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Nikola Tesla - Deathbed Confessions, Photos Support Claims That George H. Scherf(f), Jr Was The 41st U.S. President George Bush | Love for Life

2011-12-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

Nikola Tesla - Deathbed Confessions, Photos Support Claims That George H. Scherf(f), Jr Was The 41st U.S. President George Bush | Love for Life

Nikola Tesla - Deathbed Confessions, Photos Support Claims That George H. Scherf(f), Jr Was The 41st U.S. President George Bush

Tue, 03/02/2010 - 07:40 — Arthur Cristian

Bibliotecapleyades.net

Nikola Tesla

Recent evidence has surfacing detailing that Nikola Tesla was murdered the day after he was visited for an all-day interview with two secret service agents, Reinhardt Galen & Otto Skorzeny. After suffocating him, they stole all of Tesla’s blueprints & papers.

Otto Skorzeny was Hitler’s bodyguard & also an assassin, one of the many Nazis who ex-filtrated to the USA after WWII, as part of Project Paperclip. Many of these Nazi scientists ended up working for NASA, the CIA, and other US secret services.

Although he supposedly died in 1975, Skorzeny resurfaced in 1999. In a death-bed confession to the man who was dating his daughter, he revealed the identity of Tesla’s assistant, who was stealing from him.

This man, he said, known as George Scherff Snr was none other than Prescott Bush – the father of the 41st President of the US, and grandfather of the current President.

Interestingly, an article published in the Idaho Observer has since been removed - although several copies were made of it before it was taken offline. A copy of the article can be found here:

Part 1:

Deathbed confessions, photos support claims that
George H. Scherf(f), Jr., was the 41st U.S. president

By Don Nicoloff

According to Otto Skorzeny, pictured is the Scherff family and a few friends (circa 1938). Holding “Mother" Scherff’s hand at left is Martin Bormann. In front is Reinhardt Gehlen. In back is Joseph Mengele and to his right is Skorzeny as a young man. At center right (in the German navy uniform) is George H. Scherff, Jr. and his father George H. Scherff, Sr. Bormann became Hitler’s second in command. Reinhardt Gehlen was a chief SS officer and assassin who was smuggled out of Germany under Operation Paperclip. Skorzeny was Hitler's bodyguard and SS spy/assassin who came to the U.S. after the war under Project Paperclip. Skorzeny and GHW Bush were instrumental in merging Nazi (SS) intelligence with the OSI to form the CIA with "Wild Bill" Donovan and Allen Dulles. These guys were also part of CIA mind control experiments such as MK-ULTRA. SS officer and physician Joseph Mengele, the notoriously sadistic “Angel of Death” of Auschwitz, escaped Germany to South America after the war. George H. Scherff, Jr., became the 41st President of the United States as GHW Bush and George H. Scherff, Sr., was Nicola Tesla’s “trusted assistant.”

What you are about to read is another step beyond research pioneered in the early 90s by author/historian Webster Tarpley based largely on deathbed “clues” provided by former Hitler bodyguard Otto Skorzeny and his box of photographs. Since Skorzeny’s death in 1999, the various leads he provided have been followed up and tend to support what, at first blush, would appear to be the unbelievable rantings of an embittered old man. What remains constant as we pore through publicly available official records, private correspondence, memoirs, newspaper articles, photos and other “clues” is that Bush family records (the ones that exist) are a puzzle palace of inconsistencies and curiosities. Since it is a congressionally established fact that Prescott Bush was in business with the Nazis during WWII, we can safely say that the Bush/Nazi connection existed. Who are the Bushes? How did they get connected with the Nazis? Is the connection still alive through U.S. presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush? The answers are not as literal as we would like them to be. But we have the testimony of Otto Skorzeny and his photos—especially the one at right. So, here we go—the first installment of an investigation that points to a curious conclusion: The “Bush” family was created to destroy America.

What we are taught about history in American schools is not history, but a fairy tale. Better yet, it is propaganda designed to hoodwink an unsuspecting society about its true heritage and the treasonous acts and sabotage that were conceived in order to bring about a New World Order. You are about to learn the real identities of those who have infiltrated your nation on behalf of secret societies intent on bringing about the total slavery of mankind. In the past, others have written about the numerous conspiracies to control natural resources, energy, food and our sovereign right to live on planet Earth — not as slaves of a wealthy few — but as free men, women, and children exercising the free will given to them by God.

“Research” is the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions. This is important research. Read it carefully, with an open mind. Considering the use of fluorides (sodium fluoride) in drinking water and toothpaste, you may already be in denial. Fluorides (we are told) are for the prevention of tooth decay. You, the reader, can decide if they really work. The real reason they are added to your drinking water and toothpaste is to cause you to become psychologically and physically placid, and therefore, apathetic.

A thought problem

Imagine you were a member of a secret organization whose sole agenda was to control the entire planet. If your plan was to accomplish this goal without being perceived by your intended victims, discretion would be paramount. Your organization would devise a series of historical events that, on the surface, would appear to be everyday, happenstance occurrences (natural disasters, man-made diseases, acts of murder, assassination, terror, manipulation of money and energy supplies, contamination of foods, pollution of natural resources, and war). The timing of these events would require patience, careful planning, cooperation from others in positions of trust, stealth and deceit. In essence, the whole mission must derive its power through deception and concealment and must have a master plan.

Who were the designers of this master plan? Follow along as we connect the dots.

The Master Plan:

Arrival of the Bankers

At the turn of the 20th century, a plan to slowly take over the government of the United States began to unfold. Many works have been written about the Nazi machine that instigated two world wars, though few have traced the footsteps of the foreign financiers and the actors we prefer to call “politicians.”

A brief glance at shipping records, passenger manifests, and financial transactions on Wall Street indicates a pattern of deception which was masterminded by this same machine. The level of cooperation from government agencies and their elected officials was not only disgraceful, but blatantly treasonous.

In his book, “The Creature From Jekyll Island,” [1] author G. Edward Griffin described the secret meetings which created the Federal Reserve in 1913. The architect of the plan, Paul M. Warburg, was a representative of the Rothschild banks in England and France and his brother Felix headed the Warburg banks in Germany and the Netherlands. Of significance is the fact that the first “official” media report about the Federal Reserve occurred three years later. In “Leslie’s Weekly,” [2] B.C. Forbes described the secret meeting between Republican Senator Nelson W. Aldrich and six of the most powerful bankers in the world. That this meeting had to be conducted in a secret, clandestine island location indicates the level of deception, concealment—and treason—at work.

Paul Warburg

That Paul Warburg, a German national, spoke English well enough to craft a financial document (a volume consisting of 1,750 pages) resulting in the Federal Reserve Act designed to control the finances of the United States (from Europe) was no small feat. Of particular interest was how Warburg was able to establish these important connections prior to his arrival in the U.S. in 1913 and then orchestrate this financial coup. Warburg had to have known his co-conspirators before coming to America.

The first official record of Paul Warburg’s trip to the U.S. appeared in the Kaiser Wilhelm II passenger manifest, upon arrival at Ellis Island, October 13, 1903. [3] The official manifest (on line 7) lists a “Mr. P. Warburg, age 35; Occupation: Banker; Nationality: American; Heritage: German; Last Residence: Hamburg; Final Destination: New York; Home: 3 E. 82nd St., New York.

In fact, Paul Warburg claimed he was an American in 1903. Was this claim valid in 1903?

Of special interest in this October 13, 1903 passenger manifest, is the fact that other prominent passengers in the elite financial community were also on the same passenger manifest. Harry Sachs (of Goldman Sachs fame) is listed as a passenger but, unlike Warburg, he was not required to declare his destination or his address. In fact, of the 30 passengers listed on page 293 of the Ellis Island database of ship and passenger arrivals, P. Warburg was the only passenger required to declare his destination.

Was this an attempt to establish Warburg’s nationality?

Suspiciously, the second half of the page is missing from the database, so we are not privileged with pertinent and “official” information as to his place of birth nor his physical description on this occasion. Future arrivals to the Port of New York would shed more light on these issues. The record keeping by the Immigration Office on October 13, 1903, was not merely sloppy. It appears that Warburg and other passengers were not scrutinized to the extent required by law and were assisted in entering the country with special, yet illegal considerations. Unlike earlier or later arrivals, immigration officers were permitted (or instructed) to be lax and obviously negligent, in their duties, particularly where destinations and birthplaces were of concern.

Warburg’s second arrival to the U.S. (on the SS Deutschland) was similar to his first. Though still a “U.S. citizen” in 1905, he was demoted to “merchant.” [4] However, on a third arrival in 1906, Warburg was, once again, a “banker.” His memory had failed him on this (third) trip, when he declared he had “never been to the U.S. previously.” Neither had his wife and two children, who had travelled with him on prior trips. He had also forgotten about his home in New York City, too, when he claimed he had no address in the United States. On this visit, Warburg declared “Hamburg, Germany” as his place of birth.

Incredibly, on a later visit to the U.S., Warburg claimed he was officially a “naturalized citizen,” citing the “Circuit Court of New York City, March 21, 1911” [5] as the place and date where he had been bestowed his citizenship. Despite Warburg’s earlier proclamations, he was not declared a U.S. citizen until that time. Warburg thereby committed perjury, which was overlooked on numerous occasions by the Immigration Service officials, seemingly an act of treason on each occurrence. During subsequent visits to the U.S. in 1910, 1912 and 1913, while again proclaiming his U.S. citizenship, Warburg referred to 17 E. 80th St., New York as his home address. Not once was there any mention of his association with the Rothschild banks in Paris and London, and his permanent residency in Europe, not in America. Why the deception?

James Loeb

Not to be outdone, James Loeb, a partner in the Kuhn, Loeb & Company banking firm in New York City, traveled with Warburg on October 13, 1903. Loeb declared his U.S. citizenship on this trip, though he apparently suffered from amnesia in 1910, neglecting to declare any country of origin and later, in 1912, declaring to the U.S. Immigration Service that his birthplace was “Landsberg, Germany,” [6] a small town west of Munich.

Loeb also indicated (trip on this) that he was staying “with Mr. Warburg.”

Amnesia must have been a disease that plagued most German bankers at the turn of the century. The disease didn’t stop there and soon spread to institutes of higher education. Harvard University Press published a memorial biography to the founder of the Loeb Classical Library, bequeathed to Harvard University by none other than James Loeb, one year after his death in 1933. “James Loeb was born August 6, 1867, in New York City, the son of Solomon and Betty (Goldberg) Loeb. Solomon was a partner and founder of the banking firm, Kuhn, Loeb & Company,” the tribute began. [7]

Certainly, Harvard University would have known where Loeb was born and, for that matter, so would have Loeb. If this quotation were true, then what would have caused Loeb to state (to the INS) in 1912 that he was born in “Landsberg, Germany?”

The Harvard Press biography did little to legitimize the matter of Loeb’s birthplace, though it was a valiant attempt.

Still, if there remained any confusion, the U.S. Immigration Service could have clarified the issue based on the information it had acquired in 1903 and again in 1910. But that was not the agency’s intention. The Immigration and Naturalization Service agents were complicit in hiding James Loeb’s true birthplace and his association with financiers of the future German Nazi Party, an act which was aided and abetted by the sloppy, incomplete immigration records kept at Ellis Island and the Port of New York. That was part of the deception. Yes, he lived and worked in New York and may have attended Harvard University. But, considering the connections Kuhn, Loeb & Company had to the banks that supported the Nazis through money-laundering activities until getting caught in 1942, it was most likely that Loeb (like Warburg) had been groomed for his role in order to maintain the founders’ (of this “master plan”) “bloodline.”

There were other inconsistencies in the Harvard Press biography, again, based upon the above-mentioned records. “In the winter of 1891 a severe illness (possibly depression) obliged him to give up business and he spent the summer traveling in Scandinavia, returning to banking again only until January 1, 1902, when he retired due to renewed health problems” [Amnesia?].

James Loeb could not have traveled and returned to the United States during 1892, unless he had swum upon his return trip. The first of his three voyages to Ellis Island (from Europe on the Kaiser Wilhelm II) arrived on October 13, 1903, as previously mentioned. It was unlikely he would have returned to any port of entry other than New York, unless he had arrived at some other secret location. And there were no transatlantic airline flights in 1903. The Harvard story had to have been a fabrication intended to hide some dark secret.

Considering the sizable endowments Loeb lavished upon Harvard and other notable educational, medical, and art institutions in Boston and New York, it was most advantageous for Harvard to portray Loeb as a philanthropist and victim of “depression” (hardly fit for a transatlantic swim), than as a German banker whose father’s company supported the “master planners’” war machine before and during two world wars.

According to further reminiscent accounts, “He retired to a quieter place, his farm at Shrewsbury, New Jersey, moving to Germany in 1905, where he stayed (except for a period during World War I) until his death in 1933.”

Evidently, Harvard was unaware of two more trips (documented by the Federal Government) that Loeb made to New York in 1910, and again in 1912. It was no coincidence that Loeb’s return trips to the U.S. (as an on-again, off-again U.S. citizen) were orchestrated to accommodate Paul Warburg’s meetings with Wall Street bankers of German persuasion, as they plotted to create the Federal Reserve System, a foreign entity.

“On graduation, he received an offer through his teacher and friend Charles Eliot Norton to study Egyptology in Paris and London.”

Norton was the “appointed professor of history of art at Harvard University,” “from 1856 to 1874 Norton spent much time in travel and residence on the continent of Europe and in England,” and was the first president of the Archaeological Institute of America (1879-1890),” according to his biography at wikipedia.org. [8] It would seem that Egypt was a more suitable location for studying Egyptology than Paris and London, where Paul Warburg managed the Rothschild banks.

Loeb died in Munich in 1933, lending belated credence to his 1912 assertion, to the INS, that he was “born in Landsberg, Germany” and was a “German citizen” — “never having previously been in America.”

Nikola Tesla

Despite conflicting literary and historical accounts, Nikola Tesla, a Serb, was born on July 10, 1856, in Smilja, Lika province, or what is now modern-day Croatia. Prior to World War I, Smilja was on the border of the Austro-Hungarian empire so, in effect, Tesla was a citizen of Austrian origin.

The son of a Serbian Orthodox priest who rose to the rank of Archbishop, Tesla had the opportunity to study a variety of topics contained in his father’s personal library. As a young boy, he accompanied his father on trips to Rome, where he was able to study the lesser-known works stored in the Vatican’s vast scientific repository.

Upon completing his studies in engineering and physics at the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria, Tesla attended the University at Prague. He demonstrated, early on, an innate ability to solve mechanical and scientific problems, especially in the area of electricity and its applications in power production. After working for Edison Telephone Company subsidiaries in Budapest, Paris, and other cities throughout Europe, Nikola Tesla went to America, to meet the man whose company gave him his first job, Thomas Edison.

Tesla found it difficult to work for Edison (due to Edison’s reneging on financial promises), but soon found backers to finance his research and development projects and his new inventions. Financiers, such as John Pierpont (J.P.) Morgan, George Westinghouse and John Jacob Astor were among those who saw the potential in Tesla’s pioneering, entrepreneurial spirit to capitalize on his technological discoveries in electricity, wireless communications, and physics.

The only official documentation of Nikola Tesla’s arrival to the United States was, again, produced at the Port of New York. [9] On April 7, 1882 a 25-year old Tesla arrived via the SS Nordland, which departed from Antwerp. He had returned, on this trip to the U.S., after lecturing in Paris. Tesla’s destination: New York. Tesla immigrated as a “laborer,” though this label hardly befit the man who would become the most prolific inventor in history, with some 700 technological patents to his credit.

Previous accounts of Tesla’s association with Thomas Edison’s projects place him in the United States in the 1870s. His many technological discoveries were certain to have drawn the attention of those hungry for world domination and superiority. By and large, Tesla’s inventions and his career were excluded from our history books because his inventions and patents were stolen and then weaponized. It was never intended for us to learn about the suppression of Tesla’s advanced scientific discoveries, nor about those who profited from their theft—the orchestrators of the master plan.

Though much has been written about Tesla’s successes and failures, few have detailed the behind-the-scenes financial activities which disclose a Nazi plot to acquire his technology, while research and development costs had largely been paid (unknowingly) by U.S. taxpayers. Many of Tesla’s patents fell into Nazi hands prior to and during World Wars I and II. As a result, Tesla continuously found himself in litigation over patent rights and other issues.

Although he had succeeded in winning the majority of his patent lawsuits, his technology had been repeatedly stolen and sold to the German Nazis and other foreign governments, so he never achieved the financial success he deserved. The embezzlement of his capitalization went unchecked throughout Tesla’s career. At the time of his death (by murder, according to Skorzeny) on January 6, 1943, Tesla died virtually penniless.

Tesla’s Assistant, George H. Scherff, Sr.

Nikola Tesla’s successes in discovering new technologies did not go unnoticed by many industrial capitalists and world governments. In fact, many of his inventions were developed through secret government programs which began soon after his discoveries in alternating current (AC), electromagnetic energy, electric motors, generators, coils, radio transmission, energy-saving devices, and wireless transmission technologies.

Since Tesla was often buried deep in research at remote labs, many of his financial and legal affairs were supervised by his closest associate, George H. Scherff. Scherff often advised Tesla about pending patent litigation, contracts, proposals, demonstrations, and financial affairs. As any trusty associate would, Scherff stood beside Tesla through all the ups and downs of his financial nightmares, sometimes arranging for extended credit at the Waldorf-Astoria, where Tesla often resided, or by obtaining a cash advance toward research he had been contracted to perform. Near the end of his career, Tesla was evicted from the Waldorf for an outstanding bill which exceeded $20,000 — a rather large sum for those days.

As Tesla worked on secret U.S. government projects at Colorado Springs, Colorado, Scherff communicated to Tesla the status of his business affairs. Tesla spoke of hopeful, future financial successes, though Scherff repeatedly delivered the news of dwindling funds. Tesla had begun construction of a wireless power transmission tower (“Wardenclyffe,” Shoreham, Long Island) with funds invested by J.P. Morgan. When Morgan discovered that the tower would transmit free electricity and radio waves, he cancelled the project and had the tower dismantled, then sold for scrap. Morgan was not about to allow Americans to receive free electricity, television and radio. Tesla was devastated when he received the news, but continued on with his new inventions.

Some 12 years later, on October 14, 1918, Scherff wrote to Tesla at Colorado Springs. The correspondence focused on the usual disclosure of pending legal issues and attorney matters and was sent to Tesla on Tesla Company letterhead containing the company’s headquarters address at 8 W. 40th Street, New York, NY. [10] On October 15, 1918, (the next day) Tesla responded to Scherff’s letter (it seems impossible regarding our understanding of the technology available at the time, but these are the dates attached to the correspondence).

An interesting anomaly: Tesla’s response was addressed to “George Scherff, Esq.,” Union Sulphur Co., 17 Battery Pl., New York, NY (Union Sulphur Company?). [11] This address was not the location of the Nikola Tesla Company.

The Rockefeller Connection

Records show that 17 Battery Place is the Whitehall Building and was owned by Frank Rockefeller, who, with his brothers William and John D., also owned many of the companies with offices located there. The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) had its world headquarters there, as well as a variety of oil, mining, and chemical companies. [12] Though Union Sulphur Company was run by its president, Herman Frasch, a German chemist who patented extraction methods for sulphur and petroleum, Frasch also worked for John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company (in New York, New Jersey, and Cleveland, Ohio), developing similar extraction methods.

On the basis of this association, George Scherff, Sr., had connections with the Rockefeller family, though it is unclear if Tesla was at all aware of this connection.

Frank Rockefeller was also an investor of Buckeye Steel Castings in Columbus, Ohio. Buckeye manufactured automatic couplers and chassis for railroad cars owned by the Harrimans, the Rockefellers, and J.P. Morgan. Eventually, Samuel P. Bush was promoted from general manager to president of the company after producing gigantic profits.

Samuel P. Bush’s association with the Rockefellers and his subsequent position as Director of the War Industries Board afforded him the opportunity to create contracts with Remington Arms during the war, courtesy of Percy Rockefeller.

Nikola Tesla’s trusted assistant (sometimes referred to as “accountant” or “secretary”) George Scherff, Sr., worked at Union Sulphur Company. Normally, this association would not set off alarms, considering the state of Tesla’s affairs. Scherff had every right to earn a decent living in order to support his family. That was “the American Way.” But a careful examination of Union Sulphur Co. might reveal that someone was being deceived — Tesla, and Scherff was at the root of this deception.

Who was George Scherff?

Who was George Scherff? Better yet, who was George H. Scherff, Sr.? There exists no legitimate record of a George H. Scherff being born in the U.S. from the late-1800s through 1925, yet, George Scherff was Nikola Tesla’s assistant/accountant. If he was born in Germany, could his birthplace shed some light on this mystery? Probably—if they exist (it has become apparent that individuals associated with the Nazi Party commonly have all or parts of their genealogical records expunged—we will explore this further in the section of this article dealing with the “Bush” family tree).

Otto Skorzeny: S.S./ODESSA/CIA master spy and assassin

Friends and acquaintances of Nikola Tesla recall him complaining about Scherff’s son, George, Jr., always snooping around Tesla’s lab. On more than one occasion (probably during the late 1930s), Tesla caught the 14-year old Scherff looking at his notes, poring through his books, and stealing small items from his lab. Tesla gave him the nickname, “Curious George” and likened him to a “mischievous monkey.” According to Skorzeny, (Adolph Hitler’s former bodyguard) in a deathbed confession to Eric “Orion” (Eric Berman) in S. Miami, Florida, Tesla, “hated the younger Scherff.” In fact, according to Skorzeny, the “Curious George” book and movie were inspired by Tesla’ s suggestion.

Curiously, the day before the national theatrical release of the Hollywood production of the Curious George feature length film, Alan Shalleck, the originator of Curious George (and the man in the Yellow hat), was found murdered under a pile of plastic garbage bags in his driveway in Florida at age 76. [13]

In short, Otto Skorzeny claimed that the true identity of George H.W. Bush was “George H. Scherff, Jr., the son of Nikola Tesla’s illegal-immigrant, German-born accountant, George H. Scherff, Sr.”

The unmistakable Otto Skorzeny with Adolph Hitler.

Worth a thousand words: But this was not the only bombshell Otto Skorzeny delivered that day in late-1999. Skorzeny, producing a shoe box full of 60-years worth of his personal photographs, showed them to Berman, describing each one in great detail. The collection featured a photo of a young, majestic Skorzeny in full S.S. Nazi military dress, next to his Führer, Adolph Hitler. Then there were photos of Reinhard Gehlen (S.S. spy and assassin) Dr. Joseph Mengele (the “Angel of Death”) Martin Bormann (Hitler aide and S.S. assassin) and Adolph Hitler (photographed in 1997 at age 107).

The Hitler photo was taken during a “reunion” at the Lake McDonald Lodge in Glacier National Park, Montana, on August 27, 1997. According to Skorzeny, Adolph Hitler was alive and well in the U.S. in 1997!

Skorzeny did not stop there. He produced a photo of a young Skorzeny, Mengele, Bormann, and the family of George H. Scherff, Sr.. Seated in the midst of those in the photo was a young George H. Scherff, Jr., who, Skorzeny explained, was trained as a spy and sent to America to work for Adolph Hitler. “He was given false identification and adopted by Prescott Sheldon Bush as his “son,” George Herbert Walker Bush,” Skorzeny went on. “He forged a birth certificate in order to enter the military before he turned 18. He was 16 at the time.”

In the family photo, a young Scherff and Bormann both sported a German Navy uniform. Scherff later enlisted in the U.S. Navy as “George H.W. Bush.”
~~See Original Website for continuation

http://loveforlife.com.au/content/10/03/01/nikola-tesla-deathbed-confessions-photos-support-claims-george-h-scherff-jr-was-41s
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Bloglink~ http://peta-de-aztlan.blogspot.com/

Twitter Link~ http://twitter.com/Peta_de_Aztlan

Humane Liberation Party Portal
~ http://help-matrix.ning.com/
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Profile: Dr. David Sanchez =Brown Beret

2011-04-09T10:30:00.000-07:00

First Blogpost Dated 6/5/06 ~Update: 4/09/2011
To be updated:

http://www.mexicanamericanuniversity.com/drsanchez/

David Sanchez Ph.D. grew up around several barrios in Los Angeles. At a young age he began to organize his community for better living conditions. He has always been at the forefront to direct or assist community events for the progress and advancement of Mexican Americans and Latinos.

David Foncerrada Sanchez became one of the most influential leaders during the Mexican American Civil Rights Era. He Started up groups like the Chicano Moratorium and the B.B. National Organization. More recently, David Sanchez earned his Ph.D. and taught Mexican American Studies at several community colleges for over ten years. He also served as Sr. Liaison for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. He is the author of two books titled "Expedition Through Aztlan" and "Social Communication for Everyone".

Dr. Sanchez has completed extensive work in reducing crime and violence in the Southwest and is always there when the community aspires a need. Today, he is the President and Developer for the Mexican American University.

Contact Information:
Dr. David Sanchez, PHD
Mexican American University
P.O. Box 23405, Los Angeles, CA 90023
Email: info@mexicanamericanuniversity.com

Mexican American University is an off campus, non-traditional, alternative education university which offers everyone the opportunity to apply their knowledge and experience into academic credits leading to a certificate of completion or a degree.We have developed a distinctive alternative to regional education and are are widely accepted in business, industry, and government. The programs are completed entirely by correspondence or by e-mail.

MAU is a private university and organization which is dedicated to assist learners and working people who wish to excel at a higher level at the workplace. Independent study may be applicable to developmental research which can contribute to your place of employment. Assignments may include readings in preparation for essays in which students are encouraged to express their own views and understanding of society. Also, papers from Scientific and Social Sciences are welcomed.

For more information, you may write to Mexican American University at P.O. Box 23405, Los Angeles, California, 90023.

Related Blog:
http://chicanismo.blogspot.com/
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http://laprensa-sandiego.org/stories/prime-minister-of-the-brown-berets-dr-david-sanchez/

Prime Minister of the Brown Berets, Dr. David Sanchez

Fri, Aug 13, 2010

Stories

First Person:
By Al Carlos Hernandez
    Ironically the Brown Berets, the radical Chicano community organization, began in the office of the mayor of Los Angeles. The Mayor’s Advisory Youth Council had just selected 16 year old David John Sanchez as its chairman for 1966.
    Acting as advisers on behalf of the Mexican American community were David Sanchez, Carlos Montes, and Ralph Ramirez. The group originally hoped to ease the strained relationships existing between the community and the police department.
    They opened up a coffeehouse. The intention of the coffeehouse was to attract teenagers and give them something to do other than to hang out on the streets. The coffeehouse was called, “La Piranha,” which also served as an office and meeting hall.
    The Sheriff’s Department decided that the coffeehouse was a bad place because the kids drew a picket line in front of the Sheriff’s station protesting a case of police brutality.
    David Sanchez said, “I was jumped by the fuzz. They had me at the jail for some minor kid thing and I didn’t want to sign. One cop got me in a judo hold and another came up behind me from the back and knocked me flat. When I woke up they were booking me. I began to change my mind about things and began to see that something was wrong with America. Things were no longer Stars and Stripes.”
    Experiences like these incited the group and they became openly militant. In the fall of 1967, they officially changed the name of their group to the Brown Berets.
    The goal of the Brown Berets in the beginning, according to Sanchez was, “To unite our people under the flag of independence. By independence we mean the right to self-determination, self-government, and freedom – our land was stolen from our forefathers.”
    The Beret program included demands for the return of all the stolen land and called for an end to the police occupation of Raza communities, an end to the robbery of Chicano communities by businessmen, and an end to the drafting of Chicanos. Then the demand went out for Chicano control of Chicano education, and for housing fit for human beings.
    The Berets often provided a sense of security to individuals and families and were often called on to provide security at public demonstrations by Latino groups they labeled as La Raza.
    The Berets started people’s clinics, youth centers, anti-drug programs, and many other projects. Sheriff’s deputies harassed the Brown Berets and infiltrated the organization, causing disorganization and forcing them to shut down their coffee shop in the beginning of March 1968.
    Late in May, 1969 the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Operations Conspiracy Squad raided the main headquarters of the Brown Berets in Los Angeles. Police claimed that the raid was to arrest two people on a charge of conspiracy to commit burglary. David Sanchez, on the other hand, felt the raid occurred because, “The police were irritated by recent intelligence activities by the Berets. Brown Berets members had reportedly uncovered two undercover agents from the police department in their membership.”
    Undaunted, Brown Berets continued to operate their East Los Angeles Free Clinic. With financial help from the Ford Foundation and the volunteer help of professionals, the clinic offered free medical, social, and psychological services to Mexican Americans.
    Through the clinic, similar services were also provided by the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, also financed by the Ford Foundation. But such efforts were to be overshadowed by the arrests and convictions of those Brown Berets who allegedly created fires and disturbances in the Biltmore Hotel on April 24, 1969.
    Soon, the medical and legal services of the East Los Angeles Free Clinic would cease. But the violence in the streets in the form of demonstrations and social protests would continue and a contingent of the Brown Berets would continue to participate in a show of “Brown Power” and militancy.
    David Sanchez was the Brown Berets founding leader and Prime Minister.
    As a former Brown Beret myself, while in college, I had an opportunity to talk to the enigmatic Dr. David Sanchez about the Brown Beret experience:

    Al Carlos: Society viewed the Brown Berets as a militant organization on the same level as the Black Panther Party. What was your original vision for the Brown Berets?

    David Sanchez: The Brown Berets was a psychological ploy to bring attention to the Mexican American and Chicano community. Our vision was often misinterpreted by scholars and writers. What we did was non-violent community activism drawing attention to our struggle for the survival for our cultural communities and for future generations. Of course, we are always up against reactionaries who called us militants and barrio mentality which was conservative and quite provincial at the time.

    AC: So your intention was social change without violence, using implied power?

    DS: The locos (crazy street guys) in the barrio thought that we should use violence. Still, we taught that learning to use non-violence would keep us safe from spending all of our time going to court and jail. We had to deal with extremists from the right and left; polarization was always a concern.

    AC: When in life did social activism become something you became passionate about?

    DS: At 12 years old, I was drafted into a gang in which I ended up making peace with surrounding gangs. Then, an Episcopal priest hired me at 16 years old to be a summer youth counselor. The priest was Father John B. Luce. He gave me books to read. From there, I was able to hook up with other youth organizations. I then became the first president for Mayor Sam Yortie’s Youth Advisory Council.
    Then, whites from the Young Republicans came to demonstrate and to throw me out of L.A. City Hall. They could not. During this time, I was a regular rebel in high school with a “B”average and organized a campus protest against the police explorers. The only Anglos that we saw were the white LAPD police who constantly pulled over any Chicano on any street.
    I knew that there would be a long struggle and was willing to drop everything just to get the movement on the correct path. The Brown Berets were not out to shoot police. Rather, our tactic was to create mass events.

   AC: Why, then, are the immigrant struggles getting more traction while Chicano causes lay on the back burner?

   DS: Barrio mentality and lack of respect for each other is holding us back.

   AC: Tell us about your recent run at local politics?

   DS: Recently, I ran for Congress. It’s a way to get out the issues. Last June, I ran against Congresswoman Lucille Roybal Allard and was opposed to her strong support of the war. I received 5,500 votes. She got 12,000 votes with 18 years in office. This after getting the job passed on to her from her father, Congressman Ed Roybal.

   AC: How would you like American history to remember you?

   DS: I think I will be remembered as the leader during the Chicano Rebellion in East Los Angeles. And founder of the Brown Berets, and founder of the Chicano Moratorium Committee.
   Last said: to care about our people…it’s in my blood.
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http://www.heralddeparis.com/interview-prime-minister-of-the-brown-berets-dr-david-sanchez/102019

Interview: Prime Minister of the Brown Berets, Dr. David Sanchez

By Al Carlos Hernandez on August 8, 2010

LOS ANGELES (Herald de Paris) - Ironically the Brown Berets, the radical Chicano community organization, began in the office of the mayor of Los Angeles. The Mayor’s Advisory Youth Council had just selected 16 year old David John Sanchez as its chairman for 1966. Los Angeles’ Mayor Sam Yorty welcomed and congratulated the young man personally and gave him a gavel. One of his projects was “The Young Citizens for Community Action.”

Acting as advisers on behalf of the Mexican American community was David Sanchez, Carlos Montes, and Ralph Ramirez. The group originally hoped to ease the strained relationships existing between the community and the police department. The group began reading about community issues and began setting up community projects, including going to Delano and raising food for the farm workers.

They opened up a coffeehouse. The intention of the coffeehouse was to attract teenagers and give them something to do other than to hang out on the streets. The coffeehouse was called, “La Piranha,” which also served as an office and meeting hall.

The Sheriff’s Department decided that the coffeehouse was a bad place because the kids drew a picket line in front of the Sheriff’ station protesting a case of police brutality.

David Sanchez said, “I was jumped by the fuzz. They had me at the jail for some minor kid thing and I didn’t want to sign. One cop got me in a judo hold and another came up behind me from the back and knocked me flat. When I woke up they were booking me. I began to change my mind about things and began to see that something was wrong with America. Things were no longer Stars and Stripes.”

Experiences like these incited the group and they become openly militant. In the fall of 1967, they officially changed the name of their group to the Brown Berets.

The goal of the Brown Berets in the beginning, according to Sanchez was, “To unite our people under the flag of independence. By independence we mean the right to self-determination, self-government, and freedom – our land was stolen from our forefathers.”

The Beret program included demands for the return of all the stolen land and called for an end to the police occupation of Raza communities, an end to the robbery of Chicano communities by businessmen, and an end to the drafting of Chicanos. Then the demand went out for Chicano control of Chicano education, and for housing fit for human beings. They also said, “The border lands should be open to La Raza whether they were born north or south of the fence.”

The Brown Berets included both men and women who set up centers where citizens could bring their complaints of police brutality. They published a newspaper called La Causa and the newspaper carried reports of police brutality. The Berets often provided a sense of security to individuals and families and were often called on to provide security at public demonstrations by Latino groups they labeled as La Raza.

The Berets started people’s clinics, youth centers, anti-drug programs, and many other projects. Beret chapters spread throughout the Southwest and Midwest. In Los Angeles, sheriff’s deputies harassed the Brown Berets and infiltrated the organization, causing disorganization and forcing them to shut down their coffee shop in the beginning of March 1968.

Late in May, 1969 the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Operations Conspiracy Squad raided the main headquarters of the Brown Berets in Los Angeles. Police claimed that the raid was made because the PD had cause to arrest two people on a charge of conspiracy to commit burglary. David Sanchez, on the other hand, felt the raid occurred because, “The police were irritated by recent intelligence activities by the Berets. Brown Berets members have reportedly uncovered two undercover agents from the police department in their membership.” Two Beret members were arrested and incarcerated.

Undaunted, Brown Berets continued to operate their East Los Angeles Free Clinic. With financial help from the Ford Foundation and the volunteer help of professionals, the clinic offered free medical, social, and psychological services to Mexican Americans.

Through the clinic, similar services were also provided by the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, also financed by the Ford Foundation. But such efforts were to be overshadowed by the arrests and convictions of those Brown Berets who allegedly created fires and disturbances in the Biltmore Hotel on April 24, 1969.

Soon, the medical and legal services of the East Los Angeles Free Clinic would cease. But the violence in the streets in the form of demonstrations and social protests would continue and a contingent of the Brown Berets would continue to participate in a show of “Brown Power” and militancy.

The organization’s inability to clearly define their role in society resulted in their failure to develop specific plans to achieve their demands. Their tendency to react to crises rather than to remain in control of a situation caused the group to become disorganized. Despite these weaknesses the Brown Berets have become a symbol of the Hispanic resistance to tyranny and their fight for liberation.

David Sanchez was the Brown Berets founding leader and Prime Minister.

Herald de Paris Deputy Managing Editor, Dr. Al Carlos Hernandez, a former Brown Beret himself while in college, had an opportunity to talk to the enigmatic Dr. David Sanchez about the Brown Beret experience:

AC: Society viewed the Brown Berets as a militant organization on the same level as the Black Panther Party. What was your original vision for the Brown Berets?

DS: The Brown Berets was a psychological ploy to bring attention to the Mexican American and Chicano community. Our vision was often misinterpreted by scholars and writers. What we did was non-violent community activism drawing attention to our struggle for the survival for our cultural communities and for future generations. We wanted to give La Raza a chance to attain a higher education. Of course, we are always up against reactionaries who called us militants and barrio mentality which was conservative, and quite provincial at the time.

AC: So your intention was social change without violence, using implied power?

DS: The locos (crazy street guys) in the barrio thought that we should use violence. Still, we taught that learning to use non-violence would keep us safe from spending all of our time going to court and jail. We had to deal with extremists from the right and left; polarization was always a concern.

At first, many of us went to jail for walkouts, demonstrations, and fighting with the police. Personally, I went to jail twelve times on false charges. Despite that, we learned that non-violence would help us to last. Eventually we learned that going on the road organizing in various communities helped us to avoid police traps.

AC: Extremists? Weren’t you considered an extremist yourself during that time?

DS: There were people affiliated with the organization that would ask us to use violence. Then we questioned why they wanted to embark on extreme measures. We eventually learned that some extremist were actually police informants.

AC: When in life did social activism become something you became passionate about?

DS: When I was in the fifth grade at thee 79th Street School in South Central L.A., my teacher, who was an African American Mr. Roger Moore, taught me that this land once belonged to Mexico.

At 12 years old, I was drafted into a gang in which I ended up making peace with surrounding gangs. Then, an Episcopal priest hired me at 16 years old to be a summer youth counselor. The priest was Father John B. Luce. He gave me books to read. From there, I was able to hook up with other youth organization. I then became the first president for Mayor Sam Yortie’s Youth Advisory Council.

Then, whites from the Young Republicans came to demonstrate and to throw me out of L.A. City Hall. They could not. During this time, I was a regular rebel in high school with a “B”average and organized a campus protest against the police explorers. The only Anglos that we saw were the white LAPD police who constantly pulled over any Chicano on any street. My parents also explained to me that Anglos were very unfair to our people.

Our family business was constantly harassed by the LAPD. I moved to change our group’s name from Young Citizens for Community Action to Young Chicanos for Community Action. And then to the Brown Berets.
I knew that there would be a long struggle and was willing to drop everything just to get the movement on the correct path. The Brown Berets were not out to shoot police. Rather, our tactic was to create mass events.

AC: Some people think that the Brown Berets were a prelude to some of the gangs in the community today. Do you believe that’s true?

DS: The Berets were not a gang, Gangs and north/south conflicts came out of the prisons with barrio gang mentality to put gas on the fire. The migrants at this time are better organized and get most of the attention. Yet, if La Raza gets it together for a progress movement, we will have a new civil rights movement and not the Blacks.

AC: Why, then, are the immigrant struggles getting more traction while Chicano causes lay on the back burner?

DS: Barrio mentality and lack of respect for each other is holding us back.

AC:What about the groups who are now calling themselves Brown Berets, they even have websites?

DS: There will always be Brown Berets popping up because people want change. However, some of these groups have developed bad attitudes and have not done their homework on the past, Nor do not they respect past leaders. Nonetheless, I have respect for a few new Brown Berets in Los Angeles who know how to tackle issues. Just wearing a Brown Beret does not make them a respectful Brown Beret. The original Brown Beret Manual says, “Have respect for everyone”. Many of the new Brown Berets want to be independent. In the old days, Brown Berets were under one command which was coming from my office as Prime Minister.

AC: What about your personal life? Have you always been arcane and enigmatic?

DS: I play guitar and write. I really could not afford a family with teaching just part time at colleges since 1978.
I wrote a book on the “Brown Beret Movement” as part of my dissertation and did much work in Human Communication. In 1978, I received a Ph.D. from The Union Institute and University. I love teaching.
Mostly I taught Chicano Studies for 11 years and taught Speech 101. I wrote, Expedition through Aztlan.

As a Brown Beret, I traveled in a real expedition to eighty barrios throughout the U.S. I knew that the area had to be mapped out culturally, politically, and socially. It was probably the only book that was written during the Chicano Movement from an inside perspective. I also knew that it was important to document the movement and history before all may get wiped out. I learned about expeditions while attending Cal State Los Angeles in the late sixties.
The other book I wrote was, Social Communication for everyone. In this book I felt that our People needed to improve their communication skills. The book covers areas from social to advanced human communication.

AC: Tell us about your recent run at local politics?

DS: Recently, I ran for Congress. It’s a way to get out the issues. Last June, I ran against Congresswoman Lucille Roybal Allard and was opposed to her strong support of the war. I received 5,500 votes. She got 12,000 votes with 18 years in office. This after getting the job passed on to her from her father, Congressman Ed Roybal.
It was hard to run with no money. Yes, I want to run again. Actually, I should have been a congressman but gave most of my years to community issues.

AC: What are some of the projects you are working on now?

Presently, I am trying to find grant funds for the Mexican American University. I put together a board and corporation to develop The Mexican American University. It’s a lot of work.

AC: How would you like American history to remember you?

DS: I think I will be remembered as the leader during the Chicano Rebellion in East Los Angeles. And founder of the Brown Berets, and founder of the Chicano Moratorium Committee.

And last, founder of the Mexican American University. Last said: to care about our people…it’s in my blood.
Edited By Susan Aceves

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Note: As a former Brown Beret I think we got sidetracked by Chicano cultural nationalism and were not able to cross over into a global democratic socialist ideology. I do not endorse Sanchez, respect the new Brown Berets and felt he was a fool for disbanding them when he did. ~Che Peta ~On Twitter @Peta_de_Aztlan

KEY LINKS:
The Humane-Rights-Agenda Blog
Join Related Group:Humane-Rights-Agenda Group
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Brief Bio: #WikiLeaks Founder Julien Assange ~2B Updated

2010-12-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

Short URL http://bit.ly/iilUZe

Julian Assange of Wikileaks

Oct 24, 2010 Leann Richards

Julian Assange - Wikimedia commons

Julian Assange is said to be the founder of Wikileaks, the on line whistleblower organisation. Assange is a mysterious figure and little is known about him.

Julian Assange is the public face of Wikileaks, the online whistleblower organisation. However, little is known about this mysterious Australian.
Birth and Early Life

Assange was born in Townsville in the north of Queensland, Australia, in 1971. His parents were in a traveling theatre troupe and were itinerant employees.They traveled around the countryside throughout Julian's early life until they separated when he was 11 years old.

People from Magnetic Island in Queensland remember the family as living an alternative lifestyle like hippies who always had something interesting going on in their house.

After the divorce, Julian's mother frantically ran from town to town seeking to avoid domestic violence. The family rarely stayed in the one place and kept a low profile.
Education and teenage years

Assange left home when he was 16 . He enrolled at several universities including Melbourne University, where he studied Mathematics. He was an exceptional mathematician and soon turned these skills towards computer programming.

Around this time he became involved with a group of outlaw hackers. The group, called the "International Subversives" were based in Melbourne and hacked into large corporations including Telecom, the Australian telecommunications company, RMIT, the Australian National University and even allegedly, the Australian Federal Police, where they read the file about the investigation into their activities.

In 1991, the group were caught and charged . Assange was given a good behaviour bond and a fine. The judge said that he had hacked into these corporations because of intellectual curiosity and with no malicious intent.

In 1997 a book called Underground which dealt with the Melbourne underground hacking scene appeared. Assange was listed as one of the researchers for the book. It was alleged he was the hacker called Mendax whose activities were described in the publication.

Assange's genius with computers lead to him working with some large companies writing encryption codes.He never completed his degree and was largely self educated.
Wikileaks

In 2007 Assange with some like-minded people formed Wikileaks, an online organisation that released information and documents from whistleblowers.

In 2009 Wikileaks released a secret black list of banned websites from the Australian communication authority. Also in that year the organisation with Assange won an Amnesty International Media award for publishing information about human rights abuses in Kenya in 2008.

Wikileaks has become known worldwide for its leaking of documents relating to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In 2010, large caches of secret government documents relating to these conflicts were revealed by Wikileaks.

Due to issues with the information on the site, Assange has found it necessary to revert to his childhood pattern of itinerancy, traveling from place to place with little more than a back pack and computer. He rarely talks about his private life and remains focused on wikileaks.

Julian Assange is a controversial figure with a stated mission to resolve the problem of press and whistleblower censorship. His ability to access whistleblowers and government documents is unprecedented in the modern age. Whether these revelations will have lasting effect is yet to be seen.

Sources

Carly Crawford, Hacker or Revolutionary? Herald Sun, Melbourne,July 31 2010

Andrew Strutton, Rogue Website Author Local Lad, Townsville Bulletin,Townsville QLD, July 29 2010

Will Pavia, Aussie Behind Invulnerable site for Whistleblowers , The Australian, Canberra ACT, July 28 2010

Bernard Lagan, International Man of Mystery, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney NSW, April 10, 2010.

http://www.suite101.com/content/julian-assange-of-wikileaks-a300242
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http://bit.ly/f5kDAW

Who is Julian Assange?
GLENDA KWEK - Sydney Morning Herald
Last updated 05:00 10/12/2010
Reuters
SUPER-GEEK: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The super-geek who is now staking a claim to being the world's most notorious leaker of secrets grew up on a small idyllic Queensland island with just 500 residents - a "Tom Sawyer" who fished and built rafts while his mother "lived in a bikini" and shot a taipan on his bed.

Born in July 1971 in Townsville on the Queensland coast, Julian Assange says he's never been a stranger to the nomadic way of life, moving 37 times by the time he was 14. His parents worked in theatre and were often on the road.

He and his half-brother did not receive formal education, with his mother Christine telling The New Yorker magazine in June: "I didn't want their spirits broken."

"Assange's mother believed that formal education would inculcate an unhealthy respect for authority in her children and dampen their will to learn," the magazine reported, adding that Mr Assange's parents were "tough-minded nonconformists".

Assange said he "spent a lot of time in libraries going from one thing to another, looking closely at the books I found in citations, and followed that trail", took correspondence classes, had informal lessons with university professors and was occasionally home-schooled.

Two of the locations he and his family frequented included Magnetic Island - a small heritage-listed island eight kilometres off Townsville - and Byron Bay.

"Most of this period of my childhood was pretty Tom Sawyer," he told the New Yorker.

"I had my own horse. I built my own raft. I went fishing. I was going down mine shafts and tunnels."

Assange wrote warmly about his childhood on Australia's east coast in an opinion article for The Australian newspaper, citing Queenslanders' willingness to "[speak] their minds bluntly" as influencing his desire to create WikiLeaks, whose motto is "we open governments".

"I grew up in a Queensland country town where people spoke their minds bluntly. They distrusted big government as something that could be corrupted if not watched carefully. The dark days of corruption in the Queensland government before the Fitzgerald inquiry are testimony to what happens when the politicians gag the media from reporting the truth," he wrote in the hours before his arrest yesterday.

"These things have stayed with me. WikiLeaks was created around these core values. The idea, conceived in Australia, was to use internet technologies in new ways to report the truth."
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In September 2009, Mrs Assange wrote about her time on Magnetic Island in its History and Craft Centre visitor's book.

"My name is Assange. I have lived on the Island three times. 1971 as a single mum with a young baby (Julian). I rented an island cottage for $12 per week in Picnic Bay," the Magnetic Times community paper reported, quoting from the book.

"I lived in a bikini, 'going native' with my baby and other mums on the island. ...

"Back again in 1976 with new husband. Lived in Horseshoe Bay on an old abandoned pineapple farm. Slashed way to front door with machete. Shot a taipan in the water tank and on son's bed. Had to suspend fruit from ceiling to protect from possums.

"Back again in 1982 with another little child. Lived in a flat on esplanade in Picnic Bay. Back again as a grandmother with long-term boyfriend - still in love with island - only staying 2 weeks."

Magnetic Times editor George Hirst said the island in the 1970s would have had 500 residents, with most of them "highly transient". It now has more than 2000 residents.

"For a kid growing up, it's one of the best places you can imagine. People are much more laid back and casual," he said today.

"There's not much crime and you see kids running around and having fun. They can do things without the safety paranoia of the modern age."

When Assange was eight, his parents split up and his mother started dating a musician who she said was abusive towards her.

She left him, but, fearful that she would lose custody of her second son, who was fathered by the musician, the trio went on the run.

She said "we now we need to disappear", Mr Assange told the New Yorker.

At 13, Mrs Assange bought Julian his first computer for $600.

"Being a very bright boy in a country town he really needed something extra than what the country town could give him," Mrs Assange told The Sunshine Coast Daily this week.

"Julian had been drooling over these things [computers] for about a year and I just thought that he really needed to have it for his intellectual growth.

"I was just indulging his childhood passion."

By the time Assange moved to Melbourne with his family in his teens, he had built up a reputation as a sophisticated computer programmer.

He also fell in love with a 16-year-old girl and left home to live with her. At 18, they married and had a son, Daniel.

Assange's experiments with computer hacking soon attracted the ire of the police. In 1991, he was tracked down by authorities after he and other hackers broke into Canadian telecommunications company Nortel's main terminal, and eventually charged with 31 counts of hacking. At the same time, his wife left, taking their baby son with her.

Assange struggled to cope with fighting to regain custody of Daniel and waiting for his criminal trial to take place. When it finally concluded in 1995, he pleaded guilty to 25 of the hacking charges, avoiding prison on condition he did not reoffend.

The judge said then: "There is just no evidence that there was anything other than sort of intelligent inquisitiveness and the pleasure of being able to - what's the expression - surf through these various computers."

But it was the custody battle that eventually drained all the colour out of his brown hair, Mrs Assange told the New Yorker. Although Mr Assange obtained an agreement with his wife over Daniel in 1999, both he and his mother "experienced very high levels of adrenaline".

"And I think that after it all finished I ended up with PTSD [post traumatic stress disorder]. It was like coming back from a war. You just can't interact with normal people to the same degree, and I am sure that Jules has some PTSD that is untreated."

Assange travelled in Asia and worked in a number of different fields, including as a security consultant, a researcher in journalism, and started his own IT company, scraping together money to help support Daniel. In his late 20s he went to Melbourne University to study mathematics and physics.

He founded WikiLeaks in 2006, creating a web-based "dead letter drop" for would-be leakers.

In 2007, he told smh.com.au: "Imagine a world where companies and government make plans the public likes, open up rather than covering up and treat employees well.

"Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?"

But he added in another interview with the website this year that he did not see himself as a computer guru.

"I live a broad intellectual life. I'm good at a lot of things, except for spelling."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/4442361/Who-is-Julian-Assange?utm_term=Julian+Assange&utm_source=TheCubaBlog&utm_medium=twitter

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Key Profiles, Bios + Links Blog

http://key-profiles.blogspot.com/

2010-11-25T12:27:00.001-08:00

Being Thankful on a Thanksgiving Day of Mourning ~ November 25, 2010 via Peta_de_Aztlan

Short Blog Link~ http://bit.ly/hUVijO

It is that time of year again here inside the so-called United States of America ~more accurately described as Divided States. Time for Thanksgiving Day ~ Turkey Day! Millions upon millions of innocent turkeys have already been slaughtered and prepared for big family gatherings today when they will be devoured by millions of Americans for Thanksgiving Dinner. Many will have turkey sandwiches around for a few days until it feels like turkey is coming out of our ears. The mythology behind Thanksgiving Day involves the crafty Injuns helping the poor Pilgrims to survive one rough late November winter. Then they celebrated it all by having a big joyful feast together. One big happy family pigging out ~or rather ~ turking out!

The truth: In 1637, Thanksgiving Day started out a Celebration of the Pequot Massacre of 700 Indian men, women and children during one of their religious ceremonies. "Thanksgiving Day" was first proclaimed by the Governor of the then Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637 in recognition of the blood-lust victory.

I am indigenous to this land I call Aztlan ~Our Land~ in reference to the U.S. Southwest. I identify with the cultural term 'Chicano'. I am not your typical Amerikan. I am a U.S. citizen, not subject to deportation, yet! I was born, bred and raised in Sacramento, California, Aztlan. My street name is 'Peta' ~ a Pachuco term meaning 'a rope hard to cut'. On my Dad's side, my direct bloodline goes back to the Chiricahua-Apache Warrior Chief known as Geronimo and a great great grandfather who was a Sonoran Yaqui Chief of a tribe never conquered by the Spaniards in Mexico whose name I do not now know, according to my Father/Padre Pedro M. Lopez who was born near Chandler, Arizona.

I have been on the Internet for several years now. Every year it is traditional for many Native-American advocates online to dig up the bones about the horrible history of the Thanksgiving Day Massacre. Let us not forget to educate others about the key lessons of history in order to more clearly understand out present situation. Let us accept the truth of history as a guide to action. At the same time let us live in the present here and now without the burdens of bitter past resentments, the haunting of history. Like the Garth Brooks song, we need to bury the hatchet but keep the handle sticking out!

We can appreciate Thanksgiving Day as a special day of being sincerely thankful for the blessings we have received in life; yet we should also reverence today as a day of mourning for all the indigenous native victims of genocide in the Amerikan Holocaust. Keep it real! Free Leonard Pelier Now!

Relevant Links:

Thanksgiving: A Native American View/ By Jacqueline Keeler ~1/01/2000
> http://www.alternet.org/story/4391/

READ: Deconstructing Thanksgiving~A Native American view~11/27/08
> http://bit.ly/gCWVm2

The TRUE History of Thanksgiving
> http://bit.ly/eGKmxA

The Real History of Thanksgiving – The Rape of America by European Racial Supremicists
> http://bit.ly/hBKUFJ

Thanksgiving is a LIE
> http://bit.ly/hOPKgB ~

The Thanksgiving Day Massacre...Or, would you like Turkey with your genocide? by DelicateMonster ~ Thu Nov 23, 2006 at 07:35:36 AM PST
> http://bit.ly/gnU7KL

Native American Genocide ~Raina Delema~ History behind the News~Spring 2005
> http://bit.ly/eIzTz5

Thanksgiving Day Celebrates A Massacre ~Research compiled, October 19, 1990 by Johyn Westcott and Paul Apidaca
> http://bit.ly/hkUhXE ~

THE SUPPRESSED SPEECH OF WAMSUTTA (FRANK B.) JAMES, WAMPANOAG ~ To have been delivered at Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1970
> http://www.uaine.org/wmsuta.htm

c/s

Tags: Amerikan, Holocaust

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Unidos Venceremos! United We Will Win!
PETER S. LOPEZ AKA: Peta-de-Aztlan
Sacramento, California
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com
http://twitter.com/Peta_de_Aztlan
http://www.facebook.com/Peta51
http://help-matrix.ning.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/
"An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come."
~ Victor Hugo
c/s

Biography: Saddam Hussein ~Arabic Saddam means "One who confronts"

2010-11-11T18:27:00.000-08:00

http://www.who2.com/saddamhussein.html

Saddam Hussein was dictator of Iraq from 1979 until 2003, when his regime was overthrown by a United States-led invasion. Hussein had joined the revolutionary Baath party while he was a university student. He launched his political career in 1958 by assassinating a supporter of Iraqi ruler Abdul-Karim Qassim. Saddam rose in the ranks after a Baath coup, and by 1979 he was Iraq's president and de facto dictator. He led Iraq through a decade-long war with Iran, and in August of 1990 his forces invaded the neighboring country of Kuwait. A U.S.-led alliance organized by George Bush (the elder) ran Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in the Gulf War, which ended in February of 1991 with Saddam still in power. Hussein came under renewed pressure in 2002 from George W. Bush, the son of the first President Bush. Hussein's regime was overthrown by an invasion of U.S. and British forces in March of 2003. Hussein disappeared, but U.S. forces captured him on 13 December 2003 after finding him hiding in a small underground pit on a farm near the town of Tikrit. Late in 2005 he went on trial in Iraq for the 1982 deaths of over 140 men in the town of Dujail. On 5 November 2006 he was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was upheld after appeal, and Hussein was executed by hanging in Baghdad on the morning of 30 December 2006.

Extra credit: Before the 1991 Gulf War, Hussein threatened that if international forces led by the United States attacked Iraq, it would be "the mother of all wars," giving rise to a multi-purpose catchphrase: "the mother of all (fill in the blank)"... The U.S. effort in the Gulf War was directed by the elder George Bush and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell; Powell later became Secretary of State under Bush's son George W. Bush... Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay were killed by U.S forces in the northern town of Mosul in July of 2003... Saddam Hussein was no relation to King Hussein, the late ruler of Jordan.
WIKI BIOGRAPHY ~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein
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Bio, Notes & Links on Hermano Eduardo Galeano

2010-11-08T19:42:00.000-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Galeano

Eduardo Hughes Galeano (2005)
Born: September 3, 1940 (1940-09-03) (age 70)
Montevideo, Uruguay
Pen name: Eduardo Galeano
Occupation: Journalist
Nationality: Uruguayan
Period: 20th century
Spouse(s): Helena Villagra
This name uses Spanish naming customs; the first or paternal family name is Hughes and the second or maternal family name is Galeano.
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Eduardo Hughes Galeano (born September 3, 1940) is a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist. His most well known works are Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire, 1986) and Las venas abiertas de América Latina (Open Veins of Latin America, 1971) which have since been translated into twenty languages and transcend orthodox genres: combining fiction, journalism, political analysis, and history. The author himself has proclaimed his obsession as a writer saying, "I'm a writer obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America above all and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia."[1]

Contents
* 1 Life
* 2 Works
* 3 Bibliography
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 External links

Life

Galeano was born in Montevideo, Uruguay to a middle class Catholic family of European descent (Welsh,Spanish,Italian and German descent). Like many young Latin American boys, Galeano dreamed of becoming a football (soccer) player; this desire was reflected in some of his works, such as El Fútbol A Sol Y Sombra (Football In Sun and Shadow). In his teens, Galeano worked odd jobs — as a factory worker, a bill collector, a sign painter, a messenger, a typist, and a bank teller. At 14 years, Galeano sold his first political cartoon to the Socialist Party weekly, El Sol and married for the first time in 1959. He started his career as a journalist in the early 1960s as editor of Marcha, an influential weekly journal which had such contributors as Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Benedetti, Manuel Maldonado Denis and Roberto Fernández Retamar. For two years he edited the daily Época and worked as editor-in-chief of the University Press. In 1962, having divorced, he remarried to Graciela Berro.

In 1973, a military coup took power in Uruguay; Galeano was imprisoned and later was forced to flee. His book Open Veins of Latin America was banned by the right-wing military government, not only in Uruguay, but also in Chile and Argentina. [1]. He settled in Argentina where he founded the cultural magazine, Crisis. In 1976 he married for the third time to Helena Villagra, however in the same year the Videla regime took power in Argentina in a bloody military coup and his name was added to the lists of those condemned by the death squads. He fled again, this time to Spain, where he wrote his famous trilogy: Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire). Galeano in 1984

At the beginning of 1985 Galeano returned to Montevideo, where he continues to live. Following the victory of Tabaré Vázquez and the Broad Front alliance in the 2004 Uruguayan elections marking the first left-wing government in Uruguayan history Galeano wrote a piece for The Progressive titled "Where the People Voted Against Fear" in which Galeano showed support for the new government and concluded that the Uruguayan populace used "common sense" and were "tired of being cheated" by the traditional Colorado and Blanco parties. [2] Following the creation of TeleSUR, a pan-Latin American television station based in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2005 Galeano along with other left-wing intellectuals such as Tariq Ali and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel joined the network's 36 member advisory committee.[3]

In 2006, Galeano signed a petition in support of the independence of Puerto Rico from the United States of America.

On February 10, 2007, Galeano underwent a successful operation to treat lung cancer.[4] During an interview with journalist Amy Goodman following Barack Obama's election as President of the United States in November 2008, Galeano said, "The White House will be Barack Obama's house in the time coming, but this White House was built by black slaves. And I’d like, I hope, that he never, never forgets this."[5] At the April 17, 2009, opening session of the 5th Summit of the Americas held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave a copy of Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America to U.S. President Barack Obama, who was making his first diplomatic visit to the region.[6] This made the English language edition of the book go to #2 position and the Spanish version to #11 on the Amazon.com bestseller list.

In a May 2009 interview he spoke about his past and recent works, some of which deal with the relationships between freedom and slavery, and democracies and dictatorships; "... not only the United States, also some European countries, have spread military dictatorships all over the world. And they feel as if they are able to teach democracy...". He also talked about how and why he has changed his writing style, and his recent rise in popularity.[7]
[edit] Works

"Fleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream of escaping poverty: that, one magical day, good luck will suddenly rain down on them - will rain down in buckets. But good luck doesn’t rain down, yesterday, today, tomorrow or ever. Good luck doesn’t even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter how hard the nobodies summon it, even if their left hand is tickling, or if they begin the new day on their right foot, or start the new year with a change of brooms. The nobodies: nobody’s children, owners of nothing. The nobodies: the no-ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits, dying through life, screwed every which way. Who are not, but could be. Who don’t speak languages, but dialects. Who don’t have religions, but superstitions. Who don’t create art, but handicrafts. Who don’t have culture, but folklore. Who are not human beings, but human resources. Who do not have faces, but arms. Who do not have names, but numbers. Who do not appear in the history of the world, but in the crime reports of the local paper. The nobodies, who are not worth the bullet that kills them." – Eduardo Galeano, "The Nobodies" [8]

Las venas abiertas de América Latina (Open Veins of Latin America) is arguably Galeano's best-known work. In this book, he analyzes the history of Latin America as a whole from the time period of European contact with the New World to contemporary Latin America arguing against European and later U.S. economic exploitation and political dominance over the region. It was the first of his many books to be translated by Cedric Belfrage into English. It is a classic among scholars of Latin American history. The book gained popularity in the English-speaking world after the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave it as a gift to the American President Barack Obama.

Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire) is a three-volume narrative of the history of America, North and South. The characters are historical figures; generals, artists, revolutionaries, workers, conquerors and the conquered, who are portrayed in brief episodes which reflect the colonial history of the continent. It starts with pre-Columbian creation myths and ends in the 1980s. It highlights not only the colonial oppression that the continent underwent but particularly the long history of resistance, from individual acts of heroism to mass revolutionary movements.

Memoria del fuego is widely praised by reviewers. Galeano was compared to John Dos Passos and Gabriel García Márquez. Ronald Wright wrote in the Times Literary Supplement: "Great writers... dissolve old genres and found new ones. This trilogy by one of South America's most daring and accomplished authors is impossible to classify."

In New York Times Book Review Jay Parini praised as perhaps his most daring work The Book of Embraces, a collection of short, often lyrical stories presenting Galeano's views on emotion, art, politics, and values, as well as offering a scathing critique of modern capitalistic society and views on an ideal society and mindset. (The Book of Embraces was the last book Cedric Belfrage translated before he died in 1991.)

Galeano is also an avid Soccer fan; in his chidlhood, Galeano had the dream of becoming a soccer player and this desire is the subject of some of his writings, among them Soccer in Sun and Shadow (1995), a review of the history of the game. Galeano compares it with a theater performance and with war; he criticizes its unholy alliance with global corporations but attacks leftist intellectuals who reject the game and its attraction to the broad masses for ideological reasons.

Galeano's Espejos (Mirrors) is Galeano's most expansive work since Memory of Fire. Galeano offers a broad mosaic of history told through the voices of the unseen, unheard, and forgotten. Recalling the lives of artists, writers, gods and visionaries, Galeano's makes "lore out of the mass of history and stories that make this world, and make us human." (Rick Simonson) Mirrors is set to be published in the US in English by Nation Books in June 2009.

Galeano is a regular contributor to The Progressive and the New Internationalist, and has also been published in the Monthly Review and The Nation.
See Link Source ~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Galeano
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Video 1:21:22~Eduardo Galeano Chronicles the History of Human Adventure~Los Angeles Public Library > http://ning.it/d0lLRT
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VIDEO 9:58~ 'Open Veins of Latin America' author Eduardo Galeano on Democracy NOW! 2006 (Part 1) > http://ning.it/95YsOX
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VIDEO~8:39~ 'Open Veins of Latin America' author Eduardo /Galeano on Democracy NOW! 2006 (Part 2) > http://ning.it/cxjB2G ~
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VIDEO~9:56~'Open Veins of Latin America' author Eduardo Galeano on Democracy NOW! 2006 (Part 3) > http://ning.it/bVhx0b ~
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Link Source~
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061104627_pf.html
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Scenes From the Life of a South American Literary Legend
By Eduardo Galeano ~ Sunday, June 14, 2009

WHEN I WROTE "Soccer in Sun and Shadow," I wanted fans of reading to lose their fear of soccer and fans of soccer to lose their fear of books. I never imagined anything more.

But a former member of the Mexican congress, Victor Quintana, told me the book saved his life. In the middle of 1997, he was kidnapped by contract killers, hired to punish him for exposing some nasty business.

They had him trussed up, face in the dirt, and were kicking him to death, when, just before finishing him off with a bullet, they started arguing about soccer. Victor, more dead than alive, put in his two cents. And he started telling stories from my book, trading minutes of life for every tale out of those pages. Time and stories came and went, and at last the murderers left him, beaten and broken, but alive.

"You're okay," they told him, and they took their bullets elsewhere.
-- -- --
I don't know Jorge Ventocilla. Rather, I've never met him, but my books are his friends, so I am too.

When "Mirrors" was first published in Spanish last year, Jorge decided that the book, not readily available in Panama, ought to be handed around from one reader to another.

Though his savings didn't amount to much, in a flight of fancy he used them all to buy copies of "Mirrors," and he set them loose in cafés, stores, barbershops, kiosks, everywhere. He inscribed each one:

"This free book is a traveling book. Read it and pass it on."

And so it was.
-- -- --
In 1971, I submitted "Open Veins of Latin America" for the Casa de las Américas prize in Cuba. It lost. Perhaps the jury thought the manuscript was not serious enough.

Later on, the book got published. Perhaps the military dictatorships that had spread across Latin America thought it too serious. They burned it.

But in my country, Uruguay, "Open Veins of Latin America" circulated freely among political prisoners during the first few months of military rule. The censors thought it was a textbook on anatomy, and medical texts were not forbidden.
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A few years ago, at a school in Salta in the north of Argentina, I was reading stories to 8- and 9-year-olds.
Afterward, the teacher asked the children to write to me, commenting on what I had read.
One of the letters counseled: "Keep at it, you'll improve."
-- -- --
In March 2007, in the Yucatan, "The Book of Embraces" was banned from the jail in Mérida "because it contains diabolical things." Some time before that, in San Jose, Costa Rica, I'd met a girl who was reading it in the bus station. "I always bring it along when I travel," she told me. "It's my portable boyfriend."
-- -- --
In "Mirrors," I tell stories that are barely known or simply unheard of.

One of them occurred in Spain in 1942. After Francisco Franco's coup d'état had annihilated the Spanish Republic, the dictatorship trumpeted the news that a prisoner, Matilde Landa, was going to publicly repent of her satanic beliefs and receive the holy sacrament of baptism in the prison yard.

The ceremony could not begin without the guest of honor, but Matilde could not be found. She was up on the roof. Suddenly, she threw herself off and exploded like a bomb when she hit the ground. The show went on. The bishop baptized her shattered body.

"Mirrors" was at the printers when I received a letter from the copy editor at the publishing house.

She wanted to know where I got that story. The facts were correct, but she knew it only as a family secret.
Matilde Landa was her aunt.
-- -- --
A few months ago, I read some stories at the University of Mexico.

One of them, from my book "Voices of Time," recounts how a Uruguayan troupe visiting Spain put on a play by Federico García Lorca, the poet executed by Franco and banned during the long dictatorship. It was the first time the play had been performed after decades on the blacklist.

When the curtain came down, the audience applauded, but with their feet, stamping on the floor. The actors were stunned. Had they done such a poor job? A moment later they received a prolonged ovation.

In my story I suggest the thundering of feet might have been for the playwright, shot for being a Red, a fag, a weirdo. A way of saying: "Federico, listen."

And when I told this story at the University in Mexico, something happened that had never happened before on the many other occasions I had told it: 4,000 students applauded with their feet, stamping their hearts out, as if they too were sitting in that theater in Madrid so many years ago. Federico listened.
-- -- --
At one of my storytelling sessions, in the Spanish town of Ourense, a man in the back row kept staring at me, an unblinking, impassible mask. When the reading ended, he approached slowly, fixing me with his gaze as if he wanted to kill me. Fortunately, he didn't. Instead, he said, "It must be so hard to write so simply."

And after that remark, the highest praise I have ever received, he turned on his heel and left.
-- -- --
The Bolivian town of Llallagua lived from the mine, and in the mine its miners died. Deep in the shafts in the bowels of the mountains, they hunted veins of tin and lost, in a few short years, their lungs and their lives.

I spent some time there and made good friends. The last night, we were drinking, my friends and I, singing laments and telling bad jokes till just before dawn. When little time remained before the scream of the siren that would call them to work, my friends fell silent, all of them at once. Then one asked, or pleaded, or ordered: "And now, my brother, tell us about the sea."

I was speechless. They insisted: "Tell us. Tell us about the sea."

It was the most difficult challenge in all my storytelling life. None of these miners would ever know the sea; each was doomed to die young. And I had no choice but to bring them the sea, the sea that was so far away, discovering words that could drench them to the bone.
--Translated from the Spanish by Mark Fried
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Eduardo Galeano: In the Crucible

He was born Eduardo Hughes Galeano in Uruguay in 1940, a descendant of middle-class European immigrants. By the time he was 14, he was publishing cartoons in newspapers. By 20, he was editor of Uruguay's famous left-wing weekly La Marcha. Shortly thereafter, he became top executive of Montevideo's paper of record, Época. In 1971, at 31, he published a hair-raising indictment of North American influence on the hemisphere, "The Open Veins of Latin America." Just this past April at the Summit of the Americas, Hugo Chavez handed a copy of that book to Barack Obama.

For all the ease with which Galeano slid into journalism, the rest of his writing life hasn't been easy. After Uruguay's 1973 military coup, he was arrested for his radical views and imprisoned. He broke free and fled to Argentina where, three years later, he had to flee again. The notorious Brigadier Gen. Jorge Videla, who had deposed Isabel Perón, installed a regime that became known for its secret camps, kidnappings and torture. When Galeano's name appeared on Argentine death squad lists, he escaped from Buenos Aires and settled in Spain, where he wrote his three-volume masterwork, a bracingly original narrative of America's 500 years of history, "Memory of Fire." Like the accompanying essay, it is a mosaic of miniatures, strung together to fashion a powerful and moving portrait. "We Latins are known for jabbering on," he told me. "I wanted to write it all sharper and shorter."

Surviving lung cancer a few years ago freed him, he says, to employ an even larger canvas: His new book, "Mirrors," reflects 5,000 years of human experience. But it does so with a keen sense of perspective.

For all the past that Galeano captures, this is a writer who lives right now.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061104626.html
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http://bit.ly/q8bNj
Chávez creates overnight bestseller with book gift to Obama
Sales surge for book about history of Latin America's exploitation after exchange at summit of Americas
* Andrew Clark * guardian.co.uk, Sunday 19 April 2009 15.12 BST

Hugo Chavez gives Barack Obama a copy of Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina (The Open Veins of Latin America) by Eduardo Galeano during a meeting at the Summit of the Americas. Photograph: Ho/Reuters

A 36-year-old historical tract attacking the imperialist exploitation of Latin America has become an improbable overnight bestseller after the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez abruptly presented a copy to Barack Obama.

During a session of the summit of the Americas in Trinidad at the weekend, Chávez strode up to Obama, patted him on the shoulder and, with a friendly handshake, gave him a paperback copy of Eduardo Galeano's 1973 work, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.

As footage of the encounter appeared on news bulletins, the book rocketed up the US paperback sales chart of the online bookseller Amazon, soaring from number 54,295 to sixth place within 24 hours.

A classic work in left-wing circles, Galeano's book analyses five centuries of unequal relations with Europe and the US. It contends that Latin America has been abused as industrialised nations plundered its natural resources, ranging from gold and silver to cocoa and cotton.

Obama accepted the book in good humour, telling reporters: "I thought it was one of Chávez's books. I was going to give him one of mine."

The US president has made it clear that he wants a friendlier relationship than his predecessor with Chávez, who once described George Bush as the "devil" and who frequently railed against the US for providing flawed global leadership.

After meeting Obama, Chávez suggested on Saturday that Venezuela was ready to send an ambassador to Washington, ending a diplomatic impasse which began in September. The summit was also notable for further signs of a thaw in US-Cuban relations.

It is not the first time that Chávez has influenced the readers of the world. Three years ago he publicly praised a Noam Chomsky tome, Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, at the United Nations. The book surged to the top of Amazon's bestseller list.

Galeano's book could provide food for thought in the White House. A highly controversial work, it was banned during periods of military leadership in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. In a famous passage, it argues: "Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others."

A recent edition contains an introduction by the novelist Isabel Allende, who writes that the book was one of a handful of items she took with her when she fled Chile after a military coup in 1973 along with a bag of dirt from her garden, some family pictures and clothes.

Advisers to Obama suggested, however, that a practical problem may interfere with the president's enjoyment of the book. When asked whether Obama was likely to read it, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "I think it's in Spanish, so that might be a tad on the difficult side."
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Comment: Gibbs is a bias culturalist here as he should know the book is also in English. ~PSLopez

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Key Profiles, Bios + Links Blog

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George Orwell - Biography and Works

2010-11-07T11:07:00.000-08:00

George Orwell - Biography and Works
http://bit.ly/9YXYxc

George Orwell [pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair] (1903-1950), journalist, political author and novelist wrote Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949);

“It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.”

Originally titled Last Man in Europe it was renamed Nineteen Eighty-Four for unknown reasons, possibly a mere reversal of the last two digits of the year it was written. It was first met with conflicting criticisms and acclaim; some reviewers disliked its dystopian satire of totalitarian regimes, nationalism, the class system, bureaucracy, and world leaders’ power struggles, while others panned it as nihilistic prophesy on the downfall of humankind. Some still see it as anti-Catholic with Big Brother replacing God and church. From it the term Orwellian has evolved, in reference to an idea or action that is hostile to a free society. Yet, Nineteen Eighty-Four has proven to be a profoundly meaningful work and continues to be one of the world’s most widely read and quoted novels into the twenty-first century. Inspired by Yevgeny Zamyatin's (1884-1937) We, Blair worked intensely, often writing ten hours a day and even when bedridden with tuberculosis in his last days continued to labour over it. From his essay “Why I Write”;

“First I spent five years in an unsuitable profession (the Indian Imperial Police, in Burma), and then I underwent poverty and the sense of failure. This increased my natural hatred of authority and made me for the first time fully aware of the existence of the working classes, and the job in Burma had given me some understanding of the nature of imperialism: but these experiences were not enough to give me an accurate political orientation. Then came Hitler, the Spanish Civil War, etc. By the end of 1935 I had still failed to reach a firm decision.”

He goes on to say;

“The Spanish war and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.”

Education and Early Years 1903-1921

Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903 in Motihari, Bengal (now Bihar) India, into a family of the “lower-upper middle class” as he wryly puts it in The Road to Wigan Pier (1933). He was the son of Ida Mabel née Limouzin (1875–1943) and Richard Walmesley Blair (1857–1938), who worked as a sub-deputy opium agent for the Indian Civil Service under the British Raj. Eric rarely saw his father until he had retired in 1912. Eric’s grandfather had been a wealthy plantation and slave owner but the fortunes dwindled by the time he was born. He had two sisters, Marjorie and Avril.

At the age of one Eric and his mother settled in England; his father joined them in 1912. At the age of five, Blair entered the Anglican parish school of Henley-on-Thames which he attended for two years before entering the prestigious St. Cyprian’s school in Sussex. Corporal punishment was common in the day and possibly a source of his initial resentment towards authority. While there, Blair wrote his first published work, the poem “Awake! Young Men of England”; “Oh! think of the War Lord’s mailed fist, That is striking at England today.” With pressures to excel, Eric earned a scholarship to “the most costly and snobbish of the English Public Schools” Eton College where he attended between 1917 and 1921, and where Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World (1932) taught him French.

Indian Civil Service 1922-1927

Following in his father’s footsteps, Blair went to Burma (now Myanmar) to join the Indian Imperial Police, much like author H. H. Munro or ‘Saki’ had done in 1893. During the next five years he grew to love the Burmese and resent the oppression of imperialism and decided to become a writer instead. Works he wrote influenced by this period of his life are his essay “A Hanging” (1931); “It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man.” and “Shooting an Elephant” (1936); “It is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant – it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery.”. His novel Burmese Days was first published in the United States in 1934 and then London in 1935, also based on his days in service.

Paris and London 1928-1936

After Orwell resigned, he moved to Paris to try his hand at short stories, writing freelance for various periodicals though he ended up destroying them because nobody would publish them. He had to resort to menial jobs including one at the pseudononymous ‘Hotel X’ that barely provided him enough to eat as a plongeur;

“[A] plongeur is one of the slaves of the modern world. Not that there is any need to whine over him, for he is better off than many manual workers, but still, he is no freer than if he were bought and sold. His work is servile and without art; he is paid just enough to keep him alive; his only holiday is the sack... trapped by a routine which makes thought impossible. If plongeurs thought at all, they would long ago have formed a union and gone on strike for better treatment. But they do not think, because they have no leisure for it; their life has made slaves of them.” —Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)

After a bout of pneumonia in 1929 Blair moved back to England to live in East London and adopted his pseudonym George Orwell, partly to avoid embarrassing his family. Down and Out in Paris and London, similarly to Emile Zola’s The Fat and the Thin (1873) famously exposes the seedy underbelly of Paris and accounts his days of living hand to mouth;

“At present I do not feel that I have seen more than the fringe of poverty. Still I can point to one or two things I have definitely learned by being hard up. I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant. That is a beginning.”

A proponent for socialism, Blair now wanted to write for the ‘common man’ and purposefully lived as a tramp in London and the Home Counties and stayed with miners in the north. Blair learned of the disparity between the classes and came to know a life of poverty and hardship amongst beggars and thieves. His study of the under-classes in general would provide the theme for many of his works to follow. We read of his ‘urban rides’ and experience with the unemployed in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), written for the Left Book Club.

In 1932 Blair was a teacher for a time before moving to Hampstead, London to work in a bookstore. In the sardonically comical Keep The Aspidistra Flying (1936) Gordon Comstock spurns the ‘Money God’, materialism, and status, though that which he hates becomes an obsession. Comstock’s political creed soon proves a cover-up for deep seated emotional issues;

“The money clinked in his trouser pocket as he got up. He knew the precise sum that was there. Fivepence halfpenny—twopence halfpenny and a Joey. He paused, took out the miserable little threepenny-bit, and looked at it. Beastly, useless thing! And bloody fool to have taken it! It had happened yesterday, when he was buying cigarettes. ‘Don't mind a threepenny-bit, do you, sir?’ the little bitch of a shop-girl had chirped. And of course he had let her give it him. ‘Oh no, not at all!’ he had said—fool, bloody fool!”

In 1936 Blair and once student of J.R.R. Tolkien student Eileen O'Shaughnessy (1905-1945) married. In 1944 they would adopt a son, Richard Horatio. Based on his teaching days, A Clergyman’s Daughter was published in 1935.

Spanish Civil War

When civil war broke out, Blair and his wife both wanted to fight for the Spanish government against Francisco Franco’s Nationalist uprising. While on the front at Huesca in Aragon Blair was shot in the throat by “a Fascist sniper”. In Barcelona he joined the anti-Stalinist Spanish Trotskyist ‘Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista’ or POUM, the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification. When the communists partly gained control and tried to purge the POUM, many of Blair's friends were arrested, shot, or disappeared. He and Eileen barely escaped with their lives in 1937. His autobiographical Homage to Catalonia is written in the first person, mere months after the events.

“Shall the common man be pushed back into the mud, or shall he not? I myself believe, perhaps on insufficient grounds, that the common man will win his fight sooner or later, but I want it to be sooner and not later—some time within the next hundred years, say, and not some time within the next ten thousand years. That was the real issue of the Spanish war, and of the last war, and perhaps of other wars yet to come.”—from his essay “Looking Back on the Spanish War”

WW II, the Home War Effort, and Fame 1939-1950

Back in England, Blair set to freelance writing again for such publications as New English Weekly, The Tribune and New Statesman. His essay subjects include fellow authors Charles Dickens, William Butler Yeats, Arthur Koestler, and P.G. Wodehouse. Essay titles include “Inside the Whale” (1940), “The Lion and The Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius” (1941), “Notes on Nationalism” (1945), “How the Poor Die” (1946), and “Reflections on Gandhi” (1949). Coming Up For Air was published in 1939. Blair joined the Home Guards and also worked in broadcasting with the BBC in propaganda efforts to garner support from Indians and East Asians. He was also literary editor for the left wing The Tribune, writing his column “As I Please” until 1945, the same year he became a war correspondent for The Observer. Eileen O’Shaughnessy died on 29 March 1945 while undergoing surgery in Newcastle upon Tyne.

In 1946 Blair lived for a year at Barnhill on the Isle of Jura. For years he had been developing his favourite novel that would cinch his literary legacy, Animal Farm (1944). “On my return from Spain I thought of exposing the Soviet myth in a story that could be easily understood.” Publishers did not want to touch his anti-Stalinist allegory while war was still raging so it was held for publishing until after the war had ended. From Chapter One of Animal Farm;

“Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever. Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself.”

Back in England, in 1949 Blair was admitted to the Cotswolds Sanitorium, Gloucestershire for tuberculosis, the same year he married Sonia Bronwell (1918-1980). Eric Arthur Blair died suddenly in London on 21 January 1950 at the age of forty-six, succumbing to the tuberculosis that had plagued him for the last three years of his life. He lies buried in the All Saint’s Churchyard in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, England.

George Orwell’s life and works have been the source of inspiration for many other authors’ works. Keep The Aspidistra Flying, Animal Farm, and Nineteen Eighty-Four have inspired numerous television and film adaptations. He has also contributed numerous concepts, words, and phrases to present day language including Newspeak; doublethink “the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them”; thoughtcrime; four legs good, two legs bad; all animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others; He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past; and War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. Among the ranks of other such acclaimed literary giants as Jonathan Swift and Aldous Huxley, George Orwell is a master of wit and satire, critically observing the politics of his time and prophetically envisioning the future. He devoted much of his life to various causes critical of capitalism, imperialism, fascism, and Stalinism, but in the end what he “most wanted to do is to make political writing into an art.”

“Liberty is telling people what they do not want to hear.”—from a preface to Animal Farm

Biography written by C.D. Merriman for Jalic Inc. Copyright Jalic Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/
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3rd-World-News Blog ~
http://third-world-news.blogspot.com
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2010-08-01T18:00:00.001-07:00

http://danid34.livejournal.com/274544.html

Echo: A Biographical Sketch of W.E.B. DuBois By Gerald C. Hynes

2010-02-21T14:15:00.001-08:00

http://www.duboislc.org/man.html

A Biographical Sketch of W.E.B. DuBois
By Gerald C. Hynes, © 1974 (updated 2004)

Introduction
William Edward Burghardt DuBois, to his admirers, was by spirited devotion and scholarly dedication, an attacker of injustice and a defender of freedom.

A harbinger of Black nationalism and Pan-Africanism, he died in self-imposed exile in his home away from home with his ancestors of a glorious past—Africa. Labeled as a "radical," he was ignored by those who hoped that his massive contributions would be buried along side of him. But, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, "history cannot ignore W.E.B. DuBois because history has to reflect truth and Dr. DuBois was a tireless explorer and a gifted discoverer of social truths. His singular greatness lay in his quest for truth about his own people. There were very few scholars who concerned themselves with honest study of the black man and he sought to fill this immense void. The degree to which he succeeded disclosed the great dimensions of the man."

His Formative Years
W.E.B. DuBois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. At that time Great Barrington had perhaps 25, but not more than 50, Black people out of a population of about 5,000. Consequently, there were little signs of overt racism there. Nevertheless, its venom was distributed through a constant barrage of suggestive innuendoes and vindictive attitudes of its residents. This mutated the personality of young William from good natured and outgoing to sullen and withdrawn. This was later reinforced and strengthened by inner withdrawals in the face of real discriminations. His demeanor of introspection haunted him throughout his life.

While in high school DuBois showed a keen concern for the development of his race. At age fifteen he became the local correspondent for the New York Globe. And in this position he conceived it his duty to push his race forward by lectures and editorials reflecting upon the need of Black people to politicize themselves.

DuBois was naturally gifted intellectually and took pleasurable pride in surpassing his fellow students in academic and other pursuits. Upon graduation from high school, he, like many other New England students of his caliber, desired to attend Harvard. However, he lacked the financial resources to go to that institution. But with the aid of friends and family, and a scholarship he received to Fisk College (now University), he eagerly headed to Nashville, Tennessee to further his education.

This was DuBois' first trip south. And in those three years at Fisk (1885–1888) his knowledge of the race problem became more definite. He saw discrimination in ways he never dreamed of, and developed a determination to expedite the emancipation of his people. Consequently, he became a writer, editor, and an impassioned orator. In the process he acquired a belligerent attitude toward the color bar.

Also, while at Fisk, DuBois spent two summers teaching at a county school in order to learn more about the South and his people. There he learned first hand of poverty, poor land, ignorance, and prejudice. But most importantly, he learned that his people had a deep desire for knowledge.

After graduation from Fisk, DuBois entered Harvard (via scholarships) classified as a junior. As a student his education focused on philosophy, centered in history. It then gradually began to turn toward economics and social problems. As determined as he was to attend and graduate from Harvard, he never felt himself a part of it. Later in life he remarked "I was in Harvard but not of it." He received his bachelor's degree in 1890 and immediately began working toward his master's and doctoral degree.

DuBois completed his master's degree in the spring of 1891. However, shortly before that, ex-president Rutherford B. Hayes, the current head of a fund to educate Negroes, was quoted in the Boston Herald as claiming that they could not find one worthy enough for advanced study abroad. DuBois' anger inspired him to apply directly to Hayes. His credentials and references were impeccable. He not only received a grant, but a letter from Hayes saying that he was misquoted. DuBois chose to study at the University of Berlin in Germany. It was considered to be one of the world's finest institutions of higher learning. And DuBois felt that a doctoral degree from there would infer unquestionable preparation for ones life's work.

During the two years DuBois spent in Berlin, he began to see the race problems in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, and the political development of Europe as one. This was the period of his life that united his studies of history, economics, and politics into a scientific approach of social research.

DuBois had completed a draft of his dissertation and needed another semester or so to finish his degree. But the men over his funding sources decided that the education he was receiving there was unsuitable for the type of work needed to help Negroes. They refused to extend him any more funds and encouraged him to obtain his degree from Harvard. Which of course he was obliged to do. His doctoral thesis, The Suppression of the African Slave Trade in America, remains the authoritative work on that subject, and is the first volume in Harvard's Historical Series.

Easing On Down The Road
At the age of twenty-six, with twenty years of schooling behind him, DuBois felt that he was ready to begin his life's work. He accepted a teaching job at Wilberforce in Ohio at the going rate of $800.00 per year. (He also had offers from Lincoln in Missouri and Tuskegee in Alabama.)

The year 1896 was the dawn of a new era for DuBois. With his doctoral degree and two undistinguished years at Wilberforce behind him, he readily accepted a special fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania to conduct a research project in Philadelphia's seventh ward slums. This responsibility afforded him the opportunity to study Blacks as a social system.

DuBois plunged eagerly into his research. He was certain that the race problem was one of ignorance. And he was determined to unearth as much knowledge as he could, thereby providing the "cure" for color prejudice. His relentless studies led into historical investigation, statistical and anthropological measurement, and sociological interpretation. The outcome of this exhaustive endeavor was published as The Philadelphia Negro. "It revealed the Negro group as a symptom, not a cause; as a striving, palpitating group, and not an inert, sick body of crime; as a long historic development and not a transient occurrence." This was the first time such a scientific approach to studying social phenomena was undertaken, and as a consequence DuBois is acknowledged as the father of Social Science.

After the completion of the study, DuBois accepted a position at Atlanta University to further his teachings in sociology. For thirteen years there he wrote and studied Negro morality, urbanization, Negroes in business, college-bred Negroes, the Negro church, and Negro crime. He also repudiated the widely held view of Africa as a vast cultural cipher by presenting a historical version of complex, cultural development throughout Africa. His studies left no stone unturned in his efforts to encourage and help social reform. It is said that because of his outpouring of information "there was no study made of the race problem in America which did not depend in some degree upon the investigations made at Atlanta University."

During this period an ideological controversy grew between DuBois and Booker T. Washington, which later grew into a bitter personal battle. Washington from 1895, when he made his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech, to 1910 was the most powerful black man in the America. Whatever grant, job placement or any endeavor concerning Blacks that influential whites received were sent to Washington for endorsement or rejection. Hence, the "Tuskegee Machine" became the focal point for Black input/output. DuBois was not opposed to Washington's power, but rather, he was against his ideology/methodology of handling the power. On one hand Washington decried political activities among Negroes, and on the other hand dictated Negro political objectives from Tuskegee.

Washington argued the Black people should temporarily forego "political power, insistence on civil rights, and higher education of Negro youth. They should concentrate all their energies on industrial education." DuBois believed in the higher education of a "Talented Tenth" who through their knowledge of modern culture could guide the American Negro into a higher civilization. (See Chapter 4, "Science and Empire" in DuBois' Dusk of Dawn.)

The culmination of the conflict came in 1903 when DuBois published his now famous book, The Souls of Black Folks. The chapter entitled "Of Booker T. Washington and Others" contains an analytical discourse on the general philosophy of Washington. DuBois edited the chapter himself to keep the most controversial and bitter remarks out of it. Nevertheless, it still was more than enough to incur Washington's continued contempt for him.

In the early summer of 1905 Washington went to Boston to address a rally. While speaking he was verbally assaulted by William Monroe Trotter (a Harvard college friend of DuBois). The subsequent jailing of Trotter on trumped-up charges, apparently by Washingtonites, raised the wrath of DuBois. This incident caused DuBois to solicit help from others "for organized determination and aggressive action on the part of men who believe in Negro freedom and growth. (Emphasis mine)

Twenty-nine men from fourteen states answered the call in Buffalo, New York. Five months later in January of 1906 the "Niagara Movement" was formed. So called after the site of the meeting place–the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. (They were prevented from meeting on the U.S. side.) Its objectives were to advocate civil justice and abolish caste discrimination. The downfall of the group was attributed to public accusations of fraud and deceit instigated and engineered presumably by Washington advocates, and DuBois' inexperience with organizations and the internal strain from the dynamic personality of Trotter. In 1909 all members of the Niagara Movement save one (Trotter, who despised and distrusted whites and their objectives) merged with some white liberals and thus the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was born. DuBois was not altogether pleased with the group but agreed to stay on as Director of Publications and Research.

The main artery for distributing NAACP policy and news concerning Blacks was the Crisisonly that which he felt could lift the coffin lid off his people. magazine, which DuBois autocratically governed as its editor-in-chief for some twenty-five years. He was of no mind to follow pedantically the Associations views, and therefore wrote

His hot, raking editorials oftentimes lead to battles within the ranks of the Association. Besides this, the NAACP was, at that time, under the leadership of whites, to which DuBois objected. He always felt that Blacks should lead and that if whites were to be included at all, it should be in a supportive role. The meteoric and sustained rise in the circulation of the Crisis, making it self-supporting, tranquilized the moderates within the Association. This afforded DuBois the ability to continue his assault on the injustices heaped upon the Blacks.

World War I had dramatic affects on the lives of Black folks. Firstly, the Armed Forces refused Black inductees, but finally relinquished and put the "colored folks" in subservient roles. Secondly, while the war was raging, Blacks in the southern states were moving north where industry was desperately looking for workers. Ignorant, frightened whites, led by capitalist instigators, were fearful that Blacks would totally consume the job market. Thus, lynching ran rampant. Finally, after the war, Black veterans returned home to the same racist country they had fought so heroically to defend.

Dr. DuBois, using the Crisis as his vehicle, hurled thunderbolts of searing script, scorching the "dusty veil," and revealing the innards of a country whose quivering heart beat bigotry. So vitriolic and eloquent was his pen that subsequent reaction from his followers caused congressional action to:

Inaugurate the opening of Black officer training schools.
Bring forth legal action against lynchers.
Set up a federal work plan for returning veterans.

His articles never quit. The countryside was inundated with DuBoisian unmitigated protest. This period marked the height of DuBois' popularity. The Crisis magazine subscription rate had grown from 1000 in 1909 to over 10,000 in May of 1919. His "Returning Soldier" editorial climaxed the period.

"By the God of Heaven, we are cowards and jackasses if now that the war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight the forces of hell in our own land.

We return.
We return from fighting.
We return fighting!
Make way for Democracy! We saved it in France, and by the great Jehovah, we will save it in the United Stated of America, or know the reason why."

Shortly after the Armistice was signed, DuBois sailed for France in 1919 to represent the NAACP as an observer at the Peace Conference. While there he decided it was an opportune time to organize a Pan-African conference to bring attention to the problems of Africans around the world. While this was not the first Pan-African Congress (the first one was held in 1900), he had long been interested in the movement.

While the concept was lauded by a few revolutionaries, it failed because of lack of interest by the more influential Black organizations.

DuBois realized that before Africans could be free anywhere, they must be free everywhere. He therefore decided to hold another Pan-African meeting in 1921. While this one was better organized, he was dealt double trouble. First, following the war, "a political and social revolution, economic upheaval and depression, national and racial hatred made a setting in which any such movement was entirely out of the Question." More importantly, however, was the encounter with the astonishing Marcus Garvey.

"Unlike DuBois, Garvey was able to gain mass support and had tremendous appeal." He established the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) for the purpose of uniting Africa and her descendants. He instituted the visionary concept of buying ships for overseas trade and travel; he issued forth uncompromising orations on race relations and inspiration ("Up you mighty people. You can accomplish what you will!"); and held pageants and parades through "Harlems" with red, black, and green liberation flags flying (The colors symbolizes the skin, the blood, and the hopes and growth potential of Black people. The green is also symbolic of the earth.). His methodology was refreshing and inspiring. And it was in direct contrast to the intellectual style of DuBois.

DuBois' first efforts were to explain away the Garvey movement and ignore it. But it was a mass movement and could not be ignored.

Later, when Garvey began to collect money for his steamship line, DuBois characterized him as "a hard-working idealist, but his methods are bombastic, wasteful, illogical and almost illegal." Marcus Garvey, choosing to ignore the critiques of DuBois, continued with his undertakings until charges of fraud were brought forth against him. He was imprisoned and upon his release, he was exiled from the United States. He died in 1941.

The conflict between the two men was amplified by the white press. It also served to debilitate the progress of the future planned Pan-African Congress. Nevertheless, DuBois held his conference in 1923, and as expected the turnout was small.

When the conference was concluded, he set sail for Africa for the first time. During the trip through "the eternal world of Black folk" he made a characteristic observation–"The world brightens as it darkens." His racial romanticism was given free reign as he wrote–"The spell of Africa is upon me ..."

Ideology Change
Returning home from his African experience, DuBois had a chance to reflect upon his past. DuBois noted how America tactically side-stepped the issues of color, and how his approach of "educate and agitate" appeared to fall on deaf ears. He felt that his ideological approach to the "problem of the twentieth century" had to be revised.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 illuminated and made clear the change in his basic thought. The revolution concerned itself with the problem of poverty. "Russia was trying to put into the hands of those people who do the world's work the power to guide and rule the state for the best welfare of the masses." DuBois' trip to Russia in 1927, his learning about Marx and Engles, his seeing the beginning of a new nation form with regard to class, prompted him to say–"My day in Russia was the day of communist beginnings."

"He could no longer support integration as present tactics and relegated it to a long range goal. Unable to trust white politicians, white capitalists of white workers he invested everything in the segregated socialized economy." (Shades of Washingtonianism?) His ideology carried over to his editorials in the Crisis magazine.

By 1930 he had become thoroughly convinced that the basic policies and ideals of the NAACP must be modified and/or discarded. There were two alternatives:

Change the board of directors of the NAACP (who were mostly white) so as to substitute a group which agreed with his program.
LEAVE THE ORGANIZATION.

By 1933 DuBois decided his financial, organizational and ideological battles with the NAACP were unendurable, and he recommended that the Crisis suspend its operation. (The Crisis
magazine, however, is still in existence today.)
He resumed his duties at Atlanta University and there upon completed two major works. His book Black Reconstruction dealt with the socio-economic development of the nation after the Civil War. This masterpiece portrayed the contributions of the Black people to this period, whereas before, the Blacks were always portrayed as disorganized and chaotic. His second book of this period, Dusk of Dawn, was completed in 1940 and expounded his concepts and views on both the African's and African American's quest for freedom.

As in years past, DuBois never relented in attacks upon imperialism, especially in Africa. (His book entitled The World and Africa was written as a contradiction to the pseudo-historians who consistently omitted Africa from world history.) In 1945 he served as an associate consultant to the American delegation at the founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco. He charged the world organization with planning to be dominated by imperialist nations and not intending to intervene on the behalf of colonized countries. He announced that the fifth Pan-African Congress would convene to determine what pressure could be applied to the world powers.

This conference was dotted with an all-star cast:

Kwame Nkruma–dedicated revolutionary, father of Ghanian independence, and first president of Ghana.
George Padmore–an international revolutionary, often called the "Father of African Emancipation," who later became Kwame Nkrumah's advisor on African Affairs.
Jomo Kenyatta–called the "burning Spear," reputed leader of the Mau Mau uprising, and first president of independent Kenya.

The congress elected DuBois International President and cast him a "Father of Pan-Africanism."

Thus, "W.E.B. DuBois entered into his last phase as a protest propagandist, committed beyond a single social group to a world conception of proletarian liberation."

Alienation
Always antagonizing and making guilty groups feel extremely uncomfortable, he wrote in 1949: "We want to rule Russia and cannot rule Alabama." As s member of the left-wing American Labor Party he wrote: "Drunk with power, we (the U.S.) are leading the world to hell in a new colonialism with the same old human slavery, which once ruined us, to a third world war, which will ruin the world."

As the chairman of the Peace Information Center, he demanded the outlawing of atomic weapons. The Secretary of State denounced it as Soviet propaganda. Jumping at the chance to quiet "that old man," the U.S. Department of Justice ordered DuBois and others to register as agents of a "foreign principal." DuBois refused and was immediately indicted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Sufficient evidence was lacking, therefore DuBois was acquitted. The subversive activity initiated by the U.S. government acted as a catalyst in the alienation DuBois already felt for the present system. His feelings were heard around the world in 1959. While in Peking he told a large audience–"In my own country for nearly a century I have been nothing but a NIGGER." By the time the U.S. press published the account, he was residing in Ghana; an expatriate from the United States. President Nkruma welcomed DuBois and asked him to direct the government-sponsored Encyclopedia Africana. The offer was accepted graciously and a year later, in the final months of his life, DuBois became a Ghanian citizen and an official member of the Communist party.

Free At Last
On August 27, 1963, on the eve of the March On Washington, DuBois died in Accra, Ghana.

His role as a pioneering Pan-Africanist was memorialized by the few who understood the genius of the man and neglected by the many that were afraid that his loquacious espousals would unite the oppressed throughout the world into revolution.

Major References
Dusk of Dawn (W.E.B. DuBois)
W.E.B. DuBois: Propagandist of the Negro Protest (Elliott M. Rudwick)

Other References
Black Revolutionary (James R. Hooker)
The Souls of Black Folks (W.E.B. DuBois)
The Suppression of the African Slave Trade (W.E.B. DuBois)
W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race 1868–1963 (David Levering Lewis)
The World and Africa (W.E.B. DuBois)

Some of the Major Offerings of W.E.B. DuBois
The Philadelphia Negro (1896)
The Suppression of the African Slave Trade (Harvard Ph.D. thesis, 1896)
Atlanta University's Studies of the Negro Problem (1897–1910)
Souls of Black Folks (1903)
John Brown (1909)
Quest of the Silver Fleece ( 1911)
The Negro (1915)
Darkwater (1920)
The Gift of Black Folk (1924)
Dark Princess (1924)
Black Reconstruction (1935)
Black Folk, Then and Now (1939)
Dusk of Dawn (1940)
Color and Democracy (1945)
The Encyclopedia of the Negro (1931–1946)
The World and Africa (1946)
The Black Flame (a trilogy)
......I. Ordeal of Mansart (1957)
.....II. Mansart Builds a School (1959)
.....III. Worlds of Color (1961)
The Autobiography of W.E.B. DuBois (1968)
The Education of Black People: Ten Critiques, 1906–1960
(Edited by Herbert Aptheker–1973)

http://www.duboislc.org/man.html

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Unidos Venceremos! United We Will Win!
~Peta~de~Aztlan~ Sacramento, California, Amerika
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://twitter.com/Peta_de_Aztlan @Peta_de_Aztlan

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http://help-matrix.ning.com/

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable."
~ President John F.Kennedy ~ Assassinated November 22, 1963
c/s

Origin of Yahoo ~

2009-12-26T18:34:00.001-08:00

I liked your spin bro. And I imagine you know many things I do not. IN FACT, I am
ignorant of all I do not know. It is good to see you are one of the pillars at Quinn Cottages! Yes, you are. People talk well of you. Anyways...

http://faeriekeeper.net/the2002.htm

Origin of Yahoo!

The word "Yahoo" was invented by Jonathan Swift for the Travels. He and his friends used the word among themselves while Swift was writing he book, appearing in their correspondence.

In part IV of the Travels - Houyhnhnm Land, Gulliver initially mistakes the Yahoos for beasts, or cattle, since they are so repulsive in appearance and action. Eventually he concludes they are human, possibly descended from a pair shipwrecked long ago. Once Gulliver determines humans and Yahoos are the same, he begins to call all people "Yahoos."

The name Yahoo! purportedly stands for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle," but Jerry Yang and David Filo insist they selected the name because they considered themselves yahoos, but we have gotten ahead of our story, so let us back track a "wee" bit.

"Enter the dragon, or the spirit thereof...."

Yahoo! first resided on Yang's student workstation, "Akebono," and the search engine was lodged on Filo's computer "Konishiki." Just in case you do not know, these are the names of legendary Hawaiian sumo wrestlers.

Perhaps there is a bit of truth to the legend that David and Jerry who were engineering graduate students at Stanford University, preferred surfing the Web to doing their doctorial research and that things got "rocking and rolling!"

'Tis hard to remember that when our dynamic duo started "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" in 1993 to keep track of their favorite Websites from a trailer on campus that there were but a few hundred web sites. In the fall of 1994 the one million hit mark was reached and the Stanford servers were probably straining under the load.

In early 1995 Marc Andressen, co-founder of Netscape Communications, invited Filo and Yang to move their files over to the larger computers housed at Netscape and "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" was christened Yahoo!

When Michael Mortiz, Sequoia Capital partner paid a visit to their trailer "office" in January 1995 he recalled, "The scene was total bedlam. There were pizza boxes strewn about, golf clubs in the corner, an answering machine on the floor, no chairs, and the shades were drawn. I don't think David and Jerry were much aware of he difference between night and day."

The rest they say is history!

Some of the personalities at Yahoo!

Srinija Srinivasan whose nick name is "Ninja" has been with Yahoo! from the start. She runs a surfing team that builds Yahoo! content. This editorial arm builds on its own end, like the aggregation of sites, the listings, how they are organized and presented.

Ninja, Yang, and Filo studied together in a Stanford overseas program in Kyoto, Japan in the spring of 1992. She ended her employment doing work on a large-scale artificial intelligence project called Psyche in 1995 to continue Yahoo's data base organization, with the realization that the Web was only going to get exponentially bigger and would be utterly useless without semblance of order.

Jerry Yang Quotes and Facts!

There's this huge, fast-moving train called the Internet. And we're just half a mile ahead laying the tracks o make sure it doesn't go off the cliff. It's felt like that since the very beginning." (C/NET Newsmakers)

Born: 1968, in Taipei, Taiwan; was born Yang Chih-Yuan; adopted the name Jerry After moving to America.

Favorites: Beatle--Paul McCartney; leisure activity -- watching ESPN, golfing, cycling and watching sumo wrestling; partial to his mom's cooking, Taco Bell, pizza and a $4.00 bowl of Vietnamese beef noodle soup (outstanding if you have not tried some).

David Filo Quotes and Facts!

About Filo, less is known and ladies should note that he is currently unmarried. He is a graduate of Tulane University with a BS in Computer Engineering and MS EE from Stanford University. David comes from Moss Bluff, Louisiana.

"He sleeps every third night." (Netscape-Readers Index)

"Almost everything...is of interest to someone." (CIO Magazine)

Return to Previous Page.

http://faeriekeeper.net/the2002.htm

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Key Recovery Links:

http://prorecovery.blogspot.com/ ~ http://casa-12steps.blogspot.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CASA-12-Steps-Program/

Venceremos Unidos! Education for Liberation!

Peter S. López, Jr. aka~Peta

Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://twitter.com/Peta_de_Aztlan

HumanE-Liberation-Party~http://help-matrix.ning.com/

c/s

Desiderius Erasmus: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2009-12-24T13:21:00.001-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderius_Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus

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Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus in 1523 as depicted by Hans Holbein the Younger
Full name	Desiderius Erasmus
Born	October 28, 1466/1469
Died	July 12, 1536 (aged 70 or 67)
Era	Modern philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
Main interests	Christian philosophy, Renaissance humanism
Influenced by[show] Epicureanism, John Colet
Influenced[show] Sir Thomas More, Damião de Góis, Martin Luther, Niccolò Machiavelli

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (sometimes known as Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam) (October 28,^[1] 1466/1469, Rotterdam – July 12, 1536, Basel) was a Dutch Renaissance humanist and a Catholic priest and theologian. His scholarly name Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus comprises the following three elements: the Latin noun desiderium ("longing" or "desire"; the name being a genuine Late Latin name); the Greek adjective ἐράσμιος (erásmios) meaning "desired", and, in the form Erasmus, also the name of a St. Erasmus of Formiae; and the Latinized adjectival form for the city of Rotterdam (Roterodamus = "of Rotterdam").

Erasmus was a classical scholar who wrote in a "pure" Latin style and enjoyed the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists." He has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists."^[2] Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament. These raised questions that would be influential in the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. He also wrote The Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style, Julius Exclusus, and many other works.

Erasmus lived through the Reformation period and he consistently criticized some contemporary popular Christian beliefs. In relation to clerical abuses in the Church, Erasmus remained committed to reforming the Church from within. He also held to Catholic doctrines such as that of free will, which some Protestant Reformers rejected in favor of the doctrine of predestination. His middle road disappointed and even angered many Protestants, such as Martin Luther, as well as conservative Catholics. He died in Basel in 1536 and was buried in the formerly Catholic cathedral there, recently converted to a Reformed church.^[3]

[hide]

[edit] Biography

Bust by Hildo Krop (1950) at Gouda, where Erasmus spent his youth

Desiderius Erasmus was born Gerrit Gerritszoon (Gerard Gerard's son) or Herasmus Gerritszoon^[4] in Rotterdam on October 28, in 1466 or 1469. The exact year of his birth is debated but some evidence confirming 1466 can be found in Erasmus own words. Out of twenty-three statements Erasmus made about his age all but one of the first fifteen indicate 1466.^[5] It is possible he was christened "Erasmus" after the saint of that name.^[6] Although associated closely with Rotterdam, he lived there for only four years, never to return. Information on his family and early life comes mainly from vague references in his writings. His parents almost certainly were not legally married. His father, named Roger Gerard, later became a priest and afterwards curate in Gouda. Little is known of his mother other than that her name was Margaret and she was the daughter of a physician.^[7] Although he was born out of wedlock, Erasmus was cared for by his parents until their early deaths from the plague in 1483. He was then given the very best education available to a young man of his day, in a series of monastic or semi-monastic schools, most notably a school run by the Brethren of the Common Life (inspired by Geert Groote) where he gleaned the importance of a personal relationship with God but eschewed the harsh rules and strict methods of the religious brothers and educators.

While at the Augustinian monastery Steyn near Gouda around 1487, young Erasmus wrote a series of passionate letters to a fellow monk, Servatius Rogerus, whom he called "half my soul", writing, "I have wooed you both unhappily and relentlessly";^[8]^[9] Whether this is evidence for homosexual desire or simply male to male friendship is unclear; nevertheless this correspondence contrasts sharply with the generally detached and much more restrained attitude he showed in his later life. Of similar interest was the sudden dismissal by the guardian of Thomas Grey, a student Erasmus tutored in Paris which could be taken as grounds of an illicit affair ^[10]. However, no personal denunciation was made of Erasmus during his lifetime, he took pains to condemn sodomy in his works, and instead praised sexual desire in the context of marriage between men and women^[11].

[edit] Ordination and monastic experience

In 1492, poverty forced Erasmus into the monastery.^[12] He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood and took vows as an Augustinian canon at Steyn at about the age of 25, but he never seems to have actively worked as a priest for a longer time, and certain tenets of monasticism were among the chief objects of his attack in his lifelong assault upon Church excesses. Soon after his priestly ordination, he got his chance to leave the monastery when offered the post of secretary to the Bishop of Cambray, Henry of Bergen, on account of his great skill in Latin and his reputation as a man of letters. In order to allow him to accept that post, he was given a temporary dispensation from his monastic vows on the grounds of poor health and love of Humanistic studies, though he remained a "secular priest". Pope Leo X later made the dispensation permanent, a considerable privilege at the time.

[edit] Education and scholarship

Bronze statue of Erasmus in Rotterdam. It was created by Hendrick de Keyser in 1622, replacing a stone statue of 1557.

In 1495, with the bishop's consent and stipend, he went on to study at the University of Paris, in the Collège de Montaigu, a centre of reforming zeal, under the direction of the ascetic Jan Standonck, of whose rigours Erasmus complained. The University was then the chief seat of Scholastic learning, but already coming under the influence of Renaissance humanism. The chief centers of his activity were Paris, Leuven (Louvain in Brabant), England, and Basel; yet he never belonged firmly in any one of these places. His time in England was fruitful in the making of lifelong friendships with the leaders of English thought in the stirring days of King Henry VIII: John Colet, Thomas More, John Fisher, Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn. At the University of Cambridge, he was the Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity and had the option of spending the rest of his life as an English professor. He stayed at Queens' College, Cambridge, and may have been an alumnus.

In 1499, while in England, Erasmus was particularly impressed by the Bible teaching of John Colet who pursued a style more akin to the church fathers than the scholastics. This prompted him, upon his return from England, to master the Greek language, which would enable him to study theology on a more profound level and to prepare a new edition of Jerome's Bible translation. On one occasion he wrote Colet:

"I cannot tell you, dear Colet, how I hurry on, with all sails set, to holy literature. How I dislike everything that keeps me back, or retards me."^[12]

Despite a chronic shortage of money, he succeeded in learning Greek by an intensive, day-and-night study of three years, continuously begging his friends to send him books and money for teachers in his letters.^[13] Discovery in 1506 of Lorenzo Valla's New Testament Notes encouraged Erasmus to continue the study of the New Testament.^[14]

Erasmus preferred to live the life of an independent scholar and made a conscious effort to avoid any actions or formal ties that might inhibit his freedom of intellect and literary expression. Throughout his life, he was offered many positions of honor and profit throughout the academic world but declined them all, preferring the uncertain but sufficient rewards of independent literary activity. From 1506 to 1509, he was in Italy: in 1506 he graduated at the Turin University, and he spent part of the time at the publishing house of Aldus Manutius in Venice. According to his letters, he was associated with the Venetian natural philosopher, Giulio Camillo,^[15] but, apart from this, he had a less active association with Italian scholars than might have been expected.

His residence at Leuven, where he lectured at the Catholic University, exposed Erasmus to much criticism from those ascetics, academicians and clerics hostile to the principles of literary and religious reform and the loose norms of the Renaissance adherents to which he was devoting his life. In 1517, he supported the foundation at the University, by his friend Jeroen van Busleyden, of the Collegium Trilingue for the study of Hebrew, Latin, and Greek - after the model of the College of the Three Languages at the University of Alcalá. However, feeling that this lack of sympathy was actually a form of mental persecution, he sought refuge in Basel, where under the shelter of Swiss hospitality he could express himself freely and where he was surrounded by devoted friends. Here he was associated for many years with the great publisher Johann Froben, and to him came the multitude of his admirers from all quarters of Europe.

Only when he had mastered Latin did he begin to express himself on major contemporary themes in literature and religion. He felt called upon to use his learning in a purification of the doctrine by returning to the historic documents and original languages of sacred Scripture. He tried to free the methods of scholarship from the rigidity and formalism of medieval traditions, but he was not satisfied with this. His revolt against certain forms of Christian monasticism and scholasticism was not based on doubts about the truth of doctrine, nor from hostility to the organization of the Church itself, nor from rejection of celibacy or monastical lifestyles. He saw himself as a preacher of righteousness by an appeal to reason, applied frankly and without fear of the magisterium. He always intended to remain faithful to Catholic doctrine, and therefore was convinced he could criticize frankly and virtually everyone. Erasmus held himself aloof from entangling obligations, yet he was the center of the literary movement of his time. He corresponded with more than five hundred men in the worlds of politics and of thought.

[edit] Publication of the Greek New Testament

The first New Testament printed in Greek was part of the Complutensian Polyglot. This portion was printed in 1514, but publication was delayed until 1522 by waiting for the Old Testament portion, and the sanction of Pope Leo X.^[16] Erasmus had been working for years on two projects: a collation of Greek texts and a fresh Latin New Testament. In 1512, he began his work on this Latin New Testament. He collected all the Vulgate manuscripts he could find to create a critical edition. Then he polished the Latin. He declared, "It is only fair that Paul should address the Romans in somewhat better Latin."^[17] In the earlier phases of the project, he never mentioned a Greek text: "My mind is so excited at the thought of emending Jerome's text, with notes, that I seem to myself inspired by some god. I have already almost finished emending him by collating a large number of ancient manuscripts, and this I am doing at enormous personal expense."^[18] While his intentions for publishing a fresh Latin translation are clear, it is less clear why he included the Greek text. Though some speculate that he intended to produce a critical Greek text or that he wanted to beat the Complutensian Polyglot into print, there is no evidence to support this. He wrote, "There remains the New Testament translated by me, with the Greek facing, and notes on it by me."^[19] He further demonstrated the reason for the inclusion of the Greek text when defending his work: "But one thing the facts cry out, and it can be clear, as they say, even to a blind man, that often through the translator's clumsiness or inattention the Greek has been wrongly rendered; often the true and genuine reading has been corrupted by ignorant scribes, which we see happen every day, or altered by scribes who are half-taught and half-asleep."^[20] So he included the Greek text to permit qualified readers to verify the quality of his Latin version. But by first calling the final product "Novum Instrumentum omne" ("All of the New Teaching") and later "Novum Testamentum omne" ("All of the New Testament") he also indicated clearly that he considered a consistently parallelized version of both the Greek and the Latin texts as the essential dual core of the church's New Testament tradition. In a way it is legitimate to say that Erasmus "synchronized" or "unified" the Greek and the Latin traditions of the New Testament by producing an updated (he would say: "purified") version of either simultaneously. Both being part of canonical tradition, he clearly found it necessary to ensure that both were actually presenting the same content. In modern terminology, he made the two traditions "compatible". This is clearly evidenced by the fact that his Greek text is not just the basis for his Latin translation, but also the other way round: there are numerous instances where he edits the Greek text to reflect his Latin version. For instance, since the last six verses of Revelation were missing from his Greek manuscript, Erasmus translated the Vulgate's text back into Greek. Erasmus also translated the Latin text into Greek wherever he found that the Greek text and the accompanying commentaries were mixed up, or where he simply preferred the Vulgate's reading to the Greek text.^[21]

Acknowledgement page engraved and published by Johannes Froben, 1516

Erasmus's hurried effort (Erasmus said it was "rushed into print rather than edited"^[22]) was published by his friend Johann Froben of Basel in 1516 and thence became the first published Greek New Testament, the Novum Instrumentum omne, diligenter ab Erasmo Rot. Recognitum et Emendatum. Erasmus used several Greek manuscript sources because he did not have access to a single complete manuscript. Most of the manuscripts were, however, late Greek manuscripts of the Byzantine textual family and Erasmus used the oldest manuscript the least because "he was afraid of its supposedly erratic text." ^[23] He also ignored much older and better manuscripts that were at his disposal.^[24]

In the 2nd (1519) edition the more familiar term Testamentum was used instead of Instrumentum. This edition was used by Martin Luther in making his German translation of Bible for his own religious movement. Together, the first and second editions sold 3,300 copies. Only 600 copies of the Complutensian Polyglot were even printed. The 1st- and 2nd-edition texts did not include the passage (1 John 5:7–8) that has become known as the Comma Johanneum. Erasmus had been unable to find those verses in any Greek manuscript, but one was supplied to him during production of the 3rd edition. That manuscript is now thought to be a 1520 creation from the Latin Vulgate, which likely got the verses from a fifth-century marginal gloss in a Latin copy of I John. The Roman Catholic Church decreed that the Comma Johanneum was open to dispute (June 2, 1927), and it is rarely included in modern scholarly translations.

The 3rd edition of 1522 was probably used by Tyndale for the first English New Testament (Worms, 1526) and was the basis for the 1550 Robert Stephanus edition used by the translators of the Geneva Bible and King James Version of the English Bible. Erasmus published a definitive 4th edition in 1527 containing parallel columns of Greek, Latin Vulgate and Erasmus's Latin texts. He used the now available Polyglot Bible to improve this version. In this edition Erasmus also supplied the Greek text of the last six verses of Revelation (which he had translated from Latin back into Greek in his first edition) from Cardinal Ximenez's Biblia Complutensis. In 1535 Erasmus published the 5th (and final) edition which dropped the Latin Vulgate column but was otherwise similar to the 4th edition. Subsequent versions of Erasmus's Greek New Testament became known as the Textus Receptus.

Erasmus dedicated his work to Pope Leo X as a patron of learning and regarded this work as his chief service to the cause of Christianity. Immediately afterward, he began the publication of his Paraphrases of the New Testament, a popular presentation of the contents of the several books. These, like all of his writings, were published in Latin but were quickly translated into other languages, with his encouragement.

[edit] Beginnings of Protestantism

[edit] Attempts at impartiality in dispute

Martin Luther's movement began in the year following the publication of the New Testament and tested Erasmus's character. The issue between European society and the Roman Church had become so clear that few could escape the summons to join the debate. Erasmus, at the height of his literary fame, was inevitably called upon to take sides, but partisanship was foreign to his nature and his habits. In all his criticism of clerical follies and abuses, he had always protested that he was not attacking church institutions themselves and had no enmity toward churchmen. The world had laughed at his satire, but few had interfered with his activities. He believed that his work so far had commended itself to the best minds and also to the dominant powers in the religious world.

[edit] Disagreement with Luther

"Free will does not exist", Luther's letter to Erasmus translated into German by Justus Jonas in 1526

Initially Erasmus was sympathetic with the main points in the Lutheran criticism of the Church, describing him as "a mighty trumpet of gospel truth" and admitting that, "It is clear that many of the reforms for which Luther calls are urgently needed."^[25] He had great respect for Martin Luther, and Luther always spoke with admiration of Erasmus's superior learning. Luther hoped for his cooperation in a work which seemed only the natural outcome of his own. In their early correspondence, Luther expressed boundless admiration for all Erasmus had done in the cause of a sound and reasonable Christianity and urged him to join the Lutheran party. Erasmus declined to commit himself, arguing that to do so would endanger his position as a leader in the movement for pure scholarship which he regarded as his purpose in life. Only as an independent scholar could he hope to influence the reform of religion. When Erasmus hesitated to support him, the straightforward Luther felt angered that Erasmus was avoiding the responsibility due either to cowardice or a lack of purpose. Erasmus, however, dreaded any change in doctrine and believed that there was room within existing formulas for the kind of reform he valued most. Also, it is said that Erasmus chose to remain a Roman-Catholic because of a lecture he heard from Savonarola, the Dominican friar who ruled Florence for a time.Though he remained firmly neutral, likely because of it, each side accused him of siding with the other. It was not for lack of fidelity with either side but a desire for fidelity with them both:

"I detest dissension because it goes both against the teachings of Christ and against a secret inclination of nature. I doubt that either side in the dispute can be suppressed without grave loss."^[26]

In his Catechism (entitled Explanation of the Apostles' Creed) (1533), Erasmus took stand against Luther's teaching by asserting the unwritten Sacred Tradition as just as valid a source of revelation as the Bible, by enumerating the Deuterocanonical books in the canon of the Bible and by acknowledging seven sacraments.^[27] He called "blasphemers" anyone who questioned the perpetual virginity of Mary and those who defended the need to occasionally restrict the laity from access to the Bible.^[28] In a letter to Nikolaus von Amsdorf, Luther objected to Erasmus' Catechism and called Erasmus a "viper,", "liar," and "the very mouth and organ of Satan." ^[29]

[edit] Freedom of the will

Twice in the course of the great discussion, he allowed himself to enter the field of doctrinal controversy, a field foreign to both his nature and his previous practice. One of the topics he dealt with was the freedom of the will, a crucial point. In his De libero arbitrio diatribe sive collatio (1524), he lampoons the Lutheran view on free will. He lays down both sides of the argument impartially. The "Diatribe" did not encourage any definite action; this was its merit to the Erasmians and its fault in the eyes of the Lutherans. In response, Luther wrote his De servo arbitrio (On the Bondage of the Will) (1525), which attacks the "Diatribe" and Erasmus himself, going so far as to claim that Erasmus was not a Christian. Erasmus responded with a lengthy, two-part Hyperaspistes (1526–27). In this controversy Erasmus lets it be seen that he would like to claim more for free will than St. Paul and St. Augustine seem to allow.^[30] For Erasmus the essential point is that humans have the freedom of choice.^[31]

As the popular response to Luther gathered momentum, the social disorders, which Erasmus dreaded and Luther disassociated himself from, began to appear, including the Peasants' War, the Anabaptist disturbances in Germany and in the Low Countries, iconoclasm and the radicalization of peasants across Europe. If these were the outcomes of reform, he was thankful that he had kept out of it. Yet he was ever more bitterly accused of having started the whole "tragedy" (as the Roman Catholics dubbed Protestantism).

When the city of Basel was definitely and officially "reformed" in 1529, Erasmus gave up his residence there and settled in the imperial town of Freiburg im Breisgau.

Erasmus by Holbein

[edit] Sacraments

A test of the Reformation was the doctrine of the sacraments, and the crux of this question was the observance of the Eucharist. In 1530, Erasmus published a new edition of the orthodox treatise of Algerus against the heretic Berengar of Tours in the eleventh century. He added a dedication, affirming his belief in the reality of the Body of Christ after consecration in the Eucharist, commonly referred to as transsubstantiation. The anti-sacramentarians, headed by Œcolampadius of Basel, were, as Erasmus says, quoting him as holding views similar to their own in order to try to claim him for their schismatic and "erroneous" movement.

Erasmus died of a sudden attack of dysentery^[32] in 1536 in Basel and was buried there in the cathedral. His last words, as recorded by his friend Beatus Rhenanus, were "lieve God",^[33] Dutch for Dear God.

[edit] Writings

Erasmus wrote both on ecclesiastic subjects and those of general human interest. He seems to have regarded the latter as trifling, a leisure activity. By the 1530's, the writings of Erasmus accounted for 10 to 20 percent of all book sales.^[34] He is credited with coining the adage, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." He formed a collection of adages, commonly called Adagia. Erasmus is also generally credited with originating the English phrase "Pandora's box", arising through an error in his translation of Pandora by Hesiod in which he confused "pithos", storage jar, with "pyxis", box.

His more serious writings begin early with the Enchiridion militis Christiani, the "Handbook of the Christian Soldier" (1503) (translated into English a few years later by the young William Tyndale). In this short work, Erasmus outlines the views of the normal Christian life, which he was to spend the rest of his days in elaborating. The chief evil of the day, he says, is formalism, going through the motions of tradition without understanding their basis in the teachings of Christ. Forms can teach the soul how to worship God, or they may hide or quench the spirit. In his examination of the dangers of formalism, Erasmus discusses monasticism, saint worship, war, the spirit of class and the foibles of "society."

The Enchiridion is more like a sermon than a satire. With it Erasmus challenged common assumptions, painting the clergy as educators who should share the treasury of their knowledge with the laity. He emphasized personal spiritual disciplines rather than institutional sacraments, and called for a reformation which he characterized as a collective return to the Fathers and Scripture. Most importantly, he extolled the reading of scripture as vital because its power to transform and motivate toward love. Much like the Brethren of the Common Life, he wrote that the New Testament is the law of Christ we are called to obey and Christ is the example we are called to imitate.

Erasmus also wrote of the legendary Frisian freedom fighter and rebel Pier Gerlofs Donia (Greate Pier), though more often criticism than praise of his exploits for Erasmus saw him as dumb brutal man preferring physical strength over wisdom.^[35]

Marginal drawing of Folly by Hans Holbein in the first edition of Erasmus' Praise of Folly, 1515

Erasmus's best-known work was The Praise of Folly (published under the triple title Moriae encomium (Greek, Latinised) and Laus stultitiae (Latin)), and Ego sum aliquantulus cattus atque ego amo piscis (Latinised).^[36] a satirical attack on the traditions of the Catholic Church and popular superstitions, written in 1509, published in 1511 and dedicated to his friend, Sir Thomas More.

The Institutio principis Christiani (Basel, 1516) (Education of a Christian Prince) was written as advice to the young king Charles of Spain, later Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Erasmus applies the general principles of honor and sincerity to the special functions of the Prince, whom he represents throughout as the servant of the people. The Education of a Christian Prince was published in 1516, sixteen years before Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince. A comparison between the two is worth noting. Machiavelli stated that, to maintain control by political force, it is safer for a prince to be feared than loved. Erasmus, on the other hand, preferred for the prince to be loved and suggested that the prince needed a well-rounded education in order to govern justly and benevolently and avoid becoming a source of oppression.

As a result of his reformatory activities, Erasmus found himself at odds with both the great parties. His last years were embittered by controversies with men toward whom he was sympathetic. Notable among these was Ulrich von Hutten, a brilliant but erratic genius, who had thrown himself into the Lutheran cause and had declared that Erasmus, if he had a spark of honesty, would do the same. In his reply, Spongia adversus aspergines Hutteni (1523), Erasmus displays his skill in semantics. He accuses Hutten of having misinterpreted his utterances about reform and reiterates his determination never to break with the Church.

The Ciceroniamus came out in 1528, which attacked the style of Latin that was based on Cicero's writing. As Cicero wrote before Christ, Erasmus deemed his Latin pagan, and not suitable for use in the Christian era. Etienne Dolet wrote a reposte titled Erasmiamus in 1535, defending Ciceronian Latin.

The most important work of this last period is the Ecclesiastes or "Gospel Preacher" (Basel, 1536), in which he comments on the function of preaching.

[edit] Sileni Alcibiadis (1515)

Erasmus's Sileni Alcibiadis is one of his most direct assessments of the need for Church reform. It was seen first in Johann Froben's revised edition of the Adagia published in Basel in 1515. Then, it was published separately by Froben in 1517. This essay compares to John Colet's Convocation Sermon, though the styles differ. The term Sileni can be understood as something on the inside is more and different than what one sees on the outside. For instance, something ugly on the outside can be beautiful on the inside. In support of this, Erasmus states: "Anyone who looks closely at the inward nature and essence will find that nobody is further from true wisdom than those people with their grand titles, learned bonnets, splendid sashes and bejeweled rings, who profess to be wisdom's peak". Erasmus lists several Sileni and then questions whether Christ is the most noticeable Silenus of them all. The Apostles were Sileni since they were ridiculed by others. He believes that the things which are the least ostentatious can be the most significant. For instance, one cannot see the most special aspects of humans. The Scriptures also have Sileni. Erasmus believes that the Church constitutes all of the Christian people. People call priests, bishops, and popes the Church, but they only serve the Church. He criticizes those that spend the Church's riches at the people's expense. Riches should not be held above everything else. The true point of the Church is to help people lead Christian lives. Priests are supposed to be pure, though when they stray away, no one condemns them. He criticizes the riches of the popes, believing that it would be better for the Gospel to be most important. Furthermore, the Word of God should be most important for people.

[edit] Legacy

Cast of a skull presumed to have been that of Erasmus at the Rotterdam library Erasmus collection

His books' extraordinary popularity has been shown in the number of editions and translations that have appeared since the sixteenth century, and in the undiminished interest excited by his elusive but fascinating personality. Ten columns of the catalogue of the British Library are taken up with the bare enumeration of the works and their subsequent reprints. The greatest names of the classical and patristic world are among those translated, edited or annotated by Erasmus, including Saint Ambrose, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Saint Basil, Saint John Chrysostom, Cicero and Saint Jerome.

Today in his home town of Rotterdam, the University and Gymnasium Erasmianum have been named in his honor. However, Rotterdam has ignored the life of one of its famous citizens for a long time. Research in 2003 showed that most Rotterdammers believe Erasmus was the designer of the "Erasmusbridge" in Rotterdam. This shocking information led to the founding of the Erasmushuis (Erasmushouse), a house dedicated to celebrate the legacy of Erasmus. Nowadays in Rotterdam, three famous moments in the life of Erasmus are celebrated annually. On April 1, the city celebrates the release of his best-known book The Praise of Folly. On October 28, the birthday of Erasmus is celebrated. And, in the summer, the so-called Night of Erasmus celebrates the lasting influence of his work.

However, Erasmus's reputation and the interpretations of his work have varied greatly over time. Following his death, there was a long period of time when the citizens of the land all mourned his death. Moderate Catholics felt that he had been a leading figure in attempts to reform the Church, while Protestants recognized his initial support for Luther's ideas and the groundwork he laid for the future Reformation. By the 1560s, however, there was a marked change in reception.

Erasmus of Rotterdam censored by the Index Librorum Prohibitorum

The Catholic Counter-Reformation movement often condemned Erasmus as having "laid the egg that hatched the Reformation." Their critique of him was based principally on his not being strong enough in his criticism of Luther, not seeing the dangers of a vernacular Bible and dabbling in dangerous scriptural criticism that weakened the Church's arguments against Arianism and other doctrines. All of his works were placed on the Index of Prohibited Books by Paul IV, and some of his works continued to be banned or viewed with caution in the later Index of Pius IV.

Protestant views of Erasmus fluctuated largely depending on region and period, with continuous support in his native Netherlands and in cities of the Upper Rhine area. However, following his death and in the late sixteenth century, Reformation supporters see Erasmus's critiques of Luther and lifelong support for the universal Catholic Church as damning. His reception was particularly cold by the Reformed Protestant groups.

By the coming of the Age of Enlightenment, however, Erasmus increasingly returned to become a more widely respected cultural symbol and was hailed as an important figure by increasingly broad groups. In a letter to a friend, Erasmus once had written: "That you are patriotic will be praised by many and easily forgiven by everyone; but in my opinion it is wiser to treat men and things as though we held this world the common fatherland of all."^[37]

Several schools, faculties and universities in The Netherlands and Flanders are named after him, and so is Erasmus Hall in Brooklyn, New York, USA.

[edit] Representations

Holbein's studies of Erasmus's hands, in silverpoint and chalks, ca. 1523. (Louvre)

Hans Holbein is considered to be the greatest portraitist of Erasmus, having painted him at least three times, and perhaps as many as seven; some only survive in versions by other artists. His three profile portraits of Erasmus, two (nearly identical) profile portraits and one three-quarters view portrait were all painted in the same year, 1523. Erasmus used the Holbein portraits as gifts for his friends in England, such as William Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury (as he writes in a letter to Warham regarding the gift portrait, Erasmus quips that "he might have something of Erasmus should God call him from this place.") Erasmus spoke favorably of Holbein as an artist and person, but later criticized Holbein whom he had accused of sponging off of various patrons to whom Erasmus had recommended, for purposes more of monetary gain than artistic endeavor.
Albrecht Dürer also produced portraits of Erasmus, whom he met three times, in the form of an engraving of 1526 and a preliminary charcoal sketch. Concerning the former Erasmus was unimpressed, declaring it an unfavorable likeness of him. Nevertheless, Erasmus and Dürer maintained a close friendship, with Dürer going so far as to solicit Erasmus's support for the Lutheran cause, which Erasmus politely declined. Erasmus wrote a glowing encomium about the artist, likening him to famous Greek painter of antiquity Apelles. Erasmus was deeply affected by his death in 1528.
Quentin Matsys produced the earliest known portraits of Erasmus, including an oil painting in 1517 and a medallion in 1519.

[edit] Works

Colloquia, which appeared at intervals from 1518 on
Apophthegmatum opus
Adagia
Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style
In Praise of Folly
The first tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the newe testamente
A playne and godly Exposytion or Declaration of the Commune Crede

[edit] See also

Rodolphus Agricola
ERASMUS programme, which takes its name from this great traveller on the roads of Europe
Christian humanism
List of Erasmus's correspondents
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Erasmus Student Network

[edit] References

^ Gleason, John B. "The Birth Dates of John Colet and Erasmus of Rotterdam: Fresh Documentary Evidence," Renaissance Quarterly, The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of America, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring, 1979), pp.73-76
^ Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953, p. 661.
^ "He tried to remain in the fold of the old [Roman] Church, after having damaged it seriously, and renounced the [Protestant] Reformation, and to a certain extent even Humanism, after having furthered both with all his strength." Johan Huizinga, Erasmus and the Age of Reformation (Tr. F. Hopman and Barbara Flower; New York: Harper and Row, 1924), 190.
^ Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation, p. 98.
^ Smith, Preserved, Erasmus A Study Of His Life Ideals And Place In History. Harper & Brothers, Publishers 1928 pp.445-446 http://www.archive.org/details/erasmusastudyofh011726mbp
^ Huizinga, Erasmus, pp. 4 and 6 (Dutch language version)
^ The famous 19th century novel The Cloister and the Hearth, by Charles Reade, is an account of the lives of Erasmus' parents.
^ Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 1, p. 12 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974)
^ Diarmaid MacCulloch (2003). Reformation: A History. pg. 95. MacCulloch says "he fell in love" and further adds in a footnote "There has been much modern embarrassment and obfuscation on Erasmus and Rogerus, but see the sensible comment in J.Huizinga, Erasmus of Rotterdam (London, 1952), pp. 11-12, and from Geoffrey Nutuall, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 26 (1975), 403".
^ Forrest Tyler Stevens, essay on 'Erasmus's 'Tigress': The Language of Friendship, Pleasure, and the Renaissance Letter', in Queering the Renaissance, Duke University Press, 1994
^ Erika Rummel, Erasmus, London, 2004
^ ^a ^b Galli, Mark, and Olsen, Ted. 131 Christians Everyone Should Know. Nashville: Holman Reference, 2000, p. 343.
^ Huizinga, Dutch edition, pp. 52-53.
^ Anderson, Marvin (1969), "Erasmus the Exegete", Concordia Theeological Monthly 40 (11): 722–746
^ Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterdami, Ed. H.M.Allen, (Oxford University Press, 1937), Ep.3032: 219-22; 2682: 8-13.
^ Metzger, Bruce. The Text of the New Testament, p. 96–103.
^ "Epistle 695" in Collected Works of Erasmus Vol. 5: Letters 594 to 841, 1517-1518 (tr. R.A.B. Mynors and D.F.S. Thomson; annotated by James K. McConica; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976), 172.
^ "Epistle 273" in Collected Works of Erasmus Vol. 2: Letters 142 to 297, 1501-1514 (tr. R.A.B. Mynors and D.F.S. Thomson; annotated Wallace K. Ferguson; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976), 253.
^ "Epistle 305" in Collected Works of Erasmus. Vol. 3: Letters 298 to 445, 1514-1516 (tr. R.A.B. Mynors and D.F.S. Thomson; annotated by James K. McConica; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976), 32.
^ "Epistle 337" in Collected Works of Erasmus Vol. 3, 134.
^ E.g. at Acts 9:6. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament, pp. 99-100; Kurt Aland - Barbara Aland, The Text of the New Testament. An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism,Translated by Erroll F. Rhodes. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987. 2nd edition, revised and enlarged, 1989, p. 4
^ "Epistle 694" in Collected Works of Erasmus Volume 5, 167.
^ Bruce Metzger, The Text of the New Testament. Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 102.
^ Paul Arblaster, Gergely Juhász, Guido Latré (eds) Tyndale's Testament, Brepols 2002, ISBN 2-503-51411-1, p. 28.
^ Galli, Mark, andm, Olsen, Ted. 131 Christians Everyone Should Know. Nashville: Holman Reference, 2000, p. 344.
^ Galli, Mark, and Olsen, Ted. 131 Christians Everyone Should Know. Nashville: Holman Reference, 2000, p 344.
^ Opera omnia Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami, vol. V/1, Amsterdam: North-Holland, pp. 278-290
^ Opera omnia Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami, vol. V/1, Amsterdam: North-Holland, pp. 245 and 279.
^ D. Martin Luther. Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Briefwechsel, vol. 7, Weimar: Böhlau, pp. 27-40.
^ Britannica Online Encyclopedia, Desiderius Erasmus Dutch humanist and scholar, Protestant challenge
^ Watson, Philip (1969), "Erasmus, Luther and Aquinas", Concordia Theological Monthly 40 (11): 747–758
^ "Desiderius Erasmus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Desiderius_Erasmus.
^ Huizinga, Dutch edition, p. 202.
^ Galli, Mark, and Olsen, Ted. 131 Christians Everyone Should Know. Nashville: Holman Reference, 2000, 343.
^ The Age of Erasmus , Lectures Delivered in the Universities of Oxford and London, by P.S.Allen, Clarendon Press 1914
^ http://www.ub.unibas.ch/kadmos/gg/picpage/gg0015_009_tit.htm Early title page
^ Letter 480, to Budé (ed. Allen)

[edit] Further reading

Starkey, D. 2009. Henry. Harper Perennial.

[edit] External links

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All Works by Erasmus
Works by Erasmus at Project Gutenberg
"Desiderius Erasmus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Desiderius_Erasmus.
Charles L. Cortright, "Luther and Erasmus: The Debate on the Freedom of the Will"
Desiderius Erasmus at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Erasmus and the Age of Reformation at Project Gutenberg (By Johan Huizinga)
Erasmus House at Anderlecht (Belgium)
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Erasmus Text Project
Works by or about Desiderius Erasmus in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
The Colloquies of Erasmus. Translated by Nathan Bailey. Edited with Notes, by the Rev. E. Johnson, M.A. (London: Reeves and Turner, 1878). 2 vols. See original text in The Online Library of Liberty.
The Complaint of Peace. Translated from the Querela Pacis (A.D. 1521) of Erasmus (Chicago: Open Court, 1917). See original text in The Online Library of Liberty.
Erasmus in Praise of Folly, illustrated with many curious cuts, designed, drawn, and etched by Hans Holbein, with portrait, life of Erasmus, and his epistle to Sir Thomas More (London: Reeves & Turner, 1876). See original text in The Online Library of Liberty.
A Book Called in Latin Enchiridion Militis Christiani and in English The Manual of the Christian Knight, replenished with the most wholesome precepts made by the famous clerk Erasmus of Rotterdam, to which is added a new and marvellous profitable Preface (London: Methuen and Co., 1905). See original text in The Online Library of Liberty.
Antipolemus; or, the Plea Of Reason, Religion, AND Humanity, Against War. a fragment; translated from the latin of Erasmus. - Vicesimus Knox, The Works of Vicesimus Knox, vol. 5 [1795]. See original text in The Online Library of Liberty.
The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade on Project Gutenburg

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Grigori Rasputin: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Grigori Rasputin

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Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin
Grigori Rasputin
Born	22 January 1869(1869-01-22) Pokrovskoye, Siberia, Russian Empire
Died	29 December 1916 (aged 47) Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Cause of death	Homicide
Nationality	Russian
Other names	The Mad Monk The Black Monk
Title	Father Grigori
Religious beliefs	Russian Orthodox
Spouse(s)	Praskovia Fedorovna Dubrovina
Children	Dmitri (1897-1937) Matryona (1898-1977) Varvara (1900) one illegitimate child

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (Russian: Григорий Ефимович Распутин, IPA [grɪˈgorʲɪj jɪˈfʲiməvʲɪʨ rɐˈspʊtʲɪn]) (22 January [O.S. 10 January] 1869 – 29 December [O.S. 16 December] 1916) was a Russian mystic who is perceived as having influenced the later days of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, his wife the Tsaritsa Alexandra, and their only son the Tsarevich Alexei. Rasputin had often been called the "Mad Monk",^[1] while others considered him a "strannik" (or religious pilgrim) and even a starets (ста́рец, "elder", a title usually reserved for monk-confessors), believing him to be a psychic and faith healer.^[1]

It has been argued^[2] that Rasputin helped to discredit the tsarist government, leading to the fall of the Romanov dynasty, in 1917. Contemporary opinions saw Rasputin variously as a saintly mystic, visionary, healer and prophet and, on the other side of the coin, as a debauched religious charlatan. There has been much uncertainty over Rasputin's life and influence, for accounts of his life have often been based on dubious memoirs, hearsay, and legend.^[1]

[hide]

Early life

Rasputin was born a peasant in the small village of Pokrovskoye, along the Tura River in the Tobolsk guberniya (now Tyumen Oblast) in Siberia.^[3] The date of his birth remained in doubt for some time and was estimated sometime between 1863 and 1873.^[4] Recently, new documents surfaced revealing Rasputin's birth date as 10 January 1869 O.S. (equivalent to 22 January 1869 N.S.)^[5]

Not much is known about his childhood, and what is known was most likely passed down through his family members. He had two known siblings, a sister called Maria and an older brother named Dmitri. His sister Maria, said to have been epileptic, drowned in a river.^[3] One day, when Rasputin was playing with his brother, Dmitri fell into a pond and Rasputin jumped in to save him. They were both pulled out of the water by a passerby, but Dmitri eventually died of pneumonia. Both fatalities affected Rasputin, and he subsequently named two of his children Maria and Dmitri.

The myths surrounding Rasputin portray him as showing indications of supernatural powers throughout his childhood. One ostensible example of these powers was when Efim Rasputin, Grigori's father, had one of his horses stolen and Rasputin was able to mysteriously identify the man who had committed the theft.^[3]

When he was around the age of eighteen, he spent three months in the Verkhoturye Monastery, possibly a penance for theft. His experience there, combined with a reported vision of the Mother of God on his return, turned him towards the life of a religious mystic and wanderer. It also appears that he came into contact with the banned Christian sect known as the khlysty (flagellants), whose impassioned services, ending in physical exhaustion, led to rumors that religious and sexual ecstasy were combined in these rituals. Suspicions (which have not generally been accepted by historians) that Rasputin was one of the Khlysts threatened his reputation right to the end of his life. Indeed, Alexander Guchkov charged him with being a member of this illegal and orgiastic sect. The Tsar perceived the very real threat of a scandal and ordered his own investigations, but he did not, in the end, remove Rasputin from his position of influence; quite the contrary, he fired his minister of the interior for a "lack of control over the press" (censorship being a top priority for Nicholas then). He pronounced the affair to be a private one closed to debate.^[6]

Shortly after leaving the monastery, Rasputin visited a holy man named Makariy, whose hut was nearby. Makariy had an enormous influence on Rasputin, who would model himself after him. Rasputin married Praskovia Fyodorovna Dubrovina in 1889, and they had three children, named Dmitri, Varvara, and Maria. Rasputin also had another child with another woman. In 1901, he left his home in Pokrovskoye as a strannik (or pilgrim) and, during the time of his journeying, travelled to Greece and Jerusalem. In 1903, Rasputin arrived in Saint Petersburg, where he gradually gained a reputation as a starets (or holy man) with healing and prophetic powers.

Healer to Alexei

Rasputin

Rasputin was wandering as a pilgrim in Siberia when he heard reports of Tsarevich Alexei's illness. It was not publicly known in 1904 that Alexei had haemophilia, a disease that was widespread among European royalty descended from the British Queen Victoria, who was Alexei's great-grandmother. When doctors could not help Alexei, the Tsaritsa looked everywhere for help, ultimately turning to her best friend, Anna Vyrubova, to secure the help of the charismatic peasant healer Rasputin in 1905.^[7] He was said to possess the ability to heal through prayer and was indeed able to give the boy some relief, in spite of the doctors' prediction that he would die.^[7] Every time the boy had an injury which caused him internal or external bleeding, the Tsaritsa called on Rasputin, and the Tsarevich subsequently got better.^{[citation needed]} This made it appear that Rasputin was effectively healing him.

Skeptics have claimed that he did so by hypnosis, which, in one study, actually has proven to relieve symptoms because it lowers stress levels and therefore diminishes the symptomatology of haemophilia^[8]. However, during a particularly grave crisis at Spala in Poland in 1912, Rasputin sent a telegram from his home in Siberia, which is believed to have eased the suffering. His pragmatic advice include suggestions such as "Don't let the doctors bother him too much; let him rest". This was thought to have helped Alexei to relax and allow the child's own natural healing process some headroom.^[9] Others have made the less likely suggestion that he used leeches to attempt to treat the boy. As leech saliva contains anticoagulants such as hirudin, this treatment would most likely have exacerbated his haemophilia instead of providing relief. Diarmuid Jeffreys has pointed out that Rasputin's healing suggestions included halting the administration of aspirin, a then newly-available (since 1899) pain-relieving (analgesic) "wonder drug". As aspirin is also an anticoagulant, this intervention would have helped to mitigate the hemarthrosis causing Alexei's joints' swelling and pain.^[10]

The Tsar referred to Rasputin as "our friend" and a "holy man", a sign of the trust that the family had placed in him. Rasputin had a considerable personal and political influence on Alexandra^[11], and the Tsar and Tsaritsa considered him a man of God and a religious prophet. Alexandra came to believe that God spoke to her through Rasputin. Of course, this relationship can also be viewed in the context of the very strong, traditional, age-old bond between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian leadership. Another important factor was probably the Tsaritsa's German-Protestant origin: she was definitely highly fascinated by her new Orthodox outlook — the Orthodox religion puts a great deal of faith in the healing powers of prayer.

Controversy

Rasputin among admirers, 1914

Rasputin soon became a controversial figure, becoming involved in a paradigm of sharp political struggle involving monarchist, anti-monarchist, revolutionary and other political forces and interests. He was accused by many eminent persons of various misdeeds, ranging from an unrestricted sexual life (including raping a nun)^[12] to undue political domination over the royal family.^{[citation needed]}

While fascinated by him, the Saint Petersburg elite did not widely accept Rasputin: he did not fit in with the royal family, and he and the Russian Orthodox Church had a very tense relationship. The Holy Synod frequently attacked Rasputin, accusing him of a variety of immoral or evil practices. Because Rasputin was a court official, though, he and his apartment were under 24-hour surveillance, and, accordingly, there exists some credible evidence about his lifestyle in the form of the famous "staircase notes" — reports from police spies which were not given only to the Tsar but also published in newspapers.

According to Rasputin's daughter, Maria, Rasputin did "look into" the Khlysty sect but rejected it. One Khlyst practice was known as "rejoicing" (радение), a ritual which sought to overcome human sexual urges by engaging in group sexual activities so that, in consciously sinning together, the sin's power over the human was nullified.^[13] Incidentally, his daughter Maria also claimed in her writing that her father had an unusually long penis. Rasputin is said to have been particularly appalled by the belief that grace is found through self-flagellation.

Like many spiritually-minded Russians, Rasputin spoke of salvation as depending less on the clergy and the church than on seeking the spirit of God within. He also maintained that sin and repentance were interdependent and necessary to salvation. Thus, he claimed that yielding to temptation (and, for him personally, this meant sex and alcohol), even for the purposes of humiliation (so as to dispel the sin of vanity), was needed to proceed to repentance and salvation. Rasputin was deeply opposed to war, both from a moral point of view and as something which was likely to lead to political catastrophe. During the years of World War I, Rasputin's increasing drunkenness, sexual promiscuity and willingness to accept bribes (in return for helping petitioners who flocked to his apartment), as well as his efforts to have his critics dismissed from their posts, made him appear increasingly cynical. Attaining divine grace through sin seems to have been one of the central secret doctrines which Rasputin preached to (and practiced with) his inner circle of society ladies.

During World War I, Rasputin became the focus of accusations of unpatriotic influence at court; the unpopular Tsaritsa, meanwhile, was of German descent, and she came to be accused of acting as a spy in German employ.

When Rasputin expressed an interest in going to the front to bless the troops early in the war, the Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nicholas, promised to hang him if he dared to show up there. Rasputin then claimed that he had a revelation that the Russian armies would not be successful until the Tsar personally took command. With this, the ill-prepared Tsar Nicholas proceeded to take personal command of the Russian army, with dire consequences for himself as well as for Russia.

While Tsar Nicholas II was away at the front, Rasputin's influence over Tsaritsa Alexandra increased immensely. He soon became her confidant and personal adviser, and also convinced her to fill some governmental offices with his own handpicked candidates. To further the advance of his power, Rasputin cohabited with upper-class women in exchange for granting political favours. Because of World War I and the ossifying effects of feudalism and a meddling government bureaucracy, Russia's economy was declining at a very rapid rate. Many at the time laid the blame with Alexandra and with Rasputin, because of his influence over her. Here is an example:

Vladimir Purishkevich was an outspoken member of the Duma. On November 19, 1916, Purishkevich made a rousing speech in the Duma, in which he stated, "The tsar's ministers who have been turned into marionettes, marionettes whose threads have been taken firmly in hand by Rasputin and the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna — the evil genius of Russia and the tsaritsa ... who has remained a German on the Russian throne and alien to the country and its people." Felix Yusupov attended the speech and afterwards contacted Purishkevich, who quickly agreed to participate in the murder of Rasputin.^[14]

Rasputin's influence over the royal family was used against him and the Romanovs by politicians and journalists who wanted to weaken the integrity of the dynasty, force the Tsar to give up his absolute political power and separate the Russian Orthodox Church from the state. Rasputin unintentionally contributed to their propaganda by having public disputes with clergy members, bragging about his ability to influence both the Tsar and Tsaritsa, and also by his dissolute and very public lifestyle. Nobles in influential positions around the Tsar, as well as some parties of the Duma, clamored for Rasputin's removal from the court. Perhaps inadvertently, Rasputin had added to the Tsar's subjects' diminishing respect for him.

Murder

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The legends surrounding the death of Rasputin are perhaps even more mysterious and bizarre than his life. According to Greg King's 1996 book The Man Who Killed Rasputin, a previous attempt on Rasputin's life had failed: Rasputin was visiting his wife and children in Pokrovskoye, his hometown along the Tura River in Siberia. On June 29, 1914, after either just receiving a telegram or exiting church, he was attacked suddenly by Khionia Guseva, a former prostitute who had become a disciple of the monk Iliodor. Iliodor, who once was a friend of Rasputin but had grown absolutely disgusted with his behaviour and disrespectful talk about the royal family, had appealed to women who had been harmed by Rasputin to form a mutual support group. Guseva thrust a knife into Rasputin's abdomen, and his entrails hung out of what seemed like a mortal wound. Convinced of her success, Guseva supposedly screamed, "I have killed the antichrist!"

After intensive surgery, however, Rasputin recovered. It was said of his survival that "the soul of this cursed muzhik was sewn on his body." His daughter, Maria, pointed out in her memoirs that he was never the same man after that: he seemed to tire more easily and frequently took opium for pain relief.

The Moika Palace, along the Moika River, where Rasputin was supposedly lured and murdered

The murder of Rasputin has become a legend, some of it invented by the very men who killed him, which is why it has become difficult to discern the actual course of events. On December 16, 1916, having decided that Rasputin's influence over the Tsaritsa had made him a far-too-dangerous threat to the empire, a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov and the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and the right-wing politician Vladimir Purishkevich, apparently lured Rasputin to the Yusupovs' Moika Palace^[15], by intimating that Felix's wife, Princess Irina would be present and receiving friends (In point of fact, she was away at the Crimea).^[16] The group led him down to the cellar, where they served him cakes and red wine laced with a massive amount of cyanide. According to legend, Rasputin was unaffected, although Vasily Maklakov had supplied enough poison to kill five men. Conversely, Maria's account asserts that, if her father did eat or drink poison, it was not in the cakes or wine, because after the attack by Guseva he suffered from hyperacidity and avoided anything with sugar. In fact, she expresses doubt that he was poisoned at all. It has been suggested, on the other hand, that Rasputin had developed an immunity to poison due to Mithridatism.[1]

Determined to finish the job, Yusupov became anxious about the possibility that Rasputin might live until the morning, leaving the conspirators no time to conceal his body. Yusupov ran upstairs to consult the others and then came back down to shoot Rasputin through the back with a revolver. Rasputin fell, and the company left the palace for a while. Yusupov, who had left without a coat, decided to return to get one, and, while at the palace, he went to check up on the body. Suddenly, Rasputin opened his eyes and lunged at Prince Yusupov. When he grabbed Prince Yusupov he ominously whispered in Yusupov's ear "you bad boy" and attempted to strangle him. At that moment, however, the other conspirators arrived and fired at him. After being hit three times in the back, Rasputin fell once more. As they neared his body, the party found that, remarkably, he was still alive, struggling to get up. They clubbed him into submission and castrated him. After binding his body and wrapping him in a carpet, they threw him into the icy Neva River. He broke out of his bonds and the carpet wrapping him, but drowned in the river.

Three days later, the body of Rasputin, poisoned, shot four times, badly beaten, and drowned, was recovered from the Neva River. An autopsy established that the cause of death was drowning. His arms were found in an upright position, as if he had tried to claw his way out from under the ice. It was found that he had indeed been poisoned, and that the poison alone should have been enough to kill him. There is a report that after his body was recovered, water was found in the lungs, supporting the idea that he was still alive before submersion into the partially frozen river.^[17]

Subsequently, the Tsaritsa Alexandra buried Rasputin's body in the grounds of Tsarskoye Selo, but, after the February Revolution, a group of workers from Saint Petersburg uncovered the remains, carried them into the nearby woods and burnt them. As the body of Rasputin was being burned, he appeared to sit up in the fire. His apparent attempts to move and get up thoroughly horrified bystanders. The effect can probably be attributed to improper cremation;^{[citation needed]} since his body was in inexperienced hands, his tendons were probably not cut before burning. Consequently, when his body was heated, the tendons shrunk, forcing his legs to bend, and his body to bend at the waist, resulting in it appearing to sit up. This final happenstance only poured fuel on the fire of legends and mysteries surrounding Rasputin, which continue to live on long after his death.

Recent evidence

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Post mortem photograph of Rasputin showing the bullet hole in his forehead

The details of the killing given by Felix Yusupov have never stood up to scrutiny. He changed his account several times; the statement given to the St. Petersburg police on December 16, 1916, the accounts given whilst in exile in the Crimea in 1917, his 1927 book, and, finally, the accounts given, under oath, to libel juries in 1934 and 1965 all differ to some extent, and until recently no other credible, evidence-based theories have been available.

According to the unpublished 1916 autopsy report by Professor Kossorotov, as well as subsequent reviews by Dr. Vladimir Zharov in 1993 and Professor Derrick Pounder in 2004/05, no active poison was found in Rasputin's stomach. A possible explanation would be that the cyanide had vaporized due to the high temperatures during the baking in the oven.

It could not be determined with certainty that he drowned, as the water found in his lungs is a common non-specific autopsy finding. All three sources agree that Rasputin had been systematically beaten and attacked with a bladed weapon, but, most importantly, there were discrepancies regarding the number and caliber of handguns used.

This discovery may significantly change the whole premise and account of Rasputin's death. British intelligence reports, sent between London and Saint Petersburg in 1916, indicate that the British were not only extremely concerned about Rasputin's displacement of pro-British ministers in the Russian government but, even more importantly, his apparent insistence on withdrawing Russian troops from World War I. This withdrawal would have allowed the Germans to transfer their Eastern Front troops to the Western Front, leading to a massive outnumbering of the Allies, and threatening their defeat. Whether this was actually Rasputin's intent or whether he was simply concerned about the huge number of casualties (as the Tsaritsa's letters indicate) is in dispute, but it is clear that the British perceived him as a real threat to the war effort.

Professor Pounder tells us that of the four shots fired into Rasputin's body, the third (which entered his forehead) was instantly fatal. This third shot also provides some intriguing evidence. In Pounder's view, with which the Firearms Department of London's Imperial War Museum agrees, the third shot was fired from a different gun from those responsible for the other three wounds. The "size and prominence of the abraded margin" suggested a large lead non-jacketed bullet. At the time, the majority of weapons used hard metal-jacketed bullets, with Britain virtually alone in using lead unjacketed bullets in their officers' Webley revolvers. Pounder came to the conclusion that the bullet which caused the fatal shot was a Webley .455 inch unjacketed round, the best fit with the available forensic evidence.

There were two SIS officers in St. Petersburg at the time. Witnesses stated that at the scene of the murder, the only man present with a Webley revolver was Lieutenant Oswald Rayner, a British officer attached to the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) station in St. Petersburg. This account is further supported by an audience between the British Ambassador, Sir George Buchanan, and Tsar Nicholas, when Nicholas stated that he suspected a young Englishman who had been an old school friend of Yusupov (Rayner certainly had known Yusupov at Oxford). The second SIS officer in St. Petersburg at the time was Captain Stephen Alley, born in the Yusupov Palace in 1876. Both families had very strong ties, so it is difficult to come to any conclusion about whom to hold responsible.

Confirmation that Rayner met with Yusupov (along with another officer, Captain John Scale) in the weeks leading up to the killing can be found in the diary of their chauffeur, William Compton, who recorded all visits. The last entry was made on the night after the murder. Compton said that "it is a little known fact that Rasputin was shot not by a Russian but by an Englishman" and indicated that the culprit was a lawyer from the same part of the country as Compton himself. There is little doubt that Rayner was born some ten miles from Compton's hometown and, throughout his life, described himself as a barrister-at-law, despite never having practised in that profession.^{[citation needed]}

Evidence that the attempt had not gone quite according to plan is hinted at in a letter which Alley wrote to Scale eight days after the murder: "Although matters here have not proceeded entirely to plan, our objective has clearly been achieved. ... a few awkward questions have already been asked about wider involvement. Rayner is attending to loose ends and will no doubt brief you."

On his return to England, Oswald Rayner not only confided to his cousin, Rose Jones, that he had been present at Rasputin's murder but also showed family members a bullet which he claimed to have acquired at the murder scene.^{[citation needed]} Conclusive evidence is unattainable, however, as Rayner burnt all his papers before he died in 1961 and his only son also died four years later.

Daughter

Rasputin's daughter, Maria Rasputin (Matryona Rasputina) (1898–1977), emigrated to France after the October Revolution, and then to the U.S. There she worked as a dancer and then a tiger-trainer in a circus. She left memoirs^[18] about her father, wherein she painted an almost saintly picture of him, insisting that most of the negative stories were based on slander and the misinterpretations of facts by his enemies.

Name meaning

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The name Rasputin is a not uncommon surname in Russia, and it is not considered in any way untoward. In Russian, it does not mean "licentious", which has often been claimed. There is, however, a very similar Russian adjective, rasputny (распу́тный), which does mean "licentious" — as well as the corresponding noun, "rasputnik". Some even suggest that his name meant "dissolute".^[19] There are at least two options for the root-word: one of them is "put", which means "way", "road", and other close nouns are rasputye, a place where the roads diverge or converge, and rasputitsa (распу́тица), "muddy road season". Some historians argue that the name Rasputin may be a place name, since it does roughly signify "a place where two rivers meet", describing the area from which the Rasputin family originates and where his sibling died. Yet another possibility is the just-mentioned "put'" giving rise to the verb "putat", which means to "entangle" or "mix up" — "rasputat' " being its antonym — "disentangle", "untie", "clean up a misunderstanding". However, the most well-founded explanation is a standard Russian surname derivation from the old Slavic name "Rasputa" ("Rasputko") (recorded as early as in sixteenth century), with the meaning "ill-behaved child", the one whose ways are against traditions or the will of parents.

It is said that Rasputin tried to have his name changed to the more inconspicuous "Novykh" (Russian: Новыx) after his first pilgrimage to the Holy Land — "Novykh" (from the Russian Новый, meaning "New") connotes "Novice" — but that is the subject of much dispute.

In popular culture

Main article: Rasputin in popular culture

Music

The music group Boney M released the semi-biographical song "Rasputin" in 1978.^[20] In 2007, it was remade by the music group Turisas.
In 2007, Type O Negative featured a photo of Rasputin on the cover of their latest album, Dead Again.
The Rasputin Music stores, a chain in California, is named for Rasputin, and its advertising even contains photographic images and other altered images of Rasputin. The store's logo on its website features the classic image of Rasputin as a DJ mixing the tunes.
The band Mastodon makes references to Rasputin throughout their album Crack the Skye.

Theatre

The final days of Rasputin's life were portrayed on stage in Rivers of Blood [2], written by the American poet and playwright Jay Jeff Jones. The play was produced in London in 1983 and was directed by the Irish novelist and poet Dermot Healy. The role of Rasputin was played by Gabriel Connaughton (brother of the novelist and Oscar nominated screenwriter Shane Connaughton [3]).

Cinema

Rasputin's story has been fictionalized in a number of films since the 1920s. The first film made about him, Rasputin, the Black Monk, premiered in October 1917, but all copies have been lost.

In 1932, Rasputin was portrayed by Lionel Barrymore in Rasputin and the Empress, from MGM studios. The Czarina was portrayed by Ethel Barrymore and Prince Paul Chegodieff by John Barrymore. In 1938, a French film about his life called La Tragédie impériale (a.k.a. Rasputin), starring Harry Baur was based on a novel by Alfred Neumann and directed by Marcel L'Herbier.

Rasputin was portrayed by Christopher Lee in the 1966 Hammer horror film, Rasputin: The Mad Monk, and by Tom Baker in the 1971 film Nicholas and Alexandra.

In the Soviet film Agony/Agoniya (1975/1981) a remarkable portrait of Rasputin is given by Alexei Petrenko.

The 1980 Australian horror film Harlequin was allegedly inspired by Rasputin's legacy and relationship with the Russian royal family.

In 1996, actor Alan Rickman won both a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his portrayal of Rasputin in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny.

An extremely fictionalized Rasputin portrayed by Christopher Lloyd and Jim Cummings (providing his singing voice) stars as the primary antagonist in the 1997 animated film Anastasia. Along with a litany of other historical inaccuracies regarding the Romanov Dynasty and Russian Revolution, Rasputin is portrayed as a former confidante to Tzar Nicholas who is banished as a traitor after being revealed as a charlatan. He is also depicted as a lich, having sold his soul for the power to destroy the Romanovs and now bound to a mystic talisman he was granted by his deal; while the talisman allowed him to survive his 'death', he is trapped in limbo until Anastasia, the last of the Romanovs, is killed, and the destruction of the talisman results in his own permanent death.

In the 2004 film Hellboy, Rasputin, portrayed by Karel Roden, is depicted as having survived his homicide, and is seen working with the Nazis, demonstrating great occult abilities linked with the underworld. Rasputin is depicted as being nearly immortal; every time he dies, he is resurrected with a part of his god within his body. Although he attempts to force Hellboy to surrender to his demonic heritage to unleash Hell, Hellboy's partner John Myers is able to remind Hellboy of his essential humanity, giving Hellboy the strength to resist Rasputin (Although his actions result in Rasputin's god emerging into this world).

Television

A popular anime program, Blood+, featured an episode titled "Do you Remember the Promise?", where the main character Saya remembers her time during the 1920s tracking down Rasputin.^[21]

In the Doctor Who Past Doctor Adventures novel The Wages of Sin, the Third Doctor, accompanied by Liz Shaw and Jo Grant, unintentionally arrives in 1916 and meet Rasputin, learning that his negative reputation was actually created by his enemies after his death and Rasputin himself is actually rather friendly. Despite this, the Doctor is forced to simply witness Rasputin's death in order to preserve history, despite having the chance to save him from drowning.

Circus

The Moscow State Circus currently touring the United Kingdom has dedicated its production to the life of Rasputin and his views and visions on life. The ringmaster portrays Rasputin by wearing a false beard and similar clothing. A narration reminds the audience of the life of Rasputin between certain acts.

Alcohol

California brewer North Coast Brewing Company produces a Russian Imperial Stout called Old Rasputin^[22] that is distributed throughout the state.
Vodka "Rasputin" was widely sold in Russia and heavily advertised on TV in early 1990s.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Rasputin: The Mad Monk [DVD]. USA: A&E Home Video. 2005.
^ C. L. Sulzberger, The Fall of Eagles, pp.263-278, Crown Publishers, New York, 1977
^ ^a ^b ^c Colin Wilson, Rasputin and the Fall of the Romanovs, Arthur Baker Limited, 1964, p. 23-26.
^ Heinz Liepman, Rasputin and the Fall of Imperial Russia, p. 21.
^ Edvard Radzinsky & Judson Rosengrant (ed.), The Rasputin File, Nan A. Talese, 2000, p. 25.
^ P.N., no. 5644, September 6, 1936.
^ ^a ^b Robert Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, Dell Publishing, 1967, p. 185.
^ http://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/06/science/science-watch-hypnosis-for-hemophiliacs.html?sec=health
^ Massie, p. 187.
^ Diarmuid Jeffreys (2004). Aspirin. The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug. Bloomsbury Publishing.
^ George King, The Last Empress: The Life and Times of Alexandra Feodorovna, Tsarina of Russia. Replica Books, 2001. ISBN 9780735101043
^ Thomas Szasz, A Lexicon of Lunacy: Metaphoric Malady, Moral Responsibility, and Psychiatry. Transaction Publisher, 2003. ISBN 9780765805065.
^ Radzinsky, p. 40.
^ Radzinsky, p. 434.
^ Farquhar, Michael (2001). A Treasure of Royal Scandals, p.197. Penguin Books, New York. ISBN 0739420259.
^ Sulzberger, pp.271-273
^ Joseph L. Gardner (ed.), "The Unholy Monk", Reader's Digest Great Mysteries of the Past, 1991, p. 161.
^ Matrena Rasputina, Memoirs of The Daughter, Moscow 2001. ISBN 5-8159-0180-6 (Russian)
^ Gardner, p. 159.
^ Rasputin (par Boney M) - fiche chanson - B&M
^ "Do You Remember the Promise?". Blood+. February 4, 2006. No. 17, season 2.
^ "Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout". North Coast Brewing Company. http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/beer-rasputin.htm.

Books

Fuhrmann, Joseph T. Rasputin: A Life. New York, 1990.
Radzinsky, Edvard, Rasputin: The Last Word. London, 2000.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Григорий Ефимович Распутин

Photographs and films about Grigorii Yefimovich Rasputin
The Alexander Palace Time Machine Bios-Rasputin - bio of Rasputin
Rasputin documentary (Discovery Channel)
Okhrana Surveillance Report on Rasputin - from the Soviet Krasnyi Arkiv
Rasputin, Grigory Yefimovich, Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia (Archived 2009-10-31)
Russian Revolutions of 1917 (Archived 2009-10-31)
The Murder of Rasputin
Rasputin the Musical by Michael Rapp
BBC's Rasputin murder reconstruction
RASPUTIN Grigory Efimovich - article about Rasputin at Encyclopaedia of Saint Petersburg
Mark 16:18 - a bible verse believed by some Christians to ascribe Rasputin-like powers to some Christians
Grigori Rasputin at Find a Grave

Persondata
NAME	Rasputin, Grigori Yefimovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Mad Monk
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Russian mystic
DATE OF BIRTH	January 22, 1869(1869-01-22)
PLACE OF BIRTH	Pokrovskoye, Tyumen Oblast, Siberia, Russia
DATE OF DEATH	December 31, 1916
PLACE OF DEATH	Saint Petersburg

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin"

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Bio of Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

2009-12-14T21:20:00.000-08:00

http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/Pascal/RouseBall/RB_Pascal.html

From `A Short Account of the History of Mathematics' (4th edition, 1908) by W. W. Rouse Ball.
Among the contemporaries of Descartes none displayed greater natural genius than Pascal, but his mathematical reputation rests more on what he might have done than on what he actually effected, as during a considerable part of his life he deemed it his duty to devote his whole time to religious exercises.

Blaise Pascal was born at Clermont on June 19, 1623, and died at Paris on Aug. 19, 1662. His father, a local judge at Clermont, and himself of some scientific reputation, moved to Paris in 1631, partly to prosecute his own scientific studies, partly to carry on the education of his only son, who had already displayed exceptional ability. Pascal was kept at home in order to ensure his not being overworked, and with the same object it was directed that his education should be at first confined to the study of languages, and should not include any mathematics. This naturally excited the boy's curiosity, and one day, being then twelve years old, he asked in what geometry consisted. His tutor replied that it was the science of constructing exact figures and of determining the proportions between their different parts. Pascal, stimulated no doubt by the injunction against reading it, gave up his play-time to this new study, and in a few weeks had discovered for himself many properties of figures, and in particular the proposition that the sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles. I have read somewhere, but I cannot lay my hand on the authority, that his proof merely consisted in turning the angular points of a triangular piece of paper over so as to meet in the centre of the inscribed circle: a similar demonstration can be got by turning the angular points over so as to meet at the foot of the perpendicular drawn from the biggest angle to the opposite side. His father, struck by this display of ability, gave him a copy of Euclid's Elements, a book which Pascal read with avidity and soon mastered.

At the age of fourteen he was admitted to the weekly meetings of Roberval, Mersenne, Mydorge, and other French geometricians; from which, ultimately, the French Academy sprung. At sixteen Pascal wrote an essay on conic sections; and in 1641, at the age of eighteen, he constructed the first arithmetical machine, an instrument which, eight years later, he further improved. His correspondence with Fermat about this time shews that he was then turning his attention to analytical geometry and physics. He repeated Torricelli's experiments, by which the pressure of the atmosphere could be estimated as a weight, and he confirmed his theory of the cause of barometrical variations by obtaining at the same instant readings at different altitudes on the hill of Puy-de-Dôme.

In 1650, when in the midst of these researches, Pascal suddenly abandoned his favourite pursuits to study religion, or, as he says in his Pensées, ``contemplate the greatness and the misery of man''; and about the same time he persuaded the younger of his two sisters to enter the Port Royal society.

In 1653 he had to administer his father's estate. He now took up his old life again, and made several experiments on the pressure exerted by gases and liquids; it was also about this period that he invented the arithmetical triangle, and together with Fermat created the calculus of probabilities. He was meditating marriage when an accident again turned the current of his thoughts to a religious life. He was driving a four-in-hand on November 23, 1654, when the horses ran away; the two leaders dashed over the parapet of the bridge at Neuilly, and Pascal was saved only by the traces breaking. Always somewhat of a mystic, he considered this a special summons to abandon the world. He wrote an account of the accident on a small piece of parchment, which for the rest of his life he wore next to his heart, to perpetually remind him of his covenant; and shortly moved to Port Royal, where he continued to live until his death in 1662. Constitutionally delicate, he had injured his health by his incessant study; from the age of seventeen or eighteen he suffered from insomnia and acute dyspepsia, and at the time of his death was physically worn out.

His famous Provincial Letters directed against the Jesuits, and his Pensées, were written towards the close of his life, and are the first example of that finished form which is characteristic of the best French literature. The only mathematical work that he produced after retiring to Port Royal was the essay on the cycloid in 1658. He was suffering from sleeplessness and toothache when the idea occurred to him, and to his surprise his teeth immediately ceased to ache. Regarding this as a divine intimation to proceed with the problem, he worked incessantly for eight days at it, and completed a tolerably full account of the geometry of the cycloid.
I now proceed to consider his mathematical works in rather greater detail.

His early essay on the geometry of conics, written in 1639, but not published till 1779, seems to have been founded on the teaching of Desargues. Two of the results are important as well as interesting. The first of these is the theorem known now as ``Pascal's Theorem,'' namely, that if a hexagon be inscribed in a conic, the points of intersection of the opposite sides will lie in a straight line. The second, which is really due to Desargues, is that if a quadrilateral be inscribed in a conic, and a straight line be drawn cutting the sides taken in order in the points A, B, C, and D, and the conic in P and Q, then

PA.PC : PB.PD = QA.QC : QB.QD.

Pascal employed his arithmetical triangle in 1653, but no account of his method was printed till 1665. The triangle is constructed as in the figure below, each horizontal line being formed form the one above it by making every number in it equal to the sum of those above and to the left of it in the row immediately above it; ex. gr. the fourth number in the fourth line, namely, 20, is equal to 1 + 3 + 6 + 10.

The numbers in each line are what are now called figurate numbers. Those in the first line are called numbers of the first order; those in the second line, natural numbers or numbers of the second order; those in the third line, numbers of the third order, and so on. It is easily shewn that the mth number in the nth row is (m+n-2)! / (m-1)!(n-1)! Pascal's arithmetical triangle, to any required order, is got by drawing a diagonal downwards from right to left as in the figure. The numbers in any diagonal give the coefficients of the expansion of a binomial; for example, the figures in the fifth diagonal, namely 1, 4, 6, 4, 1, are the coefficients of the expansion . Pascal used the triangle partly for this purpose, and partly to find the numbers of combinations of m things taken n at a time, which he stated, correctly, to be (n+1)(n+2)(n+3) ... m / (m-n)!

Perhaps as a mathematician Pascal is best known in connection with his correspondence with Fermat in 1654 in which he laid down the principles of the theory of probabilities. This correspondence arose from a problem proposed by a gamester, the Chevalier de Méré, to Pascal, who communicated it to Fermat. The problem was this. Two players of equal skill want to leave the table before finishing their game. Their scores and the number of points which constitute the game being given, it is desired to find in what proportion they should divide the stakes. Pascal and Fermat agreed on the answer, but gave different proofs. The following is a translation of Pascal's solution. That of Fermat is given later.

The following is my method for determining the share of each player when, for example, two players play a game of three points and each player has staked 32 pistoles.

Suppose that the first player has gained two points, and the second player one point; they have now to play for a point on this condition, that, if the first player gain, he takes all the money which is at stake, namely, 64 pistoles; while, if the second player gain, each player has two points, so that there are on terms of equality, and, if they leave off playing, each ought to take 32 pistoles. Thus if the first player gain, then 64 pistoles belong to him, and if he lose, then 32 pistoles belong to him. If therefore the players do not wish to play this game but to separate without playing it, the first player would say to the second, ``I am certain of 32 pistoles even if I lose this game, and as for the other 32 pistoles perhaps I will have them and perhaps you will have them; the chances are equal. Let us then divide these 32 pistoles equally, and give me also the 32 pistoles of which I am certain.'' Thus the first player will have 48 pistoles and the second 16 pistoles.

Next, suppose that the first player has gained two points and the second player none, and that they are about to play for a point; the condition then is that, if the first player gain this point, he secures the game and takes the 64 pistoles, and, if the second player gain this point, then the players will be in the situation already examined, in which the first player is entitled to 48 pistoles and the second to 16 pistoles. Thus if they do not wish to play, the first player would say to the second, ``If I gain the point I gain 64 pistoles; if I lose it, I am entitled to 48 pistoles. Give me then the 48 pistoles of which I am certain, and divide the other 16 equally, since our chances of gaining the point are equal.'' Thus the first player will have 56 pistoles and the second player 8 pistoles.

Finally, suppose that the first player has gained one point and the second player none. If they proceed to play for a point, the condition is that, if the first player gain it, the players will be in the situation first examined, in which the first player is entitled to 56 pistoles; if the first player lose the point, each player has then a point, and each is entitled to 32 pistoles. Thus, if they do not wish to play, the first player would say to the second, ``Give me the 32 pistoles of which I am certain, and divide the remainder of the 56 pistoles equally, that is divide 24 pistoles equally.'' Thus the first player will have the sum of 32 and 12 pistoles, that is, 44 pistoles, and consequently the second will have 20 pistoles.

Pascal proceeds next to consider the similar problems when the game is won by whoever first obtains m + n points, and one player has m while the other has n points. The answer is obtained using the arithmetical triangle. The general solution (in which the skill of the players is unequal) is given in many modern text-books on algebra, and agrees with Pascal's result, though of course the notation of the latter is different and less convenient.

Pascal made an illegitimate use of the new theory in the seventh chapter of his Pensées. In effect, he puts his argument that, as the value of eternal happiness must be infinite, then, even if the probability of a religious life ensuring eternal happiness be very small, still the expectation (which is measured by the product of the two) must be of sufficient magnitude to make it worth while to be religious. The argument, if worth anything, would apply equally to any religion which promised eternal happiness to those who accepted its doctrines. If any conclusion may be drawn from the statement, it is the undersirability of applying mathematics to questions of morality of which some of the data are necessarily outside the range of an exact science. It is only fair to add that no one had more contempt than Pascal for those who changes their opinions according to the prospect of material benefit, and this isolated passage is at variance with the spirit of his writings.

The last mathematical work of Pascal was that on the cycloid in 1658. The cycloid is the curve traced out by a point on the circumference of a circular hoop which rolls along a straight line. Galileo, in 1630, had called attention to this curve, the shape of which is particularly graceful, and had suggested that the arches of bridges should be built in this form. Four years later, in 1634, Roberval found the area of the cycloid; Descartes thought little of this solution and defied him to find its tangents, the same challenge being also sent to Fermat who at once solved the problem. Several questions connected with the curve, and with the surface and volume generated by its revolution about its axis, base, or the tangent at its vertex, were then proposed by various mathematicians. These and some analogous question, as well as the positions of the centres of the mass of the solids formed, were solved by Pascal in 1658, and the results were issued as a challenge to the world, Wallis succeeded in solving all the questions except those connected with the centre of mass. Pascal's own solutions were effected by the method of indivisibles, and are similar to those which a modern mathematician would give by the aid of the integral calculus. He obtained by summation what are equivalent to the integrals of , , and , one limit being either 0 or . He also investigated the geometry of the Archimedean spiral. These researches, according to D'Alembert, form a connecting link between the geometry of Archimedes and the infinitesimal calculus of Newton.

This page is included in a collection of mathematical biographies taken from A Short Account of the History of Mathematics by W. W. Rouse Ball (4th Edition, 1908).
Transcribed by

D.R. Wilkins
(dwilkins@maths.tcd.ie)
School of Mathematics
Trinity College, Dublin

http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/Pascal/RouseBall/RB_Pascal.html

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Grigori Rasputin: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Grigori Rasputin

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Contents

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Bio of Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

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