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AMAECHI AT 56: Celebrating an Enigmatic Architect of a New & Secured Rivers State! … Excerpts from Eze's New Book!
Rt. Hon. Dr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi
By Eze Chukwuemeka Eze
It has become customary, since 2008, that I must pen one or two treatise(s) to celebrate the birthday of Rt. Hon. Dr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, erstwhile Governor of Rivers State and incumbent Minster of Transportation of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. To the glory of God, I have been doing my best to keep alive this idea and custom since then till date.
With his 56th birthday at hand, series of topics came rushing to my mind, of which the most important was to expose to the world the inputs and impact made by this man to actualise the Presidency of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Another key topic that came up was to examine the great feats of this man during his golden reign as the Governor of Rivers State. As I was trying to settle down on any of these topics, another topic presented itself and that was; how Amaechi turned around the fortunes of the rail system in Nigeria. As if this was not enough, some of the elders from different sections of the country sent in text messages that I should do something for this year's birthday celebration on Amaechi and the 2023 Presidency.
Though several materials on each of these topics aforementioned have been assembled but after many thoughts, I decided to honour this man that has made his mark as an astute, visionary and respected political leader of our nation during his 56th birthday with this piece which I titled, "Amaechi At 56: Celebrating An Enigmatic Architect Of A New & Secured Rivers State!… Excerpts From Eze's New Book!
Though this man is an enigma so writing on him on any issue most of the time is always challenging but having been with him all these years it gives me a lot of joy to unearth to the world some aspects of his political life hitherto unknown. So, as you travel with me on this particular journey, it would be left to you at the end to pass your judgement if justice was truly done to this topic or not.
The idea of writing on this piece stems from the current security challenges facing Nigeria and what were the strategies adopted by this enigma to arrest similar security situation that was the issue in Rivers State before him Amaechi assumed the reins of administration in Rivers State as the Governor from 2007 to 2015
Excerpt from Chapter Four of the book titled, "Amaechi: His Feats, Inspirational, Revolutionary Leadership Style & Its Impact in Rivers State & Nigeria".
Eze's Book on Amaechi
RIVERS SECURITY SITUATION UNDER AMAECHI AND WIKE
It was Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside, former Director-General of NIMASA, former Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on (Downstream) Petroleum and 2015 All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate in Rivers State, immediate past DG of NIMASA who stated in an article titled 'How to tackle insecurity in Nigeria': "Security, law and order are the major preoccupation of any government. Once a government gets this priority right, it has made the very first right step. Growing insecurity on the reverse side is the first sign of a failing state."
Petersides's view on security tallies with that of poet and political philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who had stated: "The three great ends which a statesman ought to propose to himself in the government of a nation are 1. Security to possessors, 2. Facility to acquirers, 3. Hope to all."
Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi concurred by stating: "Government must not be for one section of the society. It must be for the rich and the poor, emphasising the upliftment of the poor…"
With the above quotes, the main aim of this chapter of my book is to unravel the insecurity and security challenges facing Rivers State in Nigeria, particularly now that Chief Nyesom Wike, the Governor of Rivers State, in his recent interview with The Sun newspaper described his mentor, benefactor, and predecessor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi's eight years administration in Rivers State as wasted years. It not only behoves on those of us who witnessed these eight years to actually put the records straight and avoid the misconception before the public domain envisaged by the said interview.
Based on this challenge of putting or straightening the facts, my continuous efforts to appraise and review the activities of the enigma they call Amaechi, the indefatigable former Governor of Rivers State and incumbent Minister of Transportation, with much emphasis on his eight years tenure as the Governor of Rivers State becomes imperative. I will in this chapter use insecurity to further establish that Amaechi's administration was not a waste, as being postulated by Wike and his cronies.
In doing this, I will present the insecurity episode during the period of Amaechi's administration and how he curtailed the menace; and how Wike created the current insecurity in Rivers State, and, for you the reader to judge if his eight years was a waste or not.
With the above, let me therefore state that the main point of this attempt is to review the strategies adopted by the Rivers State Government under the watch of Rotimi Amaechi in tackling the menace of insecurity in Rivers State, prior to his assumption of office on 28th October, 2007 and how Wike, the incumbent governor, instead of adopting same, created the 'Rivers of blood'.
For matter of clarity, Rivers State is the hub of oil industry in Nigeria and very rich in hydrocarbons from which the nation draws its major revenue. And, because it was confronted with key security challenges especially the challenges of illegal bunkering, piracy, kidnapping and armed robbery, this attempt becomes exigent.
To Rotimi Amaechi, "inability of elected leaders to provide adequate security for the citizenry is an impeachable offence. The first offence governors commit is when they are unable to provide adequate security for the people. This is because the first oath taken by elected leaders is to protect life and property. It is the responsibility of the government to provide security for the people."
THE CHALLENGES AND CAUSES OF INSECURITY IN RIVERS STATE
One of the major forces behind the menace of insecurity in Rivers State was class challenge. Lady Dorothy Alison captured this aptly when she stated, "The horror of class stratification, racism, and prejudice is that some people begin to believe that the security of their families… and communities depends on the oppression of others, that for some to have good lives there must be others whose lives are truncated and brutal".
Affirming the truism by Lady Alison, former Governor Amaechi enthused, "When we took over the reins of governance in the State we met a situation where people were being given cash, but we decided to take the extreme position of not giving money to people, but doing projects that would impact positively on the lives of the majority of our people". This stand of the Amaechi team to stop the method which was the practice hitherto of sharing State funds to some seasoned politicians and groups who in turn used it to sponsor militia groups that constituted security challenges in the State is the philosophy upon which he centered the fight against the menace of insecurity. The decision also created enemies for him because it was a channel of income to some politicians.
Apart from class challenges as postulated above, insecurity in Rivers State was occasioned by greed for power; empowering and arming our youths with sophisticated weapons in order to undo political opponents in the State. Another great influence of insecurity was the wickedness of the politicians in undermining the future of the youths and misuse of public funds and the common patrimony of the State. Instead of investments that would create jobs for the teeming youths, the funds were distributed amongst cronies and relations.
THE TYPE OF RIVERS STATE INHERITED BY FORMER GOV CHIBUIKE ROTIMI AMAECHI!
According to records, Port Harcourt, the State capital of Rivers State that Amaechi inherited, was more like a war zone or aptly put a jungle where the fittest determines the fate of the lesser humans. It sounds pretty surprising but not unexpected that the city of Port Harcourt, a once very glamorous city, was ranked among the three most dangerous cities in the world by then. The human resources unit of New York-based Marsh & McLennan Cos. had ranked Port Harcourt with Baghdad, Yemen's capital of Sana'a and Khartoum in Sudan, as the world's most dangerous cities. Going by the ranking published by Bloomberg, Port Harcourt ranked with Baghdad as one of the world's most dangerous cities for foreign workers as criminal gangs and militia groups seeking greater control of energy revenue step up attacks.
Ahamefula Ogbu, a Journalist with Thisday Newspapers, described one of the scenes in the State at this period in these words; "Rambo could not have done better. With automatic rifles in their hands and hate, revenge, and murder hanging around their necks, warring cultists took Port Harcourt, Rivers State, by storm yesterday for the second day running. Pandemonium broke out as residents ran for safety. It was sorrow, tears and blood. At the end of it all—or, more aptly, at the interval, for no one knows the end yet—15 persons had been dispatched to their early graves' and true to this unsung prophet nobody knew the end as the next few days saw about eighty innocent souls wasted by an agitation uncommon to our people in the Niger Delta."
While my late friend and brother, Mr. George Onah, reporting for Vanguard Newspaper captured Port Harcourt before the assumption of office by Gov. Amaechi in these words; "For many residents, the capital of Rivers State, hitherto the Garden City where life was lived to the fullest, is no longer the place to live in as rivers of blood flow ceaselessly following an unending siege by militants, kidnappers, cultists, and criminals of other hue.
Violence in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has gone full circle and the guns are still booming. The casualties are piling, even as blood of defenceless citizens' flow endlessly. Neither the Police nor the government has answers to the brigandage. Security outfits do not have official figures, record or reliable estimates of casualties in the Rivers State orgy of killings.
Even the number of deaths during the Nigerian Civil War had a consensus of informed opinion on the number of deaths, on both sides, which hovered, realistically around 600,000 and below. But the rapidity of casualties in the onslaught by gunmen on Rivers State cannot simply be pigeonholed. The currency of killings is alarming and the growth of the economy of the state is heading for the deep".
The pattern of the crime ranges from kidnapping of expatriates and children of wealthy parentage, to outright violent robbery. Cultism and political vices equally occupy a frightening position on the crime chart. The volatile atmosphere appears to have annulled whatever achievement of the peace and reconciliation committee of the government".
As if both Ogbu and late Onah did not capture the picture correctly, Okey Ndibe, a respected opinion leader on national issues in Nigeria in his article during this period published by the Sahara Reporters, one of the leading online media on Nigerian political activities titled; 'A blood soaked city' described the happenings in Rivers State then in these words; "That the once idyllic Port Harcourt was now a scarred place, a war zone, a city soaked in blood; the city under siege with thousands of citizens displaced; that its once quiescent boulevards and avenues were now ruled by marauding militiamen and by the fierce soldiers deployed to dislodge them. Sudden death by bullet was now a generalized hazard for the city's trapped and hapless residents."
Affirming the unfortunate state of Rivers State then, an icon and Prince of Niger Delta Politics, Prince Tonye Princewill, in an interview during this period stated thus, "Rivers State, when Amaechi took over was a garrison state. Now that things have changed, people refer to him, like they do to Fashola, as a performing governor though the only difference between the two is that Fashola had a foundation in Tinubu but in the case of Amaechi, it was not so!".
STRATEGIES ADOPTED TO ADDRESS THE MENACE OF INSECURITY
According to Noam Chomsky, "The U.S. international and security policy … has as its primary goal the preservation of what we might call "the Fifth Freedom," understood crudely but with a fair degree of accuracy as the freedom to rob, to exploit and to dominate, to undertake any course of action to ensure that existing privilege is protected and advanced". The fact remains that it seems that former Governor Amaechi on assumption of office adopted this US security policy in tackling the menace of insecurity in the State as he went out exploiting all means humanly possible to arrest this ugly trend. Apart from declaring war on all the militia groups in the State and refusing any form of dialogue or negotiations with them, he ensured that the security organs in the State were well motivated and trained to tackle the menace of insecurity in the State.
Explaining further on how former Governor Amaechi handled the security challenges of the State at this period, Dr. Dakuku Peterside stated as follows, "When I had the privilege of serving in the government of Rivers State under the leadership of Governor Amaechi, I observed that he placed high premium on security because he believed that security was the foundation upon which progress in every other facet of development depends. This is aside from government's proactive disposition which drew substantially from intelligence gathering, surveillance and the fact that law enforcement agents could reasonably predict potential crime with near perfect accuracy.
Another interesting aspect of the Rivers model is the deployment of technology. Without sounding immodest, I can confidently say that the state's security network is driven by excellent modern technology. Rivers was the first state to acquire a mobile scanning van known as back scatter. Around the Port-Harcourt metropolis, there are Gantry Scanners at strategic entry locations in Onne- Eleme Road, East-West Road, Choba Road, Oyibo Road, Ikwere Road, Aba Road and Mbiama Road among others".
Throwing more light on the postulations of Peterside, a security expert and CEO, MPD Security Systems, Engr. David Meyer, stated as follows, "The first step we took in Rivers State was to raise capacity among selected police personnel, over 200, through local and overseas training in Israel and other parts of the world on modern crime fighting techniques and intelligence gathering". Working with modern gadgets and substantial logistics including an Israeli trained concealed weapon detecting dog, these crossbred police team had since been strategically placed at main outskirt check posts witnessing mass movement in and out of Port Harcourt City. Others lead a number of metro patrol teams responding to security emergencies around the town and environs. These were as far as the public could see.
Beyond public view, as part of Rivers current long-term vision of security, Meyer pointed to underground application of ICT-aided security hardware and software helping the police to sense and react to security situations with dispatch. This network of technology managed by experts from a hub location which Meyer would not disclose for security reasons, employed the C4I urban surveillance cameras watching over the city and active then 24hrs of the day in Port Harcourt and environs.
The interactions between the seen and unseen infrastructures, according to Meyer, accounted for the security operatives swift bursting of some of failed organized crime operations, including an attempted raid of a bank in the Mile 4 area of the city. He said then, "These measures have been working well and while the public did not know, it led to several arrests and we have gained convictions against suspects on account of the improved network", he had emphasized.
Supporting the views of Hon. Chief Peterside and Engr. Meyer, His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Chibuike stated then thus; "We have done a lot about security. We are doing more. Before we came to office, kidnapping was a serious challenge. We have dealt with it substantially. We are finishing December, 2012 without a single report of kidnapping or armed robbery. We have specially trained policemen handling security. Barring any unforeseen circumstance, any moment from now, the Rivers State Government's security web would be two surveillance helicopters stronger, laying the foundation for a standing air wing to give the state 24-hour security coverage."
He said the helicopters; costing almost $30m (N4.5bn) with surveillance cameras to fly all over the city of Port Harcourt and other parts of the state would arrive at the end of December (2012) and commence operations in January, 2013. He stated that Rivers then had in place a technology reliable for tracking criminals and their hideouts. But sadly, Chief Nyesom Wike and former President Dr Jonathan ensured that these helicopters never arrived Rivers State until sometime in 2017.
The former Governor who is a major proponent of State Policing postulated, "If we have State Police, Rivers would be able to train its police the way it wants. It would not have suffered the loss of those 500 policemen it trained. Most states are spending a lot of money improving the police which are not under their control. States can use the same resources to fund their own police. Only those with something to hide are afraid of State Police."
The impacts of the Rivers of Peace Under Amaechi
The results of the peaceful state of Rivers State under the watch of Gov Amaechi had resulted not only to attraction of foreign investments but during this period Port Harcourt was the haven of both international and national championships. Apart from hosting one of the best organised editions of the National Sports Festival ever in Nigeria, the School Sports was hosted by the State including the Police Games. Port Harcourt apart from Abuja and probably Lagos was the only State to have hosted US-Nigeria bi-National Conference. The city during this golden period hosted the Miss ECOWAS Beauty Pageant, Pan African Parliamentary; Garden City Literary Festival, hosted CARNRIV involving several foreign countries to showcase the rich culture, potentials and beauty of her people, the Dr Claude Ake Memorial Lecture series, Rivers State Investment Forum and Governor's Interactive Session with Rivers State Youths amongst several other meets the city had hosted to prove its acceptability as the most peaceful and progressive city in Nigeria.
Kudos of course must go to Alh. Suleiman Abba, the then Commissioner of Police and former Inspector General of Police, for his commitment and no-nonsense approach to crime in the State; the then Brigade Commander, the Air force Commander, and Director of SSS, for their commitment in ensuring that Rivers State was recovered from the hands of hoodlums! Kudos also goes to the then Secretary to the Rivers State Government, Barr Magnus Abe.
Wike's reckless ambition and the creation of a deadly atmosphere succinctly captured as 'Rivers of blood'
Chief Wike's ambition to succeed Amaechi as the governor of Rivers State (which may be shocking to most political watchers) started from his days as Chief of Staff to the then Governor Amaechi. The fact remains that while Amaechi was busy providing dividends of democracy to the people, Wike, on the other hand, was busy undermining Amaechi and using all the connections and goodwill of the Rivers State Government not only to station his men in strategic positions in government, but to empower most of them financially through award of contracts, initiation and other means. He tested the ground of his ambition when he was appointed as the Director- General for the re-election of Amaechi as governor of Rivers State in 2011. It was a position he ensured that only his men were appointed to strategic fields to serve as key mobilisers at the grassroots level. By the time he was appointed minister of state in the Ministry of Education, based on the recommendation of Amaechi to Dr. Jonathan, Wike went further with his gubernatorial ambition plot by forming the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), a political pressure group he used to deceive the public, that it was formed to assist in the re-election of then President Jonathan. In fact, the outfit was formed to pursue his gubernatorial ambition. He used the outfit to formally recruit his foot soldiers for the battle ahead. Under our nose, this body was heavily financed and motivated, and its presence was established in all the constituencies of Rivers State.
It was this group that he used to dislodge over 11 key Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members that wanted to contest the 2015 governorship election under the PDP platform. Those that wanted to play games were properly beaten up and molested at the party's national secretariat at Abuja. Before this time, Wike, based on political exigency, tactfully suppressed his gubernatorial ambition from public view. Instead, he offered himself as a tool to spearhead the political battle between Jonathan and Amaechi. He gave everything within him to execute this, with the PDP ticket as a target.
Towards creating the 'Rivers of blood'
Recruitment of militants
Apart from creating the deadly and infamous GDI, Wike, while serving as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria paid visits to some notable former warlords from the Niger Delta, dislodged by the Amaechi's administration soliciting their support for his gubernatorial ambition. In this regard, it was reported that he donated his six months' salaries to Tompolo Foundation. Stanley Azuakola of TheScoop, in his report entitled, Nyesom Wike donates 6 months' salary to ex-militant Tompolo Foundation stated: "There are reports that the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, who is currently involved in a bitter struggle with the current Rivers Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, has donated his salary for the next six months, which amounts to about N11.742 million, to the Chief Tompolo Foundation." Link:http://www.thescoopng.com/report-nyesom-wike-donates-6-months-salary-to-ex-militant-tompolo-foundation/Implication of the donation
An online media platform, Newsdiaryonline, which also reported the donation and its purpose said: 'The donation by the Minister is seen as part of covert moves to consolidate plans to work with Mr Tompolo to disrupt the peace in his home state, Rivers State. This is seen as part of the plot to oust the incumbent Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who is seen to have parted ways with President Goodluck Jonathan. Reports indicate that Mr. Wike has boasted that he will deploy his wide contacts within the judiciary to recruit everyone necessary to ensure he has his way in Rivers State. No one has yet made any response on behalf of Rivers State Government to this revelation. However, reliable sources reveal that residents of the state have sighted a gradual resurgence of ex-militant groups that had hitherto taken flight from the state due to the tough stance of the Amaechi-led administration on militant activities. Most of these militants had fled the state for more accommodating havens like Bayelsa and Akwa-Ibom states, and Abuja in the face of the onslaught on criminal activities by the Rivers State Government. With the frosty relationship between the governor and Presidency, and with the controversial complacent role of the State Commissioner of Police, these ex-militants are now finding their ways back to the state.
'Some residents who prefer to remain anonymous have expressed concern that the sudden return of these ex-militants to the state hold very ominous signs for the state, and that their intentions cannot be good.' This fear is now loudly very imminent in Rivers State today, as residents now sleep with two eyes wide open."
In another development, according to TheScoop publication of January 20, 2014 titled 'Amaechi has not started crying yet' – boasts Nyesom Wike; Segun Odeleye reported that Wike was quoted as saying: 'We are free of any arrest; no police will arrest any member of GDI or interrupt their activities or gathering in this state. Don't forget, it is Amaechi who was ordering police to arrest GDI members anywhere they are gathering. Now he is the one crying over arrest and disruption of APC gathering in the state. He has not started crying: the police will continue to chase them until they learn how to follow the due process before hosting any meeting or rally. Rivers State is for PDP. The best thing for Governor Ameachi is to resign and have peace, because as long he remains the governor, he will never have peace.' Link: http://www.thescoopng.com/amaechi-has-not-started-crying-yet-boasts-nyesom-wike/
A versatile public commentator, Uche Igwe, a doctoral research fellow at Sussex Centre for the Study of Corruption, University of Sussex, titled "Of Nyesom Wike And President Jonathan's Conflict Entrepreneurs", described Wike as 'a tough and undiplomatic man with a thug-minded determination and a deep-pocket that thrives in a policy of vindictiveness.' Known as Eze Gburugburu by his admirers, the former Chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government is acclaimed to be a brutal schemer who maximised his position as chief of staff in Brick House to stockpile enormous financial resources for himself. The bulkily framed politician is also someone who understands and believes in the power of money and readily deploys it as a political tool to achieve helpful and, most times, unhelpful political ends. Another former loyalist described him as 'a merciless politician with a limitless capacity for mischief.'
Late Sam Nda-Isaiah, a frontline APC Presidential candidate and Publisher of Leadership Newspaper, in his reaction to Wike and Jonathan's absurdity in Rivers State in an article published by TheScoop of August 12, 2013 titled, "Why does the President enjoy the company of gangsters? stated: 'The Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, who is at the centre of the crisis in Rivers State with the clear support of the President, Goodluck Jonathan, and the co-president, Patience Jonathan, now operates above the law in the state. To worsen the joke, he has even declared for the governorship of the state. It is very hard to believe that a serving minister would make that kind of statement and still be kept in the cabinet by the President. But that has been our lot since Jonathan became President.' Link: http://www.thescoopng.com/sam-nda-isaiah-why-does-the-president-enjoy-the-company-of-gangsters/
Given the forgoing, why should blood not flow in Rivers?
Before and during the March/April 2015 General Elections in Rivers State, it was reported that about 100 members of All Progressives Congress (APC) were slaughtered, with their local secretariats at Andoni and Okirika bombed. The live telecast by Channels TV during the shootings on the APC Rally at Okirika should be very visible on the minds of Nigerians.
During the 2016 rerun elections of April 2016, the APC's National Working Committee, in a press statement, noted: "APC members in Rivers State are fast becoming [an] endangered species." That was after scores of members were killed in recent weeks. The committee released a list of 32 party members it claimed had been killed by a variety of methods: "several were beheaded, others clubbed to death and one man burned alive."
Till date, under the watch of Governor Wike, about 200 Rivers State citizens have been killed.
Though there are several other subtopics under this Chapter not included in this treatise because of lack of space fully discussed in the book like "Creation of Rivers of Blood" etc but I will like to conclude this treatise with the statement by one of the best brains on the politics of Rivers State Chief Christie Obiaruko Ndukwe in one of her numerous articles on Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimo Amaechi titled, "Amaechi: When Passion Overshadows Knowledge"
According to this Queen of the Pen described in some Quarters as the Christiane Amanpour of Nigeria because of her fearless nature and ability to discuss an issue not only intelligently but flawlessly, "
"…While I restrict myself to issues bothering on the security of lives and properties in our nation, I won't fail to commend the Federal Government in areas where it has done well. But what is a good Railway without security? What is a good road without adequate security for road users? And even if we have more Okonjo-Iwealas, Amina Mohammeds and Akinwumi Adesinas representing Nigeria in the global market, of what relevance would that be without the security of the people they represent back home?
The sing-song of putting square pegs in square holes ought to hit the President now. The obvious war situation in the North by Northerners against Northerners is gradually trickling down to the South with local collaborators aiding and abetting the supposed foreigners in their own homes.
Do we sit down and play politics while the country drifts into the abyss without remedy?
The time has come for stiffer measures in combating the security issues we face and only those who have proved their mettle in similar situations can be handed over the responsibility as such a time as this.
To Amaechi, I say, it's a call to duty to help rescue the country from imminent collapse occasioned by both external and internal insurgents.
Let the miracle of Okochiri forest take place in Sambisa!"
I just pray that our eyes can be opened to understand the import of this article.
Happy birthday my brother!
Happy birthday the future of our nation!!
Happy birthday to the man with the golden midas touch!!!
My prayer for you is God to keep you alive and grant you better years ahead for better services to our nation and humanity at large.
Eze Chukwuemeka Eze is a Media Consultant based in Port Harcourt and can be reached through: ezemediaconcept2020@gmail.com
Chief Christie Obiaruko Ndukwe
Chief Nyesom Wike
Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside
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9/26/2010 Darling Of The Day: Kelly Ripa's Chic Blazer & Sandals On-Set Style!
For another new series of blog entries here on Style Darling, I'm taking a cue from my favorite magazine In Style & will be featuring a look of the day. Although, in my case, it will be a Darling of the Day. In finding accessible looks worn by celebrities, we're taught all the fancy & fun ways an outfit can turn out. Of course, making the "daily" commitment isn't going to be easy, as I'm fighting off a cold- still-but this type of blog is certainly my favorite. I'll be featuring a celebrity look- new or old- & will feature items to recreate that look at a reasonable price. Easy enough, right?
Today's look is Kelly Ripa, who went casual for a recent episode of Live! With Regis & Kelly in layered tanks, a navy blazer, gray boyfriend jeans, & lavender sandals. With the tanks & uber-cute sandals, she's a perfect example of how to integrate your summer pieces into fall, getting the most out of your wardrobe.
Top (Banana Republic), Jeans (Forever 21), Jacket (Forever 21), Shoes (Payless), Belt (Bluefly), Bangles (Shop4Sparkles), & Necklace (Banana Republic). Also, check out this mannequin on Polyvore, as well as others like it to recreate more celebrity styles! Happy Styling!
This entry was posted in Darling Of The Day, Red Carpet Review, Style Darling Daily and tagged Banana Republic, Bluefly, boyfriend jeans, Darling of the Day, Forever 21, In Style, Kelly Ripa, lavender sandals, Live! With Regis & Kelly, navy blazer, Payless, Shop4Sparkles. Bookmark the permalink.
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text:
Urban Lettering Walks
Legacy of Letters
Visual Work
Paul Shaw
Editorial & Curatorial
Ten Simple Rules for Researching Letterforms
More conversations with Michael Harvey
History of Western letters integrating calligraphy, epigraphy and printing. Undated spread from notebook by Michael Harvey. Scan courtesy of Michael Harvey.
Last year (27 March 2012) Imprint published an interview I conducted with my longtime friend Michael Harvey, the triple-threat lettercarver/jacket designer/type designer. After it was posted I continued to email Michael with the intention of publishing an addendum to the interview. Unfortunately, after a month or so our conversation petered out as we both became absorbed in other things. In memory of Michael, who passed away on October 18 at the age of 82, I am publishing the remaining portions of our conversation.
Paul Let's restart our conversation by talking about the people you have worked with over the years. To begin with, can you describe what it was like to work for Reynolds Stone? What sort of work did you do for him and what sort of person was he? What did you learn from him?
Michael Reynolds Stone's ancestor was Sir Joshua Reynolds, whom he was named after. Educated at Eton, studied history at Cambridge, making meticulous models of sea-going barges in holidays at West Bay, where he got to know the skippers. His skills led to wood engraving. His cousin, Will Carter, gave him commissions he could not handle—much demand for memorials after WWII. Reynolds preferred wood engraving, so needed an assistent to carve memorials. I joined him in 1955.
Reynolds was surprised that I expected to be paid. In his world, fathers supported their sons until they were 28! He agreed to pay me one quarter of his fees. At the start, he laid out inscriptions on the slate in white watercolor, did a lot of pencil scribbling to correct spacing, then I began cutting. The first job was a large table tomb, one side six feet long, two end panels about four feet square. The job took three months to complete, and I earned £50. Later on I was allowed to layout inscriptions myself following Reynolds' drawings. I spent six years with Reynolds, during which time he taught me nothing directly. But he had a huge library, including all the Fleurons, which he would let me borrow, so I absorbed most from books rather than from Reynolds himself. I carved letters in the old stables, while Reynolds engraved them on boxwood in the Old Rectory, a splendid early 18-century building. We met for midmorning coffee and to read the papers. Later he would come out to the stables to check on my work. Once he thought my letters where too bold so I had to start again on a new piece of slate. Slate was his favorite material; the finest letters could be cut in slate, the nearest thing to boxwood. He liked the effect of light letters on a dark background.
Wood engraved alphabets by Reynolds Stone (1953). With the kind permission of Humphrey Stone.
As a man, Reynolds was very modest, liked working at home, didn't like going to London. His mentor, Stanley Morison, liked living in the city, had no time for the country but loved trains, so could be lured down to visit Reynolds by the three-hour train ride to West Dorset. Before it was fashionable to like Victoriana, Reynolds collected nineteenth-century books, admired William Morris patterns. I liked Scandinavian fashions so didn't go for Reynolds' taste in interiors. Reynolds Stone was a gentleman who loved the past, while I had no time for the past!
Michael Harvey carving letters during his time with Reynolds Stone at the Old Rectory (c. 1955). The hat is an homage to Eric Gill. Photograph courtesy of Michael Harvey.
Paul Once you left Stone and went freelance you said earlier that you began doing jackets for Methuen and other publishers. Are there any individuals at those firms who became longtime clients/patrons? Or did John Ryder and Ian Bain come along later? Did you work with George Mackie? These men are virtually unknown to Americans and I am sure that is also true for younger designers in general. Can you provide portraits of these men? What sort of work did you do for them? How much did they direct you or leave you alone? Were you paid better than with Stone?
Michael I began designing jackets in 1957, didn't meet John Ryder until 1964. Before then I was commissioned by several publishers, given quite a free hand. I soon learned how to please very diverse companies: some academic, others with religious or fictional lists. None of these art directors influenced me. Because I produced work on time most continued to use me. One client I recall was Diana Athill at André Deutsch, a superb editor responsible for bringing some American authors (Philip Roth, Norman Mailer) to English readers. Now in her mid-nineties she is still being published both here and in the US.
John Ryder was a quiet man, art director of The Bodley Head and devoted to books and type. He carried on a correspondence with Paul Standard. Ryder drew my attention to type, commissioning two typefaces for the company. As for jackets, he had me draw very condensed type characters—condensed letters are very useful on book jackets. He also restrained my graphic playfulness somewhat. A friend recently wrote: "In Terry O'Donnell's research (held at the Crafts Centre, Farnham), I see John Ryder was very nice about you: 'Michael Harvey needs restraining sometimes, but he's about the best' (!)".
It is good to know people whose taste you repect. "What would John make of this?" was a regular question. Iain Bain's, too. Iain is a book man through and through, an expert on all kinds of books, and the authority on the wood engraver Thomas Bewick. As with Reynolds Stone, I absorbed so much from these men in terms of taste and knowledge.
In the early days, the fee for a jacket was 10 guineas (Chatto & Windus had me sign away my international rights!). Cambridge University Press paid 15 guineas. Over the years fees rose to £25, still modest considering that a jacket took a day and a half: a rough or two (I tried to get roughs down to one to stop publishers asking for a third), then artwork drawn in a day. I think even these modest sums were more than Reynolds paid. From 1961 I was teaching part-time at Bournemouth art school, which brought in regular money.
Paul Was Ian Bain an art director or designer at a publisher or was he an independent book designer? Who did you work with at Cambridge University Press? Since this was still the era of metal type was your artwork made as mechanicals and then converted to zincos or photoengraved blocks? How did the new technologies of Letraset and phototypesetting affect your work at that time?
What classes did you teach at Bournemouth? Are there any students of yours from those days who went on to notable careers?
While you were doing jackets and teaching at Bournemouth had you begun to do lettercutting on your own?
Michael Iain Bain was originally a publisher's rep, but became production manager at The Bodley Head under John Ryder. Finally, Iain became publicity director of The Tate Gallery. He still takes on the design of lavish books of fine prints.
After John Dreyfus introduced me to the Cambridge University Press [CUP], commissions came in the post from Michael Black and John Trevitt. Others who did jackets for the press included Cambridge resident and fine letter carver Will Carter.
I just supplied mechanicals—such a strange term!—with color samples, letting the press do the rest. Letraset? I had the first versions where one floated letters on water. For CUP I sometimes used rubdown Letraset for small captions, sometimes type photographed and stuck in place.
At Bournemouth I taught lettering, set students design tasks, such as using letters to express a book's contents, logos, signage and so on. I've loss track of my students, except for Richard Healy who for a time was my assistant, a fine letter carver, wood engraver. He has written for Matrix and Parenthesis, a journal published alternatively in the US and the UK. Yes, I was carving inscriptions for clients while teaching at Bournemouth. I was part-time, two or three days a week. Income from teaching kept us afloat.
This is where our conversation unfortunately trailed off. I had planned to ask Michael about his design of Zephyr for Ludlow Typograph, his designs Ellington and Strayhorn for Monotype Corporation, his Fine Fonts business with Andy Benedek, details of his love of jazz, bicycles, photography and single malt Scotch, and—especially—his longtime relationship with the Scottish poet Ian Hamilton Findlay. I regret the opportunity missed, but am glad that I at least captured some of Michael's reminiscences for posterity.
Reynolds Stone (1909–1979) was an engraver, lettercarver, type designer and painter.
Will Carter (1912–2001) was a printer, lettercarver and type designer.
John Ryder (1917–2001) was a book designer, private press printer and author.
Stanley Morison (1889–1967) was an advisor to Monotype Corporation, Cambridge University Press and The Times of London. He wrote extensively on type design, typographic history, calligraphy and lettering history. He is credited with the design of Times New Roman.
Paul Standard (1897–1992) was a publicist for Canadian Pacific Railroad, an author, calligrapher and teacher. He wrote extensively on calligraphy and on figures in the worlds of calligraphy, type design and graphic design.
Ian Bain is a book designer and printing historian.
Bournemouth Municipal College of Art merged with the Poole College of Art in 1964. Between 1980 and 1912 the school changed its name several times. It is now Arts University Bournemouth.
The Bodley Head was a British publisher established in 1887. It was acquired by Random House in 1987 and ceased as an adult imprint in 1990.
Chatto & Windus is a British publisher established in 1855 and acquired by Random House in 1987.
The Fleuron (1923–1930) was a journal of typography and the book arts established by the Fleuron Society. Its seven volumes were edited by Oliver Simon and Stanley Morison.
Matrix: A Review for Printers and Bibliophiles has been published since 1982 by The Whittington Press.
Parenthesis is the journal of the Fine Press Book Association. It has been published since 1998.
Design historian & writer, Graphic design educator, Graphic designer, Lettering artist
Biography / Email Paul
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Yesterday I bashed a chipmunk to death with a rock. I couldn't stand the screams any longer. Anger, frustration, irritation…sadness, reluctance, gratitude… all felt at once, in the same moment, and then some!
I shouldn't interfere. That cat is acting according to 'instinct.' The cat is a natural hunter. Cats = predator; chipmunks = prey. Simple math. Death as prolonged agony to the prey, and to your ears? Externalities of mere sentiment.
Nature. Natural. Evolution. God's plan. The Way It Is. No contour. No context.
My feelings? Irrelevant. Unnatural. Domesticated. Weak…depending on one's perspective, of course. Many flavors for you, the moralist, the miserablist, the socially acceptable. For me: the bad, sick, the discontent. My feelings equate to a problem to be fixed, resolved, healed: a rationalist's tikkun olam.
Enough of your moral optical illusions! I'm no woman in a box to be sawed in two for your magic show.
Is a disease of our ideas.
Nature is parts without a whole.
This is perhaps that mystery they speak of.
God and Nature are silent! Neither have ever lived.
Your 'nature' is no-thing to me. Your 'culture' of misery for me to overcome! Your morality? An ugly dance of avoiding your ownness.
No more 'cat nature' and 'human nature' and your fuzzy concept…Nature! The world you engender is the world you can and may own. Your 'property' is no-thing, but your own qualities!
You? I? Also only parts with no whole. Even all the 'meat' is in flux, never to be stepped in twice! 'You' and 'I' indicate 'earth pieces' where this flux finds any and every possibility of joyful gratitude interwoven in uncountable ways seen and unseen.
I will not abide by your morality, your 'nature,' your 'how things are.' As such: this cat eats, this chipmunk dies, and I hate torture, refuse it. Struggle against it where I'm able.


Some pastor with hip glasses and a neck tattoo who started a church in a renovated train station downtown. Amidst the Victorian spindles and chandeliers, our services would employ some ancient, underappreciated Rite you've probably never heard of–Celtic maybe. Afterwards we would all ride our bikes to the new coffee place to sip espresso and discuss the trendiest new social causes.
An Anglican church in the old money part of town. Because of its strong Eastern influence, it uses the Byzantine Rite complete with the incense and the icons and the domed mosaics.1 When the Divine Liturgy finishes, we all meet at the local bookstore to smoke pipes and discuss abstract theology.
Sadly, none of these places exist. Instead of these awesome dream churches, each actual church just smacked me with the dull greyness of reality.
For instance, all evangelical churches were out. At first, there were a couple I was optimistic about. There was this one called….actually, I forget the name. I only went once. It met in a renovated house built around 1900. That's why I went the one time. But when I saw that it was a typical evangelical church without a single high church accoutrement(!), I knew it was time to leave.
But more fundamentally, I couldn't go to any evangelical church. I had been a cynic of evangelicals for too long. Retreating back to them would feel like admitting defeat. Worse still, it would mean proving my parents right. And that was totally unacceptable.
There was an Anglican church that I liked, but finally decided against. It was called Anglican Church International or something.3 Everything was good–good preaching, good community. And they were a historic church that was passionate about its faith. This should have been perfect.
But instead of being happy, I searched for little things to criticize. For instance, the service was too broadchurch4 for my liking. Guitars and drums, with lyrics on a screen overhead. There were no bells, no crucifer, and not even a whiff of incense. The building could also use some more pizazz. There was no stained glass, no icons, and no stone facades. Also, the church wasn't in the coolest section of town. It really would have helped if they were in Manitou, or maybe closer to downtown….
So you've heard MY dumb reasons for rejecting churches. What are some of yours?
4 Ideally, you should say "broadchurch" with a posh British accent.


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Goldblatt's work has found critical acclaim internationally as well as domestically, his work was shown at the Photographer's Gallery in 1974 and 1986, he had a solo exhibition at MOMA in New York in 1998, while during this time was also represented by the two alpha South African galleries; Michael Stevenson Gallery and the Goodman Gallery. His work is included in all the major South African museum collections as well as international collections such as the Victoria and Alfred Museum in London and MOMA in New York.
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Idea and reality
Presidents of the Chamber of States
Vice-Presidents of the Chamber of States
Chamber of States
This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Länderkammer
German Democratic Republic (East Germany)
Upper House
Disbanded
Nazi Reichstag
People's Chamber
Socialist Unity Party
President (1949–1960)
State Council (1960–1990)
Head of Government
Constitutional Assembly
General elections
Christian Democratic Union
Democratic Farmers' Party
Liberal Democratic Party
National Democratic Party
East Berlin (independent)
Karl-Marx-Stadt
The Chamber of States (German: Länderkammer) was the upper chamber of the bicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from its founding in 1949 until 1952, at which time it was largely sidelined, when the five Länder (states) of East Germany ceased to exist and were replaced with smaller administrative regions. The Chamber of States itself was dissolved on 8 December 1958. The lower chamber, which continued in existence until German reunification in 1990, was the People's Chamber (Volkskammer).
In the Federal Republic of Germany the expression Länderkammer is sometimes used to denote the Bundesrat although it is not considered to be a parliament chamber.
A Session of the Länderkammer in 1958. The Minister of the Interior Karl Maron is speaking.
Länder in 1947 (grey), and in 1990 (red)
After 1945, the Soviet military administration established the five Länder of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
Initially, in 1949, the communists aimed for a quasi-unitary state, with some degree of decentralization. Laws were to be made by the central legislature in East Berlin, and the Länder authorities were responsible for the implementation of the laws.
In practice, due to the democratic centralism of the SED, the GDR rapidly developed strong centralist tendencies. However, it initially operated in this bicameral framework in which the states were represented. The Chamber of States theoretically had the power to introduce bills and to veto laws proposed by the People's Chamber, although another vote in the People's Chamber could overturn such a veto. The Chamber of States never made use of its veto.
According to the Constitution of East Germany, in addition to the People's Chamber, a "provisional Land Chamber" was formed. The fifty members of the Land Chamber were to be determined by the assemblies in the various Länder, according to the memberships of these assemblies. Saxony sent thirteen delegates, Saxony-Anhalt eleven, Thuringia ten, Brandenburg nine, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern seven. East Berlin sent thirteen delegates, but they did not have voting rights owing to Berlin as a whole still legally being occupied territory. (A similar arrangement existed in West Berlin, in which the city's delegates in the Bundestag and Bundesrat had no voting rights.)
In 1952, the East German Länder were dissolved. The Chamber of States remained in existence, but became increasingly redundant. Since the Landtage could no longer meet to elect members of the Chamber of States, the 1954 delegates for each Länder were chosen by a special meeting of the District Assemblies (Bezirkstage) of that state. The members of the Chamber of States elected in 1958 were directly elected by their Bezirkstage. These delegates were appointed as a "suicide squad," raising no objection as the People's Chamber abolished the Chamber of States on 8 December 1958.
Reinhold Lobedanz October 11, 1949 – March 5, 1955 CDU
August Bach 1955 – December 8, 1958 CDU
August Fröhlich 1950 – 1958 SED
Hans Luthardt 1950 – 1958 NDPD
Erich Hagemeier 1950 – 1954 LDPD
Dr. Karl Mühlmann 1954 – 1958 LDPD
Max Suhrbier 1958 LDPD
Diedrich Besler 1950 – 1954 DBD
Albert Rödiger 1954 – 1958 DBD
Administrative divisions of the German Democratic Republic
Politics of East Germany
Law on the composition of the upper house of the German Democratic Republic.
Upper houses of national legislatures
Dependent and
Non-UN states
British Raj
Kingdom of Serbia
Russian Empire
Weimar Germany
List of abolished upper houses
List of legislatures by country
National lower houses
National bicameral legislatures
National unicameral legislatures
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chamber_of_States&oldid=864553115"
1949 establishments in East Germany
1958 disestablishments
Defunct upper houses
Articles lacking sources from September 2011
Articles containing German-language text


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On at least eight occasions the gospel writers describe Jesus as being "moved with compassion." The familiar story of Mary, Martha and Lazarus reveals His compassionate heart, and in so doing, teaches us how to be a compassionate people.
This is the theme for the 40th Annual Christian Training Series, beginning with tonight's service. Think how great our faith is, and how great our hope is; yet, Paul states by inspiration of God that love is greater still. Why?
Today we celebrate our godly fathers. From this message in the Upper Room, we glean four timeless principles Jesus gave the apostles, principles that also provide our fathers with the proper focus for their greatest task, loving and leading their children.
Mothers spend countless hours serving their children, but their most important job to instill the practice of service in their children.
Some challenges from God are so difficult for us, it is hard to believe that God really means them.


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Homepage > FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN: Women´s bodies and diseases
FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN: Women´s bodies and diseases
Horror, terror, diseases, black magic ‒ I assume these afflictions are all related to order and disorder, cosmos and chaos. Distress and shock make us lose our calm, the security and equilibrium we are striving for in our lives. They threaten the foundations of our existence. Horror lurks where things fall apart, where everything seems to slip out of control, it is approaching us from previously unknown realms.
No wonder that we fear the unknown and even avoid approaching it. Like a friend of mine who fears Muslims ‒ all Muslims. He is a nice man, though he votes for the Sweden Democrats and wants "intruding" Muslims to be thrown out of our country. His neighbor happens to have been born a Bosnian and teaches math at the local school. When I asked my friend why he does not knock on his neighbor´s door and invites him for a cup of coffee, he answered: "You´re crazy! Talking to someone like that? You never know how that may end up". The neighbor would probably say the same: "Knocking at the door of a Sweden Democrat? You never know how that may end up".
However, not all dangers are coming from the outside. Even our own bodies are unknown territories that may harbor threats to our wellbeing. Fibromyalgia is described as chronic pain in muscles and joints, even relatively light pressure may be experienced as excruciating agony. Persons suffering from fibromyalgia tend to have other symptoms as well, like insomnia, fatigue, and stiffness. Needless to say it is a painful affliction, worsened by fact that many dismiss it as a psychosomatic disorder, indicating that it arises from the stress and strain of everyday life. Since we all experience such problems it is quite common to consider people who suffer from psychosomatic disorders as weaklings unable to deal with afflictions that befall us all.
Approximately nine out of ten patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia are women, something that has made some people prone to label it as an "old hag´s disease". Swedish medical records often branded symptoms reminding of fibromyalgia as SVBK, meaning "scorch, pain and bitch burn" an abbreviation once used by medical doctors to denote pain without a well-defined source. To write SVBK in a medical record was thus more or less the same thing as labelling acute pain as "imaginary".
Maybe the term "fibromyalgia" is just another attempt by medical science to attach a label to a number of conditions by stringing them together under a general heading. Naming is often an attempt to define a phenomenon that so far has been inexplicable, to give it an existence. The word is composed of Latin and Greek; fibro, fibrous tissues, myo, muscle and algos, pain. The term fibromyalgia was first applied in 1983 to describe a disease that seemingly lacks any physically determined abnormalities, meaning that physical causes cannot be defined through objective diagnostic tests.
Writing about fibromyalgia I am entering unfamiliar territory, as an excuse I might assert that my blog is not intended to be a scientific treatise, rather a reservoir for musings and idiosyncrasies. A statement reminding me of the Swedish author August Strindberg, who as an old man ‒ old? He was actually a few years younger than I am now ‒ unconditionally threw himself into the unknown, disregarding established theories and methods. Strindberg´s curiosity propelled him in every imaginable direction, inconsistencies and assumptions seldom bothered him. He wrote like a scientist, but with the imagination of an inquisitive child. Wild speculations charged him with an energy he poured into literature. He moved away from reality, breaking it into fragments that he pieced back together again, all according to patterns of his own invention.
Strindberg´s Blue Book is filled with strange correspondences and transformative discoveries. Does the corncrake really exist? Why is the walnut similar to the human brain? What did God intend when he made the profile of a small mountain called Kinnekulle look like an exact match to the base of a Greek column? The moon is probably a disc of quartz reflecting the continent of North America. When someone asked him if he really was serious when he reached the last conclusion Strindberg answered that it was "just a beautiful theory", it was up to others to prove it wrong. I assume that some diagnoses concerning women´s diseases probably are as "scientific" as Strindberg´s speculations ‒ wild guesses, inventive interpretations based on conclusions drawn from shaky research.
In Time & The Other: How Anthropology makes its object, published in 1983, the same year as the term fibromyalgia was minted, Johannes Fabian stated that scientists are circumscribed by the times they live in. Their specific environment and experiences shape their viewpoint and attitudes. When an anthropologist offers descriptions and interpretations of people´s behavior he bases them on his own, very specific perceptions. For example, if a man studies a woman´s behavior and character, his diagnosis is dependent on the fact that he is a man, born and raised within a certain timespan in a particular environment.
An example of how women´s ailments are filtered through men´s mind is the concept of "hysteria", which was widely debated in the medical literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hysteria was then believed to be a mental disorder that almost exclusively affected women, causing a wide array of symptoms, including faintness, nervousness, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in the abdomen, muscle spasm, shortness of breath, irritability, loss of appetite for food or sex, and something that was somewhat indeterminately characterized as "a tendency to cause trouble".
After the cataclysm of the First World War, when thousands of men returning from the hell of the trenches behaved in a manner similar to that of "hysteric" women, the diagnosis was gradually removed from the female sphere and became related to another origin than the hysteria (Greek for uterus). First the term shell shock was used to diagnose war trauma that lacked physical traces in the form of an injury. The explanation was that loud bangs of exploding grenades had affected soldiers´ nervous system. One reason for the ailment being identified as physical, not psychological, was probably that it was generally considered to be disgraceful if a male complaint became connected with mental disorder. Gradually, a few physicians came to believe that some cases of "female hysteria" might also be linked to physical trauma. However, such suspicions were generally abandoned when "shell shock" and "hysteria" drifted into the realm of psychological ailments. "New" disorders of the mind, like neurasthenia, stress, anxiety, alienation, chronic fatigue syndrome, Gulf War Syndrome, narcissism, bulimia, anorexia, fibromyalgia, multiple personality syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder etc., etc., were introduced as diseases of the mind, at certain intervals emerging and disappearing from public attention. The danger was that any published discovery of mental disturbances tended to produce new cases. It even has become fashionable to blame shortcomings and incorrect behavior on mental problems, like when a colleague of mine asked a pupil to stop talking on her mobile phone during the lesson and she answered: "I cannot avoid doing it. I have a diagnosis."
Psychological disorders are treated with a wide range of psycho-pharmaceuticals, but also through psychoanalysis. Both drugs and psychoanalysis can prove to be helpful, but also dangerous. Drugs and intrusive physical treatment (lobotomy, injections, electrical shocks etc.) can damage people irreversibly and psychoanalysis can do the same.
It is desperate people, searching for a way out of their chaos and pain, who are seeking the help of experts. However, a psychiatrist may become empowered by the trust invested in him/her. In his History of Sexuality Michel Foucault stated that women run the risk of becoming passive, inert objects of a medical will to power and thus persuaded to believe in explanations and treatments bestowed upon them. Men may also experience this. When her marriage broke up after her husband had gone into therapy the novelist Fay Weldon claimed that therapists are nothing but "failed novelists, creating nice patterns out of real people´s lives for their own satisfaction and for money".
Weldon´s bitter verdict is underscored by a recent Swedish legal scandal. A minor offender and drug addict admitted to 39 murders and was sentenced for eight of them. In 2002, he interrupted his therapy, stopped cooperating with the police and instead chose to collaborate with an investigating journalist. He was eventually cleared of all accusations; no less than six different district courts had been deceived and sentenced an innocent man. While he underwent psychological treatment after being convicted for a murder attempt a close-knit group had been formed around Sture Bergwall. It consisted of a prosecutor, an interrogator, a psychologist, a lawyer and a group of memory researchers from Stockholm University. For years they toured various crime scenes with the drugged, imaginative Bergwall, all of them convinced that he was a serial killer. The group's conviction was sustained by an influential psychoanalyst, who provided therapy and advice to its members. Ultimately she was, without a scrap of physical evidence, able to rule over the imagined killer´s thinking and behavior, as well as that of the investigators, the police and the Swedish judicial system. This strange affair proves how easily convinced most of us are by "expert diagnoses", even if they are based on wobbly science and an outlandish display of personal security, pride and prestige.
While gathering information about development projects in rural areas I found it advantageous to approach persons who were not directly involved with the projects. Influential individuals who generally were not contacted by external consultants like me; for example religious leaders, representatives of law enforcement and the army and not the least midwives. In the High Andes I often heard about physical ailments that hindered women from participating in public affairs. I was told about the shame and exclusion connected with venereal diseases and specific female afflictions. The list is very long and varies from place to place; vulvo-vaginal diseases like the horror of intestinal-genital tract fistulae, prolapse and cancer, complications related to delivery as well as pre- and postnatal conditions, everything connected with menstruation, contraception, abortions, breast cancer and the mass of cultural traditions that limit women´s rights and access to decision making and commodities. Other factors that affect women´s health are traditions that defend and recommend body altering abuses, of which genital mutilation is one horrible aspect, or minimize the harmful effects of rape, abuse, violence, incest, early marriages, etc.
Much of such abuse and incomprehension is rooted in men´s fears and dominance. The female body, in particular it´s inner appearance and functions, are unknown to most men and as I said in the beginning of this blog ‒we humans fear the unknown. The mysteries of women´s bodies have for thousands of years aroused dread in men – the growth of the fetus, the flow of menstrual blood, female genital parts. Strange ideas have developed around women´s anatomy. For example, until anatomical research advanced during the Renaissance, most Europeans believed that the uterus could move around freely within women´s bodies.
To protect themselves from the uncontrollable mysteries of womanhood men often declared that pregnant and menstruating women were "unclean" and the community had to be protected from them. I found that such associations still lingered on in the mountainous regions of Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, causing pain and troubles for women, while they affected the harmony and love between man and women, making women ashamed of their bodies, hindering them from seeking help when they needed it the most.
While working in a rural area in Mali I asked a midwife about polygamy. She told me: "Please, before you write anything, try to learn as much as you can about polygamy. Some is bad, some is good. You see, for me working as a midwife, polygamy is far better than single marriage. Here single married women are more abused by their husbands than those living in polygamy. Wives take care of one another, they share problems and work together, solve conflicts in unison and above all they look after one another during pregnancy, post-partum periods and in sickness. They know what it means to be a woman. If a single wife gives birth she is out working in the fields within a week, among the polygamists a new mother is able to rest for half a year, only doing light work. I find more venereal diseases, more abuse, desperation and violence among single wives than among polygamists. Please, don´t misinterpret me. I do not say polygamy is ideal, but among us it means fewer problems. However, everything is changing fast, some for good, some for bad."
Anthropologists have found that women tend to be influential within "possession" cults, where rituals often center on role playing, fertility, healing and communal feasting. Everything related to maternity seems to play a central role in these cults, where men often are excluded from initiation rituals and ceremonies centering on birth and post-natal care. Women´s situation changed drastically when society, particularly within the European cultural sphere, underwent a thorough transformation as industrialism substituted age-old production systems based on agriculture and pastoralism. Social life became more family than group oriented. The social support of women gradually ceased from coming from specific groups and the local community to become more reliant on the close-knit family, as well as professional social and medical services, areas that until recently have been dominated by men.
And what about fibromyalgia? I recently heard from a female acquaintance who for a long time has been suffering from severe pain similar to the current diagnosis of fibromyalgia that she finally had met with an experienced medical doctor who explained that her suffering could be connected with birth and post-partum troubles in the past. His theory was that severe pain, in connection with delivery and post-partum stress had triggered her nervous system in such a way that it was easily activated even after the physical wounds had been healed. If the female body has experienced extreme pain in connection with experiences like menstrual pains and birth, or even worse incidents like genital mutilation, rape and other forms of gender related violence, the nervous system may be alarmed by minor problems as well. Physical pain may emerge even if its actual source cannot be discovered. The nervous system does not remain dormant after severe trauma, but tends to react in an exaggerated manner even by a stimulus far weaker than the one that originally upset the entire nervous system.
I cannot judged if this is right or wrong, nevertheless it made me to think about religious groups that center around exorcism in the sense that demons are collectively purged in symbolic acts that intend to remove the forces of disorder (read pain) that has taken over a woman´s body during traumas related to giving birth, or in the case of girls ‒ menstruation or genital mutilation. Moviegoers may remember that horror movies like Carrie and The Exorcist deal with tribulations befalling adolescent girls. Ecstatic communal rituals, often in connection with dancing and role playing, not the least the acting out of women as men, may also serve a purpose of purging pain, alienation and loneliness from marginalized women.
And now – in our modern society – where can a woman diagnosed with fibromyalgia turn? To science, which is on the constant look-out for non-existent physical sources? To men, who do not understand how a female body functions? To other women, who are as bewildered as herself, seeking support and solace from public media that indicates that the source of the pain can be found in everything from eating habits, stress, aliens, the stars, social exclusion – whatever. As the philosopher José Ortega y Gasset once stated: "The problem with modern man is not that he does not believe in anything, it is rather that he believes in everything".
The literary critic Elaine Showalter writes about hysteria in Hystories: Hysterical epidemics and modern media. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
By now there are probably many books about women´s diseases, child birth through the time and men´s involvement with these issues, though I became interested in the subject many years ago while reading Shorter, Edward (1984) A History of Women´s Bodies. Bungay, Suffolk: Penguin Books.
The excellent book about the case Sture Bergwall will probably never be translated into English, though a translation of its title would probably be The Man Who Stopped lying: The story about Sture Bergwall and the woman who created Thomas Quick.
Josefsson, Dan (2013) Mannen som slutade ljuga. Berättelsen om Sture Bergwall och kvinnan som skapade Thomas Quick. Stockholm: Lind & Co.
Other books I mentioned are:
Fabian, Johannes (1983) Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes Its Object. New York: Columbia University Press
Foucault, Michel (1979) The History of Sexuality Volume 1: An Introduction. London: Allen Lane.
Lewis, Ion M. (1971) Ecstatic religion: An anthropological study of spirit possession and shamanism. Bungay, Suffolk: Penguin Books.


Vienna, 29 September 2016 - The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) expressed its approval after learning that an individual who made threats against a journalist was promptly taken into custody.
Croatian journalist Ema Branica recently released a story about a person that was allegedly involved in financial and legal frauds, which was then aired in the Nova TV "Provjereno" show. After this, the individual in question was displeased with their portrayal in the story and started threatening the journalist by saying she will be slapped and spit on, and sending a message to Branica which concluded with the threat that she would "end up like Pukanic". Ivo Pukanic was a journalist and editor in chief who died by a car bomb several years ago. Following this story, the perpetrator was arrested in Zagreb.
"We appreciate the fast response conducted by Croatian police authorities, and would like to showcase this as a positive example when it comes to reactions to threats against journalists" SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic said today. "Having state authorities react timely to this type of endangerment is an example of how all cases should be conducted- without delay and with proper penalization of the culprit" Vujovic added.


text:
Sept. 19 Readers' letters: The dangers of kids…
OpinionLetters to the Editor
Sept. 19 Readers' letters: The dangers of kids playing sports throughout the year
By Mercury News Readers |
September 18, 2014 at 2:06 p.m.
Law requiring pay halts worker exploitation
Tom Farris (Letters, Sept. 18) decries state law that requires for-profit businesses to pay people working for them, rather than use volunteer labor. But there are good reasons for this law. There is a fine line between volunteerism and exploitation. Most Americans are unaware of the gross exploitation of workers which occurred in this the country many years ago. Workers had no rights, worked six or seven days a week for negligible wages, had no sick leave or other rights and were terribly treated. Free labor competes unfairly with businesses that pay their workers a fair wage. Given free rein, hundreds of thousands of workers might be put out of work by "volunteers."
Public utility watchdog is full of corruption
The public deserves more from its Public Utilities Commission. The California commission is obviously abusing the public trust. Sadly, it took public disclosures of internal emails to prompt them to clean house. President Michael Peevey, who denies knowing about the clear collusion between PG&E and the PUC over PG&E's fine for the San Bruno gas explosions, blamed his top aide Carol Brown for the collusion between PG&E and the PUC and asked her to resign. Then we learn from the Mercury News (Page 1A, Sept. 18) that she could go back to her old role as a PUC administrative judge ruling over PG&E hearings.
Enough. Clean house, Gov. Jerry Brown, starting with Peevey. There's way more than a whiff of corruption here.
Susan Gale
Gun law could isolate owners from families
Contrary to the editorial in favor of AB 1014 (Skinner), Gov. Brown should veto this "gun restraining order" because it will isolate gun owners from mental health professionals and family members. The most innocuous remark to a family member or therapist could land a law-abiding gun owner in criminal court, where her private medical information would become public record. In addition, family members can initiate an unrestricted police search of a relative's home, even if there is no proof that person owns a gun.
If AB 1014 becomes law, many gun owners will suffer in silence rather than seek solace in times of need, meaning that this law could spawn the very tragedies it is meant to prevent.
The governor should veto AB 1014.
Eric Wooten
President, Liberal Gun Owners Association
Fight Ebola by backing plans such as Gavi
More than sending soldiers, the Ebola outbreak requires the wealthy countries to ramp up aid to contain this outbreak. And then build the health care systems of nations worldwide to stop these and other epidemics in their early stages.
Models like Gavi, the Global Vaccine Alliance, are sustainable and make sense. They offer assistance while saving lives and building local health systems. Gavi creates plans to vaccinate all children in many developing countries and negotiates low prices for the vaccines. The countries are eventually able to support their own programs.
Ensuring that Gavi receives the full $7.5 billion it needs in January, with $1 billion of that coming from United States, will save lives. Call or write your member of Congress and ask them to fund these solutions.
Bruce Preville
RESULTS Volunteer Los Gatos
Snoop Dogg not right choice for 49er game
Congratulations to the 49ers for choosing Snoop Dogg to perform at the halftime show last Sunday. He is reportedly a former LA Crips gang member, an avowed user of drugs, a purveyor of pornography, and a felon. With all the criminal behavior in the NFL, picking a role model like a Snoop Dogg certainly tells me volumes about the culture of the 49er team and its management.
Kevin Garner
Children don't need to play year-round sports
The article: "Too much, too soon," (Page 1A, Sept. 16) is not surprising. More than 50 years ago, Drs. Bruce Ogilvie and Thomas Tutko, co-founders of Sports Psychology, warned of the dangers of over emphasizing the importance of sports for kids. Watching their film, "Winning is Everything; and Other Myths," should be required for parents and coaches. While their warnings were of a psychological nature, inevitable medical problems followed. Pressure to play the same sport year-round risks repetitive stress injuries and burnout. Coaches say kids need to play year-round to be at their best. Not true. If physically active in other sports, only 30 days are needed to get in shape, with rare exceptions. Involvement in different sports uses muscles differently. Many part-time high school coaches, with little or no formal training, own private clubs, in which they "encourage" membership, creating conflicts of interest on several levels.
Chuck Dougherty
Letters to the Editor |
Letters: NWS as ballpark | Insensitive comic | Pass gun control | Promise denied | Cut the GOP
Letters: Added context | Farmworker conditions | Reasonable requests | Outstripping others | Supreme Court error | Republican deficits | No reason to cheer
Opinion: The grinding persistence of America's police problem
Opinion: High-impact measures headed for 2024 California ballot


Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. The actress holds a British passport. She acquired the citizenship of the country, as her mother is of British origin.
Fakhri Holds an American passport. Being an American citizen she even appeared in America's Next Top Model. Now she is a household name in Bollywood. She made her acting debut in the 2011 romantic drama Rockstar, for which she received a Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut nomination.
Akshay Kumar holds a Canadian passport. Kumar has appeared in over a hundred Hindi films and has won several awards including the National Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in Rustom and two Filmfare Awards.
The actress was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and thus holds a Danish passport. Whereas she grew up in Bangalore, India. She is the highest-paid actress in India and is the recipient of several awards, including three Filmfare Awards.


VogDUO, a premium mobile charging accessories company, today introduced Power Go, an all-new compact and fast-charging portable USB power bank that provides up to 27 watts of power. The new Power Go combines an elegant, compact design with fast charging technologies like Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 and USB Power Delivery.
Power Go features universal connectivity with integrated USB-C and USB-A ports. Fast charging technologies like Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 provide charging speeds up to 40 percent faster compared to standard chargers.
For heavy mobile device users who want to stay connected to their digital life, Power Go is a great way to keep mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, gaming systems, and even the 2016 Apple MacBook charged all day long and beyond. Power hungry devices like Nintendo Switch will benefit from support for Power Delivery, so gamers can keep playing for hours even when there is no outlet in sight.
Supports charging most devices including, Nintendo Switch, Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy, the 2016 Apple MacBook, and more.
Compact size ideal for traveling -- only 4.72" x 2.78" x 0.49"
Power Go will be available in May 2018 with an MSRP of $69.99.


text:
R1, 2m project to benefit illegal car washers
Siphiwe Nyathi
Polokwane- Informal car washers in Limpopo's capital will be able to operate legitimately when a R1, 2 million car wash facility opens later this year.
The Iperekeng Dikwena (work for yourselves) project was recently launched in Polokwane and will be built before December.
"The project is aimed at benefiting the car washers who have been operating illegally," said municipal spokeswoman Noko Lebea.
The facility will be able to accommodate 34 vehicles and will be fitted with pre-paid water and electricity meters as well as a recycling water system and storeroom.
Chairman of Limpopo's local economic development and finance portfolio committee Eddy Maleka said local people would be hired to build the wash bays. He said the project would also address water losses.
"The municipality is currently experiencing water losses due to the illegal activities of the car washers in the city," he explained.
A 17 member steering committee representing the local taxi association and street vendors has been established to manage the co-operative.
The members have received training to understand how cooperatives work and how to manage them.
A taxi driver from Polokwane Taxi Association, Gilbert Matlala, said he would take his taxi to the car wash and also convince others to support the project.
Food vendor Mosima Ramatsoma said she was looking forward to working with the car washers.
"I will make sure that my clients wash their cars at this facility while the car washers will refer their customers to me while waiting for their cars to washed," said Ramatsoma.


Craig Swart (TEP) is an Advocate of the Royal Court of Jersey and a partner at Dickinson Gleeson, Jersey. He is also a qualified South African attorney (non-practising) and English Solicitor (also non-practising). Craig advises trustees, directors, fiduciaries, settlors and beneficiaries in relation to a wide range of non-contentious and contentious matters involving trusts, companies, foundations and partnerships.


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The environment variables _CEE_RUNOPTS, _BPXK_AUTOCVT, and _BPX_BATCH_UMASK must be set as shown in SSHENV and sshsetenv when running SSH Tectia Server for IBM z/OS programs (see below). The server startup procedures described in Section Running the Server set these variables automatically for the server.
The NAME=VALUE format (as in SSHENV) is used when the client or server programs are run under MVS, and the Bourne shell format (as in sshsetenv) is used when the programs are run from a USS command line.


Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) is ranked 5th best out of 28 albums by Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band is Trout Mask Replica which is ranked number 187 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 14,662.
Members who like this album also like: The Clash by The Clash, Marquee Moon by Television and London Calling by The Clash.
Related links: top tracks by Captain Beefheart And His Magic Bandtop tracks of the 1970s, top tracks of 1978.
Better than TMR, better than Safe as Milk. I'm sober, and I'm serious. This is like all the best of Beefheart's eccentrities, but in what is a very accesible piece of work. Lovely guitar work on most of the tracks.
Favourite tracks: Bat Chain Puller, Candle Mambo.. But you know what, most of the tracks are on similar level I think.
Although I disagree with you, I understand how you arrived at that conclusion. I was initially torn between including either this or the brilliant 'Doc At The Radar Station' in my list. However, after much thought, I finally settled on the former. I find this to be one of Beefheart's most uncompromising and intriguing albums. In my view, it's one of the most musically diverse and spectacular works the Captain ever produced. The album bristles with vitality and imagination that transcends the kinds of kitsche elements associated with cocktail lounge and salsa - assentuated by the prominent sounds of the marimba and trombone - of the kind you refered to. The album maintains a revolutionary cutting edge that's never far from the surface.
Following a relatively fallow creative period for the Captain, the master returned to form with this brilliantly uncompromising, acerbic and vibrant tour de force of an album, arguably his greatest record since 'Trout Mask Replica'. It was as though the post-punk aesthetic that Beefheart invented (which at the time the release of this album was now taking shape) had rejuvinated his creative juices once more. The sonic experience on this album is spectacularly visceral and it still sounds as revolutionary now as it did 35 years ago. A critical re-evaluation of this brilliant work is long overdue.


Today is World Prematurity Day, a day of awareness started by the March of Dimes and other international groups to highlight the dangers of prematurity. Prematurity is the leading cause of death among infants.
Babies born too early are babies born sick. They are at risk for everything from developmental delays to blindness to lifelong respiratory problems. A premature baby is not simply a tiny baby - a premature baby is a very sick baby, and the earlier they are born, the sicker they are. However, World Prematurity Day poses something of a problem for me. It's one thing to raise awareness for breast or testicular cancer (those can be detected through regular self-exams). It's another thing to raise awareness for a condition that frequently arises spontaneously and for no apparent reason.
So I'd like to focus on the things you can do to help prevent pre-term births. This is important information for any woman who is or may become pregnant, and also important for her partner to know. It's easy to tell yourself you're over-reacting when you're all hormonal, but sometimes a partner's urging to "let's just call the doctor to be safe" can save a pregnancy.
Some of these things are preventable, with the exception of the last four items. These are the scary sections at the back of the baby books that you might not get to or might want to avoid. Don't bury your head in the sand - take the time to ask your doctor or read up on the symptoms. One of the other mothers I met in the NICU was in labor for most of a day, but didn't recognize it - pre-term labor is NOT like term labor. She felt nauseous and generally unwell, and had some back pain. That's a far cry from having your water break and screaming through contractions - but she was so far along that her baby was born less than 45 minutes after they arrived at the hospital. If she had known the symptoms and gone earlier, it's entirely possible that the doctors could have stopped her labor.
In my case, I had a placental abruption, where the placenta detaches from the wall of the uterus, depriving the fetus of oxygen and nutrients. I had a sudden, intense pain and immediate bleeding. We were at the hospital within half an hour and the staff was able to stop me from going into labor, buying my daughter a precious week of gestation (in our case, the abruption was not complete, so with hospital bedrest and a lot of drugs, she was safe inside for a while. When the rest of the placenta detached, she went into distress and we had an immediate emergency c-section.). I firmly believe that if she had been born the day of the abruption, she would not have survived.
Unfortunately, it's also possible that we could have bought her even more time. I had been having contractions for two weeks but I didn't know that's what they were until I was on a contraction monitor in the hospital. Contractions are really hard to describe if you've never felt them, and I tried to ask the nurse practitioner about a feeling I had been having, as if the baby was spinning inside of me and therefore rolling across my entire abdomen, at one of my pre-natal appointments, but her response was "oh, you'll KNOW if you're having one". While I try not to dwell on "might have been", I cannot help but wonder what would have happened if we knew there was something wrong weeks before the abruption. I will always wish I had described what I was feeling instead of asking what a contraction felt like.
I don't want to scare pregnant women. Most pregnancies are fine, and most babies are delivered at term (or later!) without complications. But these things have to happen to SOMEONE, so it makes sense to talk to your doctor about your risk factors and learn the symptoms of pre-term labor or an emergent complication backwards and forwards. Below are some infographics about prematurity, if you're so inclined to learn more.
And a quick update on our own little miracle - she is doing very well health-wise. Her lungs are clear and she survived her first ear infection/fever/cold with only one quick trip to the emergency room (ha!). She still does not eat by mouth, and is eight months delayed in gross motor skills - she sits up but doesn't scoot, creep, or crawl. She is ridiculously adorable and cheerful and smart - the reason she is so far behind in moving is that she knows she might fall and has decided that there is nothing on earth she wants bad enough to risk a bump to the head. She's got eight sharp little teeth and a headful of soft hair, and she sleeps through the night all night long. Despite her feeding tube and developmental delays, we are insanely lucky with how well she's doing - a quick look at statistics below will show you just how lucky we are.
I'm glad to hear your little one is still doing well. I experienced my first contraction just a day before my son was born. I actually called my mom and said is this a contraction, because in my case it felt like someone was squeezing on my stomach with a vice, but it was a gentle sensation in the beginning, not a powerful one.
I did go to the emergency room months prior to his arrival. I felt a sensation that just didn't make sense to me and one that I had never experienced before. In retrospect I think he was just stretching his arms and legs and arching his back inside of me, but since it was a first pregnancy I had no idea. I think if you are ever in question it never hurts to seek medical advice. It gave me piece of mind to have an ultrasound performed and everything checked out.
Also, I think you hit the nail on the head with describing symptoms to doctors. Through my own medical problems, (not pregnancy related), I learned that you have to be very specific in what you feel, what hurts, what feels unusual, how bad the pain is, etc. The more careful you can present the case the better care you will receive.
How does wealth make you behave?