The number of internationally operating NGOs is estimated at 40,000. National numbers are even higher: Russia has 277,000 NGOs; India is estimated to have around 3.3 million NGOs in year 2009 that is one NGO for less than 400 Indians, and many times the number of primary schools and primary health centres in India.
One of the earliest mentions of the term "NGO" was in 1945 when the UN was created. The UN introduced the term "NGO" to distinguish between the participation of international private organizations and intergovernmental specialized agencies. According to the UN, all kinds of private organizations that are independent from government control can be recognized as "NGOs." "NGOs" cannot seek to diminish a nation's government in the shape of an opposing political party; NGOs also need to be non-criminal and non-profit. Professor Peter Willets, from the City University of London, argues the definition of NGOs can be interpreted differently by various organizations and depending on a situation’s context. He defines an NGO as “"an independent voluntary association of people acting together on a continuous basis for some common purpose other than achieving government office, making money or illegal activities." In this view, two main types of NGOs are recognized according to the activities they pursue: operational and campaigning NGO’s. Although Willets proposes the operational and campaigning NGOs as a tool to differentiate the main activities of these organizations, he also explains that they have more similarities than differences. Their activities are unrestricted; thus operational NGOs may need to campaign and campaigning NGOs may need to take on structural projects.
NGO consultative status with ECOSOC:
A consultative status for an NGO is the right to participate in resolutions and deliberations within the ECOSOC, which is the Economic and Social Council in the United Nations. It also gives the right to participate in other international fora, such as the Human Rights Council.
In order to be eligible for a consultative status, an NGO must have at least two years of existence, which requires to have been properly registered with the respective authorities and government. The organizations must have a democratic constitution, representative authority, established headquarters, accountability for transparent and democratic decision-making and be independent from government control.
NGOs are defined by the World Bank as "private organizations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development".
There is a growing movement within the non-profit organization/non-government sector to define itself in a more constructive, accurate way. The "non-profit" designation is seen to be particularly dysfunctional for at least three reasons: 1) It says nothing about the purpose of the organization, only what it is not; 2) It focuses the mind on "profit" as being the opposite of the organization's purpose; 3) It implies that the organization has few financial resources and may run out of money before completing its mission. Instead of being defined by "non-" words, organizations are suggesting new terminology to describe the sector. The term "social benefit organization" (SBO) is being adopted by some organizations. This defines them in terms of their positive mission. The term "civil society organization" (CSO) has also been used by a growing number of organizations, such as the Center for the Study of Global Governance. The term "citizen sector organization" (CSO) has also been advocated to describe the sector — as one of citizens, for citizens. These labels, SBO and CSO, position the sector as its own entity, without relying on language used for the government or business sectors. However, some have argued that ''CSO'' is not particularly helpful, given that most NGOs are in fact funded by governments and/or profit-driven businesses and that some NGOs are clearly hostile to independently organized people's organizations. The term "social benefit organization" seems to avoid that problem, since it does not assume any particular structure, but rather focuses on the organization's mission.
Rapid development of the non-governmental sector occurred in western countries as a result of the processes of restructuring of the welfare state. Further globalization of that process occurred after the fall of the communist system and was an important part of the Washington consensus.
Globalization during the 20th century gave rise to the importance of NGOs. Many problems could not be solved within a nation. International treaties and international organizations such as the World Trade Organization were centred mainly on the interests of capitalist enterprises. In an attempt to counterbalance this trend, NGOs have developed to emphasize humanitarian issues, developmental aid and sustainable development. A prominent example of this is the World Social Forum, which is a rival convention to the World Economic Forum held annually in January in Davos, Switzerland. The fifth World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in January 2005 was attended by representatives from more than 1,000 NGOs. Some have argued that in forums like these, NGOs take the place of what should belong to popular movements of the poor. Others argue that NGOs are often imperialist in nature, that they sometimes operate in a racialized manner in third world countries, and that they fulfill a similar function to that of the clergy during the high colonial era. The philosopher Peter Hallward argues that they are an aristocratic form of politics. Whatever the case, NGO transnational networking is now extensive.
NGO type by orientation
NGO type by level of co-operation
Apart from "NGO", often alternative terms are used as for example: independent sector, volunteer sector, civil society, grassroots organizations, transnational social movement organizations, private voluntary organizations, self-help organizations and non-state actors (NSA's).
Non-governmental organizations are a heterogeneous group. A long list of acronyms has developed around the term "NGO".
These include:
USAID refers to NGOs as ''private voluntary organisations''. However many scholars have argued that this definition is highly problematic as many NGOs are in fact state and corporate funded and managed projects with professional staff.
NGOs exist for a variety of reasons, usually to further the political or social goals of their members or funders. Examples include improving the state of the natural environment, encouraging the observance of human rights, improving the welfare of the disadvantaged, or representing a corporate agenda. However, there are a huge number of such organizations and their goals cover a broad range of political and philosophical positions. This can also easily be applied to private schools and athletic organizations.
Some of the earliest forms of transnational environmental NGOs started to appear after the Second World War with the creation of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). After the UN was formed in 1945, more environmental NGO started to emerge in order to address more specific environmental issues. In 1946, the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was created with the purpose of advocating and representing scientific issues and collaboration among environmental NGOs. In 1969, the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) was funded to increase and improve collaboration among environmentalists. This collaboration was later reinforced and stimulated with the creation of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Program in 1971. In 1972, the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, tried to address the issues on Sweden’s plead for international intervention on trans-boundary pollution from other European industrialized nations.
Transnational environmental NGOs have taken on diverse issues around the globe, but one of the best-known cases involving the work of environmental NGO’s can be traced back to Brazil during the 1980s. The United States got involved with deforestation concerns due to the allegations of environmentalists dictating deforestation to be a global concern, and after 1977 the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act added an Environmental and Natural Resources section.
During the early 1980s the Brazilian government created the Polonoreste developing program, which the World Bank agreed to finance. The Polonoreste program aimed to urbanized areas of the Amazon, which were already occupied by local indigenous groups. Rapid deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon called the attention and intervention of UNESCO, who utilized its Program on Man and the Biosphere to advocate against the Polonoreste program, on the grounds of violating the rights of the indigenous groups living in the Amazon. In the case of deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon, the environment NGOs were able to put pressure on the World Bank to cancel the loans for the Polonoreste program. Due to the leverage that the U.S. has over the bank, in 1985 the World Bank suspended the financial aid to the Polonoreste Program. The work of environmental NGOs in the Brazilian case was successful because there was a point of leverage that made the targeted actor vulnerable to international pressure.
Even though the goals of environmental NGOs might have in common issues related to the environment, its exploitation and how to protect it, these organizations are very diverse and lack a central form of international hegemony. There is, however a clear distinction between the interests and goals among groups located in industrialized countries, often referred as the states of the north, and nations located in developing countries or southern states. Northern states mainly concern includes issues due to poverty, increase of population in developing countries and economic development in the north. In the other hand, southern states blame developing countries for overconsumption and pollution resulting from industrialization. Groups from poorer nations blame the industrialized world for inequalities in the international economic system and negatively criticize the implementation of polluting companies in southern states.
There is also a distinction among groups that take on particular and specific socioeconomic issues related to the environment. The Women’s Environment and Development Organization was created in 1990 with the purpose to advocate for gender inclusion in work related to the Earth Summit. Other groups might focus on issues that include racial minorities and individuals from lower income backgrounds.
Operational NGOs Operational NGOs seek to "achieve small scale change directly through projects." " They mobilize financial resources, materials and volunteers to create localized programs in the field. They hold large scale fundraising events, apply to governments and organizations for grants and contracts in order to raise money for projects. They often operate in a hierarchical structure; with a main headquarters staffed by professionals who plan projects, create budgets, keep accounts, report, and communicate with operational fieldworkers who work directly on projects Operational NGOs deal with a wide range of issues, but are most often associated with the delivery of services and welfare, emergency relief and environmental issues. Operational NGOs can be further categorized, one frequently used categorization is the division into relief-oriented versus development-oriented organizations; they can also be classified according to whether they stress service delivery or participation; or whether they are religious or secular; and whether they are more public or private-oriented. Operational NGOs can be community-based, national or international. The defining activity of operational NGOs is implementing projects.
Campaigning NGOs Campaigning NGOs seek to "achieve large scale change promoted indirectly through influence of the political system." Campaigning NGOs need an efficient and effective group of professional members who are able to keep supporters informed, and motivated. They must plan and host demonstrations and events that will keep their cause in the media. They must maintain a large informed network of supporters who can be mobilized for events to garner media attention and influence policy changes. The defining activity of campaigning NGOs is holding demonstrations. Campaigning NGOs often deal with issues relating to human rights, women's rights, children's rights. The primary purpose of an Advocacy NGO is to defend or promote a specific cause. As opposed to operational project management, these organizations typically try to raise awareness, acceptance and knowledge by lobbying, press work and activist events.
Operational and Campaigning NGOs It is not uncommon for NGOs to make use of both activities. Many times, operational NGOs will use campaigning techniques if they continually face the same issues in the field that could be remedied through policy changes. At the same time, Campaigning NGOs, like human rights organizations often have programs that assist the individual victims they are trying to help through their advocacy work.
Concerns about NGOs
NGOs were intended to fill a gap in government services, but in countries like India, NGOs are gaining a powerful stronghold in decision making. In the interest of sustainability, most donors require that NGOs demonstrate a relationship with governments. State Governments themselves are vulnerable because they lack strategic planning and vision. They are therefore sometimes tightly bound by a nexus of NGOs, political bodies, commercial organizations and major donors/funders, making decisions that have short term outputs but no long term affect. NGOs in India are under regulated, political, and recipients of large government and international donor funds. NGOs often take up responsibilities outside their skill ambit. Governments have no access to the number of projects or amount of funding received by these NGOs. There is a pressing need to regulate this group while not curtailing their unique role as a supplement to government services.
There is some dispute as to whether expatriates should be sent to developing countries. Frequently this type of personnel is employed to satisfy a donor who wants to see the supported project managed by someone from an industrialized country. However, the expertise these employees or volunteers may be counterbalanced by a number of factors: the cost of foreigners is typically higher, they have no grassroot connections in the country they are sent to, and local expertise is often undervalued.
The NGO sector is an important employer in terms of numbers. For example, by the end of 1995, CONCERN worldwide, an international Northern NGO working against poverty, employed 174 expatriates and just over 5,000 national staff working in ten developing countries in Africa and Asia, and in Haiti.
Even though the term "non-governmental organization" implies independence from governments, most NGOs depend heavily on governments for their funding. A quarter of the US$162 million income in 1998 of the famine-relief organization Oxfam was donated by the British government and the EU. The Christian relief and development organization World Vision United States collected US$55 million worth of goods in 1998 from the American government. Nobel Prize winner Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (known in the USA as Doctors Without Borders) gets 46% of its income from government sources.
Government funding of NGOs is controversial, since, according to David Rieff, writing in ''The New Republic'', "the whole point of humanitarian intervention was precisely that NGOs and civil society had both a right and an obligation to respond with acts of aid and solidarity to people in need or being subjected to repression or want by the forces that controlled them, whatever the governments concerned might think about the matter." Some NGOs, such as Greenpeace do not accept funding from governments or intergovernmental organizations.
The governments of the countries an NGO works or is registered in may require reporting or other monitoring and oversight. Funders generally require reporting and assessment, such information is not necessarily publicly available. There may also be associations and watchdog organizations that research and publish details on the actions of NGOs working in particular geographic or program areas.
In recent years, many large corporations have increased their corporate social responsibility departments in an attempt to preempt NGO campaigns against certain corporate practices. As the logic goes, if corporations work ''with'' NGOs, NGOs will not work ''against'' corporations.
In December 2007, The United States Department of Defense Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) S. Ward Casscells established an International Health Division under Force Health Protection & Readiness. Part of International Health's mission is to communicate with NGOs in areas of mutual interest. Department of Defense Directive 3000.05, in 2005, requires DoD to regard stability-enhancing activities as a mission of importance equal to combat. In compliance with international law, DoD has necessarily built a capacity to improve essential services in areas of conflict such as Iraq, where the customary lead agencies (State Department and USAID) find it difficult to operate. Unlike the "co-option" strategy described for corporations, the OASD(HA) recognizes the neutrality of health as an essential service. International Health cultivates collaborative relationships with NGOs, albeit at arms-length, recognizing their traditional independence, expertise and honest broker status. While the goals of DoD and NGOs may seem incongruent, the DoD's emphasis on stability and security to reduce and prevent conflict suggests, on careful analysis, important mutual interests.
NGOs are not subjects of international law, as states are. An exception is the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is subject to certain specific matters, mainly relating to the Geneva Convention.
The Council of Europe in Strasbourg drafted the European Convention on the Recognition of the Legal Personality of International Non-Governmental Organizations in 1986, which sets a common legal basis for the existence and work of NGOs in Europe. Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects the right to freedom of association, which is also a fundamental norm for NGOs.
Issa G. Shivji is one of Africa's leading experts on law and development issues as an author and academic. His critique on NGOs is found in two essays: "Silences in NGO discourse: The role and future of NGOs in Africa" and "Reflections on NGOs in Tanzania: What we are, what we are not and what we ought to be". Shivji argues that despite the good intentions of NGO leaders and activists, he is critical of the "objective effects of actions, regardless of their intentions". Shivji argues also that the sudden rise of NGOs are part of a neoliberal paradigm rather than pure altruistic motivations. He is critical of the current manifestations of NGOs wanting to change the world without understanding it, and that the imperial relationship continues today with the rise of NGOs.
1. They have the ability to experiment freely with innovative approaches and, if necessary, to take risks.
2. They are flexible in adapting to local situations and responding to local needs and therefore able to develop integrated projects, as well as sectoral projects.
3. They enjoy good rapport with people and can render micro-assistance to very poor people as they can identify those who are most in need and tailor assistance to their needs.
4. They have the ability to communicate at all levels, from the neighbourhood to the top levels of government.
5. They are able to recruit both experts and highly motivated staff with fewer restrictions than the government.
Disadvantages
1. Paternalistic attitudes restrict the degree of participation in program/project design.
2. Restricted/constrained ways of approach to a problem or area.
3. Reduced/less replicability of an idea, due to non-representativeness of the project or selected area, relatively small project coverage, dependence on outside financial resources, etc.
4. "Territorial possessiveness" of an area or project reduces cooperation between agencies, seen as threatening or competitive.
5. Top-down models of development minimize the role of local knowledge and ownership to submit or conform to international norms and expectations.
6. Dependency on external assistance decreases the pressure for local and national governments to provide for their citizens.
The ''de facto'' reference resource for information and statistics on International NGOs (INGOs) and other transnational organisational forms is the Yearbook of International Organizations, produced by the Union of International Associations.
Category:Charities Category:Civil Affairs Category:Philanthropy Category:Political science terms Category:Types of organization
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Name | Sean Paul |
---|---|
Background | solo_singer |
Birth name | Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques |
Born | January 09, 1973 Kingston, Jamaica |
Genre | Dancehall, Reggae, R&B; |
Occupation | Musician, Actor, Songwriter, Producer |
Years active | 1998–present |
Associated acts | Dutty Cup Crew, Mr. Vegas, Jay Sean, Beyonce, Ziggy Marley |
Label | VP/Atlantic Records |
Website | }} |
Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques (born January 9, 1973), who performs under stage name Sean Paul, is a Jamaican pop rap and reggae singer from Dutty Cup Crew.
He appeared on ''Punk'd'', ''106 & Park'', ''Sean Paul Respect'', ''Making the Video'' ("Get Busy", "Gimme the Light", and "Like Glue") and his music videos have been broadcast on MTV and BET. Paul's biggest hits included "Get Busy", "Like Glue", "Gimme the Light", "Baby Boy", and "I'm Still in Love with You".
The video of "(When You Gonna) Give It up to Me" (featuring Keyshia Cole) was also featured in the movie ''Step Up'' in 2006.
He was nominated for four awards at the 2006 Billboard Music Awards, including male artist of the year, rap artist of the year, hot 100 single of the year, and pop single of the year for his hit "Temperature". He also won an American Music Award for "(When You Gonna) Give It Up To Me" beating Kanye West and Nick Lachey who were also nominated for the award.
His song "Send It On" from "The Trinity" featured on the 2005 Vauxhall Corsa advert. Sean Paul often contributes his songs to various ''Riddim Driven'' albums (by VP Records). In March 2007, he returned to his native Jamaica to perform at the Cricket World Cup 2007 opening ceremony.
Sean Paul appears on the game Def Jam: Fight for NY as part of Snoop Dogg's crew and again in the game's sequel, Def Jam Icon.
Speaking to Pete Lewis of 'Blues & Soul' magazine in August 2009, Sean Paul stated that 'Imperial Blaze' "Actually signifies 'The King's Fire'. It's that thing inside of you that gives you the desire to do whatever you do, and be the best in the world at it."
The new album consists of 20 tracks including "So Fine", "Press it Up", "She Want Me", "Private Party" which are party tracks and also love songs such as "Hold My Hand" (feat Keri Hilson), "Lately", "Now That I've Got Your Love" among others. Producers on the album include Don Corleone, Jeremy Harding, and Sean's brother Jason 'Jigzagula' Henriques. All the full songs of the album have been added to Sean Paul's Myspace page on the day of release of the album.
Up until now there have been eight music videos: "Always On My Mind (with Da'Ville)", "Give It To You (with Eve)", "Watch Them Roll", "Back It Up" (with Left Side/Mr. Evil), "(I Wanna See You) Push It Baby" (with Pretty Ricky), "Hit 'Em" (with Fahrenheit and his brother Jason "Jigzagula" Henriques), "Come Over" with Estelle, and also the video of his first single, "So Fine" from the new album.
He has recently been featured in Shaggy's video, "Save A Life", which also includes appearances from Elephant Man and Da'Ville, among others. In an effort to raise money for a children's hospital, Shaggy, Sean Paul and others will be having a benefit concert. All proceeds will go towards getting new equipment and technology 'For Aid to the Bustamante Hospital for Children'. In an interview in 2009 he says he is planning to release a new album in 2011.
During the premiere for MNET's Big Brother Africa 5: All-Stars on July 18, 2010, he performed his songs "Temperature", "Hold My Hand", and "So Fine". Sean Paul made a show in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
;Films
1998Year !! Title !! Role | |||
| | Belly (film)>Belly'' | Himself | |
Category:1973 births Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:Dancehall musicians Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Jamaican Roman Catholics Category:Jamaican male singers Category:Jamaican people of Chinese descent Category:Jamaican reggae singers Category:Living people Category:People from Kingston, Jamaica Category:Jamaican people of English descent Category:Reggae fusion artists
ar:شون بول bg:Шон Пол da:Sean Paul de:Sean Paul es:Sean Paul eo:Sean Paul fa:شان پال fr:Sean Paul hi:शॉन पॉल is:Sean Paul it:Sean Paul he:שון פול kn:ಸೀನ್ ಪಾಲ್ ka:შონ პოლი ht:Sean Paul lv:Šons Pols hu:Sean Paul nl:Sean Paul ja:ショーン・ポール no:Sean Paul pl:Sean Paul pt:Sean Paul ro:Sean Paul ru:Шон Пол simple:Sean Paul sr:Šon Pol fi:Sean Paul sv:Sean Paul th:ฌอน พอล tr:Sean Paul zh:尚恩·保罗This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Name | Ngô Đình Diệm |
---|---|
Order | President of the Republic of Vietnam |
Term start | 26 October 1955 |
Term end | 2 November 1963 |
Predecessor | None |
Successor | Dương Văn Minh |
Spouse | None |
Birth date | January 03, 1901 |
Birth place | Huế, French Indochina |
Death date | November 02, 1963 |
Death place | Saigon, South Vietnam |
Party | Can Lao |
Religion | Roman Catholicism}} |
Ngô Đình Diệm, , , Chữ Nôm: 吳廷琰; (January 3, 1901 – November 2, 1963) was the first president of South Vietnam (1955–1963). In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a 1955 plebiscite that was widely considered fraudulent. Proclaiming himself the Republic's first President, he demonstrated considerable political skill in the consolidation of his power, and his rule proved authoritarian, elitist, nepotistic, and corrupt. A Roman Catholic, Diệm pursued policies that rankled and oppressed the Republic's Montagnard natives and its Buddhist majority. Amid religious protests that garnered worldwide attention, Diệm lost the backing of his U.S. patrons and was assassinated by Nguyen Van Nhung, the aide of ARVN General Duong Van Minh on November 2, 1963, during a coup d'état that deposed his government.
His father, Ngô Đình Khả, scrapped plans to become a Roman Catholic priest and became a mandarin and counselor to Emperor Thành Thái during the French colonisation. He rose to become the minister of the rites and chamberlain, and keeper of the eunuchs. Khả had six sons and three daughters by his second wife, whom he married after his first died childless. Devoutly Roman Catholic, Khả took his entire family to Mass every morning. The third of six sons, Diệm was christened Jean-Baptiste in the cathedral in Huế. In 1907, the French deposed the emperor on the pretext of insanity, because of his complaints about the colonisation. Khả retired in protest and became a farmer. Diệm laboured in the family's rice fields while studying at a French Catholic school, and later entered a private school started by his father. At age fifteen he followed his elder brother, Ngô Đình Thục, later to become Vietnam's highest ranking Catholic bishop, into a monastery. After a few months he left, finding monastic life too rigorous.
At the end of his secondary schooling, his examination results at the French ''lycée'' in Huế saw him offered a scholarship to Paris but declined to contemplate becoming a priest. He dropped the idea, believing it to be too rigorous. He moved to Hanoi to study at the School of Public Administration and Law, a French school that trained Vietnamese bureaucrats. It was there that he had the only romantic relationship of his life when he fell in love with one of his teacher's daughters. After she persisted with her vocation, entering a convent, he remained celibate.
In 1929, he helped to round up communist agitators in his administrative area. He was rewarded with the promotion to the governorship of Binh Thuan Province, and in 1930 and 1931 suppressed the first peasant revolts organised by the communists, in collaboration with French forces. During the violent events, many villagers were raped and murdered. In 1933, with the return of Bảo Đại to ascend the throne, Diệm was appointed by the French to be his interior minister following lobbying by Bài. After calling for the French to introduce a Vietnamese legislature, he resigned after three months in office when this was rejected. He was stripped of his decorations and titles and threatened with arrest.
For the next decade, Diệm lived as a private citizen with his family, although he was kept under surveillance. He was to have no formal job for 21 years. He spent his time on reading, meditating, attending church, gardening, hunting and amateur photography. Being a conservative, Diệm was not a believer in revolutions and confined his nationalist activities to occasional trips to Saigon to meet with Phan Bội Châu. With the start of the Second World War in the Pacific, he attempted to persuade the invading Japanese forces to declare independence for Vietnam in 1942 but was ignored. He founded a secret political party, the Association for the Restoration of Great Vietnam. When its existence was discovered in the summer of 1944, the French declared Diệm to be a subversive and ordered his arrest. He fled to Saigon disguised as a Japanese officer. In 1945, the Japanese offered him the premiership of a puppet regime under Bảo Đại which they organised upon leaving the country. He declined initially, but regretted his decision and attempted to reclaim the offer. Bảo Đại had already given the post to another candidate and Diệm avoided the stigma of being a collaborationist. In September 1945, after the Japanese withdrawal, Hồ Chí Minh proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, his Việt Minh began fighting the French. Diệm attempted to travel to Huế to dissuade Bảo Đại from joining Hồ, but was arrested by the Việt Minh along the way and exiled to a highland village near the border. He might have died of malaria, dysentery and influenza had the local tribesmen not nursed him back to health. Six months later, he was taken to meet Hồ in Hanoi, but refused to join the Việt Minh, assailing Hồ for the death of his brother Khoi. Khoi had been buried alive by Việt Minh cadres.
Diệm continued to attempt to gather support for himself on an anti-Việt Minh platform. Despite having little success, Ho was sufficiently irritated to order his arrest. Diem narrowly evaded arrest but was given respite in November 1946 when clashes between the French and Vietminh escalated into full scale war, forcing to Việt Minh to divert their resources to fighting. Diem then moved south to the Saigon region to live with Thuc. Diem then jointly founded the Vietnam National Alliance, which called for France to grant Vietnam dominion status similar to the Commonwealth of Nations. The alliance was sufficient to generate support to fund newspapers in Hanoi and Saigon respectively. Both were shut down; the editor in Hanoi was arrested and hit men were hired to kill his Saigon counterpart. Diem's activities had gained him substantial publicity and when France decided to make concessions to placate nationalist agitators, they asked him to lobby Bảo Đại to join them. Diem gave up when Bảo Đại made a deal which he felt to be soft, and returned to Huế. In the meantime, the French had started the State of Vietnam and Diem refused Bảo Đại's offer to become the Prime Minister. He then published a new manifesto in newspapers proclaiming a third force different to communism and French colonialism, but raised little interest. In 1950, the Việt Minh lost patience sentenced him to death in absentia, and the French refused to protect him. Ho's cadres tried to kill him while he was traveling to visit his elder brother Ngo Dinh Thuc in the Mekong Delta, where he was the bishop of the Vĩnh Long diocese. Diem then left Vietnam in 1950.
A friend managed to organise a meeting with Wesley Fishel, an American academic who had done consultancy work for the United States government. Fishel was a proponent of the anti-colonial, anti-communist third force doctrine in Asia and was impressed with Diem. He helped Diem to organise contacts and meetings in the United States to enlist support. It was an opportune time for Diem, with the outbreak of the Korean War and McCarthyism helping to make Vietnamese anti-communists a sought after commodity in America. Diem was given a reception at the State Department with the Acting Secretary of State James Webb. Possibly intimidated, he gave a weak performance in which Thuc did much of the talking.
As a result, no further audiences with notable officials were afforded to him. However, he did meet Cardinal Francis Spellman, regarded as the most politically powerful cleric of his time. Spellman had studied with Thuc in Rome in the 1930s and was to become one of Diem's most powerful advocates. Diem obtained an audience with Pope Pius XII in Rome before further lobbying across Europe. Diem also attempted to convince Bảo Đại to make him the Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam but was turned down. Diệm returned to the United States to continue lobbying and in 1951 was able to secure an audience with Secretary of State Dean Acheson. During the next three years he lived at Spellman's Maryknoll seminary in Lakewood Township, New Jersey and occasionally at another seminary in Ossining, New York.
Cardinal Spellman helped Diệm to garner support among right-wing and Catholic circles. Diem toured the East Coast, speaking at universities, arguing that Vietnam could only be saved for the "free world" if the US sponsored a government of nationalists who were opposed to both the Việt Minh and the French. He was appointed as a consultant to Michigan State University's Government Research Bureau, where Fishel worked. MSU was administering government-sponsored assistance programs for cold war allies, and Diệm helped Fishel to lay the foundation for a program later implemented in South Vietnam, the Michigan State University Vietnam Advisory Group. As French power in Vietnam declined, Diệm's support in America made his stock rise.
With the fall of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 to the Vietminh, French control of Vietnam collapsed and Bảo Đại needed foreign help to sustain his State of Vietnam. Realising Diệm's popularity among American policymakers, he chose Diệm's youngest brother Ngo Dinh Luyen, who was studying in Europe at the time, to be part of his delegation at the 1954 Geneva Conference to determine the future of Indochina. Luyen represented Bảo Đại in his dealings with the Americans, who understood this to be an expression of interest in Diệm. With the backing of the Eisenhower administration, Bảo Đại named Diệm as the Prime Minister. The appointment was widely condemned by French officials, who felt that Diệm was incompetent, with the Prime Minister Mendes-France declaring Diệm to be a "fanatic".
The Geneva accords resulted in Vietnam being partitioned temporarily at the 17th parallel, pending elections in 1956 to reunify the country. The Vietminh controlled the north, while the French backed State of Vietnam controlled the south with Diệm as the Prime Minister. French Indochina was to be dissolved at the start of 1955. Diệm's South Vietnamese delegation chose not to sign the accords, refusing to have half the country under communist rule, but the agreement went into effect regardless.
Diệm arrived at Tan Son Nhut airport in Saigon on June 26, where only a few hundred people turned out to greet him, mainly Catholics. He managed only one wave after getting into his vehicle and did not smile. He was not a man of the people and did not intend to become one, being more interested in commanding respect than popular affection.
Diệm's position at the time was weak; Bảo Đại disliked Diệm and appointed him mainly to political imperatives. The French saw him as hostile and hoped that his rule would collapse. At the time, the French Expeditionary Corps was the most powerful military force in the south; Diệm's Vietnamese National Army was essentially organised and trained by the French. Its officers were installed by the French and the chief of staff General Nguyen Van Hinh was a French citizen; Hinh loathed Diệm and frequently disobeyed him. Diệm also had to contend with two religious sects, the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao, who wielded private armies in the Mekong Delta, with the Cao Dai estimated to have 25,000 men. The Việt Minh was also estimated to have control over a third of the country. The situation was worse in the capital, where the Binh Xuyen organised crime syndicate boasted an army of 40,000 and controlled a vice empire of brothels, casinos, extortion rackets, and opium factories unparalleled in Asia. Bảo Đại had given the Binh Xuyen control of the national police for 1.25 m USD, creating a situation that the Americans likened to Chicago under Al Capone in the 1920s. In effect, Diệm's control did not extend beyond his palace.
In August, Hinh launched a series of public attacks on Diệm, proclaiming that South Vietnam needed a "strong and popular" leader; Hinh bragged that he was preparing a coup. This was thwarted when Lansdale arranged overseas holiday invitations for Hinh's officers. Fearing Diệm's collapse, nine members of his government resigned during Hinh's abortive bid for power. Despite its failure, the French continued to encourage Diệm's enemies in an attempt to destabilize him.
Under the 1954 Geneva Accords, Vietnam was to undergo elections in 1956 to reunify the country. Diệm, noting that South Vietnam was not a party to the convention, canceled these. Criticising the Communists, he justified the electoral cancellation by claiming that the 1956 elections would be "meaningful only on the condition that they are absolutely free", despite his numerically impossible tally in the 1955 contest.
After coming under pressure from within the country and the United States, Diệm agreed to hold legislative elections in August 1959 for South Vietnam. Newspapers were not allowed to publish names of independent candidates or their policies, and political meetings exceeding five people were prohibited. Candidates were disqualified for petty reasons such as acts of vandalism against campaign posters. In the rural areas, candidates who ran were threatened using charges of conspiracy with the Viet Cong, which carried the death penalty. Phan Quang Dan, the government's most prominent critic, was allowed to run. Despite the deployment of 8,000 ARVN plainclothes troops into his district to vote, Dan still won with a 6–1 ratio. The busing of soldiers occurred across the country, and when the new assembly convened, Dan was arrested.
Diệm's rule was authoritarian and nepotistic. His most trusted official was his brother, Ngô Đình Nhu, leader of the primary pro-Diệm Can Lao political party, who was an opium addict and admirer of Adolf Hitler. He modeled the Can Lao secret police's marching style and torture styles on Nazi designs. Ngô Đình Cẩn, his younger brother, was put in charge of the former Imperial City of Huế. Although neither Cẩn or Nhu held any official role in the government, they ruled their regions of South Vietnam, commanding private armies and secret police.
Another brother, Ngô Đình Luyện, was appointed Ambassador to the United Kingdom. His elder brother, Ngô Đình Thục, was the archbishop of Huế. Despite this, Thuc lived in the Presidential Palace, along with Nhu, Nhu's wife and Diệm. Diệm was a devoutly Catholic, nationalistic and staunch anti-Communist, who preferred the philosophies of personalism and Confucianism.
Diệm's rule was also pervaded by family corruption. Can was widely believed to be involved in illegal smuggling of rice to North Vietnam on the black market and opium throughout Asia via Laos, as well as monopolising the cinnamon trade, amassing a fortune stored in foreign banks. With Nhu, Can competed for U.S. contracts and rice trade. Thuc, the most powerful religious leader in the country, was allowed to solicit "voluntary contributions to the Church" from Saigon businessmen, which was likened to "tax notices". Thuc also used his position to acquire farms, businesses, urban real estate, rental property and rubber plantations for the Catholic Church. He also used Army of the Republic of Vietnam personnel to work on his timber and construction projects. The Nhus amassed a fortune by running numbers and lottery rackets, manipulating currency and extorting money from Saigon businesses. Luyen became a multimillionaire by speculating in piasters and pounds on the currency exchange using inside government information.
Madame Nhu, the wife of his brother Nhu, was South Vietnam's First Lady, and a Catholic convert herself, led the way in Diệm's programs to reform Saigon society in accordance with Catholic values. Brothels and opium dens were closed, divorce and abortion made illegal, and adultery laws strengthened. Diệm also won a street war with the private army of the Binh Xuyen organised crime syndicate of the Cholon brothels and gambling houses who had enjoyed special favors under the French and Bảo Đại. He further dismantled the private armies of the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao religious sects, which controlled parts of the Mekong Delta. Diệm was also passionately anti-Communist. Tortures and killings of "communist suspects" were committed on a daily basis. The death toll was put at around 50,000 with 75,000 imprisonments, and Diệm's effort extended beyond communists to anti-communist dissidents and anti-corruption whistleblowers.
As opposition to Diệm's rule in South Vietnam grew, a low-level insurgency began to take shape there in 1957. Finally, in January 1959, under pressure from southern cadres who were being successfully targeted by Diệm's secret police, Hanoi's Central Committee issued a secret resolution authorizing the use of armed struggle in the South. On December 20, 1960, under instruction from Hanoi, southern communists established the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam in order to overthrow the government of the south. The NLF was made up of two distinct groups: South Vietnamese intellectuals who opposed the government and were nationalists; and communists who had remained in the south after the partition and regrouping of 1954 as well as those who had since come from the north, together with local peasants. While there were many non-communist members of the NLF, they were subject to the control of the party cadres and increasingly side-lined as the conflict continued; they did, however, enable the NLF to portray itself as a primarily nationalist, rather than communist, movement.
The cornerstone of Diệm's counterinsurgency effort was the Strategic Hamlet Program, which called for the consolidation of 14,000 villages of South Vietnam into 11,000 secure hamlets, each with its own houses, schools, wells, and watchtowers. The hamlets were intended to isolate the NLF from the villages, their source of recruiting soldiers, supplies and information.
The communists in southern Vietnam resolved that "if we are able to kill Ngo Dinh Diem, the leader of the current fascists dictatorial puppet government, the situation would develop along lines more favourable to our side." Accordingly, on February 22, 1957, when Diem made a visit to an economic fair in Ban Me Thuot, a communist cadre named Ha Minh Tri carried out a directive to assassinate the president. He approached Diem and fired a pistol from close range, but missed, hitting the Secretary of Agrarian Reform's left arm. The weapon jammed and security overpowered Tri before he was able to fire another shot. Diem was unmoved by the incident. There was a further attempt to assassinate Ngo (as well as his family) in 1962 when two air force officers —acting in unison —bombed the presidential palace.
This generated resentment among the populace, as land ownership was highly valued by Vietnamese society. Diệm declared that landlords could collect no more than 25%, but this was not enforced and in some cases the rent levels were higher than those under French colonisation. Under U.S. pressure, in 1956, he limited individual land holdings to 1.15 km², and reimbursed the landlords for the excess, which he sold to peasants. Many landlords evaded the redistribution by transferring the property to the name of family members.
Additionally, the ceiling limit was more than 30 times that allowed in South Korea and Taiwan, and the of Catholic Church land were exempted. As a result, only 13% of the South Vietnam's land was redistributed, and by the end of his regime, only 10% of the tenants had received any land, at a high cost. This policy failure generated anger, and in turn sympathy to the Việt Minh who had given the peasants free land. At the end of Diệm's rule, 10% of the population owned 55% of the land.
Believing that the central highlands may be of strategic importance to the Viet Cong or in a potential invasion by North Vietnam, Diệm decided to construct a Maginot Line of settlements. The area, inhabited by Montagnard indigenous people, had been largely allowed local autonomy in previous times, and the locals distrusted ethnic Vietnamese. Diệm initiated a program of internal migration where 210,000 Vietnamese, mainly Catholics, were moved to Montagnard land in fortified settlements. When the Montagnards protested, Diệm's forces confiscated their spears and bows, which they used to hunt for daily sustenance. Since then, and to the present day, Vietnam has been faced with a Montagnard insurgent separatist movement.
Additionally, the distribution of firearms to village self-defense militias intended to repel Viet Cong guerrillas saw weapons only given to Catholics, with Buddhists in the army being denied promotion if they refused to convert to Catholicism. Some Catholic priests ran their own private armies, and in some areas forced conversions, looting, shelling and demolition of pagodas occurred. Some Buddhist villages converted en masse in order to receive aid or avoid being forcibly resettled by Diệm's regime.
The Catholic Church was the largest landowner in the country, and the "private" status that was imposed on Buddhism by the French, which required official permission to conduct public Buddhist activities, was not repealed by Diệm. The land owned by the Catholic Church was exempt from land reform. Catholics were also ''de facto'' exempt from the corvée labor that the government obliged all citizens to perform; U.S. aid was disproportionately distributed to Catholic majority villages. Under Diệm, the Catholic Church enjoyed special exemptions in property acquisition, and in 1959, Diệm dedicated his country to the Virgin Mary. The white and gold Vatican flag was regularly flown at all major public events in South Vietnam. U.S. Aid supplies tended to go to Catholics, and the newly constructed Hue and Dalat universities were placed under Catholic authority to foster a Catholic-skewed academic environment.
The Buddhists pushed for a five point agreement: freedom to fly religious flags, an end to arbitrary arrests, compensation for the Huế victims, punishment for the officials responsible and religious equality. Diệm labeled the Buddhists as "damn fools" for demanding something that, according to him, they already enjoyed. He banned demonstrations, and ordered his forces to arrest those who engaged in civil disobedience. On June 3, 1963, protesters attempted to march towards Tu Dam Pagoda. Six waves of ARVN tear gas and attack dogs failed to disperse the crowds, and finally brownish-red liquid chemicals were doused on praying protesters, resulting in 67 being hospitalised for chemical injuries. A curfew was subsequently enacted. The turning point came in June when a Buddhist monk, Thích Quảng Đức, set himself on fire in the middle of a busy Saigon intersection in protest of Diệm's policies; photos of this event were disseminated around the world, and for many people these pictures came to represent the failure of Diệm's government. A number of other monks publicly self-immolated, and the U.S. grew increasingly frustrated with the unpopular leader's public image in both Vietnam and the United States. Diệm used his conventional anti-communist argument, identifying the dissenters as communists.
As demonstrations against his government continued throughout the summer, the special forces loyal to Diệm's brother Nhu conducted an August raid of the Xa Loi Pagoda in Saigon. The Pagodas were vandalised, monks beaten, the cremated remains of Thích Quảng Đức, which included a heart which did not disintegrate, were confiscated. Simultaneous raids were carried out across the country, with the Tu Dam Pagoda in Huế being looted, the statue of Gautama Buddha demolished and a body of a deceased monk confiscated. When the populace came to the defense of the monks, the resulting clashes saw 30 civilians killed and 200 wounded. In all 1400 monks were arrested, and some thirty were injured across the country. The U.S. indicated their disapproval of Diệm's administration when ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge visited the Pagoda ''ex post facto''. No further mass Buddhist protests occurred during the remainder of Diệm's rule.
During this time, Madame Nhu, a former Buddhist herself, who had converted to Catholicism, who was the ''de facto'' first lady because of Diệm's bachelor life, inflamed the situation by mockingly applauding the suicides, referring to them as "barbecues" while Nhu, stated "If the Buddhists want to have another barbecue, I will be glad to supply the gasoline." The pagoda raids stoked widespread public disquiet in the previously apolitical Saigon public. Students at Saigon University boycotted classes and rioted, which led to arrests, imprisonments and the closure of the university; this was repeated at Huế's University. When high school students demonstrated, Diệm arrested them as well; over 1,000 students from Saigon's leading high school, most of them children of Saigon public servants, were sent to re-education camps. Children as young as five were also sent to these camps on charges of anti-government graffiti.
Diệm's foreign minister Vu Van Mau resigned, shaving his head like a Buddhist monk in protest. When he attempted to leave the country on a religious pilgrimage, Diệm had him jailed.
After Diệm's assassination, South Vietnam was unable to establish a stable government and numerous coups took place during the first several years after his death. While the U.S. continued to influence South Vietnam's government, the assassination bolstered North Vietnamese attempts to characterize the South Vietnamese as supporters of colonialism.
Category:1901 births Category:1963 deaths Category:Murder in 1963 Category:People from Hue Category:People of the Vietnam War Category:Nguyễn Dynasty officials Category:Cold War leaders Category:Vietnamese anti-communists Category:Attempted assassination survivors Category:Assassinated heads of state Category:Assassinated Vietnamese politicians Category:Ngo family Category:Vietnamese Roman Catholics Category:Deaths by firearm in Vietnam Category:Anti-Buddhism Category:Michigan State University people Category:Leaders ousted by a coup Category:Political corruption Category:Heads of state of South Vietnam Category:People from Lakewood Township, New Jersey Category:People murdered in Vietnam *
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This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Name | Alicia Fox |
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Alt | An African-American woman with dark curly hair, wears a camouflage dress with a red belt and white fur trim on the shoulders. |
Names | Alicia FoxToriVictoria Crawford |
Height | |
Weight | |
Birth date | June 30, 1986 |
Birth place | Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida |
Billed | Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida |
Trainer | OVW StaffFCW Staff |
Debut | July 1, 2006 |
Retired | }} |
Prior to becoming a professional wrestler, Crawford was a model. She signed a contract with WWE in 2006, and debuted in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), a WWE developmental territory in July. That same year, on October 20, she won the OVW Women's Championship, but lost it the following day. Her reign is not officially recognized by OVW. The following year, she moved to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), another WWE developmental territory, where she competed regularly until 2009.
Crawford debuted on ''SmackDown'' in June 2008, using the name 'Alicia Fox' and the gimmick of a wedding planner. In November, she moved to the ECW brand, where she managed DJ Gabriel. As part of the Supplemental Draft, she moved back to SmackDown in April 2009, before being traded to the Raw brand two months later. Throughout the rest of 2009, Fox began unsuccessfully challenging for the WWE Divas Championship. She briefly managed Zack Ryder in May 2010, and the following month she won the Divas Championship for the first time. Fox held the championship until August 15. In late 2010, Fox appeared as a 'Pro' on the third season of ''NXT''. She returned to the SmackDown brand in April 2011, as part of the 2011 supplemental draft.
Crawford debuted for Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) on September 2, 2007, participating in a best body contest. Her FCW in-ring debut came on September 25, where she and Nattie Neidhart defeated The Bella Twins (Brianna and Nicole) in a tag team match. She quickly began feuding with The Bella Twins, while allying herself with Neidhart. The Bella Twins defeated the team of Crawford and Neidhart on two consecutive occasions, and on October 23, Crawford lost to Nicole in a singles match. A week later, she and Sheamus O'Shaunessy were defeated by Brianna and Kofi Kingston in a mixed tag team match. In December, Crawford teamed with Tommy Taylor in a loss to Brianna and Robert Anthony. The feud continued into 2008, with the Bellas defeating Crawford and Maryse Ouellet on January 8, and Crawford and Neidhart on January 19 and January 29. Following the completion of this feud, she began competing regularly against her former tag team partner, Neidhart. Neidhart won their first singles encounter on February 5 and was on the winning side of a tag team match on February 23, before Crawford won a singles match on February 26. Following her debut on SmackDown, Crawford changed her ring name to 'Alicia Fox'. She started managing Jack Gabriel in September, and teamed with Gabriel in mixed tag team matches against Mike Kruel and Wesley Holiday and Gabe Tuft and Melina, while continuing to compete in singles competition as well. Fox competed in the Queen of FCW tournament between December 2008 and February 2009, defeating Jenny Cash and Tiffany en route to the final, where she lost to Angela Fong.
After a three-month hiatus from WWE television, Fox resurfaced on the November 18 episode of ''ECW'' managing English wrestler DJ Gabriel, in a fan favorite role. Their on-screen association was explained by WWE claiming that Fox had moved her wedding planner business to England during her hiatus from WWE television, and that she had met Gabriel there, in storyline. Gabriel and Fox began feuding with the Burchill siblings (Paul and Katie Lea) in late December 2008. Fox made her in-ring debut on the January 6, 2009 episode of ''ECW'', in a loss to Katie Lea Burchill. The following week, on the January 13 episode of ''ECW'', Gabriel and Fox defeated the Burchill siblings in a mixed tag team match, giving Fox her first win as part of the brand. In March, Fox and Gabriel feuded with Tyson Kidd and Natalya, with Natalya defeating Fox on March 3 on ''ECW''. Fox competed in the 25 Divas battle royal at WrestleMania XXV, which was won by Santina Marella.
Fox was drafted to the SmackDown brand as a part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft on April 15. She made her in-ring debut as a SmackDown diva as a heel on the April 30 episode of ''WWE Superstars'', teaming with Michelle McCool to defeat Maria and Gail Kim. After winning her debut match, Fox became aligned with Michelle McCool, with the pair teaming together in tag team matches as well as accompanying each other to the ring for singles matches. She was in the corner of McCool when McCool won the WWE Women's Championship at The Bash.
On June 29 it was revealed that Fox had been traded to the Raw brand. The following week, she made her ''Raw'' debut in a tag team match teaming with Maryse against Gail Kim and Mickie James in a losing effort when Kim pinned Maryse. She gained her first victory on ''Raw'' on July 13, when Fox, Maryse, and Rosa Mendes won a six-Diva tag team match when Maryse pinned Mickie James. Fox picked up her first pinfall victory by pinning Kelly Kelly during a tag team match on the July 20 episode of ''Raw''. On the August 10 episode of ''Raw'', Fox was involved in a fatal four-way match to determine the number one contender for the WWE Divas Championship, but was unsuccessful. The following month, on the September 14 episode of ''Raw'', she defeated Gail Kim to become the number one contender to the Divas Championship. She received a match for the championship at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view against Mickie James on October 4, but was unsuccessful. Fox became the number one contender to the Divas Championship again on the November 2 episode of ''Raw'', by winning a battle royal which involved The Bella Twins, Eve Torres, Gail Kim, and Kelly Kelly. She challenged Melina two weeks later for the championship, but was unsuccessful. Melina vacated the Divas Championship due to injury, and a tournament was set up to determine the new champion in early January 2010. On the January 11, 2010 episode of ''Raw'', Fox defeated Kelly Kelly in the first round of the tournament, but lost to Gail Kim in the semi-finals two weeks later. Fox was on the winning team in a 10-Diva tag team match at WrestleMania XXVI, but on the losing side the following night in a rematch on ''Raw''. On the April 5 episode of ''Raw'', Fox was involved in a "Dress to Impress" battle royal to determine the number one contender to the WWE Divas Championship, but was unsuccessful, and the match was won by Eve Torres.
At the Fatal 4-Way pay-per-view on June 20, Fox competed in a fatal four-way match for the WWE Divas Championship, which also involved Gail Kim, Eve, and Maryse. Fox pinned Maryse to win both the match and the championship for the first time. She successfully defended the championship for the first time on the July 5 episode of ''Raw'', defeating Eve after feigning an ankle injury. As she faked an injury to retain the championship, Eve was granted a rematch at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view by Raw's anonymous General Manager, where Fox was again able to successfully retain the championship. Fox was part of the victorious team in a six-Diva tag team match on August 2, and declared herself to be undefeatable and the greatest Divas Champion in history. The former Divas Champion Melina made her return from injury to attack Fox. The following week Melina pinned Fox, receiveing a title match at SummerSlam. On August 15, at the SummerSlam pay per-view, Fox lost the Divas Championship to Melina.
On April 26, 2011, Fox was drafted back to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2011 supplemental draft. During the taping of the May 3 edition of ''SmackDown'', Fox suffered a shoulder injury in her first match back for the brand, in which she was defeated by Layla. After the match she was attacked by Kharma who caused the injury. However, she recovered after 3 weeks of being out of action. She returned on the May 27 edition of SmackDown, victorious in a tag team match with Tamina against Kaitlyn and the debuting AJ. On the June 3 edition of ''SmackDown!'', she and Tamina, this time with Rosa Mendes in their corner, once again defeated the team of Kaitlyn and AJ. On the June 17 edition of Smackdown, Alicia Fox teamed with Tamina and Rosa Mendes picking up a victory against Natalya, AJ, and Kaitlyn. Fox, then competed in ''WWE Superstars'' having two victories over Natalya & Kaitlyn in a singles matches. On the August 1 edition of ''Raw'', Fox competed in a number #1 contender battle royal for the Divas Championship, which was won by Beth Phoenix. On August 4 edition of ''WWE Superstars'', Fox defeated Kaitlyn. On the August 11 edition of ''WWE Superstars'', Fox got her seventh victory in a row by defeating Tamina. On the 19th of August edition of Smackdown, Alicia teamed with Natalya against AJ and Kelly Kelly in a losing effort. After the match, Fox and Natalya proceeded to argue in the ring. As Fox attempted to exit, Natalya knocked her to the floor before placing her in a sharpshooter, turning her face in the process. On the August 30 edition of ''SmackDown'', Fox cemented her face turn by teaming with Kelly Kelly in a losing effort to Beth Phoenix & Natalya.
Category:1986 births Category:African American professional wrestlers Category:American female models Category:American female professional wrestlers Category:Living people Category:People from St. Johns County, Florida Category:Professional wrestling managers and valets Category:African American women in sports
ca:Victoria Crawford de:Alicia Fox es:Victoria Crawford fa:آلیشا فاکس fr:Alicia Fox it:Victoria Crawford he:אלישה פוקס nl:Victoria Crawford ja:ビクトリア・クロフォード pl:Alicia Fox pt:Alicia Fox ru:Алисия Фокс simple:Alicia Fox fi:Alicia Fox tl:Alicia Fox th:อลิเซีย ฟอกซ์ vi:Victoria CrawfordThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
name | Ryuichi Sakamoto坂本龍一 |
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background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
born | January 17, 1952Tokyo, Japan |
instrument | Keyboard, piano |
genre | Classical, Electronic (dance, electro, electronica, house, progressive, techno), Experimental (avant‑garde, rock), J‑pop, New Wave, Soundtrack, Synthpop, World |
occupation | Musician, composer, record producer, actor |
years active | 1977–present |
label | Columbia Music Entertainment (1978–1979)Alfa Records (1979–1983)MIDI (1984–1986)Sony Music Entertainment Japan (1986–1987)EMI (1989–1991,1993)For Life Records (1994–1997)Warner Music (1998–2006)commmons (2006–present)A&M; RecordsRestless Records |
associated acts | Yellow Magic Orchestra, Akiko Yano, Chris Mosdell, Sandii, Japan, David Sylvian, Kiyoshiro Imawano, Michael Jackson, Mari Iijima, David Bowie, Youssou N'Dour, Madonna, Talvin Singh, Sketch Show }} |
He began acting and film composing with ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence'' (1983), which he starred in and composed the score for; the song "Forbidden Colours" which he composed for it became a worldwide hit and he won a BAFTA Award for the film's score. He later won an Academy Award and Grammy Award for scoring ''The Last Emperor'' (1987), and has also won two Golden Globe Awards for his work as a film composer. In addition, he also composed music for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics opening ceremony. In the early 1990s, he briefly reunited with YMO, playing an instrumental role in the techno and acid house movements of the era, before parting ways again shortly afterwards. His 1999 musical composition "Energy Flow", also known as the alternative title of the single disc ''Ura BTTB'', was the first number-one instrumental single in Japan's Oricon charts history. He has also occasionally worked on anime and video games, as a composer as well as a scenario writer. In the late 2000s, he reunited once again with YMO, while continuing to compose film music. In 2009, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France's Ministry of Culture for his musical contributions.
Sakamoto entered the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1970, earning a B.A. in music composition and an M.A. with special emphasis on both electronic and ethnic music. He studied ethnomusicology there with the intention of becoming a researcher in the field, due to his interest in various world music traditions, particularly the Japanese (especially Okinawan), Indian and African musical traditions. He was also trained in classical music and began experimenting with the electronic music equipment available at the university, including synthesizers such as the Buchla, Moog, and ARP. One of Sakamoto's classical influences was Claude Debussy, who he described as his "hero" and stated that “Asian music heavily influenced Debussy, and Debussy heavily influenced me. So, the music goes around the world and comes full circle.”
After working as a session musician with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi in 1977, the trio formed the internationally successful electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) in 1978. Known for their seminal influence on electronic music, the group helped pioneer electronic genres such as electropop/technopop, synthpop, cyberpunk music, ambient house, and electronica. The group's work has had a lasting influence across genres ranging from hip hop and techno to acid house and general melodic music.
Sakamoto was the songwriter and composer for a number of the band's hit songs, including "Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)" (1978), "Technopolis" (1979), "Nice Age" (1980), "Ongaku" (1983), and "You've Got to Help Yourself" (1983), while playing the keyboards for many of their other songs, including international hits such as "Computer Game / Firecracker" (1978) and "Rydeen" (1979), and singing in several songs such as "Kimi ni Mune Kyun" (1983). He also wrote "Technopolis" (1979), which contributed to the development of techno, and the international hit "Behind the Mask" (1978), a synthpop song for which he sang the vocals through a vocoder and which would later be covered by a number of international artists, including Michael Jackson and Eric Clapton.
In 1980, he released the solo album ''B-2 Unit'', which is considered to be his "edgiest" record. It is known for the electronic classic "Riot in Lagos", which is considered an early example of electro music (electro-funk), for having anticipated the beats and sounds of electro. Ryuichi Sakamoto, particularly his song "Riot in Lagos", had an influence on early electo and hip hop artists such as Afrika Bambaata, and was cited by Kurtis Mantronik as a major influence on his electro hip hop group Mantronix. The song was later included in Playgroup's compilation album ''Kings of Electro'' (2007), alongside later electro classics such as Hashim's "Al-Nafyish" (1983). According to ''Dusted Magazine'', Sakamoto's use of squelching bounce sounds and mechanical beats was later incorporated in early electro and hip hop music productions such as “Message II (Survival)” (1982) by Melle Mel and Duke Bootee, “Magic’s Wand” (1982) by Whodini and Thomas Dolby, Twilight 22’s “Electric Kingdom” (1983), and Kurt Mantronik's ''Mantronix: The Album'' (1985). The 1980 release of "Riot in Lagos" was listed by ''The Guardian'' in 2011 as one of the 50 key events in the history of dance music.
Also in 1980, Sakamoto released the single "War Head / Lexington Queen", an experimental synthpop and electro record. That same year, Sakamoto began a long-standing collaboration with David Sylvian when he co-wrote and performed on the Japan track "Taking Islands In Africa". In 1982, Sakamoto worked on another collaboration with Sylvian, a single entitled "Bamboo Houses/Bamboo Music". That same year, his collaboration with Kiyoshiro Imawano, "Ikenai Rouge Magic", topped the Oricon singles chart. In 1983, he produced Mari Iijima's debut album ''Rose''.
Following the disbanding of Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1983, Sakamoto released a number of solo albums during the 1980s. While primarily focused on the piano and synthesizer, this series of albums boasted a roster of collaborators that included David Sylvian, David Byrne, Thomas Dolby, Nam June Paik, and Iggy Pop, among others. Sakamoto would alternate between exploring a variety of musical styles, ideas, and genres – captured most notably in his groundbreaking 1983 album ''Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia'' – and focusing on a specific subject or theme, such as the Italian Futurism movement in ''Futurista'' (1986). At times, Sakamoto would also present varying interpretations of technology's intersection with music: He would present some pieces, such as "Replica", with Kraftwerkian rigidity and order, while he would infuse humanity and humor into others – "Broadway Boogie Woogie", for example, liberally lifts samples from Ridley Scott's film ''Blade Runner'' and pairs them with a raucous, sax-driven techno-pop backdrop.
As his solo career began to extend outside Japan in the late 1980s, Sakamoto's explorations, influences, and collaborators followed suit. ''Beauty'' (1989) boasted a tracklist that combined pop and traditional Japanese and Okinawan songs, yet featured guest appearances by Jill Jones, Brian Wilson, and Robbie Robertson. ''Heartbeat'' (1991) and ''Sweet Revenge'' (1994), meanwhile, looked to international horizons and worked with a global range of artists such as Roddy Frame, Dee Dee Brave, Marco Prince, Arto Lindsay, Youssou N'Dour, David Sylvian, and Ingrid Chavez. 1996 saw the appearance of two notable albums: ''Smoochy'', which fused pop and electronica with bossa nova and other South American forms, and ''1996'', which featured a number of previously released pieces arranged for solo piano, accompanied with violin and cello.
Following ''1996'', Sakamoto simultaneously delved into the classical and "post-techno" genres with ''Discord'' (1998), an hour-long orchestral work in four parts. Here he evoked the melodic qualities of his film score work, imbued with the influence of 20th century classical composers and spoken word. The Sony Classical release also featured an interactive CD-ROM component and website that complemented the work. Shortly thereafter, the Ninja Tune record label released a series of remixes of various sections, produced by a number of prominent electronica artists, including Amon Tobin, Talvin Singh and DJ Spooky.
The next album, ''BTTB'' (1998) – an acronym for "Back to the Basics" – was a fairly opaque reaction to the prior year's multilayered, lushly orchestrated ''Discord''. The album comprised a series of original pieces on solo piano, including "Energy Flow" (a major hit in Japan) and a frenetic, four-hand arrangement of the Yellow Magic Orchestra classic "Tong Poo." On the ''BTTB'' U.S. tour, he opened the show performing a brief avant-garde DJ set under the stage name DJ Lovegroove.
1999 saw the long-awaited release of Sakamoto's "opera" ''LIFE''. It premiered with seven sold-out performances in Tokyo and Osaka. This ambitious multi-genre multi-media project featured contributions by over 100 performers, including Pina Bausch, Bernardo Bertolucci, Josep Carreras, His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Salman Rushdie.
Sakamoto later teamed with cellist Jaques Morelenbaum (a member of his ''1996'' trio), and Morelenbaum's wife, Paula, on a pair of albums celebrating the work of bossa nova pioneer Antonio Carlos Jobim. They recorded their first album, ''Casa'' (2001), mostly in Jobim's home studio in Rio de Janeiro, with Sakamoto performing on the late Jobim's grand piano. The album was well received, having been included in the list of New York Times's top albums of 2002.
Sakamoto collaborated with Alva Noto (an alias of Carsten Nicolai) to release ''Vrioon'', an album of Sakamoto's piano clusters treated by Nicolai's unique style of digital manipulation, involving the creation of "micro-loops" and minimal percussion. The two produced this work by passing the pieces back and forth until both were satisfied with the result. This debut, released on German label Raster-Noton, was voted record of the year 2004 in the electronica category by British magazine The Wire. They later released ''Insen'' (2005) – while produced in a similar manner to Vrioon, this album is somewhat more restrained and minimalist.
Meanwhile, Sakamoto continues to craft music to suit any context: In 2005, Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia hired Sakamoto to compose ring and alert tones for their high-end phone, the Nokia 8800. A recent reunion with YMO pals Hosono and Takahashi also caused a stir in the Japanese press. They released a single "Rescue" in 2007 and a DVD "HAS/YMO" in 2008. Sakamoto's latest album, ''Out Of Noise'', was released on March 4, 2009 in Japan. In July 2009 Sakamoto was honored as Officier of Ordre des Arts et des Lettres at the French Embassy in Tokyo.
Moviegoers may recognize Sakamoto primarily through his score work on two films: Nagisa Oshima's ''Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence'' (1983), including the title theme and the duet "Forbidden Colours" with David Sylvian, and Bernardo Bertolucci's ''The Last Emperor'' (1987), the latter of which earned him the Academy Award with fellow composers David Byrne and Cong Su. In that same year he composed the score to the cult-classic anime film ''Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise''.
Frequent collaborator David Sylvian contributed lead vocals to "Forbidden Colours" – the main theme to ''Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence'' – which became a minor hit. Sixteen years later, the piece resurfaced as a popular dance track called "Heart of Asia" (by the group Watergate).
Other films scored by Sakamoto include Pedro Almodóvar's ''Tacones lejanos (High Heels)'' (1991), Bertolucci's ''The Little Buddha'' (1993), Oliver Stone's ''Wild Palms'' (1993), John Maybury's ''Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon'' (1998), Brian De Palma's ''Snake Eyes'' (1998) and ''Femme Fatale'' (2002), Oshima's ''Gohatto'' (1999), and Kiran Rao's ''Dhobi Ghat'' (2011). He also composed the score of the opening ceremony for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, telecast live to an audience of over a billion viewers.
Several tracks from Sakamoto's earlier solo albums have also appeared in film soundtracks. In particular, variations of "Chinsagu No Hana" (from ''Beauty'') and "Bibo No Aozora" (from ''1996'') provide the poignant closing pieces for Sue Brooks's ''Japanese Story'' (2003) and Alejandro González Iñárritu's ''Babel'' (2006), respectively.
Sakamoto has also acted in several films: perhaps his most notable performance was as the conflicted Captain Yonoi in ''Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence'', alongside Takeshi Kitano and British rock singer David Bowie. He also played roles in ''The Last Emperor'' ( as Masahiko Amakasu) and Madonna's "Rain" music video.
In 1998, Italian ethnomusicologist Massimo Milano published ''Ryuichi Sakamoto. Conversazioni'', a collection of essays and conversations.
He is also known as a critic of copyright law, arguing that it is antiquated in the information age. He argued that in "the last 100 years, only a few organisations have dominated the music world and ripped off both fans and creators" and that "with the internet we are going back to having tribal attitudes towards music." He is a member of anti-nuclear organization Stop Rokkasho and demand the abolition of Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant.
His score for ''The Sheltering Sky'' (1990) later won him his second Golden Globe Award, and his score for ''Little Buddha'' (1993) received another Grammy Award nomination. In 1997, his collaboration with Toshio Iwai, ''Music Plays Images X Images Play Music'', was awarded the Golden Nica, the grand prize of the Prix Ars Electronica competition. He also contributed to the Academy Award winning soundtrack for ''Babel'' (2006) with several pieces of music, including the "Bibo no Aozora" closing theme. In 2009, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France's Ministry of Culture for his musical contributions.
The music video for "Risky", written and directed by Meiert Avis, also won the first ever MTV "Breakthrough Video Award". The ground breaking video explores transhumanist philosopher FM-2030's (Persian: فریدون اسفندیاری) ideas of "Nostalgia for the Future", in the form of an imagined love affair between a robot and one of Man Ray's models in Paris in the late 1930s. Additional inspiration was drawn from Jean Baudrillard, Edvard Munch's 1894 painting "Puberty", and Roland Barthes "Death of the Author". The surrealist black and white video uses stop motion, light painting, and other retro in-camera effects techniques. Meiert Avis shot Sakamoto while at work on the score for "The Last Emperor" in London. Sakamoto also appears in the video painting words and messages to an open shutter camera. Iggy Pop, who performs the vocals on "Risky", chose not to appear in the video, allowing his performance space to be occupied by the surrealist era robot.
In 2006, Sakamoto, with avex Group's help, founded , a record label promising change in the way music should be. For him, Commmons is not his label, but is a platform for all aspiring artists to join as equal collaborators and share for benefits of the music industry. The word Commmons has three M's because the 3rd M stands for music.
Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:People from Tokyo Category:Japanese composers Category:Japanese film score composers Category:Japanese dance musicians Category:Japanese electronic musicians Category:Japanese record producers Category:Japanese anti–nuclear power activists Category:Anime composers Category:Electro musicians Category:House musicians Category:Techno musicians Category:Video game musicians Category:Intellectual property activism Category:20th-century classical composers Category:21st-century classical composers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners Category:Tokyo University of the Arts alumni Category:Japanese keyboardists Category:Avex Group
ca:Ryūichi Sakamoto da:Ryuichi Sakamoto de:Ryūichi Sakamoto es:Ryūichi Sakamoto fr:Ryūichi Sakamoto ko:사카모토 류이치 io:Ryuichi Sakamoto it:Ryuichi Sakamoto nl:Ryuichi Sakamoto ja:坂本龍一 no:Ryuichi Sakamoto pl:Ryūichi Sakamoto pt:Ryuichi Sakamoto ru:Сакамото, Рюити sk:Rjúiči Sakamoto fi:Ryūichi Sakamoto zh:坂本龍一This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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