text:
Ismaïl Omar Guelleh

Ismaïl Omar Guellé (Ismaaciil Cumar Geelle ; إسماعيل عمر جيله; born 27 November 1946) is a Djiboutian politician who has served as the President of Djibouti since 1999, making him one of the longest-serving rulers in Africa. He is often referred to by his initials, IOG.

Guelleh was first elected as President in 1999 as the handpicked successor to his uncle, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who had ruled Djibouti since independence in 1977. Guelleh was re-elected in 2005, 2011, 2016 and in 2021. The elections were largely boycotted by the opposition amid complaints over widespread irregularities. Guelleh has been characterized as a dictator, and his rule has been criticized by human rights groups and governments, such as the United States. He is, at the international level, a close ally of France.

He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award, on 25 January 2019 for his role in the safe evacuation of Indian citizens from Yemen.

Early life and political beginnings
Guelleh was born in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, into the politically powerful Mamassan subclan of the Ciise Dir clan of the Somali ethnic group. The father of Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, son of Guelleh Batal, is Omar Guelleh, one of the first native teachers in the 1930s before working, following his father's path, on behalf of the Franco-Ethiopian Railway Company (CFE) which built the line connecting Djibouti to Addis Ababa and whose head office was in Dire Dawa. When Guelleh was younger he attended a traditional Islamic school. In 1960, Guelleh migrated to Djibouti before finishing high school. In 1964, at the age of 18, Ismail Omar Guelleh began working in the General Information of the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas, because he spoke Amharic, Somali, Arabic, French, Italian and English.

In 1975, he was suspended from his duties because he was suspected of transmitting information to the independence movement. He then became involved in the African People's League for Independence (LPAI) chaired by Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who campaigns for independence. Guelleh was elected into the LPAI’s Central Committee in 1983 and subsequently became the director of a cultural commission in Paris. In 1987, he became a member of the party leadership.

After Djibouti became independent, he became head of the secret police and chief of the cabinet in the government of his uncle Hassan Gouled Aptidon, for whom he also served as chief of staff for more than two decades. He received training from the Somali National Security Service and then from the French Secret Service, and was intended to become his uncle's successor. He became President of Djibouti in 1999.

Rise to power and first term, 1999 to 2005
Djibouti is one of four countries in Africa that have experienced instances of immediate successions from one family member to another.

On 4 February 1999, President Gouled Aptidon, uncle of Ismail Guelleh, announced his retirement at the time of the next election, and an extraordinary congress of his party, the ruling People's Rally for Progress (RPP), chose Guelleh as its presidential candidate, handpicked by Aptidon. As the joint candidate of the RPP and moderate wing of the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD), Guelleh won the presidential election held on 9 April 1999 with 74.02% of the vote, defeating his only challenger, the independent candidate Moussa Ahmed Idriss. He took office on 8 May. Moussa Ahmed Idriss was arrested the following September for "threatening the morale of the armed forces" and detained at an undisclosed location.

In December 2000, Guelleh sacked the chief of staff of the National Police Force, Yacin Yabeh, prompting policemen loyal to Yabeh to unsuccessfully rebel following his dismissal. Guelleh is credited with brokering a permanent peace agreement that year that brought to an end the country’s post-independence ethnic conflict.

Second term, 2005 to 2011
Guelleh was nominated by the RPP as its presidential candidate for a second time on 7 October 2004, at an Extraordinary Congress of the party. He was backed by several other parties and was the only candidate in the presidential election held on 8 April 2005. Brief protests against the elections erupted but were quickly suppressed by police. Without a challenger, Guelleh won 100% of the ballots cast and was sworn in for a second six-year term, which he said would be his last, on 7 May.

However, in 2010, Guelleh persuaded the National Assembly of Djibouti to amend the nation's Constitution, allowing him to stand for a third term. This cleared the way for him to place his name on the ballot in Djibouti's 2011 election. It also resulted in large protests beginning in 2010 similar to the larger movement for democracy in the Arab countries. The protests were quickly put down, opposition leaders arrested and international observers expelled or arrested.

Third term, 2011 to 2016
Opposition parties boycotted the election, leaving only one little-known candidate against him on the ballot. Guelleh won almost 80% of the vote. Human Rights Watch questioned the fairness of the election given that opposition leaders were jailed twice prior to polling. Guelleh again said that he would not run for another term.

Guelleh was also the winner of the 2016 election with about 87% of the popular vote. As in previous elections, the opposition had called for a country-wide boycott and demanded Guelleh conduct "transparent, free, fair and just elections." Opposition leaders and human rights groups complained of repression and police brutality in the run-up to the polls. After interviewing an opposition leader, a BBC team was arrested and expelled shortly before the vote.

Fourth term, 2016 to 2021
He was re-elected for a fifth term in the 2021 landslide election. One opposition candidate ran in the election, political newcomer Zakaria Ismail Farah, who accused the government of "ballot-box stuffing" and barring his delegates from accessing polling stations to monitor the voting process. Other with major opposition parties opted not to run candidates, accusing Guelleh of ruling via a dictatorship.

Fifth term, since 2021
In June 2021, Guelleh made vaccination against COVID-19 compulsory for both citizens and foreign residents.

Throughout that same month, Guelleh reshuffled of his diplomatic corps, recalling seven ambassadors and appointing new ones to several countries across the Middle East.

Succession
Guelleh’s long-time rule has opened questions about his eventual succession, with a trusted, hand-picked candidate chosen from within his inner circle being almost a certainty. For the longest time, the president’s son in law and minister of health, Djama Elmi Okieh, seemed to be Guelleh’s designated successor, but since 2018 he has fallen out of favor after an alleged affair with an employee and subsequent divorce. The new favored candidate since then seems to be Naguib Abdallah Kamil, a son of First Lady Kadra Mahamoud Haid from a previous marriage.

By retaining Djibouti’s main political players in their respective government position, Guelleh has increased the risk for internal power struggles. Prime Minister Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed and Finance Minister Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh are considered prime contenders for leadership struggles in the run-up to the next elections in 2026. Another possible candidate involved in intra-governmental fights for power includes Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf.

Governance
Throughout his presidency, Guelleh has worked to install members of his family in important political and economic positions. A central role is occupied by his wife, Kadra Mahamoud Haid, who acts as the de facto vice-president, and his two daughters: Haibado, functioning as an important advisor to Guelleh, and Fatouma-Awo, heavily involved in the country’s business activities. His son in law, Djama Elmi Okieh, is the Minister of Health.

One of the President’s half-brothers, Saad Omar Guelleh, is the General Manager of the economically paramount Port of Djibouti, while first cousin Djama Ali Guelleh has been the Director General of state-owned utilities company Electricité de Djibouti (EDD) since 1986, more than a decade before Guelleh came to power.

Owing to this intricate blurring of state functions and the ruling clan, Guelleh has been able to exercise strict control over the country’s political, economic and judiciary affairs, aided by his strong grip on the police, military and other security forces. This has guaranteed that "the Guelleh clan’s domination of all public affairs prevailed."

A message sent from the US Embassy in Djibouti in 2004 and published on WikiLeaks described Djibouti as "less a country than a commercial city state controlled by one man, Ismail Omar Guelleh."

In its 2020 country report on Human Rights Practices, the US government identified "unlawful or arbitrary killings", "cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government", and "arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; serious restrictions on free expression, the press, and the internet, including violence", among others, as "significant human rights issues" in the country.

Closer relations with China
Guelleh has made use of his country’s strategic position for years, marked by large infrastructure investments, especially in ports and logistics. Since 2013, Guelleh has pursued closer economic and political relations with China, which coincided with Beijing’s growing strategic interest in the Middle East and Africa through the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative that year.

The ensuing great power competition for the country has increased Djibouti’s scope for maneuver, but China’s influence has also grown over Djibouti, having established a naval base there in 2017 and triggering concerns among Djibouti’s traditional Western allies that Beijing’s authoritarian governance style is encouraging more autocratic behavior on Guelleh’s part as well.

The influx of Chinese investments into the country has furthered Guelleh’s development plan based on the Singapore model. It is often understood as "an authoritarian government delivering national prosperity through rigid planning and a singular focus on economic development at the expense of democracy, human rights, and basic freedoms." Guelleh has frequently made references to following Singapore’s path in official speeches, hoping to transform Djibouti into the "Singapore of Africa" by capitalizing on the Port of Djibouti’s growing role as a strategically located maritime trading hub. However, experts regard Djibouti’s continued government corruption and favoring of Chinese investors as a hindrance to that development strategy paying off. For example, in 2012 the Djibouti government sold its Doraleh Container Terminal concession of the Port of Djibouti to a Chinese competitor of concession partner DP World, an UAE-based port operator. In February 2018, Ismaïl Guelleh revoked DP World’s concession by presidential decree, transferring its assets to a state-run company. Using Chinese funding, that same year Djibouti also opened a long-term project to build what is projected to be Africa’s greatest free trade zone.

In 2020, the London Court of International Arbitration ruled Djibouti’s expropriation illegal and ordered the original concession rights are to be restored. The Court had previously ordered the country to pay $533 million in compensation to the DP World company. Djibouti rejected the Court’s ruling and handed a quarter of the port's stake to China Merchants Ports Holdings.

Economy
While the FDI-driven policy into port and logistics infrastructure pursued by Guelleh has been responsible for steady economic growth, it has created a service-dependent and capital-intensive economy with low exports and opportunities for job creation. Indeed, unemployment remains an enduring issue that disproportionally affects the young. According to a 2015 employment survey, Djibouti’s unemployment rate was at 39 percent, where only 25 percent of working age people were employed. A more recent estimate puts unemployment of the young at 80 percent.

Furthermore, the investment projects behind the country’s economic growth throughout the years were financed by external debt, which has led to high levels of debt ownership by foreign actors, particularly China. Overall, the country’s economy was ranked as "mostly unfree" by the Heritage Foundation’s 2021 Index of Economic Freedom.

The expansion of the Berbera port in Somaliland by DP World, which would reduce landlocked Ethiopia’s dependence on Djibouti for large parts of its trade, has been speculated to pose a threat to the port of Djibouti’s regional dominance. Guelleh has dismissed such claims.

Regional security
Djibouti under Guelleh’s rule has remained a stable country within a conflict-ridden region. Guelleh’s presidency has seen the signing of a peace agreement between warring ethnic tribes in 2000 and the resolution of a decade-long border dispute between Djibouti and Eritrea in 2018. The 2018 peace treaty between Ethiopia and Eritrea is expected to reduce Djibouti’s port revenues in the long-run and could in turn lead to Guelleh becoming unable to maintain his stringent control over the country.

In 2020, Guelleh hosted the leaders of Somalia and its break-away Republic of Somaliland as well as Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for peace talks.

Guelleh expressed strong support for Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in the Tigray War between the government and the rebels, saying that he had chosen to "restore law and order at the federal level, and punish those seeking to break up the country" and dismissed the prospect of negotiations, saying that the Tigray People's Liberation Front had "structured itself so as to bring the central government to its knees" and that talks could "only lead to the partition of Ethiopia", setting a precedent for secession by other groups in the region.

Personal life
Ismail Guelleh is married with four children.

Following a visit of Guelleh and his entourage to Paris in late 2018, France’s National Financial Prosecutor's Office opened a preliminary investigation into the alleged fraudulent acquisition of several properties in the city. The investigation, launched after a complaint from anti-corruption NGO Sherpa and focusing on Guelleh’s wife, eldest daughter and son in law, is ongoing as of July 2021.

He owns a property in Dubai.

title: Ismaïl Omar Guelleh


text:
Talk:Marsupilami

Videogame
Is there a videogame with marsupilami? I think there is, but the article makes no mention. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.106.40.11 (talk) 22:59, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Copyright
I am sorry not to have any proof in kind of a source or a weblink, but I remember that Franquin held the Copyright to the Marsupilami character, Hence it disappeared from the Spirou series and was turned into its own franchise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.180.69.53 (talk) 11:52, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Features
The author who created the Marsupilami allocated it peculiar features: he made it an egg-laying animal although it is a mammal. According to its name, it must be a marsupial like kangaroos, opossums etc. To my knowledge, the only mammal laying eggs is the DUCKBILL. The aforementioned marsupilami looks like a monkey, so that is must be essentially a placental mammal, not a marsupial, and above all, no egg-laying animal.
 * "Marsupilami" is a name, although Franquin probably had the word in mind, it doesn't have to mean it IS a marsupial... I believe there is a book in french, which explains much of how the Marsupilami works. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the name by now. It is a cartoon-like semi-scientific picture book...
 * I believe the bellybutton wasn't actually a bellybutton. It was a messager from the parents to the children, if I remember right. The children listened to it, to learn information, instead of learning it orally or though experience... =S

 * There are three types of mammal, monotremes, marsupials and placentals. Only monotremes lay eggs, only marsupials should be called "marsupial", and only placentals have belly buttons. It would appear that this particular combination of features was designed to highlight the animal's fictional naturematturn 14:26, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
 * I added the Marsupilami's imitation skills, which was mentioned in a few of Franquin's original books, as well as being a pivotal part to the story in one. I know that he could speak generally in the animated series, but I haven't seen much to know if that was only to other animals, or to humans too. Anyway, I wouldn't consider the animated series canon. 85.226.122.222 17:52, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * The animal does lay eggs, pear shaped eggs. The belly button is not actually a belly button, it just looks like one. The fictional scientist who studied the animal in the comicscalled it, and this is loosely translated, a "thingy". It seemed to somehow pass on information from an adult to a child, when the child put its ear to the thingy.

 * Marsupials and monotremes are both basal lineages in mammal evolution so in the real world some certain traits (lack of placenta) could lead someone missidentify a monotreme for a marsupial if the specimen was not well studied. Maybe due to that fact a fictional misidentification might had happened (especially since both actual living monotremes live in Oceania and are extremely primitive for mammals, while the Marsupilami seems considerably more "evolved" -even for placential standards- and lives in South America like the marsupial oppossums). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.74.135.246 (talk) 09:47, 6 September 2008 (UTC)
 * It's not a misidentification. It's a fictional animal, where the animal's characteristics have been explicitly described in comics and a "faux" encyclopedia. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 17:12, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Snipped
An contribution by User:Mariano Moldes I felt needed removal, Feel free to source it. M URGH  disc.  04:27, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
 * (Interestingly enough, Jorge Luis Borges describes a very similar creature under the title An Animal Dreamt by Kafka (In El Libro de los Seres Imaginarios, "The Book of Imaginary Beings" in collaboration with Margarita Guerrero). There he quotes a description by Franz Kafka in his work Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande. The animal in question has a very large tail, many meters long, fox-like. He'd like to grab this tail but the animal is always on the move, the tail swinging from side to side. The animal has something of a kangaroo but the small oval head is uncharacteristic and somehow human-like; only the teeth have expressive force, regardless if it shows or conceals them. He goes on to comment that he has the impression that the creature is attempting to train him as he takes the tail away every time the narrator tries to grab it, just to wait for a new attempt and repeat the whole sequence.
 * It isn't that similar, actually. It's only superficially similar in its tail length... 惑乱 分からん * \)/ (\ (< \) (2 /) /)/ * 18:23, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with Image:Spirou et les hommes-bulles.jpg
The image Image:Spirou et les hommes-bulles.jpg is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check

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This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Media copyright questions. --06:38, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Houba!
Doesn't anyone know how to summarize this out of universe? I removed a whole buttload of in-universe stuff. Ten Pound Hammer and his otters • (Broken clamshells • Otter chirps • HELP) 02:35, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Split
This article's getting long. I think it should be split into a page about the comic and another about the cartoon series, as both are independently notable. Ten Pound Hammer and his otters • (Broken clamshells • Otter chirps • HELP) 19:33, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I disagree. As for now, the article is clearly and logically structured into different sections, and it should be easy finding the section of personal interes. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 21:26, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Summary style.

 * This is like saying the article on Wal-Mart and Sam's Club should be one article just because it'd be "clearly and logically structured" separating one from the other. There are plenty of sources to cover just the comic, and plenty to cover just the cartoon. Ten Pound Hammer  and his otters • (Broken clamshells • Otter chirps • HELP) 22:45, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Point granted, but I don't think the article's particularly long, yet. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 00:29, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

 * The article isn't that long, and the amimated section is certainly not so big there appears to be a current need for a split. Looking to The Smurfs and The Smurfs (1981 TV series) plus its other splits can give some perspective.  M URGH   disc.  00:49, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Come to think of it, I earlier removed an episode guide because I thought it looked cluttered and was in bad format. If someone feels like reinserting it and fixing the format, maybe a description of the series with an episode guide would warrant its own article. I figured that maybe Wikipedia had some ruling against episode guides, but that doesn't appear to be the case. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 15:10, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

 * That was a parody. Not all referential humor is self-referential. Disney's One Saturday Morning was on ABC. Although Marsupilami and Raw Toonage are children's programs by Disney, neither were part of Disney's One Saturday Morning. They were on CBS and Syndication. Please check your information before changing things. Dancter (talk) 17:20, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

 * The cartoons are different from the original comic series. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 22:15, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Discuss my reverted edits
I made the following edits that were reverted by User:BuddyBoy600:

Removed the line about how the old series episodes can be seen on Youtube. Per WP:ELNEVER, "Knowingly directing others to material that violates copyright may be considered contributory infringement." However, it could be argued that this doesn't apply since there's not a direct link to any infringing videos, so I'd like some input on that.

Added the following under the "Disney animation" section: "Marsu Productions later sued Disney, citing breaches of the license contract. Marsu was awarded $8.4 million. The judgement was upheld on appeal." This is sourced to "185 F3d 932 Marsu Bv v. The Walt Disney Company" on Open Jurist. I think it's relevant that Disney failed to follow its agreement with Marsu Productions and that this should be noted in the article. Can I get some ideas on a good way to incorporate it? Thanks. Kcowolf (talk) 16:55, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

 * Well, it's been a while and there hasn't been any feedback or discussion about this. I've re-added the information about Marsu's lawsuit against Disney, but I tried to add a better summary about Marsu's claims.  I'm open to discussion on this. Kcowolf (talk) 06:36, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

 * I now have a blog about Disney's Marsupilami. On the information, I think about "Squeal of Fortune" from Sesame Street. The Weblink is . BuddyBoy600 (talk) 02:06, 11 November 2009 (UTC) --User:BuddyBoy600

2012 film
Going from the Maruspilami Facebook Page, and all the links it's provided thus far, a live-action film is supposedly in the works, due for release in April 2012.

All the links here are taken from the Facebook page:

La Parisien (FRENCH) [English Translation]

Le Point (FRENCH) [English Translation]

Ecran Large (FRENCH) [English Translation]

It has also been registered on the IMDb as Sur la piste du Marsupilami (On the trail of the Marsupilami).-- undefined N  a  N  15:25, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

Disney Comics?
Does anyone wana mention this in the article? http://coa.inducks.org/comp2.php?default_o=1&code=K&acceptUnsure=1&xapp=Marsupilami&induckscodesonly=on DoctorHver (talk) 02:20, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Marsupilami


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Gyude Bryant

Charles Gyude Bryant (17 January 1949 – 16 April 2014) was a Liberian politician and businessman. He served as the Chairman of the Transitional Government of Liberia from 14 October 2003 to 16 January 2006. The installation of the transitional government was part of the peace agreement to end the country's second civil war, which had raged since the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebelled against President Charles Taylor in 1999. Bryant was previously a businessman and was chosen as chairman because he was seen as politically neutral and therefore acceptable to each of the warring factions, which included LURD, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), and loyalists of former President Taylor. He was a prominent member of the Episcopal Church of Liberia, and was critical of the governments of Samuel Doe (1980–90) and Taylor (1997–2003).

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won the 2005 elections and took office in January 2006, succeeding Bryant.

He died on 16 April 2014 at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Monrovia.

Embezzlement
In January 2007, Bryant was questioned by police regarding allegations of corruption during his time in office. On 27 February 2007, Bryant was charged with embezzlement. His government is alleged to have embezzled more than US$1 million. On 12 March a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was not immediately arrested because he was said to be absent from Monrovia and in Lofa County instead, but on 13 March he was arrested and released on bond shortly thereafter. In court on 25 April, the defense argued that Bryant constitutionally enjoyed immunity for actions taken as head of state, while the prosecution argued that he did not because his appointment resulted from the Accra Accords in August 2003 and occurred outside the constitutional framework. On 24 August 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the prosecution's argument, enabling Bryant's trial to continue.

Bryant was arrested on 7 December 2007 after failing to appear in court earlier in the week. He had said that he was boycotting the court because of his belief that he enjoys immunity. As he was being taken to a prison in Monrovia, he said: "This is a very, very dark day for Liberia. This is the reward we get for restoring peace and democracy to our country." He was released from the central prison in Monrovia on 8 December after he signed a commitment to appear in court on 10 December.

On 30 April 2009, Bryant, along with four others, was acquitted of embezzling US$1 million from the state oil refinery. Additional charges regarding the alleged theft of US$1.3 million from the state were dropped on 24 September 2010 as the government failed to provide any proof of wrongdoing.

Personal
Born in Monrovia during the early years of the Tubman era, Bryant's mother was a descendant of settlers and his father was a member of the Grebo people. He matriculated at Cuttington University in 1972, and in 1974 he married the former Rosilee Williams; together they had two children, Cheryl and Charles. Bryant also had a son named Charles Mleh. Before becoming the chairman of the interim government, he was a successful businessman operating a company that supplied machinery for the Freeport of Monrovia, and he was the chairman of the Liberian Action Party, which has since merged with President Sirleaf's Unity Party.

title: Gyude Bryant


text:
Chair of the Federal Reserve

The chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is the head of the Federal Reserve, and is the active executive officer of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The chairman presides at meetings of the Board.

The chairman serves a four-year term after being nominated by the president of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate; the officeholder serves concurrently as member of the Board of Governors. The chairman may serve multiple terms, pending a new nomination and confirmation at the end of each term, with William McChesney Martin as the longest serving chair from 1951 to 1970 and Alan Greenspan as a close second. The president may not have the legal authority to dismiss a chairman before the end of a term, although this assumption has never been tested in court.

The current chairman is Jerome Powell, who was sworn in on February 5, 2018. He was nominated to the position by President Donald Trump on November 2, 2017, and later confirmed by the Senate. He was subsequently nominated to a second term by President Joe Biden, later confirmed by the Senate and sworn in on May 23, 2022.

Appointment process
As stipulated by the Banking Act of 1935, the president may designate to serve as Chairman of the Board for four-year terms with the advice and consent of the Senate, from among the sitting governors. The Senate Committee responsible for vetting a Federal Reserve chair nominee is the Senate Committee on Banking.

Duties of the Fed chairman
By law, at meetings of the Board the chairman shall preside, and, in his absence, the vice chairman shall preside. In the absence of the chairman and the vice chairman, the Board shall elect a member to act as chairman pro tempore.

Under the chairman's leadership, the Board's responsibilities include analysis of domestic and international financial and economic developments. The board also supervises and regulates the Federal Reserve Banks, exercises responsibility in the nation's payments system, and administers consumer credit protection laws.

By custom, one of the chairman's most important duties is to serve as the chair of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which is critical in setting short-term U.S. monetary policy. However, the chair of the FOMC is elected at the first meeting of each year, and while the chair of the Board of Governors has always been chosen there is no legal obligation for this to be the case.

By law, the chairman reports twice a year to Congress on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy objectives. He or she also testifies before Congress on numerous other financial issues and meets periodically with the treasury secretary, who is a member of the president's Cabinet.

Conflict of interest law
The law applicable to the chair and all other members of the board provides (in part):

"No member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System shall be an officer or director of any bank, banking institution, trust company, or Federal Reserve bank or hold stock in any bank, banking institution, or trust company; and before entering upon his duties as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System he shall certify under oath that he has complied with this requirement, and such certification shall be filed with the secretary of the Board."

Salary
Chair of the Federal Reserve is a Level I position in the Executive Schedule, thus earning the salary prescribed for that level (US$246,400, as of April 2024).

List of Fed chairs
The following is a list of past and present chairs of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. A chair serves for a four-year term after appointment, but may be reappointed for several consecutive four-year terms. Since the Federal Reserve was established in 1914, the following people have served as chair.

title: Chair of the Federal Reserve


text:
Hipólito Mejía

Rafael Hipólito Mejía Domínguez (born 22 February 1941) is a Dominican politician who served as President of the Dominican Republic from 2000 to 2004.

During his presidential term in office the country was affected by one of its worst economic crises, generated by the bankruptcy of three major commercial banks in the country, which resulted in high inflation, high country risk rating, currency devaluation and increasing local poverty. Further damaging to Mejía's reputation was the arrest of ex-army captain Quirino Paulino. Quirino was arrested after being linked to a large drug trafficking ring, and in the legal and political aftermath, connections to Mejía were discovered. Mejía sent 604 Dominican troops to fight in the Iraq War.

In the presidential election of 2004, he ran for a second term as the candidate of the Dominican Revolutionary Party but he was defeated by Leonel Fernández, whom he had succeeded as president in 2000, from the Dominican Liberation Party.

Early life
Mejía Domínguez was born on 22 February 1941 at the José María Cabral y Báez Hospital in Santiago de los Caballeros, as the first child of Hipólito de Jesús ‘Polín’ Mejía Díaz and María Josefa ‘Marina’ Domínguez Viñals, both native of La Chichigua in Gurabo, place where he was raised. In his hometown he is known as Cabuyita, diminutive for cabuya (Latin American Spanish for "Agave twine"), because of the long blond straight hair that he had during his youth.

Mejía received a high school diploma from the Loyola Polytechnic Institute in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic, graduating in 1962. Two years later, he attended special programs at North Carolina State University in the United States. On 4 July 1964 he married Rosa Gómez Arias, his third cousin. They have four children, among them, Carolina Mejía de Garrigó, a 2016 vice-presidential candidate.

At age twenty-four, he was appointed director and undersecretary of the national Tobacco Institute. In 1978, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture under the government of President Antonio Guzmán Fernández. During this period, agri-business incentive laws were passed and programs to promote rural agriculture development and technification were undertaken.

In 1982, Mejia was defeated in his campaign to become senator from Santiago Province. In 1990, he was named vice-presidential candidate on the ticket of Dominican Revolutionary Party leader José Francisco Peña Gómez.

Presidency
In 2000, Mejía ran for president as the candidate of the left leaning Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) on a program to increase health, education, and social security services through tax hikes. He led the field in the 2000 presidential election, taking 49.87% of the vote in the first round. His main opponents, Danilo Medina and former president Joaquín Balaguer, received 24.9% and 24.6% of the vote, respectively. With Mejía just a few thousand votes short of the threshold for avoiding a runoff, his supporters claimed victory and urged Medina to concede. Medina soon realized that he stood no chance of closing a nearly 25-point gap with Mejía, especially when Balaguer suggested that some of his supporters might cross over to the PRD in the runoff. Medina would have needed nearly all of Balaguer's voters to cross over to him in order to have any realistic chance of winning. Accordingly, Medina pulled out of the runoff, handing the presidency to Mejía. Mejía took office on 16 August of that year.

During his presidency, he supported many popular issues, like social security, helping small businesses, agriculture, improving education and helping with adequate housing. He received considerable support from the people during the first two years of his mandate, which caused his party to win the congressional and municipal elections taking control of the Senate with 29 out of 31 senators. During Mejía’s term, the country's second largest privately held commercial bank, Baninter, collapsed in a spectacular failure tied to long-standing political corruption. However, no evidence has ever linked Mejia to any corruption nor was he ever taken to court. Actually, it was later proved by international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund that the bank was fraudulently caused to fail − something for which its President and CEO Ramón Báez Figueroa was years later found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

During his term, Mejía attempted to spread government resources and services to thousands of smaller, rural communities scattered around the country instead of the traditional efforts to concentrate on big cities (where most voters live). He established the country's first social security type retirement system, and created a fixed advanced corporate tax of 1.5% to aid in government revenue collection.

His administration was packed with corruption and cronyism and also was not able to achieve the economic success and stability of his predecessor.

In March 2004, the Haiti Commission of Inquiry, headed by former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, published its findings : "Noting that 200 US special forces had travelled to the Dominican Republic for “military exercises” in February 2003, the commission accused the US of arming and training Haitian rebels there. With permission from the Dominican president, Hipólito Mejía, US forces trained near the border, in an area used by former soldiers of the disbanded Haitian army to launch attacks on Haitian state property." In the 2004 presidential election, he was defeated by Leonel Fernández, when he ran for re-election for a second term.

By the time Mejía left office, the Dominican Republic was undergoing a major economic crisis.

Mejía again contested the 2012 presidential election, losing to Danilo Medina, his 2000 election opponent.

Criticism
In his time, Mejía faced both the highest and then the lowest approval ratings for a Constitutional President in recent times.

Mejía's first presidential campaign in 2000 won him the first Dominican presidency under then new electoral rules that required a "50 más 1" (50 percent plus one of the total votes in order to win in the first voting round.) This was in stark contrast to the late PRD leader, José Francisco Peña Gómez, who unsuccessfully ran for office three times consecutively (1990, 1994 and 1996) and never received the support that Mejia received in his first attempt.

While holding the seat of Head of State, Mejía actively sought to change the then current constitution in order for it to allow consecutive presidential re-elections. This was achieved with the aid of his party's majority stake at both legislative chambers (Senate and Lower Chamber). The original constitution prevented the previous president from contending against him in 2000.

Ancestry
Three of Mejía′s grandparents were farmers native to Gurabo (Santiago Province, not to be confused with a city in Puerto Rico) while his paternal grandfather, Segundo Mejía Mejía, was from Hato de San Marcos de Cañafístol (Peravia Province), then a ranch estate near Baní.

The Domínguez and the Díaz hails from Gurabo, being of colonial Canarian background. These families were traditionally farmers and merchants.

The Viñals hails from Santo Domingo of colonial Catalan background.

The Mejías from Cañafístol, Baní, were well-to-do white ranchers linked to the colonial petite aristocracy since the 1500s; endogamy was the custom in small communities and almost every generation of the Mejías married with relatives, meaning that Hipólito Mejía's bloodline includes several cousin marriages. President Mejía himself was married to a cousin, as well, until his wife's death in 2022.

Through his Báez, Villar and Soto ancestors, President Mejía is distantly related through many lines to President Danilo Medina, via Medina′s paternal grandfather —José María Medina Báez— who, alike Mejía′s paternal grandfather, was also from Baní. Three of Medina Báez grandparents were surnamed Báez. Their shared ancestors includes Lorenzo Báez de Cuéllar-Albornoz (seven times seventh cousins through him), Pedro del Villar María (four times seventh cousins through him), María de la Cruz de Arambule Maldonado (four times sixth cousins through her), Esteban Peguero Gómez (seven times ninth cousins through him), and Antonio de Soto y Hernández de Andújar.

title: Hipólito Mejía


text:
Talk:Geology

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Lede too short flag
Hi all,

Noticed this flag today. Did my best to beat the lede into shape so it actually reflects the article content. It's still pretty short, but I think I like that on these "big" science articles. I also added a pretty map to the lede, because I think it's always good to have something.

Felt this covered it, so removed the flag. As always, further iterations welcome. DanHobley (talk) 10:55, 3 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Also, think I accidentally edit conflicted with someone, and may have accidentally discarded some changes. Sorry if this was you. DanHobley (talk) 10:56, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

unsourced claim in Geologic time scale that contradicts itself
For example, the lower Jurassic Series in chronostratigraphy corresponds to the early Jurassic Epoch in geochronology.[2] The adjectives are capitalized when the subdivision is formally recognized, and lower case when not; thus "early Miocene" but "Early Jurassic."

The article Miocene chaotically uses both upper- and lowercase and Early Miocene uses only uppercase. --Espoo (talk) 09:26, 1 September 2019 (UTC)

Text font size in "See also" section
Why is the font size of the text in the "See also" section set to "small"? (My edit of 17 June 2021, which enlarged the font size to default size was changed back to small size on 20 June 2021). GeoWriter (talk) 11:02, 21 June 2021 (UTC)
 * In the absence of any response, I have changed the "See also" text font size to the default value (instead of small). GeoWriter (talk) 11:20, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

Geography
How many types of coal 112.79.193.179 (talk) 16:54, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

 * Take a look at coal Girth Summit  (blether)  16:55, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Geology should not be a category under Geography!
Why have Wikipedia articles been changed to have geology under geography? There needs to be a massive clean-up of articles to correct this. 31.22.146.109 (talk) 18:37, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

 * I'm not sure that this is the case, can you give examples of what you're referring to? Both the Geology and Geography categories are part of the Earth Sciences category. Mikenorton (talk) 11:15, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Geology


text:
25-pair color code

The 25-pair color code, originally known as even-count color code, is a color code used to identify individual conductors in twisted-pair wiring for telecommunications.

Color coding
With the development of new generations of telecommunication cables with polyethylene-insulated conductors (PIC) by Bell Laboratories for the Bell System in the 1950s, new methods were developed to mark each individual conductor in cables. Each wire is identified by the combination of two colors, one of which is the major color, and the second the minor color. Major and minor colors are chosen from two different groups of five, resulting in 25 color combinations. The color combinations are applied to the insulation that covers each conductor. Typically, one color is a prominent background color of the insulation, and the other is a tracer, consisting of stripes, rings, or dots, applied over the background. The background color always matches the tracer color of its paired conductor, and vice versa.

The major, or primary group of colors consists of the sequence of white, red, black, yellow, and violet (mnemonic: Why run backwards? You'll vomit!). The minor, or secondary color is chosen from the sequence blue, orange, green, brown, and slate (mnemonic: Bell operators give better service. ).

The wire pairs are referenced directly by their color combination, or by the pair number. For example, pair 9 is also called the red-brown pair. In technical tabulations, the colors are often suitably abbreviated.

Violet is the standard name in the telecommunications and electronics industry, but it is sometimes referred to as purple. Similarly, slate is a particular shade of gray. The names of most of the colors were taken from the conventional colors of the rainbow or optical spectrum, and in the electronic color code, which uses the same ten colors, albeit in a different order.

When used for plain old telephone service (POTS), the first wire is known as the tip or A-leg (U.K.) conductor, and is usually connected to the positive side of a direct current (DC) circuit, while the second wire is known as the ring lead or B-leg (U.K.), and is connected to the negative side of the circuit. Neither of these two sides of the line has a connection to the local ground. This creates a balanced audio circuit with common-mode rejection, also known as a differential pair. The tip and ring convention is based on the 1/4 in TRS phone connectors, which were employed in telephone switchboards in the 19th and 20th centuries, where the tip contact of the connector is separated from the ring contact by a spacer of insulation. The connection furthest from the cable is known as the tip, the middle connection is the ring, and the (largest) connection closest to the wire is the sleeve.

Older Bell System wiring inside customer premises used 4-conductor untwisted wire cable. The 4 conductors were solid red, green, yellow & black wires. They match to the current 25-color code as follows:

25-pair telco cable pinout
A common application of the 25-pair color code is the cabling for the Registered Jack interface RJ21, which uses a female 50-pin miniature ribbon connector, as shown in the following table. The geometry of the pins of the receptacle (right hand image) corresponds to the pin numbers of the table. The left column of pins are the ring (R) conductors, while all tip (T) conductors are on the right.

Larger cables
For cables with more than 25 pairs, each group of 25 is called a binder group. The binder groups are marked with mylar ribbons using the same color coding system, starting with a white/blue ribbon, then a white/orange ribbon, and so on. The 24th binder group has a violet/brown ribbon, completing a super binder of 600 pairs.

In cables of more than 600 pairs, each of the 600-pair super binder group bundles is wrapped with a mylar binder ribbon, or string, matching the "tip" colors of the color code, starting with white. The pattern then starts over with the first 25-pair group as white/blue, and continues indefinitely, in multiples of 600 pairs or parts thereof. For example, a 900-pair cable has the first 600 pairs in 24 groups of 25 pairs in a white binder, and the remaining 300 pairs in 12 groups of 25 pairs wrapped in a red binder.

Some cables are "mirrored" or "clocked" with a pattern that is known throughout the telephone industry. Starting with the first binder group in the center, the technician counts the cable's groups in a spiral direction depending on the location of the central office or switch. If looking at the cable's core and the switch is in that direction, the groups are counted counter-clockwise. If the cable is the field side, the count is clockwise. There are indicators on the mylar ribbons to know where to begin for each layer and a diagram for the different cable sizes should be readily available for reference.

Other color schemes are sometimes used for outdoor cables, particularly outside the U.S., but this color code is common for aerial and underground cables up to several thousand pairs in North America. In the UK, the British Post Office (later BT) used this color code for what is now known loosely as CW1308 specification cables, referring to the Post Office's "Cable and Wire" specification No. 1308.

Extra pairs and colors
When working on aerial cable splicing and installation, it is common to use a telephone lineman's set or "butt set" to communicate over long distances. To facilitate this, extra pairs of wires are embedded in cables using "major" colors for both wires (instead of the major/minor color combinations used for the rest). One extra pair (red–white) may be embedded into cables that are 6 to 75 pairs; two pairs (red–white and black–white) may be encapsulated in cables of 100 to 300 pairs; and three pairs (red–white, black–white, and yellow–white) may be included in cables of 400 to 900 pairs. These extra pairs are often referred to as "talk pairs", and are never used for subscriber service.

Optical cable
A color coding method used for fiber-optic cables, TIA-598-C, starts with the same first ten colors, adding the color rose for 11, and aqua for 12.

title: 25-pair color code


text:
Francisco Flores Pérez

Francisco Guillermo Flores Pérez (17 October 1959 – 30 January 2016) was a Salvadoran politician who served as President of El Salvador from 1 June 1999 to 1 June 2004 as a member of the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA). He previously served as a deputy of the Legislative Assembly from 1994 to 1999, having been president of the Assembly from 1997 to 1999.

Flores was born in Santa Ana. He entered politics in the Alfredo Cristiani administration, serving various positions until his election to the Legislative Assembly, of which he became president after three years. He successfully ran for president in 1999. His administration was characterized by close alignment with the United States, including the adoption of the U.S. dollar. After the end of his presidency, he unsuccessfully ran for Secretary General of the Organization of American States.

Flores was accused in May 2014 of pocketing US$15 million donated by Taiwan, intended for survivors of the January and February 2001 El Salvador earthquakes, which occurred during his presidency. He was the first former Salvadoran president to be indicted and tried on corruption charges. He was placed under house arrest, but died before he could stand trial.

Background
Flores was born on 17 October 1959, in the city of Santa Ana, the capital of Santa Ana Department. He was one of three children of Maria Leonor Pérez de Flores, an ethnographer and folklorist, and Ulises Flores, an economist. Flores graduated from the Escuela Americana El Salvador. He earned an associate degree in sociology from the University of Hartford's Hillyer College, then, majored in political science at Amherst College in Massachusetts, United States, and received a master's degree in philosophy at World University, California. He also studied law, philosophy and economic development at Harvard University and history and literature at Trinity College, Oxford. He entered politics shortly before the assassination of his father-in-law, who was chief of staff to Alfredo Cristiani.

Political career
Flores started his political career as a vice-minister for planning during Alfredo Cristiani's presidency in 1989. Later he served as a vice-minister of the Presidency, with functions as adviser of the head of state, and directed the plan of governmental action in accordance with the peace accords of January 1992 that ended fighting with the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) guerilla group.

In the elections of 20 March 1994, Flores was elected to the Legislative Assembly and the new president, Armando Calderón, made him Secretary of Information of the Presidency.

In 1997, Flores was elected as the President of the Legislative Assembly. The Law of Telecommunications was signed during his presidency of the Legislative Assembly, in which the former government-owned telecommunication company ANTEL was split and sold to two private enterprises. This was supported with approval from ARENA, PCN and PDC, imitating the neoliberal system that supported the administration of governmental agencies by the private enterprise, to improve telecommunication network coverage.

On 29 March 1998, ARENA announced Flores as their candidate for the presidential election of the following year. He was considered a moderate within the party. At the age of 37 (the youngest chief executive on the continent at that time), Flores became the third consecutive president from ARENA by winning an outright majority in the elections in March 1999, and took office on 1 June 1999. He served his five-year term and was succeeded by another member of his political party, Elías Antonio Saca, in July 2004.

Presidency (1999–2004)
Flores's government was characterized by its close alignment with United States policies. El Salvador was one of the steadiest allies of the U.S. government in the region. Three undertakings during his term best exemplify Flores's commitment to close US-Salvadoran relations: First, Flores authorized the deployment of Salvadoran troops to Iraq in support of U.S. forces. Second, during his term a successful free-trade agreement was negotiated between the United States and the Central American region, with the late addition of the Dominican Republic to the roster of participating nations; this agreement was ratified recently by most of the region's countries as well as the U.S. Congress. Finally, Flores was the architect of the Salvadoran economy's migration from its historical currency, the colón, to the U.S. dollar.

Dollarization was an extremely controversial measure, both lauded and panned by local and foreign opinion. From the standpoint of the country's business establishment, dollarization brought about great benefits, such as reduced interest rates (which came about by eliminating currency-exchange risk among other factors), easier trade with other commercial partners and an easier integration onto the global market.

His tenure was marked by an unprecedented rise in the homicide rate, which doubled between 2002 and 2006.

Criticism
Flores's tenure was not without its critics. His actions to further align El Salvador with the United States were widely criticized by his political opponents. In the same manner, he was faulted for an autocratic style of governance, which allowed for very little compromise or consultation with the opposition. The lack of flexibility exemplified by his government resulted in a number of crippling strikes, most notably one led by the medical professionals in an attempt to forestall threatened privatization of the country's public health facilities.

Critics of Flores's dollarization efforts accused him of doing so without popular consensus, except exclusively with bankers. Even though the replacement of Colones with dollars proved to reduce interest rates, it also caused huge long-term inflation as prices were rounded upwards.

Flores also had to deal with reconstruction efforts after two powerful earthquakes struck the country on 13 January 2001. Delivery of international aid was inefficient and was criticized by reporters, especially Mauricio Funes (who later became President of El Salvador) from the local channel TV12, an affiliate of the Mexican company TV Azteca.

Some of Flores's opponents also contended that escalating violence and increasing poverty occurred during his term, but statistics from the World Bank show that poverty did, in fact, decrease during the Flores administration.

Another occurrence was the Summit of the Americas where Flores called Fidel Castro a "dictator" and accused him of being responsible for thousands of deaths which have occurred in El Salvador.

Candidacy for OAS Secretary General
Even before he left office, Flores had expressed his interest in running for the office of Secretary General of the Organization of American States, a post which was won in late 2004 by Miguel Ángel Rodríguez an ex-president from Costa Rica. Later, Rodríguez had to resign from this post when he was indicted in his country for alleged acts of corruption during his tenure as president, a situation which called for an extraordinary election for his successor. Flores once again expressed his intentions of seeking the post, but after much campaigning, had to withdraw due to lack of support from other member states (even though he counted the United States as his chief backer). This situation could be explained because some of his policies were seen as being to closely aligned to US interests at a time when most Latin American governments were highly critical of the positions adopted by the United States. He was the first US-backed candidate not elected to this post since the establishment of the organization.

Corruption charges
At the time of his death, Flores was, along with several other key actors in the deal, being investigated by the Salvadoran Attorney General on corruption and disobedience charges. These recommendations now face scrutiny and debate in the Legislative Assembly. Attorney General Luis Martínez was to have taken up the case against the late former president despite his own prior history of having worked in the previous ARENA administration of Tony Saca and having been Flores's partner in several businesses.

Judge Marta Rosales asked Interpol for help in arresting Flores. He had been charged with stealing $15 million that was donated in 2003 by Taiwan's government during his presidency.

A further charge of disobedience accused Flores of failing to show up for a meeting with a congressional commission investigating what happened to the money Taiwan donated. On 6 September 2014, it was announced that Flores had voluntarily surrendered to the local authorities after months in hiding. He had been living under house arrest in El Salvador since November 2014. On 3 December 2015, Judge Miguel Angel Garcia ordered Flores to stand trial.

In October 2021, his name was mentioned in the Pandora Papers. He was the beneficiary of several companies created in Panama in 2005 and in the British Virgin Islands in 2006.

Death
In early January 2016, Flores suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. On 30 January 2016, Flores died, aged 56, in a private hospital in San Salvador while in a coma after undergoing emergency surgery and suffering irreversible neurological damage.

Personal life
Flores met his wife, Lourdes Rodríguez de Flores, in high school in San Salvador. They had two children, Juan Marcos and Gabriela.

Foreign honours

 * 🇲🇨 Monaco : Grand Cross of the Order of Grimaldi (20 July 2001).

title: Francisco Flores Pérez


text:
User talk:Dougjih

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text:
Urawa-ku, Saitama

Urawa (浦和区) is one of ten wards of the city of Saitama, in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Located in the northeast of the city, Urawa is the governmental center of Saitama and houses most of the city's administrative offices including the city hall, as well as the offices of Saitama Prefectural government. Also, there are several newspaper branch offices and three broadcasting stations.

Geography
Urawa Ward is within the Ōmiya Plateau of the Kantō plain, in the south-central portion of Saitama City.

Neighboring Municipalities
Urawa-ku is surrounded by Midori-ku (to the east), Minami-ku (south), Chūō-ku (west), Ōmiya-ku (north), and Minuma-ku (northeast) of Saitama city.

History
In the Edo period, Urawa-ku flourished as Urawa-shuku, a post station on the Nakasendō highway, which connected Edo with Kyoto. Following the Meiji restoration, Urawa Prefecture was established, and in 1871 merged with Iwatsuki, Urawa, and Oshi Prefectures merged to form Saitama Prefecture, and Urawa as the capital. The modern town of Urawa was officially created within Kitaadachi District, Saitama with the establishment of the municipalities system on April 1, 1889.

After the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake many intellectuals, especially painters, moved to Urawa from Tokyo, Yokohama, and other cities in southern Kantō region. In 1932, Urawa annexed the neighboring villages of Yada and Kisaki, and was elevated to city status on February 11, 1934. Urawa expanded further by annexing the villages of Omagi and Mimuro on April 17, 1940 and town of Mutsuji on April 1, 1942. During World War II, Urawa was bombed twice by Allied forces in April and May 1945.

Urawa continued to expand after the end of the war, absorbing the villages of Tsuchiai and Okubo on January 1, 1955 and part of the town of Toda on April 1, 1959 and part of the village of Misono on May 1, 1962.

On May 1, 2001 Urawa merged with Ōmiya and Yono to form Saitama City. In April 2003 Saitama became a city designated by government ordinance, and now the area of former Urawa City was divided between Sakura-ku, Urawa-ku, Minami-ku, and Midori-ku.

Demographics
, the ward had an estimated population of 166,322 and a population density of 14,000 persons per km2. Its total area was 11.51 sqkm.

Urawa has the second largest population of any ward in Saitama, only behind Minami-ku. The population density is the highest of all the city's wards. As of 2013, the proportion of households with an annual income of 10 million yen (about $102,459) about or more is 15.3%. This is 13th largest of any city ward or municipality in Japan.

As of 2010, university graduates account for 43.4% of the population age 25 or older. This ranks 15th in Japan.

Education
Urawa-ku has 12 elementary schools, five junior high schools, and six high schools.

The City of Saitama operates Urawashi Junior and Senior High School (浦和中学校・高等学校).

Public junior high schools:

 * Kizaki (木崎中学校)
 * Motobuto (本太中学校)
 * Ohara (大原中学校)
 * Tokiwa (常盤中学校)
 * Urawa Junior and Senior High School (浦和中学校・高等学校)

Municipal elementary schools:

 * Daito (大東小学校)
 * Harigaya (針ヶ谷小学校)
 * Kami Kizaki (上木崎小学校)
 * Kishicho (岸町小学校)
 * Kita Urawa (北浦和小学校)
 * Kizaki (木崎小学校)
 * Motobuto (本太小学校)
 * Nakacho (仲町小学校)
 * Nakamoto (仲本小学校)
 * Takasogo (高砂小学校)
 * Tokiwa (常盤小学校)
 * Tokiwa Kita (常盤北小学校)

The Embassy of South Korea in Tokyo maintains the Korea Education Institution (사이타마한국교육원, 埼玉韓国教育院) in Urawa Ward.

Railway
– Tohoku Main Line / Takasaki Line – Keihin Tohoku Line
 * Urawa
 * Urawa - Kita-Urawa – Yono

Bus

 * Tobu Bus West
 * Seibu Bus
 * International Kyogo Bus

Local attractions

 * The Urawa Red Diamonds football (soccer) club in the J. League, arguably the biggest club in Japan and in Asia called the city home after strong support from its citizens. Although its official hometown recognized by the league is whole Saitama city and it is now the club is headquartered in Saitama Stadium in Midori-ku, the hometown support are strong in the area of former Urawa city. When the team has a match at Urawa Komaba Stadium in Urawa-ku or Saitama Stadium, the town becomes more and more crowded with the supporters.

title: Urawa-ku, Saitama


text:
Isaias Afwerki

Isaias Afwerki (ኢሳይያስ ኣፍወርቂ, ; born 2 February 1946) is an Eritrean politician and partisan who has been the first and only president of Eritrea since 1993. In addition to being president, Isaias has been the chairman of Eritrea's sole legal political party, the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ).

Isaias joined the pro-independence Eritrean Liberation Front in 1966 and quickly rose through the ranks to become its leader in 1970, before defecting to form the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF). Having consolidated power within this group, he led pro-independence forces to victory on 24 May 1991, ending the 30-year-old war for independence from Ethiopia, before being elected president of the newly-founded country of Eritrea two years later.

Western scholars and historians have long considered Isaias to be a dictator, with Eritrea's constitution remaining unenforced, electoral institutions effectively being nonexistent as well as a policy of mass conscription. The United Nations and Amnesty International have cited him for human rights violations. In 2024, Reporters Without Borders ranked Eritrea, under the government of Isaias, last out of 180 countries in its Press Freedom Index.

Early life and education
Isaias Afwerki was born on 2 February 1946 in the Geza Kenisha district of Asmara, Eritrea. His father, whose native village was Tselot, just outside of Asmara, was a minor functionary in the state Tobacco Monopoly, his mother was descended from Tigrayan immigrants from the Enderta area.

Isaias spent most of his youth in Asmara. He attended Prince Makonnen High School (PMSS)(now called Asmara Secondary School) where he engaged in discussions about nationalist Eritrean politics. In 1965, he began his studies at the College of Engineering at Haile Selassie I University (now called Addis Ababa University) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. However, he maintained his interest in Eritrean politics and informed his friends that he was planning to join the Eritrean rebels in the field.

Eritrean War of Independence
In September 1966, Isaias along with Haile Woldense and Mussie Tesfamichael traveled to Kassala, Sudan, via Asmara to join the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF). Isaias and his comrades had assumed the ELF was an inclusive revolutionary organization, but they soon realized that the movement was sectarian and generally hostile to Christians. Isaias, Haile and Mussie decided to organized subvertly, forming a secret clandestine cell. To seal their pact the three men signed an oath with their own blood, carving an 'E' on their right arms, symbolizing their determination to die for Eritrea. In 1967, the Chinese government took in five ELF recruits for political commissar training. Among those recruits were Isaias where he studied Maoism as well as the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare. On his return trip he was arrested by Saudi Arabian authorities while attempting to cross the Red Sea on a dhow, he was released nearly six months later.

Upon his return in 1968, Isaias was appointed as a political commissioner of the ELF's Zone 5 in the Hamasien region. He and other ELF members began to criticize the sectarian tendencies of the ELF. In 1969, further power struggles among the ELF leadership and the assassination of several Christian members led to the deflection of the ELF's Zone 5 which included Isaias. This group of around seventy fighters, led by Abraham Tewolde, withdrew to an isolated locality, Ala in northeast of the Akele Guzay near Dekemhare where they were joined by another small contingent of Kebessa fighters under Mesfin Hagos, together they became known as the Ala group. Following Tewolde's death in late 1970, Isaias became the leader of the group.

In August 1971, this group of Christian deflectors held a meeting at Tekli (northern Red Sea) and founded the Selfi Natsinet (“Party of Independence“). They elected a leadership consisting of Isaias, Mesfin Hagos, Tewolde Eyob, Solomon Woldemariam and Asmerom Gerezgiher. They then issued a highly polemical document written by Isaias called, Nihnan Elamanan (“We and Our Goals”), in which they explained the rationale for their decision to create a separate political organization instead of working within the ELF. The document accused the ELF of discriminating against Christian highlanders and killing reformist Christian ELF members. The document instead stressed the unity of the Eritrean nation and called for a "revolutionary organization with a revolutionary line". In August 1971, Selfi Natsinet joined the Popular Liberation Forces (PLF), forming a loose alliance with two other splinter groups, these three groups were jointly represented by Osman Saleh Sabbe.

In February 1972, the ELF declared war on the PLF resulting in a civil war that would last until 1974. During this time, a significant number of Asmara high school and University of Addis Ababa students were recruited which resulted in the Selfi Natsinet becoming the most powerful group within the PLF. A major crisis occurred when the Obel faction led by the former Sudanese army NCO Abu Tayyara, left the group in April 1973. Isaias then called for a more unified administration and military force, which led to the emergence of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) in August 1973. Internal agitation soon arose when the Marxist faction, led by his old friend Mussie Tesfamichael, called for more radical policies and began to accuse the movement of being too authoritarian. Isaias denounced his rivals in a publication and mobilized his supporters arrest Mussie and other colleagues. After a brief trial, all eleven EPLF leaders including Mussie were executed on 11 August 1974. In 1977, EPLF held its first congress, at which Isaias was elected vice-secretary general.

Although Isaias had to initially share power with others who led the EPLF, by the early 1980s he was able to transform it into the movement he envisioned. The EPLF became a tough nationalist organization controlled by a highly centralized inner party which made all the important decisions. From the mid 1980s, Isaias made a bid to marginalize the political core of the EPLF's founding leadership and pack the political bodies with men unwaveringly loyal to him. This coincided with the second congress of the EPLF in 1987, when he was elevated to the status of secretary-general of the organization. According to Dan Connell, this was approximately when Isaias took unquestioned control of the EPLF. As the leader of the Eritrean struggle against Ethiopian rule, Isaias became the icon of the resistance. In April 1991, the EPLF took Asmara from Ethiopian forces; the following month, they drove out Derg troops in the area. After the Derg was overthrown by the EPRDF on 28 May, Isaias quickly obtained U.S. support for Eritrean independence; in June 1991, his organization announced their desire to hold a United Nations-sponsored referendum.

Independence of Eritrea
In April 1993, a United Nations-supervised referendum on independence was held, and the following month Eritrea achieved de jure independence. Isaias was elected as the president of the State of Eritrea by the National Assembly and declared the first head of state, a position he has held ever since the end of the war for independence.

On 16 February 1994, the EPLF held its third congress, renamed itself the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) as part of its transition to a political party and Isaias was elected secretary-general by an overwhelming majority of votes. Isaias undertook a series of economic reforms. He implemented a national service program in May 1994 in which individuals would serve for 18 months. Military training was the focus for the first six months, followed by awareness of the country and expansion of its agricultural sector.

Elections
In his first few years Isaias was hailed as a new type of African president with then-US President Bill Clinton referring to him as a "renaissance African leader". However, in 1997, a new constitution was drawn up, but never enacted, and elections were cancelled. In an April 2000 speech at Princeton University, Isaias said that "constitutionality, political pluralism and free and fair elections are naturally the best institutional tools" for achieving economic prosperity given the political and cultural realities of a specific country. However, a parliamentary election scheduled in 2001 was later postponed indefinitely. Although police are responsible for upholding internal security and the armed forces' external security, eyewitness reports exist of the armed forces engaging with demobilizing soldiers or civilian militias to complete the hybrid tasks of both. Civil authorities sometimes involve themselves with security forces in an abuse of power.

In 2018, Isaias' former comrade, Andebrhan Welde Giorgis, said that Isaias went on to personalise power, and "having personalised power, he abused it to the maximum". Notwithstanding, during the African Unity summit in Cairo in 1993, Isaias had criticized other leaders for staying in power for too long, and he had also rejected a cult of personality.

In 2000, 15 ministers (including his vice president) wrote an open letter asking him to step down. On September 18, 2001, he closed the national press and prominent opposition leaders were arrested. In 2010, when asked when elections would be held, he responded "Let's wait 3 or 4 decades".

Economics
In 2009, Isaias advocated for the development of indigenous political and economic institutions, and a strategy that suited Eritrea's internal conditions and available resources. The key elements were to include ambitious infrastructure development campaigns both in terms of power, transport, and telecommunications, as well as with basic healthcare and educational facilities.

According to the World Bank, Eritrea's recent growth has been associated with the agricultural (one-third of the economy and 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and mining sectors (20 percent). Real GDP grew by 12 percent in 2018, but fell 2.7 percent from 2015 to 2018. Deflation existed from 2016 to 2018 due to a currency change, and continued in 2018 after economic and trade ties with Ethiopia were reestablished. On 18 May 2012, Isaias said in a VOA interview that the country's development over two decades of independence was "a success story". As a result of regional insecurity in 1998, Eritrea has a strong fiscal policy caused by a sharp drop in capital spending and reductions in revenue. Fiscal pressures, however, are likely to increase.

Human rights
As of 2013, Amnesty International reported that the government of Isaias imprisoned at least 10,000 political prisoners. Amnesty also claimed that torture—for punishment, interrogation and coercion—is widespread.

In June 2015, a United Nations panel accused Isaias of leading a totalitarian government responsible for systematic human rights violations in Eritrea that may amount to crimes against humanity. Norwegian academic Kjetil Tronvoll said that concentration camps for individuals from opposition groups and labor camps with makeshift facilities (often made from shipping containers) exist. The government has banned independent newspapers and arrested journalists critical of Isaias since 2001, including G-15: a group of People's Front for Democracy and Justice officials who appealed for an open election. Eritrea is closed to human-rights organizations, who are forced to obtain information from émigrés.

The government has been accused of enforced disappearances; torture; arbitrary detention, censorship; libel; human trafficking; criminalizing same-sex activity; arbitrary and unlawful violations of privacy, judicial independence, freedom of speech, association, movement and religion; and forced labor (including national service past the 18-month legal obligation). An August 2015 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report documented the use of unlawful force (torture and battery) by security authorities against prisoners, national service evaders, army deserters, asylum seekers without travel documents, and religious groups. In June 2018, a thirty-year-old man reportedly died as a result of torture and delayed medical treatment. He was arrested while attending the burial that March of Hajji Musa Mohammed Nur, director of an Islamic school. Freedom in the World rated Eritrea "not free" in 2022; the country scored one out of 40 for political rights and two out of 60 for civil liberties.

Ethiopia
During the Ethiopian Civil War, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) was initially inspired by the Eritreans and received assistance for their independence. By the 1980s and 1990s, the TPLF emerged as a powerful rebel group that increased its military skills in the revolutionary struggle. The groups disagreed and broke up in 1985. Eritrea has engaged in border conflicts since its independence, most notably a war between 1998 and 2000. The war began after Eritrea invaded Ethiopia over the disputed border of Badme on 6 May 1998, and resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths within two years. On 12 December 2000, Eritrea signed the Algiers Agreement to end the war; however, the countries remained in a "no-war-no-peace" stalemate. Eritrea has security concerns about Ethiopia, particularly its support of weak, splintered Eritrean opposition groups. Isaias uses the disputed border to maintain a war footing and justify indefinite mass mobilization and repression. Eritrea supported Ethiopian rebel groups such as the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) to undermine regional Ethiopian influence. In Somalia, Eritrea has trained, armed, and financed militias opposed to the Ethiopian government during its transitional government. The UN Monitoring Group on Somalia recommended an embargo against Eritrea, Ethiopia and other states.

In late 2008, the relationship between the countries was deemed strained; the Ethiopian Border Commission (EEBC) did not outline the border in November 2007. The United Nations Missions in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) ended in 2008, and Eritrean troops briefly occupied the Temporary Security Zone. Ethiopia remained in control of the EEBC's border inside Eritrea and reached Badme, triggering mass mobilization and high troop concentrations in the area. Eritrea's unchanged stance reinforced the EEBC'S decision, which was backed by international law; Ethiopia remained in de facto compliance and had strong relations with the UN. In 2018, Isaias oversaw an unexpected transformation of Eritrea's relations with Ethiopia. The 20-year stalemate ended after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018. Abiy signed a "joint declaration of peace and friendship" at a bilateral summit on 9 July, restoring diplomatic and trade ties with Eritrea. The agreement includes reopening Burre to access the landlocked Ethiopian Port of Eritrea and Zalambessa for trade, and access to Ethio telecom and Ethiopian Airlines. On 16 September, Abiy signed another peace treaty with Isaias in Jeddah. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir tweeted that the agreement "will contribute to strengthening security and stability in the region at large". This was widely acknowledged by numerous world leaders, with the UAE Government awarding Isaias the Order of Zayed (First Class) in recognition of his efforts to end the conflict.

After July 2018, the Ethiopian and Eritrean intelligence agencies started a close cooperation. This worried Eritrean refugees in Addis Ababa, some of whom were temporarily detained for three weeks, acquitted by Ethiopian courts, and only released two weeks after their acquittal.

The Tigray War began on 3 November 2020 after the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the former ruling party in Ethiopia, attacked the Northern Command center camps of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) in Tigray and pushed them to Eritrea. The Eritrean Defence Forces joined hands with the ENDF and allegedly with the help of UAE armed drones counter-attacked the TPLF forces. There was alleged looting in Tigray Region, including systematic, wide-scale looting in Axum following the Axum massacre in late November 2020. After several weeks of Ethiopian government denial of the presence of Eritrean troops in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Prime Minister admitted to the presence of Eritrean troops in Ethiopia and agreed to withdraw them. Under international pressure, on 26 March 2021, after a meeting between Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Isaias, it was announced that Eritrean troops would withdraw from the Tigray Region.

Sudan
Relations between Eritrea and Sudan were initially hostile; shortly after independence in 1993, Eritrea charged Sudan with supporting the activities of Eritrean Islamic Jihad, which carried out attacks against the Eritrean government. Eritrea broke relations with Sudan at the end of 1994, became a strong supporter of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), and permitted the opposition National Democratic Alliance to locate its headquarters in the former Sudan embassy in Asmara.

Relations were later reestablished in December 2005. A year later, Isaias and Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir met for the first time since 2001 in Khartoum. Isaias later described relations with Sudan as resting on solid ground and having "bright prospects." Eritrea played a prominent role in brokering a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and Sudan's Eastern Front.

On 10 May 2014, the state-owned Sudan News Agency announced during Isaias' visit to the Al Jeili oil refinery that Sudan had agreed to supply Eritrea with fuel and boost its economic partnership. It was also reported that the Sudanese Electricity Company planned to supply a 45 km power line from Kassala to the Eritrean town of Teseney. On 4 May 2021, Isaias visited Khartoum to discuss the ongoing border dispute between Ethiopia and Sudan. In conversation with Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, head of Sudan's Transitional Sovereignty Council, he raised regional issues and the long-time dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

Djibouti
Relations between Eritrea and Djibouti date back to 1991. The countries waged war in April 1996 when Djibouti accused Eritrea of shelling Ras Doumeira, a small village bounded by Ethiopia's Afar Region. Eritrea was also accused of redrawing the map of the area. Eritrea denied both claims. The conflict worsened until May 1996, when Eritrean forces retreated from the area and Djibouti retracted the allegations. The Eritrean–Ethiopian War was a threat to and an opportunity for Djibouti. Ethiopia diverted trade through Djibouti via Eritrean ports, strengthening economic ties in accordance with the 1996 protocol. In 1999, Djibouti and Ethiopia signed a military cooperation agreement.

In 1998, Eritrea accused Djibouti of using its port to supply military equipment to Ethiopia. In June of that year, Djibouti deployed military force in the north to avoid an incursion during the war; French troops were involved with their Djiboutian counterparts. In 1999, France sent two frigates to guard against any approaches toward Ethiopia and Eritrea. Djiboutian President Hassan Gouled Aptidon's November 1998 attempt to mediate the Eritrean–Ethiopian War during the Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit was rejected by Eritrea for perceived partiality. Djibouti expelled its Eritrean ambassadors and Tekest Ghebrai, an Eritrean national and the former executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), was dismissed.

The December 1997 treaty was deemed too weak. Eritrea accused Djibouti of siding with Ethiopia in 1999, and Djibouti accused Eritrea of supporting Djiboutian rebel groups in the Ras Doumeira area; Eritrea denied this. Rapprochement between the countries returned in March 2000, after mediation by Libya. Isaias visited Djibouti in 2001, and President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh visited Eritrea. This visit created a joint cooperative commission which would conduct an annual review. Guelleh sought a friendly relationship with Eritrea, despite their military imbalance.

Guelleh visited the disputed area on 22 April 2008, and the Djiboutian Foreign Ministry said that the Eritrean position lay several kilometers inside Djiboutian territory. Eritrea denied an accusation that its soldiers had dug trenches, and military officials met two days later to compare the border map. Djibouti sent troops to the area. Guelleh said on 9 May that the "two armies are facing each other"; the situation was explosive, with hostile forces ready to dismantle Djiboutian sovereignty. With reported Qatari mediation, both sides agreed to resolve the confrontation by negotiation.

Somalia
In July 2018, Eritrea and Somalia established diplomatic relations. On 28 July, Somalian president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed began a three-day visit with Isaias in Asmara during which Somalia expressed solidarity with Eritrea in diplomacy and international politics.

Russia
Along with Belarus, Syria, and North Korea, Eritrea was one of only four countries not including Russia to vote against a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In July 2023, Isaias attended the Russia–Africa Summit in Saint Petersburg and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the meeting with Putin, Isaias openly denied the existence of a war between Russia and Ukraine.

Forto incident
About 100 soldiers broke into Forto, the building housing the information-ministry correspondent for state television Eri-TV, on 21 January 2013 and surrounded the staff. They forced station director Asmelash Abraha to read a demand to release all prisoners of conscience and political prisoners and to implement the 1997 constitution. After he read two sentences, the station went off the air. Isaias' bodyguards were urged to protect him, his palace, and his airport. Eri-TV returned to the air at 10 a.m. to report a snowstorm in Paris. The mutiny subsided after the government negotiated the release of the ministry's employees.

Personal life
In the summer of 1981, Isaias met his wife, former EPLF fighter Saba Haile, in a village called Nakfa. As of 2010 they had three children: Abraham, Elsa, and Berhane.

Shortly before Eritrea declared independence, Isaias contracted cerebral malaria and was flown to Israel for treatment. Arriving in a coma, he was treated at Sheba Medical Center, where he recovered after successful treatment. As of 2019, he was a member of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, one of the four legal churches in Eritrea.

His nickname "Isu" was frequently used in conversation, and to refer to Isaias in his political capacity, and has appeared in news articles as well.

His training in China made him a great admirer of Mao Zedong, but he reportedly hates Deng Xiaoping.

Temperament
In a 2008 leaked assessment, United States ambassador Ronald McMullen described Isaias as "paranoid" and believing that "Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi tried to kill him and that the United States will attempt to assassinate him."

Foreign honours

 * 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
 * Spange des König-Abdulaziz-Ordens.png Order of King Abdulaziz (16 September 2018)
 * 🇷🇸 Serbia
 * Orden Republike Srbije 2.gif Order of the Republic of Serbia, Second Class (2016)
 * 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
 * Ribbon bar of the Order of Zayed.svg Order of Zayed, First Class (24 July 2018)

title: Isaias Afwerki


text:
Talk:Wards of Japan

Titles
There really needs to be a uniform system for titling these things. Tokyo's wards are currently titled with nothing more than the ward name (e.g. Chuo), while the ward links under other cities often have wacky romanizations (e.g. "Chuuou-ku, Oosaka"). Can we agree on something so that these can all get written up?

Some possibilities:

 * "Chuo, Tokyo"
 * "Chuo Ward, Tokyo"
 * "Chuo (Tokyo)"
 * "Chuo-ku, Tokyo"

And how about wards like Urawa and Omiya, which used to be cities? Do they get suffixes?

-User:Sekicho

As it stands now...
 * All of Tokyo wards are Ward, Tokyo
 * The two extant Saitama wards are Ward, Saitama
 * Most of the others are Ward-ku, Prefecture with a few Ward, Prefectures as well

Yes standardize. IMO, preferably not "Place (City)" and preferably not "Place Ward, City" since those are the least common. I am leaning towards "Place, Prefecture", but the technical best is probably "Place-ku, Prefecture".

Side note: the format for all prefecture article names in the text should always be "City (Kanji; -ku)" -- EmperorBMA|話す 14:20, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * I think that Ward, City and Ward-ku, City are the two best options. Wards are components of cities, not prefectures. -- Sekicho 14:33, Aug 5, 2004 (UTC)
 * I stand corrected. The odd thing is that most cities that have wards are both prefectural captial and have the same name as the prefecture...  rather ironic :P -- EmperorBMA|話す 15:51, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Actually, it's evenly split.

 * Same: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Saitama, Chiba, Hiroshima

 * Different: Kobe, Hyogo; Nagoya, Aichi; Sapporo, Hokkaido; Kitakyushu, Fukuoka; Kawasaki, Kanagawa; Yokohama, Kanagawa; Sendai, Miyagi

 * Sorry to be pedantic, I'm just bored right now... - Sekicho 17:54, Aug 6, 2004 (UTC)

As written in the MoS for Japan-related articles, I'm going to change as many of the links as I can to make them more uniform. It will take a while because there's already so many redirects and random naming conventions but it will make it a lot easier to change again in the future if it's done now. Any help would be appreciated (as long as you're not working against me!) freshgavin  TALK   01:24, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Wards of Japan


text:
Girma Wolde-Giorgis

Girma Wolde-Giorgis (ግርማ ወልደ ጊዮርጊስ; 28 December 1924 – 15 December 2018) was an Ethiopian politician who was the president of Ethiopia from 2001 to 2013. He was the second person to hold the office of president since the founding of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1995.

Early life
Girma was born on 28 December 1924 in Addis Ababa. He first attended an Ethiopian Orthodox Church school and later joined the Teferi Mekonnen School in Addis Ababa where he followed his education until the Italian invasion. The school was then renamed Scuola Principe di Piemonte (Prince of Piedmonte School) for the Crown Prince of Italy.

Between 1950 and 1952, he received certificates in management (from the Netherlands), in air traffic management (in Sweden) and air traffic control (in Canada) under a training programme sponsored by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). He was one of the first Ethiopians in the Ethiopian Air Force, which had been dominated by American technicians. Girma tried to motivate Ethiopians to join the airlines and wrote a book on fundamentals. He was an activist and at the Inter Parliamentary Summit in Yugoslavia, he condemned the apartheid system in South Africa. Girma spoke Afan Oromo (Oromiffa), Amharic, and English fluently.

Political career
Girma was elected president on 8 October 2001, as a relatively unknown and a surprising choice, by a unanimous vote of the Ethiopian Parliament. The Ethiopian presidency is largely a symbolic office with little power. Most of the power is vested in the hands of the prime minister. Presidents serve two six-year terms. He was re-elected as president on 9 October 2007.

Personal life
He was married and had five children. He was a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. He was widely renowned for his usual presence at Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Meskel Demera Festivals.

Girma died of natural causes on 15 December 2018, 13 days before his 94th birthday.

Government service

 * 1941: Enlisted at the Ethiopian Military Radio Communication set up by the United Kingdom
 * 1944: Graduated from the Holetta Military Academy as a sub-lieutenant
 * 1946: Joined the Air Force in and took various air management courses
 * 1948: Became assistant teacher in air navigation and flight control
 * 1951: Became director general of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Planning at its establishment
 * 1955: Became head of Civil Aviation of Eritrea (Eritrea, at the time, was part of the Federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea)
 * 1957: Assumed the post of director general of the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority and was board member of the Ethiopian Airlines during the same period.
 * 1961: Became member of the lower house (Chamber of Deputies) of the Imperial Ethiopian Parliament
 * Elected speaker of the lower house (Chamber of Deputies) of the Imperial Ethiopian Parliament for three consecutive years.
 * Helped win a seat for the Ethiopian Parliament in the International Parliamentary Union and attended conferences of the IPU in Switzerland, Denmark and former Yugoslavia and was elected as vice president of the 52nd Meeting of the International Parliamentary Union.
 * Served as manager of the Import and Export Enterprise (IMPEX).
 * Served as deputy commissioner of the Peace Programme drawn up in 1977 by the provisional military government of Ethiopia (Derg) to settle the Eritrean problem peacefully.
 * 2000: Became member of the House of Peoples' Representatives of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) after winning in the Becho woreda constituency, Mirab Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region, as an independent candidate in the second round elections

Experience in non-governmental offices
Between 1965 and 1974:

 * Board member of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce
 * Representative for Australian Trade Mission in Ethiopia
 * Founder and director of the Ghibe Agricultural Association
 * Founder and director of the Keffa and Illubabor Timber Processing Industry

While in the then province of Eritrea before 1990:

 * President of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society – Eritrea Branch (Asmara)
 * Board president of Cheshire Home
 * Managing director of Leprosy Control Organization

Upon returning to Addis Ababa in 1990, he served as board member of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society and head of its International Logistics Department.

He launched an environmental protection association called Lem Ethiopia in March 1992 and has served as its vice president.

Two days before Ethiopian Christmas, on 5 January 2014 he made a clear statement on Ethiopia TV, calling for pacification between Ethiopia and Eritrea, calling it his last personal task and fight. He is coordinating from his office a group of people trying to launch peace talks, after fifteen years of disagreements, culminating in the Eritrean–Ethiopian War of 1998–2000.

Official biography
Indian author Sivakumar K.P. has produced the official biography of Girma Wolde Giorgis. The book, Under the Shade of a Gaashe, was released on 15 July 2015 at the official residence of the former president. Micro Business College is the publisher of the Ethiopian edition. The author acknowledges the role of Abera Tilahun, founder and president of Micros Business College in Ambo in introducing him to the former president and financing the publishing of the book.

title: Girma Wolde-Giorgis


text:
Koba

Koba may refer to:

Places

 * Koba, Burkina Faso
 * Koba, Indonesia, a town in Bangka-Belitung, Indonesia
 * Koba, Faranah, Guinea
 * Koba, Kindia, Guinea
 * Koba Island, one of the Aru Islands of Indonesia
 * Gupo Island, an island in Penghu County, Taiwan
 * Fitzroy Island (Queensland), originally Koba, an island off the coast of Far North Queensland, Australia
 * Niokolo-Koba National Park, a World Heritage Site and natural protected area in south eastern Senegal near the Guinea-Bissau border
 * Niokolo-Koba Airport
 * Kapitaï and Koba, two areas on the coast of West Africa which were the object of German colonial initiatives in 1884 and 1885. They lay between the Pongo and Dubréka rivers, south of Senegal and Gambia in modern Guinea

People

 * Koba, a nickname used by Joseph Stalin
 * Koba (given name)
 * Koba (surname), a Japanese surname

Fictional figures

 * Koba, a character from the 1883 novel The Patricide by Alexander Kazbegi
 * Koba, a character from the 2011 film Warrior
 * Koba, a fictional bonobo and the main antagonist of the Planet of the Apes reboot series

Arts

 * Koba Entertainment
 * Koba (play), a play by Raymond Williams, based on Stalin's life
 * Koba the Dread, a 2002 non-fiction book by Martin Amis
 * Koba LaD, real name Marcel Junior Loutarila, French rapper

Others

 * Koba language, a language of Indonesia
 * Koba (sweet), a confectionery sweet
 * Kutama Old Boys Association, Zimbabwe
 * Koba, a plant that is indigenous to Ethiopia

title: Koba