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Sinology

Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilization primarily through Chinese language, history, culture, literature, philosophy, art, music, cinema, and science. Its origin "may be traced to the examination which Chinese scholars made of their own civilization."

The academic field of sinology often refers to Western scholarship. Until the 20th century, it was historically seen as equivalent to philology concerning the Chinese classics and other literature written in the Chinese language. Since, the scope of sinology has expanded to include Chinese history, palaeography, among other subjects.

Terminology
The terms sinology and sinologist were coined around 1838, derived from Late Latin Sinae, in turn from the Greek, from the Arabic —which ultimately derive from "Qin", i.e. the Qin dynasty.

In the context of area studies, the European and the American usages may differ. In Europe, sinology is usually known as "Chinese studies", whereas in the United States, sinology is a subfield of Chinese studies. A China watcher is a person who monitors current events and power struggles in China.

Japanese sinology
In Japan, sinology was known as. It was contrasted with the study of Japan as well as with the study of the West (first, then more broadly ). This historical field is distinguished from modern sinology.

Chinese sinology
In modern China, the studies of China-related subjects is known as "national studies", and foreign sinology is translated as "Han studies".

Early modern era
The earliest Westerners known to have studied Chinese in significant numbers were 16th-century Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian missionaries. All were either Jesuits or Dominicans seeking to spread Catholic Christianity to the Chinese people. An early Spanish Dominican mission in Manila operated a printing press; between 1593 and 1607, they produced four works on Catholic doctrine for the Chinese immigrant community, three in Literary Chinese and one in a mixture of Literary Chinese and vernacular Hokkien.

Dominican accomplishments among the Chinese diaspora pale in comparison to the success of the Jesuits in mainland China, led by the renowned pioneer Matteo Ricci. Ricci arrived in Guangzhou in 1583, and would spend the rest of his life in China. Unlike most of his predecessors and contemporaries, Ricci did not view the Chinese firstly as pagans or idolators, but as "like-minded literati approachable on the level of learning". Like Chinese literati, he studied the Confucian classics in order to present Catholic doctrine and European learning to the Chinese using their own terms.

18th century
During the Age of Enlightenment, sinologists started to introduce Chinese philosophy, ethics, legal system, and aesthetics into the West. Though often unscientific and incomplete, their works inspired the development of chinoiserie and a series of debates comparing Chinese and Western cultures. At that time, sinologists often described China as an enlightened kingdom, comparing it to Europe, which had just emerged from the Dark Ages. Among the European literati interested in China was Voltaire, who wrote the play L'orphelin de la Chine inspired by The Orphan of Zhao, Leibniz who penned his famous Novissima Sinica (News from China) and Giambattista Vico.

Because Chinese texts did not have any major connections to most important European topics (such as the Bible), they were scarcely studied by European universities until around 1860. An exception to this was France, where Chinese studies were popularized owing to efforts from Louis XIV. In 1711, he appointed a young Chinese man named Arcadio Huang to catalog the royal collection of Chinese texts. Huang was assisted by Étienne Fourmont, who published a grammar of Chinese in 1742.

In 1732, Matteo Ripa, a missionary of the Neapolitan "Sacred Congregation" (De propaganda fide) founded the "Chinese Institute" in Naples—the first school of sinology on the European continent, and sanctioned by Pope Clement XII. The institute was first nucleus of what would become today's. Ripa had worked as a painter and copper-engraver in the court of the Kangxi Emperor between 1711 and 1723, and returned to Naples with four young Chinese Christians, who all taught their native language and formed the institute to teach Chinese to missionaries en route to China.

19th century
In 1814, a chair of Chinese and Manchu was founded at Collège de France. Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat, who taught himself Chinese, filled the position, becoming the first professor of Chinese in Europe. By then the first Russian sinologist, Nikita Bichurin, had been living in Beijing for ten years. Abel-Rémusat's counterparts in England and Germany were Samuel Kidd (1797–1843) and Wilhelm Schott (1807–1889) respectively, though the first important secular sinologists in these two countries were James Legge and Hans Georg Conon von der Gabelentz. In 1878, a professorship of Far Eastern languages, the first of its kind in the German-speaking world, was created at the University of Leipzig with von der Gabelentz taking the position. Scholars like Legge often relied on the work of ethnic Chinese scholars such as Wang Tao.

Stanislas Julien served as the chair of Chinese at the for over 40 years, starting his studies with Rémusat and succeeding him in 1833. He was notable for his translations not only of classical texts but also works of vernacular literature, and for his knowledge of Manchu. Édouard Chavannes succeeded to the position after the death of Marquis d'Hervey-Saint-Denys in 1893. Chavannes pursued broad interests in history as well as language.

The image of China as an essentially Confucian society conveyed by Jesuit scholars dominated Western thought in these times. While some in Europe learned to speak Chinese, most studied written classical Chinese. These scholars were in what is called the "commentarial tradition" through critical annotated translation. This emphasis on translating classical texts inhibited the use of social science methodology or comparing these texts of other traditions. One scholar described this type of sinology as "philological hairsplitting" preoccupied with marginal or curious aspects. Secular scholars gradually came to outnumber missionaries, and in the 20th century sinology slowly gained a substantial presence in Western universities.

20th and 21st centuries
The Paris-based type of sinology dominated learning about China until the Second World War even outside France. Paul Pelliot, Henri Maspero, and Marcel Granet both published basic studies and trained students. Pelliot's knowledge of the relevant languages, especially those of Central Asia, and control of bibliography in those languages, gave him the power to write on a range of topics and to criticize in damning detail the mistakes of other scholars. Maspero expanded the scope of sinology from Confucianism to include Daoism, Buddhism, and popular religion, as well as art, mythology, and the history of science. The contribution of Granet was to apply the concepts of Emile Durkheim, a pioneer sociologist, to the society of ancient China, especially the family and ritual.

The Russian school of sinology was focused mainly on learning classical Chinese texts. For example, the contribution of the Russian sinologist Julian Shchutsky was especially valuable. The best full translation of the I Ching (Book of Changes) was made by him in 1937. Later his translation was translated in English and other European languages.

After the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, China studies developed along diverging lines. The rise of Area studies, the role of China watchers, and the growth of university graduate programs has changed the role of sinology. Funding for Chinese and Taiwanese studies comes from a variety of sources; one prominent source is the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation.

The Area studies approach, especially in the United States, challenged the dominance of classical sinology. Scholars such as John King Fairbank promoted the "study of China within a discipline," an approach which downplayed the role of philological sinology and focused on issues in history and the social sciences.

One of the earliest American scholars of Cold War China and Sino-American relations was Chinese-American Tang Tsou of the University of Chicago. Tsou emphasized the importance of academic objectivity in general and in sinology in particular, stressing that intellectual and academic exchange between China and the West was the only way for both parties to come to a greater understanding of one another.

In 1964 an exchange in the pages of the Journal of Asian Studies debated the continued relevance of sinology. The anthropologist G. William Skinner called for the social sciences to make more use of China, but wrote "In recent years the cry has gone up: Sinology is dead; long live Chinese studies!" and concluded that "Sinology, a discipline unto itself, is being replaced by Chinese studies, a multidisciplinary endeavour with specific research objectives." Joseph Levenson, a historian, went further. He doubted that sinology was a tool that social scientists would still find useful, while another historian, Benjamin I. Schwartz, on the other hand, replied that the disciplines were too often treated as ends in themselves. Sinology had its backers. Frederick W. Mote, a specialist in traditional China, replying to Skinner, spoke up for sinology, which he saw as a field or discipline in itself. Another specialist in traditional China, Denis Twitchett, in reply to the back and forth of this debate, issued what he called "A Lone Cheer for Sinology". He did not accept the assumption that there is "some implicit hostility between 'Sinology' and the disciplines of history and social sciences." Sinology, he continued, is used in too a wide range of meanings to be so confined:
 * At one extreme it is used to characterize a rather ridiculous caricature compounded of pedantry and preoccupation with peripheral and precious subjects of little general significance.... At the other extreme, the definition used by Prof. Mote is so broad and all-inclusive as to mean little more than the humanistic studies in the Chinese field.

During the Cold War, China Watchers centered in Hong Kong, especially American government officials or journalists. Mutual distrust between the United States and China and the prohibition of travel between the countries meant they did not have access to press briefings or interviews. They therefore adopted techniques from Kremlinology, such as the close parsing of official announcements for hidden meanings, movements of officials reported in newspapers, and analysis of photographs of public appearances. But in the years since the opening of China, China watchers can live in China and take advantage of normal sources of information.

Towards the end of the century, many of those studying China professionally called for an end to the split between sinology and the disciplines. The Australian scholar Geremie Barmé, for instance, suggests a "New Sinology", one which "emphasizes strong scholastic underpinnings in both the classical and modern Chinese language and studies, at the same time as encouraging an ecumenical attitude in relation to a rich variety of approaches and disciplines, whether they be mainly empirical or more theoretically inflected."

Before 1900
Chinese historical sources indicate that the Chinese had knowledge of the Arabs several centuries before Islam, as the history of relations between the two civilizations dates back to the pre-Islamic era. The policy of the Han Dynasty (206 BC) aimed at opening trade routes with the western regions, which are today called Central Asia, India and Western Asia, extending to the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. Historical studies confirmed that Muslim Arabs entered China during the early days of Islam to spread the religion, when four of Muhammad's companions namely Saad bin Abi Waqqas, Jaafar bin Abi Talib, and Jahsh bin Riab preached in China in the year 616/17. During the reign of Emperor Yongle, the first Chinese fleet arrived on the shores of the Arabian Peninsula, led by Zheng He, on his fourth voyage in 1412 AD. It is clear from the foregoing that there had been friction between China and the Arabs from a long time ago, and that there are cultural and commercial relations existing between the Arab and Chinese civilizations, which required the visiting Arabs to learn the Chinese language and vice versa. However, there are no texts indicating that the Arabs during this period studied the Chinese language or culture beyond what their missionary or trades affairs demanded, and the reason for this is due to the fact that the purpose of the visits was often to trade or to spread Islam.

At the beginning of the seventh century until the eighth century, the power of the Arabs increased due to the expansion of Islam and its spread throughout the world, and their control expanded to the east and west. Their power was strengthened by their vast lands, their advanced network of postal stations, and the pilgrimage to Mecca, in addition to the flourishing of land and sea trade. All this led to the advancement of their studies in geography and thus, new knowledge about China found its way to the Arab world. Up to the twelfth century, the Arabs possessed exclusive knowledge about the East, and they were contributing to the transmission of knowledge to the West, which contributed to the advancement of Islamic civilization and its impact on world culture.

Arabs such as Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Masoudi, who is a well-known historical figure in the Arabian Peninsula, made significant contributions to Sinology. Al-Masoudi has traveled all over the world since he was a child, visiting faraway places. In the year 915, he visited India, Ceylon, Champa, and the coastal regions of China, and then visited Zabagh and Turkistan in Central Asia. He died in the year 956, and he is the author of the book "Meadows of Gold", which deals with history, geography, and other fields. He had many records about China, and these records were popular among orient scholars.

Abu Zayd's book "On China and India" was a well-known and highly regarded Arabic historical material. The book had two separate parts, the first part was "History of Indian and Chinese Affairs" by an unknown author, and the second part was "A Collection of Rumors of India and China" by Abu Zayd. The first part was a selection from Solomon's "Chinese experiences" and other anonymous sources, written and recorded in 851, together with their experiences in India.

20th century and after
During the 20th century, projects of cooperation between China and the Arab countries led to the development of Sinology in the Arab countries nominally after expanding the scope of Chinese-Arab cooperation in the field of education, with some difference according to the level of cooperation. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Egypt in 1956, Egypt began to open the Chinese language specialization course in Egyptian universities, but on a small scale at that time. Ain Shams University opened the Chinese language specialization in 1958. However, the course was stopped for prevailing political reasons at the time. In the period between 1958 and 1963, 33 Chinese language students graduated from Egyptian universities. In 1977, Ain Shams University reintroduced the Sinology specialization course. In addition to Egypt, there were activities to teach the Chinese language in Kuwait as well, but they stopped after a short period.

The number of Arabs that learn the Chinese Language has increased. The Chinese Language Department at Ain Shams University is a major center for teaching the Chinese language in Egypt and one of the notable centers for teaching the Chinese language in the Arab world and Africa in terms of student size, teaching quality, and the level of teachers and staff. The Bourguiba Institute for Modern Languages was also opened in Tunisia, and it specializes in the Chinese language in 1977. Cairo University also established the Chinese Language Department in September 2004 becoming a major center for Sinology is North Africa.

Arab scholars sought to delve deeper into Sinology for academic, political, cultural and diplomatic purposes in order to build a bridge of communication between the Arab and Chinese peoples. Their interest in the history of China also increased greatly. Many books related to the history of Chinese culture and its people were published in the Arabic language. In 2020 after spending about six years as a consul in Guangzhou, Ali bin Ghanem Al-Hajri, a Qatari diplomat who is considered one of the Arabs with a lot of original Arabic academic works in sinology, published the book "Zheng He, Chinese Emperor of the Seas". The book covers the history and adventures of a Chinese commander by the name Zheng He whose fleet went round the known world in seven voyages between the years 1415 and 1432. He also wrote before that the novel "The Fleet of the Sun" inspired by the story of the Chinese commander. It was considered the first Arabic novel with a Chinese as the central character, thus it achieved some fame in the Arab world, although it was not published until recently. He also published "China in the Eyes of Travelers", a book that delved deep into the history of ancient China through the discoveries made by travellers and explorers. Al-hajri further wrote the book "Arts in the Ming Dynasty", in which he elaborated on the political and economic development of the Ming Dynasty and the historical development of Chinese culture. Four of his books are translated into Chinese

Many books have been translated from Chinese into Arabic as part of these efforts. Where more than 700 books about the people of China, their culture, economy, literature and philosophy have been translated into Arabic by the (House of Wisdom) company located in the Ningxia Hui region, northwest China since its establishment in 2011.

Journals

 * Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême Orient
 * Chinese Heritage Quarterly, China Heritage Project, Australian National University
 * Euro-Sinica
 * Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
 * Journal of Asian Studies
 * Journal of the European Association for Chinese Studies
 * The (Cambridge) China Quarterly
 * Journal Asiatique
 * Late Imperial China
 * Monumenta Serica
 * Sino-Platonic Papers
 * T'oung Pao
 * Modern China
 * Toho Gakuho
 * Toyoshi Kenkyu

Library and research guides

 * Electronic Resources for Chinese Studies and East Asian Libraries
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title: Sinology


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Audubon

The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world. There are completely independent Audubon Societies in the United States, which were founded several years earlier such as the Massachusetts Audubon Society, Indiana Audubon Society, and Connecticut Audubon Society. The societies are named for 19th century naturalist John James Audubon.

The society has nearly 500 local chapters, each of which is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization voluntarily affiliated with the National Audubon Society. They often organize birdwatching field trips and conservation-related activities. It also coordinates the Christmas Bird Count held each December in the U.S., a model of citizen science, in partnership with Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the Great Backyard Bird Count each February. Together with Cornell University, Audubon created eBird, an online database for bird observation. The National Audubon Society also has many global partners to help birds that migrate beyond the U.S.'s borders, including BirdLife International based in Great Britain, Bird Studies Canada, American Bird Conservancy, and many partners in Latin America and in the Caribbean. Audubon's International Alliances Program (IAP) brings together people throughout the Western Hemisphere to work together to implement conservation solutions at Important Birds Areas (IBAs).

Development of Audubon societies
In 1886, Forest and Stream editor George Bird Grinnell was appalled by the As a boy, Grinnell had avidly read Ornithological Biography, a work by the bird painter John James Audubon; he also lived in his early years in a development of the former Audubon estate, Audubon Park in upper Manhattan, and attended a school for boys conducted by Lucy Audubon. The Audubon name would become the namesake of the society he founded, and after its failure, that of local, state, and a national organization bearing that name.

Within a year of Grinnell founding it his early Audubon Society claimed 39,000 members, eventually growing to 48,862. Each member signed a pledge to "not molest birds". Prominent members included jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., abolitionist minister Henry Ward Beecher, and poet John Greenleaf Whittier. In under a decade this society was discontinued, but the name and plan survived.

Organizations for the protection of birds were not a wholly new idea. Even before Grinnell's Audubon Society was organized, the American Ornithologists' Union, founded in 1883, was aware of the dangers facing many birds in the United States. There were, however, influential ornithologists who defended the collection of birds. In 1902, Charles B. Cory, the president-elect of the AOU refused to attend a meeting of the District of Columbia Audubon Society stating that "I do not protect birds. I kill them."

In 1895, a second iteration of the Audubon Society was created, with an unbroken history that traces to today. Cousins and Boston socialites, Harriet Hemenway and Minna B. Hall, disturbed by the destruction left by plume hunters, organized a series of afternoon teas with other wealthy local women, encouraging them to avoid feathered garments. They also sent literature asking these women to, in Hall's words, "join a society for the protection of birds, especially the egret". Later that same year, they founded the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Over 900 women came together with Hemenway and Hall, and across the country, many others were doing the same. These boycotts were largely successful, and the efforts of the early society members helped bring about the end of the plume trade and assisted in the introduction of early conservation legislation such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In 1896, Pennsylvania created their Audubon Society, and during the next few years, bird lovers in many other states followed suit. St. Louis Audubon Society (SLAS) was established in 1916 as the St Louis Bird Club. In 1944, the Bird Club became the first local Audubon chapter in the United States. The national committee of Audubon societies was organized at a meeting held in Washington, D.C. in 1902. 1905 saw the organization of the National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals; William Dutcher was president, and T. Gilbert Pearson was secretary and financial agent. During this time, Albert Willcox provided financial support, more than $331,072 in 1905 and 1906. At the end of 1906, the Association had an interest-bearing endowment fund of more than $336,000 and an income from other sources of approximately $9,000.

Bird protection

Birds in the United States were threatened by market hunting as well as for the fashion industry. Pressure from shooting enthusiasts was intense. For example, great auks, whose habit of crowding together on rocks and beaches made them especially easy to hunt, had been driven to extinction early in the century. During one week in the spring of 1897, nature author Florence Merriam claimed to have seen 2,600 robins for sale in one market stall in Washington alone. By the start of the 20th century, the sale of bird flesh had never been greater. The second equally great threat to the bird population was the desire for their plumage. In the late 1890s, the American Ornithologists' Union estimated that five million birds were killed annually for the fashion market. In the final quarter of the 19th century, plumes, and even whole birds, decorated the hair, hats, and dresses of women. Poachers killed game warden Guy Bradley on July 8, 1905; poachers killed Game Warden Columbus G. McLeod in November 1908 in Florida and Audubon Society employee Pressly Reeves of South Carolina also in 1908.

Public opinion soon turned on the fashion industry. Bolstered by the support of Boston socialite Harriet Hemenway, President of the United States and avowed Audubon Society sympathizer Theodore Roosevelt, and a widespread letter-writing campaign driven by church associations, many of whom distributed the Audubon message in their various newsletters, the plume trade was halted by such laws as the New York State Audubon Plumage Law (May 1910), which banned the sales of plumes of all native birds in the state. By 1920, similar laws were enacted in about 12 other states. Audubon Society activities are responsible for many laws for the establishment of game commissions and game warden forces or prohibiting the sale of game.

Refuges
In 1918, the NAS actively lobbied for the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In the 1920s, the organization also played a vital role in convincing the U.S. government to protect vital wildlife areas by including them in a National Wildlife Refuge system.

The association also acquired land through purchases and donation. The Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center in Oyster Bay, New York was donated to New York Audubon in 1923 by Emlen Roosevelt and Christine Roosevelt in memory of their cousin, who is buried in the adjacent Youngs Memorial Cemetery. The Audubon Center of Greenwich, Connecticut was founded in 1943. The Paul J. Rainey Wildlife Sanctuary in Louisiana was acquired in 1924, and at 26000 acre it is still the largest.

In the late 20th century, the organization began to place a new emphasis on the development of Centers in urban locations, including Brooklyn, New York; East Los Angeles, California; Phoenix, Arizona; and Seattle, Washington.

Field guides
In 1934, with membership at a low of 3,500, and with the nation in the Great Depression, John H. Baker became the NAS president. He was a World War I aviator and ardent bird lover, and also a businessman, and he set about to invigorate the society and bolster its budget prosperity through publication. Baker began publishing book-length field guides on major forms of bird and mammal life. Soon, in association with New York publisher Alfred A. Knopf, the Audubon Field Guides became a staple of every artist's and environmentalist's library. Today, many Audubon field guides have been adapted for mobile phone apps. This field guide series covers a wide range of nature-related topics, including the night sky, rocks and minerals, wildflowers, and many animals. This series has sold 18 million copies and uses photographs instead of the commissioned paintings or other drawings that many other field guides possess, such as the Peterson Field Guides.

DDT, whaling, and politics
During the post-World War II period, the NAS was consumed by the battle over the pesticide DDT. As early as 1960, the society circulated draft legislation to establish pesticide control agencies at the state level. In 1962 the publication of Silent Spring by long-time Audubon member Rachel Carson gave the campaign against "persistent pesticides" a huge national forum. Following her death in 1964, the NAS established a fund devoted strictly to the various legal fights in the war against DDT.

Today, Audubon selects outstanding women in conservation to receive its prestigious Rachel Carson Award. Honorees include Bette Midler, singer, actress, and founder of the New York Restoration Project; Dr. Sylvia Earle, oceanographer and founder of Deep Search International; Majora Carter, Founder and Executive Director of Sustainable South Bronx; actress and conservation activist Sigourney Weaver, and NRDC President Frances Beinecke.

Through the 1960s and 1970s, the society began to use its influence to focus attention on a wider range of environmental issues and became involved in developing major new environmental protection policies and laws. Audubon staff and members helped legislators pass the Clean Air, Clean Water, Wild and Scenic Rivers, and Endangered Species acts. In 1969, the society opened an office in Washington, D.C., in an effort to keep legislators informed of Audubon's priorities.

By the 1970s, NAS had also extended to global interests. One area that NAS became actively involved with was whaling. Between 1973 and 1974 alone, the poorly regulated whaling industry had succeeded in harvesting 30,000 whales. But by 1985, following the 37th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Bournemouth, England, which was attended by officials from the National Audubon Society and other U.S.-based environmental organizations, a worldwide moratorium on whaling was declared. So successful has this moratorium been in restoring populations of many whales, that "non-consumptive uses of whales" may once again be permitted in some areas.

Television specials
During the 1980s and 1990s, the National Audubon Society produced a notable series of nature documentary television specials, many of which were entitled The World of Audubon. These included specials on many animals other than birds (the traditional focus of this organization) and on natural areas such as the Great Lakes. This series included a special documenting the rescue efforts to save the black-footed ferret from extinction. Arthur Unger of the Christian Science Monitor reviewed this special very favorably and wrote that this special was "further proof that the Audubon series deserves a place in television's splendid wildlife triumvirate alongside Nature and National Geographic Specials".

Audubon Medal
The Audubon Medal is given in recognition of outstanding achievement in the field of conservation and environmental protection. 52 people have received the honor in Audubon's 108-year history.

List of awardees

 * 1947 – Hugh Hammond Bennett
 * 1949 – Ira Noel Gabrielson
 * 1950 – John D. Rockefeller Jr.
 * 1952 – Louis Bromfield
 * 1955 – Walt Disney
 * 1956 – Ludlow Griscom
 * 1959 – Olaus Murie
 * 1960 – J.N. "Ding" Darling
 * 1961 – Clarence Cottam
 * 1962 – William O. Douglas
 * 1963 – Rachel Carson
 * 1964 – Laurance Rockefeller
 * 1966 – A. Starker Leopold
 * 1967 – Stewart Udall
 * 1968 – Henry Fairfield Osborn Jr.
 * 1969 – Horace M. Albright
 * 1971 – Roger Tory Peterson
 * 1973 – Barbara Ward (Lady Jackson, D.B.E.)
 * 1974 – Tom McCall
 * 1975 – Maurice F. Strong
 * 1976 – John B. Oakes
 * 1977 – Russell W. Peterson
 * 1978 – Charles H. Callison
 * 1979 – Thomas L. Kimball
 * 1980 – Margaret E. Murie
 * 1981 – Richard H. Pough
 * 1982 – C.R. "Pink" Gutermuth
 * 1983 – Margaret Wentworth Owings
 * 1984 – Joseph Hickey
 * 1985 – Cecil D. Andrus
 * 1986 – John F. Seiberling
 * 1987 – Vladimir E. Flint
 * 1988 – Oscar and Marguerita Arias
 * 1989 – Robert Redford
 * 1990 – Durward L. Allen
 * 1991 – Ted Turner
 * 1992 – John H. Chafee
 * 1993 – Chief Oren Lyons and Anita Roddick
 * 1994 – Jimmy Carter
 * 1995 – Edward O. Wilson
 * 1996 – James Parks Morton
 * 1997 – Hazel Wolf
 * 1998 – Julie Packard
 * 1999 – William Conway
 * 2000 – Chandler Robbins
 * 2001 – Michael Dombeck
 * 2002 – Edward H. Harte
 * 2004 – Harriet Bullitt
 * 2005 – The Rockefeller Family
 * 2008 – Richard Louv
 * 2010 – Donal C. O'Brien Jr.
 * 2013 – Louis Bacon
 * 2015 – Jack and Laura Dangermond
 * 2016 – Paul Tudor Jones II
 * 2017 – Frances Beinecke
 * 2018 – Sir David Attenborough
 * 2019 – Johnny Morris & Family

Current activities

In 2011, Audubon created a new model for positioning energy transmission lines along the East Coast to help preserve bird and wildlife habitat. Audubon President David Yarnold has made environmentally friendly siting for renewable energy one of the organization's highest priorities.

Audubon played an important part in bird rescue and Gulf Coast wetlands recovery efforts in the aftermath of the April 20, 2010, BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. Audubon recruited over 34,000 volunteers to assist in rescuing, cleaning and releasing injured brown pelicans and other water birds. In addition, Audubon was a leader in pushing for legislation to use BP oil spill penalties to rebuild the Gulf Coast.

Audubon's Mississippi River and Louisiana Coastal Initiatives have been helping to restore coastal wetlands and to rebuild Mississippi River delta marshlands. The Mississippi Delta loses an area the size of Manhattan to the sea every year, stripping away coastal protections for both human communities and wildlife habitat.

Audubon's Important Bird Area program has been protecting 370 million acres along migratory bird flyways in the United States and is a key part of Audubon's work with BirdLife International and other conservationists around the globe. Audubon is leading the campaign for U.S. Congressional Reauthorization of the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act which would generate as much as $100 million each year to advance hemispheric bird conservation.

In Wyoming and across the Intermountain west, Audubon's Sagebrush Initiative works with industry, government, ranchers and conservationists to protect 15 million acres of greater sage grouse Core habitat. It also helps promote the development of renewable energy projects in the area.

Audubon also helped to secure the preservation of 240,000 acres of wild lands at the Tejon Ranch, the largest land conservation area created in California history.

In March 2020, the Arkansas chapter of the Audubon Society announced its plan to spend $80,000 to install solar panels on its grounds, which will make their Little Rock office the state's first nonprofit to utilize 100% solar energy.

Sanctuaries and nature centers
Nature centers and wildlife sanctuaries continue to be an important part of Audubon's work to educate and inspire the public about the environment and how to conserve it. Some of the Audubon's earliest nature centers are still teaching young and old alike about the natural world. In 2016, Audubon's Hog Island Camp in Maine marked its 80th anniversary. Audubon's national network currently includes nearly 500 local chapters, 23 state programs, 41 nature centers. After nearly three-quarters of a century, the National Wildlife Refuge Campaign also remains a key component of overall NAS policy.

Conservation ranching initiative
Audubon has begun to certify bird-friendly ranching facilities, such as the Blue Nest Beef enterprise in order to provide consumers with a method of determining the environmental credentials of the businesses advertising that they are providing "bird-friendly", "grass-fed", and similar products, as options for beef that is raised sustainably and benefits wildlife habitat.

Native plants database
An online database is provided by Audubon that displays which native plants are important for birds in different areas that is searchable by USA zip code.

Invasive species
Audubon has recently expanded its outreach about the detrimental impact of invasive species like Norway maples, Tatarian honeysuckle and other ecological threats to human health and wildlife.

Drilling for natural gas
The Audubon society opposes drilling for gas on national reserves. Natural gas has been drilled for and produced at its Paul J. Rainey Wildlife Sanctuary. The society said it was legally compelled to allow gas and oil drilling at the sanctuary under the terms of the land's donation by its original owners. This explanation, however, has been challenged. The presence of oil and gas drilling on Audubon's sanctuaries has been used to illustrate the difference between private and public decision-making.

An August 26, 2009, an open letter was sent to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee calling for stronger climate protections, including an end to subsidies for drilling companies. This signatories of this letter included the Central New Mexico Audubon Society, Champaign County Audubon Society, Delaware Audubon Society, Elisha Mitchell Audubon Society, Huachuca Audubon Society, Kalmiopsis Audubon Society, San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society, Sequoia Audubon Society, and Audubon South Carolina.

Dan W. Lufkin Prize for Environmental Leadership
The Dan W. Lufkin Prize for Environmental Leadership is a new award that recognizes Dan W. Lufkin's lifetime commitment to the environment and honors individuals who have dedicated their lives to on-the-ground conservation. As part of this award, the recipient receives a $100,000 cash prize, made through an endowment established by Dan's family and friends, to help further his or her conservation efforts. This award will become a signature prize in the field of conservation innovation. George Archibald was the inaugural Dan W. Lufkin Prize recipient for his tireless efforts to protect all species of cranes and their habitats throughout the world. The Wall Street Journal featured Dan W. Lufkin as the Donor of the Day, for the creation of this new Audubon prize.

Women in Conservation Program
The Rachel Carson Award is part of a broader Audubon initiative called Women in Conservation Project. Their mission statement is "To recognize outstanding women leaders in today's conservation movement; to support environmental opportunities for girls and young women; and to educate women on important issues related to conservation and the environment." Audubon New York created the Rachel Carson Field Internship in 2012, which is given to young women seeking experience in the fields of "habitat-stewardship and wildlife-management". There is also the Women in Conservation Fellowship. These internships are given to women who wish to learn about areas such as public relations, management, and event planning.

Climate change report
In September 2014, the Audubon Society released its Audubon Birds and Climate Change report which found that expected changes to North American climate will have a major, detrimental impact on birds in the United States. The scope of the report includes 588 species of birds and found that 314 of those species could lose up to half of their climatic range during the 21st-century.

Namesake controversy
The society was named in honor of John James Audubon, a Franco-American ornithologist and naturalist who painted, cataloged, and described the birds of North America in his famous Birds of America book (1827–1838). Despite these accolades, John James Audubon's legacy has been tarnished by numerous accusations of plagiarism and scientific fraud,      which his biographers (and Audubon's leadership) have routinely dismissed or minimized, even while admitting to his history of racism and slavery. John James Audubon was who collected human skulls to assist the scientific racism work of Samuel G. Morton. In the wake of the protests following the murder of George Floyd, there have been public appeals to strip the name Audubon from the society and change the names of species that honor him. The Audubon Society has publicly supported the removal of Confederate monuments, including acknowledging that "it's not just an issue of physical monuments".

An internal Board of Directors vote in 2023 resulted in a decision to retain the Audubon name for the national organization, with the subsequent resignation of three of its 26 board members. In February 2023, the union representing Audubon employees renamed itself The Bird Union. Seven months earlier, in July 2022, the Seattle chapter of Audubon announced they would change the name, and later announced the new name would be Birds Connect Seattle, effective June 2023. Shortly after the Seattle chapter's announcement in February, the Chicago chapter also announced they will change their name. In March 2023, the New York City chapter announced that after studying the issue for eight months, it will change its name; Jessica Wilson, executive director of the NYC chapter, stated that the current name "served as a barrier to getting all New Yorkers involved". Chapters in other cities such as Washington, D.C., Portland, Oregon, and Buffalo, New York, have made similar announcements.

Leadership
David Yarnold became Audubon's 10th president in September 2010, expressing a commitment to build on the organization's strong conservation legacy and expand its commitment to improving the quality of life for both birds and people by aligning Audubon's conservation work along the migratory flyways that millions of birds travel each spring and fall. Following layoffs and complaints about diversity and inclusion programs, an Audubon union organizing drive went public in March 2021 with about 400 workers. Yarnold stepped down the next month following an internal audit into Audubon's workplace culture and toxic workplace complaints. Elizabeth Gray was named Audubon's CEO in November, 2021.

Audubon magazine
The National Audubon Society publishes a bi-monthly magazine called Audubon.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Audubon


text:
David Dacko

David Dacko (24 March 1930 – 20 November 2003) was a Central African politician who served as the first President of the Central African Republic from 14 August 1960 to 1 January 1966 and as the third President of the Central African Republic from 21 September 1979 to 1 September 1981. He also served as Prime Minister of the Central African Republic from 1 May 1959 to 14 August 1960. After his second removal from power in a coup d'état led by General André Kolingba, he pursued an active career as an opposition politician and presidential candidate with many loyal supporters; Dacko was an important political figure in the country for over 50 years.

Early life and education
Dacko was born in the village of Bouchia, near Mbaïki in the Lobaye region (which was then a part of the French Equatorial African territory of Ubangi-Shari), to Joseph Iniabodé and Marie Okolania. His parents belonged to the same ethnic group. A M'Baka (Ngbaka), he was a distant cousin of future rival Jean-Bédel Bokassa. Soon after Dacko's birth, his family moved to Boda, where his father worked in a store belonging to a European coffee planter in Bonini named Tancret. In 1937, his father converted to Catholicism, after which he decided to stay married to one wife and sent the others away, including his mother. In 1938, he was sent to live with his uncle, Jêrome Gaza in Mbaïki. He began primary school in Mbaiki, where his father worked as a plantation's night watchman. He continued his primary education in Bambari before being admitted to the Ecole normale of Mouyoundzi in Moyen Congo. Studying for a career in teaching, he became schoolmaster of a large primary school in the capital, Bangui in 1951.

Dacko took part in an experimental educational program promoted by the French colonial administration. Dacko was named principal of Kouanga College in 1955 and became a supporter of independence leader Barthélémy Boganda, who was from the same Ngbaka ethnic group as Dacko.

Early political career
In March 1957 Dacko presented himself as a candidate for legislative elections in Ubangi-Shari for the circumscription of Ombella-M'Poko and won a seat as a member of the "Territorial Assembly of Ubangi-Shari". When the first Council of Government of Ubangi-Shari was established that same year, Boganda named Dacko Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Water and Forests, in which position he served from 14 May 1957 until 23 August 1958. Dacko then served as Minister of the Interior and Administrative Affairs from 23 August to 8 December 1958.

When the Territorial Assembly became the Legislative Constitutive Assembly on 1 December 1958, Dacko and his fellow Territorial Councilors became Deputies. Dacko remained in the government as the Minister of the Interior, Economy and Commerce (8 December 1958 – 30 April 1959).

On 29 March 1959, Boganda died in a plane crash. Étienne Ngounio was decided upon as the new head of the party as well as Boganda's replacement as the mayor of Bangui. His replacement as president, however, remained undetermined. Abel Goumba put forward his candidacy, although various circles within the party had reservations about him. Dacko states that he was convinced to accept candidacy by a group of Assembly members from MESAN, namely Gabriel Barrot, Thomas Lemotomo, Ibrahim Tello, Robert Sama, Bellet Herman and Alphonse Yokadouma. At the plenary meeting of the Assembly, his name was put forward as a candidate by Tello, and he was elected president with 39 votes against Goumba's 11. In October 1959, Goumba and Ngounio proposed that Dacko be replaced by Pierre Maléombho as president, but as it became obvious that the motion would not succeed, they ended up withdrawing it within a week, before it could be discussed at the Assembly.

First term as president
After independence on 13 August 1960, Dacko became Provisional President of the Republic (14 August–12 December 1960), and then, with the active French support against rival Abel Goumba, became the first President of the Central African Republic (12 December 1960 – 31 December 1965). In 1960, he also served as President of the Conference of Prime Ministers of Equatorial Africa.

Dacko began to consolidate his power soon after taking office in 1960. He retained the portfolio of Minister of Defense (17 August 1960 – 1 January 1966) and Keeper of the Seals (17 August 1960 – 2 January 1963) and amended the Constitution to transform his regime into a one-party state with a strong presidency elected for a term of seven years. On 5 January 1964, Dacko was elected in an election in which he ran alone.

During his first term as president, Dacko significantly increased diamond production in the Central African Republic by eliminating the monopoly on mining held by concessionary companies and decreeing that any Central African could dig for diamonds. He also succeeded in having a diamond-cutting factory built in Bangui. Diamonds eventually became the country's most important export and remain so today, even though at least half of the country's diamonds are smuggled out of the country. Dacko encouraged the rapid "Centralafricanization" of the country's administration, which was accompanied by growing corruption and inefficiency, and he expanded the number of civil servants, which greatly increased the portion of the national budget needed to pay salaries. The difficulty of securing enough revenues to pay a large number of bureaucrats who are often inefficient and corrupt has been a major problem for the country ever since.

Dacko was torn between his need to retain the support of France and his need to show that he was not subservient to France. In order to cultivate alternative sources of support and display his independence in foreign policy, he cultivated closer relations with the People's Republic of China. By 1965, Dacko had lost the support of most Central Africans and may have been planning to resign from the presidency when he was overthrown.

Overthrown by Bokassa
On the night of 31 December 1965 – 1 January 1966, General Bokassa carried out a successful coup d'état against Dacko and prevented the possible assumption of power by a rival, Colonel Jean Izamo, head of the national gendarme police force. Dacko, who belonged to the same Ngbaka ethnic group as Bokassa, was imprisoned, placed under house arrest in Lobaye, but then was released on 16 July 1969 and eventually named personal counselor of President Bokassa on 17 September 1976. When Bokassa's rule came under increasing criticism during the late 1970s, Dacko managed to leave for Paris where the French convinced him to cooperate in a coup to remove Bokassa from power and restore him to the presidency.

Restored to power

On the night of 20–21 September 1979, French paratroopers carried out Operation Barracuda, which overthrew Bokassa and restored Dacko to the presidency. In March 1981, Dacko was elected President of the Republic once again in a reasonably free multi-candidate election; his term began on 1 April.

Upon return to office, Dacko found himself forced to retain many of the officials who had been part of the Bokassa regime, as the country had no more than one hundred trained personnel available for government posts. The retention of this political elite was an additional factor in heightening the resentment against him. Immediately after his restoration Dacko found financial support from France, who provided his government with $17 million, leading to relative success in his first six months. This did not, however, translate to any support from the general international community, who regarded Dacko as a French surrogate. With French support, the European Economic Community was persuaded to give $20 million in aid, which was intended for the revitalisation of the crumbling agricultural sector, particularly coffee production, as well as developing infrastructure.

Dacko was regarded by many Central Africans as a puppet of the French and his right to rule was challenged, in particular, by Bokassa's former prime minister, Ange-Félix Patassé who, in addition to belonging to the largest ethnic group in the country, the Gbaya, had residential and kinship ties to other ethnic groups and was the most popular politician in the country. Patassé's opposition drew on the support of high school students as well as young unemployed adults in the shanty towns next to Bangui, such as Muskine. His opposition, however, was quashed by November 1979 with French support. As Dacko's government was sometimes unable to pay wages on time, further discontent arose amongst teachers, students and deprived urban residents, and led to strike as well as attacks on Dacko's officials. These protests were at times countered by the police. French aid then improved the timeliness of the salary payments, and Dacko was also able to introduce further scholarships for high school and university students, leading to an erosion of opposition. Furthermore, Dacko's government organised the public trials of some of Bokassa's officers. These took place in the main stadium in Bangui and were broadcast on radio, thus increasing Dacko's popularity, despite some skepticism amongst urban Central Africans.

Overthrown by Kolingba
On 1 September 1981, Dacko was overthrown in a bloodless coup carried out by army chief of staff General André Kolingba, who may have had the support of local French security officers who are suspected of having acted without authorization by François Mitterrand's new Socialist government in France. Such allegations may never be substantiated, but Kolingba did subsequently enjoy a very close relationship with France and a presidential security team led by Colonel Mantion. Dacko, unharmed, later returned to politics to lead the Movement for Democracy and Development (MDD), a party opposing Kolingba. Dacko participated in the presidential elections of 1992 and 1993 and in the latter obtained 20.10% of the votes cast.

Opposition, illness and death
During Patassé's first and second presidential terms (1993–99 and 1999–2003), Dacko continued to participate actively in politics as a leader of the opposition. Dacko and Kolingba were the main leaders of the opposition, with Kolingba having more influence than Dacko. Dacko ran for president for the last time in the 1999 elections, coming in third place with 11.2% of the vote.

After General François Bozizé overthrew Patassé and proclaimed himself president, Dacko participated in the Dialogue national (National Dialogue) that began on 9 September 2003, but shortly thereafter, on 27 September, he began suffering effects from his chronic asthma and heart disease. He headed to France to seek treatment, but during a stopover in Yaoundé, Cameroon on 7 November, he was taken to the General Hospital of Yaoundé where he died at 10 p.m. on 20 November. The Central African government declared a month of national mourning in his memory. On 13 December he was buried in Mokinda, near his residence.

Family and awards
In 1952, David Dacko married his first wife, Florence Yagbao, an ethnic Gbanziri woman. Their only son, Bruno Dacko (born 1952), is a politician who served as Minister of Tourism from 2003 to 2005. In 1962, he divorced Florence, who had become the country's inaugural first lady. Yagbao died in 1992. David Dacko married his second wife, Brigette Teya, in 1962 shortly after his divorce from his first wife. Brigette Dacko was from the city of Bimbo and a member of the Mbaka people. The couple had seven sons and four daughters. Former First Lady Brigette Dacko died on March 31, 2023.

David Dacko received many awards and honors during his lifetime, including Commander of the Central African Order of Agriculture (23 April 1963), Commander of the Central African Order of Academic Palms (26 June 1964). A major street in Bangui is named after him, Avenue President David Dacko.

title: David Dacko


text:
Sam Francis (writer)

Samuel Todd Francis (April 29, 1947 – February 15, 2005), known as Sam Francis, was an American white supremacist writer. He was a columnist and editor for the conservative Washington Times until he was dismissed after making racist remarks at the 1995 American Renaissance conference. Francis would later become a "dominant force" on the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist organization identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Francis was chief editor of the council's newsletter, Citizens Informer, until his death in 2005. White supremacist Jared Taylor called Francis "the premier philosopher of white racial consciousness of our time."

Political scientist and writer George Michael, an expert on extremism, identified Francis as one of "the far right's higher-caliber intellectuals." The Southern Poverty Law Center described Francis as an important white nationalist writer known for his "ubiquitous presence of his columns in racist forums and his influence over the general direction of right-wing extremism" in the United States. Analyst Leonard Zeskind called Francis the "philosopher king" of the radical right, writing that, "By any measure, Francis's white nationalism was as subtle as an eight-pound hammer pounding on a twelve inch I beam." Scholar Chip Berlet described Francis as an ultraconservative ideologue akin to Pat Buchanan, whom Francis advised. Anarcho-capitalist political theorist Hans-Hermann Hoppe called Francis "one of the leading theoreticians and strategists of the Buchananite movement."

Early life
Francis was born Chattanooga, Tennessee. He received a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1969, and a master's degree in 1971 and doctorate in 1979 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Washington Times
Francis was a policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation and an aide to Republican Senator John East of North Carolina before joining the editorial staff of The Washington Times in 1986. Five years later, he became a columnist for the newspaper, and his column became syndicated.

In addition to his journalistic career, Francis was an adjunct scholar at the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Auburn, Alabama.

In June 1995, editor-in-chief Wesley Pruden "had cut back on Francis' column" after The Washington Times ran his essay criticizing the Southern Baptist Convention for its approval of a resolution which apologized for slavery. In the piece, Francis asserted that "The contrition of the Southern Baptists for slavery and racism is a bit more than a politically fashionable gesture intended to massage race relations" and that "Neither slavery' nor racism' as an institution is a sin."

In September 1995, Pruden fired Francis from The Washington Times after conservative journalist Dinesh D'Souza, in a column in The Washington Post, described Francis's appearance at the 1994 American Renaissance conference: "A lively controversialist, Francis began with some largely valid complaints about how the Southern heritage is demonized in mainstream culture. He went on, however, to attack the liberal principles of humanism and universalism for facilitating 'the war against the white race.' At one point he described country music megastar Garth Brooks as 'repulsive' because 'he has that stupid universalist song (We Shall Be Free), in which we all intermarry.' His fellow whites, he insisted, must 'reassert our identity and our solidarity, and we must do so in explicitly racial terms through the articulation of a racial consciousness as whites ... The civilization that we as whites created in Europe and America could not have developed apart from the genetic endowments of the creating people, nor is there any reason to believe that the civilization can be successfully transmitted to a different people.'"

After D'Souza's column was published, Pruden "decided he did not want the Times associated with such views after looking into other Francis writings, in which he advocated the possible deportation of legal immigrants and forced birth control for welfare mothers."

Francis said soon after the firing that "I believe there are racial differences, there are natural differences between the races. I don't believe that one race is better than another. There's reasonably solid evidence for IQ differences, personality and behavior differences. I understand those things have been taken to justify segregation and white supremacy. That is not my intent."

Later career
After being fired from The Washington Times, Francis continued to write a column, which was syndicated through Creators Syndicate at least as early as January 2000.

Francis became a "dominant force" on the Council of Conservative Citizens. Francis was chief editor of the council's quarterly newsletter, Citizens Informer, until his death in 2005. Francis wrote the council's Statement of Principles, which "called for America to be a Christian nation" and "oppose[d] all efforts to mix the races of mankind." In his writings, Francis advocated for a moratorium on all immigration, plus an indefinite suspension of all immigration from non-European and non-Western people.

Francis was also an editor of The Occidental Quarterly, a white nationalist journal edited by Kevin Lamb and sponsored by William Regnery II.

He served as a contributor and editor of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's quarterly, Modern Age. After his dismissal from The Washington Times and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Francis continued to write a syndicated column for VDARE and Chronicles magazine, and spoke at meetings of American Renaissance and the Council of Conservative Citizens. He attended the American Friends of the British National Party's meeting on April 22, 2000, where he heard and met Nick Griffin. His articles also appeared in Middle American News. Francis' last published work was an article penned for the 2005 IHS Press anti-war anthology, Neo-Conned!.

Francis died on February 15, 2005, at Prince George's Hospital Center in Cheverly, Maryland, following an unsuccessful surgery to treat an aortic aneurysm. He was 57. Francis was buried at the foot of Lookout Mountain.

Thought and legacy
Francis's term "anarcho-tyranny" refers to armed dictatorship without rule of law, or a Hegelian synthesis when the state tyrannically or oppressively regulates citizens' lives yet is unable or unwilling to enforce fundamental protective law. Commentators have invoked the term in reference to situations when governments focus on weapon confiscation instead of stopping looters. On Francis's death, the Rockford Institute magazine Chronicles dedicated its April 2005 issue to his memory and the concept. Francis had a significant influence on the paleoconservative movement.

Francis argued that the conservative movement was made of "beautiful losers", being either "rootless men" attracted to archaic things or crypto-liberals who sometimes resist progressive change before eventually caving in. He argued that the political right kept losing because it was too focused on ideas and less on power. According to Francis, the political left has dominated politics due to the ascendancy of a progressive managerial class, leading to more bureaucratization and more state power while eroding the power of other authorities in society. To combat the emergence of this new class, Francis argued that the political right needed a base for its goals, this base being the white middle class or "Middle American radicals." In order to capture this base for the political right, Francis argued in favor of emphasizing "crime, educational collapse, the erosion of their economic status, and the calculated subversion of their social, cultural, and national identity" to create a class identity for this group.

Writing in The Week, commentator Michael Brendan Dougherty wrote that Francis's writings, and his rejection of movement conservatism, presaged the 2016 election of Donald Trump. In September 2017, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote: "The only time I saw Sam Francis face-to-face — in The Washington Times cafeteria sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s — I thought he was a crank, but it's clear now that he was at that moment becoming one of the most prescient writers of the past 50 years. There's very little Donald Trump has done or said that Francis didn't champion a quarter century ago." In 2023, historian Joshua Tait said that "Before a Trump-inspired resurgence in interest in Francis, he was a cautionary tale from conservative intellectual history."

During the 2022 electoral cycle, Blake Masters, a Republican candidate for US Senate, promoted Beautiful Losers.

Although Francis sometimes engaged with Christian thinkers and publications during his life, he was also harshly critical of Christianity in his later years and his worldview has been described as irreligious and materialistic. Francis wrote that "Christianity today is the enemy of the West and the race that created it" and suggested that the "religious wrong" operated under a "false consciousness" that prevented white Christians from recognizing their true interests. Because of this, he has been cited as part of a trend toward increasingly "secular, even pagan" ideas among certain segments of the American radical right.

Works

 * (1984) Power and History, The Political Thought of James Burnham. University Press of America ISBN 0-8191-3753-7
 * (1994) Beautiful Losers: Essays on the Failure of American Conservatism. University of Missouri Press ISBN 0-8262-0976-9
 * (1997) Revolution From the Middle. Middle America Press ISBN 1-887898-01-8
 * (1997) "Classical Republicanism and the Right to Bear Arms," in Costs of War. Transaction Publishers, pp. 53–66 ISBN 0-7658-0487-5
 * (1999) James Burnham: Thinkers of Our Time. London: Claridge Press ISBN 1-870626-32-X
 * (2001) America Extinguished: Mass Immigration and the Disintegration of American Culture. Americans for Immigration Control Publishers
 * (2003) Ethnopolitics: Immigration, Race, and the American Political Future. Representative Government Press ISBN 0-9672154-1-2
 * (2005) "Refuge of Scoundrels: Patriotism, True and False, in the Iraq Controversy," in Neo-Conned! IHS Press, pp. 151–60 ISBN 978-1932528060
 * (2006) Shots Fired: Sam Francis on America's Culture War. FGF Books edited by Peter Gemma ISBN 0-9777362-0-2
 * (2007) Essential Writings on Race. New Century Foundation ISBN 978-0-9656383-7-1
 * (2016) Leviathan and Its Enemies. Washington Summit Publishers ISBN 978-1-59368049-7

title: Sam Francis (writer)


text:
User talk:Sekicho/Archive1

The discussion continues...
":I have an entire stack of Japanese high school textbooks on my bookshelf. I have never seen a single Kunrei romanization in any of them.  In fact, during the entire time I lived in Japan, I only recall seeing Kunrei once or twice.  99 percent of romanized Japanese is Hepburn, and most of the remainder is used in a non-English context. I'm sure that anyone else who has actually lived in Japan can corroborate this claim. WhisperToMe, stop acting like an expert in this field. You aren't and it's beginning to show. -- Sekicho 14:23, Apr 3, 2004 (UTC)"

People on #ja.wikipedia on irc.freenode.net are saying that Kunrei is used in the elementary school level in Japanese schools, and that 4th graders are taught Kunrei.

Which would make sense since the article on Kunrei-shiki says that the Ministry of Education in Japan uses the spelling. WhisperToMe 05:33, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Also, Sampo said that Kunrei is used in primary education, which is why you didn't find a single Kunrei in your secondary textbooks. It looks like I'm only half-right on that one. WhisperToMe 05:42, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

hi, can you translate something for me? 監修 it's for the page on Shimizu Takashi; he did that on a movie called mou hitori iru (that i can translate). it's not assistant directer, which is 助監督, maybe second unit director? (are there more appropriate fora for this? cheers.) Nateji77 04:25, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)
 * thanks, it's a help. shouldnt take long to figure out if it's an exec producer, simple process of exhaustion. thanks again. Nateji77 18:53, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Hello,

I would like to use your picture of the Sadako Memorial on the WP FR. Do you allow me to do so? If the aswer is yes, under which license did you released your picture? Cybertooth 14:42, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)
 * Oh, sorry, I had not seen the public domain statement. Thanks, anyway. Cybertooth 16:52, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Shannon Airport
I noticed you moved Shannon International Airport to Shannon Airport, and I wondered why. It is an international Airport, but I invite you to join the discussion at WikiProject Airports and click on the naming conventions. Burgundavia 23:52, Jun 10, 2004 (UTC)
 * Sounds good. I want eventually to move all the airports to the name that they are officially know under, and have redirects to that, with any sort of accents, etc. Burgundavia 04:50, Jun 11, 2004 (UTC)

Kanji Names
I've noticed you churning out many train station entries. I started adding kanji to the first few but they've been going around so fast, I stopped because I'm not as proficient in place names as I once was. TheCustomOfLife 22:07, 18 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Shoko Asahara
I rechecked the Manual_of_Style_for_Japan-related_articles and found no change in the "use the form of a person's name that is most widely known and used by English speakers" guideline. If the lengthy discussion attached to it (which I briefly skimmed but am not about to read in its entirety) has reached some other conclusion, I suppose the article should be reworded. I think the few people who know enough about Aum Shinrikyou to know the leader's name and go searching for it on Wikipedia will probably be culturally fluent enough to not get confused when they hit a redirect page. --AsianAstronaut 23:21, 2004 Jun 23 (UTC)

And totally unreleated to the above (although I am planning on writing a long diatribe about Japanese naming conventions to post to that talkpage... these are people's names dammit :), let's show some cultural and personal respect), BUT, are you the same Sekicho who wrote a great many Japanese-related articles on E2? --AsianAstronaut 15:06, 2004 Jun 24 (UTC)

Oh no! The article got lost! WhisperToMe 21:42, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

The expert
Roger Ebert calls the article on Takeshi Kitano "expert". -- Cyan 15:03, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Tokyo Tower photo
The Tokyo article captions your photo Image:Tokyotower.jpg as "Tokyo Tower and Shiba Park"; how would "Tokyo Tower and Zojoji in Shiba" sound? The prominent building looks like a gate of Zojoji (but I'm not sure). BTW, Zojoji provides an opportunity to link to the Tokugawa shoguns.

 * I honestly don't care what you call it... have at it! Sekicho
 * Thanks Fg2 23:30, Sep 9, 2004 (UTC)

Tampa Wikimeet
Pardon the impersonality; I'm pasting this on every Wikiuser's page who lives in eastern Florida. We're scheduling a Wikimeet this Saturday, September 11. Jimbo still has to decide the place but he's looking into Panera Bread locations here in Tampa. Please post on User:Jimbo Wales and tell us if you're interested in coming. Thanks! Mike H 18:30, Sep 7, 2004 (UTC)

New Tokyo International Airport in Lost in Translation
Do you mean the airport has to appear physically in the movie? In the very beginning, there is a voice from a PA announcer mentioning the airport by name. WhisperToMe 00:39, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * That's really, really flimsy, WTM. "Appearing" in a movie implies a visual appearance. The mere fact that its name was mentioned in the background definitely isn't important enough to warrant inclusion in the article. Sekicho 00:53, Sep 17, 2004 (UTC)

Image:Shinkansenmap.png
Hi Sekicho!

Is your picture a GFDL- or Free-Domain-picture? I would like to use it in german Wikipedia for the german Shinkansen article so I need a copyright information about it...

Thank you, [[User:Rdb| r d b ]] 12:03, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)

(Please answer me either on my English User's page or in the German Wikipedia)

Mogami, etc.
Hi Sekicho, Regarding articles on Japanese naval vessels, since many were named for geographical features of Japan (e.g. Mogami River), which might deserve their own articles, it might be best to name the articles "IJN Mogami" or "Mogami (Naval vessel)" to make it easy for someone (now or later) to create a disambiguation page. Does that sound good? Fg2 00:59, Oct 2, 2004 (UTC)

Japan template; Yokohama article
Hi Sekicho,

First, thanks for upgrading the Japan template and putting it in several articles like Kyoto, Kyoto and Yokohama, Kanagawa. It's a valuable addition to not only prefectures, but regions and cities.

Second, high praise again for your edits to the Yokohama article. Your inclusion of a photo of the US ship will bring home the realities of the Korean war, and the other photos and text are really fleshing out the article.

I notice you put the sentence about Yokohama, Aomori back in the article. Since it's important to you, I won't take it out again. You might be interested in the reason I did take it out: I made a disambiguation page for Yokohama. Previously, if anyone typed "Yokohama" into the search box, it redirected to Yokohama, Kanagawa. However, I made it into a disambiguation page so that it would serve both people looking for the big city and those who want to learn about the small town. (At the same time, I changed a couple dozen links that previously pointed to Yokohama to point directly to Yokohama, Kanagawa. There were so many that I couldn't get them all! Whoever moved the page from Yokohama to Yokohama, Kanagawa must have faced a hopeless task.) So... I thought that the redirect made the info about Yokohama, Aomori no longer needed in the Yokohama, Kanagawa page. But since you feel it's worth putting back, I won't take it out.

By the way, you might be interested in the French Wikipedia's Portal to Japanese Culture. They put a short template in articles to point to this page (click on a link to an article and you'll see it near the bottom). You might even discover that they've translated one of your articles (that's how I stumbled across it — they linked Japanese garden, which is on my Watchlist, to a new translation of it into French). Fg2 07:21, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC)

 * I mainly eliminated the disambig page because very few people are going to be searching for Yokohama in Aomori, and many who are merely looking for "Yokohama" that they've seen elsewhere are not going to know which Yokohama they're looking for. Sekicho 16:18, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC)

NAF Atsugi
If you need any help with that article, I can do it. I lived there for three years. Mike H 00:16, Oct 24, 2004 (UTC)

American Airlines
Please see Talk:American Airlines page for a discussion that I have initiated regarding your recent edits on this page. Misterrick 09:50 25 October 2004 (UTC).

Thanks...
...for your helpful suggestions at Talk:African American. I responded to you there. Quill 21:12, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

MITI/METI
Seeing as you are the primary author of the MITI article, I was wondering what sources you used and what you would recommend for further reading on the subject. My email is bw388@nyu.edu. Thanks.--Wasabe3543 23:57, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

SFO
Regarding this edit. I think the reason why it would be necessary to restore land elsewhere is due to a law regarding no net loss of habitat. I will research this, and hopefully find a definitive answer. Burgundavia 23:02, Nov 29, 2004 (UTC)

 * I have left a note on User:Minesweepers page, as they are the one who originally added the information

About African American
"Name-calling"? WHAT name calling? Secondly, in return, I have some advice for you. Before you crticize an article in which many people have invested a great deal of time and effort, it might help if you took time to READ it. (It would save you the trouble of writing paragraphs and paragraphs of crap -- and then going back and deleting them, as you've done.) Further, you're welcome for the patient advice I extended to you -- despite your obvious attitude. Thirdly, you say you've studied ethnography for a number of years. Yet you presume to say (and quite erroneously) that African-Americans are not an ethnic group? Amazing. Not only have you lived here all your life, but you've studied to be so abysmally clueless. LOL And news flash:  I already am taken seriously on Wikipedia, thank you very much. I've made numerous contributions to several subjects dealing with African-Americans that, IMO, have made them far better than they would have been without my input. And that's a fact. :-p deeceevoice 22:31, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Sekicho/Archive1


text:
Ursula Andress

Ursula Andress (born 19 March 1936) is a Swiss actress and former model who has appeared in American, British and Italian films. Her breakthrough role was as Bond girl Honey Ryder in the first James Bond film, Dr. No (1962). She later starred as Vesper Lynd in the 1967 Bond parody Casino Royale. Other credits include Fun in Acapulco (1963), 4 for Texas (1963), She (1965), The 10th Victim (1965), The Blue Max (1966), The Southern Star (1969), Perfect Friday (1970), Red Sun (1971), The Sensuous Nurse (1975), Slave of the Cannibal God (1978), The Fifth Musketeer (1979), Clash of the Titans (1981), and Peter the Great (1986).

Early life
Ursula Andress, the third of six children, was born on 19 March 1936 in Ostermundigen, Canton of Bern, to a Swiss mother, Anna, and Rolf Andress, a German diplomat. Her father was expelled from Switzerland for political reasons and her grandfather, a garden designer, took the role of being her guardian. She has a brother, Heinz, and four sisters, Erika, Charlotte, Gisela, and Kàtey.

Andress went to school in Bern until she was 16 and speaks several languages, including English, French, German, and Italian. She studied art in Paris for a year, then went to Rome, where she held down jobs including being a children’s nanny.

Career
Andress was at a party when she met a film producer who offered her a screen test for a role in an Italian film. She was successful and was cast in walk-on parts in An American in Rome (1954) (starring Alberto Sordi), The Sins of Casanova (1955) (starring later Bond ally Gabriele Ferzetti), and La catena dell'odio (1955). She was seen by a Hollywood executive who persuaded her to try her luck in Hollywood.

Andress arrived in Hollywood in late 1955. That spring she was signed to a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures, starting at $287 a week. The contract brought no acting roles, owing to her reluctance to learn English. "I spent most of my time watching old Marlene Dietrich movies", she said. Andress received some publicity for dating James Dean shortly before the actor's death. She bought herself out of her contract and in 1956 signed with Columbia Pictures. She made no films for them either. She stayed in Hollywood when she married John Derek in 1957. In 1959, it was announced she and Derek would star in a film, High Variety, but no film resulted.

Andress returned to acting in 1962 in an episode of Thriller, "La Strega" (1962), with Alejandro Rey. She became internationally famous as Honey Ryder, a shell diver and James Bond's object of desire in Dr. No (1962), the first Bond film, even though her dialogue had to be dubbed by Nikki van der Zyl. In what became an iconic moment in cinematic and fashion history,  she rose out of the Caribbean Sea in a white bikini sporting a large diving knife on her hip. The calypso was sung by Diana Coupland. The scene made Andress a "quintessential" Bond girl. Andress later said that she owed her career to that white bikini: "This bikini made me into a success. As a result of starring in Dr. No as the first Bond girl, I was given the freedom to take my pick of future roles and to become financially independent". The bikini she wore in the film sold at auction in 2001 for £41,125. In 2003, in a UK Survey by Channel 4, her entrance in Dr. No was voted #1 in "the 100 Greatest Sexy Moments". Andress won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year in 1964 for her appearance in the film.

Andress followed it playing the female lead in an Elvis Presley musical, Fun in Acapulco (1963). She was billed after Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Anita Ekberg in 4 for Texas (1963); her casting in the latter led to the title being changed from Two for Texas. Both films were widely seen. Less so was a film Andress starred in alongside Derek, Nightmare in the Sun (1965).

In 1965, nude photographs of her from Nightmare in the Sun were published in Playboy; it was the first of seven times she was pictured in the magazine over the next fifteen years. When asked why she had agreed to do the Playboy shoot, Andress replied coolly, "Because I'm beautiful".

Andress was cast in the title role of She (1965), playing an immortal queen, for Hammer Films and Seven Arts Productions, shot in England and Israel. Andress agreed to make it as part of a two-picture deal with Seven Arts; it was a financial success at the box office. Andress did not appear in the sequel, The Vengeance of She, as her contract expired before the film was produced.

Andress had a supporting role in the comedy What's New Pussycat? (1965) for producer Charles K. Feldman which was a huge hit. She went to France to play Jean-Paul Belmondo's love interest in Up to His Ears (1965), which was popular in France; she and Belmondo became romantically involved, leading to her and Derek divorcing (although they had already been separated for a year). Andress moved to Paris to live with Belmondo and it was her home for the next seven years.

In Italy, she starred opposite Marcello Mastroianni in the science fiction movie The 10th Victim (1965). She returned to Hollywood to play George Peppard's love interest in the World War One film The Blue Max (1966), another success at the box office.

Andress made her second film for Seven Arts: another with Derek, who again starred and directed, Once Before I Die (1966), shot in the Philippines. More widely seen was the Bond satire Casino Royale (1967), also produced by Feldman, where Andress played Vesper Lynd, an occasional spy who persuades Evelyn Tremble, played by Peter Sellers, to carry out a mission. It was a big box office hit. Her fee was a reported £200,000. Val Guest directed Andress in Casino Royale and said "I don't think I have ever met someone who was so universally loved by everyone in a studio. They'd all do anything for her and this is really quite something. One day someone is going to get the real Ursula on the screen in a comedy and she's going to astound everybody. The trouble is that she's so tense".

In Italy, she appeared alongside fellow former Bond girl Claudine Auger in Anyone Can Play (1968) for director Luigi Zampa. She then went to Africa to make The Southern Star (1969) with George Segal, which was a hit in England. She appeared nude or semi-nude in nearly all of her film roles between 1969 and 1979, earning her the nickname "Ursula Undress".

Andress went to England to appear in Perfect Friday (1970), a heist film starring Stanley Baker and David Warner. In Spain. she appeared in Red Sun (1971), a Western with an international cast including Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune, and Alain Delon. In a 1972 interview, she said "I think my image, especially to Americans, is that of a femme fatale, a man-eating woman. I'm not empty-headed or calculating and cool. But maybe my looks give that impression. I'm disciplined in my doings and undisciplined in my emotions. I can't control the things I feel or hide my feelings".

Andress did some action films, Stateline Motel (1973), Loaded Guns (1975), and Africa Express (1975). She played the title role in The Sensuous Nurse (1975) and did a comedy with another former Bond girl, Barbara Bouchet, Spogliamoci così, senza pudor... (1976).

Andress played Joséphine de Beauharnais in the swashbuckling spoof The Loves and Times of Scaramouche (1976) with Michael Sarrazin. She made a sequel to Africa Express, Safari Express (1976), then did another with Mastroianni, Double Murder (1978).

Andress was in the cult favorite Slave of the Cannibal God (1978) with Stacy Keach; the anthology sex comedy Tigers in Lipstick (1979) for Luigi Zampa; and the swashbuckler period piece The Fifth Musketeer (1979), playing Louise de La Vallière opposite Beau Bridges.

She played Aphrodite in 1981's Clash of the Titans, alongside Laurence Olivier. During the making of the film, Andress started a romantic relationship with leading man Harry Hamlin, with whom she had a son.

In 1982, she portrayed Mabel Dodge in the adventure-drama film Red Bells and guest starred on shows like Manimal and The Love Boat. In France. she was in Liberté, égalité, choucroute (1985).

On television, she participated in the 1986 Emmy-winning miniseries Peter the Great, and joined the cast of the primetime soap opera Falcon Crest for a three-episode arc in 1988 as an exotic foreigner who assists David Selby in retrieving Dana Sparks from a white slave ring. Andress was also in Big Man – The Diva (1988) with Bud Spencer and Man Against the Mob: The Chinatown Murders (1989).

Since the beginning of the 1990s, her acting appearances have been rare. She was in Klassäzämekunft (1990) (English title: Broken Silence), The Cave of the Golden Rose 3 (1993), The Cave of the Golden Rose 4 (1994) and Cremaster 5 (1995). In 1995, Andress was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars in film history." Her last role to date was playing "Madonna" in the low-budget 2005 Swiss feature Die Vogelpredigt oder Das Schreien der Mönche (English title: The Bird Preachers). She appeared in the documentary ''Masterpiece or Forgery? The Story of Elmyr De Hory'' (2008).

Personal life
Andress has stated that she lost her virginity to married actor Daniel Gélin in 1953, when she was 17 and he was 32. She dated Dennis Hopper and James Dean after moving to the US in 1955, and that same year began an affair with actor/director John Derek, a married father of two who walked out on his wife, Pati Behrs, and their family to be with 19-year-old Andress. Derek and Andress wed on February 2, 1957, in Las Vegas, but separated in 1964 over her affair with Once Before I Die co-star Ron Ely, officially divorcing in 1966. During the interim, the separated but still married Andress publicly dated John Richardson, her co-star from She, and Marcello Mastroianni, her co-star from The 10th Victim.

From 1965 to 1972, Andress lived with her Up to His Ears co-star Jean-Paul Belmondo. He was, she says, the love of her life. Her next live-in relationship was with another co-star, Stateline Motel's Fabio Testi, from 1973 to 1977 (except for one year when they broke up). She also dated Ryan O'Neal, John Delorean, Helmut Berger, Paolo Pazzaglia, Johnny Dorelli, Franco Nero, with whom she later starred in Red Bells, Nels Van Patten, and Ricci Martin.

When Andress broke her arm in late summer 1978, the official story had it that she'd been struck by Hurricane Norman while bodysurfing in Malibu, but rumors flew that she actually suffered the injury during a fight with her on-again/off-again boyfriend O'Neal. O'Neal and Andress were in a relationship twice, first from 1972 to 1973, then again from 1977 to 1978.

Andress lived with actor Harry Hamlin after meeting on the set of Clash of the Titans in 1979. She gave birth to their son, Dimitri Alexander Hamlin, on 19 May 1980. The night of her delivery, Linda Evans drove Andress to the hospital while Evans' assistant Bunky Young retrieved Hamlin from the set of King of the Mountain. Although she was engaged to Hamlin, the couple never married. In 1983, Hamlin broke up with her.

In the mid-1980s, Andress was romantically involved with soccer player Paulo Roberto Falcão, actor Gerardo Amato, singer Julio Iglesias, real estate developer Stan Herman, and bodybuilder Mario Natokis. In 1986, she began dating future Sicilian Regional Assembly member Fausto Fagone, then a university student; he was 20 and she was 50. The relationship, which infuriated Fagone's parents, lasted until 1991. Later that year, Andress briefly dated martial arts expert Jeff Speakman, but has not been publicly linked with anyone since.

In 2017, Andress sold her home in Beverly Hills at a considerable profit. She also has resided in Florida, Virginia, and Spain. As of 2022, Andress splits her time between an apartment in Rome and a house in Gstaad, near her siblings. Her preferred language is Italian.

title: Ursula Andress