The Liberation Monument ("Russian monument")

(Further pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Officially, one can find various names: (Russian) Liberation Monument, Russian War Memorial and Monument of the Red Army. The Viennese call the towering monument at the southern end of the Black Mountain course (Schwarzenbergplatz) usually disparaging "Russian monument (Russendenkmal)".

The monument commemorating the 18,000 in the liberation of Vienna fallen soldiers of the Red Army was designed by Major Intazarin, the sculptures were created by Lieutenant Jakoviev. The overall direction of the yet in April 1945 ordered and as first monument building after the war completed structure had major Ing. Mikhail Scheinfeld. In the construction were temporarily 400 workers involved, 18 tons of bronze and 300 cubic meters of marble were used. The monument was on 19 August 1945 with the assistance of Karl Renner, Leopold Figl and Theodor Körner unveiled on then so designated Stalin Square.

On a in total 20 m high, marble-clad base, the lower part in the form of a five-pointed red star, decorated with flags and guard badges, stands the 12 m tall figure of a Red Army soldier. The soldier is wearing a gold helmet and the famous Russian submachine gun with rotary magazine. With his left hand he has the flag with the right hand he holds a round shield with the Soviet coat of arms. In the background arises a broad, eight meter high balustrade, at its end respectively one group of two fighting men is situated, a prime example of the style of socialist realism, which gradually has become an art-historical rarity.

One of the inscriptions in Russian only in the early 80s have been translated into German and is:

"Eternal glory to the heroes of the Red Army, killed in action against the German-fascist invaders for the freedom and independence of the peoples of Europe (Mikhalkov)".

Until 1956, there were also graves of Soviet soldiers in the area, and a Soviet tank stood before the monument.

The monument is in the custody of the City of Vienna. As is generally known, Austria is according to the detailed provisions of Article 19 of the State Treaty of 15 May 1955 committed war graves and war memorials of the Allied Powers on Austrian soil "to respect, to protect and to preserve".

Between 1945 and 1956 stood in front of the fountain on the former "Stalin Square" a Russian tank, which is now in the Museum of Military History.

=> Marschik/Spital, Vienna The Russians monument, architecture, history, conflicts, Vienna, 2005

=> Hannes Leidinger/Verena Moritz, Russian Vienna, Böhlau, Vienna, 2004, 182 f

Sometimes leads the memory to the bad experiences which have been made by Austrian people with the occupation forces - particularly the Soviet - ​​in the ten years of Allied occupation to open resentment against monuments such as the "Russian monument". Nevertheless - the greater the distance from the war and post-war period is, the more one had to give account about the fact how much innocent blood just the peoples of the former Soviet Union have sacrificed in the fight against Hitler's rule, and how little the Austrian people to its own liberation has contributed. Such thoughts have got to come to one's mind when one takes some time to decipher the Cyrillic letters of gold on a "Russian monument" - whether on that at Vienna Schwarzenberg Square or somewhere out in the vast realms of Lower Austria, where up to the Waldviertel (part of Lower Austria) little Soviet military cemeteries exist.

A survey by the Gallup Institute, published in the "standard" on 11th February 1992 shows that 71% of Viennes people do know the monument. A clear majority (59 %) is for the preservation of the monument. Only 9% of the 1,000 respondents agreed with the opinion that the monument should be eliminated as a remnant of Stalinism. So, have the Austrians made peace with the contemporary history?

Hochstrahlbrunnen

Before the liberation monument arises the to the occasion of the completion of the First Vienna Mountain Spring Pipeline on 24th October 1873 in the presence of the emperor put into operation Hochstrahlbrunnen (high jet fountain), which should have been standing according to the original plans in front of the Votive Church, then opposite the New Town Hall. The builder of the aqueduct and the fountain, Anton Gabrielli, was a friend of astronomy. Accordingly, symbolizes the respective number of the jets of water the days of the year, the months, the days of the month, the days of the week and the hours of the day.

peter-diem.at/Monumente/russen.htm

. . . the ancient Pu Koh Tong Pagoda is outside Ayuttaya

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The Ayutthaya Historical Park (Thai: อุทยานประวัติศาสตร์พระนครศรีอยุธยา (Pronunciation)) covers the ruins of the old city of Ayutthaya, Thailand. The city of Ayutthaya was founded by King Ramathibodi I in 1350:222 The city was captured by the Burmese in 1569; though not pillaged, it lost "many valuable and artistic objects.":42–43 It was the capital of the country until its destruction by the Burmese army in 1767.

In 1969 the Fine Arts Department began with renovations of the ruins, which became more serious after it was declared a historical park in 1976. A part of the park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. Thirty-five kings ruled the Ayutthaya kingdom during its existence. King Narai (1656-1688) held court not only in Ayutthaya but also from his palace in the nearby city of Lopburi, from where he ruled 8–9 months in the year.

PARK SITES

Wat Chaiwatthanaram

Wat Kasatrathiraj

Wat Kudi Dao

Wat Lokayasutharam

Wat Mahathat

Wat Phanan Choeng

Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit

Wat Phra Ram

Wat Phra Sri Sanphet

Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya

Wat Chai Mongkhon

Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon

Phra Chedi Suriyothai

Ayutthaya historical Study Centre

Japanese Settlement

Wat Phu Khao Thong

Elephant Camp

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

In 1991, a part of Ayutthaya Historical Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site under criteria III as an excellent witness to the period of development of a true national Thai art. The inscribed area covered only 289 ha on central and southwest part of Ayutthaya island; as a result, only certain groups of historical sites are under UNESCO protection. The sites including Wat Ratchaburana, Wat Mahathat, Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, Wat Phra Ram and Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit. The sites that are not part of World Heritage Sites are the sites outside Ayutthaya Island; for example, Wat Yai Chai Mongkon, Wat Phanan Choeng, Wat Chaiwatthanaram and Wat Phu Khao Thong.

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AYUTTHAYA

(/ɑːˈjuːtəjə/; Thai: อยุธยา, Thai pronunciation: [ʔajúttʰajaː]; also spelled Ayudhya) was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the capital, also called Ayutthaya.

In the sixteenth century, it was described by foreign traders as one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the East. The court of King Narai (1656–88) had strong links with that of King Louis XIV of France, whose ambassadors compared the city in size and wealth to Paris.

By 1550, the kingdom's vassals included some city-states in the Malay Peninsula, Sukhothai, and parts of Cambodia.

In foreign accounts, Ayutthaya was called Siam, but many sources say the people of Ayutthaya called themselves Tai, and their kingdom Krung Tai "The Tai country" (กรุงไท).

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

ORIGINS

According to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Thai state based at Ayutthaya in the valley of the Chao Phraya River rose from the earlier, nearby Lavo Kingdom (at that time, still under the control of the Khmer Empire) and Suvarnabhumi. One source says that in the mid-fourteenth century, due to the threat of an epidemic, King Uthong moved his court south into the rich floodplain of the Chao Phraya River onto an island surrounded by rivers. The name of the city indicates the influence of Hinduism in the region as it is the Thai pronunciation of the famous Indian city of Ayodhya. It is believed that this city is associated with the Thai national epic, the Ramakien, which is the Thai version of the Ramayana.

CONQUESTS AND EXPANSION

Ayutthaya began its hegemony by conquering northern kingdoms and city-states like Sukhothai,:222 Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsanulok. Before the end of the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya launched attacks on Angkor, the classical great power of the region. Angkor's influence eventually faded from the Chao Phraya River Plain while Ayutthaya became a new great power.

The emerging Kingdom of Ayutthaya was also growing powerful. Relations between the Ayutthaya and Lan Na had worsened since the Ayutthayan support of Thau Choi's rebellion In 1451, Yuttitthira, a noble of the Kingdom of Sukhothai who had conflicts with Borommatrailokkanat of Ayutthaya, gave himself to Tilokaraj. Yuttitthira urged Borommatrailokkanat to invade Phitsanulok, igniting the Ayutthaya-Lan Na War over the Upper Chao Phraya valley (the Kingdom of Sukhothai). In 1460, the governor of Chaliang surrendered to Tilokaraj. Borommatrailokkanat then used a new strategy and concentrated on the wars with Lanna by moving the capital to Phitsanulok. Lan Na suffered setbacks and Tilokaraj eventually sued for peace in 1475.

However, the kingdom of Ayutthaya was not a unified state but rather a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the king of Ayutthaya under The Circle of Power, or the mandala system, as some scholars suggested. These principalities might be ruled by members of the royal family of Ayutthaya, or by local rulers who had their own independent armies, having a duty to assist the capital when war or invasion occurred. However, it was evident that from time to time local revolts, led by local princes or kings, took place. Ayutthaya had to suppress them.

Due to the lack of succession law and a strong concept of meritocracy, whenever the succession was in dispute, princely governors or powerful dignitaries claiming their merit gathered their forces and moved on the capital to press their claims, culminating in several bloody coups.

Beginning in the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya showed an interest in the Malay Peninsula, but the great trading ports of the Malacca Sultanate contested its claims to sovereignty. Ayutthaya launched several abortive conquests against Malacca which was diplomatically and economically fortified by the military support of Ming China. In the early fifteenth century the Ming admiral Zheng He had established a base of operation in the port city, making it a strategic position the Chinese could not afford to lose to the Siamese. Under this protection, Malacca flourished, becoming one of Ayutthaya's great foes until the capture of Malacca by the Portuguese.

FIRST BURMESE WARS

Starting in the middle of 16th century, the kingdom came under repeated attacks by the Taungoo Dynasty of Burma. The Burmese–Siamese War (1547–49) began with Burmese an invasion and a failed siege of Ayutthaya. A second siege (1563–64) led by King Bayinnaung forced King Maha Chakkraphat to surrender in 1564. The royal family was taken to Bago, Burma, with the king's second son Mahinthrathirat installed as the vassal king. In 1568, Mahinthrathirat revolted when his father managed to return from Bago as a Buddhist monk. The ensuing third siege captured Ayutthaya in 1569 and Bayinnaung made Mahathammarachathirat his vassal king.

After Bayinnaung's death in 1581, uparaja Naresuan proclaimed Ayutthaya's independence in 1584. The Thai fought off repeated Burmese invasions (1584–1593), capped by an elephant duel between King Naresuan and Burmese heir-apparent Mingyi Swa in 1593 during the fourth siege of Ayutthaya in which Naresuan famously slew Mingyi Swa (observed 18 January as Royal Thai Armed Forces day). The Burmese–Siamese War (1594–1605) was a Thai attack on Burma, resulting in the capture of the Tanintharyi Region as far as Mottama in 1595 and Lan Na in 1602. Naresuan even invaded mainland Burma as far as Taungoo in 1600, but was driven back.

After Naresuan's death in 1605, northern Tanintharyi and Lan Na returned to Burmese control in 1614.

The Ayutthaya Kingdom's attempt to take over Lan Na and northern Tanintharyi in 1662–1664 failed.

Foreign trade brought Ayutthaya not only luxury items but also new arms and weapons. In the mid-seventeenth century, during King Narai's reign, Ayutthaya became very prosperous. In the eighteenth century, Ayutthaya gradually lost control over its provinces. Provincial governors exerted their power independently, and rebellions against the capital began.

SECOND BURMESE WARS

In the mid-eighteenth century, Ayutthaya again became ensnared in wars with the Burmese. The Burmese–Siamese War (1759–60) begun by the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma failed. The Burmese–Siamese War (1765–67) resulted in the sack of the city of Ayutthaya and the end of the kingdom by debellatio in April 1767.

KINGSHIP OF AYUTTHAYA KINGDOM

The kings of Ayutthaya were absolute monarchs with semi-religious status. Their authority derived from the ideologies of Hinduism and Buddhism as well as from natural leadership. The king of Sukhothai was the inspiration of Inscription 1 found in Sukhothai, which stated that King Ramkhamhaeng would hear the petition of any subject who rang the bell at the palace gate. The king was thus considered as a father by his people.

At Ayutthaya, however, the paternal aspects of kingship disappeared. The king was considered the chakkraphat (Sanskrit chakravartin) who through his adherence to the law made all the world revolve around him. According to Hindu tradition, the king is the avatar of Vishnu, destroyer of demons, who was born to be the defender of the people. The Buddhist belief in the king is as righteous ruler (Sanskrit: dharmaraja), aiming at the well-being of the people and who strictly follows the teaching of Gautama Buddha.

The kings' official names were reflections of those religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. They were considered as the incarnation of various Hindu gods: Indra, Shiva or Vishnu (Rama). The coronation ceremony was directed by brahmins as the Hindu god Shiva was "lord of the universe". However, according to the codes, the king had the ultimate duty as protector of the people and the annihilator of evil.

According to Buddhism, the king was also believed to be a bodhisattva. One of the most important duties of the king was to build a temple or a Buddha statue as a symbol of prosperity and peace.

For locals, another aspect of the kingship was also the analogy of "The Lord of the Land" or "He who Rules the Earth" (Phra Chao Phaendin). According to the court etiquette, a special language, Rachasap (Sanskrit: Rājāśabda, "Royal Language"), was used to communicate with or about royalty. In Ayutthaya, the king was said to grant control over land to his subjects, from nobles to commoners, according to the Sakna or Sakdina system codified by King Borommatrailokkanat (1448–88). The Sakdina system was similar to, but not the same as feudalism, under which the monarch does not own the land. While there is no concrete evidence that this land management system constituted a formal palace economy, the French François-Timoléon de Choisy, who came to Ayutthaya in 1685, wrote, "the king has absolute power. He is truly the god of the Siamese: no-one dares to utter his name." Another 17th-century writer, the Dutchman Jan van Vliet, remarked that the King of Siam was "honoured and worshipped by his subjects second to god." Laws and orders were issued by the king. For sometimes the king himself was also the highest judge who judged and punished important criminals such as traitors or rebels.[

In addition to the Sakdina system, another of the numerous institutional innovations of Borommatrailokkanat was to adopt the position of uparaja, translated as "viceroy" or "prince", usually held by the king's senior son or full brother, in an attempt to regularise the succession to the throne - a particularly difficult feat for a polygamous dynasty. In practice, there was inherent conflict between king and uparaja and frequent disputed successions. However, it is evident that the power of the Throne of Ayutthaya had its limit. The hegemony of the Ayutthaya king was always based on his charisma in terms of his age and supporters. Without supporters, bloody coups took place from time to time. The most powerful figures of the capital were always generals, or the Minister of Military Department, Kalahom. During the last century of Ayutthaya, the bloody fighting among princes and generals, aiming at the throne, plagued the court.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

THE REFORMS OF KING

Borommatrailokkanat (r.1448–1488) placed the king of Ayutthaya at the centre of a highly stratified social and political hierarchy that extended throughout the realm. Despite a lack of evidence, it is believed that in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the basic unit of social organisation was the village community composed of extended family households. Title to land resided with the headman, who held it in the name of the community, although peasant proprietors enjoyed the use of land as long as they cultivated it. The lords gradually became courtiers (อำมาตย์) and tributary rulers of minor cities. The king ultimately came to be recognised as the earthly incarnation of Shiva or Vishnu and became the sacred object of politico-religious cult practices officiated over by royal court brahmans, part of the Buddhist court retinue. In the Buddhist context, the devaraja (divine king) was a bodhisattva. The belief in divine kingship prevailed into the eighteenth century, although by that time its religious implications had limited impact.With ample reserves of land available for cultivation, the realm depended on the acquisition and control of adequate manpower for farm labour and defence. The dramatic rise of Ayutthaya had entailed constant warfare and, as none of the parties in the region possessed a technological advantage, the outcome of battles was usually determined by the size of the armies. After each victorious campaign, Ayutthaya carried away a number of conquered people to its own territory, where they were assimilated and added to the labour force. Ramathibodi II (r.1491–1529) established a corvée system under which every freeman had to be registered as a phrai (servant) with the local lords, Chao Nai (เจ้านาย). When war broke out, male phrai were subject to impressment. Above the phrai was a nai (นาย), who was responsible for military service, corvée labour on public works, and on the land of the official to whom he was assigned. Phrai Suay (ไพร่ส่วย) met labour obligations by paying a tax. If he found the forced labour under his nai repugnant, he could sell himself as a that (ทาส, slave) to a more attractive nai or lord, who then paid a fee in compensation for the loss of corvée labour. As much as one-third of the manpower supply into the nineteenth century was composed of phrai. Wealth, status, and political influence were interrelated. The king allotted rice fields to court officials, provincial governors, military commanders, in payment for their services to the crown, according to the sakdi na system. The size of each official's allotment was determined by the number of commoners or phrai he could command to work it. The amount of manpower a particular headman, or official, could command determined his status relative to others in the hierarchy and his wealth. At the apex of the hierarchy, the king, who was symbolically the realm's largest landholder, theoretically commanded the services of the largest number of phrai, called phrai luang (royal servants), who paid taxes, served in the royal army, and worked on the crown lands.

However, the recruitment of the armed forces depended on nai, or mun nai, literally meaning 'lord', officials who commanded their own phrai som, or subjects. These officials had to submit to the king's command when war broke out. Officials thus became the key figures to the kingdom's politics. At least two officials staged coups, taking the throne themselves while bloody struggles between the king and his officials, followed by purges of court officials, were always seen.

King Trailok, in the early sixteenth century, established definite allotments of land and phrai for the royal officials at each rung in the hierarchy, thus determining the country's social structure until the introduction of salaries for government officials in the nineteenth century.

Outside this system to some extent were the sangha (Buddhist monastic community), which all classes of men could join, and the Overseas Chinese. Wats became centres of Thai education and culture, while during this period the Chinese first began to settle in Thailand and soon began to establish control over the country's economic life.

The Chinese were not obliged to register for corvée duty, so they were free to move about the kingdom at will and engage in commerce. By the sixteenth century, the Chinese controlled Ayutthaya's internal trade and had found important places in the civil and military service. Most of these men took Thai wives because few women left China to accompany the men.

Uthong was responsible for the compilation of a Dharmaśāstra, a legal code based on Hindu sources and traditional Thai custom. The Dharmaśāstra remained a tool of Thai law until late in the 19th century. A bureaucracy based on a hierarchy of ranked and titled officials was introduced, and society was organised in a related manner. However, the caste system was not adopted.

The sixteenth century witnessed the rise of Burma, which had overrun Chiang Mai and Laos and made war on the Thai. In 1569, Burmese forces, joined by Thai rebels, mostly royal family members of Thailand, captured the city of Ayutthaya and carried off the whole royal family to Burma. Dhammaraja (1569–90), a Thai governor who had aided the Burmese, was installed as vassal king at Ayutthaya. Thai independence was restored by his son, King Naresuan (1590–1605), who turned on the Burmese and by 1600 had driven them from the country.

Determined to prevent another treason like his father's, Naresuan set about unifying the country's administration directly under the royal court at Ayutthaya. He ended the practice of nominating royal princes to govern Ayutthaya's provinces, assigning instead court officials who were expected to execute policies handed down by the king. Thereafter royal princes were confined to the capital. Their power struggles continued, but at court under the king's watchful eye.

To ensure his control over the new class of governors, Naresuan decreed that all freemen subject to phrai service had become phrai luang, bound directly to the king, who distributed the use of their services to his officials. This measure gave the king a theoretical monopoly on all manpower, and the idea developed that since the king owned the services of all the people, he also possessed all the land. Ministerial offices and governorships - and the sakdina that went with them - were usually inherited positions dominated by a few families often connected to the king by marriage. Indeed, marriage was frequently used by Thai kings to cement alliances between themselves and powerful families, a custom prevailing through the nineteenth century. As a result of this policy, the king's wives usually numbered in the dozens.

Even with Naresuan's reforms, the effectiveness of the royal government over the next 150 years was unstable. Royal power outside the crown lands - although in theory absolute - was in practice limited by the looseness of the civil administration. The influence of central government and the king was not extensive beyond the capital. When war with the Burmese broke out in late eighteenth century, provinces easily abandoned the capital. As the enforcing troops were not easily rallied to defend the capital, the city of Ayutthaya could not stand against the Burmese aggressors.

RELIGION

Ayutthaya's main religion was Theravada Buddhism. However, many of the elements of the political and social system were incorporated from Hindu scriptures and were conducted by Brahmin priests. Many areas of the kingdom also practised Mahayana Buddhism, Islam and, influenced by French Missionaries who arrived through China in the 17th century, some small areas converted to Roman Catholicism. The influence of Mahayana and Tantric prractices also entered Theravada Buddhism, producing a tradition called Tantric Theravada.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The Thais never lacked a rich food supply. Peasants planted rice for their own consumption and to pay taxes. Whatever remained was used to support religious institutions. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, however, a remarkable transformation took place in Thai rice cultivation. In the highlands, where rainfall had to be supplemented by a system of irrigation that controlled the water level in flooded paddies, the Thais sowed the glutinous rice that is still the staple in the geographical regions of the North and Northeast. But in the floodplain of the Chao Phraya, farmers turned to a different variety of rice - the so-called floating rice, a slender, non-glutinous grain introduced from Bengal - that would grow fast enough to keep pace with the rise of the water level in the lowland fields.

The new strain grew easily and abundantly, producing a surplus that could be sold cheaply abroad. Ayutthaya, situated at the southern extremity of the floodplain, thus became the hub of economic activity. Under royal patronage, corvée labour dug canals on which rice was brought from the fields to the king's ships for export to China. In the process, the Chao Phraya - mud flats between the sea and firm land hitherto considered unsuitable for habitation - was reclaimed and placed under cultivation. Traditionally the king had a duty to perform a religious ceremony blessing the rice plantation.

Although rice was abundant in Ayutthaya, rice export was banned from time to time when famine occurred because of natural calamity or war. Rice was usually bartered for luxury goods and armaments from westerners, but rice cultivation was mainly for the domestic market and rice export was evidently unreliable. Trade with Europeans was lively in the seventeenth century. In fact European merchants traded their goods, mainly modern arms such as rifles and cannons, with local products from the inland jungle such as sapan (lit. bridge) woods, deerskin and rice. Tomé Pires, a Portuguese voyager, mentioned in the sixteenth century that Ayutthaya, or Odia, was rich in good merchandise. Most of the foreign merchants coming to Ayutthaya were European and Chinese, and were taxed by the authorities. The kingdom had an abundance of rice, salt, dried fish, arrack and vegetables.

Trade with foreigners, mainly the Dutch, reached its peak in the seventeenth century. Ayutthaya became a main destination for merchants from China and Japan. It was apparent that foreigners began taking part in the kingdom's politics. Ayutthayan kings employed foreign mercenaries who sometimes entered the wars with the kingdom's enemies. However, after the purge of the French in late seventeenth century, the major traders with Ayutthaya were the Chinese. The Dutch from the Dutch East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC), were still active. Ayutthaya's economy declined rapidly in the eighteenth century, until the Burmese invasion caused the total collapse of Ayutthaya's economy in 1788.

CONTACTS WITH THE WEST

In 1511, immediately after having conquered Malacca, the Portuguese sent a diplomatic mission headed by Duarte Fernandes to the court of King Ramathibodi II of Ayutthaya. Having established amicable relations between the kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Siam, they returned with a Siamese envoy with gifts and letters to the King of Portugal. They were the first Europeans to visit the country. Five years after that initial contact, Ayutthaya and Portugal concluded a treaty granting the Portuguese permission to trade in the kingdom. A similar treaty in 1592 gave the Dutch a privileged position in the rice trade.

Foreigners were cordially welcomed at the court of Narai (1657–1688), a ruler with a cosmopolitan outlook who was nonetheless wary of outside influence. Important commercial ties were forged with Japan. Dutch and English trading companies were allowed to establish factories, and Thai diplomatic missions were sent to Paris and The Hague. By maintaining all these ties, the Thai court skilfully played off the Dutch against the English and the French, avoiding the excessive influence of a single power.

In 1664, however, the Dutch used force to exact a treaty granting them extraterritorial rights as well as freer access to trade. At the urging of his foreign minister, the Greek adventurer Constantine Phaulkon, Narai turned to France for assistance. French engineers constructed fortifications for the Thais and built a new palace at Lopburi for Narai. In addition, French missionaries engaged in education and medicine and brought the first printing press into the country. Louis XIV's personal interest was aroused by reports from missionaries suggesting that Narai might be converted to Christianity.

The French presence encouraged by Phaulkon, however, stirred the resentment and suspicions of the Thai nobles and Buddhist clergy. When word spread that Narai was dying, a general, Phetracha, killed the designated heir, a Christian, and had Phaulkon put to death along with a number of missionaries. The arrival of English warships provoked a massacre of more Europeans. Phetracha (reigned 1688–93) seized the throne and expelled the remaining foreigners. Some studies said that Ayutthaya began a period of alienation from western traders, while welcoming more Chinese merchants. But other recent studies argue that, due to wars and conflicts in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century, European merchants reduced their activities in the East. However, it was apparent that the Dutch East Indies Company or VOC was still doing business in Ayutthaya despite political difficulties.

THE FINAL PHASE

After a bloody period of dynastic struggle, Ayutthaya entered into what has been called the golden age, a relatively peaceful episode in the second quarter of the eighteenth century when art, literature, and learning flourished. There were foreign wars. Ayutthaya fought with the Nguyễn Lords (Vietnamese rulers of South Vietnam) for control of Cambodia starting around 1715. But a greater threat came from Burma, where the new Alaungpaya dynasty had subdued the Shan states.

The last fifty years of the kingdom witnessed a bloody struggle among the princes. The throne was their prime target. Purges of court officials and able generals followed. The last monarch, Ekathat, originally known as Prince Anurakmontree, forced the king, who was his younger brother, to step down and took the throne himself.

According to a French source, Ayutthaya in the eighteenth century comprised these principal cities: Martaban, Ligor or Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Tenasserim, Jungceylon or Phuket Island, Singora or Songkhla. Her tributaries were Patani, Pahang, Perak, Kedah and Malacca.

In 1765, a combined 40,000-strong force of Burmese armies invaded the territories of Ayutthaya from the north and west. Major outlying towns quickly capitulated. The only notable example of successful resistance to these forces was found at the village of Bang Rajan. After a 14 months' siege, the city of Ayutthaya capitulated and was burned in April 1767. Ayutthaya's art treasures, the libraries containing its literature, and the archives housing its historic records were almost totally destroyed, and the Burmese brought the Ayutthaya Kingdom to ruin.

The Burmese rule lasted a mere few months. The Burmese, who had also been fighting a simultaneous war with the Chinese since 1765, were forced to withdraw in early 1768 when the Chinese forces threatened their own capital.

With most Burmese forces having withdrawn, the country was reduced to chaos. All that remained of the old capital were some ruins of the royal palace. Provinces proclaimed independence under generals, rogue monks, and members of the royal family.

One general, Phraya Taksin, former governor of Taak, began the reunification effort. He gathered forces and began striking back at the Burmese. He finally established a capital at Thonburi, across the Chao Phraya from the present capital, Bangkok. Taak-Sin ascended the throne, becoming known as King Taak-Sin or Taksin.

The ruins of the historic city of Ayutthaya and "associated historic towns" in the Ayutthaya historical park have been listed by the UNESCO as World Heritage Site. The city of Ayutthaya was refounded near the old city, and is now capital of the Ayutthaya province.

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Scott Bourne is a man on the brink. He’s exasperated, pissed off and wants you to know why. But buried beneath the pile of resentment lies a glimmer of hope. His interview, the most candid and powerful this magazine has ever run, lies within.

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Drawn from the only photographs of myself that I have ever looked at and saw as unhealthy. It's embarrassing to look at yourself and realize that your body looks decades older than it is. Yet my identification with these drawings is tinged with resentment because I enjoyed my body then, even if it looked aged and tired and unappealing. I don't like the youthful rigor of my skin now that I am a healthier weight. Looking at myself in old photographs I don't know if I am feeling horror or envy or both.

Coptic Christians in Cairo Egypt living in El Zabaleen, or garbage city. For generations families would work together to collect all the rubbish from the streets of Cairo and take it back to their homes. They then sift and sort through all the items which are then sold on to merchants. 85% of all solid waste is thus recycled from the city.

Families used to own pigs that used to eat the organic waste but everyone of them was slaughtered during 2009 during the outbreak of the H1N1 'swine' flu, even though there were no cases reported in Egypt. It was the only country that carried out a mass cull, and was also reported that it was done in an inhumane manner. This increased tension and resentment with the Government.

You make me do too much labour

All day, every day, therapist, mother, maid

Nymph, then a virgin, nurse, then a servant

Just an appendage, live to attend him

So that he never lifts a finger

24/7 baby machine

So he can live out his picket-fence dreams

It's not an act of love if you make her

You make me do too much labour

Her mother always told Jessica her past relatives were such strong women, even when they couldn’t act like they wanted, even when they didn’t had any rights, even when times were dark, the Fee’s women remained strong willed, they never let any men step on them.

🌾🌾🌾

As I always say, I had this pic in mind for the longest, but actually I did, like for months, I started listening to Labour a while ago (thanks bf ❤️) and I was hypnotized by that choir, that verse so full of resentment, of frustration, makes my skin shivers I swear you!

It’s not the very same picture I had in mind but I tent to imagine pretty impossible photos so they always look different that I envisioned 😂 anyway I really hope you like it! There is almost no edition, I literally draw all the details by hand! ✋

Artist statement: In 1980, the song “The Wall II,” from Pink Floyd’s album The Wall, with its haunting chorus of school children singing “we don’t need no education,” was adopted as a protest anthem by black students during the “Elsie’s River” uprising in South Africa, protesting against the institutionalized propaganda and racial bias in the official curriculum. The song, album, and movie were banned by the apartheid government.

While Pink Floyd’s album and movie contained numerous metaphors, the one that has the most resonance for me in terms of the notion of censorship has to do with education. Ironically, the commentary about education in Britain, which was very similar to what I experienced in South Africa, was what caused the government to ultimately censor the music.

I was able to get my hands on a bootlegged copy of the movie as a teenager, and was blown away by the music, direction and cinematography. It spoke to me on so many levels. I remember feeling immediate resentment that I was being deprived of this sort of critical thinking. How could this be banned? Why? (No official reason was given at the time, but in the movie, a young boy fantasizes about the students rising up and burning down the school after he is hit on the hands with a ruler by a teacher—a fate I suffered on numerous occasions.)

The recreation of the album cover, which was a white wall containing the words “The Wall,” speaks to the extent to which censorship builds impenetrable walls that separate expression from a speaker and his or her intended audience, through the mind of a child.

All Rights Reserved - California Exhibition Resources Alliance

One interesting aspect of the raids on Merseyside during the war was the initial reluctance of even the local press to report what was happening to the city in detail. This example of a newspaper cutting comes from the Liverpool Daily Post of the 18th September 1940.

It talks about a recent raid on a "North Western coastal town" but provides very few clues as to where this might be, or full extent of the horror visited on the town that night. Some clues can be gained from reading the article however, we know that the raid took place on the 17th, on a day when three seperate raids took place, one of which must have occurred in the evening but whilst it was still light, which broadly speaking matches what we know about the raids on Liverpool for that date.

Further confirmation comes from the research of John Hughes in his excellent book "Port in a Storm" which deals with Liverpool during the May Blitz in great detail. He states that the city was often referred to by that vague title.

As John points out, this was partly because the press had been issued a Whitehall communique instructing them to not provide specific details that could be helpful to the enemy in assessing the impact of their raids. Part of this was an instruction to supress the names of towns that were attacked, but specifically stated that larger cities such as London and Liverpool were to be excluded from this rule.

By late September this problem had been corrected and Liverpool began to be mentioned regularly by name in both the national and local press, but for some the damage had already been done. Other less prominent targets such as Birkenhead, Wallasey and Crosby were not mentioned by name however.

This blackout of names, whether it be temporary in the case of Liverpool, or permanent in the case of the surrounding towns caused some resentment in the area. People were frustrated that their resilience was not being recognised. The press seemed full of articles about how Londoners could "take it" and their bravery, but sadly lacking in similar stories about places and people they knew.

It did not help either that press censorship and innacurate casualty estimates meant that some raids were reported with terms such as "but casualties were reported as remarkably light" when locals knew full well that they were not. That particular quote for example followed the raid of the 28th/29th November 1940, which witnessed what Churchill described as "the worst single incident of the entire war".

Coupled with the fact that the raids on Merseyside did not feature in any of the cinema newsreels of the time (unlike Manchester or Coventry) it left many locals feeling frustrated and ignored, a feeling that persisted after the war. It eventually transofrmed itself into a myth that the city was never mentioned by name in the press at the time. As we have seen this is untrue, but for the people of the towns I covered in my second book - Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bootle and Crosby it was all to painfully correct.

Antwerp/Antwerpen/Anvers

Belgium/Belgie/Belgique

March 9, 2011

Antwerp is a most cosmopolitan city. There seems to be a certain indescribable ennui throughout much of Belgium- but not in Antwerp. There is a causal sophistication here. Unlike Bruges, which is stuck in time, and Brussels which seems to have lost its identity in its role on the international stage, Antwerp is vibrating through another golden age.

The area has been settled at least since the Roman era, but really rose to prominence in the 1500’s after the Zwin River silted up and Bruges’ economy collapsed. If Bruges was an incredibly prosperous port whose realm of trade stretched throughout medieval Europe and the Levant, Antwerp was a port of intercontinental scale- one of the first such ports in the world. As part of the Spanish Empire, it brought in goods from as far as the Americas and Asia. Some sources say that in the early 1500’s, Antwerp saw up to 40 percent of global trade, and was one of the largest cities in Europe.

This, of course, is where the city’s cosmopolitanism originated. Merchants from across Europe set up shop in Antwerp, and the spirit of tolerance inherent in most port cities attracted a large population of orthodox Jews. And, as always, wealth attracted the arts, including some of the most prominent painters and musicians of the Northern Renaissance.

Despite this boom period, there was a great underlying tension rising. The Low Countries became swept up by the Protestant Reformation and by a growing resentment of Spanish rule. Violence erupted in 1566, with the Iconoclastic Fury, in which Protestants ransacked towns and churches, destroying Catholic icons. A reason why many Medieval churches in Belgium have interiors adorned in the style of the Renaissance and the Baroque is that so many of the items made before 1566 were lost. The fiercely Catholic Spanish came down hard, and thus began the Eighty Years’ War which resulted in the independence of the Netherlands.

As a city at the heart of the Dutch Revolt, Antwerp suffered mightily. In November of 1576, Spanish troops sacked the city, plundering property and killing 6,000 residents - an event which became known the “Spanish Fury”. In 1585, Spain took full control of Antwerp and expelled the Protestants to the north. The population was reduced by half, and Amsterdam became the new center of international trade.

After this, the city fell into a long period of decline and was revived only in the early 19th century, when Napoleon invested in upgrading the long-neglected port (which the British attempted to capture in a disastrous campaign). In the 1890’s, Antwerp hosted a World’s Fair, and in 1920, the Olympics. The city was heavily damaged by German bombs in WW2, but today is on the rise once again- today ranking among the top 20 of busiest ports in the world- certainly larger than the port of New York. Standing on the bank of the River Scheldt, one can see shipping facilities stretching to beyond the horizon.

And once again, Antwerp is a cosmopolitan place. There is a diverse immigrant community, the arts have returned, and the city is taking a seat among the most prominent fashion centers of the world. 80 percent of the world’s rough diamonds pass through its diamond markets (unfortunately though, this includes many blood diamonds).

In short, there is a lot of action here. By day, the streets bustle with a certain vibrancy and lust for life. By night, bars and restaurants host a sophisticated conviviality. It feels like a new city.

It’s interesting how history works though. Walking at dusk through the Grote Markt, with its magnificent Golden Age houses of trade, under the sublime carillon of the Cathedral, you realize that, though the faces and much of the cityscape have changed, it is, in essence, the same city it was half a millennium ago.

My heart

confined in the

aftermath of war.

War of feelings

shipwrecked

a blind man.

Who can ever tell

the cause?

And would there

be a remedy?

My mind an endless meadow

now merely

a lawn.

Once stretched to infinity

now confined by

fences of resentment.

CHAHAR DARREH, AFGHANISTAN - MAY 27: Soldiers of the 2nd Infantery Company observe a field on May 27, 2010 in Chahar Darreh, Afghanistan. Germany has more than 4,500 military forces in Afghanistan as part of the US-led International Security Assistance Force. Amid growing public resentment towards the prolonged mission in Afghanistan, the German parliament, the Bundestag, voted in February for extension of Germany's military mission in Afghanistan and the deployment of additional 859 troops.

Coptic Christians in Cairo Egypt living in El Zabaleen, or garbage city. For generations families would work together to collect all the rubbish from the streets of Cairo and take it back to their homes. They then sift and sort through all the items which are then sold on to merchants. 85% of all solid waste is thus recycled from the city.

Families used to own pigs that used to eat the organic waste but everyone of them was slaughtered during 2009 during the outbreak of the H1N1 'swine' flu, even though there were no cases reported in Egypt. It was the only country that carried out a mass cull, and was also reported that it was done in an inhumane manner. This increased tension and resentment with the Government.

The woman bends backward as a sign of defeat. The backward bend shows the flexibility, balance and grace of the actor.

"The hannya mask is specifically used to represent a vengeful and jealous woman. Her anger and envy have so consumed her that she has turned into a demon, but with some important traces of humanity left. The pointed horns, gleaming eyes, fang-like teeth, combined with a look of pure resentment and hate are tempered by the expression of suffering around the eyes and the artfully disarrayed strands of hair, which indicate passionate emotion thrown into disorder"

Onnagata Daigoro Tachibana dances in the spotlight. He is best remembered as the Geisha Osei in Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman (2003). Together with him is Ryouji Tachibana, the current Vice Chairman of the Troupe.

I am racing through life, utterly confused and angry. I do not know if I am out of control or just insane; it is more like I feel infuriated with myself the built up of rage, fury and similar emotions affecting my state of mind... Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? These are the questions that I face and these are the queries that I chase. – By Raqia Naeem.

Every Sunday night, I try to pull a tarot card to get some inspiration on what I should focus on this week, to help contextualize my daily draws as well. Today I drew The Star, reversed, from my Tell-Me Tarot deck. The card says "The Star = Optimism (+). All your dreams will come true. Think positively. You are radiant and could become famous." Well all right then! :) In this card, I am drawn to the figure's red and blue shawl (and the colourways depicted), and the hue of the blue in the sky. I think in general, this card means my week isn't going to be too bad- we've got a busy one, we have a radiation inspection, a board of trustees meeting, and a student doing his placement with us who will be spending some time in doing background work. It'll be busy but I don't think anything negative will result from any of it.

OK, well, that's what I thought immediately when I saw the card. Here's what "The Only Tarot Book You'll Ever Need" (Skye Alexander, Adams Media, 2008) has to say: "When the star is reversed, you are seeking your own path in a private way, without regard for the outside world." Alexander goes on to talk about feelings of aloneness, feeling withdrawn, and resentment. The Only Tarot Book suggests that I need some alone time to re-energize. Well, I can see how this applies to me immediately, but not necessarily how it applies to me for the week ahead- today, I did an extra day at work and feel a little low-key and drained as a result.

Namibia.

Swakopmund.

Mondesa township.

Video of the township with locals singing and dancing

The township tour offers a chance to experience the cultures of Mondesa, a large township in the heart of Swakopmund.

Mondesa is a township in Swakopmund started in 1960 by the then South African government. Approximately two-thirds of Swakopmund’s population apparently resides in Mondesa. Mondesa includes an informal settlement housing some 6,000 people at it’s eastern periphery.

read more about the housing scheme in the township

Members of distinct Namibian ethnic groups inhabit the townships, and under apartheid’s “divide and rule” policy, they were kept separate enough from one other that each tribe has retained its own language, beliefs, cuisine and dress. As well as enforcing curfews to keep the residents apart, the government treated each tribe differently to foster resentment between them. To unite could have led to them overthrowing the minority white powers. So the Ovambo people, numbering just over half the population, were given tiny houses and communal toilets. The Herero enjoyed three bedroom bungalows with inside bathrooms. And the Damara were placed in two bedroom housed with shared toilets. They were pitted against each other.

lanomadita.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/apartness-and-forgive...

The Pershing County Courthouse in Lovelock, Nevada is a Classical Revival building built in 1920-21. The courthouse's plan is hexagonal with a circular dome over the central circular courtroom. The building was designed by Frederic Joseph DeLongchamps, who had previously designed six other Nevada courthouses. DeLongchamps was involved in the design of a new courthouse for Humboldt County, where the old courthouse had burned. As a result of resentment over assessments for the replacement in Winnemucca, the new Pershing County was created from part of Humboldt County and its seat established in Lovelock. DeLongchamps, as Supervising Architect for the State of Nevada, undertook the new Lovelock courthouse.

The courthouse features a shallow Ionic portico on a raised basement backed by a plain rectangular mass. Behind this is the hexagonal main body of the courthouse, built with curving walls. A shallow dome, reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia Library, crowns the central courtroom. The primary building materials are brick with stone trim and terra cotta detailing. Construction cost amounted to $99,138.68.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pershing_County_Courthouse

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

Are you familiar with America's #T_H_U_G_L_I_F_E Culture of African American Child Abuse & Neglect the late American story-TRUTH-teller Tupac Shakur, as well as many of his urban story-truth-teller peers vividly describe in their American artistry or public interviews?

"The Hate U Give Little Infants Fvvks Everyone" ~Tupac Shakur

Are you aware of the #A_F_R_E_C_A_N remedy for the #T_H_U_G_L_I_F_E experienced, through no fault of their own, by significant numbers of American children and teens?

"America’s Firm Resolve to End Childhood Abuse and Neglect”

medium.com/@AveryJarhman/tupac-addresses-african-american...

medium.com/@AveryJarhman/lets-talk-kendrick-lamar-gangs-g...

Peace.

___

Tagged: #JamylaBolden, #TyshawnLee, #RamiyaReed, #AvaCastillo, #JulieDombo, #LaylahPetersen, #LavontayWhite, #NovaMarieGallman, #AyannaAllen, #AutumnPasquale, #RamiyaReed, #TrinityGay, #ChildhoodTrauma, #Poverty, #ChildAbuse, #ChildhoodMaltreatment, #ChildNeglect, #ChildhoodDepression, #TeenDepression, #TeenViolence, #GunViolence, #GangViolence, #CommunityViolence, #CommunityFear, #PTSD, #PoliceAnxiety, #TeacherEducatorFrustration, #CognitiveDissonance, #KendrickLamar, #TupacShakur, #EmotionalIllness, #MentalHealth, #MentalIllness, #FatherlessAmericanChildren, #ShamirHunter, #DemeaningGovernmentHandouts, #Resentment, #MATERNALRESPONSIBILITY, #DonaldTrump, #HRC, #BarackObama, #MichelleObama, #ObamaAdministration, #ObamaWhiteHouse, #WillfulIgnorance, #AmericanSociety, #Racism, #T_H_U_G_L_I_F_E, #Solutions>>>, #A_F_R_E_C_A_N,

"America’s Firm Resolve to End Childhood Abuse and Neglect”

Del Rey Ballentine, 1983, pb

comments by CR:

The Andre Norton novel "Star Gate" first published in 1958, in an intricately crafted science-fiction story employing the theme of alternative history.

The plot of this story concerns an interstellar expedition to an inhabited world and the unintended harmful consequence that result. The planet Gorth is primary agrarian ruled by hereditary clans. Various city-states with a technological level akin to England in the middle ages joust for supremacy. Over the course of generations the "Star Lords" interbreed with the native human stock producing mix breed offspring who acquire some knowledge of the superior technology of the Star Lords. Native fears, resentment and anger cause the majority of the Star Lords to eventually leave Gorth in their starships. A small remnant of Star Lord remain but despairing they can erases the negative consequences of their presence decide to escape to an alternate Gorth in a "Star Gate" accompanied by several of their mixed breed children. The bulk of the novel concerns the attempt by the gate travelers to rectify an appalling political situations found on the "new" Gorth.

Ms. Norton elaborates upon the concept that propels this story in her introduction to the novel. I will summarize her scheme using selected quotes from her Prologue: "History is not a collection of facts; it is a spiders web of ifs. If the American colonies had lost the Revolution, if the South and not the North had won the Civil War...the procession of such ifs is endless, exciting the imagination and spurring infinite speculation. There is a fascinating theory that two worlds branch from every bit of destiny action. Hence there are far reaching bands of parallel worlds born of many historical choices. Thus if some means of communication could be devised a man might travel not backwards or forward in time but across it to visit, for example, a world were England rules the entire North American continent." The "means of communication" her star traveling adventures employs is a "Star Gate" mechanism, a featured element of the book by the same title.

One theme that plays a critical role throughout this book is religion. Both the Star Lords and the Gorths have a similar belief system. How this can be is never explained but like many of Norton's novels there is usually a sequel where all is made somewhat clearer. Unfortunately in this case there was no follow up novel.

This is an exceptional story and a fine example of Ms. Norton's admirable writing ability and plotting.

...in the world is the energy we get back. So if you want more love in your life, set your intention to be more loving. If you seek kindness, focus your energy on empathy and compassion. Conversely, if you wonder why there are so many angry people in your life, look no further than the resentment you hold in your own heart.”

― Oprah Winfrey, The Wisdom of Sundays: Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/56194706-the-wisdom-of-sund...

Setting: Medieval/Feudal

Despite her demon blood lines, Dorothy was a sweet girl. If it wasn't for her ears and tail, no one would even be able to tell that demon blood ran through her veins. Growing up in a constant war for survival, Dorothy hid her demon half behind a bubbly, optimistic personality, in her own resentment towards her demon blood. She always seemed to smile despite being as clumsy as she is, which also caused her to almost constantly find herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Though many think her to be too naive for her own good, or figure her to be too weak to waste their time, but when threatened her demon side tends to surface despite her constant battle to keep it hidden.

ICU

By Fielding Edlow

Directed by Brian Shnipper

World Premiere production

Performances Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00pm, Sundays at 7:00pm

September 25 - October 31, 2015

Photos by Jeff Galfer

An obnoxious, caustic, oblivious New York family has to deal with their dying son and a complete stranger who insists on making an “amend.” Can they suppress their resentment toward each other––and toward their son’s irascible charge nurse––long enough to hear a cry for help?

Featuring Caroline Aaron, Shaun Anthony, Tony DeCarlo, Dagney Kerr, Ericka Kreutz, Joe Pacheco, Doug Sutherland

Producers: Tim Wright and Jennifer A. Skinner

Assistant Director: Sam Sonenshine

Stage Manager: Cassandra Scott

Set Design: Amanda Knehans

Lighting Designer: Ric Zimmerman

Costume Designer: Dianne Graebner

Sound Designer: Jeff Gardner

Props: Bethany Tucker

Location: Atwater Village Theatre, Theatre #4, 3269 Casitas Ave., LA CA 90039

The Liberation Monument ("Russian monument")

(Further pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Officially, one can find various names: (Russian) Liberation Monument, Russian War Memorial and Monument of the Red Army. The Viennese call the towering monument at the southern end of the Black Mountain course (Schwarzenbergplatz) usually disparaging "Russian monument (Russendenkmal)".

The monument commemorating the 18,000 in the liberation of Vienna fallen soldiers of the Red Army was designed by Major Intazarin, the sculptures were created by Lieutenant Jakoviev. The overall direction of the yet in April 1945 ordered and as first monument building after the war completed structure had major Ing. Mikhail Scheinfeld. In the construction were temporarily 400 workers involved, 18 tons of bronze and 300 cubic meters of marble were used. The monument was on 19 August 1945 with the assistance of Karl Renner, Leopold Figl and Theodor Körner unveiled on then so designated Stalin Square.

On a in total 20 m high, marble-clad base, the lower part in the form of a five-pointed red star, decorated with flags and guard badges, stands the 12 m tall figure of a Red Army soldier. The soldier is wearing a gold helmet and the famous Russian submachine gun with rotary magazine. With his left hand he has the flag with the right hand he holds a round shield with the Soviet coat of arms. In the background arises a broad, eight meter high balustrade, at its end respectively one group of two fighting men is situated, a prime example of the style of socialist realism, which gradually has become an art-historical rarity.

One of the inscriptions in Russian only in the early 80s have been translated into German and is:

"Eternal glory to the heroes of the Red Army, killed in action against the German-fascist invaders for the freedom and independence of the peoples of Europe (Mikhalkov)".

Until 1956, there were also graves of Soviet soldiers in the area, and a Soviet tank stood before the monument.

The monument is in the custody of the City of Vienna. As is generally known, Austria is according to the detailed provisions of Article 19 of the State Treaty of 15 May 1955 committed war graves and war memorials of the Allied Powers on Austrian soil "to respect, to protect and to preserve".

Between 1945 and 1956 stood in front of the fountain on the former "Stalin Square" a Russian tank, which is now in the Museum of Military History.

=> Marschik/Spital, Vienna The Russians monument, architecture, history, conflicts, Vienna, 2005

=> Hannes Leidinger/Verena Moritz, Russian Vienna, Böhlau, Vienna, 2004, 182 f

Sometimes leads the memory to the bad experiences which have been made by Austrian people with the occupation forces - particularly the Soviet - ​​in the ten years of Allied occupation to open resentment against monuments such as the "Russian monument". Nevertheless - the greater the distance from the war and post-war period is, the more one had to give account about the fact how much innocent blood just the peoples of the former Soviet Union have sacrificed in the fight against Hitler's rule, and how little the Austrian people to its own liberation has contributed. Such thoughts have got to come to one's mind when one takes some time to decipher the Cyrillic letters of gold on a "Russian monument" - whether on that at Vienna Schwarzenberg Square or somewhere out in the vast realms of Lower Austria, where up to the Waldviertel (part of Lower Austria) little Soviet military cemeteries exist.

A survey by the Gallup Institute, published in the "standard" on 11th February 1992 shows that 71% of Viennes people do know the monument. A clear majority (59 %) is for the preservation of the monument. Only 9% of the 1,000 respondents agreed with the opinion that the monument should be eliminated as a remnant of Stalinism. So, have the Austrians made peace with the contemporary history?

Hochstrahlbrunnen

Before the liberation monument arises the to the occasion of the completion of the First Vienna Mountain Spring Pipeline on 24th October 1873 in the presence of the emperor put into operation Hochstrahlbrunnen (high jet fountain), which should have been standing according to the original plans in front of the Votive Church, then opposite the New Town Hall. The builder of the aqueduct and the fountain, Anton Gabrielli, was a friend of astronomy. Accordingly, symbolizes the respective number of the jets of water the days of the year, the months, the days of the month, the days of the week and the hours of the day.

peter-diem.at/Monumente/russen.htm

The Pershing County Courthouse in Lovelock, Nevada is a Classical Revival building built in 1920-21. The courthouse's plan is hexagonal with a circular dome over the central circular courtroom. The building was designed by Frederic Joseph DeLongchamps, who had previously designed six other Nevada courthouses. DeLongchamps was involved in the design of a new courthouse for Humboldt County, where the old courthouse had burned. As a result of resentment over assessments for the replacement in Winnemucca, the new Pershing County was created from part of Humboldt County and its seat established in Lovelock. DeLongchamps, as Supervising Architect for the State of Nevada, undertook the new Lovelock courthouse.

The courthouse features a shallow Ionic portico on a raised basement backed by a plain rectangular mass. Behind this is the hexagonal main body of the courthouse, built with curving walls. A shallow dome, reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia Library, crowns the central courtroom. The primary building materials are brick with stone trim and terra cotta detailing. Construction cost amounted to $99,138.68.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pershing_County_Courthouse

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham (c. 1510–1573), English Lord High Admiral, was the son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk by his second wife Agnes Tilney (d. May, 1545), daughter of Hugh Tilney of Boston and Eleanor Tailboys. Agnes was Elizabeth Tilney's first cousin.

He was popular with Henry VIII of England, and was deputy Earl Marshal at the coronation of Anne Boleyn. Anne was daughter to his elder half-sister Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire.

William was sent on missions to Scotland and France. But in 1541, William was charged with abetting Catherine Howard, his niece and fifth Queen consort of Henry VIII, in committing adultery, and was convicted of misprision of treason, but pardoned.

He was made governor of Calais in 1552 and Lord High Admiral in 1553. He was created Baron Howard of Effingham in 1554 for his defence of London in the rebellion of Thomas Wyatt the younger against Mary I of England.

He befriended the Princess Elizabeth Tudor, but his popularity with the navy saved him from the resentment of Mary. When the princess became Queen Elizabeth I, William had great influence with her and filled several important posts.

William married Margaret Gamage, daughter of Sir Thomas Gamage and Margaret St. John. His son Charles Howard, 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham is famous in English naval history and was created Earl of Nottingham. The later Earls of Effingham descended from his younger son William Howard. His daughter Douglas Howard [sic] was born in 1545, married first John Sheffield, 2nd Baron Sheffield of Butterwick, secondly (in secret) Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester and thirdly Edward Stafford.

His descendant (through his son William) Francis Howard, 5th Baron Howard of Effingham (d. 1695), inherited the barony of Howard of Effingham on the death of his cousin, Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Nottingham, 4th Baron Howard of Effingham in 1681.

Francis' son, Francis Howard, 1st Earl of Effingham (1683–1743) was created earl of Effingham in 1735. This earldom became extinct on the death of Richard Howard, 4th Earl of Effingham in 1816 but was created again in 1837 in favour of Kenneth Alexander Howard, 1st Earl of Effingham (1767–1845) another of his descendants, who had succeeded to the barony of Howard of Effingham in 1816.

Whitgift School currently stands on the site of the former estate of the family, and a model of HMS Ark Royal adorns the clock tower to commemorate this. A full-length portrait of Effingham, by Mytens, hangs above the fireplace in the Biliards Room at Nostell Priory, home of the current Lord St Oswald, and a National Trust property, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

Looking at my reflection in the mirror,

I am not content with myself

I am thinking about a comment

that was made by someone else

I stopped for a moment

and said to myself I can change that

although it was just a person's opinion

and not a proven fact

I took care of the problem,

to my friend's great contentment,

just in time to learn of another's resentment

I asked him: 'What is the problem'?

and he told me that it was my attitude

So I decided to change it

in order not to be rude

I then tried to win the affection

of someone who I really liked;

Instead she told me

that my personality wasn't quite right

I decided that it was time

for a personality change

because she told me

that my intuition was strange

Some people then told me

that I needed a makeover;

But, I did not argue

or see anything to debate over

I then changed my appearance,

much to their delight

But as I looked in the mirror

I was overtaken with fright

I was no longer myself

I was was now a different person

Trying to be someone who I was not,

it just was not working

I said I don't care what people think

I'm gonna be me;

I may not be perfect,

But, I like what I see!

Philip St. Cyr

GRINT, D. & SHANDLOFF, N, (1979). De Mens and Zijn Goden (Grote Mysteries). Aldus Books, London/Lekturama, Rotterdam.

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In Greek mythology, Ixion (/ɪkˈsaɪ.ən/ ik-SY-ən; Greek: Ἰξίων, gen.: Ἰξίωνος) was king of the Lapiths, the most ancient tribe of Thessaly, and a son of Ares, or Leonteus, or Antion and Perimele, or the notorious evildoer Phlegyas, whose name connotes "fiery". Peirithoös was his son (or stepson, if Zeus were his father, as the sky-god claims to Hera in Iliad 14).

Ixion married Dia, a daughter of Deioneus (or Eioneus) and promised his father-in-law a valuable present. However, he did not pay the bride price, so Deioneus stole some of Ixion's horses in retaliation. Ixion concealed his resentment and invited his father-in-law to a feast at Larissa. When Deioneus arrived, Ixion pushed him into a bed of burning coals and wood. These circumstances are secondary to the fact of Ixion's primordial act of murder; it could be accounted for quite differently: in the Greek Anthology (iii.12), among a collection of inscriptions from a temple in Cyzicus is an epigrammatic description of Ixion slaying Phorbas and Polymelos, who had slain his mother, Megara, the "great one".

Ixion went mad, defiled by his act; the neighboring princes were so offended by this act of treachery and violation of xenia that they refused to perform the rituals that would cleanse Ixion of his guilt (see catharsis). Thereafter, Ixion lived as an outlaw and was shunned. By killing his father-in-law, Ixion was reckoned the first man guilty of kin-slaying in Greek mythology. That alone would warrant him a terrible punishment.

However, Zeus had pity on Ixion and brought him to Olympus and introduced him at the table of the gods. Instead of being grateful, Ixion grew lustful for Hera, Zeus's wife, a further violation of guest-host relations. Zeus found out about his intentions and made a cloud in the shape of Hera, which became known as Nephele (nephos "cloud") and tricked Ixion into coupling with it. From the union of Ixion and the false-Hera cloud came Centauros, who mated with the Magnesian mares on Mount Pelion, Pindar told, engendering the race of Centaurs, who are called the Ixionidae from their descent.

Ixion was expelled from Olympus and blasted with a thunderbolt. Zeus ordered Hermes to bind Ixion to a winged fiery wheel that was always spinning. Therefore, Ixion is bound to a burning solar wheel for all eternity, at first spinning across the heavens, but in later myth transferred to Tartarus. Only when Orpheus played his lyre during his trip to the Underworld to rescue Eurydice did it stop for a while.

"The details are very odd, the narrative motivation creaks at every juncture," observes Robert L. Fowler; "the myth smacks of aetiology." He notes that Martin Nilsson suggested an origin in rain-making magic, with which he concurs: "In Ixion's case the necessary warning about the conduct of magic has taken the form of blasphemous and dangerous conduct on the part of the first officiant."

In the fifth century, Pindar's Second Pythian Ode (ca. 476-68 BCE) expands on the example of Ixion, applicable to Hiero I of Syracuse, the tyrant of whom the poet sings; and Aeschylus, Euripides and Timasitheos each wrote a tragedy of Ixion: none have survived.

Ixion was a figure also known to the Etruscans, for he is depicted bound to the spoked wheel, engraved on the back of a bronze mirror, ca 460-450 BCE, in the British Museum. Whether the Etruscans shared the Ixion figure with Hellenes from early times or whether Ixion figured among those Greek myths that were adapted at later dates to fit the Etruscan world-view is unknown. The figure on the mirror-back is shown as winged, a characteristic shared with Etruscan daimones and Underworld figures rather than human heroes. In chapter 22 of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, Steerforth declares: "As to fitfulness, I have never learnt the art of binding myself to any of the wheels on which the Ixions of these days are turning round and round" In the Epilogue to Moby-Dick, Ishmael, the only surviving crewmember at the sinking of the Pequod, likens himself to "another Ixion." (Wikipedia)

Wat Waramatayaphanthasadaram or popularly known as Wat Khun Chan, is an old temple in the Talat Phlu area. with outstanding art, architecture, and sculpture buddha statue Or many models in a large temple It also has bright colors. The highlight of Wat Khun Chan is Worshiping Rahu

The architecture of Wat Khun Chan It is a combination of Thai and Burmese arts. And there are many sacred things to worship, including Luang Pho To, Luang Pho Yok Khao Beautiful Goddess of Mercy reclining Buddha image Buddha Chinnarat And the highlight that people are popular with is Rahu with a prayer ceremony for Rahu. Every year to dispel or exorcise bad luck.

Wat Khun Chan was built around 1827-1837 during the reign of King Rama III, about 177 years old, by Phraya Maha Amatayathibodi (Form Amatayakul) Phra Suriyapakdee. Chief of Police, the Right Military Concubine in the reign of King Rama III, which at that time was named "Wat Khun Chan" because the builder of this temple was victorious from Vientiane. Until the reign of King Rama V, Thao Pantasaranurak (Wan), the youngest daughter of Phraya Amat (Pom), restored the temple. And asked for a new name from the reign of King Rama V, called "Wat Waramatyaphanthasararam" in the year 1883

Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres (605.7 sq mi) in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated population of 10.539 million as of 2020, 15.3 percent of the country's population. Over 14 million people (22.2 percent) lived within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region at the 2010 census, making Bangkok an extreme primate city, dwarfing Thailand's other urban centres in both size and importance to the national economy.

Bangkok traces its roots to a small trading post during the Ayutthaya Kingdom in the 15th century, which eventually grew and became the site of two capital cities, Thonburi in 1768 and Rattanakosin in 1782. Bangkok was at the heart of the modernization of Siam, later renamed Thailand, during the late-19th century, as the country faced pressures from the West. The city was at the centre of Thailand's political struggles throughout the 20th century, as the country abolished absolute monarchy, adopted constitutional rule, and underwent numerous coups and several uprisings. The city, incorporated as a special administrative area under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration in 1972, grew rapidly during the 1960s through the 1980s and now exerts a significant impact on Thailand's politics, economy, education, media and modern society.

The Asian investment boom in the 1980s and 1990s led many multinational corporations to locate their regional headquarters in Bangkok. The city is now a regional force in finance and business. It is an international hub for transport and health care, and has emerged as a centre for the arts, fashion, and entertainment. The city is known for its street life and cultural landmarks, as well as its red-light districts. The Grand Palace and Buddhist temples including Wat Arun and Wat Pho stand in contrast with other tourist attractions such as the nightlife scenes of Khaosan Road and Patpong. Bangkok is among the world's top tourist destinations, and has been named the world's most visited city consistently in several international rankings.

Bangkok's rapid growth coupled with little urban planning has resulted in a haphazard cityscape and inadequate infrastructure. Despite an extensive expressway network, an inadequate road network and substantial private car usage have led to chronic and crippling traffic congestion, which caused severe air pollution in the 1990s. The city has since turned to public transport in an attempt to solve the problem, operating eight urban rail lines and building other public transit, but congestion still remains a prevalent issue. The city faces long-term environmental threats such as sea level rise due to climate change.

The history of Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, dates at least to the early 15th century, when it was under the rule of Ayutthaya. Due to its strategic location near the mouth of the Chao Phraya River, the town gradually increased in importance, and after the fall of Ayutthaya King Taksin established his new capital of Thonburi there, on the river's west bank. King Phutthayotfa Chulalok, who succeeded Taksin, moved the capital to the eastern bank in 1782, to which the city dates its foundation under its current Thai name, "Krung Thep Maha Nakhon". Bangkok has since undergone tremendous changes, growing rapidly, especially in the second half of the 20th century, to become the primate city of Thailand. It was the centre of Siam's modernization in the late 19th century, subjected to Allied bombing during the Second World War, and has long been the modern nation's central political stage, with numerous uprisings and coups d'état having taken place on its streets throughout the years.

It is not known exactly when the area which is now Bangkok was first settled. It probably originated as a small farming and trading community, situated in a meander of the Chao Phraya River within the mandala of Ayutthaya's influence. The town had become an important customs outpost by as early as the 15th century; the title of its customs official is given as Nai Phra Khanon Thonburi (Thai: นายพระขนอนทณบุรี) in a document from the reign of Ayutthayan king Chao Sam Phraya (1424–1448). The name also appears in the 1805 revised code of laws known as the Law of Three Seals.

At the time, the Chao Phraya flowed through what are now the Bangkok Noi and Bangkok Yai canals, forming a large loop in which lay the town. In the reign of King Chairacha (either in 1538 or 1542), a waterway was excavated, bypassing the loop and shortening the route for ships sailing up to Ayutthaya. The flow of the river has since changed to follow the new waterway, dividing the town and making the western part an island. This geographical feature may have given the town the name Bang Ko (บางเกาะ), meaning 'island village', which later became Bangkok (บางกอก, pronounced in Thai as [bāːŋ kɔ̀ːk]). Another theory regarding the origin of the name speculates that it is shortened from Bang Makok (บางมะกอก), makok being the name of Spondias pinnata, a plant bearing olive-like fruit. This is supported by the fact that Wat Arun, a historic temple in the area, used to be named Wat Makok. Specific mention of the town was first made in the royal chronicles from the reign of King Maha Chakkraphat (1548–1568), giving its name as Thonburi Si Mahasamut (ธนบุรีศรีมหาสมุทร). Bangkok was probably a colloquial name, albeit one widely adopted by foreign visitors.

The importance of Bangkok/Thonburi increased with the amount of Ayutthaya's maritime trade. Dutch records noted that ships passing through Bangkok were required to declare their goods and number of passengers, as well as pay customs duties. Ships' cannons would be confiscated and held there before they were allowed to proceed upriver to Ayutthaya. An early English language account is that of Adam Denton, who arrived aboard the Globe, an East India Company merchantman bearing a letter from King James I, which arrived in "the Road of Syam" (Pak Nam) on 15 August 1612, where the port officer of Bangkok attended to the ship. Denton's account mentions that he and his companions journeyed "up the river some twenty miles to a town called Bancope, where we were well received, and further 100 miles to the city...."

Ayutthaya's maritime trade was at its height during the reign of King Narai (1656–1688). Recognition of the city's strategic location guarding the water passage to Ayutthaya lead to expansion of the military presence there. A fort of Western design was constructed on the east side of the river around 1685–1687 under the supervision of French engineer de la Mare, probably replacing an earlier structure, while plans to rebuild the fort on the west bank were also made. De la Mare had arrived with the French embassy of Chevalier de Chaumont, and remained in Siam along with Chevalier de Forbin, who had been appointed governor of Bangkok. The Bangkok garrison under Forbin consisted of Siamese, Portuguese, and French reportedly totalling about one thousand men.

French control over the city was further consolidated when the French General Desfarges, who had arrived with the second French embassy in 1687, secured the king's permission to board troops there. This, however, lead to resentment among Siamese nobles, led by Phetracha, ultimately resulting in the Siamese revolution of 1688, in which King Narai was overthrown and 40,000 Siamese troops besieged Bangkok's eastern fort for four months before an agreement was reached and the French were allowed to withdraw. The revolution resulted in Siam's ties with the West being virtually severed, steering its trade towards China and Japan. The eastern fort was subsequently demolished on Phetracha's orders.

Ayutthaya was razed by the Burmese in 1767. In the following months, multiple factions competed for control of the kingdom's lands. Of these, Phraya Tak, governor of Tak and a general fighting in Ayutthaya's defence prior to its fall, emerged as the strongest. After succeeding in reclaiming the cities of Ayutthaya and Bangkok, Phraya Tak declared himself king (popularly known as King Taksin) in 1768 and established Thonburi as his capital. Reasons given for this change include the totality of Ayutthaya's destruction and Thonburi's strategic location. Being a fortified town with a sizeable population meant that not much would need to be reconstructed. The existence of an old Chinese trading settlement on the eastern bank allowed Taksin to use his Chinese connections to import rice and revive trade.

King Taksin had the city area extended northwards to border the Bangkok Noi Canal. A moat was dug to protect the city's western border, on which new city walls and fortifications were built. Moats and walls were also constructed on the eastern bank, encircling the city together with the canals on the western side. The king's palace (Thonburi Palace) was built within the old city walls, including the temples of Wat Chaeng (Wat Arun) and Wat Thai Talat (Wat Molilokkayaram) within the palace grounds. Outlying orchards were re-landscaped for rice farming.

Much of Taksin's reign was spent in military campaigns to consolidate the Thonburi Kingdom's hold over Siamese lands. His kingdom, however, would last only until 1782 when a coup was mounted against him, and the general Chao Phraya Chakri established himself as king, later to be known as Phutthayotfa Chulalok or Rama I.

Rama I re-established the capital on the more strategic east bank of the river, relocating the Chinese already settled there to the area between Wat Sam Pluem and Wat Sampheng (which developed into Bangkok's Chinatown). Fortifications were rebuilt, and another series of moats was created, encircling the city in an area known as Rattanakosin Island.

The erection of the city pillar on 21 April 1782 is regarded as the formal date of the city's establishment. (The year would later mark the start of the Rattanakosin Era after calendar reforms by King Rama V in 1888.) Rama I named the new city Krung Rattanakosin In Ayothaya (กรุงรัตนโกสินทร์อินท์อโยธยา). This was later modified by King Nangklao to be: Krungthepmahanakhon Bowonrattanakosin Mahintha-ayutthaya. While settlements on both banks were commonly called Bangkok, both the Burney Treaty of 1826 and the Roberts Treaty of 1833 refer to the capital as the City of Sia-Yut'hia. King Mongkut (Rama IV) would later give the city its full ceremonial name:

Rama I modelled his city after the former capital of Ayutthaya, with the Grand Palace, Front Palace and royal temples by the river, next to the royal field (now Sanam Luang). Continuing outwards were the royal court of justice, royal stables and military prison. Government offices were located within the Grand Palace, while residences of nobles were concentrated south of the palace walls. Settlements spread outwards from the city centre.

The new capital is referred to in Thai sources as Rattanakosin, a name shared by the Siamese kingdom of this historical period. The name Krung Thep and Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, both shortened forms of the full ceremonial name, began to be used near the end of the 19th century. Foreigners, however, continued to refer to the city by the name Bangkok, which has seen continued use until this day.

Most of Rama I's reign was also marked by continued military campaigns, though the Burmese threat gradually declined afterwards. His successors consistently saw to the renovation of old temples, palaces, and monuments in the city. New canals were also built, gradually expanding the fledgling city as areas available for agriculture increased and new transport networks were created.

At the time of the city's foundation, most of the population lived by the river or the canals, often in floating houses on the water. Waterways served as the main method of transportation, and farming communities depended on them for irrigation. Outside the city walls, settlements sprawled along both river banks. Forced settlers, mostly captives of war, also formed several ethnic communities outside the city walls.

Large numbers of Chinese immigrants continued to settle in Bangkok, especially during the early 19th century. Such was their prominence that Europeans visiting in the 1820s estimated that they formed over half of the city population. The Chinese excelled in trade, and led the development of a market economy. The Chinese settlement at Sampheng had become a bustling market by 1835. 

By the mid-19th century, the West had become an increasingly powerful presence. Missionaries, envoys and merchants began re-visiting Bangkok and Siam, bringing with them both modern innovations and the threat of colonialism. King Mongkut (Rama IV, reigned 1851–1868) was open to Western ideas and knowledge, but was also forced to acknowledge their powers, with the signing of the Bowring Treaty in 1855. During his reign, industrialization began taking place in Bangkok, which saw the introduction of the steam engine, modern shipbuilding and the printing press. Influenced by the Western community, Charoen Krung Road, the city's first paved street, was constructed in 1862–1864. This was followed by Bamrung Mueang, Fueang Nakhon, Trong (now Rama IV) and Si Lom Roads. Land transport would later surpass the canals in importance, shifting people's homes from floating dwellings toward permanent buildings. The limits of the city proper were also expanded during his reign, extending to the Phadung Krung Kasem Canal, dug in 1851.

King Mongkut's son Chulalongkorn (r. 1868–1910) was set upon modernizing the country. He engaged in wide-ranging reforms, abolishing slavery, corvée (unfree labour) and the feudal system, and creating a centralized bureaucracy and a professional army. The Western concept of nationhood was adopted, and national borders demarcated against British and French territories. Disputes with the French resulted in the Paknam Incident in 1893, when the French sent gunboats up the Chao Phraya to blockade Bangkok, resulting in Siam's concession of territory to France.

With Chulalongkorn's reforms, governance of the capital and the surrounding areas, established as Monthon Krung Thep Phra Mahanakhon (มณฑลกรุงเทพพระมหานคร), came under the Ministry of Urban Affairs (Nakhonban). During his reign many more canals and roads were built, expanding the urban reaches of the capital. Infrastructure was developed, with the introduction of railway and telegraph services between Bangkok and Samut Prakan and then expanding countrywide. Electricity was introduced, first to palaces and government offices, then to serve electric trams in the capital and later the general public. The King's fascination with the West was reflected in the royal adoption of Western dress and fashions, but most noticeably in architecture. He commissioned the construction of the neoclassical Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall at the new Dusit Palace, which was linked to the historic city centre by the grand Ratchadamnoen Avenue, inspired by the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Examples of Western influence in architecture became visible throughout the city.

By 1900, rural market zones in Bangkok began developing into residential districts. Rama VI (1910–1925) continued his predecessor's program of the development of public works by establishing Chulalongkorn University in 1916, and commissioned a system of locks to control waterway levels surrounding the developing city, he also provided the city's first and largest recreational area, Lumphini Park. The Memorial Bridge was constructed in 1932 to connect Thonburi to Bangkok, which was believed to promote economic growth and modernization in a period when infrastructure was developing considerably. Bangkok became the centre stage for power struggles between the military and political elite as the country abolished absolute monarchy in 1932. It was subject to Japanese occupation and Allied bombing during World War II. With the war over in 1945, British and Indian troops landed in September, and during their brief occupation of the city disarmed the Japanese troops. A significant event following the return of the young king, Ananda Mahidol, to Thailand, intended to defuse post-war tensions lingering between Bangkok's ethnic Chinese and Thai people, was his visit to Bangkok's Chinatown Sam Peng Lane (ซอยสำเพ็ง), on 3 June 1946.

As a result of pro-Western bloc treaties Bangkok rapidly grew in the post-war period as a result of United States developmental aid and government-sponsored investment. Infrastructure, including the Don Mueang International Airport and highways, was built and expanded.  Bangkok's role as an American military R&R destination launched its tourism industry as well as sex trade.  Disproportionate urban development led to increasing income inequalities and unprecedented migration from rural areas into Bangkok; its population surged from 1.8 to 3 million in the 1960s. Following the United States' withdrawal from Vietnam, Japanese businesses took over as leaders in investment, and the expansion of export-oriented manufacturing led to growth of the financial market in Bangkok.  Rapid growth of the city continued through the 1980s and early 1990s, until it was stalled by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. By then, many public and social issues had emerged, among them the strain on infrastructure reflected in the city's notorious traffic jams. Bangkok's role as the nation's political stage continues to be seen in strings of popular protests, from the student uprisings in 1973 and 1976, anti-military demonstrations in 1992, and successive anti-government protests by the "Yellow Shirt" and "Red Shirt" movements from 2008 on.

Administratively, eastern Bangkok and Thonburi had been established as separate provinces in 1915. (The province east of the river was named Phra Nakhon (พระนคร.) A series of decrees in 1971–1972 resulted in the merger of these provinces and its local administrations, forming the current city of Bangkok which is officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) was created in 1975 to govern the city, and its governor has been elected since 1985.

After the great Pirate-Imperial war of 1789 was over, an era of peace between the two enemies began. Laughter, beer, and many great stories were shared between Pirates and Imperials.

But anger and resentment still lied deep inside both sides. And instead of taking out their anger on each other, they found a common enemy. Seagulls. Loud, annoying, and messy, seagulls were the one thing both sides hated. And so began the great sport of Seagull Blasting, where the Pirates and Imperials would compete to see who could shoot down more seagulls using a cannon. In the background the big wigs of both sides were making bets, because neither side wanted to stop looking for treasure...

Please let me know ASAP of any suggestions you may have. Thanks!

BG Annual Conference 2018 | November 8–10 | ZK/U – Center for Arts and Urbanistics

ambient-revolts.berlinergazette.de

The growing interconnectedness of everyone and everything is transforming our world into an unprecedented techno-social environment. The boundaries between atmosphere and politics are being suspended; already, tiny ruptures can cause cascade-like repercussions – think of cyber-attacks or stock market crashes, right-wing resentment or hashtag-based protest. Such ambient revolts are increasingly driven by artificial intelligence (AI) – involving human interaction but seemingly beyond human oversight. Set against this backdrop, the conference poses the questions: What are the techno-social logics of both regressive and repressive tendencies? What are emancipatory movements up against? What potential do micro-political acts have in day-to-day life? What regulations of automated systems at the macro level will enable democracy to emerge in the age of AI? The Berliner Gazette conference will explore these questions in the context of performances, lectures and workshops.

More info: projekte.berlinergazette.de/ambient-revolts/

Photo taken by Norman Posselt (berlinergazette.de / cc by nc)

Suspended Animation Classic #908 First published May 14, 2006 (#21) (Dates are approximate)

Runaways

By Mark Allen

It's great to see Marvel Comics finding success in a series of digest comics, and wonder of wonders, in retail outlets other than comics shops! I'm speaking of the series entitled Runaways, (of which five volumes have been published at the time of this review) the continuing story of a group of teenagers who are trying to learn about their super powers and cope with their often-clashing personalities, both while on the run from good guys and bad. The worst part? The bad guys are their own parents. I won't reveal anything else story-wise, but will instead let you discover for yourself the wonderful sequential entertainment that is Runaways.

Written by Brian K. Vaughan, this is a work in which superheroics is secondary; the icing on the cake for superhero fans or an endurable aside for those who carry a torch for spandex-free tales. What takes front and center stage is characterization. Vaughan has captured the average American teenager in an impressive manner. Whether reflected in anger, bliss, resentment, joy or what have you, the characters are believable in both action and dialogue.

The art work is provided primarily by Adrian Alphona, with some by Takeshi Miyazawa. I have to admit to being partial to Alphona's work, as I believe it more detailed and a tad more realistic. Not to mention that, as the original artist for the first several issues of the series, she gave the characters their life, their "zing." Miyazawa's work has a much heavier Manga influence, and is less my "cup of tea." But, Manga fans be advised.

If I had a suggestion, it would be that Marvel keep it's mainstream characters out of this series, that it might maintain it's own unique "flavor." The "no tights in sight" rule, if you will.

Runaways is recommended for all but the youngest readers (12 and up, according to Marvel's rating system). Find it at comics shops, bookstores and online retailers and auctions.

Monument with the kneeling figures of Philip Boteler 1712 & his sister Elizabeth Neville

"In memory of Philip Boteler esq (only son a& heire of Sir John Boteler, knight, by Dame Elizabeth his wife (who was one of ye daughters & co-heires of Sir Nicholas Gould of Dosetshire), who lyes interred near this pace.

This Philip had one sister Elizabeth whose fortune he augmented very considerably upon her marriage with Grey Neville esq of ye county of Berks.

He marryed Elizabeth Crane Ettricke, one of ye two daughters & coheires of Wiliam Ettricke esq, bart, leaveing no issue;

He (out of a due regard to ye continuation of his name & family, which is of great antiquity in this country) by his will entayled ye antient seate and park called Woodhall in this parish, and his whole estate upon his cousin John Boteler esq (son of his great uncle) who is now the last branch of this antient family in the male line.

He departed this life ye seaventh day of May in ye year of our Lord 1712, and in ye 35th year of his age.

This monument was erected by his said cousin John Boteler esq in honour of his benefactor"

"Here lies Eizabeth Neville, widow, who departe this life on the 16th day of November 1740 aged 62. In hopes of a joyfull resurretion, what manner of peron she was, that day will discover"

They were the son & daughter of Sir John Boteler knight by Elizabeth daughter of Sir Nicholas Gould & Elizabeth daughter of Sir John Garrard 2nd bart of Lamer

Philip m Elizabeth coheiress daughter of William Ettricke 1716 by Elizabeth daughter of Sir Edmund Bacon 4th bart 1685 of Redgrave www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/qBoar3 and Elizabeth www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/Xh8r69 daughter of Robert Crane of Chilton 1643 flic.kr/p/nD6piv (her coheiress sister Rachel died unmarried leaving her portion to her maidservant

Elizabeth m Grey Neville 1681-dsp1723 son of Richard Neville and Katherine daughter of Ralph 2nd Baron Grey of Warke and Catherine Ford; also dying childless

The heir to the a lifetime interest in the estates was cousin John Boteler. flic.kr/p/8fSRzc However the property was charged with the payment out of income of a considerable debt, pending the repayment of which John was awarded an allowance of £400 a year by a Chancery decree of 22 Feb. 1713.

Having been a Whig MP for Hertford In 1715 , John was in 1734 returned for Wendover but on petition the question of his property qualification was raised by his opponent, Lord Limerick. In evidence it emerged that the income of his estate was only about £100 a year more than the interest on the debt, and that since 1723 the court of Chancery had discontinued his allowance of £400 p.a. as ‘the estate could not bear it’. Though the Government supported him, the House of Commons decided by a majority of 50 that his election was void on the ground that he ‘was not duly qualified’. A new election was ordered, at which he stood again with government assistance but Lord Limerick was returned. Believing that he had been ‘shamefully and neglectfully given up by those I judged in interest bound to support me, and so of course the door of grace and favour shut against me by the grand keeper of it’, i.e. by Walpole, he printed a statement of his case, which he sent to Lady Sundon, Queen Caroline’s mistress of the robes, asking her to bring his story to the notice of the King and Queen. Later, he carried his resentment to the length of giving evidence to the secret committee on Walpole in 1742 as to the sum of £500 supplied to him from the secret service money at the Wendover by-election in 1735. He died 17 July 1774, aged 90, never having again stood for Parliament.

- Church of St Andrew & St Mary, Watton on Stone Hertfordshire

1. , 2. sucking too hard on your lollipop*oh love's gonna get you down*sucking too hard on your lollipop*oh love's gonna get you down*say love!*say love!*say love!, 3. , 4. , 5. , 6. , 7. tree wet with morning dew, 8. Thank you Chicago Reader!,

9. I'm a bird now, 10. , 11. a fistful of joy, 12. a fistful of light, 13. a fistful of resentment, 14. Disqualified: a diptych, 15. Only connect., 16. No, I know it ain't love. Lo que tu sientes se llama obsesion.,

17. Agoraphilia - Stage XVIII (Denouement), 18. Cuchimilcos, 19. 39, 20. Late afternoon in Cusco, 21. Llama, can you see me?, 22. Inca Trail: Day 3 An offering of Coca leaves to Pachamama (Mother Earth) at Sayacmarca, 23. Inca Trail Day 3: Sayacmarca, 24. Inca Trail: Day 2 - To look back in exhaustion,

25. Inca Trail: Day 1 - By foot or by "Gringo" train, 26. Inca Trail: Day 3, 27. Furniture[-ia], 28. Goats, 29. Bob, 30. 6, 31. Chinatown Flea Market, 32. Marlon Brando - Stars fade. Bodies deteriorate. Material things decay.,

33. Blue, yellow columns, 34. Grade A Prime Meat, 35. , 36. I love you Mother Nature., 37. flickr.com/photos/62132010@N00/64958169/, 38. Before Earth Hour | Chicago | March, 29, 2008 | 19:48:20, 39. 77. Cinema Tropical, 40. 107. Walking on sharp corals,

41. , 42. 4., 43. 23., 44. 33., 45. 00, 46. 53, 47. 08, 48. 13,

49. , 50. I'm a Flickr member because I am a space citizen and I worship in the House of Cool., 51. , 52. If you don't like me or any of my photographs, that's ok. That is not why I'm here. Just please don't shoot me because I want to grow up and eat a big fat delicious pollo,...., 53. , 54. , 55. , 56. take a look at the girl next door,*she's a player and a downright bore*Jesus loves her but she wants more*oh bad girls get you down.,

57. sucking too hard on your lollipop*oh love's gonna get you down*sucking too hard on your lollipop*oh love's gonna get you down*say love!*say love!*say love, 58. , 59. , 60. Vamos a la playa!, 61. It's a family affair, 62. , 63. , 64. ,

65. , 66. , 67. , 68. "Pepito", 69. A damsel with a dulcimer in a vision once I saw, 70. , 71. sa puso at diwa, 72. A landscape diptych

The Resentments may be the world's greatest rock and roll band.

It's a hard thing to do; walk away from a friendship.

Perhaps, in an ideal world it should always be mutual... but perhaps it can never be mutual.

Like a marriage one party always feel slighted or wronged or needs more than the other person has to give...

The need to be right is toxic. Blame is toxic... Resentment is toxic...

Sometimes I guess it's better to let what was just be rather than let it turn into something ugly....

Cape May Beach Winter 2008

Sketches: Hendrix-Henderson College campus, circa 1930

"March 12, [1929,] the Board of Thirty voted to consolidate Hendrix and Henderson-Brown in Conway under the name 'Hendrix-Henderson College.'" "[Hendrix alumni and Henderson-Brown alumni] resented the renaming of the merged college 'Hendrix-Henderson' as an unnatural hybrid of two proud and independent institutions. As a reflection of that resentment, two years later the Board of Trustees dropped 'Henderson' from the school’s name." (Hendrix College: A Centennial History, Chapter 5, Section I)

Moa Island, also called Banks Island, is an island of the Torres Strait Islands archipelago that is located 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of Thursday Island in the Banks Channel of Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia. It is also a locality within the Torres Strait Island Region local government area. This island is the largest within the "Near Western" group. It has two towns, Kubin on the south-west coast and St Pauls on the east coast, which are connected by bitumen and a gravel road. In the 2016 census, Moa Island had a population of 448 people.

The Mualgal /muwal̪gal̪/ people traditionally formed two groups, the southern Italgal /ital̪gal̪/ and the northern Mualgal, and are the traditional owners of the island and refer to the island as ‘Mua’ or Moa.

Captain William Bligh, in charge of the British Navy ships Providence and Assistant, visited Torres Strait in 1792 and mapped the main reefs and channels. The island was named Banks Island by Captain Bligh in honour of his patron and friend, the botanist Sir Joseph Banks. In the 1860s, beche-de-mer (sea cucumber) and pearling boats began working the reefs of Torres Strait but few Europeans visited Moa before the 1870s. The European beche-de-mer and pearling boats extensively worked the sea beds between Moa and Badu Islands in the 1870s and recruited local Islander men to work on their boats. A small pearling station was established on Moa Island by John Gay between 1872 and 1875.

In 1872, the Queensland Government sought to extend its jurisdiction and requested the support of the British Government. Letters Patent were issued by the British Government in 1872 creating a new boundary for the colony, which encompassed all islands within a 60 nautical mile radius of the coast of Queensland.[14] This boundary was further extended by the Queensland Coast Islands Act 1879 (Qld) and included the islands of Boigu, Erub, Mer and Saibai, which lay beyond the previous 60 nautical mile limit. The new legislation enabled the Queensland Government to control and regulate bases for the beche-de-mer and pearling industries, which previously had operated outside its jurisdiction.

Torres Strait Islanders refer to the arrival of London Missionary Society (LMS) missionaries in July 1871 as "the Coming of the Light". Reverend A W Murray and William Wyatt Gill were the first LMS missionaries to visit Moa Island in October 1872. South Sea Islander lay preachers were appointed as teachers to work on the island the following month. While the South Sea Islander teachers established a mission settlement at Totalai on the northern side of the island, by 1901 the settlement had been completely abandoned.

A new settlement named Adam was established on the western side of the island during the 1900s. People from the villages of Totalai and Dabu moved to Adam under the leadership of Elder Abu Namai. The village of Adam had better access to the facilities of Badu Island, including its school and the stores and trading stations operated by Papuan Industries Limited (PIL). PIL was a philanthropic business scheme designed by the LMS missionary Reverend Walker to promote "independent native enterprise" by encouraging them to co-operatively rent or purchase their own pearl luggers or "company boats". The company boats were used to harvest pearl shells and beche-de-mer, which were sold and distributed by PIL. The Queensland Government supported the scheme and worked in partnership with PIL. Company boats provided Islanders with income and a sense of community pride and also improved transport and communication between the islands. The community at Adam operated a number of company boats including the Moa and the Adam. Men from Moa Island also regularly worked with pearling crews from Badu.

In 1904, the Australian Government introduced a restrictive immigration policy, which resulted in the forced repatriation of many Pacific Islander labourers, following the federal government's introduction of a restrictive immigration policy in 1904, the Queensland Government set aside an Aboriginal reserve on Moa's eastern shore for those who had married Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people. In 1908 the Anglican Church began developing St. Paul's Mission. They also established the St. Paul's Native Training College. A community council was established under the Torres Strait Islander Act 1939, and in 1985, the St. Paul's community gained ownership of their land through a Deed of Grant in Trust.

Deaconess Florence Griffiths Buchanan (1861–1913)

On 20 May 1908, the Queensland government formally gazetted 500 acres as a reserve for the benefit of South Sea Islander people on the eastern side of Moa Island. In 1908, with the encouragement of Hugh Milman (the government resident at Thursday Island), the Anglican Church founded a mission specifically for South Sea Islander families on the reserve land. Milman suggested that the new mission should be named St Pauls, after the famous St Paul's Cathedral in London.The mission was operated by Deaconess Florence Griffiths Buchanan who was a missionary teacher. Her work was described as "the labor of patient untiring love and energy" and she was much loved by the children, who she called "Moabites" and who called her "Teashher" (teacher) in return).

Apart from its religious purpose, St Paul's Mission was intended to be a self-supporting settlement through a mixture of agriculture, fishing and the weaving of mats and baskets. The mission was at the foot of a mountain known as the Great Peak to the south-west of the island. The village was built on flat ground between the beach and the scrub lands at the foot of the mountain. The houses were built on piles and made of grass and saplings. In 1912 there were 70 people at the settlement with expectations it would increase. Until June 1910, the settlement received no outside help but from that date the Queensland Government provided a grant of £120 per annum to "educate the natives". At that time, the government also doubled the size of the mission lands in recognition of the progress in establishing gardens and coconut plantations. The mission owed a cutter Bengal, which operated between Thursday Island and Moa as well as visiting neighbouring islands. By 1912 £40 had already been raised to build a church, as the services were being held in the schoolroom which also served as a hospital and Buchanan's residence.

In November 1912, 36,000 acres of land on Moa Island were officially gazetted as an Aboriginal reserve by the Queensland Government, exclusive of the land already gazetted for the South Sea Islanders. Many other Torres Strait Islands were gazetted as Aboriginal reserves at the same time. In 1922, the name of the settlement at Adam was changed to Poid.

From 1911 Ethel Zahel visited Adam (later Poid) village to assist the councillors and, after 1915, to supervise the mission-trained native teacher. In 1928 a European teacher was appointed.

By 1918, a Protector of Aboriginals had been appointed to Thursday Island and, during the 1920s and 1930s, racial legislation was strictly applied to Torres Strait Islanders, enabling the government to remove Islanders to reserves and missions across Queensland.

In the early 1920s, the Queensland Government made the decision to remove the Kaurareg people from Hammond Island, publicly stating that their close proximity to Thursday Island encouraged drunkenness and immorality in the community. Preparations for the removal began in 1921 with the construction of new quarters at Poid on Moa Island. In March 1922, the Kaurareg community were forcibly removed by government authorities from Hammond Island and transported to Moa Island on a Papuan Industries vessel named Goodwill. Three members of the Hammond Island community who protested against the removal were arrested without charge by police armed with revolvers.

In 1936, around 70% of the Torres Strait Islander workforce went on strike in the first organised challenge against government authority made by Torres Strait Islanders. The nine-month strike was an expression of Islanders’ anger and resentment at increasing government control of their livelihoods. The strike was a protest against government interference in wages, trade and commerce and also called for the lifting of evening curfews, the removal of the permit system for inter-island travel, and the recognition of Islanders’ right to recruit their own boat crews.

The strike produced a number of significant reforms and innovations. Unpopular local Protector J.D McLean was removed and replaced by Cornelius O’Leary. O’Leary established a system of regular consultations with elected Islander council representatives. The new island councils were given a degree of autonomy including control over local police and courts.

On 23 August 1937, O’Leary convened the first Inter Islander Councillors’ Conference at Yorke Island. Representatives from 14 Torres Strait communities attended the conference. Wees Nawie and Sailor represented Poid at the conference. After lengthy discussions, unpopular bylaws, including the evening curfews, were cancelled and a new code of local representation was agreed upon. In 1939, the Queensland Government passed the Torres Strait Islanders Act 1939, which incorporated many of the recommendations discussed at the conference. A key section of the new Act officially recognised Torres Strait Islanders as a separate people from Aboriginal Australians.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the settlement at Poid experienced regular epidemics of malaria and dengue fever, as well as shortages of fresh water. In 1943, the community at Poid made the decision to move to a new location named Kubin, situated on the south-west coast of Moa Island. The country near Kubin had fresh water springs and was believed to be a far healthier environment than Poid. By 1945, a church and school had been constructed at Kubin and the entire population of Poid had moved to the new settlement.

During World War Two, the Australian Government recruited Torres Strait Islander men to serve in the armed forces. Enlisted men from Moa and other island communities formed the Torres Strait Light Infantry. While the Torres Strait Light Infantry were respected as soldiers, they only received one third the pay given to white Australian servicemen. On 31 December 1943, members of the Torres Strait Light Infantry went on strike calling for equal pay and equal rights. The Australian Government agreed to increase their pay to two thirds the level received by white servicemen. Full back pay was offered in compensation to the Torres Strait servicemen by the government in the 1980s.

The mineral wolfram was discovered on Moa Island in the 1930s and members of the Kubin and St Pauls communities began mining wolfram in 1938. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Rev Alf Clint established a Christian co-operative which ran mining operations on the island. All mining activity ceased on the island in 1973, when the price of the mineral dropped on world markets.

In 1946, a group of 10 Kaurareg men from Kubin community, led by Elekiam Tom, made the decision to move to Horn Island. They built houses and a church for their families in an area inland from the main wharf, which came to be known as Wasaga village. Other Islanders from Kubin community left the Torres Strait region to work on the Australian mainland.

St Pauls State School opened on 29 January 1985.

After gaining its independence from Australia in 1975, Papua New Guinea asserted its right to the islands and waters of the Torres Straits. In December 1978, a treaty was signed by the Australian and Papua New Guinea governments that described the boundaries between the two countries and the use of the sea area by both parties. The Torres Strait Treaty, which has operated since February 1985, contains special provision for free movement (without passports or visas) between both countries. Free movement between communities applies to traditional activities such as fishing, trading and family gatherings which occur in a specifically created Protected Zone and nearby areas. The Protected Zone also assists in the preservation and protection of the land, sea, air and native plant and animal life of the Torres Strait.

On 1 January 2017, St Pauls State School became the St Pauls Campus of the Tagai State College, which has 17 campuses throughout the Torres Strait.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moa_Island_(Queensland)

Image source: Queensland State Archives Item ID ITM1443450 Native women and children, Moa Island.

CHAHAR DARREH, AFGHANISTAN - MAY 27: Soldiers of the 2nd Infantery Company observe a field on May 26, 2010 in Chahar Darreh, Afghanistan. Germany has more than 4,500 military forces in Afghanistan as part of the US-led International Security Assistance Force. Amid growing public resentment towards the prolonged mission in Afghanistan, the German parliament, the Bundestag, voted in February for extension of Germany's military mission in Afghanistan and the deployment of additional 859 troops.

Namibia.

Swakopmund.

Mondesa township.

Video of the township with locals singing and dancing

The township tour offers a chance to experience the cultures of Mondesa, a large township in the heart of Swakopmund.

Mondesa is a township in Swakopmund started in 1960 by the then South African government. Approximately two-thirds of Swakopmund’s population apparently resides in Mondesa. Mondesa includes an informal settlement housing some 6,000 people at it’s eastern periphery.

read more about the housing scheme in the township

Members of distinct Namibian ethnic groups inhabit the townships, and under apartheid’s “divide and rule” policy, they were kept separate enough from one other that each tribe has retained its own language, beliefs, cuisine and dress. As well as enforcing curfews to keep the residents apart, the government treated each tribe differently to foster resentment between them. To unite could have led to them overthrowing the minority white powers. So the Ovambo people, numbering just over half the population, were given tiny houses and communal toilets. The Herero enjoyed three bedroom bungalows with inside bathrooms. And the Damara were placed in two bedroom housed with shared toilets. They were pitted against each other.

lanomadita.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/apartness-and-forgive...

The Liberation Monument ("Russian monument")

(Further pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Officially, one can find various names: (Russian) Liberation Monument, Russian War Memorial and Monument of the Red Army. The Viennese call the towering monument at the southern end of the Black Mountain course (Schwarzenbergplatz) usually disparaging "Russian monument (Russendenkmal)".

The monument commemorating the 18,000 in the liberation of Vienna fallen soldiers of the Red Army was designed by Major Intazarin, the sculptures were created by Lieutenant Jakoviev. The overall direction of the yet in April 1945 ordered and as first monument building after the war completed structure had major Ing. Mikhail Scheinfeld. In the construction were temporarily 400 workers involved, 18 tons of bronze and 300 cubic meters of marble were used. The monument was on 19 August 1945 with the assistance of Karl Renner, Leopold Figl and Theodor Körner unveiled on then so designated Stalin Square.

On a in total 20 m high, marble-clad base, the lower part in the form of a five-pointed red star, decorated with flags and guard badges, stands the 12 m tall figure of a Red Army soldier. The soldier is wearing a gold helmet and the famous Russian submachine gun with rotary magazine. With his left hand he has the flag with the right hand he holds a round shield with the Soviet coat of arms. In the background arises a broad, eight meter high balustrade, at its end respectively one group of two fighting men is situated, a prime example of the style of socialist realism, which gradually has become an art-historical rarity.

One of the inscriptions in Russian only in the early 80s have been translated into German and is:

"Eternal glory to the heroes of the Red Army, killed in action against the German-fascist invaders for the freedom and independence of the peoples of Europe (Mikhalkov)".

Until 1956, there were also graves of Soviet soldiers in the area, and a Soviet tank stood before the monument.

The monument is in the custody of the City of Vienna. As is generally known, Austria is according to the detailed provisions of Article 19 of the State Treaty of 15 May 1955 committed war graves and war memorials of the Allied Powers on Austrian soil "to respect, to protect and to preserve".

Between 1945 and 1956 stood in front of the fountain on the former "Stalin Square" a Russian tank, which is now in the Museum of Military History.

=> Marschik/Spital, Vienna The Russians monument, architecture, history, conflicts, Vienna, 2005

=> Hannes Leidinger/Verena Moritz, Russian Vienna, Böhlau, Vienna, 2004, 182 f

Sometimes leads the memory to the bad experiences which have been made by Austrian people with the occupation forces - particularly the Soviet - ​​in the ten years of Allied occupation to open resentment against monuments such as the "Russian monument". Nevertheless - the greater the distance from the war and post-war period is, the more one had to give account about the fact how much innocent blood just the peoples of the former Soviet Union have sacrificed in the fight against Hitler's rule, and how little the Austrian people to its own liberation has contributed. Such thoughts have got to come to one's mind when one takes some time to decipher the Cyrillic letters of gold on a "Russian monument" - whether on that at Vienna Schwarzenberg Square or somewhere out in the vast realms of Lower Austria, where up to the Waldviertel (part of Lower Austria) little Soviet military cemeteries exist.

A survey by the Gallup Institute, published in the "standard" on 11th February 1992 shows that 71% of Viennes people do know the monument. A clear majority (59 %) is for the preservation of the monument. Only 9% of the 1,000 respondents agreed with the opinion that the monument should be eliminated as a remnant of Stalinism. So, have the Austrians made peace with the contemporary history?

Hochstrahlbrunnen

Before the liberation monument arises the to the occasion of the completion of the First Vienna Mountain Spring Pipeline on 24th October 1873 in the presence of the emperor put into operation Hochstrahlbrunnen (high jet fountain), which should have been standing according to the original plans in front of the Votive Church, then opposite the New Town Hall. The builder of the aqueduct and the fountain, Anton Gabrielli, was a friend of astronomy. Accordingly, symbolizes the respective number of the jets of water the days of the year, the months, the days of the month, the days of the week and the hours of the day.

peter-diem.at/Monumente/russen.htm

“Then will come a new German Youth, trained from a young age for this new Country. Our Youth must learn nothing except to think like and act like Germans! We must get our boys into a Party organization at the age of 10, where they can be immersed in the totality of pure German spirit... Following this, we will put our young men into the ranks of the Labour Front, the Stormtroopers (SA), the Party Guards (SS), the Motorized Party Unit and so on. Then, if they have not become true National Socialists after two years in these organisations, we will re-process them through the Labour Front where they will experience another half-year of curative treatment... And if they still retain traces of class consciousness or aloofness from 'Germandom', the Wehrmacht will deal with them for another two years... In this way, they will never live freely but will spend their entire lives in the service of Germany!”

[From an address by Adolf Hitler to the Kreisleitern (County leaders), 2 December 1938; translated from an original German transcript in “Völkischer Beobachter”, 4 December 1938]

“People ask, why did I join the Hitler Youth, why did I volunteer to fight when I was 17? But they don't understand: we had no mind of our own. My education, my real education, started at the age of 22, in England. And I shall always be grateful to the people of the country for trying to educate me, or to find my own way. I think this is the way I should express it: to find my own way.”

[Bert Trautmann, interviewed in 2000 for the BBC 'Timewatch' series programme “The Germans We Kept”]

Bert Trautmann -as he would later be known- arrived at Camp 50 (Garswood Park, Ashton-in-Makerfield) from Camp 180 (Marbury Hall, Northwich) in June 1945, recruited to work as a driver for the commandant and his British subordinates and civilian support staff. At this stage the population of Camp 50 was still overwhelmingly Italian, and POW Trautmann occupied a kind of no-man's land, eating with the Italian POWs but sleeping in the British compound close to the main entrance on Warrington Rd. In many other respects he was typical of the young German POWs who began to arrive at Camp 50 from July/August 1945, housed initially in two discreet compounds or "hostels" within Garswood Park to the west of the main camp and at two similar facilities in Golborne Park. Enticed by the prospect of summer camping expeditions and participation in national soccer and athletics tournaments, he had been a willing recruit to the junior branch of the Hitler Youth (“Pimpfe”), leaving school and joining the Hitler Youth proper in 1936. On the outbreak of war he volunteered for the Luftwaffe, serving on the eastern front first as part of a ground-based communications unit but then as a paratrooper (“fallschirmjäger”). In 1941, still a few months short of his 18th birthday, he had witnessed the shooting of unarmed civilians -including children- by the notorious Einsatzgruppen, operating under cover of darkness in the Ukrainian forests. In May 1944, with the failure of Hitler's Operation Barbarossa in the east and an Allied invasion of western Europe looking increasingly likely, his unit was redeployed to France. Here he faced the Allied forces in Normandy and the Pas de Calais, afterwards joining the German retreat and taking part in the Battle of the Bulge before his capture near the German-Dutch border on 24 March 1945. His journey to Ashton-in-Makerfield was via POW camps at Weeze-on-Rhine and St Forte (Belgium), Kempton Park and Marbury Hall.

The British authorities had begun a programme of screening and re-education of German POWs in 1940, but in September 1944 the War Cabinet put this on a more formal footing and entrusted its delivery to the Foreign Office's Political Intelligence Department (PID). As later recalled by Executive Field Officer Henry Faulk, the objectives were “to eradicate from the minds of the prisoners belief in the German military tradition and the National Socialist ideology...; to impart to the prisoners an accurate understanding and a just appreciation of the principles of democratic government... [and] to remove German misconceptions about European history of the last 50 years and especially about the origin, conduct and results of the two world wars”.* To determine how receptive they might be to the programme, and to monitor its effectiveness, the POWs were periodically screened and graded as either-

A (White): actively anti-Nazi and anti-militarist;

B (Grey): no strong political convictions, possibly of lower intelligence but nevertheless amenable to instruction; or

C (Black): those who still adhered to Nazi and/or militarist ideology and values.

The results of the re-education programme were mixed. Several factors militated against it. Many German POWs had learned to distrust authority figures, and consequently viewed the entire process with suspicion. Whilst some of the lecturers and screeners engaged by PID were well-received, a significant number were German émigrés who had left before the Nazi era and therefore had little understanding of what life under Hitler had been like for ordinary Germans. Thirdly, the prospect of indefinite detention in a foreign country notwithstanding the German surrender in May 1945 bred a general resentment which even the most dedicated and sympathetic screeners and lecturers found difficult to overcome.** POW Trautmann was not alone in showing almost total disinterest in the official re-education and screening sessions – an attitude which may explain why, as late as August 1947, there were still 1,530 prisoners at Camp 50 graded B or B-.

Ultimately, the best method of re-education proved to be exposure to the local civilian population. In the report of its final inspection of Camp 50 in March 1948, PID was forced to concede that

“Organised re-educational activities in this camp have impressed but few. Lectures become more and more unpopular... Since the beginning of 1947 [when restrictions on fraternisation between POWs and British civilians within a five-mile radius of Camp 50 were lifted], re-education has passed into the hands of the population of Lancashire, whose friendliness has proved a great help. The ordinary workmen [of the district are] responsible for the fact that the majority of the PsW in this camp is pro-British”.

Other PID inspection reports at National Archives ref. FO 939/132 (“Prisoner of War Camps: 50 Working Camp, Garswood Park, Ashton in Makerfield, Lancashire”) and copies of the Camp 50 newspaper etc at ref. FO 939/300 (“Reports on Camp Lectures...”) shed further light on conditions in the Camp.

*H Faulk, “Group Captives: The Re-education of German Prisoners of War in Britain, 1945-1948” (Chatto & Windus, 1977).

**This was particularly the case with POWs recently transferred by ship from camps in the USA who, prior to docking at Liverpool, had naturally assumed they were being taken back to Germany. The Bishop of Sheffield suggested to members of the House of Lords that it was “a little simple to expect that by keeping them behind barbed wire, giving them no hope of release for an indefinite period of time, they will be susceptible to re-education and will presently become docile little democrats” (Lords Official Report, 11.7.1946, col 382).

After the great Pirate-Imperial war of 1789 was over, an era of peace between the two enemies began. Laughter, beer, and many great stories were shared between Pirates and Imperials.

But anger and resentment still lied deep inside both sides. And instead of taking out their anger on each other, they found a common enemy. Seagulls. Loud, annoying, and messy, seagulls were the one thing both sides hated. And so began the great sport of Seagull Blasting, where the Pirates and Imperials would compete to see who could shoot down more seagulls using a cannon. In the background the big wigs of both sides were making bets, because neither side wanted to stop looking for treasure...

Please let me know ASAP of any suggestions you may have. Thanks!

BG Annual Conference 2018 | November 8–10 | ZK/U – Center for Arts and Urbanistics

ambient-revolts.berlinergazette.de

The growing interconnectedness of everyone and everything is transforming our world into an unprecedented techno-social environment. The boundaries between atmosphere and politics are being suspended; already, tiny ruptures can cause cascade-like repercussions – think of cyber-attacks or stock market crashes, right-wing resentment or hashtag-based protest. Such ambient revolts are increasingly driven by artificial intelligence (AI) – involving human interaction but seemingly beyond human oversight. Set against this backdrop, the conference poses the questions: What are the techno-social logics of both regressive and repressive tendencies? What are emancipatory movements up against? What potential do micro-political acts have in day-to-day life? What regulations of automated systems at the macro level will enable democracy to emerge in the age of AI? The Berliner Gazette conference will explore these questions in the context of performances, lectures and workshops.

More info: projekte.berlinergazette.de/ambient-revolts/

Photo taken by Norman Posselt (berlinergazette.de / cc by nc)

via Handlebar ASMR www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWoQT1_3h6k Visit us at Handlebar ASMR on YouTube! www.youtube.com/channel/UCFtBA9ApU-XGt4HoHOBiBvg

I bought a new broom today

and swept the cobwebs down,

A thick accumulation of dregs,

a mass of tangles and smut.

I whisked a conglomeration of dust

that forever stuck—inaccessible.

Lifted the rug under which was hidden

years of grime that

Made traversing treacherous

with things that trip you up.

I rolled that rug and cast it off

and pitched the whole mess out.

I bought a new broom today

and mucked about the house.

Gone are the indignities that cannot be untwined

from the unfulfilled goals and dreams,

Cleared the place of bitter resentments

secured with insecurities.

Shackling phobias, permanently pitched

with a flick of bristles strawy,

Dismal doubts and grubby grudges

all brushed not so effortlessly away.

I bought a new broom today

and swept the corners of my brain.

Witt Wittmann

View On Black

While at this café my daughter and I and Nicholas we encountered this most interesting individual there. His name is Maximvs the prophet, and as he stated he's a wanderer of the world, seeking and meeting interesting people and those who are looking for a different path in life. He stated he was from the Caribbean islands but actually grew up in New York and has started seeking a new path, new enlightenment and enjoying life to the fullest, never knowing what to expect. He believes that the greatest gift that you can sometimes give someone, is to touch their lives, and vice a versa.

Maximvs Prophet

peoplesanctuary@yahoo.com

He is seeking the path to enlightenment, hoping to change the world or at least to give people another perspective on how to look at the world around them. May he find that and much more. We are all, on our own journey, whether we realized that or not. An old saying says sometimes the old path can be the right path, if were in the right frame of mind to.

An old Cherokee told his grandson, "My son, there is a battle between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, self & lies. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, & truth." The boy thought about it, and asked, "Grandfather, which wolf wins?" The old man quietly replied, "The one you feed." ~unknown

16/365 - wednesday nights i play dress up, and about the only time i have the desire to curl my hair. i once dated a guy who did not like my hair curled, so now we see each other every wednesday night, and i think i have curled my hair every week since we split, which has been a loooooong time. cuz i love it curled, i think it looks smokin hot. very feminine. someday i'll let it go :) no rush tho, i'm still young.