text:
<?php
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defined('MOODLE_INTERNAL') || die();

global $CFG;
require_once($CFG->dirroot . '/webservice/tests/helpers.php');

use core_competency\user_competency;
use core_competency\competency;
use core_competency\competency_rule_all;
use core_competency\competency_rule_points;

/**
 * Competency rule testcase.
 *
 * @package    core_competency
 * @copyright  2015 Frédéric Massart - FMCorz.net
 * @license    http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU GPL v3 or later
 */
class core_competency_competency_rule_testcase extends externallib_advanced_testcase {

    public function test_rule_all_matching() {
        $this->resetAfterTest(true);

        $this->setAdminUser();
        $lpg = $this->getDataGenerator()->get_plugin_generator('core_competency');
        $u1 = $this->getDataGenerator()->create_user();

        // Set up the framework and competencies.
        $framework = $lpg->create_framework();
        $c1 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id(),
            'ruletype' => 'core_competency\competency_rule_all'));
        $c11 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id(), 'parentid' => $c1->get_id(),
            'ruletype' => 'core_competency\competency_rule_all'));
        $c111 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id(), 'parentid' => $c11->get_id(),
            'ruletype' => 'core_competency\competency_rule_all'));
        $c112 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id(), 'parentid' => $c11->get_id(),
            'ruletype' => 'core_competency\competency_rule_all'));
        $c12 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id(), 'parentid' => $c1->get_id(),
            'ruletype' => 'core_competency\competency_rule_all'));
        $c13 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id(), 'parentid' => $c1->get_id(),
            'ruletype' => 'core_competency\competency_rule_all'));
        $c131 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id(), 'parentid' => $c13->get_id(),
            'ruletype' => 'core_competency\competency_rule_all'));

        // Create some user competency records.
        $uc1 = $lpg->create_user_competency(array('competencyid' => $c1->get_id(), 'userid' => $u1->id));
        $uc11 = $lpg->create_user_competency(array('competencyid' => $c11->get_id(), 'userid' => $u1->id,
            'grade' => 1, 'proficiency' => 1));
        $uc111 = $lpg->create_user_competency(array('competencyid' => $c111->get_id(), 'userid' => $u1->id,
            'grade' => 1, 'proficiency' => 1));
        $uc112 = $lpg->create_user_competency(array('competencyid' => $c112->get_id(), 'userid' => $u1->id,
            'grade' => 1, 'proficiency' => 1));
        $uc12 = $lpg->create_user_competency(array('competencyid' => $c12->get_id(), 'userid' => $u1->id));
        $uc13 = new user_competency(0, (object) array('userid' => $u1->id, 'competencyid' => $c13->get_id()));

        // Not all children are met.
        $cr = new competency_rule_all($c1);
        $this->assertFalse($cr->matches($uc1));

        // All children are met.
        $cr = new competency_rule_all($c11);
        $this->assertTrue($cr->matches($uc11));

        // The competency doesn't have any children.
        $cr = new competency_rule_all($c12);
        $this->assertFalse($cr->matches($uc12));

        // The competency doesn't have saved user competency records.
        $cr = new competency_rule_all($c13);
        $this->assertFalse($cr->matches($uc13));
    }

    public function test_rule_points_validation() {
        $this->resetAfterTest(true);
        $this->setAdminUser();

        $lpg = $this->getDataGenerator()->get_plugin_generator('core_competency');
        $framework = $lpg->create_framework();
        $framework2 = $lpg->create_framework();
        $c1 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id()));
        $c2 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id(), 'parentid' => $c1->get_id()));
        $c3 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id(), 'parentid' => $c1->get_id()));
        $c4 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id()));
        $cx = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework2->get_id()));

        $c1->set_ruletype('core_competency\competency_rule_points');
        $rule = new competency_rule_points($c1);

        // Invalid config.
        $config = json_encode(array());
        $this->assertFalse($rule->validate_config($config));

        // Missing required points.
        $config = json_encode(array(
            'base' => array(),
            'competencies' => array(
                array('id' => $c2->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
                array('id' => $c3->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
            )
        ));
        $this->assertFalse($rule->validate_config($config));

        // Invalid required points.
        $config = json_encode(array(
            'base' => array('points' => 'abc'),
            'competencies' => array(
                array('id' => $c2->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
                array('id' => $c3->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
            )
        ));
        $this->assertFalse($rule->validate_config($config));

        // Less than 1 required points.
        $config = json_encode(array(
            'base' => array('points' => 0),
            'competencies' => array(
                array('id' => $c2->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
                array('id' => $c3->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
            )
        ));
        $this->assertFalse($rule->validate_config($config));

        // Not enough required points.
        $config = json_encode(array(
            'base' => array('points' => 3),
            'competencies' => array(
                array('id' => $c2->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
                array('id' => $c3->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
            )
        ));
        $this->assertFalse($rule->validate_config($config));

        // Duplicate competency.
        $config = json_encode(array(
            'base' => array('points' => 1),
            'competencies' => array(
                array('id' => $c2->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
                array('id' => $c2->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
            )
        ));
        $this->assertFalse($rule->validate_config($config));

        // Competency includes itself.
        $config = json_encode(array(
            'base' => array('points' => 1),
            'competencies' => array(
                array('id' => $c1->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
                array('id' => $c2->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
            )
        ));
        $this->assertFalse($rule->validate_config($config));

        // Cannot use negative points.
        $config = json_encode(array(
            'base' => array('points' => 1),
            'competencies' => array(
                array('id' => $c2->get_id(), 'points' => -1, 'required' => 0),
                array('id' => $c3->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
            )
        ));
        $this->assertFalse($rule->validate_config($config));

        // Not competencies set.
        $config = json_encode(array(
            'base' => array('points' => 1),
            'competencies' => array(
            )
        ));
        $this->assertFalse($rule->validate_config($config));

        // There is a competency that is not a child.
        $config = json_encode(array(
            'base' => array('points' => 1),
            'competencies' => array(
                array('id' => $c1->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
                array('id' => $c2->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
                array('id' => $c3->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
            )
        ));
        $this->assertFalse($rule->validate_config($config));

        // There is a competency from another framework in there.
        $config = json_encode(array(
            'base' => array('points' => 1),
            'competencies' => array(
                array('id' => $cx->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
                array('id' => $c3->get_id(), 'points' => 1, 'required' => 0),
            )
        ));
        $this->assertFalse($rule->validate_config($config));

        // A normal config.
        $config = json_encode(array(
            'base' => array('points' => 4),
            'competencies' => array(
                array('id' => $c2->get_id(), 'points' => 3, 'required' => 0),
                array('id' => $c3->get_id(), 'points' => 2, 'required' => 1),
            )
        ));
        $this->assertTrue($rule->validate_config($config));
    }

    public function test_rule_points_matching() {
        $this->resetAfterTest(true);

        $this->setAdminUser();
        $lpg = $this->getDataGenerator()->get_plugin_generator('core_competency');
        $u1 = $this->getDataGenerator()->create_user();

        // Set up the framework and competencies.
        $framework = $lpg->create_framework();
        $c1 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id()));
        $c1->set_ruletype('core_competency\competency_rule_points');
        $comprule = new competency_rule_points($c1);
        $c11 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id(), 'parentid' => $c1->get_id()));
        $c12 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id(), 'parentid' => $c1->get_id()));
        $c13 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id(), 'parentid' => $c1->get_id()));
        $c14 = $lpg->create_competency(array('competencyframeworkid' => $framework->get_id(), 'parentid' => $c1->get_id()));

        // Create some user competency records.
        $uc1 = $lpg->create_user_competency(array('competencyid' => $c1->get_id(), 'userid' => $u1->id));
        $uc11 = $lpg->create_user_competency(array('competencyid' => $c11->get_id(), 'userid' => $u1->id,
            'grade' => 1, 'proficiency' => 1));
        $uc12 = $lpg->create_user_competency(array('competencyid' => $c12->get_id(), 'userid' => $u1->id,
            'grade' => 1, 'proficiency' => 1));
        $uc13 = $lpg->create_user_competency(array('competencyid' => $c13->get_id(), 'userid' => $u1->id));

        // Enough points.
        $rule = array(
            'base' => array('points' => 8),
            'competencies' => array(
                array(
                    'id' => $c11->get_id(),
                    'points' => 4,
                    'required' => 0
                ),
                array(
                    'id' => $c12->get_id(),
                    'points' => 4,
                    'required' => 0
                ),
            )
        );
        $c1->set_ruleconfig(json_encode($rule));
        $c1->update();
        $this->assertTrue($comprule->matches($uc1));

        // Not enough points.
        $rule = array(
            'base' => array('points' => 8),
            'competencies' => array(
                array(
                    'id' => $c11->get_id(),
                    'points' => 4,
                    'required' => 0
                ),
                array(
                    'id' => $c13->get_id(),
                    'points' => 4,
                    'required' => 0
                ),
            )
        );
        $c1->set_ruleconfig(json_encode($rule));
        $c1->update();
        $this->assertFalse($comprule->matches($uc1));

        // One required that is not met but points were OK.
        $rule = array(
            'base' => array('points' => 8),
            'competencies' => array(
                array(
                    'id' => $c11->get_id(),
                    'points' => 4,
                    'required' => 0
                ),
                array(
                    'id' => $c12->get_id(),
                    'points' => 4,
                    'required' => 0
                ),
                array(
                    'id' => $c13->get_id(),
                    'points' => 4,
                    'required' => 1
                ),
            )
        );
        $c1->set_ruleconfig(json_encode($rule));
        $c1->update();
        $this->assertFalse($comprule->matches($uc1));

        // One required, one not, should match.
        $rule = array(
            'base' => array('points' => 8),
            'competencies' => array(
                array(
                    'id' => $c11->get_id(),
                    'points' => 4,
                    'required' => 0
                ),
                array(
                    'id' => $c12->get_id(),
                    'points' => 4,
                    'required' => 1
                ),
            )
        );
        $c1->set_ruleconfig(json_encode($rule));
        $c1->update();
        $this->assertTrue($comprule->matches($uc1));

        // All required and should match.
        $rule = array(
            'base' => array('points' => 8),
            'competencies' => array(
                array(
                    'id' => $c11->get_id(),
                    'points' => 4,
                    'required' => 1
                ),
                array(
                    'id' => $c12->get_id(),
                    'points' => 4,
                    'required' => 1
                ),
            )
        );
        $c1->set_ruleconfig(json_encode($rule));
        $c1->update();
        $this->assertTrue($comprule->matches($uc1));

        // All required, but one doesn't have a user record.
        $rule = array(
            'base' => array('points' => 4),
            'competencies' => array(
                array(
                    'id' => $c12->get_id(),
                    'points' => 4,
                    'required' => 1
                ),
                array(
                    'id' => $c14->get_id(),
                    'points' => 4,
                    'required' => 1
                ),
            )
        );
        $c1->set_ruleconfig(json_encode($rule));
        $c1->update();
        $this->assertFalse($comprule->matches($uc1));
    }

}


For our final installment we explore what is happening in the world of hospitality, as new and established brands vie to win loyalty from increasingly demanding travelers.
Deloitte recently surveyed more than 6,600 hotels guests who have collectively stayed at 25 brands across different hotel tiers to find out what makes a great hotel experience.
The results are outlined in its whitepaper, Next Gen Hotel Guests Have Checked In: The Changing Guest Experience. The findings show guests want more than ever from their hotel stays, so brands must work to truly know their guests to deliver personalized experiences and programs.
Deloitte outlines how the landscape has shifted over the past few decades. Early on, guest expectations for a hotel stay were based on basic qualities such as a clean room, good value, location and quiet atmosphere.
Then hotels were able to differentiate themselves by going a step further, by offering high-quality bars and restaurants, appealing public spaces, modern fitness facilities and sustainable practices.
Now those are what Deloitte terms "the new basics" - necessary and expected but not qualities that can contribute to an exceptional guest experience.
Know me: Guests want hotels to know and remember their preferences and needs. Sixty-five percent of respondents say they feel the hotels where they stay "know" them. Improvements in this area can translate to loyalty - Deloitte found stay frequency increases by 13% when guests feel the hotel understands them.
Engage me: Hotels need to ensure their staff members interact with guests in "personalized, authentic and attentive ways." Survey respondents indicate the top reason for a positive experience was the friendliness of the hotel staff. Conversely, 38% of respondents say an unfriendly team leads to a negative stay, putting that second only to a dirty room (41%).
Hear me: Deloitte found that a desire for hotels to "listen to guest needs, empathize with their situation and then follow through" as the most important attribute identified by guests. Guests are 40% more likely to "positively, organically promote their experience when a problem was fixed quickly." But just creating new communication tools has no impact on guests' likelihood to promote – an indication that things such as chatbots and other new feedback channels do not add value on their own.
Empower me: Today's guests want flexibility and opportunity to design their stay, for example through apps and other self-service portals that offer tailored recommendations activities, restaurants and ground transportation. Deloitte found this will only become more important in coming years as the desire for empowerment for travelers ages 18 to 34 is approximately 20 times higher than for those 55 to 70.
Delight me: This attribute, which speaks to a hotel's ability to create moments that surprise guests and exceed their expectations, received the lowest satisfaction score on the survey. Only 56% of respondents say their hotel stays succeed in delighting them. "A common misconception is that this always has to be big things like expensive amenities or lavish gifts. But delight me can be the simplest of touches that are unexpected, tailored and delivered in ways guests did not anticipate," writes Deloitte. This is also another attribute that is notably more important for younger guests.
China is one of the fastest-growing travel markets, and Marriott is investing in winning that audience to its brand by partnering with a company that understands Chinese consumers.
Marriott International has created a joint venture with Alibaba Group, a Chinese multinational e-commerce, retail, internet, AI and technology conglomerate with more than 500 million mobile monthly active users across its platforms.
The two companies have created a digital travel service and consulting company that will market directly to Alibaba's customer base, provide a link between the two companies' loyalty programs and create content, programs and promotions for Marriott hotels that is customized for Chinese travelers.
"Together, we are elevating and redefining the travel experience for Chinese consumers to be more seamless and personalized as they embark on adventures to discover the world," says Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group.
Earlier this month, the two entities announced a pilot program to solve one of the paint points in the customer experience for hotel guests: check-in.
AccorHotels, Hilton and more major hotel brands will be there. Will you? Secure your spot here.
Working with Fliggy, Alibaba's travel service platform, the companies are testing facial-recognition technology for check-in at two Marriott International properties in China.
Marriott says the traditional check-in process takes at least three minutes, and more during peak times. With facial-recognition technology, the self-service check-in can be completed in less than a minute. Guests scan their IDs, take a photo and input contact details. The device verifies the information and then dispenses a room key card.
By creating this self-service check-in, Marriott says its hotel associates are available to focus on providing personalized service to guests. It plans to enable facial recognition check-in at more properties in the future.
More than 1,000 Marriott properties around the world also have enabled PPP (Post Post Pay), Fliggy's mobile service that allows users to book hotels without paying a deposit. Room charges and incidental expenses are automatically settled afterwards, providing a wallet-free experience for both customers and hotels. Marriott is the first brand to roll out PPP on a global scale.
"We are proud to have a hand in supporting Marriott International to redefine the experience of Chinese travelers with innovative services," says David Chai, CEO of the joint venture.
Guest-written reviews, comments on online travel agency sites and blog posts can be rich sources of information about what they value in a hotel experience, providing a clear view of how hotels can improve that experience and differentiate themselves in the competitive hospitality landscape.
But Travelsify, a content analytics platform, has found a disconnect between the way guests describe a hotel and how hotels describe themselves.
By analyzing more than 100 million natural language traveler and expert reviews, Travelsify has found that while hotels tend to describe themselves in terms of standard property characteristics and amenities, guests are more likely to mention whether a room is stylish or the comfort level of the bed.
"People are talking more than four times more about the decoration of the room as they are about the Wi-Fi, and they are talking about spaciousness of the room more than about the breakfast," says Alexandra Fernandez Ramos, chief product and sales officer at Travelsify.
From this analysis, Travelsify has identified 34 "hotel DNA" attributes - terms such as "cozy," "bright," "stylish" and "zen" - that it says matter to travelers when choosing a hotel. The company has identified similar "DNA" terms for restaurants and vacation rental properties.
"These terms tell us why they like or dislike a room or a restaurant. We are shifting from the 'what' to the 'why,'" Ramos says.
In April 2017, AccorHotels tested an inspirational discovery tool powered by Travelsify's data. Dubbed "MoodMatch," it enabled users to filter hotels based on the type of experience they desire - such as "luxury," "views," or "vintage" – without having to select a destination. After selecting at least two mood descriptors, the system provides a selection of hotels and the percentage that the property's "DNA attributes" match the user's chosen moods.
Now Travelsify is working with Accor to provide enriched smart data for across various business units, incorporating its Hotel DNA, Restaurant DNA and Vacation Rental DNA.
"The ambition of AccorHotels in hospitality and lifestyle is to multiply the number, frequency and relevance of touchpoints with our guests," says Ian Di Tullio, senior vice president of guest services for AccorHotels.
Artificial intelligence is one of the most talked-about technologies in travel, with the potential to revolutionize the guest experience by bringing understanding and efficiency to every aspect of the journey, from powering pricing, search and booking functions to creating more personalized experiences and on-site service.
Earlier this month, InterContinental Hotels Group announced it is creating 100 "AI Smart Rooms" at its hotels in cities across China within the year.
IHG has partnered with Baidu, a Chinese AI and internet company, to create the smart rooms using Baidu's DuerOS system, a software for intelligent hardware.
Unlike some voice assistant platforms that require specific prompt words or instructions, these devices are being built to understand requests in the natural ways guests would say them.
Guests will also be able to switch the room's settings between "work" and "leisure" modes. The AI solution will also be used to aid hotel staff, for example by automatically resetting devices when guests check out.
"IHG has always been at the forefront of innovation," says Lin Wang, vice president of marketing or IHG Greater China.
IHG and Baidu inked a strategic partnership on AI development last November.


Before the Fall of the Wall in 1989, Germany was composed of two different parts: East and West–separated by the Berlin Wall that divided the country and the City. I had visited Germany for the first time in 1987 but had only stayed in West Germnay. By 2009, when next I visited 22 years later, the country had been unified and I visited East Germany for the first time. I loved Berlin–an endlessly fascinating city that spanned many historical periods that was reflected in its varying architecture. Follow me on my walking tour of Berlin.
Berlin, in the heart of a January winter, can be brutal. But layers of warm cashmere and sheepskin-lined Uggs allowed me to walk along the city's sidewalks into the pages of history. All modern-day activity is concentrated around the Zoo, best reached by public bus Number 100 that offers, through its picture windows on the upper deck, a built-in tour of the city, for the price of a ride, no matter where you board it,. It trundles along the administrative quarter of the Reichstag, Berlin's Parliament Building, the many museums of the Kulturforum and upscale showrooms offering retail therapy at Ku-damm (short for Kurfunstendamm).
But Berlin is best discovered on foot; so comfortable shoes are vital to an enjoyment of its offerings. It helps to remember that the city was once divided into two parts: East Berlin and West Berlin–by a Wall (the Fall of which we are celebrating today, twenty years after it momentously crumbled). Though history has rendered that divide merely a current curiosity, there is enough difference between the two parts easily discernible by even the laziest eye to suggest that a massive ideological difference once characterized the segregation.
Tuck a warm scarf around your neck, bury your gloved hands deep in the pockets of a winter coat and begin your jaunt at the oft-photographed Brandenburg Gate. Prepare to be jolted by your first sight of the city's most easily recognizable landmark. Emerging from the Underground train on to Unter der Linden, one of the main arteries of the East (so-called because it is lined by linden or lime trees). Time permitting, stroll along this road that was built by the Prussian monarchs to lead directly to their city palace. You will, most likely see the Gate right ahead of you. Do not be surprised if you stifle a gasp. Seen in countless photographs and films, you will find it familiar yet foreign and as it suddenly loomed ahead of me, its presence was so startling that I experienced a reaction similar to the kind I had when first I saw the Taj Mahal and the Grand Canyon. It really did take my breath away!
The Brandenburg Gate was built by Karl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791 under a commission from King Frederick William II of Prussia. Twelve Doric columns support a Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses and Victoria, Roman goddess of Victory, sculpted by Johann Gottfried Schadow.Anyone who has been to Athens, will recognize it easily as being based on the Prophylaea, the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. The Nazis used the gate as a party symbol. Though it suffered extensive damage during the bombing of World War II, its structure retained its integrity standing tall amidst the ruins of the Paritzer Platz which surrounds it.
As you take in the Neo-Classical lines of this landmark, let your eyes stray towards the Adlon Kempinski Hotel, one of the world's most luxurious buildings that gained recent notoriety from the fact that the late Michael Jackson dangled his baby from a third floor balcony of this stately building only a few years ago. He wasn't called Wacko Jacko for nothing!
Your next stop would be the Reischstag—the country's Parliament Building, where the Bundestag, i.e. Parliament, meets. This 1894 structure hosted the German Parliament until 1933 when it was burned down. A recent restoration has returned it to its former glory and crowned it with a glass dome, the handiwork of British architect Sir Norman Foster. Those familiar with the collapsed glass pudding that is the City Hall building on London's South Bank will see similarities in Foster's style with Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei who also uses glass liberally in his creations (remember the Pyramid in the central square of the Louvre in Paris?). It is worth joining the queue to see Parliament in session as well as to climb the spiral walkway to the very top of the Dome that offers multiple reflections in its mirrored walls as well as lovely views of the City astride both banks of the River Spree.
Make a right, and go past the Brandenburg Gate to arrive at the general area known as Hitler's Bunker. Most visitors remain excited about this spot imagining that there still exists a secret passageway leading to the underground headquarters in which the Fuhrer remained holed up with Eva Braun as the war came to a suicidal end (in much the same way that the Underground Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum in London are open to visitors). Do not be disappointed to discover that the bunker was completely destroyed by the Soviets after they seized control of the city at the war's end. This was deliberately done to prevent Hitler's grave from becoming a pilgrimage site for the world's Neo-Nazis. Today, nothing but soil stands over the warren of rooms once occupied by the most powerful SS officers. They are surrounded by the kind of solid, squat, grey, institutional residential buildings that characterize all Communist countries. Residents of these building today use the land under which the bunker once lay to walk their dogs who defecate all over the premises—what some would consider a fitting fate for the architects of the hated Regime.
A few feet ahead is the Holocaust Memorial. You will be struck by the stark simplicity of the area that is composed of hundreds of granite blocks of varying height shooting upwards to form a uniform grid comprising narrow lanes. You realize, soon enough, that this concrete maze, can be terrifying. Every side you turn, more monotonous concrete blocks entrap. Finding the steps that lead underground is a palpable relief. This museum, a serene darkened space, details the losses suffered by six European Jewish families during the insanity of the Holocaust. This is a good first stop for anyone contemplating a visit to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp which lies just a few miles outside Berlin. Though not as well known as the ones at Auschwitz or Dachau, it was no less sinister as the ruthlessness of Nazi machinery rounded up Jews and other unwanted members of European society, herded them off to face forced labor under atrocious conditions and eventually gassed them to death. To see this chapter of history presented so vividly through photographs, diary jottings and postcards in this museum is so heart breaking that you might find yourself suppressing tears.
Not too far away is a huge grey granite building on the intersection of two of East Berlin's busiest roads—Wilhelmstrasse and Fredreichstrasse. This building has the appearance of the kind you see in Nazi movies such as the recent Valkyrie that was shot on location there—dour, forbidding, depressing. This is the only one of the old Nazi buildings that the Soviets did not destroy after they took control of Berlin. It used to be the Ministry of Ministries under the SS but today is the Ministry of Finance and Taxation—just as frightful, some would say!
At the intersection of the street on which this scary building ends are the remains of the Berlin Wall that once encircled the city and separated the GDR (German Democratic Republic, the West) from the DDR (the Communist East). Tourists pause here today to take pictures and stand astride it, one foot in East Berlin, the other in the West. Built after the takeover of the city by the Communists who wished to deter escapees from moving surreptitiously from the East to the West, it encircled the city and became a somber symbol of the suppression of freedom. The Wall today is a grey granite structure devoid of graffiti and enclosed by a fence as tourists still attempt to break pieces of it to sell on E-Bay!
Checkpoint Charlie is just around the corner from this remnant of the wall. This was the code name for the Border Crossing between East and West Germany. The name is derived from the Code used in the NATO phonetic alphabet at the time—A for Alpha, the check-point at Helmstedt, B for Bravo at Dreilinden and C for Charlie in Berlin. It refers to a nondescript white shed manned by Allied guards during the Cold War. To leave this last checkpoint in the American sector behind was to enter into the Communist Bloc in East Berlin, a place as different before the Fall of the Wall as Heaven from Hell– which explains why so many hundreds of East Berliners risked death attempting to cross it! Their experiences are well documented in the Checkpoint Charlie Museum set up a mere block away. Just next door is a Soviet Museum that carries the last Soviet flag flown on the Russian side before the Wall collapsed in November 1989. The atmosphere in this part of Berlin, even today, 65 years after the war ended, is grim, and though tourists pose for pictures, there is a reverential silence that engulfs the area.
Though your appetite might have suffered by this mental bombardment, it would make sense to stop at this point for apfel streudel and hot chocolate. Traffic flows peacefully today in the many broad streets and avenues and there is little to suggest that life was once so fraught with emotional hardships for families split on both sides of the divide.
While a walking tour of 20th century Berlin can leave the visitor rather respondent, the city offers other far more mood-uplifting quarters, many of which were built in the 18th century. It is helpful to keep in mind as you cover the erstwhile royal portions of the city that most Prussian kings were called Fredriech or Wilhelm and when their parents were being particularly creative, they were named Fredreich Wilhem!
The Gendarmenmarkt (literally, in French, the Policeman's Market), a good place to begin such an exploration, is dominated by three stunningly beautiful buildings—the Concert Hall, the Hugenot Memorial Museum and a Protestant Cathedral. In the center of one of the grandest and prettiest squares in Europe, German playwright Schiller contemplates the vagaries of history from his marble pedestal while surrounded by the Muses.
One block away, your route will wind towards Unter der Linden and on to Bebelplatz which is also dominated by the colossal dome of a church—the Catholic Cathedral of St. Helwig decorated with striking sculpture in bas relief on its main pediment. This space overlooks the campus of Humboldt University whose alumni list reads like a Who's Who of German intelligentsia from Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka to Sigmund Freud and Bismarck, Karl Marx and Fredreich Engels! In fact, in the early-19th century, a book burning ritual was carried out by a dictatorial regime that led alumnus Heinrich Heinne to write in the 1820s that once a society starts to burn books, it will not be long before it burns people. Strangely prophetic, considering what the Nazis did a century later. Because the university is allegedly ashamed of its role in the book burning scandal, today books are sold by the main gate, the proceeds going to charity.
If you make a left out of the University gates, and head further along Unter der Linden, you arrive at Museum Island, location of the Lustgarten with the Altes Museum, a splendid Neo-Classical structure that houses Greek and Roman Antiquities and is considered one of the finest such buildings in Europe. Its most treasured item is a bust of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, a study in haughtiness.
Just past the Altes Museum, you will cross the ornate bridge over the River Spree and stop short at the sight of the superb Berliner Dom or main Cathedral which is reminiscent of London's St. Paul's Cathedral and for good reason—the Kaiser wanted a cathedral similar to St. Paul's, only more ornate–and so the architect gave him his heart's desire piling on every possible sort of exterior ornamentation that money could buy! Inside, the Berliner Dom is an epic to Baroque excess. Marvelous stained glass windows, marble Corinthian columns, carved apostles surrounding an ornate altar, lavish gilding, a magnificent brass organ with an intricately carved case and the grand sarcogphagi of Freidreich I and his wife make this one of the most staggering ecclesiastical spaces in the city.
Of the many beautiful churches that dot the capital—from the Baroque to the Modernist—there are two that most visitors choose to see: First, the Kaiser Wilhelm Gestadtkirsche whose profile with its bombed steeple is striking even from a distance. Because it is so intriguing, it warrants investigation.
Visitors enter the Memorial Hall that used to be the main entrance to the original church that has stood on this site since 1904 when it was inaugurated by the Kaiser. During World War II, it was bombed to smithereens though its tower remained, a ghastly reminder of happier times. The church, however, boasted some unimaginably intricate mosaics in the Byzantine style, many of which miraculously survived the bombing. When the war ended and the reconstruction of Germany began, it was decided that the tower should be retained though the rest of the ruins were demolished. The surviving mosaics were carefully moved and relocated to the main tower together with several others that had originally stood there. Today, these mosaics are the main attraction of the tower that has been converted into a Memorial Hall. A newer, far more modern church (that some think resembles a compactor!), was fashioned out of thousands of pieces of sapphire blue glass that glow as the sunlight streams through them. It makes for a quiet place of contemplation.
The other church, also frequently visited is Marienkirsche, a Gothic Church with an ancient fresco that wraps itself around the entrance walls. This, however, is so faint that it is barely discernible. Inside the church, the stained glass windows on the altar are striking as are some very old sculpted effigies. The steeple of this church seems to reach out for the skies, competing, as it were, with the Berlin Telecom Tower whose spire also seems to scoop up the clouds.
No first time visitor can leave Berlin without being struck by its wealth of art and architectural artifacts. To see all the museums of Berlin one would need a month and to appreciate them from the outside would require another! Each building is stunning and forms a very fitting receptacle for the collection that lies concealed within.
Two museums that one would be loathe to leave out are The Gemaldegalerie at the Kulturforum and the Pergammon Museum. The Kulturforum is a part of Berlin in which the arts and culture are omnipresent through the Philharmonic Building, the National Library and, of course, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Gemaldegalerie.
Berlin boasts so heavenly a collection of paintings as to make art-lover feels as if they have reached the Gates of Paradise. The Nazis were huge supporters of culture and patronized their artists enthusiastically. Hence, they amassed a vast treasure trove of fine art by the Old Masters. When the War ended, this collection was divided between East and West Germany, its reunification becoming possible only by the Fall of the Wall. The new Gemaldegalerie, created to house this treasure, is a Modernist space custom designed and built specifically for the purpose—and it is truly one of the finest museum buildings to be seen. It boasts an interesting layout, and paintings hung against light-absorbing walls so that daylight makes only a subdued presence felt on the canvases that suffer no artificial light upon their surfaces at all.
As for the collection? Well, most visitors give themselves two to three hours to see the Highlights (the museum has a fine handout highlighting 20 items) but one can easily spend the entire day here. The clutch of Botticellis is astounding, there is a fine array of Rembrandts, some really superb works from the Dutch and Flemish Schools, a totally wacky Pieter Breughel canvas entitled A Hundred Proverbs and easily the most striking one of all–Caravaggio's Cupid Victorius. In fact, Cupid's playfulness, indeed his impishness—as caught by his pose and his expression—are so entrancing that it is hard to tear oneself away from this work. And a Vermeer entitled A Glass of Wine is also so memorable that it brings to mind the novel Girl with a Pearl Ear Ring by Tracy Chevalier. Sustenance may be found in the Museum Café that allows visitors to sample a variety of delicious German salads as well as hearty main meals.
If the Gemaldegalerie presents high quality fine art, probably the piece de resistance among Berlin's museums is the Pergammonmuseum, located on what is called Museum Island. Audio Guides in English provide a very comprehensive commentary on the Museum's Highlights.
The very first 'room' in the Pergammon is breathtaking. As soon as you walk in, you find yourself standing right in front of the altar from the Greek Temple at Pergammon in modern-day Turkey—it is from this Temple that the Museum gets its name. Now, though the history of the museum is long and fascinating, suffice it to note that in the early part of the 19th century, German archeologists were exceptionally active in sites all over the Middle East. A great deal of their excavations and discoveries led to the uncovering of ancient civilizations whose mementoes would have been lost to the world. As a reward for their endeavors, they were permitted to bring these 'structures' to Germany where these specially constructed museums served to house them safe from the destruction that could be wrought by the elements.
The Pergammon Altar has sculpture that is in a far better state of preservation than the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum (although those are far more famous—perhaps because they are so controversial!). Apart from the marble altar which is intact and which the visitor can actually ascend (a truly unique experience), colossal friezes from the Pergammon Temple decorate the walls. The heights of the altar make a superb vantage point from which to contemplate the wealth of ancient mythological sculpture that encompasses you. This is so magical, that it is worth going to Berlin only to be swaddled by this spectacle.
The Temple of Athena in the next room is just as dazzling. What is mind blowing is the sheer size of these works and the scale of the rooms that allow these towering temples, columns and altars to be accommodated indoors! And I hadn't yet arrived at the Ishtar Gate! Next door to the Athena Temple are the Gates of Miletus, colossal Classical columns holding a decorative gateway that once existed at the entrance to the Market in Miletus in Asia Minor. Though badly damaged and undergoing restoration, these gates are truly splendid. Here, too, visitors walk right through the gates, feeling as if they have actually arrived in these ancient worlds.
And then you reach the most impressive exhibit of all—the Babylonian Ishtar Gates. These stunning gates composed almost entirely of sapphire ceramic glazed bricks were built during the reign of Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (604-542 BC). To reach them, one needed to pass through what was known as the 'Processional Way'—originally 590 feet long. In the Pergammon, the Inner Gates and a large part of the Processional Way allow the viewer to marvel at the quality of the artistry that went into the design and construction of so exquisite a work. Although many of the upper parts of the structure have been restored (it is very easy to see where the original tiles end and the modern ones begin), the animals that adorn the walls (horses, ibex, and lions—loads of lions) are original. These are not merely embedded into the walls but jut out like bas relief—all of which makes them not just impossible to describe but impossible to stop raving over.
Other more significant parts of the Pergammon's collection are the Façade of the Mshatta Palace which once stood in Jordan—the parts in the museum once concealed the entrance to a palace and a small mosque. The Allepo Zimmer, a spectacular paneled room that came from a merchant's home in the Syrian city of Aleppo, is also fascinating. Apart from its obvious treasures, one of the most exquisite objects in this collection is a Roman Sarcophagus of the 2nd century AD upon which is carved the entire chilling story of Medea—truly Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!
The second floor of the Pergammon building stocks treasures of the Islamic world (including a few fascinating Moghul works), but easily the most striking is the glazed ceramic tiled Mihrab from a mosque in Kashan (in modern-day Iran) built in 1226. The quality of the glaze is so superior that the gates glitter as if covered in gold—again, impossible to describe!
Though it is located rather remotely compared to most of the city's other attractions, no trip to Berlin would be complete without a visit to the Jewish Historic Museum. This quite recent addition to the city skyline is the design of American Jewish architect Daniel Libeskind who has created a structure inspired by the Star of David turned inside-out. To call it sheer genius would be an understatement. It is so superbly conceived and so amazingly implemented that I marveled at Libeskind's vision with each step I took further and further into the maze-like building.
In the basement is the Holocaust Tower—a structure which represents various things to various people. It is a tall column that you enter underground. You will find yourself in an unlit and unheated space (and believe me, the contrast in temperatures is striking at any time of year). The only light is natural—coming from a small slit in the walls. It represents the imprisonment of the prisoners in the various concentration camps around Europe and their surmounting hopelessness.
I then stepped into the Garden of Exile, a series of granite columns with olive trees growing at the top—olives, of course, symbolizing the Promised Land. Taking the elevator to the top floor, I got off in the Medieval section which details the persecutions that Jews encountered throughout history.
In a capital city that, like others in Europe, is fast becoming internationalized, it is good to know that foodies can still find treats that are essentially indigenous. KaDeWe (short for Kaufhaus des Westens), the magnificent Art Deco mansion to Mamon built in 1907 by Berlin merchant Adolf Jandorf is a must-eat venue. It's Gourmet Floor rivals that of London's Harrods boasting 3,400 wines and 1,300 kinds of cheese alone. If you are a connoisseur of all things edible, you cannot possibly be disappointed for it is not only the taste of the items you will purchase but their presentation that will have you composing symphonies to your taste buds.
Berlin also has a selection of restaurants to suit every pocket and palate but you would be well advised to try some national specialties such as wild boar casserole with knoddel (potato casserole) and veal roast with spaztel (a German thick pasta, somewhat similar to gnocchi). German potato salad is world renowned and the country makes wurst (sausages) with the same attention to detail that France makes cheese or Belgium makes chocolate.
As for Chocoholics, nirvana is promised at Fassbender and Rausch near the Gendarmenmarkt. This upscale chocolatier has picture windows that display chocolate replicas of the Brandenburg Gate, the Kaiser Wilheim Gedatschkirsch and, somewhat inexplicably, the Titanic! When you have admired the craftsmanship that has created these confections, you can agonize for hours as you gaze at a selection of choicest treats from individually molded pralines and hand-rolled truffles to take home in a signature box. Then climb a floor higher to the restaurant, settle by a window that overlooks the imposing dome of the Cathedral and order a Black Forest Chocolate pastry (I love the name in German—Schwartzwalden Torte!) Cherries, soaked in kirsche (cherry liqueur) are frozen into the sponge. They thaw into minscule shots with each chocolately bite! Heavenly!
Berlin, will no doubt, have awed and moved you in turn as you rambled through its centuries of changing fortunes. Fight the plummeting temperature in such a spot as you soak it all in. Get your hands out of those coat pockets and let your frigid fingers curl around a cup of dark hot chocolate laced with Ecuadorian chilli as you contemplate the fact that you became a part of its checkered history, if only for a few wintry days one January!
This entry was posted on April 12, 2006, in Austria, Bon Voyage!, Europe.
Arriving in Vienna late at night, Llew, Chriselle and I made our home on Schulgasse, in a hundred-year old apartment building, with our friend Sabine Poelzl, Llew's former Bank Austria colleague, who proved to be a very generous host. Awakening to bright sunshine the next morning was a treat and, somewhat unexpectedly, Vienna quite dazzled us all.
Indeed, in the course of the next three days, we discovered the glory of the Hapsburgs in their splendid palaces, their exquisite churches, their vast treasury of royal jewels, clothing, arms and armor, their scintillating National Library and their lovely public gardens. To see the Hofburg Palace, seat of the mighty Austro-Hungarian empire in its entirety, would take months and so we contented ourselves with visiting the impressive Schartzkammer (Treasury) with its sacred relics including pieces of the True Cross, and a nail from the Crucifixion. After touring the stunning National Library, we walked through the enormous squares reminiscent of the majesty of Emperor Franz Joseph I and his beloved consort, Elizabeth (Sisi), and of powerful Empress Maria-Theresia whose fourteen children included Marie-Antoinette of "Let them eat cake" fame.
Of course, we could not possibly leave Vienna without seeing the highlights of the Kuntshistoriches Museum, one of the worlds' great art collections, where Rafael's exquisite Madonna in the Meadow, works by Reubens, Rembrandt, Titian, Breughel, Durer, Lucius Cranach and particularly the portraits by Velasquez of the child Margarita-Teresa, the future wife of Leopold I, were entirely enchanting. Best of all, however, was the interior of the Museum itself whose grandeur is impossible to describe. Never has eye seen such extraordinary attention to detail in the sumptuous adornment of carvings, paintings, carpeting, etc. on the stunning central stairway, foyer and landings.
Our visit to Vienna was made profoundly more enjoyable by the company of Ronald Sturm and his wife Karin and by Ronni's brother Deiter, all long-time friends of ours. They went out of their way to give us a good time and to show us a side of Austria that only the locals can know. Ronni, a diplomat with the Austrian government, now on loan to the International Atomic Energy Commission, gave us a tour of the unique Vienna International Center.
The previous evening, the Strums had taken us for a long walk through the vineyards of Nussdorf from where we had sweeping views of the Danube and of the neighboring country of Hungary (right).
Ronni's brother Deiter, a gynecologist and a one-time guide at the Schoenbrunn Palace gave us a private guided tour of this gorgeous Rococo palace with its immense collections of decorative arts. My favorite rooms were the Blue and White room, reminiscent of the fabric called Toile de Jouy and of the Indo-Persian room where the walls were decorated with Moghul miniature paintings inlaid with Chinese lacquer work. Taking the Grand Tour of the Palace left us gasping at the sheer wealth of Austro-Hungarian imperialism, its wide reach and its tremendous influence in an erstwhile era as seen in the Long Gallery and in the assortment of glorious furniture, wall-length paintings by Martin van Meytens, court painter to Maria-Theresia, and other treasures that cram the spacious rooms and galleries of this building. The Gloriette makes a lovely statement at the far end of the symmetrically laid-out formal gardens. After coffee and apple strudel in Café Dommayer near the Palace (left), Ronni, Karin and Deiter drove us to the south of Vienna through the most charming villages scattered all over with names like Perchtoldsdorf, and Modling until we arrived at the chic, upscale town of Baden with its casino, opera house, spas, gardens and quaint cobbled streets crammed with designer boutiques (see section on Baden).
No visit to Vienna would be complete without a guided tour of its stately Staatsoper or Opera House.
The tour took us into the lavish heart of one of Vienna's most beloved buildings, decorated in Baroque excess with gilded moldings, graceful statuettes, glittering crystal chandeliers and solid marble staircases. Our visit backstage introduced us to the elaborate machinery underground that permits the changing of scenes and sets several times during the most spectacular of operas. Again, not surprisingly, Mozart is a particular favorite.
In the same vicinity as the Opera House is the elegant Hotel Sacher where the famous Sachertorte was created. We brought one home as a souvenir and continued our rambles making sure to stop for hot chocolate and pastries at Demel's, pastry-makers to the Hapsburgs. Austria's konditorei (coffee houses) are worth visiting just for the sophistication of their settings, the style with which the most mouth watering pastries are displayed and presented and the quality of the service. Indeed, the crème schnitte that I ordered at Demel's was worthy of the palates of royalty.
For Chriselle, who declined to accompany us to Stephansdom as the Cathedral of St. Steven's is called, as she had been there only four years ago, shopping in the Graben was more enticing as she found Europe's young designers well represented on this snazzy pedestrian plaza. Llew and I, however, undertook the challenge of climbing all 350 steps up to the South Spire of the Gothic Basilica to get graphic views of Vienna as far away as the Belvedere Palace on a lovely sunny day. Later that day, we feasted on gigantic ice-cream sundaes at Café de L'Europe in the Graben before enjoying Austria's best-known culinary invention, the Wiener Schnitzel at Grunspan, a restaurant to which Sabine, our wonderful hostess, took us and where we also tried Ottaringer beer for which Austria is renowned.
Vienna's beautiful broad boulevards, its superb public transport system especially the trams.
The prospect of flying into Salzburg from London filled me with anticipation. I had hoped to receive a bird's-eye view of the Salzkammergut as in the opening scene of The Sound of Music in which Julie Andrews as Maria races joyously singing, "The hills are alive with the sound of music". Instead of which, we flew into Salzburg airport after darkness had fallen leaving me with few glimpses of the spectacular folds of the green-draped mountains.
Despite the late hour, the area around the railway station still buzzed with tourist energy. We settled for the next two nights in the family run Pension Alderhof, a very charming place with painted wooden furniture and a short walk into Old Town. After a gigantic Austrian breakfast, we walked on a Sunday morning in a light drizzle, finding refuge at mass in the Church of St. Andras which was off the beaten tourist track and so devoid of crowds.
Then, crossing one of the many bridges over the river Salzach, we arrived at Alte Markt, a busy market square where business for the day was just awakening. For the next couple of days, we allowed the magic of Salzburg to creep upon us. Despite the dreary weather (we actually had pea-size hailstones rain down upon us during an icy shower!) this musical city of Mozart and the Von Trapps, found its way into our hearts as we explored Getreidegasse (below left) and munched on a delicious giant chocolate covered soft pretzel filled with apricot jam—deeelicious!
This famous shopping street with its curious wrought-iron signs adorning the shop fronts is the location of one of Mozart's homes. The Salzburger Festspiele (Annual Salzburg Festival of Music) was on while Llew, Chriselle and I were visiting and the streets were filled to bursting with classical music-lovers looking for a bargain opera or a candlelight concert to enthrall them.
Salzburg is a city to be met on foot and our walking tour took us into charming corners that came straight out of postcards. We posed for pictures by the famous Pegasus fountain that featured in The Sound of Music and in the courtyards of the many churches that give the city its distinctive skyline with is pointed steeples and its circular domes. Everywhere the genius of Austria's Neo-Classical architect, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach was plainly evident in the ornate Baroque altars with their layers of decorative embellishment—twisted marble pillars, gilded ceiling moldings, endless wall and dome frescoes by Johann Michael Rottmayr and curlicued stuccowork. As Llew put it, "Just when you think you have seen the most spectacular of the churches, you come upon yet another one that blows you right away".
Determined not to suffer sightseeing fatigue, we stopped at Café Tomaselli for coffee and pastries and had a chance to visit Cafe KondatereiFurst where the famous Mozartkugeln was created—chocolate and marzipan confections that melt in the mouth and are found all over this city in their distinctive golden wrappers with Amadeus's portrait on them. People-watching in the sidewalk cafes is a very enjoyable activity and we did a fair share of it throughout our travels. Salzburg also presents beautiful aerial views from the Hohensalzburg Fortress that we visited through a ride on the speedy funicular train. The views of the Untersberg Mountain within whose shadows the city lies and the extended views of the Salzkammergut Region (Lake District) of Salzburg are also beautiful from this height.We took the stairs on our way down to the city, a move that's high recommended for the totally amazing views it presents of the Dom (the city's main cathedral), and the pretty spires of the churches.
Finally, we ended our visit by exploring the Right Bank of the river, New Town, pausing to appreciate the beauty of the Mirabel Gardens and to gasp at the stunning Baroque marble staircase in the Mirabel Palace punctuated every so often with playful cherubs (right), a gift of Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich to his mistress who bore him fourteen children. Now you know why they needed the Reformation!
I had visited Salzburg twenty years previously and had taken the famous Sound of Music Tour at that time. Not surprisingly, the tour is till popular among foreign tourists though Salzburg locals seem oblivious to the hype that surrounds the shooting of the film in this enchanting location. Apart from the tour, other things hadn't seemed to have changed at all. The weather, for one, showed little improvement in two decades—it was raining when I left Salzburg in 1987 and it was still raining when I returned the following millennium! Nothing dampens my joys in the city's charms, however, and its views are best digested on the bridges that lead out to New Town.
It was thrilling to be woken each morning to the peeling sounds of church bells in the many steeples that dot the skyscape and to munch on wurst at the several sausage stands around the city. On our way into Vienna, we made a detour into the fairy-tale village of Mondsee whose church featured in the scene where Maria weds Captain Von Trapp. The pastel colored facades of the pretty houses on the main street and the masses of flowering annuals tumbling out of profuse window-boxes gave Mondsee a very special charm. Then, just before we arrived in Vienna, we stopped off at St. Valentin to meet, after seventeen years, my former neighbor from Bombay from Bombay, Dinesh Marar, his wife Rosemary and their daughter Natalie, for dinner (below right).
There is nothing I dislike about Austria. From the moment I first set eyes on the coutnry, more than twenty years ago, it has occupied a special place in my heart. Just about any corner of Austria could become the subject of a picture postcard or a landscape painting. Almost afraid, it seems ,of asserting its identity in the presence of dominant Germany, its next door neighbor, Austria has been content to take the back seat.
Yet, droves of visitors leave bewitched by its combination of natural beauty and unique contributions to civilization. I mean what's not to love about Mozart's "Eine Klein Natchmusik" or a slice of cripsy apfel streudel? And then there's that legendary Viennese Roast Coffee…and the schnitzel. And the romanticism of the Von Trapp Family Singers and ….there's so much more to Austria.
I wanted to share it all with Llew and Chriselle. It has helped that Llew's own career in Banking long associated him with the country through his job with Creditanstalt which later became Bank Austria. It made us friends who live in Vienna and frequently invited us to visit the country in their company. My former neighbor from Bombay, Dinesh Marar, had married an Austrian and had made the country his home. Through Sabine Maringer Poelz and my old friends of over twenty years, Ronald Sturm, his wife Karin and his brother Deiter, we saw Austria through familiar eyes when we visited the country in the summer of 2005 on a tour of Eastern Europe.
Follow us now on our travels around Austria. Let us take you to Salzburg, a city in which my maternal grandmother Valerie Marcks had lived in the years between the two World Wars. She often told me of the beauty of Salzburg when I was a little girl. I felt as if I was walking in her footsteps when I arrived in the city as a backpacker in 1987. Almost twenty years later, I thought of her again when I walked the same streets, this time in the company of Llew and Chriselle who also fell in love with the city.
Then stay close behind us in Vienna, magnificent capital city of the Hapsburgs, as we see some of the world's greatest art treasures.
In the gracious spa town of Baden, we shall tread upon cobbled streets that carry strong sulphur scents.
We returned home with a ton of evocative photographs, a special wooden box containing the famous Sachertorte and memories of a warm and friendly people who generously shared the bounty of their land with us.
We're sure you will love Austria too.


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Updates on Russia and Ukraine; Possible WWIII?
Chloe Smith, Reporter
On February 24, 2022 Russia began an invasion into Ukraine. This has been devastating for Ukrainians with reports of 957 injuries and 549 civilians having been killed, what's even worse, many of them aren't getting proper burials, just thrown into mass graves. U.S officials estimate that about 6000 Russians may have also been killed due to this travesty.
According to CNN Russian forces are expanding west for the first time, taking over Dnipro, Lutsk, and creeping closer to Kyiv, just northeast and east of the capital. With about 1.5 million people evacuating to Poland who opened their borders to refugees, 176,000 to Slovakia, and 225,000 to Hungary. Russia has taken many brutal attacks on civilians, bombs hitting children hospitals, apartment complexes, psychiatric hospitals, schools, and transportation accesses like train stations and airports. Due to many of these attacks Ukraine accuses Russia of genocide.
Biden is to announce if the US will move to revoke "mos favored nation" status for Russia. The White House passed a bill banning importing Russian oil, natural gas, and coal into the US. U.S will also include export blocks on technology, limit Russias ability to advance its military and aerospace, and applied sanctions on Russian banks. But it isn't just the US punishing Russia, the EU, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, and Asia have froze Putin's and other Russian officials assets and roughly half of the country's foreign currency reserves. Countries have also removed Russian athletes for the Russian Grand Prix and FIFA.
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The Devastating Aftermath of Hurricane Ian
Long Live the Queen
Biden Announces Possible War in Our Future
Bill 167
Fall Sports Senior Night
Homecoming Week in Review
Griffith Staff Opens Courtyard To Students For First Time In Five Years

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


AOL Travel and Orbitz have announced a new multi-year agreement that will make Orbitz.com the web destinations primary travel booking agent.
As part of the deal Orbitz will provide AOL travel readers with discounts on hotels, vacation packages, flights, rental cars, cruises and other items through Orbitz.com. In exchange Orbitz.com and their other popular sites CheapTickets.com and Away.com will feature exclusive content from AOL Travel including travel guides. Through their partnership Orbitz will be able to obtain information from AOL Travel, HuffPOst Travel and Gadling travel-themed content.
By signing a multi-year deal Orbitz has usurped a Travelocity partnership that AOL has held for more than a decade. It should however be noted that Travelocitycom isn't cut out of the AOL Travel destination, Orbitz will simply be prominently featured throughout many of AOL Travel's pages.
Do you think AOL Travel and Orbtiz make for a good online partnership for destination travel?


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Tag Archives: Brotherhood
Under the Banner of Universal Co-Masonry: The Institution of Polaris Lodge
13 Oct 2017 By universalfreemasonry in Freemasons, Masonic Events, Universal Co-Masonry Tags: An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Brother Albert Mackey, Brother George Washington, Brother P.D. Newman, Brotherhood, Brothers, Builders, Co-Freemasonry, Co-Masonry, Co-Masons, Corn, Cornerstone, Freemasonry, Freemasonry and the Art of Moral Navigation, Freemasons, Institution, King Solomon, North Star, Oil, Polaris, salt, U.S. Capitol, United Federation of Lodges, Wine	Leave a comment
It is the custom of Freemasons to gather to lay the foundation stone or dedicate and consecrate certain places in time-honored ceremonies. For example, on September 18, 1793, President George Washington, a Freemason, laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol and was assisted by the Grand Master of Maryland Joseph Clark, in a Masonic ritual.
The newspaper of the day reported: "On Wednesday, one of the grandest Masonic processions took place, for the purpose of laying the corner-stone of the Capitol of the United States, which, perhaps, was ever exhibited on the like important occasion."
Following Masonic tradition, such sacred work was accomplished on September 23, 2017, when Universal Co-Masonry instituted Polaris Lodge in Dallas, Texas. The ceremony was conducted on that Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m.
The Most Sovereign Grand Commander Magdalena I. Cumsille presided and granted Dispensation to the Dallas brethren to form Polaris Lodge. Addressing those assembled, the M.S.G.C. stated:
Since time immemorial, it has been custom among Freemasons to dedicate certain places, persons, or things to Divinity, in order to prepare them for a specific role and purpose. Today, honoring that ancient tradition, we are assembled here to birth Polaris Lodge: the first of many Lodges to be instituted under the banner of Universal Co-Masonry.
Brothers from all orients of Universal Co-Masonry united fraternally to dedicate the Lodge that arose from the continued labors of so many. The name Polaris was chosen by the Brothers of the new Lodge, which is the name of the celestial body also referred to as the North Star or Pole Star.
Polaris is famous for remaining virtually still in the sky while the entire northern sky moves around it. That is because of its location which is nearly at the north celestial pole, the point around which the entire northern sky turns.
As Freemasonry is an ancient craft of Builders, Polaris has long been an important point of orientation. Before the invention of the compass, builders laid out the north and south lines of their foundations by observing the heavens. Of particular usefulness was Polaris, which allowed for the alignment of a perfect North and South line. Freemasonry venerates the great builder, King Solomon of Israel, who raised a sublime Temple, which he dedicated to God. During the ceremony, the M.S.G.C. explained:
It is important to remember that true enlightenment can never be achieved except in the Spirit of Brotherhood, based on unity in Spirit. King Solomon is one of the main characters in the annuals of Freemasonry, and he had this in mind when he concentrated the attention of the whole nation in building his Temple….
When the Temple was finished, the King said: "I have surely built Thee a house of habitation, a place for Thee to dwell forever." (I Kings 8:13)
Following the tradition of the Ancient Israelites, the Temple was consecrated with corn, wine, oil, and salt to launch a new unit of brotherhood into the United Federation of Lodges.
In addition to its usefulness to the Craft in building, Polaris has long been regarded as a guide and orientation point to travelers across the globe. Brother Albert Mackey, expounded on the importance of Polaris in his book, "An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry," by stating:
The North Star is the Pole Star, the Polaris of the mariner, the Cynosaura, that guides Freemasons over the stormy seas of time.
For two thousand years, sailors and travelers have used this star as a means of navigation. Brother P.D. Newman, in his work, "Freemasonry and the Art of Moral Navigation," wrote:
The North Star then, both literally and symbolically, is that guiding light by which a traveling man may find his way back home, that is, back to the center.
With the institution of this new body completed, the Brethren assembled then celebrated the occasion with a festive banquet.
Congratulations to all of the Brothers who have dedicated their time and efforts in the formation of the new Lodge. May the light of Polaris shine forever as a guide for the builders of the Temple of Humanity.


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NI: Employment tribunal backlog creating access to justice crisis
Rosemary Connolly
A growing backlog in Northern Ireland's employment tribunals is creating an access to justice crisis, lawyers have warned.
Killymeal House, the home of the Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal, is currently "closed until further notice".
Substantive and final hearings have been repeatedly postponed since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic last March.
Employment and equality solicitor Rosemary Connolly told Irish Legal News: "There is real and growing concern among practitioners about the delays in scheduling substantive and final hearings.
"Cases which are initiated now are not likely to be scheduled for hearing for at least a year and a half, perhaps longer."
She added: "There is clearly a significant access to justice issue. Claimants with unfair dismissal claims who are out of work face the prospect of waiting years to have their claims determined. This is not an effective remedy.
"Equally, employers will have claims pending for a lengthy period of time which is not acceptable either."
Ms Connolly urged the Department of the Economy, which has responsibility for the tribunals, to develop a "realistic plan to address the situation" and engage with stakeholders.
A spokesperson for the Law Society of Northern Ireland told ILN it is "aware of the concerns arising from interruptions to the work of the Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal and is raising them with the Minister for the Economy".
The Office of the Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal did not respond to a request for comment.
Supreme Court: Coronavirus pandemic did not justify postponing the surrender of man to Lithuania
England: One third of coronavirus prosecutions incompetent
High Court: FBD Insurance liable to pay out to publicans for coronavirus losses under policy
UK: Supreme Court orders insurers to pay out for coronavirus-related business interruption losses


The princess vase is a flowered china design from Belleek.
The 2008 Belleek Archive Collection is being introduced as part of the Pottery's celebration of some of its finest historical pieces over the past sixteen decades. Each one of the pieces, such as the princess vase, represents a specific period within the Pottery's history and celebrates the many hands that have forged the success of Belleek from its origins in 1857.
The Belleek princess vase is a flowered sculpture with individually applied petals along with filigree handles. The fine china Belleek vase measures 9" tall and as part of 2008 limited edition archive collection it is restricted to 450 pieces.


Open year-round for breakfast and lunch.
At Compton's, the pancakes are the specialty of the house and are all made from scratch. The over-stuffed omelettes, triple-decker club sandwiches and massive burgers are extremely popular as well and a challenge to finish. Make sure you bring your appetite! Children's menu available. Buses welcome.
Date of Availability: Open 6am to 4pm daily.


Dubai, UAE, Oct. 10, 2018 – Cityland Real Estate Development, the developer of the world's first nature-inspired retail shopping and entertainment center, has chosen Yardi Voyager® for its property management and accounting operations. The Cityland Mall, featuring over 350 retail stores restaurants with an expansive of 200,000 sq.ft . "Central Park' conceived within the mall property will soon open its door for public. It will also feature easy visitor access to Global Village, UAE's top leisure and Entertainment Destination with approximately 6-8 Million visitors per season.
Cityland will automate operations by implementing Yardi Voyager®, which combines property management and accounting with ownership, financials, budgets, forecasts and maintenance. The company will also utilise other integrated solutions from the Yardi platform, including Yardi® Leasing Manager, Yardi® Orion Business Intelligence and Yardi® Procure to Pay. Each solution offers mobile access to workflows and performance metrics, ideal for a busy retail management team.
"This software will significantly enhance our efficiency and enable us to manage our system operations very professionally. We are very pleased have appointed the market leader in retail management software and look forward to a long and fruitful relationship." said Fahimuddin Sharfuddin, Chief Executive Officer, at Cityland.
Learn more about how Yardi can help manage a wide range of real estate asset classes through one single database.


We can use rsinaica to find out which city is the most PM10-polluted in all of Mexico.
Once we've downloaded the data we filter values below 1 µg/m³ since they're probably calibration errors. And we only include stations that reported for more than 80% of days (292). We also have to take into account that PM10 data is measured as a 24 hour rolling average.
It looks like we can safely remove values above 500 µg/m³ and get rid of the Aguascalientes and Monclova networks.
We can also use the anomalize package to detect extreme values, but actually figuring out if they are errors is a little bit more tricky since fires can temporarily spike PM10 levels as often happens during the winter holidays when people burn trash and tires, and set off fireworks. I've opted to remove them, since I'm interested in the average of the whole year these PM10 outliers are unlikely to have a substantial effect on the rankings.
title = "daily maximum 24 average of PM10"


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Home Africa
Valee Music talks influences as an artist, uniqueness, new projects for 2021 and more
in Africa, Entertainment
In this rising interview, UK Afro-Pop newcomer of Zimbabwean origin, Valee Music talks about her influences as an artist, what makes her unique, new projects for the upcoming year (2021), and a lot more.
Valee Music prides herself on her Southern African roots. Growing up in London, her music is a fusion of her culture and upbringing which reflects her journey this far.
Last year, she opened the UK's biggest Southern African festival, Zimfest, where she performed alongside the likes of House DJ, Zinhle, Thomas Mapfumo and Winky D to name a few. Valee Music is definitely one to watch as a rising artist and her new single is sure to take the world by storm!
Dive into the interview.
1. Who is Valee Music?
Valee Music is a girl with a dream who just decided to go for it! I am hardworking, I am driven, I have a voice and I believe in surrounding myself with the best in order to reach my goals!
2. What makes you unique from other artists?
I'm unique from other artists because I am versatile – I'm sexy, I'm confident and I champion One Africa. This can be seen in my music!
3. What are your influences as an artist?
My influences have been Busi Mhlongo, Bob Marley, Lucky Dube & Lebo Mathosa to name a few. I like music that influences culture! I love anthems which you can see from my current music released this year! I want to be the embodiment of a modern-day Mama Africa God willing.
4. How is your music faring in both Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom?
My music is doing well. I'm in the Zimbabwean charts currently with 'Sondela'! In the UK I've had the likes of DJ Neptizzle from Rinse FM spinning my music. My music is also being played the world over Sweden, United States, South Africa – 32 countries in total. I feel like I am exceeding my expectations and I'm praying for more to come – BIGGER AND BETTER.
5. Why did you tap Charlie Kay to feature on your song/video 'Sondela'?
Charlie Kay is my producer for some of the records that you've heard! He is multi-talented, and I feel that having him on this record was quite natural! We are good friends, so we had great chemistry on set for the music video, and working with him made sense because he was able to help tell my story! He's also one of the top producers from Zimbabwe; so, it's exciting to do this with a fellow countryman in the UK.
6. Any upcoming projects for the New Year 2021?
Yes, my EP is on the way! I'm very excited about this! I always take it up a notch with my stylists, pr, video directors, you name it! The goal is to do better than the last record on all fronts! My competition is myself, but I always imagine I must beat her 5 times more lol. I want to leave a legacy and I can only do that when I give my ALL and put the best of myself forward!
Have a look at 'Sondela' by Valee Music featuring Charlie Kay here.
Kenya: Comesa counts pandemic linked economic losses
Abducted Nigerian school boys reunited with parents
Nollywood actress Uche Jombo shares adorable video as she clocks 41
Burna Boy's team threw first punch in brawl with Davido – Eyewitness
Africa waits for Biden to unlock, reallocate $200b of IMF reserves
Ethiopia: Mekelle's banks reopen for first time since Tigray war
Mali goes into lockdown to fight the Coronavirus pandemic


The conversion from the libxml nodes to SXML works, the reverse conversion works too. Meanwhile, the function "x:eval" which was planned for the third milestone is also implemented. Now I'm going to review all my remarks, fix my bugs and submit bugs to the libxml team.
Can anyone recommend some small to medium-sized open problems which satisfy all of the four points below?
Conversion of the attribute nodes seems working, although with some glitches. And I traditionally mention namespaces. I decided to have holes in ns processing in the first version.
SXML to XML conversion of attribute nodes is becaming a trouble. I've fixed several initially unnoticed issues and found more items to check.
Namespaces are still working, xml node of the type "document" is now handled correctly, XSLT XPath functions are activated. To finish with the libxml to sxml conversion, support of the top-level attribute nodes and result tree fragments should be added.
One of the use cases for XPath over legacy data is structured FrameMaker (FrameMaker+SGML). The structure is in fact XML, that's good. But the only interface to this XML is something tree-like which is worse than DOM.
Adding variables to XPath was a simple task. But when I was testing it, I had to switch to testing the Scheme function "x:current" (former name "x:current-node") and then found an essential problem with the namespaces.
I haven't worked on generative XML for half of month and completely forgot what I'm doing. Fortunately, the last post on this topic suggested the start point: namespaces and variables in the Scheme function "x:value-of".
The last days were very hard. Usual activity was abandoned in favour of writing a paper for the GPCE 2005 conference.
A man wanted to make the numbers be the tag identifiers. Nope. Not allowed. He asked in the xml-doc mailing list why. My answers follows.
I'm slowly and painfully writing a paper for the Generative Programming and Component Engineering (GPCE'05) conference. I hate my writing which should be thrown away and rewritten from scratch. But deadline is near, and today was a firm day for submitting abstracts.
I'm writing a paper for a conference. It should be written with conformance to the Lecture Notes in Computer Science style. After visiting the page with information for LNCS authors) I though that it might be a sort of magic for many people.
Ian Bicking writes about his disappointment with mail archivers. He even was starting to feel like he should just code himself. Just as I some time ago!
Article isn't writing. Although, in general, I have ideas what to write, the actual writing is painfully slow. Today I've only finish a section, and I feel I'll rewrite it somewhen.
Unfortunately, Slovakian letter ť (latin small letter t with caron) is not supported by FrameMaker.
I'm writing a paper (not for GTTSE2005 as the previous entry may suggest). Here is a bit of the text written today.


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Jim Wallis, Contributor
Christian leader for social change; President and Founder @Sojourners
Just Picking On the Poor: The Facts and the Faces of Cutting SNAP
09/19/2013 03:05 pm ET Updated Nov 19, 2013
Today, the House of Representatives votes on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly food stamps. The proposal would cut SNAP by nearly $40 billion over the next 10 years. These cuts would hurt millions of people, namely seniors and the poorest among us. But it will most heavily affect low-income families with children where the parent(s) work for a living but don't make enough to adequately feed their families. Working families with kids are 72 percent of all SNAP beneficiaries.
According to the Census Bureau, food stamps kept 4 million people out of poverty last year. The Congressional Budget Office reports that the House proposal would cut assistance to nearly 4 million low-income people in 2014 and an average of 3 million more each year for the next decade. Christian leaders across the evangelical, Catholic, Protestant, African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American church spectrum are reacting with moral outrage at this assault on the people that Jesus specifically instructs us to protect.
Many of these leaders are from the Circle of Protection, a coalition of more than 65 heads of denominations and religious organizations, plus more than 5,000 church pastors. We have been working for more than two years to resist federal budget cuts that undermine the lives, dignity, and rights of poor and vulnerable people.
Who are the pastors? They run across the political spectrum, but are characterized by one thing -- they actually know poor people, work with low-income families, and have SNAP beneficiaries in their congregations. All of the pastors I've ever talked to who know, work, and worship with those affected are adamantly opposed to these cuts because they know what they will mean to people they love.
One pastor I spoke to recently, a good man and friend, told me he was worried about government dependence, like the food stamp program. When I told him that the vast majority of food stamps go to working families with young children, and that they are usually only on the program temporarily during hard economic times; he said, "You should get that out." He didn't know the facts and the faces of SNAP. So many of us in the faith community have worked to tell the facts and show the faces -- to share our stories, to "get that out."
The program has enjoyed bipartisan support through the years, but now congressional Republicans are determined to cut these critical nutrition programs to America's hungry. Although SNAP benefits are modest (an average of less than $1.50 per person per meal), SNAP is the nation's foremost tool against hunger and hardship, particularly during recessions and periods of high unemployment. Currently, 47 million Americans benefit from SNAP, but that number is expected to be greatly reduced once the economy recovers. SNAP is designed to expand in periods of great need and contract when the economy is better.
Is it ignorance of how deep the problem of "food insecurity" or hunger is in America now? Is it just ideology against government per se? Because many poor people do have to turn for help to their governments, anti-government rhetoric can often turn to anti-poor rhetoric. Have you seen the Fox News "face" of a SNAP recipient -- a young blond California surfer who brags about cheating on food stamps? Why is Fox News lying? Why don't they tell the real facts and show the real faces of kids who are still hungry even though their parents work?
If you know the facts and faces of the hungry families that are helped by SNAP, I believe it is a moral and even religious problem to vote to cut funding for the program. The Bible clearly says that governmental authority includes the protection of the poor in particular, and instructs political rulers to promote their well-being. So the argument that the poor should just be left to churches and private charity is an unbiblical argument. I would be happy to debate that with any of our conservative Congressmen who keep telling our churches that we are the only ones who should care for the poor. To vote against feeding hungry people is un-Christian, un-Jewish, and goes against any moral inclination, religious or not.
Finally, for politicians to defend these SNAP cuts because of our need to cut spending in general is un-credible and incredible.
These same politicians are not willing to go to where the real money is: the Pentagon budget, which everyone knows to be the most wasteful in government spending, or the myriad subsidies to corporations, including agribusiness subsides to members of Congress who will be voting to cut SNAP for the poor.
Tea Party-elected Rep. Stephen Fincher, (R-Tenn.), who likes to bolster his anti-poor rhetoric with misused Bible verses, collected $3.5 million in farm subsidies between 1999 and 2012, according to the New York Times. Fincher is helping to lead the effort to cut food stamps to working families with children by illogically quoting: "The one who is unwilling to work should not eat," all the while collecting millions of dollars in agricultural subsidies. Congressman Fincher's position is hypocritical -- and it's this kind of hypocrisy that makes Christians look bad and turns young people away from the church.
You see, for many House conservatives this isn't really about SNAP, but about their opposition to the idea that as a society we have the responsibility to care for each other, even during the hard times or when resources are few. Conservatives know their ideas for privatizing Social Security or cutting funding to Medicare and Medicaid are politically unpopular, but their ideology of individualism that borders on social Darwinism remains unchanged. SNAP is the perfect target for them. The image of what it does and whom it serves has been widely distorted by the media, while the people who benefit from it have little influence in the halls of Congress and pose little risk to the political careers of Republican members.
They are going after cuts to the poor and hungry people because they think it is politically safe to do so. So let's call that what it is: moral hypocrisy. Our job, as people of faith, is to protect the poor and to make it politically unsafe for politicians to go after them -- to pick on the poor. So we will be watching who votes against feeding the hungry this week and will remember to bring that to public attention when they run for re-election.
We will be doing our own faith count today. Stay tuned for the results.
Jim Wallis is president of Sojourners. His book, On God's Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn't Learned About Serving the Common Good, is now available. Watch the Story of the Common Good HERE. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.
Politics U.S. Congress Food Stamps Snap


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Studies 10 September, 2014
Civil Society in Morocco under the New 2011 Constitution: Issues, Stakes and Challenges
Rachid Touhtou
Rachid Touhtou (MA, PhD) is an assistant Professor at the National School of Statistics and Applied Economics in Rabat, Morocco, and a member of the Social Sciences, Languages and Communication Department. His research focuses on Feminist Studies, Development Studies and Public Policies from a gender perspective. Touhtou has conducted extensive fieldwork on the role of NGOs in Local Development in the North of Morocco, with a focus on the participation of women in civil society, development and decentralization. He also lectures on social movements, and migration studies and was responsible for coordinating an international project on return migration in Morocco. Touhtou has published papers on civil society, Gender, Social Movements, and Migration and is a fellow of the Arab Reform Initiative.
With the advent of the Arab Spring and the February 20 movement, many new protest groups and organizations have emerged in Morocco. The surge in number and diversity of groups, including feminists, Amazigh, human rights activists, youth, and Islamists, have created a dynamism in Morocco's public sphere that did not previously exist. Although the effectiveness of these new organizations remains to be determined, the historical significance of emerging civil society organizations and protest movements merits attention. This new visibility may help bridge the gap between public and private spheres, and between formal and informal ways of doing politics in Morocco. The 2011 reform of Morocco's constitution was a historical moment that provoked a dynamic dialogue between civil society and state, and that gave rise to heated debates on the provision of an enabling environment for the empowerment of civil society.
At the beginning of 2011 a strong social mobilization triggered by the Arab Spring brought about unprecedented popular demands in Morocco to combat corruption, promote democratization, freedom, and human dignity. The king's March 9, 2011 "historic" speech, promising wonders to Moroccans, and announcing time lined steps towards the drafting of a new constitution followed by a referendum and elections, succeeded in stifling these protests. Such acceleration of history allowed Islamists in Morocco, for the first time, the opportunity to form a government. Since the Party of Justice and Development (PJD), an Islamist party, failed to make a tidal wave during the November 25, 2011 elections, it was forced to form a fragile coalition with four major political parties that share very little of its vision.
While Moroccan civil society cannot be said to have played a key role in the social protests embodied by the February 20 movement, its interaction with the constitutional reform workshops cannot be denied. In fact, many civic rights, women's cultural, developmental, and educational associations provided memoranda and proposals to the king's appointed commission in charge of amending the Moroccan constitution. Moroccan associations demanded that the new constitution would strengthen the powers and broaden the prerogatives of civil society.
Civil society principles come with the promotion of participatory democracy and the reform of state bureaucratic institutions and processes as key elements to the improvement of people's lives. In this connection, the participatory governance package, made essentially of decentralization reforms and participatory mechanisms for youth and women, represents a constitutional tool that should be adopted by the Moroccan government as a basis for addressing the challenges of promoting democratic institutions and reducing the growing social inequalities.
The new constitution intimates that the ability of a government to address socio-political issues is inextricably linked to the imperative of designing, implementing, and sustaining a comprehensive strategy of participatory governance. If carefully implemented, the new constitutional principles on participatory governance could assist both the government and civil society actors in developing participation principles, procedures, and practices. For the would-be Moroccan civil society, participation is not a concept which can be addressed once through principles and norms defined by the constitution and then shelved.
In this context, this paper will be divided into five main inter-dependent sections. First, it will provide a theoretical background on the notion of civil society and what this means in Morocco. Second, it will address the status of civil society as per the 2011 constitution. Then, it will shed light on the concept of participation as it appears in the constitutional text. Fourth, it will explore some of the correlations between civil society and the democratization challenges. Finally, the paper will discuss some aspects of the preliminary interaction between the current government and civil society and the way the national political context affects these dynamics.
Civil Society: A Theoretical Framework
In describing civil society, Seligman[1] mentions three uses of civil society. First, as a slogan of different movements and parties. Second, as an analytical concept used by social scientists and third – as a normative concept in the ethical sense – to vehicle a vision of the social order. Seligman argues that "the idea of civil society thus embodies for many an ethical ideal of the social order, one that, if not overcomes, at least harmonizes, the conflicting demands of individual interest and social good"[2]. Civil society for liberal thinkers balances the equation between rights and responsibilities. It also reflects a deep concern with the role of the state.
To continue reading this paper in PDF format, please click here.
[1] Adam Seligman, The Idea of Civil Society (New York: Free Press, 1992), p. 16.
[2] Don E. Eberly, ed., The Essential Civil Society Reader: The Classic Essays (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000), p. 13-14.
Zoltan Barany
The "Arab Spring" in the Kingdoms
Ali Abd Al Qader
On Social Justice and Public Spending Policies in the 'Arab Revolution States'
Rachid Moqtader
Reflections on the Justice and Development Party's Experience of Political Rule in Morocco
Alaa Bayyoumi
The Last Picture of Egypt Before the Revolution
Hamzeh Almoustafa
The al-Nusra Front: From Formation to Dissension


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REAL ESTATE & DEMOGRAPHIC DATA
Most expensive Glen Mills neighborhoods
Town Center / Cheyney U of Pennsylvania
Elam / Johnsons Corner
Ivy Mills
Glen Mills profile
Living in Glen Mills
Glen Mills is a medium-sized town located in the state of Pennsylvania. With a population of 25,810 people and three constituent neighborhoods, Glen Mills is the 33rd largest community in Pennsylvania. There's nothing like the smell of a brand new house, and in Glen Mills, you'll find that a large proportion of houses were recently built. New growth in residential real estate is an indication that people are choosing to move to Glen Mills, and putting down their money on brand new construction. Glen Mills's real estate is, on average, some of the newest in the nation. Glen Mills does seem to be experiencing an influx of affluent people, because the median household income is $112,242.00.
Glen Mills home prices are not only among the most expensive in Pennsylvania, but Glen Mills real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.
Glen Mills is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 87.66% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Glen Mills is a town of managers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Glen Mills who work in management occupations (20.35%), sales jobs (11.89%), and office and administrative support (11.58%).
Also of interest is that Glen Mills has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
A relatively large number of people in Glen Mills telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 7.90% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Because of many things, Glen Mills is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Glen Mills really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Glen Mills perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.
If knowledge is power, Glen Mills is a pretty powerful place. 53.84% of the adults in Glen Mills have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns.
The per capita income in Glen Mills in 2018 was $51,775, which is wealthy relative to Pennsylvania and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $207,100 for a family of four.
Glen Mills is a very ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Glen Mills home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Glen Mills residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Glen Mills include Irish, German, Italian, English, and Polish.
The most common language spoken in Glen Mills is English. Other important languages spoken here include Langs. of India and Other Asian languages.
Real Estate in Popular Glen Mills Neighborhoods
Popular Real Estate Near Glen Mills PA
Zip Codes in Glen Mills, PA