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Plotters operated an early form of air traffic control that played a vital role in World War II, particularly during the Battle of Britain, The Blitz and the bombing of British cities that followed. They worked at large table top sized maps of Southern England, plotting course and position of enemy aircraft as reports were received by telephone. The majority of plotters were female, members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force
( thanks to Adrian J Walker for plot room photo and Jeff Wharton for re enactor photos )
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About the photo :
This is the vege plot I passed by in upper part of Valencia .
Here's a little description of Valencia :
"Valencia is a ... municipality in the province of Negros Oriental, Philippines. It is located 9.4 kilometre west of Dumaguete...."
"Valencia was originally named Ermita, which means "a secluded place", due to its being a refuge from marauding Muslim pirates. In 1856 it was renamed to Nueva Valencia by Spanish colonizers, in honor of its parish priest Fr. Matias Villamayor from Valencia, Spain.
In 1920 it was renamed Luzuriaga in behalf of Don Carlos Luzuriaga, a delegate from Negros island to the Philippine Legislature who promised town officials he would work hard to help improve the town. The town was renamed Valencia in 1948, by virtue of Republic Act No. 252. "
Source : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valencia,_Negros_Oriental
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I love gardening ,and find Valencia area good for this sort of interests . It's easy to grow patchoi or Petchay, brocolli ,cabbages , brussel sprouts, cauliflower ,carrots and many types of veges and flowers here . The temp is a little cooler from lowland .
If only peace would stretch another hundred years ,yet with the current crisis looming :population explosion the inevitable food shortage ,animals dying for some unknown reasons ,Our population has gone past the 7 billion mark ,you see the middleast conflict escalating /world terrorism , upheaval ,social moral decay ,spritual confusion and deception , the rise of occult teachings and growing tolerance towards darkness ; evil perceive as good ,abortions in millions -- can you ever think of a bright safe future ahead. Perhaps I'm only pessimistic ,but I like to look at real trends / knock on effects and what we see everywhere are tell tale signs of what's in store for the future ... the future doesn't look bright .
Thinking of retirement - I have to be honest , right now my gut feelings seem strongly on a negative line .
Before I'll reach The point of retirement big global changes could happen and this isn't for the better , 20 yrs seem too long .Big changes could happen anytime soon ,the markers are right at the door ,you can see them in God's manual ,the Bible. .I strongly feel there's no retirement for me here . I wish not to say this in the open ,because I knew many of you are kind and polite and not to say the word "crazy" to me projecting doom and gloom - if you know that feeling. I'm in a battle of denial sometimes .But I find ihard to deny it and shut myself to silence .If you hate doomsday topics ,please avoid reading my posts . You can look at the photo but don't read it :) It does't contribute any good if you feel depressed .I will understand ,no offense . But I do encourage you to be aware of the possibilities .Update yourself ,not just the mainstream news but from the alternative sources ,as many events happening that were not reported or has only very little coverage. Regardless of these doon and gloom events,I am not depressed .I am not sad , I am not scared ,because the true peace of God is keeping me assured. It's so hard to explain it. The truth is I'm awestruck ! I'm part of the generation to see these things and the wonders of God to be seen in these last days as we know it .
As a christian , there's no place of depression in ones life ,that's true for me . If you you are away from faith ,then then can be so scary ! I always trust God for everything . My husband is hopeful thinking to retire someday- living in the Philippines .Most of us have dreams ,it nice to dream on . I don't want to spoil his hopes this time and the future .But I always try my best to make him aware of what is to come . However big the scale is , even when I am gone ( in case I might go ahead of him )he should be prepared and never loose hope ,to trust in Jesus in everything ,even to the last breathe .We bought adjacent plots here in 2004 and 2005, so we could be closely living near the city of Dumaguete, thinking of a future someday after retirement .However ,this seem blurry to me . I always hope I'm wrong with my projections . But I also think we should be prepared mentally and also our emotions as we are seeing the future unfold . It's likely a different kind of scary movie .
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Just for correction , am not ill , but you never know of life . I always think what the next day is ,will I still be here nxt day ,nxt week ,nxt month ?
I have seen people go - which gave me some perspective how precious life is , as life is like a bubble . I'm trying my best to have my day less complicated and relaxed as I can make it ,just in case it's my last day.
I have an accident in the past that could have cost my life and don't have any idea it could happen to me .I could have died on the spot . It changed my attitude and perspectives since that . I count everyday as blessing , another day might be different . Not the least to say ,I like to leave the day with a clean heart and conscience with God . I'm not perfect .I do make mistakes though how much I tried not to .But one thing, I don't stay / waddle with the same mistakes over and over again. I always pursue spiritual cleanliness through Christ ,and there is no room of guilt and self condemnation ,a room for secret sin to dwell in me . The love and salvation through Christs is a redeeming grace takes it all , we have to give our burdens to Jesus by simply repenting ,letting it all go and let Jesus' love and peace change our hearts to purity .Without the saving grace of Jesus ,we can't do nothing ,we are still same ol' filthy rags even though how good we think we are .
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This is part of my project on the culture of Prestbury a village on the outskirts of Cheltenham, UK.
Shot on Kodak Portra 400 120
Mamiya M645 1000S 80mm Sekkor
Part of www.flickr.com/photos/danwye_photography/sets/72157630731...
This is actually my final CEGEP project in Java. Built with Lego Mindstorms, hacked firmware with Java VM. The plotter was actually controlled using a Windows-based program with the mouse ! Very cool project. Took about 2 days to build and program.
It is claimed that Death is the great leveller because Death makes everyone equal, because it does not spare anyone, not even the wealthy, famous, or talented. A visit to a cemetery such as Glasnevin shows that this is not really true. It is true that no one can avoid death but some people certainly can show off their wealth even after their death. They or their family can announce to the world just how wonderful they were when they ware alive but those with less money may end up sharing an unmarked plot with a number of strangers.
Since 1832 the bodies of the rich were interred in fancy private tombs while those of the poor went into unmarked common ground. It really surprised me to discover that up to 75% of those buried in the cemetery are in unmarked shared graves. Special areas were also created for victims of the many epidemics or outbreaks (of smallpox (1871-2), cholera (1865-66) or typhoid (1846-49)) that occasionally killed off large numbers of Dubliners in short periods of time. The last such outbreak, the Influenza Epidemic of 1918, saw 240 funerals at Glasnevin Cemetery over an eight-day period. The norm would have been twelve or thirteen.
Since the first burial a register has been maintained. The register includes the full name and address of the deceased, cause, date and location of death. The exact location of the grave is also included in the register but that does not mean that there will be anything to see. During a previous visit I came across an American family who on finding the grave on their great grand father were very upset by the fact that there was nothing to identify the grave or to indicate who was buried there. They got really annoyed with the official when he explained that it was a pauper’s grave and even more upset when they learned what that meant. The official eventually said to them I was not even born when your grandparents were buried so please don’t get annoyed with me.
Glasnevin Trust, which runs Glasnevin Cemetery, has operated a ‘pay later scheme’ for families who couldn’t afford graves at the time of burial. This would happen regularly, but in most cases people never repaid the money and the grave would be considered to be a pauper’s grave meaning that the grave was occupied but still owned by the trust. Today, these graves are known as “gone over graves” and are available for sale. Before any ‘gone over grave’ is sold, it is Glasnevin Trust’s policy to ensure that potential buyers are made fully aware of the grave’s history and the remains of the original occupants are not disturbed.
Ian's on the road again, wearing different shoes again.
Or something.
Yes, have audit will travel is taking me back to the north west and head office (UK) in Warrington.
I wasn't keen to go, as I would be one of those being audited, rather than being the auditor.
So it goes.
Up even earlier than usual, Jools went swimming first thing, while I woke up and packed.
It was to be a bright if cold day, and the promise of actual snow once I reached Manchester, so that was something to look forward to. No?
Jools dropped me off on the prom so I could have a walk, take some snaps before picking up the car.
It was cold.
Not Canada cold, clearly.
Minus three. And too cold to linger to watch the actual sunrise, so made do with snapping the reflected light of the hotels and a ferry coming into the harbour. I walked over Townwall Street, now cold to the bone, hoping the car hire place would be open on time.
It wasn't, but a couple of minutes later, a guy came to open up and let me inside where it was slightly warmer.
My old ruse of getting an automatic thus getting a larger car was ruined this time was I was given a Toyota Yaris. It struggled to get up Jubilee Way without the engine screaming. You'd better behave yourself for the next three days I told it.
Back home for breakfast, load the car and say goodbye to the cats. One last look, and I was off. The car had no sat nav, so had to use the phone.
Before going to the hotel, I was going to visit a former colleague who lives in Warrington, or nearly St Helens as I found out later, so programmed her address in, and off I went, along our street and towards the A2 and the long slog up to Dartford.
I connected my phone to charge, and straight away tunes from my Apple music store started playing. So, apart from the free U2 album it forced on all users, the rest was good if a little Skids and Velvet Underground heavy.
The miles were eaten up, even if I had to turn the music way up to drown the sound of the screaming engine.
Like all trips, I had something extra to sweeten the time away, and in this case it was a church. But not just any church, as you will see.
I watched a short documentary on Monday about Mary Queen of Scots, and remembered that she had been imprisoned and executed at Fotheringhay Castle in what is now Northamptonshire, and if I went over the Dartford Crossing, up the M11 to Cambridge, then were the A14 crossed the Great North Road, ten miles north was Fotheringhay.
So, I pressed on, under the river and into Essex, then along to the bottom of the M11, and north past Stanstead to Cambridge. Traffic wasn't bad, so I made good time, my phone telling me I would reach Fotheringhay at midday.
Turning off the A1, down narrow lanes, then the view to the church opens up, in what is possibly one of the finest vistas in all of England. St Mary and All Saints, 15th century and in its Perpendicular finest, it looks too good to be that old, but is.
Not only is the church mostly as it was, if plain inside, this was the parish church of the House of York, of several Kings including the final, Richard III.
This is real history.
I crossed over the narrow hump-back bridge that spanned the fast flowing, and nearly flooding, River Neane, into the village and parked outside the church. A set of grand gates lead off the main road to the northern porch, lined with fine trees, naked it being winter.
The tower seems over-large for the Nave and Chancel, it stands 116 feet tall, and is a chonker, the rest of the church seems small beside it, but the interior of the church is a large space, high to its vaulted roof.
I take shots, not as many as perhaps I should, but the church doesn't have centuries of memorials, but does have two House of York tombs, or mausoleums.
Back outside, my phone tells me I should be in Warrington by four, my friend, Teresa, wouldn't be home until half past, so I could have another break on the way.
The sat nav took me back to the A14, and from there it is just a 60 mile drive to the bottom of the M6 and then the hike two hours north.
At least it was a sunny day, though clouds were building, and was it my imagination, or did it look like snow falling already?
No, it was snow. big, fat, wet flakes at first, not much to worry about, but I pressed on past Coventry to the toll road, I sopped for half an hour there, enough time to have a drink and some crisps, then back outside where darkness was falling, as well as more snow.
The M6 might have had its upgrade complete, but a trip on it is rarely without delays. And for me, an hour delayed just before Warrington due to a crash, so we inched along in near darkness.
Teresa lived the other side of Warrington, so I had to press on further north, then along other main roads, round a bonkers roundabout before entering the town. Roads were lined with two up/two downs, doors leading straight onto the pavement. Cozy and northern.
They have two dog-mountains, I'm not sure of the breed, but think of something like a St Bernard and go bigger. They had just been for a walk, were damp and happy to be inside, laying on the kitchen floor. Taking up all the kitchen floor.
We talked for an hour, then I received a call from a guy I was supposed to be meeting up with: heavy snow was falling, I should get there sooner than later. So, I said my goodbyes and programmed the route to the hotel. Sorry, resort. Golf resort.
16 miles.
Snow was falling heavy, not too bad on main roads back to the motorway, though traffic on that was only going 40, it was fast enough. But the final six miles was long a main road, but it was covered in snow, with more falling.
The the fuel warning light went on.
Ignore that, I just wanted to get to the hotel safe and have dinner. Not end up in a hedge.
The final mile was very scary, snow only an inch deep, but slippery. There was a gatehouse marking the entrance to the golf club, I turned in and parked in the first space I came to.
Phew.
I checked in, and the place is huge, swish, but full of golfers.
But it does a sideline in conferences, training centre and a hotel. It was full.
I checked in, walked to the room, which is huge, and very comfortable, dropped my bags and went to the bar for dinner of beer and burgers. The place was almost empty, I watched cricket live from South Africa while I ate and drank.
Would I be tempted by the cheeseboard?
I would, dear reader, I would.
To my room to watch the football and relax while snow fell outside.
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The Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay is a parish church in the Church of England in Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire. It is noted for containing a mausoleum to leading members of the Yorkist dynasty of the Wars of the Roses.
The work on the present church was begun by Edward III who also built a college as a cloister on the church's southern side. After completion in around 1430, a parish church of similar style was added to the western end of the collegiate church with work beginning in 1434. A local mason, William Horwood was contracted to build the nave, porch, and tower of this church for £300 for the Duke of York.[2] It is the parish church which still remains.
The large present church is named in honour of St Mary and All Saints, and has a distinctive tall tower dominating the local skyline. The church is Perpendicular in style and although only the nave, aisles and octagonal tower remain of the original building it is still in the best style of its period.[3] The tower is 78 feet (24 metres) high to the battlements, and is 116 feet (35 metres) high to the pinnacles of the octagon.[4]
The church has been described by Simon Jenkins as
float[ing] on its hill above the River Nene, a galleon of Perpendicular on a sea of corn.
The college continued to 1547, when it was seized by the Crown, along with all remaining chantries and colleges. The chancel was pulled down immediately after the college was granted to John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, by King Edward VI.[6] A grammar school was founded in its place which lasted until 1859.
Nearby Fotheringhay Castle was the principal home of two Dukes of York. Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, who was killed at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 was buried in the church. He had earlier established a college for a master and twelve chaplains at the location. Edward's burial provided the basis for the later adoption of the church as a mausoleum to the Yorkist dynasty. In 1476 the church witnessed one of the most elaborate ceremonies of Edward IV's reign – the re-interment of the bodies of the king's father Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and his younger brother Edmund, Earl of Rutland, who had been buried in a humble tomb at Pontefract. Father and son fell at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460.
Thomas Whiting, Chester Herald, has left a detailed account of the events:
on 24 July [1476] the bodies were exhumed, that of the Duke, "garbed in an ermine furred mantle and cap of maintenance, covered with a cloth of gold" lay in state under a hearse blazing with candles, guarded by an angel of silver, bearing a crown of gold as a reminder that by right the Duke had been a king. On its journey, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, with other lords and officers of arms, all dressed in mourning, followed the funeral chariot, drawn by six horses, with trappings of black, charged with the arms of France and England and preceded by a knight bearing the banner of the ducal arms. Fotheringhay was reached on 29 July, where members of the college and other ecclesiastics went forth to meet the cortege. At the entrance to the churchyard, King Edward waited, together with the Duke of Clarence, the Marquis of Dorset, Earl Rivers, Lord Hastings and other noblemen. Upon its arrival the King 'made obeisance to the body right humbly and put his hand on the body and kissed it, crying all the time.' The procession moved into the church where two hearses were waiting, one in the choir for the body of the Duke and one in the Lady Chapel for that of the Earl of Rutland, and after the King had retired to his 'closet' and the princes and officers of arms had stationed themselves around the hearses, masses were sung and the King's chamberlain offered for him seven pieces of cloth of gold 'which were laid in a cross on the body.' The next day three masses were sung, the Bishop of Lincoln preached a 'very noble sermon' and offerings were made by the Duke of Gloucester and other lords, of 'The Duke of York's coat of arms, of his shield, his sword, his helmet and his coursers on which rode Lord Ferrers in full armour, holding in his hand an axe reversed.' When the funeral was over, the people were admitted into the church and it is said that before the coffins were placed in the vault which had been built under the chancel, five thousand persons came to receive the alms, while four times that number partook of the dinner, served partly in the castle and partly in the King's tents and pavilions. The menu included capons, cygnets, herons, rabbits and so many good things that the bills for it amounted to more than three hundred pounds.
In 1495 the body of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York was laid to rest beside that of her husband the Duke of York, as her will directed. She bequeathed to the College
a square canopy, crymson cloth of gold, a chasuble, and two tunicles, and three copes of blue velvet, bordered, with three albs, three mass books, three grails and seven processioners.
After the choir of the church was destroyed in the Reformation during the sixteenth century, Elizabeth I ordered the removal of the smashed York tombs and created the present monuments to the third Duke and his wife around the altar.
The birthday of Richard III is commemorated annually by the Richard III Society by the placing of white roses in the church.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St_Mary_and_All_Saints,_F...
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As any experienced pub quizzer will be able to tell you, Cambridgeshire shares borders with more other counties than any other English county, and one of the pleasures of exploring its churches by bike is to occasionally pop over a border and cherry-pick some of the best churches nearby. I had long wanted to visit Fotheringhay in Northamptonshire, and it is only ten miles west of Peterborough, and so I thought why not? I could also take in its near neighbours Nassington and Warmington, both noted as interesting churches.
Fotheringhay is a haunted place. It is haunted by noble birth and violent death, by its pivotal importance as a place in 15th Century English politics, and by its desolation in later centuries - not to mention by one significant event in the last couple of years.
The view of the church from the south across the River Nene is one of the most famous views of a church in England - there can be few books about churches which do not include it. The tower is a spectacular wedding cake, the square stage surmounted by an octagonal bell stage. This is not an unusual arrangement in the area of the Nene and Ouse Valleys, but nowhere is it on such a scale and with such intricacy as this.
The nave is also vast, a great length of flying buttresses running above each aisle, and walls of glass, great perpendicular windows designed to let in light and drive out superstition. What you cannot see from across the river is that, behind the big oak tree, the church has no chancel.
Inside, it is a square box full of light divided by great arcades that march resolutely eastwards towards a large blank wall. Heraldic shields stand aloof up in the arcades, and the one fabulous spot of colour is the great pulpit nestled in the south arcade, another sign that this building was designed to assert the doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church. This place swallows sound and magnifies light. It is thrilling, awe-inspiring. What happened here?
In the medieval period, Fotheringhay Castle was the powerbase of the House of York. The church was built as a result of a bequest by Edward III, who died in 1370. It was complete by the 1430s, with a college of priests and a large nave for the Catholic devotions of the people.
Over the next century it would house the tombs of, among others, Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York and grandson of Edward III who was killed in 1415 at Agincourt, and Richard Plantaganet, 3rd Duke of York, who was killed in the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. It was Richard's claim to the throne of England which had led to the Wars of the Roses. His decapitated head was gleefully displayed on a pike above Micklegate Bar in York by the victorious Lancastrian forces. Also killed in the battle was Richard's 17 year old son Edmund.
But the Lancastrian delight was shortlived, for by the following year Richard's eldest son had become King as Edward IV. He immediately arranged for the translation of the bodies of his father and brother from their common grave at Pontefract back to Fotheringhay.
It was recorded that on 24 July the bodies were exhumed, that of the Duke garbed in an ermine furred mantle and cap of maintenance, covered with a cloth of gold lay in state under a hearse blazing with candles, guarded by an angel of silver, bearing a crown of gold as a reminder that by right the Duke had been a king.
On its journey, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, with other lords and officers of arms, all dressed in mourning, followed the funeral chariot, drawn by six horses, with trappings of black, charged with the arms of France and England and preceded by a knight bearing the banner of the ducal arms.
Fotheringhay was reached on 29 July, where members of the college and other ecclesiastics went forth to meet the cortege. At the entrance to the churchyard, King Edward waited, together with the Duke of Clarence, the Marquis of Dorset, Earl Rivers, Lord Hastings and other noblemen. Upon its arrival the King made obeisance to the body right humbly and put his hand on the body and kissed it, crying all the time.
The procession moved into the church where two hearses were waiting, one in the choir for the body of the Duke and one in the Lady Chapel for that of the Earl of Rutland, and after the King had retired to his closet and the princes and officers of arms had stationed themselves around the hearses, masses were sung and the King's chamberlain offered for him seven pieces of cloth of gold 'which were laid in a cross on the body.
The sorrowing Edward IV donated the great pulpit for the proclamation of the Catholic faith. And then in 1483 he died. He was succeeded as tradition required by his son, the 12 year old Edward V. But three months after his father's death the younger Edward was also dead, in mysterious circumstances. He was succeeded by his uncle, who had been born here in Fotheringhay in 1452, and who would reign, albeit briefly, as Richard III.
Was Richard III really the villain that history has made him out to be? Did he really murder his nephew to achieve the throne? Within two years he had also been killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field, and the Lancastrians were finally triumphant. Henry VII established the Tudor dynasty, and, as we all know, history is written by the victors, not by the losers.
But Fotheringhay had one more dramatic scene to set in English history before settling back into obscurity, and this time it involved the Tudors. In September 1586 a noble woman of middle years arrived at Fotheringhay Castle under special guard, and was imprisoned here. Her name was Mary, and she was on trial for treason.
It is clear today that most of the evidence was entirely fictional, but the powers of the day had good reason to fear Mary, for she had what appeared to many to be a legitimate claim to the English throne. She was the daughter of James V of Scotland, and had herself become Queen of Scotland at the age of just six weeks. She spent her childhood and youth in France while regents governed the nation in her stead, and she married Francis, the Dauphin of France, who became King of France in 1559. Briefly, Mary was both Queen of Scotland and Queen Consort of France, but in 1561 Francis died, and Mary returned to Scotland to govern her own country.
But there was a problem. Mary was a Catholic. Scotland had led the way in the English-speaking Reformation with a particularly firebrand form of Calvinism, and the protestant merchants of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee were aghast at the prospect of a Catholic monarch.
And there was a further problem. Scotland was currently at peace with its neighbour England, where Queen Elizabeth I had brought some stability to the troubled country. But the Catholic Church did not recognise Elizabeth as the rightful monarch of England, because it was considered that her father Henry VIII's divorce from his first wife Katherine of Aragon was invalid. As he had divorced Katherine to marry Elizabeth's mother Ann Boleyn, Catholics considered that the rightful line of succession had passed horizontally from Henry VIII to his deceased elder sister and then on to her descendants, the most senior of whom was Mary, Queen of Scotland.
Mary remarried in Scotland, but her husband was murdered, and she was forced to abdicate her throne in favour of their one year old baby. He would be brought up by protestant regents and advisors, and would reign Scotland as James VI. His protestant faith allowed the English crown to recognise the line's legitimate claims, and in 1603 James VI of Scotland became James I of England, the first monarch to govern both nations.
But that was all in the future. After her abdication, Mary fled south to seek the protection of her cousin Elizabeth. She spent most of the next 18 years in protective custody. A succession of plots and conspiracies implicated her, and finally on 8th February 1587, at the age of 44, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle.
One of her son James's first acts on ascending the English throne was to order that the castle where his mother had been shamefully imprisoned and executed be razed to the ground.
The chancel of Fotheringhay church and its College of Priests were already gone by then, demolished after the Reformation, leaving the York tombs exposed to the elements. it is said that Elizabeth herself, on a visit to Fotheringhay in 1566, insisted that they be brought back into the church.
Fotheringhay church settled back into obscurity. During the long 18th Century sleep of the Church of England it suffered neglect and disuse, but was restored well in the 19th Century. A chapel was designated for the memory of the York dynasty during the 20th Century, a sensitive issue for the Church of England which does not recognise prayers for the dead, but they can happen here in the Catholic tradition.
Today, the population of Fotheringhay cannot be much more than a hundred, an obscure backwater in remote north-east Northamptonshire, consisting of little more than its grand church set above the water meadows of the River Nene. But there was one more day in the public light to come.
In 2012, an archaeological dig in the centre of the city of Leicester, some 30 miles from here, uncovered a skeleton which had been buried in such a manner that it seemed it might be the dead King Richard III. Carbon dating and DNA matching proved that it was so. A controversy erupted about where the dead king might be reburied. Leicester Cathedral seemed the obvious place, although pompous claims were made by, among others, the MP for York, for him to be buried in York Minster. But there was also a case for the remains being returned here, to the quiet peace of Fotheringhay.
In the event reason held sway and Richard was reburied in Leicester, but Fotheringhay church, along with Leicester Cathedral, York Minster and Westminster Abbey, was one of four sites to host books of remembrance for Richard III.
In June 2015 I was surprised to find that the book here was still in use at the west end of the nave, and is still regularly signed by people. Perhaps they think it is the visitors book.
Simon Knott. June 2015.
www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/19327047848/in/photo...
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Symmetry
A plot in Motion
As excerpted from
“An Odyssey Less Taken “@
Tallie looked into the mirror as the bound Olivia stirred, a self-satisfied smirk lighting up her pretty face. It was time to administer the syringe containing the liquid that would render Olivia unconscious until late the next morning, giving them plenty of time. Olivia would wake thinking she had been the victim of a robbery. She should have no clue that the real reason was a simple piece of paper she had had tucked away inside her gold purse.
A couple of hours earlier:
Tallie had jogged into the upscale inn’s main lobby wearing a black running suite with her long,hair tucked up under a neoprene running cap. Playing the part of a guest who had gone out for exercise, she was also wearing thin gloves, wide wraparound sunglasses, small backpack and listening to music on her I Phone. She took up station in a corner of the inns’ huge lobby, like she was resting, while listening to her music. Ten minutes later, Olivia, whom Tallie had been shadowing, came in. Olivia had been easy to follow. An eye catching figure clad in a gold silk dress and pearls. She was carrying a shiny gold purse, and holding a bag containing a deep purple satin gown. Olivia had headed straight to the elevator, tapped her floor button and disappeared inside.
Tallie spent an uncomfortably anxious 10 minutes deciding what to do. Olivia had not gone to the front desk to take her jewels from the safe. Although her jewelry was not a main part of the plan, Tallie had loftier goals in mind, they did present a rather profitable bonus. Tallie decided to proceed, not wanting to blow the whole operation for a few pretty baubles. She had just risen when the elevator tinged. The doors opened, and Olivia exited into the lobby, still clad in the gold silk, and headed to the desk. There, she had the manager retrieve a black case. Showtime Tallie thought, relieved now that she had waited, watching as Olivia once again left in the elevator. Ten minutes after that, it was time to put the plan in motion. Using her I Phone, Tallie rang Olivia’s room pretending to be a hotel employee. “Someone had found something of yours in the lobby; a manager is on her way up with it.” She hung up not giving Olivia any chance for response.
From then, it had gone like clockwork. Tallie, with delight, watched the shocked look on Olivia’s face when she opened the door expecting a female hotel manager, but instead came face to face with a Taser wielding double of herself, Tallie! Firing the Taser, the shocked girl slumped into Tallies’ welcome arms. Kicking the door shut, Tallie pulled Olivia into the bathroom, where she was then bound and gagged. To make it look like a robbery, Tallie stripped Olivia of her pearl necklace, earrings, bracelets and rings. Then she quickly looted the apartment of any other small, but valuable items. Placing these items, along with the small backpack, into a leather clutch. Tallie then went to the dresser top and opened the black case sitting there. She whistled to herself as she savored the shiny contents. Looking them over, she made a selection, then poured the remaining jewelry into the clutch, glittering explosive fire as they went. She placed the selected diamond jewelry on the bathroom sink. Tallie found Olivia’s gold purse and opened it and pulled the ticket out. Studying, with eager eyes, the prize they had worked so hard to obtain. The small ticket was the key to the whole plot, worth potentially millions.
Carrying the purse to the bathroom, Tallie started to get ready. De bagging Olivia’s purple gown, she slipped it on. It poured over her curvy figure perfectly, as they had known it would. Tallie had switched her calfskin gloves for a pair of Olivia’s satin ones. It was as she had been putting on Olivia’s glittering diamonds that the tied up girl started to stir. Walking over to the groggy eyed girl, Tallie pretended to fumble with the ropes knots, and administered the hypo containing the knockout drops. After checking the heavily sedated Olivia’s Pulse, Tallie finished putting on the unlucky girls jewels.
Tallie admired herself in the mirror, almost not recognizing herself. She had dyed her midnight black hair blonde to match Olivia‘s and had put in blue tinted contacts. The clingy gown fitted snugly in all the right places, tightly outlining her perky breasts and nicely rounded butt. Very nice, thought Tallie beaming. After putting on Olivia’s stiletto heels, Tallie pronounced herself ready. Picking up the purse, she patted it for luck, and went into the bedroom. Tallie called the front desk, asking to have a limo called to pick her up out front, then she also ordered a wakeup call with breakfast for eleven o’clock the next morning. Hanging up the phone, Tallie still had 12 minutes left to kill. She spent it retracing her steps around the entire apartment making sure nothing had been overlooked, and then double checked that Olivia was going to stay out of the picture. When her time was up, Tallie snatched the clutch up from the satin covers of the bed, heavy now with Olivia’s valuables and her running suit and backpack. Tallie left the apartment, closing the door after hanging a do not disturb sign on the lever. Tallie entered the empty elevator , pushed the down button, and focused on the task at hand.
Finally, after seemingly endless months of careful plotting, preparation, rehearsals and dry runs. It was time. The whole scheme had been planned to the minutest detail, it had to be. The main prize was the tens of millions of dollars’ worth of jewels worn by the female guests attending the annual formal Casino Night by the Bay Ball. The annual black tie ball was a Republican Political Fundraiser by special invitation only and Olivia, who had been carefully selected and shadowed for weeks now, had been one of the lucky ticket holders. As a final coup de grâce , Tallie would attend the ball wearing Olivia’s luxurious gown and her brilliantly expensive diamonds, fitting right in with the other attendees. Security would be checking ID’s at the door. But Tallie now resembled Olivia almost to a T. She would fool those rent a cops easily as they checked her against Olivia‘s driver’s license for identification, bending over and showing a little bosom for added distraction. Tallie couldn’t wait to mingle and rub elbows with the galas ultra-rich patrons. She would mark her time by mingling and endearing herself to as many of the male guests as possible in the short time allotted to her. She would use her rich welsh brogue to the fullest to win over the posh male Yanks. All the while admiring the shiny gowns and scoping out the shimmering jewels that would be adorning her fellow female guests. Those jewels would include the Dahlkemper pearls, the Caboyt diamonds with the brilliant sapphires that placed the “Hope Diamond” to shame, and, of course, the famous matching waterfall diamond sets the Dempsey Twins would be wearing (Not to mention their Mother’s emeralds and rubies) . The sets, which had been presented as gifts at the twins ultra- fancy coning out ball, were insured for over 1 million dollars by the girls parents.
Then at the appointed hour, Tallie would slip away to a seldom used back stage door, conveniently hidden neath a stairwell. Security would not have this door covered. It was there that Tallies’ husband and his troupe of fellow masked thieves would be waiting to make their entrance. If all went to plan and it would, she was sure of that, they would proceed to hold up and rob all the guests. Relieving the lot of their fat designer purses, thick leather wallets, gold Rolexes, and of course, their jewels, Lots and lots of shimmering, pricy jewelry. Not to mention the piles of loose cash lying on the gambling tables begging to be collected. Tallie’s heart beat faster at the enticing visions.
After the last guest had been relieved of their valuables, Tallie’s next part of the plot would come. This was where Tallie’s experience as an actress would pay off. The thieves would grab an innocent hostage (Tallie) by knifepoint Then, while threatening the life of the frightened squirming hostage, order the rest of the guests to strip off their clothing. If Tallie had played her part well, mingling and playing the doe eyed innocent who reminded those she met as someone who they would love to protect, her fellow guests would not want to see her harmed and be obedient to the robbers threats, not wishing any harm to come to her. The guests would be threatened to not to try anything for the next hour, or they would eliminate their hostage. The gang would then leave with their loot, as well as their hapless hostage. Then they would make, what in Tallie’s opinion, was a rather brilliantly orchestrated get away.
This was not the first time out for Tallie and her husband’s team, but it promised to be their last. The gang had been operating in Europe and Latin America, seeking out small, but lucrative, gatherings of the privileged and ultra-wealthy. They had gotten quite adept, fine tuning a formula that successfully paid attention to even the minutest detail.
Tallie loved playing the part of the inside victim. Getting as close as possible to the female guests (usually by flirting with husbands and boyfriends) to get a close appraisal of their jewels. Then, after letting her husband and crew loose, observing the well-dressed guests being herded to line up along the wall with raised hands. Usually creating a colorful array of swishing lace, satin, silk , velvety gowns and dresses, all flowing along forlorn figures. It was a thrill to watch their facial and body expressions and reactions. Especially of the women and girls present, as they were forced to hand over their flashy gemstones, their Shiny gold and silver, opulent pearls and other assorted fine jewelry were handed over reluctantly from about their persons.
Then would come the part that really aroused Tallie. The thieves would reach her and tell her to “fork over the jewels miss,” and depending on her mood, would do so, either acting defiant and forcing them to take them off her, or frightened(especially if the thief was her husband) , and timidly handing them over. She would be squirming inside with a deep, delicious delight as she took off , or had the thief wrench off, each precious piece. It was a reaction she did not fully understand, but just knew and accepted it as a scintillating feeling. Tallie, shivered, licking her lips at past memories of being a robbery “victim”.
The band had no qualms about was fair game, boldly invading Weddings, Receptions, Fancy dress dances and even the upscale prom or mansion party. All had been meticulously planned, all had been very lucrative. Their last raid had been carried out on a coming out party for an English Earl/ Minister and his titled wife’s only daughter. It had occurred at the minister’s isolated country manor located deep in the moors. Where, in addition to the jewels worn by the guests that ill-fated Saturday evening, the manor’s many bedroom safes yielded a dazzling array of cases of unworn jewelry brought by the guests for the four day weekend.
Tallie fondly remembered that raid. She had gained access to the family by going as the guest of a rather vain bachelor she had “happened to make an acquaintance with,” in London. The dinner gatherings and nightly parties that had led up to the night of the debutante’s ball had been all over the top, as only very old money can pull off. Tallie had almost suffered a system overload by observing the bounty of rich offerings at her fingertips. Beckoning jewels so very close, and as of yet, so very far. The Saturday evening ball could not have come soon enough. But come it did, and the minister’s daughter did not disappoint, nor did her mother or any other of their female guests. The young debutante had made her grand entrance in a long slinky blood red gown and matching gloves. Among the child’s perfect jewels was included an authentic family heirloom tiara, dripping with pristine diamonds, holding up the wavy curls of her silky fawn hair.
Tallies mouth had watered as she kept stealing looks, keeping her eyes glued to the precocious miss all evening. She inwardly was squirming with anticipation, up until the delightful moment when the begowned debutante limply removed and handed over the tiara, along with the rest of her gleaming diamonds and pearls to one of the gang of masked robbers who had had the “audacity “ to crash the party..
Now, Tallie was traditionally allowed to keep one piece of jewelry from the loot taken from each job as part of her take if she so desired. She always enjoyed picking out pieces she would like to have as she mingled with her fellow guests before her husband’s gang charged in. In the coming out party it had been the sad puppy faced debutante‘s cascading diamond earrings that Tallie had claimed for her own from the minute she first saw them dangling from the pretty girl’s delicate ears. Tallie had subsequently worn and been “robbed” of those earrings several times on jobs since then.
After the Manor house’s guests had been relieved of their valuables, the gang had made its getaway, seemingly vanishing into the moors misty air. The mechanics of that escape would form the basis of their getaway attempt after this evening’s robbery of the wealthy guests attending the “By the Bay Ball” Actually the symmetry of the two events did not stop there. The profit realized by the take from the Earl’s family and guests had given the gang the seed money for the enormous expense in planning tonight’s complex raid. And tonight’s successful raid on the ball, appropriately enough, its diamond jubilee, would be splashed over all of the countries newspapers, like the Manor raid had been. And like after the Manor raid, Tallie and her husband would be reading those papers in the safty of their isolated island retreat.
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As Tallie dwelt on that remembrance, the elevator completed its long, uninterrupted journey by tinging its 1st floor arrival. Showtime! Tallie thought with wry amusement as she stepped into the now crowded lobby. Tonight would be more of the same tingling robbery experiences, only ten times better and since it may very well be her last time , Tallie was going to savor every delicious minute.
Tallie left the elevator and moved quickly towards the sitting area she had occupied when watching for Olivia to come in. In one of the chairs sat a young man wearing wraparound sunglasses reading a blue covered novel. She swished by him, allowing her satin clad leg to brush along his. She watched with enticement as he straightened, uncomfortably, in his chair, his reaction to her teasing pleasing her immensely . Going around him, she placed her clutch on the chair behind him before turning and primping herself in front of one of the long mirrored walls that lined the sitting area. Seeing that no one as of yet was looking her way, she smiled to herself and swished her way back into the main lobby, leaving behind her clutch. She again passed the young man, who, even with the sunglasses, bore a striking resemblance to a young Sidney Poitier! No signal passed between them. The blue novel meant everything was going as planned, a red novel would have meant danger. The clutch on the chair behind him signaled the young man she had teased, Jessie by name , that everything was a go on Tallies end. After she left, Jessie would retrieve the clutch and rejoin Tallies husband and the rest of his gang.
With the prearranged signals exchanged, Tallie happily made her way to the fancy Glass doors where a uniformed Doorman was opening for arriving and departing guests. She could feel more than one pair of jealous eyes following her as she weaved her way through the crowd, her long gown swishing deliciously along her pretty figure. The pretty blond in the purple satin and shimmering diamonds was soon lost to sight, as she exited the doors to the misty street below. Those watching her were totally oblivious that the pretty blonde passing them was setting into motion the complex wheels of a rather ingenious scheme. Meanwhile in a ballroom some miles away a large group of extremely well dressed and decked out guests attending a certain excessively extravagant Ball , were innocently mingling, jewels sparkled with a frenzied riot of colours! These heavily gem encrusted guests were also totally oblivious as to what fate had in store for them in a few hours.
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@ Chatwick University extends its compliments to the unknown artist whose worthy photo and captivating title proved to be the spark that ignited the genesis of our Tallies Odyssey….
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Nelder plot experiment.
Photo by Fiston Wasanga/CIFOR
If you use one of our photos, please credit it accordingly and let us know. You can reach us through our Flickr account or at: cifor-mediainfo@cgiar.org and m.edliadi@cgiar.org
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Charlotte, staring at freedom...
Looks good against a black background... 'Plotting her escape...' On Black
Varosha - Maras is the southern quarter of the Famagusta, a de jure territory of Cyprus, currently under the control of Northern Cyprus. Varosha has a population of 226 in the 2011 Northern Cyprus census. The area of Varosha is 6.19 km2 (2.39 sq mi).
The name of Varosha derives from the Turkish word varoş (Ottoman Turkish: واروش, 'suburb'). The place where Varosha is located now was empty fields in which animals grazed.
In the early 1970s, Famagusta was the number-one tourist destination in Cyprus. To cater to the increasing number of tourists, many new high-rise buildings and hotels were constructed. During its heyday, Varosha was not only the number-one tourist destination in Cyprus, but between 1970 and 1974, it was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world and was a favorite destination of such celebrities as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, and Brigitte Bardot.
Before 1974, Varosha was the modern tourist area of the Famagusta city. Its Greek Cypriot inhabitants fled during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, when the city of Famagusta came under Turkish control, and it has remained abandoned ever since. In 1984 a U.N. resolution called for the handover of the city to UN control and said that only the original inhabitants, who were forced out, could resettle in the town.
Entry to part of Varosha was opened to civilians in 2017.
In August 1974, the Turkish Army advanced as far as the Green Line, a UN-patrolled demilitarized zone between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, and controlled and fenced Varosha. Just hours before the Greek Cypriot and Turkish armies met in combat on the streets of Famagusta, the entire Greek Cypriot population fled to Paralimni, Dherynia, and Larnaca, fearing a massacre. The evacuation was aided and orchestrated by the nearby British military base. Paralimni has since become the modern-day capital of the Famagusta province of Greek Cypriot-led Cyprus.
The Turkish Army has allowed the entry of only Turkish military and United Nations personnel since 2017.
One such settlement plan was the Annan Plan to reunify the island that provided for the return of Varosha to the original residents. But this was rejected by Greek Cypriots in a 2004 referendum. The UN Security Council Resolution 550 states that it "considers attempts to settle any part of Varosha by people other than its inhabitants as inadmissible and calls for the transfer of this area to the administration of the United Nations".
The European Court of Human Rights awarded between €100,000 and €8,000,000 to eight Greek Cypriots for being deprived of their homes and properties as a result of the 1974 invasion. The case was filed jointly by businessman Constantinos Lordos and others, with the principal judgement in the Lordos case dating back to November 2010. The court ruled that, in the case of eight of the applicants, Turkey had violated Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right of peaceful enjoyment of one's possessions, and in the case of seven of the applicants, Turkey had violated Article 8 on the right to respect for private and family life.
In the absence of human habitation and maintenance, buildings continue to decay. Over time, parts of the city have begun to be reclaimed by nature as metal corrodes, windows are broken, and plants work their roots into the walls and pavement and grow wild in old window boxes. In 2014, the BBC reported that sea turtles were observed nesting on the beaches in the city.
During the Cyprus Missile Crisis (1997–1998), the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, threatened to take over Varosha if the Cypriot government did not back down.
The main features of Varosha included John F. Kennedy Avenue, a street which ran from close to the port of Famagusta, through Varosha and parallel to Glossa beach. Along JFK Avenue, there were many well known high rise hotels including the King George Hotel, The Asterias Hotel, The Grecian Hotel, The Florida Hotel, and The Argo Hotel which was the favourite hotel of Elizabeth Taylor. The Argo Hotel is located near the end of JFK Avenue, looking towards Protaras and Fig Tree Bay. Another major street in Varosha was Leonidas (Greek: Λεωνίδας), a major street that came off JFK Avenue and headed west towards Vienna Corner. Leonidas was a major shopping and leisure street in Varosha, consisting of bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and a Toyota car dealership.
According to Greek Cypriots, 425 plots exist on the Varosha beach front, which extends from the Contandia hotel to the Golden Sands hotel. The complete number of plots in Varosha are 6082.
There are 281 cases of Greek Cypriots who filed to the Immovable Property Commission (IPC) of Northern Cyprus for compensation.
In 2020, Greek Cypriot Demetrios Hadjihambis filed a lawsuit seeking state compensation for financial losses.
The population of Varosha was 226 in the 2011 Northern Cyprus census.
In 2017, Varosha's beach was opened for the exclusive use of Turks (both Turkish Cypriots and Turkish nationals).
In 2019, the Government of Northern Cyprus announced it would open Varosha to settlement. On 14 November 2019, Ersin Tatar, the prime minister of Northern Cyprus, announced that Northern Cyprus aims to open Varosha by the end of 2020.
On 25 July 2019, Varosha Inventory Commission of Northern Cyprus started its inventory analysis on the buildings and other infrastructure in Varosha.
On 9 December 2019, Ibrahim Benter, the Director-General of the Turkish Cypriot EVKAF religious foundation's administration, declared all of Maraş/Varosha to be the property of EVKAF. Benter said "EVKAF can sign renting contracts with Greek Cypriots if they accept that the fenced-off town belongs to the Evkaf."
In 2019–20, inventory studies of buildings by the Government of Northern Cyprus were concluded. On 15 February 2020, the Turkish Bar Association organised a round table meeting at the Sandy Beach Hotel in Varosha, which was attended by Turkish officials (Vice President Fuat Oktay and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül), Turkish Cypriot officials, representatives of the Turkish Cypriot religious foundation Evkaf, and Turkish and Turkish Cypriot lawyers.
On 22 February 2020, Cyprus declared it would veto European Union funds to Turkish Cypriots if Varosha were opened to settlement.
On 6 October 2020, Ersin Tatar, the Prime Minister of Northern Cyprus, announced that the beach area of Varosha would reopen to the public on 8 October 2020. Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said Turkey fully supported the decision. The move came ahead of the 2020 Northern Cypriot presidential election, in which Tatar was a candidate. Deputy Prime Minister Kudret Özersay, who had worked on the reopening previously, said that this was not a full reopening of the area, that this was just a unilateral election stunt by Tatar. His People's Party withdrew from the Tatar cabinet, leading to the collapse of the Turkish Cypriot government. The EU's diplomatic chief condemned the plan and described it as a "serious violation" of the U.N. ceasefire agreement. In addition, he asked Turkey to stop this activity. The U.N. Secretary-General expressed concern over Turkey's decision.
On 8 October 2020, some parts of Varosha were opened from the Officers' Club of Turkish and Turkish Cypriot Army to the Golden Sands Hotel.
In November 2020, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkey's ambassador to Nicosia, visited Varosha. In addition, the main avenue in Varosha has been renamed after Semih Sancar, Chief of the General Staff of Turkey from 1973 to 1978, a period including the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
The European Parliament on 27 November, asked Turkey to reverse its decision to re-open part of Varosha and resume negotiations aimed at resolving the Cyprus problem on the basis of a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation and called on the European Union to impose sanctions against Turkey, if things do not change. Turkey rejected the resolution, adding that Turkey will continue to protect both its own rights and those of Turkish Cypriots. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus presidency also condemned the resolution.
On 20 July 2021, Tatar, the president of Northern Cyprus announced the start of the 2nd phase of the opening of Varosha. He encouraged Greek Cypriots to apply Immovable Property Commission of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to claim their properties back if they have any such rights.
Bilal Aga Mosque, constructed in 1821 and taken out of service in 1974, was re-opened on 23 July 2021.
In response to a decision by the government of Turkish Cyprus, the presidential statement of the United Nations Security Council dated on 23 July said that settling any part of the abandoned Cypriot suburb of Varosha, "by people other than its inhabitants, is 'inadmissible'." The same day, Turkey rejected the presidential statement of the UNSC on Maras (Varosha), and said that these statements were based on Greek-Greek Cypriot propaganda, were groundless and unfounded claims, and inconsistent with the realities on the Island. On 24 July 2021, the presidency of Northern Cyprus condemned the presidential statement of the UNSC dated on 23 July, and stated that "We see and condemn it as an attempt to create an obstacle for the property-rights-holders in Varosha to achieve their rights".
By 1 January 2022, nearly 400,000 people had visited Varosha since its opening to civilians on 6 October 2020.
On 19 May 2022, Northern Cyprus opened a 600m long X 400m wide stretch of beach on the Golden Sands beach (from the King George Hotel to the Oceania Building) in Varosha for commercial use. Sun beds and umbrellas were installed.
UNFICYP said it would raise the decision taken by Turkish Cypriot authorities to open that stretch of beach in Varosha with the Security Council, spokesperson for the peacekeeping force Aleem Siddique said on Friday. The UN announced its "position on Varosha is unchanged and we are monitoring the situation closely".
In October 2022, the Turkish Cypriots announced that public institutions will be opened in the city.
In April 2023, Cleo Hotel, the 7-floor Golden Seaside Hotel, and the 3-star Aegean Hotel were purchased by a Turkish Cypriot businessman (from their Greek Cypriot owners) who will operate them within 2025.
On 10 August 2023, the Government of Northern Cyprus decided to construct a marina and tourist facility in Varosha.
Varosha was analyzed by Alan Weisman in his book The World Without Us as an example of the unstoppable power of nature.
Filmmaker Greek Cypriot Michael Cacoyannis described the city and interviewed its exiled citizens in the film Attilas '74, produced in 1975.
In 2021, the Belarusian group Main-De-Gloire dedicated a song to this city that has become a ghostly place.
Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.
Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.
A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.
Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.
Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.
Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.
The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.
Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.
Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.
By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.
EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.
However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.
On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.
In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.
By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.
In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.
The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.
After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".
As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.
Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.
The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.
Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.
The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis".[31] Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.
Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.
Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria
An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."
In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.
Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.
In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.
Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.
Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.
Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:
UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.
The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.
By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."
After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.
On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.
The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.
During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.
In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.
Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.
A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.
05:00:01 up 13 days, 10:19, 0 users, load average: 0.38, 0.66, 0.73 | temp=40.1'C | Start
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15:00:02 up 13 days, 20:19, 0 users, load average: 0.62, 0.68, 0.68 | temp=41.2'C | Start
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Even in winter, the east wind gusting, I like to be on the plot, thinking about the ground and what it will grow.
The plot in summer flic.kr/p/L5X9xY
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Myanmar, previously known as Burma, what a surprisingly amazing place. We booked this holiday to get out of our comfort zone of easy beach holidays in the Maldives. There were several times when we wondered why we did it, travel in Myanmar consists mainly of long, sometimes tedious journeys on outdated transport systems. But now, in hindsight, we realise that this was the only way to truly get a feel of how the country and people are living day to day. And by far, more so than any other holiday we have had, the people are the most memorable thing we brought back with us. They are totally charming, polite, honest, resilient, hard working and most of all truly happy people. Their sincerely happy smiles, some of which we thankfully managed to capture in our photo's, are what we mostly remember and will stay with us forever.
We all know, or think we know, about the bad old days of the Burmese regime, so we obviously had a few reservations about what we were letting ourselves in for, but as it turned out, Myanmar must be the safest place we have ever been to. There is zero crime here, 85% of the country are buddhists and all the people seem to be true to Buddha's teachings of compassion, honesty, right mindedness, right living and non-harming to any living thing. Admittedly, although the country is now a democracy, the military still retains a certain amount of power, so I guess there is still an undercurrent going on albeit out of sight of the regular tourist. However, all the people we spoke to are so much happier now, they are more or less free to speak openly, without fear of reprisals and they all feel positive about the path the country is on now.
As for the landscape, what can I say, there is nowhere like it on earth! Outside the cities the whole country seems to be in some sort of 200 year old time warp. The people are mostly farmers on small plots of land using ox carts to plough the fields and living in houses made of bamboo, wood and matting. The wierdest thing is most of them have solar power, mainly for a bit of light and to charge their mobile phones! Everyone is on their phone here.....just like the rest of the world I guess. Also, there are temples, pagodas and stupas everywhere you look, especially in Bagan, which is like the Mecca of Myanmar. We were there for the Full Moon Festival where thousands of Burmese monks and Myanmar people gather from all over the country to celebrate for three days at the Ananda Pagoda in Bagan. After possibly days travelling they stay awake for most of the three days and nights watching entertainment which includes dance, theatre, chants, recitations and singing as well as stand up comedy. Amazing belief.
A word about One Stop Travel & Tours the Myanmar company we booked with. We found them via recommendations on Tripadvisor and so glad we used them. They never asked for a deposit, they booked all our hotels, train & boat journeys, balloon ride and one internal flight all on an email handshake! We just paid them in US Dollars on arrival, saving us thousands on UK travel brochure rates, and they never let us down once. The guides were all good guys and always there to greet us at the various destinations on our tour/trek, sometimes waiting hours when the transport was late. A special thanks to Leo our Yangon guide and Eaint at the One Stop office. After leaving our Nikon Coolpix A camera charger at home we trawled the shops of Yangon eventually finding a replacement.......only to leave it plugged in the wall at our next hotel in Mandalay! We were now a ten hour boat journey away in Bagan, but a call to Eaint at the One Stop office and they got it to us two days later just before we moved on! A huge thank you to all at One Stop as this holiday produced without doubt our most amazing photographs ever!
Myanmar has been open to mainstream tourism for five years now, a lot of the people speak English now so it is relatively easy to holiday there. We are so glad we went there before it really changes, there is still a huge amount of charm and old worldliness about the place that you will not find in any other country. If you are prepared to switch off from the 21st century and just accept it for what it is you will be richly rewarded with amazing memories of a landscape like no other and a fascinating people who are genuinely happy to see you.
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To view the rest of my Photography Collection click on Link below:
www.flickr.com/photos/nevillewootton/albums
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Photography & Equipment sponsored by my web business:
We are UK's leading Filter Specialists, selling online to the Plant, Agricultural, Commercial Vehicle and Marine Industries.
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PLEASE NOTE: I take Photographs purely as a hobby these days so am happy to share them with anyone who enjoys them or has a use for them. If you do use them an accreditation would be nice and if you benefit from them financially a donation to www.sightsavers.org would be really nice.
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Empty plots like the one in this shot are somewhat abundant in the 'old town', right at the centre of Valencia. This is the other face of the city, hidden in the official propaganda brochures, a face, however, the startled tourist takes no time at all to discover.
(Incidentally, the graffiti artwork is splendid; best seen large)
It once dawned on me (a few years back) that the only way to keep the mind going more or less fine in this particular place I happen to live is not to take the place seriously. The only way to get along and not to lose one's marbles is to realize and to firmly believe that nothing ever happening here matters. How could one otherwise avoid going mental in a place where people drive as if playing a video game, cars are raucous, four-wheeled loudspeakers (and a few are periodically burned every weekend just for the fun of it), traffic-lights are useless, colourful street ornaments (some people flippantly claim there's a hidden code associated with the colours though its meaning remains utterly unknown), zebra-crossings are parking places (a property also shared by bike trails and wheelchair ramps formerly designed to ease the handicapped daily struggle around the city), lifts are smoking rooms, litter bins are largely neglected (and the few days they receive attention, which accurately match traditional festivities, it is to be either detached from the locations they hang on - traffic-lights, walls or lamp-posts; as part of their ornamental accessories, so to speak - burned, or both), youngsters are more and more aggressive each day - and at increasingly earlier ages - smoking pot is the number one activity among teenagers to the point that its massive use seems to them absolutely essential to make the world go round, football matches (everything football in fact) are TV screen savers, good manners and education are utopias, noise is our everyday's companion (and taken for granted), rubbish carpets the pavement, local television is disgusting - to say the least (reality shows and sensationalist journalism devoted to air all sort of pathetic gossip columns play the role of educational programs whose aim is to enhance dormant feelings such as self-confidence, solidarity or freedom while achieving in the process a non-negligible standardization of the language skills and cultural level), politicians don't often measure up, and the identity of the native language seems condemned to be a recurrent issue forever and ever, to give but a few examples?
A candidate plots points on a map he must find at a night land navigation course during the Expert Field Medical Badge competition in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Sept. 8. Before the EFMB candidates take the actual testing they all must go through the standardization phase. During this portion the service members are taught what they must do at each of the different lanes so they understand what to expect before the actual testing phase. Passing rates for the badge range from 5-25 percent of candidates, making the EFMB a distinctive mark in a Soldier's records. About us: U.S. Army Europe is uniquely positioned to advance American strategic interests across Eurasia and has unparalleled capability to prevent conflict, shape the environment and, if necessary, win decisively. The relationships we build during 1000 theater security cooperation events in more than 40 countries each year lead directly to support for multinational contingency operations around the world, strengthen regional partnerships, and enhance global security. (photo by Sgt. Michael Reinsch, U.S. Army Europe Public Affairs)
This Spotted Hyena, Crocuta crocuta, was photographed in Kenya, as part of a research project utilizing motion-activated camera-traps.
You are invited to go WILD on Smithsonian's interactive website, Smithsonian WILD, to learn more about the research and browse photos like this from around the world.
17:00:02 up 22:19, 0 users, load average: 1.17, 0.84, 0.77 | temp=42.2'C | Start
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Plotter sketches for a new series. Studio Mode graciously let me use their CNC cutter to do these.
These particular ones are a revisit of the Ornament pieces I did for Darkness Descends. They're not intended for final production since I already have a good format for that series.
The Roland DXY-990 plotter with an "op-art" plot. The program that generated the plot is in C, and is based on a version in BASIC that was published in Personal Computer World in the early 1980s.
Pfc Anthony Lattanze from U.S. Army Europe's 172nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team and his Polish forces counterparts plot coordinates on a map during Saber Guardian 2013, a U.S. European Command Black Sea regional exercise planned and executed by Romanian Land Forces and USAREUR. The exercise is the first time the Black Sea regional countries of Romania, Bulgaria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Republic of Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine came together to train and exercise their battle staff and command post procedures in one location. Serbian and Polish Land Forces are also participating to enhance their relationships with these Black Sea countries. There are more than 150 training audience members, support staff and contractors supporting the training at the Romanian Land Forces Combat Training Center in Cincu, Romania. (Photo by Richard Bumgardner)
One hundred years ago, the sinking of the Titanic sent an electric shock wave through the Gilded Age of progress. People around the world are still fascinated by the disaster, seen as a parable of the human condition, inspiring countless books and a dozen movies. For better or worse, we learn about the past through historical epics which blend fact with fiction, mixing real figures with made-up characters like Jack and Rose in Titanic (1997). We’re left wondering. Which stories are true?
Even the excellent CBC documentary, Titanic: the Canadian Connection made mistakes. Crew member Emma Bliss is on a list of second-class passengers bound for Canada. Well, Mrs. Bliss arrived here eventually, settling in Toronto and living her final years in the Beach. She was a survivor, living to 93, almost as long as the fictional Rose, but she was hardly a pampered passenger. As a stewardess in first class, Mrs. Bliss catered to every whim of her wealthy guests. Like Rose, the ladies often needed a maid’s help to get in and out of their elaborate clothing. (Rose managed well enough when Jack was around!).
Each Titanic film reflects the attitudes of its era. In the 1953 Hollywood version Titanic, a couple is near the end of their relationship on a ship near the end of its life. Stewardess ‘Emma’ waits hand and foot on the fictional upper-class Sturges clan. The plot focuses on the drama of this family in crisis. The iceberg is the only villain. Even the snobbish father finds redemption. The message for a conservative America in the Atomic Age was that in times of trouble the issues that divide us are not important and we must hold fast to traditional values, such as courage and loyalty.
The truth is always a good story. The British docu-drama A Night to Remember (1958) is the most authentic of the Titanic films, depicting the events without fictional characters or subplots. For many survivors the realism was just too painful. A few months before her death in 1959, Emma Bliss was in the hospital and invited to watch a showing of the movie. She couldn’t help but cry at the painful memories the film evoked. Almost all of the stewards and three of the first-class stewardesses lost their lives.
A Night to Remember portrays the stiff-upper-lip British officers as gallant heroes saving noble aristocrats. A true-to-life scene shows yachtsman Major Arthur Peuchen climbing down ropes to help man lifeboat #6. His survival led to his undoing, branded a coward back in polite Toronto society for not being ‘gentleman’ enough to go down with the ship.
Lifeboat #6 must surely be the most famous in popular culture. In Titanic (1953), Mrs. Sturges is saved on this lifeboat, but her young son gives up his seat for a lady (in fact, #6 was lowered less than half-full.) In Titanic (1997), brash Molly Brown implores Rose to climb in, but Rose runs away. The real Margaret Brown was never called Molly in her lifetime. Her nickname was Maggie, but Molly sounded better in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). Mrs. Brown and Major Peuchen argued with Quartermaster Robert Hichens who refused to go back to pick up people freezing to death in the icy water, saying, “It’s our lives now, not theirs.” It was Hichens who was at the wheel when the great ship hit the iceberg.
The silver screen echoes real events. Wealthy hockey player Quigg Baxter of Montreal smuggled his new girlfriend on board under an assumed name, a forbidden love across class divisions. Quigg introduced Belgian cabaret singer Berthe Mayne to his mother and sister at lifeboat #6. His last words were, “Look after her, au revoir.”
James Cameron’s epic Titanic (1997) is a star-crossed love story set onboard a ship run by incompetent officers and heartless aristocrats. In this romanticized account, steerage passenger Jack teaches privileged Rose to rebel and spit in the face of upper class vultures like Cal. Cameron gives a nod to his Ontario roots by naming the villain ‘Caledon Hockley’ and having Jack from Chippewa Falls (the director grew up in Chippawa, part of Niagara Falls.) A favourite ‘evil queen’ in movies is Lady Duff Gordon, the fashion designer ‘Lucille’, who spent her early childhood in Guelph as ordinary Lucy Sutherland.
One heart-breaking event was the loss of the Allison family as told in the recent miniseries Titanic (2012). Hud and Bess Allison were returning to Canada with 2-year-old Loraine, 11-month-old Trevor and an entourage of servants. In the confusion the nanny took Trevor to lifeboat #11 and both were saved. Holding Loraine, a frantic Mrs. Allison jumped out of boat 6 and refused to leave the ship without her baby boy. Loraine was the only first or second class child lost in the tragedy.
The British miniseries tells the story through the eyes of characters from the crew and the different social classes. An Italian waiter falls in love with an English stewardess who tries to help Bess Allison. An episode shows the real actress Dorothy Gibson, who would survive to make Saved from the Titanic, the first movie about the disaster, released within a month.
The true story of the Titanic is more compelling than anything Hollywood could invent. Behind every scene is a human face with a story to be told and a life to be remembered. And the band really did play on…
www.beachmetro.com/2012/04/03/story-titanic-survivor/
On April 15, 1939 four Toronto-area survivors met for a Titanic reunion dinner. Elizabeth and Madeleine attended along with stewardess Emma Bliss who also lived in the Beach for many years with her three adult children (Mrs. Amy Armstrong on Balmy Avenue, Ernest on Hubbard Boulevard, Henry). The man who arranged the reunion was John Collins, who at 17 had been swept off the deck of the sinking ship while trying to rescue a woman and her two infant children. Collins pulled himself aboard collapsible B and was saved by that same tin whistle, the only teenage crew member to survive, though “the child was washed out of my arms.” It was a memory that would haunt the young man’s mind for the rest of his life. John Collins died in a Belfast psychiatric hospital in 1941. The young assistant cook was fondly remembered by Emma Bliss, who lived to the ripe old age of 93. She died at Nevers Nursing Home on Beech Avenue in 1959; her funeral was held at the long-gone Wear Funeral Home at 2114 Queen St East.
Buried Prospect Cemetery
VM Houses Ørestad
Plot Architects, Ørestad 2004-2005
PLOT Architects (2001-2006):
Julien De Smet (later JDS)
Bjarke Ingels (later BIG)
M HOUSE:
12500 m2
95 housing units
COST: 95 000 000 DKK.
COMPLETION 2004
V HOUSE
12500 M2
114 housing units
COST: 97 000 000 DKK.
COMPLETION 2005
PROJECT TEAM:
JULIEN DE SMEDT, BJARKE INGELS
ALISTAIR WILLIAMS, ANNA MANOSA, ANNETTE JENSEN, BENT POULSEN, CHRISTIAN FINDERUP, CLAUS TVERSTED, DAVID ZAHLE, DORTE BØRRESEN, FINN NØRKJÆR, HENNING STÜBEN, HENRICK POULSEN, INGRID SERRITSLEV, JAKOB CHRISTENSEN, JAKOB LANGE, JAKOB MØLLER, JAKOB WODSCHOU, JØRN JENSEN, KARSTEN HAMMER HANSEN, MADS H LUND, MARC JAY, MARIA YEDBY LJUNGBERG, NADJA CEDERBERG, NARISARA LADAWAL, OLE ELKJÆR-LARSEN, OLE NANNBERG, OLIVER GRUNDAHL, SANDRA KNÖBL, SIMON IRGENS-MØLLER, SOPHUS SØBYE, SØREN STÆRMOS, THOMAS CHRISTOFFERSEN, XAVIER PAVIA PAGES.
The VM Houses are two residential blocks formed as the letters V and M. The blocks are formed as such to allow for daylight, privacy and views. The vis-à-vis with the neighbour is eliminated by pushing the slab in its centre, ensuring diagonal views to the vast and open, surrounding fields. All apartments have a double-height space to the north and wide panoramic views to the south. The logic of the diagonal slab utilized in the V house is broken down in smaller portions for the M house. In this project, the typology of the Unite d’ Habitation of Le Corbusier is reinterpreted and improved; the central corridors are short and receive light from both ends, like bullet holes penetrating the building. The VM Houses offer more than 80 different apartment types that are programmatically flexible and open to the individual needs of contemporary life – a mosaic of different life forms.
THE MANIPULATED PERIMETER BLOCK IS CLEARLY DEFINED IN ITS FOUR CORNERS BUT OPENED INTERNALLY AND ALONG THE SIDES. THE VIS-A-VIS WITH THE NEIGHBOUR IS ELIMINATED BY PUSHING THE SLAB IN ITS CENTER, ENSURING DIAGONAL VIEWS TO THE VAST OPEN FIELDS AROUND. THE BUILDING VOLUME PROVIDES OPTIMAL AIR, LIGHT AND VIEWS TO ALL FLATS. ALL APARTMENTS HAVE A DOUBLE-HEIGHT SPACE TO THE NORTH, AND WIDE PANORAMIC VIEWS TO THE SOUTH.
THE LOGIC OF THE DIAGONAL SLAB UTILIZED IN THE V HOUSE IS BROKEN DOWN IN SMALLER PORTIONS FOR THE M HOUSE. IN THIS PROJECT THE TYPOLOGY OF THE UNITE D'HABITATION OF LE CORBUSIER IS REINTERPRETED AND IMPROVED: THE CENTRAL CORRIDORS ARE SHORT AND GET LIGHT FROM BOTH ENDS, LIKE BULLET HOLES PENETRATING THROUGH THE BUILDING.
Source:
the life of an indoor cat
always wanting to get out
but when she gets out?
many times
she gets scared and runs back in
where she knows it's safe
Elizabeth, Electress Palatine and Queen of Bohemia (born Elizabeth of Scotland; 19 August 1596 – 13 February 1662) was the eldest daughter of James VI and I, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and Anne of Denmark. She was thus sister to King Charles I and cousin to King Frederick III of Denmark. With the demise of the Stuart dynasty in 1714, her direct descendants, the Hanoverian rulers, succeeded to the British throne.
Elizabeth was born at Falkland Palace, Fife.[1] At the time of her birth, her father was still the King of Scots only. She was named in honor of the Queen of England, in an attempt by her father to flatter the old queen, whose kingdom he hoped to inherit. During her early life in Scotland, Elizabeth's governess was the Countess of Kildare.[1] When Elizabeth was six years old, in 1603, Elizabeth I of England died and James succeeded to the thrones of England and Ireland. When she came to England, she was consigned to the care of Lord Harington, with whom she spent the years of her happy childhood at Combe Abbey in Warwickshire.
Part of the intent of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was to kidnap the nine-year-old Elizabeth and put her onto the throne of England (and, presumably, Scotland) as a Catholic monarch, after assassinating her father and the Protestant English aristocracy.
Among Elizabeth's suitors was King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, but she was eventually betrothed to the Elector Palatine in 1612.
On 14 February 1613, she married Frederick V, then Elector of the Palatinate in Germany, and took up her place in the court at Heidelberg. Frederick was the leader of the association of Protestant princes in the Holy Roman Empire known as the Evangelical Union, and Elizabeth was married to him in an effort to increase James's ties to these princes. In 1619, Frederick was offered and accepted the crown of Bohemia. Elizabeth was crowned Queen of Bohemia on 7 November 1619, three days after her husband was crowned King of Bohemia.[2] Frederick's rule was extremely brief, and thus Elizabeth became known as the "Winter Queen." She was also sometimes called "Queen of Hearts" because of her popularity.
Driven into exile, the couple took up residence in The Hague, and Frederick died in 1632. Elizabeth remained in Holland even after her son, Charles I Louis, regained his father's electorship in 1648. Following the Restoration of the English and Scottish monarchies, she travelled to London to visit her nephew, Charles II, and died while there.
Elizabeth's youngest daughter, Sophia of Hanover, had in 1658 married the future Elector of Hanover. The Electress Sophia became the nearest Protestant relative to the English, Scottish and Irish crowns (later British crown). Under the English Act of Settlement, the succession was settled on Sophia and her issue, so that all monarchs of Great Britain from George I are descendants of Elizabeth.
Made by Katherine Huang, Chisholm Lab, MIT.
The Chisholm Lab gives you permission to use this image. This is the highest resolution image available.