text:
The Goat Caught in Bushkazi: Personal Effects of One's Role in the Great Game
by John Allison
Photograph from 1973
The beginning of this story, for me, was in the spring of 1969. I had applied for funding to do a cutting edge project combining methods and techniques of visual anthropology that I had learned from John Collier, Jr, my own version of cognitive anthropology arising out of the works of Edward Sapir and the Berkeley School of anthropological-linguistic ethnographers, Alan Dundee's approach to the collection and analysis of folk tales, and Noam Chomsky's conceptual framework based upon the notion of a shared deep syntactic structure of the human mind and generative grammars of diverse languages and cultures. I wanted to demonstrate the relation, in a given culture and language, between syntactic structuring of meaning elements in sentences and the syntactic structuring of longer narrative constructs such as traditional oral histories and tales or "myths", not only in speech, but in producing cooperative film narratives, and explaining their reasons for cutting, splicing and sequencing of selected meaning-segments, "events" – of visual narratives on film. My interest was to understand how they 'make sense' of it.
At that juncture of time, things impinging on my life path included my personal career ambition which dominated my focus, and a crisis within anthropology that seemed rather distant from Bloomington, in the rolling hardwood forested hills and hollers of southern Indiana. People such as Gerald Berreman and Kathleen Gough Aberle were bringing up the issue of professional ethics and morality in anthropological research, revealing the use of researchers, their native consultants and their written products for military intelligence in warfare and the planning of warfare and economic dominance. And Eric Wolf was warning us:
Empires and conquests sweep over the land, … but in the dusty streets of the little villages, a humble kind of life persists, and rises again to the surface when the fury of conquest is stilled, …. Yet, until today, the community of cultivators has retained its capacity to turn in upon itself and to maintain its integrity in the face of doubt and disaster – until today, and perhaps not much longer. Because the modern world is engaged in severing once and for all the ties which bind people into local unity, in committing them to complete participation in The Great Society. This is a one-way street from which there is no return. (Wolf, Eric, 1959, p. 68)
Then, in an instant, this dissent was not so distant: I learned that all research funding for my area of interest, the Himalayas, had been suspended. Berreman had opened the lid on the CIA funding for anthropological research projects along the Chinese and Tibetan borders. A scandal was sweeping across US anthropology; they had been selling out those "native informants" who had helped them.
I didn't know what I was going to do. All dressed up with a great proposal for my doctoral field research project, and no place to go.
At that juncture, I was urged by the Indiana University Anthropology Department to attend a Visiting Professor's talk on Afghanistan at a small room in the Commons building; fancy old velvet and hardwood décor, and seats for about fifty people; intimate. The speaker was Professor Louis Dupree, a member of the American Universities' Field Service Staff in South Asia, affiliated with Penn State Univeristy, associated with the American Museum of Natural History, specifically a long-term resident researcher in Afghanistan.
After the lecture Dupree revealed that he was looking for doctoral candidates who might be interested in doing field work in Afghanistan. He made it clear that there were abundant funds and that almost any reasonable proposal would likely be funded. The funds were coming through the Midwestern Universities Consortium in International Affairs (MUCIA), of which Indiana University (IU) was also a member. I never thought ….
– but now I do!
I suspect that this was one of that era's Super PACs infiltrating both public and private universities, both in the US and the rest of NATO, which had begun before WWII with the ramping-up of RAND, IBM, and others jockeying for position in the insurgent Shadow Government that President Dwight D. Eisenhower called the Military Industrial Complex.
Looking back with the bionic lenses that I developed during my Fort Irwin and Leavenworth experiences, I wonder who knew what at IU's Anthropology Department and Administration, and when they knew it.
I wonder if the reason that my adviser, Carl Voegelin–a Berkeley PhD, a peer of Sapir, a bit ahead of Berreman, the founder of the IU Anthropology Department–got moved into the basement of the old ivy-covered, two-story stone building called Rawles Hall when the new faculty took over in the mid-sixties, was that there had been a coup in the department.
… yes, now I wonder if the reason was that this was already part of an academic insurgency that was funded and guided by the US/NATO military's interests and their "Operatives" among the new faculty taking command of the Anthropology Department and within the IU Administration; just as we saw in 2009, so nakedly displayed at University of Nebraska's Afghan Studies Center in Omaha?
Berreman's revelations seem to say yes, of course, it was already far advanced, but just becoming slightly more visible.
And, I wonder and speculate wildly – regarding the faculty's young guard, who had unseated Voegelin and his age-grade colleagues, putting the anthropology program more in line to take advantage of new Department of Defense-originated funding opportunities. I wonder if they knew of the strings attached to the funding they had secured to keep the department staffed, and the staff with certain obligations to that funding source, I don't need to ask "Why didn't they tell the graduate students about this, at least candidly?" I still wonder why Bloomington was chosen for the establishment of an important Tibetan Studies program, with the older brother of the Dalai Lama on the faculty. But then, the Beautiful Mind effect takes over and you find patterns everywhere; you wonder about the strategic value of having the Kinsey Sex Institute in Goodbody Hall on the IU campus in the town of Bloomington. Are there COIN patterns of counterinsurgency in this inkblot?
Memories from that period come flooding back; the Rap Brown Act–a patch in the systematic legal crazy-quilt in which We The People are now swaddled and stitched into: I was standing in one of the stone stairwells in the Administration Building, just starting up the stairs, when I was stopped by hearing an echoing voice in the same stairwell, a floor above, " … and John Allison, and …" and several other names being read from a list provided by someone, someplace who knew that I had been mildly active in the anti-war movement in San Francisco; against the war against Vietnam.
I had crossed state lines, and was now part of the anti-war movement in Bloomington. The Rap Brown Act made it illegal to cross state lines to organize folks; unless you are a multi-national corporation. I had crossed state lines to attend the IU Ph.D. program in Anthropology and in Folklore, but I also connected with the anti-war organization on campus. The list placed in the IU administration's hands the names of several such enemy combatants living right among the unknowing students of this quiet, quaint university town in the woods of Southern Indiana. These people were to be watched carefully and any organizations they belonged to needed to be monitored. It made me feel more important that I was. As though I had actually done something that I had not. It seemed to be a Great Game that I only saw vaguely as blurred background.
Only relatively recently did I learn of COINTELPRO; but, back then there were only some vague messages "on the grapevine" that the US Government was rehabilitating old Japanese concentration camps, and building others around the nation to respond to any increase in the mass protests that were growing in all big cities and in universities.
Had I known of COINTELPRO then, and if I'd known that my act was being recorded via a video camera mounted in the corner of the ceiling when I edged through the gathering of interested men students to the corner of the information table, removed the cork from the test tube hidden inside the paper cup, setting the Coke© cup on the piece of the table cloth that lay doubled on the floor and surreptitiously tipping it over with my foot, pouring the butyric acid (the synthetic chemical essence of the smell of vomit) on the corner of the Marine Corps' ornate, fancy, felt table mantel at their recruiting table in the dim stonewalled basement of the IU Commons; if I'd known of the surveillance maybe I'd have flashed the camera half a peace-sign with the appropriate finger as I sauntered casually away, thinking I was inconspicuous; or maybe I would have thought twice about my capers.
So, as I have been known to do, and to avoid seeing any conflict between my stance against the military and my signing on to Louis Dupree's offer, I just took the money and went off to Afghanistan with plans to complete my doctorate, and then go sit on the throne of a job in some anthropology department in some university to live happily ever after. The best-laid plans….
I mean, what could it hurt? Who could it hurt? … to use the money for my own well-intended project to work with the small, isolated, almost unknown Nuristani group in the high Hindu Kush? So, between MUCIA and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (about which I learned much more later), I and my wife boarded flights that eventually left us standing on the Kabul International Airport tarmac, at the foot of the mobile stairs from the Ariana Airlines flight, blinded by the light, in the first week of June, 1969. "Mind the Gap!".
Old Adage: "Be careful what you wish for, you might get it" (but, you might not, too).
We settled into our traditional, spacious adobe house, on a stone foundation, not far from Habibia High School, in one of the older outer neighborhoods of the established city of that time. Two Nuristani young men lived with us: Hazrat Din Sherzad – son of a legislator from the Titin valley of Nuristan, Wakil Alef Din, and Jandat, from Pshok, in the next valley above Titin, east of the Alingar River. Hazrat attended Habibia, as did Hamid Karzai and several of the current and past elites of Kabul. These connections were all arranged by Louis Dupree.
In about a week we sat in a Land Rover among a caravan of Land Rovers, fully packed pickup trucks and one deuce-and-a-half , industrial strength period piece, folk-painted scenes all round Afghan truck loaded with gasoline, beer, wine, whiskey, coffee, drinking water, dried foods, canned foods, medicines, lotions, army camp stoves, folding chairs, cots and tables, eating utensils, toilet paper for an army…. This expedition was intended to be my orientation to Afghanistan; for the archaeologists aboard, it was the main purpose for their trip.
I think we stopped one night before we reached Herat. We stayed in Herat for a couple of nights and saw the famous historic sites such as the Blue Mosque. The road between Kabul and Kandahar was paved and well maintained. Beyond Kandahar it was spotty.
From Herat north, it ranged from a well established dirt track to some stretches of hours where we drove from dead reckoning across smooth, featureless rolling dunes to the horizon, then down into dry arroyos and back up to cross more trackless dunes; or we picked up walking locals to navigate to the next town on this "road" before GPS technology. The drifting loess simply obliterates the road in hours over great distances, except for traces one might pick up by going upstream or downstream in the arroyos to look for surviving traces. The motorized vehicle traffic was sparse, a few vehicles a day between Herat and Maimana. We stopped one night in route, then arrived in Maimana.
A camel train of 400 camels, with sheep, goats, donkeys and the People of Wealth, Maldar, popularly called "Koochis", entering Maimana on the main highway during their annual circuit through traditional seasonal camps, collecting rents for lands owned, harvesting crops planted on the last cycle, buying and selling goats, sheep, camels. Afghanistan seemed to me the unspoiled paradise of cultural diversity in a pristine state of long-established relations and co-existence among the several sovereign societies. It has suffered the Russians and the US/NATO invasions; and it is not like this now. (Photography by John Allison)
Dupree had arranged to rent a "villa". It was a two story walled compound around a closed central courtyard, rooms on two stories, with ingenious second-story "out house" toilets built out over the walled collection pit below, and tastefully enclosed with good ventilation and a view. Most days there was electricity for four hours in the evening.
The expedition consisted of Louis and Nancy Dupree, at least two members of the Kabul Museum staff whose names I have lost. There were Richard Davis and Claude White, both US archaeology doctoral candidates. Then there were two other men – one younger one older – who claimed to be archaeologists, one had an interest in ceramics, another seemed not especially interested in talking about his work; I don't recall their names. They didn't seem to participate in the excavation much, and were often gone off in their Land Rovers.
The first night when the booze was brought out as we sat near the fire in the enclosed courtyard, the younger one started getting braggardly, challenging some of the others to karate matches or such, injuring one of the others who accepted the challenge. During that night he bragged that he was actually there to ground-proof possible landing sites for U-2 spy planes (this was several years after the Gary Powers incident). I didn't connect this to any other dots, like the fact that Dupree had once been on the faculty of the US Air Force Academy, or that Berreman had just pointed out the infiltration of military intelligence agents into anthropology careers.
From about the third week of June until the end of August, 1969, I participated in excavating the Cave of the Dancers (Ghar Luli) with both the professionals on the expedition and the locally hired crew for the "unskilled" work, the heavy, hot, dusty work, for a pittance.
I took some time to do a few other little ethnographic assignments from Dupree, like a photo inventory of the village across the river from Maimana, which had a large leather production operation using ancient methods. I also rode in a Volga sedan out to visit a separate valley with a Kabuli Pashto named Aziz, who claimed that the valley and all its resources and people as his family's property. His grandfather had been the commanding general during the conquest of this Uzbeki area by the Kabul/Kandahar Pashto state during the Russian/English/Pashto creation of "Afghanistan".
In a special warehouse, one old Uzbeki man sat cross-legged on the dirt floor by a small hardwood fire and a glass of clean water, all day doing by hand with small 'two-finger' chunks: the heating, massaging in his palm, dipping in the water, then heating; the processing of raw, golden-blond hashish into the purified mahogany-colored product for which Maimana is famous and which activity in this local region dates back to the Scythian period archaeology.
Aziz also had his serfs raise the tall skinny Poplar trees to be used as strong poles for the unsawed structural supports, door and window frames and for ceiling vigas in the flat-roofed adobe-walled houses. Milled lumber was not seen here. The tenants raised their own food and took that as part of their share of the five-part division: land, tools, water, seed and labor, into which each year's harvest was divided for redistribution that heavily favored the Lord, who owned the land, water and seed, to begin the calculation of harvest shares. That is the system that orders the relationship between two, more-or-less sovereign peoples; with a little arm-twisting by the currently dominant one.
When we broke "camp" in Maimana, we continued going clockwise around the Ring Road, which got increasingly better finished and maintained, until, leaving Mazar-i-Sharif, it was mostly paved over the Salang pass, past Charikar and back to Kabul.
Photo: Between Daulatabad and Shibarghan, along the north segment of the Ring Road at one of the frequent tea houses attributed to Ashoka after he converted to Buddhism: Louis and Nancy Dupree wearing shades looking toward camera; one of the Kabul Museum staff looks at camera behind wooden palate, my wife stares at the water as one of the drivers washes himself; Rick Davis is partly hidden by Claude White's wife who looks toward the Duprees. (Photograph by John Allison)
Upon our return to Kabul, I was free to do my research project which had settled, with Dupree's advice, on the Ashkun peoples who lived in high, isolated Hindu Kush valleys formed by tributaries of the Alingar River in western Nuristan. He provided me with letters of introduction to all the bureaucratic offices where I had to get letters and stamping of letters and documents. He also provided me with a field assistant, an anthropology graduate student at Kabul University, Mohammad Alam Nuristani.
Alam came to my house and we got to know each other. He spoke good English, Dari, Pashto and the related Kalasha dialects of Ashkun and Wai-ala. We planned our first field trip and by early October we set off from the end of the last jeep trail, walking with Wakil Alef Din and a group of his villagers into the unroaded area of the Pashai peoples.
After camping one night on the trail, we entered the increasingly steep mountain passes into the valleys of the Ashkun peoples along the Titin tributary of the Alingar River. I was surprised to see adobe rooftops covered with drying of ears of maize, as in the Pueblos of the desert highlands of the USA, drying on the flat roofs.
As a native speaker of the closely related Waigul people, Mohammad Alam gave us trusted access to the family homes, to the different special places, to work and to participate in gatherings and feasts. He also defeated me in the local version of shot-put, using a standard sized spherical rock shot-put kept down below at the shot-put range; and in bounding down very steep, rocky mountainsides – like a goat, like a Nuristani – and in climbing up the steep paths.
Photo: Mohammad Alam Melabar ("Nuristani") at the right side of photo in Titingram, Ashkunu, Nuristan, or,locally "Kalashum", early October, 1969. Note that some do not look at the camera, "thief of the soul". The man in the center was the leader of the Ashkun, Wakil Alef Din Sherzad, then a Representative to the Afghan Parliament in Kabul; his son, Hazrat Din Sherzad ("Lineage of the Lions") is on the left. Hazrat was later Governor of the new province of Nuristan, and died in 2008 when his car went off the icy highway into the KabulRiver on his way between Laghman and Kabul. The wool "beret" caps, which were then unique to the "Nuristanis", now are symbols of the Resistance region-wide, are the only items of local clothing. All the rest of the clothes are from "town", a two-day walk from Titingul, among several mountain peaks well above 20,000 feet. (Photograph by John Allison)
Alam had a bright spirit, steady energy, springy step, flashing eyes, a ready smile and a generous spirit, like most Afghan peoples, like the Kalasha, or "Nuristanis". He had the physical appearance that some of the Kalasha have, light grey-blue eyes and blond hair; making them a favorite of German and Scandinavian anthropologists, linguists and historians. But he was cosmopolitan, had been to Hungary and Yugoslavia. His ambitious and energetic personality seemed to have ingratiated him with Dupree.
Alam gave me sensitive and patient guidance in some of my understandings of the meanings of Ashkun concepts. He grasped the nature of ethnography and the cognitive nature of culture. He was from a leading family in Waigul, but his acceptance in the urban society of Kabul depended upon his intelligence and upon this charm that led those with power and influence to support his ambitions. His family had little power in Kabul.
I recall Alam's story of leaving Waigul for the first time as a small boy, to attend school. After the long hike out of Waigul to the nearest outside "town", his father led him into what he perceived as a little house where several other people were standing. The house began to tremble and shake, and Alam looked outside and "the mountains were running past". This was Alam's first experience of a ride in a wheeled vehicle, an old truck with wood side-boards and a canvas cover over the back where the passengers stood or sat, in which he rode to Kabul.
The Approaching Storm
In June of 1970, Dupree came to me and made a strong case for leaving with my wife and returning to the USA. He felt that a crisis was brewing and that all foreigners, especially USans, were at risk if we stayed. He indicated that he was also preparing to be ready to leave in an instant if necessary. In fact, he eventually did that, along with Jack Shroder, Tom Gouttierre and others of his team, across the border to fall-back quarters in Peshawar, Pakistan.
We packed up things to ship back but left the research tapes and notes in the hands of our in-country host, Louis Dupree for safe shipment. In a few days we were in the Kulu Valley of India and Afghanistan was already becoming a dreamscape.
The last letter I received from MoAlam – Mohammad Alam Nuristani, as I knew him, but who was later to honor his grandfather in changing "Nuristani" to "Melabar", his Wai grandfather who had led resistance to the Afghan Islamic army's invasion of their territory in the Hindu Kush, their own nation – the last letter he sent to me from Afghanistan in late 1978, after having returned from Indiana, where I had been instrumental in his application to the MA program in anthropology, was in a deeply poetic mood, and was signed, "Alam, your friend Beyond Time and Space". I'm sure he knew it was the end.
Photo: One of about twenty such typical Kalasha houses in the main village in Titingul. (Photograph by John Allison)
This woman, with a tump-line, conical burden basket, and goatskin mantel is entirely dressed in locally-made clothing. (Photograph by John Allison)
During the Russian Occupation the first road was punched into the Titin Valley. Subsequently, the US has "improved" that road. Of course, this was done to control, not to support the indigenous population of an area that is classified by US/NATO as a "No Go" area or a "No Man's Land", where many US/NATO COPs (Command Out Post) have be overrun by the Resistance, and they no longer try to replace them.
Although there is a road, the US Army online newspaper makes it clear that this is still No Man's Land, which Dupree referred to as The Land of the Fiercely Independent.
Spc. Joshua Grant provides security for fellow Soldiers after the convoy turns around. To gain elevation, the road makes a horseshoe curve around the Titin River. The same road clings to the side of a mountain across the river. Drivers in this part of Afghanistan must be vigilant for not only falling rocks but falling roads; not to mention lurking extremists. (Photo Credit: Spc. Henry Selzer: http://www.army.mil/article/4870/Cliffhanger_on_Danger_Highway/)
Marlon Brando once said, "Life is like a mountain railroad". The US military is finding its trellises crumbling under their heavy, armed and armored vehicles all over Afghanistan; they are falling off the edge, just like the English, just like the Russians.
Final Reckoning
So, today, 2012, when the American University Field Staff Reports that I had requested arrived at the library, I did not wait to sit down at a table and skim the slim volume of Louis Dupree's last reports, in 1980. There, in LD-4-80 and in LD-5-80, I found record of MoAlam's last day.
MoAlam was tainted – doomed – by his participation in Dupree's intelligence network, in which I also inadvertently participated; especially when I left my audio tapes and field notes with Louis to send safely back to Indiana when he suggested that I should leave because of the already thickening political intrigue.
When I saw Louis during his occasional visit in 1976 at IU, he said he had given the box to Christian Jung who was on the Kabul University faculty and, I believe, also with USAID. He said Jung had put them into a diplomatic pouch; the most secure method to send things.
I never saw my field research tapes or notes again.
I think they have not gone without a use, but not the one I had intended for them; with my first-hand knowledge of the terrain, the village names and populations and relations and a myriad of details recorded on those tapes in both English and Ashkunu-veri, questions, answers, names, ….
Louis did not say to where or to whom Jung had sent them. It's too late to ask Louis. But, now I think I know.
His online obituary was the first place where I saw it noted and praised that Louis Dupree was a long-term CIA operative. Not that Dupree was unethical within his own cultural reality. It is only that he was closely linked to the US military and the related Intelligence agencies; he put that before his loyalty to Afghan people. He functioned, as they said, as an operative for The Mission.
Dupree and his co-operative colleagues used their access to Kabul government documents and files for US advantage; even when it was explicit that they were not to make use of such sensitive data as air photos and maps developed from them, they stole copies of the entire set of airphotos and topographic maps for all of Afghanistan. (Jack Shroder, HTS training lecture, December, 2009). He was part of the US Mission in Afghanistan long before the US was aware of Afghanistan. Charlie Wilson's War came and went late during Dupree's watch; and I think not without his participation. His ethics and morals were related to that foundation in the military Mission. Among his friends, he was always ethical and a Good Man, within that cultural world view and its priorities.
He was not an evil man if judged by his own value system, or a bad anthropologist in the sense of producing valuable works. His Afghanistan is still the standing authority in US/NATO on the history, archaeology and cultures of the Afghanistan that existed until 1978.
Louis arranged for my invitation to The Royal Palace and introduced me to the King at a party. My house was robbed of everything they could get over the wall to the street that night while I was at the Palace. I felt that it was a message that I had betrayed my social class.
I think it was Jack (John) Shroder at University of Nebraska, Omaha, who told me this story that typifies the swash-buckling clown version of Dupree's image: There was a major dinner for Europeans and USans with Afghan political leaders and privileged members of the ruling class, maybe even the King was there. Dupree was one of the main USan guests. At the time dinner began, Louis and Nancy had not arrived. Then, when dinner was over, and the drinking was beginning, there is a knock at the door. When the door is open, Louis leaves a well-dressed Nancy standing at the door and comes running in and does a series of forward hand flips across the marble floor, and ends up standing in front of the Afghan and Euro-American dignitaries, smiling. He is more or less well dressed, but, he has on a red dress shirt and has pulled the shirt front through the zipper of his pants suit and zipped it up so the red shirt is sticking straight out through the zipper, resembling, for all to see, a dick.
The Great Game takes a Turn
But, all great parties must come to an end. Dupree had been taken into custody by the Afghan government on November 25th, 1978; and held through November 30. The following notes are his account of events on November 26 and 27.
Louis, always showing flair, starts this issue with verse:
When there's a bluebird singing by your windowpane,
And the sun shines bright all day through,
Don't forget, boy, look over your shoulder,
'Cause there's always someone coming after you!"
From O Lucky Man!
Verse by Alan Price
Transcribed by Sally Dupree
LD-4-80, p. 12
[The narrative continues through the night and into November 26th. He ate dinner with his interrogator in the room he was confined to "…kidney beans and cauliflower stew. Yummy. And a banana for desert."]
On page 6 of this issue, Dupree describes how the AUFS staff members, " … spends two years doing research and writing in his area of specialization, and one year lecturing on the campuses of the universities that compose the symposium." And in the footnote (#21) to this sentence he says, "I must admit that at times the whole program sounds suspicious even to me!"
"Abruptly, the questions shifted. No more requests for lists, but specifics about people. "Do you know anyone in the Faculty of Letters named Mohammad Alam Nuristani?" "Yes." "In what capacity did you know him?" "Professional. He is an anthropologist. I am an anthropologist. "I know him as a professional." "Did he go to a university in the United States?" "Yes." "Where?" "IndianaUniversity." "How do you know?" "Indiana is an AUFS school and I saw him while I was lecturing there. He received an MA in anthropology." "What other Afghans did you know at Indiana?" I wrote: "How can I remember. I have been spending two weeks out of every three years at Indiana since 1949. Most Afghan students attend my lectures when they hear I am on campus. I speak to them after class, but how the hell can I remember who they are, after all these years?"
Another specific name: "Do you know anyone named __________?" "Yes." "Did he attend IndianaUniversity?" "Yes." "What is his relationship with you?" "He is one of my former landlords." "When?" "I don't remember, I've had so many landlords." I added, "Why all these simple-minded questions? I have been in Afghanistan so long the Ministry of Interior must have a file on me the size of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, so why should I do all your work for you?" Question: "When did you first meet __________?" Answer: "How the hell can I remember when I first met people or where I first met him?" I truly couldn't remember.
The questions kept hopping back to Indiana. Back Home in Indiana, the old Hoagy Carmichael tune kept running through my head. "What Afghans did you know there?" "I can't remember."
A new interrogator put a sheet of questions in front of me. I was about to write "I don't remember," but reading the questions stopped me cold. "Suppose someone accused you of being a CIA agent, what would you say?" Answer: "Bullshit!? Question: "How would you justify your answer?" "Quite simple. I don't work for the CIA." The interrogator said, "Come now, you've got to give more reasons than that." I said: "Why? Look, if you're going to accuse me of being a CIA agent, don't go through the routine. Just go ahead and accuse me, and go out into the streets and pick up three witnesses. Pay them 50 afghanis apiece and have them swear I hired them to work for the CIA. They can say, yes, we gave them secret information. I mean, why bother with all this crap? I mean, if you're really going to accuse me of being CIA, why waste your time and mine. Let's both get some sleep."
Instead, he came back with: "Suppose you were confronted with someone who said you worked for the CIA? What would you say?" "Bullshit!" I wrote again, this time adding a short essay on the foreign community "covered wagon" in Kabul.
"It would be either an outright lie, "I wrote, "or the individual would be repeating the folklore of the foreign community. Most foreigners in Kabul act like the early American pioneers who traveled through Indian Territory in covered wagons. Every evening the covered wagons would be draw into a circle to protect the pioneers from the hostiles, although the hostiles owned the country. Foreigners in Kabul travel in large cars to their heated, air-conditioned offices, fiddle papers all day, and return home in the afternoon. In early evening, they often gather in the protective covered wagon complex (i.e., cocktail parties, and discuss the recent folklore of the foreign community. My wife and I seldom have time for these rituals, and we occasionally (so we have been told) become the subject of conversation.
[Note: the fact is that Dupree's house was the site of the most popular of the cocktail hours for many of the resident European and USan community and the more cosmopolitan Afghans in Kabul; and everybody came to his house occasionally or daily; beginning at 5pm, the drinks were served. J. A.]
"Just what do the Duprees do?" And the collective wisdom is 'CIA'. Anyone who lives in Afghanistan as long as they have must have ulterior motives. Therefore, everyone knows we are CIA. The foreigners usually serve two to five years, and then depart, but we continue to return. The folklore is passed on from one generation to the next. Nancy and I can't defend ourselves. We simply have to live with the folklore." The interrogator translated the phrases. He left without comment. He left without comment, but kept returning for an hour or more of questions on the CIA theme. In-between his appearances, I catnapped.
One time, he tapped me on the shoulder and I looked up to see a man standing in front of me. This was the confrontation. I finally recognized him by the sport jacket he wore. He was wringing his hands and his eyes were on the two men supporting him. It was Mohammad Alam Nuristani, who called himself Melabar after his grandfather who had fought Abdur Rahman Khan. I stood up, a little groggy myself at the time, embraced him, and exclaimed, "My God! MoAlam, what have they done to you?" He began to shake all over, all the time looking at his guards. His head was full of scabs, as though his hair had been burned. His face was totally misshapen, and his upper lip almost reached his chin, covered with several days' growth of beard. His face was not his own, his eyes were not his own. Obviously, his soul was not his own. His neck was covered with a heavy scarf, and he was wearing his favorite sport jacket, the one he had purchased in Bloomington.
One of his escorts said: "here's a man who says you work for the CIA. What do you say to that?" "What else can he say?" I replied, "If I looked like he does, I'd confess to anything. To being God. What can he do? He's been tortured out of his mind." Then, they questioned MoAlam: "is Dupree CIA?" "Yes." "How do you know?" "Everybody knows Dupree is CIA. Everybody knows!" he screamed, never taking his eyes off his guards.
For some reason which I still can't explain, I instinctively jumped in to ask three questions. "MoAlam's, a question: Did I ever tell you I was CIA?" "No."
"Did I ever try to recruit you for CIA?" "No."
"Did you ever do a secret job for me or give me any secrets?" "no." MoAlam stiffened and seemed to realize he had said the wrong thing, though he told the truth. He babbled on: "Yes, but everybody knows Dupree is CIA. Everybody. Schuyler Jones told me so. Everyone knows."
[Note: Sadly, I did not know until quite recently, from Louis' online obituary]
He continued to babble until they took him away.
The one interrogator left behind asked: "Well, what do you say to that?" "What can I say" He's been tortured so badly, and all the poor man did was repeat the folklore of the foreign community." The interrogator left. I wept.
The interrogator returned shortly with the final question for the night: "you have just been confronted and accused of being CIA. What do you say?" Wearily I wrote: "I was awakened from a deep sleep and was shocked to see Mohammad Alam Melabar, a shattered wreck standing before me." I repeated the questions I had asked MoAlam and underlined his answers, and again emphasized the folklore of the covered wagon complex.
I did not sleep very much. MoAlam's non-face kept appearing. Several young transients, all scared witless were brought into my room between midnight and dawn. Screams kept drifting in. The transients had been caught tossing Shah-Namah over compound walls after curfew. They stared at the smile face of the Great Leader and shivered. Secret police dragged them out before dawn. They were kicking and screaming and being beaten. The sounds faded. Before I realized it, Homer's rosy-fingered dawn crashed through the windows. Foolishly, I thought the worst was over. Then I saw the Russians.
(Pp 12-13)
AFGHANISTAN WAR, ANTHROPOLOGY, COLONIALISM/IMPERIALISM, ETHNOGRAPHY, GLOBALIZATION, POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ACADEMIAafghanistan, American Universities Field Service Staff, China, CIA, counterinsurgency, Eric Wolf, espionage, ethics, Gerald Berreman, human terrain, intelligence, John Shroder, Kathleen Gough, Louis Dupree, Mohammad Alam Nuristani, Nancy Dupree, research ethics, Thomas Goutierre, Thomas Gouttierre, Tibet, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological ResearchJohn Allison12 comments
Keep Your Money: A Series on Dignity
Invisible Freedoms
12 thoughts on "The Goat Caught in Bushkazi: Personal Effects of One's Role in the Great Game"
Maximilian Forte
Superb essay John, and welcome!
I am hoping that you will soon hammer out a book, because this account, and others like them, deserve a much greater airing, especially in this time of amoral, intellectually shallow opportunism whose appeals to power and joy in servitude possibly exceed what you experienced back then. As I said, this excellent work really merits consideration far and wide, in anthropology and beyond.
Brendan Sullivan
This is an excellent piece-it shows on a personal and tragic level the disconnect between policy makers/intelligence community and the detritus of cast-off lives who are abandoned after serving some purpose. How many Alams are there in Afghanistan and in other countries? I also hope that John will write more.
Mark E. Smith (@fubarista)
So an anthropologist finds out too late that he was inadvertently playing a more barbaric game than buzkashi. "Abundant funds" should have been a clue. Only the 1% have abundant funds, and most of it goes to consolidate and expand their power. .
Yes, Mark, of course it all seems so clear at the date of your message. Hind-sight is an amazing gift, even better then my bionic lenses gained from the experiences with Fort Irwin and Fort Leavenworth, narrated in the Double Agent article a couple of years ago. I wished, in both cases – my Titin research of 1969-70 and my recent military experience – that I could have anticipated the truth that seemed to contradict all I had been taught in schools. I didn't have the context for a fuller understanding that I do now; when it seems more obvious.
Perhaps your context now will seem equally dwarfed by the context you develop to explain your own life when you are well into your tercero edad.
Unfortunately, Mark E. Smith tried to post again, and this time his comment was more than buried, it was not to be found anywhere. Since we corresponded via Twitter, I asked him to send me his comment via email, and here it is:
"I'm 72, John, and still peeling back the onion every day through the tears. In fact I only realized that I'm an anarchist less than a year ago, as I'd never read the literature. Life can be a very painful learning experience, but I hope my context keeps expanding.
"I was in Afghanistan, unaffiliated, in the late '60s and early '70s, and I had the good fortune to spend two weeks in Nuristan. So when the US invaded I realized immediately how foolish it was. Apparently nobody in the Pentagon or State Department had read Kipling, or they thought there was some exceptionalism that would allow aircraft to operate normally in mountainous terrain and heavily laden troops to ascend paths that only a Nuristani or a mountain goat can scale. I learned enough Pushto to understand that the Afghan people have a long memory and an oral history that substitutes for textbooks. And they've been defending their country from invaders for about ten times as long as the US has existed.
One thing that I was fortunate enough to understand early in life, was the evils of money. So instead of going through various academic, military, or corporate institutions, I was homeless for many years. I wouldn't recommend it, but I don't know of any better way to learn about people. Learning about people is sort of a cross between Schroedinger's cat and walking a mile in another's shoes–it's all in the perspective. But you are absolutely correct in that we can't learn anything until we have acquired the necessary background. There's no substitute for experience."
Erich Kuerschner
The article was very helpful and informative to me, as was (is?) the ongoing post article exchange. I too urge for more.
Thanks for that. You are almost my own age; so you have somehow come through the sturm und drang period and are now ready. You might consider contacting Max Forte who moderates this site and see if you want to contribute. You've been where almost no other civilian westerners have gone. Your writing is good, your experience is exceptional; you have something you want to say; just like me, and you have already contributed good information and feelings.
mymarkx
Thank you, John. One of the most interesting things I learned in Afghanistan was the origin of the word guru. It was brought to India from Afghanistan and incorporated into Urdu by Alexander the Great, I'm told. In Pushto, if I remember correctly, gurem means I look, guree means he looks, and guru means we look. Not one, the guru, teaches and others learn, but we, meaning more than one person, look at things together to see them from a wider perspective. Once again, it's all in the perspective, and since each of us sees things differently, according to the background, experience, and preparation we bring to the moment, looking at things together is crucial to understanding. We were apparently both in Afghanistan at the same time, but we had quite different experiences and saw things somewhat differently. In addition to Maximilian Forte, I follow many other people on Twitter, including several Afghans, some currently in Afghanistan and some living in other countries. Their perspective enhances my own, as does yours. Best wishes to you too.
Thanks Mark/X for your interesting contribution. I was told that "guru" in the different form of "roshi" means, "old and useless". But, that guru was modest and liked to play.
I like your hat. It looks just like mine; but you still look so young.
I am not sure how you can know that you saw things differently than I saw them; but, I'd like to hear about your perspective.
In fact, the point of this article is the lack of a context for what I saw and experienced. I had filed it in a system that had been given to me by the US media and public education. Now, I see it all differently and respond differently than I did forty years ago.
Let's hear more of your own views.
It's an old picture, John, but the only one I have on my computer. I'm a bit of a technophobe, Luddite, and anti-civ, in many ways, but obviously not a purist.
Being unaffiliated, when I got to Afghanistan I didn't have much context. Whereas I saw many others from the US look at ordinary Afghan people and say things like, "I don't know how anybody could live like that," I looked at them and said, "Well, if my ancestors hadn't been able to live like that, I wouldn't be here, and I have their genes, so I can probably learn to live like that too." To a certain extent, I did. Instead of trying to do things the US way, I asked Afghan friends how to do things and they taught me.
Having been homeless for many years in the US, and not seeing homeless people in Afghanistan, I thought their society had to be superior to ours in some ways, and of course I knew it was a much older culture. I did learn of women who died in childbirth due to not being allowed to go to a hospital with male doctors, honor killings, and women sold into marriage, but I knew that many in the US could not afford healthcare, I had personal knowledge of honor killings in the US (I knew of fundamentalist families who had killed daughters for not being virgins, and of course there were many of what were then called "crimes of passion" that made the news), and knowing that you could buy a woman on the street in any US city, I didn't see that selling women into marriage was worse than selling women into prostitution, and in some senses the former was less dangerous.
There were cultural misunderstandings at first, of course. For example the first time I returned from a visit to Pakistan, I tried to get a taxi from the Afghan border back to Kabul. There were several empty cabs, but none of them would take me. They all pointed me towards a taxi that already had four passengers in it who were large bearded men with rifles and bandoliers. Afraid they might rob me, I wouldn't get into the cab until somebody who spoke English came along and explained to me that the taxi couldn't leave until it was full. When I got in the cab, the men smiled at me and we had an uneventful trip home across the Khyber Pass.
To read your accounts, it takes me back.
I think you have more to say. I hope you offer some more of your work as your own articles on this website. When one has not put the academic blinders on, and one is intelligent, as you are, one develops a treasure of knowledge to share with those who have not a clue.
Please contact Max and see if you want to contribute.
Best wishes to you.
… and, isn't it interesting, Mark, how we estadounidenses are inclined to want to be in our personal taxi, all alone with our hired driver, while the peoples of that region tend to conserve, to maximize the use of these motors, motor-cars; pay less, use the machine to capacity, enjoy community, share the experience with others, interested to know who is this hariji? So open-eyed, so curious to know you. Yes? Such a core of live energy; you make me remember!


text:
Rödluvan är en äppelsort som utsetts till landskapsäpple för Jämtland. Äpplet är resultatet av en korsning mellan det kanadensiska äpplet Lobo och det ryska äpplet Barhatnoe. Skalet, som är segt, har mestadels en röd färg. Köttet, som är vitt och blir brunt efter en längre tid, är sött och syrligt. Äpplet mognar i skiftet september–oktober och har därefter en kort hållbarhet. Rödluvans träd bär frukt tidigt, och därefter, för det mesta, rikligt varje år. Äpplet är medelstort till stort och har en rund form. Rödluvan pollineras bland annat av Transparente blanche och Silva.

Äpplets träd är köldtåligt och odlas gynnsammast i zon V-VI enligt Svensk trädgårds zonindelning. En nackdel är dock att äpplet kan drabbas av skorv.

Källor
Äpplen i Sverige : 240 äppelsorter i text och bild.
Tidningen Pomologen, nummer 4 år 2006.

Noter

Jämtland
Landskapsäpplen
Äppelsorter

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


There is a developing motion from the grossly inhuman apply of dwell animal skinning processes in some nations. I'm that although this protest from cruelty is justified, the original UGG Boot is made sheepskin in addition to from other animals. Sheep are slaughtered for their meat, so personally see no explanation not collection the skins to decent use. As for the time we each week mutton, the skins will be there. Lets look at use them all? Nevertheless, for those who nevertheless experience uncomfortable with genuine skin, fake fur UGG Boots are out there.
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Before going to Lluís Castells school, in Riudaura, was very keen on speaking with bilingual children in a primary school. I think their sensitivity is very open to external stimulus and that it is essential to speak and converse with them.
The surprise has been huge. I say huge because the reactions have been excellent. The students have shown a really unusual concentration and reception capacity. The fact of asking coherent questions, with a clear syntax, although they did not speak in Catalan —their usual language— has been a pleasant surprise. I think that this serves me as a writer and as a pedagogue, confirms that respect and confidence in the abilities of students is essential to encourage learning and communication.
I am very happy to have had this opportunity, since it helps me to know better how school networks, families, and how someone receives from abroad in such a distinguished region of the city. I loved the spontaneous affections of the students.


The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts on behalf of the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy is seeking local bakers to participate in "A Monumental Baking Competition" in the park squares of Mount Vernon Place on July 4, 2015 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
BALTIMORE — Calling all bakers! The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts on behalf of the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy is seeking local bakers to participate in "A Monumental Baking Competition" in the park squares of Mount Vernon Place on July 4, 2015 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The competition is a part of the Monumental Bicentennial, a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Washington Monument in the parks of Mount Vernon Place. The deadline for all interested participants to apply has been extended to Tuesday, June 16, 2015.
In the spirit of George Washington and to celebrate the growing season of corn, cherries and peaches, organizers are asking local individual bakers and chefs to make their best cherry or peach dessert or cornbread.
The entries will be blind tasted and judged by a committee during three separate competitions.
The winning recipe in each category will receive an award, be posted online and have their recipe card available at the Baltimore Farmers' Market & Bazaar. All participants will receive recognition and a treat! Only one entry is allowed per person; a maximum of 20 entries is allowed per category.
For more information and to apply online, visit http://promotionandarts.org/events-festivals/monumental-bicentennial.
For information on the Monumental Bicentennial, call the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts at 410-752-8632 or visit www.promotionandarts.org.


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Jackson Browne LP
Late For The Sky (180g) (2018)
Fountain Of Sorrow
The Road And The Sky
For A Dancer
Walking Slow
Before The Deluge
"Late for the Sky, Jackson Browne's third Asylum album, is his most mature, conceptually unified work to date. Its overriding theme: the exploration of romantic possibility in the shadow of apocalypse. No contemporary male singer/songwriter has dealt so honestly and deeply with the vulnerability of romantic idealism and the pain of adjustment from youthful narcissism to adult survival as Browne has in this album. Late for the Sky is the autobiography of his young manhood."
Stephen Holden, Rolling Stone, 1974
Possibly the best thing this long time successful writer and, over the past few years, successful singer has come up with. The lyrics are meaningful and come as close to poetry as anyone else making music today. This album really transcends any categorization, which is one of the highest compliments that can be paid an artist.
Billboard, October 7, 1974
Jackson Browne (born Clyde Jackson Browne; October 9, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter known for having sold millions of albums worldwide. First coming to prominence in the 70s, the rock musician has had a long career and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. Browne was born in Heidelberg, Germany, his father being an American serviceman stationed in the nation, but he moved to the Highland Park district of Los Angeles, California at an early age and soon began singing folk music locally. In 1966, his major career began as a part of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Often mixing catchy melodies with reflective, moody, and sometimes melancholic lyrics, some of his most popular hit singles include "Doctor My Eyes", "Running on Empty", and "Somebody's Baby". Considered a precociously-talented songwriter by many peers, Browne's solo career got its legs when he signed a publishing contract with Nina Music. His work have been performed by several artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Joan ...
Running on Empty (Remastered) (2019)
Pretender (2007)
For Everyman (Remaster) (2004)
The Very Best Of Jackson Browne (2004)
CD2 2004
The Naked Ride Home (2002)
Hold Out (1990)
World In Motion (1989)
Running On Empty (1987)
Saturate Before Using (1986/1993)
Lives In The Balance (1986)
Lawyers In Love (1983)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Hindgra Review: Generic Sildenafil Remedy from a Renowned Manufacturer but Without Consumer Reviews
Brand: Hindgra
Active Ingredient: Sildenafil Citrate
Manufacturer: Axon Pvt. Ltd.
Country of Manufacture: India
Hindgra Package Image
Hindgra is a generic rendition for brand Viagra and a creation of Axon.pvt.Ltd which is a manufacturing plant in India. The drug is presented as blue elliptical pills in a blister pack of four tablets. It constitutes of various chemicals the dominant active ingredient being Sildenafil citrate making it have some potential to treat pulmonary hypertension and infertility diseases in women although the research is underway to establish the density of the matter. Meanwhile, it is prescribed to male patients who have impotence. The quantities of this dominant chemical in Hindgra is similar to that of brand Viagra which comes in 50mg and 100mg pills.
The two medications are applied for the treatment of erectile dysfunction as they optimize the blood flow into the penile muscles to enhance sexual performance.
The said pharmaceutical supplier had gained a good grip on the local market since 1992 when it was established. Three years later it expanded I spread its wings to the international market where it has made its way to the top as a credible exporter of generic medications. The manufacturer is renowned for a versatile of therapeutic solutions applicable for Gastro intestinal inflammations, cardiovascular diseases all the way to male sexual reproductive disorders among others. Its drugs are said to have undergone an eagle-eyed inspection at each manufacturing stage to ensure that their potency is not compromised. Needless to say, that it takes a lot of dedication and diligence to influence the pharmaceutical industry for more than two decades like it was perfectly done.
Hindgra seems to be a new kid on the block since it is yet to build a popularity profile on the internet like other generic impotence remedies. This assumption has emerged as a result of a thorough search on the web for its reviews without a lucky finding. It would be fallacious to reason that its efficacy is similar to that of Viagra simply because they have similar quantities of Sildenafil Citrate. It is therefore paramount to get its potency information from the primary users of the drug to cement its viability claims. Its manufacturer is reliable with an excellent performance record of designing efficient customer related products. That is not a significant reason for You to risk your health and money from a product that is yet to pass its potency test through the consumer's lenses and so my two cents knowledge is that you need to invest in a popular and graciously-reviewed form of treatment.
Hindgra is assorted in 50mg and 100mg tablets by Axon.pvt.Ltd which has an efficient marketing team that has made it available in most online pharmacies not only in India but also in Vietnam. For instance, the drug can be bought in (Chuyencungcap.com) where its Quadro pack goes for 300,000 Vietnamese dongs which are equated to $ 13.19
You would agree with me that the price is reasonable compared to that of the brand Viagra thus making it easy for patients to spare a few coins in the acquisition of this impotence recipe. Its pricing might also vary depending on the quantity of the pills as well as the market differences where it is sold the cheapest in the local market as opposed to the global one.
How to Buy Hindgra Online
If your conviction is in place and you would like to purchase Hindgra online, you can order from Vietnamese websites where it is readily available. A representative of these virtual pharmacies is chuyencungcap.com. I might not be in the right position to tell whether the e-store demands a prescription from its customers before buying the drug or whether it offers an online consultation to issue one to its clients. Customers might have as well acquired it without a black and white authorization from the physicians because it is categorized as herb medication. The other issue which is incomprehensible in my case is the shipping options that the store utilizes to get Hindgra, the direct consumers. As Hindgra is not available for purchase, use Fildena as a 5* star alternative with a proven reputation.
http://www.canadapharmacy24h.com/catalog/Erectile_Dysfunction/Fildena.htm
https://pharmacymall.net/categories/Erectile-Dysfunction/Fildena?synonym=Fildena
Hindgra tablets are meant to contain 50mg or 100mg of Sildenafil citrate per tablet, and they are sold in a blister pack of four pills. Each tablet should be taken on an empty stomach with the help of water as the only recommended solvent to avoid reducing its efficacy. It is said to be highly potent when taken thirty minutes to one hour before engaging in sexual experience. Eating heavy meals and fatty foods makes the drug to be less effective. Consumers are also advised to take a pill a day and avoid alcohol to get the best out of their consumption. Another tip to get a smooth ride with the medication is to start with the lowest quantity pill of 50mg and double it with time.
Just like any other effective narcotic Hindgra has a myriad of unexpected outcomes which are characterized by nausea, hot flushes, indigestion, head and back aches and oversleeping. These symptoms are somewhat manageable at the individual level without being a need to visit a qualified physician albeit severe side effects such as chest pain, breathing problems and penile bleeding calls for an urgent medical intervention. Senior citizens above the age of sixty and men who have a malfunctioning liver or those who take other nitric treatments should consult widely before taking the drug. The other category that should be cautious with this medicine is that of persons with heart diseases and prone to allergies.
Hindgra is an impotence remedy with sildenafil citrate as the principal active ingredient and a generic version of brand Viagra manufactured by Axon private limited in India. It is applicable for the treatment of Erectile dysfunction where it makes it increases the blood flow to the penile tissues resulting in a nostalgic sexual experience which would otherwise turn out to be tragic. Despite the fact that a reputable manufacturer manufactured it lacked popularity from the consuming lot on the internet since it had no reviews. The lack of testimonials from its users makes it difficult to gauge its competence in the midst of a variety of generic impotencies in the market. It is for this reason I accord it 2-star rating out of 5. Please consult a health practitioner before consuming this medication to be on the safe side.
Majegra 100 Review: Cheaper Option to Viagra from India


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Clinton Global Initiative Comes To Los Angeles—A Commentary: Dear President Clinton & Mayor Garcetti: Can We Make A Deal?
Mark Gold opines on Former President Bill Clinton's stance on infrastructure and resiliency.
Los Angeles 2020 Commission Report 'Time for Truth,' Highlighted by Mickey Kantor
TPR has excerpted a portion of the executive summary of the Los Angeles 2020 Commission report, accompanied by Commission Chair and former US Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor's comments from a Which Way, LA? radio broadcast on KCRW.
Threat to Water Supply After An 'Event' Necessitates Delta Fix
VerdeXchange conference panel, "The Delta Resiliency After an Event," featuring Jeff Kightlinger, General Manager at the Metropolitan Water District; Gerald Meral, Deputy Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency; Jack Baylis, Senior Vice President of the Shaw Group; Paul Brown, a International Water Association Fellow; Lucy Jones, Senior Advisor for Risk Reduction at the USGS; and Phil Isenberg, Chair of the Delta Stewardship Council.
Israel's TaKaDu Offers 'State of the Art' Water Monitoring Software for Water Utilities
Amir Peleg, founder and CEO of TaKaDu, and Jacob Lipa, president of Psomas Engineering in Los Angeles, discuss TaKaDu's data-collecting software for water utilities, and how California stacks up in the global push for better water infrastructure.
Financing Strategy for Aligning Transit and Real Estate - TODs
Excerpts from an article, Aligning Transit and Real Estate: An Integrated Financial Strategy, by Will Fleissig of Communitas Development Inc. and Ian Carlton of the University of California, Berkeley.
John Beck, Chairman and CEO of the Aecon, Notes that Sustainability Means Good Business in Canada
John Beck, Chairman and CEO of Aecon, Canada's largest publicly traded construction company, explains how merging sustainability with infrastructure projects and operations positively impact's the company's bottom line.
Congressman Blumenauer and Supervisor Yaroslavsky Assess Recently Signed Federal Transportation Bill MAP-21
A joint interview with Congressman Earl Blumenauer and LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky on the implications of MAP-21 on national and regional transportation investment.
Lessons from Los Angeles' Century of Growth and Reinvention Shared with SPUR Delegation
David Abel, 'Beyond Chinatown' author Steven Erie, and LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne discuss how LA's urban and infrastructure development in the late 19th - early 20th century set the city on a trajectory unique from San Francisco.
Future Ports Conference: Engaging in the Expansion of the 710 Freeway
Goods reaching the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach must reach their destinations across the US, and this creates intense trucking traffic along the I-710 corridor. Jerry Wood of the Gateway Cities Council of Governments describes how local government and community groups have engaged in the planning process for an upgrade to that transportation infrastructure.
US Rep. Earl Blumenauer Argues for a Reset & Reevaluation of Federal Housing Programs
US Rep. Blumenauer offers his Congressional perspective on our nation's housing crisis, the scale and complexity of which he argues demands affirmative federal action.


The 2007 European heat wave affected most of Southern Europe and the Balkans. The phenomenon began affecting Italy and Turkey on 17 June and expanded into Greece and the rest of the Balkans, Hungary and Ukraine on 18 June. The costs of the heat wave were estimated at 2 billion euros.
Mainz, Germany recorded an average high of 22.4 °C for April, the strongest deviation (+6.2 °C) from the 1989-2018 average of any month. It was also the first calendar month without any measured precipitation since February 1959. A high of 29.4 °C was reached on April 14.
Up until 21 June, temperatures generally hovered around 36–39 °C (97–102 °F) in most of the aforementioned countries; however, starting on 22 June, temperatures skyrocketed in this entire region. From this point on Greece, Italy, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey experienced record-breaking temperatures in a situation unprecedented even for these nations, typically used to conditions of extreme heat.
During the weekend of 23–24 June and on 25 June, temperatures soared to 43–44 °C (109–111 °F). By 26 June, however, Greece seemed to bear the brunt of the heatwave with temperatures in Athens reaching 46.2 °C (115.2 °F). The same day, Greece's national power consumption set a new record. Parts of Greece, including neighbourhoods in Athens, suffered from power outages due to high electricity demand and heat damage to the grid. Explosions from overheating transmission towers were implicated in the forest fires ravaging the country. The discomfort was exacerbated by high night-time temperatures, which exceeded averages by up to 8 °C (14 °F), and remained at very high levels for more than half of the 2007 summer.
More than 200 people were rushed to the hospitals for heat-related treatment and, overall, 18 people lost their lives from heat exhaustion. By 28 June northerly winds started blowing from the northwest and temperatures finally began falling, reaching a cooler 39 °C (102 °F). Nonetheless, at a time when everyone believed that the worst part was over, more than 100 fires erupted across the country. Two people perished in the village of Aghia, near the city of Larissa. In the evening of that same day a major wildfire broke out in Mount Parnitha near Athens. By the dawn of 29 June, a significant part of the popular Parnitha National Park had turned into ashes. Temperatures fell by as much as 6 °C (11 °F) and the worst heatwave since records began came to an end leaving Greece reeling upon its disastrous effects.
By late July, temperatures again rose to more than 40 °C (104 °F) in Southern Europe, impacting agriculture, electricity supply, forestry and human health. From 21 to 25 July, temperatures reached or exceeded 45 °C (113 °F). Over 500 deaths in Hungary were attributed to the heatwave. Major wildfires destroyed large forested areas across the region. Six people (including two Canadair pilots) lost their lives while trying to extinguish the flames in Greece. The country's electricity grid nearly collapsed due to exceptional demand for air conditioning. Hundreds of tourists were stranded on the beaches of Apulia, in Southeastern Italy, and had to be rescued by boats.
In Bulgaria, six people were killed in the fires that started on 22 July. An estimated 1,530 fires broke out between 20 and 24 July, three times the yearly average. During the largest fire near Stara Zagora, 50 square kilometres (19 square miles) of pine forest burned for three days, as firefighters were unable to control the fire by conventional means. Strong winds and the extremely dry air quickly sparked new fires. The government requested help from Russia, and Be-200 amphibious water bombers finally managed to contain the blaze near Stara Zagora.
In the beginning of August, the Dalmatian coast in Croatia was hit by severe fires, especially in the surroundings of Dubrovnik.
^ Mircheva et al. 2017, p. 1.
^ a b Founda & Giannakopoulos 2009, p. 230.
^ a b Grohmann, Karolos (28 June 2007). "Fires burn across sizzling Greece, two dead". Reuters. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
^ "News in Crete & Greece Archive May - June 2007". LivingInCrete.net. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
^ "500 deaths in Hungary blamed on European heat wave". CBC.ca. 24 July 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
^ "Europe bakes in summer heatwave". BBC News Online. 25 July 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
^ Crnčević, Lidija (6 August 2007). "Zgarište od Cavtata do Mokošice". Jutarnji list (in Croatian). Zagreb, Croatia. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
Benali, Nacéra (28 June 2007). "La canicule, l'eau et le vin". El Watan (in French). Retrieved 15 July 2018.
"Canicule sur l'Europe centrale". Météo World (in French). 25 July 2007. Archived from the original on 22 March 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
Thomas, Raphaëlle (26 July 2007). "Vague de chaleur dévastatrice en Europe du Sud". Le Figaro (in French). Retrieved 15 July 2018.
"Une nouvelle vague de canicule attendue en Grèce". El Watan (in French). 20 July 2007. Archived from the original on 17 October 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
"Clima torrido in Puglia Bari record con 46°C". La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno (in Italian). Bari, Italy. 25 June 2007. Archived from the original on 14 May 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
"Sud-est de l'Europe: canicule meurtrière". Radio Suisse Romande (in French). Geneva. 27 July 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
Mircheva, Biliana; Tsekov, Milen; Meyer, Ulrich; Guerova, Guergana (December 2017). "Anomalies of hydrological cycle components during the 2007 heat wave in Bulgaria". Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics. 165-166: 1–9. doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2017.10.005.
Founda, D.; Giannakopoulos, C. (June 2009). "The exceptionally hot summer of 2007 in Athens, Greece — A typical summer in the future climate?". Global and Planetary Change. 67 (3–4): 227–236. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2009.03.013.
Theoharatos, George; Pantavou, Katerina; Mavrakis, Anastasios; Spanou, Anastasia; Katavoutas, George; Efstathiou, Panos; Mpekas, Periklis; Asimakopoulos, Dimosthenis (February 2010). "Heat waves observed in 2007 in Athens, Greece: Synoptic conditions, bioclimatological assessment, air quality levels and health effects". Environmental Research. 110 (2): 152–161. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2009.12.002.


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Kulturkiste is an Austrian television series.

See also
List of Austrian television series

Austrian television series
ORF (broadcaster)
2002 Austrian television series debuts
2002 Austrian television series endings
2000s Austrian television series
German-language television shows


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Iffat Siddiquie
Scarlett Ingrid Johansson is a well-known actress. It is rare to find someone who does not know her or her character. Black Widow was her first Disney's MCU role, debuting in Iron Man 2. She has portrayed the character in a total of eight films, the most recent being Black Widow (2021), for which she received widespread acclaim.
Johansson's filmography at this time features the sci-fi features Her (2013), Under the Skin (2013), and Lucy (2013). (2014). She is one of just a handful of actors to ever be nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress at the same time for her performances as a struggling actress in the drama Marriage Story (2019) and as a single mother in Nazi Germany in the comedy Jojo Rabbit (2019).
Keep reading to find out about the early life, early career, education, married life, children, and net worth of your favorite actress Scarlet Johansson.
Scarlett Johansson Early Life
New York City's Manhattan is where Scarlett Ingrid Johansson entered the world on November 22, 1984. Karsten Olaf Johansson, her father, is a Danish architect. Her Swedish-American grandmother was raised by her art historian, screenwriter, and film director paternal grandpa, Ejner Johansson.
Melanie Sloan, a New Yorker and producer, is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent from Poland and Russia; the family's original surname was Schlamberg; Johansson identifies as Jewish.
Sister Vanessa is also an actor, and brothers Adrian and Hunter are older. From her dad's first marriage, she also has an older half-brother named Christian. Johansson has citizenship in both the United States and her native Denmark.
During a 2017 episode of PBS's Finding Your Roots, she learned that her maternal great-family grandfather perished in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust. In her early adolescence, when she was only thirteen years old, her parents split up. Johansson considers her accountant and educator grandmother Dorothy Sloan to be her dearest friend due to the tight relationship between the two.
From a young age, Johansson had an interest in performing and would put on shows for her family, complete with song and dance, to express her desire to work in the show business. She had a special soft spot for anything involving jazz hands and the stage. She adds that her parents encouraged her to pursue tap dancing as a profession and that they helped her enroll in classes. She had a typical upbringing, she says.
Johansson, who aspired to be Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis when she was young, would practice acting by crying in front of the mirror. She was heartbroken when a talent agent chose to sign one of her brothers instead of her when she was seven years old, but she ultimately opted to pursue acting regardless. She tried out for commercials at first, but quickly lost interest and focused instead on acting.
Scarlett Johansson Education
Johansson went to PS 41, a public primary school in Manhattan's Greenwich Village; the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute; and Professional Children's School (PCS), a private school for budding child performers in Manhattan.
Scarlett Johansson Early Career
Johansson made her screen debut in the fantasy comedy North as John Ritter's daughter when she was just nine years old (1994). She claims she had an instinct for what to do on the set of the movie. The daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw's characters in the mystery thriller Just Cause and an art student in If Lucy Fell were two of her subsequent small parts (1996).
In Manny & Lo (1996), co-starring Aleksa Palladino and her brother Hunter, Johansson made her debut as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teen who escapes from her foster family.
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of… Scarlett Johansson," and the same paper's critic Mick LaSalle remarked on her "peaceful aura" and predicted, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." For her performance, Johansson was considered for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female.
Scarlett Johansson Married Life
From 2001 to 2002, Johansson dated PCS classmate Jack Antonoff. Between 2004 to the end of 2006, she dated Josh Hartnett, who also appeared in Black Dahlia. Hartnett claims that the pair split up due to their hectic lifestyles. Back in 2007, Johansson started dating Ryan Reynolds, a Canadian actor.
In May of 2008, they were engaged, and in September of same year, they were married on Vancouver Island. They later divorced in July of 2011.
Johansson started dating French ad agency owner Romain Dauriac in November 2012. They decided to get engaged in September of that year. The couple spent time both in New York and in Paris. In October of that year, Johansson and Dauriac tied the knot in Philipsburg, Montana.
They broke up in the middle of 2016 and officially divorced in September 2017. In May of 2017, Johansson began dating Colin Jost, co-head writer of Saturday Night Live and co-host of the show's Weekend Update segment. They got engaged in May of this year. They tied the knot in October of 2020, right there in New York.
Scarlett Johansson Children
Scarlett Johansson has two children from her relationships with both Dauriac and Jost. Scarlett Johansson is mom to daughter Rose, 7, and son Cosmo, 7 months. According to People, on Wednesday on The Drew Barrymore Show, the 37-year-old actress appeared for Drew Barrymore's "The Final 5" section and addressed viewers' questions.
The Sing star, a mother to 7-year-old Rose Dorothy and 7-month-old Cosmo, let up about the one thing she would rather keep secret from her kids.
"I think my daughter has asked me this before," Johansson said. "I'm embarrassed to admit that I was a smoker when I was younger. She can never, ever, ever smoke, and I don't want her to think that I ever thought it was cool."
Scarlett Johansson Net Worth
Scarlett Johansson has a net worth of $165 million. She is one of the high-earning box office stars of all time, with her films generating over $14.3 billion worldwide. She is also an incredibly well-paid brand endorser. She easily makes $10 – $20 million every film and consistently makes $10 – $20 million per year through endorsements.
The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured many times on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential persons in the world in 2021.
Also read: Ultimate Guide About Discord and Discord Server, Bots in 2022


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Ethel Barns, née en  à Londres et morte le  à Maidenhead, est une violoniste et compositrice britannique.

Biographique
Elle fait ses études à la Royal Academy of Music de Londres et débute au Crystal Palace en 1896. Elle effectue des tournées en Angleterre en 1897 et aux États-Unis en 1913.

Œuvres

 Concertstuck pour violon et orchestre
 Deux trios
 Phantasy pour deux violons et piano
 Cinq sonates pour violon et piano

Sources

Liens externes

Compositrice britannique de musique classique
Violoniste britannique
Musicienne britannique
Décès en décembre 1948
Naissance en 1880


The University District Board of Directors celebrated and honored outgoing board members Kim Pearman-Gillman and Kim Zentz and longstanding board representative Andrew Worlock at the December 4, 2018, University District board meeting. Thank you all for your tremendous board service, expertise, stewardship, vision, humor, and dedication. We will miss you!
(Pictured from left to right: Lars Gilberts, UD CEO; Kim Pearman-Gillman, Andrew Worlock, Latisha Hill, outgoing board chair; and Kim Zentz).


text:
https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/2020/08/10/josh-richardson-trying-to-be-more-vocal-for-sixers-without-their-stars/
Josh Richardson trying to be more vocal for Sixers without their stars
The Philadelphia 76ers continue their life inside the bubble missing one All-Star in Ben Simmons and they then lost the other one–Joel Embiid–to an injury on Sunday. So, that means other guys need to step up and assume that leadership mantle.
Enter Josh Richardson who has stepped up in the past as the team's leader in big situations. He had to do so again on Sunday as he dropped 34 points while also defending Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. On top of that, he also had to be the team's vocal leader and getting guys into place.
"That's just one of those things that comes with involvement in the game," said Richardson. "I feel like it carries over to the rest of everything. When I feel involved, when the ball's moving, when we're playing the right way, I feel like everybody's in good spirits. I think that we did a good job of playing together. I was just trying to be vocal and get guys to their spots. When you don't have Ben and Joel out there, it falls on us."
Richardson had been struggling inside the bubble. He was shooting only 35% and he was coming off a game where he shot just 2-for-12 in their win on Friday. He was an unlikely source of offense given his performance at Disney World thus far, but in this specific situation, it was time for him to forget about his struggles and move forward.
"We have great players so sometimes you're not going to get as many touches as you want or it's not going to go your way, but sometimes it does," he added. "Sometimes I feel like getting the rock a lot and do what I do, but it's just personnel and that's how it goes sometimes. You try and stay in good spirits, stay positive, and keep pushing forward. I just knew that a few of us have to step up and honestly, I was just taking shots I normally would. I was being aggressive, but it wasn't anything super crazy or out of character for me."
It can't be just Richardson for the Sixers to succeed. They will need everybody to step up on a nightly basis to get this done and his play can be infectious for others. For example, Alec Burks also poured in 20 points off the bench to help Philadelphia hang with the Blazers. This was a game they had no business being in without their two top guys, but they were right there with a chance to win late.
"Josh is the easy one to go to," said coach Brett Brown. "You get 54 points from J-Rich from Alec Burks and that's impressive. Without Ben, we're going to need to find different ways to do things. I think the group is going to be able to find ways to score. I'm just proud of their effort. They played the way that you'd be proud of. It's a shame we fell short at that end."
The Sixers will need more out of Richardson moving forward as they get set to take on another scoring machine in Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday.
Perkins, Scalabrine apologize for questioning Joel Embiid's injury
Josh Richardson, Brett Brown react to Damian Lillard scoring 51 points
Brett Brown reacts to Joel Embiid's injury, how it affects his minutes


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Product New AI: Gen 3.2.10 – better footlock and trajectory
Yesterday, 30 August 2021, we released our latest AI, version 3.2.10. This AI update makes significant progress on the key metrics of better understanding and reconstructing movement through depth and its relationship with the floor:
1. Floor contact (footlock): Our AI now has a better, explicit, understanding of the relationship between the actor and the floor in the scene. This produces more consistent, stable results with respect to the feet making contact with the floor.
2. Spatial trajectory: Our AI is now better able to detect and reconstruct movement through space, specifically depth. As a result, you'll see fewer unnatural global oscillations in spatial trajectory in our results. And where they still exist, they are consistently less pronounced.
These changes, in turn, also produce subtle, but noticeable improvements to fidelity (detail), smoothness and stability (ie, even less jitter, chop and jerk).
Update your results:
As ever, results you have previously produced using an older version of the AI can be updated with a single click from the right-hand sidebar in your scene.
Much more to do:
Our aim is to hold our footlock / floor contact and spatial trajectory metrics to the highest standards of the industry. We believe we can get there, and we know there's work yet to be done. There will be many more of these releases, and corresponding improvements, going forward.


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Chris Koch (1927-1986) est un joueur de rugby à XV sud-africain.
 Chris Koch est un réalisateur américain.


Sistematica was founded in 1987 at Manta di Saluzzo, as an electronics engineering company.
Already in 1991, the business evolved into electronic industrial production.
First radio remote control system dates back to 1995.
Years of intensive development lead in 2002 to the qualification by the Research MIUR System, in 2007 to the output of the first System equipped with SAFETY POINT ™ and the following year to the introduction of new TILTING HAND ™ technology.
In 2008 NordOvest Fund acquires Sistematica through SGR Strategia Italia, marking a milestone in the company's development, with significant strides in upgrading and industrialization of products.
It dates back to 2011 the presentation of the new CLOSE LINK two-way communication system, which meets full approval from the market.
In 2014 Sistematica acquired Neohm Componenti Srl and a few months later we moved to the new headquarter of Savigliano (cn, Italy).
TiltingHand™ allows the proportional adjustment of a Controller output by measuring the degree of rotation of the Handheld transmitter Its sensitivity to movement is considerably higher than that obtained with old remote controls, where adjustment is carried out using triggers or buttons, which are subject to wear and breakage.


Tyrann Mathieu put on a show at LSU's pro day on Wednesday, adding further intrigue as to when he'll be drafted in late April.
Mathieu has done nothing but boost his draft stock since the 2013 NFL Scouting Combine. He posted solid numbers across the board in the measureable drills (h/t ESPN College Football) and looked excellent during field drills.
He's received the endorsement of "Prime Time" himself, Deion Sanders, who interviewed him after his combine workout. Sanders said, "This guy is a straight up dog. You know what I mean by dog. Man's best friend. He's a overachiever. He's all that and a bag of chips."
Mathieu is a player who would have been a lock as a second-round pick—possibly a late-first round pick—if not for some serious concerns about his ability to stay focused on football and away from drugs.
He was kicked off LSU's football team back in August, and we later found out he had failed multiple drug tests and spent some time in rehab. Even after this wake-up call, Mathieu didn't stop the behavior that got him into trouble, and he was arrested in October for "simple possession of marijuana."
That proved to be the turning point, as Mathieu has, by all appearances, turned his life around since that event. He has been forthright about his problem and has since put his mind to the task of preparing for the NFL draft.
After the combine and his pro day at LSU, it's safe to say Mathieu's hard work has paid off. He was always an athletically gifted player with a penchant for making big plays in big games, and now it seems that this young man is ready to take the next step.
Mathieu may not be drafted in Round 2, but after his sharp workout at LSU on Wednesday, nobody will be shocked to see him go early in Round 3.


SOPHISTICATED people-smuggling syndicates charging clients about $12,000 for a one-way trip from Afghanistan to Australia are preying with apparent impunity on Hazara communities in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide.
The syndicates, which use GPS tracking and mobile-phone messaging systems, boast they can reunite family and friends with relatives living in Australia within months, if not weeks.
It is claimed the top smugglers move around with ease, have Australian citizenship and travel unimpeded between Australia and Afghanistan. This week Indonesian police detained an Australian citizen, Haydar Khani, allegedly responsible for smuggling almost 100 asylum seekers on board the ill-fated SIEV 221 which broke up on rocks off Christmas Island in December.
The biggest smuggling operation in Australia is believed to be run from a series of nondescript shopfronts in Dandenong, in Melbourne's south, home to thousands of Afghan refugees, many of them Hazaras. It is believed to have generated tens of millions of dollars in profits in the past two years.
❏ Fees paid to people smugglers include a $1500 deposit, with more payments made as the asylum seeker progresses through the system. In the past two years, the cost of a passage from Kabul to Christmas Island has jumped from $7500 to $12,000.
❏ Financial transactions are conducted through the so-called hawala banking system that is difficult for law enforcement authorities to monitor as it involves no individual payments or records - just monthly cash settlements paid via Western Union between respective agents in Australia and Afghanistan.
❏ People smugglers insist that all asylum seeker identity documents, including passports, be destroyed before embarking on boats to Australia to ensure people cannot be connected to relatives and family members living in Australia. Use of false names also means that Afghan authorities cannot trace them.
❏ It is apparently common for boats to arrive with asylum seekers claiming to be from a particular Taliban-controlled district where it is impossible for authorities to check their identities.
This month Western Union conceded that its money transfer service had been used by people smugglers in Australia to fund illegal operations. The financial services giant made the admission in a submission to the national finance intelligence unit, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.
Yesterday a spokesman for the Australian Federal Police declined to comment on the claims, saying it was official policy not to discuss operational matters. More than 93 people have been convicted of people smuggling since 2008. Most are believed to be Indonesian fisherman taken off intercepted boats.
It is believed the networks comprise several operational tiers: spruikers who target vulnerable clients such as parents who want to be reunited with children; bag men who collect payments; ''commanders'' who track progress through the network. The operation is entirely commission based.
The AFP is a key part of the federal government's people-smuggling strike team that conducts long-term investigations into the trade. The team has powers to intercept phone conversations, monitor banking transactions and has officers in Indonesia and Kabul.
Hazaras have a long history of persecution in Afghanistan and make up a significant number of the 6000 asylum seekers who arrived last year in Australian waters by boat from Indonesia. Many have fled the Taliban controlled city of Quetta, in Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border.
''Smugglers and their operatives see nothing morally wrong in what they are doing. They believe they are providing a service to the Afghan community by reuniting people … ,'' a prominent member of the Afghan community, who declined to be identified, said.
The Herald has been told that the once sanguine attitude among Afghans to smugglers is shifting. Sources who approached this reporter to talk about networks said they did so because of the disaster in December when more than 30 people on SIEV 221 perished in wild seas off Christmas Island.
It is believed there are 17,000 asylum seekers in Indonesia waiting to come to Australia and another 25,000 in Malaysia.
Australia has recently signed an agreement with Afghanistan to return asylum seekers who fail to meet the refugee criteria.


Simple Minds – I Travel: 1980 French Arista 3-track 12″ vinyl single featuring Special Remixed Version plus Kaleidoscope & Film Theme, in yellow-tinted 'soldier' picture sleeve!
This Heat – Health & Efficiency: 1980 UK Piano Records 12″ vinyl EP, one of the most rocking-as-a-band efforts by the genius that was This Heat, also featuring Graphic/Varispeed, lyric picture sleeve. The sleeve shows light wear and the vinyl appears barely played.


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Little Big Town Tribute Glen Campbell With 'Wichita Lineman' at 2017 CMA Awards
Sterling Whitaker
Sterling Whitaker Published: November 8, 2017
Michael Buckner, Getty Images
Little Big Town paid tribute to county and pop legend Glen Campbell at the 2017 CMA Awards on Wednesday night (Nov. 8), performing a stunning cover of his classic hit, "Wichita Lineman."
A simple, somber piano motif from songwriter Jimmy Webb began their arrangement of the classic song, which became one of Campbell's signature hits after he recorded it in 1968. It's one of several Webb songs Campbell helped turn into all-time hits.
Little Big Town's rendition was muted, but powerful, relying on Karen Fairchild's strong lead vocal and the sinuous, shimmering vocal harmonies that have made LBT one of the most successful and acclaimed vocal groups in contemporary country music.
Campbell died on Aug. 8 after battling Alzheimer's since 2011. His daughter, Ashley, cried in the audience as LBT performed her dad's hit.
Campbell and Willie Nelson won Musical Event of the Year earlier Wednesday for their collaboration on Nelson's "Funny How Time Slips Away" from Campbell's final album, Adios. The title song of that project is another of Jimmy Webb's songs.
See Pics from the 2017 CMA Awards Red Carpet
The Best CMA Awards Moment? Here's Our Top 5!
Next: See Winners from the 2017 CMA Awards
Filed Under: Glen Campbell, Little Big Town
Categories: CMA Awards, Country Music News


text:
Хиос (; ; на генуезки диалект: Scio) е петият по големина гръцки остров. Разположен е в източната част на Егейско море, на 7 km от най-западната точка на турския полуостров Чешме. Попада в рамките на ном Хиос. Стопански, административен и културен център и най-голям град на острова е Хиос, разположен на източното му крайбрежие.

География
Площта на остров Хиос възлиза на 842 km². Дължина от север на юг 45 km, широчина от 13 до 30 km. Бреговата му линия е сравнително слабо разчленена, но се срещат множество малки заливчета (Вичада, Анатолико, Каламоти, Каринта, Апотика, Места, Елата, Ормо и др.) с прекрасни плажове. На 15 km на северозапад се намират малките острови Псара и Антипсара, а на изток, в протока отделящ го от турското крайбрежие островната група Инусе (тя също е гръцка територия). Островът е изграден предимно от варовици и шисти. Релефът е преобладаващо планински с максимална височина 1297 m, издигаща се в северната му част. На юг и югозапад има малки крайбрежни равнини. Естествената растителност е представена основно от средиземноморски твърдолистни храсти, а на отделни места са се запазили малки горички от алепски бор. На острова се отглеждат маслини, цитрусови плодове и лозя. Съществува местна порода овце. Развит е риболовът на сардина и скумрия.

Историческа справка
Остров Хиос е един от центровете на Егейската култура. Неговите древни обитатели – племената лелеги и карийци в началото на 1-то хилядолетие пр.Хр. били завладени от йониците. От 8-ми век пр.Хр. островът става важен търговско-занаятчийски център в Егейско море. От тук са се изнасяли за другите части на Гърция висококачесвено вино, мастикс, мрамор, смокини и не напоследно място скопени петли. На острова е възникнал и първия в Гърция пазар за роби. Хиос се смята за един от древните центрове за литература и изкуство. Предполага се, че е родно място на Омир. През 1-ви век пр.Хр. островът попада под римска власт, от края на 4-ти до 13-ти век е византийско владение, след това – генуезко владение, а от 1566 г. е под турска власт. През 1912 г. влиза в пределите на Гърция. В южната част на острова, в близост до селището Пирги, се намира светилище на Аполон (основано през 9-ти век пр.Хр.) с изграден през 2-то половина на 6-ти век пр.Хр. храмов комплекс. На острова е запазена средновокевната крепост на византийския Нов манастир Неа Мони, изградена през 1042-56 г.

Три от манастирите на острова са обявени за обекти от списъка на ЮНЕСКО на световното наследство.

Бележки

Външни препратки
 Описание на обекта на Юнеско
 Остров Хиос – Пътеводител Гърция
 Сълзите на Хиос
 Вятърните мелници на остров Хиос
 Официален сайт на остров Хиос


text:
/*
 * To change this license header, choose License Headers in Project Properties.
 * To change this template file, choose Tools | Templates
 * and open the template in the editor.
 */
package dec2midi.data.internal;

/**
 *
 * @author Wizard
 */
public class NumberspaceExtensionProvider {

    public NumberspaceExtensionProvider() {}

                            public static String numberspaceExtension(int number) throws Exception {

                        if(number<=9) { return String.valueOf(number);}

                        if(number<=35){
                        switch(number) {

                            case 10: return "a";
                            case 11: return "b";
                            case 12: return "c";
                            case 13: return "d";
                            case 14: return "e";
                            case 15: return "f";
                            case 16: return "g";
                            case 17: return "h";
                            case 18: return "i";
                            case 19: return "j";
                            case 20: return "k";
                            case 21: return "l";
                            case 22: return "m";
                            case 23: return "n";
                            case 24: return "o";
                            case 25: return "p";
                            case 26: return "q";
                            case 27: return "r";
                            case 28: return "s";
                            case 29: return "t";
                            case 30: return "u";
                            case 31: return "v";
                            case 32: return "w";
                            case 33: return "x";
                            case 34: return "y";
                            case 35: return "z";
                            default: return null;

                        }} else {throw new Exception("Extension for higher bases not supported");}

                        }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub