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newstfionline · 2 months

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Sunday, February 25, 2024

At the Florida Man Games, tank-topped teams compete at evading police and wrestling over beer (AP) They rose up by the dozens from across Florida, caricatured competitors in tank tops and cutoff shorts, for a showdown that treats evading police and wrestling over beer like Olympic sports. Promoted as “the most insane athletic showdown on Earth,” the Florida Man Games poke fun at the state’s reputation for bizarre stories that involve brawling, drinking, gunfire, reptile wrangling and other antics carrying a risk of time in jail or intensive care. Several thousand people paid real money to come cheer a dozen teams at the debut event set for Saturday in St. Augustine, with contests and sideshows inspired by real events from America’s most surreal state. Events involve contenders wrestling sumo-style while holding pitchers of beer, or running from actual sheriff’s deputies while jumping fences and avoiding obstacles. Some signed up to duel with pool noodles over a mud-filled pool, while others faced a scramble to grab cash flying in simulated hurricane winds.

The next generation of influencers are here. And they’re less than 10 years old. (NBC News) Koti and Haven Garza have half a mouthful of baby teeth and can hardly pronounce the word “influencer.” But the 7-year-old twins are already sharing their skin care routines and fit checks to 4.8 million followers on TikTok. “Get ready with me to go out to dinner,” Haven Garza says to the camera in a TikTok video that has amassed 2.6 million views. The “Garza Crew” first went viral on TikTok in 2020. In about a week, the family’s first-ever video had racked up more than 100,000 views, and the then-toddlers were on their way to internet fame. The sibling duo are part of a new wave of Gen Alpha influencers—creators born between 2010 and 2024—who are building followings online for videos posted on their parent-run accounts.

Colombia will send deep-water expedition to explore 300-year-old shipwreck thought to hold treasure (AP) Colombia’s government announced plans Friday for a deep-water expedition to explore the mythical galleon San José, sunk in the 18th century in the country’s northern Caribbean and believed to contain cargo valued at billions of dollars. The first phase of the scientific research into the deep waters around the shipwreck will collect information to determine which pieces are suitable and possible to extract. The wreckage is 600 meters (almost 2,000 feet) deep in the sea. Colombia located the galleon in 2015 but it has since been mired in legal and diplomatic disputes, and its exact location is a state secret. The ship is believed to hold 11 million gold and silver coins, emeralds and other precious cargo from Spanish-controlled colonies, which could be worth billions of dollars if ever recovered.

WWII-era bomb safely detonated at sea after one of the largest peacetime evacuations in UK history (AP) A World War II-era bomb whose discovery prompted one of the largest peacetime evacuations in British history has been detonated at sea, the Ministry of Defense said on Saturday. The 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) explosive was discovered Tuesday in the backyard of a home in Plymouth, a port city on the southwestern coast of Britain. More than 10,000 residents were evacuated to ensure their safety as a military convoy transported the unexploded bomb through a densely populated residential area to a ferry slipway, from which it was taken out to sea. Plymouth, home to major naval bases for centuries, was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Britain during World War II.

Huge apartment block fire in Spain kills nine people (Guardian) Spanish police have said the final death toll from a devastating fire that tore through a 14-storey block of flats in the eastern city of Valencia is nine, with one person thought to have died now considered missing and all others accounted for. Experts said the block was covered with highly flammable cladding, possibly—along with high winds—accounting for the rapid spread of the fire, which broke out on the fourth floor at 5.30pm on Thursday and engulfed the building within 30 minutes. In dramatic scenes broadcast live on TV on Thursday night, firefighters used a crane to lift a father and his daughter from a balcony where they were trapped, and a man was seen jumping several floors on to an inflatable mat to escape the flames. About 100 soldiers from Spain’s military emergency unit and 40 firefighting vehicles were deployed to the scene, where crews used drones to search the building for bodies and survivors once the flames’ initial ferocity had subsided.

Unpredictable Strongman? Two Years Into War, Putin Embraces the Image. (NYT) After President Biden called President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a “crazy S.O.B.” this week, the Kremlin was quick to issue a stern condemnation. But the image of an unpredictable strongman ready to escalate his conflict with the West is one that Mr. Putin has fully embraced after two years of full-scale war. At home, the Kremlin is maintaining the mystery over the circumstances of the death last week of Aleksei A. Navalny, preventing the opposition leader’s family from reclaiming his body. In Ukraine, Mr. Putin is pressing his army to maintain its brutal offensive, boasting on television that he stayed up all night as the city of Avdiivka fell to Russian forces. And in outer space, American officials warn, Russia may be planning to place a nuclear weapon into orbit, aboard a satellite, which would violate one of the last arms control treaties. In power since 1999, Mr. Putin, 71, is set to extend his rule to 2030 in Russia’s rubber-stamp elections next month. As the vote nears, he is feeding his conception of himself as a history-making leader carrying on the legacy of past rulers who were willing to sacrifice untold numbers of lives to build a stronger Russian state.

Land mines return to Europe as front-line states fear Russian invasion (Washington Post) With former president Donald Trump encouraging Russia to attack NATO territory and U.S. support for Ukraine flagging, some of the nations that border Russia are looking for ways to harden their defenses, considering land mines and other technologies from ancient wars in a bid to blunt a Kremlin attack. Two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, countries such as the Baltic states and Finland warn that a threat to their own territory may be just over the horizon, with some intelligence agencies saying the Kremlin could make such an attempt within a decade. Now they are taking lessons from their enemy’s robust defense lines in Ukraine, noting that Russia’s system of minefields, concertina wire and trenches made it all but impossible for Kyiv’s forces to advance last summer. European states are still clamoring for F-35 fighter jets and space-age weapons, but the renewed interest and investment in century-old tactics is the latest example of how Russia’s war in Ukraine is upending long-held assumptions about how to defend NATO territory, with a revived focus on stopping tanks and mobile artillery.

Many in Myanmar consider fleeing to Thailand to escape conscription into an army they despise (AP) Thwel, a 25-year-old schoolteacher, saw very few options left to her after Myanmar’s military announced it is implementing conscription to fill its ranks. “As a person living in this country, I only have two options: to go abroad illegally or die here,” Thwel told The Associated Press by phone while traveling to a border area to try crossing into Thailand with a small group of like-minded people. Some observers believe a mass exodus of young talent is taking place and could become a social problem, with their exit heightening the instability that followed the military takeover that now amounts to a civil war. According to the Thai Foreign Ministry, some 7,000 Myanmar nationals have applied for visas, Thailand’s Bangkok Post newspaper reported Thursday.

China says it aims to ‘contain’ foreign interference over Taiwan this year (Reuters) China aims to “contain” foreign interference over Taiwan and “resolutely combat” any efforts towards the island’s formal independence this year, which is the sensitive 75th anniversary of the founding of communist China, state media said on Friday. China views democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory, ignoring the objections of the government in Taipei, and has ramped up political and military pressure to assert those claims. Taiwan last month elected current Vice President Lai Ching-te as its next president, a man Beijing has called a dangerous separatist. Lai, who takes office in May, has repeatedly offered talks with China but has been rebuffed. China’s official Xinhua news agency said the ruling Communist Party’s fourth-ranked leader, Wang Huning, held a two-day meeting on this year’s Taiwan-related work which ended on Friday. China “must resolutely combat the division of Taiwan independence, contain interference from external forces, firmly support the patriotic and reunification forces on the island, unite Taiwan compatriots, and maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait”, Xinhua cited Wang as saying.

As Gaza War Grinds On, Israel Prepares for a Prolonged Conflict (NYT) As the war in Gaza rages on, the situation in the battered enclave is one of devastation and despair. More than 29,000 people have been killed, according to Gaza health officials, the majority in a relentless Israeli bombing campaign. Neighborhoods have been flattened, families wiped out, children orphaned, and an estimated 1.7 million people displaced. While global scrutiny grows over Israel’s conduct in the war, the Israeli military, by its assessment, has delivered a major blow to the capabilities of Hamas, killing commanders, destroying tunnels and confiscating weapons. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of destroying Hamas remains elusive, according to current and former Israeli security officials. An Israeli military intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under military protocol, said that Israel was engaged in a comprehensive mission to unravel Hamas’s military capabilities. “Is it possible this mission will be left for my children?” he said. “The answer is yes.”

U.N. experts urge embargo on Israel for arms that would be used in Gaza (Washington Post) More than two dozen U.N. rights experts on Friday urged countries to halt the export to Israel of arms that would be used in Gaza, saying such transfers of weapons and ammunition could violate international humanitarian law. In a statement, the experts—who are part of the “special procedures” of the Human Rights Council, a body of independent experts in the U.N. system—said the need for an “arms embargo on Israel is heightened by the International Court of Justice’s [preliminary] ruling on 26 January 2024 that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and the continuing serious harm to civilians since then.” Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories and one of the signatories to the statement, said on social media that sending weapons to Israel that may be used in Gaza “may amount to complicity in atrocity crimes.”

#headlines #news

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brookstonalmanac · 9 months

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Events 8.14 (before 1900)

74 BC – A group of officials, led by the Western Han minister Huo Guang, present articles of impeachment against the new emperor, Liu He, to the imperial regent, Empress Dowager Shangguan. 29 BC – Octavian holds the second of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes. 1040 – King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland. 1183 – Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan. 1264 – After tricking the Venetian galley fleet into sailing east to the Levant, the Genoese capture an entire Venetian trade convoy at the Battle of Saseno. 1352 – War of the Breton Succession: Anglo-Bretons defeat the French in the Battle of Mauron. 1370 – Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, grants city privileges to Karlovy Vary. 1385 – Portuguese Crisis of 1383–85: Battle of Aljubarrota: Portuguese forces commanded by John I of Portugal defeat the Castilian army of John I of Castile. 1592 – The first sighting of the Falkland Islands by John Davis. 1598 – Nine Years' War: Battle of the Yellow Ford: Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeat an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal. 1720 – The Spanish military Villasur expedition is defeated by Pawnee and Otoe warriors near present-day Columbus, Nebraska. 1784 – Russian colonization of North America: Awa’uq Massacre: The Russian fur trader Grigory Shelikhov storms a Kodiak Island Alutiit refuge rock on Sitkalidak Island, killing 500+ Alutiit.[ 1790 – The Treaty of Wereloe ended the 1788–1790 Russo-Swedish War. 1791 – Slaves from plantations in Saint-Domingue hold a Vodou ceremony led by houngan Dutty Boukman at Bois Caïman, marking the start of the Haitian Revolution. 1814 – A cease fire agreement, called the Convention of Moss, ended the Swedish–Norwegian War. 1816 – The United Kingdom formally annexes the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, administering the islands from the Cape Colony in South Africa. 1842 – American Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida. 1848 – Oregon Territory is organized by act of Congress. 1880 – Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed. 1885 – Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint. 1893 – France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration. 1900 – Battle of Peking: The Eight-Nation Alliance occupies Beijing, China, in a campaign to end the bloody Boxer Rebellion in China.

#Events

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phoenixmaiden-gaming · 2 years

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Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag part 12

Yet another day of exploring. This time I took on another fort that was the last one on the Easy section at the top. Then I was able to upgrade my ship, took on a Naval Mission, tried my hand at Harpooning and took on the plantation I tried before. All in all a good gameplay.

The first thing I did was go after the last fort in the top right corner of my map. It spotted me first but it was easy enough to avoid them. It only took three passes while bombing it to take it down.

I then docked and had to find the fort officer. It’s always kind of hard to find them because of the fire and smoke and the battles going on. But he does stand out with him just staying out of the way while everyone else fights. It does make it easy to take him out.

Once the fort officer was taken out I went into the Command Center and took out the Commander. Now Fort Eleuthera is ours!

Now that we had the fort, the area in that section was cleared and I could now see see the treasure I missed.

Before leaving, I repaired my ship at the Harbor Master and I had enough materials and money to upgrade my hull armour and ram strength.

I then went to the man nearby and accepted the Naval Contract to take out three Spanish Gunner ships that were interrupting his merchant vessels.

I went out sailing and went in search of Spanish Gunner ships. They weren’t too hard to find. I found two right away and took them out along with some other small ships.

I ended up boarding the ships I beat and when I took it over I noticed that there was a new option on what to do with the ship. There usually was just the option to repair my ship. But now I can send it to join my Fleet.

There was then a mini scene of Kenway putting on a captain hat on one of my crew when I chose the Kenway Fleet and the crew celebrating. I think it’s cute.

I found one last Spanish Gunner ship and took it out and with that the Naval Contract was finished. (Naval Contract: A Spanish Plague - Complete).

I was heading to get another chest on an island and I found a spot with a White Whale. I decided to try my hand at harpooning for the first time. Kenway was in a small rowboat with some crew and I had to throw a harpoon with a line on it so we could be pulled along with it while I threw more harpoons to damage it. It killed me twice before I ran out of harpoons and had to give up.

I continued on to the other islands in the revealed area to get the chests and animus fragments.

I then found a ship that had a “R” over it. So I went to look for it and it was a Naval Convoy. So I took it on and won and boarded it to then send it to my fleet. Nice.

I then fast traveled back to the Eleuthera Fort where I got my completion photo. Look at that gold color!

Now that I had more money and materials, I had enough to finally buy the Phoenix figurehead...I mean, it’s only fitting, right?

Looking at my map, I saw an indicator on my map that said Legendary Ship. It sounded interesting and I set sail to go check it out.

I found the location with the Legendary Ship and came across not one but two Warships. Nope. I was not ready for that, so I turned around and left.

With my ship now upgraded, I decided to go to the plantation I had left before and take on those Brigg ships. It was a lot easier for some reason. I can take on one no problem, but three is hard. I took on one of the Briggs and won.

I then boarded the ship and one of the objectives was to destroy the flag, so I did. Never done that before. I then rejoined the fight and used it to repair my ship so I could take on the other two.

I got lucky. The other two Brigg ships got stuck on the other side of the plantation. I figured out how to use mortar shots so I could just bomb them from afar. So I was able to beat the both of them with barely any damage. After they were done, I went around the corner to loot them. lol.

With the ships taken care of I could finally dock at the Tortuga plantation. I had to go find the person with the key that I had to steal. He wasn’t hard to find and even easier to kill and take the key. It was after when they found his body that they alerted the others and I had to fight them all.

Once I took care of the British guards in the area, I went up the tower and synced with the Viewpoint to reveal where the treasures were.

I then made my way over to the warehouse and stole the cargo inside. There was a lot in there. I have to remember to sell some of it.

I then went around the island to pick up my treasures, including a Mayan Stone I had to find with the totem. It took some thinking of how to align it because I mistook the totem I was standing on as part of the puzzle. But I was able to get it.

I grabbed the last treasure which was a map and now the Tortuga plantation is complete with all it’s treasure looted.

I set sail again and went to another undiscovered location and found Cumberland Bay. It was a small island with lots of foliage. I found the Viewpoint on a tree so I could reveal the treasure.

I then went around the island and collected all the treasure on the island and now Cumberland Bay has been properly plundered. I love being a pirate.

You know what pirates also do? Follow treasure maps. I now have 10 treasure maps that I had found on dead explorers. I took some time looking at the maps and marking the locations on some paper. So that is what I will be doing next time. I’m already looking forward to what I’m going to find.

Until Next Time. Happy Gaming!!

#phoenix be gaming #Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag #PC Games #Steam Games #gaming #gameplay #playthrough #game #games #video games #gamer #gamer fun #gamer girl #gamer life #Entertainment #Nothing is Queue Everything is Permitted

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illustratus · 2 years

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At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay,

And a pinnace, like a flutter'd bird, came flying from far away.

‘Spanish ships of war at sea! We have sighted fifty three!'

Then sware Lord Thomas Howard: ‘'Fore God I am no coward;

But I cannot meet them here, for my ships are out of gear,

And half my men are sick. I must fly, but follow quick.

We are six ships of the line; can we fight with fifty three?'

Then spake Sir Richard Grenville: ‘I know you are no coward;

You fly them for a moment to fight with them again.

But I've ninety men and more that are lying sick ashore.

I should count myself the coward if I left them, my Lord Howard,

To those Inquisition dogs and the devildoms of Spain.'

So Lord Howard past away with five ships of war that day,

Till he melted like a cloud in the silent summer heaven;

But Sir Richard bore in hand all his sick men from the land

Very carefully and slow,

Men of Bideford in Devon,

And we laid them on the ballast down below;

For we brought them all aboard,

And they blest him in their pain, that they were not left to Spain,

To the thumbscrew and the stake, for the glory of the Lord.

He had only a hundred seamen to work the ship and to fight,

And he sail'd away from Flores till the Spaniard came in sight,

With his huge sea-castles heaving upon the weather bow.

‘Shall we fight or shall we fly?

Good Sir Richard, tell us now,

For to fight is but to die!

There'll be little of us left by the time this sun be set.'

And Sir Richard said again: ‘We be all good English men,

Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the children of the devil,

For I never turned my back on Don or devil yet.'

Sir Richard spoke and he laugh'd, and we roar'd a hurrah, and so

The little 'Revenge' ran on, sheer into the heart of the foe,

With her hundred fighters on deck, and her ninety sick below;

For half of their fleet to the right and half to the left were seen,

And the little 'Revenge' ran on thro' the long sea-lane between.

Thousands of their soldiers look'd down from their decks and laugh'd,

Thousands of their seamen made mock at the mad little craft

Running on and on, till delay'd

By their mountain-like 'San Philip' that, of fifteen hundred tons,

And up-shadowing high above us with her yawning tiers of guns,

Took the breath from our sails, and we stay'd.

And while now the great 'San Philip' hung above us like a cloud

Whence the thunderbolt will fall

Long and loud,

Four galleons drew away

From the Spanish fleet that day,

And two upon the larboard and two upon the starboard lay,

And the battle-thunder broke from them all.

But anon the great 'San Philip,' she bethought herself and went

Having that within her womb that had left her ill content;

And the rest they came aboard us, and they fought us hand to hand,

For a dozen times they came with their pikes and their musketeers,

And a dozen time we shook ‘em off as a dog that shakes its ears

When he leaps from the water to the land.

And the sun went down, and the stars came out far over the summer seas,

But never a moment ceased the fight of the one and the fifty-three.

Ship after ship, the whole night long, their high-built galleons came,

Ship after ship, the whole night long, with her battle-thunder and flame;

Ship after ship, the whole night long, drew back with her dead and her shame.

For some were sunk and many were shatter'd, and so could fight us no more--

God of battles, was ever a battle like this in the world before?

For he said ‘Fight on! Fight on!'

Tho' his vessel was all but a wreck;

And it chanced that, when half of the short summer night was gone,

With a grisly wound to be dressed he had left the deck,

But a bullet struck him that was dressing it suddenly dead,

And himself he was wounded again in the side and the head,

And he said ‘Fight on! Fight on!'

And the night went down, and the sun smiled out from over the summer sea,

And the Spanish fleet with broken sides lay around us all in a ring;

But they dared not touch us again, for they fear'd that we still could sting,

So they watch'd what the end would be.

And we had not fought them in vain,

But in perilous plight were we,

Seeing forty of our poor hundred were slain,

And half of the rest of us maim'd for life

In the crash of the cannonades and the desperate strife;

And the sick men down in the hold were most of them stark and cold,

And the pikes were all broken or bent, and the powder was all of it spent;

And the masts and the rigging were lying over the side;

But Sir Richard cried in his English pride,

‘We have fought such a fight for a day and a night

As may never be fought again!

We have won great glory. my men!

And a day less or more

At sea or ashore,

We die--does it matter when?

Sink me the ship, Master Gunner--sink her, split her in twain!

Fall into the hands of God, not into the hands of Spain!'

And the gunner said ‘Ay, ay', but the seamen made reply:

‘We have children, we have wives,

And the Lord hath spared our lives.

We will make the Spaniard promise, if we yield, to let us go;

We shall live to fight again and to strike another blow.'

And the lion there lay dying, and they yielded to the foe.

And the stately Spanish men to their flagship bore him then,

Where they laid him by the mast, old Sir Richard caught at last,

And they praised him to his face with their courtly foreign grace.

But he rose upon their decks and he cried:

‘I have fought for Queen and Faith like a valiant man and true;

I have only done my duty as a man is bound to do:

With a joyful spirit I Sir Richard Grenville die!'

And he fell upon their decks and he died.

And they stared at the dead that had been so valiant and true,

And had holden the power and the glory of Spain so cheap

That he dared her with one little ship and his English few;

Was he devil or man? He was devil for aught they knew,

But they sank his body with honour down into the deep,

And they mann'd the 'Revenge' with a swarthier alien crew,

And away she sail'd with her loss and long'd for her own;

When a wind from the lands they had ruin'd awoke from sleep,

And the water began to heave and the weather to moan,

And or ever that evening ended a great gale blew,

And a wave like a wave that is raised by an earthquake grew,

Till it smote on their hulls and their sails and their masts and their flags,

And the whole sea plunged and fell on the shot-shatter'd navy of Spain,

And the little 'Revenge' herself went down by the island crags

To be lost evermore in the main.

The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet

by Alfred Tennyson

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whencyclopedia · 2 years

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Spanish Treasure Fleets

From the 16th to 18th centuries, two treasure fleets sailed each year, one to Mexico and the other to Central America, then part of the Spanish Empire. There they collected precious eastern goods and the riches of the Americas, including tons of silver from mines in Peru and Mexico. Known as the plate fleets, from plata (silver), the two convoys grouped at Havana, Cuba, before sailing back to Spain.

#SpanishMain #SpanishGalleon #ManilaGalleon

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racefortheironthrone · 2 years

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What did the Caribbean have in the 1500’s that made it desirable to traders and invaders?

Location, location, location.

While the Caribbean islands were a source of great wealth in the 17th century once European empires converted them over to plantation agriculture and exported huge amounts of sugar, spirits, and tobacco to Europe, in the 16th century the Caribbean was primarily desirable to "traders and invaders" because it lay along the route that the Spanish treasure fleets took between its mainland colonies in Mexico and Peru and the home country in Seville.

This was certainly the case for the Dutch, French, and English empires, who were initially looking for naval bases from which they could raid the Spanish treasure fleet convoys as they made their way through the Caribbean.

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casaparticular · 5 years

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La #Havana #Cuba linda 🇨🇺❣️ . . @vinales_gallery 📸©️ . . . The central area of the original city of Havana, Cuba. Havana is a city of great architectural character, containing many treasures from the city's long and colorful history. Old Havana and its fortifications were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. . Following a royal Spanish decree by Philip II of Spain in 1561, all ships headed for Spain from the New World were required to assemble their fleets in Havana Bay in order to counteract pirate attacks on galleon convoys. This decree boosted commerce and development of the adjacent city of Havana. In 1563, the Spanish Governor of the island moved from Santiago de Cuba to Havana, marking the point when the city became Cuba's de facto capital. On December 20, 1592, King Philip II granted Havana the title of city. Later, the city would be officially designated as "Key to the New World and Rampart of the West Indies" by the Spanish crown. At the middle of the eighteenth century, Havana had more than 70,000 inhabitants. It was then the third largest city in the Americas, ranking behind Lima, Peru and Mexico City but ahead of Boston and New York City. . Would you like to make a daytrip from havanna to vinales,countryside? we help you and Book here: Visit us👇 www.Vinales-tours.com . Visit us 👇 AirBnB 🛌 Standart Bedroom 🔜http://abnb.me/EVmg/XcoCYYYnuz 🔜King Suite 🛌 http://abnb.me/EVmg/x6Fxy6PUuz . Website: www.Vinales-tours.com 📩 [email protected] . We offer:👇 👉🏻Taxi Transfer 🚕 👉🏻Viñales Tours 🐴 👉🏻Accommodation 🏡. . #cubagallery #havanacuba #caribbeanlife #explorecuba #habana #habanavieja #habanacuba #lahabanavieja #varadero #cubatravel #cubalifestyle #visitcuba #cayococo #cuban #cubano #cubalibre #cuban #igerscuba #cubanlife #visitcuba #vinales #caribbean #caribbeanisland #cubatravel #cubanosporelmundo #havanaclub #travel #caribe (hier: Havana, Cuba) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1_iIGoiK4c/?igshid=s7eydp3r712g

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averycanadianfilm · 5 years

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This Land is Our Land

A PLANET ON THE MOVE

One day in the 1980s, my maternal grandfather was sitting in a park in suburban London. An elderly British man came up to him and wagged a finger in his face. “Why are you here?” the man demanded. “Why are you in my country?”

“Because we are the creditors,” responded my grandfather, who was born in India, worked all his life in colonial Kenya, and was now retired in London. “You took all our wealth, our diamonds. Now we have come to collect.” We are here, my grandfather was saying, because you were there.

* * *

These days, a great many people in the rich countries complain loudly about migration from the poor ones. But as the migrants see it, the game was rigged: First, the rich countries colonized us and stole our treasure and prevented us from building our industries. After plundering us for centuries, they left, having drawn up maps in ways that ensured permanent strife between our communities. Then they brought us to their countries as “guest workers”—as if they knew what the word “guest” meant in our cultures—but discouraged us from bringing our families.

Having built up their economies with our raw materials and our labor, they asked us to go back and were surprised when we did not. They stole our minerals and corrupted our governments so that their corporations could continue stealing our resources; they fouled the air above us and the waters around us, making our farms barren, our oceans lifeless; and they were aghast when the poorest among us arrived at their borders, not to steal but to work, to clean their shit, and to fuck their men.

Still, they needed us. They needed us to fix their computers and heal their sick and teach their kids, so they took our best and brightest, those who had been educated at the greatest expense of the struggling states they came from, and seduced us again to work for them. Now, again, they ask us not to come, desperate and starving though they have rendered us, because the richest among them need a scapegoat. This is how the game is rigged today.

My family has moved all over the earth, from India to Kenya to England to the United States and back again—and is still moving. One of my grandfathers left rural Gujarat for Calcutta in the salad days of the twentieth century; my other grandfather, living a half day’s bullock-cart ride away, left soon after for Nairobi. In Calcutta, my paternal grandfather joined his older brother in the jewelry business; in Nairobi, my maternal grandfather began his career, at sixteen, sweeping the floors of his uncle’s accounting office. Thus began my family’s journey from the village to the city. It was, I now realize, less than a hundred years ago.

I am now among the quarter billion people living in a country other than the one they were born in. I’m one of the lucky ones; in surveys, nearly three-quarters of a billion people want to live in a country other than the one they were born in, and will do so as soon as they see a chance. Why do we move? Why do we keep moving?

* * *

On October 1, 1977, my parents, my two sisters, and I boarded a Lufthansa plane in the dead of night in Bombay. We were dressed in new, heavy, uncomfortable clothes and had been seen off by our entire extended family, who had come to the airport with garlands and lamps; our foreheads were anointed with vermilion. We were going to America.

To get the cheapest tickets, our travel agent had arranged a circuitous journey in which we disembarked in Frankfurt, where we were to take an internal flight to Cologne, and then onward to New York. In Frankfurt, the German border officer scrutinized the Indian passports belonging to my father, my sisters, and me and stamped them. Then he held up my mother’s passport with distaste. “You are not allowed to enter Germany,” he said.

It was a British passport, given to citizens of Indian origin who had been born in Kenya before independence, like my mother. But the British did not want them. Nine years earlier, Parliament had passed the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, summarily depriving hundreds of thousands of British passport holders in East Africa of their right to live in the country that conferred their nationality. The passport was literally not worth the paper it was printed on.

The German officer decided that because of her uncertain status, my mother might somehow desert her husband and three small children to make a break for it and live in Germany by herself. So we had to leave directly from Frankfurt. Seven hours and many airsickness bags later, we stepped out into the international arrivals lounge at John F. Kennedy International Airport. A graceful orange-and-black-and-yellow Alexander Calder mobile twirled above us against the backdrop of a huge American flag, and multicolored helium balloons dotted the ceiling, souvenirs of past greetings. As each arrival was welcomed to the new land by their relatives, the balloons rose to the ceiling to make way for the newer ones. They provided hope to the newcomers: look, in a few years, with luck and hard work, you, too, can rise here. All the way to the ceiling.

It was October 2—Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. We made our way in a convoy of cars carrying our eighteen bags and steamer trunks to a studio apartment in Jackson Heights where The Six Million Dollar Man was playing on the television. On the first night, the building super cut off the electricity because there were too many people in one room. I stepped out and looked at the rusting elevated train tracks above Roosevelt Avenue and wondered: Where was the Statue of Liberty?

* * *

At McClancy, the brutal all-boys Catholic high school where my parents enrolled me in Queens, my chief tormentor was a boy named Tschinkel. He had blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and a sadistic smile. He coined a name for me: Mouse. As I walked through the hallways, this word followed me: “Mouse! Mouse!” A small brown rodent, scurrying furtively this way and that. I was fourteen years old.

One Spanish class, Tschinkel put his leg out to trip me as I was walking in; I kicked hard at it as the entire class whooped. “Mouse! Mouse!”

As I left the class and walked to the stairwell, I felt a hand shoving me forward. I flew straight down the small flight of stairs and landed on my feet, clutching my books; I could as easily have not, and broken my neck. When I complained to the principal, I was told that such things happen. It was within the normal order of the McClancy day.

Four decades later, another German American bully from Queens became the most powerful man on the planet. The 2016 election particularly struck home for me. Donald Trump is like the fathers of the boys I went to high school with. He grew up in Jamaica Estates, then a gated white island in the middle of the most diverse county in the nation. That explains everything about him, his fear and hatred of people different from him.

According to Trump, Haitians “all have AIDS.” If Nigerians are allowed into the United States, they would never “go back to their huts.” Mexicans? “They’re bringing drugs; they’re bringing crime; they’re rapists.” About immigrants in general: “Everything’s coming across the border: the illegals, the cars, and the whole thing. It’s like a big mess. Blah. It’s like vomit.” All this was shocking to many people, but familiar to me, because I’d heard it from the McClancy boys—and some of the teachers.

#Suketu Mehta #This Land is Our Land

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guatepolitics · 6 years

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Guatemala Police Archive under Threat

Washington, D.C., August 13, 2018—Guatemala’s renowned Historical Archive of the National Police (AHPN) is in crisis after its director Gustavo Meoño Brenner was abruptly removed in one of a series of recent actions orchestrated by the Guatemalan government and a United Nations office. The actions also placed the AHPN’s remaining staff of more than fifty people on temporary contract, and transferred oversight for the repository from the country’s national archives, where it had functioned since 2009, to the Ministry of Culture and Sports.

Meoño learned of his removal on Friday, August 3, when a convoy of government vehicles pulled up in front of the Police Archive, and officials from the Culture Ministry and the Guatemalan office of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) entered, demanding that he leave. “The operation was executed with all the characteristics of a commando strike,” one press account reported.

The unexpected move threatens to jeopardize the stability of the AHPN’s enormous collection of fragile National Police documents. Since their discovery in an abandoned and deteriorating state on a Guatemala City police base in 2005, hundreds of volunteers and paid employees have cycled through the AHPN under Meoño’s leadership to clean, organize, scan, and make public over twenty million pages of the estimated 8 linear kilometers of paper records. A UNDP employee with no experience in archival management has been named to replace Meoño as director.

Historically, the UNDP played an important role in the creation of the Police Archive. Its Guatemala office administered millions of dollars in donations granted to the AHPN by foreign governments and the United Nations. The office provided technical assistance, political advice, and administrative support. It was also a frequent ally to the AHPN during several difficult periods in the course of the archive’s growth and development.

Yet in a press release issued on the Sunday after Meoño’s ouster, the UNDP failed to explain its decision to push the long-time director out, beyond stating that his contract had ended and would not be renewed. The release is written in bland, bureaucratic language that provides no detailed plans for the future management of the Police Archive beyond ensuring that it is “strengthened in its institutionality and sustainability.”

For the National Security Archive, Meoño’s abrupt removal, the decision to shift oversight of the AHPN out from under the careful stewardship of Ana Carla Ericastillo – director of the national archives of Guatemala – to the untested Ministry of Culture and Sports, and the UNDP’s refusal to provide dozens of long-time staff members with reasonable working contracts are deeply troubling developments.

The National Security Archive has an association with the Historical Archive of the National Police that goes back to the AHPN’s beginning. The Archive’s Kate Doyle and Carlos Osorio had the privilege of visiting the site of the massive Police Archive just weeks after it was discovered in July 2005. They witnessed firsthand the awesome task that faced Meoño and his colleagues to rescue a treasure trove of historic documentation that was rotting with mold after years of neglect. Doyle went on to advise the AHPN project, bringing professional archivist Dr. Trudy Peterson conduct an initial assessment of the collection, and then worked with the AHPN to develop investigative skills to identify evidence of human rights abuses. Today, Doyle serves on the AHPN’s International Advisory Board.

In 2010, Doyle participated as an expert witness in the first criminal human rights proceeding in Guatemala to draw on Police Archive records as legal evidence for the prosecution. The trial of two former police agents for the forced disappearance of labor leader Edgar Fernando García, and a second trial in 2013 of their superiors – including the former chief of the Guatemalan National Police, Col. Héctor Bol de la Cruz – represented a breakthrough in human rights justice in Guatemala. Led by Meoño, the extraordinary work of the Historical Archive of the National Police made those prosecutions – and the many others that followed – possible.

Indeed, it may be the Police Archive’s crucial contributions to human rights trials that caused the government of President Jimmy Morales to seek to control the repository and fire its director. Besides the Fernando García case, AHPN records played a central role in trials of former army and police officers for the 1980 deadly burning of the Spanish Embassy, and the 1981 abduction, torture and rape of Emma Molina Theissen and forced disappearance of her 14-year-old brother Marco Antonio, among others. AHPN documents also form the heart of evidence in the as-yet-untried “Death Squad Dossier” investigation, concerning the mass forced disappearance of almost 200 citizens over the course of 18 months at the height of the country’s internal conflict.

Those cases, along with the 2013 genocide trial of ex-dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, enraged powerful military intelligence and operational officers who were behind the scorched earth counterinsurgency campaigns of the 1980s. They have sought to harass, intimidate, and shut down the human rights and justice organizations contributing to the prosecutions ever since. President Morales himself has also attacked the international investigative body that helped strengthen human rights prosecutions and fight corruption, known as CICIG. Since taking power, Morales’ government and the Congress his party controls have tried to shut down CICIG and kick out its commissioner, Iván Velásquez, without success.

So it is possible that the government crackdown on the Historical Archive of the National Police is another effort to halt the process of human rights justice in Guatemala and punish its defenders. What is still utterly unclear is why an agency of the United Nations is joining in that effort.

Since Gustavo Meoño’s dismissal, friends of the Police Archive – among them, civil society groups, human rights defenders, academics, lawyers, religious organizations, and international supporters – have come together to demand an explanation for the hasty and still unjustified actions taken by the UNDP and the Guatemalan government. Last week, they issued a statement calling for answers from those two entities and demanding that the AHPN’s documents be safeguarded, its investigative work continue, and its Advisory Boards be reactivated to help guide the Police Archive in the coming period.

#truth and reconciliation #history has power #CICIG #Police Archive #Guatemala #Gustavo Meoño

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josuezhbe410 · 3 years

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Does This Flag Look Boiling To You? It Ought to

While the legend could have appeared around 1500, there might be proof that a red flag with a white cross was being used by the Danish since around 1340 – 1370. The Dannebrog is shown in a Gelre Armorial from round this time alongside the coat of arms of the King of Denmark on the time. The two ultramarine bands on either side of the flag of Barbados symbolize the seas surrounding the island.

The Malian and French flags, which marked the road scene on that day, articulated a multiplicity of emotions, ideological convictions, and media response patterns. Crucially, they also pointed to the absence of the banners launched by the Islamist groups when their convoys arrived. In Timbuktu’s public sphere and in world media stories about the French intervention, the Islamist symbols were changed by the color games of acknowledged nation-states. The patchy quality of the Tricolour in Penney’s photographs of Douentza follows an extended custom of depicting flags in an imperfect, unfinished, or worn out state. This kind of picture may be discovered within the iconography of battles and revolutions, where banners and flags are shown captured, defended, or within the possession of a victorious enemy. Particularly within the United States, the picture of the torn and tattered Stars and Stripes has been a preferred motif since no less than the Civil War.

You can learn a lot a couple of country’s historical past by trying on the changes that have been made – and this is very true with countries that gained their independence relatively just lately. Vietnam – The pink background on the Vietnamese national flag represents the blood lost in the course of the struggle as Vietnam fought for independence. The yellow stars characteristic 5 points which represents the importance of socialism amongst the 5 key bodies of unions.

This Nation Is Known For Its Cigars And Is Situated In The Caribbean Sea, Just Below The Us

The Australian flag features a Union Flag within the upper left nook, which signifies its colonization by the British. Just underneath the Union Flag is a seven-pointed star — the star of federation — representing every of the country’s six states and one level for its territories. The proper half of the flag options the Southern Cross constellation, which is visible from each Australian state and territory. The symbol of the double-headed eagle was re-used by Albanian nationalists through the late 19th and early twentieth centuries as an emblem of their marketing campaign for his or her nation's independence from the Ottoman Empire.

B. Eustis, the primary American ambassador to France; such philanthropists as John McDonogh and Judah Touro. Many of the West Florida revolutionists were English loyalists who had fled to that province in the course of the Revolution, but who preferred American rule to Spanish. With the “lone star” flag we associate Philemon Thomas, of course, who later entered the State legislature, and commanded the Baton Rouge militia at the battle of New Orleans. John Rhea, Fulwar Skipwith and different members of this revolutionary party were the ancestors of many prominent Louisianians of at present.

The flag of Bangladesh is a green banner with a purple sun within the middle.

In the coat of arms of the Seal of Treasure is a logo of a lion defending the red-colored Phrygian hat and a strip of ‘Paz y Justica’, the nationwide motto of the country, which implies peace and justice.

The reason for his or her similarity is that both nations were as soon as united within the very short-lived "United Central American States".

The tricolor flag has been used and disused a number of times all through Russia’s history and was finally restored in 1993. It started out with horizontal Orange-White-Blue stripes however the orange dye would fade into purple on sailing ships. The Crescent and Star of Pakistan's flag are supposed to characterize the country’s massive Muslin population and the various minority religions that exist there.

As many can probably imagine, this sparked fairly a debate over whether or not or not this flag should be changed. This explicit flag was solely adopted in 2012, or somewhat, it was in 2012 that it was modified. Previously, this flag had the symbols of communism - the hammer and sickle in addition to the communist red star - on it. This flag is also fairly unique, particularly when compared to the extremely in style tricolors. This flag consists of a gold Nordic cross on a blue background.

Flag Of Mongolia

The flag of Monaco is based on the heraldic colour found on the princely arms of the defend of Monegasque whereas the Indonesian flag is associated with the empire of Majapahit. Poland's flag is somewhat just like the two, however its stripes are reversed having white over pink. The flag of Israel that incorporates a flue star on a white background and two horizontal blue stripes was adopted in 1948. Originally the flag was designed throughout Zionist motion and later it is recalled. Its white color divine benevolence and blue symbolizes God’s glory, purity, and severity.

The red symbolises the marketing campaign for freedom, yellow the mineral wealth, and green the natural green areas of the nation. The that means of the flag is represented through the tri-colors. The orange shade represents the savanna grasslands, while the white is symbolic of the country's rivers, and the green represents the coastal forests.

Why are flags so similar?

Flags are often symbolic, and so because the world is interconnected and it's often useful to get the symbolism across, we end up being similar to eachother by being obvious in our symbolism.

The blue outline is symbolic of the country’s peaceable nature. Originally, the moon and the solar represented the royal family and the prime minister’s family. They are actually known to represent the nation’s want to exist as lengthy as the heavenly our bodies. The colors on the German flag are reminiscent of the medieval banner of the Holy Roman Empire.

Yet another lovely flag featuring the primary colors, the Colombian flag is inspired by revolutionary Francisco de Miranda’s work in Venezuela and all through Latin America to free folks from Spain’s rule. In this particular flag, the yellow has come to characterize the richness of Colombian soil, together with concord and agriculture. The blue, as is customized, represents the sea and the sky, whereas the purple represents the blood spilled within the quest for independence from Spain. It also represents the truth that though Columbia’s folks have needed to battle, they've thrived. Cuban historical past is fraught with revolution, and its flag carries that turbulent historical past with it.

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The crescent represents progress; the star is supposed to signify gentle. The colour on the high of the Indian flag is officially called India saffron and is described as a golden yellow. The color at the bottom of the flag is officially often identified as India green. The main difference lies in the reality that the blue on the Netherlands' flag is darker whereas the blue on Luxembourg's flag appears extra like sky blue. The image within the middle of the Kenyan flag is of a Maasai defend and two spears.

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ltwilliammowett · 3 years

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The Spanish Silver Line

The Spanish Treasure Fleet Departs the Florida Coast for Spain, by Timothy Franklin Ross Thompson 2017

By the 1570s, much of Spain's silver and gems were coming from Pacific- coast territories, most notably silver from Potosíin the Viceroyalty of Peru. The problem was getting the treasure to Spain. It was to risky to send treasure ships, which were galleons, through the Straits of Magellan.

Instead, Pacific cargoes were shipped to Panama Isthmus's Pacific Coast. From Panama, cargoes were carried overland by mule train to Nombre de Dios on the Caribbean Sea, and thence taken by ship to Havana, Cuba in the Gulf of Mexico. Transporting the cargoes over the mountainous spine of the Panama Isthmus was safer than sailing a heavily laden ship through the Straits of Magellan.

Along with other treasure from Mexico, and the Spanish main ( South America's Gulf and Caribbean Coast , these cargoes would then be loaded onto the annual treasure fleet to Spain. The Fleet would stop at the Azores, before continuing to Seville. This route was well know to the British, who often sought out the Treasure Ships along this route.

Each fleet consisted of about 50-70 merchant ships, all armed with 12 guns. At the head was the ship of the general captain and at the end that of the admiral. This convoy was accompanied by 2 to 4 pataches. These were small, fast ships that sailed ahead of the convoy and informed it if foreign ships were approaching; they also announced the fleet in the port of destination.

#naval art #naval history #spanish treasure fleet #16th - 18th century #age of sail

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matchbox-fighting-furies · 4 years

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The Matchbox Fighting Furies Adventures!

Each Fighting Furies action figure and their six original accessory adventure packs all included their own adventure “booklet” (which could be better described as a leaflet) in order to fire the imagination of the little hands and minds they were intended for.

The adventures

A decade before the Masters of the Universe toy range had the celebrated idea to create their own character creations supported directly by their own comics (and as supplied with each figure), Matchbox had already been dreaming up adventures to illustrate with each of their own unique characters and even portrayed them – in similar fashion to the Lone Ranger Rides Again toy line – in comic strip form which were run as full-page advertisements in boys comics.

Not only were the figures themselves supplied with their own backstories, but the separately sold packs of outfits and accessories were also served with their own episodic adventure tales, ingeniously incorporating the very outfits and paraphernalia each story employed and duly describing the sets as ‘Fighting Furies Adventure Packs’.

In one such action adventure – the ‘Spanish Main’ – the accompanying story retells the account of how our two likely lads opportunistically spy the crew of a Spanish shipwreck hauling its cargo onto the beach of the ‘Fighting Furies island’ (presumably being where the Furies spent their days off). Accompanying illustrations show Hook and Peg-leg relishing the fun of dressing-up in a full Spanish uniform disguise and cheerily waving at an unsuspecting Spaniard as they approach; upon which Peg-leg energetically shoots the unsuspecting guard at arguably un-sportingly point-blank range (seemingly in the face and using a pistol omitted from the actual disguise pack) to successfully commandeer a wooden chest full of the finest silverwear booty! Thankfully, as was typically the case with all their capers, we’re spared any major moral concerns as its clear the military convoy are not victimless and continue their own habit of seeking ill-gotten plunders and the story recasts our seafaring rouges as anti-establishment figures resisting boorish authoritarianism. But Peg-leg, ever the master of subtle body language, shows his dominance within the team by brazenly standing upon and pinning down their newly acquired wealth, thus subliminally claiming primary ownership (of which he chooses to share), as the duo celebrate. The more modest Hook meanwhile demonstrates restraint and how well their working relationship is blossoming by not-so-much as mentioning that Pete is damaging the goods and whether or not he would mind not resting his big filthy wooden stump inside their treasure chest full of precious tableware?

In other stories, such as the mysterious “Hooded Falcon” the alleged “adventure” is sparse and simply asks several questions, inviting us to fill in the gaps and decide the details.

“The Fighting Furies cross to the Barbary Coast and wait out to sea for well-laden merchant ships to leave their ports. How do they know which ships have the best plunder? Who is the Mysterious, enigmatic figure, who is seen everywhere with a Falcon on his wrist and known only as the ‘Hooded Falcon’? Who is sending messages to the ‘Fighting Furies’ ship, via the well-trained bird? Peg-Leg or Hook?... Or both?”

The Hooded Falcon Adventure.

All that said, these glorious but brief tales are genius outlines – sidestepping the absence of any movie, TV or comic book tie-in – beautifully designed for children to re-enact and embellish with their own little Peg-leg and Hook effigies. But with all the reckless abandon encouraged by their Adventure sagas and Disguise packs, the chronicles and descriptions potentially employ two interpretations for the products. Not only can our debonair heroes readily evade detection with their deceitful but brave use of playing dress-up, but the action figure toys themselves might also be disguised by switching identity and becoming a wholly different character, such as a Spanish Officer, a Japanese Pirate leader or by adopting the rather dapper disguise kit for Captain Blood.

The Capt. Blood Adventure set can be interpreted either way as a decidedly problematic plan is retold within its own “adventure booklet”, when Peg-leg and Hook both simultaneously disguise themselves as Captain Blood in order to pilfer the keys required to get their hands on Blood’s maps which in turn pinpoint his buried loot. Blood, who’s main pastime was apparently terrorising the island of Haiti, seems particularly irked by the exploits of our happy-go-lucky team and with seemingly little regard for a fair trial he keeps things simple by exercising his pursuit of their “destruction”. This refreshingly uncomplicated plan instantly formalised his self-proclaimed status as the Furies “sworn enemy”.

It’s a shame Matchbox never produced a Captain Blood figure or maybe some generic journeyman figures – perhaps representing British Redcoats – for the boys to tackle en-masse; instead of just fighting spookily familiar looking characters robed in different frocks or apparently just endlessly duelling with each other? Two years into their reign – one year in Europe - our pirate duo were eventually joined by a third figure in 1976 to share their rough seas adventures but unfortunately for them he wasn’t a new drinking buddy or a nemesis they could easily enjoy running through with cold steel as he wasn’t of this world, being nonother than the Ghost of Captain Kidd! Presumably inspired by the folklores and legends of ghost ships, the Fighting Furies toy line was decades ahead of a certain Hollywood movie franchise (starring Mr Johnny Depp) and was a fictional world happy to ignore the sage advice about there being too many Captains. (Or was that Chiefs?)

However, the interpretation of what constitutes a ghost is seemingly a bit befuddled in the world of Matchbox figures as according to the associated literature and comic story strip advertisements, when returning to Jamaica’s Port Royal Kidd’s ship was mutinied and he was duly murdered, where eventually his body would be abandoned on a tropical island leaving the sun to bleach the bare bones of his rotting corpse. This physical skeleton, and what remained of his clothing, then rises as Captain Kidd’s Ghost?! But considering the brutal murder by his crew, the theft of his ship and the disregard for his mortal remains, Kidd’s ghost rather magnanimously is only hellbent on revenge via his chosen technique of “swordplay”. This is pretty reasonable of him and arguably a proportionate response. Its left to us to assume, on seeing further promotional material for the products, that he also indulges in being a massive nuisance and being generally disagreeable to the totally unimplicated Captain Peg-leg and Hook while they’re no-doubt just trying to go about their daily business. According to the further detail included with the figure, after striking a reef his ship sank along with his coffin which is retrieved by the survivors, intent on claiming an unspecified reward, and brought ashore. Upon opening it his bones absorb the sun’s rays! Then “at midnight, re-energised, his Ghost with fantastic swordplay takes a terrible revenge”.

Full page Ghost of Cap’n Kidd advertisement circa 1976.

Alas, no such imaginings accompanied the more subdued enthusiasm of the two blister-card Disguise Packs (containing two additional costumes) released in 1976 and we can only draw inspiration from their names: Buccaneer Captain and Spanish Officer.

(More adventure details for the 1976 Western series of Fighting Furies available in a separate post).

#fightingfurie #matchboxfightingfuries #vintageactionfigures

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brookstonalmanac · 2 years

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Events 8.14

74 BC – A group of officials, led by the Western Han minister Huo Guang, present articles of impeachment against the new emperor, Liu He, to the imperial regent, Empress Dowager Shangguan. The articles, enumerating the 1127 offences (sexual debauchery, fiscal negligence, cronyism, etc.) that the ministers found the new emperor to have committed over the course of his 27-day rule, result in the unprecedented impeachment — and summary deposition on the same day — of the emperor by the bureaucracy. 29 BC – Octavian holds the second of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes. 1040 – King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland. 1183 – Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan. 1264 – After tricking the Venetian galley fleet into sailing east to the Levant, the Genoese capture an entire Venetian trade convoy at the Battle of Saseno. 1352 – War of the Breton Succession: Anglo-Bretons defeat the French in the Battle of Mauron. 1370 – Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, grants city privileges to Karlovy Vary. 1385 – Portuguese Crisis of 1383–85: Battle of Aljubarrota: Portuguese forces commanded by John I of Portugal defeat the Castilian army of John I of Castile. 1592 – The first sighting of the Falkland Islands by John Davis. 1598 – Nine Years' War: Battle of the Yellow Ford: Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeat an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal. 1720 – The Spanish military Villasur expedition is defeated by Pawnee and Otoe warriors near present-day Columbus, Nebraska. 1784 – Russian colonization of North America: Awa’uq Massacre: The Russian fur trader Grigory Shelikhov storms a Kodiak Island Alutiit refuge rock on Sitkalidak Island, killing 500+ Alutiit. The consequent subjugation of the Alutiiq on Kodiak Island allows Shelikhov to establish the first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska at Three Saints Bay. 1790 – The Treaty of Wereloe ended the 1788–1790 Russo-Swedish War. 1791 – Slaves from plantations in Saint-Domingue hold a Vodou ceremony led by houngan Dutty Boukman at Bois Caïman, marking the start of the Haitian Revolution. 1814 – A cease fire agreement, called the Convention of Moss, ended the Swedish–Norwegian War. 1816 – The United Kingdom formally annexes the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, administering the islands from the Cape Colony in South Africa. 1842 – American Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida. 1848 – Oregon Territory is organized by act of Congress. 1880 – Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed. 1885 – Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint. 1893 – France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration. 1900 – The Eight-Nation Alliance occupies Beijing, China, in a campaign to end the bloody Boxer Rebellion in China. 1901 – The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21. 1914 – World War I: Start of the Battle of Lorraine, an unsuccessful French offensive. 1917 – World War I: The Republic of China, which had heretofore been shipping labourers to Europe to assist in the war effort, officially declares war on the Central Powers, although it will continue to send to Europe labourers instead of combatants for the remaining duration of the war. 1920 – The 1920 Summer Olympics, having started four months earlier, officially open in Antwerp, Belgium, with the newly-adopted Olympic flag and the Olympic oath being raised and taken at the Opening Ceremony for the first time in Olympic history. 1921 – Tannu Uriankhai, later Tuvan People's Republic is established as a completely independent country (which is supported by Soviet Russia). 1933 – Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn; destroying 240,000 acres (970 km2) of land. 1935 – Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired. 1936 – Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last known public execution in the United States. 1941 – World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims. 1947 – Pakistan gains independence from the British Empire. 1959 – Founding and first official meeting of the American Football League. 1967 – UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal. 1969 – The Troubles: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland as political and sectarian violence breaks out, marking the start of the 37-year Operation Banner. 1971 – Bahrain declares independence from Britain. 1972 – An Ilyushin Il-62 airliner crashes near Königs Wusterhausen, East Germany killing 156 people. 1980 – Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland shipyards. 1994 – Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, also known as "Carlos the Jackal", is captured. 1996 – Greek Cypriot refugee Solomos Solomou is shot and killed by a Turkish security officer while trying to climb a flagpole in order to remove a Turkish flag from its mast in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus. 2003 – A widescale power blackout affects the northeast United States and Canada. 2005 – Helios Airways Flight 522, en route from Larnaca, Cyprus to Prague, Czech Republic via Athens, crashes in the hills near Grammatiko, Greece, killing 121 passengers and crew. 2006 – 2006 Lebanon War: A ceasefire takes effect three days after the United Nations Security Council’s approval of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, formally ending hostilities between Lebanon and Israel. 2006 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sixty-one schoolgirls killed in Chencholai bombing by Sri Lankan Air Force air strike. 2007 – The Kahtaniya bombings kills at least 500 people. 2013 – Egypt declares a state of emergency as security forces kill hundreds of demonstrators supporting former president Mohamed Morsi. 2013 – UPS Airlines Flight 1354 crashes short of the runway at Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport, killing both crew members on board. 2015 – The US Embassy in Havana, Cuba re-opens after 54 years of being closed when Cuba–United States relations were broken off. 2021 – A magnitude 7.2 earthquake strikes southwestern Haiti, killing at least 2,248 people and causing a humanitarian crisis.

#Events

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studyhelianthus · 5 years

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A Pirate Story: Boca Raton Legends.

La Boca del Ratón and/or “Thieves’ Inlet”!?

If Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and ‘discovered’ America in 1492, then Florida was ‘saved’ by Latin American culture, since the English saw the land as temporarily reserved.

My analogy of Queen Nur ‘s re-telling of a latino folktale, sometimes called The Barking Mouse: Boca Raton got it’s name ‘La Boca del Ratón’ or ‘The Mouse’s Mouth’, because when there were pirates smuggling things passed the rugged rocks within the lagoon and into Spanish American colonies it was essential to know at least two languages. For the Contraband (Colonial Spanish America) smuggling, fraud, illicit commerce, and illegal trade were vital elements for the economic success, the growth of the contraband’s income and it’s total market value of goods and services.

ROWF!! GGROOWFF! ROWF!! WARF! Heh. Para- language is based on pairing the sound/tone, speed, quality/intensity, and onomatopoeia (or creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests sounds that are not real words, like “oooh”) with one’s spoken language and physical features, such as facial expressions, like a smirk, or gestures, like pointing. Other methods of communication beyond spoken languages are written language, kinesics or body movements and gestures, and proxemics or personal space. So, when the mouse barks in the book by Antonio Sacre called, The Barking Mouse, think of how different forms of communication can drive out the darkness with the light of understanding.

Lingua Franca is a pidgin, a simplified version of one language that combines the vocabulary of a number of different languages. A trade language is a third language used by numerous communities around the Mediterranean, to communicate with diverse groups of people in different countries. Creole languages, such as Portuguese, become the primary language of an area when a pidgin is used frequently over the period. Cape Verdean Creole is the most widely-spoken Portuguese-based creole languages. Understanding is at the roots of love; those who don’t attempt to overcome language barriers to power through ‘effective communication’, burn their country’s soil, so that no one ever grows.

Pirates began raiding the Florida’s coast when the Spanish, the first Europeans, settled here in the 1500′s. When pirates were given permission to raid and pillage Florida towns on behalf of a government, they were called privateers; therefore, Christopher Columbus was a privateer, a legal private! The English established their first colony at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, and the Pilgrims - founders of the New Plymouth Colony (meaning "mouth of the River Plym") - arrived to Massachusetts in 1620; in consequence, the Native Americans began to perish. By 1650, England had formed a dominant presence on the Atlantic coast.

More than 50 years before the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, the first true Thanksgiving took place in St. Augustine, Florida. According to the National Park Service, La Florida was first influenced by Spanish traditions from the Iberian peninsula. The culture that emerged in the colonial New World was a mixture of European, African, and local Native customs. "Latinized" America at the time became a diverse, capable, and complex society. As stated in the proceedings of the Annual International Native American Language Issues (NALI), Effective Language Education Practices and Native Language Survival, the United States has been the home of more bilinguals than any other nation in world history. We have been living in the home of more bilinguals than any other country in the world, way before the 1988 Florida Official English Amendment: the passing of English-only laws.

The Spanish were open to having interracial marriages between the natives (Timucua) and the colonists, because it was a way of survival, and without it the colonies may have not lasted long; therefore, it was essential to know at least two languages. The genocide of the Taíno (Arawaks) - the native people of the northern Caribbean (present-day Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, etc.) - took place between 1492-1518, when the Spanish were led by Christopher Columbus. They killed men, women, children, and even babies; genocide and disease wiped out approximately 3 million of the 3.5 million inhabitants of Hispaniola. In the event of the Spanish missions in Florida, the souls of the Timucua were saved. The native people were transformed into loyal Catholic subjects of the Spanish crown, and mixed-race people were placed below the pure Spanish and above the pure natives.

In 1566, Martín de Argüelles was the first child born of European ancestry recorded in the Spanish settlement of Saint Augustine, Spanish Florida. His parents were Martín de Argüelles (Sr.) and Leonor Morales. His father, Martín Argüelles Sr., was one of the privateers who came to ‘New Spain’ or ‘La Florida’ in the New World with Captain General Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565. During the development of the ‘New World’, money really seemed to be the root of all evil, but before the global possession of the Leprechaun, we were always enchanted by the ‘Demon of Fear’. Fear incites the rejection of diversity and a belief in scarcity. For this reason, ancient wars were fought for commodities and land or territory. Now, the monetary system controls us and plays on our fears by triggering a real sense of scarcity and hierarchical power, which sets the stage for competition and warfare.

Nevertheless, the Spanish colonized American because they were in search for gold and silver, but they didn’t find anything. In spite of that, the Spanish accumulated their riches when they conquered the Aztec in Central America during the Spanish–Aztec War (1519–21), and Inca Empires in South America. They were able to colonize the south after ambushing and seizing the Inca’s ruler, Atahualpa, in the 1532 Battle of Cajamarca, and engrossing themselves in 40 years of war which ended in 1572. Spanish was the official language of New Spain, and those who did not know it sought Nahuatl-speaking priests to communicate with Spanish rulers. Nahuatl, a native American language spoken by the Aztec, was the ‘Lingua Franca’ throughout Spanish North America, as it was used in trade and the courts. As stated by Legends and Chronicles - a site dedicated to ancient history and mythology - King Philip II of Spain decreed in 1570 that Nahuatl become the official language of the colonies of New Spain, in order to facilitate communication between the natives of the colonies.

Florida Memory, the state archives of Florida, documents the first arrival of African slaves to St. Augustine in 1581. Not too long after, the first permanent English settlement in North America, Jamestown Colony, would be established on May 14, 1607. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), writes that fugitive slaves were escaping from enslavement in the Carolinas and Georgia to Florida for sanctuary and freedom. Sometime between March and November of 1738, the Spanish settlers in Florida formed a town named Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, two miles to the north of St. Augustine. Spanish Florida was now the African-American slaves’ first Promised Land. Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose was a free black settlement that came to be known as Fort Mose.

BLACKBEARD

Well... As the legend goes, approximately three years after an English pirate named Blackbeard, Edward Teach or Edward Thatch, fought in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), he wrecked havoc in the Gulf of Mexico amongst Spanish merchant’s ships; thereafter, he became known at the ‘El Gran Diablo’ (Spanish for ‘The Great Devil’). El Gran Diablo’s low-spirited crew were still dissatisfied; they wanted gold, so they sailed to the Florida coast to retrieve the treasures from the Spanish fleet that was previously wrecked in 1715.

The 1715 Treasure Fleet or Spanish Treasure Convoy was use to transport European goods annually from metropolitan Spain (’the mother country’) to the Spanish colonies in the Americas, such as, gold and silver. This fleet was seen as the holy grail and an irresistible target for ruthless pirates. Nevertheless, on July 31, 1715, seven days after departing from Havana, Cuba, eleven out of twelve ships were lost in a hurricane near present-day Vero Beach, Florida.

Now, ‘El Gran Diablo’ and his crew wanted to take possession of the remainder, but scavengers had already taken what was visible to the naked eye. Eventually, he moved north and when we reached the Topsail Inlet, on June, 3, 1718, his flagship - the Queen Anne’s Revenge - ran aground and sank. Four months later, Judge Nicholas Trott sentenced Bonnet to death, and he was said to be hung in Charleston, South Carolina, but he didn’t die yet. He was said to have died in a bloody battle, where he was beheaded to ensure his death. His head was displayed on his enemy’s ship, and his body was thrown into the sea.

CAPTAIN GENERAL PEDRO MENÈDEZ

The British attacked St. Augustine, and destroyed Fort Mose. The Spanish reconstructed Fort Mose in 1752; the settlement had a church and 22 huts housing nearly 100 people. As for Menendez, he was captured and sold as a slave, but by 1759 he was free and once again in command. At this time, Fort Mose consisted of 37 men, 15 women, seven boys and eight girls. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) continues to note that in 1763, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, the Spanish were forced to abandon Florida but gained Cuba in return. In August, Menendez led 48 men, women and children on the schooner ‘Nuestra Senora de los Dolores’ (spanish for ‘Our Lady of Sorrows’) and sailed to Cuba, where they settled in Regla, a town near the city of Havana.

Hence, Fort Mose is now memorialized as a national historic landmark, and Florida was saved by Latin American culture! Think about it. If Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and ‘discovered’ America in 1492, then Florida was indeed ‘saved’ by Latin American culture, since the English saw the land as temporarily reserved.

#a pirate story #Florida #blackbeard #CAPTAIN GENERAL PEDRO MENÈDEZ

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NegOr gears up for Papal Nuncio’s visit

#PHnews: NegOr gears up for Papal Nuncio’s visit

DUMAGUETE CITY - The Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Italian Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, D.D. will be visiting Negros Oriental on Oct. 28 and 29.

On his first day here, Papal Nuncio will visit the Diocese of Dumaguete, where a series of activities have been lined up for him, said Dumaguete Bishop Julito B. Cortes during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

Cortes said the Nuncio was originally invited as a special guest of St. Paul University-Dumaguete (SPUD) in its founding anniversary day on Oct. 29.

But apart from gracing the SPUD activity, the Nuncio wanted “to make a pastoral visit to the Diocese of Dumaguete considering that it is the first time for him to come to the diocese,” the bishop said.

Following consultations with SPUD officials and organizers from the diocese, Cortes said: “we decided to make it a full-blown pastoral visit of the Nuncio, after all, he is the representative of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, in the country”.

During the pastoral visit, Caccia will make brief stops at the St. John Marie Vianney Home for the Clergy, the St. Joseph Seminary College (SJSC), the Carmelite Monastery and the new Mater Ecclesiae building for the Propaedeutic or formerly pre-college seminarians of the SJSC, all in Agan-an in Sibulan town.

From Sibulan, the Nuncio’s convoy will motor to Tanjay City, about an hour’s drive from this capital, for the blessing and inauguration of the Museo Eclesiastico de Tanjay.

The museum houses several liturgical artifacts, said Tanjay parish priest Msgr. Glenn Corsiga, the concurrent vicar general of the diocese.

A testimonial lunch will follow, where the Papal Nuncio is expected to speak briefly before proceeding back to Dumaguete.

At 4 p.m., Caccia and his party will proceed to Bacong town to visit the famous St. Augustine of Hippo Parish Church, declared by the National Museum as a National Cultural Treasure, and the church’s old, Spanish-era convent.

The Nuncio will then preside over a concelebrated mass at the Cathedral of St. Catherine of Alexandria in Dumaguete City, to be followed by a testimonial dinner in his honor, with the Dumaguete clergy.

Since it is not a state visit, preparations for the Nuncio’s coming here would not include the usual ceremonial activities such as military arrival honors at the airport, said Fr. Carmelito Limbaga Jr., the diocesan chancellor.

However, security will be tight considering that the Papal Nuncio is a top-level diplomat appointed by the Holy See to represent the Pope in the country, said Fr. Bernie Lingcong, who is in charge of the security preparations.

“As a pastoral visit, we consider his visit as a visit of the Holy Father himself, being a representative of Pope Francis,” Cortes said.

“He carries with him the blessing of the Holy Father, the solidarity, the expression of communion, and the solicitude for the particular church of Dumaguete,” he added. (PNA)

***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "NegOr gears up for Papal Nuncio’s visit." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1084101 (accessed October 25, 2019 at 10:12PM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "NegOr gears up for Papal Nuncio’s visit." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1084101 (archived).

#Philippines #News #Filipino #Pinoy #Tourism #Politics #Culture #Editorial #Environment #Society #History

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