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Author Archives: Tamayo Juan
Canadian Parliament Member Warns Cuba Investors
Posted on May 1, 2014 by Arch Ritter
A businessman from his district has been jailed in Havana for 3 1/3 years without trial, says Peter Kent.
By Juan O. Tamayo, El Nuevo Herald,
A senior Canadian parliament member has taken a punch at Cuba's new foreign investment law, saying that one of his constituents has been jailed on the island since 2011 without trial and has been offered leniency if he pays questionable debts.
"The international financial community should ponder long and hard the investment blandishments of Cuban ministers, diplomats and trade officials," said Peter Kent, chairman of the House of Commons Defense Committee.
"Reality is at stark odds with the platitudes" of those officials, Kent added, going on to detail the case of his constituent, Cy Tokmakjian, one of several foreign businessmen jailed in Cuba on what they say are fraudulent corruption charges.
Tokmakjian, 73, a Canadian citizen of Lebanese descent, is president of Tokmakjian Group, at one point the second largest Canadian firm operating in Cuba. He has been jailed since Sept. 10, 2011 for investigation by Interior Ministry officials.
Kent described the ministry as modeled on the Soviet KGB and East German STASI security services. He also noted that all of the other jailed businessmen come from Canada and Europe — not Cuban allies such as China, Venezuela or Russia.
Tokmakjian's assets in Cuba, worth more than $90 million, have been frozen and "it seems no coincidence" that the total value of the government's claims against him exceeds that amount, Kent wrote in a column published Tuesday in the Huffington Post.
"There have been suggestions to company representatives that additional millions sent from Canada could result in a more 'lenient' outcome," he added. "He has been told, many times, that, if he drops International claims against Cuba or admits to minor 'offenses,' he would have a lenient trial and be released immediately."
Tokmakjian has repeatedly denied all the allegations against him, which include bribery and tax evasion. Kent said the businessman is ready to defend his case vigorously in a Cuban court.
Kent said that when he visited Cuba in 2010 as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in charge of the Americas, Tokmakjian "was characterized as a valued partner by Cuban interlocutors." The Canadian company largely sold imported vehicles to the island's government.
The parliament member also noted that among the foreign investors who lost millions in Cuba when they came under suspicion of corruption were Briton Stephen Purvis, who was working to develop a golf course, and Frenchman Jean Louis Autret, who ran a string of bakeries and other businesses.
Another Canadian businessman, Sarkis Yacoubian, was expelled from Cuba in February after serving about one third of a nine-year sentence. He was arrested in July 2011 and was convicted in April 2013 of bribery, tax evasion and "activities damaging to the economy."
Yacoubian, who ran a $30 million trading company in Cuba, Tri-Star Caribbean, told the Toronto Star newspaper that he had cooperated with investigators and hoped to receive a lenient sentence. Cuban officials never explained his expulsion.
He and Tokmakjian were imprisoned at La Condesa, a facility on the outskirts of Havana reserved for foreigners and important Cuban government officials.
Cuban dissidents say police detained more than 150 on Human Rights Day
Posted on December 12, 2013 by Arch Ritter
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO Miami Herald, Wednesday, 12.11.13
Cuban police carried out more than 150 detentions of dissidents Tuesday on International Human Rights Day and followed up Wednesday by carting off the founder of a group that was holding a rare human rights congress, according to activists in Havana.
Antonio Rodiles, founder of the group Estado de SATS, was taken away by police Wednesday around 11 a.m. as he watched a group of children write graffiti on the sidewalk in front of his home, activist Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz said. Dissident blogger Regina Coyula, who was in Rodiles' house participating in the First Congress for Human Rights, told reporters that Rodiles was detained when he intervened with police who were harassing his girlfriend for taking photos of the children.
Yohandry Fontana, a pro-government blogger widely believed to be a State Security official, tweeted Wednesday: "I confirm the detention of Antonio Rodiles for attacking and insulting children."
Estado de SATS and two other independent groups sponsored the Congress, which started Tuesday on the anniversary of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration on Human Rights and was to end Wednesday night with a musical concert.
Sanchez Santa Cruz, head of the illegal but tolerated Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said he had information on more than 150 detentions on Tuesday and was still receiving new reports as of Wednesday evening. All but a handful had been released by Tuesday night after so-called "short-term arbitrary detentions for political motives," usually designed to intimidate or harass dissidents and keep them from attending opposition gatherings. "That's not counting the harassment and other acts of vandalism because there was a lot of violence by the forces of repression along the entire country," Sanchez Santa Cruz said by phone from Havana.
Reports of more detentions were still arriving at his Havana office Wednesday because government security forces shut down the cellular and home phones of several hundred activists for much of Tuesday, he said.
The dissident group Ladies in White said its members alone suffered about 130 detentions as they tried to stage street protests — not tolerated by the government — in downtown Havana and the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, the country's second largest city. Others were detained as they tried to reach Rodiles' home to participate in the two days of panel discussions, video programs and art shows, according to dissidents. Also detained were several members of the Cuban Patriotic Union, an opposition group most active in the eastern part of the island. UNPACU founder Jose Daniel Ferrer said more than 130 UNPACU and Ladies in White members were detained Tuesday in eastern Cuba alone amid a string of protest meetings, marches and distributions of anti-government leaflets and posters.
Several dissidents were injured when government-organized mobs and State Security agents threw rocks at them, Ferrer said. Mob members and police also made off with cameras, cell phones and cash taken from many of the opposition activists.
A member of Ladies in White is detained by Cuban security before the start of a march marking International Human Rights Day in Havana, Dec. 10, 2013.
Posted in Blog	| Tagged Democracy, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights	| 1 Comment
Canadian jailed in Havana corruption scandal speaks out
Posted on May 16, 2013 by Arch Ritter
By Julian Sher of The Toronto Star And Juan O. Tamayo; Posted on Wednesday, 05.15.13
Speaking over a scratchy telephone line from inside a Cuban prison, Sarkis Yacoubian's voice goes suddenly silent. He's crying.
"I was so depressed at times, I wanted to commit suicide," says the 53-year-old entrepreneur.
In exclusive interviews from the La Condesa prison, Yacoubian provides an insider's view of a sweeping anti-corruption campaign by the government of Raúl Castro that has seen several foreign businessmen — including himself and another Toronto-area businessman — jailed.
A joint investigation by The Toronto Star and El Nuevo Herald has found that in a corruption-plagued country described in secret U.S. government cables as "a state on the take," the two jailed Canadians are embroiled in a high-stakes diplomatic and legal stand-off between Havana and Ottawa, potentially jeopardizing millions in taxpayer dollars that underwrite Canada's trade with Cuba.
Arrested in July 2011 and detained for nearly two years without charges, Yacoubian, who ran a transport and trading company, was finally handed a 63-page indictment last month accusing him of bribery, tax evasion and "activities damaging to the economy."
Sarkis Yacoubian from Toronto, is in prison near Havana awaiting trial on corruption-related charges.
A suspect who says he quickly pointed the finger at widespread wrongdoing by other Canadian and foreign businesses, Yacoubian now faces up to 12 years in prison after he pleads guilty at his trial set to begin next Thursday. The charges were filed in a special Havana court for Crimes against the Security of the State, which can effectively hold trials in secret.
"They found out this was an epidemic going all over the place and I was the fall guy," says Yacoubian. "They want to give an example to the rest of the businessmen. They want to scare them to death."
The second Canadian — 73-year-old Cy Tokmakjian who runs a global transportation firm called the Tokmakjian Group — was picked up by Cuban authorities in September 2011 and remains in jail with no specific charges filed against him.
"We're as worried as anyone would be if their father is in a place where they shouldn't be," said his son and company president Raffi Tokmakjian in an interview at their corporate headquarters in Concord, Ontario.
Raffi and his two sisters say they are in daily phone contact with their father. "He worries more about us. He says: 'You guys stay strong, I'm okay,'" said Anni Tokmakjian, the company's director of sales. "We're just focusing on getting him home, that's all we really care about."
But that might not be easy. The two entrepreneurs of Armenian origin, one-time business associates turned bitter rivals, ran multi-million dollar trading companies that sold heavy equipment, vehicles and supplies to Cuban state companies in the transport, construction, nickel and other industries.
Today, their Havana offices are shuttered, their fortunes frozen and their future in limbo.
Cuban authorities in Havana and at the country's embassy in Ottawa declined to be interviewed for this story.
Complicating matters is that millions in Canadian taxpayer dollars funded by the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) — a kind of broker that underwrites contracts between the Cuban government and select Canadian firms — may be at stake.
In 2011 and 2012, the CCC signed 38 contracts in Cuba worth more than $68.4 million, the latest in its $650-million business with Cuba since 1991. Much of that financial support — for privacy reasons, the agency won't disclose its client list — went to back deals made with the Tokmakjian Group.
Now that Tokmakjian is in prison and the Cuban government has officially revoked his company's license to operate, there are questions about what the Cubans will do if their courts rule that Tokmakjian contracts backed by the CCC were tainted by corruption.
The Tokmakjian Group is reported to be the second largest Canadian operation in Cuba, with at least $80 million in annual sales in the country.
Raffi Tokmakjian says his father "fell in love with the place" when he began investing in Cuba in the 1960s.
Yacoubian, too, had big dreams when he first came to Cuba in 1993. He quickly became fluent in Spanish and, after working briefly for Tokmakjian, he built his company, Tri-Star Caribbean, into a flourishing $30-million-a-year enterprise.
It all came crashing down when plainclothes security officers swept into his offices in Havana in July 2011.
Whisked away to a "safe house" for questioning and allowed outside for only one hour a day, Yacoubian says he slipped into desperation and depression. "I had lost my mind," he says. "I was talking to myself, banging my head."
Then Yacoubian made a fateful choice: He blew the whistle. "Maybe in my conscience I wanted my company to be brought down so that I could tell once for all things that are going on," he says. "It was just eating me alive."
He told his interrogators that he had little choice but to hand over money to bureaucrats or officials to secure contracts or even to ensure they were honored after winning a bid.
"If I didn't pay, at the end of the day they would just create problems for me," he says. Prosecutors allege in their court filing that Yacoubian or his employees bribed at least a dozen state officials with everything from nice dinners and prepaid phone cards to cash — $300 for a tip on a deal, $50,000 for a 2008 contract on earth movers.
Yacoubian disputes many of the details in the charges. But he says what bothered him was that some of the foreign businessmen were "bigger crooks" than the Cubans, profiting unduly from shady business dealings — often, he says, with support or subsidies from Western governments.
Yacoubian says he spent the next few months turning what could have been a police grilling of him into a kind of Corruption 101 class for his interrogators.
"I tried to explain to them systematically how things could be done," he says. "I gave them drawings, designs. I gave them names, people, how they do it, why, when, where, what."
Yacoubian did not know that his tell-all tale would become fodder for a campaign against corruption led by Raul Castro.
The Reuters news agency reported in February 2012 that Yacoubian's videotaped confession was the centerpiece in a video titled "Metastasis" that describes payoffs and bribes "spreading like cancer" into high levels of the Cuban government.
In the video, shown only to top government and Communist Party officials, "Yacoubian confesses he passed packets of money to Cuban officials," Reuters reported.
Tokmakjian is also featured and accused of corruption. His children say he firmly denies any wrongdoing, insisting there have been yearly audits of their business partnerships with the Cubans with "no issues."
Tokmakjian and Yacoubian were eventually transferred to La Condesa, a prison reserved for foreigners and disgraced government officials — although the Canadians are kept apart in separate barracks.
The families of both men say they have received support from the Canadian embassy in Havana and assurances that Foreign Minister John Baird and Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Diane Ablonzy have pushed the Cubans "at the highest levels" to provide justice for the jailed Canadians "in a more timely matter."
Close observers of Canadian business and political affairs in Havana say Ottawa and the CCC have to be concerned when a major player like Tokmakjian, backed by federal money, runs afoul of the Castro regime. Canada is one of Cuba's largest trading partners and its single largest source of tourism revenue
One long-time Canadian investor with many years of experience in Havana, who asked to remain anonymous because of the uncertain political climate there, said "a lot of people" were frustrated that CCC was an exclusive club, most of its money being "eaten up by a handful of companies," including the Tokmakjian Group.
For now, the CCC says it is not worried.
"The Corporation has consistently been paid by the Government of Cuba on time regardless of the external environment," said Joanne Lostracco, the CCC's manager of Government Relations.
Asked about the perils of a Canadian corporation operating in a Cuban economy tainted by corruption, Lostracco said the CCC has a "strong due diligence process" that imposes "full financial disclosure" on Canadian companies and allows the CCC to withdraw from any contract "obtained through illicit means."
The Tokmakjian children remain optimistic their father will be home soon, taking heart from the fact that 10 other foreign employees of their company who were detained by Cuban authorities have been released in the past four months.
For his part, Yacoubian says he hopes to get a reduced sentence after he pleads guilty at his trial next week "because I collaborated closely" — a collaboration acknowledged by Cuban authorities in his indictment.
Yacoubian takes anti-depressants during the day and sleeping pills at night, but he says the poor ventilation in the stifling heat and the lack of chairs for his bad back are taking a toll.
Reflecting on the role he has played in unraveling Cuba's corruption scandals, he has mixed emotions.
"It's a victory because now, how things were done (in the past) has been unwrapped," he says. But he also recalls the lyrics from a rock song that was popular when he and his family lived through the difficult years of civil war in Lebanon:
"Don't be a hero," Yacoubian says. "Heroes are so sad."
Posted in Blog	| Tagged Corruption, Cuba-Canada Relations, Illegalities	| 1 Comment
"The Ugly Canadians": Sex Tourism in Cuba
I missed a March 2013 Toronto Star series on sex tourism in Cuba, but it was brought to my attention recently by Cristina Warren. (I am a Globe and Mail and The Economist aficionado.) It was produced jointly by the Toronto Star and El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language sister publication of The Miami Herald and also by W5, an investigative television program on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation station. It is a disturbing examination of this phenomenon in the Cuban context.
Below are links to the articles in the series.
Toronto Star, Published Friday, March 15, 2013, Twisted Travellers: Canadian pedophiles travel Abroad for Child Sex, by Victor Malarek, W5 (CBC) Chief Investigative Reporter
Toronto Star, March 15, 2013 Toronto sex offender could be first Canadian convicted of child sex tourism in Cuba. By Jennifer Quinn Investigative News reporter, Robert Cribb Foreign, Investigations Julian Sher, Toronto Star
Toronto Star, March 16, 2013 Canadians are major customers in Cuba's child sex market By Robert Cribb Jennifer Quinn, Julian Sher Toronto Star, and Juan Tamayo El Nuevo Herald
Toronto Star, March 18, 2013, Cuba's most horrifying episode of child sex tourism resulted in a girl's death by Juan Tamayo
Toronto Star, March 19, 2013 Editorial, Paradise for sex tourists
Posted in Blog	| Tagged Cuba-Canada Relations, Tourism	| Leave a comment
Whispered complaints about U.S.-Cuba academic exchanges go public
Juan O. Tamayo, Miami Herald, Wed, May. 01, 2013,
The U.S. government's denial of visas to several Cubans invited to an upcoming academic congress has uncorked a string of protests — against Washington, the pro-Castro U.S. academics who allegedly control the conference's Cuba agenda and the Havana spies who allegedly attend.
Some academics who study Cuba issues have long complained about the island government's influence on the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), which bills itself as the world's largest association for the study of the region. But they usually kept their complaints private because Cuba has repeatedly denied access to the island and research materials to any academics who dared criticize the communist government too harshly. Until now.
"The LASA Cuba section has been taken over by supporters of the revolution and it has been thoroughly politicized," said Ted Henken, a professor of Latin American Studies at Baruch College in New York.
"Those of us who have been in LASA also know that within the Cuban 'delegation' there are always as many 'policemen' as in Coppelia on a Saturday night," Cuban sociologist Haroldo Dilla wrote in an online column. He referred to Havana's famous Coppelia ice cream parlor.
Asked about the criticism, LASA President Evelyne Huber said the Cuba section "is open to all LASA members, and LASA itself is open to all scholars and other professionals interested in Latin America. Nobody is excluded from membership based on their political opinions."
"I do not know what qualifies a scholar as a 'supporter of the Cuban government' … and whether the elected leaders of the section would fall into that category. Most scholars who deal with Cuba that I know are acutely aware of both the strengths and weaknesses, or achievements and shortcomings of the Cuban government," added Huber, head of the political science department at the University of North Carolina.
Cuba section co-chairman Sheryl Lutjens, director of the Women's Studies Program at California State University San Marcos, did not reply to requests for comments. Her co-chairman is Jorge Mario Sanchez, a professor at the University of Havana.
All country sections are co-headed by members from the U.S. and the foreign country. LASA, with 7,000 members from around the world, is based at the University of Pittsburgh.
Henken and Dilla's comments were triggered by reports that the U.S. State Department had denied visas to several Cubans invited to attend LASA's annual congress May 29-June 1 in Washington, D.C.
Three of them were identified as Elaine Díaz Rodríguez, a journalist and University of Havana professor, and young bloggers Isbel Díaz Torres and Dimitri Prieto Samsónov. Elaine Díaz's visa was later approved. The U.S. visas could have been denied for a broad range of issues, from concerns that the academics would defect and stay in the United States to any criminal records.
The trio should be allowed to participate in the LASA conference because they "are known for their critical positions in the face of specific aspects of the Cuban reality," Dilla wrote in an April 15 column published on the website CubaEncuentro.
Henken, a LASA member who also heads the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE), argued that the visa denials are "a lost opportunity for the U.S. to hear critical and authentic voices from inside Cuba."
But while academic freedom and exchanges are always desirable, both men argued, U.S.-Cuba academic relations are marred by a lack of reciprocity — and worse.
Henken noted that Omar Everleny Perez, a young economist in Cuba who has criticized some of the Raúl Castro government's economic reforms and was scheduled to sit on a LASA panel, will not be allowed to travel to Washington by his own university.
And while Baruch College sent nine students to Cuba in January, Havana never answered Henken's request to accompany them, he said. Henken visited Cuba several times for his research until 2011, when he interviewed several bloggers, including some critical of the government. As he left the country, he wrote, State Security officials told him, "This will be your last time."
Dilla, who now teaches in the Dominican Republic, said that Cuba also does not allow some exile academics like himself to return to the island to attend conferences, to publish their work in the island's periodicals or to teach in its universities.
One LASA member who presented a paper at an ASCE conference in Miami last year admitted she toned her criticisms of Havana in the printed version of the paper, compared with her verbal remarks, out of fear that Cuban officials would read her paper and block her annual research trips to Cuba.
"LASA's Cuba section basically has been taken over by the Cubans, the government … and we keep quiet so we can get or continue to have access to Cuba," said the researcher, who asked for anonymity for the same reasons.
While the U.S. visa-granting process for academics "has its problems of politicization, bureaucracy and arbitrarity," Henken said, the Cuban government's "systematic mockery of academic freedom and freedom of movement is much more condemnable."
There's been no indication of the size of the Cuban delegation to the LASA congress next month in Washington. But in 2003 the Bush administration denied visas to the entire Cuban mission — reportedly 75 people.
Dilla, who attended two LASA conferences before he left Cuba in 2000, wrote that the association should push the State Department to issue visas to Cuban academics who apply but added that he wanted "to point out a couple of details."
While highly respected Cuban academics attend the LASA conferences, he said, the island's delegations always include intelligence officials and collaborators.
"Some are on the payroll of Línea and A," he added, referring to the Havana street address of the Interior Ministry's Intelligence Directorate. "Others are guardians of the ideological agencies, some active and some retired … but all of them, and above all, [are] people who carry out duties that have little to do with the free academic debate."
Former Cuban intelligence official Orlando Brito Pestana, who defected in 2002 and now lives in South Florida, has said that he attended a LASA conference in Canada around 1991 with accreditation from the Cuba Foreign Ministry. His job, he said, was to spot pro-Castro academics attending the conference and monitor Cuban academics who might have been planning to defect.
"They can be spotted at each congress, sucking up the LASA budget, coercing the true academics and turning the Cuba Task Force into a tangled and opaque extension of the Ideological Department of the Communist Party of Cuba," Dilla said.
Cubans going to the LASA conferences are also subjected, before they travel, to nearly two weeks of briefings by the Ideological Department on issues such as the economy and human rights, Dilla added.
Posted in Blog	| Tagged Freedom of Expression	| Leave a comment
Five years later: Cuba under Raúl: He's tinkered but it's the same old machine
By Juan O. Tamayo
Original Here: Miami Herald, February 24, 2013 Cuba under Raúl
As Cuban ruler Raúl Castro marks his fifth official year in power on Sunday, some Cubans might well be asking, like the U.S. advertising campaign, "Got Milk?"
In his first major speech after succeeding ailing brother Fidel, Castro declared that the government's highly centralized and inept system for collecting and distributing milk was "absurd" and vowed to fix it.
Today, some towns are indeed getting not just more milk but also butter and cheese, yet others are no better off — mirroring the sharply contrasting assessments of the economic reforms Castro launched to dig the island out of its communism-induced quagmire.
Some Cubans say the newly allowed private economic activity already has made daily life a bit easier for most of the island's 11.2 million people, with more sellers offering more goods and more buyers finding more of the goods they seek.
"Look, I see a lot of people smiling because there are more ways to make a living and I have more pork to sell," said Mori, the nickname of a salesman in a Havana butchers' kiosk. "And people are buying, even though the prices are high."
"You can't say that Raúl's Cuba is the same as Fidel's Cuba. You just have to go on the streets to see that," said dissident Havana economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe.
"I am surprised at how fast Raúl has moved, in the context of the previous half-century" added Archibald Ritter, an economist at Carleton University in Ottawa who runs the blog The Cuban Economy.
But Espinosa Chepe, Ritter and other knowledgeable Cuba-watchers say the reforms have been far too slow and too meek to reverse nearly half a century of brutally incompetent central government and its controls, Soviet Union-style, over virtually the entire economy.
Castro's main reforms are "positive and well-oriented" and have accelerated in the past six months but remain "insufficient to solve the socio-economic problems accumulated in 50 years of centralized socialism … due to obstacles and disincentives," said Carmelo Mesa-Lago, the dean of Cuba economists and author of the Spanish-language book Cuba en la Era de Raúl Castro.
Just updates
The list of reform initiatives launched since Castro officially succeeded Fidel on Feb. 24, 2008, is long and impressive and points to a strategy of allowing more capitalism but not democracy that looks like the China model —- though Havana insists it's on its own path.
He has legalized non-agricultural cooperatives, allowed more private businesses and farming, offered them loans and permitted them to hire non-family employees. He has cut the bloated state payrolls, legalized the sale of homes and cars and allowed Cubans to stay in previously tourist-only hotels.
Most importantly, Cubans say, the removal of the much-hated "exit permit" last month for those who want to travel abroad has eased the sense of isolation and entrenchment that prevailed during Fidel Castro's hardliner search for a socialist utopia.
But Raúl Castro has repeatedly said he's proceeding apace to "update" the economy — never "reform" it — and his No. 2, José Ramón Machado Ventura, has dismissed those "who demand faster advances, naively thinking they will lead to capitalism."
As a result, Cuba today teeters somewhere between the promise and realities of the reforms, between his on-the-mark diagnoses of what ails the country and a shortage of the appropriately strong medicine.
Licenses, taxes
Castro has thrown the doors open to more private enterprise but still limits licenses to 181 strictly defined jobs — among them, party clown — slapped steep taxes on them and vowed that central planning will remain the guiding force of the economy.
The decree allowing non-agricultural cooperatives — state-owned restaurants can become employee coops, for instance — is positive, said Ritter. But it requires the coops to accept as full members all employees of more than 90 days, such as a receptionist.
In one of the most critical reforms, Castro decreed in 2008 that nearly five million acres of idle state farmlands would be leased to private farmers to increase agricultural production and cut a food import bill estimated at $1.5 billion a year.
But only 3.7 million acres had been handed out at the end of 2012 and the government retained Acopio, the notoriously bumbling state system for gathering and distributing farm products. That's what Castro attacked in that first major speech, in 2007, when he detailed the incompetent system for producing, processing and distributing milk.
It also took the government four years to reverse a section in the decree that banned the new farmers from building homes on the land — in effect forcing them to commute and leave their farm animals and machinery exposed to thieves every night.
Perhaps that's why domestic food production dropped in 2011 to pre-2007 levels, and dropped again in 2012, with pork, a staple of the Cuban diet, down by 18.3 percent. Agricultural food prices spiked by about 20 percent while salaries barely ticked up, and food imports remained stable.
Cuban officials also announced 500,000 state employees would be dismissed by April 2011, and 800,000 more would follow by the end of that year in order to slash government spending. Yet by the end of 2012 the total layoffs reportedly stood at only 365,000.
Castro ordered an all-out attack on corruption, and put his son, Alejandro, in charge of the campaign. Yet bribery appears to be booming in the dark spaces between socialist and capitalist economic activities, and reports of fresh scandals filter out almost every week.
He has repeatedly called for a younger leadership and promoted Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, 54, to the Politburo of the Communist Party and Higher Education Minister Miguel Diaz-Canel, about 52, to vice president of the Council of Ministers.
But Cuba's leadership remains ancient. Castro is 81, Machado Ventura is 82 and Ramiro Valdes, another vice president of the Council of Ministers and sometimes considered No. 3, is 80. Overall, 10 of the 15 politburo members are in their 70s and 80s.
He has demanded that all state-owned enterprises improve their management and threatened to shutter those that do not turn a profit. Yet the General Comptroller's report for 2012 said 34 percent of the 234 estate entities audited fell short of their goals.
Ritter noted that industrial output in 2011 stood at a shocking 47 percent of the levels in 1989, when post-communist Moscow halted its subsidies to Havana and the island plunged into economic ruin. The purchasing power of salaries in 2010 was 30 percent lower than in 1989, according to Espinosa Chepe.
Castro's reforms "are useful and positive and I would applaud them, but in terms of reversing the situation in industry they are not going to go too far," said Ritter. "The industrial sector is a disaster. Cuba is de-industrializing."
Plans, illusions
Castro also improved daily life by halting the massive political marches and rallies that brother Fidel so loved, Espinosa Chepe added, and diversifying the programs on the state television monopoly — "though they remain boring and with a heavy political bias."
But virtually every young Cuban still has "a plan or an illusion" to escape the island, said Michel Matos, executive director of the Rotilla Festival, a privately organized music fest held annually from 1998 until the government banned it in 2011.
Some Cubans paint a dark picture of their future, with more poverty, especially among retirees whose benefits seldom rise above $15 a month. The gap between haves and have-nots has risen as the government has cut back spending on public health and education. Crime and prices continue to rise.
A woman who visits Havana often said a well-off and pro-Castro friend there recently told her that "there is a tension you feel all the time, like it's going to explode. We don't know where we're going." The woman asked for anonymity to speak frankly.
The specter of Fidel
Castro's half-measures and stop-and-go reforms have sparked speculation on exactly who or what is standing in his way. The "who" is presumed to be the 86-year-old Fidel, always a sworn enemy of capitalism.
"In general I believe that we have a duty to update and improve it [Cuba's Soviet-style economic model], but this is a stage where it is essential that we march very carefully. We should not make mistakes," Fidel said earlier this month when asked about the reforms.
Arturo Lopez-Levy, a former government analyst on intelligence issues and Cuba-U.S. relations now at the University of Denver, said Raúl Castro is "losing time" with the slow pace of reforms "not because of indolence but because there is no agreed-upon vision of the system toward which Cuba is moving."
The "what" is widely believed to be an entrenched bureaucracy that fears the reforms will take away its benefits and perquisites. Jorge Dominguez, a Harvard University expert on Cuba, has described what Castro now faces as a tough "bureaucratic insurgency."
Impediment to talks
As for U.S. relations, Castro has repeatedly offered talks with the Obama administration, yet held on to the one clear impediment to improved relations: U.S. government subcontractor Alan Gross, serving a 15-year sentence in Havana for giving sophisticated communications equipment to Cuban Jews in violation of Cuban laws.
"The government needs a less confrontational scenario in bilateral relations, but its survival is not dependent on a deal with the U.S.," said Lopez-Levy. "The optimum scenario for [Castro] is not a sudden lifting of the embargo but a piecemeal dismantling."
And on the human rights front, Castro freed 52 political prisoners jailed since a 2003 crackdown on dissent but at the same time stepped up repression, with a record 6,200 short-term detentions for political motives reported last year alone.
One bit of certainty
Castro is certain to be elected to a second five-year term as president of the Councils of Ministers and State when the parliamentary National Assembly of People's Power opens its new session on Sunday. But the country's future is less certain.
Lopez-Levy said he believes that during his first five years in power Castro carefully laid the institutional foundation for a more mixed state-private economy and a state withdrawal from daily life.
But Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, whose subsidies to Cuba are pegged at more than $6 billion a year — higher than the aid that Moscow once provided — has cancer and it's not clear whether a successor would keep the same level of aid.
Havana blogger Yoani Sánchez wrote last month that given Cuba's myriad and profound problems, it's difficult for her to believe that the system can "survive the new year, never mind guarantee its long-term viability."
"But it merits mentioning that the Havana regime has been showing its ability to overcome, including even the most unfavorable predictions, for a long time," she added. "After all, the Cuban economy has been in a permanent state of crisis for 20 years."
"It will be much more likely to see our frustrations in the lines outside embassies [in Havana] waiting for a visa," Sánchez noted, "than in any mass protests."
Posted in Blog	| Tagged Economic Reforms, General Economic Analyses, President Raul Castro	| Leave a comment
Cuba cracks down on dissidents on Rights Day
By Juan O. Tamayo, from the Nuevo Herald, December 11, 2012
Original Article here: "Cuba cracks down….."
Cuban police have detained more than 100 dissidents and put another 100 to 150 under house arrest in an island-wide crackdown to block any gatherings marking International Human Rights Day on Monday, according to government opponents.
Among those detained were about 80 members and supporters of the Ladies in White, including dozens who were reportedly carted off roughly during roundups in Havana and on their way to the Our Lady of Charity Basilica in the eastern town of El Cobre.
Security agents also sealed off several homes in eastern Cuba to avert gatherings of dissidents to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, said Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, head of the opposition Cuban Patriotic Union.
The U.S. government swiftly denounced the arrests, saying it was "deeply concerned by the Cuban government's repeated use of arbitrary detention and violence to silence critics, disrupt peaceful assembly and intimidate independent civil society."
"We call on the Cuban government to end" the arrests and violence "and we look forward to the day when all Cubans can freely express their ideas," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said Monday.
Cuban police and State Security agents usually round up scores of dissidents on or before Dec. 10 each year to keep them from staging any sort of events marking the day. The government critics are then released after a few hours or days.
About 45 Ladies in White and 10 supporters were arrested in Havana following their traditional march outside the Santa Rita church after Sunday mass, said Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz, head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
The women usually are allowed to go home without incident after the marches, but this weekend were harassed by government agents. When they sat down in protest, police dragged them roughly to three waiting buses, Sanchez said. Most were released by Sunday night.
Ferrer said another 34 Ladies in White and two young girls were detained, 16 of them "with violence," over the weekend around eastern Cuba as they tried to make their way to El Cobre to pray for human rights. All had been freed as of noon Monday.
Police intercepted three more at the gates to the church on Sunday and tried to seize two others already inside, Ferrer told El Nuevo Herald by phone from his home in the nearby town of Palmarito de Cauto. But a priest in the church protected the women and drove them home after the mass.
The Ladies in White, founded by the wives, daughters and mothers of political prisoners, was awarded the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2005. They wear white clothes and carry pink gladiolas during their marches.
Another 20 male dissidents were taken into custody and held in police lockups around eastern Cuba over the weekend, Ferrer added. Four were confirmed to have been freed as of noon Monday but there was no word on the fate of the others.
Sanchez added that police and state security agents also put between 100 and 150 dissidents under house arrest during the crackdown, but stressed that he was still receiving new reports of arrests and releases as of Monday evening.
A blog widely believed to be run by State Security agents, Yohandry's Blog, claimed that police were forced to drag away the Havana Ladies in White before civilians nearby could give them a "forceful reply" for "failing to respect the pain of the Cuban people" over the health of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
Chávez announced Saturday that he was returning to Cuba for a fourth round of surgery related to his fight with cancer. He arrived Monday.
The opposition group Express Art for Freedom, meanwhile, announced a contest, open to island residents only, for the best Tweet regarding International Human Rights Day. The winner, who will pick from among a computer, a camera or a cellular telephone, will be announced after Dec. 23.
And in Spain, two Cuban groups marched to the Cuban embassy in Madrid on Sunday to protest the detentions and demand the release of Sonia Garros and Calixto Ramon Martinez, dissidents who have been jailed on the island for several weeks.
Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia
Elizardo Sanchez Santacruz
Posted in Blog	| Tagged Dissidents, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights, Opposition, Politics	| 1 Comment
"Euphoria" in Cuba as Raúl Castro Loosens Travel Policy
Posted on October 18, 2012 by Arch Ritter
By Juan O. Tamayo, Miami Herald, October 17, 2012
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/17/v-fullstory/3054779/euphoria-in-cuba-as-raul-castro.html#storylink=cpy
The Cuban government's bombshell decision to drop the widely hated exit permits required for citizens travelling abroad has unleashed "euphoria" on the island as well as concerns abroad over a possible mass exodus.
A decree published Tuesday made it clear the communist government will continue to decide who can leave the island, as it has since Jan. 9, 1959. It repeatedly noted that any Cuban could be kept from travelling "when the proper authorities so decide."
"But there is an incredible euphoria here because what 1 million or more people here really want is to leave" for good or just to visit relatives or friends abroad, dissident economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe said from Havana.
University of Miami professor Jaime Suchlicki warned of a "legal Mariel." And a pro-Cuba activist urged Washington to avert a possibly massive increase in the number of Cubans arriving by ending its wet-foot, dry-foot policies and the Cuban Adjustment Act.
State Department spokesman William Ostick said Washington welcomed the changes because they favor human rights, but warned Cubans not to "risk their lives" crossing the Straits of Florida and noted that they still need visas to enter most nations.
"Now the question is where, where can we go to," said Katarina Ponce, a recently laid off government secretary, trying to figure out if any countries do not require Cubans to obtain visas in advance of their arrival. "Russia? Cambodia? Any place."
Havana blogger Yoani Sanchez, who has been denied exit permits more than 20 times, wrote on Tweeter that "The devil is in the details of the new migration law" and called the decree "gatopardista" — a situation where change is more apparent than real.
The new rules appear likely to allow more average Cubans — those without political or other issues pending with the government — to travel abroad more easily, stay out longer and return with fewer complications, costs and paperwork.
They also may help ease some of the social and financial pressures ballooning inside Cuba under Raúl Castro's decisions to reform the economy by laying off nearly 1 million state employees and cutting subsidies to the food, health and education sectors.
More than 1 million Cubans now live abroad, mostly in the United States, and about 7,400 islanders without visas arrived in the United States in the one-year period that ended Sept. 30. All Cubans who step on U.S. soil can stay permanently.
The decree noted that as of Jan. 14, Cubans will no longer need the exit permits, which cost $150 in a country where the average monthly wage stands at $20. They also will not need letters of invitation from their foreign hosts, which cost $200 to process.
The changes also extend from 11 to 24 months the amount of time that Cubans can spend abroad before they are ruled to have officially migrated and lose benefits such as health care. Further extensions are possible.
But the government retains final say on who gets passports because U.S. migration policies that favor Cuban migrants "take away from us the human resources that are indispensable to the economic, social and scientific development of the country," according to a report Tuesday in the Granma newspaper announcing the changes.
Supervisors must approve the issuance of passports to government and military officials, professionals, physicians and other medical personnel, top sports figures and others whose work is deemed "vital" to the state, according to the decree.
Passports also can be denied to any Cuban "when it is so determined by the appropriate authorities for other reasons of public interest," the decree added, or when "reasons of defense and national security suggest it."
"If that's the way it is, then I have to believe that the government will be as arbitrary as always," said Wilfredo Vallín, a Havana lawyer who heads the non-government Cuban Judicial Association.
Also barred from obtaining passports — whose price rose from about $60 to about $110 — are those who are subject to the military draft or have other unspecified "obligations" to the government.
"The government continues to regard migration not as a right of all Cubans but as a gift that it gives to people according to its own interests," said Juan Antonio Blanco, a Florida International University professor who has studied Cuba's migration regulations.
The decree also abolishes the reentry permit required for Cubans who live abroad and wish to visit the island, and extends the time they can visit from one month to at least three months per visit.
Not all will be welcomed back, however. Blocked are those who "organize, encourage or participate in hostile actions against the political, economic and social basis of the state," and any others "when reasons of defense and national security call for it."
Also on the don't-come list, according to the decree, are those with criminal records for terrorism, money laundering or weapons smuggling, and those "linked to acts against humanity, human dignity (or) the collective health."
"This continues the government effort to control the conduct of citizens inside and outside the island, through an opaque system that rewards and punishes at its own discretion," said Blanco, a former analyst for the Communist Party's Central Committee.
The migration reforms were the most anticipated of all the changes that Raúl Castro has been talking about and putting in place since he took over from older brother Fidel Castro, temporarily in 2006 and officially in 2008.
The exit permit was required in 1959 initially to block the escape of officials and supporters of the Batista government toppled by the Castro revolution just nine days before. The re-entry permit was required beginning in 1961, to try to control the return of radical Castro opponents.
But Raúl Castro told the nation's legislature last year that Cuban migration policies needed an update because those leaving the country nowadays are "émigrés for economic reasons" rather than hostile exiles.
Suchlicki, head of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies at UM, on Tuesday reissued a column he wrote on May 3 warning that Castro was planning a mass exodus to relieve pressures inside Cuba. The column was titled, "Is Cuba planning a legal Mariel?"
John McAuliff, a New York activist who has long opposed the U.S. embargo on the island, also predicted that with more Cubans free to travel abroad, more will wind up in Mexico and Canada and will step across the U.S. border.
The Obama administration should therefore immediately end the wet-foot, dry-foot policy and the Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows any Cuban who sets foot on U.S. territory to stay permanently, and to remain, McAuliff wrote in an email.
Mauricio Claver Carone, executive director of the pro-embargo U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee in Washington, remained skeptical.
When Cubans start jamming foreign diplomatic missions in Havana in search of visas and come up empty handed, he said, the Castro government will tell them, "Well as you can see, other countries also don't want you to travel."
Even more skeptical was Blanco. "When all this blows over, the Cubans and the media will realize that not much has changed in the tight control system," he said. "Stalin can continue to sleep in peace."
Posted in Blog	| Tagged Freedom of Movement, Human Rights	| Leave a comment
Blogger Yoani Sanchez filed the demand to know why she's banned from leaving Cuba.
Posted on June 1, 2012 by Arch Ritter
By Juan O. Tamayo; jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com May 30, 2012
Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez has filed a notice with the Interior Ministry demanding to know why she's not allowed to travel abroad, the latest in a string of daring legal challenges to the communist government.
Sánchez said the notice filed Wednesday asks Interior Minister Abelardo Colomé Ibarra to explain why the ministry office that is in charge of exit permits never answered her Nov. 18, 2010 request for the reasons behind the refusals.
Colomé Ibarra now has 60 days to respond to her complaint of "administrative silence," Sanchez said. If he doesn't, she will file a lawsuit against the minister seeking a court order that he must reply.
"Of course, I know what's going to happen. But I want to maintain that innocence of having hope," Sánchez added, referring to the high probability that her complaints will go nowhere in a country where the courts faithfully follow the government line.
Cubans who want to travel abroad require a government permit, known as a "White Card" and regularly denied to dissidents. It has turned down several Sánchez requests to travel abroad to receive prizes, attend conferences or for other reasons.
She has repeatedly asked for an explanation at the Interior Ministry's Office for Immigration and Foreigners' Affairs, but received none. Her notice Wednesday elevated her question to the minister's office.
"It's a step before a lawsuit," she told El Nuevo Herald by phone from Havana. "It is a legal, juridical opportunity in the hands of citizens, which allow an appeal against Cuban authorities when the authorities have not responded to a petition."
Her notice was the latest in a handful of bold attempts by dissidents and others to use Cuba's legal system to challenge official actions. The courts have knocked down almost all the cases, including some filed against police.
But the Cuban Juridical Association is still fighting a three-year-old case seeking the legal recognition of the Justice Ministry as a group of lawyers that provides legal advice on a nonprofit basis, usually to government critics.
CJA chief Wilfredo Vallín, who also is advising Sánchez on her case, took the first step required to register the group in April 2009 by asking the Justice Ministry's Registry of Associations to certify that no other group had registered the same name.
The registry never replied so the 1992 graduate of the University of Havana Law School elevated his request to Justice Minister María Esther Reus. When she didn't reply, he filed suit under Cuba's Law for Civil, Administrative and Labor Procedures.
To his surprise, a three-judge panel first officially accepted Vallín's complaint, and then ordered Reus to appoint lawyers to defend her. Cuba's highest court, the Supreme Tribunal found a technical fault with one of his filings last year but allowed the case to continue and later ordered the minister to reply to Vallín's initial request.
The Justice Ministry certified last June that no other group was registered with the same name or purpose as the CJA, but earlier this year it rejected the CJA's application for recognition on technical grounds. Vallín has vowed to appeal.
Ministry officials had never officially recognized any dissident group, making them illegal and therefore subject to sanctions for the crime of "illegal association."
Cuba's justice system argues that the role of the law is to promote stability and the development of a "socialist society." Dissidents put on trial are almost always convicted.
Lawyers are required to work for the government or government-approved Collective Law Offices, where criminal defense attorneys can be hired. But lawyers who spend too much time defending dissidents are sometimes fired from the law offices.
Arch Ritter, Yoani Sanchez and Reinaldo Escobar, Havana April 2012
Prison workers used in many Cuban government enterprises
By Juan O. Tamayo, Miami Herald, Posted on Mon, May. 21, 2012
Combinado del Este
The Cuban government-owned enterprise Provari is known on the island for making everything from bricks and construction blocks to mattresses, tourist handicrafts and the insecticide Lomaté — I Killed It.
What is less well known is that the vast majority of its workers are prison inmates — what dissidents denounce as "slave laborers" who work with few safety protections and receive meager wages or are not paid at all.
Prison labor in Cuba is extensive yet "like the dark side of the moon, not well known at all," said Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz, head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
A Provari business prospectus claimed it had 150 production facilities around the island in 2001. Sánchez said it operates in virtually all of the estimated 200 prisons and labor camps in Cuba.
Prison labor is common around the world. In the United States, prisoners make license plates, government furniture and much more. Florida state prisons require inmates to work unless they are exempt for medical or other reasons. Most earn nothing, and canteen workers, barbers and a few others get only $50 a month.
"There's no objection in principle to companies managing factories in prisons," said Andrew Coyle of the International Centre for Prison Studies in London. But inmates should have equal salaries and work conditions. "This should not be forced or slave labor."
But Cuba is a dictatorship, Sánchez argued, where the communist government can do anything and keep it secret. That includes exploiting inmate workers at will and punishing anyone who complains.
He added that he was specially concerned about the safety conditions in prison factories and singled out the Lomaté insecticide, manufactured in Havana's Combinado del Este and other prisons around the island.
Farm workers seldom get special clothing to protect them from chemicals, and cane cutters rarely get proper boots to protect their feet from their machetes, said Joel Brito, a former safety expert in the island's lone labor union, the Cuban Workers' Central.
The Interior Ministry (MININT) and Ministry of the Armed Forces, which own a large number of manufacturing and construction enterprises, do not report industrial accidents to the National Statistics Office, Brito noted.
"There are no protective measures because there's always a shortage of money. And if that's the case in the general economy, imagine what it's like for prisoners," added Brito, who now heads a Miami group that monitors labor abuses in Cuba.
Questions about prison labor in Cuba arose recently amid reports that the IKEA furniture chain and an East German firm had hired the Cuban state-owned company EMIAT to use prison labor to manufacture tables and sofas in 1987.
One Cuban business report says EMIAT imports supplies and commercializes products for government-owned companies, including Provari. EMIAT and Provari — Enterprise for Various Products — share a Havana address in some of the reports.
A man who answered the phone at Provari's Havana office, asked if the company uses prison labor, said, "Yes, the work is by prisoners." He also confirmed the firm is owned by MININT, which is in charge of prisons, but declined further comment.
A Cuban government radio report on Provari's work last summer said it was established 20 years earlier "principally with the objective of offering work to prisoners … and integrating them into work useful for society."
Many prisoners work for the chance at fresh air and perhaps better food, and to avoid having their records marked "refused to work," which would dash any hope for an early release, said Luis Enrique Ferrer, a dissident who spent eight years in prison.
Authorities allow only common criminals to work, fearing that political prisoners would publicize the work conditions, he added. Ferrer, who did not work in prison, was freed in 2010 and now lives in Miami.
But dissidents and independent journalists in touch with prisoners have published several reports over the years alleging problems at Provari's prison workshops.
Journalists Jorge Alberto Liriano Linares reported in 2010 that 16 inmates suffered serious accidents at a Provari factory for construction materials at the Kilo 8 prison in eastern Camaguey Province, where he served part of his own13-year sentence.
Inmates in "this killer factory" are forced to work without salary, clothes, shoes or gloves, he wrote for the news service Hablemos Press. They work 10 hours a day and handle toxic chemicals "and because of that they suffer respiratory and skin diseases."
Brito's International Group for Corporate Social Responsibility in Cuba reported in 2010 that a factory in Prison 1580 near Havana was forcing inmates to work up to 12 hours a day making construction blocks and seldom paying the promised $10 a month.
Its 2009 annual report included complaints that inmates at the Nieves Morejón prison in Sancti Spiritus were paid a mere $2 per month, and that prisoners in Boniato in eastern Cuba were paid $1 per month — plus a promised bonus that was never paid.
Dissident Felix Reyes reported last year that prisoners at the Canaleta prison in eastern Ciego de Avila had complained that the gloves bought for them by the Provari factory there "were rotted and were missing fingers."
Independent journalist Dania Virgen Garcia, who has written often about prison conditions, told El Nuevo Herald that she knew of prisoners who worked up to 16 hours a day, six days a week, and were paid nothing.
Sanchez and Ferrer said most of the overall prison labor in Cuba involves agricultural work like weeding fields, harvesting vegetables and picking fruit — some for sale, some for the prisons' own consumption.
Provari uses the prison labor more for manufacturing, said Sánchez and García. It also has subsidiaries that build roads and government buildings, although it is not clear if they use prison labor.
A report last year in the government's Guerrillero newspaper noted that the Provari branch in the western province of Pinar del Rio had the equivalent of $200,000 worth of sales in 2010, "mostly for products sold locally rather than export."
The branch's production included bleach and muriatic acid, beach chairs, cribs and playpens, clay and concrete construction blocks, paint and paint brushes, plastic tubes and ornamental plants, according to the report.
A large shop in a Havana women's prison sews jeans for export under several brand names, as well as uniforms for the police and the military, García said. Sánchez said the Boniato prison, where he spent time in the 1990s, makes metal chain link fencing.
Other Cuban news reports noted that a Provari unit in eastern Ciego de Avila made 20,000 plastic molds, and that the enterprise and the Ministry of Construction were to provide the materials for a 2010 campaign to step up home construction.
The company also manufactures the Lomaté insecticide as well as lice and tick killers "and other products "for sanitary hygiene," and was planning to build a 170-liter solar water heater, according to other media reports.
A business prospectus issued in 2001 listed some of Provari's activities as carpentry using precious woods as well as textiles sold under the OESTE and HERCULES brands and the upholstery of office furniture sold under the brand name of OFIMAX.
The prospectus also said the enterprise was ready to do business "with foreign and national companies," though the deal with IKEA appeared to have run into trouble.
The first sofas made for IKEA in 1988 reportedly had "quality problems," and it was not clear if any part of the deal was ever carried out.
Posted in Blog	| Tagged Human Rights, Labor Rights	| Leave a comment


text:
William Smith, conhecido como Strata Smith (Churchill,  Oxfordshire, 23 de março de 1769 — Northampton, Northamptonshire, 28 de agosto de 1839), foi um geólogo britânico. É considerado o "pai da geologia inglesa".

Seu trabalho mais conhecido é o "The Map That Changed the World", um mapa geólogico detalhado da Inglaterra, do País de Gales e de uma parte da Escócia. Este não recebeu inicialmente seu devido valor. Plagiado, foi arruinado financeiramente e passou muito tempo na prisão. A nova ciência da geologia e as realizações de Smith só foram reconhecidas no final da sua vida.

Recebeu a primeira Medalha Wollaston, em 1831, concedida pela Sociedade Geológica de Londres.

John L Morton, "Strata" (edição 2004), Horsham: Brocken Spectre Publishing. ISBN 0-9546829-1-2
Simon Winchester, "The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology", (2001), Nova Iorque: HarperCollins, ISBN 0-14-028039-1
John Phillips, "Memoirs of William Smith" (1844, republicado com adições de  Hugh Torrens, 2003 ISBN 0-9544941-0-5).

Ligações externas
 Biografia de  William "Strata" Smith.
 Imagem do mapa geológico de Smith da Inglaterra, País de Gales e parte da Escócia, publicado em  1815.

Medalha Wollaston
Pessoas da Revolução Industrial
Engenheiros de canais
Geólogos da Inglaterra
Geólogos do Reino Unido

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


It's a fact that not every marketer monitors their Google Ads the same way and it's understandable that everyone has a different success formula to skyrocket their clients' results. In this article, we are going to talk about our way of monitoring Google Ads and how we manage to keep performance top-level.
First things first, Google Data Studio is a way of visualising data from over 100 sources with the help of custom or ready-to-use shareable templates. As Google would say, it is a way to "tell a story with your data."
The beauty of this tool is that you can share these dashboards with your team or clients, which means that they can see real-time data and interact with them, something which is translated to transparency and full monitoring.
The first dashboard we are going to present is the Google Ads Overview Template which you can find in the Data Studio template gallery. The only thing you need to do is to connect your data source and start analysing your results.
Starting from the top left corner of the dashboard, you can see the average Click Through Rate, the number of Impressions, and the number of Clicks of your campaigns. This is more of a Delivery Status report that one should take into consideration before starting to analyse anything else. With the help of the graph, you can check if there was a significant change during the selected time period and identify trends or issues if there's a continuous drop in the results.
Moving right you can see more performance-related stats like Numbers of Conversions, Conversion Rate and Cost per Conversion. This is extremely important if you are working with specific goals and what matters to you most is Conversion flow.
In the top right corner, you can see results related to the actual spend of your campaigns, like the average Cost per Click, the amount you are spending, and how much it costs you for every 1,000 impressions you receive.
Moving forward, on the bottom left, you can see a breakdown of your campaigns on a customisable table. In the image above, we can see that CTR, Avg. CPC and Cost/Conversion are selected, but you can change these based on your campaign's objectives.
Finally, in the bottom right corner, there is a device breakdown to help you identify the best performing devices based on the metrics of your choice. If you are on PPC, I am sure you know the importance of device adjustments!
The previous template was a "plug-and-play" dashboard mostly for quick account overviews which you can use internally or send to your clients for transparency.
The template below is something we created and are using internally to monitor our clients' budgets and make sure that we're not overspending or underspending.
Insert some text boxes for your Start and End Date, as well for the agreed budget.
Insert a table with your campaign breakdown.
Insert a few scorecards to get Total Results.
Add the Date Range module.
For easier access, you can always bookmark your dashboards and organise them in a folder.
Starting with the first two columns, we just made use of some text boxes to type our Accounts' names and Monthly Budgets.
For the third column, we made use of Data Studio's Score Cards with the only difference in each column being the data source, highlighting the advantage of using different data sources in one reporting template.
Regarding the fourth column, we just wanted to monitor conversions as well, with the help of Score Cards. You can always scrap this column or use a metric that matters the most for your campaigns.
Finally, the last column is where the trick is. Data Studio cannot give you the Remaining Budget, so in that case you can make use of Custom Fields. All you need is to add a Score Card on your report, click to add metric and then scroll all the way down until you find "Create New Field" (image below).
This will give you a blank input box where you can type your equation. We used: Monthly Budget (type your actual budget) - Cost (existing metric).
We have seen that monitoring campaigns is not rocket science and can be a very easy process with the help of Data Studio. Whether you are looking for a performance report or budget monitoring for your team or clients, there is no need to look further.
If you found this post interesting, please leave your comment below and let us know what your best campaign monitoring practice is!


text:
Леон Долманс (,  6 квітня 1945, Уйкговен) — бельгійський футболіст, що грав на позиції захисника, зокрема за «Стандард» (Льєж), а також національну збірну Бельгії.

Клубна кар'єра
У дорослому футболі дебютував 1965 року виступами за команду «Маасмехелен», в якій провів два сезони, після чого протягом 1967—1970 років захищав кольори клубу «Ватерсхей Тор».

Грою за останню команду привернув увагу представників тренерського штабу «Стандарда» (Льєж), до складу якого приєднався 1970 року. Відіграв за команду з Льєжа п'ять сезонів своєї ігрової кар'єри, був основним гравцем її захисту. 1971 року виборов титул чемпіона Бельгії.

Завершував ігрову кар'єру у команді «Беринген», за яку виступав протягом 1975—1977 років.

Виступи за збірну
1971 року дебютував в офіційних матчах у складі національної збірної Бельгії.

У складі збірної був учасником домашнього для бельгійців чемпіонату Європи 1972 року, на якому команда здобула бронзові нагороди. Взяв участь в обох іграх своєї збіної на турнірі, що починався зі стадії півфіналів.

Загалом протягом кар'єри у національній команді, яка тривала 3 роки, провів у її формі 10 матчів, забивши 2 голи.

Титули і досягнення
 Чемпіон Бельгії (1):
«Стандард» (Льєж): 1970-1971

Посилання

бельгійські футболісти
Гравці збірної Бельгії з футболу
Гравці чемпіонату Європи з футболу 1972
Футболісти «Патро Ейсден Масмехелен»
Футболісти «Генка»
Футболісти «Стандарда» (Льєж)


During the last few years, we have been witnessing a tremendous shift in the ways brands interact with their customers. The top-down communication style they used to have in the past changed to a continuous dialogue with consumers. The modern concept of branding is more than ever intertwined with experience design.
In users' minds brand identity is inseparable from brand experience. Today brands represent complex systems with unique values and stories behind. The aura created around each of them consists of a very fluid substance that builds up the context and influences product and service design.
Companies seek the ways to create and maintain steady relationships with their brand fans and followers. This requires a strong focus on the consistency of context, impression, interaction and a future perspective. For experience design teams it means recognizing the impact of their work on the communication of a distinct brand identity and value across all interaction touch points. And here is where the role of UX/UI patterns cannot be underestimated.
No matter if obvious or subtle, we all encounter patterns every time we interact online. According to research, our brain is an excellent tool for recognizing and analyzing them, as it looks for relationships between values. Patterns magnify those relationships. Most of the design patterns change as technology advances, but the most common of them are massively used, serving not only as a reference point but also as a source of the reusable solutions that solve common design problems.
Today it is nearly impossible to create something totally original. At the same time, following the path of design mimicry is not the way out either. It is a no-brainer that users feel comfortable exploring the common patterns. They know what to expect and how they function, but it does not necessarily mean we should blindly copy them. Limiting oneself to available options and strictly following patterns may lead to a generic product design and lack of unique identity.
This is especially relevant for startups that are just beginning to build their brands. By taking inspirations from the existing patterns and using them as the foundation to create our own, we blend familiarity with creativity. Balancing these two is the key to distinctive designs and consistency in brand experience.
These tiny facilitators have a significant power to enhance the entire user experience and distinguish your brand. They add up to a smooth user journey through your design, making the interface lighter and more human, and at the same time accomplishing needed tasks and notifying users of the ongoing processes. If designed with one unifying theme all interactions can become a distinct part of your brand identity. However, keep in mind that these are the details that make users love or hate a website or an app. So, they rather need to be subtle, refined and approachable than overwhelming and annoying.
Animation can be used in various ways and for multiple purposes. It can have a purely decorative role or communicate functionality or be an additional tool for storytelling. When we think of animation we often imagine some extreme examples of its usage. However, good animation, just like a dessert, is great in moderation. When tastefully done, animated elements can totally transform the perception of a website or an app, adding a unique touch to the entire brand story. Perfectly placed animated elements are secret fine ingredients that actually bring the whole website or an app to life and contribute to the overall user experience.
Together with logo the combination of brand identity, elements like a unique font or a distinct color story or even a tone of voice, is everything that makes every brand seem as a coherent whole and reinforces it. However, it is important to use the elements of brand identity smartly. They should not dominate the design or confuse user's interactions. When used in a correct and balanced way, these elements create an efficient, strong and elegant user interface, that highlights the best parts and allows for additional levels of user engagement.
Buttons, links, checkboxes, charts, windows – these are some examples of UI controls. We use many more of them every day, without even noticing it. Giving some of them a little flair can help differentiate your design and make it stand out.
Balancing the weight of pattern elements and their arrangement gives a sense of design strength and transparency. Therefore, in our desire to reinvent patterns or add a unique brand touch, let's be mindful of visual clutter and user journey confusion. The interaction of visual elements, typography, colors as well as composition structure influences the way users perceive and interpret information. Creating something that looks and feels like a crazy design carousel will not add anything to a brand value. Only a headache and nausea to the users, that's for sure!
Designing for the sake of satisfying your designer ego is a waste of energy and time. I personally prefer the idea that any design can always be improved. Patterns, being a design foundation, always serve a particular purpose and can be applied in a certain context. So, when you think you have come up with a great concept that bends a common design pattern, put it in front of your users to see how else it could be improved.
With patterns, one can definitely build a functional product, but not necessarily a product which will be recognizable from thousands similar. The toughest work here is to combine and balance the creativity of your stylistic expression with the familiarity of a pattern, retaining your brand image and spirit. Nobody knows your brand better than you, so do not be afraid to think outside the patterns: analyze them, understand which solution they serve and which user context suits them most, and test your ideas. Working on details, combining design patterns and exploring new possibilities is the proven way to make a distinguishable product and a consistent brand experience.


text:
O Torneio de Amsterdã de 2004 foi a vigésima quarta edição do Torneio de Amsterdã, um torneio amistoso disputado por 4 times de diferentes países. O Ajax foi o campeão.

Classificação

Nota: Cada gol feito acrescenta 1 ponto na classificação.

Jogos

1º dia

2º dia

Ligações externas

2004
2004 no futebol

it:Torneo di Amsterdam#2004


text:
Feature: Tom Hanks for the LA Times
Written by staff on January 04
In the spring and summer of 1971, the American political landscape was on fire. In March, the Weather Underground set off a bomb in the United States Capitol. In April, half a million people marched on Washington to protest the Vietnam War. And in June, the Nixon administration battled with the New York Times and the Washington Post over the publication of the classified Pentagon Papers, which revealed years of deception at the highest levels of the government regarding the conduct of the war.
At the time, Tom Hanks wasn't particularly aware of all this. He was a 14-year-old kid from Oakland, finishing up his run at Bret Harte Junior High, and he had things other than politics on his mind.
"I didn't pay that much attention to what was going on," Hanks recalled on a recent afternoon in Santa Monica. "I paid attention to things that 14-year-olds pay attention to: the Oakland Raiders and the California Golden Seals hockey team and girls and stuff."
Cut to the winter of 2017, and the American political landscape is once again on fire. One of Hollywood's most universally beloved stars, Hanks is now 61, though he still has a boyish, excitable quality — amplified this afternoon by the double caffeine hit of a Diet Coke and a latte. And this time, he is very much engaged with what's going on.
In Steven Spielberg's new period drama, "The Post," which goes into wide release on Jan. 12, Hanks stars as the late Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, who, along with the paper's pioneering publisher, Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep), stepped in to publish the Pentagon Papers after the Nixon administration sued the New York Times to halt their publication.
With critics lauding Hanks' performance as the brash, charismatic Bradlee — who was portrayed earlier by Jason Robards in an Oscar-winning turn in 1976's "All the President's Men" — "The Post" has suddenly placed the actor not only in this year's awards-season conversation but in the thick of today's political debate. [More at Source]
Gallery Update Interviews Photoshoots
Photos: 29th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Opening Night
Feature: Tom Hanks for Empire UK

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Best English Medium And CBSE Board Schools in Anand Vihar Delhi
By Azim Uddin on May 10, 2011 0
The new metro terminal at Anand Vihar has been designed with a view to help decongest the load on the New Delhi, Delhi Railway Station and Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station. The terminal is modeled on the lines of the Vashi terminal at Navi Mumbai. Mount Carmel School one of the top most Christian educational institutes in the country is close to the metro station and is a significant landmark.
School is established in July, 1972 the school is registered to the Mount Carmel educational society and affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education. A popular English medium school, with branches across the country, the school emphasizes on the mental, physical, spiritual, and social excellence of the students. "One major difference between studying in a Christian institute", said a parent, was the amount of rigid discipline they adhere to.
She was happy she had put her daughter in a Christian school, because she was becoming troublesome with both parents not able to discipline her since she was born after a long time. Juhi had recently got admission into the Primary section after her sister was promoted into the Secondary school. The school also has a Nursery and Higher Secondary section. Known for its active social service wing it is called the Shiksha Kendra as Mount Carmel practically focuses on the overall development of the child's personality.
A number of students choose Mount Carmel, not only for its discipline but also for its choice of academic subjects offered in class XI which are: Science (Biology/ Biotechnology & Computer), Humanities and Commerce streams to its students. Parents keen to send their children abroad are happy that the kids have a choice of foreign languages right from French to Spanish to choose from.
The institute lays just as much stress on vocational education as it does on academics and manages to give each of the 2500 students on hand individual attention with the 150 staff on board. The school lays a lot of emphasis on sports just as one can see that the school consists of 2 basketball, two volley ball and two badminton courts, and six table tennis tables.
The school offers its Boarding facilities to students from out-of station or those from Delhi but whose parents are on transfers or short assignments. Springdale's School is another feather in the cap for Anand Niketan. Established in 1955, this coeducational school is affiliated to the CBSE and is well known for its spacious classrooms, computer based education with a resource centre attached to it, well-stocked libraries, open-air auditorium and a one of its kind teacher's Learning Centre.
The writer of this article is a school advisor in OnlineSchoolAdmissions and provides free of cost consultancy to parents and schools for fast and easy online school admissions. Parents can search for the best school in their near locations; they can also search Private cbse Board Schools In Anand Vihar, kids schools, Play Schools In Anand Vihar or Coeducational Schools In Anand Vihar for their kids admissions.
Azim Uddin has published 101 post. Article submitted on May 10, 2011 . Word count: 440
English Medium Schools In Anand Vihar Play Schools In Anand Vihar Coeducational Schools In Anand Vihar
Top And Best English Medium Schools In Palam Delhi
Delhi Jain Public School is located in Palam in Delhi. The school was established with a vision of providing quality education to its students.
Written by: Azim Uddin
Tune Your Kids Future With Best Schools in India
Every parent is concerned about the career of their child due to increasing competition. So come, and search online top schools and Tune Your Kids Future with Best Schools in India.
Written by: Dipika Pushkar
Choosing The Best School From The List of Schools in Abu Dhabi
It is a matter of great importance for every parent to give their children the advantage of a superior education. Every parent wants that their children can gain the best quality education while also growing and learning in a school environment which is most suitable to meet their requirements.
Written by: Bhuvnesh Lavania
Reasons Why Parents Should Consider IB Schools for Their Child
Some of the top schools in Delhi are now IB Schools. The IB schools in Delhi are gaining popularity. What is it about IB schools that parents and students love so much? An IB diploma can help your child in college admissions, increasing their chances of getting a scholarship.
Written by: Nina Sahni


text:
Q: R: How to recode multiple variables at once I have several variables in my dataset that need to be recoded in exactly the same way, and several other variables that need to be recoded in a different way. I tried writing a function to help me with this, but I'm having trouble.
library(dplyr)
recode_liberalSupport = function(arg1){
  arg1 = recode(arg1, "1=-1;2=1;else=NA")
  return(arg1)
}

liberals = c(df$var1, df$var4, df$var8)
for(i in unique(liberals)){
  paste(df$liberals[i] <- sapply(liberals, FUN = recode_liberalSupport))
}

R studio works on this for about 5 minutes then gives me this error message:
Error in `$<-.data.frame`(`*tmp*`, liberals, value = c(NA_real_, NA_real_,  :
  replacement has 9 rows, data has 64600
In addition: Warning messages:
1: Unknown or uninitialised column: 'liberals'.
2: In df$liberals[i] <- sapply(liberals, FUN = recode_liberalSupport) :
  number of items to replace is not a multiple of replacement length

Any help would be really appreciated! Thank you

A: This is neater I think with dplyr. Using recode correctly is a good idea. mutate_all() can be used to operate on the whole dataframe, mutate_at() on just selected variables. There are lots of ways to specify variables in dplyr.
mydata <- data.frame(arg1=c(1,2,4,5),arg2=c(1,1,2,0),arg3=c(1,1,1,1))

mydata

  arg1 arg2 arg3
1    1    1    1
2    2    1    1
3    4    2    1
4    5    0    1

mydata <- mydata %>%
     mutate_at(c("arg1","arg2"), funs(recode(., `1`=-1, `2`=1, .default = NaN)))

mydata

  arg1 arg2 arg3
1   -1   -1    1
2    1   -1    1
3  NaN    1    1
4  NaN  NaN    1

I use NaN instead of NA as it is numeric is be simpler to manage within a column of other numbers.

A: As always there are many ways of doing this. I don't know dplyr well enough to use that function, but this seems to be what you are looking for.
mydata <- data.frame(arg1=c(1,2,4,5),arg2=c(1,1,2,0))
mydata
  arg1 arg2
1    1    1
2    2    1
3    4    2
4    5    0

Function to recode using a nested ifelse()
recode_liberalSupport <- function(var = "arg1", data=mydata) {
+   recoded <- ifelse(mydata[[var]] == 1, -1,
+                           ifelse(mydata[[var]] == 2, 1, NA))
+   return(recoded)
+ }

Call the function
recode_liberalSupport(var = "arg1")
[1] -1  1 NA NA

Replace the variable arg1 with recoded values.
mydata$arg1 <- recode_liberalSupport(var = "arg1")
mydata
  arg1 arg2
1   -1    1
2    1    1
3   NA    2
4   NA    0

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Social Democratic Party leader Takako Doi apologized Monday to the families of the people kidnapped to North Korea, admitting that the party, despite its long-standing ties with the Korean Workers' Party, failed to sufficiently pursue the abduction issue.
The SDP and its predecessor, the Social Democratic Party of Japan, have had a history of friendly relations with the Korean Workers' Party, the governing party of North Korea.
Since 1963, party delegates have visited Pyongyang more than a dozen times. Doi herself headed a delegation in October 1990.
Doi emphasized that the party brought up the kidnapping issue with its contacts in the Workers' Party. But the North Koreans repeatedly denied any acts of abduction and told her lies all along, she said.
She said the party would review its policy toward North Korea in light of the revelations.
The party has been widely criticized for maintaining a thesis that appeared in its July 1997 party bulletin, in which the author described the kidnapping issue as a "fiction devised by the South Korean intelligence." The thesis was still on the party's official home page even after North Korea admitted to the kidnappings during the summit with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Sept. 17.
The party removed the thesis from the Web site last Friday.
Earlier Monday, SDP member Yoko Tajima, a member of the House of Councilors, said she would leave the party due to discontent with its "slow reaction" to the abduction issue.
The party has not yet accepted her resignation.
Tajima, 61, said she would remain in the Diet as an independent, but pundits say she should give up her seat because she was elected in 2001 on the SDP's proportional representation ticket.
Doi urged Tajima to resign from the Diet if she decides to leave the party.
Tajima, a former women's studies professor at Hosei University, was elected in the 2001 Upper House election with roughly 500,000 votes.
Cho Se Hyung, the South Korean ambassador to Japan, said Monday steadfast negotiations between Tokyo and Pyongyang will lead to the resolution of ongoing problems between the two countries, including the abduction issue.
"From the South Korean government's experience of promoting its sunshine policy (of engagement with North Korea) . . . I think perseverance is necessary to hold dialogue with North Korea," Cho said during a speech at a Tokyo hotel.
Normalization talks between Japan and North Korea are slated to resume later this month.
Referring to the revelation that North Korea abducted 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s, Cho said he hopes for a "sincere resolution" from North Korea. Pyongyang told Tokyo eight of the 13 are dead and five are still alive.
North Korea admitted to the abductions during a landmark summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Pyongyang on Sept. 17.
Cho, a former journalist and lawmaker, had high marks for Koizumi's visit to Pyongyang, saying it was significant and epoch-making for creating momentum toward peace and stability in northeastern Asia.
Turning to internal economic changes and reforms seen in North Korea, Cho said he believes North Korea has moved too far forward to back out, as it faces economic difficulties.
"I think North Korea is not conducting changes as a joke but is being serious," he said.
Cho said that although he believes North Korea is moving in a direction of change as a whole, there is still a need for close monitoring.


text:
Q: Detect if the caret is at the end of a line in insert mode I made this pull request on the vim-markdown plugin by Tim Pope. Everything works except that
there is one bug, and one missing feature. This question is about the bug.
But first let me describe briefly the pull request:

*

*It implements auto-lists

*When a user is in a markdown list, presses <CR>, depending on where the caret is on the line, a
new list item might be added (or the line will be split if the caret is in the middle of a line)

The problem is that I can't manage to detect when the caret is at the end of the line. The closest I
could get was to add a new list item if the caret is on one of the last two characters. The problem
is that whatever I do, the when the caret is before or after the last character in insert mode, it
goes ON the last character in normal mode, so I can't manage to detect if the caret is before or
after the last character in insert mode.
I tried using different combinations of col('.'), col('$') and len(getline('.')) among other
things, but everything I tried produced the same results: I can't differentiate the before and after
positions of the caret when on the last character in insert mode.
So how can check if the caret is AFTER the last character of a line in insert mode please?

A: If you exit insert mode with <Esc>, the cursor always moves left (unless at column 1), so that should be the only condition necessary. I use this function:
function! IsCursorAtEndOfNonEmptyLine()
    return col('.') == col('$') && col('.') != 1
endfunction

from a mapping like this:
inoremap <silent> <F9>   <C-\><C-O>:call Foo()<CR>

A: function! IsCursorAtEndOfLine()
  if(col('$') ==# 1)
    return 1
  else
    return (col('$') - col('.')) ==# 1
  endif
endfunction


text:
Q: \bar in $\widehat{f_{\bar{K}}}$ when using mathabx and amsart Consider the following piece of code:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathabx}
\begin{document}
$\widehat{f_{\overline{K}}}$
$\widehat{f_{\bar{K}}}$
\end{document}

This outputs the following image:

On the other hand, if I use:
\documentclass{amsart}
\usepackage{mathabx}
\begin{document}
$\widehat{f_{\overline{K}}}$
$\widehat{f_{\bar{K}}}$
\end{document}

This outputs the following image:

I was wondering what accounts for the strange looking widehat of f_{\bar{K}} when using amsart+mathabx? Why is the use of overline not affected? These issues do not occur if one is not using the mathabx package, regardless of whether one is using the article or amsart document class.

A: The difference is in the fact that amsart loads amsmath and your first example would fail in the same way if you add \usepackage{amsmath}.
The issue is the same as in Why do arguments to nested \tilde or \breve commands reappear when amsmath is used? you don't get "reappearing" accents just because you have only one nested accent.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{mathabx}

\newsavebox{\accentbox}
\newcommand{\compositeaccents}[2]{%
  \sbox\accentbox{$#2$}#1{\usebox\accentbox}}

\begin{document}

$\widehat{f_{\overline{K}}}$
$\compositeaccents{\widehat}{f_{\bar{K}}}$

\end{document}

You don't need \compositeaccents in the first case, because \overline is not an accent.


text:
Události
 7. srpen – po vpádu francouzských jednotek do Picardie došlo k bitvě mezi francouzským králem Ludvíkem XI. a Burgundskem, vedeným Maxmiliánem I.
 1. červen – dánský král Kristián I. založil univerzitu v Kodani
 21. červenec – byla uzavřena Olomoucká smlouva mezi Vladislavem Jagellonským a Matyášem Korvínem
13. října – Bitva na Chlebovém poli
 První písemné zmínky a zřejmé založení obce Jiřice u Lysé nad Labem
Půta Švihovský z Rýzmberka, český šlechtic, se stal nejvyšším zemským sudím Českého království

Probíhající události
 1455–1487 – Války růží

Narození
 10. března – Hippolit Estei, italský kardinál a arcibiskup ostřihomský a milánský († 3. září 1520)
12. března – Julián Medicejský, vévoda z Nemours, vládce Florentské republiky († 17. března 1516)
25. března – Vasilij III., velkokníže moskevský († 3. prosince 1533)
3. května – Jindřich V. Meklenburský, meklenburský vévoda († 6. února 1552)
15. června – Lisa del Giocondo, italská šlechtična a údajný vzor pro obraz Mony Lisy († 15. července 1542)
14. srpna – Kateřina z Yorku, dcera anglického krále Eduarda IV. († 15. listopadu 1527)
 6. listopadu – Jana I. Kastilská, kastilská královna († 12. dubna 1555)
 5. prosince – Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, krymská princezna, manželka osmanského sultána Selima I. a matka sultána Sulejmana I. († 19. března 1534)
? – Jakub z Braganzy, portugalský šlechtic, vévoda z Bragnzy a Guimarães († 20. září 1532)

Úmrtí
 20. ledna – Jan II. Aragonský, král navarrský, aragonský, valencijský, sicilský a hrabě barcelonský (* 1397/98)
 12. února – Eleonora Navarrská, hraběnka z Foix a navarrská královna (* 2. února 1426)
 11. června – Svatý Jan González de Castrillo, kněz augustiniánského řádu (* 1430)
 30. září – Markéta Savojská, královna neapolská, manželka Ludvíka III. z Anjou, rýnská falckraběnka (* 1420)
14. října – Markéta Bavorská, bavorská princezna a markýza z Mantovy (* 1. ledna 1442)
? – Antonello da Messina, italský malíř rané renesance (* okolo 1430)
? – Jorge Manrique, španělský básník (* asi 1440)

Hlavy států
 České království – Vladislav Jagellonský – Matyáš Korvín
 Svatá říše římská – Fridrich III.
 Papež – Sixtus IV.
 Anglické království – Eduard IV.
 Dánsko – Kristián I. Dánský
 Francouzské království – Ludvík XI.
 Polské království – Kazimír IV. Jagellonský
 Uherské království – Matyáš Korvín
 Litevské velkoknížectví – Kazimír IV. Jagellonský
 Norsko – Kristián I. Dánský
 Portugalsko – Alfons V.
 Švédsko – regent Sten Sture
 Rusko – Ivan III. Vasiljevič
 Kastilie – Isabela Kastilská
 Aragonské království – Ferdinand II. Aragonský

Externí odkazy

15. století


text:
Les Avellanes i Santa Linya is een gemeente in de Spaanse provincie Lerida in de regio Catalonië met een oppervlakte van 104 km². In 2007 telde Les Avellanes i Santa Linya 473 inwoners.

Avellanes i Santa Linya


text:
EXPLOSION, CORRUPTION AND OTHER STORIES
PRESIDENT AQUINO has signed Republic Act 10586 or the "Anti-Drunk and Drugged Driving Act of 2013." According to the new law, signs of drunk or drugged driving include "overspeeding, weaving, lane straddling, sudden stops, and swerving" – collectively categorized as "Things we normally see everyday."
Republic Act 10586 shall allow cops to conduct sobriety tests on suspected drunk drivers. If a driver passes the test, he is allowed to conduct a sobriety test on the cop.
President Aquino approved the "Anti-Drunk and Drugged Driving Act of 2013." The law was principally authored at the Lower House by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and son Dato – Or as the President would say, "I wasn't aware of that."
A miffed President Aquino was forced to call MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino on Friday when he got stuck in traffic and arrived late in Taguig City for a speaking engagement. The President complained, "I did not expect it's traffic everywhere." And Dan Brown was like, "Told yah!"
Some sad news. A huge explosion ripped through the upscale Two Serendra condominium at Bonifacio Global City Friday night. People were shocked to hear about the explosion and were even more shocked to see the President of the Republic of the Philippines himself at the explosion site shortly after the incident.
At press time, the cause of the explosion has not been determined but the President is not ruling out the involvement of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
President Aquino has signed a law designating December of every year as 'Anti-Corruption Month." Corrupt people in government thanked the President for the remaining 11 months.
If the President is serious on weeding out the corrupt in government, every month should be an "Anti-Corruption Month."
Binay and Trapo
Vice President Binay was quoted to have said that he wanted the Philippines to break free from traditional politics. The 'Philippines' replied, "You first!"
Economic Boom
The government reported an impressive economic growth of 7.8 percent in the first quarter of the year. Malacañang says "growth was felt in almost all sectors." But not by the people (sector).
The Villafuertes
Defeated gubernatorial candidate and outgoing Camarines Sur Representative Luis Villafuerte Sr, 77 is filing an electoral protest against his 24-year-old grandson, incoming Cam Sur governor Migz Villafuerte. Villafuerte accuses his apo of "disputing, controverting and impugning the results of the elections." Migz told his lolo, "You taught me well."
Official records show 52 of 56 incumbent party-list representatives are multi-millionaires. There is no god.
Lozada
NBN-ZTE witness Jun Lozada who, himself, faces graft charges before the Ombudsman says he has lost faith in the administration's "daang matuwid." Sought for reaction, the "daang matuwid," replied, "the feeling is mutual."
Missed Universe Crown
Miss Universe Canada declared a losing candidate as winner only to withdraw it later. Aga Muhlach remains hopeful.
It was an epic failure for Miss Universe Canada. On pageant night, the eventual fourth place finisher was declared winner due to a typo. She was later stripped of the title. But the embarrassed candidate says she won't file a protest because she has accepted it, she has moved on, and she's not a Filipino politician.
Riza Santos, the former PBB housemate who was crowned Miss Universe Canada was a former Miss Earth Canada and a former Miss World Canada. She lost in the Miss Earth contest and she also lost in the Miss World competition. Riza Santos is the Richard Gomez of beauty pageants.
Vice Ganda (Jose Marie Viceral in real life) has made a public apology. One thing is certain though, netizens are still divided on the issue. Some are sympathetic to Vice Ganda while others are sympathetic to the weighing scale. (Disclaimer: This is a joke.)
James and Bimby
The Makati Regional Trial Court grants James Yap the right to visit his son James Yap Jr. But the judge says James cannot see his ex-wife Kris Aquino – to which the basketeer reacted, "Thank God!"
Like fellow judge Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj are leaving American Idol. The viewers too.
"Beauty is about being comfortable in your own skin. It's about knowing and accepting who you are."
~Ellen DeGeneres
"I have come to accept the real me. I have come to love the real me. I now celebrate the real me."
~Singing sensation Charice on "coming out"
Have a safe and fun-filled weekend!
Author professionalhecklerPosted on AMpSat, 01 Jun 2013 10:23:19 +080023Saturday 18, 2007 Tags anti-corruption month, anti-drunk and drugged act of 2013, gdp growth 7.8 percent, james yap and kris aquino, luis villafuerte vs migz villafuerte, philippine politics, political humor, professional heckler, riza santos miss universe canada, two serendra explosion, vice ganda and jessica soho
5 thoughts on "EXPLOSION, CORRUPTION AND OTHER STORIES"
Machong Tsismoso says:
PMpSat, 01 Jun 2013 15:46:41 +080046Saturday 18, 2007 at 7:02 p06
jessica vs. vice https://twitter.com/mishmashes/status/340488701937324033
Libertas says:
Pnoy rang tolentino when he got stuck in traffic
'What traffic?' – said tolentino who happened to be in singapore, again!
Seriously, the guy is never in manila, but still managed to increase his SALN worth by 20 million pesos last year. Incredible.
" i see no ships" lord nelson
Kris aquino wants bimby to follow her into showbiz – and into the psychiatric hospital.
It takes a very disturbed/damaged person to try so hard to separate father and son.
She is even arranging for him to star in a film this year – anything, but sport, basketball, or normal boys activities. Incredible.
"The 'Queen' is controlling, the 'Witch' is sadistic, and the child is helpless.
Such mothers are high functioning and high maintenance, and feel no remorse for nightmarish acts, showing more interest in their own well-being than any concern over the way they hurt others.
The triggers include jealousy, criticism, betrayal, abandonment, feeling left out, and most of all being ignored."
Dr. Christine lawson – The Borderline Mother
Like fellow judge Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj are leaving American Idol. The viewers too. – ay ako last year pa, hahaha!
PMpSun, 02 Jun 2013 13:58:36 +080058Sunday 18, 2007 at 7:02 p06
A group of taiwanese coast guards were seen laughing outside two serendra and saying 'it's more fun in the philippines'
exempted si executive sec ochoa and sen chiz sa bagong batas?
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