View allAll Photos Tagged article,
Article in the Sunday Mail, using 3 of my photos without my permission, no credit given, no payments made. My 3 are the decent ones, theirs are the 2 rubbish BNP / IRA tags.
Edit: some good ideas and discussion about it at:
www.flickr.com/groups/central/discuss/72157594517395848/
Like my photos? Buy me a coffee!
Thanks to fotoswoch My photograph got published in Ostholsteiner Anzeiger newspaper.
Original German
"Seize the moment" nannte Lateefa aus den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten ihr geheimnisvolles Bild. Die 23 Jährige stammt aus dem Emirat Dubai undwurde alsFoto grafin bereits mehrfach preisgekrönt. Über ihr Motive schreibt sie:,,Als junge Araberin benutze ich den Schleier in meiner Arbeit, da er ein wichtiger Teil von mir selbst ist. Dennoch erzählen meine Aufnahmen nicht vom Schleier, sondern von der Frau dahinter - und die ist trotz der Verschleierung wie alle anderen Frauen. "In der linken Hand hält das Modell eine große indische Frucht.
Die Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten, darunter Dubai, und grenzen an Saudi-Arabian, Oman und Katar. Die Binnengrenzen sind nicht exakt festgelegt und die Kustenlinie am Persischen Golf kann nicht genau bestimmt werden, da sie sich durch Verlagerung von Sand und Schlickmassen ständig ändert.
English translation : thanks to Jessica.
' The U.A.E citizen Lateefa has called her mysterious picture 'Seize the moment'. The 23 year old comes from the Emirate of Dubai and has received several prizes for her photography. She writes about her work; 'as a young Arab woman I used the veil in my work - as it is an important part of myself. However my photos aren't speaking about the veil but the woman behind it - and in spite of being veiled, she is the same as all other women. ' In the left hand, the model holds a large Indian fruit. The U.A.E of which Dubai is one emirate, borders with Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar. The internal borders are not precisely marked and the coastline if the Persian Gulf can't be exactly identified as it constantly changes with the movement of sand and sand banks. '
A 2 page article about my night photography / light painting is appearing in the May issue of "Hemmings Classic Car" magazine. A pdf of the full article can be found here.
All Saints, Gazeley, Suffolk
All Saints at Gazeley, near Newmarket, was the first church that I visited after an international team of scientists conclusively proved that God did not exist. Thus begins the original article about Gazeley parish church that I wrote for the Suffolk Churches site, back in May 2003. At that stage, I had visited more than 600 Suffolk churches, and the site was moving towards a kind of completion. The entries were becoming longer and tending more towards the philosophical. The acquisition of a digital camera meant that I could already see I would need to do the whole lot again, but that would be in the future. For now, I had Norfolk in my sights, and there was an end-of-term feel to what I was writing about Suffolk. I am afraid that All Saints, Gazeley, took the full brunt of it.
The article generated a fair amount of correspondence, as you may imagine. It was discussed on BBC Radio Suffolk. I was questioned rather cautiously about it by someone in the Diocese.
The parish themselves took it rather well. To be honest, I had caught them at a low ebb, and they welcomed the publicity. I had also visited them immediately before a time of great change, when heads had fallen, but loins were about to be girded, and the Church of England was stirring itself again in that lovely village. One of the advantages of visiting every parish church in East Anglia is that you also get to see every parish, of course, and I soon fell in love with these sleepy, fat villages along the Cambridgeshire border. I would move there tomorrow, quite happily.
However, the article still makes the point I was originally trying to make, and the contrast between then and now shows this special place in a light it thoroughly deserves, for this is one of East Anglia's loveliest churches, and deserves all the visitors it can get. Anyway, I thought so then, and I certainly think so now.
Here is what I wrote in 2003: 'All Saints at Gazeley, near Newmarket, was the first church that I visited after an international team of scientists conclusively proved that God did not exist. I was intrigued to know how a wealthy, reasonably large Suffolk village would respond to this challenge. What would they do with their church? I had a theory. I suspected that the old church buildings would continue to find a community use. Small groups of people would still congregate on a Sunday mornings to sing comforting songs and feel good about each other. The churches would still be used by secular couples wanting a fancy wedding, and the local villagers would still want to be buried in the graveyard. But the building would no longer have a Christian use.
It was with some dismay, however, that I arrived in Gazeley to discover that the rot had already set in. The first sign of this was the way in which the large windows facing onto the road had holes the size of small rocks in them. This was disturbing, especially because the east window at Gazeley is one of the most remarkable Decorated windows in East Anglia. The head of the window consists of two elegant overlapping trefoils, but there is no head to the arch, the head itself having cusps. You can see it in the left hand column; Cautley thought it was unique.
I went and tried the door, but of course it was locked. Ever since the announcement of God's non-existence, heads have dropped in the Anglican community, and many of them no longer have the will to welcome strangers and visitors. I went next door to the Rectory. I knocked on the door, rang the bell. Nobody came. Perhaps the Rector had fled town. I had tried phoning several numbers I had taken from the Diocesan website, but nobody had answered. There were keyholders listed in the church porch, but no phone numbers. Gazeley is a fairly large village, and we didn't have a street map, but by driving around (sorry about the carbon monoxide, folks) we tracked some of the houses down. Several cars were on the driveways outside (as I said, this is a wealthy village) but nobody came to the door. Perhaps they had given up in despair. I felt Gazeley's strange torpor beginning to settle on me like snow.
We found the house where the last address was supposed to be. I went to the side door, and eventually someone answered. "Yes?" he was very curt, so I don't know who he was expecting. I, however, was a model of charm and good manners, and explained my mission to see inside Gazeley church, and that I understood he was a keyholder, a churchwarden in fact. His wife came to the kitchen door behind him, to see who it was. I could smell cooking, and I assumed that they were both about to eat, the time being 5pm on a Saturday.
"The church is locked", he said. I agreed that this was the case, and wondered if access was possible. "It was open earlier today, you should have come then", he observed. I concurred that it would have been better, but that we had been visiting other churches, and had only just arrived in Gazeley. He thought for a second. "I'll have to come with you." The man checked that the twenty minutes I had suggested would not deprive him of his tea, and walked with me up to the church. On the way, the man explained how he and his wife had spent the day preparing the church for the harvest festival. I made a mental note that this was another event that had survived the death of God, as would Christmas probably.
We walked across the wide open graveyard, and I looked up at the great ship of Gazeley church. There is no doubt which county you are in; here, the complete rebuilding of the nave with clerestory and aisles was at the start of the 16th century, and as at Blythburgh they didn't get around to rebuilding the tower before the Protestant Reformation intervened. The huge chancel had been built on the eve of the Black Death, and has similarities with the one at Mildenhall. Perhaps a rebuilding was planned, but it never happened. The tower was largely reconstructed in the 19th century.
To my surprise, he took us not to either south or north porch, but to the great west door. This led us beneath the tower and behind the organ, and we stepped into darkness. Daylight was fading, but here it must be always gloomy, among the broom cupboards and stacks of junk. The churchwarden found the light switches, and we walked around the organ into the body of the church.
Back in the days when God still existed, I had been to Gazeley church before. It had been a bright, cold February morning in 1999, and I was cycling from Newmarket to Ipswich. I'd arrived in Gazeley to find the church open, and had thought it lovely. There was a delicate balance between respect for the medieval and the demands of the modern liturgy. It felt at once a house of prayer and a spiritual touchstone to the long generations. However, the slight crimp in all this was that, at the time, the regular Sunday congregation of Gazeley church had been reduced to single figures. The same was true of neighbouring Kentford. The Rector may not have been to blame; he was very energetic in in his pastoral activities in the village, and people still turned up for the big occasions. But I wondered what effect all this had had, and asked the churchwarden.
He was very candid. He told me that they had had a terrible time of it. The electoral roll had fallen to just three people, and this is not a small village. Nobody wanted to come to church any more. He had lived in the village for years, and had seen all this happen. It was only in the last year or so that he felt the church had been turned around by the new Rector (the one I had suspected of leaving town). Now, there were more than twenty of them, and they felt like a proper community again, he said.
I found this interesting. The previous Rector had been a Forward in Faith-supporting Anglo-catholic, and such a tradition was not terribly popular with the suits at Diocesan House. The new Rector had moved the church back towards the mainstream.
I looked around the vast open nave. All Saints is one of the biggest churches in the west of the county, and it must take a good five hundred people to make it feel full. I tried to imagine what it must have been like here, just three in the congregation.
The warden and his wife had tried hard to decorate the church for the harvest festival, and it looked particularly lovely towards the east. The greenery on the tombchest and piscina was very well done. But inevitably the fruit and vegetables were sparse, and there was no disguising the general air of shabbiness and decay underneath the decoration. I felt a bit sorry for the churchwarden, for he had stuck with the place through thick and thin, and clearly loved it. The chancel and central eastern part of the nave were clean and tidy, but all around were the encroaching shadows, and here lurked the dust and dirt.
The higher you looked, the filthier it became. The clerestory windows were coated in grime, and the lower parts cloaked in decades of cobwebs. The medieval cross beams are still in place, but the Victorian roof above is leaky, and areas of damp showed above the high arcades. It seemed unlikely that all this could have happened in the short time since the Geneva declaration of 2007 announced all faith in a Supreme Being to be 'utterly null and void'. Mortlock had commented on the poor condition of the royal arms as long ago as 1988. Could it be that they were in this state when this building was still in use for Christian worship?
Having seen the stone holes in the windows, I was mightily relieved that the Victorians had reset the medieval glass up in the clerestory. This seems a curious thing to have done, since it defeats the purpose of a clerestory, but if they had not done so then we might have lost it. The glass matches the tracery in the north aisle windows, so that is probably where they came from. I had seen them on my previous visit, but could not remember where they were, and when I asked the keyholder he did not seem aware that the church had any medieval glass. Eventually I found it. There are angels, three Saints and some shields, most of which are heraldic but two show the instruments of the passion and the Holy Trinity. I would not be surprised to learn that some of the shields are 19th century, but the figures are all original late 15th or early 16th century. The Saints are an unidentified Bishop, the hacksaw-wielding St Faith and one of my favourites, St Apollonia. She it was who was invoked by medieval people against toothache.
It struck me as I gazed up that many parish churches had much less to lose than Gazeley. At one time, these places were vibrant hubs of spiritual communities, but now they would be left to wither and die. Some would become houses of course, but Gazeley's church is much too big. Some might be kept as examples of our redundant belief systems, but here at Gazeley there would be too much to tidy up and sort out. So All Saints at Gazeley must be considered merely as a treasure house. Here, then, is a guide to why it must survive the 2007 Geneva Declaration.
Firstly, the chancel. Here, the space created by the clearing of clutter makes it at once mysterious and beautiful. Above, the early 16th century waggon roof is Suffolk's best of its kind. Mortlock points out the little angels bearing scrolls, the wheat ears and the vine sprays, and the surviving traces of colour. The low side window on the south side still has its hinges, for here it was that updraught to the rood would have sent the candles flickering in the mystical church of the 14th century. On the south side of the sanctuary is an exquisitely carved arched recess, that doesn't appear to have ever had a door, and may have been a very rare purpose-built Easter sepulchre at the time of the 1330s rebuilding. Opposite is a huge and stunningly beautiful piscina, and beside it are sedilia that end in an arm rest carved in the shape of a beast. It is one of the most significant Decorated moments in Suffolk.
On the floor of the chancel there is a tiny, perfect chalice brass, one of only two surviving in Suffolk. The other is at Rendham. Not far away is the indent of another chalice brass - or perhaps it was for the same one, and the brass has been moved for some reason. There are two chalice indents at Westhall, but nowhere else in Suffolk. Chalice brasses were popular memorials for Priests in the 15th and early 16th centuries, and thus were fair game for reformers. Heigham memorials of the late 16th century are on the walls. Back in the south aisle there is a splendid tombchest in Purbeck marble. It has lost its brasses, but the indents show us where they were, as do other indents in the aisle floors. Some heraldic brass shields survive, and show that Heighams were buried here. Brass inscriptions survive in the nave and the chancel, dating from the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
Piled up and decrepit in the south west corner are some extraordinary 14th century benches with pierced tracery backs. Some of them appear to spell out words, Mortlock thought one might say Salaman Sayet. The block of benches to the north appear to have been made using sections of the 15th century rood loft. Further north, the early 17th century benches may appear crude, but were almost certainly the work of the village carpenter.
The 14th century font is a stunning example of the tracery pattern series that appeared in the decades before the Black Death. They may have been intended to spread ideas at that time of great artistic and intellectual flowering before it was so cruelly snatched away. The cover is 17th century.
The place is absolutely glorious, but few people seem to know about it, and fewer seem to care. If it had been clean, tidy and open, Simon Jenkins England's Thousand Best Churches would not have been able to resist it. Should the survival of such a treasure store depend upon the existence of God or the continued practice of the Christian faith? Or might there be other reasons to keep this extraordinary building in something like its present integrity? It needs thousands spent on it, hundreds of thousands, but is this something that we as a nation or culture should consider worth doing? Will it be sufficient to photograph it all and then let it fall, or do we need to rescue this building before it is too late?
Increasingly, it seemed to me that what the parish needed was not condemnation for the state the building was in, but encouragement to put it right. I pointed out several of the features outlined above, but I think the poor man was beginning to register quite what a task he had on his hands, so I fell quiet. I did reassure him that the building really was the responsibility of us all, and not just the Church of England; it was the heart and touchstone of the whole village, and not just of his faith community.
We'd been there for nearly an hour. I took pity, and offered to lock up and return the key to his house. He thought about it for a moment. I guessed he was weighing up whether or not he trusted us to make the church secure, but he just said "you don't need to bring the key back, it's a yale lock. Just let yourself out, and let the door close behind you." And he said goodbye and went home - rather more thoughtfully, I fear, than he had left it.
It was dark. I put out the lights, and stood for a moment in the wide gloom, in the infinite stillness. I listened to the sound of my own breathing. I knew this was the most endangered building I had visited so far on my travels. But I'm determined we won't lose it.'
And that was that. At the end of the original article, I had pointed out that the 2007 Geneva Declaration on the non-existence of God was, of course, entirely fictitious. This was partly to reassure the good people of Gazeley, but also to save confusing any excitable Dawkinsites. Gazeley church was, after all, still in use for Christian worship. I also pointed out that the rest of the article was completely true as things had stood in May 2003. However, over the next few months I received a number of e-mails from people in the parish telling me how the church was being taken to task, tidied up, cleaned out, and, even more important, made accessible. Coming back in May 2008 I was delighted to discover than both the south and north doors were now open, and I stepped out of the sunlight into an interior which positively shouted its welcome to pilgrims and strangers. Perhaps it helped that it was such a beautiful day, for the interior was full of light falling across ancient stone and woodwork. Everything shone with love and care. Quite frankly, it lifted the heart. Perhaps the most moving sight was of the brightly coloured children's table and chairs, which have been given pride of place at the east end of the south aisle, rather than being tucked away under the tower or behind the font. Having once almost lost its congregation altogether, the community at Gazeley now puts its children's corner in a prominent position, where everyone can see it.
The wide open space of the chancel was still one of the loveliest interiors I knew in Suffolk, but now it had something else, a feeling of hope. Great things had happened here. I mentioned it afterwards to a Catholic Priest friend of mine, and he said he hoped I knew I'd seen the power of the Holy Spirit at work. And perhaps that is so. Certainly, the energy and imagination of the people here have been fired by something. I wanted to find someone to ask about it, to find out how things stood now. But there was no one, and so the building spoke for them.
Back outside in the graveyard, the dog daisies clustered and waved their sun-kissed faces in the light breeze. The ancient building must have known many late-May days like this over the centuries, but think of all the changes that it has known inside! The general buffeting of the winds of history still leaves room for local squalls and lightning strikes. All Saints has known these, but for now a blessed calm reigns here. Long may it remain so.
You can read the full article on this locomotive at brickmodelrailroader.com
Norfolk & Western Railway, A class 2-6-6-4 Steam Locomotive
Norfolk & Western's "Mercedes of Steam", these articulateds featured the latest steam locomotive technology when introduced in the late 1930s. A total of 43 A class locomotives were built in the N&W's own shops at Roanoke, Virginia. Capable of 125,897 pounds of tractive effort, and able to pull passenger trains at 70 mph, the A class is one of the all time great steam locomotives. A class no. 1218 is preserved at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke Virginia.
My LEGO model of 1218 features working Baker valve gear, and is powered by two Power Functions XL motors in the tender driving through the tender trucks.
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Article: Lets Put A Stop To Trolling Like Mayanti Langer, The wife of An Indian Cricket Player
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Camera Lens, a different way…
To make good pictures, you need a good camera with good lenses. Such lenses are expensive in India. “What if we make lens at home?” was the question that came to the mind of Pune based Meghana Kulkarni, an architect by profession. Who went ahead and successfully experimented on making lens at home. Today, she is also known for her lens along with photography.
While studying architecture, Meghana, fell in love with Photography. From here her search for lens with special effects started. While searching the internet, she stumbled upon people in foreign countries who made lens at home. She thought, “What if I made those lenses?” This triggered her experimentation with home made lens for “special” effects.
Till date Meghana has made 3-4 special lenses, like a Macro lens for close up photography and a Lens baby. What’s even more special about these lenses is that she made them using stuff easily found at home: paper, cloth, driller and glass from old magnifying glasses. She has also made a pinhole camera using old cameras.
She publishes information abt her experiments on her website too.
Even though she is an architect, photography has become her passion. Some of her photos have also been published in travel magazines. Such magazines are always open to different types of pictures.
Apart from this, she also wants to try film photography and developing.
Errors:
1. I publish information about my experiements on my blog. I don't have a website... yet
2. I made a pinhole camera out of a sweet shop box and not out of an old camera.
Things I'm unsure about:
1. if a driller is commonly found in every household.
2. If travel magazines really open to different types of photographs.
The Heading of an article, “All Diplomats are not Gentlemen”, that appeared in one of the issues of the Indian newspaper “The Tribune’” in February, 2002 initially shocked the entire Diplomatic Community of that country. However, their shock was short-lived, for they soon realised that the article concerned contained a praiseworthy account as to how the “Indian Lady Diplomats” were contributing to the development of India through their skills in diplomacy and international relations, which were not second or inferior to those of their counterparts, the “Gentleman Diplomats”. It is an unquestionable fact that the Indian Women Diplomats are equal to their tasks and are rendering an invaluable service to their country.
Our own women of Sri Lanka too had left indelible marks in the historical records in rendering invaluable services to our motherland and today, being the International Women’s day, I consider it as our duty to talk about our own Sri Lankan Women Diplomats and other distinguished Sri Lankan Women who had brought fame to our paradise island and some of whom are still rendering their invaluable services towards the betterment of our motherland. Purpose of this article is especially to place on record the contributions they have made in the fields of Diplomacy and International Relations.
When talking about Sri Lankan Women the name of our first Woman Prime Minister, the late Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike, is a sine quo non. After the demise of her husband, the Oxford educated and world famous one time Prime Minister of this country, the late Hon. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the mantle of the Premiership of this country quite unexpectedly fell on the late Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike. With reluctance she accepted the responsibility and in a short period of time she was able to measure up to the very responsible position she was holding. She did not disappoint her supporters nor did she betray the confidence reposed in her by the nation. She soon became a leading world figure and was acclaimed as the “First Woman Prime Minister of the world”. The Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) today stands tall to her memory and hosts conferences of international nature thus bringing fame to this country. The Chinese gift of the BMICH was the result of the friendly relationship she cultivated with world leaders, especially of the Non-Aligned Movement. She associated closely with world leaders of the calibre of the late Mrs. Indira Gandhi of India, the late Field Marshal Ayub Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan the late Hon.Chou En Lai of China, the late Hon. Anwar Sadat of Egypt, the late Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia and the like. She was a friend of the former Socialist Bloc, but was not a foe of the opposite side.
Her involvement in settling the Indo-Pakistan war in 1961 and the China-India Border issue in 1961 amply demonstrated her skills in international relations and her acceptance by the Non-Aligned Nations. It was the late Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike who brought a resolution before the UN seeking the “Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Peace Zone”.
She followed the footsteps of her late husband and played a prominent role in the Non- Aligned Movement. Her crowning moment was when she was elected the Chairperson of the Non-Aligned Movement and chaired the Non-Aligned Movement Conference held in 1976 at the BMICH. She was not considered as a “Politician”. She was considered as a “Stateswoman” and she fitted into that role in every respect.
A former President of Sri Lanka, Madam Chandrika Kumaranatunga, is a unique personality. She was also once the Prime Minister of this country and also was once the Chief Minister of a Provincial Council. She is the daughter of two former heads of the Government (Prime Ministers) while she herself was the head of the Government (President) for over a period of a decade. Her record, I believe, cannot be matched by anyone in the democratic world. As President of this country she participated at five SAARC Summit Meetings and chaired the SAARC Summit Meeting held in Sri Lanka in 1998. During her tenure of office as President of this country she participated at several Commonwealth Meetings and also addressed the United Nations.
After Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) gained independence from the British in 1948 several diplomatic appointments were made to represent Sri Lanka in several parts of the world and at that time the Sri Lankan diplomatic service was the “domain of the man”. It was only from the year 1963 that women were first chosen by the Sri Lanka Government to represent Sri Lanka as Ambassadors/High Commissioners in other countries.
The scenario in our neighboring countries was not the same. In 1946, Mrs. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit she undertook her first official Diplomatic Mission as leader of the Indian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. She also led India's delegations to the General Assembly in 1947, 1948, 1952, 1953, and 1963. She joined the Foreign Service and was appointed India's first Ambassador to the Soviet Union. In early 1949 she became Ambassador to the United States. In September 1953 she was given the honor of being the first woman and the first Asian to be elected president of the U.N. General Assembly. In December 1954, she served as Indian high commissioner to the United Kingdom
Ms. Begum Raana Liquat Ali Khan served as the Ambassador of Pakistan in the Netherlands from 1954 to 1961.
Ms Chokila Iyer became the First Indian Foreign Secretary in 2001. Ms. Nirupama Rao was the Second Foreign Secretary of India. Present Indian Lok Sabha Speaker Ms Mairra Kumar also was a prominent Indian Foreign service Diplomat. Present Pakistan Foreign Minister, Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar and the present Bangladesh Foreign Minister Ms. Dipu Moni are prominent Diplomatic personalities of South Asia.
Ms. Manel Kannangara was the first woman to be recruited to the “Ceylon Overseas Service” (now the Sri Lanka Foreign Service) in 1958 and thereafter significant numbers of the fair sex have joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service and are serving in various parts of the world rendering invaluable services to the country
It was during the tenure of office of Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike as the Prime Minister of this country that initial steps were taken to appoint women as Ambassadors/High Commissioners to represent Sri Lanka in other countries. The first such appointment, on the Independence Day of 1963, was that of Ms. Loraine Senaratne, a non-career appointee, to represent Sri Lanka in Accra, Ghana. She had to return to Sri Lanka with the change of the Government in 1965 and she was once again appointed as the Sri Lankan Ambassador in Italy in the year 1970.
In 1975 history appeared to have repeated itself. The second woman to be appointed to an Ambassadorial post by the Sri Lankan Government was that of Ms. Theja Gunawardena. That too was a non-career Diplomat and was also with the blessings of the then Prime Minister, Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Her Ambassadorial appointment was to Pakistan and concurrently accredited to Iran to represent Sri Lanka. Mrs. Gunawardena was a very active member and the chief organizer of the Lanka Mahila Samithi Moment. She had gained considerable knowledge in International Relations as a result of her participating at many International Conferences relating to “women and development”. The ‘'Ravana Dynasty in Sri Lanka's Dance Drama” (Kohomba Kamkaariya), one of her reputed publications, illustrates her research and Authorship. After the change of the Government In 1977 she was recalled to Sri Lanka.
Ms. Sumithra Peries, the well-known film Director served as the Sri Lankan Ambassador in France from 1995 to 1997. Her artistic skills in coordinating various events made her a popular figure among the diplomatic community in Paris. She was a non-career diplomat
Ms. Rosy Senanayake was the first to be crowned as “Mrs. World” in 1984. She was appointed as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Malaysia in 2002. She was also a UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador for Sri Lanka since 1998. Much of her professional life has been devoted to in promoting Sri Lanka worldwide. Ms. Senanayake has taken a great interest in promoting the rights of women and adolescents in Sri Lanka. As UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador she has encouraged reproductive health services for workers, in particular for migrant women workers of Sri Lanka, the women workers of the Free Trade Zones, and for young people, through the National Youth Services Council. During her two years Diplomatic assignment in Malaysia she contributed immensely to the improvement of Trade, Economic and Cultural affairs between the two countries. She was a non-career diplomat
Ms. Jayathri Samarakone served as the Sri Lankan High commissioner to Singapore from 2008 to 2010. During her two years service in Singapore she arranged several projects to promote the image of Sri Lanka. She was a non-career diplomat.
Ms. Tamara Kunanayakam, is an illustrious non-career Diplomat. In the year 2011 she was appointed as the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva, where she is serving at present. In the year 2007 she held the post of First Secretary at the Sri Lanka Embassy in Brazil and in 2008 she was appointed as the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Havana (Cuba). Her splendid knowledge of the French and Spanish languages has stood in good stead for her to discharge her duties at PRUN in Geneva where French and Spanish languages are widely in use.
Ms. Farial Ashroff, a former Cabinet Minister and the widow of the former Chief of the Muslim Congress, the late Mr. Ashroff, was appointed as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Singapore in 2011, where she is presently serving. She is actively engaged in promotional activities on behalf of the country. She is a non-career Diplomat
On 21st December, 2010 Dr (Ms). Hiranthi Wijemanne was nominated to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child”. Prior to her present nomination to the UN Committee she has served the Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat, the National Child Protection Authority and the Department of Probation and Child Care. Dr. (Ms) Wijemanne has worked with UNICEF and other UN agencies for several years. She is a non-career Diplomat. Recently it has announced that Mrs Bharathi Wijeratne, Former Honorary Consul of Turkish Republic to Sri Lankan will be appoint as Sri Lanka Ambassador to Ankara
Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy is the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed her to that position in April 2006. In this capacity, she serves as a moral voice and independent advocate to build awareness and give prominence to the rights and protection of boys and girls affected by armed conflicts. From 1996 to 2006 she also had delivered lectures annually at a summer course at New College, Oxford, on International Human Rights of Women. She has also served as a member of the Global Faculty of the New York University of Law. In May, 2003, she was appointed Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission. There are several publications to her credit, including two books on constitutional law and other publications on ethnic studies and the status of women.
In recognition of her service to the country in particular and the world at large, the President of Sri Lanka conferred on her the title of Deshamanya, a prestigious national honour.
Ms. Neetha Ariyaratne Hon. Secretary Sarvodaya Suwasetha Sewa Society is also a prominent social worker who received respect from world community on her capable strength on empowerment of women through Sarvodaya Movement. She has participated at several regional and international conferences. She received number of awards.
Ms Seela Ebert, A former member of Sri Lanka Administrative Service had served as Regional Director of Commonwealth Youth Programme, Asian Centre in Chandigarh from 1994 to 2000. During her service at the Regional Centre, she had participated at many regional and International Conferences on Youth and Development as well as Women and Gender development.
Ms. Sunila Abeysekera is an award winning human rights campaigner and has worked on women's rights and human rights issues in Sri Lanka and in the South Asian region for over a period of 20 years as an activist and scholar. Secretary General Kofi Annan presented Ms. Abeysekera with a UN human rights award in 1999. She was also honoured for her work by the Human Rights Watch.
Ms Kumari Jayawardena is a leading feminist figure and academic in Sri Lanka. She is the author of several books, including “Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World”, for which she was selected for the Feminist Fortnight award in Britain in 1986 and was cited by Ms. Magazine in 1992 as “writing one of the 20 most important books of the feminist decades" (1970–1990). This text is widely used in Women's Studies programs around the world.
In “Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World”, Ms. Jayawardena reconstructs the history of women's rights movements in Asia and the Middle East from the 19th century to the 1980s, focusing on Egypt, Turkey, Iran, India, Sri Lanka, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, Korea and the Philippines.
Ms. Venetia Gamage, a Prominent Social worker of Sri Lanka and Former Commissioner of the Sri Lanka Girl Guide Moments also has participated at many International events as Commissioner of Girl Guide and Chairperson of National Youth Award Authority of Sri Lanka.
The credit of being the first Woman Career Diplomat of Sri Lanka goes to Ms. Manel Kannangara. After her appointment to the Ceylon Overseas Officer as a Cadet Officer in 1958 she received her first Ambassadorial appointment as Sri Lankan Ambassador to Thailand in 1974. Subsequently she functioned as the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Germany with accreditation to Austria and Switzerland. Her constructive contributions to the Foreign Ministry in particular and international diplomacy in general are significant. In the year 1980 she authored “The Protocol Manual of Ministry of Foreign Affairs” while serving as the Chief of Protocol of the Ministry (1974-1980). In the year 1976 she was tasked with the responsibility of organising the Non-Aligned Summit where 92 Heads of States participated at the Conference. Her capacity for work was unquestionable and she was an indefatigable worker. She planned the activities of the Summit meticulously paying attention to every detail and the 1976 Non-Aligned Summit was a complete success.
In 2011 Ms. Manel Abeysekara published her autobiography titled “Madam Sir” where she relates in chronological order the challenges she faced during her diplomatic assignments. An incident she cites in her Autobiography is the hijacking of the “Alitalia” Boeing 747 Aircraft in June 1982 by Sepala Ekanayake, who threatened to blow up the Aircraft unless his demands were met. One of his demands was for his Italian wife to bring his son to him. Ms. Manel Abeysekera’s description of that moment in her autobiography is given as follows:
“Although I am not particularly religious, I prayed fervently at that moment. His wife
Was persuaded to come, together with his son. After the child spoke
to him, I asked him to release the passengers from the plane which he did,”
She also served as the Director-General of Political Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; as the Chairperson of the Presidential Committee on Women; and also as the Chairperson of the Sri Lanka National Chapter in the Coalition for Action on South Asian Cooperation.
The Second Career Woman Diplomat was Ms. Mary Lakshmi Naganathan. She joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service in 1960 and resigned from service in 1983 while serving as Sri Lankan Ambassador to Germany. Ms. Mary Luxkshmi Naganathan was the first woman career diplomat from the Tamil community to reach that level.
Ms. Sarala Frenando joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service in 1975. She was the First Sri Lankan woman Permanent UN Representative in Geneva (in 2003). In addition Ms. Sarala Fernando served as Sri Lankan Ambassador to Sweden and Thailand.
The 1981 batch of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service Officers had three female officers, viz., Ms. Geetha De Silva, Ms. Chitrangani Wagieswara and Ms. Pamela Deen. Ms. Geetha De Silva served as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Canada. Ms. Wagiswara is presently serving as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Canada. Previously she served as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Singapore and the Sri Lankan Ambassador to France. Ms. Pamela Deen is presently the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Poland and previously she served as the Sri Lanka Ambassador to Nepal and The Netherlands.
Ms. Kshenuka Senevirathne joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service in 1985 and the first Ambassadorial post she held was as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in the year 2007. She also served as the Sri Lankan PRUN in Geneva during a difficult period. Currently she is attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an Additional Secretary.
The two Women Diplomats, Ms. Aruni Wijewardena and Ms. Grace Asiriwatham are of the 1988 batch. Ms. Aruni Wijewardana served as the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Austria and Ms. Asiriwatham served as the Sri Lankan Ambassadors to Nepal and The Netherlands. While serving at the Sri Lankan Embassy in The Hague in the year 2011 Mrs. Asiriwatham joined the OPCW as its Deputy Director General.
Several female officers, who joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service after 1994, are holding many prestigious posts in the Sri Lankan Missions abroad. Ms. P Shanthi Sudusinghe of the 1994 batch is currently serving as the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner in the Maldives with Ambassador Rank.
Ms. Damayanthi Rajapaksa of the 1994 batch is currently serving as the Director of SAARC Secretaria in Kathmandu. In the absence of the Director General of the SAARC Secretariat Ms. Rajapaksa is presently serving as its Acting Secretary General.
Ms. Hasanthi Dissanayaka of Sri Lanka Foreign Service1996 batch is presently serving in Sri Lanka Consulate in Shanghai as Consul GeneralMs.Manisha Gunasekera of the 1996 batch is currently serving at the PRUN Office as its Deputy.
Ms. Maheshini Colonne of the 1998 batch is presently serving at the Sri Lankan High Commission in India as the Deputy High Commissioner.
The present cadre strength of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service Officers is 152. Of which 58 are females, many of whom are holding prestigious positions in Ministry of External Affairs of Sri Lankan and Sri Lankan Missions abroad.
My desire on this International Women’s Day is to highlight the above factual details with a view to encouraging the Sri Lankan young women to pursue a path in Diplomacy and International Relations so as to climb the ladder of success. (I wish to express my sincere thanks to Mr. Lionel Fernando, the former Foreign Secretary who encouraged me to keep updated records on Sri Lankan Foreign Service and Diplomacy)
The writer is a member of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service and Present Minister Counsellor of Sri Lanka High Commission in Pakistan. His email is menikb@hotmail.com
An article about my art is published in the June edition of the famous Colored Pencil Magazine (coloredpencilmag.com)
Un article sur mon art est dans l'édition de juin du célèbre magazine Colored Pencil Magazine (coloredpencilmag.com)
Visit my website: benheine.com
Article about kayaking through a lightning storm and more pictures at www.inthisweek.com/view.php?id=940866
At the Court
This article is about the place in Vienna. See also: Am Hof (White Castle), Bavaria, or At the court of King Arthur, movie.
The square Am Hof with the Marian Column and the former Civil armory
Basic Information
City of Vienna
District Innere Stadt
Roads leading to the square Am Hof, Heidenschuss, Färbergasse, Drahgasse, Schulhof, Bognergasse, Irisgasse
Buildings, church Kirche am Hof, palais Collalto, Marian Column, Central Fire Station
Use
Usergroups; foot traffic, bicycle traffic, car traffic
Square design, partially one-way
Am Hof historically is one of the most important places of Vienna. It is located between Bognergasse, Naglergasse, Heidenschuss, Färbergasse, Jews square and Schulhof in the oldest part of the city in the immediate vicinity of the medieval ghetto.
History
Am Hof (1865) with armory (left), Marian column, "House to the Golden Ball", palais Collalto and Kirche am Hof (right)
Market life before the Radetzky monument Am Hof, about 1890 (watercolor by Carl Wenzel Zajicek)
The body of the lynched War Minister, Count Latour is hanged on October 6, 1848, on a lantern
The Civil armory 1737
The square Am Hof was already part of the Roman military camp Vindobona and was uninhabited in the early Middle Ages.
Between 1155 and about 1275, the completion of the New Castle at the site of today's Swiss tract of the Hofburg, was here the Court of the Babenberg, that Henry Jasomirgott built himself in 1155/56, after he had moved his residence from Klosterneuburg (Lower Austria) to Vienna. This residence was a complex of buildings around an open space, so a court, with the home of the Duke as a center. To the north-west and southwest the "court" leaned against the wall of the Roman fort, into town, it was limited by gates against the bourgeois Old Town and Jewish Town. Here received Heinrich Jasomirgott and his wife Theodora in 1165 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who was on the Third Crusade to the Holy Land.
Under Henry's son Leopold V was the tournament and subsequent market place 1177-1194 scene of glittering events where singers and poets such as Reinmar of Haguenau and his student Walther von der Vogelweide appeared in minstrelsy-contests.
With the move of the Prince Regnants in the Swiss wing of the then much smaller Hofburg in 1275, came the "Babenbergerpfalz" (Am Hof) in the late 13th century to the Princely Mint. The houses no. 10 and no. 12 the neighboring ghetto around the Jews square were incorporated. From 1340 At the Court were held markets. In 1365 it came to the temporary accommodation of the Carmelites in the Mint, 1386 to the official donation by Albrecht III., the place for the first time being called "Am Hof". The Carmelites instead of Roman Mint court chapel (Münzhofkapelle) erected a three-nave Gothic monastery church, that they finished about 1420. The Gothic choir still today is visible from the alley behind it. The Carmelites had already owned the house of the Jew Muschal, to that they obtained yet more houses, inter alia, the by Albrecht III. purchased house of the poet Peter Suchenwirt.
The place was originally isolated from the nearby Freyung by houses that left only a narrow connection alley and were demolished in 1846. As early as from the 14th century, it was used as a market, later also as a place of execution. 1463 was here the mayor Wolfgang Holzer on command of Albrecht Vl. executed. 1515 the Habsburg-Jagellonian double wedding of Emperor Maximilian I was held here. In the 16th and 17th centuries the place was also called Crab market, since saltwater fish and crabs were offered. In the 18th century at the market only vegetables and fruits were sold.
After the handing over of the church and convent to the Jesuits in 1554, the square was listening to the name of "At the Upper Jesuits" and was the scene of spiritual performances of the Jesuits before their church. After the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773 the place was again called "Am Hof". The convent building of the Jesuits was 1783-1913 the seat of the Imperial War Council and the War Ministry.
1782 Pius VI. from the terrace of the church gave the blessing Urbi et Orbi. On August 6, 1806 also from the loggia of the church announced an Imperial herald the end of the Holy Roman Empire, at the top of which the Habsburgs had stood for over half a millennium, and the abdication of the Imperial crown by Francis II.:"... that We the band, which has bound us until now to the body politic of the German Empire, as having been dissolved consider".
Took place on 14 March 1848 in the wake of the 1848 revolution the storming of the Arsenal, on 6 October the minister of war Theodor Count Baillet von Latour was pulled out from the building, killed and by the crowd hung in the middle of the square on a lantern. The place for a short time was called "People's Square".
1842-1918 and 1939-1942, the Christmas market Am Hof enjoyed great popularity. In 1973, arose here the Vienna Flea market, which in 1977 due to space limitations was relocated on the Naschmarkt. Today again yearly a Christmas market is taking place.
In 1892, before the building of the k.k. Hofkriegsrathsgebäude (the War Department), the equestrian statue of Field Marshal Radetzky of Caspar von Zumbusch was unveiled, which was transferred in 1912 before the newly constructed building of the War Department At Stubenring. The place of the Hofkriegsratsgebäude in 1915 took the Headquarters of the Länderbank.
Furthermore, Am Hof was still the main police station (Hauptwache), the Nunciature and the Lower chamber office.
In Carol Reed's film "The Third Man" (filmed in 1948) the place Am Hof appears prominently, on it stands the advertising column, through which one enters the underworld of the Vienna sewer system.
1962-63 in the course of excavations for an underground garage under the square Am Hof remains of the Roman settlement have been found. In the basement of the present fire station in original location a piece of the main channel of the camp can be visited, which absorbed the wastewater from the southern camp and led it into the Deep Ditch to the brook Ottakringerbach.
Pope John Paul II. did as his predecessor had done and gave in 1983 on the occasion of his visit to Vienna from the loggia also the Easter blessing.
On September 7, 2007 Pope Benedict XVI celebrated with approximately 7,000 people in the pouring rain as the first major program of his Austria trip one Stational Mass. After just six minutes, the microphone of the Pope and the video walls became inoperative, which is why the speech of Benedict XVI. had to be stopped.
Henry McNeal Turner was an organizer of the African Methodist Episcopal Church during Reconstruction. At first he counseled cooperation with the regions whites, but eventually he became disaffected by the racism he encountered, which included the ousting of blacks from the state house and disenfranchisement of blacks (loss of their right to vote). In time he favored resettlement in Africa. But some whom he helped to send there returned disillusioned and criticized him. He died somewhat ostracized by both the white and black communities.
Here is what the New Georgia Encyclopedia has to say about him:
www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.com/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-632&a...
Henry McNeal Turner (1834-1915)
One of the most influential African American leaders in late-nineteenth-century Georgia, Henry McNeal Turner was a pioneering church organizer and missionary for the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in Georgia, later rising to the rank of bishop. Turner was also an active politician and Reconstruction-era state legislator from Macon. Later in life, he became an outspoken advocate of back-to-Africa emigration.
Turner was born in 1834 in Newberry Courthouse, South Carolina, to Sarah Greer and Hardy Turner. Turner was never a slave. His paternal grandmother was a white plantation owner. His maternal grandfather, David Greer, arrived in North America aboard a slave ship but, according to family legend, was found to have a tattoo with the Mandingo coat of arms, signifying his royal status. The South Carolinians decided not to sell Greer into slavery and sent him to live with a Quaker family.
Against great odds, Turner managed to receive an education. An Abbeville, South Carolina, law firm employed him at age fifteen to do janitorial tasks, and the firm's lawyers, appreciating his high intelligence, helped provide him with a well-rounded education. About a year earlier, Turner had been converted during a Methodist revival and decided he would one day become a preacher. After receiving his preacher's license in 1853, he traveled throughout the South as an itinerant evangelist, going as far as New Orleans, Louisiana. Much of his time was spent in Georgia, where he preached at revivals in Macon, Athens, and Atlanta. In 1856 he married Eliza Peacher, the daughter of a wealthy African American house builder in Columbia, South Carolina. They had fourteen children, only four of whom survived into adulthood.
In 1858 he and his family journeyed north to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was accepted as a preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Turner feared southern legislation threatening enslavement of free African Americans. For the next five years, he filled pastorates in Baltimore, Maryland, and in Washington, D.C., and witnessed the outbreak of the Civil War (1861-65). During his time in Washington, he befriended Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, and other powerful Republican legislators. In 1863 Turner was instrumental in organizing the First Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops in his own churchyard and was mustered into service as an army chaplain for that regiment. He and his regiment were involved in numerous battles in the Virginia theater.
At the war's end, U.S. president Andrew Johnson reassigned Turner to a black regiment in Atlanta, but Turner resigned when he realized it already had a chaplain. He spent much of the next three years traveling throughout Georgia, helping to organize the African Methodist Episcopal Church in what was virgin, but not always friendly, territory. African Americans flocked to the new denomination, but the lack of such essentials as trained pastors and adequate meeting space challenged Turner.
In 1867, after Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts, Turner switched his energies to the political sphere. He helped organize Georgia's Republican Party. He served in the state's constitutional convention and then was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, representing Macon. In 1868, when the vast majority of white legislators decided to expel their African American peers on the grounds that officeholding was a privilege denied those from a servile background, Turner delivered an eloquent speech from the floor. Unfortunately, it did little to sway his fellow legislators. Soon afterward Turner received threats from the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1869 he was appointed postmaster of Macon by U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant but was forced to resign a few weeks later under fire from allegations that he consorted with prostitutes and had passed defective currency. At the behest of the U.S. Congress, he did reclaim his legislative seat in 1870, but he was denied reelection in a fraud-filled contest a few months later. Turner moved to Savannah, where he worked at the Custom House and served as a pastor of the prestigious St. Philip's AME Church. In 1876 he was elected manager of the publishing house of the church. Four years later, in a hard-fought and controversial contest, he won election as the twelfth bishop of the AME Church.
Turner was an extremely vigorous and successful bishop. In 1885 he became the first AME bishop to ordain a woman, Sarah Ann Hughes, to the office of deacon. He wrote The Genius and Theory of Methodist Polity (1885), a learned guide to Methodist policies and practices. He twice entered the political ranks in support of prohibition referenda in Atlanta. After his wife, Eliza, died in 1889, Turner eventually married three more times: Martha Elizabeth DeWitt in 1893; Harriet A. Wayman in 1900; and Laura Pearl Lemon in 1907. Between 1891 and 1898, Turner traveled four times to Africa. He was instrumental in promoting the annual conferences in Liberia and Sierra Leone and in attaining a merger with the Ethiopian Church in South Africa. Turner also sought to promote the growth of the AME Church in Latin America, sending missionaries to Cuba and Mexico.
With the support of white businessmen from Alabama, Turner helped organize the International Migration Society to promote the return of African Americans to Africa. To further the emigrationist cause, he established his own newspapers: The Voice of Missions (editor, 1893-1900) and later The Voice of the People (editor, 1901-4). Two ships with a total of 500 or more emigrants sailed to Liberia in 1895 and 1896, but a number returned, complaining about disease and the country's poor economic prospects. Turner remained an advocate of back-to-Africa programs but was unable to make further headway against the negative reactions of returned emigrants. In his later years he felt increasingly estranged from the South.
Turner died on May 8, 1915, in Windsor, Canada, while traveling on church business. He is buried in Atlanta. A portrait of Turner hangs in the state capitol.
Here is the wikipedia entry on him:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_McNeal_Turner
Henry McNeal Turner (February 1, 1834 – May 8, 1915) was a minister, politician, and the first southern bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; he was a pioneer in Georgia in organizing new congregations of the independent black denomination after the American Civil War. Born free in South Carolina, Turner learned to read and write and became a Methodist preacher. He joined the AME Church in St. Louis, Missouri in 1858, where he became a minister; later he had pastorates in Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, DC.
In 1863 during the American Civil War, Turner was appointed as the first black chaplain in the United States Colored Troops. Afterward, he was appointed to the Freedman's Bureau in Georgia. He settled in Macon and was elected to the state legislature in 1868 during Reconstruction. He planted many AME churches in Georgia after the war. In 1880 he was elected as the first southern bishop of the AME Church after a fierce battle within the denomination. Angered by the Democrats' regaining power and instituting Jim Crow laws in the late nineteenth century South, Turner began to support black nationalism and emigration of blacks to Africa. He was the chief figure to do so in the late nineteenth century; the movement grew after World War I.
Biography
Turner was born free in Newberry, South Carolina to Sarah Greer and Hardy Turner, both of African and European ancestry. Some sources say he was born in Abbeville, South Carolina. His father's parents were a white mother, who was a plantation owner, and a black father; according to partus sequitur ventrem, her children were free, as she was. According to family tradition, his maternal grandfather, renamed David Greer, was imported as a slave to South Carolina from Africa. Traders noticed he had royal Mandingo marks and did not sell him into slavery; Greer worked for a Quaker family and married a free woman of color. Turner grew up with his mother and maternal grandmother.
South Carolina law at the time of Turner's birth prohibited teaching blacks to read and write. As a youth, he worked as a custodian for a law firm, where his intelligence was noted by sympathetic whites; they taught him to read and write.
Career
At the age of 14, Turner was inspired by a Methodist revival and swore to become a pastor. He received his preacher's license at the age of 19 from the Methodist Church South in 1853. He traveled through the South for a few years as an evangelist and exhorter.
In 1858 he moved with his family to Saint Louis, Missouri. The demand for slaves in the South made him fear that members of his family might be kidnapped and sold into slavery, as has been documented for hundreds of free blacks. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 seemed to increase the boldness of slave traders and people they hired as slavecatchers. In St. Louis, he became ordained as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and studied the classics, Hebrew and divinity at Trinity College.
He also served in pastorates in Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, DC, where he met influential Republicans.
Marriage and family
In 1856, Turner married Eliza Peacher, daughter of a wealthy black contractor in Columbia, South Carolina. They had 14 children, four of whom lived to adulthood. After her death in 1889, Turner married Martha Elizabeth DeWitt in 1893; Harriet A. Wayman in 1900; and Laura Pearl Lemon in 1907. He outlived three of his four wives.
Civil War
During the American Civil War, Turner organized one of the first regiments of black troops (Company B of the First United States Colored Troops), and was appointed as chaplain to it. He was the first of the 14 black chaplains to be appointed during the war.
After the war, he was appointed by President Andrew Johnson to work with the Freedman's Bureau in Georgia during Reconstruction. White clergy from the North also led some Freedmen's Bureau operations.
Political influence
Following the Civil War, Turner became politically active with the Republican Party, whose officials had led the war effort and, under Abraham Lincoln, emancipated the slaves throughout the Confederacy. He helped found the Republican Party of Georgia. Turner ran for political office from Macon and was elected to the Georgia Legislature in 1868. At the time, the Democratic Party (United States) still controlled the legislature and refused to seat Turner and 26 other newly elected black legislators, all Republicans. After the federal government protested, the Democrats allowed Turner and his fellow legislators to take their seats during the second session.
In 1869, he was appointed by the Republican administration as postmaster of Macon, which was a political plum. Turner was dismayed after the Democrats regained power in the state and throughout the South by the late 1870s. He had seen the rise in violence at the polls, which repressed black voting. In 1883, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1875, forbidding racial discrimination in hotels, trains, and other public places, was unconstitutional. Turner was incensed:
"The world has never witnessed such barbarous laws entailed upon a free people as have grown out of the decision of the United States Supreme Court, issued October 15, 1883. For that decision alone authorized and now sustains all the unjust discriminations, proscriptions and robberies perpetrated by public carriers upon millions of the nation's most loyal defenders. It fathers all the 'Jim-Crow cars' into which colored people are huddled and compelled to pay as much as the whites, who are given the finest accommodations. It has made the ballot of the black man a parody, his citizenship a nullity and his freedom a burlesque. It has engendered the bitterest feeling between the whites and blacks, and resulted in the deaths of thousands, who would have been living and enjoying life today."
In the late nineteenth century, he witnessed state legislatures in Georgia and across the South passing measures to disfranchise blacks. He became a proponent of black nationalism and supported emigration of American blacks to Africa.He thought it was the only way they could make free and independent lives for themselves. When he traveled to Africa, he was struck by the differences in the attitude of Africans who ruled themselves and had never known the degradation of slavery.
He founded the International Migration Society, supported by his own newspapers: The Voice of Missions (he served as editor, 1893-1900) and later The Voice of the People (editor, 1901-4). He organized two ships with a total of 500 or more emigrants, who traveled to Liberia in 1895 and 1896. This was established as an American colony by the American Colonization Society before the Civil War, and settled by free American blacks, who tended to push aside the native African peoples. Disliking the lack of economic opportunity, cultural shock and disease, some of the migrants returned to the United States. After that, Turner did not organize another expedition.
Church leadership
As a correspondent for The Christian Reporter, the weekly newspaper of the AME Church, he wrote extensively about the Civil War. Later he wrote about the condition of his parishioners in Georgia.
When Turner joined the AME Church in 1858, its members lived mostly in the Northern and border states; total members numbered 20,000. His biographer Stephen W. Angell described Turner as "one of the most skillful denominational builders in American history." After the Civil War, he founded many AME congregations in Georgia as part of a missionary effort by the church in the South. It gained more than 250,000 new adherents throughout the South by 1877, and by 1896 had a total of more than 452,000 members nationally.
In 1880, Turner was elected as the first bishop from the South in the AME Church, after a hard battle within the denomination. Although one of the last bishops to have struggled up from poverty and a self-made man, he was the first AME Bishop to ordain a woman to the order of Deacon. He discontinued the controversial practice because of threats and discontent among the congregations. During and after the 1880s, Turner supported prohibition and women's suffrage movements. He also served for twelve years as chancellor of Morris Brown College (now Morris Brown University), a historically black college affiliated with the AME Church in Atlanta.
During the 1890s, Turner went four times to Liberia and Sierra Leone, United States and British colonies respectively. As bishop, he organized four annual AME conferences in Africa to introduce more American blacks to the continent and organize missions in the colonies.He also worked to establish the AME Church in South Africa, where he negotiated a merger with the Ethiopian Church. Due to his efforts, African students from South Africa began coming to the United States to attend Wilberforce University in Ohio, which the AME church had operated since 1863. His efforts to combine missionary work with encouraging emigration to Africa were divisive in the AME Church.
Turner crossed denominational lines in the United States, building connections with black Baptists, for instance.[4] He was known as a fiery orator. He notably preached that God was black, scandalizing some but appealing to his colleagues at the first Black Baptist Convention when he said:
"We have as much right biblically and otherwise to believe that God is a Negroe, as you buckra or white people have to believe that God is a fine looking, symmetrical and ornamented white man. For the bulk of you and all the fool Negroes of the country believe that God is white-skinned, blue eyed, straight-haired, projected nosed, compressed lipped and finely robed white gentleman, sitting upon a throne somewhere in the heavens. Every race of people who have attempted to describe their God by words, or by paintings, or by carvings, or any other form or figure, have conveyed the idea that the God who made them and shaped their destinies was symbolized in themselves, and why should not the Negroe believe that he resembles God." -- Voice of Missions, February 1898
He died while visiting Windsor, Ontario in 1915. Turner was buried in Atlanta. After his death, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote in The Crisis magazine about him:
"Turner was the last of his clan, mighty men mentally and physically, men who started at the bottom and hammered their way to the top by sheer brute strength, they were the spiritual progeny of African chieftains, and they built the African church in America."
AFTER bathing in the warm, fuzzy glow of the Mandela years, South Africans
today are deeply demoralised people. The lights are going out in homes,
mines, factories and shopping malls as the national power authority, Eskom -
suffering from mismanagement, lack of foresight, a failure to maintain power
stations and a flight of skilled engineers to other countries - implements
rolling power cuts that plunge towns and cities into daily chaos.
Major industrial projects are on hold. The only healthy enterprise now worth
being involved in is the sale of small diesel generators to powerless
households but even this business has run out of supplies and spare parts
from China .
The currency, the rand, has entered freefall. Crime, much of it gratuitously
violent, is rampant, and the national police chief faces trial for
corruption and defeating the ends of justice as a result of his alleged
deals with a local mafia kingpin and dealer in hard drugs.
Newly elected African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma, the state
president-in-waiting, narrowly escaped being jailed for raping an
HIV-positive woman last year, and faces trial later this year for soliciting
and accepting bribes in connection with South Africa's shady
multi-billion-pound arms deal with British, German and French weapons
manufacturers.
One local newspaper columnist suggests that Zuma has done for South Africa
's international image what Borat has done for Kazakhstan . ANC leaders in
2008 still speak in the spiritually dead jargon they learned in exile in
pre-1989 Moscow, East Berlin and Sofia while promiscuously embracing
capitalist icons - Mercedes 4x4s, Hugo Boss suits, Bruno Magli shoes and
Louis Vuitton bags which they swing, packed with money passed to them under
countless tables - as they wing their way to their houses in the south of
France.
It all adds up to a hydra-headed crisis of huge proportions - a perfect
storm as the Rainbow Nation slides off the end of the rainbow and descends
in the direction of the massed ranks of failed African states. Eskom has
warned foreign investors with millions to sink into big industrial and
mining projects: we don't want you here until at least 2013, when new power
stations will be built.
In the first month of this year, the rand fell 12% against the world's major
currencies and foreign investors sold off more than £600 million worth of
South African stocks, the biggest sell-off for more than seven years.
"There will be further outflows this month, because there won't be any news
that will convince investors the local growth picture is going to change for
the better," said Rudi van de Merwe, a fund manager at South Africa 's
Standard Bank.
Commenting on the massive power cuts, Trevor Gaunt, professor of electrical
engineering at the University of Cape Town , who warned the government eight
years ago of the impending crisis, said: "The damage is huge, and now South
Africa looks just like the rest of Africa . Maybe it will take 20 years to
recover."
The power cuts have hit the country's platinum, gold, manganese and
high-quality export coal mines particularly hard, with no production on some
days and only 40% to 60% on others.
"The shutdown of the mining industry is an extraordinary, unprecedented
event," said Anton Eberhard, a leading energy expert and professor of
business studies at the University of Cape Town .
"That's a powerful message, massively damaging to South Africa 's reputation
for new investment. Our country was built on the mines."
To examine how the country, widely hailed as Africa's last best chance,
arrived at this parlous state, the particular troubles engulfing the
Scorpions (the popular name of the National Prosecuting Authority) offers a
useful starting point.
The elite unit, modelled on America 's FBI and operating in close
co-operation with Britain 's Serious Fraud Office (SFO), is one of the big
successes of post-apartheid South Africa . An independent institution,
separate from the slipshod South African Police Service, the Scorpions enjoy
massive public support.
The unit's edict is to focus on people "who commit and profit from organised
crime", and it has been hugely successful in carrying out its mandate. It
has pursued and pinned down thousands of high-profile and complex networks
of national and international corporate and public fraudsters.
Drug kingpins, smugglers and racketeers have felt the Scorpions' sting. A
major gang that smuggle platinum, South Africa 's biggest foreign exchange
earner, to a corrupt English smelting plant has been bust as the result of a
huge joint operation between the SFO and the Scorpions. But the Scorpions,
whose top men were trained by Scotland Yard, have been too successful for
their own good.
The ANC government never anticipated the crack crimebusters would take their
constitutional independence seriously and investigate the top ranks of the
former liberation movement itself.
The Scorpions have probed into, and successfully prosecuted, ANC MPs who
falsified their parliamentary expenses. They secured a jail sentence for the
ANC's chief whip, who took bribes from the German weapons manufacturer that
sold frigates and submarines to the South African Defence Force. They sent
to jail for 15 years a businessman who paid hundreds of bribes to then state
vice-president Jacob Zuma in connection with the arms deal. Zuma was found
by the judge to have a corrupt relationship with the businessman, and now
the Scorpions have charged Zuma himself with fraud, corruption, tax evasion,
racketeering and defeating the ends of justice. His trial will begin in
August.
The Scorpions last month charged Jackie Selebi, the national police chief, a
close friend of state president Thabo Mbeki, with corruption and defeating
the ends of justice. Commissioner Selebi, who infamously called a white
police sergeant a "f***ing chimpanzee" when she failed to recognise him
during an unannounced visit to her Pretoria station, has stepped down
pending his trial.
But now both wings of the venomously divided ANC - ANC-Mbeki and ANC-Zuma -
want the Scorpions crushed, ideally by June this year. The message this will
send to the outside world is that South Africa 's rulers want only certain
categories of crime investigated, while leaving government ministers and
other politicians free to stuff their already heavily lined pockets.
No good reason for emasculating the Scorpions has been put forward. "That's
because there isn't one," said Peter Bruce, editor of the influential
Business Day, South Africa 's equivalent of, and part-owned by, The
Financial Times, in his weekly column.
"The Scorpions are being killed off because they investigate too much
corruption that involves ANC leaders. It is as simple and ugly as that," he
added.
The demise of the Scorpions can only exacerbate South Africa 's
out-of-control crime situation, ranked for its scale and violence only
behind Colombia . Everyone has friends and acquaintances who have had guns
held to their heads by gangsters, who also blow up ATM machines and hijack
security trucks, sawing off their roofs to get at the cash.
In the past few days my next-door neighbour, John Matshikiza, a
distinguished actor who trained at the Royal Shakespeare Company and is the
son of the composer of the South African musical King Kong, had been
violently attacked, and friends visiting from Zimbabwe had their car stolen
outside my front window in broad daylight.
My friends flew home to Zimbabwe without their car and the tinned food
supplies they had bought to help withstand their country's dire political
and food crisis and 27,000% inflation. Matshikiza, a former member of the
Glasgow Citizens Theatre company, was held up by three gunmen as he drove
his car into his garage late at night. He gave them his car keys, wallet,
cellphone and luxury watch and begged them not to harm his partner, who was
inside the house.
As one gunman drove the car away, the other two beat Matshikiza unconscious
with broken bottles, and now his head is so comprehensively stitched that it
looks like a map of the London Underground.
These assaults were personal, but mild compared with much commonplace crime.
Last week, for example, 18-year-old Razelle Botha, who passed all her
A-levels with marks of more than 90% and was about to train as a doctor,
returned home with her father, Professor Willem Botha, founder of the
geophysics department at the University of Pretoria, from buying pizzas for
the family. Inside the house, armed gunmen confronted them. They shot
Professor Botha in the leg and pumped bullets into Razelle.
One severed her spine. Now she is fighting for her life and will never walk
again, and may never become a doctor. The gunmen stole a laptop computer and
a camera.
Feeding the perfect storm are the two centres of ANC power in the country at
the moment. On the one hand, there is the ANC in parliament, led by
President Mbeki, who last Friday gave a state-of-the-nation address and
apologised to the country for the power crisis.
Mbeki made only the briefest of mentions of the national Aids crisis, with
more than six million people HIV-positive. He did not address the Scorpions
crisis. The collapsing public hospital system, under his eccentric health
minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, an alcoholic who recently jumped the
public queue for a liver transplant, received no attention. And the name
Jacob Zuma did not pass his lips.
Last December Mbeki and Zuma stood against each other for the leadership of
the ANC at the party's five-yearly electoral congress. Mbeki, who cannot
stand again as state president beyond next year's parliamentary and
presidential elections, hoped to remain the power behind the throne of a new
state president of his choosing.
Zuma, a Zulu populist with some 20 children by various wives and mistresses,
hoped to prove that last year's rape case, and the trial he faces this year
for corruption and other charges, were part of a plot by Mbeki to use state
institutions to discredit him. Mbeki assumed that the notion of Zuma
assuming next year the mantle worn by Nelson Mandela as South Africa 's
first black state president would be so appalling to delegates, a deeply sad
and precipitous decline, that his own re-election as ANC leader was a
shoo-in.
But Mbeki completely miscalculated his own unpopularity - his perceived
arrogance, failure to solve health and crime problems, his failure to
deliver to the poor - and he lost. Now Zuma insists that he is the leader of
the country and ANC MPs in parliament must take its orders from him, while
Mbeki soldiers on until next year as state president, ordering MPs to toe
his line.
Greatly understated, it is a mess. Its scale will be dramatically
illustrated if South Africa 's hosting of the 2010 World Cup is withdrawn by
Fifa, the world football body.
Already South African premier league football evening games are being played
after midnight because power for floodlights cannot be guaranteed before
that time. Justice Malala, one of the country's top newspaper columnists,
has called on Fifa to end the agony quickly.
"I don't want South Africa to host the football World Cup because there is
no culture of responsibility in this country," he wrote in Johannesburg's
bestselling Sunday Times.
"The most outrageous behaviour and incompetence is glossed over. No-one is
fired. I have had enough of this nonsense, of keeping quiet and ignoring the
fact that the train is about to run us over.
"It is increasingly clear that our leaders are incapable of making a success
of it. Scrap the thing and give it to Australia, Germany or whoever will
spare us the ignominy of watching things fall apart here - football tourists
being held up and shot, the lights going out, while our politicians tell us
everything is all right."
- CEDWYNN TOWEEL
11:50pm Saturday 9th February 2008
Demel
The title of this article is ambiguous. Other uses, see Demel (disambiguation).
K.u.K. Hofzuckerbäcker Ch Demel 's Söhne GmbH
Founded in 1786
Coffee and pastry industry
Products Coffee, tea, cakes
website www.Demel.at
Interior furnishings from Komptoir Demel in Vienna, from Portois Fix
When decorating goods Visitors may watch.
Demel is one of the most famous Viennese pastry at the carbon (cabbage) market (Kohlmarkt) 14 in the first Viennese district Innere Stadt. Demel was a k.u.k. Hofzuckerbäcker and runs this item today in public.
History
1778 came the of Wurttemberg stemming confectioner Ludwig Dehne to Vienna. 1786, he founded his pastry shot at the place of St. Michael. Dehne died in 1799 of tuberculosis. His widow then married the confectioner Gottlieb Wohlfahrt. In 1813 they bought the house in St. Michael's Square 14. Despite numerous innovations such as frozen the company's finances could not be rehabilitated. After the death of Gottlieb Wohlfahrt in 1826 the widow and her son from her first marriage August Dehne succeeded but the economic boom. August Dehne managed to great wealth, he invested in land. As the son of August Dehne struck another career as a lawyer, Dehne sold the confectionery in 1857 to his first mate Christoph Demel.
Demel also had success in the continuation of the company and established it to a Viennese institution. After the death of Christoph Demel in 1867 his sons Joseph and Charles took over the business, which is why it since "Christoph Demel 's Söhne" means. On request Demel received 1874 the Hoflieferantentitel (the titel as purveyor to the court). The proximity to the Imperial Palace directly opposite made business more profitable. The Hofburg borrowed from Demel occasionally staff and tableware for special occasions such as proms and parties. Recent developments in the art of confectionery were brought from Paris. Trained at Demel, professionals quickly found employment.
1888 Old Burgtheater was demolished at Michael's place and transformed the place. Demel had to move out of the house and he moved to the Kohlmarkt 14. The new store inside was equipped inside with high costs by purveyor to the court Portois & Fix. The interior is decorated in the style of Neo-Rococo with mahogany wood and mirrors. Regulars were members of the Viennese court as Empress Elisabeth, and other prominent members of the Vienna society of the time, the actress Katharina Schratt and Princess Pauline von Metternich. A peculiarity of Demel from the time of the monarchy is that the always female attendance, which originally was recruited from monastic students, is dressed in a black costume with a white apron. They are called Demelinerinnen and address the guest traditionally in a special "Demel German", which is a polite form of the third person plural, omitting the personal salutation and with questions such as "elected Have you?" or "want to eat?" was known.
After the death of Joseph and Carl Demel took over Carl's widow Maria in 1891 the management. She also received the k.u.k. Hoflieferantentitel. From 1911 to 1917 led Carl Demel (junior) the business and then his sister Anna Demel (4 March 1872 in Vienna - November 8, 1956 ibid ; born Siding). Under her leadership, the boxes and packaging were developed by the Wiener Werkstätte. Josef Hoffmann established in 1932 because of a contract the connection of the artist Friedrich Ludwig Berzeviczy-Pallavicini to Anna Demel. The design of the shop windows at that time was an important means of expression of the shops and there were discussions to whether they should be called visual or storefront (Seh- or Schaufenster - display window or look window). While under the Sehfenster (shop window) an informative presentation of goods was understood, the goods should be enhanced by staging the showcase. From 1933 until his emigration in 1938 took over Berzeviczy-Pallavicini the window dressing of Demel and married in 1936 Klara Demel, the adopted niece of Anna Demel.
During the Nazi regime in Austria the confectioner Demel got privileges from the district leadership because of its reputation. Baldur von Schirach and his wife took the confectioner under their personal protection, there were special allocations of gastronomic specialties from abroad in order to continue to survive. But while the two sat in the guest room and consumed cakes, provided the Demelinerinnen in a hallway between the kitchen and toilet political persecutws, so-called U-Boats. Those here were also hearing illegal radio stations and they discussed the latest news.
1952 Anna Demel was the first woman after the war to be awarded the title Kommerzialrat. She died in 1956. Klara Demel took over the management of the bakery. Berzeviczy-Pallavicini, who lived in the United States until then returned to Vienna. After Clara's death on 19 April 1965, he carried on the pastry. During his time at Demel he established the tradition to make from showpieces of the sugar and chocolate craft extravagant neo-baroque productions. Baron Berzeviczy sold the business in 1972 for economic reasons to the concealed appearing Udo Proksch, who established in 1973 in the first floor rooms for the Club 45; also Defence Minister Karl Lütgendorf had his own salon. After Proksch was arrested in 1989 in connection with the Lucona scandal, he sold Demel to the non-industry German entrepreneur Günter Wichmann. 1993 it came to insolvency. Raiffeisen Bank Vienna as principal creditor, acquired the property in 1994 from the bankrupt company to initially continue itself the traditional Viennese company through a subsidiary. In the process of the renovation in March 1995 on the fourth floor were mura painting from the 18th century exposed and the baroque courtyard covered by a glass construction which since the re-opening on 18 April 1996 can be used as Schanigarten (pavement café) or conservatory.
In 2002 the catering company Do & Co took over the Demel. The company was awarded with the "Golden Coffee Bean " of Jacobs coffee in 1999. Demel now has additional locations in Salzburg and New York.
Products
Demel chocolate products
One of the most famous specialty of the house is " Demel's Sachertorte" . The world-famous Sachertorte was invented by Franz Sacher, but completed only in its today known form by his son Eduard Sacher while training in Demel. After a 1938 out of court enclosed process occurred after the Second World War a till 1965 during dispute between Demel and the Sacher Hotel: The hotel insisted on its naming rights, Demel, however, could pointing out already since the invention of the "Original Sacher" called pie "having used the denomination". Demel had after the death of Anna Sacher in 1930, under defined conditions, the generation and distribution rights for "Eduard-Sacher-Torte" received. The dispute was settled in favor of the Hotel Sacher and the Demelsche cake is today, "Demel 's Sachertorte" and is still made by hand. While a layer of apricot jam under the chocolate icing and another in the center of the cake can be found in the "Original Sacher-Torte", is in "Demel 's Sachertorte " the layer in the middle omitted.
Besides the Sachertorte helped another specialty the pastry to world fame: the original gingerbread figures whose modeling came from the collection of Count Johann Nepomuk Graf Wilczek on Castle Kreuzenstein. Then there are the Demel cake (almond-orange mass with blackcurrant jam, marzipan and chocolate coating), Anna Torte, Dobos cake, cake trays, Russian Punch Cake, Esterházy cake, apple strudel and other confectionary specialties. Popular with many tourists are the candied violets with which Demel earlier supplied the imperial court and they allegedly have been the Lieblingsnaschereien (favorite candies) of Empress Elisabeth ("Sisi"). Rooms in the upper floors as the Pictures Room, Gold Room and the Silver rooms are rented for events. In addition to the pastry shop Demel operates, as it did at the time of the monarchy, a catering service, after the re-opening in 1996 as well as storage, shipping and packaging was desettled in the 22nd District of Vienna. Demel is also responsible for the catering at Niki Aviation.
… सत्ता में आने से पहले रोजगार को लेकर भी वादे किये गए थे लेकिन अभी तक कोई ठोस कदम दिखाई नहीं देता है, यह बात मोदी सरकार की बड़ी खामियों में शुमार हो सकती है, क्योंकि बड़ी संख्या में युवा भी नरेंद्र मोदी से उम्मीद पाले बैठा है. हालाँकि स्किल इंडिया जैसे प्रोग्राम जरूर आये हैं, लेकिन उनका कुछ ...
Stilettos are nice, but there is more to life than a stiletto heel. Fashion boots often have a different style of heel, which I like. I suspect I have used the Liquorice Allsorts analogy before. I really like the pink bobbly Liquorice Allsorts, but a diet of nothing but pink bobbly Liquorice Allsorts would get boring very quickly. Variety is the spice of life, and like Liquorice Allsorts, different styles of heel are very lovely. Sticking with the Liquorice Allsorts analogy, I think Crocs and Uggs are the footwear version of those little twists of hard liquorice, which only exist to make the rest of the box of Liquorice Allsorts more of a pleasure to eat.
Enough of the sweets. I do like the variety in this collection of images of girls in some really rather lovely boots. Cool. :)
This article is about the ancient city of Anatolia. For other uses, see Miletus (disambiguation).
Miletus
Μί̄λητος
Milet
The theater of Miletus
Shown within Turkey
Location
Balat, Didim, Aydın Province, Turkey
Region
Caria
Coordinates
37°31′49″N 27°16′42″E
Coordinates: 37°31′49″N 27°16′42″E
Type
Settlement
Area
90 ha (220 acres)
History
Builder
Minoans (later Mycenaeans) on site of the Luwian or Carian city[1][2][3]
Site notes
Public access
Yes
Website
Miletus Archaeological Site
Miletus (/maɪˈliːtəs/; Ancient Greek: Μί̄λητος Mīlētos; Hittite transcription Millawanda or Milawata (exonyms); Latin: Miletus; Turkish: Milet) was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria.[3][4][5] Its ruins are located near the modern village of Balat in Aydın Province, Turkey. Before the Persian invasion in the middle of the 6th century BC, Miletus was considered the greatest and wealthiest of Greek cities.[6][7] In other sources however it is mentioned that the city was much more modest up until the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), when, for example, the city state of Samos on the island of Samos opposite Miletus was considered a larger and more important city and harbor at the time. Miletus' greatest wealth and splendor was reached during the Hellenistic era (323–30 BC) and later Roman times.
Evidence of first settlement at the site has been made inaccessible by the rise of sea level and deposition of sediments from the Maeander. The first available evidence is of the Neolithic. In the early and middle Bronze age the settlement came under Minoan influence. Legend has it that an influx of Cretans occurred displacing the indigenous Leleges. The site was renamed Miletus after a place in Crete.
The Late Bronze Age, 13th century BC, saw the arrival of Luwian language speakers from south central Anatolia calling themselves the Carians. Later in that century other Greeks arrived. The city at that time rebelled against the Hittite Empire. After the fall of that empire the city was destroyed in the 12th century BC and starting about 1000 BC was resettled extensively by the Ionian Greeks. Legend offers an Ionian foundation event sponsored by a founder named Neleus from the Peloponnesus.
The Greek Dark Ages were a time of Ionian settlement and consolidation in an alliance called the Ionian League. The Archaic Period of Greece began with a sudden and brilliant flash of art and philosophy on the coast of Anatolia. In the 6th century BC, Miletus was the site of origin of the Greek philosophical (and scientific) tradition, when Thales, followed by Anaximander and Anaximenes (known collectively, to modern scholars, as the Milesian School) began to speculate about the material constitution of the world, and to propose speculative naturalistic (as opposed to traditional, supernatural) explanations for various natural phenomena.
Miletus is the birthplace of the Hagia Sophia's architect (and inventor of the flying buttress) Isidore of Miletus and Thales, a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher (and one of the Seven Sages of Greece) in c. 624 BC
Archana is a Hijra who begs at the Traffic Signals of Bandra , first she begged at Turner Road , but than the cops made it tough now she has shifted to the the Pali Road signal.
She was born a man but decided to live as a woman , she prefers men as her companion..and men are her sexyual preference , but if she is caught soliciting she can be locked up.
I was meeting her after a long time and I was in the rickshah where she begs she asked about me my family ,, as I have been a very good friend of her Guru Laxmi this is not the same high celebrity Laxmi from Thane ..Laxmi is a poor beggar hijra who has been begging at the Turner Road Signal for many years now a devotee of of Lord Tirupati.
I normally don make my hijra pictures public but this an exception.. and is dedicated to my very good friend Nitin Karani..of Humsafar a fighter for human rights and gender issues and their fight against a draconian law Article 377..
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chapter XVI, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code dating back to 1860,[1] introduced during the British rule of India, criminalises sexual activities "against the order of nature", arguably including homosexual acts.
The section was declared unconstitutional with respect to sex between consenting adults by the High Court of Delhi on 2 July 2009. That judgement was overturned by the Supreme Court of India on 12 December 2013, with the Court holding that amending or repealing Section 377 should be a matter left to Parliament, not the judiciary.
377. Unnatural offences: Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Explanation: Penetration is sufficient to constitute the carnal intercourse necessary to the offense described in this section.[2][3]
The ambit of Section 377, which was devised to criminalize and prevent homosexual sex[citation needed] extends to any sexual union involving penile insertion. Thus, even consensual heterosexual acts such as fellatio and anal penetration may be punishable under this law.
Public perception[edit]
Main article: Homosexuality in India
Support[edit]
In 2008 Additional Solicitor General PP Malhotra said:
Homosexuality is a social vice and the state has the power to contain it. [Decriminalising homosexuality] may create [a] breach of peace. If it is allowed then [the] evil of AIDS and HIV would further spread and harm the people. It would lead to a big health hazard and degrade moral values of society." A view similarly shared by the Home Ministry.[4]
The 11 December 2013 judgement of the Supreme Court, upholding Section 377 was met with support from religious leaders. The Daily News and Analysis called it "the univocal unity of religious leaders in expressing their homophobic attitude. Usually divisive and almost always seen tearing down each other’s religious beliefs, leaders across sections came forward in decrying homosexuality and expressing their solidarity with the judgment."[5]
The article added that Baba Ramdev India's well-known yoga guru, after praying that journalists not "turn homosexual", stated he could cure homosexuality through yoga and called it "a bad addiction”. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad's vice-president Om Prakash Singhal said, “This is a right decision, we welcome it. Homosexuality is against Indian culture, against nature and against science. We are regressing, going back to when we were almost like animals. The SC had protected our culture.” The article states that Singhal further went to dismiss HIV/AIDS concerns within the LGBT community as, “It is understood that when you try to suppress one anomaly, there will be a break-out of a few more.” (Traditionally, Indian culture, or at least Hinduism, has been more ambivalent about homosexuality than Singhal suggests.)
Maulana Madni of the Jamiat Ulema is stated in the article as echoing similar homophobia in stating that “Homosexuality is a crime according to scriptures and is unnatural. People cannot consider themselves to be exclusive of a society... In a society, a family is made up of a man and a woman, not a woman and a woman, or a man and a man.” Rabbi Ezekiel Issac Malekar, honorary secretary of the Judah Hyam Synagogue, in upholding the judgment was also quoted as saying “In Judaism, our scriptures do not permit homosexuality." Reverend Paul Swarup of the Cathedral Church of the Redemption in Delhi in stating his views on what he believes to be the unnaturalness of homosexuality, stated “Spiritually, human sexual relations are identified as those shared by a man and a woman. The Supreme Court’s view is an endorsement of our scriptures.”
Opposition and criticism[edit]
Convictions are extremely rare, and in the last twenty years there have been no convictions for homosexual relations in India. However, Human Rights Watch argues that the law has been used to harass HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, as well as sex workers, homosexuals, and other groups at risk of the disease.[6] The People's Union for Civil Liberties has published two reports of the rights violations faced by sexual minorities[7] and, in particular, transsexuals in India.[8]
In 2006 it came under criticism from 100 Indian literary figures,[9] most prominently Vikram Seth. The law subsequently came in for criticism from several ministers, most prominently Anbumani Ramadoss[10] and Oscar Fernandes.[11] In 2008, a judge of the Bombay High Court also called for the scrapping of the law.[12]
Legal battle[edit]
The judgement of the High Court of Delhi of 2 July 2009 declared portions of section 377 unconstitutional w.r.t consensual sex among adults
Main article: Naz Foundation v. Govt. of NCT of Delhi
The movement to repeal Section 377 was initiated by AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan in 1991. Their historic publication Less than Gay: A Citizen's Report, spelled out the problems with 377 and asked for its repeal. A 1996 article in Economic and Political Weekly by Vimal Balasubrahmanyan titled 'Gay Rights In India' chronicles this early history. As the case prolonged over the years, it was revived in the next decade, led by the Naz Foundation (India) Trust, an activist group, which filed a public interest litigation in the Delhi High Court in 2001, seeking legalisation of homosexual intercourse between consenting adults.[13] The Naz Foundation worked with a legal team from the Lawyers Collective to engage in court.[14] In 2003, the Delhi High Court refused to consider a petition regarding the legality of the law, saying that the petitioners, had no locus standi in the matter. Since nobody had been prosecuted in the recent past under this section it seemed unlikely that the section would be struck down as illegal by the Delhi High Court in the absence of a petitioner with standing. Naz Foundation appealed to the Supreme Court against the decision of the High Court to dismiss the petition on technical grounds. The Supreme Court decided that Naz Foundation had the standing to file a PIL in this case and sent the case back to the Delhi High Court to reconsider it on merit.[15] Subsequently, there was a significant intervention in the case by a Delhi-based coalition of LGBT, women's and human rights activists called 'Voices Against 377', which supported the demand to 'read down' section 377 to exclude adult consensual sex from within its purview.[16] The Indian author Rajesh Talwar wrote a satirical play on Section 377 titled 'Inside Gayland' where a young lawyer visits a planet where homosexuality is the norm and heterosexuality is criminalised.[17]
In May 2008, the case came up for hearing in the Delhi High Court, but the Government was undecided on its position, with The Ministry of Home Affairs maintaining a contradictory position to that of The Ministry of Health on the issue of enforcement of Section 377 with respect to homosexuality.[18] On 7 November 2008, the seven-year-old petition finished hearings. The Indian Health Ministry supported this petition, while the Home Ministry opposed such a move.[19] On 12 June 2009, India's new law minister Veerappa Moily agreed that Section 377 might be outdated.[20]
Eventually, in a historic judgement delivered on 2 Jul 2009, Delhi High Court overturned the 150 year old section,[21] legalising consensual homosexual activities between adults.[22] The essence of the section goes against the fundamental right of human citizens, stated the high court while striking it down. In a 105-page judgement, a bench of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S Muralidhar said that if not amended, section 377 of the IPC would violate Article 14 of the Indian constitution, which states that every citizen has equal opportunity of life and is equal before law.
The two judge bench went on to hold that:
“If there is one constitutional tenet that can be said to be underlying theme of the Indian Constitution, it is that of 'inclusiveness'. This Court believes that Indian Constitution reflects this value deeply ingrained in Indian society, nurtured over several generations. The inclusiveness that Indian society traditionally displayed, literally in every aspect of life, is manifest in recognising a role in society for everyone. Those perceived by the majority as "deviants' or 'different' are not on that score excluded or ostracised.
Where society can display inclusiveness and understanding, such persons can be assured of a life of dignity and non-discrimination. This was the 'spirit behind the Resolution' of which Nehru spoke so passionately. In our view, Indian Constitutional law does not permit the statutory criminal law to be held captive by the popular misconceptions of who the LGBTs are. It cannot be forgotten that discrimination is antithesis of equality and that it is the recognition of equality which will foster the dignity of every individual.[23]
”
The court stated that the judgement would hold until Parliament chose to amend the law. However, the judgement keeps intact the provisions of Section 377 insofar as it applies to non-consensual non-vaginal intercourse and intercourse with minors.[21]
A batch of appeals were filed with the Supreme Court, challenging the Delhi High Court judgment. On 27 March 2012, the Supreme Court reserved verdict on these.[24] After initially opposing the judgment, the Attorney General G. E. Vahanvati decided not to file any appeal against the Delhi High Court's verdict, stating, "insofar as [Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code] criminalises consensual sexual acts of adults in private [before it was struck down by the High Court] was imposed upon Indian society due to the moral views of the British rulers."[24]
2013 Judgement[edit]
The judgement of the Supreme Court of India of 11 December 2013 did not find enough reason for portions of section 377 to be declared unconstitutional and overturned the Delhi High Court judgement
On 11 December 2013, the Supreme Court of India ruled homosexuality to be a criminal offence setting aside the 2009 judgement given by the Delhi High Court. In its judgment the Supreme court bench of justices G. S. Singhvi and S. J. Mukhopadhaya stated —
"In view of the above discussion, we hold that Section 377 IPC does not suffer from the vice of unconstitutionality and the declaration made by the Division Bench of the High court is legally unsustainable."[25]
The full decision can be found here.
The bench of justices G. S. Singhvi and S. J. Mukhopadhaya however noted that the Parliaments should debate and decide on the matter. A bench of justices upheld the constitutional validity of Section 377 of Indian Penal Code that makes anal sex a punishable offense.[26] The central government has filed a review petition on 21 December 2013. In its review petition the Centre said: “The judgment suffers from errors apparent on the face of the record, and is contrary to well-established principles of law laid down by the apex Court enunciating the width and ambit of Fundamental Rights under Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution.” The IPC, when enacted in 1860, was justified; but with the passage of time it had become arbitrary and unreasonable, the petition added.[27] Naz Foundation has also filed a review petition against the Supreme Court order on Section 377.[28] On January 28, 2014 Supreme Court dismissed the review Petition filed by Central Government, NGO Naz Foundation and several others, against its December 11 verdict on Section 377 of IPC.[29] [30]
Responses[edit]
Days later and influenced by the Devyani Khobragade incident, former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha called for the arrest of same-sex companions of US diplomats, citing the Supreme Court of India's recent upholding of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.[31][32] The recriminalization of gay sex comes under fire from World leaders. The United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay[33] voiced her disappointment at the re-criminalization of consensual same-sex relationships in India, calling it “a significant step backwards” for the country.In the wake of Indian Supreme Court's ruling that gay sex is illegal, UN chief Ban Ki-moon[34] stressed on the need for equality and opposed any discrimination against lesbians, gays and bisexuals.[35]
Congress party President, Sonia Gandhi asked Parliament to do away with section 377. Congress Party vice-President Rahul Gandhi also wanted section-377 to go and supported gay rights.[36] However, Prime minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders have stated that homosexual acts are wrong and are unlikely to bring legislation to repeal the law.[37]
Protest on social media[edit]
Actor Imran Khan took action in order to disabuse homophobic people from their mistaken notions of homosexuality in a satire video.[38] Aamir Khan, Celina Jaitley, Twinkle Khanna, John Abraham, Karan Johar, Farhan Akhtar, Riteish Deshmukh,[39] Shruti Haasan, Sonam Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Amitabh Bachchan,[40] Amartya Sen, Vikram Seth commented against the ruling. Many other well known persons protested against section supreme court ruling.
Article in this months American Bungalow magazine. Authentic period fashions from Syacuse University's Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection with styling by Jeffrey Mayer, curator. Mannequin makeup by Dash-N-Dazzle.