View allAll Photos Tagged Problem
Maybe the problem wasn't worded correctly? Maybe my Sprite is just too creative for math tests?
This is from a Math Mammoth placement test.
Guys, I need your help. There's something bothering me about this drawing, but I don't know exactly what... I just can't seem to get the right feeling and so..
You may not all know how to draw, but as photographers you know how to look at things. So, tell me.
#frustration
Photo is by Sophia Alexis.
www.flickr.com/photos/sophiaalexis/7342786206/in/photostream
by Alfredo Fernandes
Alfi Art Production, Divar
41st Tiatr Competition A group Of Kala Academy supported by TAG
13.10.2015
more here
joegoauk-tiatr.blogspot.in/2015/10/41st-tiatr-competition...
Rocking Chiar and Sewing machine clothesline
He went on telling me about his life while I was taking his photo, and then he said "I used to be a graphic designer. The first business meeting I went to they said half a million dollars wasn't enough. But I'm here asking for loonies and toonies."-Matt Alvarez (right)
Pentax K1000
SMC Pentax-A 50mm 1:1.7
Fujifilm Superia 400
When it's high tide, the storm sewers often back up into the streets. Hello, global warming and rising oceans. Miami is the Number 1 city in the world at risk from climate change. (www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/2012-07-06/top-20-cities-with...)
One evening Melissa and I wanted to shop at Whole Foods and we had to walk blocks out of our way to find a relatively un-inundated route. By the time I returned with my camera, the water had receded quite a bit, but here are some links to other pictures and a video to show you the depth (pun intended) of the problem.:
www.miaminewtimes.com/slideshow/scenes-from-south-beach-f...
www.nbcmiami.com/news/High-Tide-Causes-Street-Flooding-in...
Nikon D810 Photos Pro Women's Surfing Swatch Women's Pro Trestles Sports Photography With New Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD Lens for Nikon!
New blog!
I get a lot of questions here, so if you have one, please ask at the blog! Thanks!
Swatch Women's Pro in Trestles San Clemente with pro surfers /models Alana Blanhard, Lakey Peterson, Laura Enever, Sally Fitzgibbons, Coco Ho, Stephanie Gilmore, newcomer Nikki Van Dijk, and more!
The new Nikon D810 rocks for sports photography! New Instagram!
Goddess videos! vimeo.com/45surf
Nikon D810 Photos Pro Women's Surfing Van's US Open Sports Photography Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD !
I shot in DX mode which crops away the extra pixels and takes me 1.5X closer while allowing for up to 7 FPS with the Nikon D810's Nikon MB-D12 Battery Grip using the 8 AA battery option! 8 Duracels took me through around 3,000 shots no problem--maybe more! I was shooting at the equivalent of 900mm with the 1.5x crop factor! Pretty close! Had I gone with the Nikon D4s, I would have gotten 12 fps, but no DX crop factor, as the sensor has only around 14mp, compared to the d810's 36 megapixels! Sure the larger pixel size on the Nikon D4s full frame sensor comes in handy indoors or at night, but in the bright sun, there's more than enough light for the smaller pixels in crop mode! Sure we lose some pixels from the outer edges when shooting in DX crop mode, but most of those pixels would be cropped away in lightroom anyway. And the smaller files make the memory cards last longer, while also upping the FPS to 7 shots per second! Not quite 12 FPS, but still awesome and enough I felt!
What a beautiful way to test the Nikon D810 and Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens for sports photography!
Athletic graceful girl goddesses! Tall, thin, fit and in shape! Pro women's surfers form the van's us open wearing both long wetsuits and bikini bottoms with shorty wetsuit tops/summer wetsuits. Sexy, beautiful beach babes and water goddesses all! Many are professional swimsuit bikini / surf lifestyle models too!
Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD Autofocus lens for Nikon AF-D Cameras.
The new Nikon D810 rocks for sports photography New Instagram!
28th World Youth Day
Three and a half million people from all over the world gathered at Copacabana district showing its faith in the Catholic Church. Everything went well, no problems even with such a large amount of people.
Right next to me at least three people fainted and two of them were promptly met by paramedics on duty and the third was treated by a doctor who also attended the event. And every moment ambulances and paramedics asked for passage to help other people in this impressive crowd! In most, only joy and celebration.
An image that impressed me was the crowd leaving the location after the end of the event. Even in the New Year or Carnival (two very famous events in the city), is not seen so many people. For a few hours the crowd was going, neatly, in the opposite direction, singing several songs and brandishing their flags.
No alcohol, no trash, no violence, no people urinating in the streets... Everything went perfectly, even with the few problems that presented themselves, as always occur in great events. Of course this was also due to the civilized people who attended the event.
THIS VIDEO THAT I DID SHOWS HOW IT WAS THERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CROWD! :-)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Have a great day! :-)
To direct contact me / Para me contactar diretamente: lmsmartinsx@yahoo.com.br
____________________________________________________________
28ª Edição da Jornada Mundial da Juventude
Três millhões e meio de pessoas de todo o mundo reunidas no bairro de Copacabana mostrando sua fé na Igreja Católica. Tudo correu bem, sem problemas mesmo com uma quantidade tão grande de pessoas.
Bem perto de mim pelo menos três pessoas desmaiaram e duas delas foram prontamente atendidas pelos socorristas de plantão e a terceira foi atendida por uma médica que também participava do evento. E, a todo momento, ambulâncias e socorristas pediam passagem para ajudar outras pessoas no meio desta multidão impressionante! No mais, só alegria e festa.
Uma imagem que me impressionou foi a multidão deixando o local depois do final do evento. Nem mesmo no Ano Novo ou no Carnaval (dois eventos muito famosos na cidade), não se vê tanta gente. Por algumas horas a multidão se dirigia, ordenadamente, no sentido contrário, cantando músicas diversas e brandindo suas bandeiras.
Sem álcool, sem lixo, sem violência, sem pessoas urinando nas ruas... Tudo ocorreu perfeitamente, mesmo com os poucos problemas que se apresentaram, como sempre ocorrem em eventos grandiosos. É claro que isto também se deveu às pessoas civilizadas que participaram do evento.
ESTE VIDEO QUE FIZ MOSTRA COMO FOI LÁ, NO MEIO DA MULTIDÃO! :-)
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
Tenham um ótimo dia! :-)
To direct contact me / Para me contactar diretamente: lmsmartinsx@yahoo.com.br
Kashgar is an oasis city with an approximate population of 350,000. It is the westernmost city in China, located near the border with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Kashgar has a rich history of over 2,000 years and served as a trading post and strategically important city on the Silk Road between China, the Middle East, and Europe. Kashgar is part of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Located historically at the convergence point of widely varying cultures and empires, Kashgar has been under the rule of the Chinese, Turkic, Mongol, and Tibetan empires. The city has also been the site of an extraordinary number of battles between various groups of people on the steppes.
Now administered as a county-level unit of the People's Republic of China, Kashgar is the administrative centre of its eponymous prefecture in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region which has an area of 162,000 square kilometres and a population of approximately 3.5 million. The city's urban area covers 15 km2, though its administrative area extends over 555 km2.
NAME
The modern Chinese name is 喀什 (Kāshí), a shortened form of the longer and less-frequently used (simplified Chinese: 喀什噶尔; traditional Chinese: 喀什噶爾; pinyin: Kāshígé’ěr; Uyghur: قەشقەر). Ptolemy (AD 90-168), in his Geography, Chapter 15.3A, refers to Kashgar as “Kasi”. Its western and probably indigenous name is the Kāš ("rock"), to which the East Iranian -γar ("mountain"); cf. Pashto and Middle Persian gar/ġar, from Old Persian/Pahlavi girīwa ("hill; ridge (of a mountain)") was attached. Alternative historical Romanizations for "Kashgar" include Cascar and Cashgar.
Non-native names for the city, such as the old Chinese name Shule 疏勒 and Tibetan Śu-lig may have originated as an attempts to transcribe the Sanskrit name for Kashgar, Śrīkrīrāti ("fortunate hospitality")
Variant transcriptions of the official Uyghur: يېڭىشەھەر include: K̂äxk̂är or Kaxgar, as well as Jangi-schahr, Kashgar Yangi Shahr, K’o-shih-ka-erh, K’o-shih-ka-erh-hsin-ch’eng, Ko-shih-ka-erh-hui-ch’eng, K’o-shih-ko-erh-hsin-ch’eng, New Kashgar, Sheleh, Shuleh, Shulen, Shu-lo, Su-lo, Su-lo-chen, Su-lo-hsien, Yangi-shaar, Yangi-shahr, Yangishar, Yéngisheher, Yengixəh̨ər and Еңишәһәр.
HISTORY
HAN DYNASTY
The earliest mention of Kashgar occurs when a Chinese Han dynasty envoy traveled the Northern Silk Road to explore lands to the west.
Another early mention of Kashgar is during the Former Han (also known as the Western Han dynasty), when in 76 BC the Chinese conquered the Xiongnu, Yutian (Khotan), Sulei (Kashgar), and a group of states in the Tarim basin almost up to the foot of the Tian Shan range.
Ptolemy speaks of Scythia beyond the Imaus, which is in a “Kasia Regio”, probably exhibiting the name from which Kashgar and Kashgaria (often applied to the district) are formed. The country’s people practised Zoroastrianism and Buddhism before the coming of Islam.
In the Book of Han, which covers the period between 125 BC and 23 AD, it is recorded that there were 1,510 households, 18,647 people and 2,000 persons able to bear arms. By the time covered by the Book of the Later Han (roughly 25 to 170 AD), it had grown to 21,000 households and had 3,000 men able to bear arms.
The Book of the Later Han provides a wealth of detail on developments in the region:
"In the period of Emperor Wu [140-87 BC], the Western Regions1 were under the control of the Interior [China]. They numbered thirty-six kingdoms. The Imperial Government established a Colonel [in charge of] Envoys there to direct and protect these countries. Emperor Xuan [73-49 BC] changed this title [in 59 BC] to Protector-General.
Emperor Yuan [40-33 BC] installed two Wuji Colonels to take charge of the agricultural garrisons on the frontiers of the king of Nearer Jushi [Turpan].
During the time of Emperor Ai [6 BC-AD 1] and Emperor Ping [AD 1-5], the principalities of the Western Regions split up and formed fifty-five kingdoms. Wang Mang, after he usurped the Throne [in AD 9], demoted and changed their kings and marquises. Following this, the Western Regions became resentful, and rebelled. They, therefore, broke off all relations with the Interior [China] and, all together, submitted to the Xiongnu again.
The Xiongnu collected oppressively heavy taxes and the kingdoms were not able to support their demands. In the middle of the Jianwu period [AD 25-56], they each [Shanshan and Yarkand in 38, and 18 kingdoms in 45], sent envoys to ask if they could submit to the Interior [China], and to express their desire for a Protector-General. Emperor Guangwu, decided that because the Empire was not yet settled [after a long period of civil war], he had no time for outside affairs, and [therefore] finally refused his consent [in AD 45].
In the meantime, the Xiongnu became weaker. The king of Suoju [Yarkand], named Xian, wiped out several kingdoms. After Xian’s death [c. AD 62], they began to attack and fight each other. Xiao Yuan [Tura], Jingjue [Cadota], Ronglu [Niya], and Qiemo [Cherchen] were annexed by Shanshan [the Lop Nur region]. Qule [south of Keriya] and Pishan [modern Pishan or Guma] were conquered and fully occupied by Yutian [Khotan]. Yuli [Fukang], Danhuan, Guhu [Dawan Cheng], and Wutanzili were destroyed by Jushi [Turpan and Jimasa]. Later these kingdoms were re-established.
During the Yongping period [AD 58-75], the Northern Xiongnu forced several countries to help them plunder the commanderies and districts of Hexi. The gates of the towns stayed shut in broad daylight."
And, more particularly in reference to Kashgar itself, is the following record:
"In the sixteenth Yongping year of Emperor Ming 73, Jian, the king of Qiuci (Kucha), attacked and killed Cheng, the king of Shule (Kashgar). Then he appointed the Qiuci (Kucha) Marquis of the Left, Douti, King of Shule (Kashgar). ‹See TfD›
In winter 73, the Han sent the Major Ban Chao who captured and bound Douti. He appointed Zhong, the son of the elder brother of Cheng, to be king of Shule (Kashgar). Zhong later rebelled. (Ban) Chao attacked and beheaded him."
THE KUSHANS
The Book of the Later Han also gives the only extant historical record of Yuezhi or Kushan involvement in the Kashgar oasis:
"During the Yuanchu period (114-120) in the reign of Emperor, the king of Shule (Kashgar), exiled his maternal uncle Chenpan to the Yuezhi (Kushans) for some offence. The king of the Yuezhi became very fond of him. Later, Anguo died without leaving a son. His mother directed the government of the kingdom. She agreed with the people of the country to put Yifu (lit. “posthumous child”), who was the son of a full younger brother of Chenpan on the throne as king of Shule (Kashgar). Chenpan heard of this and appealed to the Yuezhi (Kushan) king, saying:
"Anguo had no son. His relative (Yifu) is weak. If one wants to put on the throne a member of (Anguo’s) mother’s family, I am Yifu’s paternal uncle, it is I who should be king."
The Yuezhi (Kushans) then sent soldiers to escort him back to Shule (Kashgar). The people had previously respected and been fond of Chenpan. Besides, they dreaded the Yuezhi (Kushans). They immediately took the seal and ribbon from Yifu and went to Chenpan, and made him king. Yifu was given the title of Marquis of the town of Pangao [90 li, or 37 km, from Shule].
‹See TfD›
Then Suoju (Yarkand) continued to resist Yutian (Khotan), and put themselves under Shule (Kashgar). Thus Shule (Kashgar), became powerful and a rival to Qiuci (Kucha) and Yutian (Khotan)."
However, it was not very long before the Chinese began to reassert their authority in the region:
“In the second Yongjian year (127), during Emperor Shun’s reign, Chenpan sent an envoy to respectfully present offerings. The Emperor bestowed on Chenpan the title of Great Commandant-in-Chief for the Han. Chenxun, who was the son of his elder brother, was appointed Temporary Major of the Kingdom. ‹See TfD›
In the fifth year (130), Chenpan sent his son to serve the Emperor and, along with envoys from Dayuan (Ferghana) and Suoju (Yarkand), brought tribute and offerings.”
From an earlier part of the same text comes the following addition:
“In the first Yangjia year (132), Xu You sent the king of Shule (Kashgar), Chenpan, who with 20,000 men, attacked and defeated Yutian (Khotan). He beheaded several hundred people, and released his soldiers to plunder freely. He replaced the king [of Jumi] by installing Chengguo from the family of [the previous king] Xing, and then he returned.”[38]
Then the first passage continues:
“In the second Yangjia year (133), Chenpan again made offerings (including) a lion and zebu cattle. ‹See TfD›
Then, during Emperor Ling’s reign, in the first Jianning year, the king of Shule (Kashgar) and Commandant-in-Chief for the Han (i.e. presumably Chenpan), was shot while hunting by the youngest of his paternal uncles, Hede. Hede named himself king.
‹See TfD›
In the third year (170), Meng Tuo, the Inspector of Liangzhou, sent the Provincial Officer Ren She, commanding five hundred soldiers from Dunhuang, with the Wuji Major Cao Kuan, and Chief Clerk of the Western Regions, Zhang Yan, brought troops from Yanqi (Karashahr), Qiuci (Kucha), and the Nearer and Further States of Jushi (Turpan and Jimasa), altogether numbering more than 30,000, to punish Shule (Kashgar). They attacked the town of Zhenzhong [Arach − near Maralbashi] but, having stayed for more than forty days without being able to subdue it, they withdrew. Following this, the kings of Shule (Kashgar) killed one another repeatedly while the Imperial Government was unable to prevent it.”
THREE KINGDOMS TO THE SUI
These centuries are marked by a general silence in sources on Kashgar and the Tarim Basin.
The Weilüe, composed in the second third of the 3rd century, mentions a number of states as dependencies of Kashgar: the kingdom of Zhenzhong (Arach?), the kingdom of Suoju (Yarkand), the kingdom of Jieshi, the kingdom of Qusha, the kingdom of Xiye (Khargalik), the kingdom of Yinai (Tashkurghan), the kingdom of Manli (modern Karasul), the kingdom of Yire (Mazar − also known as Tágh Nák and Tokanak), the kingdom of Yuling, the kingdom of Juandu (‘Tax Control’ − near modern Irkeshtam), the kingdom of Xiuxiu (‘Excellent Rest Stop’ − near Karakavak), and the kingdom of Qin.
However, much of the information on the Western Regions contained in the Weilüe seems to have ended roughly about (170), near the end of Han power. So, we can’t be sure that this is a reference to the state of affairs during the Cao Wei (220-265), or whether it refers to the situation before the civil war during the Later Han when China lost touch with most foreign countries and came to be divided into three separate kingdoms.
Chapter 30 of the Records of the Three Kingdoms says that after the beginning of the Wei Dynasty (220) the states of the Western Regions did not arrive as before, except for the larger ones such as Kucha, Khotan, Kangju, Wusun, Kashgar, Yuezhi, Shanshan and Turpan, who are said to have come to present tribute every year, as in Han times.
In 270, four states from the Western Regions were said to have presented tribute: Karashahr, Turpan, Shanshan, and Kucha. Some wooden documents from Niya seem to indicate that contacts were also maintained with Kashgar and Khotan around this time.
In 422, according to the Songshu, ch. 98, the king of Shanshan, Bilong, came to the court and "the thirty-six states in the Western Regions" all swore their allegiance and presented tribute. It must be assumed that these 36 states included Kashgar.
The "Songji" of the Zizhi Tongjian records that in the 5th month of 435, nine states: Kucha, Kashgar, Wusun, Yueban, Tashkurghan, Shanshan, Karashahr, Turpan and Sute all came to the Wei court.
In 439, according to the Weishu, ch. 4A, Shanshan, Kashgar and Karashahr sent envoys to present tribute.
According to the Weishu, ch. 102, Chapter on the Western Regions, the kingdoms of Kucha, Kashgar, Wusun, Yueban, Tashkurghan, Shanshan, Karashahr, Turpan and Sute all began sending envoys to present tribute in the Taiyuan reign period (435-440).
In 453 Kashgar sent envoys to present tribute (Weishu, ch. 5), and again in 455.
An embassy sent during the reign of Wencheng Di (452-466) from the king of Kashgar presented a supposed sacred relic of the Buddha; a dress which was incombustible.
In 507 Kashgar, is said to have sent envoys in both the 9th and 10th months (Weishu, ch. 8).
In 512, Kashgar sent envoys in the 1st and 5th months. (Weishu, ch. 8).
Early in the 6th century Kashgar is included among the many territories controlled by the Yeda or Hephthalite Huns, but their empire collapsed at the onslaught of the Western Turks between 563 and 567 who then probably gained control over Kashgar and most of the states in the Tarim Basin.
TANG DYNASTY
The founding of the Tang dynasty in 618 saw the beginning of a prolonged struggle between China and the Western Turks for control of the Tarim Basin. In 635, the Tang Annals reported an emissary from the king of Kashgar to the Tang capital. In 639 there was a second emissary bringing products of Kashgar as a token of submission to the Tang state.
Buddhist scholar Xuanzang passed through Kashgar (which he referred to as Ka-sha) in 644 on his return journey from India to China. The Buddhist religion, then beginning to decay in India, was active in Kashgar. Xuanzang recorded that they flattened their babies heads, tattooed their bodies and had green eyes. He reported that Kashgar had abundant crops, fruits and flowers, wove fine woolen stuffs and rugs. Their writing system had been adapted from Indian script but their language was different from that of other countries. The inhabitants were sincere Buddhist adherents and there were some hundreds of monasteries with more than 10,000 followers, all members of the Sarvastivadin School.
At around the same era, Nestorian Christians were establishing bishoprics at Herat, Merv and Samarkand, whence they subsequently proceeded to Kashgar, and finally to China proper itself.
In 646, the Turkic Kagan asked for the hand of a Tang Chinese princess, and in return the Emperor promised Kucha, Khotan, Kashgar, Karashahr and Sarikol as a marriage gift, but this did not happen as planned.
In a series of campaigns between 652 and 658, with the help of the Uyghurs, the Chinese finally defeated the Western Turk tribes and took control of all their domains, including the Tarim Basin kingdoms. Karakhoja was annexed in 640, Karashahr during campaigns in 644 and 648, and Kucha fell in 648.
In 662 a rebellion broke out in the Western Regions and a Chinese army sent to control it was defeated by the Tibetans south of Kashgar.
After another defeat of the Tang Chinese forces in 670, the Tibetans gained control of the whole region and completely subjugated Kashgar in 676-8 and retained possession of it until 692, when the Tang dynasty regained control of all their former territories, and retained it for the next fifty years.
In 722 Kashgar sent 4,000 troops to assist the Chinese to force the "Tibetans out of "Little Bolu" or Gilgit.
In 728, the king of Kashgar was awarded a brevet by the Chinese emperor.
In 739, the Tangshu relates that the governor of the Chinese garrison in Kashgar, with the help of Ferghana, was interfering in the affairs of the Turgesh tribes as far as Talas.
In 751 the Chinese were defeated by an Arab army in the Battle of Talas. The An Lushan Rebellion led to the decline of Tang influence in Central Asia due to the fact that the Tang dynasty was forced to withdraw its troops from the region to fight An Lushan. The Tibetans cut all communication between China and the West in 766.
Soon after the Chinese pilgrim monk Wukong passed through Kashgar in 753. He again reached Kashgar on his return trip from India in 786 and mentions a Chinese deputy governor as well as the local king.
BATTLES WITH ARAB CALIPHATE
In 711, the Arabs invaded Kashgar, but did not hold the city for any length of time. Kashgar and Turkestan lent assistance to the reigning queen of Bukhara, to enable her to repel the Arabs. Although the Muslim religion from the very commencement sustained checks, it nevertheless made its weight felt upon the independent states of Turkestan to the north and east, and thus acquired a steadily growing influence. It was not, however, till the 10th century that Islam was established at Kashgar, under the Kara-Khanid Khanate.
THE TURKIC RULE
According to the 10th-century text, Hudud al-'alam, "the chiefs of Kashghar in the days of old were from the Qarluq, or from the Yaghma." The Karluks, Yaghmas and other tribes such as the Chigils formed the Karakhanids. The Karakhanid Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan converted to Islam in the 10th century and captured Kashgar. Kashgar was the capital of the Karakhanid state for a time but later the capital was moved to Balasaghun. During the latter part of the 10th century, the Muslim Karakhanids began a struggle against the Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan, and the Khotanese defeated the Karakhanids and captured Kashgar in 970. Chinese sources recorded the king of Khotan offering to send them a dancing elephant captured from Kashgar. Later in 1006, the Karakhanids of Kashgar under Yusuf Kadr Khan conquered Khotan.
The Karakhanid Khanate however was beset with internal strife, and the khanate split into two, the Eastern and Western Karakhanid Khanates, with Kashgar falling within the domain of the Eastern Karakhanid state. In 1089, the Western Karakhanids fell under the control of the Seljuks, but the Eastern Karakhanids was for the most part independent.
Both the Karakhanid states were defeated in the 12th century by the Kara-Khitans who captured Balasaghun, however Karakhanid rule continued in Kashgar under the suzerainty of the Kara-Khitans. The Kara-Khitan rulers followed a policy of religious tolerance, Islamic religious life continued uninterrupted and Kashgar was also a Nestorian metropolitan see. The last Karakhanid of Kashgar was killed in a revolt in 1211 by the city's notables. Kuchlug, a usurper of the throne of the Kara-Khitans, then attacked Kashgar which finally surrendered in 1214.
THE MONGOLS
The Kara-Khitai in their turn were swept away in 1219 by Genghis Khan. After his death, Kashgar came under the rule of the Chagatai Khans. Marco Polo visited the city, which he calls Cascar, about 1273-4 and recorded the presence of numerous Nestorian Christians, who had their own churches. Later In the 14th century, a Chagataid khan Tughluq Timur converted to Islam, and Islamic tradition began to reassert its ascendancy.
In 1389−1390 Tamerlane ravaged Kashgar, Andijan and the intervening country. Kashgar endured a troubled time, and in 1514, on the invasion of the Khan Sultan Said, was destroyed by Mirza Ababakar, who with the aid of ten thousand men built a new fort with massive defences higher up on the banks of the Tuman river. The dynasty of the Chagatai Khans collapsed in 1572 with the division of the country among rival factions; soon after, two powerful Khoja factions, the White and Black Mountaineers (Ak Taghliq or Afaqi, and Kara Taghliq or Ishaqi), arose whose differences and war-making gestures, with the intermittent episode of the Oirats of Dzungaria, make up much of recorded history in Kashgar until 1759. The Dzungar Khanate conquered Kashgar and set up the Khoja as their puppet rulers.
QING CONQUEST
The Qing dynasty defeated the Dzungar Khanate during the Ten Great Campaigns and took control of Kashgar in 1759. The conquerors consolidated their authority by settling other ethnics emigrants in the vicinity of a Manchu garrison.
Rumours flew around Central Asia that the Qing planned to launch expeditions towards Transoxiana and Samarkand, the chiefs of which sought assistance from the Afghan king Ahmed Shah Abdali. The alleged expedition never happened so Ahmad Shah withdrew his forces from Kokand. He also dispatched an ambassador to Beijing to discuss the situation of the Afaqi Khojas, but the representative was not well received, and Ahmed Shah was too busy fighting off the Sikhs to attempt to enforce his demands through arms.
The Qing continued to hold Kashgar with occasional interruptions during the Afaqi Khoja revolts. One of the most serious of these occurred in 1827, when the city was taken by Jahanghir Khoja; Chang-lung, however, the Qing general of Ili, regained possession of Kashgar and the other rebellious cities in 1828.
The Kokand Khanate raided Kashgar several times. A revolt in 1829 under Mahommed Ali Khan and Yusuf, brother of Jahanghir resulted in the concession of several important trade privileges to the Muslims of the district of Altishahr (the "six cities"), as it was then called.
The area enjoyed relative calm until 1846 under the rule of Zahir-ud-din, the local Uyghur governor, but in that year a new Khoja revolt under Kath Tora led to his accession as the authoritarian ruler of the city. However, his reign was brief—at the end of seventy-five days, on the approach of the Chinese, he fled back to Khokand amid the jeers of the inhabitants. The last of the Khoja revolts (1857) was of about equal duration, and took place under Wali-Khan, who murdered the well-known traveler Adolf Schlagintweit.
1862 CHINESE HUI REVOLT
The great Dungan revolt (1862–1877) involved insurrection among various Muslim ethnic groups. It broke out in 1862 in Gansu then spread rapidly to Dzungaria and through the line of towns in the Tarim Basin.
Dungan troops based in Yarkand rose and in August 1864 massacred some seven thousand Chinese and their Manchu commander. The inhabitants of Kashgar, rising in their turn against their masters, invoked the aid of Sadik Beg, a Kyrgyz chief, who was reinforced by Buzurg Khan, the heir of Jahanghir Khoja, and his general Yakub Beg. The latter men were dispatched at Sadik’s request by the ruler of Khokand to raise what troops they could to aid his Muslim friends in Kashgar.
Sadik Beg soon repented of having asked for a Khoja, and eventually marched against Kashgar, which by this time had succumbed to Buzurg Khan and Yakub Beg, but was defeated and driven back to Khokand. Buzurg Khan delivered himself up to indolence and debauchery, but Yakub Beg, with singular energy and perseverance, made himself master of Yangi Shahr, Yangi-Hissar, Yarkand and other towns, and eventually became sole master of the country, Buzurg Khan proving himself totally unfit for the post of ruler.
With the overthrow of Chinese rule in 1865 by Yakub Beg (1820–1877), the manufacturing industries of Kashgar are supposed to have declined.
Yaqub Beg entered into relations and signed treaties with the Russian Empire and the British Empire, but when he tried to get their support against China, he failed.
Kashgar and the other cities of the Tarim Basin remained under Yakub Beg’s rule until May 1877, when he died at Korla. Thereafter Kashgaria was reconquered by the forces of the Qing general Zuo Zongtang during the Qing reconquest of Xinjiang.
QING RULE
There were eras in Xinjiang's history where intermarriage was common, "laxity" which set upon Uyghur women led them to marry Chinese men and not wear the veil in the period after Yaqub Beg's rule ended, it is also believed by Uyghurs that some Uyghurs have Han Chinese ancestry from historical intermarriage, such as those living in Turpan.
Even though Muslim women are forbidden to marry non-Muslims in Islamic law, from 1880-1949 it was frequently violated in Xinjiang since Chinese men married Muslim Turki (Uyghur) women, a reason suggested by foriengers that it was due to the women being poor, while the Turki women who married Chinese were labelled as whores by the Turki community, these marriages were illegitimate according to Islamic law but the women obtained benefits from marrying Chinese men since the Chinese defended them from Islamic authorities so the women were not subjected to the tax on prostitution and were able to save their income for themselves. Chinese men gave their Turki wives privileges which Turki men's wives did not have, since the wives of Chinese did not have to wear a veil and a Chinese man in Kashgar once beat a mullah who tried to force his Turki Kashgari wife to veil. The Turki women also benefited in that they were not subjected to any legal binding to their Chinese husbands so they could make their Chinese husbands provide them with as much their money as she wanted for her relatives and herself since otherwise the women could just leave, and the property of Chinese men was left to their Turki wives after they died. Turki women considered Turki men to be inferior husbands to Chinese and Hindus. Because they were viewed as "impure", Islamic cemeteries banned the Turki wives of Chinese men from being buried within them, the Turki women got around this problem by giving shrines donations and buying a grave in other towns. Besides Chinese men, other men such as Hindus, Armenians, Jews, Russians, and Badakhshanis intermarried with local Turki women. The local society accepted the Turki women and Chinese men's mixed offspring as their own people despite the marriages being in violation of Islamic law. Turki women also conducted temporary marriages with Chinese men such as Chinese soldiers temporarily stationed around them as soldiers for tours of duty, after which the Chinese men returned to their own cities, with the Chinese men selling their mixed daughters with the Turki women to his comrades, taking their sons with them if they could afford it but leaving them if they couldn't, and selling their temporary Turki wife to a comrade or leaving her behind.
An anti-Russian uproar broke out when Russian customs officials, 3 Cossacks and a Russian courier invited local Turki (Uyghur) prostitutes to a party in January 1902 in Kashgar, this caused a massive brawl by the inflamed local Turki Muslim populace against the Russians on the pretense of protecting Muslim women because there was anti-Russian sentiment being built up, even though morality was not strict in Kashgar, the local Turki Muslims violently clashed with the Russians before they were dispersed by guards, the Chinese sought to end to tensions to prevent the Russians from building up a pretext to invade.
After the riot, the Russians sent troops to Sarikol in Tashkurghan and demanded that the Sarikol postal services be placed under Russian supervision, the locals of Sarikol believed that the Russians would seize the entire district from the Chinese and send more soldiers even after the Russians tried to negotiate with the Begs of Sarikol and sway them to their side, they failed since the Sarikoli officials and authorities demanded in a petition to the Amban of Yarkand that they be evacuated to Yarkand to avoid being harassed by the Russians and objected to the Russian presence in Sarikol, the Sarikolis did not believe the Russian claim that they would leave them alone and only involved themselves in the mail service.
Many of the young Kashgari women were most attractive in appearance, and some of the little girls quite lovely, their plaits of long hair falling from under a jaunty little embroidered cap, their big dark eyes, flashing teeth and piquant olive faces reminding me of Italian or Spanish children. One most beautiful boy stands out in my memory. He was clad in a new shirt and trousers of flowered pink, his crimson velvet cap embroidered with gold, and as he smiled and salaamed to us I thought he looked like a fairy prince. The women wear their hair in two or five plaits much thickened and lengthened by the addition of yak's hair, but the children in several tiny plaits.
The peasants are fairly well off, as the soil is rich, the abundant water-supply free, and the taxation comparatively light. It was always interesting to meet them taking their live stock into market. Flocks of sheep with tiny lambs, black and white, pattered along the dusty road; here a goat followed its master like a dog, trotting behind the diminutive ass which the farmer bestrode; or boys, clad in the whity-brown native cloth, shouted incessantly at donkeys almost invisible under enormous loads of forage, or carried fowls and ducks in bunches head downwards, a sight that always made me long to come to the rescue of the luckless birds.
It was pleasant to see the women riding alone on horseback, managing their mounts to perfection. They formed a sharp contrast to their Persian sisters, who either sit behind their husbands or have their steeds led by the bridle; and instead of keeping silence in public, as is the rule for the shrouded women of Iran, these farmers' wives chaffered and haggled with the men in the bazar outside the city, transacting business with their veils thrown back.
Certainly the mullas do their best to keep the fair sex in their place, and are in the habit of beating those who show their faces in the Great Bazar. But I was told that poetic justice had lately been meted out to one of these upholders of the law of Islam, for by mistake he chastised a Kashgari woman married to a Chinaman, whereupon the irate husband set upon him with a big stick and castigated him soundly.
That a Muslim should take in marriage one of alien faith is not objected to; it is rather deemed a meritorious act thus to bring an unbeliever to the true religion. The Muslim woman, on the other hand, must not be given in marriage to a non-Muslim; such a union is regarded as the most heinous of sins. In this matter, however, compromises are sometimes made with heaven: the marriage of a Turki princess with the emperor Ch'ien-lung has already been referred to; and, when the present writer passed through Minjol (a day's journey west of Kashgar) in 1902, a Chinese with a Turki wife (? concubine) was presented to him.
FIRST EAST TURKESTAN REPUBLIC
Kashgar was the scene of continual battles from 1933 to 1934. Ma Shaowu, a Chinese Muslim, was the Tao-yin of Kashgar, and he fought against Uyghur rebels. He was joined by another Chinese Muslim general, Ma Zhancang.
BATTLE OF KASHGAR (1933)
Uighur and Kirghiz forces, led by the Bughra brothers and Tawfiq Bay, attempted to take the New City of Kashgar from Chinese Muslim troops under General Ma Zhancang. They were defeated.
Tawfiq Bey, a Syrian Arab traveler, who held the title Sayyid (descendent of prophet Muhammed) and arrived at Kashgar on August 26, 1933, was shot in the stomach by the Chinese Muslim troops in September. Previously Ma Zhancang arranged to have the Uighur leader Timur Beg killed and beheaded on August 9, 1933, displaying his head outside of Id Kah Mosque.
Han chinese troops commanded by Brigadier Yang were absorbed into Ma Zhancang's army. A number of Han chinese officers were spotted wearing the green uniforms of Ma Zhancang's unit of the 36th division, presumably they had converted to Islam.
BATTLE OF KASHGAR (1934)
The 36th division General Ma Fuyuan led a Chinese Muslim army to storm Kashgar on February 6, 1934, attacking the Uighur and Kirghiz rebels of the First East Turkestan Republic. He freed another 36th division general, Ma Zhancang, who was trapped with his Chinese Muslim and Han Chinese troops in Kashgar New City by the Uighurs and Kirghiz since May 22, 1933. In January, 1934, Ma Zhancang's Chinese Muslim troops repulsed six Uighur attacks, launched by Khoja Niyaz, who arrived at the city on January 13, 1934, inflicting massive casualties on the Uighur forces. From 2,000 to 8,000 Uighur civilians in Kashgar Old City were massacred by Tungans in February, 1934, in revenge for the Kizil massacre, after retreating of Uighur forces from the city to Yengi Hisar. The Chinese Muslim and 36th division Chief General Ma Zhongying, who arrived at Kashgar on April 7, 1934, gave a speech at Id Kah Mosque in April, reminding the Uighurs to be loyal to the Republic of China government at Nanjing. Several British citizens at the British consulate were killed or wounded by the 36th division on March 16, 1934.
PEOPLE´S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Kashgar was incorporated into the People's Republic of China in 1949. During the Cultural Revolution, one of the largest statues of Mao in China was built in Kashgar, near People's Square. In 1986, the Chinese government designated Kashgar a "city of historical and cultural significance". Kashgar and surrounding regions have been the site of Uyghur unrest since the 1990s. In 2008, two Uyghur men carried out a vehicular, IED and knife attack against police officers. In 2009, development of Kashgar's old town accelerated after the revelations of the deadly role of faulty architecture during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Many of the old houses in the old town were built without regulation, and as a result, officials found them to be overcrowded and non-compliant with fire and earthquake codes. When the plan started, 42% of the city's residents lived in the old town. With compensation, residents of faulty buildings are being counseled to move to newer, safer buildings that will replace the historic structures in the $448 million plan, including high-rise apartments, plazas, and reproductions of ancient Islamic architecture. The European Parliament issued a resolution in 2011 calling for "culture-sensitive methods of renovation." The International Scientific Committee on Earthen Architectural Heritage (ISCEAH) has expressed concern over the demolition and reconstruction of historic buildings. ISCEAH has, additionally, urged the implementation of techniques utilized elsewhere in the world to address earthquake vulnerability.
Following the July 2009 Urumqi riots, the government focused on local economic development in an attempt to ameliorate ethnic tensions in the greater Xinjiang region. Kashgar was made into a Special Economic Zone in 2010, the first such zone in China's far west. In 2011, a spate of violence over two days killed dozens of people. By May 2012 two-thirds of the old city had been demolished, fulfilling "political as well as economic goals." In July 2014 the Imam of the Id Kah Mosque, Juma Tayir, was assassinated in Kashgar.
CLIMATE
Kashgar features a desert climate (Köppen BWk) with hot summers and cold winters, with large temperature differences between those two seasons: The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −5.3 °C in January to 25.6 °C in July, while the annual mean is 11.84 °C. Spring is long and arrives quickly, while fall is somewhat brief in comparison. Kashgar is one of the driest cities on the planet, averaging only 64 millimetres of precipitation per year. The city’s wettest month, July, only sees on average 9.1 millimetres of rain. Because of the extremely arid conditions, snowfall is rare, despite the cold winters. Records have been as low as −24.4 °C in January and up to 40.1 °C in July. The frost-free period averages 215 days. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 50% in March to 70% in September, the city receives 2,726 hours of bright sunshine annually.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Kashgar is predominately peopled by Muslim Uyghurs. Compared to Ürümqi, Xinjiang's capital and largest city, Kashgar is less industrial and has significantly fewer Han Chinese residents.
ECONOMICS AND SOCIETY
The city has a very important Sunday market. Thousands of farmers from the surrounding fertile lands come into the city to sell a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. Kashgar’s livestock market is also very lively. Silk and carpets made in Hotan are sold at bazaars, as well as local crafts, such as copper teapots and wooden jewellery boxes.
In order to boost the economy in Kashgar region, the government classified the area as the sixth Special Economic Zone of China in May 2010.
Mahmud al-Kashgari (Turkish: Kâşgarlı Mahmud) (Mahmut from Kashgar) wrote the first Turkic–Arabic Exemplary Dictionary called Divan-ı Lugat-it Türk[citation needed]
The movie The Kite Runner was filmed in Kashgar. Kashgar and the surrounding countryside stood in for Kabul and Afghanistan, since filming in Afghanistan was not possible due to safety and security reasons.
SIGHTS
Kashgar's Old City has been called "the best-preserved example of a traditional Islamic city to be found anywhere in Central Asia". It is estimated to attract more than one million tourists annually.
- Id Kah Mosque, the largest mosque in China, is located in the heart of the city.
- People's Park, the main public park in central Kashgar.
- An 18 m high statue of Mao Zedong in Kashgar is one of the few large-scale statues of Mao remaining in China.
- The tomb of Afaq Khoja in Kashgar is considered the holiest Muslim site in Xinjiang. Built in the 17th century, the tiled mausoleum 5 km northeast of the city centre also contains the tombs of five generations of his family. Abakh was a powerful ruler, controlling Khotan, Yarkand, Korla, Kucha and Aksu as well as Kashgar. Among some Uyghur Muslims, he was considered a great Saint (Aulia).
- Sunday Market in Kashgar is renowned as the biggest market in central Asia; a pivotal trading point along the Silk Road where goods have been traded for more than 2,000 years. The market is open every day but Sunday is the largest.
TRANSPORTATION
AIR
Kashgar Airport serves mainly domestic flights, the majority of them from Urumqi. The only scheduled international flights are passenger and cargo services with Pakistan's capital Islamabad.
RAIL
Kashgar has the westernmost railway station in China. It is connected to the rest of China's rail network via the Southern Xinjiang Railway, which was built in December 1999. Kashgar–Hotan Railway opened for passenger traffic in June 2011, and connected Kashgar with cities in the southern Tarim Basin including Shache (Yarkand), Yecheng (Kargilik) and Hotan. Travel time to Urumqi from Kashgar is approximately 25 hours, while travel time to Hotan is approximately ten hours.
The investigation work of a further extension of the railway line to Pakistan has begun. In November 2009, Pakistan and China agreed to set up a joint venture to do a feasibility study of the proposed rail link via the Khunjerab Pass.
Proposals for a rail connection to Osh in Kyrgyzstan have also been discussed at various levels since at least 1996.
In 2012, a standard gauge railway from Kashgar via Tajikistan and Afghanistan to Iran and beyond has been proposed.
ROAD
The Karakorum highway (KKH) links Islamabad, Pakistan with Kashgar over the Khunjerab Pass. The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor is a multibillion-dollar project was that will upgrade transport links between China and Pakistan, including the upgrades to the Karakorum highway. Bus routes exist for passenger travel south into Pakistan. Kyrgyzstan is also accessible from Kashgar, via the Torugart Pass and Irkeshtam Pass; as of summer 2007, daily bus service connects Kashgar with Bishkek’s Western Bus Terminal. Kashgar is also located on China National Highways G314 (which runs to Khunjerab Pass on the Sino−Pakistani border, and, in the opposite direction, towards Ürümqi), and G315, which runs to Xining, Qinghai from Kashgar.
WIKIPEDIA
56 years in business but no longer. The neighborhood is no longer a diner sort of neighborhood and it wasn't being run very well in it's last 5-6 years or so. Its problems were compounded by 7-8 agonizing months of water main replacement in the area. The neon lights are still on though.
...because when people have guns, one day or another, they're going to use them.
R.I.P. to all those poor children in Connecticut.
[Fr]... parce que si les gens ont des armes à feu, un jour ou l'autre, ils les utiliseront.
experimentations reflecting on how to creatively expand my primary research, using different medias. PVA, stitching, burning and monoprints.
Our 15 year old cat Kleo has a urinary tract infection caused by e.coli. She likes to use the heat registers as the litter box right now. Grateful for the pee pad hack.
Problem solved. Yep this is pretty much how I handle real life problems too - My own way.
Copyright 2007 kedralynn
You can see more at kedralynn.deviantart.com
"En Cuba no hay periodistas presos, hay mercenarios presos"
Lázaro Barredo es director del periódico Granma, órgano oficial del Partido Comunista de Cuba. En esta entrevista, realizada por cuestionario, por Carlos Salas, director de Metro España, Barredo explica el papel de la prensa en Cuba, el estado de la libertad de expresión y comenta el impacto de las medidas recientes.
Lázaro Barredo (Granma-Metro España) [22.04.2008 22:12] - 10 lecturas - 0 comentarios
Los cubanos ya pueden entrar en los hoteles, disponer de teléfonos móviles, comprar computadoras. Grandes cambios. Y respecto a la prensa, ¿cuál va ser el paso que va a dar el Gobierno?
Esas y muchas otras cosas que se atenderán en las próximas semanas y que hemos denominado ahora "prohibiciones" constituyen la rectificación de decisiones que se adoptaron en los momentos más aciagos de la crisis económica a principios de la década de los 90, cuando comenzó lo que los cubanos llamamos Período Especial y que fue consecuencia del derrumbe del campo socialista, la desaparición de la Unión Soviética y el reforzamiento de las medidas del criminal bloqueo económico y financiero de Estados Unidos, y que se asumieron en aquel momento con el deseo de evitar desigualdades en una sociedad hasta aquel momento marcadamente igualitarista.
Esas decisiones fueron superadas por las propias coyunturas y las realidades y debieron haber sido enmendadas mucho tiempo atrás.
Con respecto a la prensa, se han venido dando pasos para poner el énfasis en una mayor profundidad de análisis y crítica de los problemas y ampliar el despliegue de la necesaria variedad de perfiles de los medios y órganos, que sean reflejo cada vez más de la realidad misma y no de la edulcoración, sin dejar de reconocer que la prensa aquí, allá y acullá, responde siempre a una línea política y a un sistema.
En nuestro caso, esa concepción está bien definida en la ideas que recién acaba de expresarle el compañero Fidel en su mensaje a los intelectuales reunidos en el VII Congreso de la Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba: "todo lo que fortalezca éticamente a la Revolución es bueno, todo lo que la debilite es malo".
En Cuba hablamos mucho de Batalla de Ideas, no es una consigna, es una estrategia política que parte de un presupuesto martiano: "Ser cultos es el único modo de ser libres" y que lo asociamos directamente a la idea de que el máximo de libertad del ser humano reside en el máximo de conocimientos que tenga.
Los medios son parte de esa estrategia. En los últimos seis años salieron al aire casi 30 emisoras radiales nuevas con programaciones de 18 a 24 horas cada una de ellas (de 63 a 91 emisoras en todo el territorio nacional); de dos canales nacionales de televisión se han pasado a cinco y uno internacional y de 11 estaciones televisivas territoriales a 32, en provincias y municipios, además de 71 corresponsalías municipales con moderna capacidad tecnológica y estudios para elaborar programas con su propia sustentación. A la vez, se ha ido produciendo una recuperación paulatina de los medios de prensa plana que virtualmente colapsaron hace casi 20 años atrás al desaparecer el mercado natural que tenía Cuba, es decir la Unión Soviética y el campo socialista. Ya hoy más de 700 publicaciones nacionales periódicas y no periódicas han vuelto a circular.
En el mes de junio próximo tendremos las sesiones finales del Congreso de los periodistas que tiene también proyectada una importante agenda de debate político y profesional.
Desde hace pocos días, los cubanos pueden exponer sus quejas en una sección de su periódico. ¿Es un signo de lo que puede pasar en Granma?
Lo que estamos haciendo ha estado siempre dentro de la intencionalidad de nuestro colectivo de redacción. Granma ya tuvo en la década de los 80 una sección de intercambio con los lectores que se llamó "A vuelta de Correo" y después en la década de los 90 tuvo otra denominada "Abrecartas", ambas propiciaron espacios para la queja, la denuncia y el intercambio de opiniones
¿Cuál es el papel de Granma en estos momentos en los que muchos analistas internacionales ven cambios sólidos en Cuba?
Granma, como el resto de los medios, tienen un importante desempeño en la información, orientación, en el emplazamiento a los principales problemas del mundo y de la sociedad. Y hacerlo todo profesionalmente a partir de aquellos conceptos de la reflexión del Apóstol "la prensa no es aprobación bondadosa o ira insultante; es proposición, estudio, examen y consejo".
En otras palabras, llevar a vías de hecho la recomendación de José Martí de que hacer un buen diario es que no haya una manifestación de la vida, cuyos diarios accidentes no sorprendan al diarista.
Temas internacionales para abordar, en los que el mundo vive uno de sus momentos más peligrosos de la supervivencia humana, tenemos suficientes. Como también tenemos muchísimos temas nacionales. El país necesita más respuestas sobre el llamado a la profundización de las concepciones socialistas de la Revolución, más énfasis en la institucionalidad, mas acentos en el control estatal y la participación ciudadana y popular en la exigencia y una batalla mucho más abierta y pública contra el burocratismo, la corrupción, la ilegalidad, la indisciplina social y laboral, la falta de eficiencia, la doble moral y la simulación, contra las tendencias desmoralizantes de quienes por mezquindad han perdido la virtud ética y desprestigian hoy las funciones de la administración y dañan la autoridad de la Revolución.
Tengo la más íntima convicción de que como nunca el país necesita que todos los periodistas tratemos con absoluta responsabilidad el análisis de los principales problemas de nuestra realidad social, que razonemos y argumentemos sobre las causas de las dificultades, rehuyendo el facilismo, la espectacularidad, las declaraciones generales y abstractas y la tendencia a la simplificación.
Su periódico es el órgano del Partido Comunista Cubano. ¿Lo ve usted en un futuro como un periódico que no dependa del partido?
La Revolución, el Partido y Granma es una misma cosa. Hace unos años atrás, Fidel nos decía que el diario es un órgano en que la cuestión política, revolucionaria, ideológica, está muy por encima de cualquier tentación de subordinar un átomo de su papel, porque dejaría de ser el órgano revolucionario de excelencia política, con prioridad absoluta en la política, lo cual no excluye que haga las cosas con el máximo de técnica periodística y que esté ajustado fielmente a la realidad de la nación.
Ustedes publican periódicamente columnas de opinión del comandante Castro ¿Qué mensaje de fondo cree usted que está transmitiendo Fidel Castro a los cubanos?
Bueno, son más de 100 artículos o Reflexiones en este último año. Cuando Fidel anunció que no aceptaría la nominación para el cargo de Presidente de los Consejos de Estado y de Ministros, no había renunciado como se acuñó por los medios internacionales con toda mala intención. Como escribí al día siguiente de su decisión en un comentario en Granma: Fidel no ha renunciado, no se ha despedido de nosotros, sino que por sus limitaciones físicas nos ha comunicado una decisión que ha meditado mucho: "Deseo solo combatir como un soldado de las ideas". Es la consecuencia de lo que nos ha dicho siempre y de lo que proclama ahora con su ejemplo, de que un comunista tiene que dedicar el ciento por ciento de sus energías, de su trabajo, de su vida, a los empeños revolucionarios.
Ha escrito pensando siempre en los jóvenes, abordando temas medulares que tienen por su actualidad política un impacto en la opinión pública internacional, desde las insensatas medidas que condenan a la humanidad a una encrucijada destructiva, como la condena a muerte por hambre a la mayoría de la población mundial, la irracionalidad del uso de alimentos para producir biocombustibles, los graves problemas que destruyen el medio ambiente o fustigando sin cesar las mentiras y los embustes de W. Bush, por mencionarte algunos ejemplos. Sus certeros análisis no abordan solo la crítica a esos fenómenos, sino también la observación sobre fórmulas aplicables para afrontarlos.
Creo que si me preguntaras que te nombrara una en particular, te mencionaría una joya política y literaria, Regalo de Reyes que publicó el pasado 14 de enero, dedicado en su primera parte a la gira de Bush por el Medio Oriente, pero que lleva de la mano sobre algunos de los pretextos de la guerra de Iraq, la crisis actual y concluye con un impactante llamado a la juventud:
A los revolucionarios más jóvenes, especialmente, recomiendo exigencia máxima y disciplina férrea, sin ambición de poder, autosuficiencia, ni vanaglorias. Cuidarse de métodos y mecanismos burocráticos. No caer en simples consignas. Ver en los procedimientos burocráticos el peor obstáculo. Usar la ciencia y la computación sin caer en lenguaje tecnicista e ininteligible de élites especializadas. Sed de saber, constancia, ejercicios físicos y también mentales.
En la nueva era que vivimos, el capitalismo no sirve ni como instrumento. Es como un árbol con raíces podridas del que sólo brotan las peores formas de individualismo, corrupción y desigualdad. Tampoco debe regalarse nada a los que pueden producir y no producen o producen poco. Prémiese el mérito de los que trabajan con sus manos o su inteligencia.
Si hemos universalizado los estudios superiores, debemos universalizar el trabajo físico simple, que ayuda por lo menos a realizar parte de las infinitas inversiones que todos demandan, cual si existiera una enorme reserva de divisas y de fuerza de trabajo. Cuídense en especial de los que inventan empresas del Estado con cualquier pretexto y administran después las fáciles ganancias cual si hubiesen sido capitalistas toda la vida, sembrando egoísmo y privilegios.
Mientras no se tome conciencia de esas realidades, ningún esfuerzo puede realizarse para "impedir a tiempo", como diría Martí, que el imperio al que vio surgir por haber vivido en sus entrañas, destroce los destinos de la humanidad.
Ser dialécticos y creadores. No hay otra alternativa posible.
En la última columna de Castro se leía que la religión no es un obstáculo para ser militante del Partido Comunista. ¿Piensa que se está preparando a los cubanos para un gran cambio?
Esta pregunta tuya es una prueba de lo poco que se conoce la realidad de Cuba. Es comprensible, ha sido mucha la manipulación mediática sobre nuestra vida nacional.
El libro Fidel y la Religión, Conversaciones con Frei Betto, un sacerdote dominico brasileño, editado por primera vez en octubre de 1985, originó un prolongado debate político en Cuba que culminó en 1991 cuando en mayoritarios segmentos sociales se llegó a la conclusión sobre la necesidad de rectificar una cierta posición discriminatoria contra algunos sectores creyentes y esa fue una de las premisas en el debate del IV Congreso del Partido celebrado ese año de 1991. Allí se aprobó el principio de que la religión no debía ser un obstáculo para que un creyente pudiese hasta llegar a ingresar en las filas del Partido Comunista de Cuba. Como ves, esa política se aprobó hace cerca de 27 años y Fidel en sus reflexiones no hizo otra cosa que recordarlo.
Las reformas constituciones de 1992, aprobadas por los diputados a la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular (Parlamento) enmendaron desde el punto de vista legislativo esa situación discriminatoria al establecer los principios del Estado Laico.
Debo aclararte que no hablamos solo de la religión católica o las protestantes, sino también de más de 50 congregaciones con personalidad jurídica, entre ellas varias denominaciones sincréticas de la cultura africana –que es la religión más extendida en Cuba-, las cuales por primera en la historia cubana han sido reconocidas por el Estado.
Si tuviera que hacer una autocrítica, ¿qué cambiaría de su periódico?
Autocráticamente, nuestro colectivo de redacción tiene que reflejar mucho más las contradicciones de nuestra sociedad, la lucha por resolver los problemas de la nación y el enfrentamiento a las deficiencias y con argumentos no retóricos o apologéticos demostrar que el socialismo es viable, porque para los cubanos cualquier otra opción es perder nuestra independencia y soberanía.
¿Cómo están considerados los periodistas en su país? ¿Son los garantes de la libertad de expresión?
Esta pregunta me obliga a tratar la disquisición conceptual que pretende denigrar al sistema político cubano.
En el mundo comunicacional, el concepto de libertad de expresión es muy controvertido, depende de la apreciación de cada cual. Por ejemplo, desde mi punto de vista se tienden a confundir la libertad de opinión del ciudadano y su derecho a estar informado con la llamada libertad de prensa que por sí misma, y en buena parte del mundo, impone limitaciones de una forma u otra por intereses propios de lo que no pocas veces, sin lugar a duda, resulta más bien la "libertad de empresa".
La libertad de expresión en nuestro caso la garantizan la Constitución y las leyes y sobre todas las cosas las condiciones materiales creadas para garantizar ese ejercicio y que están dadas por el hecho de que la prensa, la radio, la televisión, el cine y otros medios de difusión masiva son de propiedad estatal o social y no pueden ser objeto, en ningún caso, de propiedad privada, lo que asegura su uso al servicio exclusivo de los intereses de la sociedad.
En la difusión sobre las realidades de lo que acontece en Cuba hay mucha mala fe, pero visto el asunto cubano con objetividad nadie podría negar que en el ámbito político-cultural es ostensible una cada vez más abierta y profunda discusión de los problemas sociales, intelectuales, artísticos y filosóficos entre los propios creadores y un espacio crítico que tienen hoy reflejo en la diversidad de las numerosas publicaciones que se editan.
En la isla no existe un sentimiento de xenofobia o aldeanismo con respecto a la comunicación mundial. En el país se proyectan anualmente más de 1 200 filmes extranjeros, el 80 % de ellos norteamericanos. Se difunde la música universal de todos los tiempos y en los centros de documentación y bibliotecas hay pleno acceso a decenas de miles de autores de todas las corrientes, principios filosóficos y tendencias estéticas, así como a revistas y periódicos universales, mientras que en los medios televisuales se reproducen importantes segmentos informativos de varias cadenas televisivas internacionales.
Haga un ejercicio de búsqueda de los principales acontecimientos en la isla en el último año y verá que Cuba ha estado de congreso en congreso, de asamblea en asamblea, discutiendo plenamente y con absoluto respeto toda la agenda política del país.
No hay ninguna norma del Estado que impida el ejercicio de la opinión, y de hecho aun las personas que se convierten en instrumentos de la política de agresión de Estados Unidos contra Cuba, dentro de Cuba, expresan sin ninguna restricción legal el derecho a emitir sus opiniones, acudir a los corresponsales extranjeros o las misiones diplomáticas, establecen comunicaciones directas con personas y con medios en el exterior.
Cuba tiene una alta densidad radial y es una de las naciones que mayores accesos tiene a la comunicación mundial, cuando por la situación geográfica de la isla se pueden captar en el dial más de 100 emisiones internacionales, desde la BBC de Londres, Radio Exterior de España y la Voz del Vaticano, pasando por Radio Rumbo de Venezuela, Radio Caracol de Colombia y hasta la Voz de los Estados Unidos.
No es necesaria mucha imaginación para evaluar lo que puede significar para una isla larga y estrecha como Cuba, tener emplazada contra ella a 15 plantas radiales, transmitiendo en más de 30 frecuencias de ondas media y corta desde Estados Unidos, con más de 250 horas de programación diaria totalmente destinada para Cuba, con propaganda intencionada en los propósitos de infundir temor e incertidumbre, fanatismo, y enajenación, a la vez que empeñadas en estimular conductas sin escrúpulos y sin consideraciones éticas.
Desde estas emisoras, provenientes de Miami en lo fundamental, se promueve constantemente la subversión mediante llamados abiertos a la subversión civil, la realización de sabotajes a la economía nacional como forma de destrucción de la infraestructura del país, a la celebración de huelgas, a incrementar el delito económico, a colocar propaganda contra el Gobierno.
Agencias federales norteamericanas han dedicado más de 600 millones de dólares en los últimos años al fomento de estas plantas que operan bajo su amparo oficial (las más llamadas Radio y Televisión Martí), que se identifican o complementan con la de grupos terroristas y otras del servicio comercial de Miami, comprometidas por las ambiciones políticas de quienes las patrocinan.
Nadie en Cuba es perseguido ni por escuchar las transmisiones extranjeras, ni tampoco por oír ninguna de esas emisoras abiertamente antinacionales.
Y lo que es más, la mayoría de las personas que se autodenominan disidentes, hablan casi en muchísimas oportunidades por esas emisoras radiales, expresas sus comentarios directos o son entrevistados, a la vez que escriben desde la isla para los periódicos más importantes de Miami, sin que por ello sufran ninguna acción legal, pese a que en la mayoría de los casos se denigra flagrantemente y de manares reiterada a la Revolución, sus instituciones y sus dirigentes.
La prensa extranjera tiene acceso al país. Hay más de 150 periodistas de 111 medios de prensa extranjeros acreditados en las corresponsalías permanentes, incluidas las principales agencias cablegráficas internacionales y cerca de 20 000 periodistas de diversas latitudes obtuvieron visa para trabajar en el país y reportar libremente en los últimos 19 años, desde 1989.
Los periodistas en Cuba son profesionales y se distinguen por ser revolucionarios.
Hay algunos periodistas cubanos encarcelados por expresar su opinión. Como periodista que dirige Granma, ¿cuál es su opinión?
En Cuba no hay periodistas presos por ejercer su profesión. Hay mercenarios presos, pagados por una potencia extranjera, en este caso el gobierno de los Estados Unidos, para llevar adelante planes de subversión que propicien el derrocamiento de la Revolución.
En ningún país del mundo se admitiría el financiamiento de grupos de personas por una potencia extranjera para llevar adelante actividades políticas violatorias de las leyes.
¿Qué opina de medios como El Nuevo Herald en Miami?
El Nuevo Herald es un libelo de la mafia terrorista de Miami.
Si tienes tiempo tómate el trabajo de analizar lo que publica sobre Cuba The Miami Herald y El Nuevo Herald, que tienen la misma matriz, y si comparas los mismos textos en inglés y en español, apreciaras la manipulación,comprobarás esta apreciación.
¿Qué opinión tiene de los medios de comunicación europeos?
No se si en España será así, pero en Cuba cuando hay cosas difíciles acostumbramos a decir "Me la has puesto en China" (por el término de distancia). No tengo posibilidad de hacer una evaluación. Hay de todo como en botica. Pero con respecto a Cuba hay una tendencia bastante generalizada a la enajenación y publicitar cuanta manipulación se prepare contra la isla. Contra Cuba, todo es bueno.
¿Y de los medios norteamericanos más poderosos como New York Times o The Washington Post o The Wall Street Journal?
Nosotros aquí públicamente hemos denunciado la parcialidad con que algunos medios norteamericanos tratan el asunto cubano. Hay varias investigaciones que prueban el grado de complicidad que tienen con la política del gobierno, una de ellas es el silencio que han hecho del caso de cinco cubanos luchadores contra el terrorismo que guardan prisión injustamente, condenados a cadena perpetua en un amañado proceso judicial, donde se ha impuesto la presión de los grupos terroristas de Miami en contubernio con la Administración de George W. Bush.
Solo aporto como prueba, que cuando los abogados defensores apelaron a la Corte de Apelaciones del Circuito de Atlanta, fue nombrado un panel de tres renombrados jueces norteamericanos por esa misma Corte. Tras un año de revisión, los tres jueces elaboraron por unanimidad un documento de 93 páginas donde de punta a cabo, desde la A hasta la Z, consideraron que el proceso había sido arbitrario. En un precedente inaudito en la jurisprudencia norteamericana, el entonces Fiscal General de los Estados Unidos, Albert Gonzáles, a nombre del Gobierno de W. Bush solicitó a la Corte de Apelaciones la anulación del fallo del Panel de esos tres jueces, lo cual fue concedido. La prensa norteamericana ha ignorado completamente todo esto.
Ahora, si se piensa que estoy prejuiciado con Estados Unidos, invito a leer el libro Agentes de Poder, escrito por el catedrático y periodista J. Herbert Altschull, quien fue reportero y editor de la agencia AP, el diario The New York Times, la cadena televisiva NBC, y la revista Newsweek.
Analizando el cacareado código de la objetividad de que se enaltece la gran prensa norteamericana, ¿qué dice Altschull?
"Bajo el código de la objetividad no es posible atacar a las instituciones fundamentales. Y tampoco es posible atacar a los símbolos de esas instituciones fundamentales: por ejemplo, a la bandera, o a la "democracia"; o a la libertad de prensa, de expresión, o de religión; o a la Presidencia. No se puede aplaudir a los enemigos del sistema, ni a las representaciones simbólicas de esos enemigos. No se puede apoyar el ateísmo; la libertad religiosa no llega a ese extremo. Y tampoco se puede apoyar ningún símbolo de animosidad hacia la familia. La homosexualidad puede tolerarse, pero no apoyarse. La maternidad no puede ser condenada; el comunismo no puede ser defendido. Y para el caso, dentro de los perímetros del sistema, tampoco es aceptable atacar el código de la objetividad.
"Es más, el código de la objetividad parece ser eficaz sólo dentro de los límites geográficos de los Estados Unidos. Cuando Estados Unidos está en colisión con otra nación, no es necesario conceder la misma atención a "ambos lados" de la disputa; sería poco patriótico. Es raro encontrar que se conceda la misma importancia a las opiniones de Fidel Castro que a las de sus enemigos y cuando se presenta la postura de Castro, por lo común se reporta de tal manera que ilustre con claridad lo obstinado de sus puntos de vista".
¿Cree que Chávez es ya el nuevo mito de la izquierda en América Latina, como lo fue en su tiempo Fidel Castro?
Chávez y Fidel son símbolos de la cruenta lucha emprendida por los humildes y para los humildes. En esa consagración fecunda reside la grandeza de ambos y son referentes enaltecedores de los movimientos sociales.
Te reitero lo que escribí en enero, al día siguiente de la decisión de Fidel: En este mundo donde la política es una caricatura no pueden entender que esta Revolución en su pensamiento y en su acción es un proceso de continuidad y que el compañero Fidel seguirá siendo el líder de la Revolución de hoy y de mañana, que por encima de cargos y títulos, seguirá siendo el consejero de ideas al que tendremos que acudir siempre, porque Fidel ha logrado trascender la vida política para insertarse como algo íntimo en la vida familiar de la inmensa mayoría de los cubanos.
Si ha conocido personalmente a Hugo Chávez, ¿cómo lo definiría?
Un revolucionario y un hombre de su tiempo, consecuente con sus ideas.
¿Qué cree que le hace falta en este momento a Cuba desde el punto de vista económico?
Que termine el criminal bloqueo económico y financiero de los yankis y todas sus leyes extraterritoriales, y nos dejen hacer nuestra vida nacional en paz.
¿Cómo describiría el estado de ánimo de sus compatriotas?
Quien lea el Programa de Santa Fe, que fue la plataforma política elaborada por los pujantes neoconservadores republicanos en 1979 para la Administración de Ronald Reagan, encontrará que sobre Cuba quedó claramente definido que había que hacerle pagar caramente a La Habana el costo del desafío.
Los cubanos, como los españoles que enfrentaron al imperio de Napoleón en el siglo XIX, lo hemos resistido todo: amenaza de bombardeo nuclear, agresión militar, actos de terrorismo donde han sido asesinados más de 3 500 niños, mujeres y hombres, guerra económica para rendirnos por hambre y enfermedades, guerra bacteriológica que ha matado personas y dañado nuestras principales producciones agrícolas y ganaderas, guerra radial y televisiva, en fin, todo lo posible para derrocar a la Revolución. Y pese a todo, aquí estamos.
Acabamos de terminar en el país un proceso popular de discusión política. Más de cuatro millones de compatriotas participaron y se hizo más de un millón de planteamientos de asuntos a atender desde la fábrica, la cooperativa o la universidad, pasando por los municipios y provincias y hasta llegar a los ministerios, el gobierno o el Estado.Todas las opiniones, incluso las más críticas, estuvieron dirigidas a fortalecer la Revolución. Hay una expectativa muy favorable. Creo que el propio Presidente Raúl Castro lo definió claramente ante los diputados a la Asamblea Nacional: No hay por qué temer a las discrepancias en una sociedad como la nuestra, en que por su esencia no existen contradicciones antagónicas, porque no lo son las clases sociales que la forman. Del intercambio profundo de opiniones divergentes salen las mejores soluciones.
Hay optimismo en que con las medidas que se comienzan a aplicar, las cuales cuentan con el consenso popular, saldremos adelante. Si la Revolución inspira confianza es porque hace todo lo que dice.
¿Qué cree que debe Cuba copiar hoy día de China?
¿Copiar? Si algo hemos aprendido en estos años es que "a historia propia, soluciones propias".
Con China tenemos buenísimas relaciones en todos los campos y constituyen un ejemplo de transparencia y colaboración pacífica entre dos naciones que sostienen los ideales del socialismo. Las ventajas que disfrutan nuestros dos países al compartir similares objetivos, salvando las particularidades propias, crean el ambiente necesario que facilitan el desarrollo ulterior estable e ininterrumpido.
En Europa, en muchos medios, hay una fuerte oposición al embargo. ¿Cree que los medios europeos han sido muy débiles a la hora de oponerse o crear estados de opinión?
Europa ha utilizado a Cuba como una tarjeta de cambio en sus relaciones trasatlánticas con Estados Unidos. Su oposición ha sido más bien discursiva porque es demasiado evidente la trasgresión de las normas del Derecho Internacional dadas las disposiciones extraterritoriales de leyes norteamericanas como la Torricelli o la Helms-Burton. Ha primado más bien el patrón mediático contra la isla, reclamándole medidas injerencistas a Cuba, las cuales no las han pedido a nadie más en este mundo.
Por último, ¿diría que Cuba está a las puertas del cambio más importante desde que comenzó la Revolución hace justamente 50 años?
He observado con respeto que casi todas las preguntas que me has hecho tienen como elemento vinculante la palabra "CAMBIO".
Me pregunto ¿y qué tiene que cambiar Cuba?
A una pregunta similar respondí en el periódico semanas atrás:
¿Qué cambios estructurales o que transición tendría que hacer Cuba después de la que hizo el Primero de Enero de 1959?
¿Puede olvidarse que las leyes y medidas revolucionarias más radicales, que modificaron completamente los cimientos de nuestro Estado, fueron adoptadas con el beneplácito de la inmensa mayoría de la población?
No hay posiblemente otro caso en la historia en que una Revolución y su liderazgo hayan contado con un apoyo tan masivo y en una época caracterizada por cambios profundos, radicales y acelerados, a la vez que ha tenido que enfrentarse durante medio siglo a la fuerza descomunal de la agresión norteamericana.
El Estado revolucionario rescató para todo el pueblo las riquezas nacionales de manos de los imperialistas y de los explotadores de todo tipo: eliminó el desempleo y abrió fuentes de trabajo para todos: acabó con el analfabetismo y puso la educación de manera gratuita al alcance de todos y con plena equidad social: garantizó por primera vez la atención médica y hospitalaria gratuitamente a todos; popularizó y amplió los cauces de la cultura; desarrolló el deporte y algo muy sobresaliente: organizó al pueblo, le dio armas y le enseñó a manejarlas para que se defendiera.
La Revolución ha partido de motivaciones auténticas, de valores y principios éticos y morales para mover a la mayoría de los cubanos hacia una participación soberana de sus ciudadanos en los asuntos más importantes de la sociedad.
Eso no quiere decir que estemos satisfechos ni mucho menos, y que aun en el orden democrático haya que trabajar por lograr un estadio superior, pero nadie puede negar que por primera vez en nuestra historia nacional las mayorías sociales logran expresarse como mayorías políticas.
Si ya hicimos esa transición hace 50 años, ¿qué nos proponen entonces como no sea volver atrás, al otro medio siglo de neocolonia con un daño irreversible: perder nuestra identidad?
I have problems to use the words "front" and "back". So this is just the other side of this one, the side with the weaving.
I'm looking for more potential tessellations which can be a prototype for modular quilts.
Square twist tessellation are good examples.
Here is one. It is similar to the square weave tessellation out of the tessellation book by Eric Gjerde, just the squares are bigger. The square edge fold goes through three grids.
Has anyone examine the different types of square twists ?
Is there a notation for the different sizes ?
Folder: Dirk Eisner
F-Color paper
Success at last! I've tried a couple of times to get this shot right, and this one turned out as I wanted it too!
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
I do not have any problems with sleeping but when I fall asleep, I have this new problem of squeezing my teeth so badly that my jaw aches when I wake up. I guess It is time to dig into the deeps of some Freudian ideas
James has spilled his tea on his laptop keyboard, and it no longer works. It's unfortunately common for people to spill liquids on their laptops, but the results are very variable, and can include both – electrical and physical damage, ranging from short circuits to long-term corrosion. It depends a lot on the type of liquid, the quantity and how quickly you react.
Water and green tea are at the better end of the spectrum, especially in small quantities. Drinks that include a lot of sugar – which includes anything sweetened with honey – and milk are at the bad end. The problem is that drinks often leave a residue when they dry. The bigger the residue, the bigger the risk. It's often easier to replace a keyboard than to clean it, if the rest of the laptop still works.
A good first response to a spill is to unplug the laptop immediately, if it's plugged into the mains, and then remove the battery as quickly as possible. This will reduce the risk of electrical damage. If the battery is sealed in, the best you can do is shut the machine down. Either way, try to keep the laptop upside down to reduce the risk of liquid reaching the motherboard.