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In Part 1, I mentioned of the imperative to modernize agriculture in the country. One investment that Local Government Units should make is in the use of Geographical Information System (GIS) as a tool to analyze patterns and trends on the land.
A research I was in for a national agency a few years back was impeded by the lack of up-to-date land use and land cover data. For instance, the lack of ready shape files and updated maps in agriculture. Thankfully, another agency has produced a more recent (2010) land cover map. But I wondered, if national agencies did not have the right data and information readily, what do you then call the policies they've made, the reports? Although, for the country, the lack of land use policies as well as climate change adaptation measures especially at the local level is more the case.
The land use change that has happened along Mountain Trail/Halsema Highway which is mentioned in Part 1 is classified either as parcelization or fragmentation of forest land*.
The featured video differentiates one from the other as well as implications of each on land management. It also shows the utilization of GIS in resource planning and management.
Local Government Unit officials, as urban managers, need information in order to effectively and efficiently manage the City's growth and development and ultimately facilitate quality of life for it's citizens. Land use data is key to the analysis of the urbanization processes and problems. These days, it is impossible to produce such data without the aid of modern tools i.e. GIS and remote sensing technologies. The City needs leaders and managers who see the need to make these a priority investment and integrate their use in city planning and management.
At the regional level i.e. LGUs in the Cordillera Administrative Region it is imperative that land use plans integrate local climate change mitigation measures such as reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases (nitrous oxide mentioned in Part 1). Targets to mitigate and adapt to the changing climate should not remain at the global and national levels but rather should be operationalized in localities. Climate change mitigation and adaptation should not and must not be just all words and rah-rahs. Cities and municipalities should explicitly include in their land use and development plans GHG emission targets (hence corresponding financing requirements to achieve these).
*latest forestry statistics (2003) for the country shows only 24% (or, 7.2M ha.) of total land area is forested compared to 70% (or, 21M ha.) in 1900. I don't even want to go into the state of the remaining "forest" in Baguio City today. Even I, a non-forester, can tell that the trees (along Loakan Road) are dying a torturously slow death. As repeatedly mentioned in this blog, it's not that we have an inordinate love affair with trees; rather, preservation of the City's trees and foliage translates into our own preservation as well as that of our children and many others after us.


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Anna Daučíková
Anna Daučíková (b. 1950) is Slovak visual artist based in Prague and Bratislava. Since 2011, she is a professor of the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague. Daučíková is the first Czechoslovak feminist and queer female artist and activist. Her work is focused on the notion of political body as an intercross of power relations.
Question of Will – at first this title came as a surprise – why deliberate on this today? To me will is not a dark urge that exists notwithstanding what my imagination says, like in Schopenhauer. To me individually, my interest lies in the decision-making act, but here I give up soon understanding that acute decision-making comes together with cognition. And this is again doubtful as soon as we learn from cognitive science that, in fact, we do not know how the process of decision-making is organized; moreover that my brain knows how I will decide – a bit earlier than I do.
However, let me stay in a pragmatic sphere – and here the will and decision is more interesting to me in connection with Butlerian "agency". In such connection my perennial interest lies in gender and sex. Moreover a question of power arises, which cannot be just abolished by a sheer refusal, which can be only shifted (Butler).
A collective will is something else and more and I am happy to see with us Laboria Cubonics – just from their annotation it comes clearly that in certain topics we have a common views (family, nature, etc.).
I am going to offer you some notes, which come as a side effect of my artistic work.
Seven guidelines of morphing
Translation: Derek Paton
Meandering – clearing paths in language … between the genders, like feminine and masculine; the augmentation of the senses by moving from language to language.
(I am recalling that in my childhood I would spend hours (splendid moments!) jostling my way within the language…meandering between the genders like female and male; later sprawling senses by moving from language to language.)
Acrobatics – on the alert on unoccupied territory … balancing between metaphor and metamorphosis.
(I am still as if standing on toes…in order to avoid the trap and not to be constrained to choose between the metaphor and metamorphosis.)
Not belonging – remaining outside the prejudice of sex, the natural, inherent nationality, and origin.
(I made my choice in favour of the non-appertain, to stay beyond the prejudices of sex, the natural, and of course nationality, race, origin, etcetera.)
Manifestation – the creation of forms from sounds, gestures, and 'quasi words'… about oneself.
(I discovered the pleasure of imagining forms coming from gestures and well-nigh words, from sounds…and saw it all create my "self".)
Materializing – acquiring a body by movement … reflecting by means of the matter.
(I managed to acquire trust towards matter and to achieve the body through motion; they say it´s quite a triviality within physics.)
Triangulation – labouring in inklings … surveying what does not exist yet.
(One needs to take care for the quasi-skill of touching up what would become.)
Negotiating – indulging in the tension… persisting in the realm of shaping.
(I indulged myself in the joy of morphing – it is a labour.)

subset: commoncrawl


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Due to a campus emergency, I will not be able to attend the meeting tomorrow. Sandro has agreed to chair. I have also spent time on the phone with Dan Connolly (who also cannot be there) and Jeremy to make sure we had "our ducks in a row" - below is the new agenda - I think we are in pretty good shape. I also pass the following proxies on to Sandro Guus (for Ibrow) - in favor of CR Jonathan Borden (Invited Expert) - in favor of CR Bijan Parsia, my alternate, will cast the vote for Univ of Md Let's do it!!!! ---------------------------------- AGENDA Teleconference Web Ontology Working Group July 24, 2003, 1200 (East US), 0900 (West US). 1700 (London) Duration: 60-90 min Bridge: +1.617.761.6200 passcode 9326#. IRC Chat: irc:irc.w3.org (port 6665), #webont Chair: Jim Hendler Scribe: Evan Wallace 1. Administrivia (10 min; chair/scribe) Role Call Approve Minutes of Jul 10: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-webont-wg/2003Jul/0097.html Provisional telecon schedule for summer: Jul 31 NO telecon Aug 7 telecon, chair Schreiber, scribe TBD Aug 14 NO telecon Aug 21 telecon, chair Hendler, scribe TBD Agenda Ammendments 2. ACTION ITEM REVIEW (10 min; Chair) Last Call Comment Actions: NONE! Document Actions: Actions continued: ACTION jjc make sure test has owl:sameAs in Lite and no owl:sameIndividualAs ACTION jjc Add owl:Thing = owl:Nothing test ACTION JJC update test document to reflect iff => if DONE: ACTION MikeS to add new compoundkey issue ACTION MikeSmith change closing text to reflect iff => if ACTION PFPS editorial change to reflect iff => if 3.0 Issues in need of discussion (<30 min total) 3.1 Datatyping question from Dave Reynolds (5 min; Jeremy Carroll) In the message http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webont-comments/2003Jul/0050.html Dave Reynolds explains that I misunderstood what he was asking for in my reply to him - he makes a good case, which Jeremy expands on in his message http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-webont-wg/2003Jul/0252.html The WG should decide whether to add this feature or not. If the latter, someone should take an action to send a message summarizing the WG's response to him. 3.2 bnode issues - B1 and B2 revisited (25 min; Jeremy Carroll) The WG needs to resolve this once and for all. A straw poll will be taken as to whether to a - reopen issue 5.26, accept Jeremy's solution to B1,B2, and close. b - Retain the status quo, keeping the issue closed over Jeremy's objection. It should be noted that in the past the WG did express a willingness to do a if Jeremy could fix the correspondence proof, which he has now done. (A would remove Jeremy's objection to 5.26, but would require actioning editorial change to the S&AS document. B would require a reworking of the CR request w/respect to the status of this issue). 4.0 Proposal to Request Candidate Recommendation Status (30 min; Sandro) Proposal and rationale: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-webont-wg/2003Jul/0210.html Draft CE Director's request: http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/WebOnt/rqim.html Upon passage (ed: knock wood) actions to editors and team contact to prepare editors' drafts for publication as CR documents and to publish these 5.0 4.0 Raucous Celebration or Much Waling and Gnashing of Teeth (2 min, WG) (dependent on outcome of 4.0) 6.0 A.O.B ADJOURN -- Professor James Hendler firstname.lastname@example.com Director, Semantic Web and Agent Technologies 301-405-2696 Maryland Information and Network Dynamics Lab. 301-405-6707 (Fax) Univ of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 *** 240-277-3388 (Cell) http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/hendler *** NOTE CHANGED CELL NUMBER ***Received on Wednesday, 23 July 2003 19:46:51 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 6 January 2015 21:56:54 UTC


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In light of the political shitstorm currently eating our country alive, the soothing balm of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington can do a lot of good for your blood pressure. Jimmy Stewart is pitch-perfect as a naïve young man appointed to a U.S. Senate seat, who does pitched battle against the systematic corruption trying to mold him to its whim. Of course, like a lot of Frank Capra movies, it depends on the characters actually having souls and understanding the consequences of their actions. The real world features too many far less introspective people. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington opened today in 1939.
The Klaus Von Bulow case was quite the tabloid hot button back in the day: a wealthy man accused of putting his wife in a coma in order to end their unhappy marriage. But in Reversal of Fortune, the brilliant fictionalized account of the case, director Barbet Schroeder chose to focus on the legal ramifications instead of the soapy shocks. The result was one of the best courtroom dramas ever made and scored a well-deserved Oscar for star Jeremy Irons, whose performance as von Bulow has yet to be matched in his career. The movie opened today in 1990.
There was a time when Kevin Smith was mentioned in the same breath as Quentin Tarantino as filmmakers changing the face of movies. It didn't happen for Smith, who became more of a personality than a director, and whose work as a writer always eclipsed his skills behind the camera. But with Clerks, his impressive debut, he looked ready to take the cinematic world by storm. Most of his subsequent films don't hold up nearly as well as this one (though Chasing Amy comes close). It opened today in 1994.
We'll close with out October horror movie of the day: Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Though generally considered a drama, it explores themes of body horror, women's self-esteem, and the omnipresent threat of violence from men… themes that unfortunately feel more pertinent now than ever. Stephen King always put it in a different genre thanks to those qualities, and who am I to disagree with the master? Looking for Mr. Goodbar opened today in 1977.


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"Failure is not an option." This is a great line from the movie Apollo 13. In so many ways it very much embodies part of the government culture. Failure really isn't an option for us. There is too much at stake.
We are taught to carefully deliberate and weight all the options. We are told we must consult with all of the subject matter experts in our agency. And did I mention you have to obtain their clearances too? The reason why is we cannot afford to let the public down with a careless mistake. In some cases they may make us look unprofessional, but usually the stakes are higher than that. We have people's lives to consider, people's rights and we have all sworn an oath to serve the citizens to the best of our abilities. Most civil servants that I meet take their jobs seriously and recognize we are in positions of public trust. We don't want to betray that trust. Therefore, we have developed a culture where failure is not considered an option. If we fail, then there could be serious consequences.
I would say that Government culture is not always well understood outside of government, especially if you live outside of the Beltway. People assume we are slow to react, that we don't care or that our organizations are riddled with long clearances processes and endless paperwork. Granted all of those things are partially true, but the primary reason why is it is difficult for us to react in real time is because of this failure-is-not-an-option culture.
In order for Government to successfully evolve to the next generation of government, Government 2.0 (yes, there's lots of talk about what that really means, but that is a topic of another post), we need to ensure we have established a means where we can continue to feed the evolution. Technology is changing faster than any one can keep up with it. This means we have to have an established ways for new ideas and technologies to be evaluated and integrated into government. One suggest being discussed is in Andrew P. Wilson's latest blog entry.
This is only one piece of the issue. We still have the cultural issue of failure-not-being-an-option. Don't get me wrong, all of that hand wringing and careful analysis isn't all bad and sometimes it has ensured we've kept people safe and all risks were mitigated. In order for us to take advantage of and better understand the changes coming into government, we need to have ways to learn from those mistakes and better recognize opportunities. Many people have talked about this need. In fact most recently MobileActive.org hosted FAILFaire in DC to try and help people realize failure is an acceptable part of the process.
This is very difficult for government to be comfortable with. The words "fail" and "failure" don't resonate well with us. They are scary terms since it implies we not only failed at our mission but also some how failed personally. Remember, we have your trust to uphold and consider. This is a serious thing!
We need to find a way to talk about failure differently. We do have things that don't work as expected and absolutely fail, but we don't talk about these things even within our own agencies. We are also missing the potential for us to start exploring other paths or opportunities earlier. One of my colleagues, Dana Schwartz, proposed the concept of implementing the idea of getting people to talk about their "Stumbled Upons" meaning their roadblocks, failures and things that just don't work as expected. I love the visual of the phrase. And I think it covers more than just big spectacular failures. It covers the little things and the big things that we learn as we experiment and integrate new tool sets into our respective agencies. It also covers the unexpected surprises that we encounter both good and bad.
We will be piloting this concept with our internal Community Managers Group. We hope it will provide a valuable resource for people getting started and most importantly help change the culture of my agency to be one that is more open and accepting. An agency that can recognize, depending on the situation, failure can be an option and perhaps an asset. We hope to stumble upon new doors of opportunity by recognizing and embracing both our strengths and our weaknesses.
How are you working to make failure more acceptable in your organization? What tips and tricks would you recommend?


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"Non dispetto, ma doglia."
Oscar Wilde did not stay long in Naples, a few brief months; the forbidden fruit quickly turned to ashes in his mouth.
I give the following extracts from a letter he wrote to Robert Ross in December, 1897, shortly after leaving Naples, because it describes the second great crisis in his life and is besides the bitterest thing he ever wrote and therefore of peculiar value:
"The facts of Naples are very bald. Bosie for four months, by endless lies, offered me a home. He offered me love, affection, and care, and promised that I should never want for anything. After four months I accepted his offer, but when we met on our way to Naples, I found he had no money, no plans, and had forgotten all his promises. His one idea was that I should raise the money for us both; I did so to the extent of £120. On this Bosie lived quite happy. When it came to his having to pay his own share he became terribly unkind and penurious, except where his own pleasures were concerned, and when my allowance ceased, he left.
"With regard to the £50037 which he said was a debt of honour, he has written to me to say that he admits the debt of honour, but as lots of gentlemen don't pay their debts of honour, it is quite a common thing and no one thinks any the worse of them.
"I don't know what you said to Constance, but the bald fact is that I accepted the offer of the home, and found that I was expected to provide the money, and when I could no longer do so I was left to my own devices. It is the most bitter experience of a bitter life. It is a blow quite awful. It had to come, but I know it is better I should never see him again, I don't want to, it fills me with horror."
A word of explanation will explain his reference to his wife, Constance, in this letter: by a deed of separation made at the end of his imprisonment, Mrs. Wilde undertook to allow Oscar £150 a year for life, under the condition that the allowance was to be forfeited if Oscar ever lived under the same roof with Lord Alfred Douglas. Having forfeited the allowance Oscar got Robert Ross to ask his wife to continue it and in spite of the forfeiture Mrs. Wilde continually sent Oscar money through Robert Ross, merely stipulating that her husband should not be told whence the money came. Ross, too, who had also sent him £150 a year, resumed his monthly payments as soon as he left Douglas.
My friendship with Oscar Wilde, which had been interrupted after he left prison by a silly gibe directed rather against the go-between he had sent to me than against him, was renewed in Paris early in 1898. I have related the little misunderstanding in the Appendix. I had never felt anything but the most cordial affection for Oscar and as soon as I went to Paris and met him I explained what had seemed to him unkind. When I asked him about his life since his release he told me simply that he had quarrelled with Bosie Douglas.
I did not attribute much importance to this; but I could not help noticing the extraordinary change that had taken place in him since he had been in Naples. His health was almost as good as ever; in fact, the prison discipline with its two years of hard living had done him so much good that his health continued excellent almost to the end.
But his whole manner and attitude to life had again changed: he now resembled the successful Oscar of the early nineties: I caught echoes, too, in his speech of a harder, smaller nature; "that talk about reformation, Frank, is all nonsense; no one ever really reforms or changes. I am what I always was."
He was mistaken: he took up again the old pagan standpoint; but he was not the same; he was reckless now, not thoughtless, and, as soon as one probed a little beneath the surface, depressed almost to despairing. He had learnt the meaning of suffering and pity, had sensed their value; he had turned his back upon them all, it is true, but he could not return to pagan carelessness, and the light-hearted enjoyment of pleasure. He did his best and almost succeeded; but the effort was there. His creed now was what it used to be about 1892: "Let us get what pleasure we may in the fleeting days; for the night cometh, and the silence that can never be broken."
The old doctrine of original sin, we now call reversion to type; the most lovely garden rose, if allowed to go without discipline and tendance, will in a few generations become again the common scentless dog-rose of our hedges. Such a reversion to type had taken place in Oscar Wilde. It must be inferred perhaps that the old pagan Greek in him was stronger than the Christian virtues which had been called into being by the discipline and suffering of prison. Little by little, as he began to live his old life again, the lessons learned in prison seemed to drop from him and be forgotten. But in reality the high thoughts he had lived with, were not lost; his lips had been touched by the divine fire; his eyes had seen the world-wonder of sympathy, pity and love and, strangely enough, this higher vision helped, as we shall soon see, to shake his individuality from its centre, and thus destroyed his power of work and completed his soul-ruin. Oscar's second fall — this time from a height — was fatal and made writing impossible to him. It is all clear enough now in retrospect though I did not understand it at the time. When he went to live with Bosie Douglas he threw off the Christian attitude, but afterwards had to recognise that "De Profundis" and "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" were deeper and better work than any of his earlier writings. He resumed the pagan position; outwardly and for the time being he was the old Oscar again, with his Greek love of beauty and hatred of disease, deformity and ugliness, and whenever he met a kindred spirit, he absolutely revelled in gay paradoxes and brilliant flashes of humour. But he was at war with himself, like Milton's Satan always conscious of his fall, always regretful of his lost estate and by reason of this division of spirit unable to write. Perhaps because of this he threw himself more than ever into talk.
He was beyond all comparison the most interesting companion I have ever known: the most brilliant talker, I cannot but think, that ever lived. No one surely ever gave himself more entirely in speech. Again and again he declared that he had only put his talent into his books and plays, but his genius into his life. If he had said into his talk, it would have been the exact truth.
People have differed a great deal about his mental and physical condition after he came out of prison. All who knew him really, Ross, Turner, More Adey, Lord Alfred Douglas and myself, are agreed that in spite of a slight deafness he was never better in health, never indeed so well. But some French friends were determined to make him out a martyr.
In his picture of Wilde's last years, Gide tells us that "he had suffered too grievously from his imprisonment. . . . His will had been broken . . . nothing remained in his shattered life but a mouldy ruin,38 painful to contemplate, of his former self. At times he seemed to wish to show that his brain was still active. Humour there was; but it was far-fetched, forced and threadbare."
These touches may be necessary in order to complete a French picture of the social outcast. They are not only untrue when applied to Oscar Wilde, but the reverse of the truth; he never talked so well, was never so charming a companion as in the last years of his life.
In the very last year his talk was more genial, more humorous, more vivid than ever, with a wider range of thought and intenser stimulus than before. He was a born improvisatore. At the moment he always dazzled one out of judgment. A phonograph would have discovered the truth; a great part of his charm was physical; much of his talk mere topsy-turvy paradox, the very froth of thought carried off by gleaming, dancing eyes, smiling, happy lips, and a melodious voice.
The entertainment usually started with some humorous play on words. One of the company would say something obvious or trivial, repeat a proverb or commonplace tag such as, "Genius is born, not made," and Oscar would flash in smiling, "not 'paid,' my dear fellow, not 'paid.'"
An interesting comment would follow on some doing of the day, a skit on some accepted belief or a parody of some pretentious solemnity, a winged word on a new book or a new author, and when everyone was smiling with amused enjoyment, the fine eyes would become introspective, the beautiful voice would take on a grave music and Oscar would begin a story, a story with symbolic second meaning or a glimpse of new thought, and when all were listening enthralled, of a sudden the eyes would dance, the smile break forth again like sunshine and some sparkling witticism would set everyone laughing.
The spell was broken, but only for a moment. A new clue would soon be given and at once Oscar was off again with renewed brio to finer effects.
The talking itself warmed and quickened him extraordinarily: he loved to show off and astonish his audience, and usually talked better after an hour or two than at the beginning. His verve was inexhaustible. But always a great part of the fascination lay in the quick changes from grave to gay, from pathos to mockery, from philosophy to fun.
There was but little of the actor in him. When telling a story he never mimicked his personages; his drama seldom lay in clash of character, but in thought; it was the sheer beauty of the words, the melody of the cadenced voice, the glowing eyes which fascinated you and always and above all the scintillating, coruscating humour that lifted his monologues into works of art.
Curiously enough he seldom talked of himself or of the incidents of his past life. After the prison he always regarded himself as a sort of Prometheus and his life as symbolic; but his earlier experiences never suggested themselves to him as specially significant; the happenings of his life after his fall seemed predestined and fateful to him; yet of those he spoke but seldom. Even when carried away by his own eloquence, he kept the tone of good society.
When you came afterwards to think over one of those wonderful evenings when he had talked for hours, almost without interruption, you hardly found more than an epigram, a fugitive flash of critical insight, an apologue or pretty story charmingly told. Over all this he had cast the glittering, sparkling robe of his Celtic gaiety, verbal humour, and sensual enjoyment of living. It was all like champagne; meant to be drunk quickly; if you let it stand, you soon realised that some still wines had rarer virtues. But there was always about him the magic of a rich and puissant personality; like some great actor he could take a poor part and fill it with the passion and vivacity of his own nature, till it became a living and memorable creation.
He gave the impression of wide intellectual range, yet in reality he was not broad; life was not his study nor the world-drama his field. His talk was all of literature and art and the vanities; the light drawing-room comedy on the edge of farce was his kingdom; there he ruled as a sovereign.
Anyone who has read Oscar Wilde's plays at all carefully, especially "The Importance of Being Earnest," must, I think, see that in kindly, happy humour he is without a peer in literature. Who can ever forget the scene between the town and country girl in that delightful farce-comedy. As soon as the London girl realises that the country girl has hardly any opportunity of making new friends or meeting new men, she exclaims:
"Ah! now I know what they mean when they talk of agricultural depression."
This sunny humour is Wilde's especial contribution to literature: he calls forth a smile whereas others try to provoke laughter. Yet he was as witty as anyone of whom we have record, and some of the best epigrams in English are his. "The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing" is better than the best of La Rochefoucauld, as good as the best of Vauvenargues or Joubert. He was as wittily urbane as Congreve. But all the witty things that one man can say may be numbered on one's fingers. It was through his humour that Wilde reigned supreme. It was his humour that lent his talk its singular attraction. He was the only man I have ever met or heard of who could keep one smiling with amusement hour after hour. True, much of the humour was merely verbal, but it was always gay and genial: summer-lightning humour, I used to call it, unexpected, dazzling, full of colour yet harmless.
Let me try and catch here some of the fleeting iridescence of that radiant spirit. Some years before I had been introduced to Mdlle. Marie Anne de Bovet by Sir Charles Dilke. Mdlle. de Bovet was a writer of talent and knew English uncommonly well; but in spite of masses of fair hair and vivacious eyes she was certainly very plain. As soon as she heard I was in Paris, she asked me to present Oscar Wilde to her. He had no objection, and so I made a meeting between them. When he caught sight of her, he stopped short: seeing his astonishment, she cried to him in her quick, abrupt way:
"N'est-ce pas, M. Wilde, que je suis la femme la plus laide de France?" (Come, confess, Mr. Wilde, that I am the ugliest woman in France.)
Bowing low, Oscar replied with smiling courtesy:
"Du monde, Madame, du monde." (In the world, madame, in the world.)
No one could help laughing; the retort was irresistible. He should have said: "Au monde, madame, au monde," but the meaning was clear.
Sometimes this thought-quickness and happy dexterity had to be used in self-defence. Jean Lorrain was the wittiest talker I have ever heard in France, and a most brilliant journalist. His life was as abandoned as it could well be; in fact, he made a parade of strange vices. In the days of Oscar's supremacy he always pretended to be a friend and admirer. About this time Oscar wanted me to know Stephane Mallarmé. He took me to his rooms one afternoon when there was a reception. There were a great many people present. Mallarmé was standing at the other end of the room leaning against the chimney piece. Near the door was Lorrain, and we both went towards him, Oscar with outstretched hands:
"Delighted to see you, Jean."
For some reason or other, most probably out of tawdry vanity, Lorrain folded his arms theatrically and replied:
"I regret I cannot say as much: I can no longer be one of your friends, M. Wilde."
The insult was stupid, brutal; yet everyone was on tiptoe to see how Oscar would answer it.
"How true that is," he said quietly, as quickly as if he had expected the traitor-thrust, "how true and how sad! At a certain time in life all of us who have done anything like you and me, Lorrain, must realise that we no longer have any friends in this world; but only lovers." (Plus d'amis, seulement des amants.)
A smile of approval lighted up every face.
"Well said, well said," was the general exclamation. His humour was almost invariably generous, kind.
One day in a Paris studio the conversation turned on the character of Marat: one Frenchman would have it that he was a fiend, another saw in him the incarnation of the revolution, a third insisted that he was merely the gamin of the Paris streets grown up. Suddenly one turned to Oscar, who was sitting silent, and asked his opinion: he took the ball at once, gravely.
"Ce malheureux! Il n'avait pas de veine — pour une fois qu'il a pris un bain. . . . " (Poor devil, he was unlucky! To come to such grief for once taking a bath.)
For a little while Oscar was interested in the Dreyfus case, and especially in the Commandant Esterhazy, who played such a prominent part in it with the infamous bordereau which brought about the conviction of Dreyfus. Most Frenchmen now know that the bordereau was a forgery and without any real value.
I was curious to see Esterhazy, and Oscar brought him to lunch one day at Durand's. He was a little below middle height, extremely thin and as dark as any Italian, with an enormous hook nose and heavy jaw. He looked to me like some foul bird of prey: greed and cunning in the restless brown eyes set close together, quick resolution in the out-thrust, bony jaws and hard chin; but manifestly he had no capacity, no mind: he was meagre in all ways. For a long time he bored us by insisting that Dreyfus was a traitor, a Jew, and a German; to him a trinity of faults, whereas he, Esterhazy, was perfectly innocent and had been very badly treated. At length Oscar leant across the table and said to him in French with, strange to say, a slight Irish accent, not noticeable when he spoke English:
"The innocent," he said, "always suffer, M. le Commandant; it is their métier. Besides, we are all innocent till we are found out; it is a poor, common part to play and within the compass of the meanest. The interesting thing surely is to be guilty and so wear as a halo the seduction of sin."
Esterhazy appeared put out for a moment, and then he caught the genial gaiety of the reproof and the hint contained in it. His vanity would not allow him to remain long in a secondary rôle, and so, to our amazement, he suddenly broke out:
"Why should I not make my confession to you? I will. It is I, Esterhazy, who alone am guilty. I wrote the bordereau. I put Dreyfus in prison, and all France can not liberate him. I am the maker of the plot, and the chief part in it is mine."
To his surprise we both roared with laughter. The influence of the larger nature on the smaller to such an extraordinary issue was irresistibly comic. At the time no one even suspected Esterhazy in connection with the bordereau.
Another example, this time of Oscar's wit, may find a place here. Sir Lewis Morris was a voluminous poetaster with a common mind. He once bored Oscar by complaining that his books were boycotted by the press; after giving several instances of unfair treatment he burst out: "There's a conspiracy against me, a conspiracy of silence; but what can one do? What should I do?"
"Join it," replied Oscar smiling.
Oscar's humour was for the most part intellectual, and something like it can be found in others, though the happy fecundity and lightsome gaiety of it belonged to the individual temperament and perished with him. I remember once trying to give an idea of the different sides of his humour, just to see how far it could be imitated.
I made believe to have met him at Paddington, after his release from Reading, though he was brought to Pentonville in private clothes by a warder on May 18th, and was released early the next morning, two years to the hour from the commencement of the Sessions at which he was convicted on May 25th. The Act says that you must be released from the prison in which you are first confined. I pretended, however, that I had met him. The train, I said, ran into Paddington Station early in the morning. I went across to him as he got out of the carriage: grey dawn filled the vast echoing space; a few porters could be seen scattered about; it was all chill and depressing.
"Welcome, welcome, Oscar!" I cried holding out my hands. "I am sorry I'm alone. You ought to have been met by troops of boys and girls flower-crowned, but alas! you will have to content yourself with one middle-aged admirer."
"Yes, it's really terrible, Frank," he replied gravely. "If England persists in treating her criminals like this, she does not deserve to have any. . . . "
"Ah," said an old lady to him one day at lunch, "I know you people who pretend to be a great deal worse than you are, I know you. I shouldn't be afraid of you."
"Naturally we pretend to be bad, dear lady," he replied; "it is the only way to make ourselves interesting to you. Everyone believes a man who pretends to be good, he is such a bore; but no one believes a man who says he is evil. That makes him interesting."
"Oh, you are too clever for me," replied the old lady nodding her head. "You see in my day none of us went to Girton and Newnham. There were no schools then for the higher education of women."
"How absurd such schools are, are they not?" cried Oscar. "Were I a despot, I should immediately establish schools for the lower education of women. That's what they need. It usually takes ten years living with a man to complete a woman's education."
"Then what would you do," asked someone, "about the lower education of man?"
"That's already provided for, my dear fellow, amply provided for; we have our public schools and universities to see to that. What we want are schools for the higher education of men, and schools for the lower education of women."
Genial persiflage of this sort was his particular forte whether my imitation of it is good or bad.
His kindliness was ingrained. I never heard him say a gross or even a vulgar word, hardly even a sharp or unkind thing. Whether in company or with one person, his mind was all dedicated to genial, kindly, flattering thoughts. He hated rudeness or discussion or insistence as he hated ugliness or deformity.
One evening of this summer a trivial incident showed me that he was sinking deeper in the mud-honey of life.
A new play was about to be given at the Français and because he expressed a wish to see it I bought a couple of tickets. We went in and he made me change places with him in order to be able to talk to me; he was growing nearly deaf in the bad ear. After the first act we went outside to smoke a cigarette.
"It's stupid," Oscar began, "fancy us two going in there to listen to what that foolish Frenchman says about love; he knows nothing about it; either of us could write much better on the theme. Let's walk up and down here under the columns and talk."
The people began to go into the theatre again and, as they were disappearing, I said:
"It seems rather a pity to waste our tickets; so many wish to see the play."
"We shall find someone to give them to," he said indifferently, stopping by one of the pillars.
At that very moment as if under his hand appeared a boy of about fifteen or sixteen, one of the gutter-snipe of Paris. To my amazement, he said:
"Bon soir, Monsieur Wilde."
Oscar turned to him smiling.
"Vous êtes Jules, n'est-ce pas?" (you are Jules, aren't you?) he questioned.
"Oui, M. Wilde."
"Here is the very boy you want," Oscar cried; "let's give him the tickets, and he'll sell them, and make something out of them," and Oscar turned and began to explain to the boy how I had given two hundred francs for the tickets, and how, even now, they should be worth a louis or two.
"Des jaunets" (yellow boys), cried the youth, his sharp face lighting up, and in a flash he had vanished with the tickets.
"You see he knows me, Frank," said Oscar, with the childish pleasure of gratified vanity.
"Yes," I replied drily, "not an acquaintance to be proud of, I should think."
"I don't agree with you, Frank," he said, resenting my tone, "did you notice his eyes? He is one of the most beautiful boys I have ever seen; an exact replica of Emilienne D'Alençon,39 I call him Jules D'Alençon, and I tell her he must be her brother. I had them both dining with me once and the boy is finer than the girl, his skin far more beautiful.
"By the way," he went on, as we were walking up the Avenue de l'Opera, "why should we not see Emilienne; why should she not sup with us, and you could compare them? She is playing at Olympia, near the Grand Hotel. Let's go and compare Aspasia and Agathon, and for once I shall be Alcibiades, and you the moralist, Socrates."
"I would rather talk to you," I replied.
"We can talk afterwards, Frank, when all the stars come out to listen; now is the time to live and enjoy."
"As you will," I said, and we went to the Music Hall and got a box, and he wrote a little note to Emilienne D'Alençon, and she came afterwards to supper with us. Though her face was pretty she was pre-eminently dull and uninteresting without two ideas in her bird's head. She was all greed and vanity, and could talk of nothing but the hope of getting an engagement in London: could he help her, or would Monsieur, referring to me, as a journalist get her some good puffs in advance? Oscar promised everything gravely.
While we were supping inside, Oscar caught sight of the boy passing along the Boulevard. At once he tapped on the window, loud enough to attract his attention. Nothing loth, the boy came in, and the four of us had supper together — a strange quartette.
"Now, Frank," said Oscar, "compare the two faces and you will see the likeness," and indeed there was in both the same Greek beauty — the same regularity of feature, the same low brow and large eyes, the same perfect oval.
"I am telling my friend," said Oscar to Emilienne in French, "how alike you two are, true brother and sister in beauty and in the finest of arts, the art of living," and they both laughed.
"The boy is better looking," he went on to me in English. "Her mouth is coarse and hard; her hands common, while the boy is quite perfect."
"Rather dirty, don't you think?" I could not help remarking.
"Dirty, of course, but that's nothing; nothing is so immaterial as colouring; form is everything, and his form is perfect, as exquisite as the David of Donatello. That's what he's like, Frank, the David of Donatello," and he pulled his jowl, delighted to have found the painting word.
As soon as Emilienne saw that we were talking of the boy, her interest in the conversation vanished, even more quickly than her appetite. She had to go, she said suddenly; she was so sorry, and the discontented curiosity of her look gave place again to the smirk of affected politeness.
"Au revoir, n'est-ce pas? à Charing Cross, n'est-ce-pas, Monsieur? Vous ne m'oublierez pas? . . . "
As we turned to walk along the boulevard I noticed that the boy, too, had disappeared. The moonlight was playing with the leaves and boughs of the plane trees and throwing them in Japanese shadow-pictures on the pavement: I was given over to thought; evidently Oscar imagined I was offended, for he launched out into a panegyric on Paris.
"The most wonderful city in the world, the only civilised capital; the only place on earth where you find absolute toleration for all human frailties, with passionate admiration for all human virtues and capacities.
"Do you remember Verlaine, Frank? His life was nameless and terrible, he did everything to excess, was drunken, dirty and debauched, and yet there he would sit in a café on the Boul' Mich', and everybody who came in would bow to him, and call him maître and be proud of any sign of recognition from him because he was a great poet.
"In England they would have murdered Verlaine, and men who call themselves gentlemen would have gone out of their way to insult him in public. England is still only half-civilised; Englishmen touch life at one or two points without suspecting its complexity. They are rude and harsh."
All the while I could not help thinking of Dante and his condemnation of Florence, and its "hard, malignant people," the people who still had something in them of "the mountain and rock" of their birthplace:—"E tiene ancor del monte e del macigno."
"You are not offended, Frank, are you, with me, for making you meet two caryatides of the Parisian temple of pleasure?"
"No, no," I cried, "I was thinking how Dante condemned Florence and its people, its ungrateful malignant people, and how when his teacher, Brunetto Latini, and his companions came to him in the underworld, he felt as if he, too, must throw himself into the pit with them. Nothing prevented him from carrying out his good intention (buona voglia) except the fear of being himself burned and baked as they were. I was just thinking that it was his great love for Latini which gave him the deathless words:
. . . "Non dispetto, ma doglia
La vostra condizion dentro mi fisse.
"Not contempt but sorrow. . . . "
"Oh, Frank," cried Oscar, "what a beautiful incident! I remember it all. I read it this last winter in Naples. . . . Of course Dante was full of pity as are all great poets, for they know the weakness of human nature."
But even "the sorrow" of which Dante spoke seemed to carry with it some hint of condemnation; for after a pause he went on:
"You must not judge me, Frank: you don't know what I have suffered. No wonder I snatch now at enjoyment with both hands. They did terrible things to me. Did you know that when I was arrested the police let the reporters come to the cell and stare at me. Think of it — the degradation and the shame — as if I had been a monster on show. Oh! you knew! Then you know, too, how I was really condemned before I was tried; and what a farce my trial was. That terrible judge with his insults to those he was sorry he could not send to the scaffold.
"I never told you the worst thing that befell me. When they took me from Wandsworth to Reading, we had to stop at Clapham Junction. We were nearly an hour waiting for the train. There we sat on the platform. I was in the hideous prison clothes, handcuffed between two warders. You know how the trains come in every minute. Almost at once I was recognised, and there passed before me a continual stream of men and boys, and one after the other offered some foul sneer or gibe or scoff. They stood before me, Frank, calling me names and spitting on the ground — an eternity of torture."
My heart bled for him.
"I wonder if any punishment will teach humanity to such people, or understanding of their own baseness?"
After walking a few paces he turned to me:
"Don't reproach me, Frank, even in thought. You have no right to. You don't know me yet. Some day you will know more and then you will be sorry, so sorry that there will be no room for any reproach of me. If I could tell you what I suffered this winter!"
"This winter!" I cried. "In Naples?"
"Yes, in gay, happy Naples. It was last autumn that I really fell to ruin. I had come out of prison filled with good intentions, with all good resolutions. My wife had promised to come back to me. I hoped she would come very soon. If she had come at once, if she only had, it might all have been different. But she did not come. I have no doubt she was right from her point of view. She has always been right.
"But I was alone there in Berneval, and Bosie kept on calling me, calling, and as you know I went to him. At first it was all wonderful. The bruised leaves began to unfold in the light and warmth of affection; the sore feeling began to die out of me.
"But at once my allowance from my wife was stopped. Yes, Frank," he said, with a touch of the old humour, "they took it away when they should have doubled it. I did not care. When I had money I gave it to him without counting, so when I could not pay I thought Bosie would pay, and I was content. But at once I discovered that he expected me to find the money. I did what I could; but when my means were exhausted, the evil days began. He expected me to write plays and get money for us both as in the past; but I couldn't; I simply could not. When we were dunned his temper went to pieces. He has never known what it is to want really. You have no conception of the wretchedness of it all. He has a terrible, imperious, irritable temper."
"He's the son of his father," I interjected.
"Yes," said Oscar, "I am afraid that's the truth, Frank; he is the son of his father; violent, and irritable, with a tongue like a lash. As soon as the means of life were straitened, he became sullen and began reproaching me; why didn't I write? Why didn't I earn money? What was the good of me? As if I could write under such conditions. No man, Frank, has ever suffered worse shame and humiliation.
"At last there was a washing bill to be paid; Bosie was dunned for it, and when I came in, he raged and whipped me with his tongue. It was appalling; I had done everything for him, given him everything, lost everything, and now I could only stand and see love turned to hate: the strength of love's wine making the bitter more venomous. Then he left me, Frank, and now there is no hope for me. I am lost, finished, a derelict floating at the mercy of the stream, without plan or purpose. . . . And the worst of it is, I know, if men have treated me badly, I have treated myself worse; it is our sins against ourselves we can never forgive. . . . Do you wonder that I snatch at any pleasure?"
He turned and looked at me all shaken; I saw the tears pouring down his cheeks.
"I cannot talk any more, Frank," he said in a broken voice, "I must go."
I called a cab. My heart was so heavy within me, so sore, that I said nothing to stop him. He lifted his hand to me in sign of farewell, and I turned again to walk home alone, understanding, for the first time in my life, the full significance of the marvellous line in which Shakespeare summed up his impeachment of the world and his own justification: the only justification of any of us mortals:
"A man more sinn'd against than sinning."
37 This was the sum promised by the whole Queensberry family and by Lord Alfred Douglas in particular to Oscar to defray the costs of that first action for libel which they persuaded him to bring against Lord Queensberry. Ross has since stated in court that it was never paid. The history of the monies promised and supplied to Oscar at that time is so extraordinary and so characteristic of the age that it might well furnish a chapter to itself. Here it is enough just to say that those who ought to have supplied him with money evaded the obligation, while others upon whom he had no claim, helped him liberally; but even large sums slipped through his careless fingers like water.
38 Cfr. Appendix: "Criticisms by Robert Ross."
39 One of the prettiest daughters of the game to be found in Paris at the time.
Last updated Sunday, March 27, 2016 at 12:02


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The Battle of Mogadishu
The Battle of Mogadishu
by Larry Parker
"The expedition to Sicily was not so much a mistake in judgment, considering the enemy they went against, as much as a case of mismanagement on the part of the planners, who did not afterwards take the necessary measures to support these first troops they sent out. Instead, they turned to personal rivalries over the leadership of the people, and consequently not only conducted the war in the field half-heartedly, but also brought civil discord for the first time to the home front…. And yet they did not fail until they at last turned on each other and fell into private quarrels that brought their ruin."
The Peloponnesian War
Previous articles in this study of urban warfare have examined the battles of Stalingrad and Hue. Stalingrad was a military versus military conflict fought along conventional lines, albeit driven to incredible extremes due to the fanatical nature of the ideologies involved and the maniacal personalities of Hitler and Stalin. In the end, the resilience of the Russian soldier and the vast resources of the Soviet State prevailed against the professionalism of the German
and the tactical superiority of the Wehrmacht, significantly altering the course of World War II. Twenty-five years after the remnants of 6th Army marched into captivity, a similar battle was fought in the ancient city of Hue. This battle contained elements of both conventional and unconventional warfare. Hue was a resounding tactical victory for the United States in the field. The army of North Vietnam suffered heavy losses and the National Liberation Front / Viet Cong element was crippled for the remainder of the war. Thanks largely to the new medium of television, however, Hue was a strategic disaster in the larger public relations and political arenas. The Tet Offensive of which Hue was a major part, led directly to the downfall of the Johnson administration and the eventual withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam.
This article studies an example - specifically, Mogadishu in Somalia - of asymmetric warfare in the modern world. Currently, no power can stand against the United States on the conventional battlefield. Consequently, unconventional or guerrilla warfare has become the tactic of choice, indeed the only viable option, for the third world dictators and terrorists groups America now confronts. Furthermore, cities have become the battleground of choice for these factions, since built up urban areas negate many of the technological advantages American forces enjoy. As in Hue twenty-five years earlier, the United States won an overwhelming tactical victory in Mogadishu, yet suffered a humiliating strategic defeat in Somalia. As we move forward in time the issue of urban warfare becomes more complex. To succeed on the asymmetric battlefield of today's world requires not only military prowess but also a wide range of non-military options. This paper will examine the lessons learned in Mogadishu that may be applied to Fallujah or wherever national interest or humanitarian intervention may take our far-flung troops.
Brief Overview of
Operation Restore Hope
In January 1991, a coalition of tribal clans known as the United Somali Congress forced out long-time dictator Siad Barre. Cooperation between the clans was short-lived, however. Fighting soon broke out among the Somali National Movement, the party of Mohammed Farah Aidid, rival factions loyal to Ali Mahdi and various lesser groups. Internecine warfare followed, destroying the fragile economy of Somalia. In one year an estimated 300 – 500,000 Somalis died, either directly from fighting or indirectly of starvation. Chaos reigned until 03 March 1992, when the warring parties agreed to a cease-fire to allow humanitarian assistance monitored by the United Nations (UN).
On 15 August 1992, United Nations Operations in Somalia (UNOSOM I) began Operation Provide Relief. The UN had not counted on the callous nature or the ruthless determination of the warring clans, however. In war-torn Somalia, a failed nation without conventional forms of capital - food was used to ensure the loyalty of followers, gain conscripts and exchanged with neighboring countries for arms. Not surprisingly, relief flights were looted almost as they landed, food convoys were hijacked and aid workers assaulted. Frustrated, the UN called upon its members to provide security (i.e., military support) for the relief mission. As one of his last acts as Commander in Chief, on 04 December 1992 President Bush responded to the UN request, ordering 25,000 troops to lead the United Task Force (UNITAF) in Operation Restore Hope. Led by United States Marines, the UN contingent succeeded in temporarily subduing the clans and restoring a semblance of order.
As an outcome of the Conference on National Reconciliation in Somalia held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 15 March 1993, the UN recognized mere humanitarian intervention would be insufficient to halt Somalia's civil war or bring long-term help to her people. Taking on the daunting task of 'nation building', the UN greatly expanded its mission. The objectives of UNOSOM II included:
• Disarming the warring factions
• Restoring law and order
• Rebuilding an infrastructure crippled by years of war
• Establishing a representative government
While publicly supporting the UN mandate in Somalia, President Clinton fatally weakened the effort by reducing American forces to 1200 combat soldiers and 3000 support troops by May 1993. Not surprisingly, as the number of US forces decreased the level of violence increased. On 05 June 1993, 24 Pakistani soldiers were ambushed and brutally massacred. The UN launched a major effort to capture or kill Aidid and destroy his militia, who they saw as the major roadblock to peace. Aidid retaliated with further attacks on UN and especially US forces. In response, Task Force Ranger, a combined Army Ranger and elite Delta Force group, deployed to Somalia 08 August 1993 with orders to eliminate Aidid.
At the same time, and without informing the military, the Clinton administration also began a secret initiative to negotiate with Aidid, utilizing former President Carter as a Special Envoy
. The mixed signals thus generated help explain the violent reaction to Task Force Ranger's later assault on the Olympic Hotel.
Task Force Ranger, commanded by Major General Garrison, operated independently of the UN contingent. Organized as the Joint[1] Special Operations Task Force (JSOTF), Task Force Ranger reported directly to U. S. Central Command (CENTCOM) rather than Major General Montgomery, Commander United States Forces, Somalia. Although Garrison kept Montgomery well informed, this convoluted Chain of Command critically delayed relief efforts on 3 / 4 October 1993. In addition, for political reasons Secretary of Defense Les Aspin rejected requests by Garrison, Montgomery and then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell for armored support.
Brief Overview of Task Force Ranger's Assault on the Olympic Hotel
Once in country, Task Force Ranger conducted several operations capturing some of Aidid's lieutenants. The elusive warlord remained one step ahead of the Rangers, however. Then in late September reliable intelligence indicated Aidid planned a meeting with his senior lieutenants. On 3 October 1993 Garrison ordered Task Force Ranger to conduct a "snatch and grab" at the Olympic Hotel. If successful, this operation would decapitate the top leadership of Aidid's party and hopefully eliminate him as a threat.
Deploying as they had on previous assignments, Ranger and Delta Force units began the mission with an air assault on the target, capturing twenty-four Somalis. As they waited for extraction by a convoy of trucks and HUMVEE's, Army Black Hawk and Special Operations helicopters provided air support. Unlike previous operations, however, this attack was conducted near the Bakara market, the heart of Aidid's domain, precipitating a furious response. The ground convoy met strong resistance, taking heavy casualties. Worse, lucky hits with Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG's) felled two supporting Black Hawk helicopters, jeopardizing the entire mission. The details of the battle are well documented in books and film. Suffice it to say that over the next seventeen hours, Task Force Ranger fought a running gun battle with an enraged mob many times its number. In the course of the melee Task Force Ranger suffered 18 dead and 84 wounded, while inflicting hundreds of Somali casualties. After a lengthy but understandable delay, given the dual chain of command, a rescue force comprised of two rifle companies from 10th Mountain Division, two Malaysian mechanized companies with Armored Personnel Carriers (APC's), an
ad hoc
platoon from Task Force Ranger and one Pakistani tank platoon, supported by army and special operations aircraft, was finally able to extract the stranded troops. The infamous "Mogadishu Mile" began at 0542 as the Ranger and Delta Force rear guard trailed out of the city.
In spite of all that went wrong, the mission was a remarkable success. Dedication and professionalism prevailed over numbers. Basic combat skill and individual initiative dominated the battlefield. Rigorous training prevented catastrophe. Against overwhelming odds, twenty-four of Aidid's top men were taken and Task Force Ranger inflicted far more casualties than it sustained. Even so, the battle was a near-run thing; the spectacle of dead pilots being dragged through the streets of the beleaguered city, and the capture of Chief Warrant Officer Durant was more than the Clinton administration could stomach. After a belated build up / show of force, American units quickly withdrew, leaving 20,000 primarily Asian and African troops by March 1994. These pulled out one year later. As in Hue twenty-five years before, this extreme reaction grew out of false expectations prior to the battle. Intense and largely negative media coverage of the event enraged the public and embarrassed a President already beset with political problems.
In the rush of subsequent events the world has forgotten Somalia. It remains a failed state ravaged by seemingly endless civil war and a breeding ground for terrorists. Ironically it is also a critical factor in the current war on terror.
Lessons Learned
The lessons learned range from the tactical to the grand strategic. The following covers some of the main points, but is by no means a complete list:
• Expecting a two-hour daylight mission, the Rangers ignored Murphy's Law, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." Leaving behind night vision devices (NVD's), body armor and even water, they opted to carry extra ammunition. This decision proved fatal to many.
• The immediate Chain of Command ignored the basic military dictum that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Only one search-and-rescue unit was immediately available. When fierce resistance and heavy casualties forced the ground convoy to turn back, and the second Black Hawk fell, near-fatal delays ensued while JSOTF frantically coordinated with UN elements to organize the relief element.
• Major criticism falls on the Clinton administration for reducing the number of forces allocated to the UN mission, not informing the military of its diplomatic initiatives, the dual chain of command and, of course, for not providing at least Bradley Armored Fighting Vehicles (AFV's) as requested. With proper armored support the ground convoy could have fought its way through on the first attempt saving many lives.
Beyond Somalia into the Arab world: Implications for the War on Terror
To understand why the US / UN mission in Somalia failed and why American efforts in Iraq and elsewhere are so difficult, it is necessary to look beyond the purely military aspects of these campaigns to the broader political, social, economic and cultural elements that produce what may be termed the "Islamikaze", and why he views the United States as vulnerable.
Socioeconomic Roots
For all its wealth, the Middle East is a region in crisis. In the year 2000 its population stood at 304,055,000. By 2015, that figure is projected to rise to 400,085,000.[2] The population is largely young (less than 20), poorly educated, impoverished, alienated and, consequently, easily manipulated. Far too many live in crumbling cities overwhelmed by a burgeoning population; often, they are victims of weak, corrupt governments which fail to provide even basic public services such as education, housing, garbage collection, transportation and health care, or utilities such as sewerage, potable water and electricity. The inability of such governments to fulfill its obligations, or to abandon its obligations outright, results in loss of popular support and confidence creates a void in the social contract. The local mosque fills that void, providing Islamic schools, clinics, hospitals and welfare services. In the hands of zealots such as the
, these institutions are used to recruit new adherents and support extremist causes. The feral cities of failed states are breeding grounds for terrorists, who in turn exploit the alienated for their own ends. Palestine is a perfect example of a government which deliberately keeps its people in poverty and ignorance in order to promote its political agenda, perpetuating a vicious cycle of violence and hatred for its own ends.
Cultural Roots
Unlike Christianity, Islam is both religion and sociopolitical system. There is no separation between church and state so revered in the west.[3] In a system where God's rule (Hakimiyat) and divine law (Sharia) originate from the same source - the Koran - man-made political orders are blasphemy. According to the "righteous", those who live in moderate Arab states reside in 'the abode of the infidels' (dar al Kufur). It is the duty of the pious to struggle (Jihad), even wage holy war (Harb Mukaddasah), against the infidel until all know the blessings of Allah. No wonder a rich, secular and polyglot nation such as the United States is seen as the 'Great Satan' corrupter of the faithful. Support for Israel and our superpower status further exacerbates the problem.
Perception of Weakness
President Clinton responded to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 bombings in Saudi Arabia, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, the 1998 bombing of U. S. embassies in Africa and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole with empty rhetoric and token gestures. His timorous, ineffectual response to these events, coupled with our perceived defeat in Somalia emboldened our adversaries - especially Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden's own words are noteworthy: "Where was this false courage of yours when the explosion in Beirut took place in 1983? And where was this courage of yours when two explosions made you leave Aden in less than twenty-four hours! But your most disgraceful case was in Somalia; where – after vigorous propaganda about the power of the United States and its post-cold war leadership of the new world order – you moved tens of thousands of an international force, including 28,000 American soldiers, into Somalia. However, when tens of your soldiers were killed in minor battles and one American pilot was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu you left the area carrying disappointment, humiliation, defeat and your dead with you…. You have been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew. The extent of your impotence and weakness became very clear." Osama Bin Laden views the United States as a 'paper tiger' and having defeated one super power in Afghanistan feels fully capable of and morally justified in taking on the other.
The consequence of appeasement, mismanagement and half-hearted measures became clear on 11 September 2001. A viable strategic policy in the subsequent war on terror is not so self-evident. The following thoughts are, however, a starting point:
• The Ottoman Empire was the 'Sick Man of Europe.' Its collapse precipitated much of the unrest leading to the carnage of World War I. Failed states and the feral cities they engender are the sick men of the modern world. The unrest they generate is potentially even more destructive. Whether terrorist-run Ramallah or drug-cartel-controlled Rio de Janeiro we can expect severe problems from these areas for the foreseeable future.[4]
• The United States cannot and should not respond to every crisis raised on this front. A realistic assessment of resources dictates that America maintain a discreet distance and detachment. Images broadcast on CNN, no matter how terrible, must not determine policy when national interests are not involved. Our allies in Europe and Asia must shoulder a greater share of the defensive burden to preserve order within their sphere of influence. Our efforts should be directed at finding effective ways to maintain the balance of power, becoming directly involved only when necessary, and then in creative ways. Military intervention should be viewed as a last resort.
• Urban combat is manpower-intensive and limiting noncombatant casualties difficult, if not impossible. Consequently military action is not to be entered into lightly or taken in half measures. When deemed necessary, military action must be swift, powerful and decisive. To accomplish these ends, military operations must be meticulously planned through to the end-game, fully supported with the proper mix of equipment and an adequate number of troops and 'sold' to the American public. As Victor Davis Hanson observed in
Carnage and Culture
, "Once empires commit to military adventure, time becomes an enemy rather than an ally, as the inability to achieve immediate success sends ripples of doubt beyond the battlefield to lap at uneasy allies and citizens at home."
• A military response to world events must be part of a strategic policy that also addresses the political, social, economic and cultural factors involved - i.e., the root causes of the issue.
• The United States won the Cold War by a reasonably consistent application of a sustained policy of containment, which transcended several presidencies. Successful conclusion of the War on Terror requires the same long-term national commitment.
Not since the Roman Empire has one nation so dominated the world. As the Romans discovered, power alone does not ensure security. Imperial policy, summed up in the phrase, "Let them hate, provided they fear"[5], preserved Latin supremacy for five hundred years. It also led to Rome's eventual fall. That path is tempting but unrealistic in today's complex and intertwined world. As outlined above, national policy[6] must address the root causes of the issues that threaten stability. Yet when faced with implacable terrorist groups such as Hezbollah or Al-Qaeda, whose route to power is anarchy, those benign measures must be backed by credible force.
His image as a blustering Rough Rider notwithstanding, Theodore Roosevelt accomplished much of his international policy quietly, even secretly. His presidency was largely peaceful because foreign leaders knew 'Teddy' never bluffed. In dealing with Kaiser Wilhelm II during the Venezuela crisis of 1902, or Sherif Mulai Ahmed ibn-Muhammed er Raisuli, Berber Chief, self-styled Lord of the Rif and last of the Barbary Pirates in 1904, Roosevelt's words were backed by credible force, which adversaries knew he would not hesitate to use. Consequently he seldom had to. Would that our president's words carried the same weight now as when Theodore Roosevelt demanded Perdicaris' release from the bandit Raisuli. Would that the world still viewed the United States with the same respect. Perhaps it is simplistic but "Speak softly and carry a big stick" seems a more viable national policy than giving away the Panama Canal, failing to support the Shah of Iran or appeasement of terrorists.
* * *
[1]. In addition to Army Rangers and Delta Force operatives Task Force Ranger also included a small number of Navy SEALS and Air Force Special Operations personnel, hence Joint.
[2]. U. S. Bureau of the Census
[3]. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's.
[4]. As of the year 2000 forty-seven percent of the world's population lived in urban areas. By 2030 that figure is predicted to reach sixty percent. The majority of this growth will occur in third world countries ill equipped to cope with such expansion. Extrapolating from current trends the social, economic, political and environmental impact will be devastating.
[5]. Oderint dum metuant.
[6]. First we must formulate an effective international policy; then we must find a way to sustain it beyond the four-year election cycle.
* * *
Copyright © 2006 Larry Parker
Written by Larry Parker. If you have questions or comments on this article, please contact Larry Parker at:
About the Author:
Lieutenant Commander Larry Parker, United States Navy, served as a Surface Warfare Officer, with afloat tours onboard USS De Wert (FFG-45) as Ordnance & Fire Control Officer, USS Portland (LSD-37) as First Lieutenant, and USS Butte (AE-27) as Operations Officer. Rotations ashore included Navy Reserve Center Cheyenne, Navy & Marine Corps Reserve Center Denver and Navy Reserve Readiness Command Region 16 Minneapolis. He retired in July 2000 and taught Navy Junior ROTC until June 2011. LCDR Parker holds a Bachelor's degree in English and History from the University of Kansas and a Master's degree in Military Studies - Land Warfare from American Military University. In his free time LCDR Parker pursues a lifelong passion for military history. His articles are the result of extensive research and personal experience in surface warfare, fleet logistics and amphibious operations.
Published online: 05/10/2006.
© 2018 MilitaryHistoryOnline.com, LLC
Contact Brian Williams at:


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This year's Sun 'n Fun, slated for next month in Lakeland, Fla., will be the location of one of the first Light Sport Aircraft deliveries under the new Sport Pilot rules. That's when Atlanta-based Hansen AirGroup LLC delivers the first factory certified LSA to Major General Hugh Cox. The retired Air Force officer will take possession of an Italian-built Tecnam P2002 Sierra, a two-place model with low cantilever wings. Hansen is the exclusive distributor for Tecnam Aircraft.
General Aviation News reserves the right to delete snarky, offensive or off-topic comments. See our Comment Policy for more details.


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Partner with Women in Transport
Let's work together to promote diversity
Diversity is good for business
Companies that achieve a more diverse range of employees, whether at board level or in more junior roles, gain access to tangible business benefits. Research has proven that companies with a greater representation of women on their boards tend to outperform their rivals in terms of sales, return on invested capital and return on equity.
In February 2011, Lord Davies of Abersoch published Women On Boards, which recommended a target of 25% female representation at board level for FTSE 100 companies by 2015. Businesses across the UK embraced the recommendations and achieved the ambitious target six months ahead of schedule. By October 2015, representation of women more than doubled to 26.1% on FTSE 100 boards and 19.6% on FTSE 250 boards with no all-male boards in the FTSE 100 and only 15 in the FTSE 250.
Following this success, Lord Davies set a new series of recommendations in 2015 including a bold new target of all FTSE 350 boards having 33% female representation by 2020 - around 350 more women in top positions.
There as been a clear step change since the Davies Report in gender diversity within the UK and 2017 marks the start of mandatory gender pay gap reporting for companies with over 250 employees, a measure we are positive will continue to advance working women in transport.
Partnering with Women in Transport
Women in Transport acts as an honest broker, drawing together the viewpoints of our members and other senior figures in the industry in an independent way and without vested corporate interests. We raise the profile on these issues in a positive and engaging way, facilitating the debate through:
High profile networking receptions, with keynote speakers who are long-standing industry leaders. These events, held twice each year, are hugely popular and enjoyable. They foster personal connections and introductions for our supporters and members.
Targeted events, which typically focus on the provision of professional and career enhancing skills. Delivered through workshops, site visits and seminars, filling training gaps created by employer budget reductions.
Recognising the differing needs of our sponsors and partners, we offer flexible packages which can be 'bundled' to suit individual needs. Packages may include a combination of any of the following:
Sponsorship of specific events, including speaking opportunities, promotion and recognition of your engagement with the diversity agenda
Attributed and active involvement with industry-wide initiatives to promote your role in diversity in the public eye
Full membership for your employees, plugging them into our network and encouraging them to engage with our year-round activities at no further cost
Access to professional development and training events for a defined number of your employees
Promotion of your company and its engagement with Women in Transport on our website and in our published materials
Packages can be tailored to match corporate objectives for equality and diversity, enhancing your in-house initiatives providing a public opportunity to promote your support for the advancement of women across the transport industry.


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Get Carter (1971)
And you thought the English were polite. After all, we've spent decades watching lavish filmed versions of Shakespearean productions, along with a slew of quirky "Brit-coms" in recent years like The Full Monty and Waking Ned Devine. But fans of Anglo-flicks know that Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino don't have a monopoly on gangster movies, as the UK has produced some of the best in recent memory, including John Mackenzie's brilliant 1979 The Long Good Friday and Guy Ritchie's head-spinning Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. But perhaps the best ever is 1971's Get Carter, directed by Mike Hodges, which takes up a theme as old as Sophocles what is one to do when the expectations of employers or society conflict with an innate loyalty to one's own family? Michael Caine stars in Get Carter as Jack Carter, a brutal London mob lieutenant who returns to his hometown of Newcastle in the north of England to attend his brother's funeral, who died a sudden and unexpected death, ostensibly due to drunk driving. But even before he takes the train north, Carter suspects that his brother has been murdered a suspicion his employers would rather he abandon, as they have ties to the Newcastle syndicate. Undeterred by both his own bosses and the Newcastle underworld, Carter starts poking around the city, determined to find out who is responsible for his brother's murder, but before long he learns that his inquiries are not welcome, primarily because of a secret business arrangement that Carter can't even begin to suspect. But when the truth comes out, as it eventually must, Carter's launches a one-man mob war, and one that bears little resemblance to his life as a professional killer. Blinded with rage over what he sees as a familial betrayal, in Newcastle Carter is no more concerned about the consequences of his actions than he is for the several dead bodies that mark his trail.
* * *
Unflinchingly brutal at times, especially in the final half-hour, Get Carter is a film that can't possibly offer up a tidy ending, keeping the viewer watching until the bitter, unpredictable end. It's also one of Michael Caine's best performances, showcasing the actor as a younger man capable of both cold-blooded calculation and unconstrained violence a far cry from the roles that Caine has undertaken since his transition to the American film industry (like the equally talented Gene Hackman, Caine is notorious for doing anything for a paycheck). Hodges, in his first feature film, plays on a lot of the cultural and class discrepancies between North and South, with Carter leaving his posh Mob headquarters in London's East End where gangsters such as the legendary Kray Brothers were known for cultivating a sophisticated air around their underworld activities with tailored suits, expensive liquors, and flashy cars. Newcastle, by contrast, is perfectly captured in all of its post-'60s harshness, a coal and shipping town where government-built tower-blocks rise above the mean streets of dilapidated, 19th-century terraced homes where the weekly laundry hangs to dry over back alleys, and toilets are in backyard outhouses. As much as Get Carter is a story of gangland revenge, it is also a document of Great Britain's economic transition at the time, with post-industrial wealth (legal and otherwise) starting to transform London and the southern counties in ways the north had yet to experience. Warner's DVD edition of Get Carter will please fans of the film, with a solid anamorphic transfer (1.85:1) from a fairly clean source print and audio in the original mono (DD 1.0). Features on board include a lively commentary with director Hodges, interspersed with comments from Caine and director of photography Wolfgang Suschitzky, Roy Budd's score on an isolated track, the international trailer, and a filmed short with Budd performing the memorable theme tune.
Back to Quick Reviews Index: [A-F] [G-L] [M-R] [S-Z]


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Who Is Aiming For The BIG Beads For Fat Tuesday? [POLL]
I believe if you are going to flash your ta-tas for Mardi Gras, you deserve the best beads. I enjoy those HUGE beads that practically drag you down since they're that big. Every year that I have gone to Mardi Gras there are MANY guys who have those lovely huge beads around their neck waiting to give away. I decided to do a poll on how many will be scoring and giving away those nice huge beads. Feel free to leave comments below and take the poll so the ladies can get excited for tomorrow.


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Four Teens Attempt Robbery On Cottage Place
Utica, NY (WIBX) - Four teens are in police custody after trying to rob a Utica man.
Shortly before 11:00pm last night a man was walking on Lincoln Avenue when he became worried about four men who appeared to be following him. After allegedly hearing them say that two would hold him down while the others robbed him, he started to run away, making it to his house.
The men followed him, pounding on his door while throwing garbage at it. The man was able to give police detailed descriptions of all four.
Police found them on bikes at Varick Street and Sunset.
The following were arrested and charged with Attempted Robbery in the Third Degree:
- Lyndell Lester (age 17) of Cherry Street in Utica
- Laronn Linen (age 17) of Elm Street in Utica
- Jahmar Jackson (age 16) of Maple Street in Utica
- Williams Monroe (age 19) of Capital Avenue in Utica


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Jun 7, 2017
In this episode, Dr. Livingston digs in deep about how you can overcome binge eating, over eating and a dependence on food to solve emotional needs. Food is not simply fuel for many people. It has cultural ties, it's used as a common topic and activity to bring people together and socialize. It can be interesting, challenging and adventurous. However, when it is used for emotional reasons, it usually causes health problems. For this reason, learning to take control can save your physical health and ease your emotional stress.
Show notes at: LiveFitPodcast.com


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Eroaster is a GNOME2/Python based mkisofs/cdrecord front-end.
You can burn Audio and Data CD-ROMS, ISO and BIN/CUE image files.
You can use it to extract data and audio tracks, format CD-RW an other.
There is no configure plist information for this port.
No installation instructions: this port has been deleted.
The package name of this deleted port was: eroaster
PKGNAME: eroaster
There is no flavor information for this port.
distinfo: There is no distinfo for this port.
NOTE: FreshPorts displays only information on required and default dependencies. Optional dependencies are not covered.
No options to configure
Number of commits found: 26
Remove non staged ports without pending PR from s*
Remove indefinite articles and trailing periods from COMMENT, plus
minor COMMENT typos and surrounding whitespace fixes. A few Makefiles
where not included as they contain Latin-1 characters that break
the Phabricator workflow. Categories P-S.
Approved by: portmgr (bapt)
Resetting maintainership on ports that have not been staged and without any
pending PR (related to stage)
With hat: portmgr
Add NO_STAGE all over the place in preparation for the staging support (cat:
Do not overwrite BUILD_DEPENDS
Reported by: flo
cdrecord is checked by the configure script
Remove USE_CDRTOOLS from bsd.port.mk
This macros has been useless since cdrtools-cjk port has gone.
This macros also lead to badly handled dependencies assuming that the dependency
on cdrtools was most BUILD and RUN dependency. While most of the time it is
simply a RUN dependency and sometime a build one.
While here:
- Trim some headers
- Convert some ports to optionsng
- Convert some ports to USES= gettext
- update png to 1.5.10
Update lame to 3.99.3.
Bump portrevision of all ports which depend upon it.
- Get Rid MD5 support
- update to 1.4.1
Reviewed by: exp8 run on pointyhat
Supported by: miwi
- update to jpeg-8
- Switch SourceForge ports to the new File Release System: categories starting
with P,R,S
- bump all port that indirectly depends on libjpeg and have not yet been bumped
or updated
Requested by: edwin
- eroaster fails to run due to the use of 'whrandom' in the application's
gnometools.py. whrandom has been deprecated in favor of random. This patch
simply uses a REINPLACE_CMD to replace whrandom with random.
PR: ports/117793
Submitted by: Chess Griffin <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Approved by: maintainer timeout (1 month)
- Welcome X.org 7.2 \o/.
- Set X11BASE to ${LOCALBASE} for recent ${OSVERSION}.
- Bump PORTREVISION for ports intalling files in ${X11BASE}.
- Use new USE_CDRTOOLS variable
Tested on: pointyhat
Chase the GNOME X11BASE to LOCALBASE move, and fix the build with the
new freetype2 where needed.
Submitted by: mezz, ahze, pav, and many others
Approved by: portmgr (implicit, kris)
Remove USE_REINPLACE from all categories starting with S
Approved by: krion@
Chase the merge of sysutils/mkisofs into sysutils/cdrtools.
Submitted by: marius
SIZEify (maintainer timeout)
- Update MASTER_SITES
- Add audio/py-cddb as optional dependency
PR: ports/63896
Submitted by: maintainer
Bump PORTREVISION on all ports that depend on gettext to aid with upgrading.
(Part 1)
- Fix launcher icon
- Bump portrevision
PR: ports/61610
Submitted by: Tom McLaughlin <email@example.com>
Add eroaster, nice GNOME2 frontent to mkisofs/cdrecord, written using
python bindings. It can write data files, audio CDs from wave/mp3/ogg files,
burn ISO and bin/cue images, create ISO images from a CD and copy CDs
on the fly (when you have two drives), and blank -RWs.
PR: ports/60422
Submitted by: dave <email@example.com>
Servers and bandwidth provided byNew York Internet, iXsystems, and RootBSD
8 vulnerabilities affecting 48 ports have been reported in the past 14 days
* - modified, not new
All vulnerabilities
Last updated:2019-05-18 02:24:37


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- VIN 7 is used for its production of gooseberry, passion fruit and grapefruit aromas. Fermentation is conducted between 11 – 14°C at a sugar drop of about 1 – 2°Brix per day.
- VL3 is used for its production of similar type aromas as well as more of a green fig contribution. It also produces very good mouthfeel and "respects" the pyrazines / green aromas. It is fermented at slightly warmer fermentation temperatures of 13 – 15°C.
- Alchemy II has a similar profile to VIN 7 but with more esters – thus a "sweeter" profile. Erika uses Alchemy on the vineyard blocks she feels need a little bit of an "ester" boost.
New World Wine Maker Blog
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Thanks for a very informative and fresh look at sharing some success stories in the time of harvest. Try and cover as many varietals and various wine styles and I commend our fellow colleagues in sharing in this way.
It would be far more useful and interesting to talk about the other steps of vinification such as oak use or lees stirring than yeast. Yeast has a much less influence than many people think.


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Board Members Catherine Clancy, Christina Estes-Werther,
Robert McWhirter, & Juan Ramirez at the 2018 Red Mass Reception.
Fortnight for Freedom Leadership Luncheon, June 30, 2014. Board Members Catherine Eckland, Christina Estes-Werther, and Alan Tavassoli.
The 2014 Board Members with our guest Fr. Tom Enneking, osc, Prior Provincial of the Crosier Fathers and Brothers in the U.S.
Dorothy Baran, 2014 President with Christina Estes-Werther, 2015 President
Bishop Paprocki and St. Thomas More Society President Dorothy Baran at the Red Mass Breakfast, January 2014


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|Above: Some of my seed packs - I really enjoy growing things from seed.
|Above and Below: Thyme grown from seed this year. It started off so very tiny (above) however, it has ended up a decent size by the end of Summer (below).
|The rosemary thrives even now in December. I used some of it for Thanksgiving Day cooking! I suppose it has been the star herb this year!


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I've been working on adding Global Platform functionality to non-PC/SC
devices so folks with LAHF and HF ACG devices can play with JCOP
cards... It's not quite there yet, but jcoptool.py is a work in progress
which currently supports printing manufacturer info and card contents.
I'll be working on installing/deleting applets next.
Other fixes are mostly to do with e-passports...
From CHANGES:
fix ACG reset/info sequence in RFIDIOt.py
fix facial image display bug in mrpkey.py where conversion is required
[Andreas Schmidt]
fix RANDOM_UID setting in jcop_mifare_access.cap/jcopmifare.py (you will
need a secret key from NXP)
add jcoptool.py - JCOP toolkit (work in progress)
mrpkey.py changes:
fix binary mode when reading files under Windows (for WRITE to card)
fix computation of composite checksum digit
support reading non-BAC passports
specify a dummy MRZ or simply the keyword 'PLAIN' for Plain Access if
there is no Basic Access Control
support writing non-BAC passports (only for vonJeek cards)
new commands SETBAC and UNSETBAC to toggle the BAC mode on vonJeek cards
extract & display signature image stored in DG7, if any
fix bug in Jpeg 2000 handling & add Jpeg 2000 support for DG7
better error handling if PCSC daemon is down or no reader is found
support clone mode by specifying PLAIN/MRZ and WRITE: first read then
support shortened MRZ (as in mrp0wn)
strip AA & EAC by default when writing, set STRIP_INDEX=False to
disable stripping
change Makefile to match vonJeek gpshell files (upload2jcop.gpsh &
Full details here:
BTW, I'm giving a course with Zac Franken at BH Europe in April, and USA
in July if you want to get hands on with this stuff...
Adam Laurie Tel: +44 (0) 20 7993 2690
Suite 117 Fax: +44 (0) 1308 867 949
61 Victoria Road
Surrey mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com
KT6 4JX http://rfidiot.org


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Willow the Vampire and the Sacred Grove by Maria Thermann
Willow the Vampire and the Sacred Grove by Maria Thermann is a delightful story about a young girl who was born as a vampire. Now, everyone knows that this is not how most vampires come to be; because of it, Willow has strengths that other vampires violently yearn for. Among other things, Willow isn't trapped in the darkness as most vampires are. She is seen as a 'child of the light' and a virtual miracle by many; it's just that because of the possible strengths she holds, there is no lack of power-hungry villains out too try and make use of her uniqueness.
Now as the story begins, we see Willow living the life of a normal kid. At least as normal a life as one may have with a set of nocturnal parents (the father even doubles as a musician, for those times when being a vampire isn't out of the ordinary enough). She goes to school every day. Has her own best friends (not to mention worst enemies), friendly neighbors, and even a happy cat! It's just that this aura of safety and happiness begins to unravel when she finds secret letters for her vampire mother (who refuses to talk about her past) was trying to hide.
Willow's maternal relatives include a good many who are willing to do what is horrible so they can ensure their own Greatness. It is known that the strengths of vampires were bestowed by ancient gods; with the powers of Willow, might these gifts not be seen more as a blessing than merely felt as a curse? How long can Willow maintain the pretense of an ordinary existence while those who have lived as villains for centuries decide they can blackmail her for what they consider her secrets?


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Thank you for your interest in Rejoice Christian Schools. We look forward to partnering with you in your child's education, and we are here to serve you as you seek God's guidance in the education of your children.
For more information on Rejoice, click here
To apply to Rejoice Christian Schools, click here.
If you have any additional questions about Rejoice Christian Schools admission process, please contact our District Registrar Heather Koerner at email@example.com or 918-516-0048.
Statement of Faith:
The Rejoice Christian Schools Statement of Faith is available here. We ask that families applying to our school affirm they are in agreement with the Statement of Faith and understand that the Statement of Faith will be used by RCS staff to govern the school, inform curricular and administrative decisions, and guide student instruction.
Quick Facts About Rejoice Christian School:
- Just over 1,000 students (Preschool through 12th Grade)
- Average Class Size: 16 students
- Accredited through ACSI and OPSAC
- Faculty are all degreed and certified (Kindergarten through 12th grade)
- In total 23% of faculty have advanced degrees
- Weekly chapel services and daily Bible instruction and prayer
- Average ACT score of 2017 Rejoice graduates is 23 (national average 21, state average 19)
- Community Service and Mission Opportunities at every grade level
- Advanced Placement, Honors and Dual Enrollment Opportunities
- Members of OSSAA—Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association
- Offer 10 varsity sports with elementary sports beginning in 1st grade
- Active Fine Arts program—Worship Arts, Speech and Debate, Drama, Art and Music


text:
Requirements: 4.0.3 and up
Overview: Get fast and convenient access to the most accurate search engine of public transport connections in Poland.
Official jakdojade.pl application for Android.
Get fast and convenient access to:
- The most accurate search engine of public transport connections
- Current timetables (ZTM, MPK, MZK, SKM, PKP PR, ...)
- Personal GPS navigation for public transport!
And much more in premium version (try first month for free):
- No ads
- Full navigation
- Departures from the nearest bus stop
- Widgets on the desktop
What's New
- Buyable tickets in Warsaw and Łódź
- Routes with city bikes in Warsaw
- Buy tickets directly from the routes list
- Improvements of app stability
● Free Premium Subscription
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