¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Eighteenth century American culture moved in competing directions. Commercial, military and cultural ties between Great Britain and the North American colonies tightened. But at the same time, a new colonial American culture began to form, binding colonists from New Hampshire to Georgia. Immigrants from other European nations combined with Native Americans and enslaved Africans to create an increasingly diverse colonial population. All these people – men, women, European, Native, and African alike – led their lives in different ways than those at the center of the British Empire and as a result, created new, distinct societies. While life in the thirteen colonies was shaped in part by English practices and participation in the Atlantic exchange of the British Empire, a growing distance and dissatisfaction with the power of England also grew.
¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 1 Britain's central role in transatlantic trade greatly enriched the mother country, but it also created high standards of living for many North American colonists. This two-way relationship reinforced the colonial American feeling of commonality with British culture. It was not until trade relations, disturbed by political changes and the strain of warfare, became strained in the 1760s that colonists began to question these ties.
¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 L. Truchy, engraver, "The Story of Pamela," plate 9, London, 1745. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, http://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume7/mar09/primsource.cfm?showSite=mobile.
¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0 Britain relied on the colonies as source of raw materials, such as lumber and tobacco. Americans engaged with new forms of trade and financing that increased their ability to buy British-made goods. But the ways in which colonists paid for these goods varied sharply from those in Britain. When settlers first arrived in North America, they typically carried very little "hard" or metallic British money with them. Discovering no precious metals (and lacking the crown's authority to mint coins), colonists relied on barter and non-traditional forms of exchange, including everything from nails to the wampum used by Native American groups in the Northeast. To deal with the lack of currency, many colonies resorted to "commodity money," which varied from place to place. In Virginia, for example, the colonial legislature stipulated a rate of exchange for tobacco, standardizing it as a form of "money" in the colony. Commodities could be cumbersome and difficult to transport, so a system of notes developed, allowing individuals to deposit a certain amount of tobacco in a warehouse and receive a note bearing the value of the deposit that could be traded as money. In 1690, colonial Massachusetts became the first colony, as well as the first place in the Western world, to issue paper bills to be used as money. These notes, called bills of credit, were issued for finite periods of time on the colony's credit and varied in denomination from quite small to large enough to cover major transactions.
¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 2 While these notes provided colonists with a much-needed medium for exchange, it was not without its problems. Currency that worked in Virginia might be worthless in Pennsylvania. Colonists and officials back in Britain debated whether or not it was right or desirable to use mere paper, as opposed to gold or silver, as a medium of exchange. Paper money tended to lose value quicker than coins and was often counterfeited. These problems, as well as British merchants' reluctance to accept depreciated paper notes, caused the Board of Trade to restrict the uses of paper money in the Currency Acts of 1751 and 1763. Paper money was not the only medium of exchange, however. Colonists also made use of metal coins. Barter and the extension of credit – which could take the form of bills of exchange, akin to modern-day personal checks – remained important forces throughout the colonial period. Trade between colonies was greatly hampered by the lack of standardized money. Currency that worked in Virginia might be worthless in Pennsylvania.
¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 1 To encourage consumers, businesses on both sides of the Atlantic advertised the variety of goods, their quality, and the ease of obtaining credit. The consistent availability of credit allowed families of modest means to buy consumer items previously available only to elites. Cheap consumption allowed middle class Americans to match many of the trends in clothing, food, and household décor that traditionally marked the wealthiest, aristocratic classes. Provincial Americans, often seen by their London peers as less cultivated or "backwater," could think of themselves as lords and ladies of their own communities through their ability to purchase and display British-made goods. Visiting the home of a successful businessman in Boston, John Adams described "the Furniture, which alone cost a thousand Pounds sterling. A seat it is for a noble Man, a Prince. The Turkey Carpets, the painted Hangings, the Marble Table, the rich Beds with crimson Damask Curtains and Counterpins, the beautiful Chimney Clock, the Spacious Garden, are the most magnificent of any Think I have seen." But many Americans worried about the consequences of rising consumerism. A writer for The Boston Evening Post remarked on this new practice purchasing status: "For 'tis well known how Credit is a mighty inducement with many People to purchase this and the other Thing which they may well enough do without." Americans became more likely to find themselves in debt, whether to their local shopkeeper or a prominent London merchant, creating new feelings of dependence.
¶ 11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 0 Of course, the thirteen continental colonies were not the only British colonies in the Western hemisphere. In fact, they were considerably less important to the Crown than the sugar producing islands of the Caribbean, including Jamaica, Barbados, the Leeward Islands, Grenada, St. Vincent, and Dominica. Though separated from the continent by the Caribbean Sea, these British colonies were inextricably connected to the continental colonies through commerce. Caribbean plantations dedicated nearly all of their land to the wildly profitable crop of sugar cane, so North American colonies sold surplus food and raw materials to these wealthy island colonies. Lumber was in high demand, especially in Barbados where planters nearly deforested the island to make room for sugar plantations. To compensate for a lack of lumber, Barbadian colonists ordered house frames from New England. These prefabricated frames were sent via ships where planters transported them to their plantations. Caribbean colonists also relied on the continental colonies for livestock, purchasing cattle and horses.
¶ 12 Leave a comment on paragraph 12 1 Connections between the Caribbean and North America benefitted both sides. Those living on the continent relied on the Caribbean colonists to satisfy their craving for sugar and other goods like mahogany. British colonists in the Caribbean began cultivating sugar in the 1640s, and sugar took the Atlantic World by storm. In fact, by 1680, sugar exports from the tiny island of Barbados valued more than the total exports of all the continental colonies. Jamaica, acquired by the Crown in 1655, surpassed Barbados in sugar production toward the end of the seventeenth century. North American colonists, like Britons around the world, craved sugar to sweeten their tea and food. Colonial elites also sought to decorate their parlors and dining rooms with the silky, polished surfaces of rare mahogany as opposed to local wood. To meet this newfound demand, furniture makers from North America traveled to the Caribbean to acquire mahogany that was then transformed into exquisite furniture.
¶ 13 Leave a comment on paragraph 13 0 John Hinton, "A representation of the sugar-cane and the art of making sugar," 1749. Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004670227/.
¶ 14 Leave a comment on paragraph 14 1 These systems of trade all existed with the purpose of enriching Great Britain. To ensure that profits ended up in Britain, Parliament issued taxes on trade called Navigation Acts. Through these taxes, consumption became intertwined with politics. Prior to 1763, Britain found that enforcing the regulatory laws they passed was difficult and often cost them more than the duty revenue they would bring in. As a result, colonists found it relatively easy to trade on their own terms, whether that was with foreign nations, pirates, or smugglers. Customs officials were easily bribed and it was not uncommon to see Dutch, French, or West Indies ships laden with prohibited goods in American ports. When smugglers were caught, their American peers often acquitted them. British officials estimated that nearly £700,000 of illicit goods was brought into the American colonies annually. Pirates, or what colonists considered privateers, also helped to perpetuate the illegal trading activities by providing a buffer between merchants and foreign ships.
¶ 16 Leave a comment on paragraph 16 1 The consumer revolution fueled the growth of colonial cities. Cities in colonial America were crossroads for the movement of people and goods. One in twenty colonists lived in cities by 1775. Some cities grew organically over time, while others were planned from the start. New York and Boston's seventeenth-century street plans reflected the haphazard arrangement of medieval cities in Europe. In other cities like Philadelphia and Charleston, civic leaders laid out urban plans according to calculated systems of regular blocks and squares. Planners in Annapolis and Williamsburg also imposed regularity and order over their city streets through the placement of government, civic, and educational buildings.
¶ 17 Leave a comment on paragraph 17 0 By 1775, Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston were the five largest cities in British North America. Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Charleston had populations of approximately 40,000; 25,000; 16,000; and 12,000 people, respectively. Urban society was highly stratified. At the base of the social ladder were the laboring classes, which included both enslaved and free persons ranging from apprentices to master craftsmen. Next came the middling sort: shopkeepers, artisans, and skilled mariners. Above them stood the merchant elites who tended to be actively involved in the city's social and political affairs, as well as in the buying, selling, and trading of goods. Enslaved men and women had a visible presence in both northern and southern cities.
¶ 18 Leave a comment on paragraph 18 1 In port cities, slaves often worked in skilled trades, distilleries, shipyards, lumberyards, and ropewalks. Between 1725 and 1775, slavery became increasingly significant in the northern colonies as urban residents sought greater participation in the maritime economy. Massachusetts was the first slave-holding colony in New England. New York traced its connections to slavery and the slave trade back to the Dutch settlers of New Netherland in the seventeenth century. Philadelphia also became an active site of the Atlantic slave trade, and slaves accounted for nearly 8% of the city's population in 1770. In southern cities, including Charleston, urban slavery played an important role in the market economy. Slaves, both rural and urban, made up the majority of the laboring population on the eve of the American Revolution.
¶ 20 Leave a comment on paragraph 20 0 Slavery was a transatlantic institution. However, it developed distinct characteristics in British North America. By 1750, slavery was legal in every North American English colony, but local economic imperatives, demographic trends, and cultural practices all contributed to distinct colonial variants of slavery.
¶ 21 Leave a comment on paragraph 21 0 Virginia, the oldest of the English mainland colonies, imported its first slaves in 1619. Virginia planters built larger and larger estates and guaranteed that these estates would remain intact through the use of primogeniture (where a family's estate would descend to the eldest male heir) and the entail (a legal procedure that prevented the breakup and sale of estates). This distribution of property, which kept wealth and property consolidated, guaranteed that the great planters would dominate social and economic life in the Chesapeake. This system also fostered an economy dominated by tobacco. By 1750 there were approximately 100,000 African slaves in Virginia, at least 40% of the colony's total population. The majority of these slaves worked on large estates under the gang system of labor, working from dawn to dusk in groups with close supervision by a white overseer or enslaved "driver" who could use physical force to compel labor.
¶ 22 Leave a comment on paragraph 22 0 Virginians used the law to protect the interests of slaveholders. In 1705 the House of Burgesses passed its first comprehensive slave code. Earlier laws had already guaranteed that the children of enslaved women would be born slaves, conversion to Christianity would not lead to freedom, and owners could not free their slaves unless they transported them out of the colony. Slave owners could not be convicted of murder for killing a slave; conversely, any black Virginian who struck a white colonist would be severely whipped. Virginia planters used the law to maximize the profitability of their slaves and closely regulate every aspect of their daily lives.
¶ 23 Leave a comment on paragraph 23 0 In South Carolina and Georgia, slavery was also central to colonial life but specific local conditions created a very different system of slavery. Georgia was founded by the philanthropist George Oglethorpe, who originally banned slavery from the colony. But by 1750 slavery was legal throughout the region. South Carolina had been a slave colony from its founding and, by 1750, was the only mainland colony with a majority enslaved African population. The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, co-authored by the philosopher John Locke in 1669, explicitly legalized slavery from the very beginning. Many early settlers in Carolina were slaveholders from British Caribbean sugar islands, and they brought their brutal slave codes with them. Defiant slaves could legally be beaten, branded, mutilated, even castrated. In 1740 a new law stated that killing a rebellious slave was not a crime and even the murder of a slave was treated as a minor misdemeanor. South Carolina also banned the freeing of slaves unless the freed slave left the colony.
¶ 24 Leave a comment on paragraph 24 0 Despite this brutal regime, a number of factors combined to give South Carolina slaves more independence in their daily lives. Rice, the staple crop underpinning the early Carolina economy, was widely cultivated in West Africa, and planters commonly requested that merchants sell them slaves skilled in the complex process of rice cultivation. Slaves from Senegambia were particularly prized. The expertise of these slaves contributed to one of the most lucrative economies in the colonies. Rice production soared from 20 million pounds in 1720 to nearly 80 million pounds by 1780. The swampy conditions of rice plantations, however, fostered dangerous diseases. Malaria and other tropical diseases spread, and caused many owners to live away from their plantations. These elites, who commonly owned a number of plantations, typically lived in Charleston townhouses to avoid the diseases of the rice fields. West Africans, however, were far more likely to have a level of immunity to malaria (due to a genetic trait that also contributes to higher levels of sickle cell anemia), reinforcing planters' racial belief that Africans were particularly suited to labor in tropical environments.
¶ 25 Leave a comment on paragraph 25 0 With plantation owners often far from home, Carolina slaves had less direct oversight than those in the Chesapeake. Furthermore, many Carolina rice plantations used the task system to organize slave labor. Under this system, slaves were given a number of specific tasks to complete in day, but once those tasks were complete slaves often had time to grow some crops of their own on garden plots allotted by plantation owners. These slaves participated in a thriving underground market that allowed them a degree of economic autonomy. Carolina slaves also had an unparalleled degree of cultural autonomy. Carolina's black majority, most of whom were imported directly from West Africa and relative lack of direct oversight allowed for the retention of many African cultural and religious practices. Syncretic languages like Gullah and Geechee contained many borrowed African terms, and traditional African basket weaving (often combined with Native American techniques) survive in the region to this day.
¶ 26 Leave a comment on paragraph 26 0 This unique Low Country slave culture contributed to the Stono Rebellion in September 1739. On a Sunday morning while planters attended church, a group of about 80 slaves set out for Spanish Florida under a banner that read "Liberty!," burning plantations and killing at least 20 white settlers as they marched. They were headed for Fort Mose, a free black settlement on the Georgia-Florida border, emboldened by the Spanish Empire's offer of freedom to any English slaves. Though the Stono Rebellion was ultimately unsuccessful – the local militia defeated the rebels in battle, captured and executed many of the slaves, and sold others to the sugar plantations of the West Indies – it was a violent reminder to South Carolina planters that their slaves would fight for freedom.
¶ 27 Leave a comment on paragraph 27 0 Slavery was also an important institution in the mid-Atlantic colonies. While New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania never developed plantation economies, slaves were often employed on larger farms growing cereal grains. Enslaved Africans worked alongside European tenant farmers on New York's Hudson Valley "patroonships," huge tracts of land granted to a few early Dutch families. As previously mentioned, slaves were also a common sight in Philadelphia, New York City, and other ports where they worked in the maritime trades and domestic service. New York City's economy was so reliant on slavery that over 40% of its population was enslaved by 1700, while 15-20% of Pennsylvania's colonial population was enslaved by 1750. In New York, the high density of slaves and a particularly diverse European population increased the threat of rebellion. A 1712 slave rebellion in New York City resulted in the deaths of 9 white colonists. In retribution, 21 slaves were executed and 6 others committed suicide before they could be burned alive. In 1741, another planned rebellion by African slaves, free blacks, and poor whites was uncovered, unleashing a witch-hunt that only stopped after 32 slaves and free blacks and 5 poor whites were executed. Another 70 slaves were deported, likely to the sugar cane fields of the West Indies.
¶ 28 Leave a comment on paragraph 28 0 Increasingly uneasy about the growth of slavery in the region, Quakers were the first group to turn against slavery. Quaker beliefs in radical non-violence and the fundamental equality of all human souls made slavery hard to justify. Most commentators argued that slavery originated in war, where captives were enslaved rather than executed. To pacifist Quakers, then, the very foundation of slavery was illegitimate. Furthermore Quaker belief in the equality of souls challenged the racial basis of slavery. By 1758, Quakers in Pennsylvania disowned members who engaged in the slave trade, and by 1772 slave-owning Quakers could be expelled from their meetings. These local activities in Pennsylvania had broad implications as the decision to ban slavery and slave trading was debated in Quaker meetings throughout the English-speaking world. The free black population in Philadelphia and other northern cities also continually agitated against slavery.
¶ 29 Leave a comment on paragraph 29 0 Slavery as a system of labor never took off in Massachusetts, Connecticut, or New Hampshire, though it was legal throughout the region. The absence of cash crops like tobacco or rice minimized the economic use of slavery. In Massachusetts, only about 2% of the population was enslaved as late as the 1760s. The few slaves in the colony were concentrated in Boston along with a sizeable free black community that made up about 10% of the city's population. While slavery itself never really took root in New England, the slave trade was a central element of the region's economy. Every major port in the region participated to some extent in the transatlantic trade – Newport, Rhode Island alone had at least 150 ships active in the trade by 1740 – and New England also provided foodstuffs and manufactured goods to West Indian plantations.
¶ 31 Leave a comment on paragraph 31 0 Consumption, trade, and slavery drew the colonies closer to Great Britain, but politics and government split them further apart. Democracy in Europe more closely resembled oligarchies rather than republics, with only elite members of society eligible to serve in elected positions. Most European states did not hold regular elections, with Britain and the Dutch Republic being the two major exceptions. However, even in these countries, only approximately 1% of males could vote. In the North American colonies, by contrast, white male suffrage was nearly universal. In addition to having greater popular involvement, colonial government also had more power in a variety of areas. Assemblies and legislatures regulated businesses, imposed new taxes, cared for the poor in their communities, built roads and bridges, and made most decisions concerning education. Colonial Americans sued often, which in turn led to more power for local judges and more prestige in jury service. Thus, lawyers became extremely important in American society, and in turn, played a greater role in American politics.
¶ 32 Leave a comment on paragraph 32 0 American society was less tightly controlled than European society. This led to the rise of various interest groups, each at odds with the other. These various interest groups arose based on commonalities in various areas. Some commonalities arose over class-based distinctions, while others were due to ethnic or religious ties. One of the major differences between modern politics and colonial political culture was the lack of distinct, stable, political parties. The most common disagreement in colonial politics was between the elected assemblies and the royal governor. Generally, the various colonial legislatures were divided into factions who either supported or opposed the current governor's political ideology.
¶ 33 Leave a comment on paragraph 33 0 As far as political structure, colonies fell under one of three main categories: provincial, proprietary, and charter. The provincial colonies included New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The proprietary colonies included Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland. The charter colonies included Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The provincial colonies were the most tightly controlled by the crown. The British king appointed all of the provincial governors. These crown governors could veto any decision made by the legislative assemblies in the provincial colonies. The proprietary colonies had a similar structure, with one important difference: governors were appointed by a lord proprietor, an individual who had purchased or received the rights to the colony from the crown. This generally led to proprietary colonies having more freedoms and liberties than other colonies in colonial America. The charter colonies had the most complex system of government, formed by political corporations or interest groups who drew up a charter that clearly delineated powers between executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of government. As opposed to having governors appointed, the charter colonies elected their own governors from among the property-owning men in the colony.
¶ 34 Leave a comment on paragraph 34 0 Nicholas Scull, "To the mayor, recorder, aldermen, common council, and freemen of Philadelphia this plan of the improved part of the city surveyed and laid down by the late Nicholas Scull," Philadelphia, 1762. Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/item/74692589/.
¶ 35 Leave a comment on paragraph 35 0 After the governor, colonial government was broken down into two main divisions: the council and the assembly. The council was essentially the governor's cabinet, often composed of prominent individuals within the colony, such as the head of the militia, or the attorney-general of the colony. The governor appointed these men, often subject to approval from Parliament. The assembly was composed of elected, property-owning men whose official goal was to ensure that colonial law conformed to English law. The colonial assemblies approved new taxes and the colonial budgets. However, many of these assemblies saw it as their duty to check the power of the governor and ensure that he did not take too much power within colonial government. Unlike Parliament, most of the men who were elected to an assembly came from local districts, with their constituency able to hold their elected officials accountable to promises made.
¶ 36 Leave a comment on paragraph 36 0 An elected assembly was an offshoot of the idea of civic duty, the notion that men had a responsibility to support and uphold the government through voting, paying taxes, and service in the militia. Americans firmly accepted the idea of a social contract, the idea that government was put in place by the people. Philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes and John Locke pioneered this idea, and there is evidence to suggest that these writers influenced the colonists. While in practice elites controlled colonial politics, in theory many colonists believed in the notion of equality before the law and opposed special treatment for any members of colonial society.
¶ 37 Leave a comment on paragraph 37 0 Whether or not African Americans, Native Americans, and women would also be included in this notion of equality before the law was far less clear. In particular, women's role in the family became more complicated. Many historians view this period as a significant time of transition. Importantly, Anglo-American families during the colonial period differed from their European counterparts. Widely available land and plentiful natural resources allowed for greater fertility and thus encouraged more people to marry earlier in life. Yet while young marriages and large families were common throughout the colonial period, family sizes started to shrink by the end of the 1700s as wives asserted more control over their own bodies.
¶ 40 Leave a comment on paragraph 40 0 That couples would turn to newspapers as a source of expression illustrates the importance of what historians call print culture. Print culture includes the wide range of factors contributing to how books and other printed objects are made, including the relationship between the author and the publisher, the technical constraints of the printer, and the tastes of readers. In colonial America, regional differences in daily life impacted the way colonists made and used printed matter. However, all the colonies dealt with threats of censorship and control from imperial supervision. In particular, political content stirred the most controversy.
¶ 41 Leave a comment on paragraph 41 0 From the establishment of Virginia in 1607, printing was regarded either as unnecessary within such harsh living conditions or it was actively discouraged. The governor of Virginia, Sir William Berkeley, summed up the attitude of the ruling class in 1671: "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing…for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy…and printing has divulged them." Ironically, the circulation of hand-written tracts contributed to Berkeley's undoing. The popularity of Nathaniel Bacon's uprising was in part due to widely circulated tracts questioning Berkeley's competence. Berkeley's harsh repression of Bacon's Rebellion was equally well documented. It was only after Berkeley's death in 1677 that the idea of printing in the Southern colonies was revived. William Nuthead, an experienced English printer, set up shop in 1682, although the next governor of the colony, Thomas Culpeper forbade Nuthead from completing a single project. It wasn't until William Parks set up his printing shop in Annapolis in 1726 that the Chesapeake had a stable local trade in printing and books.
¶ 42 Leave a comment on paragraph 42 0 Print culture was very different in New England. Puritans had an established respect for print from the very beginning. Unfortunately, New England's authors were content to publish in London, making the foundations of Stephen Daye's first print shop in 1639 very shaky. Typically printers made their money from printing sheets, not books to be bound. The case was similar in Massachusetts, where the first printed work was a Freeman's Oath. The first book was not issued until 1640, the Bay Psalm Book, of which 11 known copies survive. His contemporaries recognized the significance of Daye's printing, and he was awarded 140 acres of land. The next large project, the first bible to be printed in America, was undertaken by Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson, published 1660. That same year, the Eliot Bible, named for its translator John Eliot, was printed in the Natick dialect of the local Algonquin tribes.
¶ 43 Leave a comment on paragraph 43 0 Massachusetts remained the center of colonial printing for a hundred years, until Philadelphia overtook Boston in 1770. Philadelphia's rise as the printing capital of the colonies began with two important features: first, the arrival of Benjamin Franklin in 1723, equal parts scholar and businessman, and second, waves of German immigrants created a demand for German-language press. From the mid 1730s, Christopher Sauer, and later his son, wholly met this demand with German-language newspapers and religious texts. Nevertheless Franklin was a one-man culture of print, revolutionizing the book trade in addition to creating public learning initiatives such as the Library Company and the Academy of Philadelphia. His Autobiography offers one of the most detailed glimpses of life in a print shop available. Given the flurry of newspapers, pamphlets, and books for sale in Franklin's Philadelphia, it is little wonder that in 1775 Thomas Paine had his Common Sense printed in hundreds of thousands of copies with the Philadelphia printer Robert Bell.
¶ 44 Leave a comment on paragraph 44 0 Benjamin Franklin and David Hall, printers, Pennsylvania Currency, 1764. Wikimedia, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US-Colonial_%28PA-115%29-Pennsylvania-18_Jun_1764.jpg.
¶ 46 Leave a comment on paragraph 46 0 Only with hindsight does the Great Awakening look like a unified movement. The first revivals began unexpectedly in the Congregational churches of New England in the 1730's and then spread through the 1740's and 1750's to Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists in the other Thirteen Colonies. Different places at different times experienced revivals of different intensities. Yet in all of these communities colonists discussed the same need to strip their lives of worldly concerns and return to a more pious lifestyle. The form it took was something of a contradiction. Preachers became key figures in encouraging individuals to find a personal relationship with God.
¶ 47 Leave a comment on paragraph 47 0 The first signs of religious revival appeared in Jonathan Edwards' congregation in Northampton, Massachusetts. Edwards was a theologian who shared the faith of the early Puritans setters. In particular he believed in the idea called predestination that God had decided in advance who was damned and who was saved. However, he worried that his congregation had stopped searching their souls and were merely doing good works to prove they were saved. With a missionary zeal, Edwards preached against worldly sins and called for his congregation to look inwards for signs of God's saving grace. His most famous sermon was called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Suddenly in the winter of 1734 these sermons sent his congregation into violent convulsions. The spasms first appeared amongst known sinners in the community. Over the next 6 months the physical symptoms spread to half of the 600 person-congregation. Edwards shared the work of his revival in a widely circulated pamphlet.
¶ 48 Leave a comment on paragraph 48 0 Over the next decade itinerant preachers were more successfully in spreading the spirit of revival around America. These preachers had the same spiritual goal as Edwards, but brought with them a new religious experience. They abandoned traditional sermons in favor of outside meetings where they could whip up the congregation into an emotional frenzy that might reveal evidence of saving grace. Many religious leaders were suspicious of the enthusiasm and message of these revivals, but colonists flocked to the spectacle.
¶ 49 Leave a comment on paragraph 49 0 C. Corbett, publisher, "Enthusiasm display'd: or, the Moor Fields congregation," 1739. Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2006680550/. Whitefield is shown supported by two women, "Hypocrisy" and "Defeat". The image also includes other visual indications of the engraver's disapproval of Whitefield, including a monkey and jester's staff in the right-hand corner.
¶ 50 Leave a comment on paragraph 50 0 The most famous itinerant preacher was George Whitefield. According to Whitefield the only type of faith that pleased God was heartfelt. The established churches only encouraged apathy. "The Christian World is dead asleep," Whitefield explained, "Nothing but a loud voice can awaken them out of it." He would be that voice. Whitefield was a former actor with a dramatic style of preaching and a simple message. Thundering against sin and for Jesus Christ, Whitefield invited everyone to be born again. It worked. Through the 1730's he traveled from New York to South Carolina converting ordinary men, women and children. "I have seen upwards of a thousand people hang on his words with breathless silence," wrote a socialite in Philadelphia, "broken only by an occasional half suppressed sob." A farmer recorded the powerful impact this rhetoric could have: "And my hearing him preach gave me a heart wound; by God's blessing my old foundation was broken up, and I saw that my righteousness would not save me." The number of people trying to hear Whitefield's message were so large that he preached in the meadows at the edges of cities. Contemporaries regularly testified to crowds of thousands and in one case over 20,000 in Philadelphia. Whitefield and the other itinerant preachers had achieved what Edwards could not, making the revivals popular.
¶ 51 Leave a comment on paragraph 51 0 Ultimately the religious revivals became a victim of the preachers' success. As itinerant preachers became more experimental they alienated as many people as they converted. In 1742 one preacher from Connecticut, James Davenport, persuaded his congregation that he had special knowledge from God. To be saved they had to dance naked in circles at night whilst screaming and laughing. Or, they could burn the books he disapproved of. Either way, this type of extremism demonstrated to many that revivalism had gone wrong. A divide appeared by the 1740s and 1750s between "New Lights", who still believed in a revived faith, and "Old Lights", who thought it was deluded nonsense.
¶ 52 Leave a comment on paragraph 52 0 By the 1760s, the religious revivals had petered out; however, they left a profound impact on America. Leaders like Edwards and Whitefield encouraged individuals to question the world around them. This idea reformed religion in America and created a language of individualism that promised to change everything else. If you challenged the church, what other authority figures might you question? The Great Awakening provided a language of individualism, reinforced in print culture, which reappeared in the call for independence. While pre-revolutionary America had profoundly oligarchical qualities, the groundwork was laid for a more republican society. However, society did not transform easily overnight. It would take intense, often physical, conflict to change colonial life.
¶ 54 Leave a comment on paragraph 54 0 Of the 87 years between the Glorious Revolution (1688) and the American Revolution (1775), Britain was at war with France and French-allied Native Americans for 37 of them. These were not wars in which European soldiers fought other European soldiers. American militiamen fought for the British against French Catholics and their Indian allies in all of these engagements. Warfare took a physical and spiritual toll on British colonists. British towns located on the border between New England and New France experienced intermittent raiding by French-allied Native Americans. Raiding parties would destroy houses and burn crops, but they would also take captives. They brought these captives to French Quebec, where some were ransomed back to their families in New England and others converted to Catholicism and remained in New France. In this sense, Catholicism threatened to literally capture Protestant lands and souls.
¶ 55 Leave a comment on paragraph 55 0 In 1754 a force of British colonists and Native American allies, led by young George Washington, attacked and killed a French diplomat. This incident led to a war, which would become known as the Seven Years' War or the French and Indian War. In North America, the French achieved victory in the early portion of this war. They attacked and burned multiple British outposts, such as Fort William Henry in 1757. In addition, the French seemed to easily defeat British attacks, such as General Braddock's attack on Fort Duquesne, and General Abercrombie's attack on Fort Carllion (Ticonderoga) in 1758. These victories were often the result of alliances with Native Americans.
¶ 56 Leave a comment on paragraph 56 1 Albert Bobbett, engraver, "Montcalm trying to stop the massacre," c. 1870-1880. Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/98505902/.
¶ 57 Leave a comment on paragraph 57 0 In Europe, the war did not fully begin until 1756, when British-allied Frederick II of Prussia invaded the neutral state of Saxony. As a result of this invasion, a massive coalition of France, Austria, Russia, and Sweden attacked Prussia and the few German states allied with Prussia. The ruler of Austria, Maria Theresa, hoped to conquer the province of Silesia, which had been lost to Prussia in a previous war. In the European war, the British monetarily supported the Prussians, as well as the minor western German states of Hesse-Kassel and Braunschwieg-Wolfbüttel. These subsidy payments enabled the smaller German states to fight France and allowed the excellent Prussian army to fight against the large enemy alliance.
¶ 58 Leave a comment on paragraph 58 0 However, as in North America, the early part of the war went against the British. The French defeated Britain's German allies and forced them to surrender after the Battle of Hastenbeck in 1757. The Austrians defeated the Prussians in the Battle of Kolin, also in 1757. However, Frederick of Prussia defeated the French at the Battle of Rossbach in November of 1757. This battle allowed the British to rejoin the war in Europe. Just a month later, Frederick's army defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Leuthen, reclaiming the vital province of Silesia. In India and throughout the world's oceans, the British and their fleet consistently defeated the French. Robert Clive and his Indian allies defeated the French at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. With the sea firmly in their control, the British could send more troops to North America.
¶ 59 Leave a comment on paragraph 59 0 These newly arrived soldiers allowed the British to launch new offensives. The large French port and fortress of Louisbourg, in present day Nova Scotia, fell to the British in 1758. In 1759, British General James Wolfe defeated French General Montcalm in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, outside of Quebec City. In Europe, 1759 saw the British defeat the French at the Battle of Minden, and destroy large portions of the French fleet. The British referred to 1759 as the "annus mirabilis" or the year of miracles. These victories brought about the fall of French Canada, and for all intents and purposes, the war in North America ended in 1760 with the British capture of Montreal. The British continued to fight against the Spanish, who entered the war in 1762. In this war, the Spanish successfully defended Nicaragua against British attacks but were unable to prevent the conquest of Cuba and the Philippines.
¶ 61 Leave a comment on paragraph 61 0 American colonists rejoiced over the defeat of Catholic France and felt secure that the Catholics in Quebec could no longer threaten them. Of course, the American colonies had been a haven for religious minorities since the seventeenth century. Early religious pluralism served as evidence of an "American melting pot" that included Catholic Maryland. But practical toleration of Catholics existed alongside virulent anti-Catholicism in public and political arenas. It was a powerful and enduring rhetorical tool borne out of warfare and competition between Britain and France.
¶ 62 Leave a comment on paragraph 62 0 In part because of constant conflict with Catholic France, Britons on either side of the Atlantic and of a variety of Protestant sects cohered around a pan-Protestant interest. British ministers in England called for a coalition to fight French and Catholic empires that imperiled Protestantism. Missionary organizations such as the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and the Society for Propagation of the Gospel were founded at the turn of the seventeenth century to evangelize Native Americans and limit Jesuits advances in converting them to Catholicism. The previously mentioned Protestant revivals of the so-called Great Awakening crisscrossed the Atlantic and founded a participatory religious movement during the 1730s and 1740s that united British Protestant churches. Preachers and merchants alike urged greater Atlantic trade to knit the Anglophone Protestant Atlantic together through commerce.
¶ 64 Leave a comment on paragraph 64 0 Relationships between colonists and Native Americans were complex and often violent. In 1761, Neolin, a prophet, received a vision from his religion's main deity, known as the Master of Life. The Master of Life told Neolin that the only way to enter Heaven would be to cast off the corrupting influence of Europeans, by expelling the British from Indian country: "This land where ye dwell I have made for you and not for others. Whence comes it that ye permit the Whites upon your lands…Drive them out, make war upon them." Neolin preached the avoidance of alcohol, a return to traditional rituals, and pan-Indian unity to his disciples, including Pontiac, an Ottawa leader.
¶ 65 Leave a comment on paragraph 65 0 Pontiac took Neolin's words to heart and sparked the beginning of what would become known as Pontiac's War against British soldiers, traders, and settlers. At its height, the pan-Indian uprising included native peoples from the territory between the Great Lakes, Appalachians, and the Mississippi River. Though Pontiac did not command all of the Indians participating in the war, his actions were influential in its development. Pontiac and 300 Indian warriors sought to take Fort Detroit by surprise in May 1763 but the plan was foiled, resulting in a six-month siege of the British fort. News of the siege quickly spread throughout Indian country and inspired more attacks on British forts and settlers. In May, Native Americans captured Forts Sandusky, Saint Joseph, and Miami. In June, a coalition of Ottawas and Ojibwes captured Fort Michilimackinac by staging a game of stickball (lacrosse) outside the fort. They chased the ball into the fort, gathered arms that had been smuggled in by a group of Native American women, and killed almost half of the fort's British soldiers.
¶ 66 Leave a comment on paragraph 66 0 Though these Indians were indeed responding to Neolin's religious message, there were many other practical reasons for waging war on the British. After the Seven Years War, Britain gained control of formerly French territory as a result of the Treaty of Paris. Whereas the French had maintained a peaceful and relatively equal relationship with their Indian allies through trade, the British hoped to profit from and impose "order." For example, the French often engaged in the Indian practice of diplomatic gift giving. However, the British General Jeffrey Amherst discouraged this practice and regulated the trade or sale of firearms and ammunition to Indians. Most Native Americans, including Pontiac, saw this not as frugal imperial policy but preparation for war.
¶ 67 Leave a comment on paragraph 67 0 Pontiac's War lasted until 1766. Native American warriors attacked British forts and frontier settlements, killing as many as 400 soldiers and 2000 settlers. Disease and a shortage of supplies ultimately undermined the Indian war effort, and in July 1766 Pontiac met with British official and diplomat William Johnson at Fort Ontario and settled for peace. Though the western Indians did not win Pontiac's War, they succeeded in fundamentally altering the British government's Indian policy. The war made British officials recognize that peace in the West would require royal protection of Indian lands and heavy-handed regulation of Anglo-American trade activity in Indian country. During the war, the British Crown issued the Royal Proclamation Line of 1763, which marked the Appalachian Mountains as the boundary between Indian country and the British colonies.
¶ 68 Leave a comment on paragraph 68 0 Coinciding with the end of the Seven Year's War, the effects of Pontiac's War were substantial and widespread. The war proved that coercion was not an effective strategy for imperial control, though the British government would continue to employ this strategy to consolidate their power in North America, most notably through the various Acts imposed on their colonies. Additionally, the prohibition of Anglo-American settlement in Indian country, especially the Ohio River Valley, sparked discontent. The French immigrant Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur articulated this discontent most clearly in his 1782 Letters from an American Farmer when he asked, "What then is the American, this new man?" In other words, why did colonists start thinking of themselves as Americans, not Britons? Crèvecoeur suggested that America was a melting pot of self-reliant individual landholders, fiercely independent in pursuit of their own interests, and free from the burdens of European class systems. It was an answer many wanted to hear and fit with self-conceptions of the new nation, albeit one that imagined itself as white, male, and generally Protestant. The Seven Years' War pushed the thirteen American colonies closer together politically and culturally than ever before. In 1754, Benjamin Franklin suggested a plan of union to coordinate colonial defenses on a continental scale. Tens of thousands of colonials fought during the war. Of the 11,000 British soldiers present for the French surrender of Montreal in 1760, 6,500 were colonials from every colony north of Pennsylvania. At home, many heard or read sermons that portrayed the war as a struggle between civilizations with liberty-loving Britons arrayed against tyrannical Frenchmen and savage Indians. American colonists rejoiced in their collective victory as a millennial moment of newfound peace and prosperity. After nearly seven decades of warfare they looked to the newly acquired lands west of the Appalachian Mountains as their reward.
¶ 69 Leave a comment on paragraph 69 0 Benjamin Franklin, "Join or Die," May 9, 1754. Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002695523/.
¶ 70 Leave a comment on paragraph 70 0 The war was tremendously expensive and precipitated imperial reforms on taxation, commerce, and politics. Britain spent over £140 million, an astronomical figure for the day. Tens of thousands of British soldiers served in America, and 10,000 were left to garrison the conquests in Canada and the Ohio Valley at a cost of £100,000. Britain wanted to recoup some of its expenses and looked to the colonies to share the costs of their own security. To do this, Parliament started legislating over all the colonies in a way rarely done before. As a result, the colonies began seeing themselves as a collective group, rather than just distinct entities. Different taxation schemes implemented across the colonies between 1763 and 1774 placed duties on items like tea, paper, molasses, and stamps for almost every kind of document. Consumption and trade, an important bond between Britain and the colonies, was being threatened. To enforce these unpopular measures, Britain implemented increasingly restrictive policies that eroded civil liberties like protection from unlawful searches and jury trials. The rise of an antislavery movement made many colonists worry that slavery, following increasing imperial involvement in trade and commerce, would soon be attacked. The moratorium on new settlements in the west after Pontiac's War was yet another disappointment.
¶ 72 Leave a comment on paragraph 72 0 By 1763, Americans had never been more united as they fought and celebrated together. More importantly, the colonists began to realize they were not considered British citizens in the way they felt they should be. Americans viewed the imperial reforms as threats to their autonomous status within the empire. The Stamp Act Congress of 1765 brought colonial leaders together in an unprecedented show of cooperation against a direct tax imposed by Parliament. Popular boycotts of British goods like tea created a common narrative of sacrifice, resistance, and shared political identity while also eroding the links of consumption and trade. To Americans, Parliament's restrictive measures threatened the British liberties they saw as a birthright.


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Home • General Healthcare News • Spitzer to unveil plan to lower malpractice costs
Spitzer to unveil plan to lower malpractice costs
john • Mar 5, 2008
BY JAMES T. MADORE
http://www.newsday.com
ALBANY – Gov. Eliot Spitzer will unveil a plan in several weeks to overhaul the medical malpractice system as more doctors threaten to stop practicing because of soaring insurance rates.
Speaking to 2,000 physicians here yesterday, Spitzer said he was trying to fashion a winning proposal, similar to last year's changes to workers' compensation, which cut expenses by 20 percent and improved benefits. He is working with lawmakers, doctors, insurers and other interest groups.
Like workers' compensation, changes to medical malpractice have been stymied for decades under Democratic and Republican governors. But Spitzer vowed to get something done.
"I'm not participating in this exercise … so I can propose something that will go nowhere," he told the state Medical Society. "We want to do something that will have a real impact … to deal with this issue in a way that alleviates the pain that you have been feeling."
Society members, many dressed in white coats, gave Spitzer four standing ovations.
Hours later, patients' rights advocates accused the second-year governor of excluding them from the talks.
"We've been shut out of this process for the large part," said Joanne Doroshow of the Center for Justice & Democracy.
She and Arthur Levin of the Center for Medical Consumers are members of a task force appointed by Spitzer to study medical liability. Both said they knew nothing about the legislative remedies that Spitzer will announce.
The pair also described as "myths" the assertions of Spitzer and the Medical Society that the high cost of malpractice insurance was driving doctors out of the state, causing shortages in obstetrics and other specialties, and threatening insurers with insolvency because of large damage awards.
The task force was created in July when the Insurance Department approved a 14 percent hike in malpractice premiums. The increase jolted doctors, coming after the stable rates of Gov. George Pataki's 12 years in office.
Spitzer blamed Pataki yesterday for precipitating a crisis by artificially keeping down the cost of malpractice coverage while damage awards continued to soar. A 2006 report found the average award rose from $6 million to $8.1 million between 1999 and 2005. Some insurers now face bankruptcy.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) opposes capping damage awards, as is done in about 35 states. But Silver, who works at a personal-injury law firm, said he would consider "freezing" insurance rates.
Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) called for action to help doctors, saying the exodus had to stop.
While Spitzer gave no details of his plan, internist Herb Ausubel of Valley Stream applauded the effort. If malpractice had been reformed in the 1970s, he said, "New York would be the premier place to practice medicine instead of a dung-hole to practice medicine."
Still, victims of medical mistakes argued the problem isn't high premiums but bad doctors.
Craig and Jennifer Lattuga of Shirley said their infant daughter's heart failure was misdiagnosed in January 2006 as acid reflux by Stony Brook University Medical Center. The couple said the hospital refused to discharge baby Giana and police eventually transported her to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital for successful heart surgery. The Health Department has since disciplined Stony Brook.
"Doctors need to be at their finest," said Craig Lattuga, an electrician. "Someone needs to police them so their patients aren't at risk."
Categories: General Healthcare News Medical Malpractice Insurance Medical Malpractice Laws Physician News

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Day 22: Iceberg iceberg baby
Zero Waste challenge
Morgana Chess
Jas (The Ginger) and Morgana (The Vegan) are undertaking the Zero Waste Challenge: finding ways to refuse, reuse, reduce, and recycle as much as possible in their lives, and ask you to join them on their journey.
Prepping food creates "bits." Carrot and potato peelings, apple stalks, onion roots... All of these scraps are thought of as dead and useless.
But there is life in them, they can be reborn like a phoenix from the ashes.
If the food scraps generated by all households in the US in a year were piled on a football field, the pile would be five miles (26,400 feet) high. It is a total misconception that ugly food scraps are inedible and it leads to a colossal amount of waste. If you're already environmentally savvy and you have the space, you might compost these scraps and return them to the earth, as nature intended.
The Ginger and the Vegan don't have the space to compost in their humble student abode; yet, they find another, creative alternative in their fight against food waste.
We have some news for you all. We've kept it to ourselves for a while but we can no longer contain our joy.
The Ginger and her Vegan are expecting, and the baby's due in just two weeks' time.
Pregnant mum and proud sunburnt dad, you can see the bump!
(It's the lettuce, the baby is the lettuce)
This was our baby making process (don't worry, it's PG):
1) We were just enjoying their iceberg lettuce as usual: munching away on those crunchy cold leaves of deliciousness
2) We nibbled our way down to the stem, which is traditionally considered the inedible part
3) We realise its potential for new life
4) As co-parents, we place the iceberg stem in a bowl in about half an inch of water and put it on a windowsill in the sun (well, daylight)
5) We will nurture our baby each day, changing the water as required until it blossoms into a fully grown iceberg
We had our first ultrasound and Jas can't stop crying. Here is a picture from a baby face generator we used to find out what our baby might look like when it's older:
At first, our baby was developing slowly/not at all, and we were going to call the whole thing off. However, upon close inspection, we saw some gunky bits that needed getting rid of. We trimmed off the brown edges so all of the water and growing energy was directed to the parts that were showing signs of new life. BECAUSE OUR BABY WAS GROWING. We noticed little green offshoots coming out the stem. In a couple of days, the green poky bits started unfurling to become LEAVES. So far, we only have enough green stuff grown to put as garnish on soup, but we MADE IT OURSELVES.
As young people who live in cities, we often use our lifestyle as an excuse for not growing our own produce. Not that many of us even try looking after plants. Where are we supposed to grow things in an apartment barely big enough for a bed? What this challenge has proven to us is that those excuses just don't hold up if you want it bad enough. You can always find a windowsill or even a communal lot to grow things on. This challenge was a reminder of the boss-ness of nature; deepening our respect for her.
This article is part of our 30 days Zero Waste challenge.
Read what Jas and Morgana were up to in the past 21 days.
Day 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21
Extraordinary People. Inspiring Lives.
Winnie Byanyima was the real hero of the Cost of Inequality panel in Davos
Hundreds of young students march in Amsterdam against climate change
Muslim doctors open free clinic for uninsured patients in a Ohio mosque
How mental health charity Strongminds is disrupting depression in Africa
Meet the Indian man who is cycling the world to combat HIV
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People in poorer nations might not get a COVID-19 vaccine in 2021
Deniz Gulsoken
People's Vaccine Alliance, a coalition between Amnesty International, Oxfam and Global Justice now, warned the world on Wednesday, saying if no action is taken 90 percent of people in poorer nations will not get access to a vaccine against COVID-19.
The world's richest nations have currently bought 54 percent of the potential vaccine supplies, despite housing only 14 percent of the world's population. Canada, for example, has ordered almost 5 complete doses of vaccines per person.
"No one should be blocked from getting a life-saving vaccine because of the country they live in or the amount of money in their pocket," Anna Marriott, Oxfam Health Policy Manager.
While affluent countries like the UK who has already administered the first dose of the vaccine to nearly 1.5 million people, 67 low-income countries have made no vaccine purchase yet.
According to the People's Vaccine Alliance, it's likely that these countries, along with 221 others who signed up for the programme, rely on COVAX, a global fund to provide equal access to the vaccine across the world.
High-income countries, along with the EU have pledged to provide funds for COVA, however, there is no clear timeline for the programme's rollout.
According to Duke Global Health Innovation Center, "Current models predict that there will not be enough vaccines to cover the world's population until 2023 or 2024". If there aren't dramatic changes to the vaccine rollout strategies billions of people across the world won't get access to safe and effective vaccination against COVID-19 for years. Which essentially means the pandemic also won't end for the rest of the world.
This upcoming crisis with vaccine distribution is a clear sign of the lack of equitable access to healthcare around the world. Health systems are facing major challenges due to the pricing of pharmaceuticals, research and testing of new drugs and treatments. Public health services do not always provide the care that people require. Accessible healthcare is a luxury the majority of the world's population doesn't have.
If you'd like to support people who don't have access to proper healthcare across the world, you can donate to our Accessible Healthcare for All appeal. By donating to this appeal you'll support 10 organisations chosen by our research team based on our in-house vetting. All organisations are amongst the most transparent and effective tackling healthcare acess in different corners of the world.
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Healthcare / poverty
The fast fashion industry is pushing workers to poverty
Ana Sofia Mergulhão
This question was posed in 2016 by the Dutch trend forecaster Li Edelkoort, at Voices, a gathering of fashion-industry innovators organized by The Business of Fashion.
The fast fashion industry has long been following a business model that is rooted in unfairness. Providing us with the latest fashion trends at unsustainably cheap prices at the expense of people who make the clothes. We've known for a long time now that fast-fashion workers receive very low wages and work in inhumane conditions.
"This is a system where the workers at the bottom are taking all the risk and paying the price when things go wrong." Professor Genevieve LeBaron
The coronavirus pandemic created an economic pressure, plunging the fashion industry into a crisis that exposed, once again, the inequality pervading many corners of the globalized world.
The world faced factory closures, layoffs and the refusal of foreign buyers to continue to pay worker's wages while business was suspended, threatening the livelihoods of millions of worldwide garment workers that were already on a battle against a deadly disease.
Almost 80% of garment workers, many making clothes for some of the world's biggest fashion brands, are going hungry due to cancelled orders and while some retailers have agreed to pay for them in full, others are still refusing.
The solution shouldn't be cancelling contracts, moving manufacturing to local factories, or replacing humans with robots, but to dedicate meaningful resources to the improvement of working conditions for the sector's most essential workers: people who make our clothes.
Garment workers who work for fast-fashion brands already live in poverty, with the COVID-19 crisis many have lost the little income they had with no protection to fall back on. If you'd like to support garment workers and other people across the world pushed into poverty you can donate our Fighting Poverty appeal below. Your donation will be divided amongst 7 top organisations fighting to eradicate poverty across the world.
Sustainability / Work & Poverty
The secret to saving our oceans is to work together
The ocean is a delicate ecosystem where all the organisms live in balance. When something from the outside threatens one single part of this balance it endangers the whole ecosystem.
Currently, there are many threats to ocean life. Yes, plastic is one of them but it's not the only one. Overfishing threatens fish populations and all the other microorganisms dependent on them. Agricultural runoff, waste disposal and many other kinds of pollution caused by humans leave oceans bare all over the world. The climate crisis is heating the waters to the point of no return. Disasters like the Gulf of Mexico oil spill do irreparable damage and destroy not only marine life but also the lives of people who depend on the oceans for their livelihood.
Stopping all of these threats, saving our living oceans require us to come together under this goal. The problems and threats are numerous, they might seem large and unconquerable to just one, but when many of us work together we have a chance to turn it around.
This is why we created our Save the Oceans appeal. We brought organisations that approach saving our oceans from different angles so that when they are together it becomes one big solution. All of the organisations we picked excel at their work and are highly transparent and effective. If you would like to donate to a comprehensive solution to the destruction of our oceans you can donate to it below. Your donation will support all organisations in the appeal.
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There is only one fashion marketing school in Southington for faculty to choose from. The following statistics and charts help analyze the current state of the fashion marketing academic community in Southington, and the future trends. Academia in fashion marketing includes fashion marketing training at the fashion marketing associates degree level.
Of the 5,680 fashion marketing professionals employed in Connecticut, 2,070 work in Southington. Between 2006 and 2010, the number of fashion marketing professionals in Southington has grown by 83%. As the employment for fashion marketing professionals in Southington has increased, overall employment in Southington has also increased.
Salaries for fashion marketing professionals in Southington have decreased. In 2010 Southington fashion marketing professionals earned an average yearly salary of $66,730. The average salary for fashion marketing professionals in Southington was $69,725 per year, four years earlier in 2006. This decline is slower than the salary trend for all careers in Southington.
Fashion marketing professionals make a median salary of $62,965 per year in Southington. The 10% of fashion marketing professionals in the lowest pay bracket earn less than $35,875 per year, while those in the highest pay bracket earn approximately $93,635 per year.
On average fashion marketing professionals in Southington earn salaries that are lower than the salaries earned by other professionals in Southington.
Many of Southington's fashion marketing professionals are graduates of the only accredited fashion marketing school in the city.
There is one degree and certificate program in fashion marketing offered by Southington's fashion marketing school.
Approximately 7 students completed fashion marketing courses in 2010.
We are currently gathering data for the number of fashion marketing faculty in Southington, growth in the field of fashion marketing academia and fashion marketing faculty salaries in Southington. If you are involved in teaching fashion marketing courses to students at the associates degree in fashion marketing level, please take a moment to anonymously submit your information to help us build a valuable database resource for the benefit of current and future faculty in the field of fashion marketing in Southington. A summary of the data collected thus far will be available to you once you have submitted your information.


OCTOBER 9, 2012, 7:00 P.M.
The regular meeting of the Putnam County Board was called to order at 7:00 P.M. on Tuesday, October 9, 2012, in the boardroom at the Putnam County Courthouse in Hennepin, Illinois by Putnam County Board Chairman, Duane A. Calbow.
Roll Call was taken by the Clerk of the County Board with Duane Calbow, Gil Tonozzi, Chauntelle Biagi-Bruer , Sheila Haage, and John O'Neill answering.
It was then moved by board member Gil Tonozzi to approve the minutes from the September 10, 2012, recessed Regular Board Meeting and the September 17, 2012, reconvened Regular Board Meeting. Board member Sheila Haage seconded the motion and the motion was carried on a board vote of 4 ayes, 0 nays, and 0 absent.
County Probation Officer Andy Ceresa had nothing to report for the month of September and therefore was not present for the meeting.
County Supervisor of Assessments Tammy Mehalic had nothing to report for the month of September and therefore was not present for the meeting.
County Death Investigator Robert Cofoid was not present for the meeting. It was noted that Mr. Cofoid had not submitted his Death Investigator's report for the month of September to the board prior to the meeting. It was also noted that the resolution Mr. Cofoid submitted for the authorization to execute a mutual aid agreement with the Illinois Coroners and Medical Examiners Association is still waiting on board approval. The item will be placed on the agenda again for the November 2012 board meeting for possible final approval.
Under "Old Business" for Committee Reports; there were no reports from any of the board's committee members that were present.
Under "New Business" for Bureau / Putnam Area Enterprise Zone Amending Ordinance and Amended Intergovernmental Agreement; Mr. Ben Wilson, Zone Administrator with the North Central Illinois Council of Governments presented to the board an ordinance which amends Ordinance #2009-0-04 entitled "An ordinance amending an ordinance establishing an enterprise zone with the County of Putnam, Illinois, said ordinance zone being a portion of a larger enterprise zone encompassing contiguous portions of the cities of Spring Valley and Princeton, Villages of Ladd, Hennepin, Mark, and Granville, and the counties of Bureau and Putnam, Illinois". The amending ordinance removes 630 acres from Area 3 of the zone and adds 805 acres to Area 12 of the zone. The amending ordinance also includes an amended intergovernmental agreement between the counties, cities, and villages that comprise the Bureau / Putnam Area Enterprise Zone. After brief discussion, board member Chauntelle Biagi-Bruer moved that the board approve and adopt the amending ordinance and the amended intergovernmental agreement allowing for the revisions of Area 3 and Area 12 of the existing enterprise zone. Board member Gil Tonozzi seconded the motion and the motion was carried on a board vote of 4 ayes, 0 nays, and 0 absent. The Clerk of the County Board was directed to process the ordinance (#2012-0-02).
Also under "New Business" for Regional Office of Education Update; Ms. Phyllis Glazier, recently appointed as Regional Superintendent of Schools, addressed the board to discuss the re-organization and possible re-alignment of the Regional Offices of Education due to the state's cuts in funding.. The current Marshall/Putnam/Woodford Regional Office of Education may stay the same or may split. The Regional Offices of LaSalle and Tazewell counties have been mentioned as part of a possible re-alignment.
Also under "New Business" for Ordinance / Resolutions for Bureau-Putnam Area Rural Transit Program Grant; Mr. Mike Neuenkirchen, Administrator of the Bureau-Putnam Area Rural Transit Program, addressed the board to discuss the grant application process with the IDOT to secure federal and state funding to underwrite a rural public transportation in Putnam County. Mr. Neuenkirchen presented drafts of two (2) resolutions and an ordinance required by the IDOT as part of the application process. After brief discussion, board member Chauntelle Biagi-Bruer moved that the board approve the resolution authorizing application for Public Transportation Financial Assistance under Section 5311 of the Federal Transit Act of 1991, as amended (49 U.S.C. 5311). The approval would be contingent upon the review and legal approval of the State's Attorney. Board member Sheila Haage seconded the motion and the motion was carried on a board vote of 4 ayes, 0 nays, and 0 absent. Board member Chauntelle Biagi-Bruer then moved that the board approve the resolution authorizing application for a Public Transportation Capital Assistance Grant under the IDOT's general authority to make such grants. The approval would also be contingent upon the review and legal approval of the State's Attorney. Board member Sheila Haage seconded the motion and the motion was carried on a board vote of 4 ayes, 0 nays, and 0 absent. Board member Sheila Haage then moved that the board approve the ordinance to provide for Public Transportation in Putnam County, Illinois. The approval would also be contingent upon the review and legal approval of the State's Attorney. Board member Chauntelle Biagi-Bruer seconded the motion and the motion was carried on a board vote of 4 ayes, 0 nays, and 0 absent.
At 8:05 P.M., board member Chauntelle Biagi-Bruer moved that the board retire into Executive Session to discuss legal issues. Board member Gil Tonozzi seconded the motion and the motion was carried on a board vote of 4 ayes, 0 nays, and 0 absent. The board then retired into Executive Session.
At 8:38 P.M., board member Sheila Haage moved that the board return to Regular Session. Board member Chauntelle Biagi-Bruer seconded the motion and the motion was carried on a board vote of 4 ayes, 0 nays, and 0 absent. The board then returned to Regular Session.
At 8:39 P.M., board member Sheila Haage moved that the board retire into Executive Session to discuss real estate transaction issues. Board member Chauntelle Biagi-Bruer seconded the motion and the motion was carried on a board vote of 4 ayes, 0 nays, and 0 absent. The board then retired into Executive Session.
At 8:45 P.M., board member Gil Tonozzi moved that the board return to Regular Session. Board member Chauntelle Biagi-Bruer seconded the motion and the motion was carried on a board vote of 4 ayes, 0 nays, and 0 absent. The board then returned to Regular Session.
Also under "New Business" for I.V.C.C. Tax Litigation; State's Attorney James Mack informed the board that an order has been filed with the court to appoint attorneys as Special Assistant State's Attorneys to represent the Putnam County Clerk and the Putnam County Treasurer in the I.V.C.C. Tax Litigation case. This would be at the county's expense.
Also under "New Business" for Putnam County Website; the board discussed the progress being made with the overall content of the website. The site's address is www.co.putnam.il.us.
Also under "New Business" for Approve Bills; the county board reviewed the bills for the month of September. Board member Gil Tonozzi then moved that the board approve the payment of the bills for the month of September. Board member Sheila Haage seconded the motion and the motion was carried on a board vote of 4 ayes, 0 nays, and 0 absent.
Also under "New Business" for Correspondences and Reports; the board reviewed the monthly reports from the County Clerk's Office and the Regional Office of Education. The board also reviewed the legislative reports from the Illinois Association of County Board Members and Commissioners and information from the North Central Illinois Council of Governments.
Also under "New Business" for Public Comment Period; there were no members of the public present at the meeting.
At 8:50 P.M., board member Sheila Haage moved to adjourn the meeting. Board member Chauntelle Biagi-Bruer seconded the motion and the motion was carried on a board vote of 4 ayes, 0 nays, and 0 absent. The meeting was adjourned. The next Regular Meeting of the Putnam County Board is scheduled for Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 7:00 P.M.


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Gardening is a popular pastime in New Zealand. A 2007/2008 survey of physical activities found that 43% of New Zealanders had participated in gardening in the previous 12 months. A range of books, magazines and television programmes are dedicated to the topic.

New Zealand has restrictions on trading during the Easter holiday break, and in recent years garden supply centres have flouted the law and remained open.

Gardens
Ayrlies Garden
Caccia Birch House
Dunedin Chinese Garden
Government Gardens
Ohinetahi
Parnell Rose Gardens
Pukeiti Rhododendron Trust

Botanical gardens
Auckland Botanic Gardens
Bason Botanic Gardens
Christchurch Botanic Gardens
Dunedin Botanic Gardens
Gisborne Botanical Gardens
Hamilton Gardens
Otari-Wilton's Bush
Wellington Botanic Garden

Arboreta
Eastwoodhill Arboretum
Hackfalls Arboretum

Events
Ellerslie Flower Show
Auckland Flower Show
Taranaki Garden Festival

Gardeners and horticulturists

Maggie Barry presented a television show and writes a gardening column
Bob Berry
Lady Anne Berry
William Douglas Cook
Barbara Winifred Matthews
James William Matthews
Eion Scarrow
Emily Stevens

Environmental issues
With the European settlement of New Zealand, which occurred in relatively recent times from an ecological perspective, a wide range of plants were introduced into the country for both agriculture and for gardens. Many of the plants went on to become invasive species.

Some notable examples of invasive plants that are used in gardens include:
Agapanthus (Agapanthus praecox)
Blue morning glory (Ipomoea indica)
Old man's beard (Clematis vitalba)

See also
New Zealand Gardens Trust
Culture of New Zealand
Environment of New Zealand

References

Further reading

External links
New Zealand Gardens Trust
Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture
New Zealand Alpine Garden Society
Garden Design Society of New Zealand
"Garden plants invading our bush" at the Department of Conservation

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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SportRugby League
Featherstone Rovers: On-the-road Rovers gear up for Big Fellas return
TRAVEL-SICK Featherstone Rovers are determined to turn Big Fellas Stadium into a fortress, coach Jon Sharp says.
Saturday, 4th March 2017, 4:17 am
Updated Friday, 24th March 2017, 10:08 am
Jon Sharp.
Rovers have been away for three of their four Kingstone Press Championship fixtures so far this season and Sharp said it will be good to return to familiar surroundings for tomorrow's clash with Rochdale Hornets (3pm).
"It feels like we've been constantly on the road," Sharp said.
"Where we've been the conditions have been really tough, the fields have been like glue pots at times so it is nice to get back home.
"The fans have been brilliant, the support is growing every week and we've been delighted with them and we're pleased to be getting back to our own ground and our own changing rooms.
"Three of our four games have been away and we have won all four of them, which we are delighted with, but it is good to be back home."
Along with Hull KR, Rovers are one of only two unbeaten teams in the Championship, but Sharp predicted their impressive start will be put to the test by Hornets.
"I watched them play Hull KR and they weren't far off," he said.
"They gave them a really good game and against Halifax they showed plenty of skill and commitment.
"They are a team on the up, they are improving.
"They won their first two games and played some good stuff and they are a team that works hard for each other.
"Their coach has done a really good job with them."
Rovers are second in the table, but Sharp said they are happy for Hull KR to grab the headlines.
"We are trying to stay under the radar," he stated. "We have got off to a good start, we have won nine out of 10 – including the friendlies – and we have been battling away.
"We have got some resolve and toughness about us, but we can be better.
"We know that, but we are turning up every week and playing for 80 minutes.
"When things aren't going how we want them to – whether that's defensively or through a referee's call – we aren't letting it disrupt what we are trying to do.
"It is pleasing when you've got a team that's mentally tough."


Wonderful opportunity for first time buyers or investors to get their hands on a spacious and bright 3 level 3 bedroom townhome in quiet/family friendly Meadowvale! Lots of updates including brand new kitchen, flooring, roof and freshly painted in neutral tones throughout. The low condo fees speak to how well the complex is managed.


Archival sport designs continue to inspire adidas Originals style. Something fresh and unexpected always springs from classics of the past.These men's track pants have a cropped length and a tonal Trefoil logo on the left leg. They're made of water-repellent woven nylon that keeps you ready for raindrops. Tonal 3-Stripes run from hip to hem for a modern look to a heritage pair.


Raghuram Rajan was one of the few economists who warned of the global financial crisis before it hit. Now, he is preparing to take charge of the Reserve Bank in India during a spike in economic challenges for the country.
In India, growth is at its slowest in several years, and the rupee has hit a low of 61.80 to one U.S. dollar. Rajan, who was previously the Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, has spent the past year as counsel on India's economic reforms. Come September, when Rajan takes office, he plans to initiate a series of measures to stabilize the rupee involving decreasing imports and increasing exports.
While the challenge is great, Rajan has been praised for his rare and essential record of speaking out about economic instability (of the U.S. financial system), as well as his sound warnings regarding India's economy the past few years. In a now-famous encounter, he predicted the impending crisis at a conference in Jackson Hole in 2005 for outgoing Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, for which he was attacked as an anti-market Luddite. Three years later, he was proven right and has demonstrated how imbalances—both within the U.S. as well as between the U.S. and the rest of the world—brought about an unstable system which led to the financial crisis in 2008.
In Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy, winner of the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs 2010 Business Book of the Year Award, Rajan shows how the individual choices that collectively brought about the economic meltdown—made by bankers, government officials, and ordinary homeowners—were rational responses to a flawed global financial order in which the incentives to take on risk are incredibly out of step with the dangers those risks pose. He traces the deepening fault lines in a world overly dependent on the indebted American consumer to power global economic growth and stave off global downturns. He exposes a system where America's growing inequality and thin social safety net create tremendous political pressure to encourage easy credit and keep job creation robust, no matter what the consequences to the economy's long-term health; and where the U.S. financial sector, with its skewed incentives, is the critical but unstable link between an overstimulated America and an underconsuming world. Rajan outlines the hard choices we need to make to ensure a more stable world economy and restore lasting prosperity.


Your adventure awaits! The best location in River Run Village just steps from shopping, restaurants, biking & of course skiing! Enjoy access to the Buffalo Club where you will find a fireplace, billiards, outdoor hot tubs, an outdoor grill & a huge TV! Additional amenities can be found next door at Dakota Lodge. This condo is in mint condition with stainless steel appliances, new furniture and a fresh coat of paint! Great rental location for those who want to make some $! Photos coming soon.


App teams up with donor registry to simplify process.
Bao Xin was one of thousands of new organ donors to register on Thursday through Alipay, the mobile payment application by tech giant Alibaba. It only took him 10 seconds and a few taps of his finger on a page that the app had unveiled earlier that day.
Alipay teamed up with the China Organ Transplantation Development Foundation (COTDF) to provide the service, which saw success on its opening day: The quick registration process attracted substantial traffic to the foundation, with more than 3,000 new donors signing up in 12 hours.
Screenshots from the Alipay app show the donor registry.
Alipay has more than 450 million registered users, who only have to confirm their real names and identification card numbers to register as organ donors — and registration can be canceled at any time.
"It is the era of the internet, and the internet should be involved in organ-donation services," Huang Jiefu, the president of COTDF, said in an interview with news outlet Caixin.
The Red Cross Society of China and the nation's health authorities started promoting organ donation in 2010, and since then, a little over 80,000 people have registered as donors. To Huang, that number is disappointing, especially when compared to donor-registration rates in other countries — for example, some 130 million organ donors are registered in the U.S.
The simplified registration procedure through Alipay was designed to lower the threshold for potential donors. Before Thursday, donors had to answer more than 20 questions to sign up. Huang said he feared that 1 million potential donors would be lost with each additional question.
According to research conducted by the World Health Organization, two major reasons why potential donors are reluctant to register are that they don't know where to register and that they find the procedure too complicated.
Clare Zhang, a manager in the social responsibility department of Ant Financial, the company behind Alipay, told Sixth Tone that the app's real-name registration system has simplified the registration procedure: Users already sign up for Alipay with their names and ID card information, so the app simply passes that information on to the donor registry. "Alipay is the perfect solution to this problem," she said.
The main source of donated organs used to be executed criminals, but the harvesting of their organs was abolished in 2015.
In the first three quarters of 2016, about 2,950 organ-transplant surgeries were performed in China, an increase of 50 percent compared to the same period last year. However, there still remains a large discrepancy between demand and supply of organs. And even if enough organs were available, the lack of qualified doctors and hospitals also presents a roadblock. Reportedly, more than 20,000 patients need organ transplants every year, but there are only enough capable doctors to perform half of the surgeries.


After a vicious stock-car crash in 1970, Lee Roy Yarbrough's story spun downward into one of the saddest tales ever told.
"What do you mean?" Minnie said to her son. And Lee Roy showed her what he meant. He reached around her neck, and with both hands, he began to strangle her. A nephew heard his aunt's screams, rushed into the room, and tried to pull Lee Roy away but couldn't. So he grabbed a full jelly jar from the kitchen and clocked Lee Roy over the head. Even so, Lee Roy had enough left in him to fight the first police officer who arrived a few minutes later.
That night, Lee Roy Yarbrough, at 41, became the first and thus far only Daytona 500 winner to be charged with first-degree attempted murder for trying to kill his 65-year-old mother, plus assault on a police officer, both felonies.
Many thought it was the beginning of the end for the only racer to be unanimously voted Driver of the Year, bracketed between Mark Donohue and Al Unser. But Lee Roy Yarbrough had been slipping into a dark place for nearly a decade, though few outside NASCAR knew it.
In February, Daytona International Speedway held a big celebration for the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500, with all 24 living winners of the race showing up. Very little was said about Lee Roy Yarbrough, who had positively dominated the track, and the sport, in 1969. Next February, when the anniversary of his win arrives—not only at the Daytona 500 but in the Sportsman race there the day before and later that July in the Firecracker 400—fans who remember Yarbrough shouldn't expect much of a formal mention of him then, either.
No one at NASCAR likes sad stories, and they don't come much sadder than this one.


I adored Cari from the night I met her. We cheerfully bantered back and forth and I may have talked her ear off. I felt certain I'd made a new friend. Cari has that effect on people: they want to know her, listen to her, spend time with her, learn from her. Her life is rich soil for growth–she always has a new story to share of what she is learning and how she is growing; and she provides soil for others to plant their seeds and grow. Her tables are quite often set outside, in a garden, and that is fitting. Relationships grow around Cari's tables. People grow around Cari's tables. You'll want a seat at Cari's table. But better yet, learn from her and set your own table. Invite others to gather with you and watch what grows.
I create by drawing people to the table.
I set tables with beauty to proclaim the value of the one who sits at the table.
Each element of the table is important as the table tells a story.
When individuals gather around tables, they cease to be a lone character, but instead they become a member of a collective.
I design tables to inspire people to remember their Creator.
I set each table with purpose to express, through beauty, an element of God's character.
I create through theme, light, glass, food, weaving relationships and asking a question.
Every table I set is a collective of people who gather together to be given dignity, shown love, and inspired to replicate.
The beauty of the table is experienced when each invitation inspires an invitation.
The creative process begins with the guest list and moves to a theme that invites each guess to consider an aspect of God's character. The theme dictates the beauty and the beauty invites people to feel valued. Leaving the table valued, evidences the fact that the image of the Creator was spoken through the creation. Each element from invitation, to menu, to participation and inspiration is included in the creative process.
Every year I have a goal of inviting 500 or more people to sit around tables, created with purpose, to weave an even broader tapestry of relationship around the city. The more individuals gather around tables, the stronger and more beautifully diverse the collective tapestry becomes.
As I prepare to set a table for nearly 100 people this coming Saturday, I am in mid-process of watching another table lead to the strengthening and diversifying of the relational tapestry in Denver.
With over 25 years of relational ministry both in and beyond the local church, Cari uses her gifts to make the Kingdom of God tangible through relationship as she pastors those without a pastor. In partnership with Urban Skye, Cari shares the story of Jesus and His invitation to live into our truest identity as children of God. Cari loves to see individuals formed by Jesus for the transformation of the places where they live, work and play. Cari lives in Englewood, Colorado, where she loves to host, redecorate daily, play often and create beauty. It is an annual aim of hers to host over 500 people for meals in various forms and to encourage true hospitality in others. You are always welcome at her table.
This entry was posted in create, Uncategorized and tagged Cari Jenkins, create, creating community, creativity, Creator, God's character, Kingdom, the table, Urban Skye by Milagro Mama. Bookmark the permalink.


With little fanfare, the Evergreen Line line has finished its public consultation and design period. Starting this year, it will move into construction. All that remains to do is select a contractor and wait for the Environmental Assessment Office to approve the Evergreen Line application. (I don't think a project has ever been turned down by the EAO). The province is already buying up property and relocating tenants, though according to Minister Shirley Bond, the province won't issue any eviction notices just yet. This is great for a project that is only 2/3 funded.
Anyway, the Evergreen Line Project Office has released the last public consultation report on station area design. And what did people want? Parking!
As was reflected in feedback gathered during Preliminary Design Consultation in October-November 2009, participants continued to raise the issue of parking at stations and along the Evergreen Line corridor.
Parking was of particular concern for the areas in the vicinity of Port Moody Central Station, Lougheed Town Centre Station and Coquitlam Central Station.


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Da Nang on Indian billionaires' radar for exotic weddings
First it was Phu Quoc Island, now it is Da Nang that is emerging as an exotic location for rich Indians' weddings.
The city Department of External Affairs said on Saturday that an Indian businessman, whose identity it did not reveal, had chosen Da Nang, Vietnam's third largest city after HCMC and Hanoi, to organize his daughter's wedding at the end of this month on the recommendation of the Vietnamese embassy in India.
The billionaire's family has booked a beach resort in Ngu Hanh Son District for the venue, according to Nguyen Cong Tien, deputy director of the department.
Around 700 guests would fly to Da Nang to attend the wedding, with 55 top chefs from India making the food, he said.
Vietnam's ambassador to India, Pham Sanh Chau, said Da Nang is one of the best locations in Vietnam to host Indian billionaires' multimillion-dollar weddings thanks to its picturesque landscapes and the availability of five-star hotels that can accommodate 700 to 1,000 guests.
The convenient air link is also an important advantage, he said. "Vietnam, Da Nang in particular, has been rising in popularity for organizing Indian billionaires' weddings."
Da Nang has gained worldwide popularity for its Golden Bridge, which has attracted a huge number of visitors since it opened at the Ba Na Hills mountain near the city in June last year, and the two UNESCO world heritage sites of Hoi An and the My Son Sanctuary nearby.
The Golden Bridge in Da Nang is designed to make visitors feel like they're taking a stroll on a shimmering thread stretching across the hands of gods. Photo by Shutterstock/hoangkyphong.
The city is the second destination in the country to hold big fat Indian weddings after Phu Quoc Island off the southern province of Kien Giang.
The first wedding on Phu Quoc was held last March with Kaabia Grewal and Rushang Shah tying the knot during a week-long celebration.
Bride Kaabia Grewal and groom Rushang Shah. Photo acquired by VnExpress.
The number of Indian tourists to Vietnam remained low compared to other Asian countries such as China and South Korea, with only 130,000 arrivals in 2018. But the growth was 30 percent year-on-year. China and South Korea are Vietnam's top feeder markets with 4.9 million and 3.4 million visitors last year, respectively.
Vietjet Air plans to operate direct air services between HCMC and New Delhi and between Hanoi and the Indian capital this December, becoming the first Vietnamese airline to launch direct air links to India.
The former route will open from December 6 onwards with four flights a week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, while the latter will operate from December 7 onwards with three flights a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
da exotic for indian on radar weddings
Higher tax could end ride-hailing firms' cash burn
Vietnam's tax hike for ride-hailing companies is likely to hasten the end of their cash burning and force them to rely on service quality to attract customers.
Low buildings should make way for public transport, greenery in HCMC: experts
news | 84176671
HCMC should opt for more skyscrapers to make way for public transport and trees, according to a member of the HCMC Traffic and Urban Advisory Council.
life 12/01/2022
Vlogs by overseas Vietnamese attract huge following back home
life | 365396597
YouTube channels of Vietnamese living abroad with content about their daily life and overseas experience rake in millions of views.
Apartment prices rise in HCMC, Hanoi despite falling demand
Apartment prices rose by 9 percent year-on-year in August in HCMC and by 8 percent in Hanoi despite falling demand, according to a popular real estate listing website.
Climate change: Low-hanging fruit ripe for the picking
Earth is hurtling deep into the red zone of dangerous global warming, but there are some low cost, effective options for putting on the brakes.
Apartment owners sell out as market turns bearish
Many investors are trying to sell off apartments even at cost price as the property market continues to decline relentlessly and banks tighten lending.
Vietnam's 4th wind power plant starts generation
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The country plans to have 800 megawatts of wind power by 2020, but pricing remains an issue.
places food