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Governing Lethal Behavior: Embedding Ethics in a Hybrid Deliberative/Reactive Robot Architecture by Ronald Arkin of Georgia Tech
THis was a truly thought provoking talk. Although the subject is controversial, it should not be ignored.
Technical Session II: Architecture of AGI Systems at the The First Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-08)
This room is The Zone, at the FedEx Institute of Technology, University of Memphis. It was a very good venue for this conference.
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) research focuses on the original and ultimate goal of AI -- to create intelligence as a whole, by exploring all available paths, including theoretical and experimental computer science, cognitive science, neuroscience, and innovative interdisciplinary methodologies. AGI is also called Strong AI in the AI community.
Another good reference is Artificial General Intelligence : A Gentle Introduction by Pei Wang
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City of Fort Collins | Madeline Bechtel
CSU's Center for Public Deliberation CPD) collaborated with the City to host a Deliberative Forum on April 26, 5:30-8 p.m. Approximately 50 participants attended including representatives from HOAs and neighborhood associations, the BIPOC Alliance, Boards and Commissions, and the business community. The agenda included roundtable discussions and activities guided by student facilitators.
"And, by the way, if they do, that means — not a joke, everybody; that’s why we defeated it in 2018 when they tried to do it. We went to 54 states," -- President Joe Biden, Friday, October 28, 2022
Watch a video of him saying that: video.foxnews.com/v/6314601578112
www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/president-biden-claims-us-ha...
President Biden claims US has FIFTY-FOUR states as concerns over age continue to mount
President Joe Biden made yet another blunder when he spoke in Philadelphia on Friday, claiming he had been to '54 states' at a rally to drive support for embattled Democrat John Fetterman.
Biden, 79, gave garbled remarks on how his administration has improved healthcare and mistakenly said 'we went to 54 states' to stop pharmaceutical companies from driving drug prices.
'And, by the way, if they do, that means — not a joke, everybody; that’s why we defeated it in 2018 when they tried to do it. We went to 54 states,' Biden said. 'The reason is people didn’t realize that the only reason anybody who has a pre-existing condition can get healthcare is because of that Affordable Care Act.'
His addition of four non-existent states is the latest in a long line of gaffes that has continued to raise concerns about the health of Biden, who is the oldest president in US history.
Despite those worries, Biden has insisted he'll run for a second term in 2024.
The president was joined by both Vice President Kamala Harris and Senate hopeful John Fetterman, who recently dented his chances by fumbling answers during a debate with opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz. He suffered a stroke in May, and faces separate questions about his own mental agility.
'So I may not say everything perfectly sometimes, but I'll always do the right thing if you send me to Washington, D.C.' Fetterman said.
Biden has made a series of worrying gaffes throughout his time as president, most recently zoning out completely when asked by reporters if his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, wants him to run for president again.
'I have not made that formal decision but it's my intention . . . my intention to run again. And we have time to make that decision', the president began.
'Dr. Biden is for it?' the MSNBC interviewer asks, only to be met with silence.
'Mr. President?' the reporter prods, to virtually no reaction from Biden.
'Dr. Biden thinks that uh, my wife thinks that uh, that I uh, that, that we're, that we're doing something very important,' Biden finally states, while managing to avoid directly answering the question.
He also embarrassingly mispronounced new UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's name when speaking about him at a Diwali event, calling him 'Rashee Sanook.'
Sunak, a 42-year-old multimillionaire former hedge fund boss, will become the country's youngest leader in modern times and its third in less than two months as his Conservative Party endures a period of considerable turmoil.
Fetterman's debate performance shocked some viewers and voters alike, and sowed concerns among party leaders.
Chris Cuomo said he 'struggled' and Barack Obama's former senior adviser said Fetterman 'did not help' his cause.
'Hi, goodnight everyone,' Fetterman said as he began the night's highly anticipated match-up.
In advance of the debate Fetterman's campaign had tempered expectations, saying there would be 'awkward pauses' and 'delays and errors,' because the Democrat would be reading closed captioning due to his auditory processing issue.
At one point Fetterman was asked to clarify his position on fracking, as moderators pointed to a 2018 interview where the lieutenant governor expressed broad opposition to the practice, but not a ban.
'I do support fracking - I don't, I don't - I support fracking, and I do support fracking,' he answered.
Charlie Dent, a former Republican congressman for Pennsylvania, said he was 'astounded' and 'stunned' by Fetterman's poor performance, while Alyssa Farah Griffin, Donald Trump's former communications director, said she found it 'painful to watch'.
www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/will-he-or-won-e2-80-99t-...
Will he or won’t he? Pressure mounts on Biden for post-midterm decision
President Biden will face mounting pressure to announce his intentions about whether he will run for reelection immediately after the midterm elections — pretty much regardless of the outcome.
But pressure will only intensify, some Democrats say, if their candidates perform poorly on Nov. 8.
That is increasingly a concern for Democrats, who have long seen holding the House majority as a longshot but held out hopes they could keep their Senate majority.
That’s still a possibility, but with races tightening in a number of states, including Pennsylvania, angst is rising in Democratic circles about the results.
For much of the summer, Democrats were feeling optimistic about the Senate, so a loss of both chambers would be a bitter pill to swallow.
That outcome will almost certainly lead to stronger calls for Democrats to dump Biden ahead of 2024.
“No matter what happens, there’s going to be pressure on him to make a decision sooner rather than later,” said Democratic strategist Jim Manley, who served as a senior aide to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
But Manley agreed a poor showing for Democrats in the midterms would be more problematic for the president.
“The bigger the loss, the more of a factor it will play in his own decisionmaking process,” Manley added. “If it’s a rout, obviously there are going to have to be changes in a lot of different areas.”
In the House, if Democrats lose dozens and dozens of seats, it will add to the pressure on Biden.
“If House Democrats were to take a shellacking, there will be loud voices out there asking for him to make an announcement,” Manley said.
It’s quite unclear that Biden wants to make an announcement one way or the other quickly after the election.
Biden is known to be deliberative, if not outright slow, in making electoral decisions.
In 2020, he was criticized for entering the race months after other Democratic rivals.
In 2016, as he debated whether to enter the race following his son Beau Biden’s death, many of his donors and supporters were already locked in with Hillary Clinton. He did seriously consider a late entry, but by then it was too late.
Biden looks back on that decision with regret given his confidence that he would have defeated former President Trump in 2016, preventing his presidency.
Now Trump is almost certainly on Biden’s mind again as he weighs his future. The former president is teasing a White House bid for 2024 and may make his own decision not long after the midterms.
Other Democrats thinking about running for the White House will want to know what Biden’s plans are quickly so they can lay the groundwork for their own campaigns.
Already there has been some grumbling among Democrats who view Biden’s age — he’ll turn 80 next month — as a major factor.
They also worry privately that he’s been unable to control the narrative on arguably the most pressing issue facing the White House and Democratic candidates in the midterms: inflation.
Biden saw his polling numbers inch up briefly after a string of legislative wins over the summer. But the president’s approval ratings now have slipped to 40 percent, according to a Gallup survey released this week.
“The questions about Biden’s re-elect only subsided because for a few months over the summer, things were going well. Now they’re not,” one Democratic strategist said bluntly. “And while Biden’s accomplishments have been substantial, there’s no getting around the fact that he’s going to be 80 and he’s not our most effective speaker.
“If Democrats lose Congress, it’ll feel far more consequential than a normal midterm loss, and as always, we’ll blame our messaging and our messengers,” the strategist added. “We focused on the wrong things, and we don’t have the right leaders to rally the troops.”
Republicans are practically eating popcorn as they ready for what they think will be another round of Democratic infighting.
“My instincts are that the knives will start coming out the day after the midterms that Joe is to blame,” said John Thomas, a GOP consultant who is working on some midterm races. “If progressives win, they’ll say he’s not being progressive enough.
“The Tim Ryans of the world will say he can’t speak to mainstream Americans on economic issues, that they’re the party of elitists,” Thomas added, referring to the Democratic congressman from Ohio who is running for the Senate in a competitive race against Republican J.D. Vance.
Still, Thomas said if Trump does announce soon after the midterms, “it’s a lifeline to Joe Biden. It’s the encore. ‘I came to save the country from the orange man, and I’m the only one who can beat him once again.’”
Biden hasn’t given a timeline for when he might announce his intentions.
But he has told aides and allies — including former President Barack Obama and the Rev. Al Sharpton — in private conversations that he is planning on running again.
And Democratic strategists say Biden, as history has shown, won’t be pressured by any kind of political timeline or public scrutiny.
“The smartest thing the Biden campaign did in the last election was they thought through a plan and then implemented it without panicking or changing it on every ebb and flow of what TV, Twitter, or people in D.C. were saying,” said Democratic strategist Eddie Vale.
“They are putting together their plans now and I think they’re going to announce on the timeline they want no matter what happens in the midterms,” Vale added. “I also don’t think the timing affects the field. If he announces tomorrow, in a month, or in a year no one who has a snowball’s chance in hell is going to run against him.”
"Malfunctions after a power outage at the Suncor Energy oil refinery just north of Denver triggered toxic belches spewing more than 100 pounds of hydrogen sulfide and more than 500 pounds of sulfur dioxide gas into the air, exceeding state air quality limits.
The refinery also emitted carbon monoxide at concentrations up to 1,120 parts per million, according to a company report submitted to state health officials and reviewed by The Denver Post.
This was the second time in five months that a power-supply hiccup led to a sudden burst of toxic air pollution from the refinery. It’s the latest challenge at one of Colorado’s most problematic industrial sites.
Xcel Energy officials said power was out for 6 minutes Saturday night. Suncor spokeswoman Lisha Burnett on Thursday said power was out for more than 13 hours starting at 9:54 p.m. The unexpected power interruption triggered automatic and manual safety shut downs and refinery still wasn’t back to normal operations, Burnett said.
“Xcel Energy’s failure to provide the refinery with a continuous power feed caused a temporary inability of Suncor to comply with certain of its permit limits,” she said. “The loss of power was completely outside of Suncor’s control, and Suncor took a number of measures to minimize the impacts and reduce emissions caused by the loss of power.”
Suncor officials responded to the problem by closing Brighton Boulevard between 56th and 60th avenues Saturday night. Suncor also sent air-monitoring trucks into surrounding neighborhoods.
Company officials told local authorities no toxic chemicals had been detected in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Hydrogen sulfide, a toxic byproduct of refining and burning oil, can kill. The Environmental Protection Agency has not set a national air quality limit for hydrogen sulfide because any exposure is considered dangerous.
Sulfur dioxide also comes from burning fossil fuels and can inflame airways, especially in people with asthma. High concentrations of sulfur dioxide worsen particulate air pollution that can penetrate lungs. The EPA has set a health limit of 75 parts per billion for sulfur dioxide, but it’s unclear whether authorities are measuring comprehensively and enforcing that limit. Carbon monoxide can impair oxygen delivery to tissues, the heart and brain.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment officials this week said they have not completed a review of the Oct. 14 Suncor incident in which an Xcel power failure resulted in the release of an estimated 75,600 pounds of sulfur dioxide — 150 times greater than the CDPHE daily limit of 500 pounds that triggers an investigation. That power outage lasted for seconds. A refinery emissions stack spewed orange-colored hydrocarbon-coated dust and gas, prompting road closures, a school lockdown and a warning to residents to remain indoors.
“The events of the power outage in October 2016 at Suncor are complex in nature, and CDPHE’s investigation of the incident is ongoing and deliberative,” air pollution control division director Garry Kaufman said in a response to Denver Post queries that was e-mailed by an agency spokesman. “There is no set date for completing the investigation. CDPHE has not issued a notice of violation or other enforcement document, possible or actual, related to the incident to date.”
But the health department has set annual limits that Suncor must meet covering numerous significant pollutants including sulfur dioxide, particulates, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide, Kaufman wrote. And Suncor cannot emit more than 0.3 pounds of sulfur dioxide per barrel of oil processed, he said.
The company would have to assert “an affirmative defense” to avoid civil penalties by showing state air quality rules don’t apply in the circumstances.
State regulators are treating the two mishaps as separate incidents. Before these incidents, CDPHE officials already were dealing with numerous previous chemical emissions problems at the plant.
CDPHE officials seemed to say there’s no health risk based on what Suncor officials have disclosed. The state has not conducted independent air tests.
“Upon initial review of the available air quality data, the measured concentrations of air pollutants at monitoring sites around the Suncor refinery remained well-below the health-based air quality standards during the power outage at Suncor,” Kaufman wrote. “Suncor personnel have deployed mobile air quality monitoring units around the perimeter of the refinery, at major intersections, and at schools in the area. Suncor’s monitors measure concentrations of hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide in the air and have detected no readings of harmful emissions, according to Suncor representatives.”
Burnett said a full report will be submitted to state health department once the refinery returns to normal operations.
Xcel Energy spokeswoman Michelle Aguayo said “the actual outage lasted 6 minutes.” Aguayo added that in making repairs Xcel later shut down the power again.
Aguayo called the two Suncor outages “unrelated.”
The Oct. 14 power outage was caused by “a switching issue due to an Regional Transportation District request to relocate a transmission pole,” Aguayo said in an e-mailed response. “Saturday’s outage was the result of a sleeve failure on a transmission line, causing the line to fall into a distribution line that serves Suncor.”
Since 2013, state regulators have opened five cases against Suncor for possible air-quality violations, CDPHE records show. State officials are weighing possible penalties for previously identified deficiencies that include excessive sulfur dioxide and other gas emissions. In June, CDPHE officials notified Suncor officials their company could face penalties of up to $15,000 a day. In 2015, state regulators ordered Suncor to fix other pollution problems detected in 2013 and 2014. Suncor at one point negotiated a deal to avoid admitting law violations in return for paying a $214,050 administrative penalty.
Back in 2012, state regulators fined Suncor $2.2 million for air quality violations related to benzene air pollution from the refinery.
The Suncor refinery sits on an 80-year-old industrial site. Suncor bought the refinery in 2003 from ConocoPhillps in a $150 million deal. Over the past 13 years, Suncor has spent $1.6 billion on the plant.
Suncor officials have said it will play a key role in processing Suncor’s huge Canadian oil sands resources for the U.S. energy market.
Workers at the Commerce City refinery produce up to 98,000 barrels a day of gasoline and diesel fuel, jet fuel sent to Denver International Airport, and asphalt. A fifth of the oil produced at the refinery comes from the Athabasca oil sands in Canada." - Denver Post
A National Historic Landmark
Phillips County, AR
Listed: 07/31/2003
Designated an NHL: 07/31/2003
Centennial Baptist Church is nationally significant for its association with Dr. Elias Camp Morris, who served as pastor from 1879 until his death in 1922. The period of his life from 1882 to 1922 was his most productive period with respect to his efforts on a national level to further the religious, political, and societal achievements of African Americans. Morris is nationally significant for his leadership of the National Baptist Convention, the largest African American organization in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. The 1912 edition of Who's Who Among the Colored Baptists described Morris as having "reached the point where he can render the greatest service to his constituents and give to the world an exhibition of the true leadership for which such men as [William J.] Simmons, [Frederick] Douglass and Price stood unflinchingly and of which [Booker T.] Washington, [Richard H.] Boyd, [W.E.B.] Dubois and others are examples that now stand out pre-eminently." According to religious historian Quinton Dixie, as the "driving force behind the 1895 merger of three black Baptist organizations," Dr. Morris "indirectly inaugurated leadership patterns that persist today" within African American religious organizations. During Moms' presidency, Centennial Baptist Church "functioned as the headquarters of the National Baptist Convention," and it remains today as a symbol of his progressive efforts to provide African Americans with a self-directed religious organization during the Jim Crow era.
Reverend Morris recognized the influence of the church and its power to fill the spiritual reserves of his congregation at the local, state, and national levels, enabling African Americans to deal with life during the most difficult of times. He dedicated his life to bringing attention to the need for African American religious autonomy at the national, as well as local level. As president of the National Baptist Convention (NBC) (1895-1922), the "largest deliberative body of Negroes in the world," Morris brought attention to the right of African Americans to establish independent religious associations.
Ankhesenamun (Ankhesenpaaten) was a key figure of the Post-Amarna Period, her political actions had an impact on the international situation in the Middle East and she was a prominent figure in the struggle for the Egyptian throne, that led to its usurpation by courtier Ay and final end of the Amarna Dynasty. The crisis of the Amarna Dynasty and transfer of power to the non-royal pretender remains unclear and deliberative. Despite the fact, that in the historiography of the Amarna Period Ankhesenamun remains in the shadow of her famous husband, Tutankhamun, and his successors, the archaeological and narrative sources show that she was an active and very important historical figure, holding political power and acting as the legitimate heir and ruler. The author concludes that the struggle between Ankhesenamun, Ay and Horemheb for the Tutankhamun’s throne clearly indicated that Ay and Horemheb were non-royal persons, who later usurped power without legal rights.
Zapletniuk
Bristol has just one memorial to Burke, a statue in Colston Avenue erected in 1894. But if Burke's connection to Bristol was fairly short-lived, it is one that will endure in the collective memory, not least because of his Speech to the Electors of Bristol of 1774. On the day of his election Burke famously argued against the idea that an MP is just the delegate of his electorate:
" Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a member of parliament."
The speech is cited in constitutional and political argument to this day. That it was made in Bristol makes it part of the city's history and heritage. Burke is by far the most distinguished political figure ever to have represented the city, and he is certainly the one with the most enduring international reputation.
Burke expressed his support for the grievances of the American colonies under the government of King George III and his appointed representatives. On 19 April 1774 Burke made a speech (published in January 1775) on a motion to repeal the tea duty:
" Again and again, revert to your old principles—seek peace and ensue it; leave America, if she has taxable matter in her, to tax herself. I am not here going into the distinctions of rights, nor attempting to mark their boundaries. I do not enter into these metaphysical distinctions; I hate the very sound of them. Leave the Americans as they anciently stood, and these distinctions, born of our unhappy contest, will die along with it.... Be content to bind America by laws of trade; you have always done it.... Do not burthen them with taxes.... But if intemperately, unwisely, fatally, you sophisticate and poison the very source of government by urging subtle deductions, and consequences odious to those you govern, from the unlimited and illimitable nature of supreme sovereignty, you will teach them by these means to call that sovereignty itself in question.... If that sovereignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled, which will they take? They will cast your sovereignty in your face. No body of men will be argued into slavery. Sir, let the gentlemen on the other side...tell me, what one character of liberty the Americans have, and what one brand of slavery they are free from, if they are bound in their property and industry by all the restraints you can imagine on commerce, and at the same time are made pack-horses of every tax you choose to impose, without the least share in granting them. When they bear the burthens of unlimited monopoly, will you bring them to bear the burthens of unlimited revenue too? The Englishman in America will feel that this is slavery; that it is legal slavery, will be no compensation either to his feelings or to his understandings."
In the House of Commons on 22 March 1775 Burke delivered a speech (published in May 1775) on reconciliation with America. Burke appealed for peace as preferable to civil war and reminded the House of America's growing population, its industry and its wealth. He warned against the notion that the Americans would back down in the face of force, as the Americans were descended largely from Englishmen:
" ...the people of the colonies are descendants of Englishmen.... They are therefore not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas and on English principles. The people are Protestants... a persuasion not only favourable to liberty, but built upon it.... My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your government,—they will cling and grapple to you, and no force under heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it be once understood that your government may be one thing and their privileges another, that these two things may exist without any mutual relation,—the cement is gone, the cohesion is loosened, and everything hastens to decay and dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of England worship freedom, they will turn their faces towards you. The more they multiply, the more friends you will have; the more ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be their obedience. Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed that grows in every soil. They may have it from Spain, they may have it from Prussia. But, until you become lost to all feeling of your true interest and your natural dignity, freedom they can have from none but you."
www.wired.com/story/larry-brilliant-covid-rapid-antigen-t...
Larry Brilliant Says Covid Rapid Antigen Tests Are Bad for Public Health
The epidemiologist who helped quash smallpox talks about what we're doing wrong on monkeypox, vaccines, and antigen tests.
This was the year that Larry Brilliant got Covid. In May, he traveled to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the elite global gabfest that had been postponed from its usual January staging. The 78-year-old epidemiologist had gotten through the first years of the pandemic virus-free. But, he now believes, traveling through a crowded Zurich airport exposed him to a recent variant of the disease that has infected over half a billion people worldwide and killed a million people in the United States alone.
It was further proof that this virus spares no one, not even a disease fighter who helped eradicate smallpox and had been warning the world about a potential pandemic for years. He had even advised Davos organizers on their Covid protocols. But Brilliant, of all people, knows that with ever-more virulent variants of Covid-19, even the most meticulous virus-avoider might get sick. And thus the multiple-boosted founder and CEO of Pandefense Advisory went through 17 days of testing positive and two rounds of the Paxlovid treatment.
Now recovered, Brilliant is once again speaking about what we might expect with our ongoing global crisis. I began interviewing Brilliant about the coronavirus in March 2020, and our first session was one of the most-read stories Condé Nast (which owns WIRED, the New Yorker, Vogue, and other publications) ran that year. This is the fifth installment of our ongoing conversation. We touched on how variants evolve, the humbling of the CDC, and why he thinks that rapid antigen tests are a menace. Brilliant makes predictions reluctantly—he distinguishes glimpses into his “crystal ball” from actual science, which proceeds on empirical trials and experiments. But if he’s right, we’ll still be talking Covid for a very long time.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Steven Levy: How are you feeling?
Larry Brilliant: I think I'm 110 percent recovered, after 17 days of positivity. Do you know about the Rockefeller Foundation retreat in Bellagio, Italy, where people go to plan conferences? I think that all the variants of Covid got together there with a list of all the people who spoke bad about them and decided: “Enough of this shit. Let’s go after those people.”
It certainly seems that tons of people who had been boosted and masked have gotten Covid recently.
Fauci and Biden have gotten it, too.
Why are careful people getting it now?
Even the most careful person will get the most transmissible virus in history. Also, mRNA vaccines are based on the formulations from the original strain.
Every evolution produces a more evasive variant—it won’t win the race unless it’s the fastest pony. So instead of only finding new customers in the unvaccinated population, this BA.5 variant increases its market by being able to infect people who’ve had three doses of the vaccine, or people who have had Covid a month ago. In addition, this puppy might be infectious earlier and later than when you first have symptoms. The CDC has guidelines of ending isolation—or going back to work—after five days. With BA.5, that’s ridiculous.
You were one of those people with four doses.
That’s right, and I was also able to get a prophylactic monoclonal antibody. That’s probably why I think I got a relatively mild disease. But it persisted for 17 days, and I had to have two courses of Paxlovid.
By the way, I don't think we should call this a rebound. A better way to say it is that we don’t have the dosing schedule correct. It’s possible that Paxlovid probably requires a course of seven or 10 days.
So if I get Covid, I can ask my doctor to give me seven or 10 day’s worth of Paxlovid instead of five? [Note: The official guidance is that Paxlovid should be administered for five days, though some physicians have spoken out about the need for clearer guidance.]
Not yet. When people say they’re following the science, what they should be saying is they’re following the published science, which is always based on a study done on something that happened before. You’re always behind.
Sometimes it seems like politics, not science, is determining policy. Biden said that he’d remain in isolation longer than the recommended five days if he kept testing positive. Who’s right?
Biden is modeling very good behavior. That’s really refreshing since the last president modeled the worst.
Sure, but it’s strange that the president has to disregard his own agency to do the right thing. [Note: After this interview, Biden ended up leaving isolation after five days when he tested negative, then reentering isolation after experiencing a rebound case.]
In part, this is because when Trump was president, he attacked the CDC. There was so much political interference that there was an exodus of the CDC’s top people and a loss of its institutional memory. But there’s also been a failure of the CDC to communicate well and update their recommendations.
Also, the CDC is slow. In some ways, you’d like that to be the case—you like your doctor to be deliberative. But not too slow. Even though their advice may have been perfect a year ago, it’s not perfect now. So now the administration is talking about shifting pandemic preparedness to what used to be a small agency—ASPR [Administration for Strategic Preparedness & Response].
Why does that make sense?
The CDC’s mandate is much more than pandemics. It works on health promotion, prevention. It’s responsible for looking at heart disease and diabetes, international relations with other countries doing all health programs—all the public health units of all the different counties. But of course right now we’re necessarily focused on the pandemic and infectious diseases, and we’re really dealing with Covid and monkeypox.
I was going to mention monkeypox. What’s going on there?
Let’s go back to 1967. The WHO had the idea that the whole world should work together to eradicate smallpox. But what about other poxes? The smallpox vaccine protects against monkeypox, too. If you eradicate smallpox, and subsequently you stopped vaccinating, what happens to the other poxes that were held in check by continuing to vaccinate? We could have kept vaccinating. But we didn’t, and now no one under the age of 40 has a vaccination scar.
It was certainly justifiable to use that vaccine against the disease that killed one out of three. But monkeypox is relatively mild, killing very few people. It’s understandable that people would say, ‘Well, what’s the fuss?’ Well, there’s two reasons. First, we got over 20,000 cases. The people who are affected the most by this outbreak are men who have sex with men—but it’s also people who have sex in general, or anybody who rubs bodies with each other for any reason at all, or, of course, anybody who's immunocompromised is at greater risk of getting it, giving it, and maybe having the bad side effects of it. That’s one reason.
But there’s another reason. If we had acted sooner—when there were 100 cases, 1,000 cases—we could have eliminated it as a significant problem. We could even do this now by identifying every case and vaccinating all the contacts. We could stop this outbreak. The United States is not doing it. Because it would require identifying every case and the complicated issues around who’s getting it. We don’t want to stigmatize the gay community; we did that with HIV/AIDS, with horrific results.
Monkeypox is not a disease of gay men. It’s also not a disease of monkeys. We are not the natural host of this virus. This is primarily a disease of rodents, but it was first identified in monkeys, and that’s where it got the name.
If we don’t act right now to contain the spread of monkeypox—if it’s subjected to the same laissez-faire epidemiology, “let it rip” ideology we are using with Covid—how far are you going to let it go? A hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? A million? Speed is critical. If we quickly work to contain monkeypox, we don’t have to worry about 20 years of having urban rodent pox that spreads to humans. That’s why I’m unhappy about what we’re not doing now. I’m unhappy about letting the cat out of the bag when we still have a bag. [Note: After our conversation, the World Health Organization declared monkeypox an emergency.]
Back to Covid. You just used the term “laissez-faire epidemiology.” Do you feel that our approach now, based on individual choices, is misguided?
Yes. Remember Trump’s Covid advisor Scott Atlas, who promoted the idea that we should do away with lockdowns? When he said that, we didn’t have vaccines. Millions more people would have died, certainly. In the United States, hundreds of thousands more people would have died.
The death rates are down now, but it’s still very bad, for a hundred reasons. When you say, “Everybody’s on their own,” we’re forgetting that we have a duty of care. At least 20 percent of our population are either over the age of 65 or immunocompromised. They are at high risk of dying if they don’t get vaccinated and they’re not careful, they’re not wearing masks. … So if you just say, “OK, well, everybody’s gonna get it,” you endanger the people who are most vulnerable. That’s where the death rate is. That’s where the hospitalization rate is.
Second, the longer this virus continues, the more variants we’re going to have. We don’t know exactly what forms a variant, but for sure one factor is immunocompromised people who have the virus puttering around longer in their system—not for 17 days like me, but for months. The body can’t clear the virus completely. You’ve created ideal circumstances for reassortment, recombination.
Another issue is that we don’t have a good handle on numbers because we never got testing, right?
What if I said to you that antigens, those rapid at-home tests we all use now, were bad for our public health? It’s stupid that antigen tests were approved without the requirement to report positive cases.
How would you enforce that?
Through technology. It’s not that hard to build the technology to do automatic reporting. There’s now a class of at-home molecular tests that can already do that. They’re almost as good as PCR tests.
Aren’t those more expensive?
The only thing that makes them expensive is the lack of scale. Right now we can get antigen tests for as little as $5. If you’re doing a billion molecular tests, you can bring the cost down as well.
When those molecular tests go to the FDA for approval, they say that all positives should be reported. That makes them much better than antigen tests, which are great at the back end of the disease when you’re trying to determine if you’re still infectious. But they're terrible for the first two days, when the rate of false negatives is so high. Between the false negatives and the fact that they don’t report into public health, antigen tests are dangerous to the public health.
Would you ban them?
I would regulate them.
Due to their more open and deliberative nature, democracies are perceived as more vulnerable to conflict and violence. Even in established democracies, the role of democracy itself in underpinning national security and international stability is in doubt.
In June 2016, the Community of Democracies, an international forum dedicated to common action among democracies, launched the Democracy and Security Dialogue to foster greater collaboration among democracies to improve security outcomes and create a better environment for strengthening democracy around the world. Former Prime Minister of Tunisia Mehdi Jomaa, and former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright co-chaired the initiative, which was designed to combine top-quality research on democracy and security with a participatory consultation process.
On September 13, as governments gathered in Washington for the 9th ministerial conference of the Community of Democracies, Foreign Policy at Brookings hosted Secretary Albright and Prime Minister Jomaa to launch the Dialogue’s final report. The co-chairs were joined by the two principal researchers for the report—Cheryl Frank, head of Transnational Threats and International Crime Programme for the Institute for Security Studies, and Ted Piccone, senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings—for a discussion of the findings and what they tell us about the links between democracy and security.
Brookings President Strobe Talbott provided introductory remarks.
Photo credit: Sharon Farmer
1812 N St. NW
Henry Martyn Robert (May 2, 1837 – May 11, 1923) was the author of Robert's Rules of Order, which became the most widely used manual of parliamentary procedure and remains today the most common parliamentary authority in the United States.
Robert was born in Robertville, South Carolina and raised in Ohio, where his father moved the family because of his strong opposition to slavery. After graduating fourth in his class at West Point in 1857 he became a military engineer.
Under command of Silas Casey during the Pig War he built the fortifications on San Juan Island. In the American Civil War, he was assigned to the Corp of Engineers and worked on the defenses of Washington, Philadelphia, and several New England ports.
Robert served as Engineer of the Army's Division of the Pacific from 1867-1871. He then spent two years improving rivers in Oregon and Washington and six years developing the harbors of Green Bay and other northern Wisconsin and Michigan ports. He subsequently improved the harbors of Oswego, Philadelphia, and Long Island Sound and constructed locks and dams on the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. As Southwest Division Engineer from 1897 to 1901, Robert studied how to deepen the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River.
Robert was president of the Board of Engineers from 1895 to 1901. He was made brigadier general on April 30, 1901, and was appointed Chief of Engineers. He served until May 2, 1901, when he retired from the Army. Following his retirement, he chaired a board of engineers that designed the Galveston seawall following the Galveston Hurricane of 1900.
He died in Hornell, New York.
He is most famous for his Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies -- a collection of rules regarding paliamentary procedure, published in 1876. He wrote the manual in response to his poor performance in leading a church meeting. He resolved that he would learn about parliamentary procedure before attending another meeting. The rules are loosely based on procedures used in the House of Representatives but the rule book was not intended for use in national and state legislatures.
His son, Joseph T. Robert, would be the first president of Morehouse College. There is a dormitory on the campus named after him.
Where Has Democracy Gone?
Are the impacts of immigration and/or globalization the reasons for the actual crises in the world?
What Anglo-Saxons use to call “globalisation” in order to express the increase of trades around the world, is in fact an economic revolution triggered by technology which started more than a quarter of a century ago. Technology driven societies have transformed the world deeply and calmly but being the norm today they determine the entire world system of the 21st century and our regards towards democracy. Nowadays, we are questioning ourselves whether globalization is useful for African and Asian countries, or whether we are going to continue complaining about this situation like most European countries are likely to do or the United States which has elected D. Trump with his slogan “America First” for president in order to protect themselves against globalization? However, we have to face the facts and the reality of the actual conditions teaching us that the impact of the globalization will be even more important than the industrial revolution which had started about 300 years ago.
Being aware of the fact that communication and mutual understanding is the oxygen of a sustainable peace and assuming that the actual democracy of The People (German: “Das Volk”) is not in the position to manage these four different groups because they lack common interests, they don’t share common goals and above all, they have a low understanding of global facts, it is possibly maybe necessary to develop and extend and if necessary to substitute the actual deliberative Democracy by a pluralistic Expertocracy. Pluralistic Expertocracy refers to models whereby the votes of those, who have a proven better knowledge about important questions of a country, about critical political and societal issues, who have less prejudices, etc., are weighted higher than of those who do not fulfill such kind of criteria. And these criteria have to be fulfilled by the political candidates respectively actors as well.
Can we summarize, that the so-called dictatorship in Africa is a form of Expertocracy, as it is a common practice in several African countries that the language of public administration, services and education is that of their former colonial “masters”, meaning that the population do not understand what the political leaders are saying, planing or doing respectively? How and when will the population be taken into consideration as conversational partner?
Can the causality of south-south and south-north immigration be explained by the failures of the world system in terms of the international order and the redistribution of world resources? How to establish the new world order without a war?
The reality of globalization evolved four categories of people:
1. “The non-political Bohémien”, who is not interested in politics at all
2. “The Hooligan”, a type of political believer, who forms him/herself in groups of political activists
3. “The Vulcanian”, the rational intellectual, who is politically interested, who wants to break with the traditional belonging of the left or right wings
4. “The Terrorist”, the violent believer, who doesn’t respect anything else than his/her own believe and uses violence as language of communication.
In terms of these four character groups above, there is a further question: Is the impact of immigration (mass migration), discrimination and related societal conflicts an extended problem of the societal dysfunction in the Western hemisphere?
Am Podium diskutierten Dr. Yves Ekoué Amaïzo, Cindy Nägeli-Dupont, Dr. Camillus E. Konkwo, Dr. Jean-Alain Ngapout, Mag. Simone Prenner, Hubert Mvogo, Mag. Sintayehu Tsehay
Moderation: Dr. Di-Tutu Bukasa
The reason for this photo can be summed up as follows: "The Scottish referendum of 1979 was a post-legislative referendum to decide whether there was sufficient support for a Scottish Assembly proposed in the Scotland Act 1978 among the Scottish electorate. This was an act to create a devolved deliberative assembly for Scotland. An amendment to the Act stipulated that it would be repealed if fewer than 40% of the total electorate voted Yes in the referendum. The result was that 51.6% supported the proposal, but with a turnout of 64%, this represented only 32.9% of the registered electorate. The Act was subsequently repealed."
Collecting signatures in advance of the referendum was the SNP's Andrew Welsh MP, with two gentlemen who were in little doubt as to where their loyalties lay.
“I was on a deliberative downward spiral. I wasn’t trying to kill myself. But at the same time I didn’t care if it happened. Drinks and drugs was a big part of my life. I was a roadie for punk bands. People think it’s easy but it was hard work and not at all glamorous. I’d travel across the country. I’d be away for months at a time. I found myself in positions where I had to keep working. It was relentless. And I did it for years and years on end. Eventually it caught up with me. I fell into a massive state of depression. The turning point was meeting my wife. We had a collective moan at a Facebook post about Judge Dredd. Both being comic book fans we commented on how the comic version of the character never takes his helmet off. And within 20 minutes Sylvester Stallone has shown his face in the film. We started to chat online and found we were going through similar things. We both saved each other.”
Where Has Democracy Gone?
Are the impacts of immigration and/or globalization the reasons for the actual crises in the world?
What Anglo-Saxons use to call “globalisation” in order to express the increase of trades around the world, is in fact an economic revolution triggered by technology which started more than a quarter of a century ago. Technology driven societies have transformed the world deeply and calmly but being the norm today they determine the entire world system of the 21st century and our regards towards democracy. Nowadays, we are questioning ourselves whether globalization is useful for African and Asian countries, or whether we are going to continue complaining about this situation like most European countries are likely to do or the United States which has elected D. Trump with his slogan “America First” for president in order to protect themselves against globalization? However, we have to face the facts and the reality of the actual conditions teaching us that the impact of the globalization will be even more important than the industrial revolution which had started about 300 years ago.
Being aware of the fact that communication and mutual understanding is the oxygen of a sustainable peace and assuming that the actual democracy of The People (German: “Das Volk”) is not in the position to manage these four different groups because they lack common interests, they don’t share common goals and above all, they have a low understanding of global facts, it is possibly maybe necessary to develop and extend and if necessary to substitute the actual deliberative Democracy by a pluralistic Expertocracy. Pluralistic Expertocracy refers to models whereby the votes of those, who have a proven better knowledge about important questions of a country, about critical political and societal issues, who have less prejudices, etc., are weighted higher than of those who do not fulfill such kind of criteria. And these criteria have to be fulfilled by the political candidates respectively actors as well.
Can we summarize, that the so-called dictatorship in Africa is a form of Expertocracy, as it is a common practice in several African countries that the language of public administration, services and education is that of their former colonial “masters”, meaning that the population do not understand what the political leaders are saying, planing or doing respectively? How and when will the population be taken into consideration as conversational partner?
Can the causality of south-south and south-north immigration be explained by the failures of the world system in terms of the international order and the redistribution of world resources? How to establish the new world order without a war?
The reality of globalization evolved four categories of people:
1. “The non-political Bohémien”, who is not interested in politics at all
2. “The Hooligan”, a type of political believer, who forms him/herself in groups of political activists
3. “The Vulcanian”, the rational intellectual, who is politically interested, who wants to break with the traditional belonging of the left or right wings
4. “The Terrorist”, the violent believer, who doesn’t respect anything else than his/her own believe and uses violence as language of communication.
In terms of these four character groups above, there is a further question: Is the impact of immigration (mass migration), discrimination and related societal conflicts an extended problem of the societal dysfunction in the Western hemisphere?
Am Podium diskutierten Dr. Yves Ekoué Amaïzo, Cindy Nägeli-Dupont, Dr. Camillus E. Konkwo, Dr. Jean-Alain Ngapout, Mag. Simone Prenner, Hubert Mvogo, Mag. Sintayehu Tsehay
Moderation: Dr. Di-Tutu Bukasa
Please join us for the launch of a new report, "The State of African Resilience: Understanding Dimensions of Vulnerability and Adaptation," which identifies major dimensions of resilience from the perspective of more than a dozen vulnerable communities across sub-Saharan Africa. The report is based on the research and analysis of the ResilientAfrica Network (RAN), a partnership that includes fifteen African universities that are engaging with local communities to understand how best to prevent, mitigate, and overcome the recurrent shocks and stresses to which they are most vulnerable.
How are communities in Uganda contending with the effects of climate variability and post-conflict recovery? How are communities in South Africa addressing the link between HIV/AIDS and poverty? How are urban populations in Ghana addressing the economic and public health challenges associated with rapid urbanization? Bringing together faculty, students, and community members, the RAN is developing interventions designed to increase resilience capacity at the community level and, more broadly, making its data publicly available to allow for development practitioners in the future to more easily identify the vulnerabilities and existing capacities of communities.
The RAN, funded by USAID's Higher Education Solutions Network, is led by Makerere University in Uganda and co-led by Tulane University's Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, in partnership with Stanford University.
Featuring:
David Ferguson
Director, Center for Development Innovation, U.S. Global Development Lab, USAID
William Bazeyo
Dean, School of Public Health, Makerere University
Chief of Party, RAN
Ky Luu
Executive Director, Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, Tulane University
Co-Chief of Party, RAN
Lekan Ayo-Yusuf
Dean, University of Limpopo's Medical University of Southern Africa
Director, Southern Africa RILab
Dennis Chirawurah
Lecturer, University for Development Studies' School of Medicine
Director, West Africa RILab
James Fishkin
Professor of Communication, Stanford University
Director, Center for Deliberative Democracy, Stanford University
Programs
AFRICA PROGRAM
Topics
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND RECONSTRUCTION, FOOD AND WATER, ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE, DEVELOPMENT POLICY, GLOBAL PROSPERITY
New York, 29 September 2008
Statement by Dr. Thongloun SISOULITH, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Head of Delegation of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic at the General Debate of the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Mr. President,
First, let me express, on behalf of the Lao PDR Delegation, my heartfelt congratulations to you, a veteran diplomat of Nicaragua on your election as President of the 63rd Session of the UN General Assembly. I trust that with you at the Presidency, the work of the General Assembly is in good hands. I would also like to commend H.E. Srgjan Kerim for the effective manner in which he presided over our work during the previous session.
Mr. President,
The Lao PDR is of the belief that the United Nations remains an important and preeminent forum for addressing issues relating to international cooperation for economic development, peace and security, and human rights and the rule of law, based on dialogue, cooperation and consensus-building amongst States. For over half a century, the UN has played a crucial role in maintaining international peace and security and promoting the socio-economic advancement of member States, especially developing countries. Yet, as the world situation evolves ever more complex and unpredictable, the UN increasingly needs more robust and effective institutions. In our opinion, the UN reform must be comprehensive, transparent, inclusive and balanced and pursued in an effective and accountable manner. We must strengthen the role and authority of the General Assembly, including in questions related to international peace and security, as the chief deliberative, policy-making and representative organ of the UN. We must revitalize its work which must be guided by the principles of democracy, transparency and accountability. We must also reform the Security Council, turning it into a more democratic and representative organ, comprising both new permanent and non permanent members in order to enable it to better preserve and promote international peace and security. No less important, we must substantially reinforce the development pillars of the UN, which include the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UNCTAD, Regional Commissions and the Development Account, enabling them to better support developing countries to achieve internationally agreed development goals, on the basis of their national development strategies.
In this context, we commend Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s reform efforts aimed at transforming the UN into a more responsive, dynamic, multi-functional and effective organization. The Secretary-General’s personal dedicated engagement for the cause of peace as well as his endeavours in search for solutions to the three global crises of finance, fuel and food deserve special recognition.
Mr. President,
The current difficult and complex situation in the field of disarmament continues to be a cause of concern. We recognize the threat posed by the permanent existence of nuclear weapons and the possible use or threat to use them. It is hence incumbent upon the nuclear States to honour their unequivocal commitment to work towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons. Renewed efforts are needed to resolve the impasse in achieving nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in all its aspects.
Mr. President,
While globalization brings with it numerous opportunities for economic development, the obstacles that the world faces deserve significant attention. Developing countries, in particular the most vulnerable groups, namely the least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS), have taken important steps to further integrate themselves into the global economy. Nevertheless, these countries remain beleaguered by poor-quality basic infrastructure, limited access to markets, capital, new technology, and low supply of finance and investment.
The sudden increase in oil and food prices has led to a period of economic instability in many countries. However, this global phenomenon has had a more amplified impact on developing countries, given their particular low financial and technical capacities to deal with sudden international shocks. To combat this problem, we stress the need for the full and effective implementation of the Rome Declaration and the establishment of a Global Food Bank and an International Food Fund to ensure long-term food security for developing countries, particularly the most vulnerable among them. In addition, the great untapped potential of these countries should be explored and exploited to the maximum extent, through increased investment and technology transfer by developed countries and other development partners for mutual benefit. We also emphasize that global energy policies should aim to support the efforts of developing countries, in particular LDCs to purge poverty and achieve sustainable development.
Thus, if developing countries are to be able to benefit truly from globalization, the international community must create a favorable environment that is conducive to development, whereby the interests of developing countries can be tangibly promoted. Therefore, grant aid and soft loans should be increased, appropriate measures to address the instability and weakness of commodity markets be undertaken, special and preferential tariffs for exports from developing countries, in particular from the most vulnerable groups among them be granted, debt sustainability be achieved, mechanism for technology transfers be improved and international financial architecture be reformed.
Mr. President,
The goal of achieving peace and prosperity remains the highest priority of the international community. Yet, this goal remains impeded by interstate conflict, terror, and unlawful unilateral sanctions and interventions. We are greatly distressed by the persistent conflict that has plagued the lives of the peoples of the Middle East for decades, particularly the Palestinian people who have been fighting for the exercise of their right to self-determination and Statehood. We are deeply saddened by the number of casualties and material damage inflicted upon the nations of Iraq and Afghanistan. And we remain troubled by the embargo that has been imposed on the Republic of Cuba by the Government of the United States of America, an act that is clearly not legally warranted and does not respond to the legitimate interests of the peoples of both nations. In this regard, the Lao PDR sincerely urges the parties concerned in the aforementioned conflicts to seek ways to peacefully resolve their differences. It is our fervent hope that the peoples living in these conflict-ridden areas could enjoy peace and prosperity as swiftly as possible.
Mr. President,
Unlike most calamities, global warming affects not only the livelihood of every being on the planet but also the course of human history. Climate change will become all the more worrisome, as it leads to many other social and economic problems that our world faces today. That is why there is a need for immediate global action to address climate change in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. In formulating policies confronting climate change, we should promote the integration of all three components of sustainable development that is economic development, social development, and environmental protection. In this respect, we call for the full implementation of the Bali Roadmap.
As widely expressed at the Millennium Development Goals High-level Event, the lack of effective implementation of the Internationally Agreed Development Goals (IADGs), including the MDGs remains a deep concern. Therefore, the highest priority should be given to securing the effective and full implementation of the agreed goals and commitments. In this context, we underscore the urgency to address the special needs of LDCs and LLDCs through the full, timely and effective implementation by all stakeholders of the Brussels Programme of Action and the Almaty Programme of Action, as called for in the 2005 World Summit Outcome.
Landlocked developing countries face a unique impediment in not having access to the sea. International cooperation is crucial to the success of the development goals of these countries. We therefore would like to stress the significance of the upcoming mid-term review of the Almaty Program of Action to be held on 2 and 3 October 2008 here in New York which should provide the international community with the opportunity to assess progress made, lessons learned, and constraints encountered in the implementation of the Almaty Program of Action. We hope that the session will galvanize the global partnership for development to assist landlocked developing countries in not only strengthening their effective participation in international trade and the world economy, but also in fulfilling the goals of internationally agreed development goals.
Mr. President,
Being a member country, Lao PDR is gratified to witness the continued stability, growing from strength to strength and deepening integration of ASEAN which is an important contribution to the maintenance of peace and further cooperation in the region and the world. A recent momentous and milestone event is the signing of the ASEAN Charter thus transforming ASEAN into a rule-based regional organization.
The Lao PDR continues to enjoy solid political stability and social order. Thus, our socio-economic development has registered significant achievements as reflected in high and sustained GDP growth . Notwithstanding these achievements, the Lao PDR still faces impediments. Rising oil prices, inflation and a global economic slowdown all stand in the way of our path to economic prosperity. This year, we are also experiencing a severe flood, inflicting huge material loss nationwide. Yet, in spite of all this, by improving the quality of basic infrastructure, human resources and cooperating with international partners, we are determined to pursue our twin strategies of poverty eradication and regional integration. At this pace, we hope to extricate our country from the shackles of underdevelopment by the year 2020.
Mr. President,
I can not conclude without reaffirming that development remains central and must come first for the intertwined peace and human rights to succeed. Therefore the full, timely and effective implementation of the outcomes of the major UN Summits and Conferences is indispensable. The Lao PDR reiterates its unshakable commitment to continued full cooperation with the international community in pursuit of a world free from fear and want, rooted in a new, just and equitable order. Together, I am sure, we will be able to reach new heights.
Thank you
Where Has Democracy Gone?
Are the impacts of immigration and/or globalization the reasons for the actual crises in the world?
What Anglo-Saxons use to call “globalisation” in order to express the increase of trades around the world, is in fact an economic revolution triggered by technology which started more than a quarter of a century ago. Technology driven societies have transformed the world deeply and calmly but being the norm today they determine the entire world system of the 21st century and our regards towards democracy. Nowadays, we are questioning ourselves whether globalization is useful for African and Asian countries, or whether we are going to continue complaining about this situation like most European countries are likely to do or the United States which has elected D. Trump with his slogan “America First” for president in order to protect themselves against globalization? However, we have to face the facts and the reality of the actual conditions teaching us that the impact of the globalization will be even more important than the industrial revolution which had started about 300 years ago.
Being aware of the fact that communication and mutual understanding is the oxygen of a sustainable peace and assuming that the actual democracy of The People (German: “Das Volk”) is not in the position to manage these four different groups because they lack common interests, they don’t share common goals and above all, they have a low understanding of global facts, it is possibly maybe necessary to develop and extend and if necessary to substitute the actual deliberative Democracy by a pluralistic Expertocracy. Pluralistic Expertocracy refers to models whereby the votes of those, who have a proven better knowledge about important questions of a country, about critical political and societal issues, who have less prejudices, etc., are weighted higher than of those who do not fulfill such kind of criteria. And these criteria have to be fulfilled by the political candidates respectively actors as well.
Can we summarize, that the so-called dictatorship in Africa is a form of Expertocracy, as it is a common practice in several African countries that the language of public administration, services and education is that of their former colonial “masters”, meaning that the population do not understand what the political leaders are saying, planing or doing respectively? How and when will the population be taken into consideration as conversational partner?
Can the causality of south-south and south-north immigration be explained by the failures of the world system in terms of the international order and the redistribution of world resources? How to establish the new world order without a war?
The reality of globalization evolved four categories of people:
1. “The non-political Bohémien”, who is not interested in politics at all
2. “The Hooligan”, a type of political believer, who forms him/herself in groups of political activists
3. “The Vulcanian”, the rational intellectual, who is politically interested, who wants to break with the traditional belonging of the left or right wings
4. “The Terrorist”, the violent believer, who doesn’t respect anything else than his/her own believe and uses violence as language of communication.
In terms of these four character groups above, there is a further question: Is the impact of immigration (mass migration), discrimination and related societal conflicts an extended problem of the societal dysfunction in the Western hemisphere?
Am Podium diskutierten Dr. Yves Ekoué Amaïzo, Cindy Nägeli-Dupont, Dr. Camillus E. Konkwo, Dr. Jean-Alain Ngapout, Mag. Simone Prenner, Hubert Mvogo, Mag. Sintayehu Tsehay
Moderation: Dr. Di-Tutu Bukasa
Corsica (/ˈkɔːrsɪkə/ KOR-sik-ə; Corsican: [ˈkorsiɡa, ˈkɔrsika]; Italian: Corsica; French: Corse [kɔʁs] ⓘ)[3] is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the French mainland, west of the Italian Peninsula and immediately north of the Italian island of Sardinia, the nearest land mass. A single chain of mountains makes up two-thirds of the island. As of January 2024, it had a population of 355,528.[1]
The island is a territorial collectivity of France, and is expected to achieve "a form of autonomy" in the near future.[4] The regional capital is Ajaccio. Although the region is divided into two administrative departments, Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud, their respective regional and departmental territorial collectivities were merged on 1 January 2018 to form the single territorial collectivity of Corsica. Corsican autonomy is more extensive than in other regional collectivities of France and the Corsican Assembly is permitted to exercise limited executive powers. Corsica's second-largest town is Bastia, located in the prefecture of Haute-Corse.
Corsica was ruled by the Republic of Genoa from 1284 to 1755, when it seceded to become a self-proclaimed, Italian-speaking Republic. In 1768, Genoa officially ceded it to Louis XV of France as part of a pledge for the debts incurred after enlisting French military help in suppressing the Corsican revolt; as a result, France annexed the island in 1769. The future Emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte, was a native Corsican, born that same year in Ajaccio: his ancestral home, Maison Bonaparte, is now a visitor attraction and museum. Because of Corsica's historical ties to Tuscany, the island has retained many Italian cultural elements, and many Corsican surnames are rooted in the Italian peninsula.
French (Français) is the official and most widely spoken language on the island with Corsican, the native language and an Italo-Dalmatian language, also recognized as one of France's regional languages.
Corsica is the third-least populated region of France after Mayotte and French Guiana.
History
Main article: History of Corsica
Prehistory and antiquity
Main article: Prehistory of Corsica
Carthage and its dependencies in 264 BC
The Romanesque-Pisan style of the Church of Aregno
Corsica has been occupied since the Mesolithic era, otherwise known as the Middle Stone Age. The permanent human presence in Corsica is documented in the Neolithic period from the 6th millennium BC.[5]
After a brief occupation by the Carthaginians, colonization by the ancient Greeks, and an only slightly longer occupation by the Etruscans, it was incorporated by the Roman Republic at the end of the First Punic War and, with Sardinia, in 238 BC became a province of the Roman Republic.[6] The Greeks, who built a colony in Aléria, considered Corsica as one of the most backward regions of the Roman world. The island produced sheep, honey, resin and wax, and exported many slaves.[6] Moreover, it was known for its cheap wines, exported to Rome, and was used as a place of exile, one of the most famous being the Roman philosopher Seneca.[7]
Corsica was integrated into Roman Italy by Emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305). Administratively, the island was divided into pagi, which in the Middle Ages became the pievi, the basic administrative units of the island until 1768.[6]
Middle Ages
Main article: Medieval Corsica
In the fifth century, the western half of the Roman Empire collapsed, and the island was invaded by the Vandals and the Ostrogoths.[6] Briefly recovered by the Byzantine Empire, it soon became part of the Kingdom of the Lombards. This made it a dependency of the March of Tuscany, which used it as an outpost against the Saracens.[8] Pepin the Short, king of the Franks and Charlemagne's father, expelled the Lombards and nominally granted Corsica to Pope Stephen II.[8] In the first quarter of the 11th century, Pisa and Genoa together freed the island from the threat of Arab invasion.[8] After that, the island came under the influence of the Republic of Pisa.[8] Many polychrome churches which adorn the island date from this period. Corsica also experienced a massive immigration from Tuscany, which gave to the island its present toponymy and rendered the language spoken in the northern two-thirds of the island very close to the Tuscan dialect.[8] This led to the traditional division of Corsica into two parts, along the main chain of mountains roughly going from Calvi to Porto-Vecchio: the eastern Banda di dentro, or Cismonte, more populated, developed, and open to the commerce with Italy, and the western Banda di fuori, or Pomonte, almost deserted, wild and remote.[8]
The Barbary pirates frequently attacked Corsica
The crushing defeat experienced by Pisa in 1284 in the Battle of Meloria against Genoa had among its consequences the end of the Pisan rule and the beginning of the Genoese influence in Corsica:[8] this was contested initially by the King of Aragon, who in 1296 had received from the Pope the investiture over Sardinia and Corsica.[9] A popular revolution against this and the feudal lords, led by Sambucuccio d'Alando, got the aid of Genoa. After that, the Cismonte was ruled as a league of comuni and churches, after the Italian experience.[9] The following 150 years were a period of conflict, when the Genoese rule was contested by Aragon, the local lords, the comuni and the Pope: finally, in 1450 Genoa ceded the administration of the island to its main bank, the Bank of Saint George, which brought peace.[10]
In the 16th century, the island entered into the fight between Spain and France for supremacy in Italy.[10] In 1553, a Franco-Ottoman fleet occupied Corsica, but the reaction of Spain and Genoa, led by Andrea Doria, reestablished the Genoese supremacy on the island, confirmed by the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis.[11] The unlucky protagonist of this episode was Sampiero di Bastelica, who would later come to be considered a hero of the island. Their power reinstated, the Genoese did not allow the Corsican nobility to share in the government of the island and oppressed the inhabitants with a heavy tax burden. On the other hand, they introduced the chestnut tree on a large scale, improving the diet of the population, and built a chain of towers along the coast to defend Corsica from the attacks of the Barbary pirates from North Africa.[12] The period of peace lasted until 1729, when the refusal to pay taxes by a peasant sparked the general insurrection of the island against Genoa.[13]
The island became known for the large number of mercenary soldiers and officers it produced. In 1743, over 4,600 Corsicans, or 4% of the entire population of the island, were serving as soldiers in various armies (predominantly those of Genoa, Venice, and Spain), making it one of the most militarized societies in Europe.[14]
Corsican Republic
Main articles: Corsican Republic and French conquest of Corsica
Pasquale Paoli
A view of Corsica and Martello tower, 1788 painting "A cutter and a man of war off Corsica" by Nicholas Pocock[15]
In 1729, the Corsican Revolution for independence from Genoa began, first led by Luiggi Giafferi and Giacinto Paoli, and later by Paoli's son, Pasquale Paoli. After 26 years of struggle against the Republic of Genoa, including an ephemeral attempt in 1736 to proclaim an independent Kingdom of Corsica under the German adventurer Theodor von Neuhoff, an independent Corsican Republic was proclaimed in 1755 under the leadership of Pasquale Paoli and remained sovereign until 1769 when the island was conquered by France.[16]
Following the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Pasquale Paoli was able to return to Corsica from exile in Britain. In 1794, he invited British forces under Lord Hood to intervene to free Corsica from French rule. Anglo-Corsican forces drove the French from the island and established an Anglo-Corsican Kingdom.[17] Following Spain's entry into the war, the British decided to withdraw from Corsica in 1796.[18]
19th century
Saint-Nicolas church in Feliceto
Corsicans commemorating the anniversary of the birth of Napoleon
Despite being the birthplace of the Emperor, the island was slightly neglected by Napoleon's government.[19] In 1814, near the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Corsica was briefly occupied again by British troops. The Treaty of Bastia gave the British crown sovereignty over the island, but it was later repudiated by Lord Castlereagh who insisted that the island should be returned to a restored French monarchy.
After the restoration, the island was further neglected by the French state. Despite the presence of a middle class in Bastia and Ajaccio, Corsica remained an otherwise primitive place, whose economy consisted mainly of subsistence agriculture, and whose population constituted a pastoral society, dominated by clans and the rules of vendetta. The code of vendetta required Corsicans to seek deadly revenge for offences against their family's honor. Between 1821 and 1852, no fewer than 4,300 murders were perpetrated in Corsica.[20] During the first half of the century, the people of Corsica were still immersed in the Italian cultural world: the bourgeoisie sent children to Pisa to study, official acts were enacted in Italian and most books were printed in Italian.[21] Moreover, many islanders sympathised with the national struggle which was taking place in nearby Italy in those years: several political refugees from the peninsula, like Niccolò Tommaseo, spent years on the island, while some Corsicans, like Count Leonetto Cipriani [fr], [it], took active part in the fights for Italian independence.
Despite all that, during those years the Corsicans began to feel an increasingly strong attachment to France. The reasons for that are manifold: the knowledge of the French language, which thanks to the mandatory primary school started to penetrate among the local youth, the high prestige of French culture, the awareness of being part of a big, powerful state, the possibility of well-paid jobs as civil servants, both in the island, in the mainland and in the colonies, the prospect of serving the French army during the wars for the conquest of the colonial empire, the introduction of steamboats, which reduced the travel time between mainland France and the island drastically, and – last but not least – Napoleon himself, whose existence alone constituted an indissoluble link between France and Corsica. Thanks to all these factors by around 1870 Corsica had landed in the French cultural world.[21]
From the 19th century into the mid-20th century, Corsicans also grew closer to the French nation through participation in the French Empire. Compared to much of Metropolitan France, Corsica was poor and many Corsicans emigrated. While Corsicans emigrated globally, especially to many South American countries, many chose to move within the French Empire which acted as a conduit for emigration and eventual return, as many young Corsican men could find better job opportunities in the far corners of the Empire where many other French hesitated to go. In many parts of the Empire, Corsicans were strongly represented, such as in Saigon where in 1926 12% of Europeans were from Corsica.[22] Across the French Empire, many Corsicans retained a sense of community by establishing organizations where they would meet regularly, keep one another informed of developments in Corsica, and come to one another's aid in times of need.[23]
Modern era
Monument to the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Corsica during World War II in Solaro (plaine orientale)
After the collapse of France to the German Wehrmacht in 1940, Corsica came under the rule of the Vichy French regime, which was collaborating with Nazi Germany.[24] In November 1942 the island was occupied by Italian and German forces following the Anglo-American landings in North Africa. After the Italian armistice in September 1943, Italian and Free French Forces pushed the Germans out of the island, making Corsica the first French Department to be freed.[25]
During the May 1958 crisis, the French military command in Algeria mutinied against the French Fourth Republic and on 24 May occupied the island in an action called Opération Corse that led to the collapse of the government; the second phase of the coup attempt, occupying Paris, was cancelled following the establishment of a transitional government under Charles de Gaulle.[26]
Banner at the Pasquale Paoli University erected by supporters of Corsican independence, calling for the release of Yvan Colonna
Between the late 1950s and the 1970s, proposals to conduct underground nuclear tests in the Argentella mines, the immigration of 18,000 former settlers from Algeria ("Pieds-Noirs") in the eastern plains, and continuing chemical pollution (Fanghi Rossi) from mainland Italy increased tensions between the indigenous inhabitants and the French government. Tensions escalated until an armed police assault on a pieds-noirs-owned wine cellar in Aleria, occupied by Corsican nationalists on 23 August 1975. This marked the beginning of the Corsican conflict, an armed nationalist struggle against the French government. Ever since, Corsican nationalism has been a feature of the island's politics, with calls for greater autonomy and protection for Corsican culture and the Corsican language, or even full independence. Some groups supporting independence, such as the National Liberation Front of Corsica, have carried out a violent campaign that includes bombings and assassinations targeting buildings and officials representing the French government; periodic flare-ups of raids and killings culminated in the assassination of Prefect Claude Érignac in 1998. Lately, the drive towards independence has taken a more electoral approach, where Corsicans elected pro-autonomist, or pro-independence parties overwhelmingly in the past few elections.[27]
In 2018, Corsica had the highest murder rate in France.[28] In March 2022 Corsica saw large protests and riots after Yvan Colonna, the murderer of Claude Érignac, was murdered in prison.[29]
The August 2022 Corsica derecho swept across the island and killed six people, injured dozens of others, and caused significant damage.[30][31][32]
Geography
Detailed map of Corsica and environs
Corsica was formed about 250 million years ago with the uplift of a granite backbone on the western side. About 50 million years ago sedimentary rock was pressed against this granite, forming the schists of the eastern side. It is the most mountainous island in the Mediterranean, a "mountain in the sea".[33]
The island is 183 km (114 mi) long at its longest, 83 km (52 mi) wide at its widest, has 1,000 km (620 mi) of coastline, with more than 200 beaches such as Paraguano. Corsica is very mountainous, with Monte Cinto as the highest peak at 2,706 m (8,878 ft), and around 120 other summits of more than 2,000 m (6,600 ft). Mountains comprise two-thirds of the island, forming a single chain. Forests make up 20% of the island.
Corsican natural park, Parc naturel régional de Corse
It is also the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean, after Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus.
Corsica has nature reserves covering about 3,500 km2 (1,400 sq mi) of the total surface area of 8,680 km2 (3,350 sq mi), primarily located in its interior is Parc naturel régional de Corse.[34] Corsica contains the GR20, one of Europe's most notable hiking trails.
The island is 90 km (56 mi) from Tuscany in Italy and 170 km (110 mi) from the Côte d'Azur in France. It is separated from Sardinia to the south by the Strait of Bonifacio, which is a minimum of 11 km (6.8 mi) wide.[34]
The Bay of Calvi: Corsica is the most mountainous Mediterranean island.
Major communities
Main articles: Communes of the Haute-Corse department and Communes of the Corse-du-Sud department
In 2005 the population of Corsica was settled in approximately 360 communities.[35]
Port of Bastia in Corsica, Haute-Corse department
Port of Bastia in Corsica, Haute-Corse department
Ajaccio gulf beach of Ricanto in Corsica, Corse-du-Sud department
Ajaccio gulf beach of Ricanto in Corsica, Corse-du-Sud department
A view of Speloncato
A view of Speloncato
Brando in the Haute-Corse department
Brando in the Haute-Corse department
Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification scheme, coastal regions are characterized by a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa). Further inland, a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb) is more common. At the highest elevation locations, small areas with a subarctic climate (Dsc, Dfc) and the rare Mediterranean climate can be found.
The station of Sari-Solenzara records the highest year-round temperatures in Metropolitan France, with an annual average of 16.41 °C over the 1981–2010 period. The average amount of sunshine received annually was 2,715 hours in the period 2008–2016.
Climate data for Sari-Solenzara, south-eastern part of island
MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecYear
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)13.6
(56.5)14.0
(57.2)15.9
(60.6)18.1
(64.6)22.2
(72.0)26.1
(79.0)29.4
(84.9)29.7
(85.5)26.3
(79.3)22.1
(71.8)17.4
(63.3)14.3
(57.7)20.76
(69.37)
Daily mean °C (°F)9.7
(49.5)9.8
(49.6)11.6
(52.9)13.7
(56.7)17.8
(64.0)21.3
(70.3)24.5
(76.1)24.8
(76.6)21.7
(71.1)18.0
(64.4)13.6
(56.5)10.7
(51.3)16.41
(61.54)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)5.8
(42.4)5.6
(42.1)7.3
(45.1)9.3
(48.7)12.9
(55.2)16.5
(61.7)19.5
(67.1)19.9
(67.8)17.1
(62.8)13.9
(57.0)9.8
(49.6)7.1
(44.8)12.06
(53.71)
Average precipitation mm (inches)71.1
(2.80)58.3
(2.30)61.2
(2.41)79.9
(3.15)45.8
(1.80)25.1
(0.99)12.1
(0.48)28.4
(1.12)88.3
(3.48)125.6
(4.94)94.2
(3.71)103.7
(4.08)793.7
(31.25)
Average precipitation days (≥ 1 mm)6.26.16.57.54.93.01.52.24.87.18.18.766.6
Source: Météo France[36]
Ecology
Corsica
Native name: Corsica
Nickname: L'Île de Beauté
The Isle of Beauty
Topography of Corsica
MapWikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Geography
LocationMediterranean Sea
Coordinates42°N 9°E
Area8,680 km2 (3,350 sq mi)
Length184 km (114.3 mi)
Width83 km (51.6 mi)
Coastline1,000 km (600 mi)
Highest elevation2,706 m (8878 ft)
Highest pointMonte Cinto
Administration
France
RégionCorsica
Largest settlementAjaccio (pop. 63,723)
Demographics
Population349,465 (January 2022)
Pop. density37/km2 (96/sq mi)
Zones by altitude
The island is divided into four major ecological zones, by altitude.[37] Below 600 metres (2,000 ft) is the coastal zone's mild Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and cool, rainy winters. The area's natural vegetation is sparse Mediterranean forest, scrubland, and shrubs. The coastal lowlands are part of the Tyrrhenian-Adriatic sclerophyllous and mixed forests ecoregion, in which forests and woodlands of evergreen sclerophyll oaks predominate, chiefly holm oak (Quercus ilex) and cork oak (Quercus suber). Much of the coastal lowlands have been cleared for agriculture, grazing and logging; these activities have reduced the forest area considerably.
Between 600 and 1,800 m (2,000 and 5,900 ft) is a temperate montane zone. The mountains are cooler and wetter, and home to the Corsican montane broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion. This region supports diverse forests of oak, pine, and broadleaf deciduous trees, with vegetation more typical of northern Europe. The population lives predominantly below 900 m (3,000 ft), with only shepherds and hikers from 600 to 900 m (2,000 to 3,000 ft).
The subalpine zone, located between 1,750 and 2,100 m (5,740 and 6,890 ft) is characterized by the presence of small trees and shrubs, especially ferns, and heaths.
The elevation above 1,800 to 2,700 m (5,900 to 8,900 ft) is the high alpine zone. Vegetation is sparse, with high winds and frequent cloud cover. This zone is uninhabited.
There is considerable birdlife in Corsica. One famous example is the bearded vulture, or Lammergeier, which (along with the iconic griffon vulture) serve as environmental "janitors" by scavenging the remains of deceased animals, thus limiting the proliferation of infectious microbes and diseases. Other avian species to be seen include the barn owl, blue rock thrush, common crane, Corsican nuthatch, golden eagle, greater flamingo, osprey, peregrine falcon, red kite, and starry bittern. In some cases, Corsica is an isolated portion of a species' distribution; in other cases, it is the furthest point in a species' range. For example, a subspecies of hooded crow (Corvus cornix cornix) occurs in Corsica, but not anywhere further south.[38]
Corsica has abundant reptile and amphibians, one protected species being the sensitive Hermann's tortoise, which are found at A Cupulatta at Vero and Moltifao Regional Natural Park. Corsican brook and fire salamanders, leaf-toed gecko, and yellow and green grass snakes are also common. The European pond turtle can be seen, especially in the waters of Fango Estuary, southern Calvi, Biguglia Lagoon and Pietracorbara.
Parc Naturel Régional de Corse
Forest Scene at Ailo in Corsica. An 1870s painting by Károly Markó the Younger.
The island has a natural park (Parc Naturel Régional de Corse, Parcu di Corsica), which protects rare animal and plant species. The park was created in 1972 and includes the Golfe de Porto, the Scandola Nature Reserve (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and some of the highest mountains on the island. Scandola cannot be reached on foot, but people can gain access by boat from the village of Galéria and Porto (Ota). Two endangered subspecies of hoofed mammals, the European mouflon (Ovis aries musimon) and Corsican red deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus) inhabit the park. The Corsican red deer was re-introduced after it was extinct due to overhunting. This Corsican subspecies was the same that survived on Sardinia, so it is endemic. There are other species endemic to Corsica especially in the upper mountain ranges, i.e. Corsican nuthatch, Corsican fire salamander and Corsican brook salamander and many plant subspecies.
Extinct animals
Corsica, like all the other Mediterranean islands, was home to endemic mammals during the Late Pleistocene, most or all of these are shared with Sardinia (as Sardinia was joined to Corsica for much of the Pleistocene). After the arrival of humans during Mesolithic around 8000 BC, these began to disappear. Some of the smaller mammals managed to survive until at least the early Iron Age, but are now all extinct.
Extinct mammals formerly native to Corsica include the Sardinian dhole, the mustelid Enhydrictis galictoides, the deer Praemegaceros cazioti, the Corsican giant shrew, Tyrrhenian mole, Sardinian pika, Tyrrhenian vole, and the Tyrrhenian field rat.
Demographics
As of the January 2024 estimate, Corsica has a population of 355,528 inhabitants.[1]
Historical population of Corsica
YearPop.±% p.a.
1740120,379—
1770130,236+0.26%
1786148,172+0.81%
1806177,582+0.91%
1821180,348+0.10%
1831197,967+0.94%
1836207,889+0.93%
1841221,463+1.27%
1846230,271+0.77%
1851236,251+0.51%
1856240,183+0.35%
1861252,889+1.02%
1866259,861+0.55%
1872258,507−0.09%
YearPop.±% p.a.
1876262,701+0.36%
1881272,639+0.72%
1936221,990−0.38%
1954175,818−1.27%
1962180,862+0.36%
1968205,268+2.13%
1975225,562+1.36%
1982240,178+0.90%
1990250,371+0.52%
1999260,196+0.43%
2010309,693+1.62%
2015327,283+1.11%
2021347,597+1.01%
2024355,528+0.75%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Note: Censuses from 1886 to 1975 were falsified by the municipalities of Corsica to hide the population decline and maintain the level of financial benefits received from the French state. Figures from 1936 to 1975 in this table are the redressed figures calculated by INSEE to correct the overestimated population of the censuses at the time.
Source: 1740–1786 censuses,[39] 1806–1881 censuses,[40] INSEE's censuses (1982–2021, as well as redressed figures 1936–1975),[41] and INSEE estimate (2024).[1]
Immigration
At the 2019 census, 55.7% of the inhabitants of Corsica were people born on the island, 29.9% were from Continental France, 0.3% were natives of Overseas France, and 14.1% were born in foreign countries.[42]
The majority of the foreign immigrants in Corsica come from the Maghreb (particularly Moroccans, who made up 29.0% of all immigrants in Corsica at the 2019 census) and from Southern Europe (particularly Portuguese and Italians, 23.9% and 12.5% of immigrants on the island respectively).[43]
Place of birth of residents of Corsica
(at the 1982, 1990, 1999, 2008, 2013, and 2019 censuses)
CensusBorn in CorsicaBorn in
Continental FranceBorn in
Overseas FranceBorn in foreign
countries with French
citizenship at birth1Immigrants2
201955.7%29.9%0.3%4.2%9.9%
from the Maghreb3from Southern Europe4from the rest of the world
3.9%3.8%2.2%
201355.8%28.9%0.3%4.8%10.2%
from the Maghreb3from Southern Europe4from the rest of the world
4.4%3.9%1.9%
200857.9%27.3%0.3%5.2%9.3%
from the Maghreb3from Southern Europe4from the rest of the world
4.4%3.4%1.5%
199959.5%24.8%0.3%5.5%10.0%
from the Maghreb3from Southern Europe4from the rest of the world
5.3%3.3%1.4%
199062.0%21.3%0.2%6.0%10.5%
198261.6%20.4%0.2%6.0%11.8%
1Essentially Pieds-Noirs who resettled in Corsica after the independence of Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, many of whom had Corsican ancestry.
2An immigrant is by French definition a person born in a foreign country and who did not have French citizenship at birth. Note that an immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France, but is still listed as an immigrant in French statistics. On the other hand, persons born in France with foreign citizenship (the children of immigrants) are not listed as immigrants.
3Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria
4Portugal, Italy, Spain
Source: INSEE[44][43][42][45][46][47]
Languages
Main articles: Corsican language and Ligurian (Romance language)
Chart of the dialects of the Corsican language, which also extends into northern Sardinia
French (Français) is the official and most widely spoken language on the island. Italian was the official language of Corsica until 9 May 1859,[48] when it was replaced by French. Corsican (Corsu), a minority language that is closely related to medieval Tuscan (Toscano), has a better prospect of survival than most other French regional languages: Corsican is the second most widely spoken language after French. However, since the annexation of the island by France in the 18th century, Corsican has been under heavy pressure from French, and today it is estimated that only 10% of Corsica's population speak the language natively, with only 50% having some sort of proficiency in it.[49]
The Corsican language is divided into two main varieties: Cismuntanu and Ultramuntanu, spoken respectively northeast and southwest of the Girolata–Porto Vecchio line. This division was due to the massive immigration from Tuscany which took place in Corsica during the lower Middle Ages: as a result, the Cismuntanu became very similar to the Tuscan dialects, being part of the Italo-Dalmatian language group, while the Ultramuntanu maintained its original characteristics which make it much more similar to a Southern Romance language, such as Sardinian (Sardu).[50][51] Therefore, due to the differences between the main dialectal varieties, many linguists classify Corsican as an Italo-Dalmatian language,[52] while others consider it a Southern Romance one.[53]
Fewer and fewer people speak a Ligurian dialect, known as bunifazzinu,[54] in what has long been a language island, Bonifacio, and in Ajaccio, the aghjaccinu dialect. In Cargèse, a village established by Greek immigrants in the 17th century, Greek (Ελληνικά) was the traditional language.[55]
Among foreign languages, the most spoken ones were English (39%) and Italian (34%) as reported by an official survey by the regional government.[56]
Cuisine
Main article: Cuisine of Corsica
From the mountains to the plains and sea, many ingredients play a role. Game such as wild boar (Cingale, Singhjari) is popular. There also is seafood and river fish, such as trout. Delicacies, such as figatellu (also named as ficateddu), made with liver, coppa, ham (prizuttu), lonzu, are made from Corsican pork (porcu nustrale).Characteristic among the cheeses is brocciu (similar to ricotta), which is used as a fresh ingredient in many dishes, from first courses (sturzapreti) to cakes (fiadone). Other cheeses, like casgiu merzu ("rotten cheese", the Corsican counterpart of the Sardinian casu martzu), and casgiu veghju, are made from goat or sheep milk. Chestnuts are the main ingredient in the making of pulenta castagnina and cakes (falculelle). A variety of alcohol also exists, ranging from aquavita (brandy), red and white Corsican wines (Vinu Corsu), muscat wine (plain or sparkling), to the famous "Cap Corse" apéritif produced by Mattei. The herbs which are part of Maquis (Corsican: machja), and the chestnuts and acorns of the Corsican forests are eaten by local animals, resulting in a noticeable flavour in the food there.
Art
Corsica has produced a number of known artists:
Alizée (singer/dancer)
Martha Angelici (opera singer)
A Filetta (polyphonic chant group)
Canta U Populu Corsu (band)
Laetitia Casta (model/actress)
Baptiste Giabiconi (model/singer)
Julien de Casabianca (cineast)
Jérôme Ferrari (writer)
Patrick Fiori (singer)
Petru Guelfucci (singer)
José Luccioni (opera singer)
Gaston Micheletti (opera singer)
I Muvrini (band)
Jenifer (singer)
François Lanzi (painter)
Ange Leccia (visual art)
Henri Padovani (musician; original guitarist for The Police)
Thierry de Peretti (cineast)
Marie-Claude Pietragalla (dancer)
Jean-Paul Poletti (singer)
Robin Renucci (comedian)
Tino Rossi (singer)
César Vezzani (opera singer)
Sport
Most Corsican football clubs are currently littered through the top 5 tiers of French football. AC Ajaccio and SC Bastia play in Ligue 2 in 2024–25, although both have played in Ligue 1 in the last decade. FC Bastia-Borgo currently competes in the Championnat National and Gazélec Ajaccio currently competes in the Championnat National 3. ÉF Bastia previously competed in Regional 1, but in 2021 merged with fellow Corsican team Association de la Jeunesse de Biguglia, to form Football Jeunesse Étoile Biguglia.
Tour de Corse is a rally held since 1956, which was a round of the World Rally Championship from 1973 to 2008 and later the Intercontinental Rally Challenge and European Rally Championship. The Tour de Corse returned as a World Rally Championship round in 2015.
Administration
Map of Corsica
Before 1975, Corsica was a département of the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. In 1975 two new départements, Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud, were created by splitting the hitherto united departement of Corsica.
On 2 March 1982, a law was passed that gave Corsica the status of territorial collectivity (collectivité territoriale), abolishing the Corsican Regional Council. Unlike the regional councils, the Corsican Assembly has executive powers over the island.
In 1992, three institutions were formed in the territorial collectivity of Corsica:
The Executive Council of Corsica, which handles the type of executive functions held in other French regions by the presidents of the Regional Councils. It ensures the stability and consistency needed to manage the affairs of the territory
The Corsican Assembly, a deliberative, unicameral legislative body with greater powers than the regional councils on the mainland
The Economic, Social and Cultural Council of Corsica, an advisory body
A local referendum held in 2003, aimed at abolishing the two départements to leave a territorial collectivity with extended powers, was voted down by a narrow margin. However, the issue of Corsican autonomy and greater powers for the Corsican Assembly continues to hold sway over Corsican politics.
Economy
Corsica's coastline is a major driver for tourism – coastline by the town of Propriano
The gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was 10 billion euros in 2021.[57]
In 1584 the Republic of Genoa governor ordered all farmers and landowners to plant four trees yearly; a chestnut, olive, ficus, and mulberry tree. Many communities owe their origin and former richness to the ensuing chestnut woods.[58] Chestnut bread keeps fresh for as long as two weeks.[59]
Corsica's main exports are granite and marble, tannic acid, cork, cheese, wine, citrus fruit, olive oil and cigarettes.[60]
The Corsican mafia has a considerable influence on the local economy.[61]
Transport
Airports
Corsica has four international airports:
Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte Airport
Bastia – Poretta Airport
Calvi – Sainte-Catherine Airport
Figari–Sud Corse Airport (near Bonifacio and Porto Vecchio in the south)
All airports are served by regional French airline Air Corsica, as well as Air France which mainly offers connections to Paris-Orly. Budget carriers, such as EasyJet and Ryanair, offer seasonal connections to different cities in Europe.
Railway
The island has 232 kilometres (144 miles) of metre gauge railway. The main line runs between Bastia and Ajaccio via Ponte Leccia, and there is a branch line from Ponte Leccia to Calvi. The name of the rail network is Chemins de fer de la Corse (CFC). For a list of stations, see Railway stations in Corsica.
There was also the Eastern Coast Railway [fr] along the Tyrrhenian seacoast; that line was heavily damaged during World War II, and subsequently closed for good.[62]
Seaports
Port of Ajaccio
Looking north across the Strait of Bonifacio from the northern tip of Sardinia; the southern coast of Corsica is barely visible through the haze of distance.
Corsica is well connected to the European mainland (Italy and France) by various car ferry lines. The island's busiest seaport is Bastia, which saw more than 2.5 million passengers in 2012.[63] The second busiest seaport is Ajaccio, followed by L'Île-Rousse and Calvi. Propriano and Porto Vecchio in the south also have smaller ferry docks and are seasonally served from France (Marseille), while Bonifacio's harbour is only frequented by smaller car ferries from the neighbouring island of Sardinia.
The ferry companies serving Corsica are Corsica Ferries – Sardinia Ferries (from Savona, Livorno and Piombino in Italy; Toulon and Nice in France), SNCM (from Marseille, Toulon and Nice in France), CMN – La Méridionale (from Marseille in France) and Moby Lines (from Livorno and Genoa in Italy).[64][65][66][67]
Politics
The French government is opposed to full independence but has at times shown support for some level of autonomy. There is support on the island for proposals for greater autonomy, but polls show that a large majority of Corsicans are opposed to full independence.[68][69]
In 1972, the Italian company Montedison dumped toxic waste off the Corsican coast, creating what looked like red mud in waters around the island with the poisoning of the sea, the most visible effects being cetaceans found dead on the shores. At that time the Corsican people felt that the French government did not support them. To stop the poisoning, one ship carrying toxic waste from Italy was bombed.[70]
Corsican nationalists have used means such as the removal of French names (often also Italian) on road signs.
Some Nationalist groups that claim to support Corsican independence, such as the National Liberation Front of Corsica, have carried out a violent campaign since the 1970s that includes bombings and assassinations, usually targeting buildings and officials representing the French government or Corsicans themselves for political reasons.[71]
In 2000, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin agreed to grant increased autonomy to Corsica. The proposed autonomy for Corsica would have included greater protection for the Corsican language (Corsu), the island's traditional language, whose practice and teaching, like other regional or minority languages in France, had been discouraged in the past. According to the UNESCO classification, the Corsican language is currently in danger of becoming extinct.[72] However, plans for increased autonomy were opposed by the Gaullist opposition in the French National Assembly, who feared that they would lead to calls for autonomy from other régions (such as Brittany, Alsace, or Provence), eventually threatening France's unity as a country.[73]
The Corsican autonomy referendum on 6 July 2003, a narrow majority of Corsican voters opposed a proposal by the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin and then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy that would have abolished the two départements of the island and granted greater autonomy to the territorial collectivity of Corsica.[74]
On 13 December 2015, the regionalist coalition Pè a Corsica (English: For Corsica), supported by both Femu a Corsica and Corsica Libera and led by Gilles Siméoni, won the territorial elections with a percentage of 36.9%.[75][76]
On 17 December 2015, Jean Guy Talamoni was elected President of the Assembly of Corsica and Gilles Siméoni was elected Executive President of the Council of the Region. In addition, legislation granting Corsica a greater degree of autonomy was passed[vague].[77]
On 16 March 2022, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, told regional newspaper Corse Matin before a two-day visit: "We are ready to go as far as autonomy – there you go, the word has been said."[78] The comment came after two weeks of rioting in which 100 people were injured and public buildings and police were attacked with homemade explosive devices.
See also
Portals:
flag France
icon Islands
Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico
Corsican immigration to Venezuela
Corsican language
Corsican mafia
Corsican nationalism
Corsican Workers' Trade Union
"Dio vi salvi Regina" — the unofficial Corsican anthem
GR 20
Italian irredentism in Corsica
List of bodies of water of Corsica
List of castles in Corsica
List of Corsican people
University of Corsica Pascal Paoli
Bonifacio (/ˌboʊniˈfɑːtʃoʊ/ BOH-nee-FAH-choh,[3] Italian: [boniˈfaːtʃo], French: [bɔnifasjo]; Corsican: Bunifaziu [buniˈfatsju], Bonifaziu [bɔniˈfatsju], or Bonifaciu [bɔniˈfatʃu]; Bonifacino: Bunifazziu; Gallurese: Bunifaciu) is a commune in the southern tip of the island of Corsica, in the French department of Corse-du-Sud.
Bonifacio is the setting of Guy de Maupassant's short story "A Vendetta".
Geography
Guns in the fortress of Bonifacio.
Bonifacio is located directly on the Mediterranean Sea, separated from Sardinia by the Strait of Bonifacio. It is a city placed on the best and only major harbour of the southern coast and also is a commune covering a somewhat larger region including the offshore Isles Lavezzi, giving it the distinction of being the southernmost commune in Metropolitan France. It lies closer to the capital cities of 20 other countries in Europe and Africa than its own, Paris. The commune is bordered on the northwest by the canton of Figari and has a short border on the northeast with the canton of Porto-Vecchio. The combined border runs approximately from the Golfe de Ventilegne on the west to the mouth of the Golfu di Sant'Amanza on the east. The coastline circumscribed by the two points is about 75 kilometres (47 mi). Highway N198 runs north along the east coast and N196 along the west.[4]
The islands are part of the French portion, 794.6-square-kilometre (196,300-acre), of the international Bouches de Bonifacio ("Strait of Bonifacio") marine park,[5] a nature reserve, signed into legal existence by France and Italy in 1993 for the protection of the strait against passage of ships bearing dangerous chemicals, and implemented in France by a ministerial decree of 1999 detailing the land to be included in the réserve naturelle de Bouches de Bonifacio for the preservation of wild birds, other fauna and flora, fish and nature in general.[6]
The southern coast in the vicinity of Bonifacio is an outcrop of chalk-white limestone, precipitous and sculpted into unusual shapes by the ocean. Slightly further inland the limestone adjoins the granite of which the two islands, Sardinia and Corsica, are formed. The port of Bonifacio is placed on the Bay of Bonifacio, a drowned ravine of a fjord-like appearance separated from the ocean by a finger-like promontory 1,500 meters (4,900 ft) long and 200 meters (660 ft) wide. In prehistoric post-glacial times when sea levels were low and the islands were connected, the ravine was part of a valley leading to upland Corsica. The maximum draught supported by the harbour is 3.5 meters (11 ft), more than ample for ancient ships and modern small vessels.
The city of Bonifacio is split into two sections. The vieille ville (old town), or la Haute Ville (the Upper city), on the site of a citadel, is located on the promontory overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The citadel was built in the 9th century with the foundation of the city. The Citadel has been reconstructed and renovated many times since its construction and most recently was an administrative center for the French Foreign Legion. Today it is more of a museum. Historically most of the inhabitants have resided in the Haute ville under the immediate protection of the citadel. The harbour facilities and residential areas below, la marine, line the narrow shelf of the inlet and extend for some distance up the valley, giving the settlement a linear appearance and creating a third residential section limited by St. Julien on the east.
The city and its fortifications also extend for some distance along the cliff-tops, which are at about 70 meters (230 ft) elevation. The cliffs have been undercut by the ocean so that the buildings, which have been placed on the very lip of the precipice, appear to overhang it. The appearance from the sea is of a white city gleaming in the sun and suspended over the rough waters below.
History
See also: History of Corsica
The citadel at Bonifacio.
The citadel
Prehistoric period
Bonifacio has two prehistoric sites of some importance: the ancient cave shelter of Araguina-Sennola near the village of Capello on Route N96 just north of the city and a chambered tomb of Vasculacciu further north near Figari. The first is the site of the notable Lady of Bonifacio, a female burial carbon-dated to about 6570 BC, which is either late Mesolithic or Early Neolithic, and the second belongs to the Megalithic Culture and is dated to the Middle Neolithic. The alignment of the two and the extensive use of chert from Monte Arci in Sardinia shows that the Bay of Bonifacio was a route to inland Corsica from the earliest times.
Roman period
The only record of southernmost Corsica in Roman times comes from the geographer Ptolemy. He reports[7] the coordinates of Marianum Promontory and town, which, plotted on a map, turn out to be the farthest south of Corsica. After listing the peoples of the east coast he states that the Subasani (ancient Greek Soubasanoi) were "more to the south."
The people do not appear subsequently and the town and promontory have not been identified, nor do any Roman roads point to it. The only official road, the Via Corsica, ran between the Roman castra of Mariana and Aleria on the east coast and further south to Pallas, according to the Antonine Itinerary.[8] Ptolemy places Pallas unequivocally on the east coast north of Marianum. Although unrecorded tracks and paths to the far south are possible, it is unlikely they would have carried any significant Roman traffic.
Maritime traffic through the strait however was significant and it could hardly have neglected the fine harbour at Bonifacio. The most popular choice for Marianum Promontory therefore is Cape Pertusato, southernmost point of Corsica island, about 9 kilometers (6 mi) east of the harbor, with Bonifacio itself as Marianum town.[9] A second possibility would be the first century AD Roman ruins adjoining Piantarella Beach near the village of Ciappili and next to the grounds of Sperone golf course, a recreational suburb to the west of Bonifacio, but those ruins appear to represent a Roman villa and the beach though eminently suitable for recreation is of little value as a port. More likely the villa belonged to a citizen of Bonifacio as Marianum.
Tuscan period
Corsica was taken from the Roman Empire in 469 by Genseric, king of the Vandals, and recovered by the Eastern Empire in 534. The Lombards having taken it again in 725, Charlemagne cleared them out by 774 and handed the island over to the Papacy, which had been the most powerful complainant of the island's devastation by Germanic peoples. Starting in 806 the Moors of Spain began to contend for the island and held it for a short time but in 828 the Papacy assigned its defense to the margrave of Tuscany, a powerful state of the Holy Roman Empire nominally under the Kingdom of Italy.[10]
The city in evidence today was founded as a fortress by and subsequently named after Boniface II of Tuscany in 828. He had led a naval expedition to suppress the Saracens of North Africa and returned to build an unassailable fortress and naval base from which the domains of Tuscany could be defended at the outermost frontier. Most of the citadel postdates the 9th century or is of uncertain date but Il Torrione, a round tower, was certainly part of the original citadel.
Climate
Bonifacio has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csa). The average annual temperature in Bonifacio is 16.8 °C (62.2 °F). The average annual rainfall is 582.2 mm (22.92 in) with November as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.8 °C (76.6 °F), and lowest in February, at around 10.5 °C (50.9 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded in Bonifacio was 39.7 °C (103.5 °F) on 23 July 2009; the coldest temperature ever recorded was −4.2 °C (24.4 °F) on 23 January 1963.
Climate data for Bonifacio, Corse-du-Sud (Cape Pertusato) 1991–2020 averages, extremes 1917–present)
MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecYear
Record high °C (°F)22.8
(73.0)23.4
(74.1)26.0
(78.8)26.4
(79.5)33.4
(92.1)35.4
(95.7)39.7
(103.5)39.1
(102.4)33.7
(92.7)30.6
(87.1)26.4
(79.5)21.2
(70.2)39.7
(103.5)
Mean maximum °C (°F)16.0
(60.8)16.7
(62.1)18.6
(65.5)22.0
(71.6)26.1
(79.0)30.4
(86.7)33.7
(92.7)33.5
(92.3)29.2
(84.6)25.9
(78.6)21.8
(71.2)17.8
(64.0)34.6
(94.3)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)13.0
(55.4)12.9
(55.2)14.5
(58.1)16.9
(62.4)20.4
(68.7)24.2
(75.6)27.0
(80.6)28.0
(82.4)24.9
(76.8)21.3
(70.3)17.1
(62.8)14.1
(57.4)19.5
(67.1)
Daily mean °C (°F)10.7
(51.3)10.5
(50.9)12.0
(53.6)14.1
(57.4)17.5
(63.5)21.2
(70.2)24.0
(75.2)24.8
(76.6)21.9
(71.4)18.7
(65.7)14.7
(58.5)11.8
(53.2)16.8
(62.2)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)8.4
(47.1)8.0
(46.4)9.4
(48.9)11.2
(52.2)14.5
(58.1)18.1
(64.6)20.9
(69.6)21.7
(71.1)18.9
(66.0)16.1
(61.0)12.3
(54.1)9.5
(49.1)14.1
(57.4)
Mean minimum °C (°F)3.6
(38.5)3.6
(38.5)4.4
(39.9)7.2
(45.0)10.7
(51.3)14.5
(58.1)18.0
(64.4)18.7
(65.7)14.6
(58.3)11.3
(52.3)7.2
(45.0)4.4
(39.9)1.8
(35.2)
Record low °C (°F)−4.2
(24.4)−3.4
(25.9)−2.0
(28.4)2.0
(35.6)6.2
(43.2)5.0
(41.0)9.8
(49.6)10.0
(50.0)8.6
(47.5)1.4
(34.5)1.2
(34.2)−1.0
(30.2)−4.2
(24.4)
Average precipitation mm (inches)60.6
(2.39)48.7
(1.92)51.9
(2.04)54.2
(2.13)39.9
(1.57)18.1
(0.71)7.1
(0.28)12.5
(0.49)55.5
(2.19)74.5
(2.93)89.2
(3.51)70.0
(2.76)582.2
(22.92)
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm)7.86.76.66.74.62.40.81.65.37.39.98.868.5
Source: Météo France[11] Infoclimat [12]
Comparison of local Meteorological data with other cities in France[13]
TownSunshine
(hours/yr)Rain
(mm/yr)Snow
(days/yr)Storm
(days/yr)Fog
(days/yr)
National average1,973770142240
BonifacioN/A541.91.823.818.5
Paris1,661637121810
Nice2,7247671291
Strasbourg1,693665292956
Brest1,6051,21171275
Population
Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
18003,181—
18063,105−0.40%
18212,479−1.49%
18312,944+1.73%
18363,031+0.58%
18413,017−0.09%
18463,271+1.63%
18513,383+0.68%
18563,100−1.73%
18613,453+2.18%
18663,594+0.80%
18723,616+0.10%
18763,375−1.71%
18813,116−1.58%
18863,357+1.50%
18913,703+1.98%
18963,858+0.82%
19014,188+1.66%
YearPop.±% p.a.
19063,797−1.94%
19113,660−0.73%
19212,816−2.59%
19262,688−0.93%
19313,331+4.38%
19363,628+1.72%
19462,048−5.56%
19542,157+0.65%
19622,418+1.44%
19682,431+0.09%
19752,693+1.47%
19822,736+0.23%
19902,683−0.24%
19992,658−0.10%
20072,852+0.88%
20122,950+0.68%
20173,118+1.11%
20203,204+0.91%
Source: EHESS[14] and INSEE (1968-2017)[15]
Sights
The town's charm and proximity to idyllic beaches makes it a popular tourist destination in the summer, predominantly for residents of mainland France.
Bonifacio above the sea. The King of Aragon's Staircase is on the left of the cliff.
Il Torrione
Two Genoese towers are in the neighbourhood:
Torra di Sant'Amanza
Torra di Sponsaglia
Église Saint-Dominique de Bonifacio
Église Sainte-Marie-Majeure de Bonifacio
Beaches and recreation
La Tonnara Beach
Transportation
The town is served by Figari airport (car or taxi required), and ferry service to Sardinia is available multiple times daily.
Personalities
The following persons of note were born in Bonifacio:
Tommaso Maria Zigliara (1833–1893), Roman Catholic cardinal, theologian, and philosopher.
The film star Marie-José Nat.
See also
Communes of the Corse-du-Sud department
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Department of Administration (DA) Assistant Secretary Gregory Parham present the Abraham Lincoln Honor Award to USDA Natural Resources and Conservation (NRCS) (sponsor) Clearwater Basin Collaborative (Public Lands Access Year-Round, Orofino, Idaho and Great Burn Study Group, Missoula, Montana) Team Leaders Alex Irby (accepting for Irby is Joyce Dearstyne) and Dale Harris at USDA’s 2015 Abraham Lincoln Honor Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015. The Clearwater Basin Collaborative received their award for their example of thoughtful, deliberative problem solving that resulted in accelerated restoration and ecological, social and economic benefits for the citizens of north-central Idaho. USDA photo by Bob Nichols.
www.esotericarchives.com/tritheim/stegano.htm
---
Steganographia (Secret Writing), by Johannes Trithemius. 1500.
This digital edition Copyright © 1997 by Joseph H. Peterson. All rights reserved.
This is Trithemius' most notorious work. On the surface it is a system of angel magic, but within is a highly sophisticated system of cryptography. It claims to contain a synthesis of the science of knowledge, the art of memory, magic, an accelerated language learning system, and a method of sending messages without symbols or messenger. In private circulation, the Steganographia brought such a reaction of fear that he decided it should never be published. He reportedly destroyed the more extreme portions (presumably instructions for prophecy/divination) but it continued to circulate in mss form and was eventually published posthumously in 1606.
The edition I (James J. O'Donnell) have used is:
1579. Trithemius, Steganographie: Ars per occultam Scripturam
animi sui voluntatem absentibus aperiendi certu, 4to, Darmst. 1621. (Written 1500. First printed edition: Frankfurt, 1606.)
------------------------------
Location: London, British Library, printed books
Shelf mark: 819 e 14
Author: J. Tritheim
Title: Steganographia: Hoc est: Ars per occultam, etc.
Place and date of publication: 1621
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faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/avatars/
by James J. O'Donnell
This page offers supplementary materials to illustrate and continue the discussion initiated by Avatars of the Word, published in June 1998 by Harvard University Press: Table of Contents. A Spanish translation was published in 2000. The full text is now available in the ACLS History E-Book project for subscribing participants.
In March 1999, I (James J. O'Donnell) appeared at a Cambridge Forum and delivered a talk "From Papyrus to Cyberspace", followed by commentary and discussion (one-hour program, available here in RealAudio).
Jerome idealized: the late antique polemicist and translator rehistoricized as Renaissance cardinal.
Plato's Phaedrus, in Jowett's 19th century translation.
The totemic power of Alexandria as image of the perfect library:
The Alexandria Digital Library at UC-Santa Barbara
Late Antique resources:
Augustine
Cassiodorus
Cosmas Indicopleustes -- the only real flat-earther in history?
"Worlds of Late Antiquity", syllabus to a wide-ranging undergraduate course.
"Internet Medieval Sourcebook"
Johannes Trithemius on secret forms of writing
Marshall McLuhan:
Who Was Marshall McLuhan?
The "Cathach", O'Donnell family good luck charm, with or without a book inside.
A.E. Housman, "A Shropshire Lad"
Kipling's Stalky & Co
Matthias Corvinus: an illuminated manuscript from his library
Mark Hopkins on a bench: I allude to this old saw in the book, and afterwards wrote more expansively on the theme in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
"New Views of Medieval Europe": pictures from a 1962 National Geographic article discussed in the book.
---
In: FOUR - A Rediscovery of the 'Tetragonus mundus' - Marten KUILMAN (1996/2011). Falcon Press, Heemstede. ISBN 978-90-814420-1-5
(Fig. 127) - Johannes Trithemius (1462 - 1516) is one of the great explorers of the mind. He did not set sail to foreign continents, but tried to find new territories in the human mind with a similar optimism and in the same spirit as the sailors, who headed for the faraway places of the earth. A portrait of Hans Burgkmair from Augsburg around 1510.
The life of the Benedictine friar and abbot Johannes Trithemius (1462 - 1516; fig. 127) can be classified as ‘pivotal’. He was an intriguing and colorful figure, who embodied the spirit of his time. This friend and teacher of Henri Cornelius Agrippa 'charted the arduous route to Heaven along a very narrow and perilous course between two opposing ‘monsters’. The first monster, the Scylla, is a languorous and deliberative state still known by its half-Greek name of acedia (distress of heart, lethargy), and the second monster at the opposite pole, the Charybdis, excessive and indiscreet zeal' (BRANN, 1981; p. 117; BRANN, 1999).
Trithemius was a passionate reformer, teacher, book collector and history-writer. He described, in his 'De Origine Gentis Francorum (1514), a history of the Franks from 439 BC to 841 AD, partly on fictitious evidence (KUELBS & SONKOWSKY, 1987). 'He appears by hindsight to have been a transitional or 'Janus-like' figure', said BORCHARDT (1972) in his article on Trithemius.
His greatest reputation was due to a curious book called the 'Steganographia', published in 1606, but earlier circulating as a manuscript. 'The technical side of this science is very complex, involving pages and pages of elaborate calculations, both astrological and in connection with the numerical values of the angel-names', said Frances YATES (1964, p. 145).
Yates reckoned that Giordano Bruno's preference for the figure thirty was to trace back to Trithemius' 'Steganographia'. In that situation Bruno would have seen a manuscript. YATES (1966, p. 208) pointed to an abstract of this work later made for Bruno, where a list of thirty-one spirits was changed into thirty. Wayne SHUMAKER (1982) emphasized the cryptographic intentions of the 'Steganographia' rather than the demonic mysticism for which it became reputed.
Trithemius is one of the great explorers of the mind in a time, which coincided with the discoveries in the geographical field. Both were generated by an urge to go into extremes, to reach hitherto unknown boundaries. Names like Ficino, Pico della Mirandella, Bruno, Reuchlin, Agrippa and Fludd are just as important as those of Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Magelhaen, although the latter are often more celebrated because of the visible evidence of their discoveries.
Aboriginal Tent Embassy camp near Old Parliament House
See a short history of Aboriginal Australia since The First Fleet...
www.aboriginalheritage.org/history/history/
Wish I had this list of Aboriginal words on our travels...
www.welcometocountry.org/26-aboriginal-words-australians-...
We do now!
Now to learn them......
See the origins of our democratic institutions arising from our convict forebears..
www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-29/political-convicts-chartis...
Uluru Statement from the Heart in English
5m
SBS Radio - in consultation with the Uluru Dialogue, Indigenous Law Centre UNSW - is sharing the Uluru Statement from the Heart in various languages to continue the national dialogue. For the first time, this podcast collection includes more than 20 Aboriginal languages (from communities in the Northern Territory and from Northern Western Australia), which will continue to grow as more First Nations languages are translated. The collection also includes more than 60 languages for Australia’s Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities. The Uluru Statement from the Heart is an invitation to the Australian people to walk with First Nations peoples to create a better future. In May 2017, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates came together at the First Nations National Constitutional Convention near Uluru and presented the Uluru Statement from the Heart to the Australian people. The Statement calls for a First Nations Voice to Parliament, enshrined in the constitution, and a process for agreement making (Treaty) and truth-telling. It was the culmination of 13 deliberative Regional Dialogues across Australia with First Nations communities. The Statement seeks to establish a relationship between Australia's First Nations peoples and the Australian nation based on truth, justice and self-determination. Music by Frank Yamma. Photo by Jimmy Widders Hunt. Video collection: www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/uluru-statement-from-the-heart-in... Podcast collection: www.sbs.com.au/language/ulurustatement
Where Has Democracy Gone?
Are the impacts of immigration and/or globalization the reasons for the actual crises in the world?
What Anglo-Saxons use to call “globalisation” in order to express the increase of trades around the world, is in fact an economic revolution triggered by technology which started more than a quarter of a century ago. Technology driven societies have transformed the world deeply and calmly but being the norm today they determine the entire world system of the 21st century and our regards towards democracy. Nowadays, we are questioning ourselves whether globalization is useful for African and Asian countries, or whether we are going to continue complaining about this situation like most European countries are likely to do or the United States which has elected D. Trump with his slogan “America First” for president in order to protect themselves against globalization? However, we have to face the facts and the reality of the actual conditions teaching us that the impact of the globalization will be even more important than the industrial revolution which had started about 300 years ago.
Being aware of the fact that communication and mutual understanding is the oxygen of a sustainable peace and assuming that the actual democracy of The People (German: “Das Volk”) is not in the position to manage these four different groups because they lack common interests, they don’t share common goals and above all, they have a low understanding of global facts, it is possibly maybe necessary to develop and extend and if necessary to substitute the actual deliberative Democracy by a pluralistic Expertocracy. Pluralistic Expertocracy refers to models whereby the votes of those, who have a proven better knowledge about important questions of a country, about critical political and societal issues, who have less prejudices, etc., are weighted higher than of those who do not fulfill such kind of criteria. And these criteria have to be fulfilled by the political candidates respectively actors as well.
Can we summarize, that the so-called dictatorship in Africa is a form of Expertocracy, as it is a common practice in several African countries that the language of public administration, services and education is that of their former colonial “masters”, meaning that the population do not understand what the political leaders are saying, planing or doing respectively? How and when will the population be taken into consideration as conversational partner?
Can the causality of south-south and south-north immigration be explained by the failures of the world system in terms of the international order and the redistribution of world resources? How to establish the new world order without a war?
The reality of globalization evolved four categories of people:
1. “The non-political Bohémien”, who is not interested in politics at all
2. “The Hooligan”, a type of political believer, who forms him/herself in groups of political activists
3. “The Vulcanian”, the rational intellectual, who is politically interested, who wants to break with the traditional belonging of the left or right wings
4. “The Terrorist”, the violent believer, who doesn’t respect anything else than his/her own believe and uses violence as language of communication.
In terms of these four character groups above, there is a further question: Is the impact of immigration (mass migration), discrimination and related societal conflicts an extended problem of the societal dysfunction in the Western hemisphere?
Am Podium diskutierten Dr. Yves Ekoué Amaïzo, Cindy Nägeli-Dupont, Dr. Camillus E. Konkwo, Dr. Jean-Alain Ngapout, Mag. Simone Prenner, Hubert Mvogo, Mag. Sintayehu Tsehay
Moderation: Dr. Di-Tutu Bukasa
Brookings President Strobe Talbott greets former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Due to their more open and deliberative nature, democracies are perceived as more vulnerable to conflict and violence. Even in established democracies, the role of democracy itself in underpinning national security and international stability is in doubt.
In June 2016, the Community of Democracies, an international forum dedicated to common action among democracies, launched the Democracy and Security Dialogue to foster greater collaboration among democracies to improve security outcomes and create a better environment for strengthening democracy around the world. Former Prime Minister of Tunisia Mehdi Jomaa, and former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright co-chaired the initiative, which was designed to combine top-quality research on democracy and security with a participatory consultation process.
On September 13, as governments gathered in Washington for the 9th ministerial conference of the Community of Democracies, Foreign Policy at Brookings hosted Secretary Albright and Prime Minister Jomaa to launch the Dialogue’s final report. The co-chairs were joined by the two principal researchers for the report—Cheryl Frank, head of Transnational Threats and International Crime Programme for the Institute for Security Studies, and Ted Piccone, senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings—for a discussion of the findings and what they tell us about the links between democracy and security.
Brookings President Strobe Talbott provided introductory remarks.
Photo credit: Sharon Farmer
Last night wasn't perfect. For one, Californians voted to support bigotry, and that breaks my heart.
But.
We just elected Barack Obama to be our next president!
I'm wearing a white shirt today. My family has always had a tradition, after an election, of wearing black if things didn't go our way, as a way of mourning what could have been. I first remember doing this when Harvey Gantt lost to Jesse Helms down in NC in 1990 (I was 7). I tend to credit Helms with destroying my faith in humanity, during that campaign (though having learned, a couple years earlier, what "trickle down economics" meant, and that Reagan and his followers believed in it, had already done some serious damage to it). To see someone use such blatantly racist advertising and techniques during their campaign, and for that person to win...it certainly shattered my little 7-year-old sense of justice.
And now we just elected a black man to be our next president. I almost wish Helms were still alive so that he could see this, see people reject, at least in part, his brand of hate and bigotry. And to see me wearing my celebratory white shirt. Take that, you bastard!
We just gave ourselves a calm, intelligent, compassionate, thoughtful, deliberative, rational, reasonable president...what a change. I'm so freaking happy. I love you all.
Uluru Statement from the Heart in English
5m
SBS Radio - in consultation with the Uluru Dialogue, Indigenous Law Centre UNSW - is sharing the Uluru Statement from the Heart in various languages to continue the national dialogue. For the first time, this podcast collection includes more than 20 Aboriginal languages (from communities in the Northern Territory and from Northern Western Australia), which will continue to grow as more First Nations languages are translated. The collection also includes more than 60 languages for Australia’s Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities. The Uluru Statement from the Heart is an invitation to the Australian people to walk with First Nations peoples to create a better future. In May 2017, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates came together at the First Nations National Constitutional Convention near Uluru and presented the Uluru Statement from the Heart to the Australian people. The Statement calls for a First Nations Voice to Parliament, enshrined in the constitution, and a process for agreement making (Treaty) and truth-telling. It was the culmination of 13 deliberative Regional Dialogues across Australia with First Nations communities. The Statement seeks to establish a relationship between Australia's First Nations peoples and the Australian nation based on truth, justice and self-determination. Music by Frank Yamma. Photo by Jimmy Widders Hunt. Video collection: www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/uluru-statement-from-the-heart-in... Podcast collection: www.sbs.com.au/language/ulurustatement
This graphic outlines the main steps in the process of engaging citizens in policy making.
Although there are many variations on deliberative democracy, the basic idea is the same: Choose a representative sample of citizens, ask them to tackle a knotty public issue like abortion or same-sex marriage, give them time to deliberate among themselves and query experts, and then ask them to produce an informed opinion.
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Read more in Knowable Magazine
It’s time for a government reset — and the ideas are flourishing
It started with thinking about sustainability. But after the many traumas of 2020, a lot of people are determined to make some fundamental changes in the machinery of governance.
knowablemagazine.org/article/society/2021/its-time-govern...
A deliberate fix for democracy
Q&A — Political scientist John Gastil: Take a group of random citizens, give them the facts and let thoughtful discussion unfold
knowablemagazine.org/article/society/2019/deliberate-fix-...
Take a deeper dive: Selected scholarly reviews
Sustainability Science: Toward a Synthesis
Sustainability Science: Toward a Synthesis
www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-environ-012420-...
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Please join us for the launch of a new report, "The State of African Resilience: Understanding Dimensions of Vulnerability and Adaptation," which identifies major dimensions of resilience from the perspective of more than a dozen vulnerable communities across sub-Saharan Africa. The report is based on the research and analysis of the ResilientAfrica Network (RAN), a partnership that includes fifteen African universities that are engaging with local communities to understand how best to prevent, mitigate, and overcome the recurrent shocks and stresses to which they are most vulnerable.
How are communities in Uganda contending with the effects of climate variability and post-conflict recovery? How are communities in South Africa addressing the link between HIV/AIDS and poverty? How are urban populations in Ghana addressing the economic and public health challenges associated with rapid urbanization? Bringing together faculty, students, and community members, the RAN is developing interventions designed to increase resilience capacity at the community level and, more broadly, making its data publicly available to allow for development practitioners in the future to more easily identify the vulnerabilities and existing capacities of communities.
The RAN, funded by USAID's Higher Education Solutions Network, is led by Makerere University in Uganda and co-led by Tulane University's Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, in partnership with Stanford University.
Featuring:
David Ferguson
Director, Center for Development Innovation, U.S. Global Development Lab, USAID
William Bazeyo
Dean, School of Public Health, Makerere University
Chief of Party, RAN
Ky Luu
Executive Director, Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, Tulane University
Co-Chief of Party, RAN
Lekan Ayo-Yusuf
Dean, University of Limpopo's Medical University of Southern Africa
Director, Southern Africa RILab
Dennis Chirawurah
Lecturer, University for Development Studies' School of Medicine
Director, West Africa RILab
James Fishkin
Professor of Communication, Stanford University
Director, Center for Deliberative Democracy, Stanford University
Programs
AFRICA PROGRAM
Topics
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND RECONSTRUCTION, FOOD AND WATER, ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE, DEVELOPMENT POLICY, GLOBAL PROSPERITY
Please join us for the launch of a new report, "The State of African Resilience: Understanding Dimensions of Vulnerability and Adaptation," which identifies major dimensions of resilience from the perspective of more than a dozen vulnerable communities across sub-Saharan Africa. The report is based on the research and analysis of the ResilientAfrica Network (RAN), a partnership that includes fifteen African universities that are engaging with local communities to understand how best to prevent, mitigate, and overcome the recurrent shocks and stresses to which they are most vulnerable.
How are communities in Uganda contending with the effects of climate variability and post-conflict recovery? How are communities in South Africa addressing the link between HIV/AIDS and poverty? How are urban populations in Ghana addressing the economic and public health challenges associated with rapid urbanization? Bringing together faculty, students, and community members, the RAN is developing interventions designed to increase resilience capacity at the community level and, more broadly, making its data publicly available to allow for development practitioners in the future to more easily identify the vulnerabilities and existing capacities of communities.
The RAN, funded by USAID's Higher Education Solutions Network, is led by Makerere University in Uganda and co-led by Tulane University's Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, in partnership with Stanford University.
Featuring:
David Ferguson
Director, Center for Development Innovation, U.S. Global Development Lab, USAID
William Bazeyo
Dean, School of Public Health, Makerere University
Chief of Party, RAN
Ky Luu
Executive Director, Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, Tulane University
Co-Chief of Party, RAN
Lekan Ayo-Yusuf
Dean, University of Limpopo's Medical University of Southern Africa
Director, Southern Africa RILab
Dennis Chirawurah
Lecturer, University for Development Studies' School of Medicine
Director, West Africa RILab
James Fishkin
Professor of Communication, Stanford University
Director, Center for Deliberative Democracy, Stanford University
Programs
AFRICA PROGRAM
Topics
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND RECONSTRUCTION, FOOD AND WATER, ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE, DEVELOPMENT POLICY, GLOBAL PROSPERITY
The shared governance workshop focused on the components of a sound system of institutional governance needed to keep the faculty deliberative body operating smoothly and effectively.
Credit: Mike Ferguson/AAUP
Clerk of Synod Bruce Martin talks with three members of a judicial
committee during a two-hour discussion Thursday evening.
Where Has Democracy Gone?
Are the impacts of immigration and/or globalization the reasons for the actual crises in the world?
What Anglo-Saxons use to call “globalisation” in order to express the increase of trades around the world, is in fact an economic revolution triggered by technology which started more than a quarter of a century ago. Technology driven societies have transformed the world deeply and calmly but being the norm today they determine the entire world system of the 21st century and our regards towards democracy. Nowadays, we are questioning ourselves whether globalization is useful for African and Asian countries, or whether we are going to continue complaining about this situation like most European countries are likely to do or the United States which has elected D. Trump with his slogan “America First” for president in order to protect themselves against globalization? However, we have to face the facts and the reality of the actual conditions teaching us that the impact of the globalization will be even more important than the industrial revolution which had started about 300 years ago.
Being aware of the fact that communication and mutual understanding is the oxygen of a sustainable peace and assuming that the actual democracy of The People (German: “Das Volk”) is not in the position to manage these four different groups because they lack common interests, they don’t share common goals and above all, they have a low understanding of global facts, it is possibly maybe necessary to develop and extend and if necessary to substitute the actual deliberative Democracy by a pluralistic Expertocracy. Pluralistic Expertocracy refers to models whereby the votes of those, who have a proven better knowledge about important questions of a country, about critical political and societal issues, who have less prejudices, etc., are weighted higher than of those who do not fulfill such kind of criteria. And these criteria have to be fulfilled by the political candidates respectively actors as well.
Can we summarize, that the so-called dictatorship in Africa is a form of Expertocracy, as it is a common practice in several African countries that the language of public administration, services and education is that of their former colonial “masters”, meaning that the population do not understand what the political leaders are saying, planing or doing respectively? How and when will the population be taken into consideration as conversational partner?
Can the causality of south-south and south-north immigration be explained by the failures of the world system in terms of the international order and the redistribution of world resources? How to establish the new world order without a war?
The reality of globalization evolved four categories of people:
1. “The non-political Bohémien”, who is not interested in politics at all
2. “The Hooligan”, a type of political believer, who forms him/herself in groups of political activists
3. “The Vulcanian”, the rational intellectual, who is politically interested, who wants to break with the traditional belonging of the left or right wings
4. “The Terrorist”, the violent believer, who doesn’t respect anything else than his/her own believe and uses violence as language of communication.
In terms of these four character groups above, there is a further question: Is the impact of immigration (mass migration), discrimination and related societal conflicts an extended problem of the societal dysfunction in the Western hemisphere?
Am Podium diskutierten Dr. Yves Ekoué Amaïzo, Cindy Nägeli-Dupont, Dr. Camillus E. Konkwo, Dr. Jean-Alain Ngapout, Mag. Simone Prenner, Hubert Mvogo, Mag. Sintayehu Tsehay
Moderation: Dr. Di-Tutu Bukasa
Where Has Democracy Gone?
Are the impacts of immigration and/or globalization the reasons for the actual crises in the world?
What Anglo-Saxons use to call “globalisation” in order to express the increase of trades around the world, is in fact an economic revolution triggered by technology which started more than a quarter of a century ago. Technology driven societies have transformed the world deeply and calmly but being the norm today they determine the entire world system of the 21st century and our regards towards democracy. Nowadays, we are questioning ourselves whether globalization is useful for African and Asian countries, or whether we are going to continue complaining about this situation like most European countries are likely to do or the United States which has elected D. Trump with his slogan “America First” for president in order to protect themselves against globalization? However, we have to face the facts and the reality of the actual conditions teaching us that the impact of the globalization will be even more important than the industrial revolution which had started about 300 years ago.
Being aware of the fact that communication and mutual understanding is the oxygen of a sustainable peace and assuming that the actual democracy of The People (German: “Das Volk”) is not in the position to manage these four different groups because they lack common interests, they don’t share common goals and above all, they have a low understanding of global facts, it is possibly maybe necessary to develop and extend and if necessary to substitute the actual deliberative Democracy by a pluralistic Expertocracy. Pluralistic Expertocracy refers to models whereby the votes of those, who have a proven better knowledge about important questions of a country, about critical political and societal issues, who have less prejudices, etc., are weighted higher than of those who do not fulfill such kind of criteria. And these criteria have to be fulfilled by the political candidates respectively actors as well.
Can we summarize, that the so-called dictatorship in Africa is a form of Expertocracy, as it is a common practice in several African countries that the language of public administration, services and education is that of their former colonial “masters”, meaning that the population do not understand what the political leaders are saying, planing or doing respectively? How and when will the population be taken into consideration as conversational partner?
Can the causality of south-south and south-north immigration be explained by the failures of the world system in terms of the international order and the redistribution of world resources? How to establish the new world order without a war?
The reality of globalization evolved four categories of people:
1. “The non-political Bohémien”, who is not interested in politics at all
2. “The Hooligan”, a type of political believer, who forms him/herself in groups of political activists
3. “The Vulcanian”, the rational intellectual, who is politically interested, who wants to break with the traditional belonging of the left or right wings
4. “The Terrorist”, the violent believer, who doesn’t respect anything else than his/her own believe and uses violence as language of communication.
In terms of these four character groups above, there is a further question: Is the impact of immigration (mass migration), discrimination and related societal conflicts an extended problem of the societal dysfunction in the Western hemisphere?
Am Podium diskutierten Dr. Yves Ekoué Amaïzo, Cindy Nägeli-Dupont, Dr. Camillus E. Konkwo, Dr. Jean-Alain Ngapout, Mag. Simone Prenner, Hubert Mvogo, Mag. Sintayehu Tsehay
Moderation: Dr. Di-Tutu Bukasa
Please join us for the launch of a new report, "The State of African Resilience: Understanding Dimensions of Vulnerability and Adaptation," which identifies major dimensions of resilience from the perspective of more than a dozen vulnerable communities across sub-Saharan Africa. The report is based on the research and analysis of the ResilientAfrica Network (RAN), a partnership that includes fifteen African universities that are engaging with local communities to understand how best to prevent, mitigate, and overcome the recurrent shocks and stresses to which they are most vulnerable.
How are communities in Uganda contending with the effects of climate variability and post-conflict recovery? How are communities in South Africa addressing the link between HIV/AIDS and poverty? How are urban populations in Ghana addressing the economic and public health challenges associated with rapid urbanization? Bringing together faculty, students, and community members, the RAN is developing interventions designed to increase resilience capacity at the community level and, more broadly, making its data publicly available to allow for development practitioners in the future to more easily identify the vulnerabilities and existing capacities of communities.
The RAN, funded by USAID's Higher Education Solutions Network, is led by Makerere University in Uganda and co-led by Tulane University's Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, in partnership with Stanford University.
Featuring:
David Ferguson
Director, Center for Development Innovation, U.S. Global Development Lab, USAID
William Bazeyo
Dean, School of Public Health, Makerere University
Chief of Party, RAN
Ky Luu
Executive Director, Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, Tulane University
Co-Chief of Party, RAN
Lekan Ayo-Yusuf
Dean, University of Limpopo's Medical University of Southern Africa
Director, Southern Africa RILab
Dennis Chirawurah
Lecturer, University for Development Studies' School of Medicine
Director, West Africa RILab
James Fishkin
Professor of Communication, Stanford University
Director, Center for Deliberative Democracy, Stanford University
Programs
AFRICA PROGRAM
Topics
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND RECONSTRUCTION, FOOD AND WATER, ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE, DEVELOPMENT POLICY, GLOBAL PROSPERITY
March’s Friday Late welcomed attendees to engage with a myriad of contemporary activism practices, 100 years on from when a qualified group of women in the UK were granted the right to vote. From deliberative democracy workshops to installations depicting radically soft lives, from feminist zine making to tours of radical women in the history of art, this Late asked attendees to examine narratives that are too often left unaccounted.
Photos © PeanutButterVibes Photography
www.peanutbuttervibesphotography.com
@peanutbuttervibesphotography
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, jointly with the City of Mostar, is organising a Citizens’ Assembly as part of the first deliberative process of this kind in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the South East of Europe.
During four consecutive weekends, from 10 to 31 July 2021, the Citizens’ Assembly is bringing together a representative group of 47 randomly selected citizens to deliberate upon and make recommendations on the cleanliness of the city and maintenance of public spaces in Mostar. This topic was proposed by citizens of Mostar and chosen after consultations with civil society and the city authorities.
A National Historic Landmark
Phillips County, AR
Listed: 07/31/2003
Designated an NHL: 07/31/2003
Centennial Baptist Church is nationally significant for its association with Dr. Elias Camp Morris, who served as pastor from 1879 until his death in 1922. The period of his life from 1882 to 1922 was his most productive period with respect to his efforts on a national level to further the religious, political, and societal achievements of African Americans. Morris is nationally significant for his leadership of the National Baptist Convention, the largest African American organization in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. The 1912 edition of Who's Who Among the Colored Baptists described Morris as having "reached the point where he can render the greatest service to his constituents and give to the world an exhibition of the true leadership for which such men as [William J.] Simmons, [Frederick] Douglass and Price stood unflinchingly and of which [Booker T.] Washington, [Richard H.] Boyd, [W.E.B.] Dubois and others are examples that now stand out pre-eminently." According to religious historian Quinton Dixie, as the "driving force behind the 1895 merger of three black Baptist organizations," Dr. Morris "indirectly inaugurated leadership patterns that persist today" within African American religious organizations. During Moms' presidency, Centennial Baptist Church "functioned as the headquarters of the National Baptist Convention," and it remains today as a symbol of his progressive efforts to provide African Americans with a self-directed religious organization during the Jim Crow era.
Reverend Morris recognized the influence of the church and its power to fill the spiritual reserves of his congregation at the local, state, and national levels, enabling African Americans to deal with life during the most difficult of times. He dedicated his life to bringing attention to the need for African American religious autonomy at the national, as well as local level. As president of the National Baptist Convention (NBC) (1895-1922), the "largest deliberative body of Negroes in the world," Morris brought attention to the right of African Americans to establish independent religious associations.
Please join us for the launch of a new report, "The State of African Resilience: Understanding Dimensions of Vulnerability and Adaptation," which identifies major dimensions of resilience from the perspective of more than a dozen vulnerable communities across sub-Saharan Africa. The report is based on the research and analysis of the ResilientAfrica Network (RAN), a partnership that includes fifteen African universities that are engaging with local communities to understand how best to prevent, mitigate, and overcome the recurrent shocks and stresses to which they are most vulnerable.
How are communities in Uganda contending with the effects of climate variability and post-conflict recovery? How are communities in South Africa addressing the link between HIV/AIDS and poverty? How are urban populations in Ghana addressing the economic and public health challenges associated with rapid urbanization? Bringing together faculty, students, and community members, the RAN is developing interventions designed to increase resilience capacity at the community level and, more broadly, making its data publicly available to allow for development practitioners in the future to more easily identify the vulnerabilities and existing capacities of communities.
The RAN, funded by USAID's Higher Education Solutions Network, is led by Makerere University in Uganda and co-led by Tulane University's Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, in partnership with Stanford University.
Featuring:
David Ferguson
Director, Center for Development Innovation, U.S. Global Development Lab, USAID
William Bazeyo
Dean, School of Public Health, Makerere University
Chief of Party, RAN
Ky Luu
Executive Director, Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, Tulane University
Co-Chief of Party, RAN
Lekan Ayo-Yusuf
Dean, University of Limpopo's Medical University of Southern Africa
Director, Southern Africa RILab
Dennis Chirawurah
Lecturer, University for Development Studies' School of Medicine
Director, West Africa RILab
James Fishkin
Professor of Communication, Stanford University
Director, Center for Deliberative Democracy, Stanford University
Programs
AFRICA PROGRAM
Topics
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND RECONSTRUCTION, FOOD AND WATER, ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE, DEVELOPMENT POLICY, GLOBAL PROSPERITY
March’s Friday Late welcomed attendees to engage with a myriad of contemporary activism practices, 100 years on from when a qualified group of women in the UK were granted the right to vote. From deliberative democracy workshops to installations depicting radically soft lives, from feminist zine making to tours of radical women in the history of art, this Late asked attendees to examine narratives that are too often left unaccounted.
Photos © PeanutButterVibes Photography
www.peanutbuttervibesphotography.com
@peanutbuttervibesphotography
March’s Friday Late welcomed attendees to engage with a myriad of contemporary activism practices, 100 years on from when a qualified group of women in the UK were granted the right to vote. From deliberative democracy workshops to installations depicting radically soft lives, from feminist zine making to tours of radical women in the history of art, this Late asked attendees to examine narratives that are too often left unaccounted.
Photos © PeanutButterVibes Photography
www.peanutbuttervibesphotography.com
@peanutbuttervibesphotography
Where Has Democracy Gone?
Are the impacts of immigration and/or globalization the reasons for the actual crises in the world?
What Anglo-Saxons use to call “globalisation” in order to express the increase of trades around the world, is in fact an economic revolution triggered by technology which started more than a quarter of a century ago. Technology driven societies have transformed the world deeply and calmly but being the norm today they determine the entire world system of the 21st century and our regards towards democracy. Nowadays, we are questioning ourselves whether globalization is useful for African and Asian countries, or whether we are going to continue complaining about this situation like most European countries are likely to do or the United States which has elected D. Trump with his slogan “America First” for president in order to protect themselves against globalization? However, we have to face the facts and the reality of the actual conditions teaching us that the impact of the globalization will be even more important than the industrial revolution which had started about 300 years ago.
Being aware of the fact that communication and mutual understanding is the oxygen of a sustainable peace and assuming that the actual democracy of The People (German: “Das Volk”) is not in the position to manage these four different groups because they lack common interests, they don’t share common goals and above all, they have a low understanding of global facts, it is possibly maybe necessary to develop and extend and if necessary to substitute the actual deliberative Democracy by a pluralistic Expertocracy. Pluralistic Expertocracy refers to models whereby the votes of those, who have a proven better knowledge about important questions of a country, about critical political and societal issues, who have less prejudices, etc., are weighted higher than of those who do not fulfill such kind of criteria. And these criteria have to be fulfilled by the political candidates respectively actors as well.
Can we summarize, that the so-called dictatorship in Africa is a form of Expertocracy, as it is a common practice in several African countries that the language of public administration, services and education is that of their former colonial “masters”, meaning that the population do not understand what the political leaders are saying, planing or doing respectively? How and when will the population be taken into consideration as conversational partner?
Can the causality of south-south and south-north immigration be explained by the failures of the world system in terms of the international order and the redistribution of world resources? How to establish the new world order without a war?
The reality of globalization evolved four categories of people:
1. “The non-political Bohémien”, who is not interested in politics at all
2. “The Hooligan”, a type of political believer, who forms him/herself in groups of political activists
3. “The Vulcanian”, the rational intellectual, who is politically interested, who wants to break with the traditional belonging of the left or right wings
4. “The Terrorist”, the violent believer, who doesn’t respect anything else than his/her own believe and uses violence as language of communication.
In terms of these four character groups above, there is a further question: Is the impact of immigration (mass migration), discrimination and related societal conflicts an extended problem of the societal dysfunction in the Western hemisphere?
Am Podium diskutierten Dr. Yves Ekoué Amaïzo, Cindy Nägeli-Dupont, Dr. Camillus E. Konkwo, Dr. Jean-Alain Ngapout, Mag. Simone Prenner, Hubert Mvogo, Mag. Sintayehu Tsehay
Moderation: Dr. Di-Tutu Bukasa
March’s Friday Late welcomed attendees to engage with a myriad of contemporary activism practices, 100 years on from when a qualified group of women in the UK were granted the right to vote. From deliberative democracy workshops to installations depicting radically soft lives, from feminist zine making to tours of radical women in the history of art, this Late asked attendees to examine narratives that are too often left unaccounted.
Photos © PeanutButterVibes Photography
www.peanutbuttervibesphotography.com
@peanutbuttervibesphotography
March’s Friday Late welcomed attendees to engage with a myriad of contemporary activism practices, 100 years on from when a qualified group of women in the UK were granted the right to vote. From deliberative democracy workshops to installations depicting radically soft lives, from feminist zine making to tours of radical women in the history of art, this Late asked attendees to examine narratives that are too often left unaccounted.
Photos © PeanutButterVibes Photography
www.peanutbuttervibesphotography.com
@peanutbuttervibesphotography