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Overview of CCCWA Child Welfare Program
CCCWA has been committed to developing its functions in the field of child welfare while making efforts in helping orphans and disabled children find permanent homes. In 2004, entrusted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, CCCWA began to carry out a series of special welfare programs for children, such as the Tomorrow Plan (program for the operation and rehabilitation of disabled orphans), domestic adoption and child care etc. We have formed a set of mature model for operation, making significant contribution to improving the rehabilitation, basic life and education of orphaned and disabled children, strengthening the construction of the work force in welfare institutions, standardizing and improving the adoption work in China. In January 2011, CCCWA, which used to be called "China Center of Adoption Affairs", was renamed. With more mandates in child welfare, we will provide a new platform for further development of China's child welfare.
At present, we have made fruitful achievements in all aspects of child welfare: with a view to meet the demands of children, we have offered trainings in child upbringing and nursing, nutrition and health care, rehabilitation of cerebral palsy, special education, psychological health consultation to welfare institutions and established occupational skill training system of “caregivers for the orphaned and disabled children ”, leading to stronger service functions of welfare institutions. We have also established the long-term mechanism of "tomorrow plan", improved the treatment network of designated hospitals, made more efforts in screening, treatment and surgeries of children with rare and severe diseases and promoted the construction of standard demonstration base for training on cerebral palsy rehabilitation. Besides, we have also been cooperating with Changsha Social Work College in carrying out the
"Higher Education Supporting Program for Orphaned and Disabled children". With our support through forms of independent enrollment, early admission and tuition funding, the orphans and disabled children from welfare agencies can go to college where they can improve their educational level and self-reliance. Also we have launched the program of the National Child Welfare Information Management System, which provides not only an effective technical support for real-time management and dynamic monitoring of the distribution of children’s basic living allowance but also an accurate and scientific analysis on data for the policy making in child welfare and evaluation of their social benefits. Furthermore, we have made in-depth investigation and analysis on the status quo of adoption in China and relevant measures and established the long-term mechanism for legal placement of abandoned infants, and we have taken the lead in introducing the idea of "baby hatch", helping set up the first "baby hatch" in Shijiazhuang Social Welfare Institution. In July 2013, the General Office from the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a paper on the "Baby Hatch" Pilot Scheme proposed by CCCWA, and then the pilot work gradually spread nationwide. We also promote the social service quality in children welfare institutions by introducing social work into the institutions and selected 30 children welfare institutions as pilot bases for social work and granted funds for their construction.
Meanwhile, in order to attract and integrate more extensive resources and accelerate the development China’s child welfare, CCCWA makes full use of its advantage in broad oversea cooperation under the support of foreign adoption agencies experienced in charity work. We have built platforms through advanced training, program cooperation, exchanges and visits, etc. to conduct active international exchanges and cooperation in special education, care giving, rehabilitation and fostering of orphaned and disabled children so as to learn the advanced concepts and experience in the development of child welfare work from developed countries. In recent years, we have cooperated with many corporations or organizations, such as adoption agencies from the USA, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark etc., Half-the-Sky Foundation, Love Without Boundaries Foundation, Belgian Handicap International, Joint Council on International Children's Services, J. P. Morgan Foundation, Mead Johnson and Heinz Co. Ltd, instilling new vitality into the development of China's child welfare affairs.


CVHS Times • October 20, 2020 • https://cvhstimes.com/887/entertainment/pandemic-pastimes/
Quarantine left Cougars with a lot of free time…. and a lot of inspiration.
Thomas's animation emits a sense of brightness and creativity.
We all have hobbies that we love that take our minds off of the world around us. Right now, there is no better distraction than a new hobby amidst the chaos that is 2020. Whether it was a trend or something they’ve always wanted to try, many students have felt inspired to explore their creative side over the past six months. For sophomore Isabelle Le, that has been through an app called Depop.
Depop is an online platform that allows people to buy and sell old clothes and accessories. Recently the app has gained a lot of popularity, especially among young people. However, for Le, her inspiration came from something more personal.
“I have a passion for fashion. I love styling clothes and experimenting with what I wear,” Le announced.
Once quarantine set in, Le found that her house was riddled with items that would be perfect to give away: clothes, shoes, phone cases, earrings, purses you name it. Rather than just throwing everything away, Le took advantage of Depop, and her love for fashion, to create her own online fashion marketplace.
“I take pictures of the items and then write a description on my profile. I also have to manage transactions and coordinate shipping, and it’s a lot of fun!” Le exclaimed.
This new hobby has been a chance for Le to immerse herself in something she loves while being productive at the same time. Not to mention it’s good for the environment! After months of selling clothes online, Le intends to continue with her newfound hobby even as the school year progresses. Over the summer, however, it helped her get used to the independent lifestyle we all have been forced in to.
“It really helped me fill my free time over the summer. I couldn’t see my friends, but I could still occupy myself with this new hobby,” Le mentioned.
Many students have admitted to picking up a new instrument or maybe a new sport over quarantine, but senior Bryn Thomas decided to try something a little less conventional. Using just her iPad and Apple Pen, Thomas started to experiment with animation.
“I’ve had ideas written down for so long and I finally got a chance to sit down and make them happen,” Thomas presented.
Thomas uses a feature on her iPad called Procreate that helps bring her ideas to life. In the few short months that she has started animating, she has already done commissions for those who truly appreciate her unique style.
“I would describe my style as contemporary with a big focus on lines. I definitely have a bright aesthetic and I love using light colors,” Thomas elaborated.
Animation can be tricky, and Thomas is no stranger to that fact. She embraces the process so that in the end, she is always able to create something that she is happy with. All it takes is some patience and a little bit of creative will-power. Though the sluggish summer days of quarantine have come to a quick halt, she hopes to be able to find the time to continue creating her little masterpieces.
It hasn’t been easy transitioning back to the quick-pace of school, especially after getting used to spending so many hours a day doing nothing but watching TikTok or Netflix. Hence, spending time exploring a new hobby will allow you to focus on yourself and take the time to detach from your everyday routine. You may even find a new passion in the process!


Home > Article Index > Adrenal Disorders > Parenting
intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/333/8015/348811.html
Experiments Strengthen Link Between Fish Oil, Mental Problems
BETHESDA, Md. (Cox News Service) -- Infant monkeys fed baby formulas supplemented with omega-3 fatty acids - the ones found in "fish oil" - were stronger and more alert even at less than a week old than monkeys given standard baby formula.
And by the time they were adolescents, those that had been deprived of the special omega-3 baby food were showing signs of physical quirks that have been used to predict with unusual accuracy whether human teenagers will someday be incarcerated.
The experiments were described Wednesday by Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a researcher at the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, (NIAAA) in a presentation to other NIH scientists.
They are part of a growing body of science indicating links between diets low in omega-3 and such problems as bipolar depression, suicide and post-partum depression in mothers of young infants.
Heart researchers have believed for decades that modern diets low in omega-3, and high in a related group of fatty acids known as omega-6, are associated with increased risk of heart disease.
Evidence that mental and behavioral problems may also stem from omega-3 deficiencies is more recent. But according to Hibbeln, chief of an NIAAA biochemistry laboratory, the evidence is dramatic.
The incidence of major depression is nearly 60 times as great in New Zealand, where the average consumption of seafood per person is about 40 pounds a year, as it is in Japan, where the average person eats nearly 150 pounds of seafood a year.
And post-partum depression, the condition that some blamed for the actions of Andrea Yates, a Houston woman convicted of first-degree murder recently in the drowning deaths of her five children, is 50 times more common in countries with low levels of seafood consumption, scientists have reported.
Harvard researchers gave two groups of persons who had recently been hospitalized with depression diets that were high in omega-3 and omega-6, respectively. The results were so dramatic that after three months, the scientists were directed by a research oversight committee to stop the experiment and allow all the subjects to take omega-3, Hibbeln said.
omega-6 is a typical component of modern human diets that rely heavily on processed foods, grains and grain-fed farm animals. These diets may be deficient in omega-3, which is much more prevalent in wild game, fish and some nuts, he said.
omega-3 seems to be critical to the growth and maintenance of brain cells, especially cell membranes. That is where all-important neurotransmitters bounce between cells, communicating all sorts of messages, including those related to feelings of well-being, Hibbeln said.
When omega-3 is not available, the body uses what it has, typically omega-6, which produces cell membranes less able to manage the traffic of neurotransmitters.
Hibbeln, who was trained as a psychiatrist, sometimes suggests that people supplement their diets with from one to three grams a day of fish oil labeled to show it contains the omega-3 components eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Although "cold-water" fish such as tuna and salmon are said to be higher in omega-3, shallow-water fish also is rich in it, he said.
In fact, even farm-raised salmon is higher in omega-3 than beef, because in addition to its grain-based "fish chow," the salmon gets some of the important fatty acid from other food in the water, he added.
Copyright 2002 Cox News Service. All rights reserved.
Babies Pick Up Emotional Clues From TV, Experts Find Jan 24 2003


Police search for man accused of raping child in Winston-Salem
Posted: Mar 9, 2014 / 09:08 AM EDT / Updated: Mar 9, 2014 / 09:08 AM EDT
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Police are searching for a man accused of raping a 5-year-old child in Winston-Salem.
According to police, the man entered an apartment on Bruce Street, “committed the act” and fled the area.
Detectives with the Criminal Investigations Division responded to the scene and assumed the investigation, which is in its “early stages,” police said in a news release.
No other information was provided.
Anyone with infomation concerning this investigation is asked to contact the Winston-Salem Police Department at (336) 773-7700.
by FOX8 Digital Desk / Jan 15, 2021
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- He thought he won $1,000, but one Greensboro man got the surprise of his life when he realized he was a few decimal points off.
"My heart just dropped," he said.
Person killed by train in Lexington identified


Home » Years » 2016 » The Jungle Book ••••1/2
The Jungle Book ••••1/2
Starring: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley
Director: Jon Favreau
Screenplay: Justin Marks, Rudyard Kipling
Adventure/Drama/Family, Rated: PG
Greg, it looks like Disney decided to re-make an old classic.
Can you re-make a new classic? Let’s recap The Jungle Book.
We meet Mowgli (Neel Sethi), a young man-cub who was left for dead in the jungle and then rescued by a black panther named Bagheera (Ben Kingsley). Mowgli is raised by Akela (Giancarlo Esposito) and her pack of young wolf-cubs. The young boy tries to act like a wolf but on occasion he can’t help showing the cleverness of a human. During this particular year, the dry season hits the jungle hard. All the animals call a truce so that they can all drink safely at the ever-shrinking watering hole.
That’s when Shere Khan arrives and declares that there’s not enough room in this jungle for him and the man cub. Once the truce is over he wants young Mowgli turned over to him. But Baheera decides to return the boy to the man-village so that he can be among his own kind. And so begins the boy’s odyssey.
Greg, I have to admit, I greeted the arrival of this movie with skepticism and cynicism. I’m a big fan of Disney’s original 1967 version of The Jungle Book, and I saw no need to revisit such hallowed, near-perfect ground. Well, I’m here to tell our readers that as fabulous as the original movie was, this 2016 version is even more wondrous and spectacular. I’m reluctant to call any movie flawless, but this film was damn near perfect. I’m talking about character development, hero’s journey, supporting characters, CGI effects, you name it. I was dazzled and beyond satisfied.
Yeah, The Jungle Book was a much more sophisticated bit of animation than its predecessor. You will believe a tiger can talk. However, there were moments when I wondered if Mowgli was animated himself. When a film is clearly a cartoon (as was the 1967 version) you aren’t thrown out of the story by such questions. But there were times when I was asking myself “is this Mowgli a CGI or not?” And in those moments I was looking at the technology and not the story. It was a bit of a distraction.
But on the other hand, when you compare to a movie like Zootopia where the characters are animated – Jungle Book seems light-years ahead. The animals looked like lions and tigers and bears.
Also, the story itself is subtler than the original. The original story has Mowgli going from animal to animal trying on their lifestyle to see if he fits. Ultimately, Mowgli finds the man-tribe and realizes this is where he fits in. Bears should be with bears, and boys with boys.
But that message doesn’t fit with 21st century sensibilities. In 2016, Mowgli returns to his wolf pack. He is a member of a blended family and he is at home with his differences. He draws strength from the variety of the animal kingdom and he takes his place as an equal among different animals. It’s a more complex message.
The hero’s journey is compelling and non-traditional in some ways. It follows the classic journey in that Mowgli is sent away from his home and then encounters his bear friend Baloo and a couple of villainous obstacles in the form of the snake Kaa and the orangutan King Louie. Usually a hero is missing some inner quality that he must obtain in order to triumph. The Jungle Book turns this formula upside-down by identifying his human intelligence as his fatal flaw. At the beginning of the film, the animals with whom Mowgli lives are critical of his humanity and try to drill it out of him. It’s also one of the reasons why Shere Khan wants him gone.
But rather than shed this quality, Mowgli stays true to himself and uses his human cleverness to help himself and others. In fact, at the film’s climax, it is Mowgli’s ingenuity that saves him from Shere Kahn. Thus we have an interesting hero’s journey that turns the hero’s transformation on its head by underscoring the importance of not changing as a means of completing the journey. Instead of needing to find his missing inner quality, Mowgli has already been in possession of it and must hang onto it despite pressures to abandon it. For me this makes his hero path fascinating and unique.
That’s an interesting distinction. Mowgli gets many mentors in this story. Of course there’s Akela from the wolf pack, and Bagheera, later Baloo shows Mowgli how to enjoy the easy life. Ultimately, Mowgli listens to his inner self and combines all his mentors into a whole.
I enjoyed The Jungle Book more than I expected. Disney has taken animation to a new level with the photo realism of the jungle animals. I was occasionally distracted by trying to determine if I was looking at a real person or a CGI image, but other than that I was drawn into this story and completely enjoyed myself. I give The Jungle Book 4 out of 5 Reels.
Mowgli makes for an interesting hero. He starts out sheltered and naive and grows to become mature and confident. It was a gradual process and enjoyable to watch. I give Mowgli 4 out of 5 Heroes.
The mentors in this story, including the unwritten code of the wolf pack, gave Mowgli the direction he needed to overcome his lack of confidence and allowed him to grow into the person he was destined to be. I give the mentors in The Jungle Book 4 out of 5 Mentors.
Movie: Mentors: Heroes:
You’re right about the richness of the mentorship in this movie, and I have some observations to make about it before launching into my ratings. We’re learning that heroes receive assistance from many different types of “helpers”, for lack of a better term. A mentor is one such helper, and we define a mentor as an older figure who serves as the hero’s teacher. Sometimes these helpers assume a parental role; in this film, Akela plays that role with Mowgli. Sometimes these helpers are guides who know the terrain and who lead the hero to the special world; here Bagheera assumes that role. These guides could be called Charons, named after the ferrymen in Hades who guided people between worlds across the river Styx.
Other helpers are bodyguards who offer physical protection for the hero; this role aptly describes Baloo the bear. Still other helpers are coaches who physically train the hero; Akela and Bagheera both share those duties here. As you’ve pointed out, Greg, mentoring can also come in the form of an internalized code of conduct; the wolves code in this film plays a pivotal role in steering Mowgli toward noble behavior. So we have physical, transportational, parental, and didactic teachers all helping our hero survive the jungle and defeat Shere Khan. The Jungle Book is one of the richest mentor/helper stories we’ve encountered in the movies in 2016.
Overall, this movie is a true gem, one of Disney’s finest offerings of the past decade. This coming-of-age story is as old as storytelling itself, centering on a hero who must find his true identity. Mowgli cannot be trained to become a wolf, although he certainly makes the effort. His journey is a path toward manhood, and only through defeating the evil Shere Khan can his humanity be revealed. Every aspect of this movie is stirring and triumphant. It’s Reel Heroes Hall of Fame material to me, and so I’m more than happy to award this film the full 5 Reels out of 5.
As I’m mentioned, the hero’s journey is cleverly turned on its head, with Mowgli’s apparent flaw of “cleverness” being precisely the quality that must be cultivated for Mowgli to achieve success on his journey. So ironically, the transformation that our hero’s friends implore him to undergo at the beginning of the movie is exactly what he must avoid undergoing in order to succeed on his journey. Mowgli is a wonderful hero on a classic journey in every sense of the word. He merits the full 5 Heroes out of 5.
I needn’t delve again into the rich assortment of mentor-like characters who assist our young hero on his journey. These characters are an inspired collection of teachers with unique and appealing personalities, and they help Mowgli emotionally, mentally, and physically. They are among the best mentors in the movies we’ve seen this year, rivaling those seen in Eddie the Eagle I award Mowgli’s helpers a Mentor rating of 5 out of 5.
By Greg Smith in 2016, 4 Heroes, 4 Mentors, 4 Reels, Adventure, Drama on May 8, 2016 .
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December 2, 2020 by Graeme MacKay
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 24, 2020
Trump Administration Approves Start of Formal Transition to Biden
President Trump’s government on Monday authorized President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to begin a formal transition process after Michigan certified Mr. Biden as its winner, a strong sign that the president’s last-ditch bid to overturn the results of the election was coming to an end.
Mr. Trump did not concede, and vowed to persist with efforts to change the vote, which have so far proved fruitless. But the president said on Twitter on Monday night that he accepted the decision by Emily W. Murphy, the administrator of the General Services Administration, to allow a transition to proceed.
In his tweet, Mr. Trump said that he had told his officials to begin “initial protocols” involving the handoff to Mr. Biden “in the best interest of our country,” even though he had spent weeks trying to subvert a free and fair election with false claims of fraud. Hours later, he tried to play down the significance of Ms. Murphy’s action, tweeting that it was simply “preliminarily work with the Dems” that would not stop efforts to change the election results.
Still, Ms. Murphy’s designation of Mr. Biden as the apparent victor provides the incoming administration with federal funds and resources and clears the way for the president-elect’s advisers to coordinate with Trump administration officials.
The decision from Ms. Murphy came after several additional senior Republican lawmakers, as well as leading figures from business and world affairs, denounced the delay in allowing the peaceful transfer of power to begin, a holdup that Mr. Biden and his top aides said was threatening national security and the ability of the incoming administration to effectively plan for combating the coronavirus pandemic.
And it followed a key court decision in Pennsylvania, where the state’s Supreme Court on Monday ruled against the Trump campaign and the president’s Republican allies, stating that roughly 8,000 ballots with signature or date irregularities must be counted.
In Michigan, the statewide canvassing board, with two Republicans and two Democrats, voted 3 to 0 to approve the results, with one Republican abstaining. It officially delivered to Mr. Biden a key battleground that Mr. Trump had wrested away from Democrats four years ago, and rebuffed the president’s legal and political efforts to overturn the results.
By Monday evening, as Mr. Biden moved ahead with plans to fill out his cabinet, broad sectors of the nation had delivered a blunt message to a defeated president: His campaign to stay in the White House and subvert the election, unrealistic from the start, was nearing the end. (New York Times)
Posted in: USA	Tagged: 2020-40, concede, concession, denial, Donald Trump, election, Joe Biden, Presidency, transition, twitter, USA
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 17, 2020
America’s divisions run deeper than you think
As the dust finally settles two weeks after the American-election earthquake, two undeniable facts are now clear.
First, whatever Donald Trump says, Joe Biden was elected president. Second, before Biden can put his progressive agenda fully to work, he must achieve the political equivalent of scaling a sheer, vertical mountain face.
To comprehend Biden’s predicament, look beyond the bitterly divided country he will lead. He’s also the head of a seriously splintered Democratic Party that agreed to a truce long enough to defeat the common enemy of President Donald Trump but then immediately returned to fighting itself.
This internecine conflict, along with ongoing confusion over what the party truly stands for, partly explains why the Democratic landslide so many pollsters predicted never materialized. Remember how, just before the election, the Democrats had high hopes of winning America’s political trifecta; the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate?
Poll after poll buoyed these expectations. And with the always outrageous Trump bungling his way through a pandemic, economic crisis and the most serious racial unrest in a half century, the planets seemed aligned for a historic Democratic victory.
Pretty much any Democratic body with a healthy pulse should have been able to trounce Trump, or so it seemed. Why this didn’t happen should result in some profound Democratic soul-searching. Yes, Biden won the presidency, but in many of the states he carried, he did so by razor-thin margins.
Somehow, the Democrats managed to lose seats in the House of Representatives. Nor does it seem likely they’ll wrest control of the Senate from Republican hands. As a result, Biden’s dreams of massive infrastructure spending, a concerted nationwide campaign against climate change as well as overdue health-care reforms could remain just that — dreams.
The Democrats are at loggerheads over why they didn’t do better — a dispute that should itself point to the answer they need. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a self-proclaimed democratic “socialist” who sits in the House of Representatives, blamed incompetent party strategists and their failure to tack farther to the left.
To which Democratic Virginia Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger replied, the party should never again use the words “socialist” or “socialism,” and stop talking about defunding the police.
To be sure, this is a fight the Democrats must settle themselves. But it’s worth noting the Democrats made Biden president by persuading more Democrats to come out and vote, not by convincing Republicans to abandon Trump. Millions of more people voted for Trump in 2020 than did in 2016. To really make a difference moving forward, the Democrats need to win over some of those Americans.
As hard it will be for his opponents to admit, Trump expanded his base, including with Black and Hispanic voters. Despite this, the post-election Republicans are also divided, uncertain whether they should stick with Trumpist populism or whether their future lies in more moderate, centrist politics.
What happens next matters greatly, not just to the U.S. but other countries, including Canada, which have experienced sharp, political polarization within, as well as between, political parties. For instance Erin O’Toole, who billed himself as a “true blue” Tory before becoming leader of Canada’s federal Conservatives, is suddenly flirting with populism.
It is fitting that Biden has pledged to be a great unifier and healer. We hope he brings his country together. But first he must unite his own party. Politics has been called the art of the possible. In a democracy, politics can also be categorized as the fine art of compromise. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)
Posted in: USA	Tagged: 2020-39, boot, Democratic, division, Donald Trump, election, extremists, Joe Biden, Left, leftist, party, Radical Left, USA, victory
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday November 7, 2020
“They have given us a mandate for action on COVID and the economy and climate change and systemic racism,” Biden said in a late-night speech in Wilmington, Del. “They made it clear they want the country to come together — not pull apart.”
Biden followed Saturday night by calling on Democrats and Republicans to come together after the election and pledged to join them.
“And I believe that this is part of the mandate from the American people. They want us to cooperate,” Biden said. “That’s the choice I’ll make. And I call on the Congress — Democrats and Republicans alike — to make that choice with me.”
But Biden, who secured enough votes to win the Electoral College on Saturday morning, will face a narrowly divided Congress when he takes office in January. Biden’s significant lead in the popular vote did not translate to a Democratic wave in the House and Senate, leaving Biden without the votes necessary to pursue an aggressive legislative agenda in Congress.
Democrats maintained control of the House of Representatives but the GOP made gains, picking up at least five seats in the election. Control of the Senate will remain undecided until early January following a pair of runoff elections in Georgia.
Republican reaction to Biden’s victory has been muted as focus shifts to GOP efforts to defend incumbent Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in those Georgia seats. So far, most Republican senators, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have not congratulated Biden or acknowledged his victory.
But Democrats are already calling those races the linchpin that determines the success of Biden’s agenda. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., used Biden’s victory as a call to arms in the Georgia races.
Regardless of the outcome in Georgia, the victors will have a narrow majority in the Senate. And Democrats will be forced to contend with divisions within their own party on some of the biggest policy items on Biden’s list.
Among the most controversial is a plan to combat climate change. Democrats themselves are not fully unified on how to approach the issue. Divisions over how quickly and aggressively to move to limit carbon emissions have simmered within the party since progressive lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., introduced the Green New Deal — a plan to eliminate the carbon footprint by 2030 — back in 2019.
Progressive activists are also calling for Biden to move on another issue that divides the party, Medicare for All. Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., both oppose the plan and instead want Obamacare expanded with a public option. But progressives argue that the party has shifted to embrace widespread government-sponsored health care.
Biden has consistently promised that one of his top priorities will be to take immediate steps to combat and control the spread of the coronavirus, which has surged in recent weeks. His plan includes investing in expanded testing with a Pandemic Testing Board and a vast Public Health Jobs Corps as well as better tracing capacity and greater production and distribution of personal protective equipment. His plan also includes a plan to boost jobs to aid in economic recovery.
Congressional leaders say they hope to pass some COVID relief before the end of this year but Democrats have long insisted that they expect the economy will need further support in 2021. (NPR)
Posted in: USA	Tagged: 2020-37, birds of prey, division, dragon, eagle, election, Joe Biden, polarization, training, USA
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 4, 2020
Trump prematurely crowns himself winner in chaotic U.S. election that remains undecided
The ingredients have now been assembled for a combustible post-election aftermath in the United States. And Donald Trump has begun flinging matches.
Uncertainty had been predicted for months and early returns confirmed that voting day would indeed pass without a clear winner.
As in 2016, Trump outperformed the polls, forcing a state-by-state duel with Democratic challenger Joe Biden that could conceivably culminate in Trump winning a second term.
The result could become clearer within hours, or perhaps days.
States are still counting mail-in ballots, which tend to skew Democrat, and Biden is quickly narrowing gaps in the count in several states; in some cases, he’s possibly set to overtake Trump.
The chaotic finale illustrates the country’s bitter polarization; the parties are arguing about which types of ballots are legitimate.
The president has eagerly fanned that polarization. Early Wednesday morning, he falsely claimed that he had already won. Trump did so in an unusual rally from the White House, a seat of government not typically used for election events.
“This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment,” Trump said from the executive residence. “We did win this election.”
Trump promised to head to court to try cutting off the counting of votes.
In Pennsylvania, for example, Republicans have been trying to cancel the counting of ballots that are postmarked before election day but arrive after. It’s one of more than 350 such casesthis year over pandemic-related voting measures. (CBC)
Posted in: USA	Tagged: 2020-37, chaos, Donald Trump, election, Hurricane, indecision, Joe Biden, storm, Uncle Sam, USA, vortex
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 31, 2020
Biden’s Call for ‘National Mask Mandate’ Gains Traction in Public Health Circles
As the nation heads into what public health experts are calling a “dark winter” of coronavirus illness and death, public health experts are coalescing around Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s call for a “national mask mandate,” even as they concede such an effort would require much more than the stroke of a presidential pen.
Over the past week, a string of prominent public health experts — notably Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease specialist, and Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration under President Trump — have said it is time to seriously consider a national mandate to curb the spread of the virus.
Overseas this week, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia became the latest foreign leader to impose a national mandate for citizens to wear masks. Mr. Trump is opposed to a mandate, and Mr. Biden has conceded that a presidential order for all Americans to wear masks would almost certainly face — and most likely fall to — a legal challenge.
Mr. Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, echoed the “dark winter” language during the most recent presidential debate, and he is already using his bully pulpit to promote and reinforce a culture of mask wearing. If elected, he will almost certainly do more.
Mr. Biden has already said that, as president, he would mandate masks on all federal property, an executive order that could have wide reach. He could use his authority under federal transit law to require masks on public transportation. He could also prod governors who are resisting mask mandates to at least require masks in public buildings in their states.
But that is delicate terrain in the United States, where Mr. Trump has turned the act of wearing or not wearing a mask into a political statement. Public health and legal experts say it would be far better for Mr. Biden — or Mr. Trump, for that matter — to use his powers of persuasion to convince Americans that covering one’s face to curb the spread of the virus is a patriotic or civic-minded action.
“Instead of making it about the president’s coercive authority under law it should be about whether the president can support a norm that supports public health, which is in people’s self interest,” said Harold Hongju Koh, a law professor at Yale University and an expert in national security and human rights.
Mr. Trump, however, has shown little interest in supporting such norms. At a rally on Wednesday in Arizona, he mocked California’s mask mandate, saying, “You have to eat through the mask.” (New York Times)
Posted in: USA	Tagged: 2020-36, Coronavirus, covid-19, Donald Trump, Economy, election, Joe Biden, MAGA, masks, militia, pandemic, rally, Science, trust, USA


Home/SCITECH/Apple has removed 25,000 applications from the App Store in China
Apple has removed 25,000 applications from the App Store in China
venezuela August 20, 2018 SCITECH Leave a comment
The government of China, has a very difficult regime in terms of technological innovations that enter the country, so companies like to Googlethey have to change the way they work to get into it; However, that is not the only case that exists, since Apple is also indulged in Chinese standards.
The apple company had to remove 25,000 applications from the App Store in China, because they did not comply with the regulations that the country has with regard to situations that could distract people's attention.
That is why most deleted apps had to deal with games, bets, draws and other activities in which coincidence was involved.
Through a statement, Apple said the applications were removed because they did not comply with the rules that control the country:
"Gambling applications are illegal and are not allowed in the App Store in China, we have already eliminated many applications and developer profiles for distributing illegal gambling applications in our application store, and we are vigilant to find them and avoid them in the App Store. "
This fact is added to the list of actions that the Tim Cook company had to perform to be present on the Chinese market, as it previously had to revoke the VPN services (private and virtual networks), which allowed people to access web pages & # 39; s and social networks such as Google, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, which have been censored for several years.
iPhone and other gadgets would be manufactured in Mexico by the China-US tariff war
Parallel to this situation there is the recent decision of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, concerning it use of Huawei, ZTE and other Chinese companies, in his government, because he considers them dangerous for national security; all these situations make the US relationship with China is quite tense and that the technological future between the two is in limbo.


Romance Languages Special Major
Let your curiosity lead the way:
About French
French is one of the top five languages spoken around the world today, spanning the continents of Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas along with the Mediterranean and Caribbean regions. Our courses initiate students into various modes of French cultural production and analysis, preparing them to study abroad. Such experiences enable them to pursue careers in international business, medicine, law, diplomacy, and the arts.
Our graduate program in French Language & Literature prepares graduates for the teaching and research demands of post-secondary education. Graduate studies encompass a combination of literary theory, literature, and cultural studies across periods, genres, and geographies, as well as carefully designed instructional methods and theory courses at introductory and advanced levels.
Our summer, semester and year-long study abroad programs in Nice, Toulouse, Paris, and Dakar enable students to deepen their understanding and appreciation of French culture by taking courses in the French university system, living with French families, shadowing doctors in French hospitals, holding internships in French businesses, and traveling extensively.
undergrad requirements
French major & minor course requirements, honors options, and more
Undergraduate Degree Requirements
Cross-Cultural Communication: Language Learning at Home and Abroad
We use the communicative method of language teaching enhanced with authentic cultural materials, enlivened with multimedia approaches, and reinforced with frequent revision for maximum oral and written proficiency, preparing you for one of our many summer or semester study abroad opportunities.
Disciplinary Dialogues: Modes of Cultural and Artistic Expression
Our faculty covers all eras and areas of French and Francophone language, literature, and culture, from the Middle Ages to the present, specializing in literature’s interconnections with philosophy, historiography, politics, the sciences, and the arts.
The Francophone World: Expanding Horizons
We help prepare you for professions in international business, medicine, law, and diplomacy, providing you with applicable knowledge and transferable skills, including historical and cultural background, cultural and textual analysis, and oral and written language.
Careers & Outcomes
Check out what recent graduates have done, and explore career center resources to chart your path.
Our Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, one of the most active in the country, offers highly qualified students the opportunity to earn Doctoral degrees in all areas of French and Francophone literary and cultural studies. Our students receive generous funding and benefit from our faculty's expertise.
In and out of classes, professors try to create an open and supportive environment for the development of graduate students in diverse fields. The program studies literature in an interdisciplinary and multicultural context, with attention given to all periods and genres. The program gives you and your advisor considerable freedom to plan a course of study that responds to your needs and interests.
Our faculty’s fields of expertise combine the study of French literature (including Francophone regions of Africa, the Caribbean, and North America) with the arts and sciences as well as with theory, politics, and film. We encourage students to take a certain number of courses outside the department that complement the French program. You also have the opportunity to work with members of other departments and programs by participating in our research and reading groups for faculty and graduate students and by attending our events, including many prestigious guest speakers.
Explore our Graduate Program in French
Professor Tili Boon Cuillé
“I hope my students take away a love of culture and a curiosity about other people’s perspectives that will inspire them to explore further, travel further, think circumspectly, and have the courage to put themselves in situations in which their informed perspectives can have an impact in whatever professional venue they choose,” said Tili Boon Cuillé, Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Comparative Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.
Click here to read the full article from The Teaching Center.
Our faculty’s fields of expertise combine the study of French literature (including Francophone regions of Africa, the Caribbean, and North America) with the arts and sciences as well as with theory, politics, and film.
The Department and the University strongly encourage all students of foreign language to study abroad, both to improve their linguistic skills and to benefit from the experience of living in another culture. To permit students at virtually any level to participate, the Department sponsors a number of programs abroad. Students can select programs for summer, semester, or year-long study that award Washington University degree credits. Some of the programs are specialized and intended for students in Spanish and Business or French and pre-med. On the graduate level, the Department participates in two exchange programs based in Paris.
Study Abroad Details
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College of Arts & Sciences Resources
French Awards
Richard L. Admusen Award
Mr. Richard L. Admusen passed away on April 28, 1981; a victim of leukemia. He was an esteemed professor in the Department of Romance languages for 17 years. The purpose being to award an annual prize for the best Honors student in French.
The Roberta J. Luerty Award for Undergraduate Study in France
This travel award was established by the Luery family in memory of their daughter, Roberta Luery. Roberta was killed in a car accident on the way back to Washington University in August 1998 to begin her senior year. She had been on a study abroad program in France during her junior year and had a very positive experience while there. The establishment of this award has served as an instrument for many other students to benefit from the generosity of Roberta's family and friends.
Markovitz Travel Prize
The Markovitz Travel Prize was set up by the family of Rose Markovitz as a tribute to her memory and to her love of travel. This award is recognition of the students’ achievements in French/Spanish courses and is a tribute to the interest and intellectual curiosity the winners have demonstrated in French/Spanish culture.
Elizabeth Schreiber Award in French for Excellent Teaching
The Elizabeth Schreiber Award was set up by Faculty members of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures in memory of Professor Emerita Elizabeth T. Schreiber.
Prof. Schreiber spent over 40 years teaching French at Washington University. She began teaching in 1945, and continued as a part-time instructor after her retirement in 1977. Faculty members wanted to honor her memory by recognizing outstanding Teaching Assistants in French with this award.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
Copyright 2021 by:Arts & Sciences at Washington
University in St. Louis
Department of Romance Languages & Literatures
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Home Defense Industry Naviris, the JV between Fincantieri and Naval Group is now fully operational
Naviris, the JV between Fincantieri and Naval Group is now fully operational
The first board meeting of Naviris, the joint venture between Fincantieri and Naval Group, took place. This partnership cements the shared desire of the two companies to build a future of excellence for the shipbuilding industry and Navies.
The Alliance is the natural evolution of the historical partnership already existing between two world leaders. With more than twenty years of cooperation, Naval Group and Fincantieri have already achieved success together: as early as the 1990s with the Horizon air defence destroyer programme (four ships) and with the FREMM multi-mission frigate program ongoing since 2005 (twenty vessels).
Naviris paves the way to the consolidation of European naval defence in response to the increasing pressure of worldwide competitors. Through Naviris, Fincantieri and Naval Group are pooling their strengths to develop a new strategic capability and respond in an innovative way to the needs of their customers.
The two companies have established that Naviris is a 50/50 joint venture. With the head office located in Genoa with a subsidiary in Ollioules, the Naviris team will focus on bi-national and export projects. Underlining the strategic and developmental will attributed by Fincantieri and Naval Group to the operation, Giuseppe Bono has been appointed Chairman and Hervé Guillou Member of the Board. Claude Centofanti, Chief Executive Officer and Enrico Bonetti, Chief Operational Officer, will run the joint venture. Parent companies are equally represented on the Board of Directors.
Naviris’ objective is to create value for its customers through the following key areas:
Common R&D projects
Worldwide proposals
Prime Contractorship and Design Authority
Procurement optimization
Naviris foresees export and common French-Italians opportunities, such as the first studies for the Mid-Life Upgrade of the French and Italian Horizon-class destroyers, as well as European projects such as the development of the European Patrol Corvette light frigates.
“We are grateful to have received the unconditional support of our governments for the creation of a new European leader for the strategic sector of naval defense. Together, we will accelerate our technological advance and maintain our key differentiators by combining our R&D capabilities, renovating the products for the benefit of our customers. Naviris opens the way to a real construction of European naval defence.”declared the two CEOs of Fincantieri and Naval Group, Giuseppe Bono and Hervé Guillou.
Gathered in Lyon for the bilateral summit, the French and Italian governments announce their intention for close civil and military naval cooperation.
The governments of both countries provide their full and entire support to the equal-share alliance presented by Fincantieri and Naval Group.
The two groups sign the Alliance Cooperation Agreement that defines the operating terms and roadmap of the joint-venture.
The joint-venture officially announces its name, Naviris, which embodies the solidity of the partnership and convergence of long term visions uniting the two parent companies.
Naviris is fully operational.
About Fincantieri
Fincantieri is one of the world’s largest shipbuilding groups and number one by diversification and innovation. It is leader in cruise ship design and construction and a reference player in all high-tech shipbuilding industry’s sectors, from naval to offshore vessels, from high-complexity special vessels and ferries to mega-yachts, ship repairs and conversions, systems and components production and after-sales services.
Headquartered in Trieste (Italy), the group has built more than 7,000 vessels in over 230 years of maritime history. With more than 19,000 employees, of whom more than 8,900 in Italy, 20 shipyards in 4 continents, today Fincantieri is the leading Western shipbuilder. It has among its clients the major cruise operators, the Italian and the U.S. Navy, in addition to several foreign navies, and it is partner of some of the main European defense companies within supranational programs.
www.fincantieri.com
About Naval Group
Naval Group is the European leader in naval defence. As an international high-tech company, Naval Group uses its extraordinary know-how, unique industrial resources and capacity to arrange innovative strategic partnerships to meet its customers’ requirements. The group designs, builds and supports submarines and surface ships. It also supplies services to shipyards and naval bases. In addition, the group offers a wide range of marine renewable energy solutions. Attentive to corporate social responsibility, Naval Group is a member of the United Nations Global Compact. The group reports revenue of €3.6 billion and has a workforce of 14,860 (data for 2018).
www.naval-group.com
SOURCE: Naval Group
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131 F.3d 264 (1st Cir. 1997), 97-1556, Vartanian v. Monsanto Co.
Party Name: Leo VARTANIAN, Plaintiff--Appellant, v. MONSANTO COMPANY, et al., Defendants--Appellees.
Case Date: December 15, 1997
Court: United States Courts of Appeals, Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
131 F.3d 264 (1st Cir. 1997)
Leo VARTANIAN, Plaintiff--Appellant,
MONSANTO COMPANY, et al., Defendants--Appellees.
United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit
Heard Oct. 8, 1997.
John C. Sikorski, Springfield, MA, with whom Robinson Donovan Madden & Barry, P.C., was on brief, for appellant.
Richard J. Pautler, St. Louis, MO, with whom Peper, Martin, Jensen, Maichel and Hetlage, Francis D. Dibble, Jr., Springfield, MA, and Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas, were on brief, for appellees.
Before TORRUELLA, Chief Judge, LYNCH, Circuit Judge, and STEARNS, [*] District Judge.
STEARNS, District Judge.
This appeal involves a question of first impression in this circuit, namely, the standard to apply in determining when an employer's consideration of an employee severance program gives rise to a fiduciary duty of disclosure under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C.
§ § 1001-1461 ("ERISA"). Plaintiff-Appellant Leo Vartanian alleges that his former employer, Monsanto Chemical Company ("Monsanto"), misled him by failing to respond adequately to his inquiries about a severance package that was under internal corporate consideration when he retired from the company on May 1, 1991. A benefits package for which Vartanian would have otherwise been eligible was approved by the Monsanto Board of Directors on June 28, 1991.
Vartanian filed a complaint against Monsanto in 1992 alleging two counts of breach of fiduciary duty under ERISA, one count of unlawful discrimination in violation of § 510 of ERISA, and one count of common law negligent misrepresentation. The district court, Ponsor, J., 1 granted Monsanto's motion to dismiss the action on the grounds that, having taken a lump sum distribution of all the vested benefits to which he was entitled, Vartanian could not qualify as a "plan participant" with standing to assert ERISA violations. Vartanian v. Monsanto Co., 822 F.Supp. 36, 41 (D.Mass.1993). This Court reversed, holding, inter alia, that because Vartanian was a plan member at the time the alleged misrepresentations were made, he had standing to sue under ERISA. Vartanian v. Monsanto Co., 14 F.3d 697, 703 (1st Cir.1994) (Vartanian I).
On remand Judge Ponsor dismissed Vartanian's claim that Monsanto had breached an ERISA duty by failing to disclose its prospective plans to reduce staffing, but permitted the claims of misrepresentation about the possibility of an early retirement incentive plan to proceed. Vartanian v. Monsanto Co., 880 F.Supp. 63, 70-71 (D.Mass.1995). After discovery, Judge Ponsor granted Monsanto's motion for summary judgment, holding that because no enhanced severance package that would have affected Vartanian was under "serious consideration" at the time he retired, no actionable misrepresentation had been made. Vartanian v. Monsanto Co., 956 F.Supp. 61, 66 (D.Mass.1997). We affirm.
Our review of a motion for summary judgment is de novo. Associated Fisheries of Maine, Inc. v. Daley, 127 F.3d 104, 108-09 (1st Cir.1997). Summary judgment is appropriate where "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). Inferences are drawn in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Reich v. John Alden Life Ins. Co., 126 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir.1997). The nonmovant may not, of course, defeat a motion for summary judgment on conjecture alone. "The mere existence of a scintilla of evidence in support of the plaintiff's position will be insufficient; there must be evidence on which the jury could reasonably find for the plaintiff." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2512, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).
The following undisputed material facts are drawn from the parties' Joint Statement of Stipulated Facts, Defendant-Appellee Monsanto's Statement of Undisputed Facts, and Plaintiff-Appellant Vartanian's Response to Defendant's Statement of Undisputed Facts. After thirty-six years at Monsanto, Vartanian in December 1989 announced his intention to retire on January 1, 1991 (later amended to May 1, 1991). Vartanian was then employed at Monsanto's plastics facility at Indian Orchard, Massachusetts. Vartanian elected to take a lump sum distribution of his Salaried Employee's Pension Plan benefits. During past restructurings of its business, Monsanto had offered early retirement incentives, sometimes on a company-wide basis and sometimes to specific groups of employees.
During 1990 and 1991, Monsanto's sales stagnated and net income shrunk. Rumors began circulating among Monsanto employees that the company was pondering an early retirement program as a cost-cutting device.
These intensified when in October of 1990 Monsanto Agricultural Company (a separate Monsanto operating unit) offered a severance program to some of its employees as part of a reorganization plan. In the first quarter of 1991, Robert Potter, the president of Monsanto, began discussing with his senior managers various proposals to streamline operations at Monsanto Chemical. These included the closing of several plants, but not the Indian Orchard facility where Vartanian worked. No plans were drawn up to implement a severance package, 2 although Frank Reining, Monsanto's vice-president of finance, prepared an estimate of the cost of offering severance benefits to some 400 hypothetical employees.
In March of 1991, Vartanian asked Charles Eggert, his immediate supervisor, if the rumors about an early retirement plan were true. After investigating, Eggert reported to Vartanian that Monsanto was not contemplating any severance program for which he would be eligible. On March 25, 1991, Vartanian and his wife executed an Affidavit, General Release, and Agreement in anticipation of the release of the lump sum benefits.
During the week of April 15-21, 1991, after gossip about a possible severance plan revived, Vartanian contacted both Eggert and Lori Heffelfinger, the personnel representative for his employee group. Eggert and Heffelfinger told Vartanian that they had been unable to confirm the rumors, and did not personally believe that any early retirement package was in the works. Vartanian does not dispute the truthfulness of either statement.
Between April 21 and May 1, 1991, the Monsanto Management Board met six times, eventually deciding to recommend to the Board of Directors the closure of six plants. No presentation concerning early retirement incentives was made at any of these meetings, and no document analyzing or proposing a severance program was prepared. Three alternate plans were drawn up for restructuring Monsanto's multiple product lines. None of the product lines in Vartanian's Plastics Division was recommended for discontinuance. Vartanian retired on May 1, 1991.
On May 7, 1991, Potter met with the Monsanto Executive Management Committee, which endorsed in principle his proposal to restructure the company. On May 16, 1991, John Manns, the director of employee benefits, was asked to develop a severance program for potentially impacted employees. Manns asked Monsanto's actuaries, Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby ("TPF & C"), to gather the necessary data. On May 24, 1991, Manns gave TPF & C an outline of his proposal. On May 28, 1991, Manns met with Robert Abercrombie, the corporate benefits director, and Barry Blitstein, a corporate vice president, to discuss a concrete severance plan. It was at this meeting that the idea of extending an offer of early retirement to all Monsanto employees was first raised.
Coincidentally, on May 28, 1991, a St. Louis-based Plastics Division employee who had decided to retire on June 1, 1991, was assured by letter that he would receive the value of any increase in benefits if an early retirement program for which he would otherwise have been eligible was adopted within three months of his retirement date. On June 12, 1991, another St. Louis-based Plastics Division employee who planned to retire on July 1, 1991, was given a similar written assurance. Both employees were eventually paid the additional benefits from Monsanto's corporate treasury.
On June 3, 1991, Monsanto's Executive Management Committee endorsed the idea of a company-wide early retirement program, and authorized further development work on the project. Potter told his division managers that they were to make the final decision whether to offer the program to their respective employees. John Tuley, the manager of Vartanian's division, decided not to participate. Tuley's decision was reversed by his successor, Arthur Fitzgerald, in mid-June of 1991. The retirement plan was finalized on June 27, 1991, and approved by Monsanto's Board of Directors on June 28, 1991. Had
Vartanian been eligible to participate, he would have received an additional $174,700 in pension benefits. 3
Although this Court, in Vartanian I, stated that Monsanto had "a fiduciary duty not to mislead Vartanian as to the prospective adoption of a plan under serious consideration," 14 F.3d at 702, it had no occasion to reach the question of what exactly constitutes "serious consideration." The district court on remand adopted the standard espoused by the Third Circuit in Fischer v. Philadelphia Elec. Co., 96 F.3d 1533 (3d Cir.1996) (Fischer II), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 1247, 137 L.Ed.2d 329 (1997), that serious consideration obtains when "(1) a specific proposal (2) is being discussed for purposes of implementation (3) by senior management with the authority to implement the change." 956 F.Supp. at 66 (quoting Fischer II, 96 F.3d at 1539). Finding that "[t]he undisputed facts reveal that none of this occurred at Monsanto until weeks after...


Slide-guitar blues and gritty folk come to church
There is a phrase that musicians in the Southern States of America use to describe music that sends a chill down your spine and makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. They call it ‘chicken-skin’ music. And that’s what we heard in St Andrew’s when Martin Simpson played to a capacity audience on 21 April 2018.
Simpson is regarded as one of the most skilled folk guitarists currently playing on the British and American folk scene. Now approaching 65 (retirement age, as he proudly announced on Saturday), he has been performing live since 1970. He has released 21 solo albums, countless collaborative albums with other well-known musicians, and has been nominated 23 times in various categories of the annual Radio 2 Folk Awards, winning Artist of the Year twice.
It was a real coup for St Andrew’s that he was persuaded to come and play here.
The gig kicked off with Hertford’s favourite folk entrepreneur Pat Crilly playing a short six-song set of original songs. Pat – who describes himself as an Irishman with a Scottish accent – is himself a talented guitarist and packs a vocal punch with a pure, strong voice. He set the tone for the evening by opening with a song about meeting a man from Senegal on a boat in the Congo. ‘Magical and Mystical’ went the refrain. That could have described what followed.
Dressed in working men’s jeans and boots and a silk shirt that he later admitted was borrowed from his neighbour in Sheffield, Richard Hawley (one-time guitarist with Jarvis Cocker’s 90s band Pulp), Simpson walked onto the dais where the altar normally stands and started tuning his guitar.
Fixing a temporary feedback problem, his tuning gradually emerged, like a coil of mist rising from the swamps of the Mississippi, as a slow slide-guitar blues. The vocals which followed were like English traditional folk lyrics, telling the tale of a soldier dying in hospital. And then, just as we thought we had located the song, it merged into a version of Bob Dylan’s Blind Willie McTell. What intricate invention is that?
Over the following two hours, Simpson selected songs from the rich catalogue of English and American folk and blues numbers, each one introduced by amusing stories that often brought the songs up to date with interpretations that referenced modern political or environmental issues. Grenfell Tower, the chopping down of 17,000 trees in Sheffield, mass poaching in the 1850s, the Aberfan tragedy – they all got a mention. Simpson is not shy of making a stand against injustice.
Poignant lyrics and amusing anecdotes aside, it was his guitar and banjo playing that held the audience – many of them strangers to the church – in a silent trance. His version of Heartbreak Hotel or the Incredible String Band’s October Song were made his own by elaborate guitar playing made to look easy.
It was a great concert and a successful evening. According to Chris Seward, who organised the evening, over £1300 was raised for church funds.
After the concert, the down-to-earth Simpson, sat at the back of the church selling CDs and chatting to fans. He kept saying how the acoustics in the nave were ‘unbelievably clear and beautiful’.
Asked if he would play at the church again, Simpson replied ‘Oh yes, definitely’. We’d better watch this space, I’d say.
Forbes Mutch
You can find out more about Martin on his website


Tags / Rural
Bangladesh circus 09
Ghatail
By Eleanor Moseman
Families take moments at the edge of the circus and await their family members that are spectators at other events.
An circus trainer rides his elephant up and down the roads of Bangladesh collecting cash tolls.
A Wall of Death rider grabs for a 10 Taka note. This stunt rider has been riding for nearly 10 years without any accidents.
Two young women exit, precariously, down the steps from the Wall of Death.
Another Sky: An Uruguayan journey 02
Brigadier General Fructuoso Rivera, Uruguay
By Francesco Pistilli
The sun sets over a cattle farm. Uruguay was founded on cattle industry, and is one of the world's biggest "meat economies" with 3 cows per person, so roughly 9 million cattle. It comes as no surprise that 75% of the country's exports are agriculture related.
Brigadier General Fructuoso Rivera, Curtina 45002, Uruguay
Route 5 from Montevideo to Tacuarembo. In rural Uruguay almost 100 thousand people (gauchos, laborers and farmers) share the environment with animals. Their cattle and horses are raised in the open air, under natural conditions with a mild climate, fertile land and abundant water.
Curtina, Uruguay
Two Uruguayan gauchos, father and son, are build their new family-home at Curtina, a rural village located deep in the Uruguayan countryside. However, the majority of the country's population (approximately 80%) live in urban areas, mostly in Montevideo.
An abandoned bus sits alongside route 5 between Tacuarembo with Montevideo. The national route, passing clear across the country, is one of the most important highways for the meat economy in Uruguay.
V. (41) works in a small rural bakery near Tacuarembo. She is proud of her daughter who works for an International Company. "Luckly, my daughter will be able to travel around the world, discovering places and beauty, far from this rural reality!" she said.
Robert Da Silva is a Gaucho, storyteller and researcher on rural education. He started to study Uruguayan traditions and rural anthropology after 30 years as Gaucho, working with cattle and horses. With the help of his friend and anthropologist Mr. Diaz, Robert wrote two books on rural legends and traditions. Nowadays he is a trainer in several "Escuelas rurales," or rural schools.
Carlos, a mechanic, poses with his sons for a portrait in Tacuarembo. Of African descent, his roots in Uruguay trace back to the slave trade. In the late 18th century, Montevideo became a major arrival port for slaves, mostly bound for Spanish colonies, like the endless fields of Uruguay.
Uruguayan anthropologist Walter Diaz (66) drinks YerbaMate and takes a rest with Don Ulisse Gonzalez (80), an old gaucho. Mr. Diaz works on a rural education development and training program with the Uruguayan "Escuelas Rurales" (rural schools).
A closed "quilombo" or "prostibulo" alongside route 5 to Tacuarembo. "Quilombo" originally meant "brothel" in Lunfardo, a form of slang popularized by criminals in the early 20th century. Prostitution in Uruguay is legal for persons over the age of 18. It is commonly practiced in major cities, tourist resorts and rural communities.
Argentina, 57, works in a kiosk at a bus stop. She lives in a rural village near Tacuarembo, the heart of Uruguay, with her husband. Her daughter (15) "is a good student with big dreams," she said. "She's got dreams too big for this small village where people live with cattle and horses, hoping to sell the land to some land grabber, a soy company for instance, and move to the capital." She added, "I voted Mujica hoping for a better future for my daughter."
Night falls in downtown Montevideo.
Barra de Valizas, Uruguay
Barra de Valizas, known as Valizas by locals, is located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the Rocha Department of southeastern Uruguay. Well renowned for its beaches, Valizas has attracted trendy surfers and vacation seekers that are slowly changing the lifestyle here from a rustic one to one defined by tourism and the habits of the global leisure class.
Cabo Polonio, Uruguay
People ride on horseback down the beach from Valizas to Cabo Polonio, a remote and completely sustainable village between the Atlantic and a desert landscape of shifting sand dunes. The village is a bohemian outpost just south of the Brazilian border, where squatters have been developing a "green-village" without electricity or running water since the 60s.
Tourists relax in the "green-village" at Cabo Polonio.
Editor's Picks 22 August 2013
By Editor's Picks
Salt of the earth 025
Nuodeng, China, Yunnan
By David Tacon
Huang Jingfei, 35, gathers corn husks on the upper level of his home as feed for his mules. Huang's family has lived in Nuodeng for 22 generations.
A local man repairs a rein worn by mules in the thousand year old Nuodeng, once known as China's wealthiest village through its trade of salt. Mules are still used to transport heavy loads over the village's steep and narrow stone paths.
A view from the hills above Nuodeng, once known as China's wealthiest village through its trade of salt. Today, salt-cured Nuodeng ham, which was traded all the way to India on the southern silk road, is major source of income for the town, along with tourism. Demand for Nuodeng ham leapt seventeen fold in a week after the village was featured in the hit television series 'Taste of China,' produced by China Central Television.
Ayi Huang prepares a meal in her kitchen using bits of precious Nuodeng ham.
A young girl, a member of the Huang salt merchant family plays near a barn close to the Huang's ancestral compound. The Huang family has lived in Nuodeng for more than 20 generations, although this child's parents have left the village as migrant workers to better provide for them.
Chopped Nuodeng ham in Ayi Huang's kitchen. Today, salt-cured Nuodeng ham, which was traded all the way to India on the southern silk road, is major source of income for the town, along with tourism.
A young girl, a member of the Huang salt merchant family near the Huang's ancestral compound.
A young girl, a member of the Huang salt merchant family plays with a puppy in front of the Huang's ancestral compound. The Huang family has lived in Nuodeng for more than 20 generations, although these children's parents have left the village as migrant workers to better provide for them.
Young members of the Huang salt merchant family play with puppies in front of the Huang's ancestral compound. The Huang family has lived in Nuodeng for more than 20 generations, although these children's parents have left the village as migrant workers to better provide for them. Nuodeng was known as China's wealthiest village through its trade of salt.
Urban Poverty
By U.S. Editor
n Pakistan, a nation of 160 million people, 34% of its population lives below the poverty line. This estimate is much higher than the official government figure of 24%, but precious little seems to have been done to address the issue.
This problem is directly linked to the country tax structure, with the majority of the revenues going into coffers of federal and provincial government, forcing the local bodies dealing directly with the poverty to plead with these authorities for more money. The debate over this issue has been ongoing for years.
Broom makers of Manito, Albay (1 of 16)
Manito, Albay, Philippines
By Sherbien Dacalanio
A woman weaving broomcorn grasses.
Broomcom (Sorghum Vulgare) is a variety of upright grass mostly found on the mountainous area of Manito, Albay. One of the major livelihood of people in this far flung area is making soft broom and they sell each broom from 20 pesos to 150 pesos.
Manito, Albay is around 15 hours away from Manila, capital of Philippines.
Mopti, Mali (1 of 3)
Mopti, Mali.
By George Henton
Image from Mopti, Mali, taken during the ongoing conflict in West Africa.
Rural Life in Al-Raqqa
Raqqa, Syria
By TTM Contributor 3
This is a picture of life in the rural countryside of Raqqa.
Education in Rural Uganda (7 of 14)
Bombo, Uganda
By Leyland Cecco
The rich red dirt paths that link the small village leave their mark on the children. More than 90% of Ugandans live in a rural area, with attendance rates in these areas lower than in urban hubs.
Like all other teachers in Young Cranes Primary School, Moreen Nakiboneka teaches in English, a historical nod to Uganda's colonial past. She is a recent graduate from university, and confided that while she loves teaching, the pay, only $150 a month, isn't enough for her to make ends meet. She does, however, command the respect of the village elders and her students.
Early in the morning, Nico, Teo, Tina, Nakato and Eva of Conde Hill Orphanage run to school. Many have lost family because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Uganda. Teo and Tina, for example, are 8 year-old twin girls who were homeless for two years after losing their family to HIV/AIDS. Conde Hill founder Gideon Mubiru, who lost 37 of his 39 siblings to HIV/AIDS, took them in. Over time Tina had grown to be skeptical of outsiders, so the members of Conde Hill had a tough challenge to overcome. Furthermore, Teo has a mental disability that places her a year behind her sister. Because of support from local charity Gideon Anti-AIDS Foundation (GAAF), these students are given the chance to attend school each day. Slowly, students like Tina and Teo can learn to smile again in the wake of this new educational opportunity. GAFF covers the cost of housing, food and uniforms for the students.
Education in Rural Uganda (13 of 14)
Students take a break between lessons in Young Cranes Primary. While education is universal, fees for meals, supplies and uniforms still place a large financial burden on many families.
Teo (left) and Tina (right) can be playful, but Tina is still very protective of her sister.
Chalk slates are used by many of the students, another symptom of resource shortages. Relative to incomes, notebooks can prove to be costly.
Young Cranes Primary consist of three tin roofed brick building and adjoining thatched straw rooms. As many as 70% percent of rural schools lack adequate classrooms, and lessons are often held outside.
Many of the classrooms are minimally equipped and rely on old, often out of date texts. Teachers are forced to make do with the resource shortage. Moreen Nakiboneka teaches in a classroom illuminated only by the soft rays of light streaming through the windows. She is also one of the lucky teachers. In rural areas, government-run schools often have high student/teacher ratios and many will lack electricity. In some areas, there are as many as 200 students to 1 teacher.


Kiwoyma Not Ready To Play 90 Minutes Yet
Steve says Chelsea youngster has some catching-up to do fitness wise.
Crewe Alexandra boss Steve Davis has revealed that our on-loan winger Alex Kiwoyma is not yet fit enough to complete 90 minutes. The winger lit up the first game of the season at Stevenage when creating the opening goal for Ryan Lowe and then scoring a superb solo goal himself in our 2-1 win.
Kiwoyma, 20, was introduced as a substitute on Tuesday night at Bramall Lane and again had a hand in creating the dramatic equaliser for fellow sub Ryan Lowe. Kiwoyma had to win a header on the edge of the penalty area to keep the pressure on the Sheffield United back-line before it dropped invitingly for the experienced Lowe to convert from close range.
Kiwoyma then completed the extra 30 minutes of extra-time as Crewe progressed to face Blackburn Rovers in round two of the EFL Cup thanks to another smart finish from Lowe.
Steve says that the Chelsea youngster still has some catching up to do in regards to his match fitness after not playing too much in pre-season.
He said: “Alex is not at the same level as the others here because he hasn’t played too much over the pre-season. We tested him on Thursday, on his day off, and he fell short of the standard required at this football club.
“That is to be expected if he hasn’t had the same pre-season as our players and I cannot chuck him in at the moment and give him 90 minutes. He isn’t ready to do that at the moment and we have to be careful with him.
“We don’t want to push him too much because he has just come here and we don’t want him to break down or suffer an injury that will keep him out. We will remain cautious with him and he is making a terrific impact as a substitute.
“What he has done when he has been out on the pitch has been terrific to watch and we know that if we are careful with him then he will eventually be able to play 90 minutes and make a significant contribution to our season.
He added: “He has really explosive pace and has a lot of skill and the fans have already seen what he can offer us.”


The federal government—through the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)—will invest in Canadian innovation that will play a key role in the first-ever global survey of surface water. Kevin Sorenson, minister of state (finance), and MP Michael Chong made the announcement on Aug. 18 on behalf of James Moore, minister of industry.
The Georgetown-based manufacturer Communications and Power Industries Canada Inc. will receive $3.3 million to develop the Extended Interaction Klystron (EIK), a satellite radar component that will generate pulses used to gather surface information. The resulting information could help Canada more efficiently manage water resources, prepare for potential flooding, and help avoid costly damage from flooding or drought.
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will survey 90 per cent of the globe and study the Earth’s lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and oceans. This SWOT data could potentially lead to improvements in water-related services in Canada, including operations at sea and water management systems. The data will also provide measurements for lakes and rivers in Northern Canada where none currently exist.


Carl Hester Talks to Horse Magazine About Euro Champs & Judging
5 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Carl Hester Talks to Horse Magazine About Euro Champs & Judging
Carl Hester talking to Chris Hector The Horse Magazine
/>Interview by Chris Hector
Let’s talk about Nip Tuck – I guess there must have been dozens of horses that you have started that look more glamorous, that move more brilliantly, that never made Grand Prix. How important is what you can’t see, what’s inside?
“Good point, that horse proves it all doesn’t he? I’m 48, coming up 25 years at championship level with different horses, and that one still taught me a great lesson. His owner Jane de la Mare is a really good friend of mine, she was a groom at Dr B’s (Dr Bechtolsheimer, father of Laura and owner of Carl’s Barcelona Olympic ride, Giorgione) when I was a rider there. So this is a good partnership between the three of us. We started at the bottom, Jane and I together. She’s from the Channel Islands too. When I got the horse, Nip Tuck was nothing on the way up, but I always said, ‘I know he will do a Grand Prix’, that’s all I could say…”
How did you know that?
“You know when you ride him. You can ride that horse in a pair of slippers, it just wants to go. You don’t have to ride with a whip or spurs, nothing. The sensitivity is there, and if you touched him with a whip, the horse was like, right, I’m going to piaffe. That was a natural thing for him to do.”
“I said, I think I can teach him everything. Last year, when he got to Grand Prix I said, he’s not going to be good enough. Jane said, oh please do a Grand Prix with him before we sell him. I said, we’ll go down the road where no one goes. We went to a back-of-beyond Grand Prix, and the blooming horse gets 77%. He was as green-as-a-leek. When I came out, I said, I can’t believe it, he was pretty tense last year, he’s a very hot horse, and January / February is not a good time of the year for him because he’s not in the field as much as I’d like. I said that’s unbelievable – the horse is so tense, but he tries his absolute hardest not to make a mistake, he’s doing what I said.”
“Then Jane said, ‘oh please will you do one international’. I went, I’m not doing an international on him, he’s just not good enough! ‘Please before we sell him, do an international’. I said I’ll take him to Saumur, that’s a small one. And of course, he gets 71% at his first international! I thought, maybe I am being a bit hasty here, I’d better settle down and start believing in him. I just changed my mind about him – the biggest thing is that every day I wake up I think I can’t wait to get on that horse. He will go through the Grand Prix in a snaffle and a pair of slippers, it is a very unusual horse. I know physically it is demanding for him, he’s got a long back, his hind legs were naturally always out, he didn’t really have a walk because he was so tight, he didn’t really have a canter because he was so tense and always trying to run off – and his trot had to be developed.”
“Everything that goes in a Grand Prix has helped make him a better horse. Once he learnt a canter pirouette, he started to take the weight back in canter, once he learnt to passage, the trot started to develop because before he had no lift, no nothing. It has just been a great lesson for me and I am delighted that I have been proved wrong, because it helps you in so many ways. It helps you as a trainer, because instead of saying to somebody, oh your horse is not good enough, now I say, well actually I tried this, I tried that, let’s see if we can develop something with your horse. Obviously on a personal level, every horse I get up to this level is a challenge for me, and that’s what I do it for. I love the opportunity to get a horse up to this level.”
“I suppose the best thing about it, at my age, I’ve done so many championships, it is not about winning a medal, I don’t care if I win a gold medal. I would love to, but bearing in mind, Valegro and Nip Tuck work together, I’m looking at one and looking at the other, and there is no point in me thinking, why is she getting that score and I’m getting mine? I know why, you don’t need to be a dressage expert to get it, but I really feel that when the horse does a test like he did in the Special, that horse put as much effort in, as much hard work in his head, as Valegro. So, on the one hand, if somebody hung a little plastic gold medal around my neck yesterday, I’d be like, thanks very much because that horse deserved his gold medal yesterday.”
After Valegro didn’t have the greatest Grand Prix did you give Charlotte one of your famous bollickings?
“You know, I didn’t this time. One good thing happened in that Grand Prix, I don’t think anyone could be critical of Fiona (Bigwood), for where she is now, and where we are with her training, she met our expectations. Brilliant. I missed my flying change at the end of the canter and got a 4, fair enough, quite right. Charlotte didn’t count to six, she counted to seven. Did I lose the Team Gold medal or did she lose the Gold Medal? One of us did, and I think this was not the time to be saying to Charlotte, you caused that, it could have been my score as well, it was that close.”
“Another reason is that I do realize at times, that her confidence, while she is a very brash, forward person, I know deep down, out the back, there’s this whole thing about Aachen, it was like absolutely stifling for her, to the point of I’m not really sure I want to ride. I was thinking we need a bit of reverse psychology here. It’s like, we could have had a gold, but we didn’t think we were going to get a gold, we got a silver and we just have to be happy that seven years on the trot, we’ve won medals.”
She was totally different in the Special?
“Totally, it was like back to the old days. The other thing to remember is that it was ten degrees cooler for the Special than it was for the Grand Prix, and the horse is just not great when it is hot. You’ve stood next to him Chris, you’ve seen his legs, he’s a chunky monkey. When it’s hot, he’s like, stuff it. There’s one thing in his favor, but it does work against him as well, he doesn’t care about crowds and he doesn’t care about arenas. He’s so laid back. Unfortunately you don’t have the lift effect when he goes into the arena. He’s happy, he’s jolly, he’s up for it – even when he’s a bit hot or tired – I know it is not going to make any difference when he goes in, he still feels the same. It’s great for all the relaxation marks, not great when you need him hot and looking like a million dollars. He was getting better in Special.”
I don’t want to drop you into it, but we do have to say, going into Rio, the judging situation is fragile? Marks were all over the place in the Grand Prix and the Special – I don’t think these are evil people, I think they are trying their hardest to do a difficult job, but we do have a problem…
“Yes, we’ve had a problem but the general consensus is that after these championships, it will sort itself out because of what’s happened. On the positive side, two judges finally became brave enough to give marks that no-one thought would ever be given to Totilas. Finally somebody stood up and said, I don’t think this is right, we are going to give the marks it deserves, surely that gives the confidence to the other judges that they’ve really got to start being competent enough to actually give their marks, rather than think, what am I supposed to give? These people have been around for years and of course they are not evil people, they are good people, but I think this championship will make them, and we’ll get it sorted.”
What worries me, if you look at the composition of our judging panels, they are not people who have come from business, where they have to make very fast decisions under pressure, or, none of them comes from a background where they have ridden a top Grand Prix horse…
“It was interesting, Mr Truppa said to me, ‘we judged at Hagen, and did you see the results?’ He said, ‘we were all the same.’ You were all the same? He said, ‘that’s the old group, we are the original group that has been doing it for years.’ That is a problem, on one hand we have to open the judging to the world, take judges from all over the place, every country has trained them up, but there isn’t a culture in so many of these countries of having ridden at an advanced level, of having been immersed in it for years, and I think a lot of people think the panel has to consist of those people that have been in it for a long time, who have the experience to judge alongside each other and have the feeling for it. So the answer is in their own body.”
But we are not going to have a change to the Rio panel, and one of those judges distinguished herself by giving a silver to Andreas Helgstrand, and then distinguished herself by giving an 80 to Totilas here at the Europeans – her reward? Rio.
Carl is chuckling: “Third time lucky, that’s all I can say, and for the sake of the Olympics, let’s hope that is the right one.”
Do you think it would help if they had some sort of instant replay available to them in their box, they could say, I want to see movement 12 again, that wouldn’t be time consuming…
“Great idea, but then they need to wait till the following rider has finished, at the moment the JSP fill that role. They will correct it if it is wrong. You can see on my sheet, they corrected the score, and Charlotte’s.”
Put you up or down?
“Down. Poor Michael Eilberg, his ambition here was a 70%, and you know what, he got 70 in the Grand Prix and they corrected it down to 69 something. He does the Special and gets 70 something, they correct it down, to 69 something. So I know the JSP was in operation.”
How can we have an experienced Ground Jury that can’t see a lame horse? We now have veterinary evidence that the horse was lame from day one, hello, where were the vets?
“Surely it has to start at the trot up. The interesting thing that I found out from this championships, it’s not is the horse lame or sound, it’s is the horse fit to compete. What the hell is the difference there? The horse has to be sound, that is fit to compete. It’s not a question of, it’s slightly off but it’s fit to compete? It can only be is the horse sound? – and that can only start at the top. If they have to have three vets at a trot up, then let’s have them. That’s where it starts.”
“We’ve had to open up the warm ups, they are open now, perhaps the trot up has to be open as well.”
Do you still get an Aachen buzz
“Yes, I do. The interesting thing is that I don’t ride at Aachen very often. I’ve actually been last here, I hold that record. In 2004 on Escapado, that walk of shame, coming out of A, to go back through the entrance and to the stables, is probably one of the longest walks I’ve ever walked, with that damn horse jogging the whole way back, foaming and so over-excited. That was my Olympic preparation. It caused a huge controversy, I heard women in the toilet who were like can you believe they put Carl Hester on the team, grr grr. The selectors were very good to me that year, I said, my horse will be fine if he is able to be in a venue for a couple of weeks. He can’t come to Aachen on a Wednesday and compete on a Thursday, and expect him to be settled. He was just too nervous, he was mostly Thoroughbred that horse. I’ve had that privilege, so Aachen has never been a place where I’ve had a great ride.”
“Then with Charlotte, of course, she started getting the vibe off me, like well let’s not go to Aachen. I don’t mean for the championship but generally. But it is without doubt a great show. This is where the WEG should be all the time. It’s absolutely perfect, people love it. It’s full of buzz and atmosphere, great stabling and surfaces, there is nothing to complain about. As a competitor I’m just glad it went right for me, and right for Charlotte, and our team. Funnily enough I could see it on my face when I finished the Special, it was like, I actually really enjoyed that. No nerves, no nothing, just out there enjoying my ride and in an atmosphere that is appreciative when things go well. There is a buzz still for me.”
This article first appeared in the October 2015 issue of THM.
Georgina Bloomberg Joins Wellington Equestrian Partners
StraightArrow 9 years ago
WELLINGTON, Florida, July 10--Georgina Bloomberg, one of the most recognizable names in horse sports, has joined the Wellington Equestrian Partners. organizers of the world's premier winter circuit of the... Read More


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https://www.gonzaga.edu
Gonzaga University is a private catholic university located in Spokane, WA. Founded in 1887 by Father Joseph Cataldo, SJ, as an academy for local Native Americans, Gonzaga sits on over 150 acres along the Spokane River. The campus features over 105 buildings in a blended (but not contradictory) style of architecture. Spokane, known as the “Lilac City” celebrates the purple shrub with a Lilac Festival each May. It is a sister city to Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan and celebrates ‘Japan Week’ annually. The region is tech-savvy and forward-thinking in its economic base (clean/green energy and technology) having transitioned from traditional manufacturing and trade. Among its distinguished alumni, Gonzaga was the alma mater of Bing Crosby.
Gonzaga University is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities and offers Bachelor’s degrees, Master’s degrees and Doctorates in 92 fields of study. The university is comprised of seven colleges, the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Business Administration, School of Education, School of Engineering & Applied Science, School of Law, School of Nursing and Human Physiology, and the School of Professional Studies. Gonzaga has received special recognition for its Nursing, Nursing Anesthesia, English Language, Teacher Ed, Music programs and the Law School; the largest programs are in Business (Commerce) and Engineering. Gonzaga’s Mission statement declares that it “… educates students for lives of leadership and service for the common good. In keeping with its Catholic, Jesuit, and humanistic heritage and identity, Gonzaga models and expects excellence in academic and professional pursuits and intentionally develops the whole person — intellectually, spiritually, physically, and emotionally. Through engagement with knowledge, wisdom, and questions informed by classical and contemporary perspectives, Gonzaga cultivates in its students the capacities and dispositions for reflective and critical thought, lifelong learning, spiritual growth, ethical discernment, creativity, and innovation.”
The 7,000 students at Gonzaga occupy the 16 residence halls and apartments on (and off) campus; some of the living quarters include specific themes. There are also over 150 clubs to add to the campus experience and Intramural sports to add to the academic experience. The red & blue Gonzaga Bulldogs participate in 8 sports in the NCAA Division I-AAA; their mascot, Spike the Bulldog, has enjoyed the men’s basketball success in the March Madness tournament over the past several years! Traditions include an annual luau hosted by the Hawaii Pacific Islanders Club and the residence halls welcome children from the local community to “Trick or Treat” every Halloween. Throughout the time spent at the university, students are exposed to the core values of the school: Knowledge (including: Thinking; Communicating; Quantifying; Problem Solving; Specializing; Integrating and Imagining); Habits of mind and heart (including: Reflection; Ethical reasoning and action; Civic, cultural and intercultural engagement; A commitment to a just society and world and the courage to act justly; A commitment to developing one’s mind, body, and spirit)and A thoughtful, evolving spirituality (including: Discerning one’s faith and vocation; Engaging with the personal challenges of formation and transformation; Becoming women and men with and for others).
School of Nursing and Human Physiology
Rankings that feature Gonzaga University
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