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User talk:Infrogmation/Personal info

Phonograph Cylinder Slip Image
Hi! Thanks for clearing the info issue on my image of the Phonograph slip (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_cylinder). I'm a beginner when it comes to pic's on Wikipedia, and to boot, the English uploading site differs from the Swedish, which i don't master either, but at least can deal with! I also notet that you are the contributor of the slip pic already in that article. My addition was done because my slip is in better condition. I own only two cylinders, but am apparently lucky in the slip dept! Cheers, Christofer from Sweden christofer (at) psilander.se —Preceding unsigned comment added by ChrisPsi (talk • contribs) 19:06, 31 October 2009 (UTC)

Caruso
FOR INFROGMATION,

I am writing to enquire if it might be possible for us to borrow the copyright-free image of ENRICO CARUSO used in the Wikipedia website to use in one of our books on Bob Dylan - a part of the INSPIRATIONS series.

Essential is a British packager based in London. We work regularly with many of the major UK publishers (Cassell, Orion, Harper Collins) and are working with Penguin, Reader's Digest, Sterling, Barnes and Noble, Motorbooks and Andrews McMeel in the USA. We produce mainly illustrated non-fiction books in the fields of pop-culture, health and well-being, humour and gifts - some with kits.

One of our books - the Hippie book - was on the New York Times best-seller list recently.

Should it be possible for us to use your image, we would be extremely grateful for your help, which will be duly credited in the book. And if it is possible, we would be extremely grateful if you would allow us to borrow a high-resolution copy of the image, for reasons of reproduction quality.

Many thanks, ESSENTIAL WORKS.

 * As a pre 1921 image it is Public Domain under US law, so for US uses it's free for the taking. I have no info on international copyright; the original publicity photo in my collection has no text. If you want a higher resolution scan email me; an email can be found on my user/talk page. That (or leaving a message on my talk page) is the usual way to contact users here, please don't create new pages like this, thanks. -- Infrogmation 05:26, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

history articles on wikipedia?
Hello, I’m an historian working at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University (http://chnm.gmu.edu/) and we are very interested in digital historical works, including the writing of history on Wikipedia. We’d like to talk to people about their experiences working on articles in Wikipedia, in connection with a larger project on the history of the free and open source software movement. Would you be willing to talk with us about your involvement, either by phone, a/v chat, IM, or email? This could be as lengthy or brief a conversation as you wish.

Thanks for your consideration.

Joan Fragaszy

jfragasz_at_gmu.edu

The Secret (treasure hunt)

 * Dear inforgmation, You may be interested in this web page which is related to Storyland park and Louis Armstrong park.
 * Basically, Byron Preiss wrote a book called "the Secret" in 1982. The book is an armchair treasure hunt. Current hunters think that the treasure may be located in New Orleans.   Notice how the mask in this image appears to match Louis Armstrong's statue in the Jazz NHP.  Also, notice that the flowers on the clock match the flowers in Storyland.
 * My question to you, infrogmation, is... do you recognize the iron work on the hour hand of the clock in the image? If it represents a building or fence or other feature in New Orleans, I would very much like to know about it.
 * Thank you, --AnotherDoth 18:42, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Upcoming Book
Hi, I'm helping my parents with an updated version of their historical guide to New Orleans (New Orleans, A City Named Desire - published in 2004) and we're hoping to use two of your photos of the post Katrina aftermath, specifically "Low9JustAintRight1" and "NoBodiesInHere". I wanted to confirm that this is ok with you, under the CC Attribution 2.5 license. We will credit you in the book, either as "Infrogmation" or under your real name if you would care to send it. My family currently lives in Mexico but I was born in New Orleans, and my parents lived there for over 20 years, publishing the annual "New Orleans Vignette". Thanks, Ashley Fell

atfell_at_gmail.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by Toaster917 (talk • contribs) 20:26, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Howdy, Lincoln Beach
Howdy,

I'm the guy who uploaded the pic of the Lower 9 after Katrina (I'm also a NOLA native, in Europe since 1992).

I'm writing you to ask where you got the pictures of Lincoln Beach. Is that lot at Crowder and Hayne? Somewhere else? You can reach me at my gmail address with the alias petiteplanete or just write back here. I'll be in NOLA again from Nov 8-15 if you want to have coffee.

Ciao, Craig —Preceding unsigned comment added by Petiteplanete (talk • contribs) 11:14, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

 * Hi. Which photo of the Lower 9th are you refering to?
 * The ruins of Lincoln Beach are on the Lake side of Hayne Boulevard, across from the sign shown here which marked what had been the parking lot. That's one of the places I photographed in the months after Katrina, when there were few people around, and lots of fences and "No Trespassing" signs had blown down or away... I never disobey a "No Trespassing" sign, but in this case there weren't any, so I just walked across the levee and on in.  I haven't been back since, so I can't say if access is still so easy. If you try, I suggest you go with a couple of friends rather than alone. Cheers, Infrogmation (talk) 18:51, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Hey, the pic is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:9th_Ward_post-Katrina.JPG. I used to be SixInfo, but I changed my alias so that it matches my work alias.

Thanks for the response -- in some subsequent research I did yesterday after writing you, I believe I found the lot -- it is almost at the junction of Hayne and Paris. The descriptions online misled me by saying that the lot was somewhere between Little Woods and the Lakeside Airport, which is rather a long stretch. (It's not really near the Airport at all...)

Anyway, I'll see whether I can get some safe pictures of the place. I sure would like to go back about 50 years and see what it looked like -- there do not seem to be any contemporary pictures of the park online, though you can find numerous pictures of the old Pontchartrain Park (including a great video of the roller coaster from '82!). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Petiteplanete (talk • contribs) 09:18, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

New Orleans
Greetings!

I recently moved to New Orleans for college, and was browsing Wikipedians by city. What station is your radio show on? --MosheA (talk) 05:18, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

re Service Awards
Hello Infrogmation. Just to let you know, we lowered the Service Awards edit count requirements, and this will change your eligibility for the next level.

On June 16, 2012, you will be eligible to become a Sovereign Editor (or Redoubtable Togneme). You already have enough edits (we lowered the requirement from 250,000 (!) edits to a more reasonable 60,000, which you already have).

Congratulations (a year and bit early). You will probably be the first Sovereign Editor, or one a very few. Allow me to say: wow. Your service is mind-blowingly impressive, and thank you for your extremely numerous contributions. I have, in the course of my varied career on the Wikipedia, had the opportunity to correspond with an actual Baronet, but never with a Togneme, which I would consider to be higher level of aristocracy. Herostratus (talk) 06:44, 10 March 2011 (UTC)

Request to use some of your NOLA/Katrina images
I'm the editor of the blog Popular Logistics which is about disaster risk and its relationship to other issues (put briefly, we're trying to demonstrate that a "disaster" is something preventable or mitigatable which can't be disconnected from other issues - the distribution of wealth, environmental policy, health policy). At the moment, I'm putting together a series of images of flood control infrastructure - just images for the moment - while we try to cover flood issues on a day-to-day basis. We're a small group, and we certainly haven't done all we'd like on water policy of all kinds. I read what you had to say about the use of your images - I understand the spirit, I think - but not the letter. So - (1) would you mind this use? and (2) If not, how would you like the work to be credited? Also - any suggestions you have about sources of current information about NOLA, particularly rebuilding, recovery, and current planning and risk management would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time - and thanks for all the brilliant Wiki work.

Jon Soroko (jonathan soroko at gmail dot com) Jon Soroko (talk) 00:29, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

 * Hi. Yes, any of my photos uploaded to Wikimedia are licensed to allow reuse with attribution. See Commons:Reusing content outside Wikimedia for guidelines. I'd prefer a credit along the lines of "Infrogmation of New Orleans, via Wikimedia Commons", though whatever I indicated on individual images is of course fine. For on line use a link back to the original photo page is appreciated though not required. If you'd like to drop me a note, either by email or my talk page, letting me know where the images are being used I appreciate knowing (though that is not required for reuse).  If you have further questions, feel free to ask. Cheers, -- Infrogmation (talk) 01:41, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

You've got ... mail?
Hochichi667 (talk) 11:14, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Dick briefer
You are right to say sheesh, while my grandfather must have died on some particular day in december, unless he was the messiah and rose again, though i have never met him as i was born in eighty two. Lemme ask mom when he died- we don’t discuss such things 2600:8805:A201:E100:4040:3DC2:96F1:BF39 (talk) 15:48, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

title: User talk:Infrogmation/Personal info


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LGBT rights in Ghana

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Ghana face severe challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Sexual acts between males have been illegal as "unnatural carnal knowledge" in Ghana since the colonial era. The majority of Ghana's population hold anti-LGBT sentiments. Physical and violent homophobic attacks against LGBT people occur, and are often encouraged by the media and religious and political leaders. At times, government officials, such as police, engage in such acts of violence. Young gay people are known to be disowned by their families and communities and evicted from their homes. Families often seek conversion therapy from religious groups when same-sex orientation or non-conforming gender identity is disclosed; such "therapy" is reported to be commonly administered in abusive and inhumane settings.

Despite the constitution guaranteeing a right to freedom of speech, expression and assembly to Ghanaian citizens, these fundamental rights are actively denied to LGBT people. Pro-LGBT activism exists in Ghana, but such efforts are often thwarted by the Ghanaian government. Despite this, by 2016 attitudes in Ghana towards homosexuality were evolving and becoming more tolerant and accepting of LGBT rights. This situation deteriorated sharply in 2021.

In February 2024, with the support of the country's two major political parties, the Parliament of Ghana passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill to make it a crime to identify as LGBT in Ghana, with penalties of up to three years in prison. Funding or forming a LGBT-related group would be punished by up to five years in prison. The bill was forwarded to president Nana Akufo-Addo, who may now sign into law or veto it. Akufo-Addo previously said that if most Ghanians wanted the legislation, he would not oppose it.

History
In the 18th and 19th century Asante courts, male slaves served as concubines and were killed when their master died.

The Nzema people had a tradition of adult men marrying each other, usually with a 10-year age difference. These marriage were called agyale, "friendship marriages". The couple would observe all the social equivalents of heterosexual marriage, a bride price was paid and a traditional wedding ceremony was held. Among the Nankani, female marriages were observed for the continuous perpetuation of the lineage. Rose Mary Amenga-Etego states that these non-sexual woman to woman marriages were "the last desperate religio-cultural practice employed to reclaim and reinstate the male genealogical descent structure of the people".

The Fante people would believe that those, of either sex, with "heavy souls" were attracted to women, whereas those with "light souls" were attracted to men.

Homosexuality in Ghana was criminalised in 1892. During this time, Ghana was a British colony. The Offences Against the Person Act 1861, a British law which criminalised sodomy, was implemented in all British colonies.

Legal status
Section 104(1)(b) of the Ghanaian Criminal Code of 1960, criminalises "unnatural carnal knowledge" (with consent and between adults), as a misdemeanour. Section 104(2) defines "unnatural carnal knowledge" as "sexual intercourse with a person in an unnatural manner or with an animal". Due to the definition contained in Section 99 of the code, which stipulates "penetration", an "unnatural manner" is taken to refer to sex acts between men–not between women–and oral and anal sex between people of different sexes. Misdemeanours carry a penalty of up to three years imprisonment under Article 296(4) of the Criminal Procedural Code.

By the early 21st century, these 1960 provisions were rarely enforced. However, while the law may not lead to prosecutions before local courts, persecution of LGBT people is nevertheless widespread and common.

Application to women
Section 99 of the Criminal Code of 1960 ("Evidence of Carnal Knowledge") says: "... carnal knowledge or unnatural carnal knowledge shall be deemed complete upon proof of the least degree of penetration". In consequence, Section 104 "covers only persons engaged in same-sex male relationships and those in heterosexual relationships". In a 2013 story published by MyJoyOnline, a local lawyer, John Ndebugri, argued against the common interpretation of Section 104 as prohibiting sex acts by same-sex participants. He also highlighted that lesbianism, despite being "homosexuality", does not involve penetration with a penis and therefore cannot be described as either sexual intercourse based on Section 99, and does not qualify as "unnatural carnal knowledge", based on Section 104 of the Criminal Code.

Women are nevertheless arrested for same-sex sexual acts or related activities.

Application to heterosexuals
The law also applies to acts of anal or oral sex engaged in by individuals of different sexes. The state, however, "does not concern itself with this" because it is their private life, prompting allegations of hypocrisy.

Relationship and family policy
Ghana does not recognise same-sex marriage or same-sex civil unions. A single person may be able to adopt a child if that person is a citizen of Ghana, except that a single male may adopt only if the child to be adopted is his biological child. Same-sex couples are not allowed to adopt children.

Discrimination protections
Section 12(2) of Chapter 5 of the Constitution of Ghana provides that, "Every person in Ghana, whatever his race, place of origin, political opinion, colour, religion, creed or gender shall be entitled to the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the individual contained in this Chapter but subject to respect for the rights and freedoms of others and for the public interest."

Although there is no law against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, any person in Ghana who believes they has experienced discrimination on the basis of HIV status, gender identity or sexual orientation may report an incident through the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) stigma and discrimination reporting portal.

In 2013, the United States offered to help Ghana develop legislation to protect the rights of LGBT persons.

Living conditions
LGBT-identifying Ghanaians face a lot of discriminations in Ghanaian society. At the Kotoka International Airport, a sign states, "Ghana does not welcome paedophiles and sexual deviants." While not explicitly referencing the LGBT community, Ghanaians associate sexual deviance with the LGBT community. The situation for LGBT people deteriorated in 2021. In February, religious and political leaders forced an LGBT centre to close in Accra. In May 2021, police arrested 21 people attending a human rights workshop in Ho city, Volta region. Later that same year, lawmakers proposed a bill containing extreme measures including prohibitions on any expression of non-binary gender or non-heterosexual identity. These could be liable to criminal penalties under the provisions. Human Rights Watch reported an increase in anti-LGBT rhetoric associated with the publicity surrounding the proposed laws, in a "climate in which discrimination and violence is already rife". , results of parliament's consideration of the bill were not yet known.

According to a 19 August 2004 Afrol News report, Prince MacDonald‚ the leader of an organisation for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals in Ghana, commented that "there are lots and lots of people in our prison home who have been caught by this unfriendly law". He said that the "police beat and punish people who are found to be gays".

Harassment and abuse
On 21 July 2011, Paul Evans Aidoo, the Western Region Minister, ordered all gay people in the west of the country to be rounded up and arrested and called on landlords and tenants to inform on people they suspected of being gay. Statements made by public leaders and officials have impact, and are often followed with violent acts towards the LGBT community.

Pearl, a 30-year old lesbian woman from Ghana, shares that Ghanaians take action into their own hands when dealing with the LGBT community. Pearl shares that in September 2009, she was taken to a conference room in her village, amongst 50 other villagers. In this room, Pearl was repeatedly asked if she was lesbian, and when she stated that she was not, village members beat her. Amongst these villagers was a young boy who wanted to burn her alive.

Similar experiences are shared by other LGBT Ghanaians. It is viewed as shameful and as a disgrace for people to have family members that identify as LGBT. Emelia, a thirty-year-old woman, shared that when her father discovered that she was lesbian, he beat her with his fists and a broken beer bottle. Similarly, Agnes, a 26-year-old, shared that when her father discovered her sexuality, he chased her out of her house with a machete, and threatened to murder her if she returned. The type of violence LGBT-identifying peoples face in Ghana is found not only in community settings, but also in familiar settings, such as one's family.

Violent mob attacks directed against LGBT people occur in Ghana. In 2012, a birthday party was violently interrupted by a mob, who claimed the party was a same-sex wedding. The police refused to arrest the attackers, and arrested some of the victims. In 2013, a gay man was subject to a manhunt, after Muslim officials threatened to burn or bury him alive because he was gay. In 2015, a group of lesbian women were "shit-bombed" and "pelted with stones" because they were gay.

On top of facing violence within their communities and homes, there are anti-gay vigilante groups that actively aim at discovering LGBT identifying peoples in their communities. A 10-person vigilante group had been monitoring a man, Ebenezer Okang, and one night visited his home to beat him, with the intentions of burning him alive. When asked if he had reported the event, Okang shared that it is difficult to seek protection in such situations, given Ghana's anti-LGBT laws and the police attitudes. According to Human Rights Watch, discrimination towards LGBT individuals is common in public and private, making it difficult for them to seek help.

In a rare incident in April 2017, police in Accra arrested two men who had blackmailed, extorted and abused a gay man, and who had threatened to post nude pictures of him. The police arrested the men and cooperated with the victim in finding them. Erasing 76 Crimes, an LGBT website, labeled the arrest a "rare exception" as police seldom intervene to protect LGBT people from violence, discrimination, and abuse.

Reports emerged in August 2018 of conversion therapy programmes run by religious leaders to "cure" LGBT people of their homosexuality. There is no reliable evidence that sexual orientation can be changed, and medical bodies warn that conversion therapy practices are ineffective and potentially harmful.

Police action
Ghana's police force sometimes protects members of the LGBT community. For example, in the town of Tamale, they aided gay men who were being blackmailed. On the other hand, police violence against LGBT-identifying individuals has been documented. One woman reported that, not only did her community members beat her when they discovered her sexuality, but she was also kicked in her mouth by a police officer.

Ghana's anti-gay laws may legally require the police to persecute LGBT citizens. In 2016, a lesbian couple, accused of having a wedding, was arrested by the police. Some LGBT groups, such as the Solace Initiative, provide LGBT citizens with human rights trained paralegals who can help defend them in court.

2021 arrests
On May 20, 2021, Ghanaian police in Ho, in the Volta region, assisted by security forces, raided and unlawfully arrested 21 people, including a technician, during a paralegal training workshop about how to document and report human rights violations against LGBT people. They were detained for 22 days, then released on bail, and charged with unlawful assembly, a misdemeanor. The case was later dismissed for lack of evidence of a crime. The activists said that eight police officers, accompanied by three journalists, forced their way into the conference room, and physically assaulted some participants.

Human rights reports
The U.S. Department of State's 2011 Human Rights Report found that, "LGBT persons face widespread discrimination [in 2010], as well as police harassment and extortion attempts. Gay men in prison were often subjected to sexual and other physical abuse. In June 2010... more than 1,000 protesters in Takoradi, Western Region, participated in a peaceful rally against reports of gay and lesbian activities in their city. This was reportedly the first of such protest in the country. In May 2010... an HIV/AIDS training workshop was held in Takoradi for health- care workers. After the workshop, The Daily Graphic announced that 8,000 gay persons had been 'registered' in the Western and Central Regions. However, experts in the field denied that there had been any such 'registration'. After the workshop... there was significant negative reporting in the media about homosexuality. In a June 2010 interview with The Daily Graphic, the Western Region minister called on the government to take steps to combat homosexuality. He included the possibility of police raids on locales frequented by gay men and lesbians, efforts by community leaders to 'wean young people' away from homosexuality, and a public condemnation by the government. However, no arrests of persons were made in connection with his comments by year's end, and he did not repeat his call. It was reported that four men who worked within the community of gay men were arrested in May 2010 in connection with an alleged sexual assault and were later charged with sodomy. The case was first brought to the Takoradi Circuit Court on 24 August; however, it had not been heard by year's end."

The U.S. Department of State's 2012 Human Rights Report found that, "LGBT persons faced widespread discrimination, as well as police harassment and extortion attempts. Gay men in prison were often subjected to sexual and other physical abuse. In March a gang of men assaulted nine people they believed to be LGBT individuals in Jamestown, a neighborhood of Accra, forcing them from their homes and attacking them with canes and sticks. The victims filed a complaint with a legal human rights organization. They said their homes were burgled while they were chased out. No arrests had been made in the case by year's end. In May a peer educator employed by an NGO to instruct sexual health education workshops was assaulted by a group of boys at a school in the Volta Region. The assault occurred after they discovered he was carrying safe-sex presentation materials such as condoms, wooden sex organ replicas, lubricant, and pamphlets. The peer educator was detained by police but later released. The boys were not charged."The United Nations Rapporteur's 2018 Human Rights Report found that, "While Ghana is meeting democracy and development goals, a quarter of the population lives in poverty with LGBT-identifying individuals being most subjected to this type of poverty. Given their sexual orientation, it is difficult for them to find jobs. Additionally, since many families disown their LGBT family members, this can leave them homeless. The rapporteur recommended that Ghana repeal its legislation on adult consensual same-sexual activities, and that the government launch a public campaign to educate on the rights and legal and social services of those who are victims of sexual discrimination."

United Nations recommendations
The United Nations Human Rights Committee in October 2012 completed a Universal Periodic Review of the human rights situation in Ghana. The following recommendations were made to Ghana (the countries that initiated the recommendation are listed in brackets):

 * Decriminalise same-sex relations between consenting adults (France, Slovenia and the Czech Republic)
 * Promote tolerance about same-sex relations (Czech Republic) and combat homophobia (Slovenia and Belgium)
 * Combat violence, stigmatization, and discrimination towards persons based on their sexual orientation (Portugal)
 * Eliminate the crime of "unnatural sexual relations" and adopt measures to eradicate discrimination motivated by sexual orientation and gender identity (Spain)
 * Ensure that the constitutional guarantee of equality and dignity are applied to LGBT persons. Ensure thorough and impartial investigation into all allegations of attacks and threats against individuals targeted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity (Norway)
 * Consider which recommendations of the High Commissioner on sexual orientation and gender identity can be taken into account in the further detailing of government policies (Netherlands)
 * Train police, first responders, the justice system, and social services officials to respect and fully protect the human rights of LGBT persons (United States)

Ghana rejected all of these recommendations.

Public opinion
According to a 2017 poll carried out by International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), 60 percent of Ghanaians agreed that gay, lesbian and bisexual people should enjoy the same rights as straight people, while 30 percent disagreed. Additionally, 59 percent agreed that they should be protected from workplace discrimination. 51 percent of Ghanaians, however, said that people who are in same-sex relationships should be charged as criminals, while 34 percent disagreed. As for transgender people, 64 percent agreed that they should have the same rights, 62 percent believed they should be protected from employment discrimination and 55 percent believed they should be allowed to change their legal gender.

According to the Afro-barometer, Ghana places amongst the twenty least tolerable countries. When asked if they would care if they were neighbors to homosexual(s), only 11 per cent of respondents in Ghana reported that they would be fine with this. The continental average for African countries is 21 per cent, so this places Ghana as nearly two times more intolerant towards homosexuals than the rest of the continent.

When compared to other minority groups, such as people of a different ethnicity, different religion, foreign workers, or people infected with HIV/AIDS, Ghanaian citizens still reported having the most unfavorable feelings towards those who identify as a part of the LGBT community. With 89 percent of Ghanaians sharing that they strongly/somewhat dislike LGBT individuals, this makes them the most disliked group in the country of Ghana. Additionally, when examined as to who is being polled, all different demographics—those of a different age, education, religion, living style (rural or urban,) gender—reported having a dislike towards homosexuals of 80 percent or more. However, when individuals are more in contact with those of an LGBT identity, they are prone to be more tolerant.

The Director of Interfaith Diversity Network of West Africa (IDNOWA), Davis Mac-Iyalla has said in a public hearing for the far reaching Anti-LGBT bill proposed in Ghana that the passing of the Anti-LGBTQI bill into law will codify the spirit of mob action, violence and vigilantism that exist in many parts of the country.

Nearly 90 percent of Ghanaians shared that they would report a daughter, relative, friend, or co-worker to the police if they knew that they were engaging in such behavior. Additionally, 86 percent of Ghanaians stated they would support legislation to criminalise those who are in same-sex relationships.

Comments by public officials
Religious leaders and government officials view LGBT rights and advocacy as a new manifestation of Western colonialism. Religious leaders have used passages from the Bible, such as Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13, to justify why they condemn homosexuality.

While serving as president of Ghana, the late John Evans Atta Mills vowed in 2011 not to legalise homosexuality despite UK Prime Minister David Cameron's threat to cut aid to Ghana because of its record on human rights for its gay population. In February 2017, the Speaker of the Parliament, Aaron Mike Oquaye called for amending the laws of Ghana to ban homosexuality entirely.

In November 2017, President Nana Akufo-Addo suggested that the legalisation of homosexuality in Ghana is inevitable and said he can foresee a change in the law. Akufo-Addo, who grew up in England, said that LGBT rights will evolve in Ghana as they have in the United Kingdom, but affirmed that LGBT rights were not part of the government agenda at the moment. In response, LGBT activists announced they would hold a peaceful march in Accra in December.

In August 2018, President Akufo-Addo stated that the Government of Ghana would not legalise same-sex marriage or decriminalise homosexuality.

Many officials from government and church organizations are publicly against the LGBT community. In March 2020, the National Women's Organiser of the National Democratic Congress stated that homosexuals should be killed. Many pastors speak out against the LGBT community, such as Kofi Tawiah, Head Pastor of the Osu Church of Christ, who called on Ghanaian Christians to violently attack LGBT people. In his statement, Tawiah also stated that homosexuality should be treated with capital punishment.

The 2018 Human Rights Watch report noted that these types of comments made by government and public officials embolden homophobic acts of violence and discrimination towards the LGBT community.

Activism
LGBT activism had largely been anonymous in Ghana. However, in the year 1998, a young man named Cobbina MacDarling, who uses the pseudonym Prince Kweku MacDonald, became one of its voices. Prince works with the Gay and Lesbian Association of Ghana (GALAG) which was later transformed into a human rights organization known as the Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights (CEPEHRG). In recent years, there have been several grassroot LGBT groups which have come together to form a bigger movement under the name Coalition Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia in Ghana. These groups operate underground. There are a few LGBT groups in Ghana, most of whom operate secretly online. One such group is FOTHA-Ghana (Friends of the Heart Alliance - Ghana). Members of the group operate through the dark web. To be seen supporting the views and interest of gays, lesbians and bisexuals can easily result in the attack or probable lynching of its members. One of the groups that is public in its advocacy efforts is the Gay and Lesbian Association of Ghana (GLAG). Some of their work involves demystifying issues with the HIV/AIDS crisis. Despite Ghana having a low infection rate, the government's public campaign efforts on this health crisis typically present it as an issue for straight individuals. Most gay men acknowledged that they understood that HIV can be transmitted sexually, but they were unaware that it can be transmitted through anal sex as well. Ghana receives funding to combat HIV/AIDS, but they discount the health risk presented for LGBT individuals. The Gay and Lesbian Association of Ghana, along with other LGBT advocacy groups, counteract the government's misinformation by specifically addressing it to the LGBT community, and by distributing and teaching of the usefulness of condoms and lube in preventing infection. In January 2021, LGBT+ Rights Ghana, a Pro-LGBT rights organization opened its office in Accra amidst opposition from anti-LGBT rights groups. The office was raided and closed by National Security in late February 2021 due to opposition from locals, religions institutions, and politicians.

An issue with many activist groups is that their work is directly thwarted by the government. In September 2006, the BBC reported that the Ghanaian Government had banned an LGBT rights conference that was alleged to be taking place on September 4 at the Accra International Conference Centre. Minister of Information and National Origin Kwamena Bartels said, "The government does not condone any such activity which violently offends the culture, morality... and heritage of the entire people of Ghana."

In March 2020, a historic conference was to be held in Accra. The Pan Africa ILGA was aiming to hold its first conference in West Africa to develop strategies to improve LGBT rights, increase awareness of LGBT issues, and to protect queer youth in Africa. After Ghana faced backlash from religious organizations, President Nana Akufo-Addo banned the event, citing that it would be considered illegal for such an event to be held in Ghana, since they legally condemn and criminalise same-sex acts amongst adults.

In June 2022, Ghanaian LGBT rights activists filed lawsuits against the government for the government's current stance on LGBT rights and over allegations of abuse.

Anti-activism
LGBT advocacy efforts are often opposed and made illegal by the government, but anti-LGBT groups are embraced. In October 2019, the World Congress of Families, a US-based anti-LGBT group, held a conference in Accra, during which they encouraged Africans to adopt the practice of conversion therapy. These types of conferences are not the only types of anti-LGBT sentiments being shared and embraced in Ghana. It is also documented that vigilante groups go after the LGBT community in Ghana. Such groups spy, blackmail, and plan attacks on LGBT citizens, or those they suspect to be LGBT. Safety Empire is one of these vigilante groups, and in August 2015, they beat a young man they suspected to be gay in a town near the capital.

On an international front, many external entities, such as the United Nations and other individual countries, speak in favor of LGBT rights. Groups that are pro-LGBT rights view these international statements unfavorably, since they are often viewed as statements that do not support their advocacy or efforts, and only reignite the hate and discrimination towards LGBT individuals. An example of this is former President Atta Mills vowing to never legalize homosexuality when urged by the United Kingdom. This brought the issue of homosexuality back to a national front, but not in a favorable position.

2021 Anti-LGBTQ Bill
A few months after the opening of the center, and the backlash from both the government and citizens that followed, a draft for a new bill was leaked on the internet in July 2021. It is formally known as the "Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill". As of September 2023, the bill is still advancing.

Under this bill, public displays of same-sex affection and crossdressing would be punished with jail, it would be illegal to form LGBTQ organizations or to disseminate information perceived as supporting LGBTQ people or rights, certain kinds of healthcare would be banned, and "conversion therapy" could be mandated. It would be illegal even to identify as LGBTQ, and advocacy for LGBTQ rights could result in 5–10 years in prison. Same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples would also be banned.

The memorandum of the bill claims that Ghana, its government, the majority of its citizens, its culture, and history completely disapprove of the LGBTQ community. The bill was presented before parliament in early August 2021. Ghana's parliament is scheduled to reopen in late October 2021, after which a vote may be held.

The Presbyterian Church of Ghana have been very vocal about their support for the new proposed Anti-LGBTQ+ bill that is currently before the Parliament of Ghana.

In February 2023, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice approved the bill and stated that both the bill and an accompanying report would be formally sent to the House for debate "hopefully before the end of March."

In March 2023, Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo announced that "substantial elements" of the Anti-LGBTQ+ bill being considered by parliament "have been modified" following an intervention by the government.

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

title: LGBT rights in Ghana


text:
Bobby pin

A bobby pin (US English, known as a kirby grip or hair grip in the United Kingdom) is a type of hairpin, usually of metal or plastic, used in coiffure to hold hair in place. It is a small double-pronged hair pin or clip that slides into hair with the prongs open and then the flexible prongs close over the hair to hold it in place. They are typically plain and unobtrusively colored, but some are elaborately decorated or jeweled. Bobby pins became popular in the 1920s to hold the new bobbed hairstyles.

Uses
The main use of a bobby pin is to hold hair in place. In addition to bobbed hair, bobby pins are often used in up-dos, buns, and other hair styles where a sleek look is desired. To use a bobby pin in hair hold the hair in the desired position and push the bobby pin (straight side up) into place.

Bobby pins can also be used to hold head coverings such as headbands, bandannas, and yarmulkes in place.

They can be used as decorative elements in hair.

Attributes, such as the clipping action or having a readily available thin, flat piece of metal, mean the bobby pin can be used in other ways as well:

 * As makeshift lockpicks by straightening out two bobby pins to pick the lock.
 * They can be used in place of a clothespin (US English, clothes peg in UK) for drying lightweight articles.
 * They can be used as clips to hold multi-portion packages closed between uses.
 * They can be slipped over book pages as a bookmark.
 * Bobby pins are sometimes employed to protect the fingers from burns while smoking the final portion of a marijuana cigarette. In such use, the bobby pin is known colloquially as a "roach clip."
 * Bobby pins may be used to thread laces through pre-cut holes in leather and other heavy materials.

Appearance
Like barrettes, decorated bobby pins are sometimes meant to be noticed in hair. A decorated bobby pin can have beads, ribbons or other details on it, and is usually worn to pull back front sections of hair while looking decorative.

Bobby pins may also be tinted a hair colour, such as blonde, brown, or red to blend better into the hair.

Some are made without the wavy rigid side and instead are smooth and curved. They are made this way to help with the grip factor and they stay closer and more tightly attached to the hair that it is pinned to.

Bobby pins may also be padded in order to avoid creasing the hair.

History
English manufacturers Kirby, Beard & Co. Ltd. of Birmingham made hairpins similar to the bobby pin, before the bobby pin's invention. The trademarked pin, the "Kirbigrip" was just one of the pins produced by Kirby, and it closely resembled the bobby pin. The bobby pin was invented by Luis Marcus, a San Francisco–based cosmetics manufacturer, after World War I and came into wide use as the hairstyle known as the "bob cut" or "bobbed hair" took hold. He originally sold two handmade bobby pins for 35 cents. Although Marcus thought about naming the pin after himself, he named them bobby after the bobbed hairstyle. A trademark on the term "bobbie pin" was held for some decades by Smith Victory Corporation of Buffalo, New York. A trademark infringement claim made by Smith Victory Corporation against Procter & Gamble regarding their naming their home permanent product Bobbi was settled in the 1950s by a payment to Smith Victory Corporation by P&G. The term is now in common usage and therefore is no longer a valid trademark.

title: Bobby pin


text:
List of places in Suffolk

This is a list of cities, towns and villages in the ceremonial county of Suffolk, England.

A

 * Acton, Akenham, Aldeburgh, Alderton, Aldham, Aldringham, Alpheton, Ampton, Ashbocking, Ashby, Ashfield, Aspall, Assington, Athelington, Audley End

B

 * Babergh, Bacton, Badingham, Badley, Badwell Ash, Ballingdon, Bardwell, Barham, Barking, Barnardiston, Barnby, Barnham, Barningham, Barrow, Barsham, Barton Mills, Battisford, Bawdsey, Baylham, Beccles, Beck Row, Bedfield, Bedingfield, Belstead, Benacre, Benhall, Bentley, Beyton, Bildeston, Blaxhall, Bloodsman's Corner, Blundeston, Blyford, Blythburgh, Botesdale, Boulge, Boxford, Boxted, Boyton, Bradfield Combust, Bradfield St. Clare, Bradfield St George, Braiseworth, Bramfield, Bramford, Brampton, Brandon, Brandeston, Brantham, Bredfield, Brent Eleigh, Bressingham, Brettenham, Bridge Street, Brightwell, Brockford, Brockley, Brome, Brome Street, Bromeswell, Bruisyard, Brundish, Bucklesham, Bulcamp, Bungay, Bures St. Mary, Burgate, Burgh, Burstall, Bury St Edmunds, Butley, Buxhall

C

 * Campsea Ashe, Capel St Andrew, Capel St. Mary, Carlton, Carlton Colville, Cattawade, Cavendish, Cavenham, Chantry, Charsfield, Chattisham, Chedburgh, Chediston, Chelmondiston, Chelsworth, Chevington, Chickering, Chillesford, Chilton, Clare, Claydon, Clopton, Cockfield, Coddenham, Combs, Coney Weston, Conyer's Green, Cookley, Cooks Green, Copdock, Cornard Tye, Corton, Cotton, Covehithe, Cowlinge, Crackthorn Corner, Cransford, Cratfield, Creeting All Saints, Creeting St Mary, Creeting St Peter, Cretingham, Cross Street, Crowfield, Culford, Culpho

D

 * Dagworth, Dalham, Dallinghoo, Darsham, Darmsden, Debach, Debenham, Denham, Mid Suffolk, Denham, St Edmundsbury, Dennington, Denston, Depden, Dorking Tye, Downham Highlodge, Drinkstone, Dunwich

E

 * Earl Soham, Earl Stonham, East Bergholt, Eastbridge, Easton, Easton Bavents, Edwardstone, Ellough, Elmsett, Elmswell, Elveden, Eriswell, Erwarton, Euston, Exning, Eye, Eyke

F

 * Falkenham, Fakenham Magna, Farnham, Felixstowe, Felixstowe Ferry, Felsham, Finningham, Flatford, Flempton, Flixton, Lothingland, Flixton, The Saints, Flowton, Fornham All Saints, Fornham St Genevieve, Fornham St Martin, Forward Green, Foxhall, Framlingham, Framsden, Freckenham, Fressingfield, Freston, Friston, Frostenden

G

 * Gazeley, Gedding, Gedgrave, Gipping, Gisleham, Gislingham, Glemsford, Gosbeck, Gosling Green, Great Ashfield Great Barton, Great Bealings, Great Blakenham, Great Bradley, Great Bricett, Great Cornard, Great Finborough, Great Glemham, Great Livermere, Great Saxham, Great Thurlow, Great Waldingfield, Great Welnetham, Great Wratting, Gromford, Groton, Grundisburgh, Gunton

H

 * Hacheston, Hadleigh, Halesworth, Hardwick, Hargrave, Harkstead, Hartest, Hasketon, Haughley, Haverhill, Hawkedon, Hawstead, Hazelwood, Heckfield Green, Helmingham, Hemingstone, Hemley, Hengrave, Henham, Henley, Henstead, Hepworth, Herringfleet, Herringswell, Hessett, Heveningham, Higham, Babergh, Higham, Forest Heath, Hintlesham, Hinton, Hitcham, Hinderclay, Holbrook, Hollesley, Holton St. Mary, Holton St. Peter, Holywell Row, Homersfield, Honington, Hoo, Hopton, Horham, Horner's_Green, Horringer, Hoxne, Hundon, Hunston, Huntingfield

I

 * Icklingham, Ickworth, Iken, Ilketshall St Andrew, Ilketshall St John, Ilketshall St Lawrence, Ilketshall St Margaret, Ingate Place, Ingham, Ipswich, Ixworth, Ixworth Thorpe

K

 * Kedington, Kelsale, Kenton, Kentford, Kenny Hill, Kersey, Kesgrave, Kessingland, Kettlebaston, Kettleburgh, Kirkley, Kirton, Knettishall, Knodishall

L

 * Lackford, Lakenheath, Langham, Lavenham, Lawshall, Laxfield, Layham, Leiston, Leavenheath, Letheringham, Levington, Lidgate, Lindsey, Lindsey Tye, Linstead Magna, Linstead Parva, Little Bealings, Little Blakenham, Little Bradley, Little Bricett, Little Cornard, Little Fakenham, Little Glemham, Little Livermere, Little London, Little Saxham, Little Thurlow, Little Waldingfield, Little Wenham, Little Whelnetham, Little Wratting, Long Melford, Lound, Lowestoft

M

 * Market Weston, Marlesford, Martlesham, Martlesham Heath, Melton, Mellis, Mendham, Mendlesham, Metfield, Mettingham, Mickfield, Middleton, Milden, Mildenhall, Minsmere, Monewden, Monk Soham, Monks Eleigh, Moulton, Mutford

N

 * Nacton, Naughton, Nayland, Nedging, Needham Market, Nettlestead, Newbourne, Newmarket, Newton, North Cove, Norton, Nowton

O

 * Oakley, Occold, Offton, Old Newton, Onehouse, Orford, Otley, Oulton, Oulton Broad, Ousden

P

 * Pakefield, Pakenham, Palgrave, Parham, Parliament Heath, Peasenhall, Pettaugh, Pettistree, Pinewood, Pin Mill, Playford, Polstead, Poslingford, Preston St Mary

R

 * Ramsholt, Rattlesden, Raydon, Rede, Redgrave, Redisham, Redlingfield, Red Lodge, Rendham, Rendlesham, Reydon, Rickinghall, Ringsfield, Ringshall, Risby, Rishangles, Rodbridge Corner, Rougham, Rumburgh, Round Maple, Rushbrooke, Rushmere, Rushmere St Andrew

S

 * Sandcroft, Santon Downham, Sapiston, Saxmundham, Saxtead, Saxtead Green, Semer, Shadingfield, Shelland, Shelley, Shimpling, Shimpling Street, Shingle Street, Shipmeadow, Shotley, Shottisham, Sibton, Sicklesmere, Sizewell, Snape, Somerleyton, Somersham, Somerton, Sotherton, Sotterley, South Cove, South Elmham, Southolt, Southwold, Spexhall, Sproughton, Stanningfield, Stansfield, Stanstead, Stanton, Sternfield, Stoke Ash, Stoke-by-Clare, Stoke-by-Nayland, Stoke Park, Stonham Aspal, Stonham Parva, Stoven, Stowlangtoft, Stowmarket, Stowupland, Stradbroke, Stradishall, Stratford St Andrew, Stratford St Mary, Stratton Hall, Stuston, Stutton, Sudbourne, Sudbury, Sutton, Sweffling, Swilland, Syleham

T

 * Tannington, Tattingstone, Theberton, Thelnetham, Thorington, Thorndon, Thornham Magna, Thornham Parva, Thorns, Thorpe Morieux, Thorpeness, Thrandeston, Thurston, Thwaite, Timworth, Tostock, Trimley St Martin, Trimley St Mary, Troston, Tuddenham, Tuddenham St Martin, Tunstall

U

 * Ubbeston, Ufford, Uggeshall, Upthorpe

W

 * Walberswick, Waldringfield, Waldringfield Heath, Walpole, Walsham le Willows, Walton, Wangford, Forest Heath, Wangford (near Southwold), Wantisden, Washbrook, Wattisfield, Wattisham, Wenham Magna, Wenhaston, West Row, West Stow, Westerfield, Westleton, Westhall, Westhorpe, Westley, Weston, Wetherden, Wetheringsett, Weybread, Whatfield, Whepstead, Wherstead, Whitton, Wickhambrook, Wickham Green, Wickham Market, Wickham Skeith, Wickham Street, Wilby, Willingham St Mary, Willisham, Wingfield, Winston, Wissett, Wissington, Withersdale Street, Withersfield, Witnesham, Wixoe, Woodbridge, Woolpit, Woolverstone, Worlington, Worlingham, Worlingworth, Wortham, Wrentham

Y

 * Yaxley, Yoxford

Places of interest

 * Bridge Cottage, Flatford Mill
 * Bures
 * Clare Castle
 * Dedham Vale
 * East Anglia Transport Museum
 * Easton Farm Park
 * Framlingham Castle
 * Ickworth House
 * Leiston Abbey
 * Mid-Suffolk Light Railway
 * Museum of East Anglian Life
 * Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum
 * Ness point located in Lowestoft, the UK's most easterly point.
 * Orford Ness
 * RSPB Minsmere
 * RSPB Stour Estuary
 * Saxtead Green Post Mill
 * Snape Maltings
 * Suffolk Coast Path
 * Sutton Hoo

title: List of places in Suffolk


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jacob Corbett

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was speedy deleted by User:Tony Sidaway. Sjakkalle 11:37, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Jacob Corbett
'''DELETED this. Patent nonsense, should have been speedied.''' Move along please, nothing to see. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 19:26, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Vanity if not utter BS (which I still think should be a criterion for speedy deletion; we can all detect patent nonsense, and we should also all be able to detect utter BS.) --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 14:31, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. The user should be referred to Uncyclopedia instead. --Euniana/Talk 14:37, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete — RJH 15:04, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Speedy Delete Kevin Rector (talk) 15:07, Apr 26, 2005 (UTC)
 * Under which criterion? That's how I knew about this in the first place -- it was marked as a speedy, but I didn't see what criteria it fit. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 17:11, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Patent Nonsense. Kevin Rector (talk) 20:38, Apr 26, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, pretty close to patent nonsense. Kappa 18:10, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete but not speedy--good call by jpgordon. Keep it up! Meelar (talk) 20:15, Apr 26, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, not notable, vanity. Megan1967 05:06, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


text:
Msta

The Msta (Мста) is a river in Tver and Novgorod Oblasts of northwestern Russia, a tributary of Lake Ilmen. It is 445 km long, and the area of its basin 23300 km2. The principal tributaries of the Msta are the Berezayka (left), the Uver (right), the Peretna (left), and the Kholova (left). The town of Borovichi and the urban-type settlement of Lyubytino are located on the banks of the Msta.

The source of the Msta is in Lake Mstino in the Valdai Hills immediately north of the town of Vyshny Volochyok. The river flows north, accepts the Berezayka from the left, and enters Novgorod Oblast. There, it accepts the Uver from the right and turns northwest. Downstream from the town of Borovichi, it forms the border between Borovichsky and Okulovsky District, and still downstream between Okulovsky and Lyubytinsky District. It departs from the border to the north, and downstream of the settlement of Lyubytino sharply turns southwest. It makes one more curve at the border with Krestetsky District and has its mouth downstream of the settlement of Proletariy.

The river basin of the Msta is vast and comprises the eastern part of Novgorod Oblast and the areas in the northern part of Tver Oblast. The towns of Borovichi, Bologoye, Udomlya, Okulovka, and Valday lie in the river basin of the Msta.

Up to mid-19th century, Msta, which belongs to the river basin of the Neva, had been a part of an important water trade route connecting the Baltic and Caspian seas due to the very short distance between the Tsna, then the tributary of Lake Mstino, and the Tvertsa, a left tributary of the Volga. The portage between these lakes existed from the Middle Ages. In the beginning of the 18th century, Vyshny Volochyok Waterway was constructed, connecting the Msta and the Tvertsa. By the middle of the 19th century, after opening of the Volga–Baltic Waterway and the Moscow – Saint Petersburg Railway, the significance of the Msta as a transport route has decreased.

It is also notable for the rapids in a 30 km section between Opechensky Posad and Borovichi, and is a popular rafting route.

The lowest 134 km of the Msta, downstream of the selo of Mstinsky Most, are listed as navigable in the State Water Register of Russia.

title: Msta


text:
Talk:Dún Laoghaire (Dáil constituency)

Untitled
The map is wrong, it shows Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county area instead of the constituency. jlang 14:32, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * I have replaced the map to show one of the constituency -- Barryob   Vigeur de dessus  22:02, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

Parties
If minor parties such as Christian Solidarity Party are named, why isn't New Vision and Direct Democracy Ireland? ClemMcGann (talk) 04:11, 16 February 2011 (UTC)
 * CSP is a registered party, New Vision, DDI is new to me. There has been a plethora of new parties/groups lately, are they all notable? Snappy (talk) 19:59, 16 February 2011 (UTC)
 * notability should determine whether they deserve an article or not. My question relates to their listing on the tables in this article, rather than writing "Independent" ClemMcGann (talk) 22:46, 16 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Actually United Left Alliance is not a registered party, yet it appears ClemMcGann (talk) 22:49, 16 February 2011 (UTC)
 * I've created a new template STV Election box candidate without party link for this. The current template links the party article, the new one doesn't link. If a group is deemed notable to have its own article in future, just change the template. Snappy (talk) 14:38, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
 * good ClemMcGann (talk) 16:42, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Athlone–Longford (Dáil Éireann constituency) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 14:49, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Dún Laoghaire (Dáil constituency)


text: Category:464 BC deaths

title: Category:464 BC deaths


text: User talk:81.144.157.21

title: User talk:81.144.157.21


text:
Jendrassik maneuver

The Jendrassik maneuver is a medical maneuver wherein the patient clenches the teeth, flexes both sets of fingers into a hook-like form, and interlocks those sets of fingers together. The tendon below the patient's knee is then hit with a reflex hammer to elicit the patellar reflex. The elicited response is compared with the reflex result of the same action when the maneuver is not in use. Often a larger reflex response will be observed when the patient is occupied with the maneuver: "A weak or apparently missing reflex could be triggered by afferent activity resulting from such muscle tension. This is the true explanation for the maneuver, not a diversion of the patient’s attention – a misconception that can be heard even today." This effect was first observed in the late 19th century by Hungarian physician Ernő Jendrassik, after whom it was named.

This maneuver is particularly useful in that even if the patient is aware of the maneuver's purpose, it still functions properly.

The maneuver can also be used to distract patients when performing other tests or procedures and any suitable distraction may be used; for example when looking for Romberg's sign.

title: Jendrassik maneuver


text:
Mutualism (economic theory)

Mutualism is an anarchist school of thought and anti-capitalist market socialist economic theory that advocates for workers' control of the means of production, a market economy made up of individual artisans and workers' cooperatives, and occupation and use property rights. As proponents of the labour theory of value and labour theory of property, mutualists oppose all forms of economic rent, profit and non-nominal interest, which they see as relying on the exploitation of labour. Mutualists seek to construct an economy without capital accumulation or concentration of land ownership. They also encourage the establishment of workers' self-management, which they propose could be supported through the issuance of mutual credit by mutual banks, with the aim of creating a federal society.

Mutualism has its roots in the utopian socialism of Robert Owen and Charles Fourier. It first developed a practical expression in Josiah Warren's community experiments in the United States, which he established according to the principles of equitable commerce based on a system of labor notes. Mutualism was first formulated into a comprehensive economic theory by the French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who proposed the abolition of unequal exchange and the establishment of a new economic system based on reciprocity. In order to establish such a system, he proposed the creation of a "People's Bank" that could issue mutual credit to workers and eventually replace the state; although his own attempts to establish such a system were foiled by the 1851 French coup d'état.

After Proudhon's death, mutualism lost its popularity within the European anarchist movement and was eventually redefined in counterposition to anarchist communism. Proudhon's thought was instead taken up by American individualists, who came to be closely identified with mutualist economics. Joshua K. Ingalls and William Batchelder Greene developed on mutualist theories of value, property and mutual credit, while Benjamin Tucker elaborated a mutualist critique of capitalism. The American mutualist Dyer Lum attempted to bridge the divide between communist and individualist anarchists, but many of the latter camp eventually split from the anarchist movement and embraced right-wing politics.

Mutualist ideas were later implemented in local exchange trading systems and alternative currency models, but the tendency itself fell out of the popular consciousness during the 20th century. The advent of the internet generated a revived interest in mutualist economics, particularly after the publication of new works on the subject by American libertarian theorist Kevin Carson.

Origins
According to Peter Kropotkin, the origins of mutualism lay in the events of the French Revolution, particularly in the federalist and directly democratic structure of the Paris Commune. The foundations of mutualist economic theory lay in the radicalism of English socialist Thomas Spence. Drawing from the Bible, as well as the liberal works of John Locke and James Harrington, Spence called for the abolition of private property, and for the workers' control of production through workers' cooperatives. The term "mutualism" was first used during the 1820s; originally defined synonymously with terms such as "mutual aid, reciprocity and fair play". In 1822, French utopian philosopher Charles Fourier used the term "convergent compound mutualism" (mutualisme composé convergent), in order to describe a form of progressive education that adapted the Monitorial System of pupil-teachers.

Owenism and Josiah Warren
Thomas Spence's mutualist platform was taken up by Robert Owen, with Owenism becoming a pioneering force in the history of the cooperative movement. By 1826, the term "mutualism" was being used by members of Owen's utopian community of New Harmony, Indiana, in order to propose a more decentralised and libertarian project. The following year, Josiah Warren left New Harmony and established the Cincinnati Time Store, which was based on his ideas of "equitable commerce". This system set cost as the limit of price and established exchange based on labor notes. In keeping with his mutualist principles, Warren refused to substantially grow his business, maintaining the equal exchange between shopkeeper and customer. He hoped the shop would eventually be the nucleus for the establishment of a "mutualist village".

After running it for three years, in May 1830, Warren decided to liquidate the Time Store in an attempt to pursue his plan of building a mutualist village in Ohio. This caught the attention of Robert Owen, who proposed that they instead build a mutualist community in New York, but this project never met fruition. Warren made the decision to delay the establishment of his mutualist colony until 1833. He spent the preceding years sketching out the voluntarist structure of the planned community, together with other prospective members. They established their anarchist community in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, but it was short-lived, as an influenza epidemic forced them to abandon the village by 1835. Warren returned to New Harmony, where he established another Time Store, but he received little support from other community members and shut it down in March 1844. Nevertheless, his mutualist ideas were still taken up by other radicals of the period, with George Henry Evans and his Land Reform Association championing mutualist arguments against the concentration of land ownership.

Warren returned to Ohio, where he founded the mutualist community of Utopia in 1847, taking over from an earlier Fourierist community that had established the settlement. The community adopted labor notes as its currency and committed itself to an economy of equitable commerce, with cost as the limit of price. Utopia grew to about one hundred residents and established various enterprises, demonstrating to Warren the potential of his economic principles of decentralisation. By the 1850s, Warren himself had moved on from Ohio and established the Utopian Community of Modern Times on the east coast, but his mutualist experiments would decline with the outbreak of the American Civil War. Warren's mutualist communities of Utopia and Modern Times ultimately lasted for twenty years, eventually evolving into traditional villages with only minor mutualist tendencies.

Formulation by Proudhon
The term "mutualist" was adopted in 1828 by the canuts of Lyon, who went on to lead a series of revolts throughout the 1830s. At this same time, the young French activist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was first being drawn towards Fourier's utopian socialism; by 1843, Proudhon had joined the mutualists in Lyon. The adoption of the term "mutualist" by Proudhon and his development of anarchism would result in a shift of its meaning and understanding.

Proudhon held "mutuality" (or "exchange in kind") to be a core part of his economic theory. In his System of Economic Contradictions (1846), Proudhon described mutuality as a synthesis of "private property and collective ownership". The mutualist principle of reciprocity provided the basis for all its proposed institutions, including mutual aid, mutual credit and mutual insurance. Proudhon considered the perfect expression of mutuality to be a synallagmatic contract of equal exchange between equal individuals. Proudhon considered unequal exchange to be at the root of the exploitation of labour and believed that a truly free market ought to be built on reciprocity, without coercion. He concluded that under such conditions, commerce would progress towards equal exchange, where the value of a product or service reflects only the cost of its production. He envisioned the eventual "withering away of the state" and its replacement with a system of economic contracts between individuals and collectives.

Proudhon claimed that private property constituted a form of robbery, as proprietors used their title to extract labour-value from others, or as he characterised it: "the proprietor reaps where [they] did not sow". To Proudhon, wage labour represented the enclosure of the value of collective production, with the capitalist collecting economic rent from their workers in the form of profit. Proudhon's anti-capitalist economic theories stood in sharp contrast to liberal economists of the time, such as Frédéric Bastiat and Henry Charles Carey, who argued in defense of landlords and capitalists from the claims of workers. Proudhon claimed that landlords and capitalists contributed nothing to production, and that their only claim to the contrary was by not impeding access to the means of production.

In the wake of the French Revolution of 1848, Proudhon began elaborating his proposal for a "Bank of the People". He thought such a bank could guarantee mutual credit to all workers, enabling them bring the product of their labour under the collective ownership of all that participated in production. After he was elected to the Constituent Assembly, Proudhon lobbied for the transformation of the Bank of France into such a "Bank of the People"; he proposed that a 2-3% interest rate would be enough to cover all public expenses and would allow for the abolition of taxation. Proudhon's "Bank of the People" was officially incorporated but was never able to establish itself in practice, as Proudhon was arrested and imprisoned following the rise to power of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. In his final attempt at writing a comprehensive mutualist programme, The Political Capacity of the Working Classes (1865), Proudhon proposed the establishment of a "mutualist system" of workers' self-management.

Anarchism and the IWA
During the early 1860s, the French anarchist movement first began to develop an organised expression, establishing trade unions and mutual credit systems inspired by Proudhon's mutualist theories. Towards the end of his life, Proudhon himself had grown more cautious of using the term "anarchist" and instead referred to himself as a "federalist"; his followers also eschewed the "anarchist" label, instead calling themselves "mutualists" after his principle of mutual exchange. After Proudhon's death in 1865, his mutualist followers helped establish the International Workingmen's Association (IWA).

In the early years of the IWA, the organisation was largely mutualist, as exemplified by its contractual demands during its 1866 Geneva Congress and 1867 Lausanne Congress. But in the following years, French mutualists began to lose control over the organisation to Russian and German communists based in Belgium, and mutualism was gradually overshadowed by other anarchist schools of thought. By the end of the 1860s, the French section of the IWA was already shifting away from mutualism, with Eugène Varlin and Benoît Malon convincing it to adopt Mikhail Bakunin's platform of collectivism; Bakunin himself held his collectivist theories to be "Proudhonism, greatly developed and taken to its ultimate conclusion".

Although inspired by Proudhon's arguments for federalism, Bakunin broke from his mutualist economics and argued instead for the common ownership of land. By the 1870s, as divisions between the Marxists and the anti-authoritarians in the IWA grew sharper, Proudhonian mutualism gradually lost its remaining influence; although it continued to see minor developments by collectivists such as César De Paepe and Claude Pelletier, as well as in the programme of the Paris Commune of 1871. When the IWA finally split, members of the anti-authoritarian faction slowly adopted "anarchism" as the label for their philosophy.

Following Bakunin's death in 1876, the Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin had taken anarchist philosophy beyond both Proudhon's mutualism and Bakunin's collectivism. He argued instead for anarchist communism, in which resources are distributed "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs." This quickly became the dominant form of anarchism, and by the 1880s, mutualism was slowly defined in opposition to anarchist communism. Mutualism was redefined as a non-communist form of anarchism, due to its emphasis on reciprocity, reformism and commerce. As a result, different tendencies and interpretations of mutualism started to emerge.

Development by American individualists
Warren's mutualist experiments, which inspired the American individualism of Lysander Spooner and Stephen Pearl Andrews, laid a foundation for the introduction of Proudhonian mutualism to the country. Warren himself was later retroactively labelled a "mutualist" by the individualists of this period, who were inspired by his system of "equitable commerce". American newspaper editor William Henry Channing synthesised Proudhon's mutualism with Fourierism and Christian socialism, conceiving of "the coming era of mutualism" in millenarian terms. Proudhonian mutualism was later discussed in articles by a number of American utopian theorists, including Francis George Shaw, Albert Brisbane and Charles Anderson Dana.

Theoretical developments
Two of the most important figures of this period were Joshua K. Ingalls and William Batchelder Greene, who were inspired by Proudhon's mutualist ideas as elaborated by Dana, synthesising it with American individualist traditions pioneered by Warren. Ingalls was a vocal proponent of the labour theory of value and an advocate of workers receiving the full product of their labor. He also argued against the concentration of land ownership, which he believed to be the principal source of social inequality, and instead called for the institution of occupancy-and-use property rights.

Drawing from Esoteric Christianity, Greene presented Proudhonian mutualism as a successor to Christianity, describing it as "the religion of the coming age." Greene proposed the establishment of mutual banks, which would issue loans at a nominal interest rate. He believed these could outcompete the high interest rates charged by commercial banks and lead to wages rising to the "full value of the work done". Greene's model for a free price system, which he argued would trend towards labor-value as economic rents and social privileges were abolished, represented a break from Owen and Warren's "labor for labor" theory of exchange. Greene argued that the fruit of all human labors was a product, not only of individual effort, but also of social circumstances that aided them in that effort.

In 1869, Ezra and Angela Heywood established the New England Labor Reform League (NELRL), which published the individualist anarchist magazine The Word and widely distributed the works of American mutualists such as Warren and Greene, who were also members of the organisation. From 1872 to 1876, the NELRL attempted to lobby the Massachusetts General Court to establish a mutual bank, but they were ultimately unsuccessful, convincing them that state legislatures had already undergone regulatory capture by capitalists.

Anti-capitalist critique
Inspired by the older mutualists within the NELRL, the young League member Benjamin Tucker quickly rose to prominence as one of the leading figures of individualist anarchism in the United States. Tucker integrated the earlier iterations of mutualism into a single ideological doctrine, adopting Greene's ideas on mutual banking and synthesising Proudhonian mutualism with the American individualist tradition of Warren and Spooner. Through his magazine Liberty, which he established in 1881, he contributed to the development of anarchist political thought.

Drawing from the mutualism of Warren and Proudhon, he argued that the exploitation of labour derived from authority of the state, which collaborated with capitalists in order to extract labour value in the form of "interest, rent and profit". In order to combat coercive practices that allowed the proliferation of wealth and privilege, Tucker proposed the establishment of a "free market of anarchistic socialism", in which all forms of monopoly were abolished. Tucker derided profit as antithetical to free competition and criticised capitalism for "abolishing the free market", arguing that a truly free market was governed only by the cost of production. At the center of his anti-capitalist critique were what he called the "Four Monopolies": that of money, land, tariffs and patents.

While Tucker was intensely critical of capitalism, he was uninterested in speculating on the makeup of a future mutualist society. This was eventually taken up by John Beverley Robinson, who built on Tucker's critique to advocate for cooperative economics and mutual aid. Tucker's followers dedicated themselves to elaborating mutualist projects, with Alfred B. Westrup, Herman Kuehn and Clarence Lee Swartz all writing extensively on the subject of mutual credit.

Divisions and decline
By the beginning of the Gilded Age, Proudhonian mutualism was firmly identified with American individualism, while Tucker's followers came to define themselves in opposition to anarchist communism. Although Tucker himself didn't make the distinction, anarchists such as Henry Seymour increasingly contrasted mutualism against communism, with mutualism eventually being used to refer to "non-communist anarchism". One of Tucker's disciples, Dyer Lum, attempted to bridge the divide between the American individualists and the growing labour movement, which was developing sympathies for social anarchism. In the 1880s, Lum joined the International Working People's Association (IWPA), in which he developed a laissez-faire analysis of "wage slavery" that proposed a form of occupation and use property rights and a mutual banking system.

Over the years, Lum worked to develop ties between different radical tendencies, hoping to create a "pluralistic anarchistic coalition" capable of advancing a social revolution. By the time of the Haymarket affair, Lum had aligned with the IWPA's view of labor unions as a means to both combat the exploitation of labour and to prefigure a future free association of producers. In the 1890s, Lum joined the American Federation of Labor (AFL), within which he introduced workers' to mutualist ideas on banking, land reform and cooperativism through his pamphlet The Economics of Anarchy. Lum was instrumental in synthesising mutualist economics with populist politics into a "uniquely American ideology", one which was taken up by the American individualist Voltairine De Cleyre.

But factional divides also began to exacerbate at this time, as Tucker's individualist group in Boston and immigrant revolutionary socialists in Chicago split into opposing camps, while Lum attempting to mend relations between the two. Lum and Decleyre together developed a perspective of "anarchism without adjectives", in an attempt to overcome the ongoing feud between individualist and communist anarchists. But eventually the split drove many of Tucker's disciples away from the anarchist movement and towards right-wing politics, with some like Clarence Lee Swartz coming to embrace capitalism and setting the groundwork for modern American libertarianism.

Contemporary developments
During the early 20th century, mutualist concepts were developed by the economists Ralph Borsodi and Silvio Gesell; while mutualist ideas were implemented within local exchange trading systems and by models of alternative currency. Gustav Landauer, who became a leading figure in the Bavarian Soviet Republic during the German Revolution of 1918–1919, adopted a mutualist programme of mutual credit, equal exchange and usufruct property rights. Some anarchist theorists of the late 20th century were also inspired by mutualism, including American social critic Paul Goodman, Italian essayist C. George Benello, British social historian Colin Ward, and American philosopher Peter Lamborn Wilson. In order to provide an alternative to the dominant anarchist schools of thought, Larry Gambone attempted to revive the mutualist movement; he established the Voluntary Cooperation Movement, which managed to recruit the British anarchist Jonathan Simcock and the American individualist Joe Peacott, but it was short-lived.

By the end of the 20th century, mutualism had largely fallen out of the popular consciousness, only experiencing a revival in interest when the internet improved public access to old texts. American libertarian theorist Kevin Carson was central to the renewed interest in the subject, self-publishing a series of works on mutualism. Carson's Studies in Mutualist Political Economy proposed a synthesis of Austrian and Marxian economics, developing a form of "free-market anti-capitalism" based on Tucker's conception of mutualism. Interest in Proudhon's works was also renewed during the 21st century, with many of his texts being published by the Proudhon Library and compiled into the collection Property is Theft.

Theory
The primary aspects of mutualism are free association, free banking, reciprocity in the form of mutual aid, workplace democracy, workers' self-management, gradualism and dual power. Mutualism is often described by its proponents as advocating an anti-capitalist free market. Mutualists argue that most of the economic problems associated with capitalism each amount to a violation of the cost principle, or as Josiah Warren interchangeably said, the cost the limit of price. It was inspired by the labour theory of value, which was popularized—although not invented—by Adam Smith in 1776 (Proudhon mentioned Smith as an inspiration). The labor theory of value holds that the actual price of a thing (or the true cost) is the amount of labor undertaken to produce it. In Warren's terms of his cost the limit of price theory, cost should be the limit of price, with cost referring to the amount of labour required to produce a good or service. Anyone who sells goods should charge no more than the cost to himself of acquiring these goods.

Contract and federation
Mutualism holds that producers should exchange their goods at cost-value using contract systems. While Proudhon's early definitions of cost-value were based on fixed assumptions about the value of labour hours, he later redefined cost-value to include other factors such as the labour intensity, the nature of the work involved, etc. He also expanded his notions of contract into expanded notions of federation.

Free association
Mutualists argue that association is only necessary where there is an organic combination of forces. An operation requires specialization and many different workers performing tasks to complete a unified product, i.e. a factory. In this situation, workers are inherently dependent on each other; without association, they are related as subordinate and superior, master and wage-slave. An operation that an individual can perform without the help of specialized workers does not require association. Proudhon argued that peasants do not require societal form and only feigned association for solidarity in abolishing rents, buying clubs, etc. He recognized that their work is inherently sovereign and free.

For Proudhon, mutualism involved creating industrial democracy. In this system, workplaces would be "handed over to democratically organised workers' associations. ... We want these associations to be models for agriculture, industry and trade, the pioneering core of that vast federation of companies and societies woven into the common cloth of the democratic social Republic".

K. Steven Vincent notes in his in-depth analysis of this aspect of Proudhon's ideas that "Proudhon consistently advanced a program of industrial democracy which would return control and direction of the economy to the workers". For Proudhon, "strong workers' associations ... would enable the workers to determine jointly by election how the enterprise was to be directed and operated on a day-to-day basis".

Mutual credit
Mutualists support mutual credit and argue that free banking should be taken back by the people to establish systems of free credit. They contend that banks have a monopoly on credit, just as capitalists have a monopoly on the means of production and landlords have a land monopoly. Banks create money by lending out deposits that do not belong to them and then charging interest on the difference. Mutualists argue that by establishing a democratically run mutual savings bank or credit union, it would be possible to issue free credit so that money could be created for the participants' benefit rather than the bankers' benefit. Individualist anarchists noted for their detailed views on mutualist banking include Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and William Batchelder Greene.

Property
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was an anarchist and socialist philosopher who articulated thoughts on the nature of property. He claimed that "property is theft", "property is liberty", and "property is impossible". According to Colin Ward, Proudhon did not see a contradiction between these slogans. This was because Proudhon distinguished between what he considered to be two distinct forms of property often bound up in a single label. To the mutualist, this is the distinction between property created by coercion and property created by labour. Property is theft "when it is related to a landowner or capitalist whose ownership is derived from conquest or exploitation and [is] only maintained through the state, property laws, police, and an army". Property is freedom for "the peasant or artisan family [who have] a natural right to a home, land [they may] cultivate, ... to tools of a trade" and the fruits of that cultivation—but not to ownership or control of the lands and lives of others. The former is considered illegitimate property, while the latter is legitimate property.

In What Is Mutualism?, Clarence Lee Swartz wrote: "It is, therefore, one of the purposes of Mutualists, not only to awaken in the people the appreciation of and desire for freedom, but also to arouse in them a determination to abolish the legal restrictions now placed upon non-invasive human activities and to institute, through purely voluntary associations, such measures as will liberate all of us from the exactions of privilege and the power of concentrated capital."

Swartz also argued that mutualism differs from anarcho-communism and other collectivist philosophies by its support of private property, writing: "One of the tests of any reform movement with regard to personal liberty is this: Will the movement prohibit or abolish private property? If it does, it is an enemy of liberty. For one of the most important criteria of freedom is the right to private property in the products of ones labor. State Socialists, Communists, Syndicalists and Communist-Anarchists deny private property." However, Proudhon warned that a society with private property would lead to statist relations between people. Unlike capitalist private-property supporters, Proudhon stressed equality. He thought that all workers should own property and have access to capital, stressing that in every cooperative, "every worker employed in the association [must have] an undivided share in the property of the company".

Usufruct
Mutualists believe that land should not be a commodity to be bought and sold, advocating for conditional titles to land based on occupancy and use norms. Mutualists argue whether an individual has a legitimate claim to land ownership if he is not currently using it but has already incorporated his labour into it. All mutualists agree that everything produced by human labour and machines can be owned as personal property. Mutualists reject the idea of non-personal property and non-proviso Lockean sticky property. Any property obtained through violence, bought with money gained through exploitation, or bought with money that was gained violating usufruct property norms is considered illegitimate.

Criticism
In Europe, a contemporary critic of Proudhon was the early libertarian communist Joseph Déjacque. Unlike and against Proudhon, he argued that "it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature".

One area of disagreement between anarcho-communists and mutualists stems from Proudhon's alleged advocacy of labour vouchers to compensate individuals for their labour and markets or artificial markets for goods and services. However, the persistent claim that Proudhon proposed a labour currency has been challenged as a misunderstanding or misrepresentation. Like other anarcho-communists, Peter Kropotkin advocated the abolition of labour remuneration and questioned, "how can this new form of wages, the labor note, be sanctioned by those who admit that houses, fields, mills are no longer private property, that they belong to the commune or the nation?" According to George Woodcock, Kropotkin believed that a wage system, whether "administered by Banks of the People or by workers' associations through labor cheques", is a form of compulsion.

Collectivist anarchist Mikhail Bakunin was an adamant critic of Proudhonian mutualism as well, stating: "How ridiculous are the ideas of the individualists of the Jean Jacques Rousseau school and of the Proudhonian mutualists who conceive society as the result of the free contract of individuals absolutely independent of one another and entering into mutual relations only because of the convention drawn up among men. As if these men had dropped from the skies, bringing with them speech, will, original thought, and as if they were alien to anything of the earth, that is, anything having social origin".

title: Mutualism (economic theory)


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Category:Education in County Durham

Education in the ceremonial county of County Durham, England.

title: Category:Education in County Durham


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Kitab al-Huda

The Kitab al-Huda ("The Book of Guidance") is a collection of canons and laws, of liturgical rules and short theological treatises dealing with Trinitarian and Christological problems. In the 11th century the Maronite Bishop David translated the Kitab al-Huda from Syriac to Arabic. The Maronites had retained their Syriac language and literature longer than the other Christian communities.

title: Kitab al-Huda


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Gynephilia

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE. Postdlf 10:18, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Gynephilia
DicDef that has been tranwikied to Wiktionary. Kevin Rector (talk) 14:37, Apr 26, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Wikipedia is not a dictionary. --Carnildo 22:48, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, already transwikid. Megan1967 05:12, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Redirect to sexual attraction. --Eleassar777 23:08, 1 May 2005 (UTC)
 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


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The Android Invasion

The Android Invasion is the fourth serial of the thirteenth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 22 November to 13 December 1975.

The serial is set on the planet Oseidon and in England. In the serial, the alien race the Kraals plot to wipe out humanity with a virus to prepare the Earth for their invasion.

The serial was directed by former series producer Barry Letts and written by Terry Nation — his first Doctor Who script for eleven years not to feature his creations, the Daleks. The serial marks the last appearances in the programme of both John Levene in his recurring role as Sergeant Benton, and also of Ian Marter, who makes a guest appearance as previous companion Harry Sullivan.

Plot
In the village of Devesham, the Doctor and Sarah Jane meet a group of humanoid robots in white suits and opaque helmets, who shoot at them with their index fingers. The Doctor and Sarah Jane flee to a pub, where the villagers wait motionless until the clock strikes, when they suddenly come to life, acting normally.

The Doctor finds his way to the local Space Defence Station and introduces himself to Senior Defence Astronaut Guy Crayford, who places the Doctor in a cell. It is revealed that Crayford is working for Styggron, the leader of an alien race called the Kraal. Sarah frees the Doctor and they escape, but they become separated and Sarah is captured. Styggron tells Crayford to locate, but not seize, the Doctor. The Doctor returns to the village and encounters an android copy of Sarah Jane, sent to test his knowledge and abilities. The real Sarah is kept alive so Styggron can test the virus he intends to use on Earth. The Doctor escapes from the android but is recaptured and locked up with the real Sarah. The Doctor explains that the Kraal planet will soon be uninhabitable due to high levels of radiation, so the Kraal plan to eradicate humanity and take over Earth. The duplicated village was a training ground. Crayford explains that he is helping the Kraals because they rescued him and reconstructed his body, while Earth left him for dead.

Sarah and the Doctor escape aboard Crayford's rocket and travel to Earth to warn the real defence station, while being followed by android duplicates of themselves. They land separately on Earth in their pods, and Sarah finds the TARDIS in the woods. When Crayford's rocket lands, Colonel Faraday and Harry Sullivan head there, not knowing that Styggron is there with Crayford. The real Doctor enters the Station and meets Benton, who tells him where Harry and Faraday are. The Doctor contacts them by radio and urges them not to enter the rocket.

The real Doctor explains the Kraal invasion to Faraday and Sullivan, but they have been replaced. The android Doctor enters and threatens the Doctor with a gun but he escapes. After dodging pursuit, the Doctor makes his way back to the Space Defence Station's control room, where he had given a technician instructions to prepare a device that would disable the androids. The android Doctor intervenes and holds the Doctor at gunpoint, preventing him from activating the device, but Crayford enters, saying that Styggron promised no killing. The real Doctor tells him that the Kraal did not reconstruct him, but merely brainwashed him. Realising the truth, Crayford rushes out, distracting the android long enough for the Doctor to make his move. In the struggle, the Doctor activates the device, which jams all the androids in mid-step.

Meanwhile, Crayford attacks Styggron on his ship. The two grapple and Styggron shoots Crayford. The Doctor enters and defeats Styggron, using his reprogrammed duplicate android as a distraction.

Production
The story was influenced by the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), and would be the last Terry Nation script for Doctor Who for four years until his final script for the series, Destiny of the Daleks (1979). This was the first script by Nation since The Keys of Marinus (1964) that did not feature the Daleks.

Location filming for the Kraal-replicated village of Devesham took place in East Hagbourne, Oxfordshire, a few miles from Didcot. Scenes outside the Space Defence Station were filmed at the National Radiological Protection Board at nearby Harwell.

Cast notes
Nicholas Courtney was unavailable to play Lethbridge-Stewart, so his character was re-written as Colonel Faraday. Ian Marter would continue his acting career and go on to write several Doctor Who novelisations, an original novel featuring Harry and an unused screenplay, Doctor Who Meets Scratchman, the last with Tom Baker. He died in 1986 from diabetes-related health complications.

Only three Kraals are seen throughout the story. Styggron was played by Martin Friend. Marshal Chedaki was played by Roy Skelton. The silent Kraal underling that appears in one scene was played by the series' long time stuntman Stuart Fell. Milton Johns had appeared as Benik in The Enemy of the World (1967–68), also directed by Barry Letts. His next appearance in Doctor Who would be as Castellan Kelner in The Invasion of Time (1978).

Broadcast and reception
Kenneth Williams briefly mentioned viewing episode two of this story in his diaries, writing on 29 November 1975 "Doctor Who gets more and more silly." Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping gave the serial a negative review in The Discontinuity Guide (1995), writing that it was "stupid, tiresome and very irritating". In The Television Companion (1998), David J Howe and Stephen James Walker reported that the serial had a mixed reception. They wrote that the Kraals were "somewhat unoriginal but otherwise reasonable addition", with average effects and the actors making the most of it. They also praised the direction, but wrote that the plot was too far-fetched. In 2010, Mark Braxton of Radio Times awarded it two stars out of five, writing that The Android Invasion was the weak link in the season. He criticised the plotting and use of UNIT, but was more positive towards the way the story played around with the android duplicates of characters. DVD Talk's Ian Jane gave the serial three-and-a-half out of five stars, saying that it "may not be the deepest or for that matter the most original of stories told in the series but it's a fun tale that breezes by at a good pace". He praised the location work and the androids and white robots. SFX reviewer Ian Berriman also criticised the far-fetched plot, but said that it was "as enjoyable as it is unlikely".

The Android Invasion was reviewed favourably by John Kenneth Muir, who described it as "an atmosphere-laden suspense thriller", despite finding some deficiencies in the storyline, which he referred to as an idiot plot. Muir praised the conceit of frightening, android duplicates of familiar people, and he traced influences from the films Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and The Stepford Wives (1975). He also notes the similarity of the depiction of androids in Doctor Who to the Fembots that appeared the following year in The Bionic Woman television series ("Kill Oscar", 1976), with "faces filled with circuitry and round, lifeless orbs for eyes". Another familiar science-fiction device used in The Android Invasion is that of artificial duplicate settings; Muir considered that the "fake" village of Devesham imitated scenarios seen in earlier television series such as Star Trek ("The Mark of Gideon", 1969), UFO ("Reflections in the Water", 1971) and Space: 1999 ("One Moment of Humanity").

In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in November 1978. The novelisation was later designated number 2 when Target opted to number the first seventy-three novelisations alphabetically; however no edition using the number was ever released.

Home media
The Android Invasion was released on VHS in March 1995. The serial was released on DVD in the US on 9 January 2012 as a stand-alone, and again on 9 January 2012 alongside Invasion of the Dinosaurs, coupled as the "UNIT Files" box set in the UK. This serial was released as part of the Doctor Who DVD Files in Issue 126 on 30 October 2013.

title: The Android Invasion


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