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Mor lam

Mor lam (Lao: ໝໍລຳ; Isan: หมอลำ ; หมอลำ,, ) is a traditional Lao form of song in Laos and Isan. Mor lam means 'expert song', or 'expert singer', referring to the music or artist respectively. Other romanisations used include mor lum, maw lam, maw lum, moh lam, mhor lum, and molum. In Laos, the music is known simply as lam (ລຳ); mor lam (ໝໍລຳ) refers to the singer.

The characteristic feature of lam singing is the use of a flexible melody tailored to the tones of the words in the text. Traditionally, the tune was developed by the singer as an interpretation of a klon poem and accompanied primarily by the khene (a free reed mouth organ). The modern form is frequently composed and uses electrified instruments. Traditional forms (and some Lao genres) use a slower tempo than the quicker tempo and faster deliveries of more modern lam music. Strong rhythmic accompaniments, vocal leaps, and a conversational style of singing distinguish lam from American rap.

Typically featuring a theme of unrequited love, mor lam often reflects the difficulties of life in rural Isan and Laos, leavened with wry humor. In its heartland, performances are an essential part of festivals and ceremonies. Lam has gained a profile outside its native regions from the spread of migrant workers, for whom it remains an important cultural link with home.

Appellation
In Laos, the traditional folk music is referred to as ລຳ, lam, which refers to both the verb and noun 'dance', and is in general use in the central and southern areas of the country. In northern Laos, the regional folk music styles are referred to as ຂັບ, khap, and signifies 'to sing' or a 'song'. The Lao-speaking people across the river in Isan call the music หมอลำ, mo lam,, which refers to both the singer and the musical style, while in Laos, the equivalent term ໝໍລຳ, molam , only refers to the singer. Lao ໝໍ and Isan หมอ, both mo, (as well as Thai หมอ, mo ) refers specifically to an 'expert', 'shaman', or 'doctor'. The northern Lao terms ขับ, khap and mokhap, are not used in Isan, but are likely still used in some Lao-speaking parts of Loei, Uttaradit, and Phitsanulok that were settled by people originally from northern Laos, however, khap is understood as a rarer word for 'to sing' or 'song' and in reference to specifically northern styles of lam. Northern Lao areas refer to the khène/khaen player as the mokhène/mokhaen just as in the rest of Laos and Isan.

In standard Thai, the music and the singer, as adopted from Isan usage, is also known as หมอลำ, molam, but because of the tone differences is generally pronounced. It is also common to "correct" or "translate" the Isan term into standard Thai as หมอรำ, mo ram, as Thai รำ, ram , is cognate to Lao ລຳ and Isan ลำ and shares the same meaning. Although Thai ขับ khap is cognate to Lao ຂັບ and Isan ขับ, it only refers to the verb 'to sing' in Thai and is a rather archaic, poetic word and would generally be confused with the homonym ขับ which means 'to drive' (a vehicle), 'to drive away' or 'to expel'. Thus, the northern Lao forms are almost unknown in standard Thai media references to Lao and Isan folk music.

Instrumentation
As the lowland areas of Laos and Isan are essentially one shared cultural region of Lao people, few differences, especially at its most traditional level, are present to distinguish traditional forms on either side. Throughout the Lao-speaking heartlands, the only accompaniment to performances of khap and lam was the local free reed mouth-organ, the khène (BGN/PCGN)/khaen (RTGS). Similar in many ways to the function of the bagpipe in the Scottish Highlands, the khène/khaen provides not only the melody but can also be used to provide a drone as it is played with circular breathing. So important is the khène/khaen in Lao music, the instrument even came to be used in the Lao classical music ensemble known as sép noy (BGN/PCGN)/sep noi (RTGS), where most of the instruments are influenced by the veneer of Indian musical traditions as well as classical musical traditions of neighboring Thailand, Cambodia, and Java.

In lam styles of central and southern Laos and most of Isan, traditional performances often included ensembles. Most northern khap styles relied solely on the khène/khaen, except for a few styles, such as those from Luang Phrabang, many of which were adaptations of the local classical music traditions as the city was the seat of the Lao monarchy until its forced abdication in 1975. The southern lam styles, heavily influenced by the ancient musical traditions of the Mon-Khmer peoples, such as the Mon, Khmer, Kuy and Bru that either were the former inhabitants or continue to live amongst the Tai peoples that now make up the majority in the Lao-speaking region.

Most modern styles, including the northern khap varieties, are generally heard with ensembles consisting of a mixture of Western instruments and traditional ones. Contemporary ensembles often feature electric guitars, drum sets, bass guitars, accordions, saxophones, violins, and keyboards set to sound like the 1960s Farsifa organs or set to provide equivalents of native instruments.

History
Morlam had its birth in the Lao heartlands of Laos, where it remains a popular art form. Although its precursors probably lie in the musical traditions of the historical Tai tribes that migrated south from China and northern Vietnam, much cross-pollination with indigenous music of the region as well as importation of Chinese, Mon-Khmer, Indian, and Malay influences, has also had a pronounced effect on the dances, instrumentation, and melodies of mor lam.

In his Traditional Music of the Lao, Terry Miller identifies five factors which helped to produce the various genres of lam in Isan: animism, Buddhism, story telling, ritual courtship and male-female competitive folksongs; these are exemplified by lam phi fa, an nangsue, lam phuen and lam gon (for the last two factors) respectively. Of these, lam phi fa and lam phuen are probably the oldest, while it was mor lam gon which was the principal ancestor of the commercial mor lam performed today.

In the late 18th and 19th centuries, the music of Laos began to spread into the Thai heartland, extending Lao influence to Siam. Forced population transfers from Laos into the newly acquired region of Isan and what is now Central Thailand accelerated the rapid adoption of mor lam. Even King Mongkut's vice-king Pinklao became enamoured of it. But in 1857, following the vice-king's death, Mongkut banned public performances, citing the threat it posed to Thai culture and its alleged role in causing a drought. Performance of mor lam thereafter was a largely local affair, confined to events such as festivals in Isan and Laos. However, as Isan people began to migrate throughout the rest of the country, the music came with them. The first major mor lam performance of the 20th century in Bangkok took place at the Rajadamnern Stadium in 1946. Even then, the number of migrant workers from Isan was fairly small, and mor lam was paid little attention by the outside world.

In the 1950s and 1960s, there were attempts in both Thailand and Laos to appropriate lam for political purposes. The USIS in Thailand and both sides in the Laotian Civil War (the "Secret War") recruited mor lam singers to insert propaganda into their performances, in hopes persuading the rural population to support their cause. The Thai attempt was unsuccessful, taking insufficient account of performers' practices and the audiences' demands, but it was more successful in Laos. The victorious Communists continued to maintain a propaganda troupe even after seizing power in 1975.

Mor lam started to spread in Thailand in the late-1970s and early-1980s, when more and more people left rural Isan to seek work. Mor lam performers began to appear on television, led by Banyen Rakgaen, and the music soon gained a national profile. It remains an important link to home for Isan migrants in the capital city, where mor lam clubs and karaoke bars are meeting places for those newly arrived.

Contemporary mor lam is very different from that of previous generations. None of the traditional Isan genres is commonly performed today; instead singers perform three-minute songs combining lam segments with luk thung or pop style sections, while comedians perform skits between blocks of songs. Mor lam sing performances typically consist of medleys of luk thung and lam songs, with electric instruments dominant and bawdy repartee. Sing comes from the English word 'racing' (a reference to the music's origin among Isan's biker fraternity; pai sing means 'to go racing about on motorbikes').

Lam in Laos has remained more conservative, and traditional styles are maintained, but massive exposure to Thai media and culture has led to increasing influence and the adoption of the more modern and popular Isan styles.

Criticism
Thai academic Prayut Wannaudom has argued that modern mor lam is increasingly sexualised and lacking in the moral teachings which it traditionally conveyed, and that commercial pressures encourage rapid production and imitation rather than quality and originality. On the other hand, these adaptations have allowed mor lam not only to survive, but itself spread into the rest of Thailand and internationally, validating Isan and Lao culture and providing role-models for the young.

Professor Charles F. Keyes argues for the value of the ancient forms as geomythology: "The Thai-Lao people of northeastern Thailand have a well-developed tradition of 'legends' (nithān) which has been perpetuated in past through the media of folk opera ... known as mō lam mū ... no small number record[ing] events which happened 'long ago' on the Khorat Plateau... [N]ot historical accounts, they are not totally lacking in historical value. A number ... make reference to places which can be identified as being the sites of the ancient towns.... [T]he literature of the region has yet to be fully inventoried, much less analyzed", and adds in a footnote: "Unfortunately, most of these publications have had little circulation outside of the folk opera troupes for which they were intended." He next comments on five toponyms mentioned in the myth of Phadaeng and Nang Ai, and compares these with those in the "Accounts of Fā Dāēet-Song Yāng".

Forms
There are many forms of mor lam. There can be no definitive list as they are not mutually exclusive, while some forms are confined to particular localities or have different names in different regions. Typically the categorisation is by region in Laos and by genre in Isan, although both styles are popular in the other region. The traditional forms of Isan are historically important, but are now rarely heard:

 * lam phi fa (ລຳຜີຟ້າ, ลำผีฟ้า, ) — a ritual to propitiate spirits in cases of possession. Musically it derived from lam tang yao; however, it was performed not by trained musicians but by those (most commonly old women) who thought themselves to have been cured by the ritual.
 * mor lam kon (ໝໍລຳກອນ, หมอลำกลอน, ) — a vocal "battle" between the sexes. In Laos it is known as lam tat. Performances traditionally lasted all night, and consisted of first two, then three parts:
 * lam tang san (ລຳທາງສ້ັນ, ลำทางสั้น, ) — ("short form") took up the bulk of the time, with the singers delivering gon poems a few minutes in length, performing alternately for about half an hour each from evening until about an hour before dawn. They would pretend gradually to fall in love, sometimes with rather explicit sexual banter.
 * lam tang nyao (ລຳທາງຍາວ, ลำทางยาว, ) — ("long form"), a representation of the lovers' parting performed slowly and in a speech rhythm for about a quarter of an hour.
 * lam toei (ລຳເຕີ້ຍ, ลำเต้ย, ) — was introduced in the mid-20th century. Similar in length to the lam tang nyao, it is fast and light-hearted, with metrical texts falling into three categories: toei thammada ("normal toei"), using gon texts in Isan; toei Phama ("Burmese toei"), using central or northern Thai texts and forms; and toei Khong ("Mekong toei"), again central or northern Thai in origin. It uses the same scale as lam yao.
 * lam chotkae or lam chot (ລຳໂຈດແກ້, ลำโจทย์แก้, IPA: or ລຳໂຈທຍ໌, ลำโจทย์, ) is a variant of lam kon formerly popular in the Khon Kaen area, in which the singers (often both male) asked one another questions on general knowledge topics — religion, geography, history etc. — trying to catch out their opponent.
 * mor lam mu (ໝໍລຳໝູ່, หมอลำหมู่, ) — folk opera, developed in the mid-20th century. Lam mu is visually similar to central Thai likay, but the subject matter (mainly Jataka stories) derived from lam rueang (the subgenre of lam phuen) and the music from lam tang nyao.  It was originally more serious than lam plern and required more skilled performers, but in the late-20th century the two converged to a style strongly influenced by central Thai and Western popular music and dance. Both have now declined in popularity and are now rare.
 * mor lam phoen (ໝໍລຳເພີນ, หมอลำเพลิน, ) — a celebratory narrative, performed by a group. It originated around the same time as lam mu, but used a more populist blend of song and dance.  The material consisted of metrical verses sung in the yao scale, often with a speech-rhythm introduction.
 * lam phuen (ລຳພື້ນ, ลำพื้น, ) — recital of local legends or Jataka stories, usually by a male singer, with khene accompaniment. In the sub-genre of lam rueang (ລຳເຣື່ອງ, ลำเรื่อง, ), sometimes performed by women, the singer acts out the various characters in costume. Performance of one complete story can last for one or two whole nights. This genre is now extremely rare, and may be extinct.

Regional styles

Isan has regional styles, but these are styles of performance rather than separate genres. The most important of the styles were Khon Kaen and Ubon, each taking their cue from the dominant form of lam gon in their area: the lam jotgae of Khon Kaen, with its role of displaying and passing on knowledge in various fields, led to a choppy, recitative-style delivery, while the love stories of Ubon promoted a slower and more fluent style. In the latter half of the 20th century the Ubon style came to dominate; the adaptation of Khon Kaen material to imitate the Ubon style was sometimes called the Chaiyaphum style.

The Lao regional styles are divided into the southern and central styles (lam) and the northern styles (khap). The northern styles are more distinct as the terrain of northern Laos has made communications there particularly difficult, while in southern and central Laos cross-fertilisation has been much easier. Northern Lao singers typically perform only one style, but those in the south can often perform several regional styles as well as some genres imported from Isan.

The main Lao styles are:

 * Lam Sithandone (ລຳສີທັນດອນ, ลำสีทันดร) (also called Lam Si Pan Don [ລຳສີພັນດອນ, ลำสีพันดอน]), from Champassak is similar in style to the lam gon of Ubon. It is accompanied by a solo khene, playing in a san mode, while the vocal line shifts between san and yao scales. The rhythm of the vocal line is also indeterminate, beginning in speech rhythm and shifting to a metrical rhythm.
 * Lam Som (ລຳຊອມ, ลําซอม) is rarely performed and may now be extinct. From Champassak, the style is hexatonic, using the yao scale plus a supertonic C, making a scale of  A-B-C-D-E-G. It uses speech rhythm in the vocal line, with a slow solo khene accompaniment in meter. It is similar to Isan's lam phuen. Both Lam Som and Lam Sithandone lack the descending shape of the vocal line used in the other southern Lao styles.
 * Lam Khon Savane (ລຳຄອນສະຫວັນ, ลำคอนสะหวัน, ) from Savannakhet is one of the most widespread genres. It uses the san scale, with a descending vocal line over a more rigidly metrical ensemble accompaniment. Lam Ban Xoc (ລຳບ້ານຊອກ, ลำบ้านซอก, ) and Lam Mahaxay (ລຳມະຫາໄຊ, มหาไซ, ) are musically very similar, but Ban Xoc is usually performed only on ceremonial occasions while Mahaxay is distinguished by a long high note preceding each descent of the vocal line.
 * Lam Phu Thai (ລຳຜູ້ໄທ, ลำผู้ไท, ) uses the yao scale, with a descending vocal line and ensemble accompaniment in meter.
 * Lam Tang Vay (ລຳຕັງຫວາຍ, ลำตังหวาย, ) is a Lao version of Mon-Khmer music, with a descending ensemble accompaniment.
 * Lam Saravane (ລຳສາລະວັນ, ลำสาละวัน [ลำสุวรรณ], ) is also of Mon-Khmer origin. It uses the yao scale. The descending vocal line is in speech rhythm, while the khene and drum accompaniment is in meter.
 * Khap Thum Luang Phrabang (ຂັບທຸ້ມຫລວງພະບາງ, ขับทุ้มหลวงพระบาง, ) is related to the court music of Luang Phrabang, but transformed into a folk-song style. The singer and audience alternately sing lines to a set melody, accompanied by an ensemble.
 * Khap Xieng Khouang (ຂັບຊຽງຂວາງ, ขับเซียงขวาง, ) also called Khap Phuan (ຂັບພວນ, ขับพวน) uses the yao scale and is typically sung metrically by male singers and non-metrically by women.
 * Khap Ngeum (ຂັບງຶມ, ขับงึม, )  uses the yao scale. It alternates declaimed line from the singer and non-metrical khene passages, at a pace slow enough to allow improvisation.
 * Khap Xam Neua (ຂັບຊຳເໜຶອ, ขับซำเหนือ, ) uses the yao scale. Singers are accompanied by a solo khene, declaiming lines each ending in a cadence.
 * Khap Tai Dam (ຂັບໄທດຳ, ขับไทดำ, ) used for Tai dam people.

Below is a comparative table of regional mor lam styles, sourced from Compton (1979).

Performers
Traditionally, young mor lam were taught by established artists, paying them for their teaching with money or in kind. The education focused on memorising the texts of the verses to be sung; these texts could be passed on orally or in writing, but they always came from a written source. Since only men had access to education, it was only men who wrote the texts. The musical education was solely by imitation. Khaen-players typically had no formal training, learning the basics of playing from friends or relatives and thereafter again relying on imitation. With the decline of the traditional genres, this system has fallen into disuse; the emphasis on singing ability (or looks) is greater, while the lyrics of a brief modern song present no particular challenge of memorisation.

The social status of mor lam is ambiguous. Even in the Isan heartland, Miller notes a clear division between the attitudes of rural and urban people: the former see mor lam as "teacher, entertainer, moral force, and preserver of tradition", while the latter, "hold mawlum singers in low esteem, calling them country bumpkins, reactionaries, and relegating them to among the lower classes since they make their money by singing and dancing".

Performance
In Laos, lam may be performed standing (lam yuen) or sitting (lam nang). Northern lam is typically lam yuen and southern lam is typically lam nang. In Isan lam was traditionally performed seated, with a small audience surrounding the singer, but over the latter half of the 20th century the introduction of stages and amplification allowed a shift to standing performances in front of a larger audience.

Live performances are now often large-scale events, involving several singers, a dance troupe and comedians. The dancers (or hang khreuang) in particular often wear spectacular costumes, while the singers may go through several costume changes in the course of a performance. Additionally, smaller-scale, informal performances are common at festivals, temple fairs and ceremonies such as funerals and weddings. These performances often include improvised material between songs and passages of teasing dialogue (Isan สอย, soi) between the singer and members of the audience.

Music
Lam singing is characterised by the adaptation of the vocal line to fit the tones of the words used. It also features staccato articulation and rapid shifting between the limited number of notes in the scale being used, commonly delivering around four syllables per second. There are two pentatonic scales, each of which roughly corresponds to intervals of a western diatonic major scale as follows:

The actual pitches used vary according to the particular khene accompanying the singer. The khene itself is played in one of six modes based on the scale being used.

Because Thai and Lao do not include phonemic stress, the rhythm used in their poetry is demarcative, i.e., based on the number of syllables rather than on the number of stresses. In gon verse (the most common form of traditional lam text) there are seven basic syllables in each line, divided into three and four syllable hemistiches. When combined with the musical beat, this produces a natural rhythm of four on-beat syllables, three off-beat syllables, and a final one beat rest:

In actual practice this pattern is complicated by the subdivision of beats into even or dotted two-syllable pairs and the addition of prefix syllables which occupy the rest at the end of the previous line; each line may therefore include eleven or twelve actual syllables. In the modern form, there are sudden tempo changes from the slow introduction to the faster main section of the song. Almost every contemporary mor lam song features the following bassline rhythm, which is often ornamented melodically or rhythmically, such as by dividing the crotchets into quavers:

The ching normally play a syncopated rhythm on the off-beat, giving the music a characteristically quick rhythm and tinny sound.

Content
Mor lam is traditionally sung in Lao. The subject matter varied according to the genre: love in the lam gon of Ubon; general knowledge in the lam jot of Khon Kaen; or Jataka stories in lam phun. The most common verse form was the four-line gon stanza with seven main syllables per line, although in Khon Kaen the technical subject matter led to the use of a free-form series of individual lines, called gon gap. In Laos, it is the regional styles which determine the form of the text. Each style may use a metrical or a speech-rhythm form, or both; where the lines are metrical, the lam styles typically use seven syllables, as in Isan, while the khap styles use four or five syllables per line. The slower pace of some Lao styles allows the singer to improvise the verse, but otherwise the text is memorised.

In recent decades, the Ubon style has come to dominate lam in Isan, while the central Thai influence has led to most songs being written in a mix of Isan and Thai. Unrequited love is a prominent theme, although this is laced with a considerable amount of humour. Many songs feature a loyal boy or girl who stays at home in Isan, while his or her partner goes to work as a migrant labourer in Bangkok and finds a new, richer lover.

The gon verses in lam tang san were typically preceded by a slower, speech-rhythm introduction, which included the words o la no ("oh my dear", an exhortation to the listeners to pay attention) and often a summary of the content of the poem. From this derives the groen (Thai เกริ่น) used in many modern songs: a slow, sung introduction, generally accompanied by the khene, introducing the subject of the song, and often including the o la naw. (sample)  The pleng (Thai เพลง) is a sung verse, often in central Thai. (sample), while the actual lam (Thai ลำ) appears as a chorus between pleng sections. (sample)

Recordings

As few mor lam artists write all their own material, many of them are extremely prolific, producing several albums each year. Major singers release their recordings on audio tape, CD and VCD formats. The album may take its name from a title track, but others are simply given a series number.

Mor lam VCDs can also often be used for karaoke. A typical VCD song video consists of a performance, a narrative film, or both intercut. The narrative depicts the subject matter of the song; in some cases, the lead role in the film is played by the singer. In the performance, the singer performs the song in front of a static group of dancers, typically female. There may be a number of these recordings in different costumes, and costumes may be modern or traditional dress; the singer often wears the same costume in different videos on the same album. The performance may be outdoors or in a studio; studio performances are often given a psychedelic animated backdrop. Videos from Laos tend to be much more basic, with lower production values.

Some of the most popular current artists are Banyen Rakgan, Chalermphol Malaikham, Somjit Borthong, Pornsak Songsaeng, Jintara Poonlarp, Siriporn Ampaipong and Vieng Narumon. In 2001, the first album by Dutch singer Christy Gibson was released.

In 2000, British musician Jah Wobble released the album Molam Dub (30 Hertz Records), a fusion of his reggae-influenced bass guitar with guest appearances by Laotian singers and performers. In 2007, singer Jonny Olsen released the first ever mor lam album by a Westerner, or "farang" in Laos.)

Live venues
There are several popular venues where mor lam and luk thung music are performed. These venues usually carry the word "Isan" in their names. such as "Tawan Daeng Isan" and "Isan Isan" in Bangkok.

Mor Lam artists

 * 1) Dao Bandon
 * 2) Pornsak Songsaeng
 * 3) Sommainoi Duangcharoen
 * 4) Siriporn Ampaipong
 * 5) Somjit Borthong
 * 6) Noknoi Uraiporn
 * 7) Sathit Thongjan
 * 8) Ki Daophet Niuhuang
 * 9) Jintara Poonlarp
 * 10) Honey Sri-Isan
 * 11) Man Maneewan
 * 12) Monkhaen Kaenkoon
 * 13) Maithai Huajaisilp
 * 14) Dueanphen Amnuaiporn
 * 15) Saeng-arun Bunyu
 * 16) Banyen Rakgan
 * 17) Chalermpol Malakham
 * 18) Poyfai Malaiporn
 * 19) Christy Gibson
 * 20) Tai Orathai
 * 21) Phai Phongsathon
 * 22) Mike Phiromphon
 * 23) Yinglee Srijumpol
 * 24) Ble Patumrach R-Siam
 * 25) Lamyai Haithongkham
 * 26) Moukdavanyh Santiphone
 * 27) Vieng Narumon

title: Mor lam


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Nazanin Afshin-Jam

Nazanin Afshin-Jam (, Nāzanin Afŝin Jam, born April 11, 1979) is an Iranian-Canadian human rights activist, author, public speaker and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss World Canada 2003. She is also president and co-founder of Stop Child Executions, as well as the founder of The Nazanin Foundation. She emigrated to Canada with her family in 1981 and is married to Peter MacKay, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.

Childhood
Nazanin Afshin-Jam was born on April 11, 1979, in Tehran, Iran. Her father was the head of the Sheraton Hotel in Tehran (now the Tehran Homa Hotel), frequented by westerners. During the Iranian revolution, her father was jailed by the Revolutionary Guard. After he was freed from prison, he fled Iran with his family to Spain and, after a year, they emigrated to Canada, settling in Vancouver.

Education and Red Cross work
Afshin-Jam graduated with international relations and political science degrees from the University of British Columbia. In 2011, she earned her Master of Arts in Diplomacy from Norwich University and she has an honorary doctorate of law from the University of Western Ontario.

Following her graduation, Afshin-Jam served as a Global Youth Educator with the Red Cross, becoming involved in such matters as land mines, children, and war, the poverty-disease cycle, and natural disasters.

Miss World 2003
Afshin-Jam was crowned Miss World Canada 2003 and represented Canada at Miss World 2003 in Sanya, China on December 6, 2003 where she placed 1st runner-up.

Activism and awards
Afshin-Jam was opposed to the death penalty being applied to an 18-year-old Iranian woman, Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi, who was sentenced to hang for stabbing one of three men who tried to rape her and her niece in Karaj in March 2005. Afshin-Jam started a campaign, including a petition, which attracted more than 350,000 signatures worldwide. She has also dedicated her song, Someday, one of the 12 songs on her similarly titled album, Someday, to Nazanin Fatehi. Eventually, with pressure from the international community, Fatehi was granted a new trial by the head of the judiciary in June, 2006. In January of the following year, Fatehi was exonerated of murder charges and was released after Afshin-Jam raised $43,000 online for bail, while her lawyers worked on her case. For her efforts in helping save Fatehi, Afshin-Jam was awarded the Hero for Human Rights Award from Youth For Human Rights Internationaland Artists for Human Rights. The Tale of Two Nazanins, by Afshin-Jam and Susan McClelland, chronicling the divergent lives of the two Iranian Nazanins whose lives intersected during Fatehi's trial, was published by HarperCollins.

Afshin-Jam initiated the Stop Child Executions Campaign and petitioned to help children on death row; the campaign was registered as a non-profit organization with 501-C 3 status in 2008. She is co-founder and President of the organization, whose aim is to put a permanent end to executions of minors in Iran and abroad.

On September 23, 2008, Afshin-Jam organized the Ahmadinejad's Wall of Shame rally at Dag Hammarskjöld park, across from the United Nations headquarters in New York, as Ahmadinejad was addressing the General Assembly. Afshin-Jam received the Global Citizenship Award from the University of British Columbia's Alumni Association in November and, In April of the next year, the Human Rights Hero Award from UN Watch in Geneva, Switzerland. Afshin-Jam was also given the Emerging Leader Peacemaker Award by the YMCA's Power of Peace Awards.

That same year, Afshin-Jam signed an open letter of apology, posted to Iranian.com, along with 266 other Iranian academics, writers, artists, and journalists, about the persecution of Baháʼís. She also chaired the first annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.

Afshin-Jam advocated in 2012 for the closure of the Canadian embassy in Tehran. Afshin-Jam received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. In 2016, she was conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from the University of Western Ontario.

Film work
Afshin-Jam participated, together with eight other women's rights activists, in the documentary film Honor Diaries which explores the issues of gender-based violence and inequality in Muslim-majority societies. Her personal story was featured alongside those of the other activists, all of whom are working to combat gender prejudice that is embedded in honor-based societies.

She also took on the role of 'Shaggy Chick' in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, where Matthew Lillard's face was attached to her body using CGI during a gag involving magic potions.

Music
Afshin-Jam's debut album, Someday was released in April 2007 by Bodog Music. It spans many different music genres, including world music influenced by Alabina.

Several of Afshin-Jam's songs have made the Top 30 and Top 40 charts. Her debut single, "I Dance 4 U" was charted at #20 in the Music Week - Commercial Pop Top 30 Club Chart (a music video for the song has been released). Afshim-Jam's single "Someday" has been climbing the FMQB Top 40 chart in the U.S. and is currently at #7. Her new single "I Do" reached #39 on the Billboard Chart in adult contemporary music. A Christmas single "On Christmas Day" has also made the charts, ranking #59 on the ACQB chart. The proceeds from the song are contributed to the Stop Child Executions Campaign.

Personal life
A licensed pilot, Afshin-Jam flies both powered aircraft and gliders and achieved the highest rank in the Royal Canadian Air Cadets—Warrant Officer First Class. She was raised a Catholic and remains a practising one.

In 2011, she earned her Master of Arts in Diplomacy from Norwich University. On January 4, 2012, Afshin-Jam married Peter MacKay, then the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, at a private ceremony in Mexico. The couple have two sons, one named Kian, born in 2013 and another named Caledon, born in 2018 and one daughter named Valentia, born in 2015.

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

title: Nazanin Afshin-Jam


text:
Talk:Cheung Kong Holdings

Personal Point of View
One of the paragraphs about CK Life Sciences has been deleted as I found that there was similar contents under the section "Cheung Kong Life Sciences". ---69jenniferman 22:10, Feb 25

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consolidation
Two references: Onanoff (talk) 14:26, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
 * "Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing overhauls business by merging utilities firms"
 * "What is behind the restructuring of CKI and Power Assets?"

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title: Talk:Cheung Kong Holdings


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Open-source journalism

Open-source journalism, a close cousin to citizen journalism or participatory journalism, is a term coined in the title of a 1999 article by Andrew Leonard of Salon.com. Although the term was not actually used in the body text of Leonard's article, the headline encapsulated a collaboration between users of the internet technology blog Slashdot and a writer for Jane's Intelligence Review. The writer, Johan J. Ingles-le Nobel, had solicited feedback on a story about cyberterrorism from Slashdot readers, and then re-wrote his story based on that feedback and compensated the Slashdot writers whose information and words he used.

This early usage of the phrase clearly implied the paid use, by a mainstream journalist, of copyright-protected posts made in a public online forum. It thus referred to the standard journalistic techniques of news gathering and fact checking, and reflected a similar term—open-source intelligence—that was in use from 1992 in military intelligence circles.

The meaning of the term has since changed and broadened, and it is now commonly used to describe forms of innovative publishing of online journalism, rather than the sourcing of news stories by a professional journalist.

The term open-source journalism is often used to describe a spectrum on online publications: from various forms of semi-participatory online community journalism (as exemplified by projects such as the copyright newspaper NorthWest Voice), through to genuine open-source news publications (such as the Spanish 20 minutos, and Wikinews).

A relatively new development is the use of convergent polls, allowing editorials and opinions to be submitted and voted on. Over time, the poll converges on the most broadly accepted editorials and opinions. Examples of this are Opinionrepublic.com and Digg. Scholars are also experimenting with the process of journalism itself, such as open-sourcing the story skeletons that journalists build.

Usage
At first sight, it would appear to many that blogs fit within the current meaning of open-source journalism. Yet the term's use of open source clearly currently implies the meaning as given to it by the open-source software movement; where the source code of programs is published openly to allow anyone to locate and fix mistakes or add new functions. Anyone may also freely take and re-use that source code to create new works, within set license parameters.

Given certain legal traditions of copyright, blogs may not be open source in the sense that one is prohibited from taking the blogger's words or visitor comments and re-using them in another form without breaching the author's copyright or making payment. However, many blogs draw on such material through quotations (often with links to the original material), and follow guidelines more comparable to research than media production.

Creative Commons is a licensing arrangement that is useful as a legal workaround for such an inherent structural dilemma intrinsic to blogging, and its fruition is manifest in the common practices of referencing another published article, image or piece of information via a hyperlink. Insofar as blog works can explicitly inform readers and other participants of the "openness" of their text via Creative Commons, they not only publish openly, but allow anyone to locate, critique, summarize etc. their works.

Wiki journalism
Wiki journalism is a form of participatory journalism or crowdsourcing, which uses wiki technology to facilitate collaboration between users. It is a kind of collaborative journalism. The largest example of wiki journalism is Wikinews. According to Paul Bradshaw, there are five broad types of wiki journalism: second draft wiki journalism, a 'second stage' piece of journalism, during which readers can edit an article produced in-house; crowdsourcing wiki journalism, a means of covering material which could not have been produced in-house (probably for logistical reasons), but which becomes possible through wiki technology; supplementary wiki journalism, creating a supplement to a piece of original journalism, e.g. a tab to a story that says "Create a wiki for related stories"; open wiki journalism, in which a wiki is created as an open space, whose subject matter is decided by the user, and where material may be produced that would not otherwise have been commissioned; and logistical wiki journalism, involving a wiki limited to in-house contributors which enables multiple authorship, and may also facilitate transparency, and/or an ongoing nature.

Examples
Wikinews was launched in 2004 as an attempt to build an entire news operation on wiki technology. Where Wikinews – and indeed Wikipedia – has been most successful, however, is in covering large news events involving large numbers of people, such as Hurricane Katrina and the Virginia Tech shooting, where first-hand experience, or the availability of first-hand accounts, forms a larger part of the entry, and where the wealth of reportage makes a central "clearing house" valuable. Thelwall & Stuart identify Wikinews and Wikipedia as becoming particularly important during crises such as Hurricane Katrina, which "precipitate discussions or mentions of new technology in blogspace."

Mike Yamamoto notes that "In times of emergency, wikis are quickly being recognized as important gathering spots not only for news accounts but also for the exchange of resources, safety bulletins, missing-person reports and other vital information, as well as a meeting place for virtual support groups." He sees the need for community as the driving force behind this.

In June 2005, the Los Angeles Times decided to experiment with a "wikitorial" on the Iraq War, publishing their own editorial online but inviting readers to "rewrite" it using wiki technology. The experiment received broad coverage both before and after launch in both the mainstream media and the blogosphere. In editorial terms, the experiment was generally recognised as a failure.

In September 2005, Esquire used Wikipedia itself to "wiki" an article about Wikipedia by AJ Jacobs. The draft called on users to help Jacobs improve the article, with the intention of printing "before" and "after" versions of the piece in the printed magazine. He included some intentional mistakes to make the experiment "a little more interesting". The article received 224 edits in the first 24 hours, rising to 373 by 48 hours, and over 500 before further editing was suspended so the article could be printed.

In 2006, Wired also experimented with an article about wikis. When writer Ryan Singel submitted the 1,000-word draft to his editor, "instead of paring the story down to a readable 800 words, we posted it as-is to a SocialText-hosted wiki on 29 August, and announced it was open to editing by anyone willing to register." When the experiment closed, Singel noted that "there were 348 edits of the main story, 21 suggested headlines and 39 edits of the discussion pages. Thirty hyperlinks were added to the 20 in the original story." He continued that "one user didn't like the quotes I used from Ward Cunningham, the father of wiki software, so I instead posted a large portion of my notes from my interview on the site, so the community could choose a better one." Singel felt that the final story was "more accurate and more representative of how wikis are used" but not a better story than would have otherwise been produced:

"The edits over the week lack some of the narrative flow that a Wired News piece usually contains. The transitions seem a bit choppy, there are too many mentions of companies, and too much dry explication of how wikis work.

"It feels more like a primer than a story to me."

However, continued Singel, that didn't make the experiment a failure, and he felt the story "clearly tapped into a community that wants to make news stories better ... Hopefully, we'll continue to experiment to find ways to involve that community more."

In April 2010, the Wahoo Newspaper partnered with WikiCity Guides to extend its audience and local reach. "With this partnership, the Wahoo Newspaper provides a useful tool to connect with our readers, and for our readers to connect with one another to promote and spotlight everything Wahoo has to offer," said Wahoo Newspaper Publisher Shon Barenklau. Despite relatively little traffic as compared to its large scale, WikiCity Guides is recognized as the largest wiki in the world with over 13 million active pages.

Literature on wiki journalism
Andrew Lih places wikis within the larger category of participatory journalism, which also includes blogs, citizen journalism models such as OhMyNews and peer-to-peer publishing models such as Slashdot, and which, he argues "uniquely addresses an historic 'knowledge gap' – the general lack of content sources for the period between when the news is published and the history books are written."

Participatory journalism, he argues, "has recast online journalism not as simply reporting or publishing, but as a lifecycle, where software is crafted, users are empowered, journalistic content is created and the process repeats improves upon itself."

Francisco identifies wikis as a 'next step' in participatory journalism: "Blogs helped individuals publish and express themselves. Social networks allowed those disparate bloggers to be found and connected. Wikis are the platforms to help those who found one another be able to collaborate and build together."

Advantages
A Wiki can serve as the collective truth of the event, portraying the hundreds of viewpoints and without taxing any one journalist with uncovering whatever represents the objective truth in the circumstance.

Wikis allow news operations to effectively cover issues on which there is a range of opinion so broad that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to summarise effectively in one article alone. Examples might include local transport problems, experiences of a large event such as a music festival or protest march, guides to local restaurants or shops, or advice. The Wikivoyage site is one such example, "A worldwide travel guide written entirely by contributors who either live in the place they're covering or have spent enough time there to post relevant information."

Organisations willing to open up wikis to their audience completely may also find a way of identifying their communities' concerns: Wikipedia, for instance, notes Eva Dominguez "reflects which knowledge is most shared, given that both the content and the proposals for entries are made by the users themselves."

Internally, wikis also allow news operations to coordinate and manage a complex story which involves a number of reporters: journalists are able to collaborate by editing a single webpage that all have access to. News organisations interested in transparency might also publish the wiki 'live' as it develops, while the discussion space which accompanies each entry also has the potential to create a productive dialogue with users.

There are also clear economic and competitive advantages to allowing users to create articles. With the growth of low-cost micropublishing facilitated by the internet and blogging software in particular, and the convergence-fuelled entry into the online news market by both broadcasters and publishers, news organisations face increased competition from all sides. At the same time, print and broadcast advertising revenue is falling while competition for online advertising revenue is fierce and concentrated on a few major players: in the US, for instance, according to Jeffrey Rayport 99 percent of gross advertising money 2006 went to the top 10 websites.

Wikis offer a way for news websites to increase their reach, while also increasing the time that users spend on their website, a key factor in attracting advertisers. And, according to Dan Gillmor, "When [a wiki] works right, it engenders a community – and a community that has the right tools can take care of itself". A useful side-effect of community for a news organisation is reader loyalty.

Andrew Lih notes the importance of the "spirit of the open source movement" (2004b p6) in its development, and the way that wikis function primarily as "social software – acting to foster communication and collaboration with other users." Specifically, Lih attributes the success of the wiki model to four basic features: user friendly formatting; structure by convention, not enforced by software; "soft" security and ubiquitous access; and wikis transparency and edit history feature.

Student-run wikis provide opportunities to integrate learning by doing into a journalism education program.

Disadvantages
Shane Richmond identifies two obstacles that could slow down the adoption of news wikis – inaccuracy and vandalism:
 * "vandalism remains the biggest obstacle I can see to mainstream media's adoption of wikis, particularly in the UK, where one libellous remark could lead to the publisher of the wiki being sued, rather than the author of the libel."
 * "Meanwhile, the question of authority is the biggest obstacle to acceptance by a mainstream audience."

Writing in 2004, Lih also identified authority as an issue for Wikipedia: "While Wikipedia has recorded impressive accomplishments in three years, its articles have a mixed degree of quality because they are, by design, always in flux, and always editable. That reason alone makes people wary of its content."

Dan Gillmor puts it another way: "When vandals learn than someone will repair their damage within minutes, and therefore prevent the damage from being visible to the world, the bad guys tend to give up and move along to more vulnerable places." (2004, p. 149)

Attempts to address the security issue vary. Wikipedia's own entry on wikis again explains:

"For instance, some wikis allow unregistered users known as "IP addresses" to edit content, whilst others limit this function to just registered users. What most wikis do is allow IP editing, but privilege registered users with some extra functions to lend them a hand in editing; on most wikis, becoming a registered user is very simple and can be done in seconds, but detains the user from using the new editing functions until either some time passes, as in the English Wikipedia, where registered users must wait for three days after creating an account in order to gain access to the new tool, or until several constructive edits have been made in order to prove the user's trustworthiness and usefulness on the system, as in the Portuguese Wikipedia, where users require at least 15 constructive edits before authorization to use the added tools. Basically, "closed up" wikis are more secure and reliable but grow slowly, whilst more open wikis grow at a steady rate but result in being an easy target for vandalism."

Walsh (2007) quotes online media consultant Nico Macdonald on the importance of asking people to identify themselves:

"The key is the user's identity within the space – a picture of a person next to their post, their full name, a short bio and a link to their space online."

"A real community has, as New Labour would say, rights and responsibilities. You have to be accountable for yourself. Online, you only have the 'right' to express yourself. Online communities are not communities in a real sense – they're slightly delinquent. They allow or encourage delinquency."

Walsh (2007) argues that "Even if you don't plan on moderating a community, it's a good idea to have an editorial presence, to pop in and respond to users' questions and complaints. Apart from giving users the sense that they matter – and they really should – it also means that if you do have to take drastic measures and curtail (or even remove) a discussion or thread, it won't seem quite so much like the egregious action of some deus ex machina."

Ryan Singel of Wired also feels there is a need for an editorial presence, but for narrative reasons: "in storytelling, there's still a place for a mediator who knows when to subsume a detail for the sake of the story, and is accustomed to balancing the competing claims and interests of companies and people represented in a story."

'Edit wars' are another problem in wikis, where contributors continually overwrite each other's contributions due to a difference of opinion. The worst cases, notes Lih, "may require intervention by other community members to help mediate and arbitrate".

Eva Dominguez recognises the potential of wikis, but also the legal responsibilities that publishers must answer to: "The greater potential of the Internet to carry out better journalism stems from this collaboration, in which the users share and correct data, sources and facts that the journalist may not have easy access to or knowledge of. But the media, which have the ultimate responsibility for what is published, must always be able to verify everything. For example, in the case of third-party quotes included by collaborating users, the journalist must also check that they are true."

One of the biggest disadvantages may be readers' lack of awareness of what a wiki even is: only 2% of Internet users even know what a wiki is, according to a Harris Interactive poll (Francisco, 2006).

American columnist Bambi Francisco argues that it is only a matter of time before more professional publishers and producers begin to experiment with using "wiki-styled ways of creating content" in the same way as they have picked up on blogs.

The Telegraph's Web News Editor, Shane Richmond, wrote: "Unusually, it may be business people who bring wikis into the mainstream. That will prepare the ground for media experiments with wikis [and] I think it's a safe bet that a British media company will try a wiki before the end of the year."

Richmond added that The Telegraph was planning an internal wiki as a precursor to public experiments with the technology. "Once we have a feel for the technology, we will look into a public wiki, perhaps towards the end of the year [2007]."

title: Open-source journalism


text:
Vito & the Salutations

Vito & the Salutations is an Italian/Irish/Jewish-American New York City doo-wop group from the 1960s. They began performing their four-part harmonies while still in high school, getting practice by singing in subways and at railroad stations. But they never expected anything to come of it, until one of the band members was introduced to someone at a local record company, and the band was asked to make some recordings. Their first popular record, "Gloria," was a regional hit. But Vito & the Salutations became best known for a surprise million-selling hit a year later, in the summer of 1963: they took "Unchained Melody," a 1955 hit ballad by Al Hibbler that they heard on the car radio, as they drove to perform at a concert, and transformed it into an up-tempo, doo-wop song. "Unchained Melody" reached number 66 on the Cash Box hit parade, and it made the top ten in many cities: for example, in New York City, the song reached #3 on top-40 powerhouse WABC. The record was originally released on Herald (H-583). The original group consisted of: Barry Solomon, Bob DiPaolo, Bobby Mitchel and Vito Balsamo (a friend of Bob DiPaolo's younger brother John.)  That group broke up after their success with their song Gloria. Another group was formed by their manager Dave Rick. That second group consisted of:  Frankie Fox (bass baritone), Sheldon Buchansky (second tenor), Raymond JP Russell (first tenor) and Vito Balsamo (lead, baritone, and falsetto). Balsamo came from an immigrant family: his parents were from Palermo, Italy and he grew up in Brooklyn, listening to opera. But he fell in love with rock and roll, much to the dismay of his parents. Vito joined a group and recorded his first song when he was only fifteen. The B side of "Unchained Melody" was "Hey, Hey, Baby," a tune composed by Murray Kanner, Frankie Fox and Dave Rick. Vito & the Salutations also performed their version of "Unchained Melody" on American Bandstand.

The group existed from 1961–1967, with a reunion concert performed at Hunter College in 1971, only Frankie and Sheldon Buchansky were the original members of this group in this performance. Featured lead singer was Vito Balsamo, who also performed with the DelVons and The Kelloggs. In the early 1990s, Balsamo participated in a doo-wop nostalgia tour, performing as Vito Balsamo and the Cavaliers: this band included some former members of J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers (whose big hit was "Last Kiss" in 1964). From (1990-1991)-(1996-1999) Balsamo recorded and toured continuously with The Doo Wop All Stars whose members included Eugene Pitt (Jive Five), Artie Loria (Belmonts/Earls), Randy Silver (Impalas) and Lenny Welch. Vito still performs on occasional nostalgia tours, such as in The Golden Group Memories, which was seen on PBS in 1999 and 2000. Other lead singers were bass baritone Frankie Fox and falsettos Ray Russell and Randy Siver, who joined the group after Ray Russell moved on to become a producer, writer and director with James Duffy of Britton records; later, Frank Hidalgo and Eddie Parducci shared the lead with Vito in the group or on leave from the group. Over the years there have been many substitutes and replacements: Jack Mercury, Alan Messinger, Madie Seigal, Vinny Cognato, Johnny Monforte and Randy Silverman along with Frank and Vito recorded a single in 1967, "Bring Back Yesterday" b/w "I Want You to Be My Baby", on Boom Records. In the early '70s Sheldon Buchansky returned to form a new Salutations with Vito Eddie Parducci, Jimmy Spinelli, Frankie Graziano and others. Meanwhile, Vito Balsamo lost the right to use the name "Vito & the Salutations" in a court case in 1984, as a new band that included several former members took over the name. By 1986, after several appeals, Vito began using "Vito Balsamo and his Group," when he performed. And sometimes, when he toured, he was listed in newspapers as or "Vito Balsamo, formerly of the Salutations."

The group's unique version of "Unchained Melody" has been included in several movies, most notably the 1990 film Goodfellas. It also can be heard in the Sci-Fi Dine-In restaurant at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World.

title: Vito & the Salutations


text:
Saskia van Uylenburgh

Saskia van Uylenburgh (Saakje fan Uylenburgh; 2 August 1612 – 14 June 1642) was the wife of painter Rembrandt van Rijn. In the course of her life, she was his model for some of his paintings, drawings, and etchings. She was the daughter of Rombertus Uylenburg, the mayor as well as the justice of the Court of Friesland.

Life
Saskia was born in Leeuwarden, Friesland, the youngest of the eight children of Sjoukje Ozinga and Rombertus van Uylenburgh, a top lawyer, a town burgomaster, and one of the founders of the University of Franeker. Saskia (called Saske in Friesland) was orphaned by age 12, as her mother died in 1619 and her father five years later. Supposedly she met Rembrandt at the home of her first cousin, Hendrick van Uylenburgh, a painter and art dealer who had emigrated from Friesland to Kraków in Poland with his parents but decided in 1625 to move to the Dutch Republic, where there was growing tolerance after the death of Maurice of Orange.

Saskia was raised by her sister Hiskje and her husband, Gerard van Loo, a lawyer and secretary in the grietenij Het Bildt. For a while she lived in Franeker when her sister Antje was ill. After Antje's burial, Saskia assisted her brother-in-law, the Polish theology professor Johannes Maccovius, until she married Rembrandt in 1634.

In 1631 and in the company of the Mennonite painters Govert Flinck and Jacob Backer, Saskia travelled to Amsterdam. There she met Rembrandt, who produced paintings and portraits for Uylenburgh's Amsterdam clients. In turn Rembrandt travelled to Leeuwarden, where he was received by the painter Wybrand de Geest, who had married Saskia's niece.

Saskia and Rembrandt were engaged on 5 June 1633, and a year later Rembrandt asked permission to marry in Sint Annaparochie. He showed his mother's written consent to the schepen. On 2 July 1634 the couple married. The preacher was Saskia's cousin, but evidently none of Rembrandt's family attended the marriage. That Saskia fell in love with an artist who was socially no match for the daughter of a patrician and that she pressed for a speedy betrothal against all conventions certainly shows that she was a very strong and independent character. In 1635 the couple moved to one of the most desirable addresses in Amsterdam, the Nieuwe Doelenstraat, with prominent neighbors and a view of the river Amstel.

Rembrandt gained financial success through his artwork, and decided in 1639 to buy a house in the Jodenbreestraat, next to the place where he worked. A year before, by 16 July 1638, Saskia's Friesian relatives complained that Saskia was spoiling her inheritance. Rembrandt asked his brother-in-law Ulricus van Uylenburgh, also a lawyer, to help them out, confirming he was successful and able to pay for the house.

Three of their children died shortly after birth and were buried in the nearby Zuiderkerk. The sole survivor was Titus, who was named after his mother's sister Titia (Tietje) van Uylenburgh. Saskia died the year after he was born, in Amsterdam, aged 29, probably from tuberculosis. She was buried in the Oude Kerk. For ten years Rembrandt focused on drawings and etchings.

Saskia allowed Rembrandt to use their son's inheritance as long as he did not remarry. If Titus died without issue, Rembrandt would be the heir of the moveable property. Rembrandt hired Geertje Dircx as a wetnurse; in 1649 she expected him to marry her. The next year Rembrandt had her locked up in a house of correction when Hendrickje Stoffels became his new housekeeper and mistress. In 1662 Rembrandt, having been in financial trouble for several years, sold Saskia's grave. Hendrickje died the following year.

Asteroid 461 Saskia is named in her honour.

title: Saskia van Uylenburgh