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Talk:United Daughters of the Confederacy

Sidney Lanier
For those interested, Lanier is a related topic per. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:56, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

Building monuments to the Klan "until recent decades", really?
I think that most readers in the year 2020 would think of "recent decades" as being the 2010s, the 2000s, the 1990s, perhaps the 1980s, possibly even the 1970s. Almost none would think the 1920s. Yet that was when the only UDC Klan monument mentioned in this article was built. Specifically 1926; 94 years ago. That's 15 Presidents ago during Coolidge's administration, the year before Lindbergh's transatlantic flight, and 33 years closer to the time of the Civil War than to 2020. I think we can eliminate the highly misleading sentence in the lead that "Until recent decades, the UDC was also involved in building monuments to commemorate the Ku Klux Klan". Tbobbed (talk) 20:49, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

Order of information in opening paragraph
Newimpartial recently reversed a change that I made to the order of the information in the opening paragraph. That order currently is the Southern Poverty Law Center's labeling of the UDC as a Neo-Confederate organization in the second sentence, followed by a brief description of the UDC's activities ( I called it their "self description" in my edit note, but it is really our very brief digest of it), followed by historians' summation of the UDC's historical significance. For me there are a couple of problems in leading off with the SPLC's categorization. First, it makes more sense to tell the reader, quite basically, what the organization does first and then go on from there, so our digest of what it does, currently a 25 word sentence, should come first. Second, the summation of the UDC's historical significance by professional historians should come next. They agree, I'm sure, that the organization is Neo-Confederate, but they should be the sources we most rely on to make that designation, not the SPLC. The SPLC's designation could come next though it is not especially important, because it only concurs with sources who know more about the subject than they do. I find it somewhat bewildering to the extent to which editors defer to this organization which has come in for more than its share of criticism and upheaval in recent years. Also, the way we currently word the SPLC's labeling of the UDC is misleading: "It has been labeled neo-Confederate by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, and extremists". One would assume from this wording that the UDC must be one of the "hate groups" that the SPLC tracks. Yet the SPLC explicitly says that they do not consider the UDC to be a hate group. Check the source. Tbobbed (talk) 04:03, 7 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Once again, I have seen no justification for placing the "stated aims" of the organization first: certainly none has been provided here. Newimpartial (talk) 01:31, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
 * I see the SPLC's label as something peripheral, which is why I agree its assessment should be placed lower down.
 * By the way, I don't know why we are following WP:ATTRIBUTEPOV by calling the UDC neo-Confederate and attributing SPLC. It's not just SPLC, it's other historians as well. Binksternet (talk) 01:42, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
 * I suppose because the SPLC's description of the UDC comes up later in the article, but I don't see that it has to be previewed in the intro. Tbobbed (talk) 02:16, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

 * Looking over the recent versions, one immediate objection I have to your perferred version is that you attribute the consensus of historians (Many historians have described the organization's portrayal of the Confederate States of America (CSA) and the Civil War as a promotion of the Lost Cause and of white supremacy, and have asserted that the elevation of the Confederate tradition has been led by the UDC.), but state their self-description without attribution and without even noting that it is merely their self-description (the organization's activities include the commemoration of Confederate Civil War soldiers and the funding of monuments to them). This is inappropriate.  If we were going to state either one of those as fact, it would be the consensus of historians (per WP:NPOV, we should not state facts as opinions; and at least based on the sources in the article, the historians cited here are not a biased source, while obviously an organization is biased about itself), but we absolutely cannot state the consensus of historians as opinion while simultaneously giving the organization's self-description as fact - that is to say, if we're going to attribute their Neo-confederate advocacy and support for white supremacy to "historians",we definitely cannot remove the "stated purposes" attribution for their activities, since that self-description is not commonly accepted as definitive by academic sources.  Your version incorrectly implies that it is nearly universally accepted that the primary purpose of the organization is commemorating the Civil War and that a few historians demur and say that its purpose is to defend white supremacy, when in fact the reverse is true. --Aquillion (talk) 19:23, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

I just re-worded the beginning of the lede, trying to follow WP:Leadsentence and have the most important ideas in the first sentence. Any thoughts ? --Rsk6400 (talk) 20:26, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

 * Responding to Aquillion's point, I think including something like "their stated purposes" before presenting a list of them is fine. I'm in a rush now but I'll say a little more later. Tbobbed (talk) 22:13, 26 January 2021 (UTC) Picking up where I left off: The earlier version of the lead, before Rsk6400's edit, referred to the UDC's "activities", not purposes, and mentioned a couple of the activities it is well known for that are discussed in the article. You can easily get into an argument over whether the UDC promotes white supremacy but not over whether it commemorates Confederate soldiers or funds Confederate monuments. The latter two activities are objective facts. The former requires an interpretation.
 * As for Rsk6400's edit to the lead, it is well written, but I think that it is also too eager to immediately brand the organization as racist. I wouldn't feel this way if we were talking about the UDC of 1921, rather than a UDC which has evolved a fair amount between 1921 and 2021. Tbobbed (talk) 23:26, 26 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for calling it "well written". I just finished reading Blight's Race and Reunion, which focuses on the period before World War I, so I certainly view the UDC in the light of their early history. Still, on their website I could not discover any indication that they have "evolved a fair amount". The "History" section ends with the goals of 1919, their "Historical Silver / Gold Medal" is still named after Jeff Davis, the "Statement from the President General" says We are saddened that some people find anything connected with the Confederacy to be offensive. (Do they ever think about the realities of slavery such as legalized child abuse ?) They exclude Blacks (not explicitly, but through the "grandfather clause" of "Confederate descent"), and they totally deny Black historical memory. In order to mitigate the wording of the lede, we would really need a good source claiming that they have changed, not just their own disclaimer. --Rsk6400 (talk) 09:16, 27 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Not sure about all the OR, but yes, we should not take their word for it. We can say (assuming they have actually said it) they say they have changed.Slatersteven (talk) 10:25, 27 January 2021 (UTC)
 * It's actually worse: I wasn't able to find a single statement on their website claiming that they have changed. --Rsk6400 (talk) 13:30, 27 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I said it has evolved a fair amount, not gone through a Saul on the Road to Damascus transformation. Here's an example of how it sees itself now . If you go through our article and its sources you'll see that, apparently, its last open defense of the Klan was in 1936. There's not much, if anything, about the organization opposing the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s, when, surely, an inveterately white supremacist organization would have been highly active in opposition. How about the funding of NEW monuments to the Confederacy? How much time and effort does it NOW spend in lobbying against disturbing textbooks? Sometimes one has consider the dog that doesn't bark. Tbobbed (talk) 15:56, 27 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I just took a look at the sources: The connection between UDC, Lost Cause, and White supremacy seems to be well established. I could easily name two more sources, but I think we already have enough. Maybe they have been less aggressive recently, but they are still teaching what they call a "truthful" version of history to their children. --Rsk6400 (talk) 19:41, 27 January 2021 (UTC)
 * The number of sources is certainly not an issue. The issue is whether or not the UDC's "promotion of ... white supremacy" should be stated as an objective fact or rather as an interpretation of its activities requiring attribution. I would opt for the latter. Tbobbed (talk) 21:42, 27 January 2021 (UTC)
 * As long as we have a whole bunch of reliable source stating that UDC is promoting white supremacy, but none stating the opposite, we have to avoid stating facts as opinions, see WP:WIKIVOICE. --Rsk6400 (talk) 08:10, 28 January 2021 (UTC)
 * No. I think you misunderstand what "reliable source" means in Wikipedia. It means that the source, whether it a be a person, persons, or a publication, is respected enough to be used in Wikipedia. It does not mean that if many reliable sources agree on a matter of opinion; examples: "Trump is a racist", "Reagan was a charming public speaker", "Clinton couldn't control his gonads", we state the opinion, without textual qualification, as an objective fact. Yes, facts should not be stated as opinions. Nor should opinions be stated as fact
 * In addition, the article had existed for a long time with the idea of the UDC promoting white supremacy stated as the opinion of many, so it is really up to you and those who agree with you, to establish a consensus that it should it should be stated as a simple fact and not an opinion. Otherwise the wording should return to what it was before. Tbobbed (talk) 14:45, 28 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I firmly disagree - promoting the pseudo-historical Lost Cause ideology and the idea that the Confederacy was somehow good (because slaves were happy and better off in chains and raped and forced to have kids who would be stripped away and sold at auction like cattle!) is the end of the story here. So long as the UDC celebrates and promotes the existence of a government founded upon the idea that black people were subhuman, they are objectively white supremacist. There is literally nothing about the Confederacy worthy of commemoration - it is deserving only of scorn, oblivion, and solemn remembrance of the victims of its pernicious ideology. The soldiers who died in its uniform died for a horrendous cause, one of the worst in human memory, and just like Nazi soldiers, should simply be forgotten.
 * If there was a United Daughters of the Schutzstaffel, we'd see this comparison much more obviously. But Germany had the decency to realize its military history is unworthy of memorialization. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 19:19, 28 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Yes, anyone who promotes the Lost Cause is objectively white supremacist. Binksternet (talk) 19:24, 28 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Wonderful ! Let me add that they are far from being harmless. What will a child "educated" by them now do after becoming a lawmaker or law enforcement officer in 2061 ? --Rsk6400 (talk) 19:29, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

Wow! Lot's of virtue signaling going on here. This is not a forum for the general discussion of the article's subject but rather a forum for improving an encyclopedic article. The "promoting white supremacy" accusation in the lead of this article has been attributed to "historians" for years Tbobbed (talk) 19:50, 28 January 2021 (UTC) From WP:WIKIVOICE: * Prefer nonjudgmental language. ''A neutral point of view neither sympathizes with nor disparages its subject (or what reliable sources say about the subject), although this must sometimes be balanced against clarity. Present opinions and conflicting findings in a disinterested tone. Do not editorialize. When editorial bias towards one particular point of view can be detected the article needs to be fixed.'' Tbobbed (talk) 19:59, 28 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Ah, now we've reached the point where you pull out the phrase "virtue signaling," which in and of itself, is virtue signaling.
 * There is no editorial bias here. There is no mainstream point of view that the Confederacy was not a white supremacist government. Such a viewpoint is indisputably fringe and rejected by mainstream historical scholarship. Wikipedia policy does not state or imply that every minority view or extraordinary claim needs to be presented along with commonly accepted mainstream scholarship as if they were of equal validity. We must not do so here. An organization which promotes the belief that the Confederacy's cause was just, that its soldiers died heroically defending that just cause, and that we'd be better off if the Confederacy had won, is inherently and objectively promoting the same white supremacism which underpinned the entire rebellion and the Confederate nation. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 20:18, 28 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I haven't researched this at all, but can you find any sober quote from the UDC or a principal spokesperson in the last 50 years or so, saying that we would better off if the Confederacy had won? or even that the Union was wrong? Tbobbed (talk) 20:45, 28 January 2021 (UTC) Incidentally, one of the problems with the body of the article is that it says very little about the organization in the last 70 or 80 years. Tbobbed (talk) 20:54, 28 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Our job is to summarize WP:SECONDARY sources, not examine primary sources to see what the group is saying. Binksternet (talk) 06:24, 29 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I think the most important point here is what NorthBySouthBaranof said about mainstream historical scholarship. As far as I can see, there are no mainstream historians saying that the UDC are not promoting the Lost Cause. I agree with you that Trump is a racist cannot be said in the voice of WP (i.e. cannot be stated as fact). But the results of historical research are more than simply "opinion". Therefore I think "Trump lost the election" is a better example. We cannot state that as opinion, e.g. we cannot write "Many officials and judges say that Trump lost". We have to say "Trump lost" as well as "UDC are promoting the Lost Cause". --Rsk6400 (talk) 07:47, 29 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Addressing Binksternet's point, I did not recommend that the linked You-Tube interview of the Florida UDC president should be used as a direct source in the article but rather something that editors might take a look at for perspective. What reporters might call "on background". I would note that the only Encyclopedia that we use as a source for the promoting white supremacy accusation, The New Georgia Encyclopedia, says it this way:
 *  Some critics, such as historian James M. McPherson, have accused the UDC of being an organization of white supremacists and Neo-Confederates. Tbobbed (talk) 19:09, 29 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I read that article and also "New Georgia's" article on "Lost Cause Religion", which sent me rolling on the floor, laughing bitterly. In spite of a tendency to whitewash both the UDC and the Lost Cause, even they state clearly that UDC worked "to maintain the beliefs of the Lost Cause", and they are not able to produce anybody who opposes the view that UDC are white supremacists. BTW: They also state that "the ideals, activities, and purposes of the UDC remain the same", contradicting your claim that the UDC "has evolved a fair amount". --Rsk6400 (talk) 19:53, 29 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Yet, the claim that UDC currently supports white supremacy is hard to square with the organization’s own official website. What was historically true is not necessarily what is currently true. The description of the organization today seems to be based on citations describing the organization’s history rather than contemporary fact. Bobby Lawndale (talk) 13:05, 27 May 2023 (UTC)
 * MAybe, but we would then need RS saying they are not longer it. Slatersteven (talk) 13:56, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

Reference Inappropriate
I find it misguided that you would allow use of a reference by at least one antagonist to the United Daughters of the Confederacy (in fact, to all things Southern), as well as someone who, by very nature of the fact that he is from far distance regions certainly does NOT understand the events related to the founding, activities or continuation of the UDC. That is Professor Fitzhugh Brundage, who specializes in POST Civil War history and in lynchings. He is not the proper person to make statements on this page unless you as writers have a hate agenda to do harm to this organization. The fact is, hate speech has already inflamed a mob to violate their building and libraries and to damage their materials. Why do you find it necessary, through means of an online encyclopedia which is supposed to be objective truth to use it as another forum to bring havoc onto an organization which is NOT out there promoting hate or destruction or violence of any kind? LisaRudisill (talk) 22:55, 28 March 2021 (UTC) Lisa Carol Rudisill
 * The UDC is by definition a post-Civil War organization. Brundage is one of the acknowledged experts in this era, the Lost Cause mythology and the role of the UDC in promoting that mythology. (And this ol' cracker boy is from Tennessee, in case you're wondering; but of course, my family gave two of its three sons fighting against the Slaveholders' Treason.) -- Orange Mike |  Talk  23:14, 28 March 2021 (UTC)
 * W. Fitzhugh Brundage is a distinguished American historian and tenured professor at the University of North Carolina, with extensive academic writing on the issues at hand. That you don't like what he writes about the UDC is irrelevant. We aren't here to write something you like, we're here to write an encyclopedia article based upon reliable sources, and W. Fitzhugh Brundage's writing is an indisputable reliable source on this topic. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 23:37, 28 March 2021 (UTC)
 * , you're into COIs--how about this? And there's this, which someone else had a hand in. And I think the user page is pretty NOTHERE also. Drmies (talk) 00:18, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Your comment confuses me. Did you mean to address LisaRudisill instead of Orangemike ? --Rsk6400 (talk) 05:39, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
 * No. Drmies (talk) 15:18, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

Which statement is correct?
Both are in the article:

"In the early 1900s the organization often applauded the Ku Klux Klan and funded the building of a monument to the Klan in 1926." -or-

"A local chapter of the UDC funded a now-vanished memorial to the Klan erected in 1926 near Concord, North Carolina."

The UDC organization has hundreds of chapters. -Topcat777 (talk) 15:17, 20 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Well both can be, as a local chapter is part of the UDC.Slatersteven (talk) 15:25, 20 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Why is it so important to you that it was only a local chapter ? The whole organization has been falsifying history, promoting white supremacy and defending the honour of slaveholders, many of whom were child abusers. --Rsk6400 (talk) 13:58, 10 May 2021 (UTC)


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Talk:Quebec Nationalism

"Quebec Nationalism" or "Quebec nationalism"? I'm thinking the latter. "Quebecois nationalism" may be even better. -- stewacide

Lower case would be better, yes. "Quebecois nationalism" would not be appropriate because, if in French "Québécois" simply means an inhabitant of Québec, in the English language it seems it refers to the French language culture of Quebec, not the whole of Quebec. Since "Quebecan nationalism", "Quebecian nationalism", or "Quebecer nationalism" either don't exist or sound improper, "Quebec nationalism" is the only choice left. This is how it is referred to in English. -- Mathieugp

 * My point was that the nationalism in question is restricted to the old-stock French speaking majority (the English usage of "Quebecois" as you correctly pointed out), and since that's what this article is about (right?) it would seem to be more acurate than just "Quebec".

 * "Quebec nationalism" would have to include all the nationalisms in the province of Quebec (not only the Quebecois majority, but the English, various indian and Inuit groups, etc.), but I don't beleive that's the intent of this article. -- stewacide 23:28, 23 Nov 2003 (UTC)

p.s. you should have moved the talk page with the article.

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

title: Talk:Quebec Nationalism


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User:AM~enwiki

Paul Melville just have stolen me User:GH, so I registered User:AM

I am interested in clarification of the questions of relationship between Poland and Germany.

Maybe will help if I reveal, that one of my ancestors was actually German citizen during the WW2 and I am personally very interested in subject.

title: User:AM~enwiki


text:
Gothic script

Gothic script, typeface, letters, text or font may refer to:
 * Blackletter (Gothic minuscule, 'Old English') an ornate calligraphic or typographical style originating in Western Europe
 * Fraktur, a form of Blackletter
 * Schwabacher, a form of Blackletter
 * Gothic alphabet, the Greek-derived writing system of the Gothic language
 * Sans-serif, or gothic, a typographical style without serif decorations. In typography, this is the meaning usually associated with the term gothic type, for example Century Gothic.
 * East Asian Gothic typeface, a Chinese, Japanese or Korean typographical style without serifs or analogous decorations
 * Visigothic script, a script style used by Visigoths in Iberia

title: Gothic script


text:
Massey Lectures

The Massey Lectures is an annual five-part series of lectures given in Canada by distinguished writers, thinkers, and scholars who explore important ideas and issues of contemporary interest. Created in 1961 in honour of Vincent Massey, a former Governor General of Canada, it is widely regarded as one of the most acclaimed lecture series in the country.

Notable Massey lecturers have included Northrop Frye, John Kenneth Galbraith, Noam Chomsky, Jean Vanier, Margaret Atwood, Ursula Franklin, George Steiner, Claude Levi Strauss, and Nobel laureates Martin Luther King Jr., George Wald, Willy Brandt, and Doris Lessing. In 2003, novelist Thomas King was the first person of Cherokee descent to be invited as a lecturer.

Sponsorship
The event is co-sponsored by CBC Radio, House of Anansi Press and Massey College in the University of Toronto. The lectures have been broadcast by the CBC Radio show Ideas since 1965.

Prior to 1989, the lectures were recorded for broadcast in a CBC Radio studio in Toronto. From 1989 to 2002, the lectures were delivered before a live audience at the University of Toronto. Since 2002, the lectures have been presented and recorded for broadcast at public events in five different cities across Canada.

The lectures are broadcast each November on Ideas and published simultaneously in book form by House of Anansi Press.

Many of the lectures can be listened to online on the Ideas website, while others can be purchased on various sites.

In addition to the print version for each individual year, several of the earlier lectures are available in compilations, including The Lost Massey Lectures.

Massey lecturers

 * 1961 – Barbara Ward, The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations
 * 1962 – Northrop Frye, The Educated Imagination
 * 1963 – Frank Underhill, The Image of Confederation
 * 1964 – C. B. Macpherson, The Real World of Democracy
 * 1965 – John Kenneth Galbraith, The Underdeveloped Country
 * 1966 – Paul Goodman, The Moral Ambiguity of America
 * 1967 – Martin Luther King Jr., Conscience for Change
 * 1968 – R. D. Laing, The Politics of the Family
 * 1969 – George Grant, Time as History
 * 1970 – George Wald, Therefore Choose Life
 * 1971 – James Corry, The Power of the Law
 * 1972 – Pierre Dansereau, Inscape and Landscape
 * 1973 – Stafford Beer, Designing Freedom
 * 1974 – George Steiner, Nostalgia for the Absolute
 * 1975 – J. Tuzo Wilson, Limits to Science
 * 1976 – No Lecture
 * 1977 – Claude Lévi-Strauss, Myth and Meaning
 * 1978 – Leslie Fiedler, The Inadvertent Epic
 * 1979 – Jane Jacobs, Canadian Cities and Sovereignty Association
 * 1980 – No Lecture
 * 1981 – Willy Brandt, Dangers and Options: The Matter of World Survival
 * 1982 – Robert Jay Lifton, Indefensible Weapons
 * 1983 – Eric Kierans, Globalism and the Nation State
 * 1984 – Carlos Fuentes, Latin America: At War with the Past
 * 1985 – Doris Lessing, Prisons We Choose to Live Inside
 * 1986 – No Lecture
 * 1987 – Gregory Baum, Compassion and Solidarity: The Church for Others
 * 1988 – Noam Chomsky, Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies
 * 1989 – Ursula Franklin, The Real World of Technology
 * 1990 – Richard Lewontin, Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA
 * 1991 – Charles Taylor, The Malaise of Modernity
 * 1992 – Robert Heilbroner, Twenty-First Century Capitalism
 * 1993 – Jean Bethke Elshtain, Democracy on Trial
 * 1994 – Conor Cruise O'Brien, On the Eve of the Millennium
 * 1995 – John Ralston Saul, The Unconscious Civilization
 * 1996 – No Lecture (see Notes below)
 * 1997 – Hugh Kenner, The Elsewhere Community
 * 1998 – Jean Vanier, Becoming Human
 * 1999 – Robert Fulford, The Triumph of Narrative
 * 2000 – Michael Ignatieff, The Rights Revolution
 * 2001 – Janice Stein, The Cult of Efficiency
 * 2002 – Margaret Visser, Beyond Fate
 * 2003 – Thomas King, The Truth About Stories
 * 2004 – Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress
 * 2005 – Stephen Lewis, Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa
 * 2006 – Margaret Somerville, The Ethical Imagination
 * 2007 – Alberto Manguel, The City of Words
 * 2008 – Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth
 * 2009 – Wade Davis, The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World
 * 2010 – Douglas Coupland, Player One: What is to Become of Us
 * 2011 – Adam Gopnik, Winter: Five Windows on the Season
 * 2012 – Neil Turok, The Universe Within: From Quantum to Cosmos
 * 2013 – Lawrence Hill, Blood: The Stuff of Life
 * 2014 – Adrienne Clarkson, Belonging: The Paradox of Citizenship
 * 2015 – Margaret MacMillan, History's People: Personalities and the Past
 * 2016 – Jennifer Welsh, The Return of History: Conflict, Migration and Geopolitics in the Twenty-First Century
 * 2017 – Payam Akhavan, In Search of a Better World: A Human Rights Odyssey
 * 2018 – Tanya Talaga, All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward
 * 2019 – Sally Armstrong, Power Shift: The Longest Revolution
 * 2020 – Ronald J. Deibert, Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society (shortlisted for the 2020 Donner Prize)
 * 2021 – Esi Edugyan, Out of the Sun: On Art, Race and the Future
 * 2022 – Tomson Highway, Laughing with the Trickster: On Sex, Death and Accordions
 * 2023 – Astra Taylor, The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart
 * 2024 – Ian Williams

title: Massey Lectures


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Dermot Desmond

Dermot Desmond (born 14 August 1950) is an Irish businessman and financier. He is estimated to be worth €2.04 billion and is ranked by the Sunday Independent as the ninth-richest person in Ireland.

Early life and education
Desmond was born in Macroom, County Cork in 1950 and grew up in Marino, Dublin. He was educated at Scoil Mhuire, Marino and Good Counsel College in New Ross. He left school in 1968 to work at Citibank in Dublin.

Business career
In 1968, Desmond's business career began with Citibank in Dublin, followed by Price Waterhouse in Kabul, Afghanistan. In 1981, he founded National City Brokers in Dublin. The company competed with already established stockbroking names in Dublin such as Davy's and Goodbodys. Desmond sold the company to Ulster Bank in 1994, which at the time was part of the National Westminster Group, for a reported £39 million. Subsequently, as a result of Natwest's takeover in 2003 by RBS, NCB was bought out by its management with the support of former billionaire businessman Sean Quinn who was believed at that time to control 25% of the company.

He was appointed chairman of the board of Aer Rianta in 1990 under the Charles Haughey government, but resigned in October 1991 amid the scandal over the purchase of the Johnston Mooney & O'Brien site by Telecom Éireann.

In 1995, he founded International Investment & Underwriting (IIU), a private equity firm and his primary investment vehicle. It is located in Ireland's International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at IFSC House and is regulated by the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority. Companies that are controlled through IIU include Daon, Inc. (a biometric enabling technology company). IIU Asset Strategies Limited is the hedge fund arm of the company, offering convertible bonds and equity funds.

In 1996, Desmond backed a consortium headed by Fran Rooney to purchase Baltimore Technologies for £300,000. The company quickly purchased an e-commerce license from the EU and it experienced rapid growth over the following years. It was briefly a member of the FTSE 100 and had a market capitalization of £4.5 billion. The company though fell victim to the dotcom bust and all but collapsed.

In 1997, together with business partners John Magnier and J.P. McManus, Desmond purchased the five-star Barbados resort Sandy Lane Hotel. The hotel underwent a US$450 million renovation and was re-opened in 2001.

Desmond purchased London City Airport from Mowlem for £23.5 million in 1995. The investment was considered a large risk as London's Docklands was in recession and the neighbouring Canary Wharf development was in receivership. The airport has since become one of the more profitable in the United Kingdom. Desmond sold London City Airport in October 2006 for a reported £750 million to a consortium consisting of insurer AIG, GE Capital and Credit Suisse.

BETDAQ is the trading name of Global Betting Exchange, a betting exchange operator based in Ireland. It is the second largest betting exchange operator in the country. The company was founded in 2000 by Desmond and started trading in September 2001. Its headquarters are in the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin. Desmond sold BETDAQ to Ladbrokes for €30 million in 2013 and is a shareholder at the bookmaker as a result of the deal. In November 2021, Desmond bought BETDAQ back from the Entain group (owner of Ladbrokes Coral) for an "undisclosed sum".

Desmond was a major shareholder in Irish food company Greencore for several years. He sold his shares in 2006.

In 2005, Desmond opened the Sporting Emporium, a Dublin-based private members gaming club. It was reported Desmond had invested €5.5 million in the venture. After being open for only seven months it faced closure.

Desmond purchased 33.1% of Latvian Rietumu Banka in 2005 for a reported €66 million. He invested in the bank as a result of being very impressed with its management team and capital structure. The investment in Rietumu initially looked a successful one with Desmond's holding at one stage being valued at €200 million. However, the subsequent economic downturn has reduced the value of Desmond's holding in the bank significantly.

In August 2008, Desmond was offered the position of chairman of the Irish airline Aer Lingus. Desmond turned down the offer citing prior commitments as a factor which would not allow him the sufficient time necessary to do the job. Former GPA chief operating officer and current Babcock & Brown Air chief executive Colm Barrington was subsequently named chairman of Aer Lingus.

On 19 September 2018, it was announced that Desmond had increased his stake in Toronto mining company Mountain Province Diamonds to 28% which is valued at a current market price of approximately $158 million. The company's sole asset is the Canadian Gahcho Kue Diamond Mine Project.

In September 2018, he secured planning permission to construct a 17,168 sq ft. palatial mansion on Shrewsbury Road in D4. In getting the go-ahead for the ambitious mansion plan, Desmond was also given approval to demolish the existing house, "Walford", the most expensive house ever sold in the State at a €58 million in 2005.

Glackin report
In 1991, a company law inspector, solicitor John Glackin, was appointed by the then Government to investigate complicated dealings involving Mr Desmond and the purchase and sale of the former Johnston Mooney and O'Brien site in Ballsbridge, Dublin. While Mr Desmond represented himself as an intermediary in the sale, Glackin's report said Mr Desmond, businessman JP McManus and John Magnier were beneficiaries of the sale. Mr Desmond strenuously disputed Glackin's findings. According to the Glackin Report, Hoddle Investments (the vehicle through which the deal was handled) executed two contracts with Telecom Éireann for the sale of the Johnston Mooney & O'Brien site for an aggregate price of £9.4 million, on 7 May 1990. The proceeds of the sale were lodged to an NCB account.

According to the Moriarty Tribunal report, the next day, on 8 May 1990, £206,613.57 was withdrawn from one NCB account, converted into sterling £200,000 and transferred to the Aurum Nominees No.6 account at NCB (proxied to an offshore Ansbacher Cayman account) held for the benefit of then Taoiseach, Charles Haughey. Aurum Nominees Limited was a company established by NCB for the benefit of its clients, and used at the time by several of the beneficiaries to the deal, including JP McManus, Lochlann Quinn and Martin Naughton. Quinn and Naughton were owed money by Desmond and he used the proceeds of the sale to pay off his debt to them, according to the report.

Flood Tribunal
Desmond gave evidence relating to the Century Radio module of the Flood Tribunal. He said he had given former Fianna Fáil press secretary PJ Mara a loan of £46,000 between 1986 and 1989, as Mr Mara claimed he had run into financial difficulties. He said he made the payments by cheque.

Moriarty Tribunal
The Moriarty Tribunal found that Desmond made substantial payments to Taoiseach Charles Haughey. In September 1994 Mr Desmond made a payment of £100,000 sterling to Haughey and in October 1996 he made a payment of £25,000 sterling. While Desmond claims these payments to be loans, repayable by Haughey, the Tribunal did not accept this explanation. Ultimately Haughey was forced to settle with the Revenue Commissioners, as it appears he had failed to declare the payments from Desmond.

The Tribunal noted that the payments were made via the Swiss bank account of a company called Anesia Etablissement, Banque Scandinave en Suisse, Case Postale 901, 1211 Geneva 3, of which Desmond was the beneficial owner, via an account at Henry Ansbacher & Company to an account at Cayman International Bank Trust Company, held for Haughey's benefit. £25,000 was paid via Desmonds's Bottin International Investments Limited which had an account with Anglo Irish Bank, 69 Athol Street, Douglas, Isle of Man. Desmond said Haughey asked him for the money in 1996 because of "a shortage of funds".

Desmond also loaned money to Feltrim plc, which was at the time managed by Charles Haughey's son, Conor Haughey. In August 1991, Desmond loaned the company £55,000, made up of £40,000 loaned on 12 August 1991 and £15,000 on 28 August 1991. Conor Haughey told the Tribunal that the company was in danger of being liquidated and he approached Desmond for the money. The loan was never repaid, and was instead converted into equity.

Celtic Mist
Desmond also paid £75,456 for the refurbishment of Haughey's yacht, the Celtic Mist, between 1990 and 1991, at a time according to the Tribunal, that Haughey earned between £69,764 and £72,354 a year as Taoiseach. Desmond again claimed this payment was a loan, but the Tribunal disagreed, noting again that Haughey had settled with the Revenue Commissioners in relation to the sum, having failed to pay Capital Gains Tax at the time. The Tribunal also found that the yacht itself amounted to an indirect benefit to Haughey. This was it despite being unable to find the source of the £167,073.90 paid for the yacht. Haughey's son Conor told the Tribunal in 1999 that he had learned money to refurbish the yacht had come from the bank account of Freezone Limited. Money from the sale of the Johnston Mooney & O'Brien site had ended up in the same account – a revelation that Conor Haughey said he was "very concerned" about.

The yacht was subsequently given to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group by the family of Haughey and now operates as a maritime research vessel

Esat Digifone
Desmond was an investor in Esat Digifone through his International Investment Underwriters (IIU) vehicle, ultimately owning 20% of the company. It was reported that he made up to £100 million in profit after selling his stake in Esat.

Football
Desmond is the largest individual shareholder of the Scottish Premiership football club Celtic F.C. Desmond previously held a stake in Manchester United. He sold the stake to Malcolm Glazer in 2005.

In 2019 Desmond purchased a 25% stake in League of Ireland club Shamrock Rovers.

Horse racing
Desmond's racehorse Commanche Court won the Triumph Hurdle (1997), the Irish Grand National (2000), the Punchestown Gold Cup (2000), the Lismullen Hurdle (1998), the Christmas Hurdle (1998) and the Spring Juvenile Hurdle (1997).

Business holdings
Desmond's past and present business interests and investment holdings include;

 * Anesia Etablissement
 * Baltimore Technologies
 * Bank of Ireland
 * Barchester Healthcare
 * BETDAQ betting exchange
 * Bottin (International) Investments Ltd. (2004)
 * Castlebeck Group
 * Celtic FC
 * Daon, Inc.
 * Datalex
 * Dedeir Limited
 * Execujet
 * Freezone Investments Ltd. (Isle of Man-based investment company)
 * GIS software house eSpatial
 * GOS Networks
 * Greencore
 * International Investment Underwriters (IIU)
 * Intuition Publishing Ltd. (eLearning Company)
 * London City Airport
 * Lydian
 * MHC Mental Health Care
 * Newfoundland & Labrador Refining Ltd.
 * Neovia (2008)
 * Prematur (2008)
 * Premier Fleet Management and Contract Hire Ltd
 * RemoteMDx
 * Rietumu Banka
 * Sandy Lane Hotel
 * Space_Technology_Ireland_Ltd
 * Sporting Emporium Casino
 * Shamrock Rovers FC
 * Swanton Healthcare
 * U4EA Technologies
 * Young Foundation
 * Mountain Province Diamonds

title: Dermot Desmond


text:
Worshipful Company of Needlemakers

The Worshipful Company of Needlemakers is one of the livery companies of the City of London. The Needlemakers were given letters patent by Oliver Cromwell in 1656, and received a royal charter in 1664. The company gradually lost its role as a trade association, now acting as a supporter of the needle industry instead. Like the majority of livery companies, the Needlemakers' Company is also a charitable institution. The Needlemakers' Company ranks sixty-fifth in the order of precedence of City livery companies. Its motto is They Sewed Fig Leaves Together and Made Themselves Aprons.

title: Worshipful Company of Needlemakers


text:
Talk:Lists of extinct animals

Birds and Dinosaurs
"Dinosaurs, and a large number of historical orders are extinct... It is, however, generally accepted that birds are descended from a subgroup of dinosaurs - hence dinosaurs are not extinct."

Contradictory statements, I'm no expert but I'd say despite birds being descended from dinosaurs, they are Not dinosaurs. Therefore the latter are extinct. 194.168.3.18 14:23, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * From a cladistic point of view, birds are dinosaurs. However, this is completely irrelevant in this article that should only give some examples of extinct animals. Therefore I deleted the sentence. The facts are explained much better in the articles bird and dinosaur. -- Baldhur 15:54, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Europe
The section on Europe seems to have been deleted, will attempt to fix :p Grunners 02:44, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Global vs. regional/local extinctions
It would be useful to note that this page lists species that have gone extinct throughout their entire range, rather than those that are "extinct" in certain countries or regions. A separate page could be made to list these latter "regional extinctions."

 * Regional extinction is, in my opinion, a loaded term. I'd prefer to use 'loss of range', 'loss of habitat', etc.  I don't mind adding 'substantial loss of range' when that is the case.  But, it's like Mount Lemon's squirrels... AFAIK, they exist in other places...
 * ~ender 2005-06-01 21:40:MST

Article assessment
Article assessment is looking at extinct mammals from the week starting 20 February 2006 - please come along and help out with the submissions and assessments. violet/riga (t) 00:13, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Sadly the findings haven't been very good - most articles only scored around 6 out of 10. violet/riga (t) 00:08, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Indeed sad, but the articles can still be improved! So everyone feel free to do so. All help is welcome. Pmaas 15:59, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
 * They certainly can. Hopefully the comments at WP:AA will help with this.  violet/riga (t) 16:30, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Merge proposal "No longer considered extinct" and Lazerus taxon
It has been suggested by Biatch that the "No longer considered extinct" section be merged with Lazarus taxon. I agree with this merger. And because this list is of extinct animals, not living or rediscovered animals, I think it can be merged now. Peter Maas 07:43, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

General complaint
Considering that 99% of all species that ever existed have gone extinct (or so evolution scientists tell us), isn't this a rather stupid entry? How about List of Some Extinct Animals, with an intro explaining why a "List of extinct animals" is wacky...;)

Hey -- I'm not going to insist on it, but really... What's next... a "List of failed businesses" or a "List of words unspoken"???

 * I think it is not the same, although you can have you opinion of course. Then you can remove all lists! Because with the same reasonin--Tom Meijer 14:35, 31 July 2007 (UTC)g as you stated, you could also create a "List of businesses" or a "list of spoken words", as there are lists of List of placental mammals, etc. New animals are still being discovered and named. Scientists believe there may be from 2 million to as many as 50 million kinds of animals alive today, but only about 1,5 million animals have been named and classified. This page cleary says at the top "This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy certain standards for completeness." I think that is enough. There are many lists on Wikipedia, see WikiProject Lists Peter Maas\talk 12:24, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

 * I agree completely with the former speaker. This kind of lists have no sense at all. The arguments of Peter Maas are rather silly. I visited the List of extinct animals of the Netherlands and added some comment on the discussion page (this comment is more or less included here). The scope of these lists is mixed, and that is why these are NOT good. Many of the species, especially (and indeed not only) insects lack a fossil record. Therefore, it is impossible to have any idea about the significance of any presence (what is meant is: observation!) or absence of a species in the modern flora and fauna. In the list(s) taxa are mentioned that have been observed in a certain region once, or during a certain perod (during the last c. 200 years, OK 500 years), but that have not been observed there anymore for some time during the 'recent' time. What is the significance of this knowledge? In many cases it is not sure at all if a certain species disappeared from the region: it simply has not been observed anymore. And that is not the same as 'disappeared'. Not observed anymore, but even if you can establish 'disappearance' from the region has nothing to do with extinction. It also has nothing to do with 'local extinction': you don't know the fossil record and can, therefore, not have a good judgement about the significance of presence/absence during only a few (dozens of) years.
 * I can see the use of lists of taxa that are threatened, and that should include taxa that have not been observed for a certain time. Here also, however, knowledge of the fossil record is a precondition of a good judgement of what is happening. This knowledge is hardly ever (!) taken into consideration by environmentalists and other people concerned with flora and fauna. Most are rather narrow minded and consider nature as being static: It was here... It is not here anymore... Something must be wrong!
 * To include (really) extinct species, that means species that have disappeared everywhere on the globe, in these lists, and thus mixed with 'not-anymore-observed' species is really not a good idea. These are very different categories. If you should like to have a lists with extinct taxa, in my opinion this produces rather arbitrary enumerations. To this aim a category is far more appropriate. The statement above the page: "This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy certain standards for completeness." is an understatement: "This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy any standard for completeness." should be more in agreement with reality. Thousands of taxa should be added to approach completeness if we include Neogene and Quaternary taxa alone. Not to speak of all older taxa... Nonsense lists in my opinion. An encyclopedia deserves better information--Tom Meijer 14:35, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

 * I disagree. The real value of the "List of X" pages in Wikipedia is not the list per se, but the cross referencing to other pages in the encyclopedia, allowing readers to find related items, and allowing editors to realize where holes exist. So in that sense, the the list is not of "extinct animals", but "extinct animals (mentioned in Wikipedia)". I'd say a "List of failed businesses" would be a good addition to Wikipedia - of course it wouldn't include all businesses that failed (WP:VERIFY and all that), but if the business (and the fact that it failed) already warrants inclusion into Wikipedia, why not? It would be a good reference for a person researching business failures. "List of words unspoken" is a nonsense list, as in order to meet the WP:VERIFY criteria, you would have to guess that the words have been spoken at some point. I guess my main thrust is that, if you apply the WP:VERIFY and WP:NOTE criteria to each list element, as opposed to the list as a whole, much of your incredulity should melt away. -- 14:23, 12 September 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.33.121.200 (talk)

Lament
It is hard to list every extinct animal, because so meany had been hunted or died of some other way. Most animals were killed by hunters, some legal and some not. Some were gone because of rainforst cut downs, and other habbats ruined. why do people do things like that!!!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.153.106.186 (talk) 19:26, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Nice wording
"This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it."

I wonder if I'm the only one who takes this as an admonition to go hunt some endangered animals. Agarvin (talk) 23:22, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

title: Talk:Lists of extinct animals


text:
Talk:November 22

Removed:
 * 1906 - "S O S" is adopted as Morse code distress signal.

Could not be confirmed outside of 'this day in history'-type websites (very bad source). --mav 02:51, 22 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Steve McClaren
The firing of a soccer coach is not a globally notable event. -- Mufka (u) (t) (c) 16:35, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Vladimer Gurgenidze
Becoming a prime minister is not a globally notable event because it is a regular occurrence. If this person became prime minister under extraordinary circumstances, then it might be notable. -- Mufka (u) (t) (c) 16:35, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

No kennedy assassination?
The Kennedy Assassination does not make the short list of anniversaries? Not a big deal, but I find it curious. DavidRF (talk) 17:50, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

 * I got a response. See WP:OTDRULES' #8. There's an issue with the External Links in the article. — WylieCoyote (talk) 13:30, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

 * Thankfully, this has been resolved at some point in the past four years. --Thnidu (talk) 16:14, 20 October 2016 (UTC)

Kimcbi Day
November 22nd is Kimchi Day in South Korea, Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland, and New York City. Cane Walker Wheelchair (talk) 09:07, 25 November 2022 (UTC)

 * Is the spelling Kimcbi or Kimchi? Is there a wiki article about it? Is it celebrated on the same day each year? Do you have any references from reliable sources? Kiwipete (talk) 07:47, 26 November 2022 (UTC)

@Kiwipete Apologies with the spelling mistake. It's spelled kimchi.There is currently no article about Kkimchi Day. I think a article should be made as well. As for my sources https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20221117000620 https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=202826 https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.asp?newsIdx=339936 Cane Walker Wheelchair (talk) 08:18, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:November 22


text:
Black Diamond Cheese

Black Diamond Cheese Limited is a cheese manufacturing company in Canada.

Black Diamond employs approximately 470 people at its factory in Belleville, Ontario, and its products can be found at most major retailers in Canada. The company has been owned by Parmalat Canada (Lactalis Canada) since 1998. In the United States, the brand is licensed to DCI Cheese in Wisconsin.

History
Black Diamond, initially named Belleville Cheddar Cheese Limited, was established in 1933 by Robert F. Hart, originally for the purpose of exporting aged Canadian cheddar to the British market, thus making it the first brand-name cheddar in Canada.

Black Diamond was purchased by Brooke Bond in 1968. In 1984, Brooke Bond became part of Unilever, which divested Black Diamond to Canada Packers in 1987. Canada Packers then sold the plant to major dairy Ault Foods in 1991, which after several divestments was sold to Parmalat Canada in 1997.

In 2011, Groupe Lactalis acquired Parmalat, therefore making Parmalat Canada a subsidiary of the Toronto-based Lactalis Canada.

title: Black Diamond Cheese


text:
User:Steeev

Steeev is Steeev

Fed up of application spam cluttering up your Facebook homepage? get Facebook Purity now!

Steeev's Website: steeev.freehostia.com | Steeev's Blog: Excellatronic Communications | Steeev's Photos

title: User:Steeev


text:
Education in Finland

The educational system in Finland consists of daycare programmes (for babies and toddlers), a one-year "preschool" (age six), and an 11-year compulsory basic comprehensive school (age seven to age eighteen). As of 2024, secondary general academic and vocational education, higher education and adult education are compulsory.

During their nine years of common basic education, students are not selected, tracked, or streamed. There is also inclusive special education within the classroom and instructional efforts to minimize low achievement. After basic education, students must choose to continue with secondary education in either an academic track (lukio) or a vocational track (ammattioppilaitos), both of which usually take three years and give a qualification to continue to tertiary education. Tertiary education is divided into university and polytechnic (ammattikorkeakoulu, also known as "university of applied sciences") systems. Universities award licentiate- and doctoral-level degrees. Formerly, only university graduates could obtain higher (postgraduate) degrees, however, since the implementation of the Bologna process, all bachelor's degree holders can now qualify for further academic studies. There are 17 universities and 27 universities of applied sciences in the country.

The United Nations Development Programme derived an Education Index, a reflection of mean years of schooling of adults and expected years of schooling of children, that placed Finland fourth in the world as of 2019.

Finland has consistently ranked high in the PISA study, which compares national educational systems internationally, although in the recent years Finland has been displaced from the very top. In the 2012 study, Finland ranked sixth in reading, twelfth in mathematics and fifth in science, while back in the 2003 study Finland was first in both science and reading and second in mathematics. Finland's tertiary Education has moreover been ranked first by the World Economic Forum.

On the other hand, domestically a decline in the learning outcomes has long been pointed out, and in 2023, Ministry of Education and Culture published a report called bildung review, in which it admitted that the exceptionally rapid drop in the reading and mathematics proficiency has been observed.

In another international assessment called TIMSS, the results of Finland has constantly been mediocre.

While celebrated for its overall success, Finland had a gender gap on the 2012 PISA reading standards identified in a 2015 Brookings Institution report, but this can be put down to many factors such as the choice of the field of work into which each gender goes. The performance of 15-year-old boys then was not significantly different from OECD averages and was 0.66 of a standard deviation behind that of girls the same age.

The governments of Jyrki Katainen, Alexander Stubb and Juha Sipilä cut education funds in Finland over 2011–2018 by a total of €1.5 billion. The number of university and college employees was cut by more than 7500.

History
Literacy is a key part of Lutheranism, the state and majority religion of Finland, as Christians are supposed to be able to read the Bible in their native language. Bishop Mikael Agricola studied under Martin Luther and translated the New Testament to Finnish in 1548. The first university in Finland (Royal Academy of Turku) was founded in 1640. Literacy reached over 50% in the late 18th century and 80–90% in the mid-19th century. Where there were no schools in a municipality, reading was taught in traveling schools (kiertokoulu). Confirmation, a rite of transition to adulthood, is only permissible for the literate, and enables e.g. entrance into marriage. Official statistics are available from 1880, when literacy was 97.6%. The early system under Swedish rule was in Swedish and consisted of a basic "pedagogio" for teaching reading and writing, a trivial school teaching grammar, Latin, Greek, rhetoric and dialectics, a gymnasium preparing for university, and the university. In the 19th century, the system evolved into what was later known as kansakoulu ("people's school") and oppikoulu ("learning school"), including high school (lukio), followed by university. In mid-19th century, Finnish became an official language, and gradually replaced Swedish as the schooling language. In 1898, everyone was given the right to attend kansakoulu. Attendance reached 50% in 1911 and became mandatory in 1921; municipalities were obliged to provide the schooling. Free school lunches became mandatory in 1948. Oppikoulu, entered at the age of 10, was still optional and entrance was competitive. Since it was the only way to university education and entrance was heavily affected by the status and choices of parents, it severely limited the opportunities of the less-well off. Working-class people would often complete only the kansakoulu and enter the workforce. This system was phased out in 1972–1977 in favor of the modern system where grades 1–9 are mandatory. After the age of 15, the system bifurcates into academic (lukio) and vocational tracks (ammattioppilaitos) both at the secondary and tertiary levels. Recently, it became formally possible to enter tertiary education with a vocational degree, although this is practically difficult as the vocational study plan does not prepare the student for the university entrance exams.

Early childhood education
In Finland, high class daycare and nursery-kindergarten are considered critical for developing the cooperation and communication skills important to prepare young children for lifelong education, as well as formal learning of reading and mathematics. This preparatory period lasts until the age of 7. "Finnish early childhood education emphasizes respect for each child's individuality and chance for each child to develop as a unique person. Finnish early educators also guide children in the development of social and interactive skills, encourage them to pay attention to other people's needs and interests, to care about others, and to have a positive attitude toward other people, other cultures, and different environments. The purpose of gradually providing opportunities for increased independence is to enable all children to take care of themselves as 'becoming adults, to be capable of making responsible decisions, to participate productively in society as an active citizen, and to take care of other people who will need his (or her) help.'" To foster a culture of reading, parents of newborn babies are given three books - one for each parent, and a baby book for the child - as part of the "maternity package." According to Finnish child development specialist Eeva Hujala, "Early education is the first and most critical stage of lifelong learning. Neurological research has shown that 90% of brain growth occurs during the first five years of life, and 85% of the nerve paths develop before starting school (NB: at the age of seven in Finland)." "Care" in this context is synonymous with upbringing and is seen as a cooperative endeavor between parents and society to prepare children physically (eating properly, keeping clean) and mentally (communication, social awareness, empathy, and self-reflection) before beginning more formal learning at age seven. The idea is that before seven they learn best through play, so by the time they finally get to school they are keen to start learning.

Finland has had access to free universal daycare for children aged eight months to five years in place since 1990, and a year of "preschool/kindergarten" at age six since 1996. "Daycare" includes both full-day childcare centers and municipal playgrounds with adult supervision where parents can accompany the child. Municipalities also pay mothers who wish to do so to remain at home and provide "home daycare" for the first three years. In some cases this includes occasional visits from a careworker to see that the environment is appropriate. The ratio of adults to children in local municipal childcare centers (either private but subsidized by local municipalities or paid for by municipalities with the help of grants from the central government) is, for children three years old and under: three adults (one teacher and two nurses) for every 12 pupils (or one-to-four); and, for children age three to six: three adults (one teacher and two nurses) for every 20 children (or circa one-to-seven). Payment, where applicable, is scaled to family income and ranges from free to about 200 euros a month maximum. According to Pepa Ódena in these centers, "You are not taught, you learn. The children learn through playing. This philosophy is put into practice in all the schools we visited, in what the teachers say, and in all that one sees."

Early childhood education is not mandatory in Finland, but is used by almost everyone. "We see it as the right of the child to have daycare and preschool," explained Eeva Penttilä, of Helsinki's Education Department. "It's not a place where you dump your child when you're working. It's a place for your child to play and learn and make friends. Good parents put their children in daycare. It's not related to socio-economic class."

The focus for kindergarten students is to "learn how to learn", Ms. Penttilä said. Instead of formal instruction in reading and math there are lessons on nature, animals, and the "circle of life" and a focus on materials- based learning. It is strongly believed that when children develop learning to learn as a life skill and see the real life applications of the knowledge they gather, they will become lifelong learners.

Basic comprehensive education
The compulsory educational system in Finland consists of a nine-year comprehensive school from 1st to 9th grade, (Finnish peruskoulu, Swedish grundskola, "basic school"), and with new legislation, the compulsory education was expanded to ages of 7 to 18 and to include upper secondary school (Finnish lukio, Swedish gymnasium) or vocational school (Finnish ammattikoulu, Swedish yrkesskola, "profession school"). (Homeschooling is allowed, but rare). There are no "gifted" programs, and the more advanced children are expected to help those who are slower to catch on.

In most countries, the term "comprehensive school" is used to refer to comprehensive schools attended after primary school, and up to 12th and 13th grade in some countries, but in Finland this English term is used to include primary school, i.e. it is used to refer to all of the grades 1 to 9 (and not higher grades). One can of course also describe the Finnish grades 1 to 6 in English as being comprehensive schools, but this is unnecessary and confusing because primary schools have always been comprehensive in almost all countries, including Finland. In addition, it is best to not try to translate the Finnish term peruskoulu with a single term in English. In order to avoid confusion in English, it is best to describe the Finnish compulsory education system as consisting of 6-year primary schools, called alakoulu or ala-aste in Finnish, followed by comprehensive 3-year middle schools, called yläkoulu or yläaste in Finnish. Although this division of the peruskoulu into two parts was officially discontinued, it is still very much alive — the distinction is made in everyday speech, the teachers' training and classification and teaching, and even in most school buildings. In addition, the use of two different terms for grades 1–6 and 7–9 is easier to understand for people from most other countries, most of which do not have a single term for primary and middle schools. On the contrary, middle schools and high schools are usually included in the term secondary education in English, which is why the use of this term in English is often confusing for Finns. (The Finnish direct translation toisen asteen koulutus/oppilaitos only refers to schools after 9th grade, i.e. high schools, vocational schools, etc).

Schools up to the university level are almost exclusively funded and administered by the municipalities of Finland (local government). There are few private schools. The founding of a new private comprehensive school requires a decision by the Council of State. When founded, private schools are given a state grant comparable to that given to a municipal school of the same size. However, even in private schools, the use of tuition fees is strictly prohibited, and selective admission is prohibited, as well: private schools must admit all its pupils on the same basis as the corresponding municipal school. In addition, private schools are required to give their students all the education and social benefits that are offered to the students of municipal schools. Because of this, existing private schools are mostly faith-based or Waldorf schools, which are comprehensive by definition.

Teachers, who are fully unionized, follow state curriculum guidelines but are accorded a great deal of autonomy as to methods of instruction and are even allowed to choose their own textbooks.

Classes are small, seldom more than twenty pupils. From the outset pupils are expected to learn two languages in addition to the language of the school (usually Finnish or Swedish), and students in grades one through nine spend from four to eleven periods each week taking classes in art, music, cooking, carpentry, metalwork, and textiles. Small classes, insisted upon by the teachers' union, appear to be associated with student achievement, especially in science. Inside the school, the atmosphere is relaxed and informal, and the buildings are so clean that students often wear socks and no shoes. Outdoor activities are stressed, even in the coldest weather; and homework is minimal to leave room for extra-curricular activities. In addition to taking music in school, for example, many students attend the numerous state-subsidized specialized music schools after class where for a small fee they learn to play an instrument as a hobby and study basic solfège and music theory using methods originated in Hungary by Kodály and further developed by the Hungarian-born Finn Csaba Szilvay and others.

Reading for pleasure is actively encouraged (Finland publishes more children's books than any other country). Television stations show foreign programs in the original languages with subtitles, so that in Finland children even read while watching TV.

During the first years of comprehensive school, grading may be limited to verbal assessments rather than formal grades. The start of numerical grading is decided locally. Most commonly, pupils are issued a report card twice a year: at the ends of the autumn and spring terms. There are no high-stakes tests.

Grades are awarded on a scale from 4 to 10. In individual exams, but not on school year report or basic education certificate, it is also possible to divide the scale further with '½', which represents a half grade, and '+' and '–', which represent one-fourth a grade better or worse. For example, the order is "9 < 9+ < 9½ < 10– < 10. The grade '10+' can also be awarded for a perfect performance with extra effort by the student.

If a comprehensive school pupil receives a grade of 4 for a particular subject at the end of the spring term, they must show that they have improved in the subject by sitting a separate examination at the end of summer term. If the pupil receives multiple failing grades, they may have to repeat the entire year, though it is considered far preferable to provide a struggling student with extra help and tutoring. In the rare case where a student needs to repeat, the decision is made by the teachers and the headmaster after interviewing the pupil and the parents.

Comprehensive school students enjoy a number of social entitlements, such as school health care and a free lunch every day, which covers about a third of the daily nutritional need. In addition, pupils are entitled to receive free books and materials and free school trips, or even housing in the event that they have a long or arduous trip to school.

Upper secondary education
Upper secondary education begins at 15 or 16 and lasts three to four years (roughly corresponding to the last two years of American high school plus what in the USA would be a two-year Community or Junior College). It used to be optional, but has since become compulsory since September 2021. Finnish upper secondary students may choose whether to undergo occupational training to develop vocational competence and/or to prepare them for a polytechnic institute or to enter an academic upper school focusing on preparation for university studies and post-graduate professional degrees in fields such as law, medicine, science, education, and the humanities. Admissions to academic upper schools are based on GPA, and in some cases academic tests and interviews. For example, during the year 2007, 51% of the age group were enrolled in the academic upper school.

The system, however, is not rigid and vocational school graduates may formally qualify for a university of applied sciences or, in some cases, university education; conversely, academic secondary school graduates may enroll in vocational education programs. It is also possible to attend both vocational and academic secondary schools at the same time. Tuition is free, and vocational and academic students are entitled to school health care, a free lunch, books and a transport to the school.

Upon graduation, vocational school graduates receive a vocational school certificate. Academic upper secondary school graduates receive both secondary school certification and undergo a nationally graded matriculation examination (Finnish: Ylioppilastutkinto). This was originally the entrance examination to the University of Helsinki, and its high prestige survives to this day. Students in special programs may receive a vocational school certificate and take the matriculation examination (kaksoistutkinto) or all of the three certifications (kolmoistutkinto). Approximately 83% of the upper academic school students, or 42% of the age group, complete the matriculation examination.

Polytechnic institutes require school certification for admission, whereas the matriculation examination is more important in university admissions. However, some tertiary education programs have their own admission examinations, and many use a mixture of both.

Advanced curricula in the upper academic school
In relation to mathematics, the second national language and foreign languages, a student can choose to study a curriculum from different levels of difficulty. Students choose their relevant levels at the beginning of school, when selecting appropriate courses, and at the end of school, when registering for the matriculation exam in order to receive the relevant exam paper. These two choices are not directly linked, but students generally keep the level the same for the matriculation exam. One common exception to this rule of thumb occurs when a student has barely completed a higher level course and is unsure of their performance in the matriculation exam. In those cases, a student may elect to take an easier exam.

In mathematics, the advanced level is in practice a prerequisite for the more competitive university science programs, such as those of the universities of technology, other university mathematical science programs, and medicine. In mathematics, 20% of the matriculation examinees take the advanced level. The nationwide matriculation exam together with entirely percentile-based grading provides an easy way to objectively classify each student based on their mathematical ability, regardless of the year when the exam was taken. For example, assuming that the best mathematical students are selected first to the upper academic school and then to the advanced mathematics curriculum, the students achieving laudatur would comprise the mathematically best 0.4% of the age group, comparable to 800 SAT mathematics section. The percentile equality does not, however, mean that the absolute level of a laudatur student in the advanced mathematics in Finland is equal to that of an 800 SAT student in the US, due to differences in the mean quality of the population.

Teachers
Both primary and secondary teachers must have a master's degree to qualify. Teaching is a respected profession and entrance to university programs is highly competitive. A prospective teacher must have very good grades and must combat fierce opposition in order to become a teacher. Only about 10% of applicants to certain programs are successful.

Tertiary education
There are two sectors in the tertiary education: traditional universities (yliopisto, universitet) and universities of applied sciences (ammattikorkeakoulu, yrkeshögskola, or AMK/YH for short). Admissions are based on the high school final GPA, the high school final exam (the abitur), and the university entrance examinations. The selection process is fully transparent, merit-based, and objective; there are no application essays, no human factor in selection, no underrepresented minority support (except for preset quotas for Swedish speakers), and no weight on extracurricular activities. Moreover, the entrance examinations are rarely long multiple-choice exams, and instead consist of a smaller number of longer and more complicated questions that are supposed to test more than memorization and quick mechanical problem solving. Therefore, the selection process is very different from many other countries.

The focus for universities is research in science, and they give theoretical education. In many programs graduating with a master's degree is expected, with no separate admissions process between Bachelor and master's degrees. The universities of applied sciences focus more on responding to the needs of the world of work and they engage in industry development projects. The nature of research is more practical and theories are applied to advanced problem solving. For example, physicians are university graduates, whereas registered nurses and engineers graduate from universities of applied sciences. (However, universities also award degrees in Nursing Science and Engineering). The vocational schools and universities of applied sciences are governed by municipalities, or, in special cases, by private entities. (As an exception to the rule, the Police College is governed by the Ministry of the Interior). All Finnish universities, on the other hand, were owned by the state until 2010, after which they have been separated from the state into foundations or corporations under public law. A bachelor's degree takes about three–four years. Depending on the programme, this may be the point of graduation, but it is usually only an intermediate step towards the master's degree. A bachelor's degree in a university of applied sciences (a polytechnic degree), on the other hand, takes about 3.5–4.5 years. Polytechnic degrees are generally accepted as equivalent to university degrees.

Graduates from universities and universities of applied sciences are able to continue their studies by applying to master's degree programmes in universities or universities of applied sciences. After bachelor's degree graduates have completed two years' work experience in their field, they are qualified to apply for master's degree programmes in universities of applied sciences which are work- and research-oriented. Lower university degree graduates are also qualified to apply, but with additional studies. The master's degree programme in universities of applied sciences takes two years and can be undertaken in conjunction with regular work. After the master's degree, the remaining degrees (Licentiate and Doctor) are available only in universities. All master's degrees qualify their recipients for graduate studies at doctoral level.

The equivalence discussed above is only relevant when applying for public sector jobs.

In universities, membership in the students' union is compulsory. Students' unions in universities of applied sciences are similarly recognized in the legislation, but membership is voluntary and does not include special university student health care (which is organised and partly financed by the students' unions). Finnish students are entitled to a student benefit, which may be revoked if there is a persistent lack of progress in the studies.

Some universities provide professional degrees. They have additional requirements in addition to merely completing the studies, such as demonstrations of competence in practice. An example of such a degree is Lääketieteen lisensiaatti, medicine licentiat, Licentiate of Medicine. A Bachelor of Medicine (lääketieteen kandidaatti, medicine kandidat) is allowed to conduct clinical work under the supervision of senior medical staff. The Licentiate of Medicine is not equivalent to licentiate's degree in other fields, but to a master's degree. For this reason, no Licentiate's thesis is required unlike in other fields. The equivalent of a Medical Doctor in the U.S. sense is therefore not called "doctor", but licentiate. The research doctorate, which is equivalent to a PhD in Medicine, is called "Doctor of Medicine" (lääketieteen tohtori, medicine doktorsexamen).

After the master's degree, there are two further post-graduate degrees— an intermediate postgraduate degree, called Licentiate, and the doctoral (Doctorate) degree. A Licenciate programme has the same amount of theoretical education as a Doctor, but its dissertation work has fewer requirements. On the other hand, the requirements for a doctoral dissertation are a little bit higher than in other countries.

The most typical Finnish doctoral degree is Doctor of Philosophy (filosofian tohtori, filosofie doktorsexamen). However, universities of technology award the title Doctor of Science (Technology), tekniikan tohtori, teknologie doktorsexamen and there are several branch-specific titles, e.g., in medicine lääketieteen tohtori, medicine doktorsexamen, in art taiteen tohtori, and in social sciences valtiotieteen tohtori, politices doktorsexamen.

Tuition fees
Up until 2017, public universities in Finland did not collect tuition fees. However, since the 1990s there had been plans at government level to introduce tuition fees to students from outside the European Union/EEA. The students' organisations have opposed those plans.

Since the autumn semester 2017, students from outside the EEA have to pay tuition fees of at least 1,500 euros per year to study in Finland, while students from the EEA continue to study for free. Typical tuition fees for non-European students range from around 6,000 to around 18,000 euros per year depending on the university and programme. The goal of the fees was to "advance these institutions' opportunities for education export and also expand their funding base", "putting greater emphasis on educational quality as a competitive factor."

Adult education
Completing secondary school on a vocational programme with full classes on a three-year curriculum provides a formal qualification for further studies. However, it may prove necessary to obtain post-secondary education before being admitted to a university, as the entrance examinations require a relatively high level of knowledge. Post-secondary education is provided by municipal schools or independent 'adult education centres', which can give either vocational education or teaching at comprehensive or upper secondary school levels. It is possible to obtain the matriculation diploma, or to better the comprehensive school grades, in these programmes. A new trade can also be learned by an adult at an adult education centre (aikuiskoulutuskeskus, vuxenutbildningscenter), for example, if structural change of the economy has made the old trade redundant.

In universities, the "Open University" (Avoin yliopisto, öppet universitet) programme enables people without student status to enroll in individual university courses. There are no requirements, but there is a modest tuition fee (e.g., 60 euros per course). Universities of applied sciences have their own similar programme (Avoin ammattikorkeakoulu, öppen högskola). While "Open University" students cannot pursue studies towards a degree, they may, after passing a sufficient number of separately determined courses with a sufficiently high grade point average, be eligible for transfer into an undergraduate degree program. Alternatively, a few institutions offer foreign qualifications, such as the private Helsinki School of Business, which offers the UK-accredited Higher National Diploma, enabling graduates to earn an undergraduate degree after completing a top-up year abroad.

A third branch of adult education is formed by the so-called vapaa sivistystyö, the "Free Education". This is formed by the partially state-funded, independent educational institutes offering diverse courses varying in length and academic level. The purpose of the "Free Education" is not to provide professional or degree-oriented education but to "support the multi-faceted development of personality, the ability to act in the community and to pursue the fulfilment of democracy, equality and diversity in the society." Historically, the "Free Education" stems from the late 19th century efforts to educate the general populace with little previous academic experience.

The "Free Education" is offered by
 * 206 kansalaisopisto or työväenopisto (Citizens' or Workers' Institutes)
 * 88 kansanopisto (People's Institutes)
 * 14 Sports' training centres (liikunnan koulutuskeskus)
 * 20 Summer universities (kesäyliopisto)
 * 11 Study Centres (opintokeskus)

The most common type of "Free Education" is a kansalaisopisto, sometimes called työväenopisto for historical reasons. These are mostly evening-type municipal institutions offering language, handicraft and humanities courses. The academic level varies strongly, and many courses do not require any requisite knowledge. The kansanopistos, on the other hand, are boarding-schools, often maintained by associations with either a strong ideological or religious mission. Also here, the academic level varies strongly. In all these institutions, the courses carry a modest tuition. The Sports' training centers are institutions for the professional or semi-professional sportsmen's training, while Summer universities and study centers are auxiliary bodies for the Organization of Free Education.

Duties
The Minister of Education has the responsibility of electronically preserving and distributing public domain works. Finland has millions of public domain works (books, pictures, music and films) and views access to them as a basic human right of access to science and culture.

Future prospects
The ongoing Bologna Process blurs the distinction between vocational and academic qualifications. In some fields, new postgraduate degrees have been introduced. Co-operation between the different systems is rising and some integration will occur (although not without a substantial amount of pressure). This results from not only the Bologna Process but also the goal of Finnish politicians— to educate the vast majority of Finns to a higher degree (ca. 60–70% of each annual cohort enter higher education).

In recent years, a cut in the number of new student places has often been called for by the economic sphere, as well as trade and student unions, because of an ongoing trend of rising academic unemployment, which is interpreted as a result of the steep increase in student places in higher education in the 1990s. In particular, some degrees in universities of applied sciences (AMK/YH) have suffered inflation. In a reflection of this current belief, the Ministry of Education has recently decreed a nationwide cut of 10% in new student places in universities of applied sciences to be applied starting from 2007 and 2008. It is still largely undecided whether (and when) some of those cuts could be redistributed to areas in need of a more highly educated workforce. In 2001 and 2002, university graduates had a 3.7% unemployment rate, and university of applied sciences graduates had 8%, which is on a par with the general unemployment rate (see the OECD report). In 2015, under prime minister Juha Sipilä's cabinet, the government decided to cut down on university funding by approximately €500 million.

An increase in vocational school student places might be preferred, as a shortage of basic workforce such as plumbers and construction workers is widely acknowledged in Finland. It should also be noted that retiring age groups are bigger than the ones entering higher education in Finland at present and for quite some time into the foreseeable future. If the current number of student places were kept unchanged to the year 2020, for example, Eastern Finland would have enough student places for 103% of the estimated size of the age group 19–21.

Higher education system restructuring
Due to globalization and increasing competition for diminishing younger age groups, system-wide restructuring has been called for by the Ministry of Education. Since 2006, all institutions of higher education have been sharing methods of cooperation. The total number of institutions is expected to drop significantly within 10–15 years.

The process within universities began with merger of the University of Kuopio and the University of Joensuu into the University of Eastern Finland in 2010. In Helsinki, three local universities, namely Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki School of Economics and University of Art and Design Helsinki, merged to a new Aalto University on 1 August 2009. Also several universities of applied sciences have announced mergers (such as Haaga and Helia, which merged into Haaga-Helia in 2007).

New methods of cooperation such as consortia and federations have been introduced within universities (e.g., University of Turku and Turku School of Economics Consortium ). Partnerships between traditional universities and universities of applied sciences are also developing (e.g., the University of Kuopio and Savonia University of Applied Sciences formed the Northern Savonia Higher Education Consortium ). In general, such system-wide change closely follows the pattern established in Central Europe, the United States, Spain and Hungary.

National Curriculum Framework 2016
Commencing in the 2016–2017 academic year, Finland will begin implementing educational reform that will mandate that phenomenon-based learning be introduced alongside traditional subject-based instruction. As part of a new National Curriculum Framework, it will apply to all basic schools for students aged 7–16 years old. Finnish schools have used this form of instruction since the 1980s, but it was not previously mandatory. It is anticipated that educators around the world will be studying this development as Finland's educational system is considered to be a model of success by many. This shift coincides with other changes that are encouraging development of 21st century skills such as collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking.

Media and technology
In 2011, documentary filmmaker, Bob Compton, and Harvard researcher, Tony Wagner, researched the Finnish school system and its excellence. The result of their research is the film, "The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World's Most Surprising School System."

In 2018, the University of Helsinki announced together with the Finnish tech company Reaktor that they would aim to educate 1% (the total of 54,000) of all Finns on the basics of artificial intelligence. The organizations said they want to make Finland "the world's most educated country in the field of artificial intelligence." The course is freely accessible to anyone anywhere online and has already garnered over 220,000 sign-ups.

Languages
One of the competitive advantages in Finland has been ability in foreign language. All students learn at least two languages in addition to their mother tongue, mainly English and obligatory Finnish or Swedish, up to high school. A citizens' initiative to remove obligatory Swedish from education reached parliament in 2014, but failed to pass. Despite being a mandatory part of the national curriculum, more than half of all Finns consider themselves to be unable to understand Swedish at an elementary or near elementary level. Over half of Finns report that Swedish has been completely or almost completely useless for them in their personal lives.

title: Education in Finland


text:
Parmalat

Parmalat S.p.A. is an Italian dairy and food corporation which is a subsidiary of French multinational company Lactalis. It was founded by Calisto Tanzi in 1961.

Having become the leading global company in the production of long-life milk using ultra-high-temperature processing, the company collapsed in 2003 with a €14bn ($20bn; £13bn) hole in its accounts in what remains Europe's biggest bankruptcy. Since 2011, it has been a subsidiary of French group Lactalis (with fuller control since 2019). Today, Parmalat is a company with a global presence, having operations in Europe, North America, South America, Australia, China, and South Africa.

Still specializing in UHT milk and milk derivatives (varieties of yogurt, cheese, butter, ice cream, etc.), the group also sells fruit juices distributed under the brand names Lactis, Santal, Malù, and Kyr. Its worldwide operations include almost 140 production centres and some 16,000 employees, with 5,000 Italian dairy farms supplying it. Its shares were listed on the Borsa Italiana.

Early history (1961–2002)
In 1961, Calisto Tanzi, a 22-year-old college dropout, opened a small pasteurisation plant in Parma. Two decades later, the company had grown into a multinational corporation diversifying into milk, dairy, beverage, bakery, and other product lines in the 1980s, becoming listed on the Milan stock exchange in 1990, and expanding further in the 1990s. By 22 April 2002, Parmalat's share price had reached a record and the company was valued at €3.7bn, employing over 30,000 people in 30 countries. The company began to expand and had listed in its portfolio amongst other things: an expansion in the space of a decade from six countries into ownership of ParmaTour (a travel group) and Odeon TV, Parma F.C., Paulista Futebol Clube and S.E. Palmeiras.

In the early 1980s, Parmalat was the title sponsor of the Brabham Formula 1 team, and its logotype, prominently displayed on the vehicles, became strongly associated with the team. The company continued as a minor sponsor of other Formula 1 teams in the late 1990s.

Financial fraud (2002–2005)
In 1997, Parmalat expanded into financial markets, financing several international acquisitions, especially in the Western Hemisphere, with debt. But by 2001, many of the new divisions were producing losses, and the company financing shifted largely to the use of derivatives, apparently at least in part with the intention of hiding the extent of its losses and debt. In February 2003, chief financial officer Fausto Tonna unexpectedly announced a new €300 million bond issue. This came as a surprise both to the markets and to the CEO, Calisto Tanzi. Tanzi forced Tonna to resign and replaced him with Alberto Ferraris. According to an interview he later gave Time magazine, Ferraris was surprised to discover that, though now CFO, he still did not have access to some of the corporate books, which were being handled by chief accounting officer Luciano Del Soldato. He began making some inquiries and began to suspect that the company's total debt was more than double that on the balance sheet.

The plan for a €300 million fundraising effort was dropped in September 2003, and the company's shares depreciated significantly as a result of the publicised concerns raised over transactions with mutual fund Epicurum, a Cayman-based company linked to Parmalat by November. Ferraris resigned less than a week after the public fall-out and was replaced by Del Soldato. Del Soldato resigned the next month, unable to get cash from Epicurum fund, needed to pay debts and make bond payments totalling at least €150 million. Bonlat was a subsidiary of Parmalat set up in the Cayman Islands. Bonlat's bank, Bank of America, then released a document showing €3.95 billion in Parmalat's bank account as a forgery. Tanzi resigned as chairman and CEO. Hundreds of thousands of investors lost their money and would never recover it.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi changed bankruptcy laws by decree to allow a company to seek accelerated protection from creditors, by giving extraordinary powers to a government-appointment administrator (commissario). Enrico Bondi was named commissario.

Calisto Tanzi was detained hours after the firm was declared officially insolvent in late December and admitted that there was a hole of €8 billion in Parmalat's accounts, but denied any cover-up. The arrest of five other executives followed. The auditors of the administration eventually determined that the debts amounted to €14.3 billion, which was almost eight times the sum originally stated. Several of the company's subsidiaries subsequently went insolvent, including its Brazilian, Argentinian and American operations and its football club in Parma.

Tanzi was eventually charged with financial fraud and money laundering. Among the questionable accounting practices used by Parmalat were selling itself credit-linked notes, in effect placing a bet on its own creditworthiness to conjure up an asset out of thin air. After his arrest, Tanzi reportedly admitted during questioning at Milan's San Vittore prison that he diverted funds from Parmalat into Parmatour and elsewhere. The family football and tourism enterprises were financial disasters as well, as Tanzi attempted to rival Berlusconi by buying Odeon TV, only to sell it at a loss of about €45 million. Tanzi was sentenced to 10 years in prison for fraud relating to the collapse of the dairy group. The other seven defendants, including executives and bankers, were acquitted. Another eight defendants settled out of court in September 2008. New leadership at Parmalat began investigating and suing Bank of America, Deloitte and Grant Thornton International – the bank and auditing firms that were alleged to have helped in perpetuing the fraud of earlier management at Parmalat.

In 2007, Deloitte settled on paying $149M to Parmalat. Bank of America, Parmalat's bank in many Special-purpose entities, settled for $100M payment to Parmalat in 2009. Grant Thornton International, Parmalat's auditing company, settled after repeated lawsuits for $4.4M with Parmalat. The new management at Parmalat recovered about $700M in payments from the banks and auditing firms it sued for negligence and aiding in the fraud of former Parmalat leadership.

Modern history
In 2005, Vicenzi bought from Parmalat the unprofitable bakery plant of Nusco, opened in 1984 for political reasons because it was the home town of Democrazia Cristiana chieftain Ciriaco De Mita.

By 2011, Parmalat had grown cash to €1.5 billion. In March 2011, the French multinational Lactalis, which already owns the Galbani, Invernizzi, Locatelli and Cademartori brands in Italy and is controlled by the Besnier family, began to acquire Parmalat shares. Lactalis quickly purchased nearly 30% of the company on the open market and in July 2011, succeeded in its €2.5 billion takeover offer, reaching a control of 80% shares at €2.6 per share.

In 2015, revenues reached €6.42 billion and EBITDA €444.5 million. On 27 December 2016, the French group, which controls 87.74% of Parmalat, activated the delisting procedure trying to withdraw it from the stock exchange listing. Lactalis prepared to delist Parmalat in 2016, with a buyout offer at €2.8 per share to acquire the remaining 12%, then raised to €3 but eventually failed due to opposition by hedge fund Amber and others. In December 2018, Lactalis was thought to have almost reached 95% shares at an open market price of around €2.85/share and to be about to launch a new takeover and delisting offer. Lactalis acquired 7% of the shares from Amber and other shareholders which had opposed the 2016 takeover, and confirmed the delisting for March 2019.

Lactalis moved all strategic activities to France and gradually wound down operations in Italy. In 2019, the future of the historical factory in Rome was also in doubt.

Countries of direct presence

 * Australia
 * Bolivia
 * Botswana
 * Canada
 * Colombia
 * Cuba
 * Ecuador
 * Eswatini
 * Hong Kong
 * Italy
 * Mexico
 * Mozambique
 * New Zealand
 * Paraguay
 * Peru
 * Portugal
 * Romania
 * Russia
 * South Africa
 * Venezuela
 * Zambia

Countries of presence through license

 * Argentina
 * Brazil
 * Chile
 * China
 * Costa Rica
 * Dominican Republic
 * El Salvador
 * Guatemala
 * Haiti
 * Honduras
 * Hungary
 * Mexico
 * Nicaragua
 * United States
 * Uruguay

title: Parmalat