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Guideline Coaches of Chelsfield
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The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was published by The South African Garrison Institutes. The card was printed by Whitehead, Morris & Co. Ltd. of Cape Town. The card has a divided back.
Windhoek
Windhoek is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre.
The population of Windhoek in 2020 was 431,000 which is growing continuously due to an influx from all over Namibia.
Windhoek is the social, economic, political, and cultural centre of the country. Nearly every Namibian national enterprise, governmental body, educational and cultural institution is headquartered there.
The city developed at the site of a permanent hot spring known to the indigenous pastoral communities. It developed rapidly after Jonker Afrikaner, Captain of the Orlam, settled here in 1840 and built a stone church for his community.
In the decades following, multiple wars and armed hostilities resulted in the neglect and destruction of the new settlement. Windhoek was founded a second time in 1890 by Imperial German Army Major Curt von François, when the territory was colonised by the German Empire.
Herero and Nama Genocide
The Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment waged by the German Empire against the Herero and the Nama in German South West Africa.
It was the first genocide of the 20th. century, occurring between 1904 and 1908.
In January 1904, the Herero and Nama people rebelled against German colonial rule. On the 12th. January they killed more than 100 German settlers in the area of Okahandja, although women, children, missionaries and non-German Europeans were spared.
In August, German General Lothar von Trotha defeated the Hereros in the Battle of Waterberg and drove them into the desert of Omaheke, where most of them died of dehydration. In October, the Nama people also rebelled against the Germans, only to suffer a similar fate.
Between 24,000 and 100,000 Hereros and 10,000 Nama died in the genocide. The first phase of the genocide was characterised by widespread death from starvation and dehydration, due to the prevention of the Herero from leaving the Namib desert by German forces.
Once defeated, thousands of Hereros and Namas were imprisoned in concentration camps, where the majority died of diseases, abuse, and exhaustion.
In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the aftermath as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South West Africa.
In 2004, the German government recognised and apologised for the events, but ruled out financial compensation for the victims' descendants.
In July 2015, the German government and the speaker of the Bundestag officially called the events a "genocide". However, it still refused to consider reparations. Despite this, the last batch of skulls and other remains of slaughtered tribesmen which were taken to Germany to promote racial superiority were taken back to Namibia in 2018.
In May 2021, the German government agreed to pay €1.1 billion over 30 years to fund projects in communities that were impacted by the genocide.
Background to the Genocide
The Herero, who speak a Bantu language, were originally a group of cattle herders who migrated into what is now Namibia during the mid-18th. century. The Herero seized vast swaths of the arable upper plateaus which were ideal for cattle grazing.
Agricultural duties, which were minimal, were assigned to enslaved Khoisan and Bushmen. Over the rest of the 18th. century, the Herero slowly drove the Khoisan into the dry, rugged hills to the south and east.
The Hereros were a pastoral people whose entire way of life centred on their cattle. The Herero language, while limited in its vocabulary for most areas, contains more than a thousand words for the colours and markings of cattle. The Hereros were content to live in peace as long as their cattle were safe and well-pastured, but became formidable warriors when their cattle were threatened.
According to Robert Gaudi:
"The newcomers, much taller and more fiercely warlike
than the indigenous Khoisan people, were possessed
of the fierceness that comes from basing one's way of
life on a single source: everything they valued, all wealth
and personal happiness, had to do with cattle.
Regarding the care and protection of their herds, the
Herero showed themselves utterly merciless, and far
more 'savage' than the Khoisan had ever been.
Because of their dominant ways and elegant bearing,
the few Europeans who encountered Herero tribesmen
in the early days regarded them as the region's 'natural
aristocrats.'"
By the time of the Scramble for Africa, the area which was occupied by the Herero was known as Damaraland.
The Nama were pastorals and traders, and lived to the south of the Herero.
In 1883, Adolf Lüderitz, a German merchant, purchased a stretch of coast near Lüderitz Bay (Angra Pequena) from the reigning chief. The terms of the purchase were fraudulent, but the German government nonetheless established a protectorate over it. At that time, it was the only overseas German territory deemed suitable for European settlement.
Chief of the neighbouring Herero, Maherero rose to power by uniting all the Herero. Faced with repeated attacks by the Khowesin, a clan of the Khoekhoe under Hendrik Witbooi, he signed a protection treaty on the 21st. October 1885 with Imperial Germany's colonial governor Heinrich Ernst Göring (father of World War I flying ace and World War II convicted war criminal Hermann Göring), but did not cede the land of the Herero.
This treaty was renounced in 1888 due to lack of German support against Witbooi, but it was reinstated in 1890.
The Herero leaders repeatedly complained about violation of this treaty, as Herero women and girls were raped by Germans, a crime that the German judges and prosecutors were reluctant to punish.
In 1890 Maherero's son, Samuel, signed a great deal of land over to the Germans in return for helping him to ascend to the Herero throne, and to subsequently be established as paramount chief.
German involvement in ethnic fighting ended in tenuous peace in 1894. In that year, Theodor Leutwein became governor of the territory, which underwent a period of rapid development, while the German government sent the Schutztruppe (imperial colonial troops) to pacify the region.
German Colonial Policy
Both German colonial authorities and European settlers envisioned a predominately white "new African Germany," wherein the native populations would be put onto reservations and their land distributed among settlers and companies.
Under German colonial rule, colonists were encouraged to seize land and cattle from the native Herero and Nama peoples and to subjugate them as slave laborers.
Resentment understandably brewed among the native populations over their loss of status and property to German ranchers arriving in South West Africa, and the dismantling of traditional political hierarchies. Previously ruling tribes were reduced to the same status as the other tribes they had previously ruled over and enslaved. This resentment contributed to the Herero Wars that began in 1904.
Major Theodor Leutwein, the Governor of German South West Africa, was well aware of the effect of the German colonial rule on the Hereros. He later wrote :
"The Hereros from early years were a freedom-loving
people, courageous and proud beyond measure. On
the one hand, there was the progressive extension of
German rule over them, and on the other their own
sufferings increasing from year to year."
The Dietrich Case
In January 1903, a German trader named Dietrich was walking from his homestead to the nearby town of Omaruru to buy a new horse. Halfway to Dietrich's destination, a wagon carrying the son of a Herero chief, his wife, and their son stopped by. As a common courtesy in Hereroland, the chief's son offered Dietrich a ride.
That night, however, Dietrich got very drunk and after everyone was asleep, he attempted to rape the wife of the chief's son. When she resisted, Dietrich shot her dead.
When he was tried for murder in Windhoek, Dietrich denied attempting to rape his victim. He alleged that he awoke thinking the camp was under attack, and had fired blindly into the darkness. The killing of the Herero woman, he claimed, was an unfortunate accident. The court acquitted him, alleging that Dietrich was suffering from "tropical fever" and temporary insanity.
The murder aroused extraordinary interest in Hereroland, especially since the murdered woman had been the wife of the son of a Chief and the daughter of another. Everywhere the question was asked:
"Have white people the right
to shoot native women?"
Governor Leutwein intervened. He made the Public Prosecutor appeal Dietrich's acquittal. A second trial took place (before the colony's supreme court), and this time Dietrich was found guilty of manslaughter and imprisoned.
The move prompted violent objections of German settlers who considered Leutwein a "race traitor".
Rising Tension
In 1903, some of the Nama clans rose in revolt under the leadership of Hendrik Witbooi. A number of factors led the Herero to join them in January 1904.
(a) Land Rights
One of the major issues was land rights. In 1903 the Herero learned of a plan to divide their territory with a railway line and to set up reservations where they would be concentrated.
The Herero had already ceded more than a quarter of their 130,000 km2 (50,000 sq mi) territory to German colonists by 1903, before the Otavi railway line running from the African coast to inland German settlements was completed.
Completion of this line would have made the German colonies much more accessible, and would have ushered in a new wave of Europeans into the area.
Historian Horst Drechsler states that there was discussion of establishing and placing the Herero in native reserves, and that this was further proof of the German colonists' sense of ownership over the land.
Drechsler illustrates the gap between the rights of a European and an African; the Reichskolonialbund (German Colonial League) held that, in regards to legal matters, the testimony of seven Africans was equivalent to that of one colonist.
(b) Racial Tensions
There were also racial tensions underlying these developments; the average German colonist viewed native Africans as a lowly source of cheap labour, and others welcomed their extermination. The German settlers often referred to black Africans as "baboons" and treated them with contempt.
One missionary reported:
"The real cause of the bitterness among the Hereros
toward the Germans is without question the fact that
the average German looks down upon the natives as
being about on the same level as the higher primates
('baboon' being their favourite term for the natives),
and treat them like animals.
The settler holds that the native has a right to exist only
in so far as he is useful to the white man. This sense of
contempt led the settlers to commit violence against
the Hereros."
The contempt manifested itself particularly in the concubinage of native women. In a practice referred to in Südwesterdeutsch as Verkafferung, native women were taken by male European traders and ranchers both willingly and by force.
(c) Debt Collection
A new policy on debt collection, enforced in November 1903, also played a role in the uprising. For many years, the Herero population had fallen in the habit of borrowing money from colonist moneylenders at extremely high interest rates.
For a long time, much of this debt went uncollected, and it accumulated, as most Herero had no means to pay. In order to correct this growing problem, Governor Leutwein decreed with good intentions that all debts not paid within the following year would be voided.
In the absence of hard cash, traders often seized cattle, or whatever objects of value they could get their hands on, as collateral. This fostered a feeling of resentment towards the Germans on the part of the Herero people. Resentment escalated to hopelessness when they saw that German officials were sympathetic to the moneylenders who were about to lose what they were owed.
Revolts
In 1903, the Hereros saw an opportunity to revolt. At that time, there was a distant Khoisan tribe in the south called the Bondelzwarts, who resisted German demands to register their guns. The Bondelzwarts engaged in a firefight with the German authorities which led to three Germans being killed and a fourth wounded.
The situation deteriorated further, and the governor of the Herero colony, Major Theodor Leutwein, went south to take personal command, leaving almost no troops in the north.
The Herero revolted in early 1904, killing between 123 and 150 German settlers, as well as seven Boers and three women, in what Nils Ole Oermann calls a "desperate surprise attack".
The timing of their attack was carefully planned. After successfully asking a large Herero clan to surrender their weapons, Governor Leutwein was convinced that they and the rest of the native population were essentially pacified, and so withdrew half of the German troops stationed in the colony.
Led by Chief Samuel Maherero, the Herero surrounded Okahandja and cut railroad and telegraph links to Windhoek, the colonial capital.
Maharero then issued a manifesto in which he forbade his troops to kill any Englishmen, Boers, uninvolved peoples, women and children in general, or German missionaries.
The Herero revolts catalysed a separate revolt and attack on Fort Namutoni in the north of the country a few weeks later by the Ondonga.
A Herero warrior interviewed by German authorities in 1895 had described his people's traditional way of dealing with suspected cattle rustlers, a treatment which, during the uprising, was regularly extended to German soldiers and civilians:
"We came across a few Khoisan whom of course
we killed. I myself helped to kill one of them.
-- First we cut off his ears, saying, 'You will never
hear Herero cattle lowing.'
-- Then we cut off his nose, saying, 'Never again
shall you smell Herero cattle.'
-- And then we cut off his lips, saying, 'You shall
never again taste Herero cattle.'
And finally we cut his throat."
According to Robert Gaudi:
"Leutwein knew that the wrath of the German Empire
was about to fall on them and hoped to soften the
blow. He sent desperate messages to Chief Samuel
Maherero in hopes of negotiating an end to the war.
In this, Leutwein acted on his own, heedless of the
prevailing mood in Germany, which called for bloody
revenge."
The Hereros, however, were emboldened by their success and had come to believe that the Germans were too cowardly to fight in the open. They rejected Leutwein's offers of peace.
One missionary wrote:
"The Germans are filled with fearful hate. I must really
call it a blood thirst against the Hereros. One hears
nothing but talk of 'cleaning up,' 'executing,' 'shooting
down to the last man,' 'no pardon,' etc."
According to Robert Gaudi:
"The Germans suffered more than defeat in the early
months of 1904; they suffered humiliation, their brilliant
modern army unable to defeat a rabble of 'half-naked
savages.'
Cries in the Reichstag, and from the Kaiser himself, for
total eradication of the Hereros grew strident. When a
leading member of the Social Democratic Party pointed
out that the Hereros were as human as any German and
possessed immortal souls, he was howled down by the
entire conservative side of the legislature."
Leutwein was forced to request reinforcements and an experienced officer from the German government in Berlin. Lieutenant-General Lothar von Trotha was appointed commander-in-chief (German: Oberbefehlshaber) of South West Africa, arriving with an expeditionary force of 10,000 troops on the 11th. June 1904.
Leutwein was subordinate to the civilian Colonial Department of the Prussian Foreign Office, which was supported by Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow, while General Trotha reported to the military German General Staff, which was supported by Emperor Wilhelm II.
Leutwein wanted to defeat the most determined Herero rebels and negotiate a surrender with the remainder in order to achieve a political settlement. Trotha, however, planned to crush the native resistance through military force. He stated that:
"My intimate knowledge of many central African
nations (Bantu and others) has everywhere
convinced me of the necessity that the Negro
does not respect treaties, but only brute force."
By late spring of 1904, German troops were pouring into the colony. In August 1904, the main Herero forces were surrounded and crushed at the Battle of Waterberg.
Genocide
In 1900, Kaiser Wilhelm II had been enraged by the killing of Baron Clemens von Ketteler, the Imperial German minister plenipotentiary in Beijing, during the Boxer Rebellion. The Kaiser took it as a personal insult from a people he viewed as racially inferior, all the more because of his obsession with the "Yellow Peril".
On the 27th. July 1900, the Kaiser gave the infamous Hunnenrede (Hun speech) in Bremerhaven to German soldiers being sent to Imperial China, ordering them to show the Boxers no mercy, and to behave like Attila's Huns.
General von Trotha had served in China, and was chosen in 1904 to command the expedition to German South West Africa precisely because of his record in China.
In 1904, the Kaiser was made furious by the latest revolt in his colonial empire by a people whom he also viewed as inferior, and took the Herero rebellion as a personal insult, just as he had viewed the Boxers' assassination of Baron von Ketteler.
The tactless and bloodthirsty language that Wilhelm II used about the Herero people in 1904 is strikingly similar to the language he had used about the Chinese Boxers in 1900. Nevertheless, the Kaiser denied, together with Chancellor von Bülow, von Trotha's request to quickly quell the rebellion.
No written order by Wilhelm II ordering or authorising genocide has survived. In February 1945 an Allied bombing raid destroyed the building housing all of the documents of the Prussian Army from the Imperial period.
Despite this fact, surviving documents indicate that Trotha used the same tactics in Namibia that he had used in China, only on a much vaster scale. It is also known that throughout the genocide, Trotha sent regular reports to both the General Staff and to the Kaiser.
Historian Jeremy-Sarkin Hughes believes that regardless of whether or not a written order was given, the Kaiser must have given General von Trotha verbal orders. According to Hughes, the fact that Trotha was decorated and not court-martialed after the genocide had become public knowledge lends support to the thesis that he was acting under orders.
General von Trotha stated his proposed solution to end the resistance of the Herero people in a letter, before the Battle of Waterberg:
"I believe that the nation as such should be annihilated,
or, if this is not possible by tactical measures, have to be
expelled from the country. This will be possible if the water-
holes from Grootfontein to Gobabis are occupied.
The constant movement of our troops will enable us to
find the small groups of this nation who have moved
backwards, and destroy them gradually."
Trotha's troops defeated 3,000–5,000 Herero combatants at the Battle of Waterberg on 11th. and 12th. August 1904, but were unable to encircle and annihilate the retreating survivors.
The pursuing German forces prevented groups of Herero from breaking from the main body of the fleeing force, and pushed them further into the desert. As exhausted Herero fell to the ground, unable to go on, German soldiers killed men, women, and children. Jan Cloete, acting as a guide for the Germans, witnessed the atrocities committed by the German troops, and deposed the following statement:
"I was present when the Herero were defeated in a
battle in the vicinity of Waterberg. After the battle all
men, women, and children who fell into German hands,
wounded or otherwise, were mercilessly put to death.
Then the Germans set off in pursuit of the rest, and all
those found by the wayside and in the sandveld were
shot down and bayoneted to death.
The mass of the Herero men were unarmed and thus
unable to offer resistance. They were just trying to get
away with their cattle."
A portion of the Herero escaped the Germans and went to the Omaheke Desert, hoping to reach British Bechuanaland; fewer than 1,000 Herero managed to get there, where they were granted asylum by the British authorities.
To prevent them from returning, Trotha ordered the desert to be sealed off. German patrols later found skeletons around holes 13 m (43 ft) deep that had been dug in a vain attempt to find water. Some sources also state that the German colonial army systematically poisoned desert water wells.
Maherero and 500–1,500 men crossed the Kalahari into Bechuanaland where he was accepted as a vassal of the Batswana chief Sekgoma.
On the 2nd. October 1904, Trotha issued a warning to the Herero:
"I, the great general of the German soldiers, send this
letter to the Herero. The Herero are German subjects
no longer. They have killed, stolen, cut off the ears
and other parts of the body of wounded soldiers, and
now are too cowardly to want to fight any longer.
I announce to the people that whoever hands me one
of the chiefs shall receive 1,000 marks, and 5,000
marks for Samuel Maherero.
The Herero nation must now leave the country. If it
refuses, I shall compel it to do so with the 'long tube'
[cannon].
Any Herero found inside the German frontier, with or
without a gun or cattle, will be executed. I shall spare
neither women nor children. I shall give the order to
drive them away and fire on them. Such are my words
to the Herero people."
Trotha further gave orders that:
"This proclamation is to be read to the troops at roll-call,
with the addition that the unit that catches a captain will
also receive the appropriate reward, and that the shooting
at women and children is to be understood as shooting
above their heads, so as to force them to run away.
I assume absolutely that this proclamation will result in
taking no more male prisoners, but will not degenerate
into atrocities against women and children. The latter will
run away if one shoots at them a couple of times. The
troops will remain conscious of the good reputation of
the German soldier."
Trotha gave orders that captured Herero males were to be executed, while women and children were to be driven into the desert where their death from starvation and thirst was to be certain.
Trotha argued that there was no need to make exceptions for Herero women and children, since these would "infect German troops with their diseases."
Trotha explained that:
"The insurrection is and remains
the beginning of a racial struggle."
After the war, Trotha argued that his orders were necessary, writing in 1909 that:
"If I had made the small water holes accessible
to the womenfolk, I would run the risk of an African
catastrophe comparable to the Battle of Beresonia."
The German general staff were aware of the atrocities that were taking place; its official publication, named Der Kampf, noted that:
"This bold enterprise shows up in the most brilliant
light the ruthless energy of the German command
in pursuing their beaten enemy.
No pains, no sacrifices were spared in eliminating
the last remnants of enemy resistance. Like a
wounded beast the enemy was tracked down from
one water-hole to the next, until finally he became
the victim of his own environment.
The arid Omaheke Desert was to complete what
the German army had begun: the extermination of
the Herero nation."
Alfred von Schlieffen (Chief of the Imperial German General Staff and architect of the Great War Schlieffen Plan) approved of Trotha's intentions in terms of a "racial struggle" and the need to wipe out the entire nation or to drive them out of the country, but had doubts about his strategy, preferring their surrender.
Governor Leutwein, later relieved of his duties, complained to Chancellor von Bülow about Trotha's actions, seeing the general's orders as intruding upon the civilian colonial jurisdiction, and ruining any chance of a political settlement.
According to Professor Mahmood Mamdani of Columbia University, opposition to the policy of annihilation was largely due to the fact that colonial officials looked at the Herero people as a potential source of labour, and thus economically important. For instance, Governor Leutwein wrote that:
"I do not concur with those fanatics who want to
see the Herero destroyed altogether. I would
consider such a move a grave mistake from an
economic point of view. We need the Herero as
cattle breeders, and especially as labourers.
Having no authority over the military, Chancellor Bülow could only advise Emperor Wilhelm II that:
"Trotha's actions are contrary to Christian and
humanitarian principle, economically devastating
and damaging to Germany's international
reputation".
Upon the arrival of new orders at the end of 1904, prisoners were herded into labor camps, where they were given to private companies as slave labourers, or exploited as human guinea pigs in medical experiments.
Concentration Camps
Survivors of the massacre, the majority of whom were women and children, were eventually put in places like Shark Island concentration camp, where the German authorities forced them to work as slave labour for the German military and settlers.
All prisoners were categorised into groups fit and unfit for work, and pre-printed death certificates indicating "death by exhaustion following privation" were issued. The British government published their well-known account of the German genocide of the Nama and Herero peoples in 1918.
Many Herero and Nama died of disease, exhaustion, starvation and malnutrition. Estimates of the mortality rate at the camps are between 45% and 74%.
Food in the camps was extremely scarce, consisting of rice with no additions. As the prisoners lacked pots and the rice they received was uncooked, it was indigestible. Horses and oxen that died in the camp were later distributed to the inmates as food.
Dysentery and lung diseases were common. Despite the living conditions, the prisoners were taken outside the camp every day for labour under harsh treatment by the German guards, while the sick were left without any medical assistance or nursing care. Many Herero and Nama were worked to death.
Shootings, hangings, beatings, and other harsh treatment of the forced labourers (including use of sjamboks) were common. A sjambok is a long, stiff whip, originally made from rhinoceros hide.
A 28th. September 1905 article in the South African newspaper Cape Argus detailed some of the abuse with the heading:
"In German S. W. Africa: Further Startling
Allegations: Horrible Cruelty".
In an interview with Percival Griffith, "an accountant of profession, who owing to hard times, took up on transport work at Angra Pequena, Lüderitz", related his experiences:
"There are hundreds of them, mostly women and
children and a few old men. When they fall they are
sjamboked by the soldiers in charge of the gang,
with full force, until they get up.
On one occasion I saw a woman carrying a child
of under a year old slung at her back, and with a
heavy sack of grain on her head - she fell.
The corporal sjamboked her for certainly more
than four minutes and sjamboked the baby as well.
The woman struggled slowly to her feet, and went
on with her load.
She did not utter a sound the whole time, but the
baby cried very hard."
During the war, a number of people from the Cape (in modern-day South Africa) sought employment as transport riders for German troops in Namibia. Upon their return to the Cape, some of these people recounted their stories, including those of the imprisonment and genocide of the Herero and Nama people. Fred Cornell, an aspiring British diamond prospector, was in Lüderitz when the Shark Island concentration camp was being used. Cornell wrote of the camp:
"Cold – for the nights are often bitterly cold there –
hunger, thirst, exposure, disease and madness
claimed scores of victims every day, and cartloads
of their bodies were every day carted over to the
back beach, buried in a few inches of sand at low
tide, and as the tide came in the bodies went out,
food for the sharks."
Shark Island was the worst of the German South West African camps. Lüderitz lies in southern Namibia, flanked by desert and ocean. In the harbour lies Shark Island, which then was connected to the mainland by only a small causeway.
The island is now, as it was then, barren and characterised by solid rock carved into surreal formations by the ocean winds. The camp was placed on the far end of the relatively small island, where the prisoners would have suffered complete exposure to the strong winds that sweep Lüderitz for most of the year.
German Commander Ludwig von Estorff wrote in a report that approximately 1,700 prisoners (including 1,203 Nama) had died by April 1907.
In December 1906, four months after their arrival, 291 Nama died (a rate of more than nine people per day). Missionary reports put the death rate at 12–18 per day; as many as 80% of the prisoners sent to Shark Island eventually died there.
There are accusations of Herero women being coerced into sex slavery as a means of survival.
Trotha was opposed to contact between natives and settlers, believing that the insurrection was "the beginning of a racial struggle," and fearing that the colonists would be infected by native diseases.
Benjamin Madley has concluded that although Shark Island is referred to as a concentration camp, it in fact functioned as an extermination camp or death camp.
Medical Experiments and Scientific Racism
Prisoners were used for medical experiments, and their illnesses or their recoveries from them were used for research.
Experiments on live prisoners were performed by Dr. Bofinger, who injected Herero who were suffering from scurvy with various substances including arsenic and opium; afterwards he researched the effects of these substances via autopsy.
Experimentation with the dead body parts of the prisoners was rife. Zoologist Leonhard Schultze (1872–1955) noted taking "body parts from fresh native corpses" which according to him, was "a welcome addition." He also noted that he could use prisoners for that purpose.
An estimated 300 skulls were sent to Germany for experimentation, in part from concentration camp prisoners. In October 2011, after three years of talks, the first 20 of an estimated 300 skulls stored in the museum of the Charité were returned to Namibia for burial. In 2014, 14 additional skulls were repatriated by the University of Freiburg.
The Number of Victims
A census conducted in 1905 revealed that 25,000 Herero remained in German South West Africa.
According to the Whitaker Report, the population of 80,000 Herero had been reduced to 15,000 "starving refugees" by 1907. In 'Colonial Genocide and Reparations Claims in the 21st. Century: The Socio-Legal Context of Claims under International Law by the Herero against Germany for Genocide in Namibia' by Jeremy Sarkin-Hughes, the number of 100,000 victims is given. Up to 80% of the indigenous population were killed.
A political cartoon on German South West Africa was run in 1906 with the following caption:
"Even if it hasn't brought in much profit and
there are no better quality goods on offer,
at least we can use it to set up a bone-
grinding plant."
Newspapers in 2004 reported 65,000 victims when announcing that Germany officially recognized the genocide.
Aftermath of the Genocide
With the closure of the concentration camps, all surviving Herero were distributed as labourers for settlers in the German colony. From that time on, all Herero over the age of seven were forced to wear a metal disc with their labour registration number. They were also banned from owning land or cattle, a necessity for pastoral society.
About 19,000 German troops were engaged in the conflict, of which 3,000 saw combat. The rest were used for upkeep and administration.
The German losses were 676 soldiers killed in combat, 76 missing, and 689 dead from disease. The Reiterdenkmal (English: Equestrian Monument) in Windhoek was erected in 1912 to celebrate the victory and to remember the fallen German soldiers and civilians. Until after Independence, no monument was built to the killed indigenous population. It remains a bone of contention in independent Namibia.
The campaign cost Germany 600 million marks. The normal annual subsidy to the colony was 14.5 million marks. In 1908, diamonds were discovered in the territory, and this did much to boost its prosperity, though it was short-lived.
In 1915, during the Great War, the German colony was taken over and occupied by the Union of South Africa, which was victorious in the South West Africa campaign. South Africa received a League of Nations mandate over South West Africa on the 17th. December 1920.
Link Between the Herero Genocide and the Holocaust
The Herero genocide has commanded the attention of historians who study issues of continuity between the Herero genocide and The Holocaust of WWII. It is argued that the Herero genocide set a precedent in Imperial Germany that would later be followed by Nazi Germany's establishment of death camps.
According to Benjamin Madley, the German experience in South West Africa was a crucial precursor to Nazi colonialism and genocide. He argues that personal connections, literature, and public debates served as conduits for communicating colonialist and genocidal ideas and methods from the colony to Germany.
Tony Barta, a research associate at La Trobe University, argues that the Herero genocide was an inspiration for Hitler in his war against the Jews, Slavs, Romani, and others whom he described as "non-Aryans".
According to Clarence Lusane, Eugen Fischer's medical experiments can be seen as a testing ground for medical procedures which were later followed during the Nazi Holocaust.
Fischer later became chancellor of the University of Berlin, where he taught medicine to Nazi physicians. Otmar von Verschuer was a student of Fischer; Verschuer himself had a prominent pupil, Josef Mengele.
Franz Ritter von Epp, who was later responsible for the liquidation of virtually all Bavarian Jews and Roma as governor of Bavaria, took part in the Herero and Nama genocide.
Mahmood Mamdani argues that the links between the Herero genocide and the Holocaust are beyond the execution of an annihilation policy and the establishment of concentration camps as there are also ideological similarities in the conduct of both genocides. He focuses on a written statement by General Trotha:
"I destroy the African tribes with streams
of blood. Only following this cleansing can
something new emerge, which will remain."
Mamdani takes note of the similarity between the aims of the General and of the Nazis. According to Mamdani, in both cases there was a Social Darwinist notion of "cleansing", after which "something new" would "emerge".
Reconciliation
In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the massacres as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South West Africa, and therefore one of the earliest cases of genocide in the 20th. century.
In 1998, German President Roman Herzog visited Namibia and met Herero leaders. Chief Munjuku Nguvauva demanded a public apology and compensation. Herzog expressed regret but stopped short of an apology. He pointed out that international law requiring reparation did not exist in 1907, but he undertook to take the Herero petition back to the German government.
On the 16th. August 2004, on the 100th, anniversary of the start of the genocide, a member of the German government, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's Federal Minister for Economic Development and Cooperation, officially apologised and expressed grief about the genocide, declaring in a speech that:
"We Germans accept our historical and
moral responsibility and the guilt incurred
by Germans at that time.
She ruled out paying special compensation, but promised continued economic aid for Namibia which in 2004 amounted to $14M a year. This amount has been significantly increased since then, with the budget for the years 2016–17 allocating a sum total of €138M in monetary support payments.
The Trotha family travelled to Omaruru in October 2007 by invitation of the royal Herero chiefs and publicly apologised for the actions of their relative. Wolf-Thilo von Trotha said,
"We, the von Trotha family, are deeply ashamed
of the terrible events that took place 100 years
ago. Human rights were grossly abused that time."
Negotiations and Agreement
The Herero filed a lawsuit in the United States in 2001 demanding reparations from the German government and Deutsche Bank, which financed the German government and companies in Southern Africa.
With a complaint filed with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in January 2017, descendants of the Herero and Nama people sued Germany for damages in the United States. The plaintiffs sued under the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 U.S. law often invoked in human rights cases. Their proposed class-action lawsuit sought unspecified sums for thousands of descendants of the victims, for the "incalculable damages" that were caused.
Germany seeks to rely on its state immunity as implemented in US law as the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, arguing that, as a sovereign nation, it cannot be sued in US courts in relation to its acts outside the United States. In March 2019, the judge dismissed the claims due to the exceptions to sovereign immunity being too narrow for the case.
In September 2020, the Second Circuit stated that the claimants did not prove that money used to buy property in New York could be traced back to wealth resulting from the seized property, and therefore the lawsuit could not overcome Germany's immunity. In June 2021, the Supreme Court declined to hear a petition to revive the case.
Germany, while admitting brutality in Namibia, at first refused to call it a "genocide", claiming that the term only became international law in 1945.
However, in July 2015, then foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier issued a political guideline stating that the massacre should be referred to as a "war crime and a genocide". Bundestag president Norbert Lammert wrote an article in Die Zeit that same month referring to the events as a genocide. These events paved the way for negotiations with Namibia.
In 2015, the German government began negotiations with Namibia over a possible apology, and by 2016, Germany committed itself to apologizing for the genocide, as well as to refer to the event as a genocide; but the actual declaration was postponed while negotiations stalled over questions of compensation.
On the 11th. August 2020, following negotiations over a potential compensation agreement between Germany and Namibia, President Hage Geingob of Namibia stated that the German government's offer was "not acceptable", while German envoy Ruprecht Polenz said:
"I am still optimistic that a
solution can be found."
On the 28th. May 2021, the German government announced that it was formally recognizing the atrocities committed as a genocide, following five years of negotiations. The declaration was made by foreign minister Heiko Maas, who also stated that Germany was asking Namibia and the descendants of the genocide victims for forgiveness.
In addition to recognizing the events as a genocide, Germany agreed to give as a "gesture of recognition of the immeasurable suffering" €1.1 billion in aid to the communities impacted by the genocide.
Following the announcement, the agreement needs to be ratified by both countries' parliaments, after which Germany will send its president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to officially apologize for the genocide. The nations agreed not to use the term "reparation" to describe the financial aid package.
The agreement was criticized by the chairman of the Namibian Genocide Association, Laidlaw Peringanda, who insisted that Germany should purchase their ancestral lands back from the descendants of the German settlers and return it to the Herero and Nama people.
The agreement was also criticized because negotiations were held solely between the German and Namibian governments, and did not include representatives of the Herero and Nama people.
Repatriation of the Skulls
Peter Katjavivi, a former Namibian ambassador to Germany, demanded in August 2008 that the skulls of Herero and Nama prisoners of the 1904–1908 uprising, which were taken to Germany for scientific research to claim the superiority of white Europeans over Africans, be returned to Namibia.
Katjavivi was reacting to a German television documentary which reported that its investigators had found more than 40 of these skulls at two German universities, among them probably the skull of a Nama chief who had died on Shark Island.
In September 2011 the skulls were returned to Namibia. In August 2018, Germany returned all of the remaining skulls and other human remains which were examined in Germany to scientifically promote white supremacy. This was the third such transfer, and shortly before it occurred, German Protestant bishop Petra Bosse-Huber stated:
"Today, we want to do what should have been
done many years ago – to give back to their
descendants the remains of people who
became victims of the first genocide of the
20th. century."
As part of the repatriation process, the German government announced on the 17th. May 2019 that it would return a stone symbol it took from Namibia in the 1900's.
The Genocide in the Media
-- A BBC documentary, 'Namibia – Genocide and the Second Reich' (2005), explores the Herero and Nama genocide and the circumstances surrounding it.
-- In the documentary '100 Years of Silence', filmmakers Halfdan Muurholm and Casper Erichsen portray a 23-year-old Herero woman, whose great-grandmother was raped by a German soldier. The documentary explores the past and the way Namibia deals with it now.
-- Mama Namibia, a historical novel by Mari Serebrov, provides two perspectives of the 1904 genocide in German South West Africa. The first is that of Jahohora, a 12-year-old Herero girl who survives on her own in the veld for two years after her family is killed by German soldiers. The second story is that of Kov, a Jewish doctor who volunteered to serve in the German military to prove his patriotism. As he witnesses the atrocities of the genocide, he rethinks his loyalty to the Fatherland.
-- Thomas Pynchon's novel 'V'. (1963) has a chapter that included recollections of the genocide; there are memories of events that took place in 1904 in various locations, including the Shark Island concentration camp.
-- Jackie Sibblies Drury's play, 'We Are Proud To Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia Between the Years 1884–1915', is about a group of actors developing a play about the Herero and Nama genocide.
The distinguishing feature of this camera is the "markfinder". Rather than the rangefinder found on its younger siblings (the C4 & C44), the Argus 21 sports a viewfinder with a projected frame mask to aid in photo composition and eliminate eye-position error.
Here's an excerpt from an advertisement for the Argus 21:
You'll like the "Markfinder" sighting method, because it shows you a center cross-mark and a guideline border projected right on your subject! You see your subject centered! You see it level! You see it fast!
How could you not buy one?
This handsome camera was manufactured from 1947-52.
Okay,if you have about 5 or 6 hours then making pork buns is pretty fun. :)
I'd actually never made them before but I was really please with the results.
However, for anyone that knows me and my cooking photos here, knows I'm not one to follow recipes to the letter. I like to use them as a guideline but create my own recipes and flavours.
Granted, baking is different. You need to follow the instructions or you could end up with crap. The only things I alter in baking are adding more flavour and yummy goodies because...well, why not?
But getting back to the pork buns.....
I saw Tricia's photo from her trip to NYC and I NEEDED to make some pork buns as it's not possible to find them anywhere except in NY.
So I found a simple enough recipe for the buns and made my own slow cooked Asian style pork filling.
I took boneless pork loin and slow cooked it with chicken broth, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, five star powder, ground ginger, garlic powder, onion powder, duck sauce, soy sauce, asian hot sauce, Asian chili oil and scallions.
The flavours were rich but not over powering.
The leftover filling was a nice accompaniment for the pork filled buns. YUM!!
An overview of the finest urban arts district in the nation, surpassing Kennedy and Lincoln Centers in New York City. I shot this on the afternoon of 10-26-10.
The Dallas Arts District is a unique, 68-acre, 19 contiguous block neighborhood in the heart of Downtown Dallas. The Arts District is now perceived as the finest in the country, surpassing the Kennedy and Lincoln Centers in New York City.
A rare jewel that is the centerpiece of the region’s cultural life, the Dallas Arts District is home to some of the finest architecture in the world. Enhancing the Downtown Dallas skyline are buildings by Pritzker Prize winners I.M. Pei, Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas and AIA “Gold Medal” recipient Edward Larrabee Barnes.
The Arts District neighborhood is a center for innovative architecture, world-class exhibits, exemplary cultural programming and much more. Fine restaurants, hotels, churches, residences, office towers, and even the world headquarters of 7-Eleven Corporation populate the neighborhood.
A much larger and more legible version of the Dallas Arts District map can be found in an online album of images I created (that also contains shots of Museum Tower's immediate Arts District neighborhood):
img87.imageshack.us/g/033ch.jpg/
The Arts District map shows seven "future site" projects within the boundaries of the Arts District (coded in blue):
1) 5.2 acre deck plaza, The Woodall Rodgers Urban Park
2) Museum Tower, almost 600 foot tall 42 story condominium tower
3) Dallas City Performance Hall in the Arts District
4) 2121 Flora, a 75-80 story mixed use tower planned next door to Museum Tower
5) Hall Arts Center Towers, twin 50 story skyscrapers next door to the Meyerson Symphony Center
6) Two Arts Plaza, a planned 22 story office and residential tower
7) Three Arts Plaza, a planned office and residential tower of unspecified height
In a very positive sign of the strength of the Arts District, three of those seven "future site" projects are now under construction as this is being written:
1) 5.2 acre deck plaza, The Woodall Rodgers Urban Park, costing $110 million dollars
2) Museum Tower, almost 600 foot tall 42 story condominium tower, costing $200 million dollars
3) Dallas City Performance Hall in the Arts District, costing $100 million dollars
The remaining four will definitely occur as this area of Downtown Dallas is among the hottest of Downtown core construction areas in the State of Texas and in the nation.
In addition to the three current and four future development projects within the Arts District boundaries itself, there are multiple significant development plans in the works in the area immediately surrounding the Arts Distict.
The Spire is a master planned six building highrise development covering 13 acres in 6 contiguous blocks and encompassing 1.7 million square feet of development that will be constructed just immediately to the south of the Dallas Arts District. The Spire project will provide an incredible high quality highrise development just across Ross Avenue, the southern border to the Arts District, and will be an exceptional and complementary neighbor.
The 14 story Perot Museum of Nature and Science is under construction just a couple of blocks to the west of the Dallas Arts District. This $185 million dollar museum is a significant new neighbor that will provide additional arts and science museum synergy to the immediate area.
The Museum's 4.7 acre site is located at the NW corner of Woodall Rodgers Freeway and Field Street, adjacent to Victory Park. The Museum will be situated at the crossroads of the Trinity River Corridor Project, the Arts District, the West End, Uptown, and other popular attractions.
Harwood International has a 53 story mixed use skyscraper tower in a planning phase, called The Lexi, for the Uptown side of Downtown Dallas that will add a significant addition to the Downtown Dallas cityscape and is within blocks of the Dallas Arts District. Harwood International's track record of building enormously successful highrises in Uptown, including both residential and office towers, provides a rock solid base from which to develop its signature skyscraper project in Uptown.
And the four hundred foot tall Calatrava Bridge, costing $165 million dollars, is a keystone development linking Downtown Dallas and the Dallas Arts District to the west side of the Trinity River Lakes project by extending Woodall Rodgers Freeway.
The Calatrava Bridge, by extending Woodall Rodgers Freeway westward across the Trinity River, will open up hundreds of millions and ultimately billions of dollars in new development along the Trinity River Lakes Project Corridor. Downtown Dallas will then not only have jumped over Woodall Rodgers Freeway to the north with its explosive growth in Uptown but will also straddle the Trinity River to the west via the Woodall Rodgers Freeway extension made possible by the Calatrava Bridge.
While some may like to call it a bridge to nowhere, in fact it is THE bridge to the future.
Plans call for over 30,000,000 square feet of new dense urban highrise and skyscraper development to be built in West Dallas along with the addition of 24,000 residents in the next 17 years ... pretty incredible growth. It is the Calatrava Bridge and the new frontier it will open up that will catapult Dallas into its status as the "Chicago of the South" by 2030.
Here is the planned development guideline developed by the City for the new urban frontier of West Dallas:
www.dallascityhall.com/citydesign_studio/pdf/WD_UrbanStru...
As a further indication of the booming Downtown Dallas corridor, a $100 million dollar 23 story upscale apartment building called 1400 Hi Line is under construction as of 01-19-11 at the corner of Hi Line and Stemmons Freeway. The new highrise will front Stemmons and will be located across the freeway from the American Airlines Center. A nearby DART rail station will serve the residents of the 1400 Hi Line highrise.
First Baptist Church of Downtown Dallas has started work on a massive development to its Downtown Dallas campus. Several older buildings were imploded on Oct. 30, 2010 to make room for the significant new development that will be occurring. Cranes for the development have now appeared and work is underway in earnest. First Baptist Downtown Dallas is spending $135 million dollars on their new campus development. One element of the work includes a significant public water fountain with the magnificent computer controlled and animated water jets and sprays reaching 10 stories into the air for all to enjoy.
Downtown Dallas is experiencing a renaissance from more than $14 billion in new development that is currently underway in and near the Downtown core. As a result, Downtown Dallas is on the verge of a renewed greatness because of the billions in investment it has made in its Downtown core in general but also in its newest premier district, the Downtown Dallas Arts District.
An article published in the October 2010 "D Magazine" discusses how the relocation of corporate headquarters and businesses into Downtown Dallas is at an all time high. The level of interest in doing so (from out of state, in state and in town corporations) has also reached the highest level ever:
www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_CEO/2010/October/The_Rejuvenatio...
Dallas will surpass Chicago as the 3rd largest metro in the nation by 2030 or sooner, published 03-15-10 in The Dallas Morning News:
www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/columnists/chall...
And another significant recognition and accolade from Forbes Magazine, published 09-02-09, that highlights Dallas' worldwide reach and influence and its growing significance on the world stage:
www.forbes.com/2009/09/02/world-capitals-cities-century-o...
.
Additional informative links:
Here is a fantastic video of Downtown Dallas from 07-24-10 driving along I-35 on the west side of Downtown that shows the wonderful density that has developed in the Downtown core with its Uptown District from 2006 to 2010. Select 720p HD and full screen. If you pause at 13 seconds into the video, right in the middle of the image between Hunt Oil and One Arts Plaza Towers, will be where the under construction $200 million dollar Museum Tower in the traditional Downtown Financial District will make its presence known. The construction crane seen center left at a 13 second pause is for the 17 story $185 million dollar Perot Museum of Nature and Science that is also currently under construction on the north side of Woodall Rodgers, a couple blocks away from Museum Tower's location on the side side of Woodall. Woodall Rodgers is the new 21st century "Main Street" of Downtown Dallas. Museum Tower's almost 600 foot tall 42 story presence once completed in late 2012 is going to make a huge impact on the Downtown Dallas cityscape as it will stretch the Financial District so far north that it will completely meld into Uptown and vice versa:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao4gZRTDMyM&NR=1
This is another fantastic video shot from a helicopter circling Downtown Dallas on 07-09-10. Select 720p HD and full screen. The video generally focuses on the traditional Downtown Dallas Financial District, but if you look on the left hand side middle screen while the video is playing you will again see the incredible dense development that has literally sprung up almost overnight in Downtown's Uptown District (between 2006 and 2010). From between 5 and 13 seconds at the beginning of the video you can see how impressive the Uptown skyscrapers are from just seeing the edge of Uptown that is directly facing the Financial District across Woodall Rodgers. Also from around 35 to 40 seconds into the video is when you can see the dense Uptown development from a bit broader perspective. Woodall Rodgers is the new 21st century "Main Street" of Downtown Dallas. Also, Museum Tower's almost 600 foot tall 42 story presence once completed in late 2012 is going to make a huge impact on the Downtown Dallas cityscape as it will stretch the Financial District so far north that it will completely meld into Uptown and vice versa:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIks-YVYlj8
This is another great aerial video that literally offers a birdseye, multi-thousand foot view of Downtown Dallas shot on 10-24-10, in a jet flying over Downtown on its landing approach to DFW International Airport. Select 720p HD and full screen. For purposes of this discussion, freeze the video anywhere from 1 second to 10 seconds. The large mass of buildings in the very center of the video is Downtown Dallas, which includes all of the skyscrapers and highrises in Uptown as well as those in the more traditional Financial District which today forms the largest urban core in the nation outside of NYC, LA and Chicago with over 50,300,000 square feet of office space. The explosive growth of dense urban development in Uptown has vigorously extended Downtown Dallas northward. Downtown Dallas is now a long rectangle, anchored on its northern border by the CityPlace East (42 story) and Azure (31 story) skyscrapers with the mass of buildings stretching from the northern border southward through the traditional Financial District to just past I-30 to include the dense cluster of new developments in The Cedars District (the new City of Dallas Police Headquarters, the new Beat Condominium Tower, South Side on Lamar, and the just announced coup for Downtown Dallas of the NYLO Hotel South Side, etc.) . The W Hotel (31 stories) and The House Condominiums (29 stories) along with the Hyatt Regency Hotel (30 stories), Reunion Tower (50 stories) and the new half billion dollar Omni Convention Hotel (27 stories) clearly anchor the western side of Downtown running along Stemmons Freeway. One Arts Plaza (24 stories) and the dense Downtown Dallas Arts District along with the Sheraton Hotel's twin towers (42 stories and 31 stories) and the Comerica Bank Headquarters Tower (60 stories) run along Central Expressway anchoring the eastern side of Downtown, and which then extends just a little further eastward to include the massive Baylor Medical District complex (seen in the video as the large mass of white highrises farthest east of the Financial District). Like a beautiful necklace extending just immediately north of Uptown/Downtown in the video, one can see the long chain of highrise apartment and condominium towers in the Turtle Creek area of Dallas tracking the large swath of greenbelt just immediately north of the CityPlace East and Azure skyscrapers. As a pre-cursor for continued vibrant Downtown Dallas growth, a major keystone development that heralds future massive and dense urban development for Downtown can be seen in the video in the form of the instantly iconic new Calatrava Bridge spanning the Trinity River, which will bring billions in new development by extending Downtown Dallas' golden corridor, Woodall Rodgers Expressway, to the west side of the Trinity River. Woodall Rodgers has become the new 21st century "Main Street" for Downtown Dallas as it sets right in the middle of the bustling skyscrapers located on both the north and south sides of it. In the next ten to twenty years Turtle Creek, Uptown, Victory, Baylor, Deep Ellum, the Design District, the Financial District, The Cedars, and the newest urban frontier of West Dallas will seamlessly meld together to form a super dense core of the most dynamic and largest urban center in the nation outside of New York City and Los Angeles, and rivaling Chicago.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQPosFieMg8&feature=related
This cool video from 08-30-10 further reinforces the explosive growth of around 13,000,000 square feet in new Class A and Class AA office space that Downtown Dallas has seen in the last few years in its Uptown and Victory Districts from 2006 to 2010. Select 1080p HD and full screen. The video is shot from the same exact spot throughout but shifts its main focal point from the Financial District to Uptown at 14 seconds. From 0 to 13 seconds the focus of the video is the northern edge of the traditional Financial District with the bustling heavy traffic of Woodall Rodgers Freeway. During this segment one can imagine the imposing and impressive addition to the cityscape that the almost 600 foot tall 42 story Museum Tower will make as it will literally be positioned right behind Hunt Oil Tower, which is unmistakably dressed in its state-of-the-art LED lighting (blue at the time of the video). Still filmed from the exact same spot, from 14 seconds to the end, the focus of the video shifts slightly north looking across Woodall Rodgers Freeway to reveal just a small slice of the significant density of skyscrapers and highrises erected in Uptown mostly since around 2006. Woodall Rodgers is the new 21st century "Main Street" of Downtown Dallas. The construction crane that is clearly visible in this portion of the video is for the 17 story $185 million dollar Perot Museum of Nature and Science that is currently under construction:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP47TYaB7nQ&feature=related
.
Woodall Rodgers Urban Park: www.theparkdallas.org/
Woodall Rodgers Urban Park webcam (click "Live Web Cam" on frontpage): www.theparkdallas.org/
Museum Tower: www.museumtowerdallas.com/
Museum Tower webcam: commercial.austinprojects.com/museumtower.html
Dallas City Performance Hall: www.som.com/content.cfm/dallas_city_performance_hall
Dallas Arts District: www.thedallasartsdistrict.org/
Perot Museum of Nature and Science: www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-perot...
Perot Museum webcam: www.natureandscience.org/expansion/default.asp
1400 Hi Line: loweroaklawn.com/spotlight/coming-soon-hi-rise-living-on-...
1400 Hi Line webcam: oxblue.com/pro/open/rogersobrien/hiline
The Lexi by Harwood International: www.harwoodinc.com/the_lexi.php
The Spire: www.nbcdfw.com/the-scene/real-estate/Arts-South-Coming-In...
The Spire: www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/industries/commr...
The Spire: www.flickr.com/photos/52949402@N03/sets/72157624972966972/
Hall Arts Center Towers: www.flickr.com/photos/52949402@N03/sets/72157624991290640/
Two Arts Plaza: www.twoartsplaza.com/
Three Arts Plaza: threeartsplaza.com/
2121 Flora: www.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2009/10/05/story7.html
West Dallas blueprint for the future with 30,000,000 square feet of new skyscraper development & 24,000 residents in the new urban district: www.dallascityhall.com/citydesign_studio/pdf/WD_UrbanStru...
AT&T Performing Arts Center in the Dallas Arts District video: www.attpac.org/experiencethecenter/index.aspx
AT&T Performing Arts Center venues in the Dallas Arts District: www.attpac.org/thevenues/index.aspx
First Baptist Church campus construction: www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/2...
First Baptist Church webcam: ascendio.com/fbd/Webcam.aspx
SBC Engineering (SBC Coaches), Leigh-on-Sea
Scania K380EB6/Irizar PB
GL57 LON
Exeter, Belgrave Road
Saturday 12th January 2013
New to Guideline, Battersea. Registered GL57LON when with Guideline.
Oesterreichische Nationalbank
Logo of the Austrian National Bank
Headquarters Vienna, Austria
Central Bank of Austria
Currency€
To ISO 4217 EUR
website
Previous Austro- Hungarian Bank
List of Central Banks
Oesterreichische Nationalbank, at Otto-Wagner -Platz No. 3, Vienna
The Austrian National Bank (OeNB), Austria's central bank as an integral part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and the Eurosystem. It is instrumental in the design of the economic development in Austria and in the euro area. Legally, the OeNB is a public limited company.. However, it is also subject to further enshrined in the National Bank Act regulations resulting from its separate position as a central bank. In the framework of the Eurosystem, the OeNB contributes to a stability-oriented monetary policy. At the national level, it cares about the preservation of financial stability and the money supply and manage foreign exchange reserves to hedge against the euro in times of crisis. The guideline values in terms of the tasks of the Austrian National Bank are "security, stability and trust".
Contents
1 History
1.1 1816 to 1818
1.2 1818 to 1878
1.3 1878 to 1922
1.4 1922 to 1938
1.5 1938 to 1945
1.6 1945 to 1998
1.7 From 1999
2 The OeNB as a modern central bank
3 Legal form and organs
3.1 Legal framework
3.2 organs
3.2.1 General
3.2.2 General
3.2.3 Board of Directors
4 Tasks
4.1 Monetary policy strategies and monetary policy decision-making process
4.1.1 Economic analysis
4.1.2 Production of statistical information
4.1.3 Contribute to international organizations
4.2 Implementation of monetary policy
4.2.1 use of monetary policy instruments
4.2.2 Reserve Management
4.2.3 Money Supply
4.3 Communication of monetary policy
4.4 ensure financial stability
4.4.1 Financial Stability
4.4.2 Payment System Stability and payments
5 The OeNB in the European System of National Banks
6 President / Governors
7 See also
8 Literature
9 links
10 Notes and references
History
1816-1818
As long as 50 years before the founding of the National Bank the Habsburgs carried out first experiments with securities in the form of paper money. Finally, in the 18th Century the issue of banknotes transferred to a state independent institution, while the issue of paper money called "Banco notes," founded in 1705 by the "Vienna City Bank" took place in 1762.
In wartime governance took back control of the money issue, so there was an inflation of Banco-Zettel 1796-1810. The state ordered the forced acceptance of paper money in private transport, which led to a fast-growing discount on bills in the market. 1799 was therefore one for 100 guilders paper money only 92 guilders in silver coins, and at the end of 1810 the value of the paper florin had fallen to 15 % of the nominal value of the Banco-Zettel. Later, the Habsburgs declared a devaluation of the Banco-Zettel in the ratio of 5:1. This act was considered by the business community as a sovereign default, which the paper money experienced a rapid devaluation.
At the end of the Napoleonic wars the Habsburg multinational state ( → Habsburg Monarchy) faced a new challenge: the restoration of a European balance. Church, the nobility, the army and the bureaucracy as elements in the Ancien Régime were not sufficient to solve this problem, a well -founded economic situation was needed. Moreover, one could not ignore readily the laws of supply and demand.
In this regard, were the first June 1816 by Emperor Francis I two patents issued (later to distinguish the "main patent" or "bank patent"), the "privileged Austrian National Bank", conceived as a public company, had to constitute itself as soon a possible, propose the emperor three of its directors for selection of the governor and take up their activity provisionally on 1 July 1816.
The National Bank had henceforth a monopoly on the issuance of paper money, which led to a slowdown in the Austrian monetary system and an increase in the value of paper money. The economy was again a solid source of money keeping constant the value of money regardless of the spending plans of the State. The equity of the Bank justified this by share issues.
Initially comprised the activities of the bank - under temporary management - the redemption of paper money and the issuance of shares. The full effectiveness attained the National Bank until after the issue of 1,000 shares and the associated possibility of shareholders to set the management themselves.
1818-1878
On 15 July 1817 recieved the National Bank as the "first Bankprivilegium" the exclusive right to unrestricted issue of banknotes and in this context a special position in terms of Rediskontgeschäfts (rediscount business). Beginning of 1818 the definitive bank management was ready. Part of it were among leading figures of Viennese society, including the banker Johann Heinrich von Geymüller and Bernard of Eskeles. From 1830 to 1837 the Office of the Governor was held by Adrian Nicholas Baron Barbier.
In the countries of the Habsburg Monarchy, which were characterized in large part by an agricultural oriented activity pattern, some regions showed a lively commercial-industrial growth. The goal now was to create a system of economic exchange between these areas. Successively established the National Bank branch network and thus guaranteed a uniform money and credit supply. From its headquarters in Vienna this network extended over early industrial areas and commercial centers in Eastern and Central Europe to the northern Mediterranean.
Trade bills and coins were preferred assets of the National Bank, less the supply of money to the state. With the exchange transactions, the National Bank supported the economic growth of the monarchy and secured at the same time the supply of silver coins in the event that the need for these increases in exchange for bank notes, contrary to expectations. 1818 was the National Bank, however, by increasing public debt, due to high spending in times of crisis, not spared to make an increase in the government debt positions on the asset side of its balance sheet.
The patent provisions of the founding of the National Bank not sufficiently secured against the autonomy of governance. At the center of the struggle for independence, this was the question of the extent to which the issue of banknotes must be made on the basis of government bonds. In 1841, a renewal of Bankprivilegiums got a weakening of the independence by pushing back the influence of the shareholders in favor of the state administration. During the revolution of 1848/49 followers of constitutional goals received great support from senior figures in the National Bank. For about a hundred years, the Austrian branch of the Rothschild bank (from which from 1855, the "Royal Privileged Austrian Credit-Institute for Commerce and Industry", the later Creditanstalt, was born) was playing a leading role in the banking center of Vienna. Salomon Mayer von Rothschild was involved during the pre-March in all major transactions of the National Bank for the rehabilitation of the state budget.
Special focus the National Bank was putting on the development of the premium that was payable at the exchange of banknotes into silver money in business dealings. The increase, which corresponded to a depreciation of the notes issued by the Bank should be prevented. From an overall state perspective, the increase of the silver premium means a deterioration in terms of the exchange ratio towards foreign countries, influencing the price competitiveness of the Austrian foreign trade adversely. The stabilization of the premium were set some limits. Although the height of the emission activitiy was depending on the Bank, but also the price of silver and the potential effects of increased government debt materially affected the silver premium. Especially the 1848 revolution and conflicts in the following years caused an increasement of the silver premium.
Mid-century, the private banking and wholesale houses were no longer able to cope with the rapidly growing financial intermediation of the Habsburg monarchy. New forms of capital formation were required. From an initiative of the House of Rothschild, the first by the government approved and private joint-stock bank was created. This formation was followed in 1863 and 1864 by two other joint-stock banks, whose major shareholders included important personalities of the aristocracy, who possessed large liquid funds. Overall, grew with these banks the money creation potential of the "financial center of Vienna".
The central bank faced another difficult task: with its limited resources it had to secure sufficient liquidity on the one hand and on the other hand prevent the inflationary expansion of the money supply. Through close contacts with the shareholders of Vienna was a financial center (informal) ballot, especially in times of crisis, easily dealt out. In contrast, it gave differences of opinion in the Fed Board, which required enforcement of decisions.
In 1861, Friedrich Schey Koromla became director of the National Bank. On 27 December 1862 experienced the Bankprivilegium another innovation. The independence of the National Bank of the State was restored and anchored. Furthermore, was introduced the direct allocation of banknotes in circulation by the system of "Peel'schen Bank Act", which states that the fixed budget of 200 million guilders exceeding circulation of banknotes must be covered by silver coins. In 1866, when the German war ended in defeat for Austria, the compliance of the system was no longer met. The state felt itself forced to pay compensation for breach of privilege. This balance was supported by a law of 1872, after the National Bank may issue notes up to a maximum of 200 million guilders and each additional payment must be fully backed by gold or silver.
1873 the economic boom of the Habsburg monarchy was represented in a long-lasting rise in the share price. A now to be expecting break could by the behavior of the Vienna Stock not be intercepted, so it came to the "Great Crash of 1873". The in 1872 fixed restrictions of the circulation of notes for a short time have been suspended. Contrary to expectations, the money supply in crisis peak but only outgrew by nearly 1% the prescribed limit in the bank acts. The banks and the industrial and commercial companies survived the crash without major losses, although the share prices significantly lay below the initial level.
The years with high growth were followed by a period of stagnation.
1878-1922
As part of the compensation negotiations between Austria and Hungary in 1867, the National Bank was able to exercise fully their Privilegialrechte, the Kingdom of Hungary but now had the certified right, every ten years exercisable, to found an own central bank (bank note). As resulted from the first 10 -year period that furthermore none of the two parts of the monarchy wanted to build an independent money-issuing bank (Zettelbank), was built on 28 June 1878, initially to 31 December 1887 limited, an Austro-Hungarian Bank, and equipped with the Fed privilege. The first privilege of the new bank was a compromise in which on the one hand, regulations on liability for national debts as well as regulations limiting the influence of the government on banking businesses were included. 1878 Gustav Leonhardt was Secretary of the Bank.
The General Assembly and the General Council formed the unit of the bank management. Two directorates and major institutions - in Vienna and Budapest - represented the dual nature of the bank. 1892-1900 followed a long discussion finally the currency conversion from guilders (silver currency) to the crown (gold standard) with "Gold Crown" said coins.
Since the new banknotes were very popular in the public, now many gold coins piled up in the vaults of the Austro-Hungarian Bank. This period was characterized by a balanced combination of price growth and damping, the "per capita national product" grew while prices remained mostly stable. Against this background, it was easy for the Fed to encourage a new wave of industrialization.
With a third privilege in 1899 conditions were established under which the bank could be put into the financial services of the two countries, on the other hand there have been important innovations that paved a good exchange policy. By 1914, the exchange ratio of the Austro-Hungarian currency was unchanged with only minor fluctuations. In contrast, was the by conflicts marked political development.
The expansive foreign policy quickly led to high costs from which had to be shouldered by the central bank a significant part. The stability of the currency was in danger. Shortly after the beginning of World War I in 1914, laid down the Military Command to indemnify any seized property with double the price. There was an increasing scarcity of goods, connected with an ongoing expansion of the money supply and finally the increase in the price level on the 16-fold.
The resulting cost of the war of the Dual Monarchy were covered to 40% on central bank loans and 60% through war bonds. Over the duration of the war, the power force built up in recent decades has been frozen at the end of the conflict in 1918, the real income of the workers had fallen to one-fifth of the last year of peace.
With the end of the war the end for the old order had come, too. The decay of Cisleithania and Transleithania caused in several successor states, despite the efforts of the central bank to maintain the order, a currency separation (see Crown Currency in the decay of the monarchy, successor states). First, a separate "Austrian management" of the bank was introduced. It was encouraged to shoulder the shortcomings of the state budget of the Republic of Austria founded in 1918.
The new South Slav state began in January 1919 stamping its crown banknotes. The newly founded Czechoslovak Republic retained the crown currency (to date), but their printed banknotes in circulation as of February 1919 with indications that now these ar Czechoslovak crowns. (The country could an inflation as experienced by Austria avoide.) In March 1919, German Austria began to stamp its crown banknotes.
The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye of 10 September 1919, by Austria on 25 October 1919 ratified and which on 16 July 1920 came into force, determined the cancellation and replacement of all crown banknotes of all successor states of Austria-Hungary as well as the complete liquidation of the Austro-Hungarian Bank under the supervision of the war winners. The last meetings of the Bank took place mid 1921 and at the end of 1922.
After a period of overvaluation of the crown the dollar rate rose from 1919 again. 1921, had to be paid over 5,000 Austrian crowns per dollar. In addition to the significant drop in the external value existed in Austria rising inflation. End of 1922 was ultimately a rehabilitation program with foreign assistance - the "Geneva Protocol" - passed which slowed down the inflation.
1922-1938
With Federal Law of 24 July 1922 the Minister of Finance was commissioned to build a central bank, which had to take over the entire note circulation plus current liabilities of the Austrian management of the Austro-Hungarian Bank. With Federal Law of 14 November 1922, certain provisions of the law were amended and promulgated the statutes of the Austrian National Bank. By order of the Federal Government Seipel I 29 December 1922, the Board of the Austrian Austro-Hungarian Bank issued authorization for the central bank union activity with 1 January 1923 have been declared extinct and was made known the commencement of operations of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank this day.
The statutes of the Austrian National Bank (OeNB) secured the independence from the state, the independence of the Bank under exclusion of external influences and the corresponding equity. First, the stabilization of the Austrian currency was at the forefront. With the Schilling Act of 20 December 1924 was the schilling currency (First Republic) with 1 Introduced in March 1925, it replaced the crown currency. For 10,000 crowns now you got a shilling.
As an important personality in terms of the order of the state budget, Dr. Victor Kienböck has to be mentioned. He was in the time from 1922 to 1924 and from 1926 to 1929 finance minister of the First Republic and from 1932 to 1938 President of the Austrian National Bank. Through his work remained the Austrian Schilling, also beyound the global economy crisis, stable. Under this condition, the Fed was able to cope with the large number of bank failures of the past.
1938-1945
According to the on 13th March issued Anschlussgesetz (annexation law) , the Reichsmark with order of the Fuehrer and Chancellor of 17 was March 1938 introduced in the country Austria and determines the course: A Reichsmark is equal to one shilling fifty pence. On the same day, the Chancellor ordered that the management of the to be liquidated National Bank was transferred to the Reichsbank.
With regulation of three ministers of the German Reich of 23 April 1938, the National Bank was established as a property of the Reichsbank and its banknotes the quality as legal tender by 25 April 1938 withdrawn; public funds had Schilling banknotes until 15th of may in 1938 to accept. All the gold and foreign exchange reserves were transferred to Berlin.
The Second World War weakened the Austrian economy to a great extent, the production force after the war corresponded to only 40% of that of 1937 (see also air raids on Austria). To finance the war, the Reichsbank brought to a high degree banknotes in circulation, which only a great victory of the kingdom (Reich) actual values would have been opposable. Since prices were strictly regulated, inflation virtually could be "banned" during the war.
1945-1998
In occupied postwar Austria about 10 billion shillings by Allied military occupying powers were initially printed, which contributed to significant price increases.
With the re-establishment of the Republic of Austria by the Austrian declaration of independence of 27 April 1945, it came to the resumption of activities of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank. By the "Fed Transition Act" of July 1945 preliminary legal regulations for the operations of the Bank have been established. The restoration of the Austrian currency was their first big job. The goal was the summary of all currencies, which at the time were in circulation, and their secondment to a new Austrian currency. The "Schilling Act" of November 1945, the basis for the re-introduction of the Schilling (Second Republic) as legal tender in Austria. The next step was to reduce excess liquidity to make necessary funds for new business investment available and to make the external value of the shilling for the development of the economy competitive. First, however, less changed the inflationary situation and also the shilling was still significantly undervalued in relation to other currencies.
The "Currency Protection Act" of 1947 brought a significant change in the monetary overhang. Some deposits have been deleted without replacement, others converted into claims against the Federal Treasury. The following exchange operations also significantly reduced the amount of cash: banknotes from 1945 were canceled and exchanged for new schilling notes in the ratio 1:3. Only 150 shillings per person could go 1-1.
To control inflation, the social partners came to the foreground. The associations of employers and employees set in 1947 prices for supplies, wages were also raised. This was the first of the five "wage-price agreements" of the social partners. In 1952, inflation was held back by limiting the use of monetary policy instruments by the National Bank. Also, the external sector slowly relaxed after the end of the Korean War.
In 1955, the Austrian National Bank was re-established by the new National Bank Act as a corporation and the by the National Bank Transition of Authorities Act (Nationalbank-Überleitungsgesetz) established provisional arragement abolished. The National Bank Act stipulated that each half of the capital should be situated at the federal government and private shareholders. In addition to the independence of bank loans of the state, the new National Bank Act also contained an order that the central bank must watch within their monetary and credit policies on the economic policies of the federal government. From now on also included within the instruments of the National Bank were the areas open market and minimum reserve policy.
The Austrian economy increasingly stabilized, through good fiscal and monetary policy a high growth could be attained, with low inflation and long-term maintenance of external equilibrium.
1960, Austria joined the European Free Trade Association and participated in the European integration.
In the sixties came the international monetary system based on gold-dollar convertibility into currency fluctuations and political reforms were necessary. First, the loosening of exchange rate adjustments between several states was an option. However, U.S. balance of payments problems brought with it restrictions on capital movements, and then the Euro-Dollar market was born. In 1971, the convertibility of the U.S. dollar was lifted.
1975 interrupted a recession increasing growth time. International unbalanced ayments caused very extensive foreign exchange movements, whereby the intervention force of Austrian monetary policy has been strongly challenged. Their task now was to control the effect of foreign exchange on domestic economic activities to stabilize the shilling in the context of constantly shifting exchange rates and to control the price rise appropriately. Since the inflow of foreign funds reached to high proportions, so that the economic stability has been compromised, the policy went the way of the independent course design in a pool of selected European currencies.
The collapse of the economy forced the policy makers to a new course with active mutual credit control, subdued wage growth, financial impulses in supply and demand, and interest rates are kept low. This system of regulation, however, kept back the need for structural change, so it had to be given up in 1979. In the same year a fire destroyed large parts of the main building of the Austrian National Bank in Vienna. The repairs lasted until 1985.
Target in the eighties was to strengthen the economic performance using a competitive power comparison. The findings from the seventies stimulated the Austrian monetary policy to align the Schilling course at the Deutsche Mark to ensure price stability in the country. In addition, the structural change was initiated by inclusion in a large area. Stable, if not necessarily comfortable environment of monetary policy was a prerequisite, to secure the companies long-term productivity gains and thus safeguard their position in the economy.
Initially, this development stood a high level of unemployment in the way. Growth until the second half of the decade increased, at the same time increased the competitiveness and current accounts could be kept in balance.
In the nineties, the annexation of Austria took place in the European Community. 1995 Austria became a member of the European Union (EU) and joined the exchange rate mechanism of the European Monetary System. In 1998, the Central Banks (ESCB) have established the independence of institutions or bodies of the European Community and the governments of the EU Member States through an amendment to the National Bank Act of the Austrian National Bank to implement the goals and tasks of the European System. Thus, the legal basis for the participation of Austria in the third stage of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) was created in 1999.
As of 1999
The Austrian National Bank, and other national central banks including the European Central Bank ( ECB), belongs to the European System of Central Banks.
On 1 January 1999 was introduced in the third stage of Economic and Monetary Union in Austria and ten other EU Member States, the euro as a common currency. The European Central Bank is henceforth responsible for monetary and currency policy, decisions in this regard will be taken in accordance with the Council of the European Central Bank.
Since May 2010, the OeNB is in full possession of the Republic of Austria, after originally lobbies, banks and insurance companies were involved with 50 % of the share capital in it. In 2011, the National Bank Act was adapted by an amendment (Federal Law Gazette I No. 50 /2011) in this circumstance, a renewed privatization is thus excluded by law.
The OeNB as a modern central bank
With the withdrawal from the retail business in the sixties as well as the first major internationalization and implementation of a strategic management in the seventies, the OeNB went on the way to a future-oriented central bank. Another major reform of banking began at the end of the eighties.
In terms of global development, the OeNB established in 1988 as a service company and expanded its guiding values - "security, stability and trust" - to the principles of " fficiency" and "cost-consciousness". The business center was optimized and strategic business experienced through targeted improvements a reinforcement. Be mentioned as examples are intensifying domestic cooperation in the area of payments by encouraging the creation of the Society for the Study co-payments (STUZZA), the liberalization of capital movements, the professional management of foreign exchange reserves, the improvement of the supply of money through the construction of the money center and the internationalization of business activities through the establishment of representative offices in Brussels (European Union), Paris (OECD) and the financial center of New York.
After Austria's accession to the EU in 1995, the OeNB participated in the European Monetary System (EMS ) and its Exchange Rate Mechanism. The integration in the third stage of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) was the next step towards further development of policy stability. Since the conclusion of the Maastricht Treaty, the Austrian National Bank has very fully considered its role in the ESCB and created a basis for inclusion in the community. The profound economic and monetary policy of Austria was also a reference that qualified the OeNB to actively participate in the monetary future of Europe, a greater harmonization of the statistical framework and monetary policy instruments with a view to the euro system, the preparation of the issue of European banknotes, and the establishment of operational processes and organizational integration of business processes within the ESCB being specific objectives of the OeNB.
In the following, it came, inter alia, to the establishement of an economic study department, of an education or training initiative and to strengthen the position of payment transactions through the TARGET system.
A in 1996 created "OeNB master plan" provided important points for the upcoming transition to the euro.
In May 1998, a new pension system came into force, by which new employees were incorporated into a two-pillar model.
1999, Austria's participation in the third stage of EMU was manifest. The Austrian National Bank - as part of the ESCB - became the owner of the European Central Bank and received new powers in this context in the sense of participation in the monetary policy decision-making at the level of the European Community. With the introduction of the euro, monetary policy functions of the General Council have been transferred to the Governing Council. However, the implementation remains the responsibility of national central banks.
Activities of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank were or are, for example, the further professionalization of asset management, the expansion of the network of representative offices by opening a representative office in the financial center of London, preparation of the smooth introduction of euro cash in 2002 and the participation of the OeNB on the creation of the "A-SIT" (Center for secure Information Technology Center - Austria) and the "A-Trust" (society of electronic security systems in traffic GmbH ) in order to promote security in information technology.
thebastion.co.in/interviews/the-bastion-dialogues-dr-amit...www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/01/11/462307304/ca...
www.thebetterindia.com/40159/even-odd-car-days-in-delhi/
citiscope.org/citisignals/2015/scrutiny-delhi-plan-restri...
www.wfuv.org/content/can-oddeven-curb-delhi-pollution-her...
www.nationalobserver.com/2021/09/23/news/who-slashes-guid...
FA08ENG Southend Bus and Coach - Scania K420 / Irizar . Southend United team coach.
New to Guideline of Battersea.
They say that youve never eaten pizza until youve eaten it in Naples and yes they are right.
Here are the guideline that make them so extraordinary: According to the rules proposed by the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana, the genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of wheat flour, natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer's yeast, salt and water. For proper results, strong flour with high protein content must be used. The dough must be kneaded by hand on a marble work surface. After the rising process, the dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin and may be no more than 3 mm (⅛ in) thick in the centre and no more than a 1-2cm crust . The pizza must be baked for 60–90 seconds in a 485 °C stone oven with an oak-wood fire. When cooked, it should be crispy, tender and fragrant and served without delay. Enjoy!
Some background:
The VF-1 was developed by Stonewell/Bellcom/Shinnakasu for the U.N. Spacy by using alien Overtechnology obtained from the SDF-1 Macross alien spaceship. It was preceded into production by an aerodynamic proving version of its airframe, the VF-X. Unlike all later VF vehicles, the VF-X was strictly a jet aircraft, built to demonstrate that a jet fighter with the features necessary to convert to Battroid mode was aerodynamically feasible.
After the VF-X's testing was finished, an advanced concept atmospheric-only prototype, the VF-0 Phoenix, was flight-tested from 2005 to 2007 and briefly served as an active-duty fighter from 2007 to the VF-1's rollout in late 2008, while the bugs were being worked out of the full-up VF-1 prototype (VF-X-1).
The space-capable VF-1's combat debut was on February 7, 2009, during the Battle of South Ataria Island - the first battle of Space War I, and was the mainstay fighter of the U.N. Spacy for the entire conflict. Introduced in 2008, the VF-1 would be out of frontline service just five years later.
The VF-1 proved to be an extremely capable craft, successfully combating a variety of Zentraedi mecha even in most sorties, which saw UN Spacy forces significantly outnumbered. The versatility of the Valkyrie design enabled the variable fighter to act as both large-scale infantry and as air/space superiority fighter. The signature skills of U.N. Spacy ace pilot Maximilian Jenius exemplified the effectiveness of the variable systems as he near-constantly transformed the Valkyrie in battle to seize advantages of each mode as combat conditions changed from moment to moment.
The basic VF-1 was deployed in four minor variants (designated A, D, J, and S) with constant updates and several sub-variants during its long and successful career. Its success was increased by the GBP-1S "Armored" Valkyrie and FAST Pack "Super" Valkyrie weapon systems, the latter enabling the fighter to operate in space.
After the end of Space War I, the VF-1A continued to be manufactured both in the Sol system (notably on the Lunar facility Apollo Base) and throughout the UNG space colonies. Although the VF-1 would eventually be replaced as the primary VF of the UN Spacy by the more capable, but also much bigger, VF-4 Lightning III in 2020, a long service record and continued production after the war proved the lasting worth of the design.
One notable operator of the VF-1 was the U.N. Spacy's Zentraedi Fleet, namely SVF-789, which was founded in 2012 as a cultural integration and training squadron with two flights of VF-1 at Tefé in Brazil. This mixed all-Zentraedi/Meltraedi unit was the first in the UN Spacy’s Zentraedi Fleet to be completely equipped with the 1st generation Valkyrie (other units, like SVF-122, which was made up exclusively from Zentraedi loyalists, kept a mixed lot of vehicles).
SVF-789’s flight leaders and some of its instructors were all former Quadrono Battalion aces (under the command of the famous Milia Fallyna, later married with aforementioned Maximilian Jenius), e. g. the Meltraedi pilot Taqisha T’saqeel who commanded SVF-789’s 3rd Flight.
Almost all future Zentraedi and Meltradi pilots for the U.N. Spacy received their training at Tefé, and the squadron was soon expanded to a total of five flights. During this early phase of the squadron's long career the VF-1s carried a characteristic dark-green wrap-around scheme, frequently decorated with colorful trim, reflecting the unit’s Zentraedi/Meltraedi heritage (the squadron’s motto and title “Dar es Carrack” meant “Victory is everywhere”) and boldly representing the individual flights.
In late 2013 the unit embarked upon Breetai Kridanik’s Nupetiet-Vergnitzs-Class Fleet Command Battleship, and the machines received a standard all-grey livery, even though some typical decoration (e. g. the squadron code in Zentraedi symbols) remained.
When the UN Spacy eventually mothballed the majority of its legacy Zentraedi ships, the unit was re-assigned to the Tokugawa-class Super Dimensional Carrier UES Xerxes. In 2022, SVF-789 left the Sol System as part of the Pioneer Mission. By this time it had been made part of the Expeditionary Marine Corps and re-equipped with VAF-6 Alphas.
The VF-1 was without doubt the most recognizable variable fighter of Space War I and was seen as a vibrant symbol of the U.N. Spacy even into the first year of the New Era 0001 in 2013. At the end of 2015 the final rollout of the VF-1 was celebrated at a special ceremony, commemorating this most famous of variable fighters.
The VF-1 Valkryie was built from 2006 to 2013 with a total production of 5,459 VF-1 variable fighters with several variants (VF-1A = 5,093, VF-1D = 85, VF-1J = 49, VF-1S = 30, VF-1G = 12, VE-1 = 122, VT-1 = 68) and ongoing modernization programs like the “Plus” MLU update that incorporated stronger engines and avionics from the VF-1’s successor, the VF-4 (including the more powerful radar, IRST sensor and a laser designator/range finder). These updates later led to the VF-1N, P an X variants.
However, the fighter remained active in many second line units and continued to show its worthiness years later, e. g. through Milia Jenius who would use her old VF-1 fighter in defense of the colonization fleet - 35 years after the type's service introduction!
General characteristics:
Equipment Type: all-environment variable fighter and tactical combat battroid
Government: U.N. Spacy, U.N. Navy, U.N. Space Air Force
Accommodation: pilot only in Marty & Beck Mk-7 zero/zero ejection seat
Dimensions:
Fighter Mode:
Length 14.23 meters
Wingspan 14.78 meters (fully extended)
Height 3.84 meters
Battroid Mode:
Height 12.68 meters
Width 7.3 meters
Length 4.0 meters
Empty weight: 13.25 metric tons;
Standard T-O mass: 18.5 metric tons;
MTOW: 37.0 metric tons
Powerplant:
2x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry/P&W/Roice FF-2008 thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, output 650 MW each, rated at 11,500 kg in standard or in overboost (225.63 kN x 2)
4 x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry NBS-1 high-thrust vernier thrusters (1 x counter reverse vernier thruster nozzle mounted on the side of each leg nacelle/air intake, 1 x wing thruster roll control system on each wingtip);
18 x P&W LHP04 low-thrust vernier thrusters beneath multipurpose hook/handles
Performance:
Battroid Mode: maximum walking speed 160 km/h
Fighter Mode: at 10,000 m Mach 2.71; at 30,000+ m Mach 3.87
g limit: in space +7
Thrust-to-weight ratio: empty 3.47; standard T-O 2.49; maximum T-O 1.24
Design features:
3-mode variable transformation; variable geometry wing; vertical take-off and landing; control-configurable vehicle; single-axis thrust vectoring; three "magic hand" manipulators for maintenance use; retractable canopy shield for Battroid mode and atmospheric reentry; option of GBP-1S system, atmospheric-escape booster, or FAST Pack system
Transformation:
Standard time from Fighter to Battroid (automated): under 5 sec.
Minimum time from Fighter to Battroid (manual): 0.9 sec.
Armament:
2x internal Mauler RÖV-20 anti-aircraft laser cannon, firing 6,000 pulses per minute
1x Howard GU-11 55 mm three-barrel Gatling gun pod with 200 rds fired at 1,200 rds/min
4 x underwing hard points for a wide variety of ordnance, including
- 12x AMM-1 hybrid guided multipurpose missiles (3/point), or
- 12x MK-82 LDGB conventional bombs (3/point), or
- 6x RMS-1 large anti-ship reaction missiles (2/outboard point, 1/inboard point), or
- 4x UUM-7 micro-missile pods (1/point), each carrying 15x Bifors HMM-01 micro-missiles,
or a combination of above load-outs
Optional Armament:
Shinnakasu Heavy Industry GBP-1S ground-combat protector weapon system, or
Shinnakasu Heavy Industry FAST Pack augmentative space weapon system
The kit and its assembly:
The second vintage 1:100 ARII VF-1 as a part of a Zentraedi squadron series, the canonical SVF-789. This one was inspired by a profile of such a machine in the “Macross Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Part 1” Art Book – true robot porn and full of valuable detail and background material for anyone who’d consider building a VF-1.
The SVF-789 machine shown in the book is a simple VF-1A, but with Zentraedi language markings and in a rather unusual livery in all dark green, yellow and black trim and grey low-viz roundels. While this does IMHO not really look sexy, I found the idea of a squadron, manned by former (alien) enemies very interesting. And so I took up the idea and started fleshing it out – including the idea of SVF-789’s initial base deep in the Amazonian jungle (justifying somehow the all-green livery!?).
This second build was to represent a flight leader’s aircraft, and consequently the basis is a VF-1J kit (which only differs outwardly through the head). In order to set the machine a little more apart I decided to incorporate some “Plus” program updates, including a different nose tip for the updated radar and two small fairings for IRST and laser designator sensors above and below the nose section, respectively. The fins’ tips were also modified – they were elongated a little through styrene sheet replacements.
This update is a bit early for the official Macross timeline, but I just wanted more than a standard J Valkyrie in a more exotic paint scheme.
Otherwise, this VF-1J fighter kit was built OOB, with the landing gear tucked up and the usual additions of some blade antennae, a pilot figure and a custom display stand in/under the ventral cannon pod.
The ordnance is non-standard, though; in this case the aircraft received two pairs of air-to-ground missiles (actually some misshapen Soviet AAMs from the Academy MiG-23 kit – either very fat R-60 ‘Aphid’ AAMs or very poor renditions of vintage K-6 ‘Alkali’ missiles?) inboards and four AMM-1 missiles on the outer pylons, with the lowest missile replaced by scratched ECM and chaff dispenser pods. The gun pod was also modified with a new nozzle, with parts from a surplus AMM-1 missile – also inspired by a source book entry.
Painting and markings:
This was planned to be a more exotic or extravagant interpretation of the profile from the book, which was already used as a guideline for the VF-1A build. The overall design of an all-green livery with a white nose tip as basis was kept, together with yellow trim on wings, fins and the stabilizer fins on the Valkyrie’s legs. The VF-1A already deviated from this slightly, but now I wanted something more outstanding – a bold flight leader’s mount.
Zentraedi vehicles tend to be rather colorful, so the tones I chose for painting were rather bright. For instance, the initial idea for the green was FS 34079, a tone which also comes close to the printed profile in the book. But it looked IMHO too militaristic, or too little anime-esque, so I eventually settled for something brighter and used Humbrol 195 (called Dark Satin Green, but it’s actually RAL 6020, Chromoxyd Grün, a color used on German railway wagons during and after WWII), later shaded with black ink for the engravings and Humbrol 76 (Uniform Green) for highlights.
The nose became pure white, the leading edge trim was painted with Revell 310 (Lufthansa Gelb, RAL 1028), a deep and rich tone that stands out well from the murky green.
In order to set this J Valkyrie apart from the all-dark green basic VF-1As, I added two bright green tones and a light purple as flight color: Humbrol 36 (called Pastel Green, but it’s actually very yellow-ish), 38 (Lime) and Napoleonic Violet from ModelMaster’s Authentic Line, respectively. 36 was applied to the lower legs and around the cockpit section, including the spinal fairing with the air brake. The slightly darker 38 was used on the wings and fins as well as for the fuselage’s and wings’ underside. On top of the wings and the inner and outer fins, the surfaces were segmented, with the dark green as basic color.
As an additional contrast, the head, shoulder guards and additional trim highlights on the legs as well as for a double chevron on the breast plate were painted in the pale purple tone. A sick color combination, but very Zentraedi/Meltraedi-esque!
The cockpit interior was, according to Macross references, painted in Dark Gull Grey. The seat received brown cushions and the pilot figure was turned into a micronized Meltraedi (yes, the fictional pilot Taqisha T’saqeel is to be female) with a colorful jumpsuit in violet and white, plus a white and red helmet – and bright green skin! The gun pod became dark blue (Humbrol 112, Field Blue), the AMM-1 missiles received a pale grey livery while the air-to-ground missiles and the chaff dispenser became olive drab. As an additional contrast, the ECM pod became white. A wild mix of colors!
This was even enhanced through U.N. Spacy roundels in standard full color – their red really stands out. The squadron emblem/symbol on the fin was painted with a brush, but in this case in a smaller variant and with two USN/USAF style code letters for the home basis added.
Since I can not print white letters onto clear decal sheet at home, the aircraft’s tactical code ‘300’ was created with letters from the human alphabet. A simplification and deviation from the original concept, but I found the only alternative of painting tiny and delicate Zentraedi codes by brush and hand just to be too risky.
Finally, the kit was sealed with a sheen acrylic varnish – with the many, contrasting colors a pure matt finish somehow did not appear right.
Building was relatively simple, just the rhinoplasty was a little tricky – a very subtle modification, though, but the pointed and slightly deeper nose changed the VF-1’s look. The standard Zentraedi-style VF-1 of SVF-789 already looked …different, but this one is … bright, if not challenging to the naked eye. Anyway, there’s more in the creative pipeline from the Zentraedi unit – this aircraft’s pilot in the form of a modified resin garage kit.
This photo taken when she is counting water bubbles. I am a beginner photographer i love if anyone can give me a feedback. If this not under guideline my apologies. Thanks
Scania K340EB6:- YS2K6X20001873554
Irizar PB:-
Guideline Coaches, Battersea (LN)
Brighton, East Sussex, 7th June 2011.
Back in the later part of the 80’s BraveStarr was a fun TV show for me although I was already quite old for cartoons. Well, nobody is too old for cartoons anyway though! I really enjoyed the show and naturally I had most of the BraveStarr figures and now in retrospect, I should’ve kept my Thirty-Thirty and Thunderstick!! I do miss them especially the Thunderstick for some reason it is far too high in value now. All figures by Mattel and as a guideline, Tex Hex is about 8.4 inches tall.
Igreja São Francisco de Assis da Pampulha, em Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil.
No projeto da capela Oscar Niemeyer faz novos experimentos em concreto armado, abandonando a laje sob pilotis e criando uma abóbada parabólica em concreto, até então só utilizada em hangares. A abóbada na capela da Pampulha seria ao mesmo estrutura e fechamento, eliminando a necessidade de alvenarias. Inicia aquilo que seria a diretriz de toda a sua obra: uma arquitetura onde será preponderante a plasticidade da estrutura de concreto armado, em formas ousadas, inusitadas e marcantes.
The architectural design of the church by Oscar Niemeyer.
In the design of the chapel Oscar Niemeyer makes new experiments in concrete, leaving the slab on stilts and creating a concrete parabolic dome, until then only used in hangars. The vault in the chapel of Pampulha would be the same structure and closure, eliminating the need for masonry. Start what would be the guideline for all his work: an architecture which is leading the plasticity of the concrete structure in bold shapes, unusual and striking.
There was once again a nice selection of coaches at the 2023 Cheltenham Festival, when I visited on Gold Cup Day. One such vehicle was GC72 JMC, a Scania K360NI4/Irizar i6 C53FLt coach new to Guideline, Chelsfield, Greater London in October 2022.
Want to find out more? Join The PSV Circle - Details at www.psvcircle.org.uk
Copyright © P.J. Cook, all rights reserved. It is an offence to copy, use or post this image anywhere else without my permission.
I got a couple of requests to post a picture of the lightbox and details on how Todd made it. Thing is, Todd is the kind of guy who sees something he wants and figures out how to make it, using instructions only as a guideline. Sometimes he doesn't even use the instructions (for instance, last summer he saw an outdoor plant stand in a magazine. He figured he could build a better one for less money. One hour later, he did it.)
Keep in mind Todd had no idea what a lightbox was for. He saw one in one of those inflight magazines on our way to California and figured it was something I could use. Yesterday, he was in one of his "let's create something" moods so he decided to look up how to build your own lightbox (because I told him it was ridiculous to spend the kind of money they wanted for the one in the magazine).
These are the instructions he used as his guideline. For the most part, we winged it. We went to A.C. Moore craft store in the morning, looking for some of the supplies needed. They had no Bristol board, so we used poster board (cheaper). They had no fabric, so we substituted with white t-shirts (on sale for $3 each - we used three). We had intended on buying one of those pre-made boxes at a UPS store, but instead drove around the back of a row of stores and grabbed a good (non food-used) box out of the garbage (free!). We got the reflector lights at Home Depot, as well as the bulbs (it said to use n-vision 90 watt, but they didn't have that number, so we got one 75 watt soft and one 75 watt bright - you can always change these out - and the bulbs were the most expensive thing we had to buy).
Then he sort of went on his own from there. He rigged one of the lights using an old tripod we had in the and he put the other on the tripod from a telescope that was laying around in the garage (I forgot we even had that!). I experimented a lot with moving the lights around and taking them off and on the tripods. There are really a lot of different ways you can set this up, depending on how you want your shot to look - you can also change the color of the paper/bristol board you have inside - I haven't done that yet but I will probably experiment with that tonight. I'm also going to buy a few different watt bulbs and play around with the lighting.
There are a LOT of sites out there that will teach you how to get the most out of your lightbox, but I think the most important thing is adjusting your white balance on your camera settings so the pictures don't get a yellowish tone.
Also, think about the shape of your box before you make it. Mine is a shallow height, because I will use it mostly to take macros of small stuff like action figures. You might want to make yours taller, if you plan on taking photos of larger things. I might get Todd to make another box for me that's bigger.
Hope this helped (I'm trying to rush this out before I leave for work, so sorry if it's all over the place and not helpful at all), if you want more details email me, but definitely check out that link. The instructions are pretty cut and dry.
Democracy Now interviews of Daniel Ellsberg on the Pentagon Papers at 50
eurasiantimes.com/shooting-down-a-dozen-b-52-bombers-meet...
Shooting Down A Dozen B-52 Bombers, Meet The Russian Missile That Almost Sparked A US-Russia Nuclear War
Previously known as the S-300 PMU-3, the S-400 was developed in the 1990s by Russia’s NPO Almaz as an upgrade to the Soviet-era S-300 series, which is also widely used in Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.
However, there is one Soviet-designed air defense system that happens to be one of the most widely deployed air defense systems in history and also the one that has shot down some of the most iconic American-made aircraft in history.
The S-75 ‘Dvina’
The S-75 (NATO reporting name SA-2 Guideline) is a Soviet-designed, high-altitude air defense system that can engage airborne targets up to 40 kilometers.
eurasiantimes.com/six-b-52-bombers-shot-down-in-one-night...
Six B-52 Bombers ‘Shot Down’ In One Night: How Russian Missiles Created Havoc On Mighty US Warplanes
Fifty years ago, 200 American B-52 bombers flew 730 sorties over 12 days. They dropped over 20,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam in what was considered the heaviest aerial bombing by the US since World War II, claiming nearly 1600 Vietnamese lives.
Fifty years ago, 200 American B-52 bombers flew 730 sorties over 12 days. They dropped over 20,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam in what was considered the heaviest aerial bombing by the US since World War II, claiming nearly 1600 Vietnamese lives.
Nixon warned the North Vietnamese government of dangerous consequences if it did not return to the negotiating table and called upon the US Air Force (USAF) to save the situation, which it did so by conducting an 11-day strategic bombing campaign called Operation Linebacker II, which later came to be known by several names such as ‘The December Raids’ and ‘The Christmas Bombings.’
From the start, the USAF had advocated for such a strategic bombing in Vietnam, and the service finally had the chance to execute the strategy.
Until then, US air campaigns in Vietnam were limited to interdicting the overland routes by which North Vietnam was resupplying its forces and Viet Cong forces operating in South Vietnam.
However, Linebacker II was different, as it intended to destroy high-value targets such as vital military installations, railway lines, energy plants, factories, etc., to shake the Vietnamese “to their core,” in the words of the then US National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger.
This is precisely what Russia has been trying to do in Ukraine since early October, through repeated missile and drone strikes against Ukraine’s energy grid and critical infrastructure.
“They’re going to be so god damned surprised,” US President Richard Nixon said to Kissinger on December 17, and the next day, 129 B-52s took off from Guam and Thailand to obliterate the Hanoi and Haiphong areas in North Vietnam.
The Formidable B-52s Vs. The Formidable S-75 Anti-Aircraft Missiles
The legendary B-52 Stratofortress has been a bastion of the USAF’s bomber fleet since it was first introduced in the 1950s during the height of the Cold War. Seventy-six B-52Hs are still in service, with another 12 in reserve storage.
Of late, the nearly 70-year-old bomber has begun to show signs of aging, but the USAF remains determined to continue to fly the B-52s for decades to come, and as part of that, the aircraft has been going through continuing reforms to stay viable.
This is because, despite its age, the B-52 remains the USAF’s leading strategic nuclear and conventional weapons platform. It can carry more weapons than any other USAF jet and fly long-range missions from bases in the Pacific.
The bomber can carry 32,000 kilograms of nuclear or conventional weapons and fly at high subsonic speeds at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet (15,166.6 meters), beyond the range of naked eyesight, making its attacks both physically and psychologically catastrophic.
“(Nixon) wanted maximum psychological impact on the North Vietnamese, and the B-52 was airpower’s best tool for the job,” TW Beagle wrote in his thesis, dated June 2000, submitted to the faculty of The School of Advanced Airpower Studies, Air University.
However, it was not going to be easy for these B-52s, as what awaited them were the formidable Soviet-made S-75 Dvina (NATO reporting name SA-2 Guideline) high-altitude air defense systems that could fire a 195-kilogram warhead up to altitudes of 30,000 meters at more than Mach 3 speed – 3 times the speed of sound.
North Vietnam had fielded around 26 S-75 surface-to-air missiles (SAM), of which 21 were employed in the Hanoi-/Haiphong area, with a heavy concentration of anti-aircraft artillery and a complex, overlapping radar network.
Also, the radar network had secretly been improved by introducing a new fire-control radar (FCR) that is said to have improved the accuracy of the S-75 weapons.
The B-52 fleet employed in Operation Linebacker II comprised G and D models. All the D models were upgraded with the latest electronic countermeasures modifications, but only half of the G models had been modified until that time which mainly made them vulnerable to SAMs.
Also, the tactics employed by the B-52s had not changed much since World War II, which also proved fatal.
The Operation Linebacker II Commenced…
On December 18, 1972, 87 B-52s took off from the Andersen Air Force Base (AFB) in Guam. They were joined in the attack by 42 additional B-52s flying out of U Tapao Royal Thai Airfield, Thailand, marking the beginning of Linebacker II. This was the largest attacking bomber force assembled since WWII.
From Guam, the mission would run for about 12 hours, and it required in-flight refueling, while from U Tapao, it would take only about three to four hours without the requirement of in-flight refueling.
On the first night of Linebacker II, North Vietnamese forces reportedly fired 200 of S-75 surface-to-air missiles at the attacking B-52s, of which at least five were able to find their targets. Three B-52s were shot down, and two others were damaged.
“It almost felt like you could walk across the tips of those missiles in the sky; there were so many fired at you,” recalled one retired US airman, interviewed by CNN.
The airman said the flak was so bright that you could “read a newspaper in the cockpit.”
The disastrous losses of the B-52s on the first night of the campaign hurt the crews’ morale back at Guam and U Tapao, whereas, in Hanoi, it boosted the confidence of the North Vietnamese forces.
“We all feared the B-52 at first because the US said it was invincible,” Nguyen Van Phiet, a North Vietnamese missile gunner credited with downing four B-52s during Linebacker, told Smithsonian magazine in 2014. “But after the first night, we knew the B-52 could be destroyed just like any other aircraft,” he added.
On the second night, the B-52s performed better, with only two damaged and none lost, out of the total 93 that flew the mission. But by the third night, the North Vietnamese gunners had seen through the US tactics and knew them just as well as the B-52 crew.
The bombers would fly in long columns over predetermined tracks and, following the release of their payloads, make turns – involving the plane inclining, usually toward the inside of the turn – to return home.
While making these banked turns, their electronic jamming equipment would face skyward, leaving them vulnerable to SAMs.
“We were told for the last two minutes of the bomb run to stay straight and level, which means you are a sitting target,” said Wayne Wallingford, an electronic warfare officer based in U Tapao who flew on seven of the 11 raids B-52s undertook over Hanoi.
Wallingford further said that opening the doors to the bomber’s bomb bay increased its radar signature even further.
This meant the raids were “so predictable that any enemy would be able to knock you down kind of like the arcade at the carnival,” Ron Bartlett, another B-52 electronic warfare officer, told a Distinguished Flying Cross Society podcast.
On the third night, six B-52s were shot down. The burgeoning losses infuriated Nixon, who “raised holy hell about the fact that [the B-52s] kept going over the same targets at the same times,” according to Beagle.
Nixon feared that “a heavy loss of B52s—America’s mightiest war planes—would create the antithesis of the psychological impact [he] desired,” Beagle wrote in his thesis.
From the following night, the bombers were instructed to approach their targets from varying altitudes and directions and not to fly single file or over the targets they had just struck. Nevertheless, two B-52s were lost on the fourth night of the 30 bombers that flew.
On the following three nights – 5th, 6th, 7th – the USAF improvised on new tactics, making good use of their experience, and not a single B-52 was lost.
After that, the US bomber forces stood down on Christmas Day to give planners a chance to review events and provide the crews with some rest. In the final four days, only four B-52s were lost, two each on the 8th and 9th nights.
Death And Devastation On Both Sides
A total of fifteen B-52s were lost, with 33 airmen losing their lives.
Because the bombings were conducted at night, and the Bombers that made it back to base would land in darkness, the crew would not realize until the following day who among their colleagues had failed to return.
“You’d see the trailer next to yours with doors open on both ends and airmen loading (the occupant’s) personal belongings into a trunk to be shipped back to their families, so you knew that crew didn’t make it,” said Wallingford.
“It was pretty sobering to see that,” he said.
Over 12 days, that unpleasant ritual was performed 33 times.
The losses suffered by the USAF were unprecedented, and so was the devastation in Vietnam caused by the B-52s.
An estimated 1600 Vietnamese lost their lives in the bombings, of which 287 people were killed in one night alone in Kham Thien, an area in Hanoi, the majority of which were women, children, and elderly, according to the Vietnamese newspaper VN Express International.
An Agence France Presse journalist, who visited Kham Thien shortly after the US bombing, described a scene of “mass ruins … desolation and mourning.”
“On Kham Thien, some houses still stand, but many are without roofs or windows. Dozens of craters, some 12 yards in diameter and three yards deep, pockmark the area,” Jean Leclerc du Sablon wrote in a dispatch in The New York Times on December 29, 1972.
One survivor, in particular, caught his attention.
“On a pile of ruins, an old woman held her hands to her face and chanted hauntingly, in a near-religious tone: ‘Oh, my son, where are you now? May I find you to bury you? Americans, how savage you are.'”
According to Vietnam War historian Pierre Asselin’s book, ‘Vietnam’s American War: A History,’ “1600 military installations, miles of railway lines, hundreds of trucks and railway cars, eighty percent of electrical power plants, and countless factories and other structures were taken out of commission.”
Who Won The War?
Ten days following the end of Operation Linebacker II that is on January 8, 1973, the peace negotiations resumed, which culminated in the signing of the Paris Peace Accords on January 27 between the US government, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), as well as the Republic of South Vietnam (PRG) that represented South Vietnamese communists.
The accords marked the beginning of the end of the US involvement in the war.
However, both Washington and Hanoi claimed to have come out on top, with the former saying that Operation Linebreaker II brought the North Vietnamese back to the table for peace talks, whereas the latter portrayed it as a heroic act of resistance in which it took everything its enemy had and remained standing.
In Hanoi, “the story of the events of late December 1972 was a tale, not of massive loss and destruction, but of heroic resistance by Northerners,” wrote the historian Asselin.
Eventually, as it turned out, all Operation Linebacker II achieved was allowing the US a face-saving exit from the Vietnam war.
Three years down the line, with the majority of US forces out of Vietnam and the Communist forces largely replenished, Hanoi launched a large-scale invasion of South Vietnam which led to the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.
Therefore, several experts and historians doubt that the operation had any significant influence on the broader conflict, and all the death and destruction inflicted by the “Christmas Bombings” did not bear any gifts for the US strategically.
FEAR HERE ! image.blog.livedoor.jp/guideline/imgs/6/9/6991b5d4.jpg 72 feet in diameter - dream generator....... www.usbr.gov/dataweb/dams/ca10170.htm
Historical photos, here ... www.trophybassonly.com/id56.htm and www.flickr.com/photos/astrovinni/270441096/in/set-1774549/
© All rights reserved. Use without permission is illegal
I like how the cropping of this image turned out in regards to the 2/3rds guideline. I don't like how the background is so noisy, especially near the bottom. I don't want to blur it out too much, though. Next time I will look for a consistent background.
Vintage Kodak Kodachrome Slide from my aunt's collection.
From Wikipedia:
The track was opened in 1938 by the Hollywood Turf Club. The racetrack was designed by noted racetrack architect Arthur Froehlich. Its chairman was Harry Warner of Warner Brothers, and its 600 shareholders included many other Hollywood luminaries, including another Brother brand, Jack Warner. Harry Warner, Al Jolson and Raoul Walsh were members of the founding Board of Directors and Mervyn LeRoy was a director from 1941 until his death in 1987.
Hollywood Park closed from 1942 to 1944 due to World War II, being used as a storage facility. In 1949, the grandstand and clubhouse were destroyed by a fire; the rebuilt facility reopened in 1950. In 1984, the race track was extended from 1-mile (1.6 km) around to 1 1/8 miles around prior to the first Breeders Cup race. In 1986, the turf course was similarly expanded from just over 7/8 of a mile around to 1 mile & 145 ft. (1.654 km) around. A card club casino was added to the complex in 1994. Churchill Downs, Inc. bought the facility for $140 million in 1999. The previous owners of the track renamed their company Pinnacle Entertainment to concentrate on its gambling interests.
In July 2005, Churchill Downs sold the track to the Bay Meadows Land Company for $260 million in cash. Under the terms of the deal, the company, which operates Bay Meadows in San Mateo, was to continue thoroughbred racing at Hollywood Park for at least three years. According to Bay Meadows officials, the continuation of Hollywood Park as a racing venue after that depends on California allowing more gambling, like slot machines, to the track. (The Orange County Register, July 7, 2005)
Some of the Hollywood Park land has been sold to real estate developers to build a new housing community called the Inglewood Renaissance. Development began in 2005.
New grass was planted on the turf course after Hollywood Park's spring-summer meet in 2005. Due to safety concerns, however, turf racing was not conducted for that year's autumn meet. As a result, several major stakes races that comprised Hollywood's Autumn Turf Festival were cancelled that year.
After the conclusion of Hollywood's spring-summer meet in 2006, it was announced that a second chute would be built inside the turf course to accommodate sprint races at six furlongs. This follows a similar move by Monmouth Park to build a turf chute for sprint races.
In 2010, Hollywood Park will play host for the first time to Oak Tree.
Notable events at the track:
Hosted the inaugural Breeders' Cup in 1984 and also hosted the event in 1987 and 1997.
In 1951, Citation became the first million-dollar-winning horse by winning his final start, the Hollywood Gold Cup.
On December 10, 1999, Laffit Pincay, Jr. surpassed Bill Shoemaker's all-time record for race wins by a jockey.
Cesario (JPN) becomes the first Japanese-bred, Japan-based racehorse to win an American stakes race in nearly 50 years, winning the July 2005 American Oaks.
The 3,000-square-foot (280 m2) Noble Threewitt/Charlie Whittingham Horsemen’s Lounge opened in December, 1993.
The Quarantine Barn, with four, six-stall sections, was constructed adjacent to the main stable gate for the 1992 Autumn Meet. This facility permits international shippers to come directly to Hollywood Park upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport.
1991 introduced Friday night racing on 12 Fridays during the summer meet.
Physical attributes
The track has a 1.125 miles (1.811 km) dirt oval. It also has a 1 mile & 145 ft. (1.654 km) turf oval. The track regularly seats 10,000 people. A new Cushion Track racing surface was installed in September, 2006 to replace the existing dirt, making Hollywood Park the first track in California to meet the California Horse Racing Board's guideline that all tracks in the state replace dirt surfaces with a safer artificial surface by the end of 2007
Ex Guideline Mercedes Benz Vario UNVI GT GK14 GCK is now with Turbostyle - captured here in Worthing on 6th November, 2018.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
After the Saab 38 (also known as B3LA) had been cancelled in 1979 in favor of the more advanced Saab JAS 39 Gripen multi-role fighter, Saab presented in 1991 a new trainer design to the Swedish Air Force as a replacement for the Saab 105 (Sk 60) transitional trainer, light attack and reconnaissance aircraft. This new aircraft was internally called "FSK900". The aircraft was a conservative design, with such a configurational resemblance to the Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jet that it is hard to believe Saab engineers didn't see the Alpha Jet as a model for what they wanted to do. However, even if that was the case, the FSK900 was by no means a copy of the Alpha Jet, and the two machines could be easily told apart at a glance. FSK900 had a muscular, rather massive appearance, while the Alpha Jet was more wasp-like and very sleek. The FSK900 was also bigger in length and span and had an empty weight about 10% greater.
The FSK900 was mostly made of aircraft aluminum alloys, with some control surfaces made of carbon-fiber / epoxy composite, plus very selective use of titanium. It had high-mounted swept wings, with a supercritical airfoil section and a leading-edge dogtooth; a conventional swept tail assembly; tricycle landing gear; twin engines, one mounted in a pod along each side of the fuselage; and a tandem-seat cockpit with dual controls.
The wings had a sweep of 27.5°, an anhedral droop of 7°, and featured ailerons for roll control as well as double slotted flaps. The tailplanes were all-moving, and also featured an anhedral of 7°. An airbrake was mounted on each side of the rear fuselage. Flight controls were hydraulic, and hydraulic systems were dual redundant.
Instructor and cadet sat in tandem in a common cockpit, both on zero-zero ejection seats, with the instructor's seat in the rear raised 27 centimeters (10.6 inches) to give a good forward view. The cockpit was pressurized and featured a one-piece canopy, hinged open to the right, which provided excellent visibility.
The landing gear assemblies all featured single wheels, with the nose gear retracting forward and the main gear retracting forward and into the fuselage, featuring an antiskid braking system. The twin engines were two Williams International FJ44-4M turbofans without reheat, each rated at 16.89 kN (3,790 lbst). These were the same engines that Saab had also proposed for Saab’s Sk 60 modernization program, even though a less powerful variant for the lighter aircraft.
The FSK900 could be fitted with two pylons under each wing and under the fuselage centerline, for a total of five hardpoints and a total external payload of 2,500 kg (5,500 lb). The inner wing pylons were wet and could take 450 liter (119 US gallon) auxiliary tanks. External stores included a centerline target winch for the target tug role, an air-sampling pod for detection of fallout or other atmospheric pollutants, jammer or chaff pods for electronic warfare training, a camera/sensor pod and a baggage pod for use in the liaison role. The aircraft also featured a baggage compartment in the center fuselage, which also offered space for other special equipment or future updates.
Potential armament comprised a conformal ventral pod with a single 27 mm Mauser BK-27 revolver cannon with 120 rounds (the same weapon that eventually went into the Saab Gripen). Other weapons included various iron and cluster bombs of up to 454 kg (1.000 lb) caliber, unguided missiles of various calibers and the Rb.74 (AIM-9L Sidewinder) AAM. A radar was not mounted, but the FSK900’s nose section offered enough space for a radome.
The Swedish Air Force accepted the Saab design, leading to a contract for two nonflying static-test airframes and four flying prototypes. Detail design was complete by the end of 1993 and prototype construction began in the spring of 1994, leading to first flight of the initial prototype on 29 July 1994. The first production "Sk 90A", how the basic trainer type was officially dubbed, was delivered to the Swedish Air Force in 1996.
A total of 108 production Sk 90s were built until 1999 in several versions. The initial Sk 90A trainer was the basis for the Sk 90B variant, which carried a weather radar (this variant was not adopted by the Swedish air force but sold to Austria) and the C variant with a set of cameras in the nose for the Swedish air force. In service, the type was regarded as strong, agile, and pleasant to fly, while being cheap to operate. Swedish Sk 90As flying in the training role were typically painted in the unique “Fields & Meadows” splinter camouflage, although decorative paint jobs showed up on occasion and many aircraft received additional dayglow markings. Some of the few aircraft given to operational squadrons, which used them for keeping up flight hours and as hacks, had been painted in an all-grey camouflage to match the combat aircraft they shared the flight line with.
Despite its qualities and potential, the Sk 90 did not attain much foreign interest, primarily suffering from bad timing and from the focus on domestic demands. The aircraft came effectively 10 years too late to become a serious export success, and in the end the Sk 90 was very similar to the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet (even though it was cheaper to operate) - at a time when the German Luftwaffe started to prematurely phase out its attack variant and flooded the global´market with cheap second hand aircraft in excellent condition. Furthermore, the Saab Sk 90 had, with the BAe Hawk, another proven competitor with a long operational track record all over the world.
Potential buyers were Malaysia as well as Singapore, Myanmar, Finland, Poland and Hungary. Austria eventually procured 36 Sk 90 Ö in 2002, replacing its Saab 105 fleet and keeping up its close connection with Saab since the Seventies, and a late customer became the independent Republic of Scotland in 2017, initially with a dozen leased Saab Sk 90A trainers.
This procurement was preceded by a White Paper published by the Scottish National Party (SNP) in 2013, which stated that an independent Scotland would have an air force equipped with up to 16 air defense aircraft, six tactical transports, utility rotorcraft and maritime patrol aircraft, and be capable of “contributing excellent conventional capabilities” to NATO. Outlining its ambition to establish an air force with an eventual 2,000 uniformed personnel and 300 reservists, the SNP stated the organization would initially be equipped with “a minimum of 12 interceptors in the Eurofighter/Typhoon class, based at Lossiemouth, a tactical air transport squadron, including around six Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules, and a helicopter squadron”.
According to the document, “Key elements of air forces in place at independence, equipped initially from a negotiated share of current UK assets, will secure core tasks, principally the ability to police Scotland’s airspace, within NATO.” An in-country air command and control capability would be established within five years of a decision in favor of independence, it continues, with staff also to be “embedded within NATO structures”.
This plan was immediately set into action after the country's independence from Great Britain in late 2017 with the purchase of twelve refurbished Saab JAS 39A Gripen interceptors for Quick Reaction Alert duties and former Swedish Air Force Sk 90A trainers for the nascent Republic of Scotland Air Corps (RoScAC), locally called Saab Sk90A “Iolaire” (Eaglet) T.1. These machines either came from operational Swedish squadrons or were put back into operation from mothballed overstock.
All machines were delivered to Scotland in the Swedish all-grey paint scheme, the machines taken from operational service had their original Swedish markings just painted over. The were all exclusively allocated to the newly established Eaglais a' Bhaile Ùir Flying Training School at Kirknewtoun (a former RAF air base) near Edinburgh. In 2019, the RoScAC’s first brand new aircraft arrived in the form of TF-50 “Golden Eagle” fighters from South Korea, which, as multi-role two seaters, complemented the Saab Sk 90’s in the advanced trainer role and also took over air space patrol duties from the Scottish JAS 39.
In early 2020, the leasing contract for the Sk 90s with Sweden was changed into a formal purchase, and the Iolaire fleet (as well as the Gripen fighters) gradually received the RoScAC’s new camouflage scheme in grey and green, which had been introduced with the TF-50s.
General characteristics:
Crew: two pilots in tandem
Length incl. pitot: 13.0 m (42 ft 8 in) for the A trainer, 13.68 m (44 ft 10 in) for the S variant
Wingspan: 9.94 m (32 ft 7 in)
Height: 4.6 m (15 ft 1 in)
Empty weight: 3,790 kg (8,360 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 7,500 kg (16,530 lb)
Powerplant:
2× Williams International FJ44-4M turbofans without reheat, rated at 16.89 kN (3,790 lbst) each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 1,038 km/h (645 mph)
Range: 1,670 km (900 nm)
Armament:
No internal gun; five hardpoints for 2,500 kg (5,500 lb) of payload and a variety of ordnance
The kit and its assembly:
This whif is a rarity among my builds, since it is an alternative reality model. A fictional air force of an independent Scotland crept into my mind after the hysterical “Brexit” events in 2016 and the former (failed) public vote concerning the independence of Scotland from the UK. However, the situation bore some serious storytelling potential: What would happen to the military if the independence would have actually taken place and British forces had left the country?
The aforementioned Scottish National Party (SNP) paper from 2013 is actually real, and I took it as a guideline. Primary focus would certainly be set on air space defense, and the Gripen appeared as a good and not too expensive choice. An advanced trainer would also have been needed, and the Sk 90 (a personal invention and already built as a Swedish and Austrian aircraft) would fulfill a complementary role.
A Scottish Sk 90 had been on my agenda since 2016, and now materialized as an addition to my Scottish TF-50 and two Sk 90s (a swedish and an Austrian one). The Saab Sk 90 is basically the 1:72 Kawasaki T-4 from Hasegawa, and since it was to depict an original Sk 90A, formerly operated by Sweden, it was built without modifications. The kit is relatively simple and fit is quite good, even though some PSR was necessary on almost any seam – there are actually two T-4 molds, and this one is the more recent offering.
Painting and markings:
I wanted to depict a RoScAC aircraft of the first hour, so I went for a Swedish look with tactical markings from the new operator. Since I already had a Sk 90 in Swedish “Fields & Meadows” camouflage, I decided to go for a Gripen-esque grey-in-grey livery.
Swedish JAS 39 carry a two-tone livery; the upper tone is called pansargrå (tank grey, which is, according to trustworthy sources, very close to FS 36173, Neutral Grey), while the undersides are painted in duvagrå (dove grey, FS 36373, a tone with the confusing name ”High Low Visibility Light Grey”), and the simple pattern was faithfully adapted to the T-4.
After checking a lot of Gripen pictures I selected different tones, though, because the colors appear much lighter in real life. I ended up with FS 36231 (Dark Gull Grey, Testors 1740) and RLM 63 (Lichtgrau, Testors 2077) – in combination, these tones come IMHO quite close to the real thing?
After a light black ink wash I emphasized single panels with Humbrol 165 and 147. The cockpit interior was painted with Revell 47 (Mausgrau) while the landing gear became glossy white.
For the RoScAC look I added some manually overpainted patches where the former Swedish roundels and tactical markings would have been. As a trainer, I also added orange dayglow markings on the fin and the wings, created with generic decal sheet material (TL Modellbau). The de-icing devices on the wings’ and fin’s leading edges were created with black decal stripes instead of paint, a very tidy and simple method. Decal strips in silver were used on the fin’s rudder and on the flaps. Small things, but they grade the grey model up visually.
Another creative field were the national markings: how could fictional Scottish roundels look like, and how to create them so that they are easy to make and replicate (for a full set for this kit, as well as for potential future builds…)? Designing and printing marking decals myself was an option, but I eventually settled for a composite solution which somewhat influenced the roundels’ design, too.
My Scottish roundel interpretation, already used on my RoScAC T-50, consists of a simple blue disk with a white cross – a straightforward solution since it’s different from any other contemporary national marking, esp. the UK roundel, and easy to create from single decal parts. In fact, the roundel discs were die-punched from blue decal sheet, and the cross consists of two thin white decal strips, cut into the correct length with the same stencil, again using generic sheet material from TL Modellbau.
Another issue was the potential tactical code, and a small fleet only needs a simple system. Going back to a WWII system with letter codes for squadrons and individual aircraft was one option, but, IMHO, still too complicated. However, for individual aircraft identification I adopted the familiar British single letter aircraft code, and since the RoScAC would certainly not operate too many squadrons, I rather adapted a system similar to the Swedish or Spanish format with a single number representing the squadron – or, in this case a letter, because the fictional Flying Training School would not be a front line unit.
The result is a simple 2-digit code, and I adapted the German system of placing the tactical code on the fuselage, separated by the roundel. Keeping British traditions up I repeated the individual aircraft code letter on the fin, where I also placed a Scottish flag (scratched from the same decal material as the roundels. A small serial number, created from single black letters (once more Tl Modellbau material) was added on the rear fuselage, and, for some local pride, I added a self-printed coat-of-arms of Edinburgh to the air intakes.
Finally, after some light weathering, the kit was finally sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
Creating this whif, based on an alternative historic timeline and with a near future perspective, was fun – and it might spawn more models that circle around this story. A certain future build is a Saab Gripen in RoScAC colors and there might also be an entry level trainer (Shorts Tucano?), some helicopters for the army or SAR duties and maybe a transport aircraft, but not a big one. The foundation has been laid out, now it’s time to fill Scotland’s alternative recent history with detail and hardware proof. ;-)
“I regularly almost get killed almost on a daily basis as cycling is my main way of getting around the city.” (Mayor Lisa Helps)
At this location (see photo below), the wear pattern on the road markings proves, beyond a doubt, that the majority of the motor vehicle traffic forces cyclists to the curb, in spite of the road being seven (7) lanes wide, including the bike lanes.
Additionally, this bike lane, along with many in the city of Victoria, is far too narrow to meet the standards for the narrowest bike lane width permitted. Considering the height of the curb, the seams in the road that run parallel to the direction of travel, and the sewer grate - this bike lane is likely half the required width for a safe bike lane. The issue is exacerbated due to this being a major downtown intersection, a typically dangerous scenario for cyclists.
Are 5 lanes not enough for motor vehicles to share without them having to encroach on the too narrow and limited space allocated for cyclists?
_____________________ ______________________
Years ago, when I worked on the Victoria Cycling Advisory Committee, I discovered that the City of Victoria, the purported Cycling Capital of Canada had been installing nearly all of our bike lanes well below accepted, established, and standardized engineering guideline’s minimum allowable widths. Victoria had one of the narrowest bike lane systems in all of North America. How can that qualify Victoria as the Cycling Capital of Canada?
After extensive but fruitless arguments failed, it took an expose’ article I had published in the local papers titled - The Cycling Liability of Victoria - before things changed. I outlined the legal and financial ramifications for taxpayers due to an inadequate and intentionally under-designed bicycle system before the city finally relented and started installing safer bike lanes. Money talked after compassion for cyclist safety failed; how on earth does that qualify Victoria as the Cycling Capital of Canada?
Southend United Football Club Team Coach at Brunton Park, Carlisle. Previously with Guideline, London as team transport for the England Football Association.
Sz-75 (Nato code SA-2 Guideline) surface-to-air missile system
RepTár - Aviation Museum, Szolnok, Hungary
25.02.2017
Reg. GC72 CHC
Fleet number. -
Scania K410CB6 with Irizar i8 bodywork dating from 2022 and wearing 'Guideline Corporate Hospitality' livery.
Seen outside of Sunderland Stadium of Light in use as one of the West Ham United Team Coaches. This match was Sunderland AFC's first game back in the Premier League and the Lads beat the Hammers 3-0 in front of a jubilant crowd of 46,233 spectators.
Back in the later part of the 80’s BraveStarr was a fun TV show for me although I was already quite old for cartoons. Well, nobody is too old for cartoons anyway though! I really enjoyed the show and naturally I had most of the BraveStarr figures and now in retrospect, I should’ve kept my Thirty-Thirty and Thunderstick!! I do miss them especially the Thunderstick for some reason it is far too high in value now. All figures by Mattel and as a guideline, Tex Hex is about 8.4 inches tall.
Robinson's Coach Travel, Stoney Stanton
Mercedes Benz 0816D/Unvi
GL12 LON
Exeter, Coach Station
Wednesday 7th March 2018
New to Guideline, Chelsfield.
A Haiku Note:
==========================
A golden Buddha
displayed at Nefetari's
where there's peace and joy
==========================
The Noble Eightfold Path describes the way to the end of suffering, as it was laid out by Siddhartha Gautama. It is a practical guideline to ethical and mental development with the goal of freeing the individual from attachments and delusions; and it finally leads to understanding the truth about all things. Together with the Four Noble Truths it constitutes the gist of Buddhism. Great emphasis is put on the practical aspect, because it is only through practice that one can attain a higher level of existence and finally reach Nirvana. The eight aspects of the path are not to be understood as a sequence of single steps, instead they are highly interdependent principles that have to be seen in relationship with each other.
1. Right View
Right view is the beginning and the end of the path, it simply means to see and to understand things as they really are and to realise the Four Noble Truths. As such, right view is the cognitive aspect of wisdom. It means to see things through, to grasp the impermanent and imperfect nature of worldly objects and ideas, and to understand the law of karma and karmic conditioning. Right view is not necessarily an intellectual capacity, just as wisdom is not just a matter of intelligence. Instead, right view is attained, sustained, and enhanced through all capacities of mind. It begins with the intuitive insight that all beings are subject to suffering and it ends with complete understanding of the true nature of all things. Since our view of the world forms our thoughts and our actions, right view yields right thoughts and right actions.
2. Right Intention
While right view refers to the cognitive aspect of wisdom, right intention refers to the volitional aspect, i.e. the kind of mental energy that controls our actions. Right intention can be described best as commitment to ethical and mental self-improvement. Buddha distinguishes three types of right intentions: 1. the intention of renunciation, which means resistance to the pull of desire, 2. the intention of good will, meaning resistance to feelings of anger and aversion, and 3. the intention of harmlessness, meaning not to think or act cruelly, violently, or aggressively, and to develop compassion.
3. Right Speech
Right speech is the first principle of ethical conduct in the eightfold path. Ethical conduct is viewed as a guideline to moral discipline, which supports the other principles of the path. This aspect is not self-sufficient, however, essential, because mental purification can only be achieved through the cultivation of ethical conduct. The importance of speech in the context of Buddhist ethics is obvious: words can break or save lives, make enemies or friends, start war or create peace. Buddha explained right speech as follows: 1. to abstain from false speech, especially not to tell deliberate lies and not to speak deceitfully, 2. to abstain from slanderous speech and not to use words maliciously against others, 3. to abstain from harsh words that offend or hurt others, and 4. to abstain from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth. Positively phrased, this means to tell the truth, to speak friendly, warm, and gently and to talk only when necessary.
4. Right Action
The second ethical principle, right action, involves the body as natural means of expression, as it refers to deeds that involve bodily actions. Unwholesome actions lead to unsound states of mind, while wholesome actions lead to sound states of mind. Again, the principle is explained in terms of abstinence: right action means 1. to abstain from harming sentient beings, especially to abstain from taking life (including suicide) and doing harm intentionally or delinquently, 2. to abstain from taking what is not given, which includes stealing, robbery, fraud, deceitfulness, and dishonesty, and 3. to abstain from sexual misconduct. Positively formulated, right action means to act kindly and compassionately, to be honest, to respect the belongings of others, and to keep sexual relationships harmless to others. Further details regarding the concrete meaning of right action can be found in the Precepts.
5. Right Livelihood
Right livelihood means that one should earn one's living in a righteous way and that wealth should be gained legally and peacefully. The Buddha mentions four specific activities that harm other beings and that one should avoid for this reason: 1. dealing in weapons, 2. dealing in living beings (including raising animals for slaughter as well as slave trade and prostitution), 3. working in meat production and butchery, and 4. selling intoxicants and poisons, such as alcohol and drugs. Furthermore any other occupation that would violate the principles of right speech and right action should be avoided.
6. Right Effort
Right effort can be seen as a prerequisite for the other principles of the path. Without effort, which is in itself an act of will, nothing can be achieved, whereas misguided effort distracts the mind from its task, and confusion will be the consequence. Mental energy is the force behind right effort; it can occur in either wholesome or unwholesome states. The same type of energy that fuels desire, envy, aggression, and violence can on the other side fuel self-discipline, honesty, benevolence, and kindness. Right effort is detailed in four types of endeavours that rank in ascending order of perfection: 1. to prevent the arising of unarisen unwholesome states, 2. to abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen, 3. to arouse wholesome states that have not yet arisen, and 4. to maintain and perfect wholesome states already arisen.
7. Right Mindfulness
Right mindfulness is the controlled and perfected faculty of cognition. It is the mental ability to see things as they are, with clear consciousness. Usually, the cognitive process begins with an impression induced by perception, or by a thought, but then it does not stay with the mere impression. Instead, we almost always conceptualise sense impressions and thoughts immediately. We interpret them and set them in relation to other thoughts and experiences, which naturally go beyond the facticity of the original impression. The mind then posits concepts, joins concepts into constructs, and weaves those constructs into complex interpretative schemes. All this happens only half consciously, and as a result we often see things obscured. Right mindfulness is anchored in clear perception and it penetrates impressions without getting carried away. Right mindfulness enables us to be aware of the process of conceptualisation in a way that we actively observe and control the way our thoughts go. Buddha accounted for this as the four foundations of mindfulness: 1. contemplation of the body, 2. contemplation of feeling (repulsive, attractive, or neutral), 3. contemplation of the state of mind, and 4. contemplation of the phenomena.
8. Right Concentration
The eighth principle of the path, right concentration, refers to the development of a mental force that occurs in natural consciousness, although at a relatively low level of intensity, namely concentration. Concentration in this context is described as one-pointedness of mind, meaning a state where all mental faculties are unified and directed onto one particular object. Right concentration for the purpose of the eightfold path means wholesome concentration, i.e. concentration on wholesome thoughts and actions. The Buddhist method of choice to develop right concentration is through the practice of meditation. The meditating mind focuses on a selected object. It first directs itself onto it, then sustains concentration, and finally intensifies concentration step by step. Through this practice it becomes natural to apply elevated levels of concentration also in everyday situations.
PictionID:56124604 - Catalog:4-04804-C.tif - Title:Ryan Aeronautical Negative Collection Image - Filename:4-04804-C.tif - - Image from the Teledyne Ryan Archives, donated to SDASM in the 1990s. Many of these images are from Ryan's UAV program-----These images were not donated with metadata, so please Tag these images so that the information can be permanently stored with the digital file.---Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum
brightly echoing across a thunderous edge in time
a soaring explosion bellows within a burning rise
with ambition and purpose this beacon the sky does climb
a guideline for magics and measures, their hold pulls at tides
and so it does bear the power to take your hand, it guides
to boldly stretch across broad planes, where the end is unknown
by some chance or maybe to a code, the plans they abide
to be some source of majesty, to man the heavens shown
with their luminosity, imagination is grown
to the past and future, the stars cannot help but appease
they cycle and rotate and ideas in minds they have sown
wonder and mystery to praying children at their knees
this miraculous symphony of gases to behold
the birthplace of our molecules, and the vastness of cold
Looking at this photo and seeing the three dead trees standing amongst the many living ones, I started pondering the social guideline that says to “not speak ill of the dead”. If trees could have thoughts and feelings, how would the living regard the dead ones? Would they look at them shyly, too embarrassed to be seen gazing at the revered remains of their ancestors? Instead, perhaps the younger and cocksure trees would sneer at them for not having been able to “go the distance”; for giving up the fight.
Fanciful thoughts, for sure, but consider all the more the fact that a number of the stars you see in this photo could have been dead for many years, even for centuries. The starlight that our eyes detect is what has reached us at the instant we are looking, after having travelled through space for varying distances over proportional lengths of time. If a star is four light-years away, then we’re seeing the light as it was four years ago when it left that star. If a hundred light-years distant, then our view is of one hundred year-old light. A simple look at the numbers says that at least some of the stars in this photo are dead now, despite looking alive and alight to us. As with the trees, there are many dead stars amongst the living.
A single frame, shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 30 sec @ ISO 6400.
19 de abril Homenagemos o Dia do Índio Interamericano
O Dia do índio, 19 de abril, foi criado pelo presidente Getúlio Vargas através do decreto-lei 5540 de 1943, e relembra o dia, em 1940, no qual várias lideranças indígenas do continente resolveram participar do Primeiro Congresso Indigenista Interamericano, realizado no México. Eles haviam boicotado os dias iniciais do evento, temendo que suas reivindicações não fossem ouvidas pelos "homens brancos". Durante este congresso foi criado o Instituto Indigenista Interamericano, também sediado no México, que tem como função zelar pelos direitos dos indígenas na América. O Brasil não aderiu imediatamente ao instituto, mas após a intervenção do Marechal Rondon apresentou sua adesão e instituiu o Dia do Índio no dia 19 de abril.
Em São Paulo
Segundo fontes oficiais, o Brasil tem hoje 206 etnias.
19 de abril de 1940 foi a data em que os delegados indígenas se reuniram pela 1ª vez em assembléia no Congresso Interamericano. Todos os países da América foram convidados a participar dessa celebração.
Reunida em Patzcuaro (México), a assembléia aprovou, entre outras propostas, o estabelecimento do Dia do Índio pelos governos dos países americanos. Este dia seria dedicado ao estudo do problema do índio atual pelas diversas instituições de ensino.
Segundo fontes oficiais, o Brasil tem hoje cerca de 560 terras indígenas e aproximadamente 460 mil índios. São 206 povos (ou etnias), concentrados, em sua maioria - 70% do total -, numa parcela da Amazônia Legal que engloba seis Estados: Amazonas, Acre, Roraima, Rondônia, Mato Grosso e Pará. Além disso, a Funai (Fundação Nacional do Índio) também registra a existência de 40 povos isolados na Amazônia Ocidental.
Em densidade populacional, os seis maiores povos indígenas do Brasil são Guarani (30 mil), Ticuna (23 mil), Kaingang (20 mil), Macuxi (15 mil), Guajajara (10 mil), Yanomami (9.975).
Índice de desenvolvimento
Um estudo inédito do economista Marcelo Paixão, coordenador do Observatório Afro-Brasileiro, mostra que a população indígena brasileira apresenta um IDH (Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano) próximo ao da Bolívia.
O IDH é um indicador da ONU que aponta o padrão de desenvolvimento humano em cada país. Ele é calculado a partir de indicadores de escolaridade, renda e expectativa de vida. O valor encontrado varia de zero, o pior desenvolvimento humano possível, a um, o melhor. Um índice acima de 0,800 é considerado de alto desenvolvimento humano.
Para o Brasil, o índice fica em 0,790, o que coloca o país na 62ª posição do ranking de 177 países divulgado em 2004. Os índios têm IDH de 0,683, próximo da Bolívia (114º no ranking).
Outros dados da tese mostram que não é apenas no desenvolvimento humano que os indígenas têm os piores índices. A taxa de mortalidade por desnutrição na população indígena adulta é de 11,2 por 100 mil habitantes, contra a média de 4,3 da população brasileira. A proporção de indigentes também é maior: 45% da população, contra 23% da média do país.
Origem
Os povos indígenas que hoje vivem na América do Sul são originários de povos caçadores vindos da América do Norte através do istmo do Panamá. Há milhares de anos -não há consenso entre os arqueólogos sobre a antigüidade da ocupação humana na América do Sul-, os povos indígenas ocuparam virtualmente toda a extensão do continente. De lá para cá essas populações desenvolveram diferentes modos de uso e manejo dos recursos naturais e formas de organização social distintas entre si.
Tradicionalmente, as sociedades indígenas não se fixavam a um mesmo território por muito tempo. As aldeias indígenas eram organizadas, levando-se em consideração a quantidade, a qualidade e a distribuição espacial dos recursos indispensáveis ao desenvolvimento de suas comunidades.
No Brasil, desde o século 16, existem instrumentos legais que definem e propõem uma política para os índios, fundamentados na discussão da legitimidade do direito dos índios ao domínio e soberania de suas terras. Esse direito - ou não - dos índios ao território que habitam está registrado em diferentes legislações portuguesas, envolvendo Cartas Régias, Alvarás, Regimentos etc.
Política indigenista
Até 1988, a política indigenista brasileira estava centrada nas atividades voltadas à incorporação dos índios à comunhão nacional, princípio indigenista presente nas Constituições de 1934, 1946, 1967 e 1969. A Constituição de 1988 suprimiu essa diretriz, reconhecendo aos índios sua organização social, costumes, línguas, crenças e tradições e os direitos originários sobre as terras que tradicionalmente ocupam.
Os índios também ampliaram sua cidadania, já são partes legítimas para ingressar em juízo em defesa de seus direitos e interesses. Assim, o principal objetivo da política indigenista hoje é a preservação das culturas indígenas, através da garantia de suas terras, e o desenvolvimento de atividades educacionais e sanitárias.
Entretanto, a insuficiência de recursos oficiais, a integração cada vez mais comum do índio às sociedades urbanas e os conflitos raciais e sociais dos povos brasileiros têm colocado em risco a concretização das propostas políticas e direitos indígenas garantidos por Constituição.
***
April 19 We Homage the Inter-American Indian Day
The Day of the Indian, 19 April, was created by President Getulio Vargas through decree 5540 of 1943, and recalls the day in 1940, where several indigenous leaders of the continent decided to attend the First Inter-American Indigenous Congress, held in Mexico . They had boycotted the early days of the event, fearing that their demands were not heard by "white men." During this Congress created the Inter-American Indian Institute, also based in Mexico, which is designed to protect the rights of indigenous people in America. Brazil has not joined immediately to the institute, but after the intervention of the Marechal Rondon submitted its membership and established the Indian Day on April 19.
In Sao Paulo
According to official sources, Brazil today has 206 ethnic groups.
April 19, 1940 was the date on which the indigenous delegates gathered for the 1st time in a meeting at the Interamerican Congress. All-American countries were invited to participate in this celebration.
Gathered in Patzcuaro (Mexico), the legislature passed, among other proposals, the establishment of Day of the Indian governments' Americans. This day would be dedicated to studying the problem of the various current Indian educational institutions.
According to official sources, Brazil has about 560 indigenous lands and about 460 000 Indians. Are 206 people (or races), concentrated mostly - 70% of the total - in a portion of the Amazon that covers six states: Amazonas, Acre, Roraima, Rondônia, Mato Grosso and Pará Moreover, FUNAI (Fundação National Indian) also records the existence of 40 people isolated in the western Amazon.
In population, the six major indigenous peoples of Brazil are Guarani (30,000), Ticuna (23,000) Kaingang (20,000), Macuxi (15,000), Guajajara (10,000), Yanomami (9975).
Development Index
A new study by economist Marcelo Paixão, coordinator of the Afro-Brazilian Observatory, shows that Brazil's indigenous population has an HDI (Human Development Index) next to Bolivia.
The HDI is an indicator that points the UN standard of human development in each country. It is calculated based on indicators of education, income and life expectancy. The amount found varies from zero, the worst human development as possible to one, the better. An index above 0.800 is considered high human development.
For Brazil, the index is at 0.790, which places the country at the 62nd position in the ranking of 177 countries released in 2004. The Indians have a HDI of 0.683, close to Bolivia (114th in the rankings).
Other data show that the thesis is not only in human development that indigenous people have the worst. The mortality rate for adult malnutrition in the indigenous population is 11.2 per 100 000 inhabitants, compared to an average of 4.3 of the population. The proportion of poor is also higher: 45% of the population, 23% against the national average.
Source
Indigenous peoples living today in South America come from hunters coming from North America across the Isthmus of Panama. For thousands of years, there is no consensus among archaeologists about the antiquity of human occupation in South America, indigenous peoples have occupied virtually the entire length of the continent. Since then these people have developed different modes of use and management of natural resources and social organization distinct from each other.
Traditionally, indigenous societies were not fixated to the same territory for long. The Indian villages were organized, taking into consideration the quantity, quality and spatial distribution of resources indispensable for the development of their communities.
In Brazil, since the 16th century, there are legal instruments that define and propose a policy for the Indians, based on the discussion of the legitimacy of the Indians' right to the domain and sovereignty of their lands. That right - or not - of the Indians inhabiting the territory is registered in several Portuguese laws involving Royal Letters, Permits, etc. Regiments.
Indian policy
Until 1988, the Indian policy in Brazil was focused on activities directed toward the incorporation of Indians into the national community, indigenous principle found in the Constitutions of 1934, 1946, 1967 and 1969. The 1988 Constitution abolished the guideline, recognizing the indigenous social organization, customs, languages, beliefs and traditions and the rights to the lands they traditionally occupy.
The Indians extended their citizenship, already have standing to sue to defend their rights and interests. Thus, the main goal of Indian policy today is the preservation of indigenous cultures, by ensuring their land, and development of educational and health facilities.
However, the inadequacy of official resources, the increasingly common integration of the Indian urban societies and racial conflicts and social needs of people in Brazil have put at risk the achievement of policy proposals and indigenous rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
The Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra) is a Sicilian criminal secret society which is believed to have first developed in the mid-19th century in Sicily. An offshoot emerged on the East Coast of the United States and in Australia[1] during the late 19th century following waves of Sicilian and Southern Italian emigration (see also Italian diaspora). In North America, the Mafia often refers to Italian organized crime in general, rather than just traditional Sicilian organized crime. According to historian Paolo Pezzino: "The Mafia is a kind of organized crime being active not only in several illegal fields, but also tending to exercise sovereignty functions – normally belonging to public authorities – over a specific territory..."[2]
The Sicilian Cosa Nostra is a loose confederation of about one hundred Mafia groups, also called cosche or families, each of which claims sovereignty over a territory, usually a town or village or a neighborhood of a larger city, though without ever fully conquering and legitimizing its monopoly of violence. For many years, the power apparatuses of the single families were the sole ruling bodies within the two associations, and they have remained the real centers of power even after superordinate bodies were created in the Cosa Nostra beginning in the late 1950s (the Sicilian Mafia Commission).[3]
Some observers have seen "mafia" as a set of attributes deeply rooted in popular culture, as a "way of being", as illustrated in the definition by the Sicilian ethnographer, Giuseppe Pitrè, at the end of the 19th century: "Mafia is the consciousness of one's own worth, the exaggerated concept of individual force as the sole arbiter of every conflict, of every clash of interests or ideas."[4]
Many Sicilians did not regard these men as criminals but as role models and protectors, given that the state appeared to offer no protection for the poor and weak. As late as the 1950s, the funeral epitaph of the legendary boss of Villalba, Calogero Vizzini, stated that "his 'mafia' was not criminal, but stood for respect of the law, defense of all rights, greatness of character. It was love." Here, "mafia" means something like pride, honour, or even social responsibility: an attitude, not an organization. Likewise, in 1925, the former Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando stated in the Italian senate that he was proud of being mafioso, because that word meant honourable, noble, generous.[5][6]
Etymology
There are several theories about the origin of the term. The Sicilian adjective mafiusu may derive from the Arabic mahyas, meaning "aggressive boasting, bragging", or marfud meaning "rejected". Roughly translated, it means "swagger", but can also be translated as "boldness, bravado". In reference to a man, mafiusu in 19th century Sicily was ambiguous, signifying a bully, arrogant but also fearless, enterprising, and proud, according to scholar Diego Gambetta.[7]
According to the Sicilian ethnographer Giuseppe Pitrè, the association of the word with the criminal secret society was made by the 1863 play I mafiusi di la Vicaria (The Beautiful (people) of Vicaria) by Giuseppe Rizzotto and Gaetano Mosca, which is about criminal gangs in the Palermo prison.[8] The words Mafia and mafiusi (plural of mafiusu) are never mentioned in the play, and were probably put in the title because it would add local flair.
The association between mafiusi and criminal gangs was made by the association the play's title made with the criminal gangs that were new to Sicilian and Italian society at the time. Consequently, the word "mafia" was generated from a fictional source loosely inspired by the real thing and was used by outsiders to describe it. The use of the term "mafia" was subsequently taken over in the Italian state's early reports on the phenomenon. The word "mafia" made its first official appearance in 1865 in a report by the prefect of Palermo, Filippo Antonio Gualterio.
Leopoldo Franchetti, an Italian deputy who travelled to Sicily and who wrote one of the first authoritative reports on the mafia in 1876, saw the Mafia as an "industry of violence" and described the designation of the term "mafia": "the term mafia found a class of violent criminals ready and waiting for a name to define them, and, given their special character and importance in Sicilian society, they had the right to a different name from that defining vulgar criminals in other countries."[9] He saw the Mafia as deeply rooted in Sicilian society and impossible to quench unless the very structure of the island's social institutions were to undergo a fundamental change.[10]
The real name: Cosa Nostra
According to some mafiosi, the real name of the Mafia is "Cosa Nostra" ("Our thing"). Many have claimed, as did the Mafia turncoat Tommaso Buscetta, that the word "mafia" was a literary creation. Other Mafia defectors, such as Antonio Calderone and Salvatore Contorno, said the same thing. According to them, the real thing was "cosa nostra". To men of honour belonging to the organization, there is no need to name it. Mafiosi introduce known members to other known members as belonging to "cosa nostra" (our thing) or la stessa cosa (the same thing), meaning "he is the same thing, a mafioso, as you". Only the outside world needs a name to describe it, hence the capitalized form "Cosa Nostra".
Cosa Nostra was first used, in the early 1960s, in the United States by Joseph Valachi, a mafioso turned state witness, during the hearings of the McClellan Commission.[11][12][13] At the time, it was understood as a proper name, fostered by the FBI and disseminated by the media. The designation gained wide popularity and almost replaced the term Mafia. The FBI even added an article to the term, calling it 'La Cosa Nostra'. In Italy the article 'la' is never used when the term refers to the Mafia.
Other Names
The Mafia has used many other names to describe itself throughout its history, such as The Honoured Society. Mafiosi are known among themselves as Men of Honour.
Rituals of Sicilian Cosa Nostra
The orientation ritual in most families happens when a man becomes an associate, and then, a soldier. As described by Tommaso Buscetta to judge Giovanni Falcone, the neophyte is brought together with at least three "men of honor" of the family and the oldest member present warns him that "this House" is meant to protect the weak against the abuse of the powerful; he then pricks the finger of the initiate and spills his blood onto a sacred image, usually of a saint. The image is placed in the hand of the initiate and lit on fire. The neophyte must withstand the pain of the burning, passing the image from hand to hand, until the image has been consumed, while swearing to keep faith with the principles of "Cosa Nostra," solemnly swearing "may my flesh burn like this saint if I fail to keep my oath." Joseph Valachi was the first person to mention that in court.
The Sicilians also have a law of silence, called omertà; it forbids the common man, woman or child to cooperate at all with the police or the government, upon pain of death.
History of Sicilian Cosa Nostra
Origins
It has long been debated whether the mafia has medieval origins. Deceased pentito Tommaso Buscetta thought so, whilst modern scholars now believe otherwise. It is possible that the "original" mafia formed as a secret society sworn to protect the Sicilian population from the threat of Catalan marauders in the fifteenth century. However, there is very little historical evidence to suggest this. It is also feasible that the "Robin Hood" origins, which are closely intertwined with the Sicilian outlaw Salvatore Giuliano, were perpetuated by the earliest known mafiosi as a means of gaining goodwill and trust from the Sicilian people. This origin states that the Mafia is a means for righteous rebels to defend the people against oppression, Roman and Northern Italian control, and outside invasion.
After the Revolution of 1848 and the revolution of 1860, Sicily had fallen to complete disorder. The earliest mafiosi, at that time separate, small bands of outlaws, offered their guns in the revolt. Author John Dickie claims that the main reasons for this were the chance to burn police records and evidence, and to kill off police and pentiti in the chaos. However, once a new government was established in Rome and it became clear that the mafia would be unable to execute these actions, they began refining their methods and techniques over the latter half of the nineteenth century. Protecting the large lemon groves and estates of local nobility became a lucrative but dangerous business. Palermo was initially the main area of these activities, but the Sicilian mafia's dominance soon spread over all of western Sicily. In order to strengthen the bond between the disparate gangs and so ensure greater profits and a safer working environment, it is possible that the mafia as such was formed at this time in about the mid-19th century.
Mafia after the unification of Italy
From 1860, the year when the new unified Italian state first took over both Sicily and the Papal States, the Popes were hostile to the state. From 1870, the Pope declared himself besieged by the Italian state and strongly encouraged Catholics to refuse to cooperate with the state. Broadly speaking, in mainland Italy, this did not lead to violence. Sicily was strongly Catholic, but in a strongly tribal sense rather than in an intellectual and theological sense, and had a tradition of suspicion of outsiders. The friction between the Church and the state gave a great advantage to violent criminal bands in Sicily who could claim to peasants and townspeople that cooperating with the police (representing the new Italian state) was an anti-Catholic activity. It was in the two decades following the 1860 unification that the term Mafia came to the attention of the general public, although it was considered to be more of an attitude and value system than an organization.
The first mention in official law documentation of the 'mafia' came in the late 1800s, when a Dr. Galati was subject to threats of violence from a local mafioso, who was attempting to oust Galati from his own lemon grove in order to move himself in. Protection rackets, cattle rustling and bribery of state officials were the main sources of income and protection for the early mafia. Cosa Nostra also borrowed heavily from masonic oaths and rituals, such as the now famous initiation ceremony.
Fascist era
During the Fascist period in Italy, Cesare Mori, prefect of Palermo, used special powers granted to him to prosecute the Mafia, forcing many Mafiosi to flee abroad or risk being jailed.[14][15] Many of the Mafiosi who escaped fled to the United States, among them Joseph Bonanno, nicknamed Joe Bananas, who came to dominate the U.S. branch of the Mafia. However, when Mori started to persecute the Mafiosi involved in the Fascist hierarchy, he was removed, and the Fascist authorities proclaimed that the Mafia had been defeated. Though the mafia was weakened, it had not been defeated as claimed. Despite his assault on their brethren, Mussolini had his admirers in the New York Mafia, notably Vito Genovese (although he was from Naples and not from Sicily).
The post-war revival
After Fascism, the Mafia did not become powerful in Italy again until after the country's surrender in World War II and the U.S. occupation. The United States used Italian connections of American Mafiosi during the invasion of Italy and Sicily in 1943. Lucky Luciano and other Mafiosi, who had been imprisoned during this time in the U.S., provided information for U.S. military intelligence and used Luciano's influence to ease the way for advancing troops. Furthermore, Luciano's control of the ports prevented sabotage by agents of the Axis powers.[16]
Some say that the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, precursor to the CIA, deliberately allowed the mafia to recover its social and economic position as the "anti-State" in Sicily, and with the U.S.-mafia alliance forged in 1943, this became the true turning point of mafia history and the new foundation for its subsequent 60-year career.[citation needed] Others, such as the Palermitan historian Francesco Renda, have argued that there was no such alliance. Rather, the mafia exploited the chaos of post-fascist Sicily to reconquer its social base. The OSS indeed, in its 1944 "Report on the Problem of Mafia" by the agent W. E. Scotten, pointed to the signs of mafia resurgence and warned of its perils for social order and economic progress.
An alleged additional benefit (from the American perspective) was that many of the Sicilian-Italian Mafiosi were hard-line anti-communists. They were therefore seen as valuable allies by the anti-communist Americans, who allegedly used them to root out socialist and communist elements in the American shipping industry as well as wartime resistance movements and postwar local and regional governments in areas where the Mafia held sway.[citation needed]
According to drug trade expert Dr. Alfred W. McCoy, Luciano was permitted to run his crime network from his jail cell in exchange for his assistance. After the war, Luciano was rewarded by being released from prison and deported to Italy, where he was able to continue his criminal career unhindered. He went to Sicily in 1946 to continue his activities and according to McCoy's landmark 1972 book The Politics of Heroin in South-East Asia, Luciano went on to forge a crucial alliance with the Corsican Mafia, leading to the development of a vast international heroin trafficking network, initially supplied from Turkey and based in Marseille — the so-called "French Connection".
Later, when Turkey began to eliminate its opium production, he used his connections with the Corsicans to open a dialogue with expatriate Corsican mafiosi in South Vietnam. In collaboration with leading American mob bosses including Santo Trafficante Jr., Luciano and his successors took advantage of the chaotic conditions in Southeast Asia arising from the Vietnam War to establish an unassailable supply and distribution base in the "Golden Triangle", which was soon funneling huge amounts of Asian heroin into the United States, Australia and other countries.[17]
Maxi Trial and war against the government
The Second Mafia War in the early 1980s was a large scale conflict within the Mafia that also led to the assassinations of several politicians, police chiefs and magistrates. Salvatore Riina and his Corleonesi faction ultimately prevailed in the war. The new generation of mafiosi placed more emphasis on "white-collar" criminal activity as opposed to more traditional racketeering enterprises. In reaction to these developments, the Italian press has come up with the phrase Cosa Nuova ("the new thing", a play on Cosa Nostra) to refer to the revamped organization.
The first major pentito (a captured mafioso who collaborated with the judicial system) was Tommaso Buscetta who had lost several allies in the war and began to talk to prosecutor Giovanni Falcone around 1983. This led to the Maxi Trial (1986-1987) which resulted in several hundred convictions of leading mafiosi. When the Italian Supreme Court confirmed the convictions in January 1992, Riina took revenge. The politician Salvatore Lima was killed in March 1992; he had long been suspected of being the main government connection of the Mafia (later confirmed by testimony of Buscetta), and the Mafia was clearly displeased with his services. Falcone and fellow anti-Mafia prosecutor Paolo Borsellino were killed a few months later. This led to a public outcry and a massive government crackdown, resulting in Riina's arrest in January 1993. More and more pentitos started to emerge. Many would pay a high price for their co-operation usually through the murder of relatives. For example, Cosa Nostra defector Francesco Marino Mannoia's, mother, aunt and sister were murdered. [18]
The Corleonesi retaliated with a campaign of terrorism, a series of bombings against several tourist spots on the Italian mainland: the Via dei Georgofili in Florence, Via Palestro in Milan, and the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano and Via San Teodoro in Rome, which left 10 people dead and 93 injured and caused severe damage to cultural heritage such as the Uffizi Gallery. Bernardo Provenzano took over as boss of the Corleonesi and halted this campaign and replaced it with a campaign of quietness known as pax mafiosi. This campaign has allowed the Mafia to slowly regain the power it once had. He was arrested in 2006, after 43 years on the run.
The modern Mafia in Italy
The main split in the Sicilian Mafia at present is between those bosses who have been convicted and are now imprisoned, chiefly Riina and capo di tutti capi Bernardo Provenzano, and those who are on the run, or who have not been indicted. The incarcerated bosses are currently subjected to harsh controls on their contact with the outside world, limiting their ability to run their operations from behind bars under the article 41 bis prison regime. Antonino Giuffrè – a close confidant of Provenzano, turned pentito shortly after his capture in 2002 – alleges that in 1993, Cosa Nostra had direct contact with representatives of Silvio Berlusconi who was then planning the birth of Forza Italia.
The deal that he says was alleged to have been made was a repeal of 41 bis, among other anti-Mafia laws in return for electoral deliverances in Sicily. Giuffrè's declarations have not been confirmed. The Italian Parliament, with the support of Forza Italia, extended the enforcement of 41 bis, which was to expire in 2002 but has been prolonged for another four years and extended to other crimes such as terrorism. However, according to one of Italy’s leading magazines, L'Espresso, 119 mafiosi – one-fifth of those incarcerated under the 41 bis regime – have been released on an individual basis.[19] The human rights group Amnesty International has expressed concern that the 41-bis regime could in some circumstances amount to "cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment" for prisoners.
In addition to Salvatore Lima, mentioned above, the politician Giulio Andreotti and the High Court judge Corrado Carnevale have long been suspected of having ties to the Mafia.
By the late 1990s, the weakened Cosa Nostra had to yield most of the illegal drug trade to the 'Ndrangheta crime organization from Calabria. In 2006, the latter was estimated to control 80% of the cocaine import to Europe.[20] The mafia also have a strong business in extortion big companies as well as smaller ones. It estimates that 7% of Italy's output is filtered off by organised crime. The Mafia has turned into one of Italy's biggest business enterprises with a turnover of more than US$120bn a year.[21]
Ten Commandments
In November 2007 Sicilian police reported to have found a list of "Ten Commandments" in the hideout of mafia boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo. Similar to the Biblical Ten Commandments, they are thought to be a guideline on how to be a good, respectful honorable mafiosi. The commandments are as follows:[22]
1. No one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.
2. Never look at the wives of friends.
3. Never be seen with cops.
4. Don't go to pubs and clubs.
5. Always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty - even if your wife's about to give birth.
6. Appointments must absolutely be respected.
7. Wives must be treated with respect.
8. When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.
9. Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or to other families.
10. People who can't be part of Cosa Nostra: anyone who has a close relative in the police, anyone with a two-timing relative in the family, anyone who behaves badly and doesn't hold to moral values.
Prominent Sicilian mafiosi
See also: List of Sicilian mafiosi
* Vito Cascio Ferro Prominent early Don, imprisoned by Cesare Mori.
* Calogero Vizzini (1877 – 1954), boss of Villalba, was considered to be one of the most influential Mafia bosses of Sicily after World War II until his death in 1954.
* Giuseppe Genco Russo (1893 – 1976), boss of Mussomeli, considered to be the heir of Calogero Vizzini.
* Michele Navarra (1905 – 1958), boss of the Mafia Family in Corleone from 1940s to 1958
* Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco (1923 – 1978), boss of the Mafia Family in Ciaculli, he was the first "secretary" of the first Sicilian Mafia Commission that was formed somewhere in 1958.
* Gaetano Badalamenti (1923 – 2004), boss of the Mafia Family in Cinisi
* Angelo La Barbera (1924 – 1975) boss of the Mafia Family in Palermo Centro
* Michele Greco (1924 – 2008), boss of the Mafia Family in Croceverde
* Luciano Liggio (1925 – 1993), boss of the Mafia Family in Corleone
* Tommaso Buscetta (1928 – 2000), Sicilian Mafioso who became a pentito (informant) in 1984. Buscetta's evidence was used to great effect during the Maxi-Trials.
* Salvatore Riina (born 1930), also known as Totò Riina is one of the most infamous members of the Sicilian Mafia. He was nicknamed The Beast, or sometimes The Short One ('U Curtu in Sicilian) and ruled the Mafia with an iron hand from the 1980s until his arrest in 1993.
* Bernardo Provenzano (born 1933), successor of Riina at the head of the Corleonesi and as such considered one of the most powerful bosses of the Sicilian Mafia. Provenzano was a fugitive from justice since 1963. He was captured on 11 April 2006 in Sicily.[23] Before capture, authorities had reportedly been 'close' to capturing him for 10 years.
* Stefano Bontade (1939 – 1981), boss of the Mafia Family in Santa Maria di Gesù
* Leoluca Bagarella (born 1941), member of the Mafia Family in Corleone arrested in 1995
* Salvatore Lo Piccolo (born 1942), considered to be one of the successors of Provenzano.
* Salvatore Inzerillo (1944 – 1981), boss of the Mafia Family in Passo di Rigano
* Giovanni 'Lo Scannacristiani' Brusca (born 1957), who was involved in the murder of Giovanni Falcone.
* Matteo Messina Denaro (born 1962), considered to be one of the successors of Provenzano.
* Michele Cavataio died in Mafia hit in 1969
* Benedetto Santapaola (born 1938), the most important boss of Catania.
Structure of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra
Known as the Honored Society among Mafiosi, the chain of command is organized in a pyramid similar to a modern corporate structure.[citation needed]
Traditional terminology
1. Capo di Tutti Capi (the "Boss of All Bosses", namely Matteo Messina Denaro for the Sicilian Mafia and Renato Gagliano for the Sacra Corona Unita)[citation needed]
2. Capo di Capi Re (a title of respect given to a senior or retired member, equivalent to being a member emeritus, literally, "King Boss of Bosses")[citation needed]
3. Capo Crimine ("Crime Boss", known as a Don - the head of a crime family)[citation needed]
4. Capo Bastone ("Club Head", known as the "Underboss" is second in command to the Capo Crimine)[citation needed]
5. Consigliere (an advisor)[citation needed]
6. Caporegime ("Regime head", a captain who commands a "crew" of around ten Sgarriste or "soldiers")[citation needed]
7. Sgarrista or Soldato ("Soldier", made members of the Mafia who serve primarily as foot soldiers)[citation needed][citation needed]
8. Picciotto ("Little man", a low ranking member who serves as an "enforcer")[citation needed]
9. Giovane D'Onore (an associate member, usually someone not of Italian ancestry)[citation needed]
Italian Mafia structure
1. Capofamiglia - (Don/Boss)
2. Consigliere - (Counselor/Advisor/Right-hand man)
3. Sotto Capo - (Underboss/Second-in-command)
4. Capodecina - (Captain/Capo)
5. Uomini D'onore - ("Men of Honor"/Made men/Soldiers)
American Cosa Nostra
The American Mafia (also known as La Cosa Nostra) is is an offshoot of the Sicilian Mafia that emerged on the East Coast of the United States during the late 19th century following waves of Sicilian and Southern Italian emigration (see also Italian diaspora). In North America, the Mafia often refers to Italian organized crime in general, rather than just traditional Sicilian organized crime.
See also
* List of Mafia crime families
* List of criminal organizations
* The Sixth Family
* Camorra
* Mafia-Camorra War
* Five Families
* Gang
* Gangster
* Italian organized crime
* Omertà
* Vendetta
* Organized crime
* Timeline of organized crime
* Crime in New York City
* Irish Mob
* Yakuza ("Japanese Mafia")
* Triad society ("Chinese Mafia")