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__label__cc	0.722732	0.277268	Some Perspective on my Nusbaum and Dreyfuss Ancestors Posted on May 4, 2015 by Amy Right now I am pretty absorbed in following up on the Seligmann trail in Germany and the US and in preparing for my trip, both in terms of travel details and in terms of trying to find as much information as I can about the Brotmans. I’ve been spending time going back over the Brotmanville Brotmans, hoping to find some clues I missed before the DNA results corroborated the family story that Joseph and Moses Brotman were brothers. But before too much time goes by, I want to reflect a bit on my Dreyfuss and Nusbaum ancestors. In many ways they typify the German Jewish immigrants who arrived in America in the 1840s and 1850s. They started as peddlers, they eventually became the owners of small dry goods stores in small towns, and for many of them, they remained dry goods or clothing merchants. Unlike my Cohen relatives, who were pawnbrokers for the most part, or my Seligman relatives, who started as merchants, but became active in politics and civic and military matters in Santa Fe and elsewhere, my Dreyfuss and Nusbaum ancestors began and stayed Pennsylvania merchants, even into the 20th century. Harrisburg Market Square with Leo Nusbaum store In addition, the Dreyfuss and Nusbaum families almost all stayed in Pennsylvania where they started. There were some who went to Peoria, though most returned to Pennsylvania, and a few who went to Baltimore, but overall the Dreyfuss and Nusbaum families started in small towns in Pennsylvania and in Harrisburg and eventually moved to Philadelphia. As far as I’ve been able to find them, many if not most of their descendants also stayed in the Philadelphia area. But beneath what might appear to be a very consistent and predictable pattern of living was a lot of turmoil. These were families who endured terrible tragedies—many children who died young from disease or from accidents, and many children who lost a parent at a very young age. Tuberculosis ravaged the family, as did heart disease and kidney disease. One member of the family died in the Great Fire of San Francisco. There were also a tragic number of family members who took their own lives. In addition, this was a family that went from poverty to comfort and then suffered financially when the 1870 Depression struck, causing many of the stores to close and forcing family members into bankruptcy. Yet the family in general rebounded, started over, and once again became merchants with successful businesses in most cases. The other pattern I’ve noticed in the Nusbaum and Dreyfuss lines is assimilation. Although there were certainly examples of intermarriage and conversion among the Cohen and certainly the New Mexican Seligman lines, that tendency to assimilate and move away from Judaism seemed even more widespread among the Dreyfuss and Nusbaum descendants. There were fewer people buried at places like Mt Sinai in Philadelphia, fewer indications of synagogue membership or other participation in the Jewish community. Perhaps those early years in the small towns where they were likely the only Jews in town took a toll on the role that Judaism would play in their lives and their identities. Overall, these two lines were very hard to research and write about. Not because they were hard to locate, although the Fanny Wiler mystery kept me going for quite a long time. But because there was just so much unhappiness, so much suffering. When I think back to their roots, coming from two small towns in Germany, Schopfloch and Hechingen, I wonder whether those early immigrants ever questioned their decision to leave Germany. I assume they left for economic opportunities and freedom from the discrimination they faced as Jews in Germany. Presumably they believed they had found both when they arrived and as they settled into life in Pennsylvania. And in many ways they had. They were free to worship, or not worship, as they saw fit. They were able to make a living, own property, even own businesses. They survived. Hechingen Synagogue http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/images/Images%2050/Hechingen%20Synagoge%20533.jpg But all the tragedy and loss they endured had to wear on them in many ways. Many of the family lines ended without any descendants. I have had more trouble finding current descendants than I’ve had with the other lines I’ve researched. I don’t have one relative with the name Nusbaum, aside from my father, whose middle name is Nusbaum. The family seems to have disappeared, blended into other names, other families, other traditions. For that reason, as hard as it was, I am happy that I was able to document and tell their story: where it began in Germany, how it continued in Pennsylvania, and what happened between their arrival in the 1840s and in the century that followed. This entry was posted in Dreyfuss, Germany, Harrisburg, Hechingen, Nusbaum, Pennsylvania, Peoria, Philadelphia, Reflections, Schopfloch and tagged Dreyfuss, dry goods, German Jewish immigrants, merchants, Nusbaum, peddlers, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia by Amy. Bookmark the permalink. 7 thoughts on “Some Perspective on my Nusbaum and Dreyfuss Ancestors” currentdescendent on May 4, 2015 at 6:36 pm said: What a thoughtful post, Amy. Your blog really adds to my understanding of late 19th century history. Amy on May 4, 2015 at 6:40 pm said: Thank you so much for your kind comment, Luanne. I myself have learned so much more doing this research than I ever did as a history major in college. I was a history (and marketing) major, too! Maryann Barnes on May 4, 2015 at 8:46 pm said: What a tapestry you have woven from the many threads of stories of your family! Amy, I enjoyed this summary of these lines of your family very much. I think it is so important to document the hardships and struggles and disappointments, along with the happy times. Thanks! Amy on May 4, 2015 at 10:30 pm said: Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging thoughts. I only wish these people had more happy times. The hardships and struggles seemed to be overwhelming. Thanks for reading and commenting. Jana Last on May 4, 2015 at 9:25 pm said: Wonderful post Amy. It’s certainly fascinating learning about our ancestors and what they experienced in their lives. I have ancestors who left Norway and moved to the US in the mid-1800’s. I wish they had left journals so I’d know why they left and how they felt about their new lives in the US. Oh, wouldn’t it be nice if they’d kept journals or wrote more letters (or ANY letters)? Thanks so much for reading and commenting.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4256
__label__cc	0.560048	0.439952	← Racial Harassment Cause of Hartford Shootings? Another Brick In the Wall In Iran → Wyclef For President! The rumors are true – Wyclef Jean is going to run for Haiti President. He will be part of a powerful new coalition focused on cleaning up the corruption which is epidemic in Haitian government and business affairs, and remains as a major roadblock to recovery and the building of any future economy. Wyclef to Run for Haiti President The rumors are true: Singer Wyclef Jean plans to run for president of earthquake-ravaged Haiti and will announce his candidacy in the coming days. Former Haitian parliamentary leader Pierre Eric Jean-Jacques said the Haiti-born hip hop artist will run as part of his coalition in the Nov. 28 election. The former Fugees frontman’s brother, Samuel Jean, confirmed that the singer will announce his intentions in a televised interview from Haiti tomorrow. Dozens of candidates are expected to compete for the presidency, among them Jean’s uncle Raymond Joseph, who is Haiti’s ambassador in Washington. Jean will be a candidate for a new coalition that calls itself Ansanm Nou Fo, which translates as “together we are strong” in Creole. He is popular in Haiti for his music and for his work through his charity Yele Haiti, which raised more than $9 million after the Jan. 12 earthquake but has been widely criticized for alleged financial irregularities. Posted by btx3 on August 4, 2010 in News Tags: elections, Haiti, President, Wyclef Jean	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4257
__label__wiki	0.69592	0.69592	Inventory Control Specialist in Albuquerque, New Mexico. First Name e0e79362 Last Name 2a33f532 Email de8474ea 955a99c2 Email me about jobs like this This position is responsible for the accuracy and integrity of the store’s inventory. One year of inventory control experience in a “big box” retail company or an equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to perform the essential functions of the job, as determined by the company. Demonstrated point of sale analysis and reporting experience. Business analysis experience is a plus. Intermediate computer skills including Microsoft Office Suite. Must be detail-oriented and highly organized. Must possess excellent customer service skills and work well under pressure. Ability to multi-task, meet deadlines, and work in a fast-paced environment. Demonstrate a thorough understanding and compliance with the company’s safe lifting practices standard operating procedures. Follow the daily cycle count and category review calendar. Research all inventory-related discrepancies and make appropriate adjustments in the inventory system. Review shipping and receiving documents for accuracy. Bring to the attention of the department managers immediately any discrepancies noticed in tagging or SKUing of merchandise. Audit the BFR daily in accordance with the Inventory Control SOP. Audit incoming and outgoing trucks randomly. Audit the SOR process in accordance with the Return of Sale SOP. Audit the SRR process in accordance with the Return of Sale SOP for Voids and Partial voids. Audit the RTV process to ensure RTV’s are being processed per SOP. Audit to ensure the security of the facility by notifying management of any issues. Audit the customer merchandise storage area weekly in accordance with the Customer Storage SOP and timely resolve any issues with the CEM and Operations Manager. Provide assistance to the Operations Manager during any physical inventory period. Ensure that the “Sample” tape is applied to all wood boxes that have been written off to “Sam”. If not, notify the department manager to immediately address. Run the OSDR Report for DMG, RTV, VA, DIS, WO, CHR, PRV, USE, LF, STL, WEB and SAM monthly to ensure correct movement of merchandise was done and correct any discrepancies. Document report of findings/corrections, submit to the Operations manager for review, both initial and archive monthly in the cycle count drawer. Check a minimum of 10 customer receipts daily and randomly. Either “Pickup” and or “Take With” Tickets. Any discrepancies adjust immediately and notify CEM/Operations Manager of mistake(s). Communicate to Store Management Team the discrepancies found in the day’s CCYL and propose solutions to fix the issues which may have caused and or potential may cause shrink via e-mail. Failure to fix the outstanding issues upon your follow-up, you will need to notify the CEM/Operations manager immediately. Maintain all cycle count paperwork per SOP. Follow-up to ensure that all changes were implemented. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently exposed to a warehouse environment and moving vehicles. The noise level in the work environment is typically moderate to noisy. Medium Work – Ability to exert 20-50 pounds of force occasionally, and/or 10-25 pounds of force frequently, and/or greater than negligible up to 10 pounds of force constantly to lift, carry, push, pull, or otherwise move objects. The employee is often required to use their hands and fingers, to handle or feel. The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, reach with arms and hands, climb or balance, and to stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl. Albuquerque New Mexico United States Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, 87109 Store Sales Store Sales First Name 432a7561 Last Name b53c5fc5 Email 0a9d0041 Department and Location 80a50a7a Departments 21ec7f72 Departments 0192dffe Accounts Payable Admin Customer Care Operations Customer Care Services Customer Service Design Services Distribution Operations Distribution Operations Leadership Distribution Warehouse Ecommerce Inventory Merchandising Leadership Merchandising Operations Operations Pro Services Product Review Store Operations Store Operations Leadership Store Operations Specialist Store Sales Store Sales Specialist Supply Chain Systems Support & Enhancements Technology Warehouse Locations 08bc9b1e Locations 58a36521 Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States Alexandria, Virginia, United States Arlington, Texas, United States Arlington Heights, Illinois, United States Arvada, Colorado, United States Atlanta, Georgia, United States Aurora, Illinois, United States Austin, Texas, United States Avon, Massachusetts, United States Birmingham, Alabama, United States Bloomingdale, Georgia, United States Boynton Beach, Florida, United States Bridgeton, Missouri, United States Brookfield, Wisconsin, United States Buford, Georgia, United States Burlingame, California, United States Carson, California, United States Charlotte, North Carolina, United States Chicago, Illinois, United States Cincinnati, Ohio, United States Clearwater, Florida, United States Concord, North Carolina, United States Countryside, Illinois, United States Dallas, Texas, United States Denver, Colorado, United States Devon, Pennsylvania, United States Downey, California, United States Draper, Utah, United States Edgemere, Maryland, United States El Paso, Texas, United States Everett, Washington, United States Farmingdale, New York, United States Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States Fort Myers, Florida, United States Fort Worth, Texas, United States Fountain Valley, California, United States Fullerton, California, United States Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States Glendale, Arizona, United States Greensboro, North Carolina, United States Gretna, Louisiana, United States Gurnee, Illinois, United States Hampton, Virginia, United States Henderson, Nevada, United States Henrico, Virginia, United States Hialeah, Florida, United States Hilliard, Ohio, United States Hollywood, Florida, United States Houston, Texas, United States Indianapolis, Indiana, United States Jacksonville, Florida, United States Katy, Texas, United States Kennesaw, Georgia, United States Knoxville, Tennessee, United States Lakeland, Florida, United States Las Vegas, Nevada, United States Levittown, Pennsylvania, United States Littleton, Colorado, United States Lombard, Illinois, United States Louisville, Kentucky, United States Marietta, Georgia, United States McDonough, Georgia, United States Memphis, Tennessee, United States Mesa, Arizona, United States Mesquite, Texas, United States Miami, Florida, United States Milpitas, California, United States Mission Viejo, California, United States Moorestown, New Jersey, United States Moreno Valley, California, United States Morrow, Georgia, United States Nashville, Tennessee, United States New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Norco, California, United States North Charleston, South Carolina, United States North Richland Hills, Texas, United States Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States Orlando, Florida, United States Overland Park, Kansas, United States Paramus, New Jersey, United States Pasadena, Texas, United States Phoenix, Arizona, United States Plano, Texas, United States Pompano Beach, Florida, United States Port St. Lucie, Florida, United States Reno, Nevada, United States Reynoldsburg, Ohio, United States Riverdale, Utah, United States Rocklin, California, United States Roswell, Georgia, United States Saint Petersburg, Florida, United States San Antonio, Texas, United States San Diego, California, United States Sanford, Florida, United States Santa Ana, California, United States Sarasota, Florida, United States Saugus, Massachusetts, United States Savannah, Georgia, United States Seattle, Washington, United States Skokie, Illinois, United States Smyrna, Georgia, United States St. Louis, Missouri, United States Sugar Land, Texas, United States Tampa, Florida, United States Tempe, Arizona, United States The Colony, Texas, United States Thornton, Colorado, United States Tucson, Arizona, United States Utica, Michigan, United States Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States Wayne, New Jersey, United States West Palm Beach, Florida, United States Wichita, Kansas, United States Woodbridge, Virginia, United States Woodland Hills, California, United States First Name 6b439580 Last Name a114be3a Email 26301d37 a91e9526 Email me about jobs like this	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4266
__label__wiki	0.92123	0.92123	Home / The team Dr Chisomo Msefula Dr Msefula is a senior Lecturer and Molecular microbiologist with the College of Medicine, University of Malawi. He also serves as Dean of the faculty of Biomedical Sciences and Health Professional. His main interests concern control of enteric pathogens in both children and adults through the study of antibiotic resistance and genetic diversity of the pathovariants. Dr Msefula collaborates with groups at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, University of Liverpool and Norvatis vaccines Institute, Italy. Dr Msefula through his PhD work characterised the sub-Saharan Africa representative S. Typhimurium strain D23580 that is widely used internationally. The genomic characterization of a distinct genotype of invasive S. Typhimurium in sub-Saharan Africa. Characterization of multidrug resistance on a transferable virulence plasmid in invasive S. Typhimurium Dr Arox Kamng’ona, BSc(Hons), MSc, PhD Background: Arox Kamng’ona did his O-level certificate education at Mtendere Secondary School in 1993. He was then selected to the University of Malawi, Chancellor College, to pursue a Bachelor of Science (Honours) Degree in Chemistry, which he completed in 1998. In 1999, he took up a position of assistant lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Malawi, the Polytechnic, before joining the Malawi College of Medicine in 2002 as an assistant lecturer in Biochemistry. In 2005 he was awarded a scholarship by the Government of Norway (NORAD) to study for a BSc(Hons) degree (2005) and Master of Science Degree in Molecular Biology (2006-2007) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. In 2009, he enrolled for a joint PhD program in Infection and Immunity with the University of Liverpool/University of Malawi, College of Medicine. He successfully defended his PhD in May 2014 and graduated in December 2014. Arox is married to Mtisunge Kamng’ona and they have three girls: Juanita, Tamanda and Nelly. Current position: Dr Arox Kamng’ona is a senior lecturer at the College of Medicine, University of Malawi. He also has a Position as an honorary fellow in the School of Clinical Infection Microbiology and Immunology, University of Liverpool. Research Interests: Dr Kamng’ona’s research focus is on microbial ecology. He is particularly interested in understanding the dynamics of human microbiota and effect on human health, using metagenomic approaches. This is in line with his PhD study in which he investigated the nasopharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumonia and other microbiota in Malawian children and adults. He has extensively worked in analysing 16S rRNA sequence data using mothur, quantitive insight into microbial ecology (QIIME) and in the R environment. His work earned him placement at the European Molecular Biology Labs and European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) in the UK where he further worked taxonomic and functional data analysis of shotgun metagenomic sequences, using the online EMBL-EBI metagenomic data analysis portal. As a researcher, Dr Kamng’ona works in collaboration with the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust (MLW); University of California, Davis (UCDavis); Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge; EMBL-EBI; the Institute of Infection and Global Health (IIGH) and the Centre for Genomic Research (CGR), University of Liverpool; St Georges Medical School, University of London; and The Michigan State University (MSU). Dr Elizabeth Kampira Dr Elizabeth Kampira is a senior lecturer in the department of Medical Laboratory Sciences in the faculty of Biomedical Sciences and Health Professionals, College of Meidicine, University of Malawi where she also serves as Deputy Head of Department. She has done extensive work in clinical laboratory sciences, Pharmacogenetics of HIV antiretroviral therapy and validating molecular tool to be used in TB diagnosis. She is a practicing medical laboratory scientist and researcher. She teaches and provides academic mentorship to graduate and undergraduate students especially in Clinical Chemistry, Toxicology and Molecular Diagnostic. She has contributed in developing curricula of Biomedical Science and Medical Laboratory Science Mzuzu Universities and College of Medicine respectively and its training implementation at College of Medicine in Malawi. Dr Kampira’s research interest include pharmacogenetic characteristics and pharmacovigilance of the African population with an understanding of drug metabolizing enzymes and transporter genes involved in susceptibility to diseases and variation in response to treatment. Her goal is to intergrate genetic and genomic findings there by promoting monitoring of the safety of drugs in our settings, detection, assessment, understanding into changes in clinical practice, from bench to the bedside and translate the results into better treatment of patients and prevention of adverse drug reactions among patients. I have considerable experience in collaborating in international, multi-center research projects. Dr Benjamin Kumwenda Dr Benjamin Kumwenda is a Lecture in informatics at College of Medicine in the department of Biomedical Sciences. He lectures in Foundation program and Health Informatics in health management and masters in public health programmes. He is also the Head of Department of Biomedical Sciences. He also serves as a theme lead for the Bioinformatics research theme in the college. He holds a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from the University of Pretoria funded by the Research Initiative in Science and Education (RISE). He was a postdoctoral fellow for the Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust under the H3ABioNet project, a project under H3Africa. He also spent 9 months at the University of Liverpool, UK as a postdoctoral research fellow under the African Research Excellence Fund in Professor Jay Hinton’s laboratory. He is the recipient of the Research Initiative in Science and Education (RISE) graduate establishment competitive grant to establish Bioinformatics research and training in the College of Medicine. His research interests are in genomics, transcriptomics, NGS, protein modelling and algorithm development. He collaborates with groups University of Liverpool, Sanger Institute, University of Cape Town and Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome trust. Dr Benjamin Kumwenda has masters students from the MSc in informatics and MPH programmes in the University of Malawi. Dr Khuzwayo Jere Dr Khuzwayo C. Jere is a Senior Lecturer in the department of Medical Laboratory Sciences in the faculty of Biomedical Sciences and Health Professionals at the College of Medicine (COM), University of Malawi, and also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool. He leads rotavirus surveillance studies at the Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme (MLW) and is a member of the Vaccine surveillance consortium that is assessing the effectiveness of newly introduced childhood rotavirus and pneumococci vaccines in Malawi. He pursued a BSc. Degree at the University of Malawi, then obtained BSc. (Med)(Hons) and MSc. (Med) degrees in Medical Virology at the Medical University of Southern Africa, Medunsa (now Sefakgo Mahatho Heath Science University), and a PhD in Biochemistry at North-West University in South Africa. Dr Jere has recently been awarded a Wellcome Trust Training Fellowship in Public Health and Tropical Medicine in which he is utilise recent advances in high throughput sequencing technologies to understand immune responses in children exposed to rotavirus. Dr Richard J. Munthali Dr Richard Munthali is an affiliate in the bioinformatics group at the College of Medicine. He is currently working for MRC/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU)- School of Clinical Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand as a Bioinformatician/Data Scientist. Yankho Chapeta Yankho Chapeta is the Msc Bioinformatics Administrator as well as a Staff Associate at the College of Medicine. She obtained her Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from the University of Malawi, Chancellor College in 2009, and currently doing her Master’s degree in Epidemiology at the University of Malawi, College of Medicine. Yankho’s research interest is the epidemiology of Malaria and mechanisms of transmission and prevention, specifically how entomological indices (mosquito density and sporozoite rate) vary between villages with high and low coverage of House Improvement when added to the standard Malarial control strategies. About Bioinformatics	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4269
__label__wiki	0.700547	0.700547	Tillis Applauds Bipartisan Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act Being Signed Into Law Includes Tillis-Warren Proposal Protecting Veterans From Predatory Lending Sen. Thom Tillis WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, applauded the President signing the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act into law. The bipartisan legislation is the result of work from Congressional members on both sides of the aisle to a reach consensus on how to provide relief for smaller financial institutions from Dodd-Frank regulations that were meant for the biggest, most complex institutions, while also ensuring a safe financial system. Following the passage of Dodd-Frank, many financial institutions all across the county were unable to handle the one-size-fits-all model of regulations imposed on them, no matter their size. As a result, many of these institutions were forced to close or consolidate, greatly reducing the access to capital for consumers and small business owners. For example, in March of 2008, North Carolina had 102 banks headquartered in the state. Due to accelerated consolidation after the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, the number of North Carolina-headquartered banks fell to 50 as of March 2018. “Since 2008, North Carolina’s regional and community banks have been decimated by the burdensome regulatory standards set by Dodd-Frank, resulting in a more than 50 percent decline in banks across the state and restricted resources for consumers and small business owners” said Senator Tillis. “The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act is bipartisan legislation that has been years in the making after hearing of the negative effects of Dodd-Frank all across the country. This legislation is a positive step in right-sizing the regulatory burden to allow banks to focus on consumers and small-business owners, not on red-tape from the federal government.” “North Carolina bankers are grateful to Senator Tillis for the leadership role he played in advancing regulatory reform through Senate Bill 2155 as a co-sponsor of the bill and an advocate for the role a strong a vibrant banking sector plays in serving the needs of consumers, small businesses and communities throughout North Carolina,” said Peter Gwaltney, President & CEO of the North Carolina Bankers Association. “S. 2155 contains many benefits for consumers, including a very important provision, sponsored by Senator Tillis, that protects veterans and their families from predatory mortgage lending practices. Military families and veterans deserve the best we can give them in return for their service to our country.” “Credit unions and the millions of Carolinians they serve are grateful for the leadership of Sen. Thom Tillis in passing common-sense regulatory reform with S.2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act,” said Evelyn Hawthorne, Vice President of Governmental Affairs of Carolinas Credit Union League. “This is regulatory “right-sizing” of overreaching measures that are intended for Wall Street, yet weigh heavily on Main Street and credit unions, in which compliance has drained an average of twenty percent from operating budgets. S.2155 strikes the right balance, maintaining necessary provisions for Wall Street and the functions of the CFPB and other regulators. Thanks to Sen. Tillis and all who supported it, credit unions on Main Street can return more time and energy to the needs of our citizens and communities.” Included in the legislation is the Protecting Veterans from Predatory Lending Act of 2018, bipartisan legislation Tillis introduced with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), which would protect veterans from targeted predatory home loan practices by requiring lenders to demonstrate a material benefit to consumers when refinancing their mortgage. To learn more about the legislation, click here. Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act Being Signed Into Law Tillis Applauds Bipartisan Economic Growth Opioid Forum to meet tonight Events for Bladen County residents Why I love the “Mother County”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4270
__label__wiki	0.878129	0.878129	NEXT \| Watch the Hearthstone announcement live or on Twitch Warcraft > Warcraft Movie > WoWJul 15, 2015 1:00 pm CT Does the Warcraft movie have a problem with women? I want to be excited about the Warcraft movie, but the hype from SDCC has left me decidedly un-hyped, and not just because they didn’t reveal the public trailer we all expected. After all, thoughI may not have seen the particular footage shown at SDCC this year, I caught the teasers at SDCC and BlizzCon last year, and I feel completely confident that the movie looks great — I don’t need another trailer to prove that. But I’m starting to worry that the Warcraft movie may have a real problem with women. It’s a problem that World of Warcraft itself has had for some time. Warlords of Draenor has made great efforts to include female characters, but while it’s fantastic to see Yrel, Draka, and Aggra (appearing in Nagrand after we were explicitly told she wouldn’t be part of the expansion), it’s impossible to ignore the game’s lousy track record with leading ladies who are often forgotten, neglected, fridged, or simply never important enough to be mentioned (or given names) in the first place. (Which reminds me: has anyone seen Jaina lately? Should we send out search parties?) And then there’s the fact that I can’t seem to go a solid week without being told women don’t play games like WoW — so I must be faking my name, voice, and/or identity as a whole. Despite having met more women playing World of Warcraft than I have in any other gaming community, the reaction to them often ranges from hostility to denial to complete inappropriateness. There’s a reason why many women gamers won’t advertise their online presence: simply existing can be an invitation for harassment, and that will kill any enjoyment found in the game. Many players log on the game world to escape from real world problems, but logging on to any multiuser platform as a woman isn’t always as much of an escape as one might hope. I’m currently in a fantastic guild where I can talk on voice chat without any fear of being called out for faking my own voice and “pretending” to be a woman — but in my decade-long history of playing WoW, that hasn’t always been the case. What does this have to do with the Warcraft movie? The connection between these thoughts and the Warcraft movie is this: when director Duncan Jones talks about World of Warcraft, I have wonder if we’re playing the same game at all. “It [Warcraft] has always been a very welcoming environment for women,” Jones told Time last week. Reading this, my eyebrows went up. Even now, in a friendly, welcoming guild, I still meet people in game chat or in groups who tell me I don’t exist, that I don’t belong, to get out. My last encounter with such an individual was Thursday, July 9th — which I remember particularly because I screen capped some especially amusing lines of dialog — the day before Jones’ interview with Time. It’s hard to see Warcraft as a welcoming environment for women today, but even its current state is better than what it was a year ago or a decade ago. Saying that the game has “always” been welcoming doesn’t just ring hollow, it denies the experience of hundreds of thousands of women who put up with harassment every time they log on — but log in we do, whether ignored or abused for it, because we love the game. We love the game, but we know it’s not perfect: and I expect many of us are still here because we know Blizzard can make better, more inclusive games, and we’ve seen them making efforts to so. Though I applaud the steps Blizzard has made, I also don’t think this is all its games can be: we can do better to create a game world that’s fun and welcoming for everyone who logs on. But it feels like Jones disagrees with my assessment. “When we were writing the film it was also really important to me that we maintain the balance that they got so right in that game.” I reread that sentence, and then I reread it again. Duncan Jones clearly does not play the same World of Warcraft that I do, but the game he’s describing sounds awesome and I want in. Is his experience of Warcraft representative of what it is to be a man playing the game? Because I’d love to have a subscription to the game Jones is playing and I’d happily pay a higher subscription fee for the experience. But I can’t. The internet — and Blizzard’s games, by extension — come with a side order of misogyny that’s hard to escape, even in a fantasy world about orcs and elves. While Jones certainly has an obligation not to bad talk his source material (if he wants to keep his job), it feels like he’s gone out of his way to talk about how great the game is… and while it may be a great game, its history with sexism isn’t one of the things that makes it great. Why not call out the game’s great female characters (who exist, even if they don’t always get a fare shake)? Why not call out the number of women who play the game? To say that the Warcraft movie isn’t going to be sexist, did Jones really have to tell the game’s female playerbase that what they see every day has never existed? Whether he doesn’t realize what women experience in the game or he’s trying to downplay it to promote the movie… neither bodes particularly well for how women are likely to be treated by the film. Will the Warcraft film transcend its gaming roots? This leads to the question of whether the Warcraft movie will be modeled after the game Jones describes or the boys’ club that Jones can’t see because he’s part of it. It’s possible Jones is trying to push the story beyond its source material, and make it something that’s genuinely welcoming to people of all types, even though answers in that interview don’t explicitly say as much. Still, this seems like a tall order, especially when the cast includes only four named women out of 15 named characters total — not an unusual ratio to see an action movie, certainly, but a far cry from even-handed gender representation that Jones seems to believe exists in Warcraft’s gaming universe. We only know two of those characters from previous lore: Draka (Anna Galvin), wife of Durotan, and Garona (Paula Patton), the half-orc assassin. Of the rest, one is Lady Taria (Ruth Negga), wife of King Llane Wrynn, mother of Varian Wrynn — and an invention of the film because, prior to this point, Varian’s mother was neither mentioned nor seen. Two more female characters are complete unknowns: Aloman (Anna Van Hooft) and Kultiran (Valérie Wiseman) have not been previously mentioned in the lore, but play an important enough part in the film to be named. This, at least, does suggest that Jones intends to grow the game universe, to flesh out the women that the games, novels, and comics have glossed over or outright ignored. At the weekend’s Legendary panel, Negga said of her character that “behind every great man, there’s a greater woman.” Despite the implication that women must stand behind their men (and, thus, well away from the front lines), this line does reassure us that Warcraft’s leading ladies will be more than set dressing: they’ll be heroes in their own right, fighting for their cause and their homeland. Still, in the case of Negga’s Lady Taria, if the film follows the game lore as we know it, she dies and leaves Varian an orphan during the First War. Though we don’t know how much of the lore the Warcraft movie intends to cover, it may well be that we only have Taria for a single film before she, like many of Warcraft lore’s other leading ladies, vanishes to make room for more stories about the male-dominated cast. Just what are they wearing? Also in the Time interview, Jones talked costuming: “You can dress however you want in the game world. You don’t have to be in slutty costumes. You can dress like the character that you see in your head.” Again, I’d love to play the game Jones describes as World of Warcraft… but it doesn’t sound much like the game I’m subscribed to. Often the same armor will look radically different on male and female character models (with the latter showing significantly more skin). The chainmail bikini look is a popular fantasy trope that seems impractical in a combat situation — and never does much to make me feel like a kick-ass warrior. While there are many options in armor, you’re often required to wear certain gear to do your best in combat, and sometimes that means women aren’t wearing much at all, especially while leveling up. Fortunately, transmog has opened up a world of armor options to all characters — and allowed female characters to escape from the chainmail bikini and plate thong that are entirely too common amongst Blizzard’s armor designs. Today, women in World of Warcraft have a lot of choice about how they look: they can adopt a sexy look or wear garb with a more protective appearance if they’d rather (insofar as Blizzard’s designs allow). So does the Warcraft movie follow Blzzard’s skimpy-on-female-models, full-coverage-on-male-models armor design philosophy? We’ve only officially seen a few of the characters of the film so far. Lothar and Durotan both have their own movie posters, and we’ve saw models of Llane’s armor on the SDCC floor plus a character shot from BlizzCon last year. Of these, there’s a definite orc/human divide: Durotan is bare-chested while Lothar and Llane both wear full armor. Of the film’s leading ladies, we’ve seen nothing officially released and very little unreleased. Shots of Draka in the BlizzCon trailer focused on her bare belly while blurry images of concept art shown during the Legendary panel show Garona in armed with some kind of weapon while wearing typical orcish garb, with similar coverage to a bikini. Taria appeared fully covered in a long gown and, though it’s unclear whether or not her character art includes it, we know she wields a dagger. For all of Jones’ comments about not having to dress in “slutty” costumes, two of the three women we’ve seen so far show a lot of skin. Jones himself has already spoken up to assuage concerns, explaining that the promo art from SDCC didn’t feature Garona in her armor, which she’s in for most of the movie. So how will the women of Warcraft be dressed when we see them on the big screen? Should we trust the things we’ve seen or the things we’ve been told? So does the Warcraft movie have a sexism problem or doesn’t it? We’ve put together these pieces from the limited information about the movie that’s available to us. We’ve seen little of the film to suggest what the finished product will be like, and that’s part of the problem. Jones’ words might be easier to brush off if we had anything else to go on, but as it stands they represent the bulk of what we know about the movie’s female characters… and the disconnect between those words and the reality of the game we know is more than a little worrying. While Duncan Jones talks up the movie’s lack of sexism, based, in part, on what he claims is the game’s lack of sexism, there are only two conclusions I can draw: either he doesn’t play the same World of Warcraft that I do and he’s making the film he describes or he’s making a film that’s just as sexist as the game he heaps praise on. Until we learn more, we can only hope that Warcraft’s women are used as more than set dressing. Filed Under: Draka, Feminism, Garona, Sexism, Taria It's been three years. How would you do another… The Queue: Let's have a wedding, have a wedding What do you think a StarCraft FPS would have been… What does it cost to get riding in WoW Classic? Blizzard rumored to have canceled StarCraft FPS game… What have you got in your bank from long ago that…	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4271
__label__cc	0.544796	0.455204	Report of the meeting of Blockupy International, Brussels, Oct. 16, 2015 Kategorie: Uncategorized \| 12. November 2015 The meeting had a good participation with activists from many countries (Belgium, Greece, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Croatia) and from different networks and organizations (trade unions, parties, associations, social centers, collectives) with a wealth of political and strategic discussion. We began with an overview of the history of the Blockupy process, highlighting some characteristics that it had during its development. It started from a German situation and was based on a strong territorial commitment but at the same time also found a transnational dimension. It had a midterm perspective with central moments of common action in the streets at “speaking” (symbolic) targets. Blockupy is not a formal alliance but functions more like a “hybrid thing” between active members of networks and organizations committed to launch the process within and outside their networks. Moreover, it functioned in a specific historical situation enabling European “anti-austerity moments” of movement building and articulation. It seems clear that after March 18 in Frankfurt, Blockupy is now at a crossroad: the old phase, linked to the opening of the ECB and the intense Greek struggles is over; the new phase needs to be deployed and pushed. In the last Blockupy International meeting in Padua in July we agreed to strengthen Blockupy and anti-austerity struggles, moving from Frankfurt’s financial center to one of the headquarters of political decision in Europe such as Berlin or Brussels. We pointed out that Brussels in mid-October with its EU council summit should be a first milestone; a next milestone in spring 2016, possibly in Berlin, should follow. We also proposed a “Europeanization of the OXI” as spirit of both refusal of austerity and dignity for all – as a campaign taken up everywhere and by everyone (https://blockupy.org/en/6184/report-on-the-meeting-of-blockupyinternational-coordinating-group-taking-a-new-step/). However, after July 13 dynamics in Europe changed. On the one hand, we had to witness the intense pressure and blackmail on the Greek government by the EU governments and institutions to sign a new memorandum with a wave of protest and intense frustration to follow. On the other hand, we also saw an overwhelming pressure by refugees and migrants, as well as the people in Europe supporting them, on the European border regime that put “borders in crisis”. These changes in Europe force us to rethink our strategy – the implications of the summer in these different regards and in its consequences for the way to act upon it. Some points from the discussion seem to be crucial: The OXI is still an inspiring experience of the power of the people against the ruling elites, but now we need to define better our target and antagonism. The “Greek affair” shows us that elections can pose in question the crisis regime on the territorial level and politicize the “debt question” but they cannot defeat the power relations within the EU and the financial power of the crisis. It clarified also that, with regards to the crisis management as well as any relevant issue on the European level, it is the political decisions taken by the political actors in the framework of the current power relations on the European level (and not “technical solutions adopted by independent institutions” as they are sometimes portrayed). There are contradictions within the European Union; however, the discussions helped us also to highlight the political aim of neo-liberal élites: to destroy any alternative. It is apparent right now, progressive and left forces in Europe seem to be rather “depressed” and fragmented than united and outraged by the events of the “summer”. Simultaneously, refugees, migrants and people throughout Europe have pushed another crisis and new political relations to the fore, exposing (other) fundamental contradictions within the EU. While in the latter case, we had a dynamic pushing against the border regime from inside and outside Europe, in the first case, the European dynamic diminished. Nevertheless, both contested the very constitution of Europe as EU. One of the major conclusions of this meeting was that it is still necessary to have a European space of action and mobilization: without people in march we cannot change things. We as Blockupy have used a specific political approach (transnational, targeting, confrontational, hybrid) and can develop our tactics against the power bloc of austerity policies. The necessity to improve connections between trans/national struggles is clear. Furthermore, our approach must allow local and European struggles to be linked and to be expressed in the “heart of the beast”. Thus, Blockupy’s main task will be to construct a counter-power through a space of transnational mobilization that is linked to local and territorial struggles. Blockupy’s success resulted from its ability to strategically set targets and to produce interventions thanks to strong discourses, strong actions and an intelligible symbolic target against the austerity regime. How to recreate this successful situation? For all strategizing, it remains crucial to combine the work on the political contradictions in the EU regime with the creation of a counter-power bloc that helps to change social majorities. Given the crucial role of political decision in this phase, we still reflected on Berlin as symbolic site that could be a next important step to make visible that counter bloc. Plus, there should be enough targets there for articulating this antagonism in a meaningful way. Berlin is one of the places where the centralization of power is taking place. Here (as elsewhere) the question of democracy and solidarity could be posed and become the center of this new shared message linked to a common struggle ground (public + private debt, narrative of “deficit-budget”, welfare/social rights, speculation etc.). However, how to frame “Berlin” needs to be considered carefully and seriously, so that it would not be framed in “nationalist” (Anti-German) terms. Furthermore, setting a target and deciding on a “territory” cannot be a “transnational” decision alone. Such a target can only be successful if it becomes a campaign in the territories and is taken up as one’s campaign. Once we define better this mid-term target, we could have a frame that can intertwine with other processes, events and mobilizations; in particular, we mentioned the Cop21 mobilization in Paris as well as the migrant strike of March 1st proposed during last Transnational Strike Meeting in Poznan. We decided to speak more thoroughly about these dates in our next phone calls. Moreover, Dyktio is thinking of a transnational festival in February/March in Athens to bring together transnational and local movements in order to work against the “Europeanization of TINA”. However, Blockupy (as our network) is also about trusting people/networks in organizing this process, mobilizing from the “region” itself is crucial too; thus the relationship between the transnational processes and commitments and the territorial base as crucial space of “own” mobilization remains critical. This is valid also for Berlin. That is why it is crucial to take into consideration the next meeting/conference of Blockupy that was planned for November and is now planned for early February in Berlin (Feb. 6./7.). Here, intense, deep and enlarged discussions are planned for the Blockupy alliance and its friends in order to understand and push a possible dynamic within Germany. Apart from the necessary discussion for the movements in Germany it could be a place for a discussion about the necessary link between local and transnational mobilizations: what would be the conditions for a transnational and territorial successful mobilization, which commitments are required, how to understand the respective needs and possibilities to re-create that dynamics of action that permitted us to work in last three years. However, it needs to be prepared in a way that “both discussions” take place in their own right and with productive linkages. These meetings cannot be the all encompassing weekends of all planning and decision making; however, we need to find and define the space in which we can go a step forward and work out agreements on how to go on. Yet, Blockupy International can and will continue with its crucial transnational political work and remain a space that draws other networks, regions, activists in the European space; however, only if it does not restrict itself to Berlin/Germany or the decision making processes of “events” (no matter how important). Blockupy International as a political space needs to engage much more in common political discussions on strategies within, against, and for the European space. What does it mean for progressive anti-austerity movements and political actors to continue with our work, what are the conditions to create an oppositional bloc, how do we exchange the uneven conditions for these kinds of politics. Therefore, there is the utmost necessity for our own and the political process to find new ways to engage again actively and participate in the organizing process of Blockupy International, sharing responsibilities also through the involvement of new subjects who came in the aftermath of March 18. The Blockupy International coordinating group, Nov. 9, 2015	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4272
__label__wiki	0.878819	0.878819	Casey Pops A Maine Judge Finds an Ebola Quarantine Compromise Maine Judge Charles C. LaVerdiere gave nurse Kaci Hickox an OK, with restraints, to go wherever she pleases, handing state officials a partial defeat Friday in their bid to restrict her movements as a precaution against Ebola. Chief Judge LaVerdiere ruled that Hickox must continue daily monitoring but said there's no need to isolate her or restrict her movements because she's not showing symptoms of Ebola. The ruling instructs Hickox to submit to daily health monitoring, coordinate her travel with public health authorities, and notify officials if she develops any symptoms of the deadly virus. The Judge warned Hickox : "The court is fully aware that people are acting out of fear and that this fear is not entirely rational." But, he wrote that the fear is nonetheless "present and it is real." He called on Hickox to respect this reality and "guide herself accordingly." The order by Judge LaVerdiere eased his earlier, temporary ruling that ordered Hickox to stay in Fort Kent, avoid public places and remain more than three feet away from other people. Judge La Verdiere said that the state had failed to make its case for an outright quarantine. He quoted from an affidavit by the director of the Maine CDC that emphasized that a person without Ebola symptoms cannot spread the disease. and will remain in effect until there is a hearing on the state's bid for an outright quarantine for Hickox, who recently treated Ebola patients in West Africa. ~~~~~ Hickox described as a "good compromise" the judge's ruling that rejected state efforts to quarantine the nurse in her home but does require her to submit to daily monitoring for the Ebola virus. Hickox said : "I am very satisfied with the decision. The three points that he is still recommending that I abide by are the three points that I believe are part of this good compromise that we can make." Maine had sought a quarantine through November 10, which would mark the end of the 21-day incubation period for Ebola. Hickox said her "thoughts, prayers and gratitude" remain with those who are still battling Ebola in West Africa, where Hickox treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. ~~~~~ Governor Paul LePage said that despite the state's best efforts, Hickox had refused to cooperate. The Governor said he had done everything he could to protect Mainers : "The judge has eased restrictions with this ruling and I believe it is unfortunate. However, the state will abide by the law," LePage said. After the decision, a state trooper car that had been parked in front of her home to movements left, and she and her boyfriend stepped outside to thank the judge. She has contended that confinement at her home in northern Maine violated her rights. She twice violated the state's voluntary quarantine by going outside her home - once to go on a bike ride and once to talk to the media and shake a reporter's hand. When asked if the state would request a hearing on the judge's ruling, a spokesman for the Governor said he didn't yet know. "She has broken every promise she has made so far, so I can't trust her. And I don't trust that we know enough about this disease to be so callous. ~~~~~ In his ruling, the judge took the unusual opportunity to thank Hickox for her service in Africa : "We would not be here today unless (Hickox) generously, kindly and with compassion, lent her skills to aid, comfort and care for individuals stricken with the terrible disease. We need to remember as we go through this matter that we owe her and all professions who give of themselves in this way a debt of gratitude." The judge also acknowledged the gravity of restricting someone's constitutional rights without solid science to back it up. "I am well aware of the misconceptions, misinformation, bad science and bad information being spread from shore to shore in our country with respect to Ebola," he wrote. ~~~~~ Hickox, 33, stepped into the media glare when she returned from Sierra Leone to become subject to a mandatory quarantine in New Jersey. After being released from a hospital there, she returned to this small town, where she was placed under what Maine authorities called a voluntary quarantine. In a court filing, the Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention had already backed away from the state's original request for an in-home quarantine and called for restrictions that fall in line with federal guidelines. In the filing, Maine CDC Director, Dr. Sheila Pinette, had said she would seek a public health order for mandatory direct active monitoring and restrictions on movement as soon as possible and until the end of the incubation period ... to protect the public health and safety." ~~~~~ Under Maine law, there has to be an “actual or threatened epidemic” to impose a quarantine. Paul Millus, a civil rights attorney who is not representing Hickox, told The Washington Post the state could have a hard time proving that, since Hickox hasn’t shown symptoms. “Moreover, it is not quite clear that they would be able, medically speaking, to produce clear and convincing evidence that would require Ms. Hickox to be quarantined,” he said. Hickox’s lawyer, Norman Siegel, told the Bangor Daily News : “The conditions that the state of Maine is now requiring Kaci to comply with are unconstitutional and illegal and there is no justification for the state of Maine to infringe on her liberty.” Siegel previously described New Jersey’s policy, which is similar to Maine’s, as “overly broad." Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University professor who heads the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, told the Wall Street Journal that this is the first time he can recall the government imposing a quarantine on a class of people - doctors exposed to Ebola - rather than on a case-by-case basis depending on symptoms. “That pushes the envelope more than I’ve seen it in my lifetime,” he said. “We are basically depriving individuals of liberty for 21 days just because they have traveled from a particular part of the world. That seems to me wrong legally and ethically and is against science.” If a court agrees Maine is depriving Hickox of her liberty in violation of the Constitution, it could strike the state’s quarantine law down for being too broad. However, some legal experts are skeptical this argument will succeed. Writing for the Volokh Conspiracy, Eugene Kontorovich pointed out that courts most often defer to state health officials in public health emergencies. Quarantines are rare and there are few relevant cases. But Kontorovich claims the few cases on the books don’t bode well for Hickox : “A brief review of the cases suggests it is extremely difficult to challenge such an action without a clear showing of medical unreasonableness, or discriminatory application. Indeed, I found no cases in which a quarantine has been lifted on due process grounds (though there have been some successful challenges to conditions of quarantine).” In addition, he noted modern quarantine cases dealt with tuberculosis or small pox, both diseases less deadly than Ebola, which could be another point in the state's favor. ~~~~~ Dear readers, it is clear that, putting aside his personal opinions about those treating Ebola patients in West Africa, Judge LaVerdiere was trying in his ruling to impose the compromise that Hickox and Maine couldn't reach on their own. He left Maine's quzrantine law intact. He imposed limits on Hickox's freedom of movement and made her monitoring subject to his judicial oversight. He recignized thzt oublic fear over a new disease should be respected but balanced that with Hickox's right to as much personal freedom as possible in the novel circumstance. What is more puzzling is Judge LeVerdiere's - and everyone else from President Obama on down - use of the phrase 'based on science.' Normally, courts rely on science when it is settled. The science surrounding Ebola -- its origin, transmissibility mechanisms, incubation period, infectious state indications -- are not at all settled. So, we are witnessing the White House, CDC, and now the first judge, treat the little we actually know - and extrapolate from the little we know - as a settled set of scientific facts. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Seat-of-the-pants science is a dis-service to America and the world. Posted by Casey-Pops at 4:00 PM 7 comments: Links to this post Israel Once More Surrounded by Palestinian Propaganda Lies Bloomberg reported yesterday about the White House's defense of its commitment to Israel as it sought to calm the controversy over an anonymous comment attributed to a top Obama administration official. The comment appeared in an October 28 article in The Atlantic magazine. An unidentified senior US official is quoted by columnist Jeffrey Goldberg as calling Netanyahu a “chickensh- t” who’s afraid to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or sunni Arab states. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a former commando, responded to the distasteful comment while he was at a memorial ceremony in parliament for a cabinet minister assassinated by a Palestinian : “I risked my life for my country, and I am not willing to make concessions that will endanger our country. Our paramount interests, first and foremost security and the unity of Jerusalem, are not important to those same anonymous sources who attack us and me, personally. I am being attacked personally only because I am defending the state of Israel." ~~~~~ The latest Obama-Netanyahu exchange threatened to worsen already tense relations between the two men, feeding a feud between Israel and the US over Israeli construction in contested east Jerusalem. Republicans said the episode portrays Obama as insufficiently committed to supporting Israel, a sensitive political issue for many Jewish and evangelical Christian voters. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the comments in the article “do not reflect the views of the President,”adding that the US is “as committed as it ever has been to the security of Israel.” The two leaders “consult closely and frequently,” according to Earnest, who said that Obama has met with Netanyahu more than any other foreign leader. He said he doesn’t know who made the slur and doesn’t know whether Obama does. “I would be surprised if he did,” he said. Both Susan Rice, Obama's National Security Advisor, and Secretary of State John Kerry apologized today for the comment. ~~~~~ It is not just the very undiplomatic comment about Netanyahu in The Atlantic that is agitating Israel-US relations. The two administrations disagreed again this week over Israeli plans to speed up construction of 1,000 homes in Jewish areas of east Jerusalem, the sector of the Holy City that the Palestinians claim for a future capital. The US State Department called the plan “incompatible with the pursuit of peace.” Israel captured east Jerusalem, as well as the West Bank, from Jordan in 1967 and annexed it that year in a move that isn’t internationally recognized. It has since ringed the Arab neighborhoods of the eastern sector with Jewish areas where about 300,000 Israelis live alongside a similar number of Palestinians, who argue that Netanyahu's goal is to settle east Jerusalem with so many Israelis that it will be impossible for Palestine to take it as their capital. The Israeli government denies this. ~~~~~ As if these disagreements were not enough, Obama and Netanyahu have also had heated exchanges over the nuclear talks with Iran. Netanyahu has warned world powers led by the US against signing a “bad” nuclear deal with Iran that would not ensure it couldn’t build bombs. In The Atlantic piece, Jeffrey Goldberg wrote that the Obama administration thinks Netanyahu is bluffing with his threats to attack Iran’s nuclear program to keep it from developing the capability to produce weapons. Iran, which denies it seeks to build atomic arms, is trying to reach a deal with world powers under which it would curb its nuclear ambitions in exchange for a continued and expanding lifting of international sanctions. The negotiating parties face a late November deadline to reach the next level of agreement. ~~~~~ And while juggling all these items, Prime Minister Netanyahu is also dealing with an assassination attempt on a controversial rabbi by a lone Palestinian. Following the shooting, tensions between Palestinians and Israelis were raised when Israel closed access to the Temple Mount ysterday, a move Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas exaggeratedly called a "declaration of war." Abbas presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh told CNN that the decision to close off the site, which includes the revered al-Aqsa Mosque, was a "brazen challenge" and "grave behavior" that would lead to "further tensions and instability." Israeli police said they closed the Temple Mount "to prevent disturbances" after the drive-by shooting of controversial activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick on Wednesday night. Glick was shot three times outside Jerusalem’s Begin Center following a conference about the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. Police have not yet found the unidentified assailant who was wearing a helmet and was said to have fled the scene on a motorcycle. Glick had finished a speech at the Begin Center when, according to eyewitnesses, a man with an Arabic accent approached Glick and asked him for his identity. The man then shot the rabbi, got on the motorcycle and fled, suggesting this was an assassination attempt on Glick. A message on a jihadist Palestinian website about the conference, which included details on the time, location and attendees, was being looked into by police, according to TV reports. The jihadist post also called on Palestinians to prevent the meeting, according to the report. ~~~~~ And, last but by no means least, Sweden's new left-leaning government on Thursday recognized a Palestinian state. Sweden became the third country to recognize Palestine as a state, following Malta and Cyprus, reflecting growing international impatience with the lack of progress in peace negotiations. Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said Sweden, fulfilling a promise it had made when the Social Democratic-led government took office earlier this month, made the move because Palestine had met the international law criteria required for such recognition. "There is a territory, a people and a government," she said. Israel quickly condemned the move, and Israeli Foreign Minister Abigdor Lieberman called it "a miserable decision that strengthens the extremist elements and Palestinian rejectionism." Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official, welcomed the move as "a principled and courageous decision." Israel says Palestine can achieve independence only through peace negotiations, and that recognition of Palestine at the UN or by individual countries undermines the negotiating process. Palestinians say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn't serious about the peace negotiations. The last round of peace talks collapsed in April and while the EU and the US have not recognized Palestine, they have hinted that Israel's tough negotiating stance hurt the talks. Netanyahu continues to settle Israelis in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, even though they are claimed by Palestinians as part of a future state. The 28-nation European Union has urged that negotiations to achieve a two-state solution resume as soon as possible. And the Obama administratipn has urged Israel to stop building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. ~~~~~ Dear readers, it is always extremely stressful to be right about the principles involved in an argument and yet to be losing ground to those who are wrong. We have all experienced this many times during our lives. We can only imagine the frustration felt by Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu over principles so important that they could cost Israel its very future. Palestine has, by repeating the same false litany for decades, managed to convince many that it is right about Israel -- that Israel doesn't want peace, that it will never agree to adjust its borders, that it does not want Palestine to become a state. All lies and propaganda being swallowed by a gullible world. Israel has said that if Palestine will recognize its right to exist, all else will be negotiable. Palestine's stock answer is always to demand that Israel give up its annexed part of east Jerusalem and the West Bank and retreat to its unprotected pre-war 1967 borders AS A CONDITION for peace negotiations to begin. But, to look deeper at reality, Israel under Ariel Sharon gave the Gaza Strip back to the Palestinian government. What happened? Hamas overthrew the Gaza government, ruined the Israel-developed economy and has ever since used Gaza to fire rockets at Israel, killing military and civilians with the stated goal of destroying Israel. Why would Israel return any more territory to Palestine without ironclad guarantees for Israel's future? Would you? America Needs Republicans, Libertarians and Independents to Vote Together on Tuesday to Bring Obama Under Constitutional Control For a change, the GOP can take comfort in what the Washington Post has to say -- "Republicans entered the final week of the midterm campaign holding higher ground than Democrats, aided by public dissatisfaction with President Obama’s leadership, the direction of the country and the federal government’s ability to deal with major problems," said the Post today, quoting the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. Voter attitudes have been shaped by a pervasive sense of a nation in trouble. Overwhelming majorities say the country is badly off track and give the economy negative ratings. Economic expectations are little better today than they were at this time four years ago, with 60% saying they cannot trust the government in Washington to do what is right - the same as a year ago in the aftermath of the government shutdown and the botched rollout of the federal Web site for Obamacare. The Post poll shows that the multiple crises confronting the country - including the spread of Ebola in West Africa and cases here at home, as well as threats from ISIS militants - has led a majority to say that the government’s ability to deal with big problems has declined in the past few years. Among those who say this, many more - by 3 to 1 - blame Obama and the Democrats than blame Republicans in Congress. The poll shows that the general dissatisfaction appears to be affecting public interest in the 2014 campaign, which has been marked by an unprecedented amount of money spent by candidates and outside groups. Voters in states with competitive Senate races have been barraged with negative ads that began running early this year and now submerge local newscasts. The survey highlights that there is less interest in this midterm campaign than there was in the 2010 and 2006 elections — 67% say they are closely following the election this year, compared with 75% who were doing the same in 2010. Just 22% of voters say they have been contacted by an individual or organization regarding the congressional campaign, 12 percentage points lower than at this time four years ago. Among those who say they are certain to vote, Republicans appear to have more enthusiasm about voting. And more people who voted for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012 say they are closely following the midterms, compared with those who say they voted for Obama. The Post says Democrats will try to counter that enthusiasm gap with a get-out-the-vote operation that is aimed at persuading sporadic voters to cast ballots. It will require a huge Democratic effort because when asked whether they will vote for the Democrat or the Republican in their House districts, 50% of likely voters say the Republican and 44% say the Democrat. Among the larger universe of registered voters, Democrats have an edge - 47% to 44%. The Post says that this swing of nine points between registered and likely voters is identical to the difference recorded at this point in 2010, when the Republican advantage translated into a GOP gain of 63 House seats. This year, expectations for GOP pickups are more modest, largely because there are far fewer competitive districts and fewer opportunities for the GOP. Still, the latest poll shows that in many respects the potential 2014 electorate looks a lot like that of 2010, based on a comparison with exit polls from four years ago. Among Democrats and Republicans, more than 9 in 10 again say they plan to vote for the House candidate of their party next week. Among independents, Republicans hold a sizable advantage, as they did four years ago. Men favor Republicans by double digits, while women favor Democrats by mid-single digits. But the real battle is over control of the Senate. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to become the majority party in the upper chamber. At this point, they are heavily favored to pick up three of those six, with good opportunities to win seven Democratic-held seats - in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, New Hampshire and North Carolina. But Republicans are fighting to hold on to three seats of their own, in Georgia, Kansas and possibly Kentucky. The new Post-ABC News poll gives only general clues about the Senate races in those states, many of which tilt toward Republicans in presidential elections. The poll shows that in nine states with competitive Senate races, 57% of voters express a preference for Republicans in the House elections, compared with 39% for Democrats. The poll concludes that there's more confidence today than in September that Republicans will win enough seats to claim the Senate majority, although this is not a certainty. Nearly 70% of Republicans say a GOP majority would be a good thing, while half of Democrats say it would be a bad thing. In many of the states with competitive Senate races, the Post says that other public polls have found that Obama’s approval is below his national numbers, creating a drag on Democratic candidates. The new Post-ABC survey puts Obama’s overall national approval rating at 43%, up a statistically insignificant three points from two weeks ago. His disapproval rating remains unchanged, at 51%. The view of his handling of the economy is 42% positive, 52% negative, about the same as it has been throughout this fall. Obama has begun to campaign on behalf of gubernatorial candidates but he has avoided appearances in states with genuinely competitive Senate races. In those states, the candidates are seeking to put distance between themselves and the President, despite the fact that their voting records strongly support Obama. More than half of voters say that the President will not be a factor in their vote. But among those who say he will be, the percentage who say they will use their vote to express opposition to the President is 10 points higher than the share who say they want to send a message of support for him. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the Republican Party is within shouting distance of taking control of the Senate and forming a cohesive Congress that will offer positive alternatives to the negative Obama agenda that is destroying America at home and abroad. BUT -- it is absolutely imperative that we stay the course and get out the vote. Republicans of all persuasions, as well as independents, must vote and help others who share their principles and values to vote, too. And we should make a real effort to bring our libertarian friends with us. Ask them to make their vote count by voting Republican. This is not the time to let the small differences among us divide us. Our fundamental battle is with the big-government big-spending anti-Constitution anti-individual-liberties Democratic Party. We have them on the ropes. Do not let them get away. Do not waste even one vote. America needs us. Posted by Casey-Pops at 8:44 AM 10 comments: Links to this post A National Mandatory Quarantine Is the Right Approach, President Obama After being fiercely criticized by the ACLU, the CDC and even the United Nations Secretary General over his new 21-day mandatory quarantine policy for all healthcare workers exposed to Ebola, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has received a very welcome vote of support from a worldwide star in the medical community : Nobel Prize-winning doctor and medical rsearcher Dr. Bruce Beutler, an American who won the 2011 Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for his work researching the cellular subsystem of the body’s overall immune system -- the part of it that defends the body frosm infection by other organisms, like Ebola. He is currently the Director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas - the first US city to treat an Ebola patient and also the first to watch one die from the virus. ~~~~~ In an exclusive interview with NJ Advance Media, Dr. Beutler reviewed Christie’s new policy of mandatory quarantine for all health care workers exposed to Ebola, and declared : “I favor it,” and added that it may not go far enough. ~~~~~ But, while the doctor’s support provides much-needed credibility for Christie as he threatens to quarantine more healthcare workers returning from the Ebola fight in West Africa, it also comes with some chilling words from Dr. Beuhtler : “I favor it, because it’s not entirely clear that they can’t transmit the disease,” Beutler said, referring to asymptomatic healthcare workers like Kaci Hickox, the Doctors Without Borders nurse returning from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, who was quarantined in New Jersey for 65 hours before being transported to her home state of Maine Monday afternoon, where she was placed in a 21-day quarantine. Dr. Beutler explained : “It may not be absolutely true that those without symptoms can’t transmit the disease, because we don’t have the numbers to back that up...It could be people develop significant viremia [where viruses enter the bloodstream and gain access to the rest of the body], and become able to transmit the disease before they have a fever, even. People may have said that without symptoms you can’t transmit Ebola. I’m not sure about that being 100 percent true. There’s a lot of variation with viruses.” In fact, in a study published online in late September by the New England Journal of Medicine (1) and backed by the World Health Organization, 3,343 confirmed and 667 probable cases of Ebola were analyzed, and nearly 13% of the time, those infected with Ebola exhibited no fever at all. Why, then, does he think the CDC would so emphasize Ebola is not communicable in patients without symptoms? “There’s some imperative to prevent panic among the public,” says Dr. Beutler, “But to be honest, people have not examined that with transmissibility in mind. I don’t completely trust people who’d say that as dogma.” ~~~~~ Permitting home confinement and monitoring for medical workers exposed to Ebola but currently without symptoms was, as Beutler put it in engineering jargon, “a move away from goodness.’” However, undeterred, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday again changed direction, issuing new guidelines that call for voluntary home quarantine for workers with the highest risk for Ebola infection. The new guidelines also specify that most medical personnel returning from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea would not need to be kept in isolation, as Hickox had been ever since she arrived at Newark International Airport on Friday up until being transported to Maine on Monday. Dr. Beutler does not agree. “Even if someone is asymptomatic, you cannot rely on people to report themselves if they get a fever,” according to Dr. Beutler, who added, “You can’t just depend on the goodwill of people to confine the disease like that - even healthcare workers. They behave very irresponsibly.” ~~~~~ In defending his mandatory quarantine policy, Christie has repeatedly pointed to the fact that NBC’s chief medical editor, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, after returning from Ebola besieged West Africa, was spotted violating her voluntary quarantine to get takeout from a Princeton eatery last week. And, despite her forced detainment by the New Jersey health department, Hickox insisted hat she was “feeling physically healthy” and except for a single, non-contact thermometer reading that registered her as having a 101 Fahrenheit fever, has had normal 98.6 F temperatures ever since her quarantine began. ~~~~~ “These are no arguments at all,” said Beutler. “Anyone could say that about any disease. It doesn’t matter that she was afebrile - she should be quarantined for 21 days.” In addition, Hickox has complained that “her basic human rights were violated” and has since retained a civil rights attorney, but Beutner says he is puzzled by the argument. “These people act like they are returning as conquering heroes - and they should be treated as conquering heroes, but part of being a conquering hero means making sure no one gets infected by you. Just look at the the foolish quarantine where astronauts came back from the moon [where there were no germs] and in this case, we know there is an infection.” Dr. Beutler says that from a global perspective, it’s unlikely that the virus will take hold as an epidemic in the US, but in Africa, Beutler says it already “has gone ballistic - way, way beyond the past epidemics. One could project that maybe millions could be infected. It may be that it won’t spread like wildfire in the United States but even if one or two more people die, it will be too many.” ~~~~~ When asked if Governor Christie has it right, Dr. Beutler said : “I’d be a little bit more strict than he is being....I realize this would be inconvenient, but I don’t think it would prevent treating the disease." Dr. Beutler says “the ideal scenario is where a patient is isolated from all family members,” preferably in a specialized hospital ward, not in a home. The thought of an afebrile parent passing Ebola on to a child - as ostensibly can happen 13 percent of the time, would disturb me. The point of quarantine of is to make sure they [Ebola viruses] are not carried elsewhere. It’s a little bit frustrating. Some of the things that are being done are not completely motivated by safety. For some reason, there’s an imperative to maintain open borders no matter what - to err on the side of total individual freedom rather than on the side of public health,” he said, adding, “If you really want to isolate a disease, then you have to isolate the people who carry it.” ~~~~~ At least one country, other than the 32 countries in Africa long since imposing a quarantine for the Ebola-affected countries, has taken the step of halting visas for Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison announced today a total ban on visas for the three countries. "These measures include temporarily suspending our immigration program, including our humanitarian program from Ebola-affected countries, and this means we are not processing any application from these affected countries." All non-permanent or temporary visas are being cancelled and permanent visa holders who have not yet arrived in Australia will be required to submit to a 21-day quarantine period, he added. ~~~~~ As for Governor Christie -- he has a short message for nurse Kaci Hickox if she decides to sue the state for being detained for more than 65 hours. “Whatever. Get in line,” Christie said during a campaign event today, according to NBC News. “I’ve been sued lots of times before. Get in line. I’m happy to take it on.” ~~~~~ Dear readers, Governor Christie says he will be on the winning side of the Ebola mandatory quarantine issue. So far, Illinois, Florida, 32 African countries, Colombia, Australia and the US Army agree with him. Those who disagree -- President Obama, the CDC, the UN and public health advocates -- consistently refuse to accept a mandatory quarantine for those returning from West Africa for only one reason - it would reduce the number of doctors, nurses and healthcare workers volunteering to go to Ebola hotspots. The medical volunteers are largely silent on the question, except for one nurse who seems bent on being the star of a get-Christie campaign. More powerful groups have tried...and failed. It is time for sanity from the US public health leadership and Barack Obama. Impose a national mandatory quarantine. If it proves unnecessary, it can be lifted. But once unleashed in America, the Ebola virus will never be put back in the bottle. Do it now. (1). Here is the cite to the New England Journal of Medicine article. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1411100#abstract Three Governors and the US Army Got It Right - Quarantine Those Returning from West Africa Ebola Areas If you think President Obama's ISIS policy is vague -- try his Ebola policy, which is rapidly causing dissension as it forces states to act. ~~~~~ The New York Times reported today that New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, "facing fierce resistance from the White House and medical experts to a strict new mandatory quarantine policy...said on Sunday night that medical workers who had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa but did not show symptoms of the disease would be allowed to remain at home and would receive compensation for lost income." The controversial quarantine policy was adopted Friday for healthcare workers returning from Ebola-stricken nations, but lasted only until Sunday when it was revised to comply more with CDC guidelines. Cuomo said New York would help alleviate burdens posed by the 21-day home quarantine for health-care workers returning from West Africa, adding that persons losing pay because of the quarantine will be compensated and state officials will talk to employers if necessary. People who had no direct contact with Ebola patients, and who arrive with no symptoms, will not face home quarantine.Cuomo announced the changes at a news conference late Sunday with New York City Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio. “My personal preference is to err on the side of caution,” Cuomo said, saying he and de Blasio will call on New York medical experts to encourage hospital staff to volunteer for Ebola work in West Africa. “I understand that some people believe the 21-day home quarantine is a burden. I would ask for their cooperation and understanding and remember what we are trying to balance.” ~~~~~ New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie and Cuomo had agreed to and announced their quarantine orders Friday after aid worker Craig Spencer was diagnosed with the virus earlier in the week and it was learned he had been to a bowling alley, used the NYC subway and visited a restaurant. Spencer is now being treated in isolation at Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital Center. But New York’s quarantine process has now split away from New Jersey's, also severely criticized after the weekend retention of nurse Kaci Hickox, who had no Ebola symptoms when she returned from Sierra Leone after working with Doctors Without Borders. Hickox has been held in isolation at a site attached to a New Jersey hospital. Christie said on Fox News Sunday : “I don’t believe when you’re dealing with something as serious as this that we can count on a voluntary system. The government’s job is to protect [the] safety and health of our citizens. And so we’ve taken this action, and I absolutely have no second thoughts about it.” The Governors of Illinois and Florida followed New York and New Jersey with stronger mandates to monitor returning airline passengers who have been in contact with Ebola patients in West African nations. The measures go beyond federal guidelines and the advice of infectious-disease experts. ~~~~~ The New York changes come after a top federal health official and medical experts earlier Sunday sharply criticized New York and New Jersey’s mandatory quarantines, saying they could hamper the overall efforts to combat the deadly virus at its African epicenters. Already hundreds of volunteers have deployed and hundreds more American healthcare workers, military service members and humanitarian workers are expected to join them in coming weeks, as the United States takes a leading role in fighting Ebola in West Africa while also trying to ease growing fears about the potential spread of the disease in America. An unnamed Obama administration said Sunday : “We have let the Governors of New York, New Jersey and other states know that we have concerns with the unintended consequences...policies not grounded in science may have on efforts to combat Ebola at its source in West Africa.” On several Sunday news talk shows, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, strongly objected to the quarantine policies. He said sending American volunteers to countries such as Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone is vital to efforts to contain the virus there, warning that : “The best way to protect us is to stop the epidemic in Africa, and we need those healthcare workers, so we do not want to put them in a position where it makes it very, very uncomfortable for them to even volunteer to go,” recommending voluntary monitoring, not isolation, for returning healthcare workers, stressing that Ebola cannot be spread unless symptoms appear. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the White House says it will announce new guidelines for returning healthcare workers to help prevent imported cases of Ebola, while also encouraging volunteers to serve in Africa, adding that it would consult with states on new federal policies. On Sunday, President Obama's top health and security advisers were with him, including Secretary of State John F. Kerry, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who advised the President on considerations for new measures for returning healthcare workers. But, Obama apparently forgot to consilt with Defense Secretary Hagel -- because today the Army decided that troops returning from deployments to Liberia should be quarantined so they can be monitored for possible exposure to the Ebola virus. General Darryl Williams was among the first people affected, since he was one of up to a dozen soldiers who returned to their home base in Italy from Liberia and were isolated for monitoring. So, while the White House emphasizes its humanitarian effort and federal epidemiologists at the CDC and NIH continue their litany -- that Ebola can be spread only through contact with bodily fluids and only once symptoms appear -- the military has sided with three Governors taking the only sane position. Quarantine anyone returning from West Africa who has had possible contact with active Ebola virus for the 21-day incubation period. The US military continues to be the only arm of the federal government we can trust and believe in. Bush Was Right - Chemical WMD Were in Iraq - ISIS Is Now Using Them The Guardian reports that Kurds battling ISIS militants for control of Kobani fear the extremists may have used an unidentified chemical weapon, according to officials and one of the few doctors still working in the besieged Syrian town. Patients came to a clinic with blisters after a blast was heard on Tuesday evening, Dr. Walat Omar said. He said that the symptoms were not normal and he could not identify their cause, but suspected a chemical weapon : “After a loud explosion, we received some patients with abnormal symptoms. They reported a bad smell which produced some kind of allergic reaction,” the doctor said in a telephone interview with the Guardian. Dr. Omar said : “Some had red patches and blisters on their skins, others had difficulties breathing and others were vomiting, with painful throats, and others with burning eyes and noses. There was one patient, all his body was covered in red patches and blisters.” ~~~~~ ISIS may have obtained stocks of ageing but usable chemical weapons when it seized Iraqi army bases where they were stored, according to a New York Times report earlier this month. The NYT reported that in June, ISIS took control of the Al-Muthanna State Establishment that had been the center of Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons program, and that there may also have been chemical weapons buried or abandoned elsewhere, that were not destroyed by US forces or the Iraqi military. The Guardian explained that chemical stocks manufactured before 1991 are dirty, corroded and not always easy to identify or use, but can still cause serious injury. Dr. Omar told the Guardian he feared eight civilians had been injured by some kind of chemical attack, but the intense fighting has made it impossible to supply doctors with the equipment they need for definitive tests for the use of chemical weapons. Dr. Omar described their symptoms as being distinct from anything else he had treated in weeks of heavy battles. He said he had ruled out chlorine gas or biological weapons, based on his medical training, but thought the injuries were caused by a chemical : “This is the first time we have seen this kind of condition....I have seen other strange conditions but nothing like this before.” The Guardian said that opinions of chemical weapons experts it consulted were divided after seening a series of pictures provided by Omar of a young man with large skin blisters and a severely swollen lip. The pictures did not have any metadata to confirm the time and place they were taken, but had not been published on the internet before Omar provided them to a Kurdish journalist. One expert with personal experience of treating mustard gas victims said that, although the blisters were not typical, the symptoms overall were consistent with a possible sulphur mustard poisoning, which could only be confirmed with a urine or blood test. Other experts said that while the symptoms could be consistent with exposure to a chemical agent, they were somewhat unusual and other medical conditions, such as a severe allergic reaction, would need to be ruled out. Senior Kurdish politicians said they feared a chemical attack, and had asked for testing kits to seek confirmation : “Many people were injured…and showed symptoms of chemical weapons use: choking, breathing difficulties, bleeding eyes, burning skin etc,” said Idris Nassan, deputy foreign minister of the Kobani administration. “Some of the doctors say that it might be phosphorus or poison gas of some kind, but the investigation is ongoing, we don’t know for sure.” The Guardian suggested thar it is possible that ISIS fighters could mistake some chemical munitions for ordinary weapons and use them without being aware of what they are handling. It could also be harder to evaluate the impact of attacks using partially degraded weapons, one expert said. Jean-Pascal Zanders, a former analyst with the chemical and biological warfare project at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said : “Various factors might contribute to far milder symptoms than those normally associated with mustard agent exposure under combat conditions. These could include impure or degraded agent, short-term exposure, or exposure to a limited volume of agent.” The bomb believed to have caused the injuries treated by Omar exploded at about 10pm Tuesday in west Kobani, near a hospital. Omar said he thought ISIS may have targeted the medical centre to try to undermine morale, although it was not being used and none of the forces defending the city were in the area. Byt, Omar said he treated fighters who were further away for watering and burning eyes, and pain in their nose.” Dr. Omar estimated that around 20 of them were affected but needed only basic first aid. Regarding civilians who were closer to the blast, Omar said he was treating affected patients with oxygen, the steroid cortisone and other drugs until about 2.30am, as well as fielding calls from people who did not want to leave their homes. The three most seriously injured patients, who ranged in age from 17 to over 40, stayed in the clinic overnight for observation and Omar was trying to arrange for their evacuation to Turkey for further treatment. ~~~~~ In a related matter, Iraqi officials said 11 police officers were poisoned by chlorine gas last month, when ISIS fighters used it to attack the Iraqi town of Duluiya. All the officers survived. The Russian Times reported today that the Iraq Defense Ministry and doctors recently confirmed that the gas was chlorine. This marks the first officially documented ISIS attack with the chemical. The ISIS militants’ chlorine gas attack occurred on September 15, in the town of Duluiyah, located north of the capital, according to the Washington Post. The blast followed an exchange of fire between the militants and the members of the sunni Jabbour tribe, who were guarding the town’s borders. The RT quoted doctors and a survivor : “It was a strange explosion. We saw yellow smoke in the sky,....The victims talked of the fog that hung close to the ground - a possible indication that it was chlorine, which is heavier than air." The treating physicians also confirmed that their diagnosis was poisoning by chlorine gas. “They were panicked; we were panicked,” said Kasim Hatim, director of the hospital in the nearby city of Balad, where the officers were taken. “We initially thought it might be a more serious gas, a nerve gas or an organophosphate.” ~~~~~ An Associated Press report confirms that Iraqi officials say Islamic State militants used chlorine gas during fighting with Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen last month north of Baghdad. A senior security official, a local official from the town of Duluiya and an official from the town of Balad say ISIS used bombs with chlorine-filled cylinders during September clashes. They told the AP on Friday that about 40 troops and militiamen were slightly affected by the chlorine and showed symptoms consistent with chlorine poisoning, such as difficulty in breathing and coughing. They were treated in hospital and quickly recovered. ~~~~~ Dear readers, these reports are extremely disturbing. We have been told that all chemical weapon stockpiles in Syria have been destroyed. But chemical stockpiles were obviously left behind when the Saddam Hussein regime fell. Their existence was denied in sharply negative commentary suggesting that President George W. Bush and his administration were lying about the existence of weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons, as an excuse to invade Iraq. But, ISIS seems to have found chemical WMD somewhere -- more likely in Iraq than in Syria. And we know that Saddam used chemical WMD on his own people during his war with Iran. Bush-hating critics said the lives of over 4,000 US troops were wasted, in addition to the money supposedly squandered in the Iraq War. But, the New York Times has published a 10,000-word, eight-part story called “The Secret Casualties Of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons,” which says WMD were in Iraq : “In all, American troops secretly reported finding roughly 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs, according to interviews with dozens of participants, Iraqi and American officials, and heavily redacted intelligence documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.” And, the soldiers were told to keep quiet about the WMD. “Troops and officers were instructed to be silent or give deceptive accounts of what they had found. ‘Nothing of significance’ is what I was ordered to say,’ said Jarrod Lampier, a recently retired Army major present for the largest chemical weapons discovery of the war: more than 2,400 nerve-agent warheads. Of course, the Left and Democrats are saying these WMD were old and don't count. Ask Kobani Kurds. ~~~ The New York Times and Democrats ought to apologize to President Bush. But they won't. So, why don't we just vote all of them out on November 4? Obamacare - Another Election Day Disaster for Democrats Karl Rove reported yesterday on the return of Obamacare as another election albatross around the necks of Democrat candidates. The policy cancellations and price increases caused by Obamacare are arriving just in time for Election Day. Earlier this year, Democrats thought that having enacted and supported Obamacare would be a political advantage by Election Day 2014. North Carolina Democrat Senator Kay Hagan, in a fight for survival on November 4, said last February that she wanted to show Obamacare “is something whose time is come.” Later, Colorado Democrat Senator Mark Udall, in a fight for survival on November 4, said : “we did the right thing” in passing the law and told voters he “would do it again,” a vow repeated by incumbent Democrat Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor, in a fight for survival on November 4, and Louisiana Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu, in a fight for survival on November 4. ~~~~~ But, an October 2 Gallup poll shows that 54% of Americans say Obamacare has hurt them and their families, while only 27% say it has helped them. There is no clarion call from President Obama or his White House insiders about the upcoming open-enrollment period when Americans can sign up for Obamacare health coverage -- maybe because an estimated 10% of last year’s 8 million enrollees have never fully enrolled by paying their premiums. Or maybe it's because on November 1, just three days before Election Day, Americans will receive the bad news that their Obamacare premiums will increase next year. Rove said that according to a recent Manhattan Institute report, premiums for a 40-year-old man are rising in 10 of the 12 states with Democratic-held Senate seats at risk. For a 40-year-old woman, premiums will increase in nine of the 12 states. And then there are the cancellations. In Senator Udall's Colorado,the insurance commissioner recently announced that 29,000 people covered by 22,000 policies will lose their insurance on December 31, in addition to 8,200 policies already canceled or flagged for cancellation. Together with last year’s terminations, this means thar 340,000 Coloradans have lost or will lose their plan -- even if they liked it, they can't keep it. What is happening in Colorado is also happening in New Hampshire and other states, as Americans are being shifted from their plan to a different one and insurers are withdrawing from some states, reducing their choices under Obamacare. Rove thinks Obamacare may also influence the outcomes in the November 4 election by demonstrating that the federal government is too big and trying to do too much. Asked in a September 7 Gallup survey if “government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses” or if “government should do more to solve our country’s problems,” 54% of Americans said that the government doing too much and only 41% said government is doing too little. In the September poll, when Americans were asked “how much trust and confidence” they have in our federal government to handle domestic problems, 42% answered “not very much” and 17% said “none at all” -- 47% is a record high for this question, which Gallup began asking in May 1972. ~~~~~ Dear readers, when November 4 arrives, in addition to Ebola (now on New York City), the economy (an estimated 3/4 of new jobs are now part-time, often because of Obamacare), ISIS ($500 million already spent on an Obama airstrike 'strategy' that has produced very few positive results), and national security (non-secured southern border and the threat of an Obama green card executive order to regularize up to 12 million illegal immigrants already in the US) -- think about Obamacare. It is not too late to repeal and replace it with a sensible program to cover uninsured American citizens, to control costs and tort law excesses and to implement interstate insurance pools. This is all doable. But it requires a Republican Congress to enact legislation and to fight against President Obama's veto threats and government by executive order. A 51 GOP - 49 Democrat Senate is a start. A 53 GOP - 47 Democrat Senate would be even better.Think about it. It is doable. Polls Show GOP Senate Likely, But Don't Be Complacent - Use These Talking Points A new Politico poll of US House and Senate districts found a strong majority - 64% - of likely voters says the US is "out of control right now" when asked how they feel about their country. In comparison, only 36% of respondents in the survey agreed with the statement : "I'm confident that the US is in a good position to meet its economic and national security challenges." Multiple challenges were cited by Politico poll respondents -- the economy, ISIS, Ebola and national security. ~~~~~ These concerns are generally like those found in the new Associated Press-GfK poll of likely midterm election voters. But in the AP-GfK poll, most Americans also say they dislike both the Republicans and the Democrats, but more of them now say they would like the GOP to control Congress than they would the Democrats. This is partly because, on major issues including the economy and protecting the country, Republicans have gained an edge as the party more trusted among likely voters. There are four issues that are shaping the contests in the November 4 midterm elections. ~~~~~ THE ECONOMY. Most Americans continue to be deeply concerned about the direction of the economy, and the GOP is in a position to take advantage of that concern -- 61% of Americans describe the economy as poor, while only 38% say that it is good. Nine in 10 likely voters call the economy an extremely or very important issue, topping all other issues tested in the poll by more than 10 percentage points. Among those most likely to cast a ballot in November, Republicans have the edge, 39% to 31% over Democrats. The Republican advantage on the economy is more pronounced among men (14 points) than among women (3 points). ~~~~~ TERRORISM AND ISIS. Fears of terrorism, as well as the threat posed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria, also continue to be top issues for Americans, and Republicans have an edge on handling both issues. Likely voters trust Republicans by a large margin over Democrats to protect the country, 42% to 20%, and on handling international crises, 35% to 25%. Republicans also hold a lead on handling the US image abroad, 33% to 27% for Democrats. The percentage of likely voters saying the threat posed by ISIS is an extremely or very important issue fell 6 points but is still high at 73%, while the share calling terrorism (76%) or the US role in world affairs (66%) important issues held steady. ~~~~~ EBOLA. Ebola is on voters' minds as Election Day approaches, with 74% saying it is a very or extremely important issue. And likely voters aren't happy with the administration's response, as 56% say they disapprove of Obama's handling of the US response to the Ebola outbreak. But they are almost equally split over which party will take advantage of Ebola fears on November 4. More than half of likely voters say either that they trust both parties equally (29%) or that they trust neither party (24%) to address public health issues like Ebola. Respondents who do have a favored party on the issue are about evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, 25% to 22%. Among those likely voters who call the issue "extremely important," Republicans do have an edge, 31% to 19%, yet 49% decline to choose one party over the other. If we zoom out to look at the AP-GfK overall poll results on Ebola, just 20% of Americans approve of the CDC's work on Ebola so far, and only 30% say they trust that public health officials are sharing complete and accurate information about the virus. Only 18% have deep confidence that local hospitals could safely treat a patient with Ebola. Nine out of 10 also think it's necessary to tighten screening of people entering the US from the outbreak zone, including 69% who say that it is definitely needed. Another 29% say it's probably necessary to do so. More than 80% favor sending medical aid to the African countries most hit by Ebola and increasing government funding to develop vaccines and treatments. ~~~~~ THE NOVEMBER 4 ELECTION. Most likely voters now say they think the Republican Party will capture control of Congress, putting the voting public largely in line with the most prominent election forecasters. Combining a question about which party voters think will win the Senate witha question on who they think will win the House, half of likely voters (50%) predict the Republicans will both capture the Senate and retain the House, while 22% think things will stay just as they are. ~~~~~ Larry Sabato, at the prestigious Center for Politics think tank at the University of Virginia, has published his latest midterm election analysis. It shows at least 213 House seats leaning Republican and 189 leaning Democrat, with 15 toss-ups. Sabato predicts that the GOP will win all 213 of their current seats and most of the toss-ups, thus widening their House majority. Sabato says the Senate outcome will be much closer. He sees the Republicans winning 49 Senate seats and the Democrats 47, with 4 toss-ups. Sabato sees the GOP winning two of the toss-ups, which would give the Republcans a Senate majority with 51 seats -- not veto proof but sufficient to stop Obama and the current Democrat Senate majority from packing lower federal courts with liberal judges who have often ruled in favor of same-sex marriage and against voter ID cards. ~~~~~ Dear readers, this is good news for Republicans and GOP-leaning Independent voters. But, this should not make you relax. Winning on Novembet 4 will require working right up to election day --- Reminding family and friends to vote. Offering rides to the polls. Calmly discussing with undecided voters the advantages of voting for Republicans. Here are our talking points. Getting Americans back to work. Lowering the tax burden and revising the tax code to make it understandable and fair. Controlling the federal budget and the national debt. Improving national security, with a real plan for dealing with ISIS. Halting the bleeding of the military's budget. Controlling America's exposure to Ebola. Repealing and replacing Obamacare. Getting the Canadian-American oil pipeline project underway. *Returning America to constitutional government. All these major agenda items can be started in January with a Republican Congress. And in 2016, with the addition of a Republican President, America can fully return to its rightful place as the world's economic., technological and democratic leader. Obama Will Confront Congress on Immigration after the November 4 Election President Obama's approach to governing - talk a lot and do very little - has caught up with him on a hot-button issue that may cost Democrats some of the votes they had counted on for the November 4 midterm election. Embattled Democrats are facing a "fierce voter backlash from disillusioned Latinos," The Los Angeles Times reports. Democratic candidates hope that Latinos, whose voting impact is rapidly growing, will come out in force on November 4 as party leaders cling to the fading hope of continuing to control the Senate, while at least maintaining the minority of seats they now hold in the House -- and thus prevent a GOP sweep in two weeks. But the Times notes that Latino voters don't come out full force for midterm elections, which could be compounded by the disappointment they feel over President Obama's policies, particularly on immigration. "Obama promised too much and never delivered," Jose Trujillo, 44, told the LA Times outside a church in Georgia, which has one of the tightest Senate races in the country. Clara Puerta, publisher of a Spanish-language newspaper, El Nuevo Georgia, also slammed the President, who was dubbed the "deporter in chief" by the National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguia earlier this year. "Obama has not responded to our community," said Puerta, who volunteers for Georgia's Democratic Party. "He promised us a lot of things and has not followed through. A lot of people are upset and they don't want to vote." ~~~~~ What could be the impact if Latino voters stay home? In the 2012 presidential election, California, Nevada, and Colorado turned from red (GOP) to blue (Democrat), when Latinos voted for Obama in record numbers. Since then, however, Obama has angered Latinos by failing to carry through on his repeated vow to push through a comprehensive immigration package. "All the air has been let out," according to Matt Barreto, a University of Washington political scientist who takes major polls on US Latinos. He told the LA Times that his surveys show that Latinos could swing the vote in nearly 40 races, including House elections in San Diego and Sacramento, Senate contests in Colorado and Georgia, and gubernatorial races in Arizona, Florida, and Illinois -- depending on whether or not large numbers of Latinos go to the polls to vote for Democratic candidates. Meanwhile, Republicans are taking advantage of the Latino dissatisfaction with Obama by building an outreach program centered on 10 states, including California, Arizona, Colorado, and Florida, where GOP operatives hope to secure the votes of Latino groups, especially social conservatives and small-business owners, according to the Times. ~~~~~ And Latinos aren't the only Americans angry wirh President Obama. Some lawmakers predict a sweeping executive order on immigration from President Obama after the November 4 elections, and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services is already planning to hire a vendor to produce up to 34 million blank green cards to accommodate an expected surge in immigrants in 2016. The USCIS has published a draft solicitation for a contractor capable of producing 4 million cards a year for five years - and 9 million in the early stages - that would allow immigrants to live and work in the US, Breitbart reports. One estimate is that 34 million cards will be printed. Hedging, an official from USCIS told MailOnline on Monday that a plan was developed "in case the President makes the move we think he will," even though the agency's Document Management Division isn't yet committing to buying the materials. Another official said that the plan is only a "contingency" in case immigration reform legislation passes in Congress, stressing that it wasn't in anticipation of an Obama executive order. The President, whose plan was rebuffed by Congress, has vowed to do as much as he can by executive order. Republicans have called the Obama plan an "amnesty" for millions of illegal immigrants, including hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors who poured into the United States through the southern border with Mexico this summer, and who continue to flood across America's southern border, with an estimated 90,000 due to arrive by year end. ~~~~~ The executive order timetable has been shifted until after the crucial midterm elections. The latest draft solicitation "seems to indicate that the President is contemplating an enormous executive action that is even more expansive than the plan that Congress rejected," according to Jessica Vaughn, an immigration expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, who told Breitbart the green cards - officially known as Permanent Residency Cards and Employment Authorization Documentation cards - are used for participants in Obama's controversial Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Known as "DREAMers," the program's participants came to the United States illegally as children. A total of 862,000 people have been approved for such documentation by USCIS through June. But according to the draft solicitation, "the guaranteed minimum for each ordering period is 4,000,000 cards, with the estimated maximum for the entire contract set at 34,000,000 cards." Last July, Newsmax reported about a proposal supported by some Democratic Senators that would expand Obama's plan to include immigrants who are parents of US citizens, which would mean protecting 4.4 million adults from deportation, according to a January report by the National Foundation for American Policy, a Virginia-based immigration research group. Another proposal would also include the parents of immigrants who arrived as children. New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat, has called for a halt to deportations for a larger group of immigrants, covering all those who would be allowed to stay under the Obama-backed immigration legislation that the Senate passed last year. That measure, opposed by House Republican leaders, would create a path to citizenship for many of the 12 million undocumented workers in the US. ~~~~~ Dear readers, on CNN "Inside Politics" Monday, moderator John King said the unilateral executive action promised by Obama after the midterm elections will result in confrontation, not compromise, from Republicans angry and frustrated. King commented :"Well, if you believed perhaps there would be room and motivation for a deal after the 2014 midterms - think again. I was so struck by conversations in Colorado, in Kansas and Iowa - just pure frustration; a belief among conservative Republicans that this problem is getting worse. What does that tell you? It tells you there is no prospect for any compromise legislation during the final two years of the Obama presidency," King said, adding : "If the President uses his executive power, Republicans will be pushing for confrontation, not compromise." So, since there is little doubt that Obama is determined to take action and is bent on granting as many green cards as possible, and with Republicans demanding that their leaders stand firm against compromise, the future seems to hold a major confrontation on the immigration issue after November 4 as America heads into the 2016 presidential campaign. Obama, Same-Sex Marriage, and the Fourteenth Amendment American media is talking about President Obama's evolution on the issue of same-sex marriage -- how he now believes that the US Constitution requires states to allow same-sex couples to marry : "Ultimately, I think the Equal Protection Clause does guarantee same-sex marriage in all 50 states," Obama told the New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin, referring to 14th Amendment language requiring that states have valid reasons for discriminating between citizens. The President's remark is probably the Obama endgame on the topic of same-sex marriage. Last March, Obama stopped short of endorsing such a right, while saying that there was a "strong basis" for the Supreme Court to make such a finding : "I used to teach constitutional law and I think that there’s certainly a strong basis for determining that in fact in this age, given what we now know, given the changes that have been taking place in states around the country, that you know, same sex couples should be treated fairly and have the same rights to benefits and to being able to transfer property...all the rights and recognition that I think heterosexual couples do." The most dramatic shift in Obama's public views on the issue, which he described as "evolving" back in 2010, came in 2012 when he said he favored giving same-sex couples all the rights of marriage : "I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married," he told ABC about six months before his re-election. Obama's 2012 statement was in part an attempt to catch up to Vice President Biden's statement that same-sex marriage should be allowed -- note that Obama's endorsement today of a federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage also comes in the lead-up to a crucial election, in this case just three weeks before a midterm in which turning out the Democratic base will be critical to containing the party's likely losses in Congress. ~~~~~ Despite Obama's changing views, the Obama administration has never explicitly advocated a federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage. When the Supreme Court considered the issue of California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage last year, the US Justice Department argued that the state could not take away rights it had already granted, but the DOJ did not ask the Court to recognize a 50-state right to gay marriage. Obama also complicated the issue in many of his public remarks in recent years by seeming to favor a state-by-state approach that appeared to be at odds with the notion of a federal constitutional right. In the New Yorker Toobin interview, Obama analyzed the Supreme Court's recent decisions not to decide the same-sex marriage question - at least not in the cases from five states presented for review this past summer : "The decision that was just handed down to not do anything about what states are doing on same-sex marriage may end up being as consequential - from my perspective, a positive sense - as anything that’s been done....Because I think it really signals that although the Court was not quite ready - it didn’t have sufficient votes to follow Loving v. Virginia and go ahead and indicate an equal-protection right across the board - it was a consequential and powerful signal of the changes that have taken place in society and that the law is having to catch up with.” While the Justice Department has not yet filed a legal brief formally asserting the existence of a federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage, Attorney General Eric Holder said in an interview with Yahoo News last month that he believes such a right exists. ~~~~~ The Fourteenth Amendment is the most litigated part of the US Constitution, and the Equal Protection Clause is the most litigated part of the Fourteenth Amendment -- so let's look briefly at what the Equal Protection Clause says and how it has been interpreted by tbe US Supreme Court. Wkipedia gives a good history of the Fourteenth Amendment. It was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments after the Civil War. The Amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves. The Amendment was bitterly contested, particularly by southern Cobfederacy states, which were forced to ratify it in order for them to regain representation in Congress. The Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1, forms the basis for landmark decisions such as Roe v. Wade (1973), regarding abortion, and Bush v. Gore (2000), regarding the 2000 presidential election. It limits the actions of all state and local officials or those acting on their behalf. The second, third, and fourth sections of the amendment are seldom litigated. The Amendment's first section includes several clauses: the Citizenship Clause, Privileges or Immunities Clause, Due Process Clause, and the Equal Protection Clause that we will focus on, which requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction. This clause was the basis for Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court decision that precipitated the end of racial segregation, and for many other decisions rejecting irrational or unnecessary discrimination against people belonging to various groups. ~~~~~ Text : AMENDMENT XIV. Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. ~~~~~ The Republicans who wrote the legislation for the Fourteenth Amendment and guided it through Congress in 1866 were satisfied that they had secured civil rights for Blacks, but were disappointed that the Amendment would not also secure their political rights, in particular the right to vote. The Equal Protection Clause itself was created in response to the lack of equal protection provided by law in states with Black Codes, where blacks could not sue, give evidence, or be witnesses. They also were punished more harshly than whites. The Supreme Court in Strauder v. West Virginia stated that the Equal Protection Clause was designed to assure to the "colored race the enjoyment of all the civil rights that under the law are enjoyed by white persons, and to give to that race the protection of the general government, in that enjoyment, whenever it should be denied by the States." However, federal constitutional rights are limited to those situations where there is “state action,” meaning action of government officials who are exercising their governmental power. In Ex parte Virginia, 100 U.S 339 (1880), the Supreme Court found that the prohibitions of the Fourteenth Amendment "have reference to actions of the political body denominated by a State, by whatever instruments or in whatever modes that action may be taken. A State acts by its legislative, its executive, or its judicial authorities. It can act in no other way. The constitutional provision, therefore, must mean that no agency of the State or of the officers or agents by whom its powers are exerted, shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Whoever, by virtue of public position under a State government, deprives another of property, life, or liberty, without due process of law, or denies or takes away the equal protection of the laws, violates the constitutional inhibition and as he acts in the name and for the State, and is clothed with the State's power, his act is that of the State." ~~~~~ Dear readers, while the Fourteenth Amendment's legislative history clearly shows that it was written to grant to Black Americans the rights and protections of the Constitution against attempts by various states to ignore those rights and protections, the language of the Amendment does not include any delimiting words -- "No State shall....deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." So while President Obama may be speaking for a minority of Americans in supporting a federal constitutional eight to same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court will most likely finally agree -- unless it decides that the Constitution protects only civil rights, which everyone is entitled to, but not religious rights protected by the First Amendment right to freedom of religion. This reasoning would protect pastors, priests and churches whose beliefs do not accept same-sex marriage. But it would mean that same-sex couples with a valid state marriage license could demand that a federal judge marry them. The only other choice -- repeal or amend the Fourteenth Amendment - a nearly impossible task in today's America. Why Does Obama Resist Naming the Kurdish Peshmerga as the Iraq-Syria Ground Force Reuters filed a long report today, saying that Turkey agreed on Monday to allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters to reinforce fellow Kurds in the Syrian border town of Kobani. This followed the first United States airdrop of arms to help the defenders resist an ISIS assault. In a brief statement, the US Central Command said US Air Force C-130 planes "delivered weapons, ammunition and medical supplies that were provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq and intended to enable continued resistance against ISIL's attempts to overtake Kobani." Washington said the air-dropped arms had been supplied by Iraqi Kurdish authorities and had been dropped near Kobani, which came under ISIS attack in September and is now besieged to the east, west and south, and bordered to the north by Turkey, which stationed tanks on hills overlooking Kobani a week ago but refused to help the Kurdish militia on the ground until agreeing on a broader deal with its NATO allies on intervening in the Syrian civil war, saying action should also be taken against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. However, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference that Turkey was facilitating the passage of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga, which also fought ISIS when the militants attacked the Kurds' autonomous region in Iraq over the summer. He gave no details about Turkey's refusal to intervene against ISIS, which has seized large areas of Syria and neighboring Iraq. The Turkish refusal has led to growing frustration in the United States. The policy has also provoked deadly riots in southeastern Turkey by Kurds furious at Ankara's refusal to help Kobani or at least open a land corridor for volunteer fighters and reinforcements to go there. The AP reported today that the US airdrops angered Turkey, which has said it would oppose any US arms transfers to the Kurdish rebels in Syria because Turkey views the main Kurdish group in Syria as an extension of the Turkish Kurd group known as the PKK, which has waged a 30-year insurgency in Turkey and is designated a terror group by the US and by NATO. ~~~~~ Earlier, the US Central Command said it had delivered weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to allow the Kurds to continue their resistance in Kobani. The main Syrian Kurdish armed group, the YPG, said it had received "a large quantity" of ammunition and weapons. Reuters reported that Redur Xelil, a spokesman for the YPG, said the weapons dropped overnight would have a "positive impact" on the battle and the morale of fighters who have been out-gunned by ISIS. But Xelil added : "Certainly it will not be enough to decide the battle. We do not think the battle of Kobani will end that quickly. The forces of [Islamic State] are still heavily present and determined to occupy Kobani. In addition, there is resolve [from the YPG] to repel this attack," he told Reuters in an interview conducted via Skype. He declined to give more details on the shipments. ~~~~~ The United States military began carrying out air strikes against ISIS targets in Iraq in August. In early September, they started bombing ISIS in neighboring Syria. However, last night's airdrop resupply of Kurdish fighters is an escalation in the US effort to help local forces beat back ISIS in Syria, marking the growing US military support for the Syrian Kurdish group previously held at arms' length by the West, due partly to the concerns of Turkey, a NATO member. Washington has pressed Ankara to let it use bases in Turkey to stage the airstrikes, but a Turkish foreign ministry official said the country's airspace had not been used during the drops on Kobani. Escalating US airstrikes on ISIS in and around Kobani have helped slow its progress in the past week. The Kurds say the US military has been coordinating the airstrikes with them, helping to make them more effective. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that tracks the Syrian civil war using sources on the ground, said there had been two new US airstrikes on ISIS positions after midnight last night. The US Central Command confirmed 135 US air strikes near Kobani in recent days, combined with continued resistance on the ground, saying they had slowed ISIS' advances into the town and killed hundreds of its fighters. The Central Command statement added : "...the security situation in Koban remains fragile as ISIL continues to threaten the city and Kurdish forces continue to resist." ~~~~~ Obama gave advance notice to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan of the plans to deliver arms to the Syrian Kurds. The Turkish presidency said Obama and Erdogan had discussed Syria, including measures that could be taken to stop ISIS' advances in and around Kobani. In a statement published on Sunday, it also said Turkish assistance to over 1.5 million Syrians, including around 180,000 from Kobani, was noted in the conversation. In comments published in the Turkish media on Monday, Erdogan said the main Syrian Kurdish political group, the PYD, is allied with the PKK, describing both as terrorist organizations, saying : "It will be very wrong for America with whom we are allied and who we are together with in NATO to expect us to say 'yes' [to supporting the PYD] after openly announcing such support for a terrorist organization." Kobani is one of three areas near the border with Turkey where Syrian Kurds have established their own government since the country descended into civil war in 2011. ~~~~~ US Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking today in Jakarta, said it would have been "irresponsible" and "very difficult morally" not to aid the Kurds in this "particular" hour. Kerry told reporters in the Indonesian capital that the Obama administration understood ally Turkey's concerns about supplying the Kurds, who are linked to a Kurdish group that Ankara fiercely opposes. But, he said the situation is such in the besieged town of Kobani that the resupplies were deemed absolutely necessary in a "crisis moment." Kerry addressed comments to Turkey : "Let me say very respectfully to our allies the Turks that we understand fully the fundamentals of their opposition and ours to any kind of terrorist group and particularly obviously the challenges they face with respect to the PKK. But we have undertaken a coalition effort to degrade and destroy ISIL, and ISIL is presenting itself in major numbers in this place called Kobani." ~~~~~ Dear readers, in an about-face reported by the New York Times, Turkey’s foreign minister said later on Monday that the country would facilitate the movement of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces to the embattled Syrian town of Kobani to join the fighting there. At a news conference in Ankara, the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said that his government was “helping the peshmerga cross over to Kobani,” an apparent shift from Turkey’s previous refusal to allow any military assistance to Kurdish fighters in the town. ~~~ It seems that when President Obama wants to get something done in the Iraq-Syria ISIS crisis, he succeeds -- as it did last night in delivering arms, ammunition and medical supplies to the Kurdish peshmerga. Even Turkey, the most independent of the so-called coalition - caved in to the inevitable. We must ask why President Obama was not equally as insistent - in a much less difficult situation - on arming the Kurds in northern Iraq as they stood alone against ISIS this summer. The White House said then that all Kurdish supplies must pass through Baghdad, which like Turkey is fearful of the Kurds becoming too strong. We might also ask why President Obama did not "persuade" Iraq to let the US supply the Kurds directly. The US military has been strongly supporting the need for a ground army to secure the gains made by the US airstrikes. It is clear that neither the Iraqi army nor the Free Syrian Army of the moderate opponents of al-Assad will be ready to assume that role any time soon. The Kurdish peshmerga are ready and are now serving as the only ground force assisting in securing areas of Iraq and Syria softened up by US airstrikes. Where is the Obama resolve to bend the coalition - if it exists - to the obvious solution of using the Kurdish peshmerga as its ground force. What Obama agenda prevents this decision? Posted by Casey-Pops at 3:29 PM 1 comment: Links to this post 18 October 1767 -- the Mason-Dixon Line TODAY IN HISTORY. On October 18, 1767, the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania was agreed upon. It was called the Mason-Dixon Line because it was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in order to resolve a border dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland when they were still British colonies in Colonial America. The Line is still a demarcation line among four US states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia, which in 1767 was still part of Virginia. ~~~~~ After Pennsylvania abolished slavery, the Mason–Dixon Line became a demarcation line for the legality of slavery. But the demarcation did not extend beyond Pennsylvania because Delaware, then a slave state, extended north and east of the boundary. Also lying north and east of the boundary was New Jersey, where slavery was formally abolished in 1846, but former slaves continued to be "apprenticed" to their masters until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution in 1865. ~~~~~ In the late 1700s, the states south of the Mason-Dixon line would begin arguing for the perpetuation of slavery, while the north hoped to phase out the ownership of human chattel. This period, which historians consider the era of "The New Republic," ended with the Missouri Compromise of 1820, another line drawn to extend the Mason-Dixon Line west. The Compromise accepted the states south of the line as slave-holding and those north of the line as free. The Compromise, along with those that followed it, eventually failed. ~~~~~ Delaware's position along the Mason-Dixon Line made it a key in the battle between abolitionists and slaveholding states. Its 1776 state constitution had banned the importation of slaves, and state legislation in 1797 effectively stopped the export of slaves by declaring exported slaves automatically free. The state’s population in the 1790 census was 15% black, but only 30% of these were free blacks. By the 1820 census, 78% of Delaware’s blacks were free. By 1840, 87% were free. Both escaped slaves and legally free blacks living anywhere near the line were vulnerable to kidnapping by slave-catchers operating out of Maryland. One of the most famous kidnappers was Patty Cannon, a notoriously violent woman who, with her son-in-law Joe Johnson, ran a tavern on the Delaware-Maryland line near the Nanticoke River. The Cannon-Johnson gang seized blacks as far north as Philadelphia and transported them south for sale. In 1829, Cannon and Johnson were arrested and charged with kidnapping, and Cannon was charged with several murders. Johnson was flogged, and Cannon died in jail before trial, reportedly a suicide by poison. Her skull is kept in a hatbox at the Dover Public Library. For free blacks in Delaware, freedom was quite restricted. Blacks could not vote, or testify in court against whites. After Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion in Virginia triggered rumors and panic about a black insurrection, the Delaware legislature banned blacks from owning weapons, or meeting in groups larger than twelve. ~~~~~ Because the Missouri Compromise of 1820 designated Mason and Dixon’s west line as the national divide between the "free" and "slave" states east of the Ohio River, the line suddenly acquired new significance. Through the first half of the 19th century, the Mason-Dixon Line represented the line of freedom for tens of thousands of blacks escaping slavery in the south. The Underground Railroad provided food and temporary shelter at secret way-stations, and guided or sometimes transported northbound slaves across the Line. The spirituals sung by these slaves included coded references to guide escaping slaves : the song "Follow the drinking gourd" referred to the Big Dipper from which runaways could sight the North Star; the River Jordan was the Mason-Dixon Line; Pennsylvania was the Promised Land. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed slave owners to pursue their escaped slaves into the north, the line of freedom became the Canadian border, "Canaan" in the spirituals, and abolitionists created Underground Railroad stops all the way to Canada. Thomas Garrett, a member of Wilmington Delaware’s Quaker community, was one of the most prominent conductors on the Underground Railroad. In 1813, while Garrett was still living in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, a free black employee of his family’s was kidnapped and taken into Maryland. Garrett succeeded in rescuing her, but the experience reportedly made him a committed abolitionist, and he dedicated the next fifty years of his life to helping others escape slavery. Garrett moved to Wilmington in 1822. He befriended and helped Harriet Tubman as she brought group after group of escaping slaves over the line; his house was the final step to freedom. Garrett was caught in 1848, prosecuted and convicted, forthrightly telling the court he had helped over 1,400 slaves escape. Judge Roger Taney ordered Garrett to reimburse the owners of slaves he was known to have helped, and it bankrupted him, but he continued in his work, assisting approximately 1,300 more slaves to freedom by 1864. Taney went on to become Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, and wrote the majority decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), declaring that no blacks, slave or free, could ever be US citizens, and striking down the Missouri Compromise. In the buildup to the Civil War, Delaware was a microcosm of the country, sharply split between abolitionists and pro-slavery. Like other Union border states, Delaware remained a slave state during the war, although its slave population had fallen to only a few hundred. President Abraham Lincoln offered a federal reimbursement of $500 per slave to Delaware slave-owners if Delaware would abolish slavery, but the state legislature stubbornly refused. Lincoln’s January 1,1863, Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery in the Confederate states, but not in the Union border states. After the Civil War, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas outlawed slavery on or before their individual ratifications of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. So as the Thirteenth Amendment neared ratification by 27 of the 36 states on December 6, 1865, America’s last two remaining slave states were Kentucky and Delaware. Delaware didn’t ratify the Thirteenth, Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments until 1901. ~~~~~ In the mid-20th century, the Mason-Dixon Line was the backdrop for one of the five school desegregation cases that were eventually consolidated into the US Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case. ~~~~~ In popular usage, the Mason–Dixon Line symbolizes a cultural boundary between the North and the South, popularly called "Dixie." One hundred years after Mason and Dixon began their effort to chart the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary, soldiers from opposite sides of the line left their blood on the fields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in the Southern states' final and fatal attempt to breach the Mason-Dixon Line during the Civil War. One hundred and one years after the Britons completed their line, the United States finally admitted men of any complexion born within the nation to the rights of citizenship with the ratification of the 14th Amendment. ~~~~~ When the Mason–Dixon Line was drawn in 1767, it was marked by stones every mile and "crownstones" every five miles, using stone shipped from England. Most of the stones still exist. The Maryland side of each stone says (M) and the Delaware and Pennsylvania sides say (P) because Delaware was dependent on Pennsylvania at the time. Crownstones include the two coats-of-arms -- the side facing north bear William Penn's arms and the side facing south bear the arms of the Calvert family that founded Maryland. Today, while a number of the original stones are missing or buried, many are still visible, resting on public land and protected by iron cages. ~~~~~ Dear readers, sometimes we take history for granted. Every American has used the Mason-Dixon Line in conversation to denote the Old South - 'south of the Mason-Dixon.' The mere mention of the Mason-Dixon Line conjures up the fight against slavery and the Civil War. But like all phrases that have become commonplace, the historical significance of the Mason-Dixon Line has been blurred by time. Wherever you live -- whatever country or American region -- look around you and you will find important names and places in history. Take some time to learn about them and consider their significance because they are the building blocks of today and tomorrow. Obama Will not Reassure America by Naming Klain Ebola Czar The gaffs, confusion and contradictary statements coming from US officials trying to coordinate the Ebola crisis continue. It now seems that, despite what CDC and some military officials, as well as Obama administration spokesmen, have been saying, American medics will, indeed, treat infected healthcare workers in West Africa. US Major General Darryl Williams, who is overseeing the US military response in West Africa, attempted to renew assurances that there are no plans for American troops to treat Liberians infected by Ebola -- BUT a team of 65 doctors and nurses from the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, will staff a 25-bed hospital built by the military. They will actually be involved in the care and feeding of healthcare workers who have been inflicted with the Ebola virus,” Williams said in a teleconference from Liberia. The General’s remarks highlight questionable distinctions and apparent contradictions, or simple confusion, on the part of top defense and health officials. Another General, David Rodriguez, had earlier said that troops would only work with Ebola samples during testing, “clarifying” a statement that a handful American troops would have direct contact with potential Ebola patients. These comments from the military are in contrast to earlier comments made today by the director of the CDC, who said that the Defense Department had told him there were no plans for military personnel to actively treat Ebola patients. Major General Williams’ remarks contradict these statements. He admitted there was risk, saying : “I would not say there’s no risk. But there is risk that can be tampered down if you take the appropriate discipline and use the protocols.” Concerning the handful of specialists who are testing samples, Williams said : “That’s probably the closest it comes [for the US military to be in contact] to the Ebola virus chain.” The apparent distinction Williams makes is that the US medics report to the US Department of Health and Human Services – and not the military, technically, although they are one of America's seven uniformed services whose current leader is a Rear Admiral. ~~~~~ Meanwhile, the Texas health department has taken the lead, ordering any person who entered the room of the first Ebola patient at a Dallas hospital not to travel by public transport, including planes ship, buses or trains, or visit grocery stores, restaurants or theaters for 21 days, until the danger of developing Ebola has passed. The instructions, issued by the Texas Department of State Health Service late Thursday, cover more than 70 health workers involved in providing care for Thomas Duncan, the Liberian national who became the first patient to test positive for Ebola in the United States and who died on October 8 in the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. The hospital workers were ordered to undergo monitoring twice a day, including one face-to-face encounter. The health department said anyone failing to adhere to the rules "may be subject to a communicable disease control order." The health workers were asked to sign a written acknowledgement of the directions when they appear for monitoring. The new rules were issued in the wake of reports that one of the hospital nurses who treated Duncan -- 29- year-old Amber Vinson -- later flew to Cleveland and then took a return flight Oct. 13 on Frontier Airlines despite having a low-grade fever, indicating the possible onset of Ebola. Until today, workers involved in the Duncan case had only been asked to self-monitor for symptoms of infection after two nurses were diagnosed with the virus The order, signed by David Lakey, commissioner of the state health department, said any of the health-care workers affected can stay at the hospital to facilitate monitoring for the three-week period. Another healthcare worker who had contact with Duncan lab samples was found by tbe CDC on a Carnival Cruise Line ship in tbe Caribbean. This person has been quarantined on the ship, which has been refused permission by Belize to send her to Belize City for evacuation to the US. ~~~~~ The CDC is now contacting all passengers of Frontier Flight 1143 used by Dallas nurse Amber Vinson to return from Cleveland to Dallas after telling her CDC contact that she had a temperature of 99.5°F. ~~~~~ Despite the growing number of Americans who have come in contact with healthcare workers in the Dallas hospital, doctors who are specialists in infectious diseases are trying to calm fears of a spread of the virus. Dr. William Schaffner, chair of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, told ABC News : "The issue is with the healthcare workers at the hospital in Dallas who were exposed while caring for a sick individual. The average person does not have to be concerned." This is echoed by Dr. Frieden, CDC director, who acknowledges that there are likely to be further Ebola cases among the health care workers who treated Thomas Duncan, but remains confident that the infection will travel no further : "Ebola is hard to fight, but we know how to fight it and how to beat it. The situation changes every day. We're always going to be open with what we know, share more rather than less. We're going to put in extra measures of safety to protect Americans," he said in a press briefing yesterday. ~~~~~ Dear readers, we are now seeing the negative fallout in America of a federal government and President who have lost the confidence of their citizens. Perhaps Dr. Freiden and the CDC are right. -- perhaps they know how to control the Ebola virus -- perhaps their actions will prevent an epidemic in the US -- perhaps. But many Americans have the feeling that President Obama and the CDC and Dr. Freiden are not in control, that they are disorganized and "behind the curve" when dealing with Ebola. This widespread skepticism can be traced directly back to the skepticism Americans now feel about anything President Obama says. He is mistrusted and his motives and truthfulness are questioned. So, now that Americans need to be reassured, not about political and foreign policy issues, but about a health danger that, even with the most trusted of Presidents, would still be 70/% fatal and with no known medicine to cure it. And, just when Americans are hoping and demanding that someone take charge and use US resources correctly to protect the nation - we get the leaked information that President Obama will in fact appoint an Ebola Czar. But, hope and trust are once more being crushed. The President will appoint Ron Klain, who served as chief of staff to vice presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore, to be the new "Ebola czar" to coordinate government response to the medical emergency. Klain is not a doctor, has no healthcare industry experience, has no background as a military logistics officer. He is an ex-politico. Klain is now President of Case Holdings and General Counsel of Revolution, an investment group. He clerked for the US Supreme Court. He headed up Gore's effort during the 2000 Florida recount - so we know he can lose a battle over hanging chads. Klain is highly regarded at the White House - something even Democrats are now running away from - which sees him as a good manager with excellent relationships both in the administration and on Capitol Hill - neither of which are Ebola hotpoints. He supervised the allocation of funds in the stimulus act - a $700 Billion giveaway that most Americans still see as a complete waste of taxpayer dollars. So, once more, we see the "we inside the White House can do everything" approach that has destroyed Barack Obama's credibility with Americans at work on the Ebola crisis. I hope Ron Klain succeeds. But experience tells me that he will be just one more voice in the chaotic cacophony that characterizes the Obama approach to government -- and now to Ebola. Houston Mayor Annise Parker Backs Off Her Attack on Religious Freedom Attorneys for several Houston pastors are challenging the city’s attempts to subpoena their sermons as part of a lawsuit against the recently passed transgender-rights law, also known as the “bathroom bill,” demanding “all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO, the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker (Houston's first openly lesbian mayor), homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession.” The controversial Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or HERO, approved by the city council in June, was opposed by a citizen petition effort. Following the ordinance’s passage in May, faith leaders decided to collect signatures to get the provision on a November ballot in an effort to strike it down. They ended up with the signatures of 50,000 Houstonians, far more than the 17,269 required. But after the city examined the documentation to see if signatories were Houston residents and had signed relevant pages - requirements for petitioning - they subsequently rejected a substantial number. ~~~~~ After the petitions were rejected, opponents of the ordinance, which forbids businesses open to the public from stopping individuals from using opposite-sex bathrooms if their gender identity doesn’t match their biological sex, filed a lawsuit in August challenging the city attorney’s ruling. The Alliance Defending Freedom senior legal counsel Erik Stanley said the pastors subject to the city’s subpoenas are "not party to the lawsuit.“ Attorney Christiana Holcomb, also of ADF, the law firm representing five of the pastors, told Fox News : "The city's subpoena of sermons and other pastoral communications is both needless and unprecedented. The city council and its attorneys are engaging in an inquisition designed to stifle any critique of its actions." The motion filed in court was an attempt to try to stop the subpoenas, claiming they are "overbroad, unduly burdensome, harassing, and vexatious," and in violation of freedom of speech. Mayor Parker's office has refused to explain why it was requesting the sermons, but an ADF attorney suggested that the city was trying to smear the pastors by searching for evidence that they are bigoted against homosexuals. According to Fox News, ADF attorney Erik Stanley said : "City council members are supposed to be public servants, not 'Big Brother overlords who will tolerate no dissent or challenge. This is designed to intimidate pastors." ~~~~~ Reaction to the subpoenas was swift and severe. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said in a statement he is "simply stunned by the sheer audacity" of the subpoenas," adding that a government "has no business using subpoena power to intimidate or bully the preaching and instruction of any church, any synagogue, any mosque or any other place of worship. The pastors of Houston should tell the government that they will not trample over consciences, over the First Amendment and over God-given natural rights. The separation of church and state means that we will render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and we will. But the preaching of the church of God does not belong to Caesar, and we will not hand it over to him. Not now. Not ever." The Reverend Dave Welch, executive director of the Texas Pastor Council, told Fox News that he believed the city was breaking the law : "We are not going to yield our First Amendment rights. This is absolutely a complete abuse of authority." Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, called on pastors across the country to rally behind the Houston ministers : "The state is breaching the wall of separation between church and state. Pastors need to step forward and challenge this across the country. I'd like to see literally thousands of pastors after they read this story begin to challenge government authorities - to dare them to come into their churches and demand their sermons." The pastors told Fox News that they do not intend to comply with the subpoena, although failure to comply could result in a "fine or confinement, or both." Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz blasted the subpoenas, calling the move "shocking and shameful. For far too long, the federal government has led an assault against religious liberty, and now, sadly, my hometown of Houston is joining the fight. This is wrong. It's unbefitting of Texans, and it's un-American. The government has no business asking pastors to turn over their sermons." ~~~~~ And the reaction of Mayor Parker and her office to the criticism has been to backpeddle, news that was first revealed by Dave Welch, executive director of the Houston area US Pastor Council and one of the five pastors who received a subpoena. In what appears to be an effort to escape the anger building up in Houston and across America, Parker and the city are now blaming the subpoenas on the law firm they hired, but Welch told The Christian Post : "This was really initiated by Mayor Annise Parker, who is obviously a noted, kind of poster child for the national gay and lesbian movement, proposing this ordinance back in April that was really a massive overreach to begin with, to basically add sexual orientation and gender identity and expression to the city's discrimination ordinance and impose those discrimination protections over the private sector in an unprecedented way," he said. Parker went as far as to call the subpoena “overly broad” during a press conference Wednesday. “But I also think there was some deliberate misinterpretation on the other side,” she added. Parker and Feldman also said that the subpoena wording came from pro bono attorneys handling the case and not directly from the mayor’s office, as some have claimed. Both contend that they found out about the subpoenas this week, though the city attorney had been quoted Tuesday defending the court document. Parker said during a press conference : “Let me just say that one word in a very long legal document which I know nothing about and would never have read and I’m vilified coast to coast. It’s a normal day at the office for me.” ~~~~~ TheBlaze reported that Feldman told Houston TV earlier this week that he believed that the gathering of signatures at local churches against the equal rights ordinances makes examining sermons an appropriate response. “If they choose to do this inside the church, choose to do this from the pulpit, then they open the door to the questions being asked,” he said. Feldman also said on a separate occasion, “If someone is speaking from the pulpit and it’s political speech, then it’s not going to be protected.” But on Wednesday, Feldman said that the word “sermons” was a distraction and that he would not have worded the subpoena in the same way if he had composed it, according to the Houston Chronicle. “It’s unfortunate that it has been construed as some effort to infringe upon religious liberty,” he said. Bur hours before the press conference, Parker used her Twitter account to defend the inclusion of sermons in the subpoena, writing, “If the 5 pastors used pulpits for politics, their sermons are fair game. Were instructions given on filling out anti-HERO petition?” ~~~~~ Dear readers, the First Amendment says : "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The rights granted by the First Amendment are among those most sacred to the Founders and most protected by the US Supreme Court. To try to restrict the right of Americans' freedom to believe and practice religion as they choose, and to try to suppress that religious freedom by attacking the other great First Amendment right - freedom of speech - is an affront to every American and a challenge to their most revered rights. That the Houston mayor would use the current "hot button" rights of the gay, lesbian and transgender community in such an attack is an indication of her insensitivity to the opinion of the majority of Americans, who are already uneasy and angered by what they see as a degradation of a fundamental Judeo-Christian moral principle in the rush to grant a constitutional right to gay marriage. This bundle of constitutional-religious-social issues is far too important, and too divisive, to be used to push through one municipality's ordinance granting the unfettered use of public toilets. The issues deserve serious, thoughtful debate. They do not deserve being reduced to who uses which restrooms. And, if Mayor Parker wants to know what the pastors sermons contain, perhaps she should go to church -- visit each one on a Sunday morning. It might be a valuable experience for her. LEST WE FORGET : "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." __Thomas Jefferson Follow me on Twitter @caseypopsblog Pop Shots : Thoughts that encourage us : "You've always been loyal to this nation. Now, you finally have a President who is loyal to you. Your dreams are my dreams. Your hopes are my hopes. And your future is what I'm fighting for, each and every day." __President Donald Trump, Montoursville, PA, May 20, 2019 A Maine Judge Finds an Ebola Quarantine Compromise... Israel Once More Surrounded by Palestinian Propaga... America Needs Republicans, Libertarians and Indepe... A National Mandatory Quarantine Is the Right Appro... Three Governors and the US Army Got It Right - Qua... Bush Was Right - Chemical WMD Were in Iraq - ISIS ... Obamacare - Another Election Day Disaster for Demo... Polls Show GOP Senate Likely, But Don't Be Complac... Obama Will Confront Congress on Immigration after ... Obama, Same-Sex Marriage, and the Fourteenth Amend... Why Does Obama Resist Naming the Kurdish Peshmerga... Obama Will not Reassure America by Naming Klain Eb... Houston Mayor Annise Parker Backs Off Her Attack o... Ebola Update and Frontier Flight 1143 Alert Give Up Your Weak Airstrike Strategy, Mr. Obama, a... Memo to Palestine, Hamas, Qatar, UN : If You Want ... Ebola- Where Are We? What Can We Do? The White House Is not a Royal Court; Mr. Obama Is... Whatever the Nobel Decision, Pope Francis Is the 2... Leon Panetta - the Latest Messenger Obama Is Tryin... Americans Mistrust the Government - and That's Goo... Turkey - Complex and Worrisome, but Strategic in W... Peter Kassig Needs Our Help Opinion Polls Square with Leon Panetta's Revelatio... What Did President Obama Know about ISIS...and Whe... Yet Again : "What President Obama Was Trying to Sa... Casey-Pops I've been writing my blog since 2010. My political background is extensive. I follow political events closely and keep up with US and European news and commentary every day. For me, politics is the responsibility of everyone and if we don't stay on top of things and get involved, we pay the price.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4277
__label__wiki	0.773375	0.773375	Tag Archives: World Population Day 2015 Women in rural Pakistan champion the cause of population planning Posted on July 11, 2015 by FarahnazZahidi By Farahnaz Zahidi Published: July 11, 2015 With the government lagging behind, women in villages of Pakistan are working for population planning. PHOTO COURTESY: SHIRKATGAH KARACHI: Her father earns a meager Rs4000 a month as a gate keeper in the village school. Yet, this 18-year-old girl, whose biggest dream in life is to have her own computer, choses to do social work free of charge. “Anything that will help my people,” she says. She visits every home in the tiny village of Allan Chandio in district Shaheed Benazirabad, Sindh, convincing them to practice family planning (FP) and allowing their daughters to study so that they can make informed decisions about their lives. “I even visit my uncles,” says Benazir Chandio with a broad smile. She does this in a culture where issues like contraception are brushed under the carpet. “They say you are too young to be teaching us. I reply that if God has given me more awareness than you, then I have every reason to teach you.” Benazir, who has been given a well-deserved place in Shirkatgah’s “Building Momentum – Strengthening Champions” initiative, convinced two families to delay the weddings of their very young daughters. “Postponing those weddings for two years gave those girls some time to get ready for marriage and motherhood,” she says, and shares with pride that one of those girls recently gave birth to a baby girl at the right time. For women in her village, having anywhere between eight to 12 children is a norm. But she feels that with counseling, villagers are getting convinced to plan their families. Standing at number six among the world’s most populous nations, Pakistan needs more such girls. In absence of satisfactory performance from the government, the onus to cause a change has fallen on the civil society. Read: Addressing the baby boom: Women’s reproductive health an urgent issue Experts like Country Director Population Council Zeba Sathar express dissatisfaction over Pakistan’s success in FP. “Pakistan’s performance in lowering its fertility is indeed dismal; while we had some success in the 90s, the last 15 years have been a virtual standstill,” says Sathar. According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2014-15, Pakistan’s estimated population is over 191.71 million. While there seems a definite decline in Pakistan’s population growth rate (1.49 per cent in 2014, according to CIA’s World Fact Book), there is much to be done. At the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, Pakistan had committed to increase the contraceptive prevalence rate to 55 per cent by 2020. Five years short of 2020, the world looks on to see if the commitment will be honoured. “Pakistan’s pledge at the London Summit is an opportunity, perhaps the last, to actually ratchet up efforts, drum up the political will and redesign the programs to accelerate family planning in Pakistan,” says Sathar. Dr Azra Ahsan, technical consultant to the National committee for Maternal and Neonatal Health (NCMNH), says that health care providers need to be convinced first. “When they are not on board, how can we convince patients? What our medical students are taught is not relevant to ground realities. We know more about endoscopic and robotic surgeries, but our medical graduates don’t know about maternal health or public health policies.” Ahsan adds that every health care provider should be trained to guide patients in FP. “Why is it just the gynecologist’s job? Between being referred from one specialist to another, patients slip away,” says Ahsan, and suggests that The World Health Organization’s (WHO) medical eligibility criteria (MEC) wheel should be on every doctor’s table. “It is such a simple guide advising which contraceptive is advisable for whom.” Dr Farid Midhet, demographer and Country director Jhpiego, feels that one factor could be the general instability on many fronts in the country. “We are struggling with the same issues since the last two decades.” One thing that could work, according to Midhet, is integrating population planning into the public health system. Talking about unmet needs of contraceptives, he says that the use of traditional methods of contraception have gone up by ten per cent, citing the latest PDHS results. However, traditional methods in his opinion are not reliable enough. “A Population Council Pakistan research on Barriers to Contraceptive Use, 2013, shows that contrary to popular belief, neither religion nor male dominance are the main reasons for unmet need. Supply is the main factor here,” he says, adding that if supply is steady and is accompanied by counseling, use of contraceptives in Pakistan can go up by 50 per cent safely. Sharing research showing the gap between what women want and the four million unwanted and mistimed pregnancies that are happening annually, Sathar says, “Two million of these end up in abortions, which could be avoided by better family planning programs.” The aforementioned Population Council study confirms what most experts say – that Punjab is way ahead other provinces in terms of reaching developmental goals, including FP. “Punjab is the only province that may abide by its commitments in this regard. It is initiating the post-partum contraception program, which will be putting to use new technology,” says Midhet, adding that in comparison, Sindh faces more serious issues like lack of implementation of policies, corruption and shoddy governance. Read: One death too many: One death in childbirth every 37 minutes “The provinces are ready to play their role and have set ambitious goals for 2020,” says Sathar, expressing hope that the provincial governments now realize that they must set family planning as a priority. “While there are improvements in the budget lines for contraceptives (previously supplied by donors), funds and priority still lag behind.” Conflict and insecurity has affected more than just health initiatives, with mental illnesses on the rise in Pakistan, especially in women, says Dr Rukhsana Ansari from Indus Hospital, Karachi. “It has a close link with inflation and poverty. Too many children exacerbate women’s problems,” she says, adding that mothers from underprivileged backgrounds suffer from nutritional deficiencies, muscular and skeletal diseases and sleep deprivation. In turn, the children they give birth to are also malnourished. Mothers feel frustrated when they cannot go back to work because of their small children dependent on them, in situations where earning could alleviate their miseries. “If at all women chose to use contraception, the decision is not theirs. It is either the husband or the mother-in-law who decides.” If the Lady Health Worker (LHW) program is re-focused on FP, it could yield results. Mehnaz is one such promising LHW. She has succeeded in convincing most households in the village of Kahazana Dheri, District Mardan, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, to use contraceptives. “I can safely say that now at least half of the couples in our village are using contraception,” says the 36-years-old woman, another one of the Shirkatgah Champions. Yet, the obstacles are many. “Our area was devastated by the 2010 floods. Additionally, incidences of terrorism affect everything – when roads and bridges are blown off in bomb attacks, how will contraceptives reach small health facilities? People lose jobs in conflict areas. For an unemployed man, feeding his family becomes priority instead of buying contraceptives.” Published in The Express Tribune, July 11th, 2015. http://tribune.com.pk/story/918815/women-in-rural-pakistan-champion-the-cause-of-population-planning/ Posted in Women and tagged Population Council, population planning in Pakistan, PRB, Shirkatgah, World Population Day, World Population Day 2015. Bookmark the permalink.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4283
__label__cc	0.59409	0.40591	Missouri FOM Case Could Reverberate JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (03/31/06) – A state court ruling striking down the state’s field of membership rule could have broad ramifications around the country as two federal courts begin to deliberate the FOM issue, one, in Pennsylvania, over similar issues. In its decision, the Cole County Circuit Court struck down many of the constricts that have allowed credit unions, both state and federally chartered, to establish ever broader areas community FOMs. The court overruled the authority of the state’s CU Commission, made up by a majority of credit union executives, to define what would be considered a valid geographic area for purposes of setting an FOM and asserted that boundaries accepted by the Commission, such as counties, townships, zip codes, telephone area codes and even cities do not qualify under the state's statute--which is based on NCUA's--to delineate community FOMs. In fact, Judge Richard Callahan said the broad community grants awarded the state chartered credit unions did not fit the definitions of "well-defined," "local neighborhood" or "rural district," on which both the federal law and the state's, adopted in 1998 just before the passage of HR 1151, the CU Membership Access Act, rely to approve community FOMs. The ruling comes as a federal court in Pennsylvania is deliberating on whether NCUA violated the federal statute in granting a broad six-county community charter for two local credit unions. In a separate case, a federal court in Utah is also reviewing whether NCUA violated the law in granting underserved expansions to community chartered credit unions. (CU Journal)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4287
__label__wiki	0.837925	0.837925	Culture in Florida: March Posted on April 1, 2013 by culturebuildsflorida by Bob Evans and Tim Storhoff Culture In Florida is a monthly news roundup to show our state’s wonderful diversity, spotlight the organizations and artists that contribute so much to our communities, and stress the comprehensive benefits of arts and culture to Florida’s economy and quality of life. As promised last month, March was full of events across Florida. The Division of Cultural Affairs was busy, as were the many art, history, and science museums across the state. Here in Tallahassee, the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs hosted our statewide Poetry Out Loud competition March 8th and 9th. The program is a contest that encourages the nation’s youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation. Poetry Out Loud is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. For a full breakdown of Florida’s event, replete with pictures, see our previous blog post. The 2013 Poetry Out Loud Florida State Finals champion Kourtney Brooker, reciting her poem during the final round. Elsewhere in Florida, the Gasparilla International Film Festival was held in Tampa from March 19th to the 24th. Since its inception in 2006, the festival has continued to draw international crowds with its exciting crops of filmmakers, actors, and writers, who all come together for a week of brilliant cinema. This year’s festival was no different. One of Florida’s own independent filmmakers, Lawrence Feeney, president of Pasco Films, took home the Audience Award in the Narrative Feature category for his film, Pharmboy. The film, which was shot in Pasco County, is a fictional account of a teenager who was born addicted to prescription pills. The festival also features the work of another Floridian, Vaughn Wilkinson, who played the lead in the independent feature film Against the Grain. Wilkinson, who graduated from Tampa’s King High School in 2002, has had success in national commercials and a part on 90210. March was also Florida Archaeology Month, and for two New College students, it paid off. Matt Andersen and Jodi Johnson won Cornelia D. Futor Archaeology Student Grants, sponsored by the Time Sifters Archaeology Society of Sarasota. The grant competition is open to undergraduate and pre-doctoral graduate students enrolled at a college in the Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Tampa area and is based on excellence in archaeology research papers. At the Florida Museum of Natural History this month are the fossilized remains of a giant crocodile. The fossils are from the same coal mine in Colombia where the 48-foot-long “Titanoboa: Monster Snake” was discovered. “This is extremely exciting because we’ll be unpacking the first lower jaw discovered of this giant, 30- to 40-foot-long crocodile relative we believe may have actually battled Titanoboa,” says Florida Museum vertebrate paleontology curator Jonathan Bloch. University of Florida doctoral candidate Aldo Rincon discovered a tooth and lower jaw segments of an extinct hippo-like species while excavating in the Panama Canal. His research has recently been published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The fossils are being held at the Florida Museum of Natural History for analysis. The Jacksonville Zoo, seemingly in preparation for the upcoming 20th anniversary re-release of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, has opened its very own version of the fictional park. DinoTrek features 21 life-size animatronic dinosaurs, as well as a unique comprehensive experience. Visitors pass through a Jurassic Park-like gate, follow a foggy path to a moat, cross over on a floating dock and enter a heavily wooded area where the dinosaurs move, roar and snarl. DinoTrek also offers a dig site when kids can excavate fossils. The exhibit will continue through June 30th. With the Voyager 1 spacecraft rapidly making its way out of the solar system, space is once again making the news in Florida. Space Florida, the state’s public/private space development corporation, wants to convince NASA to release 150 acres of its land now contained within the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge or Canaveral National Seashore to operate a commercial spaceport outside the security perimeter of NASA launch facilities. They will make their first appearance before the Volusia County Council on April 4th. Saturn V rocket engines from the famous Apollo 11 mission to the moon were discovered by Jeff Bezos off of the coast of Florida. Bezos, founder of Amazon.com and its CEO, said in 2012 that he planned to recover those specific engines. The rocket engines remain property of NASA and the U.S. government, and Bezos has indicated that he would like to pull the engines to the surface and then have NASA put them on display at a museum in Seattle. The noteworthy collaboration between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the John F. Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (KSCVC) and the Museum of Arts & Sciences (MOAS) continues with over forty pieces from the heart of the NASA art collection. Florida Celebrates Space is open at MOAS through April 28, 2013. The exhibition is offered in celebration of the 500th anniversary of Ponce de León’s discovery of Florida and illustrates the peninsula not only as a destination for the first explorers, but as a gateway for those launching to explore new worlds beyond Earth. Included are pieces by Annie Leibovitz, Andy Warhol, James Wyeth and Robert Rauschenberg. To accompany the exhibition, MOAS is offering special Florida Celebrates Space events and activities through April, 2013. Frank J. Thomas being inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame during the Florida Heritage Month Awards. Photo by Gary Pettit. Florida Heritage Month began on March 15 and will continue until April 15. The Florida Heritage Month Awards Ceremony was held on March 20 at Mission San Luis in Tallahassee. The event included a reception, cultural performances, the Florida Folk Heritage Awards, Secretary of State Historic Preservation Awards, Florida Book Awards and the induction of artists into the 2013 Florida Artists Hall of Fame. If you’re looking for things to do in April, it’s Jazz Appreciation Month so check out some live performances between now and Jazz Day on April 30. As always, keep your eye on the Viva Florida 500 calendar all year long and check out the local cultural calendars in your area! This entry was posted in Uncategorized by culturebuildsflorida. Bookmark the permalink.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4289
__label__wiki	0.534328	0.534328	Church of the Transfiguration (Kizhi Island, Russia) While this Church does not have the typical look and feel of a Russian Eastern Orthodox Church, its unique wooden structure and many roofs and bulbs give it an attractive look that makes it an exceptional building. Constructed in the 18th Century, it is one of three UNESCO World Heritage Sites on the Kizhi Island. Borgund Stave Church (Lærdal, Norway) Photo: Borgund Stave Church The interesting fact about this Church is how it was constructed entirely from wood, and without using any nails! Built in 1180, the structure is considered a typical Viking structure. It is adorned with dragon heads and surrounding tombstones, giving it a somber feeling matching the famous cold Norse whether. The Church of Hallgrímur (ReykjavÃk, Iceland) Photo: The Church of Hallgrímur Going over to a more modern structure, this Church was named after a famous Icelandic poet and clergyman, Hallgrimur Petursson. The impressive structure stands at 74.5 meters high, and took 38 years to complete, making it one of the tallest buildings in Iceland! Las Lajas Cathedral, (Colombia, South America) Photo: Las Lajas Cathedral This Roman Catholic basilica is built inside a canyon in Columbia where the Guitara River flows, giving the building a fantastic view of the canyon below. The church was financed by local communities for 33 years, creating a masterpiece of architecture in the midst of iconic and unforgettable scenery. St Joseph Ukrainian Catholic Church (Chicago, USA) Photo: St Joseph Ukrainian Church Built in 1958, the ultra-modern Church has a distinguished roof, made-up of thirteen gold domes which symbolize the twelve apostles and Jesus Christ as the largest center dome. Chapel of St. Gildas (Brittany, France) Photo: Chapel of St. Gildas Who would ever think that a Chapel would serve both as a religious place of worship, and also as an art exhibition center?! St. Gildas does, along with 25 other chapels in the area during the Art dans les Chapelles festival. January 7, 2019 February 17, 2019 Salwa ShalabyPlaces#Christmas, #church Previous Post Happy New Year From Around the World Next Post The Art of Japanese Candy Sculpting	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4290
__label__wiki	0.683212	0.683212	O’Dohertys Keep, Buncrana. County Donegal 13th-15th centuries Wolfe Tone, The Armada and The O’Doherty Clan This interesting little building is locally known as O’Doherty’s Keep. Its date of construction is unknown. It resembles a fortified tower house from the 15th century but recent excavations believe it may be a corner tower of an undocumented 13th century Norman castle. During the 1400s it came into the possession of the O’Doherty Clan who added a third floor and used it as a part of their network of castles around the Inishowen peninsula. In 1588, sailors from the Spanish Armada were ‘housed’ here by Sean Óg O’Doherty after being rescued after being shipwrecked in Kinnegoe Bay. In 1608 Sir Cahir O’Doherty (Sean Og’s son) led a rising against the English garrison in Derry and the keep was burned in reprisal. In one of Harry Swan’s books on Inishowen, there is a photograph of a collection of swords, daggers and pike heads that belonged to Sir Cahir which were found under the keep which backs up this fact. After this rebellion, all the property and land in Inishowen (including this keep) was granted to Sir Arthur Chichester. Chichester then subsequently leased it to a fellow Englishman called Henry Vaughan whose grandson George ‘planned’ Buncrana Town. George also lived in this keep with his family until they built the nearby manor house known as Buncrana Castle in 1718. Wolfe Tone, the leader of the 1798 Rising was also imprisoned here before being taken to Dublin Castle after being captured aboard a French Frigate in Lough Swilly. Today, the building is roofless but is under State protection. Deenagh Lodge, Killarney National Park. County Kerry 1834 Rathmullan Gun Battery, Rathmullan. County Donegal 1810 Cahir Castle, Cahir. County Tipperary 1142 Ross Castle, Killarney. County Kerry c.1460 Skellig Michael. County Kerry b.6th -13th centuries Knockmany Cairn & Annya’s Tomb, Augher. County Tyrone 100AD-3000BC	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4291
__label__wiki	0.786096	0.786096	Beasts of Burden, Animal and Disability Liberation, by Sunaura Taylor is a must read for anyone interested in the intersections between ableism and speciesism and disability studies and critical animal studies. Book cover of Beasts of Burden, Sunaura Taylor [IG: Book with blue greenish cover with title and author on cover. Held up against background of purple flowers and green foliage. Top caption of book cover reads: “Sunaura Taylor will turn your world inside-out – Rebecca Solnit”. Bottom half of cover shows two silhouettes in white: on left a cow with hind legs supported by wheels, on right a person in wheelchair] This review of Beasts of Burden was originally published on Animal Liberation Currents, a platform with news and analysis for the international animal liberation left. Cripping Animal Ethics Review of Sunaura Taylor, Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation. New York and London: The New Press, 2017. (260 pages), by Chloë Taylor. May 12 2017. – Republished on Crip HumAnimal with permission – Sunaura Taylor’s monograph, Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation, is a powerful and original contribution to the philosophy of disability and animal ethics, and to social justice scholarship generally. Like Carol Adams’ Sexual Politics of Meat, Taylor’s book is a groundbreaking analysis of the interweavings of animal and human oppression. While Adams’ work, published in 1990, has frequently been criticized for inadequately attending to axes of oppression other than gender and species, no such critique can be made of Taylor’s book, which is exemplary in its intersectional scholarship. Recent works such as Sue Donaldson’s and Will Kymlicka’s Zoopolis have also put disability studies in conversation with animal ethics, demonstrating that such conversations (contra the example of Peter Singer) can be strikingly generative. Taylor’s book, however, is the first monograph entirely devoted to the interlocking of animal and disability oppression, and also indicates the shared path toward animal and disability liberation. Taylor explains her title near the end of the book when she writes that “Disabled people… have been presented as beasts and as burdens” (208). Early chapters of the monograph thus discuss the bestialization of disabled people, and the shared logics of speciesism and ableism. Later chapters take up the issue of the purportedly burdensome nature of disability, discussing the ways that both disabled animals and disabled humans are denigrated as dependent on their communities or on humans—to be destroyed as useless in the case of disabled domesticated animals, and to be given condescending forms of care in the case of disabled humans. Against such views, Taylor insists on the creativity and value of disability—and not merely as a lesson in overcoming or inspiration—even while attending to the suffering that often attends disability, and the conditions of oppression from which it frequently arises. Although it explores difficult topics, Beasts of Burden is a delight to read, with different chapters varying in length and genre, from brief philosophical musings and engaging stories from the author’s life, to longer arguments built on meticulous research. Whatever the genre, length or scholarly detail of the chapters, at all times this book remains grounded in the author’s lived experiences and encounters with other animals, including humans. It also always remains accessible to students and readers new to either critical disability studies or animal ethics, which makes it a very teachable work. Taylor opens Beasts of Burden with a Prologue, titled “Chicken Truck,” in which she recalls seeing trucks crammed with chickens being driven to slaughter on the highways of Georgia as a child. From here, the Prologue moves to describe the year Taylor spent, as an MFA student in Berkeley, painting over a hundred portraits of factory-farmed chickens at a “processing plant.” As she recounts, it was while painting these portraits that Taylor first became aware of the ways that animal industries disable animals, and thus began to think about animal oppression through a disability lens. She concludes this short prologue with the provocative question: “If animal and disability oppression are entangled, might not that mean their paths of liberation are entangled as well?” (xv) The next eighteen chapters of Taylor’s book explore some of the manifold ways in which both animal and disability oppression, and animal and disability liberation, may and must be thought together. “If animal and disability oppression are entangled, might not that mean their paths of liberation are entangled as well?” Sunaura Taylor Chapter 1, “Strange But True,” is a short chapter in which Taylor recalls two childhood memories. The first memory is of the moment, at the age of five, when by repeatedly falling she realized what it meant to be disabled. The second memory is of the moment when, at the age of six, she realized that meat is animals. According to Taylor, the first experience was not particularly troubling, however the second experience was far more so, since it was then that she realized there was cruelty in the world. This chapter also describes Taylor’s original community of animal activists—her siblings and mother. Chapter 2, “What is Disability?”, describes the much later period, when Taylor was twenty-one, when she actively sought out a crip community similar to her animal activist community. Chapter 2 also provides an overview of disability oppression and activism, and the ways that pathologization intersects with animalization. In concluding the chapter, Taylor argues for an intersectionalist approach to both critical disability studies and critical animal studies, one that simultaneously attends to other axes of oppression such as race, class, gender and sexuality. Chapter 3, “Animal Crips,” is one of the most substantial chapters in the volume. It considers disabled nonhuman animals from a wide variety of angles, including: the ways that disabled pets—like disabled humans—are alternately seen as pitiable (“better off dead”), adorable, and inspirational (“super crips”); the ways that disabled animals in the wild are perceived by humans as non-viable (“survival of the fittest”) or a burden to their communities; how these assumptions about disability are troubled by the evidence that many disabled wild animals flourish and are valued by their communities; how nonhuman animals perceive disability; how animal agriculture disables animals—both purposefully (by breeding them to gain more weight or produce more milk than their bodies can bear) and through execrable living conditions that render them ill or lame; how the animal agriculture industry treats disabled and ill animals, including the spectacularly violent destruction of animals in cases of mad cow disease and avian flu; and the accommodation of disabled animals, for instance on farm sanctuaries. In this chapter, Taylor also considers what it looks like to consider animal crips through the social model of disability; is it the social constructs and social contexts of these animals’ lives (for instance, industrialized farms and the agricultural view of animals as units of production) that constitute these animals’ disabilities? Would they be disabled outside of these contexts? Finally, Taylor argues that from the perspective of the social model of disability, all nonhuman animals can be considered crips, since what it means to be “able” by human supremacist standards is to be an able-bodied human. Put otherwise, the abilities of nonhuman animals are continually judged according to species-typical human standards, and all nonhuman animals are thus oppressed by an ableism that is always already a humanism. Chapter 4, “The Chimp Who Spoke,” considers human and nonhuman animals who communicate through sign language, with particular attention to a signing chimp named Booee. Booee’s brain was split in two for a medical experiment at the NIH when he was a baby, and he spent most of his life in scientific laboratories, where he was taught ASL by Roger Fouts. As Taylor notes, the ability to communicate through language, including the ability to hear, has been considered the primary mark of the human and intelligence since Aristotle. Consequently, not only nonhuman animals but deaf and “dumb” humans have been considered inferior due to their purported inability to speak. The ability of chimpanzees like Booee to learn signs and to communicate with humans through ASL—a language which linguists have recognized to be just as complex as spoken languages—has thus functioned to humanize them, sometimes leading to their rescue from laboratories, even while the plight of their fellow, non-signing chimps is ignored. At the same time, however, signing on the part of humans has been denigrated as “monkey-like” or “ape-like,” deaf students have been forbidden to sign, and some deaf people have felt that the ability of nonhuman primates to sign denigrates ASL. Taylor concludes the chapter by noting the contingency of our millenia-old privileging of spoken language, and the dire consequences this has had for those who communicate otherwise, human and nonhuman alike. Chapter 5, “Ableism and Animals,” is another substantial chapter. Here, Taylor makes the compelling argument that speciesism entails ableism, and thus animal ethics must be cripped. As Taylor observes, humans have always defined themselves against the foil of other animals, as unique and superior because they alone are purportedly rational, use language, make tools, have complex emotions, make art, have culture, walk on two legs, are aware of death, laugh, cry, and so forth. While we can note that each of these claims is false—there are nonhuman animals who do or show evidence of each of these phenomena—and while we can also note that not all humans have the capacities in question, Taylor asks the more fundamental question: “isn’t it ableism to devalue animals because of what abilities they do or do not have?” (58) Likewise, Taylor argues that it is speciesism to devalue certain humans because they lack capacities that are deemed uniquely human, or because they perform certain activities in ways that are associated with other animals rather than in species-typical ways. Given the overlapping logics of speciesism and ableism, Taylor notes that the ableism that frequently characterizes animal activism is painful and ironic. Some examples of the ableism of mainstream animal activism and theory include urging people to become vegan because animal products will make them fat, sick or disabled; patronizing and false claims on the part of animal activists to be a “voice for the voiceless” (as if only those who speak human, natural languages can communicate); and, most notoriously, “marginal cases” arguments in animal ethics such as those of Peter Singer. As Taylor argues, instead of perpetuating ableism, animal ethics and activism should learn from disability activism and scholarship to value difference, even while seeing our commonalities (60). Chapter 6, “What is an Animal?”, provides fragments of a genealogy of speciesism, examining some of the ways that science and philosophy have taxonomized animals—and understood the relationship between humans and other animals—from Aristotle to Darwin. Throughout the chapter, Taylor attends to the ways that animal taxonomies and the human-animal relationship have been informed by and reinforced speciesism, ableism, racism, and colonialism. Chapter 7, “The Chimp Who Remembered,” returns to Booee, the signing chimp whose story Taylor began to tell in Chapter 4. Thirteen years later, Booee is still living alone in a cage in the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP). At this point, Roger Fouts is reunited with the chimp, and is surprised that Booee not only remembers him, but also the nickname for Fouts that the scientist himself had forgotten. Booee also remembered that Fouts carries raisins in his pocket, signing, ME BOOEE, and GIVE ME FOOD ROGER. Thanks to a 20/20 episode on the signing chimps, Taylor recounts that Booee and eight other chimpanzees were finally rescued from the notorious LEMSIP laboratory and taken to a sanctuary. In two short chapters, Chapter 8, “Walking Like a Monkey,” and Chapter 9, “Animal Insults,” Taylor describes the ways she was insulted as a child through comparisons to animals like Booee. Taylor was teased on the playground for walking like a monkey, and she recounts being told that she eats like a dog, has hands like a lobster, and resembles a chicken or penguin (103). Although, as a child who loved animals and especially monkeys, Taylor was confused by why it should be insulting to be compared to these animals, she knew that the comments were meant to be hurtful, and so they were. Taylor writes that her disabled friends and acquaintances can all tell similar stories of being compared to animals, and the history of freak shows is also full of “penguin girls,” “dog-faced boys,” “baboon women,” “ape women,” “bear women,” and “missing links.” The association of disability with animality has had abusive institutional effects, such as beliefs that disabled people can live in filthy, unheated spaces that are usually (and, of course, also problematically) reserved for nonhuman animals. For these reasons, it is not surprising that the typical response to animal insults is for disabled people (and other animalized groups of humans) to insist on their humanity. Although this may be an understandable and at times necessary tactic, it also reinforces a speciesist logic and does nothing to protest the oppression of animals. In contrast, Taylor acknowledges the truth of the comparisons between herself and nonhuman animals. Since she eats without utensils, for instance, she states that it is simply a fact that she eats like a dog, and yet, for Taylor, there is nothing degrading in this comparison. As she writes, her “claiming” of animality functions as “a way of challenging the violence of animalization and of speciesism—of recognizing that animal liberation is entangled with our own” (110). In Chapter 10, “Claiming Animal,” Sunaura considers other examples of disabled humans who embraced their animality. These include disabled people who assigned themselves the names of “Monkey Girl,” “The Alligator-Skinned Man,” “Frog Man,” and “Seal Boy” in order to pursue careers and fame in freak shows. While it is undeniable that these careers relied on and perhaps reinforced both ableism and speciesism, Taylor argues that they are not simply cases of oppression and exploitation. Rather, these are situations in which disabled people expressed agency and embraced animalization in order to have economic independence within an ableist society, and used their animalized bodies not to demean themselves, but to provoke wonder and find community. Taylor situates herself within this history of disabled people claiming their animality as a means to feel connection and dignity. Rummaging through her purse with her face, for example, Taylor describes feeling connected to the other beautiful and dignified animals, such as dogs and pigs, who also root for what they want with their noses. Animality, Taylor insists, is not dehumanizing. On the contrary, humans are animals, and our animality should not be experienced as a source of shame, but as “integral to humanity” (115). Chapter 11, “Freak of Nature,” is a brief musing in which Taylor uses the example of her own body to deconstruct the distinction between nature and culture. Taylor was born with arthrogryposis, a condition common in farm animals and also found in the wild. In fact, Taylor opens her “Animal Crips” chapter with the story of a fox with arthrogryposis who was shot by a human in an apparent “mercy killing,” although the contents of the fox’s stomach and his normal muscle mass indicate that he was thriving in the wild (23). While farm animals born with arthrogryposis are systematically killed, Taylor was given corrective surgeries that enable her to stand and take a few steps. Although in some ways she is glad that she had these operations, Taylor also describes her fascination with her “original” body. As she describes, she is curious about how she would have moved and experienced the world had she been left in her “natural” state. But was her original body natural? As Taylor goes on to note, her disability was caused by her mother drinking toxic waste from U.S. military pollution that contaminated the water in the town where Taylor was born. If we understand “nature” as that which has not been shaped by human intervention, then Taylor argues she has never had a “natural” body. Although this may seem particularly clear in cases such as her own, Taylor goes on to ponder whether it is true of all bodies today. Most obviously, humans have intervened in all animal life by changing the climate of the planet and the acidification of the oceans, such that even animals who live in the remotest arctic or on the sea floors are impacted by human activities. Beyond this, Taylor argues that we can never understand nature other than as humans construct this concept, and any understanding that we have of the “natural body” will thus be informed by social constructions of the natural. In Chapter 12, “All Animals Are Equal (But Some Are More Equal Than Others),” Taylor recounts that, an animal liberationist from the age of six, she was an admirer of Peter Singer’s by the time she was ten. It came as a shock, therefore, to learned that he is reviled by the disability community. Indeed, as Taylor notes, it is in part because of Singer’s foundational position in the animal liberation movement, and his comments on disability, that most disability activists find it difficult to imagine disability and animal rights as anything other than antagonistic. This chapter introduces Singer’s writings on animal ethics, from his earlier works which emphasize sentience to his later writings in which he reintroduces a hierarchy of life based on cognitive ability as an indicator of “personhood,” as well as his problematic extension of this ethics to discuss cases of disability. Taylor offers a careful and nuanced engagement with Singer’s philosophy, and also recounts and reflects upon her own extended conversation with Singer. Finally, Taylor argues that we should turn to ecofeminism, or feminist animal ethics, as a body of writing that has already critiqued Singer’s views in ways that resonate with disability insights. In Chapter 13, “Toward a New Table Fellowship,” Taylor describes participating in an evening of activities called The Feral Share, which involved an art fund-raising event, an organic meal, and a philosophical debate. Taylor was invited to debate the ethics of eating meat with Nicolette Hahn Niman, an environmental lawyer, cattle-rancher, and author of a book titled Righteous Porkchop. Taylor was excluded from the first part of the evening—the art fund-raising event—because it was located on an inaccessible floor of the building. She and her partner David thus spend the first forty minutes of the evening sitting alone downstairs, because the organizers had not opted for an accessible building, and architects had not had bodies like Taylor’s in mind when they designed the building. Although the event featured a debate on veganism, the dinner was not vegan, but rather entailed a choice of grass-fed beef or cheese ravioli. Taylor and her partner were prepared a separate meal of roasted vegetables—a meal that she realized was read as “isolating and different, as creating more work for the chefs, and as unfulfilling in comparison with the other dishes” (150). Taylor describes feeling “alone” not only because she was the only visibly disabled person in the room, but because she and her partner were the only people who did not have animal products on their plates. Taylor summarizes the evening by writing, “animal oppression and disability oppression are made invisible by being rendered as simply natural: steers are served for dinner and disabled people wait downstairs” (155). In a society that assumes normative bodies, minds, and eating practices, being either disabled or vegan means that one must constantly ask to be specially accommodated, which is interpreted as inconveniencing others. As an example of this view, Taylor cites Michael Pollan’s argument that we should eat meat in order to avoid requiring special accommodation from our hosts. Taylor suggests that disability theory can be useful for resisting carnism such as Pollan’s, because it is a body of work that has already demanded the right to accommodation as well as theorized how to exist as abnormal in a normalizing world. Taylor’s critique of “humane meat” begins in Chapter 13, when she engages with Hahn Niman and Michael Polllan, and this topic is pursued in more detail in Chapter 14, “Romancing the Meat.” In this chapter, Taylor shows that the so-called humane meat movement relies on a problematic romanticization of “nature” that over-emphasizes consumption and violence over the many empathetic and symbiotic relationships that exist in the wild, while also romanticizing the old-fashioned farm and home-cooked meal. As Taylor argues, while factory farms are particularly heinous, pre-industrial farms were also cruel to animals and relied on numerous forms of intra-human power hierarchies and exploitation. The romanticization of the home-grown and home-cooked meal—and the related contempt for time-saving practices such as prepared meals and microwaves—in the writings of authors such as Pollan, is both sexist and ableist in so far as it entails a nostalgia for a time when women (or their servants and slaves) spent most of their lives in the kitchen, and assumes that all people are able to prepare their own meals. This chapter also provides a critique of another major figure in the rehabilitated image of carnism—one who is particularly problematic from the perspective of a cripped animal ethics: Temple Grandin. As Taylor discusses, Grandin has justified the slaughter of farm animals by arguing that they would never exist if humans had not bred and raised them. As Taylor demonstrates, however, it is highly problematic from a disability perspective to argue that dependency is a justification for abuse, and even slaughter, given the frequent equation of disability with dependency. Concluding her critique of the “humane meat” movement, Taylor insists that “There are better ways to be humane” (177). Chapter 15, “Meat: A Natural Disaster,” begins with an impactful overview of the catastrophic impacts of animal agriculture on the environment, and then turns to the question of how this environmental devastation is a disability issue. As Taylor argues, the destruction of the planet and most life on earth in order to satiate our taste for flesh is a disability issue because of the ways that the toxicity of animal agriculture causes disabilities in both humans and agricultural animals, and because of the ways that environmental destruction disproportionately impacts the poor. The poor are likely to be poor because of disability (employment discrimination) or to acquire a disability because of poverty (lack of adequate health care; toxic dumping in poor countries and poor neighbourhoods). As Taylor observes, slaughterhouses and factory farms are also likely to be located in low-income communities, and hence the pollution of these industries has immediate and disabling impacts on the poor. Working in these industries (which only the poor are willing to do) is also likely to cause disabilities. Most of these work-related disabilities are repetitive strain injuries from bagging intestines, bleeding pigs, or dismembering cows, however accidents also occur regularly. For instance, slaughterhouse workers lose limbs in meat grinders and are crushed by falling carcasses (185-6). In this discussion of the interlocking of environmental, economic and disability injustices, or what could be called environmental ableism, Taylor thoughtfully navigates the difficult terrain of both embracing and desiring disability while acknowledging its harms and the ways it is frequently acquired through oppressive circumstances. Chapter 16, “A Conflict of Needs,” begins by examining an issue on which disability activists and animal activists have often been at odds: medical experimentation on animals. Incurably Ill for Animal Research (IIFAR), for example, is a pro-animal research group of disabled people who argue that nonhuman animal lives should continue to be sacrificed to find cures for disabled and ill humans. Other disabled people, however, have taken an anti-animal research stance based on their own experiences of medical violence; having been subjects of medical experimentation themselves, some disabled humans feel empathy for nonhuman laboratory animals and wish to end their oppression. Taylor begins Chapter 16 by discussing Disabled and Incurably Ill for Alternatives to Animal Research (DIIAAR). DIIAAR was a group of disabled animal activists who urged that alternative forms of research be developed for the sake both of animals and disabled people. As DIIAAR founder Dona Spring tirelessly argued, humans as well as other animals are harmed by animal research, given the unreliable results of animal studies that do not “translate across species” (197). Although in cases such as this we may argue that nonhuman animals and disabled humans have shared interests, Taylor acknowledges that there are also situations of genuine conflict. For example, Spring developed a medical condition that prevented her body from accepting plant protein. In many other instances, Taylor notes that disabled people have a difficult enough time making sure that they are eating at all, without worrying that their food is ethically sourced (202). In still other instances, disabled people live in settings in which they cannot prepare their own meals, or require an assistant to prepare their meals for them, and may not be able to insist that these be vegan. For Taylor, cripping animal ethics means both recognizing the interconnections between animal and disability oppression, and thus that veganism is a disability rights praxis, and recognizing that not everyone can be vegan with respect to their diet—although these people may still challenge anthropocentrism in other ways (203). Beasts of Burden is a book that deserves to be field changing for both disability studies and animal ethics, and will hopefully be the beginning of many further discussions and collaborations between these disciplines. In Chapter 17, “Caring Across Species and Ability,” Taylor returns to her argument that to crip animal ethics we should turn to ecofeminist philosophies, which, like disability theory, have already been critical of the rationalist (and hence ableist, speciesist, and naturist) philosophy of Peter Singer. In this chapter, Taylor takes up a feminist ethics of care to further develop a cripped animal ethics. Taylor notes that while feminist philosophers have generally been enthusiastic about the notion of care, the view of care in disability studies has been considerably more critical. Within the disability studies literature, care is denounced as paternalistic and controlling. Care for the disabled has often taken place in institutions in which disabled people are forced to live, and “care-takers” have often been abusive. Taylor notes that the need for care on the part of disabled people has frequently led to their denigration in ways that resonate with the denigration of domesticated animals. Both disabled humans and domesticated animals have been viewed as “unnatural” because they could not survive on their own or in the wild (as if any of us could, able-bodied or not), and have been looked down upon as burdens to their communities or dependent on others for their wellbeing. For Temple Grandin the dependency of domesticated agricultural animals justifies their slaughter, whereas for some animal activists, the purported indignity of dependency has been used to advocate for the extinction of domesticated species. As a result of this denigrated understanding of dependency, disabled people have demanded rights rather than care—including the right to hire their own attendants (as opposed to “caretakers”), and to determine what kind of services (as opposed to “care”) they receive. Nonetheless, Taylor believes that all humans need care, and thus we should not reject care ethics altogether. Rather we need a cripped feminist animal ethics of care. Such an ethics would enable us to see that there is nothing undignified or unnatural about needing others, and thus we should seek to eradicate neither domesticated animals nor disability. On the contrary, for Taylor, the need for care, or interdependence, is the animal condition. The particular history of learned and created (inter)dependence of domesticated animals on humans does not give us a justification to kill or exploit them, for Taylor, but rather a responsibility to care for and about them in ways that are attentive to their desires. The final chapter of Taylor’s book, Chapter 18, “The Service Dog,” tells a story of interspecies care between Taylor and her service dog Bailey—who, along with her partner David and daughter Leonora, is one of Taylor’s three “favorite animals” to whom she dedicates her book. Not long after Taylor adopted Bailey, he became disabled himself. Although, as she describes, he continues to be her service dog in many ways, Taylor and her partner have also become Bailey’s “service humans.” The relationship between Taylor and Bailey is a model for the cripped interspecies ethics that Taylor has described in her book, and she concludes this final chapter by writing that “there is a sense of something appropriate—beautiful actually—about being a gimped-up, dependent, inefficient, incapable human supporting and being supported by my inefficient, dependent, and gimped-up dog. Two vulnerable, interdependent beings of different species learning to understand what the other needs. Awkwardly and imperfectly, we care for each other” (223). Review by Chloë Taylor. Originally published on Animal Liberation Currents. Chloë Taylor is Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Philosophy at the University of Alberta. She is the author of two books and the co-editor of two anthologies, as well as the author of numerous articles in the areas of feminist philosophy, philosophy of sexuality, food politics, and animal ethics. TagsAnimal Liberation Currents • Beasts of Burden • book review • Chloë Taylor • Cripping Animal Etcis • Sunaura Taylor 2 comments on “Book review of Beasts of Burden (Sunaura Taylor) – Animal Liberation Currents” Pauline Orr Thanks for reviewing this! This has been on my reading list for ages and this is all the more encouragement for me to finally pick it up. Pingback: Animal liberation and disability liberation \| The Bruges Vegan	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4297
__label__wiki	0.653586	0.653586	Twyla Tharp: Still Creating After All These Years, Redux Twyla Tharp Dance The Joyce Theater The Raggedy Dances, The Fugue, Entr’Acte, Dylan Love Songs — by Jerry Hochman So what’s a 76 year old to do after crafting some 160 performance pieces, including 129 dances, 4 full-length ballets, and 4 Broadway shows? Well, create a new dance, of course. And perform in another. And present one of the Joyce Theater’s finer programs. With Twyla Tharp, the hits just keep on coming. For its current three week engagement, and utilizing the formula she used in her Joyce program last year, Tharp and her company of seven dancers are presenting a mini-survey of her work, including one world premiere, two major revivals, and, at least at the program I saw, an unannounced addition: excerpts from a piece she created earlier this year. Before discussing the dances themselves, I must initially salute the company’s dancers. They’re an extraordinary group, both individually and collectively, and each seems to fill a particular physical and “stage persona” niche. Although at times one might be tempted to think that Tharp’s dances could be executed by well-trained automatons, these dancers – John Selya, Mathew Dibble, Reed Tankersley, Daniel Baker, Kaitlyn Gilliland, Kara Chan, and Kellie Drobnick – add their distinctive personalities to their precision execution of Tharp’s quirky and quicksilver choreography, and elevate the audience experience in the process. Also elevating the audience experience were the lighting and costumes created for each dance by the consummate design artists, Jennifer Tipton and Santo Loquasto, each of whom has collaborated with Tharp since early in her career. Since I suspect that Tharp’s choreographic style is familiar to anyone reading this, I see no need to provide details of her characteristic movement quality here. Suffice it to say that the backbone of each of her dances is a style that’s recognizably hers, not an anti-style that’s a reaction to some other style. And although it may come across as somewhat irreverent, it’s the irreverence of a sudden breeze. The program’s most eagerly anticipated piece was her newest, Dylan Love Songs. It’s serious fun, and although it takes its sensibility from the country / bluesy parameters of the seven selected songs, it’s also timeless and limitless, and as much a breath of fresh air now, in its own way, as her groundbreaking early creations. Tharp took a crack at Bob Dylan’s songs previously, in The Times They Are A-Changin’, a short-lived 2006 Broadway show – two years after her mega-hit to songs by Billy Joel, Movin’ Out – that was not well-received by critics and expired fairly quickly (although it apparently fared better earlier that year in San Francisco). I missed it, so I cannot say if there’s a connection between that production and this dance either choreographically or in component songs. But I can say that whatever may have been wrong with the earlier show is not evident in this dance. If you were maybe expecting, from a dance titled Dylan Love Songs, an evening of romantic songs with choreography to match, think again. There are a few exceptions (Lovesick, I Want You), but most of the songs selected don’t sound like stereotypical love songs (granted, though, that little of Dylan’s oeuvre can be considered stereotypical anything), and none are what one might consider romantic. There’s no Lay, Lady, Lay, for example, or even Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright. For these reason, the thought occurred to me that maybe the title of the dance simply begs the question: love of what? However, there’s an interesting common thread – the presence of Selya meandering though most (if not all) of the dances wearing a black cape and black hat that seems to grow in size like Pinocchio’s nose and at times conceals his face. Initially, the sense is mysterious, a little Drosselmeyer-ish; a little Svengali-ish; a lot strange old man (at times walking with a cane). Why this particular visage? And why does he seem feeble at one point; energized at another? But as the piece progresses, he becomes more of a combination director and observer; sage and celebrant: a Dylan surrogate meandering through the dances… like a rolling stone. Given this, perhaps the dance is “about” (if it’s about anything in particular) the “love” of time passing, of uncertainty, of change – and of change being something to embrace. Whether that’s the case or not, Selya’s role is as much a force as it is a character, and it takes the dance to a different level – from exciting choreography to music that one might not think could be danceable, to a work of dance art that has a message – even though I can’t be certain exactly what that message is. To me, the best segments are those to I Want You, Shelter From the Storm, and the final dance, Jokerman – again, to me, a reference to Dylan himself. But it’s all good. And although no one dancer is more praiseworthy than another, I must note that Tankersley danced with astonishing command and presence. The cast was completed by Dibble, Chan, Gilliland, and Rika Okamoto. The Raggedy Dances, a 1972 piece that opened the program, is anything but what the word “raggedy” normally connotes. Even though it doesn’t have the same scope as her break-out crossover ballet Deuce Coup, which was next on Tharp’s choreographic timeline, it has the same lightheartedness, the same sense of programmed zaniness, the same experimentation, and the same sense of seeing movement in a different way. It would be difficult to mistake this for a dance by anyone other than Tharp. That the disparate elements of The Rageddy Dances fit together as well as they do is perhaps the most remarkable quality of this remarkable suite of dances. And perhaps there’s a reason for this beyond Tharp’s skill as a choreographer – her undeniable intellectualism. I sense a common denominator, simplistic though it may seem, that ties the ragtime music of Scott Joplin, Charles Luckeyth (Lucky) Roberts, and William Bolcom together with the piece by Mozart. They’re all, in a sense, derived from what may be considered “folk” songs. Ragtime, which got its name from the “ragged” sound of syncopation, has many roots in African-American music, which in turn has roots in European step dance forms such as the jig. [Save your letters – I know things are more complex than that.] And to a large extent dance forms such as the jig have roots in folk music. The Mozart composition that Tharp uses, Variations in C Major, KV 265, has its very obvious roots in folk songs as well: the French folk song “Ah Vous Dirai-je, Maman.” Although the melody is familiar (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and others), Mozart plays with it the way ragtime composers play with the underlying melodies in their music, creating something related, but different. And although I couldn’t detect evidence of syncopation in the Mozart, the variations he composed to the traditional melody take that melody in new directions. One can almost visualize Mozart dancing a jig to several of these variations – and the dances that Tharp created to the Mozart music flow seamlessly from the ragtime. The music is as much an evolution from disparate sources as Tharp’s choreography. Just a thought. Be that as it may, the dance is always delightful. Baker, Drobnick, Gilliland, Chan and Dibble were the magic-making dancers. And the skilled piano play of Joseph Mohan, who performed live, complemented and enhanced the other components of the dance. My understanding is that this presentation is the first revival of The Raggedy Dances since its 1972 premiere. It was staged by two Tharp dancers who performed in the piece then (Sara Rudner, Rose Marie Wright), and another, Okamoto, who began to dance with the company in 1993. Their efforts merit kudos not only because the result looks as good as it does, but also for preserving the dance for future audiences. Although it reportedly derives its form from Bach’s The Musical Offering, The Fugue is a study in movement that creates its own music form from the sound of the dancers on stage. Created in 1970, it has much in common with Jerome Robbins’s “silent ballet” Moves, which he created in 1959 for his own company, Ballets: USA for the Spoleto Festival, and which New York City Ballet premiered in 1984. Both rely on the sound created by the dancers – and perfect timing. Tharp’s piece is a bit more explicit in that respect (the sound of feet pounding on the stage floor, and of Tankersley setting the pace by slapping his hand against his thigh). The greatest difference between the two, however, is that The Fugue isn’t ballet, and doesn’t have a semblance of a narrative. The Fugue marks an important step in the evolution of Tharp’s choreography, and it’s unquestionably a brilliant study of movement in silence. But although I find such pieces interesting and unusual, I don’t find them particularly entertaining to watch. Be that as it may, Chan, Gilliland, and Tankersley executed brilliantly. Entr’Acte, the surprise bonus piece, consists of excerpts from a “demonstration” series of programs that Tharp presented last spring at The Harlem School of The Arts, titled Twyla at Black Box. Like everything else on this program, it was great fun. It looks like a random assortment of class demonstrations and commentary, but, like Tharp’s choreography, it’s hardly random. And it provided the opportunity to hear Tharp’s commentary (still sharp as a tack), to see her dance (more nimble than people half her age), and to see her still creating after all these years. Twyla Tharp Dance will present this program at the Joyce through October 8. It’s a must see. Posted by: Editor CriticalDance Categories: Modern/Contemporary Dance, You too can write a review First Impressions per month Select Month June 2019 May 2019 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 First impressions per topic Select Category Ballet in Asia, Africa and Oceania (1) Ballet in Europe (8) Ballet in the Americas (137) Behind the Scenes (3) Company Press Releases (1) Dance Issues (1) Dance Miscellany (10) Holiday Performances (2) Managing Dance (1) Modern/Contemporary Dance (98) The Kirov/Mariinsky Theatre Ballet (1) World Dance, Musicals and Social Dance (5)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4298
__label__cc	0.700902	0.299098	A Recognition of Cheerful Service: The Vigil Honor Alertness to the needs of others is the mark of the Vigil Honor. It calls for an individual with an unusual awareness of the possibilities within each situation. The Vigil Honor is a high mark of distinction and recognition reserved for those Arrowmen who, be reason of exceptional service, personal effort, and unselfish interest, have made distinguished contributions beyond the immediate responsibilities or their position of office to one of more of the following: their lodge, the Order of the Arrow, Scouting, or their Scout camp. Under no circumstances should tenure in Scouting or the Order of the Arrow be considered as reason enough for a Vigil Honor recommendation. The Vigil Honor is the highest honor that the Order of the Arrow can bestow upon its members for service to lodge, council, and Scouting. It dates from the year 1915, when founder E. Urner Goodman became the first Vigil Honor member. Since then, thousands of members have given this honor. Vigil Honor members have an honorable tradition to uphold. They must at all times conduct themselves in accordance with the ideals of Scouting, the Order of the Arrow, and the Vigil Honor. Membership cannot be won by a person’s conscious endeavor. It comes as a recognition of unselfish leadership in service. This fact should be given careful consideration in the selection of candidates for membership. The Vigil Honor has successfully fulfilled a definite and satisfactory service to the Order of the Arrow, to Scouting, and to individual members. Its continued success depends on the care with which future members are selected and on the maintanance by its members of the high ideals of service to others for which the Vigil Honor has always been known. After two years of service as a Brotherhood member, and with the approval of the national Order of the Arrow Committee, a Scout may be recognized with the Vigil Honor for outstanding service to Scouting, his lodge, and the community. This honor is bestowed by special selection and is limited to one person for every 50 members registered with the lodge each year.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4299
__label__cc	0.566779	0.433221	Megyn Price 171.5 cm (5 ft 7.5 in) Compare your height to Jennifer Lawrence Jennifer Lawrence is 171.5 cm (5 ft 7.5 in) tall The difference in height is 171.5 cm or 5 ft 7.5 inches Who is Jennifer Lawrence? The ever dashing Jennifer Lawrence, dauntless and debonair, is the American actress who has taken Hollywood by its horns and reigning. With a collective movie grossing of more than $5 billion, she looks like she is heading for legendary status. At 16, she had her first screen job featuring in TV show Company Town before landing an award-winning role in The Big Engvall Show. Her debut movie, which turned out to be her break-out act, came 2 years later in The Poker House. Jen can easily be identified for her famed roles as Mystique in the sci-fi action franchise X-Men and as Katniss Everdeen in fan’s favorite The Hunger Games. She also gave stellar performances in movies such as Passengers in 2016, Joy in 2015 and especially Silver Lining Playbook in 2012 and American Hustle in 2013 that gained her multiple awards. Jennifer is straight. She is currently dating Cooke Maroney. Before this, she and Coldplay’s Chris Martin were seeing each other for a year and she dated Nicholas Hoult for almost 4 years. J-Law, as she is fondly called, is a daughter to Gary and Karen Lawrence and is a sister to 2 elder brothers Ben and Blaine. She is currently unmarried. Jen is a Christian. She admits she was raised in a “Jesus house”. Although, she says she still prays to God occasionally but doesn’t believe in Him. In 2015 and 2016, Forbes reported her as the highest earning actress globally. She is currently worth around $120 million. Asides her self-titled foundation, she is also known to be very generous with several other charities. She is also a feminist. She won an Oscar for role in Silver Lining Playbook. Share your thoughts about Jennifer Lawrence Suggest a Jennifer Lawrence Update	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4311
__label__cc	0.555478	0.444522	Public Policy & Politics Shooting McCoy The article Saving Willie McCoy by Scott H. Greenfield ( Simple Justice ) includes a link to a body-cam video of the shooting of Willie McCoy. McCoy was found asleep in the driver’s seat of his car in the drive-thru lane of a Taco Bell. The police could clearly see a gun in his lap. Willie McCoy OIS 020919 body camera video 2 by Mercury News ( YouTube ) The first three minutes are largely uneventful. The officer notes that the magazine is not in the pistol, so the driver has at most one shot. When he moves, McCoy’s first scratches his left arm with his right hand, as he seems to be waking up. The officer notes that he’s not awake yet. Seconds later, McCoy begins to sit up, the officers yell and shoot dozens of times, nearly immediately. The article by Greenfield is quite weak, as compared to other he’s written. He’s extremely defensive about the point that it’s unlikely to be a case that ends in criminal investigation of the officers involved. He’s almost certainly right. He’s a lawyer, and a well-informed and experienced one, at that. He probably knows. But he jumps down the throat of anyone in his comments section who mentions anything other than what he’d already posted.[1] That aside, though, it’s probably true that these officers will not even get an official reprimand for their behavior. It was all above-board. They followed procedure. It was an odd situation. There was the danger that the man would wake, grab his gun and shoot. The officers knew that he would be able to shoot at most once, should he choose to do so. By shining a light into his car, and standing with guns drawn as close as they could get to the vehicle, they didn’t seem to try to avoid the confrontation. It’s unclear what they were thinking. The whole situation seems to have been handled incompetently. They seemed to have all the time in the world. McCoy only awoke because of their noise and the bright flashlights shining into his vehicle. If they were afraid that he was going to drive away, they could have immobilized his vehicle (a boot?), then awakened him from a distance—perhaps with a megaphone. instead, the officers used their weapons recklessly, putting themselves into a dangerous situation of their own creation. They were obviously terrified of this rapacious creature in the form of a “sleeping black man”. The dude was clearly asleep. His head was all lolled back on the seat. He posed no danger to anyone. Until, of course, he awakened, startled, disoriented, with lights pointing at his face, blinding him and several completely hidden men shouting at him at the top of their lungs. He had at most a couple of seconds to process the situation, coming directly from sleep and into an adrenalin spurt. Did he know that these men were police officers? How could he? Is it likely he thought his life was in danger? Of course. It was. He had no idea what was going on and was never given a chance to find out. The officers performed their perfunctory duty of informing him of their presence. Whether he had a chance of understanding them isn’t salient. When he failed to sit stock-still—not that that would have helped, they were on a hair trigger and terrified—they shot him with what sounded like dozens of bullets. The article and commentary treats this situation as a sad outcome of perfectly normal policing. But it’s not normal. It’s grossly incompetent. They provoked the killing with their utter lack of training for defusing a situation. Everything they did escalated the situation, funneling it to the inevitable death of the “suspect”. Greenfield says as much, as well. He just follows up with his well-informed opinion that what happened is not punishable in the States. I don’t see a lot of difference between this shooting and the police kicking the door down in a 4AM, no-knock raid, only to shoot anyone in the domicile who responds in a perfectly normal manner when their home is invaded: to defend it, possibly with a weapon they have every right to use to defend their home. It didn’t have to go down that way. It’s not premeditated and I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know which charge would stick. As I was reading the description and watching the video, I thought to myself that, while pretty much accepted as an “it happens” kind of thing in the States, this isn’t an acceptable outcome in most other civilized countries that are not currently war zones. In Switzerland, this would never have happened. It’s inconceivable. It would never have gotten this far. The police are far better-trained and don’t provoke violence so blatantly. It it were to happen, it would be a national scandal and these officers would be fired for gross negligence and incompetence, at the very least. It’s unlikely that most people would think that nothing could be done to punish the cops (from desk duty to leave of absence to dismissal to prosecution). Greenfield writes “but stupid isn’t (or at least shouldn’t be) a capital offense”, which is exactly the right point. I mean, falling asleep in a Taco Bell Drive-in with a gun in your lap while black in America is stupid. Who the hell knows though? Maybe the guy was narcoleptic? Maybe someone drugged his drink? Or his food? Maybe someone set him up and then called the cops in a new take on swatting? It’s a bit roundabout, but kind-of reliable way of taking care of a rival, no? And maybe this wasn’t even the intention—maybe someone was just fucking with McCoy and playing a prank on him. Maybe he took an antihistamine that didn’t agree with him. Maybe he was super-high or drunk when he got a craving for Taco Bell. In another comment, though, Greenfield writes very belligerently and impatiently, “There are two “real life” issues coming out of this. First, should the cops be criminally charged for the killing? Second, should the cops (or, in real life, the municipality that employs or insures them) be liable in damages for the wrongful death? Sad feelz aside, if neither of these fits the bill, then what is the point?” There are no sad feelz, you dumbass. It’s just that this seems quite flagrant and people are trying to think of ways of preventing it from happening again. Flagrant seems kind of tame to describe “the police shot someone in his sleep”. Maybe the answer is “make Americans stop being so fucking hateful and stressed and hair-trigger and innately afraid of people who don’t look like them and also stop making the worst people in society cops and then not training them barely at all”. Maybe America is too broken to fix, because police can do this kind of thing and have their own conscience to deal with, but no desk duty or restriction in pay or loss of job or jail time. I have no reason to think that the cops killed McCoy on purpose. It’s definitely not murder, and almost certainly not premeditated. Rather, a combination of terror, indoctrination, incompetence, self-preservation at all costs (as if that was the point of the job, as if it were a war zone), lack of empathy and just plain low intelligence and meanness made McCoy’s death a foregone conclusion. This is not an isolated incident, but yet another example of how policing works in America. Yet another example of how America works. There are a million reasons this happened and none of them is individually insurmountable—but taken together? Maybe America just needs a giant fucking mulligan. That country is a menace not only to the whole world, but increasingly to its citizens. Knowing how America works, the search for a solution would escalate dramatically, were McCoy to belong to a cohort that anyone gives a damn about. [1] I wasn’t the only one who noticed, either. His follow-up post was a defensive diatribe about how it’s his site and he’ll be as nasty as he wants to be. I’ve been following him for years, so I figure that, once he settles down a bit, he’ll see that maybe he was just a bit too harsh. He makes a good point that he has to see hundreds of stupid comments that we never see—but in this article’s case, he seemed to be publishing certain comments just in order to shit on them. While he is adding to the post by indicating his answers to common questions, some of his answers were so curt as to be inscrutable—there can be no learning effect from inscrutability. His site, his rules, but he seemed to be more frustrated than usual.↩	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4323
__label__cc	0.690842	0.309158	About CSU Dreams. Made Real. Work at CSU Academic Initiatives Tuition, Aid, & Scholarships 62 & Older Books & Dining Student Activities & Resources Transportation & Parking Services Laker Pride Home>Academics>Degrees, Majors, & Certificates Degrees, Majors, & Certificates Undergraduate Study at CSU Graduate Study at CSU Degrees, Majors, and Certificates Your program of study is where you’ll begin realizing your dream. It is where you will gain lifelong skillsets and specialized knowledge. It is where you’ll make the connections and friendships that will support you both during your time at Clayton State and afterward, as you enter the work world or expand your career. All of this you will do in small classes, with faculty who will challenge and guide you. Experiential learning and advanced facilities will support your academic and professional development, preparing you to take your dream out into the world and make it real. Accounting (B.B.A.) Administrative Management (B.A.S.) Biology (B.S.) Chemistry (B.S.) Communication and Media Studies (B.A.) Computer Science (B.S.) Criminal Justice (B.S.) Dental Hygiene (B.S.) English (B.A.) Film Production (B.A.) General Business (B.B.A.) Health Care Management (B.S.) Health and Fitness Management (B.S.) Health Sciences (B.S.) History (B.A.) Homeland Security/Emergency Management (B.A.S.) Information Technology (B.I.T.) Information Technology (B.S.) Integrative Studies (B.S.) Legal Studies (B.S.) Liberal Studies (B.A.) Management (B.B.A.) Marketing (B.B.A.) Mathematics (B.S.) Middle Level Education (B.A.) Nursing (B.S.) Nursing, RN to BSN (B.S.) Performing Arts (B.A.) Philosophy (B.A.) Political Science (B.S.) Psychology and Human Service (B.S.) Sociology (B.S.) Supply Chain Management (B.B.A.) Technology Management (B.A.S.) Aviation Administration Education Specialties Health and Fitness Management Homeland Security/Emergency Management Film Production (A.A.) Information Technology (A.A.S.) Integrative Studies (A.A.) Integrative Studies (A.S.) Paralegal Studies (A.A.S.) Certificate Degrees One-Year Certificate in Paralegal Studies Master of Archival Studies Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Master of Health Administration Master of Science in Nursing, concentrations in Family Nurse Practitioner Master of Science in Clinical/Counseling Psychology Directions to Clayton State University 2000 Clayton State Boulevard Morrow, GA 30260 Call Clayton State University (678) 466-4000 Offices/Depts Laker Connection Laker Newsroom New Website Feedback © 2018 Clayton State University \| A Senior Unit of the University System of Georgia	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4325
__label__cc	0.520881	0.479119	18 “The Desperate Modern Need to Connect:” On Fear It’s a question everyone who writes faces often: why must I do this? If the answer is that it pays the bills, the motivation is obvious. But for many writers today who spend their free time blogging, often for no compensation, it’s not entirely obvious to others, and sometimes to you, why you must do this. As someone who has written a blog on and off for eight years, someone who has both cultivated and chased away an audience more than once and is now eager to find another, the question has taken many years to answer. For much of this time, I felt a certain resentment that my essay writing could not earn me a full-time living, that I would be forever condemned to earn a living by writing about uninteresting things for barely-interested audiences. But recently, I’ve had a change of heart about what I must write and why. And I’ll get to that epiphany in a moment. First, I want to address an essay in The American Interest, written by Ian Brunskill, senior editor of the London Times, about Montaigne. In this piece, Brunskill takes issue with the idea that Michel de Montaigne was something of a protoblogger. He writes: Montaigne’s literal self-centeredness has more in common with the self-portraits of the Renaissance painters who created the form (one element in an evolving complex of ideas about Man and his place in the universe), than with the compulsive exhibitionism of today’s Facebook or Twitter users. For Montaigne it’s a matter not of self-display to the world, but of self-discovery in the world and through engagement with it. Writing in the way he does is essential to that process, as he quietly contemplates the workings of his own mind. He has none of the blogger’s fear of silence or the desperate modern need to connect and communicate. That’s an interesting phrase, “the blogger’s fear of silence.” And fortunately for me, the 17th Montaigne essay just happens to be about fear. Let’s see what he has to say about it. I have hardly any idea of the mechanisms by which fear operates in us; but it is a very odd emotion all the same; doctors say that there is no emotion which more readily ravishes our judgement from its proper seat. I myself have seen many men truly driven out of their minds by fear, and it is certain that, while the fit lasts, fear engenders even in the most staid of men a terrifying confusion. Notice how Montaigne is keeping a distance from the subject here. It’s his default stance in most of the early essays. Building on what Brunskill said, Montaigne’s essays are not confessions, as in Augustine, they are examinations of his thoughts. And quite often, especially early in the essays, he requires a certain detachment from the theme to begin a proper examination. This leads Montaigne to his second thought about fear — that it serves a powerful purpose: Fear reveals her greatest power when she drives us to perform in her own service those very deeds of valour of which she robbed our duty and our honour. As he often does, Montaigne here is applying a principle of Stoic philosophy to his examination. He argues that fear, while a great motivator, is dehumanizing, because it steals from us positive motivations for our actions. But then Montaigne arrives at his most interesting thought about fear: that it is the comfortable who are most at risk of fear. Bruce Springsteen famously misunderstood Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone,” and felt the song spoke to his hungry ambition in the line “how does it feel, to be on your own, a complete unknown, like a rolling stone.” That helped inspire his own rock epic “Born to Run,” where Springsteen celebrated riding “the mansions of glory in suicide machines.” Here’s Montaigne’s take on that thought: People with a pressing fear of losing their property or of being driven into exile or enslaved also lose all desire to eat, drink or sleep, whereas those who are actually impoverished, banished or enslaved often enjoy life as much as anyone else. And many people, unable to withstand the stabbing pains of fear, have hanged themselves, drowned themselves or jumped to their deaths, showing us that fear is even more importunate and unbearable than death. Exuberance for life requires a certain hunger and a certain fearlessness. That’s what Montaigne believed (and what Springsteen sings about.) And that brings me back to Ian Brunskill and the blogger’s fear of silence. I cannot speak for anyone but myself, but I have never written a word — published on the Internet or scribbled into a notebook — because I feared silence. Have I wanted my words to be read? Absolutely. Well rewarded? Even better. If I could do nothing but write my own thoughts for a good living the rest of my life, that would be wonderful. But it is not my motivation to write, it’s not why I must write. About six months ago, amid deep self examination, I came to the conclusion that no matter how frustrated I may be with my career, I have a burning need to write. I need to write to know what I think and what I believe. I need to write so that I can continue to write better. It’s as important to me as eating, breathing and sleeping. Having worked through 17 of Montaigne’s essays so far and found a mirror of my thoughts in them, I cannot speak to why Montaigne felt compelled to write. But for myself, I can assure Mr. Brunskill that fear has nothing to do with it. These essays do for me what Springsteen’s cars did: Sprung from cages on Highway Nine, chrome wheeled, fuel injected and stepping out over the line.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4328
__label__cc	0.590318	0.409682	Safety / Survival / Army Field Manuals / AFM 3-05.70 Edible and Medicinal Plants In a survival situation, plants can provide food and medicine. Their safe use requires absolutely positive identification, knowing how to prepare them for eating, and knowing any dangerous properties they might have. Familiarity with botanical structures of plants and information on where they grow will make them easier to locate and identify. This appendix provides pictures, descriptions, habitats and distribution, and edible parts of the most common plants that you might encounter. Abal Calligonum comosum Description: The abal is one of the few shrubby plants that exist in the shady deserts. This plant grows to about 1.2 meters (4 feet), and its branches look like wisps from a broom. The stiff, green branches produce an abundance of flowers in March and April. Habitat and Distribution: This plant is found in desert scrub and waste in any climatic zone. It inhabits much of the North African desert. It may also be found on the desert sands of the Middle East and as far eastward as the Rajputana desert of western India. Edible Parts: This plant's general appearance would not indicate its usefulness to you, but while this plant is flowering in the spring, its fresh flowers can be eaten. It is common in the areas where it is found. An analysis of the abal's food value has shown it to be high in sugar and nitrogenous components. Acacia farnesiana Description: Acacia is a spreading, usually short tree with spines and alternate compound leaves. Its individual leaflets are small. Its flowers are ball-shaped, bright yellow, and very fragrant. Its bark is a whitish-gray color. Its fruits are dark brown and podlike. Habitat and Distribution: Acacia grows in open, sunny areas. It is found throughout all tropical regions. NOTE: There are about 500 species of acacia. These plants are especially prevalent in Africa, southern Asia, and Australia, but many species are found in the warmer and drier parts of America. Edible Parts: Its young leaves, flowers, and pods are edible raw or cooked. Agave species Description: These plants have large clusters of thick, fleshy leaves borne close to the ground and surrounding a central stalk. The plants flower only once, then die. They produce a massive flower stalk. Habitat and Distribution: Agaves prefer dry, open areas. They are found throughout Central America, the Caribbean, and parts of the western deserts of the United States and Mexico. Edible Parts: Its flowers and flower buds are edible. Boil them before eating. The juice of some species causes dermatitis in some individuals. Other Uses: Cut the huge flower stalk and collect the juice for drinking. Some species have very fibrous leaves. Pound the leaves and remove the fibers for weaving and making ropes. Most species have thick, sharp needles at the tips of the leaves. Use them for sewing or making hacks. The sap of some species contains a chemical that makes the sap suitable for use as a soap. Prunus amygdalus Description: The almond tree, which sometimes grows to 12.2 meters (40 feet), looks like a peach tree. The fresh almond fruit resembles a gnarled, unripe peach and grows in clusters. The stone (the almond itself) is covered with a thick, dry, woolly skin. Habitat and Distribution: Almonds are found in the scrub and thorn forests of the tropics, the evergreen scrub forests of temperate areas, and in desert scrub and waste in all climatic zones. The almond tree is also found in the semidesert areas of the Old World in southern Europe, the eastern Mediterranean, Iran, the Middle East, China, Madeira, the Azores, and the Canary Islands. Edible Parts: The mature almond fruit splits open lengthwise down the side, exposing the ripe almond nut. You can easily get the dry kernel by simply cracking open the stone. Almond meats are rich in food value, like all nuts. Gather them in large quantities and shell them for further use as survival food. You could live solely on almonds for rather long periods. When you boil them, the kernel's outer covering comes off and only the white meat remains. Amaranthus species Description: These plants, which grow 90 to 150 centimeters (35 to 60 inches) tall, are abundant weeds in many parts of the world. All amaranth have alternate simple leaves. They may have some red color present on the stems. They bear minute, greenish flowers in dense clusters at the top of the plants. Their seeds may be brown or black in weedy species and light-colored in domestic species. Habitat and Distribution: Look for amaranth along roadsides, in disturbed waste areas, or as weeds in crops throughout the world. Some amaranth species have been grown as a grain crop and a garden vegetable in various parts of the world, especially in South America. Edible Parts: All parts are edible, but some may have sharp spines you should remove before eating. The young plants or the growing tips of older plants are an excellent vegetable. Simply boil the young plants or eat them raw. Their seeds are very nutritious. Shake the tops of older plants to get the seeds. Eat the seeds raw, boiled, ground into flour, or popped like popcorn. Arctic willow Salix arctica Description: The arctic willow is a shrub that never exceeds more than 60 centimeters (24 inches) in height and grows in clumps that form dense mats on the tundra. Habitat and Distribution: The arctic willow is common on tundras in North America, Europe, and Asia. You can also find it in some mountainous areas in temperate regions. Edible Parts: You can collect the succulent, tender young shoots of the arctic willow in early spring. Strip off the outer bark of the new shoots and eat the inner portion raw. You can also peel and eat raw the young underground shoots of any of the various kinds of arctic willow. Young willow leaves are one of the richest sources of vitamin C, containing 7 to 10 times more than an orange. Maranta and Sagittaria species Description: The arrowroot is an aquatic plant with arrow-shaped leaves and potatolike tubers in the mud. Habitat and Distribution: Arrowroot is found worldwide in temperate zones and the tropics. It is found in moist to wet habitats. Edible Parts: The rootstock is a rich source of high quality starch. Boil the rootstock and eat it as a vegetable. Asparagus officinalis Description: The spring growth of this plant resembles a cluster of green fingers. The mature plant has fernlike, wispy foliage and red berries. Its flowers are small and greenish in color. Several species have sharp, thornlike structures. Habitat and Distribution: Asparagus is found worldwide in temperate areas. Look for it in fields, old homesites, and fencerows. Edible Parts: Eat the young stems before leaves form. Steam or boil them for 10 to 15 minutes before eating. Raw asparagus may cause nausea or diarrhea. The fleshy roots are a good source of starch. Do not eat the fruits of any since some are toxic. Bael fruit Aegle marmelos Description: This is a tree that grows from 2.4 to 4.6 meters (8 to 15 feet) tall, with a dense spiny growth. The fruit is 5 to 10 centimeters (2 to 4 inches) in diameter, gray or yellowish, and full of seeds. Habitat and Distribution: Bael fruit is found in rain forests and semievergreen seasonal forests of the tropics. It grows wild in India and Burma. Edible Parts: The fruit, which ripens in December, is at its best when just turning ripe. The juice of the ripe fruit, diluted with water and mixed with a small amount of tamarind and sugar or honey, is sour but refreshing. Like other citrus fruits, it is rich in vitamin C. Various species including Bambusa, Dendrocalamus, Phyllostachys Description: Bamboos are woody grasses that grow up to 15 meters (50 feet) tall. The leaves are grasslike and the stems are the familiar bamboos used in furniture and fishing poles. Habitat and Distribution: Look for bamboo in warm, moist regions in open or jungle country, in lowland, or on mountains. Bamboos are native to the Far East (temperate and tropical zones) but have been widely planted around the world. Edible Parts: The young shoots of almost all species are edible raw or cooked. Raw shoots have a slightly bitter taste that is removed by boiling. To prepare, remove the tough protective sheath that is coated with tawny or red hairs. The seed grain of the flowering bamboo is also edible. Boil the seeds like rice or pulverize them, mix with water, and make into cakes. Other Uses: Use the mature bamboo to build structures or to make containers, ladles, spoons, and various other cooking utensils. Also, use bamboo to make tools and weapons. You can make a strong bow by splitting the bamboo and putting several pieces together. Green bamboo may explode in a fire. Green bamboo has an internal membrane you must remove before using it as a food or water container. Banana and plantain Musa species Description: These are treelike plants with several large leaves at the top. Their flowers are borne in dense hanging clusters. Habitat and Distribution: Look for bananas and plantains in open fields or margins of forests where they are grown as a crop. They grow in the humid tropics. Edible Parts: Their fruits are edible raw or cooked. They may be boiled or baked. You can boil their flowers and eat them like a vegetable. You can cook and eat the rootstocks and leaf sheaths of many species. The center or "heart" of the plant is edible year-round, cooked or raw. Other Uses: You can use the layers of the lower third of the plants to cover coals to roast food. You can also use their stumps to get water (see Chapter 6). You can use their leaves to wrap other foods for cooking or storage. Adansonia digitata Description: The baobab tree may grow as high as 18 meters (60 feet) and may have a trunk 9 meters (30 feet) in diameter. The tree has short, stubby branches and a gray, thick bark. Its leaves are compound and their segments are arranged like the palm of a hand. Its flowers, which are white and several centimeters across, hang from the higher branches. Its fruit is shaped like a football, measures up to 45 centimeters (18 inches) long, and is covered with short dense hair. Habitat and Distribution: These trees grow in savannas. They are found in Africa, in parts of Australia, and on the island of Madagascar. Edible Parts: You can use the young leaves as a soup vegetable. The tender root of the young baobab tree is edible. The pulp and seeds of the fruit are also edible. Use one handful of pulp to about one cup of water for a refreshing drink. To obtain flour, roast the seeds, and then grind them. Other Uses: Drinking a mixture of pulp and water will help cure diarrhea. Often the hollow trunks are good sources of fresh water. The bark can be cut into strips and pounded to obtain a strong fiber for making rope. Batoko plum Flacourtia inermis Description: This shrub or small tree has dark green, alternate, simple leaves. Its fruits are bright red and contain six or more seeds. Habitat and Distribution: This plant is a native of the Philippines but is widely cultivated for its fruit in other areas. It can be found in clearings and at the edges of the tropical rain forests of Africa and Asia. Edible Parts: Eat the fruit raw or cooked. Bearberry or kinnikinnick Arctostaphylos uvaursi Description: This plant is a common evergreen shrub with reddish, scaly bark and thick, leathery leaves 4 centimeters (1 1/2 inches) long and 1 centimeter (1/2 inch) wide. It has white flowers and bright red fruits. Habitat and Distribution: This plant is found in arctic, subarctic, and temperate regions, most often in sandy or rocky soil. Edible Parts: Its berries are edible raw or cooked. You can make a refreshing tea from its young leaves. Fagus species Description: Beech trees are large (9 to 24 meters [30 to 80 feet]), symmetrical forest trees that have smooth, light-gray bark and dark green foliage. The character of its bark, plus its clusters of prickly seedpods, clearly distinguish the beech tree in the field. Habitat and Distribution: This tree is found in the temperate zone. It grows wild in the eastern United States, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. It is found in moist areas, mainly in the forests. This tree is common throughout southeastern Europe and across temperate Asia. Beech relatives are also found in Chile, New Guinea, and New Zealand. Edible Parts: The mature beechnuts readily fall out of the husklike seedpods. You can eat these dark-brown, triangular nuts by breaking the thin shell with your fingernail and removing the white, sweet kernel inside. Beechnuts are one of the most delicious of all wild nuts. They are a most useful survival food because of the kernel's high oil content. You can also use the beechnuts as a coffee substitute. Roast them so that the kernel becomes golden brown and quite hard. Then pulverize the kernel and, after boiling or steeping in hot water, you have a passable coffee substitute. Bignay Antidesma bunius Description: Bignay is a shrub or small tree, 3 to 12 meters (10 to 40 feet) tall, with shiny, pointed leaves about 15 centimeters (6 inches) long. Its flowers are small, clustered, and green. It has fleshy, dark red or black fruit and a single seed. The fruit is about 1 centimeter (1/2 inch) in diameter. Habitat and Distribution: This plant is found in rain forests and semievergreen seasonal forests in the tropics. It is found in open places and in secondary forests. It grows wild from the Himalayas to Sri Lanka and eastward through Indonesia to northern Australia. However, it may be found anywhere in the tropics in cultivated forms. Edible Parts: The fruit is edible raw. Do not eat any other parts of the tree. In Africa, the roots are toxic. Other parts of the plant may be poisonous. Eaten in large quantities, the fruit may have a laxative effect. Blackberry, raspberry, and dewberry Rubus species Description: These plants have prickly stems (canes) that grow upward, arching back toward the ground. They have alternate, usually compound leaves. Their fruits may be red, black, yellow, or orange. This plant is often confused with poison ivy during some seasons but these stems have thorns. Habitat and Distribution: These plants grow in open, sunny areas at the margin of woods, lakes, streams, and roads throughout temperate regions. There is also an arctic raspberry. Edible Parts: The fruits and peeled young shoots are edible. Flavor varies greatly. Other Uses: Use the leaves to make tea. To treat diarrhea, drink a tea made by brewing the dried root bark of the blackberry bush. Blueberry and huckleberry Vaccinium and Gaylussacia species Description: These shrubs vary in size from 30 centimeters (12 inches) to 3.7 meters (12 feet) tall. All have alternate, simple leaves. Their fruits may be dark blue, black, or red and have many small seeds. Habitat and Distribution: These plants prefer open, sunny areas. They are found throughout much of the north temperate regions and at higher elevations in Central America. Edible Parts: Their fruits are edible raw. Breadfruit Artocarpus incisa Description: This tree may grow up to 9 meters (30 feet) tall. It has dark green, deeply divided leaves that are 75 centimeters (29 inches) long and 30 centimeters (12 inches) wide. Its fruits are large, green, ball-like structures up to 30 centimeters (12 inches) across when mature. Habitat and Distribution: Look for this tree at the margins of forests and homesites in the humid tropics. It is native to the South Pacific region but has been widely planted in the West Indies and parts of Polynesia. Edible Parts: The fruit pulp is edible raw. The fruit can be sliced, dried, and ground into flour for later use. The seeds are edible cooked. Other Uses: The thick sap can serve as glue and caulking material. You can also use it as birdlime (to entrap small birds by smearing the sap on twigs where they usually perch). Description: This plant has wavy-edged, arrow-shaped leaves and flower heads in burrlike clusters. It grows up to 2 meters (7 feet) tall, with purple or pink flowers and a large, fleshy root. Habitat and Distribution: Burdock is found worldwide in the north temperate zone. Look for it in open waste areas during the spring and summer. Edible Parts: Peel the tender leaf stalks and eat them raw or cook them like greens. The roots are also edible boiled or baked. Do not confuse burdock with rhubarb that has poisonous leaves. Other Uses: A liquid made from the roots will help to produce sweating and increase urination. Dry the root, simmer it in water, strain the liquid, and then drink the strained liquid. Use the fiber from the dried stalk to weave cordage. Burl Palm Corypha elata Description: This tree may reach 18 meters (60 feet) in height. It has large, fan-shaped leaves up to 3 meters (10 feet) long and split into about 100 narrow segments. It bears flowers in huge dusters at the top of the tree. The tree dies after flowering. Habitat and Distribution: This tree grows in coastal areas of the East Indies. Edible Parts: The trunk contains starch that is edible raw. The very tip of the trunk is also edible raw or cooked. You can get large quantities of liquid by bruising the flowering stalk. The kernels of the nuts are edible. The seed covering may cause dermatitis in some individuals. Other Uses: You can use the leaves as weaving material. Canna indica Description: The canna lily is a coarse perennial herb, 90 centimeters (36 inches) to 3 meters (10 feet) tall. The plant grows from a large, thick, underground rootstock that is edible. Its large leaves resemble those of the banana plant but are not so large. The flowers of wild canna lily are usually small, relatively inconspicuous, and brightly colored reds, oranges, or yellows. Habitat and Distribution: As a wild plant, the canna lily is found in all tropical areas, especially in moist places along streams, springs, ditches, and the margins of woods. It may also be found in wet temperate, mountainous regions. It is easy to recognize because it is commonly cultivated in flower gardens in the United States. Edible Parts: The large and much-branched rootstocks are full of edible starch. The younger parts may be finely chopped and then boiled or pulverized into a meal. Mix in the young shoots of palm cabbage for flavoring. Ceratonia siliqua Description: This large tree has a spreading crown. Its leaves are compound and alternate. Its seedpods, also known as Saint John's bread, are up to 45 centimeters (18 inches) long and are filled with round, hard seeds and a thick pulp. Habitat and Distribution: This tree is found throughout the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and parts of North Africa. Edible Parts: The young, tender pods are edible raw or boiled. You can pulverize the seeds in mature pods and cook as porridge. Cashew nut Anacardium occidentale Description: The cashew is a spreading evergreen tree growing to a height of 12 meters (40 feet), with leaves up to 20 centimeters (8 inches) long and 10 centimeters (4 inches) wide. Its flowers are yellowish-pink. Its fruit is very easy to recognize because of its peculiar structure. The fruit is thick and pear-shaped, pulpy and red or yellow when ripe. This fruit bears a hard, green, kidney-shaped nut at its tip. This nut is smooth, shiny, and green or brown according to its maturity. Habitat and Distribution: The cashew is native to the West Indies and northern South America, but transplantation has spread it to all tropical climates. In the Old World, it has escaped from cultivation and appears to be wild at least in parts of Africa and India. Edible Parts: The nut encloses one seed. The seed is edible when roasted. The pear-shaped fruit is juicy, sweet acid, and astringent. It is quite safe and considered delicious by most people who eat it. The green hull surrounding the nut contains a resinous irritant poison that will blister the lips and tongue like poison ivy. Heat destroys this poison when the nuts are roasted. Typha latifolia Description: Cattails are grasslike plants with strap-shaped leaves 1 to 5 centimeters (1/4 to 2 inches) wide and growing up to 1.8 meters (6 feet) tall. The male flowers are borne in a dense mass above the female flowers. The male flowers last only a short time, leaving the female flowers, which develop into the brown cattail. Pollen from the male flowers is often abundant and bright yellow. Habitat and Distribution: Cattails are found throughout most of the world. Look for them in full sun areas at the margins of lakes, streams, canals, rivers, and brackish water. Edible Parts: The young tender shoots are edible raw or cooked. The rhizome is often very tough but is a rich source of starch. Pound the rhizome to remove the starch and use as a flour. The pollen is also an exceptional source of starch. When the cattail is immature and still green, you can boil the female portion and eat it like corn on the cob. Other Uses: The dried leaves are an excellent source of weaving material you can use to make floats and rafts. The cottony seeds make good pillow stuffing and insulation. The fluff makes excellent tinder. Dried cattails are effective insect repellents when burned. Cereus cactus Cereus species Description: These cacti are tall and narrow with angled stems and numerous spines. Habitat and Distribution: They may be found in true deserts and other dry, open, sunny areas throughout the Caribbean region, Central America, and the western United States. Edible Parts: The fruits are edible, but some may have a laxative effect. Other Uses: The pulp of the cactus is a good source of water. Break open the stem and scoop out the pulp. Description: The European chestnut is usually a large tree, up to 18 meters (60 feet) in height. Habitat and Distribution: In temperate regions, the chestnut is found in both hardwood and coniferous forests. In the tropics, it is found in semievergreen seasonal forests. They are found over all of middle and south Europe and across middle Asia to China and Japan. They are relatively abundant along the edge of meadows and as a forest tree. The European chestnut is one of the most common varieties. Wild chestnuts in Asia belong to the related chestnut species. Edible Parts: Chestnuts are highly useful as survival food. Ripe nuts are usually picked in autumn, although unripe nuts picked while green may also be used for food. Perhaps the easiest way to prepare them is to roast the ripe nuts in embers. Cooked this way, they are quite tasty, and you can eat large quantities. Another way is to boil the kernels after removing the outer shell. After boiling the nuts until fairly soft, you can mash them like potatoes. Description: This plant grows up to 1.8 meters (6 feet) tall. It has leaves clustered at the base of the stem and some leaves on the stem. The base leaves resemble those of the dandelion. The flowers are sky blue and stay open only on sunny days. Chicory has a milky juice. Habitat and Distribution: Look for chicory in old fields, waste areas, weedy lots, and along roads. It is a native of Europe and Asia, but is also found in Africa and most of North America, where it grows as a weed. Edible Parts: All parts are edible. Eat the young leaves as a salad or boil to eat as a vegetable. Cook the roots as a vegetable. For use as a coffee substitute, roast the roots until they are dark brown and then pulverize them. Description: This very common plant has a triangular stem and grasslike leaves. It grows to a height of 20 to 60 centimeters (8 to 24 inches). The mature plant has a soft, furlike bloom that extends from a whorl of leaves. Tubers 1 to 2.5 centimeters (1/2 to 1 inch) in diameter grow at the ends of the roots. Habitat and Distribution: Chufa grows in moist sandy areas throughout the world. It is often an abundant weed in cultivated fields. Edible Parts: The tubers are edible raw, boiled, or baked. You can also grind them and use them as a coffee substitute. Description: This tree has a single, narrow, tall trunk with a cluster of very large leaves at the top. Each leaf may be over 6 meters (20 feet) long with over 100 pairs of leaflets. Habitat and Distribution: Coconut palms are found throughout the tropics. They are most abundant near coastal regions. Edible Parts: The nut is a valuable source of food. The milk of the young coconut is rich in sugar and vitamins and is an excellent source of liquid. The nut meat is also nutritious but is rich in oil. To preserve the meat, spread it in the sun until it is completely dry. Other Uses: Use coconut oil to cook and to protect metal objects from corrosion. Also, use the oil to treat saltwater sores, sunburn, and dry skin. Use the oil in improvised torches. Use the tree trunk as building material and the leaves as thatch. Hollow out the large stump for use as a food container. The coconut husks are good flotation devices and the husk's fibers are used to weave ropes and other items. Use the gauzelike fibers at the leaf bases as strainers or use them to weave a bug net or to make a pad to use on wounds. The husk makes a good abrasive. Dried husk fiber is an excellent tinder. A smoldering husk helps to repel mosquitoes. Smoke caused by dripping coconut oil in a fire also repels mosquitoes. To render coconut oil, put the coconut meat in the sun, heat it over a slow fire, or boil it in a pot of water. Coconuts washed out to sea are a good source of fresh liquid for the sea survivor. Common jujube Ziziphus jujuba Description: The common jujube is either a deciduous tree growing to a height of 12 meters (40 feet) or a large shrub, depending upon where it grows and how much water is available for growth. Its branches are usually spiny. Its reddish-brown to yellowish-green fruit is oblong to ovoid, 3 centimeters (1 inch) or less in diameter, smooth, and sweet in flavor, but with a rather dry pulp around a comparatively large stone. Its flowers are green. Habitat and Distribution: The jujube is found in forested areas of temperate regions and in desert scrub and waste areas worldwide. It is common in many of the tropical and subtropical areas of the Old World. In Africa, it is found mainly bordering the Mediterranean. In Asia, it is especially common in the drier parts of India and China. The jujube is also found throughout the East Indies. It can be found bordering some desert areas. Edible Parts: The pulp, crushed in water, makes a refreshing beverage. If time permits, you can dry the ripe fruit in the sun like dates. Its fruit is high in vitamins A and C. Vaccinium macrocarpon Description: This plant has tiny leaves arranged alternately. Its stem creeps along the ground. Its fruits are red berries. Habitat and Distribution: It only grows in open, sunny, wet areas in the colder regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Edible Parts: The berries are very tart when eaten raw. Cook in a small amount of water and add sugar, if available, to make a jelly. Other Uses: Cranberries may act as a diuretic. They are useful for treating urinary tract infections. Crowberry Empetrum nigrum Description: This is a dwarf evergreen shrub with short needlelike leaves. It has small, shiny, black berries that remain on the bush throughout the winter. Habitat and Distribution: Look for this plant in tundra throughout arctic regions of North America and Eurasia. Edible Parts: The fruits are edible fresh or can be dried for later use. Cuipo tree Cavanillesia platanifolia Description: This is a very dominant and easily detected tree because it extends above the other trees. Its height ranges from 45 to 60 meters (149 to 198 feet). It has leaves only at the top and is bare 11 months out of the year. It has rings on its bark that extend to the top to make it easily recognizable. Its bark is reddish or gray in color. Its roots are light reddish-brown or yellowish-brown. Habitat and Distribution: The cuipo tree is located primarily in Central American tropical rain forests in mountainous areas. Edible Parts: To get water from this tree, cut a piece of the root and clean the dirt and bark off one end, keeping the root horizontal. Put the clean end to your mouth or canteen and raise the other. The water from this tree tastes like potato water. Other Uses: Use young saplings and the branches' inner bark to make rope. Description: Dandelion leaves have a jagged edge, grow close to the ground, and are seldom more than 20 centimeters (8 inches) long. The flowers are bright yellow. There are several dandelion species. Habitat and Distribution: Dandelions grow in open, sunny locations throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Edible Parts: All parts are edible. Eat the leaves raw or cooked. Boil the roots as a vegetable. Roots roasted and ground are a good coffee substitute. Dandelions are high in vitamins A and C and in calcium. Other Uses: Use the white juice in the flower stems as glue. Date palm Description: The date palm is a tall, unbranched tree with a crown of huge, compound leaves. Its fruit is yellow when ripe. Habitat and Distribution: This tree grows in arid semitropical regions. It is native to North Africa and the Middle East but has been planted in the arid semitropics in other parts of the world. Edible Parts: Its fruit is edible fresh but is very bitter if eaten before it is ripe. You can dry the fruits in the sun and preserve them for a long time. Other Uses: The trunks provide valuable building material in desert regions where few other treelike plants are found. The leaves are durable, and you can use them for thatching and as weaving material. The base of the leaves resembles coarse cloth that you can use for scrubbing and cleaning. Description: This plant has unspotted, tawny blossoms that open for 1 day only. It has long, swordlike, green basal leaves. Its root is a mass of swollen and elongated tubers. Habitat and Distribution: Daylilies are found worldwide in tropic and temperate zones. They are grown as a vegetable in the Orient and as an ornamental plant elsewhere. Edible Parts: The young green leaves are edible raw or cooked. Tubers are also edible raw or cooked. You can eat its flowers raw, but they taste better cooked. You can also fry the flowers for storage. Eating excessive amounts of raw flowers may cause diarrhea. Duchesnea or Indian strawberry Duchesnea indica Description: The duchesnea is a small plant that has runners and three-parted leaves. Its flowers are yellow and its fruit resembles a strawberry. Habitat and Distribution: It is native to southern Asia but is a common weed in warmer temperate regions. Look for it in lawns, gardens, and along roads. Edible Parts: Its fruit is edible. Eat it fresh. Sambucus canadensis Description: Elderberry is a many-stemmed shrub with opposite, compound leaves. It grows to a height of 6 meters (20 feet). Its flowers are fragrant, white, and borne in large flat-topped clusters up to 30 centimeters (12 inches) across. Its berrylike fruits are dark blue or black when ripe. Habitat and Distribution: This plant is found in open, usually wet areas at the margins of marshes, rivers, ditches, and lakes. It grows throughout much of eastern North America. Edible Parts: The flowers and fruits are edible. You can make a drink by soaking the flower heads for 8 hours, discarding the flowers, and drinking the liquid. All other parts of the plant are poisonous and dangerous if eaten. Epilobium angustifolium Description: This plant grows up to 1.8 meters (6 feet) tall. It has large, showy, pink flowers and lance-shaped leaves. Its relative, the dwarf fireweed (Epilobium latifolium), grows 30 to 60 centimeters (12 to 24 inches) tall. Habitat and Distribution: Tall fireweed is found in open woods, on hillsides, on stream banks, and near seashores in arctic regions. It is especially abundant in burned-over areas. Dwarf fireweed is found along streams, sandbars, and lakeshores and on alpine and arctic slopes. Edible Parts: The leaves, stems, and flowers are edible in the spring but become tough in summer. You can split open the stems of old plants and eat the pith raw. Fishtail palm Description: Fishtail palms are large trees, at least 18 meters (60 feet) tall. Their leaves are unlike those of any other palm; the leaflets are irregular and toothed on the upper margins. All other palms have either fan-shaped or featherlike leaves. Its massive flowering shoot is borne at the top of the tree and hangs downward. Habitat and Distribution: The fishtail palm is native to the tropics of India, Assam, and Myanmar. Several related species also exist in Southeast Asia and the Philippines. These palms are found in open hill country and jungle areas. Edible Parts: The chief food in this palm is the starch stored in large quantities in its trunk. The juice from the fishtail palm is very nourishing and you have to drink it shortly after getting it from the palm flower shoot. Boil the juice down to get a rich sugar syrup. Use the same method as for the sugar palm to get the juice. The palm cabbage may be eaten raw or cooked. Foxtail grass Setaria species Description: This weedy grass is readily recognized by the narrow, cylindrical head containing long hairs. Its grains are small, less than 6 millimeters (1/4 inch) long. The dense heads of grain often droop when ripe. Habitat and Distribution: Look for foxtail grasses in open, sunny areas, along roads, and at the margins of fields. Some species occur in wet, marshy areas. Species of Setaria are found throughout the United States, Europe, western Asia, and tropical Africa. In some parts of the world, foxtail grasses are grown as a food crop. Edible Parts: The grains are edible raw but are very hard and sometimes bitter. Boiling removes some of the bitterness and makes them easier to eat. Goa bean Psophocarpus tetragonolobus Description: The goa bean is a climbing plant that may cover small shrubs and trees. Its bean pods are 22 centimeters (9 inches) long, its leaves 15 centimeters (6 inches) long, and its flowers are bright blue. The mature pods are 4-angled, with jagged wings on the pods. Habitat and Distribution: This plant grows in tropical Africa, Asia, the East Indies, the Philippines, and Taiwan. This member of the bean (legume) family serves to illustrate a kind of edible bean common in the tropics of the Old World. Wild edible beans of this sort are most frequently found in clearings and around abandoned garden sites. They are more rare in forested areas. Edible Parts: You can eat the young pods like string beans. The mature seeds are a valuable source of protein after parching or roasting them over hot coals. You can germinate the seeds (as you can many kinds of beans) in damp moss and eat the resultant sprouts. The thickened roots are edible raw. They are slightly sweet, with the firmness of an apple. You can also eat the young leaves as a vegetable, raw or steamed. Celtis species Description: Hackberry trees have smooth, gray bark that often has corky warts or ridges. The tree may reach 39 meters (129 feet) in height. Hackberry trees have long-pointed leaves that grow in two rows. This tree bears small, round berries that can be eaten when they are ripe and fall from the tree. The wood of the hackberry is yellowish. Habitat and Distribution: This plant is widespread in the United States, especially in and near ponds. Edible Parts: Its berries are edible when they are ripe and fall from the tree. Hazelnut or wild filbert Corylus species Description: Hazelnuts grow on bushes 1.8 to 3.6 meters (6 to 12 feet) high. One species in Turkey and another in China are large trees. The nut itself grows in a very bristly husk that conspicuously contracts above the nut into a long neck. The different species vary in this respect as to size and shape. Habitat and Distribution: Hazelnuts are found over wide areas in the United States, especially the eastern half of the country and along the Pacific coast. These nuts are also found in Europe where they are known as filberts. The hazelnut is common in Asia, especially in eastern Asia from the Himalayas to China and Japan. The hazelnut usually grows in the dense thickets along stream banks and open places. They are not plants of the dense forest. Edible Parts: Hazelnuts ripen in the autumn, when you can crack them open and eat the kernel. The dried nut is extremely delicious. The nut's high oil content makes it a good survival food. When they are unripe, you can crack them open and eat the fresh kernel. Horseradish tree Moringa pterygosperma Description: This tree grows from 4.5 to 14 meters (15 to 46 feet) tall. Its leaves have a fernlike appearance. Its flowers and long, pendulous fruits grow on the ends of the branches. Its fruit (pod) looks like a giant bean. Its 25- to 60-centimeter-long pods are triangular in cross section, with strong ribs. Its roots have a pungent odor. Habitat and Distribution: This tree is found in the rain forests and semievergreen seasonal forests of the tropical regions. It is widespread in India, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Central America. Look for it in abandoned fields and gardens and at the edges of forests. Edible Parts: The leaves are edible raw or cooked, depending on their hardness. Cut the young seedpods into short lengths and cook them like string beans or fry them. You can get oil for frying by boiling the young fruits of palms and skimming the oil off the surface of the water. You can eat the flowers as part of a salad. You can chew fresh, young seedpods to eat the pulpy and soft seeds. The roots may be ground as a substitute for seasoning similar to horseradish. Iceland moss Cetraria islandica Description: This moss grows only a few inches high. Its color may be gray, white, or even reddish. Habitat and Distribution: Look for it in open areas. It is found only in the arctic. Edible Parts: All parts of the Iceland moss are edible. During the winter or dry season, it is dry and crunchy but softens when soaked. Boil the moss to remove the bitterness. After boiling, eat by itself or add to milk or grains as a thickening agent. Dried plants store well. Indian potato or Eskimo potato Claytonia species Description: All Claytonia species are somewhat fleshy plants only a few centimeters tall, with showy flowers about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) across. Habitat and Distribution: Some species are found in rich forests, where they are conspicuous before the leaves develop. Western species are found throughout most of the northern United States and in Canada. Edible Parts: The tubers are edible but you should boil them before eating. Juniperus species Description: Junipers, sometimes called cedars, are trees or shrubs with very small, scalelike leaves densely crowded around the branches. Each leaf is less than 1.2 centimeters (1/3 inch) long. All species have a distinct aroma resembling the well-known cedar. The berrylike cones are usually blue and covered with a whitish wax. Habitat and Distribution: Look for junipers in open, dry, sunny areas throughout North America and northern Europe. Some species are found in southeastern Europe, across Asia to Japan, and in the mountains of North Africa. Edible Parts: The berries and twigs are edible. Eat the berries raw or roast the seeds to use as a coffee substitute. Use dried and crushed berries as a seasoning for meat. Gather young twigs to make a tea. Many plants may be called cedars but are not related to junipers and may be harmful. Always look for the berrylike structures, needle leaves, and resinous, fragrant sap to be sure the plant you have is a juniper. Nelumbo species Description: There are two species of lotus: one has yellow flowers and the other pink flowers. The flowers are large and showy. The leaves, which may float on or rise above the surface of the water, often reach 1.5 meters (5 feet) in radius. The fruit has a distinctive flattened shape and contains up to 20 hard seeds. Habitat and Distribution: The yellow-flowered lotus is native to North America. The pink-flowered species, which is widespread in the Orient, is planted in many other areas of the world. Lotuses are found in quiet freshwater. Edible Parts: All parts of the plant are edible raw or cooked. The underwater parts contain large quantities of starch. Dig the fleshy portions from the mud and bake or boil them. Boil the young leaves and eat them as a vegetable. The seeds have a pleasant flavor and are nutritious. Eat them raw, or parch and grind them into flour. Xanthosoma caracu Description: This plant has soft, arrow-shaped leaves up to 60 centimeters (24 inches) long. The leaves have no aboveground stems. Habitat and Distribution: This plant grows widely in the Caribbean region. Look for it in open, sunny fields. Edible Parts: The tubers are rich in starch. Cook them before eating to destroy a poison contained in all parts of the plant. Always cook before eating. Mangifera indica Description: This tree may reach 30 meters (90 feet) in height. It has alternate, simple, shiny, dark green leaves. Its flowers are small and inconspicuous. Its fruits have a large single seed. There are many cultivated varieties of mango. Some have red flesh, others yellow or orange, often with many fibers and a kerosene taste. Habitat and Distribution: This tree grows in warm, moist regions. It is native to northern India, Myanmar, and western Malaysia. It is now grown throughout the tropics. Edible Parts: The fruits are a nutritious food source. The unripe fruit can be peeled and its flesh eaten by shredding it and eating it like a salad. The ripe fruit can be peeled and eaten raw. Roasted seed kernels are edible. If you are sensitive to poison ivy, avoid eating mangoes, as they cause a severe reaction in sensitive individuals. Manioc Manihot utillissima Description: Manioc is a perennial shrubby plant, 1 to 3 meters (3 to 9 feet) tall, with jointed stems and deep green, fingerlike leaves. It has large, fleshy rootstocks. Habitat and Distribution: Manioc is widespread in all tropical climates, particularly in moist areas. Although cultivated extensively, it may be found in abandoned gardens and growing wild in many areas. Edible Parts: The rootstocks are full of starch and high in food value. Two kinds of manioc are known: bitter and sweet. Both are edible. The bitter type contains poisonous hydrocyanic acid. To prepare manioc, first grind the fresh manioc root into a pulp, then cook it for at least 1 hour to remove the bitter poison from the roots. Then flatten the pulp into cakes and bake as bread. Manioc cakes or flour will keep almost indefinitely if protected against insects and dampness. Wrap manioc in banana leaves for protection. For safety, always cook the roots of either type. Caltha palustris Description: This plant has rounded, dark green leaves arising from a short stem. It has bright yellow flowers. Habitat and Distribution: This plant is found in bogs, lakes, and slow-moving streams. It is abundant in arctic and subarctic regions, and in much of the eastern region of the northern United States. Edible Parts: All parts are edible if boiled. As with all water plants, do not eat this plant raw. Raw water plants may carry dangerous organisms that are removed only by cooking. Morus species Description: This tree has alternate, simple, often lobed leaves with rough surfaces. Its fruits are blue or black and many-seeded. Habitat and Distribution: Mulberry trees are found in forests, along roadsides, and in abandoned fields in temperate and tropical zones of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Edible Parts: The fruit is edible raw or cooked. It can be dried for eating later. Other Uses: You can shred the inner bark of the tree and use it to make twine or cord. Urtica and Laportea species Description: These plants grow several feet high. They have small, inconspicuous flowers. Fine, hairlike bristles cover the stems, leafstalks, and undersides of leaves. The bristles cause a stinging sensation when they touch the skin. Habitat and Distribution: Nettles prefer moist areas along streams or at the margins of forests. They are found throughout North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern Europe. Edible Parts: Young shoots and leaves are edible. Boiling the plant for 10 to 15 minutes destroys the stinging element of the bristles. This plant is very nutritious. Other Uses: Mature stems have a fibrous layer that you can divide into individual fibers and use to weave string or twine. Nipa palm Nipa fruticans Description: This palm has a short, mainly underground trunk and very large, erect leaves up to 6 meters (20 feet) tall. The leaves are divided into leaflets. A flowering head forms on a short erect stern that rises among the palm leaves. The fruiting (seed) head is dark brown and may be 30 centimeters (12 inches) in diameter. Habitat and Distribution: This palm is common on muddy shores in coastal regions throughout eastern Asia. Edible Parts: The young flower stalk and the seeds provide a good source of water and food. Cut the flower stalk and collect the juice. The juice is rich in sugar. The seeds are hard but edible. Other Uses: The leaves are excellent as thatch and coarse weaving material. Quercus species Description: Oak trees have alternate leaves and acorn fruits. There are two main groups of oaks: red and white. The red oak group has leaves with bristles and smooth bark in the upper part of the tree. Red oak acorns take 2 years to mature. The white oak group has leaves without bristles and a rough bark in the upper portion of the tree. White oak acorns mature in 1 year. Habitat and Distribution: Oak trees are found in many habitats throughout North America, Central America, and parts of Europe and Asia. Edible Parts: All parts are edible, but often contain large quantities of bitter substances. White oak acorns usually have a better flavor than red oak acorns. Gather and shell the acorns. Soak red oak acorns in water for 1 to 2 days to remove the bitter substance. You can speed up this process by putting wood ashes in the water in which you soak the acorns. Boil the acorns or grind them into flour and use the flour for baking. You can use acorns that you baked until very dark as a coffee substitute. Tannic acid gives the acorns their bitter taste. Eating an excessive amount of acorns high in tannic acid can lead to kidney failure. Before eating acorns, leach out this chemical. Oak (Continued) Other Uses: Oak wood is excellent for building or burning. Small oaks can be split and cut into long thin strips (3 to 6 millimeters [1/8 to 1/4 inch] thick and 1.2 centimeters [1/3 inch] wide) used to weave mats, baskets, or frameworks for packs, sleds, furniture, etc. Oak bark soaked in water produces a tanning solution used to preserve leather. Orach Atriplex species Description: This plant is vinelike in growth and has arrowhead-shaped, alternate leaves up to 5 centimeters (2 inches) long. Young leaves maybe silver-colored. Its flowers and fruits are small and inconspicuous. Habitat and Distribution: Orach species are entirety restricted to salty soils. They are found along North America's coasts and on the shores of alkaline lakes inland. They are also found along seashores from the Mediterranean countries to inland areas in North Africa and eastward to Turkey and central Siberia. Edible Parts: The entire plant is edible raw or boiled. Palmetto palm Description: The palmetto palm is a tall, unbranched tree with persistent leaf bases on most of the trunk. The leaves are large, simple, and palmately lobed. Its fruits are dark blue or black with a hard seed. Habitat and Distribution: The palmetto palm is found throughout the coastal regions of the southeastern United States. Edible Parts: The fruits are edible raw. The hard seeds may be ground into flour. The heart of the palm is a nutritious food source at any time. Cut off the top of the tree to obtain the palm heart. Papaya or pawpaw Carica papaya Description: The papaya is a small tree 1.8 to 6 meters (6 to 20 feet) tall, with a soft, hollow trunk. When cut, the entire plant exudes a milky juice. The trunk is rough and the leaves are crowded at the trunk's apex. The fruit grows directly from the trunk, among and below the leaves. The fruit is green before ripening. When ripe, it turns yellow or remains greenish with a squashlike appearance. Habitat and Distribution: Papaya is found in rain forests and semievergreen seasonal forests in tropical regions and in some temperate regions as well. Look for it in moist areas near clearings and former habitations. It is also found in open, sunny places in uninhabited jungle areas. Edible Parts: The ripe fruit is high in vitamin C. Eat it raw or cook it like squash. Place green fruit in the sun to make it ripen quickly. Cook the young papaya leaves, flowers, and stems carefully, changing the water as for taro. Other Uses: Use the milky juice of the unripe fruit to tenderize tough meat. Rub the juice on the meat. Be careful not to get the milky sap from the unripe fruit into your eyes. It will cause intense pain and temporary—sometimes even permanent—blindness. Diospyros virginiana and other species Description: These trees have alternate, dark green, elliptic leaves with entire margins. The flowers are inconspicuous. The fruits are orange, have a sticky consistency, and have several seeds. Habitat and Distribution: The persimmon is a common forest margin tree. It is wide spread in Africa, eastern North America, and the Far East. Edible Parts: The leaves are a good source of vitamin C. The fruits are edible raw or baked. To make tea, dry the leaves and soak them in hot water. You can eat the roasted seeds. Some persons are unable to digest persimmon pulp. Unripe persimmons are highly astringent and inedible. Pincushion cactus Mammilaria species Description: Members of this cactus group are round, short, barrel-shaped, and without leaves. Sharp spines cover the entire plant. Habitat and Distribution: These cacti are found throughout much of the desert regions of the western United States and parts of Central America. Edible Parts: They are a good source of water in the desert. Pinus species Description: Pine trees are easily recognized by their needlelike leaves grouped in bundles. Each bundle may contain one to five needles, the number varying among species. The tree's odor and sticky sap provide a simple way to distinguish pines from similar looking trees with needlelike leaves. Habitat and Distribution: Pines prefer open, sunny areas. They are found throughout North America, Central America, much of the Caribbean region, North Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and some places in Asia. Edible Parts: The seeds of all species are edible. You can collect the young male cones, which grow only in the spring, as a survival food. Boil or bake the young cones. The bark of young twigs is edible. Peel off the bark of thin twigs. You can chew the juicy inner bark; it is rich in sugar and vitamins. Eat the seeds raw or cooked. Green pine needle tea is high in vitamin C. Other Uses: Use the resin to waterproof articles. Also, use it as glue. Collect the resin from the tree. If there is not enough resin on the tree, cut a notch in the bark so more sap will seep out. Put the resin in a container and heat it. The hot resin is your glue. Use it as is or add a small amount of ash dust to strengthen it. Use it immediately. You can use hardened pine resin as an emergency dental filling. Plantain, broad and narrow leaf Plantago species Description: The broad leaf plantain has leaves over 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) across that grow close to the ground. The flowers are on a spike that rises from the middle of the cluster of leaves. The narrow leaf plantain has leaves up to 12 centimeters (5 inches) long and 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) wide, covered with hairs. The leaves form a rosette. The flowers are small and inconspicuous. Habitat and Distribution: Look for these plants in lawns and along roads in the north temperate zone. This plant is a common weed throughout much of the world. Edible Parts: The young tender leaves are edible raw. Older leaves should be cooked. Seeds are edible raw or roasted. Other Uses: To relieve pain from wounds and sores, wash and soak the entire plant for a short time and apply it to the injured area. To treat diarrhea, drink tea made from 28 grams (1 ounce) of the plant leaves boiled in 0.5 liter of water. The seeds and seed husks act as laxatives. Phytolacca americana Description: This plant may grow as high as 3 meters (9 feet). Its leaves are elliptic and up to 1 meter (3 feet) in length. It produces many large clusters of purple fruits in late spring. Habitat and Distribution: Look for this plant in open, sunny areas in forest clearings, in fields, and along roadsides in eastern North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Edible Parts: The young leaves and stems are edible cooked. Boil them twice, discarding the water from the first boiling. The berries are considered poisonous, even if cooked. All parts of this plant are poisonous if eaten raw. Never eat the underground portions of the plant as these contain the highest concentrations of the poisons. Do not eat any plant over 25 centimeters (10 inches) tall or when red is showing in the plant. Other Uses: Use the juice of fresh berries as a dye. Opuntia species Description: This cactus has flat, padlike stems that are green. Many round, furry dots that contain sharp-pointed hairs cover these stems. Habitat and Distribution: This cactus is found in arid and semiarid regions and in dry, sandy areas of wetter regions throughout most of the United States and Central and South America. Some species are planted in arid and semiarid regions of other parts of the world. Edible Parts: All parts of the plant are edible. Peel the fruits and eat them fresh or crush them to prepare a refreshing drink. Avoid the tiny, pointed hairs. Roast the seeds and grind them to a flour. Avoid any plant that resembles the prickly pear cactus and has milky sap. Other Uses: The pad is a good source of water. Peel it carefully to remove all sharp hairs before putting it in your mouth. You can also use the pads to promote healing. Split them and apply the pulp to wounds. Purslane Portulaca oleracea Description: This plant grows close to the ground. It is seldom more than a few centimeters tall. Its stems and leaves are fleshy and often tinged with red. It has paddleshaped leaves, 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) or less long, clustered at the tips of the stems. Its flowers are yellow or pink. Its seeds are tiny and black. Habitat and Distribution: It grows in full sun in cultivated fields, field margins, and other weedy areas throughout the world. Edible Parts: All parts are edible. Wash and boil the plants for a tasty vegetable or eat them raw. Use the seeds as a flour substitute or eat them raw. Rattan palm Calamus species Description: The rattan palm is a stout, robust climber. It has hooks on the midrib of its leaves that it uses to remain attached to the trees on which it grows. Sometimes, mature stems grow to 90 meters (300 feet). It has alternate, compound leaves and a whitish flower. Habitat and Distribution: The rattan palm is found from tropical Africa through Asia to the East Indies and Australia. It grows mainly in rain forests. Edible Parts: Rattan palms hold a considerable amount of starch in their young stem tips. You can eat them roasted or raw. In other kinds, a gelatinous pulp, either sweet or sour, surrounds the seeds. You can suck out this pulp. The palm heart is also edible raw or cooked. Other Uses: You can obtain large amounts of potable water by cutting the ends of the long stems (see Chapter 6). The stems can be used to make baskets and fish traps. Description: This tall, coarse grass grows to 3.5 meters (12 feet) tall and has gray-green leaves about 4 centimeters (1 1/2 inch) wide. It has large masses of brown flower branches in early summer. These rarely produce grain and become fluffy, gray masses late in the season. Habitat and Distribution: Look for reed in any open, wet area, especially one that has been disturbed through dredging. Reed is found throughout the temperate regions of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Edible Parts: All parts of the plant are edible raw or cooked in any season. Harvest the stems as they emerge from the soil and boil them. You can also harvest them just before they produce flowers, then dry and beat them into flour. You can also dig up and boil the underground stems, but they are often tough. Seeds are edible raw or boiled, but they are rarely found. Cladonia rangiferina Description: Reindeer moss is a low-growing plant only a few centimeters tall. It does not flower but does produce bright red reproductive structures. Habitat and Distribution: Look for this lichen in open, dry areas. It is very common in much of North America. Edible Parts: The entire plant is edible but has a crunchy, brittle texture. Soak the plant in water with some wood ashes to remove the bitterness; then dry, crush, and add it to milk or to other food. Rock tripe Umbilicaria species Description: This plant forms large patches with curling edges. The top of the plant is usually black. The underside is lighter in color. Habitat and Distribution: Look on rocks and boulders for this plant. It is common throughout North America. Edible Parts: The entire plant is edible. Scrape it off the rock and wash it to remove grit. The plant may be dry and crunchy; soak it in water until it becomes soft. Rock tripes may contain large quantities of bitter substances; soaking or boiling the plant in several changes of water will remove the bitterness. There are some reports of poisoning from rock tripe, so apply the Universal Edibility Test. Eugenia jambos Description: This tree grows 3 to 9 meters (9 to 27 feet) high. It has opposite, simple, dark green, shiny leaves. When fresh, it has fluffy, yellowish-green flowers and red to purple egg-shaped fruit. Habitat and Distribution: This tree is widely planted in all of the tropics. It can also be found in a semiwild state in thickets, waste places, and secondary forests. Edible Parts: The entire fruit is edible raw or cooked. Sago palm Metroxylon sagu Description: These palms are low trees, rarely over 9 meters (27 feet) tall, with a stout, spiny trunk. The outer rind is about 5 centimeters (2 inches) thick and hard as bamboo. The rind encloses a spongy inner pith containing a high proportion of starch. It has typical palmlike leaves clustered at the tip. Habitat and Distribution: The sago palm is found in tropical rain forests. It flourishes in damp lowlands in the Malay Peninsula, New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and adjacent islands. It is found mainly in swamps and along streams, lakes, and rivers. Edible Parts: These palms, when available, are of great use to the survivor. One trunk, cut just before it flowers, will yield enough sago to feed a person for 1 year. Obtain sago starch from nonflowering palms. To extract the edible sage, cut away the bark lengthwise from one half of the trunk and pound the soft, whitish inner part (pith) as fine as possible. Knead the pith in water and strain it through a coarse cloth into a container. The fine, white sago will settle in the container. Once the sago settles, it is ready for use. Squeeze off the excess water and let it dry. Cook it as pancakes or oatmeal. Two kilograms of sago is the nutritional equivalent of 1.5 kilograms of rice. The upper part of the trunk's core does not yield sago, but you can roast it in lumps over a fire. You can also eat the young sago nuts and the growing shoots or palm cabbage. Sassafras albidum Description: This shrub or small tree bears different leaves on the same plant. Some leaves will have one lobe, some two lobes, and some no lobes. The flowers, which appear in early spring, are small and yellow. The fruits are dark blue. The plant parts have a characteristic root beer smell. Habitat and Distribution: Sassafras grows at the margins of roads and forests, usually in open, sunny areas. It is a common tree throughout eastern North America. Edible Parts: The young twigs and leaves are edible fresh or dried. You can add dried young twigs and leaves to soups. Dig the underground portion, peel off the bark, and let it dry. Then boil it in water to prepare sassafras tea. Other Uses: Shred the tender twigs for use as a toothbrush. Saxaul Haloxylon ammondendron Description: The saxaul is found either as a small tree or as a large shrub with heavy, coarse wood and spongy, water-soaked bark. The branches of the young trees are vivid green and pendulous. The flowers are small and yellow. Habitat and Distribution: The saxaul is found in desert and arid areas. It is found on the arid salt deserts of Central Asia, particularly in the Turkestan region and east of the Caspian Sea. Edible Parts: The thick bark acts as a water storage organ. You can get drinking water by pressing quantities of the bark. This plant is an important source of water in the arid regions in which it grows. Screw pine Pandanus species Description: The screw pine is a strange plant on stilts, or prop roots, that support the plant above ground so that it appears suspended in midair. These plants are either shrubby or treelike, 3 to 9 meters (9 to 27 feet) tall, with stiff leaves having sawlike edges. The fruits are large, roughened balls resembling pineapples but without the tuft of leaves at the end. Habitat and Distribution: The screw pine is a tropical plant that grows in rain forests and semievergreen seasonal forests. It is found mainly along seashores, although certain kinds occur inland for some distance, from Madagascar to southern Asia and the islands of the southwestern Pacific. There are about 180 types. Edible Parts: Knock the ripe fruit to the ground to separate the fruit segments from the hard outer covering. Chew the inner fleshy part. Cook in an earth oven fruit that is not fully ripe. Before cooking, wrap the whole fruit in banana leaves, breadfruit leaves, or any other suitable thick, leathery leaves. After cooking for about 2 hours, you can chew fruit segments like ripe fruit. Green fruit is inedible. Sea orach Description: The sea orach is a sparingly branched herbaceous plant with small, gray-colored leaves up to 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) long. Sea orach resembles lamb's quarter, a common weed in most gardens in the United States. It produces its flowers in narrow, densely compacted spikes at the tips of its branches. Habitat and Distribution: The sea orach is found in highly alkaline and salty areas along seashores from the Mediterranean countries to inland areas in North Africa and eastward to Turkey and central Siberia. Generally, it can be found in tropical scrub and thorn forests, steppes in temperate regions, and most desert scrub and waste areas. Edible Parts: Its leaves are edible. In the areas where it grows, it has the healthy reputation of being one of the few native plants that can sustain man in times of want. Sheep sorrel Rumex acerosella Description: These plants are seldom more than 30 centimeters (12 inches) tall. They have alternate leaves, often with arrowlike bases, very small flowers, and frequently reddish stems. Habitat and Distribution: Look for these plants in old fields and other disturbed areas in North America and Europe. Edible Parts: The plants are edible raw or cooked. These plants contain oxalic acid that can be damaging if too many plants are eaten raw. Cooking seems to destroy the chemical. Sorghum species Description: There are many different kinds of sorghum, all of which bear grains in heads at the top of the plants. The grains are brown, white, red, or black. Sorghum is the main food crop in many parts of the world. Habitat and Distribution: Sorghum is found worldwide, usually in warmer climates. All species are found in open, sunny areas. Edible Parts: The grains are edible at any stage of development. When young, the grains are milky and edible raw. Boil the older grains. Sorghum is a nutritious food. Other Uses: Use the stems of tall sorghum as building materials. Spatterdock or yellow water lily Nuphar species Description: This plant has leaves up to 60 centimeters (24 inches) long with a triangular notch at the base. The shape of the leaves is somewhat variable. The plant's yellow flowers are 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) across and develop into bottle-shaped fruits. The fruits are green when ripe. Habitat and Distribution: These plants grow throughout most of North America. They are found in quiet, shallow (never deeper than 1.8 meters [6 feet]) freshwater. Edible Parts: All parts of the plant are edible. The fruits contain several dark brown seeds you can parch or roast and then grind into flour. The large rootstock contains starch. Dig it out of the mud, peel off the outside, and boil the flesh. Sometimes the rootstock contains large quantities of a very bitter compound. Boiling the plant in several changes of water may remove the bitterness. Sterculia foetida Description: Sterculias are tall trees, rising in some instances to 30 meters (90 feet). Their leaves are either undivided or palmately lobed. Their flowers are red or purple. The fruit of all sterculias is similar in aspect, with a red, segmented seedpod containing many edible black seeds. Habitat and Distribution: There are over 100 species of sterculias distributed through all warm or tropical climates. They are mainly forest trees. Edible Parts: The large, red pods produce a number of edible seeds. The seeds of all sterculias are edible and have a pleasant taste similar to cocoa. You can eat them like nuts, either raw or roasted. Avoid eating large quantities. The seeds may have a laxative effect. Fragaria species Description: Strawberry is a small plant with a three-leaved growth pattern. It has small, white flowers usually produced during the spring. Its fruit is red and fleshy. Habitat and Distribution: Strawberries are found in the north temperate zone and also in the high mountains of the southern Western Hemisphere. Strawberries prefer open, sunny areas. They are commonly planted. Edible Parts: The fruit is edible fresh, cooked, or dried. Strawberries are a good source of vitamin C. You can also eat the plant's leaves or dry them to make a tea. Care should be taken with strawberries and other farm foods that have similar, pitted skins. In areas where human fertilizer is used, even bleach will not be able to effectively remove all bacteria. Eat only white-flowering true strawberries. Other similar plants without white flowers can be poisonous. Saccharum officinarum Description: This plant grows up to 4.5 meters (15 feet) tall. It is a grass and has grasslike leaves. Its green or reddish stems are swollen where the leaves grow. Cultivated sugarcane seldom flowers. Habitat and Distribution: Look for sugarcane in fields. It grows only in the tropics (throughout the world). Because it is a crop, it is often found in large numbers. Edible Parts: The stem is an excellent source of sugar and is very nutritious. Peel the outer portion off with your teeth and eat the sugarcane raw. You can also squeeze juice out of the sugarcane. Sugar palm Description: This tree grows about 15 meters (45 feet) high and has huge leaves up to 6 meters (18 feet) long. Needlelike structures stick out of the bases of the leaves. Flowers grow below the leaves and form large conspicuous dusters from which the fruits grow. Habitat and Distribution: This palm is native to the East Indies but has been planted in many parts of the tropics. It can be found at the margins of forests. Edible Parts: The chief use of this palm is for sugar. However, its seeds and the tip of its stems are a survival food. Bruise a young flower stalk with a stone or similar object and collect the juice as it comes out. It is an excellent source of sugar. Boil the seeds. Use the tip of the stems as a vegetable. Other Uses: The shaggy material at the base of the leaves makes an excellent rope, as it is strong and resists decay. The flesh covering the seeds may cause dermatitis. Sweetsop Annona squamosa Description: This tree is small, seldom more than 6 meters (18 feet) tall, and multi-branched. It has alternate, simple, elongate, dark green leaves. Its fruit is green when ripe, round, and covered with protruding bumps on its surface. The fruit's flesh is white and creamy. Habitat and Distribution: Look for sweetsop at margins of fields, near villages, and around homesites in tropical regions. Edible Parts: The fruit flesh is edible raw. Other Uses: You can use the finely ground seeds as an insecticide. The ground seeds are extremely dangerous to the eyes. Tamarindus indica Description: The tamarind is a large, densely branched tree. It grows up to 25 meters (75 feet) tall. Its has pinnate leaves (divided like a feather) with 10 to 15 pairs of leaflets. Habitat and Distribution: The tamarind grows in the drier parts of Africa, Asia, and the Philippines. Although it is thought to be a native of Africa, it has been cultivated in India for so long that it looks like a native tree. It is also found in the American tropics, the West Indies, Central America, and tropical South America. Edible Parts: The pulp surrounding the seeds is rich in vitamin C and is an important survival food. You can make a pleasantly acid drink by mixing the pulp with water and sugar or honey and letting the mixture mature for several days. Suck the pulp to relieve thirst. Cook the young, unripe fruits or seedpods with meat. Use the young leaves in soup. You must cook the seeds. Roast them above a fire or in ashes. Another way is to remove the seed coat and soak the seeds in salted water and grated coconut for 24 hours, then cook them. You can peel the tamarind bark and chew it. Taro, cocoyam, elephant ears, eddo, dasheen Colocasia and Alocasia species Description: All plants in these groups have large leaves, sometimes up to 1.8 meters (6 feet) tall, that grow from a very short stem. The rootstock is thick, fleshy, and filled with starch. Habitat and Distribution: These plants grow in the humid tropics. Look for them in fields and near homesites and villages. Edible Parts: All parts of the plant are edible when boiled or roasted. When boiling, change the water once to get rid of any poison. If eaten raw, these plants will cause a serious inflammation of the mouth and throat. Cirsium species Description: This plant may grow as high as 1.5 meters (5 feet). Its leaves are long-pointed, deeply lobed, and prickly. Habitat and Distribution: Thistles grow worldwide in dry woods and fields. Edible Parts: Peel the stalks, cut them into short sections, and boil them before eating. The roots are edible raw or cooked. Some thistle species are poisonous. Other Uses: Twist the tough fibers of the stems to make a strong twine. Cordyline terminalis Description: The ti has unbranched stems with straplike leaves often clustered at the tip of the stem. The leaves vary in color and may be green or reddish. The flowers grow at the plant's top in large, plumelike clusters. The ti may grow up to 4.5 meters (15 feet) tall. Habitat and Distribution: Look for this plant at the margins of forests or near homesites in tropical areas. It is native to the Far East but is now widely planted in tropical areas worldwide. Edible Parts: The roots and very tender young leaves are good survival foods. Boil or bake the short, stout roots found at the base of the plant. They are a valuable source of starch. Boil the very young leaves to eat. You can use the leaves to wrap other food to cook over coals or to steam. Other Uses: Use the leaves to cover shelters or to make a rain cloak. Cut the leaves into liners for shoes; this works especially well if you have a blister. Fashion temporary sandals from the leaves. The terminal leaf, if not completely unfurled, can be used as a sterile bandage. Cut the leaves into strips, then braid the strips into rope. Tree fern Various genera Description: Tree ferns are tall trees with long, slender trunks that often have a very rough, barklike covering. Large, lacy leaves uncoil from the top of the trunk. Habitat and Distribution: Tree ferns are found in wet, tropical forests. Edible Parts: The young leaves and the soft inner portion of the trunk are edible. Boil the young leaves and eat as greens. Eat the inner portion of the trunk raw or bake it. Tropical almond Terminalia catappa Description: This tree grows up to 9 meters (27 feet) tall. Its leaves are evergreen, leathery, 45 centimeters (18 inches) long, 15 centimeters (6 inches) wide, and very shiny. It has small, yellowish-green flowers. Its fruit is flat, 10 centimeters (4 inches) long, and not quite as wide. The fruit is green when ripe. Habitat and Distribution: This tree is usually found growing near the ocean. It is a common and often abundant tree in the Caribbean and Central and South America. It is also found in the tropical rain forests of southeastern Asia, northern Australia, and Polynesia. Edible Parts: The seed is a good source of food. Remove the fleshy, green covering and eat the seed raw or cooked. Juglans species Description: Walnuts grow on very large trees, often reaching 18 meters (54 feet) tall. The divided leaves characterize all walnut spades. The walnut itself has a thick outer husk that must be removed to reach the hard inner shell of the nut. Habitat and Distribution: The English walnut, in the wild state, is found from southeastern Europe across Asia to China and is abundant in the Himalayas. Several other species of walnut are found in China and Japan. The black walnut is common in the eastern United States. Edible Parts: The nut kernel ripens in the autumn. You get the walnut meat by cracking the shell. Walnut meats are highly nutritious because of their protein and oil content. Other Uses: You can boil walnuts and use the juice as an antifungal agent. The husks of "green" walnuts produce a dark brown dye for clothing or camouflage. Crush the husks of "green" black walnuts and sprinkle them into sluggish water or ponds for use as fish poison. Trapa natans Description: The water chestnut is an aquatic plant that roots in the mud and has finely divided leaves that grow underwater. Its floating leaves are much larger and coarsely toothed. The fruits, borne underwater, have four sharp spines on them. Habitat and Distribution: The water chestnut is a freshwater plant only. It is a native of Asia but has spread to many parts of the world in both temperate and tropical areas. Edible Parts: The fruits are edible raw and cooked. The seeds are also a source of food. Ceratopteris species Description: The leaves of water lettuce are much like lettuce and are very tender and succulent. One of the easiest ways of distinguishing water lettuce is by the little plantlets that grow from the margins of the leaves. These little plantlets grow in the shape of a rosette. Water lettuce plants often cover large areas in the regions where they are found. Habitat and Distribution: Found in the tropics throughout the Old World in both Africa and Asia. Another kind is found in the New World tropics from Florida to South America. Water lettuce grows only in very wet places and often as a floating water plant. Look for water lettuce in still lakes, ponds, and the backwaters of rivers. Edible Parts: Eat the fresh leaves like lettuce. Be careful not to dip the leaves in the contaminated water in which they are growing. Eat only the leaves that are well out of the water. This plant has carcinogenic properties and should only be used as a last resort. Nymphaea odorata Description: These plants have large, triangular leaves that float on the water's surface, large, fragrant flowers that are usually white, or red, and thick, fleshy rhizomes that grow in the mud. Habitat and Distribution: Water lilies are found throughout much of the temperate and subtropical regions. Edible Parts: The flowers, seeds, and rhizomes are edible raw or cooked. To prepare rhizomes for eating, peel off the corky rind. Eat raw, or slice thinly, allow to dry, and then grind into flour. Dry, parch, and grind the seeds into flour. Other Uses: Use the liquid resulting from boiling the thickened root in water as a medicine for diarrhea and as a gargle for sore throats. Water plantain Alisma plantago-aquatica Description: This plant has small, white flowers and heart-shaped leaves with pointed tips. The leaves are clustered at the base of the plant. Habitat and Distribution: Look for this plant in freshwater and in wet, full sun areas in temperate and tropical zones. Edible Parts: The rootstocks are a good source of starch. Boil or soak them in water to remove the bitter taste. To avoid parasites, always cook aquatic plants. Wild caper Capparis aphylla Description: This is a thorny shrub that loses its leaves during the dry season. Its stems are gray-green and its flowers pink. Habitat and Distribution: These shrubs form large stands in scrub and thorn forests and in desert scrub and waste. They are common throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Edible Parts: The fruit and the buds of young shoots are edible raw. Wild crab apple or wild apple Malus species Description: Most wild apples look enough like domestic apples that the survivor can easily recognize them. Wild apple varieties are much smaller than cultivated kinds; the largest kinds usually do not exceed 5 to 7.5 centimeters (2 to 3 inches) in diameter, and most often are smaller. They have small, alternate, simple leaves and often have thorns. Their flowers are white or pink and their fruits reddish or yellowish. Habitat and Distribution: They are found in the savanna regions of the tropics. In temperate areas, wild apple varieties are found mainly in forested areas. Most frequently, they are found on the edge of woods or in fields. They are found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Edible Parts: Prepare wild apples for eating in the same manner as cultivated kinds. Eat them fresh, when ripe, or cooked. Should you need to store food, cut the apples into thin slices and dry them. They are a good source of vitamins. Apple seeds contain cyanide compounds. Do not eat. Wild desert gourd or colocynth Citrullus colocynthis Description: The wild desert gourd, a member of the watermelon family, produces a 2.4- to 3-meter-long (7 1/2- to 9-foot-long) ground-trailing vine. The perfectly round gourds are as large as an orange. They are yellow when ripe. Habitat and Distribution: This creeping plant can be found in any climatic zone, generally in desert scrub and waste areas. It grows abundantly in the Sahara, in many Arab countries, on the southeastern coast of India, and on some of the islands of the Aegean Sea. The wild desert gourd will grow in the hottest localities. Edible Parts: The seeds inside the ripe gourd are edible after they are completely separated from the very bitter pulp. Roast or boil the seeds—their kernels are rich in oil. The flowers are edible. The succulent stem tips can be chewed to obtain water. Wild dock and wild sorrel Rumex crispus and Rumex acetosella Description: Wild dock is a stout plant with most of its leaves at the base of its stem that is commonly 15 to 30 centimeters (6 to 12 inches) long. The plants usually develop from a strong, fleshy, carrotlike taproot. Its flowers are usually very small, growing in green to purplish plumelike clusters. Wild sorrel is similar to wild dock but smaller. Many of the basal leaves are arrow-shaped. They are smaller than those of dock and contain sour juice. Habitat and Distribution: These plants can be found in almost all climatic zones of the world. They can grow in areas of high or low rainfall. Many kinds are found as weeds in fields, along roadsides, and in waste places. Edible Parts: Because of the tender nature of their foliage, sorrel and dock are useful plants, especially in desert areas. You can eat their succulent leaves fresh or slightly cooked. To take away the strong taste, change the water once or twice during cooking—a useful hint in preparing many kinds of wild greens. Ficus species Description: These trees have alternate, simple leaves with entire margins. Often, the leaves are dark green and shiny. All figs have a milky, sticky juice. The fruits vary in size depending on the species, but are usually yellow-brown when ripe. Habitat and Distribution: Figs are plants of the tropics and semitropics. They grow in several different habitats, including dense forests, margins of forests, and around human settlements. Edible Parts: The fruits are edible raw or cooked. Some figs have little flavor. Wild gourd or luffa sponge Luffa cylindrica Description: The luffa sponge is widely distributed and fairly typical of a wild squash. There are several dozen kinds of wild squashes in tropical regions. Like most squashes, the luffa is a vine with leaves 7.5 to 20 centimeters (3 to 8 inches) across having 3 lobes. Some squashes have leaves twice this size. Luffa fruits are oblong or cylindrical, smooth, and many-seeded. Luffa flowers are bright yellow. The luffa fruit, when mature, is brown and resembles the cucumber. Habitat and Distribution: A member of the squash family, which also includes the watermelon, cantaloupe, and cucumber, the luffa sponge is widely cultivated throughout the tropical zone. It may be found in a semiwild state in old clearings and abandoned gardens in rain forests and semievergreen seasonal forests. Edible Parts: You can boil the young green (half-ripe) fruit and eat them as a vegetable. Adding coconut milk will improve the flavor. After ripening, the luffa sponge develops an inedible spongelike texture in the interior of the fruit. You can also eat the tender shoots, flowers, and young leaves after cooking them. Roast the mature seeds a little and eat them like peanuts. Wild grape vine Vitis species Description: The wild grapevine climbs with the aid of tendrils. Most grapevines produce deeply lobed leaves similar to the cultivated grape. Wild grapes grow in pyramidal, hanging bunches and are black-blue to amber, or white when ripe. Habitat and Distribution: Wild grapes are distributed worldwide. Some kinds are found in deserts, others in temperate forests, and others in tropical areas. Wild grapes are commonly found throughout the eastern United States as well as in the southwestern desert areas. Most kinds are rampant climbers over other vegetation. The best place to look for wild grapes is on the edges of forested areas. Wild grapes are also found in Mexico. In the Old World, wild grapes are found from the Mediterranean region eastward through Asia, the East Indies, and to Australia. Africa also has several kinds of wild grapes. Edible Parts: The ripe grape is the portion eaten. Grapes are rich in natural sugars and, for this reason, are much sought after as a source of energy-giving wild food. None are poisonous. Other Uses: You can obtain water from severed grapevine stems. Cut off the vine at the bottom and place the cut end in a container. Make a slant-wise cut into the vine about 1.8 meters (6 feet) up on the hanging part. This cut will allow water to flow from the bottom end. As water diminishes in volume, make additional cuts farther down the vine. To avoid poisoning, do not eat grapelike fruits with only a single seed (moonseed). Wild onion and garlic Allium species Description: Allium cernuum is an example of the many species of wild onions and garlics, all easily recognized by their distinctive odor. Habitat and Distribution: Wild onions and garlics are found in open, sunny areas throughout the temperate regions. Cultivated varieties are found anywhere in the world. Edible Parts: The bulbs and young leaves are edible raw or cooked. Use in soup or to flavor meat. There are several plants with onionlike bulbs that are extremely poisonous. Be certain that the plant you are using is a true onion or garlic. Do not eat bulbs with no onion smell. Other Uses: Eating large quantities of onions will give your body an odor that will help to repel insects. Garlic juice works as an antibiotic on wounds. Wild pistachio Pistacia species Description: Some kinds of pistachio trees are evergreen; others lose their leaves during the dry season. The leaves alternate on the stem and have either three large leaves or a number of leaflets. The fruits or nuts are usually hard and dry at maturity. Habitat and Distribution: About seven kinds of wild pistachio nuts are found in desert or semidesert areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea to Turkey and Afghanistan. The pistachio is generally found in evergreen scrub forests or scrub and thorn forests. Edible Parts: You can eat the oil nut kernels after parching them over coals. Zizania aquatica Description: Wild rice is a tall grass that typically is 1 to 1.5 meters (3 to 4 feet) in height, but may reach 4.5 meters (15 feet). Its grain grows in very loose heads at the top of the plant and is dark brown or blackish when ripe. Habitat and Distribution: Wild rice grows only in very wet areas in tropical and temperate regions. Edible Parts: During the spring and summer, the central portion of the lower stems and root shoots are edible. Remove the tough covering before eating. During the late summer and fall, collect the straw-covered husks. Dry and parch the husks, break them, and remove the rice. Boil or roast the rice and then beat it into flour. Rosa species Description: This shrub grows 60 centimeters to 2.5 meters (24 inches to 8 feet) high. It has alternate leaves and sharp prickles. Its flowers may be red, pink, or yellow. Its fruit, called rose hip, stays on the shrub year-round. Habitat and Distribution: Look for wild roses in dry fields and open woods throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Edible Parts: The flowers and buds are edible raw or boiled. In an emergency, you can peel and eat the young shoots. You can boil fresh, young leaves in water to make a tea. After the flower petals fall, eat the rose hips; the pulp is highly nutritious and an excellent source of vitamin C. Crush or grind dried rose hips to make flour. Eat only the outer portion of the fruit as the seeds of some species are quite prickly and can cause internal distress. Wood sorrel Oxalis species Description: Wood sorrel resembles shamrock or four-leaf clover, with a bell-shaped pink, yellow, or white flower. Habitat and Distribution: Wood sorrel is found in temperate zones worldwide, in lawns, open areas, and sunny woods. Edible Parts: Cook the entire plant. Eat only small amounts of this plant as it contains a fairly high concentration of oxalic acid that can be harmful. Dioscorea species Description: These plants are vines that creep along the ground. They have alternate, heart- or arrow-shaped leaves. Their rootstock may be very large and weigh many kilograms. Habitat and Distribution: True yams are restricted to tropical regions where they are an important food crop. Look for yams in fields, clearings, and abandoned gardens. They are found in rain forests, semievergreen seasonal forests, and scrub and thorn forests in the tropics. In warm temperate areas, they are found in seasonal hardwood or mixed hardwood-coniferous forests, as well as some mountainous areas. Edible Parts: Boil the rootstock and eat it as a vegetable. Yam bean Pachyrhizus erosus Description: The yam bean is a climbing plant of the bean family, with alternate, three-parted leaves and a turniplike root. The bluish or purplish flowers are pealike in shape. The plants are often so rampant that they cover the vegetation upon which they are growing. Habitat and Distribution: The yam bean is native to the American tropics, but it was carried by man years ago to Asia and the Pacific islands. Now it is commonly cultivated in these places, and is also found growing wild in forested areas. This plant grows in wet areas of tropical regions. Edible Parts: The tubers are about the size of a turnip and they are crisp, sweet, and juicy with a nutty flavor. They are nourishing and thirst quenching. Eat them raw or boiled. To make flour, slice the raw tubers, let them dry in the sun, and grind into a flour that is high in starch and may be used to thicken soup. The raw seeds are poisonous. All text and images from the U.S. Army Field Manual 3-05.70: Survival. Appearance of these materials here does not constitute or represent endorsement by mongabay.com. Mongabay.com is not responsible for inaccurate or outdated information provided by the U.S. Army Field Manual 3-05.70. Travel Health Tips Kidnapping Stats Hijackings Hotel Crime Hotel Fires Acts of Terror Important Papers Shark Attack Stats Rainforest Tips what's new \| for kids \| rainforests \| other languages \| search \| about \| contact Copyright Rhett Butler 2004-2017 mongabay.com is a free resource.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4329
__label__wiki	0.906323	0.906323	New titles from Dartmouth writers (May/June 2019) Meg Donohue ’00 You, Me, and the Sea (William Morrow) The heroine of Donohue’s compelling novel, You, Me, and the Sea, is named Merrow, which means “mermaid” in Irish-English. In Celtic folklore, these seafaring seducers enchant men—often to their doom. “I knew how far I was willing to go for love, how capable I was of blindly clinging to it,” she says. Donohue’s tale of tortured love echoes Wuthering Heights, but with a twist. Emily Brontë’s classic has always been one of Donohue’s favorites, but she says the fates of star-crossed Heathcliff and Catherine leave her “vividly” disappointed. “I wanted to write the ending I wish I could have read and that I think a lot of readers wanted to see,” Donohue tells DAM. In her neo-Gothic retelling, a manor on the moors becomes a farm on Horseshoe Cliff on northern California’s foggy coast in the 1990s. Merrow’s mother dies mysteriously, and after suffering Dickensian miseries, she finds true love—or at least thinks she has. You, Me, and the Sea’s tightly woven plot races tsunami-like through her characters’ lives with suspense and surprises. With her fifth novel in seven years, Donohue has mastered the art of both tickling—and tugging—readers’ heartstrings. The author, who lives in San Francisco with her husband and three daughters, has a keen grasp on how people, especially women, relate to each other. “I’m very fond of being a writer that women embrace,” she says. Yet she is uneasy with being labeled a writer of women’s fiction. “That’s what others classify my work as being. There’s no men’s fiction. When you write stories about women’s lives there’s this implication they’re only going to be read by women,” she says. “I want to write fiction that is uplifting and entertaining, that brings readers joy and emotions, both happy and sad.” Is You, Me, and the Sea a “beach book,” a label some authors might shy from? “That is a complete compliment,” Donohue replies. —George M. Spencer Read an excerpt from You, Me, and the Sea. Robert Christgau ’62 Is It Still Good to Ya? (Duke University Press) Dozens of music icons including Etta James, Willie Nelson, Sinatra, Bowie, Fela Kuti, and Eminem get insightful appraisals in 87 essays from The Village Voice’s longtime music critic. He also offers his “Ten-Step Program for Growing Better Ears,” which originally appeared in DAM. (No. 10: “Spend a week listening to James Brown’s ‘Star Time.’ ”) Denny Emerson ’63 Know Better to Do Better (Trafalgar Square Books) This “tool box for horse owners, riders, and trainers” offers insight from a world-class equestrian and Dartmouth athletic hall of fame member. Subtitled “Mistakes I Made with Horses (So You Don’t Have To),” the book offers advice on everything from horse selection and management to how they are affected by riders’ character traits. Omar Khan ’80 Paper Jewels: Postcards from the Raj (Mapin Publishing) Lovers of all things Indian will relish this 350-page coffee table tribute to romantic Edwardian-era postcards that showcases more than 500 images of religious spectacles, palaces, maharajahs, and Himalayan vistas culled from 10,000 postcards amassed by the author through 30 years. Jennifer M. Dixon ’99 Dark Pasts (Cornell University Press) The Armenian genocide and the Nanking massacre claimed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. Dixon, a Villanova political scientist, untangles the evolving web of political pressures that led to official Japanese apologies and the “impunity” of Turkey’s steadfast rejection of wrongdoing. Cal Newport ’04 Digital Minimalism (Penguin) Ditch your phone. You’ll be happier. That’s the advice from a computer science professor who offers digital decluttering tips and tales of people who turned off, tuned out, and dropped their blood pressure. Read an excerpt here. Bruce Sloane ’57 draws on the journal he kept as he went through the years-long process of regaining near-normal hearing in a guide to the decision-making and adjustment processes in An Octogenarian’s Cochlear Implant Journey: I Can Hear Your Lovely Voice (self-published). Retired financier and lifelong history buff Ward Burian ’58 analyzes the formation of each of the 50 states—from their first settlers to their ascendency to statehood—in The Creation of American States (Morgan James Publishing). The Hon. Joseph Nadeau ’59, a former chief justice of the N.H. Supreme Court, shares his experiences promoting international cooperation and the rule of foreign law in At Home Abroad: Friendship First (Austin Macauley Publishers). Considering the intricacies of everyday life, Geoff Moser ’60 plays with both poetry and prose in his latest book, Dream Meadow Poems (self-published). Filmmaker Randall Blair ’68 provides tips and tricks on how to take a project from idea to the screen in The Producer’s Sourcebook (self-published). Blair has also released the final installment, Clark’s Choice, in his coming-of-age trilogy, “The Education of Clark Westfield” (self-published). Organizational psychologist and Keiser University professor David Bracken ’73 presents innovative approaches to organizational performance and talent management processes as coauthor of The Handbook of Strategic 360 Feedback (Oxford University Press). Lifelong adventure seeker Peter Heller ’82 tells the story of two young men on a canoe trip in northern Canada that becomes a battle for survival in The River: A Novel (Knopf). Read an excerpt here. Annie Daher ’07, a staff attorney at University of California Hastings College of the Law Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, evaluates legal developments in refugee law as coauthor of the fifth edition of Refugee Law and Policy: A Comparative and International Approach (Carolina Academic Press).	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4330
__label__wiki	0.842295	0.842295	Richard A Clarke Pinnacle Event Desde: Arroe Collins: Unplugged & Totally Uncut de Arroe Collins 39 Sesiones 1 Descargas Entretenimiento, #authors, #nukesontherun, #protectingamerica, #usgovernment, #writingfromexperience Richard Alan "Dick" Clarke is the former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism for the United States. Clarke worked for the State Department during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush appointed him to chair the Counter-terrorism Security Group and to a seat on the United States National Security Council. President Bill Clinton retained Clarke and in 1998 promoted him to be the National Coordinator for ... Más informaciones Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism, the chief counter-terrorism adviser on the National Security Council. Under President George W. Bush, Clarke initially continued in the same position, but the position was no longer given cabinet-level access. He later became the Special Advisor to the President on cybersecurity. Clarke left the Bush administration in 2003. Clarke came to widespread public attention for his role as counter-terrorism czar in the Clinton and Bush administrations in March 2004, when he appeared on the 60 Minutes television news magazine, released his memoir about his service in government, Against All Enemies, and testified before the 9/11 Commission. In all three instances, Clarke was sharply critical of the Bush administration's attitude toward counter-terrorism before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and of the decision to go to war with Iraq. ABOUT RICHARD A CLARKE AND HIS BOOK PINNACLE EVENT During a distinguished 3-decades long career crafting the U.S.’s global position on terror threats, Richard A. Clarke witnessed some of the more grave threats our nation has experienced. Helping to devise strategies against these threats, while serving three U.S. presidents, lends an unquestioned air of authority and authenticity to the heart-pounding works of fiction he creates. His latest work, PINNACLE EVENT,. (Thomas Dunne Books, On Sale May 19, 2015, $26.99) will place Clarke’s work in the pantheon of action thriller greats like Follett, Griffin, and Coonts.,P. With the 2016 presidential election roaring to a conclusion, multiple murders around the globe are not happenstance. There’s a connection of international interest, and that connection leads to a nefarious character buying five nuclear weapons on the black market. A race against time plays out to uncover the identity of this character and just as important, the identity of their target. With events spinning out of control, Intelligence expert Ray Bowman is called to lead a team trying to get to the bottom of who has the nukes and their purpose. With the help of a Mossad agent and a South African intelligence operative, Bowman races around the world to stop a global catastrophe. The U.S. government fears the bombs are intended for major American cities to be detonated on the eve of the national election. Bowman and his team finally unearth a sinister plan even worse than Washington’s fears, an attack that would make nuking some U.S. cities pale in comparison. Richard A. Clarke speaks with a clarity that only an insider could in crafting a story so rich in detail – and frightening in scope – that it seems like it’s straight out of today’s headlines. Let’s hope it is only fiction. During a distinguished 3-decades long career crafting the U.S.’s global position on terror threats, Richard A. Clarke witnessed some of the more grave threats our nation has experienced. Helping to devise strategies against these threats, while serving three U.S. presidents, lends an unquestioned air of authority and authenticity to the heart-pounding works of fiction he creates. His latest work, PINNACLE EVENT (Thomas Dunne Books, On Sale May 19, 2015, $26.99) will place Clarke’s work in the pantheon of action thriller greats like Follett, Griffin, and Coonts. With the 2016 presidential election roaring to a conclusion, multiple murders around the globe are not happenstance. There’s a connection of international interest, and that connection leads to a nefarious character buying five nuclear weapons on the black market. A race against time plays out to uncover the identity of this character and just as important, the identity of their target. With events spinning out of control, Intelligence expert Ray Bowman is called to lead a team trying to get to the bottom of who has the nukes and their purpose. With the help of a Mossad agent and a South African intelligence operative, Bowman races around the world to stop a global catastrophe. The U.S. government fears the bombs are intended for major American cities to be detonated on the eve of the national election. Bowman and his team finally unearth a sinister plan even worse than Washington’s fears, an attack that would make nuking some U.S. cities pale in comparison. Richard A. Clarke speaks with a clarity that only an insider could in crafting a story so rich in detail – and frightening in scope – that it seems like it’s straight out of today’s headlines. Let’s hope it is only fiction. Mr. Clarke is available for interviews. I look forward to your coverage of PINNACLE EVENT. Clarke served for thirty years in the U.S. Government, including ten continuous years in the White House serving three presidents and positions in the State Department and Pentagon. Since leaving government, he has served as an on-air consultant for ABC News, taught at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, managed a consulting firm, chaired the Board of Governors of the Middle East Institute, and written six books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Against All Enemies. Arroe Collins 1.318 followers Follow Following	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4339
__label__wiki	0.96072	0.96072	Home News Ebola in the DRC: I was so afraid to die and be put in a body bag, just like my parents were Ebola in the DRC: I was so afraid to die and be put in a body bag, just like my parents were Jémima Masika was infected with Ebola and survived, with support from UNFPA. © UNFPA DRC/Brigitte Kiaku BENI, Democratic Republic of the Congo—When Jémima Masika, 26, lost her parents to the deadly Ebola virus in August last year, she thought the disease was a myth. Then her worst nightmare came true: she contracted the disease while taking care of her sick aunt in hospital. "I did not believe in the existence of Ebola,” she says. “Like many, I took the disease for a [story] made up by politicians." This was the tenth outbreak of the highly contagious virus in the DRC, reported in August last year. But it was the first time that the densely populated province of North Kivu, an active conflict zone, was affected. I was helping my aunt and she was vomiting a lot. I had to clean after her several times. Then I began to feel unwell. "I was helping my aunt and she was vomiting a lot. I had to clean after her several times. Then [some time] after, I began to feel unwell. I was having the same clinical signs as the ones that my aunt had," explains Ms. Masika. When Ebola strikes a conflict zone Since August 2018, more than 820 people have been infected and of these, 513 have died. Women and girls have been hit the hardest, accounting for 65 per cent of those infected. As traditional caretakers for the sick, women are often at increased risk of exposure. But Ebola's impact goes beyond those infected. Strained health-care systems have left many without access to life-saving services, including sexual and reproductive health care. Instability in the region is also impeding response efforts, presenting a considerable risk to humanitarian teams mobilizing to stem the epidemic. We are delivering a comprehensive response to the Ebola epidemic that includes essential information for preventing and controlling the disease. “We are delivering a comprehensive response to the Ebola epidemic that includes outreach to provide communities with essential information for preventing and controlling the disease,” said Sennen Hounton, UNFPA Representative for the DRC. Since the outbreak began, UNFPA has been working with its partners to prevent the spread of the virus and ensure that sexual and reproductive health services remain available. We were told about Ebola and what to do if you were feeling certain symptoms. So as a precaution, I went to the Ebola Treatment Centre. I was told I was positive "We were told about Ebola and what to do if you were feeling certain symptoms. So as a precaution, I went to the Ebola Treatment Centre,” says Ms. Masika. “I was examined and the result was positive." Ms. Masika was admitted at the treatment centre, where she remained bedridden for a month. “I was so afraid to die and be put in a body bag, just like my parents,” she said sadly. But within a month, after receiving 30 perfusions and several blood tests, Ms. Masika was declared cured and was pleased she could rejoin her community. UNFPA donates vital equipment to fight spread of Ebola In September last year, UNFPA donated 10 tons of medico-surgical equipment intended for 20 health facilities in Beni, for assisting 31,000 people for 6 months, and allowing women to give birth in maternity hospitals without risk of contracting the disease. UNFPA is also helping midwives exercise precaution when tending to mothers and their newborns. Ensuring that services such as these remain available saves women’s lives, and those who become infected with the virus are extremely grateful for the support. I felt so grateful for the services and the care that I received in the hospital. Nurses and doctors were battling to save my life. “I felt so grateful for the services and the care that I received in the hospital. Nurses and doctors were battling to save my life, and it was free of charge,” says Ms. Masika. But once she had been declared cured of the virus and was discharged, she faced new challenges. “I found out that my family had given away all my belongings, as they thought I was not going to recover,” she recounts. UNFPA came to her assistance. The Fund provides dignity kits to women and girls who have survived Ebola, upon their return into their communities, so that they can get some comfort after a long period of sickness. And crucially, UNFPA ensures that they have access to reproductive health services, including family planning. “I thank UNFPA, which assisted me by handing me a dignity kit. As a cure for Ebola, I have committed myself to help others by sensitizing them on how they can observe the rules of hygiene, in particular by washing their hands to protect themselves against the disease,” says Ms. Masika. She has since become one of the icons of her community, known for its spirit of resilience. Supporting communities to prevent Ebola UNFPA has also provided more than 50 motorcycles as well as software tools to support monitoring and follow-up of contacts in Komanda Health Zone, Ituri. Since the beginning of an Ebola vaccination campaign in August last year, more than 75,000 people have been vaccinated, of which more than 20,000 were residents of Beni. UNFPA provided critical supplies for this campaign, including 10,000 vaccination syringes, to strengthen control measures and fortify water, sanitation and hygiene services in health facilities and communities. UNFPA also sponsored a football tournament, theatrical activities and an awareness walk by more than 1,000 students in support to the Ministry of Health campaign, “Ebola not at home”. We stay committed to continue to deliver life-saving health services, to ensure women and young people are not left behind during this crisis. “We stay committed to continue to deliver life-saving health services, to ensure women and young people are not left behind during this crisis,” says Mr. Hounton. - Aimee Manimani with input from Brigitte Kiaku “Delay pregnancy until you can get out of IDP camp and earn an income" I decide for myself: South Sudanese woman shows the power of knowledge UN Secretary-General meets women affected by Cyclone Idai in Mozambique	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4341
__label__wiki	0.981515	0.981515	Bank of Latvia sends deputy to ECB amid bribery probe The European Central Bank's governing council is meeting on Wednesday in Frankfurt (Photo: ECB/Flickr) By Peter Teffer Brussels, 21. Feb 2018, 09:27 The Bank of Latvia has sent its deputy governor to the governing council meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) on Wednesday (21 February), as the bank's governor is being investigated on charges of bribery. A spokesman of the Bank of Latvia told EUobserver on Wednesday that it will be represented by deputy governor Zoja Razmusa. Latvia's central bank governor Ilmars Rimsevics in 2014, when his country joined the euro (Photo: European Commission) "I think she should already be in Frankfurt now," he noted. Normally, the ECB meeting is attended by the Bank of Latvia's governor, Ilmars Rimsevics. However, over the weekend the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau of Latvia (KNAB) detained Rimsevics for 48 hours. He is currently out on bail but not allowed to leave the country. The KNAB is investigating "alleged solicitation and acceptance of a bribe by a public official" – Rimsevics. According to the fraudbusters the alleged amount of the bribe was "not less than €100,000". "After the detention one of security measures that shall be applied is a prohibition to continue to perform person's previous duties," the KNAB said in a statement on Monday. It followed a press statement released by the Bank of Latvia on Sunday, noting that the country's central bank "continues its business as usual". The central bank said it could not comment on the investigation, but said it would cooperate fully with the probe. "[The Bank of Latvia] would like to stress that in our work we follow a zero tolerance policy in respect of corruption and other illicit activities and, as in the past, we will continue to ensure all possible assistance to law enforcement authorities in order to facilitate a quicker clarification of the current situation," it said. 'I'm not guilty' Rimsevics denied any wrongdoing at a press conference on Tuesday (20 February). "I have not demanded or received any bribes," he told press. Rimsevics said he would remain at his post. "At the moment, I've taken the decision not to step down, because I'm not guilty," he said in a press conference on Tuesday. "I have become the target of some Latvian commercial banks, to destroy Latvia's reputation," he added. 'Nightmare' On Tuesday, the Associated Press ran a story in which one of Latvia's banks, the Norvik Bank, accused Rimsevics of demanding bribes. Norvik Bank's chairman Grigory Guselnikov told the AP that Rimsevics had told the bank to "cooperate", handing a piece of paper with "100,000 per month" written on it. "It was a nightmare for me for years," Guselnikov was quoted as saying. "You can't understand how to get out of this dirty environment without reputation damage. That is why I decided to go out publicly and legally with my case," he said. Smear campaign? While Rimsevics is now facing political calls to step down, Latvia's prime minister Maris Kucinskis said on Tuesday that the Norvik Bank accusations could be an attempt to "disrupt the reputation of the Latvian state". "There is reason to think that this is more likely Norvik Bank's and Mr Guselnikov's attempt to harm the state's image," said the centre-right prime minister. Meanwhile, ECB chief Mario Draghi has not commented on the case, and the European Commission also limited its contribution to a single quote. "We consider, as far as the governor is concerned, that this is a matter for national enforcement authorities, and we have no further comment," said commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas on Monday. Spain's De Guindos to be ECB vice-president Ombudsman asks ECB chief to quit secret bankers group ECB withheld information on 'flawed' bank supervision The ECB: EU's 'bad bank' (for its employees) EU judges to rule on ECB empty chair EU court set to side with accused Latvian banker Spanish finance minister Luis de Guindos will join the the European Central Bank in June, after his sole rival for the vice-presidency job stepped down on Monday. Emily O'Reilly says that Mario Draghi's participation in the Group of 30 harms public trust in the EU central bank. The European Central Bank refused to provide important evidence when the Court of Auditors examined its management of the banking crisis. A court report said the system was substantial but had "flaws". An internal report finds 'lack of staff' and high 'burnout' levels at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt - the bank trusted with keeping the eurozone stable and secure. 9. Apr 2018, 09:23 EU judges are to rule on Latvia's handling of a bribery fiasco in a test case for eurozone banking supervision. Latvia was wrong to have suspended its central bank chief from his job over bribery allegations, an EU jurist has said, as Europe struggles to clamp down on financial crime.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4349
__label__wiki	0.847263	0.847263	Kishi Bashi /ticket/p/2924214/kishi-bashi-carrboro-cats-cradle 10-24-2019 20:00:00 10-24-2019 20:00:00 Kishi Bashi Cat's Cradle true MM/DD/YYYY ADVANCED: $20.00 DAY OF Public Onsale: October 24, 2019 12:00 AM to October 24, 2019 11:59 PM ADVANCED Public Onsale: June 14, 2019 10:00 AM to October 24, 2019 12:00 AM Kishi Bashi is the pseudonym of singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Kaoru Ishibashi. Born in Seattle, Washington, Ishibashi grew up in Norfolk, Virginia where both of his parents were professors at Old Dominion University. As a 1994 graduate of Matthew Fontaine Maury High School, he went on to study film scoring at Berklee College of Music before becoming a renowned violinist. Ishibashi has recorded and toured internationally as a violinist with diverse artists such as Regina Spektor, Sondre Lerche, and most recently, the Athens, Georgia-based indie rock band, of Montreal. He remains based in Athens. Kishi Bashi is also the singer and founding member of the New York electronic rock outfit, Jupiter One. In 2011, he started to record and perform as a solo artist, opening for Sondre Lerche, Alexi Murdoch, and of Montreal. He supported of Montreal on their spring 2012 tour. Shortly after Ishibashi debuted his full-length solo album "151a" on Indianapolis label Joyful Noise Recordings, NPR All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen listed Kishi Bashi as his favorite new artist of 2012 noting that he created "a radiant, uplifting soundscape" with songs such as "Bright Whites." Kishi Bashi has since been invited to play in major festivals such as SXSW and Austin City Limits and gone on an extensive US tour with supporting acts such as The Last Bison (from his native Hampton Roads, Virginia). In early 2013, Kishi Bashi held a North American tour across the United States and Canada, continuing in EU and UK in spring 2013. In 2014 Kishi Bashi released his own line of coffee through Jittery Joe's called Royal Daark Blend. Each purchase comes with an exclusive song download. 2016 saw Kishi Bashi release his new album "Sonderlust" live on NPR's All Songs Considered. His latest album Omoiyari was released May 31st and available on all platforms. Links: Website \| Facebook \| Twitter \| Bandcamp \| Spotify \| YouTube \| Apple Music ADVANCED: $20.00 *	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4350
__label__wiki	0.89322	0.89322	home>Books 10 Best History Books of 2018 A surprisingly human history of corporations, a Korean War battle exploration, and more fascinating tales from the year that was. By Dave Adams As with all great histories, the books on this year’s list look to the past while keeping one eye trained on the present. From a riveting study of the violence and animosity that washed over Congress in the decades before the Civil War, to a startling expose of the strategies corporations have used to shape American law in their favor, we’re reminded that many of today’s most pressing concerns have been around for centuries. But that doesn’t mean they’ll never be solved—long odds were meant to be beaten. Just ask Mabel Norris Reese, a small-town reporter who faced off against one of the South’s most notorious and powerful racists—and won—or the soldiers of Yorktown, who pulled off an unbelievable victory. Whether you’re seeking insight, inspiration, entertainment, or all of the above, the best history books of 2018 have just what you need. On Desperate Ground By Hampton Sides The Korean War is often referred to as America’s “forgotten war”, but the Battle of Chosin Reservoir is one of the most famous in Marine Corps history. In November 1950, 30,000 UN troops, including 20,000 men of the First Marine Division, were trapped in the frozen mountains of North Korea by an overwhelming force of 120,000 Red Chinese soldiers. Completely surrounded, the Americans battled the enemy and the brutal cold (temperatures dropped to 20 degrees below zero) for 10 days before they opened an escape route to the Sea of Japan. Major General Oliver P. Smith led a fighting retreat to the port city of Hungnam, where nearly two hundred ships were waiting to make the greatest sea evacuation in US military history. Relying on declassified documents and interviews with American and Korean survivors, bestselling author Hampton Sides superbly balances big-picture strategic analysis with a grunt’s-eye view of the fighting to deliver the definitive account of this legendary battle. Related: The Korean War Serves as a Cautious Reminder for the Future By Joanne B. Freeman The 116th Congress, which opens on January 3, 2019, is likely to be one of the most contentious in history. But it won’t top the 34th (1855-57), when Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner was beaten nearly to death by South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks. Or the 31st (1849-1851), when Mississippi Senator Henry S. Foote drew a pistol on Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, causing the latter to bare his chest and exclaim, “Stand out of the way and let the assassin fire!” In detailing these and other violent incidents that occurred in the three decades before the outbreak of the Civil War—most of which are long forgotten—Yale University historian Joanne B. Freeman proves false the oft-repeated claim that today’s political climate is more polarized than ever before. But her entertaining, meticulously researched account also delivers an implicit warning: If left unchecked, escalating tensions between America’s elected officials can have dire consequences. Ghosts in the Schoolyard By Eve L. Ewing Ewing is perhaps best known as a beloved Twitter user, but long before “Wikipedia Brown” became famous, Ewing was honing her historical and sociological chops as a Ph.D. student at Harvard. Ghosts in the Schoolyard explores how the Chicago school system became the target of closings, ridicule, and despair. The lessons she finds are sadly transferable to many other school districts. Ewing’s skilled voice (she is also a poet and a Marvel comic writer) makes what could be a dense, academic text into one that is accessible to all, filled with stories and people alongside its numbers and analyses. Leadership: In Turbulent Times By Doris Kearns Goodwin The doyenne of American presidential history explores the lives and times of four of the nation’s greatest leaders: Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson. From their boyhoods to the setbacks and failures of their early adulthoods to the crucial decisions that guided the country through times of crisis, Goodwin brings each man and his specific historical period to vivid life. She discovers that there is no one formula to make a great leader—Lincoln was raised by a stern disciplinarian who thought books were a waste of time, while FDR’s loving mother indulged his every wish—but that intelligence, persistence, and a gift for storytelling were qualities shared by all four of her subjects. Most importantly, she makes the convincing argument that a man’s flaws need not prevent him from achieving great things. It is a lesson we would all do well to remember in times as polarized and tumultuous as these. Related: 9 Books About Abraham Lincoln Beneath a Ruthless Sun By Gilbert King In December 1957, a Florida citrus baron’s wife reported that a “husky Negro” had broken into her home and raped her. Sheriff Willis McCall, the notoriously racist chief law enforcement officer in Lake County, ordered his deputies to “round up every n****r you see.” A few days later, McCall announced that Jesse Daniels, a mentally impaired 19-year-old, had confessed the crime. The twist? Daniels was white. He was arrested, declared unfit to stand to trial, and committed to the State Hospital for the Insane at Chattahoochee—where he languished for the next 14 years, until a crusading local journalist helped to win his release. Gilbert King, who last tangled with Sheriff McCall’s noxious legacy in his Pulitzer Prize-winner Devil in the Grove, uncovers one of the most sordid conspiracies ever to take root in Florida soil and reveals the baroque nature of Southern racism during the civil rights era. Want more history books? Sign up for The Archive's newsletter, and get the best history recommendations delivered straight to your inbox. The Poison Squad By Deborah Blum In the context of the recent romaine-based e.coli outbreak, Blum’s investigation of the many, many horrors that proceeded the 1906 Food and Drug Act may strike an even more resounding chord. Before this landmark act, altered and/or mislabeled food products were sickening men, women, and children across America–to say nothing of the many drugs that included highly addictive compunds like opium without any labels signalling their presence. The Food and Drug Act is often called “Dr. Wiley’s Law” in honor of Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, who, with the help of the likes of Upton Sinclair, Fannie Farmer, and Henry Heinz (yes, that Heinz) was able to force the government to pay attention to the havoc being wreaked upon average citizens. In the Hurricane's Eye In this rousing, richly-detailed military history, National Book Award–winner Nathaniel Philbrick shines a brilliant light on a lesser-known chapter of the Revolutionary War: The Battle of the Chesapeake, a naval engagement fought off the coast of Cape Henry, Virginia between French and British warships in September 1781. Earlier that summer, Philbrick writes, “the bitter truth ... was that the American Revolution had failed.” The Revolutionary Army was severely underfunded and understaffed, and the public had grown weary of the fighting. To salvage victory from the jaws of defeat, General George Washington needed the French Navy to strike a significant blow against the British—but coordinating with a fleet based thousands of miles away was nearly impossible. Yet the stars finally aligned and Adm. Françoise de Gasse defeated his Royal Navy counterpart, effectively sealing off Tidewater Virginia from British reinforcements and setting the stage for the Americans’ decisive victory at Yorktown. Philbrick masterfully captures the sights and sounds of the 18th-century battle and reminds us that—up until the final months—the outcome of the American Revolution was far from assured. Related: The Culper Ring: The Revolutionary Spies Who Helped Win the War We the Corporations By Adam Winkler This fascinating, richly detailed history reveals how corporations have shaped American law and society from the Virginia Company’s founding of the Jamestown colony in 1607 to the landmark Supreme Court decisions in the Citizens United (2010) and Hobby Lobby (2014) cases. Although they are mentioned nowhere in the Constitution, corporations for the last two hundred years have waged a secretive, well-funded, and incredibly successful campaign to gain the civil rights granted to individuals: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, religious liberty, due process, and more. They have brazenly borrowed from the tactics used by the African-American, women’s, and LGBTQ civil rights movements, and their advocates have resorted to outright deception in order to push the boundaries of the law. As a result, corporations have shielded themselves from regulations while amassing an enormous—and seemingly ever-expanding—influence on American government. UCLA law professor Adam Winkler’s account is a masterpiece of historical synthesis and a must-read for anyone concerned about the current state of our political system. By Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic Anyone who’s seen Jaws knows the basic story. After delivering parts of the atomic bomb, code-named “Little Boy,” that was later dropped on Hiroshima, the USS Indianapolis was sunk by two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine, plunging hundreds of sailors into the remote, shark-infested waters of the Philippine Sea. For four horrific days, they succumbed one-by-one to exposure, saltwater poisoning, drowning, and shark attack. In the end, only 316 of the 1,195 men on board the USS Indianapolis made it out of the water alive. But, as Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic reveal in this riveting account of the disaster and its aftermath, their fight was just beginning. For the next 50 years, the survivors dedicated themselves to clearing the name of their captain, Charles B. McVay III, who was court-martialed and convicted for the sinking. A hair-raising adventure story, a captivating courtroom drama, and a stirring tribute to America’s greatest generation, Indianapolis is one of the year’s most thrilling reads. These Truths By Jill Lepore Harvard professor and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore delivers her most ambitious book yet—a single-volume history of the United States from Columbus to President Donald J. Trump. Lepore frames her survey around the three essential “truths” that Thomas Jefferson declared would be at the heart of the American experiment: Political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. Over the past five centuries, Lepore asks, has America delivered on its promises of these truths? Her inquiry offers fascinating new perspectives on well-known figures such as Frederick Douglass and Benjamin Franklin, and rescues influential players such as Mary Lease, leader of the People’s Party, from the dustbin of history. Elegantly written and refreshingly clear-eyed about America’s strengths and weaknesses, These Truths deserves a place on every history buff’s bookshelf. Related: Portraits in History: The Best David McCullough Books Published on 11 Dec 2018	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4353
__label__wiki	0.556308	0.556308	First Quarter 2018 Books - fauxklore First Quarter 2018 Books I decided to try doing book run-downs, akin to the ones I've been doing for movies. Stephen King, Different Seasons. While King is most associated with horror, three of the four novellas in this book are not really in that genre. The Winter piece is conventional horror, with both a ghost story and the spooky circumstances under which that story is told. The Spring piece has to do with a wrongfully convicted prisoner. Both of those were readable enough, but not as gripping as the Autumn story, which involved adolescent boys who set off on an adventure to find a dead body, the result of an accident. What is interesting is not so much the dead body but the circumstances of the boys’ lives and how those affect their interactions with one another. The strongest piece is the Summer one, which is a story of psychological terror about a teenage boy who is obsessed with a Nazi war criminal he has discovered in his neighborhood. I found this piece completely chilling, largely because it seemed perfectly plausible. Overall, this book was absorbing. Alexander Kent, Signal – Close Action! I have been reading the Richard Bolitho series off and on for a while now. I’m not particularly interested in British naval battles of the late 18th century per se, but Bolitho is an appealing character. The real point is his interactions with his crew – which is sometimes contentious – and with his superiors. I will continue reading this series, as the books are enjoyable. Katherine Boo, Beyond the Beautiful Forevers. I’ve already written a little about this book, which has to do with an informal slum in Mumbai. It’s interesting, but depressing. The level of corruption and the general lack of caring about poor people (which extends to ignoring a dead body) left me feeling hopeless. Kerry Greenwood, Cocaine Blues. This is the first Phryne Fisher mystery and, frankly, it didn’t really leave me wanting to read more. There’s too much talk about clothes and Miss Fisher is too skillful to be believed. (For example, she’s an expert fast driver and can fly an airplane and can dance well enough to capture the attention of a Russian ballet star.) The plot is somewhat predictable. And the whole thing is horribly overwritten. Arvin Ahmadi, Down and Across. I don’t read a lot of young adult fiction, but this got a lot of buzz in the crossword community. The characters are interesting and I liked the Washington, D.C. setting. There’s a bit too much coincidence in some of the encounters, however. I had to suspend a fair amount of disbelief, but the psychology felt real even when the events didn’t. Overall, worth a read. Crabbe Evers, Murderer’s Row. Evers has a series of mysteries set at various baseball stadiums. This one involves a murder at Yankee’s Stadium (or, as I think of it, the Heart of Darkness). The plot is mediocre and the writing is so-so, but the baseball lore is interesting. Skippable. D. R. Meredith, Murder By Sacrilege. This is the sort of mystery that is based entirely on quirkiness. The premise of a preacher putting his wife’s naked body in a Nativity scene outside the church and then refusing to talk about it at all was an interesting one. But most of the characters behave in such unlikely ways that I was ready to throw this book into a river by the time I was a third of the way through. Gerald Nachman, Showstoppers!: The Surprising Backstage Stories of Broadway’s Most Remarkable Songs. This is focused primarily on individual songs, regardless of the actual quality of the shows they’re from. So it discusses some cases where there’s a single well-known song from an otherwise forgettable musical. There is, however, a lot of backstage chatter about some of the bigger shows, which is interesting – at least if you’re a musicals geek like I am. I think Nachman gives Jerry Herman more credit than he deserves. I think Herman was aiming for commercial success a lot of times, rather than merely being a happy person, which is why he wrote so many catchy songs with repetitive insipid lyrics. I also think he underestimates Frank Loesser. Yes, "Adelaide’s Lament" is a great song, but how could you ignore "Luck Be a Lady Tonight" or "Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat" when it comes to showstoppers? And to step away from Guys and Dolls, what about "I Believe in You," from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying? And, really, could he not find a single worthy song from 1977 ("Tomorrow" from Annie) to 2001 ("Springtime for Hitler" from The Producers)? Hint: City of Angels (1989) had "You Can Always Count on Me," among other worthy candidates. And 1991’s The Secret Garden has songs like "Race You to the Top of the Morning," "Wick," and "Come to My Garden" – all three in a row. I also think his failure to include off-Broadway shows is a mistake, but at least he’s up front about his criteria. I enjoyed this book, but it could have been even better. Herman Raucher, Summer of ‘42. This was out of what I refer to as the Mom collection, i.e. the huge number of books from my mother’s house that I feel compelled to read before disposing of. The only thing I knew about this book before reading it is that it had been turned into a movie. Actually, it turns out that the screenplay came first and, while the book was released before the movie was, it was actually a novelization. The story involves adolescent boys, who spend their time fighting with each other and trying to get laid. There’s some humor, mostly as the boys try to figure out what sex really entails – but this is mostly standard coming of age fare. I suspect it worked better on film than on paper. I also suspect it works better for a different generation. It was okay, but too melodramatic for my tastes. Tags: books, musicals ragnarok_08 on April 3rd, 2018 07:52 pm (UTC) That's quite a lot of books you've read - well done!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4356
__label__wiki	0.919696	0.919696	James McAvoy on Atonement: The RT Interview The Scottish actor chats with RT about his latest role. by Rachel Sandor \| December 6, 2007 \| Comments Scottish actor James McAvoy has shot several films in the last few years (Becoming Jane, The Last King of Scotland, and the eagerly anticipated Wanted) but so far remains most associated with Mr. Tumnus, his hairy role as the faun in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. But if early Oscar buzz can be trusted, his name may also be synonymous with Oscar nominee. In his latest film, Atonement, McAvoy plays Robbie Turner, a groundskeeper whose entire life is irrevocably changed when he is falsely accused of a crime. Based on the novel by Ian McEwan, McAvoy joins a talented crew including Brenda Blethyn, Vanessa Redgrave, and the Pride and Prejudice team of director Joe Wright and actress Keira Knightley. Atonement opens this Friday in limited release. RT met up with McAvoy in San Francisco to chat about the challenges of playing a “perfect” character, the cost of training for Wanted, and why he might be taking a break from acting. In Atonement, there is an incredible very long tracking shot on the beach, involving lots of extras. How did you rehearse for that? James McAvoy: We wanted to be very particular, so we spent a whole day rehearsing. I think with something as daunting as that, most directors would say, “F–k it, we’ve got so many extras, we’ll just shoot all day and get 20 takes and one of them might work. And if they don’t all work, we’ll edit.” But Joe just decided that we would rehearse all day and get it perfect. And then when the light was just right, and we only had half an hour, we did three takes. Two of the takes didn’t work, so we were on the third take and it felt really good. So we went back to view it on the monitors and, of course, the monitors decided to f–king blow up, so we didn’t know if we had it. But we found out two days later when we got the footage back that it worked and it was all good. How many extras were involved in that scene? JM: There were 1500 people. Any one of them could have royally screwed up at any point, so it was a miracle that it worked. I always think that particular scene is a microcosm of what making a film is. It really is a miracle of people collaborating and it was interesting because it’s very rare that something is that free, and that the actor is the person that helps make the shot. Usually you’re told to stand somewhere and the cameras move all around you. It this scene, it was much more along the lines that the camera may be anywhere. It would never be in the same place twice because a horse would walk past me, so I would be like, “F–k, the camera’s over there!” The actors were creating the shots as much as they could, which was so enjoyable but also high pressure. What is it about Joe Wright’s directorial style that brings out such praised performances? JM: He grew up in the theater. His mother and father were both puppeteers and owned a puppet theater. His mother still owns one called The Angel. I think he loves actors, and that’s a big thing because not every director likes actors. A lot of directors feel like actors just f–k up their films. But Joe loves actors. He cares about them and tries to make them better. Having a director that is confident in you and cares about you makes you suddenly feel free. You feel safe to take risks and that alone is big. He understands every job on a film set, which I don’t think a lot of directors do. He appreciates everybody on set. He’s a proper f–king amazing über-director. You mentioned that Joe Wright has a theater background. Since the cast lived together while filming Atonement was this a theater-like experience? JM: I didn’t live together, I stayed separate. Partly because I went to college and couldn’t be asked about s–t anymore, and partly because my character is separate from all of them. It kind of helped that all of the actors that lived in the house with Joe and the crew were all quite posh. They were all quite upper class. Lovely people, and some of them are now really good friends of mine, but they were all quite posh and I’m not really. I’m not from that background. It was useful for me as my character to kind of stay away. So when I’d go up there for my dinner or something like that, I’d go once or twice a week. I could have gone up any night I wanted, and I was always welcome, but in my head and my imagination, I was only going up when I was invited. It was also kind of just me doing a little bit of make believe. I’m not a method actor, but I just kept myself a wee bit separate. Your character goes through many stages throughout the film — including age and going from being quite naïve to very jaded. How did you take on that challenge? JM: I like playing a variety of characters. I feel like I’ve been able to play different kinds of characters — I’ve done a lot of period pieces — but I’ve never had to play the same type of character too much. Getting to play two different types of characters in one film was quite interesting. I found him quite difficult to play and believe in to begin with, because he’s quite a perfect type of person and I found that strange. I didn’t know if I could play it convincingly because I wasn’t sure if I believed that people like that exist. And then it got easier as we went along because I started to believe that he could. People like that might not exist for real, but it’s what we should be. The type of person that he became halfway through the film after something bad happens to him is somebody that I’m much more used to playing. He’s somebody who is very conflicted and suicidal, and strangely because of that, much more human. He doesn’t really know who he is anymore. I don’t think he can quite remember who he was, because he is so different. The only person who knows who is his and can make him feel like he can even remember the person he used to be is [Keira Knightley’s character] Cecilia Tallis. If it wasn’t for the fact that she still cared for him, still loved him, or that she’s even alive, I think he’d kill himself because who he was would be completely lost. I think that’s just such an amazing place to start of playing a character. It’s hard to make a nice character seem interesting. How did you approach that for the first half of Atonement? JM: Badly, I think. I kept trying to make him interesting — conflicted, tainted, restless, passionate, and angry — and I had to stop doing that because it was not working in rehearsals. It was just bad. I just had to trust that the most boring person in the world is interesting, because we’re all interesting. We’re all miracles as well, that we’re even here. I don’t know why we’re not interested in seeing good people. I think we like seeing good people, but only if bad things happen to them. Which is weird, isn’t it? It’s like the whole thing with Jesus Christ. F–king hell, it’s an amazing story. Whether you’re Christian or not, it’s an incredible story because he’s the best person that ever existed on the planet, and we crucify him. So there’s something in our nature that enjoys stories where good people get royally f–ked up. In the novel, there are many different descriptions of Robbie. Although there is a lot of dialogue, much of his character is internal. How did you take that from the novel and apply in to your portrayal of Robbie? JM: I did it as faithfully as possible. I think it was clear to me that Joe was trying to make a very faithful adaptation of the film. Whereas when I did The Last King of Scotland, the adaptation of the film was very different. With that, it almost became a burden and a barrier to be too attached to the book, because the character was so different. But with Atonement, it was so faithful [because] the book was just an amazing source. If you wanted to know something about Robbie’s history, you didn’t just have to make it up. Which I’ve done before, where I think, “F–k, I want to know what his relationship with his dad is like.” So then you spend five minutes inventing a history with his dad. But with this film, you don’t have to do that because it’s written for you. There’s something about the fact that it’s already been done that means your imagination and ego can’t taint the character’s history. There are hard facts that you may not like about the character, but you have to deal with it and there’s something quite nice about that, because it means you can’t have it all your own way as an actor. You’ve done Band of Brothers and Atonement. Is there something that draws you to the World War II period? JM: No, I don’t think so. To be honest with you, none of the films that I have done in the last two years I have chosen to do. I’ve auditioned for them all. I could have been drawn to doing them, but it didn’t mean I was going to get them. The jobs that I got were the jobs they decided to cast me in. I don’t know why I get cast in a lot of period pieces. Stephen Fry told me that I had a face for period, that I look like someone from 1920. But I definitely do like that period of the two World Wars. They were such defining moments for British history and world history. They really helped shape the modern world — the bravery, the loss, the waste. Doing the action scenes for Wanted must have been a completely different experience for you. JM: Totally different than anything I’ve ever experienced in my life. The 16-year-old boy in me was like, “Woo-hoo!” But after about three weeks, the 16-year-old boy just wanted to stay in bed, and the adult’s going, “Oh, my back hurts so much. I don’t want to go to the gym.” The trainer who you used to really like is like, “C’mon, we’ve got to do some more weights.” And you’re just like, “May you burn in hell, you bastard!” [Laughs.] But I’m really lucky. I’ve never really been pigeonholed as an actor and I’ve been able to play many different roles, so it was a chance to explore a different avenue. There’s also a lot of comedy in it, and I love doing comedy. It was really quite a departure, and I think the thing that elevated it was the director, Timur Bekmambetov. [He’s] mad as a box of snakes! He’s just crazy, in a good way, in the best possible way, and and I’m really interested to see what he’s done with it because I think he’s really special. Is it true that you’re going to take a break from acting? JM: I think I am. I’ve been saying that for a long time. But things are shaping up for next year, and maybe I’ll be working again in March. You’ve done a lot of films recently. JM: Yeah, you’ve got to. And that’s good because I’m young and that’s the time for work, isn’t it? You chill out when you get older. That’s apart from the fact that I think people get sick of the sight of your face. It’s probably a good idea to chill out. Also, if you’re an actor, your job is to pretend to be a real person, to recreate reality. You’ve got to have a bit of a life from which to draw upon. If you don’t live in the real world because all you do is spend all day on film sets, you become such a weirdo. Film sets are a strange place, but an exciting place. I do love my work, I really enjoy going to work. But if you just spend all your time on film sets or even on stage, you can become a Michael Jackson figure, living in your own little universe. All Upcoming Disney Movies: New Disney Live-Action, Animation, Pixar… And Now, Fox Hear Us Out: TV Is the Place to Tell the Dark Phoenix Saga Properly 2019 social media ESPN Logo YouTube Red TCA ITV Paramount FOX Black Mirror Election spider-man historical drama Calendar Polls and Games cooking elevated horror Oscars Pride Month HBO Pop SDCC Comic Book Creative Arts Emmys NYCC mutant Film Festival teaser 2018 Martial Arts green book MCU Character Guide political drama Horror Podcast Super Bowl Reality psycho Amazon Song of Ice and Fire robots CNN Shudder 2017 Stephen King Kids & Family dc 21st Century Fox Disney Sundance Rom-Com Box Office cats PBS 007 Superheroe crossover 2015 SundanceTV Video Games 2016 television Apple Elton John Nominations crime thriller doctor who talk show Teen YA Fall TV MSNBC Mudbound Holidays Comedy Central Writers Guild of America First Look YouTube Premium Comics on TV Dark Horse Comics TruTV Netflix Action anime ratings Christmas nature Britbox ABC Family Infographic ABC theme song Hulu 20th Century Fox Quiz dramedy TLC Animation dceu Superheroes Women's History Month politics New York Comic Con Tumblr space Valentine's Day Interview Tarantino The Witch Sundance Now TV Land See It Skip It golden globes Universal USA singing competition Rocketman Premiere Dates A&E romance GLAAD festivals CBS All Access LGBTQ TCA 2017 game show Adult Swim Emmys award winner BET Marvel Brie Larson Year in Review Vudu Drama Cartoon Network anthology Anna Paquin Certified Fresh GIFs blaxploitation Lionsgate GoT FX CBS natural history San Diego Comic-Con Heroines miniseries TCM Syfy Summer Marathons Pirates war transformers Opinion MTV APB jamie lee curtis DC streaming service Mary poppins Freeform Fantasy dragons IFC Films sequel Awards Tour Acorn TV Pixar serial killer BBC TNT Sci-Fi Winners binge TBS composers zero dark thirty comiccon TIFF Set visit The CW Musicals witnail Comedy Showtime Ghostbusters cops justice league Mindy Kaling American Society of Cinematographers RT History Country mockumentary Western Countdown unscripted National Geographic Mary Tyler Moore Schedule vampires Cosplay Disney Channel E3 cults period drama disaster El Rey facebook Extras zombie Crackle diversity crime drama docudrama Star Wars Ellie Kemper Best and Worst Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt sports Bravo animated USA Network Masterpiece Trivia Mystery DirecTV Trophy Talk Photos richard e. Grant Biopics SXSW Fox News IFC Tomatazos true crime based on movie 45 comic Nickelodeon sitcom RT21 Winter TV crime OWN NBC Warner Bros. cinemax Star Trek Mary Poppins Returns hist Trailer CMT Sneak Peek Emmy Nominations what to watch spy thriller X-Men Lucasfilm Awards supernatural strong female leads Pet Sematary Music police drama Shondaland discovery finale Grammys LGBT Reality Competition medical drama Thanksgiving DC Universe TV adventure Spectrum Originals Cannes WGN Walt Disney Pictures FXX science fiction DC Comics streaming Watching Series Spike biography PaleyFest DGA zombies technology Starz boxoffice Ovation Rocky Columbia Pictures AMC Food Network Rock Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Chernobyl History Paramount Network Esquire Epix aliens Lifetime Musical Toys BBC America E! toy story President casting travel adaptation Captain marvel Spring TV The Arrangement psychological thriller VICE Sony Pictures Red Carpet CW Seed thriller spinoff VH1 24 frames Amazon Prime Nat Geo harry potter	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4362
__label__wiki	0.861072	0.861072	Alexandra Wright solders pinheaders on a temperature sensor at a VCU electrical engineering lab. (Photo by Kevin Morley, University Relations) High school student Alexandra Wright is getting a jump on her studies in a VCU electrical engineering lab. By Leila Ugincius What do you do if you love engineering but you’re too young for a program that lets high school students research engineering at a college level? If you’re Alexandra Wright, you go straight to the top. Wright, a 14-year-old high school sophomore, wanted to further her studies in electrical engineering and looked at various internships and mentorships. The Virginia Commonwealth University Dean's Early Research Initiative for high school juniors and seniors caught her eye, but she was too young to apply. So she emailed Barbara D. Boyan, Ph.D., the Alice T. and William H. Goodwin Jr. Dean of the VCU College of Engineering, to see if there were any other opportunities. Boyan connected her with Erdem Topsakal, Ph.D., a professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Because Topsakal's lab does not use chemicals and other liquid or gaseous substances, he invited Wright to research there. (VCU Engineering does not allow students younger than 16 to work in wet labs.) “When I met Alex in person, I realized that her curiosity for discovery, science and engineering was beyond her years as a teenager,” Topsakal said. “Without a doubt, she will make a great scientist/engineer one day, and we will all be proud of her accomplishments.” Wright attends CodeRVA Regional High School, a computer science-centric school in Richmond where students can earn an associate degree simultaneously with their high school degree. She is pursuing computer engineering, which she plans to use to help others. “When I was in middle school I had scoliosis so I had to wear a back brace, which was uncomfortable, terrible,” she said. “And I just didn't like it at all. I'm interested in researching that and figuring out a way maybe to combine engineering or nano-engineering . . . to solve that issue, or diagnose [it] sooner. That way other people don't have to wear a back brace.” Her decision was confirmed the summer before her freshman year when Wright attended a one-week entrepreneurial program to help girls develop a business or product idea. That was around the time that her younger sister — now 5 — suffered from febrile seizures, which are caused by fevers. “I already knew that I liked engineering,” Wright said. “And I was thinking it'd be really helpful to have some sort of device or some way to monitor a young child or infant’s temperature 24/7 because obviously they can't really tell you [if they have a fever].” During her freshman year, Wright researched similar devices to see if such a sensor was actually possible. She discovered that VCU students were working on a subcutaneous continuous glucose monitor and a wireless monitor for environmental restoration in the electrical engineering labs. That’s when she decided to contact the VCU College of Engineering, where she now works alongside senior Jessi Shaffer — who is part of the Capstone Design team developing the environmental monitor — inside Topsakal’s lab. Mentor Jessi Shaffer, right, a senior majoring in electrical engineering, talks with Alexandra Wright about a micro controller that is part of Wright's project. (Photo by Kevin Morley, University Relations) “She's doing some great stuff by going out and getting so much experience early on,” Shaffer said. “I’d be interested to see where she goes with this because she definitely does have a lot of raw talent and skills.” Shaffer tries not to be too hands-on in mentoring Wright. “It's not beneficial to [mentees],” Shaffer said. “It actually is more harmful because then they get used to [going to another] person for help. And that's not really practical engineering. You need to learn your own problem-solving skills.” The pair started their work together by brainstorming. Wright would bring her ideas to Shaffer for feedback on whether they were actually possible. About a month ago, they started the preliminary stages of putting together a sensor and now are hashing out ideas to test its data. “We have to see if there's some correlation between the data tested that we get from the temperature sensor and then what the data should be like,” Wright said. “Is it accurate, and can we use that to predict future temperature?” Wright’s mentorship with the College of Engineering ends this month, but she hopes to come back in some capacity soon — either with another mentor this fall or as a Dean's Early Research Initiative student next summer. In the meantime, Wright has plenty to keep her busy. She teaches electrical engineering using paper circuits to about 30 students in grades three through six as part of a 4-H STEM club that she started. An avid swimmer, she swims competitively for NOVA of Virginia Aquatics. She is a member of CodeRVA’s architecture club — and along with her fellow members, designed the floor plan for the school’s expansion. She also is a member of the Student Council Association, as well as president of the Leo Club, which promotes leadership and community service. She has won several awards and runs a small business, Cool Kids Science RVA, with her sister Kennedy, 9. “My passion really is STEM and so I love to share that with other kids,” Wright said in an interview with WTVR-TV. “… I want to hopefully just encourage other people to start their own business and just go out and do whatever it is they want to do.”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4364
__label__cc	0.614464	0.385536	Films4Tenby Tenby's community cinema at the De Valence Pavilion Family Screenings Rooms With a View Cinema Sorry – Sold Out! World Cinema at Tenby CLC ‘The Breadwinner’ at the De Valence on Tuesday 22nd Jan. The Breadwinner is a 2017 animated drama film by Cartoon Saloon directed by Nora Twomey and executive produced by Mimi Polk Gitlin and Angelina Jolie. Based on the best-selling novel by Deborah Ellis, the film was an international co-production between Canada, Ireland, and Luxembourg, and received a limited release on 17 November 2017. The film had its world premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival in September. The Breadwinner received a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 90th Academy Awards. From executive producer Angelina Jolie and the creators of the Academy Award nominated The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, comes the highly-anticipated new feature based on Deborah Ellis’ bestselling novel. Parvana is an 11-year-old girl growing up under the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. When her father is wrongfully arrested, Parvana cuts off her hair and dresses like a boy in order to support her family. Working alongside her friend Shauzia, Parvana discovers a new world of freedom-and danger. With undaunted courage, Parvana draws strength from the fantastical stories she invents, as she embarks on a quest to find her father and reunite her family. Equal parts thrilling and enchanting, The Breadwinner is an inspiring and luminously animated tale about the power of stories to sustain hope and carry us through dark times. This will be screened at 7.30pm and will be £5 or £4 for members of Films4Tenby. The bar at the De Valence will be open and popcorn will be available. The Fuchsia Caffe offers a 2 course pre-screening meal for £10 which needs to be booked directly with them. Otherwise, everyone is welcome, hope to see you there! This entry was posted in Angelina Jolie, De Valence Pavilion, Tenby arts and tagged Angelina Jolie, animation, Arts on January 13, 2019 by films4tenby. Next feature – My Life as a Courgette – 8pm, Monday 4th December Also known as My Life as a Zucchini, the film is a 2016 Swiss-French stop motion adult animated comedy-drama film directed by Claude Barras. It was screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The film was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Film at the 89th Academy Awards but lost to Zootopia. It was also selected as the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards, making the December shortlist. A police officer (Michel Vuillermoz) and some new friends help an orphan (Gaspard Schlatter) adjust to life at a foster home. The film features a raft of prestigious actors’ voices, including Ellen Page, Amy Sedaris and Will Forte. This entry was posted in Community, Film, Fourcroft Hotel, Pembrokeshire, Tenby arts and tagged animation, Arts, ellen page, Films4Tenby, Fourcroft Hotel, local films, Tenby community cinema, Tenby films on November 6, 2017 by films4tenby. Future Presentations July 23rd – 6.30pm Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Aug 5th – Backdraft – Rooms with a View pop-up 7pm at Tenby Fire Station Aug 6th – 6.30pm Dumbo Aug 20th – 6.30pm Bumblebee Sep ?!? – 7pm – Red Joan Sep ?!? – 7pm – Green Door	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4366
__label__cc	0.721836	0.278164	Free Post Earnings Research Report: NETGEAR’s Quarterly Revenues Jumped 11% ACCESSWIRE July 31, 2018 Stock Monitor: AudioCodes Post Earnings Reporting LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / July 31, 2018 / If you want access to our free earnings report on NETGEAR, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTGR), all you need to do is sign up now by clicking the following link www.active-investors.com/registration-sg/?symbol=NTGR. The Company reported its second quarter fiscal 2018 operating and financial results on July 23, 2018. The maker of networking equipment outperformed top- and bottom-line expectations. Additionally, the Company provided its guidance for the upcoming quarter. Register today and get access to over 1,000 Free Research Reports by joining our site below: www.active-investors.com/registration-sg Active-Investors.com is currently working on the research report for AudioCodes Ltd (NASDAQ: AUDC), which also belongs to the Technology sector as the Company NETGEAR. Do not miss out and become a member today for free to access this upcoming report at: www.active-investors.com/registration-sg/?symbol=AUDC Active-Investors.com is focused on giving you timely information and the inside line on companies that matter to you. This morning, NETGEAR most recent news is on our radar and our team decided to put out a fantastic report on the company that is now available for free below: www.active-investors.com/registration-sg/?symbol=NTGR Earnings Highlights and Summary For the second quarter ended July 01, 2018, NETGEAR's net revenues were $366.8 million, up 11% compared to $330.7 million in the quarter ended July 02, 2017. The Company's revenue numbers beat analysts' estimates of $351.0 million. During Q2 2018, NETGEAR's GAAP operating margin was negative 0.8% compared to 5.8% in Q2 2017. The Company's non-GAAP operating margin was 5.9% in the reported quarter compared to 8.5% in the prior year's same quarter. For Q2 2018, NETGEAR reported a GAAP net loss of $5.2 million, or $0.17 loss per diluted share compared to a GAAP net income of $14.6 million, or $0.44 per diluted share, in Q2 2017. The Company's non-GAAP net income was $0.57 per diluted share in the reported quarter versus $0.60 per diluted share in the year earlier comparable quarter, and was ahead of Wall Street's estimates of $0.52 per share. Segment Details For Q2 2018, NETGEAR shipped a total of approximately 5.1 million units, including 4.1 million nodes of wireless products. Shipments of the Company's wired and wireless routers and gateways combined were about 1.6 million units in the reported quarter. During Q2 2018, NETGEAR's net revenues split between home and business products were about 81% and 19%, respectively. The net revenues split between wireless and wired products were about 77% and 23%, respectively. NETGEAR's products introduced in the last 15 months constituted about 42% of its second quarter shipments, while its products introduced in the last 12 months constituted about 35% of its reported quarter shipments. During Q2 2018, NETGEAR's net revenues from the Americas advanced 14.5% to $259.8 million on a y-o-y basis. The Company's net revenues from Europe, Middle-East, and Africa (EMEA) were $68.7 million in Q2 2018, up 24.4% compared to the year ago corresponding period. NETGEAR's Asia/Pacific (APAC)'s net revenues were $38.3 million in Q2 2018, down 21.1% from Q2 2017, primarily due to a weakness in the service provider channel in Australia. Cash Matters NETGEAR ended Q2 2018 with $355.6 million in cash. For the reported quarter, the Company used cash flow from operations of $16.9 million, bringing the Company's total cash flow generated over the trailing twelve months to $124.2 million. Additionally, NETGEAR used $10.2 million in purchases of property and equipment during Q2 2018, bringing its cash used for capital expenditure to $20.9 million over the trailing 12 months. Looking forward to the third quarter of 2018, NETGEAR is forecasting net revenues to be in the range of $380 million to $395 million. The Company's GAAP operating margin is expected to be in the band of negative 2.2% to negative 1.2% for the upcoming quarter, which includes approximately $11.0 million of one-time costs associated with the separation, including professional services fees, for various advisory and audit related costs. The Company's non-GAAP operating margin is expected to be in the range of 4.0% to 5.0% for Q3 2018. Stock Performance Snapshot July 30, 2018 - At Monday's closing bell, NETGEAR's stock declined 4.69%, ending the trading session at $66.00. Volume traded for the day: 747.54 thousand shares, which was above the 3-month average volume of 327.80 thousand shares. Stock performance in the last month – up 6.19%; previous three-month period – up 19.35%; past twelve-month period – up 31.61%; and year-to-date – up 12.34% After yesterday's close, NETGEAR's market cap was at $2.07 billion. Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio was at 56.46. The stock is part of the Technology sector, categorized under the Communication Equipment industry. Active-Investors: Active-Investors (A-I) produces regular sponsored and non-sponsored reports, articles, stock market blogs, and popular investment newsletters covering equities listed on NYSE and NASDAQ and Canadian stocks. A-I has two distinct and independent departments. 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Please read all associated disclosures and disclaimers in full before investing. Neither A-I nor any party affiliated with us is a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer with any agency or in any jurisdiction whatsoever. To download our report(s), read our disclosures, or for more information, visit http://active-investors.com/legal-disclaimer/. For any questions, inquiries, or comments reach out to us directly. If you're a company we are covering and wish to no longer feature on our coverage list contact us via email and/or phone between 09:30 EDT to 16:00 EDT from Monday to Friday at: Email: info@active-investors.com Phone number: 73 29 92 6381 Office Address: 6, Jalan Kia Peng, Kuala Lumpur, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia SOURCE: Active-Investors Ericsson warns on negative margin impact, shares fall 7% Cintas Corp (CTAS) Q4 2019 Earnings Call Transcript Husqvarna cools on 2019 margin after chill dents lawn mower demand As steep patent cliff looms, Shionogi moves to develop its own U.S. sales staff Can iRobot Overcome Last Quarter's Drubbing When It Reports Earnings? CSX Posts Dismal Q2 Earnings, Sluggish Fiscal Outlook What to Expect From Visa’s Q3 Earnings ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) Is About To Go Ex-Dividend, And It Pays A 0.5% Yield	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4369
__label__wiki	0.575084	0.575084	Zai Lab Appoints Valeria Fantin, Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer GlobeNewswire• June 3, 2019 Appointment of Industry Veteran Further Enhances Company’s Internal Discovery Capabilities and U.S. Presence SHANGHAI, China and SAN FRANCISCO, June 03, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zai Lab Limited (ZLAB), a China and U.S.-based innovative commercial stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced the appointment of Valeria Fantin, Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Fantin will lead the Company’s internal drug discovery effort on a global basis and will be based in the Company’s U.S. Headquarters in San Francisco, reporting to Dr. Samantha Du. Dr. Fantin joins Zai Lab from ORIC Pharmaceuticals, where she served as Chief Scientific Officer. “Valeria is an accomplished research leader and brings more than 20 years of oncology drug discovery expertise and research experience to Zai Lab,” said Dr. Samantha Du, Zai Lab’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “We are advancing our internal discovery pipeline with a goal to announce one to two INDs per year starting in 2020. Valeria is uniquely qualified to lead this endeavor and the expansion of our internal discovery capabilities.” “I am thrilled to join Zai Lab as the Company works to further establish its drug discovery engine and advance its internal pipeline,” said Dr. Fantin. “My experience as a cancer researcher and drug discovery leader provides me the opportunity to make an immediate impact towards executing Zai Lab’s vision of building a proprietary pipeline of innovative drugs.” Dr. Fantin is a proven leader with over two decades of industry experience in exploratory biology and oncology drug discovery and development. While at ORIC, Dr. Fantin was responsible for building the research team and establishing a pipeline targeting mechanisms of therapy resistance in cancer, including driving the GR antagonist ORIC-101 from discovery to the clinic. Before ORIC, Dr. Fantin was Vice President of Tumor Cell Biology at Pfizer, responsible for advancing small molecules and biologics from target validation to Phase 2 proof-of-concept across signaling, metabolism, epigenetics and immuno-oncology. Dr. Fantin contributed to the development of the first in class CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib (IBRANCE®), as well as the discovery of the brain-penetrant ALK inhibitor lorlatinib (LORBRENA®) and several compounds currently in Ph1/Ph2 studies. Prior to that, Dr. Fantin held leadership positions at Agios Pharmaceuticals where she created and advanced an exploratory program of novel cancer metabolism targets into drug discovery. She led the execution of the company’s flagship isocitrate dehydrogenase program that provided the scientific foundation for the recently FDA approved IDH2 and IDH1 inhibitors enasidenib (IDHIFA®) and ivosidenib (TIBSOVO®), respectively. Her earlier work as a researcher at Merck Research Laboratories focused on epigenetics and kinase drug discovery projects, where she contributed to the development of the first in class HDAC inhibitor vorinostat (ZOLINZA®). Dr. Fantin completed postdoctoral training in cancer metabolism and signal transduction at Harvard Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and earned her Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from Dartmouth Medical School. About Zai Lab Zai Lab (ZLAB) is a China and U.S.-based innovative commercial stage biopharmaceutical company focused on bringing transformative medicines for cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases to patients in China and around the world. Zai Lab’s experienced team has secured partnerships with leading global biopharma companies, generating a broad pipeline of innovative drug candidates targeting the fast-growing segments of China's pharmaceutical market and addressing unmet medical needs. Zai Lab's vision is to become a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company, discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing its partners' and its own products in order to impact human health worldwide. Zai Lab Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains statements about future expectations, plans and prospects for Zai Lab, including, without limitation, statements regarding Zai Lab’s goal to announce one to two INDs per year starting in 2020. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included in this press release are forward-looking statements, and are identified by words such as "anticipates", “believes”, "expects", “plan” and other similar expressions. Such statements constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical fact nor are they guarantees or assurances of future performance. Forward-looking statements are based on Zai Lab’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including but not limited to (1) Zai Lab’s ability to obtain additional future funding, (2) Zai Lab’s results of clinical and pre-clinical development of its drug candidates, (3) the content and timing of decisions made by the relevant regulatory authorities regarding regulatory approvals of Zai Lab’s drug candidates, (4) Zai Lab’s ability to generate revenue from its drug candidates, and (5) other factors discussed in Zai Lab's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018 and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Zai Lab anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Zai Lab’s expectations and assumptions to change and undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Zai Lab’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Zai Lab Billy Cho, CFO billy.cho@zailaboratory.com Media: Nancie Steinberg / Robert Flamm Burns McClellan, on behalf of Zai Lab 212-213-0006, ext. 318 / 364, nsteinberg@burnsmc.com / rflamm@burnsmc.com Investors: Lee Roth 212-213-0006, ext. 331, lroth@burnsmc.com MARKETS: Goldman breaking out after earnings; J&J drops	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4370
__label__wiki	0.7891	0.7891	This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Alberti and the second or maternal family name is Merello. Rafael Alberti Merello (16 December 1902 – 28 October 1999) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. He is considered one of the greatest literary figures of the so-called Silver Age of Spanish Literature,[1] and he won numerous prizes and awards. He died aged 96. After the Spanish Civil War, he went into exile because of his Marxist beliefs. On his return to Spain after the death of Franco, he was named Hijo Predilecto de Andalucía in 1983 and Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universidad de Cádiz in 1985.[2] Andalusian poet Rafael Alberti in Casa de Campo (Madrid), 1978 (1902-12-16)December 16, 1902 El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, Kingdom of Spain El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, Spain María Teresa León (1932–1988) He published his memoirs under the title of La Arboleda perdida (‘The Lost Grove’) in 1959 and this remains the best source of information on his early life. The Puerto de Santa María at the mouth of the Guadalete River on the Bay of Cádiz was, as now, one of the major distribution outlets for the sherry trade from Jerez de la Frontera. Alberti was born there in 1902, to a family of vintners who had once been the most powerful in town, suppliers of sherry to the crowned heads of Europe.[3] Both of his grandfathers were Italian; one of his grandmothers was from Huelva, the other from Ireland.[4] However, at some point, while they were handing down the business to the next generation, bad management resulted in the bodegas being sold to the Osbornes.[5] As a result, Alberti’s father was no more than a commercial traveller for the company, always away on business, as the general agent for Spain for brands of sherry and brandy that had, before, only been exported to the UK.[6] This sense of belonging to a “bourgeois family now in decline” was to become an enduring theme in his mature poetry. At the age of 10, he entered the Jesuit Colegio San Luis Gonzaga[7] as a charity day-boy. During his first year, Alberti was a model student but his growing awareness of how differently the boarders were treated from the day-boys, together with the other ranking systems operated by the Jesuits, inspired in him a desire to rebel. In his memoirs, he attributes it to growing class conflict.[8] He began to play truant and defy the school authorities until he was finally expelled in 1917. However, his family was then at the point of moving to Madrid which meant that the disgrace did not register on Alberti or his family as strongly as it might have done. The family moved to Calle de Atocha in Madrid in May 1917. By the time of the move, Alberti had already shown a precocious interest in painting. In Madrid, he again neglected his formal studies, preferring to go to the Casón del Buen Retiro and the Prado, where he spent many hours copying paintings and sculptures.[9] It was as a painter that he made his first entries into the artistic world of the capital. For example, in October 1920, he was invited to exhibit in the Autumn Salon in Madrid.[10] However, according to his memoirs, the deaths in 1920 in quick succession of his father, the matador Joselito, and Benito Pérez Galdós inspired him to write poetry.[11] Life in MadridEdit In 1921, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and he spent many months recuperating in a sanatorium in the Sierra de Guadarrama where he read avidly among the works of Antonio Machado and Juan Ramón Jiménez,[12] as well as various Ultraist and Vanguardista writers. At this time, he also met Dámaso Alonso,[13] at that time a poet rather than the formidable critic he would become, and it was he who introduced Alberti to the works of Gil Vicente and other Golden Age writers. He began to write poetry in earnest and submitted a few, successfully, to various avant-garde magazines. The book that resulted from this activity, Marinero en tierra (‘Sailor on Dry Land’), submitted at the last minute, won the Premio Nacional de Literatura for poetry in 1924.[14] He enjoyed great success over the next few years in the sense of artistic prestige: he was still financially dependent on his family. The new literary magazines were eager to publish his works. He was also starting to make friends with the people who would eventually get grouped together as the Generation of '27. He already knew Dámaso Alonso and, on one of his returns to Madrid, he met Vicente Aleixandre,[15] a resident of the Salamanca district. It was probably in October 1924 – Alberti’s memoirs are vague on this and many other details – that he met Federico García Lorca in the Residencia de Estudiantes.[16] During further visits to the Residencia - it seems that he never actually became a member himself - he met Pedro Salinas, Jorge Guillén, and Gerardo Diego along with many other cultural icons such as Luis Buñuel, and Salvador Dalí. The kind of folkloric/cancionero poetry he had used in Marinero was also employed in two further collections – La amante (‘The Mistress’) and El alba del alhelí (‘Dawn of the Wallflower’) – but with the approach of the Góngora Tercentenary he began to write in a style that was not only more formally demanding but which also enabled him to be more satirical and dramatic. The result was Cal y canto (‘Quicklime and Plainsong’). Alberti himself was present at the meeting at a Madrid cafe in April 1926, when the plans for the tercentenary were first sketched out - along with Pedro Salinas, Melchor Fernández Almagro and Gerardo Diego.[17] Before the Tercentennial celebrations were over, Alberti was starting to write the first poems of Sobre los ángeles (‘Concerning the Angels’), a book that showed a complete change of direction in the poetry of not only Alberti, but also the whole Group, and is generally considered his masterpiece. His next collections, Sermones y moradas (‘Sermons and mansions‘) and Yo era un tonto y lo que he visto me ha hecho dos tontos (‘ I was a fool and what I have seen has made me two fools’), together with a play El hombre deshabitado (‘The Empty Man’), all showed signs of a psychological breakdown which, to the surprise of everyone who knew him, had overwhelmed Alberti and from which he was only saved by his elopement with the writer and political activist María Teresa León in either 1929 or 1930 – again his memoirs are not clear on the date.[18] Marriage, conversion to Marxism, civil war and exileEdit The inference from his memoirs is that she played a key role, along with his continuing bitter memories of the Colegio, in the process that converted the easy-going, carousing bohemian of the early books into the committed Communist of the 1930s. The establishment of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931 was another factor that pushed Alberti towards Marxism and he joined the Communist Party of Spain. For Alberti, it became a religion in all but name and there is evidence that suggests that some of his friends tired of his unceasing attempts to "convert" them.[19] As a Party emissary, he was finally freed from financial dependence on his family and he made several trips to northern Europe. But when Gil Robles came to power in 1933, the violent attacks that Alberti launched against him in the magazine Octubre (‘October’), which he had founded with María Teresa, led to a period of exile. During the Spanish Civil War, Alberti became the poetic voice of the left and he made frequent broadcasts from the capital during the Siege of Madrid by the Francoist armies, composing poems in praise of the defenders of the city. After the defeat of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces and the disbandment of the Republic by the rebel faction, Alberti and María fled to Paris via Oran and moved into an apartment together with Pablo Neruda on the Quai de l'Horloge.[20] They lived in Paris until the end of 1940 working as translators for French radio and as announcers for the broadcasts of Paris-Mondial in Latin-America. After the German occupation of France they sailed from Marseilles to Buenos Aires on the SS Mendoza. Rafael Alberti (1968) They lived in Argentina until 1963. Amongst other activities – he worked for the Losada publishing house and continued writing and painting - Alberti worked in the Argentinian film industry, notably as the adaptor of a play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, La dama duende (‘The Ghost Lady’) in 1945. They then moved to Rome. On April 27, 1977, they returned to Spain. Shortly after his return Alberti was elected deputy for Cadiz in the constituent Congress of the Spanish parliament on the Communist Party Ticket. His wife died on December 13, 1988 from Alzheimer’s disease. He died at the age of 96 from a lung ailment. His ashes were scattered over the Bay of Cádiz, the part of the world that mattered most to him. Monument to Alberti in Puerto de Santa María Other awardsEdit He was also awarded Lenin Peace Prize for the year 1964 - after lobbying from Pablo Neruda[21] - and Laureate Of The International Botev Prize in 1981. In 1983, he was awarded the Premio Cervantes, the Spanish literary world's highest honour. In 1998, he received the America Award for his lifetime contribution to international writing. Poetry: the early phaseEdit Although Marinero en tierra is generally referred to as Alberti’s first book, it was in fact his second; an earlier book, Giróscopo (‘Gyroscope’),[22] having been lost, although it seems probable that some of its contents were included in a volume of Poesías anteriores a Marinero en tierra (‘Poems before Marinero en tierra') that he compiled during his time in Rome. Marinero shows a compendium of different influences: the style of Gil Vicente and the mediaeval cancioneros, to which Alonso had introduced him; a highly organised, formal, baroque style derived from Rubén Darío’s Modernismo - and ultimately from the poetry of Garcilaso de la Vega, Pedro Espinosa, and possibly Góngora;[23] along with traces of Ultraism.[24] Linking these various influences together are the poet’s facility – writing poetry seems to come to him very easily – and an air of naivety and innocence that are in fact carefully contrived.[25] When the book was submitted for the Premio Nacional, the book was called Mar y tierra (‘Sea and land’) and the title Marinero en tierra was reserved for one single series of poems inside the whole collection. This is the most close-knit series of poems in the entire collection and deserves consideration as a single long poem. It also introduces two enduring themes in his work – his love of his native sea and nostalgia for his childhood. The poems in this sequence are nearly all written in lines of irregular length and irregular assonances and derive most obviously from the cancionero tradition. La amante (1925) and El alba del alhelí (1926) followed in quick succession. Alberti had settled on a style and was writing fluently within it. He was working on the poems which would form El alba when he was invited by his brother, who had succeeded their father as a wine-salesman, to take a trip with him to the Cantabrian coast. Alberti had never before visited northern Spain and the car-trip through the villages and mountains made a strong impression on him. In La amante, his brother is replaced by the figure of an imaginary girl-friend and he assumes the persona of a troubadour, writing short and generally light-hearted verses about the sights they saw. El alba, on the other hand, was written mainly during holidays he spent with two of his married sisters in Málaga and Rute, a claustrophobic Andalusian mountain village. He had by now met García Lorca and seems to be trying to emulate him. However, what in Lorca is tragic, violent and death-laden tends to seem false and melodramatic in Alberti.[26] MaturityEdit His next collection, Cal y canto (1926-8), is a big departure. He rejects some of the folkloric influences of the previous two works and picks up again the baroque forms, such as the sonnets and tercets, and also the Ultraist thematic material of Marinero.[26] He had been placed in charge of collecting the poems dedicated to Góngora as part of the Tercentenary celebrations[17] and there are many signs of Góngora’s influence on this work. Alberti’s technical versatility comes to the fore as he writes sonnets, ballads, tercets and even a pastiche of the intricate style of the Soledades. More significantly, there is a sense of unease hanging over the whole collection.[25] Traditional values – myths, religion, convention – are found wanting, but more modern values such as speed, freedom and iconoclasm are also found to be hollow. The nymphs, shepherdesses and mythological figures of renaissance and Baroque poetry are brought into contact with department stores and other aspects of modern life only to appear banal. There is a sense in this collection that Alberti is writing in this collection as himself, not as the sailor, the troubadour or the tourist of his earlier books.[27] He even wrote a poem about a heroic performance by the goalkeeper of FC Barcelona - "Oda a Platko" - in a match against Real Sociedad in May 1928. The violence displayed by the Basques was unbelievable, he wrote in his memoirs. At one desperate moment Platko was attacked so furiously by the players of the Real that he was covered with blood and lost consciousness a few feet from his position, but with his arms still wrapped around the ball.[28] The most significant poem in the collection is probably the final one, "Carta abierta" (‘Open Letter’).[27] He makes it clear that he is writing as Rafael Alberti, child of the Bay of Cádiz and the twentieth century. He contrasts the confinement of the classroom with the freedom of the seashore, the excitement and novelty of the cinema with the boredom of lessons, the conventions of traditional literature and ideas with the revolution of radio, the aeroplane, the telephone. In the confusion caused by the clash of old and new values, the poet has a premonition of the feelings of emptiness and desolation that were soon to assail him but he decides to align with the new. Sobre los ángeles and the works of breakdownEdit Picking up on the sense of unease that hangs over Cal y canto, Alberti now begins to mine a vein of deep and anguished introspection. He has lost his youthful high spirits and finds himself deshabitado (‘empty’). An unhappy love affair seems to have been the immediate catalyst but the pit of despair into which Alberti plunged was peopled also by deeper-rooted shadows of his life, notably recollections of his rebellious childhood and the hell-fire sermons of the Jesuits at the Colegio, a friend’s suicide, and a full awareness of his own position at the age of 25, misunderstood by his family, penniless, still living at home (it was only after he met María Teresa that he finally moved out) and with no other way of earning a living other than through his poetry. In this black mood, What was I to do? How was I to speak or shout or give form to that web of emotions in which I was caught? How could I stand up straight once again and extricate myself from those catastrophic depths into which I had sunk, submerging and burying myself more and more in my own ruins, covering myself in my own rubble, feeling my insides to be torn and splintered? And then there was a kind of angelic revelation – but not from the corporeal, Christian angels found in all those beautiful paintings and religious icons, but angels representing irresistible forces of the spirit who could be moulded to conform to my darkest and most secret mental states. I released them in waves on the world, a blind reincarnation of all the cruelty, desolation, terror and even at times the goodness that existed inside of me but was also encircling me from without. I had lost a paradise, the Eden of those early years….[29] The first section of Sobre los ángeles (1927-8) consists almost entirely of poems on the loss of love and the poet’s consequent feeling of being emptied. The metres are short and contain many irregular lines while still retaining an overall regularity of assonance and rhythm. The central section explores a sense of betrayal by religion. His childhood beliefs were dispelled very early by his fanatical aunts and the Jesuits of the Colegio but he still needs to find something to believe in to dispel his feelings of emptiness and rootlessness. The third and final section sees a radical change of style. The short lines of the previous sections give way to much longer lines that grow into the tangled webs of surreal imagery that he was to use in his next few works – Sermones y moradas, Con los zapatos puestos…., and Yo era un tonto……. The key to understanding this collection is probably the poem "Muerte y juicio" (‘Death and Judgment’).[30] The child has lost his innocence and belief in a way that was almost predestined before his birth. He recalls one specific incident from his schooldays, when the day-boys played truant and went to the beach to bathe naked and masturbate. They were spotted by a Jesuit teacher and subjected to agonising and humiliating sermons convincing them that they would lose their souls by doing such things.[31] Sermones y moradas (1929–31) was neither clearly conceived as a unified work nor ever completed. It consists of poems in free verse, full of complex surrealist imagery that is almost impenetrable. They convey an atmosphere of helplessness and total desolation. Yo era un tonto y lo que he visto me ha hecho dos tontos (1929) is Alberti’s homage to the American silent comedians whose films he admired so greatly – Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon etc. Morris[32] has been able to track down some of the specific scenes that inspired these poems but the poems themselves are still in the dense style that Alberti had adopted. Con los zapatos puestos tengo que morir ('With My Shoes On I Must Die') (1930) – a quote from Calderón – is his final work in this style. Written in the aftermath of the exhilaration of being involved in the anti-Primo de Rivera riots,[30] whilst still impenetrably dense at times, it shows the beginning of the socially aware poetry that would be the next direction he would take. Poetry of the 30sEdit In July 1936, there was a gathering to hear García Lorca read La casa de Bernarda Alba. Subsequently, Dámaso Alonso recalled that there was a lively discussion about a certain writer - probably Rafael Alberti - who had become deeply involved in politics. "He'll never write anything worthwhile now," was Lorca's comment.[33] This is probably an unduly sweeping comment to make. Alberti’s political commitment manifested itself in two distinct ways: an unoriginal party-line verse whose only saving grace is the technical skill and fluency that he could bring to bear even on such routine exercises, and a far more personal poetry in which he draws from his memories and experience to attack the forces of reaction in a more direct, less opaque way than in his earlier collections.[34] De un momento a otro (‘From One Moment to the Next’) (1932-8) contains the poem "Colegio (S.J.)" which yet again revisits his memories of his schooldays. Here, however, the Jesuits’ treatment of the day-boys is analysed in a way that shows the poet’s newly acquired class consciousness – it is depicted as a systematic way of indoctrinating a sense of inferiority. 13 bandas y 48 estrellas (’13 Stripes and 48 Stars’) (1935). During the 1930s, Alberti was able to make many journeys under the sponsorship of the Communist Party. This book is an account of a visit to the Caribbean and the USA, which gave him ample scope to write poems denouncing capitalism. Capital de la gloria (‘Capital of Glory’) (1936-8). This collects the poems that he wrote in commemoration of the siege of Madrid during the Spanish Civil War. It includes heartfelt but dull tributes to various Republican generals and to the International Brigades as well as poems about the peasant-soldiers that can come across at times as patronising.[35] Alberti himself saw little or no action – he was either abroad or in the comparative safety of offices or broadcasting-studios – but there are some forceful poems for reciting to the troops that might have been inspiring. It is also worth noting that this collection shows a return to more tightly disciplined verse forms. Entre el clavel y la espada (‘Between the Carnation and the Sword’) (1939–40). This collection gathers the poems that Alberti wrote in France and Argentina at the start of his long exile. It marks a change in style, the feel for a need to regain his discipline as a poet. As a result, it resembles Marinero en tierra in its formal approach – sonnets, cancionero-style poems etc. A key theme that emerges in this collection is a deep and abiding nostalgia for Spain, the land from which he has been exiled. Later worksEdit A la pintura (‘On Painting’) (1945- ). During his exile, Alberti took up painting again and began a series of poems to draw together his thinking on this subject, to which he continued to add over a period of many years. He wrote a series of sonnets about the raw materials – the retina, the hand, the canvas, the brush etc.; a series of short poems in free verse about colours; and finally a series of poems in homage to various painters such as Titian, El Greco etc. Ora Maritima (‘Maritime Shore’) (1953). This is a collection dedicated to Cádiz, in recognition of its antiquity. The poems take as their subject-matter the historical and mythological past of the city – Hercules, the Carthaginians etc. – as well as bringing into play the poet’s childhood across the bay. Retornos de lo vivo lejano (‘Memories of the Living Distance’’) (1948-52) and Baladas y canciones de la Paraná (‘Ballads and Songs of the Paraná’) (1955). These collections contain poems of memory and nostalgia in a highly lyrical style. Once again he recalls his schooldays but this time in a mood of sadness. He also recalls his mother, his friends – especially Vicente Aleixandre who was too ill to leave Madrid during the Civil War - the death of Lorca and he also supplies a moving tribute to his wife. Other worksEdit Alberti was not especially interested in writing for the theatre but he managed to make a big impact with at least two plays. The first was one of the outputs of his breakdown at the end of the 1920s, El hombre deshabitado ('The Empty Man', 1930). This is like a modern auto sacramental with five characters: Man with his Five Senses in allegorical reincarnation, The Maker, The Wife of Man, and Temptation, the last-named a woman who plots the downfall of both protagonists in complicity with the Senses. On the opening night, February 26, 1931, it met with a stormy reception from a sharply polarised audience.[36] Shortly afterwards, he began to write a ballad on the life of Fermín Galán, an army captain who had tried to launch a coup to establish a Spanish Republic in December 1930 and who was executed by firing-squad. Alberti converted the ballad into a play which was performed during June 1931, again to sharply mixed reactions.[37] His other plays did not achieve such fame or notoriety. They include: De un momento a otro ('From One Moment to Another', 1938–39), El trébol florido ('Clover', 1940), El adefesio ('The Disaster', 1944) and Noche de guerra en el Museo del Prado ('A Night of War in the Prado Museum', 1956), as well as adaptions and other short pieces. Alberti also wrote several volumes of memoirs under the title La arboleda perdida. Portions have been published in English as The Lost Grove. Poetry collectionsEdit Marinero en tierra, M., Biblioteca Nueva, 1925 (Premio Nacional de Literatura). La amante, Málaga, Litoral, 1926. El alba de alhelí, Santander, 1927 (Printed privately by José María de Cossío). Domecq (1730–1928). Poema del Ilmo. Sr. Vizconde de Almocadén, Jerez de la Frontera, Jerez Industrial, 1928. Cal y canto, M., Revista de Occidente, 1929. Yo era un tonto y lo que he visto me ha hecho dos tontos, originally published in various numbers of La Gaceta Literaria, 1929. Sobre los ángeles, M., CIAP, 1929. El poeta en la calle (1931–1935), Aguilar, Madrid, 1978. Consignas, M., 1933. Un fantasma recorre Europa, M., La tentativa poética, 1933. Poesía (1924–1930), M., Ediciones del Árbol( Cruz y Raya), 1935. Versos de agitación, México, Edit. Defensa Roja, 1935. Verte y no verte. A Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, México, N. Lira, 1935. 13 bandas y 48 estrellas. Poemas del mar Caribe, M., Manuel Altolaguirre, 1936. Nuestra diaria palabra, M., Héroe, 1936. De un momento a otro (Poesía e historia), M., Europa-América, 1937. El burro explosivo, M., Edic. 5º Regimiento, 1938. Poesías (1924–1937), M., Signo, 1938. Poesías (1924–1938), Bs. As., Losada, 1940. Entre el clavel y la espada (1939-1940), Bs. As., Losada, 1941. Illustrations by Rafael Alberti. Pleamar (1942–1944), Bs. As., Losada, 1944. Poesía (1924–1944), Bs. As., Losada, 1946. A la pintura, Bs. As., Imprenta López (Private edition). A la pintura. Poema del color y la línea (1945–1948), Bs. As., Losada, 1948. Coplas de Juan Panadero. (Libro I), Montevideo, Pueblos Unidos, 1949 (2nd expanded edition). Illustrations by Toño Salazar. Poemas de Punta del Este (1945–1956), Ist edition Seix Barral 1979, Buenos Aires en tinta china, Bs. As., Losada, 1952. Illustrations by Attilio Rossi. Retornos de lo vivo lejano, Bs. As., 1952. A la pintura (1945–1952) 2nd augmented edition, Bs. As., Losada, 1953. Ora marítima seguido de Baladas y canciones del Paraná (1953), Bs. As., Losada, 1953. Redoble lento por la muerte de Stalin, (Buenos Aires, 9 de marzo de 1953). Included in Obras completas. Poesía III. Seix Barral. 2003. Balada y canciones del Paraná, Bs. As., Losada, 1954. Sonríe China, Bs. As., Jacobo Muchnik, 1958 (in collaboration with María Teresa León). Poemas escénicos, Bs. As., Losada, 1962 (2nd expanded bilingual edition Spanish/Italian). Abierto a todas horas, M., Afrodisio Aguado, 1964. El poeta en la calle (1931–1965), París, Librairie du Globe, 1966 (Compilation of all Alberti's social poetry). Il mattatore, Roma, Eutro edit, 1966. A la pintura. Poema del color y la línea (1945–1967) 3rd augmented edition, M., Aguilar, 1968 (Prologue by Vicente Aleixandre). Roma, peligro para caminantes, México, Joaquín Mortiz, 1968 (2nd augmented edition - Málaga- Litoral- 1974). Los 8 nombres de Picasso y no digo más que lo que no digo, B., Kairós, 1970. Canciones del Alto Valle del Aniene, Bs. As., Losada, 1972. Disprezzo e meraviglia (Desprecio y maravilla), Roma, Riuniti, 1972 (Bilingual Italian/Spanish. Anthology with unpublished poems). Maravillas con variaciones acrósticas en el jardín de Miró, B., Polígrafa, 1975. Casi Malagueñas de la Menina II, 1976 poem dedicated to Berrocal's work - Opus 117 LA MENINA II Coplas de Juan Panadero (1949–1977), M., Mayoría, 1977. Cuaderno de Rute (1925), Málaga, Litoral, 1977. Los 5 destacagados, Sevilla, Calle del Aire, 1978. Fustigada luz, B., Seix Barral, 1980. Versos sueltos de cada día, B., Seix Barral, 1982. Golfo de Sombras, M., Villamonte, 1986. Los hijos del drago y otros poemas, Granada, Diputación, 1986. Accidente. Poemas del Hospital, Málaga, Librería Anticuaria El Guadalhorce, 1987. Cuatro canciones, Málaga, Librería Anticuaria El Guadalhorce, 1987. El aburrimiento, 1988. Canciones para Altair, M., Hiperión, 1989.[38] Museo Fundació Rafael Alberti ^ Mainer habla sobre "La Edad de Plata de la literatura española" • ELPAÍS.com ^ "Mariano Peñalver Simó - De febrero de 1984 a junio de 1986". Universidad de Cádiz (in Spanish). January 20, 2006. Archived from the original on September 14, 2009. Retrieved April 8, 2018. ^ Alberti p 20 ^ Alberti p 58-9 ^ Alberti p 105-6 ^ Alberti p.133 ^ Alberti p 138 ^ Gibson p 139 ^ a b Alberti p 234 ^ Gibson p. 440 ^ Neruda p.126 ^ Neruda p. 204 ^ Connell p 193 ^ a b Morris "Generation" ^ a b Connell p 195 ^ a b Connell p 198 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Connell" defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). ^ Morris "Darkness" ^ Gibson p 442-3 ^ Véase la reseña de Miguel García-Posada en ABC Literario, 11-3-1989. Alberti, Rafael (1976). The Lost Grove (trans Gabriel Berns). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 323. ISBN 0-520-02786-8. Connell, Geoffrey (1977). Spanish Poetry of the Grupo poetico de 1927. Oxford: Pergamon Press. p. 214. ISBN 0-08-016950-3. Neruda, Pablo (2006). Memoirs (trans Hardie St Martin). London: Souvenir Press. p. 364. ISBN 0-285-64811-X. Morris, C. A Generation of Spanish Poets. ISBN 0521294819. Morris, C. This Loving Darkness. ISBN 0197134408. Gibson, Ian (1989). Federico Garcia Lorca. London: Faber and Faber. p. 551. ISBN 0-571-14224-9. Rafael Alberti “Todo el mar” (“All the sea”). An comprehensive article of Angeliki Kavallierou in the “EI” Magazine of European Art Center (EUARCE) of Greece. First part, issue 6/1994, p. 20,26-33. Second part, issue 7/1994, p. 21-23 https://catalogue.nlg.gr/Record/j.6938 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rafael Alberti. Rafael Alberti Foundation, Spanish and English Poesía - Poetry Rafael Alberti, Centro Virtual Cervantes Portal de Rafael Alberti Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes Poemas en torno a la creación poética de Rafael Alberti Poemas de Rafael Alberti Poema de Rafael Alberti La poesía de Rafael Alberti. Parte de su Obra. Colección de Poemas Rafael Alberti - Colección de poemas Alberti, entre poesías y paseos al enemigo fascista Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Alberti&oldid=886087186"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4373
__label__wiki	0.898571	0.898571	Popular Science Monthly/Volume 12/February 1878/Sketch of Walter Bagehot < Popular Science Monthly‎ \| Volume 12‎ \| February 1878 ←Spontaneous Generation I Popular Science Monthly Volume 12 February 1878 (1878) Correspondence→ 615944Popular Science Monthly Volume 12 February 18781878 WALTER BAGEHOT SKETCH OF WALTER BAGEHOT. WALTER BAGEHOT was born February, 1826, in the west of England, where his father, who survives him, was a leading partner in an old-established bank. A student in the University of London, he took the mathematical scholarship with his Bachelor's degree in 1846, and the gold medal in intellectual and moral philosophy with his Master's degree in 1848. He then studied law at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar; he thoroughly liked but never practised this profession, being induced to abandon it by considerations of his health. Always delicate, the excessive work by which alone the position of a successful barrister can be won and maintained would doubtless have shortened the already too-brief life. He early developed remarkable talent, but in his youth philosophy, poetry, and theology, had a larger share of his attention than the narrower and more prosaic studies which occupied him later, and upon which his fame will rest. In deciding, as he wisely did, to join his father in business, he was conscious of defects which might hinder his career as a banker and merchant. He was absent-minded about minutiæ, inattentive to trifles—he used to declare that he could never "add up," and habitual inaccuracies marked his mathematical exercises in college. He proved, however, to be very successful in business, and was gratified with this success won in practical pursuits, in spite of the metaphysical and poetic tendency which at one time earned for him the reputation of a dreamer. He somewhere says: "The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you can't do. Why did Mr. Disraeli take the duties of Chancellor of the Exchequer with so much relish? Because people said he was a novelist—an ad captandum man who could not add up. No doubt it pleased his inmost soul to do the work of red-tape people better than those who could do nothing else." He was always busy with his pen. During the early part of his life he wrote for the National Review, the Inquirer, and other periodicals, and proved himself to be a brilliant and able critic in various departments—finance, politics, and literature. His first book, called "Estimates of Some Englishmen and Scotchmen," published twenty years ago, and now long out of print, was a very remarkable volume of essays, that for some reason, perhaps the unfortunate title, failed to receive the attention it deserved. In 1858 Bagehot married the eldest daughter of James Wilson, proprietor of the Economist. The marriage was a happy one, and led to the production of his most popular and original books; it brought him into connection with the higher world of politics; and eventually, on the death of his father-in-law, to the ownership and editorial control of the Economist, which paper he carried to the position of great ower which it now has. His first political work, a new edition of which was recently reviewed in The Popular Science Monthly, is an analysis and explanation of that elaborate piece of mechanism—or rather, of that complex organism—"The English Constitution." He dispels many illusions and corrects many misconceptions concerning constitutions generally, and demonstrates the impossibility of framing a written document that will fulfill the functions discharged by the unwritten Constitution of England—the inevitable defects and weaknesses of made-to-order instruments being illustrated by examples drawn from the workings of our own much-vaunted ordinances, and the more recent instrument under which France is now governed. In "Physics and Politics," Mr. Bagehot's first American book, the the growth of societies and states is treated according to the method of the evolution philosophy; it is a book which could only have been written by a man having a thorough knowledge of practical affairs, and' a firm hold upon the theories of Spencer and Darwin. It is pronounced "clever" by the critics who do not accept those theories, but it is much more. "Lombard Street," as its name indicates, deals with that abstruse and wayward subject, the "money-market," and is one of the best sources from which to learn the differences which exist between the realities of the "street" and the hypotheses of economists. At the time of his death, March 24, 1877, he was engaged upon a book, some of the earlier chapters of which were published in the Fortnightly Review (February and May, 1876) under the title of "The Postulates of Political Economy;" they were able and timely, and it is to be hoped that the surmise that other of the chapters were so far forwarded as to warrant publication is correct. Since his death his articles in the Economist upon the silver question have been reprinted, making a thin octavo volume; they lack completeness and finish, but are still the most valuable contribution to the subject, for he was the first to seek out and correctly correlate the causes that led to the decline and fluctuations in the price of silver. This brief list comprises all that will be remembered as his "works," for, though a busy writer, his labor was mostly given to the leading articles in his paper. It is as a journalist that he will be chiefly missed. Though dealing with abstruse and technical topics, he never failed to make himself understood by men of ordinary cultivation and intelligence. His knowledge was so accurate and his grasp so strong as to command the respect of specialists, and yet his articles had the attention and interest of men whose only concern in or knowledge of the subjects was that obtained from Mr. Bagehot himself. In the abstract science with which he dealt he had the rare combination of a conversancy with the abstractions and a knowledge of the facts. He had the guessing faculty and the solid judgment of the man of business, and the trained reasoning power with which to test his guesses and value his conclusions. Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_12/February_1878/Sketch_of_Walter_Bagehot&oldid=8851592"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4377
__label__cc	0.585389	0.414611	Popular Science Monthly/Volume 74/January 1909/Poetry and Science: The Case of Charles Darwin < Popular Science Monthly‎ \| Volume 74‎ \| January 1909 ←On the Therapeutic Action of Fermented Milk Popular Science Monthly Volume 74 January 1909 (1909) Poetry and Science: The Case of Charles Darwin by Edward Bradford Titchener A Biographical History of Botany at St Louis, Missouri II→ related authors: Charles Darwin. 1216406Popular Science Monthly Volume 74 January 1909 — Poetry and Science: The Case of Charles Darwin1909 POETRY AND SCIENCE: THE CASE OF CHARLES DARWIN By EDWARD BRADFORD TITCHENER IN the autobiographical chapter of the "Life and Letters of Charles Darwin" occurs a well-known passage, in which the writer deplores his loss, in middle life, of the higher esthetic tastes. Up to the age of thirty, or beyond it, poetry of many kinds, such as the works of Milton, Gray, Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Shelley, gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare, especially in the historical plays. . . . But now for many years I can not endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. . . . This curious and lamentable loss of the higher esthetic tastes is all the odder, as books on history, biographies, and travels (independently of any scientific facts which they may contain), and essays on all sorts of subjects interest me as much as ever they did. My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes depend, I can not conceive. A man with a mind more highly organized or better constituted than mine would not, I suppose, have thus suffered; and if I had to live my life again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry ... at least once every week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept active through use. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature. The loss which Darwin here regrets has often been charged to the particular account of his occupation with science. I have always believed that the charge is unfounded. It is difficult to give precise reasons, to translate into words what is, at bottom, a matter of general cumulative impression; but I shall attempt to show that there are, at any rate, plausible grounds for doubting the common construction put upon his remarks. I must begin by saying that there is no real evidence to the effect that Darwin showed, at any period of his life, a deep feeling for poetry, or a profound understanding of it. I use the adjectives advisedly. The true love of poetry, and the intimate understanding of poetry, are matters primarily of a man's temperament. But they are also, like everything else that is worth while, largely—much more largely than is ordinarily supposed—matters of technique, of long and studious apprenticeship. Temperament and training, then, must go together, if anything more than superficial interest is to result. Now Darwin's temperament was scientific: "My love of natural science," he writes, "has been steady and ardent." I suggest that the combination in a single individual of the scientific and the poetic temperaments is and must be rare. And I suggest, further, that, where it occurs, the temperament will almost inevitably develop one-sidedly, so that poetry outtops science, or science poetry. In Goethe's case, poetry was in the ascendent. As I said above, I do not think that Darwin had any large admixture of the poet in his make-up; certainly not so large an admixture of poetry as Goethe had of science. But I believe that he had something of the poet in him; I believe that the atrophy of this something went less far than he himself imagined; and I believe that science is not specially responsible for its partial loss. Every normal man is a poet for a few years of his life. With most of us, the poetic interest and inspiration die out, as naturally and almost as suddenly as they came, somewhere about the age of twenty-five, and usually sooner rather than later. Darwin was a man of genius, and like many other men of genius he came late to maturity; his plastic period extended, as he himself declares, "up to the age of thirty or beyond it;" and the "Origin of Species" was published in 1859, when he was fifty years old. Perhaps as a result of this prolongation of adolescence, perhaps as a coordinate feature of his extraordinary endowment, Darwin possessed the poetic gift, the gift of creative imagination, in a marked degree. He writes: I have steadily endeavoured to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I can not resist forming one on every subject), as soon as facts are shown to be opposed to it. . . . On the other hand, I am not very sceptical—a frame of mind which I believe to be injurious to the progress of science. Here is the poetic temper showing, quite unconsciously to its possessor, through the overlay of scientific training; here we get a glimpse, not of "a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts," but of the credulous and imaginative attitude of the poet. If I am right in my interpretation, and if Darwin, while never profoundly poetical, still had more than the common share of poetic insight, then we ought to find traces of this character in his books. We must not expect too much, for Darwin pruned his manuscripts to the quick. His son tells us: He had a horror of being lengthy, and seems to have been really much annoyed and distressed when he found how the "Variation of Animals and Plants" was growing under his hands. I remember his cordially agreeing with Tristram Shandy's words, "Let no man say, Come, I'll write a duodecimo." We shall not, then, look for poetic quotations in the "Variation." If Virgil is cited, it will be only in connection with the choice of seed corn; and if Homer is mentioned, it will be only because there is no mention of Gallus bankiva either in the "Iliad" or in the "Odyssey." Nor shall we look for poetic excerpts in the "Origin," that wonder of compressed argumentation. But we may fairly turn to the "Naturalist's Voyage," and to the "Expression of the Emotions," and to the "Descent of Man." And if we do, our search will be rewarded. When, for instance, Darwin is describing in the "Voyage" the feasting of the Indian troops at Bahia Blanca, he not only gives a description which is itself reminiscent of Virgil, but he quotes, in the most natural manner possible, the very words— Nam simul expletus dapibus, vinoque sepultus Cervicem inflexam posuit, jacuitque per antrum Immensus, saniem eructans, ac frusta cruenta Per somnum commixta mero— in which Virgil in the third book of the "Æneid" describes the gorging of Polyphemus. And when he is surveying the desert behind Port Desire, on the Patagonian coast, he says: All was stillness and desolation. Yet in passing over these scenes, without one bright object near, an ill-defined but strong sense of pleasure is vividly excited. One asked how many ages the plain had thus lasted, and how many more it was doomed to continue. None can reply—all seems eternal now. The wilderness has a mysterious tongue, Which teaches awful doubt. It is only fair to say that the passage from Virgil occurs in the first draught of the "Voyage," which appeared in 1839 (when Darwin was thirty) as part of Fitz-Roy's work. But then it is also fair to say that the passage from Shelley's "Mont Blanc" occurs for the first time in the edition of 1845. The "Descent of Man" was published in 1871, when its author was sixty-two. In it he quotes from Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" (1859) the words of Guinevere— Not ev'n in inmost thought to think again The sins that made the past so pleasant to us— and, in the second edition (1874), Hookham Frere's rhymed version (1872) of Theognis, Fragment X. The quotation from the Greek poet Xenarchus—"Happy the Cicadas live, since they all have voiceless wives"—bears witness, perhaps, rather to Darwin's sense of humor than to his love of poetry. The "Expression of the Emotions" came out in 1872, when Darwin was sixty-three. Here he cites from "King Henry VIII." Norfolk's account of Wolsey's "strange commotion," and from "King Henry V." the king's picture of warlike anger. The former passage is correctly given; the latter is printed with some curious omissions, which are not indicated; probably it was written down from memory. The book contains, further, quotations from "King Richard II.," "King Henry IV.," pt. i., "King Henry VI.," pt. ii., the "Merchant of Venice," "King John," "Julius Cæsar," the "Winter's Tale," "Titus Andronicus," "Romeo and Juliet" and "Hamlet." Not a bad list for a man who, four years later, was to declare that he has "tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me!" Here Shakespeare is neither dull nor intolerable, but endowed with "wonderful knowledge of the human mind." And it must be understood that the passages quoted are not taken, haphazard, from a Shakespeare concordance. I have worked through the thirty-seven plays myself, with a view to emotive psychology, and I know what the possibilities of quotation are. Darwin's passages are selected, and I have little doubt that they were remembered first and looked up afterwards. Darwin quotes, again, from Somerville's "Chase" the lines— And with a courtly grin, the fawning hound Salutes thee cow'ring, his wide op'ning nose Upward he curls, and his large sloe-black eyes Melt in soft blandishments, and humble joy— which may pass for poetry. He quotes the "laughter, holding both his sides" from Milton's "L'Allegro"; he quotes twice from Worsley's rhymed version of the "Odyssey"; he refers to the laughter of the gods in the first book of the "Iliad";[1] and he quotes twice from the "Æneid" of Virgil. I hope that these illustrations of Darwin's use and knowledge of poetry are enough, if not to prove my point, at any rate to give it plausibility. It is, perhaps, not wholly superfluous to add that the absence of certain apt quotations from Darwin's pages is adequately explained by the circumstance that the poets are post-Darwinians. I have found more than once, in discussing this question, that even highly educated persons may be a trifle hazy in their dates. When, on the other hand, we ask whether Darwin would have retained his poetic sense by weekly readings, the answer must be doubtful. If he had read with any overt intention of refreshing the intellect or building up the moral character, then very certainly the effort would have ended in failure; poetry must be taken for its own sake, or it may as well not be taken at all. I incline to the opinion that the readings, while they would undoubtedly have increased the store of possible quotation, would still have left Darwin with the regrets that the "Autobiography" expresses. The argument of the present note may now be summarized as follows. I do not think that Darwin ever had a profound interest in poetry; the scientific temperament was too strong in him. The historical plays in which as a schoolboy he took "intense delight" probably interested him in the main as stories. The poets whom he read during his plastic period probably attracted him, in large measure, by their felicity of language; the cult of words and phrases is characteristic of adolescence, and is curiously different from a real appreciation of style—into which it may or may not develop, according to the temperament of the reader. On the other side, I think that Darwin's poetic leanings were much more pronounced and much more persistent than those of the average man of science. By his own unconscious confession, and by the evidence of his written works, his mind was leavened with poetic feeling; all through his mature life he is ready with quotation when the occasion calls; and the very poignancy of his regret for the loss of poetry witnesses to his poetic endowment. If and in so far as he did lose his poetic interests, the loss was due, not specifically to his occupation with science, but generally to the combination of a stupendous life-work with continued ill-health. "For nearly forty years he never knew one day of the health of ordinary men," and in those forty years he revolutionized biology. Small wonder, then, that he had neither time nor energy for that critical cultivation of poetry which, however gifted the temperament, is the sine qua non of a true poetic insight. It was not that addiction to science brought with it an atrophy of the higher esthetic tastes. It was rather the fact that an esthetic power, distinctly above the average, though not of the first rank, was left, by the demands of an absorbing pursuit upon a frail constitution, to work itself out unguided, and to show itself as best it might. The cry that Shakespeare is intolerable is the cry of a man to whom Shakespeare is familiar from cover to cover, tragedy and history and comedy, and for whom Shakespeare might, under other circumstances, have been a source of never-ending delight. I have spoken only of poetry. The considerations which I have here urged apply, however, with the necessary modifications, to Darwin's loss of pleasure in pictures and music. ↑ So I have always interpreted the rather puzzling passage at the beginning of chapter VIII. My colleague, Dr. L. L. Forman, suggests, however, that Darwin may have confused the Greek with the Norse gods. If this is the case, the reference is probably to some prose work upon Norse mythology. 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__label__wiki	0.860513	0.860513	Canada will impose targeted sanctions against 40 Venezuelan top officials including Maduro Tuesday, September 26th 2017 - 10:00 UTC “Canada will not stand by silently as the government of Venezuela robs its people of their fundamental democratic rights,” Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada will impose targeted sanctions against 40 Venezuelan senior officials, including President Nicolás Maduro, to punish them for “anti-democratic behavior,” the foreign ministry announced. Canada’s move, which followed a similar decision by the United States, came after months of protests against Maduro’s government in which at least 130 people have been killed. Critics say he has plunged the nation into its worst-ever economic crisis and brought it to the brink of dictatorship. “Canada will not stand by silently as the government of Venezuela robs its people of their fundamental democratic rights,” Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement. The measures include freezing the assets of the officials and banning Canadians from having any dealings with them. The actions were “in response to the government of Venezuela’s deepening descent into dictatorship,” Canada said. Maduro has said he faces an armed insurrection designed to end socialism in Latin America and let a U.S.-backed business elite get its hands on the OPEC nation’s crude reserves. The United States imposed sanctions on Maduro in late July and has also targeted around 30 other officials. The Canadian measures name Maduro, Vice President Tareck El Aissami and 38 other people, including the ministers of defense and the interior as well as several Supreme Court judges. Canada is a member of the 12-nation Lima Group, which is trying to address the Venezuelan crisis. A government official said Freeland wanted to host a meeting of the group within the next 60 days. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday he believed there was a chance for a political solution. “This is a situation that is obviously untenable. The violence ... needs to end and we are looking to be helpful,” he told reporters at the United Nations. Categories: Politics, International, Venezuela. Tags: Canada, Chrystia Freeland, Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4379
__label__wiki	0.885182	0.885182	2019 Tajoura migrant center airstrike Part of Libyan Civil War (2014–present), European migrant crisis 2019 Tajoura migrant center airstrike (Libya) Tajoura, Libya 2 July 2019 [1][2] 23:30 [1] Nearby military base Non-fatal injuries 130+[4][5] Libyan National Army (alleged by Government of National Accord; denied by Libyan National Army) On 2 July 2019 at 23:30[1][2] an airstrike by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) hit the Tajoura Detention Center outside Tripoli, Libya, while hundreds of people were inside the facility.[6] The detention center was being used as a holding facility for migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe when a storage hangar that it used as a residential facility was destroyed in an aerial bombing. The United Nations Human Rights Council stated that "It was known that there were 600 people living inside" the facility.[4][7] At least 53 people were killed and 130 were wounded.[3] The LNA's apparent recklessness and its alleged targeting of unarmed civilians were condemned by outraged responses which came from all over the world. The airstrike also raised scrutiny of the European Union's policy of cooperating with militias to detain migrants, and funding and training the Libyan Coast Guard which apprehended most of the migrants and refugees.[4][6] 2 Airstrike 3.1 Libya 3.2 International The Tajoura Detention Center is located 16 kilometres (10 mi) east of the Libyan capital of Tripoli. It is part of a network of 34 migrant detention centers across northwestern Libya which house at least 5,000 people. The centers are operated by the Government of National Accord (GNA) and are used to detain migrants attempting to reach Europe.[8] In April 2019, the Libyan National Army, under Haftar's command, began a major offensive to capture western Libya and the capital Tripoli. After an airstrike hit a target less than 100 metres (330 ft) from the detention center in May, the UN Refugee Agency called for the evacuation of refugees and migrants in detention centers in conflict areas of Tripoli.[8][9] On 1 July 2019, the LNA said it had begun an air campaign.[4] The LNA's spokesman said that the air campaign destroyed the main control room for drones at Mitiga International Airport, which led to the airport—Tripoli's only functioning airport—suspending civilian flights.[4] Airstrike[edit] Near midnight on 2 July an airstrike directly struck Tajoura Detention Center's residential hangar as migrant families were sleeping or listening to the conflict outside. [1] A Doctors Without Borders medical coordinator counted 126 migrants living inside of the center's hangar unit shortly before it was hit by the strike.[7] Aerial photos from the scene show that the explosion caved in the roof and blew out the walls of the section of the hangar where it struck.[10] Reports were made to the UN that guards shot at refugees and migrants trying to flee from the air strike. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said there were two air strikes, one hitting an unoccupied garage and one hitting a hangar containing around 120 refugees and migrants. According to the OCHA, some refugees and migrants were fired upon by guards as they tried to escape. The Tripoli-based interior ministry denied firing at fleeing refugees and migrants categorically.[11][12][13][14] A media advisor to the Tripoli-based Ministry of Health said in the aftermath that "there was blood and body parts all over the place" and the Tripoli-based government described it as a "massacre". Hospitals worked at above-average capacities as they attempted to treat a flood of injured patients from the attack.[15] According to the United Nations, at least 53 people were killed in the airstrike and 130 were injured. Haftar's forces, who are backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia, have said they were targeting a nearby military site.[4] According to Amnesty International, there was a weapons storage warehouse in the same compound as the detention center; GNA Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha denied that weapons were stored at the compound.[4] Reactions[edit] Libya[edit] The Government of National Accord (GNA) blamed the attack on air forces associated with Haftar of the Libyan National Army (LNA). Haftar had been waging an offensive against the UN-backed GNA in Tripoli since April, and the airstrike had occurred two days after the general threatened bombings in the area after announcing "traditional means" of war were insufficient.[4][6] Although the LNA had announced plans for airstrikes in response to losing control of Gharyan,[16] a spokesman for Haftar told The Independent that the allegations that the LNA was behind the bombing were "incorrect" because "the LNA has no air operations."[15] GNA Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha announced on 4 July that the government was considering closing detention centers and releasing all migrants as the government cannot ensure their protection.[17] The next day, Bashagha accused the United Arab Emirates of bombing the migrant center with a US-made F-16 jet. When asked if the GNA had any proof that an Emirati jet conducted the attack, the Minister said: "The sound of the jet was identified by technicians and pilots who heard it. The destructive power [of the bombs] is very big and is similar to the destructive power [of the bombs dropped] in 2014."[18] International[edit] Foreign nations and international bodies like the UN and African Union collectively called for an investigation, condemning the airstrike and lamenting the loss of life. A spokesman for the United Nations Refugee Agency stated that the detention center's close proximity to a weapons warehouse made it a target by association.[4] Michelle Bachelet, the UN's Human Rights Chief, said the airstrike might constitute a "war crime."[5] In an official statement, Secretary-General António Guterres demanded a probe into "how this happened and who was responsible and to bring those individuals to account." [19] The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration made a joint statement: "Our two organizations strongly condemn this and any attack on civilian life. We also call for an immediate end to detention of migrants and refugees."[6] The UN Security Council considered a resolution drafted by the United Kingdom which would have condemned the attack and called for a ceasefire, which didn't pass after not being endorsed by the United States.[14][20] The African Union issued a statement via Commission Chair Moussa Faki reiterating its call for an immediate ceasefire and demanding that "an independent investigation be conducted to ensure that those responsible for this horrific crime [against] innocent civilians be brought to account." Faki also emphasized the need for humanitarian relief from the international community to protect migrant populations.[21] The Middle East and North African director for Amnesty International, too, demanded that the International Criminal Court investigate the bombing as a war crime, highlighting the disaster as a "consequences of Libya and Europe's callous migration policies".[4] Foreign affairs ministries for regional neighbors of Libya and the United Arab Emirates similarly called for changes to international migrant-holding policies and condemned the strike as a war crime.[22] The Minister for Foreign Affairs for Malta Camela Abdella emphasized that migrants and refugees in dangerous situations should be "swiftly transferred to safe places under the supervision and protections of the United Nation,"[23] and on 7 July Malta's government allowed 65 migrants rescued while sailing from Libya to Europe to stay in Malta to await relocation to the European Union.[24] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Qatar, a regional neighbor to the accused United Arab Emirates, called for an "urgent international investigation" into the airstrike. Algeria's government similarly condemned the airstrike for the wanton deaths of civilians, and insisted on the "immediate return to the process of inclusive dialogue between all Libyan parties."[25] International bodies voiced their condemnation and began Even nations outside of the regions severely affected by the European migrant crisis stated their outrage while demanding investigations and policy changes. The U.S. State Department made an official statement for conflicting Libyan parties to "de-escalate fighting in Tripoli and return to the political process," and Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the attack a "crime against humanity" and blamed Haftar's forces for the airstrike.[26] The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs similarly issued a similar statement emphasizing the need for a "comprehensive and credible investigation of this crime" and called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in order to prevent new casualties."[27] ^ a b c d Murdock, Heather (3 July 2019). "Deadly Libya Bombing May Be War Crime". Voice of America. Retrieved 13 July 2019. ^ a b Hill, Evan; Khavin, Dimitry; Triebert, Christiaan; Brown, Malachy; Botti, David (10 July 2019). Europe Shut These Migrants Out, Libyan Rebels Bombed Them. New York Times. Retrieved 13 July 2019. ^ a b "Libya migrants 'fired on after fleeing attack'". BBC. 4 July 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2019. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Musa, Rami; Magdy, Samy (3 July 2019). "Airstrike kills 44 migrants in Libyan detention center". Associated Press. Retrieved 3 July 2019. ^ a b "UN says Libya migrant attack could be war crime". BBC. 3 July 2019. Retrieved 3 July 2019. ^ a b c d Romo, Vanessa; Chappell, Bill (3 July 2019). "Airstrike On Migrant Detention Center In Libya Kills At Least 44 People". NPR. Retrieved 3 July 2019. ^ a b "MSF RESPONSE: Deadly airstrikes on Tajoura detention centre". Médecins Sans Frontières UK. 3 July 2019. Retrieved 3 July 2019. ^ a b Walsh, Declan (3 July 2019). "Airstrike Kills Dozens of Migrants at Detention Center in Libya". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 July 2019. ^ "Move refugees in Tripoli out of harm's way, urges UNHCR". The UN Refugee Agency. 8 May 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2019. ^ Thornton, Chandler; Elshamy, Mohammed; Westcott, Ben; Paget, Sharif. "At least 40 killed after airstrike targets migrant center in Libya". CNN. Retrieved 4 July 2019. ^ "UN says Libyan guards reportedly shot at migrants fleeing air strikes". Japan Times. 5 July 2019. ^ "Survivors of strike on Libyan migrant centre say they were made to work in weapons factory". The Telegraph. 4 July 2019. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 5 July 2019. ^ "Libyan migrants 'fired upon after fleeing air strikes'". BBC. 5 July 2019. Retrieved 6 July 2019. ^ a b "Libyan guards shot at fleeing migrants, UN says". France24. 4 July 2019. Retrieved 6 July 2019. ^ a b Daragahi, Borzou; Bel, Trew (3 July 2019). "Libya airstrike: Up to 80 killed in attack on migrant detention centre in Tripoli". The Independent. Retrieved 3 July 2019. ^ "Libya airstrike hits migrant detention center in Tripoli, killing scores". CBS News. Retrieved 3 July 2019. ^ Assad, Abdulkader (4 July 2019). "Libyan Interior Minister says government mulling releasing all migrants". The Libya Observer. Retrieved 5 July 2019. ^ CNN, Ghazi Balkiz. "Libya claims UAE bombed migrant center with US-made jet". CNN. Retrieved 5 July 2019. ^ Guterres, António (3 July 2019). "Libya detention centre airstrike could amount to a war crime says UN, as Guterres calls for independent investigation". UN News. United Nations. Retrieved 3 July 2019. ^ Assad, Abdulkader. "US prevents Security Council resolution condemning airstrike on migrants center in Libya". The Libya Observer. Retrieved 5 July 2019. ^ Tadesse, Addis Getachew (3 July 2019). "Pan-African body condemns deadly Libya airstrike". www.aa.com.tr. Anadolu Agency. Retrieved 7 July 2019. ^ "Qatar condemns Haftar's attack on Libya migrant detention centre". Middle East Monitor. 4 July 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2019. ^ AfricaNews (4 July 2019). "Statement by Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion Carmelo Abela, following an airstrike on a migrant detention centre in Tajoura". Africa News. Retrieved 5 July 2019. ^ "EU to take migrants from rescue ship". BBC. 7 July 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2019. ^ "Algeria condemns attack on migrant detention center in Libya - Xinhua \| English.news.cn". www.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved 6 July 2019. ^ Guler, Sena (3 July 2019). "Migrant camp attack in Libya 'crime against humanity': Turkey". Anadolu Agency. Retrieved 3 July 2019. ^ "Ministry of Foreign Affairs comment on air strike on Detention Center for migrants in Tajura, Libya". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. 3 July 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2019. Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2019_Tajoura_migrant_center_airstrike&oldid=906316288" 2019 in Libya Conflicts in 2019 History of Tripolitania July 2019 events in Africa Military operations of the Second Libyan Civil War	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4380
__label__wiki	0.945321	0.945321	Alan Hodgkin (Redirected from Alan Lloyd Hodgkin) Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin OM KBE PRS (1914-02-05)5 February 1914 Banbury, Oxfordshire, England 20 December 1998(1998-12-20) (aged 84) The Downs School Gresham's School Hodgkin–Huxley model Marion Rous Sarah, Deborah, Jonathan Hodgkin, and Rachel Royal Medal (1958) Physiological Society Annual Review Prize Lecture (1976) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1963) Copley Medal (1965) Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (1964) Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin OM KBE PRS[1] (5 February 1914 – 20 December 1998) was an English physiologist and biophysicist, who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Huxley and John Eccles. 2 Career and research 2.1 Achievements 2.2 Publications 2.3 Awards and honours 3.1 Death Hodgkin was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire, to George Hodgkin and Mary Wilson Hodgkin. His father died of dysentery in Baghdad in 1918. His mother was remarried to Lionel Smith, with whom they lived. He was educated at The Downs School near Malvern, Gresham's School, and Trinity College, Cambridge.[2] In 1930, he was the winner of a bronze medal in the Public Schools Essay Competition organised by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.[3] Career and research[edit] During the Second World War, he volunteered on Aviation Medicine at Farnborough and was subsequently transferred to the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) where he worked on the development of centimetric radar, including the design of the Village Inn AGLT airborne gun-laying system. Earlier, in March 1941, Hodgkin had flown on the test flight of a Bristol Blenheim fitted with the first airborne centimetric radar system. As the war ended in 1945, he joined the faculty of physiology department in Cambridge University. He was the Foulerton Professor of the Royal Society between 1951 and 1969. He served on the Royal Society Council from 1958 to 1960 and on the Medical Research Council from 1959 to 1963. He was foreign secretary of the Physiological Society from 1961 to 1967. He was appointed the John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Biophysics at Cambridge University in 1970. He also held additional administrative posts such as Chancellor, University of Leicester, from 1971 to 1984, and Master, Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1978 to 1985. Achievements[edit] With Andrew Fielding Huxley, Hodgkin worked on experimental measurements and developed an action potential theory representing one of the earliest applications of a technique of electrophysiology, known as the "voltage clamp". The second critical element of their research was the use of the giant axon of the veined squid (Loligo forbesii),[4] which enabled them to record ionic currents as they would not have been able to do in almost any other neuron, such cells being too small to study using the techniques of the time. The experiments started at the University of Cambridge, beginning in 1935 with frog sciatic nerve, and soon after they continued their work using squid giant axons at the Marine Biological Association Laboratory in Plymouth. In 1939, reporting work done in Plymouth, Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley published a short paper in the journal Nature announcing their achievement of recording action potentials from inside a nerve fibre.[5] Research was interrupted by World War II but after resuming their experimental work in Plymouth, the pair published their theory in 1952 in a series of publications.[4][6][7][8][9] With Huxley, he established the propagation mechanism of nerve impulse called "action potentials", the electrical impulses which enable the activity of an organism to be coordinated by a central nervous system. In addition Hodgkin and Huxley's findings led them to hypothesize the existence of ion channels on cell membranes, which were confirmed only decades later. Confirmation of ion channels came with the development of the patch clamp leading to a Nobel prize in 1991 for Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann, and in 2003 for Roderick MacKinnon.[10] Hodgkin was also the discoverer of cell membrane depolarisation sequence now known as the Hodgkin cycle.[11] Publications[edit] The Conduction of the Nervous Impulse (1964) Chance and Design: Reminiscences of Science in Peace and War (1992) Awards and honours[edit] Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, Andrew Fielding Huxley, and John Carew Eccles (for his research on synapses) were jointly awarded the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane".[12] Hodgkin was knighted (KCB) in 1972 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1973. He was elected President of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom in 1966. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1948,[1] and served as President of the Royal Society (PRS) from 1970 to 1975.[1] The Royal Society awarded him its Royal Medal in 1958 and Copley Medal in 1965. He was also elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Deutsche Akademie, and Indian National Science Academy. A portrait of Hodgkin by Michael Noakes hangs in Trinity College's collection.[13] He was elected a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in 1964.[14] Hodgkin married Marion Rous in 1944, whom he met while at Rockefeller Institute in 1938. She was the daughter of an American pathologist, Francis Peyton Rous, who won the 1966 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She became Children's Book Editor at Macmillan Publishing Company and a successful writer of children's literature, including Young Winter's Tales and Dead Indeed. They had three daughters, Sarah, Deborah, and Rachel, and a son Jonathan. Jonathan Hodgkin became a molecular biologist at Cambridge University. Deborah Hodgkin is also a successful psychologist. Thomas Hodgkin (1798-1866), who first described Hodgkin's lymphoma, was Alan Hodgkin's ancestor.[15] Hodgkin died in 1998 in Cambridge.[16] ^ a b c Huxley, Andrew (2000). "Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, O.M., K.B.E. 5 February 1914 – 20 December 1998: Elected F.R.S. 1948". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 46 (0): 219–241. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1999.0081. ^ Benson, S. G. G., Crossley Evans, Martin, I Will Plant Me a Tree: an Illustrated History of Gresham's School (James & James, London, 2002) ISBN 0-907383-92-0 ^ Protection of Birds Measures Urged By Royal Society in The Times, Saturday, 29 March 1930; pg. 14; Issue 45474; col C ^ a b Hodgkin, AL; Huxley, AF; Katz, B (1952). "Measurement of current-voltage relations in the membrane of the giant axon of Loligo". The Journal of Physiology. 116 (4): 424–48. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1952.sp004716. PMC 1392219. PMID 14946712. ^ Hodgkin, A. L.; Huxley, A. F. (1939). "Action Potentials Recorded from Inside a Nerve Fibre". Nature. 144 (3651): 710–711. Bibcode:1939Natur.144..710H. doi:10.1038/144710a0. ^ Hodgkin, AL; Huxley, AF (1952). "The dual effect of membrane potential on sodium conductance in the giant axon of Loligo". The Journal of Physiology. 116 (4): 497–506. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1952.sp004719. PMC 1392212. PMID 14946715. ^ Hodgkin, AL; Huxley, AF (1952). "The components of membrane conductance in the giant axon of Loligo". The Journal of Physiology. 116 (4): 473–96. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1952.sp004718. PMC 1392209. PMID 14946714. ^ Hodgkin, AL; Huxley, AF (1952). "A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve". The Journal of Physiology. 117 (4): 500–44. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1952.sp004764. PMC 1392413. PMID 12991237. ^ Hodgkin, AL; Huxley, AF (1952). "Propagation of electrical signals along giant nerve fibers". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. 140 (899): 177–83. Bibcode:1952RSPSB.140..177H. doi:10.1098/rspb.1952.0054. PMID 13003922. ^ Schwiening, C. J. (2012). "A brief historical perspective: Hodgkin and Huxley". The Journal of Physiology. 590 (11): 2571–2575. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2012.230458. PMC 3424716. PMID 22787170. ^ Noble, D. (2010). "Biophysics and systems biology". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 368 (1914): 1125–1139. Bibcode:2010RSPTA.368.1125N. doi:10.1098/rsta.2009.0245. PMC 3263808. PMID 20123750. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1963". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB. Retrieved 16 June 2014. ^ "Trinity College, University of Cambridge". BBC Your Paintings. Archived from the original on 11 May 2014. ^ "Alan Hodgkin". Nasonline.org. Retrieved 28 April 2019. ^ Saxon, Wolfgang (22 December 1998). "Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, 84, A Nobelist in Nerve Research". New York Times. Retrieved 23 March 2017. ^ Lamb, Trevor (1999). "Obituary: Alan Hodgkin (1914–98)". Nature. 397 (6715): 112–112. Bibcode:1999Natur.397..112L. doi:10.1038/16362. PMID 9923671. The Master of Trinity at Trinity College, Cambridge Nobel biography of Hodgkin BBC obituary Speech at Nobel banquet, 1963 Action Potential Paper[permanent dead link] Imperial War Museum Interview The Lord Butler of Saffron Walden Master of Trinity College, Cambridge Sir Andrew Huxley The Lord Adrian Chancellor of the University of Leicester Sir George Porter Copley Medallists (1951–2000) David Keilin (1951) Paul Dirac (1952) Albert Kluyver (1953) E. T. Whittaker (1954) Ronald Fisher (1955) Patrick Blackett (1956) Howard Florey (1957) John Edensor Littlewood (1958) Frank Macfarlane Burnet (1959) Harold Jeffreys (1960) Hans Adolf Krebs (1961) Cyril Norman Hinshelwood (1962) Paul Fildes (1963) Sydney Chapman (1964) Alan Lloyd Hodgkin (1965) Lawrence Bragg (1966) Bernard Katz (1967) Tadeusz Reichstein (1968) Peter Medawar (1969) Alexander R. Todd (1970) Norman Pirie (1971) Nevill Francis Mott (1972) Andrew Huxley (1973) W. V. D. Hodge (1974) Francis Crick (1975) Dorothy Hodgkin (1976) Frederick Sanger (1977) Robert Burns Woodward (1978) Max Perutz (1979) Derek Barton (1980) Peter D. Mitchell (1981) John Cornforth (1982) Rodney Robert Porter (1983) Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1984) Aaron Klug (1985) Rudolf Peierls (1986) Robin Hill (1987) Michael Atiyah (1988) César Milstein (1989) Abdus Salam (1990) Sydney Brenner (1991) George Porter (1992) James D. Watson (1993) Frederick Charles Frank (1994) Frank Fenner (1995) Alan Cottrell (1996) Hugh Huxley (1997) James Lighthill (1998) John Maynard Smith (1999) Alan Battersby (2000) Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1901: Emil Behring 1902: Ronald Ross 1903: Niels Finsen 1904: Ivan Pavlov 1905: Robert Koch 1906: Camillo Golgi / Santiago Ramón y Cajal 1907: Alphonse Laveran 1908: Élie Metchnikoff / Paul Ehrlich 1909: Emil Kocher 1910: Albrecht Kossel 1911: Allvar Gullstrand 1912: Alexis Carrel 1913: Charles Richet 1914: Róbert Bárány 1919: Jules Bordet 1920: August Krogh 1922: Archibald Hill / Otto Meyerhof 1923: Frederick Banting / John Macleod 1924: Willem Einthoven 1926: Johannes Fibiger 1927: Julius Wagner-Jauregg 1928: Charles Nicolle 1929: Christiaan Eijkman / Frederick Gowland Hopkins 1930: Karl Landsteiner 1931: Otto Warburg 1932: Charles Scott Sherrington / Edgar Adrian 1933: Thomas Morgan 1934: George Whipple / George Minot / William Murphy 1935: Hans Spemann 1936: Henry Dale / Otto Loewi 1937: Albert Szent-Györgyi 1938: Corneille Heymans 1939: Gerhard Domagk 1943: Henrik Dam / Edward Doisy 1944: Joseph Erlanger / Herbert Gasser 1945: Alexander Fleming / Ernst Chain / Howard Florey 1946: Hermann Muller 1947: Carl Cori / Gerty Cori / Bernardo Houssay 1948: Paul Müller 1949: Walter Hess / António Egas Moniz 1950: Edward Kendall / Tadeusz Reichstein / Philip Hench 1951: Max Theiler 1952: Selman Waksman 1953: Hans Krebs / Fritz Lipmann 1954: John Enders / Thomas Weller / Frederick Robbins 1955: Hugo Theorell 1956: André Cournand / Werner Forssmann / Dickinson W. Richards 1957: Daniel Bovet 1958: George Beadle / Edward Tatum / Joshua Lederberg 1959: Severo Ochoa / Arthur Kornberg 1960: Frank Burnet / Peter Medawar 1961: Georg von Békésy 1962: Francis Crick / James Watson / Maurice Wilkins 1963: John Eccles / Alan Hodgkin / Andrew Huxley 1964: Konrad Bloch / Feodor Lynen 1965: François Jacob / André Lwoff / Jacques Monod 1966: Francis Rous / Charles B. Huggins 1967: Ragnar Granit / Haldan Hartline / George Wald 1968: Robert W. Holley / Har Khorana / Marshall Nirenberg 1969: Max Delbrück / Alfred Hershey / Salvador Luria 1970: Bernard Katz / Ulf von Euler / Julius Axelrod 1971: Earl Sutherland Jr. 1972: Gerald Edelman / Rodney Porter 1973: Karl von Frisch / Konrad Lorenz / Nikolaas Tinbergen 1974: Albert Claude / Christian de Duve / George Palade 1975: David Baltimore / Renato Dulbecco / Howard Temin 1976: Baruch Blumberg / Daniel Gajdusek 1977: Roger Guillemin / Andrew Schally / Rosalyn Yalow 1978: Werner Arber / Daniel Nathans / Hamilton O. Smith 1979: Allan Cormack / Godfrey Hounsfield 1980: Baruj Benacerraf / Jean Dausset / George Snell 1981: Roger Sperry / David H. Hubel / Torsten Wiesel 1982: Sune Bergström / Bengt I. Samuelsson / John Vane 1983: Barbara McClintock 1984: Niels Jerne / Georges Köhler / César Milstein 1985: Michael Brown / Joseph L. Goldstein 1986: Stanley Cohen / Rita Levi-Montalcini 1987: Susumu Tonegawa 1988: James W. Black / Gertrude B. Elion / George H. Hitchings 1989: J. Michael Bishop / Harold E. Varmus 1990: Joseph Murray / E. Donnall Thomas 1991: Erwin Neher / Bert Sakmann 1992: Edmond Fischer / Edwin G. Krebs 1993: Richard J. Roberts / Phillip Sharp 1994: Alfred G. Gilman / Martin Rodbell 1995: Edward B. Lewis / Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard / Eric F. Wieschaus 1996: Peter C. Doherty / Rolf M. Zinkernagel 1997: Stanley B. Prusiner 1998: Robert F. Furchgott / Louis Ignarro / Ferid Murad 1999: Günter Blobel 2000: Arvid Carlsson / Paul Greengard / Eric Kandel 2001: Leland H. Hartwell / Tim Hunt / Paul Nurse 2002: Sydney Brenner / H. Robert Horvitz / John E. Sulston 2003: Paul Lauterbur / Peter Mansfield 2004: Richard Axel / Linda B. Buck 2005: Barry Marshall / Robin Warren 2006: Andrew Fire / Craig Mello 2007: Mario Capecchi / Martin Evans / Oliver Smithies 2008: Harald zur Hausen / Luc Montagnier / Françoise Barré-Sinoussi 2009: Elizabeth Blackburn / Carol W. Greider / Jack W. Szostak 2010: Robert G. Edwards 2011: Bruce Beutler / Jules A. Hoffmann / Ralph M. Steinman (posthumously) 2012: John B. Gurdon / Shinya Yamanaka 2013: James Rothman / Randy Schekman / Thomas C. Südhof 2014: John O'Keefe / May-Britt Moser / Edvard Moser 2015: William C. Campbell / Satoshi Ōmura / Tu Youyou 2016: Yoshinori Ohsumi 2017: Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, Michael W. Young 2018: James P. Allison, Tasuku Honjo Presidents of the Royal Society Viscount Brouncker (1662) Joseph Williamson (1677) Christopher Wren (1680) John Hoskyns (1682) Cyril Wyche (1683) Samuel Pepys (1684) Earl of Carbery (1686) Earl of Pembroke (1689) Robert Southwell (1690) Charles Montagu (1695) Lord Somers (1698) Isaac Newton (1703) Hans Sloane (1727) Martin Folkes (1741) Earl of Macclesfield (1752) Earl of Morton (1764) James Burrow (1768) James West (1768) John Pringle (1772) Joseph Banks (1778) William Hyde Wollaston (1820) Humphry Davy (1820) Davies Gilbert (1827) Duke of Sussex (1830) Marquess of Northampton (1838) Earl of Rosse (1848) Lord Wrottesley (1854) Benjamin Collins Brodie (1858) Edward Sabine (1861) George Biddell Airy (1871) Joseph Dalton Hooker (1873) William Spottiswoode (1878) Thomas Henry Huxley (1883) George Gabriel Stokes (1885) William Thomson (1890) Joseph Lister (1895) William Huggins (1900) Lord Rayleigh (1905) Archibald Geikie (1908) William Crookes (1913) J. J. Thomson (1915) Charles Scott Sherrington (1920) Ernest Rutherford (1925) Frederick Gowland Hopkins (1930) William Henry Bragg (1935) Henry Hallett Dale (1940) Robert Robinson (1945) Lord Adrian (1950) Lord Todd (1975) Sir Michael Atiyah (1990) Sir Aaron Klug (1995) Lord May (2000) Lord Rees (2005) Sir Paul Nurse (2010) Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (2015) Masters of Trinity College, Cambridge John Redman William Bill John Christopherson Robert Beaumont John Whitgift John Still Thomas Nevile Leonard Mawe Samuel Brooke Thomas Comber John Arrowsmith John Wilkins Henry Ferne John Pearson Isaac Barrow John North John Montagu Richard Bentley John Hinchliffe Thomas Postlethwaite William Lort Mansel Christopher Wordsworth William Whewell William Hepworth Thompson Henry Montagu Butler George Macaulay Trevelyan The Lord Adrian The Lord Butler of Saffron Walden Alan Lloyd Hodgkin Andrew Huxley Michael Atiyah The Lord Rees of Ludlow Gregory Winter SNAC: w6hv2cqt Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alan_Hodgkin&oldid=902810056" Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British physiologists Electrophysiologists English biophysicists English neuroscientists English Nobel laureates Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Fellows of the Royal Society Hodgkin family Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Members of the American Philosophical Society Members of the Order of Merit Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine People associated with the University of Leicester People educated at The Downs School, Herefordshire People educated at Gresham's School People from Banbury Radar pioneers Recipients of the Copley Medal Royal Medal winners Systems biologists EngvarB from July 2016 Infobox person using alma mater Articles with dead external links from November 2017 Place of birth missing	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4381
__label__wiki	0.842924	0.842924	(Redirected from Woolworths) Look up Woolies or Woolworth's in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. "Woolies" redirects here. For the rock band, see The Woolies. 1.1 American F.W. Woolworth Company and related businesses 1.2 Australian Woolworths Group and related businesses 1.3 South African Woolworths Holdings Limited 3 Places and buildings 4 Other uses Woolworth, Woolworth's, or Woolworths may refer to: Businesses[edit] American F.W. Woolworth Company and related businesses[edit] F. W. Woolworth Company, the original US-based chain of "five and dime" (5¢ and 10¢) stores Woolworths Group, former operator of the Woolworths chain of shops in the UK, ceased trading and liquidated in early 2009 Woolworths (Ireland), originally part of F.W. Woolworth, closed in 1984 Woolworth GmbH, the owner of the Woolworths chain of high street shops in Germany and Austria Woolworth Mexicana, originally part of F.W. Woolworth, operates a chain of small variety stores in Mexico Woolworths (Cyprus), originally part of F.W. Woolworth, sold off in 1985 and subsequently split Woolworths.co.uk, a defunct online retail company owned by Shop Direct Group Australian Woolworths Group and related businesses[edit] Woolworths Group, the largest retail company in Australia and New Zealand; named after the American F.W. Woolworth brand, but unrelated Woolworths (New Zealand), a New Zealand chain of supermarkets under ownership by Woolworths Group Australia, trading predominantly as Countdown (except 1 outlet) Woolworths Supermarkets, a chain of supermarkets in Australia owned by Woolworths Group South African Woolworths Holdings Limited[edit] Woolworths (South Africa), one of the largest South African retail and supermarket chain stores; named after the F.W. Woolworth brand, but unrelated People[edit] Charles Sumner Woolworth (1856–1947), brother and business partner of the company that bore their name Frank Winfield Woolworth (1852–1919), founder of the company that bore his name Michael Woolworth (born 1960), American artist/printer Places and buildings[edit] F. W. Woolworth Building (Lexington, Kentucky), a department store building in Lexington, Kentucky, U.S. Woolworth, Mississippi, a ghost town in Lincoln County, Mississippi, U.S. Woolworth Building, New York City, U.S., a skyscraper Woolworth Building (San Diego), built in 1886, in San Diego, California, U.S. Woolworth Estate, Glen Cove, New York, U.S., the historic estate of Frank Winfield Woolworth Escort carrier, also called a "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy FP-45 Liberator, nicknamed the "Woolworth gun" due to its low quality List of Woolworth buildings List of Woolworth divisions and namesakes This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Woolworth. Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Woolworth&oldid=899198010"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4382
__label__wiki	0.923911	0.923911	Guest Judge Ifa Bayeza, Finalists Announced in 5th Biennial Prize for Women Playwrights By Whitney Hale The Kentucky Women Writers Conferencehas named three finalists in its Prize for Women Playwrights, which honors new theatrical work. Now in its fifth biennial cycle, the prize seeks to bring more plays by women to the stage, through a collaboration among the Kentucky Women Writers, partnering producer and director Eric Seale, and guest judge Ifa Bayeza. The winner receives a world premiere production for a paying audience in November 2019 at the Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center, with royalties, plus a cash prize of $500. Finalists are: “Bite the Apple” by Linda Manning, of Bronx, New York. Cinderella, in a darkly modern world 20 years after her fairy tale has ended, goes on a harrowing journey into the stories of Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Rapunzel, and unearths the pasts they all tried to forget, but also offers the possibility of setting them free. “La Fée Verte” by Bridgette Portman, of Fremont, California. When France bans absinthe in 1914, struggling poet Marmion fears he will lose his only source of inspiration. He authors a petition against the ban, aided by Denis, a depressed bartender who drinks absinthe in order to hallucinate his deceased fiancée. A parish priest with his own secret absinthe addiction is dead-set against the petition and determined to stop them. As the three men’s agendas clash, each must learn the source of his own dependence on “La Fée Verte.” “Sapphire Heights” by Anna Wright, of St. Leonard’s On Sea, Hastings, England. Set over the space of one Sunday in mid-winter, a mismatched family of four gather to celebrate the rushed marriage of Angela and Billy; fueled by alcohol, political dissonance and glaring incompatibility, the two couples’ hidden secrets begin to reveal themselves. Playwright Ifa Bayeza will serve as guest judge to choose a winner. The Harvard University graduate and Rhode Island State Council for the Arts 2014 Artist Fellow is distinguished artist-in-residence and senior visiting lecturer in the Department of Africana Studies at Brown University. Ifa Bayeza’s works for theater include "Homer G & the Rhapsodies in the Fall of Detroit," for which she won a Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award; "Welcome to Wandaland, Kid Zero"; and the novel, "Some Sing, Some Cry," co-authored with her sister Ntozake Shange. "The Ballad of Emmett Till" was awarded a Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference fellowship, received its world premiere at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and garnered the 2008 Edgar Award for Best Play, while the Fountain Theatre West Coast premiere in Los Angeles received the 2010 Backstage Garland Award for Best Playwriting. The second work in this trilogy, "benevolence," recently wrapped its run at Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this month, and Penumbra will also produce the third play, "That Summer in Sumner." Bayeza will appear as a featured presenter at the Kentucky Women Writers Conference Sept. 19-22, where she will deliver the Sonia Sanchez Series keynote lecture and lead a playwriting workshop. The Sonia Sanchez Series honors the indelible spirit of the poet and her many visits to Lexington by bringing a major thinker whose writing impacts black culture and social justice issues. She participates in the Kentucky Women Writers Conference and gives a keynote address, free and open to the community. The University of Kentucky is increasingly the first choice for students, faculty and staff to pursue their passions and their professional goals. In the last two years, Forbes has named UK among the best employers for diversity and INSIGHT into Diversity recognized us as a Diversity Champion two years running. UK is ranked among the top 30 campuses in the nation for LGBTQ* inclusion and safety and the Chronicle of Higher Education judged us a “Great College to Work for.” We are ranked among the top 10 percent of public institutions for research expenditures — a tangible symbol of our breadth and depth as a university focused on discovery that changes lives and communities. And our patients know and appreciate the fact that UK HealthCare has been named the state’s top hospital for three straight years. Accolades and honors are great. But they are more important for what they represent: the idea that creating a community of belonging and commitment to excellence is how we honor our mission to be not simply the University of Kentucky, but the University for Kentucky.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4384
__label__cc	0.63168	0.36832	UK's Yeager Part of Team That Finds Missing Deepwater Horizon Oil By Whitney Harder (Feb. 9, 2015) — Since the Deepwater Horizon disaster, also referred to as the BP oil spill, occurred in 2010, scientists have been searching for millions of gallons of unaccounted oil — 11 to 30 percent of the oil estimated to have been spilled — in the Gulf of Mexico. Kevin Yeager, University of Kentucky professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, began his search that same year. After two major oceanographic cruises, and years of data collection and collaboration, Yeager and his research colleagues may have solved the mystery. In a peer-reviewed manuscript co-authored by Yeager and others from the University of South Florida, Florida State University, University of Georgia and University of Southern Mississippi, led by oceanographer Jeffrey Chanton, the team estimates that 3 to 5 percent of the 4.1 to 4.6 million barrels of oil spilled sank to the seafloor. Their findings have been featured in national media such as CBS, NBC, Salon, USA Today, Washington Post and Time Magazine, and abroad in the Daily Mail and United Press International. Using what is described as the “inverse” isotopic approach, the team was able to identify the presence of oil based on the absence of radiocarbon (14C). Radiocarbon (14C) is constantly delivered to the Earth’s surface by the interaction of cosmic rays and atmospheric nitrogen. This form of carbon is then incorporated into living plants and animals. Once these plants or animals die, exchange with Earth’s atmosphere ends, and radiocarbon will decay with a half-life of 5,730 years, making it useful to date organic materials up to 50,000 years of age. Since the Deepwater Horizon oil contains fossil carbon, millions of years old, it contains no radiocarbon. Yeager says that natural abundance radiocarbon measurements of surface sediment organic matter from the seafloor surrounding the oil spill site allowed them to identify how much carbon was derived from Deepwater Horizon oil settling to the seafloor, as opposed to carbon arriving there due to modern processes. Serving as the chief scientist of two major oceanographic cruises in 2010 and 2011, Yeager began to sample the seafloor for evidence of the arrival and impact of Deepwater Horizon oil in the Gulf of Mexico. After these cruises, Yeager and his team shared samples and data with Chanton and his research group. Following data collection, they began to collaborate on the paper published in the January edition of Environmental Science & Technology, "Using Natural Abundance Radiocarbon To Trace the Flux of Petrocarbon to the Seafloor Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill." Yeager says understanding how much of the Deepwater Horizon oil ended up on the seafloor, and where, is critically important for a number of reasons. "Since this was not the first, and will not be the last, major oil spill in the world’s oceans, we need to understand how the oil behaves, and where it goes once it is introduced in large quantities to the marine environment" Yeager said. Once the oil arrives at the seafloor, the rate at which it can be naturally broken-down is slowed significantly, and in some cases, halted nearly entirely. "This oil can continue to impact biota living on the seafloor (as well as creatures living in the water column that feed on biota living on the seafloor) for a very long time," said Yeager. "We understand very little about how this works, or for how long we can expect it to be a problem.'" Relatively oil-rich sediments can be buried given enough time. However, this buried oil can be excavated and re-introduced to the water column (the area from the surface of water to the seafloor), or to surface sediments on the seafloor by a variety of processes, such as biological or physical mixing, the action of bottom currents, and the movement of sediment down slopes. "As such, this oil can have long, and perhaps intermittent impacts on the environment," said Yeager. Yeager, a sedimentary geologist and environmental radiochemist, directs the Sedimentary, Environmental and Radiochemical Research Laboratory (SER2L) at UK, which maintains state-of-the-art analytical instrumentation and comprehensive environmental field sampling equipment. SER2L graduate students joined Yeager on his second research cruise, and the lab has been involved with processing samples and producing data for the Deepwater Horizon work. To learn more about Yeager's work, listen to a podcast produced by the Hive in the College of Arts and Sciences at http://www.as.uky.edu/podcasts/office-hours-kevin-yeager-and-julia-johnson. Photos courtesy of Kevin Yeager enviromental and sustainable studies kevin yeager	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4385
__label__wiki	0.868313	0.868313	Inside the NFL How Super Bowl Commercials Work by Ed Grabianowski Singer Ozzy Osbourne hangs out with performing duo Donny and Marie Osmond in an image from a Pepsi commercial that aired during the 2003 Super Bowl. Pepsi Co./Getty Images The Super Bowl has become much more than a sporting event and the culmination of the NFL season. It's become a cultural phenomenon, a pop culture bellwether that more than 111 million Americans watched in 2011[source: Klayman]. That's more than one third of all the people living in the U.S. at the time. If you have a message you want to get across to America, there's no bigger stage. Run your commercial during the big game and you'll access not only all the sets of eyes watching, but all the Monday morning water cooler (or YouTube) talk that a creative ad can generate. Ask a non-football fan how they'll be spending Super Bowl Sunday and you're likely to hear, "I'll be watching it for the commercials." How did this happen? How did commercials, relegated 364 days of the year to mere irritants, excuses to head for the kitchen and make a snack or fast-forward the DVR, transform into must-see-TV? That's what we're going to explore in this article. In 1967, the first Super Bowl commercials cost $40,000 for a 30-second spot. That's about $261,000 when adjusted for inflation [source: Baumer]. 2011's ads cost roughly $3 million each -- and that's just the cost of the ad time itself. Add in the cost of the advertising agency and the production cost of filming the commercial, plus the overall advertising campaign (which might include magazine ads, billboards, or other commercials run before or after the Super Bowl), and you're looking at one very expensive message. Let's break down Super Bowl commercials one piece at a time. How much do they cost, and why do they cost that much? Where does the money go? After that, we'll look at the cultural impact of Super Bowl commercials. Which ones are the most famous? Which are the best and worst? How has watching the Super Bowl (and its commercials) changed over the years? True or False: Super Bowl Commercials 5 Super Bowl Party Games How the Super Bowl Works How to Get Super Bowl Tickets	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4387
__label__wiki	0.973937	0.973937	Memorable Movies 'Crazy Rich Asians' Is a Win for Representation, but Not Without Flaws by Yves Jeffcoat Aug 17, 2018 "Crazy Rich Asians," directed by John M. Chu and starring Constance Wu, is the first U.S. film out of a major studio to feature an all-Asian cast and Asian-American lead since "The Joy Luck Club" broke ground in 1993. Warner Brothers Considering Americans are bombarded with more TV shows than they could possibly watch in a lifetime and Hollywood has been a cultural superpower for decades, you'd think American media would be pretty darn good at representing all segments of its super-diverse population. But that couldn't be farther from the truth. Americans are thirsty for new and nuanced stories about people of color, as shown by the $1.3 billion worldwide box office gross for the majority-black blockbuster "Black Panther." The success of "Black Panther" has been considered by many a watershed moment for black representation in American film. And now, the new film "Crazy Rich Asians" is being lauded as another transformative win for racial representation in Hollywood. But is it? "Crazy Rich Asians," helmed by "Now You See Me" franchise director John M. Chu, is the first U.S. film out of a major studio to feature an all-Asian cast and Asian-American lead since "The Joy Luck Club" broke ground in 1993. Constance Wu stars in this rom-com as an economics professor who finds out her boyfriend (actor Henry Golding) comes from an absurdly rich Singaporean family. And, as they're wont to do in Hollywood comedies, high jinks ensue. But whatever one’s feelings are about love stories chock-full of quirky characters and over-the-top shenanigans, “Crazy Rich Asians” is an anomaly. One 2017 study out of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism showed that out of the top 100 fictional films in the U.S. in 2016, 44 featured absolutely zero Asian or Asian-American speaking characters. (That number was 49 in 2016, so take that improvement as you may.) And in that same sample of movies, only 5 directors were Asian. Better Representation is Long-term Key Today, more than 20 million Asian Americans live in the U.S., up from nearly 12 million in 2000. But people of Asian descent are underrepresented in American films. And when they are visible, they're often stereotyped, tokenized or on screen for way less time than their white counterparts. Yes, Asian representation has made some serious gains in the last decade — think "Fresh Off the Boat" and "The Mindy Project." But the thought is that a movie as popular and representative as "Crazy Rich Asians" can really help move the needle on absent or low-quality Asian representation in media. And better representation is key, Dr. Christina Chin, assistant professor of sociology at California State University, tells us in an email interview. That's because the one-dimensional and stereotypical images we see of Asians in film and TV can become stand-ins for entire racial and ethnic groups, leading to negative interactions and greater discrimination. "When audience members only see one group, particularly whites, represented as more prominent, relatable, and powerful than others, the privilege of this dominant group becomes normalized and even expected in reality," says Chin. "By excluding or tokenizing Asian actors or characters on screen, it sends the message that their lives, stories, and experiences are periphery or unimportant, thus reproducing the racial hierarchy that places people of color on the bottom." And "Crazy Rich Asians" does just the opposite — it tells a heartwarming love story through dynamic and successful characters. So, it's the perfect film to kick off a renaissance in media portrayals of people of the Asian diaspora, right? Here's the kicker: The film has faced criticisms that it relegates darker-skinned Asians to lesser roles, lacks ethnic diversity and uplifts whiteness as the most desirable status. It's definitely not a vision of "woke" perfection — but neither was "Black Panther." No single movie can tell the story or reflect the thoughts of a whole population. Yet viewers often put this kind of pressure on films like "Crazy Rich Asians," even though it's an expectation that's "impossible to fulfill," says Chin. The hope for a mainstream movie that gets everything right about race and culture is pretty pie in the sky, but it's understandable, considering how much Asians have been misrepresented in American film. "Pinning all our social hopes for a just society on a Hollywood film is unwarranted," Dr. Kent Ono, professor of communication at the University of Utah and co-author of the book "Asian Americans and the Media," says in an email, "but putting pressure on media makers to be attentive to social injustice may yield better, and more socially conscious film making." So, it's valid to applaud the movie's positives while also criticizing the tropes it reinforces. A film can suffer from the pitfalls of the Hollywood machine and its creators' weaknesses, but still be a step in the right direction. "Crazy Rich Asians" may be more rising action than climax when it comes to representation, if you will. A Cultural Shift? When we asked Ono whether the production of "Crazy Rich Asians" signals an industry and cultural shift, he says it's too early to tell. But there are ways to encourage progress: "(1) Educate Asians and Asian Americans in how to make and be in films, (2) encourage Hollywood to become more inclusive across all media roles; (3) criticize when Hollywood and other media industries minimize, demean, and/or stereotype Asians and Asian Americans." As recent advances in media representation have shown, it takes intentional work to keep the ball rolling. Even if it doesn't have a billion-dollar box office, "Crazy Rich Asians" can light the way for more Asian narratives on the big screen. "The success of a film like 'Crazy Rich Asians' has the potential to open the door for other movie executives, producers, and casting agents to green light future films that include more Asian and Asian Americans," says Chin. And perhaps that's as much as one should expect from a Hollywood rom com based on an indulgent beach read. Now That's Interesting Kevin Kwan, author of the book "Crazy Rich Asians," loosely based the novel on his own life. His great-grandfather was a founding director of one of Singapore's oldest banks, and one of his great-uncles helped invent the pain-relieving ointment Tiger Balm. Auto · Previous Story Shared Electric Scooters: Commuter Solution or Urban Nightmare? Next Story · Auto The Dirty Truth About How Often You Need Your Oil Changed 10 Classic Hollywood Cliches Still Used Today How the Movie Box Office Works 10 Jaw-dropping Hollywood Scandals	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4388
__label__wiki	0.872635	0.872635	Smokey Robinson can be booked through this site. Smokey Robinson entertainment booking site. Smokey Robinson is available for public concerts and events. Smokey Robinson can be booked for private events and Smokey Robinson can be booked for corporate events and meetings through this Smokey Robinson booking page. Unlike most middle agents that would mark up the performance or appearance fee for Smokey Robinson, we act as YOUR agent in securing Smokey Robinson at the best possible price. We go over the rider for Smokey Robinson and work directly with Smokey Robinson or the responsible agent for Smokey Robinson to secure the talent for your event. We become YOUR agent, representing YOU, the buyer. In fact, in most cases we can negotiate for the acquisition of Smokey Robinson for international dates and newer promoters providing you meet professional requirements. Smokey Robinson Biography If you're looking for the all-time number one purveyor of mainstream romantic soul, Smokey Robinson may well be the man, in the face of some towering competition. With the Miracles in the 1960s, he paced dozens of tuneful Motown hits with his beautiful high tenor. As a solo performer from the 1970s onward, he was one of the staples of urban contemporary music. But his singing gifts, as notable as they are, comprise only one of his hats: he's also one of pop's best and most prolific songwriters. As a songwriter and producer, he was the most important musical component to Motown's early success, not only on the hits by the Miracles, but for numerous other acts as well (especially Mary Wells and the Temptations). Robinson first crossed paths with Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr., in the late '50s in Detroit. In retrospect, this may have been the most important meeting in both men's lives. Robinson needed a mentor and an outlet for his budding talents as a singer and songwriter; the ambitious Gordy needed someone with multi-faceted musical vision. Gordy encouraged and polished Robinson's songwriting in particular in the early days, in which the Miracles were one of many acts bridging the doo wop and early soul eras. Before solidifying their relationship with the embryonic Motown operation, the Miracles issued a few singles on the End and Chess labels, the most successful of which was Got a Job. There was no national action for the Miracles until Shop Around in late 1960. Gordy withdrew the original single in favor of a faster, more fully produced version of the song; it made number two, doing much not only to establish the Miracles, but to establish the Motown label itself. The song also heralded many of the important elements of the Motown sound, with its gospel-ish interplay between lead and backup vocals, its rhythmic groove, and its blend of R&B and pop. While Robinson is most often thought of as a romantic balladeer, the Miracles were also capable of grinding out some excellent uptempo party tunes, particularly in their early days. Mickey's Monkey (which the group gave an athletically electrifying performance of in the 1964 T.A.M.I. Show movie), a 1963 Top Ten hit, is the most famous of these; there was also Going to a Go-Go and smaller hits like I Gotta Dance to Keep from Crying. The 1962 Top Ten hit You've Really Got a Hold on Me, however, was the key cut in forming Robinson's romantic persona, with its pleading, soaring vocals, exquisite melody, and carefully crafted lyrics. Bob Dylan was impressed enough by Robinson's facility for imaginative wordplay to dub him America's greatest living poet (a phrase which has possibly become the most quoted example of one rock giant praising another). Surveying Robinson's achievements during the 1960s, one wonders if the man ever slept. While the Miracles were never Motown's biggest act at any given time, they were one of its very most consistent, entering the Top 40 25 times over the course of the decade. I Second That Emotion, The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage, The Tracks of My Tears, Ooo Baby Baby, and Baby, Baby Don't Cry were some of their biggest singles, and usually represented Motown at its most sophisticated and urbane. Robinson also was extremely active at Motown as a songwriter and producer for other acts. The number one singles My Guy (Mary Wells) and My Girl (Temptations) were each Robinson songs and productions (the latter with fellow Miracle Ronnie White), and Robinson also did some excellent work with the Marvelettes and Marvin Gaye. He also toured with the Miracles, and started a family with the Miracles' female singer, Claudette Rogers, whom he married in 1964. Rogers stopped touring with the group in the mid-'60s, although she continued to sing on their records. Starting in 1967, the billing on Miracles releases was changed to Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, presaging Robinson's solo career. The group continued to spin out hits until the early '70s, however, getting their only number one in 1970 with the upbeat The Tears of a Clown (which had actually been recorded back in 1966). Robinson left the group to go on his own in 1972; the Miracles continued without him with limited success, although they had a number one hit in 1976 with Love Machine, Pt. 1. Robinson had been made a vice president at Motown near the beginning of his career in 1961. He recorded frequently as a solo artist for Motown in the '70s and '80s, in a considerably mellower vein than his Miracles work, in keeping with the general shift of Motown and soul toward urban contemporary. Robinson, in fact, provided that genre with one of its catch phrases with the title of his 1975 album, A Quiet Storm. Cruisin' (1979) and Being with You (1981) were his biggest solo hits, although artistically and commercially his solo era wasn't nearly as successful as his music with the Miracles. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide Written by Richie Unterberger Book Smokey Robinson here! Book Smokey Robinson for your next event! Would you like to have Smokey Robinson perform at your next corporate event, party or concert? Simply fill out the simple interest form below, and we’ll start the booking process. Smokey Robinson Booking Agent Thornley booking agent \| Bon Jovi booking agent \| Bela Fleck And The Flecktones booking agent Mike Oldfield booking agent \| Eruption booking agent \| KD Lang booking agent	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4389
__label__wiki	0.790953	0.790953	Corruption, News, WHO “I didn’t know anyone at the World Health Organization who had himself vaccinated, including the director-general” – glaring conflicts of interest within WHO Parading as protectors of our health! Follow the money again. (Watch video also at the link). From aljazeera.com Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the WHO is now 7,000 employees strong, with six regional offices and 150 country offices around the world, and over 194 member states adhering to the regulations released by the organisation as per the United Nations system. Whether it’s the effects of smoking, the swine flu pandemic or a nuclear disaster, the WHO is the body we rely on to advise on and resolve a public health crisis. But can it be trusted? How does the WHO decide on its recommendations? And how reliable are they? Trust in the WHO’s ability to objectively address global health matters is not as strong as it may have been at its inception. And concerns regarding the organisation’s finances and the influences of independent contributors have been circulating since the 1950s when, after years of inaction, the WHO’s relationship with key players in the tobacco industry came to light. “The tobacco industry founded institutes and bought scientists who would represent their position and they made sure their own names didn’t appear anywhere,” says former secretary of health of Switzerland, Thomas Zeltner. “So the organisations were called things that wouldn’t make you suspect they were really representing the tobacco industry.” Scientists and other important figures within these institutes would often have links to both tobacco giants and the WHO, simultaneously. One example was a toxicologist who served as a consultant for the WHO in the prime of the tobacco movement, while on the payroll of an institute funded by multinational tobacco and cigarette manufacturer, Philip Morris. After the toxicologist’s polyamorous relationship was revealed, however, he still remained a consultant to the WHO. There have since been numerous instances where seemingly unnatural relationships have arisen within institutes with a vested interest in the WHO; most of which appeared to occur at the height of alleged global health threats. One such connection was between pharmaceutical companies such as Glaxo and Novartis, the countries that had signed agreements to purchase swine flu vaccines produced by the aforementioned companies, and the WHO. The trigger-point for the agreements was a pandemic alert issued by the WHO in 2009. In the first quarter after the alert, France‘s largest drugmaker reported a whopping $1.95bn (1.71bn euro) profit annual increase. The flu, however, did not live up to its deadly reputation. In Germany, 258 people died in the flu’s first year of the outbreak – a figure far fewer than deaths caused by a ‘normal’ flu outbreak. While the WHO blamed its extravagant $18bn swine flu budget on being overly cautious, others were, and remain, sceptical. “At the time of the swine flu outbreak, I was WHO general-secretary in the Department of Public Health, Intellectual Property and Medication. Nobody there was afraid,” says German Velasquez, who currently works with the Green Climate Fund (GCF). “I didn’t know anyone at the WHO who had himself vaccinated, including the director-general, who told journalists in response to their questions that she hadn’t had time but would get herself vaccinated later.” Wolfgang Wodarg, former delegate to the European Council, enforces the scenario of uncertainty and veiled truths, saying WHO personnel often turn a blind eye to the realities of certain situations in exchange for funding. “The WHO officials have no idea about such things. They have to depend on scientists. And the scientists are allocated to them by the countries and by the organisations that finance the WHO. And many of them gave advice and made decisions that benefited the pharmaceutical industry,” says Wodarg. Over the years, similar trends in relationships between the WHO, the UN and specific businesses and organisations have emerged; some in the most unlikely and critical situations, including the Chernobyl disaster. As the WHO allegedly played down the number of deaths as caused directly by and due to the aftereffects of the nuclear explosion, it had become clear that organisation was working closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). As a matter of fact, the IAEA was initially founded as the ‘Atoms for Peace’ agency under the UN umbrella. And while the two organisations have, ultimately, two very different endeavours – once concerning global health and the other, the ‘safe’ use of atomic energy – not only Chernobyl, but also Fukushima were undersold in their levels of devastation. TrustWHO shines a light on how industry lobbies have infiltrated the WHO and asks whether the organisation can be trusted to keep the public healthy. conflicts of interestconsultantsGlaxoglobal threatsNovartisPharmaceuticalstobacco companiesUNVaccination Previous PostRocket Lab has just made NZ a launch pad for US defense satellites … NASA ELaNa-19 mission revealedNext PostInstead of a Medal They Gave Him Prison 8 thoughts on ““I didn’t know anyone at the World Health Organization who had himself vaccinated, including the director-general” – glaring conflicts of interest within WHO” yogazeal says: Hi, Here’s a half hour video worth while! I have watched the daily Suspicious0 videos for 7 years, and also watch everything I’ve found of Dr Stephanie Seneff – and the two talking together is very heart-warming & educational! Cheers, ZD ZD On Thu., 20 Dec. 2018, 01:28 Rangitikei Enviromental Health Watch Pam Vernon posted: “Parading as protectors of our health! Follow the money > again. (Watch video also at the link). From aljazeera.com Headquartered > in Geneva, Switzerland, the WHO is now 7,000 employees strong, with six > regional offices and 150 country offices around the wo” > Do you have a link then yogazeal? Anabel says: The World health org was founded by the UN , need I say more. Its purpose was corruption from the start , it is not that the industrial conflict of interests are new.. That was the purpose of the UN’s WHO , whats new is that more people are aware of it now. You’re right Anabel. There are still many who are not awake as yourself. Pingback: “I didn’t know anyone at the World Health Organization who had himself vaccinated, including the director-general” – glaring conflicts of interest within WHO \| Rangitikei Enviromental Health Watch \| AGR Daily 60 Second News Bites futuret says: PEOPLE ON ALL FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH, BRACE YOURSELVES, BECAUSE HERE IT COMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://healthimpactnews.com/2018/argentina-creates-mandatory-vaccination-law-for-passport-id-drivers-license-school-more/ Kenneth T. says: In my case, I don’t know anyone at the WHO. Does anyone REALLY know anyone? Ha, good question Kenneth!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4390
__label__wiki	0.844191	0.844191	San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research The San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research (SDZICR) in San Diego, California, is a research organization that works to generate, use, and share information for the conservation of wildlife and their habitats. In 1975, Kurt Benirschke, a researcher at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) who studied human and animal reproduction, and Charles Bieler, the director of the San Diego Zoo, collaborated to form the Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species (CRES). Body Worlds is an exhibition featuring plastinates, human bodies that have been preserved using a plastination process. First displayed in 1995 in Tokyo, Japan, this collection of anatomical specimens has since been displayed around the world. Although the exhibition debuted in Japan, the idea for the displays began at Heidelberg University in Heidelberg, Germany, where anatomist Gunther von Hagens invented a technique for plastination in the 1970s. After years of research and small-scale presentations of his work, von Hagens created Body Worlds, or Korperwelten in German. Osborne Overton Heard (1890-1983) Osborne O. Heard was a noted Carnegie embryological model maker for the Department of Embryology at The Carnegie Institute of Washington (CIW), Baltimore, Maryland. Heard was born in Frederick, Maryland, on 21 November 1890. His father died while Heard and his three brothers were quite young. Heard attended night school at the Maryland Institute of Art and Design where he studied sculpting and patternmaking. While working as a patternmaker for the Detrick and Harvey Machine Company, Heard made models of tools using a variety of materials such as wood, plastic, and plaster of Paris. "Contributions to the Development of the Embryo. On the Artificial Production of One of the First Two Blastomeres, and the Later Development (Postgeneration) of the Missing Half of the Body" (1888), by Wilhelm Roux Wilhelm Roux was an influential figure in the early history of experimental embryology. Although he originally studied medicine, he was invited to be a Privatdozentur, or unsalaried lecturer, at the Anatomical Institute in Breslau (Wroclaw), Poland, in 1879. He spent the next ten years at this institute, working his way from Dozent to associate professor and finally, in 1889, to director for his own institute, Institut für Entwicklungsgeschichte, or Institute for Developmental History and Mechanics. The Pasteur Institute (1887- ) L'Institut Pasteur (The Pasteur Institute) is a non-profit private research institution founded by Louis Pasteur on 4 June 1887 in Paris, France. The Institute's research focuses on the study of infectious diseases, micro-organisms, viruses, and vaccines. As of 2014, ten scientists have received Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine for the research they have done at the Pasteur Institute. The Roslin Institute (1993- ) The Roslin Institute was established in 1993 in the village of Roslin, Scotland, as an independent research center by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and as of 2014 is part of the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland. Researchers at the Roslin Institute cloned the Dolly the sheep in 1996. According to the Roslin Institute, Dolly was the first mammal to develop into an adult from the transfer of the nucleus of an adult sheep cell into an ovum with the nucleus removed. Genetics and IVF Institute, GIVF In 1984, human genetics and reproduction researcher and physician Joseph D. Schulman founded the Genetics and IVF Institute, an international organization that provides infertility treatment and genetic services to patients. IVF stands for in vitro fertilization, an infertility treatment in which a female egg is fertilized by male sperm outside of the female body. GIVF is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, in association with Inova Health System, formerly called the Fairfax Hospital Association, one of the largest regional hospital systems in the United States. Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Embryology The Carnegie Institution of Washington's (CIW) Embryology Department was opened in 1914 and remains one of six departments in the CIW. The department quickly became, and remains, world renowned for its many embryonic development discoveries. In 1913 Franklin P. Mall, Professor of Anatomy at Johns Hopkins Medical School, applied for a Carnegie grant to support his research with human embryos. Mall had a collection of over 800 human embryo specimens and was at the point of wanting to do more than just collect. Wilhelm August Oscar Hertwig (1849-1922) Wilhelm August Oscar Hertwig contributed to embryology through his studies of cells in development and his discovery that only one spermatozoon is necessary to fertilize an egg. He was born 21 April 1849 to Elise Trapp and Carl Hertwig in Hessen, Germany. After his brother Richard was born the family moved to Muhlhausen in Thuringen where the boys were educated. The two brothers later attended the university in Jena from 1868 to 1888 and studied under Ernst Haeckel, who later convinced Hertwig to leave chemistry and pursue medicine. Gunther von Hagens' Plastination Technique Plastination is a technique for preserving tissues, organs, and whole bodies for medical purposes and public display. Gunther von Hagens invented a form of the method in 1977 at Heidelberg University in Heidelberg, Germany after observing medical students struggle working with cadavers that quickly decomposed. Von Hagens' body models, referred to as plastinates, have since become widely used educational tools not only for those studying anatomy and medicine, but also for the general public. James David Ebert (1921-2001) James David Ebert studied the developmental processes of chicks and of viruses in the US during the twentieth century. He also helped build and grow many research institutions, such as the Department of Embryology in the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Baltimore, Maryland and the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. When few biologists studied the biochemistry of embryos, Ebert built programs and courses around the foci of biochemistry and genetics, especially with regards to embryology. Elizabeth Maplesden Ramsey (1906-1993) Physician and pathologist Elizabeth Maplesden Ramsey was a member of the Carnegie Institution of Washington (CIW) for thirty-nine years. The affiliation began in 1934, when Ramsey discovered what was assumed to be the youngest-known embryo at the time, and donated it to CIW's massive embryo collection. After studying embryos, Ramsey focused her research on placental circulation in primates. Warren Harmon Lewis (1870-1964) As one of the first to work at the Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Embryology, Warren Harmon Lewis made a number of contributions to the field of embryology. In addition to his experimental discoveries on muscle development and the eye, Lewis also published and revised numerous works of scientific literature, including papers in the Carnegie Contributions to Embryology and five editions of Gray's Anatomy. George Washington Corner (1889-1981) As the third director of the Carnegie Institute of Washington s Department of Embryology, George Washington Corner made a number of contributions to the life sciences as well as to administration. Corner was born on 12 December 1889 in Baltimore, Maryland, near the newly established Johns Hopkins University. Although Corner was not exposed to science much in school at a young age, he developed an early appreciation for science through conversations with his father about geography and by looking through the family's National Geographic magazines. Carnegie Stages Historically the exact age of human embryo specimens has long perplexed embryologists. With the menstrual history of the mother often unknown or not exact, and the premenstrual and postmenstrual phases varying considerably among women, age sometimes came down to a best guess based on the weight and size of the embryo. Wilhelm His was one of the first to write comparative descriptions of human embryos in the late 1800s. Soon afterward, Franklin P. Mall, the first director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's (CIW) Department of Embryology, expanded upon His' work. Franklin Paine Mall (1862-1917) Franklin Paine Mall was born into a farming family in Belle Plaine, Iowa, on 28 September 1862. While he attended a local academy, an influential teacher fueled Mall's interest in science. From 1880-1883, he studied medicine at the University of Michigan, attaining his MD degree in 1883. William J. Mayo, who later became a famous surgeon and co-founder of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was a classmate of Mall's. Throughout his studies at Michigan, he was influenced by Corydon L. Ford, a professor of anatomy, Victor C. Ziegler Wax Embryo Models Three-dimensional anatomical models have long been essential to the learning of science and lend a sense of "control" to those practicing in the field. As the development of embryology grew in importance during the late 1800s, so did the need for models to show intricate details of embryos. Subject: Technologies, Reproduction Lysogenic Bacteria as an Experimental Model at the Pasteur Institute (1915-1965) Lysogenic bacteria, or virus-infected bacteria, were the primary experimental models used by scientists working in the laboratories of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, during the 1950s and 1960s. Historians of science have noted that the use of lysogenic bacteria as a model in microbiological research influenced the scientific achievements of the Pasteur Institute's scientists. Subject: Organisms, Experiments The Marine Biological Laboratory-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Library In 1888 when students and investigators arrived in Woods Hole for the inaugural session of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), they recognized the need for a library collection of books and journals. The one wooden building on campus, later known as Old Main, housed everything, with researchers upstairs and the student laboratory downstairs. Lectures were held in one corner, and shelves held what books and journals were contributed. "National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference Statement September 22–24, 1980” (1980), by the National Institutes of Health In 1980 the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) released a report titled, “National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference Statement September 22–24, 1980.” The report lists recommendations for birth delivery through cesarean sections, a surgical procedure used to deliver the fetus via the pregnant woman’s abdomen. The recommendations arose from the 1980 Consensus Development Conference on Cesarean Childbirth in Bethesda, Maryland. A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery, (1752-1764) by William Smellie A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery is a three volume collection of patient accounts that William Smellie published from 1752 to 1764. Smellie, a physician and instructor in obstetrics in Great Britain, published these compilations to share his expertise in reproductive medicine, while also providing his students and colleagues with a source of reference in their own medical practices. Smellie wrote these books to shift obstetrics from a discipline practiced by midwives with limited medical training to one practiced in a medical context by physicians.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4391
__label__wiki	0.571742	0.571742	Card-not-present fraud continues to be a major challenge in the online space. Given the large number of security breaches reported by major brands in the last couple of years, it may be straightforward for a criminal to gain access to an individual’s card details from one of these incidents. Meanwhile, it was recently claimed that hackers could take advantage of flaws in the security protections of some cards to uncover card numbers, expiry dates and CVV codes by way of a brute force attack. Therefore, it’s understandable that the industry and regulators are keen to do more to guard against this type of activity and ensure the online payment space is as secure as possible. But could the latest proposals from the European Banking Authority (EBA) do more harm than good? What are the proposals? Under the strong customer authentication (SCA) plans put forth by the EBA earlier this year, consumers making a payment online would need to enter additional security details for any transaction over €10. This may be in the form of an extra password, code, a biometric check or the use of a card reader. This would effectively make two-factor authentication mandatory for a huge range of online transactions. But while it would certainly make card-not-present fraud more difficult to accomplish, the trade-off could be to make such transactions much more time-consuming and inconvenient. What do the card providers say? One organisation that certainly takes that view is Visa, which has warned the rules could create huge disruption for online shoppers in particular. For instance, it stated the rules would mean the end of express online checkouts, such as one-click options which allow consumers to complete a purchase without re-entering personal and financial details. Research conducted by the card provider found more than six out of ten consumers (61 percent) say they would abandon a purchase if they had to go through more steps at the checkout phase. It could also have an impact offline as well, with Visa suggesting it could lead to longer queues at locations where identity checks such as PINs are not required, like parking and toll booths. It warned that in France alone, where such systems are commonly used on the country’s network of toll roads, this would impact more than 500 million journeys a year. An overly inflexible regulation? Peter Bayley, chief risk officer, Europe, at Visa, said that while the company supports efforts to improve payment security, the EBA proposals will bring a wide range of complications and inconveniences. “The planned one size fits all approach tips the balance too far one way, making it difficult for consumers to make purchases wherever, whenever and on whatever device they want,” he said. “It will annoy consumers and damage businesses’ potential to sell their goods and services.” Visa isn’t the only industry player to express skepticism over the proposed moves. Paypal, for instance, stated in its response to the EBA’s consultation that “unfriendly” additional checks would have an impact on almost any digital payments, regardless of how much risk is actually involved. Mastercard also raised concerns that an “overly prescriptive approach” would undermine the goals of the plans. Source: Banking.com 8 Steps to Avoiding Cyber Hacking Mobility and Security in the Banking Industry Outsmarting Fraudsters with Cognitive Fraud Detection	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4396
__label__wiki	0.915871	0.915871	English Yolŋu Warlpiri Kriol Murin-Patha Tiwi Burarra How to support Aboriginal Languages How can you get other people to help? Information about other campaigns Why FOBL Matters Government Support for NT Bilingual Education after 1950: A Longer Timeline Government Support for NT Bilingual Education after 1950: A Longer Timeline [Last revised March 7, 2019] Professor Brian Devlin University Professorial Fellow I. This file is called "a longer timeline" because it supplements a shorter one, which appears in the 2017 book, History of Bilingual Education in the Northern Territory, edited by Devlin, Disbray and Devlin, and published by Springer. II. Many of the entries, especially those from 1964 to 1999, were drawn from Harris and Devlin (1999). III. The timeline created by journalists for an ABC website was based on that same source. IV. A Milingimbi timeline prepared by Sue Reaburn and others freely drew on that material as well. V. However, this current version is now more accurate than any of the preceding ones mentioned above. VI. This longer timeline will be periodically updated as more information comes to hand. It should therefore be regarded as a work in progress. VII. All Contributions and comments are welcome. Please send them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. On 28 February 1950 Robert Menzies and other key officials acknowledged that bilingual education would be "desirable" for remote Aboriginal students in some circumstances (Devlin, Disbray & Devlin, 2017, p.1). It was in this year that the first government schools for Aboriginal students in the Northern Territory were opened at four sites—Delissaville, Bagot, Alice Springs and Yuendumu—with a combined enrolment of 153. These schools were under the control of the Commonwealth Office of Education (Harris, 1990, p.45), which assumed responsibility for Aboriginal education in the Territory until 1955. The Commonwealth Office of Education had become involved in Aboriginal education following a conference of Commonwealth and State Aboriginal Welfare authorities in Canberra in February 1947. Recommendations made at that meeting were summarised in a memorandum dated January 5, 1950 from R C Mills, Director, Commonwealth Office of Education to The Secretary, Prime Minister's Department (Box 234, file7/6/1/111630). At that meeting it had been resolved that governments should make "increased provision for the education of natives". It was noted that "the South Australian Education Department, which at present controls schools for white children in the Northern Territory, could not see its way clear to provide teachers for native schools". As a result the Minister for the Interior had recommended that "the Commonwealth Government should accept direct responsibility for the provision of education in the Northern Territory". In the 1950 agreement these recommendations were approved, on behalf of all the responsible authorities, by A.R. Driver, Administrator; R. C. Mills, Director, Commonwealth Office of Education; P. A. McBride, Minister responsible for the NT Administration Act; and Robert Menzies, Minister responsible for the Commonwealth Education Act. What is of particular interest in this agreement is the Commonwealth Government's acknowledgement that "the language of instruction in Native schools shall be English, except where local conditions (e.g., where natives are still in a tribal or semi-tribal state) render bilingual instruction desirable". [My emphasis.] Further, it was resolved that in the "special curriculum" that would be needed, the subjects "should include English Language, Native Language (where appropriate)". This is the first recorded commitment by the Commonwealth Government to support bilingual instruction for Aboriginal children in certain circumstances. More generally the agreement between the Administrator of the Northern Territory and the Director of the Commonwealth Office of Education (1950) specified that "the Director of the Commonwealth Office of Education will accept responsibility for the administration of education of children of Aboriginals in in the Northern Territory in respect of staffing; inspection; curricula; school classification; recommendations for the establishment of new schools; the training, appointment and control of teachers; the classification of teachers; the inspection and supervision of mission schools; recommendations concerning mission school standards". In Annexure B of his memorandum, R C Mills proposed the establishment of a further three schools in 1951 at Beswick Station, Haast's Bluff and Snake Bay. In November 1951 a meeting of specialists was convened in Paris to discuss the use of vernacular languages in education. Their recommendations were published two years later. Harry Giese was appointed Director of the Welfare Branch, which in 1955 would have responsibility for Aboriginal education, health and infrastructure. With the encouragement of Reverend Cecil Gribble (1903–1995) several carefully selected mission staff were appointed to work in the field after being given some training in linguistics and anthropology at the University of Sydney (Carment et al., 2008, p. 241). Beulah Lowe was appointed as the first trained school teacher at Milingimbi and Heather Hinch began work at Goulburn Island. UNESCO's landmark publication, The use of vernacular languages in education, emphasised the importance of educating children in their own languages. Cecil Gribble, after observing Beulah Lowe teach an oral English class in 1953, gave her this advice: "It's good as far as it goes, but ideally education should start with a child's own tongue" (McKenzie, 1976, p. 181). Changes in the law affecting 'part-Aboriginals' in the Northern Territory in 1953 signalled the introduction of assimilation, both as a policy aim and administrative method. A fund was set up in the NT to collect royalties paid by companies operating mining ventures on Aboriginal reserves. Operational control of Aboriginal education in the NT passed from the Commonwealth to the Welfare Branch of the Northern Territory Administration, which although part of the Commonwealth Department of the Interior, was seen to be a local organisation by Territorians because it was based in Darwin (Harris, 1990, p. 46). Aboriginal education has been the responsibility of successive NT administrations in the sixty years since. Harris (1990,p. 46) noted, "A significant feature of the 1955 Administration was that it had responsibility for providing the full range of services to Aboriginal communities—education, health, housing, welfare, etc. Thus, education was not treated as a service in isolation, but as part of an integrated welfare approach. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) approved a convention against discrimination in education. Article 5 of that convention enjoined government parties to recognise "the right of members of national minorities to carry on their own educational activities" and "the use or the teaching of their own language". Beulah Lowe completed her orthography of Gupapuyŋu (Carment et al., 2008, p. 363). Tom Harris noted that in 1963 there were around 1500 Aboriginal students enrolled in church or mission school system compared to around 1000 in Government schools (Harris, 1990, p.45). The Yirrkala Bark Petition was submitted to the Commonwealth House of Representatives by people who were "asserting their Aboriginal rights to their Yolŋu land, their Yolŋu languages, culture and way of life" (Stockley, Ganambarr, Munuŋgurr, Dh., Munuŋgurr, M., Wearne, Wunuŋmurra, White, & Yunupiŋu, 2017, p. 140). Beth Graham began teaching Aboriginal children at Yirrkala. 2. A glimmer of possibility (1964–1975) The Report of an investigation into the Curriculum and Teaching Methods used in Aboriginal Schools in the Northern Territory (Watts and Gallagher Report), was released. The Watts-Gallacher Report (1964, p.71) recommended bilingual education as the ideal approach for the Northern Territory, even though the authors considered that such programs would not be viable, because non-Aboriginal teachers could not be expected to learn all the Aboriginal languages; there were too many languages anyway, and preparing textbooks in many languages was thought to be unreasonably difficult. Nonetheless, this report was adopted as the NT's guide in developing these programs when bilingual education was later introduced (Letter from Hedley Beare, Director of NT Education to the Director of ACER, June 13, 1973. File 89/2392). Capell noted that "government policy looks forward to the loss of Aboriginal languages". Elkin (1964, p. 152) explained that "Assimilation is not just a matter of housing, occupation, education and the law.... If teachers, preachers and administrators realise the gulf in thought, values and goals between what they teach and what the Aborigines inherit, they will, or should realise that their task is bridge-building, and not challenging children and adults alike to leap across an apparently fathomless chasm to a bank as yet dimly seen". In February 1964 Harry Giese introduced a bill to lift restrictions on Aboriginal people's access to alcohol. The CMS ran bilingual church services and considered going against the NT Government's Welfare policy of teaching only in English (Rademaker, 2012). A referendum expanded Commonwealth authority in relation to Aboriginal affairs. Policy advice was provided to government through the Council for Aboriginal Affairs, comprising HC Coombs, Barrie Dexter and WEH Stanner. This period marked the decline of assimilationist programs and a "greater stress on indigenous people's own cultural roots, and on their right to determine their own places within a multicultural Australian society" (Carment, Edward, James, Maynard, Powell & Wilson, p.213) Judith Stokes (1924-2003) was released from teaching duties so that she could do full-time linguistic and bible translation work. After attending a workshop led by Sarah Gudschinsky in early 1973, Judith Stokes worked with Gula Lalara to produce a series of 32 graded primers to teach adults to read in Anindiyakwa. Later she published a paper on Anindilyakwa concepts of space and time, highlighting differences between Aboriginal and Western thinking (Stokes 1982; Koch & Waddy, 1983; Black, 2014). Dr Joy Kinslow-Harris, a linguist, published a paper in Australian Territories arguing that bilingual education was definitely possible, provided that Aboriginal people were allowed to do the teaching in their own languages through a system of team-teaching in partnership with qualified non-Aboriginal teachers. Her proposal was picked up in 1971 at a National Workshop, which recommended that "...pilot projects be established". The article became the catalyst for the establishment of bilingual programs in the NT (Sommer, 1991). Black and Devlin (in press) note that Joy Kinslow-Harris had become active in the Top End in the late 1960s. "In an appendix that has a lot to say about the history of linguistics in the Top End, Sandefur (1986: 195-208) notes how important a 1968 paper by Kinslow-Harris was to the development of bilingual education. Meanwhile, she was also undertaking research on Gunwingguan languages as a basis for her PhD thesis at Australian National University". The Australian Aborigines Branch of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL/AAB) moved to Darwin. The Canadian federal government began a Bilingualism in Education Program in 1970. In the first land rights hearing in the NT Justice Richard Blackburn ruled against the claimants to the "Gove land rights case" (Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd, 1971), 17 FLR 141), thereby rejecting their claims to Aboriginal title. This prompted the dispersal of many people to outstations. The Australian Government launched a plan to give "Aboriginal children living in distinctive Aboriginal communities their primary education in Aboriginal languages" (Whitlam, 1972). After 23 years of conservative rule the Australian Labor Party won the federal election held on December 2, 1972. Gough Whitlam's government immediately launched an ambitious reform program that included the introduction of bilingual education in the Northern Territory, the end of conscription, the withdrawal of Australian troops from Vietnam, independence for Papua New Guinea, recognition of the People's Republic of China, the abolition of imperial honours, the creation of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (incorporating the old Welfare Branch), the establishment of an interim Schools Commission, recognition of Aboriginal land rights, equal pay for women, environmental protection, and the ratification of various international conventions, including one against racism. The decision to introduce bilingual education in the Northern Territory was announced in December 1972 a few hours after Gough Whitlam's government had been elected. The Prime Minister announced that the Commonwealth Government would "launch a campaign to have Aboriginal children living in distinctive Aboriginal communities given their primary education in Aboriginal languages" (Press statement #16). At the time the Federal Minister of Education was Kim Beazley, Snr. In a letter to The Australian in December 1998, Mr Beazley explained that bilingual programs were favoured because they were considered to be the best route to mastery of English as a second language. To guide the establishment of bilingual programs he, as Minister of Education, set up the Watts Committee, a three-person advisory group comprising Dr Betty Watts (Reader in Education at the University of Queensland), W. J. (Bill) McGrath (Inspector of Schools in the Northern Territory's Aboriginal Education Branch) and J. L. Tandy (from the Department of Education in Canberra). In 1972 Dr Hedley Beare (1932–2010) was appointed foundation Director of Education in the Northern Territory. The Australian Government set up the first five pilot bilingual education programs in the Northern Territory, at Angurugu, Areyonga, Hermannsburg, Milingimbi and Warruwi, acting on advice from the Watts Committee and with considerable assistance from Missionary linguists. The first languages chosen for use in these programs were Anindilyakwa, Arrarnta, Gupapuyŋu, Maung and Pitjantjatjara. Head office assistance was provided from Darwin. On January 22, 1973 the Watts Committee convened for the first time. Known as The Advisory Group on teaching in Aboriginal languages in schools in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, their report, Bilingual education in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory: Report and recommendations of advisory groups (the Watts, McGrath and Tandy report) set out to provide basic guidelines which might assist with the development of bilingual programs in the Northern Territory (Progress Report, 1973, p.1). It was tabled in the House of Representatives on March 15, 1973 by the Minister for Education, Kim Beazley (reference no. 10 27/3/1973). The authors envisaged that schools with bilingual programs would be "agents of cultural continuity" (Watts, McGrath and Tandy, 1973, pp. 1, 7), fostering pride in ethnic identity and facilitating English reading and writing through initial vernacular literacy.The need for subsequent literacy in English was strongly emphasised (Watts, McGrath and Tandy, 1973, p. 1, §1.4). Continued study of Aboriginal languages was also advocated (Watts, McGrath and Tandy, 1973, pp. 1 & 11). For example, on p.11 they state that "the Aboriginal language would remain as the appropriate language for arts ... and for Aboriginal Studies". Programs were intended to be bicultural as well as bilingual. Schools were regarded as integral to the communities they served. The Watts Committee stipulated that creating a rich reading environment in the school was essential if a bilingual program was to succeed. What it recommended, in order of priority, were (1) traditional stories, as told by parents to young children; (2) stories of high interest to young children; (3) graded reading books and (4) stories of high interest to various age groups. However, a key recommendation in their report was never picked up by authorities and endorsed; namely, §5.4.4.2: that "Children's mastery of literacy skills in the Aboriginal language must also be assessed". In line with the advisory group's recommendations experimental bilingual programs commenced in five schools: at Angurugu in Anindilyakwa and English, at Areyonga Pitjantjatjara and English, at Hermannsburg in Arrernte and English, at Milingimbi in Gupapuyŋu and English and at Goulburn Island in Maung and English. In each of these schools the introduction of bilingual programs was initially limited to pre-school and first-year Infants classes for children aged 3 to 5. In four of the pilot schools senior pupils were also given literacy instruction in an Aboriginal language. At Milingimbi School the bilingual program was introduced into three classes (Pre-school 1 and 2) and Year 1 in 1973. Literature production began at that school in September 1973 (Milingimbi School report, 1979). These pilot bilingual programs were judged to be 'one of the most exciting educational events in the modern world' (Hale, 1999, p. 43). Two types of programs were officially recognised: Model I, which incorporated reading and writing in Aboriginal languages, and Model II, which did not (Watts, McGrath, & Tandy, 1973, pp. 14, 16). More program types (e.g., 50:50) were added in subsequent years. A working definition of bilingual education was adopted by the Northern Territory Education Division in line with the Bilingual Education Act (Title VII ESEA), and advice from the Watts Committee (Watts, McGrath and Tandy, 1973, p. 1): Bilingual education is the use of two languages, one of which is English, as mediums of instruction for the same pupil population in a well-organised program which encompasses part or all of the curriculum and includes a study of the history and culture associated with the mother tongue. A complete program develops and maintains the children's self-esteem and the legitimate pride in both cultures. The general aims of the bilingual programs, as set out in 1973, were: (a) To present subject matter of the school program in the language most suitable for the instructional purpose, bearing in mind the language proficiency of the children and the special needs of specific areas of study. (b) To develop competency in reading and writing in the Aboriginal language. (c) To develop competency in reading and writing in English. (d) To develop sufficient skill in the use of oral English before attempting to teach specific subject areas in that language. (e) To foster greater proficiency in school work, and better understanding of it, by use of the Aboriginal language where appropriate. These aims were "not arranged in any particular order". On February 12, 1973 the Prime Minister announced new arrangements to allow the integration of resources managed by the Education Minister, Kim Beasley, in support of "the policy of teaching Aborigines in their own languages" (Whitlam, 1973). On March 27, 1973 the Minister for Education gave a speech about bilingual education to Parliament. William Wentworth did as well. In the same parliamentary session Sam Calder guardedly praised Beazley's initiative and the work done by Watts, McGrath and Tandy, but added, "Whilst it is difficult for Europeans to teach many of these languages I think that the Government will have quite a lot of trouble in getting the Aboriginal people themselves to teach these languages correctly, as is envisaged". He went on to say: "I see the scheme as a way of encouraging Aborigines to be interested in teaching their own children in their own areas so that the children will grow up with respect for and knowledge of their own circumstances and traditions. I am pleased to see that the young ones growing up will be assisted to grasp the situation and to have more self respect as they grow older. In many cases even now they know nothing about their traditions. This scheme should help them to learn about those traditions and to learn the crafts and arts. Many children are rapidly growing into a European way of life. If they want to do so, so much the better for them. They should not be pushed one way or the other. If the young Aborigines enter our way of life it would be a great pity if they entered it without having any chance of knowing about their traditions, background and arts. I commend the paper and hope that the scheme will be successful. I hope that the people will be found to teach the Aboriginal children throughout the length and breadth of the country. This will be difficult as there are many dialects and languages but I am certain that it will be of benefit to them" (Hansard, March 27, 1973, http://goo.gl/lnT7zH). "In October 1973, at the request of the Commonwealth Government in pursuit of its policies on bilingual education, the School of Australian Linguistics was established within the [Darwin Community] College" (Source: The Darwin Institute of technology: A Historical perspective, p. 5, by Nan Giese). The Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) stated on 6 April 1973 that "The basic object of my Government 's policy is to restore to the Aboriginal people of Australia their lost power of self-determination in economic, social and political affairs". He went onto say that: "An opportunity for self-determination and independent action would serve little purpose if Aboriginals continued to be economically and socially deprived. The Government therefore plans to help them as individuals, groups or communities, in crafts, trades and professions and as business entrepreneurs" (quoted by Dawkins, Hansard, November 5, 1975, http://goo.gl/2ZscVj). A School-based Curriculum Development model was adopted in the NT in 1973. Ten years later, this was described as"a disastrous situation" (Memo from Geoff Spring to Janet Margon, February 2, 1983, File 14/81 Part II f. 152). In September 1973 Dr Hedley Beare revealed to the Education Minister, Kim Beasley, that his teachers were being directed by staff in the Department of Aboriginal Affairs to cease being paternalistic. Students were no longer to be given meals or showers, and were asked to sit on the floor. "Attendance fell as Aboriginal children hung around home waiting for a substitute for the school meal" (Beazley, 2009, p.208). Reflecting on this, Beazley noted that "It seemed to me that almost every doctrine embraced by whites about Aborigines damaged them. 'Assimilation' dogmas had deprived them of a right to education in their own language. 'Anti-paternalism' ignored the fact that children are by nature dependent, and to thrust independence on them prematurely violated her nature. The officers of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs seemed to be advocating neglect in the cause of opposing 'paternalism'" (Beazley, 2009, p.208) The Department of Aboriginal Affairs produced a report which led eventually to the Aboriginal Land Rights (NorthernTerritory) Act 1976 (Cth). The Woodward Commission was appointed in 1973 to consider how land rights for Aborigines could be achieved. In November 1973 Elections were held to fill positions in the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee (NACC). The Department of Education's first annual report on the Bilingual Programs, compiled by Bill McGrath in December 1973, includes a wealth of detail about that first year of operation. Just a few points of interest will be noted here. Goulburn Island staff reported that when vernacular language instruction was introduced into the pre-school there: "Learning experiences became enjoyable and meaningful to both child and teacher" (Department of Education, 1973, p.59). Interest in the community gathered momentum. More mothers began to stay on at pre-school. In Infants students were taught vernacular reading using the Gudschinsky method and Maths using the Special Schools maths curriculum. Vernacular language instruction had resulted in some encouraging progress: "Academically and socially, it is successful. With regards to the Aboriginal teacher, it has given him a role which he can effectively and usefully play. It has added a meaning to education for both teacher and child". In December 1973 the first bilingual education handbook was produced "as an interim measure" (Department of Education, 1973). In the preface W.J. McGrath invited teachers to contribute suggestions. The handbook comprised seven sections: Introduction, Some aims of bilingual education in Northern Territory schools, Roles of teachers involved in bilingual programs, Work in bilingual pre-schools, The role of the linguist, The English component of the bilingual program, Mathematics and the bilingual program. During the 1973–74 holiday period a six-week course for Teaching Assistants was conducted Six additional programs were established (see Devlin et al., 2017, Chap. 2 Table 2.1) : St Therese's (now Murrupurtiyanuwu) began a Model 1 program in Tiwi and English at Nguiu, Bathurst Island. At Shepherdson College at Galiwin'ku on Elcho Island a bilingual program in Gupapuyŋu and English was introduced into two classes. Adult education and linguistic work in Djambarrpuyŋu also started at Galiwin'ku. At Oenpelli (Gunbalanya) a Kunwinjku and English program was introduced. It lasted four years. At Yayayi (an outstation about 50 km west of Papunya) a Pintupi-Luritja and English program began. A set of four primers, Wangka Walytja, was used in the reading program. These had been developed the year before by two linguists, Ken and Lesley Hansen. Each primer comprised 26 weekly units and was accompanied by a handbook for the teacher, as well as flash cards and sentence charts—all modelled on the Breakthrough to literacy approach (Sims, 1981). The pre-school at Papunya also began a bilingual program. A Tiwi-English program was commenced at Pularumpi (formerly Garden Point). At Yuendumu a Model II bilingual program was introduced into the Infants I class at Yuendumu. At Yirrkala a bilingual program commenced in Gumatj and English. The second meeting of the Bilingual Education Consultative Committee was held in Alice Springs March 18-22. The committee members who attended the meeting were Jim Gallacher (Chair), Dr B.Watts, Dr M.Brandl, J Tandy, A. Somers, Bill McGrath (Executive Officer) and Ralph Gumudul, an Aboriginal teacher from Goulburn Island. One of the committee's resolutions was that no decision be made on the development of a bilingual program at Roper River or Bamyili until there have been extensive discussions between the two communities and representatives of the Department of Education and Aboriginal Affairs (CECC, 1974, p.14). In June 1974, at the invitation of the NT Department of Education, four of the new bilingual programs in operation, and one in preparation, were visited by two linguists: Dr Geoff O'Grady from the University of Victoria, British Columbia in Canada and Dr Ken Hale from MIT in the US. A report of their visit, Recommendations concerning bilingual education in the Northern Territory, was released on July 1. There were 25 recommendations in all. The authors stated that they were "extremely impressed with the Northern Territory Bilingual Program—so much so that we are inclined to assert that this program constitutes one of the most exciting educational events in the modern world' (p.1). With some prescience they added, "It is, of course, just beginning and has a long and difficult road ahead of it". They asserted that "one of the goals of bilingual education should be to enable Aboriginal communities to gain local control over the education of their children and young adults with the role of non-Aboriginals becoming more consultative in nature" (pp. 3-4).[Ed: Unfortunately, this just did not happen over ensuing decades. If anything the role of non-Aboriginals became more and more directive.] Another important goal (p. 15) was that of 'enabling an Aboriginal scholar to write or talk about literally any subject under the sun". On p. 24 O'Grady and Hale referred to "the academic promise of bilingual education" which was that "vernacular literacy greatly accelerates the acquisition of basic literacy skills". One of their recommendations (#18) was "That the introduction of literacy in English be adjusted according to the proficiency of children in vernacular literacy and English" (O'Grady and Hale, 1974, p.5). This report was tabled in the Commonwealth Parliament by Mr Beazley, the Minister for Education, on November 12 1974 (Parliamentary Paper No 329). On September 26, 1974, a procedural text tabled in Parliament stated that The Northern Territory bilingual education program, under which formal education is introduced to young Aboriginal children in their own language, commenced in 1973, at 5 schools. During 1974 bilingual programs were introduced to a further three schools and two pre-schools. More schools are planning to introduce bilingual programs in the next few years. The development of linguistic work in Aboriginal languages has become a matter of some urgency with the new emphasis on teaching in those languages. Following consultation between linguists, educationalists and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, a School of Australian Linguistics is being established within the Darwin Community College. The first members of staff have now taken up duty. The Government supports special efforts for the benefit of Aboriginal people at all levels of education in all States. This support has been increasing year by year. In 1974-75 it will amount to $5.7m, making possible such fundamentally valuable activities as the widespread employment of Aboriginal teaching aides, specialised programs of teacher training, inservice courses and conferences, innovatory techniques in counselling and guidance and new types of courses for Aboriginal students, as well as extending and improving pre-school facilities for Aboriginal children (Hansard, September 26, 1974, http://goo.gl/DVctyE). On November 12 1974 Mr Beazley, the Minister for Education, reported to the Commonwealth Parliament that "special efforts are made to adapt the curriculum of schools and pre-schools in distinctive Aboriginal communities to the needs and the background of the children living in these communities and special efforts are made to encourage Aboriginal children throughout Australia to continue through secondary school and to go on to tertiary education" (Hansard, November 12 1974, http://goo.gl/wkhH08). The third meeting of the Bilingual Education Consultative Committee was held in Darwin on November 28 and 29 after visits had been made to Bathurst Island, Goulburn Island and Oenpelli the day before. Chaired by Jim Gallacher, it was attended by five committee members: Dr N. Peterson, Dr D. Tryon, J. Tandy, Ms A. Somers and Bill McGrath. The Committee approved the introduction of experimental oral Creole pre-school programs at Bamyili (Barunga) and Roper River (Ngukurr) the following year. Beginning in 1974 a 'crisis of stagflation' occurred in developed countries, including Australia, resulting in increased inflation, more unemployment, an imbalance in fiscal accounts and negative growth. One contributing factor had been the sharp rise in oil prices initiated by OPEC.The global recession stymied the growth needed to finance Whitlam's initiatives, which had included an improved deal for Aboriginal people, expanded industrial training, a larger university sector, more regional development, and so on. Guided by Daymbalipu Munuŋgurr and Wäli Wunuŋmurra, Dr Maria Brandl began researching how the Department of Education might respond to the aspirations of Yolŋu people with respect to homeland centres. She adopted a consultation process known as buku-wakthuman (Marika at al. 1992, pp.v 28–29), which tied in with the notions of group reciprocity, group ownership and obligation. Batchelor College was established, along with Darwin Community College (which included SAL). When the first general election for the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday October 19, 1974, Labor did not win a seat. The CLP obtained 49 per cent of the vote and 17 of the available 19 seats. On Christmas Eve Cyclone Tracy destroyed much of Darwin, killing 71 people. Half of the senior Bilingual Education advisory staff subsequently left Darwin. '"The big blow"', as locals called it, went for more than five hours, rattling houses until everything that held them together, every nail along with the nuts and bolts, came loose, at which point the buildings 'unzipped'. Evaporated into the air. Exploded into the night. Seventy per cent of Darwin's houses were laid waste. Every public building was destroyed or seriously damaged. While the loss of life was limited, the material damage was unparalleled" (Cunningham, 2011). Dr Beare, Director of NT Education, subsequently organised the evacuation of 30 000 people out of Darwin. Bilingual programs were commenced at Pularumpi (formerly Garden Point) in Tiwi and English. This program only lasted two years. Experimental oral Kriol pre-school programs were authorised at Bamyili (now Barunga) and Roper River (Ngukurr). Numbulwar pre-school commenced an official bilingual program in Nunggubuyu (Wubuy) and English (Lewis, 1975; Carr, Stansell, Wilkinson, 2017). After Dr Hedley Beare left the NT in early 1975, Dr James (Jim) Eedle was appointed to the Commonwealth Department of Education as First Assistant Secretary with responsibility "for all school education in the Territory during a period of rapid change and growth" (Carment et al., 2008, p. 168). In March 1975 Film Australia spent three weeks on location at Milingimbi, Yuendumu and Yayayi, shooting footage for the film Not to lose you my language. They did not record any reading or writing in English as the programs had not advanced that far. On June 2, 1975 Mr Beazley, the Minister for Education, tabled in Parliament the First progress report on the bilingual education program in schools in the Northern Territory, dated December 1973. The O'Grady and Hale Report was tabled as Parliamentary Paper No. 329, Recommendations concerning bilingual education in the Northern Territory. In 1975 the Department of Education surveyed 31 NT schools, of which 23 had some kind of bilingual program, whether "formal" or "informal": Angurugu, Areyonga, Bamyili, Bathurst Island, Croker Island, Dhupuma College, Docker River, Elcho Island, Goulburn Island, Gumadirr, Haasts Bluff, Lave Evella, Maningrida, Milingimbi, Numbulwar, Oenpelli, Port Keats, Snake Bay, Umbajumba, Yayayi, Yirrkala and Yuendumu (Evaluation and Assessment Unit, 1975, Table 14). Altogether there were 5188 Aboriginal students enrolled at the 31 schools: 997 in formal bilingual programs, 1700 in informal ones and 2491 in other programs (Evaluation and Assessment Unit, 1975, Table 16). "Formal programs" referred to any Model I or Model II programs introduced by the Northern Territory Education Division of the Australian Department of Education in line with the Watts, McGrath and Tandy Report (1973). It was reported (1975 Evaluation, Table 14) that at Yirrkala "all students speak a children's language, 'Baby' Gumatj which cuts across the other language barriers in the area and 18% will ultimately speak Gumatj". Sometime later that year there was a move within the Department of Education to reduce the bilingual program to a small pilot project. The Whitlam Government officially handed back land to the Gurindji people at Daguragu on August 16, 1975. This was in line with the Government's view that it was important to restore "to the Aboriginal people their lost power of self-determination in economic, social and political affairs". After the Whitlam Government lost power in November 1975 as a result of a constitutional crisis, this principle of self-determination was set aside. The Liberal and National Country Party Government announced that it supported self management instead, declaring that "Aborigines and Islanders should be free as other Australians to determine their own varied futures". At this time, "The White Australia Policy ... was still largely in place even in 1975" (Catley, 2005, p.8). 3. Consolidation (1976-); backlash (1998-); reinstatement (2005-); closure (2008-) Programs commenced at Barunga (formerly Bamyili) in Kriol, at Haasts Bluff in Pintupi-Luritja, at Numbulwar in Nunggubuyu (Wubuy) and Wadeye in Murrinh Patha (See Table 4.3 in Devlin 2011 for more information). It might be worth noting here that the vernacular language used at Numbulwar was Wubuy, which "has also been referred [to] as Nunggubuyu but this is the name for the people" (Carr, Wilkinson, & Stansell, 2017, p. 151). The Bamyili program lasted approximately 16 years. The one at Wadeye only continued for four years initially, but was recommenced in 1996. A community-based teacher education program began at Yirrkala. It was "the first on-site Teacher Education program" (Stockley, et al., 2017, p. 142). Mr Calder (Northern Territory) observed in the House of Representatives on March 17, 1976 that "We can see what has happened under the self-determination policy which was brought in by the Labor Party. A former Minister declared that self determination was a disaster. It is a disaster and it will continue to be so while such a policy is espoused" (Hansard, March 17, 1976, http://goo.gl/V6xiI2). On April 28, 1976 a group of senior Willowra men wrote to the Northern Territory Division of the Commonwealth Department of Education to request that "the Education Department to make a study into the feasibility of a bilingual program at Willowra school" (Vaarzon-Morel, & Wafer, 2017, p. 33). Jim Gallacher was seconded, on August 12, 1976, to investigate a number of issues including "the causes of reduced school enrolments and attendance" and to advise on "in-service training courses particularly relating to outstation and bilingual education" (Memo from James Eedle, File 76/927). On August 16, 1976 Dr James Eedle, Director, Northern Territory Division, directed that further expansion of bilingual programs be limited, and that existing programs be consolidated and evaluated. This began a period of consolidation. Jim Eedle stated that "the aims and objectives for Aboriginal education as stated in the Watts-Gallagher report should be restated for the benefit of teachers, principals and educational administrators throughout the Northern Territory. Prospective teachers were expected to have studied "the teaching of English as a Second Language, elements of anthropology, social linguistics, history and geography of the Northern Territory and health education". With respect to bilingual programs Dr Eedle requested that "Further expansion be limited and existing programs be consolidated and evaluated prior to an eventual decision as to which should be maintained indefinitely" (Eedle, 1976, p.2). He also called for "a shift in emphasis so that the bilingual programme is recognised as providing a bridge to English once lasting grounding in the local language has been established" (Eedle, 1976, p.2) The Liberal-National Country Party coalition government reduced funding for Aboriginal education in the Northern Territory by 34.7 per cent (Hansard, September 14, 1976, http://goo.gl/5GnPFc). On September 23, 1976 the Director of the Northern Territory Division, Jim Eedle, wrote to all Department of Education staff to say that "Government policy, implemented by the department, pledges full support to the bilingual programs in the N.T." (Circular 76/178). He added: Although the program is still in its infancy, evidence of the achievement of these and wider goals is beginning to emerge. Since 1973 there has been a dramatic increase in the publication of a wide range of literature in Aboriginal languages. Allied with this development has been the establishment of a growing body of Aboriginal professionals: literacy workers, writers, illustrators and Aboriginal teachers. A resurgence of overt interest in traditional culture has been observed throughout the Northern Territory. Community involvement at all levels of the school program and the integration of the classroom and the community environment has promoted a greater use of Aboriginal languages, increased spontaneity and participation in the classroom and a higher level of confidence and competence in Aboriginal teachers and teacher aides. Jim Eedle concluded his circular with this observation: Finally, may I reiterate that it is departmental policy for bilingual education programs to continue in the N.T., and that our aim for the immediate future is consolidation of existing programs to ensure that every opportunity is given for these programs to prove their value. (Circular 76/178) The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Cth) was passed, following the report of the Woodward Commission. The original Commonwealth legislation had been drafted by the Whitlam Government and introduced to parliament in October 1975. On October 12, 1976 Peter Falconer (Member for Casey) presented these views on bilingual education to Parliament: While it might not appear to honourable members that the bilingual education program has much application to my electorate I would point out that in my electorate there is the Australian headquarters of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, the academic arm of the Wycliffe bible translators. This organisation is deeply involved in bilingual education programs not only in Australia but throughout the world. I think it is fair to say that it has played an initiating role in developing bilingual education programs in various parts of the world. The need for bilingual education programs in Australia has been recognised in recent years for the Aboriginal population in the Northern Territory in particular but it does have applications in other contexts as well. Of course, the idea behind the bilingual program is that the child who has learnt to speak another tongue—in the case of Australia, a tongue other than English—needs to be taught initially how to read and write in that language before making the jump into the English language. There is great difficulty in making the jump from a spoken language which has no literature immediately into the English language and being able to cope with the English literature involved. If that person can be taught to read and write in his or her own language the emotional and intellectual jump involved in then transferring to the English language is much easier to manage. This is the idea behind the bilingual education programs. In many cases, as far as Aboriginal communities are concerned, this has meant sending people out to actually put a language on paper in the first instance. Often this has involved moving among tribes in the situation in which they have lived for many years and starting from scratch to develop a literature for a few hundred people who speak that dialect. As a result great advances are being made in the teaching of English in Northern Territory schools. The role which the Summer Institute of Linguistics has played has not been limited to its particular religious attitudes and aims. As a group of people committed to a certain purpose or cause arising out of their religious beliefs they have been more prepared than most other people to commit themselves to spend 2, 3 or 4 years with a particular community in order to commit that language to paper. So it is that many governments throughout the world have seen fit to finance the Summer Institute of Linguistics in its activities in order to provide government agencies with the basic literature on which they can conduct bilingual educational programs. I can only applaud this move and hope that the good relationships which the Summer Institute of Linguistics has developed with the Department of Education and with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs will continue to grow and develop because there is mutual benefit in a cooperative relationship of this kind. I believe we can do a great deal more to apply the principle of bilingual education to many schools in the community other than the Aboriginal communities of Australia. (Hansard, October 12, 1976) Two NT schools also began Model I bilingual programs in 1977: Umbakumba in Anindilyakwa and English (a program that lasted approximately five years) and Willowra (Wirliyajarrayi) in Warlpiri and English. Three schools, Angurugu, Bamyili and Oenpelli, also commenced Model II programs. Etherington (1986, 34) has explained why the program at Oenpelli was not considered to be successful and so was subsequently discontinued in 1983. On April 29, 1977 the Principal of Yirrkala School (Owen Faust) advised an Aboriginal elder (Dadayŋa Marika) that "the shortage of teachers is seriously affecting the work of the school: the bilingual program, the outstation movement and the teacher training program" (NTDE File YS/47/77/21). Mr Beazley (Fremantle), who held the Education portfolio throughout the Whitlam government's term of office, advised Parliament on May 26, 1977 that One of the first decisions we made in education was that there should be a bilingual program in Aboriginal education. No demand for this came from Aboriginal parents. Many of them jumped at the opportunity of having education in their own languages in their schools when the proposition was put to them and I understand that it has now grown to a point where there is education in 22 Aboriginal languages around the Northern Territory. However, there was no articulate demand for it from Aboriginal parents, although they needed it. (Hansard, May 26, 1977, http://goo.gl/2QB8O2). By 1977 logistical difficulties were besetting bilingual education, even while it was under Commonwealth control. The Bilingual Education Consultative Committee noted in August 1977 that "The Bilingual Program appears to be developing and gaining strength in a manner which recollects credit on all concerned". Nonetheless, it recommended that it "be assigned a degree of priority across all areas within the Department recognising the special effort required in implementing and developing a system's innovation". This was because of apparent difficulties "in securing and obtaining resources for all bilingual programmes" given the reduction in the number of Aboriginal Assistant Teacher positions from 136 to 125", difficulty in obtaining stores for printing, filling public service positions, and so on. Staff ceilings for schools with bilingual programs were mentioned in this Parliamentary exchange on Thursday, August 25, 1977: Q: Mr BEAZLEY (FREMANTLE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA) - I ask the Minister representing the Minister for Education: Have staff ceilings imposed on the Aboriginal bilingual education program in the Northern Territory been lifted due to the fact that the scheme was started only in 1973 and it was envisaged that there would be an increasing need for staff as the Aboriginal children concerned proceeded up the primary school? A: Mr VINER -The bilingual education program is undergoing an evaluation by my colleague at the present time. It is the first evaluation since the program was instituted. Both my colleague and I have a very high regard for the program and place considerable importance on it. I have been to a number of schools where the program is in operation. I have found that it is of great benefit to the Aboriginal children and that there is great enthusiasm by the teachers concerned. As to the particular point regarding staff ceilings, I will refer the question to my colleague and have an answer provided to the honourable gentleman (Hansard August 25, 1977, http://goo.gl/qQJQ84). The Bilingual Education Consultative Commitee (BECC) met in Darwin August 24-26. In attendance were Mr Jim Gallacher (Chair), Ms A. Sommers, Mr J. Tandy, Dr N. Peterson and Dr D. Tryon. At the time Jim Gallacher was Assistant Director (Special Projects) in the Department of Education, Darwin; A Sommers was from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Canberra; J. Tandy was from the Department of Education, Canberra; N. Peterson was in the Department of Pre-history and Anthropology at ANU and Dr D Tryon was at the Department of Linguistics at ANU. The BECC The CLP retained government in the 1977 elections and on September 21 Paul Everingham was elected Chief Minister. His government was re-elected on December 3, 1983. On July 1 the Australian Government ceded its control over education to the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978 was passed. Most of the provisions of that act came into operation on July 1. In August 1978 Cabinet Decision no. 375 set out NTG policy with respect to decentralisation and regionalisation. Centrally located professional and administrative staff were to be deployed to regional offices. Most Federal Government functions were transferred to the Northern Territory,but not responsibility for Aboriginal Affairs or uranium mining. After Dr James Eedle became Secretary of the newly created Department of Education in the Northern Territory, NTbilingual programs entered a consolidation phase (1978–1986). 'Consolidation' was essentially understood to mean that there was no money available toestablish new programs. However, one NT school, Maningrida, did begin a bilingual program in Ndjebbana and English. The Aboriginal language used in the bilingual program at Galiwin'ku was switched from Gupapuyŋu to Djambarrpuyŋu.However, those students who had commenced their bilingual schooling in Gupapuyŋu and English were allowed to continue. In June that year onsite teacher training also started at Galiwin'ku (Noela Hall, peers.comm, August 29, 2014). A separate program in Gälpu was introduced for the children who spok that clan language. At Milingimbi Yolngu teachers began organising the Natural Science program at the school in 1978. They did this the following year as well (Milingimbi School Report, 1979). Kral (2015) notes that "By 1978, the Santa Teresa community had begun developing a bilingual program within the Catholic education system". Dr Everingham (Capricornia) claimed in Parliament on September 13, 1978 that "Spending on Aboriginal education has also suffered under this Government. Spending on Aboriginal education as a proportion of the total education budget has dropped from 2.2 per cent under the Australian Labor Party Government to 1.8 per cent under the Fraser Government. This is the answer of the Government to the fact that only one percent of Aboriginal students reach matriculation. Bilingual teaching is poorly provided and bi-cultural education exists hardly at all except where adedicated teacher makes a special voluntary effort" (Hansard, September 13, 1978, http://goo.gl/L8zB1W). Mr Staley, the Minister representing the Minister for Education, reported to Parliament on November 21, 1978 that "In the Northern Territory there has been a particular emphasis on the second language approach to learning English to ease the transition for Aboriginal students to learn English. New reading material has been prepared, and additional staff have been appointed specifically to supervise the development of Aboriginal reading. Also the bilingual education program, which is operating in some 18 schools in the Northern Territory, is designed to enable Aboriginals to develop linguistic competence" (Hansard, November 24, 1978, http://goo.gl/HhnxcA) The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Mr Viner, advised on November 24, 1978 that "The Government has been helping Aboriginals throughout Australia to maintain, develop and restore and rebuild their cultural identity through the programs of the Aboriginal Arts Board of the Australia Council and through bi-cultural and bilingual education programs" (Hansard, November 24, 1978, http://goo.gl/UNBfmP). On the same day (November 24) Mr Staley, the Minister representing the Minister for Education, advisedParliament that "An important innovation in Aboriginal education in recent years has been the introduction of bilingual programs. The bilingual program inthe Northern Territory now involves 19 schools in Aboriginal communities. Twelve different Aboriginal languages are used along with English in formalprograms. In addition a number of schools use the local Aboriginal language in an informal way". Apparently unaware that Maningrida had begun a bilingual program in Ndjebbana and English, he went on to say that "At Maningrida, for example, the large number of languages spoken precludes a formal program in any one of them, but it is possible for some of the older children to be introduced to literacy in their own language. Bilingual programs withcharacteristics similar to those operating in the Northern Territory are now also operating in several Aboriginal communities in the States including thefollowing: Kowanyama, Aurukun (Qld.), Ernabella, Fregon, Amata and indulkana (SA) and Warburton (WA). As in the Northern Territory, the local language isused extensively in outstation education wherever this development occurs. Use of the local language on a less structured basis occurs in other communities particularly Yalata (SA), Yandeyarra, Oombulgurri and Strelley (WA)" (Hansard, November 24, 1978, http://goo.gl/DI9tu6) Later, in the same address, Parliament was advised that "The Government has actively encouraged the appointmentof Aboriginals as teachers and teacher assistants in the Northern Territory. Twelve Aboriginals have now qualified for recognition as permanent teachers bythe Commonwealth Teaching Service. A further nineteen have completed two years training to qualify for appointment of temporary teachers, and another group of 57 have completed part of their teacher training course. While the numbers are still not large, they represent a growing and significant involvement of theAboriginal people in their education. The Roper River school is staffed by Aboriginals, including the first Aboriginal principal in the NorthernTerritory. In addition, some 300 teacher assistants are employed in Northern Territory schools. There are also some 400 Aboriginals employed in teachingpositions in the States. Some of these are qualified teachers; the remainder hold positions as teacher assistants" (Staley, Hansard, November 24,1978, http://goo.gl/DI9tu6) "Bilingual programs have been introduced to all Southern Region Aboriginal communities which satisfy certaincriteria, one of which is a request from the community that such a program be commenced. Currently five Government schools conduct a bilingual program in thesouthern region and it is hoped to expand the program to Santa Teresa school in the near future" (Staley, Hansard, November 24, 1978, http://goo.gl/DI9tu6) On Sept 6 1978 K.A.Ritichie advised Canberra that "Bilingual programs have been introduced to all thoseSouthern Region Aboriginal communities which satisfy certain criteria, one being a request from the community that such a program be commenced. Presentlyfive Government schools conduct a bilingual program in the southern region of the N.T." (NTRS 550 P2/ Box 1) He went to add that : Some future expansionof programs is anticipated (e.g. Santa Teresa) but in other communities expansion will be restricted either by the diversity of Aboriginal languagesspoken, or the willingness of the Public Service Board and the Commissioner of the C.T.S. to expand the number of specialist staff positions necessary toservice any such expansion". By September 1978 there were 53 Aboriginal people undertaking teacher training in the NT (Ritchie, 1978). On October 26, 1978 the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Ian Viner, announced the Government's intention "to legislate for the creation of an Aboriginal Development Agency" which would "put forward new kinds of programs designed to contribute to the self-sufficiency of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities" (Hansard, Thursday, 26 October 1978, http://goo.gl/yFRBhx). The Shimpo Report, an independent assessment of Aboriginal education, was released. Taking over from the Commonwealth Department for Education, the Northern Territory Government assumed full responsibility for providingeducation services from July. Docker River commenced a bilingual program in Pitjantjatjara and English. Angurugu ceased to offer a bilingual program. One reason was that the school wanted post-primary girls to read in Anindilyakwa after initial literacy in English, but this was not acceptable to advisers in head office. Another was that only one Anindilyakwa-speaking person was willing to work in the program. The third difficulty related to orthography problems. Both Santa Teresa and Maningrida were considered to be "bilingual schools in preparation" (NTDE, 1979). "For a number of operational reasons" the bilingual program at Numbulwar "was formally suspended in 1979" (Carr, Wilkinson, & Stansell, 2017, p. 151). A Band 1 teacher-linguist appointment at Goulburn Island school was recommended by Graham McGill, Dr Stephen Harris and Les Robertson, and so Mr David Stainsby was moved from Alyangula to Goulburn. His duties as teacher-linguist were restricted compared to other Band 2 teacher-linguists. For example, Band 2 teacher-linguists were involved in developing vernacular curriculum materials, but at Goulburn, Island, since it was thought that "To increase the level of Maung literacy would demand a lot of time, effort and expertise", it was therefore suggested that the bilingual program should just be restricted to the early years. In 1979 the attendance rate of the 120 students in Milingimbi's primary school section averaged 80 per cent (Kathy Gale inthe Milingimbi School Report, 1979). By the late 1970s there were 10 advisers servicing the bilingual program from Head Office (located on Level 3 of the T&G building in Smith Street). By 1991 there was only one. The Minister of Education explained (in 1991) that "the Department of Education's aim has been to gradually mainstream bilingual education so that it fits into the normal pattern of schooling and is accepted as the responsibilityof local and regional supervisors. This has meant that the central infrastructure had to be dismantled" (File 93/483, f.190). Bilingual staff from several Arnhem Land schools attended an Early Childhood Education Conference at Milingimbi, June 28-29. Dr James Wafer carried out research which showed that "in Central Australia (taken to be the half of the Northern Territory south of Elliot) there are more speakers of Aboriginal languages than there are speakers of English" (Aboriginal Languages Association Newsletter, 1, April 1981) By 1980 there were bilingual programs operating in 13 government schools and two mission schools. In a further seven schools programs were in various stages of preparation (NTDE, 1980, p.14). In addition to head office staff the Bilingual Program in the NT was supported by 13 teacher-linguists, five field linguists, eight literature production supervisors, 16 literacy workers, and a some part time field workers (NTDE file in the NT Archives NTRS 550/P2 Box 1 1/81) The Bilingual Education Unit, comprising seven headquarters staff, was incorporated into the Curriculum Branch. The Bilingual Education Consultative Committee was placed under Feppi's control. A new policy regarding bilingual education was set out in the February NTDE Education Bulletin (Notice no. 80/9, File no. 76/281). This included reference to plans to evaluate school bilingual programs. Given that the bilingual program throughout the NT cost $1.1 million, the evaluation exercise (1980-2) was an attempt to justify that expense (Kevin Davis, pers comm. April 17, 1980). Yirrkala Community School was identified as the first to undergo bilingual accreditation in 1980. Mrs Anne Richards, from the Evaluation and Research Section of the Education Department, tested Year 7 students in the last week of October. Brian Devlin advised Graham McGill, PEA Bilingual/Aboriginal Curriculum on November 7 that "Although the test scores are not yet final, I have sufficient scores to establish the pattern of performance in all written tests. As I assisted Anne with the statistical work I am aware of comparative test averages for the 3 groups: 5/6 Bilingual, 5/6 non-bilingual, 6/7 non-bilingual...I do not think I am breaching a confidence if I say that the Bilingual students did well, and that the results are a striking vindication of the Bilingual program'. Bilingual Year 5/6 students at Yirrkala out-performed non-bilingual 5/6 students in every test, an interesting outcome given that non-bilingual 5/6 students were older and had been at school at least an additional year, not to mention that their instruction had been in English". The official view of how a school with a bilingual program should be structured was that should be one year of preschool (for children aged 4+), a Transition phase (for children 5+ years in age), Years 1–3 (Ages 6–8) with transition to English literacy occuring in Year 4 (age 9). Milingimbi was roundly criticised by senior NTDE staff for seeking to delay transfer to English literacy (Kevin Davis, pers comm. April 17, 1980). Staff turnover was 22 per cent during the 1979-80 period (NTDE, 1980, p.5). An intensive training course was held for teacher-linguists during stand-down in Darwin, May 6-18, 1980. An Aboriginal Writers' Workshop was arranged in Darwin, May 13-16, by Cos Russo. A Creative Writers workshop, also organised by Cos Russo, was held at Batchelor, June 2-6. This was attended by a number of literacy workers from around the Northern Territory. A NE Arnhem Land Regional Conference of teachers in bilingual programs, arranged by Brian Devlin, was held at Yirrkala, June 25–27, 1980. Umbakumba's program was suspended "while the spelling system [in Anindilyakwa] is resolved" (File 86/2680 f45). Kevin Davis, the Assistant Secretary of NTDE, was understood to be considering a proposal to institute a scholarshipscheme for Aboriginal teachers in training so that their positions in the home school become vacant and replacements may be found (pers. comm., Graham McGill,May 1, 1980). Dhupuma College was abruptly closed on August 21, 1980. A translation workshop was held December 1–12, 1980. The Curriculum Development Centre planned an hour-long video in which Ms Loween Scott interviewed Dr Stephen Harris about bilingual programs in Aboriginal schools. The Aboriginal Development Commission was established to assist the economic and social development of Aboriginalpeople and achieve self-management and economic self-sufficiency through the acquisition of land, becoming involved in businesses and and providing finance for housing. Three NT schools commenced a bilingual program: (1) Maningrida School began one in Ndjebbana and English; (2) M'Bunghara Homeland Centre began a Pintupi/ Luritja and English program, which lasted nine years. (3) Watiyawanu (Mt Liebig) also started a Pintupi/Luritjaand English program, according to Black (1993, p. 210), citing Bubb (1990). In Appendix 8 of the Collins Report the same date is given. It was in that year that the teacher left to establish a school at Walungurru (Watiyawanu, 2014) so the remaining assistant teacher may have started an informal bilingual program which lasted a while and was then recommenced in 1987. In October 1981 the Aboriginal Curriculum/Bilingual Education Unit of the NT Department of Education publisheda pamphlet shown what additional programs were in operation or in preparation. The following list records the vernacular language names and place names as they were spelled then: Areyonga (Pitjantatjara), Milingimbi (Gupapuyngu), Bathurst Island (Tiwi), Elcho Island (Djambarrpuyngu, Galpu), Haasts Bluff (Pintubi/Luritja), Oenpelli (Kunwinku), Yirrkala (Gumatj), Yuendumu (Warlpiri), Bamyili (Kriol), Docker River (Pitjantatjara), Umbakumba (Anindilyakwa), Port Keats (Murinbatha), Willowra (Warlpiri), Pupunya Western Homeland Centres (Pintubi/Luritja), and Maningrida (Djebbana). These programs varied in strength. Docker River did not have a teacher linguist and was a dependent on Areyonga for its bilingual materials (NTRS 550 P2 f.57), so the Director of the Southern Branch reported on February 1982. Programs in preparation in 1981 included Maningrida (Nakara and Bururra), Angurugu (Anindilyakwa), Santa Teresa(Aranda), Ngukurr (Kriol), Lajamanu (Warlpiri), Numbulwar (Ngunggubuyu/Kriol), Papunya Cenral School and Eastern homeland centres (Aranda). In response to a question on notice from Mr Isaacs in the Legislative Assembly the Minister explained that theallocation for bilingual programs in 1981-2 (excluding salaries) was $122 000. The amount spent, however, was $95 936. Of the programs in operation three were "experiencing problems with developing an orthography, low attendance and unavailability of suitable staff" (NTRS 550/P2 Box 1 1/81 f.47). Work on a new education policy framework had begun in September 1980. A green paper on the direction ofprimary and secondary education for the 1980s was distributed for comment and tabled in the Legislative Assembly in February 1981. NT Cabinet considered itthe same month. One of the initiatives was to evaluate and accredit bilingual programs. The aim was to achieve this for all of them by the end of 1984 (Northern Territory Schools: Directions for the Eighties, p. 8). On April 13 1981 Jim Gallacher, co-author of the Watts-Gallacher report and Director of the Office ofAboriginal Liaison, wrote to the Chief Minister on April 30 1981 to argue that "it is wrong at this stage of Aboriginal advancement for Aboriginal employees to be subjected to staff ceiling restrictions" (NTRS 550/P2, f.8). The Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser advised that the Education and Research Development Committee would be terminated and the number of Commonwealth staff reduced by 16-1700 (NTDE File 24/81 f53). In August 1981 NT Cabinet considered an information paper on a treaty or Makarrata, which would have included protection of Indigenous identity, language, law and culture, but it was decided to set the matter aside, pending proposals from the National AboriginalConference. By November 1981 the number of NTDE staff had been reduced by 166 (G J Spring, Dep Sec Policy Planning and Services to the Minister, Feb 19, 1982). NTDE "sustained a cut of approximately $1.4M in administrative expenses below its baseline for the previous year"(NTDE File 24/81 f10). The Secretary of NTDE, S P Saville, appealed to M F Finger, Dept of Chief Minister on March 4, 1981 to "use your influence to correct any misconceptions which are current about "extravagance". In fact the reverse is the case. We have worked very hard to live within our means, finding ways to absorb the restrictions placed upon us...and...to avoid embarrassment to the government" (NTDE File 24/81f10). The Aboriginal Languages Association (ALA) was established. On December 1 the leader of the Opposition, Bob Collins, asked a question without notice concerning theapparent fall in enrolments at Batchelor College. The Minister replied on January 26, 1982. He explained that in 1981 there had been 120 applications, 75 of which had been accepted. In 1982 only 63 applied. He noted that only 15 of these were NTDE employees and just 41 were accepted. The RATE Program cost $114 000 (salaries $16 000; Admin expenses $98 000). At the end of 1981 the population of the Northern Territory was estimated to be 126 300. One NT school began a bilingual program in this year: Lajamanu (formerly Hooker Creek) in Warlpiri and English. The program ceased to operatefrom 1991 to 1996, apart from an unsuccessful attempt to revive it over a 10-week period in 1992. The NT Government endorsed the continuation of bilingual programs and published a list of eight aims, the first of which was "To develop competency in English (reading and writing) and in mathematics to the level required on leaving school to function withoutdisadvantage in the wider Australian community". This was a shift from the earlier statement in 1975: "To help each child to believe in himself andbe proud of his heritage by the regular use of the Aboriginal language in school and by learning about Aboriginal culture". It represented a shift of focus from maintenance of language and culture to a transition to English. These revised aims had been approved by the Minister for Education, Jim Robertson, on November 17, 1982. The goal was to (1) make the procedures for evaluating bilingual programs more manageable and specific, (2) to respond to the new developments associated with the core curriculum and (3) to reflect more clearly Education Department policy as outlined in the Handbook for Aboriginal bilingual education in the Northern Territory. The bilingual programs in three schools (Yirrkala, St Therese's on Bathurst Island and Elcho Island) were granted provisional accreditation. By 1982 bilingual programs were said to be operating in 16 schools (14 Government and two Mission) and 12 languages,"reaching more than half the Aboriginal population" (NTDE File 36/81 Part I, f85). However, at Willowra the teacher-linguist's position was vacant,so Earl Watter, the Director of Southern Branch, advised the Secretary on February 8. On April 21 Kevin Davis wrote to the Minister, explaining that Feppi had ceased to operate effectively and thereforeso did Batchelor College's Board of Governors "as the majority of the Board of Governors was drawn from Feppi" (NTDE File 8/81). On October 25 Ian Wilson, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, wrote to J.M. Robertson, NT Minister for Education: My dear Minister I have received representations from the National Aboriginal Conference (N.A.C.), P.O. Box 259, Woden, A.C.T., 2606, requesting the reasons for a cut in funding for the bi-lingual education programs in the Northern Territory. As the funding of this program is the responsibility of the Northern Territory Government, I am referring the matter to you for reply direct to the National Chairman of the N.A.C., Mr Roy Nichols, at the above address. I would appreciate a copy of your response. Ian Wilson (NTRS 550/P2 Box 1/81 Part III) In November Kevin Davis was quietly released from his normal duties as Deputy Secretary in the Department of Education so that he could prepare the Department's position in preparation for the Supreme Court hearing of the Yipirinya appeal. The Australian economy was in recession. Following the election of the Labor government in 1983 each administration thereafter promoted, with varying degrees of vigour, the liberalisation of the Australian economy. Two NT schools began bilingual programs: Walungurru (Kintore) in Pintupi/Luritja and English; and Yipirinyabecame an official independent Aboriginal school, supported by direct Commonwealth funding, after having operated as a "de facto" program for several years. It offered a bilingual program in four language varieties: Eastern Arrernte, Pitjantjatjara, Warlpiri and Western Arrernte languages. The Batchelor College Development Plan outlined how that institution would "operate in the future as a major tool for Aboriginal development" (NTDE File 8/81 ff.129-134). New course arrangements were announced by the Minister for Education (Marshall Perron) on February 11. A three-year Associate Diploma in Teaching (Aboriginal Studies) was introduced. Beth Graham ran an inservice for teachers at Strelley School, April 17-23. In October 1983 the Secretary of the NT Department of Education, S P Saville, advised that Year 5 and Year 7 students in Aboriginal Schools would be assessed as part of the NT Assessment Program. Participation by schools was not compulsory (Circular no. 83/78, File no. 83/1835). Commonwealth policy on self-determination was outlined by Clyde Holding, the Federal Minister forAboriginal Affairs, as follows: "This Government looks to achieve further progress for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through the two principles of consultation and self-determination, that is, with the involvement of the Aboriginal people in the whole process ... All our policies, each of our programs and projects, have been and will continue to be fashioned in discussions with Aboriginal people and their organisations at national andcommunity levels" (Hon C Holding MHR, Commonwealth of Australia 134 Parl Debates (H of R), December 8, 1983), 3487). Papunya began a bilingual program in Pintupi-Luritja and English. Staff reductions, and a decline in funding support for programs, began to affect operations in bilingual schools from around 1984 onwards. For example, bilingual education positions in head office were progressively cut, to just a Principal Education Officer, Principal Linguist and Education Officer in 1984. In 1980 there had been six head office advisers. ATSIC was abolished. In early 1985 the Minister for Education directed that Departmental activities be extensively reviewed (DAA file 84/105 f.143). As a result of that review the Department was completely reorganised and 50 positions disappeared, affecting all sections of the Department. On February 22, 1985 the Department of Education advised that it was unable to fund the linguists at Yirrkala and Galiwinku (Letter from GJ Spring to DAA, DAA file 84/105, f.140). The staffing reductions included one of three senior education advisers, two of the six linguists and half of the teaching assistants. This move was protested, among others, by W Dix, Principal of AIATSIS, in his letter dated July 5, 1985 to the Chief Minister, Mr Tuxworth. Dix wrote, "This will have a devastating effect. There were previously only six linguists working on fourteen languages for which there were bilingual programmes. The teaching assistants, who do the translating in the classroom are crucial to the programme. In order to demonstrate the efficacy and value of the programme, which must be seen as a long term project, more, not less staff are needed". On April 21 Peter Walsh, the Federal Finance Minister, claimed that the Northern Territory was overfunded. In June 1985 it was pointed out in Territory Teacher that, as a result of the cutbacks, "The Bilingual programme as a whole will suffer. This will lead to a vicious circle of badly running programmes which will then close, effecting more 'savings'". The Departmental Review resulted in Bronwyn Eather not being replaced as linguist at Maningrida or Anita van der Wal as linguist at Milingimbi. On August 2, 1985 Clyde Holding, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, wrote to the federal Office of Professional Officers to express his concern about "the total impact of the proposed changes on the education of Aboriginals in the Northern Territory" (DAAfile 84/105 f.142). Mike Halloran, the Literature Production Supervisor at Maningrida, died at the age of 57. Dr Bruce Sommer, the Principal Linguist, referred to "resistance to literacy among the AboriginalAT's" at Maningrida. However, seven months later Dr Stephen Harris, the PEO Bilingual, reported "dramatic improvement over the last 12 months in [the]literacy and fluency levels of Aboriginal staff in the program". As mentioned above, the linguist's position at Maningrida was abolished, and so Bronwyn Eather was forced to discontinue her work. She had been at Maningrida for five years in all with time out for study leave. The PEO Bilingual noted that "She has been of very practical support to the program. The following are examples of the type of contribution she has made: trained Teacher-linguist in practical knowledgeabout grammar and translation basic to any production of Njebbana reading materials; checked spelling and grammar of written materials; analysed theappropriateness of close activities in Njebbana as a means of improving comprehension; analysed Njebbana Instant Readers to see how cognitively demanding they are and to see how suitable their vocabulary is; informally studied what appeared to be interesting or not to Njebbana children; cooperated in collecting data for language analysis which would be immediately useful for classroom activities, e.g. classification of 40 types of local shells; worked on maths spatial concepts and natural science classification; monitored Assistant Teachers' teaching in Njebbana to see if it made good sense; helped Njebbana AT's to talk about Maths in terms of everyday understandings; joined in "Learning Together Sessions"; with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal staff; took Njebbana staff literacy classes when necessary ..." (Harris, 1985, pp. 8-9) In her report for 1985 Bronwyn Eather noted that, with respect to Maningrida: "there are now two bilingualprograms, no linguists and no grammars of either language". She added: "In view of the Department's apparent reluctance to support linguistic fieldwork in Maningrida, perhaps Bilingual programs should consider approaching University departments with their urgent research topics, asking the local school for support such as accommodation and work-space (p.2)" On September 2 1985 the PEO Bilingual, Stephen Harris, strongly recommended that the Njebbana-English program atManingrida School be allowed to continue even though some practical concerns had previously been identified. These included difficulties with the orthography, assistant teachers who were "not sufficiently literate in their language" , a non-Aboriginal teacher who was challenged bymulti-grade teaching and the lack of a literature production supervisor (Harris, 1985). At the end of 1985 the bilingual program at Shepherdson College was fully accredited. Paul Buschenhofen, one of the head office advisers, left after working in the bilingual program for seven years. Stephen Harris also departed in December, ostensibly on leave, but he never rejoined the bilingual program. Graham McGill, the PEO Bilingual (Southern Directorate) was responsible for a few major initiatives in 1985 including (1) a meeting of principals and teacher linguists; (2) workshops by languages; (3) a Western Desert curriculum conference, attended by BernieLaporte from Balgo, WA and Kathy Gale (SA), which, among other recommendations, called for Pitjantjatjara to be standardised. At Ernabella in 1978 four variants had been identified; and (4) a major drive on literacy, in conjunction with TAFE and SAL. This included arranging a course on vernacular and English writing. Course participants were literacy workers who had proven literacy skills. In McGill's view (peers. comm, January31,1986) the central issue for bilingual education was literature for upper primary. "Maths is a luxury. If the kids can hear, the rest will come. The SACE material will flow from that. We are in a vacuum—teacher linguists have not been 'hammered' enough". Two NT schools commenced new bilingual programs: (1) At Nyirrpi in Warlpiri and English; and (2) At Maningrida a Burarra and English program was established in response to "strong community requests." Burarra-speaking people had first asked the Department of Education for a bilingual program in 1983. Stephen Harris wrote a feasibility report in 1984 and 1985 was a year of preparation with Yasuo Nagai as teacher-linguist.) By 1986 there were 16 bilingual programs operating in NT schools plus one in preparation. All were Model 1programs. Total student enrolment in the schools with these programs was 2 344 compared to the 4 790 Aboriginal students in all NT schools. The programrequired 70 additional specialist staff and cost $1.4M to operate. Administrative day-to-day responsibility for BEPs had been regionalised, although there were two specialist staff stationed in Head Office: an EO Bilingual at Tamar House and a PEO bilingual at the National Mutual Centre inCavenagh Street. By 1986 there were more bilingual programs operating in the Southern Directorate than in the north (Graham McGill, pers. comm, January 31,1986) The language of instruction in the bilingual program at Yirrkala was changed from Gumatj to Dhuwaya. Some concerns about bilingual education at Milingimbi were summarised by the regional linguist, East Arnhem (Alan Walker). These included lack of teaching assistant positions, the problem of vernacular maths, and the need for the roles of staff to be clarified. Mt Ebenezer requested the establishment of a Model 2 Bilingual Program in Pitjantjatjara. Literature Production Centres were hit by a freeze on public service positions. In 1986 Graham McGill proposed, in a Bilingual Education Newsletter, that Literature Production Supervisors should have a background in writing and layout work rather than in the printing trade, and should see their role as trainers of Aboriginal workers in the literacy process. Early in 1986 the Principal at Yirrkala advised that "in view of staffing cuts in schools the whole future of bilingual education is going to have to be looked at closely" (Owen Faust, pers. comm., February 19). A review of part-time instructor payments was conducted. The main problem appeared to be the delay in receiving payment (File 83/1469 f45). The Deakin-Batchelor Aboriginal Teacher Education program (D-BATE) was established. This followed the involvement of several Deakin University staff (particularly Stephen Kemmis, Helen Watson and John Henry) in projects at Batchelor and Yirrkala. For more details see Marika et al. (1992). FEPPI released its 12-point plan. In 1986 telephone calls from Darwin to bilingual staff in remote schools still had to be booked by ringing Outback Radio on 81 9455. Public service pay and conditions were cut in a mini budget introduced by the CLP Government on June 11. On July 7 a mass meeting of publicservants protested these changes. At Papunya the Literature Production Supervisor reported that renovations "have given us a top-rate darkroom, a new air-conditioning system and useful built-in shelving, but unfortunately no windows to replace the louvres, so that dust continues to pour in to ourexpensive machinery" (Meg Mooney, "The 'new school' of Literature Production Supervisor", 1987). A Pintupi-Luritja program recommenced at Watiyawanu (Mt Liebig). In the Northeast Arnhem region the Yolŋu name for both-ways education was changed from ganma '(brackish water') to garma ('open space'). Galtha ('starting point') was reserved for the Yolŋu or traditional side of the curriculum. The Australian language and literacy policy strongly supported the use of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island languages in educational settings. The federal Government announced the National Aboriginal languages Program (NALP), which set aside $3.5M for "the preservation, continued use and appreciation of Aboriginal and Tores Strait Island languages". In an address to Batchelor students, Wesley Lanhupuy, MLA, stated that "The decolonisation of schools in Aboriginal communities is the challenge for Aborigines now" (Lanhupuy, 2002). On July 9, 1987 the Director of the Curriculum and Assessment Branch, Harry Payne, wrote a memo to the Chief Executive of the Department of Education advocating an expedient approach to finalising the evaluation of those schools with bilingual programs which had not yet been accredited. His recommendation was that that "accreditation for remaining bilingual schools be based on a short report to the Accreditation Panel submitted by a team representing the Region, Feppi and Bilingual education expertise" (File 86/312). This was accepted by Feppi, but his recommendation was extended to include a representative from the school community concerned. Since Australia was hosting the eighth World Congress of Applied Linguistics in Sydney in 1987, a pre-congress conference was arranged from August 9 to August 11 at Batchelor College. This event, "Cross Cultural Issues in Educational Linguistics", was organised by Brian Grey and Bill Eggington, who were both at the Darwin Institute of Technology. Speakers included Wendy Baarda, Jeannie Bell, David Bendor-Samuel, Paul Black, Lee Cataldi, Neil Chadwick, Michael Christie, Brian Devlin, Esther Djayhgurrnga, Bill Eggington, Eve Fesl, Freda Glynn, Beth Graham, Brian Gray, Erica Nangala Hampton, Robert Kaplan, Jim Martin, Patrick McConvell, Ailsa Purdpon, Jane Simpson, Joe Singh, Cathy Williamson, and Bakamana [Mandawuy] Yunupingu. Proceedings were published in Language: Maintenance, power and education in Australian Aboriginal contexts, edited by Christine Walton and Bill Eggington. The Graduate Diploma of Linguistics was offered for the first time by the Darwin Institute of Technology in March, 1988. It included the course unit, EAL5654 Bilingual Education, which was prepared and taught by Brian Devlin. The Bilingual Education Consultative Committee (BECC) endorsed the school-community appraisal process, which had started in 1988, as a replacement for the accreditation scheme which had been in operation for most of that decade. As a result of local initiative, Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa) commenced a bilingual program in Eastern Arrernte and English. In 1989 Lajamanu School topped all government Aboriginal schools in the Territory in the Education Department's own externally-administered moderated testing programmes in English. Internal tests conducted in the school also showed a steady improvement in academic achievement over the years. The Gupapuyŋu-English bilingual program at Milingimbi was changed to a 50:50 model. The first Central Australian Aboriginal Languages Association Conference was held in Hamilton Downs on April 21, 1989. On July 1, 1989, SAL was transferred from NTU to Batchelor College. At the time SAL provided certificate-level courseswithin a career structure for literacy workers. The Department reported that there were 3472 Aboriginal primary and secondary-aged students in bilingual education programs. These programs were assisted by 36 literacy workers, 188 teacher linguists [This figure is obviously incorrect], with some 20 schools participating,, 10 literature production supervisors, four linguists and two office-based advisory staff (File 93/483 f.169). On October 2, 1990 the Hon Tom Harris, Minister for Education, the Arts and Cultural Affairs, tabled his report in the NT Legislative Assembly:"Talking is not enough": A review of traditionally oriented people in the Northern Territory. On p.9 of that review it was noted that "The objective of this review was to obtain themaximum possible input from traditional Aboriginal people living in remote communities in the Northern Territory". On p.37 the report noted: There is continuing concern in some communities about Bilingual Education. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT • decisions on the establishment and maintenance of Bilingual education programs be made bycommunities as part of the Community Education Plan planning process and that such programs be developed in accordance with the Bilingual Education Handbook • both the outcomes of the external accreditation process and the achievements of the students inthe primary assessment process be explained to the School Council • teacher induction and professional development continue to stress the aims of bilingual educationand particular the first aim i.e. "to develop competency in English and in Mathematics to the level required on leaving school to function without disadvantage in the wider Australian community. In a parliamentary debate that followed, Brian Ede said that "in the central region, the average retention periodfor teachers out bush is something like 6 months" (Hansard, 1990). He added, "An Aboriginalisation program is crucial. Non-Aboriginal teachersshould work alongside Aboriginal teachers to increase retention rates" (Hansard, 1990). From 2000–2002 an outcomes-based Northern Territory Curriculum Framework (NTCF) was developed by many staff in the NT Department of Education. "It included an Indigenous Language and Culture (ILC) component with separate sections for Culture Content and Language Revitalisation" (Carr, Wilkinson, & Stansell, 2017, p.157). Marshall Perron, the Chief Minister, accepted recommendations from the ExpenditureReview Committee that 1200 public sector positions should disappear and seven schools be closed. A new policy was released by the Commonwealth Government: Australia's language: The Australian language and literacy policy (DEETYA, 1991). Harry Payne, Assistant Secretary, Curriculum and Assessment reported to the Minister that there were 21 schools with bilingual programs: 17 Government, one Independent (Yipirinya) and three Catholic (File 93/483 f. 214). Programs operated in English and 17 vernacularlanguages: Warlpiri, Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Kriol, Central Arrernte, Western Arrernte, Eastern Arrernte, Burrara, Ndjebbana, Gumatj, Dhuwaya and dialects, Tiwi, Luritja, Pintupi, Murrinypatha, Maung "plus a number of programs operating informally on a number of outstations or homelands, for example in the Kuningku, Gurrogoni and Kunbarlang language groups near Maningrida" (File 93/483 f. 215). It was reported in a Commonwealth policy paper that "bilingual programs provide a sound basis for successfulEnglish language and literacy development for all children of non-English speaking background.....They are particularly effective where the children are not yet literate in their first language. Education systems should consider bilingual programs as an option to facilitate both English literacy development and developmment of another language, particularly the child's first language' (DEETYA, 1991). In its briefing to the Public Accounts Committee the Department of Education reported that "when the restricteddata through the 1994/5 MAP is analysed, it demonstrates that there is no conclusive evidence showing significantly poorer outcomes for students inbilingual schools nor does it show significantly improved outcomes when compared to the average for no-Bilingual schools" (p.1). They added that 68 per cent of Aboriginal teacher graduates in the NT were working or had worked in schools with bilingual education programs. By the late 1990s there was a decline in the number of trained Indigenous teachers in schools generally, and in thenumber of teachers proficient in their traditional languages. A major reason for this was a reduction in training opportunities at the Batchelor Institute for Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE), the main institution training Indigenous teachers. In March 1991 a Bilingual Schools Conference involved staff from Maningrida, Milingimbi, Shepherdson and Yirrkala. A dialect program was commenced at Shepherdson College, in addition to the official Bilingual program in Djambarrpuyŋu and English, as a result of Rose Guwanga's Batchelor Studies. Papunya Literature Production Centre lost three positions (Finnane, Feb 17, 2009). The program had been closed in 2006 after consultation with community members, which found that 28 per cent were in favour of a bilingual program, 28 per cent wanted a strong English program with somePintupi-Luritja and 44 per cent wanted an English-only program (Pintupi-Luritja Workshop report Term 3, 2010). A house of Representatives Standing Committee released A matter of survival, its report of the Inquiry into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language maintenance.Thisreport emphasised the value of bilingual education. For example, section 6.52 stated that "The Committee believes that it is totally inappropriate that any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child today begins school in a language other than their own" (p. 89). Rose Guywanga was appointed Principal at Shepherdson College, becoming the first Indigenous principal in the NorthernTerritory. By 1993 there were 20 schools with accredited bilingual programs using 34 languages. Of those schools 16 were government, three Catholic and one Independent. A total of 56 specialist support staff were employed to service these programs, including 28 Aboriginal staff, comprising two teacher-linguists and 26 literacy workers (Annual reports from specialist staff, 1993). At an inservice in Galiwin'ku in 1993 teachers said that "In the past bilingual programs operated with only one local language, but this is no longer a requirement. Communities to negotiate what they want. Have a choice. May be a good idea to use as many languages as possible. Hard on the teachers but better in the longrun for the community". (Wilkinson & Bubb, 1993). Nalwarri commenced consultations with the elders regarding the Galtha Rom workshops for the Homeland Centre schools. During 1993 five schools completed the Bilingual Schools Appraisal and Accreditation process: Areyonga; Murrupurtiyanuwu Catholic School, Nguiu; Nyirrpi; OLSH School, Wadeye; Shepherdson College. Galiwin'ku. Carr, Wilkinson & Stansell (2017, p.151)) note that "in 1993, the Numbulwar Linguists and members of the School Council sought to have the school’s bilingual status reinstated to access ongoing systemic support from the Department. These early moves were supported by the principals of the school at the time (Richard Jeeves and Jean Guernier). Consultations with Departmental representatives and community members were held in June 1993". Numbulwar School's bilingual status was officially recognised once again (Carr, Wilkinson, & Stansell, 2017, p. 151). The Australian Senate published a report, A matter of survival, which presented the findings of an inquiry that had been undertaken "because of widespread concern over language loss amongstAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) people". Those participating in the inquiry included Mr Garrie Gibson, MP; the Health Minister, Mr Les Scott, MP (Chair); Warren Snowdon, the member for the NT; and Dr Michael Wooldridge, MP. On January 20 Graham Richardson, Federal Health Minister, described living conditions in Aboriginal communities as as worse than a third world country ravaged by war. On August 18 the new $120M parliament house was opened in Darwin. According to a timeline prepared by the EAL unit, "approximately 47% of all students in remote schools were enrolled in schools operating a formal bilingual program. There were 20 schools with accredited bilingual programs supporting 34 languages and dialects". With respect to the program at Numbulwar Carr, Wilkinson & Stansell (2017) report that "From 1993 to 1995, Wubuy lessons for primary students increased from once a week to four times a week (Monday–Thursday)". Friday' lesson was set aside for whole-school instruction in wungubal ‘traditional dancing’. "The increase to daily lessons was a significant advance on the few lessons per term in the early 1990s. However, lesson times ran from just 30–40 min and concerns remained about this being long enough". The Liberal Party, led by John Howard, won office with a 45-seat majority. It pursued policies of economic liberalism, cut funding for Aboriginal programs, limited Aboriginal land rights and discontinued the process of reconciliation which Bob Hawke had initiated in 1991. Pauline Hanson claimed that Aboriginal people were receiving far too much Government funding. The Asian financial crisis began. The ACER completed a national survey: Mapping literacy achievement, but the Minister for Education, Dr Kemp, responded with his own overview: Literacy standards in Australia. Jo Lo Bianco and Peter Freebody were commissioned by the Commonwealth to provide policy advice, but their report, Australian literacies: Informing national policy on literacy education, was subsequently ignored by government. A National literacy and numeracy plan was released by Commonwealth, State and Territory Education Ministers. A budget of $154M was provided to implement it. The Remote Learning Partnership Project began in 2006. By 2007 local school and community partnership agreements had been negotiated with the NT Department of Education and signed by Gunbalanya, Milingimbi, Ngukurr, Ramingining and Yirrkala (Unaipon, 2009, p.97) The Commonwealth Government released a new policy, Literacy for all: The challenge for Australian schools, which subsumed ESL funding under the literacy umbrella. The Treasurer, Mike Reed, advised Parliament on December 1, 1998 that the Northern Territory public sector would be reduced by approximately 700 existing positions, some of which were senior positions, including Chief Executive Officers. In the second half of 1998 the NT Department of Education set up an Education Review Task Group, chaired by Wal Czernezkyj, which conducted limited consultations in the NT. Following that sketchy review, the Country Liberal Party decided to "...progressively withdraw the Bilingual Education program, allowing schools to share in the savings and better resource the English language programs." On December 1 the CLPTreasurer (Mike Reid) and Minister for Education (Peter Adamson) announced in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly that bilingual education programs would be phased out in favour of the "further development of ESL programs" (Hansard 1998). Three reasons for this decision were given: Firstly, Aboriginal people were overwhelmingly concerned about the operation of the bilingual program. Secondly, it was claimed that students in bilingual programs were not performing as well as their peers. The third reason for the decision was that the government wanted to trim the education budget. RESPONSES TO THE GOVERNMENT'S DECISION The government's decision to phase out bilingual education progressively in the NT resulted in communities, teachers,linguists and educators rallying in defence of bilingual education. In December 1988 around 300 people joined a protest rally in Alice Springs where "Speakers said they were outraged by the decision, which was made without consulting Aboriginal communities" (Land Rights News, March 1999). Information about they Government's plan was made available online. David Nathan provided online updates at www.dnathan.com/VL/alert.htm, drawing on information provided by Peter Austin, Ysola Best, Bob Boughton, Jane Durie, Marilyn Macgregor, Jeff Siegel, Bruce Sommer, and Ann Stewart. Under the authority of Rosalind Djuwandayngu, the Principal, a website documenting the changes was set up at Milingimbi School. A petition with over 3 000 signatures, presented to Parliament, claimed that the progressive withdrawal of bilingualprograms in Northern Territory schools would mean that Aboriginal languages, both written and spoken, would have no official place in NT schools. Many letters were sent to the Government by people around the country and overseas from organisations as diverse as Edinburgh University's Gaelic society, The Australian Linguistic Society, and the Max Planck Institute in Holland. On December 18, 1998 the following letter was sent to the Minister for Education, the Hon. Peter Adamson: Dear Minister I refer to the recent decisions which have been announced by your office, commencing with the press statements which were released on 1 December 1998. It would be appreciated if you could provide me with some answers to the followingquestions. [1] Were any of the recommendations of the Education Review Task Group referred to the EducationAdvisory Council, which has the statutory responsibility to provide you with advice on all matters relating to education? I am the Administrator's appointee on that Council and, as far as I am aware, the EAC was not given an opportunity to comment on these matters. In fact the last meeting of the EAC scheduled in 1998 was cancelled and a social dinner at a hotel restaurant was held instead. The ostensible reason for this change of plans was "There's too much going on at the moment. People are too preoccupied with the Review". It seems ironic to me that, at the very time one would have expected the EAC to be debating these issues, it was deliberately kept ignorant of them. The result of this is that you have not been given the range of advice to which you are entitled. [2] What is the rationale to phasing out bilingual education programs? [3] Was the decision to phase out bilingual education programs based on any current research? [4 ]Is it the case that the mean MAP scores attained by students in NT schools with formally recognised bilingual programs have been, in at least some cases, higher than those achieved by students in comparable schools which do not have bilingualprograms? [5] Is there any recent NT-based research to suggest that changing the the language of instruction is likely to be a more effective way to achieve better educational outcomes, than, say, improving attendance rates, alleviating poverty or tackling problems relating to health and nutrition? [6] Has any Aboriginal parent been fined under the Act during the last 25 years for failing to send a school-aged child to school? [7] Would you happen to know why the Faculty of Education at Northern Territory University has not been officially advised about the Education Review either by your office or by the Department of Education? While I have been kept well informed about developments, all of the communications I have received have been informal, from colleagues in a number of professional networks here in the Territory, interstateand overseas. I will conclude by expressing disappointment that you did not receive better quality advice with respect to the advisability or otherwise of maintaining bilingual education programs. Had you been better informed, we would not be facing the situation we are in now where, after decades in which Ministers Stone and Finch and Harris at various times could claim that the NT was leading Australia with respect to its initiatives in indigenous education, you now face angry protests from a large number of Aboriginal communities, professional organisations, academics and human rights groups. This is a regrettable consequence of the changes that have been announced. I do hope the situation can be reversed, through negotiation and sensible adjustments to policy. I look forward to receiving your response to my questions and would welcome an opportunity todiscuss any of these matters with you. I will be distributing copies of this letter to the Executive Officer of the EAC, theVice-Chancellor of the Northern Territory University, the Secretary of the NT Department of Education, and the PEO Bilingual Education/Aboriginal languages.I will ensure that your answers are distributed to these same people when you have had an opportunity to respond. [Signed] Dr Brian Devlin Associate Professor and Dean Member, Education Advisory Council" The Northern Territory Department of Education launched Schools our focus: Shaping Territory education. Information packs sent out widely at that time included "Fact Sheet 10: Phase out the bilingual program": Progressively withdraw the Bilingual Education Program, allowing the schools to share in thesavings and better resource English language programs. The Bilingual program dates back to the days of Commonwealth responsibility for education in theNorthern Territory but has continued with funding exclusively provided by the NT Government. Of the 91 schools in remote Aboriginal communities, 20 schools in the Territory (including 4 non-government schools) have additional resources for bilingual education programs. There is no evidence to show that children in these schools are performing better in Englishliteracy than children in other schools, which do not have extra resources for bilingual education. In fact, on average, children in schools with funded bilingual programs are performing slightly worse in English literacy and in numeracy. The Government has decided to examine how these resources can be redirected more equitably toprovide for improvements in literacy. Actions to date The Government has made it clear that the positions of Indigenous teachers and non-Indigenous support staff employed with bilingual funds are protected. These teachers will be able to continue teaching in the schools where they are presently employed. Future actions A detailed consultation will take place, over the next six months, with all schools and communities affected by this decision, to explore how it is to be implemented most constructively, so that resources are best allocated for improvements inliteracy. On February 17, 1999 Kieran Finnane reported in The Alice Springs News that "Dennis Nelson addressed the suggestion voiced by the Minister and others that teaching children their Aboriginal languages is the province of the parents, at home: "A long time before Captain Cook came, the tribes spoke our languages without interference. "Now there is too much TV, videos, CDs. That's why we need the written language. It's going to be really hard in the future for kids to speak our language unless it is in the written form". On March 23, 1999 the Minister for School Education, Peter Adamson, wrote to the Yuendumu Branch of the Australian Teachers Union NT, thanking them for their "letter expressing concern about the Northern Territory Government's decision to phase out bilingual education". He advised that "The phasing out of bilingual education in government schools in remote Aboriginal communities will enable those additional resources now devoted to bilingual education to be redirected more equitably to provide for improvements in English literacy and in numeracy. Non-government school systems will continue to allocate their program funding in accordance with their own priorities. Of the 87 government schools in remote communities, 16 are affected by the decision. There is no evidence to show that children in these schools are performing better in English literacy than children in other schools which do not have the additional resources. In fact, on average, children in schools with funded bilingual education are performing slightly worse in English literacy and numeracy". No evidence to support this claim was provided. On March 10, 1999 the Koori Mail reported that the Board of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission had "called on the new Chief Minister Dennis Burke to stop Northern Territory Government moves to phase out bilingual education". The Board, condemned the decision of the Stone administration" and "the absence of any meaningful consultation with the affected schools and communities". Senator Margaret Reynolds reported on March 10, 1999 [Check this] that: "When the Northern Territory government announced that bilingual education would no longer be pursued in the Territory, there was not a word in opposition to this from a government member. Anyone who knows anything about education should know that the benefits of bilingual education are enormous for Aboriginal children in terms of self respect and their capacity to learn at an early stage when they are still very reliant on their mother tongue. There was not a word from the education minister, there was not a word from the Aboriginal affairs minister and there was not a word from the Prime Minister". In a letter headed "Death of a Working Aboriginal Reform", written by Stephen Harris and Merridy Malin to the Editor of The Australian on March 17, 1999 , it was pointed out that: "In November 1998 the NT Government made a misguided and tragic decision, after 25 years of operation, to "progressively withdraw the [Aboriginal] bilingual education program allowing schools to share in the savings and better resource English language programs". Until this policy shift, about half the children enrolled in schools in isolated Aboriginal communities in the NT attended a bilingual school where for about half their time during primary school they were taught in their Aboriginal language andfor about half their time they were taught in English. In his 1999 book former Minister for Education in the Whitlam era, the Hon. Kim E. Beazley Sr, noted that "To deny a people an education in their own language where that is possible is to treat them as a conquered people and to deny them respect". In 1999 members of the Indigenous Education Council signed a "Charter on Bilingual Language", which affirmed that "The Indigenous people of the Northern Territory have the right to choose bilingual education as the only acceptable defined educational process of maintaining cultural well being". Signatories included Lana Quoll, Jane Harrington, Isaac Brown, Beverley Angeles, Christine Birkinbirkin, Rae Mathews, Joyce Taylor, Richard Doolan, Pat Cummins, Annette Laing and Warren Williams. In April 1, 1999 Carmel O'Shannessy, on behalf of Lajamanu CEC School Council, invited other school councils to join Lajamanu in making a complaint to the Human Rights Commission, which would be asked to investigate whether the NT had breached the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. Following pressure from communities and the bilingual lobby, the NT government decided to commission a review which would determine the directions for Aborginal education over the next five years. The former Labor Senator for the NT, Bob Collins, was asked to chair it. Dr Tess Lea was appointed Project Manager. Tina Lambert assisted as Project Officer. Its terms of reference were to provide an independent assessment of the key issues affecting educational outcomes for Aboriginal children, and opportunity for people inside and outside the Department to contribute to the development of strategic directions for Aboriginal education. The community consultation phase began in May 1999. In preparing their report, Learning Lessons, the authors noted that they had "conducted in-depth case studies of forty-fourschools across the Northern Territory...Of these forty-four case studies, thirteen were bilingual schools". The review was principally interested in parental concerns and issues to do with educational effectiveness. Keyquestions guiding the review were: What do Indigenous parents, children and communities want from schools? What is going well? What is not going so well? What are the strategies for the future? One remote area school submitted its Bilingual Appraisal Report to the reviewers, explaining in a covering letter: "This is a strong document, it is our word. But now we think that no-one in the Education Department has read our reports because now you are payingpeople to come and ask us what we want again. Every year you ask us and every year we tell you but you don't listen to what we say. Some community memberssay that you will keep asking until we tell you that we want to be Balanda, then you'll stop asking. We are not Balanda, our skin will always beblack" (p. 37). The Collins review noted strong community support for bilingual education and gave qualified support to continuing it—albeit with the name changed to 'two-way' learning. The policy decision reached was that 'two-way' learning was permissive, in which "local languages are used primarily as a means of teaching English literacy. A key difference is we will be tracking student attendance and their progress much more rigorously"(Lugg, 2004). At the same time as the Collins-Lea review was being undertaken, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) was also conducting its Inquiry into rural and remote education. Brian Devlin was appointed Co-commissioner for that inquiry in the NT. Public hearings in the NT were scheduled in May. By the late 1990s the program Advancing Indigenous Literacy through Intervention for Hearing Disabilities had begun to operate in six schools in conjunction with the Menzies School of Health Research. A report on the first stage of the "Bush Talks" program was released by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.ATSIC chairman Gatjil Djerrkura, said that this "New evidence on the depth of disadvantage faced by indigenous communities in rural and remote areas provides a powerful answer to those who claim indigenous communities do not deserve the services provided to them". The Commonwealth Government published its National Indigenous English literacy and numeracy strategy 2000–2004. The NT Department of Education released a paper called Strategic directions: Maintaining momentum. Approval to conduct a Two-Way Learning Program at Watiyawanu School was granted (Memorandum from the Chief Executive of DEET to the General Manager Schools, Central Australia (file no. DOCASP/2003/0501). The report State of Indigenous Languages in Australia - 2001 expressed the view that: The end of bilingual education in the Northern Territory represents a serious setback for Indigenouslanguages... Not only have some language programs and positions related to indigenous language programs been lost but, the status of Indigenous languageshas been downgraded significantly within the education system, even though the Northern Territory Education Department argues that some programs may proceedat individual schools within a 'Two Ways' framework (McConvell, 2001). The report refers to the 'marginal' status of the NT's 'Two Way Learning Program'. While the practice of schools did not change with the program name change, it is worth noting that from 1998 to 2000 the number of government schools offering a bilingual educationprogram declined from 16 to 12 schools. Citing anecdotal evidence, the Report on Future Directions for Secondary Education in the Northern Territory, Ramsey (2003) criticised the achievements of bilingual, or two-way schooling and recommended that it be replaced by " a language ecology approach" and language nests. Ramsey (2003) explained that: The two way model attempts to explicitly value Indigenous languages and traditions as equal inthe learning environment and is thus staffed and resourced differently from other schools. It is also premised on instilling a literate orientation tolearning through Indigenous language first followed by English and to this end has been dependent on Indigenous adults or dedicated long term teachers or teacherlinguists, with vernacular literacy skills and access to avenues for developing literacy resources. Its realisation as an effective pedagogical approach alsoarguably depends on both vernacular and English literacy practices becoming a way of being within the community, so that immersion in and use of these practices can reinforce and support educational activities. As one teacher stated What do they need to read and write their language for, when for many it isn't even their language and there isn't anywhere to use those skills? The evidence before the review team would suggest that there are few examples of vernacular orEnglish literacy practices integrated within community life and two-way schools are currently struggling with their endeavour as much as other schools. Thismay not have been the case in the past, but current reality appears quite stark. In a number of schools with two way learning both Indigenous andnon-Indigenous teachers were concerned about their students' abilities to read and write in English. A non-Indigenous teacher commented All teaching is done in the local language until Year 4. Sometimes it's not even the kids' first language. It's impossible to get the students up to benchmark by Year 7 andprepare them sufficiently for secondary education. This is not to question the value of languages but to suggest that all schools in remote areas, not just those designated two-way, and many in urban areas, operate in multi-lingual contexts and all teachers must have the capacity and capability to negotiate these. There is a need to recognise the diversity and dynamics of local language ecologies and practices and use these as the stepping-stone for productive pedagogical practice. In essence, a language ecology approach would enable a focus for the professional development of all staff that is premisedon the recognition of the existing language skills of students and the social practices of their environments. It would also allow an explicitness in teaching and learning practices based on rigorous recognition of what areand will be the difficulties experienced by students, as well as the means to utilise existing social practices of language use and expand on these. Theseapproaches to English language and literacy learning are integral to the pedagogical transformations recommended in this review. We therefore suggest that there are a number of critical issues for educational endeavours operating in multi-lingual contexts .... Many family and community members as well as teachers, spoke of the importance of two- way approaches to learning and the importance of these to achieving successful mainstream focus on the relationships in teaching and learningbetween young Indigenous people and their teachers develop locale specific linguistic and intercultural understandings of the difficulties faced by youngIndigenous people in learning Standard Australian English match language programs and literacy tasks to the contemporary situations of young people align the goals of education towards the repeatedly expressed goals of community members to achieve self determining post colonial regions with socialand economic futures build the future capacity of Indigenous people to negotiate effectively at the interface of the range of traditions and ways of life. 173 52. Outcomes for young people. Some spoke of how young people are forgetting their culture or don't feel connected because ofthe explosion of violence and dysfunction. Most spoke convincingly of the need for young people to see themselves as the next school teacher or principal andthe critical importance of post school pathways on the community. Most schools in remote areas have over time assumed a role as the locus for cultural maintenance and transmission. In two-way schools this locus was formalised over time as vernacular and other resources were developed, utilised and housed inthe literacy production centres attached to these schools. There is no doubt of the importance of maintaining Indigenous languages and cultures and until recently there has been a studied indifference and withholding or whittling away of support for their perpetuation by education systems. There is a need for renewed resourcing and state of the art mechanisms to enable language, maintenance of traditions and renewal activities, but the review team believes strongly these need to be established as activities distinct from the core responsibilities of schools. One's language and traditions are intrinsically important to identity and to establish self- esteem. As the experience of the Indigenous art, tourism and music industries would attest, they alsopresent unique avenues for viable economic activity and social cohesiveness. In light of the emerging desert and tropical knowledge initiatives, the fluctuatingbut ever present demand for authentic tourism experiences, the emerging interest in biodiversity for pharmaceuticals and "tucker" and land for miningand development, Indigenous knowledge has currency not only for its intrinsic value but also for the social and economic opportunities it can generate. Innovative ways to support the holding, renewal and protection of this knowledge and practice mustbe supported. A submission from the Diwurruwurru-jar Aboriginal Corporation pointed out We have over half of our Indigenous interpreters move on tomainstream employment after training in the use of Indigenous languages in the workplace. Knowledge of languages has been invaluable in increasingunderstanding of the legal and medical fields. Interpreting is providing ongoing and expanding opportunities for employment. To this end the review teamproposes that facilities and mechanisms should be identified to enable the establishment of Language Nests at the community level. These would be smallcentres, linked to a larger regional Knowledge Centre, that are sites for nurturing language and tradition, are places where these are studied, sung,discussed, viewed, painted, video edited, archived. They can happen on Saturdays or daily and add value to the Indigenous studies, music orextra-curricula activities. The links between these Nests and the school should be brokered initially by Indigenous education staff. There may also be benefit in investigating and building on the Ara Irititja project in South Australia and the initiatives being undertaken through the Cape York Partnerships inrelation to 53. 54. 55. 56. digital holdings of Indigenous knowledge and enabling contemporary avenues for culturaltransmission. The Indigenous Knowledge Centre Initiative of the Department of Community Development, Sport and Cultural Affairs could be linked to thesmaller Language Nests and become the places for the holding, renewal and creation of traditional practices that could be accessed and utilised byeducation and other services. With the current rollout of ICTs across the Territory, and Commonwealth initiatives through the Telecommunications Action Plan for Remote Indigenous Communities' TAPRIC (DCITA) that include the establishment of Community Access Centres, the digital medium presents greatopportunity for education, enterprise and cultural maintenance. Literacy and numeracy have been discussed in detail in Chapter 3. While the importance of literacyand numeracy manifests itself nowhere more starkly in the Territory than in the contexts of Indigenous education, it is by no means the only context whereissues regarding their teaching and learning arise. We believe an "all stops out" approach to raising the skills levels of young Indigenous people in thesepractices should be embraced. Separate or special measures for Indigenous young people have not been supported by this review. Instead we recommend thatteaching and learning strategies currently reporting outstanding esults, such as the Accelerated Literacy program, be supported. This report (Ramsey 2003) challenged the educational reasons for supporting two-way programs by reporting concerns by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people about children's abilities to read and write in SAE, and doubts about t he value of learning to read and write intraditional languages. The need for strong ESL support for the students was discussed. The report writers expressed respect for the identity reasons for supporting languages, but questioned whether schools should play a role in helping Aboriginal people maintain their languages. Approval to conduct a Two-Way Learning Program at Watiyawanu School was withdrawn (Memorandum from the Chief Executive of DEET to the General Manager Schools, Central Australia, file no. DOCASP/2003/0501) Two NT Government schools lost accreditation to provide Two-Way programs: Nyirrpi and Watiyawanu. These were two small schools that were serviced by teacher-linguists from Yuendumu CEC and Papunya School, respectively. Nyirrpi and Watiyawanu had been unable to complete the requirements of the Two Way Learning review processes, and lacked the staff and resources to continue. In 2004 there were 10 government schools and one independent school offering Two Way Learning programs, in addition to the three Catholic schools who offered Bilingual Education programs. Consultations in 2004 found that the majority of Two Way Learning schools attempted to use the "step" approach. Some schools reported that they follow a 50/50 model with equal hours of instruction and literacy in both languages from the beginning years of schooling. The NT schools with Two Way Learning/Bilingual programs in 2004 were: Government Schools: Areyonga School; Lajamanu CEC; Maningrida CEC; Milingimbi CEC; Numbulwar CEC; Papunya School;Shepherdson College; Galiwin'ku; Willowra CEC; Yirrkala CEC; Yuendumu CEC. Catholic Schools: Murrupurtiyaunwu; Nguiu; Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Wadeye; Ltyentye Apurte CEC; Santa Theresa. Independent Schools: Yipirinya School, Alice Springs. The total cost of the Two Way Learning Program in 2004 (not including bilingual programs in non-government schools) was $3.14 million. This included all staffing and operational funds to schools and DEET system support costs, and school-based literature production centres producing Indigenous language classroom materials that could not be sourced commercially. The Indigenous Languages and Culture in NT Schools 2004-05 report (edited by Margaret Banks) recommended two models of bilingual education: the 'staircase' model and the dual early literacy model (or the '50/50' model). Both models include the teaching of oracy and literacy in English and the Indigenous language. On August 24 Syd Stirling, Minister for Employment, Education and Training, announced in NT parliament that bilingual education was back on the government's agenda, because it was recognised to be "an important teaching methodology". He explained that the NT Government would be 'revitalising bi-lingual education', as well as improving homelands education, "establishing clear employment and training pathways and taking other measures in 15 Community Education Centres, which were mainly based in the Territory's larger remote communities; namely, Alekerange, Angurugu, Borroloola, Galiwinku, Gapuwiyak, Gunbalunya, Kalkaringi, Lajamanu, Maningrida, Milingimbi, Ramingining, Ngkurr, Numbulwar, Yirrkala and Yuendumu". The NT Indigenous Education Strategic Plan 2006-2009 defined Bilingual education as "a formal model of dual language use where students' first language is used as a language for learning across the curriculum, while at the same time they are learning to use English as a second language for learning across the curriculum". This plan offered new assurances for the next five-year period; in particular: "There are 11 programs in ten Territory Government schools that use a bilingual model. The bilingual programs are effective overseas and give an indication of positive results in the Territory. DEET will strengthen the bilingual program and improve its effectiveness and sustainability to deliver outcomes". On June 21 the Australian Government announced the Northern Territory Emergency Response ('the intervention')—a "national emergency response to protect Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory" from sexual abuse and family violence. It was roundly condemned by Tom Calma and defended by Noel Pearson. On September 15, 2007, the ABC reported that Prime Minister John Howard "defended Australia's refusal to ratify the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, saying the bill legitimised customary law". Justifying his position he explained that "it is wrong to support something that argues the case of separate development inside one country. The Indigenous people of Australia have a special place in our community, but we also believe their future lies in being part of the mainstream of this country". The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) was established. Under its authority the National AssessmentProgram - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) commenced in Australian schools. All students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 began to be assessed using national tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. These test results were used quite politically by the NT Government in October 2008. By the beginning of 2008 two-way learning programs had been recategorised either as Language Maintenance or Language Revitalisation programs. These terms were defined as follows: Language Maintenance programs aim to extend and develop learners' first language skills in listeningand speaking, reading and writing. Students learn initial literacy through their first language and use literacy as a tool for their first language study throughout their schooling. The knowledge and skills that students learn in their first language assists in their learning of, in and through English. Language Revitalisation is the approach taken when the language is still spoken by oneor more generations of older speakers. Children do not speak the language, but are likely to have good passive knowledge. Language Revitalisation programs aim to extend the use and knowledge of the language into younger generations of speakers. The schools that offered either a Language Maintenance (LM) bilingual program or a Language Revitalisation (LR) bilingual program at the beginning of 2008 are listed in the table below: Areyonga School Pitjantjatjara, English Lajamanu School Warlpiri, English Maningrida CEC Burarra, NdjÃ©bbana, English Milingimbi CEC Yolngu Matha, English Shepherdson College, Galiwinâ€™ku Willowra School Yirrkala CEC Yuendumu CEC Numbulwar Wubuy (Nunggubuyu) These programs were supported by the following staff: School-based positions: 11 Executive Teachers Level 2 Two-Way Learning (10 school-based and one regionally based) 18 school-based Literacy Workers at Administration Officer Level 3 Four Literature Production Supervisors (in Literacy Resource Development Units) at Administration Officer Level 5 Additional Assistant Teacher positions Office based positions: Three Regional Language Resource Officers at Professional Level 3 (Darwin/West Arnhem Land, East Arnhem Land, Central Australia) One Manager Two Way Learning Program (Administrative Officer Level 8) The first set of national skills test results (NAPLAN) were released in September 2008. The Government's response wasforthright. The NT Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, deplored the results for the NT, explaining that 'the worst cases came from remote schools' (IJBS). On October 14, the month after national literacy and numeracy test results had been released , Minister Marion Scrymgour mandated English as the language of instruction in all Northern Territory schools during the first four hours of each school day (Memorandum 2008/2527) DET's draft Compulsory teaching in English for the first four hours of each school day policy exempted some preschoolers from the four hours of English requirement (November 3). A Data on bilingual schools document was tabled in parliament (November 26) to justify the Government's abrupt policy change (Scrymgour, 2008). The reason for this policy shift was said to be the poor comparative performance of remote NT students on the national skills tests in 2008, particularly the scores obtained by students in schools with bilingual programs. According to Freeman, Bell, Andrews & Gallagher (2017, p. 225) Areyonga’s Indigenous principal reported that the community were "distraught" and deeply hurt by the news that the Minister of Education proposed to dismantle the school’s bilingual education program (SMH 2008). “The community gathered at the school to express their anger that such a significant decision is being made without anyone speaking to them first” (de Silva 2008, p. 1). The Anangu assistant teachers and qualified Anangu teachers at the school were upset to learn they will be required to speak only in English for the first 4 hours of school and could not see how this would benefit the students. The Compulsory teaching in English for the first four hours of each school day policy was introduced (NT DET, 2008c). No exemptions were allowed. A complaint was lodged with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) by Sarah Gallagher at Areyonga (Freeman, Bell, Andrews & Gallagher, 2017). On May 22 DET advised a Senate Select Committee on Regional and Remote Communities that 'The Minister's direction does not mean that the first four hours of each school day are to be spent solely on teaching the subject English. Rather, it means that teachingand learning programs are to be conducted in English for the first four hours of each school day, and may encompass instruction in a range of learning areas, e.g. science, mathematics, health education as well as English. The direction does not preclude the use of a student's first language to scaffold learning in English" (DET, 2009). DET went on to say that "Schools can timetable the teaching and learning of Indigenous languages and culture during afternoon sessions, and are encouraged to do so'. The Ramsey report was published in July 2009. An AIATSIS Research Symposium on Bilingual Education was held at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra on26 June 2009. In an an address entitled "They are our children, this is our community", Tom Calma, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission, set out to show that "to demonstrate the links between strength in culture and resilience in children". Calma observed that "in trying to dismantle Bilingual education the NT Government has done more than vandalise a program that was teaching children to be culturally literate in two languages and two cultures. It has torn at the fabric of the relationships between Aboriginal people and governments... again... The NT Government has damaged the trust and enthusiasm with which Aboriginal people have offered our languages and culture into school classrooms" (Calma, 2009). Other presenters at the AIATSIS Research Symposium in 2009 included Dr Jane Simpson (University of Sydney), Dr Patrick McConvell (ANU) and Dr Josephine Caffery (ACU), Leonard Freedman, Peggy Gallagher and Daphne Puntjina (Areyonga School) Rarriwuy Marika, Marrkiyawuy Ganambar-Stubbs (Yirrkala CEC), and graduates from the Yirrkala School Two-Way program Janet (Maxine) Nungarrayi Spencer, Connie Nungarrayi Walit and Wendy Baarda (Yuendumu community) Dr Brian Devlin (CDU) Kathy McMahon (CDU) and Cathy McGinness (St John's College), and Professor Joseph Lo Bianco (University of Melbourne) The Applied Linguistics course, which had included EAL564 Bilingual Education, was discontinued at Charles Darwin University. A Four Corners program on NT bilingual education was broadcast on September 14, 2009 (http://goo.gl/nrS7km). On March 24 Emma Purdue and Melanie Schleiger, two lawyers at Landers & Rogers, acted on behalf of Sarah Gallagher at Areyonga. "In a comprehensive letter to an investigation/conciliation officer" at the Department of Education they explained “the reasons why the Compulsory Teaching in English for the First Four Hours of Each School Day Policy is substantially discriminatory, and therefore unlawful.” Their letter invoked sub-Sections 9(1) and 9(1A) of the Commonwealth’s Racial Discrimination Act. The Compulsory teaching in English for the first four hours of each school day policy was replaced on December 27 by a new policy: Literacy for Both Worlds, which reintroduced some options for schools, including vernacular-Englishbilingual-biliteracy programs to the end of Year 2. The replacement policy (Literacy for Both Worlds) was withdrawn on January 13. The Compulsory teaching in English for the first four hours of each school day policy was reinstated, unchanged, on January 14. The NT Education and Training Minister, Chris Burns, subsequently released a draft Literacy Framework for Students learning English as an Additional Language on August 31. In a publication entitled Face the facts the Human Rights Commision reported that: "In 2009, the Australian Governmentlaunched Indigenous Languages â€“ A National Approach 2009 which endeavours to preserve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' languages by increasing information about these languages in Australian life and supporting language programs in schools". They added: "There are concerns that thisNational Approach might not be enough to stop the decline in usage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, as governments are not obligedto comply with or implement it. This is highlighted in the Northern Territory where current education policy prevents schools from following bilingual education models by enforcing compulsory teaching in English for the first four hours of schooling each day" (http://goo.gl/DTTWRu). On September 17, 2012 a report was released by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs. It made 30 recommendations, including this one: "Indigenous language education should be introduced to all schools with Aboriginal students, and indigenous languages included as an official Closing the Gap measure" (Karvelas, 2012). The draft version of the Wilson review states that it "does not support continued efforts to use biliteracy approaches, or toteach the content of the curriculum through first languages other than English". The final report, however, takes a different tack: "Firstlanguage and culture should be part of a child's education where qualified teachers are available and communities agree" (p.11). The federal Minister for Education advised that he had "introduced explicit and direct instruction teaching approaches under our Flexible Literacy in Remote Primary Schools programme to address poor literacy results in remote primary schools" (Pyne, 2015). Katherine McMahon was appointed to the Principal Co-ordinator position when it was was reinstated in April 2015. As at May 1, 2017 the NT Department of Education had not withdrawn targeted funding from the nine remaining "bilingual" schools and it has continued to pay for two linguists based at Ludmilla Languages Centre. The current minister's understandings about bilingual education may be gleaned by going to yingiya.net. Ailsa Purdon succeeded Katherine McMahon as Principal Co-ordinator. Aboriginal Languages Association Newsletter, 1, April 1981 Austin, P. (2013). A Grammar of Diyari, South Australia. Retrieved March 14, 2015 from https://www.academia.edu/2491078/ https://www.academia.edu/2491078/ Australian Broadcasting Commission. (2009). Chronology: The bilingual education policy in the Northern Territory. Retrieved March 10, 2015 from http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20090914/language/chronology.htm. Australian Department of Education. (1975). Handbook for teachers in bilingual schools in the Northern Territory of Australia (2nd ed.). Darwin: Australian Department of Education, Northern Territory Division, Bilingual Education Section. Bilingual Education Consultative Committee (1974). Report on second meeting of Bilingual Education Consultative Committee held in Alice Springs, 18-22 March 1974. [BECC Report] Typescript. Black, P. (2003). New uses for old languages. In M. Walsh, M. & C. Yallop, C. (Eds.), Language and culture in Aboriginal Australia (pp. 207–223.) Aboriginal Studies Press. Beazley, K. (2009). Father of the house: The memoirs of Kim E. Beasley. Freemantle Press. Brandl, M. (1974). Report on Homeland Centres education visits to outstations in the Yirrkala area 4–22 June 1974. Darwin, NT: Department of Education. Bubb, P. (1990). Information on bilingual programs and personnel. NT Bilingual Newsletter, 90(1), 6–9. Calma, T. (2009). They are our children, this is our community. Presentation to AIATSIS Research Symposium on Bilingual Education, Canberra, June 26, 2009. Carment, D., C., Edward, C., James, B., Maynard, R., Powell, A. , & Wilson, H. (Eds.) (2008). Northern Territory dictionary of biography. Darwin: Charles Darwin University Press. Carr, T., Wilkinson, M., & Stansell, P. (2017). Language revitalisation in a bilingual program—The case of Numbulwar School. In B. Devlin, S. Disbray, & N. Devlin (Eds.), History of bilingual education in the Northern Territory: People, programs and policies (pp. 149-163). Singapore: Springer. Cunningham, S. (2011. Disappeared. Griffith Review, 35. Retrieved February 27, 2015 from https://griffithreview.com/articles/disappeared/ https://griffithreview.com/articles/disappeared/ DEETYA (1991). Australia's language: The Australian language and literacy policy. Companion volume to the policy paper. Canberra: AGPS. Department of Education (1973). Handbook for teachers in bilingual schools. Darwin: Author. de Silva, S. (2008, November 14). NT classrooms limit Indigenous languages to 1 hour a day. Crikey. Retrieved from http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/11/14/nt-classrooms-limit-indigenouslanguages-to-1-hour-a-day/. Devlin, B. (2011). A bilingual education policy issue: Biliteracy versus English-only literacy. In N. Purdie, G. Millgate, & R. Bell, R. (Eds.), Two way teaching and learning: Towards culturally reflective and relevant education (pp. 49–69). Melbourne: ACER Press. Evaluation and Assessment Unit, Department of Education (1975). Bilingual education evaluation. Typescript. Devlin, B., Disbray, S., & Devlin, N. (2017). History of bilingual education in the Northern Territory: People, programs and policies. Singapore: Springer. Eather, B. (1985). Linguist's annual report. Njebbana bilingual program Maningrida School. Typescript. Eedle, J. (1976, August 16). Matters arising from Minister's visit to the Northern Territory. Attachment A: Goals for immediate action. Typescript. Freeman, L., Bell, N., Andrews, T. & Gallagher, P. (2017). The Areyonga case: Utulu kutju nintiringanyi ‘Learning together’. In B.Devlin, S. Disbray, & N. Devlin (Eds.), History of bilingual education in the Northern Territory: People, programs and policies (pp.219–236). Singapore: Springer. Furby, E. (1978). Northern Territory bilingual education (with a preview of a selection of programmes in six other countries). In Richards, E. (Ed.), Papers in Literacy and Bilingual Education (pp. 1–28). Series B, vol. 2. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics Australian Aborigines Branch. Retrieved February 27, 2015 from ausil.org.au Harris, J. (1968). Linguistics and Aboriginal education: A practical use of linguistic research in Aboriginal education in the Northern Territory. Australian Territories, 8(1), 24-34. Harris, S. (1985, September 2). Advisory visit to Njebbana (Kunibidji) Bilingual Program, Maningrida School, 12–14 August. (NTDE file 83/1703). Harris, S. & Devlin, B. (1999, July 12). The Northern Territory Bilingual Education Program: Some historical reflections. Pre-publication draft. McKenzie, M. (1976). Mission to Arnhem Land. Adelaide: Rigby. Lewis, W. (1975). Beginning a bilingual program—the Numbulway situation. Readings in bilingual education, 63. [AIATSIS (Sirsi) M0021739 SF 37.7/2.] McGrath, W.J. (1976). Bilingual education in the Northern Territory. Education News, 15. Milingimbi School report (1979, June). Prepared for the Early Childhood Education Conference. Mooney, M. (1987). The 'new school' of Literature Production Supervisor. Typescript. Northern Territory Department of Education (NTDE) (1979). Annual reports of the Teacher/linguists in the bilingual schools of the Northern Territory. Darwin: Author. Northern Territory Department of Education (NTDE) (1980). Ist annual report of the N.T. Department of Education, 1 July 1979–30 June 1980. Darwin. Northern Territory Department of Education (NTDE), EAL Unit (2002, March). Teaching in two languages: History and models for implementation. Typescript. O'Grady, G. & Hale, K. (1974). Recommendations concerning bilingual eduction in the Northern Territory. Darwin, NT: Department of Education. Public Accounts Committee (PAC) (1996). Report on the provision of school education services for remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory Public Accounts Committee Official Inquiry, 27. Pyne, C. (2015). The future of teacher education. Inaugural Hedley Beare Memorial Lecture. Retrieved on February 27, 2015 from http://goo.gl/bmz64z http://goo.gl/bmz64z Rademaker, L. (2012). Arnhem Land missions' language negotiations. Talk given at NARU on May 30, 2012. Ramsey, G., Cummins, G., Hansen, T., & Wauchope, L. (2009). Review of education in the Groote Eylandt and Bickerton Island region: New ownership. Anindilyakwa Land Council. Sims, R. (1983). A point of view...outstation education in the NT. Developing Education, 9(6), 36–40 Sommer, B. (1985, February 11). Projections regarding language research projects of field linguists in bilingual programs.Typescript. Sommer, B. (1991). Yesterday's experts: The bureaucratic impact on language planning for Aboriginal bilingual education. In Liddicoate, A. (Ed.), Language planning and language policy in Australia. ARAL, Series S, 8, 109–134. Stockley, T., Ganambarr, B., Munuŋgurr, Dh., Munuŋgurr, M., Wearne, G.., Wunuŋmurra, W., White, L., & Yunupiŋu, Y. (2017). The quest for community control at Yirrkala School. In B. Devlin, S. Disbray, & N. Devlin (Eds.), History of bilingual education in the Northern Territory: People, programs and policies (pp. 140-148). Singapore: Springer. The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH). (2008, November 17). Calma backs bilingual education in NT. Retrieved from http://news.smh.com.au/national/calma-backs-bilingual-education-in-nt-20081117-6990.html. Unaipon, D. (2009). Review of Australian Directions in Indigenous Education 2005–2008 for the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs. Retrieved on July 20 from goo.gl/8qg1vB Vaarzon-Morel, P., & Wafer, J. (2017). ‘Bilingual Time’ at Willowra: The beginnings of a community-initiated program, 1976–1977. In Devlin, B., Disbray, S., & Devlin, N. (Eds.), History of bilingual education in the Northern Territory: People, programs and policies (pp. 34–48). Singapore: Springer. Watiyawanu School Annual Performance Report to the School Community 2014. Retrieved May 1 2017 from http://web.ntschools.net/w/antgsr/Annual%20Reports/watiyawanu_annual_report_2014.pdf Watts, B. & Gallacher, J. (1964). Report on an investigation into the curriculum and teaching methods used in Aboriginal Schools in the Northern Territory [The Watts-Gallacher Report]. Darwin: Welfare Branch, Northern Territory of Australia. Watts, B. H., McGrath, W. J. & Tandy, J. L. (1973). Recommendations for the implementation and development of a program of bilingual education in schools in Aboriginalcommunities in the Northern Territory. [Watts, McGrath & Tandy Report] Canberra: Department of Education. Wearing, B. (2007). Beulah Lowe and the Yolngu people. Coast Biographer. Whitlam, E.G. (1973, February 12). Responsibility for Aboriginal education in the Northern Territory. Press statement no. 51.Typescript. Bilingual Education in the NT until October 14, 2008 Chronology: The Bilingual Education Policy in the Northern Territory until 14 October 2008 from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as a part of a FOUR CORNERS program aired on 14 September 2009, Going back to Lajamnu The first Aboriginal school in Central Australia was established in 1887 at Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission (now Ntaria community). Instruction and literacy teaching was in both English and Western Arrarnta from around 1896. The foundations of this policy change were really laid in the 1960s. The Watts-Gallacher Report (1964, p.71) had advocated bilingual education as the ideal approach for the Northern Territory, even though the authors considered that the program would not be viable. In 1968 Joy Kinslow-Harris wrote a paper arguing that bilingual education was definitely possible, provided Aboriginal people were allowed to do the teaching in their own languages through a system of team-teaching in partnership with qualified non-Aboriginal teachers. Her proposal was picked up in 1971 at a National Workshop where it was recommended that "...pilot projects be established." December Bilingual education in the NT began as a Federal Labor initiative a few hours after Gough Whitlam's government had been elected. The Federal Minister of Education at the time was Kim Beazley Senior. In a letter to The Australian in December 1998, Mr Beazley explained that bilingual programs were favoured at the time as the best route to mastery of English as a second language. The NT schools which took on a bilingual program in this year were; Angurugu - Anindilyakwa language Areyonga - Pitjantjatjara language Hermannsburg - Arrernte language Milingimbi - Gupapuyngu language Warruwi, Goulburn Island - Maung language Oenpelli (Gunbalanya) - Kunwinjku language (The program lasted four years.) Shepherdson College, Galiwin'ku - Djambarrpuyngu language, originally Gupapuyngu St Therese's (now Murrupurtiyanuwu) - Tiwi language Yayayai (Papunya outstation) - Pintupi-Luritja language Yirrkala - Dhuwaya language & dialects Yuendumu - Warlpiri language, formerly Gumatj Bathurst Island started a Model 1 program in Tiwi and English in 1974. Pularumpi (formerly Garden Point) - Tiwi language (The program lasted two years.) Barunga (formerly Bamyili) - Kriol (The program lasted approximately 16 years.) Haasts Bluff - Pintupi-Luritja language Numbulwar - Nunggubuyu language Wadeye - Murrinhpatha language (The program lasted four years and recommenced in 1996.) Umbakumba - Anindilyakwa language (The program lasted approximately five years.) Willowra - Warlpiri language Bilingual programs then entered a consolidation phase (1978-1986). 'Consolidation' was essentially understood to mean that there was no money available to establish new programs. Maningrida - Ndjébbana language Docker River - Pitjantjatjara language M'Bunghara Homeland Centre - Pintupi/ Luritja languages (The program lasted nine years.) Waityawanu - Pintupi/ Luritja languages The NT Government endorsed the continuation of bilingual programs with a list of eight aims, the first of which was 'To develop competency in English (reading and writing) and in mathematics to the level required on leaving school to function without disadvantage in the wider Australian community.' This was a shift from the earlier statement in 1975: 'To help each child to believe in himself and be proud of his heritage by the regular use of the Aboriginal language in school and by learning about Aboriginal culture.' It represented a shift of focus from maintenance of language and culture to a transition to English. Lajamanu (formerly Hooker Creek) - Warlpiri language Walungurru (Kintore) - Pintupi/Luritja language Yipirinya became an official independent Aboriginal school with a bilingual program in four language varieties, after having operated as a 'de facto' program for several years: Eastern Arrernte; Pitjantjatjara; Warlpiri; Western Arrernte languages. Staff reductions and a decline in funding support for programs began to affect operations in bilingual schools from around 1984 onwards. Papunya - Pintupi-Luritja language Maningrida - Burarra language (Established in response to "strong community requests.") Nyirrpi - Warlpiri language Mount Liebig - Pintupi-Luritja language Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa) - Eastern Arrernte (Established as a result of local initiative.) Numbulwar - Nunggubuyu language (The program was re-established as a result of local initiative.) By the late 1990s there was a decline in the number of trained Indigenous teachers in schools generally, and in the number of teachers proficient in their traditional languages. A major reason for this was a reduction in training opportunities at the Batchelor Institute for Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE), the main institution training Indigenous teachers. 1 December The Country Liberal Party made a decision to "...progressively withdraw the Bilingual Education program, allowing schools to share in the savings and better resource the English language programs." The CLP Treasurer (Mike Reid) and Minister for Education (Peter Adamson) announced in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly that bilingual education programs would be phased out in favour of the "further development of ESL programs." Three reasons were provided; The move resulted in communities, teachers, linguists and educators rallying in defence of bilingual education, and a petition to Parliament with over 3,000 signatures. Following pressure from communities and the Bilingual lobby, the NT government commissioned the "Learning Lessons" review (co-authored by Bob Collins and Tess Lea). Its terms were to look into the delivery of education to Indigenous students in the NT. Some comments from the report include: "...the review conducted in-depth case studies of forty-four schools across the Northern Territory...Of these forty-four case studies, thirteen were bilingual schools. The review was principally interested in parental concerns and issues to do with educational effectiveness. Key questions guiding the review were: What do Indigenous parents, children and communities want from schools? What is going well? What is not going so well? What are the strategies for the future?" One remote area school submitted their Bilingual Appraisal Report, commenting: "This is a strong document, it is our word. But now we think that no-one in the Education Department has read our reports because now you are paying people to come and ask us what we want again. Every year you ask us and every year we tell you but you don't listen to what we say. Some community members say that you will keep asking until we tell you that we want to be Balanda, then you'll stop asking. We are not Balanda, our skin will always be black." (page 37) The Collins review noted strong community support for bilingual education and gave qualified support to continuing it - albeit with the name change to 'two-way' learning. The policy decision reached was that: with 'two-way' learning, local languages are used primarily as a means of teaching English literacy. A key difference is we will be tracking student attendance and their progress much more rigorously. (Lugg, 2004) The report "State of Indigenous Languages in Australia - 2001" expresses the view that: "The end of bilingual education in the Northern Territory represents a serious setback for Indigenous languages... Not only have some language programs and positions related to indigenous language programs been lost but the status of Indigenous languages has been downgraded significantly within the education system, even though the Northern Territory Education Department argues that some programs may proceed at individual schools within a 'Two Ways' framework." (McConvell, 2001) The report refers to the NT's 'Two Way Learning Program' as having 'marginal' status. While the practice of schools did not change with the program name change, it is interesting to note that from 1998 to 2000 the number of government schools offering a bilingual education program reduced from sixteen to twelve schools. The Ramsey report (DEET and Ramsey 2003) entitled The Indigenous Languages and Culture in NT Schools Review laid the way to dismantling bilingual education programs in the Northern Territory. It challenged the educational reasons for supporting them on the grounds of reported concerns by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people about children's abilities to read and write in SAE, and doubts about the value of learning to read and write in traditional languages. The need for strong ESL support for the students was discussed. The report expressed respect for the identity reasons for supporting languages, but raised the question of whether the schools should play a role in helping Indigenous peoples maintain languages. In 2004 two NT Government schools lost accreditation to provide the Two-Way program. They were Nyirrpi School and Watiyawanu school; two small schools that were serviced by teacher linguists from Yuendumu CEC and Papunya School, respectively. Nyirrpi and Watiyawanu were unable to complete the requirements of the Two Way Learning review processes, and lacked the staff and resources to continue. In 2004 there were ten government schools and one independent school offering Two Way Learning programs, in addition to the three Catholic schools who offered Bilingual Education programs. Consultations in 2004 found that the majority of Two Way Learning schools attempted to use the 'step' approach. Some schools report that they have a 50/50 model with equal hours of instruction and literacy in both languages from the beginning years of schooling. Areyonga School; Lajamanu CEC; Maningrida CEC; Milingimbi CEC; Numbulwar CEC; Papunya School; Shepherdson College; Galiwin'ku; Willowra CEC; Yirrkala CEC; Yuendumu CEC. The total cost of the Two Way Learning Program in 2004 (not including bilingual programs in non-government schools) was $3.14 million. This includes all staffing and operational funds to schools and DEET system support costs, and school based literature production centres producing Indigenous language classroom materials that cannot be sourced commercially. The Indigenous Languages and Culture in NT Schools - 2004-05 report (authored by Margaret Banks) recommended two models of bilingual education: the 'staircase' model and the dual early literacy model (or the '50/50' model). Both models include the teaching of oracy and literacy in English and the Indigenous language. 24 August 2005 Syd Stirling, Minister for Education, announced in NT parliament that bilingual education was back on the government's agenda because it was recognised to be "an important teaching methodology". The NT Indigenous Education Strategic Plan 2006-2009, gave new assurances for the next five-year period: "Bilingual education is a formal model of dual language use where students' first language is used as a language for learning across the curriculum, while at the same time they are learning to use English as a second language for learning across the curriculum." There are 11 programs in ten Territory Government schools that use a bilingual model. The bilingual programs are effective overseas and give an indication of positive results in the Territory. DEET will strengthen the bilingual program and improve its effectiveness and sustainability to deliver outcomes. 21 June The Australian Government announced the intervention - a 'national emergency response to protect Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory' from sexual abuse and family violence. The National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) commenced in Australian schools. All students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed using national tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. 12 September The first set of national skills test results (NAPLAN) are released. There were eight schools with bilingual programs in the Northern Territory, which were: Lajamanu; Maningrida; Milingimbi; Numbulwar; Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Thamarrur Catholic School; Shepherdson College;d Yirrkala and Yuendemu. The then Minister for Education and Training, Marion Scrymgour, announced that all schooling in Northern Territory schools was to be conducted in English only for the first four hours of every school day (Memorandum 2008/2527). A Northern Territory Government policy statement said there would be, "Compulsory teaching in English for the first four hours of each school day" (NT DET, 2008c). The reason for this policy shift was said to be the poor comparative performance of remote NT students on the national skills tests in 2008, particularly the scores obtained by students in schools with bilingual programs. Once the national results had been released on September 12th, the Government's response was forthright. The NT Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, deplored the results for the NT, explained that "the worst cases came from remote schools". When threatening to resign from the Labor Government, opposing their stance on the Government's policy on dismantling Homelands, Ms Scrymgour said she "also regretted her stance on Bilingual Education" NT News 2010 Bilingual Education in 2008 and beyond Bilingual_Education__August_08.pdf Languages of the Top End Thank you to Colin for contributing his time and knowledge to get this website started Copyright © 2013-2015 FOBL (Friends of Bilingual Learning) \| Website by TropicsNet	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4398
__label__cc	0.600655	0.399345	Board Member, AHB Group of Companies For Raméz A. Baassiri, family man, entrepreneur, and writer, his family’s journey to create an agile, adaptable business is just as important as the day-to-day operations undertaken by the dynamic, multinational team members that constitute the company. Developing long-standing relationships with a wide variety of regional and international suppliers spanning various industries and continents was a journey that began with the bold steps of Raméz’s migrating ancestors from Lebanon to the far-off shores of South America, Africa, and the Gulf. The family business owes its current standing to the bold steps, leadership, and determination of Mr. Abdul Hamid Baassiri (Raméz’s late father), a global citizen. The entrepreneurial spirit started with A.H. Baassiri’s desire to seek new frontiers and his ability to read the landscape of opportunity, be it in the agricultural, industrial, or technological revolutions, all without compromising strong family values. Interrupted Entrepreneurship™: Embracing Change In The Family Business Articles By Raméz A. Baassiri The Hardest Job You’ll Ever Have in Your Family Business The Difference Freedom of Choice Can Make in a Family Business Welcome, Create, Embrace Change What to Do When Family Doesn’t Want the Business	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4399
__label__wiki	0.76189	0.76189	Manchester Arena Donate £250 Manchester Arena has donated a further £250 alongside Key 103 Summer Live tickets. People in communities across Greater Manchester benefited from free tickets donated to them by Manchester Arena via Forever Manchester. The Arena gave us 50 tickets to hand out to local people doing extraordinary things across Greater Manchester and (as seen in the photographs) they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. As well as this, as part of their commitment to Forever Manchester in their 20th Birthday celebrations, Manchester Arena has raised £250 from staff tickets, which they have kindly donated to us. Staff working at the Arena are able to make a donation for tickets for events, which has racked up £250 for us to reinvest into communities across Greater Manchester. Forever Manchester would like to thank Manchester Arena for their ongoing support this year. If you’re going to any events, be sure to get a selfie with our poster (seen above) and send it to us on Twitter @4EVERManchester.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4400
__label__cc	0.615978	0.384022	Items where Subject is "HQ The family. Marriage. Woman" Library of Congress Subject Areas (75) H Social Sciences (75) HQ The family. Marriage. Woman (75) Jump to: A \| B \| C \| D \| E \| F \| G \| H \| K \| L \| M \| P \| R \| S \| T \| W Ainley, Pat (1991) Young people leaving home. Cassell Education Series . Cassell, London, UK. ISBN 0304324469 Balmain, Colette Jane (2004) Genre, gender, giallo: the disturbed dreams of Dario Argento. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich. Balshaw, June Marion (1998) Suffrage, solidarity and strife: political partnerships and the women's movement 1880-1930. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich. Boodhoo, Amanda (2010) An examination of collaborative working in child protection. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich. Bradford, Martin, Hoggart, Lesley, Phillips, Joan and Young, Debbie (2006) Research to identify the sexual health needs of unaccompanied minors in the London Boroughs of Enfield & Haringey: Report of the findings. Project Report. Enfield NHS Primary Care Trust, Enfield Council, Haringey NHS Teaching Primary Care Trust, Haringey Council, London, UK. Corby, Susan and Stanworth, Celia (2009) A price worth paying?: Women and work – choice, constraint or satisficing. Equal Opportunities International, 28 (2). pp. 162-178. ISSN 0261-0159 (doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/02610150910937907) Corby, Susan, Stanworth, Celia and Green, Barbara (2005) Gender and the labour market in South East England. Volume 2: employers’ policies and practices. University of Greenwich, Greenwich, London, UK. ISBN 186166219X Corby, Susan, Stanworth, Celia, Long, Sue and Fox, Margaret (2005) Gender and the labour market in South East England. Volume 1: the context. Gender and the labour market in South East England . University of Greenwich, Greenwich, London, UK. ISBN 1861662181 Corney, Roslyn (1997) Marital problems and their prevention. In: Jenkins, Rachel and Bedirhan Üstün, T., (eds.) Prevention of Mental Illness: Mental Health Promotion in Primary Care. Wiley-Blackwell, New York, NY, US, pp. 379-394. ISBN 9780471975625 Crockett, Rachel, Gilchrist, Gail, Davies, Jonathon, Henshall, Amanda, Hoggart, Lesley, Chandler, Valerie, Sims, David and Webb, Janet (2013) Assessing the early impact of Multi Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH) in London. Project Report. London Councils, London, UK. Crosby, Danielle A. and Hawkes, Denise D. (2007) Cross-national research using contemporary birth cohort studies: a look at early maternal employment in the UK and USA. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 10 (5). pp. 379-404. ISSN 1364-5579 (Print), 1464-5300 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/13645570701677151) Delaney, Ros (2008) I’ve got to release it: sexual health and young men. In: Reeves, Jane, (ed.) Inter-professional approaches to young fathers. M&K publishing, Keswick, Cumbria, UK. ISBN 9781905539291 Dike, Priscilla (2014) [Fact sheet] 1. Combating female genital mutilation (FGM). Institute of Health Visiting, London, UK. Eldred, Janine, Robinson-Pant, Anna, Nabic, Rafat, Chopra, Priti, Nussey, Charlotte and Bown, Lalage (2014) Women's right to learning and literacy. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 44 (4). pp. 655-675. ISSN 0305-7925 (Print), 1469-3623 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2014.911999) Evans, David Thomas (2011) Sexual health matters! learning for life: mapping client need and professional sexual health education for nurses in England. EdD thesis, University of Greenwich. Everett, Kim and Yeatman, Lucy (2010) Are some parents more natural than others? Child and Family Law Quarterly, 22 (3). pp. 290-310. ISSN 1358-8184 Farrugia, Joanne (2018) Maltese parents’ role as sexuality and relationships educators. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich. Fernández-Fontecha Rumeu, María Leticia (2017) Pain, childhood, and the emotions: a cultural history c. 1870-1950. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich. Gale, Liz (2008) A father is born: the role of the midwife in involving young fathers in the birth and early parenting of their children. In: Reeves, Jane, (ed.) Inter-professional approaches to young fathers. M&K publishing, Keswick, Cumbria, UK. ISBN 9781905539291 Hansen, Kirstine, Hawkes, Denise and Joshi, Heather (2009) Timing of motherhood and mothers’ employment and child outcomes. In: Kneale, Dylan, Coast, Ernestina and Stillwell, John, (eds.) Fertility, Living Arrangements and Care and Mobility: Understanding Population Trends and Processes. Understanding Population Trends and Processes, 1 . Springer, Heidelberg, London, New York, pp. 59-80. ISBN 978-1-4020-9681-5 (Print), 978-1-4020-9682-2 (e-book) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9682-2) Hansen, Kirstine, Hawkes, Denise and Joshi, Heather (2009) The timing of motherhood, mothers' employment and child outcomes. In: Understanding Population Trends and Processes (UTAP) Workshop, 23-25 March 2009, University of Leeds. Hawkes, Denise (2007) [Book review] Dilemmas of Lone Motherhood, Albelda, R., Himmelweit, S. and Humphries, J. (Eds.) Routledge (2005). Economic Issues, 12 (1). pp. 127-128. ISSN 1363-7029 Hawkes, Denise (2010) Just what difference does teenage motherhood make? Evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study. In: Duncan, Simon, Edwards, Rosalind and Alexander, Claire, (eds.) Teenage Parenthood: What’s the Problem? The Tufnell Press, London, UK, pp. 69-84. ISBN 978-1-872767-08-6 Hawkes, Denise (2008) The UK Millennium Cohort study: the circumstances of early motherhood. In: Edwards, Rosalind, (ed.) Researching families and communities: social and generational change. Relationships and Resources . Routledge, London, UK, pp. 147-163. ISBN 9780415427128 Hawkes, Denise (2010) The relative importance of nature, nurture & peer effects on adult outcomes: Full research report ESRC end of award report, RES-000-22-1545. Project Report. ESRC, Swindon. Hawkes, Denise and Crosby, Danielle (2009) Early maternal employment and child cognitive outcomes: evidence from the UK and US. In: GeNet Conference, 26-27 March 2009, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. Hawkes, Denise and Joshi, Heather (2010) The outcomes for children of teenage and early motherhood: Evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort. In: SLLS Inaugural Conference: Developments and Challenges in Longitudinal Studies from Childhood, 22 - 24 September, 2010, Clare College, Cambridge, UK. Hoggart, Lesley and Phillips, Joan (2011) Teenage pregnancies that end in abortion: what can they tell us about contraceptive risk-taking? Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care, 37 (2). pp. 97-102. ISSN 1471-1893 (Print), 2045-2098 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jfprhc.2011.0057) Hoggart, Lesley, Phillips, Joan, Birch, Angela and Koffman, Ofra (2010) Young people in London: Abortion and repeat abortion. Research report. Project Report. Young London Matters Teenage Pregnancy Work Strand of the Government Office for London, London, UK. Kaspersson, Maria (2009) 'You Always Hurt the One You Love': homicide in a domestic context. In: Loucks, Nancy, Smith Holt, Sally and Adler, Joanna R., (eds.) Why We Kill: Understanding Violence Across Cultures and Disciplines. Willan Publishing, London, UK, pp. 9-40. ISBN 9781904750420 Kemp, Jonathan Mark (2003) Writing the behind: Schreber, Genet, Joyce, and the poetics of the penetrated male body. PhD thesis, Thames Polytechnic. King, Andrew ORCID: 0000-0003-2348-4231 (2009) “Army, Navy, Medicine, Law,/ Church, Nobility, Nothing at all”: Towards the study of gender, the professions and the press in the nineteenth century. Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies, 5 (2). ISSN 1556-7524 King, Sarah Jane (1994) Girls' vocational training schools in London: a study of the inter-war years. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich. La Placa, Vincent and Corlyon, Judy (2015) Unpacking the relationship between parenting and poverty: Theory, evidence and policy. Social Policy and Society, 15 (1). pp. 11-28. ISSN 1474-7464 (Print), 1475-3073 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746415000111) Lewis, A., Maras, Pamela F. and Simonds, Laura M. (2000) Young school children working together: a measure of individualism/collectivism. Child: health, care and development, 26 (3). pp. 229-238. ISSN 0305-1862 (doi:https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2214.2000.00141.x) Mansi, Gemma Joanna (2013) Socio-historical perspectives on young fatherhood: exploration of social change on the Isle of Sheppey. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich. Martin, Mary Clare ORCID: 0000-0002-3568-6423 (2009) The politics of mental deficiency: childhood, adolescence and institutionalisation in Scotland, 1906-1948. In: The Political Child: Children, Education and the State, 15-16 May 2009, University of Helsinki, Finland. (Unpublished) Martin, Mary Clare Hewlett (2008) Class, childhood and clothing: puritanism, pleasure and home production in professional families, 1900-1975. In: Clothing childhood, fashioning society: children’s clothing in Britain in the 20th century, 16-17 Jan 2008, Foundling Museum, London, UK. (Unpublished) Martin, Mary Clare Hewlett (2006) Gender, religion and recreation: Flora Lucy Freeman and female adolescence 1890-1925. In: Gilchrist, Ruth, Jeffs, Tony and Spence, Jean, (eds.) Drawing on the past: studies in the history of community & youth work. National Youth Agency, Leicester, UK, pp. 60-77. ISBN 08615553292 Millman, Margaret (2002) In the shadow of war: continuities and discontinuities in the construction of the masculine identities of British soldiers, 1914-1924. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich. Mountain, Holly (2007) The pornographical: a mimetic ethics of bodies. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich. Panades Blas, Rosa (2015) “Give my baby everything I didn’t have”: a study of young men’s experiences of fatherhood. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich. Pawlowska, Chris (2007) Partners moving freely. New Law Journal, 157 (7275). pp. 770-771. ISSN 0306-6479 Pawlowski, Mark ORCID: 0000-0002-5473-5809 and Grout, Nicola (2012) Common intention and unconscionability: a comparative study of English and Australian constructive trusts. Family Law Review, 2 (3). pp. 164-180. ISSN 1837-8757 Peplar, Michael (1998) 'Family matters': ideas about the family in British culture 1945-1970. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich. Puthussery, Shuby, Twamley, Katherine, Harding, Seeromanie, Mirsky, Judith, Baron, Maurina and Macfarlane, Alison (2008) ‘They’re more like ordinary stroppy British women’: Attitudes and expectations of maternity care professionals to UK-born ethnic minority women. Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, 13 (4). pp. 195-201. ISSN 1355-8196 (Print), 1758-1060 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1258/jhsrp.2008.007153) Puthussery, Shuby, Twamley, Katherine, Macfarlane, Alison, Harding, Seeromanie and Baron, Maurina (2010) ‘You need that loving tender care’ : maternity care experiences and expectations of ethnic minority women born in the United Kingdom. Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, 15 (3). pp. 156-162. ISSN 1355-8196 (Print), 1758-1060 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1258/jhsrp.2009.009067) Puthussery, Shuby, Twamley, Katherine, Mirsky, Judith, Macfarlane, Alison, Harding, Seeromanie and Baron, Maurina (2009) Born in the UK: Maternity and postnatal care needs of UK-born ethnic minority women. Diversity in Health and Care, 6 (1). pp. 65-72. ISSN 1743-1913 (Print), 1743-4904 (Online) Rapi, Nina (2008) Queering the foreign, foreign-ing the queer: seeking a new aesthetic in playwriting. In: Queer in Europe: A 3-Day International Research Symposium, 13-15 Sep 2008, The Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Sexuality and Gender in Europe, University of Exeter, UK. (Unpublished) Reeves, Jane (2007) Absence makes the professional try harder? Meeting the needs of socially excluded young men who become fathers. In: The emotional management of parents who give birth to a child with a disability or critical illness International Conference, 21-22 May 2007, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. (Unpublished) Reeves, Jane (2008) Contextualising the evidence: young fathers, family and professional support. In: Reeves, Jane, (ed.) Inter-professional approaches to young fathers. M&K Publishing, Keswick, Cumbria, UK. ISBN 9781905539291 Reeves, Jane (2008) Recklessness, rescue and responsibility. In: Reeves, Jane, (ed.) Inter-professional approaches to young fathers. M&K publishing, Keswick, Cumbria, UK. ISBN 9781905539291 Reeves, Jane (2007) Social and demographic factors of young fathers in the UK and USA. In: 2007 Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, 17-21 Apr 2007, San Francisco, California, USA. (Unpublished) Reeves, Jane (2008) Sons and mothers: crossing the borders of family relationships for teenage fathers. In: Society for the study of Social Problems 58th Annual Meeting, 28 July-2 August 2008, Boston, USA. (Unpublished) Reeves, Jane (2007) 'Tell me Your story applied': ethics in narrative research with young fathers. Children's Geographies, 5 (3). 253 -265. ISSN 1473-3285 (Print), 1473-3277 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/14733280701445838) Rich, Ann (2007) Grandparents and parenting: towards a theory of grandparenthood. In: The emotional management of parents who give birth to a child with a disability or critical illness International Conference, 21-22 May 2007, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. (Unpublished) Rich, Ann (2007) "I’ll call you when we are ready" (One family’s experience of critical care and end of life decision making). In: 8th International Family Nursing Conference: Healing Families, Healing Communities: New Innovations in Practice, Education, and Research, 04-07 June 2007, Bangkok, Thailand. (Unpublished) Rich, Ann (2007) The healing power of grandparents who parent. In: 8th International Family Nursing Conference, 4-7 June 2007, Bangkok, Thailand. Robinson, Oliver C., Lopez, Frederick G. and Ramos, Katherine (2014) Parental antipathy and neglect: relations with Big Five personality traits, cross-context trait variability and authenticity. Personality and Individual Differences, 56. pp. 180-185. ISSN 0191-8869 (doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.09.004) Rosalind, Edwards, Caballero, Chamion and Puthussery, Shuby (2010) Parenting children from 'mixed' racial, ethnic and faith backgrounds: typifications of difference and belonging. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 33 (6). pp. 949-967. ISSN 0141-9870 (doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870903318185) Rowland, Susan (2002) Jung: a feminist revision. Polity Press, Cambridge, England. ISBN 978-0745625171 Scott, Stephen, Humayun, Sajid, Skuse, David, Bruce, Helen, Dowdney, Linda and Mrazek, David (2011) Parenting programmes for conduct problems. Child psychology and psychiatry: frameworks for practice. John Wiley and Sons Ltd., Chichester, West Sussex; Hoboken, NJ, pp. 271-275. ISBN 9780470973820 Secomb, Linnell (2008) Rrapping Irigaray: Flesh, passion, world. In: Anderson, Nicole and Schlunke, Katrina, (eds.) Cultural Theory in Everyday Practice. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 122-132. ISBN 9780195562453 Secomb, Linnell (2008) Words that matter: Reading the performativity of humanity through Butler and Blanchot. In: Davies, Bronwyn, (ed.) Judith Butler in Conversation: Analyzing the Texts and Talk of Everyday Life. Routledge, Oxford, UK, pp. 145-162. ISBN 9780415956536 Simmons, David H. (2014) A study of the transition to parenthood in Barking and Dagenham, examining the experiences of UK-born and migrating parents. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich. Stevens, Olive May (1977) The development of political concepts in children between the ages of seven and eleven years. PhD thesis, Thames Polytechnic. Sullivan-Lyons, Joanne (2001) Foundations of family life: sex differences in psychological well-being in first time parents. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich. Twamley, Katherine, Puthussery, Shuby, Macfarlane, Alison, Harding, Seeromanie, Ahmed, Shamoly and Mirsky, Judith (2009) Recruiting UK-born ethnic minority women for health research – Lessons learned. Research Policy and Planning, 27 (1). pp. 25-38. ISSN 0264-519X Webb, Janet (2007) Managing the risk of parenting. In: The emotional management of parents who give birth to a child with a disability or critical illness International Conference, 21-22 May 2007, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. (Unpublished) Webb, Janet (2008) Safeguarding young fathers and their children. In: Reeves, Jane, (ed.) Inter-professional approaches to young fathers. M&K publishing, Keswick, Cumbria, UK. ISBN 9781905539291 Webb, Janet (2008) The legislative and policy context of young fathers and their children. In: Reeves, Jane, (ed.) Inter-professional approaches to young fathers. M&K publishing, Keswick, Cumbria, UK. ISBN 9781905539291 Wilson, Jonathan A.J. (2011) Marriage is 50% of a Muslim’s faith, but is it tougher these days? DinarStandard. Withey, Carol (2011) Loss of control: loss of opportunity? Criminal Law Review, 2011 (4). pp. 263-279. ISSN 0011-135x Wright, Kerri (2009) 'Adoption success': the reality of adoptive placements today. Practice: Social Work in Action, 21 (2). pp. 119-125. ISSN 0950-3153 (Print), 1742-4909 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09503150902807607)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4402
__label__cc	0.550882	0.449118	Freedom on the Net 2011 - Select year - 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2009 Freedom on the Net Status Partly Free Freedom on the Net Total (0 = best, 100 = worst) Obstacles to Access (0 = best, 25 = worst) Limits on Content Violations of User Rights Use of the internet and related technologies continues to grow rapidly in Georgia, as does the availability of better connections and services. Social-networking sites, particularly Facebook, have gained in popularity in recent years,[1] reportedly eclipsing news sites and general web portals.[2] Facebook serves as an important platform for discussion and information exchange among the more liberal segments of Georgian society. State bodies have also been stepping up their use of the internet. For example, the National Agency of Public Registry (NAPR) allows citizens to register real estate through its website, and the tax inspection agency accepts online submission of tax declarations. The Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development has reportedly turned its attention toward blogging and other social media.[3] There have been no recent reports of government restrictions on internet access or content. The internet was first introduced in Georgia at the end of 1990s, and after a boom in new services like broadband at the beginning of 2004, connections became available for almost everyone with a telephone line in Tbilisi, the capital. Internet subscriptions have also proliferated in other large cities. Online news media are developing slowly, but a growing number of journals and newspapers are launching websites, and major newspapers and news agencies are sharing content through applications like Facebook, the Twitter microblogging service, and the video-sharing site YouTube. Nevertheless, many journalists working in traditional media lack knowledge about internet technology and web tools. Obstacles to Access: The number of internet and mobile-telephone users is growing, but high prices for services and inadequate infrastructure remain obstacles to access, particularly for those in rural areas or with low incomes. According to the International Telecommunication Union, Georgia had 1.3 million internet users in 2009, which constitutes a 30.5 percent penetration rate.[4] Internet-service providers (ISPs) offer dial-up, DSL broadband, fiber optic, and wireless connections. As of the end of 2009, there were 150,000 broadband subscriptions in Georgia.[5] The average cost for an internet connection is US$25 a month. The lowest price for a 1 Mbps broadband connection is about US$10. Mobile-phone penetration is deeper than that of the internet, with a total of 2.8 million subscribers in 2009, out of a population of 4.3 million.[6] This represents a notable increase since 2004, when there were only 840,000 subscriptions. Mobile phones significantly outnumber landlines, and reception is available throughout the country, including rural areas. The use of mobile phones to connect to the internet has been limited by high costs, but providers are offering new and somewhat less expensive services, and usage is growing. Most Georgian users, about 55 percent, access the internet from home, while about 21 percent use a friend’s computer. Others use connections at the office (9 percent), on mobile phones (6 percent), or in cybercafes (6 percent).[7] Cybercafes provide internet access for reasonable fees, but they are located mainly in large cities and there are too few to meet the needs of the population. Most cafes have less than a dozen computers, and customers often have to wait as long as an hour for access. Many restaurants, cafes, bars, cinemas, and other gathering places provide WiFi access, allowing customers to use the internet on their personal laptops. There are 19 ISPs in Georgia, though two of them serve more than two-thirds of the market: Silknet (formerly United Telecom of Georgia, or UTG) with more than 40 percent and Caucasus Online with a somewhat smaller share. Three of the 19 are mobile operators.[8] The telecommunications infrastructure in Georgia is still weak, and users may find that two or three times per month, only Georgian sites are accessible and no international connection is functional. Caucasus Online is most commonly affected by this phenomenon. The ISP provides no explanation of why the problem occurs or how it can be solved. Experts often cite breakdowns related to an underwater cable in the Black Sea. In general, the connection speed for accessing content hosted in Georgia is greater than for international content. The Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) is the main media regulatory body, and although there have yet to be many test cases, it seems to be fair in dealing with internet companies. However, there is no significant difference between GNCC procedures for handling traditional media and those pertinent to telecommunications and internet issues, so criticism surrounding the commission’s alleged lack of transparency and flawed licensing procedures for traditional media may reappear in the context of internet regulation. Limits on Content: Government censorship is not a major hindrance to internet freedom in Georgia. Users can freely visit any website around the world, upload or download any content, and contact other users via forums, social-networking sites, and applications like instant messaging. In fact, content is so accessible that numerous sites offer illegal material such as pirated software, music, and movies, and the government has not enacted appropriate legal measures to combat the problem. ISPs still own websites with a great deal of pirated material,[9] but visits to such sites have decreased and given way to social-networking, video-sharing, blogging, and news sites.[10] Within some state institutions and private companies there is a small degree of censorship designed to improve worker productivity and limit internet traffic, for example by blocking access to Facebook and YouTube. At the same time, both governmental bodies and private employers are increasingly using social media for recruitment and public-relations purposes. While the authorities do not regularly block public access to specific websites, there have been a few cases in which they interfered with internet access on a large scale. In August 2008, during a brief military conflict between Georgia and Russia, the government blocked access to all Russian addresses (those using the .ru country code) in an effort to prevent users from receiving “unofficial” information about the fighting. The move was also a response to attacks launched by Russian hackers against Georgian government websites. In addition to limiting access to certain news content, the government’s actions affected Georgian users’ ability to reach advanced applications based in Russia, including the popular blogging service LiveJournal. The filtering was eased within days, and currently no such restrictions are in force. There is no law that specifically regulates internet censorship or bans inappropriate content, such as pornography or violent material. The Law of Georgia on the Protection of Minors from Harmful Influence addresses gambling and violence, but it does not refer to online activities.[11] Nevertheless, this legal ambiguity could be exploited to impose significant internet content restrictions in the future. YouTube, Facebook, and international blog-hosting services are freely available. Indeed, Facebook is now the most popular site on the Georgian internet. A number of bloggers and journalists use it to share or promote their content, gaining readers and starting discussions on current events. However, one recent event prompted some concern among internet activists. In April 2010, the administrator of the Facebook group “Against Nanukas Show,” which was critical of the hostess of the Nanukas television talk show, alleged that he was threatened by unidentified state employees and forced to make the group inactive. Inadequate revenues in the online news business, combined with a lack of technological knowledge, has hampered the expansion of traditional media outlets to the internet. The government’s apparent interest in blogging and social media could help spur traditional outlets to establish a greater internet presence, but this would also require more private investment in online advertising. At present, most online media outlets face difficulty in attracting advertisers, but the problem seems to be more acute for the sites that are critical of the government. Some media owners reported instances in which advertisers decided to withdraw ads from websites after those outlets published news articles overly critical of the government or the ruling party. There are about 100 bloggers writing in the Georgian language who try to remain active and current. However, at this point the blogosphere is still very weak. Minorities are not restricted from internet use, but they are represented online through only a small number of forums and blogs. Similarly, there is little representation of other vulnerable groups, such as internally displaced persons from conflict regions like South Ossetia. Although most Georgians use the Internet as a source of entertainment, various Web.2.0 applications have become an important platform for discussion and information exchange. In one example, an employee of the Interior Ministry was fired after he was identified by Facebook users as the person who punched a female opposition activist during anti-government protests.[12] Violations of User Rights: Civil rights including the right to access information and freedom of expression are guaranteed by the Georgian constitution,[13] and they are generally respected in practice. Article 20 of the constitution and Article 8 of the Law of Georgia on Electronic Communications include privacy guarantees for users and their information, but they simultaneously allow privacy rights to be restricted by the courts or other legislation.[14] The Law on Freedom of Speech and Expression “makes it clear that other ‘generally accepted rights’ related to freedom of expression are also protected even if they are not specifically mentioned.”[15] Nonetheless, internet activities can be prosecuted under that law—mainly in cases of alleged defamation—or under any applicable criminal law. In November 2009, two young students were detained after allegedly insulting the widely respected head of the Georgian Orthodox Church in videos that were posted on YouTube.[16] This remains the only known case in which law enforcement officials acted in response to internet-based discussion of controversial content (on Facebook and forum.ge), although the issue was also taken up by traditional media. Without conducting a formal criminal investigation, police detained the two youths, confiscated their computers and other hardware, and forced them to take down the parody videos before releasing them. The confiscated hardware was not returned, and the legal basis for these actions was not explained. Georgian legislation grants police and security services significant discretion in conducting surveillance. Police can generally begin surveillance without a court’s approval, though they must obtain it within 24 hours. There are some official requirements for launching such monitoring, but in reality it is sufficient to label the targeted individual a suspect or assert that he may have criminal connections. New amendments to the Law on the Operative-Investigative Activity, promulgated in September 2010, require that websites, mail servers, internet service providers, and other relevant companies make available private communications such as emails and chats to law enforcement authorities, provided that a court approval is obtained.[17] It is yet to be seen how the new law will be implemented in practice. Additionally, ISPs are obliged to deliver statistical data—separated by user—about site visits, traffic, and other topics. Mobile-phone companies are required to provide similar data when asked by the government. Cybercafes are not obliged to comply with government monitoring, as they do not register or otherwise gather data about customers. Individuals are not required to register when they buy a mobile phone, but registration is needed to buy a SIM card and obtain a number. While cyberattacks are not very common in Georgia, they do occur and are often related to political tensions between Georgia and Russia. For example, Russian hackers conducted large-scale attacks on Georgian government sites during the August 2008 conflict. The websites of the parliament and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were knocked out for a few days, with defamatory images of the Georgian president posted in their place. More recently, in August 2009, a Georgian blogger known as Cyxymu was the target of a denial-of-service attack that ultimately affected hundreds of millions of users worldwide and caused disruptions in the functioning of Facebook, Twitter, and the popular blog-hosting site LiveJournal. The blogger, a critic of Russia’s conduct in the disputed territory of South Ossetia, blamed the Kremlin for the attack.[18] [1] Alexa, “Top Sites in Georgia,” http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/GE, accessed September 20, 2010. [2] Caucasus Research Resource Centers, “Georgian Media as Business: Data Snapshots,” Social Science in the Caucasus (blog), December 11, 2009, http://crrc-caucasus.blogspot.com/2009/12/georgian-media-as-business-data.html. [3] Georgian International Media Centre, “Blogging for Misha?” blog, April 14, 2010, http://georgiamediacentre.com/content/blogging_misha. [4] International Telecommunication Union (ITU), “ICT Statistics 2009—Internet,” http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ICTEYE/Indicators/Indicators.aspx. [6] ITU, “ICT Statistics 2009—Mobile Cellular Subscriptions,” http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ICTEYE/Indicators/Indicators.aspx. [7] Caucasus Research Resource Centers, “Georgian Media as Business: Data Snapshots.” [8] This data was obtained in September 2010. For current data, see Top.ge at http://top.ge/all_report.php. [9] See, for example, http://gol.ge/; http://avoe.ge/movies/. [10] Alexa, “Top Sites in Georgia.” [11] The law is available in English on the GNCC website at http://www.gncc.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=7050&info_id=6521. [12] Mirian Jugheli “Georgia: Policeman Fired After Being Identified on Facebook,” The Young Georgians, January 7, 2011, http://theyounggeorgians.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/georgia-policeman-fired-after-being-identified-on-facebook/. [13] The constitution is available in English at http://www.parliament.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=68. [15] Article 19, Guide to the Law of Georgia on Freedom of Speech and Expression (London: Article 19, April 2005), http://www.article19.org/pdfs/analysis/georgia-foe-guide-april-2005.pdf. [16] “Police Say Identified Patriarch Mocking Video Producers,” Civil Georgia, November 1, 2009, http://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=21629&search=buasili; Molly Corso, “Georgia: Free-Speech Debate Swirls in Tbilisi Over Patriarch Parody,” Georgian Daily, November 2, 2009, http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15482&Itemid=134&lang=en; Georgian International Media Centre, “Saakashvili Brings Internet Censorship to Georgia after Embarrassment over Patriarch Videos,” blog, November 1, 2009, http://georgiamediacentre.com/content/saakashvili_brings_internet_censorship_georgia_after_embarrassment_over_patriarch_videos. [17]Tamar Chkheidze, “Internet Control in Georgia,” Humanrights.ge, November 17, 2010, http://www.humanrights.ge/index.php?a=main&pid=12564&lang=eng. [18] Tom Parfitt, “Georgian Blogger Cyxymu Blames Russia for Cyber Attack,” Guardian, August 7, 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/07/georgian-blogger-accuses-russia.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4408
__label__cc	0.531155	0.468845	HomePosts tagged 'police shootings' Antwon Rose’s Life Matters June 23, 2018 stevenmsinger #BlackLivesMatter, Accountability, Child Safety, Civil Rights, Compassion, Education, Guns, Police, Politics, Prejudice, protest, Racism, Schools, Shooting, Social Justice, Students, Teachers, White Allies, White Privilege Antwon Rose, Black Lives Matter, Civil Rights, East Pittsburgh, Gun Violence, Michael Rosfeld, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, poetry, police, police brutality, police shootings, schools, teachers, violence against children, Woodland Hills Antwon Rose could have been my student. I teach 7th and 8th grade language arts in a district located minutes away from where the 17-year-old was shot and killed by police. East Pittsburgh, the neighborhood where his car was stopped and where he ran from officers before being shot three times in the back, is minutes from my house. He went to Woodland Hills School District, minutes from my house. Michael Rosfeld, the officer who just started working at East Pittsburgh less than two hours before he shot and killed Antwon, had been fired with cause from his previous job as a security officer at the University of Pittsburgh, where I got both my graduate and undergraduate degrees and where my wife works. The poem Antwon wrote about not wanting to become another statistic that was read aloud at a protest was the product of an assignment I give my own classes. So I say again – he could have been my student. I have had many children like him. Most of my kids are like him. Promising, smart, burdened by fears no teenager should have to face. When I look at the smiling picture of Antwon released to the media, he looks like so many others I have known and loved. How many kids have passed before me worried that they’ll be the victims of police violence? How many kids have sat in those seats trying to concentrate on my work while anxious about the reality of the streets they have to walk just to get home? How many kids have been afraid that if the worst happens, the rest of us will forget their humanity? I am a white teacher. I don’t know what it’s like to live as a black person in America except by extension of what my kids and others tell me. When my daughter goes to school or plays in the yard, I don’t have to worry the police will consider her a threat simply because of the amount of melanin in her skin. But I do see how white people like me blame a 17-year-old kid for his own death. If he hadn’t been in that car, he’d still be alive. If he hadn’t run from police, they wouldn’t have shot. Maybe. Maybe not. But being in the wrong place at the wrong time shouldn’t bring with it a death sentence. Running away shouldn’t bring with it the finality of the grave. Yesterday Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide. That’s a good start. But plenty of questions remain. Rosfeld is still on unpaid leave. Why hasn’t he been arrested? Civil rights writer Shaun King reports that when Rosfeld worked at the University of Pittsburgh, he had a history of harassing black students and was only let go after he harassed one of the chancellor’s own children. If true, was that reported to East Pittsburgh before they hired him? Why is it police can apprehend white shooters with no violence, but when a suspect is black the rules of engagement start and end with bloodshed? Protests have rocked this city for two days and will continue today. And I’m glad. We need answers to those and more questions. We need justice for Antwon. But more than anything we need to recognize that he was a human being. He was a little boy with his whole life ahead of him. His life matters. I don’t say “mattered” because even though he’s gone, his life still matters. We can’t bring him back, but we can honor who he was. We can recognize his common humanity is the same as anyone else’s. We can give him and his family justice. And we must – we MUST – make sure that things like this don’t happen again. I’ve had far too many students die at the end of a gun. At absolute minimum, the hand holding it shouldn’t belong to someone tasked with the job to serve and protect. Black Progress Does Not Come At White Expense November 14, 2017 stevenmsinger #BlackLivesMatter, Accountability, Civil Rights, Corporate Education "Reform", Democrat, Donald Trump, Education, nonviolence, Police, Politics, Prejudice, President, protest, Racism, Republican, school segregation, Schools, segregation, Shooting, Social Justice, Students, Teachers, White Allies, White Fragility, White Privilege, Whiteness Alt Right, Democrats, Donald Trump, police, police brutality, police shootings, Politics, prejudice, racism, Republicans, segregation, white culture, white supremacy, Whiteness Relax, white people. Take a breath. America survived its first black President. You didn’t have to freak out and elect a neo-authoritarian-pseudo-populist! Donald Fucking Trump! Talk about an over-reaction! But I get it. You’re scared. You’re used to the faces of authority being white and male. Yet for eight whole years you had to endure Barack Obama – a far from perfect neoliberal politician, who none-the-less gave the U.S. the most stable two terms in decades. And then you were asked to vote for a white face (sigh!) that unfortunately was attached to breasts and a vagina! Oh the horror! Seriously, white people. Sit the fuck down and listen to some sense. You don’t need white supremacy. You don’t need male supremacy. You can function just fine in a world where people of color and women have the same rights as you and yours. I know. Sounds crazy! But it’s true. Let’s say unarmed black people were no longer killed by police at a higher rate than white people. Would that hurt you? I don’t think so. In fact, it might actually help, because then we could focus on the fact that police in this country kill far too many unarmed people – of any race – than they should. In most countries, they make lots of arrests but kill almost no one. Here, they kill hundreds – thousands! We need to demilitarize law enforcement. We need new training programs that emphasize de-escalation of violence – not a shoot-first-ask questions-later mentality. And it’s hard to focus on that when racism and prejudice get in the way. We need to fix racism first. Only then can we address the root issue. Here’s another example. Let’s say we had truly integrated public schools. No run down under-resourced schools that just happen to serve mostly students of color and yet across town we’ve got the Taj Mahal with marble columns and a broad curriculum that just happens to serve the best and whitest. Instead we’d have schools that serve everyone – a broad mix of cultures, races and ethnicities all properly resourced and offering a broad range of curriculum and extra-curricular activities. I don’t think so. In fact, it would actually help because every child would get what he or she needs to succeed. Crime would drop, and even prejudiced and racist attitudes would begin to disappear because it’s harder to hold xenophobic views about people who you actually know because you’ve learned everything with them since you were in kindergarten. There’s one thing you have to understand. Racism isn’t an ideology. It’s a sickness. It’s a virus that blinds people to real truths about the world and makes them more prone to holding views that are just plain wrong. The same with sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and a plethora of modern day maladies that should have gone the way of small pox and polio. Inoculating yourself against prejudice will not hurt you. Living in a society where everyone has the same rights doesn’t impinge on those you already have. Yes, it will mean dismantling white supremacy. But that’s a good thing. You don’t really want the world to prize you just because of the color of your skin. Do you want to get into college just because you’re white? Do you want to get a job just because of the hue of your epidermis? Do you want the sum total of your value as a human being to be dependent on the way light reflects off your skin? I don’t. I’m white, and I don’t want that for me or my posterity. I want people to judge me for me – not some preconceived notion of who I am based on culturally received generalities and the amount of melanin in my outermost cells. Fuck that shit. I’m me. And if that’s not good enough for anyone they can just go and jump in the river. I don’t need white supremacy. And I don’t want it. I refuse to sit back and accept things I don’t deserve while others are denied what they do deserve just so I can get some free stuff. I refuse to let my society continue to be built on a foundation of prejudice and cruelty. We’re all human beings. It’s time we treated everyone as such. That means everyone gets the same human rights. To paraphrase Oprah – YOU get human rights, and YOU get human rights and EVERYONE gets human rights! For white people that means losing a certain sense of normativity. White will no longer be considered normal. Neither will male. It’s just another way to be – no better or worse than any other. That doesn’t mean being ashamed of your whiteness. Hell. We can revel in it. Imagine reconnecting with all the messy ethnicities we’ve plastered over to claim this homogenous white overclass! Imagine being Polish again, and Czech and German and Scandinavian and so many other nationalities that we barely connect with because we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves as anything other than white — That’s me. Just white. Plain white. Nothing to see here. White. We’ve had to sacrifice a whole lot to get that status. But we don’t have to keep sacrificing. We can be who we are, too. The Alt-Right Nazis are out there in the streets chanting, “You will not replace us.” How about we replace ourselves. Why don’t we redefine who we are as – who we are. Not homogenous. Not white. But specific human beings belonging to various cultural, ethnic and religious groups and societies. Human beings all taking part in the symphony of homo sapia, engaged in a robust love of all things people and a recognition that all people are human. Think for a moment what that truly means. Let it in. Let it out. It means letting go of this irrational fear that anti-racism is anti-white. So, let me say it again – no. Black progress will not come at white expense. Nor will female progress or anyone’s progress. Because we go through this life together. We are one race. We are one people – though we are also many – and we will survive or perish together. Take my hand and let’s build a better world for all of us. Let us all benefit. Let us all progress. Civil Rights Aren’t Just for Minorities – They’re For Everyone January 25, 2017 stevenmsinger #BlackLivesMatter, Accountability, Charleston, Civil Rights, Compassion, Corporate Education "Reform", Donald Trump, Education, Hate Crimes, Mass Shooting, Media, Obama, Politics, Prejudice, President, protest, Racism, school closings, School Funding, Schools, Social Justice, White Allies, White Privilege, Whiteness Civil Rights, credit scores, culture, Drug War, education, law enforcement, police brutality, police shootings, Politics, prejudice, redlining, stop-and-frisk, Students, Voter ID, War on Drugs “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” -Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s still shocking to me that so many white people seem to think civil rights are just a black issue. As if they’re something that only concerns people of color. White people can’t be the victims of discrimination? We can’t be mistreated on the basis of gender, religion, sexuality, or age? Of course we can! And many of us are. But we are rarely discriminated against on the basis of our race. And somehow accepting that fact seems to turn us against the very idea of civil rights. We act as if talking about civil rights is code for black issues. Many of us refuse to even admit that black people have legitimate grievances in this area, that they’re just needlessly complaining and looking for sympathy, that they’re trying to get something for free or get one over on us. It’s pure bullshit. Black people are authentically aggrieved. They are the victims of a systemic racism that rarely even becomes visible to white eyes. And that same system either ignores whiteness or even privileges it. The criminal justice system, alone, is rife with examples including racial profiling, stop-and-frisk policies, police brutality and the failed War on Drugs. Add to that voter ID laws, redlining, and credit scores. Add to that the use of bigoted and prejudiced textbooks, punishing non-white students more harshly than white students, underfunding public schools, and closing them down if they’re attended mostly by students of color. Yet that doesn’t mean white people are impervious to civil rights violations. It just means that people of color are targeted much more often and are in much greater need of help than we are. Yet many of us refuse to admit it. We refuse even though doing so actually puts ourselves at greater risk. Think about it. If we ignore the civil rights concerns of those most victimized, who will be there for us when we’re targeted? Take police brutality. According to the Guardian’s The Counted, 1,092 Americans were killed by police in 2016. If we look at it proportionately, a much higher percentage of minorities were killed than white people. Specifically, Native Americans were killed at 10.13 per million, black people at 6.66 per million, while Hispanics and Latinos were killed at 3.23 per million. By comparison, white people were only killed at 2.9 per million. So minorities were killed at much higher rates than whites given their smaller percentages of the population. However, if we look at the raw numbers, more white people were killed than any other group. Specifically, the police killed 574 whites, 266 blacks, 183 Hispanics/Latinos and 24 Native Americans. So, yes, the African American community is right to be angry that they’re being disproportionately targeted by police. However, more than 500 white people were killed by law enforcement, too. That’s a troubling figure all by itself. Why are American police killing so many of us? Why is law enforcement so trigger happy in the USA? It’s a problem for everyone. Police should not be killing such high numbers of civilians. In fact, in other countries, they don’t. Police kill more people in the U.S. in days than they do in other countries in years. Yet very few police officers actually serve jail time. Several officers went to trial in 2016, but only a handful were convicted. This is a real problem, yet many white people dismiss it as a black issue – and an illegitimate one at that. As a country, we have a real concern with the way police are trained, protocol for when deadly force is allowed and how officers are held accountable. But we’re letting this issue fall through the cracks because it’s being delegitimized as a “mere” civil rights complaint. Things have really changed in this country. In 1963, when the all black 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was bombed by four members of the Ku Klux Klan, the entire society took notice. Even whites who had been unsympathetic to the civil rights struggles of African Americans up to this point were disturbed at the murder of four children and the injury of 22 others. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called it “one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity,” and it marked a turning point in our history. The fight for civil rights became a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, American struggle to secure equality for our brother and sister African Americans. However, just two years ago when Dylann Roof was inspired by white supremacist Websites to kill nine people at all black Charleston Church in South Carolina, the response was… meh. Though it has been categorized as a hate crime, it has done nothing to wake up the society at large to the realities of modern day American racism. At most, it’s dismissed as an isolated event. However, it’s not. White supremacists have long targeted African American churches as objects of their hatred. In 1991 it took a series of 154 suspicious church burnings for Congress five year later to pass the Church Arson Prevention Act, making it a federal crime to damage religious property because of its “racial or ethnic character.” More recently, a black church in Massachusetts was burned down the day after President Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009. For some reason, these continuing hate crimes fail to rouse the public at large. Perhaps the Internet culture and the perpetuation of so-called news sources that only support partisan confirmation bias has something to do with it. But it’s harmful to all of us. When white people ignore the legitimate claims of black people, they make it easier for everyone to be mistreated. Often white people have acted as if prejudice could never be perpetrated against them, and when it’s cropped up, we’ve defined it narrowly to fit only the immediate group targeted. That’s an LGBT issue. That’s a Jewish issue. That’s an issue for people with disabilities. We rarely see them as they are – human issues. In the age of Trump, violations of individual rights are popping up every day: journalists receiving felony charges for covering unrest at the inauguration, a Louisiana bill that makes resisting arrest a hate crime punishable by 10 years in prison, proposed laws in 10 states to criminalize peaceful protects – and on and on. Nor is it partisan. Here are a list of human rights violations under Obama: drone strikes outside active war zones, ongoing use of massive civilian surveillance programs, failure to close Guantanamo Bay, harsh penalties for whistle blowers and no accountability for those they expose. We live in an age where our rights are being eroded by ignorance, indifference, and the uncritical acceptance of prepacked political narratives. The powers that be use racism and prejudice to keep us divided so we’ll never mount an effective opposition. Today as ever we need each other. We need to be there for our brothers and sisters in humanity. That starts with white people waking up to the harsh realities of black life in America. I Am So Sick of White People’s Excuses (And I’m White!) September 24, 2016 stevenmsinger #BlackLivesMatter, Accountability, Black Names, Civil Rights, Police, Politics, Poverty, Prejudice, Propaganda, protest, Racism, Social Justice, Teachers, White Allies, White Fragility, White Privilege, Whiteness #blacklivesmatter, Black Culture, Black Names, Blackness, Civil Rights, justice, police, police brutality, police shootings, Poverty, racism, SNAP, Social Justice, teachers, welfare, white ally, white culture, white excuses, white fragility, white privilege, Whiteness What the heck is wrong with us, white people? Systematic racism is all around, but we refuse to see it. Oh, and I do mean REFUSE. It’s not a matter of being unable to see it. Our eyes and minds work just as well as anyone else’s. We can perceive reality. Too many of us just choose not to. According to the Guardian, at least 793 Americans have been killed by police so far this year. That number includes 194 black people or 4.86 per million. That’s more than double the rate for white people at 1.96 per million. This is not an opinion. This is an undeniable fact. Every number is backed up with verifiable data. And moreover, it follows the same pattern we’ve seen for a couple of years now since news organizations have taken up the slack from the federal government and started counting. Why does that not worry more white people? It worries me. I don’t want to live in a country where police use lethal force so often against civilians, so much more than almost any other developed country on Earth. And I don’t want my black friends and neighbors to be targeted so much more. I’m a middle school teacher. Most of my students are black. I don’t want to have to worry that they or their parents are going to be murdered just because of an excess of melanin. Street gangs are worrisome enough without having to add into the mix many of the very law enforcement officers that are supposed to keep us safe from those gangbangers. But when you bring this up to white folks and other facts detailing the systemic racism that pervades our society, you get every excuse in the book. They simply refuse to engage with what you’re saying. They deflect and redirect and change the subject – and they don’t even seem to realize they’re doing it. Blue lives matter, they say. All lives matter. Every form of life seems to matter to white people – except explicitly black lives. We seem to think it’s impossible to care about both police and African Americans. We seem to think any expression of the value of human life has to be universal without mentioning individual groups that are at a higher risk than others. It’s wacko, clearly a way of shutting down a conversation white folks will do anything to avoid. The easiest dodge seems to be talking about black-on-black crime. As if somehow that makes it right. It goes something like this: You’re worried about police killing black people, what about other black people? Most African Americans are killed by other African Americans. Of course what they omit is that the same is true for white Americans. White folks kill each other much more than any other race does. But you never see people wringing their hands about white-on-white crime, do you? Moreover, it’s irrelevant. If I point to a single incident of a white person killing a black person, it is not therefore justified because black people kill black people more often. Would you think an African American is justified for popping a cap in your Caucasian mom’s ass because most of us, honkies, usually off other honkies? Of course not! But so much for logic. One of the most popular evasions is to blame it all on inferior black culture. It goes like this: Black people don’t suffer systemic racism. If there are any ways in which they are selected against in society, it’s because they’ve earned that treatment because of the way they act. Black people come from unmarried parents. They are on Welfare and a host of other social ills. THESE are the reasons behind so-called racism, not unjust systems. It’s pure nonsense. How does coming from unmarried parents mean you deserve to be killed by police at a greater rate than white people? How does parental marital status affect the justice system handing out more severe and longer sentences for blacks than for whites who commit the same crimes? How does the Facebook status of your pops and your moms somehow translate into difficulty getting a job due to your black sounding name? In short, the two have nothing to do with each other. Yes, black people have children out of wedlock about twice as often as white people. So what? Some people aren’t meant to be married. Often it’s better for the children if the parents don’t stay married to people who mistreat each other, a marriage where there is no love. Would racism suddenly disappear if black people just kept their chins up and married each other irregardless of whether the relationship was healthy for them and their children? Let’s get to what white people are really saying here. Whites aren’t saying marriage is a magical shield against prejudice. They’re saying: Damn! Look at these strangers! These others! These people who aren’t like you and me! The fact that many of them don’t get married before having children just shows how morally inferior they are to us. They deserve their treatment because they don’t share our sensibilities. This is a pretty heartless way to think. Not only do the parents, apparently, deserve to be selected against, but so do their kids who had nothing to do with whether daddy gave mommy a ring or not. Moreover, where did the culture of marriageless childbirth come from for black people? When their ancestors were kidnapped from Africa and brought to these shores as slaves, it was the white slave masters who forbade them from marrying. In many cases, that tradition doesn’t exist because we took it away. Meanwhile, about a quarter of white couples have children out of wedlock, too. What’s our excuse? But this won’t be enough to convince most white interlocutors. They’ll just huff and puff and spout some nonsense about welfare. They’ll say Black people fall into immoral and violent behavior because they’ve been taught by liberals to exist on welfare and not get jobs of their own. Again, the problem is black people, themselves, aided by bleeding heart liberals trying to give them a helping hand. Some white folks even go so far as to say this is real racism because by giving black folks such sweet benefits for not working, liberals purposefully destroyed black people’s natural inclination to productivity. Think about it for about two seconds, and you can see how crazy it is. Black people deserve to be killed at twice the rate of whites because they don’t have jobs? They deserve to be gunned down because they’re too lazy to work? Or alternatively, they deserve not to get call backs when they turn in resumes with black sounding names because they’re lazy!? These people just handed in job applications. We can imagine they did that because they wanted freaking jobs! But being lazy makes them unqualified for the very jobs they tried to apply for in the first place? Let’s look at the facts for a moment. Black people don’t accept the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) more than whites. It’s the other way around. More than 40% of SNAP recipients are white. Only 25% are black. But that’s raw data. When we look at it as a percentage of the population, black people are twice as likely to be on Welfare as Whites. Only 12% of the country is African American, after all. So why bring up the raw data? Because if you’re upset about the sheer numbers of people on assistance, you’re mad at more white people than black people. Moreover, black people actually need it more than whites. More than 27% of black people live in poverty compared to only 10% of whites. Hence the larger percentage of blacks on SNAP. This isn’t meant to throw anyone under the bus for being on public assistance. Times are tough and well paying jobs are hard to come by. For instance, most of the people who accept SNAP benefits actually are employed, but their pay is too small to sustain them. Thanks, Walmart. So how much does a family of four get on SNAP? It depends on how much money the household earns, but the total income must be below the federal poverty level – $23,050. For many families it comes to about $399 a month. That’s $1.10 per person, per meal. This isn’t exactly living high off the hog. I can’t imagine anyone making bank who would throw it all away to live so luxuriously on food stamps. However, this is exactly what a lot of white people think about blacks. It goes against the facts, and it doesn’t explain the reality of systemic racism. In so many ways our society is set up to give white people an advantage and black people a disadvantage. That doesn’t mean all white people have it perfectly. There are an awful lot of dirt poor white folks out there – many of their kids are in my classes, too. But while they may be disadvantaged socially, economically or many other ways, they aren’t disadvantaged racially. That’s the whole point. Racism still exists and talking about it doesn’t make you anti-white. It makes you pro-black and pro-justice. Those aren’t bad things to be. We, white people, have to stop being so fragile when racism is brought up. Though I’ve artificially concerned myself only with black people here, we need to listen to what all people of color are telling us about how they’re treated. We need to take a hard look at the facts. Being white and admitting racism exists doesn’t make you a racist – though you probably benefit from it. It just means that if you want to stand on the right side of history, on the side of equity and justice, you may need to bring your thinking into agreement with reality. Racism is Just One of Two Things Shown in Alton Sterling Killing July 7, 2016 July 7, 2016 stevenmsinger #BlackLivesMatter, Accountability, Civil Rights, Data, Eric Garner, Guns, Hate Crimes, Media, nonviolence, Police, Politics, Prejudice, Racism, Social Justice, Tamir Rice, White Allies, White Privilege #blacklivesmatter, #icantbreathe, Alton Sterling, America, American Culture, Blackness, Civil Rights, Gun Violence, police, police brutality, police shootings, Politics, racism, violence against children Americans are notoriously bad at holding two thoughts in our heads at the same time. We look at the police shooting of Alton Sterling and can’t decide whether it was racist or if the 37-year-old black man just had it coming. But we’re missing the point. Sometimes twice. Baton Rouge Police shot and killed the father of five on July 5th. The 37-year-old man was killed outside a convenience store in Louisiana because police allegedly got a tip someone was selling CDs and was armed. In the resulting scuffle, Sterling was shot and killed. If the whole thing weren’t caught on a cell phone video, it probably wouldn’t be more than a sad headline. Just another black dude killed by police. But the resulting attention has made his name a hashtag and his death a source of outrage – for good reason. On the video, police tackle Sterling to the ground before gunshots are heard. One of the officers shouts “gun” before shooting, but store owner Abdullah Mulfahi told the media that Sterling’s hand was not near any weapon and the alleged gun later recovered from his pocket was not visible. People watch the video (or not) and immediately take sides. Who is to blame – the police or Sterling? Was the black man armed? Maybe – though Louisiana is an open carry state so he would be within his rights to do so. What should he have done when confronted by police? What actions of his might have resulted in police not shooting him dead? Did he have a record? Is that even relevant since police had no access to that information at the time? Typically people come to conclusions based on their convictions and not based on the evidence. If you think black people are being victimized by police, then you’re probably on Sterling’s side. If you think black people are naturally violent and police rarely do any wrong, you’re probably on the side of law enforcement. But what both sides are ignoring is a sense of context. This was the 15th American killed by police so far in July alone. Not the 15th black person. The 15th person. Period. There’s some dispute over exactly how many people have been killed by police so far this year, but the number is surprisingly high. You’d think that would be something the federal government would keep track of, but no. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program tabulates every criminal statistic imaginable – except homicide by law enforcement. Alarmingly, it leaves this to the private sector – almost as if it had something to hide. Much of this is done by the news media, both in and out of the country. The Washington Post puts the number of Americans killed by police this year at 505 people. The Guardian puts it at 560. An open sourced database called Killed by Police puts the number at 580. Any way you look at it, no matter which tally you go with, 2016 is turning out to be one of the deadliest years for police shootings since people have been counting. It’s a problem for everyone. Police should not be killing such high numbers of civilians. In fact, in other countries, they don’t. Police kill more people in the U.S. in days than they do in other countries in years. For instance, U.S. police killed 59 people in 24 days last year. In England and Wales, 55 people were killed by police in 24 YEARS! And the numbers aren’t that high solely because the United States has a larger population. The entire nation of Canada has about as many people as the entire state of California, yet Canadian police killed 25 people last year to 72 by California law enforcement. That may be due in part to a lack of accountability. Despite such high body counts in this country, not a single police officer has served jail time for it in the last few years. Several officers went to trial in 2016, but none were convicted, according to the Wall Street Journal. Last year had the highest number of officers being charged for shooting civilians in a decade. That number? 12. And none of them – not one – was convicted of murder or manslaughter. We have a real problem here. American police kill far too many people. However, this doesn’t mean that racism isn’t a motive in many of these police shootings. In fact, the numbers back that up. Though more white people are killed by law enforcement in this country, it is black people who are killed at a disproportionately high rate. They only make up 13.2% of the population, yet they are twice as likely to be killed by police as whites. Nearly a quarter of all police homicides this year resulted in dead black folks. What’s going on here? First, we live in a police state. Officers often kill suspects with impunity and face little to no consequences. Not all police, certainly, but far too many. Second, black folks are killed more regularly by police than whites. In fact, if all things were equal, you’d expect MORE white people to be killed than already are. Whites make up 77.7% of the population, yet they account for only half of the victims of police shootings. This isn’t because black people are so much more violent than whites. According to the Center on Disease Control’s annual Youth Risk Behavior Survey, they engage in violent behavior at similar rates to whites. For instance, they carry a weapon (whites 17.9% to African Americans 15.2%) and carry guns (whites 5.5% to African Americans 6.5%) at about the same rates. However, blacks are twice as likely to be arrested for weapons possession. The same holds for assaults. African Americans report being in physical fights at similar rates (36.5% versus 32.5% for whites) but are three times more likely to be arrested for aggravated assault. It should come as no surprise then that black people are more likely to be killed by police. This holds with everything else we know. When it comes to the criminal justice system, black people are penalized more often and that includes being shot and killed by law enforcement. Why? Because they’re black. Because of societal attitudes, fears, phobias and prejudices. For many of us, when we see Sterling’s last moments enacted on that cell phone video, we’re confronted with that fact. We put ourselves in his position. What could he have done differently? Whether he was guilty of a crime or not, what action on his part would have assured that he got out of this situation alive? Eric Garner was choked to death by police while repeatedly saying, “I can’t breathe!” Tamir Rice was shot by police in two seconds. What exactly could a black person do to avoid being shot if law enforcement already perceives him or her to be a threat? These are important questions. But they aren’t the only ones. America has a problem with police violence. In fact, it has two problems. And we can’t solve one without solving the other. We have to come to terms with this. It is not a case of racism or a police state. It is a case of BOTH. The Best Way To Honor Tamir Rice is by Reforming Our Broken Justice System December 29, 2015 December 30, 2015 stevenmsinger Accountability, Civil Rights, Compassion, Congress, Data, Hate Crimes, Judicial Reform, Michael Brown, Police, Politics, Prejudice, protest, Racism, Sandra Bland, Supreme Court, Tamir Rice, Violence Against Children, White Allies #blacklivesmatter, #icantbreathe, Civil Rights, courts, eric garner, judicial system, michael brown, police, police brutality, police shootings, Politics, prejudice, racism, Sandra Bland, Supreme Court, Tamir Rice Michael Brown – no indictment. Eric Garner – no indictment. Sandra Bland – no indictment. And now Tamir Rice. How many times will our justice system refuse to charge police with killing unarmed black people? What will it take for our courts to accept the responsibility for at least attempting to seek justice? When will our judicial system deem the death of people of color at the hands of law enforcement to at least be worthy of a trial? Brown had no weapon but was shot to death by law enforcement. Garner had no weapon but was choked to death by police. Bland had no weapon but was found hanged in her jail cell after being assaulted by police during a traffic stop. Rice had a legal pellet gun that was not pointed at anyone yet he was shot to death two seconds after police arrived. This is not justice. This is a national travesty that continues to be played out daily. How many more human beings will be ground under the boot of a system that finds no value in their lives? And don’t give me any of your excuses! Police were just doing there job! These people should have listened to law enforcement! Rice shouldn’t have had a pellet gun! Listen to yourself. Lethal force is the only option!? Police have no tasers anymore, no pepper spray? Their guns only fire death strokes? They can’t hit non-vital areas meant to incapacitate but not kill? What a bunch of cowards we are if we don’t demand police publicly explain themselves when they kill another human being – especially someone who posed them no bodily harm! How morally and spiritually bankrupt a nation we are not to weigh the evidence and decide guilt or innocence! “Freedom and justice for all!?” What a sham! What a lie! What a farce! I don’t know about you, but I am sick of it. I refuse to put up with it for even one more day. But what can we do? No. Really. When reading about these government sanctioned murders, I feel helpless. I’m just one person. What can I do to stop it? Here are a few suggestions: 1) Ban Grand Juries in Fatal Shootings by Police Connecticut and – most recently – California already have laws to this effect. District attorneys should have to decide whether officers face criminal charges when they kill people in the line of duty. This decision should be made in the light of day in full view of the public and not behind the closed doors of a grand jury hearing. These hearings involve no judges or defense attorneys and the transcripts of these proceedings are almost always sealed. The problem is that district attorneys work closely with police and depend on them for political support. Sending cases like these to a grand jury gets the DA off the hook so he or she doesn’t offend the officers. If the decision had to be made in public, voters could hold DAs accountable. With the grand jury system, there are no consequences because we have no concrete evidence about what happened during the proceedings, what arguments were made, by whom and who made what decisions. That’s a poor breeding ground for justice. 2) Construct a National Database on Police Killings Right now there is no way to tell exactly how many people are killed by law enforcement in this country every year. Moreover, there is no way to tell if officers involved in these killings were ever charged. Information can be compiled state-by-state, often through unofficial and anecdotal sources. However, this does not nearly give the full picture of what is going on. The people of this country deserve to know the full scope of the issue. That’s why apologists often claim these sorts of incidents are relatively rare and blown out of proportion by the media. But are they? A national database would prove the matter one way or the other. Federal law from 1994 already calls for just such a database, yet it has not been funded. This may be due in part to the cost. A pilot study found that it would take a decade and cost $1 billion. Certainly this is not a quick fix. But don’t we deserve to know this information? And isn’t it suspicious that nothing is being done to compile this data now? 3) Overturn Graham v. Connor Perhaps the biggest obstacle to seeking justice for those unnecessarily killed by police is a precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court 25 years ago. Graham v. Connor effectively ruled that police can kill you if they feel you present a “reasonable” threat to their own lives. The problem is the word “reasonable.” What does that mean? In court, it can be almost anything. It’s a “Get Out of Jail Free” card to police for wanton murder. Justice Sonia Sotomayor calls this a “Shoot first, think later” approach to policing. She says this violates the Fourth Amendment which stipulates what counts as “probable cause” for police actions including arrests. However, Sotomayor is the only sitting justice publicly to take this stance. This is why without more robust protections for citizens and more realistic expectations for law enforcement, even when cases like these go to court, they rarely result in police convictions. But courts change. Public opinion can move mountains if given enough time. We need to start putting on the pressure. Organize, people. Start writing letters. Write petitions. Hold rallies. Meet with your Congress-people. Make some noise. In the meantime, let us grieve for all the Browns, Garners, Blands and Rices. Their lives matter. And the best way to prove that is to get off our collective asses and do something about it. NOTE: This article also was published on Commondreams.org.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4412
__label__cc	0.589254	0.410746	Archive \| housing density RSS feed for this section Vancouver Developing a Duplex in an RT7 Zone As I’ve alluded to on multiple occasions, Vancouver suffers from a housing crisis of sorts, not uncommon to many desirable cities around the world. I am not as instructed on the complexities of cities such as Paris, Rome, or Barcelona, which are part of Europe’s “museum” cities – city centres devoid of permanent residents and almost entirely inhabited by tourists, or San Francisco, New York, or Hong Kong – city centres occupied by the creative and entrepreneurial classes, where everyone else lives on the periphery, or for that matter London (arguably the most exclusive of them all). Vancouver’s housing crisis is different to these cities because it is neither a museum city, nor is it a global alpha city with a large creative and entrepreneurial class. In Vancouver the problem is the juxtaposition of zoning and the BANANA (1), as is evident in my employer’s most recent property development project. In the past our company has always built and renovated in North and West Vancouver, nearby upper middle class suburbs with a mixture of density and suburban development, with pockets of early 20th century Queen Anne and Edwardian period homes. Zoning in these suburbs, as well as community amiability to development has enabled the North Shore to develop some very successful mixed neighbourhoods. Despite this, I decided to make a strategic shift towards the City of Vancouver because of a better values fit – cycling, bike lanes, public transit, pre-automobile city grids – all sadly lacking in the suburbs of North and West Vancouver. I digress, back to zoning and the BANANA. The City of Vancouver’s zoning is approximately 80% single family or commercial and condominium development, with the remainder open to duplex and other smaller medium density projects. For those not familiar with the City of Vancouver, I like to call these zones places where one can build the kinds of medium density flats and town houses typically seen in the inner cities of Chicago, Boston, London, Montreal, and Toronto – not more than 5 stories high, and everyone has street access without an elevator. Since these zones cover such a tiny area of the city, the prices are exorbitantly high, which means developers have to charge top dollar on completed product in order to cover costs and turn a profit for the next project. In my blog I have repeatedly called from the end to single family zoning, so I’ll avoid dwelling on it here. More importantly, this is where the BANANA part of the problem comes into the equation. Residents in these zones often fight back on proposed new density, as they do not want to see their neighbourhoods undergo any significant change. They argue schools will become too crowded, street parking more scarce, libraries overused, and privacy diminished. Yet what the BANANAs fail to understand, is that the very density they fight is the density that allowed them to get into the neighbourhood in the first place. Put simply, if houses could not be converted into duplexes, triplexes, and small apartments, no one other than high income earners and those with rich parents would be able to live in these zones. One only need look at the pricing in the single family zones to see the evidence. Density brings the price per square foot down, which allows more people access to housing. So the developer has to bend to the demands of BANANAs, who through lobbying impose all sorts of restrictions on the sorts of development that can be done in these limited medium density zones. These restrictions are reflected in the City of Vancouver’s building legislation, where blanket restrictions on demolitions force builders to restore homes of questionable heritage value, often sacrificing both housing density and neighbourhood restoration. I am currently going through this very situation at the moment. The architect we’ve engaged has been told by city hall that the house we are planning to convert is stamped as heritage, so to demolish it would mean we would sacrifice 850 square feet of living space. Agreed, the house was built in the 1920’s; however, it has suffered from so many “renovations” inflicted on it prior to the zoning restrictions, that today it nothing more than a neglected cement block with aluminium widows, a car port addition, and a concrete front stairway. Yet the legislation is clear, the city, directed by voters and lobbying, placed blanket measures to encourage housing retention and discourage the development of the horrid MacMansions that were built during the 1980’s and 1990’s, when waves of Chinese immigrants fled Hong Kong and Macau to park their money offshore in giant pink stucco homes devoid of any garden space. The pushback from local residents was reasonable at the time; however, the city now faces a housing challenge that can only be resolved by relaxing zoning and standing up to the BANANA. A more practical solution to fit today’s needs would be to offer the developer the option to demolish the unit and retain the allowable building space, if they integrated a minimum amount of salvaged heritage material. This salvaged material can come from other homes or from secondary resale markets. Square feet could be rewarded to the developer for installing restored timber beams, salvaged lighting, hardwood flooring, gables, stained windows, etc. Naturally even more square feet would be given to developers who retain the house; however, at least this more versatile option would ensure heritage is retained in the neighbourhood, but not by just “saving” a building that has lost all the “heritage” value it had, apart from the year it was originally built in. For us the next step is negotiations with city. There is a four month backlog at City Hall, so this project has a long way to go before breaking ground. (1) BANANA – An acronym for Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything, also known as the NIMBY – Not In My Back Yard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIMBY Tags: banana, density, nimby, single family homes, vancouver, zoning Categories city of vancouver, duplex, housing density, Kitsilano, triplex, vancouver, zoning Understanding Zoning and Heritage Classifications The City of Vancouver planning department and Vision administration are both remarkably efficient and transparent. Online searches yield a wealth of information, which in most other cities around the world one would require making phone calls and visits to obscure city departments to gain access to information. This level of transparency means the City of Vancouver is a relatively easy city to do real estate transactions in. Apart from the zoning issues, which afflict most North American cities, Vancouver benefits from established institutions with high levels of trust, a clean environment and stable climate, and a relatively effective transit network. Many Vancouverites who have not spent time abroad are quick to criticize the city administration; however, they do not realize how fortunate we are here. Below is a little of the information I have dug up in my research: 1. http://vancouver.ca/files/cov/Zoning-Map-Vancouver.pdf 2. http://former.vancouver.ca/commsvcs/BYLAWS/zoning/rt-7.pdf 3. http://vancouver.ca/your-government/zoning-development-bylaw.aspx 4. http://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/find-a-registered-heritage-building-site-or-tree.aspx Frances Bula and Gordon Price are also a wealth of information for anyone wanting to understand Vancouver from a broader urbanist’s perspective. Categories city of vancouver, frances bula, gordon price, housing density, Kitsilano, vancouver, zoning My Vision is not a Laneway House In 2004 I moved from Montreal to London with the intention of making a career transition from sales to marketing, while setting up a life on the European continent – it was a well executed plan built on 7 years of undergraduate and graduate education. In the end it did not work out. I had made the move too late in life, I didn’t hold a EU passport at the time, and London was never a place I aspired to live in, rather a city I enjoyed to visit, a stepping stone for moving to the European continent. 2005 was a reset, a return to the Westcoast. The objective was to build a property business, which would in time marry well with the construction company our family had established. It has been a battle, the details of which are not worth repeating here. At a global level, big changes of this sort often involve deep questions, they also lead to conflict, as different parties try to marry together often incongruent visions and expectations. Nonetheless, there has been success, as what was once a tiny holding of a one bedroom condo in the suburbs has taken fruit into something considerably more substantial. My hopes and aspirations are that the upward trajectory will continue and our property business will make the next big step in becoming an important contributor to the development of beautiful, smaller, more efficient housing in this fair and so beautiful place, “The Land of the Lotus Eaters”. I continue to devote considerable time and thought to this endeavour, as I believe it to be a worthwhile one. People need homes to live in, just as they need hospitals for care, and schools for learning. So why not make these homes beautiful? Why not make them just the right size for a Vancouver family – one or two people a room and not two or three rooms a person? Yes, how novel, small efficient beautiful homes that don’t waste space. The latest challenge we are finding to executing our vision is the availablity of housing stock that can be developed into duplexes. For a city that is awash in condos and single family homes, the “everything in between” is neglected. It is as if the consumer and the smaller developers are channeled to one of two options: buy a condo in a tower developed by a large developer, or demolish a single family home and build a bigger single family home to recoupe the costs. Neither of these options is particulary appealing, and neither applies to our vision. Condos don’t build communities, rather they isolate people from each other and the street scape; bigger houses house less people and are an inefficient use of space and energy. Lane houses have been pushed as the answer to this conundrum; however, I believe they are a misguided solution for two reasons. Firstly they are short sighted, as once the infill investment is made, the lot becomes indivisible should zoning change in the future. This means the land becomes locked in with a big house and a small house, when it could have been built as a triplex or fourplex – units that in turn could be owner occupied or rental stock. Secondly, lanehouses do not increase the supply of land stock for sale, as they cannot be sold separately from the principal house, which means that one of the residents will always be in a landlord position, while the other will in perpetuity be in the more precarious role of the tenant. The reality is that most people don’t want to rent, and most people do not want to be landlords, most people just want to own their own home that they can do with as they please. In Vancouver there is little hope the city will abolish the single family zoning in the forseeable future. This remains the biggest obstacle to delivering our business’ vision. Categories duplex, housing density, Kitsilano, laneway houses, lotus eaters, lotus land, triplex, vancouver, zoning	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4413
__label__cc	0.588024	0.411976	During the Pensacon event in February 2019, three professional video gamers showed their support for the Studer Family Children’s Hospital at Sacred Heart by encouraging their followers to donate money through the Heroes for Hope Charity Stream. Jason Thomson, head of logistics for Pensacon, partnered with popular Twitch streamers James Werk, GSXR Clyde and Gernader Jake to put on the event, which raised $34,000 this year – for a grand total of $57,000 donated to the Children’s Hospital since 2017. Thomson, who co-founded the Heroes for Hope Charity Stream, has been gaming his entire life. (He started playing an Atari racing game on an old black and white TV.) But when streaming came along, he says he discovered the meaning of community. “Hope is something all humans are entitled to,” Thomson shares. “It’s such a simple thing, really. But in dark times, that hope is often hard to see. If the money we raise can provide hope for even one person, then it’s all worth it.” Gaming can also see hospitalized children through the dark times, when they may feel helpless and isolated. “For so many of us, gaming is an escape from reality. It’s a chance to leave behind the worries of real life and to explore this beautiful and unique universe that someone has created,” Thomson explains. “For a child going through a difficult time, this can be even more important. Inside the game world can be the one place they still have control and get to make all the decisions.” Gamer James Werkeiser has participated in many different charity streams, but he says Heroes for Hope felt different. “As you reach out in a grassroots effort to what can be millions of people worldwide, the potential to raise money #ForTheKids is unlimited,” he says. “I really like the idea of helping kids all over the world, but any time we are given an opportunity to also support local kids, that really hits a special place in my heart – having my own kids, family members and friends in the local community.” Dr. James Patterson, Medical Director for the Children’s Hospital, had the opportunity to attend the Heroes for Hope event after coming off a 30-hour shift taking care of our community’s kids. “I’m nobody famous, but I got to speak from the heart about a cause and an institution that I care deeply about and instantly got to see the response of gamers across the world as they donated hundreds of dollars within minutes,” he shares. “I’m so grateful to these three men, the Heroes for Hope team that supports them, the Pensacon group that puts on a bigger, better production every year … and of course our own fantastic Sacred Heart crew who worked tirelessly to make this miracle happen.”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4414
__label__wiki	0.851239	0.851239	You are here: Home Page > Dictionaries & Reference > A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation 512 Pages \| line drawings Available online as part of Oxford Reference - cross-search quality A-Z reference at the click of a button A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation Edited by Michael Allaby and Chris Park Thoroughly revised and updated to include the latest research Over 700 entries new to this edition, including aerial plankton, cyclone collector, oasis, and supertramp Social as well as scientific focus: comprehensive coverage of the social aspect of environmental science (including treaties, organisations, and agencies relating to the environment) as well as ecology Appendices provide sources of online data on the environment, international environment treaties, the Beaufort scale of wind strength, the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, the Fujita scale of tornado intensity, the Torino asteroid and comet impact hazard scale, the Richter earthquake magnitude and modified Mercalli earthquake intensity scales, a geological time-scale, the chemical elements, and SI units and conversions Includes line drawings to illustrate entries New to this Edition: Features recommended web links that are listed and regularly updated on a dedicated companion website Thoroughly revised and updated to include the latest research in the field, A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation provides over 9,000 alphabetically arranged entries on scientific and social aspects of the environment, including concise and authoritative information on key thinkers, treaties, movements, organizations, concepts, and theories. For the second edition, Allaby has added over 700 new entries, including "aerial plankton," "cyclone collector," "oasis," and "supertramp." The dictionary also features many useful appendices that provide sources of online data on the environment, international environment treaties, the Beaufort scale of wind strength, a geological time-scale, the chemical elements, and SI units. In addition, readers have access to recommended web links that are listed and regularly updated on a dedicated companion website. The book also includes line drawings to illustrate entries. Covering such key subjects as sustainable development, biodiversity, and environmental ethics, the dictionary provides state-of-the-art information for readers interested in environmental science, conservation studies, and related topics. Michael Allaby has written many books on environmental science and especially on climatology and meteorology. He is the General Editor of several Oxford Dictionaries, including the Dictionaries of Earth Sciences, Ecology, Plant Sciences, and Zoology. Chris Park is a Professor Emeritus at Lancaster University where he was Director of the Graduate School from 2001 to 2009. His books include The Environment: Principals and Applications. "With some bad environmental dictionaries on the market, it is refreshing to find a good one." -- New Scientist "The second edition of this user-friendly title is updated with 800 new entries, expanding the work to more than 500 pages... Students will appreciate having access to this information in one convenient source." -- Booklist By Michael Allaby Today is Earth Day. At least, that's the date of the official International Mother Earth Day, as adopted by the United Nations in 2009. It's a day when we're asked to reflect on the interdependence of all living things, our responsibility to restore damaged environments to health, and to cherish the world around us. The Oxford Companion to Scottish History Oxford Latin Dictionary A Twenty-First Century U.S. Water Policy Juliet Christian-Smith, Peter H. Gleick, Heather Cooley... Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, and Human Wellbeing Shahid Naeem, Daniel E. Bunker, Andy Hector... The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature M.C. Howatson Oxford Bibliographies in Management A Dictionary of British Place-Names David Mills Guide to Canadian English Usage Margery Fee and Janice McAlpine The Earth After Us Jan Zalasiewicz Invasive Species Management Mick N. Clout and Peter A. Williams The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists Ian Chilvers Oxford Bibliographies in Biblical Studies Christopher R. Matthews Nick Bostrom and Milan M. Cirkovic Herman A. Verhoef and Peter J. Morin Science & Mathematics > Engineering & Technology > Environmental Science, Engineering, & Technology Science & Mathematics > Biological Sciences > Ecology & Conservation > Biodiversity & Conservation Biology	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4415
__label__cc	0.63645	0.36355	Renowned speakers on Syria and Central American migration to visit U of M Will There Ever Be Justice for Mass Atrocities in Syria? Ambassador Steven J. Rapp Tuesday, February 21, 2017, 4:00 - 5:30pm University of Minnesota Law School Mondale Hall Room 25 The University of Minnesota's James H. Binger Center for New Americans, Human Rights Center, and Human Rights Program are excited to announce the inaugural lecture of our 2017 Syria Series. This year-long series will explore the geopolitical dimensions of the Syrian conflict, the pursuit of justice for mass atrocities, the rights and reality of the millions of refugees, and the local, national and international responses. Please join us for this unique opportunity to learn about the efforts to pursue justice for the mass atrocities committed in Syria. Ambassador Rapp led the U.S. State Department's Office of Global Criminal Justice from 2009-2015 and he is currently part of a "dream team" of international lawyers working to bring war criminals to justice for atrocities committed in Syria. Seeking Refuge in a Changing World Sonia Nazario: "Refugees at our Borders" Wednesday March 1, 20174:30-6:00pm Cowles Auditorium at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs 309 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455 Ms. Nazario is a Pulitzer Prize winning author who documented "Enrique's Journey," her story of a Honduran boy's struggle to find his mother in the U.S. first published as a series in the Los Angeles Times. She will address the issues facing Central American migrants who continue to seek refuge at the southern borders of the United States. Seeking Refuge in a Changing World is a collaborative project that investigates a world of people in flux. In a series of multidisciplinary explorations, we examine the global developments forcing people to seek refuge, the motivations and experiences of the refugees themselves, and the responses to the mass migrations around the globe. This is a joint effort of the University of Minnesota's Institute for Global Studies, Center for Austrian Studies, Center for German & European Studies, Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, Human Rights Program, and Immigration History Research Center. Event is free and open to the public For more information please follow this link This event is co-sponsored by the Human Rights Program, James H. Binger Center for New Americans, Human Rights Center, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Immigration History Research Center, Institute for Global Studies, Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change, School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Department of Chicano & Latino Studies, The Advocates for Human Rights, and the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association. Additional funding from The Ohanessian Endowment Fund for Justice and Peace Studies of the Minneapolis Foundation in support of The Ohanessian Dialogues on Mass Atrocities Posted on Monday, February 20, 2017	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4417
__label__cc	0.529103	0.470897	European public development money for Monsanto? NOTE: More than 150 organisations have sent an open letter calling on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to stop further consideration of its USD 40 million unfunded risk participation in Monsanto's portfolio in Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Read the open letter here: http://bankwatch.org/sites/default/files/letter-EBRD-Monsanto-19Nov2012.pdf European public development money for Monsanto? Whatever next?! Pippa Gallop, Research coordinator BankWatch, November 14 2012 http://bankwatch.org/news-media/blog/european-public-development-money-monsanto-whatever-next The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development considers supporting one of the most criticised and controversial corporations on the planet, Monsanto. Reasons for deciding against it are plenty. Amidst the media frenzy around the US Presidential election last week, the news that Californians would at the same time be voting whether to introduce labelling of genetically modified food in their state – so-called Proposition 37 - hardly reached this side of the Atlantic. In the event, even though polls show no less than 91 percent of American voters (pdf) back labelling of GMO food, Proposition 37 narrowly failed to gain a sufficient number of votes to pass into law. Why? Possibly something to do with the initiative's opponents having five times as much money to spend on their campaign as its supporters... And top of the list of 'No' donors was none other than Monsanto, which managed to find no less than USD 8.1 million to help prevent Californians from having the right to choose what they eat. This particularly caught my attention because the very same company, which is incidentally the world's largest seed company, the fourth largest agrochemical company and a Fortune 500 company, is at this very moment waiting to see whether it will receive USD 40 million worth of support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development . Quite why a company that can afford to throw USD 8.1 million at depriving people of the right to choose what they eat deserves backing with public development money is unfathomable to me. The proposed support involves unfunded risk participation (ie. a kind of guarantee, rather than the usual loans or share investments made by the EBRD) for cases where farming companies cannot pay for seeds and agrochemicals that they have signed contracts for with the company. The target audience for the investments are medium-large farmers and a small selection of key distributors in Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine. According to the EBRD, there will be no GMOs involved, but I wouldn't bet on it. In July-August 2011 Hungary had to destroy 8500-9000 hectares of corn due to GMO contamination from seeds originating from Monsanto and earlier this year Greenpeace Switzerland found Monsanto's GT73 (also called RT73) GM oilseed rape (Canola) – which is illegal in Switzerland - growing wild in Basel's port area. In any case, Monsanto's record of corporate social irresponsibility is breathtaking, and that alone would be reason enough to disqualify it from backing by public development institutions. In the last two years alone, in addition to the California vote and Hungarian seed contamination mentioned above, the company has been involved in a series of controversies, including: being sued by the Indian government for biopiracy; http://onforb.es/oIiXLd contributing to a suicide epidemic among Indian farmers due to debts incurred to buy expensive seeds and agrochemicals which failed to bring the expected returns due to a failed harvest; http://chrgj.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Farmer-Suicides.pdf being sued by farmers in the US and Brazil, http://bit.ly/UCk9Gk http://bit.ly/LpT2fV suing farmers in the US; *western corn rootworm developing resistance to Monsanto's Cry3Bb1 rootworm-protected transgenic corn, thus threatening US corn production (pdf). http://bit.ly/UCkzwr The EBRD has already offended at least 109 organizations this year with its promotion of mass-scale industrial agriculture and derisive attitude towards small farmers. http://www.grain.org/article/entries/4572 So rather than digging itself into a deeper hole by supporting Monsanto, it's time for the EBRD to take a long hard think about whether it exists to help the 99 percent or the 1 percent.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4419
__label__wiki	0.745062	0.745062	Story Archive by Month [ March 22, 2019 ] On this day, In 1964 Billy Casper won the Doral-Open Invitational over Jack Nicklaus March 22 [ July 16, 2019 ] Tiger Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom From President Trump Golf History [ July 15, 2019 ] 1923: Bobby Jones wins his 1st major championship at the U.S. Open July 15 [ July 14, 2019 ] 1973: Tom Weiskopf wins The Open Championship wire-to -wire at Troon July 14 [ July 13, 2019 ] 1962: Arnold Palmer wins his 2nd Open Championship in a row by 6 strokes at Royal Troon July 13 [ July 12, 2019 ] 1930: Bobby Jones wins the U.S. Open completing the 3rd leg of the “Grand Slam” July 12 Tiger Woods: The Rise and Fall & The Comeback At many points in golf history, Tiger Woods has held the world number one spot as the best golfer on the planet. He held the spot for 281 consecutive weeks but in total, he has had held that position for 683 weeks over the course of his career. That’s an astounding feat, especially given that some renowned players, like Tom Lehman and Bernhard Langer only lasted one and three weeks respectively with that title. Woods achieved amazing accomplishments very early. At the age of nineteen, he played in the 1995 Masters Tournament, tying for 41st as the only amateur that made the cut. By the next year, Woods had turned pro and signed deals with Titleist and Nike. One year later, the all-star golfer won the Masters, his first major. At twenty-one, he was the youngest to ever win that tournament. In the year 2000, Woods scored six consecutive wins on the PGA Tour. The only other player to do that before him was Ben Hogan back in 1948. As the year ended, Woods had not only broken the record for the lowest average score in tour history, but also was victorious in nine of the twenty PGA tournaments he entered that year. While Vijay Singh earned the number one spot in the world in September 2004, it was not long before Woods rebounded and gained the title back. In 2005 he earned six PGA Tour wins. Woods had been competing sporadically for that spot with Singh during the first half of that year. While Woods has helped to redefine golf for the next generation, he has not been without his ups and downs in life. The downfall of Woods, if you will, seemed to start during 2008 when he revealed that he was experiencing knee troubles. This medical news concerned many of his fans who had followed him since the beginning. Some golf fans watched the tournaments just to see him play and beat everyone. Despite a ruptured ligament in his knee, Woods won the 2008 U.S. Open. Shortly afterward, he had knee surgery that would remove him from the world of golf until 2009. However, when he returned, his game was not the same. In March 2011, he was the seventh-best player in the world. Soon afterward, details would emerge that would be even more damaging to his career and his personal life. Woods married model Elin Nordegren in 2004. But this marriage would face difficulties. In 2009, the National Enquirer published a story claiming that the golfer had an affair with Rachel Uchitel, a New York City nightclub worker. Uchitel denied the claims. Shortly afterward, US Weekly published a story about the alleged affair and others. These revelations prompted Woods to release a statement that apologized for his behavior and appreciated the support of others during such difficult times. The difficult times involved a careless driving incident in November 2009 in which Woods crashed into a fire hydrant, tree, and hedges. One wonders if such events were precursors to possible problems with substance abuse and the potential need for treatment. In February 2010, with the loss of many promotional deals, including General Motors and Gatorade, Woods made an apology to not only his wife but to the world. “I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to,” he stated. “I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn’t have far – didn’t have to go far to find them. I was wrong. I was foolish.” He also stated that he enrolled in therapy programs to address such issues. Woods and Nordegren divorced in 2010 and his problems continued. Woods had spinal fusion surgery in 2017, the latest in a string of surgeries. Later that year, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office arrested Woods for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Woods told the police that he was in recovery for surgery. When the police arrested him, the golfer was allegedly asleep. His car was running and not moving and located in a lane of traffic. Woods said that he did not realize that the prescription drugs he was taking would interact the way they did. Later in 2017, Woods said that he completed an out-of-state intensive program to address how he handles his pain and his medications. On August 9, he skipped his arraignment, entering a not guilty plea through his attorney. He may have missed it because he did not have a red alarm clock. He also agreed to take part in a first-time DUI offender program and had another arraignment scheduled for the future. Since then, Tiger has been out on the green playing but it’s still unknown if the one-time great golfer can match his previous success. Now at the age of forty-one and given all the events that have happened in his professional and personal lives, might it be time for Tiger to retire? Time will tell whether he will be able to compete in and even win tournaments as he once did. And time did tell. Tiger came back roaring on April 14, 2019 to win the 2019 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. It might be because he finally got that red alarm clock. While he was playing from behind before, he was able to shoot two-under-par 70 and finish at 13-under 275. Throughout the week, Woods trailed by four after opening with 70. He was one behind after a second-round of 68. He was behind by two shots after closing the third round with 67. Throughout it all, Woods had 22 birdies. He hit 58 out of 72 different greens. Dustin Johnson and Xander Schauffele both had 68s and Brooks Koepka had 70. Francesco Molinari, 74 with double bogeys on holes 12 and 15, tied for fifth with Jason Day, 67, Webb Simpson, 70, and Tony Finau, 72 at 11-under. Tommy Zimmer Tommy Zimmer is a writer whose work has appeared online and in print. His work covers a variety of topics, including politics, economics, health and wellness, addiction and recovery, and the entertainment industry. Subscribe to Golf History Today Click to receive instant desktop notifications Did we get something wrong? Please let us know! Subscribe to Golf History Today for FREE content & Daily Golf History [wcps id=”8959″] 1970: Jack Nicklaus beats Arnold Palmer in a playoff at the Byron Nelson Classic Kevin Hall: Breaking Barriers on the PGA Tour 2000: Tiger Woods wins the Memorial Tournament 5 shots clear of Ernie Els 1999: Tiger Woods outlasts a 19 year old Sergio Garcia to win the PGA Championship 1/25/1997 Tiger Woods aces the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale in front of thousands	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4421
__label__wiki	0.914066	0.914066	About Last Night: Technical Difficulties for the Lake Show Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images by Spike Friedman In case you were out drunkenly explaining that Joel Schumacher was never a good enough director to “lose it Rob Reiner style,” here’s what you missed in sports on Tuesday. The Los Angeles Lakers were again bested by the Oklahoma City Thunder, 122-105. The Thunder played solid fundamental basketball, limiting themselves to only two turnovers on the night while shooting over 90 percent from the free throw line. “We give the fans what they want here in Oklahoma City,” said Kevin Durant after the game, before spending the rest of his night handing out small bags of baby carrots to kids asking for his autograph. The Philadelphia 76ers remained mired in a horrendous slump, losing for the ninth time in 10 games, 109-101, to the Boston Celtics. Avery Bradley had 22 points for the Celtics, and would’ve been given the game ball if he and his team hadn’t fled the Wells Fargo Center immediately after the win, fearing what an angry Philadelphia fan base might do to them if they lingered. Tragically, newly signed Celtics reserve Shavlik Randolph missed the team bus and was lucky to survive the ordeal, which he described as “more disappointing than Shavlik Randolph’s college career,” before bursting into tears. Real Madrid capped a stunning eight days of play that featured two wins against rival Barcelona, with a controversial 2-1 (3-2 agg.) victory at Old Trafford over Manchester United. After the match, though, all of the chatter surrounded a red card issued to United winger Nani for what was deemed a dangerous and reckless high boot. Because of the decision, Madrid manager Jose Mourinho was unusually contrite in his postgame remarks, saying, “the best team lost.” Mourinho then spun around and faced himself in a mirror. He then approached his reflection, caressed his visage gently with the back of his hand, and in a sultry baritone whispered, “That’s how you do it, Jose,” before blowing himself a pair of kisses. Mourinho then spun back toward the gathered media, regaining his composure. “We didn’t play well,” he said. “We didn’t deserve to win.” Indiana missed an opportunity to clinch the Big Ten regular season championship, losing at home to Ohio State, 67-58. Aaron Craft was electric on both ends of the court for the Buckeyes, ruining the Hoosiers’ Senior Night festivities. “It was really awkward, man,” Craft said after the game. “It’s like they didn’t even want us at their party. I went up to Zell at one point and was all like, ‘Hey, man, cool Senior Night,’ but he acted like he didn’t know who I was. College is a social minefield, man. It’s not at all like in the movies.” Marquette fended off a feisty Rutgers team, winning 60-54 in New Jersey. Jamil Wilson was electric on both ends of the floor, coming off the bench for the Golden Eagles and impressing the Rutgers faithful. “It was really awesome, man,” Wilson said after the game. “Everyone was super chill. I went up to [Rutgers guard Myles] Mack, and he got me a beer, and introduced me to, like, three girls. College is a social wonderland, man. It’s exactly like in the movies.” Borussia Dortmund was impressive in victory, dispatching Shakhtar Donetsk, 3-0, (5-2 agg.) at the Westfalenstadion. The Germans were terrifyingly efficient in attack and stalwart in defense, which bodes ill for potential Champions League quarterfinal opponents Paris Saint-Germain, who seem, for some reason, particularly likely to capitulate to a lightning-quick German attack. Venezuela’s World Baseball Classic team mourned the death of former president Hugo Chavez before losing an exhibition game to the Miami Marlins, 6-5. I’ll admit that this news story really caught me off guard; it’s easy to forget that people from around the world can be so different. But before we come out and condemn anyone for what happened, we as Americans need to remember that what seems unfathomable to us is to others from around the world considered to be, in some ways, honorable. But still, this is the sort of story that’s really mind-blowing. I mean, they lost to the Miami Marlins? Who besides Giancarlo Stanton is even left in Miami? Unbelievable stuff. The New York Rangers topped the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2, at Madison Square Garden. The game was marred by an injury to Rangers defenseman Marc Staal, who was hit in the eye with a deflected puck, which hold on, let me just watch the video Nooooooooo. No no no no no. Ahhhhhh. No. I don’t want to overreact here ahhhhh but whooooooo hold on dear God OK, yeah, don’t want to overreact here, but I think all sport needs to be banned, and everyone needs to have their faces wrapped in foam from birth, because, my word, that’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen with my — oh no. No no no no no. The Chicago Blackhawks made it 23 consecutive games without a regulation loss with their 5-3 win over the Minnesota WAIT 23 consecutive wins? Oh, God, it all adds up. There are 23 axioms to Euclid’s geometry. Patrick Kane was 23 years old last year. Forty-six human chromosomes means 23 from each parent. Patrick Kane scored 23 goals last season. 2/3=.666 the number of the devil. Patrick Kane’s favorite element on the periodic table is Vanadium, number 23. The Hiroshima bomb was dropped at 8:15, 8+15=23. Patrick Kane is listed at 5-foot-11, 181 lbs. (511)+(181)=23. The Chicago Blackhawks play in Chicago, where a certain player once donned the number 23. You know what this means. The prophecy of the Phantom of the United Center has been foretold: “Kane shall be able, and when blood is spilt, he shall return.” 2+3=5 50 years old. 23=6 6 rings for 6 titles. 2^3=8 LeBron James’s number Michael Jordan is coming back, for blood. Why won’t anyone believe me? 23! 23! Filed Under: About Last Night, Boston Celtics, Chicago Blackhawks, Indiana, Los Angeles Lakers, Manchester United, Miami Marlins, New York Rangers, Ohio State, Oklahoma City Thunder, Philadelphia 76ers, Philadelphia Flyers, Real Madrid More About Last Night More The Triangle Press, Press, Boom: How a Bit of Brilliance Decided a Suffocating Tactical Battle Between Leverkusen and Atlético February 26, 2015 Portuguese Promise: Could FC Porto Be This Year’s Champions League Dark Horse? February 19, 2015 Not Quite a Dynasty: Are the Seahawks the Next Yankees, Celtics, or Bayern Munich? February 5, 2015 Champions League Roundup: We Honor the Departed With Bulgarian Eagle Tears December 11, 2014 We Went There: Nate Robinson Opens a Chicken and Waffles Restaurant in Seattle December 5, 2014 See all from About Last Night: Still Federer September 5, 2014 About Last Night: The Djok Is on Murray September 4, 2014 About Last Night: You’ve Been Kershaw’d September 3, 2014 About Last Night: Playoffs in the Cards? August 26, 2014 About Last Night: Keystone Showdown August 22, 2014 See all About Last Night We Went There: Clippers-Mavs and DeAndre Jordan Night in Los Angeles October 30, 2015 No Messi, No Problem: Neymar Becomes a Superstar October 30, 2015 World Series Weekend: Five Questions for Three (or Two) Royals-Mets Games October 30, 2015 NBA Overnight: Where Was the Spark? October 30, 2015 NHL Grab Bag: Let’s Get Spooky October 30, 2015 See all The Triangle Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech, and the Elements of Style Best B.S.: Tony Parker and Bill Simmons Instant Reaction To GSW's Game 5 Win Barnwell Show: Dan Graziano, Ben Lindbergh Lowe Post: Raptors On The Brink	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4423
__label__wiki	0.506269	0.506269	Safeway in Green Bay, Wisconsin? (Or, how directories lie) Joined: 18 Oct 2007 14:26 Contact Andrew T. ICQ Website Twitter Post by Andrew T. » 10 Jun 2018 00:51 Back in 2010 when I lived in northeast Wisconsin, I remember browsing Green Bay city directories for research and being confused by a 1950s-60s listing for Safeway Stores in the grocers' section. Safeway...in Wisconsin, and northeast Wisconsin at that? Surely it couldn't be? Iowa, yes...but Safeway in the midwest never crossed east of the Mississippi, as far as I knew. At the time, I passed off the listing as an error and spared myself the futility of looking for marina roofs in cowfields. grb59a.jpg (29.84 KiB) Viewed 4119 times Since I have online access to city directories now, I double-checked Green Bay's grocers of 1959. Sure enough, Safeway was listed as though they were there. Tracing the location was complicated by the "(P)" at the end, though: P indicates Preble, and Preble's addresses were renumbered when the town was annexed by Green Bay in 1964. grb59b.jpg (22.59 KiB) Viewed 4119 times The reverse-lookup section contained a few indicators that things were not as they seemed. Safeway shared an address with the Marketing Association of America, and the Schreiber cheese manufacturers. That didn't seem like the location of a supermarket. The section of Main Street between Deckner Avenue and Baird Creek (or Main Boulevard, as it used to be) was numbered 118-246 in the days of Preble, and it's numbered 1640-1695 now. Schreiber Foods is still operating in the same place as it was in 1959, even though nothing else on the block is. Elsewhere on the Internet, I found a reference to "Safeway Stores, Inc." in Green Bay with a 1730 Morrow St. address. On Google Maps, that address brings up...you guessed it: Another facility for Schreiber Foods! What does this mean? My belief is that Safeway relied upon Schreiber Foods as a cheese supplier, and set up an office on their premises to handle orders. The directory publishers then got confused when they were putting their data together, and repeatedly listed Safeway in the grocers' section! "The pale pastels which have been featured in most food stores during the past 20 years are no longer in tune with the mood of the 1970s." klkla Re: Safeway in Green Bay, Wisconsin? (Or, how directories lie) Post by klkla » 10 Jun 2018 17:49 Safeway used to have a cheese processing plant in Wisconsin. I don't know what city it was in, however. I don't know about Safeway's other Wisconsin suppliers or processing facilities, but it seems I was right about the Safeway-Schreiber connection. This page says, matter-of-factly... Schreiber's other early large customer was the grocery chain Safeway. Safeway had recently ended its relationship with another Green Bay cheese company, and Schreiber stepped in. It made private-label cheese products for Safeway's vast chain of groceries. I also happened upon this court case from 1971 where one company sued the other. It says (in part): In late September of 1965, Safeway began to receive complaints from its consumers on the West Coast who had purchased cheese from its stores and later had become ill. Samples of the cheese retrieved indicated that it was the product of Standard which had been sold to Schrieber and resold to Safeway. Hmm, that must not have ended well!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4424
__label__wiki	0.683557	0.683557	New app teaches citizens to ‘Stop the Bleed,’ save a life by Sarah Marshall, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences BETHESDA, Md. -- Knowing what to do to save a life in the aftermath of a mass trauma event -- natural disaster, vehicle accident, or violent attack -- is now right at the touch of a button. The Uniformed Services University’s National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health recently launched “Stop the Bleed,” a free iPhone and Android app designed to teach users how to stop life-threatening bleeding in an emergency -- and hopefully save lives. “We are extremely proud to make the app available to the public,” said Dr. Thomas Kirsch, director of NCDMPH. “It’s an important step in the ‘Stop the Bleed’ initiative, which is an effort to teach citizens how to save lives from major trauma the same way bystanders would administer CPR to someone in cardiac arrest.” “Stop the Bleed” is a White House-launched effort amongst several federal and civilian agencies, including USU. The initiative launched in 2015, and it’s not like other public education campaigns -- it’s based on important lessons learned on the battlefield and a decade of research by the military. Researchers found that equipping troops with individual first aid kits that contain tourniquets and hemostatic dressings to control severe blood loss, combined with training on hemorrhage control for medical and nonmedical forces alike, paid off. Thousands of lives have been saved on the battlefield. Empowering Bystanders “Our hope is that the ‘Stop the Bleed’ app empowers individuals to take action in the crucial minutes before first responders arrive,” said Dr. Craig Goolsby, science director at NCDMPH. “The ‘Stop the Bleed’ app provides instant access to instruction on differentiating life-threatening bleeding from nonlife threatening bleeding, and how to apply tourniquets to stop bleeding.” In an actual emergency, bystanders can open the app for step-by-step instruction on how to help – there’s even an audio version so they can freely use their hands while helping another individual who may be bleeding profusely. The app also features tutorial videos to teach users how to correctly apply tourniquets, and includes other useful resources to empower individuals to “Stop the Bleed” and save a life in an emergency. As part of these efforts, the new “Stop the Bleed” app is designed to educate users on what to do in an emergency, and how to determine the severity of bleeding. As part of this initiative, Goolsby’s team of researchers also published three studies looking at the lay person’s ability to apply tourniquets, measuring which tactics are most effective for teaching the public how to apply these techniques. They have also recently received a grant to develop a layperson tourniquet. Through their ongoing research, USU researchers have also discovered that an untrained person could effectively apply a tourniquet just by learning on the spot -- what they refer to as “just in time” training. Effective Training Based on these findings, the layperson would know what to do to “stop the bleed” about 50 percent of the time with “just in time” training, however, if they have just 15 minutes of web-based training, combined with “just in time” training, this jumps to a success rate of 75 percent. They also found that those who had web-based training were not only willing, but also able to use the tourniquets quickly, and could also tell which wounds required tourniquets. Goolsby and his colleagues, including staff from NCDMPH and Department of Military and Emergency Medicine, in collaboration with the University of Virginia and Charlottesville, Va., have also been working on a study as part of this initiative. They hope to determine which types of dressings would be easiest for the layperson to use, to control blood loss. Additionally, last year, Goolsby developed a Stop the Bleed Education Consortium. This informal group of medical educators, public health professionals, and clinicians with expertise in hemorrhage control, has been working to define what it means to be “Stop the Bleed” trained, since this previously was had not been defined through the course of this initiative. The group has also been reviewing existing “Stop the Bleed” training programs, and implementing ways to ensure their efficacy. “We want people to understand how to provide lifesaving support, but we also want people to have access to the most effective lifesaving support kits, and we want them to know the phrase, ‘Stop the Bleed,’” Goolsby said. To download the app on your mobile device or tablet: -- Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.usuhs.stb -- iPhone: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stb/id1336173602?mt=8 Exchanges, commissaries brainstorm ideas for more joint sales events SERE instructor starts new course at Andersen AF surgeon general, medical enlisted chief visit Andersen Frank Cable Sailors Celebrate Pride Month	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4425
__label__wiki	0.926491	0.926491	History Nebraska Blog History Nebraska Transfers Willa Cather State Historic Site to the Willa Cather Foundation After a several decade collaboration to preserve the sites and artifacts related to Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Willa Cather, History Nebraska and the Willa Cather Foundation announced the transfer of ownership of the Willa Cather State Historic Site to the Willa Cather Foundation. Located in Red Cloud, Nebraska—where Cather spent her formative years—six historic properties and supporting collections will be transferred to the Willa Cather Foundation. The properties were given to the State of Nebraska in 1978, and History Nebraska has worked cooperatively with the Willa Cather Foundation to operate the site since 1994. The transfer of the historic sites and approximately 8,000 Cather related archival and museum artifacts, returns to local control the largest single collection of buildings devoted to an American author. Trevor Jones, Director and CEO of History Nebraska, says the transfer will help strengthen Cather’s legacy in Nebraska: “We are honored to have cared for these important properties for the last forty years. The Willa Cather Foundation is an excellent organization and by fully controlling this important historic site Willa Cather’s important legacy will be shared more extensively nationwide.” The transfer supports the mission of the Willa Cather Foundation and will help ensure that the newly completed National Willa Cather Center will remain a primary location to learn about and research one of Nebraska’s most iconic writers with worldwide renown. Tourists and scholars from around the world visit Red Cloud because of its associations with Willa Cather. In addition to overseeing a growing archive of Cather letters and photographs, the addition of these collections will make the National Willa Cather Center the largest repository for Cather-related artifacts. Included in the artifacts are tangible items that belonged to the Cather family, as well as furnishings, family book collections, and other possessions. Ashley Olson, Executive Director of the Willa Cather Foundation, says the transfer will ensure a well-preserved tribute to a very private person. “We are grateful to History Nebraska and pleased to accept these important buildings and collections. Cather’s relationship with Red Cloud and its citizens was strong and enduring, so it seems fitting that visitors can uncover more about her life and work through site tours, exhibits, and research right here in Red Cloud.” The following properties in the transfer are all on the National Register of Historic Places and open for guided tours regularly: Willa Cather’s Childhood Home, a National Historic Landmark, was the rented home to the Cather family after 1884 when they moved into town from an outlying farm. It is especially beloved because of Cather’s preserved bedroom under the eaves where she did her first writing and where the wallpaper that she selected, and purchased, still remains. The Antonia Farmhouse (the Pavelka Farmstead), about 15 miles north of Red Cloud. Anna Pavelka was the inspiration for Antonia in the novel, My Antonia, written in 1918. Cather had visited the Pavelkas there in 1916 and the last section of the novel is a description of the farm and its root cellar, also still on the farm site. The Farmers and Merchants Bank was built by Silas Garber, Red Cloud’s first citizen who incorporated the town in 1871. He was a prototype for Captain Forrester in Cather’s novel, A Lost Lady. The Grace Episcopal Church, which Cather joined in 1922 and was a member until her death. Two of the church’s painted glass windows were purchased by Cather in her parents’ memory. The St. Juliana Catholic Church, built in 1883, is the site of the marriage of Anna Sadilek Pavelka and her husband John Pavelka, prototypes for Antonia Shimerda and Anton Cuzak. The Burlington Depot, a building Cather became familiar with when returning to Red Cloud to visit friends and family. Depots, in general, played a significant role in Cather’s writings, symbolizing both escape to the world and the door through which the world came to Red Cloud. Collections transferred include: Cather family furnishings and china First editions of Willa Cather’s books Hundreds of Cather family photographs and documents Nearly 200 personal letters written by Willa Cather History Nebraska collects, preserves, and shares Nebraska’s history for all people. History Nebraska operates the Nebraska History Museum in Lincoln and historic sites around the state including Chimney Rock National Historic Site, Fort Robinson History Center, Neligh Mill State Historic Site, Thomas Kennard State Historic Site, Senator George Norris State Historic Site, John Neihardt State Historic Site, and over 500 historical markers placed across Nebraska. History Nebraska administers the State Archives and Library; the State Historic Preservation Office; the Gerald R. Ford Conservation Center; the Office of the State Archeologist; publishes Nebraska History Magazine and books; and is responsible for the administration of the Nebraska Hall of Fame Commission. More at https://history.nebraska.gov and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Founded in 1955, the Willa Cather Foundation is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that works to promote Willa Cather’s legacy through education, preservation, and the arts. The Foundation manages and provides guided tours of the nation’s largest collection of nationally designated historic sites dedicated to an America author and organizes the Willa Cather Spring Conference and International Cather Seminars to further Cather appreciation and scholarship. Arts and humanities programs are held regularly at the Foundation’s National Willa Cather Center and Red Cloud Opera House. The Foundation also publishes the Willa Cather Review, a leading source for Cather-related news, features, and scholarship. For more information, visit www.WillaCather.org or follow on Facebook @WillaCatherFoundation.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4434
__label__cc	0.641259	0.358741	Agency Releases FY 201Agency Releases 2018 Broad Agency Announcement, Funding Grants For Minority Business Development By Velicia D. Woods The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) within the Department of Commerce launched a search for innovative ideas to benefit minority-owned businesses, from projects that increase access to capital to resources that increase disaster preparedness and relief. MBDA’s Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is designed to solicit proposals that will positively impact minority-owned businesses and the communities they serve. MBDA expects to award up to $11.65 million in grants to fund and implement innovative projects across the country. “Under the Trump Administration, the economy has seen unparalleled expansion while unemployment has fallen to the lowest level in nearly 50 years,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “Minority business enterprises play a key role in our expanding economy as they not only provide over seven million jobs in the United States but also contribute billions to the national GDP.” The BAA is open to for-profit entities (including but not limited to sole-proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability companies and corporations), non-profit organizations, institutions of higher education, commercial organizations, individuals, state and local government entities, or Indian Tribal governments. “We are excited to begin this year’s application process and look forward to receiving the proposals,” said Acting National Director Edith McCloud. “Minority-owned businesses contribute greatly to our economy, and through the BAA, we can work to meet the needs of this community with the ultimate goals of continued expansion, growth and job creation.” The focal points of the BAAs are aligned with the Agency’s key priorities in support of minority-owned businesses. Priorities include: American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian Entities and/or Initiatives Disaster Readiness Entrepreneurship Education Program for Formerly Incarcerated Persons Global Minority Women Economic Empowerment Initiative Historically Black Colleges & Universities Initiative Inclusive Infrastructure Initiative Space Commerce Sustainable Business Model Technology Transfer and Commercialization Virtual Business Centers New this year, MBDA included BAA categories for formerly incarcerated persons and research projects to quantify and address the needs and challenges of minority-owned businesses. Recognizing the critical role of entrepreneurship in reducing recidivism and unemployment for released prisoners, the Agency saw an opportunity to support the Department of Commerce’s efforts to reduce crime, enhance public safety and improve the lives of all Americans through educational entrepreneurship programs. The deadline to submit completed applications for the broad agency announcement is 11:59 pm Eastern Time on July 11, 2018. Applicants are encouraged to submit applications as soon as possible to receive funding for Fiscal Year 2018. For more information and to register for a pre-application teleconference visit https://www.mbda.gov/page/2018-mbda-broad-agency-announcement or https://www.mbda.gov/. About the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) MBDA, www.mbda.gov, is the only Federal agency dedicated to the growth and global competitiveness of U.S. minority-owned businesses. Our programs and services better equip minority-owned firms to create jobs, build scale and capacity, increase revenues and expand regionally, nationally and internationally. Services are provided through a network of MBDA Business Centers. After 45 years of service, MBDA continues to be a dedicated strategic partner to all U.S. minority-owned businesses, committed to providing programs and services that build size, scale and capacity through access to capital, contracts and markets. Follow us on Twitter @usmbda.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4435
__label__wiki	0.605124	0.605124	Jennifer Price Honored As Sports Scholar May 10, 2002 — by Hope PR Hope College sophomore Jennifer Price of Battle Creek (Lakeview HS) has been honored through the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award program in track and field by the publication Black Issues in Higher Education. The Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Awards program recognizes student-athletes of color who have displayed significant accomplishment in athletics, academics and community service. The 2002 Arthur Ash Jr. Sports Scholar Award program recognizes men's and women's student-athletes in 19 sports. A standout middle distance runner, Price has received honorable mention recognition in track and field. She is the two-time Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) champion in the 800-meter run and holds both the Hope (2:12.22) and conference (2:12.85) record in the event. As a freshman she qualified for the NCAA Division III national championships posting the ninth fastest time among the competitors. She currently has the sixth fastest time in the nation as she seeks to qualify for the 2002 Division III nationals which will be held later this month. She is pursuing a career in nursing and has a 3.31 cumulative grade point average. She is also active in campus organizations including the Phelps Scholar Program, Black Student Union, Gospel Choir, Symphonette and Upward Bound big sister/little sister program. Founded in 1984, Black Issues in Higher Education is the nation's only news magazine dedicated exclusively to minority issues in higher education. Published bi-weekly, Black Issues brings in-depth and up-to-date coverage of the diverse education community, including African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans, as well as Americans with disbailities and women to every college and university in the United States.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4441
__label__wiki	0.686994	0.686994	Mary J Blige Announces ‘Strength of a Woman’ Tour With Lalah Hathaway Neilson Barnard, Getty Images Mary J. Blige is hitting the road this summer in support of her new album, Strength of a Woman. She'll be joined on the road by veteran Grammy-winning singer, Lalah Hathaway. The trek kicks off this July, when she'll headline the Essence Festival in New Orleans and from there she'll head across the country to Atlantic City. She'll head across the pond for a few dates, in Italy, France and Switzerland among others before returning stateside and closing the tour in San Francisco on September 9. Mary's latest explored the heartbreak she experienced during her recent split with ex and former manager, Kendu Isaacs. “[Divorce] is not something I wanted to do, but I had no choice,” said Mary in a trailer for the documentary, The Making of A Strength of a Woman. “I’m not writing an album preaching to anyone about what they should do. I’m literally trying to heal myself through writing, singing, through some kind of way. Getting it out of my system.” See her full tour schedule here. 25 Mary J. Blige Songs That Prove She's the Queen Source: Mary J Blige Announces ‘Strength of a Woman’ Tour With Lalah Hathaway Filed Under: mary j. blige	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4442
__label__wiki	0.78194	0.78194	Annelin Eriksen Annelin Eriksen is currently Professor at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen and the Gender and Pentecostalism project leader. She has worked since 1995 in Vanuatu, first on Ambrym and later also in Port Vila. Her work deals with social and cultural change, Christianity and gender relations. Her most recent research project “Christianity, Gender, and the Dynamics of Community beyond the State: A Study of Urban Christian Movements in Vanuatu,” was funded by the Norwegian Research Council from 2006 until 2011. Her publications include Gender, Christianity and Change in Vanuatu: An Analysis of Social Movements in North Ambrym (2008), “New Life: Pentecostalism as Social Critique in Vanuatu” (2009) and Contemporary Religiosities: Emergent Socialities and the Post-Nation State (co-edited with Bruce Kapferer and Kari Telle; Berghahn, 2010). Click here for further information and selected works. Ruy Blanes Ruy Llera Blanes (PhD 2007, Lisbon) is a Spanish anthropologist and newly appointed postdoctoral researcher on the Gender and Pentecostalism project. He has been postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon and Visiting Fellow at Leiden University (2007-2010) and London School of Economics and Political Science (2007-2013). He has worked on the anthropology of religion, identity, politics, mobility and temporality. His current research site is Angola, where he explores the topics of religion, mobility (diasporas, transnationalism, the Atlantic), politics (leadership, charisma, repression, resistance), temporalities (historicity, memory, heritage, expectations) and knowledge. He has published articles in several international journals and edited volumes on the corporeality in religious contexts (Berghahn, 2011, with Anna Fedele) and on spirits and the agency of intangibles (Univ. Chicago Press, forthcoming, with Diana Espírito Santo). He is forthcoming on a book on ‘Prophetic Trajectories’ (Berghahn). He is also board member the APA (Portuguese Anthropological Association) and co-Editor of the journal Advances in Research: Religion and Society, edited by Berghahn (as of issue 3, 2013). Michelle MacCarthy Michelle MacCarthy has newly been appointed as a postdoctoral fellow as part of the GenPent project team. Michelle has recently completed her PhD in social anthropology at the University of Auckland. Her geographical area of interest is Melanesia, and specifically the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea, where she carried out 18 months of doctoral field research. It is to this ‘sacred place’ in anthropology that she will return to carry out additional field research as part of the GenPent project, on the role of recently arrived evangelical churches (which comprise a second wave of conversion in the region, which has a long history with Methodist and Catholic missions) on women’s production and exchange of banana leaf textiles, which underpin the complex exchange relationships between Trobriand clans after the death of a family member. Michelle will examine how the push from some churches to eradicate these practices has implications for Trobriand sociality and gendered personhood. Michelle is the author of several articles including recently published works in the International Journal of Heritage Studies and Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment (an article which was awarded the 2011 Netting Prize by the Culture and Agriculture section of the American Anthropological Association) and The Journal of Culture & Agriculture.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4443
__label__wiki	0.638406	0.638406	United States Privacy Digest \| Notes from the IAPP, June 28, 2019 Related reading: Verizon exec: Federal US privacy law needed to address 5G concerns Notes from the IAPP, June 28, 2019 schedule Jun 28, 2019 Mitchell Noordyke, CIPP/E, CIPP/US,... Mitchell Noordyke, CIPP/E, CIPP/US, CIPM Happy Friday! I hope your holiday plans are finalized for next week, and I hope they include some time outside with family and friends. As a displaced Midwesterner living in Portsmouth near IAPP headquarters, I am looking forward to my first Fourth of July in New England and planning a drive up the Maine coast. Heading into the heat of summer and the midpoint of the year, it’s a good time to take stock of the domestic privacy landscape. The first half of the year can be summed up with one word: legislation. Look in any direction, and a legislature has either enacted it (California, Nevada, Maine), proposed it (throw a dart at a map of the U.S. and you have a 30% chance of hitting a state with a proposed or passed bill), or is engaged in early deliberations and brainstorming about legislation (ask the IAPP’s resident-D.C. journalist Angelique Carson how many privacy bingos she has hit attending federal hearings on the topic). Not only has the humidity picked up, but so has the chatter about privacy-focused legislation. In my role as a Westin fellow, I have been closely tracking the development of privacy legislation in two areas: the California Consumer Privacy Act and proposed state-comprehensive-privacy bills. For those unfamiliar, the IAPP maintains a chart comparing proposed state-level comprehensive privacy bills. The original expectation was that the chart would only need to be updated periodically. After the California Legislature’s hand was forced by the threat of a ballot initiative last year, I expected states to take some time to consider their role in regulating privacy and that subsequently proposed legislation from other states would start as a slow drip. Suffice it to say that has not been the case. During the first six months of the year, while state legislatures were in session, more than one dozen states proposed comprehensive bills, and nearly every week, I received an email suggesting a new bill to add to the chart. Some of the bills were copycats of the CCPA (e.g., Connecticut and Massachusetts); others sought incremental improvements to existing laws (e.g., Louisiana and Nevada). Some mimicked the GDPR (e.g., Texas), and another set took inspiration from various sources and offered an alternative to the CCPA/GDPR dichotomy (e.g., Washington, Minnesota, New York and Illinois). At the same time other states are taking the first steps toward regulating privacy, the California Legislature is considering a number of amendments to the CCPA, and privacy professionals are grappling with the details of the law. The IAPP has published a variety of articles recently describing how organizations should be preparing for compliance and offering thought pieces from leading professionals highlighting provisions ripe for varied interpretation in the law. Activity around the CCPA and interest in material to help understand its implications are high. State-level efforts exist in parallel with speculation about the possibility of federal action on privacy. Senators and representatives from a broad array of states have weighed in — either on the need for a federal law or with a proposal for what that law should look like. Large technology companies have also thrown their support behind a federal law. None of this is new information for those following the developments of the legislative environment on privacy, but these are the three elements I am interested to watch progress over the course of the year and into 2020: States are motivated to find solutions in the face of federal inaction, California has a consequential law on the books that will take effect at the turn of the calendar, and the federal government recognizes that it likely has a role to play. How each element influences the other will be a fascinating interaction to observe over the next 6 to 18 months. 1.6M people had personal information exposed by Md. government The Washington Post reports the Maryland State Department of Education potentially exposed the personal information of more than 1.4 million students and 200,000 teachers due to improper data storage. An audit of the agency revealed that the names and Social Security numbers of the victims were left... Privacy class-action lawsuit over employee fingerprint scans A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Saporito Finishing alleging violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, the Cook County Record reports. Plaintiff Elliot Smart alleges the metal-finishing company made employees clock in and out of work using their fingerprints without o... Op-ed: What have we learned from The Privacy Project? Four months after The New York Times launched The Privacy Project, Op-Ed Editor Susan Fowler discusses what she and her staff have learned about privacy. She writes four main privacy themes have emerged since the project launch: “the ubiquity of surveillance and the ready availability of surveillanc... Using blockchain technology to protect health care privacy JEDTrade announced the launch of a data exchange platform that allows the use of data analytics without affecting an individual’s privacy, e27 reports. In a news release, JEDTrade said Jupiter Chain demonstrates how blockchain technology can be used in local health care systems by “encrypting data a... library_books 1.6M people had personal information exposed by Md. government library_books Privacy class-action lawsuit over employee fingerprint scans library_books Op-ed: What have we learned from The Privacy Project? library_books Using blockchain technology to protect health care privacy	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4447
__label__cc	0.709883	0.290117	IR Online Fiction: “The Artist” by Robert Julius by Robert Julius I took the usual route home. Passed underneath the 22. Must’ve been a dozen colored tents, tattered and torn, tarps flapping in the Santa Ana winds like they’re a good gust away from sailing to someplace nicer. Maybe someplace with less of a stench, away from the cud and muck and scum and sluts. That ain’t no way of living. That’s what my uncle, the Governor, tells me. And I believe him, for the most part. See, I knew this woman who used to hang out underneath the 22 some weekends. She don’t got a name, or if she does, she wouldn’t tell me because maybe she’s too old to be with someone like me. She’s a nebulous sort of woman, hair all over the place, you know, in the places that matter, and her eyes do this dodgy kind of thing where they look you straight in the soul but not long enough to mean it. But that don’t matter, not according to my uncle the Governor. Those tents flapping in the wind always got me hot and heavy. They churned up all those memories of me and those see-soul eyes that pierced me like daggers. But the impact of her eyes was nothing compared to what she did to the rest of me. Things that I couldn’t mention here, not even if I wanted to. There’s an old expression they used to say before the War, you know, to mean, like, when you were fucking a slut real good. Called it “making love.” I daresay that woman who used to stay in the black tent some weekends made love with me. But she’s gone now. They locked her up. I pity to say it, but she was an artist. And that sucks real well, for the most part. In our State, art was outlawed after the War. My uncle the Governor says that it’s the artists who started World War III, so nixing the artists means nixing the problem. Artists are instruments of chaos. We don’t need that, not here in our State. So my uncle the Governor started a program, like, to get rid of art and poetry and things that made you feel lustful or rebellious. Things that caused a stir, as he would say. Called it the “dénouement” of art. Now we live in someplace better, someplace more concrete. No more fuzzle-duzzle abstractions to keep your noggin rocking late through the night. And without all abstractions and raisons d’être, there’s no real reason to start a war. Everyone in our State works for the common good of man. I like that. I like that real well. So life’s good, for the most part. You see art sometimes. Just last week they found a bunch of street paintings beneath one of the overpasses. They don’t know who was responsible yet, but when they find the crook, they’ll lock him up real good. They used to send the artists to institutions, you know, where they could get the art knocked out of them. But now they just lock them up right behind bars. You can’t cure insanity. Can’t put a bottle stopper on chaos. You shake up the champagne, you’re gonna get a pop. At least that’s what my uncle the Governor tells me. Sometimes my noggin gets rocking, and I think about if I could’ve stopped her. I mean, I didn’t know she was an artist. Not really. So there I was, walking past those tents, and how I wished that she would come out of the black one and greet me with those big green eyes, sparkling copper fire like she used to. Instead, I was hissed at by beardy old men with missing teeth and their rompo-chompo toy dogs rolling around in their own piss. Still, I threw them a bone. Charity is a virtue, my uncle the Governor says. He likes to run his mouth about helping the poor, but the same old folks are always underneath the 22. Ain’t no one helping them, except me. Felix the Hero. Felix the Charitable. I like that. I like that real well. When I got home, Norelia was cooking dinner for when my uncle the Governor returned. It was a Friday, so that meant a weekend off away from the government building. He’ll probably spend it playing golf or watching the propaganda programs on the television. We love watching those together. It gets us both fired up real well. I waved to Norelia and retired to my room. I wanted to work on some geometry homework, but I couldn’t stop thinking about those damned eyes, her hair, the way her humid heat lightning breath used to feel on the back of my neck. Electric-like. I knew lust was wrong, so I tried to think about her anatomy objectively, the way a mathematician thinks about geometry, dreaming up graphs with all those beautiful lines and sine waves and parabolas, up, down, tracing the gentle soft curves, up, down, up again, how he wonders what sequence of numbers could have rendered a shape so perfect and absolute. Still, she was beyond the x and y axes. She belonged to another dimension, another plane, something along the lines of z or whatever letters come after that ‘cause maybe we haven’t discovered them yet, or maybe we aren’t using the whole alphabet. She made me want to search for lost letters. I have some good news. I’m not really sure if I should write it in here, but my therapist said “go ahead” so I’m going ahead. I should probably introduce you to my therapist. I’ve only seen him once so far. His name is Dr. Fang and he’s been in the business for a while, like a real long while. Says he’s cured hundreds of artists, no problemo. Well, I really hope he can cure me. Dr. Fang tells me the first step is to accept that my brain operates differently from others. But brains can be fixed. Wrongs can be righted. It can help to write the words, Dr. Fang says. “I am an artist.” At least that’s what my uncle the Governor thought, that I wrote like an artist. He found my journal lying open on my bed, how silly of me to forget it there, really, and he read a few pages about the tramp from that painted underpass and he goes and says it’s art. “Art? This is just my journal, my log of the days.” But nope, it’s art, my uncle the Governor says. There are words like “journal” that tip off the authorities to art. You can’t call it a portrait, but a photograph is okay. You can’t call it a poem, but maybe it’s a list, if you’re lucky, and you weren’t very poetic about it. I was lucky, he said, because he couldn’t bear to throw his nephew the orphan behind bars, so he says that he knows a therapist, a real good shrink who will set my noggin right in place so I can be a good citizen of the State. Right on. So now, Dr. Fang and I meet once a week. At first I thought he was gonna knock the art out of me, but it seems like we are just gonna talk. He seems like a right sort of fellow. I like him, for the most part. Dr. Fang says progress is slow, but I’m making it. I met him for the third time last week, and well, I haven’t been writing much, so maybe it’s working. I miss writing, like, the way I used to. It was nice to just get my thoughts out and have a place to map out my mind, like a think-space. But if this is what cures me, then by the State, I must be cured. Dr. Fang prescribed me something today. He told me that it’s the best cure they have against creative minds like mine. It hurt to hear him say that, to actually call me a creative mind. I never thought nothing of it before, never thought I was creative. Never wished it upon myself. But Dr. Fang says that some people are born creative, or maybe some people are exposed to creative minds, and it works like an infection, you know? So Dr. Fang asks me if I’ve been exposed to any creative minds, and I get to thinking, and those green eyes popping out of that black tent hit me like a semi on the 22. I think about that semi, how it would’ve been better to get hit by the truck than to start talking to that woman. I tell the Doctor, “Yes, sir, there is a creative mind I’ve been exposed to.” And he tells me: “There’s the problem!” So I ask him what we gotta do, you know, like how do we fix the problem ‘cause I still think about her a lot, especially at night when I’m all alone in my room with nothing better to do. He tells me I’m lustful, and that lust is art’s catalyst, and that lust can be cured through right action and right thought. So now I’m supposed to attend corrective thought therapy with a certain Mrs. Noelle, and that’s gonna cure me of my thoughts about the woman who gave me my illness. The first corrective thought therapy was good enough. I sat in front of a computer monitor, and Mrs. Noelle showed me photographs and I was supposed to say what I thought. I told her that I didn’t feel comfortable telling her because she was an older woman, especially when the photos of the hoo-hahs started flashing. She told me that she was a professional, and that I should do my best to tell her what came to mind. If I felt really uncomfortable, she said, I could write down what I was thinking instead. So I did that, for the most part. She flashed me a photograph of a young boy, maybe seven years old, completely naked standing in a pool of water. “Childhood,” I wrote down. Though he looked kinda cold. She flashed another photograph of a young girl with clothes on. “Girl,” I wrote down. Too easy. She kept flashing photos of little kids. I didn’t really understand the point and after a bunch of photos all labeled “childhood” by me, I was starting to think that this Mrs. Noelle was a hoo-hah herself and I just wanted to get back to see Dr. Fang already. He was the smart one. Then Mrs. Noelle flashed a photograph of that woman, those ghoulish green eyes staring at me like I was the one who threw her in jail. It was a mug shot. She was in an orange jumpsuit, and as I stared, her eyes grew softer. They confessed in this lonely hour that she was lost and scared. My noggin got rocking to all those times we shared in her black tent, and I just had to stand up and leave without writing anything down because I felt like I was gonna chuck it real hard. “You’re progressing remarkably well,” Dr. Fang told me last meeting. I had lost count of the meetings. The only reason I’m writing in this log is because Dr. Fang wants to read it, so he can examine what I’m writing. The therapy sessions with Mrs. Noelle are almost finished. The thought of the “A” word makes me sick. Dr. Fang tells me he can’t be sure how much longer I’ve got to go to therapy, but he says more can’t possibly hurt. My uncle the Governor is real proud of my progress, too. Tells me that with my mind in the right place, he would have a job for me in the government building after school. I could be somebody. Make a difference for the people of the State. I like that real well. I was with Mrs. Noelle one evening, and she tells me that it’s the second to last time we’ll be seeing each other, so it feels kinda sentimental like a party, only it’s not ‘cause it’s Mrs. Noelle. We go through the photographs, and this time there’s no electro shocks involved, it’s just me and the photos and what I’ve got to say about them. I don’t have to write down what I think anymore. Me and Mrs. Noelle get on like peas in a pod, or something like that is what I think she says. She shows me a series of photos and I tell her what I think. Duck. “Animal.” Naked woman. “Lust. Conquered through right action and right thought.” Naked man. “Pinnacle of creation, dominance.” A painting. “Illegal, immoral.” A photograph of the sunset, or maybe it’s a painting. I can’t tell. “Sunset, a product of earth’s rotation.” “And what do you think of this photo, Felix?” “It’s nothing special,” I say. There wasn’t much to say. A few more photographs. Then a photo of my parents. “Artists. Treason. Traitors of the State.” My name is Felix. I work in the government building on City Drive with my uncle the Governor. I do good work there. My uncle the Governor introduced me to a colleague’s daughter. Her name is Elizabeth. She is a schoolteacher. We get on real well. I like that. I don’t think I’ll be writing much in this log anymore. I don’t have much use for it. We keep detailed logs at work of everything that happens during our day. Still, Dr. Fang found it appropriate for me to give it a proper send-off, you know, to bury the hatchet so to speak. I used to be sick. A woman did that to me. It didn’t help having traitorous parents. But I’m not filled with lust anymore, I’m not creative, and I don’t associate with creative minds. I’m cured, for the most part. Robert Julius is an undergraduate student at Chapman University in Orange, California. He is currently pursuing a B.F.A. in Creative Writing and a B.A. in French. His work has been featured in Calliope Art & Literary Magazine and FIVE Poetry Magazine. January 21, 2016 by Maggie Su Tags: IR online, Robert Julius, The Artist One Response to “IR Online Fiction: “The Artist” by Robert Julius” Travis - February 1st, 2016 Absolutely brilliant piece.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4457
__label__wiki	0.964869	0.964869	Elections 2019: Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad’s Hunkar Rally on March15 Abdul Alim Jafri Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad was arrested at Deoband in Saharanpur by Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday for allegedly violating the model code of conduct by using more than the stipulated number of motorcycles at a political rally. He reportedly fell ill soon after being detained, following which he was admitted to a hospital. Azad, while doing Facebook live from the hospital, urged the people to reach Jantar Mantar in Delhi for Hunkar Rally in huge numbers so as to speak out against the increasing atrocities against Dalits and minoritiesby the Modi government. On Sunday, the Hunkar Rally was flagged off by Azad at Meerut which was supposed culminate on March 15 at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. However, one of organisers told Newsclick that the event in Delhi will commence as per schedule. However, talking to NDTV, Chandrashekhar also said that he will contest Lok Sabha election from whichever seat Prime Minister Narendra Modi would contest. While undergoing treatment at a hospital in Meerut, Ravan said, “Our padyatra was stopped by the police at the behest of UP government. We had proper permission, but the administration cancelled it, and didn’t inform us. We are going to organise a big rally at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on March 15.” On March 12, a rally was scheduled to be held in Deoband and on March 13 in Muzaffarnagar. Bhim Army had been mobilising its members not just from Uttar Pradesh, but from across the country. After being taken into custody by the police, Azad had said: “They want us to sit quietly. But we are not slaves. We are free and will fight for our rights. Let them take us to jail or anywhere else. We will carry our fight ahead and on March 15, a sea of blue (the colour of the Bhim Army flag) will flood Delhi.” Newsclick approached the Bhim Army chief to know, but he remained unavailable. However, All India Students Association (AISA) national president Sucheta De, who was also detained by the police along with Azad, told Newsclick, "The police has lodged an FIR against many people including Chandrashekhar Azad and me. The police is trying to suppress our voice, but I assure you that we will do the Hunkar Rally at Jantar Mantar on Friday at any cost. Chandrashekhar will also be present there, and Yogi and Modi governments will realise the power of Bahujan Samaj." Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi also met Bhim Army chief in Meerut. Gandhi was accompanied by Congress General Secretary, West UP, Jyotiraditya Scindia and party state president Raj Babbar. First published in Newsclick.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4458
__label__wiki	0.965545	0.965545	Tensions in subcontinent, minister from Saudi flies in on Mondayhttps://indianexpress.com/article/india/tensions-in-subcontinent-minister-from-saudi-flies-in-on-monday-5618803/ Tensions in subcontinent, minister from Saudi flies in on Monday While New Delhi says there is no space for a mediator between India and Pakistan and rules out any third party’s involvement in the wake of the Pulwama attack and the February 26 Balakot air strikes, the Saudi minister’s visit is being read by many as an attempt by Pakistan to lean on India. Written by Shubhajit Roy \| New Delhi \| Updated: March 10, 2019 12:32:17 pm Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir (AP Photo) Saudi State Minister for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir will visit India on Monday, four days after his trip to Islamabad. This will be his second trip to India in three weeks as he had accompanied Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the height of India-Pak tensions after the February 14 Pulwama attack. Raveesh Kumar, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said al-Jubeir will hold talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during his trip. “Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs will visit India on Monday and will meet the External Affairs Minister. My understanding is he is visiting to discuss some important follow-ups from the recent visit of Saudi Crown prince. Beyond that, details can be known only after the visit and meeting between two leaders,” MEA’s official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. The Saudis have been very careful in balancing the relationship — they supported the OIC invitation to India and did not ask the UAE to withdraw it, despite pleas by Pakistan. But in Islamabad, which he visited before coming to India, the Saudi Crown Prince was very effusive in his praise for Pakistan, even declaring himself as the country’s envoy to Saudi Arabia. A source in Delhi told The Sunday Express, “There is no question of a mediation. Whoever has spoken to our leaders — Prime Minister or External Affairs Minister — in the last three weeks was told that India wants them to tell Pakistan that they have to act against terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan. Nobody has offered to be the mediator.” The Saudis are not the only one to have reached out to both India and Pakistan, especially after the Balakot air strike. UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan had also called up both leaders after the Balakot strike. The Chinese had also sent an envoy to Pakistan, Kong Xuanyou — one of Beijing’s top diplomats — last week, but he did not visit India. India has been wary of accepting visitors from foreign capitals just after they have visited Pakistan, and the Saudi minister’s visit — with a gap of a few days between his Pakistan and India stops — are meant to counter the view that the visits are not linked and mediatory in nature. However, the US, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are learnt to have put pressure on Pakistan, which led to the quick release of Indian Air Force pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman. The Saudi minister, during his day-long visit to Pakistan last week, held meetings with Prime Minister Imran Khan, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa. According to a statement by Imran Khan’s office, “He (The Saudi minister) also expressed “deep appreciation for Pakistan’s peace overtures to normalise [the] current situation” and “acknowledged the role played by Pakistan for regional peace and stability”. With Pakistan Army chief General Bajwa, the meeting between the two revolved around “matters of mutual interest, regional security and [the] current situation between Pakistan and India”, according to a statement by Pakistan Army. General Bajwa thanked al-Jubeir “for taking on the mantle of peace effort in very difficult circumstances”, and said that Saudi Arabia “has always been a true friend of Pakistan”, the Pakistan Army’s statement said. The Saudi minister deeply appreciated “Pakistan’s restraint in the existing charged environment”. He acknowledged Pakistan’s efforts to de-escalate the situation and the peace overtures made. The envoy assured the foreign minister of the Kingdom’s “support to seek a peaceful settlement of all outstanding disputes between Pakistan and India”. 1 Pakistan expected surgical strikes, but we took the air route: PM Modi 2 Chhattisgarh follows MP, gives cops 1-day leave each week 3 Saharanpur: Day after BMS student beaten to death, first accused arrested	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4459
__label__wiki	0.97962	0.97962	The Scout (film) The Scout is a 1994 American comedy film starring Brendan Fraser and Albert Brooks and directed by Michael Ritchie, the director of The Bad News Bears. Theatrical release poster Andre Morgan Albert S. Ruddy Roger Angell Andrew Bergman Dianne Wiest László Kovács[1] Don Zimmerman Pembroke J. Herring After the New York Yankees' latest prospect suffers a humiliating bout of stage fright in his debut for the team, scout Al Percolo, who discovered the young man, is punished by being sent to the Mexican countryside to look for his next find. Al's efforts are fruitless until he encounters Steve Nebraska, a young American with a consistent 100+ MPH fastball and a perfect batting average. The child-like Steve immediately agrees to join the Yankees when Al asks him, but when Al calls the team owner to report his find, he is fired and told not to return. Al defies the order and brings Steve back to the States anyway. The first indication that all may not be right with Steve occurs when he panics at Newark International Airport when he and Al are momentarily separated. Later, at Al's apartment, Steve thrashes in his sleep, screaming at an unseen assailant. Al arranges an open audition at Yankee Stadium in front of representatives from every Major League Baseball team. After Steve strikes out Keith Hernández and homers off Bret Saberhagen, a bidding war breaks out. The Yankees win the bid war, signing Steve to a $55 million contract, but after Steve violently snaps at press photographers, team management demands that he be psychiatrically evaluated and cleared before he plays his first game. Al picks the first listed psychiatrist in the phone book, a Doctor H. Aaron, and hopes that the evaluation will be swift, so that he and Steve can get on with life. After examining Steve, however, Dr. Aaron finds him to be deeply troubled and so severely abused as a child that he has blocked almost every memory of his early life. Desperate for Steve to play so that both can get paid, Al begs Dr. Aaron to clear Steve for play, on the condition that she sees Steve everyday before making his MLB debut. Life with Steve proves difficult for Al; Steve throws plates at reporters outside the apartment, upstages Tony Bennett at his own show, and argues with Al over what he does with his free time. At a press conference, Al lies about Steve's past. Dr. Aaron is livid when she finds out, but Al points out that Steve's behavior stems from her helping him acknowledge and deal with his past. Al pleads with Dr. Aaron to continue the good work she is doing for Steve. When the Yankees reach the World Series, however, Steve is suddenly depressed. Worse yet, he is contractually obligated to pitch in Game 1. A sold-out Yankee Stadium waits for Steve's debut in Game 1 of the World Series. When Steve is spotted on the roof of the stadium, Al sends for a helicopter to fetch him, then climbs up to plead with him to come down. Steve adamantly refuses, and Al, risking his own career, tells Steve that he can walk away from it all, no strings attached. Touched by Al's selflessness, Steve relents. His spirits greatly lifted, he boards the copter to make his grand entrance. Steve pitches a perfect game, striking out 27 St. Louis Cardinals batters on 81 consecutive strikes, and hits two solo home runs in a 2-0 Yankees victory. As Steve acknowledges Al as the Yankees celebrate his efforts, Al smiles proudly. The film was based on a Roger Angell article which had been optioned by Andrew Bergman's producing partner. Bergman wrote his script for Peter Falk to play the scout and Jim Belushi to play the player. "There were honestly five different versions of this movie," says Bergman. "The original version was, he found this guy in Mexico who’s the second white man ever to receive these injections, the first being Babe Ruth. And it was this political guy on the run. It was a completely different kind of movie."[2] Falk was not available then Walter Matthau was going to make it with Michael Ritchie. The project did not proceed until years later with Ritchie directing and Albert Brooks playing the scout. "That wasn’t my conception at all," said Bergman. "The original conception was much more bananas. The Scout still has glimmers of the original, but not doing the original is high up on my very large list of regrets, because Peter was born to play that guy. He’s so obtuse and that tunnel-vision thing he had was just great.”[2] In a July 1999 interview with Gavin Smith in Film Comment, Brooks said that The Scout was originally intended for Rodney Dangerfield. "It was lying around, never going to get made, and I said I would like to do that." Brooks said that he contributed to a rewrite of the script because "it was written very silly." The version he worked on, he said, "did not end like 'Rocky' with that bullshit big ending." But according to Brooks, the studio forced Ritchie to change the ending.[3] Bob Costas, Tim McCarver, Tony Bennett, John Sterling, Keith Hernández, Bret Saberhagen, George Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman, Ozzie Smith, Bob Tewksbury and Bobby Murcer, among others, play themselves in the film. The Scout was a box-office flop. Reviews were predominantly negative, with TV Guide stating, "'The Scout' feels like a classic case of too many cooks spoiling the broth."[4] Variety also negatively reviewed the film, saying that Brooks and Ritchie "never quite commit to either of the movie's disparate chords -- bailing out of the batter's box in terms of the psychological drama and, after some amusing moments at the outset, generally steering clear of broad comedy."[5] Time magazine's Richard Schickel praised the film, writing, "The Scout is the best comedy-fantasy about baseball ever made, which goes to show that if Hollywood keeps trying, eventually someone will get it right."[6] The film holds a 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 23 reviews. ^ Port.hu ^ a b Snetiker, Marc (9 January 2015). "Andrew Bergman on writing 'Blazing Saddles,' 'Striptease,' 'Honeymoon in Vegas' and more". Entertainment Weekly. ^ McGilligan, Patrick. Backstory 5: interviews with screenwriters of the 1990s. University of California Press, 2009. ^ The Scout TV Guide ^ The Scout Variety ^ CINEMA: Fast Pitch TIME The Scout on IMDb The Scout at Rotten Tomatoes The Scout at Box Office Mojo The Scout may refer to: The Scout (Kansas City, MO statue), an iconic statue located in Penn Valley Park in Kansas City, Missouri The Scout, a statue commissioned as the South African War Memorial, Brisbane in Queensland, Australia The Scout (film), a 1994 film The Scout (Buffalo Bill statue), a statue of Buffalo Bill Cody in Cody, Wyoming The Scout (train), a passenger train on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Scout (magazine), an official publication for Boy Scouts from 1908. The Scout, a character in the video game Team Fortress 2. The Scout (tool), an innovative deep tissue therapy tool used by chiropractors, physical therapists and massage therapists Films directed by Michael Ritchie Downhill Racer (1969) Prime Cut (1972) The Candidate (1972) Smile (1975) The Bad News Bears (1976) Semi-Tough (1977) An Almost Perfect Affair (1979) The Island (1980) Divine Madness (1980) Student Bodies (1981) The Survivors (1983) Fletch (1985) Wildcats (1986) The Golden Child (1986) The Couch Trip (1988) Fletch Lives (1989) Diggstown (1992) The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993) Cops & Robbersons (1994) The Scout (1994) The Fantasticks (1995) A Simple Wish (1997)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4463
__label__cc	0.702733	0.297267	Do people commit evil out of ignorance? Alcibiades and Socrates [The text below refers to my presentation at Stoicon 2017 in Toronto. The full set of slides can be downloaded here.] Epictetus wrote: “For if one shows this, a man will retire from his error of himself; but as long as you do not succeed in showing this, you need not wonder if he persists in his error, for he acts because he has an impression that he is right.” (Discourses, II.26) It is a striking reminder of just how forgiving and non judgmental Stoic philosophy is. When people do something wrong we ought to try to correct, not judge them, because they act under the mistaken belief that they are actually doing the right thing. The notion is Socratic in nature, and it is found, for instance, in this famous phrase, which Diogenes Laertius attributes to the most famous Athenian philosopher: “There is only one good, knowledge, and only one evil, ignorance.” (Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers, II.31) But surely this can’t be right. Socrates, and Epictetus, cannot possibly mean that knowledge is the only good, and especially that ignorance is the only evil. If one looks carefully, though, the two words translated respectively as “knowledge” and “ignorance” are episteme and amathia. Episteme means more than just knowledge, especially factual knowledge. It means understanding. And amathia is not really ignorance, it is closer to un-wisdom, the opposite of sophia (as in philosophia, love of wisdom). So what Socrates and Epictetus maintain here is that the best someone can do is to achieve understanding of how things work (and therefore of how to act in life), while the worst is being unwise, and therefore engage in actions that one mistakenly, as it turns out, thinks are right. In the Platonic dialogue entitled Alcibiades Major, we get an even better idea of what Socrates means, within the specific context of politics. He is chatting with the future Athenian general Alcibiades, who is his friend, student, and former lover. Alcibiades is a fascinating figure (one of these days I’m going to write a book about him), who was instrumental in Athens’ fatal decision to attack Syracuse during the Peloponnesian war (though, in fairness, he was relieved of command by his fickle fellow citizens before the expedition got started). Alcibiades then defected first to the Spartans and later to the Persians, before returning once again to Athens. He was killed in Phrygia by Spartan assassins: when he saw himself surrounded by enemies he rushed at them with a dagger in his hand, and fell struck by a shower of arrows. Anyway, here is a bit of the rather frank dialogue between Socrates and his famous pupil: SOCRATES: But if you are bewildered, is it not clear from what has gone before that you are not only ignorant of the greatest things, but while not knowing them you think that you do? ALCIBIADES: I am afraid so. SOCRATES: Alack then, Alcibiades, for the plight you are in! I shrink indeed from giving it a name, but still, as we are alone, let me speak out. You are wedded to stupidity, my fine friend, of the vilest kind; you are impeached of this by your own words, out of your own mouth; and this, it seems, is why you dash into politics before you have been educated. And you are not alone in this plight, but you share it with most of those who manage our city’s affairs, except just a few, and perhaps your guardian, Pericles. Socrates is telling his friend that he is unwise, not ignorant. Alcibiades was a highly intelligent and educated man, and yet his lack of wisdom turned out to be disastrous for him personally and for Athens more generally. Countless politicians since, up to and including current occupants of the highest political offices in the Unites States, European countries, and elsewhere are suffering from the same malady as Alcibiades, and a proper response on our part should probably also begin with “Alack!” Back to the Stoics. Epictetus uses an interesting example to get his point across his students, that of Medea, the mythological tragic figure at the center of a famous play by Euripides (and a later one by none other than Seneca). As is well known, Medea helped Jason steal the fabled Golden Fleece from her native land, in the process betraying her father and killing her brother. She did it for love and also to escape her “barbarian” country and come to civilized Greece (remember, the play was written by a Greek). One of the intriguing characteristics of the piece is that it can be (and has been) read either as a tale of misogyny and xenophobia (Medea is a woman and a barbarian) or as a proto-feminist story of a woman’s struggle in a patriarchal society. Medea is eventually abandoned by Jason, and she kills her own (and Jason’s) children in desperation, for spite and revenge. Euripides has Medea say: “I know full well what ills I mean to do, But passion overpowers what counsel bids me.” Again, this is not ignorance in the usual sense, it is amathia. She knows that what she is about to do is horrible, but in her current state of mind she can’t think of a better way to make the unbearable pain of her existence go away. (Incidentally, Seneca’s version of the tragedy is significantly more sympathetic to Medea than Euripides’.) Here is how Epictetus comments on Medea: “Here the very gratification of passion and the vengeance she takes on her husband she believes to be more to her profit than saving her children. … Why then are you indignant with her, because, unhappy woman, she is deluded on the greatest matters and is transformed from a human being into a serpent? Why do you not rather pity her — if so it may be? As we pity the blind and the lame, so should we pity those who are blinded and lamed in their most sovereign faculties.” (Discourses, I.28) This, of course, is the crux of the discipline of assent: “What is the reason that we assent to a thing? Because it seems to us that it is so. It is impossible that we shall assent to that which seems not to be. Why? Because this is the nature of the mind — to agree to what is true, and disagree with what is false, and withhold judgment on what is doubtful. … Feel now, if you can, that it is night. It is impossible. Put away the feeling that it is day. It is impossible. … When a man assents, then, to what is false, know that he had no wish to assent to the false: ‘for no soul is robbed of the truth with its own consent,’ as Plato says, but the false seemed to him true.” (Discourses, I.28) Contemporary philosopher Hannah Arendt hit on something similar when she described the horrors of Nazi Germany, after covering the famous Eichmann trial in Jerusalem for The New Yorker. My friend Amy Valladares translated for me from the German parts of the last interview Arendt gave, where she elaborated on the concept in terms that are reminiscent of both Socrates and Epictetus: “There’s something really outrageous [empörend = shocking, revolting] about this stupidity. … Eichmann was perfectly intelligent, but in this respect he had this sort of stupidity [dummheit = irrationality, senselessness]. It was this stupidity that was so outrageous. And that was what I actually meant by banality.” Another contemporary philosopher, Glenn Hughes, uses a similar concept, again in the context of Nazi Germany, talking about “intelligent stupidity” (not an oxymoron!): “Intelligent stupidity is no mental illness, yet it is most lethal; a dangerous disease of the mind that endangers life itself. [The danger lies] not in an inability to understand but in a refusal to understand, [and] any healing or reversal of it will not occur through rational argumentation, through a greater accumulation of data and knowledge, or through experiencing new and different feelings.” Instead, intelligent stupidity is a “spiritual sickness,” and in need of a spiritual cure. (From “Ignorance vs. Stupidity,” by Sherwood Belangia; the essay begins with the bit of Socratic dialogue transcribed above.) Amathia, is the root of “intelligent stupidity,” or “ignorance” in the Socratic sense, the opposite of sophia, i.e., wisdom. The “cure,” then, is philosophy. But not the academic sort that a number of clever people engage in today, more as a kind of intellectual game than anything else. I’m talking about real, practical philosophy. As a faculty in a philosophy department, I’m often asked by students and parents: why study philosophy? Epictetus had the answer, and it is connected to the need to avoid amathia, to cure ourselves from our spiritual sickness: “This is the defense that we must plead with parents who are angered at their children studying philosophy: ‘Suppose I am in error, my father, and ignorant of what is fitting and proper for me. If, then, this cannot be taught or learnt, why do you reproach me? If it can be taught, teach me, and, if you cannot, let me learn from those who say that they know. For what think you? That I fall into evil and fail to do well because I wish to?’” (Discourses I.28) What do we gain by curing ourselves of amathia, and moreover by recognizing that people who do bad things are not “evil,” but rather sick? A lot, as it turns out. We get what Epictetus promises his students that they will achieve by practicing and internalizing the precepts of Stoic philosophy, and particularly the dichotomy of control: “Now the things within our power are by nature free, unrestricted, unhindered; but those beyond our power are weak, dependent, restricted, alien. Remember, then, that if you attribute freedom to things by nature dependent and take what belongs to others for your own, you will be hindered, you will lament, you will be disturbed, you will find fault both with gods and men. … But if you take for your own only that which is your own and view what belongs to others just as it really is, then no one will ever compel you, no one will restrict you; you will find fault with no one, you will accuse no one, you will do nothing against your will; no one will hurt you, you will not have an enemy, nor will you suffer any harm.” (Enchiridion I.3) That is why Stoic philosophy is both other- and self-forgiving. The Stoic understands that everyone who is not a Sage (and that’s pretty much everyone) suffers from different degrees of amathia. We are all partially blind and lame. By all means, let us restrain the Medeas of the world from killing innocent children, and more importantly the many Alcibiadeses, who have the power to affect the lives of millions, from doing too much damage. But let us also remind ourselves that these are spiritually sick people. They need help, and deserve our pity. This entry was posted in STOICON & Stoic Week on November 27, 2017 by Massimo. ← Becker’s A New Stoicism, IX: Happiness Living according to nature → 25 thoughts on “Do people commit evil out of ignorance?” Amanda Parr (@Zaphod62) November 27, 2017 at 8:12 am There are many layers of thinking, some more conscious than others. People prefer a sense of belonging to a defined group (political or taste, lately, though in the past it would have been more directly tied to landscape and economy). In times of fear, nowadays induced by rapid changes in society and a human tendency to be fascinated by morbidity combined with media opportunism, there is retrenchment and backlash, a desire to falsely “know for sure”. People will choose false but secure beliefs echoed by their group than unsettling truths, overwhelming information, or absence of knowledge. There’s a lot we don’t know and there’s also way too much to know and we can’t wait for closure. There’s a threshold of tolerance. It’s a socio-cultural. Only a few people prefer or sense the need to develop actual autonomy of thought and the humility that goes with it. Rchard E. Hennessey November 27, 2017 at 9:08 am You noted, first, that the translation that has Diogenes Laertius attributing to Socrates and, therewith, Epictetus the doctrine that “There is only one good, knowledge, and only one evil, ignorance.” And then, after stating that “[S]urely this can’t be right. Socrates, and Epictetus, cannot possibly mean that knowledge is the only good, and especially that ignorance is the only evil,” you pointed to the need for an amended translation. You did not, however, provide it, perhaps because it is so obvious: “There is only one good, understanding, and only one evil, lack of wisdom.” I find myself wanting to say, “Surely this can’t be right. Socrates, and Epictetus, cannot possibly mean that understanding is the only good, and especially that lack of wisdom is the only evil.” Massimo Post author November 27, 2017 at 10:00 am Rchard, But that is precisely what they mean. And the reason is because understanding guides our action, and lack of wisdom makes us do bad things. So those two seem to cover pretty much everything, in the sense that every human action stems from one of those two properties. paul sailer (@paul_sailer) November 27, 2017 at 10:26 am Very good piece. I could give you a long story about how I came to an understanding that agrees, but the short of my life lesson is, the people housed in our prisons are not their because they are evil, they are there because they walked a path based on the information available to them. But, re-educating an adult is impossible until he recognizes he needs re-educating. Rchard E. Hennessey November 27, 2017 at 11:06 am I wasn’t so much worrying about whether or not that was exactly what they meant; I’m quite content with your reading of “episteme” and “amathia.” I’m concerned that the theses that “understanding is the only good” and that “lack of wisdom is the only evil” may be false, for two reasons. One is that it is not completely evident, at least to me, that the two, understanding and lack of wisdom, cover “pretty much everything” good or evil. There are, one might think, things that are good or bad (“bad” seems less loaded with baggage than “evil”) that fall outside the scope of, or even are or occur in complete independence of, human action. Another is that it is not completely evident, again at least to me, that understanding alone “guides our action” and that lack of wisdom alone “makes us do bad things.” A case can be made, after all, that in addition to the role of the possession or lack of knowledge, understanding, or wisdom, we need to take into account the role of acts of volition and so of benevolence and malevolence. I’ll admit, immediately, that an assumption of anything like, or even just functionally like, a volition or will, in addition to something like, or even just functionally like, an intellect or mind, raises some terrifying problems bearing on the causal relationships that might exist between acts of the one and acts of the other, should they both exist. Massimo Post author November 27, 2017 at 12:11 pm As you probably know, there is a Tom Wolfe novel whose main character is an inmate that discovers Stoicism and changes his life. I wonder if it could be used as a vehicle to introduce people in prison to Stoicism. http://tinyurl.com/ya945nb9 I don’t disagree with either of your two points, but I interpret the situation differently. On your first point, the Stoics were clearly referring to human evil. Natural catastrophes do not have moral salience, though obviously they have preferred and dispreferred consequences. So they are outside the scope of Socratic teaching by definition. As for your second point, “volition” is actually how modern scholars usually translate the Greek word prohairesis, which Epictetus uses to indicate our faculty of judgment. Now, the idea isn’t that everything we do is guided by our reason judgments, but that it ought to be. So when people do bad things it is because their judgment is impaired. And that, in turn, is the result of lack of wisdom. jbonnicerenoreg November 27, 2017 at 3:11 pm How would addiction fit into this model? Today, we have drugs like Cocaine and Heroin which overpower the understanding and cause people to do evil actions. Jbonni, Taking drugs of that sort is the result of un-wisdom, wo it fits nicely. Once taken, the drugs become addictive and undermine one’s faculty of judgment (prohairesis, to use Epictetus’ favorite term). At that point one first needs medical help, then the practice of Stoicism. As I’ve argued before (http://tinyurl.com/ycnpca4p) Stoicism is not a magic wand. Patrice Ayme November 27, 2017 at 4:51 pm (Apologies presented for length of comment) Evil Is Not Always Out Of Ignorance The ethology of species evolve according to their environment. For more than two million years, starting earlier than Homo Erectus, human beings have used weapons (stone derived). Weapons kept other predators at bay (it is remarkable how bears detest stones and seem to view human mastery of them as witchcraft). Weapons made humans the top predators, and owners of Earth. Weapons also meant that the primary enemy of man became man, and human ethology evolved from that fact. To boot, humans were not just obviously dangerous to humans, but humans were also very dangerous to the environment itself. It became a paramount function of human ethology to keep human numbers down. In other words, human evolution made it crucially human to become inhuman, just so. Socrates may have said that:”There is only one good, understanding, and one evil, lack of wisdom.” However, when a land is in a state of distress, understanding acquires a sinister outlook. Consider the Roman empire at Christmas 406 CE, when many German nations (including the Vandals), galloped across the frozen Rhine, which the Franks were supposed to defend. What was there to understand then, what was the wise thing to do? Many countries of Africa and the Middle East present an evil overpopulation, from lack of resources, drought, war, or all the preceding. What is the wisest wisdom looking forward? Massive emigration? More war? Recolonization? Contraception? All the preceding? Wisdom, like other potentials in nature, can have local maxima. Human evolution has made it wise in the deepest sense, the sense of ethology, to sometimes succumb to ways which look inhuman, at first sight, on a shallow interpretation of what humanity is. An example is the ubiquitousness of cannibalism in ancient societies. More recently, around 1300 CE, population peaked, just as the first shocks of the Little Ice Age made themselves felt. Governments in Western Europe and Japan took drastic measures to save the ecology. Entire alpine areas were evacuated, under the penalty of death (to allow the regeneration of forests). When the Black Plague started in 1348, complete travel bans were implemented to prevent propagation; infringing them meant being shot by arrows from a great distance. Ancient Rome never got that fierce, that “evil”, so the ancient Roman empire collapsed. Hannah Arendt underestimated Eichmann’s intelligence. Eichmann played banally stupid during his trial in some ways, while harping on Kant, in other ways. In truth we have now access to documents which show Eichmann knew very well what he was doing and what was happening. Eichmann actually engaged several times, when in power, in complicated negotiations to save Jews (including a personal friend at Auschwitz, we have exchanges of letters to him and Himmler, to save him; more famously he tried to exchange a million Jews against 10,000 trucks)… This means that Eichmann was perfectly aware of the monstrosity of the system he was a very important operator of. “Intelligent stupidity” is a consequence of intellectual fascism: people binded around only a few ideas, which are perceived as all the justice there is, worth dying for. Intellectual fascism itself becomes a strength, in those crucial situation where wisdom calls for jumping out of the box… and especially when destroying the box is called for. We are on a spaceship among the stars. Sometimes there are mutinies, sometimes not enough food. Straws have to be drawn. Such is history. In the future, if we bathe ever more the plankton in too much carbonic acid from dissolved CO2, there may even be a lack of oxygen. Yes, it was bad before, but we can’t stop progress, and there is good hope that it could get way worse tomorrow. And that won’t be out of ignorance: this is plain science, freely available on the Internet. Patrice, I believe your comment makes an appeal to nature, which is logically fallacious. It is also pernicious, as it leads you to very objectionable statements, such as “Intellectual fascism itself becomes a strength, in those crucial situation where wisdom calls for jumping out of the box.” Sorry, no. and I have no idea at all what plankton and dissolved CO2 have to do with the topic at hand, science or no science. Max Bini November 27, 2017 at 9:23 pm In Plato (which includes Plato’s Socrates but not necessarily Socrates) the idea that the highest good is wisdom which all other goods depend upon is based on the notion of the Forms (eidos) – our acquaintance with them before birth and thus our remembrance of them. In this context ignorance or lack of wisdom is equatable with forgetting. I would argue that this Platonic conception is neither Socratic nor Stoic as neither are committed to the existence of Forms. Miguel Gonzalez November 27, 2017 at 11:12 pm Well expressed and argued academically and on that level understandable but ,dear reader, I Live in this world and cruelty, malisciousness, Sadism are real and it’s foolish to pretend otherwise.We do so because its impossible to look at it ,for some.Its not all to be converted to beauty by way of Reason.These are still questions without answers and Stoicism asks for courage to live in the world “this Platonic conception is neither Socratic nor Stoic as neither are committed to the existence of Forms.” I don’t see why the idea that the chief good is wisdom depends on Plato’s theory of forms. Scholars I have read do not make that connection, the notion seems genuinely Socratic. Also, it is definitely Stoic, as it is found also in Cicero’s presentation of Stoic philosophy in book III of De Finibus. Miguel, “Dear reader, I Live in this world and cruelty, malisciousness, Sadism are real and it’s foolish to pretend otherwise.” There is no denial of what the world is like. There is simply an attempt to reframe things in a way that does not de-humanize the perpetrators and make it easier for us in turn to rationalize every action we may take against them. Rchard E. Hennessey November 28, 2017 at 12:22 pm I take your point that “Stoics were clearly referring to human evil.” That may, however, be a sign of a limitation in their thinking. There is the “problem of evil,” summed up in the theses that, if a perfect god exists, then evil cannot exist and that evil does exist. If any purported god, as purportedly somehow the cause of all else that exists, is a moral agent, then natural catastrophes do have moral salience. As for the word, “volition,” I again take your point that it “is actually how modern scholars usually translate the Greek word prohairesis, which Epictetus uses to indicate our faculty of judgment.” But that is not how I was using it. Rather, I was using it as a Latinate equivalent of the word, “will,” and, with that meaning in mind, not as a word that would “indicate our faculty of judgment.” I was just about to repeat something I said earlier, a clear sign that, for me, at least, it’s time to move on to another topic, though I invite you to have the last word. Reading IF Stones. Trial of Socrates. Inasmuch as Its connection to Stoic Philosophy demands at least a rudimentary examination of it all.Socrates disdain for democracy and his connections , as well as Plato’s relationships with Aristocrats of the time,are portrayed as a factor in his attitude towards democracy.Was quite dismayed and now I wonder what is the Stoic position towards that? Patrice Ayme November 29, 2017 at 2:49 am don’t see how tying logic and nature can be logically fallacious, except if one believes as Plato did and many mathematicians do, that the world of mathematics and logics are “forms” outside of the “material” world. Then a distinction is made between “nature” (in the material world) and logic (somewhere else). Hence nature can’t establish logic. However contemporary research in formal and mathematical logic show that no firm conclusion about their nature has been established. In particular it has not been established that their nature is not part of nature. I do believe that logic is just quantum neural networks, firmly therefore in nature, but also as nebulously defined as Quantum Physics is. Not only Quantum Physics is nonlocal, but it is all about… forms (namely Hilbert spaces, and C* algebras, which are noncommutative generalizations of geometry). Thus nature itself is full of…”forms”. It’s not just ideas which are “forms”. The human condition, and more specifically its relationship with evil is more perplexing, and vast, than even the oceans of galaxies we can now contemplate. My contention is that evil is entangled with the very nature of any intelligence which comes to dominate the planet it evolved on. Domination of nature can bring a breakdown of the very ecology which brought said domination. Self-control is called for. I believe that another name for that self-control is evil. Right, there are other sources of evil, for example ignorance, as Socrates said. Call that accidental evil. It is excusable… Except when the ignorance is deliberate (as with common Germans in Nazi Germany). But to believe that ignorance is the only source of evil is not just incomplete, but, I believe, pernicious. And very objectionable. I know this is what the mythical Christ said on the cross (“forgive them, Father, for they don’t know what they are doing”). Indeed identifying ignorance as the only source of evil leads to believe that our beloved great leaders are just clueless from ignorance. Thus ignoring at the outset, the possibility of their malevolence. However, surely deliberately malevolent leaders are legions in history, geography, the news. Sexual harassment and European intellectuals defending violent Islamism are the latest example. Deliberate malevolence can’t be “explained” by “ignorance”. Surely when Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia impaled 20,000 people, including babies, at Târgoviște, in June 1462, he was not acting out of ignorance. Instead, he was trying to impress the Turkish Sultan Mehmed with his malevolence. When Hitler and his minions murdered more than twenty million prisoners in their more than 42,400 camps and ghettos, it was surely not out of ignorance. It was pure malevolence, the will to destroy others. However that astonishing crime was made possible by allowing plausible deniability on the part of the German population. We look at the universe through not just nature, but our nature. What else? Believing there is something else besides nature is another name for God. Indeed the Gospel of John starts by claiming that God (who is not part of nature, as it created it) is the “Logos”. This boils down to Plato’s opinion. What would be the greatest possible evil? Surely the extinction of all humanity, thanks to the action of human leaders who decided to let it happen. Most CO2 produced by man goes into the ocean, where it reacts with water chemically to create carbonic acid. The acid, in turn, kills plankton, which produces oxygen. Already, vast expanses of ocean have not enough oxygen to support marine life. The observations, and the problem has been published in many scientific journals. However, it is ignored by the political leadership of the planet. Is it out of ignorance, or out of malevolence, or a cocktail of both? mpernd November 29, 2017 at 7:26 am Isn’t the view that evil is only a matter of amathia way too naive? There are people out there that just want to see the world burn. Just look what horrendous acts ISIS is committing every day. Or psychopaths / sociopaths like Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, … Is this all just “wrong thinking”? And is compassion really the right response to that? To ask a polemic question: What is the stoic response when someone has just raped your wife? “I take your point that “Stoics were clearly referring to human evil.” That may, however, be a sign of a limitation in their thinking. There is the “problem of evil,” summed up in the theses that, if a perfect god exists, then evil cannot exist and that evil does exist.” But that problem concerns Christian theologians, not Stoics. Since the Stoics did not postulate the existence of an all-powerful, all-benevolent, and all-knowing god, their metaphysics is simply neutral with respect to natural “evil.” Indeed, natural evil is a rather oxymoronic phrase, from the Stoic perspective: if it’s natural it just is. “Evil” is a human judgment, not something inherent in the facts of nature. “As for the word, “volition,” I again take your point that it “is actually how modern scholars usually translate the Greek word prohairesis, which Epictetus uses to indicate our faculty of judgment.” But that is not how I was using it. Rather, I was using it as a Latinate equivalent of the word, “will,”” Fine, but I’d rather stick with the Stoic definition, since we are discussing Stoic philosophy. Also, I actually don’t think these two meanings are that different: our faculty of judgment is tightly connected with our will, and it certainly is a major feature of the human mind. “Socrates disdain for democracy and his connections , as well as Plato’s relationships with Aristocrats of the time,are portrayed as a factor in his attitude towards democracy.Was quite dismayed and now I wonder what is the Stoic position towards that?” That’s a whole different topic, and not really connected to the OP. However, Stoic philosophy is compatible with a number of political systems, it is neither inherently democratic or anti-democratic. That said, Zeno wrote in his Republic about a fairly open society in which men and women are treated equally. Only fragments remain, though, so we can’t really say much else. I did not say that tying logic and nature is logically fallacious, but the fact remains that those were two separate fields of inquiry for the Stoics, and since we are discussing Stoic philosophy, I think it is useful to keep them that way. Your speculation that logic “is” quantum neural networks does not really make sense to me. Perhaps it is “based on”? Even so, I’m not sure what you mean and, again, it is nothing the Stoics were concerned with. “My contention is that evil is entangled with the very nature of any intelligence which comes to dominate the planet it evolved on.” That’s a strong metaphysical claim with, so far as I can see, little to back it up. “there are other sources of evil, for example ignorance, as Socrates said. Call that accidental evil. It is excusable… Except when the ignorance is deliberate (as with common Germans in Nazi Germany).” Forgive me, but again I wish people actually read what I write before commenting. The OP makes it very clear that there is nothing accidental about amathia. And the Nazi are covered. Explicitly. So your comment that the Stoic poisition is “incomplete and pernicious” is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what I wrote. The same goes for your observation that there have been malevolent leaders in history. That’s covered as well. Mpernd, That he did it because he thought it was entitled to it, or for vengeance against me or my family. In other words, he had reasons, as does ISIS. To refuse to understand this point leads to demonizing people who do wrong, which ironically is precisely what we all say we don’t want to do. There also seems to be a fundamental confusion — despite several attempts on my part to clear it — between understanding and justifying. The fact that I can understand why someone would rape my wife does not entail that I condone or justify the act, nor does it entail that I’m not going to do everything I can to prevent or stop him. Or secure justice afterwards. The only thing that it entails is that I will do my best to have pity, rather than hatred, toward that person. Seems like a very healthy attitude to me. In response to the points you make to my two points: (1) the “problem of evil” is, of course, not just a problem for Christian theologians, but also for Jewish and Muslim theologians and for any theory affirming the existence of a sufficiently knowing, loving, and powerful god; and (2) I would think that discussions of Stoic philosophy might include a consideration of ways in which there might be some limitation therein. You are correct, the problem of evil applies to the God of all three Abrahamic religions. But, again, not to the Stoics, hence my dismissal of it. And yes, of course discussions of Stoicism must also be (constructively) critical of the philosophy. But the problem of natural evil is not a criticism, for the reasons I pointed out. Dear Massimo: Amathia: who does not have the capacity to learn (math), that is, to acquire knowledge. We mathematicians are the opposite of amathists. From manthanein, to learn. Did Hitler or Stalin, suffer from amathia when they committed their crimes? Yes and no: they used similar methods. Stalin knew better what he was doing than Hitler: during the siege of Moscow, in December 1941, NKVD “blocking sections” shot to death any retreating Soviet soldier, no question asked. Even the Nazis found that inhuman (and got very scared). However, Stalin’s ferocity reflected a deep, quasi… mathematical knowledge of human nature: when Soviet soldiers got to fear retreating more than the Nazis, the Nazis were toast. Stalin won, in an essential part, because he was more cruel and devious than the German Nazis could comprehend. Stalin had a better knowledge (of human nature). The same sort of thing happened when the Islamists defeated, in a few months, both the Sassanid Persian and Roman main field armies: the Islamists killed systematically all the wounded (instead of ransoming them, as was customary), and then went throughout the Middle East, killing all and any man in age of bearing arms (so that the Romans couldn’t draft another field army). Arab generals were arguably evil, but that was not from lack of knowledge, just the opposite. And that’s why they won. Similarly when in Libya, only two centuries ago, slaves who had tried to escape were rewarded with impalement, that was not from lack of knowledge, far from it. Same when 6,000 ex-colleagues of Spartacus were crucified along the via Appia: that was done to foster the knowledge that rebellion brought difficult days and nights, rubbing on a cross. I fail to understand why misplacing pity where hatred is deserved, helps. I don’t pity Hitler, I hate him, and his most dedicated agents. I do agree with you that understanding, even empathizing, and justifying are, and should importantly be, distinct activities. However, it is high time to have empathy for hatred. Surely, sometimes hatred is highly effective: consider the examples above (Stalin, newly Islamized Arabs, Spartacus, etc.) When hatred clouds one’s judgment, or when hatred is unjustified, for example from prejudice, then it is bad. But otherwise? Hating hatred may be a love too far. Franklin Roosevelt passed financial reforms to separate speculation from banking. (Those reforms were removed by sexual harasser Bill Clinton, 60 years later, so we can all become poor again.) Bankers were full of hatred towards FDR. FDR famously repeated many times:”I welcome their hatred!” FDR was right, it is most pleasant to be hated by devils. Often, it’s all what the doctors should order. Stoicism, I believe, require equanimity to all emotions and passions, only their justification should be a consideration. Discriminations against some emotions is, ultimately, a matter of prejudice against situations. Yet what is, is. Discriminating against reality is amathia. I would suggest that there are no evil emotions, only inappropriate ones. [note: please try to keep your comments shorter and a bit more focused] I really don’t think knowledge of math has anything to do with being wise or not, and therefore with amathia. From the Stoic point of view there is no difference between Hitler and Stalin. Just because one succeeded and the other didn’t, it doesn’t matter, they were both tyrants, and they both needed to be stopped, by all means necessary. But they were also, in their different ways, convinced that they were right in doing what they did. That’s the tragedy. The fact that Roosevelt welcomed the bankers’ hatred is irrelevant. Obviously, he wasn’t a Stoic, and neither were the bankers! No, Stoicism most certainly does not counsel equanimity toward all emotions. It very clearly counsels to eliminate the unhealthy ones (like anger, hatred and fear) and cultivate the healthy ones (love, concern for others, sense of justice). Patrice Ayme November 30, 2017 at 10:55 am Dear Massimo: I must admit I focus on the question of the OP, in the sense: do people commit evil [only] out of ignorance? As Socrates claim. There are actually three sources of evil: ignorance, stupidity, and (malevolent) intelligence. The latter is the opposite of amathia (math used to be identified to knowledge; a-mathia is lack of learning). For example Stalin knew extremely well was he was doing (he joked to Churchill that he killed more Russians than Hitler). The present world is ruled by plutocrats. The usual interpretation of “Pluto” is god of wealth. But he was also the replacement for Hades, god of evil. So plutocracy can be viewed as the power (kratos) of hell (not just wealth). People who deliberately do evil. Socrates definition was self-serving. In truth the Persian plutocracy had financed Sparta all along in its war against Athens (we now know for sure). Athens got half destroyed, came close to annihilation. We need a definition of evil big enough for the biggest crimes ever (as I said, cutting off the world’s oxygen by killing the plankton qualifies). No. As I explained several times, amathia has nothing to do with not knowing what one is doing. It has to do with the lack of wisdom concerning what is best to do. So all three sources of “evil” fall under amathia, but — ironically — especially the latter, the one you think is an exception.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4465
__label__cc	0.748272	0.251728	How I feel about Sarah Palin 90% of the time. And who says Jon Stewart isn’t a good actor? I’m officially one of the Colbert Nation Heroe$ I normally watch new episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report when they air, but I missed two weeks since I was on vacation. As it turns out, on the August 16th episode of Colbert, I was given the greatest civilian honor of my life. I'm on-screen with one of my heroes... and the President too. All it took was to donate $5 to a shady political action committee. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. P.S. I just noticed that this is the first time my actual name has gone up on the blog. What a way to go! Give this little girl a medal. I make an effort to keep track of the news. Apparently, Egypt is almost on fire. Now, I could make a long diatribe justifying the protesters in the streets of Cairo, or maybe I could draw parallels between Egypt and Iran (or even the 13 Colonies). But I’m not going to do that. I can’t. This story’s been on every major news outlet, and every pundit, journalist, blogger, and activist has given their two-cents. But I yield the floor, now and forever on all Middle East politics, to Juju. Take a bow little lady, we salute you. LBJ orders pants. (Seriously) Put This On: LBJ Buys Pants from Put This On on Vimeo. Yes, that was Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States of America. That was LBJ ordering pants and talking about his “nuts” and his “bunghole.” (That’s good ol’ Southern charm for you!) Why doesn’t FOX News bring this up? At least it’s a little bit implicating. But no, the only person who ever tarnished the dignity of the office was this guy: Driving the lane... to national destruction. Republican Party: “Now what?” This past election day, the Republican Party made significant gains in the Congressional elections. As it stands, the GOP took 6 seats in the Senate and 64 seats in the House. This victory has shifted the ratio in the Republicans’ favor, giving them the House majority for the next two years. Victories parties were held nationwide (and on Fox News) as more states and districts turned Red. However, now that the victory parties have officially ended, congressional Republicans are unaware as to what they’re supposed to do. Continue reading “Republican Party: “Now what?”” Glenn Beck vs the Disney Menace A guy by the name of Jonathan McIntosh (creator of Rebellious Pixels) put together this terrific video mashing-up Donald Duck cartoons and Glenn Beck’s radio show. Oddly enough, Beck sounds like he’d make a great radio host in the 1950’s. His brain is certainly still living there. This isn’t the only political remix he’s done. Be sure to check out McIntosh’s website Rebellious Pixels for some more great stuff. Glenn Beck actually responded to he video on his radio show. But I didn’t feel like posting the straight feed, so I decided to put up another Disney mash-up featuring the audio. Yes Glenn, The Walt Disney Company is working with the communists to take you down. Disney has a history of left-leaning sympathies. I suppose you think that Disney is also plotting to undermine our culture by building Hebrew schools everywhere. Posted on October 3, 2010 November 6, 2011 United Nations: International Douchebag Convention All eyes watched as the great leaders of the world descended upon the sleepy little village known to locals as Man-hatt-an for The 65th United Nations General Assembly. The event commenced on September 23, 2010 and concluded the following week. The highlight of early proceedings had been the General Debate, where presentations were given by each of the delegations from around the world. This year’s conference provided foreign dignitaries such as Pres. Barack Obama (USA), Deputy PM Nicholas Clegg (UK), and Pres. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (Liberia) the opportunity to give impassioned speeches calling upon all nations to cooperate in order to ensure amiable and peaceful international relations for years to come. However, the UN General Debate also offers a platform for some of the world’s most powerful assholes. Continue reading “United Nations: International Douchebag Convention”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4473
__label__wiki	0.568463	0.568463	Goodnews: Naira now up N305 against dollar – Speculators disappointed as naira strengthens against dollar for third consecutive day – IMF persuades President Buhari to remove foreign exchange ban There is confusion in town over the exchange rate of the dollar to the Nigerian currency as Bureau De Change (BDC) operators are saying that it is now N305/dollar. Naij.com gathered from a reliable source in the foreign exchange market that the Nigerian currency, up from its steady rise within 48hours, has risen steadily against the dollar in the wake of President Muhammadu Buhari’s insistence that he does not support the devaluation of the currency. Speculators had been shocked by the consecutive rise on Tuesday, February 23, as they had predicted an all-time rise from the initial N400 (an all time low) to about 450/500 in the coming days. There are further speculations that the amount, up from an initial N364 from Tuesday, is now at N305, while there are also unconfirmed reports that it may slip further before the end of the day. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has persuaded President Buhari to adopt a sound petroleum industry bill (PIB) as well as expunge restrictions around foreign exchange policy. While the PIB had been in the works since 2007, it has been dogged by political controversies as well as opposition to the fiscal terms by international oil companies. The present administration has adopted a fixed forex policy that also does not include the allowance of 41 imported items, and this has been criticised from different quarters. According to The Cable, a statement detailing IMF observations about the Nigerian economy after its visit in January, its senior resident representative to Nigeria, Gene Leon, said: “growth is projected to improve slightly to 3.2 per cent in 2016 but could rebound to 4.9 per cent in 2017. “In the light of the significant macroeconomic adjustment that is needed to address the permanent terms-of-trade shock, it will be important for Nigeria to put in place an integrated package of policies centred around: fiscal discipline; reducing external imbalances; further improving efficiency of the banking sector; and fostering strong implementation of structural reforms that will enhance. “The general government deficit is projected to widen somewhat before improving in 2017, while the external current account deficit is likely to remain flat at 2.3 percent of GDP. Growth in credit to the private sector is projected to recover from the slump in 2015, aiding the increase in activity. “Key risks to the outlook include lower-than-budgeted oil prices, shortfalls in non-oil revenues, a further deterioration in finances of state and local governments, and a resurgence in security concerns.”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4477
__label__cc	0.726197	0.273803	Not All You See is Sushi Today's guest post is from Chris Ryall, an Aussie in Japan. Konnichiwa. My name is Chris Ryall. My wife and I are Australian, and have lived in Japan together for 16 years. Recently, after not having returned to Australia for 5 years, we made a trip home to celebrate Christmas and New Year with our families. After so long away, it was great to see all the various fare that I had loved as a youth growing up on the Gold Coast. My sister cooked up her delicious recipe of lemon-pepper lamb shanks, and on another night, her husband barbecued some delicious Australian beefsteaks, still on the bone. We also ate out at the local branch of a popular restaurant chain, “Outback Jack’s”, which specializes in traditional Australian ‘tucker’, our local word for food. Mostly, it serves meat and seafood dishes. Ironically, one of our friends suggested eating some Japanese food, considering that we had just returned from Japan. Actually, I believe she thought that it might be interesting to compare it with restaurants in Japan. So I asked her, “What kind of Japanese food did you have in mind?” She looked at me as if it were a strange question, before answering. “Sushi, of course.” I politely explained to my friend that sushi is only one of a large variety of dishes in Japan. By her expression, it was obvious that she had never really thought about it. It is true that Japanese people generally eat a lot of fish, as well as other types of seafood, but the cooking styles and recipes are endless. Fish is not just eaten raw either; an equal amount of fish is eaten grilled, broiled, steamed and fried. Most of our Japanese friends tend to eat sushi only once a month, which seems to be about the average. While it’s a popular meal, it certainly isn’t eaten as often as the stereotype would suggest. Amusingly, the first thing my wife and I were served when we came to Japan was takeout from McDonald's. Our host family was so unsure of whether or not we would like Japanese food that they kindly went out and picked up some hamburgers for us before we arrived. We didn't have the heart to tell our hosts that they are best served hot, and we did our best to eat the cold burgers with a smile on our face. We virtually begged them to let us try some Japanese food for the next meal, and so they took us to a typical family restaurant in Japan, which usually has some western food on the menu of predominantly Japanese dishes. We were surprised to see just how much fried food Japanese people eat. The next day though, we did indeed go to a sushi restaurant, and yet the first dish was not sushi at all, but ‘sashimi’ – raw fish, which when dipped in various sauces was actually quite delicious. Although it’s not a custom in Australia to eat fish raw, my wife and I have come to love it. Later, living in Osaka, we also developed a love for Okonomiyaki, (a kind of Japanese savory pancake, but with various toppings including vegetables, meat and seafood), and Takoyaki (a fried and battered octopus dumpling about the size of a ping pong ball). In Nagoya, we enjoyed eating Misokatsu (a fried pork cutlet with a dark, rich sauce), and in Tokyo, we sampled many different Japanese curries, and Soba (Japanese noodles). We have even eaten fruit here that we never previously knew existed, such as Nashi (a Japanese pear, shaped like an apple), and Mikan (an Asian variety of mandarin). As we moved around Japan, we realized that there are many different styles of cooking, and a myriad of different tastes, in Japanese cuisine. In fact, Japanese love to eat foods of contrasting tastes, such as sweets with bitter green tea, or a sour red plum with bland white rice, and so on. My point is that the stereotype of ‘sushi’ as Japanese food is similar to saying that Americans only eat hamburgers, or that Australians only eat steak. Ironically, speaking of eating steak, I think that the most delicious Australian steak I have ever eaten has been in Japan (export quality). Then there is Japanese steak. You may have heard of the term, ‘Wagyu’, simply meaning Japanese beef. The most famous varieties of ‘Wagyu’ that I know of come from Hokkaido, Kobe, Gifu, Kumamoto, Tottori and Matsusaka. While ‘Wagyu’ is not for everyone, due to its ‘marbled’ form and high fat content, I certainly recommend trying it at least once, especially with an ice-cold Japanese beer. Japanese don’t just drink ‘sa-ke’ (rice wine). Ice-cold Japanese Beer My favorite ‘wagyu’ though is Matsusaka-gyu, even if it is a little expensive. This reminds me of the other associated stereotype I have come across, which is that Japanese don’t eat much meat in their diet. This is quite far from the truth. Many Japanese people love to eat a variety of meats, including chicken, pork, lamb, and beef. After moving to the mountain village in which we currently reside, we even ate Inoshishi (wild boar) in a kind of broth, and Shika-nabe (deer in a broth), for the first time in our lives. I have eaten ‘venison’ before, but I’ve never even seen wild boar meat sold in Australia. Mind you, many tourists traveling to ‘outback’ Australia can enjoy sampling kangaroo meat, camel meat (cooked like bacon), crocodile and of course ‘Aussie’ lamb. It’s fair to say that I have eaten more vegetables and salads here in Japan than I ever ate growing up in Australia, although that might have more to do with my wife’s cooking and Japanese lifestyle than my family or the eating habit of most Australians. However, my point is that Japanese people do eat quite a lot of salad and vegetables, especially at barbecues during summer, and in various kinds of broths and soups during winter. Finally, Japanese people love trying food from around the world, and just like in a lot of other countries, Chinese, Thai, Indian, French and Italian restaurants are very popular here. Living in Japan has also given me the chance to eat at Korean and Vietnamese restaurants as well. After our conversation that night, I think my Australian friend now has a better understanding of what average Japanese people eat. Not all you see is sushi. Copyright © Chris Ryall 2013 This guest post and images have come from a good mate of mine in Japan, Chris Ryall. Like myself Chris is an Aussie in Japan and has lived here for 16 years. Chris is also a writer and has his first novel on its way. Please take a look at Chris's work on his website http://www.cjryall.com/gold-of-the-rising-sun.html Labels: about Japan, Japan, Japanese Food cquek October 3, 2013 at 4:27 PM sushi with asahi oh yes! Thanks cquek, It certainly is an awesome combination :) Amanda Ryall October 5, 2013 at 12:32 PM Hi John, thanks very much for the share! I do hope we can get together and share some sushi with you and your family some day. We have a favourite place here in Matsusaka called, Suzuki Suisan, gourmet sushi. It`s a real treat. Their autumn dish of `dobinmushi` with matsutake mushrooms is really delish! Hi Amanda, Not a problem! Sounds awesome. Would love to do that one day :)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4481
__label__wiki	0.984234	0.984234	Vaccine Exemptions Bill Dead In Salem Posted: 2015-03-13 06:51:00 by Kelly Bleyer SALEM, OR -- A state Senate bill that would have only allowed parents to opt out of vaccinations for their children for medical reasons is dead. The bill's main sponsor, Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward (D-Portland/Beaverton), made the decision earlier this week to drop the bill. State Representative Knute Buehler (R-Bend) supported the legislation. He tells KBND News he's disappointed. "I don't think Senator Steiner Hayward dropped it due to the strong opposition," Buehler said. "She did it because she lost key support from the Democratic caucus and she didn't have the votes to proceed to win a floor vote." Oregon has some of the nation's highest childhood vaccination exemption rates in the country, and the number of families opting out of required shots has grown in recent years. "This is a problem that needs to be solved," Buehler says. "Obviously, too many people didn't like the proposed solutions. I've been trying to get Senator Steiner Hayward to add amendments to make it more acceptable." Buehler hopes a new bill will be introduced this session. He says although the bill is dead, the concept isn't. "I think Senator Steiner Hayward is working on ways to retool it to make it more agreeable, but also to make a dent in solving this problem," Buehler says. Rep. Buehler says a new bill would likely include more allowable exemptions to appease the opposition.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4489
__label__wiki	0.712315	0.712315	Singapore’s High Ranking on the Heritage Foundation Index Has More to do with US Politics Than with How Free Singapore Actually Is kjeyaretnam February 9, 2016 Leave a Comment A few days ago the State Times published an article entitled “Singapore still 2nd freest economy in the world but gap with top-ranked Hong Kong widens“. The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing US think tank closely connected to the Republican Party, had just released its 2016 Index of Economic Freedom in which Singapore retained its second place ranking though the gap between it and HK widened. Coming second in an index of economic freedom might surprise many Singaporeans. Have the people who compile the index visited an alternative universe by mistake? How could Singapore rank so highly when the Government owns 79% of the land and 89% of the people live in public housing where they do not actually own their apartments but hold them on a 99-year leasehold where they can be evicted if they break certain conditions. HDB has the right to force them to sell their property back to HDB at a market value it determines. Apart from foreign multinational companies, the rest of the corporate sector is dominated by state-owned companies. Singapore also ranks highly on the Economist Crony Capitalism Index because its billionaires have largely made their fortunes not through innovation or starting new businesses but from property or other sectors where government support is essential. Most industries are controlled by only two or three companies in which usually at least one of the major players is substantially owned or controlled by Temasek. The mobile phone industry, to take one example, has three players but the two most important are owned by Temasek while the third, M1, has at least two controlling shareholders in which Temasek holds major stakes. Unlike the US, most technology start-ups are dependent on government funding which might partially explain the lack of dynamism of Singapore’s tech sector compared to, say, Israel or South Korea, both of which are ranked well below Singapore by the Heritage Foundation. In an effort to understand how Singapore could get such a high ranking I looked at some of the categories in which it scores highly and the reasons given for those high scores. Straight away I was struck by the phrase “Singapore is one of the world’s most prosperous nations”. The PAP often say this but at the same time say Singapore is a fragile developing nation that cannot afford Western-style safety nets or freedoms. The fact is Singapore is a city and on a ranking of global cities by UBS in 2011 the purchasing power of a median worker was ranked on the same level as one in KL and behind other major Asian and Western cities. After pressure from the PAP Singapore was quietly dropped from the survey. Our GDP per capita is one of the highest in the world but that is only because we have so many workers relative to dependents, a result of the huge foreign labour force, and because our workers work the longest hours just to earn a living wage. On a ranking by GDP per hour worked Singapore came in near the bottom of a group of advanced countries, and on a comparison of global cities such as New York or London it would be lower still. Moving on to the breakdown of the results, the first category in which Singapore scores highly is Rule of Law. Here the Heritage Foundation says: “Singapore is one of the world’s least corrupt countries. Legislators are allowed to and often do serve on the boards of private companies, including as chairpersons, creating potential conflicts of interest. Contracts are secure, there is no expropriation, and commercial courts function well. Singapore has one of Asia’s best intellectual property rights regimes.” It is difficult to understand how the Heritage Foundation can call Singapore one of the least corrupt countries and at the same time acknowledge the rampant cronyism. The presence of MPs or Ministers on the boards of private companies is an actual conflict of interest not a potential one. The report makes no mention of the fact that the Prime Minister has appointed his wife as CEO of Temasek, something that would not be permitted in the US or indeed most other advanced democracies. The salaries of the PM and his ministers are the highest in the world but they may be modest compared to what Ho Ching earns at Temasek. Not only Ho Ching but many of the top positions at state-owned firms and leading private sector companies are taken by relatives of the leading political families and their children are frequently awarded the top Government scholarships, making a mockery of claims of meritocracy. It is also not true to say there is no expropriation as expropriation is why the Government owns so much of the land in the first place. The owners of the expropriated land received compensation well below market value. The Heritage Foundation also ranks Singapore highly for Limited Government. This completely ignores the fact that so much of the economy is controlled by Government-owned corporations. While direct taxes are low indirect taxes and fees are high and the Government controls the majority of people’s savings in a way that would not be acceptable in a democracy. Singapore ranks highly also for regulatory efficiency with the Heritage Foundation saying that Singapore has a transparent regulatory environment. Nothing could be further from the truth since many laws and areas of the Constitution are deliberately vague or a blind eye is turned to transgressions unless you should happen to oppose the Government or displease those in power. The fact that Lee Kuan Yew and so many members of his family could get large discounts from a property developer dependent on Government regulatory approvals and not be prosecuted shows how far we are from rule of law. The fact is that the so-called Index of Economic Freedom seems to be more a way to attack a Democratic President in the White House. Despite the dynamism of the US economy and its enviable track record in creating new companies (look how Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook dominate the digital economy) the US is ranked in a relatively lowly 11th position with dire warnings about how it is on the verge of becoming a banana republic. Surprisingly Singapore is rated 10 points higher than the US for Freedom from Corruption despite all the evidence of lucrative cronyism and an oligarchic elite. The US also gets a lowly rating for Fiscal Freedom and Government Spending which are more to do with ideology than economic freedom. In contrast to Singapore the US Government stays out of private sector businesses and even when it has rescued companies like GM it has sold its stake as soon as it was able to do so. The plaudits Singapore wins from global think tanks might have more to do with the use of state resources to win friends and influence people. I discovered that an award to Lee Kuan Yew by the Atlantic Council had been preceded by a substantial donation to the Council by Singapore immediately before the award was made (see “Singapore and LKY- Darlings of Western Think Tanks. (at a price)“). It would be interesting to see if any donations have been made by one of Singapore’s sovereign wealth funds to the Heritage Foundation in the last few years. Accountability, Economy Atlantic Council, corruption, cronyism, heritage foundation, Ho Ching, Lee Hsien Loong, Lee Kuan Yew, PAP., Temasek No idea what to do? Talk about the long-term instead Is Your CPF At Risk if Stock Markets Fall Any Further?	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4491
__label__wiki	0.821784	0.821784	Appeal fee not paid on time – Consequences for legal aid? An appeal may be lodged against a rejection decision in patent proceedings and an application for legal aid may also be lodged. But what happens for legal aid if failure to pay the appeal fee within the time limit leads to the appeal being deemed not to have been filed? German BPatG’s recent ruling about Restitutio in integrum and legal aid. One month to lodge complaint The Patent Act (PatG) and the Patent Costs Act (PatKostG) provide for a one-month period for filing an appeal against a decision in patent proceedings (§ 73.2 PatG, § 6.1 PatKostG). In the present case (19 W (pat) 47/18), the payment of the appeal fee in due time had been missed and the one-month period expired on 15 October 2018. In support of his failure to do so, the applicant stated that, contrary to his written instructions, his attorney in court, who had been assigned to him in the patent proceedings, had not lodged an appeal against the decision rejecting the application. As a result, on 22 October 2018, he applied for restitutio in integrum and the missed payment deadline, since the failure had occurred through no fault of his own (§ 123.1 Patent Law). He also applied for legal aid for the appeal fee and at the same time appealed against the decision. Was the patent attorney obliged to file an appeal? The applicant had assumed that the attorney would also be his authorised representative for the appeal proceedings and that he would therefore be obliged to file an appeal on his instructions. However, this assumption was not correct, judged the Federal Patent Court (BPatG), because the appointment as representative existed only for the duration of the granted legal aid. The allocation and authorisation of the patent attorney ended with the notification of the rejection decision and the transmission of the decision to the applicant, the BPatG clarified in its judgment, because the allocation only existed until the end of the instance, in this case until the end of the examination procedure before the DPMA. Procedural aid must be applied for separately for each instance Legal aid must be applied for and granted separately for each instance (§ 119.1 German ZPO in conjunction with § 99.1 PatG), the BPatG specified. The appeal proceedings were a separate instance, even if the appeal did not have to be lodged with the appeal court. Restitutio in integrum and legal aid within the time limit? The BPatG ruled that the applications for restitutio in integrum and the application for legal aid had to be regarded as having been filed within the two-month time limit for filing the application. But the question was: will the missed fee payment also be shifted to the previous status? The BPatG ruled that the missed payment of fees would only be made up within the application period if, in addition to the application for legal aid, all annexes thereto (§ 130.1 Patent Law in conjunction with § 117.2 ZPO) had been submitted by then. In the present case, however, no annexes were attached. It is true that, in principle, the running of a time limit for the payment of a fee is also then inhibited pursuant to § 134 Patent Law, if the application for legal aid is filed without attachments. The BPatG clarified that this was not valid for the application for reinstatement in a missed payment period according to the case law of the Federal Court of Justice, however . Request for restitutio in integrum is rejected In any case, the application of the applicant for restitutio in integrum was also rejected by the Federal Patent Court. The Court justified this by stating that the time limit for filing the appeal against the decision of the Examining Section to reject the application and for paying the appeal fee had not been missed through no fault of the applicant (§ 123.1, Patent Law). A letter from the patent attorney dated 11 October 2018 was available in which the attorney’s intervention in the appeal proceedings was only promised subject to the condition that the attorney’s intervention in the appeal proceedings would be included within the scope of the procedural costs assistance to be applied for separately for the appeal proceedings or that the attorney’s fee would be paid at normal hourly rates. The court stated that the applicant therefore possibly first found himself in an error of law which was also excusable for a layman, about a continuing assignment and authorization of the patent attorney. After the patent attorney’s letter, however, he could no longer assume that this appeal would be filed. The petition for restitutio in integrum in the previous status of the missed deadline for filing the appeal and payment of the appeal fee was therefore rejected by the BPatG as was the petition for the granting of legal aid for the appeal proceedings. Do you also need advice and support in complaint proceedings? Judgement of the BPatG 19 W (pat) 47/18 Own picture collage from QuinceMedia /pixabay.com / CCO License and geralt / pixabay.com / CCO License Patent Law BPatG, federal patent court, case law, appeal, German patent law, Patent Attorney, patent proceedings, restitutio in integrum, German Patent Court, appeal fee, complaint proceedings, authorised representative, legal aid More articles about: Patent Law Invalidity proceedings cover all subclaims Declaration of division of the patent application – where to be filed? UK: SPC Manufacturing Waiver into force No patent on software simulation with fuzzy logic controller Robot Simulation patentable? Not automatically!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4497
__label__wiki	0.951544	0.951544	Peoples Store Photos/Ads Leon & The Peoples Leon & The Peoples Hit #12 On Billboard Hot Singles Sales Chart For Second Consecutive Week With Their New Single "Beautiful" Leon & The Peoples, an International Reggae and World Music Award (IRAWMA) nominee for their CD, “The Road Less Traveled” and one of New York's hottest rising bands. The band is currently in the studio recording their sophmore LP and first for Spectra Music Label. Before heading into the studio, the band was on the road for many dates including Aspen Jazz Fest '14 (along side FUN, Carrie Underwood, Earth Wind & Fire, One Republic, etc.) The band completed a 38 city North American tour with reggae greats Beres Hammond and Marcia Griffiths with many sold-out dates as part of the “For The Love of It Tour”. Many sold out venues included House of Blues in LA, Chicago and San Diego; Hard Rock Live in Orlando; The Docks in Toronto; BB Kings in NYC; and The Roxy in Boston and most recently the 2011 Aspen Jazz Fest (read review). Leon & The Peoples features top-notch musical talent, high energy live performances and a commitment to bringing their Reggae-Soul sound to a world wide audience. The band has developed a strong following, especially among women. The band has been featured on BET’s 106 & Park, ABC's Good Morning Chicago, NBC Morning Shows, headlined the AIDS WALK NEW YORK Concerts (2014 - 2016), NYC Central Park Summer Stage, New Orleans International Music & Arts Festival, Atlanta’s National Blacks Arts Festival and Reggae on The River just to name a few. Leon & The Peoples song "Life is a Funny Game" is closing song in the 20th Century Fox feature film "Cover". In 2015 they have two songs on the Lions Gate romantic comedy "I Really Hate My Ex" and one another song in the just released "Where Children Play" movie. Leon & The Peoples were the opening act at the star-studded High Times Magazine STONY AWARDS in Los Angeles. Highlighting the highest moments in film, TV and celebrity life. Leon taking it in LIVE at The Roxy Theater, West Hollywood, CA JET Magazine June 6th, 2016 - Leon Is Making Music for ‘The Peoples’ 'The Five Heartbeats' star discusses his smooth sound... By Shameika Rhymes You recognize him as the smooth, suave, multi-faceted actor on classics like The Five Heartbeats, Above the Rim, and The Temptations. However, it’s about more than one love for Leon. The actor has also been flexing his musical muscles as the front man and songwriter for his reggae band Leon & The Peoples. The group recently released their latest single, “I’d Look Good on You,” from their forthcoming album. To read more click link below. Read more on JetMag.com: http://www.jetmag.com/entertainment/leon-music-peoples/#ixzz4E8bKjdIL THE BAND MEMBERS Lead singer & songwriter: Leon His early years in Mt. Vernon, NY were filled with music of his father singing Nat King Cole or Motown songs, but a special cord was struck inside him when he first heard friends introduced him to Rastafarian culture and he has found it his home ground to return again and again. Leon balances his array of talent between all medium, but it is evident that his first connection was with reggae which is evident when he performs with “Leon and the Peoples.” Leon says “I was always more comfortable with that style because of the sultriness of the style -- incorporates soul, gospel, dance … everything which I love… it made me want to sing.” The “Young Lions,” the first musical group Leon performed with, opened the door to his live musical performances, but once he started singing original tunes, he knew where he wanted to go, which led to the formation of “Leon and the Peoples.” As an actor: the multi-talented performer, continues to please his fans and sway newcomers with his memorable performances as an actor and singer. Leon has been named one of the Top 30 Sexiest Actors of All Time by AOL Black Voices. Leon stays busy with at least three films set for release in 2015. The first being, Lions Gate's "I Really Hate My Ex" in April. Many fans flocked to the theaters to see him in Disney’s blockbuster hit “Cool Runnings”. He soon graced many excellent story lines such as “Above the Rim,” “Cliffhanger,” “Waiting to Exhale,” HBO’s “Oz,” and “Crossing Jordan.” During 2004 – 2005, Leon crossed the country while packing houses performing in the theatrical version of New York Times best-selling novel “Friends and Lovers” where he sang the feature cut from the CD “Road Less Traveled” titled “Will You Be My Wife.” Leon had made his film singing debut playing a reggae singer in “The Price of Kissing,” in which he produced, starred in and sang a memorable rendition of Daddy’s Home. He proceeded to further his musical roles in the musical/dramas like Robert Townsend’s “The Five Heartbeats,” The Emmy winning “The Temptations" as the lead singer David Ruffin of the Motown Super Group, NBC's authorized biography “Little Richard” as Little Richard himself and portrayed The legendary singer, Jackie Wilson in "Mr. Rock-n-Roll The Alan Freed Story". Leon is currently starring in the film "Where Children Play" the national tour of "Things Your Man Won't Do". Electric Saxaphone: Curtis Bailey Curtis has played every major venue in New York City from Town Hall to The Village Gate and even Carnege Hall. He has spent several years writing and producing tracks for various artists and doing session work. As a member of "unity Two", a recording and touring Hip-Hop fusion band, signed to the Warner Brothers label, Curtis performed world wide, a testiment to his versatility, Curtis has also been the musical director for an off Broadway plays, "Tomorrow", "Futureology" and now serves as musical director for Leon & The Peoples. Lead/background vocals: Meah Pace She's the little lady with the big voice who dances around a stage like a firecracker. Often compared to the likes of Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin, Meah Pace has made it her business to stir up the soul in all who come in her path. In her introductory EP, “11:03”, Meah bares her soul as a songwriter with hard-hitting, original tracks to tug on your heart and make you dance.This former NFL Cheerleader captain (Baltimore Ravens), reality show star ("R U The Girl...With T-Boz & Chilli" UPN/FOX), and theater/film actress from Clinton, Maryland is no stranger to commanding the largest of audiences. Meah began to make a name for herself performing the National Anthem at Madison Square Garden and providing backing vocals for The All-American Rejects, Wild Belle, The Knocks, Reverend Vince & His Love Choir, and Melvin Van Peebles to name a few. In fact, she was hand picked by Binky Griptite, of the Dap Kings, to front his band The Mellomatics.Currently based in New York, Meah has opened for bands like Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Drivin’ ‘N’ Cryin’, and The Revelations featuring Tre Williams. Meah's soulful vocals and powerhouse stage presence have attracted fans of all music genres including Rock & Roll enthusiast John Varvatos who invited her to play his coveted “Varvatos Presents Thurday Night” at his NYC clothing store formerly the legendary CBGB’s. Lead/Background Vocals: Cathy "Alexis" Layne Alexis layne, born in Queens, NY to Dominican, French and Trinidadian parents and was raised in a culturally diverse family with a love for music and the arts. Alexis was introduced to all kinds of music from R&B to Rock and Reggae. Alexis writes and performes with passion and offers a wide range of vocal skills. She has performed in the off Broadway gospel musical "Passion He Lives" and has toured the world as a singer for the popular reggae artist, Collie Buds. Drums: Darryl Chalmers is a professional drummer from Queens, NY, who has been playing drums for 31 years. Darryl has worked with several groups including The Bridge, First Circle, Called, and Chosen. He is currently working with Ufouria featuring outstanding musicians Clarence Haynes, John Purvis, Eric Freeman, and Ron Richardson. And also currently on tour playing for Leon and The Peoples for Actor & Singer (Leon Robinson). Darryl has also performed on Fox 5's, The Bill McClary Report and appeared in television commercials featuring the NY based jazz fusion band, Axiom with Mark Gatz, Greg Sam, Ron Conner, and Ron Richardson. Darryl's talent has earned him a Cable Television appearance performing with the band Axiom on Willie Nelson's Rangler Invitational contest in Dallas, Texas. Darryl states his influences are Collin Young, Adrian Grannum, Glenn (Chango) Everett, Omar Hakim, Camille Gainer, Dave Weckl, and Dennis Chambers. He also appreciates the great sounds of his 'Medicine Man' 4x13 piccolo snare drum, in a gloss mahogany finish, which Darryl describes as very crisp and clean that will cut through any music. Darryl also endorses for Stick Gripps and Medicine Man Drums Snare . Gear: Yamaha Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Regal Tip 7A sticks , Stick Gripps and Medicine Man Custom Snare Drum Guitar: Antonio Alejandro a.k.a. Alex began performing at the age of three in Santiago, Chile with a church group that sang door to door during the holidays. He sang and "played" a guitar that was more of a toy than an actual instrument. After migrating to the United States, his musical instruction began in elementary school. Violin was the instrument of choice and Alex was part of a string ensemble that performed at different schools in the Boston area. By the time he reached high school age, guitar had become his main interest, and after graduating he spent two years in South America studying classical guitar in Buenos Aires, Argentina with Miguel Ferrer. He played in the subway system with folk musicians and traveled throughout Chile learning and playing with assorted musicians and friends. After returning to the United States he earned an Associates Degree in Music at a community college in Florida and continued his education at the University of South Florida. During this time he played in bands that ranged from blues, rock, jazz and experimental music. He moved to New York in 2000 and started playing more jazz, electronic music, dub and reggae with different groups in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Long Island. Bass Guitar: Anthony T-Bone McEwan He bugged his mother until she bought him a Lero bass from the pawnshop. He began to hone his chops on the bass as well as several other instruments…When became old enough to play the club scene, T-Bone began to work regularly and built a strong reputation around the tri-state area. Toured with New Edition then I decided It's Time To Funk for a while until I started holding it down with Leon & The Peoples.. Key boards: Aya Coto Composing and performing her own musical works, Aya is very active in the New York City music scene, lending her talents on the piano and keyboards to a wide variety of musical projects. Originally from Tajimi, Japan, Aya’s passion for music started early in life. She started taking piano lessons at the age of three, she took classes in composition at age six, and between the ages of eight and ten she learned traditional Japanese drumming, modern drumming, and electric bass. Aya continued her study of classical music at a well respected music high school in Nagoya, Japan, and while there she performed numerous concerts as a solo pianist. In 1999, she moved to Tokyo to study Jazz theory at a professional music school. While in Tokyo, one of Aya’s teachers was Mrs. Hiroko Kokubu, a well known jazz pianist, composer, and arranger in Japan. In January 2001, Aya moved to the United States to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where she majored in Jazz composition and studied composition/arranging under Ken Pullig, Bob Pilkington, Scott Free and Jazz piano under Alex Elin. May of 2003, Aya moved to New York City to pursue her career as both a performance musician and a composer. Since then, she has been very active in the New York music scene, playing with a wide variety of musicians at various venues. Among her highlights, Aya has performed at Shea Stadium (Meet the Jumpers Orchestra), BAM Cafe (Erin and Her Cello), Joe’s Pub (Erin and Her Cello, Meta and the Cornerstones), Irving Plaza (Rev. John DeLore), Summer Stage in Central Park (Jo Black and Bolomba Stylee), Hard Rock Cafe (Savilian), Global Fest 2010 (Meta and the Cornerstones), Celebrate Brooklyn (Meta and Cornerstones), Winter Garden of World Financial Center (New York African Chorus Ensemble), and the Copacabana (Hot Lavender Swing). Aya composed the music for a Japanese company called ‘Lead.’ She also composed music for the independent film, “It’s All Good”, which played at several film festival acrros the United States. She worked as the musical director for various musicals, including “Let’s Be Frank,” “Chuck and Ginger: Thawed For Your Pleasure,” “Aguinaldo,” “Delilah Dix,” as well as for the “New York African Chorus Ensemble. She also played keyboard with the band Meta and the Cornerstones on their live performance on WNYC’s daily music program “Soundcheck with John Schaefer.” Lead/background vocals: Leslie Rochelle Leslie’s professional music career began in Detroit in 1997. During that time she performed for Carnival Cruise Lines, on the Fantasy Cruise ship traveling between Cape Canaveral, Florida and Nassau, Bahamas. By 2001 she was working with the Skillet Band playing the best of rock and roll hits and oldies at the Motor City and the MGM Grand Casinos in Detroit. She moved to New York in 2002 and became a featured singer with The Otis Funkmeyer Band performing throughout New York City. She’s been singing with Leon and the Peoples since 2005. The Metro Detroit native sites the array of incredible musicians from Motown Records along with Chaka Khan and Prince as her biggest influences. Her Rock and Soul background blends perfectly with reggae influences to contribute to the Reggae Soul vibe of Leon and the Peoples. Roadie/background vocals: Rohan "mixroh" Dyer From singing and playing in the church to attending arts highschool in Newark, NJ, Rohan formed J(urzy)-Stylz, a four part harmony group with three other class mates. J(urzy)-Stylz performed and appeared at numerous local talent shows and show cases. Rohan later attended IAR (institute of audio research) where he received a more in-deph look at music production. An up and coming producer, Rohan serves Leon and the peoples as their official roadie. The Ladies of The Peoples Alexis Layne & Meah Pace rockin their "Love Is A Beautiful Thing" T-shirts LIVE at the Red Rooster, Harlem, USA March 2015 The Channel Magazine Cover Story Leon graces the March 2015 cover of The Channel Magazine The Channel Magazine Cover story Catching Up with LEON of Leon & The Peoples Just click to read article THE PEOPLES Rock JazzAspen Fest BEAUTIFUL 3:04 What you gonna do 3:49 I'ld Look Good On You 3:27 Love Is A Beautiful Thing Reggae Remix 3:28 Working Man 4:10	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4498
__label__wiki	0.605112	0.605112	Favorite Episodes of “A NERO WOLFE MYSTERY” (2000-2002) Posted on March 18, 2018 by ladylavinia1932 Below is a list of my favorite episodes from the A&E series, “A NERO WOLFE MYSTERY”. Based upon the detective stories and novels written by Rex Stout, the series starred Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin as Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe: 1. (1.02) “Champagne For One” – In this adaptation of Stout’s 1958 novel, detective Nero Wolfe investigates the death of a young unwed mother at a charity dance attended by his assistant, Archie Goodwin. The latter had been standing in for an acquaintance, who was related to the wealthy hostess. 2. (2.08) “Before I Die” – A notorious gangster hires Wolfe to protect his real daughter, who is unaware of her father’s identity, and stop the woman impersonating her from blackmailing him in this adaptation of Stout’s 1947 novella. 3. (2.05) “The Mother Hunt” – In this adaptation of Stout’s 1963 novel, a wealthy young widow hires Wolfe and Archie to identify and locate the birth mother of the baby left in the vestibule of her townhouse. 4. (1.08) “Over My Dead Body” – A Montenegro woman claiming to know Wolfe’s adopted daughter is suspected of theft and murder at a prestigious fencing club in this adaptation of Stout’s 1940 novel. 5. (2.09) “Help Wanted, Male” – In this adaptation of Stout’s 1945 novella, Wolfe receives a death threat regarding a past case and hires a look-a-like double to temporarily impersonate him until he can identify the perpetrator. Honorable Mentioned: (2.06) “Poison à la Carte” – When Wolfe and Archie attend the annual Ten for Aristology, a gourmet society, one of the members is poisoned. Wolfe suspects one of the female servers of the crime. Filed under: Art and Fashion, Book Review, History, Television \| Tagged: alex poch-goldin, bill smitrovich, boyd banks, carrie fisher, colin fox, conrad dunn, debra monk, early 20th century, food, francie swift, fulvio cecere, griffin dunne, history, james tolkan, kari machett, larry drake, literary, marian seldes, maury chaykin, mid 20th century, nero wolfe, penelope ann miller, politics, r.d. reid, ron rifkin, saul rubinek, television, timothy hutton, world war 2 \| Leave a comment » Below is a list of my favorite movies set in the decade of the 1950s: 1. L.A. Confidential (1997) – Curtis Hanson directed this outstanding adaptation of James Ellroy’s 1990 novel about three Los Angeles police detectives drawn into a case involving a diner massacre. Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pierce and Oscar winner Kim Basinger starred. 2. “Grease” (1978) – John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John starred in this entertaining adaptation of the 1971 Broadway musical about a pair of teenage star-crossed lovers in the 1950s. Randal Kleiser directed. 3. “The Godfather, Part II” (1974) – Francis Ford Coppola directed his Oscar winning sequel to the 1972 Oscar winning adaptation of Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel. Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall and Oscar winner Robert De Niro starred. 4. “Quiz Show” (1994) – Robert Redford directed this intriguing adaptation of Richard Goodwin’s 1968 memoir, “Remembering America: A Voice From the Sixties”, about the game show scandals of the late 1950s. Ralph Fiennes, Rob Morrow and John Tuturro starred. 5. “The Mirror Crack’d (1980) – Angela Landsbury starred as Miss Jane Marple in this adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1962 novel. Directed by Guy Hamilton, the movie also starred Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and Edward Fox. 6. “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls” (2008) – Harrison Ford returned for the fourth time as Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones in this adventurous tale in which he is drawn into the search for artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls. Directed by Steven Spielberg, the movie was produced by him and George Lucas. 7. “Champagne For One: A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001)” – Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin starred as Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe in this television adaptation of Rex Stout’s 1958 novel. The two-part movie was part of A&E Channel’s “A NERO WOLFE MYSTERY” series. 8. “Hollywoodland” (2006) – Adrien Brody, Diane Lane and Ben Affleck starred in this intriguing tale about a private detective’s investigation into the life and death of actor George Reeves. Allen Coulter directed. 9. “My Week With Marilyn” (2011) – Oscar nominee Michelle Williams starred as Marilyn Monroe in this adaptation of Colin Clark’s two books about his brief relationship with the actress. Directed by Simon Curtis, the movie co-starred Oscar nominee Kenneth Branagh and Eddie Redmayne as Clark. 10. “Boycott” (2001) – Jeffrey Wright starred as Dr. Martin Luther King in this television adaptation of Stewart Burns’ book,“Daybreak of Freedom”, about the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott. Directed by Clark Johnson, the movie co-starred Terrence Howard and C.C.H. Pounder. Honorable Mention: “Mulholland Falls” (1996) – Nick Nolte starred in this entertaining noir drama about a married Los Angeles Police detective investigating the murder of a high-priced prostitute, with whom he had an affair. The movie was directed by Lee Tamahori. Filed under: Book Review, History, Movies, Television \| Tagged: adrien brody, agatha christie, al pacino, alan dale, alex poch-goldin, angela landsbury, ben affleck, bob hoskins, boyd banks, cate blanchett, christopher macdonald, cold war, conrad dunn, diane keaton, diane lane, dominic cooper, eddie redmayne, edward fox, elizabeth taylor, elizabeth wilson, emma watson, george lucas, geraldine chaplin, guy pearce, harrison ford, history, indiana jones, james cromwell, james tolkan, jeff conway, jeffrey demunn, jeffrey wright, jennifer connelly, jim broadbent, john hurt, john malkovich, john travolta, john tuturro, julia ormond, karen allen, kari machett, kathleen beller, kenneth branaugh, kevin spacey, kim novak, kyle chandler, literary, margaret courtenay, marian seldes, martin scorsese, maury chaykin, melanie griffith, michael masden, michelle williams, mira sorvino, movies, music, nero wolfe, nick nolte, old hollywood, paul scofield, pierce brosnan, politics, ralph fiennes, robert deniro, robert duvall, robert redford, rock hudson, russell crowe, shia labeouf, spanish empire, talia shire, television, terrence howard, timothy hutton, tomas arana, tony curtis, treat williams, wendy morgan \| 2 Comments » “CINDERELLA MAN” (2005) Review Posted on June 17, 2011 by ladylavinia1932 When I had first learned about Ron Howard’s biopic about boxing champion James J. Braddock, I was very reluctant to see the film. In fact, I did not even bother to go see it. Instead, I merely dismissed “CINDERELLA MAN” as a ‘“SEABISCUIT” in the boxing ring’. After I finally saw the movie, I must admit that my original assessment stood. “CINDERELLA MAN” and the 2003 Oscar nominated film, “SEABISCUIT” seemed to have a lot in common. Both were released by Universal Pictures. Both films possessed a running time that lasted over two hours, both were sentimental stories that centered around a famous sports figure and both were set during the Great Depression. Unlike “SEABISCUIT”, “CINDERELLA MAN” told the story about a man – namely one James J. Braddock, an Irish-American boxer from New York and Bergen, New Jersey. The movie started out with Braddock (portrayed by Russell Crowe) as a boxing heavyweight contender in 1928, who had just won an important bout against another boxer named Tuffy Griffiths. But within five years, Braddock found himself as a has-been struggling to keep his family alive during the depths of the Depression, while working as longshoreman. Thanks to a last minute cancellation by another boxer, Braddock gets a second chance to fight but is put up against the number two contender in the world, Corn Griffin, by the promoters who see Braddock as nothing more than a punching bag. Braddock stuns the boxing experts and fans with a third round knockout of the formidable Griffin. After winning a few more bouts, Braddock ends facing boxing champ, Max Baer (Craig Bierko), for the heavyweight title in 1935. Despite the similarities between “CINDERELLA MAN” and “SEABISCUIT”, I must admit that I regret not seeing this film in the theaters. It turned out to be a lot better than I had expected. Director Ron Howard, along with screenwriters Cliff Hollingsworth and Akiva Goldsman, did an excellent job of chronicling Braddock’s boxing career at a time when he had been labeled a has-been by the sports media. The movie also featured some excellent fight sequences that came alive due to Howard’s direction, Crowe, Bierko, and the other actors who portrayed Braddock’s opponents. Although the movie’s main event was the championship fight between Braddock and Baer during the last thirty minutes, I was especially impressed by the sequence that featured Braddock’s fight against Art Lansky (Mark Simmons). In my opinion, most of the praise for these fight sequences belonged to cinematographer Salvatore Totino, and editors Daniel P. Hanley and Mike Hill (who both received Academy Award nominations for their work) for injecting the boxing sequences with rich atmosphere and effective editing. Ironically, the movie’s centerpiece – at least in my opinion – was its deception of the Depression. I understand that Howard had used the city of Toronto to serve as 1930s Manhattan and New Jersey. And judging from the results on the screen, he did an excellent job of utilizing not only the cast led by Crowe, but also the talents of production designer Wynn Thomas, Gordon Sim’s set decorations, Peter Grundy and Dan Yarhi’s art direction and Totino’s photography to send moviegoers back in time. There are certain scenes that really seemed to recapture the desperation and poverty of the Depression’s early years: Braddock begs for money from the sports promoters and boxing managers at Madison Square Garden Mae Braddock’s discovery of the gas man turning off the family’s heat The Braddocks witness the desertion of a man from his wife and family Braddock’s search for his friend, Mike Wilson (Paddy Considine), at a Hooverville in Central Park Howard and casting agents, Janet Hirshenson and Jane Jenkins, managed to gather an impressive group of cast members for the movie. The ironic thing is that despite the impressive display of talent on screen, hardly anyone gave what I would consider to be a memorable performance – save for one actor. Russell Crowe naturally gave an impressive, yet surprisingly likeable performance as James Braddock. Although I found his performance more than competent, I must say that I would not consider it to be one of his best roles. There was nothing really fascinating or complex about his Braddock. I suspect that screenwriters Hollingsworth and Goldsman could have made Braddock a more interesting character . . . and simply failed to rise to the occasion. I have to say the same about their portrayal of the boxer’s wife, Mae Braddock. Portrayed by Renee Zellweger, her Mae was a loving and supporting spouse, whose only kink in her personality revolved around her dislike of Braddock’s boxing. In fact, Zellweger’s Mae threatened to become a cliché of the countless number of women who end up as wives of men in dangerous professions. Thankfully, Zellweger managed to give an excellent performance and with Crowe, create a strong screen chemistry. Paul Giamatti received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Braddock’s manager, Joe Gould. Many had assumed that Giamatti had received his nomination as a consolation prize for being passed over for his superb performance in “SIDEWAYS”. After seeing his performance as Gould, I suspect they might be right. I am not saying that Giamatti gave a bad performance. He was excellent as Braddock’s enthusiastic and supportive manager. But there was nothing remarkable about it . . . or worthy of an Oscar nomination. If there is one performance that I found impressive, it was Paddy Considine’s portrayal of Mike Wilson, Braddock’s friend and co-worker at the New York docks. Considine’s Wilson was a former stockbroker ruined by the 1929 Crash, who was forced to become a menial laborer in order to survive. Although his plight seemed bad enough to generate sympathy, Considine did an excellent job of portraying the character’s bitterness and cynicism toward his situation, President Roosevelt’s ability to lead the country out of the Depression and the world itself. I hate to say this, but I feel that the wrong actor had received the Oscar nomination. God knows I am a big fan of Giamatti. But if it had been left up to me, Considine would have received that nomination. We finally come to Craig Bierko’s performance as Max Baer, champion boxer and Braddock’s final opponent in the movie. Baer’s character first makes his appearance in a championship fight against Primo Carnera, following Braddock’s surprising upset over Corn Griffin. From the start, he is portrayed as a brash and aggressive fighter who does not know when to quit. And it gets worse. Before I continue, I want to say that I have nothing against the actor who portrayed Baer. Like Crowe, Zellweger and Giamatti, Bierko had to do the best he could with the material given to him. And he did the best he could. Bierko, being an above-average actor, infused a great deal of energy and charisma into his portrayal of Baer. It seemed a shame that Howard’s direction, along with Hollingsworth and Goldman’s script forced Bierko to portray Baer as some kind of callous thug who felt no remorse for killing two other fighters in the ring and was not above needling Braddock at a Manhattan nightclub by making suggestive remarks about Mae. Baer’s son, Max Baer Jr. (“THE BEVERLY HILLIBILLIES”) had been naturally outraged by what he deemed was the movie’s false portrayal of the boxer. What the movie failed to convey was that Baer had only killed one man in the ring – Frankie Campbell – and had been so shaken up by the other man’s death that it affected his boxing career for several years. Nor did Baer ever make any suggestive remarks toward Mae Braddock. He also hugged and congratulated Braddock following the latter’s June 1935 victory. I really do not know why Howard thought it was necessary to turn Baer into a one-note villain. Someone claimed that the movie needed a nemesis for Braddock that seemed more solid than the vague notion of the Depression. If that is true, I believe that Howard and the movie’s screenwriters turned Baer into a villain for nothing. As far as I am concerned, the Great Depression made an effective and frightening nemesis for Braddock. This was brilliantly conveyed in Braddock’s bout with Art Lasky. At one point in this sequence, the New Jersey boxer seemed to be on the verge of defeat . . . until his memories of his family and how the Depression had affected them . . . urged him to a hard-won victory. Sequences like the Braddock-Lasky fight and Braddock’s search for Mike Wilson in the Central Park Hooverville made the Great Depression a more effective nemesis than the one-dimensionally crude behavior of falsely portrayed Max Baer ever could. Despite the movie’s badly written portrayal of Baer, and slightly uninteresting major characters like James and Mae Braddock, and Joe Gould; “CINDERELLA MAN” is still an excellent biopic that featured exciting boxing sequences. More importantly, it is one of the few Hollywood films that revealed an in-depth look into one of the country’s most traumatic periods – namely the Great Depression. Flawed or not, I believe that it is still worth watching. Filed under: History, Movies \| Tagged: boyd banks, bruce mcgill, craig bierko, early 20th century, great depression, history, movies, nicholas campbell, paddy considine, paul giamatti, renee zellweger, ron canada, ron howard, rosemarie dewitt, russell crowe, sports \| 1 Comment »	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4500
__label__wiki	0.656234	0.656234	“POLDARK” Series One (1975): Episodes Five to Eight Last winter, I began watching the BBC’s 1975-77 adaptation of Winston Graham’s literary series about the life of a British Army officer and American Revolutionary War veteran, following his return to his home in Cornwall. The first four episodes proved to be adaptation of the first novel in Graham’s series, 1945’s “Ross Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall, 1783-1787”. Episodes Five to Eight focused on the series’ second novel, 1946’s “Demelza: A Novel of Cornwall, 1788-1790”. Episode Four ended with Ross Poldark, a Cornish landowner and mine owner, discovering that his young kitchen maid, the 17 year-old Demelza Carne, is pregnant with his child. Abandoning his plan to reunite with his former fiancée, Elizabeth Chynoweth Poldark, who had married his cousin Francis Polark; Ross decides to marry Demelza and take responsibility for their unborn child. Episode Five opened up six to seven months later with the birth of their daughter, Julia Poldark. Ross and Demelza decide to hold two christenings – one for his upper-crust family and neighbors and one for her working-class family. Unfortunately, fate upsets their plans when Demelza’s family crash the first christening. Episode Five also featured the introduction of new characters – a young doctor named Dwight Enys, who quickly befriends Ross; Keren Daniels, a young traveling actress who married a local miner named Mark Daniels; and George Warleggan, the scion of the Warleggan family, who became Ross’ archenemy. The four episodes that formed the adaptation of “Demelza: A Novel of Cornwall” pretty much focused on the first two years of Ross’ marriage to Demelza. Their relationship seemed to thrive, despite the unromantic reasons why they got married in the first place. It was nice to see Ross and Demelza quickly settled into becoming an established couple. This was especially apparent in first christening for Ross and Demelza’s newborn, Julia, attended by Ross’ family and upper-class neighbors. However, this sequence also revealed that Ross and Demelza still had a long way to go, when Demelza’s religious and fanatical father and stepmother crashed the first christening. I enjoyed the sequence very much, even if it ended on an irritating note – namely Demelza and Mr. Carne’s shouting match that played merry hell on my ears. Although there were times when their relationship threatened to seem a bit too ideal, I have no other problems with it. From a narrative point of view, the only hitch in Ross and Demelza’s relationship – so far – proved to be Demelza’s determination to help her cousin-in-law Verity Poldark’s renew the latter’s disastrous relationship with a Captain Andrew Blamey . . . behind Ross’ back. Following Blamey and Francis’ disastrous encounter in the second (or third) episode, Ross made it clear that he had no intention of helping Verity and Blamey’s romantic situation. Demelza, being young, romantic and naive; decided to intervene and help them continue their courtship. Her efforts were almost sidetracked when Francis and Elizabeth’s son, Geoffrey Charles, was stricken with Putrid Throat. Ross’ new friend, Dr. Enys, had recruited Verity to nurse Geoffrey Charles, believing that Elizabeth was incapable of serving as her son’s nurse. I must be honest . . . I found this plot line a bit contrived. One, it seemed like a theatrical way to inject tension into Verity’s romance with Captain Blamey and their plans to elope. And two, Elizabeth has never struck me as the type of woman incapable of nursing her own son, let alone anyone else. Nevertheless, Demelza’s efforts proved to be successful in the end when Verity and Captain Blamey finally eloped in Episode Seven. Verity and Captain Blamey’s elopement also produced an ugly reaction from her brother Francis, who had been against their relationship from the beginning. That ugly reaction formed into an emotional rant against his sister that not only spoiled his wife Elizabeth and son Geoffrey Charles’ Christmas meal, but concluded with him succumbing to Putrid Throat. I will say this about Francis Poldark . . . his presence in Episodes Five to Eight proved to be a lot stronger than it was in the first four episodes. Viewers learned in the conclusion of Episode Six that he had betrayed the shareholder names of Ross’ new Carnmore Copper Company, an smelting organization formed to break the Warleggans’ monopoly on the mining industry in that part of Cornwall. I am a little confused by why so many claim that Clive Francis had portrayed the character as less of a loser than Kyle Soller did in 2015. For example, in an article posted on the Ellen and Jim Have a Blog, Two, the writer made this description of Francis in Episode Eight of the 1975 series – “I’ve come to realize that Francis is made considerably more appealing by Wheeler’s script: Graham’s Francis is witty, but his open self-berating and guilt are from Wheeler; also his generosity of spirit now and again.”. That was not the Francis Poldark I saw in Episode Eight. Come to think of it, that was NOT the Francis I saw between Episodes Three and Eight. Well . . . I do recall Francis engaging in self-pitying behavior. I also recall Francis being half-hearted in his attempt to reconcile with Elizabeth, his occasionally self-defensive attitude and anger at Verity for eloping. The only sign of wit I can recall was Francis’ clumsy and slightly insulting reaction at the Warleggan ball to news of prostitute Margaret’s recent wedding. And although I enjoyed Clive Francis’ performance, there were moments when he was guilty of some really histrionic acting – especially in Episode Eight, when his character went into a rant against Verity’s elopement during his family’s Christmas dinner. Either these fans and critics had failed to notice how much of a loser Francis Poldark was in the 1975 series, they remembered the actor’s performance in the episodes that followed Episode Eight, or they were blinded by nostalgia for the 1975 series. Clive Francis’ portrayal of the character struck me as much of a loser as Soller’s portrayal. The renewal of Verity and Captain Blamey’s romance was not the only relationship shrouded in secrecy. As I had earlier pointed a traveling actress named Keren had abandoned her tawdry profession life to remain in the area and marry local miner, Mark Daniels, after meeting him at the second christening for the newborn Julia Poldark. I admire how the production went out of its way to portray Keren’s growing disenchantment with life as a miner’s wife and her marriage to Mark. In doing so, screenwriter Mark Wheeler allowed audiences to sympathize with Keren’s emotions and understand what led her to pursue an extramarital affair with the neighborhood’s new physician, the quiet and charming Dr. Dwight Enys. Although this sequence featured solid performances from Richard Morant and Martin Fisk as Dwight Enys and Mark Daniels; the one performance that really impressed me came from Sheila White, who portrayed the unfortunate Keren Daniels. However, I was not particular thrilled by how the affair ended. Mark Daniels deliberately murdered Keren, when he discovered the affair. What really riled me was that both Ross and Demelza went out of their way to help Mark evade justice. Their actions seemed to justify and approve of Mark’s violent action against his wife. The entire scenario smacked of another example of misogyny in this saga. Episode Six of “POLDARK” not only introduced the character of George Warleggan, it also featured one of my favorite segments in the series, so far – the Warleggan ball. I thought Wheeler and Paul Annett did a solid job in this particular sequence. It was not perfect, but it proved to be an elegant affair, capped by a tense situation when Ross engaged in a gambling showdown with the Warleggans’ cousin Matthew Sanson, before exposing the latter as a cheat. One aspect of the ball sequence that really impressed me were the costumes and the music provided by Kenyon Emrys-Roberts, which helped maintained the sequence’s atmosphere. I also enjoyed both Robin Ellis and Milton Johns’ performances as Ross Poldark and Matthew Sanson in the card game sequence. Both actors did a very good job of injecting more tension in what was already a high-wired situation. By the way, both actors, along with Clive Francis, had appeared in the 1971 adaptation of “SENSE AND SENSIBILITY”. There were other moments and sequences that I enjoyed. Aside from the Warleggan ball, I was very impressed by two other scenes. One featured Demelza’s attempt to play matchmaker for Verity and Captain Blamey in Truro. Well, the sequence began with Demelza playing matchmaker before all three became swept into a food riot that led to a violent brawl between some very hungry townsmen and local military troops trying to prevent the men from breaking into Matthew Sanson’s grain storehouse. I found the entire scene rather well shot by director Paul Annett. I was also impressed by Annett’s work in Episode Seven that featured Ross’ attempt to help Mark Daniels evade arrest for Keren’s murder. I may not approved of what happened, but I was impressed by Annett’s direction. But I feel that the director did his best work in Episode Eight, which featured the wreck of the Warleggans’ ship on Poldark land. It began on a high note when the Paynters and other locals began pillaging the ship’s cargo for much needed food, clothing and other materials. But it really got interesting when a riot broke out between the Poldark workers, miners from a nearby estate and the local troops who tried to stop them. Again, Annett really did a first-rate job in making the sequence very exciting, despite the fact that it was shot in the dark. I noticed that Paul Wheeler, who wrote the transcripts for these four episodes and Episode Eleven, made several changes from Graham’s novel. To be honest, I can only recall one major change that did not bother me one whit. In Episode Seven, young Geoffrey Charles Poldark was stricken with Putrid’s Throat before Verity had the chance to elope with Captain Blamey. Once Verity and Elizabeth helped the boy recover, she finally took the opportunity to elope. Yes, I am aware that Verity had eloped before the Putrid fever outbreak, but I see that Wheeler was trying to create a little tension for her situation. When Francis was struck with Putrid’s Throat on Christmas, Demelza arrived at Trenwith to help Elizabeth nurse him. The two women engaged in a warm and honest conversation that showcased both Jill Townsend and Angharad Rees as talented actresses they were. However, this conversation never occurred in the novel. In fact, the literary Elizabeth Poldark also came down with Putrid’s Throat. But this change did not bother me, due to the excellent scene between Townsend and Rees. Unfortunately, I had problems with some of Wheeler’s other changes. One change originated back in Episode Four with the “Demelza gets knocked up” storyline that led to hers and Ross’ shotgun wedding. I had assumed that the Trenwith Christmas party sequence, which followed Ross and Demelza’s wedding, would appear in Episode Five. After all, it was one of my favorite sequences from the 1945 novel. But the sequence never appeared – not in Episode Four or Episode Five. Instead, the latter opened with Julia Poldark’s birth and the christening. And I felt very disappointed. Another change involved Ross’ former employee, Jim Carter. Back in Episode Three, Jim was tried and convicted for poaching on another landowner’s estate. In Episode Six, Ross received word that Jim was severely ill inside Bodmin Jail. With Dwight Enys’ help, the pair break the younger man out. But instead of dying during Dwight’s attempt to amputate an infected limb, Jim survived . . . until Episode Seven. This change allowed Ross to indulge in a speech on the inequities suffered by the poor and working-class in British. Personally, I had difficulty feeling sympathetic, considering that he had fired Jud and Prudie Paynter, earlier in the episode. Mind you, Jud had deserved to be fired for his drunken behavior and insults to Demelza. But Prudie did not. She tried to stop Jud and ended up fired by Ross (who found her guilty by matrimony to the perpetrator). And I ended up regarding Ross as nothing more than a first-rate hypocrite. Because Jim Cater had survived Episode Six, Ross did not attend the Warleggan ball angry and in a drunken state. Instead, he remained a perfect and sober gentleman throughout the sequence. Which was a pity . . . at least for me. Perhaps Wheeler had decided that Prudie’s fate was sufficient enough to expose Ross’ less pleasant side of his personality, I did not. The card game between Ross and Sanson provided some tension during the ball sequence, thanks to the skillful performances of Robin Ellis, Milton Johns and Ralph Bates. But it was not enough for me. I thought a good deal of the sequence’s drama was deleted due to “our hero” not having an excuse to get drunk and surly. I suspect that Wheeler, along with producers Morris Barry and Anthony Coburn, wanted to – once again – maintain Ross’ heroic image. The Warleggan ball also featured another change. At the end of Episode Six, George Warleggan revealed to his father, Nicholas, that he knew the names of Ross’ Carnmore Copper Company. The revelation left me feeling flabbergasted. In the novel, Francis had not exposed the shareholders’ names to George until after Verity and Blamey’s elopement. He had believed Ross was responsible for arranging it and betrayed the latter in retaliation. Since Francis had obviously betrayed Ross before Episode Six’s final scene in the 1975 series, I found myself wondering why he had betrayed his cousin’s company in the first place. Why did he do it? Someone had hinted that Francis felt jealous over Elizabeth’s feelings for Ross. Yet, the relationship between those two had been particularly frosty since the revelation of Demelza’s pregnancy back in Episode Four. If Francis had been experiencing jealousy, what happened before the end of Episode Six that led him to finally betray Ross and the Carnmore Copper Company shareholders? It could not have been for money. Although George Warleggan had paid back the money that his cousin had cheated from Francis and the other gamblers at the ball, he did not dismiss Francis’ debt to the Warleggan Bank. If only Wheeler had followed Graham’s novel and allowed Francis to betray Ross following Verity’s elopement. This would have made more sense. Instead, the screenwriter never really made clear the reason behind the betrayal. Rather sloppy, if you ask me. Overall, Episodes Five to Eight of “POLDARK” struck me as an interesting and very entertaining set of episodes. This is not surprising, considering that they were basically an adaptation of “Demelza – A Novel of Cornwall, 1788-1790”. Director Paul Annett and Paul Wheeler did a very solid job in adapting Graham’s novel. Yes, I had some quibbles with Wheeler’s screenplay – especially his handling of the Francis Polark character. But overall, I believe the two men, along with the cast led by Robin Ellis and Angharad Rees did an first-rate job. On to Episode Nine and the adaptation of the next novel in Graham’s series. Filed under: Book Review, Essay, History, Television \| Tagged: angharad rees, british empire, christopher benjamin, clive francis, donald douglas, forbes collins, georgian era, gillian bailey, history, jill townsend, jonathan newth, literary, martin fisk, mary wimbush, nicholas selby, norma streader, paul curran, poldark, ralph bates, richard morant, robin ellis, sheila white, stuart doughty, television, winston graham \| Leave a comment » “POLDARK” Series One (1975): Episodes One to Four A few years ago, I had tried a stab at the first episode of the 1975-1977 series, “POLDARK”, which starred Robin Ellis. After viewing ten minutes of theatrical acting and dated photography in Episode One on You Tube, I gave up. Last summer, I read all of the hullaballoo surrounding this new adaptation with Aidan Turner in the lead. Utilizing Netflix, I tried my luck again with the 1975 series and ended up enjoying the first four episodes (I have yet to watch any further episodes) and quite enjoyed it. I enjoyed both versions so much that I took the trouble to purchase both the entire 1975-77 series and the 2015 series. In fact, I have decided to watch both versions simultaneously. But I am here to discuss the first four episodes of the 1975 series. Series One of “POLDARK”, which aired in 1975, is based upon Winston Graham’s first four novels in the saga – 1945’s “Ross Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall, 1783-1787”, “Demelza: A Novel of Cornwall, 1788-1790” (1946), 1950’s “Jeremy Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall, 1790-1791 and 1953’s “Warleggan (Poldark). Episodes One to Four seemed to be an adaptation of the first novel. The series begins with a young Ross Poldark returning home to Cornwall following military service with the British Army during the American Revolution. Ross spent the last year or two as a prisoner-of-war, unaware that he had been declared dead. He learns from a fellow coach passenger and later, his father’s solicitor that Joshua Poldark had died financially broke. More bad news follow with Ross’ discovery that his Uncle Charles Poldark had promised to sell his estate Nampara to the banking family, the Warleggans. And lady love, Elizabeth Chynoweth, had become engaged to Charles’ son, his cousin Francis, after receiving news of his “death”. The only possessions Ross has left are his father’s estate, Nampara, which is now in ruins, two mines that had been closed for some time and two servants – the drunken Jud and Prudie Paynter – to help him work the estate. Even worse, the Warleggans, who have risen from being blacksmiths to bankers, seemed to be gaining financial control over the neighborhood. In Episode Two, Ross rescues a miner’s daughter named Demelza Carne from a mob trying to use her dog Garrick as part of a vicious dogfight at a local fair. Taking pity on her, he decides to hire her as his new kitchen maid. When I finally began to embark upon this series, I had no idea of its reputation as one of Britain’s most beloved period dramas. I discovered that “POLDARK” was regarded just as highly in the 1970s, as “DOWNTON ABBEY” had become some thirty-five to forty years later. Mind you, I regard Julian Fellowes’ series as the inferior series. My viewing of the first four episodes of this series made me finally appreciate why it was so highly regarded. It really is first-rate production. However . . . it had its problems. What movie or television production does not? When it comes to an accurate adaptation of any novel or play, I tend to harbor ambiguous views on the matter. It depends upon how well it serves the story on screen or if it makes sense. Anyone familiar with Graham’s novels know that the 1975 adaptation is not accurate. I had no problems with the production starting with Ross’ stage journey to his home in Cornwall, considering that the novel started with a meeting between Ross’ dying father and his Uncle Charles. I had no problems with Elizabeth’s final reason for marrying Francis – to ensure that Charles Poldark would pay off her father’s debts. This little scenario even included an interesting scene in which Ross had volunteered to use his loan for Wheal Leisure to pay off Mr. Chynoweth’s debts in order to gain Elizabeth’s hand in marriage. Fortunately, she stopped him from committing such a stupid act. But I had a problem with one major change and a few minor ones. My biggest problem with these first four episodes of “POLDARK” centered on the circumstances that led Ross to marry his kitchen maid, Demelza Carne. Apparently, the series’ producers and screenwriter Jack Pulman must have found Graham’s portrayal of this situation hard to swallow and decided to change the circumstances leading to Ross and Demelza’s marriage. In this version, Ross became drunk following his failure to prevent his former farmhand Jim Carter from being sentenced to prison for poaching. Demelza, who had been harboring a yen for Ross, decided to comfort him with sex. The following morning, Ross decided it would be better if Demelza no longer work at Nampara, so that he would not be tempted to have sex with her again. And what happened? Demelza eventually went to live with her father Tom Carne, now a religious zealot, and his new wife. She also discovered that she was pregnant. To make matter worse, Ross managed to convince his former love, Elizabeth Poldark, to leave his adulterous cousin Francis and live with him. One, I found it very implausible that a man of Ross’ station and time would marry his kitchen maid. He might sleep with her . . . yes. But marry her? A “responsible” man like Ross would have settled money upon Demelza, find a man of her class willing to accept her as a wife and the baby as his . . . or both. He would not marry her. As for Elizabeth’s willingness to leave Francis for Ross . . . I really found this implausible. Elizabeth is too pragmatic to be willing to sacrifice her respectability to leave her husband for another man. Nor would she be willing to risk losing her son Geoffrey Charles, for Francis would have never allowed her to see the boy again. The only way this whole situation could have worked is if Ross had been in love with Demelza at the time. If he had, he would have never suggested that Elizabeth leave Francis for him. There were other problems – minor problems – that I found in these first four episodes.h sex. The following morning, Ross decided it would be better if Demelza no longer work at Nampara, so that he would not be tempted to have sex with her again. And what happened? Demelza eventually went to live with her father Tom Carne, now a religious zealot, and his new wife. She also discovered that she was pregnant. To make matter worse, Ross managed to convince his former love, Elizabeth Poldark, to leave his adulterous cousin Francis and live with him. There were other problems – minor problems – that I found in these first four episodes. One episode featured Francis’ violent encounter with Verity’s wannabee suitor, Captain Blamey and the other, a fight between Ross and his future father-in-law, Tom Carne. And I thought Christopher Barry handled both scenes in a rather clumsy manner. Both situations seemed to be a case of“now you see it, now you don’t”. In Ross’ fight with Carne, the 17 year-old Demelza got into the melee (which did not happen in the novel), allowing her to spout some nonsense about women’s right in one of those “a woman’s travails” speeches that came off as . . . well, clumsy and contrived. It did not help that actress Angharad Rees seemed to be screeching at the top of her voice at the time. In fact, screeching seemed to be the hallmark of Rees’ early portrayal of the adolescent Demelza in an emotional state. Some fans have waxed lyrical over Clive Francis’ portrayal of Francis Poldark. So far, I have yet to see what the big deal was about. Other than three scenes, Francis spent these first four episodes portraying a cold and rather aloof Francis. I found it difficult to get emotionally invested in the character. Considering all of the problems I had with Episodes One-Four, one would wonder why I enjoyed “POLDARK”. The series may not be perfect, but it was damn entertaining. Some have compared the production to the 1939 film, “GONE WITH THE WIND”. But honestly, it reminds me of the television adaptation of John Jakes’ literary trilogy, “North and South”. Both the Seventies series and the “NORTH AND SOUTH” Trilogy between 1985 and 1994 share so many similarities. Both series featured their own set of flaws, entertaining melodrama, strong characterizations and a historical backdrop. In the case of “POLDARK”, the historical backdrop featured Great Britain – especially Cornwall – after the American Revolution, during the last two decades of the 18th century. It is a period of which I have never been familiar – especially in Britain. I never knew that Britain’s conflict with and the loss of the American colonies had such a negative impact upon the country’s economic state. I had heard of the United States and France’s economic struggles during this period, but I never knew about Britain’s struggles. I also recently learned about the impact of the fallen tin and copper prices on Cornwall, during the 1770s and especially the 1780s. This economic struggle contributed to the slow decline of the aristocracy and the landed gentry for Cornish families like the Poldarks and the Chynoweths. I thought this economic depression was well-handled by the production team. Not once did the producers, Barry or Pulman rush through Ross’ struggles to establish a new fortune. They also took their time in conveying the struggles of nearly everyone else in the neighborhood – the other members of the Poldark family, the Cynoweths, and especially the working-class. This struggle of the working-class manifested not only Demelza’s story arc, but also that of Jim and Jinny Carter in the first three episodes. This struggled boiled down to a heartbreaking moment in which Jim was caught poaching on a local estate and sentenced to prison – despite Ross’ futile efforts to help him. I noticed that although the Warleggan family loomed menacingly in the background, only one member had made at least two appearances in these first four episodes – Nicholas Warleggan. The most famous member of the family – George Warleggan – had yet to make an appearance. And despite my complaints about the situation that led to Ross and Demelza’s marriage, I must admit that the emotional journey of Ross and the other leading characters managed to grab my attention. Being familiar with Graham’s novel, I am well aware that Ross’ return, Elizabeth’s decision to marry Francis, Ross’ meeting with Demelza, the marital fallout between Elizabeth and Francis and Ross’ inability to get over losing Elizabeth will have consequences down the road. I have to admit that “POLDARK” did a pretty damn good job in setting up the entire saga . . . despite a few hiccups. I found it interesting that Episode One solely featured Ross’ return and his emotional reaction to Elizabeth’s decision to marry Francis. He did not even meet Demelza until Episode Two. These first four episodes also set up a conflict between Demelza and Elizabeth. I have mixed feelings about this. Personally, I rather liked how Debbie Horsfield managed to set up a quasi-friendship between the two women in the new adaptation. But since Demelza and Elizabeth were probably doomed not to be friends, I see that screenwriter Jack Pulman decided to immediately go for the jugular and set up hostilities between the pair. In Episode Three, a jealous Demelza had maliciously blamed Elizabeth for Francis’ infidelity, even though she had yet to meet the pair. I found this even more ironic, considering the episode also featured a minor scene in which Elizabeth actually made an attempt to emotionally reach out to Francis. He rejected her due to an assignation with some prostitute. And the whole scenario regarding Ross’ suggestion that Elizabeth leave Francis and Demelza’s pregnancy boiled down to a long scene in which Ross informed Elizabeth of the situation and her angry reaction. Which included calling Demelza a whore. By the end of Episode Four, Pulman and Barry had firmly established hostility between the two women. Much has been said about the series’ exteriors shot in Cornwall. Yes, they looked beautiful, wild and almost exotic for Great Britain. Not even the faded photography can hide the beauty of the Cornish landscape. I also found John Bloomfield’s costume designs very attractive, but not exactly mind blowing. Also, a few of the costumes for actress Jill Townsend seemed a bit loose – especially in the first two episodes. As for the series’ score written by Kenyon Emrys-Roberts . . . not exactly memorable. I might as well come to the performances featured in Episodes One to Four. Overall, I found them pretty solid. Although I came away with the feeling that some of the cast members and director Christopher Barry thought “POLDARK” was a stage play. Yes, I found some of the performances a bit theatrical. And I have to include some of the main cast members. I have always liked the Charles Poldark character – not because he was likable. I simply found him rather colorful. And I thought actor Frank Middlemass did an excellent job in conveying this aspect of Mr. Poldark Senior. Jonathan Newth gave a solid, yet intense performance as the barely volatile Captain Blamey. Both Paul Curran and Mary Wimbush gave very colorful performances as Ross’ slothful servants, Jud and Prudie Paynter. And yet, some of that color threatened to become very theatrical. On the other hand, Stuart Doughty gave a solid and subtle performance as Ross’ former servant-turned-miner, Jim Carter. I could also say the same for Jillian Bailey, who portrayed Jim’s wife, Jinny. By the way, fans of the 1983 miniseries, “JANE EYRE” should be able to spot Zelah Clarke (a future Jane Eyre) in a small role as one of the stagecoach passengers in the opening scene of Episode One. There have been a great deal of praise for Angharad Rees’ portrayal of Demelza Carne, Ross’ kitchen maid and soon-to-be wife. And yes, I believe she earned that praise . . . at least in the second half of Episode Three and all of Episode Four. I found her performance very lively and when the scene demanded it, subtle. I thought she was outstanding in the scene that featured Demelza’s seduction of Ross. However, she was at least thirty or thirty-one when she portrayed Demelza in Series One. And her portrayal of a Demelza in early-to-mid adolescence struck me as loud and over-the-top. Thankfully, the screeching ceased in the second half of Episode Three. Clive Francis’ portrayal of Francis Poldark struck me as somewhat subdued or a bit on the cold side – except in two scenes. One of them featured Francis’ near death inside the Wheal Leisure mine, when he feared Ross would allow him to drown. Another featured his confrontation with Captain Blamey, the sea captain who became romantically interested in Francis’ sister Verity. In both cases, the actor came off as a bit theatrical. But I thought his performance in Episode Four, which featured Elizabeth’s announcement that she would leave Francis, seemed more controlled, yet properly emotional at the same time. If I have to give awards for the best two performances in these first four episodes, I would give them to Jill Townsend as Elizabeth Chynoweth Poldark and Norma Streader as Verity Poldark. It seemed to me they were the only two members of the cast who managed to avoid any theatrical acting in any of their scenes. Even when their characters were in an emotional state. One of Streader’s finest moments occurred in Season Two, when she expressed her feelings about Captain Blamey in a conversation with her cousin Ross. Despite expressing Verity’s emotions in a fervent manner, Streader still managed to maintain control of her performance. For me, Townsend’s finest moments occurred throughout Episode Four. From the moment Ross suggested that Elizabeth leave Francis for good, Townsend conveyed Elizabeth’s emotional journey throughout this episode – from surprise to hopeful to desperation, relief, happiness, disbelief, anger and finally bittersweet disappointment. I may not have approved the producers’ decision to include a scene featuring Demelza’s pregnancy and Elizabeth’s decision to leave Francis. But dammit, Townsend acted her ass off and gave the best performance from the entire cast during this particular sequence. One of her best scenes featured a one-on-one conversation with Streader’s Verity. I have seen actor Robin Ellis in other movie and television productions, including 1971’s “SENSE AND SENSIBILITY” and 1981’s“THE GOOD SOLDIER”. If I were to pick his best roles, I would choose two – the passive aggressive American John Dowell in “THE GOOD SOLDIER” and of course, Ross Poldark. The producers of the series selected the right actor to portray the volatile war veteran-turned-mine owner from Graham’s saga. He is Ross Poldark . . . of the 1970s that is. Granted, Ellis had his moments of theatrical acting. There were times during the first four episodes in which I had to turn down my television volume. But despite this, I thought he did an excellent job in capturing all aspects – both good and bad – of his character’s personality. Two scenes featuring his performance caught my attention. Ellis seemed a bit scary and intense when he expressed Ross’ reaction to being rejected by Elizabeth Chynoweth in Episode One. And I thought he gave a poignant performance in the scene that featured Demelza’s seduction of Ross. There you have it . . . my impression of the first four episodes from the 1975 series, “POLDARK”. So far, this adaptation of the first novel in Winston Graham’s literary series had its share of flaws. But I feel that its virtues overshadowed the former. In fact, I found myself so captivated by Episodes One to Four that I feel more than ready to continue this saga. Onward to Episode Five! Filed under: Book Review, Essay, History, Television \| Tagged: aidan turner, american revolution, angharad rees, british empire, clive francis, forbes collins, frank middlemass, georgian era, gillian bailey, gone with the wind, history, jill townsend, jonathan newth, literary, martin fisk, mary wimbush, nicholas selby, norma streader, north and south, paul curran, poldark, politics, robin ellis, stuart doughty, television, winston graham, zelah clarke \| Leave a comment »	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4501
__label__wiki	0.941219	0.941219	CityCenter Caesars touting tenants at Linq project This is an artist’s rendering of the High Roller and Linq project. By Ken Ritter, Associated Press Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012 \| 9:32 p.m. LAS VEGAS — A Brooklyn Bowl entertainment venue, a Yard House beer bar and an Asian-themed food and art marketplace are among anchor tenants coming to a master-planned complex being built at the base of a big new Las Vegas Strip observation wheel, Caesars Entertainment Corp. officials will announce Monday. Twelve tenants have claimed a little more than two-thirds of the space in LINQ, said Jon Gray, a Caesars vice president and project manager of LINQ. The pedestrian mall is named for its location linking three company properties — Harrah's Las Vegas, the Flamingo and the renamed Quad, formerly the Imperial Palace — across Las Vegas Boulevard from the flagship Caesars Palace. "It's located at the 50-yard line of the Las Vegas Strip," Gray told The Associated Press. "This is an easy project to sell because of the number of people coming through there. It's within walking distance of 24,000 hotel rooms." Gray pointed to company tallies putting the number of pedestrians passing the location in the millions every year, and to plans that call for it to lead like a Main Street or midway to the 550-foot-tall Ferris-style wheel, dubbed the High Roller. It is expected to open in late 2013. LINQ designers plan open-air walkable space with upscale storefronts, terraces and patios amid the three-story complex. "Nightclubs, bars, bowling alleys. This includes everything," Gray said. "They're going to program this 24 hours a day." The first Western U.S. site of a Brooklyn Bowl concert, nightclub, bar, bowling alley and restaurant venue will take up about 25 percent of the 300,000-square-foot development. Brooklyn Bowl is being designed with a 600-seat performance hall able to host crowds watching football on Sundays, DJ or hip-hop karaoke and nightly concerts. Gray said the Yard House restaurant aims to slake the thirsts of beer fans, while the Asian-themed F.A.M.E. — for food, art, music and entertainment — market will offer sushi, dim sum, noodle bowls and robata grill foods to patrons in lounge seating and street art from urban Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore and Seoul. Other tenants include Sprinkles, a Los Angeles-based cupcake and ice cream shop; Flower and Barley, a brick oven pizzeria; Koto, an oddities and gifts store with outlets in Miami and Aspen, Colo.; and Off the Strip, a bistro and bar. Company officials say as many as 3,000 construction workers could work to build the project. It is expected to employ 1,500 people once it is open.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4502
__label__wiki	0.802194	0.802194	Marriage Myth: We Have to Be Perfectly Matched to Be Happy By Richard and Linda Eyre Learn What You Can Do to Protect Religious Freedom By Official Church Newsroom · October 21, 2013 Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right that protects the conscience of all people. It allows us to think, express and act upon what we deeply believe. But around the world, and in the United States, this freedom is eroding. Churches, religious organizations and individuals face increasing restrictions as they participate in the public square, express their beliefs or serve in society. But there is much good that Church members and people of goodwill can do to preserve and strengthen religious freedom. What Religious Freedom Means Religious freedom is a fundamental human right and the first among rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution. It is the right to think, express and act upon what you deeply believe, according to the dictates of conscience. READ MORE Why We Need Religious Freedom Religious freedom, or freedom of conscience, is critical to the health of a diverse society. It allows different faiths and beliefs to flourish. Religious freedom protects the rights of all groups and individuals, including the most vulnerable, whether religious or not. READ MORE Why Religious Freedom Matters to Mormons Because of their teachings and history, Latter-day Saints have a special commitment to religious freedom. For nearly 200 years Mormon leaders have taught the importance of religious freedom for everyone: “We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.“ READ MORE How Religion Is Vital to Society Religion has a vital place in society. To exert its positive influence, religious organizations and people need physical, social and legal space to practice their religion. All lawful voices should be heard in the public square . Neither religious nor secular voices should be silenced. Religion is not just private worship; it involves public expression on social and moral issues. READ MORE What Religious Freedom Requires of Us Religious freedom is as much a duty as it is a right. Religious freedom and civility depend upon each other and form a mutual obligation founded on the inherent dignity of each person. Religious organizations and people are responsible to state their views reasonably and respectfully. READ MORE Learn about religious freedom – what it is, how it works and the issues that threaten it. Practice religious freedom – respect the religious beliefs of others and the beliefs and opinions of those with no religion. Be civil in your conversations and interactions, both face to face and on the Internet. Join with others to promote religious freedom – get involved in your community wherever you feel comfortable. Use the Internet and social media to help others learn about religious freedom.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4503
__label__wiki	0.679539	0.679539	Women in Engineering Day Case Study – Mars Petcare After completing a degree in mechanical engineering at Birmingham University, Sarah Sordy, plant manager at Mars Petcare’s site at Birstall, started her career at Mars Petcare on its two-year graduate engineering programme. She then moved onto a full-time project-engineering role at Mars’ wet pet food site at Melton Mowbray, where she was promoted through the engineering team, finally to chief engineer. In 2012, Sarah took the role of operations manager at Birstall, and in April 2016 became plant manager of the site, where she leads a team of 240 in the manufacture of world-renowned pet care and treat products including PEDIGREE Dentastix and PEDIGREE Schmakos. Sarah explained she has always had a passion for making things – big or small. At school, she had a keen interest in maths and science and enjoys the tangibility of working in the FMCG industry – looking after production lines, installing new ones and working as a team to get a product onto shelves: “We make over a million PEDIGREE Dentastix in a day and the fact that I can go into a supermarket and pick up something I know that my team and myself have made is a fantastic feeling. For me, job satisfaction is about seeing something tangible at the end of the day.” Sarah also explains that being a woman has never been an issue for her, thanks to supportive mentors who have inspired her from her school days until today: “I’ve got a lot to thank my chemistry teacher, Mrs Riley, for. She fostered links with RAF Cranwell and enabled me to go on a two-week work experience with the RAF engineering officers. I’ve been in my flight suit, walking around the hangars and got the opportunity to go in a Harrier jump jet. It was amazing and I’ve been hooked ever since. “I do remember a couple of years into my career looking around and realizing I was the only girl in the room. But things are changing. Having women in senior roles in manufacturing is less and less unusual. There really is no barrier today to a career in manufacturing and engineering as a woman. ” Engineering leaders seek new ways to boost the number of women in the sector This year International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) is “Transforming The Future” Inaugural Ford Prize for Women in STEM studies Inaugural National Women in Engineering Day on 23 June 2014	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4507
__label__wiki	0.684741	0.684741	CONTACT: Danna Stapleton Statewide Tour Planned to Engage with Students, Faculty, and Communities SACRAMENTO, CA – Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis announced today that she will begin a statewide tour beginning February 1st to visit all 23 California State Universities (CSU) and ten University of California (UC) campuses. Lt. Governor Kounalakis will meet with student organizations, faculty, educators and other community groups at each campus to hear first-hand the issues that our institutions continually face in building out capacity. The statewide tour will begin with visits to CSU San Marcos and San Diego State University (SDSU) in San Diego County and UC Berkeley in Alameda County. The tour will continue throughout the state, spanning from Humboldt to San Diego, during the following months. According to Lt. Governor Kounalakis, “This tour is an opportunity for the communities at each campus to provide input on the future of these institutions in shaping our future workforce.” Governor Newsom’s proposed 2019-20 budget lays the groundwork toward affordable and accessible public college education. This statewide tour will allow Lt. Governor Kounalakis to build on this foundation. “We have a new starting point, one of the largest proposed investments into higher education in recent history. Now is the time to engage and listen, and then begin the real work in building out capacity to make public higher education more accessible to California students.” said Lt. Governor Kounalakis. The start of Lt. Governor Kounalakis’ statewide tour is as follows: CSU San Marcos SDSU Visit the Lt. Governor’s website for future dates of the statewide listening tour of CSU and UC campuses. If you are a member of the Press, and would like to attend one of Lt. Governor’s stops, please contact the Press Office.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4511
__label__wiki	0.794751	0.794751	Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences \| Editors: Virgil Zeigler-Hill, Todd K. Shackelford Sex Differences in Personality Traits Tom Booth Aja Louise Murray DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1265-1 The history of research into sex differences in personality is long and at times controversial. In the introduction to a seminal text on sex differences in psychological traits, Maccoby and Jacklin (1974) set out a series of questions that remain the core questions in the area today: Do sex differences in personality exist? If so, how big are the effects? Are these effects of a magnitude that they could meaningfully affect life decisions and outcomes? Moreover, if they do exist, why do they exist? In this entry, we will consider the empirical evidence speaking to the existence, or not, of sex differences and consider how these findings relate to the varied theoretical positions that seek to explain sex differences or a lack thereof. The focus of this entry is primarily on differences in subclinical trait measurement. However, we provide brief discussion of the evidence for sex differences in psychopathological traits. Finally, we consider some of the methodological debates in the study of sex differences in personality, particularly with respect to the appropriate estimation of the magnitude of differences. Two key definitions are important with respect to the content of this entry. First, here we are discussing sex differences and differentiate sex from gender. By sex, we are referring to the biological designation to male or female. By gender, we take a much broader definition encapsulating the identification of an individual with a given gender that may have multiple biological, psychological, and sociological influences. This distinction is consistent with those adopted by organizations such as the World Health Organization, according to which sex refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women and gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. Second, this entry concerns differences in personality traits, where traits are defined in a classical sense as relatively stable and enduring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Thus, we are distinguishing traits from states, where states are defined as more momentary fluctuations in given social contexts. Theoretical Perspectives on Sex Differences The existence and importance, or not, of sex differences in personality have been argued from a number of theoretical perspectives. Broadly speaking, these can be split into three categories: evolutionary, social role, and methodological or artifact explanations. In evolutionary terms, human personality evolved as a set of characteristics that conferred advantage to some over others in the context of a wide variety of adaptive challenges across evolutionary time. Therefore, to the extent that these challenges differed for males and females, so may the average level of traits across these groups. Common examples discussed would include the differential traits required by males and females for the successful rearing of children. In our distant past, females may have required higher levels of nurturing and agreeable traits in order to ensure the safe upbringing of their children – characteristics less essential for males who would have invested less time in the rearing of children. Males on the other hand may have required increased levels of traits associated with success in competition for resources, such as dominance, aggression, or risk-taking. Sociocultural explanations come in a variety of forms but broadly argue that it is the features and properties of modern social context that give rise to perceived sex differences in personality. For example, social role model perspectives (e.g., Eagly 1997) would suggest sex differences arise from the different social role expectations on males and females with respect to the core determinants of personality – namely, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. These expectations manifest and are shared early, shaped by the differential ways those around us, society broadly speaking, reward and punish behaviors. These schedules of reinforcement and punishment have led some to label such explanations as cognitive social learning (Hyde 2014). The various opportunities or restrictions placed by the societies in which individuals live come to govern the behaviors that are expressed by the males and females within them. Lastly, some have argued that estimates of sex differences from psychometric tools reflect a measurement artifact. Specifically, this position holds that males and females possess different stereotypes as to the appropriate characteristics of males and females. When responding to a self-report inventory, these groups respond in a socially desirable manner with these differing stereotypes in mind. As such, responses reflect socially desirable responding toward these differing sex stereotypes. Clearly, these competing theories of sex differences can be supported by differing patterns of observed difference. For example, given a focus on evolutionary time scales, one would expect more cross-cultural consistency in sex differences from an evolutionary perspective than may be expected from a sociocultural perspective. Considering the latter, we may expect to see similar patterns from cultures, which share relevant societal features, and differing patterns across those which do not. Similarly, such differences in cultures may lead to differing gender stereotypes, and thus under an “artifact” explanation, we may expect similar cross-cultural patterns. However, sociocultural and artifact explanations may be differentiable by consideration of patterns across self- and other reports, as well as from explicit and implicit measurement of traits. Specifically with respect to the latter, if targeted response bias is the primary driver of observed differences, then such differences should disappear when personality is assessed reliably by means for which the intention of measurement is not known to the respondent and thus less susceptible to targeted responding. Empirical Evidence for Sex Differences A large number of research studies and psychometric inventory manuals have published data on the differences between males and females in personality traits. These studies generally report standardized measures of mean difference, such as Cohen’s d, where d around 0.20 is considered small, around 0.50 is considered moderate, and around 0.80 is considered large. Methodological issues in this approach are discussed later in this entry. Many of these inventories are organized hierarchically, such that the broad- or domain-level traits subsume narrower constructs, often referred to as facets. For example, Table 1 summarizes the organization of three broad taxonomies of personality, the five-factor model (FFM; Costa and McCrae 1992), the HEXACO model (Lee and Ashton 2004), and the 16 Personality Factor model (16PF; Conn and Rieke 1994), which are discussed at greatest length in this entry. Table 1 orders by column those domains across taxonomies which most closely align. However, it is important to note that the existence of these, and indeed the wide array of other personality taxonomies, stems from competing arguments with respect to both the appropriate number, organization, and labeling of domains and facets, primarily through the application of factor analytic methods. Thus, while Table 1 is given as a simplifying organization for this entry, the reader should not take from it that there is agreement on the positioning and content as presented. Hierarchical organization of the FFM, HEXACO, and 16PF5 Neuroticism Extraversion Openness to experience Agreeableness Anger, hostility Gregariousness Straightforwardness Dutifulness Self-consciousness Achievement striving Impulsiveness Excitement-seeking Positive emotions Tender-mindedness HEXACO Emotionality Honesty-humility Fearfulness Expressiveness Aesthetic appreciation Social boldness Inquisitiveness Greed avoidance Sentimentality Liveliness Unconventionality 16PF5 Tough-mindedness Emotional stability Rule-consciousness Apprehension Abstractedness Privateness Openness to change Self-reliance When considering sex differences in personality, this higher-order structure poses an interesting question. Are sex differences in facets within a given domain all in a consistent direction? This is important because if facets within a domain show sex differences that run in opposite directions, these will potentially cancel out completely or reduced the observed sex differences at the domain level. In the discussion that follows, we discuss broad domains and facets under the ordering presented in Table 1, alongside a number of non-overlapping and individual traits argued to display sex differences. Summarizing Domain-Level Differences In the discussion that follows, we present empirical results in terms of various metrics of effect size for the difference between males and females. Negative estimates indicate that females have higher mean scores than males, while positive estimates indicate males have higher mean scores than females. Tables 2 and 3 summarize the broad pattern of domain-level differences in the FFM and HEXACO traits. The studies included are not exhaustive, but represent examples of large-scale research studies or meta-analyses on sex differences. Selected findings on sex differences in FFM domains in adult Western samples Feingold (1994)a Costa and McCrae (1992)b Marsh et al. (2010)c Vianello et al. (2013) Weisberg et al. (2011) Schmitt et al. (2008) Study features Single sample vs. meta-analysis Single sample k = 7–25 2,793 (USA) Range, 21–96 Mean, 19.51 SD, 0.77 SD, 12.17 Mean, 27.2 SD, 14.4 College sample Observed vs. latent Latent Difference measure SD difference Personality measure NEO-PI-R NEO-FFI 40-item adjective 50-item IPIP IATd BFAS −0.27 −0.04 −0.38 −0.14 0.49 0.09 0.18 −0.04 −0.29−0.30 Note: All results presented such that negative values indicate a higher score for females. This presentation may differ from the original texts. BFAS big five aspect scale, IPIP international personality item pool, BFI big five inventory. aFeingold presented estimates grouped under FFM (see Table 5 in original paper). Median d-scores presented. N Anxiety/Impulsiveness, E Gregariousness/Assertiveness/Activity; O Ideas; Agreeableness, Trust/Tender-Mindedness; Conscientiousness, Order bCalculated from means and standard deviations of Appendix B in the test manual cEstimates of difference are derived from a variety of different invariance models under different assumptions. See original Table 4, p. 482 dImplicit measure of personality based on an Implicit Association Task Selected findings on sex differences in HEXACO domains in adult Western samples Lee and Ashton (2016) De Vries, Ashton, and Lee (2009) Ashton and Lee (2009) Single sample (online Sample) Single sample (Student Sample) Single college sample SD, 3.9 HEXACO-100 HEXACO-PI-R HEXACO-60 HEXACO-PI Note: All results presented such that negative values indicate a higher score for females. This presentation may differ from the original texts Overall, across studies and inventories, differences range from essentially zero to a maximum of approximately 1.2 on a d-score metric. A majority of the differences identified across studies, at the domain level, would fall in the small to moderate range (Cohen’s d = < │0.40│). The only differences across Tables 2 and 3 to be consistently larger than this are the HEXACO differences in Honesty-Humility and Emotionality, which we discuss further in the next sections. Across all studies reported in Tables 2 and 3, females have been consistently shown to have higher mean scores than males for Neuroticism (FFM) and Emotionality (HEXACO). Across inventories, the magnitudes of these effects vary slightly. Large variation can be seen across personality taxonomy (FFM vs. HEXACO), where Neuroticism in the FFM shows generally small to moderate effects, while Emotionality shows generally large effects. The consistency and magnitude in the domain-level effects may be reflective of the fact that the facets within these domains show consistent sex differences in both direction and magnitude. With respect to studies utilizing the FFM (e.g., Costa, Terracciano and McCrae 2001, Table 2; Weisberg et al. 2011), we see higher scores for females on all facets with Cohen’s d ranging from −0.09 to −0.44. Considering the HEXACO taxonomy, Lee and Ashton (2016) report higher scores for females on all facets with Cohen’s d ranging from −0.53 to −1.08. Thus across studies and taxonomies, at the domain and facet level, consistent differences in Neuroticism-related traits have been observed. At the domain level, Extraversion as operationalized in the FFM inventories shows a small (d range − 0.08 to −0.44) and consistent difference with females scoring higher than males. Within the HEXACO inventories, this difference is reversed, with males generally scoring higher than females, but the effects here are small (<0.10). Taken at face value, this would suggest minimal overall sex differences in Extraversion-related traits, with any variability seen dependent on specific operationalizations of Extraversion. However, if one considers the facet-level associations, further variation is revealed. Again, using the same studies as reference points, Costa, Terracciano, and McCrae (2001, Table 2; see also Weisberg et al. 2011) report facet-level differences within Extraversion for FFM-based inventories which differentially support male versus female higher scores. For example, Costa, Terracciano and McCrae (2001) show higher scores for males in the facets of Assertiveness (d = 0.10 to 0.27) and Excitement-Seeking (d = 0.18 to 0.38) and higher scores for females for all other facets (range d − 0.04 to −0.33). In the case of the HEXACO, studies by Lee and Ashton (2004) and Lee and Ashton (2016) report differences in the facets of Extraversion differentially showing higher scores for males and females, of small to moderate effect size (Social Self-Esteem = 0.13/−0.30; Social Boldness = 0.12/0.30; Sociability = −0.11/−0.31; Liveliness = −0.05/−0.15). Thus, for Extraversion-related traits, the domain-level patterns of low to no sex differences present only a partial picture, as at the facet level, we see larger differences with a mixed pattern of male versus female higher scores. At the domain level, Openness and related traits show a largely consistent, but small, difference with males scoring higher than females. The exception here is the study by Marsh et al. (2010) which, using a latent variable approach, found females to score higher than males. A similar pattern of male higher score, but with smaller effects, is seen for the HEXACO inventories (largest d = 0.22). Once again, this domain-level difference masks a much greater degree of variability in the direction of difference and effect sizes at the facet level. Costa, Terracciano, and McCrae (2001) report male higher scores for Fantasy (d = 0.16), Values (d = 0.07), and Ideas (d = 0.32), the latter being consistent across US adults, US college age individuals and adults from multiple other cultures. From the same study, females show consistently higher scores for Aesthetics (d = −0.34), Feelings (d = −0.28), and Actions (d = −0.19). Weisberg et al. (2011) report higher scores for males in the BFAS narrow scale of Intellect (d = 0.22) but higher scores for females in Openness (d = −0.27). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the domain-level Openness difference here was practically zero. Again in the HEXACO, Lee and Ashton (2004) and Lee and Ashton (2016) report varied facet differences for Openness (Aesthetic Appreciation = −0.29/−0.39; Inquisitiveness = 0.52/0.62; Creativity = −0.00/0.25; Unconventionality = 0.22/0.31). Agreeableness is an interesting domain to consider, as it is one of the places in which the taxonomies of the FFM and HEXACO differ. In the case of the FFM, consistent sex differences are seen at the domain level, with females scoring higher than males and effect sizes ranging from small to large (see Table 2). Like Neuroticism, the facets of Agreeableness as measured by FFM inventories are consistent, favoring females, with effect sizes for those differences ranging from d of −0.03 to −0.43 (Costa, Terracciano and McCrae 2001). The pattern for the HEXACO depends on which domain trait we consider. The namesake Agreeableness within the HEXACO inventories shows small sex differences with the male-female dominance varying across study. This is also reflected at the facet level where small differences in both directions are observed (e.g., Lee and Ashton 2016, Table 1). However, the pattern is different if we consider Honesty-Humility. Much like Agreeableness from the FFM inventories, Honesty-Humility shows a consistent difference with females scoring higher than males, and moderate effect sizes at both the domain level (d range − 0.38 to −0.59, Table 3) and across facets (Lee and Ashton 2004, d range − 0.28 to −0.71; Lee and Ashton 2016, d range 0 to −0.59). The facet with the smallest sex differences is Sincerity, which is generally close to zero across samples. Conscientiousness is another of the domains where the specific operationalization of the trait across taxonomy appears to make a difference with respect to the overall consistency of observed effects. In both FFM and HEXACO inventories, the domain-level difference shows females tending to score higher than males. In the case of the FFM, the effect sizes range from d’s of 0.05 to −0.67 (Table 2). For the HEXACO inventories, we see much the same (Table 3), with a maximum difference of −0.46. Once again (and at fear of sounding repetitive), the generally small to moderate difference may reflect differential patterns of effects in the facets. As reported in Costa, Terracciano and McCrae (2001), while the FFM Conscientiousness facets of Competence and Deliberation show males scoring higher, all other facets show near-zero difference, or differences favoring females. In the HEXACO on the other hand, the facet-level effects reported in Lee and Ashton (2004) and Lee and Ashton (2016) show only one facet-level difference in favor of males, that being Prudence in the online self-report sample (d = 0.10). The Relation Between Facet Level and Global Differences As documented above, and perhaps unsurprisingly, when larger, consistent differences are observed at the domain level, all lower-level facet differences are (a) in the same direction favoring either males or females and (b) more consistently of larger magnitude. However, the fact that consistent facet associations within domain are not ubiquitous could be viewed as problematic. Indeed, Costa, Terracciano and McCrae (2001) stop short of estimating domain-level differences for all FFM due to the patterns of facet difference. Such patterns may perhaps lead us to reflect differently on the magnitude of global differences. If a set of facets coded positively for a domain show different patterns of mean difference by sex in the simple sum scores, it should be no surprise that these differences average out to near-zero differences when we look at sum score differences by sex at the domain level. This is not to say that the domain-level effect is not an appropriate level of analysis, but simply to say that we may want to consider the various ways in which such a difference, or lack thereof, may occur. Differences Within Males and Females Versus across Males and Females As has been noted, the topic of sex differences in personality is considered by some to be controversial. Aside from any discussion of the social and political ramifications of such lines of research, one powerful argument concerns the magnitude of the differences within and between groups. Essentially, this argument runs that within males, there is a greater difference between those at the lower and higher ends of the distribution than there is between the average male and the average female. The same would be true of females. Given that the within-group differences at a population level may be larger than the between-group differences, it follows to ask whether the comparison across groups is a reasonable focus of study. Relatedly, it is also important to contextualize the magnitude of mean differences. Standardized estimates of mean difference, whether univariate or multivariate, can be expressed as the proportion of overlap in score distributions. Under the assumptions of a normal distribution with equal standard deviations, when d denotes a small effect (0.20), approximately 58% of one distribution (say males) is above or mean of the other (say females), and the distributions have approximately 92% overlap. When d denotes a medium effect (0.50), approximately 69% of the distribution of one group is above the mean of the second, and the distributions have approximately 80% overlap. Finally, when d denotes a large effect (0.80), approximately 78% of one distribution will be above the mean of the other, and the distributions have approximately 69% overlap. Given the general size of the mean differences associated with research on sex differences in personality, the score distributions of males and females are likely to be heavily overlapping. Emergence and Change in Sex Differences Across Life Course Extant evidence points to a relative stability in the estimates of sex differences in domains across studies, although the location of the most meaningful differences, be that at domain or facet level, remains debated. A further interesting question to ask with respect to sex differences is when do differences emerge and do they remain stable across the life course? In a large-scale meta-analysis, Else-Quest et al. (2006) investigated sex differences in temperamental traits. Historically, temperament has been argued to be the developmental precursor to later life personality, a concept which has been developed over time and supported by a large body of empirical research (see Rothbart 2011, for review). Else-Quest et al. (2006) identified studies in children less than 7 years old and meta-analytically derived estimates of sex differences under three broad groupings of characteristics, Effortful Control, Negative Affectivity, and Surgency. In adult personality trait nomenclature, these groupings would approximately align with conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion. With respect to Effortful Control, effect sizes for ten dimensions were calculated with all eight significant differences favoring females. The largest of the effect sizes (d = −1.01, k = 6) was for Effortful Control. Inhibitory Control (d = −0.41, k = 22), Perceptual Sensitivity (d = −0.38, k = 38), Low Intensity Pleasure (d = −0.29, k = 20), and Attention (d = −0.23, k = 9) all showed small to moderate effect sizes. For Negative Affectivity, all effect sizes were small. Of the three dimensions which showed significant differences, two behavioral styles (Difficult, d = 0.13, k = 28; Intensity, d = 0.10, k = 37) favored males, and one psychobiological dimension (Fear: d = −0.12, k = 34) favored females. Finally for Surgency, small to moderate effect sizes favoring males were found for Activity (Behavioral Style, d = 0.33, k = 50; Psychobiological, d = 0.23, k = 34), High Intensity Pleasure (d = 0.30, k = 18), and Surgency (d = 0.55, k = 8). Focusing on the later period of development between ages 12 and 17, De Bolle et al. (2015) analyzed data from 4850 adolescents from across 23 cultures who had completed the NEO-PI-R-3 as a measure of the FFM. Taking into account cultural differences, they found that females scored higher than males in Openness and Conscientiousness at all ages. No sex differences in Neuroticism were present at ages 12 and 13, but from age 15 onward, mean differences favoring females emerged for the facets of Anxiety, Depression, and Vulnerability. Interestingly, though not studied directly by De Bolle et al. (2015), this is also an approximate point in development where males and females begin to diverge on clinical-level anxiety and depression. Patterns for Extraversion were complex, with females scoring more highly for Warmth and Gregariousness across development and males scoring higher on Excitement-Seeking. Overall, while patterns for other traits were complex, by the age of 17, sex differences in domains were largely equivalent in size and direction to estimates from adult samples. Analysis of age by sex interactions showed some interesting patterns. For example, there was a significant age by sex interaction for Neuroticism, indicating that from ages 12 to 17, both boys and girls decreased in Neuroticism but boys did so at a greater rate. As such, the difference in Neuroticism by age 17 was larger. The same pattern was found for two facets of Neuroticism, Anxiety and Vulnerability, suggesting these may be the driver of the domain-level effect. Two further facets, Positive Emotions (Extraversion, male decrease greater than female decrease) and Ideas (Openness, male decrease less than female decrease), showed increasing sex differences across adolescence. Conversely, for the facets of Assertiveness (Extraversion, male increase, female decrease), Aesthetics (Openness, male increase), and Achievement Striving (Conscientiousness, male increase greater than female increase), the magnitude of sex differences decreased from ages 12 to 17. The findings for Assertiveness are especially interesting when considered in combination with the results from other samples. At earlier ages, females score more highly than males. Across adolescence, this difference erodes such that in the later teens, there is no marked sex difference. Yet by adulthood, males show consistently higher scores in this facet. De Bolle et al. note, and it is important to emphasize, that in a majority of cases, both the effects (interactions) and the overall mean differences reported were generally small. In a massive cross-sectional study (n = 1,267,218), Soto et al. (2011) report on trait differences from ages 10 to 65, reporting different trends for males and females and thus allowing consideration of sex differences across the life course. The authors based their study on FFM domain estimates as measured by the Big Five Inventory (BFI) delivered online as part of the Gosling-Potter Internet Personality Project. The BFI is primarily a domain measure of the FFM, but facets of Self-Discipline and Order (Conscientiousness), Altruism and Compliance (Agreeableness), Anxiety and Depression (Neuroticism), Activity and Assertiveness (Extraversion), and Ideas and Aesthetics (Openness) can be scored from available items. Based largely on theory and research evidence concerning the social roles and cognitive developments across adolescence into adulthood, Soto et al. (2011) hypothesized that Neuroticism and its facets would increase for females across adolescence, while male trajectories would remain flat, thus increasing the sex difference, while in later adulthood, Neuroticism would decline for both males and females. Given the size of the sample, statistical significance tests are not reported, with trajectories displayed graphically and with the magnitudes of differences presented in a T-score metric. Here T-score differences of 2 points are small, 5 points are medium, and 8 points are large, effects. Results for Neuroticism were largely as predicted. At age 10, there were minimal sex differences in Neuroticism and its facets. In the mid-teens, sex differences were at their peak at approximately 5 points. From around the mid-20s, both males and females showed a decline, with females declining more steeply from the late 20s until around the age of 50. From this point on, the sex difference in Neuroticism was stable at 1–2 points. Results for Conscientiousness showed marked decreases from ages 10 to approximately 15 (3 T-score points), before displaying a sharp increase from around ages 15 to 20. This increase was steeper for females and established an approximate 2-point female advantage which remained consistent throughout the life course. Agreeableness displayed similar, but less pronounced, trends. Females had higher scores throughout the life course, with the difference increasing from approximately 1 point in youth to approximately 2 points in adulthood. Extraversion decreased for both males and females from ages 10 to around 15, more sharply in males (~5 points) than females (~3 points), and then remained largely stable until later life. From age 50, the approximate 2-point difference in favor of females closed such that by 65, there was no discernible sex difference. Finally, the pattern for Openness was much the same, although the adult advantage in this instance was in favor of males. The difference seems primarily driven by the Ideas facet and a marked drop in female scores between the ages of 15 and 20, creating a difference that then persists across the life course. Collectively, these results present a complex pattern of sex differences across adolescence, with small but consistent adult differences emerging in the late teens and early 20s. These differences largely persist across later life. However, similarly to the cross-sectional estimates of mean difference, these patterns are not necessarily consistent within a given broad domain, with facets displaying differing patterns of development. Information on the life-course development of differences in traits may be especially important for differentiating competing theories. For example, major changes in the pattern of sex differences that emerge with hormonal changes in development may point toward a biological basis for differences. However, it is necessary to also take into account the rapidly changing social contexts in emerging adulthood and adolescence that may – at the same time – serve to reinforce societal gender stereotypes. Further, changes in the magnitude of sex differences in adulthood that correspond to major life transitions (marriage, birth of children, etc.) may point to explanations based on social roles. Sex Differences in Personality Change The studies discussed above are, though large scale, cross-sectional, meaning that the estimates of differences at a particular age are based on a discrete subsample to all other age groups. Such studies are unable to speak to whether there are sex differences in within-person personality change across aging. One hypothesis concerning such change extends from the social role perspective on mean-level differences and states that, through mid-life, shifts in typical gender/sex roles lead to differential changes in trait levels. As Roberts et al. (2006) note, one may believe males would become more nurturing, for example, as family roles increase in importance against more self-focused outcomes. Terracciano et al. (2005) analyzed data from a large sample (n = 1944) of US adults who had completed the NEO-PI-R on multiple occasions between 1989 and 2004. The authors found evidence of baseline sex differences consistent with the cross-sectional results discussed above, but no evidence that sex was predictive of change across time. Similar patterns of results were found in a meta-analysis of personality change by Roberts et al. (2006). Synthesizing results from 92 studies, while mean-level change was evident across the life and most marked in adolescence, no statistically significant relationships between sex and mean-level change were identified. Further, Ferguson (2010) meta-analyzed stability coefficients for personality change and found females displayed fractionally higher stability than males, but the difference was not statistically significant. In totality, there is little evidence from within person longitudinal studies that personality changes differentially by sex. However, there remain comparatively few studies of this type. Cross-Cultural Stability of Differences The studies discussed above largely focus on Western cultures. Here we briefly consider the stability of sex differences across cultures. Schmitt et al. (2008; note direction of differences reversed for consistency with the rest of this entry) compared sex differences in FFM traits across 55 cultures using scores from the BFI. Neuroticism showed the most consistent differences, with only two cultures (Botswana and Indonesia) showing higher scores for males, with a mean d of −0.40. The most varied estimates were for Openness, where in 37 cultures a difference was found favoring men and in 18 a difference favoring women, with a mean d of 0.05. Consistent with these findings, Bleidorn et al. (2013) investigated personality development across the life course in a sample of 884,328 individuals from 62 nations, using data from the previously discussed Gosling-Potter Internet Personality Project. Results indicated differences in Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness in favor of women and Openness in favor of men. Additionally, they showed significant variability in the size of these differences across cultures. How then does evidence from cross-cultural studies feed into the evaluation of the various theoretical explanations for sex differences? Schmitt et al. (2008) argue that the variability and pattern of sex differences cross-culturally suggest that social role explanations for sex differences are less plausible. If social roles were to play a key causal explanatory role in sex differences, then one may expect to see smaller differences in countries with greater equality and larger differences in countries with more inequality, less access to education for women, reduced access to certain professions, etc. In fact, the reverse pattern is true, and larger differences tend to be seen in Western industrialized nations. Instead, Schmitt et al. suggest that the pattern of differences may be more consistent with evolutionary explanations and tentatively introduce the possibility that gene environment interactions may be at play in fostering increased personality dimorphism in research-rich environments. Differences in Variability The studies presented thus far have primarily focused on sex differences in mean levels of a given trait. However, a small but growing number of studies have considered whether males and females also differ with respect to variability in traits. Across a variety of domains, men show more variability than women, and as such, it remains an open question whether the same is true for personality traits. The theoretical arguments for any such differences draw on a number of perspectives. Social role explanations would posit that females have more constrained social experiences in many cultures and, as such, have more restricted opportunities to express and develop varying personality profiles when compared to men. Evolutionarily it has been suggested that the increased male variability is a result of the many possible behavioral strategies that would be equally successful with respect to selection. Thus far, the patterns of results are themselves highly variable. In a study across four cultures, Borkenau et al. (2013a) found that based on self-reports of the FFM traits, males and females did not differ in variability. However, greater variance in informant ratings of male versus female targets was found for all FFM domains other than Neuroticism. Borkenau et al. (2013b) aimed to replicate these findings across 51 cultures based on informant ratings of target individuals. Again, a reasonable degree of trait across culture variability was found; however, the most consistent pattern was that males displayed more variability than females across traits in 34 of the 51 cultures studied. Evidence is still relatively limited for differences in trait variability. Studies to date have generally been based on evidence from measures of variability at the between-person level, observing whether or not these metrics differ across the sexes. However, the recent growing interest in the use of experience sampling methods (assessing personality “in the moment” many times a day in an intensive data collection burst) may offer fresh perspective on the topic. Here rich information on daily fluctuations in traits and states can be gathered. Such data provides within-person information on personality variability which will undoubtedly be hugely informative with respect to understanding differences in variability. Summary of Empirical Findings How then should we evaluate the current state of evidence for sex differences in personality traits? One of the most well-known perspectives on psychological sex differences is the gender similarities hypothesis (GSH) proposed by Hyde (e.g., 2014 for recent review). The GSH simply put is that males and females are more similar to one another on most traits than they are different and that large differences between the sexes do not exist or are rare. In general, this position appears reasonable at the domain level. The estimates presented in this entry thus far rarely reach the d of 0.80 defined above as being considered a large effect across groups. Indeed, most would fall slightly above or below small effects (d ≈ 0.20). However, as we have also seen, estimates of differences for broad domains that are sum score aggregates of lower-level facets may mask larger differences in these facets due to the different directions of differences in positively relating facets. Further, other methodological considerations may be influencing the current pattern of reported associations. Methodological Issues in Sex Difference Research Single Studies Versus Meta-Analysis The studies discussed in this entry have been limited to either meta-analytic estimates of sex differences, estimates reported in the context of original descriptions of personality taxonomies, or large-scale single studies. By and large these studies have reported a standardized measure of difference based on some form of average or sum scores of sets of items (an observed score). Hyde (e.g., 2014) has argued in favor of meta-analytic estimates of sex differences. Meta-analysis involves identifying sets of published and unpublished studies that provide estimates of an effect of interest. The individual effects are combined into a single estimate of the effect of interest, and an estimate of the variability in the effect across studies. The primary logic for such an approach is that the estimate derived from aggregating many studies, if the heterogeneity across studies can be understood, will always be an improvement on the estimate from any single study sample. With enough information from the original studies, meta-analysis can also make adjustments for the use of different tools to measure traits, adjust for reliability of measurement, and include other variables (age, culture, etc.) which may act as moderators of estimates of difference. Undoubtedly, meta-analytic estimates carry advantages over the estimation of group differences from a single study. However, the quality of the meta-analytic estimate will be constrained by the quality of the original studies. As such, any methodological weaknesses in these studies will transfer to the meta-analytic results. In the study of group differences, one assumption above all else is critical to drawing valid inferences about the magnitude of differences, yet it often remains untested. Specifically, this assumption is that the particular tool being used to assess the trait of interest performs equivalently in males and females or, to put it another way, that the same trait is being compared in each group. As a concrete example, suppose we are interested in whether there is a difference in Neuroticism as measured by the NEO-PI-R between males and females. We administer the scale to a large group of randomly sampled participants and create a simple or weighted sum score as per the instructions in the test manual. We then conduct a statistical test of mean difference (a t-test) and calculate the associated effect size using Cohen’s d. What we have assumed here is that the equations that relate the underlying trait of Neuroticism to the item responses in the groups are identical, such that we can use the same scoring rules across groups and have a score that measures the same thing in these groups. If this assumption does not hold, then any estimate of difference is invalid. The procedure for testing this assumption is known as measurement invariance within the factor analytic setting or differential item functioning within item response theory. The process of measurement invariance involves specifying a statistical model that relates each of a set of measured items (e.g., the questions in a survey tool) to a latent variable representing the personality trait they are hypothesized to measure. The same model is estimated for males and females, and, sequentially, constraints are placed on the model equating different parameters. The difference in model fit between the constrained and unconstrained models provides a statistical test of whether the assumption that these parameters are equal across groups is supported or not. If they are constrained equal, and model fit significantly declines, then it is not reasonable to assume the parameter is the same in both groups. Measurement invariance can be tested at different levels, increasing with respect to the number of equality constraints placed across groups. Different types of comparison across groups require different levels of invariance constraints. In the context of group difference tests, a minimum requirement is what is referred to as scalar (or partial scalar) invariance (for details on levels of invariance with an application to personality measurement, see Marsh et al. 2010). If scalar invariance holds, then it is reasonable to test for latent mean differences across groups. Note, however, that this is not the same as stating that mean differences can be tested in sum scores of test items. For this to be a valid test of mean differences, strict invariance (a more constrained model) is required to hold. This is because if the item residuals are not the same across groups, differential item reliability across groups can bias observed mean difference tests. To the authors’ knowledge, there are no published examples of strict measurement invariance being tested prior to observed mean differences being evaluated on a sum score, nor examples of this level of invariance holding in standardization (or other large) samples being used in the rationale for testing observed score mean differences. Further, there are a limited, but growing, number of studies of sex differences in personality that have utilized measurement invariance and latent mean difference tests. Of the studies previously discussed, only the study of Marsh et al. (2010) is based on latent means. Booth and Irwing (2011) studied latent mean differences with measurement invariance in the 16PF. Others, for example, De Bolle et al. (2015), include some tests of measurement invariance prior to conducted mean difference tests, but these may not be complete. For example, in the case of De Bolle et al., these models use facet scores as indicators of models for the domains of the FFM, and so item-level invariance is not considered. Impact of a Lack of Invariance The question of how much impact a violation of the assumption of measurement invariance would have on a given estimate of mean difference based on observed scores is somewhat complex. It concerns the interaction of the size and direction of any true differences versus the size (both effect size and the number of items affected) and direction of any differences due to a measurement bias. Dependent on what combination of these factors is at play, estimates of difference may be spurious, inflated, or attenuated. Clearly, this is a complex picture but one that requires attention from researchers if they are serious about identifying and understanding if sex differences in personality exist and the true magnitude of these differences. In studies of measurement invariance, as with all statistical analyses, one must also be aware of general issues concerning the representativeness of samples and statistical power. Invariance analyses are often complex, and power for a fixed sample size will vary dependent on the level of invariance being tested. Why Is Invariance Not Tested? This is a difficult question to answer, but it is possible to speculate. First, it is a topic which has only risen to prominence outside of the methodological literature comparatively recently. Second, and relatedly, applied researchers who have not specifically studied psychometrics or more advanced latent variable methodologies may be unaware of the strictness of the assumptions related to the use of sum or observed scores. Third, measurement invariance is not a simple analysis and requires a good degree of statistical understanding and large sample sizes. Fourth, many researchers reasonably assume that such issues of measurement have been researched as part of the validation of extant tools. Two points are worth noting here: (a) measurement invariance rarely features in test manuals of extant inventories, and (b) even if invariance is established in the standardization samples for a given inventory, it does not mean it will hold in any given sample for which a mean difference test is being conducted. Fifth, these analyses require an adequately fitting measurement model across groups to be established, and personality data is renowned for showing poor model fit in such models (see Hopwood and Donnellan 2010 for discussion). This latter point has been somewhat mitigated by the recent introduction of exploratory structural equation modeling, which has been applied in the study of sex differences in personality including tests of measurement invariance (see Marsh et al. 2010). Univariate Versus Multivariate Measures of Effect Size Recently debate has begun as to whether the magnitude of sex differences in personality should be estimated based on univariate or multivariate measures of effect size. Cohen’s d is a univariate measure, and as is evident from the studies discussed in this entry, a common practice is to consider collections of univariate effects when discussing multidimensional constructs such as personality. However, some (e.g., see Del Giudice 2017) have suggested that multivariate estimates such as Mahalanobis D may be more informative. The basic logic of this approach is that while differences in individual traits may be small, an accumulation of differences across multiple traits may result in outward manifestations of personality that are quite different. Further, univariate measures by definition fail to take into account the correlational structure between sets of measures being compared. In the study of sex differences in omnibus personality inventories, Del Giudice et al. (2012) reported multivariate estimates in an analysis of the 16PF5 using the US standardization sample, also incorporating an evaluation of measurement invariant latent versus observed score differences. The results demonstrated (a) that latent mean estimates from measurement invariance models were larger than the observed score mean differences of the same data (consider also Marsh et al. (2010) in Table 2 versus the observed score studies) and (b) that, when combined using Mahalanobis D, the overall difference between males and females was large. Hyde (2014) has argued against the use of D, stating that the use of such measures maximizes difference and is uninterpretable. While the former is a generally correct statement concerning D, the latter is less accurate (see Del Giudice 2017). Further, as Del Giudice et al. (2012) have shown, and as our discussion of facet and domain differences has emphasized, current practice may be underestimating differences. Key to this debate seems to be the question of which level of aggregation is most appropriate for estimating the magnitude of sex differences. Is it facets, domains, or perhaps “all” of personality? Sex Differences in Psychopathology Finally, we conclude by briefly discussing sex differences in psychopathological traits. Psychopathology is viewed by many as underpinned by or representing the extreme end of “normal” personality traits. As such, it is not surprising that well-replicated sex differences are also observed in the majority of psychopathological disorders (e.g., see Martel 2013). Internalizing disorders such as anxiety and depression tend to be more prevalent in females as are other disorders with a strong “negative emotionality” component such as eating disorders and borderline personality disorder. Externalizing and neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, and schizophrenia spectrum disorders tend to be more prevalent in males. Thought of another way, females are relatively more affected by disorders with an onset in adolescence, whereas males are relatively more affected by disorders with an early onset. This seems to be true “within” diagnostic categories as well. For example, females who show conduct problems are more likely to show an adolescent onset than early onset. Sex differences in prevalence vary considerably across different diagnostic categories with, for example, no apparent sex difference in adolescent oppositional defiant disorder but an eightfold increased risk of eating disorders in females relative to males. Within diagnostic categories, there may also be sex differences in manifestation. In autism, for example, there is some evidence that females may be better able to conceal their difficulties. Similarly, as regards conduct problems, females show a preference for relational aggression over physical aggression, evidencing relational aggression levels on a par with males who otherwise show higher aggression levels than females. Some have argued that differences in prevalence and manifestation mean that the less-affected sex tends to be underdiagnosed. This is because symptoms of “stereotypically male” disorders may be harder to recognize in females and vice versa. As such, there have been some calls to create “gender-specific” diagnostic criteria for some disorders in which the symptom lists referred to during the diagnostic process are tailored to gender. Theoretical Explanations from Psychopathology Various explanations for sex differences in psychopathology have been proposed, some of which refer to specific disorders and others which attempt to explain sex differences in general. These refer to both biological (e.g., genetic, epigenetic, and neurocognitive) and environmental (e.g., in utero exposures, socialization) factors and both ultimate and proximate mechanisms. To explain sex differences in neurodevelopmental disorders, for example, it has been proposed that male-female differences in prenatal testosterone exposure make males more vulnerable to the effect of early adverse environmental exposures. In addition, stronger socialization against “acting-out” behaviors in females has been proposed to contribute to sex differences in conduct problems. A general model of sex differences in psychopathology is the multifactorial threshold model in which one sex is assumed to require a greater loading of risk factors to tip them over into psychopathology. For example, for a male and female who have identical genetic and environmental risk factors, the latter may be more protected against developing autism because of gender-specific buffering factors. This can be contrasted with the idea that one sex tends to manifest a particular psychopathology at a higher rate due to showing higher levels of risk factors. For example, it has been proposed that males show higher levels of early-onset conduct problems because they are more likely to show early predisposing neurocognitive deficits. It can also be contrasted with the idea that sex differences exist because the same underlying liability is expressed differently in males and females. For example, it has been proposed that substance use and depression are the more male versus female manifestations of the same underlying vulnerability. Another general perspective on sex differences in psychopathology proposes that they are due to sexual selection for traits that increase reproductive success. In males, traits related to social dominance and resource acquisition are selected for, especially “approach” traits such as disinhibition and sensation-seeking. At extreme levels or when poorly calibrated to the environment, these traits may increase the risk of externalizing disorders. In females, traits related to social competence such as empathy and negative emotionality may be selected for which, when extreme or poorly calibrated, may confer risk of internalizing disorders. Although much work remains to be done in illuminating the causes of sex differences in psychopathology, as with sex differences in personality, their study is helping to reveal the underlying causes of psychopathology in general. Conclusions: Should We Study Sex Differences in Personality? The aim of this entry was to give a broad overview of the empirical evidence for sex differences in personality. In doing, our focus was on the question “Do differences exist?” giving specific attention to the methodological issues in the study of sex differences. We have briefly discussed some of the theoretical arguments for sex differences and some of the related work on differences in trait variation. We have not dealt in any depth with the highly important question set out at the beginning of this entry of “If sex differences do exist, what do they mean for life outcomes?” We close by considering the broader question of, given the information present, should we continue to study sex differences in personality? The short answer, yes. Despite large volumes of work, there remain some gaps with respect to in-depth measurement invariance analyses of mean differences at the facet level – thus the basic question of the magnitude of differences is not entirely resolved. Further, whether one believes sex differences exist or not, whether they are large or small, biologically based or the result of societal stereotype, it is not possible to understand the implications of such differences for individuals and society without continued rigorous scientific investigation. Five-Factor Model Group Differences Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2009). 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Becoming who we are: Temperament and personality in development. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar Schmitt, D. P., Realo, A., Voracek, M., & Allik, J. (2008). Why can’t a man be more like a woman? Sex differences in big five personality traits across 55 cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 168–182.PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar Soto, C. J., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2011). Age differences in personality traits from 10 to 65: Big five domains and facets in a large cross-sectional sample. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 330–348.PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar Terracciano, A., McCrae, R. R., Brant, L. J., & Costa, P. T., Jr. (2005). Hierarchical linear modeling analyses of the NEO-PI-R scales in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Psychology and Aging, 20, 493–506.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRefGoogle Scholar Vianello, M., Schnabel, K., Sriram, N., & Nosek, B. (2013). Gender differences in implicit and explicit personality traits. Personality and Individual Differences, 55, 994–999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Weisberg, Y. J., DeYoung, C. G., & Hirsh, J. B. (2011). Gender differences in personality across the ten aspects of the big five. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 178.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRefGoogle Scholar 1.Department of PsychologyUniversity of EdinburghEdinburghUK 2.Violence Research Centre, Institute of CriminologyUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK Section editors and affiliations Ashton C. Southard 1.Oakland UniversityRochesterUSA Booth T., Murray A.L. (2018) Sex Differences in Personality Traits. In: Zeigler-Hill V., Shackelford T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham Sentiment (Cattell) Separation Insecurity Seven-Factor Model of Personality Sex Differences in Self-Esteem Sexual Promiscuity Sexually Antagonistic Selection Sexually Exploitative Strategy Shadel, William Sheldon, Kennon M. Shepperd, James A. Shiner, Rebecca	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4517
__label__wiki	0.666817	0.666817	« Straight-Line Projections \| Main \| On the Pulse of the People » [posted on TPM Cafe April 20. Sorry for delay in posting here. This will be the first of several backlogged items to be cross-posted here, after fixing some technical problems and doing some spring cleaning.] I can’t pass up the debate on the "real" John McCain. Jon Chait, who zigs when others zag, makes a pretty good case that John McCain can be considered a liberal or moderate, based on some of his actions in the 2002-2003 period, including having dinner with Tom Daschle and hinting that he might switch parties. Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias disagree in various subtle ways over at TAPPED, and I made the argument against McCain in that magazine last month. (I made The Prospect put the column on line before it came out, because I could feel the "Oh my gosh, we thought he was one of us, but he’s really a right-wing Republican" tide building.) Now just to be clear, my position has been specifically that McCain’s overall record makes him, as I put it, "a worthy heir to Barry Goldwater’s Senate seat." And I used that analogy quite deliberately, not so much to emphasize McCain’s conservatism, but also to make the point that, compared to the nutjobs who besmirch the mostly honorable tradition of conservatism, Goldwater would seem fairly moderate. Bring Goldwater back in today’s Senate, and there would be at least 30 Republicans to his right. Goldwater was a supporter of gay rights, and long before there was McCain-Feingold, McCain’s single (and, I’ve come to think, dubious) achievement as a "moderate," there was a campaign finance reform bill known as Goldwater-Boren. Yesterday’s "extremism in defense of liberty" would be today’s "moderation in pursuit of justice." (Although, one notable difference is that when another Republican president was sunk at 35% approval and mired in scandal, Goldwater went to the White House and told Nixon it was time to quit, while McCain asked voters in a straw poll to vote to give Bush a third term. If this was 1974, McCain would be trying to figure out how to hire Haldeman, Ehrlichman and G. Gordon Liddy for his own campaign.) But having said that, I must admit that I’m really tired of all these discussions about whether McCain, or any politician, is "really" a moderate or a conservative or anything else. I don’t like the whole mode of analysis that assumes a politician has some "real" core of beliefs and then various positions he or she takes are either "real" or "political." That whole analysis is based on the cult of authenticity of which McCain, and to a lesser extent Bush, have been the greatest beneficiaries. Politicians are aggregations of their instincts, values, and political circumstances and conditions, the pressures put on them and the niches that are available. (For example, there’s no niche in the Republican presidential primary field for an independent moderate or a pro-choice candidate, and so McCain is simply not going to be either of those things, whatever his inner core is). And that’s not totally inappropriate in a democracy, where people are elected to represent and serve the public. Consider that even on a deeply moral issue, capital punishment, many moderate Democratic politicians who probably were instinctively uncomfortable with the death penalty nonetheless found a way to live with it in the 80s and 90s. Obviously, people grow up with instincts and values and experiences that shape their general view of the world, but within those worldviews, there’s a lot of room for various policy positions in response to external pressures and circumstances and opportunities. Any number of times, I’ve heard liberal groups complain of an elected official, "We thought he was one of us, we helped get him elected, then he got in and it turned out he was really just another corporate establishment tool..." But it’s not that the politician was "really" some other thing than he appeared to be, but that the group didn’t have enough power or use its power to keep him where he started. Both FDR and Bill Clinton famously told advocates who wanted him to do something "make me" do it -- that is, create the external conditions where that move would be possible. But like it or not, "authenticity" is an important political tool in its own right. And voters are malleable as well, supporting a political candidate they view as genuine, even if the candidate’s views differ greatly from their own, as I discovered in New Hampshire in 2000 where some number of independent, socially liberal voters chose to vote for the hot McCain in the Republican primary over Bill Bradley in the Democratic. Likewise, pro-death penalty voters supported Tim Kaine in Virginia because they felt that his opposition was authentically rooted in his religious belief -- it actually strengthened his sense of authenticity. But as McCain demonstrates, authenticity is itself a pose, one he adopted and has now discarded. McCain’s latest move is necessary, if he wants to be president, but it’s awfully daring. Live by the cult of authenticity, perish by the cult of authenticity. A pollster once told me that the way to destroy a political opponent is to get people wondering, "Who is this guy?" That insight was certainly borne out by the demolition of John Kerry, in which he collaborated in creating a sense that he didnt quite have areal core of beliefs. I assume that McCains gamble is that he has so strongly established the "straight-talk express" brand with the general electorate that he can perform the ritual obsequies of the Republican nominating process and still emerge with his reputation intact. But he cant. The odd period in McCains career that Chait focuses on created too many Republican activists who simply arent going to stomach his nomination, and he cant spend two years in his current mode and expect the independent moderate voters in New Hampshire and elsewhere to remember what they kind of liked about him for a period in 2000. So the question isnt, "what would the "real" McCain be like as President. It is, what is McCain going to be like when his presidential hopes are put to rest and he serves out his 70s in the Senate. And the answer is still, a lot like Barry Goldwater, which in my book is still better than a lot like Bill Frist. Posted by Mark Schmitt on April 21, 2006 \| Permalink https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341ce8a553ef00d834939e6c53ef Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The Real McCain and the Cult of Authenticity: I just find it difficult to understand how anyone could have ever thought that a corrupt politician like John "Keating Five" McCain was ever "authentic." Posted by: Tom Klem \| Jun 10, 2006 11:19:22 PM	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4521
__label__wiki	0.937672	0.937672	© Photo \| ebm-papst, Ralf Kreuels Self cooler: A crafty draft In the Saarland, wind-power stations are being developed and built that are reliable and set new standards with self-cooling forces — using EC technology. Alone on the hill, the rotor of a wind-power station is rotating at a height of 69 metres. There’s quite a breeze blowing over Sitzerath in the north of Saarland. The screen of the installation control system indicates a wind speed of between 5 and 15 metres per second. Inside the steel tubes, that sounds like the groaning of a heavy worker. However, the humming is the satisfied sound of one of the lean giants rotating almost at its rated speed, known by the name of VENSYS 62 — the prototype from VENSYS Energy AG set up in 2003. Our landscape is no longer conceivable without wind-power stations. However, they are not uncontroversial: too loud, too much shadow, too ugly is the criticism of many action groups and local communities. Yet beside these objections, wind-power stations provide great advantages: safe, almost environmentally neutral — and easy to maintain, being designed for longevity. “We simply left out much that could break”, explains Tanja Maringer succinctly. The stations, which are being developed in the Saarland, are simple, durable and reliable and will soon also be produced at the new location in Neunkirchen. Maximum efficiency The core of the gearbox-free wind turbine, of which the prototype was tested in Sitzerath, created a new state of the art, innovative generator technology. The generator is based on permanent magnet technology, which already existed for electric drives, but was now put into use for wind-power stations as well. With this external rotor motor generator, a charged field is created by permanent magnets made of neodymium-iron-boron. The main feature of this technology is that wear parts and susceptible additional components, such as collector rings to transfer the generated power, have been eliminated. The generator is perfectly protected against environmental influences. In addition, the power for the generator itself is saved, making it fully available as energy output — the electrical efficiency is outstanding. With conventional technology, using a gearbox between rotor and generator, the power train is subject to extreme stress. In the worst case, the gearbox needs to be replaced after five to ten years — an expensive measure. The new gearless robust technology makes the VENSYS system, which is designed for a service life of twenty years, a low-maintenance and reliable alternative. The technology shows some amazing parallels with the EC motor developed by ebm-papst. Here too, a brushless, external rotor motor actuated by permanent magnets foregoes the need for components that wear and at the same time offers decisive advantages: simple controllability, durability, compactness — and up to 90 percent efficiency. „Tanja Maringer knows for sure: “To think green means to think economically.” The gearbox-free technology in the wind-power station challenged the creativity elsewhere on the part of the developers, too: “We needed a suitable frequency inverter to transfer the electricity generated to a constant voltage and frequency”, explains Maringer, adding that the VENSYS frequency inverter is made by a subsidiary in Diepholz. A large number of semiconductors work in this frequency inverter — and they get hot, just like the transformer, which is also accommodated in the base of the tower. Self-cooling power At this point, VENSYS and ebm-papst came together: “VENSYS approached us about the development of component cooling in the tower base”, recalls Winfried Schäfer, Regional Sales Manager at ebm-papst. About five years ago, the then Manager of the Electrical Department, Dr. Stephan Jöckel, had a groundbreaking idea: Why not use the clean, cool air available at the top of the tower to cool the frequency inverter and transformer in the tower base, and the generator? However, a stimulus was required. This was now provided by an EC axial fan in the tower door. The EC fan in the tower base generates a slight underpressure, which is sufficient to draw the air flow down through the entire tower to the base — a kind of reversed chimney effect. The air mass flow is directed via a distributor on the inverter cabinet to the air-conditioning components of the PCBs inside — which also accommodate further ebm-papst EC fans. Behind and below the inverter cabinet, the air is drawn further to the transformer and finally blows warmth out of the tower base, making this an extremely economical system of self-cooling forces. In addition, in the forth coming WPS generation, the EC axial fans will be equipped with HyBlade® blades. They combine the stability of a high-strength aluminium alloy with the light weight and unlimited mouldability of fibreglass-reinforced plastic. He who thinks green thinks economically Yet one might think that who ever is at the source need not necessarily save energy. However, Tanja Maringer disagrees: “He who thinks green thinks economically.” For the Renewable Energies Law (EEG) guarantees the operators a fixed supply payment of currently 9.2 cents per kilowatt hour. With an investment sum of approximately 2 million Euro per installation, the use of energy-efficient components is absolutely worthwhile. “We are therefore concerned that our installations themselves use as little power as possible”, concludes Maringer. Previously, we did not directly approach potential operators with these competitive advantages, as the company acted primarily as a licenser. In the past five years we have gained licensees in the Czech Republic, Spain, India, Brazil and above all in China. Meanwhile, 270 installations are operational worldwide, but the Chinese partner alone is planning a further 1,000 installations this year. Since the start of this year, VENSYS has been producing at the new company headquarters in Neunkirchen itself. First of all, the 20 installations planned for 2009 will be produced by order for the German and European markets. At the new site in Neunkirchen the future shines bright: in the new workshop production is starting off — viewed by engineer Mike Becker, Winfried Schaefer of ebm-papst and Tanja Maringer (left to right) VENSYS Energy AG 1990 Forschungsgruppe Windenergie 2000 VENSYS Energiesysteme GmbH & Co. KG in Saarbrücken 2007 VENSYS Energy AG 2008 Moving to Neunkirchen When the wind energy research group was founded at the Saarbrücken College of Technology and Business in 1990, nobody realised that just ten years later there would be a successful spin-off. For after the group had successfully developed a gearbox-free wind turbine with an output of 600 kilowatts for the company GenesYs, five members decided that they could themselves develop and construct installations. In the year 2000, therefore, the company VENSYS Energiesysteme GmbH & Co. KG was founded in Saarbrücken, with the prototype VENSYS 62 which has an output of 1.2 megawatts. The young company won its first licensee: the firm Goldwind in China, which today with 70 percent is the largest shareholder. Over the following three years, a further installation type with an output of 1.5 megawatts and four more licensees were added. In 2007 the company changed its name to VENSYS Energy AG. In 2008 the subsidiary VENSYS Elektrotechnik GmbH in Diepholz started with production of the self-developed frequency inverter. In August 2008, the 40 employees moved from Saarbrücken to Neunkirchen and started their own production with ten new employees. By the end of 2009 it is intended to double this number and to have built 20 installations. www.vensys.de	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4522
__label__wiki	0.528365	0.528365	An 'ASK' on Kartini Day This week on State of Women, Kartini Day is not Kebaya Day and an "ask" for Minister Yohana. by Devi Asmarani, Chief Editor Today Indonesia celebrates one of its most illustrious heroines, Kartini, perhaps the country’s first intellectual feminist. If you don’t really know who she is, I suggest you read this piece, rather than going back to your history textbooks. Because for decades, Indonesia has celebrated this woman for all the wrong reasons. And one of the most obvious mistakes in celebrating Kartini Day, of course, is making a tradition for girls and women to wear kebaya or national costume on the day. Don’t get me wrong, I think kebaya is pretty and elegant, and that traditional costumes must be preserved. But celebrating Kartini Day by wearing what she presumably wore more than 100 years ago – and she wore it not as a personal expression, but because that’s what women wore in those days – is like paying respect to Albert Einstein’s achievements by teasing your hair to a complete frizz, or commemorating the birth of Nelson Mandela by having a batik exhibition, because he was fond of batik. I mean, if people didn’t do this for those great men, why did they do it to Kartini? It is an obvious reductionist way to put a woman in her place – thou shalt be judged by thy appearance. Which is sad. If she were alive, I do believe she would be dressed in a way that would allow her comfort and mobility, and kebaya is not the most comfortable and mobile gear. Kartini was born 136 years ago today and died at 25 of complications from giving birth to her first child. Now, let’s talk about that for a moment to refresh your memory. Kartini was married off at the age of 24, which was considered old for the Javanese nobility’s standard at the time, too old to marry well. Not only that, she was also the fourth wife of the regent of Rembang, Raden Adipati Joyodiningrat, who was 26 years older and who already had 12 children from all his three marriages. The marriage dashed her hopes of accepting a scholarship to study abroad, but ironically, it gave her greater freedom to spread her feminist message at home, (with her husband’s approval of course). With the help of the Dutch government in 1903, she opened the first Indonesian primary school for native girls that did not discriminate on the basis of their social status. Set up inside her father’s home, the school had a Western-based curriculum. In short, Kartini envisioned a world – her world – in which girls and women attain empowerment and enlightenment through education. Fast-forward to now, when girls have more access to school and women are relatively free to pursue a career (or a life they envision). There are still many other issues including social, legal, infrastructural and institutional that continue to hamper the fulfillment of gender equality in this country. But we should be relieved because at least the government is paying attention to these issues, right? Actually, not quite. The Ministerial Gaffes For over a decade now, we have had the Minister of Women Empowerment and Child Protection and at least one of them was good (Khofifah Indar Parawansa comes to mind). Not many women’s rights activists would say the same of the current minister Yohana Susana Yembise, however. In fact, it appears she has done more damage than good in such a short time since her appointment late last year. Her last biggest gaffe was last month, during the 59th annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 59) at the UN in New York, when Indonesia was identified as one of the countries that are hampering progress in attaining gender equality. CSW is a global intergovernmental body dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The Commission’s mandate includes taking a leading role in monitoring and reviewing progress and problems in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BDPA), and in mainstreaming a gender perspective in UN activities. Every year it meets for two weeks to discuss progress and gaps in implementation of BDPA, as well as emerging issues that affect gender equality and the empowerment of women. In its annual meeting last month some member countries could not agree on issues such as sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR); sexual rights; Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression (SOGIE); human rights of women and girls; and feminist groups. According to this blog, these countries, including – you guessed it – Indonesia, were trying to block negotiations, limiting the involvement of civil society organizations and feminist groups in formulating documents. The Guardian further stated that Indonesia, along with Russia, the Holy See, Nicaragua and the Africa Group of countries have “tried to limit references in the text to human rights and to remove mention of the role feminist groups play in advancing gender equality.” Indonesian women activists blame Minister Yohana’s lack of capacity in her role for this setback. Sulistyani, who is a member of the Sekretariat Nasional Jokowi Perempuan, a women’s volunteer support organization for President Joko Widodo, said Yohana had tarnished Indonesia’s name in the international women’s forum and effectively undermined all the advancement that the country’s women’s groups had achieved for decades. “Indonesia has been one of the pioneers of feminism since 1995,” she said. Yohana has defended herself saying she had mistakenly thought the material had been well prepared before her presentation in the forum. But, that’s actually the worst excuse, as it shows that she doesn’t do her homework. Among women’s activists, she is seen as not being entirely aligned with or not fully grasping the meaning of gender equality, making her prone to gaffes. So our “ask” today on a day that (supposedly) honors women’s empowerment is that Ibu Yohanna can step out of her ribbon-cutting role and start doing real work to achieve gender equality in Indonesia. Maybe start by getting a good grasp on what gender equality means first. *Find out the biggest misconceptions about feminism and follow @dasmaran on Twitter Feminism Gender Issues Women Issue Devi Asmarani is a functional introvert who enjoys mild socializing and dancing to hip hop music every once in a while. She cries when wowed by a movie, a song, a book, an article, a poem, a speech, a TV commercial – basically any work of human's mind that has been exquisitely created. Selling God: Our Encounter with Abusive Orphanage Owner by Alice B – March 14, 2014 Teaching Fun Global Citizenship by Jennie M. Xue, Columnist – January 22, 2015 To The People Who (Think They) Are Not Revolutionary by Nisya Putri Shaliha – May 25, 2016	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4523
__label__wiki	0.897213	0.897213	Loveless [TV] Ritsuka Aoyagi, a young boy suffering from amnesia, is approached by a stranger who claimed to know his brother Seimei before he was mysteriously murdered two years ago. After accessing Seimei’s laptop, Ritsuka discovers that his brother and the stranger – Soubi Agatsuma – were once fighting pairs involved in spell battles. Now with his brother gone, Ritsuka has inherited Soubi as his fighting unit, and together they must find the truth behind The Seven Moons and Seimei’s murder. Loveless is an anime adaptation of the fantasy-romance manga series written by Yun Kouga under the same name. Produced by J.C. Staff, the anime series aired a total of 12 episodes between April 7, 2005 and June 30, 2005. The show’s art and story — especially how the relationship between its main protagonists got handled – was received quite well by viewers. Ritsuka Aoyagi Ritsuka is a young 12-year-old boy, and is the main protagonist of the series. Despite his young age, he is acts surprisingly more mature, except when it comes to sexual relationships. He was abused by his mother during his childhood, resulting in his complicated and conflicting behavior. Soubi Agatsuma Soubi Agatsuma is a 20-year-old art student, and was Seimei’s former partner. He previously attended the Seven Moons Academy, where he was thought by Ritsu. It was Ritsu who was responsible for the loss of Soubi’s ears. However, it was not specified if the act was consensual or otherwise. He later then becomes Seimei’s fighter unit, after the latter carved a name on his neck. After Seimei’s death, he was tasked to contact Ritsuka. Season Summary Episode 1: Breathless Shortly after the mysterious death of his brother, Aoyagi Ritsuka is approached by Soubi Agatsuma, who claims to be his brother’s close friend. Ritsuka’s shock and confusion only worsened after the stranger who he just met confesses love to him. Before he could think and react, two childre Anime Rating 848 users added this. Watched By lyakomy commented on Loveless [TV] lyakomy Feb 16, 18 at 9:20am I really like the Anime and even more the Manga. If only it was like this in real life, having a bond to someone given by fate.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4525
__label__wiki	0.911198	0.911198	Fundraiser Search Looking for an individual or team participating in an event? Rappeller Stories Register Volunteer Donate Mariana's Wish Helped Her Find Purpose For Mariana, her wish to go on a cruise in 2013 was about more than simply having a dream fulfilled; it was a life-changing experience. Born in Mexico, Mariana moved with her family to Canada as a young child. Learning English as a second language, she struggled to fit in due to the language barrier, and continued to feel like an outsider while growing up. When she was diagnosed with leukemia at the start of grade nine, it looked like Mariana’s teenage years were going to be just as atypical the rest of her childhood. Finally, at the age of 17, and after three years of treatment, Make-A-Wish® sent Mariana and her family on a Caribbean cruise, which marked a turning point in her life. To summarize her experience, she says: “I love what they did for me. I love how they opened the doors for me to live my dreams and to try and be more than what I thought I could be before my wish.” Seeing the impact that Make-A-Wish had on the lives of so many children not only made Mariana feel special, it made her feel a part of a wider community; one that would change her way of thinking and the course of her life. In May 2013, Mariana and her family departed for their cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas cruise liner. Mariana says that the idea for her wish was sparked by seeing the Oasis cruise liner on the Discovery channel, and marvelling at its size and luxury. Mariana felt this would be the perfect wish experience because she'd get to spend time with her whole family and celebrate the end of her cancer treatment. “Being on the cruise ship with my family was a memorable experience that kind of closed a chapter for us," she says. "I was so grateful that Make-A-Wish gave us this opportunity to get away and forget about all of the stress of being ill, and just enjoy being a normal family.” Once aboard the ship, Mariana was excited not only by the scale of her adventure, but also by the fact that the ship’s staff was raising funds to support Make-A-Wish on their journey, in partnership with the wish granting organization. The cruise ship flew the Make-A-Wish flag during their time at sea, and Mariana was invited to participate in the fundraising activities. Mariana recalls that when they reached $8,000 of their goal, she was invited to push the captain into the pool; when they reached $9,000, she was rewarded with throwing a pie at the captain’s face; by $10,000, Mariana was invited to dress up and visit the salon to shave one of the hosts’ heads! The spirit of camaraderie was amazing, and when the program raised more than $11,000, Mariana was invited to speak in front of the passengers. “In the end, everyone applauded my little speech and made me feel like a celebrity," she says. "I recall a couple of people pointing at me, and smiling or waving... I never told them that I had cancer, or that I was a Make-A-Wish child, but they all supported me nonetheless.” Mariana was amazed by the generosity of everyone aboard the ship, and she felt, for the first time, strong, confident and able to take on the world. In the years following her wish experience, Mariana has become a dedicated supporter of Make-A-Wish. She has participated in our signature fundraising event, Rope for Hope for the past three years. She also works for Camp Oochigeas as a photographer/videographer/video editor. “Speaking in front of an audience has given me the courage to really want to be a spokesperson for Make-A-Wish and other cancer organizations,” she says. Mariana is now cancer-free and attends Brock University, where she is completing her third year of study in the creative writing honours program. She hopes to become a fantasy novelist and write stories that people living with cancer can connect with. She wants to help people in treatment cope with what is happening to them, so that they can feel happy and accepted. Mariana cannot overemphasize how important the work done by Make-A-Wish can be for a family dealing with a childhood illness. "Supporting Make-A-Wish is a way to invest in giving a child an opportunity to be happy or giving a family the chance to find hope in a time when it is really difficult," Mariana says. "Life-and-death situations are never easy, but having a wish will allow that family to feel special." More than anything, the experience has made Mariana believe that she can help others facing the same difficulties, whether through her writing or through the newfound confidence that has allowed her to stand up and speak publicly on behalf of those in need, “It might have been a small wish, but I got to see how many lives Make-A-Wish has impacted by granting them their one true wish," she says. "So just being a part of that community made me feel really special and helped me see that we are really making a difference.” For Mariana, it’s all been about paying it forward. National Partners & Sponsors: © 2019 Privacy Contact	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4526
__label__cc	0.578907	0.421093	Sarah Foreman Memorial Post-Secondary Scholarship 2019 Application to be submitted by May 31, 2019 This scholarship has been established as a memorial to long-time Little Theatre of Owatonna member Sarah Foreman who died in February 2006. Foreman’s work as a director extended through 30 years with her first work as a director of Matchmaker in 1975. She directed 18 shows and served on the board for 11 years in three separate terms. Foreman served as the Board President from 2002-2005 and was vice president upon her death. At the time of her death, Sarah had just brought her last directing feat, Music Man, to the local stage. Sarah’s extensive contributions and dedication to theatre in Owatonna are memorialized in this scholarship. This scholarship is meant to recognize and support the post-secondary education of a local person whose studies and/or participation in theatre distinguish him/her. Recipients will be chosen based on theatre involvement (past, present, future) including LTO, two letters of recommendation, academic achievements and educational goals, and college and/or community involvement beside theatre. Scholarship Guidelines: The SARAH FOREMAN Memorial Post-Secondary Scholarship will be at least $1000.00. One scholarship may be awarded annually with no repeat recipients and eligible unsuccessful applicants are encouraged to re-apply. Applicants must be enrolled in the second or later year of a post-secondary education institution. Applicants must be a current or former resident of Steele County for more than one year. Applicants must be pursuing a major or minor in Theatre Arts or a degree which includes theatre involvement or have extensive participation in high school, college, and/or community theatre. Applications must reflect LTO involvement. Completed applications must be received no later than June 1 of the current year. The scholarship will be paid to the recipient upon documentation of paid tuition expenses incurred following the scholarship award. Application includes: 1. High School transcript 2. Post-Secondary Transcript 3. Application Form (BOTH sides) 4. Theatre Resume Form including LTO experience 5. Two Letters of Recommendation Resume Form – Docx Resume Form – PDF All parts of the application should be sent to: SARAH FOREMAN Memorial Scholarship Questions regarding the scholarship may be directed to Gaylene Steckelberg, (507) 456-3352 Contributions to the scholarship fund are welcomed. Contributions are tax-deductible. Contributions and/or application information is available at the following address:	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4529
__label__wiki	0.74504	0.74504	How King Jeremy will rule, where his friends will be found One of the most familiar misreadings of the distribution of power within the Labour Party imagines that the Party operates like one of the monarchies of the middle ages. There is a King whose power is under threat from a caste of barons (the union leaders). The King has reached an agreement with them under which they fund his regime. In return he allows them a disproportionate save over his party’s policies. The key to the happy functioning of this regime, as imagined by the press, is that the King is prohibited from reaching too far towards public opinion. Life itself would demand that he adopt the sensible policies of the parliamentary centre (such as, say, the immediate sale of the National Health Service to some billionaire combining the enlightened business practices of a Richard Branson with the personal morals of a Rupert Murdoch). Labour is restrained from adopting such common sense policies only by the self-interest of the union barons, who insist on interposing themselves into policies debates in which they could have no reasonable stake (it being plainly offensive to recall that UNISON’s members, for example, staff, clean and supply the same NHS). If we think beyond this parody to how parties actually operate, one of the ironies of the last few weeks is that the Labour leadership has created something like baronial society, save that the Council with which Labour’s new monarch is surrounded, is composed of MPs not of trade unionists. When William the Bastard landed at Hastings in 1066 (he became William the Conqueror only on seizing London), he had an army of fewer than 10,000 soldiers. Having defeated Harold, he had to rule a society of some 3 million people. He had enough troops to occupy a dozen castles; he was not strong enough to hold a country without persuading the existing rulers that his kingdom was secure and it was in their interests to submit. In Labour’s recent election Jeremy Corbyn was the preferred candidate of around 20 of Labour’s 232 MPs: principally the then nine members of the Socialist Campaign Group, and a similar cohort from the 45 or so Labour MPs elected for the first time in 2015. The Campaign Group comprises such Parliamentary stalwarts as Dennis Skinner, veterans within no interest in a front bench role (it is even a rule of the SCG that on becoming a shadow minister, you have to leave the Group). The new MPs were for the opposite reasons unsuitable for rapid promotion. Corbyn’s isolation is shown by the presence of just two of his supporters (McDonell, Abbott) within the 28-strong shadow cabinet, and this proportion barely rises when you include junior ministers as well. Altogether Labour has a frontbench of 150 MPs and Lords: only three in total come from the Campaign Group. In early modern England, it became common to present the relationship between the King and his subjects as a contract, in which the throne agreed not to govern beyond certain limits, and the people agreed in return to submit to the King’s rule. But certain features of this relationship are worth noting: the bargain between King and people was not recorded in writing (there was no constitution), indeed the terms of the bargain could not be formally negotiated (because to do so was to admit a dual power within the regime as King John discovered to his cost by conceding Magna Carta). That said, most people, from barons to the lowest serf, believed they knew the limits beyond which the King had agreed not to cross. When the feudal commons rebelled, they did so in the name of the King and the proper implementation of the King’s laws. From the last fortnight it seems that the lines of the social contract underpinning Corbyn’s leadership are now tolerably clear: Jeremy Corbyn has agreed not to use his role as Labour Party to promote the Labour left to ministerial roles in greater proportion than their numbers in the Parliamentary Labour Party (strictly, speaking, as I’ve tried to show, Corbynistas are presently underrepresented on Labour’s front bench). This may possibly change as the new cohort find their feet, but Corbyn has effectively agreed not to promote them rapidly Corbyn has agreed not to back proposals for mandatory reselection of MPs – ie provided that their opposition to his leadership does not exceed a certain extent (yet to be defined), he will not use the Corbyn voters to oust his critics and replace them with his supporters Corbyn has agreed that for the time being – although possibly, this concession is limited until there has been a thorough discussion within the Party as a whole – he will not seek to impose on the Labour Party views with regards to foreign policy (ie Trident, Nato, the EU, presumably the bombing of Syria) which are out of kilter with those of Labour’s most right-wing supporters Corbyn has left the key tasks of internal party discipline (and, to an extent, the nuclear option of whether or not to allow the PLP to topple the leadership) in the hands of the most determined organisers of the “Anyone But Corbyn” bloc in Labour’s recent election – ie Rosie Winterton, Alan Campbell and Mark Tami, the same individuals who were the whips during the leadership contest. In return, the PLP (Labour’s barons) have agreed Not to stage an open rebellion against Corbyn’s leadership, or at least not to do so at least until after local elections next year Tentatively, to allow Corbyn a role in the formulation of economic policy which has been refused to him in foreign policy terms (although, the terms of this part of the deal is still subject to skirmishing, so that for example rather than allow Corbyn simply to declare that Labour will reverse the Tories’ cuts to legal aid, ie make a spending commitment, a compromise has been reached under which a Labour peer Lord Bach will consider what parts of legal aid shall be restored. We will wait to see whether there shall be similar internal party investigations of housing, education and health policy). In a heroic scenario, Corbyn consolidates his leadership by persuading enough Labour MPs that in conventional Labour Party terms he is up for the job, will increase their chances of winning an election and therefore getting better jobs as actual ministers, etc. He is able to do this by following, essentially, a similar path to Syriza in Greece in about February-March 2015, ie having policies for the reversal of austerity which are backed by large numbers of economists, and showing that a redistributive government would run Britain better than the giant tax haven Osborne envisages. In a disaster scenario, Labour MPs continue to undermine his leadership by briefing against him, weakly restrained by a group of whips, who are his committed opponents. Labour drags on to the spring, does badly then, and the PLP launches its coup at that moment. Corbyn has an advantage over his PLP opponents in that they tend to see the battle strictly in internal Labour terms. To a greater extent than them, he sees the consolidation of his leadership as dependent on how Labour does. They can only imagine a disaster, possibly mitigated for some time, but in the end they can see only his defeat. He, by contrast, understands that success outside the Labour Party would give him greater power to (albeit very, very slowly) renegotiate the terms of his present contract with the parliamentarians. New blood could be brought in, reselection may yet emerge as the mere logical corollary of the great redrawing of constituency boundaries – but only if Corbyn proves himself electorally. Corbyn’s principal disadvantage is that even he has a very weak sense of the targeted abuse that will come his way as and when he takes on not the Conservative MPs but the interests of the rich that stand behind them. It is simply not the case that when Labour and the Tories oppose each other, there is a battle of opinion, on equal terms, with the great British public waiting to step in as referees and declare one or the other side the victor. The more effectively Corbyn lands blows against the Tories, the more he raises people’s hopes of, for example, that distant impossible utopia in which a millionaire would have to declare their true income and might in future pay even just half as much tax as the typical streetsweeper, the more weeks he will like his first, and the greater the storm of popular indignation that the press will try to summon against him. The most decisive battle isn’t going to be between Corbyn and the Labour Party (a working compromise has been reached on that front), but between a redistributively-minded Corbyn leadership and the champions of the rich. There will be a role for those – in the Labour Party or not – who can lay a blow on capital. It may yet prove an equally important task to that of those who focus on the internal struggle within Labour. Filed under Corbyn and tagged Corbynistas, Labour \| 4 Comments “We’re not bothering you, we’re from the press” I have extracted the sound file of Jeremy Corbyn being harassed by the media on Sunday. They have already caused suffering by door-stepping several members of his extended family, people who never chose to be in the limelight, and are entitled to their privacy. After a while you stop listening to the questions, and hear only the answer, the rhythm of Corbyn’s feet. He walks as a sometime runner might, with purpose. You can also hear his fatigue. This is a figure, after all, who has given more than 100 speeches to his supporters in three months, and addressed (in addition) so many joint debates that his rivals (20 years his junior) are exhausted. As her prepared himself for his victory he may well have thought, naively, that a holiday was in order. So much of all our collective longing is invested in him. How heavy that burden must be. Whatever scenario you might paint in your imagination as to how socialism “should” come about, do not kid yourself that the path would be any easier for an English Trotsky, a British Che, a North London Bakunin. “Why do you keep walking”, he is asked, “and not answering the question?” In the press reports, it is said that Corbyn is rescued by an aide, but I’m pretty sure it is in fact his son Tommy – good on him. And then the journalist becomes conscious, for a moment, of where he is and what he is doing. “Jeremy, we’re not bothering you, we’re from the press.” Well, what do you think you are doing? It is not enough to say ‘our job’. Everyone, whatever they do, always has a choice. Filed under Me; running \| Leave a comment The civility of Corbyn Why did he do so well? From the point of view of the Labour right this was supposed to be an auction in contemporaneity. Corbyn represented the 1970s, an industrial economy, trade union power, hand-knitted sweaters; whereas his rivals were supposed to represent the glittering forces of the scientific future. People would vote for the new wouldn’t they? Maybe they just did. Think for a moment of the most familiar consequences of neo-liberalism – job insecurity, the partial but real removal of the wealthy from the tax system and the degradation of public services that follows, the private sector annexation of common space, health, education … – all of these tend to leave the individual feeling alone. Churches, working-men’s clubs, unions, co-operatives, even pubs are seeing a decline in the number of people who use them. In the context of what can feel like a general demise of collectivity, the personal qualities of our leaders take on a new and unfamiliar importance. When leaders let us down we shout “not in our name”, and look for someone different who we can identify with. In this context Corbyn’s seeming personal incorruptibility – his most often noticed virtue is that he is our Parliament’s lowest expense claimer – seems immediate and new. Now reverse the exercise, and see neo-liberalism as the accidental creator of new solidarities, whether that is the seeming prevalence of non-monetised relationships online, a new speed of communication through social media, or through (some) social campaigns a re-collectivised public space. And it becomes possible to argue that there is, immanent in our present, a more collective future waiting to emerge. Seen from this perspective, Britain becomes something surprising – a residually social democratic society, with a left consensus that re-emerges whenever you ask people whether we need public services. Corbyn’s civility – his refusal to boast, his unwillingness to antagonise – can feel like the long-awaited reconnection of “politics” with the values of the majority. It certainly feels much more immediate than the Blairite gurning for the interests of the super-rich. The politics of 1995 maintained was that it was possible to finesse a basic law of politics, and of life, that rich people and workers have different and incompatible interests by making a definite promise that new technology would enable both to prosper. In 1995, it was possible to argue that the world was on the verge of a technological revolution – and if you compare the list of the world’s richest companies in 2015 with its predecessor of twenty years ago it is possible to argue that list has changed more in the last twenty years than it had in the previous 50. Amazon was new once, Apple felt new a generation ago, Facebook had barely been invented… Now listen to Blair in 2015, mid-campaign, complaining that the future is being ignored: “We should be discussing how technology should revolutionise public services; how young people are not just in well-paid, decent jobs but also have the chance to start businesses that benefit their communities; how Britain stays united and in Europe; what reform of welfare and social care can work in an era of radical demographic change.” Doesn’t it all feel so tired? Voters just know that the million jobs moved from employment to self-employment are not better paid, they’re worse. The privatisation of public services is in the eyes of no one (save perhaps Richard Branson’s accountant) an unexplored frontier. The Europe that crushed Syriza has delivered no enthusiast claiming to have seen the future and it works. In due course, Corbyn may well look old. The 99 speeches he has already given (he reaches a century today) already wear on his face. There will be a time when it is no longer possible to see them as the benign look of a runner reaching his racing weight. Faced with a five-year barrage that the last month has barely foreshadowed – attacked by the rich, by the Tories, distrusted by a majority of his own MPs – he may struggle. (Those of us outside the Labour Party will need to remember that he is being attacked not for any flaws but for his socialist politics) One day we may become nostalgic for those socialists who respond to invective with its like. But, today, he has more than earned his victory. Beneath the paving stones, comrades, it’s beige. Filed under Uncategorized and tagged Corbyn, Labour \| 2 Comments Lives; Running reviewed Book review in Track Statistics magazine, summer 2015 We must all have met people who are such concentrations of energy that the question that comes to mind is ‘How do they find more than 24 hours in each day?’ When I met David Renton recently, that was exactly where my thoughts travelled. But to begin at the beginning. Sports writing is a difficult pursuit and is not generally noted for its outstanding literary merit. There are, fortunately, a few exceptions in the athletics sphere. To begin a book with the words ‘The first man I saw run, really run, was Jack London’ is the mark of a skilled and imaginative writer and W. R. Loader did just that in Testament of a Runner. Another who displayed impressive command of descriptive language was the prodigious F.A.M.Webster whose pen-pictures of past athletes are arresting and vivid. Then one who doesn’t seem to have received due praise, in my view, was Sam Ferris whose long series of articles on road running events for Athletics Weekly in the decades after World War 2 were so compelling that one can almost hear the patter of the plimsoll soles on the tarmac. Let us now add the name of Renton which will almost certainly be unfamiliar to readers of this journal. David Renton is an Eton College-educated, London-based Barrister with political views which place him on the Left. But, in his book Lives;Running the reader will get little of powdered wigs or manifestos for change. What you will get is a fine read by a man who loves his running and communicates its joys and pains in a way which will stimulate even those whose interest in sport is limited. But he is more than that. He has published around a dozen books on a range of topics, he has consuming interests in sports, social and family history, he is a family man with two small children and he holds down a demanding job. The first words in this book I have a short stilted stride. I do not stretch, rather I scuttle like a club–footed beetle tell us that here is a man who accepts his limitations but is not discouraged from the challenges of seeking physical and mental fitness through running. In fact, Renton’s family background shows a strong sporting tradition. His grandfather competed for his college at Oxford University at cricket, cross-country, football and rugby. His father was accomplished at rowing. Renton himself was to achieve 1:59.7 for 800 metres whilst still a schoolboy. Then, after a break from running which lasted for 8 years, he returned to the sport and combined it with cycling. Eventually he entered the London Marathon where he battled to even finish but recorded 4 hours 24 minutes. Renton devotes a great deal of space in the book to recalling the rivalry between Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett. This section is wonderfully evocative of a time when British middle-distance runners dominated the world. Renton reminds us that the rivalry was so intense that even athletics supporters (and indeed many people outside the sport) were either for the majestic Coe or cheered for the down-to-earth Ovett. The author makes no secret of his partiality when he writes after the 1500 metres in Moscow [the 1980 Olympic race] Coe asked his rival ‘Where did you finish’. It was only with Ovett’s reply that he had finished 3rd did Coe relax. Yet on the occasions when both athletes lost, Ovett could be seen comforting the younger man. He continues It was that capacity for warmth, sympathy and human solidarity which represented for me Ovett’s victory. I find it difficult to argue with that personal judgement. Whether that made Ovett the better athlete is another question. David Renton’s own view is that there was little to choose between them in innate athletic ability. What he concludes is that their personal backgrounds indelibly shaped the athletes they became. As is well known, Coe was guided closely by his father who made no secret of his determination to mould his son into a high achiever after the boy had failed his 11+. Coe senior believed that hard work paid dividends. But then so did Ovett’s family, successful market traders in Brighton. But is was certainly always my impression that the atmosphere in the Ovett household may have been more relaxed that that at the Coe’s. Whatever, their sons grew into very different human beings. Renton goes on to describe how he again stopped running after he became a father, only returning to the activity in recent times when past his 40th birthday. Good for him. He writes of what running means for him With just a few other pleasures, running is part of my nature. It is something I could barely exist without. I run to feel the air cool and my body warm. Running has repeatedly surprised me, it has shaken me out of the torpor of daily living. Besides the London Marathon, Renton has tackled a whole series of half-marathons including in Hackney and Oxford and has no intention of cutting back on his efforts. A few hours with David Renton is unlikely to leave you feeling bored as I discovered on a recent Sunday afternoon in north London. His conversation ranges over topics so far and wide that one cannot avoid being mentally stimulated. On the sport of track and field athletics I put to him my feeling that, whilst professionalism is to be welcomed because it has broken down barriers of class and wealth which featured heavily in the early years of the sport, that a negative effect had been a concentration on elite athletes to the detriment of the everyday club athletes. Renton doesn’t necessarily go along with that view and points out the enormous numbers of people of a wide-age range who have taken up road running in recent times and have found their lives transformed. He also points to the large numbers of runners in the National Cross-country Championships. He has written that competing in road races with runners of both great abilities but also those of more limited accomplishments, as measured by results on paper, gives him a feeling of being part of a social movement. As someone who has participated in a few road runs in his time (rising to the level of spectacular mediocrity) I certainly concur that the overriding emotion is of camaraderie. His view of competition is that it is as much about competing against oneself as against other people. The targets for many runners and joggers are personal. Although, as Renton, admits with a smile, it is a pleasant feeling to beat the bloke who finished in front of you on the last occasion. David Renton’s views on track and field today are largely positive and formed by his enthusiasm for running. In response to my question about the decline of the influence of clubs in the sport, he stressed that he was more concerned about the serious decline of green spaces and playing fields associated with schools. ‘After all’, he comments, ‘that is where the culture of fitness and challenge is first nurtured’. Likewise he does not see the overwhelming superiority of African athletes in distance events at international level as a problem but prefers to view it as an incentive to other runners to re-double their own strivings. It was no surprise to learn that he has a special interest in (and has written about), the ‘Workers Olympics’ which flourished in the years before World War 2 and saw celebrations between 1925 and 1937 in Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Germany. He has also written a book about C.L.R. James, the Trinidadian radical whose own cricketing book Beyond a Boundary regularly appears in lists of ‘The Greatest Sports Books Ever’. A different sport, but similar human sentiments apply. Naturally, I was delighted when David Renton mentioned the name of the great Alf Tupper and obviously knew all about the welder from Greystone. The ‘tough of the track’ remains one of the greatest athletes of all time and, if you’re looking for one of John Lennon’s ‘working-class heroes’, is up there with Jack Holden, Ethel Johnson and Arthur Rowe. Had Tupper tangled with Coe and Ovett we may have witnessed a 3 minutes 20 seconds one mile! You won’t get many stats in this book. But if you value a stimulating and uplifting read, then it’s for you. Filed under Book, Reviews \| Leave a comment	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4531
__label__wiki	0.826167	0.826167	Home People Comings & Goings Cushman & Wakefield Names CEO, Global Valuation & Advisory Cushman & Wakefield Names CEO, Global Valuation & Advisory NEW YORK—Cushman & Wakefield announced that John D. Busi has been promoted to chief executive officer, global valuation & advisory (V&A). Busi, who was named global head of the group in 2013, also serves on the firm’s global management committee. A 34 year veteran of the firm, Busi will continue to drive the strategic direction and execution of V&A. “John’s promotion to CEO of global valuation & advisory recognizes his ‘Client Only’ approach to leadership, talent development, and collaboration. He has created a differentiated service offering working with the world’s largest investors and lenders to provide the most sophisticated knowledge involving complex real estate on a global scale,” said Edward C. Forst, C&W’s president & chief executive officer. Under Busi’s leadership, the V&A group significantly enhanced its platform by adapting to asset class specialization and introduced nearly 20 new specialty practice groups. He also led the launch of a state-of-the-art technology initiative and built a quality control platform. Busi joined Cushman & Wakefield in 1981 in the firm’s property accounting group in New York and in 1990 was promoted to head the New York V&A practice. In 2004, he assumed national oversight responsibilities, where he was instrumental in doubling the firm’s office network in the U.S. When he later assumed the role of head of V&A for the Americas region, Busi was active in the continued globalization of the firm’s management structure while guiding organizational growth in the Americas region. Previous articleLightstone to Invest $2 Billion in Hotel Projects Next articleChesapeake Hospitality Appoints VP of Operations Access Point Financial Names New CEO, Chairman This Week’s Comings and Goings Four Seasons Names John Davison as President and CEO	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4535
__label__wiki	0.515447	0.515447	Mayan temple damaged in end of world party December 24, 2012. TOURISTS flocking to Guatemala for “end of the world” parties have damaged an ancient stone temple at Tikal, the largest archaeological site and urban centre of the Mayan civilisation. “Sadly, many tourists climbed Temple II and caused damage,” said Osvaldo Gomez, a technical adviser at the site, which is located some 550 kilometres north of Guatemala City. “We are fine with the celebration, but (the tourists) should be more aware because this is a (UNESCO) World Heritage Site,” he told local media. Gomez did not specify what was done, although he did say it was forbidden to climb the stairs at the site and indicated that the damage was irreparable. Temple II, which is about 38 metres high and faces the central Tikal plaza, is one of the site’s best known structures. More than 7000 people visited Tikal on Friday to see native Mayan priests hold a colourful ceremony and light fires as the sun emerged to mark the new era. Critics complained that the event was really for tourists and had little to do with the Mayans. About 42 per cent of Guatemala’s 14.3 million residents are native Mayans, and most live in poverty and endure discrimination. The ancient Mayans reached their peak of power in Central America between the years 250 and 900 AD. UNESCO declared Tikal a World Heritage Site in 1979 Source: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/mayan-temple-damaged-in-end-of-world-party/story-e6frfkui-1226542845834 ← Mayan Priests Denied Access to Ceremonial Places in Guatemala Giant Mayan Frieze Tells Ancient Guatemala Story → « Dec May »	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4538
__label__cc	0.70644	0.29356	The Coca-Cola Acquisitions and Exits, 20 Deals Between 1960 and 2018 beverages Company The Coca-Cola has acquired 18 companies, including 7 in the last 5 years. A total of 7 acquisitions came from private equity firms. It has also divested 4 assets. The Coca-Cola’s largest acquisition to date was in 2018, when it acquired Costa Limited for $6.0B. It’s largest disclosed sale occurred in 2015, when it sold Keurig Green Mountain to JAB Holding Company for $13.9B. The Coca-Cola has acquired in 6 different US states, and 8 countries. The Company’s most targeted sectors include beverages (94%) and consumer products (7%). Join Mergr and gain access to The Coca-Cola’s M&A summary, the M&A summaries of companies just like it, as well as recent M&A activity in the beverages sector. The Coca-Cola Co. One Coca-Cola Plaza, M&A Activity (20) M&A Connections (13) M&A Advisors (2) Mergr Coca-Cola's corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Corporate HQ Mergr Mergr Entrance to Coca-Cola's corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Corporate HQ Mergr Mergr Entrance to Coca-Cola office in North Sydney, Australia. Location Mergr Mergr Coca-Cola signage in Barcelona, Spain. Marketing Mergr The Coca-Cola Co. is a producer of beverages. The Company's brands include Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Light, Coca-Cola Zero, Sprite, Fanta, Minute Maid, Powerade, Aquarius, Dasani, Vitaminwater, Georgia, Simply, Minute Maid Pulpy, Del Valle, Ayataka, Bonaqua/Bonaqa, and Schweppes. Coca-Cola dates back to 1886 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. M&A Summary Buy vs Sell ≤ '14 Buy (1.2/yr) 10 3 2 - 1 - 16 $4.6B $401M $575M $6.0B $11.6B Sell (0.4/yr) 2 2 - - - - 4 $1.7B $13.9B $15.6B Top M&A Advisors Sign-up to View Deal Values > $1B Sign-up to View $100M to $1B Sign-up to View < $100M Sign-up to View Largest Costa Limited $6.0B (2018-08-31) Largest Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. $13.9B (2015-12-07) 31,856 11% 2018 41,863 6% 2016 48,017 2012 (millions of USD) Show More Show Less NYSE: KO Beverages M&A - Last 3 Years When analyzing the beverages sector as a whole, according to Mergr, in the last 3 years, there are 85 beverages companies that have made at least 1 acquisition, and 3 have acquired at least 5 companies. The most prolific strategic beverages acquirer over the past 3 years is Constellation Brands, with 5 acquisitions. The most prolific private equity acquirer in the beverages sector over the past 3 years is TSG Consumer Partners with 2 platform acquisitions.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4543
__label__cc	0.627508	0.372492	February 19, 2018 by Mike Vitale I transferred to California State University Fullerton as a music major in 2002. It was one of the most important experiences of my life. It taught me the value of balancing feeling and logic to decide what is best for my future. This is something that I realized, just recently. Let me explain. I transferred to Cal State Fullerton as a Classical Guitar Major. While it was definitely something that I had fun doing, I had an unsettled feeling that my interest in classical guitar was only true up to a certain point. I was interested in the techniques that it was teaching me: voice leading, harmony, fingerpicking, etc.—but I was unsure that a life devotion to it would satiate my desires in the future. I spent a lot of time studying classical guitar, because one of my heroes at the time, Michael Hedges, was a classical guitar major and used many of his studies to shape his own unique style of music. For those of you unfamiliar with his work, he was a brilliant composer who used alternate tunings on his guitar almost exclusively. He was a steel string acoustic guitar player and also played harp guitar and a number of other very unique instruments to compose music. He developed his own methodology behind playing guitar with fingerpicking that included using fingers to mute unused strings to limit sympathetic vibrations due to the overtone series; this would allow for his music to resonate with pristine and exact nature and purpose. He also would swap out string gauge sizes on his guitar (often using high bass strings) in order to allow him a larger and lower palate of tunings for his compositions. For musicians interested in exploring his technique, look up a book called "Rhythm Sonority Silence." He crushed my skull as a musician and to this day, I search for my own unique voice and my own unique contributions to art because of people like him. My desire in 2001 was to transfer to Berklee School of Music in Boston because they offered a commercial music program. I had put a deposit down on a dorm room with what money I could scrape up from working my day job. While it wasn't a tremendous deposit that I put down, it was non-refundable and it was a lot of money to me. My mind was set on getting the best musical education that a person could receive. I was anxious. As the deadline approached for me to enroll at Berklee, my parents asked if they could take me out to dinner at Ryan's Place, which was a restaurant that the two of them frequented a lot. I was expecting for them to glow with their approval for my choice of visiting Berklee and to be proud of my decision to try and receive the education I desired: this couldn't have been farther from the truth. My mom and dad sat down with me and explained life to me in the form of debt. They took a piece of paper and added up all the expenses I would accrue from a two year education at that school (which was low balling it). I probably would have spent more than two years there. What they showed me is that I would be over $100,000 in debt from attending there for two years. They asked me: is it wise for a musician to embark into the world with that much overhead? I was absolutely crushed by what they were trying to show me. I was around 22 at the time and wanted so badly to fight the logic that they were trying to display to me when it came to my desires. My mother and father offered me an alternative: use my father's veteran grant to pay for an education at a UC or CSU within the state of California. As much as I didn't want to listen, I knew deep down, they had a point. I began searching around for UC's and CSU's with great music programs. The three best that I could find were UCLA, California State University Northridge, and California State University Fullerton. The crux of education offered at these universities revolved around the pedantic methods used to teach music. You are pigeon holed into an education that is derived from either classical music or jazz. While I deeply loved both of these styles of music, neither one of them was where my heart truly lived. However, I followed their advice and continued to narrow down a choice based on what I had available to me by following their advice. I visited various colleges and universities including Berkley and San Francisco State University, but neither felt like home. It wasn't until I visited California State University Fullerton that something resonated within me. It felt like home. That's the best way I can describe it. At any rate, my choices there were as follows: classical guitar or jazz. I decided on classical guitar and went to audition in front of a panel of instructors in order to be accepted into the music department as a transfer student, with my general education completed. While I did a stellar job of passing my exams to forgo further music theory instruction, I found that the audition was the most critical part in fully understanding the new direction I was heading in, and it was one of the most unnerving experiences of my life. I remember complaining about how cold the room was. In actuality, I was so nervous that my hands were paralyzed, sweaty, and unable to perform their muscle memory dictation. I butchered every single etude that I attempted to play for the committee. It was a humbling outcome to an experience I had spent so much time preparing for. They accepted me into the department of classical guitar and music, but it was as a freshman level player. I was a junior level student. This bruised my ego a great deal. However, one of the people on the panel approached me afterwards. He was the head of the jazz department at the school. He asked if I would be interested in auditioning for the Commercial Music Department at the school. It was brand new curriculum that he was trying to build and thought that I might be a good fit. I jumped at this opportunity to redeem myself. I showed up at his office for the appointment that he assigned to me, I auditioned, and was accepted into the department as a junior transfer student. However, this was only the beginning to truly finding where my heart and head was taking me. I spent that first semester working harder than I ever thought I was capable. While I was a decent music reader, I found that I had to work ten times harder than the average student because my sight reading abilities were akin to using the Rosetta Stone to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs (especially when it came to funk charts). I would spend hours every night trying to interpret music charts for the big band. I would transcribe jazz solos for my jazz composition class. I would spend hours working in the choir room to brush up on performances we were preparing for in the choir ensemble. I would study the ancient origins of secular and sacred music from my text book (something I now appreciate). Each of these performance classes were worth one unit and I was trying to carry somewhere between 18 to 21 units that semester. As the end of the school term drew near, I was feeling miserable and I disliked all my studies in music aside from one glimmer of light: I was starting to write my own songs. I began a slow transition towards finding comfort and solace in creating my own music. It began to consume my time and I found myself disinterested in pursuing the life of a guitarist in a commercial music program at a university. The first song that I ever wrote, that I finished, was was addressed to my older brother called, "Between Me and You." It was a great song and definitely carried flavors of Jason Mraz, who I was listening to a lot of at the time. I was proud of it and it felt good to get out a lot of the frustration I was feeling towards my lack of good communication skills with my brother at the time. By the time my first semester drew to a close at Cal State Fullerton, I realized what I truly wanted from life: to be a songwriter. I stopped working so hard in a lot of my music classes and began to explore all of the qualities that make good songwriters. I checked out books from the library and began to read incessantly, as I used to do, before becoming a music major. I studied my shortcomings and found that where I was weakest, was in my lyric writing. Suddenly, I had this moment of clarity: English Major. It was the best decision I ever made in my life. All of my teachers were outstanding to me, but there was one particular instructor I had that changed my life forever. While I wasn't a poet, I did write songs incessantly and asked this particular instructor if she would be so kind as to let me submit my songs for her classes rather than poetry. She was excited by this proposition and gladly accepted the challenge. She was relentlessly hard on me and picked apart every single thing that I ever wrote. She kept saying things to me like, "don't tell me, show me." I didn't get it. I had to have submitted around 8 to 10 songs before we finally arrived at one song that she deemed worthy of me understanding what she was trying to teach me. It carried these qualities: it was a memory from my own life, a character I created. It was told from the perspective of a woman that used to visit me at a grocery store I worked at—and I was very detail oriented with my memories. It was a song called "The Grocery Store Clerk." I played the song for the class—and they went bananas. That was all the encouragement I ever needed. To this day I use her methods to construct lyrics: • Be as specific as possible with details regarding your own life and with anything that you write about. You would think that people relate more to general details, but it is in fact, the very opposite.. The more specific you are about every little detail, the more people will find honesty and truth in it, which is very important. This makes good art. I use this method in nearly every song that I write. Even if it is a work of fiction (song, prose, or poetry), I try to inject a bit of my own life into it. • Don't tell people what is happening. Show people what is happening. This was a harder concept for me to grasp, initially. What she meant by this: there are two different ways you can show people an idea. You can tell them what you are feeling, which doesn't do anything for the audience. It doesn't resonate. Or, you can use senses to show someone what you are wanting them to experience. By engaging people's sensory perception, you help to bring what you are trying to convey, to life. I am very thankful to her for teaching me such wonderful techniques. I use it in everything that I write. Sometimes, I find that people read into things too much, however, that is out my hands entirely. I know what I intend when I commit to words, and I feel like I need to work harder when people misinterpret what I set out to be the point of a song. It's disappointing to me and I feel that I missed the mark and need to do better next time. Everything that I write carries positivity to it as that is the main motivation behind good art: to create something beautiful out of the worst that life throws at me—and in equal measure, all the good vibes that come my way as well. In this regard, every song I create is like a child that I bring into the world, in the hopes that they grow their own legs of truth, and live longer than my body ever will. February 19, 2018 /Mike Vitale Mike Vitale, Michael Patrick Vitale, Michael Vitale, Michael Hedges, California State University Fullerton, Cal State Fullerton, Pedagogy, Music Program, Jazz, Classical Guitar, Songwriting, Songwriting techniques, Songwriters, Singer/Songwriters, Lyrics, Poetry, Music Major, Rhythm Sonority Silence, Musician, Berklee, Berklee School of Music, Alternate Tunings, Guitar	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4551
__label__wiki	0.663459	0.663459	Tag: Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) United States, India, HRCM, multiple NGOs back Elections Commission, urge presidential polling to take place Saturday The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has urged political parties to support the Elections Commission to hold the presidential election tomorrow, and called on “as many Maldivian citizens as possible to go out and vote”. The United States has called on political leaders to ensure participatory democracy is not undermined, and expressed concern about the potential postponement of Saturday’s election. The Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and Jumhooree Party (JP) presidential candidates have demanded fingerprint verification of the finalised voter registry, with police refusing to support the election without the candidates’ signatures. After submitting letters to the Elections Commission (EC) soon after midnight, the party’s leaders have been unreachable. Signing of the registry by the candidates is a new demand contained in the Supreme Court’s guidelines for the election, following its annulment of the first round of polls shortly before midnight on October 7. “The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) urges political parties to prioritise national interest and support the elections commission in this difficult moment to hold the presidential election as scheduled,” the commission declared in a press statement issued today. “We call on as many citizens as possible to go out to vote and not to obstruct the vote,” it added. Earlier this week the HRCM member and acting chairperson Ahmed Tholal told local media that the commission had complete confidence in the Elections Commission’s ability to conduct the upcoming presidential election freely, fairly and in a transparent manner. Multiple Maldivian and international civil society organisations have also called for the presidential election to be held as scheduled tomorrow. United States and India The United States Embassy in Colombo has also expressed concern that the October 19 election may be postponed, and called on political leaders to ensure participatory democracy is not undermined in a press statement today. “Political leaders must come together to ensure that participatory democracy is not undermined and that free, fair, credible and inclusive elections can take place peacefully and in line with international standards. Further efforts to delay the electoral process could undermine the will of the people to choose their representative,” the US Embassy stated. “The Electoral Commission has made concerted efforts to comply with the Supreme Court’s requirements for a new first round, including the re-registration of thousands of voters,” it noted. “The United States is concerned that the re-organised first round of the Maldivian presidential election, set for October 19, may now be postponed.” The US also highlighted the Maldives’ constitutional requirement that a new president be sworn in by November 11, 2013. India echoed the United States’ “deep concerns” that the presidential election may be further delayed and “once again urged the government of Maldives and presidential candidates” to hold the election tomorrow and uphold the Maldives’ constitution, in a press release issued by the High Commission of India in Male’ tonight. “We call upon all political parties to show a spirit of understanding, cooperation and accommodation by supporting the efforts for holding elections as scheduled, including by accepting the voters’ register,” stated the Indian High Commission. “Holding of free, fair and credible elections without further delay is essential for fulfilling the political aspirations of the people of Maldives.” President Mohamed Waheed has meanwhile urged parties “not to act in a fashion that obstructs holding of the election and to prioritise national interest over personal interest”. Transparency Maldives Local NGO Transparency Maldives has reiterated its appeal for the presidential election to take place as scheduled. “We have previously called for the presidential election to be held in the timeframe stipulated within the constitution,” Transparency Maldives’ Advocacy and Communications Manager Aiman Rasheed told Minivan News today. “In resolving the rising tensions and disagreements in the country, Transparency Maldives appeals to all actors, especially the Supreme Court, to uphold the spirit of the Constitution and electoral deadlines and respect people’s electoral choice,” reads a September 28 Transparency Maldives press statement. The NGO also previously appealed to “all actors and institutions to refrain from undermining the integrity of and confidence in the election day processes without credible evidence of fraud.” Rasheed noted that “We have already missed two deadlines: holding a runoff election within 21 days after the first round and holding an election 30 days prior to the expiry of the existing presidential term November 11,” as stated in articles 111 and 110 of the constitution. “The only deadline that has not been missed is holding the presidential election before October 20,” he continued. “The Supreme Court’s verdict mandates all state institutions, including political parties, must work with the Elections Commission to ensure a free and fair election,” he explained. “An election cannot be held without everyone joining together – civil society, political parties, media, state institutions – to support the Elections Commission,” he added. Meanwhile, the anti-corruption NGO has stated that it is “fully ready for extensive observation of the October 19 presidential election”. Transparency fielded a team of 400 election monitors during the first round of September 7, stating that the process was fair and credible and that incidents observed on the day would not have had a material impact on the outcome of the election. In late August, Transparency Maldives expressed doubts over the integrity of the Supreme Court, urging it to “maintain its actions in such a fashion that the court does not allow further diminishing of its integrity and to be transparent in its functioning and sharing of information to strengthen the public trust towards the institution.” The NGO also recently noted that the failure of parliament and the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to address alleged integrity issues of the Supreme Court judges have “created avenues for political and other actors to question the conduct, injunctions and verdicts of the Supreme Court”. The Home Ministry this month announced that it would be investigating Transparency Maldives for challenging the Supreme Court, prompting the NGO’s international affiliate – Transparency International – to express its concern “grave concern” about staff and volunteer safety and “alarm” over the intimidation and public allegations threatening its Transparency Maldives chapter. Maldives NGO Federation In light of the HRCM statement, the Maldives NGO Federation, representing over 60 local civil society organisations, also reiterated its support for the Elections Commission. “The NGO Federation of course appreciates the hard work of the Elections Commission and we fully trust in the work they are doing,” NGO Federation President Ahmed Nizam told Minivan News today. “Given the Supreme Court’s verdict, it’s will not be very easy for the EC to go ahead and hold the election without political parties signing the voter registry. We are hopeful that the talks held tonight will help solve the issue,” he noted. “I would like to believe that the political leaders of this country will be responsible people,” he continued. “And we stay hopeful that we will get the opportunity to exercise our constitutional right [to vote] tomorrow.” “The EC Chairperson has said that even if the political parties sign the registry by 7:30am tomorrow morning the election can still be held,” he added. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling to indefinitely delay the presidential election’s September 28 second round until a verdict in the JP case against the EC had been reached, the NGO expressed concern over the election delay and urged the Supreme Court to deliver a speedy verdict and to allow elections to proceed as per the constitution. The Home Ministry subsequently demanded the NGO provide a copy of its press release regarding the Supreme Court. The NGO Federation also recently expressed its concern that political parties have been attempting to discredit the Elections Commission by inciting hatred toward the institution in an effort to obstruct the holding of a free and fair presidential election. The NGO Federation declared their confidence in the EC and noted the essential role the commission has played in holding free and fair elections over the past five years. International Federation of Human Rights International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) NGO said it is continuing to observe developments in the Maldives, and is calling for the outgoing government to ensure Maldivian people were given their right to vote in a free and fair election held in accordance with international standards. Expressing concern about “mixed signals” being given to Maldivian people and the international community about holding an election, the international NGO said there was growing anxiety around the world for voting to be held without further delays. FIDH said it continued to hold particular concern over the decision by the country’s Supreme Court to annul the first round of the presidential election held on September 7 – an order it claimed, in a joint statement with the Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN), was “unjustifiable”. “The unjustifiable delay and judicially forceful suspension of the second round of the election, due on 28 September, indicates an encroachment of the judiciary over the powers of the Elections Commission, an independent constitutional body answerable to the Parliament of the Maldives,” read the statement from MDN and FIDH on October 8. The statement described the court’s verdict as being founded on “materially baseless arguments”, after the first round was “applauded as a success by the international community.” “Maldivian authorities must swiftly bring the electoral process to an end, in a free and fair manner,” said FIDH President Karim Lahidji at the time. Posted on October 18, 2013 October 18, 2013 Author Leah MaloneCategories Politics, Society & CultureTags civil society, democracy, election monitoring, elections commission, Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM), International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), jumhoory party, maldives, maldives news, Maldives NGO Federation, minivan, minivan news, NGO, political parties, presidential election, supreme court, transparency maldives, united states3 Comments on United States, India, HRCM, multiple NGOs back Elections Commission, urge presidential polling to take place Saturday Q&A: Elections Commission Chairperson Fuwad Thowfeek The Maldives’ Elections Commission (EC) is preparing for the presidential election’s second round run-off amidst the Jumhooree coalition’s refusal to accept its first round defeat, triggering a barrage of judicial, political, media and civil society actions against the commission. The Jumhooree Party (JP) – in conjunction with the Attorney General (AG) and the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) – has led a Supreme Court case to annul the election, whilst the party’s High Court case against the commission was conducted in tandem. In response to the JP’s vote fraud claims the police barricaded the EC secretariat and searched its garbage, while multiple protests and threats have targeted the commission and its members and local media has broadcast unsubstantiated information about the commission and electoral process. The EC has emphatically dismissed allegations of vote rigging as “baseless and unfounded”, highlighting its transparency and extensive preparations – conducted with international support – to ensure a free and fair polling process. International election observers have unanimously commended the first round of polling, calling for losing parties to accept defeat and allow the second round to proceed as scheduled. With the September 28 run-off less than a week away, Minivan News discusses some of the challenges faced by the commission with Fuwad Thowfeek, Chairperson of the country’s first independent Elections Commission (EC). Supreme Court case Leah R Malone: Considering the politicised nature of the Supreme Court – as highlighted by the UN Special Rapporteur for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Gabriela Knaul – is there a risk the Supreme Court’s order to hand over the EC’s only original copy of the voter list could lead to it being tampered with? Specifically, given the lack of material evidence or witnesses presented against the EC thus far, is there a potential opportunity for names to be added to the original voter list to substantiate the JP’s claims? Fuwad Thowfeek: Thursday (September 19) the Supreme Court ordered the Elections Commission provide the original voter list, so we’ve been making color copies. EC members sat down and discussed [the situation], the constitution and presidential election laws, as well as met with our legal team. Since it’s a Supreme Court case they can order anything be given, so it’s best to follow that order [and provide the list]. However our legal team advised us to take very accurate color copies of each page before sending the originals. We are keeping the duplicates and in case any changes are made [to the originals] we will very easily be able to recognise them. It is the best solution we have at the moment. As of about 3:45pm or 4:00pm Friday (September 20) we sent 120 lists to the Supreme Court. 200 will be sent Saturday and the day after the remaining lists. We are sending the original documents as the copies are being made. LRM: If the Supreme Court rules to annul the presidential election’s first round, what will the Elections Commission do? FT: That’s a big question because according to the constitution and even elections law there is nothing said [about whether the Supreme Court can take that action]. We have to ask the Supreme Court to give a timetable or something [for the presidential election]. Other than that there’s nothing we can do. We won’t be able to fulfill the time requirement set forth in the constitution [if the run-off isn’t held on schedule]. 120 days before the end of the current president’s term a presidential election must be held. If there is no election then the [democratic] constitution, presidential and general election law will not be satisfied. The strangest, funniest thing is that they are still not able to identify a single person who has voted fraudulently. For example, they have not been able to show anyone who is younger than 18 has voted, but they have been claiming many underage people fraudulently voted. If there are many [that voted fraudulently] they should be able to verify and show at least one person. They are also claiming that dead people voted, and when they submitted the list of seven names to the High Court, the court gave us the list to check. So we reviewed the voter registry and voter list, found phone numbers on record for four people and when we spoke with them, the individuals verified they were indeed alive and had voted. We are sure we will be able to find the remaining three people. The other thing is if a dead person voted, someone should be able to show that this is the person who voted under the deceased’s name. Also, the JP is claiming 50,000 fraudulent votes have been added. The strangest thing is none of these ballots have been identified. No ballot boxes were found to have more votes cast than voters registered. Only one ballot box – located on a resort island – was found to have exactly 100 percent voter turnout. The average voter turnout was 88.44 percent nationwide. LRM: Has Attorney General Azima Shukoor been in contact with the Elections Commission? FT: That was another surprise to us actually. She has not been in contact with us and then suddenly appeared in the Supreme Court case. The funniest thing is the AG is supposed to support government institutions, but in this case the AG is speaking against the EC. She is supporting JP without evidence or witnesses, just saying there were errors in the voters list, but is not able to cite what those specific errors are because she has not seen [or requested to see] the list. When I heard the AG was going to participate in the Supreme Court case, I thought it would be on behalf of the EC and she would tell the court [the vote rigging allegations are] simply not possible and the court cannot give any room to cancel the first round and re-hold it. [However,] when the AG came out and spoke against the EC – just like any political party supporter of JP – we released a press statement stating that the commission regrets this action by the AG. Both the AG and the JP have not provided any evidence or witnesses to support their allegations. The government has spent over MVR 30 million (US $1,949,310) on the first round, there is no budget remaining [to hold both rounds again]. If it’s difficult for the government to provide the additional budget for the second round, there will be so many difficulties if the [results are annulled and] voting rounds are held again. [Prior to the Supreme Court case] we hadn’t had much contact with the office of the AG or the AG. Last year after the change of government, in March or April, the EC met with the AG and spoke about changes that were required in the election laws, but nothing has materialised so far. She told us at the time that there were so many laws requiring revision. Before the end of the last Supreme Court session, the Chief Justice ordered the EC to submit the original copy of the voters’ list. They are probably going to check the list to see whether people below the age of 18 voted. If they want to check for that, it’s fine. We are 100 percent sure they will not find anyone below 18 who voted. Accessing the voter list LRM: Following the High Court order for the EC to allow JP access to the voter list – under the guidelines determined by the commission – what were the exact protocol guidelines the EC enacted during the JP representative’s visit? What other political party representatives were present? FT: Tuesday (September 17) the High Court ordered the EC to show the voter list to political parties. We have only one original [copy of the voters list] and had to make arrangements to follow the High Court’s order to show JP [the list], so we made the arrangements for Thursday (September 19). This was because the EC needed time to prepare, seek advice from our legal team, and to hold a discussion meeting with our members. At the same time, arrangements for other candidates to see the voter list were also made. We invited all four political parties to send representatives to see the original voter list. The viewing started at 10:00am. A team from JP came and GIP, but no PPM – even in court they said they did not want to see the voter list. An MDP representative came, but he said he did not want to see it. We asked the other two – representatives from JP and GIP – what they wanted to see. Then again they wanted more people [from their parties] to come and for the EC to make copies [of the list for them]. But we couldn’t make that arrangement because we have to be very careful with our only copy [of the list], so our own official would show it to one representative at a time. There were arguments from the political party representatives [about these guidelines]. [However,] the lawyer, Dr Hassan Saeed [JP presidential candidate Gasim Ibrahim’s running mate and head of JP’s legal team] said that now he does not need to look at the voter list anymore because he would prefer for the EC to hand it over to the Supreme Court. (JP’s Legal Advisor Mohamed Haleem told Minivan News last week that the party would seek an additional High Court order for unrestricted access to the voter list). LRM: With the ‘leaked’ police intelligence report – which the AG is citing in the Supreme Court – alleging there were “some opportunities for fraud” and “illegal voting”, the AG arguing for the Supreme Court to order the police to investigate the EC, and the police barricading and searching the EC’s garbage, do you think the police are politicised and acting against the EC? FT: I don’t think anything will happen. I heard the AG demanded the PG issue an order to the police to investigate some of these allegations, but so far the commission has not been contacted by the police or the PG. But we don’t know anything about this. The AG should have met and spoke with the EC before making such a decision and then advising another institution [to take action]. LRM: What has been the outcome of the Maldives Broadcasting Commission (MBC)’s investigation into Villa TV (VTV) broadcasting programmes to incite hatred and create an uprising against the EC? Have any substantive actions been taken by MBC against VTV? FT: We don’t know about the [outcome of the] MBC investigation. They said they will be taking actions against those broadcasting untruthful content. We know that VTV has stopped broadcasting the ‘Olhuvaalee Vote Ge Namugai’ (‘fraud in the name of the vote’) programme. But for a very long time they have been showing ‘Fasmanzaru’ (‘five horizons’), where various JP political party members or supporters just talk against the EC or against the election’s first round. Although what they have to say has no substance. Saturday or Sunday we have to send a complaint letter to MBC. Again I have called MBC’s President Mohamed Shahyb and by phone have spoken to him about ‘Fasmanzaru’ [and the unsubstantiated claims its spreading]. LRM: How will the EC provide more timely information to media during the second round run-off to avoid the confusion created by inaccurate local media reports of polling station figures during the first round? FT: We have not yet decided. I think we need more frequent refreshing of figures and will try to have more frequent reports from the EC on the 28th. If everything does not go well it may be difficult… we may not be able to go to the Dharubaaruge [convention centre in Male’]. We will try to have better updates through the internet, but will be focusing on communicating directly with the media. Threats and protests LRM: The ‘National Movement’ has announced they will raise their voices in protest if the Supreme Court doesn’t rule against the EC. They are calling for the EC to be reformed – with yourself, the Vice Chair Ahmed Fayaz, and commission member Ali Mohamed Manik resigning. Have previous JP protests and planned National Movement protests caused any problems for the EC? Why are they targeting the three of you? FT: Even JP supporters – except the 20 or 30 people shouting on the streets – have accepted the first round results and are not causing any problems. Thursday night around 10:30pm 20 or 30 protesters came near the EC Secretariat, shouted for 30 minutes and left. They were demanding my resignation and saying ‘thief of votes’ and that type of thing, they wanted the [first round] results cancelled and a fresh election to be held. Sometimes they ask for myself and the Vice Chair to resign, sometimes different EC members, and sometimes the entire commission. These are a few unsatisfied people paid by somebody – who has the money – but they know they’re not shouting for any solid thing. They get on a loudspeaker [and protest] after somebody asks or pays them – they are doing it for that reason alone, not based on anything reasonable. If it was a public thing then I’d be more concerned. But this is just a few people and most are not educated. They don’t know what’s going on [with the election] or how the voting process works. There are five members of the EC and all decisions are made by the five members. [However,] the Vice Chair Fayaz, member Manik, and I are the three members interacting the most with the public, on TV etc – that’s why they are going against us. LRM: What kind of threats have been made against EC members and/or staff? FT: Some of us are getting threats from unknown people. I have received SMS messages saying ‘be careful when you come out on the street, you’ll be stabbed in the stomach’. We [commission members] have security provided by the police and we move around with them. My wife has been scared. Two times people went near our home shouting [and protesting], but the police protected our home and stopped the people from coming too near. LRM: Do you think the MPS can provide adequate security for EC members? FT: Yes, the MPS is fully capable. I’m sure nobody can harm me. They have to look at a distance but can’t touch me. Of that I’m fully confident, I’m not scared. I’m confidant know what I’m doing is right and I have the support of the people and the whole international community – observers and monitors. They’ve seen the electoral process [during the first round], which they have commended, praised, and complemented. I’m very happy and am moving ahead with my duties. My work cannot be stopped by a few people. I have full confidence in myself and am moving ahead. LRM: The JP, some of their supporters, and the National Movement have claimed the EC, its members and staff are biased toward MDP – will you clarify for the public whether there is any truth in this accusation? FT: There’s no truth to that, it’s some kind of story that some of the opponents wanted to spread. This commission, all its members and staff, do not belong to any political party or align with any political party. We have staff who are married to people from different political parties – PPM, MDP, DRP, etc – and police officers. Staff members’ spouses may belong to a political party, but that is their own interest and has nothing to do with the duties of our staff. I have full confidence in our staff, they are very faithful to their duties and this commission and would not do anything unjust. I’m confident in my staff and that none are aligned with the MDP. If they [a particular politician or political party] don’t get the result they want from a particular institution, they tend to claim that institution is opposition-aligned. The MDP got the best result [Nasheed secured 45.45 percent of the vote], so this time the EC is accused of being MDP aligned. If Yameen won then the EC would be accused of being PPM aligned. In another instance, right after the change of government [in February 2012] some said the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) was PPM aligned, because most of the decisions made were more likely to the advantage of PPM. That’s just the kind of talk that happens. Run-off preparations LRM: What kind of support are local and international partners providing the EC for the second round? Is anything additional needed prior to the run-off scheduled for the 28th? FT: We are getting a lot of support from international and local partners. The Commonwealth has expressed their satisfaction with the EC’s professionalism and their continued support for the commission. They will be sending another observer team for the run-off. The EU sent different observer teams – from various countries – on the 7th and will most likely send more for the 28th. Observers from Japan, Thailand, India, UK, US, and a Pakistani Elections Commissioner were present during the first round and expressed their interest in observing the second round. They will most likely send more teams for the run-off. I think they will come before the 28th to see the place, visit other islands, and see how ready we are for the second round. Transparency Maldives sent the observers nationwide and their report praised the electoral process. The HRCM also observed the first round and praised us on our work and confirmed everything during the election went well. The Maldivian Democracy Network also expressed their support and commended the work the EC has done. LRM: How have EC members, staff, and their families been impacted by the controversy the commission has faced since the first round? How has this impacted run-off election preparations? FT: Right now there is very heavy work we have left to do before the 28th. We are so busy we are working 24 hours a day and the EC staff works in shifts, half are sent home to sleep when the other half report in. For example, in addition to the 470 ballot boxes necessary for the first round, the second round will require an additional box be placed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and two more on tourist resorts that have applied to keep ballot boxes this round. Everyone of us has to spend so much time in the office. We go early in the morning and stay until late at night, even on weekends, while our families are alone at home. Our families suffer, but they fully support us so we can fulfill our national duty. It’s a very difficult job but I’m lucky to have the confidence of the people and [political party] leaders – even Gasim’s close people, President Waheed and President Nasheed know me well, and the honorable Yameen and Gayoom know and trust me. Even those who speak against me only speak for political gain or just to control their supporters. I know what I’m doing is right and everything will be fine for elections to take place the 28th. We are fully ready for the second round. If we are able to hold on until the 28th then we will know the next president of the country. LRM: Given the barrage of judicial, political, media and civil society actions against the EC, is the electoral environment still conducive to holding a free and fair presidential election on September 28? FT: I think on the 28th of September the second round will go ahead as we have planned and have been working toward. There has been very little or no change [in the electoral environment] that would require we make any changes to our own program. Compared to last week, this week things have very much improved. I’m very confident things will calm down. I’ve spoken to different people [representing political parties] and the most interesting thing is even those against us in the Supreme Court, they know there was nothing wrong with the election. Gasim’s employees, senior political party members, are trying to just give him a perspective that they did so much to cover up their failure to get Gasim the required number of votes [to proceed to the run-off]. They know the cases submitted in the High Court and Supreme Court are not going to give them any recount. Nothing will come out in their favour. They just want to go as far as they can go. A lot of energy has been wasted by everyone – their people, our people, the Supreme Court. I’m very hopeful the country will be ready for the run-off. We cannot keep this second round [from happening on schedule]. Particularly for the benefit of the country, to maintain the peace and harmony of our home [nation], we have to hold the second round. If we fail, we will likely face more and more problems as the time passes. It will be in the interest of the government, all political parties, and all thoughtful citizens of the country to hold the run-off. Anybody trying to obstruct the election is unpatriotic. Posted on September 23, 2013 September 23, 2013 Author Leah MaloneCategories Politics, Society & CultureTags annul election results, Attorney General Azima Shakoor, election observers, Elections Commission (EC), Fuwad Thowfeek, Gasim Ibrahim, high court, Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM), Jumhooree Coalition, Jumhooree Party (JP), maldives, Maldives Broadcasting Commission (MBC), maldives news, Maldives Police Service (MPS), maldivian democracy network, minivan, minivan news, national movement, Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM), protests, supreme court, threats, transparency maldives, Villa TV (VTV), vote rigging, voter list, voter registry5 Comments on Q&A: Elections Commission Chairperson Fuwad Thowfeek Human Rights Commission to post election observer teams The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) will station election observer teams in 10 regions of the Maldives to “ensure that eligible voters are provided with the right to vote,” reports local media. The situation in all parts of the Maldives will be monitored via phone and in addition to the Commission’s observer teams, a special team will also be in Male’ to “act in cases of emergency”, stressed the HRCM. “Our staff have also been trained on how the police are allowed to use force during the elections,” HRCM President Mariyam Azra told local media on Thursday (August 15). The HRCM has conducted a training program for the observers, in addition to meeting with the Elections Commission (EC), police and political parties in the run up to the September 7 presidential elections. Posted on August 17, 2013 Author Minivan NewsCategories News in BriefTags Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM), maldives, maldives news, minivan, minivan news, observers, police, political parties, presidential election Torture victims require redress, thwarted by institutionalised impunity Maldivian victims of systemic and systematic torture that has been occurring for decades have yet to find redress, while the legacy of wide-scale human rights violations continues to be perpetuated by state institutions due to institutionalised impunity, government, state institutions and civil society organisations have said. The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has confirmed it is investigating three recent cases of detainees being tortured by Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services (DPRS) officers while in the Custodial Reception and Diagnostic Centre (Male’ Jail). Officials from the HRCM visited Male’ Jail June 2, 2013 after the family of a detainee informed the HRCM on May 31, 2013 that the victim had been beaten by DPRS officers. In March this year local media reported that the HRCM was investigating allegations of torture in Male’ prison, however due to authorities “not cooperating” with the investigation the HRCM team was forced to visit Maafushi Prison instead. In response to the allegations, DPRS Commissioner Ahmed Shihan told CNM that thus far no warden was found to have been involved in the torture of detainees and if a prison warden was found to have acted unlawfully, action will be taken against the officer. “We will keep monitoring to ensure that all wardens act according to the law,” said Shihan. In May 2011, former Prisons Division Head of the DPRS Isthafa Ibrahim Manik was detained and questioned by police, after disturbing photographs of tortured victims in custody were obtained by the – now dissolved – Presidential Commission and leaked to the media. While instances of Maldivians in state custody suffering human rights abuses remains problematic, it is symptomatic of a long standing history of torture that has yet to be remedied or seriously addressed. “It is quite worrying that we keep hearing about accounts of torture in custody. These recent accounts are an indication of the consistence and continuing abuse in custody,” Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN)’s Executive Director Humaida ‘Humey’ Abdulghafoor told Minivan News yesterday (July 13). “There is systemic and systematic abuse of detainees [in the Maldives], therefore the practice of torture is unlikely to just disappear over a short period of time,” she emphasised. While the HRCM’s national preventative mechanism should protect people from the state committing human rights violations, Humaida believes this mandate has been inactive and not working effectively. “The HRCM has a national preventative mechanism that legally obligates them to ensure mistreatment of prisoners is prevented from happening in jails,” she said. “Monitoring and oversight is very important because of the history we have, but this mechanism is not working effectively,” she added. Given the physical and psychological harm torture victims suffer that “cannot be dissociated”, supportive mechanisms that account for this trauma need to be established for Maldivians, explained Humaida. “There must be an enabling environment for victims to come forward, which doesn’t seem to be there,” she said. “Many families and victims are afraid and not willing to talk or report these violations because they feel intimidated [by the state] given the risks of revictimization and possible harassment,” she continued. “Things on the surface may appear quiet, however that doesn’t mean everything is good,” she noted. Humaida explained that without an enabling environment for victims to report the human rights abuses they have suffered, there is subsequently a lack of documentation and enquiries that would ultimately identify the root causes and/or perpetrators of torture in the Maldives. “It is impossible for HRCM to know how this torture is happening without proper documentation and enquiries,” she said. “The Torture Victims Association (TVA) is the only organisation doing such work,” according to Humaida. “The TVA [also] submitted torture victims’ testimonies to the HRCM February 6, 2012, which the victims were able to provide because they no longer felt afraid.” “A report [by TVA and international NGO Redress] about ill treatment of prisoners was submitted to the HRCM in July 2012, containing the most concrete evidence produced regarding torture occurring while in detention,” she continued. “Victims’ testimonies were also presented to the UN Human Rights Committee [July 2012 in Geneva], which made recommendations that the Maldives has not yet implemented,” she added. Reports that included testimonies of police brutality, in addition to torture and ill-treatment of detainees in jail, were presented during the meeting held in relation the to International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which the Maldives is a signatory. It has been over a year since the reports were submitted and Humaida cited the “inactivity and apathy of authorities” as a possible reason there has not been any action to redress these past, wide-scale instances of torture. “I’m very surprised the HRCM has not given updates on how these investigations are proceeding,” she said. “[Additionally,] while they used to visit prisons regularly and produce reports, that is not something they seem to be doing anymore, which is also a concern,” she added. HRCM mandate limited The HRCM mandate specifies that the commission’s focus should be on incidents post-2000, however there is a clause that does allow investigations of past human rights violations if a case is “serious enough”, HRCM Vice President Ahmed Tholal explained to Minivan News yesterday (July 13). “Torture occurs when state authorities function with impunity, which does not produce a society that is respectful toward human rights,” said Tholal. He explained that the HRCM is coordinating a strategy to holistically approach past human rights violations on a wider scale. “We have discussed as a commission how to address human rights violations on a wider scale and how to approach cases to systemically root out torture,” Tholal stated. “It is very important to ensure absolvement of that feeling [state authorities function with impunity] amongst the people,” he continued. “The Maldivian people need some sort of redress and closure,” he added. In regard to the accounts of torture submitted to the HRCM last year by TVA and Redress, Tholal explained that if a human rights violation has occurred then the HRCM looks into the issue on a case by case basis and that allegations of torture submitted by the organisations are currently under investigation. “We are currently looking into the complaints of each victim [from the reports]. However, some information and evidence is hard to come by,” said Tholal. “For example, we are not able to contact the actual people directly, we have to seek their contact information from the organisation. But we are trying to move as fast as we can.” Institutionalised impunity Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) was given an update on the current human rights situation in the Maldives this past April, by MDN in collaboration with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). The brief noted that while some steps have been taken in the past decade to reform institutions and investigate allegations of human right abuses, including torture committed by the security services, limited mandates, a lack institutional will, and senior officials publicly dismissing these concerns has prevented redress. “A culture of impunity has been institutionalised for perpetrators of past human rights violations that… encourages the security forces to disregard the rule of law and commit further human rights abuses in impunity,” stated the brief. In September 2012, FIDH released a report detailing the human rights situation in the Maldives, titled “From Sunrise to Sunset: Maldives backtracking on democracy”. FIDH noted that the government of President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has been accused of a wide range of human right violations, including violent harassment of street protesters, torture and harassment of pro-opposition media as wells as legal and physical harassment of the opposition. “Practices to silence political dissent that had disappeared in the course of Nasheed’s presidency, have once again become prevalent under Mohamed Waheed’s presidency,” said FIDH. Police station and prison torture There are many accounts of the systematic and sustained use of torture within the state’s prisons and police stations perpetrated by military personnel, police, coast guard, and prison officers, according to the Redress/TVA report which included accounts of individuals who allege that they were tortured or ill-treated during former President Maumoon Gayoom’s regime between 1978-2008. “Most victims were initially tortured or ill-treated during interrogation and questioning, either at police stations or at various detention centers,” stated the report. “Torture and ill-treatment continued in prisons and detention facilities, typically as a form of intimidation and punishment.” “But until now, the victims of such treatment have not been provided with any justice for what has been done to them. Despite accepting that torture and ill-treatment occurred on a wide scale, the Maldives is yet to address its legacy,” the report noted. The findings highlighted that “While there was no apparent limit to the forms of torture and ill-treatment used, many were quite specific to the island environment.” Torture and ill-treatment of detainees was often inflicted outside the prison buildings, and guards appear to have been given free range to use whatever methods they choose, including: beatings, burning, being tied to palm trees, the use of high-pressure hoses, the use of stocks and other painful restraints as well as suspension, near drowning, being restrained and covered in sugar water to attract ants, subjection to noise and sleep deprivation, sexual abuse and sexual humiliation, etc., the report found. The government of Maldives previously acknowledged that the use of torture was systematic in the country, as stated in its Universal Periodic Review report to the UN Human Rights Council in 2010. However, current government officials deny torture and ill-treatment of detainees is problematic, and claim that human rights reports conducted by civil society organisations are subject to political bias in favor of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). Meanwhile, former President Mohamed Nasheed – a previous torture victim himself – pledged to institute structural changes to reform police and military institutions upon his re-election in September, during an MDP function held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia July 13. The Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services (DPRS) and Maldives Police Service (MPS) had not responded to enquiries at time of press. Posted on July 14, 2013 July 15, 2013 Author Leah MaloneCategories Politics, Society & CultureTags Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services (DPRS), detainees, former President Maumoon Gayoom, former president mohamed nasheed, Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM), human rights violations, ill-treatment, impunity, jails, maldives, maldives news, Maldives Police Service (MPS), minivan, minivan news, President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, prisoners, redress, torture, Torture Victims Association (TVA), victims6 Comments on Torture victims require redress, thwarted by institutionalised impunity NGO urges government to address “inadequate” child protection measures A Maldivian NGO has criticised child protection measures currently in place in the country as “inadequate”, while urging government authorities to incorporate several key human rights obligations into domestic law. Local NGO Advocating the Rights of Children (ARC) told Minivan News today (April 21) that although the Maldives has signed and agreed to be legally bound by the provisions in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its Optional Protocols, the commitments have yet to be adopted into law. ARC said it therefore “strongly urged” the Maldivian government to ratify the CRC Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedure as soon as possible to “enhance child protection measures in the country and to uphold its international legal obligations and responsibilities under the convention.” ARC today claimed that provisions outlined in the CRC had not been fully adopted by the state into domestic legislation, thereby limiting the promotion and protection of child rights. “Even though there is work being done to protect children, it is not enough,” the organisation said. “The CRC’s optional [communications] protocol allows individuals, a group of individuals or their representatives to submit complaints to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child claiming to be victims of a violation by the state, of any rights enshrined in the convention or any of its optional protocols which the Maldives is a party to. “What is very important is that children themselves or their parents can submit complaints if domestic [legal measures] have been exhausted,” ARC added. ARC cited the recent example of the 15-year-old rape victim from the island of Feydhoo in Shaviyani Atoll who was convicted of premarital sex at the Juvenile Court in February and sentenced to 100 lashes and eight months of house arrest. “The recent case of a 15-year old girl, whose rights were violated and abused by her step-father is a clear example of how domestic judicial and legal mechanisms failed to address and rectify the violation over a substantial period of time, at different levels,” ARC said. “This is a situation where an individual complaint to the UN Committee could hold the government accountable even if the ‘domestic remedial system’, including judicial and legal mechanisms, fail to address the issue of abuse. “Ratifying this optional protocol will help protect the rights of children as it could help reduce the number of cases in the Maldives where a lack of legislation, clarity and commitment to international human rights law allow serious injustices to proliferate,” ARC added. Council heads and senior civil society figures have previously slammed the judiciary, state authorities and welfare groups over their systemic failure to protect the 15 year-old girl, despite her history of alleged sexual abuse dating back to 2009. The 15-year-old’s case has brought international attention to the Maldives’ legal system, including the launch of an online Avaaz.org petition signed by over 2 million people that has threatened to boycott Maldivian tourism. The sentencing of the minor has also come under high-profile public criticism from British multi-billionaire Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group of companies. Former Attorney General Azima Shukoor has already appealed the court’s sentencing decision against the minor. ARC said it hope ratifying the treaty in the Maldives would instill “a sense of transparency on child rights issues and encourage the government to be more accountable to its obligations.” “The protocol is specifically designed to allow members of the public to submit complaints to an international body if children’s rights have been violated,” ARC added. ARC said it had been informed by the Maldivian government that the ratification process had been started and was hoped to be concluded “at the earliest opportunity”. UNICEF’s view The UN General Assembly adopted the CRC’s optional communications protocol (treaty) in December 2011. Tt was first opened for signature in February 2012. Currently only four countries have ratified the treaty, agreeing to be legally bound by its terms. UNICEF Representative Zeba Tanvir Bukhari explained to Minivan News that the CRC’s optional communications protocol would require a minimum of 10 ratifications before the treaty enters into force. “Signatures usually happen faster than ratification, however what is signed should be ratified to help enable implementation,” said Bukhari. She added that achieving societal change in attitudes to child rights was difficult, but there were “many ways of managing” it in the Maldives. Bukhari pointed to maintaining civil society pressure and media attention on the Maldivian government to ratify the CRC optional protocol, as two notable examples on how to secure such changes. UNICEF previousy backed a study published by the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) in January of this year highlighting numerous policy deficiencies in children’s participation and protection. These deficiencies were highlighted in the report as potentially putting Maldivian children at serious risk of harm. Ultimately the report recommended that government and civil society organisations “push for a radical change in the traditional thinking which dominates Maldivian perceptions of children: children should be seen and not heard.” The Maldives has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (February 1991), the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (May 2002), and the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict (December 2004). Legal obligations A senior legal expert with experience of working under both the present and former governments spoke with Minivan News earlier this year about how minors were identified and viewed in the eyes of Maldivian law. The legal source stated that the culpability of children was identified in a regulation called ‘Kuda kudhin kuraa kushuge masala thah balai, thahugeegu koh, insaafu koh, adhabu dhinumugai amalu kuraane gothuge gavaidu’. The legal source said that the culpability of minors is specifically dealt with in section five of the regulations. “According to section five, children above the age of 10 and below the age of 15 are criminally responsible for five offences, which are apostasy, treason, fornication, falsely accusing fornication and consumption of alcohol,” the source said. “Children above 15 years are criminally responsible for their actions. With children who are below 10, parents are required to make good any damage because of a criminal act. There is no criminal liability for below 10.” Meanwhile, neglect and abuse of children were reported to have increased to an “alarming level“, compelling the the Maldives’ Ministry of Gender, Family and Human Rights to submit an amendment (April 7) that would transfer parental guardianship of children in cases of negligence. Earlier this year, ARC called on the Maldivian government to pass legislation concerning the treatment of sexual abuse victims. The NGO also raised concerns over the potential impact on the state’s ability to prevent sexual offences following reductions to the state budget approved by parliament in December 2012. ARC has identified a lack of specific legislation protecting rights for children and adults – despite the Special Measures Act 2009. The NGO also previously called for reforms of the juvenile justice system and reform of the current protection mechanisms provided to minors who are kept in state run institutions, such as homes and foster programs. Posted on April 21, 2013 April 22, 2013 Author Minivan NewsCategories Politics, Society & CultureTags 15-year-old rape victim, Advocating the Rights of Children (ARC), Children’s neglect and abuse, Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Executive Director Zenysha Zaki, Feydhoo in Shaviyani Atoll, Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM), maldives, maldives news, minivan, minivan news, online Avaaz.org petition, Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedure, Unicef, Zeba Tanvir Bukhari1 Comment on NGO urges government to address “inadequate” child protection measures “Alarming” level of child abuse, neglect prompt Gender Ministry to push for guardianship amendment Children’s neglect and abuse have increased to an “alarming level”, compelling the the Maldives’ Ministry of Gender, Family and Human Rights to submit an amendment that would transfer parental guardianship of children in cases of negligence. The Ministry submitted the amendment to the president’s office Sunday (April 7), which would allow for strict legal action to be taken against neglectful parents, and guardianship to be transferred within the principles of Islamic Shari’a, according to local media. Acting Gender Minister, Attorney General Aishath Azima Shakoor, said 59 cases of child sexual abuse were reported to the Gender Ministry in March and 37 of the abused children were transferred into state care. She urged politicians and journalists to give more attention to the problem since “cases of neglect and abuse of children have increased to an alarming level”. The number of babies abandoned after birth is also increasing, according to Minister of State for Gender and Family Dr Aminath Rameela. She noted “with dismay” that this “is being done by people with good jobs”. Shakoor emphasised that “strict legal action” will be taken against parents who neglect their children. “This is a situation the whole [Maldivian] society needs to take care of. Things need to be done to rehabilitate these children back into society,” said Shakoor. “Non-profit organisations and private individuals should assume the responsibility of taking care of children who are abandoned by their parents until the children can be taken under the care of the state,” Shakoor added. She said that close to 80 children were currently in the Villingili island orphanage ‘Kudakudhunge Hiya’ and that parents visit with gifts, but their children are “sad” the visits are brief. The Ministry of Gender, Family and Human Rights, as well as the President’s Office were not responding to calls at time of press. Problems with state care The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) Vice President Ahmed Tholal previously stressed to Minivan News that the number of incidents occurring at state institutions caring for children were greatly concerning. “Incidents are occurring repeatedly. Children under the care of the state need a safe environment; it’s a concerning issue. “The fact is there is no special shelter or place for girls in trouble with the law. HRCM has raised the issue several times – both the need for education as well as psycho-social support and counselling,” Tholal added. He said the Maldivian government has a responsibility to protect children from being “systemically” victimised, and once the state has been notified, children should not be put back in a situation of neglect or abuse. “Vulnerable children are often from difficult families or are abandoned and are victimised over and over again. Currently [government] support is haphazard, and we are not properly equipped. A safety net needs to be established,” stated Tholal. In March 2013, the Maldives’ Gender Ministry admitted transferring two children from the Villlingili island orphanage ‘Kudakudhunge Hiya’ to the Centre for People with Mental Disability on the island of Guraidhoo, without determining if they were in fact special needs children. Earlier in March, police returned seven underage girls who escaped from the ‘Kudakudhinge Hiya’ orphanage on Villingili, otherwise known as Villi-Male’. Local newspaper ‘Haveeru’ reported another two girls who escaped from the orphanage were found on a ‘bokkura’ – a small local vessel – in the lagoon near Villingili with two boys. In January 2013, an incident occurred where two underage females living in the Villingili orphanage were arrested and sent to Maafushi prison. The parliamentary committee investigating their arrest learned that all concerning authorities had neglected their duties and responsibilities to protect the rights of children. In 2011, police arrested a female staff member working at the Villingili children’s home, after she allegedly physically abused a boy living in the centre. In October 2010, the Maldives Police Service and the Health Ministry commenced a joint investigation into “serious issues” concerning the mistreatment of children at Kudakudhinge Hiya, the only orphanage in the Maldives Tholal explained that the only other institutions for children are for boys, the Maafushi island Education and Training Centre for Children (ETCC) and Feydhoo Finolhu, a Correctional Training Centre for Children run by the Juvenile Justice Unit (JJU) of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Maldives Police Service’s Child Protection Unit. Acute staffing and budget shortfalls combined with the lack of children’s rights education and the exclusion of children’s feedback have “deprived [residents] of their liberty”. Staff caring for the children are often excluded from important decisions impacting children’s quality of life at the facilities, a recent HRCM report stated. The report, ‘Child Participation in the Maldives: An assessment of knowledge’, highlights numerous participation and protection policy deficiencies putting Maldivian children at serious risk of harm. Posted on April 8, 2013 April 8, 2013 Author Minivan NewsCategories Politics, Society & CultureTags Attorney General Aishath Azima Shakoor, Centre for People with Mental Disability on the island of Guraidhoo, child abuse, child neglect, Family and Human Rights, Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM), Kudakudhunge Hiya, maldives, maldives news, Minister of State for Gender and Family Dr Aminath Rameela, Ministry of Gender, minivan, minivan news, parental guardianship, Vice President Ahmed Tholal, Villingili orphanage13 Comments on “Alarming” level of child abuse, neglect prompt Gender Ministry to push for guardianship amendment	cc/2019-30/en_head_0013.json.gz/line4554

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