contains a timestamp as well as transaction data.
Once the record is issued with a timestamp, it is not possible to alter or tamper with that information. While this new technology is difficult to grasp for the majority of people, in practice it could potentially bypass lengthy procedures in day-to-day life.
For instance, a music band could make use of DLT platforms such as blockchain by eliminating the need for intermediaries to receive royalty payments whenever somebody downloads their music. Transactions would occur across a peer-to-peer network, and are computed, verified and recorded using an automated consensus method.
The role of a Malta Digital Innovation Authority will take various forms, however one of the key functions would be to certify DLT platforms which provides legal certainty for companies or people who wish to make use of them.
Currently, if a company wants to make use of a DLT platform to effect cross-border payments in order to cut out central authorities and make the process less expensive and more efficient, it would have to make use of a platform that is not certified in any way.
Through the creation of the authority, this government agency would certify a particular platform, for example blockchain, and certified surveyors within the authority would verify that the information being logged on the platform, for example that X amount of money needs to go to Y company, is genuine information. Companies benefit from the peace of mind that the DLT platform they have engaged in is genuine, providing legal certainty and trust, while also making its operations more efficient by cutting out middle-men such as banks.
Parliamentary secretary for the Digital Economy Silvio Schembri addressed a press conference with various stakeholders to launch the policy document. He explained that this “historic moment” for Malta will be tackled in three steps.
Step one deals with setting up the authority, step two deals with launching a Bill that will set out the regime for the registration of Technology Service Providers and the certification of Technology Arrangements. Lastly, step three will launch a Bill that will set out the framework for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and the regulatory regime on to the provision of certain services in relation to virtual currencies.
ICOs are ways for new digital currencies to create financing, by offering investors the new currency in exchange for other established ones such as Bitcoin and Ehterium.
The intermediaries subject to the virtual currency Bill include brokers, exchanges, wallet providers, asset managers, investment advisors and market makers dealing in virtual currencies (to be issued by the MFSA).
Schembri explained that in setting up of the new authority, promoting government policies that favour the development of Malta as a hub for new and innovative technologies, including their adoption in public administration by the government technology hub will be among the goals.
In addition, the aim is to promote innovation in the design, implementation and utilisation of new technologies while also fostering innovation through the creation of a successful ecosystem based on the utilisation of cutting edge technology in useful business cases and the adherence to best implementation practices.
Further to this, protecting Malta’s reputation while taking into account Malta’s international commitments, for example to implement anti-money laundering directives, is also another aim of the new authority together with acting as a consultative body.
There are three types of DLT platforms: those designed for private consumption such as an internal payroll system for a large company, private DLT platforms that are designed for consumption by regulated entities such as a financial institution using a platform to be used by its clients and lastly, a public DLT platform that share consensus mechanisms such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Schembri provided multiple examples of how DLT platforms could be used in practice, such as utilising blockchain technology to record and manage the movement of goods and related invoices and thus significantly mitigating the risk of errors and the opportunity to alter invoice values or recipients.
He explained that it perfectly complements the supply-chain allowing the tracing of products to its source.
Schembri described the process of consulting with all relevant stakeholders, national authorities including the Financial Intellifence Analysis Unit (FIAU) and the police, together with local industry players and international ones, while also consulting with international authorities before launching the policy document.
For the next three weeks, the public is free to provide feedback on the ideas and mechanisms described. Following this, the three bills to set up the authority, to set out technology service provision registration and the cryptocurrency bill will be presented to Parliament.
Photos by Michael Camilleri
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Bee-helping packaging winner of PIDA
For the 15th year in a row, the French edition of PIDA - Packaging Impact Design Award, was held in Reims, and this year, sustainability and recycling were in focus. The contesting design students from France and Germany presented creative and fun ideas on how to package clothes, accessories and beauty products in a more environmentally friendly way. And the design that had the best concept according to the jury, was Save the bees, created by students from Hochschule der Medien, in Stuttgart.
The students behind the design, Daniela Betz and Sophia Huber, held an engaging presentation and invited all the people in the audience to help save the bees. Their design is shaped like a watering can and contains flower-seeds, when planting becomes food for the bees.
“It feels crazy, we never expected this because our design is so simple. Save the bees is not just a packaging, it´s a message” says Daniela Betz who together with teammate Sophia Huber won the Gold Award of PIDA France - Germany 2019.
“We think that help saving the bees and saving our planet is a really important topic and everyone can relate to this” says Sophia Huber. Save the bees is now qualified for the European final in Monaco this fall, at Luxe Pack - the world's largest luxury packaging fair.
This year’s brief was "Bring the future" and the students’ challenge was to develop a sustainable packaging concept for the year 2030. The jury looked at the innovation, sustainability, user-friendliness, concept and communication of the contributions. Save the bees received high marks on all points and the students were praised for their engagement and clean design.
The motivation of the jury: “2030 is tomorrow! I realized that it takes almost 10 years between the emergence of a great idea and their concretization on the markets. What would like major brands in 10 years from now? Rethinking their packaging to make them more user-friendly, more sustainable and always more attractive. A recent study from L.E.K. Consultant (Boston) on the needs in packaging of 250 brand-owners, 57 percent of them want to develop more easy-opening packagings, and 85 percent of them want easier recycling of materials. And finally, 90 percent declare the packaging is key to their commercial success. If I was the owner of this project, I would definitely be confident because this packaging is matching all the criteria.”
In addition to the PIDA Gold Award, winners were elected in three more categories. The prize for the Highest Level of Innovation went to the design Layers and care, for the minimalistic design and the concept of the product. Winner of Highest Level of Sustainability was Number, for their futuristic approach on todays healthcare and the prize for Highest Level of User Friendliness went to the design Aube, for the compact, functional and advanced construction.
“The brief presented to students at the PIDA 2019 was ambitious. Imagining the packaging of the future seems simple at first sight, but that is without counting the current trends that are the new technologies, the sustainable development and the aging of the population. The work provided by the students was unanimously greeted by the members of the jury” says Christophe Delrive, project leader PIDA France, at BillerudKorsnäs.
Young talents become tomorrow’s packaging designers
The international competition PIDA is arranged by BillerudKorsnäs and is carried out in collaboration with leading universities and colleges in Sweden, the UK, France and Germany. Each year, over 200 design students participate. The jury consists of a mix of industry professionals – designers, converters, brand owners and other specialists.
“With PIDA we achieve several different purposes at the same time,” says Anders Gathu, Marketing Manager at BillerudKorsnäs. “We aim the spotlight on the importance of packaging for brands, consumer benefits and the environment. We want to shine light on the young talents who will become tomorrow’s packaging designers and bring them together with industry professionals. By offering a meeting place for ideas, innovation and inspiration, we help push industry development forward.”
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Djokovic, Federer, Serena remain favorites to win opening Grand Slam
PAUL BUCK/EPA
Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer loom over Melbourne Park for the year’s opening Grand Slam as favorites for the Australian Open as questions remain as to whether one of Generation Next could finally end their stranglehold.
The Serbian world number one and his Swiss opponent have won eight of the nine titles on Rod Laver Arena since 2010 and 11 of the last 13 on the bright blue courts in central Melbourne, Reuters reported.
Both have six titles each, and are seeking to break a three-way tie for the most victories with Australia’s Roy Emerson.
While Federer has won the tournament for the last two years, Djokovic’s history in Australia and rediscovery of his form last year means the world number one will be the man to beat.
The 31-year-old went into a bewildering slump in mid-2016 that only ended when he won Wimbledon last year before he went on to claim his third US Open crown and move to 14 Grand Slam titles, three behind Rafa Nadal.
The Spanish world number two, however, is battling another leg injury that forced him out of the Brisbane International last week and it is apparent that hard courts are putting undue stress on the 32-year-old’s body.
He retired in the quarterfinals against Marin Cilic last year in Melbourne and suffered yet another knee injury that forced him out of the US Open semifinals before he had ankle surgery in November.
Federer, however, continues to defy the odds at 37 and prepared for his title defense with some convincing performances in the Hopman Cup in Perth last week.
The 20-times Grand Slam winner’s victories over Greece’s world number 15 Stefanos Tsitsipas and world number four Alexander Zverev prompted the German to playfully quip that he was tired of Federer winning everything.
“I mean, you’re 30-whatever. Why? Just why?,” Zverev asked jokingly of Federer at the Hopman Cup trophy presentation.
The 21-year-old Zverev appears the most likely of the younger generation hoping to end the world’s top three’s domination of Grand Slams, having beaten Federer and Djokovic at the ATP Tour Finals in London last November.
While others in ‘Generation Next’ like Austria’s Dominic Thiem and the 22-year-old Russians Karen Khachanov and Daniil Medvedev could cause upsets, it is debatable whether they can win seven matches over 14 days.
Two of the older generation who have shown they do have that ability — Britain’s Andy Murray and Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka — could be dangerous floaters in the draw.
Murray, a five-time finalist at Melbourne Park, spent most of last year recuperating from hip surgery and looked rusty last week in Brisbane but declared himself pain free.
Wawrinka, the 2014 champion, is also coming back from knee surgery and a back injury in the second half of 2018, but typically flies under the radar through Grand Slams.
Williams chasing 24
The women’s draw looks more open even with Serena Williams, the most dominant force in the sport, back and chasing a 24th Grand Slam singles title to tie Margaret Court’s all-time record.
The American was eight weeks pregnant when she won her 23rd title at Melbourne Park in 2017 and returned to action last year where she reached finals at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Williams enters the year’s first Grand Slam ranked 16th but she still remains the favorite in Melbourne even if she lost to Naomi Osaka in the Flushing Meadows final.
World number one Simona Halep, with a massive burden off her shoulders, will hope to go one better this year having lost the 2018 final to Caroline Wozniacki.
The Romanian broke her major duck at the French Open in June last year and finished the season at number one for the second consecutive year.
A second Australian Open title will be a perfect birthday gift for world number two Angelique Kerber, who turns 31 in the first week of the tournament.
Kerber beat Wiliams in the Wimbledon final to become the first German woman to win the grass court title since Steffi Graf in 1996.
She has looked sharp at the Hopman Cup and maintained her 100 percent singles record even though Germany lost to Federer’s Switzerland in the final.
Also in the mix is the popular Osaka, who stunned Williams in New York.
The 21-year-old Japanese, however, had an inconsistent buildup to the year’s first Grand Slam.
Osaka suffered a straight set loss to Lesia Tsurenko in the semifinal of the Brisbane International and withdrew from the Sydney International in frustration.
Djokovic vows to win fans' love with Federer record in view
Federer, Nadal threatening Djokovic bid for historic Slam
Djokovic relentlessly marches on; Halep sets up Serena showdown at Australian Open
Australian Open unveils new policy for extreme heat levels
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Fight Choreography
Just Blanks
Tommy That
Machine Gun Shakespeare
Gun Law News: The Look-Alike Weapons Safety Act
Hi, Kids! Say hello to the Look-Alike Weapons Safety Act of 2013.
- Current commerce code says that imitation guns sold in the U.S. have to be either completely made of bright-colored material or have a bright orange plug in the muzzle. This Act changes the law to only allow imitation guns with their entire body brightly colored.
Um, Why?
Ostensibly the law is a reaction to the deaths of Tamir Rice and John Crawford. Both were holding realistic airsoft imitation guns when they were shot and killed by police in 2014. The idea being that easily removed or covered orange tips are no longer a viable safety measure in helping police identify a fake from a real gun.
Will it work?
Without getting into a pages-long lecture about the factors that play in a shoot/don't shoot scenario, the short answer is "pretty unlikely."
The airsoft sport will suffer, as realistic weapons are a big part of the sport's appeal. Certain reenactors (WWII in particular) will find their supply of weapons drying up overnight, as will the entertainment industry.
What if I just buy some of these bright orange ones and paint them black?
Depends on whose lawyar interperets the commerce code. On the one hand, if they're yours, then you're not buying, selling, or transporting over state lines, you might be good. On the other hand, they might be "entered into commerce." Nobody's so far been charged with the current law, so there's no real case studies to follow.
So, worst case scenario, it's a Federal Offense with no precedent. If you want to risk some prosecutor wanting to make an example of someone...
Wait, isn't there a waiver or something for the entertainment industry?
Technically, yes, but it's a one-at-a-time waiver from the Secretary of Commerce. From what I hear, similar waivers are available today for doing without the orange tips. I'm told the office processes only a handful of waivers a year.
So, get a waiver and make my John Woo tribute series! Let the Hollow-eyed hippies have their bullshit!
Not so fast, cupcake. YOU might be willing to do the paperwork for however many fake guns you want to own. How many manufacturers do you think are willing to? How many wholesalers? How many retailers? This law intentionally shrinks that market to custom fabricators willing to do the paperwork (and cheerfully pass the expense, time and effort on to you).
That Sucks! Who's responsible for this bullshit?
That would be Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA). Yes, I know we're all shocked that this comes from a California Democrat.
Fuck That! I'm moving to her district and voting her out!
Good initiative, but a little extreme. Besides, she's already retiring. And then you're stuck in California, which has an identical state law that went into effect in January.
Wait, you mean this bullshit can become law?
Maybe. California's law was signed by Gov. Brown back in September, and Ohio (where both Rice and Crawdord lived and died) has a similar bill going around at the state level.
Federally? Unlikely with the Republicans controlling both chambers, but unlikely doesn't mean impossible. I give it one chance in five, and that's being generous.
That's all for today, folks.
~J
The question of "how much training time does one need?" has been on the mind of late.
A couple weeks ago I was talking a friend through purchasing their first handgun, what training they were looking for, how much practice time they could/should take and so on.
And recently it's been a side topic of discussion with some colleagues over how much training time is considered good or adequate or even above average over in the stage/screen combat world.
And few outside the fight choreography world know this, but there's a particular boom-and-bust cycle usually centered around pilot season. It goes something like this:
1. Combat-heavy show is announced in the trades.
2. Every actor fitting the description of the combat-heavy roles chases what combat training they can get.
3. The show gets cast.
4. The bulk of actors training, not being cast, suddenly lose interest in combat training.
The short answer to my original question is the ever-dependable copout of "it depends."
That said, I did some math on real-world operator training time, specifically USMC grunts.
So the question becomes, on average, how much combat training time to people who fight for a living get?
Grab a pencil and a calculator, we're off!
Call it 8 hours training time a day starting from boot camp (8 hour days, my ass, but long hours plus hurry-up-and-wait time makes it close enough for government work.)
8hrs/day, 7days/week. Figure 3 weeks of actual combat training (as opposed to other business being taken care of). That covers grass week, range week, BWT and Semper Fu. That takes us to 168 hours by the end of boot.
Off to SOI (Grunt school). Now, our non-grunts go to a short version of grunt school. It's a month long, 7days/week. That adds another 224 hours. 392 in total by the end.
Now bear in mind, this is for our cooks, clerks, and mechanics. 392 hours to ensure that even if they do nothing but push paper the rest of their careers, they at least know what a raid, ambush, patrol, and guard post look like from both sides.
Refresher training? Figure about 2 weeks annually. Call it 80 hours/year.
Now back to our grunts.
SOI for grunts is a 2-month course, minus weekends but similar hours.
That gives us 320 hours in SOI, 488 hours total.
That does NOT give me an advanced level of warfighter. That gives me a boot that can be called upon to shoot who they're supposed to 4 falls out of 5.
Let's be generous and say that on dropping to the fleet, what with this, that, and the other, our new Grunt gets about 2 month's worth of training before deploying. That covers ITX (which they used to call CAX, Mojave Viper, and other things) and about a month's worth of miscellaneous field ops, ranges and so on. Add another 320 hours.
Now we're at 808 hours. To get someone competent in at least 3 weapons systems and familiar in at least 4 more. (YMMV depending on specific MOS).
Now deploy them. 7 months. Full time. Is that always combat? Nope. But I'll use the 9-5 M-F option again to distinguish patrols, raids, and combat from working parties, standing post, and suchlike. Again, mileage may vary, but it's the yardstick we've been using so we'll get some good rough numbers from it.
Now we're at 808 hours of training and 1120 hours of experience. 1928 in total. To create what grunts call a "one-hump chump." Still might be a dirtbag of some variety. But on the whole, generally reliable and effective fighters with their own weapons systems. Some may have effective cross-training outside their MOS. A few might even be ready to lead teams soon.
A good skillset. And like all skill sets, perishable if not used.
Not only that, but keep in mind what these numbers don't cover...
- Workouts. Training burns some calories, PT builds more. So tack a good workout schedule on that.
- Study. There are a lot more bibliophilic grunts than you'd think. For every one that's reading Hustler, there's another that's reading Gates of Fire and On Combat, and a third reading both, along with some Clauswitz, Musashi, and Kipling.
-Any manner of super secret special ninjas black classified elite pick-your-own-hardcore-adjective training. I've been talking about standard Marine ground-pounders. Highly skilled, not-to-be-fucked-with ground pounders, but ground pounders all the same.
Something to keep in mind when judging exactly how well trained a weekend seminar makes you.
Get a Grip! Defending teacupping
Yep. You read that right.
I'm justifying teacupping.
Hell, I've done so once in a private class and once on a gig in the past month, I might as well keep at it.
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, "teacupping" is a derogatory term used for a certain way of gripping a handgun that's currently out of favor.
In fact, nowadays I'd have to say in the top ten of "things to make your firearm advisor happy on set," "not teacupping" might rank just below "calling it a magazine, not a clip," and "not flagging me."
So, what is it? What makes it a bad thing? (if it even is a bad thing?) Why the bad rap?
History lesson time.
For the bulk of its existence, the pistol was a one-handed weapon. Once technology could scale down from the "handgonnes" of earlier times, the pistol became a favored backup weapon alongside the saber and cutlass, not to mention reins or rigging. Until WWI, U.S. Army holsters were designed to cross-draw, reflecting a right-handed officer's instinct to use the sword with the right hand and pistol with the left.
Bad cellphone pic. Decent one-handed grip.
Here and there, two-handed grips were used for whatever reason, but on an ad hoc basis. It's my personal belief that the first use of a two-handed grip was what we now call The Teacup.
BEHOLD! TEACUPPING IN ALL ITS WICKED GLORY!!!!!!
This grip is almost invariably the first two-handed grip that an untrained shooter uses.
The reason is simple. With the pistol operable with one hand, the other is relegated to a support role. The most immediately needed support to a new shooter the vast majority of the time isn't against recoil, but against weight. Pistols are heavy, so the support hand naturally rests under the butt to take some of the weight off of the shooting hand.
Looking at it this way, teacupping is the untrained, but natural and instinctive response to having to hold a pistol two-handed.
It felt so natural the U.S. Army was recommending it in WWII.
(Teacupping ensues at 5:20)
So, if teacupping is a natural and instinctive response, what's the big deal?
Well, the major sin of teacupping these days is inefficiency at worst. When actually shooting, the support hand offers no support against the force of the shot (what with coming from the wrong direction and all), leaving the shooting arm to absorb the recoil.
There's a couple different ways to be more efficient. Jack Weaver took a teacup and turned it into a sort of piston grip by having the support hand pull back while the shooting hand pushed forward. This helped get the pistol back on target after the force of the shot lifted the muzzle up.
The most popular grip these days, however, seems to be a wraparound of one kind or another.
In this particular case, the support hand comes up on the side, fingers sliding into the grooves left on the grip by the fingers of the shooting hand. The shooting hand's thumb curls down and forward, paralleling the thumb of the support hand.
(Hint: if you ever hear gun enthusiasts yell "thumbs forward!" while watching an action scene, this is what they're talking about.)
What this grip ends up doing is keeping the grip balanced between both hands, giving the shooter the strength of both arms (and in some instances, the torso) to alleviate the effects of recoil.
That's pretty much it.
So, why teacup in a gunfighting scene if you know that?
Any number of reasons: an untrained character, a period piece (wraparound grips didn't become popular until the great pistol technique argument was kicked off by folks like Cooper, Weaver, and Chapman in the late 50's-early 60's), character fatigue or injury (where a steady shot is more important than recovery for follow-up shots), or any number of other reasons.
I can recognize the teacup isn't the best grip out there. But it's there for a reason. And knowing why and how lets me and my performers come to a more informed choice, and ultimately, a more nuanced story.
~J.
April Showers and shield walls
Been a busy time the last month and change.
The biggest for anyone reading this is the move of the site over to the current digs, which are much, much easier on my limited coding skills. Between a host and a wysiwyg editor that even a savage like me can understand, I got this place up and running in an afternoon, where the old site would have taken me weeks. As an unfortunate consequence, the old email (Jay at Jaythebarbarian dot com) no longer exists. It was mostly a redirect anyway, and there's a handy button at the top that will accomplish the same thing.
Went up to Cincinnati OH to T.A. at the Cease & Desist workshop. Fun was had all round, saw a lot of old friends and made some new ones. Actually went up a day early to go shooting with some friends. Ready Line outside Cincy is a brand new facility with a really nice setup.
Did some work on Public Enemy #1 (an action-comedy short) and a music video for a film school bud of mine, along with a day of military advisement for a production of Ruined.
Gig-wise, its been a tad slow lately. But I haven't minded, as that means I've had the time to photograph and catalog my rental stock page. Local business has already picked up, and made the "Jay, do you have a ...?" questions answerable with a quick url.
And in the coming soon section, the Theatrical Firearms Handbook, penned by Kevin Inouye over at Fight Designer. Definitely looking forward to this one.
Spent the last several days in the shop, making about a dozen viking-style round shields. By the end I may well have enough to build a literal wall.
Oh yeah, my new business cards came in the other day, too.
On Killology, Part 2: Acting Killology
Over in my last post, I gave an overview of killology and my current thoughts on both the science and the 2 seminal works on the subject. This time around, I’ll be using killology in the sense of breaking down a kill made by a theatrical or cinematic character.
For the purposes of this piece, a kill is considered what happens when one character actively takes the life of another. No leaving someone to die, no ordering someone killed (though these facets may get explored in a later piece), this is to explore someone who takes action themselves to end another’s life.
I’m going to try and avoid following any particular acting style here, regarding this less as a step-by-step process and more of a list of things worth keeping in mind. We’re also focusing on the act instead of the person to break away from both the idea that a “killer” is a certain type of person as opposed to someone who committed an action, as well as the rigid sheep/sheepdog/wolf categories of sheepdog theory.
A cinematic or theatrical kill consists of four parts: The decision, the circumstance, the action effects, and the aftermath effects.
Based on decision, there are three kinds of kills: A rational kill, an instinctual kill, and anundecided kill.
In a rational kill, the killer actively and consciously considers the circumstances surrounding the kill before making the decision. The killer might not consider all circumstances, and might or might not consider them very carefully, but the killer will make such considerations before the decision to kill is made.
A rational kill that is unlawful would be considered a premeditated murder.
Theatrical examples: Hamlet’s killing of Claudius, Clarence’s murder from Richard III
In an Instinctual kill, the decision happens as a direct result of a particular stimuli, with no conscious consideration leading up to the decision and subsequent action. If considered unlawful, an Instinctual kill would be considered 2nd-degree murder or a “crime of passion.”
Keep in mind that a kill that happens quickly is not an Instinctual Kill by default. Say a commando enters a building with rules of engagement to kill any armed person not a member of their team, then an armed man jumps out of the closet and the commando shoots and kills him. Despite its speed, it is considered a rational kill, as there is significant conscious thought before the decision.
Theatrical examples: Romeo’s killing of Tybalt. (1)
In an Undecided kill, the decision is either not made at all or made to kill someone besides the intended victim. In other words, an accidental or negligent kill.
Theatrical examples: Hamlet’s killing of Laertes, Tybalt’s killing of Mercutio(2), any number of “taking a bullet for someone else” scenarios.
THE CIRCUMSTANCES
Circumstances will sound familiar to the dramaturgically inclined among us. It examines a lot of the same cultural, religious, and socioeconomic ground that happens in the analysis of any scripted world. But Circumstances here revolve around reactions to the kill.
Tangible rewards and punishments
These are the various consequences of a kill: the legal process including fines, jail terms, and likelihood of arrest and conviction, what government officials, religious authorities, and the character’s employer are likely to do, and the economic ramifications (legal defense, loss of employment and the like) of all of the above are. This also includes rewards such as medals, bounties, and commendations.
Intangible rewards and punishments
Intangibles fall under unofficial, individual reactions. How would the character’s family, romantic interests, coworkers, and passersby react in response to the killing? Would the kill increase or decrease their social status? reputation? sexual attractiveness?
The character’s thoughts
The character’s own thoughts come into play with what they believe concerning the kill they consider. Bear in mind A) what the character would or would not admit to another, or even themselves, B) what they believe the result of the kill would be, regardless of what the more likely scenario actually is and C) what the character hasn’t considered in regards to their own opinion. After all, how many people sit down and seriously contemplate how they feel about killing someone?
These thoughts can and often do intertwine with other circumstances mentioned. Hamlet’s refusal to kill Claudius at prayer may be considered an intangible reward/punishment (what the predominant faith believes will become of Claudius’ soul should he die in a state of grace), but it also stems from Hamlet’s personal desire to see Claudius experience prolonged suffering as opposed to simply die at his hands.
general vs specific
When looking at all of the above, bear in mind the difference between a kill in general terms and the specific kill committed by the character. Relationship between killer and killed, social status of killer and killed, method used, and cause to take deadly action all influence the circumstances surrounding the kill.
THE ACTION EFFECTS
Action effects cover the physiological state of the character leading up to, during, and immediately after the kill. Current science does not know why certain effects happen to certain people and not to others. What is known is that the effects shown below do happen on a frequent basis.
((Side note: the Color Condition Code
I could write a whole piece just on the possible theatrical applications of the color code(and might). In a killogical sense, the code developed by Cooper and expanded on by Grossman tracks a state of readiness, with accompanying tracking of heart rate, blood pressure, and motor coordination.
Plot the character’s condition using the code through the entire sequence that features the kill. Keep in mind that the character does not have to follow a linear path from white to yellow to orange and so on. The character may or may not skip steps altogether, or enter the scene in a different condition than usual. Tracking the character’s condition through the act of the killing while exploring the action effects can give us a rough framework for the character’s physiological and psychological state during that time frame. ))
Time dilation is when the character’s perception of time alters during a combat situation. Time may seem to speed up, slow down, or both.
Cinematically, we’re most commonly accustomed to time dilation in the form of slow motion. Diegetic time dilation is rarely shown explicitly, but it does happen (3).
Having experienced this one myself, my pet theory on time dilation is that the sensory input comes in too fast for the brain to process, resulting in the fighter’s perception of time slowing down. This is similar to a high-speed camera taking many more frames per second than normal, which becomes a slow-motion shot when played back. The fighter may well be moving extremely fast, but will experience it in slow motion until processing catches up to input.
sensory alteration
Going about in our day-to-day lives, our bodies tune out a lot of our sensory input to prevent our minds from being overloaded with the nuances of what is around us. This is aided by modern marketing’s constant fight over the attention of consumers, which attempt to drown each other out even as people actively or otherwise tune their messages out as well.
In a deadly encounter, the human body opens up the senses in an attempt to gain as much input as possible, whether from the viewpoint of a predator (what bit of information will let me catch lunch?) or prey (what bit of environmental knowledge will keep me from becoming lunch?). The trouble with this is that the little-used instincts of the body now have to decide and emphasize what it thinks is important.
The results can be selective hearing (not hearing gunfire while hearing the ratcheting sound of a gun’s action and the clinking of brass hitting the ground), selective vision (not seeing the face of an opponent, but seeing their weapon hand detailed enough to know the length of the fingernails and engravings on finger rings, visual distortions (especially tunnel vision), and imbalanced reaction to touch (ignoring serious wounds while reacting to simple cuts and bruises).
THE AFTERMATH EFFECTS
Aftermath effects follow anywhere from the first few moments to several months or more following a kill.
The important thing to keep in mind when exploring aftermath effects is looking at whether such effects are the result of the kill itself, or the result of surrounding circumstances (sustained wounds, excess adrenaline, an arrest or detainment, deaths of companions in the same scene, ect).
As a result of the altered senses described in combat effects, it isn’t unusual for someone experiencing a life-or-death fight to have gaps in their memory, especially if specific aspects are looked for. It would easily be possible for someone to not remember the face of someone who wounded them, but remember what their hands or weapon looked like. Sequence of events, number of shots fired, and any dialogue may be remembered differently or even forgotten by a character.
Interactions with others
The heightened sense of readiness and awareness of the killing character do not die with the one killed. Depending on the circumstances, the character may remain in a high color code condition (red, black, or gray) for several minutes following a kill.
Following the scene, the character’s interactions will likely be colored by the circumstances of the kill. How the character chooses to continue their life will govern their behavior to a large extent.
Keep in mind that there is a major difference between the character coming to terms with their kill and themselves, and the character coming to terms with the reactions of others to that kill. A character who is perfectly content with the kill they made within their own mind may still be reticent in discussing it among colleagues, friends, and family members. They may also face various social pressure to speak of the kill in certain ways as opposed to others.
Fatigue and sleep
Combat is a physically intense activity. Prolonged fighting, especially in lethal scenarios, can easily lead to exhaustion. Once a character’s body is convinced that the need to keep in a fighting state is over, heavy fatigue is extremely common, and sleep comes easily (which in some circumstances can be its own danger).
Sleep reactions in the days and months following a kill are most commonly depicted in two forms. The first is a “light sleeper” mentality, when the character maintains a certain state of readiness while sleeping, the better to react if another deadly encounter happens. The second are the adverse reactions of insomnia and nightmares.
Appetite and Libido
Evolutionary biology claims that human beings have four main drives: the need to fight, flee, feed, and fuck, respectively. While it’s not uncommon for a lack of appetite for food or sex to follow a deadly encounter (particularly ones that overwhelmingly disturb the character), it may be even more common for a character in the aftermath of a killing to crave both.
As far as food goes, the high-intensity nature of combat can easily be considered to drive up the metabolism as well as the appetite. This is especially true if the character purged themselves (from either end) before, during, or after the kill.
As far as sex is concerned, “combat as an aphrodisiac” may well join the pile of whole new articles I need to write. Some may consider it an evolutionary impulse: an instinct to breed before one dies. For other characters, it may be a need for intimacy following a traumatic event. And for others, it may be a need to burn off excess energy following their hyped-up state.
((A side note on PTSD: Once more, the subject for a whole ‘nother article. But as someone who has experienced combat but has never had PTSD, I have intentionally excluded its effects in this article. Aside from my own personal inexperience, I have been rather disturbed by the use of PTSD as a cheap source of drama in the past decade or so of cinema. After seeing comrades experience it and having been repeatedly tested for it, I can honestly say that medical science has only scratched the surface of what PTSD is and how it affects trauma survivors. With our understanding of what it exactly it is so premature, we do our survivors grave injustice by depicting it as a one-note way to raise dramatic stakes. They deserve better, and so do our audiences.))
Without going on for more pages than I care to think of, this is a rough guideline to consider when depicting a character’s kill. There are no real cut-and-dried solutions, only ideas from what has come before.
What we remember from characters is what we remember from people: the things that make them unique in how they go through the world: The way they talk, the way they walk, the way they kiss. The way one kills is as unique as the rest of their actions, and should be examined accordingly.
~Jay
(1)Depending on interpretation, this can be argued, as Romeo does have time to speak, which implies time to think. But the short time frame of the scene combined with Romeo’s “either thou, or I, or both must go with him” convinces me that nothing in Romeo’s thoughts is actually considering the ramifications of killing Tybalt, making the kill itself an Instinctual one.
(2)Varies by interpretation. In this instance, I’m going to take Mercutio’s line “I was hurt under your arm” and roll with it as a killing blow intended for Romeo that catches Mercutio instead.
(3) Most notably in the recent movie Dredd, where the lead villain deals in a drug that alters the user’s perception of time.
On Killology, Part 1
Some of my colleagues have been asking me recently about Killology. By that I mean the relatively new branch of science formed by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman (ret) and described in the books On Killing and On Combat (the latter co-authored with Loren W. Christensen). It’s been a couple of years since I’d studied either book in depth, so I went back to go over both for the purpose of this piece.
This is actually the first part in a two-part series. Here I’m going to give an overview of killology as described in the aforesaid books, as well as my own commentary on the science in general, some benefits and flaws, and things I found interesting, odd, or otherwise worth mentioning. Part II will be a look at using killology for theatrical or cinematic performance purposes.
Note that for the purposes of this piece, I’m looking purely at what’s written in On Killingand On Combat, not in any supplemental materials. If that makes this more of a book review than a look on the philosophy, so be it.
Killology’s basic ideas boil down to these:
- Killing is not necessarily murder. There are circumstances when taking a human life is the necessary and right thing to do.
- The vast majority of humanity has an inherent aversion to killing, however…
- … said aversion can be overcome with mental training and conditioning, and has been in various ways over the centuries.
Grossman’s works have been studied extensively by the military, law enforcement agencies, and others who study the act of, for lack of a better term, “good kills.” His study of what happens to a human being during the taking of another human life, in the physical, mental, and psychological sense, has been put to good use among those who have had to do so in recent years.
Grossman’s work (particularly On Killing) has included two major side digressions:
- The first explores the rise in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder since WWI and the various factors surrounding that.
- The second is a movement against depictions of violence in various forms of media. Although his deepest disdain is reserved for first-person-shooter video games, violent film and television does not escape his ire. As someone whose career involves designing violent scenes for various media, I’m neither going to pretend I don’t have a dog in that fight nor dwell on the subject. I will merely note that Grossman’s views on the matter are expressed rather bluntly in his texts and leave it at that.
The thing to keep in mind when reading either On Killing or On Combat is that killology is a brand spanking NEW branch of science. Before this, killing was studied either in the context of battlefield effectiveness or murder. In essence, Grossman’s work is to studying killing what Alfred Kinsey did for studying sex. That said, just as Kinsey had some serious gaps in his data and work that went unexplored, I think Grossman’s work is just the tip of the iceberg. The next 20-odd years are going to be interesting times for the field.
Out of the major talking points today, I think Universal Human Phobia is going to be the most changed in the future. While aspects of it may be current sociological phenomenon, too much of history is written in bloodshed for me to believe such a thing to be truly universal. Forgive me for using a Barbarism (hell, if anyone’s gonna, it may as well be me), but in the safety of civilization, we too easily forget humanity’s capacity for bloodlust, savagery, and brutality. And modern America has been civilized for quite a long time.
Of the books, On Killing is more raw in form, and it shows. It’s the culmination of years of research, and it reads like the introductory textbook it has become by default.
I’ll admit, on my initial readings in years past I was struck, as many fighters do, with a sense of “finally, someone who understands me!” With the passing of years and a critical eye, a good bit of that remains, but not enough to obscure the flaws.
What became a rather constant irritation to me is the constant cherry-picking of data to support the theory of what Grossman calls “universal human phobia.” (The inherent resistance towards killing one’s fellow humans found in the vast majority of the population)
Again, I’m giving the man full credit for building a new branch of science, and it’s difficult to get significant data on this sort of thing. That said, his historical theories rely very, very heavily on anecdotal evidence (particularly Marshall and Du Pique). A particular habit of his is to rattle off a list of plausible theories for a particular phenomenon, only to declare later that it MUST be what supports universal human phobia.
Case in point: the multiply-loaded rifles of Gettysburg. Grossman mentions an anecdote where 12K weapons recovered after the Battle of Gettysburg were found not only loaded, but loaded with multiple rounds. Grossman makes the case that most of these weapons were left by soldiers who (not wanting to kill anyone) did not fire, but loaded, aimed, mimed firing without actually doing so, and kept up with the rest of the rifle drill along with the rest of their unit. This left multiple loads in the weapon. Later on, he makes an extensive case for conditioning (in the Pavlovian sense) as being the key to overcoming human resistance to kill. In particular, the use of shooting drill among the mass-formation infantry common during the American Civil War.
I can buy tens of thousands of soldiers being able to shoot by peer pressure and intense multiple-count drill in training being used to overcome the universal human phobia he describes. But several thousand managing to not only break their institutional conditioning, but recondition themselves to go through the motions without following through? That I don’t buy.
I find it much more plausible that the proper response to a misfire was for the shooter to remain with the rest of their rank, going through the drill motions and firing in volley until the fire at will command was given. There’s a laundry list of unreliability problems with pre-integrated cartridge weapons out there that could play a part in how many loaded weapons were recovered from that battlefield, be it bad primers, clogged nipples, bad powder, hell, bad weather could have been a factor (heavy rains both preceded and followed the battle, though the first few days of the battle were mostly partly cloudy). But Grossman’s insistence continues to be that universal human phobia combined with human ingenuity met to allow thousands to “get away with” not shooting anyone.
Another aspect of this shows during his crusade against media violence. His claim is that violence in America is skyrocketing, and the murder rate is being held down artificially by advances in medical technology. He therefore uses the aggravated assault rate as an indicator for the increasingly violent actions among the U.S. Population, noting a fivefold increase between 1960 and 1993. (FBI’s Unified Crime report, Aggravated Assaults per 100K people. 86.1 in 1960 vs. 441.9 in 1992). But that argument falls apart in more recent history, as the aggravated assault rate has dropped ever since then, being less than half of what it was in 1993 (252.3 in 2010). I’d venture to go even farther than that, arguing that fights which wouldn’t have resulted in charges (and therefore not counted) are currently doing so. Schoolyard scuffles alone are becoming arrest-worthy charges in ways that weren’t happening just 20 years ago, though I only have anecdotal evidence of that.
To its credit, On Killing does explore a lot of the less often examined aspects of a kill: distance, instinctual responses, group dynamics and an equivalent of the stages of grief psychological model to examine the aftereffects of a killing upon the killer’s psyche. I don’t discredit the book its breadth, but I will say many conclusions seem not only jumped to but tackled far enough for a first down.
On Combat is a more refined book than its earlier cousin, not quite as preachy as its predecessor and less concerned with exploring why people kill as examining the effects that it has on those who kill, whether they be conscious or reflexive, immediate or lingering.
Here is where the limits of killology as it stands now aren’t quite defined but alluded to. Each examination of a lethal force scenario (potential or fulfilled) examine the recorded direct and side effects without trying to draw them up into some breathtaking conclusion. The Cooper color codes are used more as a useful yardstick than an absolute set of limits. Physiological effects (purging, auditory exclusion, memory distortions, effects on the libido) are all listed and examined (occasionally with percentages of known incidents, for the statistically-minded). Responses, treatments, and preventative measures against PTSD comprise a large portion of the latter half, under the mindset of caring for those who do violence on behalf of others (soldiers, cops, those defending themselves and/or others, and so on). Reading through the various scenarios, I found myself often thinking “yeah, that happened,” rather more often than not.
Where On Combat begins to really quirk my eyebrows is in two places: the constant harping on what Grossman has determined are the necessary elements needed to prevent and treat PTSD, and the (to me) overly simplistic nature of Sheepdog theory.
For those who haven’t heard of sheepdog theory, here’s a link.
Overall, I think there’s a sound idea in there somewhere. But it’s too cut and dried.
I laud his crusade in wanting society in general to treat its warriors better than they have in the last several decades. I particularly laud his mention of those warriors who have had to fight and kill, and then have returned with no psychological trauma, but still face the social stigmas associated with PTSD. After all, who would endure such things and NOT turn out damaged? What was wrong with them in the first place? The idea that nothing is wrong with them was a welcome breath of fresh air.
That said, our limited understanding of what PTSD actually is, let alone any sort of consensus on how treatment and prevention should happen just makes his constant drumbeating about what he believes has to be done more of an annoyance than a call to action in my ears.
As for the sheepdog theory, 2% of the population being the only ones capable of violence? I don’t buy it. It feeds into a heroes, villains and bystanders dynamic more useful to a comic book than reality. Oh, there is a paragraph that mentions this, but it’s buried in the middle of a chapter beating the reader over the head with the idea that sheepdogs are the modern versions of romantic-myth knights of old. While it’s useful as a fable, as far as science goes, Sheepdog theory looks like one of Grossman’s Kinsey moments: he’s on to something important here. What I can’t tell right now is how much or how accurate.
Killology on the whole does exactly what it claims to: looks at killing beyond both the cold judgement of murder and the glorious hails of war stories. There’s a lot more to be learned, and it’s going to take a long time.
It’s a nice start though.
Shakespeare's Wars: Henry V vs. Troilus and Cressida
I’ve got a special spot in my thoughts for Henry V.
When going through MEPS (inbound processing before shuffling off to boot camp) I had a paperback copy to keep handy through the various points of waiting. At some point or another I took my “address book,” (A scrap of paper with the addresses of those you’d care to write to. One of the few items I’d be able to have with me during my stay on the island) and scribbled St. Crispian’s Day on the back of it. The paperback I left on a stack of magazines for the next soul passing through. The speech I had memorized by the end of the second week.
Shakespeare isn’t quite the chosen poet of warriors (Kipling likely holds that particular title), but he’s up there. And if he’s been read and/or seen beyond what High School required, Henry V likely makes it near the top of the list.
If I had to take a guess as to why, I’d have to say that its because everyone whose found themselves fighting a war has a counterpart in Henry V’s world. International power brokers who play chess on the world like Henry and Charles. Stoic professional ass-kickers like Exeter. Bearing-impaired shitbags like Bardolph, joined up for loot, adventure, or lack of anything else to do. Wide-eyed boots like The Boy, with no clue what they’re getting into but knowing it’s the most exciting thing they’ve seen in their young lives and not about to let it pass them by.
And then there’s Mistress Quickly. The bit that always hit me hard about Branagh’s film version has dick to do with Hartfleur or Agincourt. It’s watching Quickly seeing loved ones walking out the door, knowing there’s not a damn thing she can do about it except make sure the tears don’t fall until they’re out of earshot.
There’s someone in Henry V that resonates with anyone that’s fought in a war, or had a loved one do so.
But while Henry V resonates with fighting a war, it’s Troilus and Cressida that resonates with living in a war.
I’d only occasionally thought of Troilus before being cast in a production earlier this year. I’d known the gist of it (Romeo & Juliet-ish set against the background of The Iliad) but hadn’t gotten into the story much. The big exception being using Tersities’ “reason you all suck” speech as one of the Machine Gun Shakespeare pieces.
Where Henry’s war has a progression from England to Hartfleur to Agincourt and beyond, Troilus’ war is stuck in Troy, and has been for years. Boredom and bullshit lead to bad decisions all round. It’s one of the most cynical works in the Shakespeare canon. And to an OIF/OEF veteran’s eyes, it looks like Shakespeare embracing the suck.
It’s got moronic higher ups (the entire Greek contigent), the one guy with a clue being unable to get anything useful done (Ulysses), the one guy incapable of shutting the fuck up (Ulysses again), Coming up with conterproductive bullshit as a distraction from all the suck (the exhibition fight), professional shitbags (Thersites), good people dropping their packs when the bullshit becomes too much (Achilles), and a really hideous toll taken on relationships (the titular couple in particular, but it also affects Hector/Andromache and Achilles/Patroclus to an extent).
Even tiny plot points like stumbling around a camp in the dark trying to find Achilles’ tent reminded me of transition quonoset huts in places like Al Taq and Bagram, which all look the same and make trying to stumble back to your own cot after nightfall a mild annoyance.
By the end of the play, nothing substantial has been accomplished but a body count. The suck carries on, as does the war.
For the OIF/OEF vets that read or see both, I personally think Henry V resonates more like the war we fought, while Troilus feels like the one we had to live through.
Tucker Thayer's case continues
For those who don’t recognize the byline, Tucker Thayer was the most recent victim of a fatal firearm accident involving shooting blanks in a theater or film setting.
There’s a lot of news articles and a court brief involved in this, so let me outline the major players first:
Tucker Thayer: 15 years old. Died of a gunshot wound to the head in the light and sound booth of the Desert Hills High School Theater.
Michael Eaton: Drama teacher at Desert Hills H.S. and director of the production.
Officer Stacey Richan: St. George, Utah police officer, assigned to DHHS as a resource officer.
Robert Goulding: Vice Principal of DHHS
David Amodt: Father of the production’s stage manager.
In the fall of 2008, DHHS was putting on a production of Oaklahoma. Wanting a realistic sound effect, Eaton asked Richan and Goulding for permission to use a gun that fired blanks. All agreed, under the provision that an adult would be the only person to transport, posses, and fire the gun used, that adult supervision would be in place at all times, and that the weapon would be transported in a locked case with no other access other than the adult mentioned above.
(Though there has been some confusion on this point, all three were acting within Utah state law by having a weapon on school property with these rules in place. While I haven’t looked at the laws of the City of St. George or Washington County, Utah law considers firearms possession lawful if “approved by the responsible school administrator” (Goulding, in this case), and “the item is present or to be used in connection with a lawful, approved activity and is in the possession or under the control of the person responsible for its possession or use.” (Utah Code, 76-10-505.5 (4) (b-c). So, while it wasn’t necessary and proved to be ultimately tragic, possession under the rules they established together was legal.)
Amodt volunteered use of his personal .38 revolver. At first, all of the above rules were followed. Then, at some point, he began allowing Tucker to shoot the gun during rehearsals, and Tucker knew the combination to the gun’s lockbox at some point as well.
On November 5, 2008, Amodt could not attend rehearsal, sending his wife with the gun in his place (after gaining Goulding’s permission by phone). Mrs. Amodt put the case in her daughter’s pack, accompanying her to rehearsal. Along the way, they encountered Richan(pg 4-5), who indicated that Eaton knew the rules and all was well.
On November 15, 2008, Amodt and his daughter left her pack (with the gun case inside it) inside the booth. Both left the booth, attending to other tasks. Soon afterwards, Tucker entered the booth and shot himself in the temple with a blank. The expanding gas cloud drove skull fragments into Tucker’s brain, and he died later that night.
In May of 2009, Thayer’s parents filed a lawsuit against Eaton, Richan, Goulding, Amodt, Washington County Schools, and the city of St. George.
In December of 2009, Goulding and Eaton tried to be dismissed from the lawsuit, citing the Utah governmental Immunity Act. The case is currently being looked at by the Utah supreme court.
Amodt and the Thayers settled sometime between 2009 and 2011.
On February 2, 2012, a judge dismissed Richan and the city of St. George from the suit.
The rest of the case is still ongoing.
Something of note here is that Tucker was an accomplished shooter. As a Boy Scout, he held 2 shooting merit badges and was a range instructor the previous summer. But he wasn’t familiar with either pistols or blanks.
But what I do not see is any indication that cast and crew were shown the dangersinvolved in using that weapon as part of the show.
In the end, if nothing else, 2 big things need to be remembered as a result of this tragedy.
#1: Complacency kills.
Those two words were painted just at the edge of “the wire” on every single base when I was fighting overseas, and they applied here. Had the adults involved in this tragedy followed their own rules, and followed them diligently, Tucker would still be alive.
#2: If you’re going to do it, do it right.
One of the things that scares the piss out of me about the theater scene today is the rapid increase in firearm use without a corresponding increase in firearms education. Despite the considerable efforts of some, movements to add firearms education to an actor’s skill set are few and far between. University programs are understandably reluctant, given that we live in an age that’s post-Columbine, post-NIU, post-VA Tech, and so on. The professional world is not much better, with far too many of the U.S.’s major theatrical cities also being some of the most unfriendly to firearm owners in the country. Even if actors in cities like L.A., NYC, D.C., or Chicago are willing to pursue their own education, onerous laws make it expensive and difficult at best and damn near impossible at worst to do so.
Here’s to hoping the future changes for the better.
Jay Peterson
Musings on violence, storytelling, and humanity in general.
Boobplate
Chainmail Bikini
Killology
Set Life
Teacupping
Tucker Thayer
Weapon Of The Week
Certa Bonum Certamen
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How do I get my daughter off social media?
Researchers warn there are increasingly social issues connected to the use of social media including sleep depravity, anxiety, depression, loss in academic studies and work, and anger management issues, PC world reports.
Professor Katina Michael from Wollongong University said social networking accounted for 28 per cent of all media time spent online, and users aged between 15 and 19 spent at least three hours per day on average using platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Ironically, Ms Wagorn took to social media to ask for help regarding her daughter’s social media use.
How to block social media
Parent can restrict access to social media on iPhones by going to the “general” section of settings and open restrictions.
By enabling restrictions, you can set up a four-digit password which can stop your child from installing the Facebook app or third-party browsers.
Apps to exist to help people stay off social media including Offtime (iOS, Android), Moment (iOS), BreakFree (iOS, Android), Flipd (Android) and AppDetox (Android).
Andrew Backhouse, 2017, "Mother’s plea: How do I get my daughter off social media?" Townsville Bulletin, http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/news/townsville/mothers-plea-how-do-i-get-my-daughter-off-social-media/news-story/2be4f64f0f54e2ce87c29c3d4ae5de46#_=_, December 19, 2017.
In 2017, Townsville Bulletin, Online, newspaper Tags social media, personal, relationships, block, apps, addiction, children, adolescent
Watching Your Every Move
"These systems are being combined with sophisticated analytics in such granular detail that they can see how long a single customer might linger in front of a display, even "what shelves you are looking at and for how long", explains Dr Katina Michael, an information technology and law expert at the University of Wollongong."
We're entering a reality of "uberveillance", says Michael. She defines the term – which she coined with a colleague in a 2009 academic paper, and which has since made it into the Macquarie Dictionary – as "always-on, technology-enabled, pervasive surveillance systems integrated into society, electronic devices, and even the human body".
"These systems are designed to monitor and monetise people, she says, by tracking their "identity, location and condition – knowing what someone is thinking, why they do what they do, and how they feel when they do it". These technologies reach into individuals in a new way, creating a profile that is best described as "behavioural biometrics", Michael says.
Consumer analysis per se is not new – many companies already collect detailed information about the members of their rewards programs. These opt-in programs all have the same aim, improving the bottom line of retailers and service providers, and some customers might be happy to trade off some privacy in return for emails with sales offers based on their previous purchases."
Citation: Garreth Hanley, December 17, 2017, "If you go down to the mall today, you're watched by a thousand eyes", The Age, http://www.theage.com.au/technology/consumer-security/if-you-go-down-to-the-mall-today-youre-watched-by-a-thousand-eyes-20171211-h02h9q.html
Errata:
MG Michael coined the term "uberveillance" which entered the Macquarie Dictionary online in 2008 and the hardcopy volume in 2009.
The term was coined in 2006 in a class MG Michael delivered at the University of Wollongong.
Katina Michael helped develop and expand the definition of the term in collaborative research with MG Michael since its conception.
In 2017, The Sun-Herald, The Age, newspaper, online Tags watching, surveillance, uberveillance, shopping malls, technology, behavioural biometrics, who, where, when, what, predictive, transactions, market, manipulation, advertising, wifi, mobile phones, CCTV, integrated, consumers, views
ACT gov rules out Access using facial recognition
"The ACT government also said they would only provide one-for-one matches, where the system returns a single identical match to a searched face, rather than multiple possible matches from searches in the One Person One License System (OPOLS).
Surveillance expert Professor Katina Michael from the University of Wollongong said one-to-one matches would help avoid innocent Canberrans being inadvertently targeted in an investigation.
A search which returned multiple possible matches, she said, could create false positives for investigators.
"You don't want fuzzy matches," Professor Michael said.
"They're almost forcing the feds, I believe, to be sure about an exact match or don't bother at all. You don't want to be an innocent person ending up on a suspect list."
She said a search which returned multiple possible matches to a biometric search could target the wrong people.
The agreement doesn't permanently rule out the ACT's database being used in OPOLS searches but states they "will not participate in the One Person One Licence System at this stage".
ACT Policing and other law enforcement will be able to review Access Canberra's database of driver's license photos, in turn the directorate will also be able to access the system.
Mr Barr said he had requested restrictions on the use of the Capability so as to meet the ACT's Human Rights Act, the first Australian jurisdiction to have a state-based human rights charter."
Citation: Finbar O'Mallon, October 15, 2017, "ACT government rules out Access Canberra using facial recognition technology", Canberra Times, http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/act-government-rules-out-access-canberra-using-facial-recognition-technology-20171011-gyysue.html
In 2017, Canberra Times, newspaper Tags Access Canberra, ACT, government, facial recognition, technology, 1-to-1, matching, The Capability, human rights, drivers license, photos, innocent, target, exact match, One Person License System, OPOLS, fuzzy match, suspects, private companies
Government agencies could use facial recognition
Surveillance expert Professor Katina Michael from the University of Wollongong said access should only be granted on a case-by-case basis, concerned the Capability could be linked to a person's metadata or even tax file number.
"What I can't understand is it's open at all times indefinitely," Professor Michael said.
"That is not professional. It's warrantless searching."
She also raised concerns about the private sector having access to the system.
"It's going to be bi-directional. This is a lovely symbiosis between government and industry. This is the only way that government can crawl their way into the data sets of Facebook and Google."
When originally launched in November, the FVS used photos captured by the Australian Border Force from passports or citizenship photos, and was only available to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or the Australian Federal Police.
Earlier this month, the federal government announced it would establish the national facial recognition system drawing on issued identification from all Australian jurisdictions allowing FVS users to access state or territory databases.
The Capability now comprises three parts, the Document Verification Service, the FVS and the Facial Identification Service.
The FIS allows law enforcement to scan photos of unknown persons and match them with multiple government records.
"For example, it can be used to identify a suspected paedophile from child exploitation material, or to identify an armed offender from a still image taken from CCTV footage," a spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said there were no current plans to expand access to the FIS to government agencies or the private sector.
But Professor Michael was concerned the FIS would eventually be opened up to other agencies and the private sector.
Finbar O'Mallon, October 15, 2017, "Government agencies could use facial recognition", Illawarra Mercury, Available: http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/4987885/government-agencies-could-use-facial-recognition/
In 2017, Illawarra Mercury, newspaper Tags government, agencies, personal data, biometrics, facial recognition, face, The Capability, metadata, TFN, tax file number, warrantless searching, bidirectional, symbiosis, industry, Facebook, Google, passports, facial recognition system, facial verification system, FVS, facial identification service, FIS, scan, photos, cross-match, linkage
Australia plans biometric border control
The Australian government is planning to allow 90% of travellers to pass through passport control without human help by 2020.
With a $100m (£80m) budget, it has begun the search for technology companies that could provide biometric systems, such as facial, iris and fingerprint recognition.
But University of Wollongong technology and biometric expert Prof Katina Michael told the Guardian newspaper that such technology could pose a risk to privacy.
"Even if the system works, is that ethical to impose this system on the entire populace without even asking them?" she said.
"I see the perceived benefit, but what I do know is that there will be real costs, human costs, not only through the loss of staff through automation, but also through discrimination of people who may appear different."
In 2017, media, newspaper, biometrics Tags Australia, biometrics, border control, technology, biometric systems, ethics, perceived benefits, real costs, humans, automation, staff losses, different, discrimination, privacy, body, individual, risks, iris recognition, fingerprint recognition, technology companies, travellers, passports, airports, database
Glogging Your Every Move
Key Link
Lisa Wachsmuth, Illawarra Mercury
Katina Michael, University of Wollongong
http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/956192/glogging-your-every-move/?src=rss
"It is one thing to lug technologies around, another thing to wear them, and even more intrusive to bear them... But that's the direction in which we're headed."
"I think we're entering an era of person-view systems which will show things on ground level and will be increasingly relayed to others via social media.
"We've got people wearing recording devices on their fingers, in their caps or sunglasses - there are huge legal and ethical implications here."
Lisa Wachsmuth and Katina Michael. "Glogging Your Every Move" Illawarra Mercury: News Nov. 2012: 10. Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kmichael/298
Full article in text here:
YOU wake up, it's a hot day so you put on your smart clothes that keep you cool; you lace up your smart shoes which track your movements while every moment of your day is recorded via an implant in your eyeball.
Sounds like science fiction but the technology is already available and it won't be long before body wearable - and implantable - technologies are ever present, according to a University of Wollongong academic.
Associate Professor Katina Michael said people were already comfortable "wearing" devices like pedometers and iPods - and there were even a number of "voluntary microchip implantees" including Australians.
"It is one thing to lug technologies around, another thing to wear them, and even more intrusive to bear them," she said. "But that's the direction in which we're headed."
Emerging body-wearable technologies were becoming more sophisticated and less visible, said Prof Michael, who will host an IEEE International Symposium of Technology and Society in Canada next year.
"You already see people running around with iPod pockets around their arms, or with a heart-rate monitor on at the gym," she said.
"Over the next few years these devices will become less obvious and more integrated with our clothing and accessories. We'll be wearing smart necklaces and earrings, smart glasses and headbands, smart shoes and belt buckles.
"These smart devices will make 'augmented reality' a part of our daily lives; we'll be able to take photos and video, to collect geographical data about where we've been and physiological data such as our heart rate."
A lot of this technology is already in use - extreme sports people wear cameras with built-in GPS; police officers use special sunglasses to record situations and location-based shoes monitor people with dementia.
"Most of these devices were developed for the military and are now enjoying popularity as commercial devices," Prof Michael said.
She collaborates with Prof Steve Mann from the University of Toronto, who is renowned for his eyetap device - a bit like the Google glasses available to buy in 2014 - which he uses to record his life.
"Steve coined the term 'sous-veillance' which unlike surveillance - watching from above - is about watching from below, by having a camera looking out from your body," she said.
"There's already many 'life bloggers' or 'gloggers' who record their lives - it's a bit like having a black box recorder on your person.
"I think we're entering an era of person-view systems which will show things on ground level and will be increasingly relayed to others via social media."
However, the technologies were emerging so fast that the laws - and social mores - surrounding them could not keep up.
"We've got people like Jonathan Oxer, an Australian who has a microchip implanted in his arm so he can open the door to his house without a key," she said.
"We've got Canadian film-maker Rob Spence who replaced his false eye with a camera-eye so he can record everything he sees.
In illawarra-mercury, 2012, newspaper Tags glogging, sousveillance, lifelogging, video, recording, 24x7, social-implications, being-watched, watching, ethics, person-view, go-pro, contour, devices, wearables, sensors
Tracking trek: UOW's Dr Katina Michael's students can monitor her movements according to where her Blackberry GPS logs her on Google Latitude as part of a study into new tracking devices in mobile phones and laptops, presently unregulated in Australia.
Katina on Right Path to Testing Tracking Technology
It seems like a fun experiment to log your every move on the world wide web for friends and family to track.
But what happens when the automated location device in your mobile phone or laptop somehow gets it wrong and posts you as being in a totally different city, or suspicious trackers assume because you were in a pub you were drunk?
These and many other scenarios are potential implications of the latest technology many do not even know exists in their phone or computer.
University of Wollongong associate professor Katina Michael is testing the implications of the new technology and will eventually recommend regulations for its use.
There are no laws in Australia governing the use of the technology, which is less than a year old, despite its potentially serious impact on privacy.
Dr Michael said users need to approve "friends" to access the information, but it was only a matter of time before hackers found their way into the seemingly secure network.
As part of the experiment, she has given a group of her students access to the GPS tracking system in her Blackberry, which logs her movement on Google Latitude.
"What we're exploring is people's initial reactions to these capabilities- both the positive benefits and the negative implications."
"We need to regulate it because at the moment it's open slather as to how people use these things, and the more tech-savvy you are, the more ahead of the game you are," Dr Michael said.
Despite the potential negative implications, the technology provides exciting opportunities for networking and immediate access to information.
Location-based social networking sites allow users to do things such as send a request for a company to others logged in as being in the same area; search for things to do based on where you are; and provide friends with detailed information about where you have travelled.
But Dr Michael said such sites could also pose dangers.
"They know where we have been, but they don't necessarily know what we've been doing.
"The question is, where are we going in the next five years and how do we plot the safety implications of these applications?'
Location-based social networking sites allow members to share their whereabouts through GPS, email or text.
— Location, location, location...
Populates a map of where people are transmitting a mobile phone signal from. You can see where your friends are congregating and instantly get information about what’s happening at a specific hot spot.
— Citysense
Allows users to upload photos, videos and other information about what they’re up to and then locate it. For example, a user could take a photo of an ice cream stand, upload it to GyPSii and add the GPS location. Friends can then see where you took the picture.
— GyPSii
Turns your mobile phone into a compass. Users can mark a map with places their friends have visited and leave comments and suggestions which can be shared. Thinking about going to a restaurant? See what your friends had to say about it.
— Loopt
Enter your location and a map will show restaurants, the distance from your location and details about the establishment, such as when it opens, if it services brunch, type of payment options etc. You can upload photos and write reviews.
— Whrrl
Citation: Courtney Trenwith, December 28, 2009, "Katina on Right Path to Testing Tracking Technology", lllawarra Mercury, p. 6.
In 2009, Illawarra Mercury, newspaper Tags tracking, technology, location, Google Latitude, social networking, location-based social networking, LBS, LBSN, social implications, trust
With Words that Last
Others, like ‘‘climate porn’’ or ‘‘uberveillance’’ might have not yet reached their peak.
WE’RE about to leave the noughties, but not all of the words born in the past decade will necessarily be coming with us, a quick review shows. Some of the Macquarie Dictionary’s words of the year for 2006 still stack up pretty well: the inaugural list introduced ‘‘affluenza’’, ‘‘muffin top’’ and ‘‘cyberstalking’’ into our official lexicon. ‘‘Cyberathlete’’ didn’t fare as well as ‘‘cyber cheating’’ from 2007’s list, which also gave us ‘‘carbon footprint’’ and ‘‘infomania’’. ‘‘Pod slurping’’, referring to the act of downloading large quantities of computer data to a portable memory device, was named the top word of that year. It has been overshadowed by the ‘‘toxic debt’’ that topped 2008 – in more ways than one. Some words succumbed to more popular alternatives: ‘‘arse antlers’’ was no match for ‘‘tramp stamp’’ when referring to a lower back tattoo. Others, like ‘‘climate porn’’ or ‘‘uberveillance’’ might have not yet reached their peak. There have been some memorable additions internationally as well. The author and blogger Adam Jacot de Boinod noted New York gave us the ‘‘cuddle puddle’’ in 2002 to describe a bunch of exhausted ravers, the same year that Britain takes credit for ‘‘trout pout’’ for botoxed lips.Of the Australian words to make it to the worldwide list of the best of the decade, as quoted in the Guardian, we offered up ‘‘barbecue stopper’’ in 2002 to describe an important electoral issue, ‘‘dog-whistle politics’’ for views heard only by supporters, and ‘‘flash packers’’ for comfortable but intrepid travellers.
Citation: Sean Nicholls and Leesha McKenney, December 17, 2009, "With Words that Last", Sydney Morning Herald, p. 26.
In 2009, SMH, Sydney Morning Herald, newspaper Tags words, uberveillance, definition, SMH
Macquarie Dictionary chooses 'toxic debt' as 2008 word of the year
Staff and wires February 04, 2009 10:05am
UPDATE 2pm: AUSTRALIA'S leading dictionary has dubbed "toxic debt" 2008 word of the year.
Read more of the nominees here.
The term comes as the effect of the global financial crisis continues to hit home.
By definition, the noun is a “debt which, although initially acquired as a legitimate business transaction, proves subsequently to be financially worthless, as the subprime loans which precipitated the GFC''.
In the end, toxic debt edged out “bromance'' (“a non-sexual but intense friendship between two males''); “textaholic'' (“someone who sends an excessive number of text messages''); and “flashpacker'' (“a backpacker who travels in relative luxury'').
Macquarie Dictionary sages chose the term after its committee mulled over the year’s most important events.
Publisher Sue Butler said environment and water issues also were examined.
“But the event of 2008 which overshadows all our lives was the GFC, itself a term now added to the lexicon,'' Ms Butler said.
“In this category, 'toxic debt' was thought to be the root cause, the lingering blight on our lives, and in addition it had, as a lexical creation, a visceral impact. It needed no explanation but said it all.''
Also in the “honourable mentions” include guerilla gardener (a person who plants gardens in neglected public areas such as nature strips, roundabouts and council parks); and “lawfare” (the use of international law to attack another country on moral grounds).
And topping various categories include:
• Audiation (“the process by which one plays over in one's mind music that one has heard, which intrudes itself sometimes to an unpleasant degree.”);
• Baby brain (“the perceived diminished mental capacity, as characterised by forgetfulness, loss of concentration, etc., thought to be a side effect of pregnancy.”);
• Bullycide (“suicide which is a reaction to being bullied.”);
• Car crash TV (“a television program that is simultaneously absorbing and repulsive for the viewer”);
• Celeblog (“a blog written by a celebrity”);
• Celebutard (“a celebrity who is regarded as excessively stupid.”);
• Chess boxing (“a sport which alternates a round of boxing with a round of chess.”);
• Chicken-wing tackle (“an illegal tackle (in Rugby League) in which the arm of the person tackled is pushed up behind his back.”);
• Click-and-mortar (“adjective of or relating to a company which has operations both online and offline”);
• Climate porn (“predictions, thought to be exaggeratedly alarmist, about the progress of global warming and its effects on the world.”);
• Divorce gene (“men with a variant of this gene … may have a lowered motivation towards a social bonding with their partner”)
• Ear gauging an ear piercing procedure that involves the stretching of the pierced hole with a series of objects, each one larger than the previous one
• Ecocentrism (“a philosophy based on the idea that the ecosphere is more central to life than any particular organism”);
• Extreme programming (“the style of programming required for agile development.”);
• Fanta pants (“a person whose hair is naturally red”);
• Film tourism (“tourism occasioned by the wish to visit a well-known location used in a film or television production; set jetting.”);
• Fur child (“a pet animal, as a cat or dog, treated as one would a child.”);
• Generation Z (“the generation born in the early 2000s, following generation Y, characterised as being at ease with computer technology, online and mobile phone communication.”);
• GIS (“a computer system that can capture, store, analyse, and present in various ways data that locates places on the earth's surface.”);
• Granny season (“(in Australia) winter, during which many older members of the population travel north, especially with caravans, campervans, etc.”);
• Guerilla dining (“dining at a restaurant that has been set up temporarily in an unused space such as a car park, beach, rooftop or a private home”)
• Helicopter parenting (“a style of child rearing in which parents are excessively attentive to and involved in the lives of their children;
• Hybrid embryo (“an embryo which has a human cell nucleus inserted into an animal egg; developed to create stem cells to be used in medical treatments.”);
• Lifestreaming (“the online recording of one's daily life, delivered either by means of a webcam, or aggregated from personal blogs, microblogs”);
• Linkbait (“to create points of interest in (a website) so that other sites will link to it and increase traffic”);
• Lolcat (“a photograph of an animal, usually a cat, posed or digitally edited and humorously captioned using elements of baby talk, SMS coding, etc., in the text.”);
• Nomophobia (“a state of anxiety brought on by not having mobile phone contact, as from a low battery, no network coverage, etc.”)
• Pimp cup (“a goblet-shaped glass, usually brightly coloured and highly decorated, often with the owner's name picked out in rhinestones.”);
• Plastic soup (“a floating mass of waste, mainly plastic, which accumulates at the point in the ocean where a gyre is located”);
• Pod person (“someone who unquestioningly accepts authority, taking all ideas, dogmas, policies, etc., without question.”);
• Saviour sibling (“a child selected in embryo for genetic characteristics which can be of benefit to an existing brother or sister with an illness, especially for potentially curative stem cells to be used in medical treatments.”);
• Scene kid (“a person who adopts an unconventional style of dress, such as coloured hair worn high on the head, dramatic eyeliner and straight jeans, and who prefers hip-hop, screamo, punk rock, and other offbeat genres of music);
• Sexting (“the receiving or sending of a sexually explicit photo or video clip on a mobile phone”);
• Shwopping (“the exchange of items of clothing and accessories for a similar item offered by someone else on a website designed to facilitate such an exchange.”)
• Sugging (“attempting to sell under the guise of conducting market research, often with incentives attached to lead the potential customer to a purchase.”)
• Toad buster (“a person engaged in the eradication of the cane toad”);
• Torino scale (“a scale for categorising the impact hazard posed by near-earth objects, such as asteroids and comets.”);
• Transformative justice (“a form of justice which seeks to involve all parties, wrongdoers, victims, families, and friends, in a process of understanding the motivation and the consequences of the crime”);
• tunneling (“a tactic (in Australian Rules) used by a player to unbalance an opponent going for a mark by knocking their legs sideways while they are in the air.”);
• Twitterverse (“the world of microbloggers.”)
• uberveillance (“an omnipresent electronic surveillance facilitated by technology that makes it possible to embed surveillance devices in the human body.”); and,
• Wii shoulder (“painful inflammation of the shoulder caused by excessive playing of virtual computer games involving movement.”).
Citation: Staff and Wires, February 4, 2009, "Macquarie Dictionary chooses 'toxic debt' as 2008 word of the year", Herald Sun.
In 2009, Herald Sun, newspaper, online print Tags uberveillance, technology word of the year, technology, word of the year, 2008, 2009, Macquarie Dictionary
The year of climate porn and fanta pants
Erik Jensen January 8, 2009
LAST year began in excess and ended in disaster, if the words it contributed to the Macquarie Dictionary are any indication. The past year was one of flashpacking and toxic debt, of wellness tourism and the GFC. Those, alongside 91 other words and phrases, were added in 2008 to the Macquarie Dictionary's online edition.
"It says there was incredible smugness and consumption and then something hit it in the vitals and that made it sound silly and selfindulgent," the poet and Macquarie committee member, Les Murray, said of the list.
"There were two big things that happened in 2008. One you can't use because it's a proper noun, and that's Obama. The second was subprime."
The editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, Susan Butler, said the influence of America was again large on the list of words she selected. But the British fanta pants "from the orange-coloured soft drink … with reference to pubic hair as the indicator of hair colour" was a notable exception.
The big trend for the year was the growth of environmental language: of ecocentrism, referring to the philosophy in which the ecosphere is more important than an organism or human activity; of plastic soup, referring to a mass of plastic on an ocean gyre; and of climate porn, referring to alarmist predictions about the progress of global warming.
"There's 19 categories rather than 17 because environment had to be split into two," Ms Butler said. "And then it is in politics as well."
Looking through the list of words, Mr Murray said lifestreaming (the online recording of one's daily life) sounded better than what it meant.
Uberveillance (omnipresent electronic surveillance through devices embedded in the body) had more future than present.
And water footprint (the amount of fresh water used by a country, business or individual) was his pick for beauty.
Readers of the Macquarie are encouraged to vote online for their favourite word, from which a people's choice will be announced in February.
The pick from 2007 was password fatigue, referring to the feeling encountered when a vast number of passwords renders a user unable to remember any of them.
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/01/07/1231004105770.html
Erik Jensen, January 8, 2009, "The year of climate porn and fanta pants", Sydney Morning Herald, http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/01/07/1231004105770.html
In 2009, SMH, newspaper, online print Tags mg michael, Les Murray, Susan Butler, Macquarie Dictionary, uberveillance, words, definitions
MG Michael's Research on Uberveillance
Dr MG Michael with his new book From Dataveillance to Uberveillance and the Realpolitik of the Transparent Society. Picture: ANDY ZAKELI
Dr MG Michael, studies the social implications of technology, including the way governments can use it to intrude on the lives of citizens. The term ‘‘uberveillance’’ means an exaggerated surveillance of citizens, an above and beyond omnipresent 24/7 version using tracking technologies which are embedded within the body. Think of it as Big Brother on the inside, looking out.
It is an emerging area of information and communications technology which preoccupies me.
However, if the powers behind some of the intrusive surveillance technologies which I am studying do not pause to consider both the trajectory and consequences of the
new ‘‘machinery’’ they are building, then we are in for a bumpy ride and the effects will potentially be catastrophic.
I am not a naysayer per se, but that’s how I see things as they now stand. This is not to say that technology is not affording us some amazing and groundbreaking possibilities, especially in the areas of biomedics, communications and, of course, business information systems.
I am certainly not a neo-Luddite. But I do not buy into the glossy and predictably misleading publicity of where this ‘‘computer age’’ is supposedly taking us. I genuinely doubt, based on past and present evidence, that we are about to enter the cornucopia of an electric world.
On a more positive note, our work is about promoting discourse among the academic disciplines, the various sectors of the community and the public itself which is a critical and significant stakeholder in this discussion which is shaping both our immediate future and the civilisation to come.
I have been contemplating the social implications of technology from within an apocalyptic framework and narrative for almost 25 years, and have travelled the world during that time listening and speaking to recognised experts in their respective fields.
This group includes both religious persons and those who are firmly fixed to the empirical side of things. It is a truly extraordinary and revealing mix. People might be surprised with some of the points of agreement.
There are several strong connections between the desert and city that we often altogether miss, or choose to ignore.
My research focus extends to:
modern interpretations of scripture and the Apocalypse of John;
the historical antecedents of modern cryptography;
the auto-ID trajectory;
uberveillance and Big Brother;
data protection, privacy and ethics related issues;
biometrics, radio frequency identification and chip implants;
national security and government policy;
and more broadly the system dynamics between technology and society.
Each one of these subjects intensely fascinates me. There is a noticeable cross-disciplinary indication here; we are finding this more and more in perceived ‘‘monolithic’’ disciplines such as engineering and computer science.
My passion extends to teaching, writing papers, and presenting at conferences. But particularly teaching, above all else.
I have been invited to present at international conferences and have published a number of papers in the disciplines of IT, bioethics, and biblical studies. More recently we have been given the honour to deliver a paper in the high profile 29th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners which was held in Canada, alongside such keynotes as Michael Chertoff, Secretary, US Department of Homeland Security.
Dr MG Michael is an honorary fellow at the University of Wollongong’s School of Information Systems and Technology.
Best part of your research?
Sharing my work in class with my students at the University of Wollongong and listening to what they have to say; meeting and exchanging ideas with colleagues both locally and internationally; working closely with my wife, Dr Katina Michael, who is the driving force behind this funded research collaboration; and educating and regularly surprising myself with new bits of information and knowledge.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
Lots of things! One of these, the dream to become a policeman, I actually fulfilled for a short period. I also liked to make believe that my bedroom was a spaceship and that I was an astronaut taking off into the heavens, heading for the Moon.
Has your career followed a straight line?
Positively not. I found myself in the IT world through an unbelievable twist of fate. I really am the proverbial ‘‘accidental tourist’’. In previous incarnations I have been a police officer, high-school teacher, soldier, and clergyman. I have moved about a bit and have found that institutional hierarchies and I do not always see eye-to-eye. I have a habit of asking too many questions! But there are other things which I think matter a whole lot more, and those things I have tried to let follow a straight line. However, like most people, I do not always succeed.
What would you change?
Ten years ago I probably would have said quite a few things; and five years prior to that a whole lot more. But I have increasingly come to the realisation that providence really does know best, and that all things do work together for good. We just need to hang in there.
Advice for young researchers:
Passion for your work; endurance in reaching your goals; humility with your successes; and the desire to become ‘‘builders’’. Also to read as many books as you can, to make this a life-long habit. Be predisposed to biographies. And to make sure that you surround yourselves with suitably qualified mentors.
Next adventure:
Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero. (Seize the day, trust least to the future).
Citation: MG Michael, "MG Michael's Research on Uberveillance", Illawarra Mercury, November 27, 2007.
In 2007, Illawarra Mercury, newspaper Tags mg michael, uberveillance, social implications, tracking technologies, embedded technology, government, citizens, surveillance, exaggerated, omnipresence
New technology could take toll on mental health, experts warn
ALAN FINDLAY
MONTREAL -- Just because someone's paranoid doesn't mean they're not being watched.
With technology becoming more and more integrated into everyday life -- and potentially embedded in people's bodies -- speakers at an international privacy conference this week have warned that the brave new world could have a significant impact on people's psyches.
Inventor of the term "uberveillance," Australian technology expert and theologian Michael Michael said the increasing threats to our privacy posed by technology and experimental innovations such as radio frequency identification (RFID) tag implants will also carry consequences for mental health.
Digestible ID Tags?
"Mental illness will become an increasingly confronting factor as these issues develop," he said.
In another conference session, delegates were told of a Kodak patent application for a digestible RFID.
University of Toronto associate professor of information studies David Phillips said society needs to find a better way of addressing such technologies publicly as they become more pervasive.
"We have to keep talking about this in ways that work better than we talk about it now," he said.
Teresa Lunt of the Palo Alto Research Centre said RFIDs and other technologies could be used in a way that protects an individual's privacy while also making use of information such as our shopping habits.
A so-called privacy appliance could allow a retailer to read about customers' clothing, colour and other preferences based on past purchases as soon as they walk into the store.
More specific knowledge about the person's identity could be concealed, however, she said.B
Citation: Alan Findlay, September 28, 2007, "New technology could take toll on mental health, experts warn", Edmonton Sun, Canoe Inc, http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2007/09/28/4532859-sun.html
In Edmonton Sun, Canada, newspaper, online print Tags paranoid, mental health, new technology, uberveillance, privacy, embedded, people, bodies, RFID tag, implants, consequences, digestible, RFID, Palo Alto Research, identity, customers clothing, RFIDs
Hi-tech versus Privacy
Hi-tech vs privacy
Picture: ORLANDO CHIODO
University of Wollongong senior lecturer Katina Michael researches the use of tracking technologies and their human impact. With the threat of terrorism prompting the increased use of technology to keep track of people, and talk of the reintroduction of a national ID card, KATINA MICHAEL, senior lecturer at the University of Wollongong, researches these options with a view to their social impact.
I research emerging technologies targeted at mass market applications, and the social implications of these technologies on citizens and business. In 1996 I began researching smart cards and then in the following year expanded my interests to the wider automatic identification industry: bar code, magnetic-stripe card, biometrics, radio-frequency identification (RFID). In 2004, I further extended my research agenda to include location technologies such as global positioning systems (GPS), wireless local area networks, UHF, cellular triangulation, chip implants and geographic information systems (GIS).
My work explores the dynamics between technology and service providers, customers, endusers (eg citizens) and government agencies in the process of technological innovation. I am particularly interested in the technological trajectory of the identification and location-based services (LBS) industry and use a historical method to analyse changes that have occurred over time.
My predictive studies are based on the current state of development and verifiable cutting-edge research. My unit of analysis is multi-layered - the technology at the first instance, then the application context, and finally the given product or process innovation.
Together with research students, I have developed the 3Cs and 3Ts classification of location-based applications - Control, Care, Convenience and Tagging, Tracking, Tracing.
This approach lends itself well to usability contexts, used to analyse applications that are focused on identifying or locating objects, animals or people at varying levels of location accuracy - from precision to proximity.
More recently I have become interested in how emerging technologies impact social ethics and legislation. My work is aimed at influencing Australian government policy, and for that reason has broader applicability than just in the information technology sector alone.
Currently, the rekindling of the Australia Card debate, the controversial use of RFID and Biometrics for ePassports, and the newly defined laws in telecommunications interception and anti-terrorism are important issues as they affect not only suspected terrorists and intercountry travellers but all citizens of Australia.
Consider the 24x7 tracking of suspected terrorists or the obligatory adoption of card schemes mandated by the Government and enforced by law. The latter example appeals directly to the national security debate, in which I have been an active participant since completing my PhD. However, given the area of study, my research has as much applicability to national security as it does to the emergency management sector, as there are common approaches to aiding communication and collaboration using electronic and mobile business applications in either context.
Perhaps my single-most passionate research area is looking at the development of the human-computer metaphor. I have been studying the implantation of chips into humans for a variety of applications, including for medical purposes. This topic brings together research from diverse fields including medical, robotics, automatic identification, ubiquitous computing, technology trends, culture and ethics.
Katina Michael is a senior lecturer in the School of Information Technology and Computer Science at the University of Wollongong.
Will it save the world?
No. The best most of us can hope for is that our research plays at least a small part in the wider context of a larger research project which is considered useful to society at large.
Years spent trying:
My first minor research project began in July 1996 and was titled Social Implications of Smart Cards: an Australian Case Study. So I guess that means I have been researching in the field for about 10 years. Are you getting anywhere? Yes. Research however is a lifelong endeavour.
Without a doubt it is mentoring younger scholars, collaborating with colleagues, ongoing education and helping break new ground. Have you had a true ‘‘Eureka! I’ve found it!’’ experience? Yes - founding the concepts of ‘‘electrophorus’’ and ‘‘homoelectricus’’ with DrM G Michael while collaborating on a paper. I have also had a great number of ‘‘you beaut’’ moments, particularly while supervising my research students.
Has it made you rich?
Not in dollar terms, but rich in experience and perspective. What did you want to be when you were a kid? I never quite knew what I wanted to be when I was growing up, although I liked studying English, writing poetry and being a part of theatrical productions all through primary and high school. I never set out to be an academic until after I left my previous workplace. It happened quite unexpectedly.
I do not think I’ve had the normal academic career path, although I did a Bachelor’s degree followed by a PhD in close succession. When I finished my undergraduate studies, I had discounted further research as an option, until my husband encouraged me to work and study at the same time. It was tough but well worth it. I used my annual leave to hack away at my thesis. One of the toughest things I faced was maintaining focus on the same research question after long periods away from the university campus but I was passionate about my PhD topic and in the end that is what got me through the very late nights and long haul.
Persistence, hard work, integrity and passion for learning and sharing. Website: www.itacs.uow.edu.au/school/staff/katina/
Citation: Katina Michael, "Hi-Tech vs Privacy", Illawarra Mercury, October 31, 2006.
In 2006, Illawarra Mercury, newspaper Tags hi-tech, privacy, electrophorus, homoelectricus, supervision, young scholars, colleagues, social implications, Australia Card, smart card, biometrics, location technologies, service provision, service providers, government, policy, technology sector, change, chip implants, tagging, tracking, tracing, convenience, care, control
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The battle on Bunker Hill
By Lisa Napoli | April 22, 2013 10:51 PM
Recently, the enormous swimming pool here on Bunker Hill re-opened after a four-month hiatus. As I write, they're setting out the patio furniture and blowing away the leaves in anticipation of the party. But neither I, nor my 400 neighbors here in these rent-controlled apartments, are invited. We're caught in the middle of a dispute that is threatening to bisect this slice of downtown Los Angeles for the first time in 45 years.
Three tall, concrete buildings were erected on Bunker Hill back in the late sixties as part of a controversial redevelopment plan that wiped out over 130 acres of historic homes. Maybe you're old enough to remember it; if you are a native of southern California, someone in your family undoubtedly recalls that odd, bleak time of leveling.
You've undoubtedly driven by our buildings on your way to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion or Disney Concert Hall or MOCA, which are across the street. "You live in a loft?" people ask when I tell them I live downtown. Not quite. These are just good, solid buildings that have endured. Nothing trendy about them.
Fifty years ago, the optimistic plan was to ultimately build five tall towers in all on this giant block between 1st and 3rd Streets. The hope was that people would clamor to live close to where they worked. For a moment, the architects of the revamped Bunker Hill even considered building a monorail around the renewed city.
In the center of what was called Bunker Hill Towers, and to lure people to take part in this urban living in 1968, a massive pool and recreation area was built, replete with BBQ grills and tennis courts and a Jacuzzi that holds 20 people. Flower Street borders one side of the pool; on the other is a block-long plaza of trees and public space that anyone can use to cross through the area. Two kids from the nearby charter school are necking out there right now. The average pedestrian wouldn't even know it was there, unless they peered through the fence.
I moved here from my native New York nine years ago to work at the public radio show Marketplace, which is housed in an office building across S. Figueroa Street. Since I was often going to work in the middle of the night, and since I am a daily swimmer, I chose to live as close as humanly possible to the office. The shorter my commute, the less of an excuse I had to miss my hour in the pool.
And because of that hour or so I spent at the pool each day, I fell in love, not just with Bunker Hill, but with all of Los Angeles. I had a ready-made avenue by which to meet my neighbors, and to learn the history of this place I now called home.
Turns out: The tallest of the three buildings here had split off in the early eighties and gone condo. The remaining two rental buildings agreed to continue to pay 2/3 of the expenses to maintain and share the pool.
A diverse mix of owners and renters gathered around that pool, all ages and races and economic backgrounds. Some of my neighbors were retired judges, wealthy businessmen, musicians at the Phil who'd bought condos as pieds-a-terre. Others from the rent-controlled units included a translator for the courts, a nurse, a saleswoman at the old Bullock's Wilshire who lived in the same rented studio apartment for 40 years.
I initially thought I'd last a year down here myself. But the rich fabric of this community is what's kept me far longer, long after I quit working across the street to write a book about a Shangri-la half a world away from this one here. In what other major metropolitan center could a person who wasn't affluent enjoy a 250-foot pool, surrounded by an oasis, in the shadow of a major museum and concert hall, shared with such interesting neighbors?
So, now, what has happened that's locked us renters out? Basically, a pissing match over....money, and a definition of repairs versus upgrades.
The pool shut down four months ago for what the condo said were essential repairs to the pipes and deck. The owner of the rental buildings, a publicly traded company called Essex, took issue with the $400,000 price tag. They argue that tucked into the repair bill are upgrades, which they shouldn't have to subsidize. Court documents show they've refused to pay the buildings' slice of the cost.
And so, the condo tacked up a sign on the entrance to the pool, announcing that renters were no longer welcome. In return, Essex has filed suit against the condo.
This week, the condo erected a 12-foot tall steel fence just inside the gate where, for 45 years, tenants have entered the recreation area. Word is Essex, while awaiting a court date, is going to put up its own fence, on the plaza here on Bunker Hill, to mark their slice of the territory.
The only good part about lawyers being involved is that I've been able to learn what's going on in my neighborhood by requisitioning documents from Los Angeles Superior Court.
And while this Hatfield-McCoy shenanigans escalates to new and more litigious heights, I and my fellow renters here on Bunker Hill will gather on "our" side of the pool fence, and gaze longingly at what for so long was the center of a lovely community in downtown Los Angeles.
Lisa Napoli is the author of "Radio Shangri-La" and an on-air host at KCRW-FM. This is her first post for LA Observed.
More by Lisa Napoli:
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Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014
Acts of the Scottish Parliament
2014 asp 9
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02/04/2014- Amendment
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The Bill for this Act of the Scottish Parliament was passed by the Parliament on 25th February 2014 and received Royal Assent on 1st April 2014
An Act of the Scottish Parliament to make provision in relation to the carrying out of functions of local authorities and Health Boards; to make further provision about certain functions of public bodies; to make further provision in relation to certain functions under the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978; and for connected purposes.
PART 1 SFunctions of local authorities and Health Boards
Integration schemesS
1 Integration schemes: same local authority and Health Board areaS
(1)Subsection (2) applies where the area of a local authority is the same as the area of a Health Board.
(2)The local authority and the Health Board must jointly prepare an integration scheme for the area of the local authority.
(3)An integration scheme is a scheme setting out—
(a)which integration model mentioned in subsection (4) is to apply,
(b)the functions that are to be delegated in accordance with that model,
(c)where functions are to be delegated in accordance with the model mentioned in subsection (4)(b), (c) or (d), the functions of the person to whom functions are to be delegated which are to be carried out in conjunction with the delegated functions,
(d)in relation to any functions to which subsection (14) applies that are to be delegated, a method of determining amounts to be made available by the Health Board for use by the person to whom the functions are delegated in respect of those functions,
(e)in relation to any functions other than those mentioned in paragraph (d) that are to be delegated (including any functions mentioned in that paragraph but in relation to which the Health Board deems subsection (14) not to apply), a method of determining payments that are to be made in respect of the delegated functions by the person delegating the functions to the person to whom the functions are delegated,
(f)prescribed information about such other matters as may be prescribed.
(4)The integration models are—
(a)delegation of functions by the local authority to a body corporate that is to be established by order under section 9 (an “integration joint board”) and delegation of functions by the Health Board to the integration joint board,
(b)delegation of functions by the local authority to the Health Board,
(c)delegation of functions by the Health Board to the local authority,
(d)delegation of functions by the local authority to the Health Board and delegation of functions by the Health Board to the local authority.
(5)A local authority may delegate a function under an integration scheme only if the function is conferred—
(a)by an enactment listed in Part 1 of the schedule, or
(b)by virtue of an enactment listed in Part 2 of the schedule.
(6)A Health Board may delegate a function under an integration scheme only if the function is prescribed.
(7)The Scottish Ministers may by regulations prescribe which of the functions conferred by or by virtue of enactments listed in the schedule local authorities must delegate under an integration scheme so far as the functions are exercisable in relation to persons of at least 18 years of age where the integration model mentioned in subsection (4)(a) or (b) is to apply under the scheme.
(8)The Scottish Ministers may by regulations prescribe functions of Health Boards which Health Boards must delegate under an integration scheme so far as the functions are exercisable in relation to persons of at least 18 years of age where the integration model mentioned in subsection (4)(a) or (c) is to apply under the scheme.
(9)If the integration model mentioned in subsection (4)(d) is to apply under an integration scheme either—
(a)the local authority must delegate the functions prescribed under subsection (7) so far as the functions are exercisable in relation to persons of at least 18 years of age, or
(b)the Health Board must delegate the functions prescribed under subsection (8) so far as the functions are exercisable in relation to persons of at least 18 years of age.
(10)The Scottish Ministers may by regulations prescribe functions of Health Boards that a Health Board—
(a)must delegate under an integration scheme other than in prescribed circumstances,
(b)may not delegate under an integration scheme in prescribed circumstances.
(11)The Scottish Ministers may by regulations prescribe which of the functions conferred by or by virtue of enactments listed in the schedule local authorities may not delegate in prescribed circumstances.
(12)The Scottish Ministers may by regulations remove an enactment from the schedule.
(13)A function may not be set out under subsection (3)(c) if it is a function which may not be delegated under an integration scheme.
(14)This subsection applies where functions that a Health Board proposes to delegate under an integration scheme—
(a)are carried out in a hospital in the area of the Health Board, and
(b)are provided for the areas of two or more local authorities.
(15)Regulations under subsection (3)(f) may include provision—
(a)conferring discretion on local authorities and Health Boards,
(b)requiring local authorities and Health Boards to establish processes and procedures relating to prescribed matters,
(c)imposing requirements on local authorities and Health Boards about the disclosure of information,
(d)in relation to such other matters relating to integration schemes as the Scottish Ministers think fit.
(16)In this section, “Health Board” means a Health Board constituted under section 2(1)(a) of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978.
I1S. 1 partly in force; s. 1(3) - (16) in force at 2.4.2014, see s.72(1)
I2S. 1(1)(2) in force at 22.9.2014 by S.S.I. 2014/231, art. 2
2Integration schemes: two or more local authorities in Health Board areaS
(1)This section applies where the areas of two or more local authorities fall within the area of a Health Board.
(2)Each local authority and the Health Board must comply with subsection (3) or (4).
(3)Each local authority and the Health Board must jointly prepare an integration scheme for the area of the local authority.
(4)Two or more local authorities and the Health Board must jointly prepare an integration scheme for the areas of those local authorities.
(5)For the purposes of subsection (4), if the local authorities and the Health Board decide that the integration model mentioned in paragraph (c) or (d) of section 1(4) is to apply—
(a)functions are to be delegated under those models to only one of the local authorities,
(b)the authorities and the Health Board must set out in the integration scheme which local authority the functions are to be delegated to (the “lead authority”),
(c)paragraph (c) of section 1(4) applies as if for the words “to the local authority” there were substituted the words “ and the local authority or authorities to the lead authority ”, and
(d)paragraph (d) of section 1(4) applies as if for the words from “to”, where it first occurs, to “local” there were substituted “ or authorities to the Health Board and delegation of functions by the Health Board and the local authority or authorities to the lead ”.
(6)In preparing an integration scheme under subsection (3) or (4), a local authority and the Health Board must take into account—
(a)any other integration scheme that has been, or is being, prepared in relation to the area of the same Health Board, and
(b)the likely effect on the Health Board of both or all the schemes prepared under this section.
I3S. 2 in force at 22.9.2014 by S.S.I. 2014/231, art. 2
3Considerations in preparing integration schemeS
(1)This section applies where a local authority and a Health Board are preparing an integration scheme.
(2)The local authority and the Health Board must have regard to—
(a)the integration planning principles (see section 4), and
(b)the national health and wellbeing outcomes (see section 5).
4Integration planning principlesS
(1)The integration planning principles are—
(a)that the main purpose of services which are provided in pursuance of integration functions is to improve the wellbeing of service-users,
(b)that, in so far as consistent with the main purpose, those services should be provided in a way which, so far as possible—
(i)is integrated from the point of view of service-users,
(ii)takes account of the particular needs of different service-users,
(iii)takes account of the particular needs of service-users in different parts of the area in which the service is being provided,
(iv)takes account of the particular characteristics and circumstances of different service-users,
(v)respects the rights of service-users,
(vi)takes account of the dignity of service-users,
(vii)takes account of the participation by service-users in the community in which service-users live,
(viii)protects and improves the safety of service-users,
(ix)improves the quality of the service,
(x)is planned and led locally in a way which is engaged with the community (including in particular service-users, those who look after service-users and those who are involved in the provision of health or social care),
(xi)best anticipates needs and prevents them arising, and
(xii)makes the best use of the available facilities, people and other resources.
(2)In subsection (1), “service-users” means persons to whom or in relation to whom the services are provided.
5Power to prescribe national outcomesS
(1)The Scottish Ministers may by regulations prescribe outcomes in relation to health and wellbeing (the “national health and wellbeing outcomes”).
(2)Before making regulations under subsection (1), the Scottish Ministers must consult—
(a)each local authority,
(b)each Health Board,
(c)each integration joint board at the time established,
(d)in respect of each group mentioned in subsection (3), such persons appearing to be representative of the group as the Scottish Ministers think fit.
(3)The groups mentioned in subsection (2)(d) are—
(a)health professionals,
(b)users of health care,
(c)carers of users of health care,
(d)commercial providers of health care,
(e)non-commercial providers of health care,
(f)social care professionals,
(g)users of social care,
(h)carers of users of social care,
(i)commercial providers of social care,
(j)non-commercial providers of social care,
(k)such persons having functions in relation to housing as the Scottish Ministers think fit.
(1)This section applies where a local authority and a Health Board are required by section 1(2) or 2(2) to prepare an integration scheme.
(2)Before submitting the integration scheme for approval under section 7, the local authority and the Health Board must jointly consult—
(a)such persons or groups of persons appearing to the Scottish Ministers to have an interest as may be prescribed, and
(b)such other persons as the local authority and the Health Board think fit.
(3)In finalising the integration scheme, the local authority and the Health Board must take account of any views expressed by virtue of subsection (2).
7Approval of integration schemeS
(1)After complying with section 6 and before the prescribed day, a local authority and a Health Board must jointly submit an integration scheme to the Scottish Ministers for approval.
(2)The Scottish Ministers may—
(a)approve the scheme submitted under subsection (1),
(b)refuse to approve it.
(3)If the Scottish Ministers refuse to approve the scheme they must—
(a)give the local authority and the Health Board reasons for the refusal (including identifying which particular parts of the scheme caused them to decide to refuse approval),
(b)explain how the scheme should be modified, and
(c)specify a day by which the local authority and the Health Board must jointly modify the scheme and submit it for approval.
(4)Following submission of a modified scheme under subsection (3), the Scottish Ministers may—
(a)approve the modified scheme, or
(5)Where the Scottish Ministers refuse to approve a modified scheme, the local authority and the Health Board are to be treated as if they failed before the prescribed day to submit an integration scheme under this section; and section 51 applies accordingly.
(6)The Scottish Ministers may, on their own account or on the request of the local authority and the Health Board, specify that subsection (1) applies as if the prescribed day were such later day as the Scottish Ministers may specify.
(7)A request under subsection (6) must be made in writing and must include the reasons for the request.
(8)A day specified under subsection (6) is to be treated as if it were the prescribed day for the purposes of the other provisions of this Act.
8Publication of integration schemeS
As soon as practicable after an integration scheme is approved under section 7, the local authority and the Health Board must publish it.
Implementation of integration schemeS
9Functions delegated to integration joint boardS
(1)This section applies where the Scottish Ministers approve under section 7 an integration scheme setting out that the integration model in section 1(4)(a) is to apply.
(2)The Scottish Ministers may by order establish the integration joint board to which the functions are to be delegated.
(3)If the functions are not delegated on the day specified by virtue of section 29(4), they are delegated on the prescribed day.
10Chief officer of integration joint boardS
(1)An integration joint board is to appoint, as a member of staff, a chief officer.
(2)Subsection (3) applies where the person to be appointed is an existing member of staff of a constituent authority.
(3)The person is to be seconded to the board by that authority.
(4)Where subsection (3) does not apply, the person to be appointed—
(a)is to be appointed as a member of staff of a constituent authority, and
(b)is then to be seconded to the board by that authority.
(5)The Scottish Ministers may in relation to any integration joint board by order—
(a)disapply the requirements of subsections (2) to (4), and
(b)make provision enabling the board to employ a chief officer on such terms and conditions as the board determines.
(6)Before appointing a person as chief officer an integration joint board is to consult each constituent authority.
(7)The responsibilities of a chief officer are subject to the agreement of the Scottish Ministers.
I10S. 10 in force at 22.9.2014 by S.S.I. 2014/231, art. 2
11Other staff of integration joint boardS
(1)The Scottish Ministers may by order make provision enabling integration joint boards to employ staff other than a chief officer.
(2)Such an order may include such further provision as regards such staff as the Scottish Ministers think fit, including in particular provision as to—
(a)the appointment of staff,
(b)the numbers of staff,
(c)the terms and conditions of staff.
(3)Without prejudice to section 69(1)(a), an order under this section may—
(a)make provision in relation to only one integration joint board, or some integration joint boards,
(b)make different provision in relation to different integration joint boards.
(4)Before making an order under this section, the Scottish Ministers must consult—
(a)if the order relates to integration joint boards generally, each—
(i)local authority,
(ii)Health Board, and
(iii)integration joint board then established,
(b)if the order relates to one integration joint board, or some integration joint boards—
(i)the constituent authorities in relation to that or those boards, and
(ii)that or those boards, to the extent then established.
12Integration joint boards: further provisionS
(1)The Scottish Ministers may by order make provision—
(a)about the membership of integration joint boards,
(b)about the proceedings of integration joint boards,
(c)giving integration joint boards general powers (such as powers to contract, acquire or dispose of property or rights or borrow money or incur other liabilities) in connection with the carrying out of functions conferred on them by or by virtue of this Act,
(d)about the supply of services or facilities to integration joint boards by a constituent authority,
(e)enabling integration joint boards to establish committees for any purpose,
(f)about such other matters relating to any such committee as the Scottish Ministers think fit,
(g)enabling an integration joint board to delegate to its chief officer, any other member of its staff or any such committee functions delegated to the integration joint board in pursuance of an integration scheme,
(h)about any other matter relating to the establishment or operation of integration joint boards that the Scottish Ministers think fit.
(2)Without prejudice to section 69(1)(a), an order under subsection (1) (other than an order containing provision of the type mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) of that subsection) may—
(4)The Scottish Ministers may by scheme make provision about the transfer to an integration joint board of staff, property, rights, liabilities or obligations of their constituent authorities.
(5)Before making a scheme under subsection (4), the Scottish Ministers must consult—
(a)the integration joint board to which the scheme relates, and
(b)the constituent authorities in relation to that board.
(6)Before making a scheme under subsection (4) in relation to staff, the Scottish Ministers must consult in respect of each group mentioned in subsection (7), such persons appearing to be representative of the group as the Scottish Ministers think fit.
(7)The groups mentioned in subsection (6) are—
(b)social care professionals,
(c)such other groups of persons appearing to the Scottish Ministers to have an interest as may be prescribed.
13Integration joint boards: finance and auditS
In section 106 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (application of Part 7 of Act to bodies other than local authorities etc.)—
(a)in subsection (1), after paragraph (ba) insert—
“(bb)an integration joint board established by order under section 9 of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (but subject to subsection (1A)),”, and
(b)after that subsection, insert—
“(1A)Despite subsection (1), sections 101A and 105A of this Act do not apply with respect to an integration joint board.”.
14Payments to integration joint boards in respect of delegated functionsS
(1)Subsections (2) and (4) apply where—
(a)an integration scheme sets out that the integration model in section 1(4)(a) is to apply, and
(b)the scheme is approved by the Scottish Ministers under section 7.
(2)The local authority must make a payment to the integration joint board of the amount determined in accordance with the method set out in the scheme in relation to each function delegated by it.
(3)Where an integration scheme contains provision of the type mentioned in section 1(3)(d), the Health Board must set aside for use by the integration joint board an amount determined in accordance with the method set out in the scheme in relation to each function delegated by it.
(4)Where an integration scheme contains provision of the type mentioned in section 1(3)(e), the Health Board must make a payment to the integration joint board of the amount determined in accordance with the method set out in the scheme in relation to each function delegated by it.
15Functions delegated to local authority or Health BoardS
(1)This section applies where the Scottish Ministers approve under section 7 an integration scheme setting out that the integration model in section 1(4)(b), (c) or (d) is to apply.
(3)Before the functions are delegated, the local authority and the Health Board must jointly establish a committee (an “integration joint monitoring committee”) for the purpose of monitoring the carrying out of the integration functions for the area of the local authority.
16Transfer of staff where functions delegated to local authority or Health BoardS
(1)The Scottish Ministers may by scheme make provision about the transfer of staff from a person who is to delegate functions under an integration scheme falling within subsection (4) to the person to whom the functions are to be delegated.
(4)An integration scheme falls within this subsection if it sets out that the integration model in section 1(4)(b), (c) or (d) is to apply.
(a)the person who is to delegate functions under an integration scheme falling within subsection (4), and
(b)the person to whom the functions are to be delegated.
17Integration joint monitoring committees: further provisionS
(1)The Scottish Ministers may by order make provision about—
(a)the establishment of integration joint monitoring committees,
(b)the membership of integration joint monitoring committees,
(c)the proceedings of integration joint monitoring committees,
(d)any other matter relating to the operation of integration joint monitoring committees that the Scottish Ministers think fit.
(2)Without prejudice to section 69(1)(a), an order under subsection (1) may make different provision in relation to different integration joint monitoring committees.
18Payments to Health Boards in respect of delegated functionsS
(1)Subsection (2) applies where—
(a)an integration scheme sets out that the integration model in section 1(4)(b) or (d) is to apply, and
(2)The local authority must make a payment to the Health Board of the amount determined in accordance with the method that is set out in the scheme in relation to each function delegated to the Health Board.
19Payments to local authorities in respect of delegated functionsS
(1)This section applies where—
(a)an integration scheme sets out that the integration model in section 1(4)(c) or (d) is to apply, and
(2)Where an integration scheme contains provision of the type mentioned in section 1(3)(d), the Health Board must set aside for use by the local authority an amount determined in accordance with the method set out in the scheme in relation to each function delegated to the local authority.
(3)Where an integration scheme contains provision of the type mentioned in section 1(3)(e), the Health Board must make a payment to the local authority of the amount determined in accordance with the method set out in the scheme in relation to each function delegated to the local authority.
(4)Each local authority which delegates functions to another local authority (the “lead authority”) under the scheme must make a payment to the lead authority of the amount determined in accordance with the method set out in the scheme in relation to each function delegated by the authority to the lead authority.
20Power of Scottish Ministers to make provision giving effect to integration schemeS
The Scottish Ministers may by regulations make such provision as they think fit for the purpose of giving effect to provision included by virtue of section 1(3)(f) in integration schemes approved by them under section 7.
21Transfer of staff: effect on contract of employmentS
(1)This section applies where by virtue of section 12(4), 16(1) or 48(3) a person is to be transferred from the employment of one person (“the original employer”) to another (“the new employer”).
(2)If, before the day of the transfer, the person informs the original employer that the person does not wish to become an employee of the new employer, the person's contract of employment is terminated on the day before the day of the transfer.
(3)Otherwise—
(a)the contract of employment between the person and the original employer has effect on and after the day of the transfer as if originally made between the person and the new employer,
(b)the rights, powers, duties and liabilities of the original employer under or in connection with the contract of employment are by virtue of this section transferred to the new employer on the day of the transfer, and
(c)anything done before the day of the transfer by or in relation to the original employer in respect of the contract of employment or the person is to be treated on and after that day as having been done by or in relation to the new employer.
(4)Nothing in subsection (3)—
(a)transfers to the new employer any liability for a share in any deficit in a pension scheme of the original employer that—
(i)is attributable to the person's membership of the scheme, and
(ii)accrued before the day of the transfer, or
(b)transfers to the new employer any right in respect of a share in any surplus in such a pension scheme that is so attributable and that so accrued.
(5)A person is not to be treated for any purpose as being dismissed by reason of the operation of any provision of this section in relation to the person.
(6)Nothing in this section affects any right of a person to terminate the person's contract of employment if a substantial detrimental change in the person's working conditions is made.
(7)No such right arises by reason only that, by virtue of this section, the identity of the person's employer changes.
22Co-operationS
(1)This section applies where the Scottish Ministers approve under section 7 one or more schemes prepared by virtue of section 2(3) or (4) in relation to the same Health Board.
(2)The persons mentioned in subsection (3) must co-operate with each other in relation to the efficient and effective use of their resources (including in particular buildings, staff and equipment) in pursuance of the scheme or schemes.
(3)The persons are—
(b)the Health Board.
23Carrying out of functions conferred on officers of local authoritiesS
(a)a prescribed function conferred by or by virtue of an enactment on an officer of a local authority relates to a function delegated to an integration authority under an integration scheme, and
(b)any prescribed conditions are satisfied.
(2)Where the integration authority is an integration joint board, the prescribed function is deemed to have been conferred also on an officer of the Health Board and any other local authorities that are the constituent authorities of the integration joint board.
(3)Where the integration authority is a local authority or Health Board, F1... the prescribed function is deemed to have been conferred also on an officer of the Health Board and any other local authority which prepared the integration scheme.
Textual Amendments
F1Words in s. 23(3) repealed (28.11.2014) by The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (Modifications) Order 2014 (S.S.I. 2014/342), arts. 1, 2(2)
24Carrying out of functions conferred on officers of Health BoardsS
(a)a prescribed function conferred by or by virtue of an enactment on an officer of a Health Board relates to a function delegated to an integration authority under an integration scheme, and
(2)Where the integration authority is an integration joint board, the prescribed function is deemed to have been conferred also on an officer of the local authority or authorities that are the constituent authorities of the integration joint board.
(3)Where the integration authority is a local authority or Health Board, F2... the prescribed function is deemed to have been conferred also on an officer of the local authority or authorities which prepared the integration scheme.
Carrying out of delegated functionsS
25Effect of delegation of functionsS
(1)This section applies where a function is delegated in pursuance of an integration scheme.
(2)The integration authority to which the function is delegated is to carry out the function.
(3)The integration authority has all of the powers and duties from time to time applying in connection with the carrying out of the function.
(4)Despite subsection (2), the delegation of the function in pursuance of an integration scheme does not prevent the carrying out of the function by the person by whom the delegation is made.
(5)The Scottish Ministers may by order provide that an integration authority which is an integration joint board must or must not exercise a power of the type mentioned in subsection (3) in connection with the carrying out of a function specified in the order.
26Directions by integration authorityS
(1)Where the integration authority is an integration joint board, it must give a direction to a constituent authority to carry out each function delegated to the integration authority.
(2)Where[F3, as mentioned in section 59(b) or (c),] the integration authority is a local authority or a Health Board, it may give a direction to the Health Board or local authority which prepared the integration scheme by virtue of which it is the integration authority to carry out any function delegated to the integration authority.
[F4(2A)Where, as mentioned in section 59(d)(i), the integration authority in relation to a particular function is a local authority or Health Board, the integration authority may give a direction to the Health Board or, as the case may be, the local authority which delegated the function to carry out the function.]
(3)A person to whom a direction under this section may be given must provide the integration authority with such information as the integration authority may reasonably require for the purpose of its deciding—
(a)whether to give the direction,
(b)the content of the direction.
(4)A direction under this section may be given to more than one person in relation to the same function.
(5)If a direction such as is mentioned in subsection (4) is given, the direction may—
(a)require the persons to carry out the function jointly or only in so far as is specified in the direction,
(b)require each person to carry out the function in relation to an area specified in the direction,
(c)require each person to do particular things in relation to the function.
F3Words in s. 26(2) inserted (28.11.2014) by The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (Modifications) Order 2014 (S.S.I. 2014/342), arts. 1, 2(4)(a)
F4S. 26(2A) inserted (28.11.2014) by The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (Modifications) Order 2014 (S.S.I. 2014/342), arts. 1, 2(4)(b)
27Section 26: supplementaryS
(1)A direction under section 26—
(a)must, where provision of the type mentioned in section 1(3)(d) is included in the integration scheme in relation to the function to which the direction relates, set out the amount which has been set aside by the Health Board for the use of the person who is to carry out the function,
(b)must, in any other case, set out, or set out a method of determining, payments that are to be made by the integration authority to the person who is to carry out the function,
(c)must specify how such an amount or, as the case may be, such a payment is to be used,
(d)may—
(i)regulate the manner in which the function is to be carried out,
(ii)make such supplementary, incidental or consequential provision as the integration authority considers appropriate.
(2)The provision referred to in subsection (1)(d)(ii) may include in particular the imposition on the person who is to carry out the function of requirements—
(a)to provide information to the integration authority,
(b)to take action to enable the integration authority to comply with any order of a court made against it in connection with the carrying out of the function.
(3)The integration authority must make payments in accordance with any provision included in the direction by virtue of subsection (1)(b).
(4)A person to whom a direction under section 26 is given must comply with the direction.
(a)may vary or revoke an earlier direction under that section given by the same integration authority,
(b)must be in writing.
(6)If the conditions in subsection (7) are met, the Scottish Ministers may by order provide that an integration authority which is an integration joint board may decide not to give a direction under section 26 in relation to the carrying out of a function specified in the order.
(7)The conditions are—
(a)that the Scottish Ministers receive a written application from the constituent authorities requesting that an order be made in relation to the functions specified in the application, and
(b)that the Scottish Ministers consider that the making of an order in relation to some or all of those functions would improve compliance with the integration delivery principles and contribute to achieving the national health and wellbeing outcomes in relation to the carrying out of the functions.
(8)If the Scottish Ministers do not consider under subsection (7)(b) that the making of an order under subsection (6) would improve compliance with the integration delivery principles or contribute to achieving the national health and wellbeing outcomes in relation to the carrying out of any functions, they need not include those functions in the order.
28Health funding: further provisionS
(1)This section applies where under section 14(3) or 19(2) a Health Board is required to set aside an amount in respect of certain functions delegated to an integration authority.
(2)The integration authority may by direction require a Health Board—
(a)to carry out a function delegated to the integration authority by the Health Board and in relation to which amounts have been set aside, and
(b)to use an amount of the set aside amount specified in the direction (the “specified amount”) for that purpose.
(3)If the integration authority gives a direction under subsection (2) and, despite the direction, the Health Board does not use all of the specified amount, the integration authority may require the Health Board to pay to it the unused amount of the specified amount.
(4)If the integration authority gives a direction under subsection (2) and, despite the direction, the Health Board requires to use more than the specified amount, the Health Board may require the integration authority to reimburse it for the additional amount used.
(5)The Health Board must give reports to the integration authority about such matters relating to the amounts set aside as the integration authority may specify.
(6)Reports under subsection (5) must be given at such times and in relation to such periods as the integration authority may specify.
Strategic planning etc.S
29Requirement to prepare strategic plansS
(1)The integration authority for the area of a local authority must prepare strategic plans in accordance with this section.
(2)A strategic plan is a document—
(a)setting out the arrangements for the carrying out of the integration functions for the area of the local authority over the period of the plan,
(b)setting out how those arrangements are intended to achieve, or contribute to achieving, the national health and wellbeing outcomes, and
(c)including such other material as the integration authority thinks fit.
(3)The provision required to be included in a strategic plan by virtue of subsection (2)(a) is to include provision—
(a)dividing the area of the local authority into two or more localities, and
(b)setting out separately arrangements for the carrying out of the integration functions in relation to each such locality.
(4)If the functions of the integration authority are to be delegated to the authority before the day prescribed under section 9(3) or, as the case may be, section 15(2), the first strategic plan must specify the day on which functions are to be delegated to the authority.
(5)The first strategic plan of an integration authority is to be prepared before the integration start day.
(6)In this section, “integration start day” means—
(a)in relation to an integration authority which is an integration joint board, the day on which functions are delegated to the authority by virtue of subsection (4) or, as the case may be, section 9(3),
(b)in relation to any other integration authority, the day on which functions are delegated by virtue of subsection (4) or, as the case may be, section 15(2) to, or to the constituent authorities of, the integration authority.
30Considerations in preparing strategic planS
(1)This section applies where an integration authority in relation to the area of a local authority is preparing a strategic plan.
(2)The integration authority must have regard to—
(a)the integration delivery principles (see section 31), and
(3)The integration authority must have regard to the effect which any arrangements which it is considering setting out in the strategic plan in pursuance of section 29(2)(a) may have on services, facilities or resources—
(a)used in relation to arrangements set out in pursuance of that section in a strategic plan prepared by another integration authority,
(b)which would be used in relation to arrangements which another integration authority is considering setting out in pursuance of that section in a strategic plan which it is preparing.
(4)The references in subsections (3)(a) and (b) to a strategic plan are to a strategic plan relating to the same period as, or relating to part of the same period as, the strategic plan which is being prepared by the integration authority.
31Integration delivery principlesS
(1)The integration delivery principles are—
32Establishment of strategic planning groupS
(1)Before preparing its first strategic plan, an integration authority in relation to the area of a local authority is to establish a group (its “strategic planning group”) comprising—
(a)where the integration authority is an integration joint board—
(i)at least one person nominated by the Health Board which is a constituent authority in relation to the integration joint board,
(ii)where one local authority is a constituent authority in relation to the integration joint board, at least one person nominated by the local authority,
(iii)where two or more local authorities are constituent authorities in relation to the integration joint board, at least one person nominated by the local authorities,
(b)where the integration authority is a Health Board, at least one person nominated by the local authority or authorities with which the integration authority prepared the integration scheme in pursuance of which the integration authority acquired its functions,
(c)where the integration authority is a local authority, at least one person nominated by the Health Board with which the integration authority prepared the integration scheme in pursuance of which the integration authority acquired its functions,
(d)one person in respect of each of the groups mentioned in subsection (2), being a person who the integration authority considers to be representative of that group, and
(e)such other persons as the integration authority considers appropriate.
(2)The groups referred to in subsection (1)(d) are such groups of persons appearing to the Scottish Ministers to have an interest as may be prescribed.
(3)The integration authority is to determine—
(a)the number of members of its strategic planning group,
(b)so far as not set out in this section, the processes for appointment, removal and replacement of members.
(4)The integration authority may—
(a)appoint members of its strategic planning group from persons nominated under subsection (1),
(b)in such circumstances as the authority considers appropriate, remove persons appointed under paragraph (a) from membership of the group,
(c)appoint members in place of members who resign or are removed from membership of the group.
(5)A constituent authority may—
(a)remove from a strategic planning group a member appointed to represent it,
(b)nominate under subsection (1) another person in place of a member of the group appointed to represent it.
(6)A member of a strategic planning group may resign at any time.
(7)During the period to which any strategic plan of an integration authority relates, its strategic planning group is also to comprise a person to represent the interests of each locality set out in the plan in pursuance of section 29(3)(a).
(8)It is for the integration authority to—
(a)decide which persons are suitable to represent the interests of a locality, and
(b)select the representative.
(9)An integration authority may under subsection (8)(b) select a single person in respect of two or more localities.
(10)The validity of anything done by an integration authority's strategic planning group is not affected by any vacancy in its membership.
(11)The procedure of an integration authority's strategic planning group is to be such as the authority determines.
(12)An integration authority may pay to members of its strategic planning group such expenses and allowances as the authority determines.
33Preparation of strategic planS
(2)The integration authority is to—
(a)prepare proposals for what the strategic plan should contain, and
(b)seek the views of its strategic planning group on the proposals.
(3)Taking account of any views expressed by virtue of subsection (2)(b), the integration authority is then to—
(a)prepare a first draft of the strategic plan, and
(b)seek the views of its strategic planning group on the draft.
(a)prepare a second draft of the strategic plan,
(b)send a copy to—
(i)the persons mentioned in subsection (5), and
(ii)such other persons as it considers appropriate, and
(c)invite the recipients to express views (within such period as the integration authority considers appropriate) on the draft.
(5)The persons referred to in subsection (4)(b)(i) are—
(a)where the integration authority is an integration joint board, each constituent authority,
(b)where the integration authority is a local authority, the Health Board with which the local authority prepared the integration scheme in pursuance of which the integration authority acquired its delegated functions,
(c)where the integration authority is a Health Board, the local authority with which the Health Board prepared the integration scheme in pursuance of which the integration authority acquired its delegated functions, and
(d)persons who the integration authority considers to be representative of each of the groups mentioned in subsection (6).
(7)In finalising the strategic plan, the integration authority must take account of any views expressed by virtue of subsection (4)(c).
34Provision of information for purpose of preparing strategic planS
(1)A constituent authority must provide an integration authority which is an integration joint board with such information as the authority may reasonably require for the purpose of preparing a strategic plan.
(2)The person mentioned in subsection (3) must provide an integration authority which is a Health Board or a local authority with such information as the integration authority may reasonably require for the purpose of preparing a strategic plan.
(3)That person is the local authority or the Health Board with which the integration authority prepared the integration scheme in pursuance of which the integration authority acquired its delegated functions.
35Publication of strategic plansS
(1)As soon as practicable after the finalisation of the plan under section 33, an integration authority must publish its strategic plan.
(2)At the same time as publishing a strategic plan, an integration authority must also publish a statement of the action which it took in pursuance of section 33.
36Significant decisions outside strategic plan: public involvementS
(1)This section applies where the integration authority for the area of a local authority—
(a)proposes to take a significant decision about the arrangements for the carrying out of the integration functions for the area of the authority, and
(b)intends the decision to take effect other than by virtue of revising its strategic plan under section 37.
(2)In subsection (1)(a), “significant decision” means a decision which the integration authority considers might significantly affect the provision of a service provided in pursuance of the integration functions in the area of the local authority.
(3)The integration authority must—
(a)seek and have regard to the views of its strategic planning group, and
(b)take such action as it thinks fit with a view to securing that persons mentioned in subsection (4) are involved in and consulted on the decision.
(4)Those persons are users of the service which is being or may be provided.
[F5(5)This section does not apply where the integration authority for the area of a local authority falls within paragraph (d) of section 59.]
F5S. 36(5) inserted (28.11.2014) by The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (Modifications) Order 2014 (S.S.I. 2014/342), arts. 1, 2(5)
37Review of strategic planS
(1)An integration authority—
(a)must before the expiry of the relevant period review the effectiveness of its strategic plan,
(b)may from time to time carry out such a review.
(2)In carrying out a review under subsection (1), the integration authority must—
(a)have regard to—
(i)the integration delivery principles, and
(ii)the national health and wellbeing outcomes, and
(b)seek and have regard to the views of its strategic planning group on—
(i)the effectiveness of the arrangements for the carrying out of the integration functions in the area of the local authority, and
(ii)whether the integration authority should prepare a replacement strategic plan.
(3)Following a review under subsection (1), an integration authority may prepare a replacement strategic plan.
(4)Subject to subsection (2), the process of such a review is to be such as the integration authority determines.
(5)A constituent authority must provide an integration authority which is an integration joint board with such information as the integration authority may reasonably require for the purpose of carrying out a review under subsection (1).
(6)The person mentioned in subsection (7) must provide an integration authority which is a Health Board or a local authority with such information as the integration authority may reasonably require for the purpose of carrying out a review under subsection (1).
(8)Sections 30, 33, 34 and 35 apply in relation to a strategic plan prepared by virtue of subsection (3) as those sections apply in relation to a strategic plan prepared by virtue of section 29.
(9)A strategic plan prepared in pursuance of this section must specify a day on which the period of the plan is to begin.
(10)In subsection (1), “relevant period”, in relation to an integration authority, means—
(a)the period of 3 years beginning with the integration start day (as defined in section 29(6)), and
(b)each subsequent period of 3 years beginning with—
(i)where a replacement strategic plan is prepared following a review under subsection (1), the day specified under subsection (9),
(ii)where no replacement strategic plan is prepared following such a review, the day on which the integration authority decides not to prepare a replacement strategic plan.
38Requirement to prepare replacement strategic planS
(1)This section applies where the integration authority in relation to the area of a local authority is an integration joint board.
(2)If it appears to a constituent authority that the strategic plan is preventing, or is likely to prevent, the constituent authority from carrying out any of its functions appropriately or in a way which complies with the integration delivery principles and contributes to achieving the national health and wellbeing outcomes, the constituent authorities acting jointly may direct the integration authority to prepare a replacement strategic plan.
(3)A direction under subsection (2) must—
(a)be in writing,
(b)include a statement summarising the reasons for giving it.
(4)A direction under subsection (2) must specify—
(a)a day by which the replacement strategic plan must be prepared, and
(b)a day on which the period of the plan is to begin.
(5)The constituent authorities acting jointly may by direction substitute a different day for a day specified under subsection (4).
(6)An integration authority must comply with a direction given to it under subsection (2).
39Strategic plan: annual financial statementS
(1)Each integration authority must publish an annual financial statement—
(a)when it publishes its first strategic plan, and
(b)each year after that.
(2)An annual financial statement must set out in relation to the strategic plan to which it relates the amount that the integration authority intends to spend in implementation of the plan.
Carrying out of integration functionsS
40Carrying out of integration functions: generalS
In carrying out an integration function for the area of a local authority, a person must have regard to—
(a)the integration delivery principles, and
(b)the national health and wellbeing outcomes.
41Carrying out of integration functions: localitiesS
(a)an integration authority carrying out an integration function for the area of a local authority proposes to take a decision which the integration authority considers might significantly affect the provision in a locality of the area of a service provided in pursuance of the function, or
(b)a person carrying out an integration function for the area of a local authority proposes to take a decision which the person considers might significantly affect the provision in a locality of the area of a service provided in pursuance of the function.
(2)In subsection (1), “locality” means a locality of an area as set out in the strategic plan in pursuance of section 29(3)(a).
(3)The integration authority or, as the case may be, person must take such action as the authority or person thinks fit with a view to securing that the groups mentioned in subsection (4) are involved in and consulted on the decision.
(4)The groups referred to in subsection (3) are such groups of persons appearing to the Scottish Ministers to have an interest as may be prescribed.
(5)The integration authority may pay to members of groups consulted under subsection (3) such expenses and allowances as the authority determines.
42Integration authority: performance reportS
(1)Each integration authority must prepare a performance report for the reporting year.
(2)A performance report is a report setting out an assessment of performance during the reporting year to which it relates in planning and carrying out the integration functions for the area of the local authority.
(3)The Scottish Ministers may by regulations prescribe the form and content of performance reports.
(4)An integration authority must—
(a)publish each performance report before the expiry of the period of 4 months beginning with the end of the reporting year, and
(b)provide a copy of it to the persons mentioned in subsection (5).
(5)Those persons are—
(b)where the integration authority is a local authority and a Health Board acting jointly, the integration joint monitoring committee,
(c)where the integration authority is a Health Board or a local authority—
(i)the integration joint monitoring committee, and
(ii)the other authority.
(6)A constituent authority must provide an integration authority which is an integration joint board with such information as the authority may reasonably require for the purpose of preparing a performance report.
(7)The other authority must provide an integration authority which is a Health Board or a local authority with such information as the integration authority may reasonably require for the purpose of preparing a performance report.
(8)In this section—
“other authority” means the local authority or the Health Board with which the integration authority prepared the integration scheme in pursuance of which the integration authority acquired its delegated functions,
“reporting year”, in relation to an integration authority, means—
the period beginning with the date prescribed under section 9(3) or, as the case may be, 15(2) and ending on the first anniversary of that date, and
each subsequent period of a year.
43ReportsS
(1)An integration joint monitoring committee may give reports to the integration authority on any aspect of the carrying out of the integration functions for the area of the local authority for which the integration joint monitoring committee is established.
(2)A report may include recommendations as to how those integration functions should be carried out in future.
(3)Where a report is given to an integration authority under subsection (1), the integration authority must—
(a)have regard to the report and any recommendations included in it,
(b)take such action as the authority considers necessary, and
(c)if the report includes recommendations, give the integration joint monitoring committee a response to them in writing as soon as is reasonably practicable after the authority is given the report.
(4)An integration joint monitoring committee may publish—
(a)reports given under subsection (1),
(b)responses given under subsection (3)(c).
(5)The local authority and the Health Board which prepared the integration scheme by virtue of which the integration joint monitoring committee is established must provide the committee with such reports, information or other assistance as the committee may reasonably require for the purpose of preparing a report under subsection (1).
Review of integration schemeS
44Review of integration schemeS
(1)This section applies where an integration scheme has been approved by the Scottish Ministers under section 7.
(2)The local authority and the Health Board must carry out a review of the scheme before the expiry of the relevant period for the purpose of identifying whether any changes to the scheme are necessary or desirable.
(3)Sections 3 and 6 apply to a review of an integration scheme under subsection (2) as they apply to the preparation of an integration scheme (but as if the words “Before submitting the integration scheme for approval under section 7,” in section 6(2) were omitted).
(4)After taking account of any views of persons consulted under section 6 (as applied by subsection (3)), the local authority and the Health Board must decide whether any changes to the scheme are necessary or desirable.
(5)In subsection (2), the “relevant period” means—
(a)the period of 5 years beginning with the day on which the scheme was approved under section 7, and
(i)where the local authority and the Health Board vary the scheme under section 46, the day specified under subsection (7) of that section,
(ii)where the local authority and the Health Board decide no changes to the scheme are necessary or desirable, the day on which that decision is made.
45Requirement to review integration schemeS
(2)On the request of the local authority or the Health Board, the local authority and the Health Board must jointly carry out a review of the scheme for the purpose of identifying whether any changes to the scheme are necessary or desirable.
(3)On each occasion on which the Scottish Ministers exercise the power conferred by section 1(3)(f), the Scottish Ministers may require the local authority and the Health Board jointly to carry out a review of the integration scheme for the purpose of identifying whether any changes to the scheme are necessary or desirable.
(4)Sections 3 and 6 apply to a review of an integration scheme under subsection (2) or (3) as they apply to the preparation of an integration scheme (but as if the words “Before submitting the integration scheme for approval under section 7,” in section 6(2) were omitted).
46Revised integration schemeS
(1)This section applies where a local authority and a Health Board decide under section 44 or 45 that changes to an integration scheme are necessary or desirable.
(2)The local authority and the Health Board may vary the scheme by jointly preparing a revised integration scheme.
(3)A revised integration scheme may—
(a)set out additional functions that are to be delegated under the scheme as mentioned in section 1(3)(b),
(b)set out functions that are delegated by virtue of the integration scheme approved under section 7 that are no longer to be delegated,
(c)if the integration scheme delegates functions in accordance with the integration model mentioned in section 1(4)(b), (c) or (d), set out functions that are to be carried out in conjunction with the delegated functions,
(d)if the integration scheme delegates functions in accordance with the integration model mentioned in section 1(4)(b), (c) or (d), set out functions that are no longer to be carried out in conjunction with the delegated functions,
(e)change the method of determining amounts to be made available as mentioned in section 1(3)(d),
(f)change the method of determining payments as mentioned in section 1(3)(e),
(g)change or remove any information included in the scheme by virtue of section 1(3)(f).
(4)Before complying with subsection (6), the local authority and the Health Board must jointly consult—
(5)In finalising the revised integration scheme, the local authority and the Health Board must take account of any views expressed by virtue of subsection (4).
(6)The local authority and the Health Board must jointly submit the revised scheme to the Scottish Ministers for approval under section 7.
(7)A revised integration scheme takes effect on such day as may be specified by the Scottish Ministers.
(8)As soon as practicable after a revised integration scheme takes effect, the local authority and the Health Board must publish it.
47New integration schemeS
(2)If the local authority and the Health Board wish to change a matter mentioned in subsection (3) they must prepare a new integration scheme under section 1 or (as the case may be) 2(2).
(3)The matters are—
(a)the local authority which prepared the integration scheme,
(b)the integration model.
(4)This Act applies in relation to a new integration scheme prepared by virtue of subsection (2) as it applies in relation to an integration scheme which requires to be prepared by section 1 or (as the case may be) 2(2).
48Power to make provision in consequence of new integration schemeS
(1)This section applies where the Scottish Ministers approve an integration scheme which has been prepared by virtue of section 47.
(2)In consequence of the replacement of an integration scheme by a new integration scheme, the Scottish Ministers may by order provide for the winding-up of an integration joint board.
(3)In consequence of the replacement of an integration scheme by a new integration scheme, the Scottish Ministers may by scheme make such provision about the transfer of staff, property, rights, liabilities or obligations of an integration joint board, a local authority or a Health Board as they consider necessary.
(a)the person from whom it is proposed to transfer staff, and
(b)the person to whom it is proposed that the staff be transferred.
(5)Before making a scheme under subsection (3) in relation to staff, the Scottish Ministers must consult in respect of each group mentioned in subsection (6) such persons appearing to be representative of the group as the Scottish Ministers think fit.
SupplementaryS
49Information-sharingS
(1)Where a local authority and a Health Board are jointly preparing an integration scheme, each of them may disclose information to the other for or in relation to the purpose of preparing the scheme.
(2)Where two or more local authorities and a Health Board are jointly preparing an integration scheme, each of them may disclose information to any of the others for or in relation to the purpose of preparing the scheme.
(3)A person mentioned in subsection (4) may disclose information to any other person mentioned in that subsection for or in relation to either of the purposes mentioned in subsection (5).
(a)a local authority,
(b)a Health Board,
(c)an integration joint board.
(5)The purposes are—
(a)the carrying out of integration functions,
(b)the preparation of a strategic plan.
(6)Subsections (1) to (3) apply despite any duty of confidentiality owed to any person in respect of the information by the person disclosing the information.
50Grants to local authoritiesS
(1)The Scottish Ministers may make a grant to a local authority in respect of costs incurred by the authority by virtue of this Part.
(2)The payment of a grant under subsection (1) may be made subject to such conditions (including conditions as to repayment) as the Scottish Ministers may determine.
51Default power of Scottish MinistersS
(1)Subsection (2) applies where a local authority and a Health Board fail before the day prescribed for the purposes of section 7, or the day specified under subsection (3)(c) of that section, to submit an integration scheme for the approval of the Scottish Ministers under that section.
(a)specify functions of the local authority and the Health Board which are to be delegated to an integration joint board,
(b)by order establish the integration joint board to which the functions are to be delegated,
(c)require the local authority and the Health Board to delegate the specified functions to the integration joint board before the prescribed day,
(d)require the local authority and the Health Board to make such payments to the integration joint board as the Scottish Ministers may specify, and
(e)require the local authority and the Health Board to comply with such other requirements in relation to the functions as the Scottish Ministers may specify.
52DirectionsS
(1)The Scottish Ministers may give directions to a local authority in relation to the carrying out of—
(a)functions conferred on it by this Act,
(b)functions delegated to it in pursuance of an integration scheme,
(c)functions specified in the scheme that are to be carried out in conjunction with those functions.
(2)The Scottish Ministers may give directions to a Health Board in relation to the carrying out of—
(3)The Scottish Ministers may give directions to an integration joint board in relation to the carrying out of—
(b)functions delegated to it in pursuance of an integration scheme.
(4)A local authority, a Health Board or an integration joint board must comply with a direction given to it under this section.
(5)Directions under this section—
(a)may vary or revoke earlier directions under this section,
(6)The Scottish Ministers may not under subsection (1) or (2) give a direction requiring a local authority or Health Board to make a written application of the type mentioned in section 27.
53GuidanceS
(1)A person mentioned in subsection (2) must have regard to any guidance issued by the Scottish Ministers about its functions under or in relation to this Act.
(c)an integration joint board,
(d)an integration joint monitoring committee.
54Social Care and Social Work Improvement ScotlandS
In section 53 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 (inspections by Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland)—
(a)in subsection (1), after paragraph (b), add—
“(c)where social services, services provided under the health service or services provided by an independent health care service are provided in pursuance of an integration scheme approved under section 7 of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (“the 2014 Act”), the planning, organisation or co-ordination of those services.”,
(b)in subsection (2)—
(i)for “this section” substitute “ subsection (1)(a) or (b) ”,
(ii)after paragraph (e), add—
“(f)reviewing and evaluating the extent to which the social service is complying with the integration delivery principles and contributing to achieving the national health and wellbeing outcomes,
(g)reviewing and evaluating the extent to which the planning, organisation or co-ordination of social services, services provided under the health service and services provided by an independent health care service is complying with the integration delivery principles and contributing to achieving the national health and wellbeing outcomes,
(h)reviewing and evaluating the effectiveness of a strategic plan prepared under section 29 of the 2014 Act in complying with the integration delivery principles and contributing to achieving the national health and wellbeing outcomes,
(i)encouraging improvement in the extent to which implementation of a strategic plan prepared under section 29 of the 2014 Act complies with the integration delivery principles and contributes to achieving the national health and wellbeing outcomes, and
(j)enabling consideration as to the need for any recommendations to be prepared as to any such improvement to be included in the report prepared under section 57.”,
(c)after subsection (2), insert—
“(2A)The purposes of an inspection under subsection (1)(c) may include any of those mentioned in subsection (2)(f) to (j).”, and
(d)after subsection (6), add—
“independent health care service” has the meaning given by section 10F(1) of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978;
“integration delivery principles” has the meaning given by section 31 of the 2014 Act;
“national health and wellbeing outcomes” has the same meaning as in section 5(1) of the 2014 Act.”.
55Healthcare Improvement ScotlandS
(1)The National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 is amended as follows.
(2)In section 10I (Healthcare Improvement Scotland: inspection of services provided under the health service)—
(a)for subsection (1), substitute—
“(1)HIS may inspect any service provided under the health service—
(a)in pursuance of its general duty of furthering improvement in the quality of health care in Scotland, or
(b)for any of the purposes mentioned in subsection (1B).”,
(b)after subsection (1), insert—
“(1A)Where a service provided under the health service and social services are provided by virtue of an integration scheme approved under section 7 of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (“the 2014 Act”), HIS may inspect the planning, organisation or co-ordination of those services for any of the purposes mentioned in subsection (1B).
(1B)The purposes are—
(a)reviewing and evaluating the extent to which the service is complying with the integration delivery principles and contributing to achieving the national health and wellbeing outcomes,
(b)reviewing and evaluating the extent to which the planning, organisation or co-ordination of services provided under the health service and social services is complying with the integration delivery principles and contributing to achieving the national health and wellbeing outcomes,
(c)reviewing and evaluating the effectiveness of a strategic plan prepared under section 29 of the 2014 Act in complying with the integration delivery principles and contributing to achieving the national health and wellbeing outcomes,
(d)encouraging improvement in the extent to which implementation of a strategic plan prepared under section 29 of the 2014 Act complies with the integration delivery principles and contributes to achieving the national health and wellbeing outcomes, and
(e)enabling consideration as to the need for any recommendations to be prepared as to any such improvement to be included in the report prepared under section 10N.”, and
“national health and wellbeing outcomes” has the same meaning as in section 5(1) of the 2014 Act;
“social services” has the meaning given by section 46 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.”.
(3)In section 10J (inspections of independent health care services)—
“(c)where services provided by an independent health care service and social services are provided in pursuance of an integration scheme approved under section 7 of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (“the 2014 Act”), the planning, organisation or co-ordination of those services.”,
“(f)reviewing and evaluating the extent to which the independent health care service is complying with the integration delivery principles and contributing to achieving the national health and wellbeing outcomes,
(g)reviewing and evaluating the extent to which the planning, organisation or co-ordination of services provided by an independent health care service and social services is complying with the integration delivery principles and contributing to achieving the national health and wellbeing outcomes,
(j)enabling consideration as to the need for any recommendations to be prepared as to any such improvement to be included in the report prepared under section 10N.”,
56Joint inspections of health services and social servicesS
(1)The Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 is amended as follows.
(2)In section 115(11) (meaning of “confidential information”), for “section”, where it second occurs, substitute “ sections 116A(4) and ”.
(3)After section 116, insert—
“116AJoint inspections of social services and health services
(1)Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (“SCSWIS”) and Healthcare Improvement Scotland (“HIS”) may jointly conduct an inspection in relation to—
(a)any social services, services provided under the health service or services provided by an independent health care service which are provided in pursuance of an integration scheme approved under section 7 of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (“the 2014 Act”), or
(b)a local authority, Health Board or integration joint board (as defined in section 1(4)(a) of the 2014 Act) which is required by section 29 of the 2014 Act to prepare a strategic plan.
(2)The purposes of an inspection under this section may be any of those mentioned in section 10I(1) or (1B) or 10J(2) of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 or section 53(2) of this Act.
(3)On the request of SCSWIS and HIS, any other person or body mentioned in section 115(6) may conduct an inspection under subsection (1) jointly with SCSWIS and HIS.
(4)In conducting an inspection under this section, SCSWIS and HIS must have regard to any code of practice or practice note issued by the Scottish Ministers for the purpose of—
(a)giving practical and general guidance on matters relating to such an inspection (including, without prejudice to that generality, such matters as access to confidential information and the holding, sharing and destruction of such information),
(b)promoting what appear to them to be desirable practices with regard to such matters.
(5)After conducting an inspection under this section, SCSWIS and HIS must—
(a)prepare a report, and
(b)give any person to whom the report relates an opportunity to comment on the report.
(6)SCSWIS and HIS must—
(a)give the report to the Scottish Ministers,
(b)give copies of the report to any person to whom the report relates, and
(c)make copies of the report available at their offices for inspection by any person at any reasonable time.
“independent health care service” has the meaning given by section 10F of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978;
“social services” has the meaning given by section 46.”.
(4)In section 117 (regulations relating to joint inspections), after subsection (5), add—
“(6)In this section, “joint inspection” means an inspection conducted under section 115 or 116A.”.
57Amendments of section 56 of Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973S
In section 56 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (arrangements for discharge of functions by local authorities)—
(a)after subsection (7), insert—
“(7A)A local authority is not to make arrangements under this section for the discharge of any functions conferred on it by the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 by any other local authority.”, and
(b)after subsection (15), add—
“(16)In this section, “Act” includes an Act of the Scottish Parliament.”.
58Children's services planningS
In section 7(1) of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (which makes provision for introductory matters relating to children's services planning), in the definition of “other service provider”, after paragraph (e), insert—
“(f)an integration joint board established by order under section 9 of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.”.
59Meaning of “integration authority”S
For the purposes of this Part, the “integration authority” for the area of a local authority is—
(a)where in pursuance of the integration scheme for the area functions are delegated in accordance with the integration model mentioned in section 1(4)(a), the integration joint board established in pursuance of the scheme,
(b)where in pursuance of the integration scheme for the area functions are delegated in accordance with the integration model mentioned in section 1(4)(b), the Health Board to which the functions are delegated,
(c)where in pursuance of the integration scheme for the area functions are delegated in accordance with the integration model mentioned in section 1(4)(c), the local authority to which the functions are delegated,
(d)where in pursuance of the integration scheme for the area functions are delegated in accordance with the integration model mentioned in section 1(4)(d)
[F6(i)in sections 23 to 28, 29(4) and (6)(b) and 41(1) and so far as relating to a particular function, the local authority or Health Board to which the function is delegated,
(ii)in any other section,]
the local authority and the Health Board to which the functions are delegated, acting jointly.
F6Words in s. 59(d) inserted (28.11.2014) by The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (Modifications) Order 2014 (S.S.I. 2014/342), arts. 1, 2(6)
60Meaning of “integration functions”S
(1)For the purposes of this Part, the “integration functions” for the area of a local authority are—
(a)where in pursuance of the integration scheme for the area functions are delegated in accordance with the integration model mentioned in section 1(4)(a), the functions delegated to the integration joint board in pursuance of the scheme,
(b)where in pursuance of the integration scheme for the area functions are delegated in accordance with the integration model mentioned in section 1(4)(b)—
(i)the functions delegated to the Health Board in pursuance of the scheme, and
(ii)the functions to be carried out in conjunction with those functions,
(c)where in pursuance of the integration scheme for the area functions are delegated in accordance with the integration model mentioned in section 1(4)(c)—
(i)the functions delegated to the local authority in pursuance of the scheme, and
(i)the functions delegated to each of the Health Board and the local authority in pursuance of the scheme, and
(ii)the functions to be carried out in conjunction with those functions.
(2)In subsection (1), the references to the functions which are to be carried out in conjunction with delegated functions are to the functions set out in the integration scheme in pursuance of section 1(3)(c).
61Meaning of “constituent authority”S
For the purposes of this Part, each local authority and the Health Board which prepared the integration scheme in pursuance of which an integration joint board was, or is to be, established is a “constituent authority” in relation to that board.
PART 2 SShared services
62Shared servicesS
(1)The Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service (the “Agency”) may, with the consent of the Scottish Ministers, enter into arrangements with a person mentioned in subsection (2) under which the Agency provides, or secures the provision of, any goods or services for the person.
(a)the Scottish Ministers,
(b)any other office-holder in the Scottish Administration,
(c)any Scottish public authority,
(d)any Scottish public authority with mixed functions or no reserved functions,
(e)any government department,
(f)any cross-border public authority,
(g)any body corporate formed by a Health Board or by the Agency, or in the formation of which a Health Board or the Agency participated, by virtue of a delegation of the power in section 84B(1)[F7, (1A) or (2A)] of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 (joint ventures).
(3)Services which may be provided under subsection (1) include in particular—
(a)administrative services,
(b)technical services,
(c)legal services,
(d)other professional services,
(e)accommodation services.
(4)The power to make arrangements under subsection (1) is without prejudice to any other power of the Agency to provide goods or services to other persons.
(5)The Scottish Ministers may by order amend subsection (2) so as to add or remove a person, or a description of a person, for the time being mentioned in or falling within that subsection.
“cross-border public authority” has the meaning given by section 88(5) of the Scotland Act 1998,
“government department” has the meaning given by section 126(1) of that Act,
“office-holder in the Scottish Administration” is to be construed in accordance with section 126(7) of that Act,
“Scottish public authority” has the meaning given by section 126(1) of that Act except that it does not include—
a Health Board,
a Special Health Board (constituted under section 2(1)(b) of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978), or
Healthcare Improvement Scotland,
“Scottish public authority with mixed functions or no reserved functions” means persons, bodies and office-holders (other than the Agency) listed in schedule 5 to the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 (improvement of public functions: listed bodies) under the heading “Scottish public authorities with mixed functions or no reserved functions”.
F7Words in s. 62(2)(g) inserted (28.11.2014) by The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (Modifications) Order 2014 (S.S.I. 2014/342), arts. 1, 2(7)
63Section 62: consequential provisionS
(1)The National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 is amended in accordance with subsections (2) and (3).
(2)In section 10 (Common Services Agency)—
(a)in subsection (1), the words from “which” to the end are repealed, and
“(1A)The Agency has the functions conferred on it by—
(a)this Act, and
(b)section 62 of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.”
(3)In section 15 (supply of goods and services to local authorities etc.)—
(a)in subsection (1)—
(i)for “, a Health Board or the Agency”, in the first two places where it occurs, substitute “ or a Health Board ”, and
(ii)in paragraph (e), the words “or the Agency” are repealed,
“(1ZA)Paragraph (a) of subsection (1) applies to the Agency as it applies to a Health Board.”,
(c)in subsection (2), after “including” insert “ paragraph (a) as applied by subsection (1ZA) and ”, and
(d)subsections (2A) to (2D) are repealed.
(4)In section 17(2) of the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011, for “that Act” substitute “ the 1978 Act ”.
64Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service: residual liabilitiesS
In section 2(1) of the National Health Service (Residual Liabilities) Act 1996 (certain Scottish health bodies: duty to transfer residual liabilities on ceasing to exist), for “or a Special Health Board” substitute “ , a Special Health Board or the Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service ”.
65Extension of schemes for meeting losses and liabilities of health service bodiesS
(1)Section 85B of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 (schemes for meeting losses and liabilities of health service bodies) is amended as follows.
(2)In subsection (2)—
(a)the word “and” immediately after paragraph (ea) is repealed,
(b)after paragraph (f), add—
“(g)local authorities; and
(h)integration joint boards established by order under section 9(2) of the 2014 Act,”.
(3)After subsection (2A), insert—
“(2B)The reference—
(a)in paragraph (a) of subsection (1) to property of a local authority is to be construed as a reference to property held by a local authority in connection with the exercise of its relevant functions;
(b)in paragraph (b) of that subsection to the functions of a local authority is to be construed as a reference to the relevant functions of a local authority.
(2C)In subsection (2B), “relevant functions” means—
(a)integration functions; and
(b)such other functions as the Scottish Ministers may by order specify.
(2D)In subsection (2C)(a), “integration functions” means functions which in pursuance of an integration scheme under the 2014 Act are—
(a)delegated to the authority;
(b)to be carried out in conjunction with functions delegated to the authority (that is, functions set out in the integration scheme in pursuance of section 1(3)(c) of that Act); or
(c)to be carried out by the authority by virtue of a direction under section 26 of the 2014 Act.”.
(4)After subsection (4), insert—
“(4A)Subsection (4)(a) does not apply in relation to a local authority.”.
“(6)In this section, “the 2014 Act” means the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.”.
I63S. 65 in force at 25.2.2015 by S.S.I. 2014/231, art. 2A (as inserted by S.S.I. 2015/44, art. 2)
PART 3 SHealth service: functions
66Scottish Ministers: power to form companies etc.S
In section 84B of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 (joint ventures)—
(a)in subsection (1), for “companies”, wherever it occurs, substitute “ bodies corporate ”,
“(1A)The Scottish Ministers may do any (or all) of the following—
(a)form or participate in forming bodies corporate for any of the purposes mentioned in subsection (1B),
(b)participate in bodies corporate formed for any of those purposes,
(c)with a view to securing or facilitating any of the purposes for which such a body corporate is formed—
(i)transfer, or secure the transfer, to the body corporate of heritable or moveable property held by the Scottish Ministers, a Health Board, the Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service (“the Agency”) or Healthcare Improvement Scotland (“HIS”) under or by virtue of, or for the purposes of, this Act and any rights, liabilities or obligations relating to the property,
(ii)otherwise invest in the body corporate (whether by acquiring assets, securities or rights or otherwise),
(iii)provide loans and guarantees and make other kinds of financial provision to or in respect of the body corporate.
(a)management or development of any heritable property held by the Scottish Ministers, a Health Board, the Agency or HIS under or by virtue of, or for the purposes of, this Act,
(b)management of any moveable property so held,
(c)disposal of any such heritable or moveable property.”,
(c)in subsection (2), for “company” substitute “ body corporate ”,
(d)after subsection (2), insert—
“(2A)The Scottish Ministers may—
(a)form or participate in forming bodies corporate for a prescribed purpose,
(b)participate in bodies corporate formed for a prescribed purpose.
(2B)A purpose prescribed under subsection (2A) must relate to the functions conferred on the Scottish Ministers by or under this Act.”, and
(e)in subsection (3), the definition of “companies” is repealed.
67Health Boards: carrying out of functionsS
After section 12J of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978, insert—
“12KPower of Health Board to carry out other Health Board's functions
A Health Board may, with the agreement of another Health Board and the Scottish Ministers, carry out on behalf of that other Health Board any function of that other Health Board.”.
PART 4 SGeneral
68InterpretationS
(1)In this Act—
“Health Board” has the meaning given by section 1(16),
“health care” has the same meaning as in section 10A(1)(b) of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978,
“health professionals” means persons of such description engaged in the provision of health care as may be prescribed,
“integration delivery principles” has the meaning given by section 31,
“integration joint board” has the meaning given by section 1(4)(a),
“integration joint monitoring committee” has the meaning given by section 15(3),
“integration scheme” has the meaning given by section 1(3),
“national health and wellbeing outcomes” has the same meaning as in section 5(1),
“prescribed” means prescribed by the Scottish Ministers by regulations,
“social care” means—
social services (having the same meaning as in Part 5 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010), and
such functions of local authorities relating to the provision of accommodation for persons who are homeless as may be prescribed,
“social care professionals” means persons of such description engaged in the provision of social care as may be prescribed,
“strategic plan” has the meaning given by section 29(2).
(2)For the purposes of this Act, a provider of a service is a “commercial” provider if the aim of the person in providing the service is or includes making a profit.
(3)References in this Act (other than sections 2(3), 11(4)(a)(i), 12(3)(a)(i), 45(2) (first occurrence only), 49(1) and 61)—
(a)to a local authority include, in the case where the integration scheme is being or has been jointly prepared under section 2(4), references to both or all the authorities which are preparing or have prepared the scheme, acting jointly,
(b)to the area of a local authority mean, in a case where the integration scheme is being or has been jointly prepared under section 2(4), the combined area of the local authorities which are preparing or have prepared the scheme.
(4)References in this Act to a function include references to a function so far as exercisable in relation to persons or matters of a particular class or description.
69Subordinate legislationS
(1)Regulations and orders under this Act may—
(a)make different provision for different purposes,
(b)make different provision for different cases or classes of case,
(c)include such supplementary, incidental, consequential, transitional or transitory provision, or savings, as the Scottish Ministers consider appropriate.
(2)Regulations under sections 1(3)(f), (7), (8) and (12), 5(1) and 20 are subject to the affirmative procedure.
(3)An order under section 62(5) is subject to the affirmative procedure.
(4)An order under section 70 containing provision which adds to, replaces or omits any part of the text of an Act is subject to the affirmative procedure.
(5)Otherwise, regulations and orders under this Act are subject to the negative procedure.
(6)This section does not apply to an order under section 72(2).
70Ancillary provisionS
(1)The Scottish Ministers may by order—
(a)make such supplementary, incidental or consequential provision as they consider appropriate for the purposes of, in consequence of, or for giving full effect to, any provision of this Act,
(b)make such transitional or transitory provision or savings as they consider appropriate for the purposes of, or in connection with, the coming into force of any provision of this Act.
(2)An order under this section may modify any enactment (including this Act).
71Repeals and revocationS
(1)Section 5A of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 (which makes provision about local authority plans for community care services) is repealed.
(2)Sections 4A and 4B of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 (which make provision about community health partnerships) are repealed.
(3)Sections 15 to 17 of the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 (which make provision about joint working among local authorities and certain health bodies) are repealed.
(4)Section 2 of the National Health Service Reform (Scotland) Act 2004 (which inserts sections 4A and 4B into the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978) is repealed.
(5)Section 17(1) of the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 is repealed.
(6)Section 20 of the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 (which amends section 15(4) of the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002) is repealed.
(7)The Public Services Reform (Functions of the Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service) (Scotland) Order 2013 (S.S.I. 2013/220) is revoked.
I66S. 71(1)-(4) (6) in force at 1.4.2015 by S.S.I. 2014/231, art. 3
I67S. 71(5)(7) in force at 22.9.2014 by S.S.I. 2014/231, art. 2
72CommencementS
(1)Sections 1(3) to (16), 5, 49 and 53 and this Part (other than section 71) come into force on the day after Royal Assent.
(2)The other provisions of this Act come into force on such day as the Scottish Ministers may by order appoint.
(3)An order under subsection (2) may contain transitory or transitional provision or savings.
73Short titleS
The short title of this Act is the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.
SCHEDULESFunctions of local authorities which may be delegated
(introduced by section 1(5))
PART 1SFunctions conferred by enactments
Sections 22, 26, 45 and 48 of the National Assistance Act 1948.
Section 3 of the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1958.
Section 11 of the Matrimonial Proceedings (Children) Act 1958.
Sections 1, 4, 5, 6B, 8, 10, 12, 12A, 12AZA, F8... 13 to 14, 27, 27ZA, 28, 29, 59, 78A, 80, 81, 83, 86 and 87 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.
Sections 34, 39, 40 and 50 of the Children Act 1975.
Section 24 of the Local Government and Planning (Scotland) Act 1982.
Sections 21, 22 and 23 of the Health and Social Services and Social Security Adjudications Act 1983.
Sections 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 of the Foster Children (Scotland) Act 1984.
Sections 2, 3, 7 and 8 of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986.
Sections 4, 5 and 5A and Part II of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987.
Sections 17, 19 [F9to 23, 25] to 27, 29 to 32, 36, 38 and 76 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.
Sections 51, 203, 234B and 245A of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.
Sections 10, 12, 37 and 39 to 45 of the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000.
Sections 1, 2, 5, 6, 8 and 92 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001.
Sections 5, 6 and 14 of the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002.
Sections 17, 25 to 27, 33, 34, 228 and 259 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003.
Sections 10 and 11 of the Management of Offenders etc. (Scotland) Act 2005.
Section 71 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006.
Sections 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 19, 26, 45, 47, 48, 49, 51, 71, 80, 90, 99, 101 and 105 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007.
Sections 4 to 11, 14, 16, 18, 22, 40, 42 and 43 of the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007.
Sections 35, 37, 42, 44, 48, 49, 60, 131, 144, 145, 166, 167, 180, 183 and 184 of the Children's Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011.
Sections F10... 5 to 13, 16 and 19 of the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013.
[F11Sections 6, 12, 21, 24, 25, 31, 34 and 35 of the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016.]
F8Words in sch. Pt. 1 repealed (1.4.2018) by Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 (asp 9), s. 45(2), sch. para. 6(2)(a); S.S.I. 2017/152, reg. 4
F9Words in sch. Pt. 1 inserted (1.4.2018) by Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 (asp 9), s. 45(2), sch. para. 6(2)(b); S.S.I. 2017/152, reg. 4
F10Word in sch. Pt. 1 omitted (1.4.2018) by virtue of The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Prescribed Local Authority Functions etc.) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 2017 (S.S.I. 2017/449), regs. 1(2), 2
F11Words in sch. Pt. 1 inserted (24.4.2017) by Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 (asp 9), s. 45(2), sch. para. 6(2)(c); S.S.I. 2017/94, reg. 2(b)
PART 2 SFunctions conferred by virtue of enactments
Section 4 of the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002.
Section 153 of the Children's Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011.
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Review – The Shootout Solution by Michael R. Underwood
The Shootout Solution
By: Michael R. Underwood
Website: http://michaelrunderwood.com/
Publisher: Tor.com
Series: Genrenauts (Episode 1)
I hadn’t heard of this series at all before I stumbled upon this book at the library. The Shootout Solution, Episode 1 in the Genrenauts series, by Michael R. Underwood is a fantastic novella that combines science fiction and western genres and is just plain fun.
The Shootout Solution by Michael R. Underwood is a novella, the first in the Genrenauts series. Leah Tang is a standup comedian. She doesn’t have any sort of following, and if the last gig was anything to go by, her career isn’t going as well as she’d hoped. After her last gig, a man approaches her with a proposition – a job with the Genrenauts Foundation. Based at a nearby university, this organization oversees parallel worlds, each of which follows the laws and tropes of a literary genre found on earth. Each parallel world follows a literary genre. There’s a sci-fi world, a rom-com world, and so on. Leah and the senior members of her new team get transported to a Western World in a tense situation which already sent one Genrenaut team member to the hospital.
This novella was quick, fun, and perfect for readers of almost any genre. The familiar science fiction theme of parallel worlds is used in quite a unique way here. Let me try to explain the concept a little better. Each world is based on a different genre. Within those worlds certain continents follow the rules of a certain sub-genre. For example, there’s a dark fantasy continent within the fantasy world. The world we see is based off of Westerns. When something goes wrong – usually when the rules of the genre aren’t being follows and chaos erupts – issues arise in comparable earth locations, something which Leah’s new team tries to prevent.
The more I think about this novella, the cleverer I find it. Parallel worlds are quite different here than anywhere else I’ve seen. What we think of as fiction and fictional genres are their reality. While the premise that if something goes wrong, not according to genre, consequences are played out on our world isn’t new, per se, it is handled very differently. I love that if events in these worlds stray from the normal genre stereotypes, things go catastrophically wrong. It pokes fun at itself, at the genres explored, but with love.
The first episode in the series feels like a fun introduction to the world. There are hints of a bigger picture, of a much larger threat facing the Earth, but we don’t learn much about it. This will, I’m sure, be a more central theme in later episodes, and I do want to find out where this series is headed. What can I say? I’m hooked.
The characters were fun. I liked Leah, our main character. I liked that she was a stand-up comic. It added an element of believably to Leah handling herself so well in such a foreign environment. Side characters were likeable, and the cast a very diverse one. I appreciated this a lot in the novel. I did feel like I didn’t get to know many of the characters as well as I would have liked, but again, this is probably something which will be explored a bit more thoroughly in the following episodes within the series.
Though I would have liked more time with the characters, I have to admit that a novella format is probably the best format choice for this series. A novel filled with shorter adventures within other worlds has the potential to feel very disjointed, even with an overarching plot. I got exactly what I was looking for out of this novella, and was completely satisfied with the ending.
I can’t help but agree the quote on the front of the novel by Marie Brennan, author of A Natural History of Dragons series, which calls this book “Catnip for geeks”. That is exactly what this novella is. It’s extraordinarily readable and tons of fun. I will most definitely be reading the rest of this series soon. If you like literary themes in books and stories involving parallel worlds, read this book. If you don’t like trope-ish books, even in jest, this is probably not the book (or series) for you.
Mystery, Novella, Science Fiction, Series
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#MangaMonday Review – Blissful Land, Vol. 1 by Ichimon Izumi
Blissful Land, Vol. 1
By: Ichimon Izumi
Illustrator: Ichimon Izumi; Carl Vanstiphoutl (Lettering)
Translator: Christine Dashiell
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Series: Blissful Land
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
The Blissful Land, Vol. 1 by Ichimon Izumi is a very slow, lovely slice of life manga centered around a 13-year-old boy, Khang Zhipa, who is apprenticed to his father, the town’s doctor. It is a sweet, slow manga that is more iyashiki than slice of life. Iyashikei, for those who are unaware, are very slow manga that focus on the everyday activities of people, the tiny, happy moments in life, and nature as a calming, healing read. The emotional and plot driven stakes are virtually nonexistent, instead presenting the reading with a very calm, mellow story.
Blissful Land, Vol. 1 introduces Khang Zhipa, a 13-year-old boy who is apprenticed to his father, the town doctor. Khang assists his father in healing the town’s people of various illnesses, traverses the woods for medicinal herbs, and assists his mother in the kitchen when needed. One day a travelling merchant arrives in town with his daughter, Moshi Rati, who is to marry Khang.
What follows is a slow story of Khang and his fiancé getting to know one another. It’s a story about family, friendship, and budding love. It’s slow and sweet. The stakes aren’t very high, but they don’t need to be for this sort of story. Instead, the reader is immersed in a world very different from our own. We are invested in this young family and the everyday issues they face.
There isn’t much more to say about this title as plot and character development are secondary to the everyday activities of Khang’s family and creating a warm, happy feeling in your chest. And that’s okay. The manga does exactly what it sets out to do.
The art in this manga was quite lovely. The village where Khang and his family live is idyllic, with a quiet beauty you never tire to look at.
If you like slow, sweet stories this is absolutely a manga you want to pick up. I quite enjoyed reading The Blissful Land, Vol. 1 by Ichimon Izumi. It was the perfect manga to pick up between denser reads, and I’m looking forward to further volumes in the series.
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Opposition Leader congratulates bpTT on good news
Loop News Created : 1 June 2017 Energy
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has congratulated bpTT on the announcement of its success in its two exploration wells Savannah and Macadamia.
In a statement, Persad-Bissessar said this success "vindicates the decision by the former PP administration to introduce a wide-ranging package of fiscal incentives for the oil and gas industry".
"The decision by bpTT to drill these exploration wells was stimulated by that package of fiscal incentives. This included the 100% accelerated capital allowance for exploration and incentives for developmental drilling. The PNM administration was highly critical of these incentives when they came into office," she said.
"During the tenure of the PP administration, it was realized that companies like bpTT needed to be incentivized to drill and explore for natural gas."
"The incentives were necessary to increase levels of drilling for natural gas given declining reserves and levels of production. The companies responded to these incentives and petroleum related foreign direct investment went from US$ 501 million in 2010 to US$1459 million in 2015."
"The momentum created by these incentives continued into 2016 and 2017."
She said the high level of activity from bpTT for the last three years is therefore related to the pro-investment environment that was created from 2010 to 2015.
"The high level of activity that we have witnessed from bpTT in the last three years pales in comparison to the fact that in mid-2010 when we came into office we found that the company had significantly reduced its level of investments in Trinidad and Tobago," she said.
"In addition, between 2011 and 2013, bpTT conducted the first ever Ocean Bottom Cable (OBC) 3D seismic survey on its acreage. The results of this programme led to the identification of the Macadamia prospect and other exploration targets. This 3D OBC seismic programme is also responsible for the Angelin project," she said.
A release issued earlier this week stated that BP chief executive (Upstream) Bernard Looney and bpTT regional president Norman Christie expected to share an update on the company's development and exploration plans to “celebrate recent achievements”.
bpTT
Kamla Persad-Bissessar
Chevron exiting T&T; sells assets to Shell
PM: BP to invest US billions in T&T over next five years
Forex shortage blamed as Denny's T&T closes its doors
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RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS FOR GRADUATION
A student usually needs eight semesters of attendance to earn the required credits for graduation. A student who has met all the graduation requirements, both total number of credits and required courses, after their seventh semester of attendance is eligible to receive a diploma. For students electing to graduate after their seventh semester, the physical education requirement will be waived for that semester he/she is not in attendance.
Transfer students must meet all graduation requirements (at least seven semesters of high school attendance, 22 credits, and all required courses) before these students are eligible for a Lincoln-Way diploma. Also, all transfer students must be in attendance at Lincoln-Way High School during the regular school year for at least one full semester of their senior year and complete the Prairie State Achievement Examination to receive a diploma from Lincoln-Way High School.
RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION
In accordance with Public Act 89-480, students who are bona fide residents of the school district will be allowed to attend school and pay the associated school fees. Lincoln-Way High School does not accept students who live outside the Lincoln-Way High School District. The only exception to this rule is when a student can prove that his/her family has started the process of either constructing or purchasing a residence in the high school district. Such students are subject to a tuition charge. Owning land in, and paying taxes to, the district does not meet the requirement of residency. The residence of the person who has legal custody of a student is deemed to be the residence of the student. Parents are expected to show proof of residency for each child prior to the start of the school year.
Acceptable Proofs of Residency
This act further provides that it is a Class C misdemeanor to knowingly provide false information for the purpose of enrolling a student.
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Is Life Really Worth Living?
The Book of Ecclesiastes:
by Chuck Missler • January 1, 2003
We have in our possession a considered response to this basic question from one of the wisest, richest, most powerful men to have walked the earth. And yet even today his counsel is widely ignored or misunderstood!
"Vanity of vanities," lamented Solomon, "all is vanity!" Solomon used the word "vanity" 38 times in Ecclesiastes as he wrote about life "under the sun." The word means "emptiness," "futility," "vapor"; "that which vanishes quickly and leaves nothing behind." From the human point of view, life ("under the sun") does often appear futile; and it is easy for us to get pessimistic. But we should not mistake brutal honesty with pessimism.
Ecclesiastes is the kind of book a person would write near the end of life, reflecting on life's experiences and the painful lessons learned. Solomon wrote Proverbs from the viewpoint of a wise teacher,1 and Song of Songs from the viewpoint of a royal lover,2 but when he wrote Ecclesiastes, he called himself "the Preacher."3
The Hebrew title is Koheleth, and it is the title given to an official speaker who calls an assembly. The Greek word for "assembly" is ekklhsia, ekklesia, and thus the Septuagint version gives us the English title of the book, Ecclesiastes.
But the Preacher did more than call an assembly and give an oration. The word Koheleth carries with it the idea of debating, not so much with the listeners as with himself. He would present a topic, discuss it from many viewpoints, and then come to a practical conclusion.
Ecclesiastes is unlike any other Old Testament book and has no parallel in other literature of the Biblical world. It is a philosophical discourse, and yet it is more. Ecclesiastes makes no claim to bring man a word from God. Instead the writer specifically states that he includes only what he can determine by his own reason and limits himself to data that is available "under the sun."
(The doctrine of inspiration, however, assures us that this book conveys the message that God intended that we should receive, but it does not guarantee that all of Solomon's statements are accurate!)
Ecclesiastes is different from any other book of the Bible. It does not dwell on the covenant, the election of Israel, redemption, prophecy, sacred history, or the temple. Its focus is on man the creature, his life on earth, and the inscrutability of God and His ways. Ecclesiastes goes beyond the other wisdom literature to emphasize the fact that human life and human goals, as ends in themselves and apart from God, are futile and meaningless.
Relevance for Today
Among other things, Solomon saw injustice to the poor,4 crooked politics,5 incompetent leaders,6 guilty people allowed to commit more crimes,7 materialism,8 and a desire for "the good old days." 9 It sounds relevant for us, too, doesn't it? Solomon has put the key to Ecclesiastes right at the front door:
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun? -Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
(Just in case we missed it, he also put the same key at the back door. 10) But don't assume he is cynical or pessimistic: that would miss his real point! Whether he considers his wealth, his works, his wisdom, or his world, Solomon comes to a sad appraisal: all is "vanity and vexation of spirit."11 However, this is not his final conclusion, nor is it the only message that he has for his readers. We will discover much more as we delve into the depth of the book.
In spite of his painful encounters with the world and its problems, Solomon does not recommend either pessimism or cynicism. Rather, he admonishes us to be realistic about life, accept God's gifts and enjoy them.12 After all, God gives to us "richly all things to enjoy."13 [Words related to joy (enjoy, rejoice, etc.) are used at least17 times in Ecclesiastes.]
Solomon does not say, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die!" Instead, he advises us to trust God and enjoy what we do have rather than complain about what we don't have. Life is short and life is difficult, so make the most of it while you can.
Solomon initially opens with three bleak observations: nothing is really changed,14 nothing is really new,15 and nothing is understood.16 After experimenting and investigating "life under the sun," he initially concluded, "No, life is not worth living!" And he gave four arguments to support his conclusion: the monotony of life, the vanity of wisdom, the futility of wealth, and the certainty of death.
But being a wise man, Solomon, in Chapters 3 to 10, reviewed his arguments and this time brought God into the picture. What a difference it made! By reexamining each of these impressions more carefully he realized that life was not monotonous but filled with challenging situations from God, each in its own time and each for its own purpose.
He also learned that wealth could be enjoyed and employed to the glory of God. Though man's wisdom couldn't explain everything, Solomon concluded that it was better to follow God's wisdom than to practice man's folly.
And as for the certainty of death, there is no way to escape it; it ought to motivate us to enjoy life now and make the most of the opportunities God gives us.
So he asks his listeners to look up,17 look within, 18 look ahead,19 and look around, 20 and to take into consideration time, eternity, death, and suffering: these four factors God uses to keep our lives from becoming monotonous and meaningless.
In his final conclusion and personal application, Solomon then presents four pictures of life and attaches to each picture a practical admonition for his readers to heed:
Life is an ADVENTURE-live by faith21
Life is a GIFT-enjoy it22
Life is a SCHOOL-learn your lessons23
Life is a STEWARDSHIP-fear God24
These four pictures parallel the four arguments that Solomon had wrestled with throughout the book: Life is not monotonous; rather, it is an adventure of faith that is anything but predictable or tedious. Yes, death is certain, but life is a gift from God and He wants us to enjoy it. Are there questions we can't answer and problems we can't solve? Don't despair. God teaches us His truth as we advance in "the school of life," and He will give us wisdom enough to make sensible decisions. Finally, as far as wealth is concerned, all of life is a stewardship from God; and one day He will call us to give an account. Therefore, "fear God, and keep His commandments."25
Here we have practical advice about life from one of the wisest, richest, most powerful men to have ever lived. His insights about life, money, values, and ordering one's personal priorities are priceless: this is a rewarding guidebook to the reader who looks behind the initial impressions to find the wisdom this remarkable man gleaned from his unique career.
Proverbs 1:1-6.
Song of Songs, 3:7-11.
Eccl 1:1, 2, 12; 7:27; 12:8-10.
Ecclesiastes 4:1-3.
Ecclesiastes 5:8.
Ecclesiastes 10:6-7.
Ecclesiastes 8:11.
Ecclesiastes 12:8.
Eccl 2:24; 3:12-15, 22
5:18-20; 8:15; 9:7-10; 11:9-10.
1 Timothy 6:17.
Ecclesiastes 1:8-11.
Ecclesiastes 1:12-18.
Ecclesiastes 4:1-5:9.
Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:8.
Ecclesiastes 12:9-12.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.
January 2003 Personal Update News Journal.
Sign up here to receive our free digital version of Personal Update . Or sign up here to receive the print version.
PLEASE NOTE: Unless otherwise expressly stated, pricing and offers mentioned in these articles are only valid for up to 30 days from initial publication date and may be subject to change.
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You can also View, Subscribe and Share this online.
Photo from Dana Point, California on March 19, 2013
George A. Filer III New Jersey State Director
MUFON Eastern Region Director
www.nationalUFOcenter.com/
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“I feel the scientific study of UFOs is for the benefit of humankind and is an important endeavor. The weekly intelligence report provides you with information on the latest sightings and UFO news that you need to understand the world situation.”
In special reports, this week’s files cover:
Illusions, UFO Secrecy, Letter about Contact with the Other Side, Mars Bones?
and North Korea Needs Money and Will Saber Rattle to Get it,
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena sightings were reported over: California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Sightings of UFOs were also reported in: Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, and England in the United Kingdom.
The purpose of these files is to report the UFO eyewitness and photo/video evidence that occurs on a daily basis around the world and in space. These Files assume that extraterrestrial intelligent life not only exists, but my hypothesis is that the over a thousand UFOs reported each month represent technologically advanced spacecraft conducting surveillance of Earth. I personally became interested in UFOs when London Control ordered me to intercept one over England while flying for the US Air Force. Under Project Blue Book, the US Air Force investigated UFOs for more than twenty years; and we continue this research.
I believe the God of the universe has spread life throughout the cosmos and UFO's are visiting us in ever-increasing numbers.
Each of us lives in our belief system or illusions of how we view the world around us. Different beliefs create a selective reality that each person develops. A five year olds view of the world is much different than a grownups. People’s education and acceptance of each countries media, propaganda, parent’s beliefs, religion, and experiences tend to create our illusion of reality. Most of the people reading these files have seen a UFO so your reality is different from most. The belief in one country are even areas of a county is often different from another. What one person considers real may be considered an insane illusion by another person. Airborne radar and visual conformation has confirmed the existence of UFOs and these are not an illusion. People assume everything is going to stay normal, just like any other day but seeing a UFO or aliens in our lives is not normal.
People facing a possible disaster underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster as do governments. The Fukushima disaster seemed very unlikely and the plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company had designed the plant to withstand earthquakes and tsunamis. Obviously the plans were inadequate. Leaks are still reported and another earthquake that might let more radiation into the ocean and air would be disastrous for our planet. The photo shows decommissioning work at Fukushima but radiation leaks are on going on and the repair crews may run out of space for the radioactive water.
Many feel it is impossible for Space Ships to reach our planet, therefore anything seen even by thousands each month is described as an illusion or belongs to the military. A study of the group of people who will be most affected by proof of visitors from space are scientists because many of their cherished beliefs may shattered.
It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before.
Most Americans feel that the daily news that is highly scripted by corporate media is the truth. Seldom does the media even cover the UFO story. The Internet provides massive exposure to UFOs that the media is starting to realize. Newspapers may have to start covering the UFO story just to stay in business. Many people’s reality will not consider any perspective that does not fit into the politically correct corporate media reality.
UFOs are accepted or believed in by about 60% of Americans. Some people feel they are evil, enemies of human life and others feel they are morally good and our friends. It is most likely the aliens have their own agenda as their primary mission that happens to be either for or against human needs. Why would other civilizations travel great distances to visit Earth? Some speculation would suggest the aliens are after something of importance such as taking minerals, gold or DNA. Many of the aliens appear sick and undernourished and may need our genes.
Two main concepts of truth are represented by science and religion. Science tends to ignore them while religion tends to explain them as demons, devils, or evil spirits. These wicked spirits have an agenda that appears to take whatever they desire including kidnapping and abducting.
The government often denies the existence of UFOs, period. Despite asking military personnel to report and chase UFOs. The official government line is that whatever these phenomena are they do not represent a threat to our national security. These statements are conflicting and contradictory. For if there are no UFOs to begin with, why be concerned with a possible threat to national security?
UFO Secrecy
The US Air Force publicly tracked UFOs for twenty two years from 1947 to 1969, Americans accounted for 12,618 reports of unidentified flying objects many by aircrews. It was up to investigators at Ohio's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to determine if extraterrestrial beings, in fact, had descended from space to Earth. Research on UFOs was called by several names including "Project Blue Book." A friend of mine, Colonel Ray Sleeper, who was commander of Foreign Technology Division sent the study of UFOs to the University of Colorado. Ray had observed a UFO high above his B-52 aircraft, but had doubts about its identity. Even so FTD’s coat of arms included a UFO.
In 1969, after the results of study were released the United States Air Force declared itself out of the UFO business, but admitted that 701 sightings remained "unidentified," that the Air Force found prudent to ignore.
The Air Force Academy text book “Environmental Space Sciences,” warned
“It is obvious that intensive scientific study is needed in this(UFO) area; no such study has yet been undertaken at the necessary levels of intensity needed. Something that must be guarded against in any such study is the trap of implicitly assuming that our knowledge of Physics (or any other branch of science) is complete.” http://www.nationalufocenter.com/artman/publish/article_425.php
General Benjamin Chidlaw told investigators, `We have stacks of reports about flying saucers. We take them seriously when you consider we have lost many men and planes trying to intercept them." Commander Air Defense Command 1951 to 1955.
Navy Admiral Delmar Fahrney made this public statement, 1957 "Reliable reports indicate there are objects coming into our atmosphere at very high speeds and controlled by thinking intelligence's."
Blue Book's documents and photographs comprise 42 cubic feet of declassified records -- numbering 2,000 pages per cubic foot -- now housed in the National Archives.
PRESIDENT REAGAN stated at the United Nations regarding extraterrestrials in Sept. 21, 1987, `Is not an alien force already among us?"
President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev
At the time the USSR and the US were locked in the Cold War ready to unleash thousands of nuclear warheads almost at any moment. Mikhail Gorbachev, in a speech at the Kremlin `For a Nuclear Free World and the Survival of Humanity' in Moscow on Feb 16, 1987 stated,
`In spite of the differences between us, we must all learn to preserve our one big family of humanity. At our Geneva meeting, the US President said that if the earth faced an invasion by extraterrestrials, the United States and the Soviet Union would join forces to repel such an invasion. I shall not dispute the hypothesis, though I think it is early yet to worry about such an intrusion.' Soviet Life Supplement May 1987.
Gorbachev was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the most important men of the Twentieth Century. The two most powerful men in the world were talking about extraterrestrials and Star Wars (anti-missile) weapons system that President Reagan offered to share with the Soviets.
Not generally known to the American public is that the Soviet military reported UFOs were attacking and destroying Soviet facilities causing great concern. It is my theory that UFOs play a much larger role in the affairs of men than anyone realizes.
For several years, senior administration officials have been discussing how much to disclose to the world about extraterrestrial life. Dissatisfaction among powerful institutions such as the U.S. Navy over the decades-long secrecy policy has given a boost to efforts to disclose the reality of extraterrestrial life and technology.
Mars Ancient Dinosaur like Bones
The Mars Rover has imaged a strange group of back bone like structures on Mars. It seems unlikely that stone would acquire this shape, and might be the remains of a large animal.
Navigation Camera Non-linearized Full frame EDR acquired by Opportunity's mission to Meridiani Planum by NASA/JPL.
Letter About Contact with the Other Side
Bart Ellis writes, “I want to express my condolence on the loss of your daughter. I noticed that you mentioned several websites on your last mailing that have to do with communication with the other side.”
You might also want to include the website: worlditc.org The guy who is responsible for the website is someone I know and have been on TV shows with i.e. Mark Macy. Mark has the best website on EVP, bar none. You might also want to mention the Paranormal Recorder as an app. on the Apple/iTunes App website. I have been recording the voices of people who have died for about 40 years and it is very time consuming and impractical for most people. Plus, you have to have a tape recorder, a tape, a microphone and lots and lots of patience. Now, however, you can get an app that really works at the App Store and it only costs a few bucks. (No, I'm not on their payroll!) I just thought I would remind you of this again. It was through the Paranormal recorder that I got the voice I was hoping for....a woman came on my IPad when I was showing my brother-in-law in Cheltenham, England, how to use the App. A woman's voice said, very clear and loud: “There's No Death.” Even though I have been recording voices for years, this was the absolute proof I needed.
Also, my friend, Barry Taff who wrote the book, "Aliens Above, Ghosts Below" is now doing lectures and such. He's a really good guy and is very much into researching paranormal phenomena. I'm just letting you know about him and the book. If you want to read any of his blogs, go t barrytaff.net. I don't know how you have the energy to do all of the things you're doing. It must be a hassle! In any case, best wishes to you. Thanks to Bart Ellis
North Korea Needs Money and Will Saber Rattle to Get it
Do not be surprised if North Korea attacks South Korea. Kim Jong Un wants to be recognized has a world power. Kim may go too far in his campaign to pressure the US and South Korea into offering money and a peace treaty. He is likely aware that all-out war will bring an end to his rule, so smaller moves such as launching missiles, or attacking disputed islands between North and South Korea is more likely. "Kim Jong-un's aim is to unite the North Korean military and his people to gain their trust. He is young, impetuous, and has lived in a bubble all his life surrounded by people fulfilling his every whim, and assuring him that North Korea is one of the great powers on Earth. Yet both he and his country have not proved their might and the people are looking for strong signals from him. Kim's attempts to endear himself to his people will likely include military action, he likely feels having nuclear weapons makes him invincible.
The coming days could see more attempts to unsettle the region and display his might. Among the options open to Kim are a missile test to mark the 101st anniversary of the birth of the country's founder, Kim Il-sung. It appears North Korea will launch one or more missiles and the US, Japan, or South Korea may attempt to shoot it down. Kim may choose to attack islands on the North-South maritime border, or explode a nuclear weapon. He commands one of the largest armies in the world, with new missiles and nuclear weapons. Kim has an unrealistic view of the world which makes him dangerous. His people are poorly fed, and the economy is failing. His only moves are to threaten the world so they will give him the money he needs to pay his Army, particularly the generals, so they do not over throw him. He needs money to buy the generals' loyalty and pay for his lavish lifestyle.
It is unlikely Kim will abandon the North's nuclear program: "He will threaten the US and South Korea until he wins a concession and he can claim he has orchestrated a victory over the enemy. That is exactly what Kim Jong-un is expecting. He knows he's causing trouble internationally, but if he steps back, he will never win the trust of his people. These actions could easily cause a miscalculation with some officer launching artillery attacks on his own.
The medium-range Musudan missile has a range of 2,180 miles capable of flying over Japan, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told lawmakers in Seoul. Earlier a Defense Ministry official said launch preparations appeared to be complete.
If the Musudan missile is launched, it would be the first mobile test of this weapon, giving military officials another layer of uncertainty about the potential for a mistake.
It has also urged tourists in South Korea to take cover, warning a nuclear war was imminent.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/10/south-korea-says-north-korea-ready-to-test-missile-any-day/#ixzz2Q7dpNmHe
Sightings in the United States
California Disc
Dana Point -- My wife, her mother. and her daughter were on a tour boat to see whales and dolphins on March 19, 2013. My wife set her digital phone cam to burst mode to capture pictures of the whales and dolphins. After she returned home we were reviewing the photos on her phone and noticed a disc-shaped object in one of the photos.
Apparently nobody noticed it at the time because they were all focused on the water. I thought it was a joke and she had an app on her phone to insert UFOs in pictures, but it was no joke and my wife isn’t technologically savvy enough to fake the picture, nor would she have any desire to do so. The object did not show up in any of the other photos as far as I can tell. I’m sure it’s not a seagull, airliner, Frisbee, or lenticular cloud. I have no idea what it IS! Thanks to MUFON CMS
Colorado Lights
Montrose -– The witness called and reported his sighting on March 29, 2013. He was outside smoking a cigarette and noticed two large glowing orange orbs to the southwest on March 2, 2013, at 7 PM. The orbs were and then started moving (or floating) slowly. Suddenly one of the orbs shot straight up and vanished. The other orb moved north and then suddenly streaked away and was no long visible. The witness noticed a strange mist around one of the orbs when it moved near a cloud. A short video was taken of the orbs. Thanks to William Puckett, Director http://www.UFOsnw.com
Henderson -- This UFO was captured by a NASA All Sky camera on March 17, 2013 at 6:54:00.366 UTC. This camera is located in Henderson, Colorado. These cameras are used to track meteorites. Sometimes that is not all they catch on video.
Note: The video is not of a meteor or a satellite. The time of the sighting was out of the window when satellites can be observed. The fact that no lights were flashing means that it also was not an aircraft.
This entry was posted in 2013, bright light, Colorado, Discovered anomaly in photo, pictures, Unidentified, video. Bookmark the permalink.
Florida Orange Orbs
CORAL GABLES – On April 7, 2013, I was standing in the front of the house as my father was leaving when we both noticed an object about the same time and stated "What is that?" I’m familiar with most aerial activity and this was not a normal sighting. It did not have the characteristics with respect to the orange glow and lack of sound. It moved west at normal flight speed. The oddity was the large glow aspect giving the object a round shape. When I realized it was something unusual, I called out to my son to bring his camera. We attempted some shots and watched it for three
minutes until it was no longer in sight.
Thanks to MUFON CMS
Illinois Lights
WASHINGTON -- We were in the backyard playing a lawn game at 9:45 PM on Saturday March 30, 2013. My teammate was getting ready to throw when he stopped and said “what the hell is that?” Three of us looked toward the NW where we saw 16 to 20 lights that were slowly blinking. At first, I was thinking this was a very large airplane, but there was no sound. My husband yelled and grabbed his I phone and proceeded to record. We yelled at another friend to go get his kids (ages 16, 11, and 10) to get them from inside the house as we wanted them to see this as well. The lights spanned the width of a football field moving east slowly. They randomly blinked and formed a variety of shapes, some in triangles. As they turned slowly towards north they formed triangles before disappearing. Another friend kept saying "what is this?” After they disappeared, we called the police and TV station but no one else had reported strange lights. We also thought maybe it was 16 to 20 prop planes but this seemed unlikely. The video attached has to be viewed on full screen with lights out as this was recorded with a little iPhone and that is the best way to view. Thanks to MUFON CMS
BLOOMINGTON -- I reported a ufo sighting recently and this was not my first time reporting a ufo. I reported one over Bloomington in 1999. I was caught in a green beam and had four hours missing time. I sure hope my granddaughter has no more run ins with ufos. I did not send all the photos. My granddaughter zoomed in on some of the lights and got part of the craft. It is orange and very odd looking. It looks like some kind of contraption with monitor screen like shape to it.
Thank you for being there. I would like to be sent Filer’s Files to Lois H. Bloomington, Illinois...
Massachusetts Saucer
Medford -- I was driving back from my doctor’s appointment and “saucer” type UFO about 4:10 PM, on April 3, 2013. It was hovering about 500 feet up. I couldn’t pull over to take a picture because of traffic. I saw this UFO for about 7 to 10 seconds when it moved slightly away from me and then just disappeared like it just flicked out. It was the size of an M&M candy about seven inches away from your eye (for size comparison), silver in color and was just hovering. Then poof it was gone. On April 4, 2013, I was watching CNN’s video from Denver. One of the shots looked just like the craft that I saw, but mine was not moving around. It was just hovering until it just disappeared. It looked like a keg flattened and round like a typical “saucer shaped UFO.” Thanks to William Puckett, Director http://www.UFOsnw.com
New Jersey Two Red Orange Lights on Wing
MILLVILLE -- My husband saw lights above the neighbor’s shed on April 5, 2013, at 8:08 PM. He went outside and witnessed orange red lights in the sky. It passed over our house and looked like a wing. When it passed over, it covered the stars in the background behind it. Not sure what we saw, but by the time we got to the front of the house it was in the distance and disappeared. There was NO sound. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Pennsylvania Four Ovals
Upper Chichester -- It was a clear night for sky watching on April 7, 2013, and I was in the checking objects in the sky. I had been outside since sunset and the sighting occurred at 9:53 PM, when I sighted a high flying jet and four definite oval shaped objects flying south. They were traveling in a ‘v’ formation, equally spaced apart as indicated on the rough sketch I have supplied.
They were bright enough to see their shapes and too high to be geese and too rigid a formation.
They moved much faster than geese in a straight line across the sky. The entire sighting only lasted ten seconds from horizon to horizon. This is my third sighting of what I consider to be UFOs. I was using high powered Zhumell 20 X 80 power binoculars. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Oregon Disc
Bridal Veil -- While driving a film production truck eastbound on I-84 to a commercial shoot on Mt Hood, Eric noticed waterfalls ahead and stretched his arm toward the open passenger window to get a shot at 55 MPH. This picture was taken on I-84 at the waterfall above Wahkeena Rearing Lake on November 1, 2010. Once back at the hotel, while looking through the pictures on the camera, we noticed the object and what looks like a Vapor trail behind it and a change of direction. The card remained in the camera until February 3, 2011 and was shown to a lot of people. Finally it was downloaded and forwarded. Keep in mind that the idea was to take a picture of a waterfall, not of something odd in the sky. It is on a frame less than a mile away. That object had a dome, with an egg shaped object.
Note: There is no way to prove that the above photo was not a hoax because the original photo was not received. Thanks to William Puckett, Director http://www.UFOsnw.com
Texas Orbs
corpus christi -- My son was taking pictures of a flock of birds and in the picture he noticed two auras of light on April 7, 2013. In the bottom aura you can see a sphere and on the aura on top you can almost see another sphere. He did not see object until he checked his pictures. He sent me the picture to see what I thought it could be. Thanks to MUFON CMS Note: May be a lens reflection.
Virginia Diamond
FAIRFAX -- I was out in front of my apartment looking for the comet visible in the west on March 9, 2013. I had my binoculars with me so I walked north about 50 yards to get a better view of the horizon. I did not see the comet, so I started to walk back to my place. I kept looking west and noticed a solid object moving just above me about 50 yards away. It was a long black diamond that was flat about two feet tall, 25 feet long and 5 feet wide. The points were rounded and it made no noise and had no propellers or wings. After it passed, I heard a very faint noise. It had glowing orange rectangles on the side. I was not sure if these were windows or vents.
It was moving west in a strait path very slowly and only moved maybe 20 to 30 yards during my observation. I just smiled and said to myself that I had truly seen a UFO.
NOTE: The above image is a rendering. Ken Pfeifer MUFON NJ www.worldufophotos.org
Watch Fox News segment UFO Caught Live on Fox News on January 20, 2013.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0drMT6bOpGY
Wisconsin Triangle
Wausau -- I have been studying the stars with the help of my I PAD and looking up on April 5, 2013, at the stars that were blinking out and coming back on. At first I thought tree branches were getting in the way, but realized there were no branches there. I carry a two million candle spot light and shone it at the blacked out stars area. I was surprised to see a dull gray triangle shaped craft. The front was thinner and curved to a wider back. It moved very slowly east as I kept the light on the craft for three minutes. Then it started a smooth slow turn to the southeast and stayed away from the glow of city lights and made no sound. I was losing sight of the object and went into the house to get binoculars, but I could no longer see it. I had horrible nightmares that night! Thanks to MUFON CMS
Worldwide UFO Sightings
Australia Lightning UFO
Niagara Park – I was waiting at the train station to pick my partner up, whilst looking into the sky on April 6, 2013, I spotted a bright red orb. It flew down and hovered nearby. My partner is right into the ufo phenomenon, so I sent my partner a text to see if he could see the orb. His train arrived and before he could get off the orb took off. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Sydney -- Looking east over the ocean, around 9.45 Pm, on March 8, 2013, all of a sudden I saw a really large flash of lightning came down in a straight line towards the ocean. As this was happening the lighting flash also was emitting the shape of a UFO. This was unbelievable to me. It was about five miles up in the night sky and very big in size, about 4 to5 times bigger than any 747 aircraft. I was amazed that it was very electrical in activity. Then after a few seconds I did not see anything again like it had disappeared, this undoubtedly will remain in my thoughts and memory for the rest of my life. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Canada Disc
SCARBOROUGH, ONTARIO -- On March 25, 2013, while driving south just before my turn to my work street I noticed a strange long vertical object moving slowly west. It flying at 200 feet altitude and was vertical and flattish-like in nature. It had mixed colors of dark and white. It was moving across vertical upright with no tumbling motion at all. It looked about ten feet length. Even the motion and appearance looked two dimensional. The speed was between 2 and 5 MPH. Thanks to William Puckett, Director http://www.UFOsnw.com
Mexico Disc
El NEVADO DE TOLUCA -- Last February of 2013, we took a trip to one of the popular mountains in Mexico. We climbed almost to the top and started taking pictures like this one.
After a couple of weeks we were viewing the photo album and something caught our attention. We zoomed in and we think that probably it’s a legal UFO. We didn’t hear any noise or even see anything weird. We noticed the UFO in only one picture of the hundreds we took during that family trip. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Otaki Beach -- "...South Pacific Research (SPR), feels that it would be useful to forward our discovery of an identical object discovered when we downloaded an air surveillance system frame for our immediate area, last week. In regards to the submitted report in this week`s dispatch titled "Kansas City, MO. colored, wormlike "Ear-shaped" bright night shot. We are located on southwest coast beach of North Island, New Zealand, at OTAKI.
When we loaded this frame into our air surveillance equipment, we immediately noticed the "Ear-Like" object on the beach, where there is a small estuary. We downloaded a subsequent satellite identical coverage map, which did not show any such object. We then walked up the beach to the exact spot but there is nothing there.
The distance of the object, from our base (S40 44.045, E175 07.126), green crosshair in frames as depicted is 2.2 nautical miles. We have used our distance measuring equipment, to pinpoint the object`s size, to be precisely 1.2 nautical miles from its south to north ends.
If the Kansas City object was shot from "underneath", then it figures that ours is the reverse image, taken via satellite from above during daylight hours. Kindest Regards, Rick L Pinfold, South Pacific Research, North Island , New Zealand.
South Africa Diamond
Pretoria, Gauteng – On March 30, 2013, at 2:30 AM, two of my friends and I saw a diamond shaped flying object while we were at the dam fishing. I don’t know what it was, but it definitely was not from around here. It was hovering across the water in a sideways motion with two white lights. One light was on the front of the craft assuming it was the front side, and one light was at the back, with another red light on the left side facing our way. It was a brown color and was flying at low speed and made a strange hovering sound. It was very close to Earth because we could see it clearly and the moon was full with no clouds. Thanks to William Puckett, Director http://www.UFOsnw.com
Spain Flying Object
Torrevieja, Alicante -- I am submitting the attached photographs in the hope that an expert can explain the nature of the object taken on April 4, 2013. It is moving or falling very fast. In addition, the shape seems to be different in each shot. I took the photo(s) during a walk along the coast. The series is of three exposure-bracketed photos (0, -1, +1) taken by holding the shoot button down for the duration of the three shots. I was not aware of the object at the time. If anybody is interested I have the RAW files for the images; I'll keep them for a few weeks before discarding them. Thanks to MUFON CMS
UK/England Orbs
Herefordshire – On April 2, 2013, at 6:30 PM, a video was taken looking toward the Burl Hill direction from Hereford near the Wales border. The video was taken at 6:30 PM this evening. Attached are sequential frame clips.
Note: This witness has taken several photos and videos in the past several months and sent them to us. The authenticity of these videos and photos has not been determined. Thanks to William Puckett, Director http://www.UFOsnw.com
I stopped and quickly got out of my car with camera in hand. After taking four shots at 12:16 PM, I went back into my car to get a better camera. Once back outside facing the object it was only hundreds of yards to west. It was gone after 15 seconds! Due to its slow speed I tried to video it but that was a no go! Three of the pictures had successfully captured this strange object on film. The sighting lasted about one minute. I have taken numerous photos of UFOs since 2008. Note: I don’t have an explanation for this object. I believe it to be a genuine UFO! Thanks to William Puckett, Director http://www.UFOsnw.com
UFO Conferences
New Jersey UFO Paranormal and Consciousness Conference
April 20 & 21, 2013
Hilton Garden Inn (near Trenton)
800 US Route 130 (southbound)
Hamilton Square, New Jersey
http://www.njufoc.com/main.html
Sirius Movie Premiere
Thank you so much for your support. We have sold out the 800 seat main theater for the Sirius premiere in Los Angeles, BUT you may still be part of the excitement. We have engaged another theater in the same complex. Be part of the red carpet excitement and see the film when it is presented to a theater audience for the 1st time.
April 22, 2013 - Regal Cinemas LA Live
1000 W. Olympic Blvd
Red Carpet opens at 7 pm, Preshow remarks from Dr. Greer at 7:45 (Theater A only), Screening at 8 pm sharp. Tickets are only available on-line. No tickets will be sold at the door.
click here to get your seats: Theater B - $15 each
We are planning a Washington DC premiere one night the week of April 29 - May 2.
Virginia Premiere - Thursday May 9th (the 12th anniversary of the original National Press Club event in 2001!) - The Paramount - Charlottesville, VA
Tickets available soon for premiere: general admission and also with special VIP seating and after party.
The VA premiere will be followed by a rare 3 day workshop with Dr. Greer on May 10th, 11th and 12th. - 3 nights under the stars. More information soon.
I’ll be speaking at:
Citizen Hearing on Disclosure – April 29 to May 3, 2013 – Washington, DC
"IF THE CONGRESS WON'T DO ITS JOB, THE PEOPLE WILL."
"The Citizen Hearing on Disclosure will attempt to accomplish what the U. S. Congress has failed to do for forty-five years."
Stephen Bassett
"I've been asked about UFOs and I've said publicly, I thought they were somebody else, some other civilization."
Eugene Cernan
Apollo 17 Astronaut
"Of course UFOs are real - and they are interplanetary ...The cumulative evidence for the existence of UFOs is quite overwhelming and I accept the fact of their existence."
- Lord Dowding
UK Air Chief Marshal
"There is a serious possibility that we are being visited by people from outer space. It behooves us to find out who they are, where they come from, and what they want.”
Admiral Lord-Hill Norton
UK Chief of Defence
"This massive cover-up has been going on for almost six decades since the UFO crash near Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947, an event which was certainly not caused by balloons, as alleged by the U.S. Air force."
Dr. Brian O'Leary
"The mystery surrounding this crash (at Roswell) has never been adequately explained - not by independent investigators, and not by the U.S. government."
Congressman Secretary of Energy
New Mexico Governor
"It is time for the truth to be brought out... Behind the scenes high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.... I urge immediate Congressional action to reduce the dangers from secrecy about unidentified flying objects."
Roscoe Hillenkoetter
CIA Director
An event with historical implications will be held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC from April 29 to May 3, 2013. At that time as many as forty researchers and military/agency witnesses will testify for thirty hours over five days before former members of the United States Congress.
The Hearing Committee is presently composed of Senator Mike Gravel (Dem/Lib, AK), Congresswomen Darlene Hooley (Dem, OR), Carolyn Kilpatrick, (Dem, MI),Lynn Woolsey (Dem, CA) and Congressman Merrill Cook (Rep, UT). One Additional Committee members may be added.
The Citizen Hearing on Disclosure of an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race will attempt to accomplish what the Congress has failed to do for forty-five years - seek out the facts surrounding the most important issue of this or any other time.
For this reason the motto for the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure is "If the Congress will not do its job, the people will."Jones Cheryll 1 Citizen Hearing on Disclosure April 29 to May 3, 2013 Washington, DC
Reflecting the global implications of the issue, the entire CHD will be live streamed worldwide in English, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese and Mandarin (archive only). This represents approximately one half of the world's population. The live webcast will also include side press conferences with witnesses as well as interviews by former CNN News Anchor Cheryll Jones. The English and Spanish webcast will include evening lectures presented by Hearing witnesses. Access to these webcasts is available via subscription here.
The Citizen Hearing on Disclosure will be filmed as the basis for a forthcoming documentary- Truth Embargo - by Just Cause Entertainment.
The title of this film is fitting as the goal of the Citizen Hearing is nothing less than the end of the extraterrestrial truth embargo this year. The world's people have waited long enough.
Over the coming weeks this site will develop rapidly with new information added daily. Check back often for updates.
This video, which provides a conceptual frame for the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure, is available in the following languages: Japanese Chinese French German Spanish
Time lapse footage provided by "Earth Time lapse, Amazon HD" www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkfZUtnWVyA and NASA.
See more videos relating to the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure at the CHD YouTube Channel
"It's time to open the books on questions that have remained in the dark, questions of government investigations of UFOs. We ought to do it because the American people quite frankly CAN handle the truth. And we ought to do it because it's the law."
John Podesta
Clinton Presidential Advisor
and Chief of Staff
"UFO's are as real as the airplanes flying overhead."
Canadian Defence Minister
"It is now time to put away this embargo of truth about the alien presence."
- Dr. Edgar Mitchell
www.MUFONsymposium.com
Support Earth Changing Research
I was sitting at my desk, pondering how I could get people interested in getting my work of the last thirteen years. I have put together a DVD of Filer's Files with hundreds of great photographs and UFO sightings.
Additionally, I have decided to include my book within the DVD that includes George Ritter's exciting abduction story by Linda Moulton Howe. Broadcaster David E. Twichell has also included much of his excellent dialog for a donation of only $50.
We also include a year's subscription. Please include your e-mail address and mailing address.
Send check or money order to:
George Filer, 222 Jackson Road, Medford, NJ 08055.
You can also use PayPal
If you enjoy Filer's Files every week and want to support my efforts, please make a donation via PayPal
I am offering eleven years of Filer's Files on a DVD with thousands of photographs and sightings for a donation of $50 that includes this year's subscription. Please include your e-mail address and mailing address.
JOIN MUFON!
Become a MUFON member today! Benefits of membership include a subscription to the monthly UFO Journal which contains current investigations, sightings reports, articles by world-renowned researchers and more. To join now, click here. Majorstar@verizon.net
Filer's Files is copyrighted 2010 by George A. Filer, all rights reserved. Readers may post the COMPLETE files on their Web Sites if they credit the newsletter and its editor by name, and list the date of issue. These reports and comments are not necessarily the OFFICIAL MUFON viewpoint. Send your letters to Majorstar@verizon.net. Sending mail automatically grants permission for us to publish and use your name. Please state if you wish to keep your name or e-mail confidential. CAUTION MOST OF THESE ARE INITIAL REPORTS AND REQUIRE FURTHER INVESTIGATION.
God Bless Our Troops and Georgie Filer and Eddie Pedrick my grandsons who drowned.
Message managed with ListRocket
Filer's Files #15 2013 - Decades of UFO Secrecy, Sirius Movie Premiere,
03-22-2014: Filer's Files #12 2014 - Dr. Roger Leir Passes, Annunaki and Human Origins, Moon Map Cylinder
03-15-2014: Filer's Files #11 2014 - "Earth, an Alien Enterprise" by Tim Good, Interacting With Angels & EBEs, Your letters,
03-07-2014: Filer's Files #10 2014 - The Dark Side: Nagative EBEs, UFO Slides Found in Snowden Documents
03-07-2014: 10 body
02-28-2014: Filer's Files #9 2014 - Google erased UFO in 360 view, Radiation at Fukuishima, Satellites for Detecting UFOs
02-22-2014: Filer's Files #8 2014 - Canada's MOD on UFO "defense", US Task Force "Prepare for Shifting Climate"
02-14-2014: Filer's Files #7 2014 - UFO Docked at ISS, Mercury Structure, NASA Mars Mystery Object
02-08-2014: Filer's Files #6 2013 - Elaine Douglas Passes, First Frozen Crop Circle, India's Temple Tomb
01-31-2014: Filer's Files #5 2014 - AMC Opinion Concerning "Flying Discs", Book "A New Heaven/A New Earth",
01-26-2014: Filer's Files #4 2014 - Recent UFO Flap, US is Working with Aliens -Iran, Lloyd Pye Departs
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World Heritage Site Bid
Slate People
Slate Areas
Aberllefenni
Blaenau Ffestiniog, The Dwyryd and The Ffestiniog Railway
Bryneglwys, Abergynolwyn and The Talyllyn Railway
Cwmystradllyn and Cwm Pennant
Dinorwig
Nantlle Valley
Ogwen Valley
The Nomination
Slate Trails
Take a look at our video...
Wales has a significant stake in industrial heritage. The slate industry is an iconic feature of North Wales, and of the Welsh nation as a whole, and has been of overwhelming importance in shaping the social and economic landscape. Its products represent one of the most geographically widespread building materials from a single source to be found in every continent. Welsh slate ‘roofed the nineteenth century world’.
It was not only slate that was exported. Gwynedd slate quarries also exported their own personnel, skills, knowledge and technology to quarries all over the world and in turn, learnt from them and their industries, The narrow-gauge railways were a crucial part of the industry’s transport system and success and their designs and engineering were copied world-wide.
In June 2010, on behalf of a range of stakeholders, Gwynedd Council successfully presented an application to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in Westminster for the industry to be included on the UK's list of tentative World Heritage Sites to be submitted to UNESCO. The UK's tentative list was formally presented to UNESCO in January 2012.
The process of developing a full application for the nomination of a location as a World Heritage Site is known to be extremely long and arduous, and is potentially costly and even then, only 50% of the applications submitted UNESCO are likely to be successful.
An assessment of the current and potential economic impact of heritage
Email: llechi@gwynedd.llyw.cymru
© Cyngor Gwynedd 2016
Wales Slate, Economy and Community, Gwynedd Council, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, LL55 1SH
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Home/Posts/NEWS RELEASES, PTF/10-20 Services Inc. Secures National Contract with AAFES
10-20 Services Inc. Secures National Contract with AAFES
VANCOUVER, B.C. – Mission Ready Services Inc. (TSX-V: MRS) – Mission Ready Services Inc. (“Mission Ready” or “MRSI”) is pleased to announce that 10-20 Services Inc. (“10-20” or the “Company”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of MRSI, has received a national contract (the “Contract” or “Agreement”) with the Army & Air Force Exchange Service (“AAFES”) for Tactical Gear Restoration & Cleaning Services. The Agreement begins with Joint-Base Lewis McChord (“JBLM”) and includes provisions for 10-20 to add stores on other Department of Defense installations during the contract term, by mutual consent with AAFES.
10-20 launched its first retail location in the Post Exchange (“PX”) at JBLM in early 2013 and subsequently celebrated the launch of its second PX installation in September of 2014 at Fort Bragg. 10-20’s retail locations serve the individual soldier market and provide comprehensive, economical and convenient cleaning, decontamination and repair solutions including complimentary on-base pickup and delivery and guaranteed acceptance when returning 10-20-serviced gear to the Central Issue Facility (“CIF”). 10-20’s Western Zone Manager, retired Command Sergeant Major Vic Martinez, stated, “10-20 has found a service niche that’s a perfect fit with the Exchange.” The Company also provides services to clean and disinfect barracks furniture. Soon the Company will begin servicing firefighter gear and offering application of a new type of highly stain resistant, after-market treatment for soldiers’ boots.
“10-20 incorporates a ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ growth strategy by simultaneously developing relationships at the top levels of the Department of Defense procurement channels, at the installations and with the individual soldiers we ultimately serve” states Clay Williamson, President of 10-20 Services Inc. “We are very pleased with the timing of this contract as we move into our next growth phase which includes the synergistic addition of on-base retail stores within proximity of 10-20 decontamination and repair facilities. With over 90 CIF’s worldwide, we now have a streamlined process for entering into these locations where appropriate for our operations.”
The Contract is for an initial two-year period, beginning April 1, 2015 and includes extension provisions for up to three (3) additional years.
About Army & Air Force Exchange Service
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the Army & Air Force Exchange Service is an agency of the United States Department of Defense and is responsible for the administration of on-base retail services.
For more than 119 years, AAFES’ mission has been to support the men and women of the armed forces during military operations, humanitarian missions and other endeavors around the world.
The Exchange Service is designed to provide everything a soldier might need or want such as uniforms, tactical gear, recreational sports equipment, vitamin supplements, and electronics. AAFES serves 12.8 million customers in 50 states and more than 30 countries. In fiscal 2013 the Post Exchange (On-base retail outlet) had revenue of $8.3 billion and a profit of $332 million. About a third of that was reinvested in operations, and the rest—$208 million—was plowed into the Pentagon’s morale, welfare, and recreation programs.
About 10-20 Services Inc.
10-20 was formed to provide services and product sales to the U.S. Federal Government and its contractors. 10-20 operates military cleaning and repair facilities in Washington state, adjacent to Joint Base Lewis-McCord (JBLM); North Carolina, adjacent to Fort Bragg (the world’s largest military installation); and California near Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow. Additionally, the Company operates retail service centers on-base at JBLM and Fort Bragg to serve the individual soldier market and gain exposure for 10-20 Services at the base level.
MRSI was created to meet a critical need of one of the world’s largest customers, the US Government and in particular the Departments of Defence, Homeland Security and Justice and various other agencies such as law enforcement, first responders and the many others worldwide that help to safeguard our health and security.
MRSI’s mission is to save lives and enhance the performance of military personnel, first responders, and those who protect us by working to ensure they are equipped with the best possible personal protective equipment.
For further information, visit the Company’s website at MissionReady.ca or contact:
mrs@kincommunications.com
www.kincommunications.com
(signed “Rod Reum”)
Rod Reum,
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Parents: No crossing guard on spot where child died
Thursday, February 17, 2011 1:23 PM EST
A day after a child was struck and killed while crossing the Grand Concourse, parents are outraged to find no crossing guard on duty.Russell Smith, 11, was killed at the intersection of East 183rd Street and the Grand Concourse. Eyewitnesses say the child darted across the street and was hit by a Honda CRV.Following the boy's death, many parents walked their children to school, only to discover there was no crossing guard at the intersection where Smith was hit.A crossing guard who works a street over told News 12 The Bronx the woman who is assigned to that corner took the day off after witnessing the fatal accident. However, parents say not assigning a replacement is irresponsible.The driver who hit and killed the 11-year-old stayed on the scene after the accident. Police say no criminality is suspected.
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'Your Name' director Shinkai's new film to hit theaters next week
The highly-anticipated new film by Makoto Shinkai, director of the 2016 smash-hit animation "Kimi no Na wa" (your name), is set to open in theaters across Japan on July 19.
"Tenki no Ko" (Weathering With You) follows the story of a high school boy who moves from his home on a remote island to Tokyo, where he meets a girl with a mysterious ability to stop the rain and clear the sky simply by praying.
"I want to make it an entertainment masterpiece that is undeniably interesting and one where nobody will lose out," the 46-year-old creator said at a press event last week.
Similar to Shinkai's previous works, the film promises to be a wholesome boy-meets-girl tale mixed with supernatural elements on a grand scale, and will once again feature songs by popular Japanese rock band Radwimps, who also provided the soundtrack for "your name."
Major Japanese film company Toho Co. is set to release "Weathering With You" on 448 screens in 359 theaters across the country.
Theaters in Tokyo's Shinjuku and Osaka's Umeda will premiere the film from midnight July 18. Toho will also simultaneously screen the movie at 9 a.m. on the opening day at all 359 theaters.
Shinkai debuted with a short self-produced animation in 2002, but his first blockbuster success came when Toho signed up to produce "your name.," with the number of theaters showing the film jumping more than 10-fold as compared to his previous works.
Emperor emeritus suffered bout of cerebral anemia last week
Former Emperor Akihito briefly suffered from cerebral anemia last week, forcing him to postpone his regular health checkup, the Imperial Household Agency said Tuesday. (Japan Today)
Couple arrested for pouring scalding water over 11-year-old boy
A couple in Tokyo was arrested Monday on suspicion of pouring scalding water four years ago over an 11-year-old boy who was living with them at the time, police said. (Japan Today)
Supermarket opens in Fukushima's Namie town
A supermarket has opened in the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, which was devastated by the nuclear disaster in 2011. It is the first supermarket to operate in the town since the accident. Evacuation orders were partially lifted two years ago. (NHK)
Man dies after being hit by float in Gion Festival parade
A 54-year-old man died after he was hit by a float while taking part in a Gion Festival parade in Usuki, Oita Prefecture, on Friday night. (Japan Today)
Man who injured Kumamoto cops while fleeing drug raid surrenders in Fukuoka
A Kumamoto man who was wanted for injuring several police officers by car during a drug raid on his home earlier this week was arrested Sunday after turning himself in. (Japan Times)
20-year-old man arrested for beating grandfather to death in Ibaraki Pref
Police in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, said Saturday they have arrested a 20-year-old unemployed man on suspicion of killing his 66-year-old grandfather with whom he lived. (Japan Today)
Tokyo: Host accused of threatening to sexually assault male customer to collect bill
Tokyo Metropolitan Police have accused a 40-year-old bar host at a club in Shinjuku Ward of threatening to sexually assault a male customer in collecting a bill, reports NHK (July 12). (tokyoreporter.com)
Tokyo: Man, 32, suspected of exposing self to woman, molesting her
Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 32-year-old man who is suspected of exposing himself to a woman in Nerima Ward last month before molesting her, reports TV Asahi (July 12). (tokyoreporter.com)
Illicit photography exposes men’s underwear thief
Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a male thief of men’s underwear, a crime that emerged when the suspect was found taking illicit photography, reports TV Asahi (July 12). (tokyoreporter.com)
Man arrested in Sendai over murder of older brother in Aichi Pref
Police in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, said Friday they have arrested a 27-year-old unemployed man on suspicion of killing his 30-year-old brother in Tahara, Aichi Prefecture, on Thursday. (Japan Today)
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Coventry University Campus
The University occupies a purpose-built 33-acre campus in the heart of Coventry city centre. The campus buildings and environment are constantly being developed and enhanced. We are investing £160m in our campus over the next ten years, including construction of a new Student Enterprise Centre and a high-tech faculty building for Engineering and Computing.
We have a 'smart campus' thanks to our investment in IT. There are more than 2,400 student PCs on site and the campus is fully Wi-Fi enabled.
Our campus Google map shows the locations of each University building.
The distinctive turreted building on campus is our £16m Library, which has over 1,200 sutdy areas, 450 computer workstations and a wealth of learning materials and information services. The award-winning design maximises the natural light and ventilation, and there's a bookshop and café on site too.
One of the newest additions to the campus is our £5m Student Centre, which brings together a range of key student support services under one roof, so you'll always know where to go.
The Graduate & CPD Centre is a dedicated facility for postgraduate students. From pre-application enquiry though to graduation, the centre's staff will ensure that you have all the support you need. Our teaching and conference rooms are fully-equipped with modern presentation facilities and we also have private study rooms and office space available.
When you're not working, our café bar, games room, members' lounge and enclosed summer garden provide an ideal environment to mix with colleagues and friends.
An exciting development for both the University and for the City has been the creation of the 20-acre Coventry University Technology Park. It is home to the TechnoCentre, a unique complex offering a focus for training, conferences and business opportunities; the Enterprise Centre, a £3m development providing dedicated accommodation for new small- and medium-sized enterprises; and the Coventry and Warwickshire New Technology Institute, which works with companies to address skills shortages in ICT and advanced technology.
"You'll find the campus lively and bustling - and its central location is ideal for access to the city."
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Semifinalists
Finals Judges
ARE YOU READY TO #PITCHTEXAS?
The University of Texas at Austin's SXSW Graduate Startup Pitch Competition
March 8, 2019 @ SXSW Interactive
$50,000 in Cash Prizes
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNER - YOURSELF.ONLINE!
Yourself.online empowers you to fix your online legacy by providing you with the tools to manage your online data and privacy. Founded by two ex-Googlers, yourself.online is a pre-seed online data and privacy management service.
Check out the runners up from PitchTexas 2019!
2nd Place - Slate is creating a better tattoo experience with the first online marketplace for tattoos. We connect customers to a curated selection of top tattoo artists by style and location.
3rd Place - Hubly is modernizing the intracranial bedside procedure by replacing manual hand drills with integrated electric drill system to reduce complications from physician error.
The University of Texas at Austin's 2019 SXSW PitchTexas Graduate Student Pitch Competition
The University of Texas at Austin is proud to present the 6th Annual 2019 SXSW Graduate Startup PitchTexas Competition—with prize money of $50,000.
In an opportunity of a lifetime, startups led by graduate students from across the country will compete to impress and win over the savvy entrepreneur and venture-capitalist judges for up to $50,000 in cash prizes, bragging rights, and a chance to inspire the SXSW crowd. This is the sixth year for the PitchTexas competition at SXSW, started and run by the Texas McCombs MBA Entrepreneurship Society, a graduate student organization at The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business.
The top 16 PitchTexas applicants will compete at preliminary rounds on March 8, 2019, at Robert B. Rowling Hall on The University of Texas at Austin campus. Later in the day, four finalists will take the stage at SXSW's Entrepreneurship & Startups Track and pitch in front of the audience, field tough questions from the judges, and do their best to win the SXSW 2019 PitchTexas.
$50,000 in cash prizes — 1st prize $35,000, 2nd prize $10,000, 3rd prize $5,000. Winners will be announced and cash prizes awarded at the end of the competition. Finalists will also benefit from exposure at the official event during SXSW's Entrepreneurship & Startups Track.
Applications closed at 11:59 p.m. CST, January 27, 2019.
See below for all of the important PitchTexas 2019 dates.
ANNOUNCEMENT - Due to a high number of applicants, Semifinalist announcements will be sent out via email the week of February 4th
January 27, 2019 by 11:59 p.m. (CST)
Semifinalists Announced
Week of February 4, 2019
March 8, 2019, 9 – 11 a.m. (CST)
Finalist Round
March 8, 2019, 5 – 6 p.m. (CST)
Preliminaries will be held at Robert B. Rowling Hall in the morning. Finalists will present at SXSW's Entrepreneurship & Startups Track starting at 5 p.m. at SXSW Interactive, at the Hilton Austin Downtown. Finalists will receive a SXSW Interactive badge.
8:15 – 9 a.m.
Breakfast and check-in
9 – 10:30 a.m.
Preliminary Round: Four teams per room given 15 minutes each. The format is a 5-minute presentation, 5 minute Q&A, and 5-minute judges' feedback. One finalist selected per room.
Lunch with contestants and judges.
5 – 6 p.m.
Final Round: Judges will select the winner as the team they would most likely want to invest in based on the potential of the idea to be successful, the presentation, and professionalism of the team.
Notice: This schedule may be subject to change.
PRESENTATION REQUIREMENTS AND FORMAT
For a team to be eligible to compete, at least one current founder who is a current graduate student (two maximum) must be present in Austin for the competition on March 8, 2019, during SXSW. We accept early-stage ideas from all categories. Startups with more than $500,000 in previous funding or over $100,000 in monthly recurring revenue will not be considered for this competition.
Presentation: 5 minutes, Q&A: 5 minutes, Feedback: 5 minutes
5-minute presentation (hard cut-off) with 5 minutes Q&A
During check-in for preliminaries, we will randomly assign each team a room and time for their presentation. One team from each room will advance to the final round.
Congratulations to the 2019 Semifinalists!
These 16 teams will be pitching on March 8, 2019 at Robert B. Rowling Hall on The University of Texas at Austin campus for a chance to pitch at SXSW Interactive in the finals
AeroLive, Inc.
Code Blue Jewelry
University of Texas at Dallas
Epistemix Inc.
Flo Recruit
HiCANYU
Hubly
LifeWeb
Locoal
RiskBoard
Shalebox
Sincere Sitter
Soundcollide
Sparkd
Texas MicroSintering
yourself.online
Gregory L. Fenves
29th President of The University of Texas at Austin
Since 2015, Gregory Fenves and his administration have worked to expand access to the university for talented students across the state of Texas. He has prioritized diversity and inclusion, invested heavily in faculty and their research, expanded experiential learning opportunities for students, and has overseen strategic efforts that have led to the highest four-year graduation rates in the university’s history. As provost and president, he launched the Dell Medical School at UT Austin, which is dedicated to transforming health and health care locally and globally.
Heather Brunner
CEO & Chairwoman at WP Engine
Heather Brunner is chairwoman and CEO of WP Engine. In that role she has steered the company to hyper-growth and global expansion, with offices in Austin, San Antonio, San Francisco, London, Limerick and Brisbane, serving 90,000 customers in more than 135 countries. A 27-year technology veteran, Heather helped create billions in value-driven customer success, and led business strategy for both privately funded new ventures and Fortune 500 companies.
She received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 Central Texas award for technology. This year, Fortune has given WP Engine three awards for Best Place to Work for Millennials, as a top mid-sized business and as a top workplace in technology. Heather serves on the boards of directors of Camden Property Trust and The Entrepreneurs Foundation.
Rod Favaron
Former Chairman & CEO at Spredfast, Entrepreneur, Investor, Board Member, Speaker
Rod Favaron moved to Austin 20 years ago to build successful technology companies. He is a serial “startup” guy with three very successful B2B software startups over the past 20 years. Rod has served as chairman and CEO of Spredfast for the past seven years. His company’s enterprise social software connects the world’s largest brands to their customers. Spredfast grew from a startup to nearly $100 million in revenue in eight years. Spredfast was acquired by Vista Private Equity in October 2018. Prior to Spredfast, Rod was chairman and CEO of Lombardi Software from an early startup into a global leader in business process management software. Lombardi was acquired by IBM in 2010. Rod also served as CEO of Mediaprise, Inc., a brand asset management software company; SVP Sales & Marketing for pcOrder, a pioneer in e-commerce software and internet content services; and as general manager at Mentor Graphics Corporation. He earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Louisiana State University and an MBA from the University of Dallas Graduate School of Management. Rod currently serves on the boards of directors for Upland Software, and Bypass Mobile, and is a mentor to many technology entrepreneurs.
Thank you to our event partners:
McCombs School of Business
Cockrell School of Engineering
Texas McCombs MBAEntrepreneur Society
Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship, Growth, and Renewal
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Plainedge Public Schools » Board of Education » Board of Education Profiles
Cathy Flanagan, resident of Plainedge since 1992, was elected to the Plainedge Board of Education in 2005. Mrs. Flanagan served as Vice President of the School Board and has been the Board President for multiple years. Mrs. Flanagan, a staunch advocate for the children and taxpayers of Plainedge, continues to bring tax stability to the district while delivering a quality education.
Mrs. Flanagan has been recognized numerous times by the New York State School Board Association (NYSSBA), earning NYSSBA’s Leadership in Governance and Master Boardsmanship Awards, the School Board URecognition Award, the Board Excellence Award, and the Board Mastery Award. In 2013 NYSSBA appointed Mrs. Flanagan to the National School Board’s Federal Relations Network where she represents Plainedge on the federal level and has access to members of Congress throughout the year to discuss NSBA’s and NYSSBA’s positions on key education issues.
Mrs. Flanagan’s dedication to community service in Plainedge has also earned her Nassau County’s prestigious Women of Distinction Award in 2009 and the New York State Assembly’s Woman of Distinction Award in 2016.
Raymond Paris, became a resident of the district in 1994, and is also a member of the Plainview Fire Department.
He has two college-aged children and more than 25 years of leadership and management experience in the business sector. As a vice president of operations, he has gained key skills in negotiation, collaboration and problem-solving through teamwork.
Mr. Paris believes that his “real-world experience,” combined with his desire to work with others to create a world-class educational system while demanding smart usage of our limited resources, will be an asset to the school board. He is also active with the PAL Lacrosse league.
Mrs. Maggio has been a Plainedge resident for 8 years. She has thee daughters who attend and will attend Eastplain. She is a 20 year veteran in the field of education - first as a classroom teacher and now as a literacy specialist. Mrs. Maggio is excited to serve this strong community that puts children first.
The Plainedge School District has continued to thrive for as long as I have been a resident. The main issue facing our schools is to sustain the quality of the educational programs whilst maintaining appropriate funding and or taxes for all community members.
As a board member, it will be a responsibility of my position to ensure we are fiscally responsible, generate the best programs for all children, and focus on competing for excellence with our neighboring communities and/or school districts. The goal of school boards is to meet the varying needs of the community and to listen, support and maintain sound decision making policies for the betterment of student achievement at all levels. As a newly elected board member, it will be a privilege to serve the Plainedge Community.
Dr. Joseph Netto, a 13 year resident of Plainedge, has been a School Psychologist for over 15 years and an adjunct professor at Hofstra University and Brooklyn College where he conducts New York State mandated trainings in the Dignity for All Students Act. He is the father of two children, both of whom attend Schwarting Elementary School. Dr. Netto is a staunch advocate for students and he is committed to providing exceptional educational, social, athletic, and service learning opportunities for all in the Plainedge School District. It is his belief that improving positive school cultures through inclusion and respect along with focusing on the mental health needs of children are paramount. Dr. Netto is excited to foster the already strong collaboration between Plainedge schools and the community.
Sonny Spagnuolo is a 20-year Plainedge resident and a self-employed realtor/real estate investor. Sonny is the father of three children who attend the Plainedge schools.
He comes from a family of educators and believes that a strong education is the root and the foundation of a fulfilling and rewarding life. He is currently continuing his own education toward earning his college degree. Sonny has been serving the children of Plainedge since 2006 as a soccer coach and as a board member of the Plainedge Soccer Club. He is also a coach and a member of the Plainedge Youth Baseball League. Sonny recently founded “Rocco’s Voice for Autism,” a not-for-profit charity dedicated to helping children who are on the Autism spectrum and their families.
Sisi Wong Townson, a resident of Plainedge since 2004, worked as a corporate travel agent for a number of years before opening up a successful entertainment travel business in 1999. Working with top entertainment acts, the success of this business eventually led to an article being written in the Money section of USA Today in 2002.
While Sisi currently owns and operates her own business, she is actively involved in the Plainedge PTA community, having not only been a volunteer but also holding the position of chairperson to different committees as well as serving on the PTA board. Positions have included
Co-President for both the Charles E. Schwarting and the Plainedge Middle School PTA.
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12/20/18 How to Spend the Holidays Compassionately
12/17/18 Zagreb Declares Mandatory Sterilization
12/06/18 Together at the compassionate side of history
12/03/18 Hunters Forbidden to Kill Dogs
11/27/18 Love is not for Sale
11/08/18 Paws up for volunteers
11/05/18 Breeder admits fur farming
10/31/18 Wipe out the blood from your hands - go vegan
10/29/18 Award ceremony for heroes who help animals
10/24/18 The Animal Protection Act Anniversary
10/16/18 Antoniazzo, Drago, Majhenic and Petko for animals
10/12/18 Adopted Dog Becomes the First Dog
10/10/18 Healing the World: a view at nutrition
09/12/18 Burberry drops fur
08/28/18 The best sea food is animal free
08/06/18 Leave the fish in the seas, better have peas
07/30/18 Stores are not slaughterhouses
07/23/18 Respect life in the sea
07/19/18 Respect our sea
04/25/18 Campaign for dogs in Roma Settlements
04/19/18 Permanent Sterilization
04/10/18 Veterinarians for castration of dogs and cats
03/29/18 Easter without eggs and ham
03/20/18 Meatout Day was celebrated
03/20/18 Without meat = without stress
03/10/18 14 th Animal Protection Network meeting held
02/28/18 The Invisibles
02/16/18 Sterilization of Dogs and Cats Presented to the EP
02/08/18 Microchipping control
01/25/18 Say goodbye to cow's milk
01/19/18 Norwegian Wolves Won't Die Alone!
01/16/18 Adopt!
01/12/18 Fur farming ban in Bosnia and Herzegovina
01/10/18 Accept the Challenge and Dare to be Vegan
01/08/18 A Bull from Croatia in a Lebanese Slaughterhouse
Marking the first anniversary of the new Animal Protection Act coming into force
- October 10 at 11 A.M., Ban Jelacic Square in Zagreb: abandoned dogs, banners with messages and horrific photos
It's been a year since the Animal Protection Act came into force and it is time to see who did what to enforce it. Several of good examples of local communities, which show that the problem caused by human inadvertence can be solved, are proof that the law can be implemented.
Members of activist organizations Animal Friends Croatia and the Network for Animal Protection will celebrate the anniversary with a rally at Ban Jelacic Square in the city of Zagreb on Friday, October 26, 2018, at 11 A.M., the same day the Animal Protection Act was passed a year ago. Joined by four-legged friends, many of whom were available for adoption, and carrying banners with clear and stirring messages, the activists will point to the need for local communities to implement the law in order to prevent the suffering of abandoned animals.
A representative from the Network for Animal Protection said, "We call for mandatory microchipping of dogs, city-run dog permanent sterilization campaigns, efforts from shelters to improve their facilities and promote adoption, and education campaigns for the general population that promote adopting dogs and cats instead of buying them."
Animal Friends Croatia adds, "Let the story of Bono, a dog who wasn’t microchipped or neutered and was neglected until he starved, be a powerful inspiration for cities and municipalities to enforce the law, so that we can put an end to these terrible cases of unwanted, rejected and abused dogs and cats."
The passing of the Animal Protection Act last year brought many useful legal tools. Those who have complied with the act have achieved concrete results for animals. They have shown that the law will not be implemented by itself, and that time, effort, and money will have to be invested to solve the problems facing Croatian animals. Those who have sought solutions have found them, and now the rest can follow their example.
Three local communities still don't have shelters for neglected animals, and the communities that do have them don't have enough space for all of the homeless animals who need a place to live. In many cases, organizations and volunteers are taking care of abandoned animals by fostering them in temporary accommodations. We witness far too much torture and desertion of unwanted animals, murders of newborn puppies and kittens, and a great number of animals that don't have their mandatory microchip.
Over 100 local communities in Croatia implemented sterilization programs as a way of controlling dog and cat reproduction and ultimately decreasing the number of abandoned newborn puppies and kittens dying from hunger, thirst or untreated health issues while waiting for the worms to eat them aive or, if they survive, become strays looking for their homes.
In some areas, volunteers are visiting every household to ensure that every dog gets a microchip. Some of them are also educating the public, advertising adoptable animals, offering reduced-cost sterilization, and finding other ways to help implement the new laws protecting animals.
The Network for Animal Protection, with more than 40 member association, wants to send a message with this action that success of implementing the Law depends of equal devotion of all local and regional communities, wich ensures that the burden dosen't fall only on a small number of conscious citizens. Legal regulations apply equally for all local communities. All of them can implement the law because there are also good examples among them with thin budgets.
The Network for Animal Protection, an association with with more than 40 members, wants to send the message that successfully implementing animal protection laws depends on effort and commitment from local and regional communities, which ensures that the burden doesn't fall solely on a small number of conscious citizens. Legal regulations apply equally for all communities. Examples of success even from areas with meager budgets demonstrate that following the guidelines of the Animal Protection Act is accessible to all.
There is no excuse for the towns and communities that haven't enforced mandatory microchipping in their area. The same goes for the areas that haven't successfully enacted sterilization programs and other exception areas which they don't need resources for that and the results can be seen immediately.
It is time to ask who did what in this one year since the Animal Protection Act is in force and that the ones that didn't take the right steps according to law take responsibility for their actions, or to better say, their omission.
The anniversary of the landmark passing of Croatia's Animal Protection Act provides an opportunity to reflect on our successes and the examples of those who haven't done their part. Now is the time for those who haven't taken the right steps according to the law to take responsibility for their actions, or lack thereof.
For more information about the Animal Protection Act and good practices regarding its implementation, click here.
Animal Protection Act 2017
Positive News From the Animal Protection Act
Thoughts About Animals and Their Rights
In Croatia, animal protection laws are only one piece of the puzzle
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Time to Change an Object-Based Tour…Now What?
Jennifer Masengarb Summer 2002, Volume 11, No. 4
One of the most difficult jobs for those involved with student programs in cultural organizations is the process of change. Reassessing and critically evaluating a long-standing children’s tour, convincing some of the need tor change, and ultimately deciding to revise the format can be a daunting task. Although docents may have become comfortable with an established tour they have given for years, listening closely and asking their opinions often reveals their frustrations. Supplying solutions for these frustrations helps ease the process of change. More importantly, hearing from the teachers and students you are serving can provide the guiding direction to improve the tour.
The Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) is dedicated to advancing public interest and education in architecture and related design. Approximately 400 docents volunteer their time and energy to conduct tours by foot, boat, bus, bike, and train. Using the motto “The City is Our Museum,” we offer more than 70 different tours for children and adults. Last year, close to 2000 elementary school students took a walking tour with a CAF docent.
For students in grades 5-8, we offer a program called the Children’s Loop Tour. (“The Loop” describes the train tracks that circle the downtown business district where most of the skyscrapers are located.) The primary purpose of this 90-minute walking tour of downtown Chicago is to introduce students to ten important concepts of architecture and illustrate the development of the city’s architectural history.
The Problems and Challenges of the Old Tour
CAF originally began this walking tour in 1980 and, although the number of students we serve grew each year, the method of instruction on the tour remained unchanged until the 1999-2000 school year. In the summer of 1999, the Children’s Loop Tour was significantly updated and revised to its present form. During those summer months of evaluating and revising the tour, five main problems and challenges were identified with the original tour’s format and materials:
There was a lack of consistency in the buildings (our objects) along the route docents chose to cover and in the message they conveyed to the students.
Many docents felt overwhelmed with the massive amounts of information they knew and believed they were expected to share with the students in 90 minutes. As a result, students finished the tour inundated with facts and dates swimming in their heads but without a way to tie the information to a bigger picture.
Other than covering a fewer number of buildings along the route, the original tour for middle school students was essentially a watered-down version of the material presented to adults.
The original tour contained no accompanying teacher or student materials. 5. Teachers expressed a desire that our tour and programs incorporate and adhere to the state and city academic standards they are required to comply with.
Our Solution for a New Tour
New consistency in the message. In revising the original tour, we did not change any of the 10 buildings on the tour route. Instead, we reorganized the message and the method of interpretation, reinforcing the need for a common voice presented by docents and heard by teachers and students. Many of our teachers bring their classes downtown to CAF each year and these educators value the opportunity to improve their own knowledge of architecture and enjoy knowing what to expect from the program. Standardizing the tour also helped to ensure that the docents’ words complement the information in the teacher and student books of pre- and post-visit activities. Exactly how the docents cover each building and associated theme is up to them, but the goal is to introduce a particular architecture theme and reinforce it using a specific building.
Each building now has a theme. Rather than thinking about each of the ten buildings as an isolated architectural and historical object, tour buildings are now used to illustrate a larger concept or theme. The theme associated with each (such as design, building technology, historic preservation, materials and ornamentation, structure, style, and art) gives the students a framework to anchor their newfound knowledge.
It’s hard for children (and adults!) to remember long lists of facts, figures, names, and dates. For a new learner of architecture, these don’t provide any context of how the building relates to the bigger picture. Teaching with thematic concepts allows students to attach meaning to the new architecture they will see on their tour and then translate those same important ideas, inherent in all buildings, to any structure they encounter.
Typically in giving adult tours, docents are trained to share as much information as possible over a broad range of topics. Tours for students are strikingly different. With the Children’s Loop Tour, docents need to clearly focus and limit the type of information they give their group, and then repeat it again in new and different ways. This was the most difficult new concept for docents who had been leading this tour previously. Many docents initially feared that if they didn’t share all their knowledge, they weren’t giving the students their money’s worth. It is true that each building could be studied from the point of view of all ten themes. However, choosing to focus the students’ attention on one strong idea helps to illustrate each building’s unique qualities. Docents no longer feel burdened with the task of sharing the entire history of each building.
Helpful methods of engaging and interacting. As with learners of all ages, students require interaction to fully grasp concepts and information. By encouraging the student groups to become involved in the tour, the docent shifts from being a “fount of knowledge” to a facilitator in their learning. Docent interaction with the students and the buildings is much more exciting for everyone.
Most of our docents now use ten Theme Sticks on their tours. Theme Sticks are simply wooden tongue depressors that we pre-printed with the name of one of the ten buildings and the corresponding theme. At the start of the tour, the docent hands out one of the ten Theme Sticks to each student (or pair of students). The docent then explains that at the end of the tour each student will be responsible for sharing several important aspects relating to their building’s theme. A few reminders about this process along the way encourage the group to keep their eyes and ears open. The use of this teaching tool throughout the tour encourages the students to listen carefully, become involved in the learning process, and remain accountable for what they have learned.
This method also creatively involves each person in the group and allows even the quiet students a chance to shine. The students are not surprised and threatened at the end of the tour when the docent launches review questions. In addition, they also don’t feel responsible for remembering absolutely every detail from the 90-minute tour.
Docent, student, and teacher support materials. Unlike a typical adult tour, this student tour and the time the docent spends on the street are part of a larger curriculum framework. It is important that docents occasionally review these materials so they can see how all three components (pre- and post-visit lessons and tour) must work together. Although the tour is the highlight of the student’s learning, it must plug into a larger framework. The new docent manual for the tour lists the themes for each building, building information, historical information, and possible questions to use on the tour. The Teacher Prep Pack and 10 color slides of the buildings are sent to teachers in the weeks before they arrive. The teacher book features pre- and post-visit activities and a map for preparing students in advance and for further study in the classroom after the tour.
Student booklets are given to the teacher on the day of the tour to take back to the classroom. (Using the books while students walk on the tour is too difficult and distracting.) These booklets contain a map of the route for review, information on the buildings’ architect, year of completion, and address. A drawing, new vocabulary, and some additional text help to supplement what the docent has already said. Each building also features an activity connected to a primary source, such as: an architect’s obituary, census data, a historical photograph, a postcard, or an advertisement.
Academic standards. At the request of Chicago teachers, the tour and accompanying student pre- and post-visit activities incorporate and adhere to the Illinois State Goals and Chicago Academic Standards for Social Sciences in 5* through 8* grades. Each lesson and activity idea in the teacher book names the corresponding standard number and the entire list is reprinted in the back. Academic standards for your area are not difficult to obtain. Contact your state or city board of education office for a printed copy. Most are also posted on their websites. Check out those of the Chicago Public Schools as an example: www.cps. kl2. il. us/ Instructional/CAS. Rather than viewing them as a burden, we’ve used the standards as a tool to weave together a series of requirements into meaningful real-world learning experiences. They also aid teachers in defending their rationale and expense of taking students away from school. Finally, including academic standards gives the tour a life beyond the time the students spend with the docent on the street.
Changing an established tour and asking docents to revise how they presented information and approached “object-based” activities in the Children’s Loop Tour was not an easy task. However, taking the leap has proven to be beneficial for docents, teachers, and, most importantly, students. Involving the docents from the start of the revision process was an important factor. Asking their thoughts about the original tour allowed us to target their frustrations and create solutions to make their job easier and more exciting. Listening to the teachers’ needs helped point us in new directions to serve them better with support materials. Finally, seeing and hearing the students interact more with docents and the buildings has shown us how they can wrap their brains around new concepts and then apply that knowledge in their own environments.
Jennifer Masengrab is Education Programs Specialist at the Chicago Architectural Foundation in Chicago, Illinois. She is also the author and illustrator of the Children’s Loop Tour.
Masengrab, Jennifer. “Time to Change an Object-Based Tour…Now What?,” The Docent Educator 11.4 (Summer 2002): 10-12.
Visual Literacy Vol. 11 No. 4
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Economic Inclusion
Investing in young people allows us to invest in the long-term security, stability, and growth of our future. We proudly work with community partners that enhance the health and education of young people in the community.
Why we invest in Young People
An investment in young people is an investment in a better future. By making strategic investments in the health & well-being and education of young people, Scotiabank helps position the youth of today to become the community leaders of tomorrow.
A winning idea: promoting financial literacy
According to Scotiabank’s Young People in the Community Index , financial literacy is a pressing issue for youth in the countries where the Bank operates. A partnership between Scotiabank and Junior Achievement Americas (JA) is making financial literacy and life skills courses available to more than 50,000 students across 17 Caribbean, Central and South American countries. Through the program, students receive practical advice on budgeting and planning and learn to manage finances in a way that not only benefits them, but also their families and society.
Innovation Camps
As part of the program, 1,884 adolescent students participated in “Innovation Camps” in which they dreamed up creative solutions to address business challenges the world faces. Regional competitions followed where the teams we asked to create a financial literacy awareness campaign for young people.
The winning idea
The winning idea from this regional competition came from El Salvador. The all-girl team of accounting students from the Instituto Nacional de Zaragoza — Sofia, Lisseth, Katya, Alejandra, and Gladys — proposed an idea for an app-based business that uses online social networking to teach the importance of financial education and good savings habits to youth. Lisseth explains, “Our app has the slogan "aprender haciendo" [learn by doing]. We want to educate youth about the benefits of saving and then help them put their knowledge into practice.”
With support from JA and Scotiabank, the winning team traveled to Mexico to present their idea at the Mexico International Forum of Entrepreneurs. “It was a privilege to be with more than 400 young people from different countries and learn from role models.” says Gladys.
Following the forum, the girls also visited Scotiabank’s Mexico headquarters. “We learned that a bank is more than just a branch and a teller, it is a large enterprise made up of many diverse teams united by a single objective,” continues Alejandra. “Suddenly, I could see myself in a career as part of a team that worked together to solve problems like financial literacy.”
Coming back home
Lessons learned through the JA/Scotiabank program have profoundly shaped the girls’ outlook on the future. Katya explains, “Our plan as a team is to develop our app with the support of Scotiabank El Salvador, launch it to the public and make it available to all young people in our country.”
More importantly, participating in the program has taught and inspired the girls (and other young people like them) to put their ideas into action. Says Gladys, “I believe that the program conveys to all students the benefits of financial literacy, because it not only teaches us the theoretical side, but it also motivates us to put our knowledge into practice.
Creating the entrepreneurs of tomorrow
The state of youth in Peru
Primary and secondary schools in Peru have strong student enrollment, according to Scotiabank’s Young People in the Community (YPC) Index. Of the 30 countries in the Index, Peru ranks in the top third for school enrollment. Since education often provides a springboard for opportunity and empowerment in adult life, this is a positive sign for the country’s future.
However, widespread school enrollment doesn’t mean that young people in Peru aren’t vulnerable in other areas of their education, such as financial literacy. The YPC Index finds that Peru ranks 29th out of the 30 countries in the Index for youth with bank accounts, an educational indicator that suggests financial literacy for youth is a critical need in Peru.
According to Scotiabank’s Gaby Rodríguez Larraín, Senior Manager, Institutional Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility at Scotiabank Peru, the findings of the YPC index supported the need for action: “Lack of financial literacy has been a problem in Peru for a while. In order to break that cycle, we needed to find a way to empower students and equip them for a successful financial future.”
Leveraging a strength in order to address a challenge
Together with Plan International, Scotiabank developed a program called Formando emprendedores del mañaña (“Forming the entrepreneurs of tomorrow”) in order to build and strengthen financial and entrepreneurial skills.
Says Gaby, “Our partnership with Plan International has worked because we both have the same end goal: improving the economic security of children, adolescents and their families. Working toward that common goal, we’ve been able to develop a new, effective way to teach financial education and entrepreneurship for students aged 7 to 17, setting this generation up for success.”
The program leverages what the YPC Index notes is one of Peru’s greatest strengths — strong student enrollment rates in the formal education system in order to address one of Peru’s biggest needs — financial education and life skills training for young people.
Implementing this initiative has been a large undertaking, including regular training for educational authorities, administrators, school principals, and over 750 teachers. According to Gaby, “In order to equip a large number of students to succeed, you first have to equip their teachers and schools. So we’ve created teacher’s guides and textbooks that meet the requirements of the Ministry of Education for students in each grade. We have also provided seed money for school entrepreneurship programs and provided children with free savings accounts so that students can practice saving.
She continues: “The students obviously benefit the most from this program. But in a way, we’re also helping teachers a lot too—giving them tools to be more empowered in their roles as educators.”
“The scale of this is really important. Over 24,000 young people that have been given financial and life skills through Formando emprendedores del mañaña. We’re making a big difference on the future of an entire generation of Peruvian youth…that’s exciting” says Gaby.
The young people of today will become the community leaders of tomorrow. Understanding the opportunities and challenges facing these young people allows us to effectively invest in their future—which will benefit everyone in the long term. Looking ahead, the insights provided by the YPC Index can help Scotiabank understand the effects of Formando emprendedores del mañaña on the future of society.
Gaby adds, “Ultimately, the Index will enable us and our collaborators to refine our strategy and contribute to solving problems in our society — working together to create a future in which everyone can become better off”.
Equipping the leaders of tomorrow for success
According to the United Nations Population Fund, there are over 1.8 billion young people in the world today — more than at any other time in history. These young people will grow up to become the leaders, employees and community members of tomorrow, so it’s essential for us to equip them for success now if we hope for them to contribute in the future.
Yet many young people struggle to get a leg up in the world. For example, according to Food Banks Canada, more than one third of the 850,000 Canadians who visit food banks on a monthly basis are children and youth. According to the OECD, socio-economic inequalities, compounded by gender, cultural and geographical discrimination, impede the public health system of Peru. The OECD says young women as well as youth from poor, rural and indigenous communities do not have adequate and equal access to basic health services and information. Meanwhile, education challenges lead to high unemployment rates for young people in Chile and Colombia, which are currently 16.4% and 18.9%, respectively.
Focusing our efforts
Given the challenges facing young people, we are focusing our corporate giving strategy on these issues in the communities where we operate. Ultimately, we aim to channel 70% of our philanthropic support to organizations that concentrate on these issues. This investment in the health, well-being and education of young people will allow us to invest in the long-term stability and growth of our communities while profoundly shaping the lives of tomorrow’s leaders.
Our focus on young people reinforces a commitment to communities that began 185 years ago. Such investments are an important part of how we create a better life for the people that we serve around the world. In 2016 alone, Scotiabank contributed CAD$70 million in donations, sponsorships and other forms of assistance to communities around the world.
In order to maximize our support for young people, we wanted to have a deeper understanding of the challenges currently facing young people in the various geographic areas where we operate.
To help assess the state of health and education of young people in our communities, we engaged with the strategy consultancy GlobeScan and an advisory council of leading external experts on youth issues, drawn from countries across Latin America, the Caribbean and North America. Together, we reviewed, collated and standardized relevant publically available indicators to create Scotiabank’s Young People in the Community (YPC) Index, which will help us better understand the current state of young people in North, Central and South America.
“We see the YPC Index as a guide to help us identify where needs may be greatest,” says Jean-François Perrault, Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist at Scotiabank. “The YPC Index is also a tool to help bring youth practitioners together to improve or create policies that relate to young people, identify gaps in available data or simply pin-point problem areas and benchmark progress going forward.”
The YPC Index will provide a platform for engaging with various partners in the youth development space — including governments, businesses and non-profit organizations — as they work to address these issues. As we track the Index over time, we will be able to measure society’s progress on tackling important youth challenges.
Scotiabank hopes to play a key role in addressing these challenges going forward. However, we also recognize that long term success in these areas depends on actions that are larger than any single organization. We must look at how we, as a collective society, can help move some of the YPC Index’s indicators over the long term. If we all are dedicated to helping young people in our communities, we may be able to make a difference in the future of our next generation.
Read the YPC Index Report [PDF: 1 MB] or the Whitepaper [PDF: 1 MB].
The following statistics highlight our efforts to increase our community investments in young people.
Economics Publications
CSR Reports
© Scotiabank.com All Rights Reserved
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Image via WikipediaI've discovered HDR photography.
What started as a simple browsing of some awesome photos taken by Chris Paltzat, turned into browsing various photo groups on Flickr that pertain to my Canon S3 IS, which in turn brought me to an HDR photograph Flickr group.
A quick Google search revealed to me exactly what the "Autoexposure Bracket" feature on my camera is used for. My interest peaked, and another Google search told me that I have software that can do the processing, and have had it all along: Corel's Paintshop Pro X2.
Now I'm anxious to get started and find some nice scenery to shoot.
Back to Chris Paltzat's blog. I had a brief email exchange with him after I sent him a message about his photos. He's a self-taught "amateur" photographer. I hesitate to say he's an amateur, because his photos are quite impressive. But, that's what he claims to be. I asked him for tips and his advice was to read as much as I can, and he kindly referred me to a few books with two of them being highly recommended. I plan to pick both of them up as soon as I can. (Thanks again, Chris!)
If you get a chance, drop by Chris's blog -- three six six -- and have a look around. He's posting a new photo every day of the year.
Posted by Scott at 11:54:00 PM 1 comment: Links to this post
Categories: photography
I'm a qualifier!
The Ottawa Sun is running a contest to win a Smart Car and $1200 in gas.I've been entering daily since it began in April. Each week, scouring their web site for tiny car pic, and submitting the locations for it it after collecting 3 days worth.
This afternoon my daughter answered an unknown phone number. I was outside hanging Canada Day decorations on the house when she came out and said "Daddy, the phone is for you."
"Who is it?"
"I dunno.. they asked for Scott".
"So why did you answer it?" I'm thinking it's a telemarketer. We rarely ever answer the phone when we don't recognize the number.
It was someone from the Ottawa Sun. The first thought in my mind was they were going to ask me to subscribe. Even though we already do, we've had calls in the past asking us to subscribe. Weird.
Luck was on my side this time. They were calling to tell me that I am a weekly qualifier!
Sometime in October after the contest is over, they'll have a "wrap-up event" for all qualifiers. I have a 1 in 34 chance of winning the car and the $1200 in gas. Just for being a qualifier, I win $100 in gas.
I'm stoked. :)
Posted by Scott at 2:52:00 PM No comments: Links to this post
Categories: contests
Poll finds number of Canadians playing video games naked
Digital Home Canada - Poll finds number of Canadians playing video games naked: "one in five Canadian men (17%) has played a computer game in the nude while a significantly smaller percentage of women (9%) have done the same"
I'm not sure if this is funny, or disturbing. Why anyone would want to play video games -- while naked -- is puzzling.
They also have other interesting stats in the story.
Categories: video games
NOT George Carlin on Aging
After the recent passing of George Carlin, one of the first things that popped into my mind was "It won't be long before the alleged Carlin quotes start circulating again". Not that they ever stopped while he was still in the land of the living.
Sure enough, this morning I got notification of a new posting over at Snopes.com -- George Carlin on Aging -- debunking the rumoured Carlin quote.
If you reading this, take note. If someone sends you the email, send it back to them with a link to Snopes.com and correct them!
You can also find Carlin's own view of these quotes on his own web site.
Posted by Scott at 11:05:00 AM No comments: Links to this post
Categories: rant
Paint Chips - the saga continues
I picked up the truck last Thursday... and paid $60 for the 3 "calendar days" of the loaner car. I tried to argue that it was only two days -- Tue > Wed and Wed > Thu, but he said "we count calendar days". Yeh, ok. I tried. :)
I took a quick look at the bumper before leaving the dealership and it looked pretty good. The truck was washed and the inside was even vacuumed. I was happy.
I got home and looked closer at the bumper. The passenger side was beautiful. No complaints. On the driver side, where there were two lower chips (I didn't take photos of that side) I discovered a new paint bubble, almost in the exact same spot that there used to be one on the passenger side. I gave it a light poke with my finger nail and it was indeed a bubble. Not just a build-up of paint.
My wife called the dealership back on Friday and left a message with a brief explanation. No return call. So she called them again this morning and explained what the problem was. "Jamie" said he wasn't aware of this new problem. He said that they don't inspect anything other than what is reported and repaired. My wife told him that we were sure it wasn't there before, so this was likely new due to the repainting. But regardless, since there's a 3 year warranty on the paint, it doesn't matter if it's new or old. He said something to the effect that if they fixed every little thing like this, they could be doing this 5 or 6 times. My wife said if that's the way it has to be, then perhaps the bumper should be replaced? And we're not going to keep paying for a loaner car every time when it should be fixed right the first time.
He said he would have to speak with the service manager.
Now, I can understand that time is limited and maybe they don't have time to inspect the entire bumper, but realistically, how long would that possibly take? I'm not a body repair expert, but it took me all of 10 seconds to spot the bubble when I got home. This new bubble is like a foot higher from where the chips were that they repaired. How could they not see it? It's not like it's on the back of the bumper where they wouldn't have been looking during any preparation or repainting. It's 12" above it!
Now we wait....
(Original post here)
Categories: Ford Escape, rant
Relay for Life -- Our First Year
Team W.T.F. - Walk to Fight survived the Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life! Our team raised $2,943 for our first year.
It was a great event, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We're already talking about next year! Now that we've experienced the whole event, we'll try to make it even more fun for everyone on our team.
I managed to stay away the entire time, meaning I was awake for about 26-27 hours in total. My entire body is achy and sore. Mostly from carrying the 200lbs of stone dust filled bags that we used in place of tent pegs.
I think my favourite part was the Luminary ceremony after sunset. The field lights were all turned off, leaving the track lit only by the luminaries. It was a very touching moment when the bagpipers played Amazing Grace as Sandra and I stood in front of my Dad's luminary.
I think the only downside was having to move our tents 6 or 7 times on Friday morning to make room for the track. Ideally, it would have been nice if the tracks had been marked prior to setting up.
The funny moment of the evening was when three teens stopped in front of our tent and asked if they could take a picture of our team sign. One of them said "it's the most awesomest team name!" Apparently there were other people who commented on our team name.
The last time we managed to see our total laps, we think it was around 130-140. That's about 5 minutes per lap. However, more often than not, we walked in pairs or small groups and those only count for 1 lap. One lap counter per team. We didn't have any designated times for when each member took their turn. It simply worked out that someone was always willing to take the lap counter and do their part, throughout the night. We had a great team!
A few things I learned from all of this that might help for next year:
Most people either ignored, or weren't aware of, the "no pegs" rule for tents. I was told that there's an underground sprinkler system on the field, therefore they asked that we didn't use tent pegs. We had 200lbs of stone dust packed in freezer bags to use in place of pegs. Moving the bags to and from the truck was a pain. We'll have to think of a better way to "peg down" our tents next year, or get a cart to move the bags!
I am way out of shape. I should start walking more in the weeks leading up to the event. My body hasn't stopped complaining since we got home yesterday. :)
We packed way brought way too much with us.
Parking wasn't as limited as we were told it would be.
Categories: charity, fund raising, Relay For Life
Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life - THANK YOU!
What started out as an idea about 5 or 6 months ago between a friend and I after a mutual friend passed away from cancer at a very young age earlier this year, is about to become a reality.
This Friday night, I will be participating in a 12-hour Relay for Life to help support the fight against cancer. I am the captain of a team of 12 people who have have collected a total of $2,898 in pledges for the event.
I am extremely grateful to all our generous friends and family who have who made a pledge to help us achieve this amazing total. Thank you everyone!
With rain in the forecast for Friday and Saturday, it is certain to be a very wet night for us, even though we will have shelter when we're not walking around the track. Let's hope for reasonably warm temperatures!
I'm sure we'll have plenty of photos to post and share with you all.
If you'd like to make a donation, it's not too late! You can do so online by following this link. Any amount is greatly appreciated.
Again, thank you all for your generosity!
Posted by Scott at 11:42:00 PM No comments: Links to this post
How NOT to park (or How to not make friends with your neighbours)
I had to drive my wife to work this morning, so I'd have the car to drive our kids to her when she's done for the day, so we can take them to the dentist. Note that I said car and not truck. We have a loaner (a Ford Focus) while our truck is in the shop.
Anyway, I stepped outside to find that the neighbour from two doors down had parked their truck behind the car beside us, and it was partically blocking our car. The car beside us rents the spot from the neighbour right next door.
It's actually not too unusual to find the two-door-down neighbour parking their truck there. They tend to do it often, but usually for short periods of time, while unloading stuff from the truck.
My wife went out to ask them to move it. Before she got to their door, our neighbour's basement boarder came home. This was the first time I've heard him speak. He's a quiet guy, who works night-shift. He asked her if it was our truck. She said no. He said it had been parked there all night, apparently. He works with the guy who rents the spot and said that he blocked in car owner) had been ringing her (the truck owner) doorbell non-stop this morning to tell them to move I guesss he must have given up and found another way to work.
So my wife rang the "offender's" doorbell and knocked on her door a whole bunch, in attempt to wake her up. Finally, she answered the door and my wife asked her to move the truck. Her response was something like "Did I forget that I parked my truck there last night?"
Holy crap.. what kind of condition would you have to be in when you got home to make you forget that your truck was parked illegally all night?
I think they'll soon be hearing from their landlord. My wife and the guy from next door are going to call the condo management office and complain, and ask that they notify the owner who rents to them. We do have parking security that we're supposed to call if someone parks in our spot, but apparently you have to prove that it's your spot before they get it towed. All the home owners got letters a while ago stating which spot is their's, but I'm sure the guy who rents that spot doesn't have the paper. Still, I don't think you need to prove parking spot ownership to get someone towed or ticketed when they're parking behind you, which is technically in a fire lane.
This isn`t the first time we`ve had parking problems with them. I came home one day from work to find an unknown car parked in our spot. I parked in the fire lane and sat on my door step for about 5 minutes. I was about to move our truck directly behind them so they couldn`t leave, but then a kid came out of that house and left in the car. The woman who lives there (the offender from last night) told him that he`s not supposed to park there, and to use visitor parking. (Pot... kettle?) He said, "I was just there for 5 minutes" which was obviously BS.
The woman and her live-in boyfriend used to park in the neighbours spot all the time, when the unit was empty for months and undergoing renovations. They never asked permission. Even when the place was sold and the owner moved in, they continued to park there on occasion after he started renting his spot out to another neighbour a few doors down. That guy even once left them a note on their windshield telling them that he'd get it towed the next time.
It's too bad because they are generally nice people, but they're not making (or keeping) any friends by being so inconsiderate.
Posted by Scott at 10:12:00 AM 2 comments: Links to this post
Spread Firefox - Download Day 2008
I think most people have tried Firefox at some point. If not, it's time to check out the new version, and help set a world record for most downloads in a 24 hour period.
Spread Firefox | Download Day 2008
Posted by Scott at 7:08:00 AM No comments: Links to this post
It's officially day 2 of my 2-week vacation and so far I have done nothing terribly exciting.
Monday was spent vegging on the couch and playing Rock Band. :) Oh... and the inlaws from 4 or 5 doors away came over for cake since it was my Birthday.
This morning my wife and I attended our daughter's school play for an hour, after my wife dropped our truck off at the dealership to get the paint chips on the bumper repaired. The remainder of my family-free day was spent watching a movie and farting around here on the laptop.
Now that the kids are home from school, I'm sitting on the doorstep typing this boring blog entry.
Tomorrow will probably be more of the same, but in the evening I'll hopefully be going to pre-register our team for this Friday's Relay for Life event. That's assuming that I can get everyone's cash donations to bring with me, otherwise we'll have to wait until Friday evening to register during the event.
Categories: charity, fund raising, Relay For Life, video games
Guitar Hero & Rock Band Haters Make Me Laugh
I can't help but laugh at all the Guitar Hero & Rock Band haters out there.
I was browsing a few impressive videos of young people playing both of these games when I noticed a trend. It never fails that some know-it-all chips in his two cent comment like "That sucks man, play that on a real guitar" and adding that they hate it when some kid thinks that it's like playing a real guitar.
The only people I ever see making a comparison between Guitar Hero or Rock Band and a real guitar or drum kit is the so-called "real" musicians who hate the game.
Here's a particularly pissed off individual, quoted straught from a YouTube video (spelling & grammar errors included) of Eddie Van Halen's live "Eruption":
"It fuckin pisses me off,kids go into the guitar shops while youre playing a real guitar,and theyre like,yeah,I can play that...on guitar hero,its easy.and they think theyre real bad asses.Guitar Hero has to be one of the worst inventions ever."
Good grief, does that really matter? It's apples and oranges.
I'm sure there are probably a few kids who think that it's like the real thing, but so what? If it gets them interested in music, maybe one day they'll take interest in learning a real instrument?
I've heard some say that these games are nothing more than a glorified "Simon" game. Hate to break it to you, but they're more difficult than Simon. There's more coordination needed to play. It's not as simple as just pressing a coloured button when it flashes. There's timing involved in pressing the button and hitting the strum bar. You have to be in sync with the notes. You need to get a feel for the rhythm and the beat to play the game well.
If you're one of these haters, keep your hate to yourself. Don't slam anyone who likes the game. You've got nothing to fear. You may or may not realize this, but these games are designed created by REAL musicians. People who can play real instruments, AND play the game well.
Maybe that's why you hate the game. Because you can't do both?
Posted by Scott at 3:19:00 PM 1 comment: Links to this post
CBC - You Snooze, You Lose
CTV purchases The Hockey Theme
CTV Inc. has acquired the rights to The Hockey Theme in perpetuity, the network announced Monday.
The agreement was reached with Copyright Music & Visuals, which was unable to renew a deal with CBC Sports.
CBC Sports executive director Scott Moore said he was disappointed but not surprised the song was shopped elsewhere.
"The two sides were so far apart and there was so much bad blood that we knew a deal would be difficult," he said. "The reality is it takes two sides to do a deal and we tried everything we could to do a deal.
"We offered arbitration, mediation — we offered to meet their price. On Friday, when it came right down to it, we never got a response from them on our latest offer and find out, in the meantime, they appeared to be negotiating with CTV."
Moore said CBC had negotiated for 14 months but to no avail, and that the agency was asking for $2.5 million to $3 million for use in perpetuity.
"If they got that from CTV, we would never have been able to get there," Moore told CBC Newsworld. "It is not a responsible price for us.
"If that is the price CTV wants to pay, it won't be the first time nor will it be the last time, probably, that they outbid us for something. They have a lot more profits than we do."
The song had been used on Hockey Night in Canada since 1968.
"Hockey is a game, it's not a song," Moore said. "We have the No. 1 sports property in Canada.
"I don't expect one less viewer to tune in on Saturday to watch Hockey Night in Canada. They will continue to watch their favourite team."
According to a release, CTV said it agreed to a deal with Copyright Music & Visuals after Friday's deadline with CBC passed.
The agency represents the song's composer, Dolores Claman, who was born in Vancouver.
"The song has a long and storied history in Canadian sports, and has become ingrained in the hearts and minds of hockey fans across the country. It is an iconic tune, embraced by Canadians everywhere, and we felt it was imperative to save it," said Rick Brace of CTV Inc.
Moore said he was surprised a rival network would purchase something so inextricably linked to the Hockey Night brand.
"It's a constant commercial for our network," he said.
Lawsuit complicated negotiations
Earlier on Monday, CBC Sports had said it planned to bring in noted sports and entertainment lawyer Gord Kirke in a last-ditch effort to bring about a mediated resolution.
Complicating the bid for a settlement was an outstanding lawsuit filed against the CBC in late 2004 surrounding its use for ringtones and downloads.
Moore said CBC wanted to resolve that issue along with the song's future use, but that representatives for Claman wanted to keep them separate.
Claman, 80, has written about 2,000 jingles over her career, including the Ontario theme A Place to Stand, which she co-wrote with her husband, Richard Morris.
"I am very moved by how so many Canadians have taken the hockey theme to heart. We are so pleased the song has found a new home," said Claman, who now resides in Britain.
Before Kirke's involvement was announced, CBC Sports announced plans to launch a new national contest in conjunction with Nettwerk Music Group to find a new theme song.
Canadians will be invited to write and record an original song for Hockey Night in Canada, with fans and a jury of experts to choose the best new composition.
"I think it'll help us get a new demographic," Moore said. "The theme that we had was a great theme. [But] it was 39 years old. Maybe it's time for something else."
The son of Stompin' Tom Connors said Monday his father is open to licensing his famed hockey song to CBC as a replacement.
"If they want to use The Hockey Song, it's a good song, whether Tom sings it or not," Tom Connors Jr. said. "There's other versions out there.
"Even if they wanted to commission some other band, like a big [name] band if they wanted to do more of a Hockey Night theme, everything is open for negotiations, of course. That's the business we're in."
The last 3 paragraphs of that article scares me. For the love of all things hockey, please... NOT Stompin' Tom Connors. I don't like Stompin' Tom. And I don't like "The Hockey Song". I don't think it would matter who sang it.
Anyway, the CBC really dropped the ball on this one. They're trying to make it look like they did everything possible, but seriously, how can they expect anyone to believe them when they openly admitted that they were going ahead with the contest to find a new HNIC song, while trying to negotiate a deal? Would a few more days of waiting really make that big of a difference to their contest?
Categories: hockey, rant
CBC requests mediator for song dispute
From the Sportsnet web site:
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2008/06/09/kirke_hockey_song/
TORONTO -- CBC appears to be making a last-ditch effort to rescue the popular Hockey Night in Canada theme song.
The public broadcaster has asked Toronto sports lawyer Gord Kirke to mediate negotiations between CBC and Copyright Music and Visuals, the company that controls the song.
CBC Sports executive director Scott Moore says CBC feels it's worth one last effort to save a theme song that evokes such passion among Canadians.
CBC's licence for the song, written by composer Delores Claman and a staple of Hockey Night in Canada since 1968, expired last week following the Stanley Cup finals.
The parties were in negotiations late last week before CBC announced Friday it would begin the search for a new theme song.
The broadcaster has asked Canadian musicians to vy for a $100,000 prize by submitting their own original compositions to replace the theme.
I can't see this making any difference... but hey, it's worth a shot... I guess.
Categories: hockey
Paint Chips Follow-up
A quick update to my Paint Chips posting.
My wife took the truck to the For dealerership during the week. The warranty on the paint is 3yr/60,000kms. They have to order some part(?) first and will call us to set up a service appointment once it's in.
No definite word on exactly what they're going to do.
Deal to keep Hockey Night theme song falls through
Negotiations to keep the Hockey Night in Canada theme song have collapsed, meaning the CBC program is now in search of another anthem.
Copyright Music & Visuals, the Toronto agency representing the song's composer, Dolores Claman, said on Friday that the deal had fallen through.
That news came as a surprise to the CBC, said Scott Moore, executive director of CBC Sports.
"We're disappointed, as many Canadians are," Moore said, adding he found out about the deal falling through from CBC News.
"We have no real idea why the deal fell apart," he said. "We're not sure why because the other side hasn't communicated with us.
"You have to ask the other side what happened."
Copyright Music & Visuals said it had offered the public broadcaster a chance to renew its licence to use Claman's song — a staple on HNIC since 1968 — on terms that were "virtually identical to those that have existed for the past decade."
Previously, each use of the song cost the CBC about $500, the agency said.
After the first two years of a new agreement, the rates would rise about 15 per cent, an increase Copyright Music & Visuals president John Ciccone called an industry standard.
"We offered to continue paying the richest licence fee in Canadian television, which was the price they asked for," said Moore. "We also offered to buy it outright for a high six-figure sum."
A call made to Ciccone by CBCSports.ca was not returned Friday.
Claman, who has written about 2,000 jingles over her career, is also credited with the Ontario theme A Place to Stand, which she co-wrote with her husband, Richard Morris, in 1967.
Contest for new theme in works
Moore said Friday the two sides had agreed upon a price, but added an "unfortunate set of circumstances," including an outstanding lawsuit, hovered over negotiations.
A lawsuit filed against the CBC in late 2004 by the composer alleges that the broadcaster was overusing the Hockey Night in Canada theme and has not been settled. Copyright Music & Visuals said the litigation hasn't interfered with the CBC's use of music, nor was settlement of the suit a condition for the proposed new licensing agreement.
"We really can't do business with a lawsuit hanging over our heads," Moore said. "We feel that we've done everything we possibly can."
CBC Sports will now move on and launch a new national contest in conjunction with Nettwerk Music Group to find a new theme song, he said. Canadians will be invited to write and record an original song for Hockey Night in Canada, with fans and a jury of experts choosing the best new composition.
The winner will receive $100,000 and proceeds from any royalties will go to minor hockey across the country. More details on the contest will be revealed in the next week.
"We expect a lot of terrific music, and we expect that the new theme for Hockey Night in Canada will be as iconic as the last two themes have been," Moore said.
Earlier on Friday, Liberal heritage critic Denis Coderre told reporters in Ottawa that Conservative Heritage Minister Josée Verner must defend one of Canada's most famous musical traditions and do everything possible to ensure the CBC continues to broadcast the theme.
"The Hockey Night in Canada theme is a part of Canada's culture that goes beyond sport," Coderre said. "If the minister wants to show that she cares about Canadian heritage, this is her chance."
This is disappointing, but I'm not too surprised. I don't believe that the CBC went back into negotiations in good faith. The only reason they did it was an attempt to make the public think that they cared. They keep bring up the outstanding litigation "hovering over our heads", when the other side said it has no affect on the terms on the proposed contract.
This sucks.
And now they'll no doubt spend a bundle on promoting the contest to find a new theme.
I feel sorry for the person who wins because I can't see the public accepting it.
More Hockey Night song stuff
Here's a summary of what I've heard about the CBC / Hockey Night song fiasco:
CBC claims they're still in negotations with Copyright Music & Visuals (the company who manages the copyright on behalf of the song's composer, Dolores Claman)
Copyright Music & Visuals claims that they received an email from CBC stating that they would not renew the contract.
CBC said that if they don't renew, they have plans this summer to hold a public contest to write a new theme.
CBC is currently being sued by Dolores Claman alleging that CBC repeatedly used the theme song in broadcasts not covered under her licence agreement and refused requests to negotiate additional fees.
Copyright Music & Visuals claims that resolution of the ongoing litigation is not a precondition of the new proposed licence agreement..
CBC says "You don't do business with someone who is suing you." While that may be true, we're not talking about a multi-million dollar contract here. This smells like CBC trying to take a little heat off their poorly thought out decision.
While change can be a good thing, I'm convinced that this change is not. The song celebrates its 40th anniversary next year. To axe the song now would be like firing someone after 40 years of dedicated service in a company.
I think CBC is missing out on a good marketing opportunity/partnership here. Maybe they're trying to use this to their advantage? "Play by OUR rules, or your song doesn't see its 40th birthday."
Hockey Night In Canada theme song in limbo [via Zemanta]
National Doughnut Day
If you're the type of person who needs an excuse to indulge in these doughy treats, today is your day.
National Doughnut Day was established in 1938 by the Chicago Salvation Army to raise much-needed funds during the Great Depression, and to honor the work of World War I Salvation Army volunteers who prepared doughnuts and other foods for thousands of soldiers.
Posted by Scott at 9:55:00 AM 1 comment: Links to this post
Driving Your Business Into The Ground - Lesson 1
Looks to me like "Nathaniels" owner, Dan Hilliard, may soon discover that he wrote the the first lesson: Waitress loses job after shaving head for cancer charity
The day the music died?
I came across this story about half an hour ago. I'll quote the entire thing, in case the link changes or goes missing:
CBC ending use of 'Hockey Night' song
Sportsnet.ca - The CBC will not be using the legendary 'Hockey Night in Canada' theme song next season after it decided not to sign a new license agreement according to the song's publisher.
The composition was written by Dolores Claman in 1968 and has become one of the longest running theme songs in broadcasting history.
According to the publisher, the CBC was offered a new license on 'virtually identical terms to those that have existed for the past decade (approximately $500 per use)' but the network has chosen to move in a new direction.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Claman said "I am saddened by the decision of the CBC to drop the Hockey Night in Canada Theme after our lengthy history together. I nevertheless respect its right to move in a new direction."
Have the decision makers at CBC lost their fuckin' minds? What kind of a "new direction" is this? Down the toilet?
If they're looking to improve anything, get rid of Bob Cole before next season. Harry Neile can go with him. I'm sure they'll save a hell of a lot more than $500 per show.
Many of the comments on the Sportsnet article say to send CBC a complaint at http://www.cbc.ca/contact. Whether it will make a difference, remains to be seen. I sent one anyway.
Edit: CBC actually found the balls to post the story on their own site... an hour after the story broke: Red Wings victory last outing for Hockey Night theme? There's also an online petition here, if you wish to sign it.
Fresh faces bring HNIC forward at warp speed [via Zemanta]
Posted by Scott at 11:55:00 AM 1 comment: Links to this post
Help me make cancer history - Pledge me?
My last call for pledges! Here's the scoop...
The Canadian Cancer Society Relay For Life is an overnight non-competitive relay that celebrates cancer survivors and pays tribute to loved ones. It's a night of fun, friendship and fundraising to beat cancer.
I will be participating as a member of the Team W.T.F. (Walk To Fight) team, in the Orleans event on June 20th, 2008.
Why I Relay
I am doing this in memory of my Father whom I lost to cancer in December 1998, and a friend in February of this year. 12 hours of my time and your pledges can make a difference.
Help me reach my goal
You can be part of a community that takes up the fight. Please pledge me now and help make cancer history.
Online pledging is secure and it saves the Society money by reducing administrative costs. You can pledge online by following this link.
More about how your donation helps.
Poll finds number of Canadians playing video games...
Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life - THANK YOU...
How NOT to park (or How to not make friends with y...
Deal to keep Hockey Night theme song falls through...
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Gem Spectrum Index
The Gem Spectrum is Pala International’s free newsletter. Edited by Pala’s own Gabrièl Mattice, it is filled with interesting articles on various aspects of gems and minerals.
We distribute The Gem Spectrum free within the United States to members of the gem and jewelry trades. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please contact us.
DIVISION OF MINERAL RESOURCES
128 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
The gems, precious stones and ornamental stones named in the following list have been found at various times in the United States. If you know of the finding of any of these within the last year, will you, if possible, kindly fill in the amount and estimated value opposite the name of the species or variety, with a description of the locality and occurrence, and return the list in the enclosed envelope, which requires no postage. If you know of any other precious or ornamental stones found, in addition to those on the list, kindly include a description of them also.PLEASE FORWARD YOUR RESPONSE AS SOON AS YOU CONVENIENTLY CAN.
George F. Kunz
From Lawrence Conklin’s Letters to George F. Kunz
The letter above is only one of a beautifully compiled collection of correspondence from a book titled Letters to George F. Kunz by Lawrence Conklin. Like the music of the great composers, poignant notes and comments can posthumously capture one’s complete attention and transport the imagination to another place and time. Whether receiving or sending these letters, such respect and kinship was conveyed that one is impressed and humbled by the unpretentious knowledge freely shared by Dr. Kunz and his peers. Accompanying this letter was a list of 118 gems occurring in the USA! It is interesting to note that at that time (1898), red beryl, benitoite, morganite and kunzite among others, had yet to be disclosed. Historically, all 50 states have produced some gem materials but commercial production is limited to only a few areas. By far the largest number of finds, both currently and historically, have been made by amateur collectors, mineralogists and geologists. Here is a brief overview of current (1996) important American deposits in alphabetical order.
The Candelabra, a rubellite tourmaline, was mined by Pala International at the Tourmaline Queen, San Diego County, California, in 1972.
(Photo: Harold & Erica Van Pelt)
ARIZONA for many years has produced a large variety of gemstones including amethyst, azurite, chrysocolla, fire agate, garnet, malachite, obsidian, peridot, petrified wood, and of course turquoise. The Arizona peridot source is located on the San Carlos Indian Reservation and is considered the largest production in the entire world and turquoise from the Sleeping Beauty Mine is considered some of the finest.
ARKANSAS is famous for being the only location in the United States that has ever produced diamonds from a pipe (there are many rumors that new pipes are about to be worked commercially in Wyoming and other areas of the Midwest and West, however, these projects are not yet being implemented). Arkansas also produces wonderful quartz crystals popularly known as Herkimer diamonds because of their crystal habit and clarity. One little known fact is that fresh water pearls are also cultivated here in large numbers.
CALIFORNIA has a long history of gem production starting with tourmaline. This Pacific coast state has produced tourmaline, benitoite (exclusively), spessartine garnet, abalone pearls, morganite, and some natural blue topaz, California also boasts the distinction of being where the original find of gem kunzite was discovered in 1901. The Himalaya mine has produced Pink and flawless bicolor tourmaline from the late 1800s to the present. In 1972, approximately 30 of the now highly prized and extremely rare blue caps from the Queen mine were unearthed. Like the one at right, only 15 found their way into some of the country’s most respected private and museum collections, such as the Smithsonian, American Museum of Natural History and the Houston Museum of Natural History to name a few. As of this printing [1996], future exploration is being discussed to see if benitoite can be mined and distributed on a larger scale. We will keep you informed.
COLORADO is known among mineral collectors as an important locality. It has produced smoky quartz, topaz, amazonite, and aquamarines from Mt. Antero. More recently, the famous Alma mine was reopened and produced the finest rhodochrosite in the history of the United States including some which were faceted into gems over 40 carats. This material is too soft for most jewelry wearing but stones of this size are spectacular collector items.
IDAHO’S state stone is the star garnet. It is produced in large quantities and sold all over the world. A small find several years ago produced exceptional aquamarine from the Saw Tooth Mountain District. Limited opal mining is producing some fine material.
MAINE was long famous as the original discovery for United States tourmaline and is still producing sporadically. In 1972, over one ton of tourmaline was produced at the Denton Mine. However, despite continued mining, little else was recovered. More recently, Mt. Mica has been re-mined and produced some high quality blue-green tourmaline in small sizes. In addition to tourmaline, Maine has produced aquamarine, heliodor, morganite and recently, excellent amethyst.
MONTANA is world famous for it’s sapphires from several localities. The most well known are the beautiful blues from the Yogo Gulch. Other varied colors are known from the Rock Creek area and other alluvial deposits. The potential production of large quantities of small size sapphire from Montana is most promising.
NEVADA has been a major producer of turquoise for decades and is a strong competitor with Arizona for the finest. Another important deposit is the Virgin Valley area for fine opal. If the opal could be stabilized, it would be among the world’s finest, however, most of this material has a large water content and often crazes.
NORTH CAROLINA is historically known for producing diamond, ruby, sapphire and emerald, as well as being the unique locality for hiddenite which is a rare emerald-green chromium-colored spodumene. Over the last several decades there have been sporadic discoveries of ruby and emerald, including one fine emerald weighing approximately four carats which is on display at Tiffany & Company in New York. More recently new finds of hiddenite have been found.
OREGON is one of the largest producers of agates of all sorts, including the famous Thunder Eggs. More exciting for jewelers has been the gem feldspar (sunstone) which has been found in numerous colors over the last several decades, including red and green. A recent find of opal has been interesting; however, it is also subject to crazing. Several large stones have been cut from the material, and to date they have remained stable.
TENNESSEE exports the largest quantity of freshwater mussels from North America for use as nuclei for cultured pearls around the world. American Pearl Company is the originator and largest producer of cultured freshwater fancy-shaped pearls. It must be mentioned that 50% of that cultured pearl production is exported to Asian and European wholesalers, who in turn sell them to their customers. The other 50% stays right here in the US, where designers and manufacturers incorporate the beauty of these fancy-shaped pearls (as well as others) into jewelry. Although collectors are the main purchasers of natural pearls (which command a much higher price than cultured), their numbers are much smaller in comparison to cultured pearl buyers. This is because mainly due to a lesser informed public in regards to natural pearls, as well as the strong market saturation and lower price of cultured pearls.
UTAH has long produced topaz crystals which are beautiful in color despite fading upon exposure to sunlight. More recently, a very important find of a unique gemstone, red beryl, has been found in the Wah Wah Mountains. The original discovery in the Thomas Mountains (near the topaz) was unimportant, however this new find is producing much larger gem quality crystals. A few cut stones are known for being over four carats, and are a very clean fine quality red. Exploration is going on currently, making this the largest potential commercial gemstone deposit in North America. Today more then ever large global exploration companies, which once specialized primarily in precious metal and ores, are recognizing North America’s gem production as yet another valuable resource to be tapped... but then; isn’t that what Dr. Kunz always said? Many thanks to Lawrence Conklin, New York, for his meticulous and painstaking research. What a great book!
Harry Winston An American Legend
Without a doubt, one of the most highly respected names in the industry is Harry Winston. The phenomenal success he achieved didn’t come without years of study and persistent concern for quality. His perceptiveness in cutting, buying and selling precious gems elevated him to heights few jewelers will ever see. In Laurence Krashes’ book, Harry Winston: The Ultimate Jeweler, it is stated that Winston instinctively knew gemstones. A California-born son of jewelers, he says, ...ever since I was quite young, jewels have fascinated me. I think I must have been born with some knowledge of them.
Harry Winston led an exemplary life, rich in legend, lore, and mystery. It was a life fantastic that he enjoyed to its fullest extent, weaving a fable of his own world, one filled with stories of kings and maharajas and great jewels and fortunes made and lost. He lived out the dream of being famous and successful in a place and time where it was all possible and in a field which had never before and probably never again will witness such a creative genius. Sometimes when the burden of being personality and fabulist one and the same seemed too great, and the weight of the world became too much, he would bemoan to himself with a sense of humor and self-mockery so characteristic of him, Oh, Harry, Harry darling, he would say with a sigh.
Ronald Winston
These loving words are the echo of what many jewelers feel about a man who has reached a level of success and respect that goes with the name Harry Winston an American success.
The Spanish Inquisition necklace, now in the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, was once owned by Harry Winston. (Photo: Dane Penland/Smithsonian)
If necessity breeds ingenuity then Richard Drucker is on the right track. The Publisher/Editor of The Guide is a third generation jeweler/appraiser who found that although diamond prices have long been published, information on color was more difficult to come by.
In 1982, Rich and his father determined that they needed published information in regards to pricing on colored stones to improve their business. Luckily a lot of other people felt the same way.
Today with the input of an expert team from all over the US (including Pala’s own Vice President, Josh Hall), pricing information is now available on about 75 varieties of colored stones, plus pearls, opal, jade, beads and even synthetics. A full diamond section covers pricing for all shapes, including baguettes, triangles, old European cuts, in sizes ranging from melee up to five carats.
The Guide has grown into a trusted, reliable reference which comes quarterly with full color comparison photos of each variety and quality grade being discussed. All prices refer to actual wholesale memorandum, as well as what a jeweler can expect to pay the supplier.
The Guide does not list gems for sale, nor does it accept advertising. Your subscription fee purchases only unbiased, fully researched up to date pricing information and circulation is worldwide.
A note from Richard Drucker, Graduate Gemologist (GG):
I hope you will take this opportunity to become a part of the thousands of subscribers that have used The Guide. There is not a better or more complete pricing publication in the industry. I’m sure you can understand by the size of my publication that sample books are not possible. However, if you do decide to order The Guide, your satisfaction is guaranteed. If not satisfied, you may return it for a full refund.
We at Pala International endorse The Guide. In these days of selling to a more informed public, you owe yourself and your staff every advantage. For info contact: Gemworld International, 630 Dundee Rd #235, Northbrook, IL 60062. Phone: 708-564-0555 or Fax: 708-564-0557.
Everyone goes through life striving for self-improvement. Even without being consciously aware of it, we are continually familiarizing ourselves with different subject matter. Some topics will mildly hold our interest while others grab on and don’t let go. This, I suppose, is how we’ve arrived at our chosen professions. In my eight years with Pala, I have had the sincere pleasure in meeting some of the brightest minds (and most colorful characters) in the business.
During my travels, I always make a point of visiting the local museums, especially the natural history departments. Because mineral specimens are one of Pala’s specialties, we (along with the support of mother nature) have had a hand in building mineral collections in some the world’s most prestigious museums.
Although I take great pleasure in seeing the collections in all their perfectly orchestrated displays (and recognizing particular specimens is always fun), my greatest pleasure is spending time with the curators. They are always so cooperative and willing to spend as long as it takes to show me the latest in what has occurred since my last visit.
When I was a small child, just stepping into a great museum was almost frightening. The size of everything was so overwhelming that I could hardly contain my excitement. Even though my pulse still quickens, the enjoyment of walking around with the curator lends a kind familiarity and reduces the intimidation factor.
A museum is more than a collection of things. It gives a broad view of the human race our ways of life, our artistry and ingenuity. In displaying the beauty of art and nature, it ignites the imagination and restores the soul. It can stimulate thought, and inspire new ideas.
Museum curators are unique specimens in themselves. These are people who have made the job of collecting a priority. These are people whom I have grown to truly like and respect, because they and their institutions care and have deemed it important. In future issues, I shall be proud to introduce our readers to some of these characters. Once you read about these special individuals, you’ll agree that anyone who would dedicate such a great deal of their time to ensuring posterity (whether it be through words, music, minerals, or art) is someone you want to know better. They have taken on the responsibility of furthering the education of our youth by ensuring the preservation of articles that would otherwise be at the mercy of time. And we all know that, if great care is taken, nothing good disintegrates with time.
Gabrièl Mattice
Many thanks to the following people for their most helpful input:
Bill Metropolis Harvard University You’re a real pal!
Gina Letendresse American Pearl Co.
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Good News TV & Radio
The world population has passed 7 billion people and rising. We are in a very divided world resulting in unpredictable leaders and governments. Leaders with extreme right wing and left wing political views are being elected because of modern communication systems. It’s quite easy to get a following if one is controversial, the modern word for quick and many followers is viral. Unknowns, wannabe’s and the self promotional are using modern forms of communication to garner for themselves followers which some use to make money, to become a celebrity and to get elected to high office.
Adolf Hitler used communication to turn Germany into a racist war mongering and genocidal nation. Elected to office this small, weak and cowardly man used his brilliant oratorical skills to mesmerise a nation of cultured, educated and successful people. Through the power of words he got Germans to turn on fellow Germans who happened to be Jewish. Through the power of words he started a war that would become a world war less than a generation after the first world war.
It took an equally and possibly a greater communicator, Winston Churchill, to rally, inspire and lead the resistance which in the end defeated Germany. History tell us Adolph Hitler shot himself in a trench where he had been hiding, a coward to the end.
For the church to reach the 7 billion people with the gospel it must take advantage of modern communication systems. Terrestrial radio and TV advanced the propagation of the gospel then came satellite and cable TV which further advanced the propagation of the gospel.
The internet has taken communication to an all new level which is mind blowing. Now we have smart phones and social media where one can communicate with others around the world simply with a device that is held in the palm of our hands.
RRF has now developed a TV and Radio station under the Tropical FM umbrella.
Good News TV (GNTV) and Good News Radio broadcast 24/7 with a mix of preaching, teaching and the best in Christian music. Click here to view GNTV: http://goodnewstv.org.uk/ . We have developed an App so you can listen to Good News Radio at your convenience. Download for free the app from Apple Store or Google Play Store.
Our Platform is the world and our congregation the people.
The Lord’s servant
Lloyd Denny
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SIETAR Kansai and JALT Osaka, July 2016 Joint Meeting, Rakugo: A Discourse Analysis of Japanese Traditional Comic Storytelling
SIETAR Kansai and JALT Osaka, July 2016 Joint Meeting
Rakugo: A Discourse Analysis of Japanese Traditional Comic Storytelling
Presenter: Chiho Kitagawa (Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, Kobe University,
Osaka Shoin Women’s University)
Date: Saturday, July 9, 2016 (2:00pm~5:00pm)
Place: Nishinomiya Daigaku KoryuCenter (ACTA East Tower 6F, Room 2
2 minutes from Hankyu Nishinomiya Kitaguchi station,
Tel: (0798) 69-3155 http://www.nishi.or.jp/homepage.daigaku/
Fee: Free for members and students; 500 yen for non-members.
Language: English (Q & A in English and Japanese)
Social event: We will have a meal after the session at a nearby restaurant. Reservations for dinner required by Tuesday, July 5. Contact fujimotodonna@@gmail.com
Rakugo is a Japanese form of minimalistic comedic performance, which has been passed down from master to apprentice through the generations for more than 300 years. This presentation will bring to light some pertinent points of language use that are particular to Rakugo, and will analyze and explain them. It is the speaker’s belief that the special linguistic features of Rakugo are related to and strongly influenced by the restrictions posed by the genre–the storyteller performs alone; there is no set or costume to indicate place or character; he uses only a fan and hand towel for props to represent various objects; and he speaks while kneeling on a cushion. All of the storyteller’s energies, and all of the rules, techniques and traditional ways of doing things in Rakugo, are focused on one single aim: to bring the audience fully into the fictional world being created and making them enjoy it. This presentation will present examples of how the genre’s restrictions, as well as the storyteller’s relationship to the audience, influence the Rakugo storyteller’s use of language.
Profile of the presenter:
Chiho Kitagawa (Ph.D.) is a part-time lecturer at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, Kobe University, and Osaka ShoinWomen’s University. Her research theme is discourse analysis of Rakugo. She has taught “Rakugo in English” in several universities, and she has taught with professional Rakugoperformers since 2007. She is also deeply involved in producing events introducing Japanese culture in countries around the world. With Rakugo storyteller, Katsura Sunshine, she has visited 13 countries, including four countries in Africa in 2015. Her translations of Rakugo into English have appeared widely, including the subtitles of the 10-DVD set of Rakugo Master Katsura Bunchin’s Rakugo series at the Imperial Theatre, Tokyo, in 2010
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SIETAR Kansai September 2017 Documentary film: Clash of Colors–LA Riots of 1992
SIETAR Kansai September 2017
Documentary film: Clash of Colors–LA Riots of 1992
Speaker: Mr. Chanyu Ko, documentary writer
Date: September 24, 2017 (Sun.)
Time: *15:30-18:00 (Note: change from the usual time)
Venue: Takatsuki Sogo Shimin Koryu Center
(one minute from JR Takatsuki Station) Tel. 0726-85-3721
https://www.google.co.jp/maps/place/高槻市立会館総合市民交流センター/@34.852047,135.6169948,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x600102b7d17be1f7:0x46cb9c0e511c312d!8m2!3d34.852047!4d135.6191835
Language: Film—English with Japanese subtitles; Speaker–Japanese with English translation as needed
Social event: We will have a meal after the session at a nearby restaurant.
Reservations are required by Wed., September 20.
Contact fujimotodonna@gmail.com
About the film: On April 29, 1992, the Los Angeles riots started in South Central Los Angeles. The riots were caused by the acquittal of four police officers on trial in the beating of Rodney King. The catastrophe claimed 55 deaths, caused more than 4,000 injuries, and cost $1 billion in property damage. LA Koreatown, the biggest Korea town in the world, was damaged severely in the riots. David D. Kim produced the film focusing on Koreatown of Los Angeles. The film, “Clash of Colors” offers unprecedented access into the most overlooked history of the riots through valuable footage and in-depth interviews from a balanced panel. (The film is 81 minutes and was released in 2012.)
About the speaker: Mr. Chanyu Ko is a documentary writer, and he visited Korea town in Los Angeles in 1991, 1992 and 2011 in order to do research. He published the book entitled, “Korea Towns in the US” in 1992. Mr. Ko received permission from Mr. Kim, the producer. Mr. Ko will talk about the background of the LA riots before the film and answer audience questions after the film.
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October 10, 2010 was the day I became a public survivor of child sexual abuse. That was the day I decided when people asked me what I was working on I’d tell the truth: I’m working on a project about child sexual abuse. I decided to acknowledge the mental and emotional space I give to this issue, rather than hide it. I never felt good about not saying something, but it’s a hard truth to want to share.
I’m so grateful I grew up in a family with feminist values, where I was encouraged to use my voice and get loud, but knowing I was supposed to speak up for injustice also added guilt to feelings of confusion about whether what happened warranted speaking out. It wasn’t until I got older that I began to see other ways of resisting -- quieter ways of resisting like taking care of myself and protecting myself -- as legitimate too. Until I got that surviving was also a radical act, the message that I heard was that my silence was part of the problem.
We put the onus on survivors to break the silence -- to speak out. What about listening out?
Aimee Carrillo Rowe and Sheena Malhotra edited an incredible anthology of essays entitled Silence, Feminism, Power: Reflections at the Edges of Sound, which interrogates this often-unexamined assumption that silence is oppressive, and considers the multiple possibilities silence enables. The equation between voice and power informs feminist theory and activism, creating an imperative that the oppressed must “come to voice.” I have to thank Malhotra and Rowe for articulating that the problem with “this formulation is that the burden of social change is placed upon those least empowered to intervene in the conditions of their oppression. The figure of the subaltern, or the survivor, gaining voice captures our political imaginary, shifting the focus away from the labor that might be demanded of those in positions of power to learn to listen to subaltern inscriptions—those modes of expression that are often interpreted as ‘silence.’”
The reverberations of trauma are something I’ve dealt with all my life. They are brought on by the memories of what happened, but also by the shame I feel for not speaking up, for betraying my own instincts to act in response to the violation of my body. There was so much pressure to speak out and yet few resources to guide us about how to listen and respond.
Feminist scholar Ann Cvetkovich found that “many narratives by survivors […] indicate that the trauma resides as much in secrecy as in sexual abuse—the burden of not to tell creates its own network of psychic wounds that far exceed the event itself. By the same token, the work of breaking the silence about sexual abuse, like that of coming out, has to be understood as an ongoing process and performance, not as a punctual event.”
It’s about pushing everyone to be more vocal, while at the same lifting up other forms of confronting this issue. Celebrating the moments where we walk away, where we set boundaries, where we feel proud to make ourselves feel safe and don’t pathologize our behavior as paranoid or neurotic. It’s about asking hard questions and accepting listening the words and the pause -- listening to the awkward silence -- and trusting that we are strong enough and smart enough to figure out how to take care and take action.
I’m thankful to the artists, musicians and writers who work so hard to keep a public conversation about sexual violence a live. Because of the Riot Grrrl scene -- Bikini Kill, Tribe 8, Ani DiFranco, and ancestresses like Virginia Woolf, Gloria Anzaldúa and Audre Lorde, I was assured that if I spoke out a courageous community of survivors and allies would accompany me through the process.
I don’t know yet exactly what solutions look like, and although I’m tempted to make suggestions, what I’ve learned through this process is that often the most complicated and overwhelming problems are most powerfully addressed with simple solutions. Breathe. Be open. Listen.
I hope you see the healing effect of disclosure, not as the spectated act of telling one’s truth, but as a process of collective “sense-making” and that process of sense-making means we must ask questions, we must speak, we must sit quietly and silently—at times—and just listen.
Child Advocacy Centers http://www.nationalcac.org/
Darkness to Light http://www.d2l.org/
Generation Five http://www.generationfive.org/
The Heal Project http://heal2end.com/h2e
Autonomous Memory Front http://autonomousmemoryfront.org
Firecracker Foundation http://thefirecrackerfoundation.org/
Multicultural Efforts to end Sexual Assault http://www.ydae.purdue.edu/mesa/
Visioning B.E.A.R. Circle Intertribal Coalition
http://visioningbear.org/
Mirror Memoirs Project http://amitaswadhin.com/
Safe Space Radio http://safespaceradio.com/
Restorative Justice Project from Impact Justice http://impactjustice.org/restorative-justice-project/
Allison, Dorothy. “two or three things i know for sure.”
Cheit, Ross E. The Witch-hunt Narrative: Politics, Psychology, and the Sexual Abuse of Children.
Chun, Wendy. "Unbearable Witness: Toward a Politics of Listening.” Extremities: Trauma, Testimony, and Community.
Crabb, Cindy. Support Zine.
Cvetkovich, Ann. An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures.
Deal, David. A Restorative Justice Primer.
Herman, Judith. “Trauma and Recovery” and “Justice from the Victim’s Perspective.” Violence Against Women.
Lorde, Audre. "A Litany for Survival." The Black Unicorn.
Malhotra, Sheena, and Aimee Carrillo Rowe. Silence, Feminism, Power: Reflections at the Edges of Sound.
Muscio, Inga. CUNT.
Rivera, Ignacio and sujatha baliga. Preparing to Come Out As A CSA Survivor.
Whittier, Nancy. The Politics of Child Sexual Abuse: Emotion, Social Movements, and the State.
Silent Evidence is in partnership with
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A Visit to a Minor Past
Posted on May 23, 2011 by Margaret DeAngelis
(This essay is one in a series of pieces about what I am reading during National Short Story Month 2011. To see a list of the stories, visit What I’m Reading During National Short Story Month 2011.)
Her flat startled her in some way. She stood in the doorway and thought about the strange ways she’d grown up inside these rooms. She had experienced ecstasy, small pieces of love, and some loneliness here. Past experiences became animate objects and seemed to look down on her from the corners of the ceilings.. . . There were people everywhere. Lucy got drunk on them. There were friends of hers from minor pasts that she’d forgotten about — it’s funny how many pasts a person can have and it still makes only one.
—Evelyn Conlon, b. 1952
Irish fiction writer
from “A Little Remote,” in Taking Scarlet as a Real Colour, The Blackstaff Press, 1993
First, the news. I have been admitted to the 2011 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. If you’ve followed me for a long time, especially on Twitter or Facebook, you know how distracted I become this time of year, especially since the Tribulation of 2009, when I was initially rejected and not even wait-listed, but then invited to participate. Notification is made in “late May,” and from about May 15 on, Bread Loaf’s decision is all I can think about.
My notes indicate that I made myself sick last year, in part by ingesting large quantities of Diet Dr. Brown’s Cream Soda as a tranquilizer, even though I had eliminated aspartame from my diet just after Christmas, and had become hypersensitive to its side effects, notably anxiety and fuzzy thinking. I went into this Bread Loaf Notification Season dragging the tail of a depression that thudded into my life and my psyche in March. I employed the oft-prescribed self-help strategies of exercise, breathing, yoga, and talking to friends (thank you! you know who you are!). Nevertheless, I became irritable and annoying, finding fault where otherwise I might have overlooked a perceived offense and confronting the offender.
In order to keep myself focused on moving forward with my work, I enrolled in an online workshop. This had been suggested by a panelist at a one-day conference I attended in April in Washington. She said that while it is important to read widely and much in published work, apprentice writers like me should also maintain contact with those who are at the same level as we are. Published work shows us a piece at its highest level of development. Apprentice writers like ourselves make the same mistakes we do, and in studying how to help classmates climb out of the holes they dig for themselves, we get insights into how to fill in our own.
I had studied with this workshop leader before, in 2009, when I took the failed Bread Loaf admissions piece to him as a way of getting back to work and in hope of figuring out what was wrong with it. That had been a good experience, and I expected the same this time. To my consternation, however, the workshop leader posted remarks about my story that were not craft-based (analyzing characterization, dialogue, word choice, etc.), but reader-response based (e.g. “This character reminds me of a guy who lived above us when we were first married.”). And to make matters worse, his reader response completely misunderstood the nature of my story, and led the conversation in a direction that was less than useful for me.
He knew that I was upset. (Probably the “WHAT???” I placed in response to a remark that made no sense to me gave him a clue.) He wrote to me off the discussion page to apologize, and I responded with details about exactly why I was unhappy with the way things were going with my story. In getting at the heart of my anger, I remembered Evelyn Conlon, whose tutelage had not served me well in 1994.
That was the year I spent part of the summer in Dublin. I enrolled for a writers’ workshop sponsored by an American university and held at the Irish Writers’ Centre in Parnell Square. Participants stayed in private homes and rooming houses around the city. My accommodations were in Goatstown, a suburb south of Dublin. I had a single room at the top of the stairs. You had to turn the hot water heater on before you wanted to take a shower. Every morning I had to pop the battery out of the ticking clock in the kitchen while I had my C&C. A poet staying there marveled at the fact that anyone would get up early and write for an hour or so before breakfast. (She was kind of dippy.) Another poet and her come-along husband left early because the trip turned out to be too much walking for them, especially for the man, who was then about the age I am now. A University College student from Korea had the corner room. He did yoga in the garden every morning. The woman who ran the place got around town on a motorcycle.
The structure of the program was not unlike that of Bread Loaf, except instead of having a single workshop leader, there were five different ones who came one after the other, each of them addressing two student manuscripts, leading discussion, and providing annotated comments in a private conference. I was assigned to Evelyn Conlon (you can follow the link to her site to learn something about her), a writer I had never heard of. She wasn’t part of the program staff. Instead she came on the tenth day of the experience, a sort of visiting professor who would lead a workshop, conduct a class, and then give a reading.
he experience was, to say the least, unsatisfactory. Nine years later, in another workshop where there was a bad fit between me and the leader, I was asked to “write a scene involving a character based on someone in this workshop.” Here is what emerged, pretty much a verbatim rendering of what happened that day in Dublin, Evelyn Conlon’s similar unpleasant qualities grafted onto the Bread Loaf faculty member:
Siobhan Fitzhugh arrived on the fourth day. Everything about her was soft and sagging except her hair, which was cropped short and spiked in that butch buzz favored by menopausal women. Squat and square, she stood rather than sat at the head of the table, drew some papers out of her satchel, squared them, and said, “Well, let’s begin.”
She first asked each of us to say our name and where we’d gone to school. She frowned when Peter, first chair to her right, said “Slippery Rock State College.” Her frown deepened through the recital of small regional colleges even most of us had never heard of. She wrote the name of each school beside that of its graduate on her class list. The frown lifted when Lisa, fourth from the end, said “Vassar.”
“Ah, yes, Vassar,” said Siobhan Fitzhugh with relief.
We went around the table again, this time giving the title of the last book we’d read. This information too she wrote down. What on earth is she going to do with this information? I wrote in the margin of my notebook page, and elbowed the man sitting beside me. He shrugged. When we’d all responded, she launched into a narrative of her background, her education, the forces that had led her to become a writer.
Only a half hour of the session remained. “Well,” she said. “Let’s have at an exercise, shall we?”
Peter, whose manuscript was up for critique along with mine, looked at her with astonishment, then over at me.
“Miss Fitzhugh,” I said. “What about our stories?”
“What about them?” she said.
“You’re supposed to take them through workshop today, mine and Peter’s.”
“Workshop?”
“Yes, you know. So we can get feedback and comments on our work from you and the others.”
The frown came back. “Oh my dear.” she said. “I never read nor comment on student work. It’s just too, well, inept.”
I had bought Evelyn Conlon’s collection of short stories, Taking Scarlet as a Real Colour, on the first day, in anticipation of my experience of having her as my tutor. I’d expected to attend her reading, and to ask her to sign the book for me.
I didn’t attend her reading that night. I didn’t get the book signed. And I never saw Evelyn Conlon again. I threw the book into my suitcase and hauled it home with me, unpacked it, and for the last seventeen years moved it from shelf to shelf as my fiction collection grew. But I never opened it.
Until today.
The story is well-plotted and well-paced. The language is elegant without being flowery. An explicit sex scene between Lucy and the man she meets in London, the kind of prose almost impossible to craft well, is beautifully rendered:
He wanted to put out the light.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because if I make love with you without the light on, the dark will never be as bad again.”
It seemed as if cloudy bits inside her head were melting, her blood was wet, slipping into places that had been dry for a while.
I loved my time in Ireland. Reading the fifty or so pages of the journal I kept while I was there took me back, reminded me of small details I had forgotten. Mementos of the sojourn hang on my walls — a framed copy of a Louis MacNeice poem that includes the thought “[Dublin] was never my town . . . but yet she holds my mind,” an aerial photograph of the Liffey showing the bridges you can cross in a zig-zag hike, and one of the lake isle of Innisfree. I still have the bus pass I used, and when I saw the movie version of A Circle of Friends, I recognized the bus stop Minnie Driver uses as one I used too. I sometimes think about going back, about going back to the island of Iona, not all that far to the north. But knowing how way leads on to way . . . .
I’ve grown as a writer and a workshop member since that experience in Dublin, when I was capable of not much more than a reader-response overview of ways in which I “liked” the story. I did endure another unsatisfactory experience at Bread Loaf in 2003, but I will never again remain silent while something like that happens, to me or to anyone else. And whereas I think Evelyn Conlon was just unaware of what she was supposed to do with us, Lynn Freed at Bread Loaf knew exactly what she was about. I have forgiven Evelyn Conlon. The other one, not a snowball’s chance.
This entry was posted in Bread Loaf, National Short Story Month 2011.
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Ten ways to increase happiness in marriage
The young and excited bride-and-groom-to-be; ecstatic about the upcoming wedding and marriage and the joy that it will bring. Three to six months later, reality has set in and both spouses realize that marriage is no easy task, but one that takes a great deal of effort and patience. The following are tips for both wives and husbands, to help make the task a little less daunting, and to increase the many rewards that are possible in such a marvelous and complex relationship.
Enter the Marriage with the Right Intention and Renew this Often
Both spouses should enter the marriage with the pure intention of pleasing Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, in order to receive His grace and blessings. The marriage itself then becomes an act of worship and one for which both spouses will be rewarded. Allah will be pleased with them and this will be the most critical element in ensuring peace, stability and happiness throughout the marital life. It is also important to realize that when an act of worship is continued over a long period of time, it becomes necessary to renew one's intention often to remain on the correct path and to obtain the most benefit.
Remember that Your Spouse is also Your Brother or Sister in Islam
Too often Muslims treat other people outside the home with kindness and sincerity, but then behave in a very different manner when it comes to their own spouses. Muslims should always remember that one's spouse is also another brother or sister in Islam and that the rights and duties that apply to the general brotherhood (sisterhood) of Islam, should also form the basis of the marital relationship. Obviously, a spouse has rights beyond these, but there should be a clear understanding of the rights of brotherhood (sisterhood) and adherence to these principles.
Do Not Hold Unrealistic Expectations
Before marriage, people often have unrealistic ideas about their spouse-to-be, expecting perfection in all aspects. This rarely, if ever, plays out in reality and can lead to unnecessary problems and concerns. We should recall that Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, created humans as imperfect beings, which means that many mistakes will be made throughout a lifetime. By turning the table and expecting imperfection, we will be pleasantly surprised and pleased when our spouse is much more than we ever hoped for. This, in turn, will lead to contentment within the marriage.
Emphasize the Best in Your Spouse
Since no one is endowed with all of the best qualities, emphasis should be placed on the positive qualities that a spouse possesses. Encouragement, praise, and gratitude should be expressed on a regular basis, which will strengthen these qualities and be beneficial in developing others. An attempt should be made to overlook or ignore negative characteristics, as the Prophet, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam, said, "A believing man should not have any malice against a believing woman. He may dislike one characteristic in her, but may find another in her which is pleasing." (Muslim)
Be Your Mate's Best Friend
Try to think of what a best friend means and be one to your spouse. This may mean sharing interests, experiences, dreams, failures and upsets. It may involve understanding a spouse's likes and dislikes and attempting to please him or her in any way possible. A best friend is also usually someone that can be confided to trusted, and relied upon. A spouse should be the kind of friend that one would want to keep throughout life.
Spend Quality Time Together
It is not enough to share meals, chores and small talk together. Spouses should also find time to focus on strengthening the relationship. Often couples get busy with their own separate tasks and forget about working on one of the most important elements in life. Quality time may be anything from having a quiet, profound conversation to going for a nice long nature walk, to sharing a special hobby or project. Both spouses should enjoy the particular option chosen and distractions should be kept to a minimum.
Express Feelings Often
This is probably a very "Western" concept and one that some people may have difficulty fulfilling, but it is important to be open and honest about one's feelings, both positive and negative. The lines of communication should always be open and any concerns should be brought to the attention of the other spouse as soon as they arise. The rationale of this is that what begins as a simple concern may grow into a major problem if it is not addressed quickly and properly. The "silent treatment" has never been the remedy for anything.
Admit to Mistakes and ask for Forgiveness
Just as we ask Allah to forgive us when we make mistakes, we should also do the same with our spouses. The stronger person is the one who can admit when he or she is wrong, request pardon from the other, and work hard to improve his/her aspects that are in need of change. When a person is unwilling to do this, there will be little growth and development in the marriage.
Never Bring up Mistakes of the Past
It can be very hurting for another person to be reminded of past mistakes. In Islam, it is generally not recommended to dwell on the past. One may remember errors that were made so that they are not repeated, but this should not be done excessively. Certainly, as humans, we are not in the position to judge another person. Advice may be given, but not in a harmful manner.
Surprise Each Other at Times
This may entail bringing home a small gift or flowers, preparing a special meal, dressing up and beautifying oneself (this is not only for women), or sending a secret note in a lunchbox. A little imagination will go a long way here. The idea is to spice up the marriage and avoid getting into a dull routine that may negatively affect the marriage.
Have a Sense of Humour
This particular aspect can go a long way in preventing arguments and brightening the atmosphere of the home. Life is a constant stream of challenges and tests, and to approach it in a light-hearted manner will help to make the journey smoother and more enjoyable. You may also find that your spouse enjoys this characteristic and looks forward to spending time with you because of it.
Quick Tips for Discussions and Disagreements:
Begin with the intention to resolve the issue. If both spouses have this intention and plan to consult together, it is more likely that there will be a successful resolution.
Remember that it takes two to quarrel. If only one person chooses not to argue, there will be no argument. Generally, the one who is wrong does most of the talking.
Both spouses should not be angry at the same time. If one of the spouses becomes upset, it is best if the other tries to remain calm and collected.
Never yell at each other unless the house is on fire. Of course, house fires do not occur very frequently; yelling should occur at about the same rate.
Never go to sleep with an argument unsettled. This is one of the worst things that can happen in a marriage and should be avoided as much as possible. This allows hurt feelings and thoughts to linger and generally exacerbates the problem.
If one spouse needs to win, let it be your mate. Do not focus on winning yourself; this is the main reason that discussions tend to become heated.
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Chris Kelly
Forward & Assistant Captain
Chris Kelly is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward currently playing for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL). Kelly was drafted 94th overall by the Ottawa Senators in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft and made his NHL debut on February 5, 2004, in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. In his rookie season of 2005–06, he became a regular in Ottawa’s lineup, appearing in all of the team’s 82 games and registering 30 points. Kelly was traded to the Boston Bruins on February 15, 2011 and was a member of the team’s 2011 Stanley Cup championship. He continues to serve as an alternate captain for the Bruins.
Out of the Ice Age: Analytics in the NHL
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Re-establishing Government
JAPAN EMPIRE ACCESSION TO THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS OF 1949 AND THEIR ADDITIONAL PROTOCOLS
RECOGNIZING AS COMPULSORY THE JURISDICTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
Red Cross Law of Japan Empire
Japan Empire requests Protecting Powers to station in Formosa
2016 Proclamation on the Forever Heaven Celebration Day
Calls on Occupying Power to return Courts
Notification about Philippines v. China
Proclamation on the Forever Heaven Celebration Day of 2015
Proclamation of the Red Crystal Rising Sun Emblem
Protest to Occupying force's illegal Elections
Japanese Taiwan Relation Act
sovereign rights
Residence Policy
Diplomatic Friendships
Congratulating Malaysia
Central Information
Notification about PCA Case number 2013-19
Notification about “The Republic of Philippines v. The People's Republic of China”
Published on 6 May 2016
The Re-establishing government of Japan Empire
To Respected Judges: Judge Thomas A. Mensah of Ghana, Judge Jean-Pierre Cot of France, Judge Stanislaw Pawlak of Poland, Professor Alfred Soons of the Netherlands, and Judge Rüdiger Wolfrum of Germany.
This is the Government of Japanese Empire and named the Re-establishing government of Japan Empire speaking.
The Government was formed by UN NGO RCJE (Rescue Committee for the people of Japan Empire) on World Day of Social Justice of 2014, with declaration of respecting, accepting and complying with all Geneva Conventions (1949) and their three additional protocols.
(http://www.regovje.org/index.php/en/profile/re-establishing-government )
The Government in all territories subjects to the Jurisdiction of International Court of Justice(ICJ), Permanent Court of Arbitration(PCA) and International Criminal Court(ICC).
The Government brings forward this notification about Case “The Republic of Philippines v. The People's Republic of China” (PCA Case number 2013-19).
The argued areas in PCA Case number 2013-13 belong to the Japanese Empire.
Japanese Empire’s Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands are fully entitled to Territorial Sea, Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and Continental Shelf.
All the things that Japan (MacArthur Constitution) renounced belong to Japanese Empire.
1. Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands are listed in “TREATY OF PEACE WITH JAPAN” which is also named “San Francisco Peace Treaty (hereinafter referred to SFTP).”
SFPT Article 2 f. states “Japan renounces all right, title and claim to the Spratly Islands and to the Paracel Islands.”
SFPT Article 25 states “Subject to the provisions of Article 21, the present Treaty shall not confer any rights, titles or benefits on any State which is not an Allied Power as herein defined; nor shall any right, title or interest of Japan be deemed to be diminished or prejudiced by any provision of the Treaty in favor of a State which is not an Allied Power as so defined.”
SFPT Article 21 states “Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 25 of the present Treaty, China shall be entitled to the benefits of Articles 10 and 14 a. 2.; and Korea to the benefits of Articles 2, 4, 9 and 12 of the present Treaty.”
China didn’t sign SFPT neither one of the Allied Powers. China can only be entitled to the benefits of Articles 10 and 14 a. 2., and not like Korea be entitled to the benefits of Articles 2.
Obviously, China cannot be entitled to the benefits of Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands.
2. SFTP 1 b. states “The Allied Powers recognize the full sovereignty of the Japanese people over Japan and its territorial waters.”
This Article defined that Japan which signed SFPT is not the Japan (Japanese Empire) surrendered to Allied Powers but the Japan who was independent on 3 May 1947 with MacArthur Constitution under military occupying.
“Transferring sovereignty under military occupying” violated Laws of War. This is maybe another topic about USA’s aggression of war crimes. The government has brought forward the denouncement against illegal MacArthur Constitution in the document”平成27年 天長節 感恩文告” or in English “proclamations on forever god celebration 2015” dated on 20 December 2015. (http://www.regovje.org/files/20151223S.pdf in Chinese)
The Charter of the United Nations Article 2 paragraph 4 states “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”.
According to The Charter of the United Nations, the Japanese Empire surrendered on 2 September 1945 shall still keep her territorial integrity or political independence.
Peace Treaty is Only for Peace but not for transferring sovereignty of territories,
SFPT Article 2 helped the Japan (MacArthur Constitution) to distinguish her executive power, legislative power and jurisdiction from Japanese Empire (Meiji Constitution).
(See “Jurisdiction over Formosa and Pescadores” http://www.rcje.org/files/Jurisdiction_over_Formosa_and_Pescadores.pdf in English / Chinese )
All the things that Japan (MacArthur Constitution) renounced in SFPT belong to Japanese Empire.
The Charter of the United Nations Article 2 paragraph 4 states “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
The Japanese Empire shall still keep her territorial integrity or political independence.
Selig S.N. Tsai 蔡 世能
(Sec.) Prime Minister
Re-establishing government of Japan Empire
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Faulkner, John (Irish painter, active 1848-1890) (54)Barton, Rose (Irish painter, 1865-1929) (28)Brownlow, George Washington (British painter, 1835-1876) (9)Barret, George, the younger (British painter, ca. 1767 - 1842) (8)Ferneley, John E. (English painter, 1815-1862) (6)Barry, James (Irish painter, printmaker, and lithographer, 1741-1806, active in England) (5)Buck, Adam (British painter and printmaker, 1759-1833) (5)Ashford, William (Irish painter, 1746-1824) (4)Brocas, Samuel Frederick (Irish cityscape painter, watercolorist, and draftsman, 1792-1847) (4)Brocas, William (Irish artist, ca.1794-1868) (4)... View More
Seascapes (7)genre (5)Act of Union (2)Churches (2)Lough Mahon (2)4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards (1)Abbey River (1)Allotments in art (1)Architecture, Neo-Classical, in art (1)... View More
1990 - 1999 (93)1980 - 1989 (45)1970 - 1979 (8)1910 - 1919 (1)1904 - 1909 (7)
A Spinning Lesson
Brownlow, George Washington (British painter, 1835-1876) (1997-11)
Limerick, the Courthouse and St. Mary's Cathedral
Brocas, Samuel Frederick (Irish cityscape painter, watercolorist, and draftsman, 1792-1847) (1984-03-20)
Carding Wool, a scene in an Irish Cottage
Brownlow, George Washington (British painter, 1835-1876) (1992-06-12)
Cambria in a country dance
Buck, Adam (British painter and printmaker, 1759-1833) (1984-08)
'The Smithy', a visit to the blacksmith
Brocas, William (Irish artist, ca.1794-1868) (1994-05-19)
Street scene in Dublin with a cabby on the banks of the Liffey, with view of Halfpenny Bridge beyond
Ferneley, John E. (English painter, 1815-1862) (1996-05-16)
Lough Gill with the Isle of Inishfree
Faulkner, John (Irish painter, active 1848-1890) (1996-05-09)
A Mountainous Wooded Lake Landscape with an angler
Barret, George, the younger (British painter, ca. 1767 - 1842) (1981-07-30)
By the Ring, Hyde Park, Evening
Barton, Rose (Irish painter, 1865-1929) (1904)
Herding Cattle, near Cavontry [sic]
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State + Local 490945451
Help is on the way for large homeless encampment in south Minneapolis
"Unprecedented" effort will offer assistance on housing, medical care, drug treatment.
By Chris Serres Star Tribune
August 16, 2018 — 10:41am
A hastily formed coalition of medical and social service agencies plans a major outreach effort Friday at a homeless camp in south Minneapolis that has alarmed local authorities and American Indian leaders because of its growing size and health risks.
Health and social workers plan to sweep through the sprawling settlement, offering to help the tent dwellers find housing, medical care and other social services in a concerted push before any attempt by the state to force people off the site, which is situated on land owned by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT).
The tent compound, near the intersection of Hiawatha and Cedar Avenues in south Minneapolis, has grown rapidly this summer and is now believed to be the largest homeless encampment ever seen in Minnesota. Groups organizing Friday’s effort include Hennepin County Health Care for the Homeless, St. Stephen’s Human Services and People Incorporated Mental Health Services.
The agencies involved said the unusual effort reflects a growing concern that many of the more than 60 people living at the camp are suffering from serious illnesses and substance-use problems. The encampment has several known cases of a drug-resistant infection from bacteria known as MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which can lead to sepsis, pneumonia, bloodstream infections and death. There are also reports of hepatitis C, sexually transmitted illnesses and scabies. Heroin and methamphetamine use is widespread in and around the site, which is littered with used needles.
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“This is challenging us to think differently, because what we have been doing is not working,” said David Hewitt, director of the Hennepin County Office to End Homelessness. “This represents a concentrated and cumulative effort that is, to some extent, unprecedented.”
The sprawling encampment has, almost overnight, thrown a light on the depth of Minnesota’s opioid epidemic, particularly in the local Indian community, and the challenges that local officials face in helping the city’s growing population of homeless adults.
The camp consists mostly of Indian men and women who have struggled to find stable housing because of drug addictions, health problems and joblessness. Many of the tent dwellers say they feel safer living in proximity in a large encampment, where they can watch over each other in groups, than being scattered on the streets or in homeless shelters. The concentration of tents has also made it easier for local police and street outreach groups to provide food, water, clean needles and overdose response kits with naloxone, a drug that can counter the effects of opioids.
Still, outreach efforts to date have been uncoordinated and focused mainly on providing immediate relief, such as food and water, to the most vulnerable people at the site. On Friday, health and social service workers will conduct a “massive assessment,” stopping at each tent site and signing people up for public housing waiting lists, officials said. They will also conduct voluntary evaluations, known as “Rule 25” assessments, that determine whether a person has a substance-use disorder and qualifies for publicly funded treatment.
“It’s a major push to bring services to them, rather than wait for them to come to us,” said Travis Earth-Werner, a case manager at the Kola program, which provides support services to homeless Indians, including a nearby drop-in clinic on E. Franklin Avenue.
Organizers said they feel they are in a race against time.
Twice in the past month, MnDOT crews have attempted to clear tent dwellers off the site, which is located along a highway sound wall along Hiawatha Avenue; each time, the campers have returned after the authorities left. Camp dwellers said they were told that a sweep of the encampment could occur as early as next week. Despite repeated requests, MnDOT officials have not disclosed their specific plans for the site except to say, in a statement, that the agency sometimes clears homeless encampments when they become a public safety concern.
“They are finally surrounded by people who really care and are getting them help,” said James Cross, founder of Natives Against Heroin, a 12,000-member street outreach group in Minneapolis that advocates for sobriety. “It would be a travesty if they were removed now, and we will stand arm-in-arm with our brothers and sisters and take over the camp if we have to.”
Wheelchair and catheter
Still, the lack of basic hygiene and health services has become a serious concern. The compound has just one portable toilet, and some tent dwellers bathe in the open by pouring bottles of water over their heads. Many of the new arrivals are sleeping without tents on blankets spread out on the grass.
“It’s heart-wrenching,” said Richard Latterner, treatment manager at the White Earth Opiate Treatment Program in Minneapolis. “There are moms with children who are going without basic medical care.”
On a recent afternoon, one woman sat doubled over in her wheelchair outside her campsite. The woman, who identified herself as Yvonne, said she lost use of her legs after a former boyfriend assaulted her with a knife two years ago. Now homeless and living in a small tent, Yvonne relies on a pair of female campers to help her climb into her wheelchair and secure her catheter bag each morning. The area around her catheter tube has not been cleaned for months and may be infected; Yvonne said she has been unable to call for a doctor’s appointment because someone stole her cellphone.
“I’m not asking for a handout,” said Yvonne, 32. “But I could use a place to wash up. I feel stinky, sweaty and dirty.”
The American Indian Community Development Corp. (AICDC), a nonprofit on E. Franklin Avenue, this week proposed converting a nearby vacant lot into a temporary hygiene station with portable toilets and showers. The lot would also serve as a staging area where nonprofit groups and area churches could provide medical care and drug intervention services, AICDC officials said.
“If we don’t address this now, we will be in the same shape as Portland, Seattle and San Francisco,” said AICDC chief executive Michael Goze, referring to the more permanent homeless encampments on the West Coast. “It’s going to get cold and it’s going to get snowy, and people will be at a crossroads.”
Chris Serres covers social services for the Star Tribune.
chris.serres@startribune.com 612-673-4308 chrisserres
The United States is hitting four top Myanmar generals, including the country's commander in chief and his deputy, with sanctions over the mass killings of Rohingya Muslims.
Growing Mpls. homeless camp raises public health alarms
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March 2016: 'Granny cams' gain popularity for catching elder abuse • State + Local
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Highly-produced music vs clean audio mixing
Home/Blogs/Music production/Highly-produced music vs clean audio mixing
With the advent of digital audio workstations, effects can be easily added to a recording by two primary means during the audio mixing process: hardware and software. A solo artist with a drum machine and loops can produce a band sound with just one track of live music. Producers like Phil Spector, famous for the Wall of Sound, were famous for creating a very full sound.
On the other hand, you have much roots music that is produced as naked as possible. The focus here is on getting as close to the live sound as possible. I have spent a whole day with my cousin working with microphones and mild effects to get the an accurate recording sound of his wonderful Collings guitar.
The focus of Tresbear Music Studio is to get as close to a live sound as possible. Empty spots are considered to be musical punctuation. This approach really fits our music: simple and organic in nature. My cousin, on the other hand, fills his music with as much production value as he can. His music is more complex; and with that, there seems to be a need to fill the empty spots using various music production methods.
The bottom line is, this is largely a matter of taste, preference, and what production value is befitting to the particular music. Shane Lamotte argues in a blog the need for solid content prior to productions. He notes a number of superbly produced products that nobody wants. There is a worthwhile thread on the Gibson Music Forum, asking whether “Modern Music is Overproduced.” Even the Beatles were criticized, and rightfully so, IMHO. Much of The Beatles’ later music was so overproduced that it could not be played in concert. This is not much of an issue for a strictly studio album.
This brings up another issue: Is the music going to be played live? If so, production values should be focused toward making the CD playable in a live setting. I would not want a key component to the sound of a particular song (e.g., dual fiddles when only one fiddle is available on stage) to make the concert version sound inferior to the studio version. When listening to “overproduced” music, there is the impression that the music is not real and has lost its organic nature. There may be so much background that the music itself is lost or becomes “muddy.”
Personally, I prefer studio music that emulates live concert music. I want the music to sound real, coming from instruments, especially acoustic instruments, Perfect comes at a cost. When note for note perfect, music can lose its feeling and soul. I have been described as a minimalist, which is for the most part true. I prefer live recordings, warts and all, to highly produced studio albums. So the answer for me is to produce an album that sounds like the musician are in the same room with you.
Mixing: The 2nd key process in music recording
Music production advice from audio gearheads
Ray Dryden, Audio Engineer
Audio frequency in music & sound engineering
By Tony Huber|2014-01-07T17:05:47+00:00January 7th, 2014|Music production|0 Comments
About the Author: Tony Huber
Music arrangement from a Tresbear perspective
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UN Vienna Forum Part 3: Second Plenary and Role of Religious Communities
The second day of the conference opened up with presentations by three different speakers: Babacar Ndiaye, UNODC-West Africa and Central Africa Regional Office, Professor Claude d'Estree from the University of Denver, and Martin Chungong, Director of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Mr. Ndiaye spoke about the problem of post-conflict situations. Essentially, he opened up with the fact that children and women are extremely vulnerable in post-conflict areas, even in situations where there are peace agreements. He suggested that women need to have a stronger presence during peace negotiations in order to do something about this problem.
Professor d'Estree spoke about the Cape Town Forum in October 2007, which gathered religious leaders to discuss what the religious community is called to do in response to human trafficking/modern-day slavery. The results of this gathering included Cape Town Declaration, Plan of Action, and a series of projects. According to the professor, 84% of the world's population adheres to one of three major religions so the involvement of the institutions will be a tremendous resource in the fight against trafficking. Now, an educational campaign launched to reach religious leadership to then educate their congregation and a website has been created in multi-language for education and dialogue. Professor d'Estree believes, "There is power in the pulpit, but there is even more power in the congregation.”
Last to speak in the morning session was Martin Chungong of Cameroon, Director of Inter-Parliamentary Union. Mr. Chungong stated that the IPU was working to address some of the root causes of root trafficking: poverty, poor governance, globalization, development, and gender inequality. He feels the role of the IPU should effect cooperation between source and destination countries and stated that in any case, the response should be sensitive to local cultures and religions.
From this, he mentioned the following recommendations:
Parliamentarians have legislative role to develop the right atmosphere and ratify relevant
They should also take measures to ensure implementation and harmonization occurs
Lastly, they need to adopt oversight of these policies
Although this is out of order, I'm going to report on some of the information gathered from the Role of Religious Communities as the session on Communities in Crisis will need a separate post. The session on the Role of Religious Communities brought together representatives from the Christian, Muslim, Judaic, and Buddhist traditions to speak about the faith-based approach to combating human trafficking. Among the panelists were Maria Anshor of Indonesia and Imam Yahya Pallavicini of Italy representing Islam; Rabbi Levi Lauer of Israel representing Judaism; Dr. Claude d’Estree of the United States representing Buddhism; and HR Vasile Ciobanu of Moldova and Sister Colleen Wilkinson of South Africa representing Christianity.
Two basic topics were discussed: the role of religious leadership in the fight against human trafficking and what religious organizations or institutions have already done. The conversation, at times, diverged to a more theoretical level, and thus perhaps points were missed, but I have included some of the important and interesting ones below.
Ms. Anshor spoke of the role of Ulamas as community leaders, preachers, counselors, and school teachers who have the authority to interpret Islamic values and laws. In Indonesia, the Central Board of Nahdlatul Ulama issued a fatwa that TIP is haram (forbidden) according to Islamic law. Ms. Anshor is the director of Fatayat, a faith-based Islamic organization in Indonesia which provides victims services as well as community activism. The details on the role of her organization's work after the 2005 Tsunami are detailed in the post about Communities in Crisis.
According to Dr. d'Estree, Buddhism in the West and Asia differ on the role of leaders and teachers. There is a type of Engaged Buddhism that exists, which aims to promote Buddhists to work together beyond seeking solely attainment of enlightenment for oneself. This also involves Buddhist leaders discussing these issues amongst one another.
The Christian representatives both cited the Bible, particularly "Love for one's neighbor" as the basis for Christian action against slavery. Both Sister Wilkinson and HR Ciobanu discussed their separate anti-trafficking activities in South Africa and Moldova at length, including providing some victim services, working with national religious leaders to promote awareness, as well as coordinating with non-religious NGOs.
Rabbi Lauer is the Founding Executive Director of Atzum, an Israeli NGO with a separate task force on human trafficking in Israel. Their current projects include advocacy, research, policy suggestions, and public awareness and education. His thoughts on how to engage Jewish religious figures included a series of questions that addressed the problems of how to present the crime and how to use scripture to call leaders to action.
Posted by Buffalo Expat at 9:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Government Action, Religious Response, Stakeholder Collaboration, Trafficking Related Conferences and Events, UN GIFT
UN Vienna Forum Part 2: Private Sector Involvement
On Tuesday, there was a special session focused on engaging the private sector in the fight against human trafficking. According to the background paper, the session was meant to focus on what efforts corporations are putting forth already and what they can do to further the solution to this problem:
Employers are increasingly aware that their supply chain is vulnerable to this crime, which can lead to unlawful practices and consumer discrimination against their brands. Some companies protect their supply chain against human trafficking by adopting codes of conduct that eliminate forced labour, trafficking, and sexual exploitation. On occasion, corporations take the additional step of supporting public awareness campaigns about the horrors of trafficking.
While these measures help, some corporations are going beyond mitigation and public awareness. These innovators are at the front lines of the battle, applying their core competencies in creative ways. Notable examples include financial institutions which focus on the flow of money, hotel chains which deny access to their facilities for sex tourism, and IT companies using technology as tools for prevention, enforcement and reintegration.
Yet compared to other issues, few corporations are actively involved in the front lines of the fight against human trafficking. Why is this so and what needs to be done to actively engage the private sector in this battle?
The session participants included Peter Brew, Director of the International Business Leader's Forum; David Arkless, Senior Vice President of Manpower; Dan Henkle, Senior Vice President, Social Responsibility at Gap; Lori Forman, Regional Director for Community Affairs at Microsoft; Rakesh Mathur, CEO of WelcomHeritage Hotels; and Minister of Labor Oscar Fernandes of India, among others.
WelcomHeritage Hotels- The Sardar Samand Palace in Pali
The first question the moderator put forth was about why the private sector has been slow to engage the issue compared to other projects. The panelists pointed out that often the media is slow to report on any of these activities, but also the companies are not campaign or lobby institutions and that organizations need to identify the real business issues connected with trafficking if they want the private sector to engage.
Then the panelists opened up into more of a conversation about current or suggested practices to combat trafficking within or by corporations:
Business-to-business advocacy
Corporations can regulate themselves and their practices
Companies do go into refugee camps and victims' shelters to recruit people for work to give them sustainable jobs and job skills
Rakesh Mathur of WelcomHeritage Hotels explained how the hotel chain has many hotels in rural areas and in an effort to promote local development, hiring local employees has become a priority
One panelist said that there needs to be a values system implemented within the corporation surrounding male employees who travel including the prohibition of purchasing sex while on business-related trips. He said this is very difficult to enforce, but is possible. This reduces the risk of your employees becoming demand factors in trafficking. (From what I have understood from other sessions, traveling males are one of the main demographic populations that sex tourism and brothels advertise to).
Another suggestion was to involve business schools and students in projects related to social responsibility and cooperation with NGOs. One panelist brought up a document produced by Harvard Business School that provides NGOs with some guidelines on how best to partner and approach for-profit businesses for support. I think it may be this document, but it is undoubtedly part of Harvard's Social Enterprise Initiative.
The panelists also made suggestions for how the private sector could become more engaged in the response to human trafficking:
Businesses are especially interested in investing in projects that work towards root causes like poverty reduction as an area they, as part of the global economic engine, can contribute to.
Companies like to donate to results-driven methods and programs such as how many kids were saved as a result of the project.
Someone also mentioned that coordination between private and non-profit would be boosted by a global organizing center point for business involvement like, for example, The Global Fund and (Product) for the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Two last points of interest brought up by the panelists were:
From a business perspective, the people who fight against human trafficking and the people who commit the crimes have serious differences in terms of money. How can $15 million dollars invested annually against trafficking fight against a $32 billion dollar-a-year industry like human trafficking?
Lastly, the panelists differed on whether the government should step up more regulations or businesses should self-govern on this issue. Some raised doubts that companies would go ahead and commit to ridding their supply chains and traveling businessmen from practices that fuel human trafficking.
Posted by Buffalo Expat at 10:13 AM 1 comments
Labels: Government Action, Innovation, Private Sector, Stakeholder Collaboration, Trafficking Related Conferences and Events, UN GIFT
UN Vienna Forum Part 1: Opening & Criminal Justice Procedure
The United Nations building in Vienna
VIENNA- I attended the recent UN GIFT Vienna Forum and have much to share. I will break down these posts into separate parts, each post covering either part of a day in the conference or one specific session if there is a lot of material to cover. I will post about the events I was able to attend, however as there were many events, it will only represent a small amount of the knowledge that was shared among the hundreds of experts, academics, NGO representatives, government officials, UN officials, and civic activists that were there over the course of last week. All together, I understood that about 1,500 people attended the conference.
It was an exciting opening day to the UN GIFT Vienna Forum on Wednesday. Lyse Doucet of the BBC served as the moderator for the opening panel of speakers, which included Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the UNODC (you can find his full opening speech here), Ursula Plassnik, the Austrian Minister for European and International Affairs, First Lady Suzanne Mubarak of Egypt, actress and Chair of the Helen Bamber Foundation Emma Thompson, and singer Ricky Martin.
Minister Plassnik touched on an issue that seemed to reoccur throughout the other sessions I attended and that was coordination: coordination between state and non-state actors, coordination on a regional scale, coordination on a global scale. Essentially, that the fight against human trafficking needs an organized center so that the criminals aren't more organized than the people trying to stop it. I do have half of First Lady Mubarak's speech here.
Her second half addressed many issues including the different elements of Egypt's success in anti-trafficking measures and the International Women's Peace Movement, which Mubarak started in 2003 to promote peace and human security. The Movement also has the End Human Trafficking Now Initiative, which works with the business community. She also highlighted things like the involvement of the private sector, the importance of legally binding international instruments such as the CoE convention, and the steps against trafficking taken by Arab states (especially the Arab League and the Arab Women Organization).
Emma Thompson's speech was especially moving as she told the story of a young woman who was trafficked from Moldova to the massage parlor on the street Ms. Thompson grew up on. This woman became part of the inspiration and a contributor to the exhibit "Journey". The exhibit has been on display throughout the conference outside the Hofburg Palace.
Steve Chalke, the Chair of Stop the Traffik, delivered a dynamic speech about the power of grassroots action by discussing the end of the gladiator games in Constantinople and the power of a 21 year-old monk that sacrificed himself to end the brutality of the games. Mr. Chalke then explained Stop-the-Traffik's humble roots, and how it grew to where it is today. He then delivered the 1.5 million signatures collected by the campaign and delivered them to Mr. Antonio Maria Costa of UNODC. The delivery was accompanied by a video of the campaign to gather the signatures.
Mr. Costa then delivered his speech that explained the efforts of UNODC and the importance of regional cooperation. He also mentioned that the UN General Assembly will be taking up debate on this issue in May or June of this year.
While the opening session ended, the program rolled right into statements by various government representatives who gave speeches on the activities and commitments of their respective countries including First Lady Margarita Cedeño of the Dominican Republic, Chair of the UAE's National Committee to Fight Human Trafficking Dr. Anwar Gargash, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Belarus, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, and Indonesia's Minister for Women's Empowerment Dr. Meutia Hatta. Their speeches encompassed a very wide range of topics, all of which were addressed throughout the sessions of the conference.
That day, I was able to attend two more sessions. The first was "Criminal Justice Responses to Human Trafficking" and it was set up as a mock investigation and trial with the purpose of identifying detrimental and recommended practices especially in relation to the rights of the victim. It was opened with a short performance by Emma Thompson and followed by a series of good/bad scenarios in the police station and court house.
The scenarios that attempted to show detrimental practices or the "bad" scenarios showed the investigator using insensitive language to the victim, an assumption of consensual involvement in prostitution, allowing a translator to apply pressure on the victim using native derogatory phrases, etc. The "bad" court room scenario allowed for the trafficker to have contact with and harass the victim before the trial began, a poorly prepared prosecution, and the judge allowed a purposefully intimidating line of questioning.
The scenarios intended to show the recommended practices when dealing with a trafficking case included an officer that used clear language, but used leading questions that eventually brought out the whole story of the victim without further adding to the trauma. He also asked for consent to allow an NGO representative to sit with the victim while she gave her testimony, and the representative then explain the services they have to offer the victim. The "good" court room scenario provided the victim with protection by bringing in a screen that hid the victim's identity from the public, as well as a well-prepared prosecutor with corroborative evidence, and the judge prevented the victim's personal sexual history from entering into evidence.
The audience discussed their thoughts and experiences after the scenarios were played out, and some concerns were raised with the recommended practices. For example, the NGO representative offered comfort to the victim while she told her story, and a member of the audience said she would never do that as the victim is most likely already traumatized by physical contact. Another objection was raised that the NGO representative was even at the police station as the victim should never feel confused about the role of the police and the role of the NGO. This also led to a debate as to whether police could conduct interviews at the NGO, however an officer in the audience felt that this tends to raise fears among other victims at the NGO and may put the victim at risk as everyone else at the shelter would know who was talking to the police.
Overall, I would say the presentations were a little overdone and unlikely, however, at the same time, court and investigation procedures are an important part of combating the crime, yet have been one of the slowest elements worldwide to be brought up to speed.
Labels: Government Action, Stakeholder Collaboration, Trafficking Related Conferences and Events, UN GIFT
Trafficking Tough to Tame in Rich Gulf States
From Reuters:
DUBAI (Reuters) - Aysha sold her wedding gold to pay traffickers $200 (100 pounds) to find her and a cousin jobs in Dubai.
A world away from her village in Uzbekistan, she was forced to work in a disco and expected to offer sex. Beaten by her Uzbek boss when she shooed prospective clients away, she and her cousin fled and hid in airport toilets for two days, surviving on tap water.
Aysha's story reveals the dark underbelly of glitzy, fast-paced Dubai, the Gulf Arab trade and tourism hub. It also highlights a problem that bedevils many states in the region and is a bone of contention with their close ally the United States.
The 26-year-old, who only identified herself as Aysha for fear the traffickers would hurt her family, supports her son and sick mother back home. "Some girls like going to discos but I am Muslim, I cannot go to places where people dance and drink let alone work there," she said at the shelter in Dubai where she now lives.
Tens of thousands of people arrive in Dubai and neighbouring states each year, seeking a better life in a region booming on record oil revenues. But the wealth on show in Dubai's sprawling shopping malls, skyscrapers and smart restaurants attracts traffickers too.
Foreign workers and expatriates with different lifestyles and cultures make up over 80 percent of the more than 4 million population in the United Arab Emirates, a Muslim country. Prostitution, even adultery, are illegal yet bars abound where women are available for sex.
In a 2007 report, the U.S. State Department accused its Gulf Arab allies of being among the worst offenders in failing to prevent people from being sold into sex and servitude. It put the UAE on "Tier 2 Watch List" for not doing enough but Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar joined Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan on a list of 16 states subject to possible sanctions.
In 2006, the UAE -- a wealthy seven-member federation including Abu Dhabi and Dubai -- passed the Arab world's first law aimed specifically at combating the trade in humans, with penalties ranging from five years to life in jail. Last month, the nearby Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, which has a free trade pact with the United States, issued its own law.
"It is not a stigma on the UAE that human trafficking takes place because many prosperous, attractive places to live have this problem," said Anwar Gargash, a minister who heads a committee set up to coordinate efforts to implement the law. "The stigma is if we do nothing about it," he said. "We have done a lot ... but we have a long way to go."
Posted by JHak at 4:52 PM 3 comments
Labels: Domestic Slavery, Dubai, Government Action, Middle East, Sex Trafficking, United Arab Emirates
Human Trafficking in Wisconsin, USA
From Chippewa.com:
MADISON — Human trafficking is happening in Wisconsin, but most law enforcement agencies haven’t received any training to recognize the crime and don’t consider it a problem, a new state report says.
The Office of Justice Assistance’s study marks the first attempt to gauge trafficking in the state. It concluded international and domestic trafficking involving dozens of victims is taking place in urban and rural areas across much of the southern two-thirds of the state.
But three-quarters of the justice agencies and more than a third of social services providers surveyed in the study said trafficking is not a serious problem or isn’t a problem at all.
“This is an indication of the lack of awareness,’’ the report said. “At the very least, the results indicate a need for training and education.’’
Tim Dewane is the director of the School Sisters of Notre Dame’s Office for Global Justice and Peace in Elm Grove and a member of the Milwaukee Rescue and Restore Coalition, which was launched by the federal government to raise human trafficking awareness. He said the report’s findings aren’t surprising.
“When Wisconsin or anywhere else has taken a closer look at human trafficking, they realize for most law enforcement it hasn’t been on their radar screen,’’ Dewane said. “This isn’t just a global issue but has local ramifications as well. Hopefully (the report) will open up some eyes.’’
The state Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on a bill that would outlaw human trafficking. Anyone caught trafficking a person for sex or labor would face up to $100,000 in fines and 25 years in prison. Anyone caught trafficking a minor could get 40 years.
Sen. Spencer Coggs, D-Milwaukee, the author of the bill, said the report may drive him to amend it to include police training.
The report calls human trafficking the third largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world. Federal justice and immigration officials estimate as many as 17,500 people are trafficked annually into the U.S. for sex and forced labor, the report said.
The highest profile case in Wisconsin involved a pair Brookfield doctors who forced a Philippine woman to work as their maid for nearly two decades. The couple was convicted in 2006.
But hard data on victims in the state is nonexistent. The Office of Justice Assistance sent out a survey to police, sheriffs and prosecutors as well as social service providers early last year hoping for more information.
Of the 261 justice agencies that responded, only 6 percent said they had run across a case they considered slavery or human trafficking.
Thirteen percent said they didn’t know if they’d ever encountered a case, and 7 percent said they’d had any training on human trafficking.
Posted by JHak at 8:52 AM 0 comments
Labels: Government Action, Human Trafficking, Law Enforcement, Legislation, Low Awareness, Sex Trafficking, Statistics
Human Trafficking to Be a Felony Crime in New Mexico
From the Alamogordo Daily News:
SANTA FE- Human trafficking will be a felony crime in New Mexico under a new law taking effect in July. Governor Bill Richardson signed the crime legislation into law on Friday in Las Cruces. New Mexico was the only border state without a separate crime against human trafficking.
''Human trafficking must be outlawed, human beings should not be treated as property and detained against their will,'' Richardson said in a statement. Attorney General Gary King pushed for the human trafficking legislation, which was sponsored by Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Dona Ana.
Proponents said the new law was needed to prevent New Mexico from becoming a corridor for what often is described as modern-day slavery, in which victims are lured into exploitative jobs or the sex trade and held against their will.
Under the new law, human trafficking will be a third-degree felony, which is punishable by three years in prison. If the victim is under 13, it will be a first-degree felony, which can be punished by a prison term of up to 18 years. If the victim is 13 to 15 years-old, it will be a second-degree felony, which has a basic sentence of up to nine years in prison.
Posted by JHak at 11:55 PM 0 comments
Labels: Government Action, Human Trafficking, Legislation, United States
3 Arrested for Human Trafficking in Delhi
Ajay Shukla, allegedly involved in human trafficking, was arrested by the Crime Branch, Delhi Police
From the Times of India:
NEW DELHI: Delhi Police on Saturday claimed to have cracked a human trafficking racket, which sent over 100 people to the United States using forged documents in the past three years, with the arrests of three persons in the Capital.
The racket used to allegedly target "innocent looking" people who used to queue up at the US embassy for applying for visas, offering the vulnerables their help in rectifying mistakes in supporting documents.
This is one of the three biggest human trafficking racket cracked in the Capital in the last one year.
Following a tip off, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Satyendra Garg told reporters, the arrests were made from various parts of Delhi on February 20.
Ajay Shukla, the alleged kingpin who runs his office from a Safdarjung Hospital staff quarters, his associate Pawan Mishra and Gursahib Singh, a visa applicant, were caught by the special team of Delhi Police's Crime Branch, Garg said. Mishra was caught by the sleuths from Rohini in north-west Delhi and fake bank statements, authority letters, visa deposit slips, visa interview letters besides two original passports were allegedly recovered from him.
His interrogation revealed Shukla's alleged involvement in the racket and based on the information provided by Mishra, Shukla was arrested from near American embassy in Chanakyapuri.
Labels: Arrests, Asia, Human Trafficking, India, Law Enforcement
Nigeria: Media Tasked on Human Trafficking
From AllAfrica.com:
The media has great roles to play in the fight against the trafficking in persons (TIP), the president of Economic Community in West African States (ECOWAS) said yesterday in Abuja.Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, made the statement yesterday at a sensitization workshop organized for the media by the Department of Humanitarian and Social Affairs, ECOWAS. Chambers said trafficking in person is a crime that is pervasive and growing in the West Africa region and to avert this, there is the need for "networking and dialogue with the media."
The ECOWAS president who was represented by the Acting Director of Humanitarian and social affairs, Mrs H.U.Didigu, said the crime which primarily involves women, children, the poorest and the least educated is so serious and pervasive that only a coordinated and vigorous effort of all stakeholders will be able to address it successfully.
"We have always regarded the media as partners in the fight against human traffic especially in the area of prevention and awareness rising. Our expectation from you as key stakeholders is indeed high. Your role as a watchdog in keeping human trafficking on the front burner of societal issues can not be over emphasized. We expect that the media cooperates with us and other stakeholders to give due publicity to counter Trafficking in persons initiatives."
Labels: Human Trafficking, Media, Raising Awareness, Stakeholder Collaboration
Washington D.C. Couple Charged with Sex Trafficking
Adams Morgan, Washington D.C.
From the Examiner:
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - A D.C. couple was arrested on charges of human trafficking and prostituting young females from Mexico and Honduras, according to charging documents filed in federal court.
The arrests of Franklin Yasir Mejia-Macedo and Yaneth Martinez grew out of an investigation centered in North Carolina, according to court documents.
“These arrest were made out of an ongoing investigation, that is really all I can say,” said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Richard Rocha. Mejia and Martinez had business cards printed up for services such as “Hair Cuts for Men Only” and “Flowers Home Delivery,” and handed them to men on the streets of D.C.’s predominately Hispanic neighborhood such as Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights, authorities said. The business cards are commonly used to advertise prostitution, according to an ICE special agent who signed the charging document filed in U.S. District Court.
“Based on my experience in investigating human trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution and related offenses, I know that such language [is] commonly used as code language to advertise prostitution,” the special agent wrote.
The human trafficking and prostitution operation came to the attention of federal law enforcement when Martinez, 33, unwittingly handed one of her cards to a federal source, according to documents. On Monday, federal agents arrested her and Mejia at their Petworth residence. A 24-year-old woman at the residence told agents she served as a prostitute and shared her earnings with Martinez, according to documents.
Mejia admitted that he was a native of Honduras and living illegally in the United States. Mejia was charged with unlawful transportation of an alien. Martinez was picked up on arrest warrant out of North Carolina on charges of sex trafficking.
Posted by JHak at 10:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Arrests, Honduras, Law Enforcement, Mexico, Sex Trafficking, United States
Corrupt Immigration Officials Facilitate Trafficking at Airports
From Xpress:
To help curb human trafficking, a visiting senior Philippine official wants Manila to implement stiff regulations that prohibit airport personnel from escorting departing passengers.
Surveillance cameras need to be installed in major international airports in the Philippines to monitor and catch erring immigration and airport personnel, said Dante Ang, chairman of Philippine Presidential Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force.
He said these are part of sweeping changes that his team has proposed following a dialogue in the UAE with Filipino workers that included about about 40 women who claimed they were forced into prostitution by syndicates between 2006 and 2007.
Ang said his team appreciated the cooperation of the UAE authorities and noted the work of Dubai Police in pursuing human trafficking crimes.
Airport ushers, also called “escorts”, are men or women employed by various government agencies at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila.
They guide passengers through the maze of exit procedures, but they have been targeted by migrant workers groups and politicians for their alleged abuse of duty, including extortion.
Ushers are blamed for squirreling away undocumented overseas workers all the way to the aircraft knowing they don’t have pertinent papers and may end up at the mercy of abusive employers or handlers abroad.
The team’s recommendations will be submitted to Philippine President Gloria Arroyo.
“We recommend the termination of the so-called ‘escort services’, other than for the diplomatic passport holders,” Ang said.
Another solution, he said, is to randomise the queue, and retrofitting all immigration counters with cameras.
“This may not totally eliminate, but it can minimise the problem,” said Ang.
Visit visas have allegedly been used to lure Filipino women who end up being forced into prostitution.
In 2006, 30 Filipinas sought protection from the Philippines Consulate in Dubai against pimps who they claimed forced them into prostitution and 10 more came forward last year. The age of the 40 alleged victims were between 16 and 24.
The official said some of the victims go through Singapore, Hong Kong or Malaysia, before they arrive in Dubai. Filipinos do not require visas to travel to other countries in South East Asia.
“We’ve learnt that in several cases, the syndicate uses a ribbon marker for pre-selected Filipina human trafficking victims so they slip through the airport without any questions being asked.
“The Mama Sangs [handlers] deal with a few bad eggs at immigration. That’s what the victims are saying. Apparently, these syndicates have people both inside and outside the airports,” Ang said.
An official from the Philippine consulate told XPRESS on condition of anonymity they had gathered statements from several victims last year that bribe money changed hands at immigration counters before the girls ended up in the UAE.
“The bad guys [there] never go to jail because the evidence is weak, and testimonial evidence against them have no value, especially when complainants are overseas. They are just reassigned to other posts and recycled.”
Labels: Corruption, Government, Philippines, Sex Trafficking, United Arab Emirates
'Dr Kidney' Arrest Exposes Indian Organ Traffic
From the Asia Times:
MUMBAI - The arrest of "Doctor Kidney" Amit Kumar for running a sizeable racket in live kidneys has highlighted the role that South Asia plays as the hub of an international trade in human organs.
A sophisticated but unregulated healthcare industry, a "donor pool" of desperately poor people ready to sell a kidney, and a corrupt monitoring system have combined to create a special brand of "medical tourism" in the region, especially in India and neighboring Pakistan.
While India's 1994 Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA) is observed mostly in the breach, the impact of Pakistan's Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Ordinance passed in 2007 is yet to be gauged. Until last year, the organ trade was legal and flourished openly in that country.
Top transplant surgeons are collaborating with criminal organ trafficking networks to target the desperate, noted Nancy Scheper-Hughes, founding director of Organs Watch, an academic research project at the University of California, Berkeley, while speaking at the Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking this month.
"The latest arrests reveal a global network larger in scale than any other one," said Dr Samiran Nundy, gastroenterological surgeon at the prestigious Sir Gangaram Hospital in New Delhi. Nundy was one of the architects of India's transplantation laws that should have put an end to paid transplants in this country. The THOA was the result of activism by a small group of conscientious medical professionals appalled by the trade.
Kumar is accused of luring poor laborers to his "hospital" in the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon with promises of job offers or large sums of money. Typically, they were promised 300,000 rupees (US$7,500) but paid only 30,000 ($750) after the surgery, police said.
He is alleged to have conducted more than 500 transplants over an unspecified period, charging up to $50,000 dollars for each operation. Investigators say his patients came from Britain, the United States, Turkey, Nepal, Dubai, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
The racket first came to light on January 24 when police raided Kumar's hospital following a complaint by a "donor" who had been paid less than the amount promised. At his hospital police found recipients recovering from surgery and arrested a number of doctors, nurses and support staff.
Labels: Arrests, Economic Factors, India, Organ Trafficking, Statistics
New York Detective Accused of Forcing a 13-Year Old Girl into Prostitution
The accused- Detective Wayne Taylor
By Bob Herbet- A New York City police detective and his girlfriend have been accused of kidnapping and forcing a 13-year-old girl into prostitution.
According to the Queens district attorney’s office, the detective, Wayne Taylor, and the girlfriend, Zalika Brown, would parade the girl at parties and other places where adult men had gathered and force her to have sex with them for money — $40 for oral sex, $80 for intercourse.
The child was an investment. The couple allegedly told her that she had been purchased for $500 — purchased, like the slaves of old, only this time for use as a prostitute. Other than the fact that one of the accused in this case is a police detective, there was nothing unusual about this tale of trafficking in young female flesh.
Our perspective is twisted. It was a big story when a television newsman was crude and thoughtless enough to use the term “pimped out” in a reference to Chelsea Clinton. The comment generated outrage — as it should have — and the newsman was suspended. But if someone actually pimps out a 13-year-old child, and even if that someone is alleged to be a police detective, it generates a collective yawn.
Across the country, young girls by the many thousands — children — are being drawn into the hellishly dangerous world of prostitution. They are raped, beaten and exploited in every way imaginable.
As part of the staggeringly lucrative commercial sex trade, the role of these children is to satisfy the sexual demands of johns who in most cases do not fit the stereotype of a pedophile.
“Many of the guys who buy sex with children would never consider themselves pedophiles,” said Rachel Lloyd, founder of an organization in New York called GEMS that offers help to under-age girls in the sex trade. “They’re not necessarily out there looking for 12-year-olds or teenagers. They just kind of don’t care. They feel like they have the right to buy sex from someone, and they prefer it to be someone who looks younger and cleaner and less drug-addicted.”
In the case of the accused New York City detective, the authorities acted promptly and effectively. The girl managed to escape and notified the police, who investigated immediately. Detective Taylor and Ms. Brown were arrested and the case has been turned over to the office of Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. Both are in custody.
But law enforcement does not always respond in a positive or constructive way. It is common across the country for under-age girls engaged in prostitution to be arrested, which is bizarre when you consider that it is a serious crime — statutory rape — for an adult to have sex with a minor.
If no money is involved, the youngster is considered a victim. But if the man pays for the sex — even if the money is going to the pimp, which is so often the case — the child is considered a prostitute and thus subject in many venues to arrest and incarceration.
“We often see the girls arrested and the pimps and the johns go free,” said Carol Smolenski, the head of Ecpat-USA, a group that fights the sexual exploitation of children. “One of the big problems is that there is this whole set of child sex exploiters who are not targeted as exceptionally bad guys.”
What’s needed is a paradigm shift. Society (and thus law enforcement) needs to view any adult who sexually exploits a child as a villain, and the exploited child as a victim of that villainy. If a 35-year-old pimp puts a 16-year-old girl on the street and a 30-year-old john pays to have sex with her, how is it reasonable that the girl is most often the point in that triangle that is targeted by law enforcement?
Labels: Child Trafficking, Corruption, Law Enforcement, Sex Trafficking, United States
The Age of Ambition
By Nicholas Kristof- With the American presidential campaign in full swing, the obvious way to change the world might seem to be through politics.But growing numbers of young people are leaping into the fray and doing the job themselves.
These are the social entrepreneurs, the 21st-century answer to the student protesters of the 1960s, and they are some of the most interesting people here at the World Economic Forum (not only because they’re half the age of everyone else).
Andrew Klaber, a 26-year-old playing hooky from Harvard Business School to come here (don’t tell his professors!), is an example of the social entrepreneur. He spent the summer after his sophomore year in college in Thailand and was aghast to see teenage girls being forced into prostitution after their parents had died of AIDS.So he started Orphans Against AIDS (www.orphansagainstaids.org), which pays school-related expenses for hundreds of children who have been orphaned or otherwise affected by AIDS in poor countries. He and his friends volunteer their time and pay administrative costs out of their own pockets so that every penny goes to the children.
Mr. Klaber was able to expand the nonprofit organization in Africa through introductions made by Jennifer Staple, who was a year ahead of him when they were in college. When she was a sophomore, Ms. Staple founded an organization in her dorm room to collect old reading glasses in the United States and ship them to poor countries. That group, Unite for Sight, has ballooned, and last year it provided eye care to 200,000 people (www.uniteforsight.org).
In the ’60s, perhaps the most remarkable Americans were the civil rights workers and antiwar protesters who started movements that transformed the country. In the 1980s, the most fascinating people were entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who started companies and ended up revolutionizing the way we use technology.
Today the most remarkable young people are the social entrepreneurs, those who see a problem in society and roll up their sleeves to address it in new ways.
Bill Drayton, the chief executive of an organization called Ashoka that supports social entrepreneurs, likes to say that such people neither hand out fish nor teach people to fish; their aim is to revolutionize the fishing industry. If that sounds insanely ambitious, it is. John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan title their new book on social entrepreneurs “The Power of Unreasonable People.”
Universities are now offering classes in social entrepreneurship, and there are a growing number of role models. Wendy Kopp turned her thesis at Princeton into Teach for America and has had far more impact on schools than the average secretary of education.
So as we follow the presidential campaign, let’s not forget that the winner isn’t the only one who will shape the world. Only one person can become president of the United States, but there’s no limit to the number of social entrepreneurs who can make this planet a better place.
Labels: Change Makers, Innovation, Social Enterprise
48 Charged in Supposed Human Trafficking Ring
The Arizona-Mexico border
*There is no specific mention of exploitation in this article. Smuggling is smuggling. Human trafficking is human trafficking. Although similar, there is a distinct difference in that human trafficking involves the deceit, coercion and exploitation of its victims while smuggling involves a consensual transaction between transporter and transportee for mutually advantageous reasons. Read more about trafficking vs. smuggling HERE.
PHOENIX — Four dozen people accused of taking part in an immigrant trafficking ring have been indicted on human smuggling and money laundering charges, authorities said.
The group brought in as much as US$130,000 a week moving people from Naco, Mexico, to its center of operations in Phoenix and then to destinations across the U.S., Phoenix police Lt. Vince Piano said Thursday. Piano said the ring was believed to be one of the biggest operating in Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point into the country.
"It's not the end of the game, but we believe we have made some very important intelligence directions in the fight against the smugglers," said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, whose office was prosecuting the case.
Ten of the 48 suspects were arrested. An additional 10 people who are expected to face charges in the future also were netted in the sweep, authorities said. The investigation led to the discovery of 13 "drop houses" in Phoenix where human smugglers hold customers until they pay up and are sent to their final destinations. The area is believed to have about 1,000 drop houses.
Authorities allege that two Cuban immigrants living in the area, 41-year-old Jose Luis Suarez-Lemus and 35-year-old Roel Ayala Fernandez, ran the ring and paid people in Mexico and Arizona to help smuggle immigrants.The two paid recruiters in Mexico to find customers, Mexican police to allow smugglers to stage their crossings and trail guides to lead immigrants through a conservation area in southeast Arizona, Piano said.
Drivers were paid to bring the immigrants by van to Phoenix, and other drivers were used to spot law enforcement vehicles and protect rival smugglers from forcing them off the road in an attempt to kidnap and extort their customers, he said. Once the immigrants were in a drop house and payments were made, drivers were hired to bring immigrants to spots across the country, authorities said.
They said the group would move four to six loads of immigrants per day, each with six to 10 people. Smuggling fees averaged US$2,500 per person.
Labels: Arrests, Human Trafficking, Law Enforcement, Mexico, Poor Journalism, Smuggling, United States
Human Trafficking Covered by Two New International Masters Degrees in Ireland
From Dublin City University:
Ireland- The School of Communications [at Dublin City University] today announced the introduction of two new Masters programmes which will start in September 2008 - a Masters in International Journalism Studies and a Masters in International Communication. Both programmes analyse international human rights issues and conflicts in the world today, such as human trafficking, sweatshops and torture, and crises in Darfur, West Bank and China. Modules offered include Media and Conflict, Human Rights Journalism, International Journalism and Europe, and Politics and Media. Whereas the MA in International Communication will examine these from a theoretical perspective, the MA International Journalism Studies will take an approach based on journalism practice.
The two degrees are full-time, one-year programmes.
The MA in International Journalism Studies is particular suited to journalists and graduates of undergraduate journalism programmes. Uniquely, it offers students the opportunity of spending one semester at DCU, and one semester at Schools of Journalism in either the US or Australia. It is targeted at journalism graduates who wish to deepen their understanding of the media's role in international society and develop their capacity to operate professionally in international contexts. The MA in International Communication is targeted at Irish media professionals who wish to explore contemporary media practices. Applicants should have a primary degree in journalism, communications or related area, and have an active interest in international affairs. The course will examine current developments in media institutions, values and practices, with particular reference to globalisation influences and tendencies.
Professor Paschal Preston, Head of the School of Communications said, "The School of Communications has built up a world-renowned reputation in media studies and is now delighted to announce the introduction of these two new programmes which will build on the School's leading-edge expertise in communication theory and journalism education".
Students can apply online through PAC. Further details on the programme can be found at www.dcu.ie
Labels: Europe, Good Practices, Human Trafficking, Innovation, Ireland
Poverty Fuels Child Trafficking
From Indianmuslims.info:
Lahore- A disturbing new trend in people smuggling is emerging in Pakistan: more and more children are being sent by their parents on hazardous journeys in a bid to reach wealthier countries, with several instances of such trafficking reported recently in local newspapers.
Of the more than 2,200 persons deported to Pakistan in 2007, mainly from Oman or Iran (from where many hoped to reach European destinations), 15 were children under 18, according to figures maintained by Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Two of the children sent back were Muhammad Zulfikar, 12, of Bhimber District in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, and Waqar Hasan, 14, from the town of Mandi Bahauddin, near Gujrat, a town 120km north of Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab. Zulfikar had been apprehended on the Turkish border and Waqar on the Iranian frontier. Both boys had hoped to make it to Greece.
"I wanted to follow in the footsteps of the many people from my area who have gone abroad and made a fortune," Zulfiqar said after being handed over to the FIA, the government agency responsible for tackling human trafficking.
According to Arif Bokhari, the FIA's assistant director, the "trend of trafficking teenage boys" is rising in Pakistan's populous Punjab. He blamed parents who "paid out large sums of money to agents" for subjecting children to such hazards.
Under an agreement between the FIA and the Lahore-based Child Welfare Protection Bureau (CWPB) of the Punjab government, both Zulfikar and Waqar are now at the bureau's well-run premises, attending school and living with some 200 other children at the hostel.
Other victims of child trafficking, including former child camel jockeys rescued from Gulf States over the past few years, are also housed at the facility. "We educate and rehabilitate these children," Zubair Ahmed Shad, programme director at the CWPB, told IRIN. He also explained that the "children saved from traffickers and living with us are doing well", and pointed out there had been a sharp decline in trafficking to Gulf states since the United Arab Emirates (UAE) banned the use of child jockeys in March 2005.
But other children are not as fortunate as Zulfikar and Waqar, who, despite their ordeal, are alive and well.
In 2006, a family from the town of Gujranwala, about 80km north of Lahore, reported their son missing - apparently while on his way to Greece - only to learn later that he had died during the ordeal.
The agent whom the parents had paid to organise the hazardous journey was arrested, but the victim's family declined to testify against him after he promised to take two other sons overseas free of charge.
"It is the economic desperation of people that leads them to do such things," said Akhtar Hussain Baloch of the Islamabad-based Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, which has campaigned against child trafficking for many years.
Recognising such realities, the authorities have in recent years worked to mitigate this, putting forward the Prevention of Human Smuggling Control Ordinance, which was enforced by the Pakistan government in 2002. Under the law, tougher punishments are envisaged for anyone found involved in trafficking people, including prison terms and fines for parents.
Additionally, as part of its measures to curb smuggling, in 2006 Pakistan's FIA published a "red book" listing 165 agents in various places from Pakistan to Greece, and has sought Interpol assistance to tackle them.
While boys in impoverished parts of rural Pakistan, particularly towns in the southern Punjab, are more likely to be trafficked overseas, girls are trafficked more often within the country, and sometimes sold into what amounts to little more than sexual slavery, says the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
HRCP has reported that in most cases, they are given away for amounts of money ranging from US$1,300 to $5,000 by impoverished parents, sometimes in "marriage"; and sometimes to agents who promise lucrative jobs as domestic servants in large cities. Many of these girls, according to child rights groups, end up as sex workers. Some are no older than 10 at the time of the "sale".
Labels: Asia, Child Trafficking, Economic Factors, Government Action, Pakistan, Sex Trafficking, Statistics
Kenyan Negotiators Resume Talks to End Crisis
*The political instability in Kenya has displaced 300,000 people creating a large population that is extremely vulnerable to trafficking. Click HERE for a profile of trafficking in Kenya.
NAIROBI- Kenya's feuding parties resume talks on Tuesday after a calls from home and abroad to solve a post-election crisis that has killed 1,000 people and jeopardized the east African nation's reputation.
Foreign powers and the majority of Kenya's 36 million people are impatient for President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga to find a political solution to their country's darkest moment since independence in 1963.
Their dispute over who won the December 27 election unleashed protests and ethnic attacks that have traumatized the population, displaced 300,000 people, and hurt Kenya's reputation as a stable democracy and peacemaker in the region.
"The time for a political settlement was yesterday," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the end of a lightening trip to Kenya on Monday to push for a power-sharing accord as the best way out of the impasse.
Apart from hardliners on either side, a similar message is reverberating around Kenya from businessmen, clerics, civil society groups and ordinary citizens, who are increasingly angry with the political class.
"Where are the leaders who will put selfish gains aside and accede to the higher commitment to serve and honor a country's craving for peace?" said Daily Nation columnist Mildred Ngesa.
Labels: Africa, Human Trafficking, Kenya, Political Factors
Human Trafficking & Globalization
Globalisation has vastly increased human trafficking over the past decade and governments must take urgent action to combat the abuse, United Nations officials and human rights activists said on Tuesday.
On the eve of the first U.N. global forum on human trafficking in Vienna, Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson said it was time end what the U.N. says is a multi-billion dollar market. "It is increasing big, big, big time," Thompson, chairwoman of human rights group the Helen Bamber Foundation. "It's the third largest shadow economy after drugs and arms."
The U.N. says some 2.5 million people are trapped in forced labour, including sexual exploitation, in forced marriages, or are pushed to provide body parts for black market organ trade.
The surge in human trafficking coincides with a revolution in affordable transport and instant communication around the world, said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). "All of this has facilitated things like trade and services, (yet it has) also facilitated the trafficking of human beings," Costa told a news conference.
A U.N. anti-trafficking protocol took force in 2005, establishing a framework for a crackdown, and now governments must create laws and prosecute perpetrators, he said. "Governments have not done much. But the international agreement puts a burden on the countries," he said.
The organisers will push for a universal ratification of the U.N. protocol, which has been signed by more than 110 states.
There is also a pressing need for better data, as most has come so far from sources like media reports, said Costa.
Most trafficking victims come from nations in the Commonwealth, central and southeastern Europe, West Africa and Southeast Asia, according to a recent UNODC report. Western Europe, North America and Western Asia top the list of destinations for victims of human trafficking.
Adult woman and girls are most at risk of becoming victims and sexual exploitation is the most prevalent abuse, it said.
Labels: Challenges, Economic Factors, Globalization, Trafficking Related Conferences and Events
Few Traffickers End Up in Court
*According to the interviews I conducted in the Philippines with various anti-trafficking non-governmental organizations- a justice system with too many cases and too few judges, corruption, the financial leverage of traffickers used to buy off both victims and criminal justice officials and an unfamiliarity with the anti-trafficking law on the part of prosecutors, amongst other factors, continue to hamper efforts to put traffickers behind bars in the Philippines.
From the Sun Star:
Philippines- Efforts to curb human trafficking are hobbled by the paucity of successful prosecutions, amid the lack of cooperation from victims and the limited ability of authorities to rescue possible victims, especially those in transit at the country’s many seaports.
Figures from the Department of Justice (DOJ) show that while 109 cases of human trafficking had been received and investigated from 2003-2005, only 22 cases had been filed.
The National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) Anti-Human Trafficking Division also reported that while it received 122 cases in 2006, it had recommended only three cases for prosecution, said University of the Philippines journalism professor Yvonne Chua.
Chua reported the figures during a media training workshop by the Center for Community Journalism and Development (CCJD), The Asia Foundation and the US Agency for International Development last Jan. 31 to Feb. 2.
During the workshop at Parklane International Hotel, Nancy Lozano, state counsel at the DOJ and a member of the secretariat of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (Iacat), said there had been convictions in only 10 cases filed against traffickers in the country since Republic Act 9208 or “The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003” was passed.
The first seven convictions took place in 2005, of which four took place in Quezon City, two in Batangas City and one in Zamboanga. The rest of the convictions were handed down last year, one each in Cebu, Davao and Zamboanga.
Last July, Regional Trial Court Branch 14 Judge Raphael Yrastorza Sr. found two pimps guilty of qualified trafficking of persons and imposed on them the penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of P3 million after a 2004 entrapment operation caught them offering nine females, one of them a minor, for sex to undercover NBI agents.
Interviewed earlier this month by participants of the media training workshop, Cebu City Assistant Prosecutor Rudolf Joseph Carillo described the conviction as a “breakthrough,” saying it was the first major promulgation in the Visayas region.
Labels: Asia, Conviction, Human Trafficking, Legal Issues, Philippines, Statistics
Trafficking Victims Are Getting Younger
Photographs of young Filipina women hired as overseas workers. Though trained as entertainers, many face pressures to enter the sex industry.
Philippines- The victims of human trafficking are getting younger and younger as more and more women fall prey to the false promises of people offering them a better life.
Visayan Forum Foundation Inc. (VFFI) president Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda revealed this in a video shown during a media training workshop conducted by the Center for Community Journalism and Development (CCJD) and the Asia Foundation last week at Parklane International Hotel.
Asked to elaborate, Ligaya Abadesco, VFFI field coordinator for Cebu and Dumaguete, told Sun.Star Cebu that in the past, the victims that the VFFI intercepted at seaports and brought to its halfway houses for temporary shelter and counseling were adults.
But in recent years, the VFFI has been intercepting 14- and 15-year-olds.
She explained that traffickers have been recruiting younger and younger victims because they command higher prices in the sex trade.
Republic Act 9208 or “The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003” defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer or harboring, or receipt of persons with or without the victim’s consent or knowledge by means of threat, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception or abuse of power for the purpose of exploitation.
Exploitation includes prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery, servitude or the removal or sale of organs.
During the forum, VFFI regional coordinator for the Visayas Vicente Abadesco said traffickers target women and children from 12-22 years old.
The women are transported from the rural areas—usually in the Visayas and Mindanao—where they came from, to urban areas in the country or abroad where, instead of the decent jobs in factories or restaurants they were promised, they find themselves working as prostitutes in brothels.
Abadesco said it is difficult to tell exactly how many women and children have been trafficked because of the illegal and covert nature of the activity, aside from the fact that women who are trafficked usually change their names.
But from July 2001 to June 2007 alone, the VFFI intercepted and provided halfway house services to some 7,996 victims.
The problem is much bigger though.
The United Nations estimates that there may already have been anywhere from 600,000 to 800,000 victims of human trafficking from the Philippines.
Clueless on rights
The difficulty in tracking victims also comes amid the low level of consciousness of people about the law and their rights, and the prevailing attitude of communities that people have a right to migrate to seek a better life.
Red Batario, executive director of the CCJD, said that in some cases it is the parents of the victims themselves who allow their children to be trafficked.
“At the back of their minds, they know what will happen to their children,” he said. But driven by desperation as a result of poverty, the parents just give in.
Despite the number of women and children known to have been trafficked, there have been convictions in only 10 cases filed against traffickers in the country since RA 9208 was passed, said Nancy Lozano, state counsel at the Department of Justice and a member of the secretariat of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (Philippines).
One of these judgments was handed down in Cebu.
On July 20, 2007, Regional Trial Court Branch 14 Judge Raphael Yrastorza Sr. found a couple from Barangay Kamagayan guilty of qualified trafficking of persons and imposed on them the penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of P3 million.
The pimps were tried for the more serious crime of “qualified trafficking” because one of the nine females they offered for sale to the undercover National Bureau of Investigation agents in the entrapment operation that led to their arrest in 2004, was a minor, at only 15 years old.
The case is now in the appellate court.
VFFI regional coordinator Abadesco hopes more people will get involved in the prevention of human trafficking.
To help determine if women and children traveling in a group on a ship may be trafficked victims, he said to watch out for these warning signs: the bulk buying of tickets; the individual embarking and disembarking of the members of the group who always regroup once inside the vehicle; and the possession by the usually lone adult in the group, the recruiter, of all the travel and personal documents of everyone in the group.
Normally, the members of the group are also told not to talk to anyone, and to say, if challenged, that they are 18 years old even if they are minors.
To emphasize the scale of the problem, Abadesco said no country is immune to trafficking and that the causes of trafficking go far beyond mere poverty to the poor values of parents and the maneuvers of exploitative recruiters feeding an ever-increasing demand for cheap labor as the Philippines opens itself up further to tourism.
Labels: Asia, NGO Challenges, Philippines, Sex Trafficking
Indian American Convicted of Human Trafficking in the U.S.
The U.S.-Canadian border
*What appears to be a human smuggling ring has been misconstrued by the media as a human trafficking operation. The journalist makes no clear distinction between human trafficking and smuggling. For clarification on the issue read HERE.
From the Hindustan Times:
2/23/07, Vancouver, Canada- An Indian American has been convicted in a human trafficking racket that illegally transported South Asians from Canada to the US.
The trial in Seattle showed that as many as 100 Indian and Pakistani nationals were smuggled first into Canada and later into the US. The gang charged up to USD 40,000 per head.
Thirty-eight year old Harminder Singh of Kent, Washington, was convicted on Monday and faces between three and 10 years in jail, including deportation, the Vancouver Sun said yesterday.
Four Canadian residents facing similar charges are yet to be extradited to the US, but have a hearing scheduled in late March, according to the Canadian Department of Justice. Five other Canadian residents arrested for their involvement in the racket pleaded guilty and testified at Singh's trial, Assistant US Attorney Ye-Ting Woo said in an interview.
The five, Raman Pathania, Jatinder Singh Brar, Sukhveer Singh Sandhu and Harjeevan Singh Parhar, all of Surrey, as well as Matthew Dehagi of Port Coquitlam, are due to be sentenced in the next two weeks, the US Attorney said.
From the Vancouver Sun:
"Throughout the course of the investigation both Canadian and American investigators had full access to each other's intelligence on a daily basis," said Mercer. "This collaboration demonstrates our shared resolve to keep our borders secure while respecting each other's sovereignty."
Winchell said officials have begun deportation proceedings against all of the people caught sneaking into the U.S., but could not say how long it would be until their cases are resolved.
Labels: Canada, Poor Journalism, Smuggling, United States
Vietnam's Desire for Baby Boys Skews Gender
8/31/07, HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnam's preference for boys over girls is further tipping the balance between the sexes in Asia, already skewed by a strong bias for boys among Chinese and Indians. The trend could lead to increased trafficking of women and social unrest, a U.N. report says.
Vietnam is now positioned where China was a decade ago, logging about 110 boys born to every 100 girls in a country where technology is readily available to determine the sex of a fetus and where abortion is legal, according to research released this week by the U.N. Population Fund. The sex ratio at birth generally should equal about 105 boys to 100 girls, according to the report.
"The consequences are already happening in neighboring countries like China, South Korea and Taiwan. They have to import brides," said Tran Thi Van, assistant country representative of the Population Fund in Hanoi, adding that many brides are coming from Vietnam. "I don't know where Vietnam could import brides from if that situation happened here in the next 10 or 15 years."
'Marriage squeeze' predicted
The report, which looked at China, India, Vietnam and Nepal, warned that tinkering with nature's probabilities could cause increased violence against women, trafficking and social tensions. It predicted a "marriage squeeze," with the poorest men being forced to live as bachelors.
Gender imbalance among births has been rising in parts of Asia since the 1980s, after ultrasound and amniocentesis provided a way to determine a fetus' sex early in pregnancy. Despite laws in several countries banning doctors from revealing the baby's sex, many women still find out and choose to abort girls.
"I have noticed that there have been more and more boys than girls," said Truong Thi My Ha, a nurse at Hanoi's Maternity Hospital. "Most women are very happy when they have boys, while many are upset if they have girls."
In China, the 2005 estimate was more than 120 boys born to 100 girls, with India logging about 108 boys to 100 girls in 2001, when the last census was taken. However, pockets of India have rates of 120 boys. In several Chinese provinces, the ratio spikes to more than 130 boys born to 100 girls.
Reports of female infanticide still surface in some poor areas of countries and death rates are higher among girls in places like China, where they are sometimes breast-fed for shorter periods, given less health care and vaccinations and even smaller portions of food than their brothers, the report said.
It estimated Asia was short 163 million females in 2005 when compared to overall population balances of men and women elsewhere in the world. It said sex ratios at birth in other countries, such as Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh, also should be closely monitored to avoid uneven trends there.
Earlier research has documented the gender imbalance in the region. A UNICEF report last year estimated 7,000 girls go unborn every day in India."It's very difficult to imagine what's going to be the exact impact of these missing girls in 20 years," said Christophe Guilmoto, an author of the report presented this week at a reproductive health conference in Hyderabad, India. "No human society that we know has faced a similar problem."
The reasons boys are favored over girls are complex and deeply rooted in Asian society. In many countries, men typically receive the inheritance, carry on the family name and take care of their parents in old age, while women often leave to live with their husband's family. In India, wedding costs and dowries are usually required of the parents of the bride, and sons are the only ones permitted by the Hindu religion to perform the last rites when their fathers die.
"My husband took me to a private clinic to be checked. I broke down in tears when I saw the result because I knew this is not what my husband wanted," said Nguyen Thi Hai Yen, 33, recalling when she discovered her second baby was a girl. "But he was good. He told me it was OK."China has a one-child policy, while Vietnam encourages only two children per family after relaxing an earlier ban on having more.
Such limits have led many women to abort girls and keep trying for sons who can carry on the family lineage.The report calls for increased public awareness, more government intervention and steps to elevate women's place in society by promoting gender equality.
Labels: Asia, Cultural Factors, Gender Issues, Human Trafficking, Vietnam
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WIPs Conversation: Leslie Pietrzyk on her work in progress
Leslie Pietrzyk is the author of two novels, Pears on a Willow Tree and A Year and a Day. This Angel on My Chest, her collection of linked short stories, won the 2015 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and will be published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in October. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in many journals, including Gettysburg Review, The Sun, Shenandoah, River Styx, Iowa Review, TriQuarterly, New England Review, Salon, and the Washington Post Magazine. She has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Pietrzyk is a member of the core fiction faculty at the Converse low-residency MFA program and teaches in the MA Program in Writing at Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia.
Website: www.lesliepietrzyk.blogspot.com
Literary blog: www.workinprogressinprogress.com
Twitter: @lesliepwriter
Leslie, in “Headache,” an excerpt from your novel in the works Silver Girl, the unnamed narrator’s friendship with her housemate Jess is taken to task. They became “besties” during their freshman year of college, but now, beginning their sophomore year off campus together comes with significant challenges. Jess’s sister has died in a car accident that summer and she’s broken up with her fiancé. These are both difficult subjects for the narrator to touch upon—and for good reason. Set in Chicago 1982, with the city’s Tylenol scare/murders as another topic of interest, what can readers expect to discover as the novel progresses? Does Jess remain a pivotal figure or is this primarily the narrator’s story?
Jess is definitely pivotal, though I see the story as ultimately belonging to the narrator. The rest of the book, which jumps around a bit in time over a couple of years, explores the complicated relationship between these two girls, each negotiating power as they know it, which for girls at that age is pretty much limited to sex or money. The backdrop of the Tylenol murders creates (I hope!) a terrifying sense of randomness; this incident may have been the first time modern, middle-class America truly felt vulnerable, when an unknown (to this day) person stuffed cyanide into capsules of Tylenol and returned them to drugstore shelves. Seven people died in the Chicago area, changing the way manufacturers package products. Of course, it’s not enough simply to have a “backdrop” in a novel, so I took a few historical liberties and wove the Tylenol murders into my plot.
Both characters in the excerpt here are tricky to figure. Jess’s stories about her family, particularly pertaining to the rumors and claims about the razor blade in the Halloween candy episode are unsettling, and it’s hard to tell if she’s dealing in lies, facts or something in-between. And it’s unclear what circumstances have played/are playing out concerning the former fiancé, but the narrator may be at least guilty of lying by omission. Is the truth hard to come by throughout Silver Girl?
You’re an astute reader! As the book is still, technically, “in progress,” a thread or two from this opening may be snipped back, but my intent was definitely to create that unsettled tone you picked up on. While these two girls are best friends, neither has been entirely truthful with the other. There are any number of reasons people lie or carry secrets—fear, wanting to protect someone—but I suppose at the core, the inclination away from the truth is simple: that what is, is somehow unacceptable. I’m sad that these two lost girls can’t trust each other with their secrets, but I also think that’s what draws them together, a recognition that they are cut from the same cloth. Of course, that similarity is what pushes forward the conflict.
The narrator “liked seeing that someone one could care deeply about something like a poem. I couldn’t be that way, even when I tried.” And later expresses guilt for not being a good listener, and not always providing Jess support (“that’s what a friend does”). Are we to question her telling of events as they unfold?
The unreliable narrator fascinates me. I’m interested not necessarily in the ways a narrator might lie outright to the reader, but more so the ways in which a narrator might—or must—lie to herself. We’re all liars to some extent—though we may be uncomfortable thinking of ourselves so—and it seems to me that self-deception is a fascinating complexity to explore through fiction. Maybe the classic unreliable narrator is Humbert Humbert in Lolita, but I think my early model was Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye; first reading that book in my teens was a window into complexity in literature and in life. In more recent reading, Eva Khatchadourian in Lionel Shriver’s outstanding novel We Need to Talk About Kevin is the ultimate unreliable narrator, stripping off layers to work her way, slowly and relentlessly, to a core of truth that took my breath away.
Like Holden and Eva, I don’t think my narrator is a natural liar; I think circumstances have brought her to this tenuous place, where she has been pushed into secrecy and silence, and the pressure is too much to bear. Like the saying goes, chase your main character up a tree and throw rocks at her…which sounds cruel, especially since I’m sure this narrator expected to find safe haven up that tree, and I know she deserves a bit of shelter.
Finally, I think I’ve become so fond of lying narrators and lying characters that often when I’m teasing out a story or chapter and feel stuck, I drop a lie into someone’s mind or mouth. Insta-tension!
Some of us still remember the Tylenol scare that summer, so it’s hard to believe it was more than 30 years ago. Regarding the sweeping technological changes since then, I particularly enjoyed the description of the ringing phone: “The phone still rang. This was a time before answering machines, before voice mail, email, instant messaging, and Skype. Letters and phone calls were what we had. This was a time where not answering a ringing phone was an act of subversion.” So true! The old rotary dial phone could itself become an intruding character—answering it was like playing Russian roulette, but not doing so left one wondering who was out there. What do you find are the challenges that come with writing about time periods a generation or two ago?
I love comparing the act of picking up a ringing phone to Russian roulette, especially this phone, which does bring some bad news later in the book. One of the things I like about writing in an earlier time period is that I don’t need to worry about the technology aspect getting dated as I work for the 2-3-4 years or more it takes to finish a novel, let alone then get it published. Instagram, one of my favorite social media sites, was started in 2010, only 5 years ago! Who can keep up?
One drawback of writing in this earlier time is trying to get things exactly right. I find myself googling odd questions like “most popular Clinique lipstick shade in 1980s.” I guess before Google I would have made up a name, but knowing that perfection is out there a few clicks away is hard to resist. Plus, I think about someone reading the book and possibly recognizing the tiny, exact detail of a Clinique lipstick she may have used back in the 80s. Not only will she be delighted, but that factual precision builds authority for the things I do invent. (If anyone is interested, I faced a choice between Black Honey and Raspberry Glacé, settling on Raspberry Glacé.)
It’s unfortunate that much of the pop culture of the early eighties results in a lot of laughs now—the “Flashdance” look with leg-warmers and ripped sweatshirts, for example, or big waves of feathered hair. So while writing, I had to look for authentic details that wouldn’t draw attention to themselves in a negative way to a modern audience, which was a challenge when talking about clothes, TV/movies, and music. And finally, well, who knows if a young, contemporary reader will be able to visualize a portable electric typewriter or a pay phone? I’m hoping those readers will be charmed at the idea that one might find an errant quarter in the phone’s coin return, often enough that checking becomes a habit, as it is with my cash-strapped narrator, that this was a world where one could actually buy something with a couple of quarters.
How are things coming along with the manuscript? Is Silver Girl approaching the stage where it’s ready for agents or publishers?
I thought the book was done, or at least ready for an initial foray into Agentland. Then I thought again. I asked a valued reader to look it over and offer some thoughts on one specific (and large) question that still loomed, and I got some great feedback…the sort of comments and suggestions that one can’t possibly ignore, even if it might be easier not to dive back in. So at the moment, I’m about to make the plunge. With luck, I’ll be querying in the fall.
What other creative projects have you got going these days?
I have a voice that became a story, and that story seems to want to become a novel. I think I’m still in that very pleasant phase of thinking and dreaming and wondering and wandering. The writing on this project thus far has been low-risk and enjoyable, mostly poking around to see what shows up. In the more immediate future, I’ll be launching my new book of short stories in early October so I have to accept that for a while, I won’t have much time or energy for thinking or writing…but hey, no complaints!
Thanks, Leslie. Is there anything else you’d like to share with or explain to readers?
Several scenes and/or chapters of this novel were sparked by writing prompts. I meet once a month with a group of writers in my neighborhood for prompt writing, and I’ve been amazed at what we can accomplish in half an hour. Not every prompt assignment pans out, obviously, but every month, after we’re done writing, at least one of us will read something produced in thirty minutes that is absolutely incredible. Writing a novel can feel daunting in many ways, including simply the amount of time it takes to get to page 250, so I’m here to suggest that there’s also a way to chop up that beast into tiny segments and make progress even if you don’t have the luxury of sitting at a desk for 8 hours in a row, 7 days a week.
Read “Headache,” an excerpt from Silver Girl, Leslie’s novel in progress
Leslie Pietrzyk: “Headache,” a chapter excerpt from the novel SILVER GIRL
Harold Jaffe: “Hair” and “Lino 1,” excerpts from the novel BRANDO BLEEDS
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Climate petition calls on Pa. to cut emissions through cap-and-trade system
Written by Marie Cusick/StateImpact Pennsylvania | Nov 28, 2018 5:29 AM
This photo taken May 5, 2014 shows the stacks of the Homer City Generating Station in Homer City, Pa. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
(Harrisburg) -- Pennsylvania environmental regulators have the legal authority and constitutional duty to place limits on greenhouse gas emissions, according to a petition filed Tuesday by dozens of groups including environmental organizations, legal scholars, religious groups, local governments, and citizens.
Led by the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council, 61 petitioners are calling on state regulators to establish an economy-wide cap-and-trade program in Pennsylvania, using California's system as a model.
Among states, Pennsylvania is the third biggest emitter of carbon. The petition sets in motion a legal process that entails a response from the state.
Clean Air Council executive director Joe Minott pointed to two recent climate change reports--one from the United Nations in October and another from the U.S. government, released last week, outlining the dramatic changes already occurring and risks of failing to sharply reduce emissions.
"The time has come for us to take the threat of climate change seriously and to move forward," he said. "That is exactly what this proposed regulation does."
Cap-and-trade is a market-based system that sets a firm, overall limit on emissions. Companies are then allowed to buy and sell allowances to pollute certain amounts. California's program applies to greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector, as well as to other major air pollution sources, the import of electricity, and the sale of natural gas, heating oil, and gasoline.
In what's called a petition for rulemaking to the state's Environmental Quality Board, the groups argue the Department of Environmental Protection already has the authority set up such a system under Pennsylvania's Air Pollution Control Act and Article 1 Section 27 of the state constitution--known as the Environmental Rights Amendment.
The amendment was added in 1971 and guarantees citizens the right to clean air and pure water. It also requires the state to act as a trustee of the public natural resources for all the people, including "generations yet to come." After being largely ignored for decades, the amendment has seen a resurgence following two recent state Supreme Court decisions.
Robert McKinstry, a retired attorney working pro bono on the petition, co-authored a recent paper for The Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law with Widener University Professor John Dernbach. They argue the Environmental Rights Amendment creates a constitutional duty for Pennsylvania to act on climate change.
Although a similar--ultimately unsuccessful-- climate petition was filed several years ago, McKinstry said this effort is strengthened by the state Supreme Court's landmark 2017 decision in Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation v. Commonwealth, which upheld a broad interpretation of the amendment.
"The PEDF decision gave more teeth to the environmental rights amendment," he said. "The regulatory structure we're employing is based on an existing regulation elsewhere, and it's more carefully tuned to the exact authorization in the Pennsylvania Air Pollution Control Act."
McKinstry said the emissions cap would start with a budget, assuming a three percent reduction from 2016. The cap would be reduced by three percent a year, from the 2016 baseline.
"It will go to zero by 2052," he said. "And that will achieve the reductions that the most recent [United Nations] report indicates are necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change."
The report urges the world's governments try to keep the warming below 1.5 Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Scientists say the world faces myriad crises as early as 2040--including food shortages, extreme weather, wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs--unless greenhouse gas emissions are sharply cut. An analysis by the UN published Tuesday shows countries are falling far short of the emissions reductions pledges they made in Paris three years ago.
Minott believes the law is on the petitioners' side, but he acknowledged the politics are more complicated.
"Pennsylvania is a fossil fuel state," he said.
Governor Tom Wolf, a Democrat, was recently re-elected. He has acknowledged the threat of climate change but did not make addressing it a top priority during his first term. If the petition were embraced by his administration, it could allow them implement significant climate regulation through the executive branch.
In an email, Wolf spokesman J.J. Abbott said the governor believes climate change is real.
"We need to continue to take steps to address this issue, while at the same time preserving and creating good paying jobs in the energy sector and growing our economy," Abbott wrote. "The process for evaluating rulemaking petitions is established by state law. Pursuant to those requirements, the Department of Environmental Protection will review the petition once it is received and make a recommendation to the Environmental Quality Board regarding whether to accept the petition."
Tagged under clean air council, climate change, environment, greenhouse gas, stateimpact pennsylvania
World faces 'impossible' task at post-Paris climate talks
Nov 28, 2018 | Frank Jordans and Monika Scislowska/The Associated Press
Homeowners down the shore stand to lose millions from sea level rise
Nov 14, 2018 | Susan Phillips/StateImpact Pennsylvania
Warming hurting shellfish, aiding predators, ruining habitat
Nov 11, 2018 | Patrick Whittle/The Associated Press
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Will County felony files: Feb. 6, 2019
Note to readers: Information in Will County Felony Files is obtained from local police departments and the Will County Sheriff’s Office. Individuals listed in Will County Felony Files who have been charged with a crime have not been proved guilty in court.
Marcus Davis, 36, of the 400 block of Carrick Road in Matteson was arrested by the Mokena police and booked into the Will County jail Jan. 5 on charges of theft and burglary.
Daniel Huerta, 22, of the 100 block Stillwell Avenue in Rockdale was arrested by the Joliet police and booked into the Will County jail Jan. 5 on charges of violating an order of protection.
Crystal Nagra-Dillon, 30, of the 500 block of Bellarmine Drive in Joliet was arrested by the Joliet police and booked into the Will County jail Jan. 5 on charges of obstructing justice and aggravated domestic battery.
Juan Salinas, 31, of the 1100 block of West 19th Place in Chicago was arrested by the Shorewood police and booked into the Will County jail Jan. 5 on charges of criminal trespass and stalking.
Eric Ja Tims, 27, of the 300 block of Mills Road in Joliet was arrested by the Wilmington police and booked into the Will County jail Jan. 5 on a charge of possession of a controlled substance.
Ramiro Vasquez, 56, of the 500 block of Douglas Street in Joliet was arrested by sheriff’s police and booked into the Will County jail Jan. 5 on charges of aggravated assault and aggravated battery.
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The Info List - Safavids
The Safavid dynasty
Safavid dynasty (/ˈsɑːfəvɪd/; Persian: دودمان صفوی Dudmān e Safavi[24]) was one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran, often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history.[25] The Safavid shahs ruled over one of the Gunpowder Empires.[26] They ruled one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Iran,[27][28][29][30] and established the Twelver
Twelver school of Shia Islam
Shia Islam as the official religion of the empire,[31] marking one of the most important turning points in Muslim history. The Safavid dynasty
Safavid dynasty had its origin in the Safaviyya
Safaviyya Sufi order, which was established in the city of Ardabil
Ardabil in the Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan region. It was of mixed ancestry (Kurdish[32] and Azerbaijani,[33] which included intermarriages with Georgian,[34] Circassian,[35][36] and Pontic Greek[37] dignitaries). From their base in Ardabil, the Safavids established control over parts of Greater Iran
Iran and reasserted the Iranian identity of the region,[38] thus becoming the first native dynasty since the Sasanian Empire
Empire to establish a unified Iranian state.[39] The Safavids ruled from 1501 to 1722 (experiencing a brief restoration from 1729 to 1736) and, at their height, they controlled all of modern Iran, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Armenia, eastern Georgia, parts of the North Caucasus, Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan, as well as parts of Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Despite their demise in 1736, the legacy that they left behind was the revival of Persia
Persia as an economic stronghold between East and West, the establishment of an efficient state and bureaucracy based upon "checks and balances", their architectural innovations and their patronage for fine arts. The Safavids have also left their mark down to the present era by spreading Shi'a Islam
Shi'a Islam in Iran, as well as major parts of the Caucasus, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia.
1 Genealogy—ancestors of the Safavids and its multi-cultural identity 2 Background—The Safavid Sufi Order 3 History
3.1 Founding of the dynasty by Shāh Ismāil I (r. 1501–24)
3.1.1 Persia
Persia prior to Ismāil's rule 3.1.2 Rise of Shāh Ismāil I 3.1.3 Start of clashes with the Ottomans
3.2 Shāh Tahmāsp (r. 1524–76)
3.2.1 Civil Strife during Tahmāsp's Early Reign 3.2.2 Foreign Threats to the Empire 3.2.3 Royal refugees: Bayezid and Humayun 3.2.4 Legacy of Shah
Shah Tahmasp
3.3 Chaos under Tahmasp’s sons
3.3.1 Ismail II
Ismail II (r. 1576–77) 3.3.2 Mohammad Khodabanda
Mohammad Khodabanda (r. 1578–87)
3.4 Shah
Shah Abbas (r. 1588–1629)
3.4.1 Restoration of central authority 3.4.2 Recovery of territory from the Uzbeks
Uzbeks and the Ottomans 3.4.3 Quelling the Georgian uprising 3.4.4 Suppressing the Kurdish rebellion 3.4.5 Contacts with Europe during Abbas's reign 3.4.6 Succession and legacy of Abbas I
4 Shia Islam
Shia Islam as the state religion 5 Military and the role of Qizilbash
6.1.1 Character 6.1.2 Entertainment 6.1.3 Clothes and Appearances
6.2 Turks and Tajiks 6.3 The third force: Caucasians 6.4 Emergence of a clerical aristocracy 6.5 Akhbaris versus Usulis 6.6 Allamah Majlisi
7.1 The Government 7.2 The Royal Court 7.3 Local governments 7.4 Democratic institutions in a totalitarian society
8 Legal system 9 Economy
9.1 Agriculture 9.2 Travel and Caravanserais 9.3 Foreign trade and the Silk Route 9.4 The Armenian merchants and the trade of silk
10.1 Culture within the Safavid family 10.2 Culture within the empire 10.3 The Isfahan
Isfahan School—Islamic philosophy revived 10.4 Medicine
11 Architecture 12 The languages of the court, military, administration and culture 13 Legacy 14 Safavid Shahs of Iran 15 See also 16 References and notes 17 Bibliography 18 Further reading 19 External links
Genealogy—ancestors of the Safavids and its multi-cultural identity See also: Safavid dynasty
Safavid dynasty family tree, Safaviyya, Safvat as-safa, Silsilat-al-nasab-i Safaviya, Firuz Shah
Shah Zarin-Kolah, and List of the mothers of the Safavid Shahs The Safavid Kings themselves claimed to be Seyyeds,[40] family descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, although many scholars have cast doubt on this claim.[41] There seems now to be a consensus among scholars that the Safavid family hailed from Persian Kurdistan,[31] and later moved to Azerbaijan, finally settling in the 11th century CE at Ardabil. Traditional pre-1501 Safavid manuscripts trace the lineage of the Safavids to the Kurdish dignitary, Firuz Shah Zarin-Kulah.[32][42] According to some historians,[43][44] including Richard Frye, the Safavids were of Turkicized Iranian origin:[33]
The Turkish speakers of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan are mainly descended from the earlier Iranian speakers, several pockets of whom still exist in the region. A massive migration of Oghuz Turks
Oghuz Turks in the 11th and 12th centuries not only Turkified Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan but also Anatolia. The Azeri Turks are Shiʿites and were founders of the Safavid dynasty.
Other historians, such as Vladimir Minorsky[45] and Roger Savory, support this idea:[46]
From the evidence available at the present time, it is certain that the Safavid family was of indigenous Iranian stock, and not of Turkish ancestry as it is sometimes claimed. It is probable that the family originated in Persian Kurdistan, and later moved to Azerbaijan, where they adopted the Azari form of Turkish spoken there, and eventually settled in the small town of Ardabil
Ardabil sometimes during the eleventh century.
By the time of the establishment of the Safavid empire, the members of the family were native Turkish-speaking and Turkicized,[18][47] and some of the Shahs composed poems in their native Turkish language. Concurrently, the Shahs themselves also supported Persian literature, poetry and art projects including the grand Shahnameh
Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp,[48][49] while members of the family and some Shahs composed Persian poetry as well.[50][51] The authority of the Safavids was religiously based, and their claim to legitimacy was founded on being direct male descendants of the Ali,[52] the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, and regarded by Shi'ites as the first Imam. Furthermore, the dynasty was from the very start thoroughly intermarried with both Pontic Greek as well as Georgian lines.[53] In addition, from the official establishment of the dynasty in 1501, the dynasty would continue to have many intermarriages with both Circassian as well as again Georgian dignitaries, especially with the advent of king Tahmasp I.[35][36] Background—The Safavid Sufi Order Main articles: Safaviyya, Safi al-Din Ardabili, and Ideology of Safavids Safavid history begins with the establishment of the Safaviyya
Safaviyya by its eponymous founder Safi-ad-din Ardabili
Safi-ad-din Ardabili (1252–1334). In 700/1301, Safi al-Din assumed the leadership of the Zahediyeh, a significant Sufi order in Gilan, from his spiritual master and father-in-law Zahed Gilani. Due to the great spiritual charisma of Safi al-Din, the order was later known as the Safaviyya. The Safavid order soon gained great influence in the city of Ardabil, and Hamdullah Mustaufi noted that most of the people of Ardabil
Ardabil were followers of Safi al-Din. Religious poetry from Safi al-Din, written in the Old Azari language[54][55]—a now-extinct Northwestern Iranian language—and accompanied by a paraphrase in Persian that helps its understanding, has survived to this day and has linguistic importance.[54] After Safī al-Dīn, the leadership of the Safaviyya
Safaviyya passed to Sadr al-Dīn Mūsā († 794/1391–92). The order at this time was transformed into a religious movement that conducted religious propaganda throughout Persia, Syria
Syria and Asia Minor, and most likely had maintained its Sunni
Sunni Shafi’ite origin at that time. The leadership of the order passed from Sadr ud-Dīn Mūsā to his son Khwādja Ali († 1429) and in turn to his son Ibrāhīm († 1429–47).
Mannequin of a Safavid Qizilbash
Qizilbash soldier, showing characteristic red cap (Sa'dabad Palace, Teheran)
When Shaykh Junayd, the son of Ibrāhim, assumed the leadership of the Safaviyya
Safaviyya in 1447, the history of the Safavid movement was radically changed. According to R.M. Savory, "'Sheikh Junayd was not content with spiritual authority and he sought material power'". At that time, the most powerful dynasty in Persia
Persia was that of the Kara Koyunlu, the "Black Sheep", whose ruler Jahan Shah
Shah ordered Junāyd to leave Ardabil or else he would bring destruction and ruin upon the city.[31] Junayd sought refuge with the rival of Kara Koyunlu
Kara Koyunlu Jahan Shah, the Aq Qoyunlu (White Sheep Turkomans) Khan Uzun Hassan, and cemented his relationship by marrying Uzun Hassan's sister, Khadija Begum. Junayd was killed during an incursion into the territories of the Shirvanshah and was succeeded by his son Haydar Safavi. Haydar married Martha 'Alamshah Begom,[37] Uzun Hassan's daughter, who gave birth to Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty. Martha's mother Theodora—better known as Despina Khatun[56]—was a Pontic Greek princess, the daughter of the Grand Komnenos
Komnenos John IV of Trebizond. She had been married to Uzun Hassan[57] in exchange for protection of the Grand Komnenos
Komnenos from the Ottomans. After Uzun Hassan's death, his son Ya'qub felt threatened by the growing Safavid religious influence. Ya'qub allied himself with the Shirvanshah
Shirvanshah and killed Haydar in 1488. By this time, the bulk of the Safaviyya
Safaviyya were nomadic Oghuz Turkic-speaking clans from Asia Minor
Asia Minor and Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan and were known as Qizilbash
Qizilbash "Red Heads" because of their distinct red headgear. The Qizilbash
Qizilbash were warriors, spiritual followers of Haydar, and a source of the Safavid military and political power. After the death of Haydar, the Safaviyya
Safaviyya gathered around his son Ali Mirza Safavi, who was also pursued and subsequently killed by Ya'qub. According to official Safavid history, before passing away, Ali had designated his young brother Ismail as the spiritual leader of the Safaviyya.[31] History Founding of the dynasty by Shāh Ismāil I (r. 1501–24) Main article: Ismail I
Ismail declares himself "Shah" by entering Tabriz; his troops in front of Arg of Tabriz, painter Chingiz Mehbaliyev, in private collection.
Persia prior to Ismāil's rule After the decline of the Timurid Empire
Empire (1370–1506), Persia
Persia was politically splintered, giving rise to a number of religious movements. The demise of Tamerlane's political authority created a space in which several religious communities, particularly Shi’i ones, could come to the fore and gain prominence. Among these were a number of Sufi brotherhoods, the Hurufis, Nuqtawis and Musha‘sha‘. Of these various movements, the Safavid Qizilbash
Qizilbash was the most politically resilient, and due to its success Shah
Shah Isma’il I gained political prominence in 1501.[58] There were many local states prior to the Iranian state established by Ismāil.[59] The most important local rulers about 1500 were:
Huṣayn Bāyqarā, the Timurid ruler of Herāt Alwand Mīrzā, the Aq Qoyunlu
Aq Qoyunlu Khan of Tabrīz Murad Beg, Aq Qoyunlu
Aq Qoyunlu ruler of Irāq al-Ajam Farrokh Yaṣar, the Shah
Shah of Širvan Badi Alzamān Mīrzā, local ruler of Balkh Huṣayn Kīā Chalavī, the local ruler of Semnān Murād Beg Bayandar, local ruler of Yazd Sultan Mahmud ibn Nizam al-Din Yahya, ruler of Sistan Several local rulers of Mazandaran
Mazandaran and Gilan such as: Bisotun II, Ashraf ibn Taj al-Dawla, Mirza Ali, and Kiya Husayn II.
Ismāil was able to unite all these lands under the Iranian Empire
Empire he created. Rise of Shāh Ismāil I
Shah Ismail I
Ismail's battle with Uzbek warlord Muhammad
Muhammad Shaybani Khan in 1510, on a folio from the Kebir Musaver Silsilname. After the battle Ismail purportedly gilded the skull of Shaybani Khan for use as a wine goblet.
Safavid dynasty was founded about 1501 by Shāh Ismāil I.[60] His background is disputed: the language he used is not identical with that of his "race" or "nationality" and he was bilingual from birth.[61] Ismāil was of mixed Azeri, Kurdish, and Pontic Greek descent, although others argue that he had no Azeri ancestry[61] and was a direct descendant of Kurdish mystic Sheikh Safi al-Din. As such, he was the last in the line of hereditary Grand Masters of the Safaviyeh order, prior to its ascent to a ruling dynasty. Ismāil was known as a brave and charismatic youth, zealous with regards to his Shi’a
Shi’a faith, and believed himself to be of divine descent—practically worshipped by his Qizilbash
Qizilbash followers. In 1500, Ismāil invaded neighboring Shirvan
Shirvan to avenge the death of his father, Sheik Haydar, who had been murdered in 1488 by the ruling Shirvanshah, Farrukh Yassar. Afterwards, Ismail went on a conquest campaign, capturing Tabriz
Tabriz in July 1501, where he enthroned himself the Shāh of Azerbaijan,[62][63][64] proclaimed himself Shahanshah of Iran[65][66][67] and minted coins in his name, proclaiming Shi’ism the official religion of his domain.[31] The establishment of Shi’ism as the state religion led to various Sufi orders openly declaring their Shi’i position, and others to promptly assume Shi’ism. Among these, the founder of one of the most successful Sufi orders, Ni’matullah (d. 1431), traced his descent from the Ismaili Imam
Imam Muhammad
Muhammad b. Ismail, as evidenced in a poem as well as another unpublished literary composition. Though Nimatullah was apparently Sunni, the Ni’matullahi order soon declared his order to be Shi’i after the rise of the Safavid dynasty.[68] Although Ismail I
Ismail I initially gained mastery over Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan alone, the Safavids ultimately won the struggle for power over all of Persia, which had been going on for nearly a century between various dynasties and political forces. A year after his victory in Tabriz, Ismāil claimed most of Persia
Persia as part of his territory,[31] and within 10 years established a complete control over all of it. Ismail followed the line of Iranian and Turkmen rulers prior to his assumption of the title "Padishah-i-Iran", previously held by Uzun Hasan and many other Iranian kings.[69] The Ottoman sultans addressed him as the king of Persian lands and the heir to Jamshid
Jamshid and Kai Khosrow.[70] Having started with just the possession of Azerbaijan, Shirvan, southern Dagestan
Dagestan (with its important city of Derbent), and Armenia
Armenia in 1501,[71] Erzincan
Erzincan and Erzurum
Erzurum fell into his power in 1502,[72] Hamadan
Hamadan in 1503, Shiraz and Kerman
Kerman in 1504, Diyarbakir, Najaf, and Karbala
Karbala in 1507, Van in 1508, Baghdad
Baghdad in 1509, and Herat, as well as other parts of Khorasan, in 1510. In 1503, the kingdoms of Kartli
Kartli and Kakheti were made his vassals as well.[73] By 1511, the Uzbeks
Uzbeks in the north-east, led by their Khan Muhammad
Muhammad Shaybāni, were driven far to the north, across the Oxus
Oxus River, where they continued to attack the Safavids. Ismail's decisive victory over the Uzbeks, who had occupied most of Khorasan, ensured Iran's eastern borders, and the Uzbeks
Uzbeks never since expanded beyond the Hindukush. Although the Uzbeks
Uzbeks continued to make occasional raids to Khorasan, the Safavid empire was able to keep them at bay throughout its reign. Start of clashes with the Ottomans Main articles: Battle of Chaldiran
Battle of Chaldiran and Qizilbash
Artwork of the Battle of Chaldiran.
More problematic for the Safavids was the powerful neighboring Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans, a Sunni
Sunni dynasty, considered the active recruitment of Turkmen tribes of Anatolia
Anatolia for the Safavid cause as a major threat. To counter the rising Safavid power, in 1502, Sultan Bayezid II
Bayezid II forcefully deported many Shi'as from Anatolia
Anatolia to other parts of the Ottoman realm. In 1511, there was a widespread pro-Shia and pro-Safavid uprising directed against the Ottoman Empire
Empire from within the empire.[74] Furthermore, by the early 1510s Ismail's expansionistic policies had pushed the Safavid borders in Asia Minor even more westwards. The Ottomans soon reacted with a large-scale incursion into Eastern Anatolia
Anatolia by Safavid ghazis under Nūr-ʿAlī Ḵalīfa. This action coincided with the accession to the Ottoman throne in 1512 of Sultan Selim I, Bayezid's son, and it was the casus belli leading to Selim's decision to invade neighbouring Safavid Iran two years later.[75] In 1514, Sultan Selim I
Selim I marched through Anatolia and reached the plain of Chaldiran near the city of Khoy, where a decisive battle was fought. Most sources agree that the Ottoman army was at least double the size of that of Ismāil;[60] however, the Ottomans had the advantage of artillery, which the Safavid army lacked. According to R. M. Savory, "Salim's plan was to winter at Tabriz
Tabriz and complete the conquest of Persia
Persia the following spring. However, a mutiny among his officers who refused to spend the winter at Tabriz
Tabriz forced him to withdraw across territory laid waste by the Safavid forces, eight days later".[60] Although Ismāil was defeated and his capital was captured, the Safavid empire survived. The war between the two powers continued under Ismāil's son, Shāh Tahmāsp I, and the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I, until Shāh Abbās retook the area lost to the Ottomans by 1602.
Shāh Ismāil's empire
The consequences of the defeat at Chaldiran were also psychological for Ismāil: the defeat destroyed Ismāil's belief in his invincibility, based on his claimed divine status.[31] His relationships with his Qizilbash
Qizilbash followers were also fundamentally altered. The tribal rivalries between the Qizilbash, which temporarily ceased before the defeat at Chaldiran, resurfaced in intense form immediately after the death of Ismāil, and led to ten years of civil war (930-40/1524-33) until Shāh Tahmāsp regained control of the affairs of the state. For most of the last decade of Ismail's reign, the domestic affairs of the empire were overseen by the Tajik vizier Mirza Shah
Shah Husayn Isfahani until his assassination in 1523.[76] The Chaldiran battle also holds historical significance as the start of over 300 years of frequent and harsh warfare fuelled by geo-politics and ideological differences between the Ottomans and the Iranian Safavids (as well as successive Iranian states) mainly regarding territories in Eastern Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Mesopotamia. Early Safavid power in Iran
Iran was based on the military power of the Qizilbash. Ismāil exploited the first element to seize power in Iran. But eschewing politics after his defeat in Chaldiran, he left the affairs of the government to the office of the wakīl (chief administrator, vakīl in Turkish). Ismāil's successors, most manifestly Shāh Abbās I, successfully diminished the influence of the Qizilbash
Qizilbash on the affairs of the state. Shāh Tahmāsp (r. 1524–76) Main article: Shah
Shah Tahmasp Civil Strife during Tahmāsp's Early Reign
Shah Tahmasp, fresco on the walls of the Chehel Sotoun
Chehel Sotoun Palace
Shāh Tahmāsp, the young titular governor of Khorasan,[77] succeeded his father Ismāil in 1524, when he was ten years and three months old. The succession was evidently undisputed.[76] Tahmāsp was the ward of the powerful Qizilbash
Qizilbash amir Ali Beg Rūmlū (titled "Div Soltān Rumlu") who saw himself as the de facto ruler of the state. Rūmlū and Kopek Sultān Ustajlu (who had been Ismail's last wakīl) established themselves as co-regents of the young shah.[76] The Qizilbash, which still suffered under the legacy of the battle of Chaldiran, was engulfed in internal rivalries. The first two years of Tahmāsp's reign was consumed with Div Sultān’s efforts to eliminate Ustajlu from power.[76] This court intrigue lead directly to tribal conflict. Beginning in 1526 periodic battles broke out, beginning in northwest Persia
Persia but soon involving all of Khorasan.[78] In the absence of a charismatic, messianic rallying figure like the young Ismail, the tribal leaders reclaimed their traditional prerogative and threatened to return to the time of local warlords. For nearly 10 years rival Qizilbash
Qizilbash factions fought each other. Af first, Kopek Sultān's Ustajlu tribe suffered the heaviest, and he himself was killed in a battle. Thus Div Soltān emerged victorious in the first palace struggle, bit he fell victim to Chuha Sultān of the Takkalu, who turned Tahmāsp against his first mentor. In 1527 Tahmāsp demonstrated his desire by shooting an arrow at Div Soltān before the assembled court. The Takkalu replaced the Rumlu as the dominant tribe. They in turn would be replaced by the Shamlu, whose amir, Husain Khan, became the chief adviser. This latest leader would only last until 1534, when he was deposed and executed.[79] At the downfall of Husain Khan, Tahmāsp asserted his rule. Rather than rely on another Turkmen tribe, he appointed a Persian wakīl. From 1553 for forty years the shah was able to avoid being ensnared in tribal treacheries. But the decade of civil war had exposed the empire to foreign danger and Tahmāsp had to turn his attention to the repeated raids by the Uzbeks.[80] Foreign Threats to the Empire Main articles: Ottoman-Safavid War (1532-1555)
Ottoman-Safavid War (1532-1555) and Peace of Amasya The Uzbeks, during the reign of Tahmāsp, attacked the eastern provinces of the kingdom five times, and the Ottomans under Soleymān I invaded Persia
Persia four times.[81] Decentralized control over Uzbek forces was largely responsible for the inability of the Uzbeks
Uzbeks to make territorial inroads into Khorasan.[82] Putting aside internal dissension, the Safavid nobles responded to a threat to Herat
Herat in 1528 by riding eastward with Tahmāsp (then 17) and soundly defeating the numerically superior forces of the Uzbeks
Uzbeks at Jām.[83] The victory resulted at least in part from Safavid use of firearms, which they had been acquiring and drilling with since Chaldiran.[84] Notwithstanding the success with firearms at Jām, Tahmāsp still lacked the confidence to engage their archrivals the Ottomans, choosing instead to cede territory, often using scorched earth tactics in the process.[85] The goal of the Ottomans in the 1534 and 1548-1549 campaigns, during the 1532-1555 Ottoman-Safavid War, was to install Tahmāsp's brothers (Sam Mirza and Alqas Mirza, respectively) as shah in order to make Persia
Persia a vassal state. Although in those campaigns (and in 1554) the Ottomans captured Tabriz, they lacked a communications line sufficient to occupy it for long.[86] Nevertheless, given the insecurity in Iraq
Iraq and its northwest territory, Tahmāsp moved his court from Tabriz
Tabriz to Qazvin. In the gravest crisis of Tahmāsp's reign, Ottoman forces in 1553-54 captured Yerevan, Karabakh
Karabakh and Nakhjuwan, destroyed palaces, villas and gardens, and threatened Ardabil. During these operations an agent of the Samlu (now supporting Sam Mizra's pretentions) attempted to poison the shah. Tahmāsp resolved to end hostilities and sent his ambassador to Soleymān's winter quarters in Erzurum
Erzurum in September 1554 to sue for peace.[87] Temporary terms were followed by the Peace of Amasya in June 1555, ending the war with the Ottomans for the next two decades. The treaty was the first formal diplomatic recognition of the Safavid Empire
Empire by the Ottomans.[88] Under the Peace, the Ottomans agreed to restore Yerevan, Karabakh
Karabakh and Nakhjuwan to the Safavids and in turn would retain Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia (Iraq) and eastern Anatolia. Soleymān agreed to permit Safavid Shi’a
Shi’a pilgrims to make pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina as well as tombs of imams in Iraq
Iraq and Arabia on condition that the shah would abolish the taburru, the cursing of the first three Rashidun caliphs.[89] It was a heavy price in terms of territory and prestige lost, but it allowed the empire to last, something that seemed improbable during the first years of Tahmāsp's reign. Royal refugees: Bayezid and Humayun
Shah Tahmasp greets the exiled Humayun
Almost simultaneously with the emergence of the Safavid Empire, the Mughal Empire, founded by the Timurid heir Babur, was developing in South-Asia. The Mughals adhered (for the most part) to a tolerant Sunni
Sunni Islam while ruling a largely Hindu
Hindu population. After the death of Babur, his son Humayun
Humayun was ousted from his territories and threatened by his half-brother and rival, who had inherited the northern part of Babur's territories.[90] Having to flee from city to city, Humayun
Humayun eventually sought refuge at the court of Tahmāsp in Qazvin
Qazvin in 1543. Tahmāsp received Humayun
Humayun as the true emperor of the Mughal dynasty, despite the fact that Humayun
Humayun had been living in exile for more than fifteen years.[90][91] After Humayun
Humayun converted to Shia Islam (under extreme duress),[90] Tahmāsp offered him military assistance to regain his territories in return for Kandahar, which controlled the overland trade route between central Persia
Persia and the Ganges. In 1545 a combined Persian-Mughal force managed to seize Kandahar
Kandahar and occupy Kabul.[92] Humayun
Humayun handed over Kandahar, but Tahmāsp was forced to retake it in 1558, after Humayun
Humayun seized it on the death of the Safavid governor. Humayun
Humayun was not the only royal figure to seek refuge at Tahmasp's court. A dispute arose in the Ottoman Empire
Empire over who was to succeed the aged Suleiman the Magnificent. Suleiman's favourite wife, Hürrem Sultan, was eager for her son, Selim, to become the next sultan. But Selim was an alcoholic and Hürrem's other son, Bayezid, had shown far greater military ability. The two princes quarrelled and eventually Bayezid rebelled against his father. His letter of remorse never reached Suleiman, and he was forced to flee abroad to avoid execution. In 1559 Bayezid arrived in Iran
Iran where Tahmasp gave him a warm welcome. Suleiman was eager to negotiate his son's return, but Tahmasp rejected his promises and threats until, in 1561, Suleiman compromised with him. In September of that year, Tahmasp and Bayezid were enjoying a banquet at Tabriz
Tabriz when Tahmasp suddenly pretended he had received news that the Ottoman prince was engaged in a plot against his life. An angry mob gathered and Tahmasp had Bayezid put into custody, alleging it was for his own safety. Tahmasp then handed the prince over to the Ottoman ambassador. Shortly afterwards, Bayezid was killed by agents sent by his own father.[93] Legacy of Shah
Shah Tahmasp When the young Shah
Shah Tahmāsp took the throne, Persia
Persia was in a dire state. But in spite of a weak economy, a civil war and foreign wars on two fronts, Tahmāsp managed to retain his crown and maintain the territorial integrity of the empire (although much reduced from Ismail's time). During the first 30 years of his long reign, he was able to suppress the internal divisions by exerting control over a strengthened central military force. In the war against the Uzbeks
Uzbeks he showed that the Safavids had become a gunpowder empire. His tactics in dealing with the Ottoman threat eventually allowed for a treaty which preserved peace for twenty years. In cultural matters, Tahmāsp presided the revival of the fine arts, which flourished under his patronage. Safavid culture is often admired for the large-scale city planning and architecture, achievements made during the reign of later shahs, but the arts of persian miniature, book-binding and calligraphy, in fact, never received as much attention as they did during his time.[94] Tahmāsp also planted the seeds that would, unintentionally, produce change much later. During his reign he had realized while both looking to his own empire and that of the neighboring Ottomans, that there were dangerous rivalling factions and internal family rivalries that were a threat to the heads of state. Not taken care of accordingly, these were a serious threat to the ruler, or worse, could bring the fall of the former or could lead to unnecessary court intrigues. According to Encyclopedia Iranica, for Tahmāsp, the problem circled around the military tribal elite of the empire, the Qezelbāš, who believed that physical proximity to and control of a member of the immediate Safavid family guaranteed spiritual advantages, political fortune, and material advancement.[95] Despite that Tahmāsp could nullify and neglect some of his consternations regarding potential issues related to his family by having his close direct male relatives such as his brothers and sons routinely transferred around to various governorships in the empire, he understood and realized that any long-term solutions would mainly involve minimizing the political and military presence of the Qezelbāš as a whole. According to Encyclopedia Iranica, his father and founder of the Empire, Ismail I, had begun this process on a bureaucratic level as he appointed a number of prominent Persians in powerful bureaucratic positions, and one can see this continued in Tahmāsp’s lengthy and close relationship with the chief vizier, Qāżi Jahān of Qazvin, after 1535.[95] While Persians continued to fill their historical role as administrators and clerical elites under Tahmāsp, little had been done so far to minimize the military role of the Qezelbāš.[95] Therefore, in 1540, Shah
Shah Tahmāsp started the first of a series of invasions of the Caucasus
Caucasus region, both meant as a training and drilling for his soldiers, as well as mainly bringing back massive numbers of Christian Circassian and Georgian slaves, who would form the basis of a military slave system,[96] alike to the janissaries of the neighbouring Ottoman Empire,[97] as well as at the same time forming a new layer in Iranian society composed of ethnic Caucasians. At the fourth invasion in 1553, it was now clear that Tahmāsp followed a policy of annexation and resettlement as he gained control over Tbilisi
Tbilisi (Tiflis) and the region of Kartli
Kartli while physically transplanting more than 30,000 people to the central Iranian heartlands.[95] According to Encyclopedia Iranica, this would be the starting point for the corps of the ḡolāmān-e ḵāṣṣa-ye-e šarifa, or royal slaves, who would dominate the Safavid military for most of the empire's length. As non-Turcoman converts to Islam, these Circassian and Georgian ḡolāmāns (also written as ghulams) were completely unrestrained by clan loyalties and kinship obligations, which was an attractive feature for a ruler like Tahmāsp whose childhood and upbringing had been deeply affected by Qezelbāš tribal politics.[95] In turn, many of these transplanted women became wives and concubines of Tahmāsp, and the Safavid harem emerged as a competitive, and sometimes lethal, arena of ethnic politics as cliques of Turkmen, Circassian, and Georgian women and courtiers vied with each other for the shah’s attention.[95] Although the first slave soldiers would not be organized until the reign of Abbas I, during Tahmāsp's time Caucasians would already become important members of the royal household, Harem
Harem and in the civil and military administration,[98][99] and by that becoming their way of eventually becoming an integral part of the society. One of Tahmāsp's sisters married a Circassian, who would use his court office to team up with Tahmāsp's daughter, Pari Khān Khānum
Pari Khān Khānum to assert themselves in succession matters after Tahmāsp's death. After the Peace of Amasya, Tasmāsp underwent what he called a "sincere repentance." Tasmāsp at the same time removed his son Ismail from his Qizilbash
Qizilbash followers and imprisoned him at Qahqaha. Moreover, he began to strengthen Shia practice by such things as forbidding in the new capital of Qazvin
Qazvin poetry and music which did not esteem Ali and the Twelve Imams. He also reduced the taxes of districts that were traditionally Shia, regulated services in mosques and engaged Shia propagandists and spies. Extortion, intimidation and harassment were practiced against Sunnis.[100] When Tahmāsp died in 984/1576, Persia
Persia was calm domestically, with secure borders and no imminent threat from either the Uzbeks
Uzbeks or the Ottomans. What remained unchanged, however, was the constant threat of local disaffection with the weak central authority. That condition would not change (and in fact it would worsen) until Tahmāsp's grandson, Abbas I, assumed the throne. Chaos under Tahmasp’s sons On Tahmāsp’s death support for a successor coalesced around two of his nine sons; the support divided on ethnic lines—Ismail was supported by most of the Turkmen tribes as well as his sister Pari Khān Khānum, her Circassian uncle Shamkhal Sultan as well as the rest of the Circassians, while Haydar was mostly supported by the Georgians
Georgians at court although he also had support from the Turkmen Ustajlu.[101] Ismail had been imprisoned at Qahqaha since 1556 by his father on charges of plotting a coup, but his selection was ensured when 30,000 Qizilbash
Qizilbash supporters demonstrated outside the prison.[102] Shortly after the installation of Ismail II
Ismail II on August 22, 1576, Haydar was beheaded. Ismail II
Ismail II (r. 1576–77) Main article: Ismail II Ismail’s 14-month reign was notable for two things: continual bloodletting of his relatives and others (including his own supporters) and his reversal on religion. He had all his relatives killed except for his older brother, Mohammad Khudabanda, who, being nearly blind, was not a real candidate for the throne, and Mohammad’s three sons, Hamza Mirza, Abbas Mirza and Abu Talib Mirza.[103] While the murderous actions of Ismail might be explained by political prudence (Ottoman sultans occasionally purged the bloodline to prevent succession rivals[104]), his actions against Shi’a
Shi’a suggest retaliation against his father, who saw himself as a pious practitioner. Ismail sought to reintroduce Sunni
Sunni orthodoxy. But even here there may have been practical political considerations; namely, “concern about the excessively powerful position of Shi‘i dignitaries, which would have been undermined by a reintroduction of the Sunna.”[105] His conduct might also be explained by his drug use. In any event, he was ultimately killed (according to some accounts) by his Circassian half-sister, Pari Khān Khānum, who championed him over Haydar. She is said to have poisoned his opium.[106] Mohammad Khodabanda
Mohammad Khodabanda (r. 1578–87) Main article: Mohammad Khodabanda
"Jealousy among Rivals" attributed to Muhammadi. Miniature painting contained in a Persian volume entitled Busta by Sa'di in 1579, possibly under the patronage of Vizier Mirza Salman Jaberi. E.M. Soudavar Trust, Houston, Texas.
On the death of Ismail II
Ismail II there were three candidates for succession: Shāh Shujā', the infant son of Ismail (only a few weeks old), Ismail's brother, Mohammad Khodabanda; and Mohammad’s son, Sultan Hamza Mirza, 11 years old at the time. Pari Khān Khānum, sister of Ismail and Mohammad, hoped to act as regent for any of the three (including her older brother, who was nearly blind). Mohammad was selected and received the crown on February 11, 1579.[107] Muhammad would rule for 10 years, and his sister at first dominated the court, but she fell in the first of many intrigues which continued even though the Uzbeks
Uzbeks and Ottomans again used the opportunity to threaten Safavid territory. Mohammad allowed others to direct the affairs of state, but none of them had either the prestige, skill or ruthlessness of either Tahmāsp or Ismail II
Ismail II to rein in the ethnic or palace factions, and each of his rulers met grim ends. Mohammad's younger sister, who had a hand in elevating and deposing Ismail II
Ismail II and thus had considerable influence among the Qizilbash, was the first. She did not last much longer than Mohammad's installation at Qazvin, where she was murdered.[108] She was done in by intrigues by the vizier Mirza Salman Jaberi
Mirza Salman Jaberi (who was a holdover from Ismail II's reign) and Mohammad's chief wife Khayr al-Nisa Begum, known as Mahd-i ‘Ulyā. There is some indication that Mirza Salman was the chief conspirator.[109] Pari Khān Khānum
Pari Khān Khānum could master strong support among the Qizilbash, and her uncle, Shamkhal Sultan, was a prominent Circassian who held a high official position.[110] Mirza Salman left the capital before Pari Khān Khānum closed the gates and was able to meet Mohammad Khodabanda
Mohammad Khodabanda and his wife in Shiraz, to whom he offered his services.[111] He may have believed that he would rule once their enemy was disposed of, but Mahd-i ‘Ulyā proved the stronger of the two.
She was by no means content to exercise a more or less indirect influence on affairs of state: instead, she openly carried out all essential functions herself, including the appointment of the chief officers of the realm. In place of the usual royal audience, these high dignitaries had to assemble each morning at the entrance to the women’s apartments in order to receive the Begum’s orders. On these occasions the royal edicts were drawn up and sealed.[108]
The amirs demanded that she be removed, and Mahd-i Ulya was strangled in the harem in July 1579 on the ground of an alleged affair with the brother of the Crimean khan, Adil Giray,[108] who was captured during the 1578-1590 Ottoman war and held captive in the capital, Qazvin.[112] None of the perpetrators were brought to justice, although the shah lectured the assembled amirs on how they departed from the old ways when the shah was master to his Sufi disciples. The shah used that occasion to proclaim the 11-year-old Sultan Hamza Mirza (Mahd-i ‘Ulyā's favorite) crown-prince.[113] The palace intrigues reflected ethnic unrest which would soon erupt into open warfare. Persia's neighbors improved upon the opportunity to attack Persia. The Uzbeks
Uzbeks struck in the Spring of 1578 but were repelled by Murtaza Quli Sultan, governor of Mashhad.[114] More seriously the Ottomans ended the Peace of Amasya
Peace of Amasya and commenced a war with Persia
Persia that would last until 1590 by invading Iran's territories of Georgia and Shirvan. While the initial attacks were repelled, the Ottomans continued and grabbed considerable territory in Transcaucasia, Dagestan, Kurdistan and Luristan
Luristan and in 993/1585 they even took Tabriz.[115] In the midst of these foreign perils, rebellion broke out in Khorasan fomented by (or on behalf of) Mohammad's son, Abbas. Ali Quli Khan Shamlu, the lala of Abbas and Ismail II's man in Herat
Herat proclaimed Abbas shah there April 1581.[116] The following year the loyal Qizilbash
Qizilbash forces (the Turkmen and Takkalu who controlled Qazvin), with vizier Mirza Salman and crown prince Sultan Hamza Mirza at their head to confront the rebelling Ustajlu-Shamlu coalition which had assumed control of Khorasan under the nominal rule of young Abbas.[117] The Ustajlu chief, Murshid Quli Khan, immediately acquiesced and received a royal pardon. Shumlu leader, Ali Quli Khan, however, holed himself inside Herat
Herat with Abbas. The vizier thought that the royal forces failed to prosecute the siege sufficiently and accused the forces of sedition. The loyal Qizibash recoiled at their treatment by Mirza Salman, who they resented for a number of reasons (not least of which was the fact that a Tajik was given military command over them), and demanded that he be turned over to them. The crown prince (the vizier's son-in-law) meekly turned him over, and the Qizilbash executed him and confiscated his property.[118] The siege of Herat thus ended in 1583 without Ali Quli Khan backing down and Khorasan was in a state of open rebellion. In 1585 two events occurred that would combine to break the impasse among the Qizilbash. First, in the west, the Ottomans, seeing the disarray of the warriors, pressed deep into Safavid territory and occupied the old capital of Tabriz. Crown prince Hamza Mirza, now 21 years and director of Safavid affairs, led a force to confront the Ottomans, but in 1586 was murdered under mysterious circumstances. In the east Murshid Quli Khan, of the Ustajlu tribe, managed to snatch Abbas away from the Shamlus. Two years later in 1587, the massive invasion of Khorasan by the Uzbeks
Uzbeks proved the occasion whereby Murshid Quli Khan would make a play for supremacy in Qazvin. When he reached the capital with Abbas a public demonstration in the boy's favor decided the issue, and Shah
Shah Mohammad voluntarily handed over the insignia of kingship to his son, who was crowned Abbas I on October 1, 1588. The moment was grave for the empire, with the Ottomans deep in Persian territory in the west and north and the Uzbeks
Uzbeks in possession of half of Khorasan in the east.[119] Shah
Shah Abbas (r. 1588–1629) Main article: Abbas I of Persia
Shah ‘Abbās King of the Persians, copper engraving by Dominicus Custos, Atrium heroicum Caesarum (1600–2)
The 16-year-old Abbas I was installed as nominal shah in 1588, but the real power was intended to remain in the hands of his "mentor," Murshid Quli Khan, who reorganized court offices and principal governorships among the Qizilbash[120] and took the title of wakīl for himself.[121] Abbas' own position seemed even more dependent on Qizilbash
Qizilbash approval than even Mohammad Khodabanda's was. The dependence of Abbas on the Qizilbash
Qizilbash (which provided the only military force) was further reinforced by the precarious situation of the empire, in the vice of Ottoman and Uzbek territorial plunder. Yet over the course of ten years Abbas was able, using cautiously-timed but nonetheless decisive steps, to affect a profound transformation of Safavid administration and military, throw back the foreign invaders, and preside over a flourishing of Persian art. Restoration of central authority Whether Abbas had fully formed his strategy at the onset, at least in retrospect his method of restoring the shah's authority involved three phases: (1) restoration of internal security and law and order; (2) recovery of the eastern territories from the Uzbek's; and (3) recovery of the western territories from the Ottomans.[122] Before he could begin to embark on the first stage, he needed relief from the most serious threat to the empire: the military pressure from the Ottomans. He did so by taking the humiliating step of coming to peace terms with the Ottomans by making, for now, permanent their territorial gains in Iraq
Iraq and the territories in the north, including Azerbaijan, Qarabagh, Ganja, eastern Georgia (comprising the Kingdom of Kartli
Kingdom of Kartli and Kakheti), Dagestan, and Kurdistan.[123][124] At the same time, he took steps to ensure that the Qizilbash
Qizilbash did not mistake this apparent show of weakness as a signal for more tribal rivalry at the court. Although no one could have bristled more at the power grab of his "mentor" Murshid Quli Khan, he rounded up the leaders of a plot to assassinate the wakīl and had them executed. Then, having made the point that he would not encourage rivalries even purporting to favor his interests, he felt secure enough to have Murshid Quli Khan assassinated on his own orders in July 1589.[125] It was clear that the style of leadership would be entirely different than Mohammad Khodabanda's leadership.
Safavid Persia, 1598
Abbas was able to begin gradually transforming the empire from a tribal confederation to a modern imperial government by transferring provinces from mamalik (provincial) rule governed by a Qizilbash
Qizilbash chief and the revenue of which mostly supported local Qizilbash administration and forces to khass (central) rule presided over by a court appointee and the revenue of which reverted to the court. Particularly important in this regard were the Gilan and Mazandaran provinces, which produced Persia's single most important export; silk. With the substantial new revenue, Abbas was able to build up a central, standing army, loyal only to him. This freed him of his dependence on Qizilbash
Qizilbash warriors loyal to local tribal chiefs.[126]
What effectively fully severed Abbas's dependence on the Qizilbash, however, was how he constituted this new army. In order not to favor one Turkic tribe over another and to avoid inflaming the Turk-Persian enmity, he recruited his army from the "third force", a policy that had been implemented in its baby-steps since the reign of Tahmasp I—the Circassian, Georgian and to a lesser extent Armenian ghulāms (slaves) which (after conversion to Islam) were trained for the military or some branch of the civil or military administration. The standing army created by Abbas consisted of: (1) 10,000-15,000 cavalry ghulām regiments solely composed of ethnic Caucasians, armed with muskets in addition to the usual weapons (then the largest cavalry in the world[127]); (2) a corps of musketeers, tufangchiyān, mainly Iranians, originally foot soldiers but eventually mounted, and (3) a corps of artillerymen, tūpchiyān. Both corps of musketeers and artillerymen totaled 12,000 men. In addition the shah's personal bodyguard, made up exclusively of Caucasian ghulāms, was dramatically increased to 3,000.[128] This force of well-trained Caucasian ghulams under Abbas amounted to a total of near 40,000 soldiers paid for and beholden to the Shah.[129][130] Abbas also greatly increased the number of cannons at his disposal, permitting him to field 500 in a single battle.[130] Ruthless discipline was enforced and looting was severely punished. Abbas was also able to draw on military advice from a number of European envoys, particularly from the English adventurers Sir Anthony Shirley
Anthony Shirley and his brother Robert Shirley, who arrived in 1598 as envoys from the Earl of Essex on an unofficial mission to induce Persia
Persia into an anti-Ottoman alliance.[131] As mentioned by the Encyclopaedia Iranica, lastly, from 1600 onwards, the Safavid statesman Allāhverdī Khan, in conjunction with Robert Sherley, undertook further reorganizations of the army, which meant among other things further dramatically increasing the number of ghulams to 25,000.[132] Abbas also moved the capital to Isfahan, deeper into central Iran. Abbas I built a new city next to the ancient Persian one. From this time the state began to take on a more Persian character. The Safavids ultimately succeeded in establishing a new Persian national monarchy. Recovery of territory from the Uzbeks
Uzbeks and the Ottomans See also: Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–18)
Abbas I as shown on one of the paintings in the Chehel Sotoun pavilion.
Abbas I first fought the Uzbeks, recapturing Herat
Herat and Mashhad in 1598. Then he turned against Persia's archrival, the Ottomans, recapturing Baghdad, eastern Iraq
Iraq and the Caucasian provinces by 1616, all through the 1603-1618, marking the first grand Safavid pitched victory over the Ottomans. He also used his new force to dislodge the Portuguese from Bahrain
Bahrain (1602) and, with English help, from Hormuz (1622), in the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf (a vital link in Portuguese trade with India). He expanded commercial links with the English East India Company and the Dutch East India Company. Thus Abbas was able to break the dependence on the Qizilbash
Qizilbash for military might indefinitely and therefore was able to centralize control, for the first time since fully the foundation of the Safavid state. The Ottoman Turks and Safavids fought over the fertile plains of Iraq for more than 150 years. The capture of Baghdad
Baghdad by Ismail I
Ismail I in 1509 was only followed by its loss to the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I in 1534. After subsequent campaigns, the Safavids recaptured Baghdad
Baghdad in 1623 during the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39)
Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39) yet lost it again to Murad IV
Murad IV in 1638 after Abbas had died. Henceforth a treaty, signed in Qasr-e Shirin
Qasr-e Shirin known as the Treaty of Zuhab was established delineating a border between Iran
Iran and Turkey
Turkey in 1639, a border which still stands in northwest Iran/southeast Turkey. The 150-year tug-of-war accentuated the Sunni
Sunni and Shi'a rift in Iraq. Quelling the Georgian uprising See also: Capture of Tbilisi
Tbilisi and Gökçe war
Rostom (also known as Rustam Khan), viceroy of Kartli, eastern Georgia, from 1633-1658.
In 1614–16 during the Ottoman-Safavid War (1603-1618), Abbas suppressed a rebellion led by his formerly most loyal Georgian subjects Luarsab II and Teimuraz I (also known as Tahmuras Khan) in the Kingdom of Kakheti. In 1613, Abbas had appointed these trusted Georgian gholams of his on the puppet thrones of Kartli
Kartli and Kakheti, the Iranian Safavid ruled areas of Georgia. Later that year, when the shah summoned them to join him on a hunting expedition in Mazandaran, they didn't show up due to the fear they would be either imprisoned or killed.[133] Ultimately forming an alliance, the two sought refuge with the Ottoman forces in Ottoman ruled Imereti. This defection of two of the shah's most trusted subjects and gholams infuriated the shah, as reported by the Safavid court historian Iskander Beg Munshi.[133] The following spring in 1614, Abbas I appointed a grandson of Alexander II of Imereti
Alexander II of Imereti to the throne of Kartli, Jesse of Kakheti also known as "Isā Khān".[133] Raised at the court in Isfahan
Isfahan and a Muslim, he was fully loyal to the shah. Subsequently, the shah marched upon Grem, the capital of Imereti, and punished its peoples for harbouring his defected subjects. He returned to Kartli, and in two punitive campaigns he devastated Tblisi, killed 60–70,000 Kakheti Georgian peasants, and deported between 130,000-200,000 Georgian captives to mainland Iran.[134][135][136][137] After fully securing the region, he executed the rebellious Luarsab II of Kartli
Kartli and later had the Georgian queen Ketevan, who had been sent to the shah as negotiator, tortured to death when she refused to renounce Christianity, in an act of revenge for the recalcitrance of Teimuraz.[138][139] Kakheti lost two-thirds of its population in these years by Abbas' punitive campaign. The majority were deported to Iran, while some were slaughtered.[140] Teimuraz returned to eastern Georgia in 1615 and defeated a Safavid force. It was just a brief setback, however, as Abbas had already been making long-term plans to prevent further incursions. He was eventually successful in making the eastern Georgian territories an integral part of the Safavid provinces. In 1619 he appointed the loyal Simon II (or Semayun Khan) on the symbolic throne of Kakheti, while placing a series of his own governors to rule of districts where rebellious inhabitants were mostly located.[133] Moreover, he planned to deport all nobles of Kartli. Iranian rule had been fully restored over eastern Georgia, but the Georgian territories would continue to produce resistance to Safavid enroachments from 1624 until Abbas' death.[141] Suppressing the Kurdish rebellion In 1609–10, a war broke out between Kurdish tribes and the Safavid Empire. After a long and bloody siege led by the Safavid grand vizier Hatem Beg, which lasted from November 1609 to the summer of 1610, the Kurdish stronghold of Dimdim was captured. Shah
Shah Abbas ordered a general massacre in Beradost and Mukriyan (Mahabad, reported by Eskandar Beg Monshi, Safavid Historian (1557–1642), in "Alam Ara Abbasi") and resettled the Turkic Afshar tribe in the region while deporting many Kurdish tribes to Khorasan.[142][143] Nowadays, there is a community of nearly 1.7 million people who are descendants of the tribes deported from Kurdistan to Khorasan (Northeastern Iran) by the Safavids.[144] Contacts with Europe during Abbas's reign
The ambassador Husain Ali Beg led the first Persian embassy to Europe (1599–1602).
Abbas's tolerance towards Christians was part of his policy of establishing diplomatic links with European powers to try to enlist their help in the fight against their common enemy, the Ottoman Empire. The idea of such an anti-Ottoman alliance was not a new one—over a century before, Uzun Hassan, then ruler of part of Iran, had asked the Venetians for military aid—but none of the Safavids had made diplomatic overtures to Europe. Shah
Ismail I was the first of the Safavids to try to establish once again an alliance against the common Ottoman enemy through the earlier stages of the Habsburg–Persian alliance, but this also proved to be largely unfruitful during his reign.[145] Abbas's attitude, however, was in marked contrast to that of his grandfather, Tahmasp I, who had expelled the English traveller Anthony Jenkinson
Anthony Jenkinson from his court on hearing he was a Christian.[146] For his part, Abbas declared that he "preferred the dust from the shoe soles of the lowest Christian to the highest Ottoman personage."[147] Abbas would take active and all measures needed in order to get the alliances done.
Fresco in the Doge's Palace in Venice
Venice depicting Doge Marino Grimani receiving the Persian Ambassadors, 1599
In 1599, Abbas sent his first diplomatic mission to Europe. The group crossed the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea and spent the winter in Moscow before proceeding through Norway and Germany (where it was received by Emperor Rudolf II) to Rome, where Pope Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII gave the travellers a long audience. They finally arrived at the court of Philip III of Spain
Philip III of Spain in 1602. Although the expedition never managed to return to Iran, being shipwrecked on the journey around Africa, it marked an important new step in contacts between Iran
Iran and Europe. The Europeans began to be fascinated by the Iranians and their culture — Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night (1601–02), for example, makes two references (at II.5 and III.4) to 'the Sophy', then the English term for the Shahs of Iran.[148][149] Henceforward, the number of diplomatic missions to and fro greatly increased.[150]
Abbas I as a new Caesar being honoured by the Trumpets of Fame, together with the 1609-1615 Persian embassy, in Allégorie de l'Occasion, by Frans II Francken, 1628
The shah had set great store on an alliance with Spain, the chief opponent of the Ottomans in Europe. Abbas offered trading rights and the chance to preach Christianity
Christianity in Iran
Iran in return for help against the Ottomans. But the stumbling block of Hormuz remained, a vassal kingdom that had fallen into the hands of the Spanish Habsburgs
Spanish Habsburgs when the King of Spain inherited the throne of Portugal in 1580. The Spanish demanded Abbas break off relations with the English before they would consider relinquishing the town. Abbas was unable to comply. Eventually Abbas became frustrated with Spain, as he did with the Holy Roman Empire, which wanted him to make his over 400,000 Armenian subjects swear allegiance to the Pope but did not trouble to inform the shah when the Emperor Rudolf signed a peace treaty with the Ottomans. Contacts with the Pope, Poland and Moscow were no more fruitful.[151] More came of Abbas's contacts with the English, although England had little interest in fighting against the Ottomans. The Sherley brothers arrived in 1598 and helped reorganize the Iranian army, which proved to be crucial in the Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–18), which resulted in Ottoman defeats in all stages of the war and the first clear pitched Safavid victory of their archrivals. One of the Shirley brothers, Robert Shirley, would lead Abbas's second diplomatic mission to Europe from 1609-1615.[152] The English at sea, represented by the English East India Company, also began to take an interest in Iran, and in 1622 four of its ships helped Abbas retake Hormuz from the Portuguese in the Capture of Ormuz (1622). This was the beginning of the East India Company's long-running interest in Iran.[153] Succession and legacy of Abbas I Due to his obsessive fear of assassination, Shah
Shah Abbas either put to death or blinded any member of his family who aroused his suspicion. His oldest son, the crown prince Mohammad Baqer Mirza, was executed following a court intrigue in which several Circassians
Circassians were involved, while two others were blinded. Since two other sons had predeceased him, the result was a personal tragedy for Shah
Shah Abbas. When he died on 19 January 1629, he had no son capable of succeeding him.[154] During the early 17th century the power of the Qizilbash
Qizilbash drastically diminished, the original militia that had helped Ismail I
Ismail I capture Tabriz
Tabriz and that had gained many administrative powers over the centuries. Power was shifting to the new class of Caucasian deportees and imports, many of the hundreds of thousands ethnic Georgians, Circassians, and Armenians. This new layer of society would continue to play a vital role in Iranian history up to and including the fall of the Qajar dynasty, some 300 years after Abbas' death. At its zenith, during the long reign of Shah
Shah Abbas I, the empire's reach comprised Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Bahrain, and parts of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey. Decline of the Safavid state Main articles: Hotaki dynasty, Afsharid dynasty, Russo-Persian War (1722-1723), and Treaty of Constantinople (1724)
Shah Abbas the II holding a banquet for foreign dignitaries. Detail from a ceiling fresco at the Chehel Sotoun
Chehel Sotoun Palace in Isfahan.
In addition to fighting its perennial enemies, their archrival the Ottomans and the Uzbeks
Uzbeks as the 17th century progressed, Iran
Iran had to contend with the rise of new neighbors. Russian Muscovy
Muscovy in the previous century had deposed two western Asian khanates of the Golden Horde and expanded its influence into Europe, the Caucasus
Caucasus Mountains and Central Asia. Astrakhan
Astrakhan came under Russian rule, nearing the Safavid possessions in Dagestan. In the far eastern territories, the Mughals of India had expanded into Khorasan (now Afghanistan) at the expense of Iranian control, briefly taking Kandahar.
David II of Kakheti
David II of Kakheti (Emamqoli Khan)
In 1659, the Kingdom of Kakheti rose up against the Safavid Iranian rule due to a change of policy that included the mass settling of Qizilbash
Qizilbash Turkic tribes in the region in order to repopulate the province, after Shah
Shah Abbas' earlier mass deportations of between 130,000[155] - 200,000[135][136][156] Georgian subjects to Iran's mainland and massacre of another thousand in 1616 virtually left the province without any even remotely substantial amount of population. This Bakhtrioni Uprising
Bakhtrioni Uprising was successfully defeated under personal direction of Shah
Shah Abbas II himself. However, strategically it remained inconclusive.[157] The Iranian authority was restored in Kakheti, but the Qizilbash
Qizilbash Turkics were prevented from settling in Kakheti, which undermined the planned Iranian policies in the respective province. More importantly, the Dutch East India company and later English/British used their superior means of maritime power to control trade routes in the western Indian Ocean. As a result, Iran
Iran was cut off from overseas links to East Africa, the Arabian peninsula, and South Asia.[158] Overland trade grew notably however, as Iran
Iran was able to further develop its overland trade with North and Central Europe during the second half of the seventeenth century.[159] In the late seventeenth century, Iranian merchants established a permanent presence as far north as Narva on the Baltic sea, in what now is Estonia.[160] The Dutch and English were still able to drain the Iranian government of much of its precious metal supplies. Except for Shah
Shah Abbas II, the Safavid rulers after Abbas I were therefore rendered ineffectual, and the Iranian government declined and finally collapsed when a serious military threat emerged on its eastern border in the early eighteenth century.[161] The end of the reign of Abbas II, 1666, thus marked the beginning of the end of the Safavid dynasty. Despite falling revenues and military threats, later shahs had lavish lifestyles. Sultan Husayn (1694–1722) in particular was known for his love of wine and disinterest in governance.[162]
Map of the Safavid Empire, published 1736.
The country was repeatedly raided on its frontiers— Kerman
Kerman by Baloch tribes in 1698, Khorasan by the Hotakis in 1717, Dagestan
Dagestan and northern Shirvan
Shirvan by the Lezgins
Lezgins in 1721, constantly in Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia by Sunni peninsula Arabs. Sultan Hosein tried to forcibly convert his Afghan subjects in Qandahar from Sunni
Sunni to the Shi'a sect of Islam. In response, a Ghilzai
Ghilzai Afghan chieftain named Mir Wais Hotak
Mir Wais Hotak revolted and killed Gurgin Khan, the Safavid governor of the region, along with his army. In 1722, an Afghan army led by Mir Wais' son Mahmud advanced on the heart of the empire and defeated the government forces at the Battle of Gulnabad. He then besieged the capital of Isfahan, until Shah
Shah Sultan Husayn
Sultan Husayn abdicated and acknowledged him as the new king of Persia.[163][full citation needed] At the same time, the Russians led by Peter the Great
Peter the Great attacked and conquered swaths of Safavid Iran's North Caucasian, Transcaucasian, and northern mainland territories through the Russo-Persian War (1722-1723). The Safavids' archrivals, the neighbouring Ottomans, invaded western and northwestern Safavid Iran
Iran and took swaths of territory there, including the city of Baghdad. Together with the Russians, they agreed to divide and keep the conquered Iranian territories for themselves as confirmed in the Treaty of Constantinople (1724).[164]
A map of Safavid Empire
Empire in 1720, showing different states of Persia
The tribal Afghans rode roughshod over their conquered territory for seven years but were prevented from making further gains by Nader Shah, a former slave who had risen to military leadership within the Afshar tribe in Khorasan, a vassal state of the Safavids. Quickly making a name as a military genius both feared and respected amongst its friends and enemies (including Persia's archrival the Ottoman Empire, and Russia; both empires Nader would deal with soon afterwards), Nader Shah
Nader Shah easily defeated the Ghilzai
Ghilzai Hotaki forces in the 1729 Battle of Damghan. He had removed them from power and banished them out of Persia
Persia by 1729. In 1732 by the Treaty of Resht and in 1735 Treaty of Ganja, he negotiated an agreement with the government of Empress Anna Ioanovna for them to cede back the recently annexed Iranian territories, making most of the Caucasus
Caucasus fall back into Iranian hands, while establishing an Irano-Russian alliance against the common neighbouring Ottoman enemy.[165][166] In the Ottoman–Persian War (1730–35), he retook all territories lost by the Ottoman invasion of the 1720s, as well as beyond. With the Safavid state and its territories secured, in 1738 Nader conquered the Hotaki's last stronghold in Qandahar; in the same year, in need of fortune to aid his military careers against his Ottoman and Russian imperial rivals, he started his invasion of the wealthy but weak Mughal Empire
Empire accompanied by his Georgian subject Erekle II,[167] occupying Ghazni, Kabul, Lahore, and as far as Delhi, in India, when he completely humiliated and looted the militarily inferior Mughals. These cities were later inherited by his Abdali Afghan military commander, Ahmad Shah
Shah Durrani. Nadir had effective control under Shah Tahmasp II
Tahmasp II and then ruled as regent of the infant Abbas III
Abbas III until 1736 when he had himself crowned shah.
Part of the Safavid Persian Empire
Empire (on right), the Ottoman Empire, and West Asia
West Asia in general, Emanuel Bowen, 1744–52
Immediately after Nader Shah's assassination in 1747 and the disintegration of his short-lived empire, the Safavids were re-appointed as shahs of Iran
Iran in order to lend legitimacy to the nascent Zand dynasty. However, the brief puppet regime of Ismail III ended in 1760 when Karim Khan
Karim Khan felt strong enough to take nominal power of the country as well and officially end the Safavid dynasty. Shia Islam
Shia Islam as the state religion Main article: Safavid conversion of Iran
Iran from Sunnism to Shiism
Shah Suleiman I and his courtiers, Isfahan, 1670. Painter is Aliquli Jabbadar, and is kept at The St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg Institute of Oriental Studies in Russia, ever since it was acquired by Tsar Nicholas II. Note the two Georgian figures with their names at the top left.
Even though the Safavids were not the first Shia rulers in Iran, they played a crucial role in making Shia Islam
Shia Islam the official religion in the whole of Iran, as well as what is nowadays the Republic of Azerbaijan.[168] There were large Shia communities in some cities like Qom
Qom and Sabzevar
Sabzevar as early as the 8th century. In the 10th and 11th centuries the Buwayhids, who were of the Zaidiyyah
Zaidiyyah branch of Shia, ruled in Fars, Isfahan
Isfahan and Baghdad. As a result of the Mongol conquest and the relative religious tolerance of the Ilkhanids, Shia dynasties were re-established in Iran, Sarbedaran
Sarbedaran in Khorasan being the most important. The Ilkhanid ruler Öljaitü
Öljaitü converted to Twelver
Twelver Shiism in the 13th century. Following his conquest of Iran
Iran and Azerbaijan, Ismail I
Ismail I made conversion mandatory for the largely Sunni
Sunni population. The Sunni
Sunni Ulema or clergy were either killed or exiled. Ismail I, brought in mainstream Ithnā'ashariyyah Shi'a religious leaders and granted them land and money in return for loyalty. Later, during the Safavid and especially Qajar period, the Shia Ulema's power increased and they were able to exercise a role, independent of or compatible with the government. Military and the role of Qizilbash Main article: Qizilbash
A Safavid helmet
The Qizilbash
Qizilbash were a wide variety of Shi'ite
Shi'ite (ghulāt) and mostly Turcoman militant groups who helped found the Safavid Empire. Their military power was essential during the reign of the Shahs Ismail and Tahmasp. The Qizilbash
Qizilbash tribes were essential to the military of Iran until the rule of Shah
Shah Abbas I- their leaders were able to exercise enormous influence and participate in court intrigues (assassinating Shah
Shah Ismail II
Ismail II for example). A major problem faced by Ismail I
Ismail I after the establishment of the Safavid state was how to bridge the gap between the two major ethnic groups in that state: the Qizilbash
Qizilbash ("Redhead") Turcomans, the "men of sword" of classical Islamic society whose military prowess had brought him to power, and the Persian elements, the "men of the pen", who filled the ranks of the bureaucracy and the religious establishment in the Safavid state as they had done for centuries under previous rulers of Persia, be they Arabs, Mongols, or Turkmens. As Vladimir Minorsky put it, friction between these two groups was inevitable, because the Qizilbash
Qizilbash "were no party to the national Persian tradition". Between 1508 and 1524, the year of Ismail's death, the shah appointed five successive Persians to the office of vakil. When the second Persian vakil was placed in command of a Safavid army in Transoxiana, the Qizilbash, considering it a dishonor to be obliged to serve under him, deserted him on the battlefield with the result that he was slain. The fourth vakil was murdered by the Qizilbash, and the fifth was put to death by them.[60] Reforms in the military
Persian Musketeer in time of Abbas I by Habib-Allah Mashadi after Falsafi (Berlin Museum of Islamic Art).
Shah Abbas realized that in order to retain absolute control over his empire without antagonizing the Qizilbash, he needed to create reforms that reduced the dependency that the shah had on their military support. Part of these reforms was the creation of the 3rd force within the aristocracy and all other functions within the empire, but even more important in undermining the authority of the Qizilbash
Qizilbash was the introduction of the Royal Corps into the military. This military force would serve the shah only and eventually consisted of four separate branches:[169]
Shahsevans: these were 12,000 strong and built up from the small group of qurchis that Shah
Shah Abbas had inherited from his predecessor. The Shahsevans, or "Friends of the King", were Qizilbash
Qizilbash tribesmen who had forsaken their tribal allegiance for allegiance to the shah alone.[170] Ghulams: Tahmasp I
Tahmasp I had started introducing huge amounts of Georgian, Circassian and Armenian slaves and deportees from the Caucasus, of whom a sizeable amount would become part of the future ghulam system. Shah
Shah Abbas expanded this program significantly and fully implemented it, and eventually created a force of 15,000 ghulam cavalrymen and 3,000 ghulam royal bodyguards. With the advent of the brother's Shirley at Abbas' court and by the efforts of statesman Allahverdi Khan, from 1600 onwards, the ghulam fighting regiments were further dramatically expanded under Abbas reaching 25,000.[132] Under Abbas, this force amounted to a total of near 40,000 soldiers paid for and beholden to the Shah.[129][130][171] They would become the elite soldiers of the Safavid armies (like the Ottoman Jannisary).[97] Musketers: realizing the advantages that the Ottomans had because of their firearms, Shah
Shah Abbas was at pains to equip both the qurchi and the ghulam soldiers with up-to-date weaponry. More importantly, for the first time in Iranian history, a substantial infantry corps of musketeers (tofang-chis), numbering 12 000, was created. Artillery Corps: with the help of Westerners, he also formed an artillery corps of 12 000 men, although this was the weakest element in his army. According to Sir Thomas Herbert, who accompanied the British embassy to Persia
Persia in 1628, the Persians relied heavily on support from the Europeans in manufacturing cannons.[172] It wasn't until a century later, when Nader Shah
Nader Shah became the Commander in Chief of the military that sufficient effort was put into modernizing the artillery corps and the Persians managed to excel and become self-sufficient in the manufacturing of firearms.
Despite the reforms, the Qizilbash
Qizilbash would remain the strongest and most effective element within the military, accounting for more than half of its total strength.[172] But the creation of this large standing army, that, for the first time in Safavid history, was serving directly under the Shah, significantly reduced their influence, and perhaps any possibilities for the type of civil unrest that had caused havoc during the reign of the previous shahs. Society A proper term for the Safavid society is what we today can call a meritocracy, meaning a society in which officials were appointed on the basis of worth and merit, and not on the basis of birth. It was certainly not an oligarchy, nor was it an aristocracy. Sons of nobles were considered for the succession of their fathers as a mark of respect, but they had to prove themselves worthy of the position. This system avoided an entrenched aristocracy or a cast society.[173] There even are numerous recorded accounts of laymen that rose to high official posts, as a result of their merits.[174] Nevertheless, the Iranian society during the Safavids was that of a hierarchy, with the Shah
Shah at the apex of the hierarchical pyramid, the common people, merchants and peasants at the base, and the aristocrats in between. The term dowlat, which in modern Persian means "government", was then an abstract term meaning "bliss" or "felicity", and it began to be used as concrete sense of the Safavid state, reflecting the view that the people had of their ruler, as someone elevated above humanity.[175] Also among the aristocracy, in the middle of the hierarchical pyramid, were the religious officials, who, mindful of the historic role of the religious classes as a buffer between the ruler and his subjects, usually did their best to shield the ordinary people from oppressive governments.[175] The customs and culture of the people Jean Chardin
Jean Chardin devoted a whole chapter in his book to describing the Persian character, which apparently fascinated him greatly. As he spent a large bulk of his life in Persia, he involved himself in, and took part in, their everyday rituals and habits, and eventually acquired intimate knowledge of their culture, customs and character. He admired their consideration towards foreigners, but he also stumbled upon characteristics that he found challenging. His descriptions of the public appearance, clothes and customs are corroborated by the miniatures, drawings and paintings from that time which have survived. As he describes them:[176]
He then goes on:[176]
But as he also experienced:[177]
Anthony Shirley
Anthony Shirley and Robert Shirley
Robert Shirley (pictured in 1622) helped modernize the Persian Army.
It is however no question, from reading Chardin's descriptions of their manners, that he considered them to be a well-educated and well-behaved people, who certainly knew the strict etiquettes of social intercourse. As he describes them,[178]
“ The Persians are the most civilized of the peoples of the East, and what the French are to Europe, they are to the Orient... Their bearing and countenance is the best-composed, mild, serious, impressive, genial and welcoming as far as possible. They never fail to perform at once the appropriate gestures of politeness when meeting each other... They are the most wheedling people in the world, with the most engaging manners, the most supple spirits and a language that is gentle and flattering, and devoid of unpleasant terms but rather full of circumlocutions. ”
Unlike Europeans, they much disliked physical activity, and were not in favor of exercise for its own sake, preferring the leisure of repose and luxuries that life could offer. Travelling was valued only for the specific purpose of getting from one place to another, not interesting them self in seeing new places and experiencing different cultures. It was perhaps this sort of attitude towards the rest of the world that accounted for the ignorance of Persians regarding other countries of the world. The exercises that they took part in were for keeping the body supple and sturdy and to acquire skills in handling of arms. Archery
Archery took first place. Second place was held by fencing, where the wrist had to be firm but flexible and movements agile. Thirdly there was horsemanship. A very strenuous form of exercise which the Persians greatly enjoyed was hunting.[179] Entertainment
A persian miniature depicting a polo-match
Since pre-Islamic times, the sport of wrestling had been an integral part of the Iranian identity, and the professional wrestlers, who performed in Zurkhanehs, were considered important members of the society. Each town had their own troop of wrestlers, called Pahlavans. Their sport also provided the masses with entertainment and spectacle. Chardin described one such event:[180]
“ The two wrestlers were covered in grease. They are present on the level ground, and a small drum is always playing during the contest for excitement. They swear to a good fight and shake hands. That done, they slap their thighs, buttocks and hips to the rhythm of the drum. That is for the women and to get themselves in good form. After that they join together in uttering a great cry and trying to overthrow each other. ”
As well as wrestling, what gathered the masses was fencing, tightrope dancers, puppet-players and acrobats, performing in large squares, such as the Royal square. A leisurely form of amusement was to be found in the cabarets, particularly in certain districts, like those near the mausoleum of Harun-e Velayat. People met there to drink liqueurs or coffee, to smoke tobacco or opium, and to chat or listen to poetry.[181] Clothes and Appearances
Lady's clothing in the 1600s
Men's clothing in the 1600s
As noted before, a key aspect of the Persian character was its love of luxury, particularly on keeping up appearances. They would adorn their clothes, wearing stones and decorate the harness of their horses. Men wore many rings on their fingers, almost as many as their wives. They also placed jewels on their arms, such as on daggers and swords. Daggers were worn at the waist. In describing the lady's clothing, he noted that Persian dress revealed more of the figure than did the European, but that women appeared differently depending on whether they were at home in the presence of friends and family, or if they were in the public. In private they usually wore a veil that only covered the hair and the back, but upon leaving the home, they put on manteaus, large cloaks that concealed their whole bodies except their faces. They often dyed their feet and hands with henna. Their hairstyle was simple, the hair gathered back in tresses, often adorned at the ends with pearls and clusters of jewels. Women with slender waists were regarded as more attractive than those with larger figures. Women from the provinces and slaves pierced their left nostrils with rings, but well-born Persian women would not do this.[182] The most precious accessory for men was the turban. Although they lasted a long time it was necessary to have changes for different occasions like weddings and the Nowruz, while men of status never wore the same turban two days running. Clothes that became soiled in any way were changed immediately.[183] Turks and Tajiks Although the Safavid rulers and citizens were of native stock and continuously reasserted their Iranian identity, the power structure of the Safavid state was mainly divided into two groups: the Turkic-speaking military/ruling elite—whose job was to maintain the territorial integrity and continuity of the Iranian empire through their leadership—and the Persian-speaking administrative/governing elite—whose job was to oversee the operation and development of the nation and its identity through their high positions. Thus came the term "Turk and Tajik", which was used by native Iranians for many generations to describe the Persianate, or Turko-Persian, nature of many dynasties which ruled over Greater Iran
Iran between the 12th and 20th centuries, in that these dynasties promoted and helped continue the dominant Persian linguistic and cultural identity of their states, although the dynasties themselves were of non-Persian (e.g. Turkic) linguistic origins. The relationship between the Turkic-speaking 'Turks' and Persian-speaking 'Tajiks' was symbiotic, yet some form of rivalry did exist between the two. As the former represented the "people of the sword" and the latter, "the people of the pen", high-level official posts would naturally be reserved for the Persians. Indeed, this had been the situation throughout Persian history, even before the Safavids, ever since the Arab conquest.[184] Shah
Shah Tahmasp introduced a change to this, when he, and the other Safavid rulers who succeeded him, sought to blur the formerly defined lines between the two linguistic groups, by taking the sons of Turkic-speaking officers into the royal household for their education in the Persian language. Consequently, they were slowly able to take on administrative jobs in areas which had hitherto been the exclusive preserve of the ethnic Persians.[185] The third force: Caucasians
Daud Khan Undiladze, military commander, ghilman and the governor of Ganja and Karabakh
Karabakh from 1625 to 1630.
See also: Iranian Georgians
Georgians and Iranian Circassians From 1540 and onwards, Shah
Shah Tahmasp initiated a gradual transformation of the Iranian society by slowly constructing a new branch and layer solely composed of ethnic Caucasians. The implementation of this branch would be completed and significantly widened under Abbas the Great (Abbas I). According to the Encyclopedia Iranica, for Tahmasp, the background of this initiation and eventual composition that would be only finalized under Shah
Shah Abbas I, circled around the military tribal elite of the empire, the Qizilbash, who believed that physical proximity to and control of a member of the immediate Safavid family guaranteed spiritual advantages, political fortune, and material advancement.[95] This was a huge impedance for the authority of the Shah, and furthermore, it undermined any developments without the agreeing or shared profit of the Qizilbash. As Tahmasp understood and realized that any long-term solutions would mainly involve minimizing the political and military presence of the Qizilbash
Qizilbash as a whole, it would require them to be replaced by a whole new layer in society, that would question and battle the authority of the Qizilbash
Qizilbash on every possible level, and minimize any of their influences. This layer would be solely composed of hundreds of thousands of deported, imported, and to a lesser extent voluntarily migrated ethnic Circassians, Georgians, and Armenians. This layer would become the "third force" in Iranian society, alongside the other two forces, the Turkomans and Persians. The series of campaigns that Tahmāsp subsequently waged after realising this in the wider Caucasus
Caucasus between 1540 and 1554 were meant to uphold the morale and the fighting efficiency of the Qizilbash military,[186] but they brought home large numbers (over 70,000)[187] of Christian Georgian, Circassian and Armenian slaves as its main objective, and would be the basis of this third force; the new (Caucasian) layer in society.[96] According to the Encyclopedia Iranica, this would be as well the starting point for the corps of the ḡolāmān-e ḵāṣṣa-ye-e šarifa, or royal slaves, who would dominate the Safavid military for most of the empire's length, and would form a crucial part of the third force. As non-Turcoman converts to Islam, these Circassian and Georgian ḡolāmāns (also written as ghulams) were completely unrestrained by clan loyalties and kinship obligations, which was an attractive feature for a ruler like Tahmāsp whose childhood and upbringing had been deeply affected by Qizilbash tribal politics.[95] Their formation, implementation, and usage was very much alike to the janissaries of the neighbouring Ottoman Empire.[97] In turn, many of these transplanted women became wives and concubines of Tahmasp, and the Safavid harem emerged as a competitive, and sometimes lethal, arena of ethnic politics as cliques of Turkmen, Circassian, and Georgian women and courtiers vied with each other for the king's attention.[95] Although the first slave soldiers would not be organized until the reign of Abbas I, during Tahmasp's reign, Caucasians already became important members of the royal household, Harem
Harem and in the civil and military administration,[98][99] and were on their way of becoming an integral part of society. Tahmasp I's successor, Ismail II, brought another 30,000 Circassians
Circassians and Georgians to Iran
Iran of which many joined the ghulam force.[188] Following the full implementation of this policy by Abbas I, the women (only Circassian and Georgian) now very often came to occupy prominent positions in the harems of the Safavid elite, while the men who became part of the ghulam "class" as part of the powerful third force were given special training on completion of which they were either enrolled in one of the newly created ghilman regiments, or employed in the royal household.[189] The rest of the masses of deportees and importees, a significant portion numbering many hundreds of thousands, were settled in various regions of mainland Iran, and were given all kinds of roles as part of society, such as craftsmen, farmers, cattle breeders, traders, soldiers, generals, governors, woodcutters, etc., all also part of the newly established layer in Iranian society.[190] Shah
Shah Abbas, who significantly enlargened and completed this program and under whom the creation of this new layer in society may be mentioned as fully "finalized", completed the ghulam system as well. As part of its completion, he greatly expanded the ghulam military corps from just a few hundred during Tahmāsp's era, to 15,000 highly trained cavalrymen,[191] as part of a whole army division of 40,000 Caucasian ghulams. He then went on to completely reduce the number of Qizilbash
Qizilbash provincial governorships and systematically moved qizilbash governors to other districts, thus disrupting their ties with the local community, and reducing their power. Most were replaced by a ghulam, and within short time, Georgians, Circassians, and to a lesser extent Armenians
Armenians had been appointed to many of the highest offices of state, and were employed within all other possible sections of society. By 1595, Allahverdi Khan, a Georgian, became one of the most powerful men in the Safavid state, when he was appointed the Governor-General of Fars, one of the richest provinces in Persia. And his power reached its peak in 1598, when he became the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.[192] Thus, starting from the reign of Tahmāsp I but only fully implemented and completed by Shah Abbas, this new group solely composed of ethnic Caucasians eventually came to constitute a powerful "third force" within the state as a new layer in society, alongside the Persians and the Qizilbash
Qizilbash Turks, and it only goes to prove the meritocratic society of the Safavids. It is estimated that during Abbas' reign alone some 130,000-200,000 Georgians,[193][136][135][194] tens of thousands of Circassians, and around 300,000 Armenians[195][196] had been deported and imported from the Caucasus
Caucasus to mainland Iran, all obtaining functions and roles as part of the newly created layer in society, such as within the highest positions of the state, or as farmers, soldiers, craftspeople, as part of the Royal harem, the Court, and peasantry, amongst others. Emergence of a clerical aristocracy An important feature of the Safavid society was the alliance that emerged between the ulama (the religious class) and the merchant community. The latter included merchants trading in the bazaars, the trade and artisan guilds (asnāf) and members of the quasi-religious organizations run by dervishes (futuvva). Because of the relative insecurity of property ownership in Persia, many private landowners secured their lands by donating them to the clergy as so called vaqf. They would thus retain the official ownership and secure their land from being confiscated by royal commissioners or local governors, as long as a percentage of the revenues from the land went to the ulama. Increasingly, members of the religious class, particularly the mujtahids and the seyyeds, gained full ownership of these lands, and, according to contemporary historian Iskandar Munshi, Persia
Persia started to witness the emergence of a new and significant group of landowners.[197] Akhbaris versus Usulis The Akhbari movement "crystalized" as a "separate movement" with the writings of Muhammad
Muhammad Amin al-Astarabadi (died 1627 AD). It rejected the use of reasoning in deriving verdicts and believed that only the Quran, hadith, (prophetic sayings and recorded opinions of the Imams) and consensus should be used as sources to derive verdicts (fatāwā). Unlike Usulis, Akhbari did and do not follow marjas who practice ijtihad.[198] It achieved its greatest influence in the late Safavid and early post-Safavid era, when it dominated Twelver
Twelver Shia Islam.[199] However, shortly thereafter Muhammad
Muhammad Baqir Behbahani (died 1792), along with other Usuli
Usuli mujtahids, crushed the Akhbari movement.[200] It remains only a small minority in the Shia Muslim world. One result of the resolution of this conflict was the rise in importance of the concept of ijtihad and the position of the mujtahid (as opposed to other ulama) in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It was from this time that the division of the Shia world into mujtahid (those who could follow their own independent judgment) and muqallid (those who had to follow the rulings of a mujtahid) took place. According to author Moojan Momen, "up to the middle of the 19th century there were very few mujtahids (three or four) anywhere at any one time," but "several hundred existed by the end of the 19th century."[201] Allamah Majlisi Muhammad
Muhammad Baqir Majlisi, commonly referenced to using the title Allamah, was a highly influential scholar during the 17th century (Safavid era). Majlisi's works emphasized his desire to purge Twelver Shi'ism of the influences of mysticism and philosophy, and to propagate an ideal of strict adherence to the Islamic law (sharia).[202] Majlisi promoted specifically Shia rituals such as mourning for Hussein ibn Ali and visitation (ziyarat) of the tombs of the Imams and Imamzadas, stressing "the concept of the Imams as mediators and intercessors for man with God."[203] State and government The Safavid state was one of checks and balance, both within the government and on a local level. At the apex of this system was the Shah, with total power over the state, legitimized by his bloodline as a seyyed, or descendant of Muhammad. So absolute was his power, that the French merchant, and later ambassador to Persia, Jean Chardin thought the Safavid Shahs ruled their land with an iron fist and often in a despotic manner.[204] To ensure transparency and avoid decisions being made that circumvented the Shah, a complex system of bureaucracy and departmental procedures had been put in place that prevented fraud. Every office had a deputy or superintendent, whose job was to keep records of all actions of the state officials and report directly to the Shah. The Shah
Shah himself exercised his own measures for keeping his ministers under control by fostering an atmosphere of rivalry and competitive surveillance. And since the Safavid society was meritocratic, and successions seldom were made on the basis of heritage, this meant that government offices constantly felt the pressure of being under surveillance and had to make sure they governed in the best interest of their leader, and not merely their own. The Government There probably did not exist any parliament, as we know them today. But the Portuguese ambassador to the Safavids, De Gouvea, still mentions the Council of State[205] in his records, which perhaps was a term for governmental gatherings of the time. The highest level in the government was that of the Prime Minister, or Grand Vizier (Etemad-e Dowlat), who was always chosen from among doctors of law. He enjoyed tremendous power and control over national affairs as he was the immediate deputy of the Shah. No act of the Shah was valid without the counter seal of the Prime Minister. But even he stood accountable to a deputy (vak’anevis), who kept records of his decision-makings and notified the Shah. Second to the Prime Minister post were the General of the Revenues (mostoufi-ye mamalek), or finance minister,[206] and the Divanbegi, Minister of Justice. The latter was the final appeal in civil and criminal cases, and his office stood next to the main entrance to the Ali Qapu palace. In earlier times, the Shah
Shah had been closely involved in judicial proceedings, but this part of the royal duty was neglected by Shah Safi and the later kings.[207] Next in authority were the generals: the General of the Royal Troops (the Shahsevans), General of the Musketeers, General of the Ghulams and The Master of Artillery. A separate official, the Commander-in-Chief, was appointed to be the head of these officials.[207] The Royal Court
Frontpage on Jean Chardin's book on his journeys to Persia, published in 1739.
As for the royal household, the highest post was that of the Nazir, Court Minister. He was perhaps the closest advisor to the Shah, and, as such, functioned as his eyes and ears within the Court. His primary job was to appoint and supervise all the officials of the household and to be their contact with the Shah. But his responsibilities also included that of being the treasurer of the Shah's properties. This meant that even the Prime Minister, who held the highest office in the state, had to work in association with the Nazir when it came to managing those transactions that directly related to the Shah.[207] The second most senior appointment was the Grand Steward (Ichik Agasi bashi), who would always accompany the Shah
Shah and was easily recognizable because of the great baton that he carried with him. He was responsible for introducing all guests, receiving petitions presented to the Shah
Shah and reading them if required. Next in line were the Master of the Royal Stables (Mirakor bashi) and the Master of the Hunt (Mirshekar bashi). The Shah
Shah had stables in all the principal towns, and Shah
Shah Abbas was said to have about 30,000 horses in studs around the country.[208] In addition to these, there were separate officials appointed for the caretaking of royal banquets and for entertainment. Chardin specifically noticed the rank of doctors and astrologers and the respect that the Shahs had for them. The Shah
Shah had a dozen of each in his service and would usually be accompanied by three doctors and three astrologers, who were authorized to sit by his side on various occasions.[207] The Chief Physician (Hakim-bashi) was a highly considered member of the Royal court,[209] and the most revered astrologer of the court was given the title Munajjim-bashi (Chief Astrologer).[210] The Safavid court was furthermore a rich mix of peoples from its earliest days.[211] As Prof. David Blow states, foremost among the courtiers were the old nobility of Turkoman Qizilbash
Qizilbash lords and their sons. Although already by the early years of king Abbas' reign (r. 1588–1629) they were no longer controlling the state, the Turkoman Qizilbash
Qizilbash continued to provide many of the senior army officers and to fill important administrative and ceremonial offices in the royal household.[211] There were the Persians who still dominated the bureaucracy and under Abbas held the two highest government offices of Grand Vizier and Comptroller-General of the Revenues (mostoufi-ye mamalek), which was the nearest thing to a finance minister.[211] There were also the large number of gholams or "slaves of the shah", who were mainly Georgians, Circassians
Circassians and Armenians.[211] As a result of Abbas' reforms, they held high offices in the army, the administration and the royal household. Last but by no means least there were the palace eunuchs who were also ghulams - "white" eunuchs largely from the Caucasus, and "black" eunuchs from India and Africa.[211] Under Abbas, the eunuchs became an increasingly important element at the court.[211] During the first century of the dynasty, the primary court language remained Azeri,[206] although this increasingly changed after the capital was moved to Isfahan.[11] David Blow adds; "it seems likely that most, if not all, of the Turkoman grandees at the court also spoke Persian, which was the language of the administration and culture, as well as of the majority of the population. But the reverse seems not to have been true. When Abbas had a lively conversation in Turkish with the Italian traveller Pietro Della Valle, in front of his courtiers, he had to translate the conversation afterwards into Persian for the benefit of most of those present."[211] Lastly, due to the large amount of Georgians, Circassians, and Armenians
Armenians at the Safavid court (the gholams and in the harem), the Georgian, Circassian and Armenian languages were spoken as well, since these were their mother tongues.[212] Abbas himself was able to speak Georgian as well.[213] Local governments
View of Tbilisi
Tbilisi by French traveler Jean Chardin, 1671.
On a local level, the government was divided into public land and royal possessions. The public land was under the rule of local governors, or Khans. Since the earliest days of the Safavid dynasty, the Qizilbash
Qizilbash generals had been appointed to most of these posts. They ruled their provinces like petty shahs and spent all their revenues on their own province, only presenting the Shah
Shah with the balance. In return, they had to keep ready a standing army at all times and provide the Shah
Shah with military assistance upon his request. It was also requested from them that they appoint a lawyer (vakil) to the Court who would inform them on matters pertaining to the provincial affairs.[214] Shah
Shah Abbas I intended to decrease the power of the Qizilbash
Qizilbash by bringing some of these provinces into his direct control, creating so called Crown Provinces (Khassa). But it was Shah
Shah Safi, under influence by his Prime Minister, Saru Taqi, that initiated the program of trying to increase the royal revenues by buying land from the governors and putting in place local commissioners.[214] In time, this proved to become a burden to the people that were under the direct rule of the Shah, as these commissioners, unlike the former governors, had little knowledge about the local communities that they controlled and were primarily interested in increasing the income of the Shah. And, while it was in the governors’ own interest to increase the productivity and prosperity of their provinces, the commissioners received their income directly from the royal treasury and, as such, did not care so much about investing in agriculture and local industries. Thus, the majority of the people suffered from rapacity and corruption carried out in the name of the Shah.[214] Democratic institutions in a totalitarian society In 16th and 17th century Iran, there existed a considerable number of local democratic institutions. Examples of such were the trade and artisan guilds, which had started to appear in Persia
Persia from the 1500s. Also, there were the quazi-religious fraternities called futuvva, which were run by local dervishes. Another official selected by the consensus of the local community was the kadkhoda, who functioned as a common law administrator.[215] The local sheriff (kalantar), who was not elected by the people but directly appointed by the Shah, and whose function was to protect the people against injustices on the part of the local governors, supervised the kadkhoda.[216] Legal system
The Karkan, a tool used for punishment of state criminals
In Safavid Persia
Persia there was little distinction between theology and jurisprudence, or between divine justice and human justice, and it all went under Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh). The legal system was built up of two branches: civil law, which had its roots in sharia, received wisdom, and urf, meaning traditional experience and very similar to the Western form of common law. While the imams and judges of law applied civil law in their practice, urf was primarily exercised by the local commissioners, who inspected the villages on behalf of the Shah, and by the Minister of Justice (Divanbegi). The latter were all secular functionaries working on behalf of the Shah.[217] The highest level in the legal system was the Minister of Justice, and the law officers were divided into senior appointments, such as the magistrate (darughah), inspector (visir), and recorder (vak’anevis). The lesser officials were the qazi, corresponding a civil lieutenant, who ranked under the local governors and functioned as judges in the provinces. According to Chardin:[218]
Chardin also noted that bringing cases into court in Persia
Persia was easier than in the West. The judge (qazi) was informed of relevant points involved and would decide whether or not to take up the case. Having agreed to do so, a sergeant would investigate and summon the defendant, who was then obliged to pay the fee of the sergeant. The two parties with their witnesses pleaded their respective cases, usually without any counsel, and the judge would pass his judgment after the first or second hearing.[218] Criminal justice was entirely separate from civil law and was judged upon common law administered through the Minister of Justice, local governors and the Court minister (the Nazir). Despite being based on urf, it relied upon certain sets of legal principles. Murder was punishable by death, and the penalty for bodily injuries was invariably the bastinado. Robbers had their right wrists amputated the first time, and sentenced to death on any subsequent occasion. State criminals were subjected to the karkan, a triangular wooden collar placed around the neck. On extraordinary occasions when the Shah
Shah took justice into his own hand, he would dress himself up in red for the importance of the event, according to ancient tradition.[217] Economy
A 19th-century drawing of Isfahan
The growth of Safavid economy was fuelled by the stability which allowed the agriculture to thrive, as well as trade, due to Iran's position between the burgeoning civilizations of Europe to its west and India and Islamic Central Asia
Central Asia to its east and north. The Silk Road which led through northern Iran
Iran was revived in the 16th century. Abbas I also supported direct trade with Europe, particularly England and The Netherlands which sought Persian carpet, silk and textiles. Other exports were horses, goat hair, pearls and an inedible bitter almond hadam-talka used as a spice in India. The main imports were spice, textiles (woolens from Europe, cottons from Gujarat), metals, coffee, and sugar. In the late 17th century, Safavid Persia
Persia had higher living standards than in Europe. According to traveller Jean Chardin, for example, farmers in Persia
Persia had higher living standards than farmers in the most fertile European countries.[219] Agriculture According to the historian Roger Savory, the twin bases of the domestic economy were pastoralism and agriculture. And, just as the higher levels of the social hierarchy was divided between the Turkish "men of the sword" and the Persian "men of the pen"; so were the lower level divided between the Turcoman tribes, who were cattle breeders and lived apart from the surrounding population, and the Persians, who were settled agriculturalists.[220] The Safavid economy was to a large extent based on agriculture and taxation of agricultural products. According to the French jeweller Jean Chardin, the variety in agricultural products in Persia
Persia was unrivaled in Europe and consisted of fruits and vegetables never even heard of in Europe. Chardin was present at some feasts in Isfahan
Isfahan were there were more than fifty different kinds of fruit. He thought that there was nothing like it in France or Italy:[221]
“ Tobacco grew all over the country and was as strong as that grown in Brazil. Saffron was the best in the world... Melons were regarded as excellent fruit, and there were more than 50 different sorts, the finest of which came from Khorasan. And in spite of being transported for more than thirty days, they were fresh when they reached Isfahan... After melons the finest fruits were grapes and dates, and the best dates were grown in Jahrom. ”
Despite this, he was disappointed when travelling the country and witnessing the abundance of land that was not irrigated, or the fertile plains that were not cultivated, something he thought was in stark contrast to Europe. He blamed this on misgovernment, the sparse population of the country, and lack of appreciation of agriculture amongst the Persians.[222] In the period prior to Shah
Shah Abbas I, most of the land was assigned to officials (civil, military and religious). From the time of Shah
Shah Abbas onwards, more land was brought under the direct control of the shah. And since agriculture accounted for by far largest share of tax revenue, he took measures to expand it. What remained unchanged, was the "crop-sharing agreement" between whomever was the landlord, and the farmer. This agreement concisted of five elements: land, water, plough-animals, seed and labour. Each element constituted 20 percent of the crop production, and if, for instance, the farmer provided the labour force and the animals, he would be entitled to 40 percent of the earnings.[223][224] According to contemporary historians, though, the landlord always had the worst of the bargain with the farmer in the crop-sharing agreements. In general, the farmers lived in comfort, and they were well paid and wore good clothes, although it was also noted that they were subject to forced labour and lived under heavy demands.[225] Travel and Caravanserais
The Mothers Inn caravanserai in Isfahan, that was built during the reign of Shah
Shah Abbas II, was a luxury resort meant for the wealthiest merchants and selected guests of the shah. Today it is a luxury hotel and goes under the name of Hotel Abassi.
Horses were the most important of all the beasts of burden, and the best were brought in from Arabia and Central-Asia. They were costly because of the widespread trade in them, including to Turkey
Turkey and India. The next most important mount, when traveling through Persia, was the mule. Also, the camel was a good investment for the merchant, as they cost nearly nothing to feed, carried a lot weight and could travel almost anywhere.[226] Under the governance of the strong shahs, especially during the first half of the 17th century, traveling through Persia
Persia was easy because of good roads and the caravanserais, that were strategically placed along the route. Thévenot and Tavernier commented that the Persian caravanserais were better built and cleaner than their Turkish counterparts.[227] According to Chardin, they were also more abundant than in the Mughal or Ottoman Empires, where they were less frequent but larger.[228] Caravanserais were designed especially to benefit poorer travelers, as they could stay there for as long as they wished, without payment for lodging. During the reign of Shah
Shah Abbas I, as he tried to upgrade the Silk route
Silk route to improve the commercial prosperity of the Empire, an abundance of caravanserais, bridges, bazaars and roads were built, and this strategy was followed by wealthy merchants who also profited from the increase in trade. To uphold the standard, another source of revenue was needed, and road toll, that were collected by guards (rah-dars), were stationed along the trading routes. They in turn provided for the safety of the travelers, and both Thevenot and Tavernier stressed the safety of traveling in 17th century Persia, and the courtesy and refinement of the policing guards.[229] The Italian traveler Pietro Della Valle
Pietro Della Valle was impressed by an encounter with one of these road guards:[230]
“ He examined our baggage, but in the most obliging manner possible, not opening our trunks or packages, and was satisfied with a small tax, which was his due... ”
The Chehel Sotoun
Chehel Sotoun Palace in Isfahan
Isfahan was where the Shah
Shah would meet foreign dignitaries and embassies. It is famous for the frescoes that cover its walls.
The Portuguese Empire
Empire and the discovery of the trading route around the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope in 1487 not only hit a death blow to Venice
Venice as a trading nation, but it also hurt the trade that was going on along the Silk Route
Silk Route and especially the Persian Gulf. They correctly identified the three key points to control all seaborne trade between Asia and Europe: The Gulf of Aden, The Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf and the Straits of Malacca by cutting off and controlling these strategic locations with high taxation.[231] In 1602, Shah
Shah Abbas I drove the Portuguese out of Bahrain, but he needed naval assistance from the newly arrived British East India Company
East India Company to finally expel them from the Strait of Hormuz
Strait of Hormuz and regain control of this trading route.[232] He convinced the British to assist him by allowing them to open factories in Shiraz, Isfahan
Isfahan and Jask.[233][234] With the later end of the Portuguese Empire, the British, Dutch and French in particular gained easier access to Persian seaborne trade, although they, unlike the Portuguese, did not arrive as colonisers, but as merchant adventurers. The terms of trade were not imposed on the Safavid shahs, but rather negotiated.
The Silk Routes
In the long term, however, the seaborne trade route was of less significance to the Persians than was the traditional Silk Route. Lack of investment in ship building and the navy provided the Europeans with the opportunity to monopolize this trading route. The land-borne trade would thus continue to provide the bulk of revenues to the Persian state from transit taxes. The revenue came not so much from exports, as from the custom charges and transit dues levied on goods passing through the country.[235] Shah
Shah Abbas was determined to greatly expand this trade, but faced the problem of having to deal with the Ottomans, who controlled the two most vital routes: the route across Arabia to the Mediterranean ports, and the route through Anatolia
Anatolia and Istanbul. A third route was therefore devised which circumvented Ottoman territory. By travelling across the Caspian sea
Caspian sea to the north, they would reach Russia. And with the assistance of the Muscovy Company they could cross over to Moscow, reaching Europe via Poland. This trading route proved to be of vital importance, especially during times of war with the Ottomans.[236] By the end of the 17th century, the Dutch had become dominant in the trade that went via the Persian Gulf, having won most trade agreements, and managed to strike deals before the British or French were able to. They particularly established monopoly of the spice trade between the East Indies and Iran.[237] The Armenian merchants and the trade of silk
The Vank Cathedral. The Armenians
Armenians moved into the Jolfa district
Jolfa district of Isfahan
Isfahan and were free to build their prayer houses, eventually becoming an integral part of the society.
The one valuable item, sought for in Europe, which Iran
Iran possessed and which could bring in silver in sufficient quantities was silk, which was produced in the northern provinces, along the Caspian coastline. The trade of this product was done by Turks and Persians to begin with, but during the 17th century the Christian Armenians
Armenians became increasingly vital in the trade of this merchandise, as middlemen.[238] Whereas domestic trade was largely in the hands of Persian and Jewish merchants, by the late 17th century, almost all foreign trade was controlled by the Armenians.[239] They were even hired by wealthy Persian merchants to travel to Europe when they wanted to create commercial bases there, and the Armenians
Armenians eventually established themselves in cities like Bursa, Aleppo, Venice, Livorno, Marseilles and Amsterdam.[238] Realizing this, Shah
Shah Abbas resettled large numbers of Armenians
Armenians from the Caucasus
Caucasus to his capital city and provided them with loans.[238] And as the shah realized the importance of doing trade with the Europeans, he assured that the Safavid society was one with religious tolerance. The Christian Armenians
Armenians thus became a commercial elite in the Safavid society and managed to survive in the tough atmosphere of business being fought over by the British, Dutch, French, Indians and Persians, by always having large capital readily available and by managing to strike harder bargains ensuring cheaper prices than what, for instance, their British rivals ever were able to.[240] Culture See also: Safavid art
Persian art
Art Miniature Carpets Calligraphy
Arts of Iran Jewelry Embroidery Motifs Tilework Handicrafts Pottery
Literature Mythology Folklore Philosophy
Dance Music Cinema Theatre
Architecture Cuisine Gardens
Naqshe Jahan square in Isfahan
Isfahan is the epitome of 16th-century Iranian architecture.
Culture within the Safavid family The Safavid family was a literate family from its early origin. There are extant Tati and Persian poetry from Shaykh Safi ad-din Ardabili as well as extant Persian poetry from Shaykh Sadr ad-din. Most of the extant poetry of Shah
Ismail I is in Azerbaijani pen-name of Khatai.[61] Sam Mirza, the son of Shah
Shah Esmail as well as some later authors assert that Ismail composed poems both in Turkish and Persian but only a few specimens of his Persian verse have survived.[60] A collection of his poems in Azeri were published as a Divan. Shah Tahmasp who has composed poetry in Persian was also a painter, while Shah
Shah Abbas II was known as a poet, writing Azerbaijani verses.[241] Sam Mirza, the son of Ismail I
Ismail I was himself a poet and composed his poetry in Persian. He also compiled an anthology of contemporary poetry.[242] Culture within the empire Shah
Shah Abbas I recognized the commercial benefit of promoting the arts—artisan products provided much of Iran's foreign trade. In this period, handicrafts such as tile making, pottery and textiles developed and great advances were made in miniature painting, bookbinding, decoration and calligraphy. In the 16th century, carpet weaving evolved from a nomadic and peasant craft to a well-executed industry with specialization of design and manufacturing. Tabriz
Tabriz was the center of this industry. The carpets of Ardabil
Ardabil were commissioned to commemorate the Safavid dynasty. The elegantly baroque yet famously 'Polonaise' carpets were made in Iran
Iran during the 17th century.
19th-century painting of the Chahar Bagh School
Chahar Bagh School in Isfahan
Using traditional forms and materials, Reza Abbasi
Reza Abbasi (1565–1635) introduced new subjects to Persian painting—semi-nude women, youth, lovers. His painting and calligraphic style influenced Iranian artists for much of the Safavid period, which came to be known as the Isfahan school. Increased contact with distant cultures in the 17th century, especially Europe, provided a boost of inspiration to Iranian artists who adopted modeling, foreshortening, spatial recession, and the medium of oil painting ( Shah
Shah Abbas II sent Muhammad
Muhammad Zaman to study in Rome). The epic Shahnameh
Shahnameh ("Book of Kings"), a stellar example of manuscript illumination and calligraphy, was made during Shah Tahmasp's reign. (This book was written by Ferdousi in 1000 AD for Sultan Mahmood Ghaznawi) Another manuscript is the Khamsa by Nizami executed 1539-43 by Aqa Mirak
Aqa Mirak and his school in Isfahan. Isfahan
Isfahan bears the most prominent samples of the Safavid architecture, all constructed in the years after Shah
Shah Abbas I permanently moved the capital there in 1598: the Imperial Mosque, Masjid-e Shah, completed in 1630, the Imam
Imam Mosque (Masjid-e Imami) the Lutfallah Mosque and the Royal Palace. According to William Cleveland and Martin Bunton,[243] the establishment of Isfahan
Isfahan as the Great capital of Persia
Persia and the material splendor of the city attracted intellecutal's from all corners of the world, which contributed to the cities rich cultural life. The impressive achievements of its 400,000 residents prompted the inhabitants to coin their famous boast, " Isfahan
Isfahan is half the world". Poetry stagnated under the Safavids; the great medieval ghazal form languished in over-the-top lyricism. Poetry lacked the royal patronage of other arts and was hemmed in by religious prescriptions. The arguably most renowned historian from this time was Iskandar Beg Munshi. His History of Shah
Shah Abbas the Great
Abbas the Great written a few years after its subject's death, achieved a nuanced depth of history and character. The Isfahan
Isfahan School—Islamic philosophy revived See also: School of Isfahan, Mulla Sadra, Mir Damad, Mir Fendereski, Shaykh Bahai, and Mohsen Fayz Kashani Islamic philosophy[244] flourished in the Safavid era in what scholars commonly refer to the School of Isfahan. Mir Damad is considered the founder of this school. Among luminaries of this school of philosophy, the names of Iranian philosophers such as Mir Damad, Mir Fendereski, Shaykh Bahai
Shaykh Bahai and Mohsen Fayz Kashani standout. The school reached its apogee with that of the Iranian philosopher Mulla Sadra
Mulla Sadra who is arguably the most significant Islamic philosopher after Avicenna. Mulla Sadra
Mulla Sadra has become the dominant philosopher of the Islamic East, and his approach to the nature of philosophy has been exceptionally influential up to this day.[245] He wrote the Al-Hikma al-muta‘aliya fi-l-asfar al-‘aqliyya al-arba‘a ("The Transcendent Philosophy of the Four Journeys of the Intellect"),[246] a meditation on what he called 'meta philosophy' which brought to a synthesis the philosophical mysticism of Sufism, the theology of Shi'a Islam, and the Peripatetic and Illuminationist philosophies of Avicenna
Avicenna and Suhrawardi. According to the Iranologist
Iranologist Richard Nelson Frye:[247]
A Latin copy of The Canon of Medicine, dated 1484, located at the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, USA.
The status of physicians during the Safavids stood as high as ever. Whereas neither the ancient Greeks nor the Romans accorded high social status to their doctors, Iranians had from ancient times honored their physicians, who were often appointed counselors of the Shahs. This would not change with the Arab conquest of Iran, and it was primarily the Persians that took upon them the works of philosophy, logic, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, astrology, music and alchemy.[248] By the sixteenth century, Islamic science, which to a large extent meant Persian science, was resting on its laurels. The works of al-Razi (865-92) (known to the West as Razes) were still used in European universities as standard textbooks of alchemy, pharmacology and pediatrics. The Canon of Medicine
The Canon of Medicine by Avicenna
Avicenna (c. 980–1037) was still regarded as one of the primary textbooks in medicine throughout most of the civilized world.[249] As such, the status of medicine in the Safavid period did not change much, and relied as much on these works as ever before. Physiology
Physiology was still based on the four humours of ancient and mediaeval medicine, and bleeding and purging were still the principal forms of therapy by surgeons, something even Thevenot experienced during his visit to Persia.[209] The only field within medicine where some progress were made was pharmacology, with the compilement of the "Tibb-e Shifa’i" in 1556. This book was translated into French in 1681 by Angulus de Saint, under the name "Pharmacopoea Persica".[250] Architecture See also: Persian architecture
Painting by the French architect, Pascal Coste, visiting Persia
Persia in 1841 (from Monuments modernes de la Perse). In the Safavid era the Persian architecture
Persian architecture flourished again and saw many new monuments, such as the Masjid-e Shah, part of Naghsh-i Jahan Square
Naghsh-i Jahan Square which is the biggest historic plaza in the world.
Safavid Star from ceiling of Shah
Shah Mosque, Isfahan, Iran.
A new age in Iranian architecture
Iranian architecture began with the rise of the Safavid dynasty. Economically robust and politically stable, this period saw a flourishing growth of theological sciences. Traditional architecture evolved in its patterns and methods leaving its impact on the architecture of the following periods. Indeed, one of the greatest legacies of the Safavids is the architecture. In 1598, when Shah
Shah Abbas decided to move the capital of his Persian empire from the north-western city of Qazvin
Qazvin to the central city of Isfahan, he initiated what would become one of the greatest programmes in Persian history; the complete remaking of the city. By choosing the central city of Isfahan, fertilized by the Zāyande roud ("The life-giving river"), lying as an oasis of intense cultivation in the midst of a vast area of arid landscape, he both distanced his capital from any future assaults by the Ottomans and the Uzbeks, and at the same time gained more control over the Persian Gulf, which had recently become an important trading route for the Dutch and British East India Companies.[251]
The 16th-century Chehel Sotun pavilion in Qazvin, Iran. It is the last remains of the palace of the second Safavid king, Shah
Shah Tahmasp; it was heavily restored by the Qajars in the 19th century.
The Chief architect of this colossal task of urban planning was Shaykh Bahai (Baha' ad-Din al-`Amili), who focused the programme on two key features of Shah
Shah Abbas's master plan: the Chahar Bagh avenue, flanked at either side by all the prominent institutions of the city, such as the residences of all foreign dignitaries. And the Naqsh-e Jahan Square ("Examplar of the World").[252] Prior to the Shah's ascent to power, Persia
Persia had a decentralized power-structure, in which different institutions battled for power, including both the military (the Qizilbash) and governors of the different provinces making up the empire. Shah
Shah Abbas wanted to undermine this political structure, and the recreation of Isfahan, as a Grand capital of Persia, was an important step in centralizing the power.[253] The ingenuity of the square, or Maidān, was that, by building it, Shah
Shah Abbas would gather the three main components of power in Persia
Persia in his own backyard; the power of the clergy, represented by the Masjed-e Shah, the power of the merchants, represented by the Imperial Bazaar, and of course, the power of the Shah
Shah himself, residing in the Ali Qapu Palace. Distinctive monuments like the Sheikh Lotfallah (1618), Hasht Behesht (Eight Paradise Palace) (1469) and the Chahar Bagh School(1714) appeared in Isfahan
Isfahan and other cities. This extensive development of architecture was rooted in Persian culture and took form in the design of schools, baths, houses, caravanserai and other urban spaces such as bazaars and squares. It continued until the end of the Qajar reign.[254] The languages of the court, military, administration and culture The Safavids by the time of their rise were Azerbaijani-speaking although they also used Persian as a second language. The language chiefly used by the Safavid court and military establishment was Azerbaijani.[13][19] But the official[7] language of the empire as well as the administrative language, language of correspondence, literature and historiography was Persian.[13] The inscriptions on Safavid currency were also in Persian.[255]
Scene from Attar's The Conference of the Birds, by Habibulla Meshedi (1600).
In the 16th century, the Turcophone Safavid family of Ardabil
Ardabil in Azerbaijan, probably of Turkicized Iranian, origin, conquered Iran
Iran and established Turkic, the language of the court and the military, as a high-status vernacular and a widespread contact language, influencing spoken Persian, while written Persian, the language of high literature and civil administration, remained virtually unaffected in status and content.
In day-to-day affairs, the language chiefly used at the Safavid court and by the great military and political officers, as well as the religious dignitaries, was Turkish, not Persian; and the last class of persons wrote their religious works mainly in Arabic. Those who wrote in Persian were either lacking in proper tuition in this tongue, or wrote outside Iran
Iran and hence at a distance from centers where Persian was the accepted vernacular, endued with that vitality and susceptibility to skill in its use which a language can have only in places where it truly belongs.
Prince Muhammad-Beik of Georgia by Reza Abbasi
Reza Abbasi (1620)
A specific Turkic language was attested in Safavid Persia
Persia during the 16th and 17th centuries, a language that Europeans often called Persian Turkish ("Turc Agemi", "lingua turcica agemica"), which was a favourite language at the court and in the army because of the Turkic origins of the Safavid dynasty. The original name was just turki, and so a convenient name might be Turki-yi Acemi. This variety of Persian Turkish must have been also spoken in the Caucasian and Transcaucasian regions, which during the 16th century belonged to both the Ottomans and the Safavids, and were not fully integrated into the Safavid empire until 1606. Though that language might generally be identified as Middle Azerbaijanian, it is not yet possible to define exactly the limits of this language, both in linguistic and territorial respects. It was certainly not homogenous—maybe it was an Azerbaijanian-Ottoman mixed language, as Beltadze (1967:161) states for a translation of the gospels in Georgian script from the 18th century.
Safavid dynasty under Shah
Shah Ismail (961/1501) adopted Persian and the Shi'ite
Shi'ite form of Islam as the national language and religion.
According to David Blow,[211]
The primary court language [with Abbas I's reign (r. 1588–1629)] remained Turkish. But it was not the Turkish of Istanbul. It was a Turkish dialect, the dialect of the Qizilbash
Qizilbash Turkomans, which is still spoken today in the province of Azerbaijan, in north-western Iran. This form of Turkish was also the mother-tongue of Shah
Shah Abbas, although he was equally at ease speaking Persian. It seems likely that most, if not all, of the Turkoman grandees at the court also spoke Persian, which was the language of the administration and culture, as well as of the majority of the population. But the reverse seems not to have been true. When Abbas had a lively conversation in Turkish with the Italian traveller Pietro Della Valle, in front of his courtiers, he had to translate the conversation afterwards into Persian for the benefit of most of those present.
Regarding the usage of Georgian, Circassian and Armenian at the Royal Court, David Blow states,[212]
Georgian, Circassian and Armenian were also spoken, since these were the mother-tongues of many of the ghulams, as well as of a high proportion of the women of the harem. Figueroa heard Abbas speak Georgian, which he had no doubt acquired from his Georgian ghulams and concubines.
Legacy It was the Safavids who made Iran
Iran the spiritual bastion of Shi’ism, and the repository of Persian cultural traditions and self-awareness of Iranianhood, acting as a bridge to modern Iran. The founder of the dynasty, Shah
Shah Isma'il, adopted the title of "Persian Emperor" Pādišah-ī Īrān, with its implicit notion of an Iranian state stretching from Khorasan as far as Euphrates, and from the Oxus
Oxus to the southern Territories of the Persian Gulf.[260] According to Professor Roger Savory:[261][262]
In a number of ways the Safavids affected the development of the modern Iranian state: first, they ensured the continuance of various ancient and traditional Persian institutions, and transmitted these in a strengthened, or more 'national', form; second, by imposing Ithna 'Ashari Shi'a Islam
Shi'a Islam on Iran
Iran as the official religion of the Safavid state, they enhanced the power of mujtahids. The Safavids thus set in train a struggle for power between the turban and the crown that is to say, between the proponents of secular government and the proponents of a theocratic government; third, they laid the foundation of alliance between the religious classes ('Ulama') and the bazaar which played an important role both in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1906, and again in the Islamic Revolution of 1979; fourth the policies introduced by Shah
Shah Abbas I conduced to a more centralized administrative system.
The empire presided over by the Safavids was not a revival of the Achaemenids
Achaemenids or the Sasanians, and it more resembled the Ilkhanate
Ilkhanate and Timurid empires than the Islamic caliphate. Nor was it a direct precursor to the modern Iranian state. According to Donald Struesand, "[a]lthough the Safavid unification of the eastern and western halves of the Iranian plateau and imposition of Twelver
Twelver Shii Islam on the region created a recognizable precursor of modern Iran, the Safavid polity itself was neither distinctively Iranian nor national."[263] Rudolph Matthee concluded that "[t]hough not a nation-state, Safavid Iran
Iran contained the elements that would later spawn one by generating many enduring bureaucratic features and by initiating a polity of overlapping religious and territorial boundaries."[264] Safavid Shahs of Iran
Safavid dynasty
Safavid dynasty timeline
Ismail I
Ismail I 1501–1524 Tahmasp I
Tahmasp I 1524–1576 Ismail II
Ismail II 1576–1578 Mohammad Khodabanda
Mohammad Khodabanda 1578–1587 Abbas I 1587–1629 Safi 1629–1642 Abbas II 1642–1666 Suleiman I 1666–1694 Sultan Husayn
Sultan Husayn I 1694–1722 Tahmasp II
Tahmasp II 1722–1732 Abbas III
Persianate states List of Shi'a Muslim dynasties Safavid conversion of Iran
Iran from Sunnism to Shiism List of the mothers of the Safavid Shahs Khanates of the Caucasus Safavid art
^ mulk-i vasi' al-fazā-yi īrān ^ Matthee* Matthee, Rudi (1 September 2009). "Was Safavid Iran
Iran an Empire?". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 53 (1): 241. doi:10.1163/002249910X12573963244449. The term 'Iran', which after an absence of some six centuries had re-entered usage with the Ilkhanid branch of the Mongols, conveyed a shared self-awareness among the political and cultural elite of a geographical entity with distinct territorial and political implications. A core element of the Safavid achievement was the notion that the dynasty had united the eastern and western halves of Iran, Khurasan and Herat, the lands of the Timurids, in the East, and the territory of the Aq-Quyunlu in the West. The term mulk-i vasi' al-faza-yi Iran, 'the expansive realm of Iran', found in the seventeenth-century chronicle, Khuld-i barin, and again, in near identical terms, in the travelogue of Muhammad
Muhammad Rabi Shah
Shah Sulayman's envoy to Siam in the 1680s, similarly conveys the authors pride and self-consciousness with regard to the territory they inhabited or hailed from. ^ mamlikat-i īrān ^ Savory, Roger (2 January 2007). "The Safavid state and polity". Iranian Studies. 7 (1-2): 206. doi:10.1080/00210867408701463. The somewhat vague phrase used during the early Safavid period, mamalik-i mahrusa, had assumed more concrete forms: mamālik-i īrān; mamālik-i 'ajam; mamlikat-i īrān; mulk-i īrān; or simply īrān. The royal throne was variously described as sarīr-i saltanat-i īrān; takht-i īrān; and takht-i sultān (sic)-i īrān. The inhabitants of the Safavid empire are referred to as ahl-i īrān, and Iskandar Beg describes himself as writing the history of the Iranians (sharh-i ahvāl-i īrān va īrāniān). Shah
Shah Abbas I is described as farmānravā-yi īrān and shahryār-i īrān; his seat is pāyitakht-i pādishāhān-i īrān, takhtgāh-i salātin-i īrān, or dār al-mulk-i īrān. His sovereign power is referred to as farmāndahi-yi mulk-i īrān, saltanat va pādishāhi-yi īrān, pādishāhi-yi īrān. The cities of Iran
Iran (bilād-i īrān) are thought of as belonging to a positive entity or state: Herat
Herat is referred to as a'zam-i bilād-i īrān (the greatest of the cities of Iran) and Isfahan
Isfahan as khulāsa-yi mulk-i īrān (the choicest part of the realm of Iran). ... The sense of geographical continuity referred to earlier is preserved by a phrase like kull-i vilāyat-i īrānzamīn. ... Affairs of state are referred to as muhimmāt-i īrān. To my mind however, one of the clearest indications that the Safavid state had become a state in the full sense of the word is provided by the revival of the ancient title of sipahsālār-i īrān or "commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Iran". ^ Ingvild Flaskerud (26 November 2010). Visualizing Belief and Piety in Iranian Shiism. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 182–183. ISBN 978-1-4411-4907-7. Retrieved 24 July 2011. ^ "... the Order of the Lion and the Sun, a device which, since the 17 century at least, appeared on the national flag of the Safavids the lion representing 'Ali and the sun the glory of the Shi'i faith", Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovskiĭ, J. M. Rogers, Hermitage Rooms at Somerset House, Courtauld Institute of Art, Heaven on earth: Art
Art from Islamic Lands: Works from the State Hermitage Museum and the Khalili Collection, Prestel, 2004, p. 178. ^ a b Roemer, H. R. (1986). "The Safavid Period". The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 6: The Timurid and Safavid Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 189–350. ISBN 0-521-20094-6, p. 331: "Depressing though the condition in the country may have been at the time of the fall of Safavids, they cannot be allowed to overshadow the achievements of the dynasty, which was in many respects to prove essential factors in the development of Persia
Persia in modern times. These include the maintenance of Persian as the official language and of the present-day boundaries of the country, adherence to the Twelever Shi'i, the monarchical system, the planning and architectural features of the urban centers, the centralised administration of the state, the alliance of the Shi'i Ulama
Ulama with the merchant bazaars, and the symbiosis of the Persian-speaking population with important non-Persian, especially Turkish speaking minorities". ^ a b c Rudi Matthee, "Safavids" in Encyclopædia Iranica, accessed on April 4, 2010. "The Persian focus is also reflected in the fact that theological works also began to be composed in the Persian language and in that Persian verses replaced Arabic on the coins." "The political system that emerged under them had overlapping political and religious boundaries and a core language, Persian, which served as the literary tongue, and even began to replace Arabic as the vehicle for theological discourse". ^ Ronald W Ferrier, The Arts of Persia. Yale University Press. 1989, p. 9. ^ a b John R Perry, "Turkic-Iranian contacts", Encyclopædia Iranica, January 24, 2006: "... written Persian, the language of high literature and civil administration, remained virtually unaffected in status and content" ^ a b Cyril Glassé (ed.), The New Encyclopedia of Islam, Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, revised ed., 2003, ISBN 0-7591-0190-6, p. 392: " Shah
Shah Abbas moved his capital from Qazvin
Qazvin to Isfahan. His reigned marked the peak of Safavid dynasty's achievement in art, diplomacy, and commerce. It was probably around this time that the court, which originally spoke a Turkic language, began to use Persian" ^ Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, V, pp. 514-515. Excerpt: "in the heyday of the Mughal, Safawi, and Ottoman regimes New Persian was being patronized as the language of literae humaniores by the ruling element over the whole of this huge realm, while it was also being employed as the official language of administration in those two-thirds of its realm that lay within the Safawi and the Mughal frontiers" ^ a b c d Mazzaoui, Michel B; Canfield, Robert (2002). "Islamic Culture and Literature
Literature in Iran
Iran and Central Asia
Central Asia in the early modern period". Turko- Persia
Persia in Historical Perspective. Cambridge University Press. pp. 86–7. ISBN 978-0-521-52291-5. Safavid power with its distinctive Persian-Shi'i culture, however, remained a middle ground between its two mighty Turkish neighbors. The Safavid state, which lasted at least until 1722, was essentially a "Turkish" dynasty, with Azeri Turkish ( Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan being the family's home base) as the language of the rulers and the court as well as the Qizilbash
Qizilbash military establishment. Shah
Shah Ismail wrote poetry in Turkish. The administration nevertheless was Persian, and the Persian language
Persian language was the vehicle of diplomatic correspondence (insha'), of belles-lettres (adab), and of history (tarikh). ^ Ruda Jurdi Abisaab. " Iran
Iran and Pre-Independence Lebanon" in Houchang Esfandiar Chehabi, Distant Relations: Iran
Iran and Lebanon in the Last 500 Years, IB Tauris 2006, p. 76: "Although the Arabic language was still the medium for religious scholastic expression, it was precisely under the Safavids that hadith complications and doctrinal works of all sorts were being translated to Persian. The 'Amili (Lebanese scholars of Shi'i faith) operating through the Court-based religious posts, were forced to master the Persian language; their students translated their instructions into Persian. Persianization went hand in hand with the popularization of 'mainstream' Shi'i belief." ^ Floor, Willem; Javadi, Hasan (2013). "The Role of Azerbaijani Turkish in Safavid Iran". Iranian Studies. 46 (4): 569–581. doi:10.1080/00210862.2013.784516. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G.; Sabagh, Georges (1998). The Persian Presence in the Islamic World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 240. ISBN 978-0521591850. ^ Axworthy, Michael (2010). The Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant. I.B.Tauris. p. 33. ISBN 978-0857721938. ^ a b Savory, Roger (2007). Iran
Iran Under the Safavids. Cambridge University Press. p. 213. ISBN 978-0-521-04251-2. qizilbash normally spoke Azari brand of Turkish at court, as did the Safavid shahs themselves; lack of familiarity with the Persian language
Persian language may have contributed to the decline from the pure classical standards of former times ^ a b c Zabiollah Safa (1986), "Persian Literature
Literature in the Safavid Period", The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 6: The Timurid and Safavid Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-20094-6, pp. 948–65. P. 950: "In day-to-day affairs, the language chiefly used at the Safavid court and by the great military and political officers, as well as the religious dignitaries, was Turkish, not Persian; and the last class of persons wrote their religious works mainly in Arabic. Those who wrote in Persian were either lacking in proper tuition in this tongue, or wrote outside Iran and hence at a distance from centers where Persian was the accepted vernacular, endued with that vitality and susceptibility to skill in its use which a language can have only in places where it truly belongs." ^ Price, Massoume (2005). Iran's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook. ABC-CLIO. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-57607-993-5. The Shah
Shah was a native Turkic speaker and wrote poetry in the Azerbaijani language. ^ Blow, David (2009). Shah
Shah Abbas: The Ruthless King Who Became an Iranian Legend. I.B.Tauris. pp. 165–166. ISBN 978-0857716767. Georgian, Circassian and Armenian were also spoken [at the court], since these were the mother-tongues of many of the ghulams, as well as of a high proportion of the women of the harem. Figueroa heard Abbas speak Georgian, which he had no doubt acquired from his Georgian ghulams and concubines. ^ Ferrier, RW, A Journey to Persia: Jean Chardin's Portrait of a Seventeenth-century Empire, p. ix. ^ The New Encyclopedia of Islam, Ed. Cyril Glassé, (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008), 449. ^
Afšār, ta·līf-i Iskandar Baig Turkmān. Zīr-i naẓar bā tanẓīm-i fihristhā wa muqaddama-i Īraǧ (2003). Tārīkh-i ʻʻālamārā-yi ʻʻAbbāsī (in Persian) (Čāp-i 3. ed.). Tihrān: Mu·assasa-i Intišārāt-i Amīr Kabīr. pp. 17, 18, 19, 79. ISBN 964-00-0818-4. p. 17: dudmān-i safavīa p. 18: khāndān-i safavīa p. 19: sīlsīla-i safavīa p. 79: sīlsīla-i alīa-i safavīa
^ "SAFAVID DYNASTY". Encyclopædia Iranica. ^ Streusand, Douglas E., Islamic Gunpowder Empires: Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals (Boulder, Col : Westview Press, 2011) ("Streusand"), p. 135. ^ Helen Chapin Metz. Iran, a Country study. 1989. University of Michigan, p. 313. ^ Emory C. Bogle. Islam: Origin and Belief. University of Texas Press. 1989, p. 145. ^ Stanford Jay Shaw. History of the Ottoman Empire. Cambridge University Press. 1977, p. 77. ^ Andrew J. Newman, Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire, IB Tauris (March 30, 2006). ^ a b c d e f g RM Savory, Safavids, Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed. ^ a b RM Savory. Ebn Bazzaz. Encyclopædia Iranica ^ a b "Peoples of Iran" Encyclopædia Iranica. RN Frye. ^ Aptin Khanbaghi (2006) The Fire, the Star and the Cross: Minority Religions in Medieval and Early. London & New York. IB Tauris. ISBN 1-84511-056-0, pp. 130-1 ^ a b Yarshater 2001, p. 493. ^ a b Khanbaghi 2006, p. 130. ^ a b Anthony Bryer. "Greeks and Türkmens: The Pontic Exception", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 29 (1975), Appendix II "Genealogy of the Muslim Marriages of the Princesses of Trebizond" ^ Why is there such confusion about the origins of this important dynasty, which reasserted Iranian identity and established an independent Iranian state after eight and a half centuries of rule by foreign dynasties? RM Savory, Iran
Iran under the Safavids (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1980), p. 3. ^ Alireza Shapur Shahbazi (2005), "The History of the Idea of Iran", in Vesta Curtis ed., Birth of the Persian Empire, IB Tauris, London, p. 108: "Similarly the collapse of Sassanian Eranshahr in AD 650 did not end Iranians' national idea. The name "Iran" disappeared from official records of the Saffarids, Samanids, Buyids, Saljuqs and their successor. But one unofficially used the name Iran, Eranshahr, and similar national designations, particularly Mamalek-e Iran
Iran or "Iranian lands", which exactly translated the old Avestan term Ariyanam Daihunam. On the other hand, when the Safavids (not Reza Shah, as is popularly assumed) revived a national state officially known as Iran, bureaucratic usage in the Ottoman empire and even Iran
Iran itself could still refer to it by other descriptive and traditional appellations". ^ In the pre-Safavid written work Safvat as-Safa (oldest manuscripts from 1485 and 1491), the origin of the Safavids is tracted to Piruz Shah
Shah Zarin Kolah who is called a Kurd from Sanjan, while in the post-Safavid manuscripts, this portion has been excised and Piruz Shah Zarin Kollah is made a descendant of the Imams. R Savory, "Ebn Bazzaz" in Encyclopædia Iranica). In the Silsilat an-nasab-i Safawiya (composed during the reign of Shah
Shah Suleiman, 1667–94), by Hussayn ibn Abdal Zahedi, the ancestry of the Safavid was purported to be tracing back to Hijaz and the first Shi'i Imam
Imam as follows: Shaykh Safi al-din Abul Fatah Eshaq ibn (son of) Shaykh Amin al-Din Jabrail ibn Qutb al-din ibn Salih ibn Muhammad
Muhammad al-Hafez ibn Awad ibn Firuz Shah Zarin Kulah ibn Majd ibn Sharafshah ibn Muhammad
Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn Seyyed Muhammad
Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Seyyed
Seyyed Ja'afar ibn Seyyed
Seyyed Muhammad
Muhammad ibn Seyyed Isma'il ibn Seyyed
Muhammad ibn Seyyed
Seyyed Ahmad 'Arabi ibn Seyyed
Seyyed Qasim ibn Seyyed
Seyyed Abul Qasim Hamzah ibn Musa al-Kazim ibn Ja'far As-Sadiq ibn Muhammad
Muhammad al-Baqir ibn Imam
Imam Zayn ul-'Abedin ibn Hussein ibn Ali ibn Abi Taleb Alayha as-Salam. There are differences between this and the oldest manuscript of Safwat as-Safa. Seyyeds have been added from Piruz Shah
Shah Zarin Kulah up to the first Shi'i Imam
Imam and the nisba "Al-Kurdi" has been excised. The title/name "Abu Bakr" (also the name of the first Caliph and highly regarded by Sunnis) is deleted from Qutb ad-Din's name. ُSource: Husayn ibn Abdāl Zāhedī, 17th cent. Silsilat al-nasab-i Safavīyah, nasabnāmah-'i pādishāhān bā ʻuzmat-i Safavī, ta'līf-i Shaykh Husayn pisar-i Shaykh Abdāl Pīrzādah Zāhedī dar 'ahd-i Shāh-i Sulaymnān-i Safavī. Berlīn, Chāpkhānah-'i Īrānshahr, 1343 (1924), 116 pp. Original Persian: شیخ صفی الدین ابو الفتح اسحق ابن شیخ امین الدین جبرائیل بن قطب الدین ابن صالح ابن محمد الحافظ ابن عوض ابن فیروزشاه زرین کلاه ابن محمد ابن شرفشاه ابن محمد ابن حسن ابن سید محمد ابن ابراهیم ابن سید جعفر بن سید محمد ابن سید اسمعیل بن سید محمد بن سید احمد اعرابی بن سید قاسم بن سید ابو القاسم حمزه بن موسی الکاظم ابن جعفر الصادق ابن محمد الباقر ابن امام زین العابدین بن حسین ابن علی ابن ابی طالب علیه السلام. ^ R.M. Savory, "Safavid Persia" in: Ann Katherine Swynford Lambton, Peter Malcolm Holt, Bernard Lewis, The Cambridge History of Islam, Cambridge University Press, 1977. p. 394: "They (Safavids after the establishment of the Safavid state) fabricated evidence to prove that the Safavids were Sayyids." ^ F. Daftary, "Intellectual Traditions in Islam", I.B.Tauris, 2001. p. 147: "But the origins of the family of Shaykh Safi al-Din go back not to Hijaz but to Kurdistan, from where, seven generations before him, Firuz Shah
Shah Zarin-kulah had migrated to Adharbayjan" ^ Tamara Sonn. A Brief History of Islam, Blackwell Publishing, 2004, p. 83, ISBN 1-4051-0900-9 ^ a b É. Á. Csató, B. Isaksson, C Jahani. Linguistic Convergence and Areal Diffusion: Case Studies from Iranian, Semitic and Turkic, Routledge, 2004, p. 228, ISBN 0-415-30804-6. ^ Minorsky, V (2009). "Adgharbaydjan (Azarbaydjan)". In Berman, P; Bianquis, Th; Bosworth, CE; van Donzel, E; Henrichs, WP. Encyclopedia of Islam (2nd ed.). NL: Brill. After 907/1502, Adharbayjan became the chielf bulwark and rallying ground of the Safawids, themselves natives of Ardabil
Ardabil and originally speaking the local Iranian dialect [permanent dead link] ^ Roger M. Savory. "Safavids" in Peter Burke, Irfan Habib, Halil İnalcık: History of Humanity-Scientific and Cultural Development: From the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century, Taylor & Francis. 1999, p. 259. ^ E. Yarshater, "Iran", . Encyclopædia Iranica. "The origins of the Safavids are clouded in obscurity. They may have been of Kurdish origin (see R. Savory, Iran
Iran Under the Safavids, 1980, p. 2; R. Matthee, "Safavid Dynasty" at iranica.com), but for all practical purposes they were Turkish-speaking and Turkified. " ^ John L. Esposito, The Oxford History of Islam, Oxford University Press US, 1999. pp 364: "To support their legitimacy, the Safavid dynasty of Iran
Iran (1501-1732) devoted a cultural policy to establish their regime as the reconstruction of the historic Iranian monarchy. To the end, they commissioned elaborate copies of the Shahnameh, the Iranian national epic, such as this one made for Tahmasp in the 1520s." ^ Ira Marvin Lapidus, A history of Islamic Societies, Cambridge University Press, 2002, 2nd edition. pg 445: To bolster the prestige of the state, the Safavid dynasty
Safavid dynasty sponsored an Iran-Islamic style of culture concentrating on court poetry, painting, and monumental architecture that symbolized not only the Islamic credentials of the state but also the glory of the ancient Persian traditions." ^ Colin P. Mitchell, "Ṭahmāsp I" in Encyclopædia Iranica. "Shah Ṭahmāsp's own brother, Sām Mirzā, wrote the Taḏkera-yetoḥfa-ye sāmi, in which he mentioned 700 poets during the reigns of the first two Safavid rulers. Sām Mirzā himself was an ardent poet, writing 8,000 verses and a Šāh-nāma dedicated to his brother, Ṭahmāsp (see Sām Mirzā, ed. Homāyun-Farroḵ, 1969)." ^ See: Willem Floor, Hasan Javadi(2009), The Heavenly Rose-Garden: A History of Shirvan
Shirvan & Daghestan by Abbas Qoli Aqa Bakikhanov, Mage Publishers, 2009. (see Sections on Safavids quoting poems of Shah Tahmasp I) ^ Kathryn Babayan, Mystics, Monarchs and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran, Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London : Harvard University Press, 2002. p. 143: "It is true that during their revolutionary phase (1447-1501), Safavi guides had played on their descent from the family of the Prophet. The hagiography of the founder of the Safavi order, Shaykh Safi al-Din Safvat al-Safa written by Ibn Bazzaz in 1350-was tampered with during this very phase. An initial stage of revisions saw the transformation of Safavi identity as Sunni Kurds into Arab blood descendants of Muhammad." ^ From Maternal side: Chatrina daughter of Theodora daughter of John IV of Trebizond son of Alexios IV of Trebizond son of Manuel III of Trebizond son of Alexios III of Trebizond son of Irene Palaiologina of Trebizond. From Paternal side: Shaykh Haydar
Shaykh Haydar son of Khadijeh Khatoon daughter of Ali Beyg son of Qara Yuluk Osman son of Maria daughter of Irene Palaiologina of Trebizond. ^ a b "The Iranian Language of Azerbaijan" E. Yarshater, Encyclopædia Iranica ^ Ehsan Yarshater, Encyclopædia Iranica, Book 1, p. 240. ^ Peter Charanis. "Review of Emile Janssens' Trébizonde en Colchide", Speculum, Vol. 45, No. 3 (July 1970), p. 476. ^ Anthony Bryer, open citation, p. 136. ^ Virani, Shafique N. The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A Search for Salvation (New York: Oxford University Press), 2007, p.113. ^ The writer Ṛūmlu documented the most important of them in his history. ^ a b c d e "Ismail Safavi" Encyclopædia Iranica ^ a b c d V. Minorsky, "The Poetry of Shāh Ismā‘īl I", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 10/4 (1942): 1006–53. ^ Richard Tapper. " Shahsevan
Shahsevan in Safavid Persia", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 37, No. 3, 1974, p. 324. ^ Lawrence Davidson, Arthur Goldschmid, A Concise History of the Middle East, Westview Press, 2006, p. 153. ^ Britannica Concise Archived 2008-01-20 at the Wayback Machine.. "Safavid Dynasty", Online Edition 2007. ^ George Lenczowski, " Iran
Iran under the Pahlavis", Hoover Institution Press, 1978, p. 79: "Ismail Safavi, descendant of the pious Shaykh Ishaq Safi al-Din (d. 1334), seized Tabriz
Tabriz assuming the title of Shahanshah-e-Iran". ^ Stefan Sperl, C. Shackle, Nicholas Awde, "Qasida poetry in Islamic Asia and Africa", Brill Academic Pub; Set Only edition (February 1996), p. 193: "Like Shah
Shah Ni'mat Allah-i Vali he hosted distinguished visitors among them Ismail Safavi, who had proclaimed himself Shahanshah of Iran
Iran in 1501 after having taken Tabriz, the symbolic and political capital of Iran". ^ Heinz Halm, Janet Watson, Marian Hill, Shi'ism, translated by Janet Watson, Marian Hill, Edition: 2, illustrated, published by Columbia University Press, 2004, p. 80: "...he was able to make his triumphal entry into Alvand's capital Tabriz. Here he assumed the ancient Iranian title of King of Kings (Shahanshah) and setup up Shi'i as the ruling faith" ^ Virani, Shafique N. The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A Search for Salvation (New York: Oxford University Press), 2007, 113. ^ H.R. Roemer, The Safavid Period, in Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. VI, Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press 1986, p. 339: "Further evidence of a desire to follow in the line of Turkmen rulers is Ismail's assumption of the title "Padishah-i-Iran" ^ "Iranian identity iii. Medieval Islamic period" in Encyclopedia Iranica: "The Safavid kings called themselves, among other appellations, the "heart of the shrine of ʿAli" (kalb-e āstān-e ʿAli), while assuming the title of Šāhanšāh (the king of kings) of Persia/Iran". Quote 2: "Even Ottoman sultans, when addressing the Āq Quyunlu and Safavid kings, used such titles as the "king of Iranian lands" or the "sultan of the lands of Iran" or "the king of kings of Iran, the lord of the Persians" or the "holders of the glory of Jamšid and the vision of Faridun and the wisdom of Dārā." They addressed Shah
Shah Esmaʿil as: "the king of Persian lands and the heir to Jamšid and Kay-ḵosrow" (Navāʾi, pp. 578, 700–2, 707). During Shah
Shah ʿAbbās's reign the transformation is complete and Shiʿite Iran comes to face the two adjacent Sunni
Sunni powers: the Ottoman Empire
Empire to the west and the Kingdom of Uzbeks
Uzbeks to the east." ^ Steven R. Ward. Immortal, Updated Edition: A Military History of Iran
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Seyyed Hossein, Sadr al-Din Shirazi and his Transcendent Theosophy, Background, Life and Works, 2nd ed., Tehran: Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies. ^ RN Frye, The Golden Age of Persia, Phoenix Press, 2000, p. 234 ^ Savory, Roger: Iran
Iran under the Safavids, pp. 220–5. ^ Savory, pp. 220. ^ Savory, p. 222. ^ Savory, Roger; Iran
Iran under the Safavids, p. 155. ^ Sir Roger Stevens; The Land of the Great Sophy, p. 172. ^ Savory; chpt: The Safavid empire at the height of its power under Shāh Abbas the Great
Abbas the Great (1588-1629) ^ Jodidio, Philip, Iran: Architecture For Changing Societies:Umberto Allemandi (August 2, 2006). ^ Ronald W. Ferrier, The Arts of Persia, Yale University Press, 1989, p. 199. ^ Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, V, pp. 514-15. ^ John R. Perry, "Turkic-Iranian contacts", Encyclopædia Iranica, January 24, 2006. ^ Ruda Jurdi Abisaab. " Iran
Iran and Lebanon in the Last 500 Years, I.B. Tauris (2006), p. 76. ^ Cornelis Henricus Maria Versteegh, The Arabic Language, Columbia University Press, 1997, p. 71. ^ Hillenbrand R., Islamic Art
Art and Architecture, London (1999), ISBN 0-500-20305-9, p. 228. ^ Savory, RM. "18 Iran, Armenia
Armenia and Georgia - Rise of a Shi'i State in Iran
Iran and New Orientation in Islamic Thought and Culture". UNESCO: History of Humanity. 5: From the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century. London, New York: Routledge. p. 263. ^ Mujtahid: A mujtahid in Arabic means a person who qualified to engange in ijtihad, or interpretation of religious texts. Ithna 'ashari is the number twelve in Arabic, signifying Twelver
Twelver Imami Shi'i Islam. Ulama: Arabic for religious scholars. ^ Streusand, p. 137. ^ Rudolph P. Matthee, The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk for Silver, 1600-1730 (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 231.
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Iran under the Safavids. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521042512. Sicker, Martin (2001). The Islamic World in Decline: From the Treaty of Karlowitz to the Disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0275968915. Yarshater, Ehsan (2001). Encyclopedia Iranica. Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 0933273568.
Christoph Marcinkowski (tr.),Persian Historiography and Geography: Bertold Spuler on Major Works Produced in Iran, the Caucasus, Central Asia, India and Early Ottoman Turkey, Singapore: Pustaka Nasional, 2003, ISBN 9971-77-488-7. Christoph Marcinkowski (tr., ed.),Mirza Rafi‘a's Dastur al-Muluk: A Manual of Later Safavid Administration. Annotated English Translation, Comments on the Offices and Services, and Facsimile of the Unique Persian Manuscript, Kuala Lumpur, ISTAC, 2002, ISBN 983-9379-26-7. Christoph Marcinkowski,From Isfahan
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Home / Europe / Week Seven of the Russian Intervention in Syria: Dramatic Surge in Intensity
Week Seven of the Russian Intervention in Syria: Dramatic Surge in Intensity
This week was clearly dominated by two major events: the terrorist attacks in Paris and the Russian official declaration that Kogalymavia Flight 9268 was, indeed, destroyed by a bomb.
First, I would notice that contrary to so many prediction that the Russians, Egyptians and other nations involved would lie and cover up this attack, this did not happen. Both the Russians and the Egyptians were open and honest about this attack from day 1. There is something to be learned here: while some politicians clearly have lost the ability to speak the truth even if they tried to, others did not. While lying is the standard operating procedure for most (all?) of “western” (Empire-run) states, this is still not the case everywhere else. It is simply wrong to assume that Russia is some kind of “anti-USA” and that the Kremlin has a policy of systematic deception like the White House. To the extend that Russia could be considered an “anti-USA” this ought to include categorically different methods and motives.
Second, and this might seem highly counter-intuitive, it is undeniable that Daesh did everything in its power to invite retaliation: not only did Daesh immediately claim that it blew up Flight 9268, it also claimed the credit for the Paris attacks and even threatened more such attacks, including against the USA. Again, this might seem outright bizarre, but Daesh appears to be doing everything it can to create a large, multi-national coalition to destroy it. We must keep this in mind every time we consider the retaliatory steps taken by Russia, France and others (see below).
Third, while it is too early to call the recent French attacks a “false flag” it is logical to at least consider that possibility as likely, if not highly likely. I personally do not like knee-jerk conclusions and I would prefer waiting for more info to come out. But at this point in time whether this was a “real” attack or a “false flag” really makes no difference. Why? Because whether the French ‘deep state’ was an accomplice/culprit or whether the regime is completely incompetent, the “action is in the reaction” – that is to say that the French are getting involved with their own military operation in Syria and they are doing so in coordination with the Russians. So, at this point in time, I suggest focusing on that.
But first, let’s look at the really important development this week.
Russia dramatically increases her anti-Daesh operations
While you can read my initial assessment here, the dramatic surge in Russian strikes against Daesh is important enough to take a more detailed look at it.
First, in purely military terms, what the Russians did was both predictable (and I had predicted just that for several weeks now) and highly significant. The small Russian contingent at the Khmeimim air base in Latakia was, if amazingly skilled and outright heroic, simply too small to really hurt Daesh. Keep in mind that Russia does not have the kind of power projection capabilities the USA has and that regardless of that disadvantage, the Russian succeeded in creating a full airport capable of supporting the 24/7 night and day operation of about 50 aircraft in a record time. And they did that without the Empire ever getting any good intelligence about what the Russians were up to. By the time the Empire understood what the Russians had done, it was way too late to stop them. In terms of organization and logistics, this was an absolutely brilliant operation and the folks who organized it most certainly deserve to get a medal and promotion for it. I mention that here because it was probably simply impossible to bring in a bigger force. Even right now the Khmeimim air base is over-saturated with flights and the extra aircraft flow in will make a very difficult situation even worse. This is why I predicted that the long-range aviation would have to be brought in at least as a stop-gap measure until either a “Khmeimim 2” airport is built near Latakia or another airfield(s) become(s) available (maybe in Iran). Bottom line is this: bombing or not bombing, the Russians had no choice but to bring in the long-range aviation.
Second, and this is significant, the Russians clearly decided to take advantage of the fact that the long-range aviation was not constrained by any logistical difficulties: the force they brought in this time around is a big and powerful one: not only will another 37 aircraft now join the Russian force in Syria (including the formidable SU-34: to the 4 already present in Syria another 8 will be added for a total force of 12), but 25 long-range bombers are now fully dedicated to the Russian effort, including Tu-22M3, Tu-95MC and Tu-160. Now this is a “big stick”. Even the “old” Tu-95MC and Tu-22M3 are highly modernized versions of excellent airframes who can deliver plenty of very powerful and highly accurate munitions in any weather conditions, including gravity bombs and strategic cruise missiles. In other words, Russia has at least doubled her Syria-based capabilities and much more than doubled it if the Russia-based long-range bombers are included. From being a small force, the Russian air force contingent now dwarfs what the French will bring in on their Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier and what the Empire has been using until now. We can now expect the Daesh logistics, communications and infrastructure to suffer a major degradation. And just to make sure that it hurts were it counts, the Russians began their long-range attacks with strikes on oil processing and distribution networks, including depots, trucks, fueling stations, etc. The Russian long-range bombers will not make a big difference to the Daesh frontline fighters, but their attacks on the Daesh infrastructure will free the Russian helicopters and Su-25s to finally provide close air support to the Syrian forces (so far, this task was mostly limited to the Syrian Air force which cannot fly at night). I also believe that the current SU-24 and SU-34 force will also be given much more frontline attack missions to provide the Syrians with much needed firepower. Bottom line: the Russians have brought in a “big stick” and this time Daesh will really hurt. But, remember, Daesh wanted exactly that (see above).
Third. The Kremlin did an excellent job of “selling” this dramatic increase of the pace and intensity of Russian operations in Syria. Polls show that most Russians fully approve. However, from personal contacts in Russia, I am told that they approve but are getting very uncomfortable. There is no denying that Russia has now suffered from what I like to call a “mandate creep”: from going in to support the Syrians and fighting the Takfiri crazies away from home rather than at home, Russia is now promising retribution for the murder of her citizens. Putin made that absolutely clear when he said that military forces and special services will be used to hunt down the perpetrators of this atrocity. He said:
We will find and punish these criminals. We will do this with no limitation period. We will find out all their names. Will will hunt them down everywhere, regardless of where they are hiding. We will find them in any location on the planet and we will punish them. (…).
He even added a “Dubya” -like warning that anybody supporting or protecting them will be fully responsible for the consequences of doing so.
All those who might try to render assistance to these criminals must know that the consequences for such a protection will lie entirely upon them.
Keep in mind that the last time Putin issued such a warning was in 1999 when he promised that Russia would hunt down the Chechen Wahabi terrorist everywhere, “even in toilets”, and kill every one of them. At this occasion Putin used a colorful Russian slang idiom “мочить” which can very roughly be translated as “off them off” (or even to “f**king blast them”). What is less remembered is that the Russians did just that: they killed every single Takfiri insurgency leader including Baraev, Dudaev, Maskhadov, Iandarbiev, Hattab, Raduev, Basaev and many many others. Some of these executions were botched (Iandarbiev) some were superb (Dudaev, Hattab). But Putin got every single one of them. Every one. Putin has just made exactly the same threat, though in more diplomatic terms. And while most Russian agree with Putin, and while they know that he does not make empty threats, they also realize that suddenly a small and local military operation has turned into a potentially worldwide chase for terrorists. Considering how poorly the USA did just that after 9/11 there are plenty of good reasons to be worried. But I would also immediately add that most Russians also realize that Putin and Dubya are in different leagues and that while the USA seems to be chronically unable to do anything right “Russia does not start wars – she ends them” (as the expression goes in Russia). Bottom line: I believe that the Russians will not repeat the mistakes made by the clueless US Neocons and that the hunt for Daesh leaders is now on.
Fourth. There is an uncanny political dimension to this about which I am frankly very unsure. Everybody in Russia knows that Qatar is the prime sponsor of terrorism in Syria and in Egypt. How will the Kremlin square that knowledge with the publicly made promise to punish every person guilty for the murder of 224 Russian citizens in anybody’s guess. Since Qatar is basically one giant US base, there is no way to strike at Qatar without hitting the CENTCOM. Alternatively, the Russians could decided to hunt down and kill specific Qatari officials in various “accidents”. What is certain is that the Russian foreign intelligence service – SVR – has teams capable of such actions (Zaslon, Vympel), as does the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff – GRU – which has Spetsnaz GRU officer teams and special operation forces SSO units capable of such operations. For better deniability (assuming that is a goal), the Russians might also use their deep connections inside the Russian mob (quite a few of whom are ex-secret services, especially in the middle-ranks) to “subcontract” such an operation. Whatever options the Kremlin choses, I would not sleep well if I was a Qatari official involved in this atrocity. Bottom line: Putin has publicly made it a point of personal honor to get every single one of the bastards responsible, regardless of where or who they are, and I strongly believe that he will deliver on that promise.
Fifth. There are other nations besides Qatar who are also very much co-sponsors of Daesh. They include Turkey (and, by extension, NATO), the KSA and even the Ukraine (see here and here). Potentially, all of them can become targets of Russian retaliation (whatever form it takes). Finally, there are all the western financial institution who are providing crucial services for Daesh, including many involving the export of oil from Daesh controlled territory and the import of modern weapon (primarily US-made) into Daesh territory. The list is long and the fact that the Russians have now openly threatened a long list of powerful entities is certainly a dramatic increase in the scope of the Russian involvement in this war.
Sixth. As with any escalation the stakes and the risks for Russia have now sharply increased. The timeframe has now officially changed from “about three months” to “as long as needed”, the size and nature of the force committed now fully engages the Russian political prestige and all of the above makes Russia a prime target for Daesh retaliation, both inside and outside Russia. Now that Putin has officially declared that Russian special services are tasked with the elimination of those who blew up the Russian aircraft, the use of some kind of “boots on the ground”, even if these are “special boots”, becomes much more likely. For somebody like myself who has always been very reluctant about the use of military force it is disturbing to see how rapidlyRussia is getting pulled-in into the war in Syria with no exit strategy I can discern, at least not in the foreseeable future. I personally do not believe that the Russians will send in boots, but I cannot say that I am categorically certain that this will not happen. Currently unpredictable events might well force them to.
The attacks in Paris
Tragic and horrible as these attacks were, the first thing that comes to my mind is the obscene difference in which the western media and zombified public treated 129 (provisional figure) murdered French and 224 murdered Russians. We had the “Je Suis Charlie” abomination and now we have the “Je Suis Paris” collective (planetary!) grief-fest. I don’t recall any “Je Suis Russie”, or “Je Suis Donbass” grief-fests? Or any “Je Suis Aleppo” or even “Je Suis Iraq”. Apparently, Russian or Arab lives matter a hell of a lot less than US or French lives (even if only in Iraq the body count is well over a million!). This is disgusting, unworthy of respect, utterly dishonest and terminally stupid. This is no “homage” to any victims, but your garden variety media-induced hysteria. The West ought to be ashamed of such pathetic lack of simple courage and maturity. Truly, did they really believe that they can play at such “terrorist games” and not eventually get hurt themselves (by a false flag or otherwise)?! Did not Putin warn the West of exactly that when he said:
I’m urged to ask those who created this situation: do you at least realize now what you’ve done? But I’m afraid that this question will remain unanswered, because they have never abandoned their policy, which is based on arrogance, exceptionalism and impunity. (…) In fact, the Islamic State itself did not come out of nowhere. It was initially developed as a weapon against undesirable secular regimes. (…) The situation is extremely dangerous. In these circumstances, it is hypocritical and irresponsible to make declarations about the threat of terrorism and at the same time turn a blind eye to the channels used to finance and support terrorists, including revenues from drug trafficking, the illegal oil trade and the arms trade. It is equally irresponsible to manipulate extremist groups and use them to achieve your political goals, hoping that later you’ll find a way to get rid of them or somehow eliminate them. I’d like to tell those who engage in this: Gentlemen, the people you are dealing with are cruel but they are not dumb. They are as smart as you are. So, it’s a big question: who’s playing who here? The recent incident where the most “moderate” opposition group handed over their weapons to terrorists is a vivid example of that. We consider that any attempts to flirt with terrorists, let alone arm them, are short-sighted and extremely dangerous. This may make the global terrorist threat much worse, spreading it to new regions around the globe, especially since there are fighters from many different countries, including European ones, gaining combat experience with Islamic State. Unfortunately, Russia is no exception. Now that those thugs have tasted blood, we can’t allow them to return home and continue with their criminal activities. Nobody wants that, right?
Prophetic words by Putin indeed. But since the AngloZionists have a long and “distinguished” tradition of using death-squads, vicious dictatorships and, of course, terrorists, Putin’s words were ignored. Heck, even after the Paris attacked the West is still supporting Nazis in the Ukraine! I suppose it will take some Nazi atrocity in London, Warsaw or Munich to wake up the zombified western general public to the simple reality that sponsoring and using terrorist is always a very dangerous policy. If not, then the West will continue on a neverending cycle of terrorism sponsoring and grief-fests, over and over again.
[Sidebar: I am often criticized for stating that Russia is not part of the West, ever was, and never will be. If you believe that I am wrong, ask yourself a simple question: why is it that Russian victims of atrocities (including Western sponsored atrocities!) are treated just like Black or Brown people and not like the other putatively “civilized” Whites? QED.]
Oh how much I wish most people in the West could understand Russian read the Russians newspapers, watch Russian talkshows or listen to Russian conferences! They would see something which they have been conditioned to consider impossible: far from fearing the West, most Russians find it crippled with narrow-minded consumerism, devoid from any real moral or ethical values, fantastically ignorant and provincial and suffering from terminal infantilism. Even the tiny pro-Western minority has now given up on defending the West and, at most, it retorts against the typical tsunami of anti-western arguments something like “what about us – are we not as bad?” or even “let’s not sink down to their level!”. It is quite amazing to see that happening in a country which used to almost worship anything western just 20-30 years ago! I should add that if the most despised and ridiculed country must, of course, be Poland, France is not far behind in the list of “most pathetic”, As for the USA, it is the least despised adversary simply because most Russian respect the US for defending whatever it perceives has its national interests and for making Europe it’s “bitch”. The Russians always say that to get something done one must talk to the USA and not waste time with its European colony.
If we look beyond all that rather shameful display of narcissistic self-pity, the real question is what is France going to do about it? Here again, there are two dimensions:
First, in purely military terms France will now commit the Charles de Gaulle with its wing of Rafales to the strikes on Daesh. Good, but compared to what the Russians are brining to the fight, it’s really irrelevant.
Second, in purely political terms, the French just might do something very interesting: apparently they have agreed with the Russians that the Russian forces in Syria will provide “cover” for the French. I am not really sure why a Rafale would need “cover” but whatever – what matters here is that the French have de-facto entered into an alliance with Russia over Syria and that, in turn, could open the door for other western countries. In other words, we just might (finally!) see a multi-national Russian-lead alliance take on the fight with Daesh and that, in turn, means that these countries would de-facto find themselves allied with Damascus. If northern Europe walks in lockstep with Uncle Sam, countries of southern Europe (Italy? Greece?) might decide to assist the Russians, as might Egypt or Jordan. I am not sure that such a coalition will happen, but at least now it might and that, by itself, is also an interesting development. This being said, Hollande is about to meet Obama in the US and he will probably be told in no uncertain terms that he must not “play ally” with Russia. Considering how abjectly subservient Hollande has been the the USA, I am not optimistic at all about the French meaningfully joining forces with Russia.
Third, there is no doubt in my mind, but many others do disagree, that the Zionist regime in power in Paris is making the maximal use of all these events to stir up an anti-Muslim hysteria in France. And I am not talking about the stupidity of insisting to serve an non-halal meal with wine to an Iranian leader who also happens to be a cleric, or the now “old” anti-hijab harassment in French schools. What I am talking about is the openly declared idea that traditional Islam is incompatible with the secular French Republic and that it therefore represents a danger to society. Conversely, the only “good” form of Islam is one of abject collaborationism with the Zionist regime typified by the infamous Hassen Chalghoumi, Imam of the mosque in Drancy. The message is xclear: the only “good Muslim” is a Zionist Muslim. All others are potential or actual, terrorists and shall be treated as such. That, in turn, makes it easier for Takfiri recruiters to find more volunteers for their terrorist operations which, in turn, make it possible to the regime to pass even more draconian laws, including laws against free speech or Internet freedom. Being a real, pious and practicing, Muslim in France will become very, very hard in the near future. It certainly appears to me that the warnings of Sheikh Imran Hosein are coming true.
The unknown “breaking point” of Daesh
After six weeks of very hard fighting Russia has brought in the big stick, but those who expect Daesh to collapse under Russian air operations should not rejoice too soon. Breaking Daesh will probably take a much bigger effort. But let me explain why I am saying “probably”.
For the first time in many weeks and months Daesh is truly in a difficult situation, not a desperate one yet, but a difficult one. Unless something changes in the current dynamic, time is now beginning to run against Daesh. Still, the resilience of Daesh in the current conditions is close to impossible to predict, at least without some very good information from the frontlines and that is something which most analysts, including myself, don’t have. When a force is put under pressure the way Daesh has been, there is a breaking point somewhere in the future at which point the force collapses really fast. The problem is that it is extremely difficult to estimate how far away in time such a (wholly theoretical) breaking point might be because it really depends on the morale and determination of the Daesh fighters on the ground. All we can say at this point in time is that such a breaking point exists in a theoretical future and that we hope that it will be reached soon. But we also have to be aware that this might not be the case at all. Not only that, but we have to take a long hard look at the most puzzling issue of them all: why did Daesh deliberately place itself in such a position. Here are a few hypotheses I can come up with:
1) Daesh leaders are crazed lunatics. They are in such a hurry to get to heaven that all they want is to die in combat against the infidels. Alternatively, they are so deluded about their power that they think that they can take on the entire planet and prevail. While I cannot discount this hypothesis completely, I find it highly unlikely simply because even if the rank-and-file Takfiri is an ignorant goat herder, the middle and top level commanders are clearly sophisticated and well-educated.
2) Daesh has outlived its utility for the AngloZionist Empire and now it is sent into a battle it cannot win, but which will kill off thousands of now useless liver-eating sociopaths. Maybe. I don’t know where any evidence to support this hypothesis could be found, but this one at least make sense to me.
3) The real purpose for Daesh has always been the same: to inflict such damage to the entire Middle-East that, by comparison, an Israeli occupation would appear as a liberation to the few lucky ones who would survive the medieval horrors meted out by Daesh on a daily basis on all the territories it controls. So the bigger and the bloodier the fight, the better for the Israelis who have taken a relatively strong state controlled by relatively strong Baathist leaders – Assad père et fils – and who have now turned it into a heap of smoldering ruins. The problem with this theory is that unless something changes Daesh will not win, but lose, and that Assad will come out not weaker, but much stronger. And I won’t even mention the fact that Syria now has a small, but battle hardened military whereas the putatively “invincible” Tsahal only is experienced at shooting unarmed civilians. So if there was an Israeli plan to prepare for a future “Grand Israel” it backfired pretty badly.
Frankly, I find none of the hypotheses above really convincing and that makes me nervous. The question which always haunts all analysts is “what am I missing” and, in this case, it also haunts me. I honestly cannot imagine that the Daesh leaders would sincerely believe that they can win the kind of “war against everybody” they apparently are determined to fight. I would hope that somebody with better understanding of Daesh, fluent in Arabic and well-versed in Takfiri literature would give us all the reply to this apparently simple question: what does Daesh really want? I will gladly admit that I have no idea. And that worries me a lot.
The Resistance and its options
Seven weeks into the Russian intervention, the Resistance to the Empire is doing well and it still has the potential to intensify its struggle. First and foremost, what is most needed at this point in time are more combatants on the ground. I still believe that the Russians are not going to provide ground troops for Syria. My guess is that Hezbollah is pretty close to being maxed out. Unless I am missing something, this means that the only party capable of providing many more combatants on the ground is Iran. Right now, the official line out of Moscow, is that one of the goals of the Russian intervention is to give the Syrians enough time to reorganize and field a much bigger force. Maybe. I hope that they can do that soon enough to fully use the momentum created by the Russian intervention.
As for the Russians, they are also coming close to being maxed out. In terms of air force, they could have allocated even more aircraft, but they did not do so simply because they know that there is only that much any air force can do when intervening in a civil war. Still, this time around the Russians really “mean business”: According to the latest figures, the latest Russian strikes was formidable: ten ships from the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean coordinated strategic cruise missile strikes on Daesh targets (18 cruise missiles were fired by only four ships the Caspian Sea flotilla see footage here: https://youtu.be/yf2SZ_gjtA0). According to official figures, in just four days, the Russian air force have conducted 522 sorties, deploying more than 100 cruise missiles and 1,400 tons of bombs of various types. Just one cruise missile strike in Deir ez-Zor had killed more than 600 militants. Clearly, Daesh is taking a formidable beating (the “pretend airstrikes” of the US-lead “pretend coalition” probably gave them a false sense of security of what an angry superpower can *really* do when it means it).
I am quite certain that Russia can keep up this pace of operations for a long while: while the stocks of the latest “Kalibr-NK” are reportedly low, Russia is now using a lot of her immense Cold War arsenal where there stocks of cruise missiles and gravity bombs are plentiful. Russia will run out of targets long before she runs out of these strategic weapons. This is no joke, by the way: it makes no sense to fire multi-million Ruble cruise missiles at non-lucrative, secondary or even tactical targets. The situation is better with relatively cheaper gravity bombs, but the biggest problem is that Daesh targets will eventually split into two groups: destroyed ones and well hidden ones. At this point the Russian intervention will not become useless, but it will reach a point of diminishing marginal returns, both in a financial and in a strategic sense. This happened to the USA and NATO in Kosovo and it happened to Israel in Lebanon. Of course, the AngloZionists then switched their attention to what they call “infrastructure” and “support” target destruction, but which are basically terror strikes against the civilian population. Russia will not engage in such systematic policy of war crimes and thus the option of bombing Raqqa into oblivion is not something we will see the Russians do (the US, in contrast, probably will). This leaves only the naval component of the Russian task force.
The main task of the Russian naval task force has been to protect the Russian logistics and to provide air defenses to the newly built airbase with Latakia. Apparently, Russian denial notwithstanding, there are S-400s in Khmeimim, but if not, we can assume that S-300s are there. So the air-defense task for the Russian naval task force is now been replaced by a role of support for the Russian logistical effort which I expect to not only continue, but even to also sharply increase. This is where the Russians can do the most good and where they are not maxed out: help the Syrians reequip, reassemble, reorganize, retrain and *finally* provide them with relatively modern equipment (at least on par with what Daesh has). My guess is that after 4 years of war the Syrians need literally *everything* and this is were the Russians can play a crucial role.
The current Russian naval task force allocated to Syria is far from being trivial. This is by no means a small force. Still, there have been some speculations that the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov might join the naval task force off the Syrian coast. I find that rather unlikely. Unlike the US aircraft carriers, the Admiral Kuznetsov was designed from day 1 to be primarily an anti-aircraft platform (primarily to protect the Russian submarine bastions) and not as a landstrike aircraft carrier. The Russians are currently reconsidering this role, but for the time being the Kuznetsov has very limited landstrike capabilities. Of course, if needed, the Kuznetsov could be used to strengthen the air-defense capabilities of Syria or the Russian contingent in Syria, but that is not something which will directly affect Daesh. Still, I would not count out the Kuznetsov either: according to the latest reports, she will be sent to a patrolling area off the Kola Peninsula, but that is not set in stone.
In terms of direct attack support, a possible Russian option would be to use submarine-based cruise missiles, but with 25 long-range strategic bombers already allocated to this task, this would not be a game changer either. My feeling is that the Russians are now as strongly committed as they can be. The only thing they could do now would be to increase the flow of modern weapons to Syria and to provide the technical personnel to train the Syrians. In my opinion this, along with an energetic political campaign to force the West to accept the facts on the ground, is the most likely Russian strategy for the future: continue to pound Daesh, while re-building the Syrian military and “engaging” Russia’s western “partners”.
Frankly, I will conclude by saying that I find this Russian strategy as militarily sound as it is morally correct. Russia cannot win this war “for” the Syrians. The best thing Russian can do is to provide meaningful help, and that she is very much doing.
With Hezbollah probably maxed-out, the big unknown is Iran: will the Iranians dare to bring in a much larger contingent of ground-forces to take the pressure off the Syrians? I hope not – because that would mean that the Syrian could do well even without such aid, but I still consider an Iranian surge as very likely.
As for the Syrians, Assad has just declared that he would not leave power before the defeat of Daesh. In other words, Assad has just turned the tables on the West and declared that the “departure” (i.e. elimination) of Daesh is now a pre-condition of his departure. Only time will show whether this is grandstanding or true confidence.
What about the “Indispensable Nation”:
I realize that bashing the USA is always a popular exercise, but for all my hostility to the AngloZionist Empire I also have to admit that the US is in a very bad and complicated position: it has created a bloody mess (literally), then it painted itself into a political corner, and all of its so-called ‘regional allies’ are, I believe, inherently disloyal and pursue their own interests. If you look at the relationship between the USA, on one hand, and countries like Turkey, Qatar, the KSA or Israel on the other, it really is hard to establish who uses whom and whether what we are seeing is a case of a tail wagging the dog. Take Qatar: there is no doubt that the presence of CENTCOM in Qatar gave the Qatari a strong sense of impunity which, in turn, bred arrogance and, frankly, irresponsibility. The Qatari wanted Assad “out” so they could get their gas to the Mediterranean, but now they are directly involved in the bombing of a Russian airliner. As for their much wanted pipeline, they can forget it for at least a decade now. How smart was that? More relevantly: is Qatar a good ally for the USA? What about Turkey which is actively supporting, financing, equipping and training Daesh (and al-Qaeda – same difference!) under the convenient protection of NATO. They apparently cannot decide which is worse: Assad or the Kurds, and since they fear them both, they end up in bed with liver-eating sociopaths. Is that a good ally for the USA? I won’t even go into the Israeli issue – we all know that AIPAC runs Congress and the Neocons try run the White House. None of which elicits any big love or loyalty from the Israelis who are constantly looking at the “Russian option” (partnering up with Russia) to get things done in the Middle-East. Besides, since the slow-mo genocide of Palestinians by the Ziocrazies currently in power is continuing, being allied to the Israelis means being hated by everybody else. Still, at least and unlike the other “regional allies” of the USA, the Israeli regime itself is stable, fairly predictable and can unleash an immense amount of violence. So compared to the Saudis, the Israelis look outright attractive. Still, at the end of the day, the USA has to try to get out of this mess without alienating its allies too much, but also without being manipulated by them.
Some seem to believe that the correct policy for the USA would be to work together with Russia. While this would undoubtedly make sense for the USA as a country, it would make no sense at all for the USA as an Empire. For the US (AngloZionist) Empire and the “deep state” forces which run it Russia is, indeed, a far bigger threat because Russia directly threatens the imperial status of the USA. The USA can either be the “Indispensable Nation” and world hegemon, or a “normal country” part of a civilized and multipolar world system ruled by the rule of law. It cannot be (or do) both. So when the US “deep state” is categorical in its refusal to do anything meaningful with Russia, it does act logically, at least from its point of view. As any other Empire, the USA sees its relationship with any competitor (actual or possible) as a zero-sum game which means that anything good for Russia is bad for the USA and vice-versa. Yes, this is sick and sociopathic, but this is how all Empires function. Hence the current US policies: the only good coalition is a US-lead one, any anti-Russian force must be supported, there will be no negotiations with Russia – only demands and ultimatums, etc. Add to this the apparently total lack of well-educated and competent diplomats (Americans get killed in every single negotiation they have conducted with the Russians), and you will see why the US is so averse to any notion of being anything other than hostile and confrontational with Russia.
The USA is in a terrible mess, the upcoming elections are only making matters worse and that makes the USA highly unpredictable. Yes, there is, I suppose, a small chance that the French might set a precedent for collaboration with Russia, but I am not holding my breath here. Maybe if another massacre is committed in Europe, especially Germany, but even that is a long shot. Still, there have been cases in history when a slave gave some good advice to his master and maybe this will happen this time around. I sure hope so.
Addendum: was I wrong about my predictions about the Russian intervention in Syria?
I think that this is a good time to reply to those who have accused me of being wrong about the Russian intervention in Syria. I could have done that as soon as these accusations were made, but I concluded that to do so in the flag-waving “go Russia! go!” kind of atmosphere this was futile. Many at that time were sure that this was the “showdown of the century” (no less), a “game changer” and that it was all “over” for Daesh. Seven weeks into this intervention, I propose to revisit what I actually said.
First, I never said that no military intervention would take place. In fact, I repeated over and over again that I cannot prove a negative and that an intervention *might* take place, I even suggested one (limited to intelligence support, training and weapons). All I said that the kind of intervention which was discussed 7-8 weeks ago would not take place: no Russian boots, no MiG-31, no forces in Damascus, no Russian SSBNs, no Airborne Forces, etc. And, indeed, that kind of intervention did not happen. Furthermore, I also said that the notion that Russia could “protect” Syria from NATO is laughable. It still is! Does anybody still seriously believe that the Russian contingent in Syria really has that kind of capabilities?! If so, I got a bridge to sell them. Now, I will gladly admit that I did not think that Putin would agree to what I consider an extremely daring and risky option of sending a very small force into Syria, a force just barely big enough to (maybe) give enough relief for the Syrians to reorganize and counter-attack. That I did, indeed, miss. As did everybody else who predicted a *much* larger Russian intervention (with MiG-31s and all the rest of the nonsense). I will also admit that I am still amazed at the fact that the Russians, who are both intervention-averse and risk-averse, did go for such a risky move and I marvel at the superb way they executed their operation. But they way they actually did it is something which nobody predicted.
Second, I also got in trouble for raising the alarm about the limited capabilities inherent to any air operation and, specifically, to a rather small Russian one. Now that the Russians had to use their cruise missiles and strategic aviation (which I did predict, by the way) is there anybody who will deny that I was right about the limitation of using airpower against Daesh, especially with the low number of aircraft initially brought in?
Third, I did point out that the Russian law and general public are extremely foreign intervention averse. That is still very true and that is still limiting the Kremlin’s options. This is why Russian officials go out of their way to stress that the Russian intervention in Syria is primarily in Russia’s national interest.
I want to set the record straight today not because of some ruffled feathers or a hurt ego, but because I am sick and tired of having to reply to a toxic combo of strawman accusations and j ingoistic predictions. High-fiving, flag waving and back-slapping are all very fine unless you are the one sent into combat. Then they become obscene.
There are those out there (quite a few, in fact), who accuse me of “pessimism” and of writing “defeatist” analyses when what is needed is “uplifting” and “inspiring” essays. If that is the accusation, then I plead “guilty as charged”. But I will also add that this is not how I see my role. My role is to write truthful and honest analyses regardless of whether they are received as “uplifting” or “pessimistic”. There are plenty of “inspiring” and “uplifting” blogs out there, so if that is what you are in to, you know where to find them.
Finally, I also got into trouble for saying early on that one ought to wait for facts before coming to conclusions about what happened to Flight 9268 and for saying that my personal working hypothesis was that it was a bomb. Then I was accused of being naïve when I said that I did not believe that the Russians would lie about it. I know that there are still those who believe that the Israelis did it or that some kind of directed energy weapon did it. Whatever. There never was a shred of evidence to support either one of these hypotheses and I very much doubt that the future will bring any. To which we will be told that “the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence”. Again – whatever. It is also possible that a swarm of subatomic UFOs did it. “Possible” is a very low standard since almost anything is possible. But is it “probable” or “likely”? As soon as the “evidentiary bar” is raise just above the “possible” level all these theories instantly collapse. Again, while others are welcome to explore all sorts of “possible” hypotheses, I personally will stick to those who are at least probable.
At the end of the day it is you – the reader – who gets to pick and chose whatever you like. There is a big and diverse blogosphere out there and that is a very good thing. I strive to present fact-based and logical analyses and I am not trying to win a popularity contest of “inspire” you (-: unless, of course, you find fact-based and logical analyses inspiring
Having clarified this, I won’t do that again the next time I am accused of writing what I never wrote or of failing to cheer on the good guys.
Related ItemsamericaassadCIAdaeshegyptEUindependent newsisraelNATOnewsputinrussiasyriaukraineUNUSUSAwarwashington
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The View From 1776
Dissipating Constitutional Fog
http://www.thomasbrewton.com/index.php/weblog/dissipating_constitutional_fog/
If the Constitution is to be amended, it must be in accordance with Article V of that document.
Charles Krauthammer’s Thomas’s Originalism is a must-read. It refocuses us on the true role of the Supreme Court, which was intended to be no more than adjudicating legitimate cases arising under Federal statutes or the Constitution itself, not creation of new law overriding Congress or the states.
A basic concept of Constitutional law, honored too often in the breach, originally was judicial restraint.
The idea was that prudence and judgment requires judges to make decisions as limited in scope as possible and as nearly tailored to the specific facts of a case as possible. In a nation as large and diverse as the United States, sweeping declarations of general principle enunciated as Constitutional law usually have disastrous consequences, simply because it is beyond human capacity to foresee all of the implications of a decision.
Limiting a decision as much as possible to the facts of a specific case allows later room for judges to fine tune decisions to new facts and conditions, as unintended consequences of prior decisions manifest themselves.
In a sense this might be viewed as an evolutionary approach to Constitutional law. But, it is not the “living Constitution” beloved to the New York Times’s editorial board, a concept that says mere changes in public opinion are effectively amendments to the Constitution.
Judicial restraint has the virtue of limiting the damage that usually has been inflicted by the ill-considered, sweeping declarations of liberal social-justice principle to which the judiciary have become addicted. The most notorious and contentious such piece of judicial legislation, of course, was Roe v. Wade’s invalidating thousands of years of social and moral tradition and denying to states the powers reserved to them under the Tenth Amendment. Unhappily, discovery of a Constitutional right to same-sex marriages, hidden in the shadowy recesses of the Constitution and visible only to socialists, may be next.
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Buy Cheap Philadelphia Phillies Tickets here
View All Philadelphia Phillies Tickets here
The “Philadelphia Phillies” is a professional American baseball team situated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The team is part of the Eastern Division, which plays in the National League (NL) of the Major League Baseball (MLB Tickets). Since 2004, the Phillies have been playing their home games at the Citizens Bank Park located in the South Philadelphia.
The Phillies have played in several stadiums in the Philadelphia, including the Recreation Park, the Baker Bowl, the Shibe Park (now the Connie Mack Stadium) and the Veterans Stadium. The team conducts their spring trainings in the facilities located in the Clearwater, Florida.
Established in the year 1883, the team was first named as the “Quakers”. The team was founded in purpose of replacing the team from Worchester, Massachusetts in the National League (NL). After some time, the Quakers later became the Philadelphias, which was soon shortened as the “Phillies”. However, the used of both names were interchanged during the years 1883 until 1890. When the team reached the year 1890, it was officially recognized as the “Phillies”.
The team is the oldest one-city franchise among all of the professional American sports. For the record, the Phillies won two Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series championships against the Kansas City Royals in 1980 and the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008. The Phillies were also able to keep 7 pennants during the National League (NL) Pennants, by which first of the seven pennants was attained in the year 1915.
Prior to the team’s World Series victory in the year 1980, the Phillies went through a long period of struggles during the early 1900s. The team played 174 seasons of which 97 out of 174 seasons were from the club’s establishment. At that time, the 77 consecutive seasons turned out to be the fourth longest World Series drought in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB).
By great misfortune, the Phillies earned several doubtful merits due to their massive losses in most of the games in the history of American professional sports. However, although the team showed a low-rated and poor performance for the past spanning years, the Phillies recovered from their losses and showed big progress in the early 2000s. In fact, the team won five consecutive division titles from 2007 until 2011.
In the Major League Baseball (MLB) history, the Phillies’ primary rivals were the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Among these rivalries, the competition between the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies was believed to be the hottest rivalry in the National League (NL).
The rivalry between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Pitsbrugh Pirates was said to be the best in the National League (NL). The competition between teams took place when the Pirates joined the National League (NL) play during their fifth season in the year 1887, four years late compared to the Phillies.
According to the team’s documented history, the Philadelphia Phillies had four of their most notable team captains during the 1920s to 1970s. These captains were Jimmy Wilson (1927-1928), Fresco Thompson (1928-1930), Granny Hammer (1952-1959) and Mike Schmidt (1978-1979).
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Radiohead: beyond the rainbow
So, the download version of In Rainbows has happened; what about the physical product? The New York Times is reporting that Coran Capshaw's Side One labelette (a side-business to his management of Dave Matthews and others) and XL will release the record in the US and UK respectively. But only for a time: the band are keeping hold of the rights, so the deal will only allow the labels a brief crack of the whip.
Which is only fair - after all, it's not like the labels had to pay for the record to get made, so why should they own the disc?
More from No Rock on labels, radiohead
Emalyse said...
It's a shame that it takes the clout of a heavily established band to "crack the whip" in this way. It's likely to be something that emerging artists will aspire to in terms of control of their own product.
Radiohead could allow the labels to release the CD, say, for around £10 a time, and then give them 50p per CD for their efforts. Or have I misunderstood the way these things normally work?
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Ukraine ‘Corruption Park’ Shows Ill-Gotten Gains
18/06/2018 Yabiz
A pop-up “Corruption Park” has opened in Ukraine to highlight the scale of the problem with interactive exhibits and displays of ill-gotten gains including a $46,000 crystal falcon.
One of the first things visitors see in the EU-funded show is a tent shaped like the gold loaf of bread found in the house of ex-president Viktor Yanukovych after he fled Ukraine in 2014.
Elsewhere, they can inspect a $300,000, limited-edition BMW seized from a corrupt official, and a copy of a 8-million-euro chandelier that, the display says, could have paid for a family’s electricity bill for 64,000 years.
In another tent, visitors lie back in a four-poster bed and watch a multimedia film of the imagined nightmares of a guilty government functionary.
The EU Anti-Corruption Initiative, which staged the show in Kiev’s botanical gardens, said it was meant to show the scale of corruption in Ukraine, and what it costs governments and citizens.
Ukraine’s Western-backed government has accused Yanukovych and his pro-Russian administration of widespread abuses and excesses.
But activists have also accused the current authorities of failing to crack down on graft, which is estimated to cost the country about 2 percent of its economic growth, according to the International Monetary Fund.
“For the kids, it’s a good example and revealing about the scale it all happens at,” Kyiv resident Lyuba said, as she queued with her children to don goggles and join a virtual reality anti-corruption investigation.
‘Corruption has taken so much’
The chandelier appears in a mock-up of an official’s room, decked out with the fruits of his corruption.
Other exhibits explain different schemes used for illegal enrichment.
“Corruption concerns everyone. This is one of the main ideas and goals of the project – to explain the direct relation between top level corruption and ordinary Ukrainians,” said Volodymyr Solohub, spokesman for the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative, which paid for the 140,000 euro ($162,000) park.
“A lot of people just come out disappointed that corruption has taken so much from the country,” he said.
One tent called ‘The Fight’ explains what the current authorities have done to combat graft, including the establishment of anti-corruption agencies.
Depicting the various government bodies as pieces in a puzzle, the exhibit illustrates that there is one missing piece: an independent court dedicated to prosecuting corruption cases, whose creation has been repeatedly pushed back.
Earlier in June, parliament voted to establish the court, but activists have said the law contains an amendment that would undermine the court’s effectiveness and Ukraine’s commitments to external backers such as the International Monetary Fund.
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April 24: A Day That Must Be Remembered
Illustration of the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia
An important day is upon us and we should all take the time to reflect on what occurred in 1915
– the Armenian Genocide. April 24th is Armenian Genocide Memorial Day – a day
commemorating the deportation of Armenian intellectuals from Constantinople (present day
Istanbul, Turkey). This is a day that flies under the radar for many Americans, which is one
reason why the Northern New Jersey Chapter of the United Nations Association has determined
that shedding light on this event is extremely important. The State of New Jersey has a large
Armenian diaspora community. Moreover, New Jersey was a key player in assisting the
survivors of the Armenian genocide. The victims of this horrific event should receive the honor
and recognition that they deserve.
As World War I was about to commence, the total number of Christian Armenians residing in
the Ottoman Empire was two million. In 1922, the number was less than 400,000 thousand. The
remaining 1.5 million had been killed in what was determined to be genocide – the systematic
extermination of a certain group of people based on race or ethnicity. The author David Fromkin
in his book titled, “A Peace to End All Peace,” wrote that: “Rape and beating were
commonplace. Those who were not killed at once were driven through mountains and deserts
without food, drink or shelter. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians succumbed or were killed.”
For the Turks, the events of 1915 are dismissed. They assert that genocide did not occur as
historians have concluded. Today, in Turkey, it is a crime to mention what happened to
Armenians. In fact, one of the last stages of genocide is denial. Denying the occurrence of the
tragic events perpetuates its existence and continues to do harm to the survivors and their
The Government of Turkey justifies their denial of the events of 1915 by blaming the victims,
according to Dr. Gregory Stanton, the former President, International Association of Genocide
Scholars and presently the Research Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention at the
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia.
The Turks indicate that the “killings were in self-defense,” and profess that the Muslim Turks
also had numerous deaths during this time; however, these deaths came from battling European
troops. Further, he stated, the Turks claimed that the deaths occurred because of a lack of
essentials such as food and water. But such assertions have been disproved, Dr. Stanton said,
through eyewitness accounts from Armenian survivors, “American consular offices,
missionaries… [and the] archives of Ottoman allies, Germany and Austria-Hungary.”
Polish-Jewish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, was impassioned by the suffering and the plight of the
Armenians that he decided he would explore the atrocities perpetrated by the Turks upon the
Armenians. The significance is Lemkin was the individual who coined the term genocide;
however, this did not happen until 1943 during the Holocaust. But it is important to note that
genocide has its origins in the Armenian genocide, as scholars point to it as being the first
genocide to have occurred during the modern era.
The United Nations followed Lemkin’s direction in 1948 adopting U.N. General Assembly
Resolution 260 on December 9 of that year establishing the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Convention subsequently entered into force on
January 12, 1951.
As of 2017, 29 nations recognize the genocide as well as 48 of 50 U.S. states. Alabama and
Mississippi are the only two states that do not recognize the genocide. This month Senator Bob
Menendez (D-NJ) and his colleague, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), introduced a resolution
affirming and recognizing the Armenian genocide. Senator Menendez has been a champion of
U.S.-Armenian relations. It is time for the U.S. to stand firm, despite pushback from the
Executive branch and pressure from the Turkish government and recognize the events of 1915-
The writer wishes to express his sincere and heartfelt thanks to Valeria Moumdjian, our website
designer, for her recommendation and suggestion that I write a blog regarding the April 24th
commemoration of the Armenian genocide. On a personal note, I can say that writing this piece
was both a moving and educating experience. It is our hope that people will take the time to
pause and read the piece and understand what occurred to the Armenian people in 1915.
Michael Curtin, NNJ Chapter Editorial Chair
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Youth season ends with defeat at Port Vale
Tony Scholes April 30, 2016 Youth season ends with defeat at Port Vale2016-04-30T14:57:48+00:00 U18s
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Clarets beat Middlesbrough to reach final
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Supporters Clubs Awards Night – The Big Winners
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Up the Clarets would like to thank Meg Steele (Central Lancs Clarets) for the use of the photographs Follow UpTheClarets:
Ten days without a game
Dave Thomas April 27, 2016 Ten days without a game2016-04-27T17:50:46+00:00 Dave Thomas
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The Youth Alliance League will come to an end for the 2015/16 season a week on Saturday and we might have to wait until then to know who will...
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Facts About Web Development
Would The Coca-Cola Company’s success story have differed if its trademark color had been green instead of red?
Psychology suggests that it would have. In fact, according to research, the red used in Coca-Cola's color scheme was the perfect color for the medicine-turned-softdrink-company to use, since red has the added effect of making customers feel energetic and excited. Energy was the core emotion Coca-Cola's marketers wanted their audience to feel when thinking about a refreshing, caffeinated drink, and making the brand red was a simple strategy that paid off.
Web design: Where art meets marketing
Web designers and brand managers have long used color psychology in their workflow, particularly as it relates to how color affects consumer perceptions of a product or brand. From a marketing standpoint, influencing a large portion of people to feel a certain emotion based on something as simple as the color of a website, or a product’s labeling and packaging, is a no-brainer. Add to that the individual customization and identity that color allows and it’s easy to see why color and marketing go together like proverbial (green) peas in a pod.
One of the most comprehensive empirical studies on the topic was published in 2011 in the Academy of Marketing Science. The study was titled “Exciting red and competent blue: The importance of color in marketing, ” and in it, researchers Labrecque and Milne collected data that statistically verified the following fascinating facts about color psychology.
#1) White, yellow and pink are perceived as sincere and pure
Although their study found data that supported this hypothesis well, Labrecque and Milne weren’t the only researchers who have attempted to prove that humans associate sincerity with these three colors. Three prior studies had already shown that white is associated with clarity, purity and peace [1] [2] [3]. Move toward the yellows, and researchers found that the feeling adjusts slightly to the same element of sincerity, but combines happiness and optimism [4]. Pink is tied to emotions like sincerity and softness, as well, with a hint of nurturing and warmth [1].
Crowdfunding resources like Gofundme.com and Indiegogo.com use large areas of white in their website's design, perhaps to influence would-be benefactors that the projects they are funding are sincere campaigns.
#2) Red, orange and yellow induce energy and excitement
Since the 60s, researchers involved in color psychology have found links between the color red and excitement. Activity, stimulation, energy – all of those feelings that get your heart racing – that’s the emotional effect most people experience when seeing the color red. In fact, the colors with longer wavelength hues like red, orange and deep yellow all have a similar effect of producing emotions of extroversion, energy and excitement. If you want a lot of energy, red is the ticket. For a good middle ground, orange works. And while the least energetic of the three, yellow still brings a burst of energy that other colors beyond these three just can’t match.
#3) Brown and blue show competence
If competence and earning clients’ trust are your primary business goals, research shows that blue is the color that relays that exact message [5]. Brown is also a suitable color for relaying similar emotions like reliability and seriousness, and both colors together pack a one-two punch of a reliable, professional vibe [1] [4].
Consider the website redesign of one of RocketFuel's clients, Caissa, a Memphis-based Public Strategy and reputation management company. We chose a palette of blues and browns to reflect the goals of reliability and trust that were the foundations of the client's core philosophy.
#4) Saturation shows strength and ruggedness
Saturation is the amount of pigment in a color, and is measured on a scale of low saturation (which appears washed out) and high saturation (which appears to have vivid color). Prior research showed that the more saturated a color appears, the more it elicits feelings of dominance, ruggedness and strength [6]. Labrecque and Milne's study also found evidence that backed up that claim, demonstrating that consumers perceived logos and products using low-saturation, washed-out colors as reflecting softness and lacking in ruggedness.
[1] Fraser, T., & Banks, A. (2004). Designer’s color manual: The complete guide to color theory and application. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
[2] Mahnke, F. H. (1996). Color, environment, and human response. New York: Reinhold.
[3] Wright, A. (1988). The beginner’s guide to colour psychology. London: Colour Affects Ltd.
[4] Clarke, T., & Costall, A. (2007). The emotional connotations of color: a qualitative investigation. Color Research and Application, 33 (5), 406–410.
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College Football Bowl Games Preview, TV Schedule — Dec. 26-Jan. 2
Wes Glinsmann
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
The second week of bowl season boasts some solid matchups that will make for great watching before we get to the playoffs. Here is the schedule for this week’s bowl games. (All times Eastern.)
*Note: we will have separate in-depth previews of the Big Six bowl games—including the playoff semifinals—coming next week.
St. Petersburg Bowl
Dec. 26, 11:00 AM (ESPN)
Connecticut (6-6) vs. Marshall (9-3)
A Marshall victory would not only give the Thundering Herd its fifth straight bowl win, but would secure their place as the only “Group of Five” team to win ten games in its last three seasons. Connecticut made it into the postseason by winning three of its last four games, including an upset of then-No. 19 Houston. The Huskies need a win to secure their first winning record since 2010.
Dec. 26, 2:00 PM (CBS)
Miami, FL (8-4) vs. Washington State (8-4)
Washington State quarterback Luke Falk, who leads the nation in passing yards per game, will be back under center after missing the Cougars' loss to Washington with a head injury. But he’ll face one of his toughest tests against a Miami defense that has held four of its last six opponents to less than 200 yards passing while allowing just four passing touchdowns and forcing four interceptions.
Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl
Dec. 26, 2:20 PM (ESPN)
Washington (6-6) vs. Southern Mississippi (9-4)
Washington needed an upset of archrival Washington State just to earn bowl eligibility for the sixth straight year. The Huskies won their last two games by a combined score of 97-17. But their stout defense (29th nationally) will be tested by a Southern Miss backfield that boasts two 1,000-yard rushers.
Dec. 26, 3:30 PM (ABC)
Indiana (6-6) vs. Duke (7-5)
Duke is playing in a school record fourth consecutive bowl game, but is seeking its first bowl win since 1961. The Blue Devils will be without ACC Defensive Player of the Year and first team All-American safety Jeremy Cash, who had wrist surgery last week. The Hoosiers’ led the Big Ten in total offense but had to win their last two games to snap a six-game losing streak and make their first bowl game since 2007.
Camping World Independence Bowl
Tulsa (6-6) vs. Virginia Tech (6-6)
Frank Beamer’s legendary run at Virginia Tech comes to an end in the Hokies’ 23rd-consecutive bowl game. Look for a big game from Hokie receiver Keyarris Garrett (second in the nation in receiving yards) against a Tulsa defense that ranks 124th nationally in pass defense.
Foster Farms Bowl
UCLA (8-4) vs. Nebraska (5-7)
UCLA freshman quarterback Josh Rosen was named Pac-12 offensive freshman of the year and could have success against a Nebraska defense that ranks 122nd nationally against the pass and surrendered 300+ passing yards seven times this year. But don’t be surprised if this game is close late: five of Nebraska’s seven losses were by five or fewer points and four were decided in the game’s final minute or overtime.
Military Bowl Presented by Northrup Grumman
Pittsburgh (8-4) vs. Navy (10-2)
Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds broke the FBS record for career rushing touchdowns and gets to end his storied career with a bowl game in his home stadium. But he’ll face a tough test against a Pitt defense that ranks 20th nationally in rush defense and has allowed only four rushing touchdowns in its last six games.
Quick Lane Bowl
Dec. 28, 5:00 PM (ESPN2)
Central Michigan (7-5) vs. Minnesota (5-7)
Central Michigan is seeking its first bowl win since 2012 and first eight-win season since 2009. Minnesota is one of three teams to make a bowl game this year with a losing record after a tumultuous season that included the resignation of beloved coach Jerry Kill for medical reasons. The Gophers are in a bowl game for the fourth straight year, but have not won one since 2004.
California (7-5) vs. Air Force (8-5)
It will be a contrast in styles as Air Force’s ball-control triple option takes on Cal’s potent passing game. Cal quarterback Jared Goff has already broken many of Aaron Rodgers’ school passing records and, projected to be the top quarterback taken in next year’s NFL draft, will likely be playing his final collegiate game.
No. 10 North Carolina (11-2) vs. No. 17 Baylor (9-3)
Despite falling just short in the ACC title game, North Carolina still has a chance to rewrite the school record books as a win here would give the Tar Heels their first-ever 12-win season and ensure they finish the season as a ranked team for the first time since 1997. Baylor, meanwhile, is limping into the homestretch of a disappointing season. A final week loss to Texas cost the Bears a Big 12 championship and Sugar Bowl bid. They’ll be playing this time without their two top quarterbacks, starting running back and Biletnikoff Award-winning receiver.
Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl
Dec. 29, 7:30 PM (American Sports Network)
Nevada (6-6) vs. Colorado State (7-5)
You know there are too many bowl games when the biggest storyline for this game has been Nevada and the Mountain West Conference claiming disrespect when the Wolf Pack got sent to this new bowl game in Tucson (which the Mountain West was instrumental in creating) instead of the Cure Bowl in Orlando.
Advocare V100 Texas Bowl
No. 20 LSU (8-3) vs. Texas Tech (7-5)
LSU running back Leonard Fournette leads the nation in rushing yards per game (158.3) and will be facing one of the worst rush defenses in football (126th nationally). Look for this one to be a shootout as LSU gives the ball to Fournette early and often while Texas Tech tries to keep pace behind the nation’s second-ranked scoring offense.
Dec. 30, 12:00 PM (ESPN)
Auburn (6-6) vs. Memphis (9-3)
Both teams are looking to finish on a strong note after disappointing final months of the season. Auburn limps in after losing four of its final six games. Memphis, meanwhile, started the season 9-0 before dropping three of their final four.
Belk Bowl
North Carolina State (7-5) vs. Mississippi State (8-4)
North Carolina State is in a bowl game for the second consecutive year, but is 0-5 this year against bowl-eligible teams. The Bulldogs’ Dak Prescott has rewritten the school record book and could have luck against a porous Wolfpack defense, but will have to deal with a hostile crowd in NC State’s back yard.
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl
Texas A&M (8-4) vs. Louisville (7-5)
This is a matchup of two teams with recent success who took a couple steps backward in 2015. Both teams feature young, inconsistent quarterbacks that have been aided by stout defenses. So expect this to be a low-scoring affair with the team that makes the fewest mistakes likely coming out on top.
National Funding Holiday Bowl
No. 25 USC (8-5) vs. Wisconsin (9-3)
This could be one of bowl season’s more entertaining matchups as Wisconsin’s defense, which leads the nation in scoring and is sixth or better in most every category, takes on a balanced USC offense that has put up at least 27+ points in all but two games this year.
Outback Bowl
Jan. 1, 12:00 PM (ESPN2)
No. 13 Northwestern (10-2) vs. No. 23 Tennessee (8-4)
Northwestern won’t wow anyone on offense (115th nationally), but ranks seventh nationally in scoring defense and held all but three opponents to 21 or fewer points. Tennessee choked away a game against Oklahoma and failed to take advantage of a weak SEC East, but closed the season on a five-game winning streak. The last four Outback Bowls have been decided by a touchdown or less and this could be another close matchup that goes down to the wire.
Jan. 1, 1:00 PM (ABC)
No. 14 Michigan (9-3) vs. No. 19 Florida (10-3)
Two of college football’s biggest comeback stories square off in a matchup that could signal the winner as a player in next year’s playoff mix. Michigan got it done with defense, ranking 11th nationally in total defense and fourth in scoring. Likewise, Florida boasts NFL talent in the secondary and the defense has been called on to bail out a putrid offense that has been going in reverse (literally) late in the season. Florida has the edge in turnover margin (+10 vs. -6 for Michigan) and this game could well come down to which team makes the fewest mistakes.
Taxslayer Bowl
Jan. 2, 12:00 PM (ESPN)
Penn State (7-5) vs. Georgia (9-3)
Georgia’s defense was outstanding this season (eighth nationally), but the offense could never find a passing rhythm and never recovered from a season-ending injury to star running back Nick Chubb. Penn State closed the season on a disappointing three-game losing streak. But all five of the Nittany Lions’ losses have been to ranked opponents and the defense led by Lombardi Award winner Carl Nassib ranks tenth nationally. Expect this to be a low-scoring matchup.
Autozone Liberty Bowl
Jan. 2, 3:20 PM (ESPN)
Kansas State (6-6) vs. Arkansas (7-5)
Arkansas has the talent edge in this matchup, but Kansas State’s All-American kick returner Morgan Burns, who leads the nation in kickoff return touchdowns (4) and is second in kick return average (33.8 YPG), could be an equalizer on special teams.
Valero Alamo Bowl
No. 15 Oregon (9-3) vs. No. 11 TCU (10-2)
Oregon started the season 3-3 but was arguably the hottest team in the country down the stretch, scoring nearly 45 points a game during a six-game winning streak that included upsets of USC and Stanford. TCU limped down the homestretch of the season (2-2 the final month of the season) after injuries took out star quarterback Trevone Boykin and wide receiver Josh Doctson. But Boykin is healthy again and, with the Alamo Bowl’s history of high-scoring shootouts, this could be one of bowl season’s more entertaining games to watch.
Motel 6 Cactus Bowl
West Virginia (7-5) vs. Arizona State (6-6)
West Virginia’s usually potent offense struggled with inconsistency this year against good opponents and will be challenged by a Sun Devil defense that leads the nation in sacks.
Source: College Football Bowl Games Preview, TV Schedule — Dec. 26-Jan. 2
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Mario Gomez
Name: Mario Gomez ( Mario Gomez García )
Birthplace: Riedlingen, Germany
Occupation: football player
Tags: player, football
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Childhood and youth
Mario Gomez now
Mario Gomez: biography
German football players were in despair after the defeat of the German national football team at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Mario Gomez was no exception. However, during his career in clubs and the national team, the striker has faced several ups and downs.
Mario Gomez was born in Germany on July 10, 1985, in a German-Spanish family. Thanks to his father, Mario has a Spanish surname and a love for football. Jose was a big Real Madrid fan and spent the evening watching the matches. The son preferred a real game in the courtyard of the house to the boring TV set. The boy often kicked the ball with his brothers or simply practiced kicking with both feet against the garage door.
Footballer Mario Gomez
He often broke pots of flowers or glass, but the parents did not scold their son. However, they never forced the boy to become a professional player.
Mario Gomez recalled in an interview that he first went on the field at the age of four. When he saw the ball, he had a strong desire to drive it into the net. The kid did not fully understand why other children and parents loudly shouted that he was running the wrong way. As a result, it turned out that the young football player scored an own goal.
Mario Gomez in his childhood
Then the father explained the basic rules of the professional game during the next television broadcast. His idol was Jay-Jay Okocha, who struck the boy with skillful dribbling. Although the relatives were supporting Real Madrid, Mario became a big fan of Barcelona. His favorite players were Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, and also Romario, because the name of the player was like his own.
As for most future great athletes, little Mario had no other activities besides sport. Coming from school, he threw a backpack and ran outside with a ball.
However, according to the striker, he did not think about a professional career, playing for the local team. But the agents of Stuttgart noticed the talented sportsman. When the boy was 13 years old, representatives of the academy came to his father with a proposal to enroll his son in a sports school. But Mario did not want to leave his home and school, feeling that it was not the right time.
A few years later, when Gomez's team lost 7-0 to Stuttgart, the football player changed his opinion, realizing that training in a prestigious club would give him much more experience and skills.
In VfB Stuttgart II, the striker showed excellent ball possession, the ability to score with both feet and outstanding work in the penalty area. Soon the scorer moved to the first team. At 18, the footballer got a chance to be on the field in the Champions League match against Chelsea.
Mario Gomez in Stuttgart
Mario recalled that the Stuttgart coach, Giovanni Trapattoni, influenced him very much, although Giovanni did not stay in the club for a long time. The coach was silently watching the boy’s training for a month, without showing approval or criticism. Later, he invited Mario to a conversation. Giovanni told that if Mario could get rid of some shortcomings, he would become the forward of the national team.
According to Mario, the coach’s opinion allowed him to feel like a professional football player. He began intensive training with Trapattoni. Stuttgart became the Bundesliga Champion, and the striker received an invitation to the national team as well as the title of the best football player in 2007 according to Kicker magazine.
Mario Gomez in the German national football team
By the way, Gomez has dual citizenship, and the athlete received proposals from the leadership of the Spanish national team. The attacker did not doubt as he wanted to play only for Germany.
In 2009, Gómez transferred to Bayern Munich for a Bundesliga record transfer fee. The amount of the transfer fee varies from 30–35 million euro, depending on different sources. Mario admits that there is constant pressure in clubs such as Bayern, where they always expect brilliant performance. However, the striker showed somewhat ambiguous results.
Mario Gomez in Bayern Munich
Perfect natural abilities (his height is 189 cm, and the weight is 88 kg), the ability to play with both feet in the penalty area combine with unexpected, although rare, misses (a shoot for goal in the game against the Finnish national team, when the striker missed the open goal).
During the first season in Bayern, he failed to show significant results. During the next season, it was his triumph when the player was named the Bundesliga top scorer. In 2012, although Gomez was the top scorer of the European Championship, the club lost to Chelsea in the Champions League final.
Mario Gomez in Wolfsburg
Later, according to the striker, he wanted something new, and the athlete moved to Italy to play for Fiorentina. Soon he had a knee injury and was ruled out for five months. When he went on the field, the striker could regain his excellent reputation. However, soon the striker was unlucky again. He suffered another injury.
In 2015, the striker agreed to a loan to Turkish club Beşiktaş, where his career got a breakthrough. Nevertheless, in 2016 the forward returned to his homeland to Wolfsburg. According to the striker, it happened because of the complicated political situation in Turkey.
In the Euro-2016 quarter-finals, Mario Gomez promised to marry being inspired by the success of the team. The man kept his promise, and in July of the same year, the wedding of the striker and his girlfriend, Carina Wanzung, took place. The young woman is six years older than her husband, and they met five years before the wedding.
Mario Gomez and his wife, Carina Wanzung
The ceremony in Munich was quiet as there were only close relatives and friends. The groom’s best man was his childhood friend. In general, the player prefers not to tell about the details of his personal life.
In the 2017/2018 season, the striker returned to his native club Stuttgart. Earlier, the scorer had refused to Tianjin Quanjian F.C. According to Mario, Chinese clubs offer sky-high salaries, but he does not plan to play in the Chinese Super League.
Mario Gomez in 2018
In 2018, the striker went on the field at the FIFA World Cup in Russia, and together with his colleagues experienced a colossal failure. Germany exited at the group stage and failed to win a single match.
The striker apologized to the fans on his Instagram page and wrote about the depressed mood of the players. Shortly before that, Mario Gomez spoke that it would most likely be the last tournament for the national team in his career.
2006/07 - Bundesliga
2009/10, 2012/13 - Bundesliga
2009/10, 2012/13 - DFB-Pokal
2012/13 - UEFA Champions League
2015/16 - Süper Lig
2007 - German Footballer of the Year
2012 - UEFA Euro Co-Top Goalscorer
2011 - Bundesliga Top Goalscorer
2016 - Süper Lig Top Goalscorer
16 photos: Mario Gomez →
Kepler Laveran de Lima Ferreira
David Villa Sánchez
Bastian Schweinsteiger
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The book of Titus is actually a letter written by the Apostle Paul to one of his most trusted coworkers. Titus was a Greek (non-Jewish) believer who had been led to Christ, discipled, and trained for ministry by Paul. The apostle had a great deal of confidence in his young mentee, and he had sent him on important missions to places like Corinth, Troas, and Dalmatia. When Paul wrote this letter, Titus was beginning his ministry in a place called Crete. Paul had left him there with a very difficult assignment in a most undesirable place.
Crete, a 3,218-square mile island in the Mediterranean Sea, was a rough place to live. Its citizens had earned a bad reputation for lacking moral character. The Greek philosopher Leonides wrote, “Cretans are always robbers, pirates, and scoundrels.” In Greek culture, to lie and cheat was to “Cretize”. These were evil, anti-Christian people. Crete was no place you would want to raise a family or try to build a church.
Why would Paul assign his friend Titus to such a place? Because the Cretans needed Jesus! Paul and Titus knew that without Jesus, the creepy Cretans would die lost and spend eternity in hell…and they knew Jesus could change even the Cretans! Titus was there because Crete needed churches that would make a difference in the culture. And that is the reason for this letter: to show Titus how to raise up churches on Crete that could effectively evangelize the island. The churches that were there were poorly organized, lacking leadership, riddled with sin and false teaching, and full of hypocrites. They were not making a difference. (Note: some of the churches of Crete were more than 30 years old, established by Jewish believers who had been saved in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. See Acts 2:11.)
Everything rises and falls on leadership. It is true in businesses, schools, sports teams — and churches, too. So the first task for Titus was to appoint pastors (called “elders” in v.5 and “overseers” in v.7) who could effectively lead the churches of Crete. Pastors lead in two ways: by the testimony of their behavior and by the truth of their preaching.
Paul gave Titus a list of qualifications for pastors in verses 5-9. Because of the moral corruption of Cretan culture, pastors would have to live up to a high moral standard. In family life, business dealings, and social activities, pastors must be above reproach, giving people every reason to believe what they preach (and no reason not to). Notice that Paul’s list includes matters of character and integrity, not knowledge or skills. (Note: a major problem in the churches of Crete was hypocritical pastors whose preaching and lifestyle did not match; see v.16.) The most important sermon a preacher ever preaches is his example, his lifestyle. The transforming power of the gospel in his character will be remembered long after all his sermons are forgotten.
Out of a testimony of Christlike character, the pastor must faithfully, consistently preach “sound doctrine” (see 2:1). For Titus and the pastors he would appoint on Crete, that was the only way they would be able to silence the smarmy, insincere, opportunistic, lying preachers that plagued the Cretan churches. It is the truth of God’s Word that would bring about the change that was needed — not only in the churches of Titus’s island, but also in my life, and in yours.
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First Soldier Killed By ISIS In Iraq Rescue Mission Identified As Roland Native
Posted 7:56 am, October 23, 2015, by CBS News and CNN Wire, Updated at 11:09AM, October 23, 2015
(CBS News) — The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting a rescue mission in Iraq.
Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler, 39, of Roland, Oklahoma, died Oct. 22, in Kirkuk Province, Iraq, from wounds received by enemy small-arms fire during Operation Inherent Resolve. This was a daring raid in northern Iraq to free about 70 prisoners who were about to be executed by the Islamic terror group.
In a statement, the Army said that Wheeler was assigned to Headquarters, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He graduated in 1994 from Muldrow High School in Muldrow, Oklahoma.
Wheeler was the first American service member killed in action while fighting Islamic State militants, according to an Army Times article.
The Army said that Wheeler, who joined the military as an infantryman in 1995, was assigned to U.S. Army Special Operations Command in 2004, and deployed 11 times in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mass graves dug inside the compound were spotted during surveillance, a U.S. official with direct knowledge of details of the raid told CNN. After the rescue, hostages said they had been told they would be executed after morning prayers.
The firefight represents the first time U.S. forces stepped into combat against ISIS in Iraq, one U.S. official said.
A U.S. Special Forces commander on the ground made the decision to directly engage ISIS fighters during the overnight mission, according to the official with knowledge of the raid.
Thirty troops from Delta Force on an “advise and assist role” participated in the raid when Kurdish “Cobra” commandos were overwhelmed after entering the walled compound on their own, the official said.
Wheeler who was killed was shot inside the compound near Hawija in northern Kirkuk province, badly injured and flown to Irbil, where he died, according to the official.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the target of the raid was a prison and that the raid was undertaken at the request of the Kurdish Regional Government, the semi-autonomous body that governs the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. He said U.S. special operations forces supported what he called an Iraqi peshmerga rescue operation.
The peshmerga are the Kurdish region’s organized militia. The U.S. has worked closely with them in training and advising roles, but this was the first known instance of U.S. ground forces operating alongside Iraqi forces in combat since launching Operation Inherent Resolve last year.
Cook said Defense Secretary Ash Carter approved the U.S. participation in the mission. Cook called it “consistent with our counter-ISIL effort to train, advise and assist Iraqi forces.”
U.S. combat troops have rarely, if ever, participated directly in combat against IS fighters on the ground since the U.S. mission began in 2014. The U.S. has mostly limited its role to training and advising Iraqi and Kurdish forces, airdropping humanitarian relief supplies and providing daily airstrikes in IS-held areas of Iraq and Syria.
Four peshmerga soldiers were also wounded in the raid, the Army Times reported.
Wayne Helms
Yet another Brother in Arms has reached his final mission on earth and now reports for his next duty assignment.May the family and friends of Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler find comfort in Gods word.Thank you for your service and your sacrifices you will not be forgotten. My Heartfelt condolences go out to all family and friends of this Great American Patriot.
“Let us not mourn that such men died, but rejoice that such men lived”
~George S. Patton~
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Jana Kramer and Husband Mike Caussin Share Update About His Sex Addiction: ‘I’m a Year Sober’
JC Olivera, Getty Images
Jana Kramer and her husband, former NFL player Mike Caussin, have shared an update about his battle with sex addiction. In a new episode of Kramer's Whine Down With Jana Kramer podcast, Caussin reveals that he is a year sober from sex addiction after seeking treatment in 2016 and relapsing.
Kramer and Caussin married in 2015 and welcomed their first child, a daughter named Jolie Rae Caussin, in January of 2016. They separated later that year after reports surfaced of Caussin's infidelity, but worked through their problems and renewed their vows in Hawaii in December of 2017. The couple welcomed their second child, a son named Jace Joseph Caussin, in November of 2018.
In an episode of the podcast, Caussin reveals that while he first sought treatment at his wife's insistence in 2016, he has since relapsed.
Caussin revealed on Monday's (March 25) episode that he has been “in the 12-step program of sex addiction” for nearly three years, and said he’s “approaching a year [of] sobriety next week.”
When Kramer asked him to explain the discrepancy, he said he's “had my stumbles along the way.”
“Relapses, yes, but no sex outside the marriage,” Caussin clarifies, while providing no further details. “I’m not minimizing cheating… but there haven’t been other affairs.”
“Yes it wasn’t physical outside of the marriage but it’s something where the actions were basically,” Kramer adds. “We’re just basically happy that someone didn’t show up.”
"I showed up at the hotel instead. If we really want to know," she says.
Kramer is set to release a new song titled "Beautiful Lies" on Friday (March 29). She tells People it relates to her feelings during the period after her husband's sex addiction was first revealed to her.
“I just remember sitting in the studio and being like, ‘I want to try to explain the best way that I can how I felt in this moment when I found out about everything,’” she says. “In that moment, I didn’t want to believe that it was true and so instead I wished I would’ve been told some beautiful lies to cover up what was going on.”
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Source: Jana Kramer and Husband Mike Caussin Share Update About His Sex Addiction: ‘I’m a Year Sober’
Filed Under: jana kramer
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