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A history of Taormina: chronicles of a forbidden love and its great secret (not only Paolo and Francesca) with an unexpected "scoop".
This story is an integral part of the story previously told, the historical period is the same, the place is the same, the various characters often meet each other because they know each other; Taormina, between the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s, in an ever increasing growth, became the place of residence of elite tourism, thanks to the international interest aroused by writers and artists, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , or great personalities like Lady Florence Trevelyan: Taormina becomes so famous, thanks to the paintings of the painter Otto Geleng and the photographs of the young Sicilian models by Wilhelm von Gloeden; in the air of Taormina there is a sense of libertine, its famous and histrionic visitors never fail to create scandal, even surpassing the famous Capri, in which, to cite just one example, the German gunsmith Krupp, trying to recreate the he environment of Arcadia that one breathed in Taormina (thanks to the photos of von Gloeden) was overwhelmed by the scandal for homosexuality, and took his own life. Taormina thus becomes a heavenly-like place, far from industrial civilizations, where you can freely live your life and sexuality; this is the socio-cultural environment in which the two protagonists of this story move, the British painter Robert Hawthorn Kitson (1873 - 1947) and the painter Carlo Siligato (born in Taormina in 1875, and died there in 1959). Robert H. Kitson, born in Leeds in England, belonged to a more than wealthy family, as a young engineer he had begun to replace his father in the family locomotive construction company (Kitson & Co.), on the death of his father in 1899 sells everything and decides to move very rich in Sicily to Taormina (he had been there the previous year with a trip made with his parents, here he had met, in addition to Baron von Gloeden, also the writer and poet Oscar Wilde who came to Italy, immediately after having served two years in prison in forced labor, on charges of sodomy); Kitson settled there because he was suffering from a severe form of rheumatic fever (like von Gloeden was advised to treat himself in the Mediterranean climate milder), and because as a homosexual, he leaves England because the Labouchere amendment considered homosexuality a crime. The other protagonist of this story is Carlo Siligato, he was from Taormina, he had attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, a very gifted painter, he was very good at oil painting (he exhibited his paintings in an art workshop, even now existing, in via Teatro Greco in Taormina), the meeting with the painter Robert Kitson, led him to adopt the watercolor technique: almost to relive Dante's verses on Paolo and Francesca "Galeotto was the book and who wrote it" the common passion for painting led the two artists to live an intense love story. Kitson built his home in the "Cuseni" district of Taormina, called for this "Casa Cuseni", the house was built between 1900 and 1905, its decorations were entrusted to the artists Alfred East (realist landscape painter, president of the Royal Society ), and Frank Brangwyn (painter, decorator, designer), he was a pupil of William Morris, leader of the English movement "Arts and Crafts" which spread to England in the second half of the nineteenth century (the Arts and Crafts was a response to the industrialization of Europe, of mass production operated by factories, all this at the expense of traditional craftsmanship, from this movement originated the Art Nouveau, in Italy also known as Liberty Style or Floral Style, which distinguished itself for having been a artistic and philosophical movement, which developed between the end of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, whose style spread in such a way as to be present everywhere). Casa Cuseni has kept a secret for 100 years that goes far beyond the forbidden love lived by Robert and Carlo, a secret hidden inside the "secret room", that dinning room that was reopened in 2012; entering the dining room, you can witness a series of murals painted on the four walls by Frank Brangwyn, in Art Nouveau style, which portray the life and love story between the painter Robert Kitson, and his life partner, the Carlo Siligato from Taormina, but the thing that makes these murals even more special, full of tenderness and sweetness, is that "their secret" (!) is represented in them, it is described visually, as in an "episodic" story that really happened in their lives: Messina (and Reggio Calabria) are destroyed by the terrible earthquake with a tsunami on December 28, 1908, Carlo Siligato, Robert Kitson, Wilhelm von Gloeden and Anatole France leave for Messina, to see and document in person the tragedy, the city was a pile of rubble, many dead, Robert and Carlo see a baby, Francesco, he is alone in the world, without parents who died in the earthquake, abandoned to a certain and sad destiny, a deep desire for protection is born in the two of them, a maternal and paternal desire is born, they decide to takes that little child with them even knowing that they are risking a lot ... (!), what they want to do is something absolutely unthinkable in that historical period, they are a homosexual couple, what they are about to do is absolutely forbidden ..(!) but now there is Francesco in their life, thus becoming, in fact, the first homogenitorial family (with a more generic term, rainbow family) in world history: hence the need to keep the whole story absolutely hidden, both from an artistic point of view , represented by the murals (for more than 100 years, the "dinning room" will be kept hidden), both of what happens in real life, with little Francesco cared for lovingly, but with great risk or. I have allegorically inserted, in the photographic story, some photographs of the artists of the company "Casa del Musical", who came to Taormina to perform during the Christmas period: today as yesterday, Taormina has always been (starting from the last 20 years of the 19th century) center of a crossroads of artists and great personalities, Casa Cuseni also in this has an enormous palmares of illustrious guests, too long to state. The young boys painted on the murals of Casa Cuseni, wear white, this is a sign of purity, they wanted to represent their ideal homosexual world, fighting against the figure dressed in black, short in stature, disturbing, which acquires a negative value, an allegorical figure of the English society of the time, indicating the Victorian morality that did not hesitate to condemn Oscar Wilde, depriving him of all his assets and rights, even preventing him from giving the surname to his children. The boys are inspired by the young Sicilian models photographed by Wilhelm von Gloeden, dressed in white tunics, with their heads surrounded by local flowers. The only female figure present has given rise to various interpretations, one could be Kitson's detachment from his motherland, or his detachment from his mother. On the third wall we witness the birth of the homogenitorial family, both (allegorically Carlo and Kitson with the child in their arms) are in profile, they are walking, the younger man has a long, Greek-style robe, placed on the front, next to him behind him, the sturdier companion holds and gently protects the little child in his arms, as if to spare the companion the effort of a long and uncertain journey, there is in the representation of the family the idea of a long journey, in fact the man holding the child wears heavy shoes, their faces are full of apprehension and concern: in front of them an empty wall, so deliberately left by Frank Brangwin, since their future is unknown, in front of them they have a destiny full of unknowns (at the same time, their path points east, they go towards the rising sun: opening the large window the sun floods everything in the room). In the "secret room" there is the picture painted in 1912 by Alfred E. East, an oil on canvas, representing Lake Bourget. Carlo Siligato later married Costanza, she was my father's grandmother's sister, they had a son, Nino, who for many years lived and worked as a merchant in his father's art workshop. I sincerely thank my colleague Dr. Francesco Spadaro, doctor and esteemed surgeon, owner and director of the "Casa Cuseni" House-Garden-Museum, who, affectionately acting as a guide, gave me the precious opportunity to create "this photographic tour" inside the house- museum and in the "metaphysical garden" of Casa Cuseni. … And the scoop that I announced in the title ..? After photographing the tomb of Carlo Siligato, in the Catholic cemetery of Taormina, I started looking for that of Robert Kitson, in the non-Catholic cemetery of Taormina: when I finally found it (with him lies his niece Daphne Phelps, buried later in 2005) ... I felt a very strong emotion, first of all I was expecting a mausoleum, instead I found a small, very modest tomb on this is not a photo of him, not an epitaph, not a Cross, not a praying Angel to point it out, but ... unexpectedly for a funerary tombstone ... a small bas-relief carved on marble (or stone) depicting ... the Birth ... (!), obviously , having chosen her could have a very specific meaning: a desire to transmit a message, something very profound about him, his tomb thus testified that in his soul, what was really important in life was having a family, with Carlo and baby Francesco, certainly beloved, saved from a certain and sad fate, in the terrible Messina earthquake-tsunami of 28 December 1908 ... almost recalling in an absolute synthesis, at the end of his life, what had already been told in the "secret murals" of Casa Cuseni.
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Una storia di Taormina: cronache di un amore proibito e del suo grande segreto (non solo Paolo e Francesca) con inaspettato “scoop”.
Questa storia fa parte integrante della storia precedentemente raccontata, il periodo storico è lo stesso, il luogo è lo stesso, i vari personaggi spesso si frequentano tra loro poiché si conoscono; Taormina, tra la fine dell’800 e l’inizio del’900, in un sempre maggiore crescendo, diventa luogo di residenza del turismo d’élite, grazie all’interesse internazionale suscitato ad opera di scrittori ed artisti, come Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, o grandi personalità come Lady Florence Trevelyan: Taormina diventa così famosa, complici i quadri del pittore Otto Geleng e le fotografie dei giovani modelli siciliani di Wilhelm von Gloeden; nell’aria di Taormina si respira un che di libertino, i suoi famosi ed istrionici frequentatori non mancano mai di creare scandalo, superando persino la famosa Capri, nella quale, per citare solo un esempio, l’armiere tedesco Krupp, cercando di ricreare l’ambiente dell’Arcadia che si respirava a Taormina (grazie alle foto di von Gloeden) viene travolto dallo scandalo per omosessualità, e si toglie la vita. Taormina diviene quindi un luogo simil-paradisiaco, lontana dalle civiltà industriali, nella quale poter vivere liberamente la propria vita e la propria sessualità; questo è l’ambiente socio-culturale nel quale si muovono i due protagonisti di questa vicenda, il pittore britannico Robert Hawthorn Kitson (1873 – 1947) ed il pittore Carlo Siligato (nato a Taormina nel 1875, ed ivi morto nel 1959). Robert H. Kitson, nacque a Leeds in Inghilterra, apparteneva ad una famiglia più che benestante, da giovane ingegnere aveva cominciato a sostituire il padre nell’impresa familiare di costruzioni di locomotive (la Kitson & Co.), alla morte del padre nel 1899 vende tutto e decide di trasferirsi ricchissimo in Sicilia a Taormina (vi era stato l’anno precedente con un viaggio fatto coi suoi genitori, qui aveva conosciuto, oltre al barone von Gloeden, anche lo scrittore e poeta Oscar Wilde venuto in Italia, subito dopo aver scontato due anni di prigione ai lavori forzati, con l’accusa di sodomia); Kitson vi si stabilisce perché affetto da una grave forma di febbre reumatica (come von Gloeden gli fu consigliato di curarsi nel clima mediterraneo più mite), sia perché in quanto omosessuale, lascia l’Inghilterra perché l’emendamento Labouchere considerava l’omosessualità un crimine. L’altro protagonista di questa storia è Carlo Siligato, egli era taorminese, aveva frequentato l’Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, pittore molto dotato, era bravissimo nel dipingere ad olio (esponeva i suoi quadri in una bottega d’arte, ancora adesso esistente, in via Teatro Greco a Taormina), l’incontro col pittore Robert Kitson, lo portò ad adottare la tecnica dell’acquarello: quasi a rivivere i versi di Dante su Paolo e Francesca “Galeotto fu ‘l libro e chi lo scrisse” la comune passione per la pittura condusse i due artisti a vivere una intensa storia d’amore. Kitson costruì nel quartiere “Cuseni” di Taormina la sua abitazione, detta per questo “Casa Cuseni”, la casa fu costruita tra il 1900 ed il 1905, le sue decorazioni furono affidate agli artisti Alfred East (pittore verista paesaggista, presidente della Royal Society), e Frank Brangwyn (pittore, decoratore, designer, progettista), egli era allievo di William Morris, leader del movimento inglese “Arts and Crafts” (Arti e Mestieri) che si diffuse in Inghilterra nella seconda metà del XIX secolo (l’Arts and Crafts era una risposta alla industrializzazione dell’Europa, della produzione in massa operata dalle fabbriche, tutto ciò a scapito dell’artigianato tradizionale, da questo movimento ebbe origine l’Art Nouveau, in Italia conosciuta anche come Stile Liberty o Stile Floreale, che si distinse per essere stata un movimento artistico e filosofico, che si sviluppò tra la fine dell’800 ed il primo decennio del ‘900, il cui stile si diffuse in tal modo da essere presente dappertutto). Casa Cuseni ha custodito per 100 anni un segreto che va ben oltre quell’amore proibito vissuto da Robert e Carlo, segreto celato all’interno della “stanza segreta”, quella dinning room che è stata riaperta nel 2012; entrando nella sala da pranzo, si assiste ad una serie di murales realizzati sulle quattro pareti da Frank Brangwyn, in stile Art Nouveau, che ritraggono la vita e la storia d’amore tra il pittore Robert Kitson, ed il suo compagno di vita, il pittore taorminese Carlo Siligato, ma la cosa che rende questi murales ancora più particolari, carichi di tenerezza e dolcezza, è che in essi viene rappresentato “il loro segreto” (!), viene descritto visivamente, come in un racconto “ad episodi” quello che è realmente avvenuto nella loro vita: Messina (e Reggio Calabria) vengono distrutte dal terribile sisma con maremoto il 28 dicembre del 1908, partono per Messina, Carlo Siligato, Robert Kitson, Wilhelm von Gloeden ed Anatole France, per vedere e documentare di persona la tragedia, la città era un cumulo di macerie, moltissimi i morti, Robert e Carlo vedono un piccolo bimbo, Francesco, egli è solo al mondo, privo dei genitori periti nel terremoto, abbandonato ad un certo e triste destino, nasce in loro due un profondo desiderio di protezione, nasce un desiderio materno e paterno, decidono di prende quel piccolo bimbo con loro pur sapendo che stanno rischiando moltissimo…(!) , quello che vogliono fare è una cosa assolutamente impensabile in quel periodo storico, loro sono una coppia omosessuale, quello che stanno per fare è assolutamente proibito..(!) ma oramai c’è Francesco nella loro vita, divenendo così, di fatto, la prima famiglia omogenitoriale (con termine più generico, famiglia arcobaleno) nella storia mondiale: da qui la necessità di tenere assolutamente nascosta tutta la vicenda, sia dal punto di vista artistico, rappresentata dai murales (per più di 100 anni, la “dinning room” verrà tenuta nascosta), sia di quanto accade nella vita reale, col piccolo Francesco accudito amorevolmente, ma con grandissimo rischio. Ho inserito allegoricamente, nel racconto fotografico, alcune fotografie degli artisti della compagnia “Casa del Musical”, giunti a Taormina per esibirsi durante il periodo natalizio: oggi come ieri, Taormina è sempre stata (a partire dagli ultimi 20 anni dell’800) al centro di un crocevia di artisti e grandi personalità, Casa Cuseni anche in questo ha un enorme palmares di ospiti illustri, troppo lungo da enunciare. I giovani ragazzi dipinti sui murales di Casa Cuseni, vestono di bianco, questo è segno di purezza, si è voluto in tal modo rappresentare il loro mondo ideale omosessuale, in lotta contro la figura vestita di nero, bassa di statura, inquietante, che acquista un valore negativo, figura allegorica della società inglese dell’epoca, indicante la morale Vittoriana che non ha esitato a condannare Oscar Wilde, privandolo di tutti i suoi beni e diritti, impedendogli persino di dare il cognome ai suoi figli. I ragazzi sono ispirati ai giovani modelli siciliani fotografati da Wilhelm von Gloeden, vestiti con tuniche bianche, col capo cinto dei fiori locali. L’unica figura femminile presente, ha dato spunto a varie interpretazioni, una potrebbe essere il distacco da parte di Kitson dalla sua madre patria, oppure il distacco da sua madre. Sulla terza parete si assiste alla nascita della famiglia omogenitoriale, entrambi (allegoricamente Carlo e Kitson col bimbo in braccio) sono di profilo, sono in cammino, l’uomo più giovane ha una veste lunga, alla greca, posto sul davanti, accanto a lui, alle sue spalle, il compagno più robusto sostiene in braccio e protegge con dolcezza il piccolo bimbo, quasi a voler risparmiare al compagno la fatica di un lungo ed incerto percorso, vi è nella rappresentazione della famiglia l’idea di un lungo percorso, infatti l’uomo che regge il bimbo indossa delle calzature pesanti, i loro volti sono carichi di apprensione e preoccupazione: davanti a loro una parete vuota, così volutamente lasciata da Frank Brangwin, poiché il loro futuro è ignoto, davanti hanno un destino pieno di incognite (al tempo stesso, il loro cammino indica l’est, vanno verso il sole nascente: aprendo la grande finestra il sole inonda ogni cosa nella stanza).
Nella “stanza segreta” c’è il quadro dipinto nel 1912 da Alfred E. East, un olio su tela, rappresentante il lago Bourget.
Carlo Siligato, successivamente si sposò con Costanza, una sorella della nonna di mio padre, da lei ebbe un figlio, Nino, il quale per tantissimi anni ha vissuto e lavorato come commerciante nella bottega d’arte del padre. Ringrazio di cuore il mio collega dott. Francesco Spadaro, medico e stimato chirurgo, proprietario e direttore della Casa-Giardino-Museo “Casa Cuseni”, il quale, facendomi affettuosamente da cicerone, mi ha dato la preziosa opportunità di realizzare “questo tour fotografico” all’interno dell’abitazione-museo e nel “giardino-metafisico” di Casa Cuseni.
…E lo scoop che ho annunciato nel titolo..? Dopo aver fotografato la tomba di Carlo Siligato, nel cimitero cattolico di Taormina, mi sono messo alla ricerca di quella di Robert Kitson, nel cimitero acattolico di Taormina: quando finalmente l’ho trovata (insieme a lui giace sua nipote Daphne Phelps, seppellita successivamente nel 2005)…ho provato una fortissima commozione, innanzitutto mi aspettavo un mausoleo, invece ho trovato una tomba piccola, molto modesta, su questa non una sua foto, non un epitaffio, non una Croce, non un Angelo pregante ad indicarla, ma … inaspettatamente per una lapide funeraria…un piccolo bassorilievo scolpito su marmo (o su pietra) raffigurante…la Natalità…(!), evidentemente, l’averla scelta potrebbe avere un significato ben preciso: un desiderio di trasmettere un messaggio, qualcosa di molto profondo di lui, la sua tomba testimoniava così che nel suo animo, ciò che in vita fu davvero importante fu l’aver avuto una famiglia, con Carlo e col piccolo Francesco, certamente amatissimo, salvato da un molto probabile triste destino, nel terribile terremoto-maremoto di Messina del 28 dicembre del 1908…quasi rievocando in una sintesi assoluta, al termine della sua vita, ciò che era già stato raccontato nei “murales segreti” di Casa Cuseni.
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Hans Smidth 1839-1917 Danemark
Intérieur avec des fleurs sur le rebord de la fenêtre
Interior with flowers on the windowsill 1915
Copenhague Collection Hirschsprung
LE BEAU EST UNE EXPÉRIENCE PARTAGÉE
"Le monde discerne la beauté, et, par là le laid se révèle. Le monde reconnaît le bien et, par là le mal se révèle."
Dao De Jing, le Livre de la Voie et de la Vertu
LAO TSEU (Laozi)
“When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty, there arises the recognition of ugliness. When they all know the good as good, there arises the recognition of evil.”
Dao De Jing, The Book of the Way and Virtue
LAO TZU (Laozi)
"Tout l’art florentin depuis Giotto et tout au long du Quattrocento, possède cette stupéfiante qualité de vérité absolue, reconnue. L’effet immédiat d’un grand Giotto ou d’un Masaccio est de laisser le spectateur sans voix. Cela s’appelait autrefois la Beauté."
MARIE MAC CARTHY "Les Pierres de Florence" 1956.
“All great Florentine art, from Giotto through the quattrocento, has the faculty of amazing with its unexpected and absolute truthfulness. This faculty was once called beauty The immediate effect of a great Giotto or Masaccio is to strike the beholder dumb.”
MARY McCARTHY, “The Stones of Florence,” 1956.
"Il est impossible de rien comprendre à l'art médiéval si l’on ne comprend pas quel espace de liberté y est consenti à l’artiste. L’art médiéval offre l’évidence d’un plaisir des formes qui est commun aux artistes et à leur public et qui ne se confond pas avec l’inspiration religieuse."
ANDRE CHASTEL. L’Art Français Flammarion 1993
"It is impossible to understand anything about medieval art if we do not understand what space of freedom is granted to the artist. Medieval art offers evidence of a pleasure of form that is common to artists and their audiences and not confused with religious inspiration."
ANDRE CHASTEL. French Art Flammarion 1993
Le monde est là pour être goûté; la réalité est là comme un banquet qui s'offre, l'art n'est rien d'autre que l'exaltation de la saveur cachée des choses.
François CHENG. (« Toute beauté est singulière » « D’où jaillit le chant » et « Shitao, la saveur du monde »)
The world is there to be tasted; reality is there as a banquet that is offered, art is nothing more than the exaltation of the hidden flavor of things.
François CHENG. ("All beauty is singular" "From where the song springs" and "Shitao, the flavor of the world")
Contrairement à une idée reçue, toute nouvelle, considérée comme une évidence à notre époque, le Beau n'est pas subjectif. Non, le Beau n'est pas seulement une question de goût personnel, un arbitraire total, absolument égocentrique. Le beau n'est pas autiste, il est un partage, même si certaines de ses formes peuvent être plus accessibles à certaines personnes qu'à d'autres, à certaines cultures et pas à d'autres.
La preuve que le Beau existe est qu'il est reconnu et admis de manière unanime par les opinions publiques, et celle des spécialistes, pour des millions d' oeuvres dont les dates de création vont de - 3000 à nos jours. Le Beau est d'ailleurs reconnu, vécu comme une expérience généralement partagée, non seulement dans l'art mais dans tout le spectacle de la Nature.
Il faut laisser de côté les définitions abstraites. Les Philosophes n'ont jamais réussi à donner une définition satisfaisante et incontestable du Beau. Laissons à Platon son Idée d'un Beau transcendant impossible à atteindre. Restons à un niveau plus trivial, celui de la beauté remarquable, concrète : il n'y a absolument aucune discussion sérieuse quant à l'existence du Beau, d'une sensation commune, une émotion poétique, partagée par des millions d'hommes, depuis L'Art Paléolithique, l'Art Egyptien jusqu'à l'Art Moderne, depuis la Chine jusqu'à l'Europe et l'Amérique.
Le Beau ne se définit pas, il se ressent individuellement et collectivement. Individuellement ressenti le beau est seulement subjectif, il n'a d'importance que pour une personne, collectivement ressenti, partagé par les élites et les populations, ensemble, il s'objective. Il devient une réalité à l'échelle d'une collectivité plus ou moins large, et même jusqu'à la Terre entière. Le Beau est tout simplement un fait vérifié par l'expérience de milliers de générations d'humains sur l'ensemble de la Terre.
Des trois idées fondamentales, Beau, Bien, Vrai, le Beau est la première dont il est possible de repérer l'apparition avec certitude dans l'histoire des hommes: Parce qu'il laisse des traces que nous constatons. Quand apparait l'idée de Bien? Quand apparaît l'idée de Vrai ?
Le Beau ne se définit pas, il se ressent et il évolue en fonction du temps. Sans aucun doute l'erreur de l'Académie de Paris vers 1850 a été de vouloir définir les règles du Beau, in abstracto, pour tous les temps et toutes les civilisations, erreur profonde, et les impressionnistes ont eu très vite raison contre lui. Ils ont démontré que le Beau partagé pouvait prendre d'autres formes.
Le Beau peut prendre des formes différentes selon les cultures ou les civilisations. Il est reconnu comme Beau à l'intérieur de son domaine culturel, mais aussi souvent à l'extérieur.
La peinture des lettrés chinois est très particulière, il est possible à titre individuel de ne pas l'apprécier, mais il serait faux de parler à son propos d'un Art du laid, et elle n'est pas jugée comme tel par l'épreuve du temps et de sa confrontation avec d'autres cultures comme celle occidentale.
Le Beau est tout simplement un fait vérifié par l'expérience de milliers de générations d'humains sur l'ensemble de la Terre. Le tableau de Léonard de Vinci, la Joconde (Mona Lisa) et le succès qu'il rencontre auprès des populations extrême orientales est une preuve de cette universalité du Beau.
Il existe "un sens du Beau, commun à toute l'humanité" qui est indépendant des modes, des religions et des idéologies et même des cultures. Même s'il ne faut pas négliger certaines spécificités ou variabilités tenant à telle culture ou à telle époque. Le constat global reste celui d'un partage du sentiment du beau à l'échelle universelle.
Le beau s'identifie par une intense satisfaction, un sentiment de bonheur, de joie, d'ordre sensuel ou intellectuel qui envahit la personne, c'est son point de départ subjectif . Ce point de départ subjectif qui s'objective par le partage de ce sentiment avec une foule d'autres personnes, de cultures et d'époques différentes, pour parvenir à l'émergence d'une quasi unanimité et d'une quasi universalité.
Le beau est certes un vécu subjectif en ce qu'il est ressenti individuellement, mais il s'objective par l'opinion convergente, formulée au cours du temps, par les peuples et les élites. C'est ce jugement commun des peuples et des élites, cette expérience partagée, qui objective et prouve le Beau.
Ce qui est subjectif ce sont les préférences des individus. Ce qui est subjectif c'est quand une personne préfère les fresques romanes ou l'art du gothique international à la peinture de la Renaissance Italienne.
Quand une personne préfère l'art du paysage ou la peinture de moeurs à la peinture religieuse.
Si on avait dit à Fra Angelico, à Raphaël ou à Rubens que le Beau n'existe pas et est affaire purement subjective, ils auraient haussé les épaules.
Non seulement le sentiment du Beau est un fait d'expérience, un bien commun à l'humanité, qui traverse les temps et les cultures, mais le Beau peut être ressenti alors que les idéologies qui ont inspiré les oeuvres d'art à une époque donnée, dans une région de la Terre, sont mortes en tant que croyances actives.
Il n'est pas nécessaire de croire dans les Esprits, les Dieux Egyptiens, Grecs, Hindous ou dans les Bouddhas pour apprécier la beauté de l'art des cavernes, de l'Egypte antique, de la Grèce, de l'Inde, ou de l'Asie du Sud Est.
De même, les représentations de Dieu et du monde qui sont celles des églises chrétiennes, qui ont été vivantes et profondément significatives pour les populations européennes pendant plus d'un millénaire, peuvent ne plus avoir de sens pour une très large majorité des populations de l'Europe de l'Ouest et du Nord au 21è siècle. Il reste cependant que ces populations, comme d'autres peuples dans d'autres cultures, peuvent reconnaître le Beau dans des oeuvres d'art dont les symboles ne sont plus idéologiquement significatifs pour elles, voire même leur paraissent absurdes. Les croyances changent mais le sentiment du Beau dure.
Le Beau est donc un fait constaté au travers de toute l'histoire des civilisations.
Le Beau est certes une idée, mais pendant des siècles ce n'était pas une idéologie. Et encore moins son contraire le Laid. Les multiples idéologies, le plus souvent religieuses, qui ont habité durant des millénaires l'esprit des hommes ont utilisé l'idée du beau pour soutenir leurs croyances les plus diverses et même opposées.
A partir de la seconde moitié du 20è siècle les élites idéologiques et politiques de l'Occident, athées, ont décidé d' imposer la croyance que le Beau n'existait pas, et de faire croire que le Laid est une valeur recommandable. L'art contemporain officiel en est la démonstration: Le laid est devenu une idéologie, l'idéologie correcte du mondialisme. La population la plus "éclairée" est invitée à communier avec le Laid, et l'Absurde, à y patauger délicieusement, avec distinction et conceptualisme.
L'affirmation que le Beau n'existe pas, est purement subjectif, est une idée fausse, conçue et répandue au cours de la seconde moitié du 20è siècle pour des motifs idéologiques et économiques.
Les motifs idéologiques sont, notamment, que ce relativisme permet de justifier l'Art Laid officiel et que l'art laid est un critère de distinction entre les Eclairés et ceux qui ne le sont pas. L'homme peut en effet inventer des idéologies, des croyances, qui nient le Beau et le Bien. Cette capacité d'invention de croyances les plus diverses et contraires fait la différence entre l'homme et les animaux.
C'est une évolution mais ce n'est pas nécessairement un progrès. Ce peut être, c'est toujours, inévitablement, sous certains aspects, aussi une régression. La capacité d'inventer le Beau rencontre son contraire, celle d'inventer le Laid. Et même, comme dans l'art contemporain officiel, d'en faire une règle, une doctrine. La capacité au Bien est inséparable de celle de faire le Mal. Et la formulation de vérités ouvre toute grande la porte aux mensonges.
Un autre motif idéologique du Mondialisme est la destruction des identités civilisationnelles, culturelles, une volonté d'uniformisation de l'humanité pour mieux la contrôler. C'est pourquoi l'art contemporain mondialiste est sans racines aucunes, dans aucune culture de la Terre. La disparition des différences est programmée, sauf quelques réserves pour humains inférieurs, animaux et plantes rares. Vive la bio-diversité. Mais place à l'homme-robotisé.
Outre les motifs idéologiques, cette affirmation permet aussi de fabriquer et de vendre du Laid, ce qui est une excellente affaire. Et ce n'est pas la moindre raison de ce succès. L'Art Contemporain Officiel, étatique, l'art des grandes Organisations Culturelle Internationales a bien évidemment partie liée avec le grand capitalisme des marchands et des financiers, et avec les Grandes Fondations "philanthropiques" qui en sont l'émanation. Des Fondations pour lesquelles le profit peut se faire à propos du beau, mais tout aussi bien avec du laid. Et si le laid est de meilleur profit, ils n'hésiteront pas. Ils peuvent même vous faire croire que le laid est beau. Et en attendant votre conversion, ils vous font croire que c'est légitime et surtout supérieurement intelligent. Car plus l'acheteur potentiel restera bouche béante devant l’œuvre, plus grand il ouvrira son portefeuille.
Quant au grand public ordinaire: "on peut faire avaler n'importe quoi aux gens" a dit Marcel Duchamp. Oui, c'est vrai. Pas nécessairement d'ailleurs que "les gens avalent n'importe quoi ", mais certainement que les gens n'osent pas critiquer et condamner le "n'importe quoi". Soyez Soft, soyez Zen, au nom du Soft et du Zen, et de la mode, "on peut faire avaler n'importe quoi aux gens".
BEAUTY IS A SHARED EXPERIENCE
Contrary to a widely, yet only recently accepted notion, which is now considered a truism, Beauty is not subjective. No, Beauty is not just a matter of personal taste, total arbitrariness and absolute egocentricity. Beauty is not autistic, it involves sharing, although some of its forms may be more accessible to some people than others, to some cultures and not to others.
The proof that Beauty exists is that it is recognized and unanimously accepted as such by public opinion and by specialists, with regard to millions of works of art created between 3000 B.C. to the present day. Beauty is generally recognized as a shared experience, not just in relation to art, but also in the spectacle that Nature offers.
Abstract definitions should be set aside. Philosophers have never succeeded in giving a satisfactory and unquestionable definition of Beauty. Forget about Plato and his idea of transcendent, unattainable Beauty. Let us stay at a more trivial level, that of outstanding, concrete beauty : there is absolutely no serious dispute as to the existence of Beauty, a shared sensation, a poetic emotion shared by millions of men, from Paleolithic and Egyptian Art to Modern Art, from China to Europe and America.
Beauty does not define itself, it is felt individually and collectively. Individually felt Beauty is only subjective, it only matters to one person ; collectively felt Beauty, shared by the elites and the people alike, becomes objective. Beauty becomes a reality at the level of a larger community that can even extend to the entire Planet. Beauty is simply a fact verified by the experience of thousands of generations of human beings spanning the entire Earth.
One can even argue that of the three fundamental ideas — Beauty, Goodness, and Truth — Beauty is the first that we can discern with certainty in the history of mankind, because Beauty leaves visible traces. When does the idea of Goodness appear ? When does the idea of Truth appear ?
Beauty cannot be defined, it is felt and evolves with the passing of time. The mistake of the Paris Academy around 1850 was undeniably to seek to define Beauty, in abstraction, for all time and all civilizations ; a grievous error, against which the Impressionists very quickly dispelled. They demonstrated that shared Beauty could take other forms.
Beauty can take different forms depending on the culture or civilization. It is recognized as Beauty within its cultural domain, but also often outside it.
Chinese scholarly painting is very particular, it is possible for an individual not to appreciate it, but it would be wrong to speak about it an Art of Ugliness, and it is not deemed as such by the test of time and its confrontation with other cultures, such as the Western. Beautify is simply a fact verified by the experience of thousands of generations of human beings all over the Earth. Leonardo’s painting of the Mona Lisa and its popularity among the peoples of the Far East testify to this universality of the Beauty.
There exists “a sense of beauty, common to all mankind” that transcend fashions, religions, ideologies, and even cultures, even though certain variables specific to a certain culture or period should not be disregarded. The bottom line remains a shared feeling of beauty on a universal scale.
Beauty is identified by intense pleasure, a feeling of happiness, of joy, of a sensual or intellectual nature that overwhelms a person, that is its subjective starting point. This subjective starting point becomes objective when the feeling is shared with a multitude of other people, of different cultures and eras, giving rise to a near unanimous and universal experience of Beauty.
Beauty is certainly a subjective experience in that it is felt individually, but it is objectivized by the convergence of opinion, formulated in the course of time, between the people and the elite. It is this common opinion the people and the elites, this shared experience, which objectivizes and verifies Beauty.
It is individuals’ preferences that are subjective. Subjective is a person’s preference for Romanesque frescoes or international Gothic art over Italian Renaissance painting, or preference for landscape or genre painting over religious painting.
If someone had told Fra Angelico, Raphael, or Rubens that Beauty does not exist and is a purely subjective matter, they would have shrugged.
The Beautiful is certainly a subjective, individually felt, but it is objectified by the synthesis of the multiple opinions of peoples and their elites.
Not only is the sense of Beauty a matter of experience, a common heritage of mankind spanning periods and cultures, but Beauty can be experienced even after the ideologies that inspired art works at a certain period of time, in a specific part of the Earth, have died as active beliefs.
There is no need to believe in the Spirits or Gods of the Egyptians, Greeks, Hindus or in Buddhas in order to appreciate the beauty of cave art, or the art of ancient Egypt, Greece, India, or Southeast Asia.
Likewise, the representations of God and the world prevailing in Christian churches, that have been alive and deeply meaningful to the peoples of Europe for over a millennium, may no longer make sense for a very large majority of the peoples of Western and Northern of the Europe in the 21st century. The fact remains, however, that those peoples, like other peoples in other cultures, can recognize Beauty in art works whose symbols are no longer ideologically meaningful or even appear absurd, to them. Beliefs change but the sense of Beauty remains.
Beauty is therefore an experience fact observed throughout the history of civilizations.
Beauty is certainly an idea, but for centuries it was not an ideology. And even less its polar opposite, Ugliness. The many ideologies, most often of a religious nature, that have inhabited men’s minds for thousands of years have used the idea of Beauty to support the most diverse and even opposite beliefs.
Beginning in the second half of the 20th century, the ideological and political elites of the West, all atheists, decided to impose the belief that Beauty does not exist, and to force people to believe that Ugliness is a positive, commendable quality. Official contemporary art is the proof : ugliness has become an ideology, the correct ideology of globalism. The most “enlightened” segment of the population is urged to commune with the Ugly and the Absurd, to wallow in it with delight, and to revel in its distinction and conceptualism.
The assertion that Beauty does not exist and is purely subjective, is a false idea, conceived and propagated during the second half of the 20th century for ideological and economic motives.
The ideological motives are, in particular, that such relativism allows one to justify the official Art of the Ugly and that Ugly Art is a criterion distinguishing the Enlightened from those who are not. Man can indeed invent ideologies or beliefs that negate Beauty and Goodness. This ability to make up the most diverse and even contrary beliefs is what sets apart mankind from animals.
Evolution it may be, but not necessarily progress. It can be, in fact from certain aspects it is always and inevitably a regression. The ability to invent Beauty has met its opposite, that of inventing Ugliness. And even, as in official contemporary art, to set it up as a rule, a doctrine. The capability to do Good is inseparable from that to do Evil. And the formulation of truths opens the door wide to lies.
Another ideological motive for globalism is the destruction of civilizational and cultural identities, a desire to standardize humanity in order to better control it. This is why contemporary globalist art has no roots whatsoever in any culture on Earth. The disappearance of differences is programmed, except for a few reserves for inferior humans, animals and rare plants. Long live bio-diversity. But make way for the robotic man.
Beyond ideological motives, this finding also makes it possible to manufacture and sell the Ugly, which is a wonderful deal. And that is not the least reason for its success. The official, state-sponsored Contemporary Art, the art of the great International Cultural Organizations, goes hand-in-hand with the high capitalism of merchants and financiers, and with the “philanthropic” Great Foundations that derive therefrom. Foundations for can profit from the Beautiful as from the Ugly. And if the Ugly is more profitable than the Beautiful, they will not hesitate for a second. They can even make you believe that ugly is beautiful. And while waiting for your conversion, they make you believe that it is legitimate and above all supremely intelligent. Because the more the potential buyer gapes open-mouthed at the Work of Art, the deeper he will open his wallet.
As for the general public: "we can make people swallow anything" said Marcel Duchamp. Yes, it's true. Not necessarily that "people swallow anything", but certainly that people do not dare to criticize and condemn the "anything". Be Soft, be Zen, in the name of Soft and Zen, and fashion, "we can make people swallow anything".
A [heavy] cruiser (the Order doesn't differentiate between light and heavy), and a modern one at that! I rather like how this thing turned out, Ian can testify to my constant grumbling about LDD lagging as I built it. But it was worth it in the end. It's like an Aoba, but not with the stability problems. Still, Aoba is love, Aoba is life. The look is sitting on the upper edge of DC5's time frame, but I'm sure my peers will find the statistical values quite acceptable. Indeed, the look is similar to Katon's Yong, but I've had this ship in the works for three weeks. And don't blame me for building a weeb ship, everything I've done until now has been American, Russian, British, Italian, and Austrian. I'm the most diversely inluenced boat builder in the game.
By 1920, the old guard of the Sæþrymm (men who had fought in the Second Eastern Crusade and feared the torpedo boat more than anything else) was beginning to retire or die off. They were being replaced by a new brand of officer, ones whose experience was gained from the more successful Third Eastern Crusade. With this shift of leadership, a shift in priorities, tactics, strategy, and general style came about as well. The Laurhurst-class cruiser is one of the first tangible results of the shift; a move towards heavier ships instead of the torpedo boats, destroyers, and lighter cruisers that had dominated the Sæþrymm's mind for the last two decades. No cruiser with guns heavier than 6" had been built since 1907, only four dreadnoughts had been built in that time as well, and four battle greatcruisers too, one of which had been sunk with no survivors. It was time for the Sæþrymm to get serious... or it was a few years ago, when construction of this new generation of vessels began (muh roleplay).
The Laurhursts are not as heavily armed as their rival Qinese Yongs, nor the Emmerian Hafenlands for that matter. However, the fewer amount of secondary guns and lighter torpedoes means more displacement can be dedicated to armor and internal strengthening, while maintaining a similar speed.
Maximum speed: 35 knots
Armament: 3x2 8-inch guns, 4x1 4-inch dual purpose guns, 3x2 1.5-inch autocannons, 6x1 1-inch autocannons, 4x3 21-inch torpedo tubes
Armor: 4" armor belt around magazines and engine machinery, 1.4" deck over magazines and engine machinery, 2" on turrets, 1" on secondaries
Aircraft: 1 floatplane (disassembled while in hangar)
Range: 11,100 km
morning - cleaning the house, watching/listening to Maria Yovanovitch testify. cleaning the house is a routine on Sat morning, M.'s at work I clean the house. MY's testimony takes me aback, her demeanor, her very soft, vulnerable way she presents. I was expecting an iron lady who is going to take this motherfucker down, lady with steel in her voice and her eyes. What I see is a hurt, vulnerable, almost slightly misplaced and disoriented person. It's surprising and in a weird way touching.
Afternoon is a sit back outside with a glass of wine (Pinot Noir today) , "Moonriver" playlist and a camera, just in case. Sitting down even in an all too familiar setting does sometimes bring shot worthy things your way, you just have to be patient. Today after a few sips of wine a couple of insects landed on my keyboard, they landed interlocked in a very dubious fashion , I dare to suggest in some kind of X rated action, so I took advantage (and the shot) of this racy affair, but then my resident shell which usually rests quietly on the garden table spotted a mirror and .. girls and their mirrors, you know .. so we'll park insect action for later and run with the vain Shelly
My "Moonriver" playlist is a collection of the most wonderfully cheesy tunes, each tune in all possible interpretations , it's a list to play when you sit outside in a breezy shade on a hot summer day with a glass of rose, pinot will do, it's got Moonriver in 3 covers, Love letters in 4 covers, Danny boy in 3 covers, Old cape cod in 5 covers and so it goes , you get my drift , so to choose one tune from this list to go with the shot is impossible, so I will go with one tune on the list which is uniquely has only one version, the original , I never came across any worthy covers of this one, if you know one and let me know I will be your slave for life:
“Do not forget this! Keep it in mind!
Remember this, you guilty ones.
Remember the things I have done in the past.
For I alone am God!
I am God, and there is none like me.
Only I can tell you the future
before it even happens.
Everything I plan will come to pass,
for I do whatever I wish.
[Isaiah 46:8-10 NLT]
5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
[Isaiah 46:8-11 NIV]
5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
[1 Timothy 6:17-19 NIV]
5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
New Lanark is a small 18th- century village set in a sublime Scottish landscape where the philanthropist and Utopian idealist Robert Owen moulded a model industrial community in the early 19th century. The imposing cotton mill buildings, the spacious and well-designed workers' housing, and the dignified educational institute and school still testify to Owen's humanism.
We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
[Colossians 1:11-14 NLT]
5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.
[1 Corinthians 3:10-11 NLT]
5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
[Matthew 6:25-27 NIV]
5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
"I testify there's no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah" This is the verses that moslem people read while in sitting position and rising the index finger (like in the picture) when offering praying,
@ Masjid (mosque) Sunan Ampel, Surabaya, East Java.
I noticed this pin-up - It's a shot of Bettie Page - tucked away in a corner of a store window, from behind two hanging dresses.
From wiki:
In Brief:
Bettie Page (April 22, 1923 – December 11, 2008) was an American model who became famous in the 1950s for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos. She has often been called the "Queen of pinups". Her look, including her jet black hair and trademark bangs, has influenced many artists.
She was also one of the earliest Playmates of the Month for Playboy magazine. "I think that she was a remarkable lady, an iconic figure in pop culture who influenced sexuality, taste in fashion, someone who had a tremendous impact on our society,"[4] Playboy founder Hugh Hefner told the Associated Press.
Bettie as a model:
Following her divorce, Page worked briefly in San Francisco, and in Haiti. She moved to New York City, where she hoped to find work as an actress. In the meantime, she supported herself by working as a secretary. In 1950, while walking along the Coney Island shore, she met Jerry Tibbs, a police officer with an interest in photography. She was a willing model, and Tibbs took pictures of her and put together her first pinup portfolio.
In the late 1940s, what were known as camera clubs were formed as a means of circumventing legal restrictions on the production of nude photos. These clubs existed ostensibly to promote artistic photography, but many were merely fronts for the making of pornography. Page entered the field of glamour photography as a popular camera club model, working initially with photographer Cass Carr. Her lack of inhibition in posing made her a hit. Her name and image became quickly known in the erotic photography industry, and in 1951, her image appeared in men's magazines with names like Wink, Titter, Eyefull and Beauty Parade.
From 1952 through 1957, she posed for photographer Irving Klaw for mail-order photographs with pin-up, bondage or sadomasochistic themes, making her the first famous bondage model. Klaw also used Page in dozens of short black-and-white 8mm and 16mm "specialty" films which catered to specific requests from his clientele. These silent featurettes showed women clad in lingerie and high heels acting out fetishistic scenarios of abduction, domination, and slave-training with bondage, spanking, and elaborate leather costumes and restraints. Page alternated between playing a stern dominatrix and a helpless victim bound hand and foot. Klaw also produced a line of still photos taken during these sessions. Some have become iconic images, such as his highest-selling photo of Page shown gagged and bound in a web of ropes from the film Leopard Bikini Bound. Although these underground features had the same crude style and clandestine distribution as the pornographic "stag" films of the time, Klaw's all-female films (and still photos) never featured any nudity or explicit sexual content.
In 1953, Page took acting classes at the Herbert Berghof Studio, which led to several roles on stage and television. She appeared on The United States Steel Hour and the The Jackie Gleason Show. Her off-Broadway productions included Time is a Thief and Sunday Costs Five Pesos. Page acted and danced in the feature-length burlesque revue film Striporama by Jerald Intrator. She was given a brief speaking role, the only time her voice has been captured on film. She then appeared in two more burlesque films by Irving Klaw (Teaserama and Varietease). These featured exotic dance routines and vignettes by Page and well-known striptease artists Lili St. Cyr and Tempest Storm. All three films were mildly risque, but none showed any nudity or overtly sexual content.
In 1954, during one of her annual pilgrimages to Miami, Florida, Page met photographers Jan Caldwell, H. W. Hannau and Bunny Yeager. At that time, Page was the top pin-up model in New York. Yeager, a former model and aspiring photographer, signed Page for a photo session at the now-closed wildlife park Africa USA in Boca Raton, Florida. The Jungle Bettie photographs from this shoot are among her most celebrated. They include nude shots with a pair of cheetahs named Mojah and Mbili. The leopard skin patterned Jungle Girl outfit she wore was made, along with much of her lingerie, by Page herself. A large collection of the Yeager photos, and Klaw's, were published in the book Bettie Page Confidential (St. Martin's Press, 1994).
After Yeager sent shots of Page to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, he selected one to use as the Playmate of the Month centerfold in the January 1955 issue of the two-year-old magazine. The famous photo shows Page, wearing only a Santa hat, kneeling before a Christmas tree holding an ornament and playfully winking at the camera.
In 1955, Bettie won the title "Miss Pinup Girl of the World" She also became known as "The Queen of Curves" and "The Dark Angel". While pin-up and glamour models frequently have careers measured in months, Page was in demand for several years, continuing to model until 1957. Although she frequently posed nude, she never appeared in scenes with explicit sexual content.
The reasons reported for her departure from modeling vary. Some reports mention the Kefauver Hearings of the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency (after a young man apparently died during a session of bondage which was rumored to be inspired by Page), which ended Klaw's bondage and S&M mail-order photography business. In fact, the United States Congress called her to testify to explain the photos in which she appeared. While she was excused from appearing before the committee, the print negatives of many of her photos were destroyed by court order. For many years after, the negatives that survived were illegal to print.[citation needed] However, the most obvious reason for ending her modeling career and severing all contact with her prior life was her conversion to Christianity while living in Key West, Florida in 1959 in combination with the 1957 trials.
Interview and commentary on Bettie from 1996:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0Ynlp7sxZs
For more information please check oout the Bettie Page website home page:
We Have Seen And Do Testify
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world."
1 John 4:14
It is a sweet thought that Jesus Christ did not come forth without his Father’s permission, authority, consent, and assistance. He was sent of the Father, that he might be the Saviour of men. We are too apt to forget that, while there are distinctions as to the persons in the Trinity, but there are no distinctions of honour. We too frequently ascribe the honour of our salvation, or at least the depths of its benevolence, more to Jesus Christ than we do the Father. This is a very great mistake. What if Jesus came? Did not his Father send him? If he spoke wondrously, did not his Father pour grace into his lips, that he might be an able minister of the new covenant? He who knows the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit as he should know them, never sets one before another in his love; he sees them at Bethlehem, at Gethsemane, and on Calvary, all equally engaged in the work of salvation. O Christian, have we put our confidence in the Man Christ Jesus? Have we placed our reliance solely on him? And are we united with him? Then believe that we are united unto the God of heaven. Since to the Man Christ Jesus we are brother, and hold closed fellowship, we are linked thereby with God the Eternal, and “the Ancient of days” [Dan.7:9] is our Father and our friend. Did we ever consider the depth of love in the heart of Jehovah, when God the Father equipped his Son for the great enterprise of mercy? If not, be this our day’s meditation. The Father sent him! Contemplate that subject. Think how Jesus works what the Father wills. In the wounds of the dying Saviour see the love of the great I AM [Exo.3:14]. Let every thought of Jesus be also connected with the Eternal, ever-blessed God, for “It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he has put him to grief [Is.53:10]” Hallelujah, God bless
Peter Christian Skovgaard 1817-1875 Copenhague
Les falaises de Men
The cliffs at Men
Copenhague Collection Hirschsprung
Peintre essentiellement paysagiste. Painter essentially landscaper
LE BEAU EST UNE EXPÉRIENCE PARTAGÉE
"Le monde discerne la beauté, et, par là le laid se révèle. Le monde reconnaît le bien et, par là le mal se révèle."
Dao De Jing, le Livre de la Voie et de la Vertu
LAO TSEU (Laozi)
"The world discerns beauty, and hence the ugly is revealed. The world recognizes good and hence evil is revealed."
Dao De Jing, the Book of the Way and Virtue
LAO TSEU (Laozi)
"Tout l’art florentin depuis Giotto et tout au long du Quattrocento, possède cette stupéfiante qualité de vérité absolue, reconnue. L’effet immédiat d’un grand Giotto ou d’un Masaccio est de laisser le spectateur sans voix. Cela s’appelait autrefois la Beauté."
MARIE MAC CARTHY "Les Pierres de Florence" 1956.
"Everything Florentine art from Giotto and throughout the Quattrocento has this amazing quality of absolute truth recognized. The immediate effect of a large Giotto or Masaccio is to let the audience speechless. It s' once called Beauty. "
MARY MAC CARTHY "The Stones of Florence" 1956.
Contrairement à une idée reçue, toute nouvelle, considérée comme une évidence à notre époque, le Beau n'est pas subjectif. Non, le Beau n'est pas seulement une question de goût personnel, un arbitraire total, absolument égocentrique. Le beau n'est pas autiste, il est un partage, même si certaines de ses formes peuvent être plus accessibles à certaines personnes qu'à d'autres, à certaines cultures et pas à d'autres.
La preuve que le Beau existe est qu'il est reconnu et admis de manière unanime par les opinions publiques, et celle des spécialistes, pour des millions d' oeuvres dont les dates de création vont de - 3000 à nos jours. Le Beau est d'ailleurs reconnu, vécu comme une expérience généralement partagée, non seulement dans l'art mais dans tout le spectacle de la Nature.
Il faut laisser de côté les définitions abstraites. Les Philosophes n'ont jamais réussi à donner une définition satisfaisante et incontestable du Beau. Laissons à Platon son Idée d'un Beau transcendant impossible à atteindre. Restons à un niveau plus trivial, celui de la beauté remarquable, concrète : il n'y a absolument aucune discussion sérieuse quant à l'existence du Beau, d'une sensation commune, une émotion poétique, partagée par des millions d'hommes, depuis L'Art Paléolithique, l'Art Egyptien jusqu'à l'Art Moderne, depuis la Chine jusqu'à l'Europe et l'Amérique.
Le Beau ne se définit pas, il se ressent individuellement et collectivement. Individuellement ressenti le beau est seulement subjectif, il n'a d'importance que pour une personne, collectivement ressenti, partagé par les élites et les populations, ensemble, il s'objective. Il devient une réalité à l'échelle d'une collectivité plus ou moins large, et même jusqu'à la Terre entière. Le Beau est tout simplement un fait vérifié par l'expérience de milliers de générations d'humains sur l'ensemble de la Terre.
On peut même soutenir que des trois idées fondamentales Beau, Bien, Vrai, le Beau est la première dont nous pouvons repérer l'apparition avec certitude dans l'histoire des hommes: Parce qu'il laisse des traces que nous constatons. Quand apparait l'idée de Bien? Quand apparaît l'idée de Vrai ?
Le Beau ne se définit pas, il se ressent et il évolue en fonction du temps. Sans aucun doute l'erreur de l'Académie de Paris vers 1850 a été de vouloir définir les règles du Beau, in abstracto, pour tous les temps et toutes les civilisations, erreur profonde, et les impressionnistes ont eu très vite raison contre lui. Ils ont démontré que le Beau partagé pouvait prendre d'autres formes.
Le Beau peut prendre des formes différentes selon les cultures ou les civilisations. Il est reconnu comme Beau à l'intérieur de son domaine culturel, mais aussi souvent à l'extérieur.
La peinture des lettrés chinois est très particulière, il est possible à titre individuel de ne pas l'apprécier, mais il serait faux de parler à son propos d'un Art du laid, et elle n'est pas jugée comme tel par l'épreuve du temps et de sa confrontation avec d'autres cultures comme celle occidentale.
Le Beau est tout simplement un fait vérifié par l'expérience de milliers de générations d'humains sur l'ensemble de la Terre. Le tableau de Léonard de Vinci, la Joconde (Mona Lisa) et le succès qu'il rencontre auprès des populations extrême orientales est une preuve de cette universalité du Beau.
Il existe "un sens du Beau, commun à toute l'humanité" qui est indépendant des modes, des religions et des idéologies et même des cultures. Même s'il ne faut pas négliger certaines spécificités ou variabilités tenant à telle culture ou à telle époque. Le constat global reste celui d'un partage du sentiment du beau à l'échelle universelle.
Le beau s'identifie par une intense satisfaction, un sentiment de bonheur, de joie, d'ordre sensuel ou intellectuel qui envahit la personne, c'est son point de départ subjectif . Ce point de départ subjectif qui s'objective par le partage de ce sentiment avec une foule d'autres personnes, de cultures et d'époques différentes, pour parvenir à l'émergence d'une quasi unanimité et d'une quasi universalité.
Le beau est certes un vécu subjectif en ce qu'il est ressenti individuellement, mais il s'objective par l'opinion convergente, formulée au cours du temps, par les peuples et les élites. C'est ce jugement commun des peuples et des élites, cette expérience partagée, qui objective et prouve le Beau.
Ce qui est subjectif ce sont les préférences des individus. Ce qui est subjectif c'est quand une personne préfère les fresques romanes ou l'art du gothique international à la peinture de la Renaissance Italienne.
Quand une personne préfère l'art du paysage ou la peinture de moeurs à la peinture religieuse.
Si on avait dit à Fra Angelico, à Raphaël ou à Rubens que le Beau n'existe pas et est affaire purement subjective, ils auraient haussé les épaules.
Non seulement le sentiment du Beau est un fait d'expérience, un bien commun à l'humanité, qui traverse les temps et les cultures, mais le Beau peut être ressenti alors que les idéologies qui ont inspiré les oeuvres d'art à une époque donnée, dans une région de la Terre, sont mortes en tant que croyances actives.
Il n'est pas nécessaire de croire dans les Esprits, les Dieux Egyptiens, Grecs, Hindous ou dans les Bouddhas pour apprécier la beauté de l'art des cavernes, de l'Egypte antique, de la Grèce, de l'Inde, ou de l'Asie du Sud Est.
De même, les représentations de Dieu et du monde qui sont celles des églises chrétiennes, qui ont été vivantes et profondément significatives pour les populations européennes pendant plus d'un millénaire, peuvent ne plus avoir de sens pour une très large majorité des populations de l'Europe de l'Ouest et du Nord au 21è siècle. Il reste cependant que ces populations, comme d'autres peuples dans d'autres cultures, peuvent reconnaître le Beau dans des oeuvres d'art dont les symboles ne sont plus idéologiquement significatifs pour elles, voire même leur paraissent absurdes. Les croyances changent mais le sentiment du Beau dure.
Le Beau est donc un fait constaté au travers de toute l'histoire des civilisations.
Le Beau est certes une idée, mais pendant des siècles ce n'était pas une idéologie. Et encore moins son contraire le Laid. Les multiples idéologies, le plus souvent religieuses, qui ont habité durant des millénaires l'esprit des hommes ont utilisé l'idée du beau pour soutenir leurs croyances les plus diverses et même opposées.
A partir de la seconde moitié du 20è siècle les élites idéologiques et politiques de l'Occident, athées, ont décidé d' imposer la croyance que le Beau n'existait pas, et de faire croire que le Laid est une valeur recommandable. L'art contemporain officiel en est la démonstration: Le laid est devenu une idéologie, l'idéologie correcte du mondialisme. La population la plus "éclairée" est invitée à communier avec le Laid, et l'Absurde, à y patauger délicieusement, avec distinction et conceptualisme. .
L'affirmation que le Beau n'existe pas, est purement subjectif, est une idée fausse, conçue et répandue au cours de la seconde moitié du 20è siècle pour des motifs idéologiques et économiques.
Les motifs idéologiques sont, notamment, que ce relativisme permet de justifier l'Art Laid officiel et que l'art laid est un critère de distinction entre les Eclairés et ceux qui ne le sont pas. L'homme peut en effet inventer des idéologies, des croyances, qui nient le Beau et le Bien. Cette capacité d'invention de croyances les plus diverses et contraires fait la différence entre l'homme et les animaux.
C'est une évolution mais ce n'est pas nécessairement un progrès. Ce peut être, c'est toujours, inévitablement, sous certains aspects, aussi une régression. La capacité d'inventer le Beau rencontre son contraire, celle d'inventer le Laid. Et même, comme dans l'art contemporain officiel, d'en faire une règle, une doctrine. La capacité au Bien est inséparable de celle de faire le Mal. Et la formulation de vérités ouvre toute grande la porte aux mensonges.
Outre les motifs idéologiques, cette affirmation permet aussi de fabriquer et de vendre du Laid, ce qui est une excellente affaire. Et ce n'est pas la moindre raison de ce succès. L'Art Contemporain Officiel, étatique, l'art des grandes Organisations Culturelle Internationales a bien évidemment partie liée avec le grand capitalisme des marchands et des financiers, et avec les Grandes Fondations "philanthropiques" qui en sont l'émanation. Des Fondations pour lesquelles le profit peut se faire à propos du beau, mais tout aussi bien avec du laid. Et si le laid est de meilleur profit, ils n'hésiteront pas. Ils peuvent même vous faire croire que le laid est beau. Et en attendant votre conversion, ils vous font croire que c'est légitime et surtout supérieurement intelligent. Car plus l'acheteur potentiel restera bouche béante devant l’œuvre, plus grand il ouvrira son portefeuille.
THE BEAUTIFUL IS A SHARED EXPERIENCE
"Everything Florentine art from Giotto and throughout the Quattrocento has this amazing quality of absolute truth recognized. The immediate effect of a large Giotto or Masaccio is to let the audience speechless. It s' once called Beauty. "
MARY MAC CARTHY "The Stones of Florence" 1956.
Contrary to an accepted idea, all new, considered as obvious in our time, the Beautiful is not subjective. No, the beautiful is not only a matter of personal taste, a total arbitrary, absolutely egocentric. The beautiful is not autistic, it is a sharing, although some of its forms may be more accessible to some people than others, to some cultures and not to others.
The proof that the Beau exists is that it is recognized and unanimously accepted by the public opinion, and that of the specialists, for millions of works whose creation dates range from - 3000 to the present day. The Beautiful is recognized, lived as an experience generally shared, not only in art, but in all the spectacle of Nature
The abstract definitions must be left aside. The Philosophers have never succeeded in giving a satisfactory and incontestable definition of the Beautiful. Let us leave Plato his idea of a beautiful transcendent impossible to reach. Let's stay at a more trivial level, that of remarkable, concrete beauty : there is absolutely no serious discussion about the existence of Beau, a common sensation, a poetic emotion, shared by millions of men, from Egyptian Art to Modern Art, since China to Europe and America. The Beautiful does not define itself, it is felt individually and collectively. Individually felt the beautiful is only subjective, it only matters for a person, collectively felt, shared by the elites and the people, together, he is objectively. The Beautiful becomes a reality at the scale of a community more or less wide and even to the whole earth. The Beautiful is simply a fact verified by the experience of thousands of generations of humans on the whole Earth.
One can even argue that of the three fundamental ideas, Beautiful, Well, Truth, the Beautiful is the first of which we can spot the appearance with certainty in the history of men: Because the Beautiful leaves traces that we see. When does the idea of the Well appear? When does the idea of Truth appear?
Undoubtedly the error of the Paris Academy around 1850 was to want to define the rules of Beautiful , in abstracto, for all times and all civilizations, profound error, and the impressionists were very quickly right against him. They demonstrated that the shared Beautiful could take other forms.
But there is absolutely no serious discussion about the existence of Beauty, a common sensation, a poetic émotion, shared by millions of people, since the Paleolithic art, the Egyptian Art to Modern Art, from China to Europe and America.
The Beautiful can take different forms according to cultures or civilizations. It is recognized as beautiful inside its cultural domain, but also often outside.
The painting of the Chinese scholars is very particular, it is possible individually not to appreciate it, but it would be wrong to speak about it an Art of the ugly, and it is not judged as such by the the test of time and its confrontation with other cultures like the Western one. The Beautiful is simply a fact verified by the experience of thousands of generations of humans all over the Earth. The painting of Leonardo da Vinci, the Mona Lisa (Mona Lisa) and the success met among the populations of the Far East testify to this universality of the Beautiful.
There is "a sense of beauty, common to all mankind" which is independent of modes, religions and ideologies and even cultures. Even though certain specificities or variability should not be neglected in relation to such a culture or at that time. The overall observation remains that of a sharing of the feeling of beauty on a universal scale.
The beauty is identified by an intense satisfaction, a feeling of happiness, of joy, of sensual or intellectual order that invades the person, it is his subjective starting point. This subjective starting point becomes objective by sharing this sentiment with a multitude of other people, cultures and different eras, in order to achieve the emergence of almost unanimity and almost universality.
The beauty is certainly a subjective experience in that it is felt individually, but it is objective by the convergent opinion, formulated in the course of time, by the peoples and the elites. It is this common judgement of peoples and elites, this shared experience, which objective and proves the beautiful.
What is subjective what are the preferences of individuals. What is subjective is when a person prefers Romanesque frescoes or the art of international Gothic painting of the Italian Renaissance. When a person prefers the art of the landscape or the painting of morals to religious painting.
If someone had told to Fra Angelico, Raphaël or Rubens that beauty does not exist and is purely subjective matter, they would have shrugged.
The Beautiful is certainly a subjective, individually felt, but it is objectified by the synthesis of the multiple opinions of peoples and their elites.
Not only is the feeling of the Beautiful a fact of experience, a common heritage of humanity, which passes through times and cultures, but the Beautiful can be felt while the ideologies that inspired the works of art at a certain time, in a region of the Earth, have died as active beliefs.
There is no need to believe in spirits, in the Gods of the Egyptians, Greeks, Hindus or in the Buddhas for to appreciate the beauty of the cave art, or of the ancient Egypt, the Greece, of the India, or of South East Asia. Similarly, the representations of God and of the world, which are those of the Christian churches, which have been alive and profoundly meaningful to European populations for more than a millennium, may no longer make sense for a very large majority of the Western and Northern of the Europe in the 21st century. However, these populations, like other peoples in other cultures, can recognize the Beautiful in works of art whose the symbols are no longer ideologically significant for them, or even appear absurd to them. The beliefs change but the feeling of the Beautiful lasts.
The beautiful is therefore a fact of experience found throughout the history of civilizations.
The beautiful is certainly an idea, but for centuries it was not an ideology. And even less its opposite the Ugly. The multiple ideologies, most often religious, that have inhabited men's minds for thousands of years have used the idea of the beautiful to support their beliefs the most diverse and even opposite.
The assertion that Beauty does not exist, is purely subjective, is a false idea, conceived and spread in the second half of the 20th century for ideological and economic reasons. Man can indeed invent ideologies, beliefs, who deny the Beautiful and the Good. This capacity for invention of the most diverse and contrary beliefs makes the difference between man and animals.
It is an evolution but it is not necessarily a progress. It may be, it is always, inevitably, in some aspects, also a regression. The ability to invent the beautiful meets its opposite, that of inventing the Ugly. And even, as in official contemporary art, to make it a rule, a doctrine. The capacity for good is inseparable from that of doing evil. And the formulation of truths opens the door wide to lies.
The ideological motives are that this relativism makes it possible to justify the ugly art, the academic art , and that the ugly Art is a criterion of distinction between the Enlightened and those who are not.
In addition to the ideological motives, this statement also makes it possible to manufacture and sell the Laid, which is an excellent deal.
And this is not the least reason for this success. The Official, State-owned Contemporary Art, the art of the great International Cultural Organizations has of course been linked to the great capitalism of merchants and financiers, and to the "philanthropic" Great Foundations which are the emanation of it. Foundations for which profit can be made about beauty, but just as well with the ugly. And if the ugly is of better profit, they will not hesitate. They can even make you believe that the ugly is beautiful. And while waiting for your conversion, they make you believe that it is legitimate and especially superiorly intelligent. Because the more the potential buyer will remain gaping mouth in front of the "work of art" the bigger he opens open its wallet.
Dear friend, here are 5 things you should know:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
Sincerely,
Someone who cares about you
ON DETACHMENT
"I have read many writings of pagan masters, and of the prophets, and of the Old and New Testaments, and have sought earnestly and with all diligence to discover which is the best and highest virtue whereby a man may chiefly and most firmly join himself to God,and whereby a man may become by grace what God is by nature, and whereby a man may come closest to his image when he was in God, wherein there was no difference between him and God, before God made creatures. After a thorough study of these writings I find, as well as my reason can testify or perceive, that only pure detachment surpasses all things, for all virtues have some regard to creatures, but detachment is free of all creatures. Therefore our Lord said to Martha, "unum est necessarium " (Luke 1 0 : 42), which is as much as to say, 'Martha, he who would be serene and pure needs but one thing: detachment.'
The teachers greatly praise love, as does St. Paul who says, "Whatever things I may do, and have not love, I am nothing" (cf. 1 Cor. 1 3 : 1 ). But I extol detachment above any love. First, because, at best, love constrains me to love God, but detachment compels God to love me. Now it is a far nobler thing my constraining God to me than for me to constrain myself to God. That is because God is more readily able to adapt Himself to me, and can more easily unite with me than I could unite with God. That detachment forces God to me, I can prove thus: everything wants to be in its natural place. Now God's natural place is unity and purity, and that comes from detachment. Therefore God is bound to give Himself to a detached heart.
In the second place I extol detachment above love because love compels me to suffer all things for God's sake, whereas detachment makes me receptive of nothing but God. Now it is far nobler to be receptive of nothing but God than to suffer all things for God, for in suffering a man has some regard to the creatures from which he gets the suffering, but detachment is quite free of all creatures. But that detachment is receptive of nothing but God, I can prove this way: whatever is to be received must be taken in somewhere. Now detachment is so nearly nothing that there is no thing subtle enough to maintain itself in detachment except God alone. He is so subtle and so simple that He can stay in a detached heart. Therefore detachment is receptive of nothing but God.
The masters also extol humility above many other virtues. But I extol detachment above humility for this reason: humility can exist without detachment, but perfect detachment cannot exist without perfect humility, for perfect humility ends in the destruction of self. Now detachment comes so close to nothing, that between perfect detachment and nothing no thing can exist. Therefore perfect detachment cannot be without humility. But two virtues are always better than one.
The second reason why I praise detachment above humility is because humility means abasing oneself beneath all creatures, and in that abasement man goes out of himself into creatures, but detachment rests within itself. Now no going out can ever be so noble, but remaining within is nobler still. As the prophet David says, "Omnis gloria eius filiae regis ab intus " (Ps. 44 : 14), which is to say, "All the glory of the daughter comes from her inwardness. " Perfect detachment is not concerned about being above or below any creature; it does not wish to be below or above, it would stand on its own, loving none and hating none, and seeks neither equality nor inequality with any creature, nor this nor that: it wants merely to be. But to be either this or that it does not wish at all. For whoever would be this or that wants to be something, but detachment wants to be nothing. It is therefore no burden on anything.
Now somebody might say, 'Well, our Lady possessed all virtues to perfection, and so she must have had perfect detachment. But ifdetachment is higher than humility, why then did our Lady glory in her h umility and not in her detachment when she said, "Quia respexit dominus humilitatem ancillae suae " (Luke 1 : 48 ) , that is to say, " He regarded the humility of his handmaiden " ? '
I reply that in God there is detachment and humility, insofar as
we can speak of God's having virtues. You should know that it was loving humility that led God to stoop to enter human nature, while detachment stood immovable within itself when he became man, just as it did when He created heaven and earth, as I shall tell you later. And because our Lord, when he would become man, stood unmoved in his detachment, our Lady knew that he required the same of her too, and that in this case he looked to her humility and not her detachment. For if she had thought once about her detachment and said, 'he regarded my detachment,' that detachment would have been sullied and would not have been whole and perfect, since a going forth would have occurred. But nothing, however little, may proceed from detachment without staining it. There you have the reason why our Lady gloried in her humility and not her detachment. Concerning this, the prophet said, "Audiam, quid Loquatur in me dominus deus " (Ps. 84:9), that is to say, " I will (be silent and) hear what my lord God says within me,'' as if he were to say, 'If God wishes to speak to me, let Him come into me, for I will not go out.'
I also praise detachment above all compassion, for compassion isnothing but a man's going out of himself by reason of his fellow creatures' lack, by which his heart is troubled. But detachment is freeof this, stays in itself and is not troubled by any thing: for as long asany thing can trouble a man, he is not in a right state. In short, when I consider all the virtues, I find none so completely without lack and so conformed to God as detachment.
A master called Avicenna declares that the mind of him who
stands detached is of such nobility that whatever he sees is true, and whatever he desires he obtains, and whatever he commands must be obeyed. And this you must know for sure: when the free mind is quite detached, it constrains God to itself, and if it were able to stand formless and free of all accidentals, it would assume God's proper nature. But God can give that to none but Himself, therefore God can do no more for the detached mind than give Himself to it. But
the man who stands thus in utter detachment is rapt into eternity in such a way that nothing transient can move him, and that he is aware of nothing corporeal and is said to be dead to the world, for he has no taste for anything earthly. That is what St. Paul meant when he said, "I live and yet do not live - Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20).
Now you may ask what this detachment is that is so noble in
itself. You should know that true detachment is nothing else but a mind that stands unmoved by all accidents of joy or sorrow, honor, shame, or disgrace, as a mountain of lead stands unmoved by a breath of wind. This immovable detachment brings a man into the greatest likeness to God. For the reason why God is God is because of His immovable detachment, and from this detachment He has His purity, His simplicity, and His immutability. Therefore, if a man is to be like
God, as far as a creature can have likeness with God, this must come from detachment. This draws a man into purity, and from purity into simplicity, and from simplicity into immutability, and these things make a likeness between God and that man; and this likeness must occur through grace, for grace draws a man away from all temporal things and purges him of all that is transient. You must know, too, that to be empty of all creatures is to be full of God, and to be full of all creatures is to be empty of God.
You should also know that God has stood in this unmoved detachment from all eternity, and still so stands; and you should know further that when God created heaven and earth and all creatures, this affected His unmoved detachment just as little as if no creature had ever been created. I say further: all the prayers and good works that a man can do in time affect God's detachment as little as if no prayers or good works had ever occurred in time, and God never became more ready to give or more inclined toward a man than if he had never uttered the prayer or performed the good works. I say still further: when the Son in the Godhead wanted to become man, and became man and endured martyrdom, that affected God's unmoved detachment as little as if he had never become man. You might say atthis, 'Then I hear that all prayers and good works are wasted because God does not allow Himself to be moved by anyone with such things, and yet it is said that God wants us to pray to Him for everything.'
Now you should mark me well, and understand properly if you
can, that God in His first eternal glance (if we can assume that there was a first glance) saw all things as they should occur, and saw in the same glance when and how He would create all creatures and when the Son would become man and suffer; He saw too the least prayer and good work that anyone should do, and saw which prayers and devotion He would and should accede to; He saw that you will call upon Him earnestly tomorrow and pray to Him, but God will not grant your petition and prayer tomorrow, for He has granted it in His eternity, before ever you became a man. But if your prayer is not sincere and in earnest, God will not deny it to you now, for He has denied it to you in His eternity.
And thus God has regarded all things in His first eternal glance, and God performs nothing afresh, for all has been performed in advance. Thus God ever stands in His immovable detachment, and yet the prayers and good works of people are not wasted, for he who does well will be rewarded, and he who does evil will reap accordingly. This is explained by St. Augustine in the fifth book of On the Trinity, in the last chapter thus: 'Deus autem, etc. ' which means, 'God forbid that anyone should say that God loves anyone in time, for with Him there is no past and no future, and He loved all the saints before the world was ever created, as He foresaw them. And when it comes to be that He displays in time what He has seen in eternity, then people think He has gained a new love for them; so too, when God is angry or does some good thing, it is we who are changed while He remains
unchanged, j ust as the sun's ray hurts a sick eye and delights a sound one, and yet the sunshine remains unchanged in itself.' Augustine also touches on the same idea in the twelfth book of On the Trinity in the fourth chapter, where he says, 'Nam Deus non ad tempus videt, nee aliquid fit novi in eius visione, ' 'God does not see in temporal fashion, and no new vision arises in Him.' In the same sense Isidore speaks in his book On the Highest Good, saying, 'Many people ask, What did God do before He created heaven and earth, or whence came the new will in God that He made creatures?' and he answers, 'No new will ever arose in God, for although a creature did not exist in itself (as it is now), yet it was before all time in God and in His reason.' God did not create heaven and earth as we (perishable beings) might say, 'let that be so! ' for all creatures were spoken in the Eternal Word. To this we can add what our Lord said to Moses when Moses said, " Lord, if Pharaoh asks me who you are, how am I to answer him ? " and the Lord said, " Say, 'He who IS has sent me" (Exod. 3 : 1 3 -1 4 ) . That is as much as to say, He who is immutable in Himself has sent me.
But someone might say, 'Was Christ in unmoved detachment when he said: " My soul is sorrowful even unto death" (Matt. 26: 3 8; Mark 1 4 : 34), and Mary when she stood before the cross? How is all this compatible with unmoved detachment?' Concerning this, you should know what the masters say, that in every man there are two kinds of man.? The one is called the outer man, that is, the life of the senses: this man is served by the five senses, though the outer man functions by the power of the soul. The other is called the inner man, that is, man's inward nature. You should understand that a spiritual man, who loves God, makes use of the powers of the soul in the outer man only to the extent that the five outer senses need it: the inward nature is not concerned with the five senses except insofar as it is a guide or ruler of those senses, guarding them so that they do not yield to sense objects in a bestial fashion, as some folk do who live for carnal pleasures like beasts unendowed with reason; such people should be termed beasts rather than men. And whatever powers the soul has over and above what it gives to the five senses are all devoted to the inner man. And when such a man perceives a noble or elevated object, the soul draws into itself all the powers it has granted to the five senses, and then that man is said to be insensible or entranced, for his object is an intelligible image or something intelligible without an image. But you should know that God requires of every spiritual man to love Him with all the powers of the soul. He says, " Love your God with all your heart" (Deut. 6 : 5; Matt. 22 : 3 7; Mark 1 2 : 3 0; Luke 1 0 :27). Now some people use up all the powers of the soul in the outer man. These are people who turn all their senses and their reason toward perishable goods, knowing nothing of the inner man.
You should know that the outer man can be active while the inner man is completely free of this activity and unmoved. Now Christ too had an outer man and an inner man, and so did our Lady, and whatever Christ and our Lady ever said about external things, they did so according to the outer man, but the inner man remained in unmoved detachment. Thus it was when Christ said, " My soul is sorrowful unto death," and whatever lamentations our Lady made, or whatever else she said, inwardly she was in a state of unmoved detachment. Here is an analogy: a door swings open and shuts on its hinge. I would compare the outer woodwork of the door to the
outer man, and the hinge to the inner man. When the door opens and shuts, the boards move back and forth, but the hinge stays in the same place and is never moved thereby. It is the same in this case, if you understand it rightly. Now I ask, 'What is the object of pure detachment? ' My answer is that the object of pure detachment is neither this nor that. It rests on absolutely nothing, and I will tell you why: pure detachment rests on the highest, and he is at his highest, in whom God can work all His will. But God cannot work all His will in all hearts, for, although God is almighty, He can only work where He finds readiness or creates it. I say 'creates it' on account of St. Paul, because in him God found no readiness, but made him ready by infusion of grace. And so I say God works according as He finds us ready. His working is different in a man and in a stone. Here is an example from nature. If you heat a baker's oven and put in it dough of oats, barley, rye, and wheat, there is only one heat in the oven, but it does not have the same effect on the different kinds of dough, for one turns into fine bread, the second coarser, and the third coarser still. And that is not the fault of the heat, it is due to the materials which are unlike. In the same way God does not work alike in all our hearts: He works as He finds readiness and receptivity. Now in whatever heart there is this or that, there may be something in 'this' or 'that' which God cannot bring to the highest peak. And so, if the heart is to be ready to receive the highest, it must rest on absolutely nothing, and in that lies the greatest potentiality which can exist. For when the detached heart rests on the highest, that can only be on nothing, since that has the greatest receptivity. Let us take an example from nature: if I want to write on a wax tablet, then anything written on that tablet already, however wonderful it may be, will prevent me from writing there; and if I want to write I must erase or destroy whatever is on the tablet, and the tablet is never so suitable for me to write on as when there is nothing on it. Similarly, if God is to write the highest on my heart, then everything called 'this and that' must be expunged from my heart, and then my heart stands in detachment. Then God can work the highest according to His supreme will. Therefore the object of a detached heart is neither this nor that.
Again I ask, 'What is the prayer of a detached heart? ' My answer is that detachment and purity cannot pray, for whoever prays wants God to grant him something, or else wants God to take something from him. But a detached heart desires nothing at all, nor has it anything it wants to get rid of. Therefore it is free of all prayers, or its prayer consists of nothing but being uniform with God. That is all its prayer. In this sense we can take St. Dionysius's comment on the saying of St. Paul, "There are many who run, but only one gains the crown " ( 1 Cor. 9 : 25 ) . All the powers of the soul compete for the crown but the essence alone can win it. Dionysius says the race is nothing but a turning away from all creatures and a union with the uncreated. And when the soul has got so far, it loses its name and is drawn into God, so that in itself it becomes nothing, j ust as the sun draws the dawn into itself and annihilates it. To this state nothing brings a man but pure detachment. To this we may add a saying of St. Augustine, 'The soul has a secret entrance to the divine nature, when all things become nothing for it.' On earth, this entrance is nothing but pure detachment, and when the detachment reaches its climax, it becomes ignorant with knowing, loveless with loving, and dark with enlightenment. Thus we may understand the words of a master, that the poor in spirit are they who have abandoned all things to God, j ust as He possessed them when we did not exist. None can do this but a pure, detached heart.
That God would rather be in a detached heart than in all other hearts, appears if you ask me, 'What does God seek in all things ? ' to which I answer from the Book of Wisdom, where He says, " In all things I seek rest" (Sir. 24: 1 1 ). But nowhere is perfect rest to be found but in a detached heart. That is why God prefers to be there rather than in other virtues or in anything else. You should know, too, that the more a man strives to be receptive to divine influence, the more blessed he is; and whoever can gain the highest readiness in this is in the highest state of blessedness. But none can make himself receptive to divine influence but by uniformity with God, for insofar as a man is uniform with God, to that extent he is receptive to the divine influence. But uniformity comes from man's subjecting himself to God, and the more a man is subject to creatures, the less he is uniform with God. Now the pure detached heart stands free of all creatures. Therefore it is totally subject to God, and therefore it is in the highest degree of uniformity with God, and is also the most receptive to divine influence. This was what St. Paul meant when he said, " Put on Christ, " meaning unformity with Christ, for this putting on can only take place through uniformity with Christ. You should know that when Christ became man, he took on, not a man, but human nature. Therefore, go out of all things and then there will remain only what Christ took on, and thus you will have put on Christ.
Whoever would know the nobility and profit of perfect detachment, let him note Christ's saying concerning his humanity, when he said to his disciples, "It is expedient for you that I should go away from you, for if I do not go away, the Holy Spirit cannot come to you" (John 1 6 : 7). This is just as if he had said, 'You rejoice too much in my present form, and therefore the perfect joy of the Holy Ghost cannot be yours.' So, leave all images and unite with the formless essence, for God's spiritual comfort is delicate; therefore He will not offer Himself to any but to him who scorns physical comforts.
Now take note, all who are sensible! No man is happier than he who has the greatest detachment. There can be no fleshly and physical comfort without some spiritual harm, for "the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh" (cf. Gal. 5 : 1 7) . Therefore, whoever in the flesh sows disorderly love reaps death, and whoever in the spirit sows ordered love, reaps from the spirit eternal life. Therefore, the quicker a man flees from the created, the quicker the Creator runs toward him. So, take note, all sensible men! Since the joy we might have from the physical form of Christ hinders us in receiving the Holy Ghost, how much more of a hindrance to gaining God is our inordinate delight in evanescent comforts! That is why detachment is best, for it purifies the soul, purges the conscience, kindles the heart, awakens the spirit, quickens the desire, makes us know God and, cutting off creatures, unites us with God.
Now take note, all who have good sense! The swiftest steed to bear you to His perfection is suffering, for none will enjoy greater eternal bliss than those who stand with Christ in the greatest bitterness. Nothing is more gall-bitter than suffering, nothing more honey-sweet than having suffered. Nothing disfigures the body before men like suffering, and nothing beautifies the soul before God like having suffered. The finest foundation on which this perfection can rest is humility. For whatever man's nature creeps here below in the deepest lowliness, that man's spirit will soar aloft to the heights of the Godhead, for j oy brings sorrow and sorrow joy. And so, whoever would attain perfect detachment should strive for perfect humility, and thus he will come to the neighborhood of God. That this may be all our lot, so help us the highest detachment, which is God Himself. Amen."
Meister Eckhart
Walter Foster
African American music hall and vaudeville entertainer who appears to have come to Europe around 1904 and stayed there. He is described as a singer, dancer and comedian, and was 4’ 11” in height. Although he testified (inconsistently) in affidavits attached to his applications for US passports that he had traveled back to the US several times, I haven’t found any evidence on passenger lists that he actually did so.
He married Matilda Polak, (born, The Hague, Holland, 6th April 1885) in Cardiff England on 22nd May, 1910.
It is notable that Walter and Matilda were in Petrograd Russia in August 1917 and may have been there during the October Revolution in November of that year. By August 1918 they have emerged in Norway.
Walter Foster testifies that his father was William Foster, a farmer of “Garrisburg”or “Garysburg” Virginia. Walter names this town as the place of his birth on his later passport applications, but claims Northampton Co, NC in earlier documents. He was born March 4th, 1877 or 1878.
Walter Foster died in Valetta, Malta on January 11th, 1924 of heart disease in the company of his wife, Matilda. He was buried in the Ta Braxia Cemetery in Valleta.
He variously claimed permanent residence in the US as Garrisburg, VA or 140 W 27th St, New York City. His movements throughout Europe can be broadly traced through his passport applications.
Jan 1914 - In Constantinople, Turkey applying for travel to “Russia, Bulgaria, Servia Rumania”.
(Sep 1914 US Consular Registration in Constantinople. Gives profession as “dancing comedian”. Local address is The Eden Palace Hotel, Rue Dervich, Pera)
Dec 1914 – In Constantinople - applying to go to Rumania to find work.
Dec 1915 – In Bucharest - applying to stay in Rumania to fulfill theatrical contracts.
Aug 1917 – In Petrograd, Russia - applying to stay in Russia on theatrical business.
Aug 1918 – in Christiania, Norway – applying for travel within Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Feb 1920 – in Brussels, Belgium – applying for travel in Belgium, France, Holland.
Sep 1922 - in The Hague, Holland – applying for travel in Holland, England, France, Belgium.
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Matilda Polak Foster
Dutch entertainer and wife of Walter Foster.
Matilda Polak was born 6 Apr 1874 in The Hague, Holland. She was a music hall/vaudeville entertainer. She married the American singer/dancer/comedian Walter Foster (b 4 Mar 1879, Northampton Co, NC) in Cardiff England on 22 May 1910. The couple traveled and worked together throughout Europe, Turkey and Russia until Walter’s death in 1924 in Malta.
Matilda’s passport application records reflect those of her husband for the most part.
1915 Constantinople to Bucharest, Roumania,
1917 Petrograd, Russia
1920 Brussels,
In 1921 she sought a separate passport so that she could travel from Barcelona Spain to The Hague so that she could attend her mother’s golden wedding anniversary. Walter apparently stayed behind in Spain. The family’s address in denHage is given as “Limburgetirumstraat”.
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Affidavit to Explain Protracted Foreign Residence and to Overcome Presumption of Expatriation
11th July 1917
Walter Foster
“ceased to reside in the US about September 1906” and has since resided principally in Petrograd Russia, England, France, Romania, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Egypt.
Arrived in Petrograd 1st Oct 1916. Reasons for residence “Have been in the theatrical business during my foreign residence and have made a better living abroad than I could at home. I made an attempt to get home shortly before the outbreak of the war – I was in Constantinople at the time – but the following conditions prevented it.”
“Have made no visits to the United States since establishing a residence abroad.”
“Have mother and father, William Foster, at Garysburg Virginia”
******************
Affidavit to Explain Protracted Foreign Residence and to Overcome Presumption of Expatriation
23rd Aug 1922
Walter Foster ceased to reside in the US about March 1917. Residing temporarily at England, France, Italy, Belgium, Scandinavia, Russia, Holland.
“Before the war, I came to Europe about once a year, where I fulfilled theatrical contracts (singing and dancing). I left the United States for the same purpose in 1913, but returned to American and remained there until March 1917, since which time I have been to the countries above-mentioned, where I have had contracts to sing and dance at the various capitals. I expect to leave The Hague for Italy on Sept. 25-1922,as I have an engagement to perform at the “Salon Marguerita”, Rome.”
“I first came to Europe for theatrical performances in 1904 and returned to the U.S. in 1907; returned to Europe 1908-1909? & to the U.S. in about a year (1907-10?); then left the US in 1913 and returned in 1915 to America. Have been in Europe now since 1917.”
George Foster (brother) Garrisburg, Virginia
Philip Foster (father),
“My father is a farmer and during my stays in the United States I help him to farm his land.”
A gentleman at my church shares about the new life he has experienced because of Christ's work in his life. Happy Easter everyone! He is Risen!
I read with interest this morning 13th May 2018, that an unmarked grave located in Aberdeen’s Trinity Cemetery has a connection with the sinking of RMS Titanic back in April 1912.
I have visited this cemetery on many occasions in the past, I have posted an album here on my Flickr of some of the historical and interesting headstones I have viewed at the site, hence full of intrigue I revisited tonight to view the unmarked grave myself.
I eventually found the grave marked only with a simple wooden cross, thanks to Ian Burnett from Aberdeen for locating it, below I have put some information I have gathered from various places on this interesting plot .
The unmarked grave is the final resting place of one of the Titanics crew who was Quartermaster on the vessel and who manned the wheel with his very own hands when she hit the iceberg that eventually sunk the ship on her maiden voyage back in 1912, his name was Robert Hichens .
Born16 September 1882
Newlyn, Cornwall, England
Died23 September 1940 (aged 58)
English Trader, (off coast) of
Aberdeen, Scotland
Cause of deathHeart Failure
Resting placeTrinity Cemetery, Scotland
ResidenceAberdeen, Scotland
NationalityCornish
CitizenshipBritish
OccupationMariner
Known forCrew Member of the RMS Titanic
Home townAberdeen, Scotland
Robert Hichens (16 September 1882 – 23 September 1940) was a British sailor who was part of the deck crew on board the RMS Titanic when she sank on her maiden voyage on 15 April 1912.
He was one of six quartermasters on board the vessel and was at the ship's wheel when the Titanic struck the iceberg. In 1906, he married Florence Mortimore in Devon, England; when he registered for duty aboard the Titanic, his listed address was in Southampton, where he lived with his wife and two children.
Hichens gained notoriety after the disaster because of his conduct in Lifeboat No. 6, of which he was in command. Passengers accused him of refusing to go back to rescue people from the water after the ship sank, that he called the people in the water "stiffs," and that he constantly criticised those at the oars while he was manning the rudder.
Hichens was later to testify at the US Inquiry that he had never used the words "stiffs" and that he had other words to describe bodies. He would also testify to have been given direct orders by second mate Charles Lightoller and Captain Edward Smith to row to where a light could be seen (a steamer they thought) on the port bow, drop off the passengers and return. Later it was alleged that he complained that the lifeboat was going to drift for days before any rescue came.
At least two boat 6 passengers publicly accused Hichens of being drunk: Major Arthur Godfrey Peuchen and Mrs Lucian Philip Smith.
When the RMS Carpathia came to rescue Titanic's survivors he said that the ship was not there to rescue them, but to pick up the bodies of the dead. By this time the other people in the lifeboat had lost patience with Hichens. Although Hichens protested, Denver millionaire Margaret "Molly" Brown told the others to start rowing to keep warm.
After a last attempt by Hichens to keep control of the lifeboat, Brown threatened to throw him overboard. These events would later end up being depicted in the Broadway musical and film, The Unsinkable Molly Brown. During the US inquiry into the disaster, Hichens denied the accounts by the passengers and crew in lifeboat 6.
He had been initially concerned about the suction from the Titanic and later by the fact that being a mile away from the wreck, with no compass and in complete darkness, they had no way of returning to the stricken vessel.
Later life
Hichens served with the Army Service Corps during World War One; by 1919 he was third officer on a small ship named Magpie. The Hitchens moved to Devon sometime in the 1920s where Robert purchased a motor boat from a man named Harry Henley and operated a boat charter. In 1931, his wife and children left him and moved to Southampton. In 1933, Hichens was jailed for attempting to murder Henley and was released in 1937.
Death
On 23 September 1940 Hichens died in his 58th year of heart failure aboard the ship English Trader, while it was moored off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland.[3] His body was buried in Section 10, Lair 244 of Trinity Cemetery, in Aberdeen.
RMS Titanic
RMS Titanic (/taɪˈtænɪk/) was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early hours of 15 April 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City.
There were an estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, and more than 1,500 died, making it one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history. RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time it entered service and was the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line. It was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Thomas Andrews, her architect, died in the disaster.
Titanic was under the command of Edward Smith, who also went down with the ship. The ocean liner carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere throughout Europe who were seeking a new life in the United States.
The first-class accommodation was designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury, with an on-board gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins. A high-powered radiotelegraph transmitter was available for sending passenger "marconigrams" and for the ship's operational use.
Although Titanic had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, Titanic only carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people—about half the number on board, and one third of her total capacity—due to outdated maritime safety regulations.
The ship carried 16 lifeboat davits which could lower three lifeboats each, for a total of 48 boats. However, Titanic carried only a total of 20 lifeboats, four of which were collapsible and proved hard to launch during the sinking.
After leaving Southampton on 10 April 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland before heading west to New York.
On 14 April, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles (600 km) south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. ship's time.
The collision caused the hull plates to buckle inwards along her starboard (right) side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea; she could only survive four flooding. Meanwhile, passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partially loaded.
A disproportionate number of men were left aboard because of a "women and children first" protocol for loading lifeboats. At 2:20 a.m., she broke apart and foundered with well over one thousand people still aboard. Just under two hours after Titanic sank, the Cunard liner RMS Carpathia arrived and brought aboard an estimated 705 survivors.
The disaster was met with worldwide shock and outrage at the huge loss of life and the regulatory and operational failures that led to it. Public inquiries in Britain and the United States led to major improvements in maritime safety. One of their most important legacies was the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which still governs maritime safety today.
Additionally, several new wireless regulations were passed around the world in an effort to learn from the many missteps in wireless communications—which could have saved many more passengers.
The wreck of Titanic was discovered in 1985 (more than 70 years after the disaster), and remains on the seabed. The ship was split in two and is gradually disintegrating at a depth of 12,415 feet (3,784 m).
Thousands of artefacts have been recovered and displayed at museums around the world. Titanic has become one of the most famous ships in history; her memory is kept alive by numerous works of popular culture, including books, folk songs, films, exhibits, and memorials.
Titanic is the second largest ocean liner wreck in the world, only beaten by her sister HMHS Britannic, the largest ever sunk. The final survivor of the sinking, Millvina Dean, aged two months at the time, died in 2009 at the age of 97.
Name:RMS Titanic
Owner:White Star flag NEW.svg White Star Line
Port of registry:United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Liverpool, UK
Route:Southampton to New York City
Ordered:17 September 1908
Builder:Harland and Wolff, Belfast
Cost:GB£1.5 million ($300 million in 2017)
Yard number:401
Laid down:31 March 1909
Launched:31 May 1911
Completed:2 April 1912
Maiden voyage:10 April 1912
In service:10–15 April 1912
Identification:Radio call sign "MGY"
Fate:Hit an iceberg 11:40 p.m. (ship's time) 14 April 1912 on her maiden voyage and sank 2 h 40 min later on 15 April 1912; 106 years ago.
Status:Wreck
General characteristics
Class and type:Olympic-class ocean liner
Tonnage:46,328 GRT
Displacement:52,310 tons
Length:882 ft 9 in (269.1 m)
Beam:92 ft 6 in (28.2 m)
Height:175 ft (53.3 m) (keel to top of funnels)
Draught:34 ft 7 in (10.5 m)
Depth:64 ft 6 in (19.7 m)
Decks:9 (A–G)
Installed power:24 double-ended and five single-ended boilers feeding two reciprocating steam engines for the wing propellers, and a low-pressure turbine for the centre propeller;output: 46,000 HP
Propulsion:Two three-blade wing propellers and one four-blade centre propeller
Speed:Cruising: 21 kn (39 km/h; 24 mph). Max: 24 kn (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Capacity:Passengers: 2,435, crew: 892. Total: 3,327 (or 3,547 according to other sources)
Notes:Lifeboats: 20 (sufficient for 1,178 people)
Titanic was 882 feet 9 inches (269.06 m) long with a maximum breadth of 92 feet 6 inches (28.19 m). Her total height, measured from the base of the keel to the top of the bridge, was 104 feet (32 m).[19] She measured 46,328 gross register tons and with a draught of 34 feet 7 inches (10.54 m), she displaced 52,310 tons.
All three of the Olympic-class ships had ten decks (excluding the top of the officers' quarters), eight of which were for passenger use. From top to bottom, the decks were:
The Boat Deck, on which the lifeboats were housed. It was from here during the early hours of 15 April 1912 that Titanic's lifeboats were lowered into the North Atlantic. The bridge and wheelhouse were at the forward end, in front of the captain's and officers' quarters.
The bridge stood 8 feet (2.4 m) above the deck, extending out to either side so that the ship could be controlled while docking. The wheelhouse stood directly behind and above the bridge. The entrance to the First Class Grand Staircase and gymnasium were located midships along with the raised roof of the First Class lounge, while at the rear of the deck were the roof of the First Class smoke room and the relatively modest Second Class entrance.
The wood-covered deck was divided into four segregated promenades: for officers, First Class passengers, engineers, and Second Class passengers respectively. Lifeboats lined the side of the deck except in the First Class area, where there was a gap so that the view would not be spoiled.
A Deck, also called the Promenade Deck, extended along the entire 546 feet (166 m) length of the superstructure. It was reserved exclusively for First Class passengers and contained First Class cabins, the First Class lounge, smoke room, reading and writing rooms and Palm Court.
B Deck, the Bridge Deck, was the top weight-bearing deck and the uppermost level of the hull. More First Class passenger accommodations were located here with six palatial staterooms (cabins) featuring their own private promenades.
On Titanic, the À La Carte Restaurant and the Café Parisien provided luxury dining facilities to First Class passengers. Both were run by subcontracted chefs and their staff; all were lost in the disaster. The Second Class smoking room and entrance hall were both located on this deck. The raised forecastle of the ship was forward of the Bridge Deck, accommodating Number 1 hatch (the main hatch through to the cargo holds), numerous pieces of machinery and the anchor housings.[b] Aft of the Bridge Deck was the raised Poop Deck, 106 feet (32 m) long, used as a promenade by Third Class passengers. It was where many of Titanic's passengers and crew made their last stand as the ship sank. The forecastle and Poop Deck were separated from the Bridge Deck by well decks.
C Deck, the Shelter Deck, was the highest deck to run uninterrupted from stem to stern. It included both well decks; the aft one served as part of the Third Class promenade. Crew cabins were housed below the forecastle and Third Class public rooms were housed below the Poop Deck. In between were the majority of First Class cabins and the Second Class library.
D Deck, the Saloon Deck, was dominated by three large public rooms—the First Class Reception Room, the First Class Dining Saloon and the Second Class Dining Saloon. An open space was provided for Third Class passengers. First, Second and Third Class passengers had cabins on this deck, with berths for firemen located in the bow. It was the highest level reached by the ship's watertight bulkheads (though only by eight of the fifteen bulkheads).
E Deck, the Upper Deck, was predominantly used for passenger accommodation for all three classes plus berths for cooks, seamen, stewards and trimmers. Along its length ran a long passageway nicknamed Scotland Road, in reference to a famous street in Liverpool. Scotland Road was used by Third Class passengers and crew members.
F Deck, the Middle Deck, was the last complete deck and mainly accommodated Second and Third Class passengers and several departments of the crew. The Third Class dining saloon was located here, as were the swimming pool and Turkish bath.
G Deck, the Lower Deck, was the lowest complete deck that carried passengers, and had the lowest portholes, just above the waterline. The squash court was located here along with the traveling post office where letters and parcels were sorted ready for delivery when the ship docked. Food was also stored here. The deck was interrupted at several points by orlop (partial) decks over the boiler, engine and turbine rooms.
The Orlop Decks and the Tank Top below that were on the lowest level of the ship, below the waterline. The orlop decks were used as cargo spaces, while the Tank Top—the inner bottom of the ship's hull—provided the platform on which the ship's boilers, engines, turbines and electrical generators were housed. This area of the ship was occupied by the engine and boiler rooms, areas which passengers would have been prohibited from seeing. They were connected with higher levels of the ship by flights of stairs; twin spiral stairways near the bow provided access up to D Deck.
Antiphonitis -- more correctly the Church of Christ Antiphonitis (Χριστός Ἀντιφωνητής) -- is a domed church in Cyprus, in Kyrenia District, located in the mountains near the village of Kalograia. It is reached from the network of tracks and small roads in the area of the Herbarium and Agios Amvrosios. It is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus.
The name Christ Antiphonitis means "Christ who responds" and a number of Greek churches are so designated. The epithet appears to derive from a miraculous icon of some kind which responded to prayers, but no account of this icon in Cyprus is known. The name is testified in the late medieval period. Writing in the sixteenth century, Stefano Lusignan in his Description de toute l'isle de Cypre (Paris, 1580) recalls that Antifoniti was a fief belonging to his family, that his maternal grandmother Isabella Perez Fabricius founded the monastery of Antifonite and that his brother John (who had become a monk under the name Hilarion) died there.
The church—built on the site of a natural spring at the head of a valley—was constructed in the twelfth century and belonged originally to a Greek Orthodox monastery. It consists of a single building with a spacious dome carried on eight pillars and is the only surviving example of this type in Cyprus. A ruined and partly restored example is in Saint Hilarion Castle and there was once a similar church at the centre of the Monastery of St. John Chrysostomos at Koutsovendis before the church there was rebuilt at the end of the nineteenth century.[3] The narthex on the western side and the arcade on the south were added a later time, probably in the fifteenth century when the building was under the Latin church. The irregular shape of the dome is perhaps due to damaged sustained during the 1222 Cyprus earthquake.
The Church of Christ Antiphonitis is notable for the array of frescoes on the walls and on the pillars. The oldest paintings belong to the end of the twelfth century and are thought to be a local interpretation of the style of the late Comnenian period as it appears at Panagia tou Arakou at Lagoudera.
When first studied, the Virgin Mary and prelates in the apse were damaged, but the saints in the sanctuary were well preserved. Early painting also include decons, martyrs and stylites. There was a Baptism on the south-west pillar of the nave.
The remaining paintings are later in date and belong to the 1400s. They are executed in a post-Byzantine local revival style.[6] On the south wall was a Tree of Jesse, and on the north an elaborate Last Judgement or Μέλλουσα Κρίση. In the dome is Christ Pantocrator surround by angels. A. and J. Stylianou report that the paintings of the dome were already "badly damaged" at the time of their studies in the 1960s and 1970s.
The paintings in the narthex are faded due to sunlight, but include a notably large depiction of St. George.
Some time after 1975, some of the fresco paintings were stolen and sold on the international art market. The Last Judgement has been badly damaged, and the heads of the twelfth-century angels in the apse damaged and partly removed. The Tree of Jesse has also been removed.
Writing in the 1930s, Rupert Gunnis noted the iconostasis painted in blue and gold, the doors of which are dated 1650, thus during the reign of Mehmed IV when the tax burden appears to have been lightened. The majority of the icons were of the seventeenth century with one of the Archangel Michael dated 1659.
The iconostasis was removed after 1975 and some individual icons panels from it were found with a private collector in the Netherlands. The Government of Cyprus engaged in legal action to secure their restitution. Four icons were repatriated in September, 2013. Separately, an icon from the church showing the Virgin Mary and dating to the fifteenth century was located in Athens and returned to Cyprus on 14 September 1998.
The church is notable for the graffiti and pilgrim records scratched into the lower frescoes during the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They are predominantly in Greek but a few are also in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. They are unique documents of popular history, telling us about the ordinary Cypriots who visited the building. Among the dates visible are 1803, 1888, 1891, 1896, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1910, 1911, 1919, 1930 and 1958.
In the 1930s, the Church of Christ Antiphonitis was the property of Kykkos Monastery.
Presently it is classed as a museum and appears in the List of museums in Northern Cyprus.
Antiphonitis monastery (Ιερά Μονή Αρχαγγέλου Αντιφωνητού) is listed as monastery of Church of Cyprus on its official website.
Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.
Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.
A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.
Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.
Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.
Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.
The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.
Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.
Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.
By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.
EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.
However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.
On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.
In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.
By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.
In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.
The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.
After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".
As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.
Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.
The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.
Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.
The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis".[31] Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.
Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.
Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria
An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."
In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.
Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.
In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.
Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.
Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.
Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:
UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.
The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.
By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."
After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.
On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.
The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.
During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.
In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.
Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.
A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.
Angkor Wat (/ˌæŋkɔːr ˈwɒt/; Khmer: អង្គរវត្ត, "City/Capital of Temples") is a Hindu-Buddhist temple complex in Cambodia, located on a site measuring 162.6 hectares (1,626,000 m2; 402 acres). It resides within the ancient Khmer capital city of Angkor. The Guinness World Records considers it as the largest religious structure in the world. Originally constructed as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu for the Khmer Empire by King Suryavarman II during the 12th century, it was gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple towards the end of the century; as such, it is also described as a "Hindu-Buddhist" temple.
Angkor Wat was built at the behest of the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura (Khmer: យសោធរបុរៈ, present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple-mountain and the later galleried temple. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat more than 5 kilometres (3 mi) long and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs, and for the numerous devatas adorning its walls. The modern name Angkor Wat, alternatively Nokor Wat, means "Temple City" or "City of Temples" in Khmer. Angkor (អង្គរ ângkôr), meaning "city" or "capital city", is a vernacular form of the word nokor (នគរ nôkôr), which comes from the Sanskrit/Pali word nagara (Devanāgarī: नगर). Wat (វត្ត vôtt) is the word for "temple grounds", also derived from Sanskrit/Pali vāṭa (Devanāgarī: वाट), meaning "enclosure"
The original name of the temple was Vrah Viṣṇuloka or Parama Viṣṇuloka meaning "the sacred dwelling of Vishnu".
History
Angkor Wat lies 5.5 kilometres (3+1⁄2 mi) north of the modern town of Siem Reap, and a short distance south and slightly east of the previous capital, which was centred at Baphuon. In an area of Cambodia where there is an essential group of ancient structures, it is the southernmost of Angkor's main sites.
The construction of Angkor Wat took place over 28 years from 1122 to 1150 CE during the reign of King Suryavarman II (ruled 1113–c. 1150).[1] A brahmin by the name of Divākarapaṇḍita (1040–c. 1120) was responsible for urging Suryavarman II to construct the temple. All of the original religious motifs at Angkor Wat derived from Hinduism. Breaking from the Shaiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. It was built as the king's state temple and capital city. As neither the foundation stela nor any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple have been found, its original name is unknown, but it may have been known as Vrah Viṣṇuloka after the presiding deity. Work seems to have ended shortly after the king's death, leaving some of the bas-relief decoration unfinished. The term Vrah Viṣṇuloka or Parama Viṣṇuloka literally means "The king who has gone to the supreme world of Vishnu", which refer to Suryavarman II posthumously and intend to venerate his glory and memory.
In 1177, approximately 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by the Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer. Thereafter the empire was restored by a new king, Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital and state temple (Angkor Thom and the Bayon, respectively), a few kilometers north, dedicated to Buddhism, because the king's new wife, Indratevi, a devout Mahayana Buddhist, encouraged him to convert. Angkor Wat was therefore also gradually converted into a Buddhist site, and many Hindu sculptures were replaced by Buddhist art.
Towards the end of the 12th century, Angkor Wat gradually transformed from a Hindu centre of worship to Buddhism, which continues to the present day. Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that although it was largely neglected after the 16th century, it was never completely abandoned. Fourteen inscriptions dated from the 17th century, discovered in the Angkor area, testify to Japanese Buddhist pilgrims that had established small settlements alongside Khmer locals. At that time, the temple was thought by the Japanese visitors to be the famed Jetavana garden of the Buddha, which was originally located in the kingdom of Magadha, India. The best-known inscription tells of Ukondayu Kazufusa, who celebrated the Khmer New Year at Angkor Wat in 1632.
The first Western visitor to the temple was António da Madalena, a Portuguese friar who visited in 1586 and said that it "is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of."
In 1622, The Poem of Angkor Wat composed in Khmer verse describes the beauty of Angkor Wat and creates a legend around the construction of the complex, supposedly a divine castle built for legendary Khmer king Preah Ket Mealea by Hindu god Preah Pisnukar (or Braḥ Bisṇukār, Vishvakarman), as Suryavarman II had already vanished from people's minds.
In 1860, with the help of French missionary Father Charles-Émile Bouillevaux, the temple was effectively rediscovered by the French naturalist and explorer Henri Mouhot, who popularised the site in the West through the publication of travel notes, in which he wrote:
One of these temples, a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo, might take an honorable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged.
In 1861 German anthropologist Adolf Bastian undertook a four-year trip to Southeast Asia. His account of this trip, The People of East Asia, ran to six volumes. When Bastian finally published the studies and observations during his Journey through Cambodia to Cochinchina in Germany in 1868 – told in detail but uninspiredly, above all without a single one of his drawings of the Angkorian sites – this work hardly made an impression, while everyone was talking about Henri Mouhot's posthumous work with vivid descriptions of Angkor, Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China, Siam, Cambodia and Laos, published in 1864 through the Royal Geographical Society.
There were no ordinary dwellings or houses or other signs of settlement, including cooking utensils, weapons, or items of clothing usually found at ancient sites.
The artistic legacy of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments in the Angkor region led directly to France adopting Cambodia as a protectorate on 11 August 1863 and invading Siam to take control of the ruins. This quickly led to Cambodia reclaiming lands in the northwestern corner of the country such as the areas of Siem Reap, Battambang, and Sisophon which were under Siamese rule from 1795 to 1907.
Angkor Wat's aesthetics were on display in the plaster cast museum of Louis Delaporte called musée Indo-chinois which existed in the Parisian Trocadero Palace from c.1880 to the mid-1920s.
The 20th century saw a considerable restoration of Angkor Wat. Gradually teams of laborers and archeologists pushed back the jungle and exposed the expanses of stone, permitting the sun to once again illuminate the dark corners of the temple. Angkor Wat caught the attention and imagination of a wider audience in Europe when the pavilion of French protectorate of Cambodia, as part of French Indochina, recreated the life-size replica of Angkor Wat during Paris Colonial Exposition in 1931.
Cambodia gained independence from France on 9 November 1953 and has controlled Angkor Wat since then. From the colonial period onwards, until the site was nominated a UNESCO World Heritage in 1992, the temple of Angkor Wat was instrumental in the formation of the modern and gradually globalised concept of built cultural heritage.
Restoration work was interrupted by the Cambodian Civil War and Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s, but relatively little damage was done during this period. Camping Khmer Rouge forces used whatever wood remained in the building structures for firewood, and a shoot-out between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces put a few bullet holes in a basrelief. Far more damage was done after the wars, by art thieves working out of Thailand, which, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, claimed almost every head that could be lopped off the structures, including reconstructions.
The temple is a symbol of Cambodia and is a source of national pride that has factored into Cambodia's diplomatic relations with France, the United States, and its neighbour Thailand. A depiction of Angkor Wat has been a part of Cambodian national flags since the introduction of the first version circa 1863. From a larger historical and transcultural perspective, however, the temple of Angkor Wat did not become a symbol of national pride sui generis but had been inscribed into a larger politico-cultural process of French-colonial heritage production in which the original temple site was presented in French colonial and universal exhibitions in Paris and Marseille between 1889 and 1937.
In December 2015, it was announced that a research team from the University of Sydney had found a previously unseen ensemble of buried towers built and demolished during the construction of Angkor Wat, as well as a massive structure of unknown purpose on its south side and wooden fortifications. The findings include evidence of low-density residential occupation in the region, with a road grid, ponds, and mounds. These indicate that the temple precinct, bounded by a moat and wall, may not have been used exclusively by the priestly elite, as was previously thought. The team used LiDAR, ground-penetrating radar and targeted excavation to map Angkor Wat.
According to a myth, the construction of Angkor Wat was ordered by Indra to serve as a palace for his son Precha Ket Mealea. According to the 13th-century Chinese traveller Zhou Daguan, some believed that the temple was constructed in a single night by a divine architect.
Architecture
Angkor Wat is a unique combination of the temple mountain (the standard design for the empire's state temples) and the later plan of concentric galleries, most of which were originally derived from religious beliefs of Hinduism. The construction of Angkor Wat suggests that there was a celestial significance with certain features of the temple. This is observed in the temple's east–west orientation, and lines of sight from terraces within the temple that show specific towers to be at the precise location of the solstice at sunrise. The temple is a representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods according to Hindu mythology: the central quincunx of towers symbolise the five peaks of the mountain, and the walls and moat symbolise the surrounding mountain ranges and ocean. Access to the upper areas of the temple was progressively more exclusive, with the laity being admitted only to the lowest level.
The Angkor Wat temple's main tower aligns with the morning sun of the spring equinox. Unlike most Khmer temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west rather than the east. This has led many (including Maurice Glaize and George Coedès) to conclude that Suryavarman intended it to serve as his funerary temple. Further evidence for this view is provided by the bas-reliefs, which proceed in a counter-clockwise direction—prasavya in Hindu terminology—as this is the reverse of the normal order. Rituals take place in reverse order during Brahminic funeral services.
Archaeologist Charles Higham also describes a container that may have been a funerary jar that was recovered from the central tower. It has been nominated by some as the greatest expenditure of energy on the disposal of a corpse. Freeman and Jacques, however, note that several other temples of Angkor depart from the typical eastern orientation, and suggest that Angkor Wat's alignment was due to its dedication to Vishnu, who was associated with the west.
Drawing on the temple's alignment and dimensions, and on the content and arrangement of the bas-reliefs, researcher Eleanor Mannikka argues that the structure represents a claimed new era of peace under King Suryavarman II: "as the measurements of solar and lunar time cycles were built into the sacred space of Angkor Wat, this divine mandate to rule was anchored to consecrated chambers and corridors meant to perpetuate the king's power and to honour and placate the deities manifest in the heavens above." Mannikka's suggestions have been received with a mixture of interest and scepticism in academic circles. She distances herself from the speculations of others, such as Graham Hancock, that Angkor Wat is part of a representation of the constellation Draco.
The oldest surviving plan of Angkor Wat dates to 1715 and is credited to Fujiwara Tadayoshi. The plan is stored in the Suifu Meitoku-kai Shokokan Museum in Mito, Japan.
Style
Angkor Wat is the prime example of the classical style of
Khmer architecture—the Angkor Wat style—to which it has given its name. By the 12th century, Khmer architects had become skilled and confident in the use of sandstone (rather than brick or laterite) as the main building material. Most of the visible areas are sandstone blocks, while laterite was used for the outer wall and hidden structural parts. The binding agent used to join the blocks is yet to be identified, although natural resins or slaked lime has been suggested.
The temple has drawn praise above all for the harmony of its design. According to Maurice Glaize, a mid-20th-century conservator of Angkor, the temple "attains a classic perfection by the restrained monumentality of its finely balanced elements and the precise arrangement of its proportions. It is a work of power, unity, and style."
Architecturally, the elements characteristic of the style include the ogival, redented towers shaped like lotus buds; half-galleries to broaden passageways; axial galleries connecting enclosures; and the cruciform terraces which appear along the main axis of the temple. Typical decorative elements are devatas (or apsaras), bas-reliefs, pediments, extensive garlands and narrative scenes. The statuary of Angkor Wat is considered conservative, being more static and less graceful than earlier work. Other elements of the design have been destroyed by looting and the passage of time, including gilded stucco on the towers, gilding on some figures on the bas-reliefs, and wooden ceiling panels and doors.
Architect Jacques Dumarçay believes the layout of Angkor Wat borrows Chinese influence in its system of galleries which join at right angles to form courtyards. However, the axial pattern embedded in the plan of Angkor Wat may be derived from Southeast Asian cosmology in combination with the mandala represented by the main temple.
Features
The outer wall, 1,024 m (3,360 ft) by 802 m (2,631 ft) and 4.5 m (15 ft) high, is surrounded by a 30 m (98 ft) apron of open ground and a moat 190 m (620 ft) wide and over 5 kilometres (3 mi) in perimeter. The moat extends 1.5 kilometres from east to west and 1.3 kilometres from north to south. Access to the temple is by an earth bank to the east and a sandstone causeway to the west; the latter, the main entrance, is a later addition, possibly replacing a wooden bridge. There are gopuras at each of the cardinal points; the western is by far the largest and has three ruined towers. Glaize notes that this gopura both hides and echoes the form of the temple proper.
Under the southern tower is a statue known as Ta Reach, originally an eight-armed statue of Vishnu that may have occupied the temple's central shrine. Galleries run between the towers and as far as two further entrances on either side of the gopura often referred to as "elephant gates", as they are large enough to admit those animals. These galleries have square pillars on the outer (west) side and a closed wall on the inner (east) side. The ceiling between the pillars is decorated with lotus rosettes; the west face of the wall with dancing figures; and the east face of the wall with balustered windows, dancing male figures on prancing animals, and devatas, including (south of the entrance) the only one in the temple to be showing her teeth.
The outer wall encloses a space of 820,000 square metres (203 acres), which besides the temple proper was originally occupied by the city and, to the north of the temple, the royal palace. Like all secular buildings of Angkor, these were built of perishable materials rather than of stone, so nothing remains of them except the outlines of some of the streets. Most of the area is now covered by forest. A 350 m (1,150 ft) causeway connects the western gopura to the temple proper, with naga balustrades and six sets of steps leading down to the city on either side. Each side also features a library with entrances at each cardinal point, in front of the third set of stairs from the entrance, and a pond between the library and the temple itself. The ponds are later additions to the design, as is the cruciform terrace guarded by lions connecting the causeway to the central structure.
Central structure
The temple stands on a terrace raised higher than the city. It is made of three rectangular galleries rising to a central tower, each level higher than the last. The two inner galleries each have four large towers at their ordinal corners (that is, NW, NE, SE, and SW) surrounding a higher fifth tower. This pattern is sometimes called a quincunx and represents the mountains of Meru. Because the temple faces west, the features are set back towards the east, leaving more space to be filled in each enclosure and gallery on the west side; for the same reason, the west-facing steps are shallower than those on the other sides.
Mannikka interprets the galleries as being dedicated to the king, Brahma, the moon, and Vishnu. Each gallery has a gopura at each of the points. The outer gallery measures 187 m (614 ft) by 215 m (705 ft), with pavilions rather than towers at the corners. The gallery is open to the outside of the temple, with columned half-galleries extending and buttressing the structure. Connecting the outer gallery to the second enclosure on the west side is a cruciform cloister called Preah Poan (meaning "The Thousand Buddhas" Gallery). Buddha images were left in the cloister by pilgrims over the centuries, although most have now been removed. This area has many inscriptions relating to the good deeds of pilgrims, most written in Khmer but others in Burmese and Japanese. The four small courtyards marked out by the cloister may originally have been filled with water. North and south of the cloister are libraries.
Beyond, the second and inner galleries are connected to two flanking libraries by another cruciform terrace, again a later addition. From the second level upwards, devatas abound on the walls, singly or in groups of up to four. The second-level enclosure is 100 m (330 ft) by 115 m (377 ft), and may originally have been flooded to represent the ocean around Mount Meru. Three sets of steps on each side lead up to the corner towers and gopuras of the inner gallery. The steep stairways may represent the difficulty of ascending to the kingdom of the gods. This inner gallery, called the Bakan, is a 60 m (200 ft) square with axial galleries connecting each gopura with the central shrine and subsidiary shrines located below the corner towers.
The roofings of the galleries are decorated with the motif of the body of a snake ending in the heads of lions or garudas. Carved lintels and pediments decorate the entrances to the galleries and the shrines. The tower above the central shrine rises 43 m (141 ft) to a height of 65 m (213 ft) above the ground; unlike those of previous temple mountains, the central tower is raised above the surrounding four. The shrine itself, originally occupied by a statue of Vishnu and open on each side, was walled in when the temple was converted to Theravada Buddhism, the new walls featuring standing Buddhas. In 1934, the conservator George Trouvé excavated the pit beneath the central shrine: filled with sand and water it had already been robbed of its treasure, but he did find a sacred foundation deposit of gold leaf two metres above ground level.
Decoration
Integrated with the architecture of the building, one of the causes for its fame is Angkor Wat's extensive decoration, which predominantly takes the form of bas-relief friezes. The inner walls of the outer gallery bear a series of large-scale scenes mainly depicting episodes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Higham has called these "the greatest known linear arrangement of stone carving". From the north-west corner anti-clockwise, the western gallery shows the Battle of Lanka (from the Ramayana, in which Rama defeats Ravana) and the Battle of Kurukshetra (from the Mahabharata, showing the mutual annihilation of the Kaurava and Pandava clans). On the southern gallery follow the only historical scene, a procession of Suryavarman II, then the 32 hells and 37 heavens of Hinduism.
On the eastern gallery is one of the most celebrated scenes, the Churning of the Sea of Milk, showing 92 asuras and 88 devas using the serpent Vasuki to churn the sea under Vishnu's direction (Mannikka counts only 91 asuras and explains the asymmetrical numbers as representing the number of days from the winter solstice to the spring equinox, and from the equinox to the summer solstice). It is followed by Vishnu defeating asuras (a 16th-century addition). The northern gallery shows Krishna's victory over Bana (where according to Glaize, "The workmanship is at its worst").
Angkor Wat is decorated with depictions of apsaras and devata; there are more than 1,796 depictions of devata in the present research inventory. Angkor Wat architects employed small apsara images (30–40 cm or 12–16 in) as decorative motifs on pillars and walls. They incorporated larger devata images (all full-body portraits measuring approximately 95–110 cm or 37–43 in) more prominently at every level of the temple from the entry pavilion to the tops of the high towers. In 1927, Sappho Marchal published a study cataloging the remarkable diversity of their hair, headdresses, garments, stance, jewellery, and decorative flowers, which Marchal concluded were based on actual practices of the Angkor period.
Construction techniques
The monument was made of five to ten million sandstone blocks with a maximum weight of 1.5 tons each. The entire city of Angkor used far greater amounts of stone than all the Egyptian pyramids combined and occupied an area significantly greater than modern-day Paris. Moreover, unlike the Egyptian pyramids, which use limestone quarried 0.5 km (1⁄4 mi) away, the entire city of Angkor was built with sandstone quarried 40 km (25 mi) (or more) away. This sandstone was transported from Mount Kulen, a quarry approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast.
The route has been suggested to span 35 kilometres (22 mi) along a canal towards Tonlé Sap lake, another 35 kilometres (22 mi) crossing the lake, and finally 15 kilometres (9 mi) against the current along Siem Reap River, making a total journey of 90 kilometres (55 mi). However, Etsuo Uchida and Ichita Shimoda of Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan have discovered in 2011 a shorter 35-kilometre (22 mi) canal connecting Mount Kulen and Angkor Wat using satellite imagery. The two believe that the Khmer used this route instead.
Virtually all of its surfaces, columns, lintels and even roofs are carved. There are kilometres of reliefs illustrating scenes from Indian literature including unicorns, griffins, winged dragons pulling chariots, as well as warriors following an elephant-mounted leader, and celestial dancing girls with elaborate hairstyles. The gallery wall alone is decorated with almost 1,000 m2 (11,000 sq ft) of bas reliefs. Holes on some of the Angkor walls indicate that they may have been decorated with bronze sheets. These were highly prized in ancient times and were prime targets for robbers.
While excavating Khajuraho, Alex Evans, a stonemason, and sculptor recreated a stone sculpture under 1.2 metres (4 ft), this took about 60 days to carve. Roger Hopkins and Mark Lehner also conducted experiments to quarry limestone which took 12 quarrymen 22 days to quarry about 400 tons of stone. The labour force to quarry, transport, carve and install so much sandstone probably ran into the thousands including many highly skilled artisans. The skills required to carve these sculptures were developed hundreds of years earlier, as demonstrated by some artefacts that have been dated to the seventh century, before the Khmer came to power.
Restoration and conservation
The contrast between restored and unrestored figures is deliberate. The major restoration of the causeway was first initiated in the 1960s by the French.
As with most other ancient temples in Cambodia, Angkor Wat has faced extensive damage and deterioration by a combination of plant overgrowth, fungi, ground movements, war damage, and theft. The war damage to Angkor Wat's temples however has been very limited, compared to the rest of Cambodia's temple ruins, and it has also received the most attentive restoration.
The restoration of Angkor Wat in the modern era began with the establishment of the Conservation d'Angkor (Angkor Conservancy) by the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) in 1908; before that date, activities at the site were primarily concerned with exploration. The Conservation d'Angkor was responsible for the research, conservation, and restoration activities carried out at Angkor until the early 1970s, and a major restoration of Angkor was undertaken in the 1960s.
Work on Angkor was abandoned during the Khmer Rouge era and the Conservation d'Angkor was disbanded in 1975. Between 1986 and 1992, the Archaeological Survey of India carried out restoration work on the temple, as France did not recognise the Cambodian government at the time. Criticisms have been raised about both the early French restoration attempts and the later Indian work, with concerns over the damage done to the stone surface by the use of chemicals and cement.
In 1992, following an appeal for help by Norodom Sihanouk, Angkor Wat was listed in UNESCO's World Heritage in Danger (later removed in 2004) and as a World Heritage Site together with an appeal by UNESCO to the international community to save Angkor. Zoning of the area was designated to protect the Angkor site in 1994, APSARA was established in 1995 to protect and manage the area, and a law to protect Cambodian heritage was passed in 1996.
Several countries such as France, Japan, and China are now involved in Angkor Wat conservation projects. The German Apsara Conservation Project (GACP) is working to protect the devatas, and other bas-reliefs that decorate the temple, from damage. The organisation's survey found that around 20% of the devatas were in very poor condition, mainly because of natural erosion and deterioration of the stone but in part also due to earlier restoration efforts. Other work involves the repair of collapsed sections of the structure, and prevention of further collapse: the west facade of the upper level, for example, has been buttressed by scaffolding since 2002, while a Japanese team completed the restoration of the north library of the outer enclosure in 2005.
Microbial biofilms have been found degrading sandstone at Angkor Wat, Preah Khan, and the Bayon and West Prasat in Angkor. The dehydration- and radiation-resistant filamentous cyanobacteria produce organic acids that degrade the stone. A dark filamentous fungus was found in internal and external Preah Khan samples, while the alga Trentepohlia was found only in samples taken from external, pink-stained stone at Preah Khan. Replicas have been made to replace some of the lost or damaged sculptures.
Tourism
Since the 1990s, Angkor Wat has become a major tourist destination. In 1993, there were only 7,650 visitors to the site; by 2004, government figures show that 561,000 foreign visitors had arrived in Siem Reap province that year, approximately 50% of all foreign tourists in Cambodia. The number reached over a million in 2007, and over two million by 2012. Most visited Angkor Wat, which received over two million foreign tourists in 2013, and 2.6 million by 2018.
The site was managed by the private SOKIMEX group between 1990 and 2016, which rented it from the Cambodian government. The influx of tourists has so far caused relatively little damage, other than some graffiti. Ropes and wooden steps have been introduced to protect the bas-reliefs and floors, respectively. Tourism has also provided some additional funds for maintenance—as of 2000 approximately 28% of ticket revenues across the entire Angkor site was spent on the temples—although most work is carried out by teams sponsored by foreign governments rather than by the Cambodian authorities.
Since Angkor Wat has seen significant growth in tourism throughout the years, UNESCO and its International Co-ordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor (ICC), in association with representatives from the Royal Government and APSARA, organised seminars to discuss the concept of "cultural tourism". Wanting to avoid commercial and mass tourism, the seminars emphasised the importance of providing high-quality accommodation and services for the Cambodian government to benefit economically, while also incorporating the richness of Cambodian culture. In 2001, this incentive resulted in the concept of the "Angkor Tourist City" which would be developed about traditional Khmer architecture, contain leisure and tourist facilities, and provide luxurious hotels capable of accommodating large numbers of tourists.
The prospect of developing such large tourist accommodations has encountered concerns from both APSARA and the ICC, claiming that previous tourism developments in the area have neglected construction regulations and that more of these projects have the potential to damage landscape features. Also, the large scale of these projects have begun to threaten the quality of the nearby town's water, sewage, and electricity systems. It has been noted that such high frequency of tourism and growing demand for quality accommodations in the area, such as the development of a large highway, has had a direct effect on the underground water table, subsequently straining the structural stability of the temples at Angkor Wat.
Locals of Siem Reap have also voiced concern that the charm and atmosphere of their town have been compromised to entertain tourism.[103] Since this local atmosphere is the key component to projects like Angkor Tourist City, the local officials continue to discuss how to successfully incorporate future tourism without sacrificing local values and culture.
At the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2012, it was agreed that Borobudur and Angkor Wat would become sister sites and the provinces sister provinces.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to travel restrictions being introduced across the world, which had a severe impact on Cambodia's tourism sector. As a result, visitors to Angkor Wat plummeted, leaving the usually crowded complex almost deserted. Cambodia, including Angkor Wat, reopened to international visitors in late 2021, but as of the end of 2022 had only received a fraction of its pre-pandemic traffic: a total of 280,000 tourists visited the complex in 2022, versus 2.6 million in 2018. In 2023, the temple is seeing an increase in numbers over the previous year, having over 400,000 tourists by late July.
Grazing is still allowed in certain areas of the Mojave National Preserve. This surprises some that grazing is allowed in a unit of the National Park System. At last count, livestock grazing is currently permitted in 32 units of the park system. In these cases, grazing occurred at the time of designation and in most cases has historical significance. In the case of Mojave, it is a Preserve not a National Park and preserves allow for limited activities like grazing , mining , etc. This is a comfort to the residents who want things to stay as they have known them. These folks lived in the area long before the Preserve was designated by an act of congress and resent government telling them what they can and can't do. However grazing ( and the other commercial activities) remains a disappointment to those, including some residents and visitors, who have long wanted a Mojave National Park. Neither side likes all of the compromises that were needed to reach agreement at the federal level to set the lands aside. Many on both sides of the issues consider compromise to be a "dirty word". However without it, we wouldn't have the protections that have been given to this beautiful and lonely landscape.
From a visitor's perspective, Mojave Preserve is a bit different from a typical large unit in the National Park System. There are no gas stations except at the edges in the preserve, no hotels, few places to eat;, and as I can testify, bathrooms are few and far between. Visiting the preserve takes planning (and a full tank of gas). But such has always been the case for desert adventures. With all this said, the eastern Mojave is a wonderful place to visit even with a few cows.
"‘Jackie’ in Rolling Stone Rape Article Must Testify in Defamation Suit" by DANIEL VICTOR via NYT t.co/kKW5wbuNkb (via Twitter twitter.com/felipemassone/status/717453730568880128)
As many of the photographs will testify many of the photographers were creatures of habit who took photographs of engines from the same spot and many at the same time. However, a few transcribed from the norm and took shots of the unexceptional but nevertheless and equally by today's standards just as important as those long lost engines of yesteryear.
I can count on one hand the number of photographs I have seen of the ex GWR station at Oswestry.
When the Gobowen Branch first opened in 1849, the Shrewsbury & Chester railway station had been merely a temporary timber structure, according to Isaac Watkin's account of Oswestry Describing Old Houses Shops etc (1920). it was a temporary wooden structure serving the purpose of a station', situated on a parcel of land which in 1795 had belonged to the Presbyterians of Salop. In the late 1860s or early 1870s, the station was rebuilt, this time affording much-improved accommodation, however, it wasn't until 1885 that the station was rebuilt again this time in brick, utilising the GWR Company's standard late-Victorian architectural design. with tall chimneys and projecting platform canopy, according to Kelly's Directory of Shropshire (1891) the reconstruction was completed in 1885 In its final form, the GWR station resembled its counterparts at Stourbridge Town (1879) and Ross on Wye (1892), all three being the de luxe versions of the standard GWR design with prominent French style turrets and wrought iron roof decorations. Internally the building contained a book hall and ticket office, together with separate waiting rooms for ladies and first-class passengers, other facilities included a parcels office, station masters office, ladies and gentlemen's lavatories and porters room.
I made these pictures all around the so-called "terraplén" in the local jargon just to show the viewer the incredible nuances of colours that this Caribbean sea portrays and conveys. It is really impressive the variety that your eyes will testify. Take a look in these four different ones displayed here. I am sure that if Van Gogh had lived here he would change his mind about "Starry starry night..."
Hice estas fotos alrededor del "terraplén" la carretera que se construyó dentro del mar del Caribe para llegarse a los Cayos. En este caso, Cayo Guillermo. Mi objetivo es que la gente vea la paleta de colores que produce los diversos angulos. Es impresionante lo que uno mira. Van Gogh hubiese quedado loco aquí, le garantizo. Las cuatro fotos aquí presentes son muestras de la variedad de la belleza que tiene este mar. Imperdible.
Eu fiz essas fotos ao redor do chamado "terraplén " no jargão local apenas para mostrar ao espectador as nuances incríveis de cores que este mar do Caribe retrata e transmite. É realmente impressionante a variedade que seus olhos testemunharão. Dê uma olhada nestas quatro diferentes fotos mostradas aqui. Tenho certeza de que se Van Gogh tivesse morado aqui, ele mudaria sua mente sobre "Starry Starry Night... "
J’ai fait ces photos tout autour du soi-disant "terraplén " dans le jargon local juste pour montrer au spectateur les nuances incroyables de couleurs que cette mer des Caraïbes dépeint et transmet. C’est vraiment impressionnant la variété que vos yeux témoigneront. Jetez un coup d’oeil dans ces quatre différents fotos qui sont affichés ici. Je suis sûr que si Van Gogh avait vécu ici, il allait changer d’avis sur "nuit étoilée étoilée... "
Ho fatto queste foto in tutto il cosiddetto "terraplén " nel gergo locale solo per mostrare allo spettatore le incredibili sfumature di colori che questo mare caraibico ritrae e trasmette. È davvero impressionante la varietà che i tuoi occhi testimonieranno. Dare un'occhiata in questi quattro diversi quelli visualizzati qui.Sono sicuro che se Van Gogh avesse vissuto qui avrebbe cambiato idea su "notte stellata stellata... "
Ik maakte deze Foto's rondom de zogenaamde "terraplén " in het lokale jargon alleen maar om de kijker de ongelooflijke nuances van kleuren die deze Caribische zee portretteert en vervoert tonen. Het is echt indrukwekkend het ras dat uw ogen zullen getuigen. Neem een kijkje in deze vier verschillende die hier worden weergegeven. Ik ben er zeker van dat als van Gogh hier woonde hij zou zijn gedachten te veranderen over "sterrenhoop Sterrennacht... "
Diese Bilder habe ich rund um den sogenannten "terraplén " im lokalen Fachjargon gemacht, nur um dem Betrachter die unglaublichen Farbennuancen zu zeigen, die dieses karibische Meer darstellt und vermittelt. Es ist wirklich beeindruckend, die Vielfalt, die Ihre Augen bezeugen. Werfen Sie einen Blick in diese vier verschiedenen, die hier angezeigt werden. Ich bin mir sicher, dass Van Gogh, wenn er hier gelebt hätte, seine Meinung über "Starry Starry Night ändern würde ... "
我做了這些照片周圍所謂的 "terraplén" 在當地的行話只是為了向觀眾展示令人難以置信的細微差別, 這個加勒比海描繪和傳達的顏色。 你的眼睛會作證的品種確實令人印象深刻。 看看這裡顯示的這四個不同的。我相信, 如果梵古住在這裡, 他會改變他的想法 "星空之夜......"
انا جعلت هذه الصور في جميع انحاء ما يسمي "terraplén " في المصطلحات المحلية فقط لإظهار المشاهد الفروق الدقيقة لا يصدق من ألوان التي يصور هذا البحر الكاريبي وينقل. انها حقا مثيره للإعجاب المتنوعة التي ستشهد عينيك. نلقي نظره علي هذه الاربعه المختلفة المعروضة هنا. انا متاكد من انه إذا كان فان جوخ عاش هنا وقال انه تغيير راية حول "ليله النجوم المرصعة بالنجوم... "
私は、このカリブ海が描写し、伝える色の信じられないほどのニュアンスを視聴者に見せるためだけに地元の専門用語で、いわゆる "terraplén " の周りにこれらの写真を作りました。 それはあなたの目が証言する様々な本当に印象的です. ここに表示されている4つの異なるものを見てみましょう。私はゴッホがここに住んでいた場合、彼は "星空の星空の夜についての彼の心を変更することを確信しています。
Tôi thực hiện những hình ảnh trên tất cả các cái gọi là "terraplén " trong các biệt ngữ địa phương chỉ để hiển thị các sắc thái lạ thường của màu sắc mà biển Caribê miêu tả và truyền tải. Nó thực sự là ấn tượng sự đa dạng mà đôi mắt của bạn sẽ làm chứng. Hãy xem trong bốn cái khác nhau được hiển thị ở đây. Tôi chắc chắn rằng nếu Van Gogh đã sống ở đây ông sẽ thay đổi tâm trí của mình về "starry đêm đầy sao... "
Ben bu resimleri tüm etrafında sözde "terraplén " yerel jargon sadece izleyicinin Bu Karayip Denizi tasvir ve taşır renklerin inanılmaz nüansları göstermek için yaptı. Gözlerin tanıklık edecek çeşitliliği gerçekten etkileyici. Burada görüntülenen bu dört farklı olanlar bir göz atın. Eminim Van Gogh burada yaşamış olsaydı "yıldızlı yıldızlı gece... " hakkında fikrini değiştirecek
Я сделал эти фотографии все вокруг так называемых "терраплéн " в местном жаргоне только для того, чтобы показать зрителю невероятные нюансы цветов, что это Карибское море изображает и передает. Это действительно впечатляет разнообразие, что ваши глаза будут свидетельствовать. Взгляните на эти четыре различных отображаются здесь. Я уверен, что если Ван Гог жил здесь, он изменит свое мнение о "Звездная Звездная ночь... "
Έκανα αυτές τις φωτογραφίες γύρω από το λεγόμενο "terraplén " στην τοπική ορολογία απλά για να δείξω στον θεατή τις απίστευτες αποχρώσεις των χρωμάτων που αυτή η Καραϊβική Θάλασσα απεικονίζει και μεταφέρει. Είναι πραγματικά εντυπωσιακή η ποικιλία που θα καταθέσουν τα μάτια σας. Ρίξε μια ματιά σε αυτά τα τέσσερα διαφορετικά εμφανίζονται εδώ. Είμαι σίγουρος ότι αν ο Βαν Γκογκ ζούσε εδώ, θα άλλαζε γνώμη για το "έναστρο αστέρι της νύχτας... "
Jag gjorde dessa bilder runt den så kallade "terraplén " i den lokala jargong bara för att Visa betraktaren den otroliga nyanser av färger som detta Karibiska havet skildrar och förmedlar. Det är verkligen imponerande sorten som dina ögon kommer att vittna. Ta en titt i dessa fyra olika som visas här. Jag är säker på att om Van Gogh hade bott här han skulle ändra sitt sinne om "stjärnhimmel Starry Night... "
עשיתי את התמונות האלה בכל רחבי מה שנקרא "הארצה " בשפה המקומית רק כדי להראות לצופה את הניואנסים המדהימים של הצבעים כי הים הקריבי הזה מתאר ומעביר. זה באמת מרשים את המגוון שהעיניים שלך יעיד. הבט בארבעת הסוגים השונים האלה המוצגים כאן. אני בטוח שאם ואן גוך היה גר כאן הוא היה משנה את דעתו בנוגע "לילה כוכבי כוכבים..."
Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 2200. Photo: Warner Bros.
American actor John Garfield (1913-1952) played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. Garfield is seen as a predecessor of such Method actors as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and James Dean. Called to testify before the U.S. Congressional House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), he denied communist affiliation and refused to 'name names', which effectively ended his film career. The stress led to his premature death at 39 from a heart attack.
John Garfield was born Jacob Julius Garfinkle on the Lower East Side of New York City, to Hannah Basia (Margolis) and David Garfinkle, who were Jewish immigrants from Zhytomyr (now in Ukraine). Jules was raised by his father, a clothes presser and part-time cantor, after his mother's death in 1920, when he was 7. He grew up in the heart of the Yiddish Theatre District. Jacob was sent to a special school for problem children, where he was introduced to boxing and drama. As a boy, he won a state-wide oratory contest sponsored by the New York Times with Benjamin Franklin as his subject. Garfield later won a scholarship to Maria Ouspenskaya's drama school. In 1932, he landed a non-paying job at Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory, where he was recommended to by his acting teachers Maria Ouspenskaya and Richard Boleslawski. He changed his name to Jules Garfield and according to IMDb, he made his Broadway debut in that company's Counsellor-at-Law, written by Elmer Rice and starring Paul Muni. (Wikipedia writes that this was actually his second Broadway appearance and that Garfield made his Broadway debut in 1932 in a play called Lost Boy, which ran for only two weeks). Later, he joined the Group Theatre company, winning acclaim for his role as Ralph, the sensitive young son who pleads for "a chance to get to the first base" in Awake and Sing. The play opened in February 1935, and Garfield was singled out by critic Brooks Atkinson for having a "splendid sense of character development." However, Garfield was passed over for the lead in Golden Boy, which had especially been written for him by author Clifford Odets. When the play was first produced by the Group Theatre in 1938, the powers that be decided Garfield wasn't 'ready' to play the role of the young violinist turned boxer. Luther Adler subsequently created the role. Embittered, Garfield signed a contract with Warner Brothers, who changed his name to John Garfield. Because both Garfield and his wife did not want to 'go Hollywood,' he had a clause in his Warner contract that allowed him to perform in a legitimate play every year at his option. The couple also refused to own a home in Tinseltown. Garfield won enormous praise for his role as the cynical and tragic composer Mickey Borden in Four Daughters (Michael Curtiz, 1938), starring Claude Rains. For his part, he was nominated for the Oscar as Best Actor in a Supporting Role. After the breakout success of Four Daughters, Warner Bros created a name-above-the-title vehicle for him, the crime film They Made Me a Criminal (Busby Berkeley, 1939). Garfield had already made a B movie called Blackwell's Island (William C. McGann, 1939). Not wanting their new star to appear in a low-budget film, Warners ordered an A movie upgrade by adding $100,000 to its budget and recalling director Michael Curtiz to shoot newly scripted scenes.
At the onset of World War II, John Garfield immediately attempted to enlist in the armed forces but was turned down because of his heart condition. Frustrated, he turned his energies to supporting the war effort. He and actress Bette Davis were the driving forces behind the opening of the Hollywood Canteen, a club offering food and entertainment for American servicemen. He traveled overseas to help entertain the troops, made several bond selling tours and starred in a string of popular, patriotic films like Air Force (Howard Hawks, 1943), Destination Tokyo (Delmer Daves, 1943) with Cary Grant, and Pride of the Marines (Delmer Faves, 1945) with Eleanor Parker. All were box office successes. Throughout his film career, John Garfield, again and again, brooding played rebellious roles despite his efforts to play varied parts. Garfield became one of Warner Bros' most suspended stars. He was suspended 11 times during his nine years at the studio. After the war, Garfield starred in a series of successful films such as the Film Noir The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, 1946) with Lana Turner, and the showbiz melodrama Humoresque (Jean Negulesco, 1946) with Joan Crawford. When his Warner Bros. contract expired in 1946, he did not re-sign with the studio, opting to start his own independent production company instead. Garfield was one of the first Hollywood actors to do so. In the Best Picture Oscar-winning Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947), Garfield took a featured but supporting, part because he believed deeply in the film's exposé of antisemitism in America. In 1948, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his starring role in Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, 1947) with Lilli Palmer. That same year, Garfield returned to Broadway in the play Skipper Next to God.
Active in liberal political and social causes, John Garfield found himself embroiled in the Communist scare of the late 1940s. Blacklisted during the McCarthy era in the early 1950s for his left-wing political beliefs, he adamantly refused to "name names" in testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in April 1951. In his only TV appearance, Garfield played Joe Bonaparte and Kim Stanley played Lorna Moon in a scene from Clifford Odets' 'Golden Boy' on Cavalcade of Stars: John Garfield, Kim Stanley, Paul Winchell & Jerry Mahoney (1950). With film work scarce because of the blacklist, Garfield returned to Broadway and starred in a 1951 or 1952 revival (the sources differ) of Golden Boy. Garfield finally played the role which Odets had written for him and which was denied him years before at the Group Theater. His final film was the Film Noir He Ran All the Way (John Berry, 1951), with Shelley Winters. On 21 May 1952, John Garfield was found dead of a heart attack in the apartment of a friend, former showgirl Iris Whitney. A week before he had separated from his wife, and hours before his death he completed a statement modifying his 1951 testimony about his Communist affiliations. A day earlier Clifford Odets had testified before HUAC and reaffirmed that Garfield had never been a member of the Communist Party. Garfield was the fourth actor to die after being subjected to HUAC investigation. The others were Mady Christians (at 59), J. Edward Bromberg (at 47) and Canada Lee (at 45). The official cause of his death was coronary thrombosis due to a blood clot blocking an artery in his heart. His funeral was mobbed by thousands of fans, in the largest funeral attendance for an actor since Rudolph Valentino. Garfield had been married to his childhood sweetheart Roberta Seidman, from 1935 till his death. They had three children, Katherine (1938-1945), actor David Garfield (1942-1995) and actress Julie Garfield (1946-). His six-year-old daughter Katharine died of an allergic reaction in 1945. He never got over the loss. John Garfield is buried at Westchester Hills Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
Sources: Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
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Antiphonitis -- more correctly the Church of Christ Antiphonitis (Χριστός Ἀντιφωνητής) -- is a domed church in Cyprus, in Kyrenia District, located in the mountains near the village of Kalograia. It is reached from the network of tracks and small roads in the area of the Herbarium and Agios Amvrosios. It is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus.
The name Christ Antiphonitis means "Christ who responds" and a number of Greek churches are so designated. The epithet appears to derive from a miraculous icon of some kind which responded to prayers, but no account of this icon in Cyprus is known. The name is testified in the late medieval period. Writing in the sixteenth century, Stefano Lusignan in his Description de toute l'isle de Cypre (Paris, 1580) recalls that Antifoniti was a fief belonging to his family, that his maternal grandmother Isabella Perez Fabricius founded the monastery of Antifonite and that his brother John (who had become a monk under the name Hilarion) died there.
The church—built on the site of a natural spring at the head of a valley—was constructed in the twelfth century and belonged originally to a Greek Orthodox monastery. It consists of a single building with a spacious dome carried on eight pillars and is the only surviving example of this type in Cyprus. A ruined and partly restored example is in Saint Hilarion Castle and there was once a similar church at the centre of the Monastery of St. John Chrysostomos at Koutsovendis before the church there was rebuilt at the end of the nineteenth century.[3] The narthex on the western side and the arcade on the south were added a later time, probably in the fifteenth century when the building was under the Latin church. The irregular shape of the dome is perhaps due to damaged sustained during the 1222 Cyprus earthquake.
The Church of Christ Antiphonitis is notable for the array of frescoes on the walls and on the pillars. The oldest paintings belong to the end of the twelfth century and are thought to be a local interpretation of the style of the late Comnenian period as it appears at Panagia tou Arakou at Lagoudera.
When first studied, the Virgin Mary and prelates in the apse were damaged, but the saints in the sanctuary were well preserved. Early painting also include decons, martyrs and stylites. There was a Baptism on the south-west pillar of the nave.
The remaining paintings are later in date and belong to the 1400s. They are executed in a post-Byzantine local revival style.[6] On the south wall was a Tree of Jesse, and on the north an elaborate Last Judgement or Μέλλουσα Κρίση. In the dome is Christ Pantocrator surround by angels. A. and J. Stylianou report that the paintings of the dome were already "badly damaged" at the time of their studies in the 1960s and 1970s.
The paintings in the narthex are faded due to sunlight, but include a notably large depiction of St. George.
Some time after 1975, some of the fresco paintings were stolen and sold on the international art market. The Last Judgement has been badly damaged, and the heads of the twelfth-century angels in the apse damaged and partly removed. The Tree of Jesse has also been removed.
Writing in the 1930s, Rupert Gunnis noted the iconostasis painted in blue and gold, the doors of which are dated 1650, thus during the reign of Mehmed IV when the tax burden appears to have been lightened. The majority of the icons were of the seventeenth century with one of the Archangel Michael dated 1659.
The iconostasis was removed after 1975 and some individual icons panels from it were found with a private collector in the Netherlands. The Government of Cyprus engaged in legal action to secure their restitution. Four icons were repatriated in September, 2013. Separately, an icon from the church showing the Virgin Mary and dating to the fifteenth century was located in Athens and returned to Cyprus on 14 September 1998.
The church is notable for the graffiti and pilgrim records scratched into the lower frescoes during the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They are predominantly in Greek but a few are also in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. They are unique documents of popular history, telling us about the ordinary Cypriots who visited the building. Among the dates visible are 1803, 1888, 1891, 1896, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1910, 1911, 1919, 1930 and 1958.
In the 1930s, the Church of Christ Antiphonitis was the property of Kykkos Monastery.
Presently it is classed as a museum and appears in the List of museums in Northern Cyprus.
Antiphonitis monastery (Ιερά Μονή Αρχαγγέλου Αντιφωνητού) is listed as monastery of Church of Cyprus on its official website.
Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.
Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.
A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.
Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.
Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.
Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.
The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.
Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.
Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.
By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.
EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.
However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.
On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.
In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.
By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.
In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.
The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.
After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".
As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.
Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.
The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.
Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.
The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis".[31] Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.
Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.
Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria
An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."
In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.
Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.
In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.
Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.
Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.
Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:
UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.
The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.
By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."
After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.
On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.
The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.
During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.
In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.
Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.
A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.
Mirit Ben Nun: Shortness of breath
'Shortness of breath' is not only a sign of physical weakness, it is a metaphor for a mental state of strong desire that knows no repletion; more and more, an unbearable glut, without repose. Mirit Ben Nun's type of work on the other hand requires an abundance of patience. This is a Sisyphean work (requiring hard labor) of marking lines and dots, filling every empty millimeter with brilliant blots. Therefore we are facing a paradox or a logical conflict. A patient and effortful work that stems from an urgent need to cover and fill, to adorn and coat. Her craft of layering reaches a state of a continuous ceremonial ritual.
This ritual digests every object into itself - useful or discarded -- available and ordinary or rare and exceptional -- they submit and devote to the overlay work. Mirit BN gathers scrap off the streets -- cardboard rolls of fabric, assortments of wooden boards and pieces, plates and planks -- and constructs a new link, her own syntax, which she alone is fully responsible for. The new combination -- a type of a sculptural construction -- goes through a process of patching by the act of painting.
In fact Mirit regards her three dimensional objects as a platform for painting, with a uniform continuity, even if it has obstacles, mounds and valleys. These objects beg her to paint, to lay down colors, to set in motion an intricate weave of abstract patterns that at times finds itself wandering the contours of human images and sometimes -- not. In those cases what is left is the monotonous activity of running the patterns, inch by inch, till their absolute coverage, till a short and passing instant of respite and than on again to a new onset.
Next to this assembly of garbage and it's recycling into 'painted sculptures' Mirit offers a surprising reunion between her illustrated objects and so called cheap African sculpture; popular artifacts or articles that are classified in the standard culture as 'primitive'.
This combination emphasizes the difference between her individualistic performance and the collective creation which is translated into cultural clichés. The wood carved image creates a moment of peace within the crowded bustle; an introverted image, without repetitiveness and reverberation. This meeting of strangers testifies that Mirit' work could not be labeled under the ´outsiders art´ category. She is a one woman school who is compelled to do the art work she picked out to perform. Therefore she isn't creating ´an image´ such as the carved wooden statues, but she produces breathless ´emotional jam' whose highest values are color, motion, beauty and plenitude. May it never lack, neither diluted, nor dull for even an instant
Tali Tamir
August 2010
"Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.
If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain in us.
Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains, and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledge to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon the Nation's gratitude—the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan."
From the original orders for Memorial Day, G.A.R.
This is what Memorial Day is about. It's not for living veterans (that's what Veterans Day is for), it's not about three-day weekends, BBQ's, the start of the "summer season", furniture sales or any of the other ways we've perverted or changed it. It doesn't honor war, just those that fought them on our behalf.
It's a time to remember those that gave their lives for the right to live as we do in this country, free, and with the ability to do as we please and say what we want. It's a day to remember & honor those that gave everything for us. We owe them at least that much.
The Postcard
A postally unused Cameracolour Series postcard that was published by J. Salmon Ltd. of Sevenoaks, Kent. The card, which has a divided back, was printed in England.
Beatrix Potter
Helen Beatrix Potter (28th. July 1866 - 22nd. December 1943) was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist. She was best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit'.
Born into an upper-middle-class household, Potter was educated by governesses, and grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets, and spent holidays in Scotland and the Lake District, developing a love of landscape, flora and fauna, all of which she closely observed and painted.
Potter's study and watercolours of fungi led to her being widely respected in the field of mycology.
In her thirties, Beatrix self-published the highly successful children's book 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit'. Following this, she began writing and illustrating children's books full-time.
Beatrix wrote thirty books, the best known being her twenty-three children's tales. With the proceeds from the books and a legacy from an aunt, Potter bought Hill Top Farm in Near Sawrey in 1905; this is a village in the Lake District in the historic county of Lancashire. (The neighbouring village is called Far Sawrey). Over the following decades, Beatrix purchased additional farms to preserve the unique hill country landscape.
In 1913, at the age of 47, Beatrix married William Heelis, a respected local solicitor from Hawkshead.
Beatrix was also a prize-winning breeder of Herdwick sheep, and a prosperous farmer keenly interested in land preservation. She continued to write and illustrate, and to design spin-off merchandise based on her children's books for British publisher Warne until the duties of land management and her diminishing eyesight made it difficult for her to continue.
Beatrix Potter died of pneumonia and heart disease on the 22nd. December 1943 at her home at the age of 77, leaving almost all her property to the National Trust. She is credited with preserving much of the land that now constitutes the Lake District National Park.
Potter's books continue to sell throughout the world in many languages, with her stories being re-told in songs, films, ballet, and animations, and her life is depicted in two films and a television series.
Beatrix Potter - The Early Years
Potter's family on both sides were from the Manchester area. They were English Unitarians, associated with dissenting Protestant congregations that were influential in 19th. century England. They affirmed the oneness of God, and rejected the doctrine of the Trinity.
Beatrix's paternal grandfather, Edmund Potter, from Glossop in Derbyshire, owned what was then the largest calico printing works in England, and later served as a Member of Parliament.
Potter's father, Rupert William Potter (1832–1914), was educated at Manchester College by the Unitarian philosopher James Martineau. He then trained as a barrister in London.
Rupert practised law, specialising in equity law and conveyancing. He married Helen Leech (1839–1932) on the 8th. August 1863 at Hyde Unitarian Chapel, Gee Cross. Helen was the daughter of Jane Ashton (1806–1884) and John Leech, a wealthy cotton merchant and shipbuilder from Stalybridge.
Helen's first cousins were siblings Harriet Lupton (née Ashton) and Thomas Ashton, 1st Baron Ashton of Hyde. It was reported in July 2014 that Potter had personally given a number of her own original hand-painted illustrations to the two daughters of Arthur and Harriet Lupton, who were cousins to both Beatrix Potter and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
Potter's parents lived comfortably at 2 Bolton Gardens, West Brompton, where Helen Beatrix was born on the 28th. July 1866; her younger brother Walter Bertram was born there on the 14th. March 1872.
The house was destroyed in the Blitz. Bousfield Primary School now stands where the house once was. A blue plaque on the school building testifies to the former site of the Potter home.
Both of Beatrix's parents were artistically talented, and Rupert was an adept amateur photographer. Rupert had invested in the stock market, and by the early 1890's, he was extremely wealthy.
Beatrix Potter was educated by three governesses, the last of whom was Annie Moore (née Carter), just three years older than Potter, who tutored Potter in German as well as acting as lady's companion. She and Potter remained friends throughout their lives, and Annie's eight children were the recipients of many of Potter's picture letters. It was Annie who later suggested that these letters might make good children's books.
Beatrix and her younger brother Walter Bertram, who died in 1918, grew up with few friends outside their large extended family. Her parents were artistic, interested in nature, and enjoyed the countryside.
As children, Beatrix and Bertram had numerous small animals as pets which they observed closely and drew endlessly. In their schoolroom, they kept a variety of small pets - mice, rabbits, a hedgehog and some bats, along with collections of butterflies and other insects - which they drew and studied.
Potter was devoted to the care of her small animals, often taking them with her on long holidays. In most of the first fifteen years of her life, Potter spent summer holidays at Dalguise, an estate on the River Tay in Perthshire, Scotland. There she sketched and explored an area that nourished her imagination and her observation.
Potter and her brother were allowed great freedom in the country, and both children became adept students of natural history. In 1882, when Dalguise was no longer available, the Potters took their first summer holiday in the Lake District, at Wray Castle near Lake Windermere. Here Potter met Hardwicke Rawnsley, vicar of Wray and later the founding secretary of the National Trust, whose interest in the countryside and country life inspired the same in Potter, and who was to have a lasting impact on her life.
At about the age of 14, Beatrix began to keep a diary. It was written in a code of her own devising which was a simple letter for letter substitution. Her Journal was important to the development of her creativity, serving as both sketchbook and literary experiment: in tiny handwriting, she reported on society, recorded her impressions of art and artists, recounted stories, and observed life around her.
The Journal, decoded and transcribed by Leslie Linder in 1958, does not provide an intimate record of her personal life, but it is an invaluable source for understanding a vibrant part of British society in the late 19th. century. It describes Potter's maturing artistic and intellectual interests, her often amusing insights on the places she visited, and her unusual ability to observe nature and to describe it.
Started in 1881, her journal ends in 1897 when her artistic and intellectual energies were absorbed in scientific study and in efforts to publish her drawings. Precocious but reserved and often bored, she was searching for more independent activities, and wished to earn some money of her own while dutifully taking care of her parents, dealing with her especially demanding mother, and managing their various households.
Scientific Illustrations and Work in Mycology
Beatrix Potter's parents did not discourage higher education. As was common in the Victorian era, women of her class were privately educated, and rarely went to university.
Beatrix was interested in every branch of natural science save for astronomy. Botany was a passion for most Victorians, and nature study was a popular enthusiasm. She collected fossils, studied archaeological artefacts from London excavations, and was interested in entomology.
In all these areas, she drew and painted her specimens with increasing skill. By the 1890's, her scientific interests centred on mycology. First drawn to fungi because of their colours and evanescence in nature and her delight in painting them, her interest deepened after meeting Charles McIntosh, a revered naturalist and amateur mycologist, during a summer holiday in Dunkeld in Perthshire in 1892.
McIntosh helped to improve the accuracy of her illustrations, taught her taxonomy, and supplied her with live specimens to paint during the winter. Curious as to how fungi reproduced, Potter began microscopic drawings of fungus spores (the agarics) and in 1895 developed a theory of their germination.
Through the connections of her uncle Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, a chemist and vice-chancellor of the University of London, she consulted with botanists at Kew Gardens, convincing George Massee of her ability to germinate spores and her theory of hybridisation.
She did not believe in the theory of symbiosis proposed by Simon Schwendener, the German mycologist, as previously thought; instead, she proposed a more independent process of reproduction.
Rebuffed by William Thiselton-Dyer, the Director at Kew, because of her gender and amateur status, Potter wrote up her conclusions and submitted a paper, 'On the Germination of the Spores of the Agaricineae', to the Linnean Society in 1897.
The paper was introduced by Massee because, as a female, Potter could not attend proceedings or read her paper herself. She subsequently withdrew it, realising that some of her samples were contaminated, but continued her microscopic studies for several more years.
Beatrix's paper has only recently been re-discovered, along with the rich, artistic illustrations and drawings that accompanied it. Her work is only now being properly evaluated.
Potter later gave her other mycological and scientific drawings to the Armitt Museum and Library in Ambleside, where mycologists still refer to them to identify fungi. There is also a collection of her fungus paintings at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery in Perth, Scotland, donated by Charles McIntosh.
In 1967, the mycologist W.P.K. Findlay included many of Potter's beautifully accurate fungus drawings in his Wayside & Woodland Fungi, thereby fulfilling her desire to one day have her fungus drawings published in a book. In 1997, the Linnean Society issued a posthumous apology to Potter for the sexism displayed in its handling of her research.
Beatrix Potter's Artistic and Literary Career
Beatrix Potter's artistic and literary interests were deeply influenced by fairy tales and fantasy. She was a student of the classic fairy tales of Western Europe. As well as stories from the Old Testament, John Bunyan's 'The Pilgrim's Progress' and Harriet Beecher Stowe's 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', she grew up with Aesop's Fables, the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Kingsley's 'The Water Babies', the folk tales and mythology of Scotland, the German Romantics, Shakespeare, and the romances of Sir Walter Scott.
As a young child, before the age of eight, Edward Lear's 'A Book of Nonsense', including the much loved 'The Owl and the Pussycat', and Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland' had made their impression, although she later said of Alice that she was more interested in Tenniel's illustrations than what they were about.
The Brer Rabbit stories of Joel Chandler Harris had been family favourites, and she later studied his Uncle Remus stories and illustrated them.
Beatrix studied book illustration from a young age and developed her own tastes, but the work of the picture book triumvirate Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway and Randolph Caldecott, the last an illustrator whose work was later collected by her father, was a great influence.
When Beatrix started to illustrate, she chose first the traditional rhymes and stories, 'Cinderella', 'Sleeping Beauty', 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves', 'Puss-in-Boots', and 'Red Riding Hood'. However, most often her illustrations were fantasies featuring her own pets: mice, rabbits, kittens, and guinea pigs.
In her teenage years, Potter was a regular visitor to the art galleries of London, particularly enjoying the summer and winter exhibitions at the Royal Academy in London. Her Journal reveals her growing sophistication as a critic as well as the influence of her father's friend, the artist Sir John Everett Millais, who recognised Potter's talent of observation. Although Beatrix was aware of art and artistic trends, her drawing and her prose style were uniquely her own.
As a way to earn money in the 1890's, Potter and her brother began to print Christmas cards of their own design, as well as cards for special occasions. Mice and rabbits were the most frequent subject of her fantasy paintings.
In 1890, the firm of Hildesheimer and Faulkner bought several of the drawings of her rabbit Benjamin Bunny to illustrate verses by Frederic Weatherly entitled 'A Happy Pair'.
In 1893, the same publisher bought several more drawings for Weatherly's 'Our Dear Relations', another book of rhymes, and the following year Potter sold a series of frog illustrations and verses for 'Changing Pictures', a popular annual offered by the art publisher Ernest Nister. Potter was pleased by this success, and determined to publish her own illustrated stories.
Whenever Beatrix went on holiday to the Lake District or Scotland, she sent letters to young friends, illustrating them with quick sketches. Many of these letters were written to the children of her former governess Annie Carter Moore, particularly to Moore's eldest son Noel, who was often ill.
In September 1893, Potter was on holiday at Eastwood in Dunkeld, Perthshire. She had run out of things to say to Noel, and so she told him a story about "Four little rabbits whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter". It became one of the most famous children's letters ever written, and the basis of Potter's future career as a writer-artist-storyteller.
In 1900, Potter revised her tale about the four little rabbits, and fashioned it into a dummy book - it has been suggested, in imitation of Helen Bannerman's 1899 bestseller 'The Story of Little Black Sambo'.
Unable to find a buyer for the work, she published it for family and friends at her own expense in December 1901. It was drawn in black and white with a coloured frontispiece.
Rawnsley had great faith in Potter's tale, recast it in didactic verse, and made the rounds of the London publishing houses. Frederick Warne & Co. had previously rejected the tale but, eager to compete in the booming small format children's book market, reconsidered and accepted the 'Bunny Book' (as the firm called it) following the recommendation of their prominent children's book artist L. Leslie Brooke.
The firm declined Rawnsley's verse in favour of Potter's original prose, and Potter agreed to colour her pen and ink illustrations, choosing the then-new Hentschel three-colour process to reproduce her watercolours.
Potter used many real locations for her book illustrations. The Tower Bank Arms, Near Sawrey appears in 'The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck'.
On the 2nd. October 1902, 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit' was published, and was an immediate success. It was followed the next year by 'The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin' and 'The Tailor of Gloucester', which had also first been written as picture letters to the Moore children.
Working with Norman Warne as her editor, Potter published two or three little books each year: 23 books in all. The last book in this format was 'Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes' in 1922, a collection of favourite rhymes. Although 'The Tale of Little Pig Robinson' was not published until 1930, it had been written much earlier.
Potter continued creating her little books until after the Great War when her energies were increasingly directed toward her farming, sheep-breeding and land conservation.
The immense popularity of Potter's books was based on the lively quality of her illustrations, the non-didactic nature of her stories, the depiction of the rural countryside, and the imaginative qualities she lent to her animal characters.
Potter was also a canny businesswoman. As early as 1903, she made and patented a Peter Rabbit doll. It was followed by other spin-off merchandise over the years, including painting books, board games, wall-paper, figurines, baby blankets and china tea-sets. All were licensed by Frederick Warne & Co., and earned Potter an independent income, as well as immense profits for her publisher.
In 1905, Potter and Norman Warne became unofficially engaged. Potter's parents objected to the match because Warne was "in trade" and thus not socially suitable. The engagement lasted only one month - Warne died of pernicious anaemia at the age of 37.
That same year, Potter used some of her income and a small inheritance from an aunt to buy Hill Top Farm, Near Sawrey in the English Lake District near Windermere. Potter and Warne may have hoped that Hill Top Farm would be their holiday home, but after Warne's death, Potter went ahead with its purchase as she had always wanted to own the farm, and live in "that charming village".
Country Life and Marriage
Hill Top is now owned by the National Trust, and preserved as it was when she lived and wrote her stories there.
The tenant farmer John Cannon and his family agreed to stay on to manage the farm for her while she made physical improvements and learned the techniques of fell farming and of raising livestock, including pigs, cows and chickens; the following year she added sheep.
Realising she needed to protect her boundaries, she sought advice from W.H. Heelis & Son, a local firm of solicitors with offices in nearby Hawkshead. With William Heelis acting for her, she bought contiguous pasture, and in 1909 the 20 acre (8.1 ha) Castle Farm across the road from Hill Top Farm.
Beatrix visited Hill Top at every opportunity, and her books written during this period (such as 'The Tale of Ginger and Pickles', about the local shop in Near Sawrey and 'The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse', a wood mouse) reflect her increasing participation in village life and her delight in country living.
Owning and managing these working farms required routine collaboration with the widely respected William Heelis. By the summer of 1912, Heelis had proposed marriage and Potter had accepted; although she did not immediately tell her parents, who once again disapproved because Heelis was only a country solicitor.
Potter and Heelis were married on the 15th. October 1913 in London at St. Mary Abbots in Kensington. The couple moved immediately to Near Sawrey, residing at Castle Cottage, the renovated farmhouse on Castle Farm, which was 34 acres large.
Hill Top remained a working farm, but was now remodelled to allow for the tenant family and Potter's private studio and workshop. At last her own woman, Potter settled into the partnerships that shaped the rest of her life: her country solicitor husband and his large family, her farms, the Sawrey community and the predictable rounds of country life.
'The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck' and 'The Tale of Tom Kitten' are representative of Hill Top Farm and her farming life, and reflect her happiness with her country life.
Rupert Potter died in 1914 and, with the outbreak of the Great War, Beatrix, by now a wealthy woman, persuaded her mother to move to the Lake District, and found a property for her to rent in Near Sawrey.
Finding life in Near Sawrey dull, Helen Potter soon moved to Lindeth Howe (now a 34 bedroomed hotel), a large house that the Potters had previously rented for the summer in Bowness, on the other side of Lake Windermere.
Beatrix's brother Walter Bertram Potter, who was also an accomplished artist and farmer, died suddenly of a stroke after working in his garden on the 22nd. June 1918. He was buried in the parish churchyard at Ancrum, Scotland, near the remains of the Old Parish Church, which was abandoned in 1890. Walter was 46 years of age when he died, or, to put it another way, he lived for 16,900 days.
Beatrix continued to write stories for Frederick Warne & Co., and fully participated in country life. She established a Nursing Trust for local villages, and served on various committees and councils responsible for footpaths and other rural issues.
Sheep Farming
Soon after acquiring Hill Top Farm, Potter became keenly interested in the breeding and raising of Herdwick sheep, the indigenous fell sheep breed.
In 1923 she bought a large sheep farm in the Troutbeck Valley called Troutbeck Park Farm, formerly a deer park. Beatrix restored its land with thousands of Herdwick sheep, and this established her as one of the major Herdwick sheep farmers in the county.
She was admired by her shepherds and farm managers for her willingness to experiment with the latest biological remedies for the common diseases of sheep, and for her employment of the best shepherds, sheep breeders, and farm managers.
By the late 1920's, Potter and her Hill Top farm manager Tom Storey had made a name for their prize-winning Herdwick flock, which took many prizes at the local agricultural shows, where Potter was often asked to serve as a judge.
In 1942 Beatrix became President-elect of the Herdwick Sheepbreeders' Association, the first time a woman had been elected, although she died before taking office.
Lake District Conservation
Beatrix Potter had been a disciple of the land conservation and preservation ideals of her long-time friend and mentor, Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, the first secretary and founding member of the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty.
According to the National Trust:
"She supported the efforts of the National Trust
to preserve not just the places of extraordinary
beauty, but also those heads of valleys and low
grazing lands that would be irreparably ruined
by development."
Beatrix Potter was also an authority on the traditional Lakeland crafts and period furniture, as well as local stonework. She restored and preserved the farms that she bought or managed, making sure that each farm house had in it a piece of antique Lakeland furniture.
Beatrix was interested in preserving not only the Herdwick sheep, but also the way of life of fell farming. In 1930 the Heelises became partners with the National Trust in buying and managing fell farms included in the large Monk Coniston Estate. The estate comprised many farms spread over a wide area of north-western Lancashire, including the Tarn Hows.
Potter was the de facto estate manager for the Trust for seven years until the National Trust could afford to re-purchase most of the property from her. Potter's stewardship of these farms earned her full regard, but she was not without her critics, including those who felt that she used her wealth and the position of her husband to acquire properties in advance of their being made public.
She was notable in observing the problems of afforestation, preserving the intact grazing lands, and husbanding the quarries and timber on the farms. All her farms were stocked with Herdwick sheep, and frequently with Galloway cattle.
Beatrix Potter - The Later Years
Beatrix Potter continued to write stories and to draw as she aged, although mostly for her own pleasure. Her books in the late 1920's included the semi-autobiographical 'The Fairy Caravan', a fanciful tale set in her beloved Troutbeck fells. It was published only in the US during Potter's lifetime, and not until 1952 in the UK.
'Sister Anne', Potter's version of the story of Bluebeard, was written for her American readers, but illustrated by Katharine Sturges. A final folktale, 'Wag by Wall', was published posthumously by The Horn Book Magazine in 1944.
Potter was a generous patron of the Girl Guides, whose troupes she allowed to make their summer encampments on her land, and whose company she enjoyed as an older woman.
Potter and William Heelis enjoyed a happy marriage of thirty years, continuing their farming and preservation efforts throughout the hard days of World War II. Although they were childless, Potter played an important role in William's large family, particularly enjoying her relationship with several nieces whom she helped educate, and giving comfort and aid to her husband's brothers and sisters.
The Death of Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter died of complications from pneumonia and heart disease on the 22nd. December 1943 at Castle Cottage, and her remains were cremated at Carleton Crematorium.
Beatrix left nearly all her property to the National Trust, including over 4,000 acres (16 km2) of land, sixteen farms, cottages and herds of cattle and Herdwick sheep.
Hers was the largest gift at that time to the National Trust, and it enabled the preservation of the land now included in the Lake District National Park, as well as the continuation of fell farming. The central office of the National Trust in Swindon was named "Heelis" in 2005 in her memory.
William Heelis continued his stewardship of their properties and of her literary and artistic work for the twenty months he survived her. When he died in August 1945, he left the remainder of the land and property to the National Trust.
Beatrix Potter's Legacy
Beatrix left almost all the original illustrations for her books to the National Trust. The copyright to her stories and merchandise was left to her publisher Frederick Warne & Co., now a division of the Penguin Group.
On the 1st. January 2014, the copyright expired in the UK and other countries with a 70-years-after-death limit.
Hill Top Farm was opened to the public by the National Trust in 1946; her artwork was displayed there until 1985 when it was moved to William Heelis's former law offices in Hawkshead, also owned by the National Trust as the Beatrix Potter Gallery.
Beatrix gave her folios of mycological drawings to the Armitt Library and Museum in Ambleside before her death.
'The Tale of Peter Rabbit' is owned by Frederick Warne and Company, 'The Tailor of Gloucester' by the Tate Gallery, and 'The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies' by the British Museum.
The largest public collection of her letters and drawings is the Leslie Linder Bequest and Leslie Linder Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. (Linder was the collector who—after five years of work—finally transcribed Potter's early journal, originally written in code.)
In the United States, the largest public collections are those in the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Cotsen Children's Library at Princeton University.
In 2015 a manuscript for an unpublished book was discovered by Jo Hanks, a publisher at Penguin Random House Children's Books, in the Victoria and Albert Museum archive. The book 'The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots', with illustrations by Quentin Blake, was published on the 1st. September 2016, to mark the 150th. anniversary of Potter's birth.
In 2017, 'The Art of Beatrix Potter: Sketches, Paintings, and Illustrations' by Emily Zach was published after San Francisco publisher Chronicle Books decided to mark the 150th. anniversary of Beatrix Potter's birth by showing that:
"She was far more than a 19th.-century
weekend painter. She was an artist of
astonishing range."
In December 2017, the asteroid 13975 Beatrixpotter, discovered by Belgian astronomer Eric Elst in 1992, was named in her memory.
Beatrix Potter's Work
There are many interpretations of Beatrix's literary work, the sources of her art, and her life and times. These include critical evaluations of her corpus of children's literature. 'That Naughty Rabbit: Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit' by Judy Taylor tells the story of the book's first publication and its many subsequent editions.
Potter's country life and her farming have been discussed in the work of Susan Denyer and other authors in the publications of The National Trust, such as 'Beatrix Potter at Home in the Lake District' (2004).
Potter's work as a scientific illustrator and her work in mycology are discussed in Linda Lear's books 'Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature' (2006) and 'Beatrix Potter: The Extraordinary Life of a Victorian Genius' (2008).
Adaptations of Beatrix Potter's Work
In 1971, a ballet film was released, 'The Tales of Beatrix Potter'. It was directed by Reginald Mills, set to music by John Lanchbery with choreography by Frederick Ashton, and performed in character costume by members of the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera House orchestra. The ballet of the same name has been performed by other dance companies around the world.
In 1992, Potter's children's book 'The Tale of Benjamin Bunny' was featured in the film Lorenzo's Oil.
Potter is also featured in Susan Wittig Albert's series of light mysteries called 'The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter'. The first of the eight-book series is 'Tale of Hill Top Farm' (2004), which deals with Potter's life in the Lake District and the village of Near Sawrey between 1905 and 1913.
Beatrix Potter in Film
In 1982, the BBC produced 'The Tale of Beatrix Potter'. This dramatisation of her life was written by John Hawkesworth, directed by Bill Hayes, and starred Holly Aird and Penelope Wilton as the young and adult Potter, respectively.
'The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends', a TV series based on nine of her twenty-four stories, starred actress Niamh Cusack as Beatrix Potter.
In 1993, Weston Woods Studios made a film called 'Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller, and Countrywoman' with narration by Lynn Redgrave and music by Ernest Troost.
In 2006, Chris Noonan directed 'Miss Potter', a biographical film of Potter's life focusing on her early career and romance with her editor Norman Warne. The film stars Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor and Emily Watson.
On 9 February 2018, Columbia Pictures released 'Peter Rabbit', directed by Will Gluck, based on the work by Beatrix Potter. The character Bea, played by Rose Byrne, is a re-imagined version of Beatrix. A sequel to the film entitled 'Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway' was released in 2021.
On the 24th. December 2020, Sky One premiered 'Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse', a made-for-television drama film. The film was inspired by the true story of six-year-old Roald Dahl meeting his idol Beatrix Potter.
Set in 1922, the movie was written by Abigail Wilson, directed by David Kerr and starred Dawn French as Beatrix Potter, Rob Brydon as William Heelis and Jessica Hynes as Sofie Dahl. Filming took place in Wales (the birthland of Roald Dahl, French and Brydon), during the COVID-19 pandemic. This production incorporates live action, stop motion and puppetry.
Final Thoughts From Beatrix Potter
"There is something delicious about
writing the first words of a story. You
never quite know where they'll take you."
"Once upon a time there were four little
Rabbits, and their names were--Flopsy,
Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter."
"I hold that a strongly marked personality
can influence descendants for generations."
"Believe there is a great power silently
working all things for good, behave
yourself and never mind the rest."
"Thank goodness I was never sent to
school; it would have rubbed off some
of the originality."
"I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor
the result, and when I have a bad time
come over me, it is a stronger desire than
ever."
"All outward forms of religion are almost
useless, and are the causes of endless
strife."
"I remember I used to half believe and
wholly play with fairies when I was a child.
What heaven can be more real than to
retain the spirit-world of childhood,
tempered and balanced by knowledge
and common-sense."
"It is said that the effect of eating
too much lettuce is 'soporific'."
"Most people, after one success, are so
cringingly afraid of doing less well that
they rub all the edge off their subsequent
work."
"Peter was not very well during the evening.
His mother put him to bed, and made some
chamomile tea: 'One table-spoonful to be
taken at bedtime'."
"This is a fierce bad rabbit; look at his savage
whiskers, and his claws and his turned-up tail."
"I hold an old-fashioned notion that a happy
marriage is the crown of a woman’s life."
"In the time of swords and periwigs and full-skirted
coats with flowered lappets - when gentlemen wore
ruffles, and gold-laced waistcoats of paduasoy and
taffeta - there lived a tailor in Gloucester."
"I fear that we shall be obliged
to leave this pudding."
"Peter lost one of his shoes among the cabbages,
and the other shoe amongst the potatoes."
"I am aware these little books don't
last long, even if they are a success."
"With opportunity the world
is very interesting."
"If I have done anything, even a little,
to help small children enjoy honest,
simple pleasures, I have done a bit
of good."
"But not even Hitler can damage the fells."
"One place suits on person, another place
suits another person. For my part, I prefer
to live in the country, like Timmy Willie."
J. Salmon Ltd.
Alas, J. Salmon no longer produce postcards. Having churned out small coloured rectangles of card from its factory in Kent for more than 100 years, the company stopped publishing postcards in 2017.
The fifth-generation brothers who still ran the company sent a letter to their clients in the autumn of 2017, advising them that the presses would cease printing at the end of 2017, with their remaining stock being sold off throughout the following year.
The firm’s story began in 1880, when the original J. Salmon acquired a printing business on Sevenoaks high street, and produced a collection of twelve black and white scenes of the town.
In 1912, the business broke through into the big time by commissioning the artist Alfred Robert Quinton (1853 - 1934), who produced 2,300 scenes of British life for them up until his death.
From Redruth to King’s Lynn, his softly coloured, highly detailed watercolours of rosy milkmaids, bucolic pumphouses and picturesque harbour towns earned him a place in the hearts of the public, despite references to his 'chocolate-box art' by some art critics.
J. Salmon also produced photographs and cheery oils of seaside imagery captioned with a garrulous enthusiasm: “Eat More Chips!”, “Sun, Sand & Sea”, “We’re Going Camping!”
It commissioned the comic artist Reg Maurice (who often worked under the pseudonym Vera Paterson), to produce pictures of comically bulbous children with cutesy captions, alongside the usual stock images of British towns.
It was this century’s changing habits – and technology – that did for Salmon. Co-managing director Charles Salmon noted:
“People are going for shorter breaks,
not for a fortnight, so you’re back home
before your postcards have arrived."
He barely needed to say that Instagram and Facebook had made their product all but redundant, almost wiping out the entire industry in a decade.
Michelle Abadie, co-director of the John Hinde Collection, said:
“When I heard the news, I was
actually surprised they still existed."
John Hinde was once J Salmon’s biggest rival; it sold 50-60 million postcards a year at its peak in the 1960's, but it, too, shuttered four years previously. The licensing for its rich archive of images was sold off, and repurposed in art books.
However, in one sense, the death of the postcard is overstated. Like vinyl records, our fetish for the physical objects we left behind is already making its presence felt.
Michelle Abadie points out:
“If you go into Waterstones now, they
sell lots of postcards of book covers.
The idea itself isn’t dead – as a
decorative object, people still want
them.”
When Marie Yovanovitch, former ambassador to Ukraine was testifying before the House impeachment inquiry, President Trump tweeted:
"Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors.
"They call it 'serving at the pleasure of the President.' The U.S. now has a very strong and powerful foreign policy, much different than proceeding administrations. It is called, quite simply, America First! With all of that, however, I have done FAR more for Ukraine than O.
What Donald Trump should remember is that he serves at the pleasure of the American people. And, as the testimony of numerous witnesses in this hearing has provided, Donald Trump put his personal interests ahead of the country he is supposed to be serving.
Even if impeached and not convicted by the Senate, voters will remember this.
See the rest of the posters from the Chamomile Tea Party! Digital high res downloads are free here (click the down arrow on the lower right side of the image). Other options are available. And join our Facebook group.
Follow the history of our country's political intransigence from 2010-2018 through a six-part exhibit of these posters on Google Arts & Culture.
Dutch postcard. Photo: 20th Century Fox. John Garfield in Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947).
American actor John Garfield (1913-1952) played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. Called to testify before the U.S. Congressional House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), he denied communist affiliation and refused to 'name names', which effectively ended his film career. The stress led to his premature death at 39 from a heart attack. Garfield is seen as a predecessor of such Method actors as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and James Dean.
John Garfield was born Jacob Julius Garfinkle on the Lower East Side of New York City, to Hannah Basia (Margolis) and David Garfinkle, who were Jewish immigrants from Zhytomyr (now in Ukraine). Jules was raised by his father, a clothes presser and part-time cantor, after his mother's death in 1920, when he was 7. He grew up in the heart of the Yiddish Theatre District. Jacob was sent to a special school for problem children, where he was introduced to boxing and drama. As a boy, he won a state-wide oratory contest sponsored by the New York Times with Benjamin Franklin as his subject. Garfield later won a scholarship to Maria Ouspenskaya's drama school. In 1932, he landed a non-paying job at Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory, where he was recommended to by his acting teachers Maria Ouspenskaya and Richard Boleslawski. He changed his name to Jules Garfield and according to IMDb, he made his Broadway debut in that company's Counsellor-at-Law, written by Elmer Rice and starring Paul Muni. (Wikipedia writes that this was actually his second Broadway appearance and that Garfield made his Broadway debut in 1932 in a play called Lost Boy, which ran for only two weeks). Later, he joined the Group Theatre company, winning acclaim for his role as Ralph, the sensitive young son who pleads for "a chance to get to the first base" in Awake and Sing. The play opened in February 1935, and Garfield was singled out by critic Brooks Atkinson for having a "splendid sense of character development." However, Garfield was passed over for the lead in Golden Boy, which had especially been written for him by author Clifford Odets. When the play was first produced by the Group Theatre in 1938, the powers that be decided Garfield wasn't 'ready' to play the role of the young violinist turned boxer. Luther Adler subsequently created the role.
Embittered, Garfield signed a contract with Warner Brothers, who changed his name to John Garfield. Because both Garfield and his wife did not want to 'go Hollywood,' he had a clause in his Warner contract that allowed him to perform in a legitimate play every year at his option. The couple also refused to own a home in Tinseltown. Garfield won enormous praise for his role as the cynical and tragic composer Mickey Borden in Four Daughters (Michael Curtiz, 1938), starring Claude Rains. For his part, he was nominated for the Oscar as Best Actor in a Supporting Role. After the breakout success of Four Daughters, Warner Bros created a name-above-the-title vehicle for him, the crime film They Made Me a Criminal (Busby Berkeley, 1939). Garfield had already made a B movie called Blackwell's Island (William C. McGann, 1939). Not wanting their new star to appear in a low-budget film, Warner ordered an A movie upgrade by adding $100,000 to its budget and recalling director Michael Curtiz to shoot newly scripted scenes.
At the onset of World War II, John Garfield immediately attempted to enlist in the armed forces but was turned down because of his heart condition. Frustrated, he turned his energies to supporting the war effort. He and actress Bette Davis were the driving forces behind the opening of the Hollywood Canteen, a club offering food and entertainment for American servicemen. He traveled overseas to help entertain the troops, made several bond selling tours and starred in a string of popular, patriotic films like Air Force (Howard Hawks, 1943), Destination Tokyo (Delmer Daves, 1943) with Cary Grant, and Pride of the Marines (Delmer Faves, 1945) with Eleanor Parker. All were box office successes. Throughout his film career, John Garfield, again and again, brooding played rebellious roles despite his efforts to play varied parts. Garfield became one of Warner Bros' most suspended stars. He was suspended 11 times during his nine years at the studio. After the war, Garfield starred in a series of successful films such as the Film Noir The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, 1946) with Lana Turner, and the showbiz melodrama Humoresque (Jean Negulesco, 1946) with Joan Crawford. When his Warner Bros. contract expired in 1946, he did not re-sign with the studio, opting to start his own independent production company instead. Garfield was one of the first Hollywood actors to do so. In the Best Picture Oscar-winning Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947), Garfield took a featured but supporting, part because he believed deeply in the film's exposé of antisemitism in America. In 1948, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his starring role in Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, 1947) with Lilli Palmer. That same year, Garfield returned to Broadway in the play Skipper Next to God.
Active in liberal political and social causes, John Garfield found himself embroiled in the Communist scare of the late 1940s. Blacklisted during the McCarthy era in the early 1950s for his left-wing political beliefs, he adamantly refused to "name names" in testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in April 1951. In his only TV appearance, Garfield played Joe Bonaparte and Kim Stanley played Lorna Moon in a scene from Clifford Odets' 'Golden Boy' on Cavalcade of Stars: John Garfield, Kim Stanley, Paul Winchell & Jerry Mahoney (1950). With film work scarce because of the blacklist, Garfield returned to Broadway and starred in a 1951 or 1952 revival (the sources differ) of Golden Boy. Garfield finally played the role which Odets had written for him and which was denied him years before at the Group Theater. His final film was the Film Noir He Ran All the Way (John Berry, 1951), with Shelley Winters. On 21 May 1952, John Garfield was found dead of a heart attack in the apartment of a friend, former showgirl Iris Whitney. A week before he had separated from his wife, and hours before his death he completed a statement modifying his 1951 testimony about his Communist affiliations. A day earlier Clifford Odets had testified before HUAC and reaffirmed that Garfield had never been a member of the Communist Party. Garfield was the fourth actor to die after being subjected to HUAC investigation. The others were Mady Christians (at 59), J. Edward Bromberg (at 47) and Canada Lee (at 45). The official cause of his death was coronary thrombosis due to a blood clot blocking an artery in his heart. His funeral was mobbed by thousands of fans, in the largest funeral attendance for an actor since Rudolph Valentino. Garfield had been married to his childhood sweetheart Roberta Seidman, from 1935 till his death. They had three children, Katherine (1938-1945), actor David Garfield (1942-1995) and actress Julie Garfield (1946-). His six-year-old daughter Katharine died of an allergic reaction in 1945. He never got over the loss. John Garfield is buried at Westchester Hills Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
Sources: Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Agrigento,Sicily (Italy)
Stretched out along a ridge, inappropriately referred to as “valley”, and nestling in the area to the south of it, are a series of temples which were all erected in the course of a century (5C BC), as if to testify to the prosperity of the city at that time. Having been set ablaze by the Carthaginians in 406 BC, the buildings were restored by the Romans (1C BC) respecting their original Doric style. Their subsequent state of disrepair has been put down either to seismic activity or the destructive fury of the Christians backed by an edict of the Emperor of the Eastern Empire, Theodosius (4C). The only one to survive intact is the Temple of Concord which, in the 6C, was converted into a Christian church. During the Middle Ages, masonry was removed to help construct other buildings, in particular, the Temple of Zeus, known locally as the Giant’s Quarry, provided material for the church of San Nicola and the 18C part of the jetty at Porto Empedocle.
All the buildings face east, respecting the Classical criterion (both Greek and Roman) that the entrance to the cella (Holy of Holies) where the statue of the god was housed could be illuminated by the rays of the rising sun, the source and blood of life.
On the whole, the temples are Doric and conform to the hexastyle format (that is with six columns at the front), the exception being the Temple of Zeus, which had seven engaged columns articulating the wall that encloses the building. Built of limestone tufa, the temples provide a particularly impressive sight at dawn, and even more so at sunset when they are turned a warm shade of gold.
(The Greek form of the names of the divinities has been used to describe the temples, with the Latin equivalents given in brackets). It is advisable to start a visit with the archeological site around the Temple of Zeus, as this is open at restricted times.
Sacrificial altar – Just beyond the entrance, on the right, slightly set back, are the remains of an enormous altar, used for large-scale sacrifices. As many as 100 oxen could be sacrificed at one time.
Tempio di Zeus Olimpico (Giove) – Having been razed to the ground, the Temple of Zeus (Jupiter) was re-erected following the victory of the people of Agrigentum (allied with the Syracusans) over the Carthaginians at Himera (in about 480 BC) as a gesture of thanks to Zeus, it was one of the largest temples built in ancient times, being 113m long by 36m wide, and is thought never to have been completed. The entablature was supported by half-columns 20m high, which probably alternated with giant male caryatids (atlantes or telamons), one of which can be seen in the local archeological museum (see below). A reproduction of an atlantes is displayed in the middle of the temple, giving some idea of scale proportional to the vast building. Instead of the more usual open colonnade, this temple is surrounded by a continuous screen wall sealing off the spaces between the columns which, inside, become square pilasters. Some blocks still bear the marks made for lifting them into place: these are deep U-shaped incisions through which a rape was threaded and then, attached to a kind of crane, could be used to lift or haul the blocks one upon another.
Tempio di Castore e Polluce o dei Dioscuri – The Temple of Castor and Pollux or of the Dioscuri is the veritable symbol of Agrigento. Built during the last decades of the 5C BC, it is dedicated to the twins born from the union of Leda and Zeus while transformed into a swan. Four columns and part of the entablature are all that remain of the temple, which was reconstructed in the 19C. Under one edge of the cornice is a rosette, one of the typical decorative motifs used. On the right are the remains of what was probably a sanctuary dedicated to the Chthonic Deities (the gods of the underworld): Persephone (Proserpina), queen of the underworld, and her mother, Demeter (Ceres), the goddess of corn and fertility and patroness of agriculture. On the site are a square altar, probably used for sacrificing piglets, and another round one with a sacred well in the centre. This is probably where the rite of the Thesmophoria, a festival held in honour of Demeter, was celebrated by married women.
In the distance, last on the imaginary line linking all the temples of the valley, is the Temple of Hephaistus (Vulcan), of which little remains. According to legend, the god of fire and the arts had a forge under Etna where he fashioned thunderbolts for Zeus, assisted by the Cyclops.
Retrace your steps, leave the fenced area and follow Via dei Templi, on the other side of the road, on the right.
Tempio di Eracle (Ercole) – Conforming to the Archaic Doric style, the Temple of Heracles (Hercules) is the earliest of the group. The remains enable us to imagine how elegant this temple must have been. Today, a line of eight tapering columns stands erect, re-erected during the first half of this century. From the temple, looking south, can be seen what is erroneously called the Tomb of
Theron (see end of this section).
Continuing along the path, deep ruts in the paving can be made out on the left: these are generally interpreted as having been caused by cartwheels. The reason for them being so deep has been put down to water erosion.
On the right is Villa Aurea, formerly the residence of Sir Alexander Hardcastle, a passionate patron of archeology, who financed the reerection of the columns of the Temple of Heracles.
Necropoli paleocristiana – The Paleochristian necropolis is situated beneath the road, dug into the base rock, not far from the ancient walls of the city. There are various types of ancient tomb: loculi (cells or chamber for corpse or urn) and arcosolia (arched cavities like a niche), as often found in catacombs. Before the Temple of Concord there is another group of tombs on the right.
Tempio della Concordia – The Temple of Concord is one of the best-preserved temples surviving from Antiquity, thereby providing an insight into the elegance and majestic symmetry of other such buildings. The reason it has survived intact is due to its transformation into a church in the 6C AD. Inside the colonnade, the original arches through the cella walls of the Classical temple can still be made out. It is thought to have been built in about 430 BC, but it is not known to which god it was dedicated. The name Concord comes from a Latin inscription found in the vicinity. The temple is a typical example of the architectural refinement in temple building known as “optical correction”: the columns are tapered (becoming narrower at the top so as to appear taller) and have an entasis (a very slight convex curve at about two-thirds of the height of the column which counteracts the illusion of concavity); they are also slightly inclined towards the central axis of the temple façade. This allows the observer standing at a certain distance from the temple to see a perfectly straight image. The frieze consists of standard Classical features: alternating triglyphs and metopes, without further low-relief ornamentation. The pediment is also devoid of decoration.
Antiquarium di Agrigento Paleocristiana (Casa Pace) – Turn back through a section of the town, stopping perhaps to consult the various informotian boards set among the ruins that may be of interest: one in particular explains how the Temple of Concord was transformed into a basilica.
Antiquarium Iconografico della Collina del Templi (Casa Barbadoro) – In a modern but sympathetically designed building, are collected together a series of drawings, engravings and prints of the Valley of the Temples as seen in the past by travellers undertaking the Grand Tour.
Tempio di Hera Lacinia (Giunone) – The Temple of Hera Lacinia (Juno) is situated at the top of the hill and is traditionally dedicated to the protector of matrimony and childbirth. The name Lacinia derives from an erroneous association with the sanctuary of the same name situated on the Lacinian promontory near Crotone. The temple preserves its colonnade (albeit not in perfect condition), which was partially re-erected in the early 1900s. Inside, the columns of the pronaos and opisthodomos and the wall of the cella can still be seen. Built in about the mid-5C BC, it was set ablaze by the Carthaginians in 406 BC (evidence of burning is still visible on the walls of the cella).
To the east is the altar of the temple, while, at the back of the building (beside the steps), there is a cistern.
On the outskirts of the town are the so-called Tomb of Theron and the Temple of Asklepios (Aesculapius).
Tomba di Terone – Also visible from the Caltagirorne road. The monument, erroneously believed to have been the tomb of the tyrant Theron, in fact dates from Roman times and was erected in honour of soldiers killed during the Second Punic War. Made of tufa, it is slighly pyramidal in shape and probably once had a pointed roof. The high base supports a second order with false doors and Ionic columns at the corners.
Tempio di Asclepio (Esculapio) – Just beyond the Tomb of Theron, on the road to Caltanissetta. Look out for a sign (although obscured) on the right. The ruins of this 5C BC temple are to be found in the middle of the countryside. It was dedicated to Aesculapius (Asklepios), the Greek god of medicine, son of Apollo – who it was believed had the power to heal the sick through dreams. The interior, it is thought, harboured a beautiful statue of the god by the Greek sculptor Myron.
Telamons and Atlantes (or Atlas figures) – These imposing giants from Agrigento, more often referred to as atlantes, are sometimes called Telomons (Telamone in Italian) after the Latin word derived by the Romans from the Greek, Telamo(n) which indicated their function, that is to carry or bear, in this case the structure. Their supporting mole is accentuated by their position, with arms bent back to balance the weight upon their shoulders. The more common term alludes to the mythological figure Atlas, the giant and leader of the Titans who struggled against the gods of Olympus and was condemned by Zeus to support the weight of the sky on his head. When the earth was discovered to be spherical, he was often shown bearing the terrestrial globe on bis shoulders
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken testified before the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs on the FY24 Department of State budget request on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 22, 2023. [State Department photo by Chuck Kennedy/ Public Domain]
Dear friend, here are 5 things you should know:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
Sincerely,
Someone who cares about you
The Samuel Smith Farmstead represents an outstanding example of a simple Connecticut colonial-era homestead located at, 82 Plants Dam Road, East Lyme, CT. The house and barn currently sit on 17 acres of rural land which was part of the original homestead. The house is unique, since it is being restored and equally important maintained with accuracy to its beginning in c1685 with additional construction, additions to the house in c1735 and c1812.
The Samuel Smith Farmstead is a remarkably intact colonial house, barn and farm. The farmstead, previously known as the Hurlburt House.
The Hurlbut House, located one mile north of Connecticut Route 156 just west of Bride Brook Road in East Lyme, is a simple 1-and-a 1/2 story, gambrel- roofed structure dating from the late lyth-or early 18th-century. Set in a rural, lightly wooded section of Plants Dam Road, quite close by the road, the low house, with unpainted clapboards and split cedar shingles, faces south. A tiny, early 18th-century, shed, with an added 20th-century lean-to, stands nearby. To the rear is a small 1-story ell, c. 1810, while just out- side the back door sits the original 16' well, with a modern well-sweep,
and back from that, an outhouse, c. l8lO. Further removed from the house to the west is a larger, more recent barn. A portion of the acreage is used to pen the owners' animals, while much of the remainder,.once farmland, is now thickly overgrown. Several houses and a dairy farm nearby are not visible and do not affect the setting or scale of this quaint and primitive grouping.
In its original plan, the Hurlbut House was half its present size, with an end chimney and pitched roof. C.1730, the house was enlarged along the west wall when a nearby house, or portion thereof, was moved onto the site. At the same time the roofline was re-framed to a gambrel. Hence, the facade is asymmetrical with two pairs of windows spaced unevenly across it; the brick chimney, too, rises off-center. The windows are reproduction 6-over-6 sash, using some old glass, while the door is a simple batten type repro- duction.
The main room of the original house, east of the present central entrance, is the hall with its rough fieldstone chimney and low beamed ceiling. The fireplacehasbeenmadesmallerandapparentlyneverhadabakeoven. The
unchamfered summer beam, 18" wide, was cased perhaps 5 to 10 years after the house's construction, as, beneath its beaded casing, it is only slightly
blackened by soot. The joists also are beaded, indicating they were fin- ished to .tye.,exposed. . Featheredge panelling on all four walls survives.
Originally, the entry to the house was directly into the hall, so that what is now the porch of the Hurlbut House was once a second, small bedroom
off the hall. A small square fireplace there indicates that the area was heated. Its odd, straight sides and back suggest that the builders had not yet realized that angled sides and a sloping back cast heat more efficiently, orcouldnotconstructsuchafireplace. Asnostaircasewaseverbuilt into it, the porch is also unusually large. The date "1762" is scratched into the featheredge panelling there; the posts are widely flared and un- cased.
i
Beneath the hall, the cellar is excavated to sufficient depth for a man to stand upright. A rare cellar fireplace exists in the chimney, indicating that the cellar once served as a summer kitchen for the house. A door in the east wall gives outside access to the cellar, also once accessible
from the hall. A well-worn crescent in the panelling there testifies to numerous hands steadying the way downstairs. The area across the rear
(north) of the house, unheated, was used for storage, with a buttery partitioned off. Above the hall, the attic was open sleeping space, reached at first by a ladder, evidence of which remains in worn spots in an attic beam. (Later, a staircase was added.) This area was heated by a small fireplace. Thus, the hall, porch and storage room, with the cellar below and open loft above comprise the Hurlbut House as it origin- allystood. (SeeFloorPlan.)
When the house was enlarged, this configuration changed. With the addi- tion, the floor plan became that of a central-chimney structure, with a porch, flanking parlor and hall, and a long kitchen, with borning room and buttery, across the rear. A large fireplace was added to the chimney andthestorageroombecamethekitchen. Intheparlor,theplate, flared posts and summer beam, which measures 15", are all cased. The north wall is featheredge panelled. The small borning room behind the parlor is panelled all around. In the kitchen, a casement window, long since removed and boarded over, is clearly outlined.
The roof was re-framed during the enlargement though beams sandwiched be- tween the rafters and the roof indicate that the pitch of the gambrel
was insufficient and was later inclined more steeply. The northeast section of the attic is open and several figures pertaining to the sale of flax and wool are chalked onto the plank boarding between the rafters.
Still more alterations took place, c. l8l , as part of a major "modern- ization" effort. Three dormers were set in the gambrel across the front and a fourth added at the northwest rear corner making possible the en- closure of the attic into 4 small rooms. The original door was replaced
with a more stylish side-lit model and the 1-story ell was added at the rear, but the floor plan itself changed little. The alterations were primarily cosmetic; fortunately, the owners were not wealthy enough to have the interior "gutted" and most of the original fabric was simply re-located or covered over. The present owners have found pieces of molding from a corner cupboard which once stood in the parlor used as lath in the ceiling above the parlor, while the doors of the cupboard
were in a wall in the attic and shelves in the rafters. The fireplace in the porch was plastered over and a closet placed before it. Carved
wooden mantels were added in both the parlor and the hall and upstairs, inthehallchamber. Someoftheoriginalfeatheredgepanellingwasre- moved, much of it going to the construction of the dormers. More feather edge was plastered over as were the ceilings in the hall and parlor. Shelving from the buttery and even worn clapboards, showing traces of red paint, can be seen in the ceiling in various places throughout the house.
The house altered little after the renovations and, until recently, the c.lSlO outhouse (a 5-holer for which, in the 1930s, the previous owner is said to have been offered $300.00 by the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan) was in regular use. The present owners are restoring the house and have uncovered and re-installed much of the panelling and wood-work. In addition to removing the dormers and side-lit door, they have replaced large 19th-century windows with smaller reproduction sash set with early glasspanes. Theroofhasbeenre-coveredwithcedarshinglesandthe house is being re-clapboarded. Despite modern sheathing, virtually all of the chestnut framing members are original and extant and most of the interior woodwork survives. Though flooring in portions of the attic
is original, most of the flooring, which is oak, dates from the 18th- century. Unfortunately, most of the hardware was removed by a previous owner.
In addition to the pine outhouse mentioned previously, there is a small 18th-centuryshedontheproperty. It,likethehouse,ischestnut- framed. The beams are carefully chamfered with lamb's-tongue stops.
The original wide door is gone, and, in the 1930s, a wood-frame lean-to was added along the south wall, but otherwise, the framing survives in- tact. On one wall in the shed, the intricate drawing of a square-rigged
ship has been etched. Etchings of several other sailing ships exist on the walls in the house, but none are as carefully detailed as the square- rigger. Presumably,theyweredrawnbythechildrenofCaptainJohn Johnson, a sea-captain who owned the house late in the 18th-century. An Indian gravesite is said to be located on the property and several Indian grinding stones have been found near Bride Brook, where it flows through the property. The Hurlbut House is significant primarily for its great age and excellent state of preservation. The majority of its original fabric, in particular, its interior woodwork, survives. It is also significant as an.illustra- tJL,onoftheevolutionofthefloorplanfromendtocenter-chimney. More- over, the Hurlbut House is a rare surviving example of the type of simple, primitive structure which would have been common for the average early 18th- century family. ,
Though the original owner is unknown, Samuel Smith is believed to be an early resident. Nehemiah Smith, an early settler of New London, was granted land in 1652 at Poquonock (Groton); it was there, in 1676, that his son, Samuel, was born. Samuel later in 1698, received title to a large tract of land at Niantic (East Lyme) though the Smith genealogist states, 1doubtless he was married and located there previous to that date since his father had made the purchase several years previous and was not living there him- self."1 Samuel and his wife Elizabeth had 8 or 9 children, his second son, also named Samuel, born in 1696. Despite confusion over which generation
built the house, it would seem likely that it was the father, Samuel, and not the son as the property passed from four otl^er sons, Simon, Joseph, Paul and Daniel, to John Johnson, Junior, the''next owner in 1746. It is possible that the enlargement of the house was made when the property changed hands. Similarly, 69 years later, in 1815, the house left the Johnson family when William Eldridge purchased it. He quickly sold it,
one year later, to Winthrpp Hurlbut suggesting perhaps that the later al- terations were completed during that time. The alterations made illustrate the development of the house from an end- to a central-chimney floor plan.
In addition to evidence suggested by the land records, several architect- ural features about the house indicate its great age. The boarded-up casement window, and an odd, straight-sided porch fireplace are two such evidentiary pieces. There are several other noteworthy features about the house, including the cellar fireplace, beaded joists, and .nautical wall- etchings. The abundance of featheredge panelling extant is also signifi- cant.
1. Smith, H. Alien, A Genealogical History of the Descendants of the Reverend Nehemiah Smith of New London County, Connecticut, Albany, Joel Munsell's Sons, 1889. Page 72.
JMAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
Lyme Land and Probate Records, also Interview, Owners, Nov. 1978
Keith, Elmer D.,"Write-ups", accounts of buildings of historical or ar- chitectural interest, on file, Connecticut State Library Archives 1937, p. 119,120.
Kelly, J. Frederick, EARLY DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF CONNECTICUT,
___NewYork . Dnv<=>T PnhJ Ir«a-t-ione Tn^
^GEOGRAPHICAL DATA /
ACREAGEOFNOMINATEDPROPERTY. 30
QUADRANGLENAMENJantJC and Old Lyme Quadrangles QUADRANGLESCALE 1;
npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/79002668_text
Governor Charlie Baker testifies at the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission’s 10th annual Health Care Cost Trends Hearing at Suffolk University Law School in Boston on Nov. 2, 2022. [Joshua Qualls/Governor's Press Office]
Mirit Ben Nun: Shortness of breath
'Shortness of breath' is not only a sign of physical weakness, it is a metaphor for a mental state of strong desire that knows no repletion; more and more, an unbearable glut, without repose. Mirit Ben Nun's type of work on the other hand requires an abundance of patience. This is a Sisyphean work (requiring hard labor) of marking lines and dots, filling every empty millimeter with brilliant blots. Therefore we are facing a paradox or a logical conflict. A patient and effortful work that stems from an urgent need to cover and fill, to adorn and coat. Her craft of layering reaches a state of a continuous ceremonial ritual.
This ritual digests every object into itself - useful or discarded -- available and ordinary or rare and exceptional -- they submit and devote to the overlay work. Mirit BN gathers scrap off the streets -- cardboard rolls of fabric, assortments of wooden boards and pieces, plates and planks -- and constructs a new link, her own syntax, which she alone is fully responsible for. The new combination -- a type of a sculptural construction -- goes through a process of patching by the act of painting.
In fact Mirit regards her three dimensional objects as a platform for painting, with a uniform continuity, even if it has obstacles, mounds and valleys. These objects beg her to paint, to lay down colors, to set in motion an intricate weave of abstract patterns that at times finds itself wandering the contours of human images and sometimes -- not. In those cases what is left is the monotonous activity of running the patterns, inch by inch, till their absolute coverage, till a short and passing instant of respite and than on again to a new onset.
Next to this assembly of garbage and it's recycling into 'painted sculptures' Mirit offers a surprising reunion between her illustrated objects and so called cheap African sculpture; popular artifacts or articles that are classified in the standard culture as 'primitive'.
This combination emphasizes the difference between her individualistic performance and the collective creation which is translated into cultural clichés. The wood carved image creates a moment of peace within the crowded bustle; an introverted image, without repetitiveness and reverberation. This meeting of strangers testifies that Mirit' work could not be labeled under the ´outsiders art´ category. She is a one woman school who is compelled to do the art work she picked out to perform. Therefore she isn't creating ´an image´ such as the carved wooden statues, but she produces breathless ´emotional jam' whose highest values are color, motion, beauty and plenitude. May it never lack, neither diluted, nor dull for even an instant
Tali Tamir
August 2010
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. W 769. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
American actor John Garfield (1913-1952) played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. Called to testify before the U.S. Congressional House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), he denied communist affiliation and refused to 'name names', which effectively ended his film career. The stress led to his premature death at 39 from a heart attack. Garfield is seen as a predecessor of such Method actors as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and James Dean.
John Garfield was born Jacob Julius Garfinkle on the Lower East Side of New York City, to Hannah Basia (Margolis) and David Garfinkle, who were Jewish immigrants from Zhytomyr (now in Ukraine). Jules was raised by his father, a clothes presser and part-time cantor, after his mother's death in 1920, when he was 7. He grew up in the heart of the Yiddish Theatre District. Jacob was sent to a special school for problem children, where he was introduced to boxing and drama.
As a boy, he won a state-wide oratory contest sponsored by the New York Times with Benjamin Franklin as his subject. Garfield later won a scholarship to Maria Ouspenskaya's drama school. In 1932, he landed a nonpaying job at Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory, where he was recommended to by his acting teachers Maria Ouspenskaya and Richard Boleslawski. He changed his name to Jules Garfield and according to IMDb, he made his Broadway debut in that company's Counsellor-at-Law, written by Elmer Rice and starring Paul Muni. (Wikipedia writes that this was actually his second Broadway appearance and that Garfield made his Broadway debut in 1932 in a play called Lost Boy, which ran for only two weeks). Later, he joined the Group Theatre company, winning acclaim for his role as Ralph, the sensitive young son who pleads for "a chance to get to first base" in Awake and Sing. The play opened in February 1935, and Garfield was singled out by critic Brooks Atkinson for having a "splendid sense of character development." However, Garfield was passed over for the lead in Golden Boy, which had especially been written for him by author Clifford Odets. When the play was first produced by the Group Theatre in 1938, the powers that be decided Garfield wasn't 'ready' to play the role of the young violinist turned boxer. Luther Adler subsequently created the role. Embittered, Garfield signed a contract with Warner Brothers, who changed his name to John Garfield. Because both Garfield and his wife did not want to 'go Hollywood,' he had a clause in his Warner contract that allowed him to perform in a legitimate play every year at his option. The couple also refused to own a home in Tinseltown. Garfield won enormous praise for his role of the cynical and tragic composer Mickey Borden in Four Daughters (Michael Curtiz, 1938), starring Claude Rains. For his part he was nominated for the Oscar as Best Actor in a Supporting Role. After the breakout success of Four Daughters, Warner Bros created a name-above-the-title vehicle for him, the crime film They Made Me a Criminal (Busby Berkeley, 1939). Garfield had already made a B movie called Blackwell's Island (William C. McGann, 1939). Not wanting their new star to appear in a low-budget film, Warners ordered an A movie upgrade by adding $100,000 to its budget and recalling director Michael Curtiz to shoot newly scripted scenes.
At the onset of World War II, John Garfield immediately attempted to enlist in the armed forces, but was turned down because of his heart condition. Frustrated, he turned his energies to supporting the war effort. He and actress Bette Davis were the driving forces behind the opening of the Hollywood Canteen, a club offering food and entertainment for American servicemen. He traveled overseas to help entertain the troops, made several bond selling tours and starred in a string of popular, patriotic films like Air Force (Howard Hawks, 1943), Destination Tokyo (Delmer Daves, 1943) with Cary Grant, and Pride of the Marines (Delmer Faves, 1945) with Eleanor Parker. All were box office successes. Throughout his film career, John Garfield again and again brooding played rebellious roles despite his efforts to play varied parts. Garfield became one of Warner Bros' most suspended stars. He was suspended 11 times during his nine years at the studio. After the war, Garfield starred in a series of successful films such as the Film Noir The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, 1946) with Lana Turner, and the showbizz melodrama Humoresque (Jean Negulesco, 1946) with Joan Crawford. When his Warner Bros. contract expired in 1946, he did not re-sign with the studio, opting to start his own independent production company instead. Garfield was one of the first Hollywood actors to do so. In the Best Picture Oscar-winning Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947), Garfield took a featured, but supporting, part because he believed deeply in the film's exposé of antisemitism in America. In 1948, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his starring role in Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, 1947) with Lilli Palmer. That same year, Garfield returned to Broadway in the play Skipper Next to God.
Active in liberal political and social causes, John Garfield found himself embroiled in Communist scare of the late 1940s. Blacklisted during the McCarthy era in the early 1950s for his left-wing political beliefs, he adamantly refused to "name names" in testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in April 1951. In his only TV appearance, Garfield played Joe Bonaparte and Kim Stanley played Lorna Moon in a scene from Clifford Odets' 'Golden Boy' on Cavalcade of Stars: John Garfield, Kim Stanley, Paul Winchell & Jerry Mahoney (1950). With film work scarce because of the blacklist, Garfield returned to Broadway and starred in a 1951 or 1952 revival (the sources fiffer) of Golden Boy. Garfield finally played the role which Odets had written for him and which was denied him years before at the Group Theater. His final film was the Film Noir He Ran All the Way (John Berry, 1951), with Shelley Winters. On 21 May 1952, John Garfield was found dead of a heart attack in the apartment of a friend, former showgirl Iris Whitney. A week before he had separated from his wife, and hours before his death he completed a statement modifying his 1951 testimony about his Communist affiliations. A day earlier Clifford Odets had testified before HUAC and reaffirmed that Garfield had never been a member of the Communist Party. Garfield was the fourth actor to die after being subjected to HUAC investigation. The others were Mady Christians (at 59), J. Edward Bromberg (at 47) and Canada Lee (at 45). The official cause of his death was coronary thrombosis due to a blood clot blocking an artery in his heart. His funeral was mobbed by thousands of fans, in the largest funeral attendance for an actor since Rudolph Valentino. Garfield had been married to his childhood sweetheart Roberta Seidman, from 1935 till his death. They had three children, Katherine (1938-1945), actor David Garfield (1942-1995) and actress Julie Garfield (1946-). His six-year-old daughter Katharine died of an allergic reaction in 1945. He never got over the loss. John Garfield is buried at Westchester Hills Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
Sources: Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Oscar Pistorius has claimed he is too depressed to testify in the sentencing hearing for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a court was told today. The shamed athlete is back at the High Court in Pretoria for the case, where state and defence lawyers are arguing for and against Pistorius serving a lengthy sentence of up to 15 years for the fatal shooting of Reeva three years ago.However, the double amputee, 29, will not return to the witness box in a desperate bid to convince the court that he is a 'changed man', as his psychologist says he cannot testify due to his fragile mental state.Scroll down for video Oscar Pistorius sits in the dock at the High Court in Pretoria for the opening of his murder sentencing hearing After coming face-to-face with Reeva Steenkamp's family, Pistorius could be seen weeping and holding his head in his hands While listening to the evidence given during his sentencing hearing, tears could be seen streaming down Pistorius' face The shamed athlete's eyes were red from sobbing while sitting in the dock during his sentencing hearing in Pretoria He also revealed details of the runner's time in jail and told the court Pistorius felt like he was 'paraded like an animal' while in prison. It came as Professor Jonathan Scholtz told the hearing in Pretoria that Pistorius was a 'broken man', who needs to be hospitalised and not jailed.The doctor also revealed that while the runner was locked up, he was held in ‘virtual isolation for his own protection’ and even saw a prisoner who had been raped hanging dead in his cell.Other details emerged as Dr Scholtz added that the runner's stumps became infected while inside and he had trouble getting medicine, while prison warders brought visitors to catch sight of the famous prisoner, the court heard, all hours of the day or night.It was like ‘being on show as if he was an animal in a cage,’ Dr Scholtz said.The doctor also revealed how a recent outing to a local shop ended up with Pistorius forced to flee after another customer protested about shopping with a murderer. Details of the runner's time in jail also emerged as a psychologist told the court Pistorius felt like he was 'paraded like an animal' while in prison and also saw an inmate dead in his cell after he was found hanging The runner's sister Aimee, pictured next to their father Henke, was also seen weeping during the hearing todayThe doctor who has interviewed and observed Pistorius at length before he was jailed and again last month added he found the sprinter’s mental health had deteriorated dramatically.Dr Scholtz told the court that the killer had a fear of going out, anxiety about being ridiculed, suffered from paranoia, post traumatic stress disorder, depression, insomnia and suffered flashbacks and panic attacks if exposed to loud noises.His fragile mental state meant he would be unable to give evidence to the court on his own behalf, the doctor said.Calling on the court to hospitalise the athlete, rather than jail him, the doctor emphasised that the killer did not test positively as a psychopath or any anti-social disorder, and posed a low risk of committing future acts of violence.He revealed Pistorius had received a ‘firm job offer’ running an Early Childhood Development programme for vulnerable children. The company making the offer is Twin City Developments, owned by his wealthy uncle, Arnold. At one point, Pistorius became so upset before the start of the hearing he had to be comforted and given tissues Details also emerged about his time in prison, where he complained he felt like he was paraded like a caged animal Professor Dr Jonathan Scholtz explained that while Pistorius was in jail, he was held in ‘virtual isolation for his own protection’He also said the sprinter’s distress levels had been exacerbated by the absence of his sister, Aimee, who left South Africa to live in the UK.’Mr Pistorius is very close to her, much more so than his brother,’ Dr Scholtz told the court, watched by Carl and Aimee Pistorius.The doctor reminded the judge of the sprinter’s early childhood when he had to have both his legs amputated below the knee as a toddler, and then lived through his parents bitter divorce and the absence of his father, Henke, who was listening two rows behind the dock.Dr Scholtz said the athlete was still suffering from the loss of Reeva and had been unable to mourn her death properly due to his arrest and trial.During his interviews, Pistorius told the doctor he hoped to devote his life to charitable work through the church and had found comfort in his faith.'He said he has found some solace from the fact that the deceased is now ‘with God’,’ Dr Scholtz told the court, prompting family and friends of Reeva to shift in their seats.Once an avid gun collector and a regular visitor to the shooting range, Pistorius told the doctor that he 'never wants to touch or handle a firearm again and has sold all of his guns.’ Oscar Pistorius was flanked by police officers as he made his way to Pretoria High Court for the sentencing hearing Pistorius arrived looking thin and tense, wearing the familiar court dress of pin-striped suit, white shirt and tie and kept his head down The shamed athlete, 29, will not return to the witness box in a desperate bid to convince the court that he is a 'changed man' since the Valentine's Day slaughter of model Reeva, three years ago as his psychologist says he is too depressed However, prosecutor Gerrie Nel questioned Dr Scholtz's assertion that Pistorius was not fit to testify, saying the athlete had managed to give a TV interview. The hour-long interview with Britain's ITV is due to air this month, local media have reported. Mr Nel also revealed to the court that illegal medicine was found in Pistorius’s cell during a routine search. He added that a stash of anti-depressants and sleeping pills were seized by warders that had not been prescribed by prison doctors and Pistorius was not entitled to keep. Mr Nel also said ‘it didn’t happen’ in response to Pistorius’s claim that he had seen a fell inmate hanging in a doorway, following a sex attack.The sprinter also told the doctor he had been assaulted in his cell, but Mr Nel said the incident had never been reported to prison authorities.And Mr Nel told the court that Pistorius did not attempt to get in touch with the family of his victim following his release from prison last October and only attempted to make contact with them via his lawyers just weeks ago 'in preparation for this hearing.'The court was also told June Steenkamp had been 'ummoved' by Pistorius’ public apology, which came at the start of his evidence at his murder trial, and did not want further contact with her daughter’s murderer. Reeva Steenkamp's parents Barry and June Steenkamp held hands as the entered the court for the sentencing hearing today Mr Steenkamp, left, a race horse trainer, suffered a stroke in the wake of his daughter's murder in 2013 and was too frail to attend much of her killer's trial. Mrs Steenkamp attended much of the trial Mrs Steenkamp arrives for the sentencing hearing of her daughter's killer at the High Court in Pretoria During cross examination of the defence’s first witness, Mr Nel was in typically combative mood as he challenged Dr Scholtz’s conclusion that Pistorius was too depressed and broken to give evidence at the hearing.‘So he would rather given an interview to the TV than to court?' Mr Nel asked the doctor, referring to news that the sprinter had given a lengthy exclusive interview to a television reporter.He asked the doctor if he was aware of a string of ‘temper tantrums’ Pistorius had displayed during his incarceration.Mr Nel told the court: ‘He got so upset with Sister Mashubane that on one occasion he approached her office and was shaking and banged the table.'The nurse, who is seated in the court, was deliberately ignored by Pistorius when he greeted all other prison staff flanking her, Mr Nel added.Mr Nel, whose nickname is ‘the Rottweiler’ in legal circles, also asked Dr Scholtz whether he was aware that Pistorius had consulted with his ‘personal doctor’ while in jail, who was also a family member.Earlier Pistorius arrived at the Pretoria High Court looking thin and tense, wearing the familiar court dress of pin-striped suit, white shirt and tie. He greeted family members and spent some time hugging and whispering with his personal counsellor, who comforted him throughout his 2013 trial.He passed the row where members of the Steenkamps were sitting, but did not make eye contact or greet them, instead shaking hands with the prison guards as he made his way into the dock. He had been marched into court with 18 police officers who then lined both sides of the wooden panelled court. Airport-style security had been set up outside the largest court in the High Court building.Within minutes of taking his seat in the dock, Pistorius’ face reddened and he clutched his head in his hands. He stood up, called out to his personal psychologist Dr Lore Hartzenberg, sitting just a few feet in front of him, who came to the dock to hand him some pills which he swallowed with some bottled water. The father of Pistorius, Henke Pistorius was also in court for his son's sentencing hearing in Pretoria Pistorius sister, Aimee and brother Carl also were in court. The hearing was told Aimee has moved from South Africa to the UK due to the stress of her brother's trial Also arriving at the court were Pistorius' uncle Arnold and aunt Lois, at whose luxury home he has been staying while under house arrestHis relatives could also be seen handing over tissues to him as he wept.Also sitting in court today for the first time behind Pistorius, was his former girlfriend Jenna Edkins, who reportedly chatted on the phone with the runner shortly before he murdered Reeva. Sitting next to his sister Aimee, she appeared on close terms with the athlete’s family. During his evidence, Dr Scholtz referred briefly to the sprinter’s five-year on-off liaison with Ms Edkins as he told the court about the killer’s limited success with relationships.According to a book about the case, Pistorius spent nine minutes on a call to Ms Edkins, but it was not raised as evidence in his trial as the phone’s records had been wiped in the weeks after his arrest.The number used by the 27-year-old had been registered in her father’s name and saved in the sprinter’s contacts list as ‘Babyshoes’.The Investec employee took to twitter just hours after Reeva’s murder to defend her former lover. At the time she wrote: 'I would just like to say, I have dated Oscar on off for 5 YEARS, NOT ONCE has he EVER lifted a finger to me, made me fear for my life.'Meanwhile the victim's ailing father, Barry Steenkamp, is a possible witness at the hearing, where the state will demand at least the minimum sentence of 15 years in jail for the disgraced Paralympian.Mr Steenkamp, a race horse trainer, suffered a stroke in the wake of his daughter's murder in 2013 and was too frail to attend much of her killer's trial.Pistorius, who served a year in prison after originally being found guilty of manslaughter, had his conviction upgraded to murder in December following a successful appeal by prosecutors.Judge Thokozile Masipa who was found to have made a mistake in her application of law at the original trial, in 2014, now has the task of deciding Pistorius' punishment. Pistorius' lawyer Barry Roux, left, arrives at the court in Pretoria. Gerrie Nel, right, the state prosecutor will be arguing the disgraced athlete is given a 15 year sentence His social worker, psychiatric experts, prison officials and a possibly a member of his own family are on the list of possible witnesses who will be called to speak in support of him.Judge Masipa is under enormous pressure to redeem herself following the high profile challenge her judgement received by South Africa's most senior judges.The hospital wing at Kgosi Mampuru II jail, which accommodated Pistorius, for his 12 month incarceration, has a single cell ready to accommodate him, prison officials confirmed.Pistorius has been living under comfortable house arrest behind high walls at his uncle Arnold's sprawling villa since he was released from jail in October last year. He has not been seen in public since his last brief court appearance in April.Last month, a new book presented fresh evidence in the case after an analysis of crime scene photographs and post mortem results which had not been put before the original trial.Investigator Thomas Mollett highlighted a bullet wound on Reeva's body which was compatible with a bullet fired by Pistorius' air gun. A similar projectile was found in the door of the bedroom where neighbours claimed they had heard a violent row between the pair.A cricket bat, which the sprinter claimed had only been used to break down the locked door behind which Reeva was dying from four gun shot wounds, had also been used to attack the reality TV star. As family members from both sides of the tragedy took their seats inside, fans for the double amputee gathered outside the Pretoria High Court and sang noisily in support of their fallen hero Pistorius supporters outside Pretoria High Court demonstrate prior to the arrival of the athlete for his sentencing hearing Marks on the bat were compatible with wounds on Reeva's back, the investigators concluded in their book 'Oscar vs The Truth', suggesting she had been struck in the minutes leading up to her death. The bat, which was a collector's item, betrayed signs of a struggle with the rubber handle, several stretched and damaged.As family members from both sides of the tragedy took their seats inside, fans for the double amputee gathered outside the Pretoria High Court and sang noisily in support of their fallen hero.Reeva, a law graduate turned model, was killed when her lover pumped four bullets through a locked toilet door at his home in the early hours of Valentine's Day, 2013.Pistorius told his seven month murder trial that the fatal shooting had been a terrible accident and he had shot in fear that an intruder was lying in wait.The state maintain that the murder followed a ferocious argument between the couple.The hearing is expected to last several days.If he is sentenced to more than five years this time around, he will have to serve at least two thirds of the term before he qualifies for parole.Analysts estimate that he could be sentenced to between eight and 12 years, but the prosecution is pushing for at least 15. Reeva, a law graduate turned model, was killed when her lover pumped four bullets through a locked toilet door at his home in the early hours of Valentine's Day, 2013'When it is not premeditated and when a person is a first offender, (murder) carries a minimum of 15 years... and we have the responsibility to ensure that the provisions of the law are applied,' said the National Prosecution Authority's Luvuyo Mfaku.Pistorius has shunned the media during years of intense coverage since Steenkamp's killing, but his family have revealed that he has given his first interview, due to air on British broadcaster ITV on Friday.The year before he killed Steenkamp, Pistorius became the first double-amputee to race at Olympic level when he appeared at the London 2012 games.He has since lost his glittering sports career, lucrative contracts and status as a global role model for the disabled.
Source link cheersbin.com/blog/oscar-pistorius-returns-to-court-over-...
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King Kwame Indicted Convicted! RESIGNES!
Update: Dateline Sept. 4 2008
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge David Groner presided over the court case in which Kilpatrick agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice by committing perjury.
Part of the plea agreement includes immediate resignation within 14 days; restitution payments totaling $1 million; and four months in jail.
The court will asses the $1 million restitution fee based on how much Kilpatrick already has and how much he can pay.
Kilpatrick will be sentenced Oct. 28 at 2 p.m.
Kilpatrick is barred from running for public office for five years, according to the plea deal.
He will also have to hand over his law license and turn over his state pension to the city of Detroit.
Groner read aloud all of the charges against Kilpatrick and told him all but two would be dismissed.
He also asked Kilpatrick several questions regarding his guilty plea, and whether he was doing it on his own willingness and whether he was satisfied with what was taking place.
Groner asked Kilpatrick if he understood he was giving up the right to be innocent until proven guilty.
"I gave that up a long time ago," Kilpatrick replied.
Kilpatrick answered each question and stated that he knew exactly what was taking place and was agreeing to plead guilty.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick read the following statement in Wayne County Circuit Court on Thursday as part of his plea agreement in a perjury and misconduct case:
"I lied under oath in the case of Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope versus the city of Detroit, Case No. 03317557NZ, regarding information that was relevant to claims made by Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope. I did so with an intent to mislead the court and jury and to impede and obstruct the fair administration of justice.
"I lied under oath at a civil deposition for the Brown-Nelthrope lawsuit on Oct. 11, 2004 in the city of Detroit. I also lied under oath in the civil jury trial in the Nelthrope-Brown lawsuit in the Wayne County Circuit Court on Aug. 29, 2007."
Kilpatrick, 38, is in his second four-year term as mayor. He was charged with 10 felonies in two cases.
In a letter sent to Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm early Thursday afternoon, Kilpatrick said his resignation will be effective Sept. 18, 2008.
Good Riddance to bad Rubbish
C.C.
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Dateline Monday March 24, 2008,
The tenacious Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced a 12-count criminal indictment against Detroit’s Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (the Idi Amin of the midwest), and former Detroit Chief of Staff Christine Beatty, Listed below are the 8 felony charges (to date) against the mayor.
Charges Filed Against Kilpatrick
• Count 1: Conspiracy to obstruct justice (5-year maximum sentence)
• Count 2: Obstruction of justice. Accused of firing Detroit Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown as part of an effort to illegally hamper a criminal investigation and committing perjury to hide the firing of Brown or a relationship between the mayor and Beatty. (5-year maximum sentence)
• Count 3: Misconduct in office. Accused of firing Brown to hamper a criminal probe of Kilpatrick's personal conduct or the conduct of his security unit and committing perjury to hide the firing. (5-year maximum sentence)
• Count 4: Misconduct in office. Accused of authorizing the city to settle a whistle-blowers' lawsuit with the motive of preventing the release of text messages showing the mayor and his aide lied under oath. (5-year maximum sentence)
• Count 5: Perjury in court. Accused of lying under oath in August 2007 by saying he did not fire Brown, did not know Brown was investigating him or a rumored party at the mayor's official residence and testifying falsely as to other circumstances surrounding the termination of Brown. (15-year maximum sentence)
• Count 6: Perjury in court. Accused of falsely testifying in August 2007 that he didn't have a romantic or sexual relationship with Beatty. (15-year maximum sentence)
• Count 7: Perjury outside of court. Accused of swearing falsely before a notary public in June 2003 as to the circumstances surrounding the "un-appointment" of Brown. (15-year maximum sentence)
• Count 8: Perjury outside court. Accused of swearing falsely before a notary public in October 2004 as to the circumstances surrounding the "un-appointment" of Brown. (15-year maximum sentence)
And just to “add insult to injury” she had a bit of fierce commentary on what he should have learned as a 5 year old,
”...tell the truth, take responsibility for your actions, admit when your wrong,
play fair and be fair, don’t take or use things that aren’t yours, and there are consequences for bad behavior.”
– Kim Worthy, Wayne County Prosecutor
I mean most of us learned this as stuff children right? Hizzoner should have known better on multiple levels, he did go to go to law school? Truth be told this couldn’t have happen to a nicer guy.
C.C.
Rights and Use Notice.
All rights ultimately belong to me and and can be enforced at will
that said...
You want to print it out and hang it in a cube, do it.
You want to add this to your blog, go for it
News services think this will add “kick” to your editorial/article about the indicted regime online or dead tree edition feel free to make use it.( photo credit Cave Canem)
I don’t give my permission to use any of these on t-shirts mugs etc. without written consent.
I expressly deny permission to use any of my work, to in anyway to support, help humanize or to make in anyway sympathetic this “one of America's worst mayors”
The same week that two bullies beat up on another bully serendipity and coincidence brought this temporary installation of shocking images protesting the despotic regime that has ended the lives of hundreds of thousands of its own citizens. This was a sobering field of nightmares to walk among.
Justice for Colten Boushie!!
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"Fitch testified at the inquiry that the officers failed in their duty to exercise reasonable care with Paul, and that charges of manslaughter, criminal negligence causing death and failure to provide the necessities of life against the officers were considered, but he concluded there was not a substantial likelihood of conviction."
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/06/22/...
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The man in charge of the Vancouver jail the night Frank Paul was left in the alley where he died nine years ago said he didn't believe Paul was intoxicated enough to be kept in the drunk tank.
Paul, a former resident of the Big Cove First Nation in New Brunswick, died of hypothermia because of exposure due to alcohol intoxication.
Video played earlier to the inquiry shows officers dragging Paul's limp body into the jail's elevator. His soaking body left a long wet streak along the floor.
www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/01/07/bc-fr...
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As pieced together from the police video by the 2004 Ryneveld report, a "motionless" Paul was dragged into the jail elevator at 8:25 p.m. on December 5, 1998. His condition was seen by a number of individuals, including the sergeant on duty, who determined that Paul wasn't intoxicated. Five minutes later, at 8:30 p.m., a police wagon driver and a provincial jail guard dragged "a still rain-soaked, motionless Frank Paul from the elevator to the police wagon along the floor of the wagon bay area". The wagon driver delivered another intoxicated person in the wagon to a detoxification centre before placing Paul in a nearby alley. His lifeless body was found at 2:41 a.m. on December 6, 1998, at that same location.
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