As rail prices continue to rise while service seems to stagnate or even get worse, there's never been a more appropriate time to brush up on your rights as a rail passenger – if you've experienced delays or cancellations you may be due compensation.
When you're travelling wholly within the UK, the National Rail Conditions of Carriage set out your rights for when you travel.
If a train is delayed by more than an hour, or cancelled completely, and you decide you no longer wish to travel, you can claim a full refund of your ticket. You can also get a refund if you decide yourself that you no longer wish to travel, but this may incur a £10 admin fee deduction.
The only exception to this is when you've bought a certain ticket type, such as an Advance fare – the trade-off for a cheaper rate means that it is non-refundable.
Under the Delay Repay scheme, which has been adopted by most rail organisations in the UK (and must be adopted by any new franchises), you're entitled to claim compensation if your train is delayed by at least 30 minutes and you still decide to travel.
Season tickets can also benefit from compensation, either as direct refunds or as part of a larger renewal discount if the rail company consistently underperforms and therefore misses their targets.
You're also entitled to recompense if you suffer long train delays while travelling in the EU. Your rights in this instance are protected by Regulation 1371/2007.
Beyond delays, the regulation ensures that you won't pay more for a train ticket as a foreign national – you're entitled to travel at the same cost as residents. Another more basic right as dictated by the regulation is that, if you do suffer a delay or cancellation, you're entitled by law to adequate information about what is causing it and what your options are.
If you suffer a cancellation or a delay of over one hour, you are entitled to a full refund if you decide not to travel. If you're changing train half way through a journey and a delay or cancellation makes your trip redundant, you could also be entitled to a free return ticket to your original departure station.
If you decide to continue your journey, you're entitled to alternative transport if the rail service is suspended. If problems mean that you're delayed for a significant amount of time you will also be provided with meals and, if necessary, accommodation for overnight delays.
You won't be entitled to compensation if you're already aware of the delay when you buy your ticket.
Following a super complaint lodged at the end of 2015, more efforts are being put into helping customers understand their rail rights both in the UK and throughout the EU. Make sure you remember what you're entitled to – and don't be afraid to complain if your rights are being ignored!


This month, our Feature Articles are looking at the theme of "Our Furry Friends: Animals and Spirituality." Our panel of contributors, which includes some of today's leading experts in the field of Animal Communication, offer us very personal and touching stories, exploring everything from talking with animals and the wisdom and lessons learned from them, to grieving the loss of an animal and understanding the profound interconnectedness of all living creatures in our universe.
May your life be filled with the love and friendship of many animals!
"The Edges of Things: Animals as Teachers and Healers"
"Animal Communication - The Telepathic Connection"
by Eryk Hanut, a writer and photographer. His latest books are "The Road to Guadalupe" and the recently published, "The Blessings of Guadalupe." He is currently working on his memoir, "Jazz Mediteranee," to be published by Tarcher-Putnam in 2003. He lives in Nevada and New York with his husband, Andrew Harvey, his two cats, Puli and Princey, and his rabbit, Snow. His website is www.erykhanut.com.
"Recalling the Song: How Communicating with Animals will Change Our World:"
"Blessing the Bridge: What Animals Teach Us About Death, Dying, and Beyond"
"What Animals Teach Me About Forgiveness"
by Deborah Straw, a writer and teacher who lives in Burlington, Vermont, with her husband, a dog and two cats. Her first book, Natural Wonders of the Florida Keys, was published in August 1999 by Country Roads Press/NTC Contemporary Publishing. Her second, Why is Cancer Killing Our Pets? How You Can Protect and Treat Your Animal Companion, has just been published by Healing Arts Press (Inner Traditions International).
by Tera Thomas, who has been working professionally as an Animal Communicator since 1996. She is Founder and President of Hummingbird Farm, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to deepening the understanding, respect, communication, and relationship between all living beings and the natural world around us. Tera is also the author of "Opening My Wings to Fly: What Animals Have Taught Me." Her website is www.hummingbirdfarm.org.
"The Ancient Bond Between Animals and Humans"


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If you've ever wanted to see a sports show that was more show than sport, you should probably check out the Harlem Globetrotters. The Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that keeps your eyes glued to the court, both out of excitement for the game and awe for their moves. They combine neat tricks and theater into their plays, finding a perfect combination between the track and theater. The Harlem Globetrotters play in many cities across the US, and as such, have a bit of a following where ever they go.
Fans of the Harlem Globetrotters can likely find a seat in the stands in 2019 because they have plenty of dates. Most of these games are held in the same city or state several times before they move on to the next location, starting on January 12th in North Charleston. Places you can see them include Columbus, Memphis, Fresno, Murray, Ada, Omaha, Albany, and Moline. You can even see them in select areas in England and Spain. The last date for the year is on May 19th in Bandalona.
Harlem Globetrotters Background
The Harlem Globetrotters basketball team was founded in 1926 by Abe Saperstein. The team slowly transitioned into adding more and more trick shots and other neat stunts into their routines, until they were known more for their style than their sports. There are currently 52 players on the team from all around the US. The Globetrotters have inspired many movies and series from their team, including Go, Man, Go! and The Super Globetrotters.
Harlem Globetrotters in Pop Culture
With the Globetrotters long presence in the world of basketball theatrics, they've made a name for themselves and have managed to appear in a variety of pop culture projects. They've appeared in TV shows like Kickin' It, American Ninja Warrior, I Can Do That, Dog With A Blog, and The Goldbergs.
Feuerwerk der Turnkunst - Hard Beat
05 January 2021 (Tuesday) 19:00
Ozzy Osbourne & Judas Priest
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The Difference Between Latex & Memory Foam Mattresses – Which Is Right For You?
You're looking to buy a mattress. You start with the traditional considerations: size, budget and general comfort. But then you remember hearing about memory foam, so you decide to do some research to figure out how much you can really believe in the hype. In your research, you stumble onto latex mattresses, and now you're back at square one with more to consider than ever before. Today we're taking a closer look at the difference between latex and memory foam mattresses in several key categories. Get the best information before you buy!
Memory foam is a synthetic material that was first developed by NASA. It has since made a significant splash in the mattress market for its spongey, cloudlike comfort. Latex can either be natural or synthetic, created from rubber. When it comes to mattresses, both provide superior comfort when compared to traditional innerspring mattresses.
Other than that, a key difference between latex and memory foam mattresses is their health appeal. Premium, natural latex is hypoallergenic, resistant to mold and mildew, and unlike synthetic memory foam, has no noxious off-gassing.
When it comes to the actual price of the mattress, there are several factors to consider. Many shoppers who are excited to try memory foam or latex can be quickly disheartened when they see the price tag. Keep in mind, of course, that a higher price doesn't guarantee a better mattress. With all of the online retail options, more consumers are choosing to buy factory-direct bedding and furniture rather than dealing with the hassles of brick and mortar retail store. This can save you time, energy, and money by cutting out the middle man.
Comfort is of course subjective and specific to your sleep needs. However, generally speaking, we can think of comfort as softness and pressure relief. Support is typically firmer. Certain areas of the body, such as your joints, will require pressure relief while other areas, such as the lower back, need proper support.
Typically, memory foam mattresses offer great comfort and pressure relief, while latex offers comfort with superior support. Memory foam will be somewhat softer, and latex will be somewhat firm.
High levels of comfort can come at a cost, however. Memory foam is temperature sensitive. It expands as it heats up, and after many nights of absorbing your body heat, this expansion can lead to breakdown in the foam. While some latex mattresses may sag over time or become indented, they are typically more durable. However, when compared to traditional innerspring mattresses, both memory foam and latex mattresses can offer a similar to greater level of durability.
Let's talk more about sleep temperature. As mentioned above, memory foam is known to absorb body heat, which can lead to a sweaty night's sleep. The initial comfort of the mattress can quickly vanish as you find yourself sinking into your bed like a damp pit of quicksand. Fortunately, you have options to help keep you cool with memory foam. Consider a cool-gel infused memory foam mattress for instance, or even a cool gel mattress pad. Latex mattresses are typically better at keeping you cool, because the open cell structure of the material allows for superior breathability.
We've addressed issues of durability with our quality craftmanship and our high resilient support base.
To solve the issue of body heat absorption, we infused our memory foam comfort layer with cooling gel to keep you comfortable all night long.
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Tag Archives: UdC
Catalonia, Catalunya, Spain
Catalan election results: pro-independence parties win narrow majority
September 27, 2015 Kevin Lees	Leave a comment
Regional president Artur Mas declares victory in Sunday's Catalan elections.(Reuters/Sergio Pérez)
There's no doubt that the pro-independence Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes) coalition won a resounding victory in Sunday's regional elections in Catalonia. With nearly 40% of the vote, it is by far the largest force in Catalonia's regional government and with the support of the ardently pro-independence, hard-left Candidatura d'Unitat Popular (CUP, Popular Unity Candidacy), it is likely to form a government that will carry forward the cause of Catalan independence over the next 18 months.
For the first time in Catalan history, an explicitly pro-independence coalition, running expressly on the campaign pledge to enact an 18-month process toward declaring independence, will control the Generalitat, the Catalan government.
But that's essentially where the good news ends for Catalonia's independence movement, which now faces the real prospect of hubris and overreach in the days and weeks ahead.
A democratic deficit
The first difficulty is that, though pro-independence parties now control the Catalan parliament, those parties did not, as a technical matter, win a majority of votes in the election. Pro-independence parties together won around 47.9% of the vote, just shy of an outright majority, depriving the pro-independence camp of an important moral victory in its quest. It's difficult to claim that your movement commands democratic support when a majority of voters, in an election with nearly 77.5% turnout, supported anti-independence parties.
It's hard to compare the 2015 result against the 2012 result because that's something of an apples-to-oranges comparison. But in the broadest sense, the parties supporting independence (or at least sympathetic to the cause of Catalan nationalism) won 74 seats in the Catalan parliament. That's actually two more seats than the pro-independence parties won in the 2015 vote.
Continue reading Catalan election results: pro-independence parties win narrow majority →
artur mascataloniacatalunyaCDCCiUciudadanosCSQEPCUPdemocratic convergenceERCindependence referendumjunquerasjunts pel sipodemosPPCPSCrajoyrepublican left of catalunyaromevaUdCunio
What's at stake in this weekend's Catalan regional elections
If September 2014 was the month when Scottish independence made global headlines, it might be September 2015 when Catalan independence has its breakthrough — at least if regional president Artur Mas has his way.
Barely 10 months after Catalonia's regional government held a non-binding referendum on independence, and just three months before the Spanish general election, Catalan voters will elect a new regional parliament in a campaign that Mas has been waging for months as a de facto referendum on the region's future status within — or outside of — Spain.
Mas, the presidential candidate of the cross-ideological Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes) coalition, argues that a victory for the pro-independence forces will give him the leverage he needs to demand negotiations with Spain's central government. Spain's conservative prime minister Mariano Rajoy, however, has steadfastly refused to discuss autonomy with Mas, let alone an independence referendum. Rajoy contends that any independence process is illegal, and Spain's constitutional court ruled that last year's November referendum was illegal. Though Mas backed down and canceled the vote, he nevertheless provoked Madrid by holding a non-binding plebiscite to flex the muscles of the Catalan independence movement. In turn, Rajoy's refusal to discuss the matter or even permit an in-out referendum has alienated Catalan voters who might not otherwise be enthusiastic about independence.
RELATED: Can Felipe VI do for federalism
what Juan Carlos did for democracy?
At face value, Catalans are merely going to the polls on September 27 to elect the 135 members of the regional parliament. But after the Greek eurozone showdown earlier the summer threatened the eurozone's stability and split Europe's north and south, and even as the ongoing refugee crisis is threatening the integrity of the borders-free Schengen zone, splitting Europe's west and east, the cause of Catalan independence could become the European Union's next fashionable crisis.
Mas promises that if the Catalan electorate gives Junts pel Sí a majority in the Catalan parliament, however narrow, it will be sufficient to launch an 18-month process that will result in the region's independence and promulgate a new Catalan constitution.
So what exactly is happening in Catalonia? And what should we expect the day after regional elections? Continue reading What's at stake in this weekend's Catalan regional elections →
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Botswana's Khama, newly reelected, faces showdown over succession
October 31, 2014 Kevin Lees	Leave a comment
In Botswana, diamonds may not be forever, but its newly reelected president Ian Khama may hope that the Khama family is nonetheless forever– and he is facing severe parliamentary and judicial pushback.
Fresh off an election campaign that was fiercely contested, at least by the standards of south-central Africa, Khama is already making waves by attempting to install his brother Tshekedi Khama as vice president, clearing the way for him to win the presidency in 2018, when the term-limited incumbent will not be able to run.
Khama's Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), has controlled the country since its independence in 1966, and his father, Seretse Khama, founded the BDP in 1961 and served as Botswana's first president until his death in 1980. Khama, who served as vice president between 1998 and 2008, when former president Festus Mogae stepped down, comes from a powerful royal family among the Twsana ethnic group, to which 80% of Botswana's population belongs.
By just about every standard, Botswana — a country of just over 2 million people — is one of sub-Saharan Africa's success stories. It's a country where elections are generally free and fair, and where good governance is a reality, not just an aspiration.
The BDP, for the first time since independence, won less than 50% of the vote, for example, in the most recent October 24 general election, though it continues to hold a governing majority in the 63-member National Assembly:
The BDP won 37 seats, on the basis of 46.5% of the vote, boosted mainly by its longtime supporters across rural Botswana. Its chief opposition, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), a coalition of different parties united under the leadership of human rights attorney Duma Boko, won 17 seats on the strength of 30.0% of the vote, chiefly from disenchanted urban voters in the capital city of Gaborone. A third party, the social democratic Botswana Congress Party (BCP), won another 20.4% of the vote and three seats.
But the election may pale in comparison with the fight that now appears underway between Khama and Botswana's parliament, including many members of Khama's own governing party, which is divided into a Khama-led faction and a more independent faction pushing for greater constitutional reforms. Continue reading Botswana's Khama, newly reelected, faces showdown over succession →
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What the Alfano-Berlusconi split means for Italian politics
November 18, 2013 Kevin Lees	6 Comments
Et tu, Angelino?
In a stunning weekend move, deputy prime minister Angelino Alfano, the longtime political heir of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, refused to join Berlusconi's newly rechristened Forza Italia political group. Instead, Alfano will form his own center-right faction, the Nuovo Centrodestra (or the 'New Center-Right'). Alfano, who also serves as the interior minister in the 'grand coalition' government headed by center-left prime minister Enrico Letta, disagreed with Berlusconi's attempt in late September to bring down Letta's government in order to make way for early elections — ultimately, even Berlusconi backed down when it came time to hold a vote of no confidence.
The timing of the split comes at a critical point for Berlusconi (pictured above, right, with Alfano) and the Italian center-right. Berlusconi faces expulsion from the Senato (Senate), Italy's upper parliamentary chamber, in a vote scheduled to take place on November 27 — a direct result of a final conviction against Berlusconi for tax evasion in relation to his corporate media empire. He's set to serve a one-year sentence sometime this autumn and, due to his age, Berlusconi has elected community service over prison.
Berlusconi is preparing to take his reduced Forza Italia core — essentially the renamed version of his longtime Il Popolo della Libertà (PdL, People of Freedom), which itself was known as Forza Italia between 1994 and 2007 — into opposition.
Most immediately, the new Alfano center-right faction's emergence insulates the government from Berlusconi's whims by delivering enough center-right senators and deputies to keep the government in place. In that regard, Alfano's move this weekend has done more to stabilize Italian politics for the foreseeable future than anything in the past seven months of the Letta government. While Alfano still opposes Berlusconi's expulsion from the Senate next week, Berlusconi seems unlikely to win against the combined force of the Italian left and the protest Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S, the Five Star Movement).
The move could paint Alfano as a public servant willing to place governance and stability over scoring political points, and voters could reward Alfano when elections are held (still likely next year). The move also makes it very likely that Alfano will lead the center-right into the next election, just as popular Florence mayor Matteo Renzi seems likely to win a landslide victory for the leadership of the Letta's center-left Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party) in a vote that will be held on December 8.
Regardless of whether Letta, age 47, or Renzi, age 38, ultimately becomes the center-left prime ministerial candidate in the next election, a new generation of leadership is emerging in Italian politics — especially as the 43-year-old Alfano supplants the 77-year-old Berlusconi and other statesmen like Monti, age 70, and former Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani, age 62, fade from the center of Italian politics.
But it's been a maxim of Italian politics for the past two decades that you count out Berlusconi at your own risk. Continue reading What the Alfano-Berlusconi split means for Italian politics →
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Making sense of today's Italian election results
February 25, 2013 Kevin Lees	3 Comments
UPDATE, 7:30 p.m.: Here's an additional piece on where Italy goes from here — a look at four potential outcomes to watch for in the days ahead.
The election results from Italy's general election have largely been counted, and they're backing up the exit polls (not the initial instant polls from the preceding hours leading up to the election) that show a hung parliament — leaving the short-term future of Italy's government unclear.
Right now, it certainly looks like Pier Luigi Bersani's centrosinistra (center-left) coalition will win a majority in the elections for Camera dei Deputati (House of Deputies), Italy's lower house, while former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's centrodestra (center-right) coalition will win a majority in the elections for Italy's upper house, the Senato (Senate).
Nonetheless, the big winner is the Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S, the Five Star Movement), the protest group of blogger and comedian Beppe Grillo (pictured above), which has significantly outperformed polling expectations and may well become the single largest 'party' in the Italian parliament.
Bersani leads in Italy's lower house
In the 630-member lower house, the latest projections show Bersani's centrosinistra with a small lead of around 29% or 30% to just 28% or 29% for the centrodestra, and a whopping 25% or 26% for the Five Star Movement. Far behind in fourth place is prime minister Mario Monti's centrist coalition with around 11%. The communist, green, anti-corruption Rivoluzione Civile (RC, Civil Revolution) headed by antimafia magistrate Antonio Ingroia has won barely over 2%.
If that result holds, it means Bersani will command an automatic majority in the lower house — the winner of the largest share of the votes wins 54% of the seats in the Camera dei Deputati, so Bersani is likely to hold 340 seats.
Berlusconi leads in Italy's upper house
In the Senato, however, seats are awarded proportionally on a regional basis, with a regional 'bonus' — the winner of the largest share of the votes in each region automatically wins 55% of the seats in that region.
It's too soon to tell whether Bersani or Berlusconi will win the greater number of votes nationally in the senatorial elections, but it's likely that Berlusconi may emerge with the greatest number of the 315 seats up for election today (though far short of a majority) — the latest projections show the centrodestra with 114 seats, the centrosinistra with 113 seats, the Five Star Movement with 57 and Monti's coalition with 17.
Berlusconi wins Piedmont, sweeps southern Italy in senatorial elections
When you look at the results region-by-region, you begin to see just how amazing the comeback has been for Berlusconi.
Right now, it appears that Berlusconi's coalition has not only won Piedmont and Veneto in northern Italy, but also Lombardy, Italy's most-populous region, by what appears to be a whopping 38.0% to 29.5% victory. That doesn't bode well for the centrosinistra in regional elections in Lombardy, where the centrodestra is trying to hold onto power under its candidate for regional president, Roberto Maroni, since 2012 the national leader of the Lega Nord (Northern League). Maroni faces a tough challenge from the leftist candidate, Umberto Ambrosoli. Exit polls showed a very close regional race.
In southern Italy, where the centrosinistra was hoping to break through with a credible chance at sweeping the south, Berlusconi's coalition has apparently won each region, excepting Basilicata. That includes Campania and Sicily, Italy's third- and fourth-most populous regions, respectively. Berlusconi leads 37.2% to 29.1% in Campania and by 33.2% to 27% in Sicily (where Grillo's Five Star Movement, not typically strong in the south, won 29.5%). It also includes Puglia, the home of twice-elected regional president Nichi Vendola, the leader of the socialist Sinistra Ecologia Libertà (SEL, Left Ecology Freedom) that is part of Bersani's coalition. Although SEL won nearly 7% in Puglia, its best result nationwide, it wasn't enough to power the centrosinistra to victory, where it was trailing with 28.3% to the centrodestra's 34.5%.
Grillo is the biggest winner, Monti the biggest loser
All in all, the result is a victory for Grillo — his movement outpolled Berlusconi's party (though not his broader coalition), the Popolo della Libertà (PdL, People of Freedom) and it's still too soon to tell, but there's a chance the Five Star Movement outpolled Bersani's party, the Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party) as well.
Going down the list of senatorial results, it looks like the Five Star Movement outpolled both the PD and the PdL in Veneto in the northeast, Liguria in the northwest, Marche, Abruzzo and Molise in the center of Italy, and Sicily and Sardinia as well, with Grillo's movement winning around 30% in some of his strongest regions.
Monti, by contrast, appears to have finished in fourth place — and a far-off fourth place — in every region. Despite his alliance with the Christian Democrats — long-dominant in Italy's south — Monti polled worst in Italy's south, and did best (winning double digits of up to 12%) in the northern industrial regions like Piedmont, Lombardy, Friuli and Veneto.
That means that, even if they could find a way to build a coalition, Monti and Bersani are unlikely to have sufficient strength in Italy's upper house to form a coalition.
Other winners and losers Continue reading Making sense of today's Italian election results →
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Calabria, Campania, Italy, Puglia, Sicily
The role of Italy's south in this weekend's election
February 24, 2013 Kevin Lees	1 Comment
Although Lombardy in Italy's north has been called the 'Ohio' of Italian politics — it's a huge prize, given that it's the most populous and richest region, and one of the few regions currently too close to call — Sicily might well be the 'Florida' of Italian politics.
It's the fourth-most populous region of Italy, after Lombardy, Lazio and Campania, and with 27 seats in the Senato (Senate), it's quite a prize. Like Lombardy, Sicily is essentially a toss-up in this weekend's Italian general election. Voting is underway today and will continue throughout Monday.
In addition to Sicily, the election remains close in three additional southern regions, in Campania (29 seats), Puglia (20 seats) and Calabria (10 seats) — polls, as of mid-February, showed the centrosinistra (center-left) coalition headed by Pier Luigi Bersani with a very narrow lead. Taken together, the four regions boast 86 seats, representing more than half the seats Bersani will need to form a senatorial majority — a far larger prize than even Lombardy's 49 seats.
Taken together, the four regions are Italy's poorest, nearly one-half as wealthy as Lombardy, and plagued by widespread unemployment, even before the latest European financial crisis — the four regions receive funds from the European Regional Development Fund to stimulate economic growth and modernize their economies. Since Italian unification in 1865, southern Italy never fully integrated into the rest of Italy, and governments for the past century have tried to develop plans to bring southern Italy's economy up to a level more commensurate with northern and central Italy.
In addition to their economic and cultural gap with the rest of Italy, the regions are hampered by their links to organized crime — the Mafia / Cosa Nostra in Sicily, the Camorra in Campania, the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria and, to a lesser degree, Sacra Corona Unita in Puglia. That, in turn, has led to greater amounts of political corruption, cresting in 1992 with the murders of anti-mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
Despite the south's central role in the election, there's not much indication that any government would necessarily do much for the south, especially in an era of budget cuts.
All four regions typically favor the center-right in Italian politics — former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's centrodestra (center-right) coalition won all four regions in 2008 and even in the 2006 elections, when center-left prime minister Romano Prodi returned to power, his coalition lost both Sicily and Puglia. Despite the strength of the autonomist Lega Nord (Northern League) in northern regions, such as Veneto and Lombardy, there's not much of a counterpart in the mezzogiorno. To the extent there's a separate 'southernist' autonomist movement in the southern regions, it's split among a group of shifting regional parties that routinely aligned with the centrodestra, and that continues to be the case in this election — a patchwork of southern parties, Grande Sud (Great South), has joined Berlusconi's coalition, making them, oddly enough, electoral allies of the Northern League.
The winner in each region is important under Italy's election rules — in each region, the party or coalition that wins the greatest number of votes is guaranteed 55% of the senatorial seats from that region. So in a highly fragmented election like the 2013 elections, Bersani's centrosinistra coalition could win 30% of the vote and still take 55% of the seats in a given region.
In the Italian parliament's lower house, the winner of the national vote is guaranteed 54% of all seats, and polls show that Bersani is very likely to win the national vote. In contrast, however, the regional rules for the upper house mean that he's far from guaranteed a majority in the Senato, and so may be forced to form a government with prime minister Mario Monti's pro-reform centrist coalition.
In this weekend's election, however, the left has hope that if it can sweep Lombardy and the key southern regions, it will have a shot at winning a clear senatorial majority: Continue reading The role of Italy's south in this weekend's election →
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What will Italy's election mean for LGBT rights?
Last weekend, Nichi Vendola, the openly gay regional president of Puglia, pluckily posted to Twitter a photo of himself campaigning alongside Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader of the center-left Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party), captioned 'coppia di fatto' ('de facto couple').
Vendola, the leader of the more stridently leftist Sinistra Ecologia Libertà (SEL, Left Ecology Freedom), is part of the broad centrosinistra (center-left) coalition that hopes to elect Bersani as Italy's next prime minister this weekend, and the pun subtly reinforced the role that gay rights has played in Italy's election campaign.
The subtlety speaks a lot to how the issue of gay rights and same-sex marriage has hummed along the surface of a campaign that's been almost entirely fought over economic policy — he state of Italy's finances, economic reforms, budget austerity and the encroaching control of Brussels and Berlin on Italian governance. Nonetheless, the gay rights issue is probably the most important social issue as the election approaches.
Given that Rome, Italy's capital, is also home to the Vatican, gay rights is also one of the most polarizing issues of Italian public life.
Vendola (pictured above) is perhaps the most vigorous advocate of gay rights and same-sex marriage in Italy, but the progress elsewhere in Europe has also underscored Italy's lack of progress on gay rights.
With parliaments in two of Europe's four most-populous countries — the United Kingdom and France — passing legislation that allows for same-sex marriage in the past month, there's some pressure on Italy to follow suit. Italy also lacks any anti-discrimination laws or hate crime laws designed to prevent crimes with a particularly anti-gay bias. Although southern Europe isn't traditionally as socially liberal as northern Europe, both Spain and Portugal have promulgated full same-same marriage rights — Spain did so eight years ago.
Continue reading What will Italy's election mean for LGBT rights? →
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How the Italian election, Bersani's to lose, became a Berlusconi-Monti dogfight
There are now less than two weeks to go before Italians select a new prime minister, and if you watched the dueling soundbites, you would be forgiven if you thought the two main contenders were current prime minister Mario Monti and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
But while Berlusconi and Monti have taken up much of the headlines, the centrosinistra (center-left) coalition headed by Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader of Italy's center-left Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party), still seems more likely than not to win the Feb. 24 and 25 parliamentary elections, guaranteeing a majority in the 630-member Camera dei Deputati (House of Deputies), the lower house of the Parlamento Italiano (Italian Parliament) and a plurality of the seats among the 315 elected members of its upper house, the Senato (Senate).
As of last Friday — the last day under Italian law that new polls can be published in advance of the election — the broad centrosinistra coalition still held a single-digit, but steady, lead over the centrodestra coalition dominated by Berlusconi's Popolo della Libertà (PdL, People of Freedom). After consolidating the center-right, especially by gaining the support of the autonomist Lega Nord (Northern League), Berlusconi's coalition has pulled to within a modest deficit with the centrosinistra, despite the fact that polls show his PdL with less than 20% support and the PD with consistently over 30%.
Meanwhile, the centrosinistra coalition has lost some support to both the centrist coalition headed by Monti, the outgoing technocratic prime minister, and the anti-austerity protest Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S, the Five Star Movement) of comedian Beppe Grillo was also gaining steam going into the final two weeks of the campaign.
So if the centrosinistra lead has been whittled down a bit, the race to govern Italy still seems like Bersani's fight to lose. It's a much more fragile lead than it was when the campaign started, but in Italy, you'd expect the race to tighten, especially with Berlusconi's full-court press — even in his weakened political state, Berlusconi remains one of Italy's richest men, and he commands a significant amount of media control.
Since the start of the campaign, even with Bersani and his center-left allies campaigning hard, sparks have flown strongest not between Bersani and Berlusconi, but between Berlusconi and Monti.
Monti, in shifting from an above-the-fray technocrat to an off-with-the-gloves politician, has attacked Berlusconi as the 'pied piper' of Italian politics, mocked his 'family values' by referencing Berlusconi's tawdry sex scandal-ridden past, and said that a victory for Berlusconi would be a 'disaster' for Italy. Earlier this week, he attacked Berlusconi's promise to abolish — and refund to taxpayers — an unpopular housing tax as a ruse to buy votes with money the Italian government doesn't have.
Berlusconi, for his part, launched his campaign in December 2012 by accusing Monti of dragging Italy back into recession with 'German-centric' policies and, despite an odd offer before Christmas to step down in favor of a united Monti-led coalition, has hammered away at Monti's efforts to appease European interests from Brussels to Berlin, efforts that Berlusconi claims have come at the cost of improving everyday life in Italy.
In the midst of the back-and-forth between il cavaliere and il professore, where exactly does that leave the centrosinistra? And how did Berlusconi and Monti, whose parties have arguably less support than either of Bersani's PD or Grillo's Five Star Movement, come to dominate the campaign?
Continue reading How the Italian election, Bersani's to lose, became a Berlusconi-Monti dogfight →
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Italian prime minister Mario Monti has a 'Goldilocks' problem
January 3, 2013 Kevin Lees	1 Comment
One of the enduring questions of the Italian election has been whether outgoing prime minister Mario Monti will run or not.
Given the popularity of his reforms with the European Union leadership generally and with international investors, his return as prime minister after the February elections is by far their top preference. Any indication that Italy will make a U-turn on its recent reforms could send Italian bond rates skyrocketing back to the 7%-and-climbing levels of November 2011.
Presumably, too, Monti would very much like to return for a longer term as prime minister to see through further reforms, further budget cuts, and be remembered as the 'grown-up' prime minister that put Italy on a long-term path for future growth.
But it's an important question not just for Italy, but for all of Europe, and the U.S. economy as well.
Legally, of course, Monti cannot run for office in his own right because he's a senator for life' and thus, is unable run for a seat in Italy's lower parliamentary house, the Camera dei Deputati (House of Deputies) — but that's not really an answer as to whether he's 'running' or not.
Over the weekend, Monti sort-of emerged as a candidate for the elections — he said he is 'willing' to lead a coalition of small centrist parties, each of which would vote to install Monti as prime minister for a second Monti-led government. He had harsh words for Silvio Berlusconi, who has returned, despite his massive unpopularity, to lead the conservative Popolo della Libertà (PdL, People of Freedom) by asserting over the weekend that Berlusconi has demonstrated a 'certain volatility in judgment' — an incredibly muted criticism, perhaps, but a criticism nonetheless. He continued his aggressive tone today with respect to Pier Luigi Bersani, who leads a center-left coalition that features the Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party), by urging Bersani to silence the extremists within his own alliance.
It's an incredibly difficult tightrope walk for Monti, given that the polls show his coalition is set to finish no better than fourth, so the only way he can return as prime minister is through the election of a hung parliament.
Monti must at least provide a pro forma argument for supporting the 'pro-Monti' coalition, or he would risk minimizing the number of votes that will go to the 'Monti coalition' — without at least some floor of campaign activity from the incumbent prime minister himself, votes will inevitably slip away from the center to the two main center-right and center-left blocs, leading to what polls show would be a clear win for Bersani, not a hung parliament.
If Monti campaigns too hard, however, he risks diminishing his above-the-fray 'technocratic' mien. He's already done that now, to some degree, by directly engaging his political rivals. But more fundamentally, if Monti campaigns too hard and voters are seen to have directly rejected Monti, he will have diminished not only his own political capital, but the cause of political reform that's been his government's chief aim. His political rivals will feel even less pressure to continue Italy's reformist path. Continue reading Italian prime minister Mario Monti has a 'Goldilocks' problem →
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Five reasons Berlusconi returned to run in the upcoming Italian election
December 8, 2012 Kevin Lees	2 Comments
After leading a symbolic 'walk-out' among his center-right Popolo della Libertà (PdL, People of Freedom) from the Italian senate on Thursday in opposition to the austerity measures and other reforms of caretaker prime minister Mario Monti, Il Cavaliere himself, Silvio Berlusconi (pictured above), today announced that he will lead the PdL as its candidate for prime minister in the upcoming Italian general election against a broad center-left alliance anchored by the Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party).
So much for a 'third republic' in Italian politics — with the selection of the Italian left's old-guard's candidate, Pier Luigi Bersani, in the center-left's broad primary earlier this month against Florence mayor Matteo Renzi (the latter remains Italy's most popular politician), Italy remains, for now, stuck in the same-old politics as before.
Indeed, a Berlusconi-Bersani face-off would not have raised eyebrows a decade ago.
This time around, though, Berlusconi will face none of the political luck or goodwill that's marked most of his career — he left office in November 2011 with Italian 10-year bond rates at an unsustainable 7% amid a growing financial crisis that threatened not only Italy, but the entire eurozone. In addition, Berlusconi has little to show for his stint in office in the way of policy accomplishments, was convicted (subject to appeal) for tax evasion earlier this autumn, and he's been shamed by accusations of sex with underage women at the now-famous and much derided 'bunga bunga' parties and using his influence for the benefit of at least one of those women, a Moroccan immigrant.
So his return to office in many ways would be met with not just disdain, but outright hostility, from outside investors and much of the European political establishment, including the leaders of the European Union, French president François Hollande and German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Berlusconi's return has been met with chilly responses across the Italian political spectrum. Monti, who is not contesting the election but has indicated he would be available to lead a second government in the event of a hung parliament, cautioned against populism and warned that Italy must avoid returning to a position whereby Italy's finances threatened trigger the eurozone's wider implosion. Beppe Grillo, a blogger and social critic, as well as the leader of the populist and anti-austerity Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S, the Five Star Movement), savaged what he called Berlusconi's 'exhumation.'
Berlusconi's one-time ally, Gianfranco Fini, who served as deputy prime minister, foreign minister and a former president of Italy's lower house, the Chamber of Deputies (Camera die Deputati), and who is running under the newly-formed Futuro e Libertà per l'Italia (FLI, Future and Freedom), also sounded alarm, noting that the PdL decision exposes Italy to additional risks.
Given the long odds — the PdL stands far behind the center-left coalition in every poll conducted for next year's election (and sometimes behind the Five Star Movement, too) — why would the 76-year-old Berlusconi make a bid for a fourth term as Italy's prime minister?
Here are five reasons why he could be making the race.
Continue reading Five reasons Berlusconi returned to run in the upcoming Italian election →
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Bersani routs Renzi in 'centrosinistra' primary to lead Italian left next spring
Florence's brash, young mayor Matteo Renzi and his campaign to lead the Italian left threatened to remake Italian politics at a time of upheaval and uncertainty greater than at any point in the past two decades.
But the rank-and-file of the Italian left chose the more familiar path on Sunday, elevating instead the familiar, older and more staid, even boring, president of Italy's largest center-left party, the Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party), Pier Luigi Bersani (pictured above, enjoying a post-election beer).
The 61-year-old Bersani easily defeated the 37-year-old Renzi with around 61.1% of the vote (with just 38.8% for Renzi) — a victory so complete for Bersani that Renzi was winning only in Tuscany, the central Italian region that's home to Florence, and even there, only with about 55% of the vote.
For many reasons, I argued last week that Bersani's victory was very likely: his control of the PD party machinery, Italian cultural values that respect longevity (i.e. can you think of anyone in the past 50 years that could be described as 'Italy's JFK'?), close ties to Italy's largest union, the Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL, General Confederation of Labour) and support from the candidate who placed third in the first round of the primary election, Nichi Vendola. Vendola is the openly-gay, two-term regional president of Puglia, a more leftist candidate who is the leader and founder of the Sinistra Ecologia Libertà (SEL, Left Ecology Freedom), which will join with a handful of other small leftist parties in supporting Bersani as a candidate for prime minister in Italy's general election, scheduled to be held on or before April 2013. Vendola memorably said, on the same day as his endorsement, that Bersani's words were 'profumare di sinistra' — perfumed with leftism.
Current technocratic prime minister Mario Monti is not running in the upcoming election. Monti has shepherded labor reforms, budget cuts and tax increases through the Italian parliament since the PD joined with the main center-right party, the center-right Popolo della Libertà (PdL, People of Freedom) in November 2011 to appoint Monti in the midst of a public finance crisis that resulted in Berlusconi's resignation.
So what happens next?
Continue reading Bersani routs Renzi in 'centrosinistra' primary to lead Italian left next spring →
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Bersani leads as Italian 'centrosinistra' primary heads to Sunday runoff
November 28, 2012 Kevin Lees	1 Comment
After last weekend's first round of the primaries to choose the Italian center-left ('centrosinistra') candidate for prime minister in advance of expected national elections in April, the current leader of Italy's largest center-left party, the Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party), Pier Luigi Bersani looks like a favorite — even if just slightly — to win the runoff this Sunday.
Bersani (pictured above) won 44.9% of last weekend's primary vote of around 3 million Italian voters, while the youthful mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, placed a close second with 35.5%. The two faced off in a television debate earlier Wednesday, although the two candidate disagree more on tactics and broad themes than individual policies.
The regional president of Puglia — Italy's southeastern corner — Nichy Vendola, who is openly gay and the most leftist of the three candidates, as well as the founder and leader of the more radical Sinistra Ecologia Libertà (SEL, Left Ecology Freedom), placed third with 15.6% — the SEL and a handful of other small parties have agreed to unite behind the winner of the centrosinistra primary as the prime ministerial candidate of the broad Italian left.
So with the centrosinistra primary set to end with the December 2 runoff between Bersani and Renzi, it appears that Bersani will win, despite the momentum behind Renzi's candidacy and his promise to bring a new generation of leadership to Italy. Vendola, earlier today, endorsed Bersani after indicating earlier that Bersani's words were more 'profumare di sinistra' — perfumed with leftism — than Renzi's.
The battle between Renzi and Bersani is less ideological than generational — at 61, Bersani personifies the boring and staid leadership of the past 20 years of the Italian left. At age 37, however, Renzi is something quite new in Italian politics. His campaign's theme is essentially that Italy is in need of a new generation of leadership — namely, Renzi's, on the basis that a Renzi premiership would open a new and more productive era in Italian governance. He's not only called for an end to the era of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, but for a clean sweep of the Italian left as well. Renzi's even picked a fight with Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of Italian carmaker Fiat.
Both Renzi and Bersani have pledged to continue the era of budget discipline enacted by Italy's current 'technocratic' prime minister Mario Monti, who took office in December 2011.
Monti has consistently refused to run for prime minister in his own right in the upcoming elections. Monti, however, has indicated that he would be available to serve as technocratic prime minister again in the event of a hung parliament, and business leaders overwhelmingly favor a second Monti government to see through the budget cuts, labor reforms and tax increases that have brought Italy back from the brink of financial crisis.
Both candidates, too, have pledged to pursue more growth-oriented policies, even though it remains unclear exactly what either candidate could actually accomplish in an era of austerity throughout much of Europe.
That doesn't mean there aren't ideological differences between the two.
Bersani, with greater ties to Italy's largest union, the Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL, General Confederation of Labour), comes from a stronger social democratic tradition than Renzi, who has styled himself as a modernizer not unlike former UK prime minister Tony Blair. Bersani, the son of a mechanic, served as regional president of the leftist region of Emilia-Romagna in central Italy in the 1990s and as minister of economic development under former prime minister Romano Prodi from 2006 to 2008, where he tried to liberalize the Italian labor market.
Renzi, however, has refused to consider a potential governing coalition with the Unione di Centro (UdC, Union of the Centre), a small centrist group led by Pier Ferdinando Casini. The UdC essentially represents the remnants of the long-dominant Italian Christian Democrats and, while Casini and the UdC would likely find overlapping interests on economic policy, the UdC, with its ties to the Vatican, remains socially conservative (e.g., it opposes same-sex marriage). Bersani, although he is seen as slightly more leftist than Renzi, has nonetheless remained open to a coalition with Casini's centrists.
Ultimately, it's hard for me to believe that Renzi will actually win on December 2. The 'primary' itself seems skewed in Bersani's favor — he's already the leader of the PD, has the support of much of the 'old guard' of the Italian left (such as former prime minister and foreign minister Massimo D'Alema), and accordingly, he has access to the left's strongest party machinery, not to mention the benefit of his CGIL ties. He now apparently has Vendola's support from the SEL as well.
Furthermore, in a country that shows perhaps more respect for its elders than anywhere else in Europe, it seems unlikely that Italy will anoint as a potential prime minister someone so incredibly young. The contest is especially meaningful because the PD looks set to win the upcoming elections (although the contest remains exceptionally fluid and unpredictable, even by the sometime operatic standards of Italian politics).
Continue reading Bersani leads as Italian 'centrosinistra' primary heads to Sunday runoff →
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Bersani and Renzi offer two distinct personalities for Italy's center-left
Many have led Italy's long-fractuous center-left over the past two decades, but none have succeeded in building a durable coalition that can win an election and govern for a whole parliament.
Achille Occhetto, the leader of the Partito Comunista Italiano, Italy's then-Communist Party, failed miserably in the 1994 elections against Silvio Berlusconi. Francesco Rutelli, the former mayor of Rome throughout much of the 1990s, led the center-left L'Ulivo 'Olive Tree' coalition to defeat in 2001, and his successor, Walter Veltroni led the newly-formed Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party) to defeat in 2008. The only successful leftist has been the plodding Romano Prodi, who barely won the 1996 and 2006 elections, only to watch his coalitions, after both elections, crumble within a year or two. And that's not even counting the pretenders, such as Massimo D'Alema, who succeeded Prodi as prime minister from 1998 to 2000 and who served as foreign minister from 2006 to 2008.
With Berlusconi now (mostly) in the sidelines as the upcoming general election approaches, the Italian left is hoping to change that, and the first step will be November 25's primary election to determine who will lead Italy's broad left into the general elections, which will be held on or before April 13. In addition to the PD, the more radical left Sinistra Ecologia Libertà (SEL, Left Ecology Freedom) of Puglia's regional president Nicchi Vendola, the minor Partito Socialista Italiano (PSI, Italian Socialist Party), the centrist Alleanza per l'Italia (ApI, Alliance for Italy) launched by Rutelli in 2009 and the perennial anti-corruption party Italia dei Valori (IdV, Italy of Values) led by former prosecutor Antonio di Pietro.
The current PD leader, Pier Luigi Bersani (pictured above, top), follows in the long line of steady, if boring and uninspired center-left politicians in Italy. He served as the regional president of the traditional leftist stronghold of Emilia-Romagna in central Italy from 1993 to 1996, as a minister in the Prodi and D'Alema cabinets in the late 1990s and most recently, as the minister of economic development in Prodi's second government from 2006 to 2008. As economic development minister, he worked to bring about reforms to liberalize Italy's labor market and its economy. But at age 61, Bersani nearly personifies the staid tradition of the Italian left, and he would likely be a prime minister in the Prodi tradition — solidly leftist, but more of the social democratic variety than the socialist. He has the support of most of the center-left establishment, including that of D'Alema.
His main rival, however, is hoping to end that trend — Matteo Renzi (pictured above, bottom) is the 37-year old mayor of Florence, the largest city in the central region of Tuscany. Renzi, who served as president of the province of Florence from 2004 to 2009 before his election as mayor, has called on all of the current politicians on the left and the right to step aside to make way for a new generation of leadership — presumably his.
Despite Renzi's considerably more populist approach to the primaries and to Italian politics, evocative of times of the 'third-way' style of former UK prime minister Tony Blair, both Bersani and Renzi would posture more to the center in the general election.
In addition to Bersani and Renzi, Vendola, who was served as Puglia's leftist — and openly gay — regional president since 2005, is also running, to the strident left of both Bersani and Renzi. Bruno Tabacci of the ApI, a former regional president of Lombardy, and Laura Puppato of the PD, a regional councillor in Veneto, are also running.
Continue reading Bersani and Renzi offer two distinct personalities for Italy's center-left →
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Crocetta to become Sicily's first openly-gay, first leftist president
October 30, 2012 Kevin Lees	3 Comments
I wasn't entirely sure he could pull it off, but the unlikely Rosario Crocetta will become Sicily's first openly-gay regional president and likely the first leftist to have won a clear mandate in one of Italy's most culturally and politically conservative regions.
According to preliminary results, the center-left coalition backing Crocetta has won 30.48% and 39 seats in Sicily's 90-member regional parliament, giving it a plurality of seats, but something short of an absolute majority.
Crocetta's victory in Sicily makes the former Gela mayor Italy's second openly gay regional president — he joins leftist Nichi Vendola, the president of Puglia (also in southern Italy). This is a bit of a shocker given Sicily's incredibly conservative bent, and the region has been consistently governed by center-right politicians and centrists alike, but never by a former Communist Party member.
Through the early 2000s, Crocetta was a member of the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (Communist Refoundation Party). Although many PRC members joined moderate social democrats and centrists to form what's now Italy's largest center-left political party, the Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party), in 2007, Crocetta certainly comes from the more radical leftist tradition. Interestingly enough, so does Vendola, who was elected as Puglia's regional president in 2005 from the PRC and subsequently reelected. Vendola, who has future national political hopes, and who seems likely to play a role in Italy's upcoming national elections in early 2013, has formed his own leftist party — Sinistra Ecologia Libertà (SEL, Left Ecology Freedom).
Not only is Crocetta's victory a watershed moment for Italy's left, it's a victory for Sicily's courageous anti-mafia forces. In a region where politics and organized crime are often two sides of the same coin, Crocetta was an anti-mafia crusader as the former mayor of Gela, Sicily's sixth-largest city, working to convince local businesses not to pay protection money to the Sicilian mafia. In fact, he was such a stridently anti-mafia mayor that he's been the subject of several assassination plots and has been living outside of Gela since 2009.
Meanwhile, the center-right coalition led by European Parliament member Nello Musumeci has won just 25.73% and 21 seats.
The surprisingly strong third-place winner was the new anti-austerity protest party, the Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S, Five Star Movement), led nationally by the comedian and blogger Beppe Grillo — who swam across the Strait of Messina from the Italian peninsula to Sicily to kick off the party's regional campaign. Giancarlo Cancelleri, the presidential candidate backed by the Five Star Movement, won 18.18% and the party won 15 seats.
A center-right 'Sicilianist' coalition, essentially the coalition to which outgoing president Rafaelle Lombardo belongs, under the candidacy of Gianfranco Micciché won just 15.50% and 15 seats. Lombardo resigned in July in the wake of charges of corruption and complicity with the Sicilian mafia, forcing early elections.
Although the Sicilian autonomist and center-right parties have governed together before, they won't together command a majority of seats in Sicily's regional parliament, meaning that the center-left will govern with a minority, likely with the outside support of Five Star Movement legislators, or even from the Sicilianist autonomists. Continue reading Crocetta to become Sicily's first openly-gay, first leftist president →
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Today's Sicilian elections showcase potential party strength before 2013 Italian election
Today, one of Italy's most iconic regions — Sicily — goes to the polls to elect the 90 members of its regional legislature and, indirectly, a new regional president.
For all the beauty of its landscape, the majesty of its architecture and the divinity of its food and wine, Sicily, the home of the well known Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian organized crime group that has become synonymous with the word mafia, is not the world's model showcase for good governance.
Sunday's elections come six month early after the resignation on July 31 of regional president Raffaele Lombardo, who was elected overwhelmingly in 2008, but stepped down under a cloud of corruption — depressingly familiar charges of complicity with the Sicilian mafia. The election also comes as a bit of a dress rehearsal for Italy's expected upcoming general election (along with early elections expected soon in Lombardy as well) — just a couple days after former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's conviction in a Milan court for tax fraud.
Rosario Crocetta (pictured above, top), the leading leftist candidate for president and the mafia-fighting former mayor of Gela (Sicily's sixth-largest city) would be Sicily's first openly-gay regional president and has campaign marks the best chance of the center-left in a generation to govern Sicily. But polling nearly as well as the broad center-right and the center-left is the new anti-austerity protest party, the Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S, Five Star Movement) of blogger and comedian Beppe Grillo — he made a splash by swimming across the Strait of Messina from the Italian peninsula to Sicily at the beginning of the campaign (pictured above, bottom).
In one way or another, each of the five main parties competing in today's election in Sicily will be able to pull lessons from the result in advance of national elections that, although just six months away, remain incredibly fluid.
Italy's technocratic prime minister Mario Monti, who was appointed in November 2011 to push through budget, tax and labor reforms in the midst of an Italian sovereign debt crisis, remains popular, but has said he won't run in his own right for election (although could remain available to head a future technocratic government).
Berlusconi had pledged as recently as last Wednesday that he would not run for prime minister as the leader of his own center-right Popolo della Libertà (PdL, People of Freedom), though the unpredictable former prime minister has already said he plans on staying in politics to some degree. Yesterday, in a Nixonesque, hourlong rant, the enraged, newly-convicted Berlusconi hinted he might even try to bring down Monti's government to bring forward a snap election even sooner, lashing out at Monti, German chancellor Angela Merkel, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and a 'judge-ocracy' that he says is ruling Italy. With plenty of money and control over Italy's private media, he'll be able to influence politics as long as he wants. Currently, the PdL secretary is Angelino Alfano, a 41-year-old former justice minister who is from Sicily and rising star who's thought to be the leading contender to lead the PdL into the next general election.
Meanwhile, the center-left Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party) expects to choose its candidate for prime minister in November.
With 5 million people, Sicily features just around 8.5% of Italy's total population. Despite a national GDP per capita of around $31,000, Sicily's is something like $19,000, vying for Italy's poorest region with a handful of other southern provinces — it's nearly half the GDP per capita of the richest province, Lombardy (around $39,000).
In the prior regional elections in 2008, Lombardo led a center-right coalition that included the PdL, the Unione di Centro (UdC, Union of the Center), remains of what used to be the once-formidable Christian Democratic party and his own regionalist Movimento per le Autonomie (MpA, Movement for Autonomies) and together won 65.4% of the vote and 61 of the 90 seats in Sicily's regional parliament. A PD-led leftist coalition, headed by Anna Finocchiaro, won just 29 seats at 30.4% of the vote. The vast majority of the seats (80) will be chosen by proportional representation, with a 5% threshold for winning seats; an additional 10 members are elected with a block-voting system.
In today's regional elections, though, there are five coalitions/parties, each fielding its own candidate for regional president — polls are hard to come by, but it's a bit of a free-for-all.
Near the top of the polls is the PdL coalition, headed by Sebastiano 'Nello' Musumeci. Musumeci, a member of the European Parliament, is himself a member of a small autonomist right-wing party in Sicily, Alleanza Siciliana (Sicilian Alliance), having his roots in the now-defunct National Alliance, a stridently right-wing party which had neofascist roots. Although he's not actually a member of the PdL, a broad win for Musumeci would bolster the PdL nonetheless and, in particular, boost Alfano's chances of leading the PdL into the next elections — despite record-low polling for the PdL nationally, Alfano would be attempting to become Italy's first Sicilian prime minister since Mario Scelba led the Italian government from 1954 to 1955.
Also at the top of the tolls is Crocetta's PD-led coalition (also supported by the UdC). Crocetta's election would be historic in at least two ways. Continue reading Today's Sicilian elections showcase potential party strength before 2013 Italian election →
alfanoausteritybeppe grilloberlusconicancelliericasinichristian democratscorruptioncrocettademocratic partyfive star movementgreat southgrilloItalyleft ecology freedomlombardoM5Smafiamontimovement for autonomiesMpAmusumecinichi vendolaPDPdLpeople of freedomSELsicilyUdCvendola


text:
About Belarus
Natural history and wildlife
Minsk Arena
Chizhovka Arena
Dinamo Stadium
Famous Belarusians
Map of Belarus
Mass media in Belarus
Belarus Events Calendar
| Home | About Belarus | Architecture
Architecture of Belarus
Kossovo Palace and Park Ensemble, an example of 19th century architecture, Brest region
Influences of both eastern and western cultures are reflected in the diverse architectural styles of Belarus churches, castles, palaces and fortresses
Belarusian architecture through the ages
Despite its turbulent history of war and destruction, many architectural treasures and attractions of Belarus have survived to tell the history of this fascinating country.
Some of the oldest buildings of Belarus date from the Middle Ages.
Artistic movements and religions have played their part in shaping the architecture of Belarus, with fine examples of Romanesque and Gothic, Baroque and Classicism, Modernism and Eclecticism to be found across the country.
Architecture in the Brest region
Brest fortress is the main architectural tourist attraction in the city of Brest. It dates back to 1830s. Other noteworthy buildings include:
St Simeon's Orthodox Cathedral, an example of architecture of pseudo-Russian style (1865)
Roman Catholic Church of Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Vozdvizhenie Sviatogo Kresta) (1856)
Railway station, an example of architecture of the Pseudo-Russian style (1886).
Architectural monuments in the Brest area include:
Kamenets tower (Belaya Vezha), a fine example of defensive architecture (13th Century)
Charles Baramesha's Church in Pinsk, an example of baroque architecture (18th Century)
Butrimovich Palace in Pinsk, an example of late baroque architecture (1784-1790)
The Palace complex in Ruzhany (17th – 18th Century)
Kossovo Palace, which shows elements of classicism (19th Century).
Architecture in the Gomel region
The main attraction of Gomel is the palace-park ensemble centred around the classical-style palace of Rumyantsev-Paskevich (1799-1819).
Architectural attractions of the Gomel area include:
Mozyr church and Bernadine Cloister, an example of baroque architecture (1648)
Cistercian Cloister (1743-1745)
Petrikovsky Nikolaev church, an example of the Pseudo-Byzantian style architecture (2nd half of 19th Century)
Chechersk town hall, classical style (2nd half of 18th Century).
Architecture in the Grodno region
The Grodno region offers the visitor a wealth of ancient and beautiful buildings to discover and enjoy.
The unique architectural monuments of Grodno include:
Borisoglebsky (Kalozhskaya) church, an example of Old Russian architecture (2nd half of 12th Century)
Royal Palace, an example of rococo architecture (1734-1751)
Church of St. Franziska Ksaverij, an example of baroque architecture (late 17th – 18th Century).
Franciscan monastery, an example of baroque architecture (18th Century).
In the Grodno the most prominent remaining ancient castles are:
Mir Castle, a UNESCO world heritage site – one of the famous castles in Belarus and an outstanding example of defensive architecture (16th Century)
Lida Castle (14th – 15th Century).
Historical religious monuments include:
Piously-Mikhailovsky church in the village Synkovichi (Zelva area), an example of defensive architecture with gothic features (late 15th to early 16th Century).
Church-fortress in the village of Murovanka (Schuchin area), an example of defensive architecture (early 16th Century)
St. Uspensky Zhirovichi Monastery (17th – 18th Century)
Architecture in the Minsk region
Although many important buildings and monuments in the Minsk region were destroyed by war, those that have survived include:
Petropavlovskaya Orthodox Church, an example of architecture with elements of renaissance and baroque (1611)
Deva Maria Catholic Church (1798)
Alexander Nevsky Church, an example of the retrospektiva-Russian style (1898)
Kalvarijsky church, an example of neo-gothic style (19th Century).
The Church of St. Simon and Elena (Red church), a neo-gothic building with modernist features (1908-1910).
The main attractions in the Minsk region are architectural monuments found in the town of Nesvizh:
Nesvizh palace - park complex (16th – 19th Century).
Nesvizh church of the Divine Body, an example of baroque architecture (1584-1593).
Slutsk Brahma, an example of baroque architecture (17th – 18th Century)
Other architectural monuments of the Minsk region:
Bernardin Church in Budslav (Myadel area), an example of baroque architecture (18th Century)
Voskresensky Cathedral in Borisov, an example of the Pseudo-Russian style (1874)
Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya Church in Zaslavl (late 16th to early 17th Century)
Architecture in the Mogilev region
Surviving architectural monuments of the ancient city Mogilev:
Nikolaevskaya Tserkov, an example of baroque architecture (1669-1672)
Stanislavskiy Kostiol, an example of baroque architecture (1738-1752)
Archiepiscopal palace, an example of architecture of classicism (about 1780)
Mogilev town hall (17th – 20th Century).
Mogilev region:
Shklov town hall, an example of classical architecture (late 18th Century)
Preobrazhensky church in Shklov, an example of the neo-Russian architecture (early 20th Century).
Sviato-Troitskaya Tserkov in Bykhov, wooden style (mid-19th Century)
Synagogue in Bykhov, an example of architecture of the late Renaissance (mid-17th Century)
Bobruisk Fortress, an example of defensive architecture (1st half 19th Century).
Bykhov Castle, an example of palace-castle architecture (late 16th to early 17th Century).
Palace in Zhilichi (Kirov area), an example of classical style (1830s)
Architecture in the Vitebsk region
Orthodox and Catholic churches of the Vitebsk area represent various styles of temple architecture. Surviving buildings in Vitebsk include:
Blagoveshchenskaya church, an example of Old Russian architecture (mid-12th Century)
Kazan church, a specimen with elements of baroque and early classical architecture (1760)
Varvariansky church, in the neo-Romantic style (1785)
Ancient architectural sights in the town of Polotsk include:
St. Sofia Cathedral, (11th - 18th Century), one of three Old Russian temples devoted to St. Sofia. (The others are in Kiev and Novgorod.)
Spaso-Evfrosinievsky church, an example of Old Russian architecture (1152-1161). Unique ancient frescos are still visible on its walls and columns.
Original examples of temple architecture in the Vitebsk region include:
St. John Krestitelja Church in Kamai (Postavy area), a monument combining forms of defensive, Gothic and Renaissance architecture (1603-1606)
Church in Sariya (Verkhnedvinsk area), an example of neo-gothic architecture (1852-1857).
The Kamenets Tower, a citadel of the thirteenth century. Brest region
Ruzhany Palace. The Brest region
The Kholm Gate of Brest Hero-Fortress
The Palace of the Rumyantsevs-Paskeviches. Gomel
The town of Mir (the Korelichi district). Mir Castle
Grodno. A New Year tree at St. Javier Cathedral
Kalozha, or Sts Boris and Gleb Church, was built in the first half of the twelfth century. Grodno
Golshany castle ruins. Grodno region
Novogrudok Castle ruins. Grodno region
Nesvizh Castle, the residence of the Radziwills. Minsk region
Zhilichi palace. Mogilev region
Bernardin Church in Budslav
Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus
Belarusian architectural monuments
Zaslavl Reservation Museum of Culture and History
National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve "Niasvizh"
Nesvizh Palace in Belarus: video
Mir Castle in Belarus: video


text:
A INTRODUÇÃO DE FOGÕES COM AQUECIMENTO POR INDUÇÃO É MUITO TARDIA PARA RESIDENTES MAIS VELHOS COM DIFICULDADE EM LIDAR COM O FOGO
: Introduction of Induction Heating is too late for older residents with difficulty in handling fire
Yuriko Kato, Jiro Oonuma, Mayumi Suzuki, Kenichi Meguro
New Industry Creation Hatchery Center (NICHe)
Handling errors with household flammables, for example pan burning, may result in serious accidents, which may be caused by decreased attention or executive function. Objective: The manuals by several cities simply suggest the use of induction heating (IH) cookers. However, it requires complicated operation of buttons. Furthermore, no previous studies have examined the difficulty of IH operation in older adults. Methods: We examined 166 residents aged 75+ years in Wakuya, consisting 66 Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0 (healthy), 79 CDR 0.5 (very mild dementia), and 21 CDR 1+ (dementia) participants. Based on fire accident, they were classified into "high-risk," "low-risk," and "safety" groups. They were asked to actually use an IH as an examination. The participants who passed all procedures were classified as "good users," and the remaining who failed were classified as "poor users." Their overall cognitive and executive functions were assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Trail Making Test A and Digit Symbol (DS), respectively. Results: The proportions of "good users" in the CDR 0, CDR 0.5, and CDR 1+ groups were 7 (10.6%), 6 (7.3%), and 0 (0%), respectively. For the CDR 0 and CDR 0.5 group, the good users had higher scores on the MMSE and DS than do the poor users. Conclusions: The introduction of IH is too late for "high-risk group." Since the IH cooker requires complicated operation of buttons, they may be difficult for older residents to handle. Executive function may be examined for early detection of handling errors with household flammables.
Introduction of Induction Heating is too late for older residents with difficulty in handling fire
Dementia e Neuropsychologia
https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-5764-DN-2021-0074
Published - 2022 Jan 1
10.1590/1980-5764-DN-2021-0074
Dive into the research topics of 'Introduction of Induction Heating is too late for older residents with difficulty in handling fire'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Clinical Dementia Rating Nursing and Health Professions 100%
Heating Nursing and Health Professions 75%
Induction Heating Chemical Engineering 75%
User Computer Science 62%
Household Nursing and Health Professions 50%
Surgery Nursing and Health Professions 37%
Resident Nursing and Health Professions 37%
Executive Function Medicine and Dentistry 37%
Kato, Y., Oonuma, J., Suzuki, M., & Meguro, K. (2022). A INTRODUÇÃO DE FOGÕES COM AQUECIMENTO POR INDUÇÃO É MUITO TARDIA PARA RESIDENTES MAIS VELHOS COM DIFICULDADE EM LIDAR COM O FOGO. Dementia e Neuropsychologia, 16(1), 115-120. https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-5764-DN-2021-0074
A INTRODUÇÃO DE FOGÕES COM AQUECIMENTO POR INDUÇÃO É MUITO TARDIA PARA RESIDENTES MAIS VELHOS COM DIFICULDADE EM LIDAR COM O FOGO. / Kato, Yuriko; Oonuma, Jiro; Suzuki, Mayumi et al.
In: Dementia e Neuropsychologia, Vol. 16, No. 1, 01.01.2022, p. 115-120.
Kato, Y, Oonuma, J, Suzuki, M & Meguro, K 2022, 'A INTRODUÇÃO DE FOGÕES COM AQUECIMENTO POR INDUÇÃO É MUITO TARDIA PARA RESIDENTES MAIS VELHOS COM DIFICULDADE EM LIDAR COM O FOGO', Dementia e Neuropsychologia, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 115-120. https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-5764-DN-2021-0074
Kato Y, Oonuma J, Suzuki M, Meguro K. A INTRODUÇÃO DE FOGÕES COM AQUECIMENTO POR INDUÇÃO É MUITO TARDIA PARA RESIDENTES MAIS VELHOS COM DIFICULDADE EM LIDAR COM O FOGO. Dementia e Neuropsychologia. 2022 Jan 1;16(1):115-120. doi: 10.1590/1980-5764-DN-2021-0074
Kato, Yuriko ; Oonuma, Jiro ; Suzuki, Mayumi et al. / A INTRODUÇÃO DE FOGÕES COM AQUECIMENTO POR INDUÇÃO É MUITO TARDIA PARA RESIDENTES MAIS VELHOS COM DIFICULDADE EM LIDAR COM O FOGO. In: Dementia e Neuropsychologia. 2022 ; Vol. 16, No. 1. pp. 115-120.
@article{81265f5bdaa74648b1c5850c70b18d44,
title = "A INTRODU{\c C}{\~A}O DE FOG{\~O}ES COM AQUECIMENTO POR INDU{\c C}{\~A}O {\'E} MUITO TARDIA PARA RESIDENTES MAIS VELHOS COM DIFICULDADE EM LIDAR COM O FOGO",
abstract = "Handling errors with household flammables, for example pan burning, may result in serious accidents, which may be caused by decreased attention or executive function. Objective: The manuals by several cities simply suggest the use of induction heating (IH) cookers. However, it requires complicated operation of buttons. Furthermore, no previous studies have examined the difficulty of IH operation in older adults. Methods: We examined 166 residents aged 75+ years in Wakuya, consisting 66 Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0 (healthy), 79 CDR 0.5 (very mild dementia), and 21 CDR 1+ (dementia) participants. Based on fire accident, they were classified into "high-risk," "low-risk," and "safety" groups. They were asked to actually use an IH as an examination. The participants who passed all procedures were classified as "good users," and the remaining who failed were classified as "poor users." Their overall cognitive and executive functions were assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Trail Making Test A and Digit Symbol (DS), respectively. Results: The proportions of "good users" in the CDR 0, CDR 0.5, and CDR 1+ groups were 7 (10.6%), 6 (7.3%), and 0 (0%), respectively. For the CDR 0 and CDR 0.5 group, the good users had higher scores on the MMSE and DS than do the poor users. Conclusions: The introduction of IH is too late for "high-risk group." Since the IH cooker requires complicated operation of buttons, they may be difficult for older residents to handle. Executive function may be examined for early detection of handling errors with household flammables.",
keywords = "Alzheimer Disease, Burns, Cognitive Dysfunction, Induction Heating",
author = "Yuriko Kato and Jiro Oonuma and Mayumi Suzuki and Kenichi Meguro",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, Associacao Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria. All rights reserved.",
doi = "10.1590/1980-5764-DN-2021-0074",
journal = "Dementia e Neuropsychologia",
publisher = "Academia Brasileira de Neurologia",
T1 - A INTRODUÇÃO DE FOGÕES COM AQUECIMENTO POR INDUÇÃO É MUITO TARDIA PARA RESIDENTES MAIS VELHOS COM DIFICULDADE EM LIDAR COM O FOGO
AU - Kato, Yuriko
AU - Oonuma, Jiro
AU - Suzuki, Mayumi
AU - Meguro, Kenichi
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022, Associacao Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria. All rights reserved.
N2 - Handling errors with household flammables, for example pan burning, may result in serious accidents, which may be caused by decreased attention or executive function. Objective: The manuals by several cities simply suggest the use of induction heating (IH) cookers. However, it requires complicated operation of buttons. Furthermore, no previous studies have examined the difficulty of IH operation in older adults. Methods: We examined 166 residents aged 75+ years in Wakuya, consisting 66 Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0 (healthy), 79 CDR 0.5 (very mild dementia), and 21 CDR 1+ (dementia) participants. Based on fire accident, they were classified into "high-risk," "low-risk," and "safety" groups. They were asked to actually use an IH as an examination. The participants who passed all procedures were classified as "good users," and the remaining who failed were classified as "poor users." Their overall cognitive and executive functions were assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Trail Making Test A and Digit Symbol (DS), respectively. Results: The proportions of "good users" in the CDR 0, CDR 0.5, and CDR 1+ groups were 7 (10.6%), 6 (7.3%), and 0 (0%), respectively. For the CDR 0 and CDR 0.5 group, the good users had higher scores on the MMSE and DS than do the poor users. Conclusions: The introduction of IH is too late for "high-risk group." Since the IH cooker requires complicated operation of buttons, they may be difficult for older residents to handle. Executive function may be examined for early detection of handling errors with household flammables.
AB - Handling errors with household flammables, for example pan burning, may result in serious accidents, which may be caused by decreased attention or executive function. Objective: The manuals by several cities simply suggest the use of induction heating (IH) cookers. However, it requires complicated operation of buttons. Furthermore, no previous studies have examined the difficulty of IH operation in older adults. Methods: We examined 166 residents aged 75+ years in Wakuya, consisting 66 Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0 (healthy), 79 CDR 0.5 (very mild dementia), and 21 CDR 1+ (dementia) participants. Based on fire accident, they were classified into "high-risk," "low-risk," and "safety" groups. They were asked to actually use an IH as an examination. The participants who passed all procedures were classified as "good users," and the remaining who failed were classified as "poor users." Their overall cognitive and executive functions were assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Trail Making Test A and Digit Symbol (DS), respectively. Results: The proportions of "good users" in the CDR 0, CDR 0.5, and CDR 1+ groups were 7 (10.6%), 6 (7.3%), and 0 (0%), respectively. For the CDR 0 and CDR 0.5 group, the good users had higher scores on the MMSE and DS than do the poor users. Conclusions: The introduction of IH is too late for "high-risk group." Since the IH cooker requires complicated operation of buttons, they may be difficult for older residents to handle. Executive function may be examined for early detection of handling errors with household flammables.
KW - Alzheimer Disease
KW - Burns
KW - Cognitive Dysfunction
KW - Induction Heating
U2 - 10.1590/1980-5764-DN-2021-0074
DO - 10.1590/1980-5764-DN-2021-0074
JO - Dementia e Neuropsychologia
JF - Dementia e Neuropsychologia


Dr. Jon Paul Fritz sees many children in our Jacksonville and Fleming Island, FL office, and the scientific literature backs up what we see every day: Chiropractic is safe and effective for keeping your kids healthy.
Chiropractic is great because it doesn't use drugs or risky surgery to optimize health: it's truly an all-natural approach. If you'd like to see how chiropractic can help your children, give Dr. Jon Paul Fritz a call today at (904) 425-9060 for an appointment. We're conveniently located in Jacksonville and Fleming Island for your whole family.


The Andhra Pradesh State Board of Technical Education & Training had planned to conduct the advisory process in June 2019 . Which will be organized for admission to the various polytechnic courses. The Board of Andhra Pradesh carried out the common entrance test in May 2019 . Afterwards, the AP POLYCET result and the rankings were also announced on the official website. Several candidates are selected for the consultation process. Now it is time to get the AP POLYCET 2019 counselling dates from our side.
The AP board intended to carry out the AP Polycet counselling process in June 2019 . So we have given the advice allocation dates / schedule notification here.
AP Polycet Seat Allotment 2019 : Andhra Pradesh Polycet 2019 Seat allotment consequences declared, college students can view and download the ap polycet allotment order pdf at appolycet.Nic.In below the candidate's login. AP Polycet Counseling 2019 Exercising Options has been began from second June 2019 . The AP Polycet is a state level polytechnic examination sorted out by the Andhra Pradesh state main group of Technical Education and Training. This exam is an entryway for inductions into engineering and non-engineering polytechnic courses. Follow this newsletter for greater records about AP Polycet Counseling 2019 . AP Polycet Seat Allotment 2019 Results (College Wise) Released – Download Allotment Order @ appolycet.Nic.In Andhra Pradesh Polytechnic front testomony confirmation, rank shrewd archive checking dates, web counselling time table suggested by way of SBTET at https://appolycet.Nic.In. The Qualified competition of A.P-POLYCET-2019 are knowledgeable that the doorway into Polytechnics will be led in mild of Web Counseling.
Those who are selected for the AP POLYCET web counselling 2019 can wise the counseling schedule by rank. On our website we have announced the details of the counselling .
The people who are looking for the POLYCET advice in AP 2019 can get the details in the above. After that, the candidates should remain in the prescribed centers in the above dates. We have given the links in the below to check the AP POLYCET rank wise counselling 2019 online.


text:
Q: is a bad practice expose the Activity in the XML layout in a MVVM app? The general idea is that the XML Layout have a reference to the ViewModel like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:id="@+id/layout">

    <data>
        <variable
            name="aboutViewModel"
            type="com.app.about.AboutActivity" />
    </data>

The question is that if is a bad practique expose too the activity like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:id="@+id/layout">

    <data>
        <variable
            name="aboutActivity"
            type="com.app.about.AboutActivity" />

    </data>

Because sometimes I only need call functions for open or close the activity, and I think that these are not a reason enough to create a new ViewModel.
Thanks

A: If you follow the OOB - separation of concerns then you shouldn't tightly couple the VM with Activity. Also you don't have to create an new VM or to tightly couple your current VM, you can just access the activity/context like this:
android:onClick="@{(view)->((Activity)(view.getContext()))}"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Matt Pike is an American rock musician best known as the guitarist of the influential doom metal band Sleep and frontman of High on Fire. While largely unknown in the mainstream rock press, he is viewed by some in the underground metal scene as a cult hero.
Let's look at some of the gear and equipment that has been seen in Matt Pike's High On Fire guitar rig.


text:
Sydney Festival is a cool place to go for summer in Sydney
There's a surplus of reasons to visit Sydney in the middle of summer. The beaches are abuzz, the beer gardens are humming and the walking paths are hives for personal bests.
But if you want some culture with your sun, chief among your reasons to visit the city this summer ought to be Sydney Festival. The event, which debuted in 1977, has entrenched itself as one of the city's marquee celebrations over the past 40 years.
This year, it turns its attention to the themes of migration, human endeavour and feminism. It features 18 world premieres, five Australian premieres and eight Australian exclusives. You'll find affordable ticket pricing, family-friendly events and diverse programming that encompasses big ideas, cutting edge theatre, live music, a shedload of visual art and much more.
Here are four festival standouts amongst the many.
Photo: Jamie Williams
Sydney Festival's Reconciliation Action Plan is focused on closing the gap between Indigenous and other Australians through various commitments including providing development and presentation opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and arts workers.
BLAK OUT is your chance to see the festival realise these goals. BLAK OUT is a hub for theatre, music, dance, classes and art that captures the many stories of Sydney Festival's First Nations artists and performers.
If you're keen to deepen your own engagement with Aboriginal culture, Indigenous language class Bayala is returning for its third year. The Man with the Iron Neck and The Weekend tackle heavy issues such as suicide and the search for a missing parent and you can check out a captivating variety of art installations, dance and music performed by Indigenous artists. BLAK OUT might be concerned with matters of reconciliation on the one hand but it's a gripping program of art and performance on the other.
Photo: Wolfgang Tillmans
Swedish pop veteran Neneh Cherry, experimental Australian composer Ben Frost and Jonathan Bree of New Zealand indie act The Brunettes are all part of an eclectic lineup, but there are other ways to experience the festival's music too. Soundtracks are slated to accompany art installations such as Masters of Modern Art from the Hermitage and you can join the drop-in choir sessions of Bayala.
Stages will also be lit for some powerful plays. Highlights this year include A Ghost in my Suitcase, based on Gabrielle Wang's novel about a 12-year-old girl's travels to Shanghai to scatter her Chinese mother's ashes, and Home, a drama about notions of home that audience members are invited to participate in.
Whether your affections are for outdoor music shows, visual art, installations or circus performers, there are many free events to keep an eye out for throughout Sydney Festival.
Just Not Australian, at Art Space, is an exhibition that explores the mythology of Australian identity through the work of prominent local artists. Sydney Symphony Under the Stars is a great excuse to unroll a picnic blanket at the Crescent in Parramatta and get star struck by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra performing film scores and iconic classical music. The Vigil, meanwhile, is an invitation to Barangaroo Reserve for a fireside reflection on colonisation's impact on Australia, as expressed through the musical performances and stories of Indigenous community members and elders.
If you're staying at Song Hotel, you're perfectly located to attend the Festival Garden at Hyde Park North too. Here you can enjoy free entertainment, food and drink vendors, free parties and DJs.
Photo: Prudence Upton
Talks and classes
Sydney Festival explores many of its ideas through talks and classes and, as a guest, you can get involved as participant, observer or both.
Displacement and Diaspora: Who We Are and How We Live Together is part of University of Technology Sydney's Big Thinking Forums, which draw artists and experts together for panel discussions about the ideas that inspire their work. Displacement and Diaspora examines how the migrant experience in Australia raises complex questions about identity, assimilation and belonging. The Sydney Morning Herald also plays host to Q&A sessions with artists following their performances in shows such as Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story, One Infinity, Beware of Pity and Deer Woman. Intrepid Chinese artist Xiao Lu is also appearing at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art to participate in conversation about the role art plays in influencing important debate.
Many of the talks and classes Sydney Festival is staging are free but the messages are valuable.


text:
Q: Does await PutObjectAsync(PutObjectAsync, CancellationToken) really awaits until the uploading finish in AWS SDK for .NET? I'm using the AmazonS3Client.PutObjectAsync(PutObjectAsync, CancellationToken) method to upload my files to s3 storage.
so the code inside my service looks like
await _client.PutObjectAsync(putObject, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false);

I have to wait until the upload completes because the next service should download these files.
Now, I'm facing the problem - PutObjectAsync is executed, but s3 doesn't contain the file I need, it appears only after a few seconds after my program is finished.
I checked the PutObjectResponse class but didn't find anything which can explain if a file was completely uploaded. I also didn't find info about PutObjectAsync method behavior.
So the question is if PutObjectAsync combined with ConfigurateAwait(false) really waits for upload completion or am I missing something?
Thank you in advance. Any guidance would be appreciated.

A: Yes, await PutObjectAsync will (asynchronously) wait until the upload is complete.

Now, I'm facing the problem - PutObjectAsync is executed, but s3 doesn't contain the file I need, it appears only after a few seconds after my program is finished.

What you're seeing is eventual consistency, which is almost ubiquitous with cloud services. The file has been uploaded, but it may take some time to be available. The most basic approach to resolving this is to poll until the file "appears". I'm not familiar with the details of S3, but some cloud services offer a "read my own writes" or some kind of flag that causes the Put to be delayed until the file can be read; that simplifies your code but in reality is just moving the polling to Amazon's servers.


Post IN YOUR OWN THREAD on myWPI a domain you believe is relevant to this course. State why you believe this. Be sure not to repeat anyone else's answer. These can include niche markets in the general Software domain or anything where software is part of the product.
Short paper on a computing technology of your choosing introduced in the last 30 years that you believe has been used unethically. Include references and cite from the Codes of Ethics in Appendix A.
This can include technologies that were not intended for unethical use.