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Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen

Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (30 March 1818 – 11 March 1888) was a German mayor and cooperative pioneer. Several credit union systems and cooperative banks have been named after Raiffeisen, who pioneered rural credit unions.

Life
Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen was born on 30 March 1818 at Hamm/Sieg, Westerwald region. He was the seventh of nine children. His father Gottfried Friedrich Raiffeisen was a farmer and also served as the mayor of Hamm. His family’s origins trace back to the 16th century in the Swabian-Franconian region. The family of his mother, Amalie Christiane Susanna Maria, born Lantzendörffer, came from the Siegerland region. Leaving school at the age of 14 he received three years of education from a local pastor before entering the military at the age of 17. His career in the military led him to Cologne, Koblenz, and Sayn. After an eye disease forced him to resign from military service in 1843 he entered public service. He served as the mayor of several towns: from 1845 he was the mayor of Weyerbusch/Westerwald; from 1848 the mayor of Flammersfeld/Westerwald; and the mayor of Heddesdorf from 1852 until late 1865, when, at the age of 47, his worsening health cut his career short. He had contracted typhus in 1863 during an epidemic which took his wife's life. As his small pension was not sufficient to meet the needs of Raiffeisen’s family he initially started a small cigar factory and later a wine business.

In 1867, he married the widow Maria Panseroth. She outlived him by 12 years and their marriage remained childless. He died on 11 March 1888 in Neuwied-Heddesdorf, shortly before his 70th birthday.

Work
Raiffeisen conceived of the idea of cooperative self-help during his tenure as the young mayor of Flammersfeld. He was inspired by observing the suffering of the farmers who were often in the grip of loan sharks. He founded the first cooperative lending bank, in effect the first rural credit union in 1864.

Motivated by the misery of the poor during the winter famine of 1846/47 he founded the “Verein für Selbstbeschaffung von Brod und Früchten” (Association for Self-procurement of Bread and Fruits). He bought flour with the help of private donations. The bread was baked in a community-built bakery and distributed on credit to the poorest amongst the population. A bread society as well as an aid society were founded in 1849 in Flammersfeld, and a benevolent society was created in 1854 in Heddesdorf. The societies were pre-cooperative organizations based on the principle of benevolent assistance.

To ensure liquidity equalization between the small credit banks, in 1872 Raiffeisen created the first rural central bank at Neuwied, the “Rheinische Landwirtschaftliche Genossenschaftsbank” (Rhenish Agricultural Cooperative Bank). In 1881, Raiffeisen created a printing house in Neuwied that still exists today, carries his name and was merged in 1975 with the German cooperative publishing house “Deutscher Genossenschafts-Verlag”.

Philosophy
Raiffeisen stated that there is a connection between poverty and dependency. To fight poverty one should fight dependency first. Based on this idea he came up with the three 'S' formula: self-help, self-governance, and self-responsibility (in the original German: Selbsthilfe, Selbstverwaltung, and Selbstverantwortung). When put into practice, the necessary independence from charity, politics, and loan sharks could be established.

Organizations named for Raiffeisen
Several credit unions are named after Raiffeisen:
 * Raiffeisen Zentralbank, RZB, a cooperative bank based in Austria, and operating in Eastern Europe.
 * The Kosovo subsidiary of RZB sponsors the soccer Raiffeisen Superleague of Kosovo.
 * Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken, a federation of Raiffeisen cooperatives in Germany.
 * Raiffeisen (Switzerland), the federation of Raiffeisen cooperative banks in Switzerland.
 * Federazione Raiffeisen (Alto Adige - Sudtirol, Italia), the federation of Raiffeisen cooperative banks in the autonome province of Bozen, Sudtirol.
 * Raiffeisen Bank (Romania), a branch of the Raiffeisen Zentralbank.
 * Rabobank, officially Coöperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank B.A., cooperative banking system in the Netherlands.
 * Banque Raiffeisen, Luxembourg.
 * KBC Bank, the C stands for Cera (Centrale Raiffeisenkas, meaning Central Raiffeisen Bank).

title: Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen


text:
Pinsk

Pinsk (Пінск; Пинск, ; Pińsk; Пінськ; פינסק) is a city in Brest Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Pinsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. It is located in the historical region of Polesia, at the confluence of the Pina River and the Pripyat River. The region was known as the Pinsk Marshes and is southwest of Minsk. As of 2024, it has a population of 124,295.

The historic city has a restored city centre, with two-storey buildings from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The centre has become an active place for youths of all ages with summer theme parks and a new association football stadium, which houses the city's football club, FC Volna Pinsk.

Timeline up to WWI

 * 1097 – the first mention of Pinsk
 * 1241 – transfer of the Orthodox diocese from Turov
 * 1316 – after this date, Pinsk was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
 * 1396 – a Catholic church and a Franciscan monastery were erected
 * 1492 – Pinsk becomes a royal city, first owned by King Alexander
 * 1569 – Pinsk becomes a seat of the poviat
 * 1581 – king Stephen Báthory grants Pinsk city rights
 * 1642–1646 - Saint Andrew Bobola stayed in the Jesuit monastery in Pinsk and nearby, conducting evangelistic activity
 * 1648 – rebellion of the city and admission of Cossack forces under the command of Colonel Maxim Hładki. The slaughter of burghers not of the Orthodox religion. The assault of Janusz Radziwiłł's troops on the city, under the command of the hetman Hrehory Mirski of about 1200–1300 people, ended with the capture of the city. The city was burned to the ground and about 1/3 – 1/2 of the inhabitants were killed (it is estimated that on the eve of the Khmelnytsky Uprising, Pinsk had about 10,000 inhabitants)
 * 1655 – Russians and Cossacks attacked the city and murdered many inhabitants.
 * 1657 – in mid-May Zdanowicz's cossacks (about 2,000) destroyed the city and murdered many Roman Catholics. Jesuits, incl. Fr. Simon Maffon and Saint Andrew Bobola
 * 1660 – Cossacks attacked Pinsk, robbed a Jesuit college and church, and murdered, among others Fr. Eustachy Piliński
 * 1662 – return of the Jesuits to Pinsk, fire of the monastery after a year
 * 1666 – foundation of the Dominican monastery
 * 1690 – foundation of the Karolin settlement by Jan Karol Dolski
 * 1695 – construction of a church and castle in Carolina by Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki
 * 1706 – from May 5 to June 3. The capture of Pinsk by King of Sweden Charles XII. Blowing up the castle of Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki
 * 1707 – the occupation of Pinsk by the army of General Halast and General Hołowina
 * 1709–1710 and in 1716: a great epidemic with thousands of victims
 * 1717 – construction of the Bernardine monastery
 * 1734 – construction of a Carmelite monastery
 * 1756 – construction of the Mariavite Order [de] monastery
 * 1767 – construction of the Ogiński Channel
 * 1775 – construction of the Royal Canal
 * 1793 – the Second Partition of the Commonwealth. Pinsk now belongs to Russian Empire.
 * 1795 – establishment of the Catholic diocese of Pinsk (previously Pinsk was in the diocese of Lutsk)
 * 1799 – the incorporation of Karolina into Pinsk
 * 1796 – the liquidation of the Uniate diocese of Pinsk
 * 1799 – liquidation of the Pinsk Catholic diocese (it was moved to Minsk)
 * 1812 – in July, Pinsk was taken by Napoleon's army
 * 1850 – a candle and soap factory was established
 * 1882 – a railway line was brought from Żabinka and a match factory was opened
 * 1885 – construction of a river shipyard in Leszcze
 * 1907–1909: a provincial circle of the Polish Education Association in Minsk operated in the city, which organized lectures on Polish literature and vocabulary, which, according to a report by the Russian police, "increased Polish national consciousness".
 * 1909 – during the local elections 22 Belarusians (orthodox), 7 Poles (catholics), 2 Jews and 1 representative of other nationalities were elected to the city council
 * 1915 – Russian authorities abandon the city escaping from advancing German forces

WWI and Polish–Soviet War
Pinsk was occupied by the German Empire on 15 September 1915, during the First World War. After the German defeat, Pinsk became the subject of dispute between the Belarusian People's Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic, both short-lived. Pinsk was taken by the advancing Red Army on 25 January 1919, during the Soviet westward offensive of 1918–19. It was retaken by Polish troops on 5 March 1919 during the Polish–Soviet War but was retaken by the Red Army on 23 July 1920 and finally retaken by the Polish on 26 September 1920. Pińsk became part of the reborn Poland in 1920 when the Polish-Soviet War ended with the Peace of Riga, signed in March 1921.

Like many other cities in Eastern Europe, Pinsk had a significant Jewish population before World War II. According to the Russian census of 1897, out of the total number of 28,400 inhabitants, Jews were approximately 74% of the population (21,100 persons), making it one of the most Jewish cities under tsarist rule. During the Polish-Soviet War, 35 Jewish civilians from Pinsk were executed by the Polish Army in April 1919 after being accused of collaborating with Russian Bolsheviks. The incident, known as the Pinsk massacre, created a diplomatic crisis noted at the Versailles Conference.

Interwar period
Pińsk was the initial capital of the Polesie Voivodeship, but it moved to Brześć-nad-Bugiem (now Brest, Belarus) after a citywide fire on 7 September 1921. The population of the city grew rapidly in interwar Poland from 23,497 in 1921 to 33,500 in 1931. Pińsk became a bustling commercial centre, and 70% of the population was Jewish, in spite of considerable migration.

Second World War
Following the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, Pinsk and the surrounding area was annexed to the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was the seat of the Pinsk Oblast from 1940.

After Operation Barbarossa, Germany occupied Pinsk from 4 July 1941 to 14 July 1944, as part of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Most Jews were killed in late October 1942 during the liquidation of the Pińsk Ghetto by the German Ordnungspolizei and the Byelorussian Auxiliary Police, 10,000 being murdered in one day. In 1945, after postwar border adjustments of Poland, Pinsk again became part of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Post-WWII and independence
In 1954 it became part of the Brest Voblast.

Pinsk has formed part of the Republic of Belarus since Belarusian independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Landmarks
Three main sights of the town are lined along the river: the Assumption Cathedral of the Monastery of the Greyfriars (1712–1730), with a campanile from 1817, the Jesuit collegium (1635–1648); a large Mannerist complex, whose cathedral was demolished after World War II by communists; and the Butrymowicz Palace (1784–1790), built for Mateusz Butrymowicz, an important political and economical figure of Pinsk and Polesie. The Church of St. Charles Borromeo (1770—1782) and St. Barbara Cathedral of the Monastery of the St. Bernard Order (1786–1787) are placed near historic centre in the former Karolin suburb, which is now part of Pinsk. The foremost modern building is the black-domed Orthodox Cathedral of St. Theodore.

Notable people

 * Aaron of Pinsk (died 1841), rabbi
 * Matheus Butrymowicz (1745–1814), Polish-Lithuanian statesman, reformer of Polesye
 * Vladimir Chub (1948–), governor of Rostov Oblast in Russia
 * Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich, (1808–1884), Belarusian writer, poet, dramatist and social activist, author of the play Pinskaya shlyakhta
 * Baruch Epstein (1860–1941), bookkeeper, rabbi and prolific Jewish scholar, best known for his Torah Temimah commentary on the Torah
 * William Moses Feldman (1880–1939), child physiologist, born in Pinsk
 * Semyon Furman (1920–1978), Chess grandmaster and trainer of World Champion Anatoly Karpov
 * Jonah Gogol (?– 1602), Orthodox and later an Uniate bishop
 * Olga Govortsova, (1988–) Belarusian tennis player
 * Chaim Kanievsky (1928–2022), prominent Rabbi
 * Ryszard Kapuściński (1932–2007), Polish writer and reporter
 * Danila Klimovich (2003-), NHL prospect currently under contract with the Vancouver Canucks, and currently on the active roster for the AHL Abbotsford Canucks
 * Igor Kolb (1977–), principal dancer of Mariinsky Ballet
 * Andrzej Kondratiuk (1936–2016), Polish film director, screenwriter, actor, and cinematographer
 * Simon Kuznets (1901–1985), 1971 Nobel laureate in economics
 * parents of Ralph Lauren, American fashion designer lived in Pinsk before moving to the U.S.A
 * Golda Meir (1898–1978), fourth prime minister of Israel, born in Kiev, lived two years of her childhood in Pinsk
 * Shabsay Moshkovsky (1895–1982), noted physician, research scientist and malariologist
 * Adam Naruszewicz (1733–1796), Polish-Lithuanian poet, historian, bishop
 * Narymunt, (1277–1348), Prince of Pinsk
 * Theodore Odrach (1912–1964), Ukrainian and Polesian writer of novels, short stories and memoirs
 * Napoleon Orda (1807–1883), Polish-Lithuanian musician, pianist, composer and artist
 * Sławomir Rawicz (1915–2004), Polish Army lieutenant, claimed to have walked from Siberia to India during World War II
 * Bona Sforza, (1494–1557), Queen consort of Poland and Grand Duchess consort of Lithuania, Princess of Pinsk
 * Yauhen Shatokhin (1947–2012), Belarusian painter and political activist
 * Izya Shlosberg (1950–), Jewish American artist, born in Pinsk and lived in Pinsk for 44 years
 * Sir Isaac Shoenberg (1880–1963), electrical engineer born in Pinsk, principal inventor of the first high-definition television system, as used by the BBC
 * Helena Skirmunt (1827–1874), Polesian painter and sculptor
 * Raman Skirmunt (1868–1939), Belarusian and Polesian statesman, aristocrat and landlord
 * Kazimierz Świątek (1914–2011), Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, Metropolitan Archbishop of Minsk-Mohilev and Apostolic Administrator of Pinsk
 * Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952), first president of Israel, born in Motal, near Pinsk and educated in Pinsk
 * Tatiana Woollaston (1986–), professional snooker referee, born in Pinsk
 * Leo Zeitlin (1884–1930), composer, born in Pinsk before studying in Odessa and later moving to the U.S.A.
 * Ivan Zholtovsky (1867–1959), Soviet architect and educator

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

title: Pinsk


text:
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text:
Copeland

Copeland or Copeland's may refer to:

Australia

 * Copeland, New South Wales

Canada

 * Copeland Islands (Nunavut)
 * Copeland Islands Marine Provincial Park, in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia
 * Mount Copeland, also Copeland Ridge and Copeland Creek in same vicinity, in the Monashee Mountains of British Columbia

United Kingdom

 * Borough of Copeland, former local government area of Cumbria, England
 * Copeland (UK Parliament constituency)
 * An alternative name for Allerdale above Derwent, where the borough was named
 * Copeland Islands, Northern Ireland

United States

 * Copeland, Florida
 * Copeland, Idaho
 * Copeland, Kansas
 * Copeland, Thomas County, Kansas
 * Copeland, North Carolina
 * Copeland, Texas, an unincorporated community in Smith County, Texas
 * Copeland, a post office established in Atoka County
 * Copeland, Delaware County, Oklahoma, a census-designated place in Delaware County, Oklahoma
 * Copeland, Virginia, an unincorporated community in Bath County, Virginia

Other

 * Copland (operating system), Apple's failed OS
 * Copeland (band), an indie rock band
 * Copeland Bridge, a covered bridge in Edinburg, New York
 * Copeland Lowery, a California lobbying firm
 * Copeland Tower Suites, hotel in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans
 * Copeland Trophy, the award given to the best and fairest player for the Collingwood Football Club
 * Copeland's, a restaurant chain
 * Copeland's method, a voting system
 * Copeland (pottery)
 * Copeland–Erdős constant

title: Copeland


text:
Fairuz

Nouhad Wadie Haddad (نهاد وديع حداد, ; born November 21, 1934  ), known as Fairuz (فيروز, ), is a Lebanese singer. She is widely considered an iconic vocalist and one of the most celebrated singers in the history of the Arab world. She is popularly known as "The Bird Of The East," "The Cedar Of Lebanon," "The Moon's Neighbor", and “The Voice Of Lebanon”, among others.

Fairuz began her musical career as a teenager at the national radio station in Lebanon in the late 1940s as a chorus member. Her first major hit, "Itab", was released in 1952 and made her an instant star in the Arab world. In the summer of 1957, Fairuz held her first live performance at the Baalbeck International Festival where she was awarded with the honor of "Cavalier", the highest medal for artistic achievement by Lebanese president Camille Chamoun. Fairuz's fame spread throughout the Arab world in the 1950s and 1960s, leading her to perform outside of Lebanon in various Arab capitals, including Damascus, Amman, Cairo, Rabat, Algiers, and Tunis.

Fairuz has received multiple awards and tokens of recognition throughout her career, including the Key to the Holy City awarded by the Jerusalem Cultural Committee, the Jordanian Medal of Honor presented by King Hussein of Jordan, the French Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, and the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, the Highest Artistic Distinction, awarded by Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Throughout her career, she headlined at the most important venues in the world, such as Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall in London, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and United Nations General Assembly Lobby in New York, the Olympia and Salle Pleyel in Paris, and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens.

In a career spanning over six decades, Fairuz has recorded nearly 1500 songs, released more than 80 albums, performed in 20 musicals, and sold over 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the highest selling Middle-Eastern artists of all time, and one of the best-selling music artists in the world.

Early life

Nouhad Haddad was born on November 20, 1934, in Lebanon into an Assyrian and Maronite Christian family. Her father, Wadie was born in Mardin, Ottoman Empire. Her mother Lisa al-Boustani, was born in the village of Dibbiyeh, Mount Lebanon. The family later moved into a home in a cobblestone alley called Zuqaq el Blatt in Beirut. Living in a single room of a typical Lebanese stone house facing Beirut's Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate school, they shared a kitchen with the neighbors. Her father, Wadīʿ was a Lebanese of the Syriac Orthodox faith, and worked as a typesetter in a print shop.

By the age of ten, Nouhad had become well-known at school for her unusual singing voice. She would sing regularly during school shows and on holidays. This brought her to the attention of Mohammed Flayfel, a well-known musician and a teacher at the Lebanese Conservatory, who happened to attend one of the school's shows in February 1950. Impressed by her voice and performance, he advised her to enroll in the conservatory, which she did. At first, Nouhad's conservative father was reluctant to send her to the conservatory. At the persuasion of his brother Nouhad's uncle, he eventually agreed to let her go on the condition that her brother accompany her.

Early career

Mohammed Flayfel took a close interest in Nouhad's talent. He started training her in control of intonation and poetic form, and in an audition, Nouhad was heard singing by Halim el Roumi, head of the Lebanese radio station established in 1938, one of the oldest stations in the Arab world. Roumi was impressed by her voice and noticed that it was flexible, allowing her to sing in both Arabic and Western modes. At Nouhad's request, El Roumi appointed her as a chorus singer at the radio station in Beirut, where she was paid twenty-one U.S dollars every month, which, adjusted for inflation, in 2020 would amount to one hundred ninety-five dollars. He also went on to compose several songs for her and chose for her the stage name Fairuz, which is the Arabic word for turquoise.

A short while later, Fairuz was introduced to the Rahbani brothers, Assi and Mansour, who also worked at the radio station as musicians. Their chemistry was instant, and soon after, Assi started to compose songs for Fairouz. One of these songs was "Itab" (the third song he composed for her), which was an immediate success in the Arab world. It established Fairuz as one of the most prominent Arab singers at that time.

Fairuz rose to fame during the golden era of Arabic music and is one of the last figures and contributors of that time alive today. Her voice represented the 20th century's Lebanese pop culture. Throughout her career, she has established a style of universality and relatability as she made music that tackled issues ranging from adolescence and love to political plight and patriotism, even "snappy Christmas carols", which made her work accessible to all. Fairuz is known for her particularly forlorn style of music, which is a fusion of western and Arab sounds. Her music is set apart by its melancholic and nostalgic humor, along with Fairuz's stoic image as well as yearning voice, that is almost prayer-like, often described by experts as airy, clear, and flexible, different from the common ornamentation style commonly found in Arab music.

1950s: Establishment of a new star
Fairuz's first large-scale concert was in 1957, as part of the Baalbeck International Festival which took place under the patronage of Lebanese President Camille Chamoun. She performed in the Folkloric section of the festival representing "The Lebanese Nights". Fairuz was paid one Lebanese pound for that show, but she and the Rahbani brothers would become staples of the festival and featured most years until the civil war in Lebanon. The trio's performances at first were just small skits, but eventually they became full-blown musical operettas, and concerts followed for many years. Fairuz amassed more fame as she and other contemporaneous Arab artists were vocal about the Palestinian cause in their conflict with Israel and produced a number of militaristic and patriotically somber songs for them.

1960s–1970s: Breakthrough and critical acclaim
Fairuz and the Rahbani brothers started to garner more attention with their innovative ventures and went on to revolutionize the blueprint for Lebanese music. It started with incorporating western sounds into their music and eventually shaping the Lebanese style of music, since before the music had to fit into a certain mold. This mold was the dominant Egyptian style of music, in the Egyptian dialect that would typically have a duration of thirty minutes. The trio started working with their own prototype, which was shorter three-minute songs in the Lebanese dialect that would tell a story. This change was received as well as it was due to growing discontent for traditional and indigenous music. Beirut at this time was undergoing rapid modernization and cultural expansion. Some of those who lived in the city were not of Arab background, making it harder to relate to the musical forms of the time. So when Fairuz and the Rahbani brothers introduced a more modern yet still traditional form of music, they drew in mass appeal. This helped reshape the modern Lebanese identity especially in music and would go on to make significant contributions to the history of oriental music. These songs would also customarily included commentary and themes of local and regional socio-political and historical issues.[33] As the 1960s wore on, Fairuz became known as the "First Lady of Lebanese singing", as Halim Roumi dubbed her. During this period, the Rahbani brothers wrote and composed for her hundreds of famous songs, most of their operettas, and three motion pictures. In those productions, they also chose to abandon the popular improvisatory nature of Arab performances in favour of more well-rehearsed and produced ones.

In 1971, Fairuz's fame became international after her major North American tour, which was received with much excitement by the Arab-American and American communities and yielded positive reviews of the concerts. To date, Fairuz has performed in many countries around the globe, including Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Netherlands, Greece, Canada, United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Italy, and her home country, Lebanon.

On September 22, 1972, Assi suffered a brain hemorrhage and was rushed to the hospital. Fans crowded outside the hospital, praying for him and lighting candles. After three surgeries, Assi's brain hemorrhage was halted. Ziad Rahbani, the eldest son of Fairuz and Assi, at age 17, gave his mother the music of one of his unreleased songs, "Akhadou el Helween" (that he had composed to be sung by Marwan Mahfouz in "Sahriyyi" Ziad's first play). His uncle Mansour Rahbani re-wrote new lyrics for it to be called "Saalouni n'Nass" ("The People Asked Me") which talked about Fayrouz being on stage for the first time without Assi. Three months after suffering the hemorrhage, Assi attended the premiere performance of that musical, Al Mahatta, in Piccadilly Theatre on Hamra Street. Elias Rahbani, Assi's younger brother, took over the orchestration and musical arrangement for the performance.

In 1978, the trio toured Europe and the Persian Gulf nations, including a concert at the Paris Olympia. As a result of this busy schedule, Assi's medical and mental health began to deteriorate. Assi Rahbani eventually died in 1986, no longer married to Fairuz, but due to the influence his family and Fairuz had in Lebanon, the factions in Beirut had a cease-fire allowing the funeral procession to travel from the Muslim side of the city to where Assi would be buried on the Christian side. Fairuz then began to work almost exclusively with Ziad Rahbani, her son on producing her music.

Amid the Lebanese Civil War, Fairuz's fame catapulted. Unlike many of her famous peers, she never left Lebanon to live abroad. She did not hold any concerts there with the exception of the stage performance of the operetta Petra, which was performed in both the western and eastern parts of the then-divided Beirut in 1978. The war lasted fifteen years (1975–1990), took 150,000 lives, and fostered a divided nation. This was the period where her role as a prominent Lebanese figure would be cemented. She and the Rahbani brothers would frequently express their dissent for the war in their music, and their refusal to take sides and non-partisan stances helped them appeal to all of Lebanon, which then allowed Fairuz to become a voice of reason and unification for the Lebanese people. This was especially important because the war itself was so multifaceted and involved many conflicting opinions between the state and different militias. To the Lebanese, she became a lot more than just an entertainer. She became a representation of Lebanon, as well as stability in a time of insecurity and uncertainty.

1980s: A new production team
After the artistic divorce between Fairouz and the Rahbani brothers in 1979, Fairuz carried on with her son, composer Ziad Rahbani, his friend the lyricist Joseph Harb, and composer Philemon Wahbi. Ziad Rahbani was a constant driving force in the evolution of Fairuz's music style, as he worked to break away from what his parents had previously established. The songs he went on to compose for Fairuz would stray from the nostalgic nationalism that showcased the folkloric style Fairuz and the Rahbani brothers were known for; instead, he and Fairuz would go on to delve into a more modern sound in the form of jazz and funk.

Fairuz made a second and final European Television appearance on French TV on October 13, 1988, in a show called Du côté de chez Fred. Fairuz, who had scheduled a concert at the POPB of Paris Bercy concert hall three days later on October 16, was the main guest of French TV presenter Frédéric Mitterrand. The program features footage of her rehearsals for her concert at Bercy in addition to the ceremony featuring then French Minister of Culture Jack Lang awarding Fairuz the medal of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. It also includes a video montage of her previous movies and concerts. In that show, Fairuz also sang the three songs "Ya hourrié", "Yara" and "Zaali tawwal".

Her first CD, The Very Best of Fairuz, was published in 1987 and contained the emblematic song "Aatini al Nay wa ghanni" (Give me the flute and sing), based on a poem in "The Procession" by Khalil Gibran. It was first sung at the end of the sixties.

1990s–present
In the 1990s, Fairuz produced six albums (two Philemon Wahbi tributes with unreleased tracks included, a Zaki Nassif album, three Ziad Rahbani albums, and a tribute album to Assi Rahbani orchestrated by Ziad) and held a number of large-scale concerts, most notably the historic concert held at Beirut's Martyr's Square in September 1994 to launch the rebirth of the downtown district that was ravaged by the civil war. She appeared at the Baalbeck International Festival in 1998 after 25 years of self-imposed absence where she performed the highlights of three very successful plays that were presented in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1992, Madonna used some parts of Fairuz's songs in her album without permission; the singers settled the matter outside of court, but Madonna's album and single were prohibited in Lebanon.

She also performed a concert in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Arena in 1999 which was attended by over 16,000 spectators, mostly Arabs. Ever since, Fairuz has held sold-out concerts at the Beiteddine International Festival (Lebanon) from 2000 to 2003, Kuwait (2001), Paris (2002), the United States (2003), Amman (2004), Montreal (2005), Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Baalbeck, BIEL (2006), Athens, Amman (2007) Damascus, and Bahrain (2008).

Her first album in the new millennium, Wala Keef, was released in 2002.

On January 28, 2008, Fairuz performed at the Damascus Opera House in an emotional return to the Syrian capital, where she played the lead role in the musical Sah el-Nom (Good Morning), after more than two decades of absence from the country, in one of a series of events highlighting UNESCO's designation of Damascus as the Capital of Arab Culture that year. Commenting on the event, the BBC wrote: "Every day the sun rises over Syria you hear one voice across the country—Fairuz, the legendary Lebanese singer and greatest living Arab diva". Syrian historian, Sami Moubayed, said that the Syrians were thrilled about the performance and that Fairuz reminded them of the "good old days". People from all ages attended the concert and the auditorium was packed with listeners. Fairuz said that she had never seen such an audience in her life. However, her decision to perform there drew criticism from Lebanese politicians who considered Syria to be a hostile nation.

Fairuz's new album entitled Eh... Fi Amal was released on October 7, 2010, produced by Fairuz productions and written entirely by her son Ziad Rahbani. Two concerts took place at BIEL Center in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 7 and 8.

Fairuz released her first album in seven years titled Bebalee on September 22, 2017. On June 21, 2017, her daughter Reema Rahbany released the first single from the album "Lameen". The song is a tribute for Fairouz's late husband Assi Rahbany and was released in commemoration of his anniversary. Lameen is inspired by the French song "Pour qui veille l'étoile" and was adapted into Arabic by Reema Rahbany.

On 1 September 2020, French president Emmanuel Macron visited Fairuz in her house during trip to Lebanon after the Beirut explosion.

2008 Damascus concert
The 2008 concert in Damascus angered some of her fans and several Lebanese politicians who described Syria as "enemy territory in the grip of a brutal secret police force". Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Druze Progressive Socialist Party, accused Fairuz of "playing into the hands of Syrian intelligence services", while fellow party member Akram Chehayeb said that "those who love Lebanon do not sing for its jailers", in reference to the three-decades-long Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Even some Syrian opposition activists called on her to boycott the event as just three years prior Syria had been accused of carrying out a series of assassinations on the Lebanese. This came amid a political crisis in Lebanon between pro- and anti-Syria factions. As well as a renewed Syrian government crackdown on dissent that same day during which several people were arrested, including opposition figure Riad Seif and twelve other activists of the anti-government Damascus Declaration.

A poll conducted a week before the concert by NOW Lebanon, a Lebanese web portal sympathetic to the anti-Syria March 14 Alliance, showed that 67% of the respondents were opposed to Fairuz's appearance in Damascus, with one of the website's editorials saying that "this was not the moment for a musical love-in". Supporters of Fairuz counterclaimed that she has always been above politics. Fairuz refrained from commenting on the controversy. However, in a letter to the event's organizers, she said that the concert should be viewed from a cultural perspective, and wrote: "Damascus is not a cultural capital for this year only, but will remain a role model of art, culture and authenticity for the coming generations." She also told the head of the organizers that she felt it was a return to her second home. Syrian commentator Ayman Abdelnour said that Fairuz was performing to the Syrian people, not their rulers. Her brother-in-law and her former partner Mansour Rahbani also defended her decision to perform there, saying it was "a message of love and peace from Lebanon to Syria".

In 1969, Fairuz's songs were banned from radio stations in Lebanon for six months because she refused to sing at a private concert in honour of Algerian president Houari Boumedienne. The incident only served to increase her popularity. Fairuz said that while always willing to sing to the public and to various countries and regions, she would never sing to any individual.

Lawsuits
Since many of the Rahbanis' works were co-written by Assi's brother Mansour, in June 2010, a year after Mansour's death in January 2009, a Lebanese court banned Fairuz from singing material that involved his contributions. The issue began when Mansour's children filed a lawsuit against Fairuz when she was set to perform the song "Ya'ish Ya'ish" at the Casino du Liban. As a result, Fairuz could not perform such works without Mansour's children's permission. The court's decision led to protests around the world in response to what her fans perceived as an act of "silencing". Hundreds gathered in front of the National Museum of Beirut, led by a number of Arab artists, including Egyptian actress Ilham Chahine who flew to Lebanon in order to join the sit-in. "She is a great artistic personality who has entertained millions for decades. We cannot keep silent over this humiliating attitude to her and to art and artists in general. Fairouz to me is above all laws. She is like the mother whom, even when she errs, we are eager to forgive," Chahine added. Ian Black wrote on The Guardian: "Outrage over her silencing has been a reminder of the extraordinary loyalty she still inspires across the region". Other reactions included a protest concert in Egypt, and a "Shame!" headline displayed by Emirati newspaper Al-Ittihad.

Alleged political affiliations
Fairuz's son, Ziad Rahbani, sparked controversy in December 2013 during an interview with the Al-Ahed website when asked whether his mother shared his supportive stance on the political vision of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, a dominant but highly controversial political and military force in Lebanon. Ziad replied: "Fairuz is very fond of Sayyed Hassan [Nasrallah], although she will be displeased with me, as she was after my last television interview when I revealed some personal information and she quickly interrupted me". There were strong reactions to this statement, which went viral on social media, and the country's different media outlets did not deviate from their political stances when reacting to Ziad's words. Politicians and celebrities stepped in as well, some of whom objected to affiliating Fairuz to one side of Lebanon's political divide over another, including Druze leader Walid Jumblatt who said: "Fairuz is too great to be criticized, and at the same time too great to be classified as belonging to this or that political camp". "Let us keep her in her supreme position, and not push her to something she has nothing to do with," Jumblatt added. Ziad, who claims to speak on his mother's behalf "because she prefers to remain silent", responded to his critics by saying: "Apparently it isn’t allowed in the age of strife for the princess of classy Arab art to voice love for the master of resistance". Nasrallah, commenting on the issue during a speech, stated: "An educated highly respected thinker and artist, who may be espoused different ideologies, might disagree with you on political matters, but personally have [a] fondness for you, because of your character, conduct, sacrifices and so on. If such a person were to say that he or she liked someone, then all hell would break loose".

Performances and persona
Fairuz has performed in many countries around the globe including Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Netherlands, Greece, Canada, United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Italy, and her home country Lebanon.

During her performances, Fairuz is known to take on a very rigid and cold stance, due to her stage fright. She claims that the hierarchic nature of her performances is because she is singing as if she were praying. She is also described as being incredibly reserved and modest in the way a mother would be, and embodies the Lebanese woman at home.

Personal life
Fairuz married Assi Rahbani, one of the Rahbani brothers who helped shape her singing career, on January 23, 1955. Fairuz and Assi Rahbani had four children: Ziad (born 1956), a composer, playwright and pianist; Hali (born 1958, paralyzed since early childhood after meningitis); Layal (born 1960, died in 1988 of a stroke), also a composer; and Rima (born 1965), a photographer and film director. Fairouz was born to a Syriac Orthodox family. She converted to Greek Orthodoxy when she married Assi Rahbani. Very little is known about Fairuz's personal life and affairs, as she is described as having a hermetic nature and separates Nouhad from Fairuz.

Theatrical works
Most of the works of the Rahbani Trio (Fairuz, Assi, and Mansour) consisted of musical plays or operettas. The Rahbani Brothers produced 25 popular musical plays (20 with Fairuz) over more than 30 years, and are credited as having been one of—if not the very first—to produce world-class Arabic musical theatre.

The musicals combined storyline, lyrics and dialogue, musical composition varying widely from Lebanese folkloric and rhythmic modes to classical, westernized, and oriental songs, orchestration, and the voice and acting of Fairuz. She played the lead roles alongside singers/actors Nasri Shamseddine, Wadih El Safi, Antoine Kerbaje, Elie Shouayri (Chouayri), Hoda (Fairuz's younger sister), William Haswani, Raja Badr, Siham Chammas (Shammas), Georgette Sayegh, and many others.

The Rahbani plays expressed patriotism, unrequited love and nostalgia for village life, comedy, drama, philosophy, and contemporary politics. The songs performed by Fairuz as part of the plays have become immensely popular among the Lebanese and Arabs around the world.

The Fairuz-Rahbani collaboration produced the following musicals (in chronological order):
 * Ayyam al Hassad (Days of Harvest – 1957)
 * Al 'Urs fi l’Qarya (The Wedding in the Village – 1959)
 * Al Ba'albakiya (The Girl from Baalbek) – 1961)
 * Jisr el Amar] (Bridge of the Moon – 1962)
 * Awdet el 'Askar (The Return of the Soldiers – 1962)
 * Al Layl wal Qandil (The Night and the Lantern – 1963)
 * Biyya'el Khawatem (Ring Salesman – 1964)
 * Ayyam Fakhreddine (The Days of Fakhreddine – 1966)
 * Hala wal Malik (Hala and the King – 1967)
 * Ach Chakhs (The Person – 1968–1969)
 * Jibal Al Sawwan (Sawwan Mountains – 1969)
 * Ya'ich Ya'ich (Long Live, Long Live – 1970)
 * Sah Ennawm (Did you sleep well? – 1970–1971 – 2006–2008)
 * Nass min Wara'  (People Made out of Paper – 1971–1972)
 * Natourit al Mafatih (The Guardian of the Keys – 1972)
 * Al Mahatta (The Station – 1973)
 * Loulou – 1974
 * Mais el Reem (The Deer's Meadow – 1975)
 * Petra – 1977–1978

Most of the musical plays were recorded and video-taped. Eighteen of them have been officially released on audio CD, two on DVD (Mais el Reem and Loulou). An unauthorized version of Petra and one such live version of Mais el Reem in black and white exist. Ayyam al Hassad (Days of Harvest) was never recorded and Al 'Urs fi l’Qarya (The Marriage in the Village) has not yet been released (yet an unofficial audio record is available).

Honors and awards
For decades, most radio stations in the Arab world have started their morning broadcast with a Fairuz song, and her songs were wildly popular during the Lebanese Civil War, as the people could expect to hear a patriotic melody of peace and love. The Guardian stated that "she sang the story of a Lebanon that never really existed" and "essentially helped build the identity of Lebanon, just 14 years after it became an independent country." Fairuz is held in high regard in Lebanese culture because, in a region divided by many conflicts and opinions, she acts as a symbol of unity. In 1997, Billboard stated "even after five decades at the top, [Fairuz] remains the supreme Diva of Lebanon". In 1999, The New York Times described her as "a living icon without equal" and stated that her emergence as a singer paralleled Lebanon's transformation from a backwater to the vibrant financial and cultural heart of the Arab world.

In a 2008 article, BBC described her as "the legendary Lebanese singer and greatest living Arab diva". In an article about world music, The Independent stated, "All young female singers in this region seem to be clones of her" and that "she's such an important artist that you have to get to grips with her".

Fairuz has been honored by many countries, such as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia, the United States, Egypt, and France, in which François Mitterrand awarded her the Order of Arts and Letters in 1988 and Jacques Chirac first awarded her the Legion of Honour in 1998 (Chevalier).

Television
Lebanese Television has featured appearances by Fairuz in the following television programmes:
 * Al Iswara (The Bracelet)
 * Day'it El Aghani (Village of Songs)
 * Layali As'Saad (Nights of Happiness)
 * Al Quds fil Bal (Jerusalem in my Mind)
 * Dafater El Layl (Night Memoirs)
 * Maa Al Hikayat (With Stories)
 * Sahret Hobb (Romantic Evening)
 * Qasidat Hobb (A Love Poem), also presented as a musical show in Baalbeck in 1973

Discography
Fairuz possesses a relatively large musical repertoire. Though sources disagree on the exact number, she is generally credited with between fifteen hundred and three thousand songs.

Around 85 Fairuz CDs, various vinyl formats, and cassettes have been officially released. Most of the songs that are featured on these albums were composed by the Rahbani brothers. Also featured are songs by Philemon Wehbe, Ziad Rahbani, Zaki Nassif, Mohamed Abd El Wahab, Najib Hankash, and Mohamed Mohsen.

Many of Fairuz's numerous unreleased works date back to the 1950s and 1960s, and were composed by the Rahbani Brothers (certain unreleased songs, the oldest of all, are by Halim el Roumi). A Fairuz album composed by Egyptian musician Riad Al Sunbati (who has worked with Umm Kulthum) was produced in 1980 but is unlikely to be released. There are also fifteen unreleased songs composed by Philemon Wehbe and 24 unreleased songs composed by Ziad Rahbani in the 1980s.

Fairuz has also released a live album on Folkways Records in 1994, entitled Lebanon: The Baalbek Folk Festival.

title: Fairuz


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Spiritualist Association of Great Britain

The Spiritualist Association of Great Britain (the SAGB) is a British spiritualist organisation. It was established on 10 July 1872.

History
The SAGB grew out of the Marylebone Spiritualist Association (founded 1872). The story of the association's early struggles "to propagate spiritual truths in the Marylebone area of London" is told in an SAGB publication, "One Hundred Years of Spiritualism", which also states that Queen Victoria allegedly held several séances after the death of the Prince Consort.

A famous and outspoken supporter of the SAGB was Arthur Conan Doyle, who (according to his obituary in the New York Times) in later years "often expressed a wish that he should be remembered for his psychic work rather than for his novels".

Serving the principles of the Spiritualist movement, and open to members and non-members alike, the SAGB offers rooms where the public, whether Spiritualist or not, may sit for readings with spirit mediums. Sunday services are free and include a public Demonstration of mediumship. Private 30-minute sittings are available daily during opening hours for a fee. They may be recorded if the client wishes. The nature of the sittings is strictly limited by a policy which states that the mediums are "to try to provide evidence of survival [of the spirit after death] and not to predict the future."

The library of the SAGB was named after the spiritualist William Crookes.

The SAGB's current headquarters is at the Victoria Charity Centre at 11 Belgrave Road, London.

Beliefs
As an organization, the SAGB describes their goals as:

"To offer evidence to the bereaved that man survives the change called death and, because he is a spiritual being, retains the faculties of individuality, personality and intelligence, and can willingly return to those left on earth, ties of love and friendship being the motivating force. To offer spiritual healing to those suffering from dis-ease, whether in mind, body or spirit, in a warm and loving environment. With both of these objectives in mind, to offer only the best and highest so that those on both sides of the veil can progress in a truly spiritual sense."

The SAGB and its mediums abide by the following seven principles of belief:
 * That there is an Infinite Intelligence, Who governs all
 * That personal identity and all sentient forms of life survive physical death
 * That continuous existence and eternal progress occur for all in the Hereafter
 * That there is communion with the spiritual realms
 * That all of humanity is spiritually linked
 * That in the Hereafter, all must account for their actions on earth and will judge themselves accordingly
 * That all are responsible for the way they conduct their earthly lives.

Notable members and supporters

 * Emma Hardinge Britten
 * Doris Collins
 * Lord Dowding
 * Arthur Conan Doyle
 * Thomas Everitt
 * James Manby Gully
 * G. Wilson Knight
 * Florence Marryat
 * Estelle Roberts
 * W. T. Stead
 * Ena Twigg

Controversy surrounding Headquarter relocation
The SAGB historic headquarters at 33 Belgrave Square was sold in 2010 for 6 million pounds. It relocated to a new home in the Victoria Charity Centre at 11 Belgrave Road, London, near Victoria Station. In 2013, the Charity Commission for England and Wales launched an investigation in to the sale of the property, after discovering that the subsequent owners sold the property for 21 million pounds shortly after purchasing it from the SAGB. The Committee published a report of its findings on 30 March 2017. The Commission's report concluded SAGB's trustees had failed to fulfil their legal duties and responsibilities towards the charity, and that ‘the failures and breaches were not minor or technical in nature’ but ‘amount to basic and serious mismanagement’. The charity responded to the Commission's report claiming that they "could not have foreseen what would happen in future" regarding property prices. S.A.G.B headquarters are now at 341,Queens town Road, Battersea, London SW8 4LH


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Kir Bulychev

Kir Bulychev (Кир Булычёв; 18 October 1934 – 5 September 2003) was a pen name of Igor Vsevolodovich Mozheiko (И́горь Все́володович Може́йко), a Soviet Russian science fiction writer, critic, translator and historian. His magnum opus is a children's science fiction series Alisa Selezneva, although most of his books are adult-oriented. His books were adapted for film, TV, and animation over 20 times – more than any other Russian science fiction author – and Bulychev himself wrote scripts for early adaptations.

Biography
Mozheiko (Mojeiko) received a Master's degree in 1965 and a Ph.D. in 1981. From 1963 he worked in the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was a specialist in the medieval history of Burma and wrote a biography of Aung San.

He first used the pseudonym Kir Bulychev in 1965, for his very first science fiction story, "A Girl Nothing Can Happen To". It was the first in what would become his most popular book series, Alisa Selezneva, that eventually comprised more than 50 novellas and short stories. This children's science fiction series is centered around the titular heroine, a teenage girl from the future, who travels through space and time, solves mysteries, makes discoveries and saves endangered peoples and species. Bulychov kept writing Alisa for the rest of his life: the last book appeared in 2003, months before his death. There were four animated and three life-action adaptations of Alisa stories, as well as tie-in comics and video games.

Another of Bulychev's best-known works is a series of short stories about Veliky Guslar, a Russian town that attracts all kinds of aliens and supernatural beings. This fictional city is based on the real city of Veliky Ustyug. He also wrote many standalone science fiction novels, including The Last War (1970), Thirteen Years of Travel, Those Who Survive (adapted as the animated film Pereval), The Witches Cave (filmed), River Chronos and Abduction of the Wizard.

Bulychev wrote scripts for more than 20 movies: according to Mir Fantastiki magazine, he is the most adapted Russian science fiction author. Besides his own writing, he translated numerous American science fiction stories into Russian.

Selected bibliography
Only novels and novellas included. Alisa Selezneva series
 * Ржавый фельдмаршал (The Rusty Field Marshal, 1968)
 * Путешествие Алисы (Alisa's Voyage, 1974)
 * День рождения Алисы (Alisa's Birthday, 1974)
 * Миллион приключений (A Million Adventures, 1976)
 * Сто лет тому вперёд (One Hundred Years Ahead, 1978)
 * Пленники астероида (Prisoners of an Asteroid, 1981)
 * Лиловый шар (The Lilac Ball, 1983)
 * Заповедник сказок (The Reserve of Fairy Tales, 1985)
 * Козлик Иван Иванович (Ivan Ivanovich the Goat, 1985)
 * Гай-до (Guy-do, 1986)
 * Конец Атлантиды (The End of Atlantis, 1987)
 * Город без памяти (The City Without Memory, 1988)
 * Подземная лодка (The Underground Boat, 1989)
 * Война с лилипутами (The War Against the Lilliputians, 1992)
 * Алиса и крестоносцы (Alisa and the Crusaders, 1993)
 * Излучатель доброты (The Kindness Ray, 1994)
 * Дети динозавров (Dinosaur Children, 1995)
 * Сыщик Алиса (Alisa the Detective, 1996)
 * Привидений не бывает (Ghosts Don't Exist, 1996)
 * Опасные сказки (Dangerous Tales, 1997)
 * Планета для тиранов (A Planet for Tyrants, 1997)
 * Секрет чёрного камня (The Secret of the Black Stone, 1999)
 * Алиса и чудовище (Alisa and the Monster, 1999)
 * Звёздный пёс (The Star Dog, 2001)
 * Вампир Полумракс (Twilights the Vampire, 2001)
 * Алиса и Алисия (Alisa and Alicia, 2003)

Veliky Guslar series
 * Марсианское зелье (The Martian Potion, 1971)
 * Нужна свободная планета (A Free Planet Needed, 1977)
 * Глубокоуважаемый микроб (Dear Mr Microbe, 1987)
 * Перпендикулярный мир (Perpendicular World, 1989)
 * Over 130 short stories, published in seven volumes:
 * Чудеса в Гусляре (Miracles in Guslar)
 * Пришельцы в Гусляре (Aliens in Guslar)
 * Возвращение в Гусляр (Return to Guslar)
 * Гусляр-2000 (Guslar-2000)
 * Господа гуслярцы (Gentlemen Guslarians)
 * Гусляр навеки (Guslar Forever)
 * Письма в редакцию (Letters to the Editorial Office)

Dr. Pavlish series
 * Последняя война (The Last War, 1970)
 * Великий дух и беглецы (The Great Spirit and the Refugees, 1972)
 * Половина жизни (Half a Life, 1973)
 * Закон для дракона (A Law for a Dragon, 1975)
 * Белое платье Золушки (Cinderella's White Dress, 1980)
 * Тринадцать лет пути (Thirteen Years in Flight, 1984)
 * Посёлок (The Settlement, 1988)
 * Пленники долга (Prisoners of Duty, 2009)

Cora Orvath ("InterGPol") series
 * Покушение на Тесея (The Attempted Murder of Theseus, 1994)
 * В куриной шкуре (In a Hen's Skin, 1994)
 * Предсказатель прошлого (Prophet of the Past, 1994)
 * Последние драконы (The Last Dragons, 1994)
 * Детский остров (The Children's Island, 1995)
 * На полпути с обрыва (Halfway Down the Ridge, 1995)
 * Зеркало зла (The Mirror of Evil, 1996)

River Chronos series
 * Река Хронос (River Chronos, 1992)
 * Заповедник для академиков (The Academicians' Reserve, 1992)
 * Усни, красавица (Sleep, Beauty, 1994)
 * Купидон (Cupid, 1998)
 * Таких не убивают (Those are not to be Killed, 1998)
 * Младенец Фрей (Baby Frei, 2000)
 * Дом в Лондоне (A House in London, 2003)

Andrey Bruce duology
 * Агент КФ (SF Agent, 1984)
 * Подземелье ведьм (The Witches' Dungeon, 1987)

Non-serialized
 * Умение кидать мяч (A Talent for Throwing Balls, 1973)
 * Похищение чародея (Abduction of the Wizard, 1979)
 * На днях землетрясение в Лигоне (The Upcoming Earthquake in Ligon, 1980)
 * Два билета в Индию (Two Tickets to India, 1981)
 * Тайна Урулгана (The Secret of Urulgan, 1991)
 * Любимец (A Pet, 1993)
 * Театр теней (Theatre of Shadows, 1998)

Books published in English
The dates given are the dates of English editions.

Science fiction: History:
 * Alice: The Girl from Earth (translation of Alisa's Voyage, July 2002), ISBN 1401013112
 * Half a Life (1977)
 * Gusliar Wonders (1983)
 * Earth and Elsewhere (1985)
 * Abduction of the Wizard (1989)
 * Those Who Survive (translation of The Village, 2000)
 * 1185 A.D. (1989)
 * South-East Asia: Unity in Diversity. Ahmedabad: Allied (with Gennadi Chufrin) (1989).

Film adaptations
All scripts are written by Bulychov himself, except noted.

Based on Alisa Selezneva
Not written by Bulychev:
 * Mystery of the Third Planet (1981), animated, based on Alisa's Voyage
 * The Guest from the Future (1985), TV miniseries based on One Hundred Years Ahead
 * The Lilac Ball (1987), based on the book of the same name
 * Prisoners of Yamagiri-Maru (1988), animated, based on a story of the same name
 * Island of Rusty General (1988), based on The Rusty Field Marshal
 * Alice's Birthday (2009), animated, based on the novella of the same name
 * Alisa Knows What to Do! (2013), animated TV series, based on characters only

Other

 * The Throw, or Everything Started on Saturday (1976), TV film, based on the story The Ability to Throw Ball
 * Abduction of the Wizard (1981), TV film, based on a story of the same name
 * Per Aspera Ad Astra (1981), based on an original script by Bulychev
 * Tears Were Falling (1982)
 * Comet (1983)
 * Chance (1984)
 * Two Tickets to India (1985), animated, based on a story of the same name
 * The Pass (1988), animated, based on Village
 * The Witches Cave (1989), based on the novella of the same name
 * Abduction of the Wizard (1989), based on a story of the same name

title: Kir Bulychev


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Abrams

Abrams may refer to:

People

 * Abrams (surname), a list of notable people with the surname

United States

 * Abrams, Wisconsin, a town
 * Abrams (community), Wisconsin, an unincorporated community
 * Abrams Mountain, Colorado
 * Abrams Creek (Tennessee)
 * Abrams Creek (Virginia)
 * Abrams Run, West Virginia, a stream

Elsewhere

 * Mount Abrams, Graham Land, Antarctica

Other uses

 * M1 Abrams, the main battle tank of the United States Army
 * Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919), a U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding free speech during times of war
 * Abrams Air Craft Corporation, an American aircraft manufacturer
 * Abrams Books, U.S. publishing house
 * Abrams Discoveries, a non-fiction book series published by Harry N. Abrams
 * The Abrams, a Canadian country music band

title: Abrams


text:
Anpan

Anpan (あんパン) is a Japanese sweet roll most commonly filled with red bean paste. Anpan can also be prepared with other fillings, including white beans (shiro-an), green beans (uguisu-an), sesame (goma-an), and chestnuts (kuri-an).

History
Anpan was first made in 1875, during the Meiji period, by Yasubei Kimura (木村安兵衛 Kimura Yasubei), a samurai who lost his job with the rise of the Imperial Japanese Army and the dissolution of the samurai as a social class. The Meiji era was a period in which Japan was becoming increasingly modernized, and many samurai who lost their jobs were given work that was totally new to them. The role of a baker was one such job.

One day, while wandering around the area where many employed in new jobs worked, Kimura found a young man making bread, and decided to start his own bakery, named Bun'eidō (文英堂). In 1874, he moved to Ginza and renamed the bakery Kimuraya (木村屋), now Kimuraya Sohonten (ja:木村屋總本店). At that time, however, the only recipe for bread known in Japan was for making a salty and sour-tasting bread, ill-suited to Japanese tastes at the time. Kimura thus figured out how to make bread akin to manjū, raising the dough with traditional sakadane liquid yeast. He then filled the bread with a bean paste wagashi and sold the resulting rolls as snacks. Anpan became popular not only because of its taste, but also because the Japanese were interested in anything new and foreign at this time.

Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken later acquired a fondness for anpan after Kimura, via chamberlain Yamaoka Tesshū, prepared it for them to eat during hanami. Concerned with their appearance, he decorated them with a salt-pickled sakura in the middle of each bun. These anpan were presented to the emperor and empress on April 4, 1875, after which the emperor requested anpan from Kimura on a regular basis. Because of its newfound association with royalty, the popularity of anpan, and bread as a whole, increased throughout Japan.

In popular culture
"Anpan" is often used as slang for recreational inhalation of paint thinner.

The picture book and anime series Anpanman is about a superhero whose head is made of anpan.

title: Anpan


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Norman Doyle

Norman "Blicky" Doyle (born November 11, 1945) is a Canadian businessman and politician in Newfoundland and Labrador. He was a member of the Senate of Canada from 2012 to 2020 and a Member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1997 to 2008.

Provincial politics
Doyle was a member of the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly from 1979 to 1993. He represented the provincial electoral district of Harbour Main sitting with the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador.

During his time in office he served multiple cabinet positions, Minister of Communications from 1982 to 1984 than ran the Municipal Affairs portfolio from 1984 to 1987 and then Transportation from 1987 to 1989 and finally as Labour Minister briefly in 1989.

House of Commons
He was a Conservative Party of Canada Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada. He represented the riding of St. John's East from 1997 to 2008. He has also been a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1997 until the party's merger in 2003 with the Canadian Alliance.

He was formerly chair of the Commons standing committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

He was the caucus chair of both the Conservative Party and the Progressive Conservative Party. He was the whip and deputy whip of the Progressive Conservative Party and was critic of Citizenship and Immigration, Labour, Transport, Human Resources Development, and Human Resources and Skill Development.

Senate
Doyle was appointed to the Senate of Canada to represent the province of Newfoundland and Labrador on January 6, 2012, by Governor General David Johnston, on the advice of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He rejoined the Conservative caucus with which he previously sat in the House of Commons. He reached the mandatory retirement age on November 11, 2020.

title: Norman Doyle


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Woodbine

Woodbine may refer to:

 * Woodbine (plant), a common name for several plants

Australia

 * Woodbine, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
 * Woodbine, Queensland

Canada

 * Woodbine, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood

Toronto, Ontario

 * Woodbine (electoral district), a provincial electoral district from 1926 to 1966
 * Beaches—Woodbine (provincial electoral district), a provincial electoral district from 1966 to 1996
 * Beaches—Woodbine, a federal electoral district now called Beaches—East York
 * Woodbine Avenue, an arterial road
 * Woodbine Beach, a beach
 * Woodbine Race Course, later called Greenwood Raceway, a defunct horse racing facility
 * Woodbine Racetrack, a horse racing facility
 * Woodbine Centre, a shopping centre
 * Woodbine station, subway station
 * Woodbine, Old East York, a neighbourhood

United States

 * Woodbine, Delaware
 * Woodbine, Georgia
 * Woodbine (New Albany, Indiana), a historic estate
 * Woodbine, Illinois
 * Woodbine, Iowa
 * Woodbine, Kansas
 * Woodbine, Kentucky
 * Woodbine, Maryland
 * Woodbine, New Jersey
 * Woodbine, West Virginia
 * Woodbine, Pennsylvania
 * Woodbine, Texas
 * Woodbine Formation, a Late Cretaceous geological formation in east Texas
 * Woodbine Park, Los Angeles, California
 * Woodbine Township, Jo Daviess County, Illinois

People

 * Bokeem Woodbine (born 1973), U.S. actor
 * O'Brian Woodbine (born 1988), Jamaican soccer player
 * Thomas Woodbine Hinchliff (1825–1882), British mountaineer
 * Woodbine Parish (1796–1882), British diplomat
 * Lord Woodbine (1929–2000), Trinidadian music producer

Characters

 * Lazlo Woodbine, a fictional character created by Robert Rankin

Other uses

 * Woodbine (cigarette), a cigarette brand
 * Woodbine Entertainment Group, operator of the Woodbine Racetrack, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
 * USCGC Woodbine, a buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard
 * USS Woodbine (1913), a ship of the U.S. Navy

title: Woodbine


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Natanael Beskow

Fredrik Natanael Beskow (9March 1865 – 8October 1953) was a Swedish theologian and school headmaster. He was also active as a preacher, writer, artist, pacifist and social activist. Beskow published a number of collections of sermons. He also made substantial contributions as a hymn writer.

Biography
Beskow was born in Hallingeberg, Sweden (now Västervik Municipality, Småland, Sweden). The son of a priest, Beskow graduated from secondary school in 1883 and got a degree in theological philosophy at Uppsala University in 1884.

From 1888-92, he studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm. He married the children's book author Elsa Beskow in 1897 while she was teaching at Djursholms samskola where he served as head master. Beskow was the headmaster of the newly established co-educational school in Djursholm from 1897 to 1909. They had six sons together.

During this time he worked as an artist, and earned a degree in practical theology in 1895. In 1896 he accepted an invitation from the previous year to become a preacher in Djursholm, which was being built at the time. Beskow never wholeheartedly agreed with the Swedish church's profession of faith, and was never ordained as a minister.

In 1912, with Ebba Pauli, he founded Birkagården, the first of Sweden's so-called "settlements" (hemgård); Beskow was director of Birkagården from 1912-46. He was headmaster of the boarding school (folkhögskola) at Birkagården from 1916-30, as well as honorary doctorate of theology at Lund University in 1918, and president of the Swedish Association for Christian Social Life (Förbundet för kristet samhällsliv), which he established, from 1918-43.

Beskow was a radical pacifist. He was also involved with the campaign for women's suffrage in Sweden (which was granted in 1919), and with the labor unions. Beskow was often engaged in leading negotiations, and became a prominent negotiator.

"Vänlighet är kärlekens småmynt att användas i de dagliga utgifterna. ("Kindness is love's loose change, to be used for daily expenses.")"

- Natanael Beskow

Works—a selection

 * Predikningar, 1901
 * Till de unga, 1904, 5th edition 1920
 * För det dagliga livet, 1904-1906
 * Det kristna livet, 1908
 * Ett är nödvändigt, 1913
 * Enhet i mångfald, 1916
 * Predikningar och föredrag i Birkagården 17-18, 1918
 * Fader vår, 1919
 * Predikningar 1919-1920, 1920
 * På salighetens berg, 1921
 * Ett martyrfolk i det tjugonde århundradet (about the Armenian genocide), 1921
 * Jesu liknelser, 1922
 * Evigheten och ögonblicket, 1924
 * Kristus och människan, 1926
 * I Palestina och Syrien, 1926
 * Sanningens väg, 1929
 * Inför Människosonen, 1930
 * Arbetarrörelsens bildningsideal, 1930
 * Guds rike, 1931
 * Evigt liv, 1932
 * Armeniska flyktingar av idag, 1936
 * Nutidsmänniskan och religionen, 1935
 * I passionstiden, 1937
 * Den kristna människan i världskrisen, 1937
 * Vägen, 1939
 * Är kristendomen räddningen?, 1939
 * Han som kommer, 1940
 * Ljuset lyser i mörkret, 1942
 * Den heliga striden, 1943
 * Kristet samhällsliv - idé och handlingsprogram, 1943
 * »... så ock på jorden», 1944
 * Psalmer och andra dikter, 1944
 * Kunskapsbildning och själsbildning, 1947
 * Gudomligt och mänskligt, 1950
 * Tillkomme ditt rike, 1952
 * En dag har börjat, 1954

title: Natanael Beskow


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Tung Chung Fort

Tung Chung Fort is a fort located near Tung Chung, on Lantau Island, in Hong Kong. Close to Tung Chung Road, the fort is surrounded by the villages of Sheung Ling Pei and Ha Ling Pei. It has a companion Tung Chung Battery on the coast.

History
Tung Chung Fort was originally built in the Shun Hei era (, 1174–1189) of the Southern Song dynasty. Smugglers on Lantau Island smuggled salt from the island to Canton City and attacked the government of the city. The government sent a navy led by King Leok Chin to fight against the smugglers. Three hundred soldiers were stationed in Tung Chung and built the Tung Chung Fort. After three years of peace, the soldiers were called back and 150 of them were transferred to build Kowloon Walled City, in which they later stayed.

During the Qing dynasty, many pirates, including the well known Cheung Po Tsai, chose the bay of Tung Chung as their base and made use of the fort. The Qing Government recovered the fort after the surrender of Cheung Po Tsai. In 1832 (or 1817 alternatively) the fort was rebuilt and garrisoned by the Right Battalion of Tai Peng to defend the coast from pirates until the lease of New Territories to Britain in 1898. The fort was then abandoned.

During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army occupied the fort.

Tung Chung Fort went through several transformations later. It served as a police station and then as Wa Ying College. Now, it is the base for the Rural Committee Office and the Tung Chung Public School.

In 1979, it was declared a monument and was refurbished in 1988.

Features
There are six still intact old muzzle-loading cannons, each resting on a cement base with enclosures made of granite blocks, which measure 70 by. Three arched gateways, each engraved with a Chinese inscription, are spaced along the walls.

Transportation
The fort can be reached from Mui Wo (Silvermine Bay) bus terminal by taking the no. 3 bus to the Tung Chung terminus and about a half mile walk from the bus stop in the direction of the fort. The fort can also be reached by taking the no. 13 or 14 bus and MTR. Permission is required to drive into the park.

title: Tung Chung Fort