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Mukhtar Mai

Mukhtaran Bibi (born c. 1972 ), now known as Mukhtār Mā'ī, is a Pakistani human rights activist from the village of Meerwala, located in the rural tehsil of Jatoi in the Muzaffargarh District of Punjab, Pakistan. In June 2002, Mā'ī was the victim of a gang-rape sanctioned by a tribal council of the local Mastoi Baloch clan, as a form of 'honour revenge'; the council ruling was a result of a dispute between the wealthier Mastoi Baloch and Mā'ī's Tatla clan.

Although local custom would expect her to commit suicide after being raped,  Mā'ī spoke up and pursued a case against her rapists, which was picked up by both domestic and international media. On 1 September 2002, an anti-terrorism court sentenced six men, including the four rapists, to death for rape. However, in 2005, the Lahore High Court cited "insufficient evidence" and subsequently acquitted five of the six convicted rapists, while commuting the punishment of the sixth man to a life sentence. Mā'ī and the government appealed this decision, leading the Supreme Court of Pakistan to suspend the acquittal and hold hearings for an appeal; In April 2011, the Supreme Court set aside the acquittals of four of the men, but confirmed the acquittal of the other five. Mukhataran Bibi's attorney and supporters planned an appeal of the verdict.

Though the safety of Mā'ī and her family and friends has been in jeopardy since the incident, she remains an outspoken advocate for women's rights in Pakistan and elsewhere. She started the Mukhtar Mai Women's Welfare Organization to help support and educate women in rural areas throughout Pakistan. In April 2007, Mā'ī won the North–South Prize from the Council of Europe. In 2005, Glamour magazine named her 'Woman of the Year'. According to a 2006 The New York Times report, "Her autobiography is the No. 3 best seller in France, and movies are being made about her. She has been praised by dignitaries like Laura Bush and the French foreign minister". However, on 8 April 2007, The New York Times reported that Mā'ī lives in fear for her life due to threats from the Pakistani government and local feudal lords. Former President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf has admitted on his personal blog that he placed restrictions on her movement in 2005, as he was fearful that her work and the publicity it received would hurt the international image of Pakistan.

Rape incident
Mai's 12-year-old brother, Abdul Shakoor Tatla (or Shakur Tatla), was abducted by three Baloch Mastoi men. He was taken to a sugar field where he was gang raped and sodomized repeatedly. When the boy refused to stay silent about the incident, he was kept imprisoned in the home of Abdul Khaliq, a Mastoi man. When police came to investigate, Shakoor was accused of having an affair with Khaliq's sister, Salma Naseen, who was in her late 20s at the time. Shakoor was then arrested on charges of adultery but later released. In later trials, Shakoor's rapists were convicted of sodomy and sentenced to five years of imprisonment.

The Mastoi tribal council (jirga) convened separately regarding Shakoor's alleged affair with Naseen. They concluded that Shakoor should marry Naseen while Mai be married to a Mastoi man. Villagers rejected this conclusion due to the belief that adultery must be punished with adultery. Mai was called to the council to apologize to the Mastoi tribe for her brother's actions. When she arrived, she was dragged to a nearby hut where she was gang raped in retaliation by four Mastoi men while an additional 10 people watched. Following the rape, she was paraded nude through the village. Her clothes were presented as evidence in court and following the medical examination of Mukhtaran and chemical analysis of her clothes at least two semen stains were revealed.

Media coverage
In the following days, the story became headline news in Pakistan, and remained so for months. By 3 July, the BBC had picked up on the story. Time magazine ran a story on the case on 15 July 2002.

Government reactions
The Government of Pakistan awarded Mukhtaran with a sum of 500,000 rupees (4518 U.S. dollars) on 5 July 2002. Mukhtaran reportedly told Attiya Inayatullah, the Women's Development Minister who gave her the cheque that she "would have committed suicide if the government had not come to her help."

Exit-Control List
On 10 June 2005, shortly before she was scheduled to fly to London on the invitation of Amnesty International, Mukhtaran was put on Pakistan's Exit Control List (ECL), a list of people prohibited from traveling abroad, a move that prompted protest in Pakistan and around the world. Parvez Musharraf was out of the country in Australia and New Zealand, but admitted to the press that he had placed Mukhtaran on the blacklist, because he did not "want to project a bad image of Pakistan". Although Pakistan had claimed that Mukhtaran had decided on her own not to go to the U.S., because her mother was sick (which she was not), Musharraf in effect acknowledged that this was a lie.

On 12 June 2005 Mukhtaran was abruptly asked by the government to travel to Lahore to meet with provincial assembly member Shagufta Anwar, and then go to Islamabad to meet with Presidential advisor, Nilofer Bakhtiar. Mukhtaran stated that she did not know the purpose of the trip but knew that she would be meeting "one Shagufta and in Islamabad the PM’s adviser". She again criticized the police personnel assigned at her residence in Meerwala, saying that they had made life miserable for her and her family, and that her aide Naseem was denied exit from Mukhtaran's house. Furthermore, the local police were pressing her to surrender her passport, coinciding with an invitation extended by an organization of Pakistani doctors in North America for Mukhtaran to attend a moot being organized there that month to discuss the state of women and human rights in Pakistan. Mukhtaran observed that "I think the government does not want me to attend that moot (..) for this reason, perhaps, my name has been put on the Exit Control List".

On 13 June following a lunch at the Chief Minister's House in Lahore, she left for Islamabad with Bakhtiar's secretary assigned to 'escort' her. Contact with Mukhtaran could not be established to know the purpose of her visit to Lahore, because her cellular phone did not respond for hours.

On 14 June 2005, at a press conference in Islamabad, Mukhtaran demanded removal of her name from the Exit Control List, and also complained that she was "virtually under house arrest" because of the large police contingent assigned to protect her.

Asma Jahangir, a Pakistani human rights lawyer confirmed that Mukhtaran had been taken to Islamabad, furiously berated and told that Musharraf was very angry with her. She was led sobbing to detention at a secret location and barred from contacting anyone, including her lawyer. Jahangir said Mukhtaran was in illegal custody.

Passport confiscated
On 19 June 2005, The New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof reported that as Mai returned from the US embassy in Islamabad, after getting her passport stamped with a US visa, it was "confiscated" by Musharraf's government, they were claiming she was now free to travel to the U.S., and removing her name from the ECL, thus rendering her unable to travel outside the country. A column by Khalid Hasan in Pakistan's Daily Times called the government's actions "folly" and "ham-fisted", and said that it had "failed abjectly" to support the liberal "convictions it claims to have" with actions. Mai has since refused to talk about what happened in Islamabad, when she withdrew her application for a visa to the United States or who had taken her passport.

On 27 June 2005 Mukhtaran's passport was returned to her.

On 29 June 2005, on his official website, Musharraf wrote that "Mukhtaran Mai is free to go wherever she pleases, meet whoever she wants and say whatever she pleases."

Anti-Terrorist Court
Mukhtaran's attackers, and the Mastoi of the so-called panchayat that conspired in her rape, were sentenced to death by the Dera Ghazi Khan Anti-Terror Court (ATC) in 2002. The ATC venue was ruled appropriate in this case because the Mastoi had intimidated and terrorized (and continue to threaten) Mukhtaran's Tatla Clan and the people of the area. The court convicted six men (four rapists and two of the village jurors) and sentenced them to death on 1 September 2002. Eight other accused men were released. Mai filed an appeal with the Multan bench of the Lahore high court against the acquittal of the eight men set free on 3 September 2002.

Mai went on to become a symbol for advocates for the health and security of women in her region, attracting both national and international attention to these issues. Mukhtaran used the compensation money awarded by the Pakistani government as well as donations from around the world to build two local schools for girls.

Appeal and the Lahore High Court
On 3 March, the Lahore High Court reversed the judgement by the trial court on the basis of "insufficient evidence" and subsequently five of the six men sentenced to death were acquitted. The Pakistani government decided to appeal the acquittal, and Mukhtaran asked the court not to order the release of the five men, who then remained in detention under a law that allows for a 90-day detention without charges.

Legal representation
Mukhtaran has been represented by panels of lawyers. One such team is headed by Pakistan's Attorney General, Makhdoom Ali Khan. Another panel is led by Aitzaz Ahsan, a lawyer and politician belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party, who has been representing Mukhtaran pro bono. However, her rapists were found not guilty. Advocate Malik Muhammad Saleem won this case against Mukhtaran and the accused were released. The Federal Sharia Court in Pakistan decided to suspend this decision of Lahore High Court on 11 March, arguing that Mai's case should have been tried under the Islamic Hudood laws. Three days later the Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Sharia Court did not have the authority to overrule the decision and decided to hear the case in the Supreme Court.

Retrial of rapists
The Lahore high court ruled on 6 June 2005 that the accused men could be released on payment of a 50,000 rupees ($840) bond. However, the men were unable to come up with the money, and remained in jail while the prosecution appealed against their acquittal. Just over two weeks later, the Supreme Court intervened and suspended the acquittals of five men as well as the eight who were acquitted at the original trial in 2002. All 14 were retried in the Supreme Court.

On 21 April 2011, the Supreme Court set aside the Lahore High Court's acquittal of A. Ditta, Ghulam Farid, Faiz Mastoi and Ramzan Parchar. However the Supreme Court confirmed acquittal of Khalil Ahmad, Ghulam Hussain, Qasim Rasool, Hazoor and Nazar Hussain for being falsely implicated by Mukhtar Mai. Mukhataran Bibi's attorney and supporters planned and to file a review petition against this verdict.

Threats
On 8 April 2007, The New York Times reported that Mukhtaran was living in fear for her life of the Pakistani government and local feudal lords. It also reported that Mukhtaran's friends, colleagues and their families are at great risk from violence by local feudal lords, and/or the government of Pakistan.

Post-case work
Mukhtaran began to work to educate girls, and to promote education with a view towards raising awareness to prevent future honour crimes. Out of this work grew the organization Mukhtar Mai Women's Welfare Organization (MMWWO). The goals of MMWWO are to help the local community, especially women, through education and other projects. The main focus of her work is to educate young girls, and to educate the community about women's rights and gender issues. Her organization teaches young girls, and tries to make sure they stay in school, rather than work or get married. In Fall 2007, a high school will be started by her group. The MMWWO also provides shelter and legal help for people, often women, who are victims of violence or injustice.

2009–present
On 11 December 2008, Mukhtaran was informed by Sardar Abdul Qayyum, the sitting Federal Minister for Defence Production, to drop the charge against the accused. According to Mukhtaran, the minister called her uncle, Ghulam Hussain, to his place in Jatoi and passed on a message to Mukhtaran that she should drop the charges against the thirteen accused of the Mastoi tribe, who were involved either in the verdict against Mukhtaran, or who gang raped her. The minister said that, if she did not comply, he and his associates would not let the Supreme Court's decision go in favour of Mukhtaran. It is believed that the Mastoi clan have political influence of sufficient weight to bring pressure to bear on the supreme court via establishment and political figures. The Supreme Court of Pakistan had listed Mukhtaran case for hearing in the second week of February 2009 (hearing was expected on 10 or 11 February).

On 11 June 2009, the Multan Electric Power Company raided the MMWWO (Mukhtar Mai's Women Welfare Organization) in Meerwala, Pakistan, disconnecting all electricity to the grounds, falsely accusing the organization of stealing electricity despite records proving they have paid all bills in full. MMWWO and hundreds of families in the surrounding area were without power for several days. Today, while the power to the surrounding area has been restored, the MMWWO grounds, which house the Mukhtaran Girls Model School, Women's Resource Centre, and Shelter Home for battered women (whose premises was raided despite the fact that men are strictly prohibited), are still enduring blistering temperatures. According to MMWWO employees, who were witnesses, the power company officials claimed that the raid was ordered by Abdul Qayyum Jatoi, the Federal Minister for Defense Production. This raid has significantly hindered the ability of Mai's organization to carry out its important human rights work, providing services for vulnerable women, girls and boys.

Hearings for the Supreme Court case have repeatedly been delayed, while her attackers remain imprisoned and her case is pending.

In June 2010, it was reported that Pakistan Peoples Party legislator Jamshed Dasti has threatened Mai to withdraw her appeal in the Supreme Court against the accused rapists. Mai said in an exclusive interview to the Express Tribune that Dasti threatened her last week through his messengers in Mir Wala (Muzaffargarh) and through the supporters of Federal Minister for Defence Production, Sardar Qayyum Jatoi, whose constituency she resides in, is putting pressure on her family in various ways, for example, to remove the police check post from outside their house. She stated her family was living in fear. Dasti, a critic of Mai, confirmed that he had requested her to reach a compromise on the matter.

On 21 April 2011, Malik Saleem, defense lawyer for the men accused of gang-raping Mukhtaran Mai under orders of the Mastoi clan, announced that five have been acquitted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan while the sixth suspect, Abdul Khalique had his life sentence upheld. Although the release of the suspects places Mukhtaran Mai in even greater danger she has vowed not to shut down her school. The Supreme Court's decision shocked and disappointed many Pakistanis especially human rights activists.

Awards and acclaim

 * On 2 August 2005, the Pakistani government awarded Mukhtaran the Fatima Jinnah gold medal for bravery and courage.
 * On 2 November 2005, the US magazine Glamour named Mukhtaran as their Woman Of The Year.
 * On 12 January 2006, Mukhtaran Mai published her memoir with the collaboration of Marie-Thérèse Cuny under the title Déshonorée. The originating publisher of the book is OH ! Editions in France and her book was published simultaneously in German by Droemer Verlag as Die Schuld, eine Frau zu sein.
 * On 16 January 2006, to coincide with the publication of her memoir, Mukhtaran Mai travelled to Paris (France) and was received by Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy.
 * On 2 May 2006, Mukhtaran spoke at the United Nations headquarters in New York. In an interview with United Nations TV, Mai said that "she wanted to get the message across to the world that one should fight for their rights and for the rights of the next generation." She was welcomed by UN Under-Secretary General Shashi Tharoor, who said, “I think it is fair to say that anyone who has the moral courage and internal strength to turn such a brutal attack into a weapon to defend others in a similar position, is a hero indeed, and is worthy of our deepest respect and admiration.”
 * On 31 October 2006, Mukhtaran's memoir was released in the United States as In the Name of Honor: A Memoir.
 * On 15 November 2006, Pakistan's lower house of Parliament voted to alter its rape laws to move them from religious law to penal code, effectively separating rape from adultery. It also modifies the law to no longer require that the victim produce four witnesses of the assault, and it allows circumstantial and forensic evidence be used for investigation. The bill reduced the penalty for adultery from execution to a maximum of five years' incarceration and a 10,000 rupee fine. A modified version of the bill, called the Protection of Women Bill, was signed by Musharraf in late 2006. Critics of the final version of the law complained that "[a] judge can still decide whether rape cases will be heard in a civil or an Islamic court. Rape victims will have to report their complaints to district courts, not at local police stations, compelling many to travel long distances. As a result, many will be discouraged."
 * In March 2007, Mukhtaran formally received the 2006 North-South Prize of the Council of Europe for her contribution to human rights. In April 2007, Mukhtaran Mai won the North-South Prize from the Council of Europe.
 * In October 2010, Laurentian University of Canada decided to award an honorary doctorate degree to Mukhtar Mai.

In popular culture
Mukhtaran's memoir was first published in France by Oh! editions under the title Déshonorée. It has been published in 23 languages including English by Atria under the title In the name of honor. Her autobiography ranked #3 on the bestseller list in France and movies about her are in the making. She has been praised by dignitaries like Laura Bush and the French foreign minister.

In 2009 in the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Mukhtaran was the subject of chapter 4, "Rule by Rape". The book is an exposé about women and gender apartheid.

In 2006, Mukhtaran's experiences were the subject of a documentary called Shame by Mohammed Naqvi, which won multiple awards including the TV Academy Honor (Special Emmy) by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

In 2008 Mukhtaran's experiences were the subject of a documentary by Catherine Ulmer López focusing on the aftermath of the rape especially on Mukhtaran's schools as well as an important look inside Pakistan, "where the impact of Islamic fundamentalism is revealed and how women are fighting its oppressive and violent impact." The documentary was shown at the Starz Denver Festival, the 7th Human Rights Film Festival and the 22nd International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in 2009.

In 2014, the chamber opera Thumbprint opened in New York, based on a song cycle that was first performed in 2009. The earlier song cycle was composed by Kamala Sankaram, and Susan Yankowitz helped to transform it into the opera. Sankaram sang the lead role of Mai. Thumbprint made its Los Angeles premiere in June 2017.

title: Mukhtar Mai


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Big Van Vader

Leon Allen White (May 14, 1955 – June 18, 2018), better known by his ring names Big Van Vader or simply Vader, was an American professional wrestler and professional football player. Throughout his career, he performed for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and Pro Wrestling Noah (NOAH) during the 1990s and 2000s. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest super-heavyweight professional wrestlers of all time.

White performed as a monstrous wrestler, and he was capable of aerial maneuvers: his diving moonsault was voted the "Best Wrestling Maneuver" of 1993 by Wrestling Observer Newsletter (WON) readers. Among other accolades in WCW, Mexico and Japan, he won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship three times each, the UWA World Heavyweight Championship once, the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship twice, the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship once, and won the battle royal main event of the 1993 Battlebowl pay-per-view (PPV). He headlined multiple PPV events for the WWF and WCW. Vader was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996 and the WWE Hall of Fame in 2022.

Early life
Leon Allen White was born in Lynwood, California, on May 14, 1955, and grew up in Compton, California. He was raised with his sister in a rough area of Los Angeles known as South Central, where the siblings experienced a home break-in. His father was a US Marine. His father also was an underwater welder for the US Navy and invented an automobile hoist, which made the family wealthier and let them move to a safer neighborhood in Bell, where White attended Bell High School. In high school, he competed in shot put on the track and field team, wrestled, and played football.

American football career
White was a nationally ranked center that was recruited by forty colleges. He played offensive line at the University of Colorado, where he was named a second-team All-American at guard by United Press International for the Buffaloes in 1977. He earned a business administration degree.

Professional career
In the 1978 NFL Draft, White was drafted as a center by the Los Angeles Rams with the 24th pick of the 3rd Round (80th overall). White's second season saw the Rams go to the Super Bowl and earned White an NFC championship ring. White spent the season on the injured reserve list due to knee problems. He did not play a single down and registered no statistics. White was forced into retirement by a ruptured patella.

American Wrestling Association (1985–1987)
While working out at a gym, White was spotted by a man who remembered him from his college football days who suggested he look into professional wrestling. Trained by Brad Rheingans, White got his first national exposure in the American Wrestling Association (AWA). He went by the moniker Baby Bull, which was later changed to Bull Power. White honed his skills during this time, and his ring work improved significantly to the point that he was booked in a match with Stan Hansen for the AWA World Heavyweight Championship, where he was defeated.

Catch Wrestling Association (1986–1987, 1989–1991)
In May 1986, White went to Europe to compete for Otto Wanz and his promotion, Catch Wrestling Association, touring Austria and Germany, using the name Bull Power. That summer, he took part in the three-day tournament for the Vienna Catch Cup, in Austria. He made it to the finals, before losing to Klaus Wallas. On March 22, 1987, he won his first championship, the CWA World Heavyweight Championship, defeating Otto Wanz in Denver, Colorado, ending Wanz's reign of nearly nine years in its only title change in the United States. He held onto the title for nearly four months, before losing back to Wanz on July 11 in Graz, Austria. In December 1987, he participated in his second tournament, the Bremen Catch Cup, in Germany. He defeated Rambo in the finals, to win his first tournament.

In 1989, Bull Power returned to the CWA, to challenge Otto Wanz for the CWA World Heavyweight Championship. On August 21 in Vienna, Austria, he defeated Wanz to win his second CWA World title. He held onto the title for a little over four months before losing it back to Wanz in Bremen, Germany, on December 22. A year later, Otto Wanz retired and the CWA World title was held up. Bull Power defeated Rambo to win the vacant title for the third and final time. He held to the title for over six months, before losing it to Rambo in Graz, Austria on July 6, 1991. Five months later, he defeated Tatsumi Fujinami to become the inaugural CWA Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion. He vacated the title in 1992 after signing with World Championship Wrestling.

Early years (1987–1989)
Although originally signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), AJPW owner Giant Baba traded White's contract over to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in 1987 after consideration. Upon joining NJPW, White was given the ring name Big Van Vader and began to wear a black wrestling mask. His new identity was based on a strong warrior of the same name from Japanese folklore. He was introduced as the crown jewel of the Takeshi Puroresu Gundan stable which was managed by Takeshi Kitano. Vader challenged Antonio Inoki, who had already defeated Riki Choshu, and defeated the worn-down Inoki. The pro-Inoki audience rioted, resulting in NJPW being banned from Sumo Hall, its home arena. The ban remained in effect until 1989, when NJPW did its first show back in Sumo Hall on February 22.

IWGP Heavyweight Champion (1989–1991)
After winning the final match of an eight-man tournament against Shinya Hashimoto at Battle Satellite in Tokyo Dome, Vader was declared the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion. He was the first gaijin (non-Japanese) wrestler to hold the title. On May 25, one month after being crowned champion, Vader lost the title to Russian suplex master Salman Hashimikov. Hashimikov dropped the title to Vader's old rival, Riki Choshu, on July 12. On August 10, Vader defeated Choshu to become a two-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion.

On February 10, 1990, Vader faced Stan Hansen at an AJPW versus NJPW supercard show called Super Fight in Tokyo Dome. Before Vader entered the ring, Hansen accidentally broke Vader's nose with the bull rope Hansen carried to the ring for his matches. During an exchange of stiff punches, Hansen unintentionally poked Vader's left eye with his thumb during their brawl, which caused the eye to pop out of its socket. After removing his mask, pushing the eye back into its socket and holding it in place with his eyelid, Vader continued wrestling Hansen until the match was rendered a no contest. As a result of the injury, Vader required a metal plate to be surgically placed under his eye. Vader's success garnered the attention of World Championship Wrestling (WCW), who convinced him to work for them while still the IWGP Heavyweight Champion and an active competitor in NJPW. He also beat Antonio Inokis streak on his debut.

In January 1991, Vader defeated Tatsumi Fujinami to earn himself a third IWGP Heavyweight Title reign. During this match, Vader began bleeding from his eye, which required surgery when he returned to the United States. This reign was short-lived, however, as Vader lost the title back to Fujinami on March 4. At this point, WCW and NJPW were reaching a tentative working agreement. This benefited Vader, as he could now have his schedule coordinated far more easily. This helped alleviate his difficulty in gaining notoriety in WCW, as his previously infrequent appearances did not allow the audience to see him very often.

Big, Bad, and Dangerous (1992)
On March 1, 1992, he and Bam Bam Bigelow began teaming up as "Big, Bad, and Dangerous". The duo went on to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship from Hiroshi Hase and Keiji Mutoh. In May, Vader faced Mutoh, now known as The Great Muta, one on one and suffered a legitimate knee injury. This injury was a factor in him and Bigelow losing the title to the WCW World Tag Team Champions, The Steiner Brothers after a nearly four-month reign. This also marked a decrease in his NJPW appearances, as Vader began to focus almost entirely on WCW and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

Universal Wrestling Association (1989–1990)
In November 1989, White, as Big Van Vader, made his debut in Mexico for Universal Wrestling Association. On November 12, he defeated El Canek to win the UWA World Heavyweight Championship. Five days later, he made a couple of shows for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre in trios matches, teaming with Fabuloso Blondy. He kept the UWA World title for over a year, before losing it back to Canek on December 9.

Early run (1990–1991)
Vader was originally signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1990 but was only used sparingly until 1991. Vader's first match in WCW took place on July 7, 1990, at The Great American Bash, where he defeated Tom Zenk in a little over two minutes. Seven months later, he returned for WrestleWar, where he battled Stan Hansen to a double disqualification. Eight months later, he returned to Halloween Havoc and took part in the Chamber of Horrors match, in which Vader's team lost due to Abdullah the Butcher being electrocuted by their partner, Cactus Jack. Two months later, he took part in Starrcade's Lethal Lottery, where he teamed with Mr. Hughes and defeated Rick Steiner and The Nightstalker (who was subbing for an injured Diamond Studd) to advance to the Battlebowl battle royal, in which he was eliminated.

World Heavyweight Champion (1992–1993)
When he began working for WCW full-time, Vader was paired with a manager, Harley Race, and received a shot at Sting's World Heavyweight Championship on April 12, 1992, and was disqualified. Sting suffered a pair of cracked ribs and a ruptured spleen in the match after taking a Vader Bomb from Vader, though he continued to compete infrequently while recuperating. Vader received a rematch with Sting on July 12 at The Great American Bash, which he won to become the new WCW World Heavyweight Champion. His reign was short-lived, as he re-injured his knee, forcing him to lose the title three weeks later to Ron Simmons, who substituted for Sting after he was attacked by Jake Roberts earlier that night. Vader was out of action after Clash of the Champions in September as he underwent knee surgery. Upon his return at Halloween Havoc, Vader sent Nikita Koloff into retirement and legitimately sprained the back of jobber Joe Thurman, sending him to the hospital. At Starrcade, Vader lost to Sting in the finals of the King of Cable tournament. Two days later, Vader defeated Simmons by taking advantage of a shoulder injury of Simmons's to regain the World Heavyweight Championship. On March 11, 1993, Vader lost the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to Sting but regained it six days later.

Upon returning to WCW, Mick Foley, then wrestling as Cactus Jack, defeated Vader via count out on the April 17 episode of Saturday Night. During the match, Jack suffered a broken nose and needed 27 stitches on his face. The match was heavily edited for broadcast, as WCW did not wish to show severe bleeding. In a rematch on April 24, Vader powerbombed Jack onto the concrete floor outside the ring, resulting in Jack suffering a concussion and temporary loss of feeling in his left hand and leg. In the meantime, Vader began to feud with a new arrival to WCW, Davey Boy Smith. They met at Slamboree in May for the World Heavyweight Championship. Vader lost by disqualification when he hit Smith with a chair, though he retained the title. Vader and Sid Vicious then formed a partnership and called themselves The Masters of the Powerbomb. They were defeated by Smith and his new partner, Sting, at Beach Blast in July. Following this, Vader and Cactus Jack's feud was restarted as Jack was cleared to return for Halloween Havoc to face Vader in a Texas Death match. Vader won when Harley Race stunned Jack with a cattle prod that kept him down for a ten count. On March 16, 1994, Foley lost his right ear in a match with Vader in Munich, Germany; Foley's head became trapped in the ropes, which were under excessive tension, causing his ear to be torn off. In 2013, Vader reveals and admitted that he ripped Foley's right ear off, from the WWE 2013 DVD and Blu-ray release For All Mankind: The Life and Career of Mick Foley.

Vader was originally scheduled to face Sid Vicious at Starrcade. The real-life dismissal of Vicious after Arn Anderson stabbed him in England, however, forced WCW to find a quick replacement. Executive producer Eric Bischoff placed Ric Flair in the match, which was scheduled in Flair's hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. In the storyline, Vader did not take Flair seriously until he agreed to put his career on the line against Vader's title. Vader dominated the match, but Flair capitalized on failed interference by Race and Vader's weakened knees to win the match with a rollup and end Vader's third World Heavyweight Championship reign.

United States Champion; Dungeon of Doom (1994–1995)
Vader continued to feud with Flair until SuperBrawl IV, when Flair once again defeated Vader, this time in a "Thundercage" match, with the help of the special guest referee The Boss. As a result, Vader began feuding with Boss, whom he defeated at Spring Stampede. He also faced Sting at Slamboree for the vacant International World Heavyweight Championship. Sting requested the match rather than be awarded the title after an injury to his original opponent, Rick Rude, and defeated Vader. At Bash at the Beach, he defeated the former Boss, now known as The Guardian Angel by disqualification. Two months later at Fall Brawl, he defeated Angel and Sting in a triangle match to determine the number one contender for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, now held by Hulk Hogan. A month later at Halloween Havoc, he defeated the Guardian Angel in a rematch. At Clash of the Champions XXIX, Vader defeated Dustin Rhodes and earned the opportunity to face the United States Heavyweight Champion Jim Duggan at Starrcade, where Vader defeated Duggan with the aid of Duggan's 2x4 to win the United States Heavyweight Championship.

In January 1995, Vader had to end his alliance with Harley Race, because in real life, Race was involved in an automobile crash and Race left WCW. Vader confronted the World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan, and informed him that he could not avoid the monster. The two met at SuperBrawl V, with Vader managing to kick out of Hogan's leg drop after a count of one. The referee was knocked out before Vader hit the Vader Bomb on Hogan. Ric Flair ran to the ring, made the three count, and attacked Hogan, resulting in Vader's disqualification. A rematch was signed, a strap match for the inaugural Uncensored pay-per-view. Flair once again intervened (this time in drag to avoid revealing his presence) and managed to cost Vader the match by getting himself carried by Hogan as he touched all four turnbuckle pads. Vader was stripped of the United States Heavyweight Championship on April 23, 1995, for multiple violent offenses. However, Vader gained another opportunity to win the World Heavyweight Championship from Hogan at Bash at the Beach in a Steel Cage match. He conspired with Kevin Sullivan and the Dungeon of Doom to gain a psychological edge before the encounter, which Vader lost when Hogan escaped the cage. He then restarted his feud with Flair, based on his frustration at Flair's constant interference in his title matches and Flair's annoyance at his inability to defeat Hogan. At Clash of the Champions XXXI, Vader defeated Flair and Arn Anderson in a 2-on-1 handicap match. Following the event, Hogan grew interested in Vader and asked for his assistance in his developing feud with the Dungeon of Doom by asking him to join him, Randy Savage, and Sting for WarGames. Vader complied but the storyline never developed as, shortly after, Vader was fired from WCW after he was involved in a locker room brawl with Paul Orndorff.

The title video for the September 4 debut edition of Monday Nitro featured multiple shots of Vader (one of four wrestlers featured, along with Hogan, Sting and Savage), who parted ways with WCW shortly thereafter. Absent from the first episode, he had been scheduled to face Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on the September 11 episode but was replaced by Lex Luger, who issued a challenge to Hogan on the debut show.

UWF International (1993–1995)
In late February 1993, White signed an eight-date agreement with the Union of Wrestling Forces International (UWFi), where he competed as Super Vader due to legal issues concerning the Big Van Vader name. By September 1993, he was simply known as Vader in the United States. He worked with UWFi for over two years, winning the Best of the World Tournament, which started on April 3 and ended on August 18, 1994. Vader first defeated Salman Hashimikov and then Masahito Kakihara in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Vader defeated Kiyoshi Tamura, and beat Nobuhiko Takada in the finals to win the tournament and the UWFi Pro-Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship. He would hold onto the title for over eight months, before losing the title to Takada on April 20, 1995. He left shortly thereafter.

Return to NJPW (1996)
At Wrestling World on January 4, Vader had his first post-WCW match, facing the man whose four-year winning streak Vader had ended over eight years prior, Antonio Inoki. Inoki was over 50 years old at the time, but the match lasted nearly fourteen minutes before Inoki won the match.

Camp Cornette (1996–1997)
In the weeks leading up to the 1996 Royal Rumble, Vader's debut was heavily hyped on television as he was billed as "The Man They Call Vader" (though Vince McMahon had originally wanted to rename him "The Mastodon"). He made his first World Wrestling Federation (WWF) appearance as a participant in the Royal Rumble match, as he entered at number 13 and eliminated Jake Roberts, Doug Gilbert, one member of the Squat Team, and Savio Vega; he also fought with his ally Yokozuna, but Vader was eliminated by Shawn Michaels before he re-entered the ring and started assaulting everyone, including Michaels. Vader defeated Vega on the following Monday Night Raw, before assaulting WWF officials and eventually, WWF President Gorilla Monsoon demanded that Vader cease his attacks and received a Vader Bomb for his efforts. As a result, Vader was suspended for his actions, though in reality, he needed time off for shoulder surgery.

Jim Cornette campaigned for Vader's reinstatement, and by the time Vader returned, Yokozuna had left Cornette's management. At February's In Your House 6, Vader appeared during Yokozuna's match against The British Bulldog, and as Yokozuna was about to pin The Bulldog, Vader attacked him, handcuffed him, and delivered a severe beating. This led to what was supposed to be a one-on-one encounter between Vader and Yokozuna at WrestleMania XII. However, the match became a six-man tag team match pitting Vader, Owen Hart, and The British Bulldog against Yokozuna, Ahmed Johnson, and Jake Roberts, with the stipulation that if Yokozuna's team won the match, he would have five minutes alone with Cornette in the ring; this never occurred as Vader's team won the match when Vader pinned Roberts.

Vader then attacked the WWF World Heavyweight Champion Shawn Michaels after one of Michaels' matches, which earned him a spot in a six-man tag team match at In Your House 9: International Incident, where Vader, Owen Hart, and The British Bulldog teamed up against Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, and Sycho Sid; Vader pinned Michaels to win the match for his team. Vader faced Michaels again at SummerSlam, where Michaels won by pinfall.

Following his feud with Michaels, Vader faced off against The Undertaker in a singles match at the Royal Rumble, and during the match, The Undertaker's former manager, Paul Bearer, attacked him and helped Vader win; Bearer then became Vader's manager. Both Vader and Undertaker went on to compete in the Royal Rumble match, during which Stone Cold Steve Austin was eliminated by Bret Hart; however, the referees did not see this, as they were attending to Terry Funk and Mankind on the floor, allowing Austin to sneak back into the ring and eliminate both Vader and Undertaker, then Bret Hart, who was busy eliminating Fake Diesel, and win the Royal Rumble. As a result of this, Vader and the other men eliminated by Austin, Bret Hart and The Undertaker, were put into the four-way main event of February's In Your House 13: Final Four for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, in which Vader, after bleeding profusely, was eliminated by The Undertaker. Bearer then persuaded his two proteges, Vader and Mankind, to go after the WWF Tag Team Championship, despite the fact that the two men often brawled between themselves. They failed in their bid to win the tag team gold at WrestleMania 13.

Various feuds and departure (1997–1998)
Vader again received an opportunity to face The Undertaker, this time for the WWF Championship at In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede, but lost. On the following night's Raw is War, Vader wrestled The Patriot, who won the match and then went after Bret Hart, who came to ringside during the match; Vader attacked The Patriot and then brought him back into the ring, where he went for the Vader Bomb, but Hart came into the ring and laid the Canadian flag over The Patriot, so Vader got down, picked up the Canadian flag, broke it, and started a brawl with Hart. This turned Vader's face and served to bring Vader into the USA vs. Canada feud, which culminated at Survivor Series, where Vader was the leader of Team USA, with Goldust, Marc Mero, and Steve Blackman (replacing the injured Patriot) as they faced Team Canada, composed of the British Bulldog, Jim Neidhart, Doug Furnas, and Phil LaFon; during the match, Goldust walked out on his team and Team USA lost the match after The Bulldog pinned Vader after hitting him with the ring bell. Goldust and Vader feuded throughout the fall and finally faced off at the Royal Rumble, in a match that Vader won. Goldust eliminated Vader from the Royal Rumble match later that night (Vader entered at number 30).

Following his feud with Goldust, Vader began feuding with Kane, and both faced off for the first time at No Way Out of Texas, where Vader lost after a chokeslam and a Tombstone Piledriver before Kane subsequently attacked him with a large steel wrench, resulting in Vader being taken away on a stretcher and was kept off of television for a while. Two months later, at Unforgiven: In Your House, Vader returned during Kane's inferno match against The Undertaker; as Kane was attempting to leave the match, Vader appeared and fought him back to the ring to continue the match, which Kane lost. Vader and Kane had a rematch at Over the Edge in a mask vs. mask match, in which Vader attempted to use a wrench on Kane like the one used on him months before, but Kane managed to recover and defeat Vader, costing him his mask in the process. In a post-match interview with Michael Cole, Vader said, "I made the biggest mistake of my life. Maybe Vader time is over. I'm nothing but a big piece of shit. A big fat piece of shit".

Subsequently, Vader had a series of losses and was reduced to the status of a jobber to the stars, having a feud with Mark Henry which Vader lost. After considering retirement, Vader instead negotiated his own release from the WWF so he could once again wrestle in Japan. His final WWF pay-per-view match was a loss to Bradshaw at Breakdown: In Your House in a No Holds Barred match. He lost to Edge on the October 11, 1998, episode of Sunday Night Heat in his final televised WWF match. In a shoot interview, Jim Cornette said part of the reason that Vader's WWF run was not as successful as what was hoped was due to the failure to properly book Vader.

All Japan Pro Wrestling (1998–2000)
After leaving the WWF, Vader returned to Japan. He returned to All Japan Pro Wrestling forming a team with his old foe Stan Hansen, with whom he made it to the finals of the 1998 World's Strongest Tag Determination League, where they were defeated by Kenta Kobashi and Jun Akiyama. At the beginning of 1999, he became the number one contender to the Triple Crown by defeating Kobashi. He then won the (vacant) Triple Crown Title on March 6, 1999, by defeating Akira Taue. He then won the 1999 Champion Carnival. Vader lost the Triple Crown to Misawa on May 2, 1999, at the Giant Baba Memorial Show, and he regained it from Misawa on October 30.

While defending the Triple Crown, Vader won the World Tag Team Championship with a recently returned "Dr. Death" Steve Williams on February 20, 2000. However, the week after on February 27, Vader lost the Triple Crown to Kenta Kobashi. Upon losing the title, Vader continued defending his tag team titles with Williams before Vader took some time off, disappearing from TV in April 2000 after a singles loss to Misawa. The Tag Team titles were vacated that month, and Williams went on to feud with Mike Barton to set up their Brawl For All revenge angle.

Pro Wrestling NOAH (2000–2003)
Upon returning from his hiatus, Vader joined Mitsuharu Misawa's newly created Pro Wrestling Noah promotion in October 2000. He had a strong dominance in the tag team division with 2 Cold Scorpio, where they had a great number of victories on television and pay-per-views. Vader earned many singles victories as well against several of the roster's Japanese wrestlers. He often had matches against Jun Akiyama as part of a grudge feud that was carried over from their times facing each other in AJPW. While teaming together, Vader and Scorpio often found themselves fighting against Akiyama and whatever Japanese partner he had at the moment.

Vader and Scorpio won the grudge feud by defeating Jun Akiyama and Akitoshi Saito on an October 19, 2001, pay-per-view, where they became the inaugural GHC Tag Team Champions. They lost the titles to Mitsuharu Misawa and Yoshinari Ogawa on November 30. Having lost the tag team titles, Vader tried to reprioritize himself and pursue Jun Akiyama's GHC Heavyweight Championship (the top title of the company), where it culminated in a much hyped pay-per-view main event on December 9, 2001. Vader lost the match by submitting to Akiyama, and right after the event he took a break from wrestling for two months.

Vader returned to NOAH's television programs in March 2002. He and Scorpio continued teaming, and despite them not winning the titles again, they continued having many victories in the tag team and singles division throughout 2002. Vader's last appearance in NOAH was in January 2003.

NWA Total Nonstop Action (2003, 2015)
On February 19, 2003, Vader appeared in NWA Total Nonstop Action (NWA-TNA) to defend Dusty Rhodes, who was fighting with The Harris Brothers. He and Dusty won a tag team match the next week against the Harris Brothers via disqualification. He then began a feud with Nikita Koloff, whose career Vader ended long ago. However, TNA and Vader soon parted ways.

Vader made a one-off return to TNA on the June 24, 2015, episode of Impact! for a singles match against Bram. Vader won the match via disqualification after Bram used a ring wrench to hit Vader in the head. Matt Morgan then entered the ring to save Vader and take out Bram. This was his final appearance for the company.

Sporadic returns to WWE (2005, 2012, 2016)
Vader returned to the WWF, now World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), on the October 31, 2005, episode of Raw when Jonathan Coachman announced that Vader and Goldust would be in his corner for his street fight against Stone Cold Steve Austin the next night at Taboo Tuesday. When Austin decided not to participate, he was replaced by Batista. Vader and Goldust interfered in the match on Coachman's behalf and received spinebusters for their efforts.

On the June 11, 2012, episode of Raw, Vader defeated Heath Slater in a singles match. On July 23 on the 1000th episode of Raw, Vader and several other legends prevented Slater from leaving in his match against Lita, which she won.

In April 2016, Vader made a one-night appearance at the 2016 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony to induct Stan Hansen into the WWE Hall of Fame. On March 7, 2022, it was announced that he would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Independent circuit (2004–2007, 2010–2017)
Vader returned to Japan, wrestling at a NJPW Wrestle Land show. He also worked in the independent circuit as Big Van Vader, including a tag match with Mike Awesome against Samoa Joe and Dan Maff in Jersey All Pro Wrestling on June 5, 2004. On May 12, 2007, Vader faced Brutus Beefcake at Spartan Slamfest, a World Wrestling Coalition charity show. The match was held at the Kingston Armory in Kingston, Pennsylvania. After wrestling his last match in 2007, White began working as a high school football coach and retired from the sport.

On April 29, 2010, White made a return to wrestling under his Vader ring name at the event Vader Time 5 Return of the Emperor. At the event, he teamed with his son Jesse and former tag team partner 2 Cold Scorpio to successfully defeat Makoto Hashi, Tamon Honda and Tatsumi Fujinami in the main event.

Vader made his in-ring return to the United States on January 28, 2012. He defeated Arik Royal and Adam Page in a handicap match at WrestleReunion: Los Angeles. On May 11, 2012, at Resistance Pro's event A Small Deadly Space, Vader defeated Jay Bradley.

In May 2016, Will Ospreay and Ricochet faced each other during the NJPW tournament Best of the Super Juniors. During the match, both wrestlers performed a high flying, fast-paced sequence. When Vader saw the sequence, he complained on social media about the current direction of pro wrestling, specifically about matches being too scripted and overly choreographed. During the following weeks, Vader and Ospreay feuded on Twitter, which led to England-based promotion Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro) booking a match between them. The match took place on August 12, 2016, with Vader defeating Ospreay. Two days later, Vader made an appearance in Colchester, England for the XWA Wrestling (XWA) promotion, defeating "Savvy" Sid Scala.

On April 20, 2017, Vader made an appearance in Japan at Korakuen Hall as part of the Dradition show to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the debut of Tatsumi Fujinami. Following a six-man tag team match, Vader collapsed due to being dropped on his head during the match, but he was able to walk backstage under his own power and he remained in Japan as he was scheduled to work two more shows in Fukuoka and Osaka. On April 22, Vader, Takuma Sano, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara lost a six-man tag team match to Koji Kanemoto, Shiro Koshinaka and Tatsumi Fujinami. On April 23, Vader, Riki Choshu, and Tatsumi Fujinami defeated Shiro Koshinaka, Takuma Sano, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. The final match of his career took place August 26, 2017, for Top Rope Promotions with Vader coming out victorious.

Return to AJPW (2011–2012)
In the aftermath of the 2011 natural disasters in Japan, Vader and his son Jesse wrestled on special tribute cards for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and Pro Wrestling Zero1. On December 7, 2012, Vader returned to AJPW once again, teaming with Keiji Mutoh and Kenso to defeat Bambi Killer, Franz Dynamite and Mazada in a six-man tag team match.

Professional wrestling style and persona
White is considered one of the greatest super-heavyweight professional wrestlers of all time. He used his size and weight as part of his moves making them look much more painful than when performed by someone half his size. For example, his finishing move, called the Vader Bomb, which is a corner slingshot splash, when he would bounce off the middle rope and land on a prone opponent. He was also noted for his impressive agility, as he can perform a simple dropkick despite his 450 lb frame. One of his signature moves was the Vader Sault, a moonsault or a backward somersault jump off the top rope, a move that requires significant agility and is usually performed by much smaller wrestlers.

Filmography

 * Fist of the North Star (1995) as 'Goliath'
 * Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows (1998) as himself
 * The Unreal Story of Professional Wrestling (1999) as himself

Television appearances

 * Boy Meets World (1995, 1996) as Francis Albert Leslie 'Frankie' Stecchino Sr. (3 episodes)
 * Baywatch (1996) "Bash at the Beach" as himself (1 episode)

Video games
The Fatal Fury character Raiden, also known as "Big Bear", is based on Vader's appearance in Japan. The character Alexander the Grater from Saturday Night Slam Masters bears a resemblance to Vader. Alexander also wears a mask very similar to the mastodon mask Vader wore during ring entrances in the 1980s and early 1990s. Vader himself appears as a playable character in the WCW video games WCW Wrestling, WCW: The Main Event, and WCW SuperBrawl Wrestling, the WWE video game WWF In Your House, and as a downloadable or unlockable legend in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009, WWE '12, WWE '13, WWE 2K16, WWE 2K17, WWE 2K18, and WWE 2K19. He has also been featured, both officially and unofficially, in numerous Japanese wrestling games, such as the Fire Pro Wrestling series, Virtual Pro Wrestling, King of Colosseum (he is a preset model in King of Colosseum II's EDIT mode), the latter two editions of the All Star Pro-Wrestling series, and Wrestle Kingdom 2, where he is also featured in the cover art.

Personal life
White and his wife Grace Connelly, married in 1979. Together they have a son, Jesse White, who was born on April 19, 1986. In July 2009, Jesse began training to become a professional wrestler in Japan. He originally committed to the University of Oklahoma and was touted for the National Football League, but was taken out with a hip injury. In April 2011, he signed a developmental contract with WWE, and used the name Jake Carter, until September 16, 2013, when he was released.

White was a born again Christian.

While in Kuwait during a WWF tour in April 1997, White appeared on the television program Good Morning Kuwait along with Mark Calaway, who was WWF World Heavyweight Champion at that time. During the interview, the host asked both of them if wrestling was fake. In response, White flipped over the table they were sitting at and grabbed the host by the tie, asking him if it seemed fake while using foul language. He was then arrested and detained by Kuwaiti authorities for two weeks. In December, White was fined 50 Kuwaiti dinars (about $164) for this incident. In a later interview, it was revealed that this incident was in fact scripted, as it was pitched to both White and Earl Hebner by the producers of the show in an attempt to boost viewership numbers; however, the host was not apprised of the plan, which resulted in him filing for charges against White.

Health problems and death
Partially due to years of alcohol abuse and travel, White and his wife divorced in 2007, inspiring him to quit drinking and curtail his travel. White had double knee replacement surgery, resulting in wound infection, and he was bedridden for six months. Soon after recovering, he passed out during a plane trip to Japan for an autograph session. He was in a coma for 33 days, during which he lost 112 pounds.

In November 2016, White was involved in a rollover car accident that left him unconscious for 35 minutes. Being diagnosed with congestive heart failure, he consulted two heart doctors, who told him he had two years to live. He later received another opinion that was more optimistic. In a March 2017 interview on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast, White explained that he regretted tweeting about his diagnosis. He said he would continue to wrestle and if the tests were proven to be true, he would like to die in the ring.

In March 2018, White went in for heart surgery followed by another to treat an arrhythmia. White died on June 18, 2018, after a month-long hospitalization for pneumonia. He was 63 years old. In the months before his death, White was frequently visited and supported by fellow wrestler Sting.

Championships and accomplishments

 * All Japan Pro Wrestling
 * Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
 * World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Steve Williams
 * Champion Carnival (1999)
 * Catch Wrestling Association
 * CWA Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * CWA World Heavyweight Championship (3 times)
 * CWA Bremen Catch Cup (1987)
 * Impact Zone Wrestling
 * IZW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * New Japan Pro-Wrestling
 * IWGP Heavyweight Championship (3 times)
 * IWGP Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Bam Bam Bigelow
 * Super Grade Tag League (1991) – with Tatsumi Fujinami
 * IWGP Title Tournament (1989)
 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * Wrestler of the Year (1993)
 * Ranked No. 2 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1993
 * Ranked No. 27 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003
 * Ranked No. 36 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Bam Bam Bigelow in 2003
 * Pro Wrestling Noah
 * GHC Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Scorpio
 * GHC Tag Team Title Tournament (2001) - with Scorpio
 * Tokyo Sports
 * Best Tag Team Award (1998) with Stan Hansen
 * Universal Wrestling Association
 * UWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * Union of Wrestling Forces International
 * Pro-Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * Best of the World Tournament (1994)
 * World Championship Wrestling
 * WCW World Heavyweight Championship (3 times)
 * WCW United States Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * BattleBowl (1993)
 * World Wrestling Federation/WWE
 * WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2022)
 * Slammy Award (1 time)
 * Crime of the Century (1996) – Assault on WWF President Gorilla Monsoon
 * Wrestling Observer Newsletter
 * Best Heel (1993)
 * Best Wrestling Maneuver (1993) Moonsault
 * Most Improved Wrestler (1999)
 * Wrestler of the Year (1993)
 * Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)

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

title: Big Van Vader


text:
Trafalgar Day

Trafalgar Day is the celebration of the victory won by the Royal Navy, commanded by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, over the combined French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.

History
The formation of the Navy League in 1894 gave added impetus to the movement to recognise Nelson's legacy, and grand celebrations were held in Trafalgar Square in London on Trafalgar Day, 1896. It was commemorated by parades, dinners and other events throughout much of the British Empire in the 19th century and early 20th century. It continues to be celebrated by navies of the Commonwealth of Nations. Its public celebration declined after the end of World War I in 1918. The massive casualties and upheaval had changed the general public perception of war as a source of glorious victories to a more sombre view of it as a tragedy, for which the newly instituted Armistice Day on 11 November was created. However, Trafalgar Day was still marked as a public day each year. Around 1993, it was rumoured that John Major's government might make it a public holiday in place of May Day, and this plan was revived in the 2011 Tourism Strategy created by the then coalition government.

The year 2005 was the bicentennial of the Battle of Trafalgar, and the Royal Navy led Trafalgar 200 celebrations. The 2005 International Fleet Review held off Spithead in the Solent on 28 June was the first since 1999 and the largest since Her Majesty The Queen's 1977 Silver Jubilee.

Trafalgar Night
On 21 October each year the commissioned officers of the Royal Navy celebrate the victory at the Battle of Trafalgar by holding a Trafalgar Night dinner in the Officer's Mess.

At a Trafalgar Night banquet or dinner, a speech is usually made by a guest of honour who ends it with a toast to "The Immortal Memory ..." (The rest of the wording of the toast varies depending on what is said in the speech). On 21 October 2005 (the 200th anniversary), at such a dinner the traditional toast was given by Queen Elizabeth II: ":"The Immortal Memory of Lord Nelson and those who fell with him""

Such dinners also occur each year on or around 21 October in locations other than Royal Navy ships.

The Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth hold a "Trafalgar Night Dinner" each year on a date close to 21 October.

The British ambassador in Washington hosts such a dinner at which the guest of honour may be a senior officer in the United States Navy.

British celebrations
Sea Cadet Corps in the United Kingdom hold a youth cadet parade known as the National Trafalgar Day Parade on Trafalgar Square each year. The parade is formed with a platoon from each area, a guard and a massed band. This is held on the closest Sunday to 21 October. Units and Districts from around the country celebrate this day – usually with a town parade.

Birmingham celebrates the anniversary with a ceremony at the statue of Lord Nelson – the oldest such statue in the United Kingdom – in the Bull Ring. The ceremony is led by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham and involves men and women of HMS Forward (1984 shore establishment), Sea Cadet units from across the West Midlands and various civic organisations, including The Nelson Society and The Birmingham Civic Society. Afterwards representatives of naval and civic organisations lay wreaths and a parade marches off to Victoria Square, the public square in front of the seat of local government, where the Lord Mayor takes the salute.

Another aspect of the Birmingham celebration is that the statue is regaled with swags of laurel and flowers, possibly due to its location by the wholesale flower markets of the city. This tradition, marked through most of the nineteenth century, was revived in 2004.

In Edinburgh, citizens commissioned the Nelson Monument on Calton Hill in memory of Admiral Lord Nelson. Weather permitting, the Trafalgar flag signal "England expects that every man will do his duty" is flown on Trafalgar Day. Looking like a tall stone telescope, the Nelson Monument contains a time ball which drops at 1 o'clock daily.

The village of Dervock in County Antrim (Northern Ireland) has the only known memorial which takes the form of a stained-glass window depicting Admiral Lord Nelson minutes before he was killed on board HMS Victory in 1805. It is believed that this is the only memorial on the island, Nelson's pillar in Dublin (the earliest memorial to Admiral Nelson) having been destroyed in 1966, and in 2015 residents organised their first ever "Trafalgar Day".

In Gibraltar, the Trafalgar Day service takes place at the Trafalgar Cemetery, where the senior Naval Commander reads an extract from the Gibraltar Chronicle newspaper, the first periodical to report on the battle. Some sailors died in Gibraltar of wounds received at Trafalgar; they are buried in Gibraltar. HMS Victory, with Nelson's body on board, underwent repairs in Gibraltar prior to sailing for Britain.

In the Isle of Man, John Quilliam, 1st Lieutenant of HMS Victory in 1805, is buried in the graveyard of Kirk Arbory, Ballabeg. An annual parade and church service takes place on Trafalgar Day.

International celebrations
The victory is celebrated in Nelson, New Zealand (named after Horatio Nelson), usually in Trafalgar Square and sometimes involves pupils from the local Victory Primary School. Many streets in Nelson are named after Trafalgar and crew members of Victory.

The victory is celebrated each year in the Australian town of Trafalgar, Victoria, in which the small town of 2,200 holds an annual Battle of Trafalgar Festival with the Trafalgar Day Ball held on the Friday or Saturday closest to 21 October each year.

title: Trafalgar Day


text:
User:Diceman

The End
Over three years and 4,500 edits later I think my work is done except for local pages. I joined when Wikipedia was still fairly underground (yes, only three years ago), when copies of Wikipedia (eg. answers.com) ranked higher in Google. Over time vandalism has increased, respect for fellow Wikipedians has decreased and there have been Wikipedia-wide campaigns against units and images. In my opinion it has been hijacked by "social climbers". I first saw these on Internet Relay Chat where the objective is to become friendly the channel "op", and recieve a promotion to the priveleged status of op. In Wikipedia the objective is to recieve barnstars and/or promotion to administrator status. One way to get points is to "address the problem" of fair use images uploaded by people such as myself.

My "split" with Wikipedia is that I consider intellectual property a concept that limits freedom in the name of greediness. God knows what copyright pertaining to images on the web is all about. I understand the concept of writing a book and having ownership of that work in order to generate some income from it. But why do Wikipedia users want to delete, say, a screenshot of a television program? Does an "open-source" encyclopedia mean that people will be given pats on the back for deleting any image that even remotely looks like it doesn't comply with general "fair use" guidelines? Is copyright so important that an image on a wiki should be deleted within a week if it doesn't follow what a user considers to be a "valid fair use rationale" or "minimal use"? What does Jimbo Wales, at the very top of the pyramid, think?

An anti-freedom spirit has overtaken Wikipedia and I don't like it. It's all about limiting, constricting, deleting. And that's not what I believe Wikipedia should be about. --Diceman (talk) 18:25, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

title: User:Diceman


text:
The Brady Kids

The Brady Kids is an American animated television series and a spin-off based on the ABC live-action sitcom The Brady Bunch, produced by Filmation in association with Paramount Television. It aired on ABC from September 9, 1972, to October 6, 1973, and also spun off another Filmation series, Mission: Magic!, starring Rick Springfield.

Background
In 1972, with the live action sitcom The Brady Bunch preparing for the start of its fourth season, show creator and executive producer Sherwood Schwartz approached Filmation about the creation of an animated series featuring the Brady Kids. Filmation agreed, and Lou Schiemer and Norm Prescott (who would later develop Schwartz properties Gilligan's Planet and The New Adventures of Gilligan) headed up the project.

Characters
The original show's six children (Barry Williams, Maureen McCormick, Christopher Knight, Eve Plumb, Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen) voiced their animated counterparts in the first season. As the series' title implies, the parents and Alice the housekeeper characters were omitted from the show. At the end of the first season, Filmation asked the kids to continue on their existing contracts for another five episodes in a second season. The kids' original answer was no, prodded on by their agent Harvey Shotz. Filmation threatened both to sue the children over breach of contract, and to continue the show without their voices. Knight, Lookinland, Plumb, and Olsen agreed to the extended Filmation contract, but Williams and McCormick did not agree.

The Bradys

 * Greg Brady: Barry Williams (season 1), Lane Scheimer (season 2)
 * Marcia Brady: Maureen McCormick (season 1), Erika Scheimer (season 2)
 * Peter Brady: Christopher Knight (credited as "David E. Smith" in season 2)
 * Jan Brady: Eve Plumb
 * Bobby Brady: Mike Lookinland
 * Cindy Brady: Susan Olsen

Other characters

 * Marlon: Larry Storch
 * Ping and Pong: Larry Storch
 * Mop Top: Larry Storch
 * Chuck White: Larry Storch
 * Fleetwood: Larry Storch
 * Babs: Jane Webb

Crossover with DC comics

 * Superman: Lennie Weinrib
 * Lois Lane: Jane Webb
 * Wonder Woman: Jane Webb

Production
While Schwartz originally intended to hand off full editorial control to Schiemer and Prescott, he eventually returned to become an active part of production, reviewing scripts and advising on creative input.

Much of the animation for the series was copied over from another Filmation series, The Archie Show. Walk cycles, profile pictures, and scenes where the Brady kids play in a band were all frame-by-frame replacements for looped frames originally seen of The Archies on The Archie Show. Many of Mop Top's poses were copied from the Archies' character Hot Dog. Mop Top copied Hot Dog's design  (from Archie) with the only difference being a pallette change. Fleetwood's poses and walk cycles were often copied from Rudy of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.

Originally aired as a one-hour segment on The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie, the pilot episode was split into two half-hour segments on The Brady Kids. A total of 22 episodes were produced. Season 1 aired Saturday mornings from 10:30 to 11:00 AM, and season 2 aired Saturday mornings from 11:00 to 11:30 AM. Season 1 contained 17 episodes, and season 2 contained 5. Season 2 was specifically created by Filmation with the intent on 5 episodes to bring the total count of episodes to 22, the minimum required for syndication. Like most 1970s-era Saturday morning cartoon series as well as The Brady Bunch show itself, The Brady Kids contained an adult laugh track.

The opening sequence featured the fourth season "grid" familiar to The Brady Bunch viewers, without the center column that is normally occupied by the adults (Mike, Carol and Alice). Near the end of the theme song (featuring new lyrics set to the original Brady Bunch theme with a 70's style beat), Marlon flies up and down the center, "magically" transforming the live-action children into their animated counterparts. (This is in the first season.) Another intro features Marlon flying up and down the center of an empty blue background to reveal the Brady Kids. (That is in the second season.)

Home media
In April 2007, the two-part episodes "Jungle Bungle" were released as bonus features on The Brady Bunch: The Complete Series 21-disc DVD set by CBS and Paramount.

CBS Home Entertainment released The Brady Kids: The Complete Animated Series on DVD in Region 1 in February 2016.

The complete series was re-released on DVD by CBS/Paramount in June 2019 as a part of The Brady-est Brady Bunch TV & Movie Collection to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the original series.

title: The Brady Kids


text:
User talk:Ambi~enwiki/Thoughts on Dispute Resolution

Ambi, I don't know if you wanted comments, but I read what you had to say, and thought it might be a good idea to chat with you about it. Conversation is key, I think. Plus you're an excellent editor and a wise individual, so I know I have plenty to gain from talking to you. I hope you don't mind.

Arbitration is in a mire: I agree wholeheartedly. I do what I can in my limited time, but it's not enough, and others do far more. It's difficult -- the impression I have is that the only arbitrators who can do the job really effectively are the arbitrators who have given up virtually every other aspect of editing here. I haven't -- I want to keep fiddling with articles and writing new noes and answering the odd question at the reference desk. Maybe I should rethink that. But I think if we're asking good editors to take a position that automatically destroys their ability to edit, there's either something wrong with the system, or else we need to be more up front about how time-consuming it is.

Part of the problem is that we have so many cases, and more each month. Each case is filled with evidence pages that are impossible to wade through. Often complainants wave their hands and say "there's too much to document....just go to these five talk pages (and their archives) and look at the page histories of these seven articles to see what I'm talking about". I know they are frustrated. But as long as people are willing to do that, it's giong to slow arbitration for everyone. Because we're not really arbitrators at that point, being handed specific items of evidence and considering them. We're being investigative reporters as well, and that takes time. Especially because people admit that they include all sorts of really questionable evidence -- I tell someone "that's not really a policy violation" and they reply "oh, I knew that was shaky, just disregard a lot of that stuff. But some of it is real and awful and you need to look at it." How can we move with efficiency through this quagmire? Do you have any suggestions? We ask repeatedly for specific diffs showing the questionable edits (and would prefer them in descending order of importance, so that we see the glaring errors up front and quickly), but few seem inclined to help. I'm looking for answers, and I'm not finding them.

And I would argue that the system we have now works the way democracy works. The enemies of democracy will always find ways of protecting themselves with democracy's fierce commitment to individual rights and respecting the minority. Those in power, however, find that democracy holds them to high standards of conduct. So we have admins who cross the line and are swiftly punished (lest we become a mere oligarchy), while trolls can live more at ease. I don't know how to fix this because fundamentally I think this is a problem in political science. We can have order or individual freedom, but not both. The AC has tended to err on the side of indidivual rights. I think all the cabal accusations tend to make a lot of us react in that way.

Besides, our policies are vague. What is a personal attack? The ones that are clear (like Plautus Satire's) are banned with force. The ones that are unclear (like 90% of the cases we see) are so difficult to handle. It's not true that we've never rehabilitated a "troll" (as some have contended) -- I think many would have described anthony dipierro as a troll this spring, but now he's a productive user (though certainly a maverick who still finds occasional disputes). I don't know if the AC can take any credit for that, but the point is that people can learn. That's one of the guiding ideas of Wikipedia, in my opinion. I don't want to lose that.

I'm writing all this as just a way to sort through some ideas. I hope you'll rpely and help me grapple with some of the issues we've both raised. We both want this to be a better place. We both want to make arbitration better. I hope you'll help me see my way to some things I, at least, can do to help that happen. Thanks for reading this and considering the ideas I'm sharing -- Jwrosenzweig 15:40, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * Thanks for your response, JW - I do appreciate it. In regard to time, I sympathise with your predicament. None of you should be expected to give up actually editing, in order to fulfil this particular role as well.

 * It seems to me that there's two problems at the root of that - one, that the AC is consistently half-staffed, with numerous users only very occasionally active or on long-term leaves of absences, and secondly, that there may not be enough arbitrators anyway. But also, on top of that, it's my opinion that your job is being made even harder because the mediation system is failing just as badly, which is, in turn, resulting in more cases having to be arbitrated. I'm planning a proposal to try and fix things on the mediation end, which if it works, could help ease this in the long term.

 * With regards to evidence, I think that a bit of give and take is necessary each way. As a complainant, it is my job to provide the evidence. It's not always reasonable, however, to expect that to come in the form of diffs, due to the sheer time it takes to dig these up. For some cases, like that of Plautus, where there are a handful of particularly egregarious edits, then that is quite possible.

 * For some others, the sheer volume of evidence is so large that frankly (and I'm not the only one feeling this way) that it'd be just easier to quit editing in the whole area, rather than collect several hundred individual diffs, and/or go through months upon months of contributions to gather the worst, which would take up enormous amounts of time that would otherwise spent writing articles, or doing things of more use to the project as a whole. If diff edits were to appear in a users contribution page, then this may be possible, but at the moment, I believe that's just not feasible.

 * That said, it's also not fair to just simply point to a talk page and say "stuff happened there! go find it!" In my opinion, the way things were handled on the Rex evidence page is, while not perfect, an reasonable middle ground. All the evidence is there in plain view, and if anyone cares to doubt the context, the timestamp is there, which makes the original post easy enough to find through use of the find option in a browser.

 * As far as even-handed sentencing goes, I think it is possible to have both order and individual freedom. Freedom is important, but, as in any organisation or society, there are rules and laws that need to be abided by. If someone persistently breaks these, whether in a position of power or not, they need to be dealt with. And while it's understandable to pursue such fine ideals, I believe that its vastly superior that one troublesome editor, that spends the majority of their time edit warring and abusing other users (and in the last month, there's been about five of these come up), be barred from editing in a particular area, or even entirely, than seeing one good editor give up in frustration and disgust.

 * It's the same in every area: RK makes people stay away from Judaism-related articles, L6W makes people stay away from the Israeli-Palestinian-related articles, Mr-Natural-Health the alternative medicine articles, and Rex the American politics-related articles. And that, I believe, is inherently bad for Wikipedia. I know that the cabal accusations make some of you guys wary, having had my fair share of discussions with a couple of arbitrators on IRC. However, people who want to cause trouble will do so - and if that means having that we have to ignore yet more cries of "cabal!", instead of dealing with decent Wikipedians being stressed and ultimately leaving, then I'd be inclined to go with the former. It's worth noting that even if we increased the amount of users blocked, that we'd still be far more tolerant than most places online. We give people a fair hearing, and their chance to put forward their own defence. In my opinion, that's enough, as far as fairness is concerned.

 * I, too, believe that people can learn, and I've seen it happen numerous times. I've seen both mediation and arbitration do wonders, and I think the standing order idea in the Anthony case was a masterstroke. Where possible, I believe we should be trying to push similar results.

 * Banning people is a last resort. However, for those that aren't clear cut (which, at a glance of the Requests page, would appear to me to be around half at present), then it may be worth considering increasing the use of standing orders - which are probably the best method the Committee has at this point for trying to get problem users back on the straight and narrow. But for those people that don't show much sign of being turned into productive users - and we do have several of this type - in these cases, we really need some strong action on the part of the Committee.

 * Anyway, thanks a lot for your response, James - and I hope I haven't rambled too much in my own reply (it's 2.30am here). The system is in trouble, but it isn't irreparable, and I'd like to think that through dialog, at least some of the kinks in it can be worked out. Ambi 16:31, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * Thanks for your thoughts, Ambi -- you make a number of very apt comments, and I find myself with even more to think about. :-) I agree that the kinks are fixable, and I agree that the current system is troubled (I think "in trouble" may imply a more precarious position than I think we're in, but I don't want to get caught up in discussions of definition when it's obvious we have generally similar viewpoints).  I do have a few thoughts in reply to yours, mostly just me exploring a few ideas and refining some ideas I have already expressed.

 * Your comment about too few arbitrators is a wise one. It has occurred to me in the past that we might consider forming tribunals, as a way of limiting the weight on an arbitrator.  For example, if we had 12 active arbitrators, we could have 3 sets of 4.  Each new case would be assigned to the next set of 4 arbitrators in turn.  A majority of 3 votes would be needed for decision-making.  This would cut the burden on each arbitrator by 2/3.  There are serious drawbacks to this system, which I acknowledge.  Deadlocks would be too frequent....perhaps an odd number would be preferable (5? 3?).  And it may be that it would create too many troubles.....a certain tribunal gets known as "the easy ones" and so cases get timed so that you don't take somebody before the "soft judges".  But we have to come up with a method, and I think pure addition of arbitrators is less than satisfactory, since all it's likely to do is increase the length of time before decisions can be made.  It's hard enough now to figure out when we have a majority.

 * I agree that diffs are time-consuming to provide, and that many people find it easier to go elsewhere rather than solve the problem. Here's the one point I want to raise in response: what a person does when they avoid the trouble of finding diffs is place the responsibility on each arbitrator to find them.  It is no quicker as an arbitrator to find the diffs....in fact, it's much more difficult, since I don't know what I'm looking for.  Let's assume for argument's sake I have ten cases that have provided vague evidence, at least in part.  I have to do 10 times as much work as any one complainant would have had to do.  I'm not looking for anyone to cry about how tough my job is.  But I hope people recognize the amount of work they're expecting of arbitrators -- it's too much to ask, especially if you want decisions in days, not weeks and months.  If complainants aren't going to dig up diffs, then someone has to.  And that someone is the AC....each of us individually, of course, since we can't share diffs around with each other because we have no easy way of doing so, and because it would appear that we were trying to advocate for one side or the other, based on the diffs we made public.

 * I agree, some cases have handled it well. But I think generally the community has gotten the wrong idea about evidence.  They think they need to overwhelm us with evidence (Rex's page is 150kb long, as I recall).  I think the easiest cases to decide are the ones that provide a dozen or two diffs of the worst offenses, and then a note that more examples of the behavior will be supplied on request.  It makes it clear that there are real offenses that can be seen at once without forcing me to wade through everything.  You're right, this would be so much easier if diffs were available from the contributions page -- that's a great idea that would help everyone, though I have no idea how tough it would be to implement.  Once again, though, all I can say is that if people don't feel it's worth time to find and present evidence to us, we have to do all that.  We're doing the dirty work for a lot of personal grievances.  I know, we did sign up for the job, but I have to say, the job has gotten worse as it's gone on.  I can't imagine what it's been like for people who've been on since January -- after 2 months I'm already exhausted. We'll burn through far too many arbitrators at this rate -- something about evidence has to be fixed.  I just can't see what.

 * I agree with you that a balance can be found, and that we haven't found it. But I do think balance is difficult, and that ultimately any human system will lean one way or the other.  I do intend to be more proactive in restricting editors who are driving away good contributors from topics.  But I hope you can appreciate it from our perspective -- often the problem is that 5 or 6 good contributors are on one side of an issue, and a lone voice opposes them.  The lone voice is being very rude, and making life difficult.  But as arbitrators, it is difficult to silence the lone voice -- we want Wikipedia to be a good source of information, but more and more, fights seem to be between a pack of contributors and a single person defending an unpopular view.  Yes, that person should behave themselves.  Yes, we should want to keep good contributors, and we do.  But it's hard to draw the line when someone with a legitimate perspective has felt silenced and shouted down, and is lashing back out in frustration.  I know I'm supposed to sympathize with the frustrations of the established contributors more than with the frustrations of the antisocial outsider -- that's what the community cries out for.  But honestly, a lot of very fine, well-meaning established contributors are absolute jerks to people they perceive as being in minority opinion groups.  Many seem to delight in pouncing on new editors who don't understand NPOV, and sniping subtly at them at every turn -- never personal attacks, but consistently marginalizing editors until they feel completely alone.  We manufacture the majority of our trolls, I'm convinced -- many of them could be dealt with kindly, and they aren't.  And it's hard to punish someone for their rudeness when it's based on legitimate feelings that they're being bullied.  They are -- we're full of intellectual bullies here.  Many of them very nice people on most topics, mind you, but with pet peeves that set off fireworks.

 * These aren't popular ideas, I know, so I don't often express them. And I certainly understand the ease with which an editor can say "I know this topic, and my perspective on it is correct....a lot of people agree with me -- why should this confusing and frustrating POV warrior be given the time of day?"  So we don't give them the time of day.  And we don't really have rules against bullying that doesn't involve personal attacks, so we're stuck.  I can think of several cases where a rogue editor is obviously misbehaving, but when I come to examine the evidence, I find that every little change they make is being blown out of proportion and ridiculed.  All of it within policy (except Wikiquette and Wikilove, which sadly are merely principles, not actual rules, and therefore difficult to enforce).  I don't know what to do in those cases.  I hate to ban someone because they were goaded into becoming a troll, especially when (as is often obviously the case) contributors quickly became aware of an editor's buttons, and purposefully pushed them in order to get some bannable actions.  Not all the cases we handle are this way -- maybe it's the minority.  But they're the ones that keep me up at night.

 * I agree that standing orders are preferable to bans. Honestly, though, I think we are moving that way.  We reprimand an editor for misdeeds and announce that a) if they do it again, admins may intervene to warn and then temp-ban, or b) if they do it again, they should be immediately brought before the AC for a long-term ban.  Everyone seems to think this is us wimping out, or acting toothlessly.  They want a ban, not just a censure.  And so we're stuck -- the community doesn't want anything less than a ban, and too often only a punishment less than a ban is appropriate.  We are at loggerheads.  Are there ways of putting together standing orders that you think would be more effective?  And can we adequately combat the community's thirst for blood?  Or do we need a bit more banning?  As you point out, we're far more permissible than most sites (for good reason, I think).  Accepting that we need to be more permissible than most sites, should we be less permissible than we are?  I don't know.

 * I don't mind being called a member of the cabal when I'm not one. Water off a duck's back.  But when I sense that the community pressure is to ban an annoying user, and when I sense that the user has been cultivated into annoying behavior by editors who know they are popular and hard-working, and who don't want to be bothered trying to reason with and compromise with someone who's obviously lacking in several social graces....well, then I do try to avoid banning.  Because I don't want to be called a member of the cabal.  Because I'm more than a little concerned that I'm being told I'm supposed to be one.  And that is my real fear -- not trolls.  But maybe I haven't seen enough trolls in my time here to know how difficult it is to be on the short end of that stick -- I think Irismeister was enough for a lifetime or two, but I'm sure it gets much worse than that.

Jwrosenzweig 20:28, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)


text:
Talk:Chiquita

First company to use refrigerated sea transport?
"In 1903, United Fruit Company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and became the first company to use refrigeration during open sea transport." According to the German Wikipedia, the first refrigerated sea transport was carried out by Hapag! The UFC only operated vessels of this type from 1908 onwards! "Die klimatisierten Hapagschiffe der Prinzen-Klasse mit hervorragend ausgestatteten Passagiereinrichtungen für 100 Passagiere der 1. Klasse wurden das Vorbild der zwölf Schiffe der „5000 Ton Class“ (ebenfalls für 100 Passagiere) der United Fruit Company, die von Workman, Clark & Co ab 1908 in Belfast gebaut wurden." Reference? 80.151.9.187 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 07:31, 29 August 2019 (UTC)
 * -> see also https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_White_Fleet_(K%C3%BChlschiffe) which is unfortunately also only available in German! 80.151.9.187 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 07:37, 29 August 2019 (UTC)
 * and also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company - subsection "The Great White Fleet" 80.151.9.187 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 07:42, 29 August 2019 (UTC)

S.à.r.l.
The name of the company according to the article is Chiquita Brands International S.à.r.l., yet there is no mention of what "S.à.r.l." stands for. Can anyone add this important detail to the article? Dialmayo (talk) (Contribs) she/her 15:46, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Chiquita