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Happy International Women’s Day
Our Founder’s thoughts, on International Women’s Day, about being a woman in law and the changes in practice that could help the generations who will follow.
“There is a belief widely held amongst ambitious and talented individuals regardless of gender that their talents will be rewarded on merit and in a timely manner. This is untrue if you are a woman in law. The statistics speak for themselves. Unlike other industries, women are not held back upon entry into the profession. What floors us however, is the belated and painful realisation that it is unlikely we will all reach the pinnacle of our profession, no matter how qualified or how brilliant we might be.
I was recently asked by the First 100 Years Team: what is the single thing that would make a real and positive difference in achieving equality for women within the profession? My impatience with the system and its direct discrimination was tested early on forcing me to leave the firm I trained in to start my own at 29. What would have made a difference to me at that time was bearing witness to real commitment to my career from senior members of the firm whom I admired and respected. Those partners would have been two in number and would have reflected diversity of gender. I would have realised first that the path was not straightforward (this was wholly unclear to me when I decided to be a lawyer at 14) but that this was recognised and I was to be supported and championed, instructed and encouraged by role models who had not only had achieved partnership but could bring lessons, truths and experience of how it could be achieved and how they would help me achieve it. There is much talk about role models and their significance – “if you can’t see it you can’t be it” is a statement commonly used. Yes, you do need to see women in partnership positions, but you also need to see both men and women being responsible for holding onto talent and nurturing it as if it were both a commercial and societal responsibility.
I don’t believe in the holy grail of partnership with its archaic, unyielding, groaning and inflexible infrastructure but that is my personal view based on my personal experience. There are many who achieve incredible success in this arena doing what they love. It is however, not the only path to success and personal fulfilment. Far from it. There is no compelling reason why many talented lawyers are required to sacrifice their talents worshipping at the often uncompromising altar of traditional law firm partnership. If change is needed within, my views are as above but otherwise I would hope gifted men and women and those who identify as agender, demi gender, nonbinary and everything in between find or can create a viable way to do what they do best outside of the system. It’s not for everyone, but it is possible. The internet levelled the playing field for me enabling my start up law firm to compete for and secure extraordinary work with scant regard to gender, age or its perceived limitations. AI and improved technology will bring challenges but also greater independence and opportunity. There is so much work to be done to make our world more equal and so I shall sleep tomorrow.”
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Discrepancies between Benghazi emails released to Congress, watchdog group
By Catherine Herridge, | Fox News
House select committee on Benghazi begins to take shape
Will the White House cooperate?
EXCLUSIVE: Documents reviewed by Fox News show there are differences between Benghazi emails released through the federal courts to the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch and emails released to the House oversight committee as part of its investigation into the attacks.
The discrepancies are fueling allegations the administration is holding back documents to Congress.
"The key question is whether Congress now has all the documents," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a member of the oversight committee, said. As for differences between the two sets of documents, Chaffetz alleged: "They are playing games. The classification and redactions are different. Why should Judicial Watch get more than Congress after issuing a subpoena?"
The emails published by Judicial Watch last week, which showed additional White House involvement in shaping the public explanation of what happened, helped trigger the announcement Friday by House Speaker John Boehner of a select committee to investigate.
Two of the emails, from Sept. 14, 2012, appear to be part of the deliberations in advance of then-U.N. ambassador Susan Rice's Sunday show appearances were she linked an anti-Islam video to the Benghazi attacks. The emails released to Judicial Watch include the names of those who participated in the email chain.
The same emails provided to the House committee do not include names.
While the text and subject line are redacted in full for both Judicial Watch and Capitol Hill, there are unexplained differences in the classification. The emails, originally marked "unclassified," were retroactively classified in February by the Department of State.
The email released to Judicial Watch is now marked "SECRET," and the same email released to the Oversight Committee is marked "Confidential." Both are marked to "DECLASSIFY" on Sept. 13, 2037 -- 25 years after the terrorist attack which killed four Americans.
Fox News also reviewed an email from Sept. 12, 2012 from Rice to members of the U.S. team at the United Nations where Rice was U.S. ambassador at the time. This unclassified email, whose subject line and text are also redacted in full, was retroactively classified on April 16, 2014, one day before it was released. While the contents and subject line were redacted in both versions, the email released as a result of the federal lawsuit to Judicial Watch does include the names, while the other does not.
Fox News does not have access to all the emails released to the House committee to assess whether this is part of a broader pattern. A spokesman for the oversight committee said they are still reviewing the 3,200 pages.
The spokesman said: "By withholding information, this Administration has only itself to blame for the continued questions about the before, during, and after of the Benghazi attacks. Removing information from documents subpoenaed by Congress, while the same documents with more information are released publicly, underscores the games the State Department continues to play as Congress presses for full and truthful answers about the deaths of four brave Americans."
When asked about reported differences in the released emails, White House spokesman Jay Carney said last week that the administration was forthcoming.
"We have, again, in a rather unprecedented way, provided documents that normally White Houses and administrations have not or would not provide because they were being mischaracterized," he said.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said there was no effort to slow-walk the release of the emails.
"The notion that we are somehow deliberately doing any of that is just false. We've produced tens of thousands of documents. We've done nine hearings, 46 briefings. Everything we've seen come out in these document releases and on the Hill has underscored the exact same set of facts as we talked about yesterday about what happened in Benghazi and what happened since," Harf explained.
Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent.
House orders Pentagon to reveal whether it turned ticks into biological weapons
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CMCM
India vs Australia Flashback: When angry Virat Kohli showed the middle finger to the Sydney crowd
Over the years, Virat Kohli has become mature and patient, but there was a time when the Indian captain was very irate. This was during the initial years of Kohli’s cricket career, when he was filled with over aggression which would lead him to commit actions that eventually invited criticism.
One such event occurred during the India vs Australia Test match in past, when Virat showed the middle finger to the crowd sitting in the stadium. The infamous incident occurred during the 2nd Test match between India and Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground in January 2012.
On the second day of the second Test match of Border-Gavaskar trophy, Virat Kohli responded aggressively to the shouts of the crowd, gesturing with his middle finger. The event was clearly captured on the camera becoming a buzz among media and people. Have a look at the video of the event below.
Virat also mentioned about the incident on Twitter saying that the crowd was abusing his mother and sister. Taking to Twitter he wrote, “I agree cricketers don’t have to retaliate. What when the crowd says the worst things about your mother and sister. The worst I’ve heard.” Although most of the people criticised Kohli on the same, he found a sympathiser in former English player Kevin Pietersen, who also accepted about the dirty tricks of Australian crowd. Kevin also mentioned that Australian crowd are such that they will start abusing their own players once they start losing.
However, a cricketer has to maintain his dignity even on occasions like this. After all cricket is a gentlemen’s game. Kohli was found guilty in the matter with the level two charge laid by the match referee Ranjan Madugalle. Kohli was fined 50 per cent of his match for his act.
Kohli has moved on with time. The hot-blooded Kohli has now become a much more mature and sensible cricketer. He has impressed everyone with his world-class batting and personality. However, the upcoming tour will remind him of his old days and taking into consideration the sledging witnessed during matches against Australia, Kohli will have to keep a control on his nerves and act sensibly. After all, he is leading the team as the captain and his actions will have a direct impact on Indian team’s image as well as the youngsters.
Virat Kohli in Australia
Virat Kohli against Australia
Virat Kohli fined
Virat Kohli shows middle finger
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chris.russell@fticonsulting.com
Level 21, Bourke Place
Bachelor, Information Systems, La Trobe University
Cross-border Litigation
E-discovery Software & Services
Litigation Support & Consulting Services
Chris Russell is a Senior Director of the Technology practice at FTI Consulting. His experience in the industry extends across 16 years and he is a specialist in the provision of Ringtail consulting, including case setup and management, review workflow, analytics and predictive coding. Chris is an expert in the design and provision of the technical architecture for Ringtail environments.
Chris has been with FTI Consulting since 2013 and is responsible for all engagements across Australia. He started his career with CCH Workflow Solutions providing litigation support and eDiscovery services to legal and professional service firms specialising in the Ringtail platform. He began his role in the development team and moved into a national support role. In 2006 Chris joined Deloitte as the Technology Specialist within Forensic team. Chris progressed to become a Director within the Deloitte Digital team where his role extended to head up a number of client facing products and services centred around big data and analytics. He was also been a member of Deloitte's client advocacy team.
Chris has experience working with all levels of clientele including top tier, SME, Government and not-for-profits. These clients reside across multiple industries including financial services, mining, education and legal. Chris also managed relationships with internal stakeholders and multiple third-party vendors.
Chris has completed a Bachelor of Information Systems.
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Power WomenVIEW FULL LISTPrevious
Power Women76/100
#76 Kersti Kaljulaid
President, Estonia
Kaljulaid is the first female president of Estonia and fourth head of state since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
A champion of digital revolution, she executed the e-dentity program, the first country-wide platform allowing citizens to pay taxes and vote online.
In 2019 Estonia will become the first country to offer a visa for 'digital nomads', allowing visitors to work in the country for up to a year.
Kaljulaid aims to attract innovative talent to the country, which despite its small size is home to four Unicorns, startups valued at over $1 billion.
Kaljulaid ran the 2018 NYC Marathon during a working tour of the U.S., finishing in just over four hours.
Power Women 2018
ResidenceTallinn, Estonia
CitizenshipEstonia
EducationBachelor of Arts/Science, University of Tartu; Master of Business Administration, University of Tartu
Estonia was the first country to digitize its public services -- including elections, health care and school systems.
The four unicorns, startups valued at more than $1 billion are Skype, Playtech, Taxify and Transferwise.
Citizen of Estonia
Why I Almost Walked Into A Negotiation War With $16,000 In Cash
“How did I get here?” is the only thought to cross my mind as I gripped tightly on a briefcase with $16,000 in cash. Wake up. This has got to be a dream. Wake up. This was a negotiation war of a lifetime.
ByKayla MicheleContributor
DR Congo Multi-Millionaire Moise Katumbi Seeks To Return Home To Contest Elections
Congolese multi-millionaire Moise Katumbi is seeing permission to return to DR Congo this week in order to contest presidential elections scheduled to be held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 23 December 2018.
Amid Turmoil In Papa John's Top Ranks, Average Employees Suffer
In the wake of tumult at Papa John’s headquarters in Louisville, Ky., rank-and-file workers across the country are suffering.
ByNoah KirschForbes Staff
Building An Ecosystem For Gamers: One-On-One With Razer's Min-Liang Tan
Min-Liang Tan has spearheaded a carefully cultivated brand of cool for gamers, by gamers. It's a strategy that has paid off for the founder of Razer, who's now worth $1.6 billion.
ByCarla ThomasSubscriber
IPO Of Chinese E-Commerce Firm Pinduoduo Mints New Young Billionaire
Chinese e-commerce company Pinduoduo listed its shares on Nasdaq on Thursday. Founder Colin Huang is just 38 years old and owns nearly 47%.
ByAlex FangContributor
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Wake Up And Smell The Drone Attacks! We Need To Stop Playing Catchup
Noel Sharkey Contributor
I write about benefits, wrongs and hype of robots, AI, ML and new tech
The DroneGun by DroneShield
DroneShield
It is still not too late to close the airport doors after the drones have bolted. There are potentially much worse security breaches to come. Reverberations from the Gatwick Airport drone incident keeping 140,000 passengers from their families has moved the U.K. Ministry of Transport (MoT) into action. Their new report, Taking Flight: The Future of Drones in the UK Government Response extends recent drone laws and gives the police new powers. But are they doing enough to protect our security?
There are sensible measures in the report, such as extending the no-drone areas around runways from 1km to 5km as pilots have been requesting for some time. The police are being given new powers to give on-the-spot fines for drone misdemeanors and may now seize drones when they have reasonable suspicion. They can also demand access to the data on drones if there is a good reason to do so. These are all necessary measures, but they would not have helped whatsoever to prevent the determined drone capers at Gatwick. And last night (Tuesday) a drone sighting brought a Heathrow terminal to a shuddering halt for nearly an hour.
The Government is playing catch-up and needs to get ahead of the game urgently as the new breach at Heathrow shows. What about all of the other U.K. airports both small and large and other critical civilian infrastructures such as sports arenas and bridges? They are all under threat now, and what we have seen so far may well just be probing security for something much more consequential.
In a previous article on the Gatwick incident, I outlined some of the drone protection methods that already exist and asked why the U.K. was so unprepared. When the Royal Airforce were eventually called in, it was alleged that they had the needed defensive kit—phew! This has now been removed from the airport, but apparently, both Heathrow and Gatwick have announced a £5 million spend on new drone countermeasures.
The Israeli weapons manufacturer Rafael told Janes Defence Weekly that the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) purchased a Drone Dome counter-unmanned aircraft system from them in August 2018. According to the Mail Online, the MoD bought six of them at a cost of £2.6 million each. We do not know for sure if they have received delivery and whether this is the hardware that they sent to Gatwick in December.
Drone Dome counter UAS system by Rafael Israel
Rafael's counter-drone system uses 4 radars for 360 degrees location and tracking. Smallish drones can be detected between 2 to 6 miles away. Then the system can deploy a radio-frequency jammer to block communication between the drone and its operator and stop it from operating. That is the one purchased by the MoD. Another option which they did not buy has a laser system to "hard kill" the drone and bring it down, but MoD didn't buy that one.
We just have to buy one of these for each of our airports and critical infrastructures and—bingo!—we are all safe. Well, not quite. Rogue drone operators and particularly those with intent to kill are a very smart and highly resourceful bunch. Let us just take a few examples that may break you into a sweat as you head for the airport.
The drone defender assumes a link between a drone and an operator. That is not always the case, and techniques can range from very simple to complex. One method used by ISIS in Syria was to load small drones with explosives and set them off with no further control. These fly until their batteries run out and then they crash, triggering an explosion.
Slightly more sophisticated, the amount of power left in the battery together with the weight of the loaded drone can be used to calculate travel distance. Another step up is to set a flight path with GPS coordinates so that the drone can travel to a set location and then return to base or to crash when the path ends.
Ahead of all of these disasters waiting to happen is the possibility of an autonomous drone attack. Autonomous drones are ones that once launched can fly around seeking out target areas without any human supervision. The superpowers have been developing these as autonomous weapons systems for some years now. But it does not require superpower resources to make a relatively small drone autonomous.
A good example is the Cupid drone made by Texas company Chaotic Moon. This is an autonomous drone equipped with a Taser to deliver 80,000 volts by firing a dart at intruders. You can see it Tasing their office intern in the video below. Of course, this could be any other kind of small weapon.
The more expensive version of the Rafael Drone Dome with the "hard kill" laser would help more in these situations. But there are some even greater problems. What if several autonomous (or operated) drones were used. These systems would be befuddled. Smart rogue operators could simply use drone foils to distract from the main event.
If that does not make you think that the U.K. and other governments need to get ahead of the game, there have been massive advances in drone technologies over the last decade. Perhaps most worrying is swarm capability. Both the U.S. and China have been working on swarms of small aircraft (more than 100) that can be controlled by one or a few people or work in autonomous mode.
Systems such as the Drone Dome and others that I have mentioned before would be completely ineffective against swarms of drones, autonomous or not. The worry is that the authorities may think that this is far out technology in the province of sci-fi or only possible with military infrastructure. Wrong! Autonomous swarm robots have been in academic labs for years. I developed my first one for the Magna Science Centre in Rotherham in 2001. Now they are becoming more common at concert venues for autonomous synchronized movement. The Guinness world record for the most drones working together synchronously was set in 2017 with 1000 drones at the Chinese lantern festival.
That record was broken again this year at the Chinese lantern festival with 1,347 EHang drones. Then in 2018, the U.S. chip manufacturer Intel, that held the first world record in 2015 for 100 drones, crashed through the record with 2018 drones simultaneously controlled by one computer.
Nowhere near that number of drones would be needed to overwhelm current counter-drone systems. So what can we do about it? Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet solution, and yet this is a realistic and frightening prospect. Security services should be thinking about this now and hopefully they are.
Perhaps we could start by spending more money on defensive measures taken from the fortune we are spending on offensive drones for the military. The major lesson to be learned from Gatwick and Heathrow is that it is too late to wait until it we are confronted by these situations. Let's get our thinking ahead of the game now while there is still time.
Noel Sharkey
I've been researching in AI, Robotics, Machine Learning, Cognitive Science and related areas for 4 decades in US and UK universities and am now an Emeritus Professor of ...
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July 10, 2019 Special to GiN Leave a comment
You might not be aware of it, but sometimes casino games become smash hits in the same manner as video games or movies. If a casino games developer, such as Playtech, Microgaming or NetEnt, creates a popular game, it will be snapped up by online casinos in a licensing agreement and placed prominently on the site. Obviously, games like poker, roulette and blackjack are timeless, but some specific slots have stood the test of time.
Most people will know that slot games are very different, so it’s difficult to pinpoint what makes a popular slot. To be clear, it’s not just about offering the biggest prizes; although, that obviously helps. Nor is it just about stunning graphics or other innovations like 3D visuals and immersive gameplay. In the end, the most important thing is the same as what makes video games as diverse as Tetris and Call of Duty popular; namely, a sometimes-indefinable quality that makes playing them enjoyable.
Starburst one of the most popular slots
To examine this further, let’s take a closer look at one of the most popular slots ever created – Starburst. You can sign up to play Starburst slot with a bonus to see what it’s all about, but we will do our best to describe it here: Starburst was created by NetEnt and released in early 2012. It’s become one of the most prominent games at online casinos across the globe, and it is often the go-to game used for promotions like free spins. Yet, the game is very simple, with graphics that pale in comparison to modern video slots. So, why is it so popular?
The thing is, it is Starburst’s simple gameplay that makes it so attractive. The game has a cosmic/space theme, looking a little bit like the classic arcade game Bejeweled. There are 10 paylines, which work both ways across a 5×3 reel set. The main special feature is a cosmic wild symbol, which will start a re-spin feature and potentially lead to multiple wins.
Players sometimes like simple games
Part of Starburst’s charm is its accessibility, with an adjustable bet that allows it to be played for a few pence right up to high roller territory of a few hundred pounds per spin. The fact that it also is very easy to play is also an attraction. Casino players sometimes want simple games, and Starburst has that Tetris-like quality that remains fun without having too much going on in the periphery.
Of course, none of this means that only simple casino games become popular. If you consider games like Age of the Gods, Ted and Thunderstruck II, you will see hugely popular games that are stuffed full of special features and cool graphics. In a way, those games are the opposite of Starburst but enjoy similar popularity. It can be difficult to pinpoint just why these games have been retained popularity, and it probably comes down to a myriad of factors: Jackpots, gameplay, visuals, interactive features and so on.
Above all, however, there is an x-factor quality to a casino game that distinguishes the good from the bad. The same is true in video games, which can sometimes look great and play terribly. For slots, it is about the whole being more than the sum of the parts. Games like Starburst – and other simple games like Twin Spin – retain their popularity, because they have that ‘it-factor’ that nobody can define. You can bet they will still be a popular a decade from now.
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They Are Billions Zombie RTS Launching on Consoles
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Teamsters Approve Partner Benefits
The Empire State Pride Agenda announced that two Teamsters Locals for workers at JFK Airport “will treat marriages of same-sex couples the same as all other marriages” for purposes of providing retirement benefits and coverage. The ruling was sought by Dolores Damone, a retired Teamster from Suffolk, who was married in Toronto to Marie Sardone.
“I married Marie because I love her and these lifetime benefits help me take care of her,” Damone said. Her attorney, Tom Kirdahy, said, “The law of New York State clearly states that legal marriages from other jurisdictions must be respected.”
Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Pride Agenda, said, “Every union, every employer, every government entity, and every organization in New York that provide benefits and protections based upon being married should follow the law by doing the same” as these Teamsters locals.
Domestic Partners Protected in New York
The City Council, by a veto-proof majority, passed the Local Civil Rights Restoration Act, mainly to strengthen the local law that goes far beyond state and federal law in protecting human rights. Republican Mayor Bloomberg, facing challenge from Democrat Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president in the November 8 election, opposed the bill in committee and won’t say whether he will sign it.
Among the provisions in the bill is a ban on discrimination based on “partnership status,” defined to include being in a registered domestic partnership. The bill’s chief sponsor, Upper West Side Councilwoman Gale Brewer, had wanted to go further by defining marital status to include all unmarried partners, but agreed to this compromise in negotiations with the mayor’s office. So, people who shack up without benefit of paper are still subject discrimination, though that is being contested in a pending lawsuit.
Married Gays Denied Connecticut Recognition
Democratic State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has issued an opinion that Connecticut law does not recognize same-sex marriage and that gays and lesbians who marry legally elsewhere would have to register for a Connecticut civil union if they want rights as couples in that state. He said that same-sex couples in civil unions performed in Vermont and California would be recognized in the Nutmeg State. In a last-minutee amendment to the Connecticut law as it neared final passage this summer, the Legislature specifically banned recognition of same-sex marriage.
All this comes on the eve of the civil union law going into effect in Connecticut on October 1, giving gay couples all the rights and responsibilities of married couples without the name and without the transferability to other juridictions. A lawsuit seeking full marriage rights is still pending.
In New York, Democratic State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer issued an opinion in March 2004 that while New York does not perform same-sex marriages, it must recognize those performed legally elsewhere. Adherence to Spitzer’s advisory has been spotty, with the City of New York recognizing the couples—while appealing a court order to marry gay couples here—and the State Department of Taxation denying them the right to file jointly on their state returns.
Everybody’s Doing It
The National Center for Health Statistics, one of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has released a new study of American sexual practices and orientation that is surprising some. They did in-person interviews with 12,571 people between the ages of 15 and 44.
Among adults 25 to 44, they found that 97 percent of men and 98 percent of women had engaged in vaginal intercourse; 90 percent of men and 88 percent of women had had oral sex with an opposite sex partner; and 40 percent of men and 35 percent of women had had anal sex with an opposite sex partner.
On the homosexual and bisexual front, 6.5 percent of men 25-44 have had anal or oral sex with another man and 11 percent of women in that age group have had a “sexual experience” with another woman. The gender differential may have something to do with men having to indicate specific sex acts—that did not include mutual masturbation, frottage, or plain old making out—and women being asked more generally about a sexual experience.
In terms of identification, 90 percent of men 18-44 said they were heterosexual, 2.3 percent homosexual, 1.8 percent bisexual, and 3.9 percent “something else.” The findings for women were similar.
The data show that more than half of young people are having oral sex, especially those who are more affluent and educated.
Monica Rodriguez, vice president for education and training at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, said, “The study shatters the stereotypes about who we think is having oral sex and reinforces that young people in this country are engaging in a range of sexual behaviors that is putting them at risk for STDs and HIV.”
New York Law School Attacked by Pentagon; Harvard Spared
The U.S. Defense Department is going after three law schools, including New York Law School, for barring military recruiters, denying them federal contracts. Yale Law School got an injunction against Pentagon harassment in November and Harvard “seems to have been left alone so far,” Inside Higher Education reported. Congress passed the Solomon Amendment in 1994 and enhanced it in 2001, barring federal money to schools that refused access to recruiters for the armed forces.
Arthur S. Leonard, a gay professor at New York Law School and the legal reporter for Gay City News, said, “We lost nothing, really. We are an independent law school. We don’t have a medical school or science departments that do federal research. Our student aid money is sheltered by the Frank/Campbell amendment. So for us, and the other two schools on the list, this is entirely about principle.”
Vermont Law School and William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota were also cited by the Pentagon as being non-compliant.
“I think the military knows better that to pick that fight [with Harvard] in the months leading up” to Supreme Court arguments on the matter, Boston College law professor Kent Greenfield, president of the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, told Inside Higher Education.
Feds Aide Pope in Sex Abuse Suit
The United States government is asking a court in Texas to dismiss a lawsuit implicating Pope Benedict XVI in a sex abuse case cover-up. Lawyers for three boys molested in the 1990s by a priest in Houston say that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now pontiff, shielded the men from prosecution “by treating their cases secretly,” Catholic World News reported.
The U.S. is arguing that Benedict is immune from prosecution based on his status as a head of state, Vatican City. Similar charges were dismissed against the previous pope, John Paul II, also in a Texas case. But Daniel Shea, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said he will appeal if Benedict is ruled immune, by “challenging the constitutionality of U.S. diplomatic relations with the Holy See,” the news service said.
Raped Prisoner Sues in Texas
Roderick K. Johnson, 37, with the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union, is suing the Texas Department of Corrections for repeatedly ignoring and ridiculing his complaints that he was being raped in prison. Officials “told him to fight or get a boyfriend who could defend him,” his attorney, Tim Hoffman, told the Washington Post. They said there was no evidence of rape; Johnson said he was assaulted daily.
Johnson, an inmate at the James A. Allred Unit in Iowa Park, was sold as a “sexual slave,” raped and otherwise abused, according to the ACLU. When he complained, he was told to “fight or fuck.” He is no longer in prison.
The US Department of Justice found this year that there are six times as many complaints of prisoner-on-prisoner violence in Texas than in other states.
Gay Penguins Divorce
Silo and Roy, Central Park’s male penguins who enjoyed a six-year relationship, have split up. Silo ran off with Scrappy, a female temptress from San Diego. Roy is said to be sitting by himself, staring at the wall.
The religious right is crowing that Silo “has become the first documented ex-gay penguin,” according to Focus on the Family, but the report from the Park indicates nothing more than that Silo is bisexual.
In addition to bonding, Silo and Roy hatched a penguin egg that became Tango and raised the bird. Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell published a book this year, “And Tango Makes Three” about the lovers.
The zoo still has five other same-sex penguin couples. Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg has yet to issue a public statement about what, if any, legal protections those couples deserve.
Proposed Florida DOMA Amendment Challenged
Six same-sex couples represented by the American Civil Liberties Union appealed to the Florida Supreme Court to stop the 2006 ballot initiative that would amend the state Constitution to ban gays from marrying or being recognized in any other way. Also challenging the proposal on Wednesday were Equality Florida and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The basis of the challenge is that it is unconstitutional to put two issues—in this case a marriage ban and elimination of all partner rights—in the same question.
Similar challenges, however, have failed in other states, some of which passed such amendments last year.
Bush’s War on Porn
The FBI is recruiting eight agents to devote themselves exclusively to gather evidence against “manufacturers and purveyors” of pornography—not kiddie porn, but regular old adult porn that might run afoul of “community standards,” providing further evidence of a trend reported in an August Gay City New cover story by Cody Lyon.
“I guess this means we’ve won the war on terror,” one unidentified agent told the Washington Post. Another said, “Honestly, most of the guys would have to recuse themselves.”
Congress funded the hunt for porn this year and mandated that ten agents be assigned to it. The recruitment memo says that convictions are easier to obtain when the porn “includes bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior.”
The Post story noted that General Motors, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, Time-Warner, and most big hotel chains make huge profits off of adult porn.
Among Justice Department priorities, this campaign is now ranked fourth.
Salt Lake City Mayor Offers Domestic Partner Benefits
Mayor Rocky Anderson said he would go ahead and sign an executive order granting domestic partner benefits to gay and unmarried employees of Salt Lake City, despite a plea from the Public Employees Health Program to go to court and make sure it is legal under Utah law first.
Salt Lake City is the first government entity in Utah to give some recognition to gay couples, though the state has a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and other legal rights for same-sex couples. Conservative state legislators are already saying that they will move to overrule Anderson’s order if the courts don’t do so first.
Trouble in Maple Grove, Victory in Fresno
Students in a gay-straight alliance at Maple Grove Senior High School in Minnesota are suing in federal court, saying that they have been denied privileges extended to other school groups, KARE-11 News in Minneapolis reported. Among the restrictions are not being allowed to make announcements on the public address system and promoting their group with posters and leaflets in the hallways. The suit is said to be a first for Minnesota, but many have been successful elsewhere in the country.
The school is insisting that it is in compliance with the federal Equal Access Act that was passed by Congress mainly to make way for student prayer groups in public schools but spawned many gay groups as well.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota is assisting the kids.
Meanwhile, the ACLU of Southern California and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network reached an agreement with the Fresno schools to “eliminate anti-gay discrimination” after receiving “multiple complaints from students who were harassed, in some cases by school officials, because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation,” the ACLU said in a release. The district has agreed to provide “comprehensive training” on LGBT issues for staff and students.
No such mandatory training is conducted in the New York City public schools.
Walk Through the Lincoln Tunnel to Fight AIDS
The Campaign to End AIDS is sponsoring a national march on Washington that will begin with a Walk the Tunnel event in New York. Participants will meet at 7:30 a.m. in Times Square and reach the Lincoln Tunnel at 8:30 AM. For those not proceeding to Washington, buses will be provided to transport them back.
There will be five days of actions to combat AIDS starting on November 5 in DC.
For more information, go to www.walkthetunnel.org and www.thecampaigntoendAIDS.org
Italian Turmoil Over Gay Marriage
Last week, reports surfaced that Italian opposition leader Romano Prodi came out for equal rights for gay couples. This week, he clarified his support by saying, “I never talked about marriage or adoption,” the International Herald Tribune reported, but he still wants some civil protections for gay couples.
Sergio Lo Giudice, leader of ArciGay, the Italian gay lobby, said that Prodi’s proposals constituted a “victory” for the movement, but that his group would still push for full marriage rights. “This is the first time that gays and lesbians will be represented by someone who could win the election,” he told the newspaper.
The Vatican accused Prodi of a “search for votes” and trying to “relativize and ideologize the reality of the family.”
But a leading Italian cardinal, Camillo Ruini, took what some are seeing as the extraordinary step of acknowledging that some legal status could be accorded to unmarried heterosexual couples. Italy’s leading newspaper, Corriere della Serra, called the statement “a small opening on unions, not on gays.”
Gay Marriage Contested in Spain
The right-wing Popular Party has challenged the constitutionality of Spain’s new law ending sex discrimination in marriage and allowing gay couples to adopt. The law, passed by the Socialist-led Parliament, enjoys majority support in polls.
gaycitynews.com
Updated 5:17 pm, July 20, 2018
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Home Practice areas Mergers & Acquisitions 2018 France
Mergers & Acquisitions 2018 | France
Chapter content - Free access
Significant deals and highlights
Industry sector focus
Among the last 10 years, 2017 recorded the highest level of mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”) deals in France, amounting to $245.8 billion (€205 billion). This figure contrasts with a mitigated 2016 financial year, marked by the failure of several major deals in France, among them the acquisition of SFR by Altice. France benefited from both domestic and international factors that strengthened the attractiveness of the French market and boosted French actors’ confidence.
Indeed, according to Thomson Reuters, worldwide M&A activity amounted to $3.6 trillion during full year 2017. Therefore, 2017 was the fourth consecutive year to surpass $3 trillion.
While worldwide deal-making remained stable, the distribution between different areas changed significantly. Whereas M&A activity for European targets amounted to $867.5 billion (an increase of 17% compared to 2016), United States M&A decreased by 16% compared to the previous year, with $1.4 trillion in announced deals during 2017.
Overall, 49,448 worldwide deals were announced during 2017, which represents a 3% increase compared to the previous year. 2017 was the strongest year for M&A since records began in 1980.
Back to France, in 2017, M&A activity increased strongly to 50%, to reach an amount of $245.8 billion (€205 billion), whereas in 2015, the volume of transactions amounted to $155.7 billion (€148.5 billion).
French companies have been on the offensive. France was the driving force behind M&A activity in Europe, accounting for nearly 29% of European transactions, compared to the usual 15%. Cross-border transactions made by French actors almost tripled in 2017 (an increase of 180%), as illustrated by several examples developed hereunder.
On the one hand, the French leveraged buy-out (“LBO”) market increased by 13.3% during full year 2017 compared to 2016, with 315 transactions. This figure highlights the good health of French LBO market. Moreover, according to the “Global Private Equity Barometer” published in 2018 by Coller Capital, two-fifths of European LPs believe that the UK is becoming a less attractive market for buyouts. Concurrently, a similar proportion of LPs believe France is becoming a more attractive market.
Eight large cap (over €1 billion) LBO transactions were recorded in 2017, which is far higher than the previous year (three large cap LBO transactions in 2016). The biggest LBO transaction that took place in France last year was the acquisition of DOMUSVI by ICG and its founder Yves Journel, for a total amount of €2.3 billion.
On the other hand, the French initial public offering (“IPO”) market remained quite stable in 2017, with €2.43 billion raised. However, transactions operated on Euronext’s Compartment A drove the market. For instance, ALD Automotive, a Société Générale subsidiary, went public in 2017 and raised €1.15 billion.
We anticipate that the trend towards a strong French M&A market will continue in 2018, and that the French market will remain at a high level, with 2018 a more stable year.
Acquisitions of non-listed companies by French actors in 2017
• 2017, a busy year for Total
First, Total achieved external growth by acquiring the Danish exploration/production company Maersk Oil & Gas for a total amount of €6.33 billion. The deal was financed through Total’s shares up to €4.95 billion and debt assumption up to €2.5 billion. The transaction was signed on August 21st, 2017. It is expected to procure more market share for Total and allow the group to consolidate its position.
Second, Total was also involved in another deal with Engie, by acquiring its liquefied natural gas portfolio. By doing so, Total became world number two in the liquefied natural gas sector. The closing of this deal, amounting to €1.49 billion, should take place mid-2018.
• Suez joins forces with Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and acquires GE Water
The French world number two in the water and wastes sector acquired its American competitor GE Water (the “water” subsidiary of the American giant General Electric) for a total value of €3.2 billion, through a 70% / 30% partnership with Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. The transaction was closed in October 2017.
• Acquisition of General Motors’ activities in Europe by PSA
Opel, and Vauxhall, both owned by the American General Motors, were acquired in 2017 by the French group PSA for a global amount of €1.3 billion. The latter became consequently European number two in the car sector, with 17% of market share.
This acquisition was financed in cash up to €670 million and through the issuance of share warrants to the benefit of General Motors up to €650 million. The closing took place during summer 2017.
• Other significant non-listed companies acquired by French actors
On the one hand, French actors acquired several companies in the United States. Altran acquired Aricent (an American engineering and design company) for a total value of €1.7 billion. This deal should close before summer 2018. Moreover, another French giant crossed the ocean last year. In January 2017, L’Oréal completed its biggest deal since 2008 with the acquisition of three personal care brands from the Canadian Valeant, for a total value of €1.2 billion. These brands, CeraVe, AcneFree and Ambi, enable L’Oréal to enhance its leading position in the US.
On the other hand, French actors were also very active in Europe. For instance, Xavier Niel announced in 2017 the acquisition, through its company NJJ Capital, of the Irish telecommunications provider, Eir, for a global amount of €3.5 billion. The transaction is expected to be closed in 2018. Another example is the acquisition by Ingenico, the French “integrated payment solution” global leader, of its Swedish competitor Bambora.
Public offers involving at least one French party in 2017
• Acquisition of The WhiteWave Foods by Danone
Danone, the French food giant, announced in July 2016, its merger with the American The WhiteWave Foods for €11.7 billion. The deal was delayed due to a decision of the American Anti-Trust authorities requesting Danone to sell its American subsidiary Stonyfield, which has the same activity as The WhiteWave Foods (organic milk manufacturers). After the commitment by Danone to sell Stonyfield, the deal received the approval of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and was completed in April 2017. Due to this transaction, Danone becomes the organic milk global leader and consolidates its leadership in the organic dairy manufacture.
In July 2017, following its commitment, Danone sold Stonyfield to Lactalis, which offered €769 million.
• Merger between the French Essilor and the Italian Luxottica
We mentioned last year the merger between two giants operating in the optical sector, the French company, Essilor and the Italian company, Luxottica. This merger will lead to the setting-up of a key actor in the optical sector.
European and American competition authorities gave their approvals to the transaction at the beginning of 2018. Consequently, closing should take place mid-2018. This merger will give birth to a new French group with a market capitalisation of around €46 billion.
• Merger between Siemens and Alstom
Two major European groups, Siemens and Alstom, announced last year the merger of their railway activities through the capital contribution of Siemens’ rail activity to Alstom. The new entity, Siemens Alstom, will be quoted on the Paris stock exchange.
The said merger is expected to be completed by the end of 2018. The transaction will give birth to a new giant in the railway sector, right behind the Chinese group, CRRC.
• Other major deals in which the target was listed
French actors have been active abroad; but French companies were also prime targets for overseas investors.
Aveva, the British software publisher, announced in 2017 its merger with the French company Schneider Electric Software. The new entity, listed on the London Stock Exchange, is valued at over €3 billion.
L’Oréal also sold its brand The Body Shop to the Brazilian Natura Cosméticos, which offered €1 billion for this acquisition.
Labour law reform
After his election, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, announced a French labour law reform, in order to increase France’s economic attractiveness and competitiveness.
Five Orders were adopted on September 22nd, 2017, in order to reform the French Labour Code:
Order n°2017-1385 on strengthening collective bargaining;
Order n°2017-1386 on the new organisation of social and economic dialogue within the company and promoting the exercise and enhancement of trade union responsibilities;
Order n°2017-1387 on the predictability and security of industrial relations;
Order n°2017-1388 on various measures relating to the collective bargaining framework; and
Order n°2017-1389 on prevention and taking into account the effects of exposure to certain occupational risk factors and the professional account of prevention.
The measures adopted by these orders entered into force the day after the publication of each Decree, which were adopted between October and December 2017. The orders were also recently ratified by the law n°2018-217 of March 29th, 2018.
Dismissal procedure:
The right for the employer to supplement the grounds stated on the dismissal letter: Before the reform, the French Labour Court could only take into consideration the grounds given in the dismissal letter. Employers now have the possibility to complete the dismissal letter even after it has been notified to the employee. Nevertheless, the employer is not allowed to add new grounds but only supplement the grounds that have already been set out in the letter.
Restriction of the scope of assessment of the economic cause in case of economic dismissal: The scope of assessment of the economic cause of the redundancy (economic difficulties, technological changes or the need to safeguard the company’s competitiveness) in companies belonging to a group, currently assessed at international level, would now be assessed at the level of the sector of activity common to that company and to the companies of the group to which it belongs, established on national territory, except in the case of fraud. This restriction to French territory facilitates the justification of redundancies.
Simplification of the redeployment obligation: After dismissing an employee, companies have to make an effort to redeploy the employee within the company or its group. If the group has an international activity, the employer had to, before the reform, offer redeployment for positions abroad. With the reform, this obligation of redeployment is now limited to positions available within the French territory.
Reduction of the time limitation to challenge the termination of an employment contract: Prior to the reform, employees had a period of two years from the notification of the termination of the employment contract to challenge such decision. Now, this period has been reduced from two years to one year from the notification of the termination of the employment contract.
Financial consequences of unfair dismissals:
Implementation of a mandatory matrix of compensation for unfair dismissals: The amount of compensation granted by the judge to an employee who has suffered unfair dismissal, has to comply with a mandatory matrix setting a minimum and maximum amount, depending on the seniority of the employee and the company’s size.
This matrix is not applicable in the event where the dismissal is ruled null and void, such as in case of violation of a specific protection or fundamental freedom. No maximum amount is provided in such case.
The amount of damages shall be determined as follows:
For companies with less than 11 employees:
Minimum amount of damages: 0.5 month of gross salary (as from one year of seniority).
Maximum amount of damages: 2.5 months of gross salary (as from nine years of seniority).
For companies with at least 11 employees:
Minimum amount of damages: one month of gross salary (as from one year of seniority).
Maximum amount of damages: 20 months of gross salary (as from 29 years of seniority).
Easing the conditions for granting severance indemnities: The length of service required for an employee under a permanent employment contract to be entitled to the legal dismissal indemnity, is eight uninterrupted months in the company, instead of one year before the reform. The severance indemnity amounts to 25% (instead of 20% before the reform) of the employee’s average monthly gross salary for the first 10 years of service. For 10 years and beyond, the severance indemnity has not changed and remains equal to ⅓ of the employee’s average monthly gross salary.
Voluntary departure plans:
The voluntary departure plan is a new scheme proposed by the reform and aims to avoid the burden of collective redundancy. Employees can now apply for a voluntary departure plan, which is a collective agreement defining the conditions to implement a mutual termination plan, excluding the obligation for the employer to offer redeployment leave. Furthermore, the employer does not need to provide a valid economic justification. Nonetheless, employers have to inform the Labour authority of their intention to implement a voluntary departure plan.
Fixed term contracts and temporary work
Industry-wide agreements relating to fixed-term contracts and temporary work can be adopted and fix rules differing from the legal provisions. These industry-wide agreements may fix the maximum duration of the contract, the maximum number of renewals and the necessary waiting period between two successive contracts. If no industry-wide agreement is adopted, the legal provisions shall apply.
Also, from September 24th, 2017, if the employer provides the employee an employment contract or placement contract after the required timeframe, the sanction is now only a penalty of a maximum of one month’s gross salary, whereas before the reform, the contract was automatically qualified as an indefinite-term employment contract.
Simplification of the social dialogue
The reform merged the three employee representation bodies: the Staff Delegates (“délégués du personnel”), the Works Council (“Comité d’entreprise”) and the Health and Safety Committee (“CHSCT”) within one representative body called the Social and Economic Committee (“comité social et économique”) which will have to be set up on January 1st, 2020 at the latest. The implementation of such committee is mandatory for companies having more than 11 employees for an uninterrupted period of 12 months.
Strengthening of collective bargaining
Negotiation in companies deprived of trade union representatives: since few companies have trade union representatives, the reform aims to find solutions for companies that do not have any trade union representatives:
Companies having less than 11 employees: in this case, the employee may submit for the employees’ approval a draft agreement covering all subjects open to collective bargaining.
Companies having from 11 to 49 employees: in this case, employers have two options: (i) agreements at company or establishment level may be negotiated with employees mandated by the trade union at industry or national level and shall be approved by the majority of employees, in the absence of the Social and Economic Committee; or (ii) the agreement may be negotiated by the members of the Social and Economic Committee and shall be approved by the members of the Social and Economic Committee representing the majority of the votes cast on the occasion of the latest professional elections.
Strengthening the company-level agreement: the reform reorganises how company and industry-level agreements interact and strengthens the importance of company-level agreements.
In some areas, such as minimum wage and job classification, industry-level agreements prevail over company-level agreements, unless the company-level agreements may be considered as providing equal benefits.
In other areas, such as the prevention of hardship in the workplace, a company-level agreement providing less favourable provisions prevails if it is subsequent to industry-level agreement, unless the latter expressly provided otherwise.
Finally, concerning other subjects, such as notice period or 13th month bonus, for example, a company-level agreement providing less favourable provisions prevails over industry agreements, disregarding the fact that it is prior or subsequent to the latter.
Decision-making and participation of shareholders
After the law n°2016-1691 of December 9th, 2016, an order was adopted in order to clarify the latter and also make significant amendments to several articles of the French Commercial Code. These modifications mainly concern limited liability companies (French “SARL”), and intend to simplify decision-making and the shareholders’ participation within the company.
The main modifications are:
Article L.223-27 of the French Commercial Code, concerning the French SARL, gives the right, for one or more shareholders holding 5% of the company’s share capital, to include resolutions during the annual shareholders’ meeting.
Article L.225-103-1 of the French Commercial Code, concerning the French unlisted “SA”, introduces the possibility to provide in the company’s by-laws that shareholders’ meetings can be held exclusively by means of videoconference. However, this article also provides that shareholders holding more than 5% of the share capital have the possibility, for each shareholders’ meeting, to refuse the use of videoconference.
Article L.225-10 of the French Commercial Code, concerning the French “SASU”, simplifies the scheme of the regulated agreements between the SASU and its sole shareholder or its controlling company. If the sole shareholder is a company, the regulated agreements are no longer subject to the establishment of the auditor’s report but shall only be mentioned in the book of the shareholders’ decisions.
Article L.227-19 of the French Commercial Code, concerning the French “SAS”, provides that the modification or the adoption of by-laws requiring the prior approval of the shareholders in case of share transfer, is no longer subject to a unanimous decision of the shareholders but to a decision of the shareholders, in compliance with the conditions provided in the by-laws.
Blockchain: French legal framework
The financial sector is the first area where there is an actual legal recognition of the use of blockchain technology.
France recently became a pioneer in blockchain legal framework, by adopting the use of distributed ledger technology (“DLT”) for the issuance of minibonds by certain types of companies, in case of crowdfunding transactions (order of April 28th, 2016).
The order n°2017-1674 on December 8th, 2017, known as the DLT order, was adopted, allowing the use of distributed ledger technology for the representation and transmission of financial securities for non-listed companies.
This order was adopted after the law dated December 9th, 2016 n°2016-1691 on transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernisation of economic life, known as “Sapin 2”, authorised the government to adapt the law applicable to financial securities in light of new technology.
The transfer of shares of the non-listed companies may be recorded with blockchain technology, instead of being recorded manually in the share ledger.
The DLT Order applies to all financial securities for which European law does not require the use of a central securities depository (“CSD”).
The shares may be recorded with the blockchain technology upon a unilateral decision of the issuing company (article L.211-7 of the French Monetary and Financial Code). However, if the company’s by-laws provide that the issued shares must be recorded in a share ledger, the by-laws shall be amended in order to authorise the use of blockchain technology.
The entry into force of the order shall be subject to pending implementing decree that should be published by July 1st, 2018, at the latest.
The contract law reform: the ratification bill
The Order n°2016-131 of February 10th, 2016 which substantially amended 350 articles of the French Civil Code, has been applicable since October 1st, 2016. A first draft bill was adopted by the Senate on October 17th, 2017, with new amendments to the modifications made by the Order n°2016-131 of February 10th, 2016. The Senate sought to clarify and rectify certain points raising interpretation issues, but the amendments proposed by the Senate were criticised for making further amendments to the reform.
After successive readings between the National Assembly and the Senate between December 2017 and March 2018, the final version of the bill was finally adopted on April 11th, 2018. Twenty of the 350 articles have been modified by this new bill. Two major innovations of the contract law reform raised significant debates between the National Assembly and the Senate: i.e. the prohibition of unfair terms; and revision for unforeseen circumstances. The scope of the prohibition of unfair terms was finally limited to non-negotiable terms in standard contracts. The principle of contract revision was not contested, but there were divergent views concerning the judge’s ability to rule at the request of one of the contractual parties. After several debates, article 1195 of the French Civil Code has not been modified on this aspect.
The next step is now to reform the French civil liability law.
2018 Finance law
The 2018 Finance law n°2017-1837, dated December 30th, 2017, amended numerous and various French tax legislations. We selected the three most important modifications affecting both companies and individuals.
• French corporate income tax rate gradually reduced to 25%
Article 84 of the 2018 Finance law amended the modalities of the five-year period during which a gradual decrease of the French corporate income tax rate will be implemented. Indeed, as was already provided for by the 2017 Finance law, such rate will be reduced from 33⅓% to 25% in 2022.
As from January 1st, 2018, a 28% corporate income tax rate will apply to companies whose taxable profit does not exceed €500,000. The remaining companies will apply the standard rate of 33⅓%.
As from January 1st, 2019, the standard corporate income tax rate shall be reduced to 31%, but the 28% will remain for companies whose taxable profit does not exceed €500,000. The 31% standard corporate income tax rate shall be reduced to 28% in 2020, 26.5% in 2021 and 25% in 2022.
• Implementation of a flat tax
Article 28 of the 2018 Finance law implemented a deep reform of the taxation mechanism on incomes from capital (which include in particular, dividends, interests, capital gains). Before the said reform, incomes from capital were subject to social taxes at a cumulative rate of 15.5%, plus the income tax assessed at progressive rate (up to 45%, but with certain abatements depending on the length of ownership of the financial assets).
From January 1st, 2018, a “flat tax” of 30% has been put in place for all eligible individuals’ incomes from capital. This “flat tax” comprises: (i) a 17.2% social taxes rate; and (ii) a 12.8% flat income tax rate. Individuals can still opt for the former mechanism.
• French wealth taxation limited to real estate assets
Before the 2018 Finance law, a French “Impôt sur la Fortune” (“ISF”) was applicable on global wealth taxation applicable to individuals’ estate. Article 31 of the 2018 Finance law deleted this tax scheme and created, as from January 1st, 2018, the “Impôt sur la fortune immobilière” (“IFI”), which could be summarised as a taxation on real estate wealth only.
Most of the rules applicable to the ISF are still applicable to the IFI, such as the threshold from which wealth is taxed (€1.3 million). However, the taxation base is only calculated on real estate assets (financial assets are no longer included in the taxation base).
The food & consumer and real estate sectors were particularly active in 2017.
Food & consumer
This sector could also be named the retail sector, which has been strongly dynamic in France last year. The food & consumer sector recorded a 176% increase since 2016, with a total deal value amounting to €40 billion, despite a lower number of deals in 2017 (241 against 303 in 2016).
The activity in this sector was mostly driven by six mega-deals amounting to more than €1 billion, such as the deal previously mentioned concerning Danone and L’Oréal.
Group Arnault decided in 2017 to launch a public offer for the shares of its subsidiary, Christian Dior, owned up to 74% by the former. By doing so, Group Arnault valued its subsidiary at €46.93 billion.
Real estate was one of the key sectors for French M&A deals in 2016. Indeed, this sector saw a highlight in 2016 with the acquisition of Foncière de Paris by Eurosic.
Real estate was also a major sector for M&A transactions in 2017 and was marked here again by one important transaction announced in December 2017. Unibail-Rodamco, European number one in the commercial real estate sector, launched a public offer for its Australian competitor Westfield. The said offer values Westfield at €21 billion. This transaction will give birth to a global giant, owning real estate assets amounting to €61.1 billion in 27 of the most dynamic cities in the world.
We anticipate that the trend towards a strong French M&A market should continue in 2018, and that the French market should remain at a high level. Indeed, specialists expect M&A transactions in France to remain at least stable in 2018.
France had a 2% gross domestic product growth according to the last estimate published by INSEE. Such growth should remain stable in 2018. The IMF predicts a 1.9% gross domestic product growth in France.
We already know that 2018 will record several deals of importance. Two major public offers will take place or took place in 2018. Gemalto’s board recommended the public offer made by Thales, following the rejection of Atos’ public offer. Gemalto, a digital security specialist listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange, is valued up to €5.6 billion. At the very end of 2017, Safran launched another public offer on Zodiac, valuing the latter at €8.7 billion.
As a conclusion, optimism seems to flourish when it comes to the M&A market in France. Emmanuel Macron’s election has been a positive sign for cross-border transactions. Nevertheless, one should remain cautious. Specialists note that Brexit talks, tax reforms in the US, growth stability in China and North Korea’s nuclear programmes, constitute many risks to be taken into account for 2018.
This article is based on reports in the financial press, specialist reports, company and financial websites (Thomson Reuters, CF News, etc.).
Chapter authors
Coralie Oger
FTPA
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Other France chapters:
Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Regulation 2019
Bribery & Corruption 2019
Cartels 2019
Corporate Tax 2018
Litigation & Dispute Resolution 2018
Mergers & Acquisitions 2018
Pricing & Reimbursement 2018
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Global Reach 3 October 2018
Perks of studying medicine in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA and a harsh reality
Most of our parents or our relatives have, at some point of time, encouraged us to dream of becoming doctors when we grow up. This obsession with medicine (or engineering) comes with the perception of these professions being high-paying and ‘secured’ and respectable.
But there is a gap in the rising demand for a degree in Medicine and related fields and the number of candidates who actually get into the Top Medical Colleges in India. However, in such cases, studying abroad is an option too. But study where?
“..only about 16 per cent of Indian students who acquire medical degrees abroad are deemed fit to practice medicine in India.”
This is where the question of making a well-informed choice comes. Undoubtedly, almost all the countries in the world do offer degrees in medicine. But before flying off to a foreign land to fulfill the dream of being a doctor, one must consider a few important facts.
One such factor is where the students finally wish to settle once they acquire the MBBS or equivalent degree abroad.
“..to practice medicine in India, one must register with the State Medical Council.”
The above factor must be considered because even if students acquire their medical degree abroad, if they wish to practice medicine in India, they must register with the State Medical Council. But registration is done solely on the basis of the candidate’s performance in the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) which is conducted by the National Board of Examinations.
As per a latest report by Factly.in, only about 16 per cent of Indian students who acquire medical degrees abroad made it through the FMGE and were deemed fit to practice medicine in India. This according to them is largely because of the alleged poor standards of medical education in a few countries. Unfortunately, students are still reported to go off to these countries, mostly because they are lured by lower fees and ‘guaranteed seat’.
Perks of studying medicine in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, the US…
There are exceptions when it comes to the registration for SMCs. The perk of studying in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and the US is simply that if a student graduates or post graduates from these countries, they are NOT required to appear for the FMGE. They are eligible for direct registration with the SMCs.
The Harsh Reality
According to the data shared by Factly.in, which referred to the government data, in 2016–2017, 12, 283 students appeared for the FMGE, out of which only 9.44 per cent could pass. Sadly, this is not an isolated case and the downward trend of pass percentage has been recorded since 2012.
The report also highlighted how the maximum number of students who took the FMGE had acquired their medical degrees from China, followed by Russia, Ukraine, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Phillippines among other countries.
Noteworthy that, from 2012–2013 to 2016–2017, only 102 candidates holding medical degrees from UAE appeared for FMGE and 36.3 per cent of them passed the test. This is the highest among all the countries which were listed in the government data.
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PageUp People CEO Named as Finalist in 2013 Golden Bridge Awards for Woman Executive of the Year
Winners Will Be Announced on September 30, 2013 in San Francisco
September 09, 2013 16:15 ET | Source: PageUp People
ATLANTA, GA and LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM and MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwired - Sep 9, 2013) - PageUp People, a leading multinational talent management solutions provider, announced today that CEO Karen Cariss has been recognized as a finalist in the 5th Annual 2013 Golden Bridge Awards for the Woman Executive of the Year category.
The coveted annual Golden Bridge Awards program encompasses the world's best in organizational performance, products and services, innovations, executives and management teams, women in business and the professions, product management, websites, advertisements, partner programs, and customer satisfaction programs from every major industry in the world. Winners will be honored in San Francisco on Monday, September 30, 2013 during the 5th annual awards dinner and presentations.
One of the company's founders, Cariss is responsible for developing PageUp People's strategic direction as the driving force behind the multinational talent management solutions provider's day-to-day success. Recognized as a leader in the talent management space, Cariss identified the need for a web-based talent management system in the mid-1990s and moved to found PageUp People with her husband, Simon. As CEO, Cariss led PageUp People to be the first in the market to incorporate text messaging in 1999 and first to integrate consulting services to support their technology platform in 2007. A strong advocate of workplace flexibility, Cariss has also worked to cultivate the company's core values and creative culture.
Today Cariss continues to foster innovation and drive PageUp People's international growth, notably securing $10 million in funding for growth equity in 2012, in addition to overseeing global operations to ensure synergy and success in the company's six offices across four continents.
"It is an incredible honor to be named a finalist for Woman Executive of the Year by the Golden Bridge Awards," said Karen Cariss. "This recognition is a testament to PageUp People's commitment to excellence and our dedication to providing innovative talent management solutions for multinational employers."
About the Golden Bridge Awards
Golden Bridge Awards are an annual industry and peers recognition program honoring Best Companies of all types and sizes in North America, Europe, Middle-East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin-America, Best Products, Innovations, Management and Teams, Women in Business and the Professions, and PR and Marketing Campaigns from all over the world. Learn more about The Golden Bridge Awards at www.goldenbridgeawards.com
About PageUp People
PageUp People helps multinational employers strategically align their talent resources to execute corporate strategy across borders, business units, cultures and languages -- maximizing employee value and business results. The PageUp People SaaS-delivered solution unifies Recruiting, Performance Management, Compensation, Training & Development, Career Planning, Succession Management and Advanced Workforce Analytics to help global employers overcome the talent management challenges that are inherent to operating across multiple geographies.
PageUp People solutions support large multinational organizations, including several Global 500 employers and more than 90,000 HR practitioners operating across more than 180 countries from a broad range of industries, including financial services, retail, mining and refining, transportation and telecommunications. PageUp People is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia with additional office locations in Sydney, London, Singapore and New York. Learn more about how PageUp People can help transform your organization's multinational HR initiatives by visiting www.pageuppeople.com.
PageUp People
HR human resources talent management recruiting workforce labor careers awards entrepreneurs
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Afcon 2019: Victor Wanyama dodges media interview as Kenya arrive from Egypt
Dennis Mabuka
BackpagePix.
Kenya v Senegal
The Kenyan captain was the first to disembark from the plane but immediately dashed away from the media at the airport
Kenyan midfielder Victor Wanyama refused to grant an interview to waiting media as Harambee Stars arrived home from the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Egypt.
The Kenyan captain was among the first players who appeared from the terminal after the plane touched down at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) but he quickly dashed to a waiting car as journalists struggled to get an interview.
One of the journalists from KTN told Goal, “Wanyama just waved us away as we struggled to get a word from him, He even shoved aside the microphone and immediately boarded the waiting car.
“He was the captain of the team in Egypt and should have given us a word but I feel it is a very unfortunate incident from him, not good at all.”
Kenya, who were making their first appearance in the finals after a 15-year wait, narrowly failed to make it past the group stages in Egypt after finishing third in a pool won by Algeria, while Africa's top-ranked side Senegal came second.
Wanyama’s latest move comes just a few days after two local coaches questioned his leadership skills while commentating during the 3-0 defeat to Senegal.
The two – Jacob ‘Ghost’ Mulee and Zedekiah ‘Zico’ Otieno - took exception with Wanyama’s display at Afcon as well as his leadership skills as quoted by Nairobi News.
“He was not at his best in the last three games going by the performance he put out there. He was a very average player. I expected more from him as a captain on the field in terms of organizing the team.
“But again I didn’t see much of that. The team lacked leadership. I know his nature is that of a quiet player and perhaps that doesn’t suit a captain,” said Mulee, who led Stars to the 2004 edition held in Tunisia.
On his part, Otieno said, “Just as the coach (‘Ghost’) has said, he [Wanyama] doesn’t fit to be a captain. Maybe he was given the role because of his profile.
“The team lacks a leader, one who commands respect from both the players and the technical bench, someone capable of marshalling the team on and off the pitch, someone with leadership qualities.”
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Rodriguez hoping for England recall
By Sacha Pisani
The Southampton forward has not played for the Three Lions since 2013 after a 16-month injury layoff, but wants an international return ahead of Euro 2016 next summer
Fit-again Southampton forward Jay Rodriguez is dreaming of a return to the England fold.
Rodriguez, 26, is back playing again after a 16-month lay-off due to a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
The striker marked his competitive return with a goal in Southampton's 1-1 draw at home to Midtjylland in their UEFA Europa League play-off last week.
Southampton manager Ronald Koeman believes it is too soon for Rodriguez to be included in England's team for next month's Euro 2016 qualifiers against San Marino and Switzerland, warning Roy Hodgson ahead of Sunday's squad announcement.
But Rodriguez, who last played for England in 2013, is hoping an international return comes sooner rather than later.
"At the moment I'm just concentrating week by week to get as much match fitness and sharpness as I can and try and take confidence from each game. It's a case of taking it slowly and hopefully it comes," he said.
"Of course, it was the highlight of my career to go and represent my country. It's the best thing for a player to do that.
"There were times in my injury period that were really hard. If you aim high then the sky's the limit and that is what keeps you going through the tough times.
"There's no limit on what you can do. To reach the highest possible thing you can in football is a good marker."
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Antonio Rüdiger
Klopp makes you feel like the best in the world, says Rudiger
Nizaar Kinsella
Chelsea correspondent
Jürgen Klopp
The Blues defender has been in good form despite his struggles this season and took time to praise the Liverpool boss ahead of Sunday's game
Antonio Rudiger had to leave Borussia Dortmund's academy to make a professional career for himself, but he still has great admiration for Jurgen Klopp.
Klopp guided Dortmund to back-to-back Bundesliga titles while Rudiger was at the club but the defender move to Stuttgart before his senior debut, with Mats Hummels and Neven Subotic ahead of him in the pecking order.
Six years since he parted ways with Klopp and Dortmund, Rudiger has established himself as a top centre-back at Chelsea after his £34 million summer move from Roma. On Sunday, the 25-year-old will come up against his former boss once again and spoke of the immense belief he instils in his players.
"I didn’t get much, but when he spoke to me at the friendly match I saw he’s a coach that gives you motivation, like you’re the best in the world," Rudiger told Goal, as he helped launch Stamford Bridge's new sensory room. "That’s very good and one of his best skills as a coach.
"He had nothing to do with [me leaving], because I was in the youth [team]. I knew for myself I had to leave Dortmund to play first-team football. I spoke to him twice, because he used to watch a lot of academy games. He also invited me to a friendly match.
"I was 16, or something like that. For me, it was important because at the time, Dortmund won the league twice in a row. There was almost no chance [to make my debut]. So for me, I was young but I was very realistic. I thought: 'Okay, maybe I need to go'.
"It wasn't a step back, maybe it was even a step forward. I went to a team that was a bit lower [in the table] but I was playing."
Rudiger was a target for Conte's Chelsea for two seasons running, but his first move was scuppered by a torn cruciate ligament injury.
The Blues defender was left out against Burnley, but has said that his working relationship with Conte is good, but admits he does not know if the coach will remain beyond the end of the season.
"I’m not taking part in this decision," he said when asked about his manager's future. "It doesn’t matter [what I think], if he is my coach next year he is my coach and I’ll work with him. The way he works is professional, and that’s good.
"For me it’s OK, because he does his work and he puts his all [into it] - I think you can see that on the sideline. That’s it, and the players have to do that as well. It’s a professional relationship and that’s good."
Chelsea are in fifth place and are battling for a top four spot against Liverpool and Tottenham in their final three games of the Premier League season. The FA Cup represents Rudiger's last chance at silverware this season and the first major trophy of his club career.
Blues skipper @GaryJCahill and @ToniRuediger yesterday opened our new sensory room at Stamford Bridge.
The new facility will be used for the first time on a matchday for our game against Liverpool on Sunday.
More to follow... pic.twitter.com/3R5LJANhha
— Chelsea Foundation (@CFCFoundation) May 3, 2018
Despite playing away from Germany for the past three seasons, the Berlin-born centre half still looks up to Bayern Munich's Hummels and Jerome Boateng as role models. He thinks his choice to play in England means that it will be hard to win as many titles as they do, given the Bavarians' Bundesliga dominance.
"Of course, they won important titles," he said. "I think to win the Premier League here is different than to win the title at the moment at Bayern Munich. If we don't finish in the top four, this [FA Cup] is a little sweet that we can give to ourselves and the fans.
"As a team we know we did many things wrong. I think it’s a new start [next season]. In my career, I have only won one title and that's with the German national team. Yes, this is what I want [to win more with Chelsea]. I want moments that I won't forget."
Rudiger's season does not end at the FA Cup final, as he is a strong contender to start for Germany at the upcoming World Cup in Russia.
Germany won the Confederations Cup last summer with Rudiger featuring heavily and he is confident he has earned his spot, as his country bid to retain the World Cup trophy.
"I’m confident I’ll be part of the squad," He added. "I had good years since I arrived in Rome, and if not for the injury I think I would have played in that first match. Yes, of course [Chelsea will help me get selected]. But apart from that, everyone wants to play for a big club.
"It doesn’t mean because you’re in a big club [you automatically get in], because what if I don’t play? It’s the same as I felt in Rome. Roma helped me to get where I am with the national team. It depends on performances."
Chelsea captain Gary Cahill was with his fellow defender Rudiger at Stamford Bridge, where they met children from Queensmill school.
The group gathered at the newly launched sensory room which sits in the East Stand at Stamford Bridge and it aims to help families that have children with addition sensory needs, like Autism, to experience the games in a more peaceful environment. It opens for the first time as Chelsea host Liverpool this weekend.
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Ancelotti 'thrilled' by Serie A return with Napoli
Ben Spratt
The former Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain boss is delighted to have been given an opportunity to coach at "one of the greatest teams in Italy"
Carlo Ancelotti has expressed his delight to be returning to Serie A and joining Napoli, hailing them as one of Italy's "greatest teams".
The former AC Milan coach has been out of the game since leaving Bayern Munich last September, but he replaced Maurizio Sarri on Wednesday after Napoli were beaten to the Scudetto by Juventus.
Ancelotti, who won the Serie A title once as Milan coach, is hopeful that his "knowledge and experience" can help Napoli topple seven-time defending champions Juve.
"I'm very happy to return to my country and to one of the greatest teams in Italy," he said in a statement on his official website.
"We come to compete and give Napoli all our knowledge and experience. We are thrilled by this challenge and to open a new stage in football.
"I want to thank the president for trusting me in a project that I love and for the chance to get to know one of the best clubs in Italy. To the fans, I say that we will work hard and very professionally to reach our goals that we all want.
"I hope we can all enjoy this together."
Ancelotti had been linked with a return to Milan and the Italy national team job before arriving at Napoli in place of Sarri, who is reportedly be set for a move to Chelsea.
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'Ole must be hugely embarrassed' – Keane blasts Man Utd 'bluffers' & warns of repeat of Mourinho sacking
Stephen Crawford
Manchester United v Manchester City
A man who wore the Red Devils shirt with fierce pride during his playing days has panned those currently at the club
Roy Keane has not held back in his assessment of the task facing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United, with the former midfielder warning that the same players who "threw Jose Mourinho under the bus" could do the same to his former team-mate.
Solskjaer's arrival following Mourinho's dismissal saw a huge turnaround in form for the Old Trafford side, prompting the club's board to hand the Norwegian the top job on a permanent basis.
That appointment, however, has coincided with a downturn in results, with the Red Devils having suffered six defeats in their last eight games in all competitions.
Many have claimed that United jumped the gun in appointing a club legend full-time, but Keane, who captained the Premier League giants with a degree of ferocity that saw him feared throughout Europe, says that everything is down to "bluffers" within the squad.
“[Ole] won't be under pressure in terms of his job but he'll be under pressure about getting results and particularly the performance,” Keane told Sky Sports ahead of Wednesday's big derby match against Manchester City.
“I'm always intrigued when people talk after games saying 'we'll be up for the next game' – you're supposed to be up for every game.
“To me it doesn't matter if you're playing for Man Utd or Altrincham, you've got to be up for every game of football, so I don't fall for this carry on that there's going to be a 'brilliant reaction' from these players.
“These are the same players that threw Mourinho under the bus and they will do exactly the same to Ole. Leopards don't change their spots. There's too many bluffers at this club to get United back to the very top.
“Even the point that we're talking about Man Utd trying to finish fourth shows you the drop in standards at United over the past few years both on and off the pitch. It's not up to the manager to motivate the players, you've got to motivate yourself. It's a big test for Ole.
“You've got to be up for every single game at Manchester United and the fact that Ole's gone and discussed it today and after the game [against Everton] about his players not being up for a game of football... he must be hugely embarrassed.”
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Packages Passes Memberships Donations
For nearly a decade, the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival delighted audiences and left them still giggling as they walked away. But Eugene’s life takes a different turn and focus as he supports his wife during her ongoing struggle with cancer. IT STARTED AS A JOKE features interviews and performances by celebrated comedians as they reflect on Eugene’s unique brand of humor and the healing properties of comedy - even in the most challenging of life’s circumstances. USA • 2019
Cast: MICHAEL IAN BLACK, KRISTEN SCHAAL, WYATT CENAC, IRA GLASS, JOHN HODGMAN, KUMAIL NANJIANI, REGGIE WATTS, MICHAEL SHOWALTER, along with performances by JANEANE GAROFALO, JIM GAFFIGAN, JON GLASER, MIKE BIRBIGLIA, BOBCAT GOLDTHWAIT
Director: Julie Smith Clem & Ken Druckerman
ADOPT-A-FILM SPONSOR: Advanced Dental Care of Falmouth
About Woods Hole Film Festival
The Woods Hole Film Festival is presented by the Woods Hole Film Festival, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation established to: organize the annual Festival; form relationships and strategic alliances with other film festivals and organizations to showcase independent film; emphasize the work of emerging and New England filmmakers; showcase the work of independent filmmakers who have a relationship to Cape Cod or whose films are relevant to or enhance the quality of life on Cape Cod and to develop and foster a creative independent film community within the Festival and on Cape Cod. The Festival also works with individuals, businesses and institutions to develop and present programs and events that further its goals.
Click HERE to return to Woods Hole Festival website.
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Written by Gail Hecht
Dr. Hecht is Professor of Medicine and Microbiology/Immunology and Chief, Gastroenterology and Nutrition at Loyola University Chicago. She earned her MD from Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, completed Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and her Fellowship in Gastroenterology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Her initial faculty appointment was at the University of Illinois Chicago where she rose through the ranks to Professor and was appointed Chief of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition. She relocated to Loyola in her current position in January 2013. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of a new journal Gut Microbes published by Landes Bioscience. Dr. Hecht has been very active in the American Gastroenterological Association functioning as Chair of the Intestinal Disorders Section of the AGA Council, as Basic Research Councilor to the Governing Board and ultimately serving as President from 2009-2010, only the second woman to serve in that capacity.
Gut Microbiota for Health World Summit 2016: registration now open!
BY Gail Hecht
In Calendar, Events
Editorial from Gail Hecht Chair of the Scientific Committee of the 2016 Gut Microbiota for Health World Summit Abundant evidence shows that particular aspects of human health and disease are attributable to the trillions of microbes that inhabit our gastrointestinal tract, collectively referred to as the gut microbiota. Consider that the number of unique genes contributed by the gut microbiota…
Gail Hecht
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A journal of peer-reviewed research
May/June 2003 Pages 150 - 151
Acquiring a New Partner Is Linked to Increased HPV Risk Among Young Women
First published online: May 1, 2003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1363/3515003b
More than a third of sexually experienced young women who are not infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) become infected during a two-year period.1 In a cohort study of female university students who initially did not have genital HPV infection, women who were sexually experienced (had had penetrative vaginal sex with a male partner) at the study's start and those who became sexually experienced during the study were similarly likely to become infected. The risk of genital HPV infection was elevated for women who smoked, used oral contraceptives or acquired a new male sex partner, especially one a woman had known for less than eight months before having sex with him or one who had had other partners. The risk was not reduced for women who reported always using condoms with new partners. Sexually inexperienced women seldom became infected, but their risk was elevated if they reported any type of nonpenetrative sexual contact.
Between 1990 and 1997, researchers mailed study invitations to a random sample of female university students aged 18-20 in Washington State. Participants made a clinic visit at enrollment and at four-month intervals thereafter. At each visit, nurse practitioners interviewed women to obtain sexual history and health information, and collected genital tract (cervical and vulvovaginal) specimens that were tested for HPV by polymerase chain reaction; a subsample of women provided oral specimens for HPV testing. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to estimate cumulative probabilities of acquiring HPV infection. Risk factors for infection were assessed by Cox proportional hazards analysis.
Analyses were based on 444 women who had no detectable HPV in genital tract specimens at the time of enrollment. On average, the women were 19 years old when they entered the study and participated for 41 months. Two-thirds of the women were sexually experienced at the time of enrollment, and they had had an average of about two sex partners. Nearly two-thirds of the women who were sexually inexperienced at enrollment had first penetrative vaginal sex during the study.
In the two years after enrollment, the women overall had a cumulative probability of genital HPV infection of 32%. Women who were sexually experienced at the start of the study had the same probability of infection over the next two years that women who first engaged in penetrative sex during the study had over the two years following that experience (39%). In the two years after acquiring a new or first sex partner, the probability of infection did not differ by women's sexual experience at enrollment.
HPV-16, the type of the virus most closely associated with cervical cancer, occurred more frequently than three other high-risk types studied. The cumulative probability of HPV-16 infection in the first two years after study enrollment (for women who were already sexually experienced) or initiation of penetrative sex was 10%. (For the other high-risk types of the virus, probabilities were 1-5%.)
Of the new HPV infections, 54% were detected in the vulvovaginal region only, 10% were detected in the cervix only and 35% were detected in both regions. Detection of HPV was significantly more likely in the vulvovaginal region than in the cervix regardless of the interval since enrollment or since first sexual experience.
Women who reported acquiring a new partner during the last year were at higher risk for genital HPV infection than women who did not, and the risk was highest when the new partner had been acquired in the 5-8 months before a study visit (hazard ratio, 3.0). No significant increase in risk was seen among women who reported acquiring a new partner 13-16 months before a study visit. After acquisition of a new partner during a given interval and lifetime number of partners were taken into account, women who had penetrative sex during that interval did not have a significantly elevated risk of genital HPV infection.
Sixty percent of sexually active women who reported having vaginal sex since their last visit also reported having oral-penile contact. However, HPV was detected in only 0.2% of the oral specimens collected, and women reporting oral-penile contact in the past year were not at increased risk for oral HPV infection.
HPV was detected in only 2% of genital tract specimens from sexually inexperienced women. Overall, the cumulative probability of HPV infection during two years was 8% for women who were sexually inexperienced at study enrollment; the probability was 15% for women who subsequently had first penetrative sex and 2% for women who did not.
After vaginal sex and acquisition of a new partner were taken into account, sexually experienced women who reported finger-vulvar or penile-vulvar contact were not at increased risk for genital HPV infection. In contrast, sexually inexperienced women were more likely to acquire genital HPV infection if they reported having any type of nonpenetrative sexual contact (finger-vulvar, penile-vulvar or oral-penile) than if they did not (10% vs. 1%).
In a multivariate analysis, women who initially were or became sexually experienced had a moderate increase in the risk of genital HPV infection if, during the past year, they used oral contraceptives (hazard ratio, 1.4), smoked (1.5) or had known a new partner for less than eight months before having sex (1.8); their risk also rose moderately as their number of partners increased (1.1). They had a sharp increase in risk if they reported having a new partner who had had at least one previous partner (5.2) or who had had an unknown number of partners (8.0). Women who reported always using condoms with new partners did not have a significantly reduced risk of infection.
Young women who acquire a new sex partner are at high risk for genital HPV infection, regardless of their prior sexual experience, the investigators conclude. The findings "suggest that the better and longer a woman knows her partner before intercourse, the less her risk of becoming infected with HPV." When women acquire a new partner, the first year is likely to be the critical time for detecting HPV infection if it occurs, the investigators note. Furthermore, although sexually inexperienced women rarely acquire HPV infection, "nonpenetrative sexual contact is a plausible route of transmission" in these women.--S. London
1. Winer RL et al., Genital human papillomavirus infection: incidence and risk factors in a cohort of female university students, American Journal of Epidemiology, 2003, 157(3):218-226.
The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the Guttmacher Institute.
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Get the facts on abortion in the United States
Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs Of Adolescents in Zimbabwe
Lisa Remez,Vanessa WoogandMarvelous Mhloyi
Many obstacles prevent young Zimbabweans from acting on their desire to postpone parenthood and stay HIV-free. Protecting adolescents from unintended pregnancy and HIV infection by providing them with essential sexual and reproductive health information and services will be critical if Zimbabwe is to fulfill its long-term economic development goals. Supporting adolescents’ needs will also bring the country closer to achieving two reproductive health–related Millennium Development Goals.
• As of 2011, 38% of young Zimbabwean women have had sex by age 18, as have 23% of young men; this difference has widened over time. Females now first have sex nearly two years sooner than males.
• One-quarter of 15–19-year-old women have started childbearing; one-third of all births to adolescents are unplanned (wanted later or not at all).
• Favorable trends of rising modern contraceptive use in urban areas were likely interrupted by the worst of the economic crisis in 2008. Use among married adolescents declined in urban areas (from 50% in 2006 to 29% in 2011), even as it rose in rural areas (from 30% to 37%).
• Patterns in unmet need for contraception followed suit: In urban areas, the proportion of married adolescents who wanted to postpone childbearing but were not using a method rose between 2006 and 2011 (from 14% to 28%); among their counterparts in rural areas, unmet need fell from 20% to 15% over this period.
• Single, sexually active adolescents have by far the greatest unmet need—62% as of 2011, compared with 19% among their married counterparts.
• Existing policies need clarification to assure that no adolescent is illegally denied services because of age. Youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health programs should be prioritized so today’s HIVpositive adolescents, many of whom have been infected since birth, do not transmit the virus to yet another generation.
Little time remains for Zimbabwe to meet Millennium Development Goals 5 (reduce maternal mortality by 75%) and 6 (halt the spread of HIV) by the target year of 2015. Unfortunately, the maternal health goal does not take into account the extent of a country’s HIV epidemic and the weight of its contribution to maternal mortality. For decades, Zimbabwe has been one of the countries most severely affected by the pandemic, and until very recently HIV was involved in 30–40% of maternal deaths.[1,2] The country has thus made insufficient headway in lowering maternal mortality[3] —even with improvements in pregnancy and delivery care—and despite considerable progress, Zimbabwe will be unable to halt the spread of HIV by 2015.[4]
This report presents a snapshot of adolescents’ ability to adequately protect their sexual and reproductive health.
By focusing on current behavior (using the 2010–2011 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey), we hope to identify existing needs for sexual and reproductive health education and services and present recommendations on how to meet them. We also include data from the country’s two earlier surveys, conducted in 1999 and 2005–2006, to highlight notable trends over time.* Because adolescents’ health can vary widely by area of residence and socioeconomic status, where possible we examine the data by these characteristics.
Despite increasing urbanization, Zimbabwe remains a primarily rural nation—67% of its population lives in rural areas.[5] Much of the country remains entrenched in poverty: Gross annual income is US$650 per person,[6] even following improvement since the worst of the hyperinflation and economic crisis that occurred in 2008. The educational attainment of young people, however, is improving. According to the 2011 survey, 74–76% of male and female adolescents† have some secondary education,[7] compared with 68–70% just over a decade ago.[8]
Sexual activity, marriage and childbearing
Given the long-standing stigma toward young people’s sexual activity and childbearing outside of marriage in Zimbabwe,[9] it is important to consider the context in which adolescents first become sexually active. Moreover, in a country with a declining, but still very high, HIV prevalence (15% of 15–49-year-olds were HIVpositive in 2011),[7] sexual activity without consistent condom use can expose adolescents to the risk of HIV infection.
In Zimbabwe, 34% of adolescent females have had sexual intercourse, as have 25% of adolescent males. This proportion has not changed much over the past decade among women, but it has declined slightly among men.[7,8,10] A related measure— the proportion of 20–24-yearolds who have had sex by their 18th birthday—shows a similar trend: No decline among young women between 1999 and 2011 (35–38%), but a drop among young men (from 31% to 23%— Figure 1). These national-level findings are echoed in smallerscale studies (e.g., in the most populous province, Manicaland), one of which showed a recent decline in the proportion of 15–17-year-old males who had ever had sex, but no decline among their female counterparts. [11]
These trends are further echoed in data on age at first intercourse. In 1999, there was little difference by gender in the median age at first sex. As of 2011, however, young men first have sexual intercourse almost two years later than do young women: Median age at first sex has stayed stable at 18.8–18.9 over all three surveys among women, but it has risen steadily, from 19.1 to 20.0 to 20.6, among men.[7,8,10]
Nearly one-quarter of all 15–19-year-old Zimbabwean women (23%) are currently in a union,‡ and the proportion in rural areas is almost double that in urban areas (28% vs. 16%).[12] Poorer adolescent women are more likely than better-off ones to be married (31% vs. 19%). Furthermore, 13% of 15–17-year-olds have been in a union as of 2011, and these very early marriages are more common in rural than in urban areas (16% vs. 8%).
The fact that only 1% of Zimbabwean males enter into a union during adolescence reflects a widespread phenomenon found throughout Sub-Saharan Africa: Adolescent women usually marry older men.[13] Wide age differences between spouses (often referred to as “age mixing”) can lead to power imbalances in relationships and an increased risk of HIV infection for young wives, since married couples rarely use condoms and older husbands have more years of sexual experience and thus higher HIV prevalence.[14]
In Zimbabwe, teenage marriage is closely associated with teenage motherhood, since entrenched traditional values call for newly married women to solidify their union by giving birth within the first year of marriage.[15] The large urban-rural differential in the proportions of adolescent women who are married is echoed in the proportions who have already given birth—23% of rural adolescents, but only 12% of their urban counterparts.[7]
The birthrate among adolescents— one of the indicators that has been targeted to meet the maternal health Millennium Development Goal—changed little between 1999 and 2011, and stands at 115 births per 1,000 women aged 15–19 (Figure 2). Rural adolescents give birth at twice the rate of urban adolescents (144 vs. 71). Moreover, the rate of teenage childbearing increased in rural areas (from 120–125 births per 1,000 in 1999 and 2006 to 144 births per 1,000 in 2011), whereas in urban areas it declined between 1999 and 2006 (from 93 to 70), and has not fallen since. The proportion of current 15–19-year-olds who have started childbearing (i.e., those who are pregnant plus those who have already given birth) has risen slightly, from 21% in 1999 and 2006, to 24% in 2011.[7,8,10]
Since Zimbabwean social mores strongly condemn childbirth outside of marriage, many unmarried adolescents’ pregnancies are likely to be unintended. Such unwanted pregnancies can lead to clandestine—and therefore likely unsafe—abortions, since Zimbabwe’s penal code legally restricts all abortions, except those needed to save the woman’s life or physical health.§[16] But because of legal restrictions and the resulting clandestine nature of abortion, information about how often adolescents with unintended pregnancies resort to abortion is lacking. However, among births to all women (of any marital status) who were adolescents when they delivered, 33% are unplanned.[12]
The proportion of births to women younger than 20 that are unplanned is higher in urban than in rural areas (40% vs. 30%), and highest among young women living in the most well-off households (44% among those in the top income quintile vs. 28% among those in the bottom quintile).[17] In urban areas, a general decline in the proportion of births that are unplanned stalled in 2006, and the proportion increased slightly in 2011. In contrast, in rural areas, the downward trend has been consistent and uniform.
Contraceptive use and unmet need
Two-thirds of married 15–19- year-old women say they do not want to become pregnant for at least two years, yet only about half of them (35% of all married adolescents) use a modern contraceptive method** (Table 1). The pill accounts for the vast majority (86%) of this use.[12] Overall, use of modern methods changed little in the decade covered by the three surveys, staying at 35–38% among these women.[12,18,19] However, the lack of overall change at the national level masks an increase in use between 2006 and 2011 in rural areas (from 30% to 37%), and a sharp decrease in urban areas (from 50% to 29%).[12] Moreover, modern method use in urban areas declined not just among adolescents but among all women of reproductive age (15–49), from 68% to 60%.[12,18] (There was no change over the period in use among married women of all ages in rural areas.) The worst of the economic crisis in 2008—with its attendant deterioration of reproductive health services, migration from rural to urban areas and flight of medical professionals—likely contributed to a decline in the availability and accessibility of services for adolescents and all women in urban areas.[20] Furthermore, the fact that urban authorities impose fees for contraceptive services may have also affected use more in urban areas than in rural ones.
The picture changes when we look at contraceptive use among adolescents who have the most to lose should they experience an unwanted pregnancy—those who are not married and are sexually active (i.e., have had sex in the previous three months). Just one-quarter of these women use a modern method as of 2011. Not only is this proportion lower than that among married adolescents, but it has been steadily declining over the past decade—from 48% in 1999 to 34% in 2006 to 25% in 2011.[12,18,19] Thus, these women would appear to have a harder time preventing unintended pregnancy now than in previous years.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that providers have been using clients’ seemingly young age to deny them services[20] (i.e., those who appear to be younger than the age of majority, which is [18] in Zimbabwe[21]). For this reason, it is important to assess how contraceptive use varies by age among adolescents. There is little difference in modern method use among single, sexually active adolescents in the 15–17 and 18–19 age-groups (23% and 26%, respectively). Among married adolescents, however, 15–17-year-olds are far less likely than 18–19-year-olds to be using a modern method (24% vs. 40%).[12] We hypothesize that the low level of use among the youngest married adolescents stems from factors other than their being turned down for services because of their age; these could include pressure to solidify a union by having a child, and barriers to contraceptive use created by poverty and providers’ beliefs that young married women should have children.
Women who want to delay or stop having children but are not currently using a method are considered to have unmet need for contraception.†† Adolescents have the highest unmet need of all women of reproductive age. Overall, 19% of married adolescents have an unmet need, compared with 15% of all married women aged 15–49.[22] The level of unmet need among married adolescents living in urban areas is nearly twice that of their rural counterparts (28% vs. 15%), both because urban women are usually far more likely than rural adolescents to want to postpone childbearing and because, in contemporary Zimbabwe, urban adolescents are also less likely to use a method.
As suggested by the recent trends in married adolescents’ method use by area of residence, the related measure of unmet need increased substantially between 2006 and 2011 in urban areas (from 14% to 28%), while it came down in rural areas (20% to 15%).[12,18] These time trends are mirrored to some extent among all married women of reproductive age (i.e., between 2006 and 2011, unmet need among married 15–49-year-olds declined slightly in rural areas, from 18% to 15%, but rose minimally in urban areas, from 11% to 13%).[22] One possible reason for the rise in unmet need over this period among urban married women—but not among their rural counterparts—could be that cities were more affected by the economic collapse than villages because the weakened infrastructure is concentrated in urban areas.[20]
Because it is unknown to what extent adolescents resort to abortion, we have no way of knowing whether rising unmet need in urban areas has led to rising rates of unintended pregnancy. We do know that unmet need is much higher among single adolescents than among married ones (Figure 3). In Zimbabwe, as throughout all of Sub-Saharan Africa, strong taboos against premarital sexual activity make it difficult for single, sexually active adolescents to obtain the effective contraceptives they need to prevent unwanted pregnancy.[15] As of 2011, 62% of such 15–19-yearolds had an unmet need, a level three times higher than that of their married peers.[12]
Moreover, despite the lack of substantive change over time in unmet need among married adolescents, unmet need increased steadily among single adolescents, from 44% in 1999 to 51% in 2006 and to 62% in 2011. And there is little difference in the level of unmet need between the 15–17 and 18–19 age-groups (Table 1), which belies widespread assumptions that single minors are being denied services because of age requirements.[20]
Why would adolescents not use contraceptives despite their wish to avoid pregnancy? We know the reasons for only a small sample of these women, half of whom said they were not doing so because they were unmarried.[12] This reason is perhaps unsurprising in a culture that stigmatizes sexual activity outside of marriage, 15 and suggests that some of the very adolescents who need to avoid pregnancy the most— unmarried adolescents—are dissuaded from protecting themselves from pregnancy out of fear of being judged or rejected by providers for not meeting a false rumored “requirement” that they be married.
Only one contraceptive method protects against both unintended pregnancy and HIV— the condom. One-third of single 15–19-year-old women who had sex in the past year used a condom with their most recent partner.[12] (The comparable proportion among adolescent males, regardless of marital status, is nearly twice as high.) The proportion of adolescent married women currently using a condom is far lower, at 5%. This minimal level of condom use in marriage is unsurprising in a culture that equates such use with extramarital and commercial sex.[23]
Adolescent women’s ability to negotiate condom use in marriage is especially difficult, since they are often married to much older spouses. In Zimbabwe, wide age differences between partners are common among all 15–19-year-old women, but especially among those who are married: Nineteen percent of the husbands of adolescent wives are at least 10 years older, compared with 5% of the partners of single 15–19-year-old women (Figure 4). Unlike nearly every other variable examined for this report, the proportion of married adolescents whose husbands are at least 10 years older does not vary by area of residence or household wealth.
As of 2012, HIV prevalence (the proportion currently infected) among Zimbabwean 15–24-yearolds is an estimated 6.3% among women and 3.9% among men.[24] This current prevalence shows a substantial decline since 2005 for young women (from 14.7%),‡‡ but no real change for young men (from 4.4%).[25]Among 15–19-yearolds, 4.2% of females and 3.4% of males were HIV-positive as of 2011.[7] However, the extent to which these represent new infections or the long-term survival of untreated individuals infected since birth is unknown.
A study in the eastern province of Manicaland hinted that the latter scenario is partially true, since “increases” in prevalence from 2004 to 2007 among 15–17-year-olds who had never had sex were likely attributable to their aging into this age-group, as opposed to their acquiring new infections.[11] Some 2007–2008 clinical data support this hypothesis, as HIV was the most common cause of acute admission to public hospitals in Harare among 10–18-yearolds, most of whom had been infected since birth.[26] Incidence, or the annual rate of new infections, is a better marker of progress in countries with mature epidemics, such as Zimbabwe. Overall, HIV incidence declined by half among 15–49-year-olds between 2001 and 2011.[27] A mix of factors likely led to this, the most important being a reduction in multiple partners.[28,29]
One promising avenue of HIV prevention among men is circumcision, which has been shown to substantially reduce men’s risk of acquiring HIV through heterosexual sex.[30] However, just 5% of 15–19-yearold Zimbabwean males have been circumcised as of 2011.[7] Because the proportion circumcised rises uniformly with age (up to 12% among 45–49-yearolds), sexually active adolescents are currently benefiting the least from circumcision.
The long-standing threepronged approach to reduce sexual transmission of the virus is through abstinence, mutual monogamy, and consistent and correct condom use. Increasing condom use is challenging in a country where the majority of adults—63% of women and 52% of men—do not believe that 12–14-year-olds should be taught about how condoms can prevent HIV infection.[7] Opposition to such instruction is far stronger in rural than in urban areas (16% higher among women and 23% higher among men). Adults’ (including many likely parents’) widespread disapproval of teaching about condom use in school makes it difficult for adolescents to learn how to protect themselves from HIV infection. Furthermore, as urbanization and globalization have eroded the tradition of aunts (for girls) and uncles (for boys) providing informal sexuality education, parents have been reluctant to fill this gap.[31,32]
Indeed, adolescents are not as informed about HIV as they should be: Fewer than half have comprehensive knowledge about HIV and AIDS,§§ with relatively little difference by gender (42% of males and 46% of females).[7] Unlike unmet need for contraception, there is no comparable “unmet need” measure for protection against HIV. At the very least, teenagers need to feel that they can get a condom on their own to avoid HIV infection. Unfortunately, a far lower proportion of female than of male adolescents say they are able to do so (28% vs. 62%— and getting a condom does not always translate into convincing a male partner to use one).
Since women’s reproductive biology places them at greater risk of HIV infection,[33] it is important to address this gender gap in self-efficacy. Moreover, women’s early age at first sex has been found to be significantly and independently associated with an increased likelihood of being HIV-positive.[34] Part of the consistently higher prevalence of HIV infection among women than among men is likely related to age-mixing (which is more common in marriage than in casual sexual relationships[35]) and to limited condom use within marriage.
Policies and programs that address adolescents’ reproductive health
In Zimbabwe, the scope of the AIDS epidemic has overshadowed adolescent reproductive health policies. Through at least the first two decades of the epidemic, most national-level policies promoted abstinence as the sole strategy to avoid HIV infection.[23] More recently, several youth policies that encompass both pregnancy and HIV prevention have yielded a more comprehensive strategy by complementing abstinence with partner reduction, delay of first intercourse and condom use. These newer policies include the National Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy, 2010–2015,[32] and the National Policy on HIV/AIDS.[36], as part of its most recent National Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy, the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare committed to clarifying the misperception that adolescents younger than 18 need parental consent to receive contraceptive and HIV services. In this policy, the ministry says it will “develop and disseminate guidelines that will give direction towards the provision of [sexual and reproductive health] services for pregnancy, rape, STI, HIV infection and contraception to minors.”[37]
The National Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy incorporates three approaches to programming: community-based (youth centers offering counseling, recreational activities and condoms), health-facility– based (on-site youth-friendly corners, which are supposed to offer voluntary counseling and testing, as well as condoms and other family planning methods) and school-based (life skills training and counseling).[32] The operation of some of these programs falls to the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council, which partnered with the United Nations Population Fund to create youth-friendly corners that provide confidential services in both behavior-change messaging and clinical care.[38] In the nongovernmental sector, Population Services International offers services (youth-friendly information and clinical care through mobile and fixed sites) and training (of both health professionals and young people to act as peer counselors and “distributors” of condoms).[39]
The national life skills education syllabus, which is mandated to be taught in primary and secondary schools, is currently under revision. The Life Skills, Sexuality, HIV and AIDS Education Strategic Plan for 2012–2015[40] calls for revising the syllabus to add the following topics to its current focus on abstinence: testing and counseling, condom knowledge and self-efficacy, age disparities between partners and male circumcision, to name a few. As with all government-issued plans and strategies, however, follow-through is far from given and the implementation of promised revisions needs to be carefully monitored.
Implications for policies and programs
Adolescents’ actual sexual and reproductive health, as opposed to what the foregoing policies envision or promise, is dependent on a complex set of cultural, social, economic and political influences. Numerous barriers prevent adolescents from taking protective actions, and some of these barriers are amenable to intervention.
Attitudinal barriers
Many parents and providers fear that providing unmarried adolescents with information on contraception to prevent pregnancy in general, and on condoms to prevent HIV in particular, will lead to their becoming sexually active at a young age.[15,41] These attitudes are consistent with cultural norms that severely stigmatize adolescent sexuality in Zimbabwe[23,42] and with the related emphasis on abstinence in strategies to protect youth’s reproductive health. However, unmet need for contraception among single, sexually active adolescent women is high and rising, so innovative solutions are necessary.
The National Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy Addendum acknowledges several problem areas that need immediate attention, including insufficient funding and low use of services by young women, who perceive that services are not “girl-friendly.”[43] Providers would benefit from training on the importance of maintaining confidentiality and having nonjudgmental attitudes, so that fear or embarrassment does not keep adolescents from protecting themselves from unwanted pregnancy and HIV. Providers would also benefit from reviewing the country’s family planning guidelines, which dispel the commonly held misperception that age criteria—and related parental or spousal consent requirements—exist for receiving family planning services.[20] The guidelines clearly specify that “age alone does not constitute a medical reason for denying any method to adolescents” and that those “who are sexually active should be offered a contraceptive method of their choice.”[44]
Encouraging parent-child communication, which is a “key strategy” in the Addendum,[43] would help strengthen both generations’ understanding of the epidemic and how to protect against HIV and unintended pregnancy. Several religious sects in Zimbabwe actively reject programs for young people that speak of anything other than abstinence until marriage, including the growing Apolistic faith (currently 38% of adult women are adherents[7]). To correct suspicions about the disproved link between adolescent counseling services and the timing of sexual activity,[45] church groups could be included in discussions about the evidence on this and on effective strategies to reduce risk among adolescents.[41]
Educational and information barriers
Some of the stigma toward adolescents being sexually active outside of marriage can be addressed through community education campaigns, which need to be conceived and conducted in local languages to resonate in local contexts. Most Zimbabwean adolescents know the two most common ways to prevent HIV infection, but they lack more in-depth understanding, as shown by their only moderate levels of comprehensive knowledge.[7] The proposed changes in the mandatory curricula are positive developments and are meant to address demonstrated knowledge gaps.[40] The new education plan also calls for teaching about the importance of correct and consistent condom use in schools, but not for providing condoms, for which adolescents are referred outside the school. This policy will work only if referred adolescents have access to contraceptives elsewhere. The current minimal availability of youth-friendly services[46] suggests that adolescents’ needs are not being fully met.
As indicated earlier, traditional routes for sensitive information exchange are being eroded. Promising new means of communication to reach all adolescents, such as through social media platforms and mobile phones with Web access, are currently being promoted by Population Services International.[39] Additional non-school–based strategies are needed to appeal to married adolescent women, perhaps the group most vulnerable to HIV and the least likely to be enrolled; one such strategy could be specially designed counseling prior to marriage.
Infrastructure and economic barriers
The economic uncertainty in Zimbabwe has meant the loss of trained health professionals, ongoing shortages of medical supplies and a deteriorating medical infrastructure. Levels of modern contraceptive use among adolescents have declined—and levels of unmet need have consequently risen in urban areas only, where the infrastructure tends to be concentrated. The possible impact of these trends can be seen in the rise in unplanned births among urban adolescents.
Although financial conditions are starting to improve, the crisis has hampered the hiring and training of a new generation of community-based distribution workers, who are needed to replace the original workers who have reached retirement age. The most important method currently used by married adolescents— the pill—is especially amenable to delivery via this system. However, the fact that a single method dominates the method mix suggests the need for expanded options to assure that adolescent women have a range of available methods. For adolescent men, widespread implementation of the strategy of combining HIV counseling and testing with circumcision services would go a long way toward protecting them (and their partners) from HIV infection. For young women, testing and counseling should be integrated into family planning and prenatal services to give them more control over their sexual and reproductive lives.
The consistent finding, using a range of measures, that age at first sex is rising among men but not among women suggests that males likely have more agency to respond to messages about postponing the initiation of sexual activity. Nonetheless, this finding deserves further research. If validated, it is a call to action, given that early age at first sex has been associated with an increased likelihood of being HIV-positive among young Zimbabwean women.[34] Much of the gender differential in initiation of sexual activity could correspond to females’ far greater likelihood of marrying during adolescence. Unfortunately, the proportion of 15–19-year-old women who have married is changing little over time. Moreover, adolescent women who are married off by their families, or who desire to enhance their status by marrying much older men, have little choice in postponing the first time they have sex. The “marriage rights” section of the recent 2013 national constitution confers the right to “found a family” only to persons who have “attained the age of 18,”[47] and hopefully this will help to deter illegal early marriages that lead to early childbearing.
The evidence clearly shows that adolescent women have a high level of unmet need for contraception. Overall, some 56,500 Zimbabwean adolescents do not want to become pregnant but are not acting on that desire by practicing contraception.[12,48] Most of these women—62%, or some 35,000—are married and are thus unable to respond to government messages to abstain from sex. Moreover, given women’s heightened biological vulnerability to HIV infection and the minimal condom use within marriage, married adolescents’ need for testing and counseling is especially high.
That the rate of adolescent childbearing is increasing in rural areas is unexpected and cause for concern, even though the proportion of births reported as unplanned is declining in these areas. In Zimbabwe, higher educational attainment has been independently associated not only with delaying childbearing but also with staying HIVnegative. [49,50] Thus, it is essential that rural adolescent women remain in school as long as possible. And although adolescent fertility declined in urban areas in the early 2000s, that decline has stalled in recent years and the level of unmet need in these areas has risen. The weakened health infrastructure and exodus of trained professionals may have hindered urban adolescents’ ability to exercise control over their sexual and reproductive health.
The defining characteristics of a maturing HIV pandemic are revealing themselves first in countries such as Zimbabwe, where the spread of HIV and AIDS started early. The country will likely see increasing numbers of infants infected at birth who survive and grow to adulthood. To halt the epidemic— and to make progress toward Millennium Development Goals 5 and 6—Zimbabwe must rise to the challenge of prolonging adolescents’ lives and giving them all possible means to prevent spreading the virus among their own generation and to the next.
1. Munjanja S, Maternal and Perinatal Mortality Study, 2007, Harare, Zimbabwe: Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, 2009.
2. World Health Organization (WHO) et al., Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2010; WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and The World Bank Estimates, Geneva: WHO, 2012.
3. WHO et al., Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2013; Estimates by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, The World Bank and the United Nations Population Division, Geneva: WHO, 2014.
4. Ministry of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Zimbabwe 2012: Millennium Development Goals Progress Report, Harare, Zimbabwe: Ministry of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion and UNDP, no date.
5. United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision, File 2, 2014, <http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/ CD-ROM/Default.aspx>, accessed Oct. 2, 2014.
6. World Bank, GNI per capita, Atlas method, 2014, <http://data. worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP. PCAP.CD?order=wbapi_data_ value_2012+wbapi_data_value+wbapi_ data_value-last&sort=desc>, accessed Feb. 10, 2014.
7. Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) and ICF International, Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey, 2010–2011, Calverton, MD, USA: ZIMSTAT and ICF International, 2012.
8. Central Statistical Office (CSO) and Macro International, Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey, 1999, Calverton, MD, USA: CSO and Macro International, 2000.
9. National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, Panel on Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries, Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries, Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2005.
10. CSO and Macro International, Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey, 2005–2006, Calverton, MD, USA: CSO and Macro International, 2007.
11. Eaton JW et al., Increasing adolescent HIV prevalence in eastern Zimbabwe—evidence of long-term survivors of mother-to-child transmission? PLOS ONE, 2013, 8(8):e70447, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070447, accessed Oct. 2, 2014.
12. Guttmacher Institute, special tabulations of data from the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey, 2010–2011.
13. Barbieri M and Hertrich V, Age differences between spouses and contraceptive practice in sub-Saharan Africa, Population, 2005, 60(5/6):615–675.
14. Clark S, Early marriage and HIV risks in sub-Saharan Africa, Studies in Family Planning, 2004, 35(3):149–160.
15. Chitereka J and Nduna B, Determinants of Unmet Need for Family Planning in Zimbabwe, Harare: Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 2010.
16. Parliament of Zimbabwe, Termination of Pregnancy Act, Title 15, Chapter 15:10, Harare, 1977.
17. Anderson R et al., Demystifying Data: A Guide to Using Evidence to Improve Young People’s Sexual Health and Rights, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2014, Zimbabwe country table, pp. 148‒152, <http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/demystifying-data-country-tables.pdf>, accessed Jan. 29, 2014.
19. Guttmacher Institute, special tabulations of data from the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey, 1999.
20. Guttmacher Institute, Background assessment for adolescent reproductive health project: results from interviews with representatives of 15 national and international health organizations and agencies, Sept. 11–14, 2011, Harare, Zimbabwe, unpublished report, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2011.
21. Parliament of Zimbabwe, Legal Age of Majority, 1982 Amendment, Title 8, Chapter 8:07, General Law Amendment Act, Part IV, 15, Harare, 1982.
22. ICF International, DHS Program STATcompiler, 2014, <http://www. statcompiler.com/>, accessed July 28, 2014.
23. Marindo R, Pearson S and Casterline JB, Condom Use and Abstinence Among Unmarried Young People in Zimbabwe: Which Strategy, Whose Agenda? New York: Population Council, 2003.
24. UNAIDS, Global Report: UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic 2013, Geneva: UNAIDS, 2013.
25. UNAIDS, 2006 Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic, Geneva: UNAIDS, 2006, Annex 2: HIV and AIDS Estimates and Data, 2005 and 2003.
26. Ferrand R et al., Causes of acute hospitalization in adolescence: burden and spectrum of HIV-related morbidity in a country with an early-onset and severe HIV epidemic: a prospective survey, PLOS Medicine, 2010, 7(2):e1000178, doi:10.1371/journal. pmed.1000178, accessed Oct. 2, 2014.
28. Gregson S et al., HIV decline in Zimbabwe due to reductions in risky sex? Evidence from a comprehensive epidemiological review, International Journal of Epidemiology, 2010, 39(5):1311–1323.
29. Halperin D et al., A surprising prevention success: Why did the HIV epidemic deline in Zimbabwe? PLOS Medicine, 2011, 8(2):e1000414, doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000414, accessed Oct. 2, 2014.
30. Mills E et al., Male circumcision for the prevention of heterosexually acquired HIV infection: a metaanalysis of randomized trials involving 11,050 men, HIV Medicine, 2008, 9(6):332–335.
31. Langhaug LF et al., Improving young people’s access to reproductive health care in rural Zimbabwe, AIDS Care, 2003, 15(2):147–157.
32. Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, National Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy, 2010–2015, Harare, Zimbabwe: United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UNICEF and WHO, 2009.
33. Karim Q, Sibeko S and Baxter C, Preventing HIV infection in women: a global health imperative, Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2010, 50(Suppl. 3):S122–S129.
34. Pettifor A et al., Early age at first sex: a risk factor for HIV infection among women in Zimbabwe, AIDS, 2004, 18(10):1435–1442.
35. Wyrod R et al., Beyond sugar daddies: intergenerational sex and AIDS in urban Zimbabwe, AIDS and Behavior, 2011, 15(6):1275–1282.
36. Government of Zimbabwe, National Policy on HIV/AIDS for the Republic of Zimbabwe, Harare: Government of Zimbabwe, 1999.
37. Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, National Sexual and Reproductive Health Stategy, Harare, Zimbabwe: Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, 2012.
38. UNFPA, Zimbabwe: Adolescents sexual and reproductive health, 2011, <http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/ Zimbabwe/2010/11/20/2891/adolescents_ sexual_and_reproductive_ health/>, accessed July 30, 2014.
39. Population Services International, Brief on PSI/Zimbabwe’s provision of contraception/contraceptive services to adolescents, Harare, Zimbabwe, July 2014.
40. Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Life Skills, Sexuality, HIV and AIDS Education Strategic Plan, 2012–2015, Harare, Zimbabwe: Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, 2012.
41. Mashamba A and Robson E, Youth reproductive health services in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Health & Place, 2002, 8(4):273–283.
42. Chikovore J et al., Struggling with growing bodies within silence and denial: perspectives of HIV and AIDS among youth in rural Zimbabwe, African Journal of AIDS Research, 2010, 8(4):503–513.
43. Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, National Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy Addendum, 2013–2015, Harare, Zimbabwe: UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO, 2013.
44. Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Family Planning Guidelines for Zimbabwe: A Guide to Essential Practice, Harare, Zimbabwe: Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, 2011.
45. Kirby D, The impact of sex education on the sexual behaviour of young people, Population Division Expert Paper, New York: United Nations, 2011, No. 2011/12.
46. National Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) Advocacy Package and Implementation Plan: 2014–2015 for Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe, no date.
47. Parliament of Zimbabwe, Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20), Part 2, Section 78, Harare, 2013.
48. United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision, 2014, <http://esa.un.org/wpp/Excel-Data/ population.htm>, accessed Feb. 18, 2014.
49. Gavin L et al., Factors associated with HIV infection in adolescent females in Zimbabwe, Journal of Adolescent Health, 2006, 39(4):596–598.
50. Gregson S et al., HIV infection and reproductive health in teenage women orphaned and made vulnerable by AIDS in Zimbabwe, AIDS Care, 2005, 17(7):785–794.
*We refer to surveys conducted over a two-year period (i.e., the 2005–2006 and 2010–2011 surveys) by the latter year only.
†We use the term “adolescents” to indicate 15–19-year-olds, even though this term can encompass a broader age range.
‡In this report, marriage includes both legal and informal (living together) unions.
§The Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1977 also allows for exceptions of fetal abnormality incompatible with life and of pregnancies that result from unlawful intercourse (source: reference 16).
**Modern methods currently used by mar- ried adolescents in Zimbabwe include the pill, implant, injectable and male condom; other modern methods asked about in Zimbabwe’s surveys, but not used by women in this age-group, are female sterilization and the female condom. The Demographic and Health Surveys categorize the lactational amenorrhea method as modern, but in this report it is considered a traditional method (sources: references 7, 8 and 10).
††In 2012, the MEASURE DHS program revised how it calculates unmet need. The values presented here use the re- vised definition, so will not match those published in Zimbabwe’s survey reports (source: Bradley SEK et al., Revising unmet need for family planning, DHS Analytical Studies, Calverton, MD, USA: ICF International, 2012, No. 25).
‡‡This decline reflects not only fewer infections among newly tested individuals but, when HIV mortality is high, the impact of deaths from AIDS. Given the large contribution of HIV to maternal mortality and the likelihood that many 15–24-year- olds want to have a child, women’s considerable decline in HIV prevalence may be related to maternal deaths, but we lack verifying data. The decrease in prevalence attributable to deaths from AIDS would have been even greater if not for the wide- spread use of life-saving antiretrovirals among infected 15–49-year-olds (85%) and, less commonly, among children aged 14 or younger (43%) (source: National AIDS Council, Global AIDS Response Country Progress Report: Zimbabwe, 2014, Harare, Zimbabwe: National AIDS Council, 2014).
§§Comprehensive knowledge is defined as knowing that HIV risk can be reduced by consistent condom use and by having just one uninfected monogamous partner; knowing that a healthy-looking person can have HIV; and rejecting the two most common misconceptions about HIV transmission in the country—that it can be spread by mosquito bites or sharing food.
Suggested citation: Remez L, Woog V and Mhloyi, M, Sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents in Zimbabwe, In Brief, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2014, No. 3.
This In Brief was written by Lisa Remez, independent consultant; Vanessa Woog, Guttmacher Institute; and Marvelous Mhloyi, University of Zimbabwe. It was edited by John Thomas, Guttmacher Institute. The authors are grateful for comments provided by Jeremiah Chikovore, Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa; Tamisayi Chinhengo, UNFPA Zimbabwe Country Office; Tsitsi Masvawure, HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, Columbia University; Edmore Munongo, Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council; and Amson Sibanda, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs; and for contributions by the following Guttmacher colleagues: Akin Bankole, Heather Boonstra, Jessica Malter, Ann Moore, Gilda Sedgh, Susheela Singh and Gustavo Suarez. They also thank Suzette Audam and Vivian Gor for data and research assistance. This publication was supported by a subgrant from Population Services International under the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Choices and Opportunities Fund.
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Grammy for Best Country Album: Will Kacey Musgraves pull off upset over Chris Stapleton?
Daniel Montgomery
Chris Stapleton (“Traveller“) is the only Grammy nominee for Best Country Artist who also contends for Album of the Year, so that should make him the clear frontrunner to win this award, right? Maybe, but maybe not.
It is true that Album of the Year nominees tend to have an advantage in genre categories, and Best Country Album is no exception. When this category has included a nominee for Album of the Year, that disc has won six out of eight times: Dixie Chicks (“Fly” in 1999, “Home” in 2002, “Taking the Long Way” in 2006), Vince Gill (“These Days,” 2007), Taylor Swift (“Fearless,” 2009) and Lady Antebellum (“Need You Now,” 2010).
That gives Stapleton a strong statistical advantage, and we already saw how much the industry loves him when he was awarded Album of the Year at the CMA Awards in November.
However, there are two exceptions to this rule. In 1998, Shania Twain was nominated for Album of the Year for “Come on Over,” but lost Best Country Album in an upset to the Dixie Chicks’ breakthrough, “Wide Open Spaces.” And in 2013, Taylor Swift was up for Album of the Year for “Red” but lost the country award to Kacey Musgraves (“Same Trailer, Different Park“).
Musgraves is nominated again this year for her sophomore album, “Pageant Material,” so Stapleton should watch his back. Can she pull off another upset?
They both face stiff competition from other artists recognized in the general field. Breakout star Sam Hunt is nominated for his debut album, “Montevallo.” He only has one other bid this year, but it’s a big one: Best New Artist. Keep in mind that both the Dixie Chicks and Kacey Musgraves were nominated for Best New Artist when they pulled off their upsets in this category.
Little Big Town aren’t nominated in the general field, but the songwriters behind their hit “Girl Crush” contend for Song of the Year, and the band could ride that wave of support to a win here for their album “Pain Killer,” which is the band’s sixth album but only their second to compete in this category, following “The Road to Here” in 2006.
Rounding out the race is Ashley Monroe, who picks up her first nomination in this category for “The Blade.” She has one other nomination this year: Best Country Duo/Group for “Lonely Tonight” with Blake Shelton.
Grammy for Best Rock Album: Newcomer James Bay vs. veterans Muse & Slipknot
Who do you think will win?
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“Pageant Material” artwork credit: Mercury Nashville
“Traveller” artwork credit: Mercury Nashville
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Can You Say You're Surprised?
Tiger's never lost a major he lead after after 54 holes. Why should this one be any different?
Street Lecka/Getty Images
Don't be fooled by the smile. He hasn't let up one inch.
TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Tiger Woods draped a blue towel over sagging shoulders, looking like a heavyweight who had gone the distance.
You should have seen the other guys.
Woods set modest goals that led to great expectations Saturday in the PGA Championship, turning in a 1-under 69 in torrid temperatures at Southern Hills to build a three-shot lead over Stephen Ames.
He has never lost a major when leading after 36 holes. He has never lost any tournament anywhere in the world when leading by more than one shot going into the final round.
"I've always enjoyed being out in front," said Woods, who was at 7-under 203. "And hopefully, tomorrow I can go ahead and play the way I've been playing the last few days."
No one conceded the final major to the world's No. 1 player.
But it sure sounded that way.
"If you're trying to win a tournament like this, he's the wrong guy to let get out ahead of you," Scott Verplank said after a 74 that made him look more like a bystander than a contender.
"He knows he's going to win," Arron Oberholser said after an even-par 70 left him seven shots behind. "I think the scary thing is that maybe he knows that you know he's going to win."
Saving his best golf for the final major, Woods followed his record-tying score of 63 with a round that wasn't anything special but no less effective. He made 15 pars, two of them with 10-foot putts that kept him in control early, and rarely took on the flags.
"I accomplished my goal today," Woods said. "My goal was to shoot under par and increase my lead. And I was able to do that."
Five players remained under par, and only Ernie Els (69) at 1-under 209 has experience winning a major.
"The statistics will tell you, yes, it is over," Els said. "But as a competitor, I can't sit there and tell you it's over. I can't ever do that."
But if he were watching from his house?
"If I was not a golfer -- a fan on the couch -- I'd be putting my house on him, yeah," Els said.
Woods made it look as though this were a Sunday afternoon and he was protecting his lead, playing away from trouble and rarely having to work too hard for par. He picked up his birdies with a 6-foot putt on No. 4 and a 12-footer on the 12th that stretched his lead to five at one point Saturday.
It will be the third time this year Woods plays in the final group of a major. He was trailing at the Masters and U.S. Open and never caught up, but the odds are much higher in his favor of capturing his first major of the year.
Ames made a 12-foot birdie on the final hole for a 69 that put him in the final group of a major for the first time. Just his luck he gets Woods, spotting the 12-time major champion a three-shot lead.
Ames bristled when his loss to Woods in the Accenture Match Play Championship last year was brought up again. He jokingly said that anything could happen "especially where he's hitting the ball," and Woods went on to a record 9-and-8 victory two days later.
This time, Ames figures he has nothing to lose.
"For me, it's a great opportunity of being in the situation," he said. "Tiger's going for his 13th. I'm looking for my first."
Woody Austin lost his chance to be in the final group when he took bogey on the final hole for a 69, leaving him at 207. John Senden had a 69 and was another shot back, followed by Els.
"You recognize him as the world's No. 1, and him having the lead ... it's a tough ask to go out there and compete with him because you respect how good he is," Senden said. "I have to continue on what I have to do best, and if that's good enough to beat Tiger Woods, well, fantastic."
Verplank held his own until a double bogey from the rough and trees on the signature 12th hole, and a three-putt from the back of the 18th green for bogey ended his long day. He was in a large group at even-par 210.
For the briefest moment, the former U.S. Amateur champion from Oklahoma State pulled within one shot. Verplank dribbled an 8-foot birdie putt down the hill and into the cup at No. 4 to reach 5 under, only to watch Woods hole a 6-foot putt to match his birdie and restore the margin to two shots.
Walking to the fifth tee, Verplank smirked and said, "That guy makes everything."
It sure looked that way.
Woods atoned for a poor chip on the third with a 10-foot par save, and saved par from 10 feet again on the eighth after hitting into a bunker. His streak of 24 straight holes without a bogey ended when he hit 6-iron into the bunker on the 14th and missed from 18 feet.
He led by as many as five shots on the back nine until that bogey on 14. Even so, it was his largest lead going into the final round of a major since the 2005 Masters, which he won in a playoff over Chris DiMarco.
One after another, players finished their rounds, looked at the top of the leaderboard and figured it would require their best round to have any chance of winning. They have seen this before.
And so has Woods, even if he won't concede the tournament is over.
This is only the fifth time in his career that Woods came to the final major of the year without winning one, although he arrived at Southern Hills fresh off an eight-shot victory at a World Golf Championship.
But the work is not done.
"I've always said in order to have a great year you have to win a major championship," he said. "You can win every tournament, but the majors are where it's at. And this year, I've had some opportunities to deal with this. I haven't done it. I'm in good shape going into tomorrow and hopefully, I can get it done."
The only low scores were in the morning, when the greens were still smooth. Boo Weekley had a chance to shoot 63 until he hit his approach on the 18th about 45 feet away and took three putts for a bogey and a 65.
Playing with Weekley was Sergio Garcia, but not for long. Weekley marked down a 4 for Garcia on the 17th hole when the Spaniard made 5, and Garcia signed it anyway and was disqualified.
Woods looked as though he might come back to the field, but he steadied himself quickly. He saved par twice on the first three holes, then wiggled his way out of trouble on the par-5 fifth when he bounced his third shot out of the rough, under a tree and tumbling up to the green about 35 feet left of the pin.
It will be the second straight week that Woods played in the final group against someone whose comments about him got wide publicity. Last week, Woods turned a one-shot victory over Rory Sabbatini -- who said earlier this year Woods looked "beatable as ever" into an eight-shot win.
This will be the first time since Match Play last year that Woods and Ames have played together.
For both, it seemed like a distant memory. More important is the immediate future.
"I know what I have to do tomorrow," Woods said.
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Jim Fleming Football Camps
Inside Slant: Work Ethic Shines Through in Asiedu-Johnson
By Khayri Denny
GoRhody.com Staff
KINGSTON, R.I. – Not too often in life do we meet people who genuinely have an impact on our growth. Prince Asiedu-Johnson happens to be one of those rare individuals.
Prince is a junior who made the football team as a walk-on who now has earned a partial scholarship and has had a significant impact on the field. Getting to know Prince over these few years has been an interesting and inspiring experience.
Growing up in Pawtucket, R.I. the opportunity for success in sports was very slim. Although college programs are encouraged to bring in home state talent, the University of Rhode Island happens to be one of those institutions that has more out of state players than in state. Not only did he come out of a small town in Rhode Island, he attended Tolman High School which is not known for their football program at all.
One thing that was very interesting about Prince's journey was that he took two years out of school, to make time for himself.
"My plan was to come to the University and play football, unfortunately it did not turn out that way," he said.
After spending time at home, he realized that football was something that he still inspired to do.
"I spent nights praying that I would have that opportunity again," Asiedu-Johnson said.
After much hard work and determination, he found himself back at the University, getting another opportunity to play the game he loves. Prince sustained a toe injury which ultimately required him to have surgery last season. This was another obstacle that was placed in front of him, but it did not stop him.
He came back stronger after this surgery and has earned playing time this season. Against in-state rival Brown, Asiedu-Johnson ran eight times for 49 yards. He also had three receptions in a win over Albany, and has made significant contributions in other games as well.
Prince Asiedu-Johnson is a person that I respect and appreciate; I feel like we have a lot in common. He is genuine, hardworking, and respectful. When it gets hard, it may hurt for a moment, but life will not stop him. His attitude is something I have the utmost respect for.
As he continues to grind and trust the process, there is no doubt in my mind that he will accomplish everything planned for his life.
Rhode Island senior wide receiver Khayri Denny will take fans behind the scenes with his blog, Inside Slant, throughout the 2018 season.
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Defence and armed forces
Daz beats bullies to lead England’s boxers at Commonwealth Games
An RAF Warrant Officer who took up boxing to beat the school ground bullies will lead out the England Boxing team at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia next month.
Ministry of Defence and The Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE MP
RAF Warrant Officer Daz Chapple
Sick of unpleasant comments and the threat of violence hanging over him, 10-year-old Daz Chapple took up the contact sport at his local gym in Saltash, Cornwall so he could look after himself.
Now, almost 40 years later, Daz, who is based at Defence, Equipment and Support (DE&S), the government’s procurement agency based at MOD Abbey Wood in Bristol, has been selected as Team Leader of Team England.
At the Gold Coast next April he will lead out 12 of the country’s most talented amateur boxers, fully expecting them to bring back a haul of medals.
Daz, who lives in Bristol, said:
I came from a tough background, was bullied at school and decided I needed to protect myself.
I saw an advert at my school, which happened to have a national schoolboy champion at the time, and I decided there was no reason I couldn’t follow in his footsteps.
Daz recently met the Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson
As soon as he started training, Daz fell in love with the sport and went on to make several national semi-finals in the 51kg division.
At 18 he joined the RAF as an aerial erector and walked straight into the RAF boxing team.
After being posted to Germany for four years he returned to the UK and to the ring but, such was his love for the sport, soon found himself juggling being a boxer, coach and team manager as well as having to fulfil all his commitments in his role with the Armed Forces.
Daz, who recently met the Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson during a visit to DE&S, said:
The military has been very good to me. I put in a lot of extra hours but there are not many places you can work that would allow you the time or flexibility to be able to do this role.
In 2007 Daz applied successfully for a role of England Boxing Team Manager and is now Director England Boxing, (Director of Talent and Performance and GB Talent Commission).
Over the years Daz has witnessed hundreds of bouts – one of which he particularly remembers.
I actually managed Tyson Fury’s first fight as an amateur which took place in the Officers’ mess hall at RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire. He was so tall and had such a long reach the other guy could not get near him. He was fast too which singled him out. He has done well for himself.
Daz Chapple (left) in a boxing match in his youth
For Daz the single moment that stands out is being given the prestigious appointment of Team Leader and being asked to lead out Team England Boxing at the forthcoming Commonwealth Games.
It is an absolute honour for me. I have dedicated my life to boxing and to be asked to lead the team out in Australia is incredible. It just doesn’t get any better.
We have an incredibly strong team and I believe we will be very successful.
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You are here: Home Ministries Ministry of Foreign Affairs Organisation Special appointments
Special appointments
Besides the ambassadors appointed to foreign states, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has an Ambassador at Large, who is at the disposal of the Ministry’s political leaders to undertake special assignments. The Ministry also has a number of special ambassadors, each dedicated to a particular theme. This is an overview of special appointments and their areas of responsibility.
HIV/AIDS Ambassador
The Netherlands is at the forefront of the international campaign against HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS Ambassador addresses HIV/AIDS issues against the broader backdrop of two other policy priorities: sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including autonomy in sexual and reproductive decision-making, and the empowerment of women.
Ambassador for International Cultural Cooperation
The position of Ambassador for International Cultural Cooperation was created in 1980, in response to the Ministry’s increasing focus on international cultural policy. Today, culture is an integral part of Dutch foreign policy. Cultural diplomacy can take many forms. Culture has the power to open doors in foreign relations and can be a catalyst for discussion and social change, both at home and abroad.
Ambassador for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
The goal of the MDGs Ambassador is to put the Millennium Development Goals at the top of the national and international political agendas. In the Netherlands, the MDGs Ambassador seeks to broaden public commitment to the MDGs, for instance by encouraging civil society organisations and new partners such as the private sector to become involved in innovative forms of development cooperation. At international level, the Ambassador must regularly remind other countries, donors and developing countries of their pledges, through bilateral relations and by ensuring that the Netherlands plays a more active and effective role in the EU and the UN.
Ambassador for International Organisations
The Netherlands’ reputation as host country depends in large part on the way it welcomes international organisations. These organisations, their employees and the latter’s families are also a boon to the local economy. In 2005, the Cabinet decided to develop a coherent, government-wide policy to improve the Netherlands’ performance as a host country, which included the appointment of a special Ambassador for International Organisations (AMIO).
Human Rights Ambassador
The Netherlands has had a special ambassador dedicated to human rights since 1999. The position gives the Netherlands a visible, distinctive profile in the area of human rights. The Human Rights Ambassador also strives for greater coherence in Dutch human rights policy.
Special Representative for Neighbouring Countries
The head of the Europe Department (DEU) also acts as the Netherlands’ Special Representative for Neighbouring Countries. The Special Representative’s main goal is to strengthen relations with Germany and Belgium, starting with the North Rhine-Westphalia and Flanders border areas. He also seeks to ensure a strategic and consistent approach to policy regarding cross-border cooperation with Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg.
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New technology gives hope to people with heart valve disease
Home » Cardiology » New technology gives hope to people with heart valve disease
Dr Dougie Muir
Consultant Cardiologist, James Cook University Hospital
New developments in Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation have revolutionised the treatment of heart valve disease, saving more lives and reducing NHS costs.
There are people with heart valve disease who travel hundreds of miles to speak with Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, Dr Douglas Muir. That’s because Dr Muir and his hospital, the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough, are specialists in a procedure called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI).
In the procedure, people with a damaged heart valve receive a replacement valve, which is put in place using a tube the size of your little finger. The tube, with a collapsible ‘crimped’ replacement valve inside, is usually inserted under local anaesthetic into an artery running from the groin. Dr Muir explains: “A bit like putting a ship in a bottle”.
Some patients notice a difference immediately
People receiving the procedure transform from being so breathless that they can’t even walk across the room to planning coast-to-coast walks. Dr Muir says he’s had patients who say they feel completely different as soon as they sit up in bed.
AS can kill in under two years
Within 2-3 hours, the patient can be up in bed, and around 70% go home the next day.
Aortic Stenosis (AS) is one of the most common heart conditions affecting older people. Considered age-related ‘wear and tear’, the condition affects around one in ten 80-year-olds and is characterised by a narrowing of the heart valve. Left untreated, severe AS can kill within one to two years.
TAVI was introduced at the James Cook Hospital in 2009 and today, around one in five people with AS will be offered the procedure. Traditionally only those with the most severely damaged valves and at such high-risk as to be inoperable were given TAVI. However, as understanding of the procedure, and the technology, have improved, people who are lower surgical risk also now receive TAVI, compared to the past where only inoperable patients were eligible. It’s seen as a much less risky alternative to open heart surgery, which requires the chest to be cut open, full anaesthetic and the support of a surgical team and expensive stand-by equipment.
Hospital stay reduced from a week to a day
TAVI has also reduced the average post-operative hospital stay from a week to one day. “The local anaesthetic makes the big difference to recovery,” Dr Muir says. Within two to three hours the patient can be up in bed, and around 70% go home the next day. Complications and post-operative pain are also much improved.
Compared to traditional surgical approaches to this condition, TAVI has a higher up-front cost, but this is offset when you take into consideration the patient’s length of stay in hospital and use of resources, Dr Muir believes. He describes TAVI as “a win-win solution for everyone.”
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Southampton's NST City and the impact it is having on the city
Viv Micklefield
The new auditorium at NST City can seat 450 people (Photo by Stefan Venter)
One year after the curtain went up on NST City, Southampton's newest theatre is at the beating heart of its dynamic cultural quarter. We discover the impact it is having
“Creativity is contagious, pass it on,” Albert Einstein famously said. So, when Nuffield Theatre Southampton’s second venue NST City opened at the long-awaited Studio 144 arts complex on Guildhall Square in February 2018, the spotlight switched on.
The £30million Studio 144, named in homage to the former Tyrrell and Green department store that once traded here, now also houses the John Hansard Gallery and filmmakers, City Eye, providing all three organisations with new-found visibility. In the case of NST City its roots go back to 1964 when, backed by the Nuffield Foundation, a producing theatre was established on the University of Southampton’s Highfield campus. Funded today by Arts Council England, Southampton City Council and the University, one of the UK’s most renowned professional companies is led by Sam Hodges who, having arrived fresh from London’s Criterion Theatre in 2013, has seen the accolades (including Regional Theatre of the Year) roll-in.
The launch of NST City offers an additional 450-seater main house, studio theatre, screening facilities, rehearsal, and workshop spaces, plus a café bar. Importantly though, not only is this the latest act in NST’s repertoire, it also marks Southampton’s ambition to raise the public’s cultural consciousness.
“Before, we had a theatre which had been here (in Southampton) for over 40 years which some people didn’t know existed,” says Sam Hodges, “So that’s changing now that we’re also right on Guildhall Square among everything.” Adding, “It’s never a question of just open a new venue and audiences will come; it takes work and face-to-face conversations. But through some careful programming (including the story of SS Mendi Dancing the Death Drill, which this year transfers to the Royal Opera House) and some tireless work by the likes of Tracey Cruickshank, our community engagement producer, our public spaces are beginning to fill-up with people who understand that NST City can be theirs.”
It’s an idea about which Sam is passionate, and one which was whole-heartedly embraced in NST City’s launch production of The Shadow Factory in February 2018.
“The show sold-out, which was brilliant, and involved a big community chorus. It really showed why producing theatres are important.”
“One of the most fulfilling parts of the year has been the relationships that we’ve begun to cultivate and deepen with a genuinely broad spectrum of people from across Southampton’s communities; from older residents who can remember the shadow factories, to a spoken word and rap collective made up of young people who represent the diverse and vibrant cultures of Southampton’s Newtown area.”
Whilst the Nuffield’s youth theatre remains a hotbed for burgeoning creative talent, the so-called Nuffield Laboratory also has its sights set firmly on the future.
“Our artists’ develop programme works across both our two spaces and across the city. We recently launched the self-starters initiative, as it should also be somewhere that artists themselves are making things happen.”
James Gough, director of Southampton Cultural Development Trust, which brought together the various partners behind the ten-year plan to build Studio 144 – the Department of Media, Sport and Culture, the Arts Council and, not least, Southampton City Council, agrees on the difference the arts can make to city life.
“It’s long been an ambition to have a cultural focal point that the city can be proud of. And to have organisations within such a space that can be both a platform and catalyst for change.”
The opportunity to collaborate in building new audiences and at the same time being able to broaden their appeal by working with arts partners from across the globe is, he believes, “what a world class venue allows you to do”. Whilst acknowledging, “Studio 144 is not just a home for those organisations within it; their knowledge and skills allows them to go out into communities, which is so critical for the city’s cultural growth.”
And, the public’s response so far has given those involved with the project reason for optimism.
Councillor Satvir Kaur, cabinet member for homes and culture, observes, “Southampton is fast becoming the cultural destination within the region, with Studio 144 being an important landmark. It is creating the invaluable infrastructure needed to ensure the arts can continue to have a positive impact on the people and place of Southampton.
“Not only has Studio 144 helped grow the local economy by creating hundreds of new jobs, attracting tens of thousands of visitors and generating millions of pounds; but it has put Southampton on the map and created city pride, offering something for everyone. Nuffield Southampton Theatres, City Eye and John Hansard Gallery, have also been great examples of how the arts can help address social and community needs in the city.
“Southampton is prime for becoming a City of Culture so that we can continue to use the arts to grow our thriving city.”
Meanwhile, as NST City heads into its second year there’s a self belief in the ability to make a difference.
“This is a year that puts Southampton’s heritage as a city right at the heart of the programme,” says Sam Hodges.
“There are many highlights already on the horizon. We’re producing the regional premiere of Peter Morgan’s brilliant play The Audience, that we hope will be a real ode to contemporary theatre and the worlds it can create.
“We’re also producing the European premiere of an adaptation of Khalid Hosseini’s bestseller, A Thousand Splendid Suns. And I’m really excited about a brand new radio play, a curation of existing verbatim accounts from former Ford employees after the Southampton plant closed, which we’re going to be presenting in a Ford Transit van and touring!”
Sam is, however, not one to get swept away by NST City’s success so far.
“It feels like year zero in many ways,” he reflects, “We’ve got a long way to go, but the conversations and interactions have been rich and full of promise.”
• 4 of the best cocktail bars in Southampton - Got a date or planning a catch up with a friend? Head to one of these fantastic cocktail bars in Southampton
The Kitchen at Chewton Glen: Alfresco Dinners Cookery Class
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Hannah S. Blechman
The Films of Joel Schumacher
my 2018 personal Blank Check project
Blood Creek (2009)
written by: David Kajganich
starring: Henry Cavill, Dominic Purcell, Michael Fassbender, Shea Whigham, and Emma Booth
So I've had a rough couple of weeks. That's the plain truth of it. It's been a hard couple of weeks, and I'm exhausted, and behind schedule on many things in my life. So, when I sat down to watch Blood Creek (on the 13th, mind, so much later than I had hoped or scheduled), all I wanted was something decent. What I got was something fun-- something genuinely enjoyable, entertaining, gory, and engaging-- which I appreciated very much.
Blood Creek is a simple kind of horror movie-- two brothers find themselves trapped on a farm with a monster. But this is a real devil-in-the-details situation, and it's truly the details of this movie that make it fun. The set up is straightforward enough: in the late 1930s, as Hitler takes power in Germany, he sends various guys to spots in America to investigate mysterious rune stones believed to have dark, occult magic. The opening of the movie sets up this exact premise, in full noir style (gorgeous, crisp, ominous), introducing us to one of those Nazis (Michael Fassbender, appropriately smooth and slimey for this sort of thing) and the family he shacks up with.
Seventy years later, that guy is still around, and now he's not just a normal Nazi, he's an immortal zombie-mummy-vampire-necromancer Nazi. That's enough of a set up for me to get on board with. It would be plenty for him to just be a spooky necromancer, but he's literally also all those other things. It's amazing and extravagant, but it plays like gangbusters within the nitty-gritty of the movie. From the get go it's all dark magic and occult symbols and whispered incantations. The stage is set, and then the lore of all this can spin out. David Kajganich, the writer, went on to show-run my favorite thing in 2018, AMC's The Terror. The Terror is a masterful piece of human drama, set in an encroaching horror story filled with dread, tension, and a monster who goes unseen while still wrecking havoc upon our semi-hapless heroes. Blood Creek plays some of these same cards, and is successful for that. This is, after all, a horror movie.
The human drama of the movie is between the two brothers. One brother, Evan (Henry Cavill), is an EMT, struggling to keep his family together after the mysterious disappearance of his brother during a fishing trip they took together. He's tired, stressed, and guilty, but he's a good man. This is something Cavill is good at, and certainly the reason he's been Superman for five years. There's something inherently decent to him, when he plays good people. He has a broad, open, very pretty face. I'm at a point with Cavill where I'm really not convinced he's a good actor, at all, but he's not bad here. There are a few moments of fear and distress from him that are really effective, and it's maybe the most human I've ever seen him (and believed him to be). Some of the heroism isn't as good, but I'll forgive him. I think some of it comes from the fact that he’s British, and when he has to do an American accent, it makes him a little stiff and forced. But he’s a handsome boy doing his best, and that’s enough.
The other brother, Victor (Dominic Purcell), he of the missing-presumed-dead-for-two-years, is a tougher type. Purcell is an actor who I know by face better than by performances, and he's good here. Generally tough, tortured, and angry, Victor is a character who could be pretty flat, but Purcell imbues him with an undercurrent of doubt and fear which makes him more fully formed. He's brave and capable, smart and determined. Oh, and he's not dead, by the way, and his return sets off the action of the story. Victor, it turns out, had been kidnapped by some farmers and kept as a blood-bag feed source for the immortal zombie-mummy-vampire-necromancer Nazi. He's escaped, and now he's out for revenge. So, with Evan in tow, he goes to get it.
So the movie begins as a revenge thriller. Very quickly, and I mean within 20 minutes, Victor and Evan are back on the farm and ready for action. It's fast, which is exciting. There's very little wasted space on this movie. It's a tight 90 minutes, no fat. The farm is a spooky sort of place, semi-abandoned and covered in painted symbols and boarded up windows. It's a good set, and once we're there, the movie remains there for the next 70 minutes. Simple stuff, but effective. The farm has a main house, a barn, a spooky shipping container in the back. The brothers are attacked by a dog, which is killed. They confront the family in the house, killing the son. Finally, having taken control of the property, the brothers get the family to sit down and explain what's going on. And then, the sun goes down.
With the disappearance of the sun, the movie turns from revenge thriller to full on horror. The family, who we recognize from the opening sequence with Fassbender, have been trapped in a limbo without time, stuck on their farm, unaging, undying, but also unable to leave. They have trapped the evil Nazi on the property, using his own sigil-based magic against him, and have spent the past 70 years keeping him mollified through human sacrifices. That's why Victor was taken, to be eaten. Again, the world building is clear and well established. The vampire Nazi can't drink dead blood, and to keep him from running wild on the world, the family has caught bystanders, put them in the shipping container, and allowed the Nazi to drink from them for, apparently, years at a time. Meanwhile, his evil magic has kept them alive, but ah! what a cost!!
Oh, and then the Nazi busts out of the cellar and starts to really stir shit up. What happens next is a series of small set pieces, as the Nazi tries to get at everyone. As a necromancer, he brings back the previously killed dog, and brother, and sends them into the house after our heroes. Then he kills a HORSE and sends a ZOMBIE HORSE into the house. That sequence looks bad, I will admit-- a CGI zombie horse that is also on fire is uh a hard thing to successfully create-- but the idea behind it is bonkers in a way I loved. How do you fight off an undead horse??? Horses are already terrifying, and now this one is a zombie!? and on FIRE!? That's the sort of striking thing this movie does really well. By the time they introduce the idea that the Nazi can only be killed by drinking his own blood, you’re like, yeah sure why not. It tracks. After the zombie horse, even a suit of armor made of human bones makes perfect sense. Once you’ve established the magical runes aspect, and the immortal Nazi thing, the rest of it falls into place. I enjoyed every turn of lore and bit of new information. It ramps up and lets loose, and you just have to get on board for the ride.
There's also a part where the Nazi rides a horse, which struck me so, I gasped out loud. I would say overall this movie isn't anything necessarily remarkable to look at, but there are a few flourishes and little touches that I quite liked. There are lovely symmetrical shots, beautiful hazy lighting that makes hair glow and eyes twinkle. Schumacher uses a few bold effects on flashbacks and dream sequences which work well, and an appropriately disorienting light fish-eye thing that blurs out the edge of the frame. I know there's a name for that (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, now on Netflix, uses it perhaps too much), and someone should please tell me what it is. But in Blood Creek, I liked it a lot. It creates a kind of off-kilter claustrophobia. The characters can't see into their peripheries, and neither can we. I liked the touch. And as ever, Schumacher loves looking at faces. There are beautiful shots of Cavill and Purcell, striking lighting as the sun sets, and then, once the farm is half on fire, the glow of it lights scenes spectacularly.
The rest of the movie is equally well designed. The Nazi himself is a long, lean monster. It's clearly Fassbender under there, which I appreciated seeing. He has a particular body shape and way of moving that I recognized, and to see him hurl himself around the movie, both stalking and tricking his prey and then forcefully crashing through pieces of it was quite satisfying. When he emerges from the cellar after dark, his face is wrapped in bandages, and the whole looks has a frightful touch of old monster movies. He's the mummy, emerging from the shadows to steal your life. As the movie progresses and various dark magic things happen, he takes off layer and layer of his face, revealing something new and freaky each time. The middle level is probably the best, when his face is carved with runes and lines, giving him a stitched-together look. It's cool stuff, and the face-layer removal is visceral and icky each time. He literally peels his face off, which kinda rules.
The whole movie is appropriately icky. The early violence is swift and brutal, the later stuff is gooey and gross. By the end, they defeat the Nazi by garroting him with razor wire, and the camera does not shy away from the visual of slicing into skin, tendons, and cartilage, nor does it avoid showing the congealed pus and blood which that wound produces from his undead Nazi body. It's a big gross out and I screeched and giggled through it. For me, that's the best response to gore. It was gross, but enjoyable. Icky, but not so icky I didn't want to watch it happen. Unpleasant, but satisfying. It's a thrill and a palpable victory to watch that Nazi get killed-- and if that isn't the sign of a successful finale to a horror movie, I don't know what is. You want to celebrate when the baddie gets his due. I did here.
After that, the movie delivers a good denoument, and a gentle set up to a sequel that will never come, which doesn't feel cheap or unearned. It's a cool idea that expands the world of vampire-zombie-mummy-necromancer Nazis, and heck, I would watch such a thing. It won't happen, because Blood Creek barely exists. In a different world, we have two or three of these movies by now, as Cavill's character hunts down the other Nazis who were sent to America like Fassbender was. That sounds fun, y'all! But alas.
What we do have is one solid little movie. It's dark, it's thrilling, it's spooky and gross. I had a good time watching it. It's doing enough visually to not feel dull or generic, without going over the top and becoming ugly and Too Much. The balance here is right. It's maybe not a remarkable movie, but it's really solid and the stuff that stands out is really neat. I appreciate a simple set-up well delivered. That's what Blood Creek is.
Of course, it must be said that it helps that the cast is so good. As ever, Schumacher demonstrates that he's got a good eye for rising stars. This is Cavill pre-Superman, and Fassbender pre-X-Men. At this point, Dominic Purcell, star of Prison Break, might have been the biggest name in the main cast. That's honestly wild stuff. But Schumacher knows what he's got, and he knows what to do with it. Fassbender's few early scenes as a handsome professor come to West Virginia totally work. He's charming and shark-y all at once, already doing black magic and smiling at little girls. Later, his work as a gruesome monster is good too! He's delivering a lot under all visual grossness of his character, which speaks to his ability to act through makeup and beyond just his face, and to Schumacher's understanding that a good and interesting actor can add a lot to a role that doesn't seem to require much on paper. It's the trick to having a real actor in an action movie-- they bring character and performance to each moment, even while running and jumping. Here, Schumacher allows Fassbender to bring real performance to a monster who spends most of the movie wrapped in bandages or covered in decaying flesh. That's good shit.
I linger on Fassbender because I think he's the best of the leading actors in this movie, and has the least to work with and the most difficult challenges to his performance. But he does a good job, and creates an interesting, creepy villain.
Schumacher does something similar with Blood Creek itself. He takes something that, on paper, is only okay, and has some challenges in it (evil Nazis as a plot point is pretty trite. Like, duh, you know?), and creates something slick, fun, and visceral. I physically cringed multiple times watching this movie. It's fast-paced, never dull, and thoroughly a wild ride from beginning to end. Is it a masterpiece? I guess not, but to that I say... whatever dude. It's a movie about an immortal Nazi who drinks blood. That doesn't need to be a masterpiece. But hell, if it's a fun time.
Overall: ★ ★ ★ ★
Schumacherness: ★ ★ ★
Up next: Twelve (2010)
Hannah Blechman November 18, 2018 schumacher
Twelve (2010)
Hannah Blechman December 10, 2018 schumacher
The Number 23 (2007)
Hannah Blechman November 3, 2018 schumacher
All Me Hamlets Schumacher
Me Hamlets Schumacher
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IEC CAB focuses on the evolution of IEC Conformity Assessment
By Claire Marchand
Highlights of the IEC CAB (Conformity Assessment Board) meeting that took place in Tokyo, Japan, during the 78th IEC General Meeting.
Cyber security was on the CAB agenda
A tribute to Hiromich Fujisawa
The Tokyo meeting was the last one chaired by IEC Vice-President and CAB Chairman Hiromichi Fujisawa who will step down at the end of the year. To mark the occasion, CAB officers and members expressed their gratitude for his six years of successful leadership and legacy. IECEE Chairman Ron Collis – the longest-serving current Chairman of an IEC CA (Conformity Assessment) System – gave a tribute to Fujisawa on behalf of the IEC CA community and presented him with a souvenir booklet. IECEx and IECQ Executive Secretary Chris Agius presented Fujisawa with a crystal decanter and four crystal glasses each engraved with one of the four IEC CA Systems names. Fujisawa received a very hearty round of applause from all in attendance. (see e-tech article on Hiromichi Fujisawa in this issue)
CA governance
Discussions on the issue of CA governance began in 2013 at the IEC Council and CB (Council Board) levels and led to the formation of a Task Force, CB-TF, whose Convenor was the CAB Chairman.
After consultation of interested parties (CAB and CA Systems representatives), a proposal in two parts was approved by the CB in June.
The first part called for a change in CAB membership, from 12 to 15 members, of which six, representing China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and USA, would be automatically appointed members.
The second part consisted of a request for CAB to implement a series of recommendations concerning the introduction of new services, and how to manage a quick and efficient integration of those either into existing Systems and Schemes, or into new ones.
The CAB Chairman proposed to set up a STF (Special Task Force) to address these issues. The STF will start its work early in 2015 at a kickoff meeting to be held back-to-back with an IECEE Management Committee meeting. The STF is expected to consider its own terms of reference, the target date of the final group output and methods of consulting stakeholders, before getting back to CAB with an action plan.
The governance issue is key for the future of IEC CA activities and how they are managed.
Promotion of IEC CA activities
One of the decisions made by CAB concerned the promotion of IEC CA activities. WG (Working Group) 14: Promotion, was re-established. Based on the IEC Masterplan implementation plan, the WG will define its terms of reference and scope as well as priorities to create an action plan.
The first task of the WG will be to collect information, identify existing material within the IEC, look at what other organizations are doing to promote their activities, and pinpoint areas where new items need to be developed.
The idea is to create a “toolbox” of promotional material conveying a common message that IEC CA people can use when talking to interested parties, including legislators and regulators, at conferences and international events. The objective is to increase awareness and reach out about what the IEC has to offer in terms of conformity assessment.
Developing countries in particular could benefit greatly from using the IEC CA services to ensure that the products they import are safe and reliable. Why reinvent the wheel? Relying on certificates issued under the IEC CA Systems for all electrical and electronic equipment, they can concentrate on other crucial issues – food safety for instance – to protect their population.
WG 17: Cyber security, met in August for the first time and Ron Collis, its Convenor, gave a report to CAB in Tokyo. He explained that the focus of this first gathering was mainly on industrial automation security, but that the scope was much larger.
In industrial automation, the issue of cyber security is of great concern to industry and the establishment of IEC CA services in that field has to move forward fast.
There are several levels that need to be taken into consideration:
product level – the product has to be free of all cyber risks (viruses, worms, etc.) at the time of purchase
systems level – when installed, the system has to be secure to minimize the possibility of creating openings for cyber attacks
maintenance level – because cyber threats evolve or new components are integrated into the systems, security needs to be updated and upgraded constantly.
At the systems and maintenance levels, personnel competences, expertise and skills have to be certified as well.
Beyond industrial automation, other issues, such as data protection and privacy, have to be taken into account. The technical element – to ensure that data cannot be read or corrupted by unauthorized persons – is of concern to the IEC and should be standardized. The legal or regulatory element – who has the right to see the data – is in the hands of governments and varies from one country to another.
Ron Collis explained that cyber security required a systems approach to conformity assessment, including a systems-integration level and an asset-owner (factory) level comprising personnel competence and process certification.
Relations with international and regional organizations
Three international or regional organizations were invited to make presentations to CAB: IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency), ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and GCC/GSO (Gulf Council Cooperation/Gulf Standards Organization).
The first to take the floor was Rudolf Kempener of IRENA who began by introducing his organization as the RE (renewable energy) voice, advisory resource and knowledge hub for 170 governments. Based in Abu Dhabi, UAE (United Arab Emirates), their services include renewables readiness assessments, assistance with renewable grid integration strategies and renewable energy roadmaps. He explained that since IRENA was focused towards government ministries and regulators, and IECRE was focused towards the RE industry and financial interests, there could be synergy-building opportunities for cooperation between the two bodies.
Kerry McManama, IECRE Executive Secretary, confirmed that due to the complementarity in their respective audience focus, there were certainly opportunities for synergy-building, and that IECRE would be interested and encouraged to collaborate with IRENA.
Aderina Panggabean of ASEAN first spoke about the organization’s free trade area, established in 1992, initially with limited scope, which had been the subject of planned expansion over the past 20 years. In 2004, 12 priority sectors were targeted for harmonized technical regulations (AHEEERR) and in 2008 a blueprint for the establishment of the AEC (ASEAN Economic Community) by 2015 was created. Its scope includes the harmonization of standards.
She then talked about the ACCSQ (ASEAN Consultative Committee for Standards and Quality), also established in 1992 to address the issues of measurement, standards, testing and quality, and the elimination of technical barriers to trade. Amongst the priority sectors was electrical and electronic equipment. On the CA side, TLs (testing laboratories) must be signatory members of the APLAC MRA (Asia-Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation Mutual Recognition Agreement) and members of the IECEE CB Scheme; CBs must be signatory to the PAC MRA (Pacific Accreditation Cooperation MRA) and members of the IECEE FCS (Full Certification Scheme). This is the basic infrastructure for AHEEERR (ASEAN Harmonized Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulatory Regime).
GCC/GSO
Basem Salameh began his presentation on the GCC/GSO by introducing the GCC. Created in 1981 with objectives to unify regulations in various fields, the GCC Economic Agreement (revised in 2001) has the objectives to establish a Regional (Gulf) single Market and a Customs Union in which goods and services available in one Member State may be freely available in all others. The GCC strategic deployment was created to achieve these goals through the removal of technical barriers to trade and achieving consumer protection through the setting-up of essential safety and security requirements and conformity assessment procedures to them. To help with this, the GSO was established in 2004. GSO has a roadmap which includes the development of GRSPM (Gulf unified Regulatory System for Product Monitoring), the creation of a Gulf Conformity Marking, a unified regulatory regime for GCC market surveillance and close cooperation with IEC. In 2013 GAC (Gulf Accreditation Centre) was created to provide accreditation services to testing and calibration laboratories, certification bodies and inspection bodies.
In the second part of his presentation, Salameh introduced the Gulf LV TR (Gulf Technical Regulations for Low-Voltage Electrical Equipment and Appliances), a document that will enter into force in July 2016. The Gulf LV TR defines a process based on two risk categories, the lower risk products requiring SDoC (Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity) and the Gulf Conformity Marking (G Marking) which will be affixed by the manufacturer or supplier. Products in the higher risk category will require type examination by a Notified Body or by a certification body participating in the IECEE CB Scheme , and the G Marking which will be affixed by a Notified Body. All products will be conformant with Gulf Standards or IEC International Standards including any national deviations.
Hiromich Fujisawa chaired his last CAB meeting in Tokyo, Japan
In the coming months, a Special Task Force will devise an action plan on CA governance
Find out more IEC CAB
IEC Conformity Assessment Board
IEC System of Conformity Assessment Schemes for Electrotechnical Equipment and Components
IEC System for Certification to Standards Relating to Equipment for Use in Explosive Atmospheres
IEC Quality Assessment System for Electronic Components
IEC System for Certification to Standards Relating to Equipment for Use in Renewable Energy Applications
conformity assessment (273)
IECQ (92)
IECEx (90)
IECEE (90)
IECRE (39)
CAB (18)
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IID Board’s request to implement Farm Bill’s drought provisions and funding commitment to protect Salton Sea supported by Sen. Feinstein
Imperial Irrigation District is pleased to have the support of Senator Dianne Feinstein, who on Wednesday, called on the Trump administration to quickly implement new drought provisions Congress included in the recently enacted Farm Bill to protect the Salton Sea.
The bill provides the U.S. Department of Agriculture with new authorities and additional funding for conservation efforts that could be used to mitigate the negative effects of the declining lake.
“We thank Senator Feinstein for her leadership on this critical issue and for her letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and U.S. Department of Interior Acting Secretary David Bernhardt urging them to commit federal funds to the Salton Sea as authorized under the recently enacted Farm Bill,” said Erik Ortega, IID Board President.
The senator’s support comes at a critical time when states along the Colorado River have been working on a set of agreements known as the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan to address a dwindling water supply on the river.
The IID Board of Directors has already approved the intra-state agreements that are part of the DCP and the district has said it will vote on the entire suite of agreements, as a package, when they are completed.
“This isn’t an either/or proposition for IID; it is instead an honest effort by the district to improve the sustainability of the Salton Sea and to ensure the viability of the DCP,” added IID Board President Ortega.
The action requested by IID would represent a firm commitment to the environment, public health, water supply reliability, the agricultural industry and the future resiliency of the Colorado River.
Link to Feinstein letter to Secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of the Interior:
https://www.iid.com/home/showdocument?id=17493
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The Ensemble (Hardcover)
By Aja Gabel
Riverhead Books, 9780735214767, 352pp.
Library Binding, Large Print (8/2/2018)
May 2018 Indie Next List
“My goodness, I love the quartet of flawed and wonderful characters Aja Gabel brings to life. I felt the heartbreak and triumph each time the ensemble performed. The Ensemble captures everything from the relentless rehearsals to the particular hand injuries musicians worry over to the conflict within the group. Henry, Daniel, Jana, and Britt are each characters unto themselves, but together they create a fifth character: the quartet itself. An inventive novel about the lives of musicians and the world they inhabit, full of tension, ambition, confusion, and loyalty. The Ensemble is a remarkable achievement.”
— Sarah Bagby, Watermark Books, Wichita, KS
"Pitch-perfect." —People
"You won’t be able to quit these characters." —goop
The addictive novel about four young friends navigating the cutthroat world of classical music and their complex relationships with each other, as ambition, passion, and love intertwine over the course of their lives.
Jana. Brit. Daniel. Henry. They would never have been friends if they hadn't needed each other. They would never have found each other except for the art which drew them together. They would never have become family without their love for the music, for each other.
Brit is the second violinist, a beautiful and quiet orphan; on the viola is Henry, a prodigy who's always had it easy; the cellist is Daniel, the oldest and an angry skeptic who sleeps around; and on first violin is Jana, their flinty, resilient leader. Together, they are the Van Ness Quartet. After the group's youthful, rocky start, they experience devastating failure and wild success, heartbreak and marriage, triumph and loss, betrayal and enduring loyalty. They are always tied to each other - by career, by the intensity of their art, by the secrets they carry, by choosing each other over and over again.
Following these four unforgettable characters, Aja Gabel's debut novel gives a riveting look into the high-stakes, cutthroat world of musicians, and of lives made in concert. The story of Brit and Henry and Daniel and Jana, The Ensemble is a heart-skipping portrait of ambition, friendship, and the tenderness of youth.
Aja Gabel's writing has appeared in BOMB, The Kenyon Review, Glimmer Train, and elsewhere. A former cellist, she earned her B.A. at Wesleyan University, her MFA at the University of Virginia and has a Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston. Aja has been the recipient of fellowships from the Sewanee Writers'' Conference, Literary Arts Oregon, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, where she was a fellow in fiction. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
Praise For The Ensemble: A Novel…
A BOOKLIST "TOP 10 FIRST NOVEL"
"In Ms. Gabel’s terrifically entertaining debut, the frictions of long-term friendships are woven into the “webbed, collaborative endeavor” of the quartet. Their music doesn’t transcend the mess of living; it testifies to it." —The Wall Street Journal
"Reminded me of Zadie Smith's Swing Time... The language that Gabel uses to describe both the pressures of prestige chamber orchestras and, simply, what it is to be a human in the world, is a work of art in and of itself. I found myself highlighting dozens of passages, marveling at just how impossibly relatable these people are... [I]t's the perfect form of escapism for me." —Entertainment Weekly
"This lilting, richly detailed story follows a group of friends — also a string quartet — as they grow and change together thoughout adulthood. Told from alternative perspectives, it gives us a riveting look inside the world of classical musicians and an intimate study of friendships." —Marie Claire
"Phenomenal first novel.... The Ensemble is really a love story. Love of music. Love of friends. Love of family. The genius here is that the reader becomes a part of the ensemble, too, so immersed in these people, that to call them characters seems a disservice. Like them, we feel the pull of time, the need for the music. In the brilliant coda, after we have become very aware of them as individuals, their lives are once again part of one single whole, and here, are collectively narrated, with the yearning of nostalgia.” —San Francisco Chronicle
"Gabel's rich characters and melodic prose (fitting for a story about professional chamber musicians) make the novel a satisfying read. Comparisons to Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings are apt." —Real Simple
"[A]bsolutely sublime... Mark our words: you won’t be able to put this exquisite book down." —Refinery29
"A page-turner of a debut.... The Ensemble is set in the world of classical music (so, yes, this is a good book for all you Mozart in the Jungle fans) and tracks the way the friends, who comprise the Van Ness Quartet, navigate their youthful inexperience, riotous success, professional failures, and all of the other things that come with sky-rocketing ambition and a reliance on other people." —Nylon
"I fell so hard for the four friends in Aja Gabel’s debut novel, which follows a young, ambitious string quartet as they try to sort out their complicated relationships to music and each other. The last time I wanted characters to be real this badly—or, you know, felt like they were—was when Lauren Groff’s Fate and Furies came out. The Ensemble is about desire, disappointment and success, betrayal and loyalty, and the ways that our friendships shape the people we become. You won’t be able to quit these characters." —goop
"Stunningly resonant... With remarkable assurance, Gabel takes the four [characters] through their shaky early performances and expertly ties their individual and collective lives together with generous doses of empathy... A virtuoso performance." —Booklist (STARRED review)
"Gabel explores friendship and art with great warmth, humanity, and wisdom." —Library Journal (STARRED review)
"Wonderful.... The four characters are individually memorable, but as a quartet they’re unforgettable.” —Publishers Weekly (STARRED review)
"Aja Gabel’s ambitious debut novel is a beautiful study of just how apt a metaphor classical music is for relationships." —New York magazine's Vulture
"Aja Gabel's debut novel centers around the four friends who make up the Van Ness Quartet: Brit, Daniel, Henry, and Jana, each wildly different but electric together despite the ups and downs of their career in music. Gabel examines the intricate complexities of their intense friendship, loyalties, and ambitions over a decade and a half in this book, which itself reads quite like a lyrical composition. You'll come for the music and stay for Gabel's realistic portrait of modern friendship." —Buzzfeed
"Aja Gabel's powerful debut offers a sensitive portrait of four young musicians forging their paths through life: sometimes at odds with each other, sometimes in harmony, but always inextricably linked by their shared pasts."
—Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere
"With uncommon clarity and empathy, Aja Gabel brings us inside the passionate, complex, and sometimes cutthroat intimacy that exists among the four members of a string quartet. A wise and powerful novel about love, life, and music. I didn't want it to end."
—Maggie Shipstead, New York Times bestselling author of Seating Arrangements and Astonish Me
“Sweeping, romantic, elegiac, The Ensemble gives you the feeling of being inside the music of a quartet, a look into the relationships under the music, the love and heartbreak, set against their ruthless commitment to both their art, and to each other. Aja Gabel is a phenomenon.”
—Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the Night and How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
"Compelling." —Town & Country
“The Ensemble deserves a standing ovation. A gripping tale of four musician's journeys through discord and harmony, life and love. Aja Gabel is a brilliant young writer with the rare gift of an old soul."
—Mat Johnson, author of Pym and Loving Day
"I often admire novels that are platforms for their writers' own stories, upon which their own singular character, with its own singular history, is carefully incised. This, however, is a novel of a different, more expansive, and altogether more electrifying kind. Aja Gabel contains at least four complete human beings inside her, and I'm guessing countless others. She knows these people down to their cells, and she gives all of herself to them."
—Kevin Brockmeier
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Affordable housing advocate running for Holland City Council
Kate Carlson @SentinelKate
HOLLAND — For the past 20 years, Lyn Raymond's work has focused on the issues of homelessness and affordable housing, and now the Lakeshore Housing Alliance director is running for Holland City Council seat.
"While I really appreciate the ability to educate and advocate for people, one of the things I have done for many years, I felt like I wanted a place at the decision-making table," Raymond said. "Because of my experience with strategic planning and problem solving, it just seemed to make sense as kind of a next step."
Raymond is running against Hope College Professor Vicki-Lynn Holmes and current at-large Councilman Wayne Klomparens in the Aug. 6 city primary election and eventually the determining Nov. 5 election.
Raymond plans to "make sure the conversation continues" on the city council when it comes to addressing the lack of affordable housing.
"The key is that there isn't just one solution to look at," Raymond said. "We need to continue to seek different solutions."
When people have to pay more than 30 percent of their income toward housing expenses, they have to make trade-offs every month just to make ends meet, she said.
"Civic engagement is really important to me," Raymond said. "I've noticed especially on the neighborhood improvement committee and planning commission I've been able to have a voice in some of the direction that the city is going, and I would really like to see other people be able to take advantage of those opportunities as well."
Raymond is an ally in the Good Samaritan Ministries Circles program, and chairs the Lakeshore Fair Housing Advisory Board. Through the city of Holland she serves on the planning commission and neighborhood improvement committee.
Raymond is a Hope College graduate originally from New Jersey. She moved back to Holland a little over 20 years ago. Her work leading the Lakeshore Housing Alliance, which is part of Ottawa County United Way, has been mostly a broader county-approach. This is why the at-large council seat appealed to her.
"The broader perspective really made much more sense to me than just focusing on representing a particular ward," Raymond said. "I like the idea of representing the entire city."
While issues around housing are Raymond's main platform, she also wants to push for more civic engagement in the community, and supports the direction the city is going in to partner with Ottawa County's newly formed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office.
"I love the office they created and that they'll be providing support to municipalities around the county," Raymond said. "But I hope the city doesn't defer to the county for a lot of that work, because I think each municipality is unique."
Raymond is hopeful the resources can be used to look at what is happening in the community, and why people do not necessarily feel welcome.
— Contact reporter Kate Carlson at kcarlson@hollandsentinel.com and follow her on Twitter @SentinelKate.
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Henry Idema: The origins of racism
By Henry IdemaCommunity Columnist
Slavery is often called America's original sin. Our country remains bitterly divided by race. Actually, I do not like the term "race" because we are all members of the human race. The word "race" in our society really refers to pigment of the skin. Which takes me into a discussion of two of the origins of racism, or prejudice based on skin color. Freud gives us one of these and Martin Luther King Jr. the second.
First Freud.
Sigmund Freud coined the term, "narcissism of small differences." What he meant is that small differences between people seem to cause the greatest conflict between nations, communities and individuals. In his lifetime, he saw bitter conflicts between northern and southern Germans. Freud felt that communities were built up by bonds of love, plus a shared hostility for another nearby community or nation.
Skin color is a small difference between human beings as compared to what unites us, our common humanity. Religion, education and where one lives are much greater differences, but these do not divide us as much as skin color. Muslims, many of whom have darker skins than European descendants, have become in our country relatively recent targets of prejudice. How Muslims look and dress is a big factor in these hostilities.
Islam, Judaism and Christianity are sister religions, but throughout history often have been at each other's throats. Yet all three religions, worship or claim to worship the same God. ("Allah" is the Arabic word for God, by the way.). Freud would argue that the narcissism of small difference creates these hostilities, especially when skin color and how people dress become two of these small differences.
So the color of one's skin is one of the origins of prejudice. President Obama is called "black" even though he is half white. In the South, especially before the Civil War, if a person was even a quarter black, he or she was considered black by the white population. Do we need more proof than this of how the narcissism of small differences has been a factor in racism? We bond with those who look just like we do, and those bonds are fueled by hostility towards those who look different.
The second origin of racism is this observation by Martin Luther King Jr. On Sept. 7, 1957, King said in a speech: "Men hate each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don't know each other. They don't know each other because they can't communicate with each other. They can't communicate with each other because they are separated from each other."
As a pastor, I have worked in a number of churches in West Michigan, and the congregations were all white or nearly so. I exercise at the local YMCA and sometimes I work out alongside people of different skin pigment than mine, but this is fairly rare.
King was right, people with different skin pigments do not know each other, do not talk to each other nearly enough, and in West Michigan, we largely live separated from each other.
I watched with rapt attention the congressional hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 27. The differences in skin color between the Democrats and the Republicans was absolutely startling. And guess who are now the newest punching bags on Fox News? Newly elected women of color in Congress!
Aren't all these politicians and news people Americans? Isn't that what unifies all of us as citizens? Isn't that far more important than our differences in skin pigment?
Freud and King do not explain all of our racial hostilities, but they do point us toward two of the most important origins of the racism which is tearing us apart in our present social, political and media worlds.
Red, brown and white eggs all look the same in the frying pan.
— Henry Idema lives in Grand Haven. He can be reached at henryidema3@yahoo.com.
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Chix's Josh Fusco commits to Indiana Wesleyan
ZEELAND — Josh Fusco has spent the past three years bouncing off of tackles and finding his way into the end zone.
The Zeeland East senior will be doing the same thing for another four years.
Fusco verbally committed to accept a football scholarship at Indiana Wesleyan on Tuesday.
The Wildcats are an NAIA Division II team.
“The biggest part for me was the academics,” Fusco said. “I definitely could see myself really fitting in there academically (major- sports management) and in the culture — they have great people there. When I went on visits I always felt very welcomed.”
He is looking to have a strong athletic career as well.
“The coach's aren't just trying to make you a better athlete but a great person,” he said. “I loved how they showed they actually care about there players. Plus they have great facilities and they are competitive. I'm a competitor and I feel like I fit in with all aspects that Indiana Wesleyan has to offer.”
Fusco ran the ball 17 times for 122 yards and a touchdown in last week's 48-34 win over rival Zeeland West.
As a junior he ran for 954 yards and 15 touchdowns, averaging more than 8 yards per carry. He on his way this season to a 1,000-yard rushing season.
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December 2012 & January 2013
Deregulation, Italian Style
by David R. Henderson
Luigi Zingales. A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity. Basic Books. 287 Pages. $27.99.
When milton Friedman retired from the University of Chicago in 1977, I feared the school would become more focused on technical economics and lose the passionate pro-free-market edge that Friedman represented. To some extent, that has happened. Also, I wondered who in the next generation would replace him. Although many of us aspire to “be like Milton,” unfortunately no one can replace Friedman’s exquisite mix of technical expertise, ability to write clearly for the public (much of which he owed to his editor and wife, Rose Friedman), and warm openness in debate.
Still, as we economists like to say, there are substitutes for everything and everybody. In some important respects, one substitute for the late Milton Friedman is Luigi Zingales. Zingales, an immigrant from Italy, is an economics professor in the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, a strong technical economist and a passionate defender of free markets. He’s also an excellent writer. In his latest book, A Capitalism for the People, he makes a case for freer markets and warns people in his adopted nation not to go the way of the country he left. He sees disturbing signs that the United States is heading in that direction. Thus the book’s subtitle: “Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity.” Zingales brings a refreshing touch to many of the issues he discusses, especially the ethics of the market and the dangers of cronyism. He draws on his own and others’ scholarly research, plus his detailed knowledge of financial markets, to make his case for freer markets more than just a theoretical one. Unfortunately, he gets some important parts of U.S. economic history wrong. Also, although he lays out many ways in which financial regulation has gone wrong, his own proposals are either for only modest deregulation or for new regulation. And despite brilliantly analyzing the incentives of financial regulators that cause them to harm the economy, he advocates his own set of regulations that would still require regulators we can trust.
“No man is a prophet in his own land” goes the saying, and one reason why Zingales’s message is fresh is that, coming from a country with a great deal of cronyism, he sees just how stultifying cronyism can be. Zingales contrasts Italian cronyism with U.S. meritocracy. He points out that the way to get ahead in Italy is to “carry the bag” of an established person. Even emergency room doctors are chosen, he writes, based mainly on political affiliation rather than on skill. By contrast, in the United States, many more people get ahead based on their merit. Zingales tells the story of a young colleague walking in the rain with a senior professor. The senior professor told the junior one, “In Europe, the young assistant professors carry the umbrella for the senior ones.” The young professor shot back, “Why don’t you go to Europe?”
But Zingales sees all of America going in Europe’s direction. He gives many examples of U.S. influence peddling. One of the most striking examples, because of the prominence of the person involved, is that of Robert Rubin. When Rubin was Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, Citigroup acquired the Travelers insurance company. That move was illegal, but Travelers’ ceo Sandy Weil explained that he had had enough discussions with the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board to “believe this will not be a problem.” Rubin lobbied for a change in the law to make Citigroup’s action legal after the fact, and in July 1999, the House of Representatives passed the law. The next day Rubin quit as Treasury secretary. Just three months later, Citigroup hired Rubin at a salary of $15 million, without, writes Zingales, “any operating responsibility.”
It soon became clear, though, what was part of Rubin’s responsibility: to play an inside game with the Treasury bureaucracy to benefit his new employer. In 2001, following revelations of “accounting irregularities” at Enron, Citigroup, a major holder of Enron’s bonds, would have lost a lot of money had Enron’s bonds been downgraded. So Rubin lobbied Peter Fisher, undersecretary of the Bush Treasury, to “advise” the bond-rating agencies not to immediately downgrade Enron’s debt. And in 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported that Rubin had been “critical to securing the latest federal bailout of Citi.” The bailout included two “equity infusions” totaling $45 billion and a government guarantee on most of the risk in a $306 billion asset portfolio. This is cronyism writ large.
Zingales’s expertise is in finance, and that fact is apparent throughout the book. He tells, for example, of a tiny section of the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act that destroyed Lehman Brothers. Under the law, when Lehman went bankrupt, it couldn’t simply, as it could have before the 2005 law, pay holders of derivatives as much as possible with its assets. Instead, it had to give a derivative holder a contract identical to the one it had signed with Lehman, but with a different counterparty. Lehman would have to pay the transaction cost of the new contract. A typical such cost is about 0.15 percent of the contract’s total value. That doesn’t sound like much until you realize that when it went bankrupt, the face value of Lehman’s derivative contracts was $35 trillion! So the transactions costs alone were $52.5 billion. That’s why Lehman’s bonds paid only 8.625 cents on the dollar.
For those who still think that corporate boards of directors, outside auditors, or financial regulators do a good job of detecting corporate fraud, Zingales has news: It’s “nobody’s job to detect fraud” (his italics). He tells of a friend, a board member of a large company, who once asked the head of purchasing “what prevented him from overpaying for an item and having part of the difference rebated to a secret Swiss bank account.” A lawyer on the board responded that board members “were responsible for making sure that procedures existed, not that they were effective!” Boards of directors, notes Zingales, “rely on external auditors to detect fraud.”
It turns out, though, that external auditors “do not view fraud detection as their responsibility.” He notes that accountants have deemphasized fraud detection and instead focus on adherence to formal rules. Zingales tells of a study he co-authored in which he found that external auditors were responsible for only ten percent of fraud detection.
Well, then, surely financial regulators are set up to detect fraud, aren’t they? Not quite. When Zingales presented his findings on fraud detection at the Securities and Exchange Commission, he was told that it is not the sec’s job to detect fraud. True to its word, the sec accounts for only seven percent of total fraud detected. In seventeen percent of the cases that Zingales and his co-authors studied, single employees at firms had blown the whistle, “often at high personal cost.”
So, what should be done about fraud? Zingales advocates appointing board members who are accountable to the shareholders. He argues that this is not possible today because of regulation introduced by the sec during the Vietnam War era, but does not specify what that regulation was.
I was disappointed that Zingales didn’t address other regulations that promote fraud in companies — two in particular. Section 13(d) of the Williams Act of 1968, for example, requires that investors who garner five percent or more of the shares of a company must announce that fact within ten days. That one law makes it virtually impossible for an entity that wants to take over another company to do so cheaply. Once it is known that an investor has over five percent, the price of the company’s shares rises because there is now a higher probability of a takeover attempt. The increase in share prices of the target company discourages people from attempting takeovers in the first place. Also, a slew of state anti-takeover laws passed in the 1980s also make takeovers harder. Why does this matter? Because takeovers and threatened takeovers are a way of disciplining firms that are destroying shareholder value, fraudulently or otherwise.
Surprisingly, Zingales also advocates increased regulation. Although he only hints at it in the book, he has, more recently, explicitly advocated “the forced separation between investment banking and commercial banking along the lines of Glass-Steagall.” Zingales realizes that the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act’s repeal of that forced separation was not a cause of the 2008 financial crisis. He points out that the major financial institutions that failed during the crisis were either pure investment banks such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and Merrill Lynch, or purely commercial banks such as Wachovia and Washington Mutual.
So, what is Zingales’s case for reintroducing Glass-Steagall? He hints at a reason: A mandatory separation would undercut the financial industry’s lobbying clout — a clout that I agree has been, on net, bad. In a recent op-ed, Zingales gave another reason. He admitted that a better way to deal with excessive risk-taking by banks is to remove deposit insurance. His only argument against doing so is that he doubts that “commercial banks are ready for that.” But so what? Does Zingales, who is an outspoken enemy of cronyism, advocate that we cave to the banking lobby? Moreover, even if we worry, as he does, about political feasibility, there’s another way to make banks and depositors bear more risk from banks’ bad lending decisions: Leave the depositor with some of the risk. Marc Joffe and Anthony Randazzo of the Reason Foundation, for example, advocate adding “a 10 percent co-insurance feature to fdic insurance for deposits above $10,000.” Under their proposal, depositors with $11,000 in a failed bank would receive $10,900, and those with a $250,000 balance would get $226,000. That would give depositors an incentive — they have virtually none now — to monitor the banks that hold their deposits.
When it comes to what business schools should teach about ethics, Zingales’s book is a breath of fresh air. Business schools should be “the churches of the meritocratic creed.” They should lead the way, he argues, in promoting “norms that discourage behavior that is purely opportunistic even if highly profitable.” A way to do so is to award prizes to “outstanding alumni who adhere to economically useful norms.” Zingales has a beef with the two main ways that ethics classes are currently taught at most business schools. One is to raise ethical dilemmas without taking a position on what people should do. That, he says, is like presenting the “pros and cons of racial segregation, leaving [people] to decide” the answers for themselves. The other way is to hide behind “corporate social responsibility,” which, he points out, ignores individual responsibility. To those who wonder why a business school should teach ethics, Zingales asks a beautiful rhetorical question: “Why are economists happy to say what the optimal laws are from an economic standpoint but afraid to say what the optimal social norms are for a successful economy?”
In a chapter entitled “Responsibil-ities of the Intellectuals,” Zingales gives an excellent explanation — and some striking examples — of how biases can creep in and distort the perceptions of even very smart people. One reason for the biases, he writes, is the pressure that academics feel from people or companies with large stakes in the outcomes of their research. His best example is of a young finance professor who found that people who traded stocks on regional exchanges got a worse deal than those who traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It turns out that some market makers were paying brokers a penny a share to route orders to them. But then a senior colleague called the young researcher into his office, where “he was confronted by a large market maker who berated him.” The young assistant professor was intimidated into dropping that research. The identity of the market maker who intimidated the researcher? Bernard Madoff.
Ironically, one interesting piece of evidence for Zingales’s idea that even a smart ethical person can let biases creep in is a section of this very chapter in which Zingales himself pulls his punches. He quotes a Federal Reserve governor who, in December 2006, pooh-poohed housing-price data on the grounds that such data, because they’re imperfect, are not very useful. Zingales does not name the Fed governor, but does footnote the web site where one can find out. It was Randall Kroszner. Why is that demurral significant? Because Kroszner is one of Zingales’s colleagues.
Zingales is a master of the metaphor. In discussing Bush’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, for example, he points out that he doesn’t necessarily reject government action but objects to the way it is done. When a drug addict is undergoing withdrawal, he notes, one shouldn’t do nothing, “but one also should not give the addict a full year’s supply of drugs, which is roughly equivalent to what the U.S. government opted for” with the bailout. He also compares subsidizing businesses to “feeding wild animals.”
When he ventures outside his expertise, though, Zingales sometimes makes important mistakes. For example, he states that the antitrust law was passed in the late 19th century to increase competition. But Loyola University economics professor Thomas DiLorenzo, in some pathbreaking research in the 1980s, showed the opposite. Between 1880 and 1890, he found, while real gross domestic product rose 24 percent, real output in the allegedly monopolized industries for which data were available rose 175 percent, seven times the economy’s growth rate. In six of those seven industries, inflation-adjusted prices fell, which is strong evidence against the view that the large firms were monopolizing. DiLorenzo shows that a key faction lobbying for antitrust laws were small firms that had trouble competing with big firms with large economies of scale, and these small firms wanted less competition, not more. It’s still true today that some of the main bringers of antitrust suits are companies suing their competitors. They don’t want their competitors to charge even lower prices.
In discussing government policy, Zingales reminds us of what ucla and former University of Chicago economist Harold Demsetz calls the “Nirvana Fallacy,” although he mistakenly attributes it to Ronald Coase. The Nirvana Fallacy is to see a problem with the free market and then to assume that the government can solve it. Demsetz advocated comparing actual markets and actual governments. Zingales does a good job of applying the Demsetzian thinking to other people’s proposals for government policy, but not as good a job at applying it to his own. For example, he advocates “timely intervention of the regulator” when regulators observe a sizeable drop in the price of a traded security. But he doesn’t tell us why regulators will be motivated to act.
The vast majority of readers will learn a lot from A Capitalism for the People. I’m glad that Luigi Zingales wrote it. I only wish that he had more seriously considered a wider range of deregulatory moves that would help steer the United States away from the dangerous path down which he and I agree it’s moving.
David R. Henderson is a Hoover Institution research fellow and an associate professor of economics at the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy at the Naval Postgraduate School. He blogs at www.econlog.econlib.org.
David R. Henderson
More from Policy Review
Left 3.0
by Tod Lindberg
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London's restaurants openings are booming - with over 280 new restaurants in 2017
Written by Gavin Hanly
New opening
There's been a lot of doom and gloom talk in some quarters about the London restaurant scene at the moment but we don't think there's need for despair just quite yet. While there have been closures (just like every year we've been running the site) it's been a real bumper year for new openings.
We've gone back to have a look at the last few years of our long-running New London Restaurants feature and have discovered that not only has 2017 been very busy, but that it's also seen the most new restaurant openings in the past three years. That's over 280 restaurants opening in London in 2017 (and, we'll be honest, a few more that we haven't covered). That's versus 270 in 2016 and 272 in 2015.
So while there's potential for the B word to have an impact yet, there's plenty to celebrate. Even some of the closures of 2017 herald more to come. Grain Store has already been replaced by Granary Square Brasserie. Dock Kitchen will have a brand new follow-up in 2018, Paradise Garage might have closed but the same team are looking at a central London opening soon. Dabbous has big plans for 2018 too. The original Joe Allen closed but moved around the corner. And long-closed Kettners is finally returning in January.
So forget about taking it easy in January - take a look at the full list of openings in 2017 and make it your mission to visit one of those.
And it's that list's just a bit too much - here's our edit of the best.
Yard Sale Pizza are opening on Hackney Road
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Good Sufi, Bad Salafi: Is Pakistan’s Romance with Sufism Backfiring?
With a politicized Barelvism leading the recent protests against Aasia Bibi’s acquittal, has the Pakistani state’s romance with Barelvism, the supposedly soft and Sufi Islam, backfired?
Every Thursday, right before the Muslim holy day of Friday, devotees all around South Asia flock to Sufi shrines. 16th February 2017 started out as one typical Thursday. Devotees gathered at the shrine of the Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan, a small city in southern Sindh, Pakistan. Devotees numbered in the hundreds. They came from all ages, genders (including the transgendered) and religions (Sunni, Shia, Hindu, Sikh and Christians). Fortune tellers, faqirs and other marginalized groups were present too. All had come to pay their homage to one of the most adored figures in Pakistan’s popular religious culture: Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.
While the chanting and the prayers were in full swing, an alleged woman suicide bomber first threw a grenade, then blew herself up. 88 people were killed and over 250 injured, in what was the deadliest terrorist attack in Pakistan of the last two years. The timing of the attack was by no means accidental. Indeed, it was part of what has been called “Pakistan’s week of violence”. Six different attacks, claimed by different terrorist groups, took the lives of at least 99 people in the space of four days (13-16 February). Looking more closely into these acts of violence, we see that they all targeted people in state-related institutions, all but – apparently – the attack on the shrine (for which ISIS claimed responsibility).
Sufi shrines have been a recurrent victim of various so-called fundamentalist organizations. From the first suicide blast at Pir Rakhel Shah shrine in Fatehpur on March 19th 2005 (in which 46 people were killed) to the bombing at Shah Noorani in Khuzdar, the last one before Sehwan, on November 13th 2016 (where 52 people were killed and at least 100 injured), the blood of hundreds of ordinary people has been shed over those sacred stones.
In trying to understand these attacks, state actors, policymakers and the media – both inside and outside Pakistan – reproduce a ready-made narrative that reads such tragedies as the clash between two profoundly antithetical ways of experiencing Islam. On the one hand is the Islam proposed by militant groups loosely associated with the Wahhabis or Deobandi sect (or, more generally, with Al-Qaeda), who believe in a strict vision of Islam where, for instance, pilgrimages to shrines and the presence of women praying in the same public space as men calls for takfir (the process of declaring someone as a non-believer). On the other hand, there is the Islam practiced in Sufi shrines – usually associated with a particular pir (a religious/spiritual and sometimes political leader) – which is considered tolerant, syncretic and anti-sectarian.
In brief, and to put it simply as most of the headlines like to do, an attack on a shrine is viewed as “an attack on pluralism”, or alternatively, an attack to the “soft face of Islam”. The tension becomes even more strident when it comes to the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine, because Sindh is widely considered the land of the greatest Sufi saints and one of the most liberal and pluralistic regions in the subcontinent, and Lal Shahbaz Qalandar represents the epitome of that.
It is undoubtedly true that contrasting interpretations of “proper Islam” are playing an important role in driving the attacks. But this explanation falls short of identifying the complex politics that regulates the rather ambiguous position of the state vis-a-vis Sufi shrines and, consequently, why they are targeted by Islamist groups not only on the basis of religion, but also because of the role shrines are forced to take up in the national and international narrative. Commenting on the attack in Sehwan, Omar Kasmani aptly summarises this point:
An attack at a shrine is one spectacular manifestation of the ever-diminishing space for dissent and difference in the republic. In other words, the easy idea that one kind of Islam is under threat from another kind of Islam is not only flawed, it is plain shoddy. In limiting the discussion to religion, we refuse to take measure of other forms of pluralism that are equally at risk in Pakistan today. In fact, an over-determined reliance on the paradigm of Islam is analytically futile precisely because it fails to grasp the full extent of what is at stake in Pakistan’s fraught relationship with places such as Sehwan—or to borrow Carla Bellamy’s take on Islamic shrines, with ambiguously sacred places. Here ambiguity, not Islam is the word to take home.
In order to understand the “ambiguity” around Sufi shrines in Pakistan, it is necessary to dig into their tangled historical relationship with the Pakistani nation-state, from its initial conception, to its later inception in 1947 and up until the present. By doing so, this essay will argue that the current aforementioned narrative around these accidents is deeply biased: applying a simplistic reductionist formula that sees Sufism as the answer to tackle radicalisation and to promote a better image of Pakistan in the West (because it endorses “the soft face of Islam”) does not allow us to grasp – but, indeed, does conceal – the broader power dynamics into which the Sufi discourse is caught up.
Moreover, as it will become clearer in the following sections, what if such an overtly political use of this value-laden ideological discourse by the Pakistani state – backed up by the international community – has the reverse effect of radicalising Sufism itself and, subsequently, deepening intra-religious conflicts? Or even, what if such public endorsements generate a boomerang effect against the very Pakistani state that emboldened Sufi groups to begin with? Recent protests against the acquittal of Aasia Bibi were led by a party aligned with Barelvism, a Sunni sect once thought of as the soft and Sufi form of Islam. The boomerang effect seems to be in play.
Sufism: an Orientalist construct?
What today falls under the term “Sufism” – in its more comprehensive definition as “Islamic mysticism” – is a contested terrain that dates back at least to the eighteenth century and the colonial appropriation of Islamic culture and symbolism. Contemporary discourses that portray Sufism as quietist, tolerant and, above all, non-political bear the traces of that particular Orientalist understanding of Sufi practices.
The renowned Islamic Studies scholar Carl Ernst is categorical on this point: “the non-political image of Sufism”, he states, “is illusory”. According to Ernst, British Orientalists embedded into the term Sufism only those aspects of “Oriental” culture fascinating for Europeans, while at the same time creating a distance between Sufism itself and what they considered as “orthodox Islam”. In fact, they identified Sufism mainly on the basis of literary texts – above all, Hafiz’s and Jalal al-Din Rumi’s – that form what Mark Woodward et al call “philosophical Sufism”. According to Woodward et al, this dimension of Sufism “focuses on attaining insight into spiritual meanings of Islam, the metaphysical foundations of existence and relationships between creator and created”.
These Orientalist scholars did not properly include in their formulation of “Sufism” two others branches: ethical and institutional Sufism. It is here that two important features usually overlooked in public discourses about Sufism are more visible. By looking at the development of ethical Sufism, we see its cross-cutting significance throughout the Islamic sphere (as Woodward et al point out, “even Wahhabis […] are drawn to these ethical teachings”). In institutional Sufism, we see the more politically-oriented domain of Sufi practice that – as Woodward et al’s analysis of Sufism in West Africa and Southeast Asia or Ernst’s account of Sufi “brotherhoods” in anti-colonial movements demonstrate – has historically played a major role in shaping the political destiny of the Muslim world. Thus, Woodward et al conclude their study warning against the alarming tendency to view the peaceful Sufi/violent Salafi dichotomy based on the “theological roots of violence [and, conversely, of tolerance]”, because “theological orientation cannot be used as a predictor of either violent or nonviolent behaviour. […] They can, however, be used to legitimate a priori dispositions towards both”. Besides, such reading of Sufi and Salafi histories is factually inaccurate.
Neo-Orientalist Sufism
Bearing this in mind, it is astonishing how much effort – both in terms of economic and intellectual investment – has been put post 9/11 by the United States in promoting Sufis, especially in Pakistan, as the “natural allies” in tackling radical Islam. From the 2004 Nixon Center report titled “Understanding Sufism and its Potential Role in US Policy” to the more recent 2010 World Organization for Resource Development and Education (WORDE) report ‘Traditional Muslim Networks: Pakistan’s Untapped Resource in the Fight Against Terrorism”, several policy think-tanks in the US have been relentlessly portraying a quiet and apolitical Sufi Islam as an effective tool against radicalization.
As their titles suggest, these reports (and there are several like them) re-introduce the Orientalist narrative sketched above. And as Farzana Shaikh points out, “nowhere did these recommendations receive a closer hearing than in Pakistan”, where the post-9/11 world demanded a renegotiation of Islamic identity by the Pakistani nation-state. In relation to Sufi shrines, General Pervez Musharraf (1999-2008), and the governments who followed him, not only endorsed, but also bolstered – partly thanks to the support so openly expressed by the West – the policies that had been promoted by previous Pakistani governments.
Such developments, I would propose, are central to understanding the recent wave of violence against these sacred places. While the bombings may be carried out in the name of religion, Sufi shrines have become the target as a consequence of specific geo-political agendas promoted by the nation-state and its international allies.
Sufism in the Pakistan Movement
The current fraught relationship between the Pakistani state and Sufi shrines is not a new trend. Instead, it has its roots in the very onset of the Pakistan movement, where the role that Islam (and which Islam) would play in the new nation-state was widely debated. There were three main actors who modeled the vision of the would-be Pakistan: the social reformer Sayyid Ahmed Khan (1817-1898), the poet and philosopher Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), and the country’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948).
Here, I will briefly consider only Iqbal’s position on Sufism and Sufi shrines, since he is considered “one of the most important thinkers in generating [the] ideology of Pakistan” (for a detailed account of the positions that all three of them had on Sufism, see Katherine Ewing’s excellent essay). In trying to define his notion of Muslim nationalism and Muslim democracy, Iqbal held dear the idea that a reform of the Islamic discourse was necessary so as to, in Alix Philippon’s words, “restore the dynamism of Islam, to exhume its original truths in order to reconstruct the great Islamic concepts and reconnect them with their initial universality”. Although Iqbal was skeptical of the role that Sufism could play in society – particularly because of the excessive mysticism that, at the time, governed Sufi shrines and because of the so-called institution of piri-mureedi in which devotees (or mureeds) were almost enslaved by an excessive reliance on the figure of the pir – he recognized the socio-political value that those pirs had.
According to Philippon, Iqbal wanted to reform such blind faith that, especially in the rural areas, bestowed enormous spiritual and decision-making power specifically in the hands of the pir-zamindars, i.e. those pirs who were also landlords. In order to do so, Iqbal reframed the figure of the pir, stressing the socio-politically active role that he has historically occupied in the Muslim community (for example, as a social reformer), while downgrading the saintly aura that he was believed to possess.
Moreover, Iqbal himself appropriated – after having reworked – Sufi concepts in his thought. The best example is represented by one of his major philosophical poems, Asrar-i Khudi (The Secrets of the Self) where the classical Sufi idea of khudi (the individual self) assumes new light under Iqbal’s political and religious vision. As Ewing aptly points out, “the doctrine Iqbal presented in Asrar-i Khudi connects his interpretation of Sufism with the political action necessary to create a new Muslim community”.
Iqbal, in short, had an ambiguous relationship to Sufism. On the one hand, he believed that the institution of pir-mureedi was a centrifugal force that undermined his vision for a united Muslim community. On the other, he re-cast the figure of the pir and borrowed concepts from Sufi philosophy precisely in order to forge such a united – and politicized – Muslim community.
Post-partition State-Sufi relations
The ambiguity around the role that Sufism and Sufi shrines had to play in the new state remained well after 1947. The initial attempts at imposing state control onto these places were made by Pakistan’s first military ruler, General Ayub Khan (1958-1969). In the newly formed Pakistan – still profoundly divided along ethnic, linguistic, social and regional lines – the main preoccupation for Ayub Khan was to create a strong central government able to uphold development projects and modernisation. In so doing, he hoped to overcome the existing fractures under the ban of a modern, national Pakistani identity – “reinforced”, Ewing points out, “by the bond of Islam and by rapid economic growth”.
Rural areas were key to Ayub’s strategy. It was here that the aforementioned ties between pirs and their devotees were stronger and more difficult to disrupt. This is why he decided to intervene in the politics governing Sufi shrines. According to Ewing, Ayub “change[ed] the significance of the shrines and of the saints attached to them. He also used the shrines directly as a vehicle for modernization”. His main concern was how to deal with the pir-zamindars and, specifically, with the sajjada-nishins. The latter are hereditary pirs who, ideologically and politically, were tied to the system of land tenure and political control maintained by the British. It was necessary to replace the sajjada-nishins’ control – both politically (for instance, they bore an enormous weight in the election outcomes) and spiritually – with a state narrative oriented towards national unity and identity.
To do so, Ayub Khan promulgated a new administrative policy in 1959: the West Pakistan Waqf Properties Ordinance, which was superseded in 1961 by the West Pakistan Waqf Properties Ordinance (waqf, plural auqaf, is a property dedicated to religious purposes). The policy brought Sufi shrines under the direct control of the state.
Nonetheless, the major problem was the power in the hands of the sajjada-nishins. As Ewing aptly notes:
Only by changing the religious significance of the pir and the world-view of his followers could any real political reorganization be effective. Thus the removal of waqf land from the control of the sajjada-nishins was equivalent to the breaking up of the lands of major landlords, but one more step was required: the religious hold of the sajjada-nishin also needed to be broken.
To undercut the specific pastoral authority of the sajjada-nishins, Ayub’s government pursued what Ewing terms “a twofold strategy”. Firstly, having acquired the property of the shrines, the state had to demonstrate that it could take care of those spaces much better than the previous owners, that is the sajjada-nishins. Secondly, it had to undermine the almost magical power attributed to the sajjada-nishins. The first task was definitely the easiest: in fact, the Auqaf Department undertook a series of development projects that were meant to make the shrines not only a place of worship, but also centres of a more general social welfare. Hospitals, libraries, schools and any other sort of facilities that could improve the life of rural people were set up at these shrines. By doing so, the state tried to shows its willingness to improve those spaces and undercut the authority of the sajjada-nishins (indeed, the hospitals were in direct competition with them, for sajjada-nishins claim to possess spiritual powers to cure the devotee’s disease with amulets and other formulas).
On the other hand, the second task required a more complex approach. The government launched a massive mass media campaign in which a carefully managed image of the pir was produced, one in which a detailed description of the historical life and context of the saint – clearly stressing his political and social activities, rather than his spiritual gains – was presented. Here, Ayub Khan’s government took inspiration from Iqbal, who himself tried to undermine the spiritual leadership of pirs and sajjada-nishins by emphasising their original role as poets and social reformers.
An extensive body of literature, mainly in the form of pamphlets, took shape according to exactly these norms. They depicted not only the saint as a political activist, but also as a social reformer whose interests were very much in line with the politics pursued by Ayub’s government. Above all, the pamphlets sought to reposition the figure of the pir into a national discourse that Ayub Khan advanced for Pakistan.
Moreover, Sufi festivals were also nationalised and amply publicised in the media – the ’urs celebration, on the death anniversary of a particular saint, being the major one. These celebrations were also attended by government officials themselves, in order to make such festivities part of the national narrative, instead of a regional one, and to show the high regard in which the state held Sufism.
Sufism after 9/11
Ayub Khan’s approach to the Sufi question set the path followed by much of his successors. According to the different needs of their own governments and to the changed political context that they had to face, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1971-1977), Zia-ul Haq (1977-1988), the Sharif-Bhutto interregnum in the 90s, Gen. Pervez Musharraf (1999-2008) and the PPP-led governments that followed all pursued Ayub Khan’s agenda in dealing with these spaces.
In the aftermath of 9/11, the US called on Pakistan to take a stronger approach against Islamic radicalisation in its borders. In the policy pursued first by Musharraf’s “enlightened moderation”, and then by the later PPP-led government, Sufism (or a particular construction of it) was key. Sufism was repurposed as one of the main ideological tools for the government to use against rising “Islamic terrorism”. Heavily backed up by US-based initiatives (some of which I mentioned earlier), this approach cultivated a kinder, softer face of Islam (embodied in Sufism) that could combat “fundamentalist Islam”. The terrorism problem was reduced to a mere clash between two different religious strands. In short, Mahmood Mamdani’s “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim” mutated in this context into the “Good Sufi, Bad Salafi”.
For the Pakistani state, the political gains from this move are various. First, on the international scale, Pakistan’s image is greatly improved if it poses itself as the advocate for the “right” kind of Islam (that is to say, as mentioned at the beginning, an allegedly quietist and non-political version of Islam). Second, this simplistic formula allows the Pakistani government not to take any direct responsibility for the rise of the Taliban (that are clearly born out of a structural problem deeply rooted in the particular socio-political conditions of, for instance, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border). And third, the state is able to garner respect amongst its citizens because it is perceived as trying to respond to terrorism while endorsing the most popular and loved form of Islam in Pakistan. As Philippon aptly puts is, “this recourse to Sufism does not constitute a return to a naïve traditionalism but rather to an ‘ideological re-traditionalisation’”. In a strange twist of events, Sufism has political value because of its supposedly depoliticised character.
In the aftermath of 9/11, the so-called “institutionalisation of the ‘Sufi ideology’” occurred through a wide array of devices: festivals, conferences, TV programs, shows as well as literary productions of various kinds. In most cases, these were all state-sponsored. From a political point of view, the setting up of the National Sufi Council in 2006 (replaced by the Sufi Advisory Council in 2009) meant that a growing number of Sufi leaders were not only part of the mainstream political discourse, but received a national platform to express their views and opinions.
Despite the presence of political parties openly Sufi (for instance, the Barelvi Jamiyyat-e Ulama-e Pakistan, “the party of the pirs”), belonging to a Sufi order does not necessarily pre-determine one’s political ideology or party. Pirs can be found in all Pakistani parties. It is precisely this cross-cutting feature, intrinsic in the very nature of Sufism itself, that threatens to reinforce – rather than resolve – the intra-religious tensions in Pakistan. Indeed, Pakistan has already experienced violent drawbacks brought about – both directly and indirectly – by the overtly political version of Sufism strengthened in recent years. For instance, the Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer was killed by the member (Mumtaz Qadri) of an emboldened Barelvi Sufi order for his open support of Aasia Bibi, charged under the “blasphemy law”.
On the one hand, I share with Farzana Shaikh the fear that “the latest attempt to empower Sufism could prove to be a dangerous gamble that spells the polarization of an already deeply divided society. Far from healing religious conflict, it could embolden groups like the Barelvi […] to use the opportunity to promote Sufism as a way of settling scores with their Deobandi rivals”. But the events surrounding the recent acquittal of Aasia Bibi point towards a different trajectory. As soon as the Supreme Court’s decision was made public, the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) – another Barelvi political party – called for national protests and demonstrations to force the government to reverse its decision. Its plea was readily accepted by other religious political sects, namely the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) and the Jamiat Ahle Hadith among others. In a strange twist of events, the “soft face of Islam” (at least in its Barelvi form) embraced and promoted by the government was turning against the government itself, while allying with those very hard-core religious groups that it was supposed to challenge. Sectarian violence gave way to inter-sectarian unity against the government.
As a way of conclusion, I would like to come back to where I started off. The attack on the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine was part of “Pakistan’s week of violence” that involved five other attacks, all on state-related institutions. By now, it should be clear that the attack on Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine – and, more generally, any targeting of Sufi shrines – can fit into the same bill as other state-oriented attacks. It is not simply about religion.
Sufism and Sufi shrines have had a complex and ambiguous relationship with the Pakistani state since its inception. Framing the recent wave of violence against these shrines as just a religious conflict means reproducing a flawed, biased and historically inaccurate narrative sponsored both by the Pakistani state and the international (read: American) community, largely driven by political agendas. Instead, targeting a shrine can mean contesting the specific use of this charged ideological tool by the state (often seen as not much more than a pawn in the hands of the West). It can also denote an opposition to the ascending political power of certain Sufi leaders or parties. Finally, it can also aim to challenge the religious stance represented by those places.
If all these elements are not carefully considered, it will not be possible to rightly understand the logic and dynamics behind these attacks. Without a correct understanding, we cannot draw up an effective strategy to deal with them. Without an effective strategy, lives will continue to be lost.
Carlo Ceglia is currently a postgraduate student in the MA Anthropology of Development and Social Transformation program at the University of Sussex, UK. Prior to this, he earned an MA in South Asian Area Studies at SOAS, University of London. His main interests lie at the intersection of contemporary cultural and development discourses in India and Pakistan.
Summary 2Carlo Ceglia November 29, 2018 Sufism, Sufi shrine, Pakistan, aasia bibi, islamComment
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In Memoriam: John Kenneth Lee, 1923-2018
Filed in In Memoriam on August 7, 2018
J. Kenneth Lee, a prominent civil rights attorney who was one of five African American students who in 1951 enrolled at the University of North Carolina School of Law, has died at an assisted living facility in Greensboro. He was 94 years old.
Lee was a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, the 13th of 14 children in his family. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro and then taught at that university. In 1949, he joined a lawsuit seeking admission to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. He and his fellow plaintiffs were represented by Thurgood Marshall. They won their case in the U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. In 1951, Lee and four other Black students entered the law school and were the first African Americans to integrate the state university system.
After graduation from law school, Lee became a civil right attorney and represented more than 1,700 defendants in civil disobedience cases during the civil rights movement. In 1957, he successfully represented five Black girls in a fight to attend the all-white Gillespie Park Elementary in 1957. As a result, Greensboro was one of the first cities in the southeastern part of the United States to desegregate its public schools.
Martin Brinkley, dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, said that “Lee is one of the law school’s great citizens of the twentieth century. His strength and commitment to justice paved the way for students not only at the law school but at the university. His tireless work arguing civil rights cases across North Carolina created positive changes that are still felt today and will continue to be felt for years to come.”
Related: North Carolina A&T State University • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Lapping It Up
A skimming method doomed to failure over time.
BY JOSEPH T. WELLS
elson, a computer programmer for a financial institution in New Orleans, sat across the desk from his boss. Nelson flinched when the boss told him the news that he, an 11-year company veteran, was in trouble with the home office in Dallas because of irresponsible behavior.
More than a year ago, Nelson had accepted a promotion requiring a transfer to New Orleans from Dallas. The company extended him a $15,000 bridge loan, temporary funds to cover moving and household expenses. Nelson never paid back the loan, however, even after repeated requests to do so.
Unbeknownst to the company, Nelson had been in serious hock for years. He and his wife just couldn’t seem to control their spending. With creditors hounding him, Nelson had taken the $15,000 and paid some of his most pressing debts. Now, with the boss facing him, he didn’t know what excuse to use this time for not paying back the company.
But the boss was beyond being mollified with any more excuses. “Nelson,” he said, “the company has made it pretty clear: If you don’t get this debt taken care of, it’s going to cost you your job. Do you understand?” Nelson understood.
Necessity being the mother of invention, Nelson concocted a plan made possible only by an internal control deficiency at the company big enough to drive a truck through: unrestricted access to “live” data (read: customer accounts). Even as the bank’s chief programmer, Nelson never should have had access to such data, but he did. That could have been because he was the principal architect of the entire computer system.
Skimming Schemes
Comparison of median losses
Source: Occupational Fraud and Abuse, by Joseph T. Wells, Obsidian Publishing Co., 1997.
The first step of Nelson’s plan involved opening a savings account at the bank under someone else’s name. In this case, he chose the ID of his own elderly, infirm uncle. Once the account was active, Nelson set about reprogramming the bank’s computers to accommodate a highly complex and seemingly foolproof lapping scheme.
Because Nelson needed $15,000 all at once, he easily located a customer checking account with a large balance. But since he knew a funds transfer would create a record on the customer’s statement, he removed the funds from the “ending balance” field on the statement itself. He transferred the money to the uncle’s account, over which he had signature authority. Nelson debited the uncle’s account and credited his own, using the proceeds to pay his bills.
The bank’s computers were programmed to print account statements throughout the month (for example, customer A’s statement mailed on the first day of the month, customer B’s on the second and the last one on the 30th). That being the case, Nelson figured he would have use of the funds for 29 days—no more. So he programmed the computer to simply “roll” the $15,000 through the ending balance field on other checking accounts according to a predetermined schedule. Nelson’s plan, in effect, was to let the money bounce throughout the computer program until he could legitimately repay his “loan.”
Alas, this method was too easy for Nelson, and therefore too tempting. He rationalized that the bank wouldn’t find out or even miss the cash. So he continued to “loan” himself more money to pay off other pressing obligations.
When the amount ballooned to $150,000 and involved thousands of customer checking accounts, Nelson’s ingenious 29-day computer program failed to reverse some transactions in time to avoid detection. In his haste, he forgot there were only 28 days in February. Customers started pouring into the bank with statements in hand showing a major discrepancy: Their ending balances last month were different from the beginning balances this month—a mathematical impossibility.
Although Nelson initially blamed the problem on a programming error, he finally confessed to his boss what happened. He had always planned to pay the money back, Nelson promised solemnly, but he was at a loss to explain exactly how he could do that.
Ever the nice guy, Nelson helped the authorities gather the evidence to convict him of embezzlement. It’s a good thing he did, too. Chasing down every single transaction would have been extremely time-consuming. Nelson’s cooperation got him only 15 months as a guest of the Louisiana penal system.
ROBBING PETER BUT FORGETTING TO PAY PAUL
If Nelson had been anything other than a rank amateur, he never would have picked lapping as the scheme of choice for covering cash thefts. Although he managed to lap customer checking accounts for about nine months—no small chore—Nelson’s plan was probably doomed from the outset.
That’s because lapping almost always goes beyond robbing Peter to pay Paul. Once the first attempt is successful, lapping tends to increase at exponential rates. Now, the fraudster has to steal from other customers. Then, there are many accounts to keep track of. Therein lies the fraudster’s pact with the devil: The more lapping occurs, the greater the chance of making a mistake.
That’s exactly what happened to Nelson. In his case, even his “move-the-money-around” program couldn’t keep track of the thousands of transactions. So when an accounting student once asked me the best way to detect lapping schemes, I couldn’t help myself: “Time,” I replied, only partially in jest. “In time, lapping schemes will invariably reveal themselves.”
A LIST OF SINS
Because of Nelson’s sins, a lot of people in his company suffered. The boss lost a valuable computer programmer and long-term employee. Since the prosecution of Nelson drew headlines, the bank lost credibility with some of its customers, likely costing it many multiples of the $150,000 he stole. Nelson’s coworkers at the bank suffered a loss of morale. Management was embarrassed. Nelson’s family had to ask for public assistance while he was imprisoned.
But Nelson wasn’t the only one at fault in this case. Take, for example, the bank’s upper management. It is ultimately responsible for the flawed system of internal control that permitted Nelson to commit his crime in the first place. Not only were there computer system problems, but the bank never should have allowed Nelson to open an account using the identification of a relative 40 years his senior.
And management did not recognize the signs of a financially strapped employee. Had someone done so, the company might have sought an alternative to forcing Nelson into a tight corner; desperate people do desperate things. Many large companies, for example, provide financial counseling to troubled debtors.
The bank’s external auditors should have detected the fact that Nelson could both program and modify customer accounts—a serious deficiency. The internal auditors should have spotted the glaring control weakness long before that.
TURNING WATER INTO WINE
To the bank’s credit, it decided to do something positive after Nelson’s fall from grace. First, it closed the internal-control hole. Second, the company appointed an ombudsman to counsel employees in times of stress—financial and otherwise. Most important, it implemented companywide antifraud training to sensitize its managers and employees to not only how workers commit fraud, but why they do it in the first place.
When putting together its employee video-training program, the bank went looking for an expert to talk about the fraud problem. It found one: From behind prison walls, Nelson—now full of remorse—volunteered. He looked directly at the camera and, through the tears, told his own story.
The Lap Trap
Lapping is the fraudster’s version of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” skimming. It is the extraction of money from one account to cover shortages in another account. For example, a fraudster steals the payment intended for customer A’s account. When a payment is received from customer B, the thief credits it to A’s account. And when customer C pays, that money is credited to B. Repeated many times, lapping is difficult for the dishonest employee to keep track of. As a result, almost all lapping schemes quickly reveal themselves.
All material cash misappropriations send telltale signs: reduced cash combined with increased expenses and/or decreased revenue (see “Enemies Within,” JofA, Dec.01, page 31). Most lapping occurs because of inadequate control over incoming payments. Following are some classic “red flags” of lapping:
Excessive billing errors.
Slowing accounts receivable turnover.
Excessive writeoffs of accounts receivable.
Delays in posting customer payments.
Accounts receivable detail doesn’t agree with general ledger.
A trend of decreasing payments on accounts receivable.
Customer complaints.
2002 Joseph T. Wells
JOSEPH T. WELLS, CPA, CFE, is founder and chairman of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Austin, Texas. Mr. Wells’ article “So That’s Why They Call It a Pyramid Scheme” ( JofA Oct.00, page 91) won the Lawler Award for best article in the JofA in 2000. His e-mail address is joe@cfenet.com .
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Broadgate Events
Fundraising for Centrepoint
raised of £5,000 target
by 3 supporters
are raising funds for Centrepoint because young people need our help this winter
We provide the support needed to give homeless young people a future
Charity Registration No. 292411
This winter, for the second year running, Broadgate is working closely with Centrepoint, the charity that provides housing and support for young people.
The Winter Forest that was situated in Broadgate Circle this festive season, was raising funds for Centrepoint on the ground via donation buckets, fundraising events and through our retailers, and we're keen to carry on throughout the winter period, but we need your help to make a difference to homeless young people this Christmas.
Centrepoint is the UK’s leading charity for homeless young people, supporting over 10,000 young people every year. They provide 16-25 year olds with a safe place to live, health support and life skills to get them back into education, training and employment. The support Centrepoint receives from your generous donations will mean that they are able to support young people as soon as they arrive at Centrepoint. It will go towards providing a stable home, access to professional training opportunities, counselling sessions and small bursaries to get young people’s careers started. Simply click on the ‘donate’ button to support Centrepoint this Christmas and help homeless young people rebuild their lives.
Centrepoint is the UK’s leading charity for homeless young people, supporting over 10,000 16-25 year olds into a home and a job every year. Working directly in London and the north of England, Centrepoint's work covers all of the UK through a network of 40 partner organisations.
£270.00 + £67.50 Gift Aid
Online donations £270.00
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Physicists Detect New Heavy Particle
Signature resembles long-sought 'Higgs boson.'
higgs-TOP.jpg
A proton-proton collision event in the CMS experiment producing two high-energy photons (red towers). This is what would be expected from the decay of a Higgs boson but it is also consistent with other, more common physics processes.
© CERN 2012
Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - 19:30
Virat Markandeya, Contributor
(ISNS) -- Scientists from two experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe confirmed the existence of a new heavy particle, likely to be the long-sought Higgs boson, thanks to troves of particle-collision data that yielded discovery-level certainty upon analysis. The results, announced at a major particle physics conference in Melbourne, Australia, mark the culmination of a search for a heavy particle believed to give mass to elementary particles such as electrons and quarks.
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The announcements represent the current high-water mark for the $7-billion LHC particle accelerator at the Franco-Swiss border, which smashes together subatomic particles known as protons at super-high energies to recreate conditions thought to exist fractions of a second after the Big Bang.
"To me it's really an incredible thing that it's happened in my lifetime," said Peter Higgs, the British theorist after whom the particle is named, who was present at the conference and at times appeared choked with emotion. The ideas were in the air when Higgs had written a brief 2-page paper in 1964 that led to the moniker "Higgs boson." The Higgs has been the last undiscovered particle predicted by the Standard Model, the bedrock theory of known subatomic particles and the forces that govern them, and it also holds the promise of revealing new physics phenomena.
It was vindication for a generation of scientists. "Tears came in my eyes when the five-sigma number came up," said Brookhaven National Laboratory's Howard Gordon, who is the U.S. deputy operations program manager for the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The U.S. contingent of ATLAS, hosted by Brookhaven and consisting of over 700 people from 44 institutions, helped to build many of its key detectors and handles about 20 percent of the worldwide computing effort involved in simulation and analysis of its data.
The two experiments, CMS and ATLAS, analyzed particle decay data from approximately 500 trillion particle collisions. Joe Incandela, spokesperson for the CMS experiment, said that if you imagine each collision as a grain of sand, you'd have enough sand to fill an Olympic swimming pool. However, Higgs-related collisions are so rare that the grains of sand would only cover the tip of a finger, he said.
At the ICHEP2012 conference earlier this morning, both groups reported "bumps" in their collision data indicating the presence of a particle with mass measured at around 125 -126 billion electron volts, abbreviated as GeV. This is over a hundred times heavier than the proton, which is the core of the basic hydrogen atom, and is only about 1 GeV.
Each LHC experiment confirmed these results to about five sigmas of certainty, indicating that there is less than a one in a million probability that these were chance results resulting from something other than the presence of a new particle.
"We have a new particle consistent with a Higgs boson," said Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director-General of CERN.
The new particle was detected by the sprays of particles into which it decays. The Standard Model predicts that the Higgs can decay into pairs of about half a dozen types of particles, but other, more ordinary matter can also make similar decays. So experimental physicists must tally up the number of events in each of the ways a Higgs particle can decay and look for unexpected excesses in these decay events. At a very basic level, it is like rolling a die again and again to figure out if it is loaded.
The CMS experiment studied five decay channels of which two, where the decay is into a pair of photons or particles known as Z bosons, are the most important because they allow for more precise measurements of the Higgs' mass. The combined significance of the signal for all five was 4.9 sigma.
The ATLAS experiment studied two main channels where the Higgs-like particle decays, into two photons or four leptons, a category of particles such as electrons and muons. It found a signature at around 126 GeV at a 5 sigma significance, combining the data from the two kinds of events.
"It is very, very nice for the Standard Model Higgs boson to be at that mass," said ATLAS spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti, because LHC is well suited to studying particles at that mass. "So thanks, nature," she added.
These results follow earlier LHC data and the Monday announcement from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois of evidence, extracted from the less powerful and now-retired Tevatron accelerator, for the particle at a level of three sigma.
The Higgs mechanism answers the fundamental question of why most of elementary particles have masses. Without the Higgs, everything from stars to atoms would not exist. It was the last remaining piece of the Standard Model. Elementary particles, such as electrons and quarks, interact with the Higgs field and their interaction creates their mass.
Today's results represent a "marvelous achievement, the cornerstone of 400 years of efforts to explain what we observe in the universe," said Gordon Kane, a University of Michigan theoretical physicist who did not work on the experiment. The data, he said, suggest a particle that's remarkably close to the Higgs predicted by the Standard Model. Time will tell, he said, as to whether the small discrepancies that currently exist between the data and the predictions of the Standard Model are experimental errors or if they point to new physics beyond the Standard Model. If confirmed, even small deviations from the Standard Model could lead the way to new physics, and could be consistent with the predictions of major extensions to the Standard Model such as string theory.
The latest tranche represents merely a third of the data that ATLAS is expected to obtain in 2012. The current results are expected to be published by the end of July. "There's more to come…Please, in particular theorists, be patient. There is a long path to go," ATLAS spokesperson Gianotti jestfully chided the scientific audience.
The results came in the last runs of the experiments which ended about two weeks ago. The announcements were met by standing ovations and a surprisingly low number of questions at the end of the scientific presentations.
More questions flowed from layperson reporters at a post-seminar news conference. One reporter asked whether the results have any relevance to him, being that he's made up of elementary particles.
"I think it has a lot of relevance to you," said Heuer, the CERN Director-General of CERN, "because if that [Higgs field] would not exist, then you would not exist."
Virat Markandeya is a contributing writer to Inside Science News Service.
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In Mexico, possession of weapons restricted for use by the army is a federal crime, and the country has been tightening up its border checks to stop the flow of US weapons that have been used by drug cartels.
His attorney, Fernando Benitez, had pushed for the 26-year-old Florida man to be released because Mexico has no experience in treating combat-related PTSD, even in its own soldiers.
Benitez had argued that Tahmooressi carries loaded guns with him because his weapons, which were bought legally in the U.S., make him feel safer. He added that the veteran is often distracted, which could have contributed to him becoming lost.
Still, Mexican prosecutors maintained Tahmooressi broke the law, and they have denied claims by his attorney that he was held for about eight hours without a translator before authorities notified the U.S. Consulate.
But a psychiatrist hired by Mexican prosecutors to examine the Afghanistan veteran agreed with the defense that he should get PTSD treatment in the United States, noting in a Sept. 30 report that Tahmooressi, who now serves in the Marine reserve, feels like he is constantly in danger.
Tahmooressi did not admit wrongdoing, and he still maintains his innocence, his attorney said.
His mother, Jill Tahmooressi, has said her son’s time in a Mexican jail has been worse than his two tours in Afghanistan.
Tahmooressi left Florida for San Diego in January to get help after dropping out of college, unable to concentrate or sleep, his mother said.
What you need to know about the 2020 Census
MORE NATION & WORLD
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May 28, 2007 Karen Rutherford
My brother would be 47 years old today. He’s been gone for 14 years now. Hard to believe how fast that time has gone by. I remember the funeral, if you could call it that, like it was yesterday. My ex kept my son and my father, grandmother (mother’s mother) and I drove to Memphis to bury him with my mother. My grandmother and grandfather had bought four plots decades before. They were meant for the two of them and their daughter who died in 1980 and her husband, my father. But my father remarried years ago, so it was a perfect fit for his plot to go to my brother. I’m not sure why I didn’t fit in the space, but it made sense and still does.
I remember my father looking at his only son lying in his coffin, holding his hand and shaking his head with incomprehension. My brother died in jail and was sent to the funeral home with his belongings, which all fit into one trash bag. Granted, it was the larger lawn and garden size, but it was still one trash bag. The only words my father said were, “How can someone be in their thirties and die with one hefty bag of stuff?”
What he was really saying - what really stumped him - was that his son had died with so little when he had been given so much. Money, that is. My father had spent thousands upon thousands of dollars trying to get my brother on the right track in life, and in his mind, Pat was the only thing blemishing his appearance as a complete success.
While I didn’t know my brother as well as I should have because he didn’t live at home full-time after the age of 13 in an effort to make him be a better person, I really just felt sadness. I still do. Sadness about a boy who just wanted to be good, but couldn’t. He wanted to make people happy, make people proud of him, make people love him, make people be who they could never be. He used to draw beautifully. He created things for everybody. He sent our grandmother homemade cards, because she asked him to draw for her. It was the closest he got to someone being genuinely proud of him. He was forgiving, trusting, and a considerate, sensitive soul.
And he should get credit for trying so hard to be a good boy. Unfortunately, the only people left who knew him are me and my father, whose viewpoints on everything about the past cancel each other out.
← Nothin'An Ode to Ron Paul →
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“But it’s a fun show. Think of ‘The View,’ think of ‘The Chew,’ think of ‘The Talk.’ It’s all of those things in one show.”
Australian native Troy Thompson hosts “Midday Kentucky” on WTVQ-TV 36 in Lexington, Kentucky. Rich Copley rcopley@herald-leader.com
If it sounds a bit like advertising, in a sense, it is.
Most of the businesses that appear on “Midday Kentucky” are paying advertising clients of the station, particularly digital clients, and their appearances on the show are part of their agreement.
“You very rarely get a TV host, an executive producer and a salesman all in one,” Thompson says. “That’s what I do.
“I sell content within my show, and I enjoy that. I love nothing more than going out to all the businesses and discussing ideas with them; how I can help them, what I call put bums on seats.“
Thompson says when he works with a business, they make a plan that includes digital marketing and websites, in addition to appearances on the show, which usually run around four-and-a-half minutes, though the show frequently goes on location for its full hour to visit with clients. The show segments become part of the marketing, re-shared in social media pages and elsewhere.
“The clients and folks we bring in are very pleased with the results they’ve had from the show,” says WTVQ General Manager Chris Aldridge, who says he was initially drawn to Thompson’s digital marketing skills when he was hired in 2016.
Those segments are couched within a show that starts off with chatter about events of the day, though it rarely gets too newsy. The day after the election, Thompson and guest co-host Cicely Dore glance over the results quickly before moving on to a lager dose of pop culture.
Troy Thompson and Cicely Dore, hosts of “Midday Kentucky,” interview Russ Funk about gender-based violence prevention on WTVQ-TV 36 in Lexington, Kentucky on Nov. 7, 2018. Rich Copley rcopley@herald-leader.com
While paid advertisers make up a good portion of the show, there are segments on community not-for-profit groups that are free for the interviewee. The post election episode, for instance, Thompson devoted two segments to an organization working to stop gender-based violence.
Thompson’s role at the ABC affiliate will grow in January when it premiers “The Younger You,” based on a show Thompson created in Utah, at 7 p.m. Saturdays.
Thompson’s career started with purely business roots, opening his first salon in Australia at 21, he said. After an initial failure, he opened several salons and then found his way to TV as a hair and makeup commentator, parlaying that success into reality TV, radio, and publishing.
Over Christmas in 2011, he decided to check out the United States, visiting New York and other marquee destinations. While here, he met an immigration lawyer who told him he should move to the United States. At that moment, he laughed the idea off.
But when he got back to Australia, Thompson learned his radio show was canceled, he says because of a format change in the company. But he felt like a failure, and called up the immigration lawyer. With surprising speed, he got a three-year visa to work in the United States, sold his shops and moved.
First he went skiing and eventually found himself on-air for several daytime shows at the ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City.
There, he had a bit of an awakening about being an openly gay man in a conservative state. When the 2013 Utah court decision came down legalizing gay marriage, Thompson was told by his co-hosts they would not talk about the topic on air because no one wanted to hear it.
“It was the first time in my life that I had to defend who I was, and I hated it,” Thompson says. “I hated the fact that I stood here in a Mormon state, not judging them as being Mormon and hating gay people or having issues with other people of the Mormon faith — I didn’t judge them, so why should they judge me.”
It was a sobering moment that has inspired Thompson to be more up front about his identity and presenting LGBTQ issues on his show. He was also profiled this month in Linq, a magazine for the Central Kentucky “LGBTQ+ Community,” which Thompson says is the first time he has had a article written that focused on his sexuality.
But the focus of his show is the guests, and presenting them in the best light. Thompson initially came to Lexington to work in digital sales, not on air. It was a conversation with Aldridge that led to scrapping a noon news format, like network affiliates WKYT (CBS) and WLEX (NBC) present, in favor of the revenue-generating lifestyles show.
Thompson was drawn to Kentucky through a mutual associate of his and Aldridge, while he was in a brief stop in Anchorage, Alaska.
“I thought, if I’m going to change up everything in my life and move from Australia, which I did ... I’m not going to sit in one spot,” Thompson said. “I want to experience America.”
He does say this will not be his last move, physically or vocationally. While he appears to relish being an on-air personality, he sees a time when that will come to an end.
“It’s the business that I love,” Thompson says. “I want to be a GM of a station one day. I don’t want to be on-air talent forever.”
But for right now, he’s enjoying working both sides of the camera, which seems as surprisingly good as a gluten free piece of cheesecake.
‘Midday Kentucky’
Noon and 4 p.m. Mondays-Fridays on WTVQ-TV 36 (Spectrum Ch. 10).
Australian native Troy Thompson (center) hosts “Midday Kentucky” on WTVQ-TV 36 in Lexington. He’s shown during a segment with Gluten Free Miracles owner Denise Walsh and co-host Cicely Dore (right). Rich Copley rcopley@herald-leader.com
Australian native Troy Thompson (right) hosts “Midday Kentucky” with Cicely Dore (left) on WTVQ-TV 36 in Lexington, Kentucky. Rich Copley rcopley@herald-leader.com
Australian native Troy Thompson (center) hosts “Midday Kentucky” on WTVQ-TV 36 in Lexington, Kentucky.He’s shown during a segment with Gluten Free Miracles owner Denise Walsh and co-host Cicely Dore (right). Rich Copley rcopley@herald-leader.com
UK Opera Theatre presents a Christmas story for Veterans Day
Governor’s School for the Arts has a new, Big Blue home
Copious Notes
Creative Mornings serve up a monthly dose of inspiration ... and coffee
By Rich Copley
Since January 2017, Creative Mornings Lexington talks have been packing in local creatives to hear inspirational talks from fellow residents and visitors.
MORE COPIOUS NOTES
When you read this, I’ll be gone: Farewell to 20 years as the Herald-Leader’s arts writer
No sooner do we finish the turkey, then holiday celebrations begin, this weekend
Laura Bell Bundy goes Barefoot for the holidays in all-star video and wine promo
UK student is sole winner at Metropolitan Opera district auditions
Terrell, Philharmonic and pianist have a ball with another take on American tunes
Philharmonic piano soloist also composes and conducts. And he’s only 20.
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Catriona Rowntree
Australia's Most Travelled Woman
Categories: Celebrities, MCs & Hosts
"Australia's Most Travelled Woman”, that's the title earned by Catriona Rowntree after nearly 15 years at the helm of Australia's favourite travel show Getaway on Channel Nine. Her television career began after completing a Diploma of Journalism at Macleay College in 1990, followed by stints researching at BRW, various Sydney newsrooms and beginning an obsession for Community Radio via putting the news to air and hosting an interview show on FM 915(Rhythm and Jazz).
In 1992 Catriona auditioned along with 8,000 other hopefuls, for a Reporters job in WonderWorld!, making it into the final 5 girls, but was piped at the post. Persistence led to victory when Catriona was taken on as a Researcher in 1993. After much begging, the following year Catriona was allowed to film one story for the show (Putt Putt Golf, where she donned a safari suit and had a ball, literally) and has been employed on-air ever since.
That soon led to hosting What's Up Doc, filmed live on weekends from GTV in Melbourne and after 3 years of sending out resumes to her favourite radio stations, the Community Radio obsession evolved into a paid gig on Triple J radio, hosing the national Weekend Request Show. So began a period of working 7 days a week in 3 states and loving every single second of it. In 1994 Catriona stepped into the Hosts seat on WonderWorld!
The hard work paid off and the golden opportunity to roam the globe for Getaway was offered in 1996. Since then Catriona has worked on many other TV projects including the National IQ Test, Funniest Home Videos, Logies Red Carpet Arrivals and The Chopping Block. In 2006, Catriona celebrated her 10 years on Getaway by publishing 'Catriona's Australia: 100 of my favourite Aussie locations' through JDP.
In addition to her TV roles, Catriona has been able to utilise her passion for Community work as the Patron of the Arnotts Foundation, Ambassador for OCRF, Mission Australia, Phillip Island Penguins. In 2010, Catriona was delighted to honour her husband’s role as Chairman of the Geelong Landcare Network by becoming an Australian Landcare Ambassador and in 2012 she was the Ambassador for Year of the Farmer. As a self confessed chatterbox, Catriona is also highly sought after as an MC and host for various events.
Catriona has worked with many brands including Sunsense and Goulburn Valley. In 2012 Catriona was officially announced as the Brand Ambassador for Pharmacare’s EASEaCOLD range.
Personally, Catriona's life completely changed when marrying Victorian farmer James Pettit in 2008 and swapping her Jimmy Choo's for RM Williams. An absolute passion for the land and environment is now able to blossom in every way. Catriona and James welcomed baby Andrew into the world in 2009 and returned to her Getaway travels in 2010, their second baby Charles was born in March 2011. Inspired by motherhood, and now in it's third year, Catriona's ongoing children's range of clothing with Target goes from strength to strength.
Catriona was delighted to honour her husband’s role as Chairman of the Geelong Landcare Network by becoming an Australian Landcare Ambassador and is also participating in Year of the Farmer 2012.
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Wome: I'm surrounded by good players
Mar 28, 2017 - 10:50 am By Ernest Fakude
Wome has impressed since joining Bucs on a six-month loan deal in January from SuperSport United, netting three times and providing two assists for the Buccaneers.
The Togolese midfielder has given credit to his teammates for helping him swiftly settle at Mayfair.
"Credit must go to my teammates because they are always there for me," says Wome.
"Even on the field of play they are always there for me because they provide good passes and all that. So for me to settle down at Pirates it's easy because there are good players around me."
Pirates, who are celebrating their 80th anniversary this year, can only aim for a top-eight finish in the league at this stage of the season.
Winning the Nedbank Cup has therefore become a priority as it would also book them a spot in next term's CAF Confederation Cup.
Wome is eager to match The Ghost's expectations.
"This cup is the only chance to bring glory to the club and go back to Africa. We will go all the way and try to win the cup. My wish is to play in Africa, to do well, as this is the only chance to play in Africa," says the former Mamelodi Sundowns man.
Get the latest Orlando Pirates news sent to your phone
KG boost for Abafana Bes'thende
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Lafarge - Ipsos / Sopra Steria survey: Women and Cities
After having published the results of a survey over happiness in the city in 2013, Lafarge is marking International Women's Day by publishing the results of an unprecedented survey conducted in conjunction with researchers Ipsos / Sopra Steria to examine the relationship between women and cities in five major European centers of Paris, Marseille, Madrid, Warsaw and Krakow.
Because building better cities - the Lafarge ambition - requires detailed knowledge of urban residents, the Group was keen to conduct this survey in order to gain a clearer understanding of how women see their city and their expectations of it. How do women live in the city? How do they feel about themselves in the urban environment? What benefits do they get from city life?
"This survey demonstrates the attachment women have to the city, which is seen as a place of opportunity that facilitates the process of balancing different aspects of their lives. It also identifies their expectations for a better life in the city, including more pleasant and less polluted surroundings, and improved access to efficient transportation. Building cities that offer more housing and are more compact, more durable, more beautiful and better connected is also part of the Lafarge ambition. To ensure that those of us who live in cities feel good about doing so, we are using innovation to identify the most adapted products and solutions as part of our contribution to building better cities," explains Alexandra Rocca, Executive Vice-President Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainable Development at Lafarge.
"We can learn a lot from the results of this survey! The first thing is that the women who live in the major European urban centers surveyed love their cities. But at the same time, they recognize that the city can cause feelings of stress and sometimes insecurity. So what can be done to make their city lives even better? These city dwellers identify a number of different solutions, including several small centers distributed throughout the city, rather than a single city center, for example. They also feel - and this opinion is shared by men - that cities would be better suited to their needs if they had more say in urban design and management," says Federico Vacas, Deputy Head of the Politics and Opinion Department at Ipsos.
Women love cities even more than men do
Nearly 9 out of 10 women (89%) love the city in general terms, which is a slightly higher proportion than for men (84%).
It is because they are engaged on every front and struggle to find the time to balance work, childcare, household tasks and leisure that urban women like the practicality of the city, such as access to healthcare services (94%), employment opportunities (92%), access to public services and banks (90%) and schools (78%).
The practical benefits of the city and close proximity to services are those aspects that French women like best (69% in Paris and 78% in Marseille). Our women citizens in other European countries put more emphasis on access to leisure activities and the diversity of city life; aspects that are more attractive for three-quarters of the women surveyed in Madrid, and more than 60% of their counterparts in Warsaw and Krakow.
Freedom of movement (49%) and easy access to employment (41%) come next in the list of city benefits identified by the women surveyed.
Women see cities as synonymous with opportunity, freedom and self-fulfillment
The city is seen as a place of professional opportunity even more strongly by women (95%) than by men (90%).
Nearly 9 respondents out of 10 (84%) are convinced that women are more likely to achieve self-fulfillment in cities than in rural communities. For example, urban women see the city as offering them more professional opportunities than rural communities in terms of intellectual fulfillment, leisure activities, equal opportunities, freedom and sociability.
This perception varies from city to city: more specifically, women in Paris put greater emphasis on the equal opportunities and freedom offered by their city (86% compared with 78% overall), whereas for their counterparts in Poland, sociability is more important (79% in Warsaw and 83% in Krakow).
But women in cities are battling against the clock
When asked about their relationship to time, it seems that women in cities do not have enough of it. On average across the five cities surveyed, women say that they would need 3 hours 14 minutes more to do everything they want to do (compared with 2 hours 47 minutes for men). This is even more true for women under 35 and those with children, who say they need 3 hours 58 minutes and 3 hours 54 minutes more every day respectively.
Time spent on urban transportation is an important factor here, since urban women spend an average of 1 hour 24 minutes every day travelling in this way.
Stress and insecurity are the two main drawbacks of the city
The positive overall image of the city is qualified by considerations characteristic of urban life: women with a negative view of the city explain their disaffection by referring to insecurity, stress and pollution.
So 79% of those interviewed say that the city is more stressful than it is relaxing. This perception is more marked in Marseille (85%) and Madrid (87%).
The city is also seen as less safe than elsewhere. So walking alone at night is the only area where women do not feel the same level of freedom as men. 80% of women say that walking alone at night is easier for men than for women.
Urban women have many expectations of the city
Although the city is an environment in which women feel good about themselves in general, they believe that it could be better suited to their daily lives. Nearly 4 women out of 5 feel, for example, that cities would be better suited to their lives if they had more say in their design and management.
Women living in the five cities surveyed also have clear opinions about the possible solutions for improving their lives in the urban environment, including less polluted surroundings and better access to transportation. Both men and women then go on to refer to solutions for potential improvements in leisure activities, housing and the physical appearance of the city, all of which are identified as factors for improving their urban daily lives.
In their quest to balance work with family life, urban women are heavily in favor of cities designed with several small centers, rather than a single city center (74% compared with 26%).
The survey was conducted amongst a total sample of 3,015 respondents representative of the population living in each of the five urban centers in terms of gender, age (18+) and geographic distribution. The interviews were conducted between February 9 and 16 this year. 602 people were interviewed in Paris and Warsaw, 603 in Marseille, and 604 in Madrid and Krakow.
Specific results focusing on the five cities surveyed (Paris, Marseille, Madrid, Warsaw and Krakow) are available on request.
A world leader in building materials, Lafarge employs 63,000 people in 61 countries, and posted sales of €12.8 billion in 2014. As a top-ranking player in its Cement, Aggregates and Concrete businesses, it contributes to the construction of cities around the world, through its innovative solutions providing them with more housing and making them more compact, more durable, more beautiful, and better connected. With the world's leading building materials research facility, Lafarge places innovation at the heart of its priorities in order to contribute to more sustainable construction and to better serve architectural creativity.
The press release (pdf, 516.29 KB)
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Colorado mom gets total hysterectomy to treat cancer that she never had
A Colorado mom who was looking for help having more kids was given a cancer diagnosis and got a hysterectomy. She later learned that the test was contaminated, and she never had cancer at all.
Author: Chris Vanderveen
Published: 6:00 PM PDT May 13, 2019
DENVER - For eight weeks in 2018, Taylor Castillo prepared herself, her husband, and her young daughter for the very real possibility that she might die.
Stunned by a uterine cancer diagnosis – doctors called it high-grade serous carcinoma – the 36-year-old understood what everyone was telling her. A hysterectomy was her best, if not only, option.
On Aug. 27, 2018, doctors inside Swedish Medical Center removed Castillo’s uterus and ovaries before calling the surgery a complete success.
Three weeks later, Taylor found out the truth.
Taylor Castillo thought she had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
9Wants to Know
There had been a mistake.
There was no cancer. The hysterectomy – a procedure that ended her dream of having a large family – was the net result of what Swedish eventually called a “contaminant” in the hospital’s pathology lab.
“I still can’t believe it,” Taylor Castillo said. “I thought I was saving my life, and it was completely unnecessary.”
“We offer our deepest sympathy to the patient and her family. Patient safety is paramount at our hospital. This is a very unfortunate and rare event,” read a statement from Swedish Medical Center.
Taylor Castillo simply would like to know more about the mistake.
Chapter 1: “A Contaminant”
Taylor and Aaron Castillo were first married in 2014.
Courtesy Castillo family
When they got married in 2014, Taylor and Aaron Castillo decided early on they wanted a big family.
“I came from a big family,” Aaron Castillo said. “I have three brothers and two sisters. So, I’m just used to a lot of siblings running around.”
“I’ve loved kids since I was a child,” Taylor Castillo said. “I was always the neighborhood babysitter. I grew up to be a nanny and preschool teacher. I just love children, especially babies.”
Their daughter Camilla arrived in 2015. They decided to give it another go the following year.
“I just figured it would be the same, and it wasn’t. We got months and months of negative tests,” Taylor Castillo said.
In the summer of 2018, her obstetrician recommended some additional testing to see why the couple was finding it difficult for Taylor to become pregnant again.
“We decided to do an endometrial biopsy to see what was going on,” Taylor Castillo said.
Through laparoscopy, a doctor extracted a small piece of tissue from the lining of the Taylor Castillo’s uterus.
The sample was sent to the Swedish Medical Center Pathology Department and its laboratory.
Taylor Castillo thought she had been diagnosed with cancer after a biopsy.
The news from the biopsy was not good. “Positive for malignant cells,” read a portion of her medical records reviewed by 9Wants to Know.
“I had uterine cancer. I was destroyed,” Taylor Castillo said. “The first thing I thought was I can’t have any more children.”
On August 15, 2018, while acting on the request for a second opinion, a lab at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, tested the tissue sample again.
The results were even worse.
“Highly suggestive of secondary involvement by high-grade serous carcinoma of tubal or ovarian origin,” read the lab’s report, also reviewed by 9Wants to Know.
“When I found out I had high-grade, everything changed,” Taylor Castillo said. “I couldn’t believe we were in that place. I couldn’t believe it. At that point, my goal was to survive.”
She asked if they could harvest any of her eggs. She said she was told no.
“I couldn’t harvest eggs, because I had an estrogen driven cancer,” Taylor Castillo said. “So, I couldn’t be on any of the hormones to get the eggs out.”
Diagnosed with a deadly form of cancer, Taylor Castillo was fixated on what it meant for not only her family but for her dream.
“I just couldn’t come to terms with letting go of my fertility completely, but I knew it had to happen,” she said.
On August 27, 2018, doctors inside Swedish Medical Center performed the hysterectomy.
Taylor Castillo had a hysterectomy done at Swedish Medical Center.
When she awoke from the surgery, Taylor initially heard what seemed to be very good news.
“There were no visible tumors, no swelling, no inflammation. Nothing,” she recalled a doctor telling her. “I was so glad it wasn’t worse, that they didn’t see anything, but I was also a little confused.”
Taylor said eventually she asked if the tissue sample from the biopsy could be tested again.
Not for cancer this time, however, but for DNA.
On September 18, 2018, a test done by NeoGenomics concluded there had been a mistake.
“Using STR (Short Tandem Repeat) of 12 different DNA fingerprinting makers, tissues labeled 2 & 3 show the same pattern, but tissue labeled 1 is completely different from a different individual," read the Genomics report.
Another person's positive cancer result was found on Taylor Castillo's biopsy. She doesn't know who that person is.
In other words, the tissue sample on the side that led to Taylor Castillo’s cancer diagnosis and hysterectomy contained cells from two people. The healthy cells had come from Taylor.
The cancerous cells had come from someone else.
Medical records provided by Taylor and Aaron Castillo, records that came from Swedish Medical Center, call the tissue from that someone else “a contaminant.”
One of the leading researchers in the country on the subject of lab mistakes says lab “contaminants” happen more than patients might know.
Chapter 2: No lab “free from these errors”
Dr. John Pfiefer, a professor of Pathology and Immunology at the Washington University School of Medicine, believes it’s critical for patients to know, under specific circumstances, they have the right to raise their hands and ask for additional testing when facing things such as a cancer diagnosis.
“You should not hesitate to ask for [a DNA test] if there is any concern that your result was due to a switch or contamination,” he said.
The same test that Taylor Castillo relied on to find out about the contaminated uterine biopsy generally runs around $300.
Dr. Pfeifer’s research suggests as many as 1 to 2 percent of lab biopsy tests are inaccurate due to sample switches or outright contamination issues.
Dr. John Priefer's research has revealed that 1 to 2 percent of patients research false lab biopsy results due to sample switches or outright contamination issues.
Anna Hewson, KUSA
It’s a small number when it comes to percentages, but not when it comes to sheer volume considering the millions of biopsies that are done in the United States every year.
“Potentially there are a very large number of patients in the U.S. who would be impacted by these types of arbitrary errors,” he said.
His work suggests no lab is immune either.
“Our research shows that no patient care environment, no laboratory environment is free from these errors,” he said.
He said when an unexpected diagnosis comes that is the net result of a single lab test, the patient has the right to expect a DNA test to verify no lab mistake was made prior to any invasive surgery.
“Under those circumstances, it’s hard to argue that the testing shouldn’t be done,” he said. “The results can come back in a time that is short enough to actually be useful in planning the patient’s care.”
Chapter 3: "I need to know what happened"
Taylor Castillo thought she was going to die after receiving a heartbreaking cancer diagnosis.
Taylor Castillo still does not know whose cells ended up on her slide, but she certainly wonders about who she is and how she is doing.
“I think about her and pray for her all the time, because I know she is struggling the way we thought we were struggling,” she said.
She said the hospital has yet to fully tell them how the mistake happened in the first place.
“I need to know what happened, where it happened and who is responsible,” she said.
“What we went through, no one should have to go through,” Aaron Castillo said.
She did not file a lawsuit in the case and cannot discuss the nature of any potential legal remedy that may or may not have been reached.
She said she remains very upset over the whole thing.
“I was put on instant menopause at the age of 35,” Taylor Castillo said. “I’m actually higher risk for breast cancer now, heart disease, osteoporosis, all these things I have to live with because I’m 15 years early in menopause.”
SUGGESTED VIDEOS | Investigations from 9Wants to Know
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Trump says nationwide immigration arrests to begin Sunday
The operation will target people with final deportation orders on 10 major court dockets, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Miami.
Author: Elliot Spagat, Associated Press, COLLEEN LONG , Associated Press
Published: 10:23 AM PDT July 13, 2019
Updated: 10:23 AM PDT July 13, 2019
WASHINGTON — The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said efforts to deport families with orders to leave the country will continue after an upcoming national sweep that President Donald Trump said would start Sunday.
Matthew Albence, the agency's acting director, said targets were on an "accelerated docket" of immigration court cases for predominantly Central Americans who recently arrived at the U.S. border in unprecedented numbers. Similar operations occurred in 2016 under President Barack Obama and in 2017 under Trump.
"This family operation is nothing new," Albence told The Associated Press. "It's part of our day-to-day operations. We're trying to surge some additional resources to deal with this glut of cases that came out of the accelerated docket, but after this operation is over, these cases are still going to be viable cases that we'll be out there investigating and pursuing."
The operation will target people with final deportation orders on 10 major court dockets, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Miami. Albence said that doesn't mean arrests will be limited to certain areas. Authorities will go where their investigations lead, even if it's five states away from where the case is filed.
Trump said authorities were "focused on criminals as much as we can before we do anything else."
"It starts on Sunday and they're going to take people out and they're going to bring them back to their countries or they're going to take criminals out, put them in prison, or put them in prison in the countries they came from."
The operation further inflamed the political debate over immigration as Trump appeals to his base with a pledge to crack down on migrants and Democrats cast the president and his administration as inhumane for going after families.
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The Obama-era family operation in 2016 resulted in about 10% of those targeted being arrested, and the2017 effort had a lower arrest rate, Albence said. Other operations that have targeted people with criminal arrest records have yielded arrests rates of about 30%, aided by access to law enforcement databases.
"If you have an individual that's been arrested for a criminal violation, you're going to have much more of an investigative footprint," Albence said.
Administration officials have said they are targeting about 2,000 people, which would yield about 200 arrests based on previous crackdowns. Trump has said on Twitter that his agents plan to arrest millions of immigrants in the country illegally.
It is highly unusual to announce an enforcement sting before it begins. The president postponed the effort once before after a phone call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but immigration officials said it was also due in part to law enforcement concerns over officer safety because details had leaked.
But they're pressing ahead with this one, even though the president and other administration officials have discussed the long-planned family operation for months.
"Nothing to be secret about," Trump said. "If the word gets out, it gets out because hundreds of people know about it."
The operation will target entire families that have been ordered removed, but some family may be separated if some members are in the country legally. Albence gave a hypothetical example of a father and child in the U.S. illegally but a mother who isn't
"If the mother wants to return voluntarily on her own with the family, she'll have an opportunity to do so," he said.
Families may be temporarily housed in hotels until they can be transferred to a detention center or deported. Marriott said it would not allow ICE to use its hotels for holding immigrants.
If ICE runs out of space, it may be forced to separate some family members, Albence said. The government has limited space in its family detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania.
"If hotels or other places do not want to allow us to utilize that, it's almost forcing us into a situation where we're going to have to take one of the parents and put them in custody and separate them from the rest of their families," he said.
Meanwhile, activists ramped up efforts to prepare by circulating information about hotlines and planning public demonstrations. Vigils outside of detention centers and hundreds of other locations nationwide were set for Friday evening, to be followed by protests Saturday in Miami and Chicago.
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Press aide who mocked McCain is out at the White House
Updated: 3:01 PM PDT Jun 5, 2018
Kelly Sadler, the White House communications aide who made a imprudent comment about Republican Sen. John McCain's health last month, no longer works in the administration, three sources with knowledge of the matter said Tuesday.In the aftermath of the comment -- in which Sadler told a meeting that McCain's opposition to CIA director nominee Gina Haspel didn't matter because he's "dying" -- the White House refused to condemn her remark. She remained on the staff for nearly a month before departing.Sadler was a special assistant to the president, responsible for compiling and distributing talking points to administration allies.The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kelly Sadler, the White House communications aide who made a imprudent comment about Republican Sen. John McCain's health last month, no longer works in the administration, three sources with knowledge of the matter said Tuesday.
In the aftermath of the comment -- in which Sadler told a meeting that McCain's opposition to CIA director nominee Gina Haspel didn't matter because he's "dying" -- the White House refused to condemn her remark. She remained on the staff for nearly a month before departing.
Sadler was a special assistant to the president, responsible for compiling and distributing talking points to administration allies.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Business and Industry -- Occupations/Professions -- Printers (Remove)
Business and Industry -- Media/Communications (Remove)
Date -- 1900s (Remove)
Government and Politics (Remove)
Bits of history, Topeka Typographical Union No. 121
Topeka Typographical Union No. 121 (Kan.)
This document presents a brief history of the Topeka Typographical Union. Established in 1869, the Topeka Union gave up its charter in the 1870s (possibly 1876) but reorganized in 1882. This document summarizes some of the history and provides a list of members in 1874, 1886, delegates from 1870-1901 and a list of members in 1901.
Topeka Typographical Union No. 121 scale of prices
This document includes the scale of prices and agreements with publishers and employers for work completed on newspapers, books, and other jobs entered into by the Topeka Typographical Union.
L. W. Halbe collection
Halbe, L. W. (Leslie Winfield), 1893-1981
The L. W. (Leslie Winfield) Halbe photo collection consists of 1500 glass plate negatives produced by Halbe during his teenage years. Halbe lived in Dorrance, Russell County, Kansas, and began taking photographs of the region with an inexpensive Sears and Roebuck camera when he was fifteen years old.
George Washington Martin
This photograph shows George Washington Martin, newspaper editor and publisher, (1841-1914). In 1857 Martin migrated to the Kansas Territory from Pennsylvania settling in Lecompton, Kansas where he worked with the pro-slavery paper the Lecompton Union, later becoming the National Democrat. Martin later established himself as a newspaper editor and publisher founding the Junction City Union. Actively involved in the community, Martin held several public offices from mayor of Junction City to serving in the Kansas House of Representatives. In 1888 he moved to Kansas City, Kansas, establishing the Daily Gazette newspaper. Martin was the managing editor of the newspaper until 1899 when he is elected secretary of the Kansas Historical Society (KSHS). Martin held this position for fifteen years and was appointed secretary emeritus of KSHS in February 1914. He passed away on March 27, 1914 in Topeka, Kansas.
Pennell Photo
This cabinet card shows George Washington Martin, newspaper editor and publisher, (1841-1914). In 1857 Martin migrated to the Kansas Territory from Pennsylvania settling in Lecompton, Kansas where he worked with the pro-slavery paper the Lecompton Union, later becoming the National Democrat. Martin later established himself as a newspaper editor and publisher founding the Junction City Union. Actively involved in the community, Martin held several public offices from mayor of Junction City to serving in the Kansas House of Representatives. In 1888 he moved to Kansas City, Kansas, establishing the Daily Gazette newspaper. Martin was the managing editor of the newspaper until 1899 when he is elected secretary of the Kansas Historical Society (KSHS). Martin held this position for fifteen years and was appointed secretary emeritus of KSHS in February 1914. He passed away on March 27, 1914 in Topeka, Kansas.
Hansford & Allen
This series of cabinet cards shows George Washington Martin, 1841-1914. In 1857 Martin migrated to the Kansas Territory from Pennsylvania settling in Lecompton, Kansas where he worked with the pro-slavery paper the Lecompton Union, later becoming the National Democrat. Martin later established himself as a newspaper editor and publisher founding the Junction City Union. Actively involved in the community, Martin held several public offices from mayor of Junction City to serving in the Kansas House of Representatives. In 1888 he moved to Kansas City, Kansas, establishing the Daily Gazette newspaper. Martin was the managing editor of the newspaper until 1899 when he is elected secretary of the Kansas Historical Society (KSHS). Martin held this position for fifteen years and was appointed secretary emeritus of KSHS in February 1914. He passed away on March 27, 1914 in Topeka, Kansas.
This photograph shows newspaper editor and publisher George Washington Martin at his desk (1841-1914). In 1857 Martin migrated to the Kansas Territory from Pennsylvania settling in Lecompton, Kansas where he worked with the pro-slavery paper the Lecompton Union, later becoming the National Democrat. Martin later established himself as a newspaper editor and publisher founding the Junction City Union. Actively involved in the community, Martin held several public offices from mayor of Junction City to serving in the Kansas House of Representatives. In 1888 he moved to Kansas City, Kansas, establishing the Daily Gazette newspaper. Martin was the managing editor of the newspaper until 1899 when he is elected secretary of the Kansas Historical Society (KSHS). Martin held this position for fifteen years and was appointed secretary emeritus of KSHS in February 1914. He passed away on March 27, 1914 in Topeka, Kansas.
This drawing by D. H. Maloy, a student at the University of Kansas Department of Journalism, shows George Washington Martin (1841-1914). In 1857 Martin migrated to the Kansas Territory from Pennsylvania settling in Lecompton, Kansas where he worked with the pro-slavery paper the Lecompton Union, later becoming the National Democrat. Martin later established himself as a newspaper editor and publisher founding the Junction City Union. Actively involved in the community, Martin held several public offices from mayor of Junction City to serving in the Kansas House of Representatives. In 1888 he moved to Kansas City, Kansas, establishing the Daily Gazette newspaper. Martin was the managing editor of the newspaper until 1899 when he is elected secretary of the Kansas Historical Society (KSHS). Martin held this position for fifteen years and was appointed secretary emeritus of KSHS in February 1914. He passed away on March 27, 1914 in Topeka, Kansas.
George Wahington Martin
Theses series of photographs show George Washington Martin (1841-1914) at a unidentified location. In 1857 Martin migrated to the Kansas Territory from Pennsylvania settling in Lecompton, Kansas where he worked with the pro-slavery paper the Lecompton Union, later becoming the National Democrat. Martin later established himself as a newspaper editor and publisher founding the Junction City Union. Actively involved in the community, Martin held several public offices from mayor of Junction City to serving in the Kansas House of Representatives. In 1888 he moved to Kansas City, Kansas, establishing the Daily Gazette newspaper. Martin was the managing editor of the newspaper until 1899 when he is elected secretary of the Kansas Historical Society (KSHS). Martin held this position for fifteen years and was appointed secretary emeritus of KSHS in February 1914. He passed away on March 27, 1914 in Topeka, Kansas.
Snyder, C. J.
This cabinet card shows George Washington Martin, 1841-1914. In 1857 Martin migrated to the Kansas Territory from Pennsylvania settling in Lecompton, Kansas where he worked with the pro-slavery paper the Lecompton Union, later becoming the National Democrat. Martin later established himself as a newspaper editor and publisher founding the Junction City Union. Actively involved in the community, Martin held several public offices from mayor of Junction City to serving in the Kansas House of Representatives. In 1888 he moved to Kansas City, Kansas, establishing the Daily Gazette newspaper. Martin was the managing editor of the newspaper until 1899 when he is elected secretary of the Kansas Historical Society (KSHS). Martin held this position for fifteen years and was appointed secretary emeritus of KSHS in February 1914. He passed away on March 27, 1914 in Topeka, Kansas.
Business and Industry -- Media/Communications
Date -- 1900s
Reform and Protest
Barbers and beauticians
Laborers, general
Mail carriers
Agricultural methods and practices
Family farming
Implements and machinery
Areas of Significance
Agricultural Industries
Scenes and views
Courtship and marriage
Death and funerals
Family parties and reunions
European Americans
Thematic Time Period
Age of Reform, 1880 - 1917
Bleeding Kansas, 1854 - 1861
Non-motorized
Streetcars & Trolleys
http://www.kshs.org/km/facets/view/facets:6573,174,4064,711,183/sidebar:1
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The Coal Storage Bunker, Hitler’s Greenhouse and Bormann’s escape tunnel – Obersalzberg, Bavaria, Germany
Posted: November 27 2012, Last update: September 27 2016, Author: Patrick in Bunkers, Fortresses & Strongpoints, Third Reich Sites & Architecture. 2 comments
1 Visit the coal storage
2 The Greenhouse
The coal storage bunker, Obersalzberg, Germany
In 1940, to supply the buildings on the Obersalzberg of electricity and heat, a huge coal storage was built near Hitler’s Berghof, by Italian workers. The bunker was built against the slope of the mountain, under the Eagle’s nest, just opposite of Herman Göring’s residence. The costs went sky high when Martin Bormann decided that the facade of the bunker had to be done all over again for an amazing 77.000 Reichsmark in total.
The storage is 38 meters wide, 20 meters deep and about 20 meters high. With it’s huge proportions it could hold 10.000 cubic meters of coal, which is somewhere between 3,500 to 4,000 tons.
Delivery trucks dumped their loads through the roof of the storage bunker from the high road above. Smaller trucks could pick up their loads at the bottom from the storage and delivered the coal to various buildings of the complex. The main heating plant was situated at the SS barracks in the center field, but other buildings had their own heating systems as well, so there was a steady demand.
In 1945 the coal was set on fire, either by retreating SS troops or by advancing Allied soldiers. It burned from early May 1945 until October 1945, an astonishing half year long!
Barbed wire in front of the Coal Storage Bunker
Patrick in front the Coal Storage Bunker
A view inside one of the storage chambers
A closer look inside another chamber
Pascal shows the sheer size of the Coal Storage Bunker
The impressive facade of the Coal Storage Bunker
Beware: Danger of Collapse
Visit the coal storage
The Coal storage bunker, or Koksbunker, is in relative good shape. Some of the original wooden doors are still present. On top of the bunker the decay is visible, and it looks like it’s about to collapse. Therefore it is fenced off and there are multiple warning signs to keep you of the roof or out of the bunker itself.
Opposite of the Coal storage bunker was Adolf Hitler’s greenhouse. Hitler was a vegetarian, so it was obvious there was a need of fresh vegetables near the Berghoff. Martin Bormann therefore ordered to build a Greenhouse, or “Gewächshaus” in German, between hotel zum Türken and his own house. It was a glass house with a small building on one end, which was used for growing mushrooms.
In 1945 the Greenhouse took a direct hit in a bombardment, it’s remains are completely removed except the foundations.
The foundations of Hitler’s greenhouse
This concrete wall, the foundation of the greenhouse, is now a barrier between a hotel and its car park. Just below this car park is a road that leads right by the Hotel zum Türken towards the Berghoff. Here is the only remaining evidence left of the Bormann’s residence. An escape door from a tunnel that used to lead to the Bormann house can be found here.
Bormann’s house is gone, destroyed in a 1945 surprise bombardment. A hotel stands on it’s place now.
Martin Bormann’s escape hatch
If you like to read more from our trip to the Obersalzberg you can follow these links:
The Berghof, Adolf Hitlers residence under the Eagles nest
Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, the Kehlsteinhaus, tea house on the Obersalzberg in Bavaria – Germany
Hitler’s Tea house on the Mooslahnerkopf
Albert Speer Residence & Martin Bormann’s Gutshof in Berchtesgaden
Bavaria Berchtesgaden Coal Storage bunker Eagle’s Nest Gewächshaus Greenhouse Hermann Göring hotel zum Türken Koksbunker Martin Bormann mooslahnerkopf Obersalzberg Tea House teahouse
2 thoughts on “The Coal Storage Bunker, Hitler’s Greenhouse and Bormann’s escape tunnel – Obersalzberg, Bavaria, Germany”
John on July 7, 2017 at 22:11 said:
Hi, I am very interested in the Coal Bunker. It looks like an interesting design and it’s fascinating that it’s still there. Could you point me in the direction of some more reading material on the bunkers? You explain quite a bit about them. Is there a book or primary source I can take a look at to learn more?
Any help would be very appreciated!
Patrick on July 7, 2017 at 23:04 said:
We do not think the Coal Storage bunker is book worthy on its own, we suggest you search for a detailed book on the Obersalzberg which documents all the buildings on the mountain during the war. Maybe the Berlin Archive can give you specific information. Our research was in the field, online and with the help of a Dutch book on the eagles nest titled: ‘Het Adelaarsnest’ from H. Van Capelle. Unfortunately it’s not in your native language. We hope you can find some good information on the subject.
Hitler’s Tea house on the Mooslahnerkopf – Obersalzberg, Germany
Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, the Kehlsteinhaus, tea house on the…
The Berghof, Adolf Hitler’s residence under the Eagles Nest –…
Hitler's Tea house on the Mooslahnerkopf - Obersalzberg, Germany
Battery Todt - Audinghen, Cap Gris Nez, France
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Burbank man’s commercial wins Doritos contest, airs during Super Bowl
By Mark Kellam
A Doritos commercial starring and cowritten by a Burbank resident was a cowinner of an annual contest sponsored by the snack company and it aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday.
The ad follows a boy who has created a time machine as he tricks a neighbor, played by Burbank resident Daved Wilkins, into entering the contraption in a ploy to steal his Doritos. When the machine “takes off” using simple maneuvers created by the boy, Wilkins believe he’s being transported into the future, the Burbank Leader reported.
Wilkins worked on the 30-second spot with two longtime friends Ryan Thomas Andersen and Raj Suri, both of whom live in Phoenix. They had submitted commercials in the Doritos contest before but never made it to the finals.
Wilkins lived in the Arizona city before moving to Los Angeles with his wife, Melissa, in 2010 to pursue an acting career.
The idea for the commercial sprang from a conversation Andersen had with his 6-year-old son, Gavin, while they were watching “Back to the Future” and the boy began asking about time machines.
Andersen created a time machine out of a refrigerator box so Gavin, who is featured as the boy in the commercial, could go on imaginative journeys.
While Wilkins earned a degree in global business and has held some non-acting jobs, including a car salesman, he knew that acting was his calling.
“It was always in the back of my mind. I was supposed to be an entertainer,” he said.
His wife, who is a pharmacist, encouraged him to go after his dream and he got some acting work in Phoenix, but the leading roles always went to actors from Los Angeles. So, they made the move here to hopefully improve his chances.
Wilkins’ commercial was probably one of the least expensive finalists. It was filmed in seven hours in Phoenix with a $300 budget, which “went mostly for food,” Wilkins said.
Twitter: @LAMarkKellam.
Kellam writes for Times Community News.
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In San Francisco’s close quarters, political giants are bred
San Francisco as seen from beneath the Bay Bridge.
(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)
By Mark Z. BarabakStaff Writer
Reporting From San Francisco —
This is a city of 47 square miles, 800,000 people and millions of deeply held, fiercely fought convictions.
Spilling down its hillsides to the westernmost edge of the country, San Francisco is the closest thing to an East Coast enclave set along the Pacific, a place, like New York or Boston, where politics is a passion, a sport, something everyday people fuss and fight and scheme over.
As blue (politically) as San Francisco Bay, the city has 27 officially chartered Democratic Party chapters, among them the Raoul Wallenberg Jewish Democratic Club, the Filipino American Democratic Club, the Black Young Democrats of San Francisco and the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club. That works out to roughly one party franchise every few blocks.
There are countless more neighborhood councils, civic associations, interest groups — branches of the Sierra Club, the NAACP and the like — all clamoring for their particular agendas.
“It’s a city where people have always been able to be loud and proud about who they are, not just as individuals but as a group or a community,” said Ace Smith, a Democratic strategist who has decades of experience running San Francisco campaigns.
The result is a kind of hyper-democracy and political forge that has fashioned some of California’s most powerful and enduring elected leaders, in numbers far out of proportion to the city’s relative pint size.
The ranks include the late Gov. Pat Brown; former Assembly Speakers Willie Brown and Leo McCarthy; Rep. Phillip Burton, one of the most prolific and consequential U.S. lawmakers of the latter 20th century; House Democratic leader (and former Speaker) Nancy Pelosi, and California’s two United States senators, Dianne Feinstein — a former San Francisco mayor—and Barbara Boxer, who worked just across the Golden Gate Bridge as a congressional aide to Burton’s younger brother, John, current head of the state Democratic Party.
The pattern may persist. Though it is exceedingly early, the front-runners to succeed Boxer when she retires after 2016 and to replace Gov. Jerry Brown when his term ends in January 2019 — Atty. Gen Kamala Harris and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, respectively — are each products of San Francisco’s political mill. Newsom is a former mayor and Harris was twice elected the city’s district attorney; both were proteges of Willie Brown.
(Jerry Brown, a San Francisco native and longtime Oakland resident, began his political career on the community college board in Los Angeles before making the leap to Sacramento.)
There is nothing mysterious about San Francisco’s export of high-profile politicians, nothing like the alchemy of air and water that produces the distinctive tang of its signature sourdough bread.
Simply put, it’s fierce competition, at virtually every level, starting with the leadership of its political clubs and spreading to the lowliest contests for elected office on up to races for the Legislature and Congress.
Where San Diego and Los Angeles lie back, most of their residents scarcely interested in politics, San Francisco leans in: chin out, elbows wide and sharp.
“There is a culture here of fighting over just about everything in the public space,” said Eric Jaye, another of the city’s veteran political strategists, from global issues like the Middle East to protecting the neighborhood coffee shop from an onslaught of franchised beans.
Close quarters make the fighting especially fierce — in a city this hemmed in, it’s practically impossible to turn around without bumping into someone’s ego or stumbling across a pet cause. It can be enervating, and at times absurd.
But it makes for a stern test.
As in sports, the best politicians improve with practice. Those who consistently play on a higher level, not just surviving but thriving, naturally acquire greater skill.
“If you come up through the labyrinth of clubs, starting at the bottom, you get a fundamental grounding in politics like nowhere else,” said Art Agnos, who arrived on the scene as a neighborhood activist in the late 1960s and rose steadily through the Democratic ranks to become a state assemblyman and, 20 years later, the city’s mayor.
It may not be as romantic as leaving your heart in San Francisco. But it does offer a leg up getting to Sacramento or Washington.
Twitter: @markzbarabak
Mark Z. Barabak
Mark Z. Barabak covers state and national politics for the Los Angeles Times, based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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'How to Get Away With Murder' starring Viola Davis ending with season 6
By: Kelcie Willis, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Updated: Jul 11, 2019 - 12:46 PM
Shonda Rhimes' TGIT block will be different after the 2019-2020 season.
EW.com reported that ABC announced the sixth season of "How to Get Away With Murder," which starts in September, will be its last.
The drama, starring Viola Davis as a law professor named Annalise Keating, was created by Peter Norwalk. Rhimes is the executive producer, along with Betsy Beers, Bill D'Elia and Norwalk.
Davis became the first black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding lead actress in a drama series for her portrayal of Keating. The series centers on Keating and her students -- played by Alfred Enoch, Jack Falahee, Aja Naomi King, Matt McGorry, and Karla Souza -- and two of her employees -- played by Charlie Weber and Liza Weil -- as they get involved in a murder plot.
In a tweet, Davis said the show was "one of the greatest rides of my life!"
“Viola Davis made television history with her unforgettable portrayal of iconic female antihero Annalise Keating,” ABC Entertainment President Karey Burke said in a statement, according to EW.com. “I am eternally grateful to her, Pete Nowalk, and Shondaland for creating and bringing to life such a smart, sophisticated, and groundbreaking series that has long been an integral part of Thursday nights on ABC.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the final season will look at Keating's class as they make their way through their final semester in law school.
"Deciding to end this series was a brutal decision, but ultimately the story tells you what to do — as it did here," Nowalk said in a statement, according to People. "For me, Annalise Keating's journey has always had a clear ending. Knowing I have 15 episodes left to finish her story, and the chance to give all the characters their own killer endings, is a gift rarely given to a series creator, and I'm grateful to ABC and ABC Studios for the opportunity and creative freedom.
“I am so thankful to the brilliant cast, writers and crew for dedicating themselves to the most rewarding experience of my career over the last six years.
"I also want to thank our fans. The only reason this show exists is because of your loyalty and enthusiasm. I can’t wait for you all to see how it ends, with twists and turns and all the craziness we love to create every Thursday night. Buckle up.”
The final season of "How to Get Away with Murder" will consist of 15 episodes and premieres Sept. 25 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC. Watch the trailer for the final season below.
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Know Your Mobile> Features> DEVICES> Nubia’s Latest Product Is A Phone You Wear
Nubia’s Latest Product Is A Phone You Wear
by Damien McFerran | Feb 26, 2019 | Android, DEVICES, Smartwatches, Wearable technology
A real smartwatch
While the rest of the tech world goes crazy over super-expensive folding phones, Nubia has used this bendy magic in a different field – the smartwatch.
It has announced the Nubia Alpha at Mobile World Congress, a curious mix between smartphone and smartwatch which uses a deformable OLED screen to create a wrap-around design that looks like something from the near-future.
The Alpha is dominated by this flexible OLED display, which measures 4 inches from corner to corner, and has a resolution of 960 x 192 pixels. That might not sound like much but because it’s such a wide and thin screen, it’s less of an issue.
Interaction is still likely to be an issue, even on a screen of that size, which is why Nubia is including ‘gesture control’ with the Alpha. This involves waving your finger in front of the device to perform actions like scrolling and the like.
Elsewhere, the Alpha can do pretty much anything a typical smartphone can; it can make calls and send texts (using a T9 keyboard, no less) and even has a camera. Powering the device is a Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset, which is hardly cutting edge – it made its debut back in 2016. 1GB of RAM is included, and there’s 8GB of on-board memory for storage. The battery is rated at 500mAh, which should be good for one or two day’s use, according to the manufacturer (we’d say one is more likely).
Nubia says that the screen is good for 100,000 bends, which means it should last for quite some time, as it’s not like a smartphone that you’ll be opening and closing every time you use it.
Ultimately, it’s all about the screen here. The Alpha doesn’t offer anything particularly groundbreaking – after all, we’ve had smartwatches that can make calls in the past – outside of that folding screen, which, despite the cool look, we can’t imagine will be as easy to use as one on a smartphone.
Then there’s the price. The basic Bluetooth model – which needs your smartphone for all of that fancy data malarkey – will sell for around 450 Euros, while the eSIM variant will cost around 100 Euros more. Those prices put it in contention with the likes of the OnePlus 6T, which would appear to be a much better buy, unless you’re super keen on having a phone on your wrist. While the Alpha looks great, we can’t see it rendering the humble mobile phone redundant.
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Lobo Rainforest looks to provide ecosystem of innovation
Joy Wang
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A new building is up and running in downtown Albuquerque, and people who work at the University of New Mexico say there's nothing like it.
Lobo Rainforest is a place where students can collaborate with businesses and make their creative designs a reality. It's called an ecosystem for a reason.
Think of it this way: in a rainforest, there are many species and much growth. That's what UNM hopes will happen at Lobo Rainforest --when different groups come together and collaborate.
"The ideal kind of story is student comes to UNM, lives upstairs here, uses the Innovation Academy resources to build their concept, their business, go over to STC or maybe our other partners, can build their company here," said Rob DelCampo, UNM's Innovation Academy executive director.
The brand new building looks nothing like a rainforest, but it's inspired by that idea.
"An ecosystem is really a rich environment," said Elizabeth J. Kuuttila with the Science and Technology Transfer Corporation. "We also call it a rainforest so that a rainforest needs a lot of species, so we are all different species -- the laboratories, the university, the research, the students, the educational component, entrepreneurs, investors, all co-located spur new innovation."
Upstairs, there are five floors or dorm rooms with a personal bathroom and a kitchen. The downstairs has already been 100 percent leased out, including by companies such as Sandia National Lab and UNM's Innovation Academy.
"You want to start a business? We can do that," DelCampo said. "You want to start a creative enterprise and learn how to monetize it? We can do that. You want to take technology and take it to market? We can hook you up with Sandia, AFRl, STC, and do that."
The building is on Broadway in downtown Albuquerque. Two security guards are on staff 24/7 to patrol. An extra guard works overnight.
"We're working through some access controls on some of the doors. That's why there's such a large security presence," said Thomas M. Neale, director of real estate. "Every exterior door will have access to control. The students will have a key fob that'll allow them ingress and egress the building. If a building's left open, it'll emit an alarm so that we know that there's a potential with a safety issue to an open door."
UNM officials say over the weekend, a fire alarm was set off by a vape pen, which led to an Albuquerque Fire Department response. The university says the fire department didn't have keys to get in the building and had to break in, but the problem has been fixed and they're doubling their efforts to ban smoking in the building.
Updated: August 25, 2017 06:29 PM
Created: August 25, 2017 05:15 PM
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Staycation Steve: Taking a trip back in time to Kingston & Hillsboro
Steve Soliz
KINGSTON, N.M. - There’s not much along New Mexico highway 152 in southwestern New Mexico. It twists and turns through a quiet, desolate stretch of the state.
But it also leads to the Black Range Lodge in Kingston.
It was built in the late 1800s. It’s now a bed and breakfast and a haven for music lovers.
"We have organized a series of summer concerts we call the starlight concerts," said Black Range Lodge owner Catherine Wanek. “In the evenings, it's cool and pleasant and green, so people can come up and listen to music."
The Black Range Lodge is just one of many landmarks in Kingston that is a reminder of earlier times.
"Kingston was a big city in the 1880s, probably bigger than Albuquerque. It had up to maybe 7,000 people, they say, looking for silver,” said Wanek.
More than 130 years later, the town's original bank is still standing.
The town's old schoolhouse is now a museum, filled with relics from the past.
Preserved history can also be found down the road, in the small town of Hillsboro.
"Hillsboro and Kingston share a common history and we're only nine miles apart," Wanek said.
Hillsboro was born in 1877 when gold was discovered there.
The Sierra County courthouse was built shortly thereafter. What's left of it still remains on the edge of town.
Hillsboro is also home to the Black Range Vineyards. Owners Brian and Nikki O'Dell say their wine bar is popular with the locals, but they depend on visitors to keep their doors open.
"You can't make a living just off of 160 people. I mean, 90 percent of the residents do patronize us but it's the road traffic, it's the people coming through on 152," said Brian O'Dell.
Another popular spot in Hillsboro is the General Store Cafe. Locals say it's the best food for miles.
"I have to say it's not fast food because it's all made from scratch, but there's lots of things to look at as well as people to talk to," said Wanke.
For those looking to venture off the beaten path, Kingston and Hillsboro are true New Mexico gems.
Updated: July 26, 2018 08:50 AM
Created: July 10, 2018 10:05 PM
FBI: Body found in trunk of burning car
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Hiawassee River Power Co. Vs. Carolina-tennessee Power Co. - Court Judgment
LegalCrystal Citation legalcrystal.com/93295
Decided On Mar-22-1920
Appellant Hiawassee River Power Co.
Respondent Carolina-tennessee Power Co.
.....river power co. v. carolina-tennessee power co., 252 u.s. 341 (1920) hiawassee river power company v. carolina-tennessee power company no. 208 argued january 30, 1920 decided march 22, 1920 252 u.s. 341 error to the supreme court of the state of north carolina syllabus the question whether a special act of a state legislature chartering a power company contravenes the equal protection and privileges and immunities clauses of the fourteenth amendment because it grants powers of eminent domain not conferred on a rival company organized under a general law is not necessarily decided by a ruling of a state trial court, in a suit by the former company against the latter to quiet title, admitting the special charter in.....
Hiawassee River Power Co. v. Carolina-Tennessee Power Co. - 252 U.S. 341 (1920)
U.S. Supreme Court Hiawassee River Power Co. v. Carolina-Tennessee Power Co., 252 U.S. 341 (1920)
Hiawassee River Power Company v.
Carolina-Tennessee Power Company
Argued January 30, 1920
Decided March 22, 1920
ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT
OF THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
The question whether a special act of a state legislature chartering a power company contravenes the equal protection and privileges and immunities clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment because it grants powers of eminent domain not conferred on a rival company organized under a general law is not necessarily decided by a ruling of a state trial court, in a suit by the former company against the latter to quiet title, admitting the special charter in evidence over defendant's objection that it is void under the state bill of rights and constitution and violates the Fourteenth Amendment, nor is such question raised in the state supreme court by an assignment alleging merely that the trial court erred in admitting such evidence, and not mentioning the Amendment. P. 252 U. S. 342 .
A constitutional question not presented by assignment of errors or otherwise, or passed upon, in the state supreme court does not afford jurisdiction under Jud.Code, § 237; an attempt to raise it by the petition for a writ of error from this Court and the assignment filed here is too late, and allowance of the writ by the chief justice of the state court does not cure the omission. P. 252 U. S. 343 .
Writ of error to review 175 N.Car. 668 dismissed.
The case is stated in the opinion.
MR. JUSTICE BRANDEIS delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Carolina-Tennessee Power Company, a public utility, was incorporated by a private law of North Carolina with broad powers, including that of taking by eminent domain riparian lands of and water rights in any nonnavigable stream of the state. It filed locations for two hydroelectric plants on the Hiawassee River and proceeded to acquire by purchase and by condemnation the lands and water rights necessary for that development. Thereafter, the Hiawassee River Power Company was organized under the general laws of the state, and threatened to locate and develop on that river hydroelectric plants which would necessarily interfere with the development undertaken by the Carolina-Tennessee Company. The latter brought in the Superior Court of Cherokee County a suit in the nature of a bill to quiet title. The case was tried in that court with the aid of a jury. Many issues of fact were raised, and many questions of state law presented. A decree entered for the plaintiff below was reversed by the supreme court of the state, and a new trial was ordered. Carolina-Tennessee Power Co. v. Hiawassee River Power Co., 171 N.C. 248. The second trial resulted also in a decree for plaintiff below which was affirmed by the state supreme court. 175 N.C. 670. The case comes here on writ of error.
The federal question relied upon as giving jurisdiction to this Court is denial of the claim that the private law incorporating the Carolina-Tennessee Company is invalid, because it conferred upon that company broad powers of eminent domain, whereas the general law, under which the Hiawassee Company was later organized conferred no such right, the contention being that thereby the guaranty of the Fourteenth Amendment of privileges and immunities and equal protection of the laws had been violated. But this claim was not presented to nor passed upon by the
supreme court of the state. The only basis for the contention that it was so presented is the fact that, when the Carolina-Tennessee Company offered in evidence at the trial in the superior court the private law as its charter, objection was made to its admission
"on the ground that the same was, in terms and effect, a monopoly, and a void exercise of power by the state legislature which undertook to provide it, it being opposed and obnoxious to the bill of rights and the Constitution and in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment,"
and that the admission of this evidence is among the many errors assigned in the supreme court of the state. The law, whether valid or invalid, was clearly admissible in evidence, as it was the foundation of the equity asserted in the bill. No right under the federal Constitution was necessarily involved in that ruling. The reference to the "bill of rights and the Constitution" made when objecting to the admissibility of the evidence was to the state constitution, and the point was not again called to the attention of that court. Compare Hulbert v. Chicago, 202 U. S. 275 , 202 U. S. 279 -280. The claim of invalidity under the state constitution was specifically urged in that court as a reason why the Carolina-Tennessee Company should be denied relief, and the claim was passed upon adversely to the plaintiff in error, but no reference was made in that connection to the Fourteenth Amendment.
If a general statement that the ruling of the state court was against the Fourteenth Amendment were a sufficient specification of the claim of a right under the Constitution to give this Court jurisdiction ( see Clarke v. McDade, 165 U. S. 168 , 165 U. S. 172 ; Capital City Dairy Co. v. Ohio, 183 U. S. 238 , 183 U. S. 248 ; Marvin v. Trout, 199 U. S. 212 , 199 U. S. 217 , 199 U. S. 224 ), still the basis for a review by this Court is wholly lacking here. For the Fourteenth Amendment was mentioned only in the trial court. In the supreme court of the state, no mention was made of it in the assignment of errors, nor was it, so far as appears by the record, otherwise presented to or
passed upon by that court. The denial of the claim was specifically set forth in the petition for the writ of error to this Court and in the assignment of errors filed here. But obviously that was too late. Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Ry. Co. v. McGuire, 196 U. S. 128 , 196 U. S. 132 . The omission to set it up properly in the supreme court of the state was not cured by the allowance of the writ of error by its chief justice. Appleby v. Buffalo, 221 U. S. 524 , 221 U. S. 529 ; Hulbert v. Chicago, 202 U. S. 275 , 202 U. S. 280 ; Marvin v. Trout, 199 U. S. 212 , 199 U. S. 223 .
We have no occasion, therefore, to consider whether the claim of denial of rights under the Fourteenth Amendment was substantial in character, which is required to support a writ of error. Equitable Life Assurance Society v. Brown, 187 U. S. 308 , 187 U. S. 311 . Compare Henderson Light & Power Co. v. Blue Ridge Interurban Ry. Co., 243 U. S. 563 .
Dismissed for want of jurisdiction.
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Bath salts and other ‘legal highs’ are just as risky as traditional illegal drugs, if not more
By LegitScript Folks on March 7, 2013
While all illegal drugs have undesirable, dangerous and sometimes severe consequences, it’s also clear that they’re not fatal across the board. Because of this, it can be easy to dismiss the recent horror stories regarding “legal highs” — including drugs known as “bath salts,” “spice” or “herbal incense” — as exaggerations designed to sell newspapers and frighten America’s mothers. However, this is not just false hype. Bath salts are fundamentally unlike any other controlled substance, and that difference makes them more dangerous than any other drug on the market.
Traditional illegal psychoactive products have a known composition. Although a user of marijuana or any other illegal drug may have the unintended experience of buying a laced product, for the most part marijuana is marijuana. Heroin — despite the nasty propensity for fatal overdoses — is heroin. The side effects of these drugs are well documented. A user of these substances might be putting their health in serious danger, but the risks are known (or, at least, available) to the drug user).
The problem with synthetic drugs is there is no way of knowing the main ingredients you’re getting. When someone buys a packet of bath salts (which contain cathinones) or a gram of herbal incense (usually plant materials enhanced with synthetic cannabinoids), they cannot know what’s inside that white powder or sprayed on those dried herbs. The substance might end up shutting off the user’s dopamine receptors, causing hallucinations that last for days. Or it might land them in a mental hospital for months. Some variations of the drugs have led to strokes or even killed people.
And now, researchers in Japan have found what they believe is the first designer drug that’s a hybrid of a cathinone and a synthetic cannabinoid. From addictioninfo.org, which reported on their study, being published in Forensic Science International:
“Mass spectrometry and a little mixing of their own revealed to the scientists that the two chemicals had also blended to create a third thing, a freak admixture, half fake marijuana, half designer amphetamine, and 100% new under the sun. This combination drug is so new it does’t have a short name yet. It’s called (N,5-dimethyl-N-(1-oxo-1-(p-tolyl)butan-2-yl)-2-(N?-(p-tolyl)ureido)benzamide).”
What’s particularly unsettling is that the scientists, from Tokyo’s National Institute of Health Sciences, obtained the hybrid drug over the Internet, discovering it among the designer drugs they purchased online for their study. (They also ended up with 12 new synthetic cannabinoids previously unseen on the market.)
As we wrote in an earlier post, designer drugs are synthetic alternatives to controlled substances, and in the US, a new version will go unregulated until the Drug Enforcement Administration becomes aware of it and issues a ban. Then, manufacturers will tweak the chemical composition a little bit more to create a new “legal high.” So, for example, the K2 incense sold last month might have contained an entirely different drug than the one in the foil package on sale today. These products are in a constant state of flux: a revolving door of untested and unknown psychoactive chemicals. LegitScript has identified more than 1,800 of these sorts of products — with names like Lava Blue Incense, Monkey Meltdown and Tranquility Bath Salts — and we add more to our product database on a regular basis. We work with search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo to keep consumers safe by limiting the amount of advertising these products have on major Internet platforms. (As a general matter, we help prevent these substances from being advertised at all.)
That bath salts and synthetic marijuana are perceived as less harmful than traditional psychoactive drugs is unfortunate. The effects these drugs can have become known only after the fact, with a marked increase in calls to poison control centers (60 percent of which involve users under 25 years old) and evidence that using them can lead to serious kidney damage. The Japanese researchers addressed this, writing that “the recent trend seems to be to mix different types of designer drugs such as cathinones (stimulants) or tryptamines (hallucinogens) with synthetic cannabinoids in illegal products. Therefore, there is the potential for serious health risks associated with their use.”
The bottom line is that just because a product is technically “legal” (which itself is debatable) does not mean it’s safe. Bath salts and synthetic marijuana are just as, or arguably more, dangerous than any illegal drug on the market.
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Faith pitches in: Baseball Chapel offers church for baseball players
Ryan Ori
Jun 25, 2007 at 12:01 AM Jun 25, 2007 at 2:50 AM
Feature on baseball player ministry.
O'Brien Field is a ballpark, a place to see palm trees in central Illinois, an occasional concert venue.
And a church.
On Sundays during baseball season, the ballpark serves as a makeshift house of worship.
Baseball Chapel, a nondenominational Christian ministry, offers professional players a chance at group prayer during the season.
Members of the Peoria Chiefs, who play a 140-game Midwest League schedule, usually are preparing for a game during hours when traditional services are held. Instead, they crowd into available space for a short sermon and discussion.
"We've met on picnic tables at spring training, meeting rooms, sitting on the floor in hallways. ... It doesn't have to be an elaborate thing," said Chiefs first baseman Russ Canzler. "It's a humble setting where we all put our differences aside and try to learn as much as we can about the Lord."
Baseball Chapel was created in 1974 after Detroit sportswriter Watson Spoelstra proposed the idea to baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn.
A year later every major league team had a chapel program, and by 1978 it had been added to the minor leagues and winter ball in Latin America.
Today it is available to every team in affiliated professional baseball, including winter leagues. Add in some independent-league teams, and that amounts to more than 300 chapel locations.
Baseball Chapel estimates about 3,000 players and other staff take part each week, with more than 500 team chapel leaders. They perform separate services for the home and visiting teams every Sunday.
The Springfield, Pa.-based organization has about 100 Spanish-speaking volunteers -- up from 14 in 2001 -- and continues to expand its presence in Asian professional leagues.
Emden native Bill Sampen, who serves on the not-for-profit organization's board of trustees, views Baseball Chapel as a mainstream part of the sport. Now senior associate pastor at Bethesda Baptist Church in Brownsburg, Ind., Sampen was a chapel regular before retiring from the sport in 1994.
"It's not like it's just a couple guys participating and everyone else is looking at them like they're religious freaks," Sampen said. "It's well-accepted, and it has been for a long time.
"That is due in part because Baseball Chapel has and continues to work hard at respecting the players, the organizations, their time, their space. It's never looked at as a right, but rather as a privilege. They've tried to treat it with that kind of respect. Baseball Chapel tries to do it in a way that's not intrusive or disruptive to the normal activities.
"It's not like teams change their schedule around for Baseball Chapel. It's the other way."
Sometimes, a team's last-minute change in pregame preparations cuts a scheduled 15-minute service in half.
"To me, if you've got a word, you've got a word," said Chiefs outfielder Alfred Joseph, who attends Church of the First Born, a nondenominational church in Austin, Texas.
"Sometimes all you need is five minutes and you'll get what needs to be said. Time, to me, is not a factor. If you're open to listen, I believe you'll get what you came for."
Or, as Sampen puts it: "While the setting may change, the truth of the Scriptures doesn't."
Most fans are unaware of chapel. President Vince Nauss said Baseball Chapel strives to remain low-key.
Team chapel leaders are unpaid volunteers. They are prohibited from conducting media interviews and from allowing outsiders to take part in chapel. They also are forbidden from accepting autographs, souvenirs or any gifts from players.
"It's not worth risking your credibility over something like that," Nauss said.
Chapel leaders offer cellular and home numbers and are on call to serve players in crisis.
Joey Holland, an assistant minister at Bethany Baptist Church in Peoria, has been the Chiefs' chapel leader since 2000. Dennis Schwarm, a Spanish-speaking member of the Bethany congregation, is in his second season assisting Holland.
The organization finds new volunteers through an interest form on its Web site (www.baseballchapel.org) and offers orientation and training before each season. Not all clergy are cut out for the rowdy setting of a baseball clubhouse, or for time constraints that prevent traditional sermons.
"We say you can't walk in there expecting it to be like your Sunday school," Nauss said. "There's going to be some rough language, maybe some dirty magazines, and not everyone's going to participate in chapel. You want to be available without being intrusive.
"Sometimes in the minor leagues you're trying to conduct chapel in the dugout while the other team takes batting practice. Baseballs are flying, the music's blaring. ... It's a lot tougher environment than what they're used to. We're invited guests to meet the needs of these guys. It all comes with the turf. We try to acclimate our guys to the culture of baseball, so they know what to expect."
Baseball is full of frustration. Even the best hitters expect to fail two-thirds of the time.
For many players, Sunday chapel offers an uplifting moment in the week.
"You get here every single day and you're doing the same thing," said Canzler, who attends St. John Bosco Catholic Church in Conyngham, Pa.
"It can get you down a little bit, where you feel almost like you're in 'Groundhog Day.' This gives you balance."
Contact Ryan Ori at rori@pjstar.com.
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Overly Convenient Excuses
Your Rationality is My Business
byEliezer Yudkowsky12y15th Apr 200726 comments
Some responses to “Lotteries: A Waste of Hope” chided me for daring to criticize others’ decisions; if someone else chooses to buy lottery tickets, who am I to disagree? This is a special case of a more general question: What business is it of mine, if someone else chooses to believe what is pleasant rather than what is true? Can’t we each choose for ourselves whether to care about the truth?
An obvious snappy comeback is: “Why do you care whether I care whether someone else cares about the truth?” It is somewhat inconsistent for your utility function to contain a negative term for anyone else’s utility function having a term for someone else’s utility function. But that is only a snappy comeback, not an answer.
So here then is my answer: I believe that it is right and proper for me, as a human being, to have an interest in the future, and what human civilization becomes in the future. One of those interests is the human pursuit of truth, which has strengthened slowly over the generations (for there was not always Science). I wish to strengthen that pursuit further, in this generation. That is a wish of mine, for the Future. For we are all of us players upon that vast gameboard, whether we accept the responsibility or not.
And that makes your rationality my business.
Is this a dangerous idea? Yes, and not just pleasantly edgy “dangerous.” People have been burned to death because some priest decided that they didn’t think the way they should. Deciding to burn people to death because they “don’t think properly”—that’s a revolting kind of reasoning, isn’t it? You wouldn’t want people to think that way, why, it’s disgusting. People who think like that, well, we’ll have to do something about them . . .
I agree! Here’s my proposal: Let’s argue against bad ideas but not set their bearers on fire.
The syllogism we desire to avoid runs: “I think Susie said a bad thing, therefore, Susie should be set on fire.” Some try to avoid the syllogism by labeling it improper to think that Susie said a bad thing. No one should judge anyone, ever; anyone who judges is committing a terrible sin, and should be publicly pilloried for it.
As for myself, I deny the therefore. My syllogism runs, “I think Susie said something wrong, therefore, I will argue against what she said, but I will not set her on fire, or try to stop her from talking by violence or regulation . . .”
We are all of us players upon that vast gameboard; and one of my interests for the Future is to make the game fair. The counterintuitive idea underlying science is that factual disagreements should be fought out with experiments and mathematics, not violence and edicts. This incredible notion can be extended beyond science, to a fair fight for the whole Future. You should have to win by convincing people, and should not be allowed to burn them. This is one of the principles of Rationality, to which I have pledged my allegiance.
People who advocate relativism or selfishness do not appear to me to be truly relativistic or selfish. If they were really relativistic, they would not judge. If they were really selfish, they would get on with making money instead of arguing passionately with others. Rather, they have chosen the side of Relativism, whose goal upon that vast gameboard is to prevent the players—all the players—from making certain kinds of judgments. Or they have chosen the side of Selfishness, whose goal is to make all players selfish. And then they play the game, fairly or unfairly according to their wisdom.
If there are any true Relativists or Selfishes, we do not hear them—they remain silent, non-players.
I cannot help but care how you think, because—as I cannot help but see the universe—each time a human being turns away from the truth, the unfolding story of humankind becomes a little darker. In many cases, it is a small darkness only. (Someone doesn’t always end up getting hurt.) Lying to yourself, in the privacy of your own thoughts, does not shadow humanity’s history so much as telling public lies or setting people on fire. Yet there is a part of me which cannot help but mourn. And so long as I don’t try to set you on fire—only argue with your ideas—I believe that it is right and proper to me, as a human, that I care about my fellow humans. That, also, is a position I defend into the Future.
0 And 1 Are Not Probabilities
136 comments41 points
Politics is the Mind-Killer
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You are here: Home / News / Next stage of bus and cycling network development is given the go-ahead / 2017
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Steve Rotheram says Liverpool City Region could be an industrial powerhouse for UK, but devolution is the key
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Liverpool City Region hosts the German British Forum conference: Digitalisation and The Future of Work
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£2m boost for Halton Business from LCR Combined Authority’s Strategic Investment Fund 17 July 2019
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You are here: Home / News / News
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Steve Rotheram calls for answers about Northern Rail fiasco
The Metro Mayor took part in a conference call with Jo Johnson and leaders of Northern Rail this afternoon ...
https://www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/train-tracks.jpg 600 600 Shane Farmer https://www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/logo.png Shane Farmer2018-06-04 08:51:512018-11-29 08:59:56Steve Rotheram calls for answers about Northern Rail fiasco
Combined Authority sharpens focus on inclusive growth, air quality, and further devolution
A reshuffle of portfolio holders by the Metro Mayor will see Liverpool City Region Combined Authority signal a sharper focus on inclusive growth, air quality, and further devolution...
https://www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/poor-air.jpg 600 600 Shane Farmer https://www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/logo.png Shane Farmer2018-05-31 08:50:572018-11-29 09:00:27Combined Authority sharpens focus on inclusive growth, air quality, and further devolution
Funding boost for Shakespeare North Playhouse and Prescot town centre
The Combined Authority has approved a package of £14million for the Shakespeare North Playhouse and Rail Interchange project in Prescot....
https://www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/success.jpg 600 600 Shane Farmer https://www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/logo.png Shane Farmer2018-05-31 08:48:012019-01-10 21:04:08Funding boost for Shakespeare North Playhouse and Prescot town centre
Steve Rotheram presses Transport Secretary for support over bank holiday weekend
The Metro Mayor has asked the Transport Secretary for support to head off potential travel disruption on what could be one of the busiest days in the history of the city region...
https://www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/train-station.jpg 600 600 Shane Farmer https://www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/logo.png Shane Farmer2018-05-25 08:46:582018-11-29 09:27:37Steve Rotheram presses Transport Secretary for support over bank holiday weekend
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This Privacy Notice describes our policy and procedures concerning the collection, processing and use of personal information you provide to us via this website in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This is a new EU law that will come into effect on 25 May 2018 to replace the current Data Protection Act. By using this website, you agree to this collection, processing and use.
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Video review approved by FIFA for Women's World Cup
Footbal News
MIAMI (AP) — Video review has been approved for the Women's World Cup, which runs from June 7 to July 7 in France. The Video Assistant Referee system made its debut at the men's tournament in Russia last year and was approved Friday for use at the women's tournament.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino holds a soccer ball as he speaks during a press conference after the FIFA Council Meeting, Friday, March 15, 2019, in Miami. The council approved working with Qatar to explore expanding the 2022 World Cup to 48 teams by adding at least one more country in the Persian Gulf to host matches.
Of the 455 incidents checked by VAR at last year's World Cup, 20 led to video reviews. Among the reviews was one late in the first half of the final, which led to a hand ball call on Croatia's Ivan Perisic. Antoine Griezmann converted a penalty kick to give France a 2-1 lead, and Les Bleus went on to a 4-2 win.
FIFA has been criticized by women's players for the disparity in resources between the men's and women's games. The governing body announced in October that prize money for this year's women's tournament will be $30 million, of which $4 million will go to the federation of the champion. While the total is double the prize money for the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada, it is a fraction of the $400 million in prize money for last year's men's World Cup, of which $38 million went to champion France.
FIFA says prize money for the 2022 men's World Cup will be $440 million. Women's soccer players also filed a legal action after FIFA allowed the use of artificial turf at the 2015 Women's World Cup. FIFA does not allow artificial turf at the men's tournament.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said national governing bodies that do not fund women's soccer to the level FIFA desires will have money withheld that otherwise would go to them under the FIFA Forward development program.
"We have the same amounts dedicated and earmarked for men's and women's competitions," Infantino said Friday. "We still have 50 or 60 associations in the world who do not have proper women's football. Well, they will receive less money."
During the news conference, Infantino showed off the ball to be used at the Women's World Cup — and dropped it.
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'Game of Thrones' breaks Emmy nomination record
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Breast cancer survivor whose husband died of cancer encourages mammograms
Rhonda Breit's husband, Carl, was dying of cancer. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, her OhioHealth team helped her focus on her health, too.
Breast cancer survivor whose husband died of cancer encourages mammograms Rhonda Breit's husband, Carl, was dying of cancer. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, her OhioHealth team helped her focus on her health, too. Check out this story on mansfieldnewsjournal.com: https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/news/local/2018/10/02/mansfield-breast-cancer-survivor-encourages-mammograms-ohiohealth/1423912002/
Emily Mills, Mansfield News Journal Published 10:17 p.m. ET Oct. 2, 2018
Some types of early stage cancer respond just as well to hormonal therapy alone, and these women aren't likely to get any benefit from chemotherapy, according to a study published in June 2018.. Patti Singer
Breast cancer survivor Rhonda Breit (center) stands with Anne Looney (left) and Pam Frederick of OhioHealth.(Photo: Brian J. Smith/News Journal)Buy Photo
MANSFIELD - Rhonda Breit didn't want to acknowledge she had breast cancer.
When she was diagnosed, her husband, Carl Breit, was dying of stage 4 cancer.
Her husband's cancer started in his lungs, liver and bones when he was diagnosed in February 2016, and by August of that year, it had progressed to his brain, spinal cord and lymph nodes.
"I was like, yeah, I'm not dealing with this right now. I have enough to deal with, and I'm gonna do this, and then later, we'll do this," said Breit, an Indiana native who lived in Galion for 22 years before recently moving to Mansfield, of her diagnosis.
Breit, 50, said she's thankful for her care team at OhioHealth, who encouraged her to focus on her health, too.
"Fortunately, they were more concerned about saving my life than I actually was at that time," she said. "And so they encouraged me to get it diagnosed quickly and taken care of quickly."
Although Breit's mom, Carletha, had breast cancer and died at 47, Breit herself had very little experience with hospitals, save for getting stitches from a dog bite, and she thought she was relatively healthy.
Breit scheduled a routine mammogram in November 2016. It showed something abnormal, and she was scheduled for an ultrasound and a biopsy.
Breit was eventually diagnosed with stage 1A breast cancer, a diagnosis that "absolutely shocked" her after years of regular mammograms. She had a lumpectomy in January 2017.
The Breits considered other options for their treatment, but they both decided on OhioHealth.
"Do I want to spend all of the time that we have left driving to Columbus or Cleveland or some other state...or do I want to live whatever life we have left together locally, leaving treatment, going home, enjoying our surroundings that we're familiar with, that we love, that we learned to enjoy together and the people, our friends, family," she said. "And so we both decided together that for both of us, it was best to be here."
In February 2017, her husband, Carl, whom she was with for 22 years, lost his battle with cancer.
Carl Breit, 56, a New York native, was an ordained minister and served multiple ministries in the area, including his primary church, Prevailing Word Ministries in Bucyrus, according to his obituary.
Breit was now faced with undergoing 33 radiation treatments in March and April 2017 without her husband.
Breit said "at the basic level," it was hard losing her spouse, whom she called her hero.
"After he passed away, I had the hardest part of the journey, and that was going through the 33 treatments without him," she said. "Without my best friend, without my cheerleader, the one who strengthened me, all that time."
What made it easier? Her OhioHealth care team, including oncology nurse navigator Pam Frederick, who helped guide her through the often-overwhelming process of cancer treatment.
Frederick said she teaches women about the procedures and what they can expect, makes appointments for them and serves as a "resource for them along the entire journey." She said through teaching, she's able to help alleviate fears about the process.
"It's there not only for the guidance of women going through this but it's there for all the emotional turmoil that you go through when you get a diagnosis like that or even the potential of having additional imaging...It can be unnerving," said Frederick, a certified breast care nurse, one of the only ones in the area.
Breit emphasized "the magnitude" of what that means, calling Frederick one of the kindest and most compassionate people she knows.
"From the time I walked in the door, she was there to encourage me, support me, explain stuff," Breit said. "When you hear the cancer word, there is this level of numb that happens, and you don't really hear anything after that diagnosis. And so Pam kind of comes behind all of that talk and says here's what that really means and answers all of our questions, gives us resources and materials and things like that to help us."
And it wasn't just Frederick. Breit said all of the people on her care team were compassionate, supportive and always just a text or phone call away.
"My greatest level of support was dying," she said. "I realize especially now that I'm through and a little bit leveled off that that support (from OhioHealth) meant everything."
Carl and Rhonda Breit (Photo: Submitted)
Breit, now in remission for one year and five months, stressed the importance of regular mammograms to other women.
Breit said there are several reasons women don't get mammograms. They're scared of discovering cancer, or they don't have insurance, or they think mammograms are painful, or they think self-examination is weird, or they think "it won't happen to me," she said.
"We stress early detection and the impact that it makes on saving people's lives," she said. "If you can detect it early, there's treatment. It can be cured. It can prolong life."
Business project manager Anne Looney, who works with Frederick and Breit to help women get mammograms, said Breit started a Facebook group called Survivor to Survivor.
"(The group) is really giving a lot of support to women that are facing that breast cancer journey, women that have been through that journey and anybody who's even afraid to get a mammogram for the first time," Looney said. "She's offering advice."
Breit recently became the co-chair of the Pat Kracker Breast Cancer Fund, which was established in memory of Mansfield resident Pat Kracker, who lost her battle with breast cancer on her 61st birthday in June 1996.
Her family started the fund because they couldn't find any local funds specifically for breast cancer.
The fund provides financial assistance to Richland County residents for breast cancer-related expenses, like mammograms and transportation to appointments. The fund also helps patients if they've lost their jobs, helping with utility or rent payments.
In recent years, the fund has started promoting public education to help patients detect breast cancer early and start treatment.
Breit said Dave Kracker, Pat Kracker's husband and the fund's chairman, plans to retire soon and was looking for a replacement.
"For 21 years, he has carried that in Richland County and done very well to link us with a community of businesses that support and patients who need assistance," Breit said. "But he is ready to pass the mantle where that fund is concerned."
Frederick recommended Breit, who took on the position and started shadowing him in January to learn the position. She said she doesn't know when Kracker will retire but expects they'll still be working together into 2019.
Breit was also awarded the Hero of Hope Award through the American Cancer Society. Her oncologist, Dr. Srividya Viswanathan, received the physician's version of the award.
Breit said it was important to her, having lived through a breast cancer diagnosis, to give back in some way.
"It's OK to go through stuff and to live the tough stuff, but it has to count for something," she said. "The only way for it to count for something was for me to find a way to give back."
Hers was an early detection case, and Breit said she knows she's lucky. But that didn't stop the trauma she felt going through the process.
"My journey was very simple compared to the journeys of those that I encounter every day," she said. "But still, it was traumatic for me."
Breit encouraged anyone going through a breast cancer diagnosis to trust and listen to their health care providers and take things one day at a time.
"It's brand new, and you just got caught off-guard with something that you really don't have a clue about," she said. "Don't run miles ahead. From the time that you receive a diagnosis, your brain will take you 25 miles ahead of where you are. You need to live in the day, live in the moment and accept today's news before you try to figure out what (is) 25 miles from now."
OhioHealth's breast cancer support group, Steel Magnolias, meets the third Tuesday of each month at 12 p.m. in the conference room of the Radiation Therapy Building, across the street from the hospital's emergency room entrance on Glessner Avenue. For more information, call Frederick at 419-526-8014.
The next meeting is Oct. 16, with the theme "Recurrence Fears." The Nov. 20 meeting is a Thanksgiving celebration, and the Dec. 18 meeting is a Christmas party.
Frederick, who helps run the support group, said Breit's been a "huge asset" to the group, helping her plan the meetings for the year.
"Rhonda just gives me that perspective of somebody who's been diagnosed, been through the treatment and what those patients need emotionally and in a support group," Frederick said.
Breit said people don't have to be OhioHealth patients to come to the support group and encouraged anyone with fears of recurrence to attend.
"Afterwards and today and once a week, I still have access to her (Frederick)," Breit said. "I can walk in this hospital at any time I need to and gain access to one of the individuals who helped walk me through my journey, and that means everything."
ejmills@mansfieldnewsjournal.com
Twitter: @EmilyMills818
Read or Share this story: https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/news/local/2018/10/02/mansfield-breast-cancer-survivor-encourages-mammograms-ohiohealth/1423912002/
Richland Public Health restaurant inspections
Police: Drunk, shoeless man skips on roadside
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Map Cariacica Download
Cariacica-Facts
Our city map of Cariacica (Brasil) shows 653 km of streets and paths. If you wanted to walk them all, assuming you walked four kilometers an hour, eight hours a day, it would take you 20 days. And, when you need to get home there are 1 bus and tram stops, and subway and railway stations in Cariacica.
With a total area of 0 square kilometers, public green spaces and parks make up 0.001% of Cariacica’s total area, 209 square kilometers. That means each of Cariacica’s 348,933 residents has an average of 0.0001% square meters.
When people in Cariacica want to go out, they are spoilt for choice; our map shows more than 0 cafés, restaurants, bars, ice-cream parlors, beer gardens, cinemas, nightclubs and theatres. The city also boasts more than 0 sights and monuments, and far more than 2 retailers. Feeling tired? Our map shows more than 0 hotels and guest houses, where you can rest.
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Meghan Markle Shamed For Thigh-High Split
Meghan Markle Just Wore One Of Princess Diana's Favourite Accessories
You Can Now Shop The Brand Behind Meghan Markle’s Engagement Dress
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Meghan Markle Just Channeled Princess Diana In A Big Way
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Meghan Markle’s Best Ever Maternity Outfits
She’s a pro - by Francesca Wallace
Meghan Markle is our style icon at the best of times, but during her pregnancy to little Baby Sussex, it only improved. From her royal tour of Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand to her outings in London, Markle proved she knows how to dress a bump, showing off her maternity style with ease and grace.
Whether it be dressing for a gala — in custom Givenchy, nonetheless — or perfecting off duty beach dressing in Bondi, Markle’s pregnancy journey has been complete with a slew of seriously impressive outfits. Starting with her best looks in Australia in 2018, we’ve rounded up our favourite pregnancy style moments since, so you too can channel the Duchess when dressing for two.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visiting Morocco in February, 2019.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry visit the Bristol Old Vic theatre in Bristol on February 1, 2018.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits The National Theatre on January 30, 2019 in London, England
Meghan, Duchess Of Sussex departs after visiting Mayhew Animal Welfare Charity on January 16, 2019 in London, England
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, attend the premiere of Cirque du Soleil's Totem in support of Sentebale at the Royal Albert Hall in London on January 16, 2019
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex meets members of the public during a visit of Birkenhead at Hamilton Square on January 14, 2019
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrives at St Charles hospital in west London to visit Smart Works, a charity to which she has become patron on January 10, 2019.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex on stage during The Fashion Awards 2018 In Partnership With Swarovski at Royal Albert Hall on December 10, 2018
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits the Hubb Community Kitchen, November 21, 2018
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend Christmas Day Church service at Church of St Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate on December 25, 2018
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits the Royal Variety Charity's Brinsworth House on December 18, 2018
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend the Centenary Of The Armistice Service at Westminster Abbey on November 11, 2018
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends a state dinner hosted by the president of the South Pacific nation Jioji Konrote at the Grand Pacific Hotel on October 23, 2018 in Suva, Fiji
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend The Royal Variety Performance 2018 at the London Palladium
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrives at Wellington airport on October 28, 2018 in Wellington
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends a morning tea reception at the British High Commissioners Residence on October 24, 2018 in Suva, Fiji
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, visits an exhibition of Tongan handicrafts, mats and tapa cloths at the Fa'onelua Convention Centre on October 26, 2018 in Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in Fiji
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends the Australian Geographic Society Awards on October 26, 2018 in Sydney, Australia
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends the official opening of the extension of the ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park on October 20, 2018 in Sydney, Australia
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits Te Papaiouru Marae for a formal powhiri and luncheon on October 31, 2018 in Rotorua, New Zealand
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits Tupou College on October 26, 2018 in Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive at Auckland War Memorial Museum for reception with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on October 31, 2018
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive at Nuku'alofa airport on October 25, 2018 in Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visit Courtnay Creative for an event celebrating the city's thriving arts scene on October 29, 2018 in Wellington, New Zealand
The Duchess of Sussex during a walkabout in Rotorua on day four of the royal couple's tour of New Zealand
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at an official welcome ceremony at Government House in Wellington
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex during a walkabout at Viaduct Harbour
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits Kingfisher Bay Resort on October 22, 2018 in Fraser Island, Australia.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits Bondi Beach on October 19, 2018 in Sydney, Australia
Watch: Meghan Markle announces she is pregnant with her first child with Prince Harry
Francesca Wallace
Francesca is our Senior Digital Fashion Editor. She can most likely be found eating a big bowl of fries (don’t forget the aioli!), watching something trashy on TV or spending all her money online shopping. She’s interviewed everyone from Nicole Kidman to Kendall Jenner but didn't get a single good photo.
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When will Jeremy Corbyn cease to be Leader of the Labour Party?
The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom which has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. As of 2017, the party was considered the "largest party in Western Europe" in terms of party membership, with more than half a million members.
Labour is currently the Official Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, having won the second-largest number of seats in the 2017 general election.
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (born 26 May 1949) has been Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition since 2015. Corbyn was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North in 1983. Ideologically, he identifies himself as a democratic socialist. Taking the party to the left, he advocated renationalisation of public utilities and the railways, a less interventionist military policy, and reversals of austerity cuts to welfare and public services.
After Labour MPs sought to remove him in 2016, he won a second leadership contest. Although critical of the European Union, he supported continued membership in the 2016 referendum. In the 2017 general election, Labour again finished as the second-largest party in parliament, but increased their share of the vote to 40%, resulting in a net gain of 30 seats and a hung parliament.
Corbyn has been criticised for doing too little to address alleged antisemitism in the Labour Party and for alleged antisemitic associations prior to becoming leader. In February 2019, a number of Labour MPs quit the party and formed their own Independent Group in the Commons, largely in response to Corbyn's handling of allegations of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party, and his stance on Brexit.
This question asks: When will Jeremy Corbyn cease to be Leader of the Labour Party?
This question will resolve when Corbyn either resigns or is removed from the position of Leader of the Labour Party, steps down, or dies. Resolution should cite a press release from the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, or credible press reports in the British media.
Categories: Politics – European
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Album Reviews 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016
Axemaster - Crawling Chaos (Album Review)
10,000 Pound Hammer
Crawling Chaos
Axes Of Evil
Flowers Of The Dead
Mystify The Dream Hypnotic
Aldar Rof
Knight Of Pain
Label: Pure Steel Records
Website: www.axemasterofficial.com
www.facebook.com/axemasterofficial
AXEMASTER IS:
Geoff McGraw - Vocals Joe Sims - Guitars Damin Bennett - Guitars Denny Archer - Drums Jim Curtis - Bass
Since 1985, guitarist Joe Sims has been the driving force behind Ohio metal outfit Axemaster. For years, he has worked hard to keep the band alive, despite the period of inactivity from 1995 to 2008. There were also a couple of periods where the band was active under different names, but in 2010, they returned to the Axemaster name with a new lineup and released Overture To Madness in 2015, and the new album Crawling Chaos. It's also worth noting that 2017 marked the 30th anniversary of the release of the band's first album Blessing In The Skies. However, we're here to talk about Crawling Chaos.
As the album begins with "10,000 Pound Hammer" and "Crawling Chaos", we are greeted with some slow, but groovy riffs that set the bar for what's to come. When it comes to the production, the guitars do lack punch and sound rather thin. I do wish that the guitars had a bit more crunch, but that doesn't take anything away from the songwriting. As we continue down the album, we get some more groovy numbers like "Flowers Of The Dead" and "Axes Of Evil", but then we arrive at the album's instrumental "Mystify The Dream Hypnotic". A short little guitar showcase, it carries a big Middle Eastern flare which adds a bit of a different texture.
As we come to "Aldar Roff", we get a mid-tempo galloping riff in the vein of "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner". That pattern, no matter how many times we've heard it, never gets old. With catchy vocal lines from Geoff McGraw and catchy guitar work from Sims and Damien Bennett, this is undoubtedly my favourite track on the album. I've got to be honest. Crawkubg Chaos didn't grab me right away and it still hasn't quite grabbed me 100%. Maybe after a few more listens, that will change. As I mentioned above, if the guitars had a bit more crunch, I think the album would've grabbed me a bit quicker. I've always been a fan of great production. I'm not saying this is a bad album at all as the songwriting is solid. I wish Axemaster much success for the future.
Highs: Solid songwriting. "Aldar Roff" is the album's best track.
Lows: Production is a little too thin. Could've used a bit more punch.
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How the brilliant architecture of Claude Megson disappeared from view
By Giles Reid
Photography Jackie Meiring
Out of site
Claude Megson is a remarkable Auckland architect who has all but disappeared from history. His work was widely exhibited and published during the 1960s and 1970s and won numerous awards. He was written about in the same company as nationally important figures Ian Athfield and Peter Beaven. He taught and influenced several generations of architects at Auckland University, from the mid-1960s until his death from cancer aged only 57, in 1994. He built up a substantial body of domestic architecture, including a number of remarkable medium-density homes that are almost as intricate as cities in their conception. So why is he so little known today?
Megson was always more loner than part of any club. Then, as now, he divided opinion among staff and students. This included accusations of egotism and a fairly essentialist view of the role of women in the home. He fell from fashion in the 1980s when his peers embraced postmodernism and he did not. They came to write the history. He was written out of it: his work suddenly seemed less contemporary, less worthy of discussion. The beginning of the 1990s marked a revival of interest in post-war modernist architecture, but this revival did not extend much past the mid-1960s, when Megson’s career was beginning. Megson continued to find himself a man out of time.
There were other, more practical reasons. His photographic archive was lost in the days following his death, perhaps cleared from his university office and now gathering dust somewhere, forgotten but waiting to be discovered. It may instead have simply been thrown out.
A good photograph often lasts longer than the building itself; architectural reputations are secured by an iconic image. During his life, Megson had retained tight control over the publication of his oeuvre. With his photographic archive gone, the buildings were no longer reproduced properly, if at all, and faded from view.
The creation of my book, Claude Megson: Counter Constructions, was intended to ensure Megson’s fascinating work is not forgotten. In an age where too many homes seem to include large, featureless open-plan spaces, Megson’s buildings are incredibly elaborate. They can seem like small, ancient hill towns and have an underlying logic and humanity that rewards exploration. A key part of my book was re-photographing some of his best surviving buildings with photographer Jackie Meiring. I wanted these new images to explore something of the architecture’s still beauty, range of atmospheres and underlying philosophy.
COCKER TOWNHOUSES
Wood Street, Freemans Bay, Auckland, 1973arbitrary
The Cocker Townhouses were built for brother and sister Bill and Finola Cocker over a very long gestation from the early until the late 1970s. Bill died many years ago but Finola still lives in her townhouse. Bill was an avid collector. When he was alive, his house was stacked with works by Ralph Hotere and Richard Killeen. I remember exciting him about the furniture of designer Humphrey Ikin. By the next visit, he had bought one of Ikin’s coffee tables, under which he stored more art.
The building is the product of clients wanting both a degree of retreat from the city and to give back to the area. It freely converses with the language of its neighbouring villas and yet also asserts its own modernity.
The townhouses’ construction is extraordinarily intricate: white painted weatherboards, timber doors and projecting balconies, slate roofs and metal gargoyles. There is even a watch tower, accessed through a smuggler’s hatch after a vertical climb. It gives one of the best views of the city’s skyline.
We focussed on an interior restored with great care by architect Ken Crosson, who had been a keen student of Megson’s. The spaces are small and intimate; in this regard you might say they are characteristically Megson. The idea of large-scale sheet glazing and the open plan was alien to his thinking. The interior radiates warmth and civility. Wherever you sit or rest, you are always in contact with either garden or sky.
REES TOWNHOUSES
Hapua Street, Remuera, Auckland, 1974
The Rees Townhouses deploy basic industrial materials: exposed concrete block and fibre cement sheet walls, roughsawn timber ceilings, and steel-framed skylights and doors. It speaks of a different, more austere idea of what architecture can be, in contrast to today’s focus on glamour living and branded luxury.
The development is built into the side of a steep slope on a uniquely triangular shaped plot. The foundations are astonishing. Half the building is acting as a retaining structure, holding the earth at bay. It rises out of the slope, culminating in numerous periscopes bringing light deep into the plan. Originally, these were all painted brilliant red. This sense of being at eye level with the hillside in part accounts for the strangely intense feeling you have when staying in the place for any length of time. Coupled to this, it is now surrounded by lush planting.
In New Zealand, we like our houses to be comforting, to afford a long view out across the land we own. Houses are not supposed to be challenging to this degree. Yet think of the avant-garde domestic architecture of Japan or even the early work of the late New Zealand architect Rewi Thompson (1953-2016). There should be a place for the maverick, pushing against the tide and placing demands on your lifestyle. Megson occupies this more radical position like no other architect in New Zealand.
It remains daunting to realise this level of spatial control and structural co-ordination was conceived in the mind and drawn by hand, decades before computer power might allow you to visualise such three dimensional complexity. As experienced however, there is never the feeling of complexity for its own sake. Megson takes you by the hand for a walk through the spaces, at each landing revealing new vistas with boyish enthusiasm. This building represents the moment when Megson was at the very top of his game, the hard-won culmination of over a decade of experimental architecture leading up to this point.
BOWKER HOUSE
Cemetery Road, Maunu, Whāngārei, 1977
The Bowker House comes at the end of Megson’s peak decade, but also just before his career started to lose momentum. The house suffered from a major fire a decade after its construction – it was rebuilt, but this process took its toll on Megson.
The Bowker House is Megson’s biggest completed building. Even then, his initial plans envisaged it many times larger again. It was originally going to be clad in Kamo brick, but was scaled back to concrete block for budget reasons. The entrance level surrounds three sides of a swimming pool. The lower level contains bedrooms for children and guests and is built level with the side of pool.
Every room is capped by a pyramid of differing height and proportion. Several are top lit. There are rooms for breakfast and evening dining, informal and formal living, and courtyards for use at differing times of the day. The house epitomises Megson’s philosophy of shaping individual spaces around occasions and rituals, spaces which, though individually small and simple, multiply and combine to create a labyrinthine and fascinating building as a whole.
When you look at the highly abstract drawings Megson produced for this house and so many others, it is no wonder he attracted artists as clients. Like the best artists, Megson did not flit from style to style. He stuck to a single-minded, risky exploration of specific ideas. His reassessment is long overdue.
Claude Megson: Counter Constructions is available for sale at counterconstructions.com
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Live: Barack Obama Comments on Trayvon Martin Case: If I Had a Son, He'd Look Like Trayvon (+ video)
By Chris Miles
President Barack Obama says: "You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon." These were among the first comments made on the high-profile case today.
"All of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen," Obama continued. "And that means that we examine the laws and the context for what happened as well as the specifics of the incident."
As the Trayvon Martin racial shooting case explodes in the news and in social media, spawning national protests and wide calls for more justice, Obama today weighed in on the issue.
According to CBS News, "Obama was asked about the shooting on Friday during an event at which he announced the nomination of Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim to be World Bank president."
"Obviously this is a tragedy," Obama said. "I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together, federal, state and local, to figure out how this tragedy happened."
As more details emerge from the Trayvon Martin shooting, it is becoming increasingly clear that the police have failed to bring his killer, George Zimmerman, to justice. Martin, a 17-year old African-American teenager carrying Skittles and iced tea, was chased, confronted, then fatally shot in Sanford, Florida, late last month by Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Latino college student who was the captain of the neighborhood watch. After initial questioning, Zimmerman was released without charges.
The Justice Department has announced it will investigate the shooting of Martin. Full details of the case are here. In a late-night statement on Monday, the DOJ announced the Civil Rights Division will launch a "thorough and independent investigation of the facts and circumstances of the shooting."
The race element has been a major factor in this case, and many have wondered when America's first black president would comment on the issue.
Throughout his first term, Obama has sought to limit his comments on race-related issues.
What do you think: How should Obama weigh in on the Trayvon Martin case?
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to properly cite language that was originally used without attribution to CBS News. We apologize to our readers for this violation of our basic editorial standards. Mic has put in place new mechanisms, including plagiarism detection software, to ensure that this does not happen in the future.
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The principals of M&A are quoted regularly and frequently in publications ranging from Business Week and Forbes to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, New York Post, Los Angeles Times, and other major publications worldwide. M&A has been the subject of interviews on business-radio and television programs including the Fox Business News, CBS MarketWatch, The Street.com TV, Yahoo! Finance TV, Sirius XM Radio, BBC-Worldwide and CNBC. Below are links to a sample of articles in which M&A has been quoted:
Warner Music hits sour note in IPO
By Steve Gelsi
Shortly after Warner Music Group (WMG) CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. rang the opening bell, accompanied by power chords from Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, the stock dropped. Shares opened at $15.75 a share and recently changed hands at $16.24 for a drop of 4.5% below its $17 offering price.
While the deal managed to get done despite rockiness in the IPO market, Warner Music faces a five-year industry slump in music sales and questions over whether it can profit from digital distribution of music, observers said.
While investors have been embracing digital music technology makers such as Apple (AAPL), it could take more time for the record industry to draw acclaim on Wall Street, said media consultant Ken Marlin.
Marlin, who pointed out that a key case from content swapping site Grokster awaits a Supreme Court decision, sees a long-term win for Warner Music.
"The technology that allows for file sharing and the downloading of individual music is going to go forward and the content players are best positioned to capitalize on it," he said. "Warner Music has great artists and a great library. It will bode well for them."
Signs of a slack debut came as the company cut the IPO price from the original range of $22 to $24 each.
To stoke interest in the deal, insiders shifted 5.4 million shares of the IPO from their pockets into the company's coffers.
The move appeared aimed at addressing criticism that the deal amounted to a big payout for Bronfman and his private-equity partners that carved out the firm from Time Warner (TWX) last year.
The IPO raised $554 million by offering a total of 32.6 million shares, with Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MWD) heading up the underwriting group.
At $17, the IPO puts Warner Music's market value at $2.4 billion, or a 26% cut from its originally proposed $3.3 billion valuation.
By going public, Warner Music is offering Wall Street a half-billion dollar bet on whether it can profit from the growing wave of digital music distribution.
Even with the price cut, Warner Music is one of the bigger IPOs seen so far this year and ranks as the biggest from an entertainment and leisure firm since Las Vegas Sands (LVS) kicked off in December.
The overall IPO market has been uncertain of late, with deals typically facing price cuts as buyers maintain control.
Digital music distribution
One of the largest recording companies in the world, Warner Music Group ranks third in terms of U.S. market share behind Sony (SNE) and Universal Music Group (V).
To woo investors, Warner Music is touting itself as better-positioned to profit from sales of digitally distributed music to iPods and other portable devices.
Warner Music said industry data on the company from SoundScan show higher market share in sales of digital music downloads than many of its competitors.
The company also said it's "highly focused" on supporting existing and new online music services in the U.S. and abroad, working with "legitimate" online music stores such as iTunes, the service operated by Apple Computer as well as Napster Inc. (NAPS) and others.
Moreover, Warner Music's working to "influence the evolution of new mobile phone services and formats and simplifying the clearance of all of our content for digital distribution."
In its analysis of the company's $2.5 billion debt, Standard & Poor's lauded Warner Music for its "healthy cash balances, good cash flow and borrowing ability."
S&P said it's mulling a ratings boost if the company shows "more clarity about the music industry's prospects for defeating online piracy and restoring sustainable revenue growth."
Renaissance Capital concluded in its IPO of the Week column that the "jury is still out on whether it can make its transition to a digital-content company a Grammy-worthy performance." See full story.
Warner Music reported fourth-quarter net income of $36 million on revenue of $1.09 billion, compared with a loss of $1.15 billion in the year-ago period. Revenue declined 8%.
Carved out last year from Time Warner (TWX) in a $2.6 billion acquisition led by Seagrams heir Bronfman, the music giant sells a huge variety of popular music -- from The Eagles to Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.
At the time of the sale, Time Warner was seen as ridding itself of a noncore asset and in the process, exiting an industry saddled with sharply declining profits and an uncertain future.
No other major music companies have gone public in recent years, but the media-entertainment industry last year chalked up a successful IPO from DreamWorks Animation (DWA), producer of the "Shrek" movies among others. The IPO debuted at $28 per share last fall and is now trading above $36 a share.
Bronfman teamed up with Thomas H. Lee, Bain Capital and Providence Equity Partners to buy the firm.
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Matrox Named to Streaming Media 100 for 4th Consecutive Year
Panel of streaming media experts highlight the companies doing the most interesting and innovative work in streaming video today
Matrox named to Streaming Media’s
list of the “100 companies that
matter most in online video” for
the fourth straight year.
MONTREAL – October 13, 2016 — For the fourth time in four years, Matrox® today celebrated the company’s inclusion on the "Streaming Media 100", Streaming Media Magazine’s list of the 100 Companies That Matter Most in Online Video in 2016.
“The Streaming Media 100 is our annual attempt to shine the spotlight on the companies that enable the creation and delivery of amazing content," says Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen, editor of Streaming Media. "These companies are the ones that our editors and contributors have determined to be the cream of the crop—the most important, most innovative, and most influential companies providing streaming and OTT technologies, products, and services. Congratulations to all 100 of them."
“Our continuing innovations in streaming, as demonstrated by the new Monarch LCS lecture capture and distribution appliance, along with a dedication to excellence as seen with our popular Monarch HD and Monarch HDX video streaming and recording appliances, is instrumental in Matrox’s continued success and was crucial in receiving this industry recognition,” said Alberto Cieri, senior director of sales and marketing, Matrox Video. “It is an honor to be recognized by the Steaming Media judges, and even more so to have our products stand among our industry peers.”
Monarch HD is a small, easy-to-use video streaming and recording appliance designed for professional video producers. From any HDMI input source such as a camera or switcher, Monarch HD generates an H.264-encoded stream compliant with RTSP or RTMP protocol. While encoding the video at bitrates suitable for live streaming, Monarch HD simultaneously records a high-quality MP4 or MOV file to an SD card, a USB drive, or a network-mapped drive.
Building on Monarch HD’s success among broadcasters, event producers, medical facilities, CDNs, educational institutions, houses of worship, corporate communicators, and legal videographers, Matrox unveiled Monarch HDX at the 2015 NAB Show. Monarch HDX provides even more workflow flexibility featuring 3G-SDI and HDMI inputs with frame synchronization to compensate for unstable sources. Two independent H.264 encoders provide redundancy or can be set to stream and/or record using individual settings, while an additional, dedicated H.264 encoder provides remote preview of the input.
The award-winning Monarch LCS accepts video from any SDI or HDMI camera and presentation content from computers over HDMI. The inputs can be encoded independently and in sync for use with the latest multi-stream video players. Alternatively, inputs can be combined prior to encoding in a variety of production layouts, including picture-in-picture and side-by-side, for use with standard video players. The reliable, standalone network appliance is designed to easily integrate into video management systems (VMS), such as Opencast and Kaltura, and learning management systems (LMS) such as Moodle. For streaming purposes, the encoders use either RTMP or RTSP protocols to deliver live streams to local media servers or cloud-based CDNs.
All Monarch platforms can be configured and controlled by simple web interfaces and also benefit from a comprehensive set of tools that lets network- or cloud-based video management platform developers, A/V integrators, and value-added resellers harness the streaming and recording capabilities of Monarch appliances from within their own custom environments. Matrox Dev Tools include automatic configuration methods and simple HTTP-based control APIs.
Matrox Video is a technology and market leader in the field of 4K, HD, and SD digital video hardware and software for accelerated H.264 encoding, realtime editing, audio/video input/output, streaming, A/V signal conversion, capture/playout servers, channel-in-a-box systems, and CGs. Matrox's Emmy award-winning technology powers a full range of multi-screen content creation and delivery platforms used by broadcasters, telcos, cable operators, post-production facilities, live event producers, videographers, and A/V professionals worldwide. Founded in 1976, Matrox is a privately held company headquartered in Montreal, Canada. For more information, visit www.matrox.com/video.
Myles Carter
Tel: +1 (514) 822-6000 ext. 2046
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Abandon Guantanamo
An alleged al-Qaida-linked terrorist appeared in federal court July 22 in Philadelphia. In terms of policy, the venue was even more important than the proceeding.
Algerian Ali Charaf Damache, 52, was accused in a 2011 indictment of aiding terrorism, including participation in a plot, with two Americans, to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who had depicted Mohammad as a dog.
Beyond the case itself, Damache’s appearance was significant because it was in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia rather than at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions had vowed to use military tribunals at Guantanamo for suspects like Damache.
There is no reason to continue using Guantanamo. Only 41 prisoners remain there, only 26 of whom have been charged with a crime and five of whom have been cleared for release. It costs $7 million a year to house a single prisoner at Guantanamo, compared with about $70,000 at a federal maximum security prison.
And security is not the issue. At least 620 terrorism suspects have been convicted in federal district courts since 2001 and incarcerated in federal prisons. There have been no reported security breaches or related terrorism incidents in the communities where the trials occurred.
Likewise, there have been no cases of leaked classified information from those proceedings because the federal courts have vast experience in protecting such information — to the point that the military tribunal rules are modeled after the federal court rules.
Damache’s arrest might be a step forward in the fight against anti-American terrorism. But the handling of the case definitely should signal the beginning of the end for the unnecessary prison camp at Guantanamo.
— Wilkes-Barre (Penn.) Citizen’s Voice
* Editorials reflect the opinion of the publisher.
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Senate game & fisheries committee to discuss Sunday hunting
By Mark Demko
| Special to The Morning Call |
The state Senate’s Game & Fisheries Committee is set to take the first step in considering a change to the Commonwealth’s longstanding ban on Sunday hunting when the board meets Tuesday morning in Harrisburg.
The meeting comes on the heels of Sen. Dan Laughlin (R-Erie) introducing Senate Bill 147, which would give the Game Commission the authority to institute Sunday hunting. The bill, which is co-sponsored by Sen. James Brewster (D- Allegheny and Westmoreland), was introduced Friday. The national Sportsmen’s Alliance reports the committee is expected to vote on the bill during the meeting.
While the Pennsylvania Game Commission is the state agency responsible for managing the state’s wildlife species and setting hunting seasons and bag limits, it does not have the authority to permit Sunday hunting as that would take a change by the state legislature. In the Keystone State, only foxes, coyotes and crows may be pursued on Sundays.
Laughlin told The Morning Call late last week that there are a number of reasons he feels it’s time to allow hunting on Sundays.
“The number one reason people are not able to get out hunting is a lack of free time. This is true with our youth as well, and they are the future of this sport,” he said.
[More Sports] Outdoors: Chronic Wasting Disease cases have more than doubled in a year »
“It is widely known that most folks that hunt start out hunting with a parent. We are losing wide swaths of potential hunters by continuing this archaic Blue Law. There is also the personal freedom side of this argument; why does anyone have the authority to tell a citizen what they can or cannot do just because it’s Sunday?”
As more and more states have added Sunday hunting opportunities in recent years, Pennsylvania remains one of the last three holdouts in the nation to prohibit hunting for game species on that day. The other two states that prohibit Sunday hunting are Maine and Massachusetts.
In recent years, a number of sportsmen’s groups have spoken out in favor of giving the game commission the authority to allow Sunday hunting, while several organizations including the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, Keystone Trails Association and others remain opposed to the idea.
James R. Brewster
Most Read • Outdoors
Saturday and Sunday hunting topics sparking debate across Pennsylvania
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Ponies' Tylicki wins Murphy Patriot Award
Prize honors outstanding support for armed forces, veterans
By Minor League Baseball | November 2, 2017 12:00 PM
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Minor League Baseball announced today that Richard Tylicki, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and the Director of Stadium Operations for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, is the recipient of the second annual Charles K. Murphy Patriot Award. Tylicki will receive the award at the Baseball Winter Meetings Banquet on Sunday, Dec. 10, at the Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Florida.
The Charles K. Murphy Patriot Award is presented to a team or individual in Minor League Baseball for outstanding support of the United States Armed Forces and veterans, both at the ballpark and in the community. The award was created in 2016 in honor of the longtime Florida State League president and U.S. Army veteran who passed away Feb. 21, 2015, at the age of 83. A retired Lieutenant Colonel after 21 years in the U.S. Army, Murphy broke into professional baseball in 1975 and led the Florida State League from 1990 until his passing. He received the Warren Giles Award for outstanding service as a league president in both 2011 and 1991, and the Friends of Baseball Chapel Award in 1994.
Tylicki has balanced the demands of both a military and civilian career for over two decades. He received an appointment as a Reserve commissioned officer in the United States Army National Guard in 1992, and began his tenure with Binghamton as an operations intern in 1995. He has worked as the Director of Stadium Operations for the last 23 years while simultaneously serving in the National Guard, where he is currently the Commanding Officer of over 550 men and women of the 1st Squadron, 104th Cavalry Regiment.
Tylicki's service has earned him 23 medals to date, including the Bronze Star for meritorious service in a combat zone, and the Meritorious Service Medal awarded for exceptional service in support of Command and Staff while deployed to Kuwait in 2013. Tylicki has also maintained a high level of leadership with the Rumble Ponies and is the longest-tenured employee at NYSEG Stadium, despite serving in four different overseas contingency operations (Kuwait in 2013, Egypt in 2008, Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004 and Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2002). "I am very honored to be the recipient of the Charles K. Murphy Patriot Award as Mr. Murphy was a tremendous leader who served the nation for two decades and as a league president in Minor League Baseball for over 25 years," said Tylicki. "It is truly a privilege to be associated with his good name and an honor to be recognized by Minor League Baseball and I am sincerely humbled by the recognition."
With the Rumble Ponies, Tylicki secured a sponsorship that enabled all U.S. military veterans to attend a Rumble Ponies game for free over Memorial Day Weekend, secured a 90 percent renewal rate on sponsorships and in 2017, he arranged to have the Honor Guard present the flag on the field on Memorial Day and Independence Day. Additionally, he orchestrated the dedication of a POW/MIA memorial seat at NYSEG Stadium to ensure that all service members who did not come home from battle would always be honored at the ballpark. "Richard embodies the absolute essence of the Charles K. Murphy Patriot Award," said Minor League Baseball President & CEO Pat O'Conner. "His dedication and service to this country, his accomplishments with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies and his efforts honoring veterans in the community are all highly admirable, and it is with great pleasure that we present him with this award on behalf of Minor League Baseball."
"Richard is the perfect choice for this award," said Binghamton Rumble Ponies Managing Director John Bayne. "His dedication to our nation and community, coupled with his 23 years of contributions to our organization, speaks volumes of Richard's work ethic, determination and loyalty."
In 2017, Tylicki served as the Commander of the Reactionary Force for the 58th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, D.C., completed the Tactical Commanders Development Program and worked to prepare his unit for a January 2018 deployment to the Middle East.
"Richard's contributions to this organization, community, and country exemplify the spirit of what baseball is all about," said Rumble Ponies owner John Hughes. "This organization, this community and our country should be proud to have Richard as part of the team."
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Home > Articles > The early life of Mao
The early life of Mao
Articles, Slider
Hazel Blair
Mao Zedong was born on 26 December 1893 into relative prosperity in a village in Hunan province. His father, a poor peasant and former soldier, had risen to the level of grain merchant and owned two and a half acres of land.
The young Mao disliked his bullying father, later remarking that acting meekly did little to ameliorate his father’s anger, and thus he was encouraged towards rebellion early on. A similar dislike of his teacher instilled a lifelong disregard for intellectuals, whom he would later consign to the ‘ninth stinking category’ of counter-revolutionary.
Mao’s father arranged his marriage to a local girl, but Mao ignored her. He had to quit elementary school, but spent time in a higher primary and middle school.
His first political act came in 1911, as the Manchu Dynasty crumbled and rebellion broke out in Changsha town. Mao enlisted in Dr Sun Yat-sen’s army, but spent just six months as an orderly. He would later claim to have spent six months in the Changsha library, absorbing Chinese translations of Western classics.
In 1913, Mao entered a teacher training college in Changsha, where he established several student organisations. Over the next couple of years, touring Hunan province on foot, he became highly critical of China’s past governance: the way forward, he believed, would involve amalgamating aspects of Western and Chinese thought.
By September 1918, he had qualified as a teacher, but instead of remaining in Changsha, he went to Beijing, where he became an assistant in the university library.
News of the Bolsheviks overthrowing the Russian Tsar had filtered east, and Mao came under the influence of Dr Li Dazhao and the university’s dean of literature Chen Duxiu, both Marxists and founder members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The Paris Peace Conference also influenced Mao. After 4 May 1919, Chinese students took to the streets, protesting terms that gave German concessions to the Japanese. Caught up in student activism, he gravitated even more towards Marxism.
In 1920, Mao returned to Changsha and became principal of a primary school. He also helped set up the Changsha branch of the newly formed CCP. The following year, he became General Secretary for Hunan and was one of 12 delegates to the First Party Congress. At the time, the national membership was less than 60 people; 28 years later, organised and indoctrinated by Mao, the Chinese Communist Party would conquer the largest nation on earth.
This is an extract from Tom Farrell’s two-part article titled ‘Mao’s Red Army’, featured in issue 75 of Military History Monthly.
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Miller, James, Miller & Hornsby
Troy Hornsby
Appellate Attorney’s Fee Awards
By: Troy Hornsby, Miller, James, Miller & Hornsby, L.L.P., Texarkana
Under the “American Rule”, each party to litigation is responsible for their own attorney’s fees. See Turner v. Turner, 385 S.W.2d 230, 233 (Tex. 1964). However, in Texas, under some statutes and situations a party can recover their attorney’s fees, see Knebel v. CaptialNat’l Bank, 518 S.W.2d 795, 804 (Tex. 1974), which may include appellate attorney’s fees. Mid City Rental v. Miner-Dederick, 583 S.W.2d 428, 433 (Tex. Civ. App.-Beaumont 1979), rev’d on other grounds, 603 S.W.2d 193 (Tex. 1980).
In some jurisdictions, the decision of awarding such attorney’s fees for trial rests with the trial court, and the decision of awarding appellate attorney’s fees is made by the appellate court. Int’l Sec. Life Ins. v. Spray, 468 S.W.2d 347, 349 (Tex. 1971). However, a Texas appellate court may not initiate such an award, since this would be the exercise of original rather than appellate jurisdiction. Id. Rather, in Texas, the determination of appellate attorney’s fees is made by the trial court prior to the appeal. Bocquet v. Herring,972 S.W.2d 19, 21 (Tex. 1998); see also Spray, 468 S.W.2d at 349. Such a decision necessarily involves two issues: whether to award the fees and the reasonableness (amount) of those fees.
THE TRIAL COURT’S DECISION To AWARD APPELLATE ATTORNEY’S FEES
The decision of whether to award appellate attorney’s fees authorized by statute is generally at the discretion of the trial court. Trevino v. Am. Nat’l Ins. Co., 168 S.W.2d 656, 660 (Tex. 1943). Even when the trial court submits the question of the reasonableness (amount) of attorney’s fees to a jury, the trial court retains the right to determine whether or not to award attorney’s fees. Hansen v. Academy Corp., 961 S.W.2d 329, 334-334 (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1997, pet. denied).
The determination of the reasonableness (amount) of reasonable attorney’s fees is a question for the trier of fact. Stewart Title Guar. Co. v. Sterling, 822 S.W.2d 1, 12 (Tex. 1991). If the jury is the fact finder, there must be competent evidence in the record to support an award of appellate attorney’s fees. Great Am. Reserve Ins. Co. v. Britton, 406 S.W.2d 901, 907 (Tex. 1966). Likewise, if the trial court is the fact finder, the general rule is that the record must contain competent evidence of appellate attorney’s fees and a trial court does not have authority to adjudicate the reasonableness of attorney’s fees on judicial knowledge without the benefit of evidence. Id. However, when the attorney’s fee claim is pursuant to Texas Civil Practice and Remedies chapter 38, “the court may take judicial notice of the usual and customary attorney’s fees in a proceeding before the court or in a jury case in which the amount of attorney’s fees is submitted to the court by agreement.” TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM CODE § 38.004(1).
The fee should be only that which would be reasonable for a litigant himself to pay his own attorney. Argonaut Ins. Co. v. ABC Steel Prods. Co., 582 S.W.2d 883, 889 (Tex. Civ. App. Texarkana 1979, writ ref d n.r.e.). More specifically, the attorney’s fee amount must be reasonable under the particular circumstances of the case and must bear some reasonable relationship to the amount in controversy. Id. However, it is permissible for the attorney’s fee award to exceed the amount in controversy. See, e.g., Republic Bankers Life Ins. Co. v. Morrison, 487 S.W.2d 373, 377 (Tex. Civ. App. Texarkana 1979, no writ); Union Nat’l Life Ins. Co. v. Reese, 476 S.W.2d 928, 929 (Tex. Civ. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1972, writ ref d n.r.e.). In fact, a net recovery is not a prerequisite to an attorney’s fee award. See McKinley v. Drozd,685 S.W.2d 7, 10-11 (Tex. 1985); see also Building Concepts, Inc. v. Duncan, 667 S.W.2d 897, 905 (Tex. Civ. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1984, writ ref d n.r.e.). Specific factors to be considered by the fact finder in determining the amount of reasonable attorney’s fees include: (1) the time and labor required, novelty and difficulty of the question presented, and the skill required to properly perform the legal service; (2) the likelihood that the acceptance of employment precluded other employment by the lawyer; (3) the fee customarily charged in the locality for similar services; (4) the amount involved and the results obtained; (5) the time limitations imposed by the client or by the circumstances; (6) the nature and length of the professional relationship with the client; (7) the experience, reputation, and ability of the lawyer performing the services; and (8) whether the fee is fixed or contingent. Arthur Anderson & Co. v. Perry Equip. Corp., 945 S.W.2d 812, 818 (Tex. 1997). While these factors may be considered, the court is not required to receive evidence on all of them. Hagedorn v. Tisdale, 73 S.W.3d 341, 353 (Tex. App.- Amarillo 2002, no pet.). The trial court is also free to look at the entire record, the evidence presented on reasonableness, the amount in controversy, the common knowledge of the participants as lawyers and judges, and the relative success of the parties. Chilton Ins. Co. v. Pate & Pate Enters., Inc., 930 S.W.2d 877, 896 (Tex. App.-San Antonio 1996, writ denied); ArgonautIns. Co., 582 S.W.2d at 889.
EVIDENCE OF APPELLATE ATTORNEY’S FEES
Evidence of a contingency fee agreement alone is insufficient to support award of an attorney’s fee. Arthur Anderson & Co., 945 S.W.2d at 818. However, evidence by an expert witness that such a contingent fee arrangement was entered and was usual and customary for the type of litigation involved is sufficient to support a judgment.
Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. Allen, 669 S.W.2d 750 (Tex. App.-Houston [lIst Dist] 1983, writ refd n.r.e.); see also, Texas Farmers Ins. Co. v.
Hernandez, 649 S.W.2d 121 (Tex. App.- Amarillo 1983, writ ref d n.r.e.).
Finally, if attorney’s fees are authorized for some, but not all, of a party’s claims, that party generally has the duty to segregate recoverable attorney’s fees from unrecoverable attorney’s fees. Stewart Title Guar. Co., 822 S.W.2d at 11. If, however, no objection is made to the failure to segregate attorney’s fees, either at the time evidence of attorney’s fees is presented or at the time of the charge, the error is waived. Hruska v. First State Bank of Deanville, 747 S.W.2d 783, 785 (Tex. 1988).
Expert testimony is generally required to support an award of attorney’s fees. Gulf Paving Co. v. Lofstedt, 144 Tex. 17, 188 S.W.2d 155, 161 (1945). However, the fact finder is not bound by expert testimony on attorney’s fees and may award a lesser amount. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. v. Gandy, 880 S.W.2d 129, 139 (Tex. App. Texarkana 1994), rev’d on other grounds, 925 S.W.2d 696 (Tex. 1996). In fact, a court can disregard even uncontested expert testimony of attorney’s fees if it is unreasonable, incredible, or its belief is questionable. Ragsdale v. Progressive Voters League, 801 S.W.2d 880, 882 (Tex. 1990).
An attorney testifying as to appellate attorney’s fees should establish himself as an expert. Lesikar v. Rappeport, 33 S.W.3d 282, 307-08 (Tex. App.-Texarkana 2000, pet. denied). Then the attorney should address the Arthur Anderson factors in testifying as to the reasonableness of the attorney’s fees involved. See Arthur Anderson & Co., 945 S.W.2d at 818. Additionally, the attorney should segregate fees for each step of the appellate process such as appeal, petition for review to the Supreme Court, and briefing on merits before the Supreme Court. See, e.g., Chrys-Ply Cty. v. Guerrero,620 S.W.2d 700, 707 (Tex. Civ. App.-San Antonio 1981, no writ). Finally, the attorney should segregate recoverable attorney’s fees from unrecoverable attorney’s fees. Stewart Title Guar.Co., 822 S.W.2d at 11.
In some situations, expert testimony at trial can be avoided. Expert testimony of attorney’s fees may be by affidavit in a default judgment. Westcliffe v. Bear Creek Constr., 105 S.W.3d 286, 294 (Tex. App.-Dallas 2003, no pet.) (citing Texas Commerce v. New, 3 S.W.3d 515, 517-18 (Tex. 1999). Additionally, affidavit testimony can support an award of attorney’s fees in a summary judgment. Texas Commerce v. New, 3 S.W.3d 515, 517-18 (Tex. 1999). Finally, an award of attorney’s fees as a sanction can be based upon an affidavit. See, e.g., Smith v. MarshallB. Brown, P.C., 51 S.W.3d 376, 382 (Tex. App.-Houston [list Dist.] 2001, pet. denied); Mid-ContinentCas. v. Safe Tire Disposal Corp., 2 S.W.3d 393, 397 (Tex. App.-San Antonio 1999, no pet.).
Such an attorney’s fee affidavit must set forth the expert’s qualifications, his opinion regarding reasonable attorney’s fees, the basis for his opinion, and not be controverted. Basin Credit Consultants, Inc. v. Obregon, 2 S.W.3d 372, 373 (Tex. App.-San Antonio 1999, pet. denied). When an attorney’s affidavit contains this necessary information, it constitutes “expert opinion testimony” and can sufficiently establish reasonable attorney’s fees when it meets the requirements of the summary judgment rule. Enell Corp. v. Longoria, 834 S.W.2d 132, 135 (Tex. App.-San Antonio 1992, no writ); Owen Elec. Supply, Inc. v. Brite Day Constr., Inc., 821 S.W.2d 283, 288 (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1992, no writ). To create a fact issue, the non-movant’s attorney must file an affidavit contesting the reasonableness of the movant’s attorney’s fee affidavit. See Tesoro Petroleum Corp. v. Coastal Refining & Mktg., Inc., 754 S.W.2d 764, 767 (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1986, no writ).
The parties can bypass the need for fact finding as to the amount of attorney’s fees by stipulating to the reasonableness of such attorney’s fees. A stipulation serves as proof on an issue that otherwise would be tried. Hansen v. Academy Corp., 961 S.W.2d 329, 335 (Tex. App.- Houston [list Dist.] 1997, pet. denied). It is conclusive on the issue addressed, and the parties are estopped from claiming to the contrary. Shepherd v. Ledford, 962 S.W.2d 28, 33 (Tex. 1998). More specifically, parties can stipulate to the reasonableness of appellate attorney’s fees. See, e.g., Adjusters & Loss Consultants Group v. Johnson Int’l, No. 13-01-874-CV, 2004 WL2535399, at *5 (Tex App.-Corpus Christi Nov. 10, 2004, no pet.) (mem.).
TRIAL COURT’S ORDER GRANTING APPELLATE ATTORNEY’S FEES
The trial court may not grant a party an unconditional award of appellate attorney’s fees. Texas FarmersIns. Co. v. Cameron, 24 S.W.3d 386, 400 (Tex. App.-Dallas 2000, pet. denied); Humble Nat’l Bank v. DCV, Inc., 933 S.W.2d 224, 236 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1996, writ denied). Doing so could penalize a party for pursuing a meritorious appeal. Cameron, 24 S.W.3d at 400; Humble Nat’l Bank, 933 S.W.2d at 236. A party may not be penalized for successfully appealing error occurring in a lower court’s judgment. King Optical v. Automatic Data Processing,Inc., 542 S.W.2d 213, 218 (Tex. Civ. App.-Waco 1976, writ ref d n.r.e.). However, some appellate courts have found it implicit in a trial court’s judgment that the award of appellate attorney’s fees is conditioned on a successful appeal. Spiller v. Spiller, 901 S.W.2d 553 (Tex. App.-San Antonio 1995, writ denied); Robinwood Bldg & Dev. Co. v. Pettigrew, 737 S.W.2d 110, 112 (Tex. App.-Tyler 1987, no writ). Additionally, several Texas courts have held that an unconditional award of appellate attorney’s fees under Texas Family Code sections 11.18 and 14.082, regardless of whether an appeal is successful, is not error. D.R. v. J.A.R., 894 S.W.2d 91, 96-97 (Tex. App.-Fort Worth 1995, writ denied); Von Behren v. Von Behren, 800 S.W.2d 919, 924 (Tex. App-San Antonio 1990, writ denied); Abrams v. Abrams, 713 S.W.2d 195, 197-98 (Tex. App.-Corpus Christi 1986, no
writ).
Appellate attorney’s fees can be conditioned in two ways. The judgment can award a certain amount of attorney’s fees for the trial of the case and an additional certain amount of appellate attorney’s fees in the event of an appeal to a court of appeals or the Supreme Court. Seureau v. Mudd, 515 S.W.2d 746, 749 (Tex. Civ. App. Houston [14 Dist.] 1974, writ ref d n.r.e.). 1 Alternatively, the court can award a certain amount of attorney’s fees for the trial and appeal of the case with remittitur provisions against the total attorney’s fees in the event that the other party does not appeal. See Spray, 468 S.W.2d at 349-50. Suggested conditional language for the award of attorney’s fees for a judgment using the first option is as follows:
IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED, and DECREED that Plaintiffs recover from Defendant attorney fees in the sum of $30,000.00 for services rendered through the trial of this case. Additionally, if Defendant files an appeal (or cross-appeal) which is ultimately unsuccessful, Plaintiffs will be further entitled to $20,000.00 as a reasonable attorney fee. Additionally, if Defendant files a petition for review (or cross-petition) in the Supreme Court of Texas which is ultimately denied, Plaintiffs will be further entitled to $6,000.00 as a reasonable attorney fee. Additionally and finally, if such a petition for review (or cross-petition) is granted, but relief is not ultimately granted to Defendant, Plaintiffs will be entitled to an additional $20,000.00.
APPELLATE ATTORNEY’S FEES ON APPEAL
If an appeal is only partially successful, then the party is only entitled to that portion of the appellate attorney’s fee award attributable to the portion of the appeal the party prevailed in. Smith v. Smith, 757 S.W.2d 422, 426 (Tex. App.- Dallas 1988, writ denied). In such a situation, the appellate court should reverse the award of all appellate attorney’s fees and remand the issue to the trial court for a determination of the reasonable amount of appellate attorney’s fees to be awarded to appellee in view of the fact that appellant was partially successful on the appeal. Id.; see also Southwestern Bell Tel. v. Vollmer, 805 S.W.2d 825, 834 (Tex. App.-Corpus Christi 1991, writ denied), overruled on other grounds, Houston Lighting & Power Co. v. Auchan USA, Inc., 995 S.W.2d 668 (Tex. 1999).
A party must be careful not to waive a claim for appellate attorney’s fees at trial. A prevailing party making a claim for attorney’s fees must present evidence of appellate attorney’s fees at trial and secure a finding thereon in order to be entitled to them; a failure to present such evidence will waive the claim. Loomis Constr. Co. v. Matijevich, 425 S.W.2d 39, 44 (Tex. Civ. App. Houston [List Dist.] 1968, no writ). However, a non-prevailing party does not waive a claim for attorney’s fees by failing to present such evidence. See e.g. State Farm Lloyds v. Borum, 53 S.W.3d 877, 894-95 (Tex. App.-Dallas 2001, pet. denied); Alden Prop. v. EMC Mortgage Corp., No. 05-03-01748-CV, 2005 WL 164581, at *3 (Tex. App.-Dallas Jan. 26, 2005, no pet.) (mem.); Haugen v. Olson, No. 05-03-00501-CV, 2003 WL 22939738, at *4 (Tex. App.-Dallas 2003, no pet.) (mem.); State Farm Lloyds v. Borum, 53 S.W.3d 877, 894-95 (Tex. App. Dallas 2001, pet. denied). If the issue of appellate attorney’s fees is properly preserved at trial, it can be addressed by the appellate court.
The court of appeals may not initiate an appellate attorney’s fee award itself, since this would be the exercise of original rather than appellate jurisdiction. Spray, 468 S.W.2d at 349. Rather, the trial court’s determination of whether attorney’s fees are available under a particular statute is a question of law reviewed de novo. PacesetterPools, Inc. v. Pierce Homes, Inc., 86 S.W.3d 827, 833 (Tex. App.-Austin 2002, no pet.) (citing Holland v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 1 S.W.3d 91, 94 (Tex. 1999)). The trial court’s determination of whether or not to award attorney’s fees is reviewed by the appellate court for abuse of discretion. Bocquet, 972 S.W.2d at 21; Ragsdale v. Progressive Voters League, 801 S.W.2d 880, 881 (Tex. 1990) (per curiam). Additionally, the reasonableness of an attorney’s fees award may be reviewed by the appellate court for excessiveness under a sufficiency of the evidence standard. Stewart Title Guar. Co., 822 S.W.2d at 12.
When factually insufficient evidence supports the award, the appellate court may order a remittitur of excess fees as a condition of affirming the judgment of the trial court, but it may not increase the allowance of fees. Reinstma v. GreaterAustin Apt. Maint., 549 S.W.2d 434, 437 (Tex. Civ. App.-Austin 1977, writ dism’d). More specifically, a jury finding that reasonable attorney’s fees was zero is often against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence where evidence was presented of attorney’s fees. See, e.g., Elizabeth-Perkins,Inc. v. Morgan Exp., Inc., 554 S.W.2d 216, 219 (Tex. Civ. App-1977, no writ). An attorney’s fee award can also be indirectly affected by an appellate court’s actions though the attorney’s fee award itself is not under review.
If the appellate court modifies an award of damages, it should remand the issue of attorney’s fees to the trial court because the amount a party recovers is one factor for the trial court to consider in assessing reasonable attorney’s fees. Burns v. Miller, Hiersche, Martens & Hayward, P.C., 948 S.W.2d 317, 327 (Tex. App.-Dallas 1997, pet. denied); see also Arthur Andersen & Co., 945 S.W.2d at 818. If an appellate court reverses the judgment of the trial court, it can restore a prior jury finding on appellate attorney’s fees. See Lee v. Universal Life Ins. Co., 420 S.W.2d 222, 226 (Tex. Civ. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1967, writ. ref., n.r.e.). Alternatively, upon reversal, the appellate court can sever the issue of attorney’s fees and remand it alone to the trial court. See Espinoza v. Victoria Bank & Trust, 572 S.W.2d 816, 829 (Tex. Civ. App.-Corpus Christi 1978, writ refd n.r.e.). Finally, upon modification when an appellant was awarded attorney’s fees for trial, but not for appeal, the court of appeals should remand the issue of the amount of the appellate attorney’s fees to the trial court. Hennessey v. Skinner, 698 S.W.2d 382, 386 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1985, no writ).
‘This was the system specifically disapproved of by
the Supreme Court in Cooksey v. Jordan,143 S.W.141 (Tex. 1912). However, that case was specifically overruled by Security Life Ins. Co. v. Spray, 468 S.W.2d 347 (Tex. 1971).
This entry was posted in Articles on October 9, 2013 by admin.
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Troy Hornsby, 2013-2016
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Home Literature ‘Everybody Loves Our Town’- A Review & Interview with the Author
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‘Everybody Loves Our Town’- A Review & Interview with the Author
written by Staff Writer 26 May, 2012
Everybody loves us
Everybody loves our town
That’s why I’m thinking lately
The time for leaving is now
When Mudhoney’s song “Overblown” appeared in the soundtrack of Cameron Crowe’s film Singles, grunge had already become a global phenomenon. Everybody was talking about Seattle. How did it all start? How did a former logging town in the Pacific Northwest manage to suddenly become the epicentre of rock ’n’ roll?
Everybody Loves Our Town, written by former Blender magazine editor Mark Yarm, may well have the answers. Compiled in the form of an oral history, this 592-page tome is an attempt to understand how it all happened—and why.
Tracing an arc from the early days in the dingy, smoky, beer-soaked clubs of Seattle, the book charts a complete trajectory of grunge. Yarm takes us all the way to sold-out arenas and multimillion-dollar record deals, down to the scene’s inevitable implosion, replete with numerous casualties along the way.
Unlike other books attempting to explain the grunge phenomenon, Everybody Loves Our Town tells the story through the voices of those who were actually there. Instead of a writer’s retrospective socio-anthropological musings, readers are treated to the equivalent of a long night out sharing a drink or ten with the survivors and listening to their recollections—conveniently woven together by Yarm in chronological order in a superb delivery of rock ’n’ roll storytelling. Some of the material will already be familiar to the most devoted grunge aficionados, but the author used both existing and new interviews, creating a far more comprehensive account of those days than what a series of recent, retrospective interviews could have achieved. The result is not fragmented, but instead forms a tapestry of two decades’ worth of firsthand accounts expertly interwoven into an almost seamless conversation. It must have been a mammoth task—but also, we suspect, a labour of love.
MultiMediaMouth: Mark, forgive us the obvious question, but do you consider yourself a fan of grunge?
Mark Yarm: Yes, I consider myself a fan—though after working for three years on a book like this, sometimes grunge is the last thing I want to hear. Still, I still find myself listening to Mudhoney’s Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles for pleasure quite often.
So, why another book on grunge now? After all, there have been several attempts to explain and describe the scene, from biographies on individual artists or bands, like Charles Cross’ Heavier Than Heaven on Kurt Cobain, Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana by Michael Azerrad, to the more recent Greg Prato work Grunge is Dead—which, like Everybody Loves Our Town, is also written in interview form. Everybody Loves Our Town was published in the autumn of 2011, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind album and an inevitable revival of all things grunge. It only took two years to write—which, considering the amount of material spanning over a decade, does not seem very long at all.
MMM: Was Everybody Loves Our Town always going to be a combination of new and old material? How did you go about putting everything together? Did you turn your office into one big grunge control room? We’re thinking of a huge whiteboard with the main suspects with arrows pointing towards each other, like something out of The Wire, only with the U-Men at the top of the tree.
MY: My goal was to get as much original material as possible. I’d say about 90 percent of the quotes are from interviews I conducted personally. In instances where I couldn’t get someone to talk to me, I’d use archival material (and, in some cases, previously unpublished interviews conducted by other journalists who were gracious enough to help me out). I did pin up index cards detailing each chapter in my office space, but I’m afraid it was not as elaborate as something out of a police procedural.
The story starts in 1985, with the U-Men’s account of how they set fire to the stage on Labor Day weekend of that year. I must admit to not knowing the band at all, but still got drawn into the tales of punk rock and pyromania. The Melvins, Cobain’s muses-to-be, are next, and, chapter after chapter, the archaeology of the Seattle scene begins to be uncovered. If you have visited the “Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses” exhibit at the Seattle Experience Music Project, you might agree with our choice of the word archaeology to define the days of mixed cassette tapes, grainy black-and-white flyers and home-produced fanzines. Photocopied posters, disseminated around the city, were cheaper than getting a telephone line connected. Our present time of social networks, smartphones and music downloads truly seems futuristic in comparison.
Since then, the internet has changed things so much that everything seems to be simultaneously more fragmented and more within reach. The evolution of a music scene spawned by the cultural and geographical isolation of a pre-Microsoft Seattle is now unimaginable. If Kurt Cobain was a 16-year-old kid from Aberdeen now, he might still hate the place but would probably pour out his angst on Tumblr and upload his demos on SoundCloud.
MMM: Have you visited the Experience Music Project exhibition? Would you agree that looking back at the demo tapes and old black-and-white flyers feels a bit like Howard Carter walking into Tutankhamen’s tomb?
MY: I visited the [museum] on a number of occasions, the last of which was in November, when I did an Everybody Loves Our Town promotional event there. During the course of working on the book, I got to know the museum’s senior curator, Jacob McMurray, who was immensely helpful when it came to, say, fact-checking the spelling of a club’s name or when a certain show happened. (The relationship was mutually beneficial: I actually helped out on their excellent Nirvana exhibit, which opened in April of last year.) And, yes, their collection is pretty amazing—there’s so much more in their archives than they can actually put on display.
The Experience Music Project Exhibition
Whilst the Experience Music Project’s own publication of a “Taking Punk to the Masses” catalogue does an excellent job of gathering these “grunge artifacts” in one place, its purpose was probably to document rather than to entertain. Everybody Loves Our Town, on the other hand, is a pleasure to read; every chapter is a collection of testimonials and soundbites from band members, producers, soundmen, girlfriends and odd hangers-on. Yarm gives every character—however minor—the chance to tell his or her story, and often what follows is a direct rebuttal of the previous statement by someone who was also there at the time. Alcohol and drugs have probably taken their toll on the memory of a lot these people, making their versions of events rather unreliable, and the result is often very funny. (Somewhat unsurprisingly, Courtney Love’s recollections rarely coincide with anyone else’s.)
All the time, Yarm keeps his own voice firmly muted, but one cannot help but form an opinion eventually. It is impossible, for instance, not to notice Buzz Osborne’s resentment at Nirvana’s success, considering that Cobain saw the Melvins as his mentors; equally, one is left with a strong impression that Pearl Jam’s “overnight success” changed Eddie Vedder more than he would readily admit. Courtney Love—undoubtedly the most controversial figure in the entire history of grunge—is, almost unanimously, depicted in unflattering tones.
MMM: Did you encounter any difficulties in getting people to co-operate with the project, or was there a willingness to try and finally set the record straight and explain what grunge really was?
MY: Some people were incredibly forthcoming and incredibly giving of their time. Typically, the further a person was from the white-hot spotlight of ‘90s grunge mania, the happier [the person would] be that someone was interested in [his or her] story. But there were plenty of difficulties. Pearl Jam weren’t available to me, presumably because they were working on their own book and movie at the time, though I did get material from them: I’d interviewed Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard for the Blender magazine piece the book grew out of, and I got to speak with Matt Cameron through the Soundgarden organisation. And I dug deep, interviewing all of the band’s former drummers—something Cameron Crowe did not do in his Pearl Jam Twenty documentary.
The grunge phenomenon was perhaps the last time a music scene was so successfully hijacked by media and industry to be mass marketed to the world. Some 20 years later, there seems to be hardly any trace in Seattle that grunge ever existed, Sure, some of the bands are still together—such as the newly reformed Soundgarden—but the city itself seems to have tried to rid itself of the memory of those long-gone hyped-up days. Some of the venues still exist, but only just. Outside Cobain’s former house in an upscale Lake Washington neighbourhood, in a tiny green space called Viretta Park, two wooden benches, graffitied with tributes to Kurt and acting as the only memorial (and an unofficial one at that) are regularly cleaned and repainted by the local authorities. Save for the Nirvana exhibition at the Experience Music Project—running through early spring of 2013—one wouldn’t know that Nirvana ever existed.
The Viretta Park Bench
MMM: Why, in your opinion, does Seattle seem so determined to forget grunge?
MY: People who were involved with the scene seem to go through phases of not wanting to talk about it, then feeling that it’s OK to discuss it again. I guess I’d also get pretty sick of talking over and over again about something I did 20 years ago.
Those directly involved might be sick of talking about it, but most fans of grunge will never tire of reading about it. And they will, without a doubt, devour this book. Rock histories and biographies almost invariably fall within two categories: shameless, fan-driven hagiographies, or tedious, impenetrable bricks about chords and guitar models. Everybody Loves Our Town, we are glad to report, is neither. As well as acting as a definitive document to posterity, before the fragile collective memory of that era fades away forever, it is also, without a doubt, the most compelling book on grunge written to date.
MMM: One last question. If you had to mention a single album of that time, which would you choose?
MY: I’d say the aforementioned Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles. If you do not own it already, pick it up post-haste.
Everybody Loves Our Town is published by Faber and can be purchased here
Check out Mark Yarm’s Grungebook blog on Tumblr and follow @markyarm on Twitter
Send any feedback to paola@multimediamouth.com or in the comments below
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Bulgaria hosts maritime exercise Breeze 2019 in Black Sea
Type 39 / Song Class Attack Submarine
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Toulon Naval Base is the second-largest naval port in France. Located on the south-east coast...
Trafalgar Class Attack Submarines
Six Trafalgar Class nuclear-powered attack submarines are in service with the Royal Navy. The submarines...
T-6A/B Texan II
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Type 23 Duke Class Frigate
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More than 16 tons of cocaine worth up to $1B seized in massive bust in Philadelphia
Investigators believe the ship was loaded with drugs after it left its last port of call in the Bahamas. Two crew members have been arrested.
Federal agents seize over 17 tons of cocaine in Philadelphia
June 18, 2019, 6:09 PM UTC / Updated June 18, 2019, 10:47 PM UTC
By Jonathan Dienst, Tom Winter and Pete Williams
Federal authorities seized 15,000 kilos of cocaine, worth as much as $1 billion, at a Philadelphia shipping port, officials said Tuesday. A second mate and a crew member have been arrested in the massive bust.
There were 16.5 tons of the drug found in seven shipping containers late Monday night, officials said.
“This is one of the largest drug seizures in United States history," U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania William McSwain tweeted. "This amount of cocaine could kill millions — MILLIONS — of people. My Office is committed to keeping our borders secure and streets safe from deadly narcotics."
The street value of all the seized cocaine could be as high as $1 billion, according to federal prosecutors in Philadelphia.
The illicit haul was found aboard a cargo ship, the MSC Gayane, which had traveled from Chile, Panama and the Bahamas, according to NBC Philadelphia.
Federal authorities in Pennsylvania arrested and charged two of the MSC Gayane's crew members with intentionally conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute.
Homeland Security Investigations has filed an arrest warrant affidavit which details how Ivan Durasevic and Fonofaavae Tiasaga allegedly coordinated the loading of cocaine onto the vessel.
The court document says that Durasevic, the crew's second mate, admitted his role in bringing the cocaine on the vessel. It says that he got a call from the chief officer to go to the deck after the vessel left Peru, at which time he saw nets on the port side (left side facing the bow) by the ship's crane. The document says Durasevic and approximately four other individuals, some wearing ski masks, assisted in pushing the nets containing blue and black bags of cocaine into the hold and loaded them into containers.
Durasevic later allegedly told agents that he was paid $50,000 for his role in the scheme. He allegedly told the feds that Tiasaga was one of the crew members who helped him load the cocaine.
Tiasaga allegedly told agents that it was Durasevic who operated the crane that brought on the bales of the cocaine after the MSC Gayane was approached by six separate boats during the night while the ship was sailing between Panama and Coronel. He says an additional eight boats brought more cocaine as the vessel moved north between Coronel, Peru and Panama.
Agents write that additional container seals were brought aboard to re-seal the containers loaded with cocaine.
The court documents say that Durasevic's arms and hands tested positive for the presence of cocaine.
The arrest affidavit says that the drugs were found upon search of the vessel in seven separate shipping containers, as we have reported.
The shipping company MSC thanked federal authorities for making the bust.
"MSC takes this matter very seriously and is grateful to the authorities for identifying any suspected abuse of its services," according to a company statement.
"Unfortunately, shipping and logistics companies are from time to time affected by trafficking problems. MSC has a longstanding history of cooperating with U.S. federal law enforcement agencies to help disrupt illegal narcotics trafficking and works closely with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)," the statement said.
Deaths linked to cocaine abuse have been on the rise, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The troubling trend began around 2012, before cocaine-related deaths jumped 34 percent from 2016 to 2017, the CDC said.
Jonathan Dienst
Jonathan Dienst is a reporter for WNBC-TV in New York, leading its investigative reporting team and covering justice and law enforcement issues.
Tom Winter is a New York-based correspondent covering crime, courts, terrorism, and financial fraud on the East Coast for the NBC News Investigative Unit.
Pete Williams
Pete Williams is an NBC News correspondent who covers the Justice Department and the Supreme Court, based in Washington.
David K. Li contributed.
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OHCHR > English > Countries > Middle East and North Africa Region > Occupied Palestinian Territory Homepage
OHCHR in Occupied Palestinian Territory
(over 3 years old)
OHCHR Report 2017
OHCHR Management Plan 2018-2021
Human Rights in Action (PDF)
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OHCHR monitoring and protection in the village of Khirbet Tana, southeast of Nablus, May 2016. © OHCHR
OHCHR: Gaza Death Sentences Illegal
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Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan - Report of the Secretary-General (A/71/355)
Call for Submissions under Human Rights Council Resolution 31/36
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Country visits
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Reports of Special Procedures mandate holders
Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, on her mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territory/State of Palestine (A/HRC/35/30/Add.2)
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (A/71/554)
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See more reports...
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Reports of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices
Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories (A/71/352)
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territory (OHCHR oPt) is a field presence of the Office of United Nations the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). OHCHR oPt is the only internationally-mandated entity to monitor and report publicly on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), and is the official United Nations voice on human rights in the oPt. The Office is based in Ramallah and has a sub-office in Gaza, and field offices in East Jerusalem and Hebron.
The Head of the OHCHR Office in Ramallah, Mr. James Heenan, meeting with Ambassador Hans-Jakob Fryedenlund, Representative Office of Norway, and Ambassador Ammar al-Hijazi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs to mark the next phase of the project on human rights treaty implementation
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Zeid disturbed and concerned by current human rights situation in OPT
Israeli forces’ shooting of double amputee ‘shocking’ – Zeid
Punitive demolitions destroy more than homes in occupied Palestinian territory
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World Press Freedom Day celebrated in Palestine by OHCHR and NET-MED Youth
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News sponsored by
Greenpeace activists 'reboard' after nine BP North Sea oil rig protest arrests
NINE people have been arrested in connection with the occupation of an oil rig which - but Greenpeace say their protest has not been brought to an end.
Two Greenpeace activists who were occupying the rig have been removed from the structure in the Cromarty Firth and arrested, police have confirmed.
But now Greenpeace has claimed two more activists have now boarded the rig.
Police said nine people in total had been arrested in connection with the demonstration.
But Greenpeace UK's executive director John Sauven has said: "Our climbers are back on the oil rig and determined to stay for as long as possible.
"BP are heading out to drill a new well giving them access to 30 million barrels of oil - something we can't afford in the middle of a climate emergency.
"We can't give up and let oil giants carry on with business as usual because that means giving up on a habitable planet and our kids' future."
The last two men to be removed from the rig were aged 40 and 50. They were taken ashore by boat.
Officers boarded the rig in the Cromarty Firth at around 2pm on Thursday and arrested two men, aged 40 and 50, ending a five-day protest.
Greenpeace activists first scaled the 27,000-tonne Transocean rig Paul B Loyd Junior, - thought to be operated by BP - as it attempted to leave Cromarty Firth on Sunday evening.
The rig, under contract to BP, had been due to leave from near Invergordon, heading for the Vorlich oil field east of Aberdeen.
The protesters were calling on BP to stop drilling for oil and hoped to stop the drilling rig from reaching the Vorlich oil field.
It is said to be a continuation of protests over BP's oil exploration and production plans which comes three weeks after demonstrations when oil company executives met to hold their annual general meeting in Aberdeen.
Chief Superintendent George Macdonald, Highlands and Islands divisional commander, said: "The particular nature of this protest on an oil platform within a marine environment made this an extremely complex and challenging operation.
"The safety of all involved was of paramount importance and we have utilised highly trained specialist officers from across the entirety of Police Scotland to deal with this incident.
"Police Scotland fully understand the rights and privileges of peaceful protests, however, there is a balance when such actions are potentially reckless and compromise safety.
"We also have a duty to act where criminality is suspected or identified."
Greenpeace said they were trying to stop the drilling rig reaching the Vorlich oil field where it is believed to be trying to extract up to 30 million barrels of oil.
The group said that on Thursday a police helicopter was seen landing on the rig's helideck, dropping off a group of police officers in climbing gear.
Transocean had served an interdict on Greenpeace in an attempt to have protesters still occupying the rig removed.
Greenpeace earlier said it understood there were plans to lower the rig down into the sea to give police easier access from a boat to where the protesters were camped.
Greenpeace said that two police boats then approached the rig while police climbers approached the activists from above and removed a banner reading "climate emergency" from the gantry.
The activists were occupying a gantry on a leg of the 27,000-tonne rig below the main deck.
The pair who first boarded the rig on Sunday were relieved by two more activists on Monday evening.
Greenpeace UK's executive director John Sauven said: "Our activists have blocked BP's rig for four long days, braving the rain and the cold, to stop this oil giant from fuelling the climate emergency.
"They've now been arrested but there are many more ready to take action."
He added: "Business as usual is not an option - we won't give up until BP ditches fossil fuels and switches to renewables."
Police said the two men who were arrested were taken to shore by boat, bringing the total number of people arrested in connection with the operation to nine.
The force said that inquiries are ongoing.
The Transocean PBLJ rig was under contract to BP.
A BP spokesman said: "BP is grateful for the support of Police Scotland, Transocean and all authorities who helped bring this incident to a safe conclusion. It was a complex operation that required specialist skills and resources to be mobilised from across the country and was carried out in a professional and respectful manner.
How Greenpeace announced the occupation
"Police Scotland, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the Port of Cromarty Firth worked together, dedicating time and resources in response to the protestors' actions. This response diverted significant time and resources away from public services, including Police Scotland.
"BP supports discussion, debate and peaceful demonstration, but the irresponsible actions of Greenpeace put themselves and others unnecessarily at risk.
"We share the protesters' concerns about climate change, we support the Paris agreement and are committed to playing our part to advance the energy transition.
"However, progress to a lower carbon future will depend on coming together, understanding each other's perspectives and working to find solutions, not dangerous PR stunts that exacerbate divisions and create risks to both life and property."
Since BP’s 2018 carbon emissions rose to their highest in six years, the London-based energy firm has been lobbied by activists and an increasing number of shareholders to ensure its operations are in line with goals set by the 2015 Paris climate deal to curb global warming.
It comes after it emerged in April that BP had approved the latest in a series of North Sea developments while seeing profits fall eight per cent in the first quarter amid oil price volatility.
These include plans to develop the Seagull field in the North Sea, which Mr Gilvary described as an advantaged oil project.
Last year BP approved plans to develop the Vorlich find east of Aberdeen and the Alligin field West of Shetland.
BP plans to double its North Sea production to 200,000 barrels of oil per day by 2020, and add 900,000 of globally by 2021.
But the company has cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2.5 million tonnes since the start of 2016, putting it on its way to hit a target of 3.5m tonnes by 2025.
The approvals reflect a big change in the company’s attitude to the North Sea since selling off a raft of older North Sea assets and shed hundreds of jobs in the area in response to the crude price plunge between 2014 and 2016.
At its annual meeting in Aberdeen, last month, BP backed a resolution put to investors for it to be more transparent about its emissions, link executive pay to reducing emissions from BP’s operations and show how future investments meet Paris goals.
The motion, whose proposers included a group of 58 investors holding 10 percent of its shares, known as Climate Action 100+, passed with 99% shareholders support.
A separate resolution drawn up by activist group Follow This that would require BP to reduce emissions not just from its own activities but also from the fuel and products it sells to customers, is understood to have been opposed by the company and was rejected by 92% of shareholders.
Activists had earlier interrupted the meeting shouting "this is a crime scene" in a protest over ending new oil and gas exploration some carrying yellow mock police cordon tape. They were led away by security staff.
Source: The Herald
Boost for Scots oil and gas firm in Nigeria
Wood rated top oil services sector pick by City expert after diversification drive
Cuadrilla to restart fracking at British site in third quarter
Applications open for new North Sea oil and gas exploration
Total sells pool of North Sea oil assets for $635m
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Dr Dre’s alleged assault on female journalist removed from original NWA film screenplay
Luke Morgan Britton Aug 20, 2015 10:09 am BST
'Straight Outta Compton' film was previously criticised for 'revising history'
Reports claim that Dr Dre‘s alleged past history of violence towards women was originally documented in the initial screenplay for new NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton.
Straight Outta Compton, named after the hip-hop group’s classic album of the same name, follows the rise of the outfit, touching upon their brushes with the local police and ultimate success in the music industry.
The film was recently criticised for “revising history” and “ignoring” incidents in Dre’s past. Journalist Denise ‘Dee’ Barnes and Dre’s one-time girlfriend Michel’le have long accused the rapper/producer of physical abuse, with these claims reemerging in the spotlight recently due to the new film’s release.
Now, the Los Angeles Times reports that an early draft of the screenplay included the incident with Dee Barnes, which is said to have taken place at an album launch event.
The LA Times article reads that Dre is described as “flinging her around like a rag-doll, while she screams, cries, begs for him to stop.”
Previously, the film’s director F Gary Gray explained of possible omissions from the film: “There are so many things that you can add or subtract. Cube always said, ‘You can make five different NWA movies.’ We made the one we wanted to make.”
Dr Dre recently addressed the claims of violence towards women. “I made some fucking horrible mistakes in my life,” said Dre.
“I was young, fucking stupid. I would say all the allegations aren’t true – some of them are. Those are some of the things that I would like to take back. It was really fucked up. But I paid for those mistakes, and there’s no way in hell that I will ever make another mistake like that again.”
Taika Waititi is returning to direct ‘Thor 4’
Wiley's new album will be out later in the year. Credit: Gus Stewart/Redferns
Wiley admits ‘Godfather 3’ is not coming out in September – even though he just tweeted that it was
R. Kelly has been denied bond. Credit: E. Jason Wambsgans-Pool/Getty Images
R. Kelly denied release on bond following arrest on 13 federal sex trafficking charges
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Gene Riley Sorrells
October 17, 1939 ~ December 4, 2018 (age 79)
Gene Riley Sorrells was born October 17, 1939 in Goose Creek, TX. He peacefully passed from this life to his heavenly home on December 4, 2018. He is survived by his wife, Sharon Sorrells, two daughters, Nilah and Eddie Gann from Rock Hill, SC and Carol Berry in Jacksonville, AR. There are five grandchildren: Rhona and her husband, Rene Rubio from Miami, Florida Riley Gann of Bentonville, AR Madison Berry of Little Rock, AR Jace Sorrells of Little Rock, AR Emily Sorrells of Little Rock, AR, and had five precious great-grandchildren!
He spent over Five Decades in ministry! In 1957 he left his home in Odessa, TX and went to Tulsa, OK to attend the Apostolic School sponsored by Elder C.P. Williams. You see, he had wanted to pursue a singing career and the Lord spoke to his heart, thus he ended up in Tulsa. Having been raised in church, yet he’d never received the Holy Ghost, it was a joyous occasion when he received the Holy Ghost on Friday, April 13, 1957. While in Tulsa he met and fell in love with, Carolyn Jean Looper from Jacksonville, AR and they married on April 10, 1958. Eleven months later in March of 1959, Nilah was born. At this time they lived in Odessa, TX, where he worked for 1st National Bank and had left his home church to help start a new church across town, working with Bro. Howard Smelser. He taught bible studies, cleaned toilets, went door knocking, led worship, cleaned toilets, mowed the grass, did hospital visitation, cleaned toilets…….and just about whatever Bro. Smelser thought this 19 yr old young man could do. Today that is a thriving church pastored by the founding pastors son, Dan Smelser.
In October of 1962, Carol was born and shortly thereafter the family moved to North Little Rock, AR. His wife, Carolyn, had been raised under the ministry of Bro. A.O. Holmes and they came here to assume the responsibility of the North Little Rock Children’s Home, established by Bishop A.O. Holmes. Shortly after arrival motel property was purchased and the Sorrells family, along with 30+ children moved to live at the Lakeview Children’s Home. It was during this time with Bishop Holmes that Bro. Sorrells actually started preaching. Ministry began in 1959 - 1960 but his preaching began here in North Little Rock. After a couple years with the Children’s Home, he felt drawn to evangelize. Our little family of four hit the evangelistic field in a new 1965 Chevy Impala, headed for Texas! While in Amarillo, TX with Laurence Blackstock, he received a call about Salina, KS and he said he went home and told his wife, “we are headed to Kansas”! They were in Salina for 5 years. The church grew under his leadership and he was the Kansas District Youth Secretary, then Youth President and was instrumental in establishing 5 new churches.
In 1970 they moved to Tulsa, OK. Here, he was The Apostolic School Principal and Assistant Pastor to John Williams. In September 1971 he experienced a tragic loss. His soul mate and the mother of his two little girls, slipped from this life with a precious baby girl. At this point the girls moved to Durant, OK to live with grandparents and Bro. Sorrells moved to Mena, AR to help a friend, Dwayne Hamilton build a new church building. Now folks it was ridiculous at the number of young ladies that started buying gifts for Nilah and Carol in their pursuit of this handsome 32 year old father. Nonetheless, there was a pretty little piano player from the First Apostolic Church in Tulsa, OK, named Sharon Still. She had called off her wedding to a guy in Texas just days before his wife’s death due to complications in childbirth. Little did she know, God had other plans for her! Just 9 months later, in May of 1972, she became a preacher’s wife and Mom to the girls. She brought a lot of laughter into the home. They lived in Mena, AR; Durant, OK and Oden, AR before moving to Ft. Smith to attend Northside Pentecostal Church with Rev. James Lumpkin.
September 1975 a BOUNCING BABY BOY arrived!!!! Joel Benjamin was the joy of life! Carol and Nilah were 12 and 16 so he never lacked attention with these doting sisters.
Although there had already been many transitions…he was becoming what he needed to be, to be able to handle God’s ultimate task in his life. January 1976 he was elected as Pastor in Gravel Ridge, AR!!! The church note was burned at the end of his first year, adjoining property was acquired, four years later was the ground-breaking for this current building. There’s been many great revivals and souls filled with the Holy Ghost. He’s pastored here for almost 42+ years. This is an abbreviated biography of the life of a man who’s literally given his life for the work of the Lord without a thought of what comes in return. He’s lived selflessly for the benefit of the work of the Lord.
At one time we compiled a list of 52 evangelists that have been here over the years. His love for helping others in ministry caused him to sponsor ‘The Revival Convention’ for 18 years. His investment in all those men that have ministered here, and been ministered to, are another extension of his ministry. Pastor G.R. Sorrells was a friend to the evangelists!
This great man was at times misunderstood, acquainted with much grief and sorrow, yet held his head high, allowing the Lord to fight his battles. He had many talents and gifts and wore many hats....husband, Dad, brother, uncle, hunting buddy, Top Chef, counselor, Pastor, Papa to Rhona, Rene, Nelson, Emma & Audrey, Riley, Madison, Caden & Gabe, Jace and Emily Kate and all the other kids that have grown up around here calling him Papa.
He will be missed greatly!!
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Modern Creative
Candi Staton (vocals); Xavier Barnett, Susan Furlonger (backing vocals); Mark Vandergucht (guitar); Mick Talbot (keyboards); Ernie McKone (bass); Crispin Taylor (drums).
Fri 14 July 2006 00:30 - 01:45 Maas
The general public knows Candi Staton as the disco-diva who, in the seventies, scored smash hits like Young Hearts Run Free and Victim. However, Staton primarily is a soul singer, who - as customary in the fifties and sixties – started her career in the traditional American gospel circuit. So it was obvious that Staton returned to gospel in the eighties, when her record company wasn’t interested in her soul career anymore. Over the last decades she’s been singing a lot in churches and she released mainly gospel albums. Stimulated by the successful re-releases of her earlier soul albums, the umpteenth re-release of her 1992 pop hit You Got the Love, and the recently released album His Hands, Candi Staton is working on a serious comeback as a soul singer. During her concert in a loaded Amsterdam Paradiso a couple of months ago, Staton emphasized the fact that she still is one of the most energetic live acts around. Thanks to her rich, warm and sometimes raw voice, she had the public in no time adoringly at her feet.
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This free course tackles head-on the hypothesis proposed in this block linking reductionism with unsustainable practices. Reading 3.1 looks at the philosophical roots of reductionism and provides an example of the 'tragedy of the commons' – a familiar outcome of this way of thinking.
Reading 3.2 opens the debate with regard to what all of us are concerned with: how do we characterise and measure the quality of our lives? While most of modern society has been obsessed with the reducti
In this unit we examine one factor that very often seems to be found skulking around close to problems and solutions: temperature.
Almost whatever we do, wherever we are, temperature changes. Stay in the same spot and you'll find daytime and night-time temperatures can be markedly different. You may even find significant changes in temperature during the day. When moving you can encounter more rapid variations. For example, an aircraft might leave a tropical runway where the air tempera
3.2.2 Group size
Another significant feature of a work group is its size. To be effective it should be neither too large nor too small. As membership increases there is a trade-off between increased collective expertise and decreased involvement and satisfaction of individual members. A very small group may not have the range of skills it requires to function well. The optimum size depends partly on the group's purpose. A group for information sharing or decision making may need to be larger than one for prob
2.3 Types of teams
Different organisations or organisational settings lead to different types of team. The type of team affects how that team is managed, what the communication needs of the team are and, where appropriate, what aspects of the project the project manager needs to emphasise. A work group or team may be permanent, forming part of the organisation's structure, such as a top management team, or temporary, such as a task force assembled to see through a particular project. Members may work as a group
Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce materia
4.3.3 Termination and transfer
There are basically three ways in which chains terminate.
The first is known as coupling and occurs when two free radicals join together. This can be represented by the general equation
Such a mechanism significantly increases molecular
3.2.1 Thermal cracking
The bulk of the major monomer and intermediate, ethylene (C2H4), is still produced in the UK by steam cracking without the use of catalysts. Paraffinic feedstocks are best for optimising ethylene yields, and the severity of cracking is specified by the rate of disappearance of a marker compound, usually n-pentane. The severity of the reaction can then be defined as follows:
3.1 Primary sources of synthetic polymers
The most important primary sources of synthetic polymers are crude oil, natural gas and, to a minor extent, coal. Because all are primarily fuels rather than sources of materials, the manufacture of polymers is susceptible to changes in price or supply. However, this is also true of other materials, since fuel costs are an important component of metal, ceramic and glass manufacture where very high reaction temperatures are needed for reduction of ore to metal and/or smelting. Where polymer ma
2.3.1 Structural isomerism
In the saturated hydrocarbons, whose structural formulae are shown in Figure 16, it is not possible to form distinct isomers with just three or less carbon atoms linked together. There is only one way in which one carbon and four hydrogen atoms can be linked together, the single compound being methane, CH4. A simila
1.3.2 Human/product interaction
The balance of properties needed in a particular product varies enormously, depending on the exact duty that product will perform in service, the environment in which it will operate, and the way it will interact with the user or consumer. The last factor has assumed much greater influence in product design as competition between different manufacturers sharpens the perception of quality in users’ eyes. The study of human-product interactions is variously known as human factors or
2.4 Models as part of systems work
Thinking systemically involves identifying systems relevant to some situation, and models are invariably used as part of this process. An example of this forms part of Checklands' Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) (Checkland, 1981). One aspect of this methodology concerns the formulation of a root definition of some system that is relevant to the situation of interest and the construction of a conceptual model of this system. The root definition is a concise, verbal description of what a
4.1 Beginnings
Systems engineering has its roots in three linked strands of thinking: the concepts of systems science, engineering and public policy problem resolution. The first of these can be traced back to the work of von Bertalanffy (1968, pp. 8–15, 96–98) and others during the 1920s and 1930s but received a significant impetus when, in 1954, the Society for General Systems Theory was established at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The society later cha
Stage 2: The situation analysed
The first step is to develop a picture (called in soft systems terminology a rich picture) that encapsulates all the elements that people think are involved in the problem. Once the rich picture has been drawn, the analyst will attempt to extract ‘issues’ and key tasks.
Issues are areas of contention within the problem situation. Key tasks are the essential jobs that must be undertaken within the problem situation.
3.3 System concepts: holism
One of the distinguishing features of the systems approach is its attempt to be holistic – to include all the elements in the picture at each level at which the system operates. The premature exclusion of important elements can be dangerous and can lead to, for example:
a purchasing manager being so keen to drive down raw material and component costs that he or she causes quality and production problems in construction of the system
1.8 Increasing complication, complexity and risk: are systems becoming more complex?
Figure 17 shows the evolution of two commonly encountered applications of systems – for personal transport and for the reproduction of recorded music. In both cases the degree of complexity of the systems application has increased over time. One of the main reasons for this is technology
1.3 Example 1 The Workcenter that didn't
Autodesk Inc. is the world's largest supplier of design and engineering software. It currently markets over thirty products but is most famous for its AutoCAD® two- and three-dimensional design and drafting software. The company is the market leader in this type of application, with over 4 million customers worldwide.
The Autodesk story began in 1982 with a group of programmers, centred on San Francisco, writing code for design software in their spare time. The group demonstrated a cob
Course image: Author(s): The Open University
4.3 Optical networking
DWDM improves the utilisation of optical fibre for point-to-point links, but a further step in exploiting the potential of optical fibre comes from optical networking in which routeing or switching is done optically.
Optical networking is in its infancy, but the concept of the optical layer based upon wavelength channels is emerging. The optical layer effectively sits below the SDH layer in the network, and provides wavelength channels from one location to another.
An analogy can
2.4.3 Polarization mode distortion
Because light is an electromagnetic wave, it has a ‘state of polarization’, which, for light in single-mode fibre, is at right angles to the path of the fibre. If you've not encountered electromagnetic waves before, all you need to appreciate is that as light travels down the fibre the electromagnetic field has an orientation across the fibre (Author(s): The Open University
2.4.2 Dispersion in single-mode fibre
Because there is only one mode in single-mode fibre, there is no multimode distortion but pulses are spread by dispersion.
Dispersion is the effect of different frequencies propagating at different speeds, and there are various mechanisms in optical fibre which mean that in general a fibre is dispersive. Given that dispersion takes place, a transmitted pulse will be spread because different frequency components in the pulse will take different lengths of time to propagate
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6.3 Devices for automatic control
Are you a technophobe? Bluetooth, Ethernet WiFi – are they terms that mean nothing to you? This unit will gently guide you to an understanding of how devices 'talk' to each other and what technologies and processes are involved. You will also look at wired and wireless communication technologies, introducing you to some of the key methods involved.
21M.380 Music and Technology: Algorithmic and Generative Music (MIT)
Includes audio/video content: AV special element audio. This course examines the history, techniques, and aesthetics of mechanical and computer-aided approaches to algorithmic music composition and generative music systems. Through creative hands-on projects, readings, listening assignments, and lectures, students will explore a variety of historical and contemporary approaches. Diverse tools and systems will be employed, including applications in Python, MIDI, Csound, SuperCollider, and Pure Da
Author(s): Ariza, Christopher
Single Digit Division - by StudyJams
Division breaks the amount of something into smaller, equal pieces. Learn more about basic division with this cartoon animation from StudyJams. A short, self-checking quiz and song are also included with this link.
Christian The Lion - The Entire Story
This video tells the story of Christian the Lion, a lion cub purchased by two men in London in 1969. The men raised the lion as a pet , released him in Africa, and later reunited with him. The video shows actual film footage along with words on the screen that tell the story. Teachers could use this video to enrich students' enjoyment of Christian the Lion books. ( 3:04)
An Anthropological introduction to YouTube
This video is a presentation by Dr. Michael Wesch at the Library of Congress, June 23rd 2008. It discusses YouTube and most of the Web 2.0 tools. This video is a lecture with english captions.(55:33)
The State of the Internet [infographic video]
Discusses how the Internet has grown and changed.
5.1 Number tricks
In the last section, you worked out some formulas that could be used in a spreadsheet. Section 5 gives you some more practice in deriving formulas both by looking at some number tricks and rearranging some existing formulas.
Activity 13: Think of a number
Guillemot Birds Take Their First Swim!
This movie shows how Guillemot chicks plunge from their 300-foot high cliffside nests to the cold ocean below for their first ever swim lesson! (01:57)
A video that explains Washington's importance in holding the country and the army together. This two minute video also explains Washington's decision not to be a "king."
Sudan's Lost Boys cast votes in U.S.
A group of Sudanese "Lost Boys", displaced by civil war and living in the U.S., travel from Philadelphia to Alexandria, Virginia to cast their votes on whether Sudan should secede from the north.
Nani Mine, Nani Nani (Greek) Lullaby
A Greek lullaby from the Lullabies of Europe education project. The lullabies collection consists of 35 lullabies in 7 European languages. Words are highlighted at the bottom of the screen. (00:40)
1.5.7 Referencing
We mentioned above that we need to reference sources to ensure we abide by copyright legislation. But there is another reason we need to give accurate references to items we use - so we can share it.
Consider this scenario. A friend says they’ve just read an interesting article where Joshua Schachter, founder of Delicious has spoken about why it isn’t a faceted search system, and you should read it. How would you go about finding it? Would you start looking in a news database, a sea
A Short Military History of the USA
Done with photos and music. This four minute video is more a salute to editing video. Nothing of value except as an example of what students can do when making videos.
380 GG Participles and Gerunds
Prove you know your parts of speech with the new iPad game Grammar Pop. You don't have to know the difference between participles and gerunds to play, but if you're up to the challenge, it's there waiting for you! Look for Grammar Pop in the App Store.
New Orleans is famous for the Mardi Gras celebration held there. Learn how this colorful festival got started. Mardi Gras literally means fat Tuesday. This festival is known for parades, purple, green, and gold.There is historical background for Mardi Gras as well. (02:54)
4.3 Pie charts, bar charts, histograms and line graphs
These are all different ways of representing data and you are likely to be familiar with some, if not all of them. They usually provide a quick summary that gives you a visual image of the data being presented. Below, we have given a brief definition and some ideas of how each can be used, along with a corresponding activity. We suggest that you look out for similar examples in everyday life, and question the information that you see.
Breakingviews: RBS board should fight to keep Hester
Oct. 19 - RBS' Stephen Hester has done a good job, boards should promote a culture of retaining successful CEOs, says Reuters Breakingviews.
Italians in the world - part 5
In this episode Italians fear for their life because of the Nazis. Joe DiMaggio joins the army and goes to war. When they decide to fight they are fighting against relatives or people they know. When the war ends many decide to go to American or to Australia. Australia offered the possibility to stay there and to make a new life in the country. Video is of average quality. Video is in black and white and has sub
How to teach foreign languages using computers
POOLS-M has prepared videos showing five communicative language learning methods: The videos have subtitles in English, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Spanish, and Turkish
The five methods are:Computer assisted language learning in a contextTask based learningSimulationsPhyEmoCeTandem learning. The videos are all listed on this page and viewers need to watch each of them to see the program in action. Don't overlook these videos if you have the technology and are teaching ESL stude
How to Learn English by Reading
In this professionally-made video, Liam Lusk provides strategies for ESL students to use to strengthen their English skills through reading. Suggested books are shown at the bottom of the screen. (4:34)
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TU: Cuomo Signals Support For Single-Payer Health Care
NYAPRS Note: The following piece demonstrates growing Democratic support for Assemblyman Dick Gottfriend’s Single Payer bill, which is especially notable in the face of possible threatening legislation from Washington.
Mr. Gottfried told Politico: “Other state-run attempts at single-payer have flamed out. Vermont could not figure out how to pay for it. Colorado's efforts, which followed a ballot referendum, failed as well. California is the latest state that couldn't figure out how it would pay for its program. Gottfried said New York would be different.
"The savings a universal plan would produce are the only way New York can fill the funding gaps Washington may create," he said. "Unlike Vermont, California and Colorado, we have a financing plan that works, we have a more fully spelled-out plan, and we're not trying to pass it by a referendum subject to a multimillion-dollar insurance industry advertising blitz."
Cuomo Signals Support For Single-Payer Health Care
'I think that would be a good idea,' Cuomo says as he warns of next wave of GOP reformBy Matthew Hamilton Albany Times Union September 19, 2017
ALBANY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo signaled support of single-payer health care at both the federal and state levels on Monday as Democrats nationwide rally around the issue.
"I think that would be a good idea," Cuomo said on WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show" when asked about a federal "Medicare for All" system.
But single-payer may face a roadblock from Republicans who are weighing another effort to repeal the Obama-era Affordable Healthcare Act.
"I'm afraid (the Republicans) come back with health care reform," the governor added. "I think we're in the eye of the storm, where it's apparently quiet right now on health care. I think the back half of the storm is going to come around."
Single-payer — the concept that everyone chips in to cover "free" health care coverage when someone needs it — recently gained the support of U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and is a point on which Democrats seeking office next year are touting.
Yet while federal legislation is going nowhere in a Republican-controlled Congress, New York Democrats have pushed for a single-payer system on the state level. The Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats, has passed single-payer legislation repeatedly in recent years. The GOP-held state Senatehas not taken up the issue.
Cuomo seemed open to single-payer on the state level, assuming that federal health care funding funneled to the state is maintained. He has bemoaned a proposal that would force the state to pick up the county share of Medicaid costs, lest it risk losing federal funding of an equal amount.
"If they were to pass it and it was not incongruous with what the federal government would do to us, I think it's a very exciting possibility," Cuomo said. "But I think it's going to be a federal play. Our funding system basically relies on Medicaid from the feds. If they turn off that valve or slow that valve, there is no way we're going to be able to make that up in this state no matter what."
It's worth noting that the state would have to raise an estimated $91 billion in revenues to fund a state-level single-payer system, according to Assembly sponsor Dick Gottfried, D-New York. According to Gottfried's bill, any revenue proposal would need to account for ending of local payments for Medicaid….
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How the Gatton triple murder mystery confounds Australians over a century later
By Mara Bovsun
(l. to r.) Siblings Ellen Murphy, 27; Michael Murphy, 29; and Nora Murphy, 27, were murdered in Gatton, in Queensland, Australia, on Dec. 26, 1898. Their murders remain unsolved. (Queensland Police Museum)
On boxing day, Dec. 26, 1898, two of the Murphy sisters, Ellen, 18, and Norah, 27, and their brother, Michael, 29, headed off to a dance in Gatton, about 60 miles from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
They left around 8 p.m., riding in a sulky from their family's farm just a few miles from town.
"When the girls left," their mother, Mary, recalled later, "each had a laugh on her face."
Dances usually swirled on into the early hours of the following day. But when there was no sign of them by 7:30 the next morning, Mary started to worry.
She sent her son-in-law, William McNeil, who was married to her eldest daughter, Polly, to find them. McNeil set off on horseback, watching the roads for the sulky's tracks, which were distinctive because one wheel wobbled.
The tracks led him into a neighbor's pasture, and to a scene of horror. Ellen, Norah, Michael and the horse were all lying on the ground. He thought they were sleeping. Then he saw ants crawling on Norah's cheek.
Norah was stretched out on a rug under a tree. She had been strangled, and her skull smashed.
The corpses of Ellen and Michael were a few yards away, lying close together, back to back. Their skulls were also smashed.
William McNeil, who was married to Polly Murphy, discovered the murdered bodies of her siblings. (Queensland Government Archives)
Ellen and Norah had semen on their clothes and legs and had been raped.
The attackers even shot the horse.
Michael also had what looked like a bullet hole in his head, but the examiner who conducted the autopsy could not find a slug.
Gatton had a population of about 450 in 1898, and it would have seemed likely that whoever committed this crime would quickly be caught. A lay magistrate assured the victims' distraught mother that it would be solved by nightfall of the day the bodies were discovered.
But the investigation was bungled from the start. It took two days for reports of the horror to reach the police department in Brisbane, leaving the initial investigation in the hands of Gatton's small, inexperienced force.
The murder scene was not immediately closed off and, as they always do, crowds flocked to it to gawk. They contaminated the scene, making it impossible for trackers to find clues, such as the killer's footprints, in the ground around the bodies.
Autopsies were poorly conducted. There were so many inconsistencies in the reports that the bodies later had to be exhumed for another look. The second time, the examiner found the bullet in Michael's head that the first autopsy had missed.
A map detailing where the murders of Michael Murphy, Nora Murphy and Ellen Murphy took place in Gatton, Queensland, Australia on Dec. 26, 1898. (Queensland Police Museum)
Inspector Frederic Urquhart, head of the Criminal Investigation Bureau in Brisbane, traveled to Gatton to lead the hunt for the Murphys' killers.
"Circumstances point to premeditation," he wired to his superiors as soon as he arrived. "Details most atrocious. There is so far nothing to lay hold of."
Within a couple of days, a local newspaper — the "Toowoomba Chronicle" — reported that locals were referring to the case as the "Gatton Mystery," as if they had already given up hope that it would ever be solved.
Suspicion immediately fell upon the family, including McNeil, who had a rocky relationship with his in-laws. He had an alibi and was soon ruled out.
A woman in a nearby farmhouse said she heard screams of "father" around the time of the murders, sparking theories that the Murphy patriarch had killed his children to cover up incest. Others suggested that the town's priest was to blame, or that one or more of the victims' seven siblings were involved.
Another possibility was that one of Polly's former suitors was driven to rage after she rejected him.
Gossip also swirled around Michael and his relationships with the women in the town, wrote Stephanie Bennett in "The Gatton Murders." There were rumors that he had fathered more than one out-of-wedlock child, and a girl had died in childbirth. Relatives of the dead girl might have had the motive to kill him.
Group photo of the Murphy family of Gatton, Queensland, Australia. (Wikimedia Commons)
Norah also might have been the target of vengeance, Bennett wrote. Some years earlier, the girl had waged a psychological battle with a local schoolteacher. She harassed the woman at home and sent reputation-damaging letters about her to a Queensland newspaper. The schoolteacher eventually went mad, and her sister vowed revenge.
Detectives favored the theory that the murders were most likely the work of one or more of the seedy transients who moved through the area. They focused on two shady characters with substantial criminal records who had shown up in Gatton not long before the killings.
One of these transients was Richard Burgess, 39, a career criminal who had been released from prison a couple of weeks earlier. "I was born to be hanged," he once boasted. But his alibi checked out.
Another habitual troublemaker, Thomas Day, 20, had recently started working for a local butcher and slept in a shack near the murder scene. Day, who went by several aliases, has gone down in history as the most likely suspect in this case as well as another unsolved Australian murder. But police could not gather evidence enough to pin the crimes on him.
After several months, and more than 3,000 interviews, no charges were ever filed.
"We have failed because from the very outset we had no chance of success," was how Urquhart explained the case during an inquiry a year later.
But Australians have not given up. Retired detectives, historians, grandmothers and hobby sleuths have probed the case. Nearly 120 years later, they continue to propose theories about the who, how and whys of the Gatton mystery.
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Baseball|Baseball’s Oldest Old-Timer Opens a Window on the Past
Baseball’s Oldest Old-Timer Opens a Window on the Past
By ALAN SCHWARZ SEPT. 26, 2006
Correction Appended
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Sept. 20 — Silas Simmons was handed a photograph and asked if he recognized anyone in it. He fixed his eyes on the sepia stares and moved his curled fingers over the glass and frame, soaking in the faces for more than 20 silent seconds.
It was a picture of the 1913 Homestead Grays, a primordial Pittsburgh-area baseball team that played before the Negro leagues were even born. His mind, Simmons said, needed time to connect the faces to positions to names. He was entitled to the delay; next month, he will turn 111 years old.
Simmons, known as Si, was born on Oct. 14, 1895 — the same year as Babe Ruth and Rudolph Valentino, and before F. Scott Fitzgerald and Amelia Earhart. He played at the highest level of black baseball while a boy named Satchel Paige was still in grade school.
That Simmons is still living was unknown to baseball researchers until the fall of 2005, when a genealogist alerted a Negro leagues expert that Mr. Simmons was living in a St. Petersburg nursing home.
A member of the Center for Negro League Baseball Research confirmed a baseball historian’s dream: that Simmons was indeed a man who had pitched and played the outfield in the equivalent of the black major leagues on and off from about 1912 through at least 1929, and that he had played against such stars as Pop Lloyd, Judy Johnson and Biz Mackey.
Lloyd was like “the second Honus Wagner,” Simmons said. “Judy Johnson, they called him Pie Traynor.”
Simmons added: “It was a thrill to watch players like that. After a while they were in the big leagues, playing ball, which you thought would never come. But eventually it did come. And that was the greatest thing of my life when I saw these fellows come up and play big-league baseball.” Simmons is not the oldest-known living American — that title belongs to Lizzie Bolden of Memphis, who turned 116 in August. The oldest living person who played Major League Baseball is Rollie Stiles, 99, who pitched for the St. Louis Browns in the early 1930’s.
Silas Simmons identified himself as the second player from the right in the middle row in this 1913 photograph of the Homestead Grays. Credit Chip Litherland for The New York Times
Confined to a wheelchair but reasonably communicative, Simmons has no major health issues beyond his extraordinary age. He is an avid sports fan who watches many Tampa Bay Devil Rays games on the television in his room — “I like young players,” he said — and even attended a Devils Rays game at Tropicana Field this summer with his church group.
Friends of his at the Westminster Suncoast retirement community said Simmons rarely talked about his Negro leagues career. Dorothy Russell, 90, said: “When we played volleyball — with balloons — he said, ‘You know, I used to play baseball.’ But he didn’t make it sound so spectacular. And I didn’t know enough to ask him about it.”
Negro league researchers did. Wayne Stivers, who spearheaded the fact-finding committee that led to 17 people associated with the Negro leagues being inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame this summer, said: “We were aware there was a Si Simmons and that he played. But we didn’t know he was still alive. We figured, 110, no — this man is not alive. My reaction was, ‘We need to talk with him immediately.’ ”
Simmons’s first games were not in the Negro leagues as they are now remembered. The first established circuit, the Negro National League, started in 1920. Before that, local all-black teams would play against one another, against all-white teams or occasionally against groups of big leaguers barnstorming in the off-season.
Having grown up in a central Philadelphia row house on 17th and Bainbridge Streets, Simmons was a left-handed pitcher who was signed by the nearby Germantown Blue Ribbons, a well-regarded team. He said he started pitching for the Blue Ribbons at age 16 or 17, meaning 1912 or 1913. Box scores and articles from The Philadelphia Inquirer describe the 5-foot-10 Simmons as routinely striking out 10 or more batters while getting a hit or two a game.
Simmons had difficulty remembering all the teams he played on. While unable to explain in detail, he indicated that players, particularly pitchers, were often picked up by other teams for brief stretches, so he might have played select games for other teams as well. (Experts confirmed that this practice was commonplace.) Researchers have uncovered box scores and game recaps with his name from many years throughout the 1910’s and beyond.
Two box scores from 1926 show Simmons pitching in relief for the New York Lincoln Giants of the Eastern Colored League. He also played at least one game for the Negro National League’s Cuban Stars in 1929.
Silas Simmons, 110, started playing pro baseball in the early 1910's. Credit Chip Litherland for The New York Times
“I had a good curveball and a good fastball,” said Simmons, who added that he was paid about $10 a game. He said that in his prime he might have been good enough to play in the major leagues, but did not consider asking for a tryout. “It was useless to try,” he said.
“A lot of good black players, but they couldn’t play in the league,” he continued. “So that was it. After Jackie Robinson came up, they found out how good they were and started recruiting. You have to give them a chance to play.
“Negroes had a lot of pride. They felt like baseball, that was the greatest thing in the world for them. You had some great players in those days. Biz Mackey. Pop Lloyd. Judy Johnson. Scrappy Brown, the shortstop. We played against all those players.”
Simmons ended his baseball career soon after 1929. He had five children and settled into life as a porter and eventually as an assistant manager at Rosenbaum’s Department Store in Plainfield, N.J. He retired to St. Petersburg in 1971 and lived with his second wife, Rebecca, until she died seven years ago. Having outlived his children, he moved into Westminster soon afterward.
His discovery has caused a buzz in baseball’s large community of historians. Dr. Layton Revel, the founder of the Center for Negro League Baseball Research near Dallas, took particular interest and flew to St. Petersburg this summer to interview Simmons and confirm his birth date, career and stories. Revel was so excited that he plans to throw a party for Simmons on Oct. 14, with 30 to 40 former Negro leaguers — including the Hall of Famer Monte Irvin — gathering to celebrate his 111th birthday and hear about the even older days.
Most of those men played in the Negro leagues decades after Simmons, primarily in the 1940’s and 1950’s as the circuits were decimated by players jumping to major league clubs. Chances are that no face will look even vaguely familiar to Simmons.
But as Simmons held that old sepia photo of the 1913 Homestead Grays for those long 20 seconds, he gradually decided that one face did ring a bell. He fixed on it and pointed his weathered hand at the player sitting in the middle row, second from the right. He said nothing as he pointed.
Who is that? he was asked.
“That’s Si Simmons,” he said.
Really? Was he sure?
“That’s me,” he declared. “Oh, we had good times.”
An article on Sept. 26 about Silas Simmons, a former Negro leagues baseball player, misstated the circumstances of his rediscovery by the Center for Negro League Baseball Research. It was in the fall of 2005, not in 2006, that David Allen Lambert, a Boston genealogist, discovered that Mr. Simmons was living in a St. Petersburg, Fla., nursing home.
A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Baseball’s Oldest Old-Timer Opens a Window on the Past. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
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Why teachers are managing more student needs — and struggling to pay for their own
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-teachers-are-managing-more-student-needs-and-struggling-to-pay-for-their-own
New teacher strikes and walkouts are making headlines this year, but the issues they are raising are familiar. Educators are especially concerned about pay, school resources, growing responsibilities, testing policies and the role of charter schools. John Yang talks to two of the 2016 Teachers of the Year, Nate Bowling and Shawn Sheehan, about challenges and frustrations facing their profession.
The wave of teacher strikes and walkouts is building once again in 2019.
Just in the past few days, teachers in South Carolina have said they plan to walk out for a day next week. The largest teachers union in Mississippi is considering taking a sick-out day.
While the strikes started in red states, like West Virginia, they have now spread across the country to cities and blue states too. Many of the issues are the same: pay, spending, lack of support, testing, and, increasingly, the role of charter schools.
John Yang has a look for our regular education segment, Making the Grade.
John Yang:
Judy, every year, state education officials honor the best of the best in the National Teacher of the Year program.
Recently, an essay by one of the four finalists from three years ago caught our eye: "The fate of the 2016 Teachers of the Year."
Today, only two of the four finalists from that year are still in the classroom, and only one is still at the same school.
Nate Bowling wrote that essay. He is a government teacher at Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Washington. And his fellow 2106 finalist Shawn Sheehan is now on a fellowship on Capitol Hill. When that ends, he intends to return to teaching algebra at Lewisville, Texas.
Shawn and Nate, thank you very much. Thanks for joining us.
Nate, I want to begin with you.
And I want to quote something that you wrote in that essay. You said: "Teaching is a profession, and great teachers need to feel respected and empowered. If they don't, they will leave, and should."
Respected and empowered, tell — talk about that. Why are teachers not feeling respected and empowered?
Nate Bowling:
There's a host of reasons that contribute to the condition of the teaching profession.
For me, there's three issues. There's pay, there's work conditions, and there is lack of professional respect. And if you look across the country and look at the strikes that are happening and protests, there's upsetness around the country.
And particularly here on the West Coast with housing costs, simply for a lot of teachers, the pay hasn't kept up.
Nate, you also mentioned — you talked about pay, but you also mentioned work conditions and professional respect.
The conditions that teachers have to go through and we have to work through, I think, for the public are difficult to understand.
Particularly if you're working in a low-income school in urban area or rural area, the needs of your students are more than academic. So, as a teacher, I end up being sometimes a social worker, a counselor, a surrogate parent.
And all those jobs take a toll. Like, I love my students and I love the work that I do with them. But the workload we ask students to — we ask teachers to do in low-income schools is unsustainable.
Shawn, you were teaching in Oklahoma when you were a finalist. You're now teaching in Texas. Why?
Shawn Sheehan:
Well, it wasn't an accident.
During — after I was selected as teacher of the year, I really wanted to advocate for improving teacher pay and making the working conditions better. I actually ran for Oklahoma State Senate, unsuccessfully.
And after that new election cycle came around, and folks that had campaign on promises of funding public education better didn't make good on those promises, my wife and I decided to call it, and we made the move south.
By driving two-and-a-half hours south to North Texas, my wife and I gave ourselves combined about a $40,000 raise.
Nearly double your take-home pay, as I understand it. Is that right?
And you said — you wrote at the time, you said that teaching in Oklahoma is a dysfunctional relationship. What do you mean by that?
It is, because there's kind of that component of guilt. You're made to feel guilty, as if you said, well, listen, going into this job, you should know — should have known that it wasn't going to be lucrative.
And I said, sure, I knew that it wasn't going to be financially rewarding, but it's also not even financially stable. And so what — our perspective changed significantly when my wife and I welcomed our first daughter.
Now we have got to consider someone else's future. And now we have got to worry about putting more food on the plate. And that was the game-changer for us.
Nate, you wrote the two of the — I'm sorry — that you were the only teacher who is still in the same place. Jahana Hayes has also left teaching. She's now in Congress.
And you have got some news. You have made a decision within the past couple of weeks.
At the end of the school year, my wife and I will be stepping away from Lincoln High School, where I have been the last decade. I love my students at Lincoln High School. And I love that school and that faculty.
But we have chosen to move abroad. And we will actually be teaching at the American Community School in Abu Dhabi next year.
And I heard you talking about this explaining this decision.
You said one of the things you — that made this decision for you is that you will be able to focus on just teaching in Abu Dhabi. You mentioned all the other roles that you have to fill. How has that changed? How have those additional roles been added?
Too many students in America are going into school without their basic life needs met, and essentially school ends up filling that gap for them. School ends up being a place that feeds them, that clothes them.
I maintain a drawer in my classroom that has ties, so my students have like ties for job interviews. And so many of the hours that I spend at my school are about meeting my students' needs and, like, taking care of circumstances in their life that prevent their learning.
I don't actually get to focus on teaching. When I make this move, my job over there is going to be to teach. My students' life needs will be taken care of, and I'll just be able to teach.
Shawn, do you find the same thing, both in Norman and in Lewisville, I mean, things that get in the way of actually directly teaching the kids?
Absolutely, yes.
I would say most folks don't know how many things we educators have to juggle, right? We do have to be, as Nate said, parents and mentors and counselors and handle all these different aspects of the whole child.
And now even — you know, some folks are even asking us to consider security as part of our job duties, one of which I am — absolutely refuse to do.
So, it is. It's like continually being asked to do more with less. And at some point, teachers are calling it. And they have made their voices clear. We have seen that in the teacher strikes and walkouts.
I want to get to the strikes in a little bit.
But you when you moved to Texas, you talked about how it improved your pay, your take-home pay, for you and your wife, who's also a teacher. You got a reaction from a fellow teacher in Oklahoma, who said: "I'm just in this for the students. If you're not in it for the kids, don't let the door hit you on the way out."
How do you respond to that?
Those responses are few and far between.
It does feel — it's a dig. It's definitely a dig for folks who maybe don't experience the same financial constraints as we do. The fact that my wife and I are — both are educators living off of Oklahoma teacher salaries, that was pretty unique.
There are a lot of teachers who don't share that same struggle, who maybe their spouse is the primary breadwinner. And, for them, teaching can be a pastime, it can be a hobby. They are not quite as invested in the struggle that educators face.
But for a two-teacher couple trying to raise a family on those teacher salaries in Oklahoma in 2016, it's absolutely not doable.
Nate, Shawn talked about the teacher strikes, which we have seen a lot of last year and continuing into this year.
You have been out on the picket line, I think, twice in your career. What's that like for you?
It's a miserable experience to be on strike, because I got into this because I wanted to make a difference in students' lives.
But what I can say is that we see during strikes that the public rallies to support teachers. We had wide community support. Parents came out and honked horns, brought food to the picket lines and supported us.
What I see happening in my community is, whenever I make an ask of the community for materials for my classroom or for equipment for students, they're 100 percent behind it. Like, really, the problem to me seems to be state legislators. They're not allocating the funds to districts in order to fund schools at the level they need to be funded to provide wraparound services, to provide social workers , to provide after-school programs that are needed for students.
Shawn, in Oklahoma, you campaigned for an increase in the state sales tax to try to fund increase funding for schools. It lost.
Given that experience, how do you — what's your read of the public support for schools?
The public very much supports public schools. They just don't know how to support it. And, oftentimes, they get lost — the message gets lost in the shuffle.
Legislators in our state, in my home state of Oklahoma, are great at kind of twisting and bending the message. And so they get confused. And so that was the case that we saw with the penny sales tax. They said, well, listen, you know, it's going to discourage businesses from coming here and setting up shop.
And our counterpoint was, you know what also is discouraging businesses from coming and setting up shop is underperforming schools and teachers that are vacating the state at enormous rates.
Very quickly, Shawn, you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of teaching?
I'm actually very optimistic. I do feel good.
So I — this year, Oklahoma has taken some steps to provide raises for educators. Just — the governor just needs to sign off on a $1,200 raise. So that'll bring the average up almost by $8,000.
But the state of Texas is also boosting teacher pay raises. And so they're — the challenge to stay competitive in the region is going to be Oklahoma's biggest battle.
Nate, what about you, optimistic or pessimistic?
I'm optimistic about the profession and optimistic about the near future.
I think that parents and communities really support schools. It's really about policy-makers in state capitals who aren't doing their share.
Teachers Nate Bowling and Shawn Sheehan, thank you very much.
West Virginia House tables bill that prompted teacher strike
By John Raby, Associated Press
Teacher strikes stem from similar struggles across the nation
By Carolyn Thompson, Associated Press
What’s driving the latest wave of teacher strikes? Pension problems, some say
By Brian Eason, Associated Press
What’s different about this wave of teacher strikes
Where 2020 Democrats stand on student loans, teacher pay and other education issues
By Courtney Norris
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Dr. Dheeraj Sanghi joins as PEC's Director
Dr. Dheeraj Sanghi joined Punjab Engineering College (Deemed to be University), Chandigarh as Director today. With a blend of experience in administration, academics and research, Dr Sanghi has joined PEC on lien from IIT Kanpur. At IIT Kanpur, he is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and has been Dean of Academic Affairs at IITK from 2011-2014. Graduating from IIT Kanpur in 1986, he received his doctoral degree from University of Maryland College Park, USA.
He has been the Director of the LNM Institute of Information Technology, Jaipur and Dean of External Relations at IIIT-Delhi. Dr. Sanghi is passionate about technical education in the country and has written numerous articles and blogs on related issues. His research interests include computer networks and network security.
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[[missing key: search-facet.tree.open-section]] Education and scholarship (6)
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Æthelweard [Ethelwerd] (d. 998?), chronicler and magnate
Æthelweard [Ethelwerd] (d. 998?), chronicler and magnate, was ealdorman of south-western England. He styled himself 'Patricius Consul Fabius Quaestor', a latinization of 'Æthel-/ealdorman/Fabius/-weard'. He was the father of Æthelmær, grandfather of one Æthelweard and grandfather-in-law of another: all also ealdormen, and two of the same south-western ealdormanry as ...
Douglas, William, first marquess of Douglas (1589–1660), magnate and scholar
J. R. M. Sizer
Douglas, William, first marquess of Douglas (1589–1660), magnate and scholar, was the eldest son of William Douglas, tenth earl of Angus (c. 1554–1611), and his wife, Elizabeth (d. in or after 1611), daughter of Laurence Oliphant, fourth Lord Oliphant. From early childhood, the ...
Keith, George, fourth Earl Marischal (1549/50–1623), magnate and founder of Marischal College, Aberdeen
Keith, George, fourth Earl Marischal (1549/50–1623), magnate and founder of Marischal College, Aberdeen, was the eldest son of William, master of Marischal (c.1530–1580), and his wife, Elizabeth Hay (b. c.1530), daughter of George, seventh earl of Erroll. He was educated with his younger brother ...
Macfarlan, Walter, of Arrochar [of that ilk] (d. 1767), antiquary and chief of clan Macfarlan
A. F. Pollard
revised by Alexander Du Toit
Macfarlan, Walter, of Arrochar [of that ilk] (d. 1767), antiquary and chief of clan Macfarlan, was the second son of John Macfarlan of Arrochar (d. 1705), chief of clan Macfarlan, and Helen (d. 1741), daughter of Robert, second Viscount Arbuthnott. He was born, probably at ...
Parker, Henry, tenth Baron Morley (1480/81–1556), nobleman and translator
James P. Carley
Parker, Henry, tenth Baron Morley (1480/81–1556), nobleman and translator, was the son of Sir William Parker (d. c.1504) and Alice Lovel (1452–1518). His father, who was knighted by Richard III on 24 July 1482, was the latter's standard bearer at Bosworth Field...
Parker, Henry, tenth Baron Morley (1480/81–1556)
Maker: Albrecht Dürer
Henry Parker, tenth Baron Morley (1480/8181–1556) by Albrecht Dürer, 1523 © Copyright The British Museum
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Biographical Article (25)
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1-20 of 29 results for:
politicians in American or USA x
Bowdoin, James (1726–1790)
Maker: Robert Feke
Bowdoin, James (1726–1790), merchant and revolutionary politician in America
James Bowdoin (1726–1790) by Robert Feke, 1748 Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, Bequest of Mrs Sarah Bowdoin Dearborn
Eric v. d. Luft
Bowdoin, James (1726–1790), merchant and revolutionary politician in America, was born on 7 August 1726 in Boston, Massachusetts, the youngest child of James Bowdoin (1676–1747), a prosperous merchant and landowner, and his second wife, Hannah Portage (d. 1734). Known in his youth as ...
Brown, John (1736–1803), merchant and politician in the United States of America
Murney Gerlach
Brown, John (1736–1803), merchant and politician in the United States of America, was born on 27 January 1736 in Providence, Rhode Island, the third son of James Brown (1698–1739) merchant and shipowner, and Hope Power (1702–1792). John Brown was a member of a distinguished ...
Bryan, George (1731–1791), merchant and revolutionary politician in America
Benjamin H. Newcomb
Bryan, George (1731–1791), merchant and revolutionary politician in America, was born on 11 August 1731 in Dublin, the fourth of eight children, and eldest son, of Samuel Bryan, merchant, and his wife, Sarah Dennis. His parents were Irish Presbyterians. In 1752 his father thought him sufficiently schooled in trade and sent him to ...
Gadsden, Christopher (1724–1805), merchant and revolutionary politician
E. Stanly Godbold Jr.
Gadsden, Christopher (1724–1805), merchant and revolutionary politician, was born on 16 February 1724 in Charles Town, South Carolina, the fourth and only surviving son of Thomas Gadsden (1688–1741) and Elizabeth (1694–1727), daughter of Christopher Terrey, a man of Irish extraction. Thomas Gadsden served in the ...
Gorham, Nathaniel (1738–1796), merchant and revolutionary politician in America
Gorham, Nathaniel (1738–1796), merchant and revolutionary politician in America, was born in May 1738 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the eldest of five children of Nathaniel Gorham, packet boat operator, and his wife, Mary Soley (b. c.1714). After a six-year apprenticeship to Nathaniel Coffin...
Hancock, John (1737–1793)
Maker: John Singleton Copley
Hancock, John (1737–1793), merchant and revolutionary politician in America
John Hancock (1737–1793) by John Singleton Copley, 1765 Copyright 2004 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Deposited by the City of Boston
William Pencak
Hancock, John (1737–1793), merchant and revolutionary politician in America, was born on 12 January 1737 in Braintree, Massachusetts, the son of John Hancock (1702–1744), a Congregational minister, and Mary Thaxter Hawke, who later married Daniel Perkin, and who outlived her son. Upon the death of his father his mother sent him to live in ...
Hancock, Thomas (1703–1764), merchant and politician in America
Hancock, Thomas (1703–1764), merchant and politician in America, was born on 17 July 1703 in Cambridge Farms, Massachusetts, the son of John Hancock (1671–1752), the local pastor, and Elizabeth Clark (c.1681–1760). Having been apprenticed to Boston bookseller Samuel Gerrish between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, ...
Harnett, Cornelius (1723–1781), merchant and revolutionary politician in America
Alan D. Watson
Harnett, Cornelius (1723–1781), merchant and revolutionary politician in America, was born on 20 April 1723 in Chowan county, North Carolina, the son of Cornelius (d. 1742), colonial official, planter, and tavern-keeper, and Elizabeth Harnett. With his family Harnett moved in 1726 to ...
Hewes, George Robert Twelves (1742–1840), cordwainer and revolutionary activist in America
Alfred F. Young
Hewes, George Robert Twelves (1742–1840), cordwainer and revolutionary activist in America, was born on 25 August 1742 at the sign of the Bull's Head and Horns, Water Street, Boston, Massachusetts, the sixth of nine children of George Hewes (1701–1749), tallow chandler and erstwhile tanner, and his wife, ...
Huntington, Jabez (1719–1786), merchant and revolutionary politician in America
Harold E. Selesky
Huntington, Jabez (1719–1786), merchant and revolutionary politician in America, was born on 7 August 1719 at Norwich, Connecticut, the eldest son of Joshua Huntington, merchant, and his wife, Hannah Perkins. The large Huntington family was prominent in eastern Connecticut, and especially important in the settling and growth of ...
Langdon, John (1741–1819), merchant and politician in the United States of America
Paul David Nelson
Langdon, John (1741–1819), merchant and politician in the United States of America, was born on 26 June 1741 near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, one of six children of John Langdon, farmer, and Mary Hall of Exeter. He was educated in the classics at Samuel Hale's Latin Grammar School...
Laurens, Henry (1724–1792)
Laurens, Henry (1724–1792), revolutionary politician in America and merchant
Henry Laurens (1724–1792) by John Singleton Copley, 1782 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Laurens, Henry (1724–1792), revolutionary politician in America and merchant, was born on 6 March 1724 in Charles Town, South Carolina, the first son and third of the six children of Esther (Hester) Grasset (1700–1742) and John Samuel Laurens (1696–1747). Descended from French Huguenot refugees, the family had moved to ...
Livingston, Philip (1716–1778), merchant and politician in America
Cynthia A. Kierner
Livingston, Philip (1716–1778), merchant and politician in America, was born on 15 January 1716 in Albany, Albany county, New York, the fourth of nine children of Philip Livingston (1686–1749), merchant and proprietor of Livingston Manor, and his wife, Catrina, née Van Brugh (1689–1756)...
Nelson, William (1711–1772), merchant and politician in America
Emory G. Evans
Nelson, William (1711–1772), merchant and politician in America, was born in Yorktown, Virginia, the son of Thomas Nelson (1677–1745), a merchant, and Margaret Reade (d. 1719×23). He was sent to England for his education; it is not known which school he attended, but he spent some time in ...
Otis, James, senior (1702–1778)
Otis, James, senior (1702–1778), merchant and politician in America
James Otis senior (1702–1778) by John Singleton Copley, c. 1758 The Roland P. Murdock Collection, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas
Otis, James, senior (1702–1778), merchant and politician in America, was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, on 14 June 1702 to John Otis (1657–1727) and Mercy Bacon. The leading merchant of Barnstable county (Cape Cod), John Otis left his son a sizeable fortune, upon which he improved by practising law, beginning in 1730. About 1723 he married ...
Pemberton, Israel (1715–1779), merchant and politician in America
Carla Gerona
Pemberton, Israel (1715–1779), merchant and politician in America, was born on 19 May 1715 in Philadelphia, the first son of Israel Pemberton and his wife, Rachel, daughter of Charles Read of Burlington, New Jersey. The elder Israel was a leading Philadelphia merchant, Pennsylvania...
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Five Years Later … in Fukushima
SourceGetty / David Mareuil
Because the effects are still radiating around the globe.
By Fiona Zublin
The Daily Dose MAR 11 2016
They’re dealing with a wave of despair. People across Japan stopped for a moment of silence today at 2:46 p.m. local time — the exact moment five years ago when a magnitude-9 earthquake struck, followed by a devastating tsunami.
Each day, thousands of workers clad in Tyvek suits and protective masks and armed with radiation monitors are shuttled into the nuclear power plant that melted down. They are there to clean up basements filled with radioactive water and to remove contaminants. The operation is supposed to take a whopping 40 years, but Japan’s Olympics minister has said that he hopes Fukushima Prefecture will be ready to host preliminary matches for the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.
Teams are still searching for the remains of 2,562 people who went missing that day, and the impact of the meltdown continues to spread: Small amounts of radiation, scientists say, are washing up on American shores.
Fiona Zublin, Reporter Contact Fiona Zublin
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Vintage Side Chair by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe for Knoll, 1960s
Price per set
No shipping price available Insured Delivery from Italy to: Australia Austria Bahrain Belgium Canada Czech Republic Denmark France Germany Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Ireland Israel Italy Japan Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Qatar Singapore Slovakia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States
This chair has a structure in chromed steel tube and a seat and back in leather. It has a cantilever structure whose total height may vary depending on the weight of the person sitting.
Knoll Inc. / Knoll International
This piece has an attribution mark such as a manufacturer’s label, a certificate of authenticity, or a production mark, This piece has been attributed based on archival documentation, such as vintage catalogs, designer records, or other literature sources
Vintage, Bauhaus
Very Good — This vintage item has no defects, but it may show slight traces of use.
Light wear consistent with age and use
NUO-419408
Chrome Plating, Leather
Modern architect and furniture designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born in Aachen, Germany in 1886. He attended the Domschule in Aachen until 1900 and then spent two years at a local trade school, while also working on building sites for his father, a master stonemason. From 1903 to 1904, he worked as a draughtsman and designer for a local firm specializing in stucco decoration. He moved to Berlin in 1905 and became an apprentice to Art Nouveau architect and designer Bruno Paul. An independent commission to design his first house came from philosopher Alois Riehl, who sent Mies to Italy for three months for inspiration. The Riehl House was completed in 1907 in Potsdam, south of Berlin and brought Mies to the attention of designer and architect Peter Behrens, for whom he worked between 1908 and 1912. He established his own architectural and design office in 1912 in Berlin and built three houses in the city before the outbreak of World War I. From 1915 to 1918, he served in the German Army’s Engineer Corps.
During the 1920s, Mies was active in Berlin’s avant-garde circles, participating in organizations like the Novembergruppe and Zehner Ring and contributing to the magazine G. He began studying and designing skyscrapers, which, while not built, portended future designs. He also directed the Weißenhofsiedlung exhibition in Stuttgart, a model housing colony project for which he invited the era’s most accomplished European architects to participate—including Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier—and 20 permanent residential buildings were built around his own steel-framed apartments, revealing a series of individual interpretations of workers’ housing. This project introduced him to Lilly Reich and the pair collaborated frequently over the next decade. His other major project of this era was the German (or Barcelona) Pavilion, built for the German section of the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition, which helped establish him on an international stage. Using glass and marble interior walls that could be easily moved, he merged interior and exterior spaces, emphasizing a fluidity of space and incorporating specially designed furniture, including the iconic leather and chrome Barcelona chair. Shortly after, in 1932, his work was included in the first architectural exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, entitled Modern Architecture: An International Exhibition, which helped introduce his work to an American audience. From 1930 to 1933, he served as Director of the Bauhaus; under political pressure from the Nazis, he moved the school from Dessau to Steglitz, Berlin and ultimately closed the school in 1933.
In 1938, Mies moved to Chicago, re-established his architectural firm, and served as the Director of the Architecture Department of the Armour Institute for the next 20 years (it became the College of Architecture, Planning and Design at Illinois Institute of Technology in 1940). In the 1940s, he designed a new campus for the school, a project that further refined his steel-and-glass aesthetic. In 1944, he was naturalized as an American citizen and went on to design a number of notable buildings in the US, including, between 1945 and 1950, the famed Farnsworth House outside of Chicago. The radically minimalist home consists of an open-plan interior space with concrete roof and floor slabs, subdivided by partitions, and completely enclosed in glass. Mies also designed multiple high-rise buildings, such as Chicago’s 860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments (1951) and New York’s Seagram Building (1958), which embraced the notion that buildings should accommodate changing lifestyle requirements.
Mies van der Rohe was awarded, among other honors, the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects (1959) and the US Presidential Medal of Freedom (1963). He passed away in Chicago in 1969 and is buried in Graceland Cemetery.
Hans Knoll was born in 1914 in Stuttgart, Germany, into the successful manufacturing family behind Walter Knoll & Co. Early-20th-century Germany was an epicenter of modernist design theory—most notably expressed in the products and practices of the Deutscher Werkbund association of artists, architects, designers, and industrialists, as well as the influential Bauhaus school—which advocated for design rooted in the principles of rationality, functionalism, and mass production. This milieu had a profound influence on Hans and inspired him to produce furniture for the new age. In 1937, after a stint in London, he moved to the United States and brought his modernist vision with him.
Florence Knoll (neé Schust) was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1917 and from an early age exhibited a strong interest in architecture. After graduating from the Kingswood School for Girls in 1934, she moved across campus to the newly formed, Bauhaus-inspired Cranbrook Academy of Art to study architecture under recent émigré, Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen. There she befriended future design luminaries Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen. She went on to Columbia University’s School of Architecture to study town planning. In 1937, she apprenticed under former-Bauhaus professors Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a few years later, enrolled at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became a life-long mentor to her.
In 1938, Hans Knoll established The Hans G. Knoll Furniture Company as a furniture exporter in a small space on East 72nd Street in New York City. As the company quickly grew, it evolved into a manufacturing business. In 1941, he opened his first plant in a former dance hall in East Greenville, Pennsylvania and hired Danish designer Jens Risom, who eventually helped him develop the first, original Knoll furniture designs. That same year, Hans met Florence on an interior design project and, recognizing her exceptional taste and eye, hired her to bring in business with architects and interior designers and, later, to provide in-house planning and interior design expertise for a growing corporate clientele. In 1946, Hans and Florence married and renamed the company Knoll Associates. That same year, the Knolls formally established the Planning Unit, solidifying the company’s role in the design of interior spaces. In 1951, Knoll International was launched as the German and French arms of Knoll, producing Knoll designs for the European market. Sadly, Hans died in a tragic car crash in 1955, but Florence remained actively involved until she retired in 1965.
Knoll’s signature pieces include Breuer’s Wassily Chair (1925), Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Chair (1929/1948), Harry Bertoia’s Diamond Chair (1952), Eero Saarinen’s Tulip Armchair (1957), as well as Florence‘s own furniture collection developed through the 1950s. Knoll’s impressive catalogue includes a who’s-who list of midcentury modern and contemporary design figures, including Jens Risom, Alexander Girard, George Nakashima, Isamu Noguchi, Richard Schultz, Warren Platner, Charles Pollock, Andrew Morrison & Bruce Hannah, Vignelli Associates, Richard Sapper, Maya Lin, Frank Gehry, and Rem Koolhaas. As of this writing, Knoll’s most recent collaboration is with David Adjaye, who designed the Washington Collection for Knoll and the Adjaye Collection for KnollTextiles. Today, the company is particularly focused on meeting the evolving needs of the 21st-century workplace.
In 2011, Knoll received the National Design Award for Corporate and Institutional Achievement from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. The award recognized Knoll’s legacy in American modern design and the company’s commitment to promoting the relationship between good design and quality of life. Knoll designs can be found in the permanent design collections of institutions around the world, including more than 30 acquired by New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
* All images courtesy Knoll, Inc. The David Adjaye Skeleton Chair was photographed by Joshua McHugh.
Vintage Dining Chairs by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for Knoll Inc, Set of 4
Vintage BRNO Armchair by Mies Van Der Rohe for Knoll
Tubular Steel & Black Leather Brno Chairs by Mies van der Rohe for Knoll, 1980s, Set of 2
Italian Barcelona Lounge Chair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for Knoll International, 1920s
Barcelona Easy Chair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1930s
BRNO Flat Base Chair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1930s
Vintage Barcelona Chair with Ottoman by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for Knoll International
Model BNRO Armchair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for Knoll International
Vintage Brno Armchair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1980s
Brno Chair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for Knoll, 1970s
Vintage Barcelona Stool by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for Knoll
BRNO Armchair by Mies Van Der Rohe for Knoll
Vintage Barcelona Chair with Ottoman by Mies van der Rohe for Knoll International
White Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe for Knoll International, 1980s
Italian Brno Dining Chair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for Knoll International, 1970s
Table Lamp by Gianni Seguso, 1940s
Vintage Table Lamp from Stilnovo
Vintage Stool from Tolix, 1950s
Vintage Table Lamp from Pollice
Italian Cast Iron Barber's Chair from Zerbini Torino, 1960s
Mid-Century Italian Compressed Wood Coffee Table by Beppe Righi, 1956
Vintage Swivelling Glass Table Lamp, 1950s
Model 12802 Crib from Thonet, 1900s
Antique Towel Rack from Thonet
Vintage Wall Lights from Fontana Arte, Set of 2
Mid-Century Armchairs, Set of 2
Italian Dining Table, 1930s
Mid-Century Italian Maple Sideboard, 1950s
Italian Sconces, 1960s, Set of 2
Antique Rocking Chair from Thonet
Antique Art Nouveau French Walnut Bench
Vintage Bench from Thonet
Antique Art Nouveau Carved Wooden Table
Vintage Stand from Gebrüder Thonet Vienna GmbH
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A Tippling Philosopher
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On Free Market Economics: Free Market Success Stories
May 15, 2018 by Jonathan MS Pearce
On Free Market Economics: Free Market Success Stories May 15, 2018 Jonathan MS Pearce
Buckle up, this is another sizeable piece… (my series conclusion is below too, so don’t miss that).
In this series looking skeptically at libertarian claims of free market capitalism being the holy grail of all of reality, I have come to the section where I cast a skeptical eye over some of the more common claims of libertarians. The claim appears to be that free market economics is responsible for the success of certain countries. I would like to set out here that, whilst this is true to some extent, it is not so obviously the case. Remember from previous posts, I am not advocating some kind of communist collectivism. This is not a false dichotomy. But I do think the only workable mechanics (certainly in scenarios where we have borders and nations) are those that involve both the state (ideally working morally on behalf of the people) and business organisations. And, indeed, the so-called free market success stories are quite ironically stories which involve protectionism and high tariffs as well as state-directed encouragement and the use of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
Here is one such quote from the commenter with whom I was having a debate, originally centred around UKIP and their libertarian credentials (there is an appendix below of some of his rhetoric to show why I was motivated to go to lengths to answer some of his claims – you do not need to read it: I hope I am being more civil and respectful in my claims than he was):
…what matters is, free markets have existed and not once has any free market failed, never. Not once in history, they’ve always been a success. We saw that success in the United States in the late 19th Century, same again with the British Industrial Revolution, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Chile, but of course, we’ll ignore that fact now, won’t we?
This needs unpicking because he seems to have little idea what he is talking about. The US in the 19th century and Britain in the Industrial Revolution (IR) were exceptionally protectionist, as I have pointed out in the previous post. He is just flat-out wrong. There were elements of free market thinking, of course, but massive elements of regulatory framework in place, too. This mixed economic approach is what I was talking about in the previous post, and the commenter stakes his claim that this is pure (or purer) capitalism without recognising the causal efficacy of the states within these successes. In the cases at hand (the IR in the US and UK), this is sometimes called “infant industry protectionism“, a description of which can be found in another of Ha-Joon Chang’s books (I have referred previously at length to 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism): Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective (London, 2002).
You see, the commenter in question rabidly claimed:
You point out to me where those so called free markets are, because there are few, Hong Kong is one, their free market has never failed in history, their economy has been on the up ever since moving to a free market; then there is Chile who had a very strong free market, no failure there; if that wasn’t enough there is the Industrial Revolution of both the United States and Great Britain, neither of those free markets failed. But of course, I don’t expect you to understand that, because you are uneducated and you don’t understand that the Great Depression was not caused by a free market,
when I had never mentioned the Great Depression once. Like some giant, erected straw man, he ranted this way and that, thinking I was Lenin or someone similar.
One of the core facts to know is that the UK (and US to some extent) did not have its economic success owed wholly to free trade, because it was a pioneer in many manufacturing industries and had no competitors. It was a special case, and had large tariff systems in place until liberalisation in 1846. As Britain entered the second phase of the IR, the cotton textile industry became its spearhead as it competed against India and China. It did so by protecting the industry through government regulation. If we look at how Britain developed its first significant manufacturing industry which launched the industrial revolution, we find that it did so by severely “violating all the modern doctrines of free trade and free market economics”. This included these laws:
1685 – 10% import tariff on Indian goods;
1690 – tariff doubled to 20%;
1701 – First Calico Act, legislation banning imports of dyed, painted or printed fabric;
1707 – British textiles manufacturers obtained further tariffs on Indian textiles;
1721 – Second Calico Act, which further banned imports of Indian textiles.
I could go on about this, but it was well known by free marketeers at the time that the supposed free market success of the UK and US (e.g. through the work of Hamilton) that there was a great double standard involved. Some claim that the innovation of technology was what caused such success, but this is not true. It was protectionism, not innovation which caused competitive advantage:
“It was the wall of protection that made possible the survival and growth of the British cotton textile industry in the face of Indian competition and facilitated large capital investments in the industry. Without it, the English industry would have found it impossible to get a foothold in the home market, let alone abroad.” Alavi (1982: 56)
And Indian silk and cotton goods
“could be sold in the British market at a price between 50% and 60% lower than those fabricated in England. It consequently became necessary to protect the latter by duties of 70% to 80% on their value” (Das 1946: 313, quoting Mukerjee 1967).
As this economic commentator states:
Thus near-contemporary British apostles of free trade were the first to notice the double standard. They were appalled at the hypocrisy of British protectionism and the destruction of India’s prosperous cities built on textile exports.
But they of course failed to notice that the protectionism had been a major cause of Britain’s industrial revolution and that, without it, the UK would have been much poorer. In other words, the success of the cotton textile industry in the early industrial revolution in Britain was an example of infant industry protectionism, or modern import substitution industrialization (ISI).
This was very much the case with the US success in the 1800s. As George Monbiot states in “One thing is clear from the history of trade: protectionism makes you rich”:
By 1816 the US had imposed a 35% tax on most imported manufactures, which rose to 50% in 1832. Between 1864 and 1913 it was the most heavily protected nation on earth, and the fastest-growing. It wasn’t until after the second world war, when it had already become top dog, that it dropped most of its tariffs. The same strategy was followed by Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and almost every other country that is rich today. Within the ACP nations, the great success story of the past 30 years is the country whose protectionism has been fiercest: during the 1980s and 1990s, Mauritius imposed import tariffs of up to 80%. Protectionism, which can be easily exploited by corrupt elites, does not always deliver wealth; but development is much harder without it.
Which is why I get annoyed when the commenter makes such claims as
Absolute economic illiterate, historic illiterate, left-wing degenerate garbage. Absolute economic illiterate, historic illiterate, left-wing degenerate garbage.
because that shows rather a fair bit of hypocrisy.
Let me now look in no way comprehensively at some things about Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Chile to burst the mythological bubble of free market economics as being responsible for their success (though it does contribute, though as much to their eventual crises and busts as their booms):
The commenter:
That’s why Singapore thrived, because they let their economy be. Anyone who claims economies grew because of strong government interference are people who don’t understand the very basics of economics. As proven by both Chile and Sweden, when Socialist policies are enacted, they only slow down the economy.
Let me start off by quoting economywatch.com:
The economy of Singapore is best described as a mixed economy. Although the country strongly advocates free-market policies and practices, government intervention is also evident in macroeconomic management and major factors of production such as land, labour and capital resources. This innovative and highly successful economic system – where both the market and the state have equally strong roles in the government – is dubbed as the Singapore Model.
The Singapore Model was born out of necessity. Singapore has a relatively small domestic market, and thus has to open its economy to external markets in order for the economy to thrive. However, the inherent vulnerability in depending on external markets compelled the government to enact economic policies that would safeguard the country from perturbations in the global market. Apart from these policies, the government has also actively encouraged new industries to develop in Singapore so as to respond to the needs of the global market.
The underlying influence of the government can also be felt in other various facets of the society – from education, to transportation, to housing and to the media. However, many social policies that have been implemented are often seen to be supplementary for the economy. As such, many people have labelled the country as “Singapore Inc.” – where the country appears to be run more like a corporation than a nation.
It has a mixed economic model named after it, for crying out loud! Wow.
As Chang mentions here:
I’m sure it’s similar in many other fields, but especially in economics there is no single economic theory that can explain everything. To make that point, I talk about Singapore in the book. If you read the standard account of Singapore’s economic success in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, or some textbook, you only learn about Singapore’s free trade and welcoming attitude towards foreign investment. But you will never be told that all the land in Singapore is owned by the government, and 85 percent of housing is supplied by the government’s own housing corporation. 22 percent of GDP is produced by state-owned enterprises (including Singapore Airlines), when the world average in that respect is only about 9 percent.
So I challenge my students to tell me one economic theory, Neo-Classical or Marxist or whatever, that can explain Singapore’s success. There is no such theory because Singaporean reality combines extreme elements of capitalism and socialism. The point that I’m trying to make as an example is that all theories are partial.TheClassical school or Marxist school focuses more on production than exchanges, in contrast to the Neo-Classical school. They make different assumptions, and they are interested in different issues. They all have their weakness and strengths. In recognition of the fact that the real world is very complex, we need to teach our students and the general public that there are different ways of understanding the economy.
It is terrible that students these days are taught there is only one flavor of ice cream, when there are 9 or 10 different ones. At least, let them taste them all, and if they conclude that neoclassical is the best, then so be it. But you have to at least tell them that there are all other kinds of theories. Otherwise, it’s like North Korea. They’re not told that there are other types of society because the information is blocked.
Which is delightfully accurate as the commenter with whom I was arguing appearing to believe in this false dichotomy of either communist collectivism or libertarian free marketism (and accusing me of adopting the former, whilst later confusingly contradicting himself on his claims).
To continue looking at Singapore (this list is partly taken from here).
The top six government-linked corporations (GLCs) account for 17% of total capitalisation!
The public sector is used as a driver for the economy (investing, catalysing).
Two sovereign wealth funds (Temasek Holdings and GIC Private Limited) which are used to manage the country’s reserves
US Dept of State: “Singapore’s aggressive pursuit of foreign investment as another pillar of its overall economic strategy has enabled the country to evolve into a base for multinational corporations (MNCs). The Economic Development Board (EDB), Singapore’s investment promotion agency, focuses on securing major investments in high value-added manufacturing and service activities as part of a strategy to replace labor-intensive, low value-added activities that have migrated offshore.”
One of strongest property rights frameworks in Asia
Corporate Social Responsibility regulation and strategies
Singapore imposes a ceiling on the ratio of unskilled/semi-skilled foreign workers to local workers that a company can employ, and charges a monthly levy for each unskilled or semi-skilled foreign worker. The government also provides incentives and assistance to firms to automate and invest in labor-saving technology.
State ownership is prominent in strategic sectors of the economy, including telecommunications, media, public transportation, defence, port, airport operations as well as banking, shipping, airline, infrastructure and real estate
Singapore is also ranked third in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report behind Switzerland and Sweden (so it would be worth looking at the success of these economies, eh!)
So it doesn’t look like the commenter has done his research, though he posts a great number of videos on You Tube espousing this nonsense.
This is an interesting case (for me doubly so as I used to live there). The economy is managed by an informal coalition of private economic organisations and the government, and its small city-state infrastructure has meant easy diffusion of economic benefits. This, and being an ex-colony, make it hard to compare with any rigour to other economies. As the Economist states:
Of course, Hong Kong was never entirely free of state interference. Immediately after receiving a semblance of legal title in 1841 under the Convention of Chuenpi, the British began their first municipal building project, a cemetery for the legions of colonisers taken by dysentery and malaria. The colonial government kept control of a critical resource: land. It granted only limited leases, with the sole exception of the local headquarters of the Anglican church. The property market that has since developed, an almost impenetrable blend of government and tycoons, could satisfy no free-market purist.
The property market’s distortions feed through to other sectors, such as retailing. Another exception to the free-market rule is the currency’s peg at around $7.80 to the American dollar. And the state has also had a habit of granting or tolerating monopolies, for example in gambling. Hong Kong’s way has by no means been synonymous with perfect competition.
As Emily Vuong states of East Asian economic success, the key was government interaction with economic ideals:
Paul Krugman wrote a famous paper in the 1990s outlining the myths surrounding the Asian miracle of the 20th century. Rather than it being a ‘miracle’, he presented a less dazzling critique of Asia’s economic success. He proposed that it was a combination of stringent government policy and the further adoption of free trade that was key to sustaining economic growth in East Asia. Most of this growth occurred in eight economies, collectively referred to as the High Performing Asian Economies (HPAEs) – Japan, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and the newly industrializing Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand [1]. The relationship between public policy and economic growth is now more important than ever, and in light of the continuing economic crisis in Europe, there are a number of lessons to be learnt from the success of the HPAEs.
The Asian Miracle of the second half of the twentieth century can be largely attributed to the authoritarian regimes implemented by domestic governments. To this day, they utilise a heavy hand in central planning even as markets become increasingly decentralised. The HPAEs used a variety of policies to achieve the three functions of growth – accumulation, allocation, and productivity growth. These included the promotion of institutional and policy reform, strengthening of competition, promotion of the accumulation of physical and human capital and adoption of trade liberalisation. Even then, Asia did not experience immediate economic success, with most of the benefit of meticulous government planning through a ‘nexus of policies’ [2] only beginning to accrue over the longer term. As such, Krugman’s view that growth during this period was founded upon good foresight rather than fortune was clearly an insightful one.
The effective use of government policy during this era was pivotal in kick-starting strong and sustainable economic growth. The success of Asia was largely dependent on the types of institutional and structural reforms the government promoted, however it was no single policy that ensured success…
The so-called ‘miracle’ of economic success in East Asia during the second half of the twentieth century can be largely attributed to ‘perspiration’ through the development of fundamental government policy, which to this day continues to foster growth, innovation and constant development. Asia’s success was most certainly not an overnight phenomenon. It certainly is, though, an illustration of the importance of core policy initiatives and ongoing scrutiny, still evident today as the governments of the HPAEs face new economic challenges and take steps to ensure they continue down a path of perpetual economic growth.
To add to that, there is this:
Firstly, like most examples of the wonders of a free market, it is not a democracy, it was a relatively liberal colonial dictatorship run from Britain. But political liberty does not rate highly with many supporters of laissez-faire capitalism (such as right-libertarians, for example). Secondly, the government owns all the land, which is hardly capitalistic, and the state has intervened into the economy many times (for example, in the 1950s, one of the largest public housing schemes in history was launched to house the influx of about 2 million people fleeing Communist China). Thirdly, Hong Kong is a city state and cities have a higher economic growth rate than regions (which are held back by large rural areas). Fourthly, according to an expert in the Asian Tiger economies, “to conclude . . . that Hong Kong is close to a free market economy is misleading.” [Robert Wade,Governing the Market, p. 332]
Wade notes that:
“Not only is the economy managed from outside the formal institutions of government by the informal coalition of peak private economic organisations [notably the major banks and trading companies, which are closely linked to the life-time expatriates who largely run the government. This provides a “point of concentration” to conduct negotiations in line with an implicit development strategy], but government itself also has available some unusual instruments for influencing industrial activity. It owns all the land. . . It controls rents in part of the public housing market and supplies subsidised public housing to roughly half the population, thereby helping to keep down the cost of labour. And its ability to increase or decrease the flow of immigrants from China also gives it a way of affecting labour costs.”[Ibid.]
Wade notes that “its economic growth is a function of its service role in a wider regional economy, as entrepot trader, regional headquarters for multinational companies, and refuge for nervous money.” [Op. Cit., p. 331]. In other words, an essential part of its success is that it gets surplus value produced elsewhere in the world. Handling other people’s money is a sure-fire way of getting rich (see Henwood’s Wall Street to get an idea of the sums involved) and this will have a nice impact on per-capita income figures (as will selling goods produced sweat-shops in dictatorships like China)…
Therefore it is pretty clear that Hong Kong does not really show the benefits of “free market” capitalism. Wade indicates that we can consider Hong Kong as a “special case or as a less successful variant of the authoritarian-capitalist state.” [Op. Cit., p. 333] Its success lies in the fact that it has access to the surplus value produced elsewhere in the world (particularly that from the workers under the dictatorship in China and from the stock market) which gives its economy a nice boost.
Given that everywhere cannot be such a service provider, it does not provide much of an indication of how “free market” capitalism would work in, say, the United States. And as there is in fact extensive (if informal) economic management and that the state owns all the land and subsidies rent and health care, how can it be even considered an example of “capitalism in action”?
So not only is Hong Kong difficult to use as an example of anything generic, since it is so particular as a case, it is very much an example of a mixed style of economy with the government playing a vital role. Finally, I will leave you with part of the abstract for a paper which looks at the mixed economic approach of both Hong Kong and Singapore (“Government Intervention In The Economy: A Comparative Analysis Of Singapore And Hong Kong“):
However, as the two were maturing socially and economically in the last few decades, both governments found the necessity to adopt a hybrid strategy of mixing economic interventions with the free-market approach. An examination of public finance and economic policies since the onset of the Asian economic turmoil shows that the two have become increasingly similar in their economic approaches, with heavy emphasis on stabilizing the economy and stimulating business activities through government initiatives.
This is what the commenter said to me in one comment:
Throughout recorded history, the evidence has clearly proven that the freer the economy has been from regulation, the better off the economy has been. That’s why Chile’s fastest growth period was between the early 1980s to the mid 2000’s. The hilarity is, Chile is now the richest nation in South America, it has very low costs of living, high paid wages, yet is an economy that has strong private enterprise, it’s a free market. That’s how we know you talk nonsense…
In case you haven’t noticed, Chile is not a mixed economy, it’s a free market.
Fascinating that now he can explicitly claim an economy to be free market and thus be able to explicitly define that (see that last two posts to understand how this gets him into lots of definitional trouble). What is interesting is that on one of his videos on Chile he actually had Chileans stating things like:
Hey Scotty, I truly think you’re just talking out of you’re arse here. Chile can’t be an example of anything but legalized slavery. Low income jobs plus extremely long working hours is what keeps this country’s people dumbed/numbed down. A dehumanizing system is what you stand up for.
Market in Chile is not REALLY free. Monopoly is a real issue; new banks are not allowed to settle in the country to compete with the few existing ones. Pharmaceutical companies joined to jack up prices and were convicted for it but there is no guarantee that they are not doing the same thing today. Government is in bed with big companies and lobby on law-making is completely unregulated. We are one of the most unequal countries in the world and we have depression and suicide rates you wouldn’t believe. I would gladly welcome free market but that’s not happening anytime soon. Reality in Chile is much more complex than you describe here.
I gladly invite you to come here and join Chile’s working class. You wouldn’t survive a fucking month, mate, I can assure you that. You’ll be praying to be back in welfare Scotland as soon as possible.
Which I thought was quite interesting, though certainly doesn’t particularly prove anything, other than perhaps showing how one-dimensional the commenter’s rubric is for measuring success. The Miracle of Chile, popularly spouted by many libertarian politicians and free marketeers, originating from Milton Friedman, is yet another problematic claim. This is the period of economic growth experienced by Chile which had its birth in the mid-1970s and continued for a decade or so, making it stand out from its South American neighbours. Whether it be correlation of proper causation between free market policies introduced by free marketeer economists in Chile who became known as the Chicago Boys, and its economic success (though also a crisis), is somewhat contested. As ever in economics, there are plenty of other factors.
As wikipedia points out:
Some economists (such as Nobel laureate Amartya Sen) have argued that the experience of Chile in this period indicates a failure of the economic liberalism posited by thinkers such as Friedman, claiming that there was little net economic growth from 1975 to 1982 (during the so-called “pure Monetarist experiment”). After the catastrophic banking crisis of 1982 the state controlled more of the economy than it had under the previous so-called “socialist” regime, and sustained economic growth only came after the later reforms that privatized the economy, while social indicators remained poor.[5] Pinochet’s dictatorship made the unpopular economic reorientation possible by repressing opposition to it. Rather than a triumph of the free market, the OECD economist Javier Santiso described this reorientation as “combining neo-liberal [sic] sutures and interventionist cures”.[6] By the time of sustained growth, the Chilean government had “cooled itsneo-liberal [sic] ideological fever” and “controlled its exposure to world financial markets and maintained its efficient copper company in public hands”.[5]
The Financial Times similarly concludes that the success of Chile was precisely not the introduction of free market ideals, but the reaction to the banking crisis which came about, ironically, as a result of the free market policies introduced by the Chicago Boys:
This is an attractive argument and provides an interesting framework in which to measure the region’s political progress. It is a particularly valuable way to see Chile, the most successful economy in the region over the past two decades. Santiso attributes Chile’s achievements not to the blind application of free-market orthodoxy but to flexibility in policymaking from the mid-1980s onwards. In other words, the crucial moment was not, as the liberal right argues, the 1973 coup against Salvador Allende, the socialist president, but the catastrophic banking crisis of 1982, the product in part of economic policies pursued by the radical free-marketeers known as the Chicago Boys.
During the 1990s, when countries such as Argentina and Mexico implemented shock therapy and quickly sold off state property, a newly democratic Chile controlled its exposure to world financial markets and maintained its efficient copper company in public hands. The result was a relatively smooth encounter with globalisation, a decade of consistent expansion and a 50 per cent reduction in poverty levels.
Chile, says Santiso, is often presented as the “culmination of Latin America’s neo-liberal trajectory”. In fact, “the great lesson” to be taken from the country’s experience is “achieving distance from ideological fevers of all kinds”.
In fact, according to United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean data, the percentage of Chilean population living in poverty rose from 17% in 1969 to 45% in 1985.
Other indicators of success (you know, there are other measures other than strictly economic ones!) are also put down to state intervention. Amartya Sen claims that massive improvements in infant mortality were not because of “free-market” policies but as a result of active public and state intervention. He acknowledges (in his book Hunger and Public Action) that Chile had a very long tradition of public action for the improvement of childcare, which were largely maintained after the Pinochet coup:
… there is little disagreement as to what caused the observed improvement in the area of child health and nutrition…It would be hard to attribute the impressively steady decline in infant mortality … (despite several major economic recessions) … to anything else than the maintenance of extensive public support measures
As this commentator states:
The actual results of the free market policies introduced by the dictatorship were far less than the “miracle” claimed by Friedman and a host of other “Libertarians.” The initial effects of introducing free market policies in 1975 was a shock-induced depression which resulted in national output falling buy 15 percent, wages sliding to one-third below their 1970 level and unemployment rising to 20 percent. [Elton Rayack, Not so Free to Choose, p. 57] This meant that, in per capita terms, Chile’s GDP only increased by 1.5% per year between 1974-80. This was considerably less than the 2.3% achieved in the 1960’s. The average growth in GDP was 1.5% per year between 1974 and 1982, which was lower than the average Latin American growth rate of 4.3% and lower than the 4.5% of Chile in the 1960’s. Between 1970 and 1980, per capita GDP grew by only 8%, while for Latin America as a whole, it increased by 40%. Between the years 1980 and 1982 during which all of Latin America was adversely affected by depression conditions, per capita GDP fell by 12.9 percent, compared to a fall of 4.3 percent for Latin America as a whole. [Op. Cit., p. 64]
In 1982, after 7 years of free market capitalism, Chile faced yet another economic crisis which, in terms of unemployment and falling GDP was even greater than that experienced during the terrible shock treatment of 1975. Real wages dropped sharply, falling in 1983 to 14 percent below what they had been in 1970. Bankruptcies skyrocketed, as did foreign debt and unemployment. [Op. Cit., p. 69] By 1983, the Chilean economy was devastated and it was only by the end of 1986 that Gross Domestic Product per capita (barely) equalled that of 1970. [Thomas Skidmore and Peter Smith, “The Pinochet Regime”, pp. 137-138, Modern Latin America]
Faced with this massive collapse of a “free market regime designed by principled believers in a free market” (to use Milton Friedman’s words from an address to the “Smith Centre,” a conservative Think Tank at Cal State entitled “Economic Freedom, Human Freedom, Political Freedom”) the regime organised a massive bailout. The “Chicago Boys” resisted this measure until the situation become so critical that they could not avoid it. The IMF offered loans to Chile to help it out of mess its economic policies had helped create, but under strict conditions. The total bailout cost 3 per cent of Chile’s GNP for three years, a cost which was passed on to the taxpayers. This follows the usual pattern of “free market” capitalism — market discipline for the working class, state aid for the elite. During the “miracle,” the economic gains had been privatised; during the crash the burden for repayment was socialised.
The Pinochet regime did reduce inflation, from around 500% at the time of the CIA-backed coup (given that the US undermined the Chilean economy — “make the economy scream”, Richard Helms, the director of the CIA — high inflation would be expected), to 10% by 1982. From 1983 to 1987, it fluctuated between 20 and 31%. The advent of the “free market” led to reduced barriers to imports “on the ground the quotas and tariffs protected inefficient industries and kept prices artificially high. The result was that many local firms lost out to multinational corporations. The Chilean business community, which strongly supported the coup in 1973, was badly affected.” [Skidmore and Smith, Op. Cit.]
The decline of domestic industry had cost thousands of better-paying jobs. The ready police repression made strikes and other forms of protest both impractical and dangerous. According to a report by the Roman Catholic Church 113 protesters had been killed during social protest against the economic crisis of the early 1980s, with several thousand detained for political activity and protests between May 1983 and mid-1984. Thousands of strikers were also fired and union leaders jailed. [Rayack, Op. Cit., p. 70] The law was also changed to reflect the power property owners have over their wage slaves and the “total overhaul of the labour law system [which] took place between 1979 and 1981. . . aimed at creating a perfect labour market, eliminating collective bargaining, allowing massive dismissal of workers, increasing the daily working hours up to twelve hours and eliminating the labour courts.” [Silvia Borzutzky, Op. Cit., p. 91] Little wonder, then, that this favourable climate for business operations resulted in generous lending by international finance institutions.
By far the hardest group hit was the working class, particularly the urban working class. By 1976, the third year of Junta rule, real wages had fallen to 35% below their 1970 level. It was only by 1981 that they has risen to 97.3% of the 1970 level, only to fall again to 86.7% by 1983. Unemployment, excluding those on state make-work programmes, was 14.8% in 1976, falling to 11.8% by 1980 (this is still double the average 1960’s level) only to rise to 20.3% by 1982. [Rayack, Op. Cit., p. 65]. Unemployment (including those on government make-work programmes) had risen to a third of the labour force by mid-1983. By 1986, per capita consumption was actually 11% lower than the 1970 level. [Skidmore and Smith, Op. Cit.] Between 1980 and 1988, the real value of wages grew only 1.2 percent while the real value of the minimum wage declined by 28.5 percent. During this period, urban unemployment averaged 15.3 percent per year. [Silvia Bortzutzky, Op. Cit., p. 96] Even by 1989 the unemployment rate was still at 10% (the rate in 1970 was 5.7%) and the real wage was still 8% lower than in 1970. Between 1975 and 1989, unemployment averaged 16.7%. In other words, after nearly 15 years of free market capitalism, real wages had still not exceeded their 1970 levels and unemployment was still higher. As would be expected in such circumstances the share of wages in national income fell from 42.7% in 1970 to 33.9% in 1993. Given that high unemployment is often attributed by the right to strong unions and other labour market “imperfections,” these figures are doubly significant as the Chilean regime, as noted above, reformed the labour market to improve its “competitiveness.”
Another consequence of Pinochet’s neo-classical monetarist policies “was a contraction of demand, since workers and their families could afford to purchase fewer goods. The reduction in the market further threatened the business community, which started producing more goods for export and less for local consumption. This posed yet another obstacle to economic growth and led to increased concentration of income and wealth in the hands of a small elite.” [Skidmore and Smith, Op. Cit.]
It is the increased wealth of the elite that we see the true “miracle” of Chile. According to one expert in the Latin American neo-liberal revolutions, the elite “had become massively wealthy under Pinochet” and when the leader of the Christian Democratic Party returned from exile in 1989 he said that economic growth that benefited the top 10 per cent of the population had been achieved (Pinochet’s official institutions agreed). [Duncan Green, The Silent Revolution, p. 216, Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy, p. 231] In 1980, the richest 10% of the population took in 36.5% of the national income. By 1989, this had risen to 46.8%. By contrast, the bottom 50% of income earners saw their share fall from 20.4% to 16.8% over the same period. Household consumption followed the same pattern. In 1970, the top 20% of households had 44.5% of consumption. This rose to 51% in 1980 and to 54.6% in 1989. Between 1970 and 1989, the share going to the other 80% fell. The poorest 20% of households saw their share fall from 7.6% in 1970 to 4.4% in 1989. The next 20% saw their share fall from 11.8% to 8.2%, and middle 20% share fell from 15.6% to 12.7%. The next 20% share their share of consumption fall from 20.5% to 20.1%.
Thus the wealth created by the Chilean economy in during the Pinochet years did not “trickle down” to the working class (as claimed would happen by “free market” capitalist dogma) but instead accumulated in the hands of the rich. As in the UK and the USA, with the application of “trickle down economics” there was a vast skewing of income distribution in favour of the already-rich…
Looking at the entire Pinochet era we discover that only by 1989 — 14 years into the free-market policies – did per capita output climb back up to the level of 1970. Between 1970 and 1990, Chile’s total GDP grew by a decidedly average 2% a year. Needless to say, these years also include the Allende period and the aftermath of the coup and so, perhaps, this figure presents a false image of the regime’s record. If we look at the 1981-90 period to (i.e. during the height of Pinochet’s rule, beginning 6 years after the start of the Chilean “Miracle”), the figure is worse with the growth rate in GDP just 1.84% a year. This was slower than Chile during the 1950s (4%) or the 1960s (4.5%). Indeed, if we take population increase into account, Chile saw a per capita GDP growth of just 0.3% a year between 1981 and 1990 (in comparison, the UK GDP per capita grew by 2.4% during the same period and the USA by 1.9%).
Thus the growth “miracles” refer to recoveries from depression-like collapses, collapses that can be attributed in large part to the free- market policies imposed on Chile! Overall, the growth “miracle” under Pinochet turns out to be non-existent. The full time frame illustrates Chile’s lack of significant economic and social process between 1975 and 1989. Indeed, the economy was characterised by instability rather than real growth. The high levels of growth during the boom periods (pointed to by the right as evidence of the “miracle”) barely made up for the losses during the bust periods.
Now I know that is an overly large quote, and I know I am fighting libertarian rhetoric with its antithesis, but fighting fire with fire means that one should end up somewhere in the middle. The ground which I like to occupy. I have already shown that trickle-down economics empirically does not close the income inequality gap. As a skeptic, this is par for the course.
Another supposed example of resounding free market success is South Korea, which has fully transformed over the decades. However, Ha-Joon Chang, South Korean economist now resident in the UK, states in 2012:
According to a recent World Values Survey, Koreans are the second unhappiest people (after Hungary) among the citizens of the 32 OECD countries studied. Worse, its children are the unhappiest in the rich world, according to a survey of 23 OECD countries done by Yonsei University in Seoul. In 2009 the country topped the international league table for suicides, with 28.4 suicides per 100,000 people. Japan was a distant second with 19.7. But Koreans never used to be this unhappy. Until 1995 its suicide rate was, at about 10 per 100,000 people, just below the OECD average. Since then it has almost tripled.
The answer to the Korean puzzle can be found in the consequences of the economic reform implemented after the country’s 1997 financial crisis. In the UK-US mould, the stock market was fully opened to foreign investors, putting the larger, listed companies under pressure from international shareholders, making them increase short-term profits by minimising investments. The ability of smaller, unlisted companies to invest was severely curtailed by a dramatic reduction in credit availability. Deregulation allowed banks to rush into more lucrative consumer loan markets, reducing the share of loans to business.
The resulting dramatic fall in investments has led to a substantial fall in economic growth from 6%-7% (in per capita terms) per year to under 4%. With lower growth, few well-paid jobs are created. When combined with the relaxation of labour laws after 1997, this has given employers a decisive upper hand over their workers. Many employees were sacked and re-hired as “agency” workers, doing the same jobs at lower wages. The proportion of the workforce without a permanent contract rose from an already high 50% to 60%, the highest in the OECD…
The sad tale of my country should serve as a salutary warning to Britain and other European countries that are embarking on major cuts to welfare. They believe that such cuts will reduce budget deficits and make their economies more productive by making people compete more vigorously. However, the Korean story shows that insecurity actually makes people less, not more, productive, and also desperately unhappy. Surely, that is not what they want.
Very much like Britain and the US as I mentioned earlier, South Korea operate a protectionist and high tariff economy, as Chang states elsewhere:
The UK and the USA may be the more dramatic examples, but almost all the rest of the developed world today used tariffs, subsidies and other means to promote their industries in the earlier stages of their development. Cases like Germany, Japan, and Korea are well known in this respect. But even Sweden, which later came to represent the “small open economy” to many economists had also strategically used tariffs, subsidies, cartels, and state support for R&D to develop key industries, especially textile, steel, and engineering.
Robert Wade (in Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government in East Asian Industrialization), indeed, sees South Korea as authoritarian-corporatist, with authoritarian political institutions encouraging the growth of huge conglomerates (chaebol). This rather goes against the commenter’s ideas that so-called capitalist countries are actually corporatist apart from the successful ones which he wants to define as capitalist!
Interestingly, in a Pew research poll, South Koreans are the only public where knowing the right people is the most commonly cited key to success (rated at the top of the scale by 39%) – hardly a libertarian ideal. 53% of South Koreans are supportive of higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations to address income inequality, although the population is broadly (70%) supportive of capitalism. Remember, I am for capitalism, just with sensible regulation.
Byung-Doo Choi’s chapter “Developmental Neoliberalism in South Korea”, in Locating Neoliberalism in East Asia (particularly pages 87-89) illustrates the developmental/statist against neoliberal contradiction well, especially with regard to the (arguably free market caused) 1997 crisis. Even the good times in South Korea are seen in the context of the guidance of the “developmental state”:
Rather, we need to illuminate ways in which the developmentally oriented state in South Korea has adjusted to meet new neoliberal challenges via industrial restructuring and spatial reconfiguration in order to recover from the crisis, affecting public policy making and social welfare reform. What we need to explore further is the contradictory character of such adjustment processes after the economic crisis in South Korea. The combination of neoliberalized economic management and authoritarian state intervention does not appear to be free from certain limits, tensions and contradictions. Crisis tendencies in capitalism seem to even “encourage more state ‘intervention’ to ‘liberalize’ the market, a seemingly contradictory behavior” (Yeung 2000: 155).
There is this idea that South Korea is or has been a developmentalist state (neither free market nor socialist, but a “rationally planned capitalist development state” – p.89 of the above book), which is now some sort of neoliberalised hybrid of that.
Conclusion and cognitive dissonance of libertarians
What annoyed me in my discussions with the commenter is the shift that he made in claiming I was some loony-leftie communist socialist, and then being a mixed economy advocate and almost synonymously attacking me over that. This facile and naive approach from a purely dogmatic disciple of the Mises Institute was frustrating, not least because it was thoroughly un-nuanced. I am also not anti-capitalist, and think that capitalism was to some large degree responsible (in a kind of JL Mackie INUS sense) for the successes of these countries mentioned. But you cannot take the government out of those successes. That is incredibly naive, and outright wrong. The governments played wholly important roles, showing that the success of these economies was on account of a good mix of the two. They were all, to varying degrees, mixed economies. Which he claimed had never ever been shown to have sustained success. Well, no economy has ever had sustained success because, as he admitted himself:
It is proven in recorded history that all economies take dips, when the free market does, you let it be.
In other words, the man appears to be a walking, talking contradiction. Which means, by his own admission, the so-called free market economies (as mentioned above) have not shown such sustained success either.
Look, these claims involve so many variables that there is often little clarity and much complexity. I am not advocating communism or extreme socialism in the same way that I am not advocating pure free market economics. Likewise, however, corporatism is rife with problems. Does this mean there is no perfect economic model? Probably, and this is somewhat accepted in the same way that moral philosophers accept that there is no perfect moral philosophy: they are all problematic, and we muddle about trying to get a best fit.
Of course, it remains to be explicitly stated, by the commenter at least, on what criteria we judge economic success of any given model, because it seems that an economic model judged entirely on economic terms is somewhat one dimensional, and is inadequate within a moral paradigm (in other words, what we should do).
Therefore, as is often the case in any given paradigm, the commenter probably needs to do some philosophy before trying to do some politics and economics (see the last two posts in the series on that). Further to this, in my dealings with him, he seems rather victim (as we all are to some degree) to confirmation bias, seeking libertarian sources to defend his ideals. We can all do that, and I have surely exacted biased sources to counter his position.
But, in my humble opinion, there are myriad issues with his approach and his claims, and he would do well not to be so dogmatic and assured of his greatness in the world of economics, politics and, dare I say it, philosophy.
As mentioned in the previous post, the pure free market approach cannot deal with positive or negative externalities (these are costs to production or consumption of a good which is borne out not by producer or consumer, but by a third party). This is such a fundamental flaw which potentially affects the whole world (for example, pollution, loss of biodiversity and climate change) that failure to deal with it is terminal to the system. As this source says, there are only two ways to deal with production or consumption externalities:
If property rights cannot be established, such as with the air, sea, or roads, then the only two options are:
We learn to live with externalities, or:
Government intervenes on our behalf through taxes or direct controls and regulations, such as:
Taxing polluters, such as carbon taxes, or taxes on plastic bags.
Subsidising households or firms to be non-polluters, such as giving grants for home insulation improvements.
Selling permits to pollute, which may become traded by the polluters.
Forcing polluters to pay compensation to those who suffer, such as making noise polluting airports pay for double-glazing.
Road pricing schemes, such as the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system in Singapore, which is a pay-as-you-go, card-based, road-pricing scheme.
Providing more information to consumers and producers, such as requiring that tickets to travel on polluting forms of transport, especially air travel, should contain information on how much CO2pollution will be created from each journey.
[and in the case of consumption externalities:]
There are several remedies for negative consumption externalities, including imposing indirect taxes, and setting minimum prices,imposing fines for over-consumption, controlling supply through a licensing system.
These are supposedly market remedies, and yet only the government can deal with them.
So what happens?
Well, typically, the libertarian is forced to deal with this psychologically. rather than admit that their position is in some way flawed, the submit to cognitive dissonance. Something has to give, and this usually ends up being the negative externalities. Either they attempt to minimise social costs (such as minimising the impact of child labour, gun deaths and violence, drug damage and suchlike) or deny them outright (which can include denying that it matters) as is the case with most environmental problems. There is a reason why so many right-wing or libertarian economy supporters are also climate change deniers: because to accept it would be to accept an uncorrectable flaw in their economic and political system, which cannot arbitrate such moral problems.
I cannot overestimate this enough, which is why it is bold. Because this is what I see the world over in these debates and with the psychology of libertarians. The libertarian Party n the US makes this statement on the environment:
…to support a sensible free-market environmentalism that balances the need for a healthy planet with the importance of liberty, property rights, and limited government.
The environment would benefit immensely from the elimination of sovereign immunity coupled with the privatization of “land and beast.”
Which appears to set property rights and limited government against the environment, and seemingly more important. Thus our health and the planet’s health is supervenient on such ideals, rather than being a bedrock necessity for existence. And privatising all land and nature? There is so much wrong with that I wouldn’t know where to start.
Looking at issues like smoking, some of the rationalisations and remedies libertarians claim would work are hilariously bad and unworkable And this is the underlying problem of individualism and its use or rights. Human rights don’t objectively exist, so we have to construct them. Legally, based on philosophy. And then somehow enforce them. Because arbitration needs to happen when rights come into conflict. One’s right to smoke against another’s right not to be smoked next to. How does that work for trains which cannot have the competitive infrastructure to deal with having the market solving the problem.
Not only that, but drugs, guns, drugs and guns and children. All of these present problems that the market alone cannot solve. As one commenter explains:
I am not a libertarian, but I will give you the main argument from a libertarian perspective: Privatize everything. Give everything an owner and allow all things to be bought and sold. If pollution a problem, privatize the streams into which polluters dump waste. The owner will then have an incentive to go after polluters and will receive payment to have the pollution cleaned up. Of course, it is then always up to the owner to decide whether or not to actually clean up the pollution.
From my perspective, this breaks down when we get to “free goods” like the air. How do we divvy up and manage ownership? Would it be worth the hassle when a polluter would pay a millionth of a cent to each person on the planet to release a relatively small amount of CO2 or SO2?
Some positive externalities are included in a calculation; for example, the knowledge gained through research. A drug company researches and creates a new product. That knowledge can’t be unlearned and if someone else is to get hold of it then the knowledge effectively becomes a public good. However, if this happens then it is unlikely that the drug company will make enough money to pay for the research and means that they probably wouldn’t do the research in the first place. Without some form of patent or rights to intellectual property then there will always be a “sub optimal” amount of investment in research. How do we deal with this? We can either rely on the company keeping the formula secret (and then have no public knowledge of the ingredients), or we can recognize intellectual property ownership: the company will get rent by licensing the formula to others who manufacture and sell it.
Other externalities are not included in the cost/benefit calculation. Consider a street light. If I pay the full cost of a street light then I get the benefit, but those around me also get a “free” benefit of the light. In spite of their getting benefit, I will only install the light if I get enough benefit myself to shoulder the cost.
From my perspective, the example of education is a good way to see some of the limitations of the commodification of everything. From a traditional perspective, there will always be “sub optimal” investment in public goods when everything is privately owned; i.e. not everyone will have an education. But from a libertarian perspective, people pay for exactly what they want. If they want education then they pay for it. Therefore, the only “optimal” level of education is what people pay for on their own. What this fails to recognize is starting inequality. Libertarianism implicitly relies on the idea of Pareto Efficiency. Stated simply, it means that the best solution to a problem is one that makes as many people as possible better off without making anyone worse off. When everything is property, then the sum of market interaction makes this happen automatically. What it doesn’t recognize is that you could make almost everyone much better off while making someone else only marginally worse off. The first few pages of Kenneth Arrow’s Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care (PDF) has a good discussion of this issue. But this idea contradicts the underpinning ideas of libertarianism, self-ownership and the non aggression principle, so the idea is rejected by libertarians. When these are your starting points then no amount of making someone better off justifies making someone even marginally worse off.
Education qualifies as a positive externality, meaning that its benefits aren’t accounted for in its prices. It has a broader societal benefits that aren’t reflected in its price/costs. These benefits include, but are not limited to, greater economic productivity, lower unemployment rates, greater political participation, greater chances for social mobility, etc. These all benefit society as a whole, yet privatized education can’t account for them because it’s a common good that can’t be effectively incorporated into the cost. Whoever can pay receives the benefit of education, whoever can’t won’t. But having an educated public is better for everyone as it’s simply better for society.
EDIT: for clarity, using a total free market system would mean that people won’t get educated if they can’t pay for it, but the benefits to having an educated public are better for everyone though this benefit isn’t readily seen or accounted for in a simple transaction between the consumer and the educator. Therefore, it’s within society’s best interests to adopt an education system that everyone has access to, regardless of ability to pay.
Many attempted theoretical solutions seem to be coincidental rather than systematic (Oh, look what the Khan Academy has done, etc) in a way that appeals to hope and potential for the free market to happen upon benefits to others.
So finally, neither free market capitalism nor entirely planned economies appear to be workable, and so we meet somewhere in the middle, embracing the best of both worlds where possible.
Anyway, that’s about it for now. I won’t start on what insane claims he made about gun control and guns… (I will post an APPENDIX later today listing some of the remarkable, rude and annoying things he said to me, for posterity’s sake).
Alavi, H. (1982). “India: The Transition to Colonial Capitalism,” in H. Alavi et al. (eds), Capitalism and Colonial Production, (London: Croom Helm)
Chang, H-J. (2002) Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective (London: Penguin)
Chang, H-J. (2011). 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism, (London: Penguin)
Das, T. (1946). Review of The Economic History of India: 1600–1800, American Historical Review 51.2 (January): 312–314
Krugman, P. (1994), ‘The myth of Asia’s miracle’, Foreign Affairs, 73, November-December, pages 62-75.
Mukerjee, R. (1967). The Economic History of India: 1600–1800, (Kitab Mahal: Allahabad)
Park, B-G, Child, R., Saito, A. (2012). Locating Neoliberalism in East Asia: Neoliberalizing Spaces in Developmental States. (Chichester: Blackwell Publishing Ltd)
Sen, A. (1991). Hunger and Public Action, (Oxford: OUP)
Wade, R. (2001). Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government in East Asian Industrialization, (Princeton: Princeton University Press)
On Free Market Economics: History, Morality and Background
On Free Market Economics: No True Capitalism
Dealing with replies to my free market skepticism posts
Does free market capitalism close the inequality gap? No.
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