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Madonna appeared on legendary UK TV show "Top Of The Pops" many times over the years to perform her hit singles.
Here's one of her rarer appearances - a taped message introducing her "Beautiful Stranger" video, shown June 1999.
The 2nd part of the video shows Madonna's brief message again - this time zoomed to give you a better look at her!


MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An incendiary speech by a top Reserve Bank of India (RBI) official last Friday blew the lid off an increasingly toxic dispute between the central bank and the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over monetary policy and who controls the institution's reserves.
While historically there have been differences between the RBI and the nation's governments, the extent of the rift and its public nature are unprecedented.
By Wednesday morning, there were Indian media reports saying that RBI Governor Urjit Patel was about to resign. The RBI declined comment.
This followed three letters to the RBI from the finance ministry threatening to invoke Section 7 of the RBI Act that would allow the government to dictate policy to the central bank, according to a senior source with direct knowledge of developments.
In Friday's speech, RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya said that undermining central bank independence could be "potentially catastrophic", and he even cited meddling by the Argentine government in the affairs of its central bank in 2010 – prompting big drops in that nation's financial markets - as a sign of how bad things can get.
Finance ministry and RBI spokespersons declined comment.
The RBI is not statutorily independent, as the governor is appointed by the government, but it has enjoyed broad autonomy in regulating the banking sector. It is mandated to control inflation within a 2 to 6 percent range while keeping in mind India's economic growth objective.
- The government has made repeated calls for the RBI to hand over more money from the RBI's reserves to help fund its fiscal deficit. The RBI currently hands over its profits earned from various activities in the form of a dividend. But the government also wants to tap a share of the RBI's 3.6 trillion rupees ($48.73 billion) of capital reserves. The RBI has consistently pushed back against the demand.
-The government wants the RBI to provide more liquidity to the shadow banking sector, which has been hurt by the defaults of major financing company, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS). Those defaults triggered sell-off in bonds and stocks of non-banking financial companies. The government has been asking the RBI for a dedicated liquidity window for these lenders similar to one allowed during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.
-The government has also been urging the RBI to relax its lending restrictions on 11 state-run banks. The curbs were imposed because the banks had a low capital base and major bad debt problems. The 11 are barred from lending unless they reduce their bad debt levels, improve their capital ratios and become profitable. The government says the restrictions have gone too far and have reduced the availability of loans for small- and medium sized businesses.
- The RBI is also irked by the government's efforts to trim the central bank's regulatory powers by proposing to set up an independent payments regulator. Currently the RBI regulates all payments and settlements in the economy. The government says it wants a separate payment regulator which will be able to adapt to rapid changes in technology.
-The government appointed S Gurumurthy, a prominent BJP supporter and an affiliate of the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to the RBI board earlier this year along with Satish Marathe, a former banker with ties to the RSS. Such political appointments have been unusual in the past as the RBI board's external members have mostly been economists and industrialists. Traditionally, the RBI's board has approved decisions related to internal functions of the central bank and it has not interfered in its supervisory and monetary policy functions.
-Senior government officials, as well as BJP and RSS officials, are angry that the RBI decided to go public over the quarrels. Acharya made it clear he had been asked to address the independence question by Patel and in a show of unity the three other deputy governors attended his speech. In its statement concerning autonomy on Wednesday, the government stressed that it will keep discussions confidential.
-The Modi government has been under pressure ahead of regional polls due at the end of 2018 because of weak farm prices and surging fuel costs, which have been hurting rural incomes. The government recently cut excise duty on gasoline and diesel, adding to pressure on its deficit.
The budget is also being undermined by muted revenue collection from a recently introduced goods and service tax.
Added to this, the IL&FS woes have led to a liquidity crunch across much of the shadow banking sector and throttled off some lending.
All of this could slow a $2.6 trillion economy, the world's sixth largest, only months before the general election. To prevent that from happening, Modi is expected to spend more on populist programmes, including boosts to rural wages, fuel subsidies and buying crops at a guaranteed minimum price.
- The rift has created political and economic uncertainty. Investors want policy continuity from both the RBI and the government to ensure inflation is kept in check and economic stability is maintained.
A persistent fall in the inflation rate since 2014 in a country that was used to volatile price pressures instilled confidence in the central bank and attracted investors. However, investors fear such hard-earned economic gains could be at risk if the government can pull the RBI's strings.


TIM GANNON PHOTO | Curtis Johnson, Nancy Reyer, Fran Reyer-Johnson and Shelby Block at Sunday's fundraiser for Michael Hubbard.
Those were Nancy Reyer's words Sunday at a sold-out fundraiser for her and her son, Michael Hubbard, who remains in Blydedale Children's Hospital in Valhalla, NY after being badly burned in a gel candle explosion in his backyard last May 28.
Michael suffered third-degree burns over 40 percent of his body, and then went into cardiac arrest a week later and suffered traumatic brain injury, as well as kidney failure and lung distress. Michael was originally taken to Stony Brook University Medical Center, but in September was moved to Blythedale in Westchester County.
Ms. Reyer spends most of her time with him. She said she only comes home to Riverhead a couple of days per month.
He hasn't been able to speak since then, although he says individual words, and Ms. Reyer said she's encouraged by the fact that he laughs when she plays a "fart app" on her cell phone for him. Progress is slow but positive, she said.
"To watch my sister go through this pain has been the hardest thing I've ever had to do myself," said Fran Reyer-Johnson, Nancy's sister.
Sunday's fundraiser at Vineyard Caterers in Aquebogue was a sellout, with 200 tickets sold, according to Ms. Reyer-Johnson. She said she got calls from about 240 people who wanted to go, but they could only hold 200.
The accident happened the day after Ms. Reyer-Johnson got married.
Ms. Reyer said she's thankful for all the support the Riverhead community has given her family. And she's also become a crusader to get the citronella candle that exploded and injured her son pulled off the market.
"My journey has not stopped because this candle is still out there, there are a lot of people who don't know about it," she said Sunday, addressing people at the fundraiser. She said even Michael's nurses discovered, after seeing her on television talking about the candles, that they had some of them in their own homes.
"There are 80 victims, my son isn't the only one, so keep all of them in your prayers," Ms. Reyer said.
The 200 people at Sunday's fundraiser paid $40 for a ticket and were treated to music from That 70's Band, as well a buffet, and a Chinese auction and raffle with gifts donated by local businesses.
A fund has been set up to help Ms. Reyer and her son. The address is Michael Hubbard Fund, 81 Rabbit Run, Riveread, NY 11901.
And people can follow Michael's progress at a caringbridge.org.
Ms. Reyer-Johnson said she envisions Michael someday returning home recovered, and the town holding a parade for him.
And Ms. Reyer said she's not giving up.
"He's the greatest gift I got from God and I'm not turning him back," she said.


"The government says clean growth is the biggest economic opportunity of the century, but, as the Committee on Climate Change has highlighted today, its transport and housing policy is still stuck in the past.
It's shocking that emissions from transport have risen, despite huge technological innovation. EVs are now as cheap to run as conventional cars and we calculate that banning petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 – rather than the government's 2040 target – would halve UK oil imports. It's a no brainer for industry too: the UK has a £5 billion trade deficit in fossil fuelled cars but Europe's largest EV plant is in the UK. If the Department for Transport doesn't catch up soon the electric cars of the future won't be made in Britain.


Myanmar Forum • IMF Calls Central Bank of Myanmar's Capacity "Weak"
IMF Calls Central Bank of Myanmar's Capacity "Weak"
Buying and selling of Hpakant jade from Burma's northern Kachin State is often done by Chinese Yuan rather than Burmese kyat.
In a country update released on Friday the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the Central Bank of Myanmar's (CBM) "regulatory and supervisory capacity is still relatively weak".
The Washington based organization did however praise what it described as the "ongoing liberalization of the financial sector" which includes the recent Burmese government's decision to allow nine foreign owned banks to operate inside the country.
Despite the praise the IMF however remains concerned about the CBM's management. "The CBM should speed up the issuance of remaining prudential instructions and the strengthening of its supervisory capacity", noted the IMF's latest report on Burma which was released following the IMF's recent conclusions of what the group called its '2015 Article IV consultations' with their Burmese counterparts.


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Sat, 2018-Dec-01 00:35 UTC
The featured article for Saturday, 1 December 2018 is The Cloisters.
The Cloisters is a museum in Fort Tryon Park in Washington Heights, Upper Manhattan, New York City, specializing in European medieval architecture, sculpture and decorative arts, with a focus on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Governed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it contains a large collection of medieval artworks shown in the architectural settings of French monasteries and abbeys. Its buildings are centered around four cloisters—the Cuxa, Saint-Guilhem, Bonnefont and Trie—which were purchased by American sculptor and art dealer George Grey Barnard, dismantled in Europe between 1934 and 1939, and moved to New York. They were acquired for the museum by financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Other major sources of objects were the collections of J. P. Morgan and Joseph Brummer.
The museum's building was designed by architect Charles Collens, on a site on a steep hill, with upper and lower levels. It contains medieval gardens and a series of chapels and themed galleries, including the Romanesque, Fuentidueña, Unicorn, Spanish and Gothic rooms. The design, layout and ambiance of the building is intended to evoke a sense of medieval European monastic life.It holds about 5,000 works of art and architecture, all European and mostly dating from the Byzantine to the early Renaissance periods, namely during the 12th through 15th centuries. The varied objects include stone and wood sculptures, tapestries, illuminated manuscripts and panel paintings, of which the best known include the c. 1422 Early Netherlandish Mérode Altarpiece and the c. 1495–1505 Flemish Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries.
Rockefeller purchased the site and housing museum in Washington Heights in 1925, and donated them to the Metropolitan in 1931. Upon its opening on May 10, 1938, the Cloisters was described as a collection "shown informally in a picturesque setting, which stimulates imagination and creates a receptive mood for enjoyment".
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:35 UTC on Saturday, 1 December 2018.
For the full current version of the article, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloisters.
This has been Justin. Thank you for listening to featured Wiki of the Day.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Junior/Senior High School - Chippewa Local Schools - Hasenstab Architects - Located in Northeast Ohio, Hasenstab Architects specializes in healthcare, simulation, laboratory, research, higher education, k-12, and office design.
The new Chippewa Local Schools Junior/Senior High School was built on a 40-acre site in Doylestown, Ohio and houses approximately 638 students in grades 7-12.
The building is separated into two levels responding to the slope of the site. The upper level of the building houses commons space, administration, kitchen, media and technology classrooms, science classrooms and two similar wings of classroom space.
The lower level of the building features a gymnasium with seating for 900 students, a Performing Arts Center, and classroom/practice space for the music department.
The Performing Arts Center design includes sloped seating, a "dead hung stage" with motorized hoists for stage electrics, unique curtain and track rigging, an acoustic enclosure, and several general purpose tracks for scenery.


The Centre's receipts from customs, central excise and service tax rose 24.3% in November this year at Rs 55,297 crore against Rs 44,475 crore in the same month last year. During April-November, the collection of these indirect taxes stood at Rs 4.38 lakh crore, up 34.3% from the same period a year ago.
The indirect tax revenue in the first eight months of the fiscal was 67.8% of the Budget target for the full fiscal year, the government said on Wednesday.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley expects to mop up Rs 6.46 lakh crore from indirect taxes in FY16, a growth of around 19% over last year. No figure about the indirect tax growth rate without the impact of the revenue raising measures is immediately available. Indirect tax collections grew 35.9% in April-October and when stripped of the additional tax measures, the growth was 11.6%. Industrial output growth had hit a four-month trough of 3.6% in September, having touched a 34-month high in the previous month, pointing at a fragile recovery just as the economic output seemed to have gained traction. Nevertheless, the central excise collections increased to Rs 23,033 crore during November 2015 registering an increase of an impressive 58.3% against R14,551 crore in the same month last year.
This, analysts said, seemed somewhat at odds with the tepid expansion in industrial output during the period. On the other hand, customs collection increased marginally by 1.7% to Rs 17,475 crore during the month under review compared with R17,185 crore in November 2014. Service tax collection rose by 16.1% to Rs 14,789 crore as against Rs 12,739 crore in the same month previous year. In April-November, service tax revenue grew 25% to Rs 1.38 lakh crore.


The Board and Staff of ARCH Disability Law Centre recognize that our work takes place on traditional Indigenous territories across Ontario, which have been home to Indigenous peoples since time immemorial. We further recognize that the land on which our office is located is a sacred gathering place of the many Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. We are grateful to have the opportunity to meet and work on this territory. We are also mindful of broken covenants and the need to strive for justice for all persons. We heed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's 94 Calls to Action.
To mark National Indigenous Peoples Day, ARCH is highlighting the work of our community partner organization, British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society (BCANDS). On Monday, June 18, 2018 ARCH Staff Lawyer, Kerri Joffe, spoke with BCANDS Executive Director, Neil Belanger, about BCANDS work and the results of their recent federally funded consultation with Indigenous communities on the forthcoming federal accessibility legislation.
KJ: Tell us about BCANDS and the services you provide.
NB: The British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society or BCANDS, is an award winning, Indigenous disability, not-for-profit organization, incorporated in 1991. BCANDS is the only Indigenous organization of its type in Canada and enjoys Special Consultative Status with the United Nations' Economic and Social Council. BCANDS provides disability related services to Indigenous (First Nation, Métis and Inuit) individuals and families residing within Indigenous communities and non-Indigenous communities. BCANDS has won a number of awards for our work.
KJ: What are some of the key issues facing Indigenous persons with disabilities in Canada?
NB: Indigenous persons living with a disability(s) and their families are often faced with limited assistance when seeking appropriate and necessary supports regarding their specific disability related need(s). Further, they are additionally challenged by other unique barriers not experienced by the non-Indigenous population who live with a disability. The frequency of disabilities among Indigenous Canadians is conservatively estimated at twice that of the national rate or approximately 30%. Other research has suggested that the overall disability rates for Indigenous peoples is up to 3 times higher than the national rate within some age groups.
Violence and abuse towards Indigenous persons living with disabilities / Indigenous women with disabilities with little available support that incorporates / understands a cultural lens or that addresses their specific needs.
KJ: The Government of Canada is set to introduce federal accessibility legislation. How has BCANDS been involved in shaping the conversation about the scope of this new legislation?
NB: BCANDS was contracted to engage First Nation communities across Canada in relation to the identification of barriers facing First Nation communities and their membership. As part of the process BCANDS also engaged Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) (formerly Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada) and First Nations and Inuit Health (now under ISC) employees to gain their perspective of current barriers and priorities areas. The engagement process saw BCANDS contact communities directly, through surveys and through participation at various Indigenous events across Canada. The information gained confirmed many of the barriers that BCANDS clients had already identified / experienced and continue to deal with. BCANDS is continuing to engage First Nations in 2018 in relation to the legislation once tabled, and is also working in partnership with the FALA (Federal Accessibility Legislation Alliance) project, of which ARCH is also a member agency.
KJ: Are you hopeful that the new federal accessibility legislation will address some of the significant issues facing Indigenous persons with disabilities in Canada?
NB: Yes and no. We are always hopeful for positive change, however the barriers facing individuals and families living with disabilities within Canada's First Nations communities are often significant. The Government of Canada has introduced a number of steps such as the Indigenous Housing Strategy, Poverty Reduction Strategy, CRA – Disability Advisory Committee, Reconciliation, a new Ministers Committee to examine First Nation policy and procedures, the water strategy, etc. All of these should complement the new legislation and have the potential to positively impact communities and their membership living with disabilities. However, without proper resourcing, today and in the future, the legislation's tangible impact on existing barriers will be limited.
KJ: How is BCANDS celebrating or acknowledging National Indigenous Peoples Day this year?
NB: The BCANDS office is closed on June 21 each year to provide the BCANDS team the opportunity to participate in Indigenous Peoples Day activities in their own communities or elsewhere. BCANDS promotes the day through social media and working with non-Indigenous organizations to have them do something to recognize the day. Since 2015, BCANDS focus has been its "Indigenous Disability Awareness Month" initiative or IDAM. IDAM is the only Indigenous disability specific recognition implemented anywhere in the world, and is recognized every November by those participating. In 2015, the province of British Columbia, the BC First Nation Summit and the Metis Nation BC were the first to officially recognize the month. In 2016, the province of Saskatchewan, the Assembly of First Nations and Yukon Council of First Nations all declared the month. BCANDS is continuing to work with provinces and territories across Canada and internationally to have the month officially recognized. In 2017 the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recommended to Canada as part of its review of Canada's implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, that the month be proclaimed and recognized annually by the federal government.


Former Wallabies captain James Horwill will skipper Harlequins during the 2017/18 season, the English Premiership side announced Monday.
"I'm very humbled and honoured to be asked to captain such a great club, it's certainly something that I won't be taking lightly," said 32-year-old lock Horwill in a statement issued by the London club.
"The hard work for us as a squad starts now and we want to make Harlequins as successful as it can be."
Quins finished sixth in the 12-strong Premiership last season and so missed out on a place in the top four title-deciding play-offs despite the side boasting several current and ex-internationals.
"The exciting thing is, we haven't reached our potential," added Horwill, capped 62 times by the Wallabies. "We have played well in parts, but we have more to give, both in an individual capacity, and as a group."
Horwill succeeds scrum-half Danny Care who, in common with another former Harlequins captain Chris Robshaw, has often found himself away from the team for large parts of the season because of his England commitments.
Care, appointed Quins captain two years ago, led the Twickenham Stoop-based side to the 2015 European Challenge Cup final and was in charge on the field when they secured a place in the elite European Champions Cup for this first time in three years.
"Since Conor (O'Shea, the former Harlequins director of rugby but now the coach of Italy appointed me, it has been a huge honour to captain the club," Care said. "It's a hard job in itself, but it is made harder when you're away with international commitments for so long, which is why I felt someone who is around all the time should do the job.
"I, alongside the rest of the squad, will fully support James in his new role. He is a fantastic leader and the right man to take the club forward."
Horwill joined Harlequins from the Queensland Reds, a side he played for over 100 times and captained to the 2011 Super Rugby title, in 2015.
He has made 40 appearances for Harlequins, scoring five tries.
Horwill captained Australia on 16 occasions, including during the Wallabies' 2013 series loss to the British and Irish Lions.


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in Education, Featured
Dolly Parton will visit Ole Miss in 2021
by University of Mississippi August 4, 2020, 12:41 pm 222 Views 0 Votes
Dolly Parton's highly anticipated visit to the University of Mississippi to accept the prestigious Legacy Award from the Ole Miss Women's Council for Philanthropy will take place early next year after being delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Once again, the C Spire Foundation will be the presenting sponsor of the OMWC Legacy Award event that is set for the evening of April 11, 2021, at The Jefferson Oxford.
Earlier in the afternoon, Parton will read to children at a literacy event at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts. This presentation honoring and highlighting the work of Parton's Imagination Library will be sponsored by Regions Bank as a part of the OMWC Rose Garden Literacy Project.
"For the 20th anniversary year of the Ole Miss Women's Council and the 10th anniversary of the Legacy Award, we are honoring Dolly Parton who has a national and international reach," said Mary Donnelly Haskell, of Oxford, the Legacy Award event chair. "When I think of the positive influence Dolly continues to have on her home state of Tennessee, as well as children and adults around the globe, it is clear she is a perfect choice for this distinguished award.
"Dolly's extraordinary legacy spans from her enrichment of our lives through entertainment, to the many generous humanitarian acts she carries out to support people all over the world. Our goal is for our OMWC scholarship recipients to become servant leaders who truly make a difference in society, and my dear friend Dolly lives that life daily."
The centerpiece of Parton's philanthropy is her Imagination Library, which has provided more than 140 million books to children around the world. Among her other generous acts, Parton recently provided $1 million to Dr. Naji Abumrad's coronavirus research underway at Vanderbilt University.
Parton was originally set to be recognized in April of this year with the 2020 OMWC Legacy Award, which pays tribute to an individual or couple annually for outstanding leadership, mentorship and philanthropy. Although Parton is known widely as a successful country music singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, record producer, actress and author, her commitment to elevating other people is a major part of her life.
Over the two decades since its founding, the OMWC has secured almost $17 million for scholarships, which are enhanced with leadership development, career and life mentors, philanthropic projects, internship and study-abroad support, and cultural and travel opportunities.
Sponsors have made the Legacy Award event possible, thus helping raise funds for student programming and leadership development, said OMWC chair Liz Johnson Randall, of Oxford.
"Our sincere thanks go to the C Spire Foundation and other generous sponsors who have stepped up with the support needed to have such a meaningful event," she said. "For so many to invest in top-tier programming for our students is truly inspiring, and this backing helps provide exceptional experiences to broaden students' exposure to philanthropy and service to others.
"The Women's Council also appreciates everyone's patience while we worked with Dolly and her team to reschedule this event to spring 2021. We considered a date this fall but wanted to move forward with an abundance of caution with cases of the virus continuing."
Besides the long-running support of the C Spire Foundation as the top sponsor of the OMWC Legacy Award, platinum sponsors for 2020 are Sanderson Farms, Cooper Communities Inc. and Regions Bank. Gold sponsors are the FedEx Corp. and MTrade.
Silver sponsors include Bank Plus, Date Line Technology, Gertrude C. Ford Foundation, Nicholas Air, Diane and Dick Scruggs, The Jefferson, the University of Mississippi Foundation, Jane Claire and Nason Williams, and Yates Construction.
Bronze sponsors include Nancy and Richard Akin, Sandy and John Black, Butler Snow, Ginger and Charles Clark, Mary Susan and J.D. Clinton, Jan and Lawrence Farrington, Gaye and Roger Flynt, FNC|Corelogic, Edith Kelly-Green, Mary and Sam Haskell, Martha Kirkley, Lafayette County Literacy Council, Olivia and Archie Manning, Judy and Sam Carroll, Susan and David McCormick, Karen and Bruce Moore, Ole Miss Alumni Association, Ole Miss Athletics Foundation, Bond Oman, Charles Overby, the Patterson School of Accountancy and Will Pepper.
Other Bronze Sponsors are Pam and Weldon Perkins, Gail and John Pittman, Lib and Neal Quirk, Randall Commercial Group, Mary Sharp and Jim Rayner, Roane and Robert Grantham, the UM schools of Business Administration and Education, College of Liberal Arts, Betsy Collier Smith, Vicki and Harry Sneed, Suzan and Tommy Thames, Jane Carter Thomas-Chapman, Kimberley Fitts and Marion Turner, Trinity and Scott Walker, and Dr. LouAnn Woodward.
For more information on OMWC, contact Suzanne Helveston at [email protected] or 662-915-2956 or visit https://omwc.olemiss.edu.
Written by University of Mississippi
Founded in 1848, the University of Mississippi, affectionately known to alumni, students and friends as Ole Miss, is Mississippi's flagship university. Included in the elite group of R-1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity by the Carnegie Classification, it has a long history of producing leaders in public service, academics and business. With more than 24,000 students, Ole Miss is the state's largest university and is ranked among the nation's fastest-growing institutions.
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in Education, Sports, Trending
NFL Legend Patrick Willis to Deliver 2020 UM Commencement Address
Daniel Selover named Gautier's Chief of Police
$80 Million Solar Facility Coming to Hancock County


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'Show Me the Money!'
Concordia Administration and Support Staff to Meet for Contract Negotiations
News by Ray Corkum — Published September 7, 2010 | Comments
Contract negotiations between Concordia University and the United Steelworkers union are scheduled to resume on Sept. 22.
The USW, representing Concordia's technical staff, seeks amendments to pay rates they feel are disproportionate to their training. They also want wage parity with other skilled workers within their industry, which would require a six per cent increase to their salary.
The Steelworkers Union represents Concordia's 96 electrical, carpentry, maintenance and energy production workers, in addition to many clerical and support staff who have been without a contract for two years.
"Our members want fair wage for their qualifications," said Eddy Ginocchi, vice president of the Canadian Marine Officers Union of the Steelworkers local 9538, which acts as a Montreal branch of the USW.
"Our pay rates are lower than other workers within our field and have been for a long time. We're looking for fair treatment."
Ginocchi remains skeptical that an agreement can be reached for the time being.
"The university has been standoffish," he said. "They are only willing to have it their way. I don't see how an agreement can be reached when that is their stance."
Chris Mota, director of media relations for Concordia University, told The Link that negotiations were continuing "in good faith."
"The university has been in need of financial reform for years now," said Mota. "The university is entering into these negotiations with the intention of providing the best deal we can for our employees."
She stressed, however, that Quebec universities are currently operating at a deficit and more money may be hard to come by.
"There are budget cuts and tuition hikes happening and for now there is a lot of uncertainty."
The union is attempting to increase pressure on university negotiators, boosting their visibility on campus by wearing neon yellow shirts with the slogan "Concordia, show me the money! Negotiate now!!!"
Workers within the union are unconvinced by the university's apparent lack of means. Speaking under condition of anonymity, one worker expressed his frustrations with this line of argument.
"They talk as if there is no money to go around, but then they allow an outgoing student president to sign off on a $45,000 loan, without any consultation with the students or the staff or anything. That isn't need, it's mismanagement."
The USW is one of the largest trade unions in Canada, representing 250,000 workers in various fields, including support staff working in Canadian universities nationwide.
This article originally appeared in The Link Volume 31, Issue 04, published September 7, 2010.
Erika Morris
When Burning Out Becomes a Trend
Sarah Boumedda
How to Advocate for Yourself as an Intern
Miriam Lafontaine
Editorial: The Importance of Recognizing and Compensating All Forms of Labour


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ITSTIME > ITSTIME's Team
ITSTIME's Team
Marco Lombardi, director of ITSTIME research center, is full professor at the Catholic University of Sacred Heart, where he teaches Crisis management and risk communication, Mass Communication theory, Sociology, Intelligence and counter terrorism, Security policies. He is member of the scientific board of the School of Doctorate, the masters in Cultural Diplomacy and the School of Journalism. He managed several EU founded research projects mainly focused on terrorism, security and crisis management. He co-operates with different institutional agencies involved on security both at national and international level. He is member of the Governmental Commission on Counter Radicalization and of the Strategic Policy Committee of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. He is member of the board of "JD – Journal for Deradicalization" (www.journal-derad.com), "Journal of Mediterranean and Balkan Intelligence – JMBI" and "Sicurezza, Terrorismo e Società – STS" (www.sicurezzaterrorismosocieta.it)
Maria Alvanou, is a defence lawyer and a full professor of criminology at the Greek Police Officer's Academy. She lectures at the Police Officers' Post Educational Academy-Department of Thessaloniki on issues of National Security and Terrorism. She acquired her doctorate from the International PhD Program in Criminology of Transcrime (Joint Research Center on Transnational Crime, University of Trento & Catholic University of Sacro Cuore – Milan), where she was also an external collaborator. Her doctoral research was focused on Palestinian female suicide bombers and for this reason she conducted fieldwork in Israel. She has also obtained an LLM from the Department of History, Philosophy and Sociology of Law – Aristoteles University of Thessaloniki. Among her research interests in terrorism is aviation security- counterterrorism meaures and she is a special collaborator for 11Aviation Publications in Greece.
Gabriele Barni MBA, ASERI International Relations Management Master, graduated under the Political Sciences Faculty of "Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore" with a thesis on "Cyber Threats a National Security Issue". He work as Human Resource Consultant in the pharmaceutical industry and is expert lecturer in the following fields: Information Technology, Human Resource Cyber Security, HR Data Privacy, Open Source, Computer Forensic and Information Security .
Claudio Bertolotti (PhD in Sociology and Political Science) received a B.A. in Contemporary History and he is specialized in Sociology of Islam, his research has focused on "Suicide attacks" and "motivations of Armed Opposition Groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan". He is a former NATO-ISAF Counter-intelligence analyst and Section chief. Currently, he is a NATO Humint and Info-Ops Subiect Matter Expert and senior research fellow at Italian Military Centre for Strategic Studies (CeMiSS). Since 2008, he has lectured Italian ISAF staff and military personnel teaching "History, Societies, Cultures and Conflicts of Contemporary Afghanistan". He has authored several articles, researches and books (the latest on suicide terrorism in Afghanistan, and on "Afghan Cultural-Awareness"); he publishes on insurgency and counterinsurgency, cultural approach to contemporary small wars, geopolitical and geostrategic policy. He introduced the «triple way to read» method about insurgency offensive techniques, in particular suicide attacks. He is now assistant professor at Post Conflict Operations Study Centre of the Italian Army in Turin.
Gianluca Frinchillucci, after a "laurea magistrale" (MA) in modern literature and a "diploma universitario" (BA) in cultural heritage, begun his ethno-anthropological and archaeological researches with a specific focus on peoples in conflict areas. These interests led him in 1991 in the Peruvian Andes and then in the Amazonas, to study the conflict between the Ashaninkas of Selva Central and Sendero Luminoso (1997), then in Aurauca as peace observer in clashes between the indigenous U'wa and Farc (2001). From 1999 to 2008 he is also involved in polar research as Director of the Istituto Geografico Polare "Silvio Zavatti" and of the journal "Il Polo", creating the project Carta dei Popoli Artici who becomes a research project of the National Research Council Polarnet. In 2004 he founded the Association Perigeo (now he is the Strategic Director) with which he works in contexts of crisis and post conflict in numerous countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia, Lebanon and Syria: this is a unique experience that redefines the activities of international cooperation as a means of cultural diplomacy to reduce conflicts and promote peace building, with particular attention to issues of international security. Former delegate for cultural heritage and health of Puntland (Somalia), by 2014 is manager of the Somali Institute for Security and Peacebuiding and strategic advisor of the military attaché at the Somali Embassy in Italy.
Laris Gaiser is assitant professor of security studies. He graduated, after a period of study at Anglia Polytechnic University of Cambridge, in Law at the University of Verona in 2002 with a final dissertation on "The consequences of the devolution of power in United Kingdom and the new role of the State in public economy". He earned his Master's degree in International Affairs and Diplomacy from the Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) of Milano and after a specialization in crisis management and humanitarian action at UN Staff College he obtained a Ph.D. in Geopolitical Economy at University Guglielmo Marconi of Rome. His area of specialization are Economy Intelligence, Strategic Studies, and Geoeconomy. From 2012 until 2014 he was Vice President acting as President of Euro Mediterranean University – EMUNI, serving at the same time as a member of the Strategic Council at Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Laris is involved in political and business advising, writes as a columnist for several european newspapers and is a visiting lecturer at Diplomatic Academy of Vienna (Austria). He is member of the Paneuropean Union presidency in Strasbourg.
Giovanni Giacalone, raised between Texas and northern Italy, sociologist and islamologist, with a MA in Islamic Studies at Trinity Saint David University of Wales with a thesis on the development of Islam in Italy. Further specialization abroad in counter-terrorism. Bachelor degree in Sociology from the University of Bologna, member of Associazione italiana Sociologia. His research interests and activities are focused on three areas: the study of Islamic communities in Italy, the analysis of Islamic radicalism in the Balkans and Caucasus, the street-gangs phenomenon. His expertise fields are profiling, networking and the study of radicalization process. He is author of the book "La Spirale Balcanica" (The Balkanic Spiral) published in 2016.
Marek Górka – Ph.D. is political scientist graduated of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland. He is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Koszalin University of Technology and author of works devoted to Israeli and Polish intelligence services, cyberbullying and cyberbullying among children and adolescents. Research interests: security policy, cyber security, terrorism, intelligence and counterintelligence services, internet sociology, electoral rivalry, charismatic leadership.
Michele Groppi obtained his BA in International Relations from Stanford University (Honors Program), writing his thesis on trade and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After his experience in North America and China, Michele moved to Israel where he obtained his MA with Summa cum Laude in Counter-terrorism and Homeland Security at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. Currently, Michele is about to conclude his PhD program at King's College London, Department of Defence Studies. His PhD dissertation features the largest quantitative and qualitative analysis of Islamist radicalization in the field, testing causal models of radicalization within the Italian milieu. Michele's academic interests include all aspects of international relations, international security, terrorism, and counter-terrorism, and radicalization and counter-radicalization. Lastly, Michele holds a graduate teaching assistant position at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, where he teaches RAF Junior officers basic concepts of international relations, international security, military ethics, and the role of military power. Starting July 2018, Michele will also teach a short course at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, on Islamist radicalization.
Barbara Lucini is postdoctoral fellow and phd in Sociology and Methodology of Social Research, Department of Sociology, Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Milan. She is also adjunct professor of risk management and crisis communication. She has been involved in several research projects (European and others) focused on crisis management, risk communication, risk perception, security and resilience. Her research interests are oriented to disaster resilience, disaster management, civil protection systems. Further, the issue of the relation between terrorism and resilience as well as political extremism have been studied. She is the author of "Disaster Resilience from a Sociological Perspective Exploring Three Italian Earthquakes as Models for Disaster Resilience Planning", Springer International Publishing 2014 and the forthcoming book "The Other Side of Resilience to Terrorism A Portrait of a Resilient-Healthy City", Springer International Publishing.
Marco Maiolino: is Senior Analyst at the Italian Team for Security Terroristic issues and Managing Emergencies – ITSTIME, he is specialised in strategic analysis, terrorism and open-source intelligence (OSINT). Marco Maiolino's topics of research cover Terrorism, Hybrid Warfare and Sociocultural Intelligence (SOCINT). Regarding his educational background, Maiolino earned a Master degree in International Relations (MIR) at ASERI – Postgraduate School of Economics and International Relations – and previously graduated under the Faculty of Sociology and Political Science at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.
Mauro Pastorello, graduated in Social and Political Sciences for security, with a final thesis on "Protection and resilience of critical infrastructures to cyber attacks and their interdependencies", and holds a bachelor degree in Legal Sciences. He has served in the Italian Army. He is currently Senior Security manager of the biggest Italian security company, he is in charge of international security services and strategic risk consulting. His research interests and activities are focused on international Islamic and domestic terrorism, intelligence and country intelligence and the use of cyber space by terrorist organizations. He has several publication in accademic journal and magazine regarding the security field. He is a member of ASIS and CPP certified.
Giovanni Pisapia obtained a degree in political science with a thesis on violent crime in South Africa and a Ph.D. in criminology with a thesis on risk assessment – management of critical infrastructure facilities, both from the Catholic University of Milan. As Consultant for the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), he was responsible for training and advance education on crime prevention and administration of justice for law enforcement personnel and subject matter experts. As Security Manager for various local organizing committees (LOCs), in cooperation and coordination with local, national and international law enforcement agencies, he planned, managed and evaluated the implementation of safety and security operations for major sport events – 2006 Winter Olympic/Paralympic Games in Turin (Italy), the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow (Scotland, UK), and the 2015 European Games in Baku (Azerbaijan) – where he specialized in the implementation of security measures for transport systems and traffic management. As Project Manager for the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), he was responsible for Johannesburg's public safety plan for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. In addition, he designed, conceptualized and implemented crime prevention projects related to situational crime prevention, crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED), and social crime prevention approaches. He advised on the implementation of crime and violence reduction policing strategies, including community policing, problem-oriented policing and hot-spots policing through the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology. He recently conducted a security review of major sport events for the Tokyo Municipal Government in preparation for their 2020 Olympic/Paralympic Games and coordinated the stadium operations for the 2016 UEFA Champions Final in Milan (Italy). Currently, he is serving for a police department in North Carolina, USA, as Crime Analyst, focusing on administrative, strategic and tactical crime analysis and crime mapping.
Daniele Plebani is Research Analyst at the Italian Team for Security, Terroristic Issues and Managing Emergencies – ITSTIME. His work includes monitoring terrorist propaganda and tactics with particular emphasis on technical tactical communication as well as focusing on their countermeasures. At the same time he focuses on the illict trafficking of cultural objects and wildlife and the safeguarding of natural and cultural heritage. He obtained his BA in Political Sciences at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan) where he also earned a MA in European and International Policies.
Davide Scotti is psychologist, specialized in psychology of emergencies at University of Padua and in crisis management at the Catholic University. Along with a specific theoretical background he has been involved as a fireman at the Regional Center of Fireman – Regione Lombardia. He has been teaching psychology of emergencies, victims' and operator's traumatic deseases, social networks coping with traumatic events at Catholic University, Italian Red Cross, Civil Protection and Police. In particular he is in charged of fireman psychological support (Lombardia Regional Center) where started the project on Dispositivi di Protezione Relazionale. He was part of the security activities project in Sri Lanka promoted by Catholic University after 2005 tsunami.
Urszula Soler is graduated in polish literature, social philosophy and sociology. She is Assistant Professor at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. She is specialized in disposition groups of the military social system. Her research interests are focused on security, paramilitary organizations, food security, technology assessment, sustainable development and innovations. She is founding member of the PANTA (Polish Academic Network of Technology Assessment) and founder of Polish Academic Legion; cooperates also for many years with Catholic University of Sacred Heart (Milan).
Nicolò Spagna is Research Analyst at the Italian Team for Security, Terroristic Issues and Managing Emergencies – ITSTIME. His research activities concern the Social Network Analysis (SNA) applied to the study of terrorist-extremist networks and their communication framework. Moreover, he monitors and analyzes the jihadist propaganda and the related communication systems with a social and technical point of view. Using critical and lateral thinking, he is proactively able to identify, strategize, correct problems in order to address complex views. The research GLOBSEC project titled "From Criminals to Terrorists and Back?" aimed at addressing the "crime-terror nexus" in Europe, is one of project Nicolò is deeply involved in. Additional broad experience concerns the jihadist web activity monitoring (with special attention to digital messaging platforms and social networking services) and terrorist profiling via the Digital Humint Approach. Key specialties are within open source intelligence (OSINT) and social media intelligence (SOCMINT). Nicolò has a MA in Security Policies with a specific background (BA) in Sociology and Criminology.
Matteo Vergani has a PhD in "Sociology and Methodology of Social Research" (2011, Catholic University of Milan), with a thesis on activism and participation in political movements. After a second PhD in Political Science at Monash University, Melbourne (Global Terrorism Research Centre), Matteo is now Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Senior Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalization at Deakin University. Matteo's major area of expertise is the study of politically motivated violence and hate, with a main focus on the empirical evaluation of prevention and reduction programs. He has experience in researching hate against immigrants and religious groups, and the online propaganda of violent political groups. Matteo has a good working knowledge of quantitative research, experimental methods and mixed-methods research approaches. Research blog: http://matteovergani.wordpress.com ; Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=axROSpwAAAAJ&hl=en ; Twitter: @teoverga


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Anwar al-Awlaki: The Jim Jones of Islam
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
As a Muslim and as an American, let me say this loudly and clearly — Anwar al-Awlaki is a servant of evil and a traitor both to Islam and to America. He is intent on misleading the world by spreading the lie that Islam permits the killing of civilians. It does not.
Prophet Muhammad forbade the killing of non-combatants and reacted with horror when he heard of civilian deaths on the battlefield. In order to expound his own political agenda, Al-Awlaki is defaming the Prophet and the global Muslim community, which rejects terrorism. And in the process, he is revealing himself to be a modern Jim Jones – a narcissist creating a death cult.
In 1978, Jim Jones led 900 of his devoted followers to mass suicide by forcing them to drink cyanide mixed in a fruit beverage. The term "drinking the Kool-Aid" has since become synonymous with people who blindly follow their leaders to their doom. And it is clear that al-Awlaki's followers are very much drinking his brand of Kool-Aid. Indeed, the alleged Fort Hood shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was apparently a follower of al-Awlaki before he turned on his fellow soldiers in an orgy of murder. Like Jim Jones, al-Awlaki has remarkable charisma and uses it to lead his followers down a very dark path.
I say all of this with great grief. Al-Awlaki was once a highly regarded Muslim scholar who taught a message of peace and brotherhood. But his story is like that of the archetypal villain of the movie Star Wars – Anakin Skywalker, a defender of justice, who devolves into Darth Vader, a monster who cares only for his own twisted quest for power.
I have never met al-Awlaki, but those who have tell me that in his early days as a preacher, he espoused a moderate Islam based on scholarship and appreciation for Muslim history. Yet after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, al-Alwaki began to change. He began to see the world in a binary "us versus them" outlook – the hallmark of fundamentalism. After being detained by the Yemeni government in 2006 (apparently under American pressure), he appears to have left his moderate past behind him and embraced a dark vision of Islam at perpetual war with America – and became its most passionate scholarly advocate.
Al-Awlaki's story could be dismissed as the sad tale of a good man who became lost. And yet his personal moral decline has greater consequences. For he built up a widespread and devoted following among Muslims in his heyday – and is now in a position to brainwash many of his followers into following his own descent into darkness.
When I have publicly criticized al-Awlaki, I have received emails from his devotees saying that he is being "set up" by the US government. And yet when I ask them what they mean by this, there is always pin-drop silence. His followers seem to want to believe that the good, charismatic man that they adore is somehow being falsely portrayed in the media as a villain as part of some "Psy Ops" manipulation game. And yet when I ask if someone else is posting his increasingly radical and extremist sermons through his website (a CIA agent posing as al-Awlaki, let's say), there is more silence. It is as if his followers want to keep clinging to the man he once was and selectively ignore his recent calls for the murder of civilians in the name of Islam.
Like Jim Jones, a personality cult has formed around al-Awlaki. It is a personality cult that is blinding his followers into a series of non-sequiturs and conspiracy theories that allow them to overcome the cognitive dissonance of reconciling the good scholar they once knew and the deranged and hateful man he has become.
There is a word for that kind of personality cult in Islam – idolatry. If there are any Muslims out there that believe that a man should be followed unquestioningly, even when his words violate basic Islamic teachings, then they have committed shirk, the worst sin in Islam – ascribing a partner to God. They have given their devotion to a false god, a fallible human being rather the infallible Creator, the Merciful and Compassionate, the Lord of the Worlds, whose moral commandments cannot be rationalized away by men.
I was sickened and outraged by al-Awlaki's recent video, where he rationalized terrorist plots to blow up airplanes, saying that the deaths of civilians are just "a drop of water in the sea." Similar rationalizations were used by pre-Islamic Arabs who practiced female infanticide, burying their newborn baby daughters alive. Such innocent lives were also simply "drops in the sea" for a pagan culture obsessed with male progeny. But when the Holy Qur'an put an end to this barbarism, it said that on the Day of Judgment, the innocent girls will rise from their graves and confront their murderers, and God will ask: "For what crime was she killed?" (Surah 81:8-9) And then the murderers' excuses will vanish and they will be flung into Hell.
The God of the Qur'an is the God of life, of mercy, of justice. A God that says "no soul shall bear the burden of another" (53:38) when confronted with moral relativists that believe in "guilt by association" and collective punishment.
If Muslims wish to find a true example in their history of a noble warrior, they should turn away from this false teacher al-Awlaki and look at the example of Saladin, the great Muslim leader who conquered Jerusalem in 1187 C.E.
In my new novel, Shadow of the Swords, I show how, despite calls for collective punishment against the Christians of Jerusalem for the crimes of the Crusaders, Saladin showed mercy to the populace. He let the Christian population remain unmolested and gave them freedom of worship and pilgrimage to their holy sites. When Richard the Lion Heart led the Third Crusade to expel the Muslims, Saladin treated his enemy with stunning generosity. When Richard fell ill, Saladin sent his personal doctor to tend to the enemy king. When Richard's horse was killed in battle, Saladin sent his personal horse to his adversary as a gift.
Saladin's acts of honor and wisdom single-handedly shattered the negative image that many Christians held of Muslims. And for this, he is lauded by both Christian and Muslim historians as a true statesman and moral leader.
I ask any follower of al-Awlaki – which is the greater example you wish to be associated with? The example of your "teacher" who calls you to turn into monsters without empathy? Or Saladin, who reminded the world that Islam stood for justice and moral restraint, not barbarism and rationalization of murder? If you have any hesitation about the right answer here, then you have left your religion and become the very evil that anti-Muslim bigots have long claimed Islam represents.
The confusion al-Awlaki has created among Muslims is in many ways far more insidious than that of his fellow madman, Osama Bin Laden. For Bin Laden does not claim to be – and is not – an Islamic scholar. Bin Laden's calls for attacking the West are not steeped in Islamic scholarship, but in a rather crude "eye for an eye" philosophy that says since Americans are killing Muslim civilians, Muslims have a right do the same in return to American civilians. Bin Laden has little understanding of, or interest in, Islamic jurisprudence, primarily because he finds its rules against murdering civilians to be inconvenient. Therefore Bin Laden's appeal is really based on an emotional bait-and-switch. Get Muslims riled up about all the injustices they have experienced so that they follow him – and not ask too many questions about the justice of his own movement.
But al-Awlaki's brand of evil is far more sinister. As a trained Muslim scholar, he is an expert in perverting traditional Islamic teachings with strange analogies that have no historical basis, such as his self-serving argument that Americans elected and pay taxes to a government that kills Muslims, so all Americans are complicit and are lawful targets of revenge. Aside from the fact that this is a nonsensical leap of logic, it ignores what Prophet Muhammad himself did when faced with the opportunity for collectively punishing a population for the crime of its leaders.
In my novel Mother of the Believers, I discuss how, when the Prophet defeated Mecca, he was in a position to unleash vengeance on the city that had driven him out and killed his family and friends. And yet the Prophet, to his enemies' surprise, instituted a general amnesty and not only forgave the general populace, which under al-Awlaki's argument was complicit in Mecca's war against Islam, but also its leadership that organized the war. The lords of Mecca – including the villainous queen Hind, who had cannibalized the Prophet's uncle as an act of terror – were forgiven and incorporated into the new Muslim state as leading citizens.
So I ask the followers of al-Awlaki again – what vision of Islam do you wish to follow? The false Islam of collective punishment claimed by your "teacher"? Or the magnanimous Islam of mercy and wisdom lived by Prophet Muhammad?
Al-Awlaki's credentials as a former religious scholar are troubling and dangerous. But it should be noted clearly that al-Awlaki does not represent the face of mainstream Muslim scholarship. In fact, in his own country of Yemen, there is a remarkable Muslim scholar who has dedicated his life to defeating extremism – Hamoud al-Hitar, a Yemeni judge who deprograms terrorists by teaching them the truth about Islam.
Judge al-Hitar is living proof of the power of true Islam to defeat the false Islam of the extremists, of light to overpower darkness. Al-Hitar works with the Yemeni government to counsel Muslim extremists who have been brainwashed by men like al-Awlaki. He talks to them about the Holy Qur'an and traditional Islamic law, and demonstrates to them – line by line, point by point – why terrorism is a violation of Islam's basic teachings. Remarkably, al-Hitar has deprogrammed over 300 extremists and is said to have even won over high-level Al-Qaeda agents, who have repented and turned on their leaders.
Al-Hitar served as the basis of a character I wrote for an episode of the Showtime television series Sleeper Cell. A clip from that episode has been uploaded onto You Tube and has become a global phenomenon, for it shows how a Muslim scholar like al-Hitar argues with – and proves wrong – an al-Qaeda extremist.
I ask the followers of al-Awlaki to look at the clip and let the truth of its arguments – coming straight from the Holy Qur'an and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad – touch their hearts.
If you still prefer the false words of your "teacher" over the truth of Islam's message of peace and beauty, then there is no hope for you, any more than there was for the many misguided souls who followed Jim Jones to their destruction.
With the forces of evil now cloaking themselves in the garb of righteousness, there are two paths before the Muslim community. One of light and one of darkness. And of this moment, the Holy Qur'an says:
"God is the Protector of those who have faith: from the depths of darkness He will lead them forth into light. But of those who reject faith, their patrons are the evil ones: from light they will lead them forth into the depths of darkness. They will be companions of the Fire, to dwell therein." (2:257)
My fellow Muslims, the choice between light and darkness is yours.
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The Mosque by Ground Zero: A Lesson from the Crusades
Nine years after September 11, 2001, we are still facing one fundamental question. Who is our enemy? There are two answers. One based in the truth. One based in a lie.
One answer is that Islam itself is the enemy of America and Western civilization. That all Muslims are terrorists, or at least sympathetic to the use of terrorism to advance their political agendas. After years of hearing news stories about Muslim terrorists from the shoe bomber to the underwear bomber to the Times Square bomber, it is completely understandable that many Americans find that answer to be a simple statement of obvious fact.
It is an understandable perspective. And it is a complete lie.
The truth is that our enemy is actually a small group of radical, sociopathic and extremely dangerous individuals who happen to call themselves Muslims. The vast, vast majority of 1.5 billion Muslims have nothing to do with this extremist death cult that makes a mockery of their faith. This global Muslim community is in fact our most effectively ally against these monsters that seek to destroy both America and mainstream Islam – it was a Muslim vendor that tipped off the police about the suspicious SUV in Times Square, a fact that remains unknown to most Americans.
Of course, the lie is easier to believe and requires one only to sit back and look at the surface of events, rather than take the time and effort to dive beneath the stormy waters of the news to learn what is really going on in this world. Truth is a treasure that is often buried in a minefield of complex facts that is just too much trouble to explore for most people. And so the lie continues that Islam itself is the enemy, that Muslims are collectively responsible for the handful of terrorist serial killers that claim to be one of them.
The conflict between the truth and the lie is now reaching its apex in the public sphere of the media, which profits from the Manichean worldview of "us versus them." The announcement by the Cordoba Initiative, a progressive, peaceful Muslim group, that it plans to build an Islamic Center two blocks away from Ground Zero in New York has finally brought this conflict out into the open.
Predictably, politicians and media blowhards are seizing on this development to cry out that "the terrorists have won." Congressman Peter King (R-NY) calls the plans for the mosque "offensive and wrong." Brian Kilmeade on Fox & Friends asked whether it was "almost taunting to put a community center right by the attack perpetrated by a group of extremist Muslims." And Steve Doocy (also on Fox) questioned whether the mosque's presence was "a great insult."
These are also the same individuals in the media who have perpetuated the lie that Muslims are not speaking out or fighting against terrorism. So when a progressive Muslim group like the Cordoba Initiative arises, its existence is problematic for the black-and-white worldview of the Islamophobes. When a Muslim group stands tall and says it rejects terrorism and wants to create an Islamic Center dedicated to building bridges of love and community between people of faiths, its existence provokes outrage. For the very presence of a progressive, peaceful mosque near Ground Zero invalidates the claim by both the Muslim fanatics and their mirror images among the anti-Muslim bigots that America and Islam are enemies.
I promise you, Al Qaeda and its supporters have no love for the Cordoba Initiative, which they view as a bunch of weak, liberal Muslims who are putting out the fire of their twisted vision of jihad and replacing it with calls for brotherhood with "infidels." I know this from personal experience. After I published my first novel on the birth of Islam, Mother of the Believers, I received death threats from Muslim extremists, who see me as a traitor and apostate, using my position in the media to promote peace rather than a war of civilizations. And at the same time, I have been flooded by emails from Islamophobes who like to believe that I am some kind of sleeper agent infiltrating Hollywood to promote a false vision of a peaceful Islam while hiding my true "Islamist agenda."
So I understand the pain of the organizers of the mosque, who are now forced to defend their integrity from all sides. Good people like Daisy Khan, whom I know and admire, and progressive Muslim leaders like Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who must endure insults from extremists in all camps that do not wish to see a mosque dedicated to supporting peace and fighting fundamentalism.
But let me make one thing clear — as an American, I really do understand why there is outrage over the building of this mosque near Ground Zero. I remember walking around in a daze that terrible day in 2001 when fire rained from the sky, trying desperately to get in touch with family and friends in New York to see if they were alive. I know that most of those who express revulsion to the idea of a mosque near Ground Zero are coming from an authentic place of sincere emotion. They naturally equate the terror of September 11th with Islam, because the murderers themselves that day did that.
But I also know that these monsters had no more to do with my faith than the Crusaders did with true Christianity.
And it is instructive to look back to the Crusades, another time Muslims and Christians were trapped in a "holy war" whose legacy would poison relations between these two religions of Abraham for centuries. When we examine the history of the Crusades, we find remarkable parallels with events in the news today. A civilization that was the global leader in art, science, education and culture was forced to repel vicious attacks from impoverished and backwards countries, led by fanatics targeting innocent civilians in the name of God. But in those days, the advanced civilization was Muslim and the terrorists were Christian.
In my upcoming novel, Shadow of the Swords, I examine the Crusades from a Muslim point of view. I begin with a terrifying memory of the First Crusade in 1099 C.E., which remains very much imprinted on Muslim cultural history. A time when Christian warriors descended on Jerusalem and slaughtered its 70,000 inhabitants – men, women and children. Muslim civilians were butchered in the name of Christ, along with Arab Christians who had the misfortune of being dark skinned and looking like "the enemy." The Jews of Jerusalem were herded by the Crusaders into the city's main synagogue and burned alive. According to the Crusader's own chroniclers, the streets of Jerusalem ran with blood in rivers.
But the annihilation of the civilian population of Jerusalem was not the worst crime of the Crusaders. In the village of Ma'arra, Crusaders cannibalized the local population – eating men, women and children in an orgy of horror that has never been forgotten by the Islamic world. To this day, the Crusaders are referred to in the Middle East as "the cannibals."
I think any Christian who reads this will be revolted by the sordid story, and will automatically denounce these monsters as having nothing to do with Christianity — even though the Crusaders would have disagreed. To these medieval terrorists, their brand of horror was true Christianity, of which they were proud. Incredible as it sounds, these barbarians sincerely believed they were doing the will of Christ.
The Crusaders were, of course, wrong. And despite the scars these terrorist acts left on the Muslim psyche, Muslims have never blamed the entire Christian community for the actions of these monsters, nor do Muslims today believe that mainstream Christians are of the same character as the Crusaders.
And the proof that Muslims always understood the difference between these vile "Christian" terrorists and true Christianity can be seen in how the Muslims chose to treat the Christians of the Holy Land after the Crusader kingdom was defeated in 1187 C.E. Saladin, the Muslim leader who retook Jerusalem after the pivotal battle of Hattin, was in a position to avenge the horror perpetrated by the Crusaders, not just a century before, but in his contemporary times. For the Crusader kingdom was still led by vicious killers, men like Reginald of Kerak, the Osama Bin Laden of his day. Reginald was a French nobleman consumed with such hatred of Muslims that he launched regular terrorist attacks on caravans passing near the kingdom, massacring civilians without remorse or pity. Reginald even organized a raid into the Muslim holy city of Mecca and was set upon invading Medina and desecrating the grave of Prophet Muhammad until Saladin's forces routed him.
Reginald's fanaticism was viewed with dismay by more moderate leaders in the Christian camp, who feared that these extremists tactics would create such outrage that the divided Muslim forces would find common cause and march upon Jerusalem. Their fears proved correct, and Reginald's savagery gave Saladin the rallying cry he needed to mount a unified military response, which toppled the century-old Crusader kingdom.
When the Muslim army bore down upon the gates of Jerusalem, the Christian population prepared itself for what they expected would be terrifying retribution. And yet, at the moment of his greatest victory, Saladin remembered the rules of war established by Prophet Muhammad over five hundred years before. Instead of doing to the Christians what they had done to the Muslims, he gave the Christian population a general amnesty. When the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem, they had turned the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's holiest sites in the city, into a church, and banned Muslim entry into the city. But when Saladin took Jerusalem back, he chose not to do the same to his Christian adversaries. He guaranteed protection for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the right for Christian pilgrims to visit the Holy Land. Saladin further allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem after Christians had expelled them.
Saladin's magnanimity was renowned by medieval historians, even among Christians, who were perplexed that an "infidel" would show mercy while the "true believers" had chosen barbarity. Saladin's example single-handedly shattered many Christians' negative perception of Islam and made them question whether the cruel and backwards version of Christianity that they was being sold by the Church of the time actually reflected the teachings of Christ.
Saladin's willingness to overcome the emotional need for revenge and the foolish simplicity of judging an entire community by the action of an evil few marked him as one of the greatest men of history. Saladin was tested by God and history, and he was found worthy.
So now, eight hundred years later, we in America are being similarly tested. We are under attack by a small group of deadly Muslim fanatics. We can choose to use that as an excuse to brand the entire Muslim community as our enemy Or we can follow the best that is in our historical tradition and differentiate truth from falsehood. We can scapegoat a billion innocents, or we can work with those people to unite against a few extremely dangerous and destructive individuals.
How we as Americans choose to react to the planned Islamic Center near Ground Zero will reveal who we are as a people. And the judgment of history will place us either in the company of villains like the Crusaders, who cared not for the difference between the innocent and the guilty, or in the company of noble heroes like Saladin, who are honored even by their adversaries.
I have lived in America long enough to know that despite the Crusader rhetoric in the media, we are a nation of Saladins at heart.
Posted in Terrorism | 1 Comment »
You are currently browsing the Kamran Pasha's Blog blog archives for May, 2010.


Apologies… Life has really gotten in the way recently and I've started a new role. I've been to a LOT of events, and life has seriously gotten in the way! But I was DETERMINED to write up my experience volunteering at Stratford Upon Avon Comic Con in April.
I wasn't intending to go to one so close to Wales, but when the convention husband Rob Turner asked me, I couldn't turn him down!
The Stratford Upon Avon Comic Con was run by comic book artist Lee Bradley. It was the first one that he'd done, he did a fantastic job organising. He also managed to get some amazing guests. This was a one day Good Old Fashioned Comic Con featuring guests from TV, Films & Comics. With Traders & Cosplayers.
I was particular excited to meet Chris Barrie. Not only for his role in Red Dwarf, but I used to love The Brittas Empire – it was a must watch in my house growing up. It dawned on me that I was going to be meeting Mr Brittas himself – in a Leisure Centre!!
It wasn't very far from me, just a 45 minute drive from Bicester. But I still got up at 5:30 in the morning, because I like to make sure I'm giving myself plenty of time. I was travelling on my own, so I cranked up the tunes and started singing… only to discover that I had lost my voice AND I got list and ended up in some random industrial estate! Despite all these obstacles before it had begun, I arrived around 8am and found the main hall of the Stratford Upon Avon Leisure Centre, and Rob was already there.
My selfie with Chris Barrie!
Stratford Upon Avon Comic Con was a small con, but we had a great mix of stalls, signers, retro gaming, and lots of cake and sweets! There was something for everyone. There were some awesome cosplayers. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures – I was too busy making sure the steady flow of people and our guests were okay, mainly squeaking at them asking if they wanted tea or coffee! One of the guests had a nail emergency – managed to track down some super glue off one of the vendors. Rob was looking after Chris Barrie and our very own Adam was on the door!
Guests in attendance were a mix of artists, authors, and actors. All of them had plenty of visitors throughout the day, which was great to see. The photo shoots ran to time and the guests even jumped in on ad hoc shoots later on. They also allowed selfies at tables, and Chris was doing them for donations for charity.
So naturally, I grabbed one!!
The 1 day Stratford Upon Avon Comic Con for me went by so quickly. From getting coffees for guests to giving others breaks throughout the day, it was very busy, but I still had a great time!
The con ran pretty smooth for a first event. The feedback I received from vendors and attendees alike was very positive. Main question asked was if it was coming back again… I can confirm that it is!
Be brave at ALL conventions with our Convention Survival Guide!
Meeting people at conventions? You better have our guide to dating just in case!


Roskilde Fjord makes up one-third of Skjoldungernes Land National Park. Visit the beautiful fjord landscape, filled with coves, salt marshes and coastal bluffs.
Roskilde Fjord, 4-5 meters deep in most places, is ideal for various types of sailing and has been used for transportation and fishing since ancient times. There are cosy harbours along the fjord, the national park's numerous bathing sites offering the perfect spot to frolic in the water. Walk or cycle along the Fjord Path (Fjordstien) around the fjord and spend the night in a tent or shelter, or in less primitive conditions such as a hotel, hostel or campsite.
Roskilde Fjord has been designated an international nature conservation area (Natura 2000), committing us to protecting a large number of the fjord's many bird species and special nature areas along the coast. Denmark's largest bird, the white-tailed eagle (also known as the flying barn door due to its immense 2.45-meter wingspan), breeds in the surrounding landscape and can often be seen floating high above the fjord.
There are plenty of opportunities to experience the fjord's birdlife, with the landscape providing resting and feeding grounds of international significance for waterfowl. Every autumn the area attracts 30,000 to 60,000 birds, often even more in the winter. In spring and summer gulls, terns, swans, eiders, geese, ducks and many other birds breed on the fjord's islets and islands. As a result, these areas are closed to the public from 1 April to 15 July. Please do not disturb the birds when using or roaming around the fjord.
Since the hunter-gatherer Stone Age, people have fished the waters of the fjord, which remains a favourite fishing spot for anglers and recreational fishermen. The fjord contains brackish water and is home to both saltwater and freshwater fish, but also migratory fish like eel and sea trout, which spawns in the national park's streams in November and December.
Fjordstien, or Fjord Path, is 275 km of hiking and biking trails along Roskilde Fjord and Isefjord that follows old field and forest roads, often in close proximity to the coast.
Beautiful Roskilde Fjord offers kayaking, boating, bird watching, swimming and fishing. To take an organised sailing trip, contact the Viking Ship Museum, the Maritime Research Centre, Sagafjord, SS Skjelskør steamboat and M/S Svanen.
There are excellent opportunities for primitive overnight stays at a campsite or in a shelter in the national park. Find the sites and booking at udinaturen.dk and friluftsguiden.dk.
Because the birdlife is vulnerable to disturbances, please be considerate when you're on or near the fjord. During the breeding season from 1 April to 15 July the islands and islets are off limits. Please also be mindful of the landowners and local residents. Greet the people you meet and follow the park rules. Please take your waste with you and leave only footprints behind.
The varied inland waters created by the coastline, islands and islets of Roskilde Fjord in the northern end of the park are ideal, taking the birdlife into account, for sailing swimming and fishing.


According to our database1, Licia Capra authored at least 115 papers between 2001 and 2018.
A scalable method to quantify the relationship between urban form and socio-economic indexes.
Analyzing and predicting the spatial penetration of Airbnb in U.S. cities.
Here, this and next: evaluating public engagement with multiple, distributed and interlinked devices.
Is the Sharing Economy About Sharing at All? A Linguistic Analysis of Airbnb Reviews.
Pinsight: A Novel Way of Creating and Sharing Digital Content through 'Things' in the Wild.
Private Peer Feedback as Engagement Driver in Humanitarian Mapping.
A survey of the use of crowdsourcing in software engineering.
Adaptive and context-aware service composition for IoT-based smart cities.
Work Always in Progress: Analysing Maintenance Practices in Spatial Crowd-sourced Datasets.
Mass Participation During Emergency Response: Event-centric Crowdsourcing in Humanitarian Mapping.
Information Diffusion and Economic Development.
Beyond the Baseline: Establishing the Value in Mobile Phone Based Poverty Estimates.
Who Benefits from the "Sharing" Economy of Airbnb?
Guns of Brixton: which London neighborhoods host gang activity?
"...when you're a Stranger": Evaluating Safety Perceptions of (un)familiar Urban Places.
SmallTalk: Using Tangible Interactions to Gather Feedback from Children.
Social Contribution Settings and Newcomer Retention in Humanitarian Crowd Mapping.
Exploring Maintenance Practices in Crowd-Mapping.
City form and well-being: what makes London neighborhoods good places to live?
Clustering Mobile Apps Based on Mined Textual Features.
Analysing Volunteer Engagement in Humanitarian Mapping: Building Contributor Communities at Large Scale.
Sens-Us: Designing Innovative Civic Technology for the Public Good.
The Impact of Society on Volunteered Geographic Information: The Case of OpenStreetMap.
Hybrid service matchmaking in ambient assisted living environments based on context-aware service modeling.
VoxBox: A Tangible Machine that Gathers Opinions from the Public at Events.
Crowdsourcing Safety Perceptions of People: Opportunities and Limitations.
Getting quizzical about physical: observing experiences with a tangible questionnaire.
Measuring Urban Deprivation from User Generated Content.
There's No Such Thing as the Perfect Map: Quantifying Bias in Spatial Crowd-sourcing Datasets.
Mood Squeezer: Lightening up the Workplace through Playful and Lightweight Interactions.
Sens-Us: imagining a citizen-led, dynamic, and localized census.
Lower Dimensional Representations of City Neighbourhoods.
Urban Computing: Concepts, Methodologies, and Applications.
Introduction to the Special Section on Urban Computing.
Modelling growth of urban crowd-sourced information.
Mining Mobile Phone Data to Investigate Urban Crime Theories at Scale.
Tube star: crowd-sourced experiences on public transport.
Mind the map: the impact of culture and economic affluence on crowd-mapping behaviours.
Poverty on the cheap: estimating poverty maps using aggregated mobile communication networks.
Individuals among commuters: Building personalised transport information services from fare collection systems.
Finger on the pulse: identifying deprivation using transit flow analysis.
Putting ubiquitous crowd-sourcing into context.
Continuous hyperparameter optimization for large-scale recommender systems.
Middleware for social computing: a roadmap.
Fair content dissemination in participatory DTNs.
On the accuracy of urban crowd-sourcing for maintaining large-scale geospatial databases.
Avoiding the crowds: understanding Tube station congestion patterns from trip data.
The Social World of Twitter: Topics, Geography, and Emotions.
Tracking "gross community happiness" from tweets.
Intel Collaborative Research Institute - Sustainable Connected Cities.
Priority scheduling for participatory Delay Tolerant Networks.
In the Mood for Being Influential on Twitter.
Measuring Similarity in Large-scale Folksonomies.
Recsys'11 workshop outline PeMA 2011: personalization in mobile applications.
Mining mobility data to minimise travellers' spending on public transport.
Dynamic updating of online recommender systems via feed-forward controllers.
How smart is your smartcard?: measuring travel behaviours, perceptions, and incentives.
A Scalable Tag-Based Recommender System for New Users of the Social Web.
Effective retrieval of resources in folksonomies using a new tag similarity measure.
Dependable filtering: Philosophy and realizations.
Using Mobile Phones to Nurture Social Networks.
Special Issue on Software Architecture and Mobility.
A self-organising directory and matching service for opportunistic social networking.
Temporal diversity in recommender systems.
Temporal Defenses for Robust Recommendations.
Folksonomy-based reasoning for content dissemination in mobile settings.
VOLARE: context-aware adaptive cloud service discovery for mobile systems.
diffeRS: A Mobile Recommender Service.
Mining Public Transport Usage for Personalised Intelligent Transport Systems.
VOLARE: Adaptive Web Service Discovery Middleware for Mobile Systems.
Habit: Leveraging human mobility and social network for efficient content dissemination in Delay Tolerant Networks.
Temporal collaborative filtering with adaptive neighbourhoods.
FriendSensing: recommending friends using mobile phones.
A middleware service for pervasive social networking.
From pervasive to social computing: algorithms and deployments.
Selecting Trustworthy Content using Tags.
The effect of correlation coefficients on communities of recommenders.
Social ranking: uncovering relevant content using tag-based recommender systems.
kNN CF: a temporal social network.
Media sharing based on colocation prediction in urban transport.
MoSCA: seamless execution of mobile composite services.
MoSCA: service composition in mobile environments.
SOFIA: Social Filtering for Robust Recommendations.
The international workshop on software architectures and mobility (SAM 2008).
MobiRate: making mobile raters stick to their word.
Reliable Discovery and Selection of Composite Services in Mobile Environments.
Analysis of Packet Relaying Models and Incentive Strategies in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks with Game Theory.
Private distributed collaborative filtering using estimated concordance measures.
MaLM: Machine Learning Middleware to Tackle Ontology Heterogeneity.
TRULLO - local trust bootstrapping for ubiquitous devices.
Content Source Selection in Bluetooth Networks.
STRUDEL: supporting trust in the dynamic establishment of peering coalitions.
TATA: Towards Anonymous Trusted Authentication.
B-Trust: Bayesian Trust Framework for Pervasive Computing.
Autonomic Trust Prediction for Pervasive Systems.
Q-CAD: QoS and context aware discovery framework for mobile systems.
Engineering human trust in mobile system collaborations.
CARISMA: Context-Aware Reflective mIddleware System for Mobile Applications.
XMIDDLE: A Data-Sharing Middleware for Mobile Computing.
xlinkit: a consistency checking and smart link generation service.
Exploiting reflection in mobile computing middleware.
A micro-economic approach to conflict resolution in mobile computing.
XMIDDLE: information sharing middleware for a mobile environment.
Mobile computing middleware for context-aware applications.
Reflective Middleware Solutions for Context-Aware Applications.
An XML-based Middleware for Peer-to-Peer computing.
Middleware for Mobile Computing: Awareness vs. Transparency.
Towards A Mobile Computing Middleware: A Synergy of Reflection and Mobile Code Techniques.


The late Michaela Perrin was a 26 year old mother-of-3 who passed away in tragic circumstances on the morning of 22 October 2014 at Lismore Base Hospital.
On 16 October 2014, Michaela underwent a planned caesarean section at Lismore Base Hospital and successfully delivered her third child, a healthy baby girl. She was subsequently discharged 4 days later.
After experiencing some pain from the abdominal scar, Michaela returned to Emergency Department at Lismore Base Hospital on two occasions.
On 20 October 2014, she presented to the hospital and was assessed in a short consultation, given painkillers and sent home.
On 21 October 2014, Michaela returned to the Emergency Department again with worsening pain. She was admitted the Woman's Care Unit.
On 22 October 2014 at about 7am, Michaela was found dead in her hospital bed with her baby sleeping nearby. She had passed away about 5 hours earlier.
Her cause of death was septic shock associated with a serious bacterial infection in her caesarean wound.
The NSW State Coroner's Court is the means by which the manner and cause of death of a person such as Micheala is determined. It also assists families to understand what has happened to their loved ones.
An Inquest into Michaela's death was heard over 7 days in Sydney. On the 27th February 2018, the NSW State Deputy Coroner handed down her findings.
The Coroner found that Michaela's death was potentially avoidable if she been provided with adequate medical care and attention. She was scathing in her comment about one doctor in particular stating that she was grossly negligent and she "showed a startling lack of awareness in how to recognise sepsis and how serious the condition is" and that her inaction largely contributed to Michaela's death.
As part of her recommendation the Coroner recommended the conduct of that doctor be referred to the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) for investigation.
The HCCC is an independent body which deals with complaints about health service providers in NSW. The HCCC role is to investigate, resolve and even prosecute serious complaints referred to it.
Alongside this recommendation, the Coroner also noted that changes had already been made by Northern NSW Local Health District which has put into place mechanisms to avoid other women in a similar situation, suffering the same fate as Michaela.
Outside the Coroner's Court Michaela's mother, Cathy, said she was pleased with the steps taken, including the policies and plans implemented by the Local Health District, and that she hoped this would never happen to anyone else again.
Stacks Goudkamp represented the Perrin Family at the Inquest of into the death of Michaela Perrin, and is assisting them to recover damages to enable the family to raise Michaela's 3 young children.
If you know of someone who has suffered an injury or death in medical misadventure, you may be entitled to compensation. For more information, please call Stacks Goudkamp on 1800 25 1800 to arrange a free, no-obligation assessment of your claim, or alternatively, make an online enquiry.


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No one knows what the future holds but there are ways to safeguard you and your family from life's more tragic turns. Whether it is a breadwinner suffering a disability that prevents them from earning a living or an untimely death that robs a family of means to maintain their home or provide support to a child's education, there are products available that can take these worries away. Products such as: Life Insurance, Disability Insurance, Long Term Care Insurance & Fixed Annuities.
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