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Wangarĩ Maathai

Wangarĩ Muta Maathai (1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011) was a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

As a beneficiary of the Kennedy Airlift, she studied in the United States, earning a bachelor's degree from Mount St. Scholastica and a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She went on to become the first woman in East and Central Africa to become a Doctor of Philosophy, receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In 1984, she got the Right Livelihood Award for "converting the Kenyan ecological debate into mass action for reforestation." Wangari Maathai was an elected member of the Parliament of Kenya and, between January 2003 and November 2005, served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki. She was an Honorary Councillor of the World Future Council. As an academic and the author of several books, Maathai was not only an activist but also an intellectual who has made significant contributions to thinking about ecology, development, gender, and African cultures and religions.

Maathai died of complications from ovarian cancer on 25 September 2011.

Early life and education
Maathai was born on 1 April 1940 in the village of Ihithe, Nyeri District, in the central highlands of the colony of Kenya. Her family was Kikuyu, the most populous ethnic group in Kenya, and had lived in the area for several generations. Around 1943, Maathai's family relocated to a white-owned farm in the Rift Valley, near Nakuru, where her father had found work. Late in 1947, she returned to Ihithe with her mother, as two of her brothers were attending primary school in the village, and there was no schooling available on the farm where her father worked. Her father remained at the farm. Shortly afterward, at the age of eight years, she joined her brothers at Ihithe Primary School.

At 11 years, Maathai moved to St. Cecilia's Intermediate Primary School, a boarding school at the Mathari Catholic Mission in Nyeri. Maathai studied at St. Cecilia's for four years. During this time, she became fluent in English and converted to Catholicism. She was involved with the Legion of Mary, whose members attempted "to serve God by serving fellow human beings." Studying at St. Cecilia's, she was sheltered from the ongoing Mau Mau uprising, which forced her mother to move from their homestead to an emergency village in Ihithe. When she completed her studies there in 1956, she was rated first in her class, and was granted admission to the only Catholic high school for girls in Kenya, Loreto High School in Limuru.

As the end of East African colonialism approached, Kenyan politicians, such as Tom Mboya, were proposing ways to make education in Western nations available to promising students. John F. Kennedy, then a United States senator, agreed to fund such a program through the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, initiating what became known as the Kennedy Airlift or Airlift Africa. Maathai became one of some 300 Kenyans selected to study in the United States in September 1960.

She received a scholarship to study at Mount St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College), in Atchison, Kansas, where she majored in biology, with minors in chemistry and German. After receiving her Bachelor of Science degree in 1964, she studied at the University of Pittsburgh for a master's degree in biology. Her graduate studies there were funded by the Africa-America Institute, and during her time in Pittsburgh, she first experienced environmental restoration, when local environmentalists pushed to rid the city of air pollution. In January 1966, Maathai received her MSc in biological sciences, and was appointed to a position as research assistant to a professor of zoology at University College of Nairobi.

Upon returning to Kenya, Maathai dropped her forename, preferring to be known by her birth name, Wangarĩ Muta. When she arrived at the university to start her new job, she was informed that it had been given to someone else. Maathai believed this was because of gender and tribal bias. After a two-month job search, Professor Reinhold Hofmann, from the University of Giessen in Germany, offered her a job as a research assistant in the microanatomy section of the newly established Department of Veterinary Anatomy in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University College of Nairobi. In April 1966, she met Mwangi Mathai, another Kenyan who had studied in America, who would later become her husband. She also rented a small shop in the city and established a general store, at which her sisters worked. In 1967, at the urging of Professor Hofmann, she travelled to the University of Giessen in Germany in pursuit of a doctorate. She studied both at Giessen and the University of Munich.

In the spring of 1969, she returned to Nairobi to continue her studies at the University College of Nairobi as an assistant lecturer. In May, she and Mwangi Mathai married. Later that year, she became pregnant with her first child, and her husband campaigned for a seat in Parliament, narrowly losing. During the election, Tom Mboya, who had been instrumental in founding the program which sent her overseas, was assassinated. This led to President Kenyatta effectually ending multi-party democracy in Kenya. Shortly after, her first son, Waweru, was born. In 1971, she became the first Eastern African woman to receive a Ph.D., her doctorate in veterinary anatomy, from the University College of Nairobi, which became the University of Nairobi the following year. She completed her dissertation on the development and differentiation of gonads in bovines. Her daughter, Wanjira, was born in December 1971.

1972–1977: Start of activism
Maathai continued to teach at Nairobi, becoming a senior lecturer in anatomy in 1975, chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy in 1976, and associate professor in 1977. She was the first woman in Nairobi appointed to any of these positions. During this time, she campaigned for equal benefits for the women working on the staff of the university, going so far as trying to turn the academic staff association of the university into a union, to negotiate for benefits. The courts denied this bid, but many of her demands for equal benefits were later met. In addition to her work at the University of Nairobi, Maathai became involved in several civic organisations in the early 1970s. She was a member of the Nairobi branch of the Kenya Red Cross Society, becoming its director in 1973. She was a member of the Kenya Association of University Women. Following the establishment of the Environment Liaison Centre in 1974, Maathai was asked to be a member of the local board, eventually becoming board chair. The Environment Liaison Centre worked to promote the participation of non-governmental organisations in the work of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), whose headquarters was established in Nairobi following the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972. Maathai also joined the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK). Through her work at these various volunteer associations, it became evident to Maathai that the root of most of Kenya's problems was environmental degradation.

In 1974, Maathai's family expanded to include her third child, son Muta. Her husband campaigned again for a seat in Parliament, hoping to represent the Lang'ata constituency, and won. During his campaign, he had promised to find jobs to limit the rising unemployment in Kenya. These promises led Maathai to connect her ideas of environmental restoration to providing jobs for the unemployed and led to the founding of Envirocare Ltd., a business that involved the planting of trees to conserve the environment, involving ordinary people in the process. This led to the planting of her first tree nursery, collocated with a government tree nursery in Karura Forest. Envirocare ran into multiple problems, primarily dealing with funding, and ultimately failed. However, through conversations concerning Envirocare and her work at the Environment Liaison Centre, UNEP made it possible to send Maathai to the first UN conference on human settlements, known as Habitat I, in June 1976.

In 1977, Maathai spoke to the NCWK concerning her attendance at Habitat I. She proposed further tree planting, which the council supported. On 5 June 1977, marking World Environment Day, the NCWK marched in a procession from Kenyatta International Conference Centre in downtown Nairobi to Kamukunji Park on the outskirts of the city, where they planted seven trees in honour of historical community leaders. This was the first event of the Green Belt Movement. Maathai encouraged the women of Kenya to plant tree nurseries throughout the country, searching nearby forests for seeds to grow trees native to the area. She agreed to pay the women a small stipend for each seedling which was later planted elsewhere.

In her 2010 book, Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World, she discussed the impact of the Green Belt Movement, explaining that the group's civic and environmental seminars stressed "the importance of communities taking responsibility for their actions and mobilizing to address their local needs," and adding, "We all need to work hard to make a difference in our neighborhoods, regions, and countries, and in the world as a whole. That means making sure we work hard, collaborate, and make ourselves better agents to change." In this book, she explicitly engages with religious traditions, including the indigenous Kikuyu religion and Christianity, mobilizing them as resources for environmental thinking and activism.

1977–1979: Personal problems
Maathai and her husband, Mwangi Mathai, separated in 1977. After a lengthy separation, Mwangi filed for divorce in 1979. He was said to have believed that Wangari was "too strong-minded for a woman" and that he was "unable to control her". In addition to naming her as "cruel" in court filings, he publicly accused her of adultery with another Member of Parliament, which in turn was thought to cause his high blood pressure and the judge ruled in Mwangi's favour. Shortly after the trial, in an interview with Viva magazine, Maathai referred to the judge as either incompetent or corrupt. The interview later led the judge to charge Maathai with contempt of court. She was found guilty and sentenced to six months in jail. After three days in Lang'ata Women's Prison in Nairobi, her lawyer formulated a statement that the court found sufficient for her release. Shortly after the divorce, her former husband sent a letter via his lawyer demanding that Maathai drop his surname. She chose to add an extra "a" instead of changing her name.

The divorce had been costly, and with lawyers' fees and the loss of her husband's income, Maathai found it difficult to provide for herself and their children on her university wages. An opportunity arose to work for the Economic Commission for Africa through the United Nations Development Programme. As this job required extended travel throughout Africa and was based primarily in Lusaka, Zambia, she was unable to bring her children with her. Maathai chose to send them to her ex-husband and take the job. While she visited them regularly, they lived with their father until 1985.

1979–1982: Political problems
In 1979, shortly after the divorce, Maathai ran for the position of chairperson of the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK), an umbrella organisation consisting of many women's organisations in the country. The newly-elected President of Kenya, Daniel arap Moi, tried to limit the amount of influence those of the Kikuyu ethnicity held in the country, including in volunteer civic organisations such as the NCWK. She lost this election by three votes, but was overwhelmingly chosen to be the vice-chairman of the organisation. The following year, Maathai again ran for chairman of the NCWK. Again she was opposed, she believes, by the government. When it became apparent that Maathai was going to win the election, Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, a member organisation which represented a majority of Kenya's rural women and whose leader was close to Arap Moi, withdrew from the NCWK. Maathai was then elected chairman of the NCWK unopposed. However, Maendeleo Ya Wanawake came to receive a majority of the financial support for women's programs in the country, and NCWK was left virtually bankrupt. Future funding was much more difficult to come by, but the NCWK survived by increasing its focus on the environment and making its presence and work known. Maathai continued to be reelected to serve as chairman of the organization every year until she retired from the position in 1987.

In 1982, the Parliamentary seat representing her home region of Nyeri was open, and Maathai decided to campaign for the seat. As required by law, she resigned from her position with the University of Nairobi to campaign for office. The courts decided that she was ineligible to run for office because she had not re-registered to vote in the last presidential election in 1979. Maathai believed this to be false and illegal, and brought the matter to court. The court was to meet at nine in the morning, and if she received a favorable ruling, was required to present her candidacy papers in Nyeri by three in the afternoon that day. The judge disqualified her from running on a technicality: as before, they claimed she should have re-registered to vote. When she requested her job back, she was denied. As she lived in university housing and was no longer a staff member, she was evicted.

Green Belt Movement
Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977 in response to the environmental concerns raised by rural Kenyan women. She moved into a small home she had purchased years before, and focused on the NCWK before becoming employed again. In the course of her work through the NCWK, she had the opportunity to partner with the executive director of the Norwegian Forestry Society, Wilhelm Elsrud. Maathai became the coordinator. Along with the partnership with the Norwegian Forestry Society, the movement had also received "seed money" from the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Women. These funds allowed for the expansion of the movement, for hiring additional employees to oversee the operations, and for continuing to pay a small stipend to the women who planted seedlings throughout the country. It allowed her to refine the operations of the movement, paying a small stipend to the women's husbands and sons who were literate and able to keep accurate records of seedlings planted.

The UN held the third global women's conference in Nairobi. During the conference, Maathai arranged seminars and presentations to describe the work the Green Belt Movement was doing in Kenya. She escorted delegates to see nurseries and plant trees. She met Peggy Snyder, the head of UNIFEM, and Helvi Sipilä, the first woman appointed a UN assistant secretary general. The conference helped to expand funding for the Green Belt Movement and led to the movement's establishing itself outside Kenya. In 1986, with funding from UNEP, the movement expanded throughout Africa and led to the foundation of the Pan-African Green Belt Network. Forty-five representatives from fifteen African countries travelled to Kenya over the next three years to learn how to set up similar programs in their own countries to combat desertification, deforestation, water crises, and rural hunger. The attention the movement received in the media led to Maathai's being honored with numerous awards. The government of Kenya, however, demanded that the Green Belt Movement separate from the NCWK, believing the latter should focus solely on women's issues, not the environment. Therefore, in 1987, Maathai stepped down as chairperson of the NCWK and focused on the newly separate non-governmental organisation.

Government intervention
In the latter half of the 1980s, the Kenyan government came down against Maathai and the Green Belt Movement. The single-party regime opposed many of the movement's positions regarding democratic rights. The government invoked a colonial-era law prohibiting groups of more than nine people from meeting without a government license. In 1988, the Green Belt Movement carried out pro-democracy activities such as registering voters for the election and pressing for constitutional reform and freedom of expression. The government carried out electoral fraud in the elections to maintain power, according to Maathai.

In October 1989, Maathai learned of a plan to construct the 60-storey Kenya Times Media Trust Complex in Uhuru Park. The complex was intended to house the headquarters of KANU, the Kenya Times newspaper, a trading center, offices, an auditorium, galleries, shopping malls, and parking spaces for 2,000 cars. The plan also included a large statue of President Daniel Arap Moi. Maathai wrote many letters in protest to, among others, the Kenya Times, the Office of the President, the Nairobi city commission, the provincial commissioner, the minister for environment and natural resources, the executive directors of UNEP and the Environment Liaison Centre International, the executive director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the ministry of public works, and the permanent secretary in the department of international security and administration all received letters. She wrote to Sir John Johnson, the British high commissioner in Nairobi, urging him to intervene with Robert Maxwell, a major shareholder in the project, equating the construction of a tower in Uhuru Park to such construction in Hyde Park or Central Park and maintaining that it could not be tolerated.

The government refused to respond to her inquiries and protests, instead responding through the media that Maathai was "a crazy woman"; that denying the project in Uhuru Park would take more than a small portion of public parkland; and proclaiming the project as a "fine and magnificent work of architecture" opposed by only the "ignorant few". On 8 November 1989, Parliament expressed outrage at Maathai's actions, complaining of her letters to foreign organisations and calling the Green Belt Movement a bogus organisation and its members "a bunch of divorcees". They suggested that if Maathai was so comfortable writing to Europeans, perhaps she should go live in Europe.

Despite Maathai's protests, as well as popular protest growing throughout the city, the ground was broken at Uhuru Park for construction of the complex on 15 November 1989. Maathai sought an injunction in the Kenya High Court to halt construction, but the case was thrown out on 11 December. In his first public comments peonhe project, President Daniel Arap Moi stated that those who opposed the project had "insects in their heads". On 12 December, in Uhuru Park, during a speech celebrating independence from the British, President Moi suggested Maathai be a proper woman in the African tradition and respect men and be quiet. She was forced by the government to vacate her office, and the Green Belt Movement was moved into her home. The government audited the Green Belt Movement in an apparent attempt to shut it down. Despite the government's efforts, her protests and the media coverage the government's response garnered led foreign investors to cancel the project in January 1990.

In January 1992, it came to the attention of Maathai and other pro-democracy activists that a list of people were targeted for assassination and that a government-sponsored coup was possible. Maathai's name was on the list. The pro-democracy group, known as the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD), presented its information to the media, calling for a general election. Later that day, Maathai received a warning that one of their members had been arrested. Maathai decided to barricade herself in her home. Shortly thereafter, police arrived and surrounded the house. She was besieged for three days before police cut through the bars she had installed on her windows, came in, and arrested her. She and the other pro-democracy activists who had been arrested were charged with spreading malicious rumors, sedition, and treason. After a day and a half in jail, they were brought to a hearing and released on bail. A variety of international organisations and eight senators (including Al Gore and Edward M. Kennedy) put pressure on the Kenyan government to substantiate the charges against the pro-democracy activists or risk damaging relations with the United States. In November 1992, the Kenyan government dropped the charges.

On 28 February 1992, while released on bail, Maathai and others took part in a hunger strike in a corner of Uhuru Park, which they labeled Freedom Corner, to pressure the government to release political prisoners. After four days of hunger strike, on 3 March 1992, the police forcibly removed the protesters. Maathai and three others were knocked unconscious by police and hospitalized. President Daniel arap Moi called her "a mad woman" and "a threat to the order and security of the country". The attack drew international criticism. The US State Department said it was "deeply concerned" by the violence and by the forcible removal of the hunger strikers. When the prisoners were not released, the protesters – mostly mothers of those in prison – moved their protest to All Saints Cathedral, the seat of the Anglican Archbishop in Kenya, across from Uhuru Park. The protest there continued, with Maathai contributing frequently, until early 1993 when the prisoners were finally released.

During this time, Maathai was recognized with various awards internationally, but the Kenyan government did not appreciate her work. In 1991 she received the Goldman Environmental Prize in San Francisco and the Hunger Project's Africa Prize for Leadership in London. CNN aired a three-minute segment about the Goldman prize, but when it aired in Kenya, that segment was cut out. In June 1992, during the long protest at Uhuru Park, both Maathai and President arap Moi travelled to Rio de Janeiro for the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit). The Kenyan government accused Maathai of inciting women and encouraging them to strip at Freedom Corner, urging that she not be allowed to speak at the summit. Despite this, Maathai was chosen to be a chief spokesperson at the summit.

Push for democracy
During the first multi-party election of Kenya, in 1992, Maathai strove to unite the opposition and for fair elections in Kenya. The Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD) had fractured into FORD-Kenya (led by Oginga Odinga) and FORD-Asili (led by Kenneth Matiba); former vice president Mwai Kibaki had left the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) party, and formed the Democratic Party. Maathai and many others believed such a fractured opposition would lead to KANU's retaining control of the country, so they formed the Middle Ground Group in an effort to unite the opposition. Maathai was chosen to serve as its chairperson. Also during the election, Maathai and like-minded opposition members formed the Movement for Free and Fair Elections. Despite their efforts, the opposition did not unite, and the ruling KANU party used intimidation and state-held media to win the election, retaining control of parliament.

The following year, ethnic clashes occurred throughout Kenya. Maathai believed they were incited by the government, who had warned of stark consequences to multi-party democracy. Maathai travelled with friends and the press to areas of violence in order to encourage them to cease fighting. With the Green Belt Movement she planted "trees of peace", but before long her actions were opposed by the government. The conflict areas were labeled as "no go zones", and in February 1993 the president claimed that Maathai had masterminded a distribution of leaflets inciting Kikuyus to attack Kalenjins. After her friend and supporter Dr. Makanga was kidnapped, Maathai chose to go into hiding. While in hiding, Maathai was invited to a meeting in Tokyo of the Green Cross International, an environmental organisation recently founded by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. When Maathai responded that she could not attend as she did not believe the government would allow her to leave the country and she was in hiding, Gorbachev pressured the government of Kenya to allow her to travel freely. President arap Moi denied limiting her travel, and she was allowed to leave the country, although too late for the meeting in Tokyo. Maathai was again recognized internationally, and she flew to Scotland to receive the Edinburgh Medal in April 1993. In May she went to Chicago to receive the Jane Addams International Women's Leadership Award, and in June she attended the UN's World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna.

During the elections of 1997, Maathai again wished to unite the opposition in order to defeat the ruling party. In November, less than two months before the election, she decided to run for parliament and for president as a candidate of the Liberal Party. Her intentions were widely questioned in the press; many believed she should simply stick to running the Green Belt Movement and stay out of politics. On the day of the election, a rumour that Maathai had withdrawn from the election and endorsed another candidate was printed in the media. Maathai garnered few votes and lost the election.

In the summer of 1998, Maathai learned of a government plan to privatize large areas of public land in the Karura Forest, just outside Nairobi, and give it to political supporters. Maathai protested this through letters to the government and the press. She went with the Green Belt Movement to Karura Forest, planting trees and protesting the destruction of the forest. On 8 January 1999, a group of protesters including Maathai, six opposition MPs, journalists, international observers, and Green Belt members and supporters returned to the forest to plant a tree in protest. The entry to the forest was guarded by a large group of men. When she tried to plant a tree in an area that had been designated to be cleared for a golf course, the group was attacked. Many of the protesters were injured, including Maathai, four MPs, some of the journalists, and German environmentalists. When she reported the attack to the police, they refused to return with her to the forest to arrest her attackers. However, the attack had been filmed by Maathai's supporters, and the event provoked international outrage. Student protests broke out throughout Nairobi, and some of these groups were violently broken up by the police. Protests continued until 16 August 1999, when the president announced that he was banning all allocation of public land.

In 2001, the government again planned to take public forest land and give it to its supporters. While protesting this and collecting petition signatures on 7 March 2001, in Wang'uru village near Mount Kenya, Maathai was again arrested. The following day, following international and popular protest at her arrest, she was released without being charged. On 7 July 2001, shortly after planting trees at Freedom Corner in Uhuru Park in Nairobi to commemorate Saba Saba Day, Maathai was again arrested. Later that evening, she was again released without being charged. In January 2002, Maathai returned to teaching as the Dorothy McCluskey Visiting Fellow for Conservation at the Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She remained there until June 2002, teaching a course on sustainable development focused on the work of the Green Belt Movement.

Election to parliament
Upon her return to Kenya, Maathai again campaigned for parliament in the 2002 elections, this time as a candidate of the National Rainbow Coalition, the umbrella organisation which finally united the opposition. On 27 December 2002, the Rainbow Coalition defeated the ruling party Kenya African National Union, and in Tetu Constituency Maathai won with an overwhelming 98% of the vote. In January 2003, she was appointed Assistant Minister in the Ministry for Environment and Natural Resources and served in that capacity until November 2005. She founded the Mazingira Green Party of Kenya in 2003 to allow candidates to run on a platform of conservation as embodied by the Green Belt Movement. It is a member of the Federation of Green Parties of Africa and the Global Greens.

2004 Nobel Peace Prize
Wangarĩ Maathai was awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her "contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace." Maathai was the first African woman to win the prestigious award. According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who in the preceding year "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses". Between 1901 and 2018, only 52 Nobel Prize awards were given to women, while 852 Nobel Prize awards have been given to men. Through her significant efforts, Wangari Maathai became the first African woman, and the first environmentalist, to win the Peace Prize.

"Maathai stood up courageously against the former oppressive regime in Kenya. Her unique forms of action have contributed to drawing attention to political oppression—nationally and internationally. She has served as inspiration for many in the fight for democratic rights and has especially encouraged women to better their situation."

AIDS conspiracy theory
Controversy arose when it was reported by Kenyan newspaper The Standard that Maathai had claimed HIV/AIDS was "deliberately created by Western scientists to decimate the African population." Maathai denied making the allegations, but The Standard has stood by its reports.

In a 2004 interview with Time magazine, in response to questions concerning that report, Maathai replied: "I have no idea who created AIDS and whether it is a biological agent or not. But I do know things like that don't come from the moon. I have always thought that it is important to tell people the truth, but I guess there is some truth that must not be too exposed," and when asked what she meant, she continued, "I'm referring to AIDS. I am sure people know where it came from. And I'm quite sure it did not come from the monkeys." In response she issued the following statement: "I have warned people against false beliefs and misinformation such as attributing this disease to a curse from God or believing that sleeping with a virgin cures the infection. These prevalent beliefs in my region have led to an upsurge in rape and violence against children. It is within this context, also complicated by the cultural and religious perspective, that I often speak. I have therefore been shocked by the ongoing debate generated by what I am purported to have said. It is therefore critical for me to state that I neither say nor believe that the virus was developed by white people or white powers in order to destroy the African people. Such views are wicked and destructive."

2005–2011: Later life
Following a trip to Japan in 2005, Maathai became an enthusiastic proponent of the waste-reduction philosophy of mottainai, a Japanese term of Buddhist origin. On 28 March 2005, Maathai was elected the first president of the African Union's Economic, Social and Cultural Council and was appointed a goodwill ambassador for an initiative aimed at protecting the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem. In 2006, she was one of the eight flag-bearers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. Also on 21 May 2006, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by and gave the commencement address at Connecticut College. She supported the International Year of Deserts and Desertification program. In November 2006, she spearheaded the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign. Maathai was one of the founders of the Nobel Women's Initiative along with sister Nobel Peace laureates Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire. Six women representing North America and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa decided to bring together their experiences in a united effort for peace with justice and equality. It is the goal of the Nobel Women's Initiative to help strengthen work being done in support of women's rights around the world.

In August 2006, then United States Senator Barack Obama traveled to Kenya. His father was educated in America through the same program as Maathai. She and the Senator met and planted a tree together in Uhuru Park in Nairobi. Obama called for freedom of the press to be respected, saying, "Press freedom is like tending a garden; it continually has to be nurtured and cultivated. The citizenry has to value it because it's one of those things that can slip away if we're not vigilant." He deplored global ecological losses, singling out President George W. Bush's refusal to join the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its subsidiary, the Kyoto Protocol.

Maathai was defeated in the Party of National Unity's primary elections for its parliamentary candidates in November 2007 and chose to instead run as the candidate of a smaller party. She was defeated in the December 2007 parliamentary election. She called for a recount of votes in the presidential election (officially won by Mwai Kibaki, but disputed by the opposition) in her constituency, saying that both sides should feel the outcome was fair and that there were indications of fraud.

In 2009, she published "The Challenge for Africa" with her insights into the strengths and weaknesses of governance in Africa, her own experiences, and the centrality of environmental protection to Africa's future.

In June 2009, Maathai was named as one of PeaceByPeace.com's first peace heroes. Until her death in 2011, Maathai served on the Eminent Advisory Board of the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA).

Wangarĩ Maathai died on 25 September 2011 of complications arising from ovarian cancer while receiving treatment at a Nairobi hospital.

Her remains were cremated and buried at the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies in Nairobi.

Wangarĩ Maathai Forest Champion Award
In 2012, the Collaborative Partnership on Forests CPF, an international consortium of 14 organisations, secretariats and institutions working on international forest issues, launched the inaugural Wangarĩ Maathai Forest Champion Award.

Winners have included:
 * 2012 – Narayan Kaji Shrestha, with an honourable mention to Kurshida Begum
 * 2014 – Martha Isabel "Pati" Ruiz Corzo, with an honourable mention to Chut Wutty
 * 2015 – Gertrude Kabusimbi Kenyangi
 * 2017 – Maria Margarida Ribeiro da Silva, a Brazilian forestry activist
 * 2019 – Léonidas Nzigiyimpa, a Burundian forestry activist
 * 2022 – Cécile Ndjebet, a Cameroonian activist

Posthumous recognition

In 2012, Wangarĩ Gardens opened in Washington, DC. Wangarĩ Gardens is 2.7 acre community garden project for local residents which consists of over 55 garden allotments. This community garden honours the legacy of Wangarĩ Maathai and her mission for community engagement and environmental protection. The Wangarĩ Gardens consist of a community garden, youth garden, outdoor classroom, pollinator hive and public fruit tree orchard, vegetable garden, herb garden, berry garden and strawberry patch. Within the garden complex there are personal garden plots and public gardens. The personal plots are available to residents living within 1.5 miles of the community garden. Personal plot holders are required to contribute 1 hour monthly to the maintenance of the public gardens. The public gardens and orchard are maintained by plot holders and volunteers, and are open to everyone to enjoy and harvest. The Wangarĩ Gardens has no direct affiliation with the Green Belt Movement or the Wangarĩ Maathai Foundation but was inspired by Wangarĩ Maathai and her work and passion for the environment.

On 25 September 2013, the Wangarĩ Maathai Trees and Garden was dedicated on the lawn of the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning. The memorial includes two red maples symbolizing Maathai's "commitment to the environment, her founding of the Green Belt Movement, and her roots in Kenya and in Pittsburgh" and a flower garden planted in a circular shape that representing her "global vision and dedication to the women and children of the world" with an ornamental maple tree in the middle signifying "how one small seed can change the world".

On 1 April 2013, Google celebrated Wangari Maathai’s 73rd Birthday with a doodle.

In 2014, at what would have been her 50-year reunion, her Mount St. Scholastica classmates and Benedictine College unveiled a statue of the Nobel laureate at her alma mater's Atchison, Kansas campus. In 2019, with the renovation of the Westerman Hall of Science and Engineering, the college added a mural of Maathai and other scientists to the front entryway of the building.

In 2015, UNESCO published the graphic novel Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement as part of their UNESCO Series on Women in African History. As an artistic and visual interpretation intended for private or public use in classrooms, it tells the story of Maathai and the movement she started.

In October 2016, Forest Road in Nairobi was renamed to Wangarĩ Maathai Road for her efforts to oppose several attempts to degrade forests and public parks through the Green Belt Movement.

In September 2022, Washington, DC-based educational publisher, Science Naturally, included Dr. Maathai in their Women in Botany book in the Science Wide Open series for children. Brief excerpt:"'Dr. Wangari started the Green Belt Movement to change things. She taught women in Kenya how to grow trees from seeds, and the women were paid to plant trees all around the country.'"

Selected publications

 * ; (1985)
 * The bottom is heavy too: even with the Green Belt Movement : the Fifth Edinburgh Medal Address (1994)
 * Bottle-necks of development in Africa (1995)
 * The Canopy of Hope: My Life Campaigning for Africa, Women, and the Environment (2002)
 * Unbowed: A Memoir (2006) ISBN 978-0307492333
 * Reclaiming rights and resources women, poverty and environment (2007)
 * Rainwater Harvesting (2008)
 * State of the world's minorities 2008: events of 2007 (2008)
 * ; (2009)
 * Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril. (2010) chapter Nelson, Michael P. and Kathleen Dean Moore (eds.). Trinity University Press, ISBN 978-1595340665
 * Replenishing the Earth (2010) ISBN 978-0307591142

Honours

 * 1984: Right Livelihood Award
 * 1986: Better World Society
 * 1987: Global 500 Roll of Honour
 * 1991: Goldman Environmental Prize
 * 1991: The Hunger Project's Africa Prize for Leadership
 * 1993: Edinburgh Medal (for "Outstanding contribution to Humanity through Science")
 * 1993: Jane Addams Leadership Award
 * 1993: Benedictine College Offeramus Medal
 * 1994: The Golden Ark Award
 * 2001: The Juliet Hollister Award
 * 2003: Global Environment Award, World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations
 * 2004: Conservation Scientist Award from Columbia University
 * 2004: J. Sterling Morton Award
 * 2004: Petra Kelly Prize
 * 2004: Sophie Prize
 * 2004: Nobel Peace Prize
 * 2006: Légion d'honneur
 * 2006: Doctor of Public Service (honorary degree), University of Pittsburgh
 * 2007: World Citizenship Award
 * 2007: Livingstone Medal from Royal Scottish Geographical Society
 * 2007: Indira Gandhi Prize
 * 2007: Cross of the Order of St. Benedict
 * 2008: The Elizabeth Blackwell Award from Hobart and William Smith Colleges
 * 2009: NAACP Image Award - Chairman's Award (with Al Gore)
 * 2009: Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun of Japan
 * 2011: The Nichols-Chancellor's Medal awarded by Vanderbilt University
 * 2013: Doctor of Science (honorary degree), Syracuse University, New York
 * 2020: The Perfect World Award by The Perfect World Foundation

title: Wangarĩ Maathai


text:
Udo

Udo is a masculine given name. It may refer to:

Medieval era

 * Udo of Neustria, 9th-century nobleman
 * Udo (Obotrite prince) (died 1028)
 * Udo (archbishop of Trier) (c. 1030 – 1078)
 * Lothair Udo II, Margrave of the Nordmark (c. 1025 – 1082)

Plants

 * Another name for Aralia cordata

Modern era

 * Udo Anneken (1917–1997), German Wehrmacht officer in World War II, recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
 * Udo Bullmann (born 1956), German politician
 * Udo Cordes (1921–2007), German Luftwaffe officer in World War II, recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
 * Udo Di Fabio (born 1954), German jurist
 * Udo Dziersk (born 1961), German painter
 * Udo Z. Karzi (born 1970), Indonesian writer
 * Udo Kasemets (1919–2014), Estonian-Canadian composer
 * Udo Keppler (1872–1956), American cartoonist
 * Udo Kier (born 1944), German actor
 * Udo Pastörs (born 1952), German far-right politician
 * Udo Proksch (1934–2001), Austrian businessman, industrialist and murderer
 * Udo Samel (born 1953), German actor
 * Udo Schaefer (1926–2019), German lawyer and Bahá'í author
 * Udo Schnelle (born 1952), German theologian and professor
 * Udo Sellbach (1927–2006), German-Australian visual artist and educator
 * Udo Spreitzenbarth, German photographer
 * Udo Steinke (1942–1999), German writer
 * Udo Uibo (born 1956), Estonian literary critic, editor, translator and lexicographer
 * Udo Voigt (born 1952), German politician and former soldier
 * Udo Walendy (1927–2022), German author, historian, former soldier and Holocaust denier
 * Udo Weilacher (born 1963), German landscape architect, author and professor
 * Udo von Woyrsch (1895–1983), high-ranking Nazi SS officer responsible for numerous murders during the Holocaust
 * Udo Zander (born 1959), Swedish organizational theorist and former professor of business administration

Music

 * Udo Dahmen (born 1951), German drummer and author
 * Udo Dirkschneider (born 1952), German heavy metal vocalist who formed the band U.D.O.
 * Udo Jürgens (1934–2014), Austrian composer and singer
 * Udo Lindenberg (born 1946), German rock musician and composer
 * Udo Mechels (born 1976), Belgian musician often known simply as "Udo"
 * Udo Suzuki (born 1970), Japanese musician and comedian
 * Udo Zimmermann (1943–2021), German composer, music director and conductor

Sports

 * Udo Beyer (born 1955), East German shot putter
 * Udo Bölts (born 1966), German retired racing cyclist
 * Udo Fortune (born 1988), Nigerian soccer player
 * Udo Gelhausen (born 1956), West German shot putter
 * Udo Hempel (born 1946), German retired road and track cyclist
 * Udo Horsmann (born 1952), German former footballer
 * Udo Kiessling (born 1955), first ice hockey player to compete in five Olympic Games (1976–1992)
 * Udo Lattek (1935–2015), German football player and coach and TV pundit
 * Udo Lehmann (born 1973), German former bobsledder
 * Udo Müller, East German slalom canoeist who competed in the 1970s
 * Udochukwu "Udo" Nwoko (born 1984), Maltese-Nigerian footballer
 * Udo Onwere (born 1971), English former footballer
 * Udo Poser (born 1947), East German swimmer
 * Udo Quellmalz (born 1967), German judoka
 * Udo Raumann (born 1969), German former slalom canoer
 * Udo Riglewski (born 1966), German retired tennis player
 * Udo Schütz (born 1937), German racing driver
 * Udo Schwarz (born 1986), German international rugby union player
 * Udo Segreff (born 1973), German ice sledge hockey player
 * Udo Wagner (born 1963), German fencer
 * Udo Werner (1955–2012), West German slalom canoeist who competed from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s

Other

 * Udo of Aachen, fictional 13th-century monk created as a 1999 April Fool's hoax
 * Udo the Red Panda, mascot of the University of Mannheim athletics teams

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

title: Udo


text:
Talk:Susanthika Jayasinghe

No sense
"...in 2000 she became the nations first Olympic Games medalist since 1948 behind Merlene Ottey and Zhanna Pintusevich-Block." - I don't understand the meaning of this phrase. What is trying to be said here?? Drdr1989 21:46, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Susanthika Jayasinghe


text:
Greentrax Recordings

Greentrax Recordings are a Scottish record label that specialises in Scottish traditional music.

History
The label was founded in 1986 by former police inspector Ian Green, who played the bagpipes and was responsible for arranging folk music at the police social club. He was also involved with the magazine Sandy Bell’s Broadsheet. Prior to his retirement, Green had been selling an increasing number of records at the Edinburgh Folk Club, at festivals, and via his Discount Folk Records mail order service, and continued this on retiring. He invested some of his pension into setting up the label, and the name came from a competition run by BBC Radio Scotland.

Artists
The Greentrax catalogue include releases by Gordon Duncan, RURA, Barbara Dickson, The McCalmans, Paul McKenna Band, Jean Redpath, Catherine-Ann MacPhee, Adam McNaughton, Archie Fisher, Aly Bain, Brian McNeill, Judy Small, Shooglenifty, Tony McManus, Fiddlers' Bid, Chris Stout, Willie Hunter & Violet Tulloch, Bodega, Peerie Willie Johnson, Shoormal, Ceilidh Minogue, Dick Gaughan, The Whistlebinkies, The Poozies and the Peatbog Faeries.

title: Greentrax Recordings


text: Category:1583 births

title: Category:1583 births


text:
Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (died December 8, 1986), also known as Bawa, was a Tamil-speaking teacher and Sufi mystic from Sri Lanka who came to the United States in 1971, established a following, and founded the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship in Philadelphia. He developed branches in the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK — adding to existing groups in Jaffna and Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is known for his teachings, discourses, songs, and artwork.

Bawa established vegetarianism as the norm for his followers and meat products are not permitted at the legacy fellowship center or farm.

Early life
Though little is known of his early personal life, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen 's public career began in Sri Lanka in the early 1940s, when he emerged from the jungles of northern Sri Lanka. Bawa met pilgrims who were visiting shrines in the north, and gradually became more widely known. There were reports of dream or mystical meetings with Bawa that preceded physical contact. According to an account from the 1940s, Bawa had spent time in 'Kataragama', a jungle shrine in the south of the island, and in 'Jailani', a cliff shrine dedicated to 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani of Baghdad, an association that links him to the Qadiri order of Sufism. Many of his followers who lived around the northern town of Jaffna were Hindus and addressed him as swami or guru, where he was a medical and spiritual faith healer — and cured demonic possession.

Subsequently, his followers formed an ashram in Jaffna, and a farm south of the city. After meeting business travelers from the south, he was invited to visit Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, at the time Ceylon. By 1967, the 'Serendib Sufi Study Circle' was formed by these Colombo predominantly Muslim students. Earlier in 1955, Bawa had set the foundations for a 'God's house' or mosque in the town of Mankumban, on the northern coast. This was the result of a "spiritual experience with Mary, Jesus' mother." After two decades, the building was finished by students from the United States who were visiting the Jaffna ashram. It officially opened and was dedicated in 1975.

Bawa taught using stories and fables, reflecting the background of the student or listener and included Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious traditions; and welcomed persons from all traditions and backgrounds.

Work in the United States
In 1971, Bawa was invited to come to the United States and subsequently moved to Philadelphia, established a following, and formed the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship in 1973. The fellowship meeting house offered weekly public gatherings.

As in Sri Lanka, Bawa developed a following among people of diverse religious, social and ethnic backgrounds, who came to Philadelphia to listen to him speak. In the United States, Canada and England, he was recognized by religious scholars, journalists, educators and leaders. The United Nations' Assistant Secretary General, Robert Muller, asked for Bawa's guidance on behalf of mankind during an interview in 1974. During the Iranian hostage crisis of 1978–1980, he wrote letters to world leaders including Iran's Khomeini, Prime Minister Begin, President Sadat and President Carter to encourage a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Time magazine, during the crisis in 1980, quoted Bawa as saying that when the Iranians understand the Koran "they will release the hostages immediately." Interviews with Bawa appeared in Psychology Today, the Harvard Divinity Bulletin, and in The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Press. He continued teaching until his death on December 8, 1986.

Legacy
In May, 1984, the Mosque of Shaikh M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen was completed on the Philadelphia property of the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, on Overbrook Avenue. Construction took 6 months and nearly all the work was done by the members of the fellowship under Bawa's direction.

The Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship Farm (100 acre) is in Chester County, Pennsylvania, south of Coatesville and prominently features Bawa's mausoleum, or mazar. Construction began shortly after his death and was completed in 1987. It is a destination for religious followers.

Bawa created paintings and drawings symbolizing the relationship between man and God, describing his art work as "heart's work". Two examples are reproduced in his book Wisdom of Man and another is the front cover of the book Four Steps to Pure Iman. In 1976, Bawa recorded and released an album of meditation, on Folkways Records entitled, Into the Secret of the Heart by Guru Bawa Muhaiyaddeen.

In the United States, from 1971 to 1986, Bawa authored over twenty-five books, created from over 10,000 hours of audio and video transcriptions of his discourses and songs. Some titles originated from Sri Lanka before his arrival in the U.S. and were transcribed later. The Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship continues to study and disseminate this repository of his teachings. It has not appointed a new leader or Sheikh to replace his role as teacher and personal guide.

Vegetarianism
Bawa established vegetarianism as the norm for his followers as he believed the only compassionate choice is to eat without slaughter. He stated that "we must be aware of everything we do. All young animals have love and compassion. And if we remember that every creation was young once, we will never kill another life. We will not harm or attack any living creature". Bawa authored The Tasty Economical Cookbook, a two-volume vegetarian cookbook.

Titles and honorifics
Bawa Muhaiyaddeen was referred to as Guru, Swami, Sheikh or 'His Holiness' depending on the background of the speaker or writer. He was also addressed as Bawangal by those Tamil speakers who were close to him and who wanted to use a respectful address. He often referred to himself as an 'ant man', that is, a very small life in God's creation. After his arrival in the United States, he was most often addressed as Guru Bawa or simply Bawa, and he established the fellowship. By 1976, he felt that the title 'guru' had been abused by others who were not true teachers and dropped the title Guru, with the organization becoming the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship.

By 2007, an honorific, Qutb, was used by his students in the publications of his talks. Qutb means pole or axis, and signifies a spiritual center. The name Muhaiyaddeen means 'the giver of life to true belief' and has been associated with previous Qutbs.

Quotes

 * "The prayers you perform, the duties you do, the charity and love you give is equal to just one drop. But if you use that one drop, continue to do your duty, and keep digging within, then the spring of God's grace and His qualities will flow in abundance."
 * "People with wisdom know that it is important to correct their own mistakes, while people without wisdom find it necessary to point out the mistakes of others. People with strong faith know that it is important to clear their own hearts, while those with unsteady faith seek to find fault in the hearts and prayers of others. This becomes a habit in their lives. But those who pray to God with faith, determination, and certitude know that the most important thing in life is to surrender their hearts to God."
 * "The things that change are not our real life. Within us there is another body, another beauty. It belongs to that ray of light which never changes. We must discover how to mingle with it and become one with that unchanging thing. We must realize and understand this treasure of truth. That is why we have come to the world."
 * "My love you, my children. Very few people will accept the medicine of wisdom. The mind refuses wisdom. But if you do agree to accept it, you will receive the grace, and when you receive that grace, you will have good qualities. When you acquire good qualities, you will know true love, and when you accept love, you will see the light. When you accept the light, you will see the resplendence, and when you accept that resplendence, the wealth of the three worlds will be complete within you. With this completeness, you will receive the kingdom of God, and you will know your Father. When you see your Father, all your connections to karma, hunger, disease, old age will leave you."
 * My grandchildren, this is the way things really are. We must do everything with love in our hearts. God belongs to everyone. He has given a commonwealth to all His creations, and we must not take it for ourselves. We must not take more than our share. Our hearts must melt with love, we must share everything with others, and we must give lovingly to make others peaceful. Then we will win our true beauty and the liberation of our soul. Please think about this. Prayer, the qualities of God, the actions of God, faith in God, and worship of God are your grace. If you have these, God will be yours and the wealth of the world to come will be yours. My grandchildren, realize this in your lifetime. Consider your life, search for wisdom, search for knowledge, and search for that love of God which is divine knowledge, and search for His qualities, His love, and His actions. That will be good. Amin. Ya Rabbal-'alamin. So be it. O Ruler of the universes. May God grant you this."
 * "God has a home inside of our heart. We must find a home inside of God's home inside of our heart" - Shared by Bawa Mahaiyaddeen in conversation with advocate for the homeless at the Muhaiyaddeen community in Philadelphia - 1986.

Writings by students and others
Books by his followers and others about M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen include:

 * The Answer Lies Just Beyond the Mind - The Soul's Longing to Know Itself by Dale Ann Applebaum, Anndale Books publisher, 2024, ISBN 979-8218405434
 * Birding Through Cancer by Karin Marcus, Balboa Press publisher, 2016, ISBN 1504356543
 * The Crucifixion of Judas: And other reflections on the journey from the mind to the soul by Tony Buck, Planet Publishing publisher, 2022, ISBN 0964680211
 * The Culture of Goodness: My Exploration of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in search of a Culture of Goodness by Sandra T Francis, Outskirts Press publisher, 2019, ISBN 978-1977206145
 * The Elixir of Truth: Inner Dimensions, Volume Two by Musa Muhaiyaddeen, Witness Within publisher, 2014, ISBN 0989018555
 * The Elixir of Truth: Journey on the Sufi Path, Volume One by Musa Muhaiyaddeen, Witness Within publisher, 2013, ISBN 0989018504
 * Finding the Way Home by Dr. Lockwood Rush, Ilm House publisher, 2007, ISBN 0972660712
 * GPS for the Soul: Wisdom of the Master by Dana Hayne, BalboaPress publisher, 2017, ISBN 1504384040
 * The Illuminated Prayer: The Five-Times Prayer of the Sufis by Coleman Barks and Michael Green, Ballantine Wellspring publisher, 2000, ISBN 0-345-43545-1. According to the publisher, the book "offers a compelling introduction to the wisdom and teachings of the beloved contemporary Sufi master Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, who brought new life to this mystical tradition by opening a passage to its deepest, universal realities. It is the loving handiwork of two of Bawa's best-known students, Coleman Barks and Michael Green, who also created The Illuminated Rumi."
 * Invitation to Believe: Establishing Faith in the Universal Power by Julie R. Schelling, Coaching for Resonance publisher, 2014, ISBN 0990592006
 * A Journey Through Ten Thousand Veils: The Alchemy of Transformation on the Sufi Path by Sheikha Maryam Kabeer, Tughra Books publisher, 2021, ISBN 9781597849470
 * Life with the Guru by Dr. Art Hochberg, Kalima publisher, 2014, ISBN 0988807556
 * THE MIRROR Photographs and Reflections on Life with M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) by Chloë Le Pichon and Dwaraka Ganesan and Saburah Posner and Sulaiha Schwartz, published privately by Chloë Le Pichon, 2010, ISBN 0-615-33211-0. A 237-page large-format photographic compilation with commentary by 78 contributors.
 * My Journey Around the Sun by Muhammad Abdullah ibn Robert Lowe, IbnRLowe Publishing, 2023, ISBN 979-8218276553
 * My Years with the Qutb: A Walk in Paradise by Professor Sharon Marcus, Sufi Press publisher, 2007, ISBN 0-9737534-0-4
 * One Light: An Owner's Manual for Human Being by Mitch Gilbert, One Light Press publisher, 2005, ISBN 0-9771267-0-6
 * One Song: A New Illuminated Rumi by Michael Green, Running Press publisher, 2005, ISBN 0-7624-2087-1
 * One Tough Rose: On Learning from One’s Mistakes by AnnMarie Williams, Peace Rose Press publisher, 2023, ISBN 979-8218270247

Coleman Barks, a poet and translator into English of the works of the 13th-century Sunni Muslim poet Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, described meeting Bawa Muhaiyaddeen in a dream in 1977. After that experience he began to translate the poems of Rumi. Coleman finally met Bawa Muhaiyaddeen in September, 1978 and continued to have dreams where he would receive teachings. Coleman's likens Bawa Muhaiyaddeen to Rumi and Shams Tabrizi, the companion of Rumi. Artist Michael Green worked with Coleman Barks to produce illustrated version of Rumi's works.

In "Blue-Eyed Devil", Michael Muhammad Knight attempts to receive a message from Bawa in a dream, in a Sufi practice called istikhara. He travels to the mazar and unsuccessfully tries to fall asleep on the cushions, but is awakened by the groundskeeper.

The band mewithoutYou explored Bawa's teachings throughout their discography, most notably in their fourth album, It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright. The teacher's story of "The Fox, the Crow, and the Cookie" from My Love You My Children: 101 Stories for Children is told as well as his story about the "King Beetle" from The Divine Luminous Wisdom that Dispels Darkness.

title: Bawa Muhaiyaddeen


text:
Anschutz Entertainment Group

The Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), also known as AEG Worldwide, is an American global sporting and music entertainment presenter and a subsidiary of The Anschutz Corporation. It is the world's largest owner of sports teams and sports events. Under the AEG Presents brand, it is the world's second-largest presenter of live music and entertainment events, after Live Nation. AEG Presents was founded in 2002 as AEG Live.

Overview
AEG owns and operates a variety of venues, sport teams, and entertainment concerns. For venues, AEG owns and operates Crypto.com Arena and Dignity Health Sports Park, and managed the XL Center and Rentschler Field. In England, it operates The O2 which includes a 20,000 capacity arena. As part of the development of the O2, Anschutz also purchased the London river service company Thames Clippers, and supported the development of the nearby David Beckham Academy (which also had a branch at the Home Depot Center). The company had its headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles.

In sports teams, the company owns the Los Angeles Galaxy, 50% of the Los Angeles Kings, Ontario Reign, Eisbären Berlin with Berlin Mercedes-Benz Arena, 23.5% of Hammarby IF, as well as interests in the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Sparks. AEG also owned Hamburg Freezers before ceasing its existence in 2016. The company also purchased the Champions on Ice figure skating tour in 2006, and own 12% of Djurgårdens IF Hockey. The company makes a significant amount of its money by leveraging its sports interests, already significant earners, by using the stadiums in which these teams play to host various other entertainment events, most notably concerts. Philip Anschutz created the company by buying up several small local promoters in Los Angeles in order to fill up the schedule for his new sports venue, Staples Center. These included ConcertsWest and Goldenvoice, which had been founded by Gary Tovar, and promotes the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. AEG was the second-largest event promoter in the United States.

AEG Presents, previously AEG Live, came to international public attention in 2009 when it acted as the promoter for Michael Jackson's This Is It concerts. Jackson died just three weeks before the series of 50 concerts were due to begin. Members of Jackson's family have said that they would like to see an investigation, in general, into the role of AEG Live in the final weeks of his life, and also, in particular, into the role of the personal advisers and representatives whom they believe the promoters put in place for him.

On September 18, 2012, the Anschutz Corporation announced its intent to sell Anschutz Entertainment Group and its holdings. The company has retained financial advisors Blackstone Advisory Partners to assist in AEG's sale process. There had been some concerns about the sale as AEG was instrumental in the development of Farmers Field, a planned football stadium in Downtown Los Angeles that was intended to attract an NFL team to the city. Approval to begin construction of Farmers Field in 2013 for a 2016 completion was in the process of being finalized at the time that AEG's sale was announced. In 2015, plans for Farmers Field were abandoned when then St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke announced plans for a stadium of his own.

On March 14, 2013, Anschutz that announced AEG was no longer for sale and that it was changing CEOs. Tim Leiweke (CEO since 1996) left the firm; John Skorjanec was named VP of National Media Accounts with Dan Beckerman heading AEG.

AEG's primary subsidiary AEG Facilities merged with its rival venue operator SMG in October 2019, forming ASM Global.

Acquisitions

 * December 2000: Concerts West, Los Angeles
 * March 2001: Goldenvoice, Los Angeles

Arenas
AEG owns the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, The O2 in London, the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin, and the Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg. Additionally, AEG operates the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, the Target Center in Minneapolis, Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum and Oakland Arena in Oakland, the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, PNC Stadium in Houston, The Theatre at Grand Prairie in Dallas, and SNHU Arena in Manchester.

Anschutz's investment in the O2, through his company Anschutz Entertainment Group, previously resulted in his involvement in controversy related to the possible influence of former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in the award of the "super casino" license by the British government. Anschutz knows Prescott personally, having had him as a guest for a two-night stay at Anschutz's ranch in 2005 and footing the bill for hospitality and gifts. In January 2007, the "super casino" license was awarded to a group in Manchester, rather than to Blackpool or London. Anschutz spent £50m on the Manchester Arena and the winner of the casino licence is a close ally of Anschutz, Sol Kerzner.

In August 2007, AEG announced plans with Harrah's Entertainment to build a privately financed 20,000-seat arena in Paradise, Nevada on the Las Vegas Strip on Harrah's land located directly behind the Bally's Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas resorts. The informal partnership was dissolved the following year.

In October 2011, AEG reached an agreement with Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras and WTorre to manage São Paulo's then-upcoming Arena Palmeiras.

In September 2013, it was announced that AEG Facilities, a stand-alone affiliate of AEG, had signed a 15-year contract to operate Wembley Arena in London.

AEG Live partnered with MGM Resorts International to build the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, which opened in April 2016.

AEG Ogden, a joint venture with Australian investors, managed sports venues and convention centres in Australia and Asia, including the International Convention Centre Sydney, Lang Park and Sydney Super Dome.

Soccer
Anschutz was one of the co-founders and one of the lead investors of Major League Soccer. In 1996, he became the investor/operator of the Colorado Rapids, his first MLS franchise. The Rapids were then a subsidiary of the Anschutz Corporation. In subsequent years, as Anschutz acquired additional sports teams, it led to the formation of a new division of the company whose focus was sports and entertainment, leading directly to the creation of AEG. the Rapids and NHL’s LA Kings as its original members.

Since 1996, AEG has held ownership in the Chicago Fire, San Jose Earthquakes, New York/New Jersey MetroStars, D.C. United and Houston Dynamo. Currently, AEG is the operator of the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Anschutz was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2006. Also in 2006, Anschutz received the National Soccer Medal of Honor, one of four recipients to ever receive the award. In 2007, Anschutz and AEG played a role in bringing David Beckham to the United States. In 2009, he joined the Board of Directors of USA Bid Committee, a group which was formed with the aim of promoting the application and campaign to bring the World Cup to the United States. This was ultimately successful with the 2026 World Cup.

Between 2001 and 2019, AEG was the biggest external investor and minority shareholder of Swedish Allsvenskan club Hammarby IF. On 27 November 2019, it was announced that Zlatan Ibrahimović, had acquired 23.5 percent of the outstanding shares in Hammarby, which meant that AEG reduced their stake by half.

AEG were part of a consortium with Tottenham Hotspur which proposed to demolish the London 2012 Olympic Stadium in Stratford and then to build a new 60,000 seater soccer specific stadium in its place and to renovate the Crystal Palace athletics stadium. These proposals was rejected as they violated the Olympic legacy provisions of the UK government.

Ice hockey
AEG owns the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, the AHL's Ontario Reign, the ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones (co-owned with Nederlander Entertainment), and the German ice hockey team Eisbären Berlin. AEG also formerly owned the Manchester Monarchs and an interest in the Reading Royals, both of the ECHL.

Golf
In July 2010, it was announced that Xanterra Parks & Resorts, Inc. had entered into an agreement to purchase the Kingsmill Resort near Williamsburg, Virginia. Xanterra, owned by Anschutz since 2008, has traditionally operated in national and state parks across the United States, especially in the Western regions, including Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. As of 2010, Xanterra was operating about three dozen hotels and lodges with more than 5,000 guest rooms combined, with over 8,000 employees.

It has also been reported that Anschutz is currently in negotiations to buy the Silverado Golf Resort in Napa, California.

Other
Anschutz Entertainment Group also owned the Tour of California bicycling race and the Bay to Breakers footrace.

The company also managed the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, and managed the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut until 2013. They previously operated Rentschler Field in Hartford from 2007 to 2010, during which they held a stake in the now-defunct Hartford Colonials of the UFL.

In April 2016, AEG announced a partnership with esports company ESL; the next year the company also announced an investment in the North American esports organization, Immortals.

Film
When the 1968 John Wayne movie Hellfighters was being shot in 1967, Anschutz charged Universal Pictures a US$100000 fee (equivalent to $ million in ) to film real fire fighters extinguishing a real oil blaze on his land.

Anschutz Film Group (formerly Crusader Entertainment, now known as Bristol Bay Productions and Walden Media) produced the commercially successful Holes in 2003 and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in 2005.

The company also played a significant role the 2009 documentary–concert film Michael Jackson's This Is It.

Ticketing
AEG partnered with Outbox Enterprises, a start up company, in which AEG is both an equity partner and a client, to develop AXS (pronounced "access"). AXS is a digital marketing platform for purchasing tickets for sports and entertainment events.

Berlin
In Berlin, local groups started a boycott against the projected development Mediaspree, of which O2 World is a part, arguing that huge sections of public spaces were being lost to the private sector. Furthermore, the Anschutz company was criticized for bully-like behavior in regards to the changing of the outer parameters of the sports arena. A section of the nearby East Side Gallery, a leftover piece of the Berlin Wall now serving as an international memorial for peace and freedom, had to be removed to enable the view of Anschutz's new arena, located on the former eastern side of the city Spree. AEG has since promised to financially support the preservation of the East Side Gallery.

Michael Jackson memorial service
AEG had a global interest in the death of Michael Jackson by hosting a public memorial service at Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center), a prominent music venue in Los Angeles and home of the Grammy Museum. The event included security and logistical support by the City of Los Angeles totaling $3.2 million. During this expense to the city during the Great Recession, some economists estimated that the event also generated $4 million for local businesses such as hotels and restaurants. City Council members and local media have called for the cost of the memorial incurred by the city to be paid for by the Jackson family or AEG, instead of by the city taxpayer. In June 2010, AEG agreed to pay the city of Los Angeles $1.3 million to offset some of the cost incurred by the city during the tribute event.

AEG was also accused of having attempted to profit from the death of Michael Jackson, who was due to perform at London's O2 Arena in 2009 and 2010. The approximately 750,000 tickets were eligible for refund upon request, but the promoter offered to send out "souvenir" tickets if customers waived their right to the refund. The company estimated that 40–50% of its customers would request the original tickets in lieu of the refund, which would save the company $40 million in refunds. That was in addition to future profits from any material that formed a part of the "This Is It" concerts, which AEG made its intellectual property in sponsoring the concerts.

After Conrad Murray, the physician appointed by AEG to take care of Jackson during the run-up and throughout the "This Is It" concerts, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the California v. Murray case, Katherine Jackson, Michael's mother and legal guardian of his three children, filed a wrongful death suit against the promoter, seeking damages reportedly exceeding tens of billions of dollars. AEG filed a motion to have the case dismissed which was denied by a Los Angeles County judge who ruled that sufficient evidence was present for the progression to a jury trial. The trial began on April 2. Murray served jail time for the death of Jackson, and indicated that if he was called as a witness for this case, he would refuse to testify to avoid incriminating himself amid his sentence appeal, as he had not previously testified under oath regarding Jackson's death. On October 2, 2013, AEG was found not liable in the death of Michael Jackson.

title: Anschutz Entertainment Group


text:
Charles Simic

Dušan Simić (Душан Симић, ; May 9, 1938 – January 9, 2023), known as Charles Simic, was a Serbian American poet and co-poetry editor of the Paris Review. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990 for The World Doesn't End and was a finalist of the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for Selected Poems, 1963–1983 and in 1987 for Unending Blues. He was appointed the fifteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2007.

Early years
Dušan Simić was born in Belgrade. In his early childhood, during World War II, he and his family were forced to evacuate their home several times to escape indiscriminate bombing of Belgrade. Growing up as a child in war-torn Europe shaped much of his worldview, Simic stated. In an interview from the Cortland Review he said, "Being one of the millions of displaced persons made an impression on me. In addition to my own little story of bad luck, I heard plenty of others. I'm still amazed by all the vileness and stupidity I witnessed in my life."

Simic immigrated to the United States with his brother and mother to join his father in 1954, when he was sixteen. After spending a year in New York, he moved with his family to Oak Park, Illinois, where he graduated from high school. In 1961, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, and in 1966, he earned his B.A. from New York University while working at night to cover the costs of tuition.

Career
Simic began to make a name for himself in the early to mid-1970s as a literary minimalist, writing terse, imagistic poems. Critics have referred to Simic's poems as "tightly constructed Chinese puzzle boxes". He himself stated: "Words make love on the page like flies in the summer heat and the poet is merely the bemused spectator."

He was a professor of American literature and creative writing at University of New Hampshire beginning in 1973 and lived in Strafford, New Hampshire. Simic wrote on such diverse topics as jazz, art, and philosophy. He was influenced by Emily Dickinson, Pablo Neruda, and Fats Waller. He was a translator, essayist, and philosopher, opining on the current state of contemporary American poetry. He held the position of poetry editor of The Paris Review and was later replaced by Dan Chiasson. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1995, received the Academy Fellowship in 1998, and was elected a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2000.

Simic was one of the judges for the 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize and continued to contribute poetry and prose to The New York Review of Books. He received the US$100,000 Wallace Stevens Award in 2007 from the Academy of American Poets.

Simic was selected by James Billington, Librarian of Congress, to be the fifteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, succeeding Donald Hall. In choosing Simic as the poet laureate, Billington cited "the rather stunning and original quality of his poetry".

In 2011, Simic was the recipient of the Frost Medal, presented annually for "lifetime achievement in poetry".

Simic's extensive papers as well as other material about his work are held at the University of New Hampshire Library Milne Special Collections and Archives.

Personal life and death
Simic married fashion designer Helene Dubin in 1964, and their union produced two children. In 1971, he became an American citizen. Simic died of complications of dementia on January 9, 2023, at age 84.

Awards

 * PEN Translation Prize (1980)
 * Ingram Merrill Foundation Fellowship (1983)
 * MacArthur Fellowship (1984–1989)
 * Pulitzer Prize finalist (1986)
 * Pulitzer Prize finalist (1987)
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1990)
 * Wallace Stevens Award (2007)
 * Frost Medal (2011)
 * Vilcek Prize in Literature (2011)
 * Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award (2014)
 * Golden Wreath of the Struga Poetry Evenings (2017)

Poetry

 * Collections

 * 1967:
 * 1969:
 * 1971: Dismantling the Silence
 * 1972: White
 * 1974: Return to a Place Lit by a Glass of Milk
 * 1976: Biography and a Lament
 * 1977: Charon's Cosmology
 * 1978: Brooms: Selected Poems
 * 1978: School for Dark Thoughts
 * 1980: They Forage at Night
 * 1980: Classic Ballroom Dances
 * 1982: Austerities
 * 1983: Weather Forecast for Utopia & Vicinity: Poems, 1967–1982
 * 1985: Selected Poems, 1963–1983 (1986 Pulitzer Prize finalist)
 * 1986: Unending Blues (1987 Pulitzer Prize finalist)
 * 1989: Pyramids and Sphinxes
 * 1989: Nine Poems
 * 1989: The World Doesn't End: Prose Poems (1990 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry)
 * 1990: The Book of Gods and Devils
 * 1992: Hotel Insomnia
 * 1994: A Wedding in Hell: Poems
 * 1995: Frightening Toys
 * 1996: Walking the Black Cat: Poems, (National Book Award in Poetry finalist)
 * 1997:
 * 1999: Jackstraws: Poems (The New York Times Notable Book of the Year) ISBN 0-15-601098-4
 * 1999:
 * 2001: Night Picnic, ISBN 0-15-100630-X
 * 2003: The Voice at 3:00 am: Selected Late and New Poems ISBN 0-15-603073-X
 * 2004: Selected Poems: 1963–2003, 2004 (winner of the 2005 International Griffin Poetry Prize)
 * 2005: Aunt Lettuce, I Want to Peek under Your Skirt (illustrated by Howie Michels)
 * 2005: My Noiseless Entourage: Poems, ISBN 0-15-101214-8
 * 2008: 60 Poems, ISBN 0-15-603564-2
 * 2008: That Little Something: Poems, ISBN 0-15-603539-1
 * 2008: The Monster Loves His Labyrinth: Notebooks, ISBN 1-931337-40-3
 * 2010:
 * 2013:
 * 2013:
 * 2015:
 * 2017:
 * 2019:
 * 2022:

 * Translations

 * 1970: Ivan V. Lalić, Fire Gardens
 * 1970: Vasko Popa, The Little Box: Poems
 * 1970: Four Modern Yugoslav Poets: Ivan V. Lalić, Branko Miljkovic, Milorad Pavić, Ljubomir Simović
 * 1979: Vasko Popa, Homage to the Lame Wolf: Selected Poems
 * 1983: Co-translator, Slavko Mihalić, Atlantis
 * 1987: Tomaž Šalamun, Selected Poems
 * 1987: Ivan V. Lalić, Roll Call of Mirrors
 * 1989: Aleksandar Ristović, Some Other Wine or Light
 * 1991: Slavko Janevski, Bandit Wind
 * 1992: Novica Tadić, Night Mail: Selected Poems
 * 1992: Horse Has Six Legs: Contemporary Serbian Poetry
 * 1999: Aleksandar Ristović, Devil's Lunch
 * 2003: Radmila Lazić, A Wake for the Living
 * 2004: Günter Grass, The Günter Grass Reader
 * 2019: Vasko Popa, Selected Poems

 * List of poems

Non-fiction

 * 1985: The Uncertain Certainty: Interviews, Essays, and Notes on Poetry
 * 1990: Wonderful Words, Silent Truth: Essays on Poetry and a Memoir
 * 1992: Dime-Store Alchemy: The Art of Joseph Cornell
 * 1994: The Unemployed Fortune-Teller: Essays and Memoirs
 * 1997: Orphan Factory: Essays and Memoirs
 * 2000: A Fly in the Soup: Memoirs
 * 2003: The Metaphysician in the Dark (University of Michigan Press, Poets on Poetry Series)
 * 2006:
 * 2008: The Renegade: Writings on Poetry and a Few Other Things
 * 2015: The Life of Images: Selected Prose

Profiles

 * Profile and poems of Charles Simic, including audio files, at the Poetry Foundation.
 * Profile and poems written and audio at Poetry Archive
 * poets.org biography, poems written and audio
 * Griffin Poetry Prize biography and video clip
 * Hossack, Irene. "Charles Simic". The Literary Encyclopedia; first published May 4, 2006.

Work

 * Charles Simic Poetry, published in Issue Three and Issue Four of The Coffin Factory
 * Charles Simic Online Resources, Library of Congress
 * Audio recording (.mp3) of Charles Simic reading at the Key West Literary Seminar, 2003
 * "Seven Prose Poems" by Charles Simic in The Cafe Irreal Issue 13, February 1, 2005
 * Simic reading from a collection of his own works (Audio, 14 mins)
 * Video of Charles Simic reading at Boston University's Robert Lowell Memorial Lecture, 2009 (60 mins)
 * php? collection/Audio recording 40 Charles Simic Poems read by Thomas Boeck at Voetica.com
 * Simic author page and article archive from The New York Review of Books

Interviews and review

 * Poetry featured in The Coffin Factory issues 3 and 4
 * The Cortland Review interview (August 1998)
 * "Charles Simic: The Orphan Of Silence"; Doctoral thesis by Goran Mijuk, February 1, 2002
 * An Interview with Charles Simic by Dejan Stojanović Serbian Magazine, August 9–23, 1991 (No. 89)
 * SESSIONS: Confessions of a Poet Laureate, shorts.nthword.com, April 18, 2011
 * 2008 Bomb Magazine discussion between Charles Simic & Tomaž Šalamun
 * 2008 Bomb Magazine discussion between Charles Simic & Tomaž Šalamun

title: Charles Simic


text:
Francis Napier

Francis Napier may refer to:
 * Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier (1819–1898), Scottish polyglot, diplomat and colonial administrator
 * Francis Napier, 15th Lord Napier (born 1962), Scottish nobleman
 * Francis Napier, 6th Lord Napier (1702–1773), Scottish peer
 * Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier (1758–1823), British peer and army officer
 * Francis Napier, 12th Lord Napier (1876–1941), British peer

title: Francis Napier


text:
Service-level objective

A service-level objective (SLO), as per the O'Reilly Site Reliability Engineering book, is a "target value or range of values for a service level that is measured by an SLI." An SLO is a key element of a service-level agreement (SLA) between a service provider and a customer. SLOs are agreed upon as a means of measuring the performance of the service provider and are outlined as a way of avoiding disputes between the two parties based on misunderstanding.

Overview
There is often confusion in the use of SLAs and SLOs. The SLA is the entire agreement that specifies what service is to be provided, how it is supported, times, locations, costs, performance, and responsibilities of the parties involved. SLOs are specific measurable characteristics of the SLA such as availability, throughput, frequency, response time, or quality. These SLOs together are meant to define the expected service between the provider and the customer and vary depending on the service's urgency, resources, and budget. SLOs provide a quantitative means to define the level of service a customer can expect from a provider.

The SLO are formed by setting goals for metrics (commonly called service level indicators, SLIs). As an example, an availability SLO may be defined as the expected measured value of an availability SLI over a prescribed duration (e.g. four weeks). The availability SLI used will vary based on the nature and architecture of the service. For example, a simple web service might use the ratio of successful responses served vs the total number of valid requests received. (total_success / total_valid)

Examples
Sturm and Morris argue that SLOs must be:

 * Attainable
 * Repeatable
 * Measurable
 * Understandable
 * Meaningful
 * Controllable
 * Affordable
 * Mutually acceptable

While Andrieux et al. define the SLO as "the quality of service aspect of the agreement. Syntactically, it is an assertion over the terms of the agreement as well as such qualities as date and time". Keller and Ludwig more concisely define an SLO as "commitment to maintain a particular state of the service in a given period" with respect to the state of the SLA parameters. Keller and Ludwig go on to state that while service providers will most often be the lead entity in taking on SLOs there is no firm definition as such and any entity can be responsible for an SLO. Along with this an SLO can be broken down into a number of different components.

 * Obliged - The entity that is required to deliver the SLO.
 * Validity Period - The time in which the SLO will be delivered.
 * Expression - This is the actual language that defines what the SLO will be.

Optionally an EvaluationEvent maybe assigned to the SLO, an EvaluationEvent is defined as the measure by which the SLO will be checked to see if it's meeting the Expression.

SLOs should generally be specified in terms of an achievement value or service level, a target measurement, a measurement period, and where and how they are measured. As an example, "90% of calls to the helpdesk should be answered in less than 20 seconds measured over a one-month period as reported by the ACD system". Results can be reported as a percent of time that the target answer time was achieved and then compared to the desired service level (90%).

Term usage
The SLO term is found in various scientific papers, for instance in the reference architecture of the SLA@SOI project, and it is used in the Open Grid Forum document on WS-Agreement.

title: Service-level objective


text:
Blackburn Lake Sanctuary

Blackburn Lake Sanctuary is an example of regenerated and remnant bushland in suburban Melbourne, Australia. It is located in the suburb of Blackburn. It is the most significant of the many parks in the City of Whitehorse, featuring areas of regenerated bushland and various walking tracks.

In 1889 the Kooyongkoot Creek was dammed forming Blackburn Lake, at the centre of the sanctuary. The park has a diverse history revolving around the human usage of the lake and surrounding bushland, which by the 1960s left the lake in particular, very polluted. Although still polluted today, the late 20th century saw much regenerative planting and protection measures by local residents and community groups which has halted and in some places reduced pollution. Today, the park is home to a variety of local wildlife, including Pacific black ducks and herons. The sanctuary also features a variety of other birds, as well as possums and sugar gliders.

History
In 1889 the lake itself was formed when Gardiners Creek was dammed to provide water for local fruit growers. The lake grew in popularity as a tourist destination, with visitors from Melbourne travelling two hours by steam train to reach it. During the 1890s, artist Frederick McCubbin of the famed Heidelberg School lived briefly near the lake, where he painted works including "Down on His Luck", "The Bush Burial" and "Bush Idyll".

In 1909 the Adult Deaf Society purchased the land surrounding the lake, where they established a hospice and a flower farm. In 1964 the Society sold the lake and the land around it to the Melbourne Water board, and in 1965 the area was declared a sanctuary. Later public purchases increased the size of the sanctuary until it reached its current size in 1992. The Visitor Centre was refurbished in 1991 to accommodate an expanded education programme.

Much of the history of the park revolves around the damming of Kooyongkoot Creek and its use over time. See below for history of Blackburn Lake.

Geography
The park sits on around 30 ha of land in the middle of Blackburn, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria to which it is located about 18 km east of the central business district of Melbourne.

Blackburn Lake
In the early days before the lake was formed, Kooyongkoot Creek wound its way down the valley from Mitcham to Blackburn on its way to the Yarra River. It would have been joined along the way, particularly in winter, by many little rivulets and streams; some of these gullies can still be seen as you walk around the lake today. In summer, the creek is suspected to have dried up at times.

The lake was dammed in 1889 initially to provide water for local fruit growers, but was later used and misused for various reasons and activities until the late 1970s. Today, activities on the lake are limited to protect the surrounding environment. The lake is fed by a number of small creeks to its east and many small surrounding gullies. The dam wall is located in lake's west reaches, Lake Road runs along the top of this wall. Kooyongkoot Creek heads west from the wall, through the beginnings of its course to the Yarra River.

It was initially about 50 ft deep where the creek had been mined for antimony, but recent studies show that it is not that deep today, having silted up over the intervening years. In the 1920s, diving towers were erected and swimming lessons were held at the lake, the water quality was as yet unaffected by surrounding land clearing, agriculture and development. The Blackburn Swimming Club was forced to close in 1931 due to vandalism of the facilities.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the lake became a dumping ground for rubbish, and there are supposed to be old car bodies and other rubbish at the bottom. These would have leached acids, lead and hydrocarbons into the water over the years. Pollution in the lake renders it unusable as a source of water for the surrounding human population or agriculture. In 1962 the dam wall in Lake Rd was built by the MMBW to form a retarding basin to prevent flooding further down Kooyongkoot Creek, and the Lake Rd Bridge was demolished in 1965.

The bridges that cross the lake and its creeks and gullies include:
 * Friends Bridge (early 1900s, rebuilt 1981)
 * Billabong Bridge (built 1980s)
 * Lake Road Bridge (built 1888, demolished 1965, rebuilt 2002)

Recreation
Throughout the park's history, much of the recreation in the park revolved around the lake, however today recreation revolves around the appreciation of the Australian native flora, much of which has been regenerated over time. The park is popular with bushwalkers. Cycling is also popular but is usually only partaken locally as the park does not host a cycling through-route trail.

Access information

 * Central Road
 * Gwenda Avenue (Main entrance and carpark)
 * Fulview Court
 * Cromwell Court

 * Lake Road
 * Jeffery Street
 * Naughton Grove (dam wall)
 * Halley Street (dam wall)
 * Ottawa Avenue

 * Clifton Street
 * Via Playground

title: Blackburn Lake Sanctuary


text:
User talk:Coyotejack

Writer, Australian. www.urbanzombies.com

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome!
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a long overdue welcome template for you :) -Quiddity 01:31, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Thank you, Quiddity. Much appreciated.

title: User talk:Coyotejack


text:
Talk:The Continental (Saturday Night Live)

Untitled
Isn't this a parody of some soap opera from the fifties? I remember seeing it when Mad Magazine reprinted their early comics in a special series. -Branddobbe 09:43, Oct 8, 2004 (UTC)

 * I believe the show was called The Continental, but I'm not sure. Christopher just talked about this on Live! with Regis and Kelly a few days ago. I'm going to bookmark this page and come back to it if I actually find something. JoeHenzi 23:55, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)

These appear to be based on Pepe Le Pew's amorous adventures. Check out "Le Cats Bah" (1954) in Youtube and you'll see! He wears the same clothing and you get the same point of view from a woman drinking champagne and smoking a cig. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mnekov (talk • contribs) 03:14, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

 * No, one of Pepe le Pew's cartoons just parodied the same source material in pretty much the same way as Walken's parody and half the other parodies over the decades. --50.0.192.101 (talk) 08:02, 22 September 2016 (UTC)