The E-mail Negotiation, the “Unauthorized Practice of Law” and the Private Admonition
This post examines an opinion from the Supreme Court of Minnesota, sitting in its capacity as the institution that is responsible for enforcing the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct, which you can access here. In re Charges of Unprofessional Conduct in Panel File No. 39302, 2016 WL 4536594 (2016) (per curiam) (hereinafter, “In re Charges, supra”). The Supreme Court does not, either in the title of the opinion or in its text, identify the lawyer at issue by name, which is not uncommon. In re Charges, supra.
The Court begins the opinion by explaining that the
Director of the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility (the Director) issued a private admonition to appellant for engaging in the unauthorized practice of law in Minnesota. Appellant demanded that the Director present the charge to a Panel of the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board (the Panel). Following an evidentiary hearing, the Panel affirmed the Director's admonition, finding that appellant had engaged in the unauthorized practice of law in Minnesota, in violation of Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 5.5(a), and that the misconduct was isolated and non-serious. Appellant filed a notice of appeal, contesting the Panel's determination that his conduct violated Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 5.5. See Rule 9(m), Rules on Lawyers Professional Responsibility. (RLPR).
We hold that engaging in e-mail communications with people in Minnesota may constitute the unauthorized practice of law in Minnesota, in violation of Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 5.5(a), even if the lawyer is not physically present in Minnesota. The Panel's finding that appellant engaged in the unauthorized practice of law in Minnesota, in violation of Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 5.5(a), was not clearly erroneous. Appellant represented a Minnesota couple with respect to a Minnesota judgment and attempted to negotiate, via e-mail, the satisfaction of that judgment with a Minnesota lawyer, and was not authorized to practice law in Minnesota temporarily. . . .
In re Charges, supra. You can access the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct here.
The opinion goes on to explain that
[a]ppellant is an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of Colorado, where he maintains an office and has been practicing environmental law since 1986. He has also practiced personal injury law for approximately 7 years. Part of his litigation practice includes debt collection. Appellant is admitted to practice law in New York, Florida, and Alaska, but is currently on inactive status in those states. Appellant is also admitted to practice in federal court in the District of Colorado, the District of Alaska, the Southern and Western Districts of New York, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth and Tenth Circuits. Appellant is not licensed to practice law in Minnesota.
In re Charges, supra.
The opinion then goes on to outline the facts involved in this proceeding:
Appellant's mother- and father-in-law live in Minnesota. They contacted appellant in May 2014 to obtain assistance regarding a judgment entered against them in conciliation court in Minnesota for $2,368.13 in favor of their condominium association, Voyager Condominium Homeowners' Association, Inc. (VCHA). The couple told appellant that VCHA's attorney, D.R., a Minnesota-based lawyer and the complainant in this case, was harassing them with telephone calls attempting to collect on the judgment. The couple asked appellant for his assistance in negotiating with D.R. regarding payment of the outstanding judgment.
Appellant sent an e-mail to D.R. in late May 2014, informing D.R. that he was representing his in-laws and instructing D.R. to direct all future communications to him instead. Appellant and D.R. exchanged approximately two dozen e-mails between May 2014 and September 2014. In his first responsive e-mail to appellant, D.R. asked whether appellant was licensed to practice law in Minnesota. Appellant replied that he was not licensed in Minnesota and that if he needed to file suit in Minnesota he would hire local counsel. The subsequent e-mails consisted of discussions regarding the in-laws' assets and ability to pay and whether the VCHA judgment would have priority in a foreclosure sale. Appellant attached financial disclosure forms to one of his e-mails and made a settlement offer.
In the penultimate e-mail exchange between the two attorneys, D.R. asserted that appellant was engaging in the unauthorized practice of law because he was not licensed in Minnesota. The final e-mail prior to D.R. filing an ethics complaint was a settlement proposal from appellant to D.R. on that same day. The Director received D.R.'s ethics complaint in October 2014. Approximately 2 months after filing the complaint, D.R. sent additional e-mails to appellant to determine whether the settlement offer was still available and whether appellant still represented his in-laws. Appellant did not respond to the subsequent e-mails and had no further involvement in the case.
In re Charges, supra. The opinion then goes on to explain that
[n]othing in the record shows that appellant researched whether his activities constituted the unauthorized practice of law under the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct. When asked by the Panel at the evidentiary hearing whether he researched the rules in Minnesota, appellant said that he did not recall. Appellant admitted that he had not researched Minnesota law on foreclosure and how it would apply to his in-laws' case. Appellant also admitted that when he considered the relevant law and the rules of professional conduct, he was more familiar with the laws and rules in Colorado.
The Panel affirmed the Director's admonition, finding that clear and convincing evidence demonstrated a violation of Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 5.5(a). See Rule 9(j)(1)(iii), RLPR. The Panel found that appellant `is not licensed in Minnesota. . . .He is licensed in Colorado.... He was—although maybe not paid, he certainly has held out the fact that he represented clients, which regardless of whether they're related or not, he did represent them, admitted to representing them in a purely Minnesota case.’
Pursuant to Rule 9(m), RLPR, appellant appealed the admonition to this court. Specifically, appellant challenges the Panel's determinations that he violated Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 5.5(a) and that his conduct did not fall within one of the exceptions in Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 5.5(c). We address each issue in turn.
The Supreme Court went on to explain that
[w]e turn first to appellant's claim regarding Rule 5.5(a). It states, in relevant part, that `[a] lawyer shall not practice law in a jurisdiction in violation of the regulation of the legal profession in that jurisdiction. . . .’ Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 5.5(a).
Appellant contends that he did not violate Rule 5.5(a) because he did not practice law in Minnesota. According to appellant, a lawyer practices in a jurisdiction in one of three ways: (1) by being physically present in the jurisdiction; (2) by establishing an office or other systematic and continuous presence in the jurisdiction; or (3) by entering an appearance in a matter through the filing of documents with a tribunal. Appellant argues that e-mail communication directed to a jurisdiction in which the lawyer is not admitted to practice does not fall within the definition of practicing law in a jurisdiction, and thus the Panel erred in its determination that he violated Rule 5.5(a).
In re Charges, supra (emphases in the original).
The Supreme Court also explained that
[w]e review findings made in lawyer discipline cases under a clearly erroneous standard. In re Panel Case No. 23236, 728 N.W.2d 254, 257–58 (Minnesota Supreme Court 2007). We `will uphold the panel's factual findings if they have evidentiary support in the record and are not clearly erroneous.’ In re Mose, 754 N.W.2d 357, 360 (Minnesota Supreme Court 2008) (citing In re Singer, 735 N.W.2d 698, 703 (Minn.2007)).
Appellant concedes for the purpose of this appeal that he engaged in the practice of law, albeit in Colorado. Such a concession is consistent with our prior cases holding that negotiating the resolution of a claim on behalf of a client constitutes the practice of law. See In re Ray, 610 N.W.2d 342, 343, 346 (Minnesota Supreme Court 2000) (upholding the referee's finding that the attorney engaged in the unauthorized practice of law by negotiating with the county attorney on behalf of a client while the attorney was subject to a disciplinary suspension); In re Ray, 452 N.W.2d 689, 693 (Minnesota Supreme Court 1990) (holding that `the record support[ed] the referee's conclusion’ that the attorney engaged in the unauthorized practice of law by attempting to negotiate settlements for two clients).
Appellant maintains, however, that an attorney does not practice law in another jurisdiction merely by engaging in e-mail communications with individuals in that jurisdiction. Whether an attorney engages in the practice of law in Minnesota by sending e-mails from jurisdiction is a matter of first impression.
In re Charges, supra (emphasis in the original).
Next, the Supreme Court explained that
Rule 5.5(a) of the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct does not explicitly define what it means to practice law in a jurisdiction. Certainly, physical presence is one way to practice law in a jurisdiction. But, as we set forth below, it is not the only way.
The court went on to explain that
[o]ther courts have addressed the issue of whether an attorney practices law in a jurisdiction even though the attorney was not physically present in that jurisdiction. In Birbrower, Montalbano, Condon & Frank, P.C. v. Superior Court, 17 Cal.4th 119, 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 304, 949 P.2d 1, 5–6 (1998), the California Supreme Court analyzed what constituted the practice of law in a jurisdiction by looking at the nature of the legal representation in the jurisdiction, instead of focusing solely on physical presence. In determining what it means to practice law in California, the court considered whether the lawyer had `sufficient contact with the California client to render the nature of the legal services a clear legal representation’ and whether the lawyers' contact with California was merely `fortuitous or attenuated.’ Id., 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 304, 949 P.2d at 5. The court determined that a lawyer `may practice law in the state . . . although not physically present here by advising a California client on California law in connection with a California legal dispute by telephone, fax, computer, or other modern technological means.’ Id., 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 304, 949 P.2d at 5–6; see also In re Babies, 315 B.R. 785, 791–93 (Bankr.N.D.Ga.2004) (concluding that attorneys who were physically present in Illinois practiced law in Georgia by representing Georgia clients with respect to a bankruptcy, preparing documents related to that bankruptcy, and communicating with these clients via the telephone and mail).
The reasoning in Birbrower is persuasive. Based on that reasoning, we conclude that the Panel did not clearly err by finding that appellant practiced law in Minnesota, in violation of Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 5.5(a). Appellant contacted D.R., a Minnesota lawyer, and stated that he represented Minnesota clients in a Minnesota legal dispute. This legal dispute was not interjurisdictional; instead, it involved only Minnesota residents and a debt arising from a judgment entered by a Minnesota court. Appellant instructed D.R. to refer all future correspondence to him, and he continued to engage in correspondence and negotiations with D.R. over the course of several months. Appellant requested and received financial documents from his Minnesota clients and advised them on their legal options. By multiple e-mails sent over several months, appellant advised Minnesota clients on Minnesota law in connection with a Minnesota legal dispute and attempted to negotiate a resolution of that dispute with a Minnesota attorney. Appellant had a clear, ongoing attorney-client relationship with his Minnesota clients, and his contacts with Minnesota were not fortuitous or attenuated. Thus, there is ample support for the Panel's finding that appellant practiced law in Minnesota.
The court then took up the
appellant's claim that even if the Panel did not err in determining that he was practicing law in Minnesota in violation of Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 5.5(a), his conduct was permitted under one of the exceptions in Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 5.5(c). Appellant argues that Rule 5.5(c)(2) authorized his conduct because he reasonably believed that he would be able to associate with local counsel and be admitted pro hac vice if necessary. Appellant further claims that Rule 5.5(c)(4) authorized his conduct because his in-laws reached out to him for assistance on a matter within his expertise; thus the matter `arose out of [Appellant's] law practice.’
It explained that
Rule 5.5(c) permits an attorney to practice temporarily in a jurisdiction in which the attorney is not admitted. It states:
A lawyer admitted in another United States jurisdiction, and not disbarred or suspended from practice in any jurisdiction, may provide legal services on a temporary basis in this jurisdiction which: . . .
(2) are in or reasonably related to a pending or potential proceeding before a tribunal in this or another jurisdiction, if the lawyer, or a person the lawyer is assisting, is authorized by law or order to appear in the proceeding or reasonably expects to be so authorized; . . . . or
(4) are not within paragraphs (c)(2) or (c)(3) and arise out of or are reasonably related to the lawyer's practice in a jurisdiction in which the lawyer is admitted to practice.
Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 5.5(c).
The Supreme Court then began its analysis of this argument, explaining that under
Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct 5.5(c)(2), a lawyer admitted in another jurisdiction may provide legal services in Minnesota on a temporary basis if the lawyer's services are reasonably related to a pending or potential proceeding before a tribunal and the lawyer reasonably expects to be authorized by law to appear in the proceeding. Comment 10 explains that a lawyer rendering services in Minnesota on a temporary basis is permitted to engage in conduct in anticipation of a proceeding or hearing in which the lawyer reasonably expects to be admitted pro hac vice. Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 5.5(c)(2) cmt. 10.
Appellant suggests that there was a potential proceeding that could be brought on behalf of his in-laws. Because of this belief, appellant contends Rule 5.5(c)(2) protects him. The Director persuasively argues that appellant knew further litigation was unlikely because a court had already decided the underlying case involving his in-laws, and appellant was simply negotiating a potential debt resolution. In addition, Rule 5.5(c)(2), by its plain language, requires more than an attorney's speculation that the attorney can find local counsel and be admitted to practice pro hac vice. Appellant's e-mail correspondence does not indicate that he took steps to secure local counsel or investigate the possibility of pro hac vice admission. Thus, we conclude there is no support for appellant's claim that his conduct was authorized by Rule 5.5(c)(2).
The court then took up the lawyer’s final argument, i.e., that
there was a potential proceeding that could be brought on behalf of his in-laws. Because of this belief, appellant contends Rule 5.5(c)(2) protects him. The Director persuasively argues that appellant knew further litigation was unlikely because a court had already decided the underlying case involving his in-laws, and appellant was simply negotiating a potential debt resolution. In addition, Rule 5.5(c)(2), by its plain language, requires more than an attorney's speculation that the attorney can find local counsel and be admitted to practice pro hac vice. Appellant's e-mail correspondence does not indicate that he took steps to secure local counsel or investigate the possibility of pro hac vice admission. Thus, we conclude there is no support for appellant's claim that his conduct was authorized by Rule 5.5(c)(2).
Under Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct 5.5(c)(4), a lawyer admitted in another jurisdiction may provide legal services in Minnesota on a temporary basis if the lawyer's services are not covered by paragraphs (c)(2) and (c)(3) and `arise out of or are reasonably related to the lawyer's practice in a jurisdiction in which the lawyer is admitted to practice.’ Appellant contends that his services arose out of or were reasonably related to his practice in Colorado because the clients are his relatives who `reached out to him for assistance’ and appellant's environmental and personal-injury practice involves debt collection.
Comment 14 of Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct 5.5 provides guidance on this issue. Specifically, comment 14 instructs that several factors may demonstrate that an attorney's temporary legal services in Minnesota reasonably relate to the lawyer's practice in a jurisdiction in which the lawyer is admitted to practice (“lawyer's home jurisdiction”), including: whether the client is a resident of or has substantial contacts with the lawyer's home jurisdiction; whether the client has previously been represented by the lawyer; whether a significant aspect of the matter involves the law of the lawyer's home jurisdiction; whether the client's activities or the legal issues involve multiple jurisdictions; or whether the services `draw on the lawyer's recognized expertise developed through the regular practice of law on behalf of clients in matters involving a particular body of federal, nationally-uniform, foreign, or international law.’ Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 5.5 cmt. 14. . . .
The Supreme Court found, though, that the
legal services appellant provided to his in-laws were unrelated to his environmental and personal-injury practice in Colorado. The record establishes that appellant was involved in litigation in Colorado state court, including eight trials in the past 7 years in which collection issues arose, and that appellant negotiated the resolution of a debt with an out-of-state creditor on behalf of several Colorado residents. Although Rule 5.5(c) may permit appellant to negotiate with a Colorado client's out-of-state creditor because this representation is reasonably related to appellant's Colorado practice, the facts of this case are substantially different. Appellant's in-laws are not Colorado residents, and appellant had no prior attorney-client relationship with them.
Moreover, appellant's representation of his in-laws did not `arise out of’ or `reasonably relate’ to his practice in Colorado simply because his in-laws contacted him in Colorado or appellant has done collections work in Colorado. As the Director notes, appellant's in-laws were not long-standing clients; nor was there any connection between the in-laws' case and the state or laws of Colorado. And while appellant's Colorado practice may involve judgment collections work, nothing in the record establishes that this work was based on a body of federal or nationally uniform law. To the contrary, appellant's clients were Minnesota residents with a debt that arose in Minnesota that they owed to a Minnesota resident and that was governed by Minnesota law. Accordingly, Rule 5.5(c)(4) does not apply to appellant's conduct.
Next, the Court explained that it needed to decide on
the appropriate discipline for appellant's misconduct. We give great weight to the recommendations of the Panel, but we have `the final responsibility for determining appropriate discipline for violations of the rules of professional conduct’. Panel Case No. 23236, 728 N.W.2d at 258. We do not impose sanctions in attorney-discipline cases as punishment, but rather we impose sanctions `to protect the public, to protect the judicial system, and to deter future misconduct by the disciplined attorney [and] other attorneys.’ In re Rebeau, 787 N.W.2d 168, 173 (Minn.2010). We impose sanctions according to the unique facts of each case, and `when considering appropriate sanctions for misconduct, we weigh the following factors: (1) the nature of the misconduct, (2) the cumulative weight of the disciplinary violations, (3) the harm to the public, and (4) the harm to the legal profession.’ Panel Case No. 23236, 728 N.W.2d at 258 (citation omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted).
The Court therefore found that the
nature of the misconduct in this case is non-serious. Appellant wrongly believed that he could negotiate a settlement in Minnesota without being licensed to practice law in the state. The cumulative weight of the misconduct is also minimal. Appellant engaged in a series of e-mail communications with one attorney in a single matter involving appellant's family members. In addition, the only harm appellant's clients suffered was a delay in the resolution of their debt because of appellant's actions. Accordingly, a private admonition is the appropriate discipline for appellant.
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Craig Sager Net Worth:
Craig Sager's Salary
Craig Sager net worth and salary: Craig Sager was an American sportscaster and sideline reporter who had a net worth of $9.5 million. Craig Sager earned his net worth as a sportscaster for TNT and TBS. He also covered sports for both CBS and CNN. Sager was born in Batavia, Illinois, and graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in speech.
Before working for CBS, he began his broadcast career in 1972 at WXLT in Sarasota, Florida. He joined CNN in 1981 after handling the network's first live remote report from the 1980 baseball playoffs. Sager was the co-anchor of the network's show, CNN Sports Tonight and was honored with a CableAce award in 1985. He also served as the anchor of College Football Scoreboard from 1982-1985. In the 90's he joined Turner sports and worked primarily as a sideline reporter for The NBA on TNT. In addition to basketball he also covered the 1992 Winter Olympics, Nordic skiing, curling, golf, tennis, and amateur sports. He is known for his distinctive clothing style, and commonly wears velvet suits, colorful ties, Nehru jackets, and other bizarre articles of clothing out on the field. He and his wife Stacy, a former NBA Chicago Bulls dancer, have two children, Riley and Ryan. He also has three children from a previous marriage, including his son, Craig, Jr who is a walk-on wide receiver at the University of Georgia. Sager is currently battling acute myeloid leukemia and during the basketball coverage on 4/20/2014, all coaches with games on that day gave "get well" messages to Sager between quarters. His son, Craig Jr. did the sideline interview with San Antonio Spurs Coach, Greg Popovich, between the third and fourth quarters to air a special "get well" message to his father. The NBA on TNT crew also paid a special tribute to Sager by wearing suits similar to his suits from the past.
Unfortunately, Craig Sager died on December 15, 2016 at the age of 65.
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OnlyInYourState Unveils the Ultimate Wanderlust Travel Guide with the Launch of its ‘22 Hidden Gems Across the U.S. to Visit in 2022’ List
The #4 Top Travel Information Site Highlights Little-Known Attractions and Natural Wonders in This Year’s Guide
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 05, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Travel digital media brand, OnlyInYourState, today released its 22 Hidden Gems Across the U.S. to Visit in 2022 list. The sophomore list focuses on the great outdoors, featuring little-known attractions, beautiful gardens and natural wonders. First debuted in 2021, OnlyInYourState’s annual Hidden Gems list is meant to provide inspiration for travel lovers looking to discover something new -- whether it’s for a bucket list vacation or a day trip to an off-the-beaten-path attraction.
The 22 Hidden Gems list is organized by region -- northeast, south, midwest, southwest, and northwest. Some highlights from the 22 Hidden Gems Across the U.S. to Visit in 2022 list include: Bok Tower Gardens in Florida, the Desert of Maine, Lake of The Clouds in Michigan, Sloan Canyon Petroglyph Site in Nevada, Burgdorf Hot Springs in Idaho, and Ape Cave in Washington. The annual Hidden Gems list is hand-picked by OnlyInYourState’s expert travel editors and local and regional writers.
“We’ve heard from our readers that they are hoping to spend more time outdoors, so for this year’s Hidden Gems list, we wanted to focus on the incredible natural beauty of the country,” said Alaina Nutile of OnlyInYourState. “Our mission is to provide travelers with the opportunity to discover something new while shining a spotlight on the extraordinary attractions and wonders that might otherwise be overlooked. Our list of 22 Hidden Gems Across the U.S. to Visit in 2022 is sure to inspire readers to get outside and reconnect with nature.”
OnlyInYourState takes a fun, informal approach to travel articles to help readers discover unique things to do in each of the 50 states. To learn more, please visit https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/.
About OnlyInYourState:
Founded in 2015, OnlyInYourState features over 100,000 articles highlighting the off-the-beaten-path attractions and unique natural wonders of each of the country’s 50 distinctive states. The brand’s unique, highly-curated editorial content reaches millions of passionate readers every month and has brought attention to hidden gems, little-known attractions, natural wonders and small and large businesses across the nation. OnlyInYourState is operated by Leaf Group Ltd. For more information, visit https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/.
About Leaf Group
Leaf Group Ltd. is a diversified consumer internet company that builds enduring, creator-driven brands that reach passionate audiences in large and growing lifestyle categories, including fitness & wellness (Well+Good, Livestrong.com and MyPlate App), and home, art & design (Saatchi Art, Society6 and Hunker). Leaf Group is a subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC). For more information about Leaf Group, visit www.leafgroup.com.
Sharna Daduk
VP, Communications
sharna.daduk@leafgroup.com


Sailing-Switzerland’s Alinghi ropes in Red Bull for America’s Cup
By Alexander Smith
Crew member of America's Cup defender Alinghi 5 of Switzerland work in the boat as they wait for the start of Race 1 at the 33rd America's Cup off the coast of Valencia
(Reuters) – Red Bull has teamed up with Swiss sailing syndicate Alinghi to challenge for the America’s Cup, marking the second such Formula One deal after INEOS Britannia joined forces with Mercedes.
As America’s Cup yachts have evolved into high-speed, “foiling” machines which “fly” above the water on hydrofoils, the adrenaline fuelled sport has increasingly been referred to as Formula One on water and is now using much of the same technology and design, as well as attracting its cash.
Alinghi, founded by billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli, won the America’s Cup in 2003 and 2007 but have not competed for the oldest trophy in international sport in over a decade. Holders Emirates Team New Zealand have already been challenged by Ben Ainslie’s INEOS Britannia and others are expected to follow.
Alinghi Red Bull Racing will represent the Societe Nautique de Geneve yacht club in its challenge for the 37th America’s Cup, which is due to be held in 2024, the new team said in a statement which coincided with a launch event in Geneva.
Despite being land-locked, Switzerland has attracted top talent since Bertarelli set his sights on sailing’s most coveted prize, as well as spawning a generation of home-grown stars.
“We want for this challenge to do something totally different, totally new, totally fresh,” Bertarelli said, describing Red Bull, which has been a rival in events such as the GC32 and Extreme Sailing, as providing the “wings”.
A core crew led by Alinghi’s GC32 co-skipper Arnaud Psarofaghis will begin training to prepare “a 100% Swiss Made crew”, the team said on Tuesday.
Red Bull Racing principal Christian Horner said Red Bull Advanced Technologies would share experiences and engineering tips with Alinghi Red Bull Racing in a “two-way cooperation”.
For Alinghi’s Brad Butterworth, a four-time winner of the America’s Cup, the Red Bull partnership marks a new chapter.
“The America’s Cup is a technology race which is won on the water with race strategy and tactics. Red Bull has demonstrated that time and time again in F1 and in many of the other sports it competes in,” Butterworth said.
(Reporting by Alexander Smith; Editing by Toby Davis)
Sailing – 36th America’s Cup
The INEOS and Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team logos are pictured at the launch of the INEOS Britannia America’s Cup challenge in Brackley


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Why You Need an Open Source Software Strategy
April 16, 2021 By Pranay Ahlawat, Johannes Boyne, Dominik Herz, Florian Schmieg, and Michael Stephan
Developing and deploying open source software is no longer just a novel idea. It’s a strategic necessity in a fast-changing digital world. Among the facts to know:
• The open source community uses a collaborative approach to software development, which helps drive innovation. It’s not an accident that the latest technologies, such as AI and ML, run on open source software.
• As open source software’s business use grows, the biggest risk is that no entity will bear the liability for adverse consequences.
Learn more about open source software here.
When a movement becomes mainstream, managing it demands a strategy. In August 1991, Linus Torvalds, then a 21-year-old student of computer science at the University of Helsinki, casually announced through a Usenet posting: “I'm doing a free operating system, just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like GNU….” As it happened, his hobby resulted in the development of the world’s first free operating system, the Linux kernel, and kickstarted the open source software movement. Exactly three decades later, “open” has become one of the major ways in which software is developed. Companies use open source software extensively, and it’s increasingly shaping enterprise software architectures. Developing and deploying open source software is no longer just a novel idea. It’s a strategic necessity in a fast-changing digital world.
There’s no way around open source software, which can be defined as software that developers can inspect, copy, modify, and redistribute. Proprietary software-providers still dominate the market, but open source software plays an equally important role. For instance, open source Linux powered 75% of the public cloud workload in 2020, and its share is expected to rise to 85% by 2024. Some of the most popular software development stacks – such as the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) and MEAN (MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, and Node.js) stacks – are open source software. Last year, around 85% of the world’s smartphones ran on Android, the open source operating system built on the open Linux kernel (See Exhibit 1.) Unsurprisingly, the ability to work with open source software is fast becoming a requirement for all software.
Business use of open source software is soaring. As many as 80% of IT departments plan to increase their use of open source software over the next 12 months, with 95% of IT specialists agreeing that open source has become strategically important (See Sidebar 1.) Software developers and data analysts, the driving forces of digital transformations, rely heavily on the open source community. They often prefer to use open source software, especially as a foundation, because the software selection and screening process is simple and lengthy negotiations are unlikely. That choice therefore allows the rapid roll-out and adoption of innovative applications. In addition to improving the speed to market, using open source software also prevents vendor lock-in and, obviously, reduces costs.
The Future Software Stack Will Increasingly Be Open
Open source software will continue to be popular in the future, with the innovation cycle only reinforcing its status. As open core firms and the community fuel innovation, open source software is likely to play a foundational role in many layers of the enterprise software stack, from operating systems and programming languages to middleware and development tools. (See Exhibit 2.)
Most supercomputers today use an operating system that is based on Linux. It’s stable, inexpensive, and – importantly – modifiable, unlike a proprietary system such as Windows. As a result, it’s easy to create a kernel with only the most essential code, eliminating everything that isn’t vital to improve performance.
Linux is used as an operating system by all kinds of hardware such as servers, desktops, and smartphones for the same reasons, and its share is growing. For instance, Linux’s share of server installations has risen from 68% in 2017 to 75% in 2020. Data management too has gone open source, with firms such as HashiCorp, GitLab, Datadog, Elastic, Confluent, and Databricks entering the market.
Open source software has gained traction in new technologies such as containers and container-orchestration platforms. Along with other technologies, such as Mesos and Docker Swarm, Kubernetes has emerged as one of the standards for container management. It orchestrates over 50% of all the containers in the world, and its share is projected to rise to 85% by 2024.
Smart companies have started identifying the best emerging open source technology for each layer of the enterprise stack—such as Spark for analytics, Kafka for messaging and streaming, PyTorch and TensorFlow for AI.
Smart companies have started identifying the best emerging open source technology for each layer of the enterprise stack – such as Spark for analytics, Kafka for messaging and streaming, PyTorch and TensorFlow for AI, and so on. As a result, closed source stacks are facing a lot of competition, and they have to be the best in class at every layer in order to stand a chance of being chosen.
Software tools, such as those for DevSecOps, are witnessing a similar trend, with source code repositories like Git, library frameworks such as React, and backend application frameworks like Spring edging out proprietary software because of the traction they enjoy with developers. Open source software’s success will trigger a virtuous cycle, with more projects springing up, which will attract more developers, and the use of open source software becoming even more pervasive.
Moreover, companies are learning to tap into the open source community for talent and to upskill themselves. Some have gone beyond reluctantly accepting the use of open source software to encouraging participation by their employees in open projects. CIOs and CTOs are waking up to the fact that they have to rethink their approach and prioritize the development of open source software in order to get ahead of rivals. They’re increasingly wondering: Do we have an open source software strategy for the 2020s?
The Rise... and Rise... of Open Source Software
Open source software differs from proprietary software in several ways. Unlike proprietary software, for which business must pay, open source software isn’t owned by anybody. It’s available for use free of charge, but there is no support from the community for it unless, as we describe below, companies license its use from a commercial vendor. Moreover, in contrast to the source code of proprietary software, which vendors keep confidential, open source software is developed publicly, so it can be easily tested, modified, and freely distributed.
Developing and deploying an open source software strategy has become imperative for several reasons. Open source software developers, individually and collectively, look for the optimal solutions to technological problems, which makes the software they create reliable, secure – and free. Because of their incessant efforts, the software becomes better over time. Several foundations, such as the Linux Foundation, which supports open source across several technology domains, the Apache Software Foundation, and the Eclipse Foundation, facilitate the process. In partnership with digital giants such as AWS, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Netflix, and SAP, as well as hardware makers such as Cisco, Intel, and Tesla, they set standards. They also create vendor-agnostic homes for projects, provide financial support for infrastructure, help with marketing, and appoint committees to make key decisions about projects.
The first startups catalyzed by open source sprung up three decades ago to offer support, paving the way for a second generation of firms that developed software internally, but released the source code so the community could test and refine it. Firms using this open core model – open source code at the core with proprietary code around it – offer a free product that is limited in features as well as a proprietary, features-rich version for which users must pay a subscription or license fee – essentially, a freemium business model. The extent of the product’s openness ranges from a large, open core with a small, closed crust, which can be called a thin-crust offering, to the other extreme – a small, open core and a large, closed crust, also known as a thick-crust offering.
Building on the open core model, several branded software vendors now mix open source and commercial software and offer it as a licensed cloud-based service, monetizing the support and services they provide. They offer a paid version of the software and a package of bundled services for a subscription fee. Customers receive add-ons such as dashboards and analytics, updates to ensure security and performance, security certifications, and other clearances for regulated industries. The vendors guarantee that they will support key applications even if the software becomes outdated. They also provide software maintenance, coordinate and install updates, and even offer live software support. They often act as consultants about software selection, and train customers’ employees. By using this Software as a Service licensing model, open source commercial vendors, both big and small, have succeeded in gaining ground in the marketplace. (See Sidebar 2.)
The Open Source Software Market is Growing
From the cloud to the edge, open source software is an integral element of many architectures today, and its use could rise in the future. (See Exhibit 3.)
In the cloud, Linux has become the cloud operating system of choice mainly because of its greater flexibility and lower cost compared to proprietary software. It enables the use of containers, which is a must for the building blocks of cloud-native development such as microservices. Due to ever-rising workloads, the Linux operating systems market is expected to grow at the rate of 7% a year, reaching $9.7 billion by 2024. While 70% of workloads will run in the cloud in 2024, as compared to 50% in 2020, 82% of paid Linux users are expected to run workloads on multi-cloud environments in 2024 – up from 72% in 2020. The adoption of hybrid cloud architectures – the parallel use of on-premise and public cloud infrastructure – is also rising, with over 95% of enterprises deploying them last year.
Paid Linux-providers generated revenues of around $3.3 billion in 2020, according to our market research. Still, the total addressable market – which includes the shares of other operating systems such as Windows, Unix, and free Linux deployments – is over twice that, at around $7.5 billion. As most new applications and workloads will run on Linux, and existing Windows and Unix applications will probably migrate to it, enterprise Linux providers will gain market share. They’re likely to grow at around 12% per annum over the next three-and-a-half years, so their combined revenues will cross $5.2 billion by 2024.
Within the enterprise, open source container management software and software-defined storage are most popular. Around 90% of companies that use containers deploy a platform to manage containers. Atop Kubernetes, the open source software that’s emerging as the industry standard for managing containers, firms such as Red Hat, VMware, SUSE Rancher, and Cloud Providers offer packaged solutions, add-ons, and user-friendly interfaces as well as services such as updates and maintenance. They’re targeting an addressable market of around $2.2 billion, which will grow about 35% per annum to reach $7.5 billion by 2024. While the serviceable market – excluding containers deployed in the hyper-scalers’ internal infrastructure – was around $0.7 billion in 2020, it will grow faster than the total market at 53% a year, hitting $4 billion by 2024.
Likewise, the use of software-defined storage, which allows companies to dynamically control where they store data by pooling their on-premise and cloud storage, has recently risen in importance. While proprietary software systems usually manage storage, open source solutions, such as Ceph, Gluster, and Longhorn, are gaining traction. Cloud-native, container-driven, software-defined storage makes up only a small portion of the total addressable market of $4 billion, which is expected to reach $6.2 billion by 2024. However, the containerization-related sub-segment will grow at a faster 50% per annum, from $80 million in 2020 to $400 million by 2024.
At the edge, companies will generate more data in the future than they do at present. The number of Internet of Things connections, which drive edge computing, will double from 20 billion in 2019 to 41 billion in 2025. Several factors, such as the need for ultralow latency, reliable connectivity, greater security, and cost-savings, will drive the need for computing at the edge.
With edge computing projected to grow at 24% a year between 2020 and 2024, the projected rise in computing expenditure on edge hardware, software, and services will rise sharply from $89 billion in 2020 to as much as $218 billion in 2024. Open source software providers will find opportunities in the platform software and infrastructure software segments, which are expected to grow from $10 billion in 2020 to $24.9 billion in 2024.
These vendors rely a great deal on the open community. In addition to employees, freelance and hobbyist programmers participate in projects, partly to gain credibility for their technical skills and mainly because of their passion for software development. More recently, some corporations have released the codes of features and adaptations they’ve developed, so they can be integrated into more software. In 2020, over 56 million developers worked on the 140 million projects (repositories) listed on GitHub, the leading platform for open source collaboration, making over 1.9 billion contributions. Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, SAP, and Microsoft, none of which are open source companies, are among the biggest contributors on GitHub.
In 2020, over 56 million developers worked on the 140 million projects listed on GitHub, the leading platform for open source collaboration, making over 1.9 billion contributions.
No company is more emblematic of the shift in attitude to open source software than Microsoft, which initially waged a legal battle against it. The digital giant now uses open source software extensively. Most of Microsoft Azure runs on Linux, and it has created a compatibility layer, Windows Subsystem for Linux, to run Linux binary executables natively on Windows. And Microsoft has made open the source code for .NET, the software framework for Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems, as well as the programming language TypeScript, and PowerShell, its task automation and configuration management framework. The digital giant has joined the Open Source Initiative, acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion in 2018 – then the largest enterprise software acquisition ever – and its employees are heavily engaged with GitHub, with over 5,000 of them contributing to open source projects in 2020.
The Pluses and the Perils
Before drawing up a strategy, companies should develop a nuanced understanding of the merits and demerits of open source software.
The Pluses. There are half a dozen reasons why open source software has become so popular over time.
One, the open source software community is large, technically diverse, and committed to solving problems with digital technologies. Its virtuosity and vibrancy provides an edge, with the community ensuring that applications are developed rapidly. The bigger the problem, the more developers are drawn, like magnets, to work on it.
The bigger the problem, the more open source developers are drawn, like magnets, to work on it.
Two, the community uses a collaborative approach to software development, which helps drive innovation. It’s not an accident that the latest technologies, such as AI and ML, run on open source software. In addition to infrastructure, open source software powers the latest technological leaps such as edge computing for autonomous vehicles. And the next generation of hyperplexed enterprise software, which will enable the use of highly distributed systems, is likely to be open source.
Three, open source software is backed by a large number of developers. For example, over 15,500 developers from around 1,400 companies have contributed to the Linux kernel since 2005, and they add 10,000 lines of code every day, making it the world’s fastest evolving project.
Four, in contrast to closed source software, open source code can be fully accessed and customized. It is usually modular, so vendors can tweak parts of the code or add features to it to customize it for each business. That’s another reason why open source software often works as well as proprietary software at any layer of the enterprise stack for which it’s available.
Five, enterprise-grade open source software faces a lower risk of obsolescence because of the community’s involvement. Companies that rely on proprietary software run the risk of software getting discontinued or having to pay more over time, which is magnified by the fast-changing nature of digital technology.
Six, finding the talent to execute digital transformations is a challenge for most legacy companies, so they can turn to the open source community. It’s an ocean of talent and tools, with a depth unlikely to be found anywhere except in the world’s biggest software firms. Besides, it’s easier to find developers who are familiar with open source software, given its wide applicability, than it is to find people familiar with the specific tools that proprietary software demands.
The Perils. Like everything in life, there are some risks to using open source software. Compared to commercial software, whose owners offer crystal-clear legal agreements for its fees and use, licensing from commercial open source vendors can sometimes be ambiguous.
Some agreements, such as the popular MIT and Apache licenses, contain only the bare minimum requirements about software redistribution. While the MIT license is worded quite simply, the terms in the Apache 2.0 license are more detailed, so the latter is more popular with large open-source projects designed for enterprise-scale deployment such as Docker, Kubernetes, Swift, and TensorFlow.
Other licenses, such as the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), require the free redistribution of the source code of the modified version. That implies the disclosure of the source code of even proprietary software that has incorporated open source code, which is called copyleft, and will worry business. Companies should keep in mind the cascading consequences of copyleft when using open source software.
As open source software’s business use grows, the biggest risk is that no entity will bear the legal liability for adverse consequences.
As open source software’s business use grows, the biggest risk is that no entity will bear the liability for adverse consequences. The lack of culpability causes legal complications, especially when companies use it to develop mission-critical applications such as, say, controlling the braking system in an automobile. Companies must learn to strike a balance between reaping the benefits of such software and knowing that they will bear legal liability if anything goes wrong.
Open source software is usually secure. The open source code allows many pairs of eyes to review it and ensure it is secure. However, under-funded projects can sometimes have far-reaching security issues. Take, for instance, OpenSSL, an encryption software library used by web servers, websites, and operating systems to securely process sensitive data such as passwords and credit card details. In 2014, a vulnerability was found in OpenSSL, named Heartbleed, which led to a security-related emergency. Before Heartbleed was patched by the OpenSSL community, one-fifth of the internet’s secure web servers were vulnerable to hackers because of the bug. At that time, only one fulltime person worked on OpenSSL.
Toward an Open Source Software Strategy
Software developers almost instinctively turn to open source software when they have to deal with technological challenges, so it’s critical to have a strategy in place that governs its use in an organization.
The first step is to clearly articulate the purposes for which employees can – and cannot – use open source software. Doing so will help employees figure out in which domains they’re allowed to leverage such software and how to select tools, so the organizational risks of using open source software are tolerable. The key factors that will shape those decisions are the software’s popularity, maintenance costs, and its degree of security.
Every company needs to set up governance, legal, and risk structures for using open source software. It must stipulate whether it prefers a standard license or would like to draw up its own license, and how comfortable it is with the copyleft provision. Although the latter may be most equitable, most companies avoid licenses that contain the copyleft requirement.
Depending on their appetite for it, corporations must develop the capabilities to manage open software’s use. Most of them set up program offices that act as one-stop shops for open source-related activities. They coordinate internal activities around legal, technical, and security issues as well as outward-looking activities such as marketing and communications.
Other companies have established open communities of excellence. They identify the open source software each department in the organization uses, and foster collaboration as well as best practice sharing. Catalyzing exchanges between enthusiasts and getting the various functions to share success stories help companies realize the full potential of open source software.
Businesses should decide if employees can contribute to open source initiatives, either as part of their jobs or in their own time.
Finally, businesses should decide if employees can contribute to open source initiatives, either as part of their jobs or in their own time. Much will depend on the company’s ambitions, but it’s not as much of a stretch as it may appear. In recent times, Walmart has released an open source cloud-management system, ExxonMobil has unveiled a developer toolkit to help energy companies adopt standard data formats, and JPMorgan and Wells Fargo have invested in Hyperledger, an open source software suite for enterprise-grade blockchain deployment.
Smart companies will follow in their footsteps by identifying the range of benefits they seek from open source, from attracting talent to growing revenues. They will then decide how to operationalize their objectives by, say, using the software, contributing to projects, or participating in the activities of the foundations. They can start by participating in small projects, such as contributing fixes, and scale their involvement over time. Importantly, companies can influence the development of emerging technology standards by building open source ecosystems. For instance, in 2014, Google launched an open-source container orchestration system, Kubernetes, which is becoming the de facto standard for container management.
As the idea of “openness” becomes one of society’s hallmarks in the 21st century, and extends into innovation, research, and standards-setting, open source software has become integral to business. Because of the speed and the scale at which it has happened, open source is central to strategy today. It’s shifting the economics of innovation by offering companies powerful capabilities without their having to make upfront investments. In addition to leveling the playing field for startups, open innovation has forced digital giants to pivot and embrace open source software. Companies that find ways to take advantage of the breadth and the depth of the open community will save time and money, and boost their innovation capabilities as well. It may sound contradictory, but it’s time CEOs focused on open source software as a way of gaining a proprietary advantage for their companies.
Pranay Ahlawat
Johannes Boyne
Associate Director, Digital Operations
Dominik Herz
Florian Schmieg
Michael Stephan
Associate Director, Enterprise Software and Cloud
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Congresswoman Wilson's Statement on Gabby Douglas Winning Gold Medal in All-Around Gymnastics at 2012 Summer Olympics
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), issued the following statement on Gabrielle “Gabby” Douglas winning the gold medal in all-around gymnastics at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
“Gabby Douglas made Olympic history by becoming the first African-American to win the gold medal in all-around gymnastics, and the first American gymnast to win gold in both the individual and team all-around. Gabby, nicknamed the ‘Flying Squirrel’ for her amazing performances on the balance beam, has become an inspiration to the next generation of young girls, proving that with dedication and hard work, anything is possible.
“Gabby’s historic feat follows in the footsteps of Dominique Dawes, who was part of the famed ‘Magnificent Seven’ women’s gymnastics team that won gold in Atlanta in 1996. She joined eight decades of African-Americans to ascend to the top podium at the Summer and Winter Olympics. This tradition goes back to August 3, 1936, when Jesse Owens won the 100-meter sprint in Berlin, the first of his four gold medals.
“Congratulations to Gabby and all of her teammates on Team USA who are representing our country in London!”
U.S. Rep. Frederica S. Wilson is a first-term Congresswoman from Florida representing parts of Northern Miami-Dade and Southeast Broward counties. A former state legislator and school principal, she is the founder of the 5000 Role Models for Excellence Project, a mentoring program for young males at risk of dropping out of school.
Published Op-Eds


4th Central European PhD Workshop on Regional Economics and Business Studies
The workshop is open for all PhD students from Central European doctoral schools, working within the fields of economics and business administration. It offers specific training and provides an opportunity for interaction amongst senior and young researchers.
Global Market - GTK International Evening
On 10 November, 2015 at 19:00, the Aula of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration hosted the Global Market of 22 countries and nationalities
Save the world, give your blood!
Have you ever thought that you are a hero?
Faculty Conference on the Competitiveness of Hungarian Economy
On 13th and 14th of October, 2015, a scientific conference was organized by the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Szeged and the Regional Committee of the Hungarian Scientific Academy. The remarkable event at the same time marked the 15th anniversary of the research on regional competitiveness in Szeged.
2nd Evolutionary Economic Geography Workshop in Central and Eastern Europe
Agglomeration Economies, Relatedness and Spatial Networks was orgainzed on 21th-22th of October in the Faculty of Economics.
Presentation Competition 2015
The Faculty Round of the Presentation Competition announced by the Talent Centre of the University of Szeged was organized on 29 October 2015.
University of Szeged is ranked 13th place in the newest QS ranking
QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) has published the latest ranking of universities in Emerging Europe and Central Asia (EECA) with the region’s top 150 universities on Wednesday 21st October 2015. It is an excellent result that the University of Szeged (USz) is ranked on the 13th place in this ranking. With this result USz has been in the top 10 percentage.
Trendence Graduate Barometer 2016
Have your say about your university and your future employers
SSC Career@Szeged – 21st of October 2015
SSC Day in Szeged on 21st October: JobBox: quick and funny working situations where the students can taste the atmosphere of the SSC and gain direct contact and co-working experience between the student and the company.
Presentation Competition
The Talent Centre of the University of Szeged announces a Presentation Competition for those who are interested in demonstrating their skills by presenting a scientific problem to the audience, using up-to-date presentation techniques (e.g. PowerPoint, prezi.com).
Scholarship for an English BA training program student
On the 7th Scholarship Award Ceremony it was the second time that a scholarship was awarded to an international student, Henry Chinedu Obed, who has been studying in the English language BA training program of the faculty since 2013.
International picnic by MKT SZIB
The first International Picnic of the GTK was held by MKT SZIB on 18 September 2015.
Researchers' Night 25 September 2015
The European Researchers' Night celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The Faculty of Economics and Business administration once again welcomes everyone to various programs.
Scholarship Award Ceremony
The scholarship award ceremony of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration was held on 11 September, Friday.
The team is expanding year by year
New foreign students have already enrolled for the academic year 2015/2016.
Evolutionary Economic Geography in Central and Eastern Europe: Agglomeration Economies, Relatedness and Spatial Networks
The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Szeged wishes to pay a contribution to the tuition fees payable by students admitted as fee-paying students to the Faculty.
Last Minute Admission
Business Administration and Management BA programme – University of Szeged
EcoCamp 4.0
This is the 4th year when a one week long summer camp for high-school students has been held in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
Dr. Erzsébet Hetesi – Dr. Márton Vilmányi: ‘Soft’ Indicators and Competitiveness
This is the third year when the Ecodemia Summer Program has been held in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration in Szeged.
CIB Ecodemia: Local enterprises and the ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) in Szeged
On 9th July, Dr Zsófia Vas, Dr Miklós Lukovics, and Dr Szabolcs Imreh held a lecture onthe cutting edge laser research centre.
Honorary Title of Senator Honoris Causa for Luis Vázquez-Burguete
On 3rd of July, at the graduation ceremony of the University of Szeged Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Luis Vázquez-Burguete was awarded the Honorary Title of Senator Honoris Causa.
Ecodemia: The Financial Culture of the Population and the Enterprises – Dr. Péter Kovács
This is the third year when the Ecodemia Summer Program has been held in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration in Szeged. On 29th June, János Martonyi, former Minister of Foreign Affairs delivered his lecture on Competing Free Trade Agreements in the Main Hall of the Faculty. Now, on 1st July, as the second lecturer, Péter Kovács, Deputy Dean of the Faculty shared his views on issues of financial culture.
Freshly graduated economists
Opening hours in summer
Information about the opening hours in the summer of 2015.
CIB Ecodemia-János Martonyi: Competing Free Trade Agreements
János Martonyi, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, gave a lecture on 29th June at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
SAP Hungary is looking for young, talented new Colleagues
SAP Hungary is currently looking for numerous young, talented new Colleagues, who lately obtained a College/University degree and have no more than 2 years of professional experience, to join the Team as Junior Developers or User Interface Designers.
Night of Museums in Szeged
The biggest event of museums is the Night of Museums, which is organized again in Szeged as well. This year, different plays, concerts, new exhibitions and challenges await you.
Film about the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
National Conference of Scientific Students Associations
Students from the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Szeged attended a National Conference of Scientific Students Associations on 10-11 April, 2015.
Come and Study at the University of Szeged
Come and Study at the University of Szeged with Stipendium Hungaricum Schoolarship Programme. Don't miss this unique opportunity. Application deadline: 30 April 2015.
Main conclusions of Anita Kéri’s research on foreign students’ motivation
What are the main motivations of the foreign students? For her National Conference of Scientific Students’ Associations Competition paper, Anita Kéri (Marketing MA student) did research on the study motivation of foreign students.
Faculty of Economics and Faculty of Law Sports Day -29 April
On 29 April, a Sports Day co-organized by the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and the Faculty of Law is held in the Sports Centre of the University (Szeged, Hattyas sor 10.).
New Double Degree Agreement with the Normandy Business School
The new double degree agreement will contribute to the quality of our training programmes, at the same time improving the competitiveness of the University of Szeged.
7th International Week on the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Between 16 and 20 March, 2015 the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration organized a week long program series, the International Week.
The first scholarship for an English BA training program student
On the 20th of February, the first scholarship was awarded to one of our international students.
The scholarship award ceremony of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration was held on 20 February, Friday. It was the 6th occasion to reward the best students of the faculty. Currently, 103 students are studying with a scholarship and 19 companies are supporting them.
New International Office Hours at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
From January 2015 on, international students’ affairs are managed in new office hours.
Szeged is the eighth best university city in Europe
Szeged is among the 10 best university cities in Europe according to Condé Nast Traveler portal.
University of Szeged is ranked 22nd place in the latest QS ranking
QS Quacquarelli Symonds has launched a new ranking of universities in Emerging Europe and Central Asia with the region’s top 100 universities. Six Hungarian universities were added to the list and it is an excellent result that the University of Szeged is ranked on the 22nd place.
Outstanding International Student Satisfaction Award was awarded to the University of Szeged
Another international award recognized the education and university life of the University of Szeged. The awards were divided on the basis of the students' opinion.
New Ideas in a Changing World of Business Management and Marketing
International PhD workshop on New Ideas in a Changing World of Business Management and Marketing on 19-20 March 2015 organized by the University of Szeged Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and the Doctoral School in Economics.


Ietas
San Giuseppe Jato, Italy
Ietas was an ancient town in the modern comune of San Giuseppe Jato. Ietas was mentioned by Philistus as a fortress, and it is called by Thucydides a fortress of the Siculians, which was taken by Gylippus on his march from Himera through the interior of the island towards Syracuse. It first appears as an independent city in the time of Pyrrhus, and was attacked by that monarch on account of its strong position and the advantages it offered for operations against Panormus; but the inhabitants readily capitulated.
In the First Punic War it was occupied by a Carthaginian garrison, but after the fall of Panormus drove out these troops and opened its gates to the Romans. Under the Roman government it appears as a municipal town, but not one of much importance. The Ietini are only noticed in passing by Cicero among the towns whose lands had been utterly ruined by the exactions of Verres; and the Ietenses are enumerated by Pliny among the populi stipendiarii of the interior of Sicily. Many manuscripts of Cicero read 'Letini', and it is probable that the Λῆτον of Ptolemy is only a corruption of the same name. The town minted coins in antiquity, examples of which survive.
The position of Ietas is very obscurely intimated in ancient sources, but it appears from Diodorus that it was not very remote from Panormus, and that its site was one of great natural strength. Silius Italicus also alludes to its elevated situation. Fazello assures us that there was a mediaeval fortress called Iato on the summit of a lofty mountain, about 25 km from Palermo, and 20 km north of Entella, which was destroyed by Frederick II at the same time as the latter city; and this he identified as the site of Ietas. The mountain is still called Monte Iato, though formerly known as Monte di San Cosmano, from a church on its summit.
Ancient Greek Sites
Prehistoric and archaeological sites in Italy
See all sites in San Giuseppe Jato
Founded: 6th century BC
Category: Prehistoric and archaeological sites in Italy
San Giuseppe dei Teatini Church (21,9 km)
Quattro Canti (22 km)
Santa Caterina Church (22 km)
Fontana Pretoria (22 km)
Church of San Cataldo (22 km)
San Matteo al Cassaro Church (22,1 km)
Cathedral of Monreale (15,3 km)
Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio Church (22 km)
Palermo Cathedral (21,6 km)


Trell
By Dick Lehr
Dick Lehr Candlewick on Brilliance Audio 9780763692759
From the co-author of Black Mass comes a gripping YA novel based on the true story of a teenage girl’s murder—and a young father’s false imprisonment for the crime. On a hot summer night in the late 1980s, in the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury, a fourteen-year-old African-American girl was sitting on a mailbox talking with her friends when she became the innocent victim of gang-related gunfire. Amid public outcry, an immediate manhunt was on to catch the murderer, and a young African-American man was quickly apprehended, charged, and—wrongly—convicted of the crime. Dick Lehr, a former reporter for the Boston Globe’s famous Spotlight Team who worked on this story three decades ago, brings the case to light once more with Trell, a page-turning novel about the daughter of the imprisoned man, who persuades a reporter and a lawyer to help her prove her father’s innocence. What pieces of evidence might have been overlooked? Can they manage to get to the truth before a dangerous character from the neighborhood gets to them?
From the co-author of Black Mass comes a gripping YA novel based on the true story of a teenage girl’s murder—and a young father’s false imprisonment for the crime.
On a hot summer night in the late 1980s, in the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury, a fourteen-year-old African-American girl was sitting on a mailbox talking with her friends when she became the innocent victim of gang-related gunfire. Amid public outcry, an immediate manhunt was on to catch the murderer, and a young African-American man was quickly apprehended, charged, and—wrongly—convicted of the crime. Dick Lehr, a former reporter for the Boston Globe’s famous Spotlight Team who worked on this story three decades ago, brings the case to light once more with Trell, a page-turning novel about the daughter of the imprisoned man, who persuades a reporter and a lawyer to help her prove her father’s innocence. What pieces of evidence might have been overlooked? Can they manage to get to the truth before a dangerous character from the neighborhood gets to them?
“A triumph of investigative reporting…[A] full-bodied true-crime saga.” —Publishers Weekly on Black Mass
Author Bio: Dick Lehr
Dick Lehr is a professor of journalism at Boston University. He is the author of seven works of nonfiction and a novel for young adults. His book The Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited The Battle for Civil Rights became the basis for a PBS/Independent Lens documentary. Two other books were Edgar Award finalists: The Fence: A Police Cover-up along Boston’s Racial Divide and Judgment Ridge: The True Story behind the Dartmouth Murders. He has previously written for the Boston Globe, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in investigative reporting and won numerous national and local journalism awards. He was a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.
Format: Digital Download Format: CD
Available Formats : Digital Download, CD
Publisher: Candlewick on Brilliance Audio Publisher: Candlewick on Brilliance Audio
CDs: 7
Audience: Young Adult (12–17)


SPLC — Damned Lies and Statistics — Part 2
As part of an ongoing investigation of how the Southern Poverty Law Center manipulates the media for its own goals, let’s take a closer look at a public relations press release issued by the SPLC on January 19, 2010.
Teaching Tolerance Magazine Examines the “New Segregation” in US Schools
MONTGOMERY, Ala., Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — More than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education offered the hope of integrated classrooms, today’s schools not only remain racially segregated, but are dividing along gender lines, sexual orientation and immigration status in the name of better education, according to the Spring 2010 issue of Teaching Tolerance magazine.
“The sad truth is that our public schools are more racially segregated today than they were 40 years ago,” said Lecia Brooks, director of the Civil Rights Memorial Center at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). “We’re back to buying into the belief that separate can be equal — and this time around we’re not limiting segregated classrooms to race.”
Teaching Tolerance, released today, is being distributed free of charge by the SPLC to more than 400,000 educators nationwide. It can be read at www.teachingtolerance.org.
In a series of articles titled “The New Segregation,” Teaching Tolerance examines the state of racial segregation in public schools and how some educators are embracing the idea of creating schools and classrooms that separate other groups of students who are often ill-served by schools.
Today, one-third of black students attend school in places where the population is more than 90 percent black. Almost half of white students attend schools that are more than 90 percent white. One-third of all black and Latino students attend high-poverty schools where more than 75 percent of students received free or reduced-price lunches, as compared to 4 percent of white students.
In addition, educators are experimenting with segregating students based on characteristics other than race.
The magazine examines the practice of creating gender-segregated classrooms and looks at schools created to provide safe havens for gay students hoping to escape harassment and bullying. It also explores schools focused on the needs of immigrant students and describes the obstacles encountered by students with mental disabilities in mainstream classrooms.
Other articles offer educators tips on how to address issues related to segregation that they may face in their own classrooms — whether it is teaching the Civil Rights Movement in a segregated community or reaching the lone student of color in a class.
Teaching Tolerance magazine, published twice a year by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is the nation’s leading journal serving educators on diversity issues. In 2007, the magazine was named Periodical of the Year by the Association of Educational Publishers for the second consecutive year. Teaching Tolerance films have garnered four Academy Award nominations and won two Oscars.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Montgomery, Ala., is a nonprofit civil rights organization that combats bigotry and discrimination through litigation, education and advocacy. For more information, see www.splcenter.org.
SOURCE Southern Poverty Law Center
First a quick word about press releases. Most Americans are entirely unaware of how much of the so-called “news” they encounter each day is actually public relations advertising copy, written by and for the special interest group being discussed in the “article”.
With shrinking newsroom budgets and a 24-hour news cycle, media outlets are desperate for fresh content with which to fill up the blank newsprint/web page/ air time they face each day. Enter the press release; a pre-written, pre-formatted, pre-edited text, audio or video file that can be cut and pasted into the void with a few clicks of the mouse.
Note the dateline on this piece, “MONTGOMERY, Ala., Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ –”
PRNewswire and USNewswire are press release aggregators. Special interest groups, like the SPLC or the Tobacco lobby, etc., send them their carefully crafted statements and, for a fee, the aggregators will pass them along to thousands of other subscribers, who will pick them up and reissue them as “news” without performing the simplest fact checks.
In short, the “newsmakers” are writing their own “news” articles. It’s a business.
Press releases are usually written in a third-person style, allowing the media outlets to attach a local by-line as a fig leaf. Note the several quotes by the “expert,” who is on the same payroll as the “journalist” who wrote the piece.
Next comes the statement of supporting factoids. A veritable fruit basket of half-truths and skewed statistics, where apples are mixed in with the oranges:
Where did this “information” come from? We don’t know. It is not cited in either the press release or in the actual article. In true SPLC fashion, you know it’s true because they told you it was true.
If “one-third of black students attend school in places where the population is more than 90 percent black,” doesn’t that mean that two-thirds of black students do not?
Likewise, if “almost half of all white students attend schools that are more than 90 percent white” (gasp!), doesn’t that mean that more than half of them do not?
According to the 2000 US Census, whites outnumbered blacks by nearly 7 to 1. Since the black population is not equally distributed across the country, and there are a heck of a lot more white kids than black kids, how much rocket science is required to figure out that you’re not going to achieve a perfect mix?
As usual, the numbers are meaningless.
“In 2007, the magazine was named Periodical of the Year by the Association of Educational Publishers for the second consecutive year.”
Pretty impressive, no? No. Not so much. For those pesky few people, like me, who actually take three minutes to visit the AEP website, it’s kinda hard to get all worked up by an award from a trade group that was created to promote non-profit organizations. In short, it’s a PR service for PR hacks.
Some of the benefits of membership in the AEP include:
Receive a FREE listing in the Industry Services Directory (ISD)
Save nearly 50% on entries into the renowned AEP Awards
Retain year-long visibility in the Online Product Gallery (OPG)
Expand international business at huge member savings through AEP’s Go Global Initiative and the EPP, a partnership with the Frankfurt Book Fair
Increase brand awareness with sponsorship opportunities at key events
Did you catch the second benefit? “Save nearly 50% on entries into the renowned AEP Awards” You actually have to pay cash, (from the donation pot, no doubt) to “enter” the contest against other “entrants” who also paid for the privilege. Now there’s a wide field of contenders. What if no one else paid to enter your particular event? Instant winner!
Well, it is an association of educational publishers, so it must be all about education, right? Why else would an organization spend scarce resources to enter the contest?
” Stand out in a crowded marketplace
The educational resource market is fast becoming a tough place to do business–and the competition isn’t just other companies anymore. Almost anyone with an Internet connection and an idea can get “published,” but how do you make your product stand out from the sea of educational content available on the Internet?
Enter the AEP Awards.
Maximize your marketing ROI [Return on Investment]
Industry awards are surefire way to give your product and your brand a one-up over your competitors. In fact, Janine Popick, CEO of direct marketing firm VerticalResponse, calls industry awards one of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to help grow your business.
Media Opportunities
In addition to general AEP-issued press releases about the Awards—which are distributed to members of the general, education, and trade media—your organization can use your nomination as a Finalist or Winner as an opportunity to reach out to your local media and mailing lists.
AEP Awards Seals
In a crowded and growing marketplace, one of the best ways to differentiate yourself is to point out your accomplishments and accolades. AEP Award Finalists and Winners earn the right to display the AEP Award Seal, recognized by students, teachers, and administrators as a symbol of outstanding educational quality.”
Hmm, on second thought, maybe the AEP is actually an association of educational publishers.
So, once again, the SPLC’s PR guru, Mark Potok, has cobbled together another pre-fab, 500-word filler piece that will be picked up by media outlets and regurgitated as “news”.When this “news story” hits your local venue, compare it to the original press release shown above to see how much hard-hitting journalism your local reporters put into this article.
No matter that the “statistics” are un-cited and unverified, we know that the SPLC is telling the truth because they paid darned good money to another PR group to say so.
Once again, as usual, the bottom line at the SPLC is… the bottom line. It’s all about the money.
Tags:Association of Educational Publishers, fund raising, Mark Potok, PR, press release, public relations
Posted in 2. Public Relations Techniques, 5. Damned Lies and Statistics | Leave a Comment »


MIAMI short FILM FESTIVAL would like to extend our thanks to the individuals who served on this year’s judges panel.
JUDGE’S PANEL
TOM MUSCA
Professor in the Film department at University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL – Screenwriter-Producer- Director. Musca is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers and went on to earn a Masters of Fine Arts degree at UCLA. Musca has written roles for a wide array of acting talent including: John Cusack, James Gandolfini, CCH Pounder, River Phoenix, Dean Cain, Elizabeth Peña, Paul Rodriguez, Cliff Robertson, Hector Elizondo, Raquel Welch, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Michael Madsen, Benicio del Toro and America Ferrera.
Produced screen credits include: Tortilla Soup, an Imagen Award winner; the popular Gotta Kick It Up! for the Disney Channel; Hollywood Pictures’ Money For Nothing; Race, a comedic take on a City Council election on HBO which Musca directed; Columbia Pictures’ Little Nikita; and Flight of Fancy for Showtime.
LILIA GARCIA
Lilia holds a dual BED in Art Education and Graphic Design, an MS in Art Education, a Specialist in Administration and Leadership, and has taken accreditation programs in Design Thinking and Organizational Management at NYU and Stanford University. After 10 years teaching art and initiating/implementing the first talent magnet program in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, she was promoted to the administrative ranks, and recently concluded her career in M-DCPS as the Administrative Director for the Division of Life Skills and Special Projects.
DR. ANDREW STRYCHARSKI
Instructor, English Department. Director, Film Studies Program / Florida International University
Andrew Strycharski, who earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Texas at Austin, directs the film studies program at Florida International University. He teaches courses in film history, new media, and writing about film, as well as advising the student film club and co-organizing the annual Panther Film Festival.
STEPHANIE MARTINO
Founder / President – Florida Film Institute
Stephanie Martino is a veteran of the non-profit sector since 1989; Ms. Martino founded the Florida Film Institute, Inc. in 2002, she brings to the organization a depth of experience in the development and coordination of film programs, workshops, special events, grant writing, marketing and public relations. She has been responsible for developing new funding sources and expanding the programs over the past several years. Stephanie has also served as Executive Director from 1989 to 2004 for the Miami Film Festival and the Ad Fed of Greater Miami. During that time, she implemented and coordinated the logistics for their major annual events, developed fundraising, and membership programs. She has also produced 6 annual Israel Film Festival in Miami, New York and Los Angeles.
ALEJANDRO RIOS
Film and art critic, he has covered international film festivals in Havana, Miami, Brazil, Calcutta and Canada. As part of the Cuban Film Series, which he founded at Miami-Dade College in 1993, he presented the first Cuban Alternative Film Festival during 2003.
BRUNO CHATELIN
Graduated from the french Business School HEC alumni, began his marketing career with the largest international Advertising Agencies: Publicis, DMM Masius and JWT. He co-founded filmfestivals.com which regularly partners with the largest festivals and markets (Cannes, AFM, Toronto, Locarno, Venice) and has served over 6.000 festivals worldwide and a community of 370 000 unique monthly visitors, and newsletter subscribers base of 193 000.
Voting member : European Film Academy (former Board Member); Les Cesar voting member since 1987 Fest Forums Advisory Board Member, International Film Festival Summit Advisory Board Member. Board Member on a few Festivals BIFF, CIFF, Animaze – le MIAFF, Houston WorldFest, Co- Founder of Animation Day in Cannes.
PHIL PRITCHARD
Phil is an Actor, Director, Producer from the UK. After training in Acting & Directing in London he has worked in Theatre, Film, & TV on both sides of the Atlantic. Films he has appeared in have been seen at the following Festivals: Sundance, Cannes, London I’ll, San Diego I’ll, South American FF Hollywood Comedy Shorts, LA Shorts and many more. One particular highlight of his acting career so far was playing the title role in a film called ‘A Kitten For Hitler’ produced and directed by British Film director Ken Russell.
IGOR SHTEYRENBERG
Igor Shteyrenberg is the executive director of the Miami Jewish Film Festival, one of the three largest Jewish film festivals in the world, and the founder/director of Popcorn Frights Film Festival, the largest genre film event in the Southeast US. This year both festivals were recognized in Moviemaker Magazine’s annual list of the top 50 film festivals in the world.
FELIX CASTRO
As WOW MKTG’s Creative Director, Felix leads a multidisciplinary creative team in delivering award-winning, strategically developed concepts, art, and copy for integrated marketing campaigns. He came up the agency ranks in Puerto Rico, with stops at global agencies like Wing Latino, Circulo LOWE, DDB, and Euro, before joining República in Miami. He built and led creative teams at multiple stops, developing talent and world-class creative campaigns for regional, national and international clients such as Burger King, Suzuki, Honda, American Airlines, Pernod Ricard, BBVA, Sedano’s Supermarkets, and Baptist Health South Florida.
CLAUDIO MARCOTULLI
Claudio Marcotulli received his B.F.A from Emerson College (Boston) and M.F.A from the Miami International University of Art and Design (2005). He uses film and installation to create works that investigate his interest in technology and nature by illuminating existential questions around these subjects. His projects often reference memory, natural elements, mechanics of flight and issues of climate change with a surrealistic approach.
JESSE MILLER
GM – Midtown Video
Jesse has been supporting the film industry with equipment and technology since 2003. Hosting “the .video show”, a live internet broadcast from 2009 -2014, he delivered equipment reviews, filmmaker interviews, and even clips from past Miami Short Film Festivals. Currently Jesse is designing and building multi-camera production systems for broadcast and streaming.
NATASHA CHAPMAN
Executive Producer, Green Tea Films
Natasha is a multi-discipline EIP/Producer and Creative Manager skilled in international production logistics and detailed production management across all multimedia platforms.
A D&AD alumna and award winner she produces worldwide for major television networks, advertising agencies, film and commercial production companies and directors; specializing in logistical & creative problem solving, financial & schedule management.


Marchell Willie Haley Tapp
Marchell Willie Haley Tapp, age 69 of Los Angeles, CA, passed away peacefully on Sunday, October 1 2017. She was born March 12, 1948 in Gary, Indiana, the eldest daughter, to the late Arthur Haley and Stella Haley on March 12, 1948.
Marchell’s one passion besides her children and grandchildren was bowling. She had been a member of a many leagues and won many awards over 40 years. It was a joy to her to watch her children and then grandchildren share this with her.
On August 17, 1967, Marchell married the one great love of her life, the Late Herman Franklin, Tapp, Jr. who she lost April 23, 1988. Together they built a life, first in Gary but later and forever in Los Angeles, California. Marchell worked many years for Hughes Aircraft.
Marchel l is survived by her children Grover Chistopher Haley Mcghee (Charlene) Georgia . Angela Dooley-Zaharn (Ayman) Los Angeles, CA, Alonzo Tapp of Omaha, NE, Kelly Marie Tapp of Las Vegas, NV, Jennifer Tapp of Omaha, NE, her brother Larry Haley of Three RIvers, MI, her sister Diane Clay of Three Rivers, MI. and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her brother Arthur (Ronnie) Haley Jr.
Marchell requested and was given a funeral where she passed in Las Vegas.
There will be a memorial celebration of her life on October 14, 2017.


The FAA has postponed the finish of the Starship environmental review
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says an environmental study of orbital launches for SpaceX Starship from its Boca Chica, Texas, the site will take at least two months longer. The FAA announced on December 28 that it would be unable to fulfill an intended December 31 deadline for completing an environmental evaluation of SpaceX’s plans to launch its Starship/Super Heavy rocket into orbit from the Boca Chica site known as Starbase. A PEA (Programmatic Environmental Assessment) is an essential prerequisite for getting an FAA launch license, which is required for such launches.
“However, the FAA is reporting a change to the timetable due to the substantial volume of comments filed on the Draft PEA, deliberations, and consultation activities with consultative parties,” the FAA wrote on its website. “The FAA now aims to issue the Final PEA on 28th February 2022,” according to the statement.
The FAA received almost 18,000 public comments in response to the report’s draft version, which was issued in September. Under the oversight of the FAA, SpaceX is trying to react to those public comments, according to the agency, which did not provide any other information on the review of the remarks. In October, two public hearings on the assessment drew a flood of comments, both favorable and critical of SpaceX’s ambitions.
Consultations with various government agencies are also part of the environmental evaluation process. Those consultations, according to the FAA, include endangered species and historical site preservation. Because the environmental evaluation has been postponed, the FAA launch license for the Starship/Super Heavy orbital deployments from Boca Chica has been delayed. Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, indicated in November that he planned to have the launch license by the end of 2021, with the first orbital flight scheduled for January or early February of the year 2022.
Even if the environmental study and licensing process were finished as scheduled, it is unclear whether SpaceX was going to be ready for the orbital launch try on that timeframe. Musk claimed in November that in December, SpaceX would conduct a “bunch of tests” on the Starship vehicle as well as its Super Heavy rocket, although several of those tests, such as static burns, have yet to take place. There’s also no assurance that the new deadline of February 28 won’t be extended once more. An environmental evaluation of a prospective launch facility in Georgia, Spaceport Camden, was delayed for months before the FAA granted the facility a spaceport license on December 20.
The GAO raises fresh concerns about the Department of Defense’s ability to track threats in space
With orbital deployments from Jiuquan and Xichang, China wraps up a record-breaking year


The survivors: Snapshots of desperate journeys out of Libya to safety
Mar 25, 2020 | News Story, UNHCR Magazine
Refugees from Somalia, Syria and Eritrea board a bus at UNHCR’s Gathering and Departure Facility in Tripoli, April 2019. © UNHCR/Mohamed Alalem
In the face of ongoing and intensifying conflict in Libya, UNHCR continues to work with its partners on organizing humanitarian evacuations out of the country. Efforts are being made to identify and prioritize those most in need, often including unaccompanied children, survivors of torture and other abuses. Since the start of the evacuation operation in 2017, more than 4,100 individuals have been brought to safety — including more than 1,500 last year. Now, their journeys begin anew.
“As violence in Tripoli intensifies, these evacuations have never been more urgent.”
Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean
Abdulbasit, Zainab, and Hadia
©UNHCR/Tobin Jones
Young Somali refugee couple Abdulbasit and Zainab and their two-month-old daughter Hadia are seen on their first day at the Gashora Emergency Transit Centre in Rwanda. They were among 66 highly vulnerable refugees — including 22 children separated from their parents and wider family — evacuated as part of the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM). The ETM is an agreement between the Rwandan government, the African Union and UNHCR seeking to move refugees most at risk in Libya to Rwanda. Many suffered human rights abuses, including beatings, extortion and rape during their time held in detention. “I am very happy,” says Zainab. “We had a dream of getting out of Libya and now we are finally able to live in peace.”
Semeren, Fathawey, and Habtom
©UNHCR/ Mohamed Alalem
(From left to right) Semeren, Fathawey and Habtom met during their perilous journey from Eritrea to Libya. They stuck together to survive the torture and abuse they experienced. They gathered money to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, but their boat caught fire in the middle of the sea. While awaiting rescue, they witnessed more than 100 people, children, women and men drown. After more than eight hours at sea, help finally arrived — but they were taken back to Libya and placed in a detention centre where they stayed for months in squalid conditions. After their release, they found a small, barely-furnished room where they stayed while trying to provide for themselves. “The evacuation to Rwanda is a dream come true. We will regain our humanity and our lives will have meaning again.”
©UNHCR/Eugene Sibomana
Delmar fled Somalia in 2015 after witnessing the death of his father and older brother at the hands of Al Shabab. To reach Libya, he travelled through war-torn Yemen, then Sudan. Upon arrival in Libya, he was kidnapped and held in the Bani Walid warehouse. Kidnappers demanded money and threatened him with torture, beatings and starvation. With the help of friends and family back home, he managed to collect some money to buy his freedom.
READ THE ONLINE EDITION OF THE UNHCR MAGAZINE
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