#Women in Malta During World War II

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.11 (before 1950)

1138 – A massive earthquake strikes Aleppo; it is one of the most destructive earthquakes ever. 1142 – A peace treaty ends the Jin–Song wars. 1311 – The peerage and clergy restrict the authority of English kings with the Ordinances of 1311. 1614 – The New Netherland Company applies to the States General of the Netherlands for exclusive trading rights in what is now the northeastern United States. 1634 – The Burchardi flood kills around 15,000 in North Friesland, Denmark and Germany. 1649 – Cromwell's New Model Army sacks Wexford, killing over 2,000 Irish Confederate troops and 1,500 civilians. 1776 – American Revolution: A fleet of American boats on Lake Champlain is defeated by the Royal Navy, but delays the British advance until 1777. 1797 – The Royal Navy decisively defeats the Batavian Navy at Camperdown during the French Revolutionary Wars. 1811 – The Juliana begins operation as the first steam-powered ferry in New York harbor. 1840 – The Maronite leader Bashir Shihab II surrenders to the Ottoman Empire and later is sent to Malta in exile. 1852 – The University of Sydney, Australia's oldest university, is inaugurated in Sydney. 1862 – American Civil War: Confederate troops conduct a raid on Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. 1865 – Hundreds of black men and women march in Jamaica, starting the Morant Bay rebellion. 1890 – In Washington, D.C., the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded. 1899 – The Second Boer War erupts in South Africa between the British-ruled Cape Colony, and the Boer-ruled Transvaal and Orange Free State. 1906 – San Francisco sparks a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Japan by ordering segregated schools for Japanese students. 1910 – Piloted by Arch Hoxsey, Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. 1912 – First Balkan War: The day after the Battle of Sarantaporo, Greek troops liberate the city of Kozani. 1918 – The 7.1 Mw San Fermín earthquake shakes Puerto Rico. The quake and resulting tsunami kill up to 116 people. 1937 – The Duke and Duchess of Windsor tour Nazi Germany for 12 days and meet Adolf Hitler on 22 October. 1941 – Beginning of the National Liberation War of Macedonia. 1942 – World War II: Off Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese force. 1944 – The Tuvan People's Republic is annexed by the Soviet Union.

[mash4077fruitmachine]

Klinger and the Lenny Bruce Story

So we know that Larry Gelbart created the part of Klinger partly based off of Lenny Bruce (the famous comedian). The tale goes that Bruce wore a woman’s naval (WAVE) uniform during World War II as a trick to get discharged. I happen to own his autobiography How to Talk Dirty and Influence People, which includes the full story (*a warning in advance for the slurs/ language used*). I honestly think it shows how much credit Jamie Farr should get for making a more three-dimensional character out of this.  

“In the Army you can get out if you’re a wack. Why couldn’t you get out of the Navy if you were a WAVE? Down in my bunk I had a copy of Psychopathia Sexualis by Krafft-Ebing. There it was. A transvestite is a nut who likes to get dressed up in women’s clothing. He may never engage in homosexual practice or do anything else antisocial. He’s completely harmless. But obviously he would be an inconvenience to the Navy, where they like to keep everything organized by having everyone dress alike.

I figured that if I could demonstrate to the Navy that I still had a great deal of patriotism and loyalty to the uniform, the old esprit de corps—rather than indulging myself with the obvious sort of feather-boa negligee and gold-lame mules drag outfit— then maybe instead of booting me out, they’d open the door politely and escort me out like an officer and a lady.

Swanson, one of my shipmates, could sew as well as a girl. He was also a beer addict. He’d do anything for a bottle of beer. In North Africa, Gibraltar, Malta, Corsica, Sicily—wherever we made port—they had given us chits that entitled us to so much beer. I didn’t drink beer, and I saved all my chits. Along with these—I won some gambling, and I also received quite a few for standing watch for different guys—I had enough beer chits to play Scrooge at an AA Christmas show. I gave my chits to Swanson, and his fingers flew to the task. The way he threw himself into his work made me wonder about him. With the pleats, the shields, everything, he made me a lieutenant.

For a while it was just scuttlebutt that a WAVE was seen promenading forward at the fo’c’sle during the midnight watch. A number of guys who saw it didn’t report it out of fear that they’d be given a Section 8 themselves. Finally one night I was doing my nautical Lady Macbeth when four guys, including the chief master-at-arms, jumped me. I yelled, “Masher!”

Four naval psychiatrists worked over me at Newport Naval Hospital.

FIRST OFFICER: “Lenny, have you ever actively engaged in any homosexual practice?”

LENNY: “No, sir.”

(An “active” homosexual is one who does the doing, and the “passive” is one who just lies back. In other words, if you were a kid and you were hitchhiking and some faggot came on with you and you let him do whatever his “do” was, he was an “active” homosexual because he performed a sexual act with someone of the same sex, and you are a “passive” homosexual if you allowed any of this to happen. You’ll never see this in an AAA driving manual, but that’s the way it is.)

SECOND OFFICER: “Do you enjoy the company of women?”

LENNY: “Yes, sir.”

THIRD OFFICER: “Do you enjoy having intercourse with women?”

LENNY: “Yes, sir.”

FOURTH OFFICER: “Do you enjoy wearing women’s clothing?”

LENNY: “Sometimes.”

ALL FOUR: “When is that?”

LENNY: “When they fit.”

I stuck to my story, and they finally gave up. Only, it didn’t work out the way I had figured it. They drew up an undesirable discharge.

At the last minute, though (this does sound like a fairy story, doesn’t it?), the Red Cross sent an attorney who reviewed the case and saw that the whole thing was ridiculous. There were no charges against me. The entire division was questioned, and when it was ascertained that I had a good credit rating in virility—based upon paid-up accounts in numerous Neapolitan bordellos—I received an honorable discharge.

So everything worked out all right, except that they took away my WAVE’S uniform. It bugged me because I wanted to have it as a sort of keepsake of the War. I wouldn’t ever wear it, naturally—except maybe on Halloween.” pg. 26-27

[justforbooks]

Clara Margery Melita Sharp was born on 25 January 1905. She was an English author of 25 novels for adults, 14 children's novels, four plays, two mysteries, and numerous short stories. Her best known work is The Rescuers series about two mice named Bernard and Miss Bianca, which was later adapted in two animated feature films – The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under – by Disney.

Sharp was born in the district of Salisbury in the county of Wiltshire, England, although her family originated from northern Yorkshire. She spent part of her childhood in Malta, a period she later drew on for her novel The Sun in Scorpio. In 1914 she returned to Britain and studied at Streatham High School. She read French at Bedford College, University of London. She then spent a year studying art at Westminster Art School. While studying she joined the British University Women's Debating Team and was a member of the first team to compete in the United States.

Punch magazine began publishing her stories when she was 21. She went on to write for a number of American and British magazines, including Harper's Bazaar, Ladies' Home Journal and Good Housekeeping. Sharp's first novel, Rhododendron Pie, took her a month to write and was published in 1930.

In 1938 she married aeronautical engineer Major Geoffrey Castle. During World War II she worked for three years as an Army Education Lecturer; during this time she wrote the novel Cluny Brown and worked on Britannia Mews, which described the bombing of London.

In 1940 her seventh novel, The Nutmeg Tree, was adapted into a Broadway play, The Lady in Waiting. In 1948 the book was adapted into the Hollywood film Julia Misbehaves, starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. One of her most popular novels, Cluny Brown, the story of a plumber's niece turned parlourmaid, was also made into a Hollywood film by Ernst Lubitsch in 1946, with Academy Award winner Jennifer Jones in the title role. The rights for the novel Britannia Mews were bought in 1946 by 20th Century Fox, and it was released as The Forbidden Street in 1949. The 1963 film The Notorious Landlady was based on her 1956 short story "The Notorious Tenant".

In 1959 she published The Rescuers, and though written for an adult audience it became hugely popular with children. Sharp continued the series with a further eight books, illustrated by Garth Williams – who had previously illustrated other children's classics such as Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little – and Erik Blegvad. In 1977 Walt Disney Productions released the animated feature film The Rescuers, which had critical acclaim and financial success, followed by a sequel, The Rescuers Down Under, in 1990.

Selected works

Adult novels

Rhododendron Pie (1930)

Fanfare for Tin Trumpets (1932)

The Nymph and The Nobleman (1932)

The Flowering Thorn (1934)

Sophy Cassmajor (1934)

Four Gardens (1935)

The Nutmeg Tree (1937), which was made into the film Julia Misbehaves

Harlequin House (1939)

The Stone of Chastity (1940)

Three Companion Pieces (1941) – contains Sophy Cassmajor, The Tigress on the Hearth and The Nymph and the Nobleman

Cluny Brown (1944), which was made into a movie of the same title

Britannia Mews (1946), which was made into the film The Forbidden Street

The Foolish Gentlewoman (1948)

Lise Lillywhite (1951)

The Gipsy in the Parlour (1954)

The Tigress on the Hearth (1955)

The Eye of Love (1957) – Martha Trilogy I

Something Light (1960)

Martha in Paris (1962) – Martha Trilogy II

Martha, Eric and George (1964) – Martha Trilogy III

The Sun in Scorpio (1965)

In Pious Memory (1967)

Rosa (1969)

The Innocents (1972)

The Lost Chapel Picnic and Other Stories (1973)

The Faithful Servants (1975)

Summer Visits (1977)

Children's novels

Melisande (1960)

Lost at the Fair (1965)

The Magical Cockatoo (1974)

The Children Next Door (1974)

The Rescuers series

The Rescuers (1959)

Miss Bianca (1962)

The Turret (1963)

Miss Bianca in the Salt Mines (1966)

Miss Bianca in the Orient (1970)

Miss Bianca in the Antarctic (1971)

Miss Bianca and the Bridesmaid (1972)

Bernard the Brave (1977)

Bernard into Battle (1978)

Other

"The Notorious Tenant" (1956), short story on which the movie The Notorious Landlady was based

Sharp died in Aldeburgh, Suffolk on 14 March 1991. In 2008 all of her adult books except for The Eye of Love were out of print, but in 2016 Kindle editions of ten of her novels were issued.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.11 (after 1920)

1920 – During the U.S. Republican National Convention in Chicago, U.S. Republican Party leaders gathered in a room at the Blackstone Hotel to come to a consensus on their candidate for the U.S. presidential election, leading the Associated Press to coin the political phrase "smoke-filled room". 1935 – Inventor Edwin Armstrong gives the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States at Alpine, New Jersey. 1936 – The London International Surrealist Exhibition opens. 1937 – Great Purge: The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin executes eight army leaders. 1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Wuhan starts. 1940 – World War II: The Siege of Malta begins with a series of Italian air raids. 1942 – World War II: The United States agrees to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union. 1942 – Free French Forces retreat from Bir Hakeim after having successfully delayed the Axis advance. 1944 – USS Missouri, the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, is commissioned. 1955 – Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least one hundred are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports. 1956 – Start of Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riots that target minority Sri Lankan Tamils in the Eastern Province. The total number of deaths is reportedly 150. 1962 – Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island. 1963 – American Civil Rights Movement: Governor of Alabama George Wallace defiantly stands at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalized National Guard troops, they are able to register. 1963 – Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam. 1963 – John F. Kennedy addresses Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which would revolutionize American society by guaranteeing equal access to public facilities, ending segregation in education, and guaranteeing federal protection for voting rights. 1964 – World War II veteran Walter Seifert attacks an elementary school in Cologne, Germany, killing at least eight children and two teachers and seriously injuring several more with a home-made flamethrower and a lance. 1968 – Lloyd J. Old identified the first cell surface antigens that could differentiate among different cell types. 1970 – After being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially receive their ranks as U.S. Army general officers, becoming the first women to do so. 1971 – The U.S. Government forcibly removes the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control. 1978 – Altaf Hussain founds the student political movement All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) in Karachi University. 1981 – A magnitude 6.9 earthquake at Golbaf, Iran, kills at least 2,000. 1987 – Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant are elected as the first black MPs in Great Britain. 1998 – Compaq Computer pays US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the largest high-tech acquisition. 2001 – Timothy McVeigh is executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing. 2002 – Antonio Meucci is acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress. 2004 – Cassini–Huygens makes its closest flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe. 2007 – Mudslides in Chittagong, Bangladesh, kill 130 people. 2008 – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes a historic official apology to Canada's First Nations in regard to abuses at a Canadian Indian residential school. 2008 – The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched into orbit. 2010 – The first African FIFA World Cup kicks off in South Africa.

[xf-2]

★　なんという悪辣さ！　

驚きました。朝日がこんな手口で日本を貶めていたとは。完全に見落としていました。

8月9日に偶然、朝日新聞英語版ホームページを見ました。そうしたら慰安婦について「戦時中の日本軍にセックスを提供するよう強制された(forced to provide sex to wartime Japanese troops)」と明記しているではありませんか！　驚きました。 www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201908080077.html 朝日の社長が「慰安婦強制連行報道は捏造でした。申し訳ありません」と謝罪したことを日本人は皆知っています。2014年9月12日の一面トップに「本社、記事取消謝罪」とデカデカと出ました。ところが知識が不十分な海外にむけて、いまだに英語で「強制」のデマを拡散していたのです。

朝日英語版チェックを習慣にしたら、さまざまな「角度」をつけて日本を貶めた記事を多数発見しました。日本の国益がどれほど損なわれただろうと思うと暗澹たる気持ちになります。世界各国の外務省東アジア担当者や、国際メディア関係者も読んでいるのです。彼らは朝日英語版を読んで政策をつくったり記事を書いたりしています。悪影響は計り知れません。もはや報道テロといっていいレベルです。

さっそくツイッターで告発すると２万件以上の「いいね」をいただきました。櫻井よしこさんや門田隆将さんや西村幸祐さんや坂東忠信さんなどの著名人も朝日英語版の問題点を指摘してくれました。 https://twitter.com/JapanLobby/status/1159844603085783041

しかし世界にむけた朝日の反日宣伝は止まりません。すぐに解決する方法は残念ながらありません。心ある日本人が朝日の卑劣さを多くの人に知らせ、不買運動を拡大していくしか対処策がないのが現実です。

朝日新聞東京本社（画像：Kakidai）

★　原発デマ助長まで！

具体例をいくつか紹介します。 8月10日の記事は、森友学園問題で財務省幹部不起訴の結論が出たものの「アベに疑問が残る」と世界に発信しています。海外向けの「安倍総理は怪しい奴」という信用棄損工作です。実にやり口が汚い。「疑問」とは、要は朝日がなにも立証できなかったということです。一般企業についてこんな記事を出せば名誉棄損で起訴される可能性すらあります。 http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201908100036.html

8月11日の記事では、選挙期間中に安倍総理の応援演説を妨害して排除された者による「事実上独裁体制下に生きている」との極端な主張を紹介しました。日本が強権的な後進国と海外に宣伝しています。演説妨害が公職選挙法に抵触する恐れがあることは最後に少し触れただけです。記事を最後まで読まない読者が多いことなど朝日記者は百も承知です。 http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201908110031.html

8月15日の記事では元慰安婦と称する老婆の写真を出し、慰安婦を「戦時中の日本兵にセックスを提供するよう強制された女性(women forced to provide sex to wartime Japanese soldiers)」と表現しました。そして文在寅が日本を非難せず対話を求めていると宣伝しています。国際社会に日本が頑なな態度をとっていると印象づけ、悪役に仕立てようという意図は見え見えです。 http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201908150059.html

8月16日の記事では中国系マレーシア人富豪にインタビューして「マレーシアをイギリス植民地支配から解放したと主張する日本人をどう思いますか？」と反日発言を誘導しました。結局富豪からは伝聞の虐殺事件しか引き出せませんでした。７７年前の伝聞など証拠能力ゼロであることを朝日記者が知らないはずありません。それでも敢えて取り上げ、全世界に向けて「残虐な日本軍」をアピールしました。 http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201908160047.html

同じく8月16日に掲載された社説は「どのツラ下げて」の内容です。「アベは戦争や近隣諸国に与えた損害について深い反省を表明しなかった。常に深い反省を表明しろ」と要求しています。ならば朝日英語版ＨＰは捏造謝罪文をトップに固定すべきです。自作自演で傷つけたサンゴの写真をロゴに使ったらいいです。 http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201908160024.html

8月17日の社説は櫻井よしこさんに非難された後ですが、慰安婦が「戦時中の日本兵にセックス提供を強制された(forced to provide sex to wartime Japanese soldiers)」と明記しています。自社の捏造には一切触れていません。そして日本は韓国に妥協すべきといった主張を展開します。 http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201908170017.html

8月20日の記事は福島の人を傷つける卑劣極まりないものです。韓国政府が原発汚染水（tainted water）処理の説明を求めた、日本産食品から放射能が検出され韓国野党が規制を求めたと報じる一方、主張の不当性を説明していません。 http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201908200054.html

どす黒い意図が明確になるのは8月23日です。日本語版で「福島の汚染水　長期保管を考えるには」と題した社説がでました。 https://www.asahi.com/articles/DA3S14149204.html ところが翻訳された英語版では、「東京電力は保管原発汚染水の扱いについて情報開示せよ(TEPCO should be open in dealing with storage of tainted water)」という題になっています。なにも知らない海外の読者が、危険な隠蔽工作があったのだろうとの印象を受けるタイトルです。 http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201908230028.html

海外の読者は福島原発についての情報が日本の１０分の１以下で、恐怖心もあるのでデマに飛びつきやすいものです。韓国政府が公式にデマ拡散を行っているので尚更です。日本のメディアなら福島産食品に関するデマを根絶するべく細心の注意を払い、しつこいくらい注意書きを載せるべきなのに、朝日は韓国と一緒になって煽っているのです。 朝日は「事実を報道したまで」と言い訳するでしょう。しかし海外読者がどういう印象を受けるか、専門家である新聞社が知らないはずありません。報道を装ったデマ助長は極悪非道というほかありません。

同じ8月23日にはＧＳＯＭＩＡ破棄は日本が悪いと世界に向けて宣伝する記事を出しています。タイトルは「文のシグナルは無視された（Moon's signal ignored）」と入る異様なものです。文在寅が対話と協力を呼び掛けたのに日本がシカトしたと強調しています。しかも「かつて韓国を侵略した（invaded）日本」と書いています。日韓併合は条約によるもので、侵略ではありません。 http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201908230042.html

また8月23日記事でも「慰安婦とは第二次世界大戦前および戦中に日本軍にセックス提供を強制された女性の婉曲表現（Comfort woman is a euphemism for women who were forced to provide sex to Japanese troops before and during World War II）」と書いています。 www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201908230062.html

8月28日記事では日本の「受け入れがたい経済的報復措置」について韓国首相が「対話を求めている」と報じました。韓国は紳士的なのに、日本が一���的に嫌がらせをしていると欧米に印象づける記事です。むろん韓国からイラン・シリアへの大量破壊兵器関連物資密輸については「報道をしない自由」を行使しています。国際平和より反日宣伝を優先する態度は偽善者そのものです。 http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201908280035.html

たった20日でこれだけ日本を貶めているのです。過去数十年間、どれほど日本に害をなしてきたことでしょう！

★　被害軽減のために

ここで皆様にお願いがあります。ほんの少しだけお時間をください。朝日の日本攻撃による被害を少しでも軽減するために、世界各国の国連代表部に「韓国からイラン・シリアに危険物資が密輸されています！」と訴える同報メールをお送りいただきたいのです。 送り先と例文は下記のとおりです。コピペならたったの１分で世界百数十ヶ国の国連大使にメッセージを届けることができます。日本を守るためちょっとだけ労力を割いてください。よろしくお願いします。

◆　送り先 （宛先を自分にして、ＢＣＣに下記をコピーしてください。3回に分けないと送れない場合があります） mission.geneve@mfa.gov.al, contact@mission-algeria.ch, missionandorra@bluewin.ch, ambmission.angola@bluewin.ch, highcommission@antigua-barbuda.com, argentina@missionarg.ch, mission.armenia@bluewin.ch, un.geneva@dfat.gov.au, genf-ov@bmeia.gv.at, geneva@mission.mfa.gov.az, info@bahamasmission.ch, info@bahrain-mission.ch, permanentmission.geneva@mofa.gov.bd, geneva@foreign.gov.bb, belarus.geneva@mfa.gov.by, geneva@diplobel.fed.be, blzun@belizemission.com, info@missionbenin.ch, bhutanmission.geneva@mfa.gov.bt, contact@mission-bolivia.ch, mis.zeneva@mvp.gov.ba, botgen@bluewin.ch, delbrasgen@itamaraty.gov.br, brunei.geneva@mfa.gov.bn, info@mission-bulgarie.ch, mission.burkina@ties.itu.int, mission.burundi217@gmail.com, cap.vert@bluewin.ch, camemb.gva@mfaic.gov.kh, mission.cameroun@bluewin.ch, genev-gr@international.gc.ca, contact@missioncentrafrique.ch, mission.tchad@bluewin.ch, misginchile@minrel.gob.cl, donu.suiza@cancilleria.gov.co, missioncomores.onug@gmail.com, miscr-onug@rree.go.cr, cotedivoire@bluewin.ch, cromiss.geneva@mvep.hr, embacuba@ch.embacuba.cu, cyprus@cyprusmission.ch, mission.geneva@embassy.mzv.cz, missionrdc@bluewin.ch, gvamis@um.dk, mission.djibouti@djibouti.ch, info@dominicahighcommission.co.uk, onug@mirex.gob.do, onuginebra@cancilleria.gob.ec, mission.egypt@bluewin.ch, mision.ginebra@rree.gob.sv, mision.guineaecuatorial_gva@yahoo.com, mission.un@mfa.ee, swazimission-geneva@dslnets.ch, info@ethiopianmission.ch, mission@fijiprunog.ch, sanomat.gen@formin.fi, missionfrance@bluewin.ch, mission.gabon@gabon-onug.ch, missionofthegambiageneva@gmail.com, geomission.geneva@mfa.gov.ge, info@genf.diplo.de, info@ghanamission.ch, grdel.gva@mfa.gr, grenada.mission@gmail.com, onusuiza@minex.gob.gt, mission.ambagui@gmail.com, pmog.gv@gmail.com, mphonu.geneve@diplomatie.ht, mission@hondurasginebra.ch, gva.missions@mfa.gov.hu, icedel.genf@utn.stjr.is, india.geneva@mea.gov.in, geneva@mission-indonesia.org, missionofiran@gmail.com, iraq.unog@mofa.gov.iq, genevapmun@dfa.ie, mission-israel@geneva.mfa.gov.il, rappoi.ginevra@esteri.it, info@jamaicamission.ch, mission@gv.mofa.go.jp, info@jordanmission.ch, mission@kazakhstan-geneva.ch, geneva@kenyamission.ch, info@kuwaitmission.ch, kyrgyzmission@bluewin.ch, laomission_geneva@bluewin.ch, mission.un-gen@mfa.gov.lv, lebanon@lebmissiongva.org, info@lesothomission.org, p.mission@liberia-unog.ch, mission.libye@bluewin.ch, mission.liechtenstein@gva.llv.li, mission.ch@urm.lt, geneve.rp@mae.etat.lu, ambamadsuisse@bluewin.ch, mission.malawi@mwgva.org, mwgeneva@kln.gov.my, info@MaldivesMission.ch, mission.mali@bluewin.ch, malta-un.geneva@gov.mt, mission.mauritania.geneva@gmail.com, mauritiusembassy@bluewin.ch, mission.mexico@ties.itu.int, mission.geneve@gouv.mc, mongolie@bluewin.ch, missionofmontenegro@bluewin.ch, maroc@mission-maroc.ch, mission.mozambique@bluewin.ch, mission@myanmargeneva.org, info@missionofnamibia.ch, mission.nepal@bluewin.ch, gev@minbuza.nl, embajada.ginebra@cancilleria.gob.ni, missionduniger1@gmail.com, info@nigerian-mission.ch, mission.geneva@mfa.no, missionoman@bluewin.ch, geneva@pakistanmission-un.org, missionpanamageneva@mire.gob.pa, info@misionparaguay.ch, misionperu@onuperu.org, mission@genevapm.ph, genewa.onz.sekretariat@msz.gov.pl, missaonuoi@mne.pt, geneva@mofa.gov.qa, mission.romania@romaniaunog.org, geneva-onu@mae.ro, mission.russian@vtxnet.ch, ambageneve@minaffet.gov.rw, contact@missionstlucia.ch, mission.rsm@hotmail.com, gassgemi@mofa.gov.sa, mission.senegal@ties.itu.int, mission.senegal.gva@bluewin.ch, serbian.mission@bluewin.ch, geneva@seymission.ch, mission@sierraleonegeneva.ch, mfa_geneva@mfa.gov.sg, pm.geneva@mzv.sk, slomission.geneva@gov.si, info@solomonislandsmission.ch, Genevamission@mfa.gov.so, mission@safricaun.ch, mission.rss.geneva@hotmail.ch, rep.ginebraoi@maec.es, prun.geneva@mfa.gov.lk, mission.libye@bluewin.ch, mission.sudan@bluewin.ch, sweden.geneva@gov.se, mission-geneve-oi@eda.admin.ch, tajikistanmission@bluewin.ch, tajmission.gva@mfa.tj, mission.thaigva@mfa.go.th, geneva@mfa.gov.mk, geral@timorlestemission.ch, info@mission-togo.ch, prungeneva@foreign.gov.tt, at.geneve@diplomatie.gov.tn, turkey.unog@mfa.gov.tr, office@turkmenistanmission.ch, chancery@ugandamission.ch, pm_un2@mfa.gov.ua, genevaunprm@mofaic.gov.ae, geneva_un@fco.gov.uk, geneva@nje.go.tz, GenevaUSmission@state.gov, urunugi@mrree.gub.uy, uzbekistan@bluewin.ch, info@vanuatumission.ch, mission.venezuela@onuginebra.gob.ve, geneva@mofa.gov.vn, geneva@mofa-ye.org, info@zambianmission.ch, zimbabwemission@bluewin.ch, nuntiusge@nuntiusge.org, palestine.un@bluewin.ch, au-geneva@africa-union.org, acpgen@bluewin.ch, geneva@commonwealth.int, delegation.geneva@gccsg.org, bureau.geneve@coe.int, dragana.filipovic@coe.int, delegation-geneva-un@eeas.europa.eu, geneva@idlo.int, reper.geneve@francophonie.org, delegation@bluewin.ch, oecsgeneva@oecs.org, geneva@oic-oci.org, info@pifs-geneva.ch, putman-cramer@pam.int, dfernandez@upeace.org, uemoa-bxl@skynet.be,

◆　例文 件名：WMD Materials Smuggled to Iran and Syriaなど （タイトルは個々別々のほうがいいので、できれば変えてください。From ・・とあなた様の名前を入れても構いません） 本文： Your Excellency

I am writing to urge the UN to investigate illegal exports of strategic materials that can be used to produce weapons of mass destruction from South Korea to Iran, Syria and other countries. South Korea's export control has serious flaws and there is a need for the UN to take immediate action.

The leading Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun reported on 11 July that according to a document made by South Korean Trade Ministry, between January 2016 and March of this year, there were 142 cases of illegal exports of strategic materials which the government took administrative measures. They included shipment of sodium fluoride, which can be used to make Sarin gas, to Iran, and shipment of biological safety cabinet, which can be used to make biological weapons, to Syria. https://www.sankei.com/world/news/190711/wor1907110002-n1.html

Nikkei Asian Review reported in English that in May 2018, centrifuge that can be used to enrich uranium was illegally shipped from South Korea to Russia. https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Moon-struggles-to-draw-Korean-executives-into-trade-spat-with-Japan

South Korea's Moon administration, known to be pro-North Korea and pro-China, has been "selective" in implementing sanctions on North Korea. Reuters reported on 23 January that South Korea failed to notify UN sanctions committee when it sent about 300 tonnes of petroleum products to North Korea in 2018. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-southkorea-sanctions/south-korea-selective-in-implementing-sanctions-on-north-group-idUSKCN1PH0D4

Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to rogue states and terrorist organizations remains one of the gravest threats to the international community. South Korea must not be allowed to undermine UN sanctions.

Thank you for your consideration.

Yours truly, （あなた様のお名前）

◆　翻訳文 大使閣下 韓国からイラン、シリアなどへの大量破壊兵器製造に転用できる戦略物資の不正輸出について国連が調査するよう求めます。韓国の輸出管理には重大な欠陥があり、国連が直ちに対処する必要があります。 日本の産経新聞は７月１１日、韓国通商省が作成した書類を引用して２０１６年１月から本年３月までの間に、韓国政府が行政処分を行った１４２件の戦略物資不正輸出事件があったと報じました。これにはサリン製造に使えるフッ化ナトリウムのイランへの密輸、また生物兵器製造に使える生物安全キャビネットのシリアへの密輸が含まれます。 （Japan Forwardに掲載された産経新聞記事英訳のＵＲＬ） 日経アジアンレビューは英語記事で、ウラン濃縮に使える遠心分離機が２０１８年５月に韓国からロシアに不正輸出されたと報じました。 （日経アジアンレビュー記事ＵＲＬ） 親北朝鮮・親中国で知られる韓国の文政権は、北朝鮮制裁を「選り好み」して履行してきました。ロイターは1月23日、韓国が2018年に石油精製品約300トンを北朝鮮に送ったときに国連制裁委員会への報告を怠ったと報じました。 （ロイター記事ＵＲＬ） 「ならず者国家」やテロ組織への大量破壊兵器拡散は、国際社会が直面する最も深刻な脅威の一つであり続けています。韓国が国連制裁を蝕むことは許されません。 ご検討ありがとうございます。

[rotarylavalette]

Talk: “The Role of Women in Malta During World War II” by Simon Cusens 26.04.2018

[savegraduation]

Aaliyah Would Be Proud

I'm James Landau, known on the Internet as Savegraduation.

I am starting this blog, Aaliyah Would Be Proud, to discuss one of most important and flammable issues of our time: youth rights. There are civil rights (for African-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Jewish-Americans, Arab-Americans, Native Americans, Mexican-Americans, Indian-Americans, Filipino-Americans, and others); there are women's rights; there are LGBT rights (for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people, and non-gender-binary people); there are workers’ rights (for union laborers); there are disability rights (for the physically challenged, the blind, the deaf, the mute, the obese, arthrogrypotics, epileptics, CPers, autistics, Aspies, Downies, people with bipolar, people with borderline, schizophrenics, Touretters, obsessive-compulsives, ADDers, PTSDers, etc.); and then there are youth rights. The youth rights movement seeks to abolish or lower the age of legal restrictions, as well as change informal societal attitudes, that look down on people below a certain age (often 18, 21, or 25) as inferior and undeserving of even basic human rights.

We youth-rightsers aim to lower the voting age to 16. To lower the drinking age back to 19 or 18. To lower the age of majority and age of emancipation to 16. To protect students’ rights at the mandatory institution known as school. To abolish age-discriminatory store policies (”no more than two high school students in at one time”). To extend the rights of medical consent to all people old enough to wish for or object to treatment, regardless of age. To stop punishing parents for their minor children’s crimes. To abolish the draft. To ease restrictions on younger workers, and stop employers from viewing young employees as a liability. To allow people under 16 to get a job without adults bellowing, “Child labor!” To guarantee to every American the right to practice the religion she or he wants to and express her/his mind without her/his parents having her/him arrested for “insubordination”.

Age-discriminatory laws run a wide spectrum of enormity. At one end are age restrictions of things, such as drinking alcohol, smoking weed, or gambling, that the majority of Americans today believe are morally wrong for youth to do. Then come other status crimes like teen curfew laws. Then come laws like the laws in America preventing under18s from voting (even though Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Austria, the Crown Dependencies, Scotland, and Malta already allow 16-year-olds-to vote; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_age#Chronology_of_lowering_the_voting_age_to_16 ). Then come the oversteps of strict parents and Skinneresque faculty at K-12 schools, trying to prevent boys from wearing earrings, or censor the school paper because the principal doesn't like the angle of a particular student-written story or editorial. At the far end are stories of teens being abducted from their homes and taken into gulag camps simply because they have parents who don't like their nonconformity. Teens having their most beloved possessions destroyed or thrown away by their parents. Teens having to drive over state lines into states that will vaccinate them, lest they die before their eighteenth or even nineteenth birthdays because their parents refuse to let them have a vaccine . . . and also the less lucky teens who died already because a state legislature decided a parent's wishes trump a teen's concerns. 16-year-olds who have been seeking emancipation for a long time and then get kicked out to house by their parents (to their initial delight), only for the parents to then lie and report their child as a runaway, and having the mendacious parents rather than the truthful teen believed because of pervasive ageist attitudes and stereotypes, vitiating the minor's eligibility for emancipation. Gay teens undergoing the atrocious conversion therapy. Parents who take their 12-year-old sons to get circumcised against their sons' wishes. (And judging by their "Being a minor is only temporary!" argument, ageists seem to believe the boy's foreskin will magically regenerate on his eighteenth birthday.) If, when you hear the phrase "youth rights violations", you think simply of "You have to be 21 to drink", think again.

The title of this blog came from the R&B singer Aaliyah, who was born at the beginning of the Millennial Generation in January of 1979 and succumbed in a plane crash in 2001. In 1994, at the age of 15, Aaliyah released an album titled Age Ain't Nothing but a Number. Aaliyah lived her life to the fullest, not kowtowing to ageist laws and attitudes, and it was a good thing she did, because her life lasted only 22 years. I like to believe that if Aaliyah were to read my blog today, she would be proud of me for making the case for youth rights.

The seed of this Tumblr blog was planted several months ago, when a member of the NYRA Youth Rights Discussion Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/NYRAyouthrights/ told us about the Tumblr blog he had started on the topic of adult privilege (as analogous to male privilege, White privilege, straight privilege, etc.). Even though this blogger was an adult himself, he was swamped upon posting his first entry from people who wrongly assumed he was a kid who was upset because his parents wouldn't buy him an iPhone.

It is common among Gen-Xers (born 1964-1978) to be unaware that it's normal for Millennials (born 1979-2004) -- even the ones in our twenties or thirties, or who turned 40 this year -- to take many pro-YR positions, such as suffrage for 16-year-olds or restrictions on parental authority. These ignorant people assume that anyone starting a blog about ageism and ephebophobia (the fear of youth) must be "some kid", and that their concerns must be about positive rights (entitlement), rather than pressing negative rights.

Underlying this ignorance is a big myth surrounding generations that states every generation follows the same lifecycle as the Baby Boomers (born 1943-1957) did: they are innocent as children, then turn into wild, pot-smoking, socially liberal teen-agers who argue fiercely for youth rights, then go on being young and idealistic until they have children of their own and settle down . . . to then become "responsible", socially conservative adults who considered their younger selves to be irresponsible and misguided, raise their own kids strictly, start claiming "marijuana is illegal for a reason", and oppose youth rights. Or so the narrative goes.

But not every generation in Anglo-American history has followed this lifecycle. Take the Silent Generation (born 1925-1942), for instance. They began as Shirley Temples and Alfalfas amid the Great Depression and World War II, then spent their teens being a low-crime generation, despite all the Blackboard Jungle concern about juvenile delinquency and gangs. They married young. During the Postwar Era of 1950′s America, some of their members were beatniks, or invented rock-and-roll, or crusaded for the Civil Rights movement (after all, Chuck Berry and Martin Luther King, Jr. were Silents), but more often they kept their heads down, being grey-flannel-suit fathers who focused on their careers instead of activism, or barefoot-and-pregnant mothers who focused on being the perfect housewife. William Manchester wrote of fifties-era high school and college students: "Never had American youth been so withdrawn, cautious, unimaginative, indifferent, unadventurous -- and silent." They were indulgent parents, however, raising the Baby Boomers to the tune of Dr. Spock. Then they hit 40, and had their "midlife crisis", realizing they had wasted their youth being so un-rebellious. They started riding motorcycles and growing ponytails in middle age, and during the Vietnam Era, they generally raised their Baby Boomer and Joneser (born 1958-1963) kids permissively. It was a Silent, 1932-born Ted Kennedy, who proposed amending the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to lower the voting age to from 21 to 18 at a national level, and argued in Oregon v. Mitchell that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment meant Congress could pass voting-age-related legislation at a federal level.

The "all generations are the same" myth notwithstanding, there is another, competing big myth prevalent today. This myth states that today's youth are "the worst" ever. Older Americans often indulge in saying that the Millennial Generation is the worst generation ever . . . or at least was until the Fifth World Generation (born 2005-today) came along. Memes posted by Boomers and Xers on the Internet say that when they were growing up, youth respected their elders, parents spanked their kids without fearing CPS, the spankings did no harm, and children freely "drank from the garden hose". Do they even remember the accusations during the sixties that teens had "no respect for their elders", "no respect for authority"? Older generations like to stereotype Millennials and Fifth Worlders as generations of Eloi, genetically attached to their smartphones, phones that are smarter than they are. Mark Bauerlein titled his book on Millennials The Dumbest Generation.

Are Millennials really the worst, dumbest generation ever? Nope. As sociologist Mike Males wrote in an LA Progressive article : "Imagine that a time-liberated version of vigilante George Zimmerman sees two youths walking through his neighborhood: black, hoodied Trayvon Martin of 2012, and a white teen from 1959 (say Bud Anderson from Father Knows Best). Based purely on statistics of race and era, which one should Zimmerman most fear of harboring criminal intent? Answer: He should fear (actually, not fear) them equally; each has about the same low odds of committing a crime." From 1982 to 2012, crime rates among African-American youth plummeted: property offenses declined by 51%, assault declined by 59%, robbery declined by 60%, rape declined by 66%, and even murder declined by 82%. And even though Donald Trump said in 2017 that "The murder rate in our country is the highest it's been in 47 years", the murder rate in America has in fact been halved since its 1991 peak. Far from the fabled heathens who have no morals because their parents didn't spank them, Millennial teens and twentysomethings, whatever their race, have too many moral compunctions to murder, rape, burglarize, or assault someone or set fire to someone's beloved belongings. Sadly, the stereotype that today's youth, especially boys and especially African-Americans, are "superpredators" persists, and has cops and security officers shooting and killing Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Freddie Gray. People often support their fears by using the thinnest of anecdotal evidence: “Look at Columbine, they were teens!”

And "kids have no respect for their elders"? So what. Just as Boomer youth were right in questioning their homophobic, pro-war elders from the Greatest Generation (born 1911-1924) during the Vietnam War, today's youth are not necessarily in the wrong for speaking out against a parent, uncle, teacher, principal, coach, or psychologist-they-were-sent-to-after-being-diagnosed-with-ODD when said elder tells them that boys shouldn't grow their hair long, or that it's "inappropriate" for two girls to kiss, or that only paranoid alarmists believe in climate change, or that George W. Bush must be followed, right or wrong, or that kids must never express disagreement with adults on even as subjective and trivial a matter as whether the weather today is nice.

And the accusation that Millennials and Fifth Worlders are stupid? Co-champions were declared at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2014, 2015, and 2016, for only the fourth, fifth, and sixth times since the bee's inception in 1925. Then came 2019, when the spellers were so good that Scripps ended up with an EIGHT-way tie! Word lists got increasingly harder; the winning words from 1935 to 1941 were "intelligible", "eczema", "promiscuous", "sanitarium", "canonical", "therapy", and "initials", while the winning words from 2007 to 2013 were "serrefine", "guerdon", "Laodicean", "stromuhr", "cymotrichous", "guetapens", and "knaidel".

Other ageists listen to media frenzies over teens eating Tide Pods and snorting condoms. The moral panic over these "trends", however, has turned out to be a tempest in a teapot. Reports of being poisoned by laundry detergent pods were actually down in 2018, at the same time the media hype over this alleged teen fad was spiking. The trend stories were trend pieces reporting on previously written trend pieces, with acts of detergentophagy less common than the media would have their unwitting dupes believe. As the Washington Post wrote: "There's just one small problem, however: Those headlines were wrong. The only thing viral about the condom challenge right now is the moral panic about the idea of teens doing the condom challenge. In a matter of days, word spread from a single local news report to a small army of local and national publications across the world, all warning about a challenge that, in 2018, barely exists." As a Snopes page discusses, claims to fake "teen challenges" have been around for a long time. Sorry, but real youth are not as dumb as urban folklore makes them out to be. The media is simply getting more ephebophobic.

A common misconception among ageists is that the reason youth rights activists who are older than about, say, 25 still support youth rights is that they are pedophiles. The fact of the matter is that most adult youth rights activists are still fighting for youth rights because they faced some instance of ageism, or a repeated barrage of instances of ageism, during their childhood and/or adolescence that scarred them for life.

I am a young adult, soon to be middle-aged. I had many run-ins with, and undeserved attempts at discipline and sociaLIESation from, my parents, teachers, school administrators, psychologists, psychiatrists, and random adults in the neighborhood as a child, teen, and college student. I was also the victim of nonconsensual medical treatment, as I'll open up about in later blog entries.

When I was in kindergarten, the class learned the song "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", of which I was horrified. I starting scraping my nails down my throat and sticking them out of my mouth whenever I heard the words "spider" or "goat". Over the next two years, the "purging" ritual I was developing went down to my groin, and more words (and objects!) were added from ages 6 to 22. Other words were dropped over the years.

Little did I know at age 6 that I was developing what I call "logaesthesia", or word-tasting. When I hear or read one of those terrible words like "scxxt" or "whxxps", I get the sensation that I have swallowed the word. It's as if it's inside of me, slumbering in my intestines and attracting intestinal slime. To hear or read a word is to take in. I can never read an article without feeling as if I'm taking a drink of that article's waters, feasting on a repast of bread, beef stew and almond roca from the article. The same with listening to conversation. The words, further, have specific tastes when I eat them. When I hear the word "whxxps", for instance, I immediately taste whipped cream. The whipped cream is there right inside of me, its cold creaminess sitting in the front seat of my pants. Would you like you have whipped cream in your pants? That's what it feels like to me. The word "mxss" tastes like oatmeal. "Scxxt" tastes like cooked carrot, like the carrot in pot roast. "Jxggle" tastes like red hots -- the candies -- while "jingle" as well as "t-ngle" taste like those tiny spherical hard candies you put on cupcakes. "Xll xver the plxce" tastes like pasta-ey soup, a soup like Spaghetti-O's perhaps. And "ice xxxxx", of course, tastes like ice xxxxx.

And it's not only the words that make me purge that have a taste. Many of the innocuous words do too. For instance, "trump" tastes like sautéed mushrooms. "Doodle" tastes like macaroni. "Kentucky" tastes like fried chicken. With my logaesthesia, I am a person to whom words do more than convey semantic meanings. To you, "tale" is just a word for a story, but to me it conjures up the taste of lasagna, the pasta in lasagna with a light sauce on it. Even names can have tastes to them: Greg tastes like chocolate Easter egg, while the name Kevin tastes of ice xxxxx cone and Tiffany of lemon meringue pie.

To avoid coming in contact with these words, I don't watch television, nor do I go to the movies. I avoid coming into chatrooms as much as I can, too. Logaesthesia affects my life when it prevents me from doing certain things such as these. I also used to suffer while surfing the Internet and had to copy-and-paste a lot of posts from the Net into Notepad and use Find & Replace on them. Now I have a Greasemonkey filter that replaces the offending words.

The object triggers in logaesthesia also affect my quality of life. To avoid coming across things that make me purge, such as spiders and cobwebs around my parents' house, or plastic silverware in restaurants, or Winnie the Pooh and Spider-man garbage in stores, I have to close my eyes, or at the very least cup my hand in front of my eyes so I only see the aisles in front of me. It makes it hard for me to make my way around a store when I can't allow myself to look around, and sometimes I even bump into shelves. I can't push shopping carts or wheelchairs when we go into public places, unless we're going to someplace where everything is safe, such as See's Chocolates.

I often go into rooms alone so I have a place to purge where no one will see that I am purging. I used to purge in public, but eventually the rituals got so deep into my groin that I had to unbutton my pants and couldn't do it in public anymore. I am not prudish about other people seeing me, but I am afraid that other people might tell me my behavior is "inappropriate" or "socially unacceptable" if they see me purging, so I need to hide my purging to save my fragile soul.

Because of my condition, teachers and other adults who had convinced themselves that I was masturbating, or even who insisted it was "inappropriate" even if it wasn't really masturbating, because of society's taboo against what they called "putting your hands in your pants" (ooh, how I hated that phrase) have tried to socialize me, talked down to me, and then told me I was wrong for contradicting an adult when I defended myself. All the "socialization" I received in high school, all the being forced to do things, all the fascist comments that my behavior was "inappropriate" or "socially unacceptable", haunt me to this very day. I still think back weekly to run-ins with authoritarian teachers that happened during my school years, triggered by the logaesthesia or other, non-logaesthesia-related events, causing me to yell, bite myself, punch my skull, and punch my abdomen as if slicing open a watermelon. If I had only been given the chance to stop going to school, to live away from my parents, to move to Berkeley, I may have been able to get away from it all before too much damage was done.

It doesn't help me much either that I have never heard of another person having logaesthesia. OCD? Yes. Lexical-gustatory synaesthesia? I've met a few such people online. But the two in synergy? I've never even read of it. It attests to the extreme rarity of my condition that I was the one who had to coin a word for it. And I feel lonely. People with ADD, Asperger's, social anxiety, Alzheimer's, or conduct disorder are a dime a dozen, especially on the Internet. But me? I really know the meaning of being lonely. Even the Ehlers-Danlos "zebras" have found each other on the Net.

Let me tell you more about myself. I am writing a rock musical about Millennials, called The Bittersweet Generation, and had an alternative band called Red Cilantro during my late teens and early twenties. I have a collection of music on my iPod that includes such artists as Nirvana, Third Eye Blind, Smash Mouth, Fastball, the Beatles, Pink, Sia, The Naked and Famous, Florence + the Machine, Gotye, Enya, the Cranberries, the Sundays, Of Monsters and Men, Shaggy, KT Tunstall, Avril Lavigne, Hole, Michelle Branch, Lady Gaga, M83, Muse, Ingrid Michaelson, Bastille, Depeche Mode, the Weeknd, and Xymox, and listen to my headphones when I am out and about to avoid hearing purge words. I do my hair like Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, and always wear a turtleneck, khakis and sunglasses. I love trying new foods and eating old favorites such as lasagna, biscotti, sushi, Chinese food, Taco Bell, spice drops, ravioli, manicotti, rice crackers, cranberry juice, challah, suman antala, dolmas, quiche, pomegranate juice, Brussels sprouts, banh mis, enchiladas, rambutans and piroshkis. When one of my friends was diagnosed with cancer, I tried to get everyone we knew to pray for her. I like spending time with my friends, both male and female, whom I love to a degree more typical of friendships between two females than of male-male or male-female friendships.

Another abnormality I suffer is a sensation I call That Feeling. I will be in the middle of an activity, or just lying down, when all of a sudden I feel as if spiders are going to fall down from the ceiling onto me. I begin constantly looking for spiders on the ceiling, and checking my own hands for specks of dead spider that may have gotten on my hands from handling objects -- again and again. I feel as if my eyes are going to cross. It feels as if I am using 110% of my brain. I notice every object and sound around me equally, and have a hard time telling my surroundings from my own thoughts. My eyes can't make sense out of the pictures I see online. This has been happening to me since 2009. I'll call my caretaker and tell him, "I've got That Feeling again", and he'll know what I mean.

I am cismale, bisexual, Jewish, deist, a beatnik, ENFP, 4w3sx, Virgo, Californian, anarcho-syndicalist, bearded, anosmic, and childfree, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. I was born sunny-side-up with a single umbilical artery. On Simon Baron Cohen's tests, I got an empathizing quotient of 32, a systemizing quotient of 17, and an AQ of 24.

I've participated in, and read, many debates on the voting age, the drinking age, parental authority, school dress codes, medical consent, the youth rights movement as a whole, or just the whole concept of taking kids seriously -- I've seen them on Internet fora, on the comments sections of news websites, and in the emails I've received. And every place youth rights issues have been debated online, I've seen certain very shoddy and fallacious arguments against youth rights regurgigated again and again. If you're active in the youth rights movement, or even if you just read the comments sections at the Washington Post, you've probably heard them all: "Being a minor is only temporary", "You can wait", "16-year-olds will vote like their parents", "Young people think they're immortal", "I supported youth rights when I was younger but then outgrew that position", "You'll change your mind when you're older", "The only adults who still support youth rights are pedophiles", "If 16-year-olds are deemed incapable of signing a contract, how can they be mature enough to vote?" (the de jure fallacy), "My house, my rules", "Emancipation will solve everything", "Kids aren't oppressed -- they don't have to pay bills!", "Teens were eating Tide Pods a week ago", statements beginning "Society has decided . . .", and the red herring question "Bah, what about child labor?" Many of the posts in this blog will be centered around focusing on a certain argument and refuting it.

Then there are the scientific claims, published even by respected scientists, that claims teens have immature, underdeveloped, etc. brains, which first became trendy during the nineties. In a 2007 Scientific American article titled "The Myth of the Teen Brain", psychologist Robert Epstein exposes this as junk science. As Epstein points out, the studies that examine adolescent brains, teen-age pathologies, and teen angst do not distinguish cause from effect. Teen-age ills are caused by the restrictions on youth and segregation of teens from adults that got started in the early twentieth century. Teens in preindustrial societies do not show high rates of crime, and spend most of their time with adults. They do not feel teen angst. When Western-style schooling and television are brought to these societies, the adolescent members of these now Westernized societies begin to exhibit delinquency and teen angst. The Inuit living on Victoria Island, Canada had no problem with juvenile delinquency until their community was Westernized in the eighties, and by 1988 they had established their first permanent police department now that the worms had escaped from the can. Epstein also points out that brain imaging studies show only a correlation between age and brain anatomy, not a causal relationship. While the orthodoxy in the 1970's was that the brain reached its adult state at 18, and in the 1990's the line changed to "The brain isn't fully developed until 25", research in the 2010's now reveals that a person's brain in fact continues to develop and change for her/his whole life.

It's enlightening to see the kind of junk science that was used in its own time against women's suffrage, as in this recent article in the Atlantic.  Note that William P. Sedgwick, an outspoken opponent of women's suffrage who claimed voting would be bad for women's brains, was a reputable professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But all of that will be delved into in more detail in my blog entries in the weeks, months, and years to come. I've been writing about youth rights and ageism for more than two decades, and I do believe it is high time I had a blog on it. I have a moral philosophy I call bixochromatism (which in a nutshell states that the freedom to be in control of one's own decisions is more important than making what people tell you is a "good" or "wise" decision), which I will discuss in future posts. In the meantime, you can read my essay, 10 Reasons to Support the Youth Rights Movement, at http://khemehekis.angelfire.com/10reasons.htm , or even browse the website of the National Youth Rights Association (NYRA) at https://www.youthrights.org/

In solidarity,

Savegraduation

[wannabealexjenningscoffee]

What I know about ...

My Fair Lady's Alex Jennings, who is 59 and married, talks about the significant women in his life.

My paternal grandmother, Eliza, was quite a character. Famously, she went off to pay the electricity and gas bill [in the 1930s], but instead bought a fur coat. I suppose the gas and electrics were cut off, but I don't know. From her, I think I got my slightly extravagant nature.

My mother, Peggy, worked for Cable & Wireless in telecommunications and during the last two years of World War II she was stationed in Malta. Once my older brother Tim and I came along, she looked after the house and after us. She was a brilliant cook and made the best chocolate cake in the world.

We lived in Essex, outside of London. Mum was the county chairman of the local Women's Institute and was very active in the community. She taught handicrafts and needlework. She was very creative.

My parents had a great relationship and were married for 60 years. Last Christmas, my 89-year-old dad, Michael, went to Malta to visit the places where my mother had been during the war. It was a really sweet thing to do and he was very glad to have gone.

Mum died four years ago. It's something you don't get over. I was a bit of a mummy's boy and we were very close. Her loss is very, very hard to bear.

I met my first significant girlfriend, Lesley [Moors], in 1975 and I am still with her. We did productions together at the University of Warwick, where I was doing English and theatre studies. Our first play was The Crucible. She got a part and I didn't - I was on the stage-management team and I was furious about that.

Lesley is a landscape gardener. Our terraced house in London has old-fashioned climbing roses running down the fences. She has a great eye for both the inside and outside of the house.

Together, we are a fantastic combination. We love each other and also make each other laugh, which is very important. We like being together. Lesley is a very strong person and very warm, with huge emotional intuition.

We married in 2012 at our local registry office with our children, Georgia and Ralph, as witnesses. We did it for tax purposes, as marriage brings favourable tax implications. If it weren't for those, neither of us would have done it. We didn't need to get married.

I played Prince Charles opposite Helen Mirren in the 2006 film The Queen. Her performance was remarkable. You wouldn't think Helen Mirren was remotely like Elizabeth II, but watching her performance you completely believed it.

Helen Mirren is sexy. She just is. But that's not all, by any means, there is to her. She is a brilliant, brilliant actress.

As an aspiring actor in the 1970s, I revered Maggie Smith. I saw her in Private Lives in the West End. Then, in 1985, I met her at the Chichester Festival Theatre, as she'd come to see a play I was in. I wasn't scared to meet Maggie, as she is one of the funniest people you'd hope to meet. She is sharp and incredibly witty, and she's entertaining to be with.

Maggie is one of the greatest actresses there is. Her, Meryl Streep and Judi Dench are my top three. She is a brilliant comedian and a brilliant tragedian with a formidable technique. She is hard on herself and is her own toughest critic.

I've been lucky to work with her on two occasions: The Importance of Being Earnest [London, 1993] and in last year's film The Lady in the Van. We go out to eat together and see each other at parties. I count her as a friend.

I play Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady but I'm not as puzzled about women as my character. He's an academic who just wants to be good at what he does, and thinks women will mess with that. He is very close to his mother, so I share that with him.

Anna O'Byrne is Eliza Doolittle. She's from Melbourne, has the most glorious singing voice and can act up a storm as well. She's going to be terrific.

Julie Andrews is directing us and working with her is a genuine thrill. She has a fabulous ear. Being in rehearsals with her is like being in a musical-comedy and acting master class.

Britain has experienced a phenomenal moment, as we now have a female prime minister. I just wish it wasn't Theresa May, as I don't like her politics. But I hope to God we have the first female president of America.

Hillary Clinton has an amazing mind. I trust her. The world needs some stability and I think she's the person to provide it.

There is so much men can learn from women: empathy, sympathy, emotional openness and a lack of bullshit. Women are intuitive and are kinder. Plus, they are less openly competitive - there's not that alpha-male competitiveness going on. In my view, women are better than men. 

- SMH -  By Robyn Doreian 8 September 2016 - 5:04pm

[heavyarethecrowns]

Those that have married in to the Royal Families since 1800

Sweden

Lady Louise Alexandra Marie Irene Mountbatten (13 July 1889 – 7 March 1965), previously Princess Louise of Battenberg

Louise was born a Princess of Battenberg at Schloss Heiligenberg, Seeheim-Jugenheim, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Her father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, who was Admiral of the Fleet in the United Kingdom, renounced his German title during World War I and anglicised his family name to "Mountbatten" at the behest of King George V. He was then created the first Marquess of Milford Haven in the peerage of the United Kingdom. From 1917, therefore, his daughter was known as "Lady Louise Mountbatten". Her mother was Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. 

Louise was a sister of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and of Princess Alice of Battenberg, who was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. She was also a niece of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia. 

Because of her father's work, the family moved around between different British territories, such as Malta, but they returned often to the Heiligenberg outside Darmstadt which they considered their holiday home, always retaining residence in England. Louise often visited her great-grandmother Queen Victoria on the Isle of Wight with her mother during her childhood. The family is described as harmonious; the parents of Louise lived in a happy loving relationship, not in an arranged marriage, and Louise was particularly close to her brother, with whom she corresponded until her death. Louise and her sister were educated by governesses, except for a brief period at Texter's girls school in Darmstadt. 

In 1914, Louise and her mother visited Russia, and were invited to a trip down the Volga with their Imperial relatives. During her visit, Louise noted the influence of Rasputin with concern. The trip was interrupted by the sudden outbreak of World War I, and Louise's father telegraphed for them to return immediately. Louise's mother gave her jewellery to the empress for safe keeping, and they left Russia by boat from Hapsal in Estonia and travelled to neutral Sweden, paying for the trip with gold, as their money was suddenly not acceptable currency in Russia. They stayed in Sweden as guests of the Crown Princely couple (her future husband and his then wife, Margaret of Connaught, who was also her first cousin once removed) at Drottningholm Palace, just one night before they returned to Great Britain. 

During World War I, Louise was first active within the Soldiers and Sailors Families Association and the Smokes for Soldiers and Sailors, but she soon enlisted in the Red Cross for service as a nurse. She was active at a French military hospital in Nevers, and then at a war hospital at Palaves outside Montpellier, from March 1915 until July 1917. She was commended for her hard work, and was awarded The British War and Victory Medals, a medal from the British Red Cross, as well as the Médaille de la Reconnaissance française. After the war, she was active in social work for the children in the slums of Battersea in London.

In 1909, Louise received a proposal from King Manuel II of Portugal. Edward VII was in favour of the match, but Louise declined, as she wished to marry for love. In 1913, having been deposed in 1910, Manuel married Princess Augusta Victoria of Hohenzollern in exile, but their marriage was childless. At the age of twenty, Louise became secretly engaged to Prince Christopher of Greece, but they were forced to give up their relationship for financial reasons. While living in exile more than 10 years later, he would wed the wealthy widow, Nancy Stewart Worthington Leeds, and after her death Christopher would marry Princess Françoise d'Orléans in 1929. Shortly before World War I broke out, Louise fell in love with a man of whom her parents approved but he was killed in the early days of the war. Later during the war, while she volunteered as a nurse in Nevers, she began a relationship with Alexander Stuart-Hill, a Scottish artist living in Paris. Anticipating that her parents would be disappointed in her choice, Louise kept their engagement a secret. Eventually, she confided in her parents, who were initially understanding, and invited Stuart-Hill for visits at Kent House twice. In fact, her family, referring to him as "Shakespeare" because of his odd appearance, found him "eccentric" and "affected". Lacking resources, the engaged couple agreed to postpone marriage until after the war. But in 1918 Louise's father explained to her that Stuart-Hill was most likely homosexual, and that a marriage with him was impossible.

In 1923 Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, having been for three years the widower of Louise's mother's cousin Princess Margaret of Connaught, paid a visit to London and, to Louise's surprise, began to court her. Although as a young woman Louise had said that she would never marry a King or a widower, she accepted the proposal of a man destined to be both. However, under §5 of the 1810 Swedish Succession Law (Act 1810:0926), a Prince of the Swedish royal house forfeited his right of succession to the throne if he "with or without the King’s knowledge and consent, married a private Swedish or foreign man’s daughter" (med eller utan Konungens vetskap och samtycke, tager till gemål enskild svensk eller utländsk mans dotter). Once the couple's engagement was announced, there were lively discussions in the media about whether the bride-to-be was constitutionally eligible to become Sweden's future queen. In response the Swedish Foreign Ministry, citing the law in question, clarified the term "a private Swedish or foreign man's daughter" to mean "he who did not belong to a sovereign family or to a family which, according to international practice, would not be equal thereto" (som icke vore medlem av suverän familj eller familj som enligt internationell praxis vore därmed likställd), and announced that the Swedish government had "requested the British government's explanation of Lady Louise Mountbatten's position in this respect." The ministry further announced that following the British government's reply to its inquiry and the subsequent investigation into the matter, it had been determined that the Crown Prince's choice of a future wife was in compliance with the succession law, thereby concluding debate on the imminent nuptials.

On 27 October 1923 Sweden and Britain's respective plenipotentiaries signed the "Treaty between Great Britain and Sweden for the Marriage of Lady Louise Mountbatten with His Royal Highness Prince Gustaf Adolf, Crown Prince of Sweden". The treaty stated, in part, that the kings of the United Kingdom and Sweden "having judged it proper that an alliance should again be contracted between their respective Royal Houses by a marriage...have agreed upon and concluded the following Articles", which articles declared that the marriage would be celebrated in London and duly authenticated, that the couple's financial settlements would be expressed in a separate marriage contract which was declared to be "an integral part of the present Treaty", and that the two nations' ratifications of the treaty would be exchanged in Stockholm, which formally occurred 12 November 1923. On 3 November 1923, at age 34, Louise married Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, in the Chapel Royal at St. James's Palace in the presence of King George V and members of both royal families.

The marriage between Louise and Gustav Adolf was by all accounts a love match and described as very happy. She was also liked by her mother-in-law because of her friendly nature, although they seldom saw each other, as Queen Victoria spent most of her time in Italy. The fact that the Queen spent most of her time abroad meant that Louise took on many royal duties from the beginning, which was initially hard for her as she was at this point described as quite shy. After the queen's death in 1930, Louise was officially the first lady of the nation, expected to perform all the duties of a Queen, twenty years before she actually became Queen. This meant that Louise was to take over the protection of all the organisations and associations traditionally assigned to the Queen. Regarding this matter, Louise remarked: "It is hard for me to be the protector of different institutions, as I have been accustomed to practical work, as an ordinary person, before my marriage". As a former nurse, a fact she was proud to point out, Louise was interested in improving the working conditions for nurses. Louise's only child, a daughter, was stillborn on 30 May 1925. 

In 1926–1927, the Crown Princely Couple made an international trip around the world to benefit Swedish interests, which was described as a great success, especially the trip to the United States, during which they travelled across the nation from New York City to San Francisco. Public interest was high, and the couple acquired a reputation for being "democratic", after having refused such formalities as greeting the guests at a reception sitting on thrones, which they had been invited to do at the reception of an American millionaire. During an interview in Salt Lake City, Louise stated that she believed in gender equality and that women are fully capable of being active within all professions and in the business world, as well as within politics: "Women are completely intellectually equal to men and, provided they are given sufficient education, are just as capable to deserve respect and admiration as men in this field". In 1934–35, she made a similar trip with Gustav Adolf to Greece and around the Middle East and Africa, called the Orient Tour. 

During World War II, Louise was active in aid work within the Red Cross. She collected candles and other non-electric light sources for the needy during the campaign "Vinterljus" (English: Winter Lights). Another contribution was Kronprinsessans Gåvokommitté för Neutralitetsvakten (English:"The Crown Princess Gift Association For the Neutral Defence Forces"), which provided the soldiers mobilised to guard the borders of neutral Sweden with gifts: normally socks, scarfs and caps knitted by contributors from all over the country. As a citizen of a neutral country, Louise was also able to act as a messenger between relatives and friends across warfaring borders. She also provided supplies to many private citizens in this way, such as "two old ladies in Münich", the former German language teacher of her husband's late wife, and the exiled Princess Tatiana of Russia in Palestine. It is said many would have died, had it not been for Louise's help. In 1940, for example, she sent supplies to the British major Michael Smiley at the Rifle Brigade, who was captured and placed in a prisoner of war camp, after his mother-in-law Alicia Pearson had asked for her help. During the Finnish Winter War, Louise set up a home for Finnish war orphans at Ulriksdal Palace

In 1950, Louise became Queen after accession to the throne of her husband. Louise is described as a true democrat at heart, and was therefore somewhat disturbed at being celebrated merely in her capacity of Queen. In reference to the attention, she remarked: "People look at me as if I were something special. Surely I do not look differently today from how I looked yesterday!" Louise disliked the strict pre-World War I protocol at court, retained during her mother-in-law's era, and reformed it when she became Queen, instituting new guidelines in 1954 which democraticised many old customs. In 1962, she abolished the court presentations, replaced them with "democratic ladies' lunches", to which she invited professional career women, a custom which was to continue under Princess Sibylla after her death. Louise also renovated and redecorated the interior of the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

Queen Louise had several Pomeranian dogs which she would hide about her person when visiting abroad which caused problems when travelling through customs (which she usually did under the pseudonym "Countess of Gripsholm" or "Mrs Olsson") After having taken summer vacations with her husband in Italy every year, she always departed before he did to visit England prior to returning to Sweden. A popular story told of her alleges that Louise, after almost being hit by a bus in London (because she would often jay-walk), took to carrying a small card with the words, "I am the Queen of Sweden" printed on it, so that people would know who she was in case she was hit by a vehicle. In London, she often stayed at the Hyde Park Hotel, often crossing a heavily trafficked street there to shop, which prompted her note.

In 1963, Louise accompanied her spouse on a state visit to France, where she made a great impression on President Charles de Gaulle. At dinner, she said to him: "I must ask you to excuse my ugly French. My French is the one spoken in the trenches of 1914." De Gaulle later attended her memorial in Paris, which was the first occasion for a French president to visit the Swedish church there, as well as one of only two occasions de Gaulle visited a memorial service of this kind. Queen Louise's last official engagement was the Nobel Prize dinner of 1964, during which no one noticed that she was in fact already ill.

Queen Louise died on 7 March 1965 at Saint Göran Hospital, in Stockholm, Sweden, following emergency surgery after a period of severe illness. She had made her last public appearance at the Nobel Prize Ceremony in December 1964. Queen Louise is buried beside her husband and his first wife, Crown Princess Margaret, in the Royal Cemetery in Solna north of Stockholm.

[kappavision]

A wash house built by Grand Master Raymond Perellos in 1710 for the increasing population of Ghajnsielem, Gozo. The Ghajn tal-Hasselin in Pjazza tad-Dehra. In 1954, it was decided - unbelievably but true - to demolish this historic wash house and entomb the spring that gave its name to the village. A replica of a traditional għajn tal-ħasselin was recently rebuilt. A project undertaken by the Ghajnsielem local council, which received a grant of €70,000 from an EcoGozo scheme, was completed and inaugurated in 2015. During excavation works, parts of the original wash house’s façade, back and side walls and floor tiles were discovered still in their original state. These were incorporated in the replica. A rock-hewn staircase leading to an underground World War II shelter at the site was also incorporated in the rebuilt wash house. A small belvedere was built on top of the building. MORE ABOUT From Ghajnsielem .com & The Times Of Malta. Ghajnsielem simply means Salem's spring. Salem is a very popular Arab name, extinct in Maltese. It is possible that the names goes back to the Arab rule and refers to its owner. The spring referred to in the toponym was situated at the end of Wied Simirat - the valley that terminates in the present square in the very centre of the village. In 1710, the Grand Master Raymond Perellos, after getting the approval of his Council General, ordered the construction of an arcade around the spring. Beneath the arcade, six stone washing basins were constructed, into which water from the spring was channeled. These facilities proved to be a boon to the increasing population of the late 18th and 19th century. The women found them especially suitable for washing laundry. For over two centuries, from dawn onwards the area around the spring was throngs with chattering woman. The woman-folk congregated there in the mornings washing the laundry in the troughs while the man lazing off their afternoon under the canopy of the mulberry trees. Rare where the occasions where the spring remained idle. According to old people, even at night one could hear the sound of splashing water and constant vigorous scrubbing. (at Għajnsielem) https://www.instagram.com/p/CKJB4ygH6lM/?igshid=1eghwdxbevta

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.16

946 – Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Murakami who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan. 1204 – Having been elected on May 9, Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire. 1426 – Gov. Thado of Mohnyin becomes king of Ava. 1527 – The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes itself as a republic. 1532 – Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England. 1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England. 1584 – Santiago de Vera becomes sixth Governor-General of the Spanish colony of the Philippines. 1739 – The Battle of Vasai concludes as the Marathas defeat the Portuguese army. 1770 – The 14-year-old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste, who later becomes king of France. 1771 – The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called The "Regulators", occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina. 1811 – Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom, defeat the French at the Battle of Albuera. 1812 – Imperial Russia signs the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Russo-Turkish War. The Ottoman Empire cedes Bessarabia to Russia. 1822 – Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli. 1832 – Juan Godoy discovers the rich silver outcrops of Chañarcillo sparking the Chilean silver rush. 1834 – The Battle of Asseiceira is fought, the last and decisive engagement of the Liberal Wars in Portugal. 1842 – The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail from Elm Grove, Missouri, with 100 pioneers. 1866 – The United States Congress establishes the nickel. 1868 – The United States Senate fails to convict President Andrew Johnson by one vote. 1874 – A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people. 1877 – The 16 May 1877 crisis occurs in France, ending with the dissolution of the National Assembly 22 June and affirming the interpretation of the Constitution of 1875 as a parliamentary rather than presidential system. The elections held in October 1877 led to the defeat of the royalists as a formal political movement in France. 1888 – Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances. 1891 – The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opens in Frankfurt, Germany, and will feature the world's first long-distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current (the most common form today). 1916 – The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic sign the secret wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement partitioning former Ottoman territories such as Iraq and Syria. 1918 – The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It will be repealed less than two years later. 1919 – A naval Curtiss NC-4 aircraft commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight. 1920 – In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc. 1929 – In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards ceremony takes place. 1943 – The Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends. 1951 – The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines. 1959 – The Triton Fountain in Valletta, Malta is turned on for the first time. 1960 – Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California. 1961 – Park Chung-hee leads a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea. 1966 – The Communist Party of China issues the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. 1969 – Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus. 1974 – Josip Broz Tito is elected president for life of Yugoslavia. 1988 – A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine. 1991 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress. 1997 – Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, flees the country. 2003 – In Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks. 2005 – Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote. 2011 – STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour. 2014 – Twelve people are killed in two explosions in the Gikomba market area of Nairobi, Kenya.

[whatisonthemoonarchive]

Bo Hi Pak & Uruguay - Knights of Malta & Money Laundering

http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Books/Tims1/Tims1-70.htm

The Women's Federation for World Peace held a sisterhood ceremony in Montevideo, Uruguay, on November 24, 1996, at the Municipal Sports Gymnasium. The program brought together women from Uruguay and Japan...At this event, attended by more than 5,000 guests, Dr. Pak introduced the keynote speaker, the Honorable Walter Hickle, former Secretary of the Interior of the United States and former two-time governor of the State of Alaska;

"Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, today I have the great honor and privilege to welcome our special speaker, the Hon. Walter Hickle, Secretary of the Interior of the United States and twice Governor of the State of Alaska. This is indeed an historic moment not only for Uruguay but for Latin America. Rev. Moon has brought about 4,200 beautiful Japanese ladies halfway around the world to Montevideo. It is their first experience of this kind in their life. They are all looking forward to meeting their Uruguayan sisters.

Secretary Hickle has been a champion for international friendship by promoting innovative international free trade. This was especially true of the U.S.-Japan relationship. He was against trade wars but in favor of trade partnerships, for which he is respected and loved by all Japanese people.

In May 1988 he was awarded the "Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure" by His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, for his contributions to furthering trade relations between the U.S. and Japan.

He was the 38th Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, twice the Governor of the State of Alaska, where he made major contributions toward the national energy policy, and the environment.

Today, Mr. Secretary, your presence is all the more meaningful as we celebrate the grand opening of the new and only five-star hotel in this country, the Victoria Plaza. As one who pioneered our Uruguayan investment, Mr. Secretary, I would like to briefly testify to you as well as to all Uruguayan people as to why Rev. and Mrs. Moon decided to make such a dynamic investment here in Uruguay.

First, Uruguay is one of the most democratic countries in the entire world, with a government of the highest moral and ethical standard.

The opening of the Victoria Plaza Hotel will certainly bring a turning point of the Uruguayan economy.

After these ceremonies, these 4,200 Japanese ladies will go to 35 countries of North and South America, 120 ladies to each country, and these sisterhood ceremonies will spread all over Latin America.

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_cia06.htm

The Knights of Malta (SMOM)

This group was so conservative that one, John Raskob, the Chairman of General Motors, actually became involved in an aborted military plot to remove Franklin Roosevelt from the White House. SMOM has also been embarrassed by knighting or giving awards to countless people who later turned out to be Nazi war criminals. This is the sort of culture that thrives within the leadership of SMOM.

Officially, the Knights of Malta are a global charity organization.

But beginning in the 1940s, knighthood was granted to countless CIA agents, and the organization has become a front for intelligence operations. SMOM is ideal for this kind of activity, because it is recognized as the world’s only landless sovereignty, and members enjoy diplomatic immunity.

This allows agents and supplies to pass through customs without interference from the host country. Such privileges enabled the Knights of Malta to become a major supplier of "humanitarian aid" to the Contras during their war in the 1980s.

A partial list of the Knights and Dames of Malta reads like a Who’s Who of American Catholicism:

Walter J. Hickel - Governor of Alaska and secretary of the interior.

https://www.consortiumnews.com/1990s/consor16.html

Rev. Moon's Uruguayan Money-Laundry

By Samuel Blixen

Uruguay's bank secrecy laws and Moon's political clout have spared his operations from significant legal action. But the money laundry has drawn periodic attention from government and other investigators in recent years.

In 1996, for instance, the Uruguayan bank employees union blew the whistle on one scheme in which some 4,200 female Japanese followers of Moon allegedly walk into the Moon-controlled Banco de Credito in Montevideo and deposited as much as $25,000 each.

The money from the women went into the account of an anonymous association called Cami II, which was controlled by Moon's Unification Church. In one day, Cami II received $19 million and, by the time the parade of women ended, the total had swelled to about $80 million.

It was not clear, however, where the money originated and whether it came from illicit sources. Nor was it known how many other times Moon's organization has used this tactic -- sometimes known as "smurfing" -- to transfer untraceable cash into Uruguay. Authorities did not push the money-laundering investigation, apparently out of deference to Moon's political influence and fear of disrupting Uruguay's banking industry.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.11

173 – Marcomannic Wars: The Roman army in Moravia is encircled by the Quadi, who have broken the peace treaty (171). In a violent thunderstorm emperor Marcus Aurelius defeats and subdues them in the so-called "miracle of the rain". 631 – Emperor Taizong of Tang sends envoys to the Xueyantuo bearing gold and silk in order to seek the release of Chinese prisoners captured during the transition from Sui to Tang. 786 – A Hasanid Alid uprising in Mecca is crushed by the Abbasids at the Battle of Fakhkh. 980 – Vladimir the Great consolidates the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea. He is proclaimed ruler (knyaz) of all Kievan Rus'. 1011 – Lombard Revolt: Greek citizens of Bari rise up against the Lombard rebels led by Melus and deliver the city to Basil Mesardonites, Byzantine governor (catepan) of the Catepanate of Italy. 1118 – Roger of Salerno, Prince of Antioch, captures Azaz from the Seljuk Turks. 1157 – Albert I of Brandenburg, also called The Bear (Ger: Albrecht der Bär), becomes the founder of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, Germany and the first margrave. 1345 – The megas doux Alexios Apokaukos, chief minister of the Byzantine Empire, is lynched by political prisoners. 1429 – Hundred Years' War: Start of the Battle of Jargeau. 1488 – Battle of Sauchieburn: Fought between rebel Lords and James III of Scotland, resulting in the death of the king. 1509 – Henry VIII of England marries Catherine of Aragon. 1594 – Philip II recognizes the rights and privileges of the local nobles and chieftains in the Philippines, which paved way to the stabilization of the rule of the Principalía (an elite ruling class of native nobility in Spanish Philippines). 1748 – Denmark adopts the characteristic Nordic Cross flag later taken up by all other Scandinavian countries. 1770 – British explorer Captain James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef. 1775 – The American Revolutionary War's first naval engagement, the Battle of Machias, results in the capture of a small British naval vessel. 1776 – The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence. 1788 – Russian explorer Gerasim Izmailov reaches Alaska. 1805 – A fire consumes large portions of Detroit in the Michigan Territory. 1825 – The first cornerstone is laid for Fort Hamilton in New York City. 1837 – The Broad Street Riot occurs in Boston, fueled by ethnic tensions between Yankees and Irish. 1865 – The Naval Battle of the Riachuelo is fought on the rivulet Riachuelo (Argentina), between the Paraguayan Navy on one side and the Brazilian Navy on the other. The Brazilian victory was crucial for the later success of the Triple Alliance (Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina) in the Paraguayan War. 1892 – The Limelight Department, one of the world's first film studios, is officially established in Melbourne, Australia. 1895 – Paris–Bordeaux–Paris, sometimes called the first automobile race in history or the "first motor race", takes place. 1898 – The Hundred Days' Reform, a planned movement to reform social, political, and educational institutions in China, is started by the Guangxu Emperor, but is suspended by Empress Dowager Cixi after 104 days. (The failed reform led to the abolition of the Imperial examination in 1905.) 1901 – The boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand are extended by the UK to include the Cook Islands. 1903 – A group of Serbian officers stormed the royal palace and assassinated King Alexander Obrenović and his wife, Queen Draga. 1917 – King Alexander assumes the throne of Greece after his father, Constantine I, abdicates under pressure from allied armies occupying Athens. 1919 – Sir Barton wins the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown. 1920 – During the U.S. Republican National Convention in Chicago, U.S. Republican Party leaders gathered in a room at the Blackstone Hotel to come to a consensus on their candidate for the U.S. presidential election, leading the Associated Press to coin the political phrase "smoke-filled room". 1935 – Inventor Edwin Armstrong gives the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States at Alpine, New Jersey. 1936 – The London International Surrealist Exhibition opens. 1937 – Great Purge: The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin executes eight army leaders. 1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Wuhan starts. 1940 – World War II: The Siege of Malta begins with a series of Italian air raids. 1942 – World War II: The United States agrees to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union. 1942 – Free French Forces retreat from Bir Hakeim after having successfully delayed the Axis advance. 1944 – USS Missouri, the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, is commissioned. 1955 – Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least 100 are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports. 1956 – Start of Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riots that target minority Sri Lankan Tamils in the Eastern Province. The total number of deaths is reportedly 150. 1962 – Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island. 1963 – American Civil Rights Movement: Governor of Alabama George Wallace defiantly stands at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalized National Guard troops, they are able to register. 1963 – Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam. 1963 – John F. Kennedy addresses Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which would revolutionize American society by guaranteeing equal access to public facilities, ending segregation in education, and guaranteeing federal protection for voting rights. 1964 – World War II veteran Walter Seifert attacks an elementary school in Cologne, Germany, killing at least eight children and two teachers and seriously injuring several more with a home-made flamethrower and a lance. 1968 – Lloyd J. Old identified the first cell surface antigens that could differentiate among different cell types. 1970 – After being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially receive their ranks as U.S. Army Generals, becoming the first women to do so. 1971 – The U.S. Government forcibly removes the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control. 1978 – Altaf Hussain founds the student political movement All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) in Karachi University. 1981 – A magnitude 6.9 earthquake at Golbaf, Iran, kills at least 2,000. 1987 – Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant are elected as the first black MPs in Great Britain. 1998 – Compaq Computer pays US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the largest high-tech acquisition. 2001 – Timothy McVeigh is executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing. 2002 – Antonio Meucci is acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress. 2004 – Cassini–Huygens makes its closest flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe. 2007 – Mudslides in Chittagong, Bangladesh, kill 130 people. 2008 – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes a historic official apology to Canada's First Nations in regard to abuses at a Canadian Indian residential school. 2008 – The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched into orbit. 2010 – The first African FIFA World Cup kicks off in South Africa. 2012 – More than 80 people die in a landslide triggered by two earthquakes in Afghanistan; an entire village is buried. 2013 – Greece's public broadcaster ERT is shut down by then-prime minister Antonis Samaras. It would open exactly two years later by then-prime minister Alexis Tsipras.