Mairead Maguire

Mairead Maguire (born 27 January 1944), also known as Mairead Corrigan Maguire and formerly as Mairéad Corrigan, is a peace activist from Northern Ireland. She co-founded, with Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown, the Women for Peace, which later became the Community for Peace People, an organisation dedicated to encouraging a peaceful resolution of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Maguire and Williams were awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. Maguire has also won several other awards.

In recent years, she has criticised the Israeli government's policy towards Gaza, in particular to the naval blockade. In June 2010, Maguire went on board the MV Rachel Corrie as part of a flotilla that unsuccessfully attempted to breach the blockade.

Early life (1944–1976)

Maguire was born into a Roman Catholic community in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the second of eight children – five sisters and two brothers. Her parents were Andrew and Margaret Corrigan. She attended St. Vincent's Primary School, a private Catholic school, until the age of 14, at which time her family could no longer pay for her schooling. After working for a time as a babysitter at a Catholic community center, she was able to save enough money to enroll in a year of business classes at Miss Gordon's Commercial College, which led her at the age of 16 to a job as an accounting clerk with a local factory. She volunteered regularly with the Legion of Mary, spending her evenings and weekends working with children and visiting inmates at Long Kesh prison. When she was 21 she began working as a secretary for the Guinness brewery, where she remained employed until December 1976.

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize (Norwegian, Danish and Swedish: Nobels fredspris) is one of the five Nobel Prizes created by the Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. Since 1901, it has been awarded annually (with some exceptions) to those who have "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

Per Alfred Nobel's will, the recipient is selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member committee appointed by the Parliament of Norway. Since 1990, the prize is awarded on 10 December in Oslo City Hall each year. The prize was formerly awarded in the Atrium of the University of Oslo Faculty of Law (1947–89), the Norwegian Nobel Institute (1905–46), and the Parliament (1901–04).

Due to its political nature, the Nobel Peace Prize has, for most of its history, been the subject of controversies.

The Reading (Manet painting)

The Reading is an oil painting by French painter Édouard Manet, circa 1865 - 1873.

History

The painting was first exhibited in 1880 in one of the regular solo exhibitions mounted by Manet in his workshop. The picture was also part of the great posthumous exhibition of Manet's work in 1884, a year after his death.

The work first belonged to the private collection of Winnaretta Singer, Princess Edmond de Polignac, where it remained until 1944, after the death of the Princess. It was offered as a gift to the French State and deposited in the Musée du Louvre. In 1947, it was transferred to the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, a showroom located in the Jardin des Tuileries and which belongs to the Louvre. It remained there until 1986, when, with the creation of the Musée d'Orsay, it was brought to this museum, like the rest of the collection of Impressionist paintings in the Louvre. It can currently be seen in the Musée d'Orsay, in room 31 of level 5.

Analysis

The painting depicts the artist's wife, Suzanne Manet (born Suzanne Leenhoff), seated, and their son, Leon, standing and reading a book. Leon was a recurrent model for Manet who portrayed him in several pictures, such as The Lunch, The Boy Carrying a Sword and The Bubbles of Soap.

Vittorio Arrigoni

Vittorio Arrigoni (4 February 1975 – 15 April 2011) was an Italian reporter, writer, pacifist and activist. Arrigoni worked with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in the Gaza Strip, from 2008 until his death. Arrigoni maintained a website, Guerrilla Radio, and published a book of his experiences in Gaza during the 2008–09 Gaza War between Hamas and Israel. Arrigoni was the first foreigner kidnapped in Gaza since BBC journalist Alan Johnston's abduction in 2007. The murder was condemned by various Palestinian factions.

A Hamas court in Gaza convicted four Salafist extremists on charges of kidnapping and murdering Arrigoni in September 2012. Mahmoud al-Salfiti, 28, and Tamer al-Hasasna, 27, were sentenced to life imprisonment, with hard labour. On 19 February 2013 a Gaza military court reduced the sentences of the two from life to 15 years. "We asked in our appeal for the conviction for murder and abduction to be dropped to only abduction," their lawyer Mohammed Zaqut said. 24-year-old Khader Jram was given a 10-year sentence. Amer Abu Ghouleh, 23, was given a prison term of one year for sheltering fugitives.

Stay Human

Stay Human is the third studio release by Michael Franti & Spearhead. Many of the tracks on this album are fictional radio segments focusing on the case of "Sister Fatima" who is executed by album's end. In the Radio Segments, Governor Franklin Shane is played by Woody Harrelson.

Track listing