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Big Apple Circus | Sizzle 3D! • Vimeo™
Miramax Films | Goodwill Hunting • YouTube™
NOTE: the Apples scene
the Commitments | Mustang Sally Live! • mail.RU™
Amaluna | Cirque du Soleil Boston 2014! • YouTube™
Matt Timmons Media | Rain Down on Me Jess C! • Vimeo™
Big Apple Circus | Backstage Behind the Scenes! • Vimeo™
Purple Rain | National Night Out Police [10.3.23] gwennie2006! • YouTube™
Blogger GrfxDiner:
Tales of the Butterfly | Little Wing...
GrfxDziner.blogspot.com/2009/11/tales-of-butterfly-little...
Blogger GrfxDziner | I Scream, You Scream...
GrfxDzinerTutorials.blogspot.com/2015/05/i-scream-you-scream...
Blogger GrfxDziner | Blue Wave 10-4 & more! [part I]…
GrfxDzinerTutorials.blogspot.com/2022/10/blue-wave-10-4-more...
Blogger GrfxDziner | Blue Wave 10-4 & more! [part II]…
GrfxDziner.blogspot.com/2024/07/blue-wave-10-4-more-part-ii.html
Collage and drop shadow created in PicMonkey, sooc images.
Tenuous Link: Big Apple Circus
NOTE 10.31.19:
Page removed.
www.scatvsomerville.org/snn/tears-pledges-and-promises-on...
**The page has recently been removed, but I reported it to the FBI in July 2017. Spent about 45 minutes on the phone, and told them how to see the public video which had March 22 as the date of the gathering, and the transcript that also had the date March 22, 2014. [page removed] see comment.
Also that video has the Mayor of Somerville say Cremins, with an "s", like Deanna's 13,000 reward billboard. Her name was actually spelled incorrectly, really, with an "s", like the Mayor said.
FBI.
on July 12, 2017 I went to the Boston Police, it was the day I found out Deanna's sister Christine died on 3.8.17....the day after I asked Katherine where the missing $20,000.00 went to. They told me to go to the FBI, because of the Mayor involvement.
Also.....the Sargent that I spoke with asked me as I left...."Was she the one found in the trunk of a car?" I said, "No, Deanna was found behind an elderly housing project, 125 Jaques Street, Somerville." ….the woman in the trunk was in Stoneham.....and her Billboard had her picture, and her name spelled correctly.
GET YOUR KNEE OFF OUR NECKS Commitment March Rally at Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool North Pathway, NW, Washington DC on Friday morning, 28 August 2020 by Elvert Barnes Photography
Visit Commitment March website at nationalactionnetwork.net/commitment-march-on-washington-dc/
Elvert Barnes 57th Anniversary of 1963 March on Washington COMMITMENT MARCH docu-project at elvertbarnes.com/57MOW2020
As I said in the previous post 110%. This apply's well to photography. If you have a dream and a passion then follow it and grab it with both hands, if you fail, what have you really lost.
Nothing, never die wondering.
110%.
Part of the Northern Shoveler courtship. The female was surrounded and followed by six drakes. This head bobbing by both the male and female displayed the excitement and acceptance of this male by the female. When a male is not accepted, the female will lower her beak and point it towards the unwanted male with a slightly aggressive look. Great Salt Lake, Utah
“Commitment unlocks the doors of imagination, allows vision, and gives us the "right stuff" to turn our dreams into reality.” -James Womack-
A good friend invited me to shoot her friend's wedding. I had no experience in weddings which pressured me yet made me excited as well. I wasn't able to borrow a speedlight so i shot using my cam alone. I invited another friend to help me out (thanks harold!).... twas tiring yet rewarding at the same time!
Part of my 1st wedding shoot.
Nov 29, 2008 Muntinlupa
Emer & Charise's Wedding
my 10th explored shot. 2nd from my dslr.
Dec 3, 2008
SMITH, GOLDWIN, writer, journalist, and controversialist; b. 13 Aug. 1823 in Reading, England, son of Richard Pritchard Smith, an Oxford-educated physician and railway promoter and director, and Elizabeth Breton, and the only one of their seven children to survive to adulthood; d. 7 June 1910 in Toronto.
After attending a private school and Eton College, Goldwin Smith in 1841 went to Christ Church and then in 1842 to Magdalen College, both at Oxford. He was awarded a first class in literae humaniores and obtained a ba in 1845 and an ma in 1848. He also carried off a series of prizes in classical studies, including one for a Latin essay on the position of women in ancient Greece. He both translated and wrote Latin verse, interests he would retain throughout his life. His education was intended as a preparation for the law and in 1842 his name had been entered at Lincoln’s Inn. He was called to the bar in 1850 but he never pursued a legal career.
When Smith was at Oxford the university was racked with religious controversy which focused on John Henry Newman and the Oxford Movement. Smith apparently admired Newman’s style but he was repelled by the movement’s ritualistic tendencies and its affinities with Roman Catholicism. Although he was a member of the Church of England, as was required of all Oxford students at the time, his mother’s Huguenot background may have contributed to his developing religious liberalism and dislike of clericalism. He would remain interested in religious issues until the end of his life, but his knowledge of theology was superficial. In addition, his understanding of the scientific controversies that were beginning to arise in pre-Darwinian Oxford was modest and was probably gained at the geological lectures of William Buckland, who upheld William Paley’s view that God’s existence was demonstrated by design in nature. Although Smith would come to accept a version of evolution and to realize, as he wrote in 1883, that it had “wrought a great revolution,” he never fully understood Charles Darwin’s hypothesis.
Smith spent the late 1840s in London and in travels on the Continent with Oxford friends. His growing interest in liberal reforms, especially in reducing the privileged status of the Church of England, was stimulated by events and personalities at home and abroad, though he quickly joined the side of authority during the Chartist disturbances in 1848. His first reformist thrusts were directed at Oxford. A fellow in civil law at University College from 1846, he joined in a demand for a reduction in clerical control over the university. Partly as a result of the agitation, which included letters from Smith to the Times of London in 1850, a royal commission, with Smith as assistant secretary, was struck in that year to investigate the university. The commission reported in 1852 and the Oxford University Act two years later relaxed but did not abolish religious tests.
During his years with the royal commission Smith widened his contacts in the political and intellectual world and turned to journalism, which was to be his permanent vocation. In 1850 he began contributing to the Morning Chronicle and in 1855 to the Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, both published in London, reviewing poetry and advocating university reform. In 1858 he was made a member of a new royal commission, chaired by the Duke of Newcastle, to examine Britain’s educational system, and he wrote part of the report which appeared in 1862. Meanwhile, also in 1858, the Conservative government of Lord Derby appointed Smith regius professor of modern history at Oxford. This post carried such prestige that Smith, who was only 35, might have been expected to settle into it for the rest of his life. In 1861 he indicated his intention to withdraw from active journalism and devote himself to his new profession as an historian. He apparently planned to write some serious scholarly works, but this goal proved incompatible with his intense interest in contemporary affairs. Lack of detachment was the most prominent characteristic of Smith’s historical writing. He always knew which side was right. For him history was not an arid, scientific search for objective accuracy. “History,” he argued, “without moral philosophy, is a mere string of facts; and moral philosophy, without history, is apt to become a dream.”
Smith used his chair largely to engage in controversies over political and religious questions. Although he was undoubtedly a stimulating and devoted lecturer and tutor, he showed no interest in original research and published nothing of scholarly merit. His later historical publications and literary biographies, including histories of the United States and the United Kingdom and studies on William Cowper and Jane Austen, were little more than a reworking of secondary sources usually spiced up with a dose of his principles and prejudices. He was a man of letters, not a research scholar, and he also published travel books and Latin and Greek authors in translation. His first book was typical. Of his five Lectures on modern history (1861), three dealt with religious controversies related to rationalism and agnosticism, another with the idea of progress, and only one with a historical topic, the founding of the American colonies. Though denying that history was a science, Smith was quite prepared to draw moral laws from his reading of the past. In the first place, he considered “the laws of the production and distribution of wealth . . . the most beautiful and wonderful of the natural laws of God. . . . To buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market, the supposed concentration of economical selfishness, is simply to fulfil the commands of the Creator.” These laws, discovered by Adam Smith, whom he viewed as a prophet, expressed a tenet of political economy from which he would never deviate: a market economy guided by the “hidden hand” was divinely sanctioned and if faithfully observed would lead to a just social order. Secondly, Smith’s reading of history convinced him that religion provided the cement holding the social order in place. “Religion,” he warned those who contended that progress had made Christianity obsolete, “is the very core, centre, and vital support of our social and political organization; so that without a religion the civil tie would be loosened, personal would completely prevail over public motives, selfish ambition and cupidity would break loose in all directions, and society and the body politic would be in danger of dissolution.”
To these lessons of history Smith added a third which would serve as a permanent guide to his judgements on the way of the world, a conviction that “colonial emancipation” should take place as rapidly as possible because it was – except for India and Ireland – inevitable. This conclusion appeared in a series of articles published in the London Daily News in 1862–63 and then in pamphlet form as The empire in 1863. There he presented a distillation of the opinions of his friends John Bright, Richard Cobden, and others of the so-called Manchester school who believed that Britain’s economic power, under free trade, was so great that the formal, political empire could be disbanded without economic loss. The lesson of the American revolution, for Smith a disaster which had divided the Anglo-Saxon people, was simply that colonies should be allowed to grow naturally into nations. Once they were freed of the yoke of dependency, “something in the nature of a great Anglo-Saxon federation may, in substance if not form, spontaneously arise out of affinity and mutual affection.” Though condemned by the Times and attacked by Benjamin Disraeli as one of the “prigs and pedants” who should make way for statesmen, Smith clung tenaciously to his anti-imperial faith.
A drastic alteration in Smith’s personal circumstances led to his departure from England in 1868. He had resigned his chair at Oxford in 1866 in order to attend to his father, who had suffered permanent injury in a railway accident. In the autumn of 1867, when Smith was briefly absent, his father took his own life. Doubtless blaming himself for the tragedy – and now without an Oxford appointment – he decided to travel to North America, which he had previously visited in 1864, when Andrew Dickson White, president of Cornell University at Ithaca, N.Y., invited him to take up a teaching post at the newly founded institution. Smith was attracted by the determination of its founder, Ezra Cornell, to organize a university that was non-sectarian and open to all classes of society, though he had no sympathy for its commitment to coeducation. He remained at Cornell on a full-time basis for only two years but his connection with the university, which in 1906 named a building after him, continued for life. Whether it was the climate or the presence of women, admitted in 1869, that caused Smith to leave, he decided in 1871 to move to Toronto and to be near some relatives. Four years later that move became permanent as a consequence of his marriage in Toronto on 3 Sept. 1875 to William Henry Boulton*’s widow, Harriet Elizabeth Mann, née Dixon, who was two years his junior, an American by birth, and possessor of a significant fortune which included the estate named the Grange. Smith settled into a late-blooming marital bliss and the Grange’s affluent surroundings with ease: “a union for the afternoon and evening of life,” he told his American friend Charles Eliot Norton. He was, as he remarked after Harriet died in 1909, “finally bound to Canada by the happiest event of my life.”
The marriage, a personal healing of the unfortunate breach of 1776, was an extremely successful one. After years of transiency and a life seemingly limited to male friendships, Smith had found a perfect mate. His new wife was socially sophisticated and apparently utterly devoted to her austere husband who, in contrast to her first, spent his waking hours in reading, writing, and good talk. His circle of friends and visitors, the intellectual élite of the English-speaking world, joined local celebrities and politicians in the drawing-room of the Grange. “Here one is suddenly set down in an old English house,” Albert Venn Dicey wrote, “surrounded by grounds, with old four-post beds, old servants, all English, and English hosts . . . an English mansion in some English county.” For the remaining 35 years of his life, Smith lived in Canada, but he was never quite of it. From his “English mansion,” this talented and acerbic political and literary critic would hurl his jeremiads at a world that irritatingly deviated from the Manchester liberal faith in which he was steeped.
The move to Canada and marriage and domestic tranquillity did nothing to diminish Smith’s intellectual energy or his eagerness to improve public morality. Indeed, what he viewed as the underdeveloped, overly partisan state of Canadian public discussion spurred him on to greater effort. No sooner had he arrived in Toronto than he began reviewing for the Globe, but he quickly fell out with George Brown*, the paper’s proprietor, whose dogmatic righteousness brooked no competition. Smith soon turned to a series of attempts to establish independent organs, though independence usually meant agreement with Smith. First, he assisted Graeme Mercer Adam* in the founding of the Canadian Monthly and National Review (Toronto), where in February 1872 he adopted the nom de plume that would become his most characteristic signature, A Bystander. It was intended to imply that he was an outsider and therefore detached and analytical. In fact, it was soon obvious enough to readers that the author was a committed, often fierce, partisan, even if somewhat of an outsider. When the supporters of the Canada First movement launched the Nation in Toronto in 1874, Smith signed on as one of the principal contributors, both financially and as a writer. Then, in April 1876, he participated in a more ambitious project, the establishment, with John Ross Robertson* as publisher, of the Evening Telegram, a daily to compete with Brown’s Globe. It soon developed Conservative sympathies and Smith departed.
In June 1878 Smith returned to Toronto following an 18-month sojourn with Harriet in England more convinced than ever that the country needed the benefit of his intellectual guidance. Within a year he opened his own one-man show, the Bystander, subtitled “A monthly review of current events, Canadian and general.” The performance was a breathtaking one. For three years Smith’s outpourings filled its pages with brilliant, opinionated comment on virtually every political, cultural, and intellectual development in Europe and North America. He was determined to broaden the mental horizons of Canadians and by 1880 was pleased to admit that “the great questions of religious philosophy are beginning to engage a good many Canadian minds.” He expounded Adam Smith’s political economy, denounced women’s suffrage as a threat to the family, warned of the dangers of Herbert Spencer’s social Darwinism, castigated Bismarck, expatiated on the Eastern Question, and sniped at Disraeli. He even found space, when Sarah Bernhardt visited Canada in 1881, to agree with Bishop Édouard-Charles Fabre* and the Presbyterian (Montreal) in condemning her for her unsanctified liaisons. The Bystander’s suspicious eye frequently detected clerical power in Quebec and Ireland, and Jewish control over the European press. When Smith decided to give his active pen a rest in June 1881, he had established himself as a vigorous intellectual voice in Canada. A second series of the Bystander, this time published quarterly from January to October 1883, began after his return from another lengthy stay in England. The third and final series appeared between October 1889 and September 1890. In the interim he lent his support to another new journal, the Week, edited by Charles George Douglas Roberts*, which began publication in December 1883. Smith’s final venture in Canadian journalism came in 1896 when he acquired a controlling interest in the faltering Canada Farmers’ Sun (Toronto), a paper which, under George Weston Wrigley, had actively supported such radical causes as the political insurgency of the Patrons of Industry. The Bystander promptly put the paper back on orthodox rails by calling for free trade, retrenchment, and opposition to Canadian participation in the South African War. All of this activity still left time for a flood of articles in the international press: the Fortnightly Review, the Contemporary Review, and the Nineteenth Century, a Monthly Review in London, the Atlantic Monthly in Boston, and the Sun, the Nation, and the Forum in New York. Indeed, he published in any daily or monthly that would print his articles, reviews, and letters. His output was prodigious, the writing crisp and often epigrammatic.
Smith’s activities were not confined to intellectual labour. A public-spirited person, he devoted both money and energy to a variety of causes. Civic affairs especially concerned him for he believed that local governments should take greater responsibility for the welfare of citizens than was the case in Toronto. He chaired a citizens’ reform committee, advocated the commission system for city government, fought for the preservation and extension of parks for public recreation, campaigned for Sunday streetcars, and opposed free public lending libraries. (“A novel library,” he told Andrew Carnegie, “is to women mentally pretty much what the saloon is physically to men.”) He was distressed by problems of urban unemployment and poverty, and contributed generously to such charities and benevolent societies as the Associated City Charities of Toronto, which he founded, and the St Vincent de Paul Society. He also supported the building of a synagogue. For two decades he urged the appointment of a city welfare officer to supervise grants to social agencies, a cause that succeeded in 1893 only after Smith agreed to pay the officer’s salary for the first two years. Underlying these and other humanitarian endeavours was a philosophy of noblesse oblige, the Christian duty of the fortunate towards their weaker brethren. He feared that the failure of Christian voluntary charity would increase the popularity of those who advocated radical social programs. “Care for their own safety, then, as well as higher considerations, counsels the natural leaders of society to be at the post of duty,” Smith told a conference of the combined charities of Toronto in May 1889.
Education was another concern which Smith brought with him to Canada. In 1874 he was elected by Ontario teachers to represent them on the Council of Public Instruction and he was subsequently chosen president of the Ontario Teachers’ Association. But once again, university reform captured his deepest interest, and as in so many things, he advocated reforms that revealed his Oxford connections. Almost from the time of his arrival he proposed the federation of Ontario’s scattered universities on an Oxford model. He followed progress towards that federation in the 1880s and 1890s, regularly participating in University of Toronto functions and advocating university autonomy. In 1905 he accepted membership on, but not the chair of, a royal commission on the University of Toronto. One outcome was a new act in 1906 establishing a board of governors for the university, to which Smith was appointed. Among the many honorary degrees which Smith received from the great universities of the English-speaking world he must have particularly savoured the one conferred on him in 1902 by the University of Toronto; seven years earlier he had withdrawn his name from nomination for a degree in the face of the furious opposition of George Taylor Denison* and other imperial federationists who protested against the granting of the degree to a “traitor.”
For all of his breadth of knowledge and interest, Smith’s overriding concern was the contemporary world. His reputation rests on that collection of ideas which he regularly, and with remarkable consistency, applied to the issues of his time. Though he has most often been categorized as a “Victorian liberal,” it is not his liberal principles but rather his faith in the superiority of Anglo-Saxon civilization that is his most striking trait. That faith not only frequently contradicted his liberalism, but also, in its application to Canada, limited his ability to understand and sympathize with the aspirations of the people among whom he had chosen to take up residence.
Smith’s liberalism expressed itself most fulsomely in his commitment to free market economics, the secularization of public life, and opposition to empire. Though a firm believer in individualism and parliamentary government, Smith showed no special interest in civil liberties, except in his criticism of clericalism, and he favoured neither universal manhood nor women’s suffrage. He distrusted democracy and pronounced the French revolution (an event admired by most liberals) “of all the events in history, the most calamitous.” Inequality, he believed, was mankind’s permanent condition. While he repeatedly professed sympathy for labour and supported trade unions, he abhorred strikes and denounced as “chimeras” those reforms – single tax, currency inflation, public ownership, the regulation of hours of work – which labour radicals began to advocate in the late 19th century; progress he thought possible, but “there is no leaping into the millennium.” Although limited government intervention in the economy might sometimes be justified (he reluctantly supported Sir John A. Macdonald*’s arguments for a National Policy), collectivism and socialism were anathema He opposed income tax, old-age pensions, and even publicly financed education. In his introduction to Essays on questions of the day (1893), he summed up his social philosophy by confessing that “the opinions of the present writer are those of a Liberal of the old school as yet unconverted to State Socialism, who looks for further improvement not to an increase of the authority of government, but to the same agencies, moral, intellectual, and economical, which have brought us thus far, and one of which, science, is now operating with immensely increased power.” Clearly, it was not just “state socialism” that had failed to convert the master of the Grange; the new social liberalism of Thomas Hill Green and Leonard Trelawney Hobhouse was equally heretical to him. Indeed, by the late Victorian era one of Smith’s own adages could reasonably be applied to its author: “There is no reactionary,” the Bystander informed the readers of the Week in 1884, “like the exhausted Reformer.”
Had Smith’s social philosophy become threadbare merely as a result of the passage of time, then he might none the less rank as a significant liberal, if only of the “old school.” But the limits of his liberalism are even more evident when placed in the context of his nationalism – his belief in Anglo-Saxon superiority. In common with most 19th-century political thinkers, especially liberals, Smith believed that “nations” were “an ordinance of nature, and a natural bond.” Like John Stuart Mill, and in contrast to Lord Acton, he defined a nation in terms of the concept of cultural homogeneity. And although he opposed imperialism, he was nevertheless utterly at one with those imperialists who believed that the Anglo-Saxon cultural community, centred in Great Britain with branches around the world, was a superior civilization. Its political institutions, economic system, morality, and culture were all signs of its primacy in a world of diverse nations. In his first, and most famous, critique of the empire, he gave voice to his own form of nationalism, one which verged on cultural imperialism. “I am no more against Colonies than I am against the solar system,” he wrote in The empire. “I am against dependencies, when nations are fit to be independent. If Canada were made an independent nation she would still be a Colony of England, and England would still be her Mother Country in the full sense in which those names have been given to the most famous examples of Colonization in history. Our race and language, our laws and liberties, will be hers.”
For Smith the great failure, even tragedy, of Anglo-Saxon history was the American revolution. “Before their unhappy schism they were one people,” and the healing of that schism through the “moral, diplomatic and commercial union of the whole English-speaking race throughout the world” became the goal to which all else was secondary. He shared that goal with those Canadians who advocated imperial federation – Denison, George Monro Grant, George Robert Parkin* – but because his chosen route began with the annexation of Canada to the United States he found himself in permanent head-to-head combat with those same men.
Smith’s convictions about the superiority of Anglo-Saxon values are most strikingly illustrated in his attitude towards “lesser breeds without the Law.” His advocacy of colonial freedom was limited to those colonies which had English majorities. India, a conquered territory, was exempt; for Britain to relinquish what he called this “splendid curse” would be to abdicate its responsibility and leave the subcontinent to certain anarchy. If India troubled Smith, Ireland infuriated him. He mistrusted Roman Catholicism everywhere; in Ireland he despised it. As an ethnic group the Irish were an “amiable but thriftless, uncommercial, saint-worshipping, priest-ridden race.” He fought Home Rule as though his very life depended upon its defeat. “Statesmen might as well provide the Irish people with Canadian snowshoes,” he declaimed sarcastically, “as extend to them the Canadian Constitution.” His one-time associate William Ewart Gladstone was denounced as “an unspeakable old man” when he took up the Irish cause.
Other non-Anglo-Saxon groups fared little better. Though Smith occasionally expressed sympathy for “the wild-stocks of humanity” – the people of Africa, for example – he saw no reason to lament the oppressed state of the native North American. The doomed state of the native people was not the fault of the British who “had always treated [them] with humanity and justice”; with their disappearance, “little will be lost by humanity,” he concluded callously.
For the Jewish people, Smith reserved a special place in his catalogue of “undesirables.” The critical problem with the Jews was what Smith saw as their stubborn unwillingness to assimilate, to give up their religious beliefs and cultural practices, to become “civilized.” He regularly stereotyped them as “tribal,” “usurious,” “plutopolitans,” incapable of loyalty to their country of residence. The Talmud, the Bystander affirmed, “is a code of casuistical legalism . . . of all reactionary productions the most debased, arid, and wretched.” If the Jews would not assimilate they should be returned to their homeland. In a sentence that reeked with racist arrogance he declared that “two greater calamities perhaps have never befallen mankind than the transportation of the negro and the dispersion of the Jews.” Smith’s extreme ethnocentricity in the case of the Jewish people, as Gerald Tulchinsky has shown, can only be described as anti-Semitism.
Smith’s belief in Anglo-Saxon superiority and the importance that he attached to the reunification of the “race” provided him with both his questions and his answers when he analysed “Canada and the Canadian question.” On his arrival in Toronto Smith had discovered a nascent nationalist movement. He threw his support behind this amorphous group of young men whose platform was set out in William Alexander Foster*’s pamphlet Canada First; or, our new nationality: an address (Toronto, 1871), which called for the promotion of a national sentiment and the clarification of Canada’s status in the empire as well as for a number of political reforms. While Smith believed that the movement would promote Canadian independence, others favoured some form of equal partnership with the other members of the empire. For a time the movement attracted the sympathy of the prominent Liberal party intellectual Edward Blake*, but by the mid 1870s it had disintegrated, and its organ, the Nation, disappeared in 1876. This brief experience apparently convinced Smith that Canada could never become a genuine nation and that its destiny lay in union with the United States. In 1877 he set out these conclusions in an article for the Fortnightly Review and then in the Canadian Monthly, conclusions which he would repeat over the remainder of his life and which found their most famous expression in his Canada and the Canadian question in 1891. At the heart of his case was the claim that Canada could not be a nation because it lacked cultural homogeneity. The principal obstacle to nationhood was Quebec, composed as it was of an “unprogressive, religious, submissive, courteous, and, though poor, not unhappy people. . . . They are governed by the priest, with the occasional assistance of the notary. . . . The French-Canadians . . . retain their exclusive national character.” Confederation had failed to meld the competing “races” and regions into a single community and only political corruption, bribes to the regions, and the vested interests which benefited from the protective tariff kept this artificial country from collapsing. “Sectionalism,” he had written in 1878, “still reigns in everything, from the composition of a Cabinet down to that of a Wimbledon Rifle team.” In Smith’s mind the natural geographical and economic forces of North America worked against the unnatural political and sentimental opinions of Canadians. Like the United States, Canada was a North American nation and once this fact was recognized the two communities would achieve their destiny in unity. “The more one sees of society in the New World, the more convinced one is that its structure essentially differs from that of society in the Old World, and that the feudal element has been eliminated completely and forever.” Everything pointed towards “an equal and honorable alliance like that of Scotland and England” between Canada and her southern neighbour, “Canadian nationality being a lost cause.”
Over the years Smith’s conviction about Canada’s destiny intensified, his observation of French Canada hardening his hostility to that community. By 1891 he was willing to state emphatically that one of the principal benefits of union with the United States would be the final solution of the French Canadian problem. “Either the conquest of Quebec was utterly fatuous or it is to be desired that the American Continent should belong to the English tongue and to Anglo-Saxon civilisation.” Though the opposition of French Canadians to the South African War moderated these sentiments somewhat – Smith even considered joining forces with Henri Bourassa* in an anti-imperialist movement – he continued to fear, as he told Bourassa in 1905, “the connexion of your national aspirations with those of an ambitious and aggressive priesthood.” His ideal of cultural homogeneity left no room for a political nationality based on cultural diversity, the cornerstone of confederation. For him the call of race was irresistible: “In blood and character, language, religion, institutions, laws and interests, the two portions of the Anglo-Saxon race on this continent are one people.”
In all of his pronouncements on politics, economics, and Canada’s destiny, Smith seemed a self-confident, even dogmatic, pundit. But underneath that confidence was a profoundly uneasy man. The unease arose not only from Smith’s personal religious uncertainty but even more from his anxiety about the future of society in an age of religious scepticism. Though Smith does not seem to have experienced that typical Victorian “crisis of faith,” Darwinism and the higher criticism of the Bible certainly left him with little more than a thin deism and a vague humanism founded on Christian ethics. Throughout his life he struggled with religious questions, and his inconclusive answers were recorded in his Guesses at the riddle of existence (1897). But it was always to the social implications of the decline of faith that he returned. In an essay entitled “The prospect of a moral interregnum,” published in 1879, he observed: “That which prevails as Agnosticism among philosophers and the highly educated prevails as secularism among mechanics, and in that form is likely soon to breed mutinous questionings about the present social order among those who get the poorer share, and who can no longer be appeased by promises of compensation in another world.” For 30 years he repeated this gloomy theme, revealing his forebodings about the decline and fall of practically everything he accepted as eternal verities. Everywhere “prophets of unrest” loomed – Karl Marx, Henry George, Edward Bellamy, assorted socialists and anarchists, and the leaders of “the revolt of women” – questioning the established order, no longer satisfied by the opiate of religion. His increasingly shrill polemics signified his alienation from a world that had passed him by. He was simply too set in his ways to admit, as he was urged to do by Alphonse Desjardins*, the leader of the Quebec cooperative movement, “that improvements can be got by recognizing that the old liberal school of Political Economy has not discovered everything.”
Harriet Smith died at the Grange on 9 Sept. 1909. The following March the old man slipped and broke his thigh. He died on 7 June 1910 and was buried in St James cemetery. The Grange, which remained his wife’s property, was willed by her to the city of Toronto to serve as a public art gallery. The £20,000 Smith had inherited from his father had grown to more than $830,000 by the time of his death. He left his excellent library to the University of Toronto. Most of his fortune and his private papers went to Cornell University as a mark, Smith’s will revealingly declared, of his “attachment as an Englishman to the union of the two branches of our race on this continent with each other, and with their common mother.”
BNSF 4805 leads CP 372 east as it rolls by Miller park i was standing in ankle deep snow for 20 min for this shot
I had a few hours to kill in King's Cross on Friday so spent a while messing about with different compositions on this roof. This is my first photo in weeks as the hideous weather and other commitments killed off my 366!
In recognition of their outstanding service to Delaware, Governor John Carney honored 13 young people and five groups with the Governor’s Youth Volunteer Service Awards during a ceremony May 24 at the Polytech Adult Education Conference Center in Woodside.
“Across the state, I am impressed by the level of commitment our young people have to serving others,” Governor Carney said. “I am proud to honor their energy, spirit and willingness as they help us to build stronger and healthier communities. Without question, they demonstrate that one person can make a difference in the lives of others.”
More than 200 people, including Renee Beaman, director of DHSS' Division of State Service Centers, which oversees the awards, and Georgeanna Windley, Chair of the Governor’s Commission on Community and Volunteer Service, joined the Governor in honoring the young volunteers for their outstanding service, community impact and inspiration to others.
The Governor’s Youth Volunteer Service Awards are sponsored by the Office of the Governor and are coordinated by the State Office of Volunteerism and the Governor’s Commission on Community and Volunteer Service.
2017 GOVERNOR’S YOUTH VOLUNTEER SERVICE AWARD WINNERS
INDIVIDUALS
Wei-Ling Moloy
Arts & Culture
Nominator: Angela Williamson
Wei-Ling Moloy is an active volunteer at Hagley Museum & Library, serving as a youth leader in its Youth Leadership Program (YLP) and as a camp counselor. As a youth leader, Wei-Ling facilitates and designs programs and activities related to Hagley’s stories of technology, science, and innovation. As a camp counselor, she supported the adult camp instructors by interacting with campers, assisting with activities, and maintaining the enjoyment and safety of campers. Beginning in 2014, as a shy, quiet volunteer, Wei-Ling has grown into a strong leader who is respected both by her fellow youth leaders and the adult mentors in the Hagley Museum & Library volunteer program.
Suprit Bodla
Community Service
Nominator: Jim Power
Since 2013, Suprit Bodla has volunteered with the Boy Scouts of America, Christiana Care Health System and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). He has organized a variety of fundraisers to benefit LLS and also to raise public awareness of the fight against blood cancer. Suprit is also a student mentor for the Science Ambassadors Program at the Charter School of Wilmington, where he, along with his peers, helped to organize a STEM tutoring program at Marbrook Elementary School and work with the Delaware Children’s Museum to provide science and match activities for Engineering Week.
Nadeem D. Boggerty
Community Service
Nominators: Adrienne Gomez
Dover High School honor student Nadeem D. Boggerty has been volunteering in his community for the past six years with his church, his school and through social organizations. One of the many organizations at which Nadeem volunteers is the Calvary Church in Dover, where he and his family help pack boxes and assist with dinner on Thanksgiving each year. Nadeem also participates in several social service organizations (the Omega Gents, a program steered by Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.; EMBODI, hosted by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.; and BeB.O.L.D., a nonprofit youth mentoring organization in Dover) where he has helped feed the homeless, staff information tables at Back-to-School Fairs, toy drives, First State Community Day, and other activities that support the local community.
Sarah Davis
Education
Nominator: Michelle Neef
Fourteen-year-old Sarah Davis been volunteering with Faithful Friends Animal Society for four years. Sarah passionately promotes, educates and supports her community and has become a true leader and advocate for her generation. Furthermore, she displays great compassion while taking the initiative to ensure the safety of animals. Her tenacity has saved the lives of many dogs and cats, and improved the lives of neighbors who care for them. Sarah has provided long-term foster care to neonate kittens and delivered food from Faithful Friends Animal Society Pet Food Bank to pet owners with low incomes or those struggling in other ways to assist them in keeping their family pets in their home. She also rescued dogs and cats from perilous environments and has been instrumental for the Trap-Neuter-Return program, which works to reduce and improve the community cat population.
Cheyenne McGowan
Environment
Nominator: Emily Krueger
Cheyenne McGowan started with the Brandywine Zoo as a summer teen intern with its Zoo Camps during the summer of 2016. After the summer, she continued her volunteer efforts by signing up to help with various educational events at the zoo, including International Red Panda Day, Vulture Weekend, and Noon Year’s Eve. Her role for these events was educating the public at learning stations using animal artifacts, activities, or crafts. In addition, Cheyenne frequently came in to interpret the zoo’s animal exhibits to the public as a docent. Since she started volunteering a year ago, Cheyenne has helped educate hundreds of people at the zoo, which serves the greater Wilmington area, on different environmental topics, including climate change, animal adaptations, and specific animal facts.
Michael Robinette
Health & Special Needs
Nominator: Margaret Jenkins
Since 2013, Michael Robinette has volunteered with the Mary Campbell Center’s Children & Youth program. Mike works with more than 100 children each summer, in a variety of age groups with unique physical or intellectual disabilities. His responsibilities include assisting children in different activities throughout the day such as arts and crafts, games, swimming and cooking. Mike also supports staff with talent show planning and production. Additionally, he provides supervision and companionship for campers on field trips during the summer camp program. Mike gets to know the campers on a one-on-one level and is quick to learn their likes and dislikes, and when they need or want help.
Santiago Vizcaino
Health & Special Needs
Nominator: Richard Huber
Santiago Vizcaino began volunteering with the Delaware Division for the Visually Impaired in the summer of 2016. During his time with the agency, Santiago has provided assistance in producing resource material for students with visual impairments, assisting staff with departmental projects and developing training procedures for the organization. Beginning at the Instruction Resource Material Center, Santiago produced large-print reading material for students, which were provided to 247 students. He developed a process that allowed books to be converted to PDF format, which allows a student with a visual impairment to use an iPad or other electronic device to review the document via voice narration or zoom text option, depending on the individual student’s needs. In addition, Santiago helped to develop training procedures for other volunteers.
Joy Baker
Human Needs
Nominator: Joyce Sessoms
In 2016 alone, Joy Baker volunteered an estimated 200+ hours in a variety of capacities in the Delmar and Laurel communities. She serves on the Youth Board of Directors of The ARK Education Resource Center, volunteers at her church as an assistant to the program coordinator responsible for youth activities, and is a member of the National Honor Society. For ARK, Joy acts as a recruiter and fundraiser, and is also an active participant in ARK-sponsored events like the Back-to-School Extravaganza held in Janosik Park.
Katelyn Craft
Human Needs
Nominator: Emily Holcombe
In July 2016, Katelyn Craft began volunteering at Exceptional Care for Children (ECC), Delaware’s first and only nonprofit pediatric skilled nursing facility for children who are medically fragile. Through the Resident Playdate volunteer program, ECC is able to provide the residents the chance to interact with individuals who can offer something other than medical care. At age 14, Katy knew she wanted to bring smiles and joy to children who have extensive medical needs. She has spent more than 100 hours reading, playing games, watching movies, assisting with arts and crafts projects, or just spending quality time with children who have little family involvement. In addition, Katy volunteered her time assisting with special events and fundraisers, like the Gala Fundraiser and Visits with Santa.
Daevean DeShields
Human Needs
Nominator: Aaron Tyson
Following the inspiration of his grandfather, Daevean DeShields created Project HOOP, which stands for Helping Out Other People. The goal of Project HOOP was to fill 1,000 bags with supplies to be distributed to people who are homeless through Faith United Methodist Church’s Open Hands Sound & Clothing Ministry. After recruiting from his local and school community (including his school principal), Daevean was able to meet and surpass his goal with a remarkable 1,015 bags assembled.
Jakob Ryan Thomas
Public Safety
Nominator: Shirin Skovronski
For almost two years, Jakob Ryan Thomas has volunteered as a junior firefighter with the Mill Creek Fire Company. In 2016 alone, he responded to 488 calls of emergency responses to structure fires, motor vehicle crashes, medical assistance, and other miscellaneous calls, amassing more than 500 volunteer hours. Jakob’s actions assisted the community in multiple emergencies, which were often quite serious and dangerous in nature.
Richard Thomas
Public Safety
Nominator: Robert Bassett, Jr.
Richard Thomas has been a volunteer firefighter with Camden-Wyoming Fire Company for two years, assisting in more than 300 emergency situations such as car accidents and house fires. Richard also assists with teaching fire prevention to children. Despite his youth, Richard is well-respected at the fire company and is seen as a mentor for new firefighters.
Ananya Singh
Social Justice/Advocacy
Nominator: Meghan Pasricha
For the past nine years, Ananya Singh has been a member of the Global Youth H.E.L.P. Inc. (GYH), a Delaware nonprofit whose mission is to train and support young people to become leaders by serving their communities through community service projects. Ananya served first as president of the middle school chapter and is currently chair of the high school chapter. Her time and efforts have been vital for many different community service projects, including the Annual Backpack Donation for the YWCA Home-Life Center, the Christmas Hygiene Product Donation, the Annual Ice Cream Party for the YWCA Home-Life Center and the Premier Charities Feeding the Homeless. She also has taught English and karate to younger children.
GROUPS
Greater Milford Boys & Girls Club
Arts & Culture
Nominator: Kenny Monroe
Following the devastation of Hurricane Matthew (Sept. 28-Oct. 10, 2016) in the Caribbean, the Teen TITAN program members of the Greater Milford Boys & Girls Club developed the “Hope for Haiti Donation Drive.” In a relatively short time, the Team Titan program members spent 400 hours collecting clothing, toiletries, bottled water, educational material and other items. More than 300 items filled more than 10 boxes and were sent to the people in Haiti to be used as they began to rebuild and recover from the effects of Hurricane Matthew.
Cape Henlopen High School Army Junior Reserve Officers Training Program
Community Service
Nominator: Angela Thompson
For 10 continuous years, the participants of the Army Junior Reserve Officers Training Program (JROTC) at Cape Henlopen High School have learned that everyone belongs to a community and therefore has a responsibility to that community. The 45 young men and women who comprise the current JROTC roster continue that legacy of service by devoting an average of 2,000 man-hours to community service activities benefiting a number of organizations, including the Delaware Seashore State Park, Beebe Medical Center, American Red Cross Blood Drive, the Salvation Army, Brandywine Senior Citizens Center and the National Kidney Foundation.
A.I. du Pont Middle School – Walk in the Kings Footsteps
Education
Nominator: Michele Fidance
When posed with the question “What will I do to walk in the footsteps of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?” the student body of A.I. du Pont Middle School in Wilmington decided to answer the question literally. A small group of students, led by Jobs for Delaware Graduates (JDG) instructors, were given the project of researching the speeches of Dr. King in order to choose quotes that meant something to them. The students then inscribed their selected quote on a cut-out of a footprint, which was then affixed to the wall in the cafeteria as a means to inspire their fellow students. Once students beyond the JDG classes saw the footprints, they wanted to participate as well. The project helped to raise awareness among students of Dr. King’s life, teaching and legacy, and how it translates into community action and service.
P.S. duPont Middle School Student Council – Adopt a Family
Health and Special Needs
Nominator: Mallory Stratton
Each year, the student council of P.S. duPont Middle School in Wilmington spearheads its annual Adopt-A-Family Drive. The drive involves the school community at-large adopting the families of 15 to 20 P.S. duPont students who are need assistance to make the holiday season a little brighter. The donations of clothing, books and toys generated by the student council benefited upwards of 50 fellow students and their siblings in 2016.
Delmar High School - Wildcat Wellness Pantry
Human Needs
Nominator: Michele Fidance
The Wildcat Wellness Pantry is a food pantry at the Delmar American Legion, which provides nonperishable food and household items for individuals in need. The pantry is staffed by as many as eight Jobs for Delaware Graduate (JDG) volunteers. The JDG volunteers come in on Saturdays to assist families in need and taking inventory to ensure the pantry can reach even more people. An additional group of more than 60 volunteers collect the proceeds from canned food drives that occur during the school year to continually stock the pantry.
In recognition of their outstanding service to Delaware, Governor John Carney honored 13 young people and five groups with the Governor’s Youth Volunteer Service Awards during a ceremony May 24 at the Polytech Adult Education Conference Center in Woodside.
“Across the state, I am impressed by the level of commitment our young people have to serving others,” Governor Carney said. “I am proud to honor their energy, spirit and willingness as they help us to build stronger and healthier communities. Without question, they demonstrate that one person can make a difference in the lives of others.”
More than 200 people, including Renee Beaman, director of DHSS' Division of State Service Centers, which oversees the awards, and Georgeanna Windley, Chair of the Governor’s Commission on Community and Volunteer Service, joined the Governor in honoring the young volunteers for their outstanding service, community impact and inspiration to others.
The Governor’s Youth Volunteer Service Awards are sponsored by the Office of the Governor and are coordinated by the State Office of Volunteerism and the Governor’s Commission on Community and Volunteer Service.
2017 GOVERNOR’S YOUTH VOLUNTEER SERVICE AWARD WINNERS
INDIVIDUALS
Wei-Ling Moloy
Arts & Culture
Nominator: Angela Williamson
Wei-Ling Moloy is an active volunteer at Hagley Museum & Library, serving as a youth leader in its Youth Leadership Program (YLP) and as a camp counselor. As a youth leader, Wei-Ling facilitates and designs programs and activities related to Hagley’s stories of technology, science, and innovation. As a camp counselor, she supported the adult camp instructors by interacting with campers, assisting with activities, and maintaining the enjoyment and safety of campers. Beginning in 2014, as a shy, quiet volunteer, Wei-Ling has grown into a strong leader who is respected both by her fellow youth leaders and the adult mentors in the Hagley Museum & Library volunteer program.
Suprit Bodla
Community Service
Nominator: Jim Power
Since 2013, Suprit Bodla has volunteered with the Boy Scouts of America, Christiana Care Health System and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). He has organized a variety of fundraisers to benefit LLS and also to raise public awareness of the fight against blood cancer. Suprit is also a student mentor for the Science Ambassadors Program at the Charter School of Wilmington, where he, along with his peers, helped to organize a STEM tutoring program at Marbrook Elementary School and work with the Delaware Children’s Museum to provide science and match activities for Engineering Week.
Nadeem D. Boggerty
Community Service
Nominators: Adrienne Gomez
Dover High School honor student Nadeem D. Boggerty has been volunteering in his community for the past six years with his church, his school and through social organizations. One of the many organizations at which Nadeem volunteers is the Calvary Church in Dover, where he and his family help pack boxes and assist with dinner on Thanksgiving each year. Nadeem also participates in several social service organizations (the Omega Gents, a program steered by Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.; EMBODI, hosted by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.; and BeB.O.L.D., a nonprofit youth mentoring organization in Dover) where he has helped feed the homeless, staff information tables at Back-to-School Fairs, toy drives, First State Community Day, and other activities that support the local community.
Sarah Davis
Education
Nominator: Michelle Neef
Fourteen-year-old Sarah Davis been volunteering with Faithful Friends Animal Society for four years. Sarah passionately promotes, educates and supports her community and has become a true leader and advocate for her generation. Furthermore, she displays great compassion while taking the initiative to ensure the safety of animals. Her tenacity has saved the lives of many dogs and cats, and improved the lives of neighbors who care for them. Sarah has provided long-term foster care to neonate kittens and delivered food from Faithful Friends Animal Society Pet Food Bank to pet owners with low incomes or those struggling in other ways to assist them in keeping their family pets in their home. She also rescued dogs and cats from perilous environments and has been instrumental for the Trap-Neuter-Return program, which works to reduce and improve the community cat population.
Cheyenne McGowan
Environment
Nominator: Emily Krueger
Cheyenne McGowan started with the Brandywine Zoo as a summer teen intern with its Zoo Camps during the summer of 2016. After the summer, she continued her volunteer efforts by signing up to help with various educational events at the zoo, including International Red Panda Day, Vulture Weekend, and Noon Year’s Eve. Her role for these events was educating the public at learning stations using animal artifacts, activities, or crafts. In addition, Cheyenne frequently came in to interpret the zoo’s animal exhibits to the public as a docent. Since she started volunteering a year ago, Cheyenne has helped educate hundreds of people at the zoo, which serves the greater Wilmington area, on different environmental topics, including climate change, animal adaptations, and specific animal facts.
Michael Robinette
Health & Special Needs
Nominator: Margaret Jenkins
Since 2013, Michael Robinette has volunteered with the Mary Campbell Center’s Children & Youth program. Mike works with more than 100 children each summer, in a variety of age groups with unique physical or intellectual disabilities. His responsibilities include assisting children in different activities throughout the day such as arts and crafts, games, swimming and cooking. Mike also supports staff with talent show planning and production. Additionally, he provides supervision and companionship for campers on field trips during the summer camp program. Mike gets to know the campers on a one-on-one level and is quick to learn their likes and dislikes, and when they need or want help.
Santiago Vizcaino
Health & Special Needs
Nominator: Richard Huber
Santiago Vizcaino began volunteering with the Delaware Division for the Visually Impaired in the summer of 2016. During his time with the agency, Santiago has provided assistance in producing resource material for students with visual impairments, assisting staff with departmental projects and developing training procedures for the organization. Beginning at the Instruction Resource Material Center, Santiago produced large-print reading material for students, which were provided to 247 students. He developed a process that allowed books to be converted to PDF format, which allows a student with a visual impairment to use an iPad or other electronic device to review the document via voice narration or zoom text option, depending on the individual student’s needs. In addition, Santiago helped to develop training procedures for other volunteers.
Joy Baker
Human Needs
Nominator: Joyce Sessoms
In 2016 alone, Joy Baker volunteered an estimated 200+ hours in a variety of capacities in the Delmar and Laurel communities. She serves on the Youth Board of Directors of The ARK Education Resource Center, volunteers at her church as an assistant to the program coordinator responsible for youth activities, and is a member of the National Honor Society. For ARK, Joy acts as a recruiter and fundraiser, and is also an active participant in ARK-sponsored events like the Back-to-School Extravaganza held in Janosik Park.
Katelyn Craft
Human Needs
Nominator: Emily Holcombe
In July 2016, Katelyn Craft began volunteering at Exceptional Care for Children (ECC), Delaware’s first and only nonprofit pediatric skilled nursing facility for children who are medically fragile. Through the Resident Playdate volunteer program, ECC is able to provide the residents the chance to interact with individuals who can offer something other than medical care. At age 14, Katy knew she wanted to bring smiles and joy to children who have extensive medical needs. She has spent more than 100 hours reading, playing games, watching movies, assisting with arts and crafts projects, or just spending quality time with children who have little family involvement. In addition, Katy volunteered her time assisting with special events and fundraisers, like the Gala Fundraiser and Visits with Santa.
Daevean DeShields
Human Needs
Nominator: Aaron Tyson
Following the inspiration of his grandfather, Daevean DeShields created Project HOOP, which stands for Helping Out Other People. The goal of Project HOOP was to fill 1,000 bags with supplies to be distributed to people who are homeless through Faith United Methodist Church’s Open Hands Sound & Clothing Ministry. After recruiting from his local and school community (including his school principal), Daevean was able to meet and surpass his goal with a remarkable 1,015 bags assembled.
Jakob Ryan Thomas
Public Safety
Nominator: Shirin Skovronski
For almost two years, Jakob Ryan Thomas has volunteered as a junior firefighter with the Mill Creek Fire Company. In 2016 alone, he responded to 488 calls of emergency responses to structure fires, motor vehicle crashes, medical assistance, and other miscellaneous calls, amassing more than 500 volunteer hours. Jakob’s actions assisted the community in multiple emergencies, which were often quite serious and dangerous in nature.
Richard Thomas
Public Safety
Nominator: Robert Bassett, Jr.
Richard Thomas has been a volunteer firefighter with Camden-Wyoming Fire Company for two years, assisting in more than 300 emergency situations such as car accidents and house fires. Richard also assists with teaching fire prevention to children. Despite his youth, Richard is well-respected at the fire company and is seen as a mentor for new firefighters.
Ananya Singh
Social Justice/Advocacy
Nominator: Meghan Pasricha
For the past nine years, Ananya Singh has been a member of the Global Youth H.E.L.P. Inc. (GYH), a Delaware nonprofit whose mission is to train and support young people to become leaders by serving their communities through community service projects. Ananya served first as president of the middle school chapter and is currently chair of the high school chapter. Her time and efforts have been vital for many different community service projects, including the Annual Backpack Donation for the YWCA Home-Life Center, the Christmas Hygiene Product Donation, the Annual Ice Cream Party for the YWCA Home-Life Center and the Premier Charities Feeding the Homeless. She also has taught English and karate to younger children.
GROUPS
Greater Milford Boys & Girls Club
Arts & Culture
Nominator: Kenny Monroe
Following the devastation of Hurricane Matthew (Sept. 28-Oct. 10, 2016) in the Caribbean, the Teen TITAN program members of the Greater Milford Boys & Girls Club developed the “Hope for Haiti Donation Drive.” In a relatively short time, the Team Titan program members spent 400 hours collecting clothing, toiletries, bottled water, educational material and other items. More than 300 items filled more than 10 boxes and were sent to the people in Haiti to be used as they began to rebuild and recover from the effects of Hurricane Matthew.
Cape Henlopen High School Army Junior Reserve Officers Training Program
Community Service
Nominator: Angela Thompson
For 10 continuous years, the participants of the Army Junior Reserve Officers Training Program (JROTC) at Cape Henlopen High School have learned that everyone belongs to a community and therefore has a responsibility to that community. The 45 young men and women who comprise the current JROTC roster continue that legacy of service by devoting an average of 2,000 man-hours to community service activities benefiting a number of organizations, including the Delaware Seashore State Park, Beebe Medical Center, American Red Cross Blood Drive, the Salvation Army, Brandywine Senior Citizens Center and the National Kidney Foundation.
A.I. du Pont Middle School – Walk in the Kings Footsteps
Education
Nominator: Michele Fidance
When posed with the question “What will I do to walk in the footsteps of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?” the student body of A.I. du Pont Middle School in Wilmington decided to answer the question literally. A small group of students, led by Jobs for Delaware Graduates (JDG) instructors, were given the project of researching the speeches of Dr. King in order to choose quotes that meant something to them. The students then inscribed their selected quote on a cut-out of a footprint, which was then affixed to the wall in the cafeteria as a means to inspire their fellow students. Once students beyond the JDG classes saw the footprints, they wanted to participate as well. The project helped to raise awareness among students of Dr. King’s life, teaching and legacy, and how it translates into community action and service.
P.S. duPont Middle School Student Council – Adopt a Family
Health and Special Needs
Nominator: Mallory Stratton
Each year, the student council of P.S. duPont Middle School in Wilmington spearheads its annual Adopt-A-Family Drive. The drive involves the school community at-large adopting the families of 15 to 20 P.S. duPont students who are need assistance to make the holiday season a little brighter. The donations of clothing, books and toys generated by the student council benefited upwards of 50 fellow students and their siblings in 2016.
Delmar High School - Wildcat Wellness Pantry
Human Needs
Nominator: Michele Fidance
The Wildcat Wellness Pantry is a food pantry at the Delmar American Legion, which provides nonperishable food and household items for individuals in need. The pantry is staffed by as many as eight Jobs for Delaware Graduate (JDG) volunteers. The JDG volunteers come in on Saturdays to assist families in need and taking inventory to ensure the pantry can reach even more people. An additional group of more than 60 volunteers collect the proceeds from canned food drives that occur during the school year to continually stock the pantry.
Governor Tomblin applauds
BOMBARDIER aerospace EXPANSION
BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. (November 15, 2016) - Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin issued the following statement after an event he participated in with Bombardier Aerospace officials today, where it was announced that the aircraft manufacturer plans to expand its plant in West Virginia:
"From my first days as West Virginia's Governor, I've made it my priority to bring new investments and jobs to our state. Today's expansion announcement by Bombardier represents continued momentum toward a stronger, more diversified state economy. I thank and congratulate Bombardier, its leadership team and employees on this milestone. And I look forward to seeing the far-reaching impact of new jobs in North Central West Virginia."
Bombardier Press Release
Bombardier Plans Expansion of Maintenance Capacity at its Commercial Aircraft Service Centre in Bridgeport, West Virginia
Bridgeport, November 15, 2016 – Bombardier Commercial Aircraft and the State of West Virginia today announced plans to expand Bombardier’s aircraft service center in Bridgeport, West Virginia. The planned expansion is intended to enhance Bombardier’s capacity to provide heavy maintenance, component repair and overhaul support for its CRJ Series and Q Series aircraft. Ground breaking for the project is expected to take place in the spring of 2017.
“The fleet of Bombardier commercial aircraft in North America has grown to over 1,620 CRJ Series regional jets and Q Series turboprops – that’s an impressive fleet number that can only be supported by expanding Bombardier’s service centres,” said Todd Young, Vice President and General Manager, Customer Services, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. “We’re excited with this growth plan for WVAC, as it confirms our commitment and ability to continue to deliver on the comprehensive service solutions that our customers have come to expect from us. In addition to serving our operators with improved turnaround times and enhanced service solutions, we are also pleased to be collaborating with the State of West Virginia on this project.”
“From my first days as West Virginia’s Governor, I’ve made it my priority to bring new investments and jobs to our state,” said Governor Earl Ray Tomblin. “Today’s expansion announcement by Bombardier represents continued momentum toward a stronger, more diversified state economy. I thank and congratulate Bombardier, its leadership team and employees on this milestone. And I look forward to seeing the far-reaching impact of new jobs in North Central West Virginia.”
The announcement was made at the facility and was attended by Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, other local government representatives and members of the Bridgeport business community. Alongside Todd Young, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft was represented by Stephen McCoy, General Manager, Commercial Aircraft Service Centres; and Chad Hill, Director of Operations, WVAC.
The existing 145,000 square-foot (13,470 square-metre) service centre, would double in size to approximately 300,000 square feet (27,870 square metres). Currently, the service centre has a capacity to operate at 500,000 man-hours a year; post expansion, its capacity could increase to one million man-hours per year to accommodate up to 20 maintenance lines at a time -- up from the nine lines operating today.
Following the expansion, WVAC will offer complete maintenance services including a sheet metal back shop with repair and fabrication capabilities; heat treat services; non-destructive testing; CNC
2
machining and fabrication capabilities; tooling design and fabrication; composite repair and fabrication; welding services; interior refurbishment; wheel and tire overhaul; and paint services.
About Bombardier’s Commercial Aircraft Service Centres Over the last few years, Bombardier has secured several long-term heavy maintenance contracts –covering maintenance and repairs for commercial aircraft. Bombardier’s commercial aircraft service centres are designed to maximize quality and increase return-to-service speed within a competitive, predictable cost structure. The facilities are backed by Bombardier’s 24/7 technical help desks, in-service engineering teams and support staff deployed around the world.
In addition to the WVAC, Bombardier also operates commercial aircraft service centres in Tucson, Arizona and Macon, Georgia. Each of the three centres has received the FAA’s AMT Diamond Award of Excellence, the highest honour bestowed on an aviation maintenance employer, for many consecutive years (Bridgeport 18 years, Tucson nine years and Macon five years). The corporation also operates a US network of business aircraft service centres in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Dallas, Texas; Hartford, Connecticut; Wichita, Kansas; and Tucson, Arizona.
About Bombardier Bombardier is the world’s leading manufacturer of both planes and trains. Looking far ahead while delivering today, Bombardier is evolving mobility worldwide by answering the call for more efficient, sustainable and enjoyable transportation everywhere. Our vehicles, services and, most of all, our employees are what make us a global leader in transportation.
Bombardier is headquartered in Montréal, Canada. Our shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (BBD) and we are listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index. In the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, we posted revenues of $18.2 billion.
Photos available for media use. All photos should be attributed “Photo courtesy of Office of the Governor.”
This little bumblebee had died at work on this goldenrod. It was still in pretty good shape when I discovered it, Farm Lake, near Plevna, Ontario, Canada. Sony nex5r and Micro Nikkor 55/3.5.
St. Andrew's Russian Orthodox Church, located in Episkopeio, Republic of Cyprus, has a rich and fascinating history that spans several decades. From its establishment to its growth and contributions to the local community, this article will explore the significant milestones and events that have shaped the church into what it is today.
The foundation of St. Andrew's Russian Orthodox Church can be traced back to the early 1990s when an influx of Russian immigrants began arriving in Cyprus. Many of these immigrants were Orthodox Christians who sought to establish a place of worship that would cater to their spiritual needs and cultural traditions. Recognizing the importance of providing a religious sanctuary for this growing community, plans were set in motion to establish a Russian Orthodox Church in Episkopeio.
In 1995, with the support of the local Russian Orthodox community, construction of St. Andrew's Russian Orthodox Church commenced. The church was designed in the traditional Russian Orthodox architectural style, featuring ornate domes and intricate interior decorations. It quickly became a focal point for the Russian community in Cyprus, providing a space for worship, community gatherings, and cultural events.
On October 10, 1999, St. Andrew's Russian Orthodox Church was officially consecrated and opened to the public. The consecration ceremony was presided over by His Eminence Archbishop Chrysostomos II, the Primate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Cyprus, and His Eminence Archbishop Mark of Yegoryevsk, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Administration for Institutions Abroad.
With its doors open, St. Andrew's Russian Orthodox Church began serving the spiritual needs of the Russian Orthodox community in Episkopeio and the surrounding areas. Regular divine services were conducted, including the celebration of the Divine Liturgy and various sacraments. The church also established a Sunday school, offering religious education for children and young adults.
Over the years, St. Andrew's Russian Orthodox Church expanded its activities beyond the realm of worship. Recognizing the importance of fostering a sense of community and providing assistance to those in need, the church initiated various social and charitable programs. These programs included organizing cultural events, concerts, and exhibitions that showcased Russian traditions and heritage. Additionally, the church actively participated in fundraising efforts to support local charities and humanitarian organizations.
St. Andrew's Russian Orthodox Church also played a significant role in promoting interfaith dialogue and understanding. It welcomed visitors from different religious backgrounds and engaged in various interfaith initiatives to foster harmony and mutual respect among different faith communities in Cyprus.
As the Russian community in Cyprus continued to grow, so did the influence and activities of St. Andrew's Russian Orthodox Church. The church became a hub for Russian cultural events, such as traditional music concerts, art exhibitions, and language classes. It also established strong ties with other Russian Orthodox churches and organizations worldwide, further enhancing its presence and outreach.
In 2013, St. Andrew's Russian Orthodox Church celebrated its 15th anniversary. The occasion was marked with a series of events, including religious services, cultural performances, and a gala dinner. The celebration not only commemorated the church's achievements but also highlighted its ongoing commitment to serving the spiritual and cultural needs of the Russian Orthodox community in Cyprus.
Today, St. Andrew's Russian Orthodox Church continues to thrive as a vibrant spiritual and cultural center. It remains an important institution for the Russian Orthodox community in Episkopeio and serves as a bridge between Cyprus and Russia, fostering cultural exchange and understanding. The church's dedication to religious worship, community outreach, and interfaith dialogue ensures that it will continue to play a vital role in the spiritual and social fabric of the Republic of Cyprus for years to come.
Commitment - Sacrifice - Inspiration
It starts with a signature and an oath — a pledge to serve our country and protect our freedom at any cost. For some, that commitment leads to the ultimate sacrifice. On Memorial Day,
we remember the men and women who have given everything
in their service, honoring their lives and their inspiring legacies.
A farmer at work weeding in a maize field close to the Pusa site of the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), in the Indian state of Bihar.
BISA is a non-profit research institute dedicated to the improvement of food security and reduction of hunger in South Asia. It is a collaborative effort between the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), and the Government of India. BISA’s objective is to harness the latest technology in agriculture to improve farming productivity and sustainably meet the demands of the future. More than just a bricks-and-mortar institute, BISA is a commitment to the people of India. It is co-located in three Indian states—Punjab, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh—each of which contains varied agro-ecological zones, representing many of the environments of South Asia.
In Bihar, the current major constraints to maize production are low seed replacement rates, late sowing, and low levels of farm mechanization. Foliar blight disease is also a growing concern among Bihar’s farmers. Both hybrids and traditional maize varieties are grown throughout Bihar and maize productivity is currently 2.5 tons per hectare, higher than the national average of 1.9.
Areas of future development for BISA Pusa include the development of climate-resilient cultivars, innovative maize genotypes, diverse wheat cultivars, disease resistance, farmer information technologies, and new irrigation technologies. Initial trials have indicated that the implementation of zero tillage on 1.5 million hectares has the potential to increase soil moisture and enhance wheat production by 0.45 million tons. The promotion of quality protein maize to address malnutrition rates as well as long-term conservation agricultural trials is also a priority for the site.
For more about BISA, see: bisa.cimmyt.org/.
Photo credit: M. DeFreese/CIMMYT.
These are commitment rings that I made for some friends of mine. They are made from sterling silver, 14k gold, and diamonds.
The bands are made from rectangular stock that I carved a groove into. The diamonds are tube-set and the gold wire shaped by hand and soldered into place piece by piece. One requirement for these rings was that the diamonds not be too prominent. I think this design accomplishes that well, with the diamonds incorporated into the design without overwhelming it.
The gold and diamonds in this ring are reclaimed from a ring formerly worn by one friend's father. This actually added a lot of work to the project (and I detail that in the other photo of these rings) but made the rings much more symbolic than they would have been otherwise, which is saying a lot considering the purpose of these rings.
Taken in Curitiba-PR, Brazil.
No commitment, no future, Loren Cunningham knows exactly what that means.
Dec. 1, 2011, marks Iraq's Day of Commitment. The ceremony hosted by the Iraqi government at Al Faw Palace, in Baghdad, Iraq, would be the last of its kind as U.S. forces continue to draw out of Iraq. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, took the opportunity to thank U.S. and Iraqi service members for all of their sacrifices that led to the end of an almost decade long war.
U.S. Forces Iraq
Photo by Staff Sgt. Caleb Barrieau
Related Photos: dvidshub.net/r/mcljxd
Collaboration beetween Biennalist and Ultracontemporay
Art Format
www.emergencyrooms.org/formats.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thierry_Geoffroy
Documenta From Wikipedia,
The Fridericianum during documenta (13)
documenta is an exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultural Show) which took place in Kassel at that time.[1] It was an attempt to bring Germany up to speed with modern art, both banishing and repressing the cultural darkness of Nazism.[2] This first documenta featured many artists who are generally considered to have had a significant influence on modern art (such as Picasso and Kandinsky). The more recent documentas feature art from all continents; nonetheless most of it is site-specific.
Every documenta is limited to 100 days of exhibition, which is why it is often referred to as the "museum of 100 days".[3] Documenta is not a selling exhibition. It rarely coincides with the three other major art world events: the Venice Biennale, Art Basel and Skulptur Projekte Münster, but in 2017, all four were open simultaneously.
Etymology of documenta
The name of the exhibition is an invented word. The term is supposed to demonstrate the intention of every exhibition (in particular of the first documenta in 1955) to be a documentation of modern art which was not available for the German public during the Nazi era. Rumour spread from those close to Arnold Bode that it was relevant for the coinage of the term that the Latin word documentum could be separated into docere (Latin for teach) and mens (Latin for intellect) and therefore thought it to be a good word to describe the intention and the demand of the documenta.[4]
Each edition of documenta has commissioned its own visual identity, most of which have conformed to the typographic style of solely using lowercase letters, which originated at the Bauhaus.[5]
History
Stadtverwaldung by Joseph Beuys, oaktree in front of the museum Fridericianum, documenta 7
Art professor and designer Arnold Bode from Kassel was the initiator of the first documenta. Originally planned as a secondary event to accompany the Bundesgartenschau, this attracted more than 130,000 visitors in 1955. The exhibition centred less on "contemporary art“, that is art made after 1945: instead, Bode wanted to show the public works which had been known as "Entartete Kunst" in Germany during the Nazi era: Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Blauer Reiter, Futurism and Pittura Metafisica. Therefore, abstract art, in particular the abstract paintings of the 1920s and 1930s, was the focus of interest in this exhibition.
Over time, the focus shifted to contemporary art. At first, the show was limited to works from Europe, but soon covered works by artists from the Americas, Africa and Asia. 4. documenta, the first ever to turn a profit, featured a selection of Pop Art, Minimal Art, and Kinetic Art.[6] Adopting the theme of Questioning Reality – Pictorial Worlds Today, the 1972 documenta radically redefined what could be considered art by featuring minimal and conceptual art, marking a turning point in the public acceptance of those styles.[7] Also, it devoted a large section to the work of Adolf Wolfli, the great Swiss outsider, then unknown. Joseph Beuys performed repeatedly under the auspices of his utopian Organization for Direct Democracy.[8] Additionally, the 1987 documenta show signaled another important shift with the elevation of design to the realm of art – showing an openness to postmodern design.[9] Certain key political dates for wide-reaching social and cultural upheavals, such as 1945, 1968 or 1976/77, became chronological markers of documenta X (1997), along which art's political, social, cultural and aesthetic exploratory functions were traced.[10] Documenta11 was organized around themes like migration, urbanization and the post-colonial experience,[11] with documentary photography, film and video as well as works from far-flung locales holding the spotlight.[7] In 2012, documenta (13) was described as "[a]rdently feminist, global and multimedia in approach and including works by dead artists and selected bits of ancient art".[12]
Criticism
documenta typically gives its artists at least two years to conceive and produce their projects, so the works are often elaborate and intellectually complex.[13] However, the participants are often not publicised before the very opening of the exhibition. At documenta (13), the official list of artists was not released until the day the show opened.[14] Even though curators have often claimed to have gone outside the art market in their selection, participants have always included established artists. In the documenta (13), for example, art critic Jerry Saltz identified more than a third of the artists represented by the renowned Marian Goodman Gallery in the show.[14]
Directors
The first four documentas, organized by Arnold Bode, established the exhibition's international credentials. Since the fifth documenta (1972), a new artistic director has been named for each documenta exhibition by a committee of experts. Documenta 8 was put together in two years instead of the usual five. The original directors, Edy de Wilde and Harald Szeemann, were unable to get along and stepped down. They were replaced by Manfred Schneckenburger, Edward F. Fry, Wulf Herzogenrath, Armin Zweite, and Vittorio Fagone.[15] Coosje van Bruggen helped select artists for documenta 7, the 1982 edition. documenta IX's team of curators consisted of Jan Hoet, Piero Luigi Tazzi, Denys Zacharopoulos, and Bart de Baere.[16] For documenta X Catherine David was chosen as the first woman and the first non-German speaker to hold the post. It is also the first and unique time that its website Documenta x was conceived by a curator (swiss curator Simon Lamunière) as a part of the exhibition. The first non-European director was Okwui Enwezor for Documenta11.[17]
TitleDateDirectorExhibitorsExhibitsVisitors
documenta16 July – 18 September 1955Arnold Bode148670130,000
II. documenta11 July – 11 October 1959Arnold Bode, Werner Haftmann3381770134,000
documenta III27 June – 5 October 1964Arnold Bode, Werner Haftmann3611450200,000
4. documenta27 June – 6 October 196824-strong documenta council1511000220,000
documenta 530 June – 8 October 1972Harald Szeemann218820228,621
documenta 624 June – 2 October 1977Manfred Schneckenburger6222700343,410
documenta 719 June – 28 September 1982Rudi Fuchs1821000378,691
documenta 812 June – 20 September 1987Manfred Schneckenburger150600474,417
documenta IX12 June – 20 September 1992Jan Hoet1891000603,456
documenta X21 June – 28 September 1997Catherine David120700628,776
documenta118 June – 15 September 2002Okwui Enwezor118450650,924
documenta 1216 June – 23 September 2007Roger M. Buergel/Ruth Noack[19]114over 500754,301
documenta (13)9 June – 16 September 2012Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev187[20]904,992[21]
documenta 148 April – 16 July 2017 in Athens, Greece;
10 June – 17 September 2017 in KasselAdam Szymczykmore than 1601500339.000 in Athens
891.500 in Kassel
documenta fifteen18 June 2022 – 25 September 2022 in Kasselruangrupa[22]
2012's edition was organized around a central node, the trans-Atlantic melding of two distinct individuals who first encountered each other in the "money-soaked deserts of the United Arab Emirates". As an organizing principle it is simultaneously a commentary on the romantic potentials of globalization and also a critique of how digital platforms can complicate or interrogate the nature of such relationships. Curatorial agents refer to the concept as possessing a "fricative potential for productive awkwardness," wherein a twosome is formed for the purposes of future exploration.[23]
Venues
documenta is held in different venues in Kassel. Since 1955, the fixed venue has been the Fridericianum. The documenta-Halle was built in 1992 for documenta IX and now houses some of the exhibitions. Other venues used for documenta have included the Karlsaue park, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, the Neue Galerie, the Ottoneum, and the Kulturzentrum Schlachthof. Though Okwui Enezor notably tried to subvert the euro-centric approach documenta had taken, he instigated a series of five platforms before the Documenta11 in Vienna, Berlin, New Delhi, St Lucia, and Lagos, in an attempt to take documenta into a new post-colonial, borderless space, from which experimental cultures could emerge. documenta 12 occupied five locations, including the Fridericianum, the Wilhelmshöhe castle park and the specially constructed "Aue-Pavillon", or meadow pavilion, designed by French firm Lacaton et Vassal.[24] At documenta (13) (2012), about a fifth of the works were unveiled in places like Kabul, Afghanistan, and Banff, Canada.[13]
There are also a number of works that are usually presented outside, most notably in Friedrichsplatz, in front of the Fridericianum, and the Karlsaue park. To handle the number of artworks at documenta IX, five connected temporary "trailers" in glass and corrugated metal were built in the Karlsaue.[25] For documenta (13), French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal constructed the temporary "Aue-Pavillon" in the park.
Rahmenbau (1977) by Haus Rucker und Co.
A few of the works exhibited at various documentas remained as purchases in Kassel museums. They include 7000 Eichen by Joseph Beuys; Rahmenbau (1977) by Haus-Rucker-Co; Laserscape Kassel (1977) by Horst H. Baumann; Traumschiff Tante Olga (1977) by Anatol Herzfeld; Vertikaler Erdkilometer by Walter De Maria; Spitzhacke (1982) by Claes Oldenburg; Man walking to the sky (1992) by Jonathan Borofsky; and Fremde by Thomas Schütte (one part of the sculptures are installed on Rotes Palais at Friedrichsplatz, the other on the roof of the Concert Hall in Lübeck).
documenta archive
The extensive volume of material that is regularly generated on the occasion of this exhibition prompted Arnold Bode to create an archive in 1961. The heart of the archive’s collection comes from the files and materials of the documenta organization. A continually expanding video and image archive is also part of the collection as are the independently organized bequests of Arnold Bode and artist Harry Kramer.
Management
Visitors
In 1992, on the occasion of documenta IX, for the first time in the history of the documenta, more than half a million people traveled to Kassel.[26] The 2002 edition of documenta attracted 650,000 visitors, more than triple Kassel's population.[27] In 2007, documenta 12 drew 754,000 paying visitors, with more than one-third of the visitors coming from abroad and guests from neighboring Netherlands, France, Belgium and Austria among the most numerous.[28] In 2012, documenta (13) had 904,992 visitors.[21]
References
Adrian Searle (June 11, 2012), "Documenta 13: Mysteries in the mountain of mud", The Guardian.
Roberta Smith (June 14, 2012), Art Show as Unruly Organism The New York Times.
Arnold Bode coined this phrase for the first time in the prologue of the first volume of the catalogue: documenta III. Internationale Ausstellung; Catalogue: Volume 1: Painting and Sculpture; Volume 2: Sketches; Volume 3: Industrial Design, Print; Kassel/Köln 1964; p. XIX
Kimpel, Harald: documenta, Mythos und Wirklichkeit. Köln 1997, ISBN 3-7701-4182-2
Alice Rawsthorn (June 3, 2012), A Symbol Is Born The New York Times.
The documenta IV Exhibition in Kassel (1968) German History in Documents and Images (GHDI).
Helen Chang (June 22, 2007), "Catching the Next Wave In Art at Documenta", The Wall Street Journal.
Roberta Smith (September 7, 2007), "Documenta 5" The New York Times.
Gimeno-Martinez, Javier; Verlinden, Jasmijn (2010). "From Museum of Decorative Arts to Design Museum: The Case of the Design museum Gent". Design and Culture. 2 (3).
dX 1997 Archived 2013-06-14 at the Wayback Machine, documenta XII.
Stephan Valentin (June 12, 2007), An art show in Kassel, Germany, rivals Venice Biennale The New York Times.
Roberta Smith (June 14, 2012), Art Show as Unruly Organism The New York Times.
Kelly Crow (June 8, 2012), A Party, Every Five Years, for 750,000 Guests The Wall Street Journal.
Jerry Saltz (June 15, 2012), Jerry Saltz: "Eleven Things That Struck, Irked, or Awed Me at Documenta 13" New York Magazine.
Michael Brenson (June 15, 1987), "Documenta 8, Exhibition In West Germany", The New York Times.
Michael Kimmelman (July 5, 1992) "At Documenta, It's Survival Of the Loudest", The New York Times.
Jackie Wullschlager (May 19, 2012) Vertiginous doubt Financial Times.
Julia Halperin, Gareth Harris (July 18, 2014) How much are curators really paid? Archived July 20, 2014, at the Wayback Machine The Art Newspaper.
Holland Cotter (22 June 2007). "Asking Serious Questions in a Very Quiet Voice". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-08-29.
Ulrike Knöfel (8 June 2012). "What the 13th Documenta Wants You to See". Der Spiegel.
"904,992 people visit documenta (13) in Kassel". documenta und Museum Fridericianum Veranstaltungs-GmbH. 16 September 2012. Archived from the original on 25 February 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
Russeth, Andrew (2019-02-22). "Ruangrupa Artist Collective Picked to Curate Documenta 15". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2020-01-05.
"In Germany, Disguising Documentary As Art". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2015-09-28.
Stephan Valentin (June 12, 2007), An art show in Kassel, Germany, rivals Venice Biennale International Herald Tribune.
Roberta Smith (June 22, 1992), A Small Show Within an Enormous One The New York Times.
d9 1992 Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine, documenta XII.
Adrian Searle (June 19, 2007), 100 days of ineptitude The Guardian.
Catherine Hickley (September 24, 2007), "Documenta Contemporary Art Show Draws Record 754,000 to Kassel", Bloomberg.
Carly Berwick (May 17, 2007), "Documenta 'Mystery' Artists Are Revealed; Buzz Strategy Fizzles", Bloomberg.
Rachel Donado (April 5, 2017), German Art Exhibition Documenta Expands Into Athens, The New York Times.
Catherine Hickley (November 27, 2017), Documenta manager to leave post after budget overruns The Art Newspaper.
Further reading
Hickley, Catherine (2021-06-18). "This Show Sets the Direction of Art. Its Past Mirrored a Changing World". The New York Times.
Nancy Marmer, "Documenta 8: The Social Dimension?" Art in America, vol. 75, September 1987, pp. 128–138, 197–199.
other biennales :
Venice Biennial , Documenta Havana Biennial,Istanbul Biennial ( Istanbuli),Biennale de Lyon ,Dak'Art Berlin Biennial,Mercosul Visual Arts Biennial ,Bienal do Mercosul Porto Alegre.,Berlin Biennial ,Echigo-Tsumari Triennial .Yokohama Triennial Aichi Triennale,manifesta ,Copenhagen Biennale,Aichi Triennale
Yokohama Triennial,Echigo-Tsumari Triennial.Sharjah Biennial ,Biennale of Sydney, Liverpool , São Paulo Biennial ; Athens Biennale , Bienal do Mercosul ,Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art
lumbung
Short concept by ruangrupa for documenta 15
"We want to create a globally oriented, cooperative, interdisciplinary art and culture platform that will remain effective beyond the 100 days of documenta fifteen. Our curatorial approach aims at a different kind of collaborative model of resource use—economically, but also in terms of ideas, knowledge, programs, and innovation."
ruangrupa’s central curatorial approach for documenta fifteen is based on the principles of collectivity, resource building, and equal sharing. They aim to appeal not just to an art audience but to a variety of communities, and to promote local commitment and participation. Their approach is based on an international network of local, community-based organizations from the art and other cultural contexts and can be outlined by the Indonesian term lumbung. lumbung, directly translatable as “rice barn,” is a collective pot or accumulation system used in rural areas of Indonesia, where crops produced by a community are stored as a future shared common resource and distributed according to jointly determind criteria. Using lumbung as a model, documenta fifteen is a collective resource pot, operating under the logics of the commons. It is an agglomeration of ideas, stories, (wo)manpower, time, and other shareable resources. At the center of lumbung is the imagination and the building of these collective, shared resources into new models of sustainable ideas and cultural practices. This will be fostered by residencies, assemblies, public activities, and the development of tools.
Interdisciplinarity is key in this process. It is where art meets activism, management, and networking to gather support, understand environments, and identify local resources. These elements then create actions and spaces, intertwine social relations and transactions; they slowly grow and organically find a public form. This is a strategy “to live in and with society.” It imagines the relations an art institution has with its community by being an active constituent of it. Strategies are then developed based on proximity and shared desires.
The main principles of the process are:
• Providing space to gather and explore ideas
• Collective decision making
• Non-centralization
• Playing between formalities and informalities
• Practicing assembly and meeting points
• Architectural awareness
• Being spatially active to promote conversation
• A melting pot for and from everyone’s thoughts, energies, and ideas
#documentakassel
#documenta
#documenta15
#artformat
#formatart
#rundebate
#thierrygeoffroy
#Colonel
#CriticalRun
#venicebiennale
#documentafifteen
#formatart
#documentacritic
#biennalist
#ultracontemporary art
#protestart
In a major commitment, the Prime Minister has announced support to the NSW Government to ensure Sydney's second airport at Badgery's Creek is 'rail ready' at its opening in 2026.
The map above is how Sydney's circulation leader "The Daily Telegraph' saw the story. Time will tell if the blue line shows the finalised route or not. It's pleasing to hear however that both governments are talking about integration with other railways (such as Sydney Metro and Sydney Trains) and other transport modes.
The Prime Minister sees this as part of the "30-minute city", a vision, of Sydney's public transport of the future! Not a bad objective!
the real essence of freedom lies in our capacity to commit ourselves to life and love...
the One who has committed himself to Love has given up his Life.. and Life has flourished even more...
The "The Gables" still retains it's original conservatory which is accessed off the former drawing room through a stained glass door which features beautiful red stylised Art Nouveau daisies. The conservatory has a row of yellow and red Art Nouveau stained glass vent windows as well as one beautiful Art Nouveau stained glass picture window. The picture window features brightly coloured stylised yellow and orange flowers.
"The Gables" is a substantial villa that sits proudly on leafy Finch Street in the exclusive inner city suburb of East Malvern.
Built in 1902 for local property developer Lawrence Alfred Birchnell and his wife Annie, "The Gables" is considered to be one of the most prominent houses in the Gascoigne Estate. The house was designed by Melbourne architect firm Ussher and Kemp in what was the prevailing style of the time, Queen Anne, which is also known as Federation style (named so after Australian Federation in 1901). Ussher and Kemp were renowned for their beautiful and complex Queen Anne houses and they designed at least six other houses in Finch Street alone. "The Gables" remained a private residence for many years. When Lawrence Birchnell sold it, the house was converted into a rooming house. It remained so throughout the tumultuous 1920s until 1930 when it was sold again. The new owners converted "The Gables" into a reception hall for hire for private functions. The first wedding reception was a breakfast held in the formal dining room in 1930, followed by dancing to Melbourne’s first jukebox in the upstairs rooms. Notorious Melbourne gangster Joseph Theodore Leslie "Squizzy" Taylor was reputed to have thrown a twenty-first birthday party for his girlfriend of the day in the main ballroom (what had originally been the house's billiards room). "The Gables" became very famous for its grand birthday parties throughout the 1930s and 1940s. With its easy proximity to the Caulfield Race Course, "The Gables" ran an underground speakeasy and gambling room upstairs and sold beer from the back door during Melbourne’s restrictive era of alcohol not sold after six o'clock at night. Throughout its history, "The Gables" has been a Melbourne icon, celebrating generation after generation of Melbourne’s wedding receptions, parties and balls. Lovingly restored, the atmosphere and charm of "The Gables" have been retained for the future generations.
Grand in its proportions, "The Gables" is a sprawling villa that is built of red brick, but its main feature, as the name suggests, is its many ornamented gables. The front façade is dominated by six different sized gables, each supported by ornamental Art Nouveau influenced timber brackets. The front and side of the house is skirted by a wide verandah decorated with wooden balustrades and rounded fretwork. "The Gables" features two grand bay windows and three other large sets of windows along the front facade, all of which feature beautiful and delicate Art Nouveau stained glass of stylised flowers or fruit. Impressive Art Nouveau stained glass windows can also be found around the entrance, which features the quote made quite popular at the time by Australian soprano Nellie Melba "east, west, home's best." Art Nouveau stained glass can be found in all of the principal rooms of the house; both upstairs and down. “The Gables” also features distinctive chimneys and the classic Queen Anne high pitched gable roofs with decorative barge-boards, terra-cotta tiles and ornate capping.
As a result of Federation in 1901, it was not unusual to find Australian flora and fauna celebrated in architecture. This is true of "The Gables", which features intricate plaster work and leadlight throughout the mansion showing off Australian gum leaves and flowers. "The Gables" has fifteen beautifully renovated rooms, many of which are traditionally decorated, including beautiful chandeliers, ornate restored wood and tile fireplaces, leadlight windows, parquetry flooring, sixteen foot ceilings and a sweeping staircase. The drawing room still also features the original leadlight conservatory "The Gables" boasted when it was first built.
"The Gables", set on an acre of land, still retains many of the original trees, including the original hedge and two enormous cypress trees in the front. The garden was designed by William Guilfoyle, the master landscape architect of the Royal Botanical Gardens, and "The Gables" still retains much of it original structure. It features a rose-covered gazebo, a pond and fountain, as well as the tallest Norfolk Island pine in the area, which can be seen from some of the tallest skyscrapers in the Melbourne CBD.
Henry Hardie Kemp was born in Lancashire in 1859 and designed many other fine homes around Melbourne, particularly in Kew, including his own home “Held Lawn” (1913). He also designed the APA Building in Elizabeth Street in 1889 (demolished in 1980) and the Melbourne Assembly Hall on Collins Street between 1914 and 1915. He died in Melbourne in 1946.
Beverley Ussher was born in Melbourne in 1868 and designed homes and commercial buildings around Melbourne, as well as homes in the country. He designed "Milliara" (John Whiting house) in Toorak, in 1895 (since demolished) and "Blackwood Homestead" in Western Australia. He died in 1908.
Beverley Ussher and Henry Kemp formed a partnership in 1899, which lasted until Beverley's death in 1908. Their last building design together was the Professional Chambers building in Collins Street in 1908. Both men had strong Arts and Crafts commitments, and both had been in partnerships before forming their own. The practice specialised in domestic work and their houses epitomize the Marseilles-tiled Queen Anne Federation style houses characteristic of Melbourne, and considered now to be a truly distinctive Australian genre. Their designs use red bricks, terracotta tiles and casement windows, avoid applied ornamentation and develop substantial timber details. The picturesque character of the houses results from a conscious attempt to express externally with gables, dormers, bays, roof axes, and chimneys, the functional variety of rooms within. The iconic Federation houses by Beverley Ussher and Henry Kemp did not appear until 1892-4. Then, several of those appeared in Malvern, Canterbury and Kew.
Queen Anne style was mostly a residential style inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement in England, but also encompassed some of the more stylised elements of Art Nouveau, which gave it an more decorative look. Queen Anne style was most popular around the time of Federation. With complex roofline structures and undulating facades, many Queen Anne houses fell out of fashion at the beginning of the modern era, and were demolished.
(further information and pictures are available by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
Cathedral of St. Pölten
The Cathedral of St. Pölten
Apse
The Cathedral of St. Pölten (also cathedral of the Assumption) is a cathedral and since 1785 the cathedral of the Diocese of St. Pölten. Until the dissolution of the Augustinian Canons monastery of St. Pölten in 1784 it was the abbey church. The building appears despite well-preserved late Roman core a baroque building.
History
General view of the monastery of St. Pölten from 1653, still with the now demolished Parish Church on Cathedral Square
Predecessors
The origins of today's monastery of St. Pölten (St. Hippolytus) and thus of the cathedral date back to the period around the year 790. During this time it is said that the brothers Adalbert and Otakar from the Tegernsee monastery founded a daughter house in St. Pölten. The Benedictines also brought the Hippolyt relics to St. Pölten, from which the modern name of the city is derived. Since 828 the monastery was in possession of the diocese of Passau. The from there outgoing missionary activity can be supposed in the Great Moravian Empire, the church on Pöltenberg in Znojmo is suspected to have been founded from there.
With the invasion of the Magyars around the year 907, the monastery was almost completely destroyed. Only after the Battle of Lechfeld in 955 it was rebuilt. The first written mention of the monastery is found in 976 in a charter of Emperor Otto II for Bishop Pilgrim of Passau. Under Bishop Altmann of Passau it was in 1081 converted into an Augustinian Canons monastery and from then on it bore the patronage of St. Peter, in the 12th Century the high altar was the SS. Stephen and Hippolytus consecrated.
Today's church
Around 1150, a three-aisled church without transept church with twin towers was built as West plant (Westwerk), which was, however, already generously rebuilt 1267-1280 after a fire. This church was consecrated in 1228 by Bishop Gebhard in honor of the Virgin Mary ascension into heaven (the Assumption) that Patotrozinium that the Cathedral till today carries. In 1512 there was a devastating fire in the city, thereafter the North Tower was demolished and never rebuilt.
Today's figure of the cathedral emerged in the 17th Century. After a fire in 1621 the present diocese building was designed in the early Baroque. The last high point in the history of construction experienced the former convent under provost Johann Michel Führer. He was thrilled by the high baroque splendor of neighboring residences as Melk Abbey and found in the in the city living Jacob Prandtauer a like-minded partner. The planned reconstruction should expand the diocese building to a second floor and the exterior view of the church should become a three-tower ensemble (similar to the Seitenstetten monastery) with the existing tower at its center. This plan was not fully implemented, mainly because Führer burned the candle at both ends and the monastery was nearly bankrupt when he resigned in 1739. In addition to the spacious redesigning of the entire interior, especially by Daniel Gran and Bartolomeo Altomonte, only the tower was raised and fitted with a new dome.
1784, the monastery was abandoned by Joseph II . On 28 January in the following year the building became diocesan seat (cathedral) of the newly established Diocese of Sankt Pölten on the basis of the by Pius VI. adopted papal bull Inter plurimas.
In 1873 the reverend Josef Kinzl founded the Catholic patriotic folk and Preßverein (press association) for Lower Austria, publishing the St. Pölten messenger. Hence the NÖN (Niederösterreichische Nachrichten - news of Lower Austria) and the Lower Austrian Pressehaus have developed.
Architecture
The Choir of the Cathedral of St. Pölten
"As little as the viewer is expecting when he is looking at the outside of this cathedral, so surprising is the entry in the same, because objects appear to meet him from all sides, which deserve special attention, but probably at the same time arouse the wish that more light might brighten these masterpieces, God's temple somewhat economically illuminating".
- Representation of Erzherzogthums (Archduchy) Austria under the Ens (River Enns), 1835
The exterior
The floor plan of the exterior facade still consists largely from the around 1150 constructed building. Originally built as a three-aisled church without transept with twin towers as Westwerk, it was between 1267-1280 generously rebuilt in late Romanesque style after a fire.
The cathedral is directly connected to the diocese building, on the north side the church closes at the cloister. Despite the high degree of conservation of the late Romanesque building structure, is the construction baroque dominated by the mighty south tower with its double onion dome and the dome lanterns on the south aisle. From the late Romanesque building, the apse and the south façade have been preserved.
With exception of the two lower floors of the south tower, both towers have a Eckquaderung (corner block). At the west facade is main portal of the cathedral located with skylights and a broken pediment attachment. On both sides of the portal at the level of the second floor each is a statue of a saint: Hippolytus left, right, Augustine.
The interior
The interior of the church by Jakob Prandtauer, Joseph Munggenast, Daniel Gran and Bartolomeo Altomonte was baroquised. The ceiling frescoes designed partly Thomas Friedrich Gedon.
Organ
The organ is a work of Swiss company Metzler organ building from 1973 with 36 stops on three manuals and pedal. The prospectus stems from the original organ from the year 1722, built by Johann Ignaz Egedacher.
Bell
The cathedral has an almost complete peal from the Baroque period, cast in 1696 by Mathias Prininger from Krems. Only the bell 3 went lost through the bell deliveries in World War I and had to be re-acquired after two world wars.
No. Name nominal weight
(kg) diameter
(cm) casting year caster
1 Immaculataglocke a0 +2 4318 189 1696 Mathias Prininger
2 Zwölferin (ringing at twelve o'clock) cis1 +0 2223 151 1696 Mathias Prininger
3 Bishop anniversary bell e1 +2 1066 120 1955 Josef Pfundner
4/4 or Poor soul bell a1 +0516 93 1696 Mathias Prininger
5 Food bell cis2 +0264 73 1696 Mathias Prininger
There are also two other small bells that do not belong to the actual bells.
History of the City St. Pölten
In order to present concise history of the Lower Austrian capital is in the shop of the city museum a richly illustrated full version on CD-ROM.
Tip
On the occasion of the commemoration of the pogroms of November 1938, the Institute for Jewish History of Austria its virtual Memorbuch (Memory book) for the destroyed St. Pölten Jewish community since 10th November 2012 is putting online.
Prehistory
The time from which there is no written record is named after the main materials used for tools and weapons: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. Using the latest technologies, archaeologists from archaeological finds and aerial photographs can trace a fairly detailed picture of life at that time. Especially for the time from the settling down of the People (New Stone Age), now practicing agriculture and animal husbandry, in the territory of St. Pölten lively settlement activity can be proved. In particular, cemeteries are important for the research, because the dead were laid in the grave everyday objects and jewelry, the forms of burial changing over time - which in turn gives the archeology valuable clues for the temporal determination. At the same time, prehistory of Sankt Pölten would not be half as good documented without the construction of the expressway S33 and other large buildings, where millions of cubic meters of earth were moved - under the watchful eyes of the Federal Monuments Office!
A final primeval chapter characterized the Celts, who settled about 450 BC our area and in addition to a new culture and religion also brought with them the potter's wheel. The kingdom of Noricum influenced till the penetration of the Romans the development in our area.
Roman period, migrations
The Romans conquered in 15 BC the Celtic Empire and established hereinafter the Roman province of Noricum. Borders were protected by military camp (forts), in the hinterland emerged civilian cities, almost all systematically laid out according to the same plan. The civil and commercial city Aelium Cetium, as St. Pölten was called (city law 121/122), consisted in the 4th Century already of heated stone houses, trade and craft originated thriving urban life, before the Romans in the first third of the 5th Century retreated to Italy.
The subsequent period went down as the Migration Period in official historiography, for which the settlement of the Sankt Pöltner downtown can not be proved. Cemeteries witness the residence of the Lombards in our area, later it was the Avars, extending their empire to the Enns.
The recent archaeological excavations on the Cathedral Square 2010/2011, in fact, the previous knowledge of St.Pölten colonization not have turned upside down but enriched by many details, whose full analysis and publication are expected in the near future.
Middle Ages
With the submission of the Avars by Charlemagne around 800 AD Christianity was gaining a foothold, the Bavarian Benedictine monastery of Tegernsee establishing a daughter house here - as founder are mentioned the brothers Adalbert and Ottokar - equipped with the relics of St. Hippolytus. The name St. Ypolit over the centuries should turn into Sankt Pölten. After the Hungarian wars and the resettlement of the monastery as Canons Regular of St. Augustine under the influence of Passau St. Pölten received mid-11th Century market rights.
In the second half of the 20th century historians stated that records in which the rights of citizens were held were to be qualified as Town Charters. Vienna is indeed already in 1137 as a city ("civitas") mentioned in a document, but the oldest Viennese city charter dates only from the year 1221, while the Bishop of Passau, Konrad, already in 1159 the St. Pöltnern secured:
A St. Pöltner citizen who has to answer to the court, has the right to make use of an "advocate".
He must not be forced to rid himself of the accusation by a judgment of God.
A St. Pöltner citizen may be convicted only by statements of fellow citizens, not by strangers.
From the 13th Century exercised a city judge appointed by the lord of the city the high and low jurisdiction as chairman of the council meetings and the Municipal Court, Inner and Outer Council supported him during the finding of justice. Venue for the public verdict was the in the 13th Century created new marketplace, the "Broad Market", now the town hall square. Originally square-shaped, it was only later to a rectangle reduced. Around it arose the market district, which together with the monastery district, the wood district and the Ledererviertel (quarter of the leather goods manufacturer) was protected by a double city wall.
The dependence of St. Pölten of the bishop of Passau is shown in the municipal coat of arms and the city seal. Based on the emblem of the heraldic animal of the Lord of the city, so the Bishop of Passau, it shows an upright standing wolf holding a crosier in its paw.
Modern Times
In the course of the armed conflict between the Emperor Frederick III . and King Matthias of Hungary pledged the Bishop of Passau the town on the Hungarian king. From 1485 stood Lower Austria as a whole under Hungarian rule. The most important document of this period is the awarding of the city coat of arms by King Matthias Corvinus in the year 1487. After the death of the opponents 1490 and 1493 could Frederick's son Maximilian reconquer Lower Austria. He considered St. Pölten as spoils of war and had no intention of returning it to the diocese of Passau. The city government has often been leased subsequently, for instance, to the family Wellenstein, and later to the families Trautson and Auersperg.
That St. Pölten now was a princely city, found its expression in the coat of arms letter of the King Ferdinand I. from 1538: From now on, the wolf had no crosier anymore, and the from the viewer's point of view left half showed the reverse Austrian shield, so silver-red-silver.
To the 16th Century also goes back the construction of St. Pöltner City Hall. The 1503 by judge and council acquired house was subsequently expanded, rebuilt, extended and provided with a tower.
A for the urban history research important picture, painted in 1623, has captured scenes of the peasant uprising of 1597, but also allows a view to the city and lets the viewer read some of the details of the then state of construction. The economic inconveniences of that time were only exacerbated by the Thirty Years War, at the end of which a fifth of the houses were uninhabited and the citizenry was impoverished.
Baroque
After the successful defense against the Turks in 1683, the economy started to recover and a significant building boom began. Lower Austria turned into the land of the baroque abbeys and monasteries, as it is familiar to us today.
In St. Pölten, the change of the cityscape is closely connected to the Baroque architect Jakob Prandtauer. In addition to the Baroquisation of the interior of the cathedral, a number of buildings in St. Pölten go to his account, so the reconstruction of the castle Ochsenburg, the erection of the Schwaighof and of the core building of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Englische Fräuleins - English Maidens) - from 1706 the seat of the first school order of St.Pölten - as well as of several bourgeois houses.
Joseph Munggenast, nephew and co-worker of Prandtauer, completed the Baroquisation of the cathedral, he baroquised the facade of the town hall (1727) and numerous bourgeois houses and designed a bridge over the Traisen which existed until 1907. In the decoration of the church buildings were throughout Tyroleans collaborating, which Jakob Prandtauer had brought along from his homeland (Tyrol) to St. Pölten, for example, Paul Troger and Peter Widerin.
Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II: Their reforms in the city of the 18th Century also left a significant mark. School foundings as a result of compulsory education, the dissolution of the monasteries and hereinafter - from 1785 - the new role of St. Pölten as a bishop's seat are consequences of their policies.
1785 was also the year of a fundamental alteration of the old Council Constitution: The city judge was replaced by one magistrate consisting of five persons, at the head was a mayor. For the first mayor the painter Josef Hackl was chosen.
The 19th century
Despite the Napoleonic Wars - St. Pölten in 1805 and 1809 was occupied by the French - and despite the state bankruptcy of 1811, increased the number of businesses constantly, although the economic importance of the city for the time being did not go beyond the near vicinity.
Against the background of monitoring by the state secret police, which prevented any political commitment between the Congress of Vienna and the 1848 revolution, the citizens withdrew into private life. Sense of family, fostering of domestic music, prominent salon societies in which even a Franz Schubert socialized, or the construction of the city theater were visible signs of this attitude.
The economic upswing of the city did not begin until after the revolution of the year 1848. A prerequisite for this was the construction of the Empress Elisabeth Western Railway, moving Vienna, Linz, soon Salzburg, too, in a reachable distance. The city walls were pulled down, St. Pölten could unfold. The convenient traffic situation favored factory start-ups, and so arose a lace factory, a revolver factory, a soap factory or, for example, as a precursor of a future large-scale enterprise, the braid, ribbon and Strickgarnerzeugung (knitting yarn production) of Matthias Salcher in Harland.
In other areas, too, the Gründerzeit (years of rapid industrial expansion in Germany - and Austria) in Sankt Pölten was honouring its name: The city got schools, a hospital, gas lanterns, canalization, hot springs and summer bath.
The 20th century
At the beginning of the 20th Century the city experienced another burst of development, initiated by the construction of the power station in 1903, because electricity was the prerequisite for the settlement of large companies. In particular, the companies Voith and Glanzstoff and the main workshop of the Federal Railways attracted many workers. New Traisen bridge, tram, Mariazell Railway and other infrastructure buildings were erected; St. Pölten obtained a synagogue. The Art Nouveau made it repeatedly into the urban architecture - just think of the Olbrich House - and inspired also the painting, as exponents worth to be mentioned are Ernst Stöhr or Ferdinand Andri.
What the outbreak of the First World War in broad outlines meant for the monarchy, on a smaller scale also St. Pölten has felt. The city was heavily impacted by the deployment of army units, a POW camp, a military hospital and a sick bay. Industrial enterprises were partly converted into war production, partly closed. Unemployment, housing emergency and food shortages long after the war still were felt painfully.
The 1919 to mayor elected Social Democrat Hubert Schnofl after the war tried to raise the standard of living of the people by improving the social welfare and health care. The founding of a housing cooperative (Wohnungsgenossenschaft), the construction of the water line and the establishment of new factories were further attempts to stimulate the stiffening economy whose descent could not be stopped until 1932.
After the National Socialist regime had stirred false hopes and plunged the world into war, St. Pölten was no longer the city as it has been before. Not only the ten devastating bombings of the last year of the war had left its marks, also the restrictive persecution of Jews and political dissidents had torn holes in the structure of the population. Ten years of Russian occupation subsequently did the rest to traumatize the population, but at this time arose from the ruins a more modern St. Pölten, with the new Traisen bridge, district heating, schools.
This trend continued, an era of recovery and modernization made the economic miracle palpable. Already in 1972 was - even if largely as a result of incorporations - exceeded the 50.000-inhabitant-limit.
Elevation to capital status (capital of Lower Austria), 10 July 1986: No other event in this dimension could have become the booster detonation of an up to now ongoing development thrust. Since then in a big way new residential and commercial areas were opened up, built infrastructure constructions, schools and universities brought into being to enrich the educational landscape. East of the Old Town arose the governmental and cultural district, and the list of architects wears sonorous names such as Ernst Hoffmann (NÖ (Lower Austria) Landhaus; Klangturm), Klaus Kada (Festspielhaus), Hans Hollein (Shedhalle and Lower Austrian Provincial Museum), Karin Bily, Paul Katzberger and Michael Loudon ( NÖ State Library and NÖ State Archive).
European Diploma, European flag, badge of honor, Europe Price: Between 1996 and 2001, received St. Pölten numerous appreciations of its EU commitment - as a sort of recognition of the Council of Europe for the dissemination of the EU-idea through international town twinnings, a major Europe exhibition or, for example, the establishment and chair of the "Network of European medium-sized cities".
On the way into the 21st century
Just now happened and already history: What the St. Pöltnern as just experienced sticks in their minds, travelers and newcomers within a short time should be told. The theater and the hospital handing over to the province of Lower Austria, a new mayor always on the go, who was able to earn since 2004 already numerous laurels (Tags: polytechnic, downtown enhancement, building lease scheme, bus concept) - all the recent changes are just now condensed into spoken and written language in order to make, from now on, the history of the young provincial capital in the 3rd millennium nachlesbar (checkable).
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dom_zu_St._P%C3%B6lten
www.st-poelten.gv.at/Content.Node/freizeit-kultur/kultur/...
The 'Park of Honour of Those Who Were Shot'
Memorial and graves of resistance heroes and martyrs - brave Jews, brave Christians, dissidents, anti-fascists, socialists, rebels, samizdat journalists and organisers - those who dared to question and fight oppression, and the evil Powers That Be.
Here you see the faces of my brothers, my own dear family, my partners in fighting sheer political evil - resting in their graves here, in perhaps the most poignant place in all of Brussels, Belgium. Here lie those in Belgium who were shot fighting the Nazis of the 1940s - as I myself have nearly been killed fighting the more recent fascists, some of the 'new Nazis' of the 21st century.
Shortly after I arrived in Brussels as a political refugee from the US, under threat of murder by far-right political figures, this is one of the first places I visited. I came here to weep some tears amid the companionship of my anti-fascist comrades, who also looked death in the eye as they tried to speak and act for what is right.
The camera used here, and the chance to make these photos, are gifts of the brave dissident US Jewish physician, Dr Moshe 'Moss' David Posner, who risked and gambled his own life, to support me and help keep me alive in the face of threats by neo-Nazi assassins.
These are photos from the daily life of writer and political refugee from the US, Dr Les (Leslie) Sachs - photos documenting my new beloved home city of Brussels, Belgium, my life among the people and Kingdom who have given me safety in the face of the threats to destroy me. Brussels has a noble history of providing a safe haven to other dissident refugee writers, such as Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Charles Baudelaire, and Alexandre Dumas, and I shall forever be grateful that Brussels and Belgium have helped to protect my own life as well.
(To read about the efforts to silence me and my journalism, the attacks on me, the smears and the threats, see the website by European journalists "About Les Sachs" linked in my Flickr profile, and press articles such as "Two EU Writers Under Threat of Murder: Roberto Saviano and Dr Les Sachs".)
This extremely moving memorial and gravesite, is known locally as the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusillerden (Brussels is bi-lingual French- and Dutch-speaking, so place names are given in both languages here.) - In English, the name is perhaps best rendered as the "Park of Honour of Those Who Were Shot".
The Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden includes many martyrs of the Belgian resistance of World War II, being both their gravesite and also the place where many of them were shot to death by a Nazi firing squad. - And it is also a memorial and the place of death, of other heroic figures who were shot to death in the previous German occupation of Belgium during World War I. One heroine from the First World War who was shot by the Germans and is now commemorated here, is the famous British nurse Edith Cavell.
The reason that this was a convenient place of execution by firing squad, is that it was originally part of a Belgian military training area and rifle range that existed here once upon a time, and you still see here the tall hillside that served as an earthen 'backstop' to safely absorb high-powered rifle bullets. The hillside was thus ready-made for the German commandants who occupied Brussels in both wars, to carry out their firing-squad executions.
Nowadays, the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden appears quite 'central' in urban Brussels, as it lies in the Schaerbeek - Schaarbeek commune, directly in the path from the EU institution area toward the roads that lead to the airport, and very near to the 90-metre high VRT-RTBF communications tower that has long been a major Brussels landmark.
The Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden is walking distance from the eastern Brussels 'prémétro', which is a grouping of tram lines that run underground for several stops on both the eastern and western sides of the Brussels city centre, supplementing the regular métro underground system with a similarly high frequency of service and also underground. If you continue along the prémétro lines south from the Diamant stop which is near the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, you shortly arrive at the elaborate 19th-century military barracks buildings which once housed the soldiers who used the rifle range and parade grounds, which later become the place of martyrdom for members of the anti-Nazi resistance.
This is a place of great emotion for me personally, because the resistance martyrs who lie in these graves - a number of them socialists, journalists and with Jewish-heritage, critics of corruption just like myself - are my comrades in my own ordeal. I barely escaped alive out of the USA, nearly murdered by neo-Nazi-linked thugs, who themselves spoke favourably of Hitler as they moved toward killing me, as well as trying to ban my ability to write and speak.
It is sad that this place, Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, is very little visited nowadays. Most of the time when I come here to contemplate and shed a few tears amid my comrades, and also to gain strength from their brave spirits, I am alone. Many of the family members and children of those who died or are buried here, have now themselves often passed away.
But on occasion there are people visiting, and on one day I was privileged to meet the daughter of one of the resistance martyrs who is buried here. She spoke to me of being a little girl, and seeing the Nazis arrest her father inside their home. She spoke about how they tied his hands behind his back, and yet how bravely he looked at her one last time. - She never saw her father alive again, and she is now in her seventies. - But when she spoke of her father, her voice grew energised and strong. She said she remembered the day of her father's arrest like if it was yesterday. And as she spoke, I could feel it and almost see it, as if I had been there myself.
The heroes in these graves are quite alive for me still. I am a religious man, a person of faith, and I believe in the life hereafter. - Many people have been afraid to help me, abandoning me to be murdered by the powerful forces of the American government - people too frightened to dare oppose the deadly US power of global assassination, the vicious US global media slandering of a dissident's reputation - Yet when I walk here at the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, I feel myself amid a powerful throng of comrades, among brave people who understand me, people who know what it is like to be menaced with murder and to look death straight in the eye. - I feel the spirits in these graves support me and sustain me, that they welcome me as one among themselves.
It is my privilege now to honour these brave companions of mine, giving their memory some further renown and support. And I have wanted very much to do so, as the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden still is in need of expanded documentation on the Web, before some of what can be seen here fades away much further.
One of the most powerful aspects of visiting this tree-lined and grassy cemetery and memorial, is that you see on a number of the grave markers, not only names and comments from loved ones, but in some cases actual pictures of these brave people, pictures rendered into sepia-type photos on porcelain. Though efforts were made to make these photographs permanent, the elements and the years and decades have taken their toll. Many of the pictures are now faded, or cracked, or broken, or fallen on the ground from their mountings. In one case I held a cracked porcelain image together with one hand, while taking the photo with the other hand. The years are passing, and I have wanted to document the faces of these brave heroes before they disappear, before time takes a greater toll on this place of sacred honour.
You look into the eyes of these brave people, and you see and feel the spirit of true bravery, of genuine resistance of oppression, resistance to the point of death, their hope that sacrificing one's own life in the fight, will yet do some good for others in the world. Look into their eyes, and you see their faces, faces of real people, quite like anyone in some ways, but in other ways very special, with a light in them that carries far beyond their own death - people who yet had the fire of faith in that Greater than mere earthly existence.
In this hillside that you see in the photos - the hillside in front of which many of these heroes stood in the moment as they were shot to death - in that hillside is a large memorial marker to the heroes of World War I who died here. On that marker it says:
Ici tomberent
sous les balles allemandes
35 héros victimes de leur
attachement à la patrie
Hier vielen
onder de duitse kogels
35 helden ten offer
aan hun liefde voor het vaderland
Here fell 35 heroes
who offered their lives
for their country
shot by the Germans
You'll notice that the 4th name down on the marker is that of Edith Louisa Cavell (1865-1915), with just her initial and last name and the date of her death here, on 12 October 1915:
Cavell E. 12-10-1915
The banners that you see here, in the colours of red, yellow, and black, are in the three colours of the national flag of Belgium
There are 17 rows of graves here at the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, 12 on the upper level closer to the hillside, and then five on the lower level below. Between the upper and lower levels is an obelisk serving as a kind of centre for the memorial as a whole. On the obelisk it says, on one side in Dutch, on the other side in French:
Opgericht door de Verbroedering van de Vriendenkringen der Nazikampenen Gevangenissen
XXVe Verjaring
April 1970
Erigé par le Fraternelle des Amicales de Camps et Prisons Nazis
XXVe Anniversaire
April 1970
In English this would be:
Constructed by the Association of Friends of Those in the Nazi Camps and Prisons
25th Anniversary
April 1970
Around this obelisk lay some faded but still visibly grand wreaths, placed here by the highest figures of Belgian public life. One great wreath at the centre, placed here by the King of the Belgians, Albert II, and his wife Paola, whose royal household has very quietly but effectively supplied some of the protection for me in Belgium, that has so far prevented me from being murdered here by foreign powers. - You see the ribbon say simply 'Albert - Paola'.
And another large wreath has a ribbon saying 'la Gouvernement - de Regering', from the government of Belgium.
Though many of the resistance martyrs buried here, were shot by firing squad right on this spot, a number of these martyrs died in other places, most especially in the Belgian concentration camp at Breendonk (Breendonck), which due to its stone structure is one of the best-preserved Nazi concentration camps. Breendonk can be visited today, about 40 kilometres north of Brussels in the direction of Antwerp, very near the Willebroek train station.
Among the graves here, a number are of heroes of the anti-Nazi resistance whose names are unknown: 'Inconnu - Onbekend' say the grave markers in French and in Dutch. In one row, there are six unknowns side-by-side; and then the entire final last row of the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, is all the resting place of unknown heroes, 21 altogether.
In any struggle against oppressive government, there are often unknown heroes. - And as I myself am a victim of brutal deceptive media smear campaigns, as well as the US regime ordering search engines to suppress my own websites, I can testify as to how hard the evil powers work, to try to see that those who fight the system, remain unknown, or else smeared and slandered with propaganda and lies.
There are perhaps yet other heroes of the World War II resistance, whose anonymous graves somewhere, may yet one day be found. One of the photos here is of a maintenance area by the side, where fresh grave markers are ready, some with crosses, some with a star of David, awaiting use for some other hero whose remains are yet to be discovered.
In addition to the photographs on the grave markers, which speak for themselves, a number of the graves are also marked with heartfelt statements by those who loved and honoured them. Most are in French, and with photos where there are such engraved statements, there are transcriptions of what you find, along with a translation.
Many of these resistance martyrs to the Nazis who lie here, are of course Jewish. The majority are Christians of Belgium, but a significant proportion of the heroes who lie here, are Jewish resistance martyrs of the Holocaust. And even more than one from the same family - the Livchitz brothers who lie here. Moreover, some of the Christians who are buried here, are of Jewish heritage as well - as I am myself, a unitarian Christian.
My own heritage on my mother's side is Jewish, and it was my commitment to honour the memory of relatives and other Jews who died in the Holocaust, that led to my being forced to become a political refugee from the United States. - Back when living in the US, I received a letter threatening the book-burning of the books of this Jewish-heritage writer, and I responded strongly. A few weeks later my freedom to speak and write was banned, and threats to extort and murder me were put in motion. This story has been told in other places (see link to press articles in my profile), but suffice it to say here, that it was my honouring the memory of murdered Jews, which led me to be a Jewish-heritage political refugee today in Brussels.
Though I am unitarian Christian by faith, the old Jewish sites of Brussels and Belgium strike deep chords within me, as I very much feel the spirit of the Jews who suffered and died under the kind of racist threats I have also suffered.
One of the things I am often-asked, as a Jewish-heritage political refugee, is why the Jewish groups and Jewish leaders, do not say or do more to defend me, against the threats to have me murdered, against the lies and hoaxes spread about me, against the blocking of my own journalism sites from the internet search engines. - For example, in my efforts to stay alive these last few years, I have received much more comfort and assistance and support from brave Muslims, than from the Jewish people who share my own heritage.
There are two main reasons for this kind of neglect of someone like myself by Jewish leaders. One is that I am not a political Zionist - I favour peace and justice for all the residents of the ancient holy lands of Palestine. - A second reason, is that there is a sad heritage among Jewish people, to stand by and do nothing while other Jews are attacked by the dominant power of the day. - It was that way in the old pogroms of Eastern Europe, it was that way under the Nazi-era exterminations, and it is that way today regarding the case of the United States. - Since it is the US regime which has been attacking me and forcing me to be a refugee here, Jewish 'leadership' simply does not want to confront the USA. Given that I am a non-Zionist, and a unitarian Christian in faith, well, that settles it as far as Jewish leaders are concerned, and they turn away and say nothing.
There are still some brave Jews, however, like one brave Orthodox Jewish physician in America, a friend who has helped me to be able to be here now, supplying these photographs of the Jewish and other martyrs of anti-Nazi resistance.
And the Jewish heritage is there in me, and I am glad I honoured the memory of the Holocaust dead, even though it led me into terrible sufferings at the hands of US political figures and the US regime.
There is a sense of profound spiritual achievement that I have, as I place on-line this historical record of the martyrs of the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden. It is perhaps only by the grace of God that I was able to escape the US alive, from the clutches of the people menacing to illegally jail me and murder me in a US jail cell. - My now being able to honour the memory of my fellow anti-fascist figures in Belgium, who were shot dead by the Nazis of an earlier era, feels to me to be one of the important purposes, for which I was kept alive by divine hands.
To visit the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, you can walk about 600 metres from the Diamant 'prémétro' or underground tram stop which includes tram lines 23, 24, and 25. If you wish to get even closer by bus, you can take buses number 12, 21, or 79 the two stops from Diamant to the Colonel Bourg - Kolonel Bourg bus shelter sign. Alternatively, if you are in the EU area, you can take these same buses 12, 21 or 79 directly from the Schuman métro station by the EU's main Berlaymont building. Another route is that bus 80 from the Mérode metro station will also take you directly to the Colonel Bourg - Kolonel Bourg stop. A few tens of metres west of where the bus halts, along the rue Colonel Bourg - Kolonel Bourgstraat, you see the sign directing to the entrance of the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden.
Photos courtesy of Missouri City
A new LED message sign, monument wall and landscaping now grace the entrance of City Hall.
Missouri City’s Successes Shine Bright in 2012
Missouri City continued its march of excellence in 2012 with an array of successful fiscal, civic, business and public safety accomplishments that kept the “Show Me City” on the list of the state’s and the nation’s premier municipalities.
Safe streets, best budgets, thriving companies, dynamic diversity, pristine parks and A-plus amenities remain hallmarks of the City, and have an impact on its infrastructure projects and retail and commercial sectors.
Showcasing the richness of our cultural, educational and economic strengths, a groundbreaking Rice University study this year found Missouri City has surpassed Houston in diversity.
“Our diversity brings different ideas and traditions to the table, and we are united in the direction of our community’s future,” said City Manager Edward Broussard. “With 20 parks, two championship golf courses, first-class amenities and rich historical traditions, we encourage everyone to discover Missouri City.”
City Council continued to provide strong leadership for citizens and staff in 2012. From left are Councilmember Don Smith, District B, Councilmember Bobby Marshall, District A, Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Wyatt, At Large Position 1, Mayor Allen Owen, Councilmember Danny Nguyen, At Large Position 2, Councilmember Floyd Emery, District D, and Councilmember Robin Elackatt, District C.
Additionally, MONEY Magazine and CNNMoney named Missouri City one of 2012’s Top 10 Most Affordable Cities in the nation for homebuyers and “we are steadfast in our commitment to remain a premier location with scenic neighborhoods, low crime, top-rated schools and expanded quality recreational opportunities,” Broussard said.
And, when it comes to living healthy lifestyles; citizens are up to the challenge. Residents and staff formed a winning partnership this year to earn a second place honor in the Healthy at H-E-B Challenge, a statewide initiative aimed at getting Texans to become active and stay fit.
Another recreational accolade was earned by the award-winning Quail Valley Golf Course, which has hosted record rounds again this year. Avid Golfer ranked the El Dorado fairway as the No. 1 “Best Value Under $50”, and No. 2 among courses in the category of “Top-5 Intermediate-Priced • $36-$50”. And, the magazine ranked the La Quinta greens No. 2 among courses in the category of “Top-5 Value-Priced • $36-$50”.
QVGC is also now the third location for the First Tee of Greater Houston, a youth development program that teaches life lessons such as the importance of honesty, sportsmanship, perseverance, responsibility and judgment.
“We all know that Missouri City is a special place and these honors reinforce what those of us who live here know,” said Mayor Allen Owen. “As we move forward, our synergistic relationship with our families and business partners will continue to make Missouri City one of the best cities in America.”
Fiscal Fitness
Strong fiscal management earned the city a Double A rating for its general obligation bonds and certificates of obligation, a high rank based on sound budget policies and procedures that give the City a bright financial outlook for the future.
For more than 25 years, the City Budget and the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report have been recognized annually by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for their detail on City services and programs and the City’s financial condition. And, for the second year in a row Missouri City has earned a “Gold Star” award for financial transparency and online reporting from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.
Maintaining fiscal excellence is a top priority for the City, with all departments focused on the effective and efficient management of financial resources.
A police officer, left, shares safety information with a resident. Firefighters, at right, perform a vehicle extrication demonstration.
Protecting the Public
Proactive public safety programs protect, educate and engage citizens, often providing a glimpse into the work of our first responders who put their lives on the line to keep us safe.
In 2012, the Missouri City Police Department hosted a series of safety seminars, including a citywide crime prevention meeting, ensuring citizens are prepared to safeguard their families and property.
And, this year brought a significant first for the Fire & Rescue Services as they hosted their inaugural annual open house. Hundreds visited Fire Station 1 and experienced how to handle a fire hose, learned about life-saving equipment, watched a vehicle extrication demonstration, toured the firehouse and practiced fire exit drills.
Another highlight was the graduation of the 26th Annual Missouri City Police and Fire Academy. This year’s class of 27 is now qualified to join the Police and Fire Auxiliary and Citizen’s Response Team after completing a free six-week training program that took them “behind-the-scenes”. The residents learned about traffic and criminal law, CPR, firearms, and the dangers associated with fighting fires and solving crimes.
The importance of Missouri City’s public safety investment in commercial areas also is demonstrated via the new Police Mini-Station on Texas Parkway. The station serves as a daily reminder to citizens that the City is dedicated to keeping them and their businesses safe.
Business is Booming
Continuing to build a sustainable business base is critical to future growth and development.
This year, Missouri City’s commitment to private-public partnerships was recognized with the prestigious 2012 Community Economic Development Award from the Texas Economic Development Council. The “Show Me City” won the distinction for its successful bid to attract Niagara Bottling Company, the second largest water bottling firm in the United States.
In making its decision, TEDC cited Missouri City’s “team effort” in partnering with the Greater Houston Partnership, the Fort Bend Economic Development Council, Fort Bend County, CenterPoint Energy Economic Development Group and Water Control and Improvement District No. 2 to interest Niagara in opening its doors in Lakeview Business Park, located near Fondren Road and Sam Houston Parkway.
The plant is expected to be fully operational in the first quarter of 2013. When complete, it will encompass more than 356,000 square feet, with water processing, bottle manufacturing, warehousing and a distribution facility.
A few miles away in the Beltway Crossing Complex on South Gessner Road, another major company is preparing to open its doors. Ben E. Keith Foods will complete the first phase of its 500,000-square-foot facility in the first quarter of 2013. When complete, the company, which was honored in 2012 by having Beltway Road renamed Ben E. Keith Way, will be the City’s largest employer.
Other new companies choosing to locate here during the past 12 months include Twin Star Bakery, Southwest Electronic Energy Corp., Fort Bend Brewing Company, Warren Alloy/Allied Fittings, Stream Realty and Bimbo Bakeries USA.
And, to create an ongoing dialogue with the business community, the City has launched Business Briefing Breakfasts. These monthly meetings focus on economic growth and development and are hosted in the City Centre at Quail Valley. For more information on the breakfasts, call 281.403.8530.
Infrastructure Improvements
Infrastructure improvements were a priority citywide. A major accomplishment was the official opening of the City’s new $50 million Regional Water Treatment Plant, the largest capital improvement project ever undertaken by the “Show Me City”. The project was the result of an unprecedented level of cooperation among 40 government and private sector groups.
The facility, which has the capacity to store 100 million gallons of water, was built to meet regulations set by the Fort Bend Subsidence District, which mandates that groundwater withdrawals must be no more than 70 percent of total water demand by Jan. 1, 2014. By January of 2025, withdrawals must be reduced to no more than 40 percent of water demand.
During a grand opening ceremony for the plant in August, partners raised their glasses—filled with water processed at the facility. Plant engineers say the quality of the refined water should exceed that of the groundwater residents currently drink with 33 types of tests conducted each day to ensure the water is safe to use. And, in recognition of its excellence, the RWTP won the Texas Public Works Association’s Project of the Year Award for “Environmental Projects at least $25 million but less than $75 million”.
Other infrastructure upgrades completed citywide include:
*Raised medians constructions on Highway 6 and Texas Parkway. The Texas Department of Transportation managed these mobility projects that improved safety for motorists and pedestrians. The projects included the installation of new traffic signals and six Dynamic Messages Signs along Highway 6, and the installation of new turn lanes along both roadways.
*Implementation of the $2.8 million Intelligent Transportation System to help synchronize traffic signals and manage traffic flow citywide.
*A showcase Missouri City monument wall was added to the entrance of the City Hall Complex, which has been revitalized with the addition of a new LED sign and landscaping. The monument wall is the latest of several new ones that now grace major thoroughfares helping to brand and beautify the area.
*Next year, Lexington Boulevard will be extended. Plans call for a decorative traffic signal at Texas Parkway, a four-lane boulevard roadway with sidewalks from Texas Parkway to Scanlin Road, as well as drainage structures. Fort Bend County has agreed to pay all costs of the $3.3 million project through the Fort Bend Mobility Bond program.
Other key infrastructure improvements include the reconstruction of El Dorado Bridge, the installment of flashing yellow arrows along major roadways and the construction of Fire Station #5, which is being fully funded by the Sienna Plantation Municipal Utility District. The station is expected to open in late 2013.
Another mobility milestone involves the METRO Park & Ride stop located in the Fort Bend Town Center at Fort Bend Parkway and Highway 6. Ridership on the service is steadily increasing, providing convenient, stress-free commutes to and from the Texas Medical Center and Houston’s central business district for hundreds of residents.
Pristine Parks
City Council followed through on its commitment to citizens that construction of the City Centre at Quail Valley and the Recreation and Tennis Center would be completed this year.
Since Missouri City’s new first-class amenities opened their doors, they have received rave reviews.
Missouri City’s premier City Centre at Quail Valley can host all of your special events.
As Fort Bend County’s premier events venue, the City Centre at Quail Valley, located at 2880 La Quinta Dr., has hosted dozens of festive occasions including weddings, business meetings, birthday parties, tournaments like the 2012 Fort Bend Chamber Challenge and an official ribbon-cutting ceremony.
To plan and schedule a function, individuals and businesses can call 281-403-8517.
Missouri City’s first-class Recreation and Tennis Center can help you stay fit with lots of fun activities.
The state-of-the-art Recreation and Tennis Center, located at 2701 Cypress Point Dr., continues to draw new members and has hosted tennis tournaments for local and regional organizations.
The Center, which was featured in the August edition of Athletic Business, has a Kid Zone, a full-size gymnasium, multi-purpose rooms, tennis courts, batting cages, the latest cardio and weight equipment, an outdoor walking trail and tennis clinics. To join, visit the City website: www.missouricitytx.gov or call 281-403-8637.
Many distinctions set Missouri City apart from other municipalities, and the City’s pristine parks are among the area’s best.
The Edible Arbor Trail, which features groves of trees and shrubs that produce edible fruits and nuts, remains a favorite. It was recognized as an innovative project this year by the Texas Recreation and Parks Society and received an Honorable Mention for “On-the-Ground Projects” from the Houston-Galveston Area Council. The trail was also featured on Ch. 13’s Hometown Live Report.
Another parks project that has been popular is the expansion of Oyster Creek Trail. The 2.31 mile pathway, an outdoor haven for residents who enjoy a scenic hike, bike, walk or jog, underwent a revitalization that added a paved bike and pedestrian trail along Oyster Creek Bayou between Dulles Avenue and Cartwright Road.
Improvements made to the Cartwright Road Bridge extended Oyster Creek Trail under the bridge and connected it to the existing trail south of Cartwright Road.
Scenes from the Snowfest Festival, left, and from National Night Out, right. Below, MCJCF founding board members kickoff the group’s golden anniversary at a VIP Reception. Pictured from left, are Michael Mouton, Councilman Don Smith, who is Founder and Chairman, Sonja Thornton, Pamela Poole, Charles Swindell and Derrick Woods.
Treasured Traditions
Annual traditions build lasting bonds citywide and this year, these successful events helped form a strong sense of civic pride:
* The 29th Annual Snowfest Festival drew more than 5,000 to the City Hall Complex and featured a tree-lighting ceremony, colorful fireworks, bicycle raffles, the world’s tallest snowman bounce house, a snow hill, a toy drive and Santa! And, the Snowfest Parade drew hundreds and featured colorful floats, local bands, community groups and trailers decorated in holiday themes.
*The July 4th Festival was a fantastic celebration in Buffalo Run Park full of fun and fireworks. Thousands of families gathered to see the sky light up with color at dusk. Children also enjoyed a moonwalk, a rock wall, and a mechanical bull.
*The Fourth Annual “Operation Thanksgiving—Stuff the Squad Car!” put the unity in community as “Show Me City” citizens, businesses and staff partnered to fill 15 police patrol cars with canned and nonperishable food items to assist area families in need. The Second Mile Mission Center, Bethel Ministry and the Powerhouse of Love Food Bank benefitted from this benevolent event.
*The Missouri City Juneteenth Celebration Foundation commemorated its 10th Anniversary with a focus on families and their core contributions to our communities. At the Community Service Awards Gala tribute, retired NBA star Charlie Ward was the guest speaker. Other special celebrations were the Scholarship Golf Tournament, Family Fun Day in the Park and Night Out, Festival Under the Stars and the One Mile of Smiles Parade.
*And, neighborhoods across Missouri City held National Night Out block parties featuring good food, fellowship and fun on the 29th annual observance of the crime prevention initiative. NNO helps neighbors get to know each other and to partner with police officers, firefighters, City Council and staff to discuss and implement measures that help combat crime.
A Bright Future
In 2012, professionals in all departments honorably represented the City with pride and were recognized by their peers in the region, in the state and across the nation. They include:
*Police Officer of the Year Jessica Berry
*Firefighter of the Year Michael Jaster
*Recreation Superintendent Shane Mize, who won the 2012 National Recreation and Park Association Rising Professional Award
*Director of Municipal Court Services Cathy Haney, who is the Texas Court Clerks Association’s 2012 Gulf Coast Chapter Clerk of the Year
*Street Technician II Lyford “Nickey” Hayes, who was recognized as Operator of the Year—Heavy Equipment by the American Public Works Association
*City Secretary Maria Gonzalez, who became President of the Salt Grass Chapter of the Texas Municipal Clerks Association, Inc.
*The Communications Team won the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers’ Silver Star for Electronic Report, the Texas Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors’ second place award for Best Use of Web, the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors’ third place award for the video “Bob on Biz—LEED Certified Building”, and the group’s honorable mention award for the “Show Me Missouri City TV Website”.
*The Information Technology Team managed the installation of the Tyler Technologies Enterprise Resource Planning suite of software. It includes efficiency programs for accounting, payroll, human resources, document management, mapping, permits, licenses and code enforcement.
In 2013, Missouri City will continue to provide citizens with excellent programs and services. A committed City Council and award-winning staff will progressively move forward into the future, ensuring the “Show Me City’s” ongoing success.
Residents are encouraged to stay informed through the City’s websites: www.missouricitytx.gov and www.missouricityready.com, the “Show Me Missouri City” citizen newsletter, regular and annual homeowner association meetings, Missouri City television (Ch. 16 on Comcast and Ch. 99 on AT&T U-verse) and 1690 AM.
Families and visitors are invited to have breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner at the City Centre and to maintain a focus on fitness at the Recreation and Tennis Center. And, to make those memorable moments in life even more special, citizens should plan to host their celebrations in one of the City Centre’s elegant rooms—the magnificent Magnolia Ballroom, the amazing Azalea Room or the beautiful Bluebonnet Grille.
Schedule your next tee time at the championship Quail Valley Golf Course.
And, golfers can always enjoy a great game at the renowned Quail Valley Golf Course. For greens fees, visit www.golfquailvalley.com or call 281.403.5910.
As the City partners with the community to start a New Year together; high-standards will continue to be set and met in the “Show Me City”.
I'm not the biggest fan of musicals. The Commitments was held together by great songs and great vocal performances. The script had been left somewhere on the cutting room floor. So all in all a great soul revue
May 22, 2023 - USAID Administrator Samantha Power met with the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India Dr. P.K. Mishra. As both Co-chairs of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), they discussed progress in their collaboration to promote disaster resilient infrastructure and address climate change in the region and globally. During their meeting, Administrator Power and Principal Secretary Mishra focused on shared commitments to advancing global development challenges, such as climate change and global health security, leveraging the best of Indian and American innovation and know-how to tackle our world’s most pressing problems. The meeting took place at USAID Offices in Washington, D.C. USA.