This year, the 4 guests from Bujora, together with Sukumas living in Denmark, make a ceremony as a part of the exsibition "The living deads".
In the weekend 22 & 23 august 2015 there will be made a set of traditional "forefather houses" (misumva) at the musuems premecies.
You can download a PDF with more information in danish HERE.
Photo from WanaCesilias visit to Denmark in 1973. Photo coutesy of Jesper Kirknæs.
WanaCesilias visit to Denmark in 1973. Photo coutesy of Jesper Kirknæs.


The weekly task (Pahiya Ghumao, Kismat Chamkao – where they have to ride a rickshaw to different cities) continues. The contestants complain and curse about their decision to participate in Bigg Boss 5. They are extremely tired and exhausted from cycling day and night to reach their next destination and complete the task. After all the complaining, the contestants finally reach Lucknow. As a part of the performance, Shakti Kapoor is dressed as a nawab while the others are dressed as Mujra dancers who try to entice the Nawab with their adas. Shakti is also assigned as a judge for this performance and he has to decide who the best and worst dancers are.


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Home > Community Histories > Ridgmont > Warren Farm and The Agricultural Institute Ridgmont
Warren Farm about 1880
Warren Farm
Warren Farm, like much of Ridgmont, was owned by the Duke of Bedford. The first reference to it is in 1840 [R3/4194] when it was described in a letter of the Duke of Bedford's steward as: "an old wood and thatch place, half worn-out" but it could "be patched". At some point between this date and the end of the century the farmhouse was pulled down and rebuilt to give the red brick and tiled farmhouse we have today.
Directories of the county were published every few years and Warren Farm was first listed in 1877 when Henry Readman was tenant. The next directory, 1885, lists the tenant as Samuel Charles Desborough who is also listed in 1890. The directory of 1894 lists Henry Hedges as tenant. In fact he left the farm that year [SF51/40].
The Agricultural Institute about 1900 [Z50/95/42]
Ridgmont Farm School or Agricultural Institute
Herbrand, 11th Duke of Bedford was, like his predecessors, interested in modern agricultural developments. His father Hastings, the 9th Duke, had established the Experimental Farm at Husborne Crawley in 1876 and he himself set up the Experimental Fruit Farm in the same parish in 1895. This was the year that he began his 32 year term as Chairman of Bedfordshire County Council, a new body created in 1889.
The Duke leased Warren Farm to the council to create a Farm School (later known as the Agricultural Institute) for boys wishing to study to become farmers. Looking at the 6 inch Ordnance Survey maps of about 1880 and about 1900 it is clear that the Duke added considerably to the farmhouse and buildings immediately to the rear of it to create the school premises.
The school was run by the County Council. The first meeting of the Ridgmont Farm School Sub-Committee of the Technical Instruction Committee took place on 4th May 1895 [AG/SubM1/1]. The sub-committee decided to advertise in the newspapers for a farm manager who would be paid £1 per week as well as receiving free board and lodging. There would also be "£80 per annum to the man and wife who shall be appointed House Master and Matron respectively". Ten boys would receive scholarships to attend the farm school.
The next meeting, on 7th June selected the following boys to receive scholarships:
Charles Cook of Keysoe;
James William Cox of Westoning;
Charles Harry Gardner of Lidlington;
Ezekiel Jeeves of Sandy;
Herbert Kefford of Tempsford;
Herbert Woodhouse Saunders of Sandy;
William Randall of Toddington;
Herbert James Roberts of Barton-le-Clay;
Aleck Taylor of Maulden;
Arthur Thomas Twidell of Totternhoe.
Private Herbert James Roberts, aged 38, of 2nd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, son of James and Martha, would be killed on 30th July 1917 near Ypres. He is buried in New Irish Farm Cemetery. He would have been sixteen when he entered the farm school.
The committee received thirty applications for the post of Farm Manager and sixty three for the posts of House Master and Matron. The meeting on 7th September appointed James Williams of Aberaeron on the west coast of Wales and his wife as House Master and Matron. Mrs. Williams was authorised to engage a maid at wages not exceeding £12 per annum. Joseph Neild Cornes of Crudgington [Shropshire] was appointed farm manager. However "Mr. Spooner [see below] … stated that the School Buildings could not be ready for admission of the Scholars by 1st October". The scholars were told that their entry into the new establishment would have to be postponed.
The next meeting fixed 18th November as the opening date and resolved that the scholars would have to be put up in the House Master's accommodation temporarily. However, this date, too, proved impossible and on 14th November the committee resolved to open the school on 1st January 1896. The school would be open to public view in an open day two days later.
Minutes of the meeting of 20th January show that the school had indeed opened. The committee ruled that the bell for bed be rung at 9.30 p. m. with lights out following fifteen minutes later. It also considered its first disciplinary offence. Ezekiel Jeeves, obviously a nonconformist, had refused to work on Sundays. "Ezekiel Jeeves was called before the Committee when he repeated his unwillingness to so such duties. The Committee after careful consideration being of opinion that such duties were reasonable resolved that Ezekiel Jeeves be dismissed and that the Secretary be instructed to inform his parents that he would leave the School on the following day". William Randall was also taken to task over "certain irregularities" in his conduct. He was more properly contrite! The committee, considering the question of supply of beer to the scholars ruled that they should not "under any circumstances" enter any of the public houses in the village. Meanwhile they would continue to receive no beer but the situation would be reviewed in a month; sadly the outcome of the review is not mentioned in the minutes. Scholars were also forbidden to smoke but daily and a local weekly newspaper were provided.
Ezekiel Jeeves, Arthur Twidell (who had resigned) and James Cox (who was ill) were replaced by Francis Huckle of Silsoe, William Charles Stanton of Riseley and Arthur Charles Thurley of Sandy in February.
The Bedfordshire Mercury of 4th July 1896 reported on the first inspection of the Institute and the following is an edited version of part of the article. "The members of the County Council on Tuesday paid their first official visit to the Ridgmont Farm School, which has recently been organised by them with the generous assistance of the Duke of Bedford. The party assembled at Ridgmont Station at 10.45, and were met by the Duke, who had provided a number of conveyances to take them to their destination".
"The first halt was made at the Experimental Fruit Farm, over which the party was conducted by Mr. Castle. The summer-houses afforded very welcome shelter, for as everybody was admiring the beauties of the farm, a heavy storm came on. Again in the brakes they were driven to the School where they were joined by Mr. Dymond, the vice-chairman of the Council".
"The farm house … borders the high road in the centre of Ridgmont. The farm land adjoins on its southern side the Experimental farm, conducted by the Royal Agricultural Society, while it is also bounded by the Experimental Fruit Farm. Entering by the main gate, on the left are the yards, stables and outbuildings, and on the right the farm-house accommodating the staff of the school. Connected with it at the rear stands the school proper, the whole being constructed of red brick. The school opens out upon a quadrangle bounded by lavatory, bath-room, boot-room and other buildings, planned so as to be quite apart from the movements connected with the farm itself. On entering the school porch, the dining room is reached, and this by good arrangement is placed in direct communication with the kitchen. Beyond is the lecture-room, built in a simple and substantial style to accommodate 20 scholars, and having its walls lined with botanical specimens and pictures of farm machinery. Above these two rooms are situated the dormitories, which are placed to direct communication with the Master's rooms. Upon Mr. and Mrs. Williams, the House Master and Matron, devolves the chief control of the institution; and whilst Mrs. Williams anxiously considers the creature comforts of those placed in her charge, Mr. Williams' care is rather to provide that intellectual equipment for life which we are now coming to believe is necessary even to the sons of Hodge. The farm, which is under the direction of Mr. Cornes, comprises about 270 acres, about half arable and half pasture. The land is of varying character, from light, sandy soil to stiff clay, to that there is every variety of treatment brought within the range of the practical experience of the scholars. Speaking generally, the four course system is adopted, though, as might naturally be expected, variety will be introduced as occasion arises, that the education element may always be kept to the front. In particular some of the light land is considered adaptable to the purposes of market gardening, and in a county such as Bedfordshire, with so large an area under market garden cultivation, it is thought desirable that the school should not entirely neglect that important branch of land cultivation. The pasturage, too, affords ample keep for a herd of cows, and it is the intention of the County Council to maintain a working dairy at the farm, and probably it will not be very long before this important side will be in full working order".
A crisis occurred in April 1912 when Frank Spooner, Director of Education, absconded with £2,476 of the FarmSchool's funds. Frank Spooner, according to the Censuses was born in Whitechapel [Middlesex]. In the 1871 Census his father John (aged 38, born Ramsden Bellhouse, Essex) and his mother Jane (aged 30, born Downham, Essex), his brother (aged 10, born St Pancras, Middlesex), his sister Edith (aged 1, born in Whitechapel) and himself aged 4 were all living in 29 Little North Street, Whitechapel.
In the 1881 Census the family is given as residing at 10 Bucks Row, Whitechapel. Interestingly, Bucks Row was the site, on 31st August 1888, of the first killing by the infamous Jack the Ripper, when the body of Polly Nicholls was found close to BoardSchool in the street. Frank himself would go on to teach at a BritishSchool (later a BoardSchool) - the first extant Leighton British Boys' School log book [SDLeightonBuzzardBeaudesert1/1] records: "18th April 1887 Frank Spooner took charge of School today". The new headteacher gave permission on 21st April to supply every scholar with slate. On 29th April Spooner records "boys responsive to teachers". On 5th May, the school was shut at 3.00 "to prevent loss of attendance owing to Missionary meeting for Juveniles in the town".
On 18th December 1891 it is recorded in the Log Book [SDLeightonBuzzardBeaudesert1/2] that Frank Spooner as Head Master had obtained an appointment under Bedfordshire County Council. Unfortunately the Leighton Buzzard School Board Minutes only start in 1893 and so that source is unavailable to confirm what that position was. The Chairman of the County Council Technical Education Committee was Theodore Harris, an Leighton Buzzard Quaker, who would have known Spooner well (the Quakers had established the British School in Beaudesert in 1813).
Frank Spooner eventually rose to be Director of Education of the newly formed Local Education Authority in September 1903. It appeared that the County Council was running an efficient new service with a capable and energetic Director. In April 1912, Frank Spooner disappeared. Before absconding he had sold his red car, which he had been seen driving unacceptably fast round Wootton. He was unmarried but had moved his parents, sister and himself to a comfortable house at 12 Kimbolton Avenue, Bedford by 1910. [BORBP4660, dated 1906 designed by E. H. C. Inskip for H. Waller]. Letters suggest that he was taking the money to help support his brother's business in Coleman Street in London. Spooner said he would give himself up, principally in a letter to Samuel Henry Whitbread from the Hotel Russell in London on 27th April 1912. On 2nd May the Daily News published the story.
Frank Spooner wanted poster
On 23rd August Bedfordshire County Council placed the above Wanted notice in the Bedfordshire Standard. The notice reads: "The Spooner Case. £100 REWARD. Bedford Borough Police (Detective Department) Telephone 13 August 17th, 1912. AMENDED INFORMATION. Photograph taken 2 years ago, but still a good likeness. Copy of Usual Signature Frank Spooner. WANTED Here on a Warrant for Larceny as Agent £75. (Total sum involved £2,767) on the 8th of February last, FRANK SPOONER. Age about 45, height 5 feet 7 or 8 inches, thin build, pale complexion, oval shaped face, hair black turning grey, moustache black, otherwise clean shaven but may let his whiskers grow, invariably wears gold rimmed spectacles. Usually dresses in black or blue serge jacket suit, black Bowler hat and Bertie collar. The above named has been engaged for many years as Director of Education to the Beds County Council. He is a great Free Church and Temperance worker. He absconded at mid-day on the 26th April last. The above reward will be paid to the person who gives information which leads to the arrest of the above named. F. Timbrell, Chief Constable".
Despite the reward offered, Frank Spooner was never seen again, although there was an alleged sighting in Madeira. In his state of mind however he could have committed suicide, possibly by drowning from a ferry whilst leaving the country.
A meeting of the County Agricultural Education Committee, as the Ridgmont farm School Sub-Committee had become, on 20th April minuted: "Owing to the absence of the Director of Education no Estimates were submitted". This was followed by the following minute: "The Chairman reported to the Committee that he had received information that the Committee's Account at the bank had been overdrawn to the amount of £2,060.7.3. Resolved: That the Chairman and Councillor A. Inskip be appointed a Sub-Committee to investigate the cause of the overdraft and to present a full statement to a Special Meeting to be held at the earliest possible moment".
The special meeting took place on 27th April. The minutes read: "The Sub-Committee appointed to investigate the question of the Bank overdraft submitted a verbal report together with a statement showing the apparent defalcations within the last five years. Resolved: That a warrant be issued for the arrest of Mr. Frank Spooner". As a result the committee had to severely curtail its expenditure that year.
It later transpired that the committee's account was in deficit as early as April 1911 but this had not been brought to the attention of the committee. In September the Duke of Bedford made an offer to the committee to pay off the overdraft at the bank from his own pocket provided the County Council gave up the tenancy of Warren Farm and the Institute on 29th September 1913. The offer was accepted. The end of the Agricultural Institute led to a reorganisation of agricultural education by the County Council.
Directories for 1898, 1903, 1906 and 1910 list the following employees of the Agricultural Institute:
1898: Ernest W. Richardson, superintendent and house master; John Baker farm bailiff
1903: Frank Walker, manager; Miss Philippa Wilkinson, dairy mistress; John Baker, bailiff
1906-1910: Edric Druce, principal; Miss Philippa Wilkinson, dairy mistress; John Baker, bailiff
Warren Farm January 2011
Warren Farm Again
The duke then simply leased out the Warren Farm land and agricultural buildings to a local farmer. The former Agricultural Institute buildings were added to and altered to form a Parish Hall for the village. If directories are to be believed some sort of private enterprise training farm also continued. Kelly's Directory for 1928 lists The Bruce Land Company training farm for boys and the directory for 1931 lists The Hudson Bay Company training farm for boys.
The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 specified that every building and piece of land in the country was to be assessed to determine its rateable value. The valuer visiting the Parish Hall [DV1/C54/151] noted that it was still owned by the Bedford Estate but run by its own managers. A dance floor occupied the ground floor and a billiard room the first floor; each floor measured 64 feet 6 inches by 20 feet. A second floor measured 50 feet by 20 feet. Central heating was provided. The managers charged "about 7/6 per night for Hall" The valuer commented: "Very good" and "No drink sold".
The valuer visiting Warren Farm [DV1/H15/8] did do on 18th and 22nd August 1926. He found that the duke leased Warren Farm together with Charity or Feoffee Farm to Charles Gurney for a combined rent of £342 per annum. He commented: "Charity Farm apparently derelict – saw nobody. Should consider distance from main road a considerable drawback". Another hand wrote, on 26th November: "A farm of many difficulties. A lot of heavy plough [land]. Not much grass and away from Road". Warren Farmhouse was simply noted as "probably" one living room and two reception rooms. The valuer noted that one needed to allow for "inconvenience of Hall next door" and that there was wasted space.
The valuer then described the homestead at Charity Farm and noted: "When inspected farm entirely derelict. House empty and boarded up. Was unable to enter house". The Warren Farm homestead comprised five blocks as follows:
A brick and slated cowhouse for two beasts; a loose box; a three bay open cowshed; a stable for seven horses; a chaff house and a loose box;
A harness room with a granary over; a barn, half of it with a loft over; a mixing house; a store house; a coachhouse for four beasts with a feeding passage and a chaff house;
Two cowhouse each for eleven beasts with a feeding passage; a cowhouse for two beasts; a coachhouse; a three bay open cart shed; a tool house; a three bay open hovel and a shed;
A mixing house; a pig house with four pens and a four bay open cow shed;
A brick and slated two bay open cart shed; a workshop; a garage; a harness room; a store room; a potting shed; a bull house and an earth closet
A wood and corrugated iron dairy and washhouse stood in a field behind the homestead. The valuer commented: "Buildings A. 1. order".
Directories for 1914, 1920 and 1924 give Thomas John Russell as the tenant of Warren Farm. Charles Edward Gurney is listed in 1928, 1931, 1936 and 1940, the latter being the last directory for Bedfordshire.
At the time of writing [2012] the former parish hall is being converted into a private house and the Ridgmont Charity are seeking an alternative for use as a hall. Warren Farmhouse is now a private house and the farm buildings have been converted into private dwellings. Warren Farmhouse was put up for sale in 2008. The sale particulars [Z449/2/78] listed an entrance lobby, a basement measuring 14 feet 10 inches by 14 feet 4 inches; a reception hall; a lounge measuring 14 feet 3 inches by 14 feet 7 inches; a dining room measuring 14 feet 7 inches by 14 feet 10 inches and a kitchen measuring 15 feet 3 inches by 9 feet on the ground floor. The first floor contained a landing, three bedrooms (one en-suite) and a bathroom. The second floor included a landing, two bedrooms and a bathroom.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Since playing his last game as a New York Yankee in August 2016, Alex Rodriguez hasn't slowed down.
The former MLB star is now focusing on growing A-ROD CORP — the holding company he started 15 years ago for his various investments — is filming a new CNBC show, "Back in the Game" and will become the first Hispanic shark on ABC's "Shark Tank" this fall.
He's also a full-time dad, and he takes advantage of the daily car ride to school to teach his kids about money and business, he tells CNBC: "I have two daughters. Natasha is 12 and Ella's nine, and every day when I drive them to school, they get a business lesson.
"I always teach them something about real estate, about the stock market, about being frugal."
As Rodriguez also tells young professional athletes, "you have an incredible opportunity if you're frugal and you're smart and you put your money away early. The ability to have compound interest over 20, 30, 40 years — you can be a very wealthy young person in a very short period of time."
While his car ride business lessons don't always go over well with the tweens — "Of course, they put the radio up … they're definitely sick over my lessons," he says — Rodriguez is in it for the long haul. As his mentor and friend Warren Buffett says, "teaching kids sound financial habits at an early age gives all kids the opportunity to be successful when they are an adult."
Ultimately, learning is the key to long-term success, Rodriguez tells CNBC: "Knowledge is power. … If you stop learning, you stop living."


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Karen Knorr, Pseudo Memories (La Mȃitresse des Lieux), From the series the Virtues and the Delights, 1992-94
Karen Knorr, Candide (Le Meilleure de Mondes Possibles), From the series The Virtues and the Delights, 1992-94
NOW MY DEAR PANGLOSS TELL ME THIS:
WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN HANGED,
DISSECTED AND BEATEN UNMERCIFULLY,
DID YOU STILL THINK THAT EVERYTHING
IN THIS WORLD IS FOR THE BEST?
Voltaire — Candide (1759)
Karen Knorr, Dreams of a Solitary Walker (L'Ermitage du Citoyen), From the series The Virtues and the Delights, 1992-94
Karen Knorr, On the Education of Daughters (L'Ambition Féminine), From the series The Virtues and the Delights, 1992-94
Karen Knorr, My Happy Moments (L'ȃiguillon de Vénus), From the series The Virtues and the Delights, 1992-94
Karen Knorr, Sketches Towards a Picture of the Progress of Humankind (Frontières d'Utopie), From the series The Virtues and the Delights, 1992-94
Karen Knorr, Juliette (Institutions de Physique), From the series The Virtues and the Delights, 1992-94
Karen Knorr, Discourse on Happiness (Rȇveries d'une Promeneuse Solitaire), From the series The Virtue and the Delights, 1992-94
Karen Knorr, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Le Regard de l'Autre), From the series The Virtues and the Delights, 1992-94
FRIENDSHIP IS A SERIOUS AFFECTION
THE MOST SUBLIME OF ALL AFFECTIONS.
BECAUSE IT IS FOUNDED ON PRINCIPLE
AND CEMENTED BY TIME.
THE VERY REVERSE CAN BE SAID OF LOVE
Mary Wollstonecraft — A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
SACRED BE THE FEELINGS OF THE HEART!
CONCENTRATED IN A GLOWING FLAME,
THEY BECOME THE SUN OF LIFE.
WITHOUT HIS INVIGORATING IMPREGNATION,
REASON WOULD PROBABLY
LIE IN HELPLESS INACTIVITY,
AND NEVER BRING FORTH HER
ONLY LEGITIMATE OFFSPRING — VIRTUE.
Mary Wollstonescraft — A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790)
Sat 16 Jun 2018 - 13.00
Karen Knorr – The Virtues and the Delights
Viewpoint #9
Karen Knorr's The Virtues and the Delights has been published as part of the Viewpoint Photography and Landscape.
The Virtues and the Delights is a bilingual work in French and English produced between 1992-1994 and commissioned by the Cross Channel Photographic Mission (now Photoworks) and Ferney Voltaire. It celebrates Mary Wollstonecraft's feminist text published in 1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and her alliances and disputes with Enlightenment philosophers such as Rousseau, Voltaire and other early feminists such as Emilie Chȃtelet, Louise d'Epinay and Mary Astell. Fellow travellers to the feminist cause were such thinkers as Condorcet and Paine and this work vindicates the collaboration and dialogue between male and female freethinkers in the 18th century.
The series addresses the picturesque genre in landscape as a space in between the masculine (sublime) and the feminine (beauty). The characters are androgyne – an 18th century wig and contemporary garb – a few objects to signify a tongue-in-cheek allegorical figure in the landscape. Actors and artist friends including myself are staged in the picturesque landscape surrounding Lake Geneva and Ferney Voltaire.
There are text transfers which are transferred directly onto the wall of fragments of the texts alluded to in the English titles of the work. The title the Virtues and the Delights alludes to the utopian hope that one can reconcile pleasure with duty and reason with emotion. The scale of the work is domestic and alludes to the different shapes of paintings found in women's boudoirs.
The text fragments which accompany the work on the wall represent some ideas being developed in dialogue between thinkers in France, Germany and England form the cornerstone of secular democracy as epitomised in The Bill of Rights and are never to be taken for granted. Yet the last two works Justine and Juliette hint at a Sadeian dystopian mood that argues for women's freedom and sexual liberation, yet for whose pleasure?
The following essay was written in 1993 as an accompaniment to The Virtues and the Delights. It first appeared in Portfolio magazine in 1994. The work was reviewed in the UK with incomprehension and criticism for being too intellectual and complex. In writing this essay I was attempting to unpack the layers in the work, to contextualise it and explain it to a predominantly British audience. The work was installed with wall text transfers and first shown at Portfolio gallery, Edinburgh in 1993. A frieze of text surrounded the work: Equality with Respect to Difference with Respect to Equality.
An abridged version of the work was shown later at Maureen Paley's Interim Art and the Royal Festival Hall in London. It travelled changing each time according to the site, private and public art spaces in Sweden and Switzerland. It was never shown in its entirety in the UK.
Today, in the age of Brexit, Me Too and Black Lives Matter, its message of an inclusive feminism is absolutely relevant. One which invites LGBT+ and men and women of all colours, race and class to join together in remembering we need to stand against intolerance and prejudice.
The Virtues and the Delights: Reinveting History
"The problem is no longer one of tradition, of tracing a line, but one of division, of limits; it is no longer one of lasting foundations, but one of transformations that serve as new foundations, the rebuilding of foundations." (1)
As we move closer to another millennium, we enter a period of transition marked by the rapid expansion of global markets based on lesser developed countries' cheap labour forces. Technology, the media and its owners, will run the world of the future. Those who own the means of production in the media are becoming a major force in international politics. The future president of the United States may well be Ted Turner, Head of Cable News Network.
Meanwhile, in England, the heritage industry has developed a captive audience with its views of history. A heritage trail of stately homes and preserved villages that conjure up past hierarchies of tradition, authority and allegiance, fascinate the modern tourist. Coal miles, steel and textile mills become picturesque in areas once considered the industrial heartland of a proud national labour force. Leisure and tourism define our relationship to the English landscape marked by sediments and layers of its industrial past. Views and prospects of the past; a green and pleasant land, fertile fields enclosed by hedges, teas and cricket matches on village greens, vicars cycling off to never-ending glorious dawns with church bells pealing their sweet refrain. Wright of Derby (2), painter of the landscape of the early stages of the industrial revolution, has been replaced by Claude Lorrain (3), famous for his mythical Arcadian landscapes. The sublime has passed; we truly live in the age of the picturesque.
In the era of Bosnia and Maastricht, questions of identity and nationalism inevitably raise their bloody heads; ethnic cleansing in South Africa, Iraq and Bosnia; Le Pen in France wants France for the French; national parties rising out of the ashes of communism; in London a candidate from the British National Party wins a seat in Tower Hamlets.
British national identity is undergoing changes particularly in its relation to Europe. No longer an island separated by the channel but now linked to France by the cross-channel tunnel. Doubts have arisen concerning the social charter and the Maastricht Treaty. There is a growing fear that an elective dictatorship of the majority parliament can no longer be relied upon as a guardian of individual rights. There is now a call for a Bill of Rights by Charter 88 which would protect those liberties. There are calls for a written constitution. With the 1989 revolution in Russia, things are changing at an alarming rate in Europe. These changes are bound to crack some of the revered pillars of Britain's parliamentary democracy.
I will now present some of the issues which concern my recent work. It marks a shift from the realist style that I have employed in the past (4), but is nevertheless the logical outcome of my earlier work, particularly Gentlemen (1981-83) and Connoisseurs (1986-93) which, with recourse to irony and humour, set out to criticise the received ideas of a privileged elite in British culture and society. The Virtues and the Delights takes as its objects history, aesthetics and the landscape, and woman's position in this essentially male order of things. It parodies history-painting found in the classical academy and at what some call the 'end of history'. In short, it takes another look at history.
The Britannia Commission
In 1991 I was approached by the South Eastern Arts, Kent County Council, Towner Art Gallery and the Cross-Channel Mission in England, with the Britannia Commission. I was attracted to this commission by the possibility of researching British history and how it related to the memory of an 'imagined community' of nationals in Britain today.
Britannia personifies an idea of British virtues such as military and imperial might, which reached their zenith towards the end of Queen Victoria's reign. The image based on Athena, the Greek goddess of war and wisdom, appears on Roman coins. It is an allegorical image meaning 'other speech'. It says two things at the same time: showing one thing and meaning another. Initially this woman with the shield commemorated the subjection of the various tribes in Britain. This image underwent changes; the pile of coins at her feet (wealth) turned into a beehive (industry) and during Victorian times the spear changed into a trident, representing Britain's maritime strength. Britannia, the only portrait to appear on British bank-notes before 1960 had been adopted by the Bank of England as its seal in 1694.
A repeated theme in allegory is the use of the female body which personifies virtues. Marina Warner in her book Monuments and Maidens reminds us that, although women embody virtues in allegory, their presence in this sort of symbolism does not guarantee power, nor does it imply that women actually possess liberty or wisdom. The French, despite having used Marianne as their representative of freedom, liberty and equality, did not give women the vote until as recently as 1945.
Although the allegory Britannia has popular appeal (particularly in its Iron Lady guise), I rejected this bellicose image of conquest. The underpinnings of this image and its imperialist past became the sort of history the project set out to challenge. The empire with its invented traditions based on customs of crown, sceptre and robes, had to be exorcised. Britain with France had another heritage, another history, which had been too long submerged by a prolonged collective melancholia for past glories.
History is the subject of a structure whose site is not homogeneous empty time, but time filled with the presence of now. (5)
Walter Benjamin argues against historicism which culminates in universal history, comparing it with historical materialism which understands the present in terms of transition. History, in his view, is seen as a dialectical movement in its relation to the past. Universal history musters a 'mass of data' (dates, places, wars) to fill what he calls 'homogeneous empty time'. This illusory continuum of history entails not an identification with those marginalised by its movement, but with a heroic scenario of events and victors.
There has been now for some time a critique of this universalist history with its linear pursuit if progress. There has been a paradigmatic shift in which the new historical writing allows a chorus of voices to speak. It focuses on a process and not just the moment, on the scene and not just the individual, on the body and not just the figure. (6)
In his essay The Angel of History, Walter Benjamin writes:
A storm is blowing from Paradise, it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel no longer can close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future, to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress. (7)
The Virtues and the Delights
The Virtues and the Delights, a work in progress, looks at some of the historical foundations of what we call progress (in Europe) in order to examine (perhaps salvage) some of the debris. It is a vindication of female and male philosophers who have the courage to use their understanding in pursuit of an equality with difference. This enlightenment is one that respects cultural, racial and sexual difference. (8)
The work is bilingual (English titles and French captions) in order to emphasise the common heritage of French and England in shaping our hopes for an egalitarian and better future. Framed colour photographs of different formats (circular, rectangular and square) refer to the decorative panels found in boudoirs of 18th century houses. Texts from the philosophers accompany the installation of the work. The disposition and hanging layout of the work changes according to the site.
The Enlightenment is interpreted as an 'unfinished project' (9) which promotes a secular 'principle of human perfectibility' (surely there is still room for improvement), where beings are affirmed as active agents determining their independence and futures. To regard it as a totalising project culminating in the horrors of modernity is to vulgarise it and reduce it to the cliché of the object/subject split in Cartesian thought. It is more complex than that and unfortunately the scope of this piece of writing will not permit elaboration. (10)
History, and its exclusion of women, slaves, blacks and others is the master narrative that early feminists in the 18th century challenged. They knew what virtue meant for women (chastity) and how it delegated them to the margins of history as mothers or educated helpmates to Great Men. Mary Wollstonecraft in A Vindication of the Rights of Women disputes the Rousseauist vision of woman as 'natural companion' to man, who aims to please and delight. If women pursued knowledge for its own sake, she argues, they would no longer be considered the weaker sex.
The important task of education will never be properly begun till the person of a woman is no longer preferred to her mind. (11)
Feminism retains the emancipatory tradition and refutes the doctrinaire interpretation of the 'age of reason' as reduced to eternal truths reliant on normative views of woman's nature. Early feminists such as Astell and Wollstonecraft took issue with the moral backlash of the Enlightenment, demanding a vital place for women in the setting of the agenda for life in the 'cities of the future'. This work highlights their contribution and critique of the philosophies of their time. (12)
'Virtue can only flourish among equals' wrote Mary Wollstonecraft in A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1740), in response to Edmund Burke's apologia of hereditary privilege and chivalry in his Reflections on the French Revolution. The Virtues and the Delights is dedicated to Mary Wollstonecraft who esteems those philosophers in the past as well as those now living, who use their understanding in the pursuit of the virtues of freedom, religious tolerance and quality, the natural rights of every person. It celebrates the friendships and collaborations of French and British freethinkers in the 18th century. The work refers to both the virtues and the delights of the dialogue and exchange between two cultures, French and English, masculine and feminine, reason and emotion, past and present. The androgyne figure stands in as a cipher for a state of transition, an in-between. The dramatis personae of this version of history include: Emile du Châtelet, Louise d'Epinay, Jean Marie D'Arouet, Mary Wolistonecraft, and Condorcet.
The historical setting from 1750-1794 refers to a period of transition when nation, virtue and the republic were in the process of being elaborated. The parliament set up by French revolutionaries (including Paine) marked a shift of power from loyalty to a King or Empire to its replacement, the nation. The nation was defined by republicans as a body of citizens whose collective sovereignty constituted a state which was their political expression. Radicals such as Paine and Condorcet argued for universal suffrage: the right for every individual to political and social determination.
The first section of The Virtues and the Delights was shown in Ferney-Voltaire, France, in 1992 during the Fête de la Batie in Geneva (2 kms away) and the occasion of the staging of Zaire by the French-Algerian director, Hervé Loichmol. Marie d'Aroute, libertine, anglophile, Diest, liberator of peasants, militant against religious persecution, invents himself, changes his name to his literary nom de plume, Voltaire. The great 'homme des lettres', 'philosopher', retires to Ferney near the republic of Geneva to cultivate his garden. Instead, he writes a best-seller, Candide, which deals with the follies of optimism (fatalism) based on the fashionable philosophical premises of 'the best of the possible worlds' (13) and supports the liberation struggle of the peasants in the nearby Jura region. The Jura, snow-capped mountains, appear in the background of My Happy Moments.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a neighbour of Voltaire's, first pays his respects to the 'Patriarch of Ferney', but then they fall out. Jean-Jacques, convinced that man's good nature is corrupted by the vice of culture, blames theatre as being part of the problem since it is artificial and elitist in its appeal to the educated bourgeoisie. (14) What is needed is an interactive, popular street theatre where all can participate. Rousseau dreams up an early model of the citizen's festival. This would be a genuine spontaneous event, people rejoicing and dancing in the streets (or nature), a celebration of and for the people. This idea becomes the prototype of revolutionary fetes from David to Gaultier. Every year Geneva opens its streets to the pleasures of its citizens in 'La Fête de la Batie'.
Marie meets his intellectual match in Emilie du Chatelet. Emilie, philosopher, physicist, translator, teaches him physics. They set up house as a ménage a trois with Emilie's husband in Cirey and pursue together their research on the contemporary theories of physics. Emilie learns English and translates Mandeville's Fable of the Bees but also is the translator of Newton's Principia (written in Latin) into French. She eventually leaves Marie for a younger man, Saint-Lambert.
Later after Emilie's death (from the consequences of difficult childbirth) he befriends another woman, Louise d'Epinay. Louise is now known more for her relationship with Grimm (Diderot's best friend) and her patronage of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. She wrote Pseudo Memories (published posthumously), an autobiography which reveals among other things that Rousseau did not "practice the education he preached" (15). In her book Conversations d'Emile, written for her grand-daughter Emilie,16 she criticises Rousseau for his Sophie in Emile. Louise d'Epinay's book was received with great acclaim. It promotes an ambitious and rigorous education for women which transcends their accepted roles as companions, mothers and submissive daughters.
Through the eyes of Mary Wollstonecraft, feminist, philosopher, writer friend of Condorcet and Paine, Voltaire becomes Marie (d'Arouet). Feminised, yet sexually ambiguous androgyne, s/he appears in the photographs. The Virtues and the Delights is utopia, good place and no place, where women can dream of having it all.
Pseudo Memories is such a person dressed in the Hollywood version of an 18th century wig, reclining (like Velazquez's Rokeby Venus painting) and surveying a landscape we cannot entirely see. A body partially in silhouette and part flesh, surrounded by objects found in allegorical paintings; mirror, jug, bowl, books, a bronze death mask at her feet, husked down to emblems they quote history. This history is somehow depleted, there is a crack forming on the parapet upon which this figure relines. There are no real victors in this history. The caption 'La Maitresse des Lieux' means 'Mistress of the Place or Lands'. Louise d'Epinay, author of Pseudo Memories, gave Rousseau a room of his own, the hermitage where he began La Nouvelle Héloise.
The Virtues and the Delights resorts to parody by 'singing after the style of an original but with a difference' (17). A description of parody would contain at least two texts and their worlds. This is the concept of parody as both double-voiced and one reliant on contrast and dissonance.
Picture the picturesque view from Voltaire's terrace in Ferney. The snow-capped Jura, to the right a pink magnolia bush in full bloom, to the left a hardy evergreen, a dark elongated triangular shadow pierces the freshly grown lawn. The caption 'L'Aiguillon de Venus' means 'Venus' dart' and the title My Happy Moments (a book written by Louise d'Epinay on love and life). L'Aiguillon, the dart (Venus' dart is a term of endearment for the clitoris), the site of a woman's pleasure and delight.
Another Venus appears in The Story of Juliette – Sade's book, the antithesis of Rousseau's virtuous feminine, as the androgyne figure in the middle. Voltaire becomes Marie (d'Arouet) between his friends Emilie (du Châtelet) and Louise (d'Epinay). Who is s/he standing between Justine (virtue) (18) and Juliette (vice) holding the apples found in an allegorical painting – The Judgement of Paris. Newton's apples have found themselves in a photograph captioned Institutions de Physique written by Emilie du Châtelet. The visual reference of the three figures is to Raphael's Three Graces. In the judgement, Paris is faced with the task of choosing between three forms of beauty. Politics is represented by Hera religion/philosophy by Athena, and sexuality/fertility by the middle figure Venus, who promises him Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world. The judgement made by Paris is the cause of the Trojan war. This scene, the myth of origins, the beginning of European history, is a version of Paradise Lost with Venus as Eve. What is played out is the tripartite division of western civilisation and the over-idealisation of women as love objects. (18)
In this version of the story Juliette is Venus. She exhorts us:
0 charming sex, you will be free; do as men, you will enjoy all the pleasures of which nature makes a duty, from not one will you be withheld. Must the diviner half of mankind be laden with irons by the other? Ah, break those irons: nature wills it. (19)
The Virtues and the Delights vindicates and celebrates the cultural achievements and intellectual rights of women with recourse to parody and humour. It is not about the individual characteristics of a nation defined by race and creed, but attempts to reinvent the past through the eyes of the present. It reinvents history, proposing an experimental form of history writing, a hybrid between the spaces of images and words: a reframing of history. I ask is not the new man a she who remembers that sense cannot exist without sensibility?
If virtue, to deserve the name, must be founded on knowledge; let us endeavour to strengthen our minds by reflection until our heads become a balance for our hearts. (20)
— Karen Knorr (1993)
Karen Knorr has taught, exhibited and lectured internationally, including at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, The University of Westminster, Goldsmiths, Harvard and The Art Institute of Chicago. She studied at the University of Westminster in the mid-1970s, exhibiting photography that addressed debates in cultural studies and film theory concerning the 'politics of representation' – a set of practices which emerged during the late 1970s and early 1980s. She is Professor of Photography at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, Surrey.
(1) Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge, Tavistock Publications, 1974 (translated by A. M. Sheridan) (pp 5).
(2) Joseph Wright, born in Derby, worked for members of the Lunar Society (including Darwin, Wedgewood, Arkwright(who were interested in light, meteorology and geology. He depicted his contemporaries (scientist,, industrialists, gentry) showing the links between science, craft and industry in the early stages of the industrial revolution. He is known for his theatrical use of light used to imbue his scenes of scientific experiments such as The Ottery and Experiment with an Air Pump (1768), with religious awe and a strange sense of the sublime.
(3) Claude de Lorrain, a 17th century French painter who lived in Italy painted the landscape in a manner that epitomised what we call the beautiful and the picturesque in English garden design. His idealised landscape scenes with characters from Greek myths were transposed into vistas and prospects littered with temples and ruins found in the landscapes gardens of the aspiring middle classes.
(4) This work (1979-89) is published in Marks of Distinction, Thames and Hudson, 1991.
(5) Walter Benjamin, 'Theses on the Philosophy of History', Illuminations, Fontana, 1983(pp263).
(6) Grisetda Pollock argues convincingly for a feminist intervention in art history. 'This leads to a major aspect of the feminist project, the theorisation and historical analysis of sexual difference.' Vision and Difference, Routledge, 1988, (pp 56).
(7) Walter Benjamin, 'Theses on the Philosophy of History', Illuminations, Fontana, 1983 (pp 259-260).
(8) Jean Marie Condorcet's tenth epoch in Sketch for an Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind states these ideals clearly liberty, equality, difference.
(9) Jurgen Habermas responded to the postmodern debate in the early 1980s by arguing that modernity has inherited the ideals of the Enlightenment, Jean Francois Lyotard's position at the time rejected liberation and progress. Modern
conscience, for Habermas, is made up of the intersection of historical and utopian perspectives (the one in form of political disasters such as Stalinism and Nazism providing a necessary balance for the other). See my essay 'Photography: Modernity and the Contemporary', Camera Austria No. 27, 1988..
(10) Contemporary philosophers have reappraised feminism's contribution and critique of the Enlightenment. See Christine Battersby's essay 'Situating the Aesthetic' in the ICA Documents series. Pauline Johnson points out that a craicature of the Enlightenment fails to acknowledge its anti-dogmatic spirit in her essay 'Feminism and the Enlightenment' published in Radical Philosophy No. 63. Elisabeth Budinter published Emil in, Emilie in order to vindicate d'Epinay and du Chatelet as influential to the age of reason. The Virtues and the Delights is indebted to these writings.
(11) Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Penguin 1983, (pp3l5)
(12)The right to work and get paid an equal salary to men is still an issue. Abortion rights are being taken away on a Pope's decree. In England nursery provision is expensive and inadequate. John Major's 'Back to Basics' endorses typical male double standards and blames single mothers for the deterioration of family values.
(13) In 1756 after the Lisbon earthquake that killed thousands, Voltaire accused some of his contemporaries of accepting the horror by suggesting that 'all is for the best'. Pangloss in Candide (1759) represents the acolytes of Liebniz (a parody of those that distort his philosophy). Even after Pangloss has been flogged and tortured he clings to his belief that he is living in the best of all possible worlds.
(14) Theatre is the bad object since it is contrived. Rousseau, an early 'wild man' hippy, did not believe in make-up.
(15) In Emile (1762) Rousseau conceives that feminine happiness resided in that type of love that finds its fulfilment in reproduction and mothering. He recommended that children be raised by their biological parents. Rousseau had five children by his lover Therese Le Vasseur, who were sent to a foundling hospital.
(16) Elisabeth Badinter points out that Sophie is subjugated by Emile. She is in 'formed lobe agreeable, she will be timid, modest and flirtatious', Emile, in, Flammarion, 1983 (pp387).
(17) Margaret A. Rose, Parody Ancient, Modern and Postmodern, Cambridge University Press, 1993
(18) In the series a bust of Helen with a blood tear called Malheurs de la Vertu ( Misfortunes of Virtue) is titled Justine.
(19) De Sade, 'The Complete Justine', Philosophy in the Boudoir and Other Writings, Grove Press, 1965 (pp 3011.
(20) Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Penguin 1983.


text:
Bruce Power Limited Partnership is a Canadian business partnership composed of several corporations. It exists (as of 2015) as a partnership between TC Energy (31.6%), BPC Generation Infrastructure Trust (61.4%), the Power Workers Union (4%) and The Society of United Professionals (1.2%). It is the licensed operator of the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, located on the shores of Lake Huron, roughly 250 kilometres northwest of Toronto, between the towns of Kincardine and Saugeen Shores. It is the largest operating nuclear plant in the world by output (Kashiwazaki is currently closed in Japan).

Bruce Power operates eight nuclear reactors on Lake Huron where it leases the Bruce site from Ontario Power Generation. With those eight units in operation, the facility has a capacity of 5,403 megawatts and typically supplies nearly 30 per cent of the electricity used in Ontario's provincial power grid. Bruce Power became the world's largest operating nuclear facility in 2012, when Units 1 and 2 returned to operation after a multibillion-dollar refurbishment project. This achievement returned the site to full operating capacity for the first time in 17 years.

According to the Company, "Bruce Power set a site record for production in 2015, generating 30 per cent of Ontario's electricity at 30 per cent less than the average residential price of power.

Current and planned projects
Bruce Power has invested more than $7 billion in its Bruce A and B facilities to restart and optimize the performance of its nuclear fleet over the last decade and has successfully carried out massive refurbishment and plant life extension projects on all of its operational units. It plans to refurbish Units 3–8 in a $13 billion project, beginning in 2020.

Bruce A Restart
Following the initial Bruce A Restart project (initiated during the British Energy incumbency) to return to service of Units 3 and 4 (completed in 2003/04), Units 1 and 2 underwent a multibillion-dollar refurbishment after years of dormancy. To facilitate this, on Oct. 17, 2005, Bruce Power announced a revision to its structure.
TransCanada Corporation, BPC Generation Infrastructure Trust, the PWU and the Society formed a new partnership, Bruce Power A Limited Partnership (BALP), that will obtain a sublease of the Bruce A facility. Cameco Corporation is not an investor in BALP. TransCanada and BPC will each own a 47.4% interest in BALP and the remaining interest will be owned by the PWU and Society.

During its peak, the Bruce A Restart project was named the largest infrastructure project in Canada, and it was widely considered as one of the most complex engineering challenges Ontario has ever seen.

Safety was also a key component of the Restart initiative for both Bruce Power and its contractors. The project marked an astounding 24 million hours worked without a single acute lost-time injury. For a project this significant, this was a remarkable landmark for the entire industry.

In October 2012, Bruce Power returned Units 1 and 2 to commercial operation just weeks after synchronizing to Ontario's electricity grid for the first time since 1997 and 1995 respectively.

On 3 December 2015, Bruce Power president/CEO Duncan Hawthorne announced that it would spend $13 billion for a major overhaul of six of its Lake Huron reactors, starting in 2020. This is a postponement of a project initially planned for 2016; the change was made because the reactors should not require major work as soon as 2016. Bruce Power will assume any risk of financial overruns. The Ontario government was pleased with that news because the province would not be assuming any financial risk. However, the agreement will require Ontario to pay a higher price for electricity produced by Bruce Power. Naturally, the massive project will provide other benefits. "The agreement makes 23,000 jobs possible and supports an estimated $6.3 billion in annual, local economic development," said Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli.

Bruce Power Alberta
In 2008, Bruce Power applied for a licence to build a nuclear power plant at Cardinal Lake. Chief Executive Officer Duncan Hawthorne travelled to Peace River, Manning and Grimshaw, Alberta to personally inform the communities that Bruce Power had initiated a process to consider building western Canada's first nuclear power plant.

Through an application filed with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Bruce Power sought approval to prepare a site that could generate 4,000 MW of electricity from two to four reactors that would not produce greenhouse gases or air pollutants. As concerns over climate change continue to grow, the proposal could have seen the first unit ready as early as 2017, pending the successful completion of a full Environmental Assessment (EA) and consultations with the local communities.

As part of the decision-making process, open houses, workshops and community meetings were held and regular newsletters issued to update residents and seek their input across Alberta.

Late in 2011, Bruce Power announced it had decided against advancing the proposal.

Isotope Production System
See also Bruce Nuclear Generating Station#Radioisotope production project
Bruce Power is developing Unit 7 as an Isotope Production System (IPS). In January 2022 it announced completion of a facility to produce Lutetium-177, Lu-177 which is used to produce the medical isotope Lutetium (177Lu) oxodotreotide. The company plans IPSes which would produce other useful isotopes. The Lu-177 will be processed by a partner ITM Isotope Technologies Munich SE (ITM) and marketed with its partner Saugeen Ojibway Nation under the name "Gamzook'aamin Aakoziwin."

History

Bruce Power was founded as a Limited Liability Partnership in 2001 between British Energy (82.4%), Cameco Corporation (15%), Power Workers' Union and  The Society of Energy Professionals. Following the financial difficulties of British Energy in the Fall of 2002, the LLP became a wholly Canadian-owned Limited Partnership on Feb. 14, 2003

In May 2001, Bruce Power became the licensed operator of the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Tiverton, Ontario. The concession for operating the station was granted by Ontario Power Generation, one of the five successor companies of the defunct Ontario Hydro. Bruce A and Bruce B are equipped with eight CANDU nuclear reactors (four at each station). The initial four reactors were commissioned at Bruce A between 1977 and 1979, while Bruce B's were added between 1984 and 1987. The Bruce Power site at Tiverton is the world's largest nuclear generating facility.

Since its creation, Bruce Power has successfully restarted all four Bruce A reactors.

On Oct. 7, 2003, Unit 4 returned to the Ontario grid for the first time since 1998, when it was laid up by the site's previous operators. It was then followed by Unit 3 on Jan. 8, 2004.

On Oct. 17, 2005, Bruce Power reached an agreement with the Ontario Power Authority and launched a $4.25 billion investment program to refurbish and restart Bruce A Units 1 and 2.  Unit 1 was returned to the grid on Sept. 20, 2012, with Unit 2 following shortly thereafter on Oct. 18, 2012.

Restarting those units boosts Bruce Power's output to 6,300 MW, making Bruce Power the source for about 25 per cent of Ontario's electricity on a typical day.

In 2014, Cameco announced it had agreed to sell its 32% shareholding in Bruce Power to BPC Generation Infrastructure Trust (Borealis Infrastructure) for $450 million. Upon completion of the sale, Borealis will become the majority partner of Bruce Power with 56.1 per cent ownership.

In 2016, Bruce Power started a $13 billion refurbishment program at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station. According to Bruce Power, this multi-year plan "will generate between 1,500 and 2,500 jobs on site annually – and 18,000 across Ontario directly and indirectly – while injecting up to $4 billion annually into Ontario's economy".

Nuclear Response Team

Bruce Power maintains a small specialized unit namely the Nuclear Response Team (NRT) which carry out tactical response operations in Bruce Power sites. NRT members are permitted to carry and use firearms alongside their powers of arrest.

References

External links

Companies based in Ontario
OMERS companies
Nuclear power companies of Canada
Partnerships
TC Energy

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Sports Marketing vs Traditional Marketing
Sport Marketing vs Traditional Marketing
Advertisers are constantly trying to attract the attention of consumers. In the past, traditional marketing elements, such as newspaper, television, radio, and interstate billboards provided this attention.
Today, these elements are no longer as effective. But, a sporting event provides an advertiser a chance to deliver their message to a captive audience.
With the invention of TiVo, iPods, and Sirius/XM radio, traditional marketing is missing the 18-35 male demographic. Sport marketing reaches this demographic through sponsorship elements.
"...audiences are using TiVo, iPods, and other devises to tune out traditional broadcast advertising. Some demographic segments are harder to reach than others. "Men 18-24, it's like someone vaporized them from the planet," Drake said. "They don't read newspapers, they only listen to a few radio stations, they play their video games, they only care about sports..."
Bill Drake, President es/drake
TiVo Killed the Broadcast Ad
Lora Volkert
Idaho Business Review
DVR penetration increased by about 4% in the last year on an absolute basis (11% on a relative basis) rising from 35.7% of TV households with DVRs in February 2010 to 39.7% in February 2011 according to Nielsen data via Turner's research department. The percentage of viewers reached in those DVR homes rose from 38.5% in February 2010 to 42.2% in 2011.
DVR Penetration Grows to 39.7% of Households, 42.2% of Viewers
Robert Seidman
TV By The Numbers - Zap2It.com
DVR's allow the consumer to record television shows and playback whenever they want. An added benefit of the DVR is the ability to rewind and fast forward a recorded broadcast. This provides the viewer the ability to fast forward through television commercials. In a Nielsen survey, 69% of DVR users say they skip commercials during playback mode.
Times have changed since the early years of television. In 1965, you could reach 80% of the 18-49 demographic with just three (3) :60 second television commercials. Today, with thousands of channels to choose from, the ability to record shows and bypass commercials, and new forms of media, such as the internet, acquiring the attention of this same demographic takes over 117 prime-time television commercials.
Traditional radio advertising is no longer as effective, with the inventions of Ipods and Satellite Radio. Consumers now have the ability to listen to music, podcasts, and enterainment on their terms.
"The affluent consumers that we in media and marketing so desperately wish to reach now watch little TV, are abandoning newspaper in droves, and may be PVR subscribers to boot. Satellite radio may largely take them out of the radio reach equation as well. And it is growing faster than PVR vehicles such as TiVo!"
http://www.talentzoo.com/news/Satellite-Radio-Another-Threat-to-Advertising/513.html
Another benefit to Sport Marketing is the amount of exposure to a captive audience. Where most advertisers shoot for the quick 15-30 second attention grab, an advertisement during a sporting event receives thousands of seconds of exposure.
© 2020 Alliance Sport Marketing. All rights reserved.
Alliance Sport Marketing
info@alliancesportmarketing.com
Built By Infinity


Lagoon Park Golf Course, designed by Charles Graves of Atlanta, GA, is a beautiful 18-hole public golf course featuring a traditional layout with beautifully manicured fairways and Tif Dwarf Bermuda. Lagoon Park features a lighted driving range, chipping and putting area and a private instruction area.
Gateway Park Golf Course features a 9-hole golf course with a par 72 and features (5) par 4s and (4) par 3s, with a very fun and challenging layout. The back tees play approximately 2,931 yards, but Gateway offers four separate tees for golfers of all levels. Gateway also features a large practice facility equipped with a driving range, chipping and putting area and a private instruction area.
Beers, burgers, buckets and more.
Learn how juniors can play for free.
The perfect gifts are now at your fingertips. Show someone you really care with the gift of an unforgettable experience at Lagoon Park Golf Course in Mongtomery, Alabama. The memories made over a round of golf will last for a lifetime.


text:
East York students ring in the Festival of Lights
Samosas, cultural attire and artistic Rangolis all part of Centennial College celebration
Akshay Rajgor checks out some Rangolis, a cultural design meant to welcome guests to Diwali celebrations. OSOBE WABERI/ TORONTO OBSERVER
By Osobe Waberi
For Akshay Rajgor, a first-year photography student at Centennial College's Story Arts Centre, Diwali is a day of joy, gratitude and reflection.
"The day is celebrated by burning firecrackers and putting Rangolis outside of our houses," Rajgor said. "We say thank you to God for having us and putting us on earth."
Diwali, known as the Festival of Lights, took place Nov. 7, the day before the new year for people of the Hindu faith. Centennial College's student association held a celebration at the East York campus, where students enjoyed traditional sweets and samosas.
"It's my first-time celebrating Diwali here and I've been very happy," Rajgor said.
This was the first time that Rajgor, who is originally from Bombay, India, experienced Diwali in Canada. He wanted to celebrate the day in the most authentic way possible with his friends and family here.
And he did just that.
"It's my first-time celebrating Diwali here and I've been very happy," he said, grinning across the room at his friends in cultural attire. For Rajgor, it was everything he would have done if he were back home in India with his family.
His only concern was being able to use firecrackers, a major part of Diwali intended to bring light to darkness. They usually light up the sky in India between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.
"Back home it is very festive — every second someone is enjoying the firecrackers, but over here is a bit of a concern because of the rules and regulations," Rajgor said. "It's the same in India but we do it anyways."
Another necessary element of Diwali, he says, are Rangolis.
"Rangolis are drawn outside every house to welcome the guest," Rajgor said. "They come in different colours and different designs, usually done by hand."
At the door of the student centre, multiple Rangolis of different designs filled the floor, helping to welcome people celebrating and those who were curious about what was going on.
Ivan Sharma, student association director at Centennial College, says the turnout was strong this year, with 20-plus students and some staff in attendance.
Sharma, who was born in Nepal in South Asia, has celebrated Diwali in Canada for many years now and says it's a good way to come together as a school and community, as well as paying respect to his people.
Akshay Rajgor (left) and Ivan Sharma were decked out in cultural attire during a recent Diwali celebration at Centennial College. (OSOBE / TORONTO OBSERVER )
"It's about ringing in the Goddess in your home, bringing good luck to the new year, celebrating family and being festive," he said.
By: Osobe Waberi
Posted: Nov 16 2018 2:50 pm
Edition: East York • Toronto
Filed under: Arts & Life • News
Topics: Centennial College • Diwali • East York • Toronto
More Arts & Life
When immigrant seniors feel isolated, Toronto's libraries can offer help
Work of 'master sculptor' showcased a year after his death
Artists and creators come together at annual Riverdale Hub Holiday Market
A pro-level women's soccer team in Toronto would be a game-changer: U-20 player
Affordable child care in East York inching closer to reality, but not quickly enough, advocates say
Community policing strategy in Regent Park continues to divide residents
Toronto Edition: Sections


Wherein Niklas Gets Some Presents.
2007-12-09: Here are some pictures wherein we try to make it look like December even though it's 70 degrees outside. For any pictures you want to print, just right click on them and select "save target as".
Niklas is still a couple of years away from taking the ice, which is good given the lack of ice in Bermuda.
"I will not act jolly until I get some food."
I call this picture 'Niklas Too Close To The TV, With Diaper For Some Reason'.
Here's Niklas wearing one of those English Christmas crown things. Yup. Really. I didn't just put a swimmer diaper on his head, if that's what you're thinking. Let's just move on.
Here's Niklas waiting to get at the St. Nicholas Day loot.
Here he is getting at said loot.
Niklas and Mr. Sheep have formed an alliance. The consequences of this arrangement haven't become evident yet, but I'll let you know when horrible things start happening to me.
2007-12-12: Here, by popular demand, is the only photo in existence that features both Niklas and Santa Claus... and my face obscuring arm. Also, there's other stuff. For any pictures you want to print, just right click on them and select "save target as".
Behind my arm lurks the face of a man haunted by his darkest fear, a fear of red velvet.
Niklas shows his typical response to my request that he look at the camera.
He's trying to avoid me here, too, but for at least the next few weeks I can still run circles around him.
Ah, Niklas looking cute and sitting on the floor. I would be shocked, SHOCKED if he got into any sort of trouble ever.
Then again, within seconds he could start dragging stuff out of the cabinet.
Here's Niklas having a good laugh at my request that he not drive the train like a crazed engineer who was just released from the engineer sanitarium and was itching to drive a train in a crazy fashion.
"Just so you know, if you don't get off of the tracks, I'll have to run you down."
Niklas prepares to eat something he found in the grass while the guy who's supposed to stop him doing that kind of thing messes with a camera.
Niklas and I train for his inevitable appearance on "Battle Of The Network Stars '42".
No jail can contain this cuteness.
2007-12-16: Here are a couple of pictures of Niklas displaying the skills that will no doubt soon lead to me digging through the dumpster while looking for the remote control. For any pictures you want to print, just right click on them and select "save target as".
It's good to see that Niklas takes pride in his work. His cruel, cruel work.
Niklas loads the characters from his Nativity set into a new, ultra-modern manger.


Si su estudiante está ausente, favor de llamar a la línea de ausencia que esta abierta las 24 horas.
As of the first day of school all students are required to wear a uniform.
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The Swiss Federal Tax Authority (SFTA) has ordered Credit Suisse to submit offshore bank account information in response to an IRS request for assistance, according to a New York Times article. Credit Suisse has notified some of its offshore account holders by letter about the order. Apparently the order is not directly related to the IRS negotiations going on with approximately 11 Swiss banks to turnover the names of all of their U.S. clients. Instead, it appears from the New York Times article that these requests relate to individuals who the IRS already has reason to believe have foreign bank accounts. If that is the case then it may be too late for these individuals to file a voluntary disclosure with the IRS to attempt to escape criminal penalties. Still in some cases a late voluntary disclosure is better than no disclosure. Without a detailed examination of all of the facts and circumstances there is no way of advising someone as to the best path to take.
Although account holders may appeal the SFTA decision, the act of doing so requires that they notify the U.S. government that an appeal has been filed. Failure to do so could result in separate penalties. Sort of a catch twenty two.
The SFTA order to Credit Suisse highlights the noose that the IRS is attempting to tighten around the neck of offshore account holders who failed to file their Foreign Bank Account Reports (FBAR) on TDF 90-22.1. The civil penalty for willfully failing to file the FBAR can be up to 50% of the account balance so even if no jail time ensues it is still a very expensive proposition.
If you have a Credit Suisse account, or any foreign financial account, and would like a confidential consultation with the tax attorneys at Brager Tax Law Group, A P.C., call 800-380-Tax Litigator to schedule an appointment.


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'It would be a disaster:' P&Z rejects Huntington Center housing plan
News // Community
Kate Czaplinski
Aug. 22, 2018 Updated: June 7, 2019 1:15 p.m.
Shelton's Planning and Zoning Commission has unanimously rejected a a plan for a 20-home development on six acres near Huntington Center.
"I think it would be a disaster if we allowed this to happen." Commissioner Charles Kelly said at Tuesday's night meeting.
Fellow commissioners echoed similar sentiments.
"I can't think of a single reason to grant this proposal," Commissioner Elaine Matto said. "I don't see how you can jam 20 houses on this property."
The 6.1-acre property, owned by Huntington Congregational Church, is located behind the church and off Ripton Road. The applicant, Primrose Development LLC, was seeking to create a Planned Development District (PDD) on the property, now zoned for one-acre and half-acre lots.
The decision to reject the proposal — which led to a round of applause from a crowd of roughly 100 in the Shelton Intermediate School Auditorium — followed a 45-minute public hearing. The hearing had been continued from a June 27 meeting, where 500 people packed the forum to show opposition to the plan. On Tuesday night, the crowd was much smaller, but the message remained clear.
"Maybe something like this would have been passed in the past but, going forward, I hope this commission is more thoughtful," said Commissioner Jimmy Tickey. "Huntington Center not a place for cluster housing."
Eight residents spoke Tuesday night. Seven were opposed to the application moving forward, citing the historic nature of the area, environmental concerns, taxing city services and leading to nearby home values declining.
Resident Ludwig Spinelli, who formerly served as a P&Z alternate, said the application "turned his stomach." He urged the commission to change zoning laws to eliminate the PDD option for developers.
"It's happening much to often," he said. "Shelton is at risk."
Speakers strongly disagreed with presentations made back on June 27 by the applicant's attorney, Dominick Thomas, and a traffic study by the Traffic Engineer Dave Sullivan, saying impact would be minimal.
Shelton's Conservation Commission voiced opposition via a letter to P&Z, stating the development would be visible from the Huntington Green, which would change the character of the area, and the proposal would intensify existing flooding.
The applicant's attorney, Dominick Thomas, was unable to speak to the commission at Tuesday's public hearing as he arrived just after it was closed at 7:45 p.m. An attorney at Thomas' practice, Ian Cole, told P&Z that Thomas had a conflicting meeting in Derby and was hoping to arrive by 8 p.m. Cohen, on Thomas's behalf, asked the commission to recess until he arrived. That request irked commissioners, who flatly refused to do so.
"Attorney Thomas was here at the last meeting, he heard us scheduling this a month and a half ago," Commissioner Mark Widomski said. "I would have loved to be moving my daughter into college tonight but I'm here doing my civic duty. He's getting paid, we're not."
Huntington Congregational
Soren Ibsen, a member of Huntington Congregational Church and chairman of the church's property committee, defended the proposal before it was rejected.
"These types of properties, with a small footprint and less maintenance, are what people are looking for these days — Baby Boomers and Milennials," he said.
The Rev. Lucille Fritz wrote a letter to the commission that also noted changing housing trends and the need for many to downsize. The letter outlined the church's active and positive role in the community since 1724.
"We decided to sell the property, in good faith, with the best intention of it being an asset to the community," Fritz wrote.
Fritz wrote that the church had purchased the property 40 years ago, knowing that it could be sold if difficult economic times arose for the church.
"If someday we have to close our doors for good, the face of Huntington Green may be forever changed."
Commissioner Matto mentioned the potential future for the property and said she hoped City officials and the Board of Aldermen members could consider buying the property. She noted that P&Z has no authority to do so.
"It would be great to come up with a plan to use this property for a civic purpose," Matto said


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The Next Step against Corporate Impunity: A World Court on Business and Human Rights?
Filed Under: Content, Other Symposia, Symposia
[View PDF version]
By Ambassador Luis Gallegos* and Daniel Uribe**
The possibility of establishing a world court on business and human rights is one of the elements discussed in the current debate over the adoption of an international legally binding instrument on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights in the United Nations Human Rights Council. Even though the existence of a world institution could bring important benefits for the development of international law and protect victims of human rights abuses by corporations, it is also necessary to draw up an inventory of different factors that could interfere in the design of an instrument of binding nature.
The world court on business and human rights could be competent to hear cases brought by victims of human rights abuses perpetrated by corporations and to decide the legal liability of such corporations on the basis of an effective international legally binding instrument on business and human rights. Still, the establishment of this court may face issues regarding funding, the role of States in proceedings, and matters of access to the court, including costs and legal representation of victims.
This Article will not deal directly with these issues or argue in favour of or against the establishment of a world court on business and human rights. Instead, it will examine the feasibility of establishing the court by examining previous attempts to recognize the jurisdiction of international tribunals for human rights abuses committed by private entities.
I. Previous Attempts
The international community has taken various efforts to condemn abominable acts against humanity committed by private individuals and other private entities in international law. Particularly during the nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth century, the international community promoted the establishment of international tribunals for the protection of human rights and human dignity.
The establishment of international courts against slave trade during the early 1800s[1] constituted the first attempts to condemn such acts. Various treaties signed by Great Britain with the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain created the antislavery courts that had jurisdiction to adjudicate cases of captured slave ships[2] with the particular aim to suppress the slave trade. During the lifespan of the treaty, over 600 cases were heard by the courts and 80,000 slaves were found in captured vessels[3].
As another example, the egregious violations of human rights committed during the Second World War led to discussions on corporate responsibility against the "major war criminals of the European Axis."[4] However, although the contribution of German businesses during the war ranged from profiting from a slave work force to supplying Zyclon B, the gas used by the SS in Auschwitz to murder more than 1 million people,[5] the tribunals of Nuremberg recognized only individual criminal liability for a number of high-level management officials of different corporations. The tribunals also viewed businesses as an instrument necessary to commit the crime, but not as criminal organizations. Likewise, the idea of prosecuting corporations—legal entities—for similar crimes was included in the draft of the Rome Statute, but it did not find support for various reasons, including the fact that not all state-parties recognised such corporate criminal liability in their jurisdictions.[6]
Important steps have also been taken during the twenty-first century on the issue of business and human rights. The adoption of the UN Global Compact's governance framework by the U.N. Secretary General in 2005, the U.N. Human Rights Council's embrace of the Protect, Respect, and Remedy Framework in 2008, and the development of the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in 2011, to name but a few, are good examples of such efforts.
II. A World Court on Business and Human Rights?
The negotiations on an international legally binding instrument on business and human rights have fired up long-standing discussions on the design of an international organization in charge of the enforcement of corporate human rights obligations. During the debate that led to the adoption of Resolution A/HRC/RES/26/9[7] and the first negotiation on a binding instrument on business and human rights, held by the Open Ended Intergovernmental Working Group (OEIWG) in July 2015,[8] some stakeholders proposed a world court on business and human rights.
First, it is important to recognise an effective international legal framework on business and human rights as an essential step towards protecting victims' access to remedies for corporate wrongdoings. An international, legally binding instrument could clarify the obligations of corporations to respect human rights and guarantee the rights of victims from corporate-related human rights abuses to access remedies. In the case of businesses, it could level the playing field for the international operation of corporations because the instrument will establish authoritative means to resolve conflicts arising from the law in different jurisdictions. It would also create a mechanism to respond to corporate abuses in a "concerted fashion,"[9] thus eliminating unfair competitive advantages for corporations around the world.
This "concerted" approach for the access to remedies and legal standards on business and human rights will not undermine states' obligation to oversee the conduct of corporations, as it would operate under the international principle of subsidiarity, by which international institutions may exercise jurisdiction in cases where national legal systems are unwilling or unable to fulfill their primary obligation to protect human rights and redress human rights violations, and could enhance domestic efforts to protect human rights through international cooperation and legal coherence, as it will impose common international standards on the matter.
Second, the feasibility of creating an international tribunal on business and human rights could be examined in light of previous attempts. The antislavery courts of the nineteenth century are an important precedent for the OEIWG, mostly because they challenged the dominant economic model at that time. The slave trade was believed to be essential for the viability of colonial economies and it was unthinkable at that time to impose restrictions to this profitable enterprise. These courts also introduced an institutional framework based on mixed commissions formed by judges belonging to the state parties to the treaty, who were assisted by a local registrar of the place where the court was seated for the collection of evidence and other administrative tasks. Such a framework could serve as a model for the design of the world court of business and human rights. The establishment of these courts as an enforcement mechanism of international treaties, in cooperation with other domestic legislative efforts, was the cornerstone for the effective suppression of the transatlantic slave trade.[10]
Similarly, even though the Nuremberg Trials limited themselves to judging individuals for the crime of "membership" in a criminal organization with the sole purpose of easing the avenue for the prosecution of a large number of persons through more expeditious trials,[11] this approach was not the only option. Abraham L. Pomerantz, Chief Counsel at the Nuremberg Trials, intended to prosecute business entities on the basis of corporate liability. The approach suggested by Pomerantz could also guide the work of the OEIWG if the feasibility of a world court if such element is argued.
Pomerantz suggested that crimes committed by corporations in the Second World War complied with the common law test of liability because the acts were (1) within the scope of the business, (2) committed or ordered by a superior agent (senior manager or solely owner), and (3) constituted crimes for which the punishments included fines and forfeitures of property.[12] Regrettably, Pomerantz's position was not followed in the indictments of industrialists in the subsequent Nuremberg trials due to the economic and political interests in reconstructing post-war Europe.[13]
These examples underline the common interest of the international community in addressing a systematic and evolving approach for the provision of more effective mechanisms aimed at the protection of human rights and cope with the always dynamic and flexible domain of the liberalised market and the world of large-scale trans-boundary operations of corporations.
Discussions of the feasibility of a world court on business and human rights should consider different elements that would ensure its efficiency and effectiveness, including legal representation and assistance for victims, the role of states in proceedings, and other administrative and procedural issues, such as recollection of evidence and enforcement of judgments through international cooperation. The lessons learned from the past could guide these discussions with the purpose of advancing towards a fairer and more equal world.
Finally, stakeholders could use these lessons to propose avenues to ensure that the international framework for the protection of human rights is best suited to the task, while not delaying the adoption of an international legally binding instrument on business and human rights.
* Ambassador Luis Gallegos is the Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations and a member of the U.N. Committee against Torture.
** Daniel Uribe is a Visiting Fellow at the South Centre.
[1] See Jenny S. Martinez, Antislavery Courts and the Dawn of International Human Rights Law, 117 Yale L. J. 550, 641 (2008).
[2] See id. at 576 n.1..
[3] See Leslie Bethell, The Mixed Commissions for the Suppression of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century, 7 J. Afr. Hist. 76 (1966), cited in Martinez, supra note 1, at 553 n.1.
[4] United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, France, and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Annex to the Agreement for the Prosecution and Punishment of the Major War Criminals of the European Axis (Aug. 8, 1945) art. 1 [hereinafter London Agreement].
[5] See Jonathan A. Bush, The Prehistory of Corporations and Conspiracy in International Criminal Law: What Nuremberg Really Said, 109 Columbia L. Rev. 1015 (2009).
[6] Kathryn Haigh, Extending the International Criminal Court's Jurisdiction to Corporations: Overcoming Complementarity Concerns, 14(1) Australian J. of Hum. Rts. 202–203 (2008).
[7] Resolution A/HRC/RES/26/9 was adopted during the 26th ordinary session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on June 2014 and provided for the establishment of an Open Ended Intergovernmental Working Group (OEIWG) with the mandate to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. U.N. General Assembly, Human Rights Council, Resolution A/HRC/RES/26/9, Elaboration of an Internationally Binding Instrument on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights (July 14, 2014).
[8] See United Nations Human Rights Council, Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/WGTransCorp/Pages/IGWGOnTNC .aspx (last visited May 7, 2016).
[9] Kevin T. Jackson, A Cosmopolitan Court for Transnational Corporate Wrongdoing: Why Its Time has Come, 17 J. of Bus. Ethics 759 (1998).
[10] See Jenny S. Martinez, Slave Trade on Trial: Lessons of a Great Human Rights–law Success, Boston Rev. (Sept. 1, 2007), http://www.bostonreview.net/jenny-martinez-slave-trade-on-trial, (accessed Nov. 25, 2015).
[11] International Law Commission, The Charter and Judgment of the Nürnberg Tribunal – History and Analysis (United Nations 1949), Memorandum submitted by the Secretary-General A/CN.4/5, 75.
[12] See Bush, supra note 5, at 1153.
[13] See id. at 1117−23.


Take part in Grace's Annual Chili Cook-off, either as a participant or come eat and help choose the People's Choice Award. If competing, have your pot of chili at the Grace Fellowship Hall by 5 pm for judging. Dinner is served starting at 5:30 pm. Prizes for: Most Unique, Spiciest, Traditional and People's Choice.
There will be a short movie on the lawn after dinner for children.


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Home > Important Bilateral News
Ambassador Han Jing's Interview with the Surinamese Television Foundation
On September 23, 2021, Mr. Han Jing, Chinese ambassador to Suriname, received an interview with STVS and expressed his views on the relationship between China and Suriname. The full text is as follows:
Q: Suriname and the People's Republic of China have maintained diplomatic ties for over 45 years. You are the 14th ambassador appointed to Suriname. How will the relationship be further strengthened between Suriname and the People's Republic of China?
A: Suriname is one of the first Caribbean countries to establish diplomatic relations with China. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations 45 years ago, the bilateral relationship has been upgraded to strategic cooperative partnership. For the past 45 years, the cooperations between our two countries have achieved substantial results and benefited people and two countries. In the future,we will improve mutual political trust, deepen the practical cooperations under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative and strengthen cultural exchanges. I think two countries can communicate and coordinate closely on international issues such as climate change. As the new Chinese ambassador to Suriname, I will exert the utmost effort to strengthen the China-Suriname friendship, advance it to a new high level, and bring more benefits to the people of two countries.
Q:Last month you arrived in Suriname. Are you delegated with a special mission?
A: Well, I think my mission is simple and clear. That is to serve as a messenger of friendship and a bridge of communication. Upon my arrival, I have found people here are very nice to me and to the Chinese Embassy, and have strong wish to cooperate. At present, both China and Suriname are in a critical period of national development. Recently, President Xi Jinping delivered video speech to CELAC Summit held in Mexico, sent a strong message that China is willing to work with Latin American and Caribbean countries to overcome difficulties together and jointly create opportunities to build a community of shared future between China and Latin America. So it is expected that China and Suriname could enhance exchanges of experience on governance, achieve mutual beneficial cooperation and joint development.
Q: If you looked the relationship between Suriname and China, China had supported Suriname in many ways. Which project is on the agenda that will be fullfilled in coming days?
A: China has long been providing support and assistance to Suriname, which is our good friend and partner, within our capacity. There are several projects in the discussions between the governments. Here I'd like to raise up for example like the 350 houses project, we would like to provide agricultural equipments as required, we would like to assist to build the Agricultural Technical Cooperation Center. I think some programs are in good progress already, we hope it could bear fruits in Suriname.
Q: Suriname has a large debt to China and is in financial issues. According to the IMF, China must approve the debt restructuring. How do you improve it?
A:China acknowledges that Suriname is facing a temporary difficult situation. We understand and support the effort of the government of Suriname to restore fiscal sustainability and macroeconomic stability. Chinese government and relevant financial agencies have all expressed their support to Suriname in applying for IMF loans. The relevant agencies of the two countries have already started talks on debt restructuring in a constructive way, and look forward to reaching a feasible arrangement as soon as possible.
Q: The former president paid a visit to your president. Is it possible that President Santokhi also meet with President Xi Jingping?
A: High-level exchanges play an important leading role in the development of bilateral relations. However, COVID-19 is still spreading globally at present and has an impact on international exchanges. We welcome the president to visit China at the time of convenience for both sides when the pandemic is well controlled.
Q: You have mentioned the cooperation between China and other countries is based on win-win principle, critics say China is funding the little countries so they can get benefits from that. What is your opinion on that?
A: I cannot take such groundless accusations. We always say "the truth reveals itself." China's development brings opportunities to the whole world, not a threat or challenge. China always stands with developing countries, insists that all countries are equal regardless of their size, never interfere into other countries' internal affairs, never attach any political conditions to its aid. On Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a statement at the general debate of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly via video, in which he proposed a Global Development Initiative, stressing that we need to care more about the special needs of developing countries, and declaring that China has pledged an additional three billion US dollars of international assistance in the next three years to help developing countries in responding to COVID-19 and promoting economic and social recovery. You may find that cooperation with China has brought tangible results and benefits to the people of the Caribbean countries. It is for the peoples of Caribbean to judge their relations with China.
Q: Ambassador you made a gesture to the first television company in Suriname, can you indicate what the motivation was for doing so and to what extent is there a possibility to develop a closer relationship between the STVS and the embassy?
A: Well, you know, the media is regarded as "the fourth power" and journalists are called "the uncrowned king". It's natural for us to attach great importance to media. The task of Chinese Embassy is to advance the friendly exchanges, to help Surinamese people to get better knowledge and understanding of China. The media plays a very important role in this regard. Thus, we are open to cooperate with various media, and hope we can establish good relations with them.
Q: There is a project called "Chinese in me", which helps some Surinamese from China find their roots in China. What do you think of the contributions among these projects?
A: Friendship of the people holds the key to sound state-to-state relations.We're glad to see that the overseas Chinese have melted well into your society and the Chinese enterprises have also played an active role in your economy. So our embassy encourages and helps them to make more contributions to consolidate and strengthen the partnership between our two countries.
H.E. Foreign Minister Wang Yi Sends Congratulatory Message to Surinamese Foreign Minister on the Occasion of the 40th Anniversary of China-Suriname Diplomatic Ties (2016-05-28)
H.E. President Xi Jinping Sends Congratulatory Message to Surinamese President on the Occasion of the 40th Anniversary of China-Suriname Diplomatic Ties (2016-05-28)


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