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John Millicent 1686 holding hands with his wife Alice Chester www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/4792285857/
Alice was the daughter of Sir Anthony Chester, 2nd Bart of Chichley 1651 and Elizabeth 1692, daughter of Sir John Peyton of Dodington
She was grand-daughter of Sir Anthony Chester 1st Bart of Chichley 1635 and Elizabeth Boteler www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/4795470009/
John was the son of Robert Millicent and Duglas Wright www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/4792926350/
Children 6 girls and 5 boys who all died before their father except John who erected the monument
5. John 1657-1716 m Dorothy daughter of Charles Wright , DD, Arabic Professor at Cambridge (only surviving son)
9. William died young who "showed great promise
. John was regarded as a Civil War hero and went on to play a prominent role in Restoration politics. He was a local J.P. and became the dominant social and political figure in Linton for almost forty years until his death
When young, John joined King Charles 1st at Oxford in 1642 his mother Duglas administered the Estate in his absence. On his surrender to the Parliamentary army in 1646, John’s fine of £162 “as a Royalist delinquent” was paid by his mother Duglas since his sole income was reported to the Parliamentary Commission as being £6 pa. Duglas then negotiated a marriage alliance with the wealthy Chester family of Chicheley in Buckinghamshire. John married Alice Chester in June 1647 and received a £1,000 marriage settlement which finally resolved the monetary problems of the Estate. (Although Alice's father Anthony Chester had been disinherited of the main Chester estates)
John and Alice Millicent had 6 girls and 5 boys John is praised in the latin inscription as a good husband, a fair and impartial administrator of justice and an excellent leader. There is a reference to their ninth child , William who showed great promise but died young. All the children died before their father save for John Millicent junior (1657-1716) who erected the monument being fresh from his triumph over the Lone family c1705.
Ms. Catherine Marchi-Uhel, Head of International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism, at the UN TV studio, Palais des Nations, Geneva, 05 September 2017. UN Photo / Elma Okic
Foreign Policy of a country is a set of rules that seems to outline the behaviour of a particular country and how it interacts with other countries and international organizations. This mainly depends on internal, external political and the “global, economic and political considerations”.
Foreign Policy should be compatible with all forms of internal, political and economic considerations therefore special emphasis is given in the area of foreign policy in any form of Government. Sri Lanka needs this badly due to anti Sri Lanka propaganda within and outside. Good image is based on the conduct of the Head of the State and Government in power. Sometimes outside powers rock the boat due to international politics and petty considerations. Generally with the Head of the State and the politics that formulates and implements foreign policy depending on the political and economic climate of the day. Generally the foreign policy of a State is not static and confined to narrow goals. There were discussions recently about the foreign policy of Sri Lanka today in the present political and economic climate. It is clearly stated in “Mahinda Chintana” which is implemented by the Head of the State based on the policy and his personality amongst the family of nations. Mahinda Chintana briefly gives an outline of the policy as follows:
“I will continue Sri Lanka’s non-aligned foreign policy. During the last four years we witnessed the benefits of maintaining friendly relations with India, Japan, China, Pakistan and other Asian countries. I am committed to continue these friendly relations in the political, economic, defence, trade and cultural arena.
I will ensure that Sri Lanka abides by the global treaties and agreements on environmental and climate change and will strengthen Sri Lanka’s ties with the UN Agencies.
I will maintain the dignity of my country in foreign relations and will initiate a new programme to forge relations with countries.”
Countries and regional institutions are as selfish as individuals and the policy depends on the interest of the peoples of the respective nation or the organization. Sometimes legislation too formulates and directly and indirectly implements foreign policy. Indian foreign policy is somewhat static and firm irrespective of change of power as the administrative machinery traditionally protects the policies and interests in the interest of the nation. India is
extremely successful in managing her foreign policy. In India governments may change but not necessarily the foreign policy. In Sri Lanka it is not so. It varies from government to government. Always the United National Party tends to be pro West and the SLFP is a non aligned and friendly with all.
In the United States it is the President who formulates and implements foreign policy. As a world power and self appointed world policeman. USA’s foreign policy is subjected to greater scrutiny by the entire world and plays a main role in world economies and politics.
The attitude of the USA towards Afghanistan which is the newest member of the SAARC group and Iraq which is still in turmoil are matters which concerns our member states and the region directly and indirectly. In the United Kingdom it is the Prime Minister who formulates and implements the foreign policy as in France, and many EU and other countries. In the former USSR too it was the President who was responsible directly for the foreign policy. National security, world security, economic prosperity, ideological goals and more importantly peace and wars depend on the foreign policy considerations of States and international organizations.
The pronouncement of His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa in public forums and Mahinda Chintana is complete and exhaustive. It has proved that Sri Lankan President is an emerging world leader and Sri Lanka continues to be a major player in the international arena being a very senior respectable member of the United Nations. Sri Lankan President has not strictly deviated from the policy adopted by Madam Bandaranaike, who managed it well in the 1970s. Today it is the new world with no cold war and the creation of the global village as a result of the unprecedented and amazing E-com developments that have transformed the entire social, political and economic fabric of the world. Mahinda is friendly, warm and realistic . He has become a main player in the politics of the Chess Game within a short spell of time. Foreign Policy of the country depends on the conduct and behaviour of the leader, his reputation and charisma. Mrs. Bandaranaike made us a respectable and active member of the world family and her relations with India was excellent.
She settled Kachchativu and Indo-SL dispute amicably using her personal connections with India. So are the conduct and relations of Mahinda with India and the Indian leaders despite venomous anti Sri Lankan propaganda by our own misguided opposition and some non governmental organizations.
President Rajapaksa who is lovable and popular among the family of states, has adopted his own way and style using his charisma and personal charm which is a great gift to the nation. He has realized that we need honest and genuine friends in need.
Close-warm friendships and relations with Iran, Japan, Pakistan, China, Russia, UK and EU are well done and well thought of. He addresses world gatherings at ease and without a script unlike Blair or Brown.
Every human being and nation consisting of humans is selfish and has their own agenda in the interests of their citizens. Therefore, it is natural that Indo-Sri Lankan relations have difficult periods. Every nation has internal issues and the priority should be given to their own citizens. But to the credit of both nations nowhere during the long history India ever invaded Sri Lanka completely though there were provincial rulers who partially invaded for short periods. We inherited religion, culture and many other values and sources of developments mainly from our big brother for which we are ever grateful. Even the 1987episode could have been avoided and we handled it properly baed on a firm and correct foreign policy sounded on trust, confidence and goodwill. The Indian central government depends for their existence on Tamil Nadu which is one of the largest provinces and generally the deciding factor of any government always hands on the balance of power of the provinces. Tamil Nadu has 32 seats out of 552 in the Lok Sabha and has a say on the Central Government and governance in general. Dravidian parties organized themselves since 1916 by forming a welfare association in Tamils which subsequently changed to a political union.
In 1944 Dravidian Kazhagam party was formed and today it has split into many sub groups and is in power in turns mainly as leading actors in the forefront. “Muran” and many powerful dynasties (C265-238BC)never thought of invading Sri Lanka though the provinces had their own struggles, differences and bloody wars. They left Sri Lanka alone for thousands of years. Buddhism and Hinduism have been the most valuable Indian contributions to Sri Lanka which has developed close bonds in all respects. Both Sri Lanka and India are tolerant and secular nations where the citizens enjoy ideals of modern democratic principles which are similar to traditional ideals practiced for thousands and thousands of years.
Even closest family members at times are faced with minute differences. Therefore it is natural that both countries have at times strained there close friendly bonds due to mismanagement of foreign policy; mostly by us. In India governments may change but not the foreign policy and the system of administration. But on the whole the relations between the two countries were extremely cordial.
King Asoka sent his son Mahinda and daughter Sangamitta as emissaries to propagate Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan King Devanampiyatissa though they had not met has been a close friend of King Asoka who conquered the whole of India. He did not want to conquer Sri Lanka due to the close friendship with King Tissa.
King Asoka was not a happy man due to the large number of massacres and devastations as a result of war. He led a disturbed life wanting mental rest and peace when he came across Nigroda Samanera (Novice Bhikkhu) walking along the road happily and peacefully accepting food offered by the public. He invited the Samanera to his palace and requested him to sit in a proper seat. The Samanera sat on the King’s Chair being the most suitable position to a person who has shed all worldly ties.
The King was extremely happy and embraced Buddhism and spent the rest of his life for the propagation of Buddhism and the peaceful way of life. Indo-Sri Lanka relations, since then have been excellent. Mr. and Mrs. Bandaranaike during their regimes developed strong political and personal bonds between the two countries, leaders and their families. Today Sri Lankan President has also developed strong personal and political bonds between the two countries and leaders.
President Rajapaksa has been extremely cautious and diplomatic in dealing with the power blocks interested primarily in their interest especially in the volatile and uncertain world politics and economy which crumbled with no notice facing them with the most disastrous recession ever. South Asia and Sri Lanka were less affected due to their simplicity and management of their own affairs based on Home Grown solutions. The response from the USA senate is wonderful-that they cannot afford to lose Sri Lanka – and it is time they realize we should not be drifted toward a political block out of sheer necessity. It is time the diplomatic community of the West and USA in Sri Lanka should play a safe game to maintain and enhance good relations with Sri Lanka without being interested in local politics however interesting it is.
Award Honorius Causa Doctorate from the People’s Friendship University of Russia on President Rajapaksa is the zenith of his achievement for the conduct of international affairs from the assumption of the office as the President of Sri Lanka four years ago. It is to his credit and respect to the nation that the sixth and the most rare honour of awarding the prestigious academic excellence on peace was awarded for the services rendered to mankind by eliminating the terror outfit to the disbelief and surprise of the Global Community. Wall Street Journal of USA reported in the speech of President “ I know as well as anyone that our future success relies on lasting peace. The revival of terrorism was an important milestone in that process, but the nation needs to be nound by a common purpose. My new government will address the genuine grievances of all communities and foster the enforcement of equal rights for all”. It was during the last few days of the end of the terror regime that maximum pressure was exerted to President Rajapaksa by the Western leaders, EU, USA, UN, and a number of powerful NGOs wanted to stop the war on terror and enter into the same old peace process that failed and “Hell” in Sri Lanka at the cost of hundreds of thousands of human lives and destruction of trillions of rupees of national wealth. India, China, USSR, Middle East, Africa and the Sri Lankan expatriate community stood firmly with President Rajapaksa and Sri Lanka isolating USA, UK and EU with NGos and Inter Governmental organizations depending on public and UN funds, which is proof of the successful conduct of international affairs based on “Mahinda Chintana” and his own style on the process of dealing with the international community, which is reiterated in “Mahinda Chintana”.
President’s conduct as a leader of a country with an unstable and volatile political and war situation during the war on terror has been exemplary cautious, well planned and well thought of. It is difficult to satisfy the political agenda of the complicated world political groupings, UN and Non-governmental organizations and the Sri Lankan policy while maintaining the vision, identity and the interest of the Nation with a minority government representing different political and ethnic groups with difficult different and unattainable demands. Every mission to meet world leaders was with a purpose and vision. Leading a trade mission to China the leading political and economic power in the near future, meeting the President of Iran when we had fuel shortages, meeting President Gadaffi when he was about to be appointed to Chair the Human Rights Committee when UN and INGOs were trailing us to deal internationally, hosting of SAARC which was enhanced and strengthened close ties with India and the SAARC countries jut before the last lap of the end of terror where we were blessed with the group of SAARC and other regional organizations attended the summit as observers. Address the UN and taking part in international forums such as the address to the Oxford students union in the United Kingdom strengthened presidents international stature as an emerging world leader leading a fair cross section of the human community in the globe.
International relations of a Nation depend on the vision, conduct, personality and the conduct of diplomacy of the of the Chief Executive in the world family representing the Nation region and the world in international forums and dealing with world leaders and international organizations. Successful world leaders had their own style of conducting international affairs in the international arena. Nehru, Chou En Lai, Indira Ghandi, Tony Blair, Putin, Bush, Obama and other leading and charismatic world leaders on assuming power changed the foreign policy of the country according to the current needs of the day.
In India the foreign policy is streamlined as it is very slowly and rarely the policy deviates from the mainstream due to their discipline and rigidity in foreign affairs administration and governance. In Sri Lanka foreign policy deviations are marked and effective. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike brought about a complete change in foreign policy after Sir John Kotalawela’s policy which was modified to non alignment by Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike until J.R. Jayewardene again changed the policy to a mixture of pro West and non-alignments. Rajapaksa government is victorious with a unique foreign policy unique to Mahinda Rajapaksa’s “International Personality” which is basically non-alignment with modifications based on the realities on international economic and world order in the fast changing new world of Information
Technology which has changed our globe to a borderless modern and wonderful world.
Uniqueness of President Rajapaksa is the non-negotiability in main issues such as unitary nature of the State, sovereignty equality among Nations, sovereignty of the Nation and the people , love and respect to Motherland, equality and impartiality towards all the citizens sans differences, and service to the brethren based on equality and with respect to all modes and norms of individual and collective Human Rights.
Despite the excellent relations with the world family the worrying factor is the misunderstanding of some western countries and INGOs due to vigorous campaign by powerful pro LTTE elements which are fast disintegrating. President Rajapaksa has friendship of the intention of mending fences with the West with his charm and diplomatic which has been proved successful. He has secured the trend skill or the Eastern block including the Central Asia, Middle East with Iran and other Oil Rich , Africa, small orbital nations around USA, and of course the two emerging world powers China and USSR which sere instrumental in bailing us out when we were in danger of being interrogated by the UN on false and malicious LTTE related propaganda. Nation is confident and prays his next mission towards the West will be another success story as has been proved before.
President Rajapaksa’s initiation to ensure to abide by global treaties and agreements on climate change is encouraging when the world is facing grave danger of slow destruction of the planet due to unplanned industrialization and developments.
It is also time for us to review the position with the Charter of the United Nations established in place of the League of Nations anticipating a more effective world organization. It is time for us to be active as Asians promoting the emerging power India as a member of the Security Council and to be more close to SAARC aiming to be “Wonder of Asia”.
(The writer, is the Sri Lankan Ambassador in the United Arab Emirates, The views expressed are the author's own)
Sri Lanka Guardian (06/08/2010)
Bearing Witness in the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal
SAT, MARCH 11, 2023 2-4PM
First United Methodist Church of Germantown, Philadelphia
Evidence of Abu-Jamal’s innocence was illegally withheld by prosecutors at his trial and subsequent appeals
Will Judge Lucretia Clemons have the impartiality and independence to make a decision that reckons with the long history of racism in Philadelphia?
The case of Black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, falsely convicted in 1982 of the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner the year before is now back in court. Newly discovered evidence, previously withheld by prosecutors, a clear violation of law, makes it clear that Abu-Jamal should be freed or given a new trial. Abu-Jamal has endured over 40 years of wrongful imprisonment and almost three decades on death row.
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge, Lucretia Clemons, is expected to rule by March 16, 2023, on whether newly-found documents pointing to Abu-Jamal’s innocence are worthy of an evidentiary hearing where they can be properly reviewed and examined.
The court is reviewing three sets of documents that the prosecution withheld from Abu-Jamal’s attorneys for more than 36 years: 1) Handwritten notes by prosecutor Joe McGill that show that he tracked the race of potential jurors during the jury selection process; 2) A handwritten letter by star witness, Robert Chobert, in which he asks prosecutor Joe McGill for money “owed” him, an indication that Chobert’s testimony was bribed, and 3) A series of memoranda between prosecutors and officers of the judicial system in and outside of the state of Pennsylvania, indicating that the prosecutor’s other main witness, Cynthia White, was also bribed. Just months after her testimony at Abu-Jamal’s trial, all of White’s pending prostitution charges were suddenly dismissed.
Failure to release Robert Chobert’s letter and the series of memoranda between the prosecutor and numerous officers of the court across state lines is a flagrant violation of the 1963 landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Brady v. Maryland. Brady established that prosecutors MUST turn over to defense attorneys, all potential evidence pointing to a defendant’s innocence.
Prosecutors in District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office who are currently litigating Abu-Jamal’s case today are arguing, against all reason, that Robert Chobert’s letter demanding money owed to him as well as all the memoranda seeking favorable treatment for Cynthia White are not “materially important” and that, therefore, the Brady claim is not merited in Abu-Jamal’s case. They argue that Abu-Jamal would have been convicted with or without the testimony of these witnesses.
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But the other “evidence” used to convict Abu-Jamal mainly consisted of a made-up confession allegedly heard by police and their claim that Abu-Jamal’s gun was found next to him at the scene, but which police failed to test to prove it had been fired. The alleged confession was “remembered” two to three months after the fact by police, among them one who wrote in his report about Abu-Jamal the night of the shooting, “the negro male made no comment.” Both claims were made by the very same police officers who beat Abu-Jamal brutally, within an inch of his life, shouting “Kill the Black motherfucker, beat the shit out of the Black motherfucker,” and lied on the stand about having properly handled the crime scene, while in fact the police did the opposite.
DA Larry Krasner’s office is, thereby upholding the perjured testimonies and theory of the case put forth by the same homicidally violent police officers whose behavior, according to an investigation of the Philadelphia Police by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1979, “shocks the conscience.”
The narrative of what happened on the night that Office Faulkner was killed promoted by Larry Krasner’s office and the racist Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is false.
In fact, the original prosecutor in the case had to bribe the testimonies of key witnesses, Chobert and White, because they did not see what happened that night, as long-standing evidence shows. The newly discovered evidence is “material” because the original trial court heavily relied on their bribed testimony to convict Abu-Jamal. If jurors would have known that Chobert and White were, respectively, paid and relieved of prison time in exchange for their testimonies, the jury would have doubted the prosecutor’s theory of the case. And the fact that this new evidence of bribery was withheld for almost four decades by Philadelphia prosecutors requires throwing Abu-Jamal’s conviction out, or at the very least, holding an evidentiary hearing.
Before a crowd of well over 150 people, in addition to livestream watch parties in the US and overseas, our event brought together eminent scholars, experts, and activists who bore witness to constitutional violations in a case that is emblematic of how the prosecutor’s office operates and disfigures the lives of Black people, their families, and communities in Philadelphia. Participants included Cornel West, who testified to the cruel and inhumane nature of death row’s solitary confinement and death by incarceration; recently retired Arkansas state judge, Rev. Wendell Griffin, who addressed Brady; professor and social critic, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill; Abu-Jamal’s friend and defense team liaison, Dr. Johanna Fernandez; and Michael Shiffmann described photographer Pedro Polakoff''s photographs which, among other things, documents the absence of cab driver Robert Chobert from the crime scene.
The evidence that justice was not done in Mumia’s case and that federal law was violated is overwhelming. Will Judge Clemons of the CCP listen to it and do the right thing?
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has welcomed 100 new police officers to the ranks.
The new officers were sworn in at an attestation ceremony at Droylsden Academy on Monday 22 January 2018.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling and the Mayor of Tameside, Councillor Joyce Bowerman attended the legally binding event.
Friends and family were also invited to watch as each of the officers took the oath to uphold the officer of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality. More than 200 friends and family members attended the event.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
BBC impartiality was challenged today by several hundred Pro Palestine protesters who gathered outside the Birmingham studios located in the Mailbox. Several speakers highlighted the disproportionality of coverage and just days after 4 Palestinian children were bombed on a beach in Gaza.
The protesters held an impromptu march to a scheduled Stop the War meeting. When it became clear that the Council House could not accomodate the number of protesters wishing to attend a sound system was hastily put together and a mass public meeting was held in the city's Chamberlain Square.
A Metropolitan Police Constable salutes the re elected Prime Minister with an immaculate salute, shortest way up, shortest way down.
The main thing to remember with this picture is that all police officers, salutes included, would be expected to be completely impartial. I would guarantee that this officer would have reacted in the same manner if a Prime Minister of a different 'flavour' had been elected.
Allegiance was always/is to the Monarch.
During my service I always dealt with events with the 'impartial' word always in the forefront of my mind whatever the occasion.
The Police Constable would be attached to Cannon Row Police Station (Alpha Delta) the Headquarters of the Metropolitan Police's 'A' or Whitehall Division that formed part of the world famous Scotland Yard designed by the acclaimed Scottish architect Norman Shaw in 1898.
Cannon Row Police Station handled all of the major ceremonial occasions in the Capital from 1902 plus the many large demonstrations that took place most weeks on Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, Parliament Square and Downing Street.
As well as the above, the station was responsible for the protection of the Monarch and the Royal Family when resident at Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, Holyrood House (Scotland), Balmoral Castle, (Scotland), Castle of Mey (Scotland), Birkhall House (Scotland), Windsor Castle (Berkshire), Royal Lodge, (Berkshire).
The station also had huge policing responsibilities for the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament).
For more about Cannon Row Police Station click on the links below.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has welcomed 113 new police officers to the ranks.
The new recruits were sworn in at an attestation ceremony at Bolton Town Hall last night, Tuesday 24 October 2017.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, Police and Magistrate Peter Rogerson were in attendance at the legally binding event.
Family and friends of the new officers watched on proudly as each of them made an oath to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
... another knicker gripping clip from....
Free King Naresuan Movie Show Makes Thais Happy
The Nation
17th June 2014
BANGKOK - A survey by Thai Researchers in Community Happiness Association found that 93.7 per cent of respondents were happy to have watched latest King Naresuan movie.
The survey was carried out on Sunday and Monday among 424 randomly picked people in Bangkok. The free show was provided by 160 theatres nationwide on Sunday.
Up to 98.2 per cent of the respondents said they were proud in the leadership of King Naresuan and 98.1 per cent said they were proud to be born Thais.
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Here's a link to a guidelines document, by the professional research watchdog ESOMAR, regarding "Opinion Polls and Democracy."
wapor.org/pdf/ESOMAR_Codes&Guidelines_OpinionPolling_...
Political Polls and Democracy
Public opinion is a critical force in shaping and transforming society. Properly conducted and disseminated survey research gives the general public an opportunity for its voice to be heard. Through opinion research the public, politicians, the media and other interested groups have access to accurate measures of public attitudes and intentions.
“Scientific” polling is among the most successful political developments of the last century. Public opinion polls help guide policy by giving decision-makers impartial information about what the public wants. Polls also alert the public to their own hopes, desires and political goals. They are mirrors, permitting individuals to understand where they fit into the political system. Media reports of the results of opinion polls tell readers and listeners that their opinions are important, and can even sometimes be more important than the opinions of the elite.
The democratic urge towards participation and the journalistic desire to ask questions have merged to create the extensive media polling of the last 70 years. Imagine a political system where the public is told what it thinks by its political leaders, where election winners have the ability to tell voters why they voted the way they did and where the government, when it looks for public input, asks only its friends what the public thinks. The alternative to properly conducted polls is a public and a government exposed only to unscientific and probably inaccurate assertions about what people believe, in many cases presented by partisan individuals or organizations with a political agenda.
ESOMAR is the global professional authority on research best practice.
James Gordon - Chief Constable of Ross & Cromarty Constabulary from 1888 to 1898
We start off the bio this officer by quoting the enitre text of a "Police Review" article, undoubtedly largely written by himself as was usually the case back then in the regular feature on Chief Officers.
THE CHIEF CONSTABLE OF ROSS AND CROMARTYSHIRE
MR. JAMES GORDON, Chief Constable of Ross and Cromartyshire, is a native of Strathspey, Morayshire.
He joined the Ross-shire Constabulary on the 15th May, 1858, shortly after the passing of the Police (Scotland) Act, 1857. He was then a mere “beardless loon,” as the Scotch say, barely 20 years of age.
At that time Ross-shire was, to the dwellers in those parts, almost an unknown country, railway communication not having penetrated even into Inverness-shire.
For two years after entering the service his pay was only 15s. per week. He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant two and a half years after he joined, this step being given him partly on account of his being instrumental in breaking-up a notorious gang of night-poachers.
On one occasion he succeeded, with the assistance of some gamekeepers, in securing six out of a gang of ten of them who were out during the night deer-poaching with blackened faces and jackets turned inside out, armed with guns and bludgeons. After their apprehension, he marched them into the county town, their disguises causing much interest and amusement to the townsfolk.
Two years afterwards, a vacancy in the office of Inspector occurring in the Eastern Division of the County, Mr. Gordon was selected for the post, which he filled with great satisfaction for the long period of upwards of 20 years.
During that time the County advanced by leaps and bounds. The Highland Railway passed through it from Inverness-shire, on the one side, to Sutherlandshire on the other.
These were stirring times; the navvies invaded the county in strong force, and they had to be dealt with judiciously but firmly. Mr. Gordon had much to do with them from the time they entered the County until they passed through its entire length, a distance of upwards of 50 miles.
In 1867 the Chief-Constableship of the County fell vacant. Mr. Gordon was a candidate, but he was unsuccessful. Territorial influence was then all-powerful in the County, and the son of a tenant of one of the principal landed proprietors was appointed.
Early in the eighties, the Crofter agitation sprang into existence in some of the northern counties, and Ross-shire got badly smitten with it. The island of Lewis in that county, the largest and most thickly populated of any in the outer Hebrides, having a population of over 28,000, was infected with the agitation in every district, the result being that much opposition was shown to the constituted authorities.
The Force of Police then in the island was about a dozen men, in charge of a Superintendent stationed at Stornoway. It was at that time considered necessary, in the interests of the Police Service, that a change should be made with regard to the Officer in charge at Stornoway, and Inspr. Gordon was chosen by the Police Committee.
Strenuous efforts were made by the people of the eastern Ross district to retain his services, and an influential deputation was sent to confer with the Lord Lieutenant, then Chairman of the Police Committee, on the subject. The deputation were informed that a good man was specially required for the island of Lewis, and the unanimous choice of the Committee had fallen on Mr. Gordon.
He knew something of the arduous work in store for him, and was not by any means in favour of the promotion, preferring to remain as Inspector amidst the beautiful dales and fertile lands of Eastern Ross (known as “The Garden of Ross-shire”), than to go to that far west island of the sea, with its trackless wastes and wild, rugged coast, as Superintendent; but it was finally determined that he would have to go.
The people of the district where he had been stationed so long determined to give him a memento to mark the esteem in which he was held, and presented him with a valuable gold watch and chain, a purse of sovereigns, as well as a suite of jewellery for Mrs. Gordon. He was also presented with an elegant drawing room timepiece by the Good Templars and other Temperance bodies in Tain.
Mr. Gordon is almost a lifelong abstainer, and has always taken a prominent part in temperance work in his locality.
Soon after his appointment at Stornoway matters became pretty lively in connection with the Crofter agitation.
Several attempts were made to take forceful possession of land, the then well-known “deer raid” took place in the park, deer forest and lochs, and matters culminated some time afterwards in the equally well-known “Aignish riots,” when a body of upwards of 700 men entered upon the farm of Aignish, and cleared it of the whole stock from one end to the other, with a view to parcelling out the farm amongst them, and settling down upon it.
About this time matters assumed such a threatening aspect in the island, that the County had to ask for Police assistance from other Counties, Renfrewshire, Aberdeenshire and Sutherlandshire being requisitioned for drafts of Police, which were readily granted.
The War Office also granted military assistance; two or three of Her Majesty’s ships for a time were stationed in Stornoway Bay, and cruising around the coast.
At length the Authorities received private information that a raid upon an extensive scale was to be made upon the farm of Aignish, and Supt. Gordon with 14 men proceeded there before daybreak, and were in concealment at the farmsteading, a detachment of Royal Marines (landed from one of the ships in the bay) being also held in readiness.
Early in the day a great mob was observed entering upon the north side of the farm, and spreading out along the whole breadth of it, swept the entire stock of sheep and cattle before them. At this stage an attempt was made by the Sheriff, who was on the ground, to read the Riot Act, but the mob gave no heed to him, nor would they stop to listen, but swept along past him.
The Police and Military then showed themselves, and following the mob up, made prisoners of some of the ringleaders. As they did so the Marines surrounded them for fear of an attempt at a rescue.
Ultimately 12 prisoners were taken. The mob then became infuriated, and stones and other missiles were freely thrown amongst the Police and Military.
In this position the two parties held their ground for nearly two hours, the Police and soldiers with their prisoners in the centre, and the howling mob in front of them.
It was only when a detachment of the Royal Scots, who were at another farm some miles off, were brought up, that it was deemed advisable to proceed to Stornoway with the prisoners; and when this was done, the attack with stones was renewed with greater violence, the Police being made the special objects of it, and several of them getting badly hurt. Mr. Gordon was struck several times, one large stone, which struck him between the shoulders, bringing him to his knees.
After a long tramp, Stornoway was at length reached, and the prisoners were safely lodged in gaol, but a Military guard had to be placed around it, as there were threats of forcing the prison gates and rescuing the prisoners.
This caused the authorities to consider the necessity of having them removed to the County prison at Dingwall, which was ultimately done, they being quietly marched out of the prison yard during the night, placed on board Her Majesty’s ship Jackal, and in charge of Supt. Gordon and several Constables, taken 75 miles by sea to Strome Ferry, thence about 60 miles by train to Dingwall.
The men were, in due time, tried at the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, and after a trial extending over three days, were all convicted and sentenced to terms of from nine to fifteen months’ imprisonment, which sentences, no doubt, did much to put a stop to the lawlessness then rampant over the greater part of the north and west Highlands.
The prisoners were tried in batches of three at a time, a fresh jury being empanelled for each trio. Mr. Gordon was the principal witness in all the cases, and at the conclusion was complimented by the present Lord Justice Clerk (who was then Lord Advocate for Scotland, and who acted as Crown Prosecutor) for the clear and impartial way in which he gave his evidence.
About this time a vacancy again occurred in the Chief Constableship of the County, and Mr. Gordon’s name having been brought prominently before the public in connection with the disturbances, he was considered the most capable man for the position.
There were a number of applications for the appointment, several being from military men. At the meeting of the Police Committee it was determined, in the first place, to confine the appointment to men in the Police Service having previous Police experience, and ultimately, Mr. Gordon was chosen unanimously.
He had, therefore, to wait for the appointment upwards of 20 years from the time he made his first application. He is now 57 years of age, 6ft. 2in. in height and has had over 36 years’ service.
When the Volunteer movement was first started in the country, the then Chief Constable of Ross-shire (the late Mr. Cumming) was favourable to it, and realising that in such an extensive and scattered county as Ross-shire this was the best way for the Police acquiring some knowledge of drill, wherever there were Volunteer companies near they were allowed to attend drills, so long as it did not interfere with their other duties.
Mr. Gordon was in this way connected with the Volunteers for upwards of 20 years, and held the rank of Colour Sergeant when he retired. He was one of the crack shots of his company, and has several medals and other valuable trophies that he won from time to time, and which he prizes very highly.
Although he is on the retired list, he is entitled to the long service Volunteer medal, which he expects to obtain shortly.
The strength of the Ross-shire Force is about 50 of all ranks. They are a stalwart body of men, and the average height is 5 ft. 11½ in.
(he Police Review and Parade Gossip,22 March 1895, pp. 139ff)
------
Chief Constable James Gordon's long and distinguished service came to an end in 1898, when he was succeeded on 21st July by 37-year-old Malcolm Macaulay of the Inverness-shire Constabulary.
Mr Gordon's wife Barbara (a native of Tain) died at home in Dingwall on 16th October 1898, the death being both certified and registered by their son Dr John Gordon MBCM.
Mr Gordon, whose failing health had brought about his retirement, died at the family home in Dingwall, on 26th May 1902, aged 64.
(Many thanks to a member of Mr Gordon's family for supplying much of this information)
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has welcomed 100 new police officers to the ranks.
Corin Willans, 23, from Ashton, follows in footsteps of her father, grandfather and great uncle in joining the police force.
Before joining Greater Manchester Police, Corin spent three years volunteering with the Victim Support and Witness Service in Wigan. Here, Corin helped provide local people with confidential support in dealing with the effects of crime.
At same time Corin also volunteered in the Wigan Youth Zone, helping young people with opportunities to learn new skills and achieve their potential.
Corin then worked in the HM Prison Service providing operational support. Duties included checking in and supervising visitors and helping with building and property searches.
Speaking on what motivated Corin to join the force, she said: “From a young age I would listen my dad, granddad and great uncle talk about what had happened during their shifts, who they had arrested, who they helped. I knew from then that I wanted to join the Force and help people just like them.
Corin continued: “My volunteering experience and role at the prison have provided me with a range of skills, which will be a great benefit to me in my future role as a police officer.
“Combined with the police training we are all receiving, I feel confident in approaching difficult situations, especially with those which require a level of sensitivity. My past youth work will also help in dealing with our young people in the community, on how to be approachable and build a level of mutual trust.
“I know there will be challenges ahead, but with the support from my fellow officers, I’m really looking forward to helping our communities.”
The new recruits were sworn in at an attestation ceremony at Harrop Fold School last night, 14 June 2017 in the presence of Chief Constable Ian Hopkins and Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling and over 200 guests.
Magistrates Mike Phillips and Stephen Paine were in attendance to witness the swearing of the oath.
Family and friends of the new officers watched on proudly as each of them made an oath to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
Practicing with makeup and trying new outfits while traveling. I arrived at the resort on the weekend before the week-long conference and had the weekend to practice. I took many photos that weekend, and surprisingly most of them turned out very well, so there are 38 (out of 61) photos in this series! (Photo selection was done by two impartial reviewers.)
This is the business outfit. (I was 'into' the color fuchsia at the time.) I did not wear this outfit out at the resort because I thought it was too dressy for a weekend look. Turns out there was a business woman convention at the resort that weekend and I would have fit right in!
Central wholesale markets, established by local governments under the Wholesale Market Law, sell fresh foods indispensable to out daily life such as fish, vegetables, fruit, meat and flowers. It is difficult to store perishable foods for a long period as the spoil easily. In addition, the production of perishables is greatly affected by natural conditions such as the weather, so the price is subject to greater fluctuation than other goods. So the wholesale market, standing between producers and consumers, promotes the smooth distribution of perishables and contributes to stabilization of diet through the fair and speedy transactions between wholesalers and jobbers in the clean and functional facilities.
Role The Central Wholesale Market Law of 1923 has laid the foundation of the wholesale market system in Japan. The Law was revised in 1971 and the present Wholesale Market Law was newly promulgated to cope with the succeeding social changes.
The present system of wholesale market in Japan has two features: (1) Local governments found and manage their central wholesale markets. (2) Prices are fixed on the basis of auction regardless of volume of transaction. This is an unique system around the world; the law restricts transactions in the markets to maintain impartiality.
Before central wholesale markets were established, although auction had been held partially in vegetable markets, most prices had been negotiated in secret between sellers and buyers. It sometimes caused unfair transactions and placed producers and consumers under disadvantages.
The principle of public auction established by the Central Wholesale Market Law had a marked effect on distribution of perishable foods: fair prices and proper transactions are ensured. Thus, thanks to the central wholesale market, producers and consumers have become able to supply or consume perishable foods without anxiety.
A young Preston player bowled over in an attempt on goal but lawfully under the rules of the game. Field Hockey can be dangerous but the risks are kept to a minimum by two umpires .
Of course at local league level, the standard of umpiring can vary quite a bit and as a rule each side provides an umpire . In higer league and national and international games more experienced , better qualified and very carefully vetted umpires control the games.
As with football the most popular team game in the UK ( hockey is the second most popular in terms of numbers who participate actively) the arbitrqators who uphold the rules have a vital but increasingly difficult role to play.
It is of course far easier for fans and spectators and indeed players to criticise and often be abusive to referees and umpires than simply accept the decision and get on with the game. Some of this criticism is fueled by passion and frustration but much of it is "denial."
In field hockey both umpires use a fix set of signals so that each of them knows what decision they have given and so do the players and most umpires i watch also briefly explain / justify their decision to the player / players whom the decision goes against.
I've been watching hockey and shooting it for maybe five years now and still haven't mastered what are a quite complex set of rules. In fact, i know , that , in lower leagues, many of the players do not know the minuteae of the official rules and thus contest genuine , correct and impartial decisions made.
The nightmare for many arbitrators oif team games is when they are unsighted and an infringement occurs. They can only make their best call and players really ough to accept them and get on with the game. In virtually all such scenarios that I have witnessed through the lens , the disdavantage to a penalised team by difficult decisons they find hard to accept is much less than the disadvantage they bring on themselves in terms of losing the plot, losing focus and indeed making their side vulnerable defensively where the opposition quickly get on with it whilst their opponents are bickering about a decision.
Mosy recently, whilst in Bolton after the game, back at the clubhouse , I had the pleasure / priveledge to meet a world class FIH field hockey umpire , a charismatic Canadian called Keeley Dunn. She is in the UK on secondment for six months . Keeley is extremely articulate and passionate about her vocation , for that is what umpiring seemed to be for her and I found her to be most direct and completly honest. From that conversation I learned a great deal about the game from an umpire's perspective and the way top class field hockey umpires get accredited and are monitored to ensure the highest standards and to ensure impartiality.
Hence for example, FIH umpires are elected to cover national and international games but , as I understood it , are merely renumerated for travel , accommodation and get a modest allowance for food. They are not paid. When I retorted that they ought to be , she replied that , in some cases where that had happened , mentioning no countries here of course , this had led to corruption and that of course is detrimental to the game and the integrity of officials , which in my view should never be in question.
I guess you need knowledge, experience, courage and a lot of self confidence to umpire such games. Keeley has a website / blog and is a member of Flickr. One of her most recent entries is an honest and at times moving account of why she sought secondment in the UK and how that has helped her in her goal to be one of the best. My guess is that she has got there and that is just on a chance meeting.
In that account (of what was a crisis of confidence that led her to these shores) she speaks of one of those enlighteningmoments , a few words in the right palxce that triggered a theraputic re-think. It was mainly the simpel advice to be in the right palce at the right time during a game.
this shot from the Preston Bolton match is illustrative of how that advice applies to my trade as well. I am becoming increasingly more ruthless in deleting shots friom all the one's I take at games and I was in two minds about this one but couldn't bring myself to bin it. In many ways covering fast moving team games through the lens it is a bit of a lottery , with players and sometimes umpires moving into the shot and you get shots like this.
still can't look back and live by the 'what if ?' mantra! Can't wait to shoot the game tommorow night. so excited that I haven't gone to bed yet. Andrew just sent a message by gmail that he had finsihed packing and was off to sleep. He has to get a taxi at four a.m. to Manchester airport this morning. I am taking a bus from Eccles to the airport in Liverpool at around 3 in rthe afternoon . It will be a push to get to the stadium at least 30 minutes before the game starts but fingers crossed I'll get there a little bit earlier .
BTW Keely's Flickjr is here
And check out her blog here
Her account on her blog of that crisis ,as mentioned above, is a recommended read it is witty , has irony and full of what self-effacing charm touched with a steely determination to be who she is.
On Dec. 13, 2011 at 6 p.m., the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Fairfax County constitutional officers, and the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District directors all took their oath of office in the Government Center forum.
Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jan L. Brodie administered the oath of office to 15 elected officials, who each swore to support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the commonwealth of Virginia, and to faithfully and impartially discharge all the duties incumbent upon them as officials of Fairfax County.
All elected officials will take office on Jan. 1, 2012.
More information:
Central wholesale markets, established by local governments under the Wholesale Market Law, sell fresh foods indispensable to out daily life such as fish, vegetables, fruit, meat and flowers. It is difficult to store perishable foods for a long period as the spoil easily. In addition, the production of perishables is greatly affected by natural conditions such as the weather, so the price is subject to greater fluctuation than other goods. So the wholesale market, standing between producers and consumers, promotes the smooth distribution of perishables and contributes to stabilization of diet through the fair and speedy transactions between wholesalers and jobbers in the clean and functional facilities.
Role The Central Wholesale Market Law of 1923 has laid the foundation of the wholesale market system in Japan. The Law was revised in 1971 and the present Wholesale Market Law was newly promulgated to cope with the succeeding social changes.
The present system of wholesale market in Japan has two features: (1) Local governments found and manage their central wholesale markets. (2) Prices are fixed on the basis of auction regardless of volume of transaction. This is an unique system around the world; the law restricts transactions in the markets to maintain impartiality.
Before central wholesale markets were established, although auction had been held partially in vegetable markets, most prices had been negotiated in secret between sellers and buyers. It sometimes caused unfair transactions and placed producers and consumers under disadvantages.
The principle of public auction established by the Central Wholesale Market Law had a marked effect on distribution of perishable foods: fair prices and proper transactions are ensured. Thus, thanks to the central wholesale market, producers and consumers have become able to supply or consume perishable foods without anxiety.
L’impartial jeudi 14 août 211 page 39
DES THILLIERS A GUIRY
UNE EXPOSITION GRANDEUR NATURE … ET EPHEMERE. Les jours passent et la fin du ‘’Land-art Viking’’ approche. Profitez de ce mois d’août pour aller vous promener du côté de la route départementale 6014. Vous y verrez de drôles de balles de paille revêtues de draps aux couleurs Vikings, évoquant les fameux drakkars. Une initiative de l’association ‘’Le pommier’’, qui a voulu prendre part au 1100 anniversaire d’une manière originale.
Get Smart and save money.
True blue toddler Thomas Bannister scored a winner at an event to help people in Knowsley save money on their fuel bills.
The three year old pulled the winning raffle ticket at an Energy Smart event in Kirkby and won a football signed by all the players from his beloved, Everton.
Lucky Thomas was with his aunty Alison McNally at the event in St Chad’s Parade, which dealt with how to cut the cost of heating and lighting your home.
There was information on what heating benefits people might be entitled to and how to use energy savings to stay out of debt. There were also give-aways and goodie bags.
“The warmer weather can be a good time to do the sort of work on your house that might help you save heat in the winter,” said Cllr David Lonergan, Knowsley’s cabinet member for regeneration, economy and skills.
“Many people could be entitled to extra cash help to insulate their homes or they might be eligible to go on to a lower tariff for their bills.
“It’s not just people who are retired or on low incomes that struggle with rising fuel bills - it’s a challenge for everyone and that’s why this event was open to all.
“There are simple things that everyone can do to, such as switching off lights and switching down radiator thermostats, but we also wanted to make people aware of how to eat well when the weather changes and what benefits they can get to help with fuel bills.”
Hundreds of people came along to talk to experts from the council’s Housing team and Health and Wellbeing service, Knowsley’s Unemployed Centre, the Citizens Advice Bureau, Age Concern, Merseytravel and pensioners groups.
If you would like to know more about how to reduce your energy bills or to make your finances go further in general call Kate Fisher, the Financial Inclusion Manager in Knowsley’s Financial Inclusion Team on 443 4779.
For specific energy saving advice and helpful hints call Sally Carter in the Energy Team on 443 2216.
You can contact your local Energy Saving Trust advice centre for free and impartial advice on all aspects of saving energy on 0800 512 012.
Alter ego clothing will give the hold that twists need to shape them and support them. A nice steel-boned corset will be made of a twofold layered surface and have in any event 12 steel bones running impartially all through it. To know more visit here: www.instagram.com/aeclothing
This gentleman in stripes is Marshal's friend from Preferred in Cleveland, so we are not impartial to this hole's perfomance.
Bearing Witness in the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal
SAT, MARCH 11, 2023 2-4PM
First United Methodist Church of Germantown, Philadelphia
Evidence of Abu-Jamal’s innocence was illegally withheld by prosecutors at his trial and subsequent appeals
Will Judge Lucretia Clemons have the impartiality and independence to make a decision that reckons with the long history of racism in Philadelphia?
The case of Black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, falsely convicted in 1982 of the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner the year before is now back in court. Newly discovered evidence, previously withheld by prosecutors, a clear violation of law, makes it clear that Abu-Jamal should be freed or given a new trial. Abu-Jamal has endured over 40 years of wrongful imprisonment and almost three decades on death row.
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge, Lucretia Clemons, is expected to rule by March 16, 2023, on whether newly-found documents pointing to Abu-Jamal’s innocence are worthy of an evidentiary hearing where they can be properly reviewed and examined.
The court is reviewing three sets of documents that the prosecution withheld from Abu-Jamal’s attorneys for more than 36 years: 1) Handwritten notes by prosecutor Joe McGill that show that he tracked the race of potential jurors during the jury selection process; 2) A handwritten letter by star witness, Robert Chobert, in which he asks prosecutor Joe McGill for money “owed” him, an indication that Chobert’s testimony was bribed, and 3) A series of memoranda between prosecutors and officers of the judicial system in and outside of the state of Pennsylvania, indicating that the prosecutor’s other main witness, Cynthia White, was also bribed. Just months after her testimony at Abu-Jamal’s trial, all of White’s pending prostitution charges were suddenly dismissed.
Failure to release Robert Chobert’s letter and the series of memoranda between the prosecutor and numerous officers of the court across state lines is a flagrant violation of the 1963 landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Brady v. Maryland. Brady established that prosecutors MUST turn over to defense attorneys, all potential evidence pointing to a defendant’s innocence.
Prosecutors in District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office who are currently litigating Abu-Jamal’s case today are arguing, against all reason, that Robert Chobert’s letter demanding money owed to him as well as all the memoranda seeking favorable treatment for Cynthia White are not “materially important” and that, therefore, the Brady claim is not merited in Abu-Jamal’s case. They argue that Abu-Jamal would have been convicted with or without the testimony of these witnesses.
1
But the other “evidence” used to convict Abu-Jamal mainly consisted of a made-up confession allegedly heard by police and their claim that Abu-Jamal’s gun was found next to him at the scene, but which police failed to test to prove it had been fired. The alleged confession was “remembered” two to three months after the fact by police, among them one who wrote in his report about Abu-Jamal the night of the shooting, “the negro male made no comment.” Both claims were made by the very same police officers who beat Abu-Jamal brutally, within an inch of his life, shouting “Kill the Black motherfucker, beat the shit out of the Black motherfucker,” and lied on the stand about having properly handled the crime scene, while in fact the police did the opposite.
DA Larry Krasner’s office is, thereby upholding the perjured testimonies and theory of the case put forth by the same homicidally violent police officers whose behavior, according to an investigation of the Philadelphia Police by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1979, “shocks the conscience.”
The narrative of what happened on the night that Office Faulkner was killed promoted by Larry Krasner’s office and the racist Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is false.
In fact, the original prosecutor in the case had to bribe the testimonies of key witnesses, Chobert and White, because they did not see what happened that night, as long-standing evidence shows. The newly discovered evidence is “material” because the original trial court heavily relied on their bribed testimony to convict Abu-Jamal. If jurors would have known that Chobert and White were, respectively, paid and relieved of prison time in exchange for their testimonies, the jury would have doubted the prosecutor’s theory of the case. And the fact that this new evidence of bribery was withheld for almost four decades by Philadelphia prosecutors requires throwing Abu-Jamal’s conviction out, or at the very least, holding an evidentiary hearing.
Before a crowd of well over 150 people, in addition to livestream watch parties in the US and overseas, our event brought together eminent scholars, experts, and activists who bore witness to constitutional violations in a case that is emblematic of how the prosecutor’s office operates and disfigures the lives of Black people, their families, and communities in Philadelphia. Participants included Cornel West, who testified to the cruel and inhumane nature of death row’s solitary confinement and death by incarceration; recently retired Arkansas state judge, Rev. Wendell Griffin, who addressed Brady; professor and social critic, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill; Abu-Jamal’s friend and defense team liaison, Dr. Johanna Fernandez; and Michael Shiffmann described photographer Pedro Polakoff''s photographs which, among other things, documents the absence of cab driver Robert Chobert from the crime scene.
The evidence that justice was not done in Mumia’s case and that federal law was violated is overwhelming. Will Judge Clemons of the CCP listen to it and do the right thing?
Dalian, China, April 2008
I'm not sure how much coverage, if any, the Chinese protests (both in China and overseas), against their perceived bias in Western media are actually getting in the Western media.
The protesters are hypocritical, but also accurate. The anti-China bias in much of Western media is very real, just as the pro-China bias in Chinese media is very real. Some of the bias on either side is politically motivated, but much of it is just geographical and cultural. I suspect many of the Chinese frustrations are shared by the majority of urban news-reading citizens in the Developing World (and thus the majority of urban news-reading citizens in THE WORLD...) regardless of their poltical system.
As a general rule, I distrust any foreign article which refers to China's "Communist government" without irony, or to China as "the totalitarian police state" - the writer clearly hasn't ever been here - and likewise I skip past any article written by a Chinese that refers to "the Western Culture" - as if we are all one coherent "Western" nationality who all speak English.
Thankfully there are sites like EastSouthWestNorth, a one-man operation run independently and impartially out of Hong Kong, which compiles and translates online news and blog content about China, from both inside and outside of the country, into both English and Chinese.
Central wholesale markets, established by local governments under the Wholesale Market Law, sell fresh foods indispensable to out daily life such as fish, vegetables, fruit, meat and flowers. It is difficult to store perishable foods for a long period as the spoil easily. In addition, the production of perishables is greatly affected by natural conditions such as the weather, so the price is subject to greater fluctuation than other goods. So the wholesale market, standing between producers and consumers, promotes the smooth distribution of perishables and contributes to stabilization of diet through the fair and speedy transactions between wholesalers and jobbers in the clean and functional facilities.
Role The Central Wholesale Market Law of 1923 has laid the foundation of the wholesale market system in Japan. The Law was revised in 1971 and the present Wholesale Market Law was newly promulgated to cope with the succeeding social changes.
The present system of wholesale market in Japan has two features: (1) Local governments found and manage their central wholesale markets. (2) Prices are fixed on the basis of auction regardless of volume of transaction. This is an unique system around the world; the law restricts transactions in the markets to maintain impartiality.
Before central wholesale markets were established, although auction had been held partially in vegetable markets, most prices had been negotiated in secret between sellers and buyers. It sometimes caused unfair transactions and placed producers and consumers under disadvantages.
The principle of public auction established by the Central Wholesale Market Law had a marked effect on distribution of perishable foods: fair prices and proper transactions are ensured. Thus, thanks to the central wholesale market, producers and consumers have become able to supply or consume perishable foods without anxiety.
08 August 2012- Deputy UN Special Envoy for Afghanistan Nicholas Haysom visited Kunduz where he engaged the Governor, Mohammad Anwar Jegdalak, and well other groups on political and security concerns in that province.
Of primary concern was the Security Transition, the Afghan Peace and Reintegration Program and the coming election.
“The biggest challenges facing Afghanistan now is how it is going to experience the transition both the security transition and the political transition,” said Mr. Haysom in his meeting with Kunduz elders.
“If the election goes badly it seems to us, it may provoke the crises,” said Mr. Haysom
Haji Aman Utmanzai, a member of High Peace Council, believes the UN can play an impartial vital role in these processes.
“The UN is our hope and we have a lot of expectations from the UN,” Utmanzai added.
At these meetings officials expressed some of their ideas for and anxieties about Afghanistan’s future.
“Afghans is capable of the securing their country if the terrorists entering from other countries can be stopped,” said Governor Jegdalak.
Ms, Muslima Waliji, a member of Kunduz Provincial Peace Committee, raised a concern of women regarding the possibility that Afghan women might lose some of their hard-won gains after 2014.
“We want the UN to continue supporting Women and not to stop advocating for them,” said Ms. Waliji.
Asadulla Omerkhil the chairman of Kunduz Provincial Peace Committee said that the the international community should stay true to their promise to defeat Al-Qaeda and terrorism and should not leave Afghanistan too early.
Photo: Shamsuddin Hamedi / UNAMA
Central wholesale markets, established by local governments under the Wholesale Market Law, sell fresh foods indispensable to out daily life such as fish, vegetables, fruit, meat and flowers. It is difficult to store perishable foods for a long period as the spoil easily. In addition, the production of perishables is greatly affected by natural conditions such as the weather, so the price is subject to greater fluctuation than other goods. So the wholesale market, standing between producers and consumers, promotes the smooth distribution of perishables and contributes to stabilization of diet through the fair and speedy transactions between wholesalers and jobbers in the clean and functional facilities.
Role The Central Wholesale Market Law of 1923 has laid the foundation of the wholesale market system in Japan. The Law was revised in 1971 and the present Wholesale Market Law was newly promulgated to cope with the succeeding social changes.
The present system of wholesale market in Japan has two features: (1) Local governments found and manage their central wholesale markets. (2) Prices are fixed on the basis of auction regardless of volume of transaction. This is an unique system around the world; the law restricts transactions in the markets to maintain impartiality.
Before central wholesale markets were established, although auction had been held partially in vegetable markets, most prices had been negotiated in secret between sellers and buyers. It sometimes caused unfair transactions and placed producers and consumers under disadvantages.
The principle of public auction established by the Central Wholesale Market Law had a marked effect on distribution of perishable foods: fair prices and proper transactions are ensured. Thus, thanks to the central wholesale market, producers and consumers have become able to supply or consume perishable foods without anxiety.
Bearing Witness in the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal
SAT, MARCH 11, 2023 2-4PM
First United Methodist Church of Germantown, Philadelphia
Evidence of Abu-Jamal’s innocence was illegally withheld by prosecutors at his trial and subsequent appeals
Will Judge Lucretia Clemons have the impartiality and independence to make a decision that reckons with the long history of racism in Philadelphia?
The case of Black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, falsely convicted in 1982 of the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner the year before is now back in court. Newly discovered evidence, previously withheld by prosecutors, a clear violation of law, makes it clear that Abu-Jamal should be freed or given a new trial. Abu-Jamal has endured over 40 years of wrongful imprisonment and almost three decades on death row.
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge, Lucretia Clemons, is expected to rule by March 16, 2023, on whether newly-found documents pointing to Abu-Jamal’s innocence are worthy of an evidentiary hearing where they can be properly reviewed and examined.
The court is reviewing three sets of documents that the prosecution withheld from Abu-Jamal’s attorneys for more than 36 years: 1) Handwritten notes by prosecutor Joe McGill that show that he tracked the race of potential jurors during the jury selection process; 2) A handwritten letter by star witness, Robert Chobert, in which he asks prosecutor Joe McGill for money “owed” him, an indication that Chobert’s testimony was bribed, and 3) A series of memoranda between prosecutors and officers of the judicial system in and outside of the state of Pennsylvania, indicating that the prosecutor’s other main witness, Cynthia White, was also bribed. Just months after her testimony at Abu-Jamal’s trial, all of White’s pending prostitution charges were suddenly dismissed.
Failure to release Robert Chobert’s letter and the series of memoranda between the prosecutor and numerous officers of the court across state lines is a flagrant violation of the 1963 landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Brady v. Maryland. Brady established that prosecutors MUST turn over to defense attorneys, all potential evidence pointing to a defendant’s innocence.
Prosecutors in District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office who are currently litigating Abu-Jamal’s case today are arguing, against all reason, that Robert Chobert’s letter demanding money owed to him as well as all the memoranda seeking favorable treatment for Cynthia White are not “materially important” and that, therefore, the Brady claim is not merited in Abu-Jamal’s case. They argue that Abu-Jamal would have been convicted with or without the testimony of these witnesses.
1
But the other “evidence” used to convict Abu-Jamal mainly consisted of a made-up confession allegedly heard by police and their claim that Abu-Jamal’s gun was found next to him at the scene, but which police failed to test to prove it had been fired. The alleged confession was “remembered” two to three months after the fact by police, among them one who wrote in his report about Abu-Jamal the night of the shooting, “the negro male made no comment.” Both claims were made by the very same police officers who beat Abu-Jamal brutally, within an inch of his life, shouting “Kill the Black motherfucker, beat the shit out of the Black motherfucker,” and lied on the stand about having properly handled the crime scene, while in fact the police did the opposite.
DA Larry Krasner’s office is, thereby upholding the perjured testimonies and theory of the case put forth by the same homicidally violent police officers whose behavior, according to an investigation of the Philadelphia Police by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1979, “shocks the conscience.”
The narrative of what happened on the night that Office Faulkner was killed promoted by Larry Krasner’s office and the racist Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is false.
In fact, the original prosecutor in the case had to bribe the testimonies of key witnesses, Chobert and White, because they did not see what happened that night, as long-standing evidence shows. The newly discovered evidence is “material” because the original trial court heavily relied on their bribed testimony to convict Abu-Jamal. If jurors would have known that Chobert and White were, respectively, paid and relieved of prison time in exchange for their testimonies, the jury would have doubted the prosecutor’s theory of the case. And the fact that this new evidence of bribery was withheld for almost four decades by Philadelphia prosecutors requires throwing Abu-Jamal’s conviction out, or at the very least, holding an evidentiary hearing.
Before a crowd of well over 150 people, in addition to livestream watch parties in the US and overseas, our event brought together eminent scholars, experts, and activists who bore witness to constitutional violations in a case that is emblematic of how the prosecutor’s office operates and disfigures the lives of Black people, their families, and communities in Philadelphia. Participants included Cornel West, who testified to the cruel and inhumane nature of death row’s solitary confinement and death by incarceration; recently retired Arkansas state judge, Rev. Wendell Griffin, who addressed Brady; professor and social critic, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill; Abu-Jamal’s friend and defense team liaison, Dr. Johanna Fernandez; and Michael Shiffmann described photographer Pedro Polakoff''s photographs which, among other things, documents the absence of cab driver Robert Chobert from the crime scene.
The evidence that justice was not done in Mumia’s case and that federal law was violated is overwhelming. Will Judge Clemons of the CCP listen to it and do the right thing?
I took this in December 1988 at the I.M. Pei-designed Dallas City Hall in protest of Judge Jack Hampton's sentencing of a man who murdered two gay men. Here's the story (from republicoft.com):
John Lloyd Griffin & Tommy Lee Trimble, two gay men, were shot and killed in Dallas, TX, on May 15, 1988, by teenagers seeking to “pester the homosexuals.” One of their killers, Richard Lee Bednarski later received a 30 year sentence from a judge who said leniency was in order because Bednarski had killed two homosexuals.
The Background
On May 15, 1988, Bednarski and a group of his friends set out on to harass homosexuals. Witnesses said that nine boys, including Trimble, were standing on a streetcorner in the Oak Lawn section of Dallas, when Griffin and Trimble drove up and invited the boys into their car. There was no evidence presented at trial that the Griffin and Trimble solicited sex from their attackers. Bednarski was said to have persuaded one more friend from his group to get into the car.
The Attack
After the car reached Reverchon Park, a witness said Bednarski ordered Trimble and Griffin to remove their clothes. When they refused, Bednarski withdrew a pistol and immediately began firing. Trimble died immediately. Griffin died five days later.
The Aftermath
Sentencing
On December 17, 1988, The Dallas Morning News reported that judge Jack Hampton sentenced Bednarski to 30 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of murder, a charge that carried the possibility of a life sentence. Judge Hampton, in an interview after the sentencing hearing said he gave Bednarski a lenient sentence because the victims were homosexuals who wouldn’t have been killed “if they hadn’t been cruising the streets picking up teenage boys.”
Hampton added that he might have given Bednarski a harsher sentence if he had killed “a couple of housewives out shopping, not hurting anybody.”
Hampton went on to say, “I put prostitutes and gays at about the same level, and I’d be hard pressed to give someone life for killing a prostitute.” Hampton added that in making his sentencing decision he also considered that Bednarski had no criminal record, was attending college, and was raised in a good home by a father who is a police officer.
The prosecutor asked for a life sentence and the defense asked for a five year sentence after the jury found Bednarski guilty. Texas law at the time allowed the defendant to decide whether the jury or the judge would set the sentence. Bednarski opted to have Judge Hampton decide his sentence, believing that the judge would be more sympathetic than the jury.
Bednarski would be eligible for parole in 7 1/2 years. In a television interview, when asked his opinion about Hampton’s statement, said “That is his own opinion. I don’t happen to agree with it.
In response to the outraged response of gay activists and community organizations to his ruling, Hampton told The Times-Herald, “Just spell my name right. If it makes anybody mad, they’ll forget by 1990.” Hampton was due to face re-election in 1990.
On December 20, 1988, about 200 people took part in a rally outside the Dallas County Courthouse, calling for Hampton’s ouster.
Hampton Censured
In December 1989, the Texas Civil Liberties Union, the Texas Human Rights Foundation, the National Lawyers Guild, and the Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby of Texas filed a complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct concerning Hampton’s comments.
On Novemver 29, 1989, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct censured Hampton. The Commission said that Hampton’s remarks violatd the judicial code prohibiting comment on a pending case and requiring judges to promote confidence in the judiciary. The censure order read:
“The commission finds that Judge Hampton’s comments, per se, were destructive of public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary. The hostility and distrust generated by this judge’s irresponsible statements created an additional burden for the entire judiciary.”
Hampton Defeated
In December 1994, Judge Hampton narrowly lost an appeals court election to Judge Barbara Rosenberg, a Democrat. Rosenberg campaigned on a fairness theme, and referred to Hampton’s earlier censure in her television ads.
Europe Trip 2010 - Day 13
January 5, 2010
The Royal Courts of Justice, commonly called the Law Courts, is the building in London which houses the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. Courts within the building are open to the public although there may be some restrictions depending upon the nature of the cases being heard. The building is a large grey stone edifice in the Victorian Gothic style and was designed by George Edmund Street, a solicitor turned architect. It was built in the 1870s. The Royal Courts of Justice were opened by Queen Victoria in December 1882. It is on The Strand, in the City of Westminster, near the border with the City of London (Temple Bar) and the London Borough of Camden. It is surrounded by the four Inns of Court andLondon School of Economics. The nearest tube stations are Chancery Lane and Temple.
Those who do not have legal representation may receive some assistance within the court building. There is a Citizens Advice Bureau based within the Main Hall, which provides free, confidential, and impartial advice by appointment to anyone who is a litigant in person in the courts. There is also a Personal Support Unit where litigants in person can get emotional support and practical information about what happens in court.
The Central Criminal Court, popularly known as the Old Bailey, is situated about half a mile to the East. It has no other connection with the Royal Courts of Justice.
Central wholesale markets, established by local governments under the Wholesale Market Law, sell fresh foods indispensable to out daily life such as fish, vegetables, fruit, meat and flowers. It is difficult to store perishable foods for a long period as the spoil easily. In addition, the production of perishables is greatly affected by natural conditions such as the weather, so the price is subject to greater fluctuation than other goods. So the wholesale market, standing between producers and consumers, promotes the smooth distribution of perishables and contributes to stabilization of diet through the fair and speedy transactions between wholesalers and jobbers in the clean and functional facilities.
Role The Central Wholesale Market Law of 1923 has laid the foundation of the wholesale market system in Japan. The Law was revised in 1971 and the present Wholesale Market Law was newly promulgated to cope with the succeeding social changes.
The present system of wholesale market in Japan has two features: (1) Local governments found and manage their central wholesale markets. (2) Prices are fixed on the basis of auction regardless of volume of transaction. This is an unique system around the world; the law restricts transactions in the markets to maintain impartiality.
Before central wholesale markets were established, although auction had been held partially in vegetable markets, most prices had been negotiated in secret between sellers and buyers. It sometimes caused unfair transactions and placed producers and consumers under disadvantages.
The principle of public auction established by the Central Wholesale Market Law had a marked effect on distribution of perishable foods: fair prices and proper transactions are ensured. Thus, thanks to the central wholesale market, producers and consumers have become able to supply or consume perishable foods without anxiety.
Newcastle Through the Ages
Art In Newcastle City Centre, Tyne And Wear
A mural depicting history and noteworthy people and places of Newcastle Upon Tyne.
If you wish to mix a bit of shopping and culture, the wall of Primark (Formerly BHS and C & A) on Northumberland Road may tick both boxes.
Newcastle Through the Ages was installed in 1974 and made from Ciment fondu, which is French as they patented it in 1908. To us, in Blighty, it is Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) or to those in the trade 'dust'.
In this mural, you can see the use of small mosaic tiles, just like the Romans did.
The artists are Henry (1910 to 1994) and Joyce (1912 to 2004) Collins. They hail from Colchester in Essex which is where I had lived for 14 years before moving to the North East. I saw much of their work without knowing and seems to feature strongly in town centres on shop walls or subways.
They met at Colchester Arts School in 1932, married in 1938, and formed a lifelong partnership creating over 60 pioneering projects across the UK. They have been quoted as saying
“We aim to put something together which adds dignity to a building and tells a story"
Let's have a look at some of the depictions.
Pons Aelius was the Roman name for the fort in this area before it became known as Newcastle Upon Tyne. It translates from Latin where 'Pons' means bridge, and 'Aelius' refers to Emperor Hadrian, whose family name (clan name) was Aelius (thank you Wikipedia).
It is suggested that there was a Roman bridge near where the Swing Bridge is.
The head of Hadrian is depicted on the wall and has been copied from a Roman coin.
Monkchester was the name Newcastle went by after the Romans left and may have Anglo-Saxon origins. The name suggests a place for monks.
The God I assume is Neptune and is linked with Oceanus. They are both Roman Gods of the sea and freshwater. Oceanus's trademark was an anchor while Neptune had a trident. There are Roman altars in The Great North Museum, Newcastle which were found in the River Tyne in 1872 when constructing the Swing Bridge.
Are you wondering why there are two Gods of the sea and freshwater? Well, Neptune apparently belonged to the younger dynasty of gods and Oceanus to the older dynasty.
You have on the mural three castles which dates to Norman times. There is also a seahorse depicted and both feature on Newcastle's coat of arms.
Sailing ships used to transport coal and the date suggests they were in use from 1704 to 1880.
Jupiter and Fotuna are shown together. They were a father and his firstborn daughter in Roman times. Jupiter was the top god and was considered a king. He personified oaths, treaties, and leagues (such as marriage). He is a sky deity and the equivalent of Zeus in Greek Mythology.
He is holding a sceptre in his right hand as all kings would. In his left hand is the thunderbolt as he controls the weather and what looks like a spade which could be Mr and Mrs Collins' interpretation for a farming reference. Those of you who have heard of Gustav Holst's orchestral suite 'The Planets' will know Jupiter as the 'bringer of jollity', and the music to the Hymn 'I vow to Thee My Country'.
Fortuna was initially a goddess of fertility, hence shown holding a cornucopia (Horn Of Plenty) in her left hand. She also had the badge for chance, luck, and prosperity. It only seems logical to then become the goddess of gambling.
In her right hand could be a blindfold to depict impartiality. There have been dedications to her found along Hadrian's Wall. Also, a crudely carved relief was found in the River Tyne.
There are many familiar people and places depicted.
1815 was the invention of the Davy Safety Lamp.
1887 was the start of the National Glass Company (NGC).
1865 was when St Nicholas Cathedral was built.
1838 was when the Greys Monument was erected.
Green Stokoe was another of Newcastle's architects.
1837 was when The Theatre Royal opened.
Britannia symbolised Britain's maritime power, and her image was featured prominently.
Thomas Bewick was a wood engraver a natural history writer.
Turbinia was the first steam turbine-powered steamship. Built in 1894 as an experimental vessel. It was the fastest ship in the world at the time. Charles Algernon Parsons (1854 to 1931) was the inventor of the modern steam turbine (Wikipedia) there is plenty of information about this at the Discovery Museum
The Armstrong Whitworth company produced in 1906 a 150 tonne hydraulic luffing crane. What made it special was that it could lift 150 tonnes with accuracy. Used in ship building and repair, it is commonly known as a hammerhead crane.
Newcastle trades are represented with a steel worker and a miner. Unfortunately both industries are now defunct.
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle is a cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the River Tyne's northern bank, opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.
Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius, the settlement became known as Monkchester before taking on the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose. It was one of the world's largest ship building and repair centres during the industrial revolution. Newcastle was part of the county of Northumberland until 1400, when it separated and formed a county of itself. In 1974, Newcastle became part of Tyne and Wear. Since 2018, the city council has been part of the North of Tyne Combined Authority.
The history of Newcastle upon Tyne dates back almost 2,000 years, during which it has been controlled by the Romans, the Angles and the Norsemen amongst others. Newcastle upon Tyne was originally known by its Roman name Pons Aelius. The name "Newcastle" has been used since the Norman conquest of England. Due to its prime location on the River Tyne, the town developed greatly during the Middle Ages and it was to play a major role in the Industrial Revolution, being granted city status in 1882. Today, the city is a major retail, commercial and cultural centre.
Roman settlement
The history of Newcastle dates from AD 122, when the Romans built the first bridge to cross the River Tyne at that point. The bridge was called Pons Aelius or 'Bridge of Aelius', Aelius being the family name of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was responsible for the Roman wall built across northern England along the Tyne–Solway gap. Hadrian's Wall ran through present-day Newcastle, with stretches of wall and turrets visible along the West Road, and at a temple in Benwell. Traces of a milecastle were found on Westgate Road, midway between Clayton Street and Grainger Street, and it is likely that the course of the wall corresponded to present-day Westgate Road. The course of the wall can be traced eastwards to the Segedunum Roman fort at Wallsend, with the fort of Arbeia down-river at the mouth of the Tyne, on the south bank in what is now South Shields. The Tyne was then a wider, shallower river at this point and it is thought that the bridge was probably about 700 feet (210 m) long, made of wood and supported on stone piers. It is probable that it was sited near the current Swing Bridge, due to the fact that Roman artefacts were found there during the building of the latter bridge. Hadrian himself probably visited the site in 122. A shrine was set up on the completed bridge in 123 by the 6th Legion, with two altars to Neptune and Oceanus respectively. The two altars were subsequently found in the river and are on display in the Great North Museum in Newcastle.
The Romans built a stone-walled fort in 150 to protect the river crossing which was at the foot of the Tyne Gorge, and this took the name of the bridge so that the whole settlement was known as Pons Aelius. The fort was situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the new bridge, on the site of the present Castle Keep. Pons Aelius is last mentioned in 400, in a Roman document listing all of the Roman military outposts. It is likely that nestling in the shadow of the fort would have been a small vicus, or village. Unfortunately, no buildings have been detected; only a few pieces of flagging. It is clear that there was a Roman cemetery near Clavering Place, behind the Central station, as a number of Roman coffins and sarcophagi have been unearthed there.
Despite the presence of the bridge, the settlement of Pons Aelius was not particularly important among the northern Roman settlements. The most important stations were those on the highway of Dere Street running from Eboracum (York) through Corstopitum (Corbridge) and to the lands north of the Wall. Corstopitum, being a major arsenal and supply centre, was much larger and more populous than Pons Aelius.
Anglo-Saxon development
The Angles arrived in the North-East of England in about 500 and may have landed on the Tyne. There is no evidence of an Anglo-Saxon settlement on or near the site of Pons Aelius during the Anglo-Saxon age. The bridge probably survived and there may well have been a small village at the northern end, but no evidence survives. At that time the region was dominated by two kingdoms, Bernicia, north of the Tees and ruled from Bamburgh, and Deira, south of the Tees and ruled from York. Bernicia and Deira combined to form the kingdom of Northanhymbra (Northumbria) early in the 7th century. There were three local kings who held the title of Bretwalda – 'Lord of Britain', Edwin of Deira (627–632), Oswald of Bernicia (633–641) and Oswy of Northumbria (641–658). The 7th century became known as the 'Golden Age of Northumbria', when the area was a beacon of culture and learning in Europe. The greatness of this period was based on its generally Christian culture and resulted in the Lindisfarne Gospels amongst other treasures. The Tyne valley was dotted with monasteries, with those at Monkwearmouth, Hexham and Jarrow being the most famous. Bede, who was based at Jarrow, wrote of a royal estate, known as Ad Murum, 'at the Wall', 12 miles (19 km) from the sea. It is thought that this estate may have been in what is now Newcastle. At some unknown time, the site of Newcastle came to be known as Monkchester. The reason for this title is unknown, as we are unaware of any specific monasteries at the site, and Bede made no reference to it. In 875 Halfdan Ragnarsson, the Danish Viking conqueror of York, led an army that attacked and pillaged various monasteries in the area, and it is thought that Monkchester was also pillaged at this time. Little more was heard of it until the coming of the Normans.
Norman period
After the arrival of William the Conqueror in England in 1066, the whole of England was quickly subjected to Norman rule. However, in Northumbria there was great resistance to the Normans, and in 1069 the newly appointed Norman Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Comines and 700 of his men were killed by the local population at Durham. The Northumbrians then marched on York, but William was able to suppress the uprising. That same year, a second uprising occurred when a Danish fleet landed in the Humber. The Northumbrians again attacked York and destroyed the garrison there. William was again able to suppress the uprising, but this time he took revenge. He laid waste to the whole of the Midlands and the land from York to the Tees. In 1080, William Walcher, the Norman bishop of Durham and his followers were brutally murdered at Gateshead. This time Odo, bishop of Bayeux, William's half brother, devastated the land between the Tees and the Tweed. This was known as the 'Harrying of the North'. This devastation is reflected in the Domesday Book. The destruction had such an effect that the North remained poor and backward at least until Tudor times and perhaps until the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle suffered in this respect with the rest of the North.
In 1080 William sent his eldest son, Robert Curthose, north to defend the kingdom against the Scots. After his campaign, he moved to Monkchester and began the building of a 'New Castle'. This was of the "motte-and-bailey" type of construction, a wooden tower on top of an earthen mound (motte), surrounded by a moat and wooden stockade (bailey). It was this castle that gave Newcastle its name. In 1095 the Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, rose up against the king, William Rufus, and Rufus sent an army north to recapture the castle. From then on the castle became crown property and was an important base from which the king could control the northern barons. The Northumbrian earldom was abolished and a Sheriff of Northumberland was appointed to administer the region. In 1091 the parish church of St Nicholas was consecrated on the site of the present Anglican cathedral, close by the bailey of the new castle. The church is believed to have been a wooden building on stone footings.
Not a trace of the tower or mound of the motte and bailey castle remains now. Henry II replaced it with a rectangular stone keep, which was built between 1172 and 1177 at a cost of £1,444. A stone bailey, in the form of a triangle, replaced the previous wooden one. The great outer gateway to the castle, called 'the Black Gate', was built later, between 1247 and 1250, in the reign of Henry III. There were at that time no town walls and when attacked by the Scots, the townspeople had to crowd into the bailey for safety. It is probable that the new castle acted as a magnet for local merchants because of the safety it provided. This in turn would help to expand trade in the town. At this time wool, skins and lead were being exported, whilst alum, pepper and ginger were being imported from France and Flanders.
Middle Ages
Throughout the Middle Ages, Newcastle was England's northern fortress, the centre for assembled armies. The Border war against Scotland lasted intermittently for several centuries – possibly the longest border war ever waged. During the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, David 1st of Scotland and his son were granted Cumbria and Northumberland respectively, so that for a period from 1139 to 1157, Newcastle was effectively in Scottish hands. It is believed that during this period, King David may have built the church of St Andrew and the Benedictine nunnery in Newcastle. However, King Stephen's successor, Henry II was strong enough to take back the Earldom of Northumbria from Malcolm IV.
The Scots king William the Lion was imprisoned in Newcastle, in 1174, after being captured at the Battle of Alnwick. Edward I brought the Stone of Scone and William Wallace south through the town and Newcastle was successfully defended against the Scots three times during the 14th century.
Around 1200, stone-faced, clay-filled jetties were starting to project into the river, an indication that trade was increasing in Newcastle. As the Roman roads continued to deteriorate, sea travel was gaining in importance. By 1275 Newcastle was the sixth largest wool exporting port in England. The principal exports at this time were wool, timber, coal, millstones, dairy produce, fish, salt and hides. Much of the developing trade was with the Baltic countries and Germany. Most of the Newcastle merchants were situated near the river, below the Castle. The earliest known charter was dated 1175 in the reign of Henry II, giving the townspeople some control over their town. In 1216 King John granted Newcastle a mayor[8] and also allowed the formation of guilds (known as Mysteries). These were cartels formed within different trades, which restricted trade to guild members. There were initially twelve guilds. Coal was being exported from Newcastle by 1250, and by 1350 the burgesses received a royal licence to export coal. This licence to export coal was jealously guarded by the Newcastle burgesses, and they tried to prevent any one else on the Tyne from exporting coal except through Newcastle. The burgesses similarly tried to prevent fish from being sold anywhere else on the Tyne except Newcastle. This led to conflicts with Gateshead and South Shields.
In 1265, the town was granted permission to impose a 'Wall Tax' or Murage, to pay for the construction of a fortified wall to enclose the town and protect it from Scottish invaders. The town walls were not completed until early in the 14th century. They were two miles (3 km) long, 9 feet (2.7 m) thick and 25 feet (7.6 m) high. They had six main gates, as well as some smaller gates, and had 17 towers. The land within the walls was divided almost equally by the Lort Burn, which flowed southwards and joined the Tyne to the east of the Castle. The town began to expand north of the Castle and west of the Lort Burn with various markets being set up within the walls.
In 1400 Henry IV granted a new charter, creating a County corporate which separated the town, but not the Castle, from the county of Northumberland and recognised it as a "county of itself" with a right to have a sheriff of its own. The burgesses were now allowed to choose six aldermen who, with the mayor would be justices of the peace. The mayor and sheriff were allowed to hold borough courts in the Guildhall.
Religious houses
During the Middle Ages a number of religious houses were established within the walls: the first of these was the Benedictine nunnery of St Bartholomew founded in 1086 near the present-day Nun Street. Both David I of Scotland and Henry I of England were benefactors of the religious house. Nothing of the nunnery remains now.
The friary of Blackfriars, Newcastle (Dominican) was established in 1239. These were also known as the Preaching Friars or Shod Friars, because they wore sandals, as opposed to other orders. The friary was situated in the present-day Friars Street. In 1280 the order was granted royal permission to make a postern in the town walls to communicate with their gardens outside the walls. On 19 June 1334, Edward Balliol, claimant to be King of Scotland, did homage to King Edward III, on behalf of the kingdom of Scotland, in the church of the friary. Much of the original buildings of the friary still exist, mainly because, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries the friary of Blackfriars was rented out by the corporation to nine of the local trade guilds.
The friary of Whitefriars (Carmelite) was established in 1262. The order was originally housed on the Wall Knoll in Pandon, but in 1307 it took over the buildings of another order, which went out of existence, the Friars of the Sac. The land, which had originally been given by Robert the Bruce, was situated in the present-day Hanover Square, behind the Central station. Nothing of the friary remains now.
The friary of Austinfriars (Augustinian) was established in 1290. The friary was on the site where the Holy Jesus Hospital was built in 1682. The friary was traditionally the lodging place of English kings whenever they visited or passed through Newcastle. In 1503 Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII of England, stayed two days at the friary on her way to join her new husband James IV of Scotland.
The friary of Greyfriars (Franciscans) was established in 1274. The friary was in the present-day area between Pilgrim Street, Grey Street, Market Street and High Chare. Nothing of the original buildings remains.
The friary of the Order of the Holy Trinity, also known as the Trinitarians, was established in 1360. The order devoted a third of its income to buying back captives of the Saracens, during the Crusades. Their house was on the Wall Knoll, in Pandon, to the east of the city, but within the walls. Wall Knoll had previously been occupied by the White Friars until they moved to new premises in 1307.
All of the above religious houses were closed in about 1540, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.
An important street running through Newcastle at the time was Pilgrim Street, running northwards inside the walls and leading to the Pilgrim Gate on the north wall. The street still exists today as arguably Newcastle's main shopping street.
Tudor period
The Scottish border wars continued for much of the 16th century, so that during that time, Newcastle was often threatened with invasion by the Scots, but also remained important as a border stronghold against them.
During the Reformation begun by Henry VIII in 1536, the five Newcastle friaries and the single nunnery were dissolved and the land was sold to the Corporation and to rich merchants. At this time there were fewer than 60 inmates of the religious houses in Newcastle. The convent of Blackfriars was leased to nine craft guilds to be used as their headquarters. This probably explains why it is the only one of the religious houses whose building survives to the present day. The priories at Tynemouth and Durham were also dissolved, thus ending the long-running rivalry between Newcastle and the church for control of trade on the Tyne. A little later, the property of the nunnery of St Bartholomew and of Grey Friars were bought by Robert Anderson, who had the buildings demolished to build his grand Newe House (also known as Anderson Place).
With the gradual decline of the Scottish border wars the town walls were allowed to decline as well as the castle. By 1547, about 10,000 people were living in Newcastle. At the beginning of the 16th century exports of wool from Newcastle were more than twice the value of exports of coal, but during the century coal exports continued to increase.
Under Edward VI, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, sponsored an act allowing Newcastle to annexe Gateshead as its suburb. The main reason for this was to allow the Newcastle Hostmen, who controlled the export of Tyne coal, to get their hands on the Gateshead coal mines, previously controlled by the Bishop of Durham. However, when Mary I came to power, Dudley met his downfall and the decision was reversed. The Reformation allowed private access to coal mines previously owned by Tynemouth and Durham priories and as a result coal exports increase dramatically, from 15,000 tons in 1500 to 35,000 tons in 1565, and to 400,000 tons in 1625.
The plague visited Newcastle four times during the 16th century, in 1579 when 2,000 people died, in 1589 when 1700 died, in 1595 and finally in 1597.
In 1600 Elizabeth I granted Newcastle a charter for an exclusive body of electors, the right to elect the mayor and burgesses. The charter also gave the Hostmen exclusive rights to load coal at any point on the Tyne. The Hostmen developed as an exclusive group within the Merchant Adventurers who had been incorporated by a charter in 1547.
Stuart period
In 1636 there was a serious outbreak of bubonic plague in Newcastle. There had been several previous outbreaks of the disease over the years, but this was the most serious. It is thought to have arrived from the Netherlands via ships that were trading between the Tyne and that country. It first appeared in the lower part of the town near the docks but gradually spread to all parts of the town. As the disease gained hold the authorities took measures to control it by boarding up any properties that contained infected persons, meaning that whole families were locked up together with the infected family members. Other infected persons were put in huts outside the town walls and left to die. Plague pits were dug next to the town's four churches and outside the town walls to receive the bodies in mass burials. Over the course of the outbreak 5,631 deaths were recorded out of an estimated population of 12,000, a death rate of 47%.
In 1637 Charles I tried to raise money by doubling the 'voluntary' tax on coal in return for allowing the Newcastle Hostmen to regulate production and fix prices. This caused outrage amongst the London importers and the East Anglian shippers. Both groups decided to boycott Tyne coal and as a result forced Charles to reverse his decision in 1638.
In 1640 during the Second Bishops' War, the Scots successfully invaded Newcastle. The occupying army demanded £850 per day from the Corporation to billet the Scottish troops. Trade from the Tyne ground to a halt during the occupation. The Scots left in 1641 after receiving a Parliamentary pardon and a £4,000,000 loan from the town.
In 1642 the English Civil War began. King Charles realised the value of the Tyne coal trade and therefore garrisoned Newcastle. A Royalist was appointed as governor. At that time, Newcastle and King's Lynn were the only important seaports to support the crown. In 1644 Parliament blockaded the Tyne to prevent the king from receiving revenue from the Tyne coal trade. Coal exports fell from 450,000 to 3,000 tons and London suffered a hard winter without fuel. Parliament encouraged the coal trade from the Wear to try to replace that lost from Newcastle but that was not enough to make up for the lost Tyneside tonnage.
In 1644 the Scots crossed the border. Newcastle strengthened its defences in preparation. The Scottish army, with 40,000 troops, besieged Newcastle for three months until the garrison of 1,500 surrendered. During the siege, the Scots bombarded the walls with their artillery, situated in Gateshead and Castle Leazes. The Scottish commander threatened to destroy the steeple of St Nicholas's Church by gunfire if the mayor, Sir John Marley, did not surrender the town. The mayor responded by placing Scottish prisoners that they had captured in the steeple, so saving it from destruction. The town walls were finally breached by a combination of artillery and sapping. In gratitude for this defence, Charles gave Newcastle the motto 'Fortiter Defendit Triumphans' to be added to its coat of arms. The Scottish army occupied Northumberland and Durham for two years. The coal taxes had to pay for the Scottish occupation. In 1645 Charles surrendered to the Scots and was imprisoned in Newcastle for nine months. After the Civil War the coal trade on the Tyne soon picked up and exceeded its pre-war levels.
A new Guildhall was completed on the Sandhill next to the river in 1655, replacing an earlier facility damaged by fire in 1639, and became the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council. In 1681 the Hospital of the Holy Jesus was built partly on the site of the Austin Friars. The Guildhall and Holy Jesus Hospital still exist.
Charles II tried to impose a charter on Newcastle to give the king the right to appoint the mayor, sheriff, recorder and town clerk. Charles died before the charter came into effect. In 1685, James II tried to replace Corporation members with named Catholics. However, James' mandate was suspended in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution welcoming William of Orange. In 1689, after the fall of James II, the people of Newcastle tore down his bronze equestrian statue in Sandhill and tossed it into the Tyne. The bronze was later used to make bells for All Saints Church.
In 1689 the Lort Burn was covered over. At this time it was an open sewer. The channel followed by the Lort Burn became the present day Dean Street. At that time, the centre of Newcastle was still the Sandhill area, with many merchants living along the Close or on the Side. The path of the main road through Newcastle ran from the single Tyne bridge, through Sandhill to the Side, a narrow street which climbed steeply on the north-east side of the castle hill until it reached the higher ground alongside St Nicholas' Church. As Newcastle developed, the Side became lined with buildings with projecting upper stories, so that the main street through Newcastle was a narrow, congested, steep thoroughfare.
In 1701 the Keelmen's Hospital was built in the Sandgate area of the city, using funds provided by the keelmen. The building still stands today.
Eighteenth century
In the 18th century, Newcastle was the country's largest print centre after London, Oxford and Cambridge, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of 1793, with its erudite debates and large stock of books in several languages predated the London Library by half a century.
In 1715, during the Jacobite rising in favour of the Old Pretender, an army of Jacobite supporters marched on Newcastle. Many of the Northumbrian gentry joined the rebels. The citizens prepared for its arrival by arresting Jacobite supporters and accepting 700 extra recruits into the local militia. The gates of the city were closed against the rebels. This proved enough to delay an attack until reinforcements arrived forcing the rebel army to move across to the west coast. The rebels finally surrendered at Preston.
In 1745, during a second Jacobite rising in favour of the Young Pretender, a Scottish army crossed the border led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. Once again Newcastle prepared by arresting Jacobite supporters and inducting 800 volunteers into the local militia. The town walls were strengthened, most of the gates were blocked up and some 200 cannon were deployed. 20,000 regulars were billeted on the Town Moor. These preparations were enough to force the rebel army to travel south via the west coast. They were eventually defeated at Culloden in 1746.
Newcastle's actions during the 1715 rising in resisting the rebels and declaring for George I, in contrast to the rest of the region, is the most likely source of the nickname 'Geordie', applied to people from Tyneside, or more accurately Newcastle. Another theory, however, is that the name 'Geordie' came from the inventor of the Geordie lamp, George Stephenson. It was a type of safety lamp used in mining, but was not invented until 1815. Apparently the term 'German Geordie' was in common use during the 18th century.
The city's first hospital, Newcastle Infirmary opened in 1753; it was funded by public subscription. A lying-in hospital was established in Newcastle in 1760. The city's first public hospital for mentally ill patients, Wardens Close Lunatic Hospital was opened in October 1767.
In 1771 a flood swept away much of the bridge at Newcastle. The bridge had been built in 1250 and repaired after a flood in 1339. The bridge supported various houses and three towers and an old chapel. A blue stone was placed in the middle of the bridge to mark the boundary between Newcastle and the Palatinate of Durham. A temporary wooden bridge had to be built, and this remained in use until 1781, when a new stone bridge was completed. The new bridge consisted of nine arches. In 1801, because of the pressure of traffic, the bridge had to be widened.
A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Fenham Barracks in 1806. The facilities at the Castle for holding assizes, which had been condemned for their inconvenience and unhealthiness, were replaced when the Moot Hall opened in August 1812.
Victorian period
Present-day Newcastle owes much of its architecture to the work of the builder Richard Grainger, aided by architects John Dobson, Thomas Oliver, John and Benjamin Green and others. In 1834 Grainger won a competition to produce a new plan for central Newcastle. He put this plan into effect using the above architects as well as architects employed in his own office. Grainger and Oliver had already built Leazes Terrace, Leazes Crescent and Leazes Place between 1829 and 1834. Grainger and Dobson had also built the Royal Arcade at the foot of Pilgrim Street between 1830 and 1832. The most ambitious project covered 12 acres 12 acres (49,000 m2) in central Newcastle, on the site of Newe House (also called Anderson Place). Grainger built three new thoroughfares, Grey Street, Grainger Street and Clayton Street with many connecting streets, as well as the Central Exchange and the Grainger Market. John Wardle and George Walker, working in Grainger's office, designed Clayton Street, Grainger Street and most of Grey Street. Dobson designed the Grainger Market and much of the east side of Grey Street. John and Benjamin Green designed the Theatre Royal at the top of Grey Street, where Grainger placed the column of Grey's Monument as a focus for the whole scheme. Grey Street is considered to be one of the finest streets in the country, with its elegant curve. Unfortunately most of old Eldon Square was demolished in the 1960s in the name of progress. The Royal Arcade met a similar fate.
In 1849 a new bridge was built across the river at Newcastle. This was the High Level Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson, and slightly up river from the existing bridge. The bridge was designed to carry road and rail traffic across the Tyne Gorge on two decks with rail traffic on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower. The new bridge meant that traffic could pass through Newcastle without having to negotiate the steep, narrow Side, as had been necessary for centuries. The bridge was opened by Queen Victoria, who one year later opened the new Central Station, designed by John Dobson. Trains were now able to cross the river, directly into the centre of Newcastle and carry on up to Scotland. The Army Riding School was also completed in 1849.
In 1854 a large fire started on the Gateshead quayside and an explosion caused it to spread across the river to the Newcastle quayside. A huge conflagration amongst the narrow alleys, or 'chares', destroyed the homes of 800 families as well as many business premises. The narrow alleys that had been destroyed were replaced by streets containing blocks of modern offices.
In 1863 the Town Hall in St Nicholas Square replaced the Guildhall as the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council.
In 1876 the low level bridge was replaced by a new bridge known as the Swing Bridge, so called because the bridge was able to swing horizontally on a central axis and allow ships to pass on either side. This meant that for the first time sizeable ships could pass up-river beyond Newcastle. The bridge was built and paid for by William Armstrong, a local arms manufacturer, who needed to have warships access his Elswick arms factory to fit armaments to them. The Swing Bridge's rotating mechanism is adapted from the cannon mounts developed in Armstrong's arms works. In 1882 the Elswick works began to build ships as well as to arm them. The Barrack Road drill hall was completed in 1890.
Industrialisation
In the 19th century, shipbuilding and heavy engineering were central to the city's prosperity; and the city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle's development as a major city owed most to its central role in the production and export of coal. The phrase "taking coals to Newcastle" was first recorded in 1538; it proverbially denotes bringing a particular commodity to a place that has more than enough of it already.
Innovation in Newcastle and surrounding areas included the following:
George Stephenson developed a miner's safety lamp at the same time that Humphry Davy developed a rival design. The lamp made possible the opening up of ever deeper mines to provide the coal that powered the industrial revolution.
George and his son Robert Stephenson were hugely influential figures in the development of the early railways. George developed Blücher, a locomotive working at Killingworth colliery in 1814, whilst Robert was instrumental in the design of Rocket, a revolutionary design that was the forerunner of modern locomotives. Both men were involved in planning and building railway lines, all over this country and abroad.
Joseph Swan demonstrated a working electric light bulb about a year before Thomas Edison did the same in the USA. This led to a dispute as to who had actually invented the light bulb. Eventually the two rivals agreed to form a mutual company between them, the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company, known as Ediswan.
Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine, for marine use and for power generation. He used Turbinia, a small, turbine-powered ship, to demonstrate the speed that a steam turbine could generate. Turbinia literally ran rings around the British Fleet at a review at Spithead in 1897.
William Armstrong invented a hydraulic crane that was installed in dockyards up and down the country. He then began to design light, accurate field guns for the British army. These were a vast improvement on the existing guns that were then in use.
The following major industries developed in Newcastle or its surrounding area:
Glassmaking
A small glass industry existed in Newcastle from the mid-15th century. In 1615 restrictions were put on the use of wood for manufacturing glass. It was found that glass could be manufactured using the local coal, and so a glassmaking industry grew up on Tyneside. Huguenot glassmakers came over from France as refugees from persecution and set up glasshouses in the Skinnerburn area of Newcastle. Eventually, glass production moved to the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. In 1684 the Dagnia family, Sephardic Jewish emigrants from Altare, arrived in Newcastle from Stourbridge and established glasshouses along the Close, to manufacture high quality flint glass. The glass manufacturers used sand ballast from the boats arriving in the river as the main raw material. The glassware was then exported in collier brigs. The period from 1730 to 1785 was the highpoint of Newcastle glass manufacture, when the local glassmakers produced the 'Newcastle Light Baluster'. The glassmaking industry still exists in the west end of the city with local Artist and Glassmaker Jane Charles carrying on over four hundred years of hot glass blowing in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Locomotive manufacture
In 1823 George Stephenson and his son Robert established the world's first locomotive factory near Forth Street in Newcastle. Here they built locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as well as many others. It was here that the famous locomotive Rocket was designed and manufactured in preparation for the Rainhill Trials. Apart from building locomotives for the British market, the Newcastle works also produced locomotives for Europe and America. The Forth Street works continued to build locomotives until 1960.
Shipbuilding
In 1296 a wooden, 135 ft (41 m) long galley was constructed at the mouth of the Lort Burn in Newcastle, as part of a twenty-ship order from the king. The ship cost £205, and is the earliest record of shipbuilding in Newcastle. However the rise of the Tyne as a shipbuilding area was due to the need for collier brigs for the coal export trade. These wooden sailing ships were usually built locally, establishing local expertise in building ships. As ships changed from wood to steel, and from sail to steam, the local shipbuilding industry changed to build the new ships. Although shipbuilding was carried out up and down both sides of the river, the two main areas for building ships in Newcastle were Elswick, to the west, and Walker, to the east. By 1800 Tyneside was the third largest producer of ships in Britain. Unfortunately, after the Second World War, lack of modernisation and competition from abroad gradually caused the local industry to decline and die.
Armaments
In 1847 William Armstrong established a huge factory in Elswick, west of Newcastle. This was initially used to produce hydraulic cranes but subsequently began also to produce guns for both the army and the navy. After the Swing Bridge was built in 1876 allowing ships to pass up river, warships could have their armaments fitted alongside the Elswick works. Armstrong's company took over its industrial rival, Joseph Whitworth of Manchester in 1897.
Steam turbines
Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine and, in 1889, founded his own company C. A. Parsons and Company in Heaton, Newcastle to make steam turbines. Shortly after this, he realised that steam turbines could be used to propel ships and, in 1897, he founded a second company, Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company in Wallsend. It is there that he designed and manufactured Turbinia. Parsons turbines were initially used in warships but soon came to be used in merchant and passenger vessels, including the liner Mauretania which held the blue riband for the Atlantic crossing until 1929. Parsons' company in Heaton began to make turbo-generators for power stations and supplied power stations all over the world. The Heaton works, reduced in size, remains as part of the Siemens AG industrial giant.
Pottery
In 1762 the Maling pottery was founded in Sunderland by French Huguenots, but transferred to Newcastle in 1817. A factory was built in the Ouseburn area of the city. The factory was rebuilt twice, finally occupying a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site that was claimed to be the biggest pottery in the world and which had its own railway station. The pottery pioneered use of machines in making potteries as opposed to hand production. In the 1890s the company went up-market and employed in-house designers. The period up to the Second World War was the most profitable with a constant stream of new designs being introduced. However, after the war, production gradually declined and the company closed in 1963.
Expansion of the city
Newcastle was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835: the reformed municipal borough included the parishes of Byker, Elswick, Heaton, Jesmond, Newcastle All Saints, Newcastle St Andrew, Newcastle St John, Newcastle St Nicholas, and Westgate. The urban districts of Benwell and Fenham and Walker were added in 1904. In 1935, Newcastle gained Kenton and parts of the parishes of West Brunton, East Denton, Fawdon, Longbenton. The most recent expansion in Newcastle's boundaries took place under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974, when Newcastle became a metropolitan borough, also including the urban districts of Gosforth and Newburn, and the parishes of Brunswick, Dinnington, Hazlerigg, North Gosforth and Woolsington from the Castle Ward Rural District, and the village of Westerhope.
Meanwhile Northumberland County Council was formed under the Local Government Act 1888 and benefited from a dedicated meeting place when County Hall was completed in the Castle Garth area of Newcastle in 1910. Following the Local Government Act 1972 County Hall relocated to Morpeth in April 1981.
Twentieth century
In 1925 work began on a new high-level road bridge to span the Tyne Gorge between Newcastle and Gateshead. The capacity of the existing High-Level Bridge and Swing Bridge were being strained to the limit, and an additional bridge had been discussed for a long time. The contract was awarded to the Dorman Long Company and the bridge was finally opened by King George V in 1928. The road deck was 84 feet (26 m) above the river and was supported by a 531 feet (162 m) steel arch. The new Tyne Bridge quickly became a symbol for Newcastle and Tyneside, and remains so today.
During the Second World War, Newcastle was largely spared the horrors inflicted upon other British cities bombed during the Blitz. Although the armaments factories and shipyards along the River Tyne were targeted by the Luftwaffe, they largely escaped unscathed. Manors goods yard and railway terminal, to the east of the city centre, and the suburbs of Jesmond and Heaton suffered bombing during 1941. There were 141 deaths and 587 injuries, a relatively small figure compared to the casualties in other industrial centres of Britain.
In 1963 the city gained its own university, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, by act of parliament. A School of Medicine and Surgery had been established in Newcastle in 1834. This eventually developed into a college of medicine attached to Durham University. A college of physical science was also founded and became Armstrong College in 1904. In 1934 the two colleges merged to become King's College, Durham. This remained as part of Durham University until the new university was created in 1963. In 1992 the city gained its second university when Newcastle Polytechnic was granted university status as Northumbria University.
Newcastle City Council moved to the new Newcastle Civic Centre in 1968.
As heavy industries declined in the second half of the 20th century, large sections of the city centre were demolished along with many areas of slum housing. The leading political figure in the city during the 1960s was T. Dan Smith who oversaw a massive building programme of highrise housing estates and authorised the demolition of a quarter of the Georgian Grainger Town to make way for Eldon Square Shopping Centre. Smith's control in Newcastle collapsed when it was exposed that he had used public contracts to advantage himself and his business associates and for a time Newcastle became a byword for civic corruption as depicted in the films Get Carter and Stormy Monday and in the television series Our Friends in the North. However, much of the historic Grainger Town area survived and was, for the most part, fully restored in the late 1990s. Northumberland Street, initially the A1, was gradually closed to traffic from the 1970s and completely pedestrianised by 1998.
In 1978 a new rapid transport system, the Metro, was built, linking the Tyneside area. The system opened in August 1980. A new bridge was built to carry the Metro across the river between Gateshead and Newcastle. This was the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, commonly known as the Metro Bridge. Eventually the Metro system was extended to reach Newcastle Airport in 1991, and in 2002 the Metro system was extended to the nearby city of Sunderland.
As the 20th century progressed, trade on the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides gradually declined, until by the 1980s both sides of the river were looking rather derelict. Shipping company offices had closed along with offices of firms related to shipping. There were also derelict warehouses lining the riverbank. Local government produced a master plan to re-develop the Newcastle quayside and this was begun in the 1990s. New offices, restaurants, bars and residential accommodation were built and the area has changed in the space of a few years into a vibrant area, partially returning the focus of Newcastle to the riverside, where it was in medieval times.
The Gateshead Millennium Bridge, a foot and cycle bridge, 26 feet (7.9 m) wide and 413 feet (126 m) long, was completed in 2001. The road deck is in the form of a curve and is supported by a steel arch. To allow ships to pass, the whole structure, both arch and road-deck, rotates on huge bearings at either end so that the road deck is lifted. The bridge can be said to open and shut like a human eye. It is an important addition to the re-developed quayside area, providing a vital link between the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides.
Recent developments
Today the city is a vibrant centre for office and retail employment, but just a short distance away there are impoverished inner-city housing estates, in areas originally built to provide affordable housing for employees of the shipyards and other heavy industries that lined the River Tyne. In the 2010s Newcastle City Council began implementing plans to regenerate these depressed areas, such as those along the Ouseburn Valley.
I took this in December 1988 at Dallas City Hall in protest of Judge Jack Hampton's sentencing of a man who murdered two gay men. Here's the story (from republicoft.com):
John Lloyd Griffin & Tommy Lee Trimble, two gay men, were shot and killed in Dallas, TX, on May 15, 1988, by teenagers seeking to “pester the homosexuals.” One of their killers, Richard Lee Bednarski later received a 30 year sentence from a judge who said leniency was in order because Bednarski had killed two homosexuals.
The Background
On May 15, 1988, Bednarski and a group of his friends set out on to harass homosexuals. Witnesses said that nine boys, including Trimble, were standing on a streetcorner in the Oak Lawn section of Dallas, when Griffin and Trimble drove up and invited the boys into their car. There was no evidence presented at trial that the Griffin and Trimble solicited sex from their attackers. Bednarski was said to have persuaded one more friend from his group to get into the car.
The Attack
After the car reached Reverchon Park, a witness said Bednarski ordered Trimble and Griffin to remove their clothes. When they refused, Bednarski withdrew a pistol and immediately began firing. Trimble died immediately. Griffin died five days later.
The Aftermath
Sentencing
On December 17, 1988, The Dallas Morning News reported that judge Jack Hampton sentenced Bednarski to 30 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of murder, a charge that carried the possibility of a life sentence. Judge Hampton, in an interview after the sentencing hearing said he gave Bednarski a lenient sentence because the victims were homosexuals who wouldn’t have been killed “if they hadn’t been cruising the streets picking up teenage boys.”
Hampton added that he might have given Bednarski a harsher sentence if he had killed “a couple of housewives out shopping, not hurting anybody.”
Hampton went on to say, “I put prostitutes and gays at about the same level, and I’d be hard pressed to give someone life for killing a prostitute.” Hampton added that in making his sentencing decision he also considered that Bednarski had no criminal record, was attending college, and was raised in a good home by a father who is a police officer.
The prosecutor asked for a life sentence and the defense asked for a five year sentence after the jury found Bednarski guilty. Texas law at the time allowed the defendant to decide whether the jury or the judge would set the sentence. Bednarski opted to have Judge Hampton decide his sentence, believing that the judge would be more sympathetic than the jury.
Bednarski would be eligible for parole in 7 1/2 years. In a television interview, when asked his opinion about Hampton’s statement, said “That is his own opinion. I don’t happen to agree with it.
In response to the outraged response of gay activists and community organizations to his ruling, Hampton told The Times-Herald, “Just spell my name right. If it makes anybody mad, they’ll forget by 1990.” Hampton was due to face re-election in 1990.
On December 20, 1988, about 200 people took part in a rally outside the Dallas County Courthouse, calling for Hampton’s ouster.
Hampton Censured
In December 1989, the Texas Civil Liberties Union, the Texas Human Rights Foundation, the National Lawyers Guild, and the Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby of Texas filed a complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct concerning Hampton’s comments.
On Novemver 29, 1989, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct censured Hampton. The Commission said that Hampton’s remarks violatd the judicial code prohibiting comment on a pending case and requiring judges to promote confidence in the judiciary. The censure order read:
“The commission finds that Judge Hampton’s comments, per se, were destructive of public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary. The hostility and distrust generated by this judge’s irresponsible statements created an additional burden for the entire judiciary.”
Hampton Defeated
In December 1994, Judge Hampton narroly lost and appeals court election to Judge Barbara Rosenberg, a Democrat. Rosenberg campaigned on a fairness theme, and referred to Hampton’s earlier censure in her television ads.
Central wholesale markets, established by local governments under the Wholesale Market Law, sell fresh foods indispensable to out daily life such as fish, vegetables, fruit, meat and flowers. It is difficult to store perishable foods for a long period as the spoil easily. In addition, the production of perishables is greatly affected by natural conditions such as the weather, so the price is subject to greater fluctuation than other goods. So the wholesale market, standing between producers and consumers, promotes the smooth distribution of perishables and contributes to stabilization of diet through the fair and speedy transactions between wholesalers and jobbers in the clean and functional facilities.
Role The Central Wholesale Market Law of 1923 has laid the foundation of the wholesale market system in Japan. The Law was revised in 1971 and the present Wholesale Market Law was newly promulgated to cope with the succeeding social changes.
The present system of wholesale market in Japan has two features: (1) Local governments found and manage their central wholesale markets. (2) Prices are fixed on the basis of auction regardless of volume of transaction. This is an unique system around the world; the law restricts transactions in the markets to maintain impartiality.
Before central wholesale markets were established, although auction had been held partially in vegetable markets, most prices had been negotiated in secret between sellers and buyers. It sometimes caused unfair transactions and placed producers and consumers under disadvantages.
The principle of public auction established by the Central Wholesale Market Law had a marked effect on distribution of perishable foods: fair prices and proper transactions are ensured. Thus, thanks to the central wholesale market, producers and consumers have become able to supply or consume perishable foods without anxiety.
James 3:17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
I love the impartiality of this photograph.
Author unknown if you can help, please let me know. Thanks!
En cherchant en images par Google ces mots :
"voie verte vexin-normand "
et bien il y a des images de mon travail depuis quelques années, et bien sur, dommages, je ne suis jamais encore présenté par les sites des administrateurs du CC Vexin Normand ou commune de Guerny (ou j'habite et y travaille intensément) ou du site la Voie-Verte Gisors-Gasny, alors que j'y avait installé gratuitement une quizaine de têtes de hérissons, et la fresque de la communauté de communes du Vexin sur la façade de la gare Chateau-sur-Epte
Source: Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD)
On 25 January 2016 the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Peace Panel, in cooperation with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) and with support from the European Union Delegation to the Philippines (EU), launched a historic publication named “Journey to the Bangsamoro.”
HD has been providing extensive support to the peace process for many years now, in particular through technical advice to the parties. In this final phase of implementation, transition and normalization, HD continues to be committed to supporting the parties in achieving lasting peace in Mindanao through its role as an impartial mediator.
Read more about HD's work in the Philippines here: www.hdcentre.org/activities/philippines-mindanao/
Bearing Witness in the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal
SAT, MARCH 11, 2023 2-4PM
First United Methodist Church of Germantown, Philadelphia
Evidence of Abu-Jamal’s innocence was illegally withheld by prosecutors at his trial and subsequent appeals
Will Judge Lucretia Clemons have the impartiality and independence to make a decision that reckons with the long history of racism in Philadelphia?
The case of Black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, falsely convicted in 1982 of the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner the year before is now back in court. Newly discovered evidence, previously withheld by prosecutors, a clear violation of law, makes it clear that Abu-Jamal should be freed or given a new trial. Abu-Jamal has endured over 40 years of wrongful imprisonment and almost three decades on death row.
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge, Lucretia Clemons, is expected to rule by March 16, 2023, on whether newly-found documents pointing to Abu-Jamal’s innocence are worthy of an evidentiary hearing where they can be properly reviewed and examined.
The court is reviewing three sets of documents that the prosecution withheld from Abu-Jamal’s attorneys for more than 36 years: 1) Handwritten notes by prosecutor Joe McGill that show that he tracked the race of potential jurors during the jury selection process; 2) A handwritten letter by star witness, Robert Chobert, in which he asks prosecutor Joe McGill for money “owed” him, an indication that Chobert’s testimony was bribed, and 3) A series of memoranda between prosecutors and officers of the judicial system in and outside of the state of Pennsylvania, indicating that the prosecutor’s other main witness, Cynthia White, was also bribed. Just months after her testimony at Abu-Jamal’s trial, all of White’s pending prostitution charges were suddenly dismissed.
Failure to release Robert Chobert’s letter and the series of memoranda between the prosecutor and numerous officers of the court across state lines is a flagrant violation of the 1963 landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Brady v. Maryland. Brady established that prosecutors MUST turn over to defense attorneys, all potential evidence pointing to a defendant’s innocence.
Prosecutors in District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office who are currently litigating Abu-Jamal’s case today are arguing, against all reason, that Robert Chobert’s letter demanding money owed to him as well as all the memoranda seeking favorable treatment for Cynthia White are not “materially important” and that, therefore, the Brady claim is not merited in Abu-Jamal’s case. They argue that Abu-Jamal would have been convicted with or without the testimony of these witnesses.
1
But the other “evidence” used to convict Abu-Jamal mainly consisted of a made-up confession allegedly heard by police and their claim that Abu-Jamal’s gun was found next to him at the scene, but which police failed to test to prove it had been fired. The alleged confession was “remembered” two to three months after the fact by police, among them one who wrote in his report about Abu-Jamal the night of the shooting, “the negro male made no comment.” Both claims were made by the very same police officers who beat Abu-Jamal brutally, within an inch of his life, shouting “Kill the Black motherfucker, beat the shit out of the Black motherfucker,” and lied on the stand about having properly handled the crime scene, while in fact the police did the opposite.
DA Larry Krasner’s office is, thereby upholding the perjured testimonies and theory of the case put forth by the same homicidally violent police officers whose behavior, according to an investigation of the Philadelphia Police by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1979, “shocks the conscience.”
The narrative of what happened on the night that Office Faulkner was killed promoted by Larry Krasner’s office and the racist Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is false.
In fact, the original prosecutor in the case had to bribe the testimonies of key witnesses, Chobert and White, because they did not see what happened that night, as long-standing evidence shows. The newly discovered evidence is “material” because the original trial court heavily relied on their bribed testimony to convict Abu-Jamal. If jurors would have known that Chobert and White were, respectively, paid and relieved of prison time in exchange for their testimonies, the jury would have doubted the prosecutor’s theory of the case. And the fact that this new evidence of bribery was withheld for almost four decades by Philadelphia prosecutors requires throwing Abu-Jamal’s conviction out, or at the very least, holding an evidentiary hearing.
Before a crowd of well over 150 people, in addition to livestream watch parties in the US and overseas, our event brought together eminent scholars, experts, and activists who bore witness to constitutional violations in a case that is emblematic of how the prosecutor’s office operates and disfigures the lives of Black people, their families, and communities in Philadelphia. Participants included Cornel West, who testified to the cruel and inhumane nature of death row’s solitary confinement and death by incarceration; recently retired Arkansas state judge, Rev. Wendell Griffin, who addressed Brady; professor and social critic, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill; Abu-Jamal’s friend and defense team liaison, Dr. Johanna Fernandez; and Michael Shiffmann described photographer Pedro Polakoff''s photographs which, among other things, documents the absence of cab driver Robert Chobert from the crime scene.
The evidence that justice was not done in Mumia’s case and that federal law was violated is overwhelming. Will Judge Clemons of the CCP listen to it and do the right thing?
Article de Pierre Didier, hebdomadaire "Le démocrate Vernonnais" du 8 janvier 2014
Sauver les fleurs des champs : "le Département appelle à préserver le patrimoine naturel et notamment le bleuet sauvage.
Préserver la flore sauvage, c’est l’un des axes du plan départemental d’actions lancé en partenariat avec la Chambre
d’agriculture, le groupement des agriculteurs biologiques, le conservatoire des espaces naturels de Haute-Normandie.
« Nos fleurs des champs font en effet partie de notre patrimoine naturel, explique le président Jean Louis Destans. Or aujourd’hui dans l’Eure, près de 25 % des espèces messicoles sont portées disparues. »
Je contacte mes partenaires et le conseil général de l'Eure pour essayer de faire ensemble des coulures de fleurs des champs sur la colline d'Authevernes cette année 2014 (voir un article de l'Impartial : www.limpartial-andelys.fr/2013/06/04/authevernes-des-tube... )
Le bleuet des champs fleurit de juin à octobre....
This picture was taken at my home when I lived in New York. My mother tied a yellow ribbon around an oak tree to support a friend of the family who had gone to the Persian Gulf to fight in the war. What is really interesting about this picture is that even at age six, I remember this very moment. I remember being so proud of Duwayne and what he had done for our country. What I did not realize at that age was the political arguments surrounding the little piece of ribbon. In 1991, Yellow ribbons popped up on mailboxes, lapels, school entrances, oak trees, businesses, and many other places. When a social movement of yellow ribbons took over our nation, people claimed that the symbolism was neutral. Ribbon wearers started in support for the soldiers who had been deployed, and claimed to be impartial when it came to the war. Support the troops but not the war positions were then created to remind the country what had taken place during the Vietnam Era. People then started reading propaganda that said “Support Desert Storm, Wear a Yellow Ribbon.” So many meanings quickly started showing conflicting views of what Americans thought of the simple ribbon they displayed on their homes. Just like most social movements in this country such as the civil rights movement, the women’s rights movement, and the gay rights movement; people all have opposing views and may not always see eye to eye on issues. All of these movements in our history makes our country what it is today. We were founded in a time of rebellion from the British and conflicts continue to be apart of our history.
Pershing, Linda and Margaret Yocom. Western Folklore 55, no. 1. (1996): 41-85.
www.jstor.org/ (accessed April 2, 2007)
17th century chapel
It is placed on the wild coast, and is a jewel of our religious heritage. Thanks to the action of the association, it can be often open and very many visitors, hikers (the chapel is located on the edge of the GR 34), and tourists can thus gather there for a few moments.
The chapel is open every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., from Palm Sunday to All Saints' Day and during the Christmas holidays. Outside these periods, the chapel is open every Sunday.
This small chapel isolated on the moor a few steps from a superb coast attracts many visitors.
But it is not alone: a Gallic stele stands not far from the entrance and a fountain, visible along the coastal path, attest to the antiquity of a cult at this location. Moreover, the water from the spring is always supposed to cure rheumatism and eye diseases. This heptagonal Iron Age stele was reused as a cross stand.
Note that it bears an inscription engraved on one of the sides:
TP ST GONVEL 1757.
The spring water is captured by a fountain just before flowing into the sea. It is likely that it was Christianized by the presence of a cross long before the chapel was built.
This chapel, built in 1785, was able to replace an older one. She was traditionally the goal of a Pardon of the Sea.
The interior is very sober
Two polychrome statues dominate the altar. On the left, Saint Samson wears the episcopal mitre.
Of all the many monks who came from the British Isles in the 6th century to evangelize Brittany, Saint Samson is one of the few who are well attested by history since he signed the acts of the Council of Paris around 555.1
Originally from Wales, and pupil of Saint Ildut who gave his name to Lanildut, he would have landed in Plougasnou, in the north of Finistère, where the foundation of the monastery of Lanmeur is attributed to him. He had been ordained a bishop, without a bishopric, before coming to the continent. Appointed Bishop of Dol by King Childebert 1st, he died there around the year 565. His influence throughout Brittany was such that many localities or Breton religious buildings bear his name. It is not impossible that he came to see his friend Ildut in the Pays d'Iroise.
Two other statues catch the eye in this chapel
On the left wall, Saint Isidore, the modest Spanish plowman, represents a model of a peasant who is both hardworking and very pious.
To the right of the altar, Saint Yves is dressed as a magistrate. His gaze directed towards the litigants shows them his listening while with his raised hands, he indicates to them his impartiality 2 during his judgments.
We will also take a look at the modern stained glass windows dating from 1993. On the left, Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin, with her daughter. On the right, Saint Samson, whose bishop's crozier can be seen, heals a patient.
Ultimately, a small, modest chapel full of charm, located in an environment that is both wild and grandiose, which gives it all the qualities of a real postcard subject.
Sources: www.chapelleslandunvez.fr/
On Dec. 13, 2011 at 6 p.m., the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Fairfax County constitutional officers, and the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District directors all took their oath of office in the Government Center forum.
Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jan L. Brodie administered the oath of office to 15 elected officials, who each swore to support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the commonwealth of Virginia, and to faithfully and impartially discharge all the duties incumbent upon them as officials of Fairfax County.
All elected officials will take office on Jan. 1, 2012.
More information:
The first of two original @JeffaCubed Music + Story + Video songs that I'll be releasing, each produced exclusively on a NokiaN8 smart-device.
Minor Voltage = a newer song that I've been working on, debuting here on YouTube as a Music + Story + Video (MSV). All images (with the exception of the first + last shot of me...) were taken + edited exclusively by me on a NokiaN8 device. This NokiaN8 version of "Minor Voltage" was audio-recorded (x1 pass audio-take .: no filters/post-processing) + image-edited + video-mixed exclusively on the creative + powerful "prosumer grade" NokiaN8 smart-device, that the kind folks at @Nokia_Connects (thx Paul via London, UK) have made available to me for a few weeks of extensive testing, to be followed up by a thorough & impartial @JeffaCubed review. I was also thrilled that my @BlueMicrophones (USB Snowball microphone) was instantly recognized as a audio-recordable "headset" by the NokiaN8! The concept + lyrics of this Jeffa ∆ Cubed song are inspired by x3 individuals, now all deceased, whose work + contributions to the world I find inspiring.
Full post at > www.jeffacubed.com/2011/10/minor-voltage-jeffacubed-nokia...
The Washington Monument at Washington, DC is seen on September-25th-2020;.
The Washington Monument is an obelisk within the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and the first President of the United States (1789–1797). Located almost due east of the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial,the monument, made of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss, is both the world's tallest predominantly stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk,[A] standing 554 feet 7+11⁄32 inches (169.046 m) tall according to the U.S. National Geodetic Survey (measured 2013–14) or 555 feet 5+1⁄8 inches (169.294 m) tall, according to the National Park Service (measured 1884).[B] It is the tallest monumental column in the world if all are measured above their pedestrian entrances.[A] Overtaking the Cologne Cathedral, it was the tallest structure in the world between 1884 and 1889, after which it was overtaken by the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on
October 15, 1966.
George Washington (February 22, 1732[b] – December 14, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the 1st president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of the Continental Army, Washington led the Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War and served as the president of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which created the Constitution of the United States and the American federal government. Washington has been called the "Father of the Nation" for his manifold leadership in the formative days of the country.
Washington's first public office was serving as the official surveyor of Culpeper County, Virginia from 1749 to 1750. Subsequently, he received his initial military training (as well as a command with the Virginia Regiment) during the French and Indian War. He was later elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses and was named a delegate to the Continental Congress. Here he was appointed Commanding General of the Continental Army. With this title, he commanded American forces (allied with France) in the defeat and surrender of the British at the Siege of Yorktown during the American Revolutionary War. He resigned his commission after the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783.
Washington played an indispensable role in adopting and ratifying the Constitution of the United States. He was then twice elected president by the Electoral College unanimously. As president, he implemented a strong, well-financed national government while remaining impartial in a fierce rivalry between cabinet members Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. During the French Revolution, he proclaimed a policy of neutrality while sanctioning the Jay Treaty. He set enduring precedents for the office of president, including the title "Mr. President", and swearing the Oath of Office on the Bible. His Farewell Address is widely regarded as a pre-eminent statement on republicanism.
Washington was a slave owner who had a complicated relationship with slavery. During his lifetime he controlled a cumulative total of over 577 slaves, who were forced to work on his farms and wherever he lived, including the President's House in Philadelphia. As president, he signed laws passed by Congress that both protected and curtailed slavery. His will said that one of his slaves, William Lee, should be freed upon his death and that the other 123 slaves must work for his wife and be freed on her death. She freed them during her lifetime to remove the incentive for hastening her death.
He endeavored to assimilate Native Americans into the Anglo-American culture. However, he waged military campaigns against hostile Native American nations during the Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War. He was a member of the Anglican Church and the Freemasons, and he urged broad religious freedom in his roles as general and president. Upon his death, he was eulogized by Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee as "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen".
Washington has been memorialized by monuments, a federal holiday, various media depictions, geographical locations, including the national capital, the State of Washington, stamps, and currency, and many scholars and ordinary Americans alike rank him among the greatest U.S. presidents. In 1976 Washington was posthumously promoted to the rank of General of the Armies of the United States, the highest rank in the United States Army.
20 September 2017, NYC - UNHQ
This open dialogue is intended to incentivize greater private wealth capital involvement in funding the SDGs and develop concrete initiatives to help emerging economies develop their local capital markets. UNDP can mobilize a wide range of partners, deep understanding of country contexts, technical expertise, and impartiality to help governments design interesting funding options to achieve their priorities and broker clever partnerships, such as with the private sector. © UNDP / Freya Morales
Hometown: Wallingford, Conn.
Major: Master of Arts in Liberal Studies, globalization track
Farah Salam grew up in Wallingford, Conn. She is a first-generation college and graduate student, earning BAs in political science and psychology from Quinnipiac University. Before joining the MALS program, Salam interned for U.S. Rep Elizabeth Esty of Connecticut on her campaign and in her district office. At Dartmouth, she studied globalization with a focus on refugee studies and international development, resulting in her thesis, “The Limits of Humanitarian Aid: An Examination of NGOs, Neutrality, and Impartiality.” At Dartmouth, Salam was a MALS representative on the Graduate Student Council, a member of Al-Nur Muslim Student Organization, and part of the Management and Leadership Development Program at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy. After graduation, Salam will continue her work at a Connecticut nonprofit as a mental health first aid instructor, sponsored by Americorps. After Dartmouth, she will continue her work in the non-profit sector, hoping to address issues affecting immigrants and minorities.
Favorite Place on Campus: The swing set behind Baker-Berry Library
“I’m a very restless person, and can’t sit for too long. Whenever I was studying or writing in the library, I would have to get up and walk outside to gain focus again. I’d find myself sitting on this swing or next to it just thinking, reading, listening to music, or drawing. In good weather, I’d sit here for hours until I was ready to go back to the library to work. I find this area relaxing, even though it’s near one of the busiest places in campus.”
(Photo by Robert Gill)
Castle Tyrol (German: Schloss Tirol, Italian: Castel Tirolo) near Merano was the ancestral seat of the counts of Tyrol and gave the region of Tyrol its name. The castle hill has been inhabited since ancient times. Archeologists have excavated a church dating from the early Christian period. The first castle was built before 1100. The second construction phase, including the dungeon, dates to 1139/40. A third phase took place in the second half of the 13th century under Count Meinhard II. The castle was the seat of Tyrol's sovereigns until 1420, when Duke Frederick IV moved the seat to Innsbruck. In the 19th century the castle was restored; the dungeon was rebuilt in 1904.
The frescos of the castle's chapel are of special interest as well as two Romanesque portals with opulent marble sculptures showing legendary creatures, religious themes, and geometric ornaments.
Today, Castle Tyrol houses the South Tyrolean Museum of History, presenting in an honest and fair-minded way the tumultuous history of the South Tyrol region.
Castelul Tirol (în germană: Schloss Tirol, în italiană: Castel Tirolo) de lângă Merano a fost reşedinţa istorică a conţilor de Tirol. De aici provine denumirea regiunii Tirol. Dealul pe care se află castelul a fost locuit încă din antichitate. Arheologii au excavat o biserică datând din epoca creştinismului timpuriu. Primul castel a fost ridicat înainte de anul 1100. A doua fază a construcţiei, care a cuprins şi temniţa, datează din 1139/40. A treia fază s-a desfăşurat în a doua jumătate a secolului al XIII-lea, în timpul domniei Contelui Meinhard al II-lea. In secolul al XIX-lea castelul a fost restaurant după o lungă perioadă de declin, început în 1420, când ducele Frederick al IV-lea a mutat reşedinţa suveranilor de Tirol la Innsbruck. In 1904 a fost reconstruită şi temniţa.
In interior se pot vedea valoroasele fresce din capela castelului, ca şi cele două portale în stil romanic cu sculpturi opulente în marmură reprezentând creature legendare, teme religioase sau ornamente geometrice.
Astăzi, Castelul Tirol adăposteşte Muzeul de Istorie al Tirolului de Sud, care prezintă într-un mod onest şi imparţial istoria agitată a regiunii.
Source: WIKIPEDIA