title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: After the playoffs, Artest offered to donate his entire salary to keep teammate Bonzi Wells with the team, who became a free agent after the 2005–06 NBA season. He even jokingly threatened to kill Wells if he did not re-sign with the Kings. Wells was later picked up by the Houston Rockets and then traded to the New Orleans Hornets for former Sacramento Kings player Bobby Jackson. Artest also offered to donate his salary to retain the services of head coach Rick Adelman, whose contract expired after the same season. Adelman and the Kings did not agree on a contract extension so the two parted ways.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On July 29, 2008, it was reported that Artest was to be traded to the Houston Rockets along with Patrick Ewing Jr. and Sean Singletary for Bobby Jackson, recently drafted forward Donté Greene, a 2009 first-round draft pick, and cash considerations. The deal was made official on August 14, due to Greene's rookie contract signing on July 14. In response to the trade, Yao Ming was generally positive, but jokingly expressed hope that Artest is "not fighting anymore and going after a guy in the stands." In response, Artest said, "This is Tracy (McGrady) and Yao's team, you know. I'm not going to take it personal. I understand what Yao said, but I'm still ghetto. That's not going to change. I'm never going to change my culture. Yao has played with a lot of black players, but I don't think he's ever played with a black player that really represents his culture as much as I represent my culture."


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: Artest and Yao later exchanged extensive phone calls. Artest also said, "Whatever Adelman needs me to do, whether that's come off the bench, sixth, seventh man, start, I don't even care. Whatever he needs me to do, I'm 100 percent sure it's going to work out."


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On October 30, 2008, Artest received his first technical as a Houston Rocket, as he raced towards a group of Dallas Mavericks players and then quickly went to Yao Ming who bumped Josh Howard after play stopped. Artest was trying to pull Yao away from the play and to the foul line, but contact was made with Maverick players. The TNT broadcast crew felt that this technical was unwarranted and reckoned it was based upon Artest's prior reputation as a feisty player in the league. In the playoffs, Artest helped the Rockets advance past the first round for the first time in 12 seasons. In Game 2 of the second round against the Los Angeles Lakers, Artest, who was battling for rebounding position with Kobe Bryant, was elbowed in the neck by Bryant, which was later ruled to be a Type 1 flagrant foul. After being called for an offensive foul, Artest was indignant and proceeded to antagonize Bryant after the play, which eventually led to an ejection by Joe Crawford. In Game 3, Artest was again ejected in the fourth quarter after a hard foul on Pau Gasol, who was attempting to dunk on a fast-break. It was determined the next day that the foul was not serious enough to warrant an ejection, and the flagrant foul was downgraded.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: In July 2009, the Los Angeles Lakers signed Artest to a five-year deal worth about $33 million. Artest chose the number 37 jersey, which he said was in honor of Michael Jackson. Jackson's "Thriller" album was at No. 1 on the charts for 37 straight weeks.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: In Game 5 of the 2010 Western Conference Finals, Artest hit a game-winning shot at the buzzer after grabbing a last second offensive rebound. He scored 25 points against the Phoenix Suns in Game 6 and went to the NBA Finals for the first time in his career. In the finals, the Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics, four games to three. Artest scored 20 points in the clincher and sank the team's last field goal – a three-pointer late in the fourth quarter – to virtually seal the victory. Afterwards, Lakers head coach Phil Jackson called Artest the most valuable player of Game 7 against the Celtics. He won his first championship ring with the Lakers.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: For the 2010–2011 season, Artest switched back to number 15, his college number at St. John's and the first number he wore in his NBA career.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: Artest changed his name to "Metta World Peace" during the offseason. He came into training camp for the out of shape. Consequently, new Lakers coach Mike Brown moved World Peace to a reserve role with reduced playing time. World Peace lamented that Brown's coaching style placed too much emphasis on statistics.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On April 22, 2012, in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, World Peace elbowed James Harden in the head as he was celebrating a dunk. He received a flagrant foul 2 and was immediately ejected. Harden was later found to have suffered a concussion. After the game, World Peace apologized and stated that the elbow was "unintentional." On April 24, 2012, World Peace was suspended for seven games, meaning he would miss the Lakers' season finale game against the Sacramento Kings as well as the first few games of the playoffs.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: After a 1–4 start to the 2012–13 season, the Lakers fired Brown as head coach and hired Mike D'Antoni. On December 18, 2012, in a win against the Philadelphia 76ers, he grabbed a career high 16 rebounds to add to his 19 points. On January 11, 2013, he suffered a right leg injury against the Thunder that would hamper him for two months. Around the same time, he also had an injury to his right arm that made it difficult to bend. His health worsened to the point where D'Antoni moved him off the perimeter on defense and had him guard power forwards instead. By mid-March, he was able to guard the perimeter again. On March 25, against the Golden State Warriors, World Peace tore the lateral meniscus in his left knee. He underwent surgery that was originally estimated to sideline him for six weeks. Despite the estimates, he returned 12 days after his surgery. In his absence, D'Antoni was using a reduced seven-man rotation with Kobe Bryant playing close to all 48 minutes each game. World Peace wanted to reduce his teammates' workload, if even for a few minutes, as the Lakers fought to qualify for the playoffs. The Lakers qualified for the playoffs as the seventh seed, but were swept 4–0 by San Antonio in the first round. Due to the Lakers' other injuries, World Peace played in Game 3 in spite of running with discomfort after having fluid drained from a cyst behind his surgically repaired left knee. He missed the final game of the series, and later admitted he came back too soon. For the season, he averaged his most points (12.4) since 2008–09, and shot his highest percentage (.404) since 2009–10. Still, ESPN wrote those numbers indicated that "the 33-year-old is clearly on the decline."


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On July 11, 2013, after four seasons with the Lakers, the team waived World Peace via the amnesty clause to gain relief from the salary cap.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On July 16, 2013, World Peace signed a two-year deal with the New York Knicks. On February 24, 2014, he was waived by the Knicks after they bought out his contract.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On August 4, 2014, World Peace signed with the Sichuan Blue Whales of the Chinese Basketball Association. Due to a recurrent knee injury, he was replaced on the roster in December 2014 with Daniel Orton. In 15 games, World Peace averaged 19 points, 6 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On March 24, 2015, World Peace signed with Pallacanestro Cantù of Italy for the rest of the 2014–15 Lega Basket Serie A season. On May 27, 2015, in Cantù's Game 5 quarter-final loss to Reyer Venezia Mestre which ended their season, World Peace was ejected from the game and charged with five fouls after getting involved in a skirmish during the fourth quarter. In July 2015, he parted ways with the club after the two parties could not come to a new contract agreement.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On September 24, 2015, World Peace signed with the Los Angeles Lakers, returning to the franchise for a second stint. On November 6, 2015, he made his season debut in a 104–98 win over the Brooklyn Nets, playing 17 minutes with a plus-minus of 12. Teammate Kobe Bryant praised him for his impact on "everybody on the floor defensively."


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On September 21, 2016, World Peace re-signed with the Lakers. On April 11, 2017, World Peace scored a team-leading 18 points in the second half to help the Lakers extend its longest winning streak in four years to five games with a 108–96 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans. He had the ball in his hands with the crowd on its feet for the Lakers' final possession in what was potentially his final game at Staples Center. During the game, he got his 1,716th and 1,717th career steals to move past Ron Harper for 22nd place in NBA history.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: During the offseason, World Peace played with the New Orleans Gators of the Global Mixed Gender Basketball (GMGB) League.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: In 2019, World Peace signed a one-day contract with the San Diego Kings of American Basketball Association to bolster their squad against the four-time defending league champion Jacksonville Giants.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: World Peace was a player development coach in 2017–18 for the South Bay Lakers, the Los Angeles Lakers' development-league team in the G League. During the offseason in 2018, he played 3x3 basketball with the BIG3. He played under the name Ron Artest at the request of league co-founder Ice Cube, who wanted to "turn back the clock a little bit."


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: In April 2010, it was announced that Artest would help develop and produce his own reality show, "They Call Me Crazy", in conjunction with E1 Entertainment and Tijuana Entertainment.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On December 18, 2010, an art show honoring Artest was held in Toronto, Canada. Entitled Lovable Badass, the show featured work by 30 Canadian and American artists, illustrators, painters and sculptors inspired by the athlete. Artest made a surprise appearance at the exhibition's opening night, commenting that "(the show) was definitely special. It was unexpected. Overwhelming."


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: Artest was part of the line-up for the thirteenth season of the reality show "Dancing with the Stars", though he finished in last place, being eliminated in the show's first week.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: In September 2013, he made the first in a recurring series of skits on the Comedy Central sketch show "Key and Peele" called "Metta World News," in which he plays a newscaster.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: Peace competed against actor Skylar Astin in an episode of Spike's "Lip Sync Battle" that aired June 21, 2017. He performed Cypress Hill's "Insane in the Brain" and Katy Perry's "Roar" but did not win.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: In January 2018, it was announced that World Peace was a contestant in the first American edition of "Celebrity Big Brother". Metta became the fourth celebrity to be evicted from the house on Day 20. He also appeared in the second season as part of a Head of Household competition.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: World Peace is the founder of the Artest Media Group. Established in 2010, the brand management company's clients include himself and music artists Vinita, Deacon, Sade Artest, Rugby, and Emmaline Cleary. Music producers Wip, Q, and Lucky are also associated with the group. On February 19, 2013, World Peace was awoken by a squad of police who received a tip there had been gun play within his property. Authorities were quick to recognize their mistake after World Peace explained that the armed individuals were actors shooting a "life on the streets"-styled movie for his group.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On October 31, 2006, Artest released a rap album entitled "My World". He published the album on the Lightyear Records label under his own imprint, Tru Warier Records. The album features guest artists P. Diddy, Juvenile, Mike Jones, Big Kap, Nature and Capone.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: He has become involved in advocacy relating to mental health issues. In December 2010, he announced that he would donate some or all of his salary for the 2011–12 NBA season toward mental health awareness charities. Artest also auctioned off his 2009–10 championship ring and donated the proceeds to various mental health charities nationwide. In 2016, he told "Sports Illustrated", "Some people don’t understand mental health is broad. You have to ask questions. Are you depressed? Are you schizophrenic? Do you have anxiety? Are you bipolar? Those are the different things that come under the banner of mental health."


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: He has posed for PETA ad campaigns encouraging people to report animal abuse and to have their pets neutered.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: In a December 2009 "Sporting News" interview, Artest admitted he led a "wild" lifestyle as a young player, and drank Hennessy cognac in the locker room at halftime while with the Bulls. In February 2004, he wore a bathrobe over his practice uniform to a Pacers practice as "a symbolic reminder to take it easy."


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: Artest was suspended for three games in 2003 for destroying a TV camera at Madison Square Garden, and for four games the same year for a confrontation with Miami Heat coach Pat Riley. He was also suspended for two games early in the 2004–05 season by Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle after he allegedly asked for a month off because he was tired from promoting an R&B album for the group Allure on his Tru Warier production label, on which he released his own album, a rap recording titled "My World", in October 2006.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On November 19, 2004, Artest was at the center of an altercation among players and fans during a game in Auburn Hills, Michigan between Artest's Pacers and the home team Detroit Pistons.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: The brawl began when Artest fouled Pistons center Ben Wallace as Wallace was putting up a shot. Wallace, upset at being fouled hard when the game was effectively over (the Pacers led 97–82 with less than 50 seconds to go), responded by shoving Artest in the face, leading to an altercation near the scorer's table. Artest walked to the sideline and lay down on the scorer's table. Reacting to Wallace throwing something at Artest, Pistons fan John Green threw a cup of Diet Coke at Artest, hitting him. Artest jumped into the front-row seats and confronted a man he incorrectly believed to be responsible, which in turn erupted into a brawl between Pistons fans and several of the Pacers. Artest returned to the basketball court, and punched Pistons fan A.J. Shackleford, who was apparently taunting Artest verbally. This fight resulted in the game being stopped with less than a minute remaining. Artest's teammates Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson were suspended indefinitely the day after the game, along with Wallace.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On November 21, the NBA suspended Artest for the rest of the regular season, plus any playoff games. All told, Artest missed 86 games (73 regular season games plus 13 playoff games), the longest suspension for an on-court incident in NBA history. Eight other players (four Pacers and four Pistons) received suspensions, without pay, which ranged from one to thirty games in length. Each of the players involved were levied fines and ordered to do community service. Several fans were also charged and were banned from attending Pistons games for life. Artest lost approximately $5 million in salary due to the suspension.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On March 5, 2007, Artest was arrested for domestic violence, and excused from the Sacramento Kings indefinitely by GM Geoff Petrie. On March 10, Kings announced that Artest would return to the team, while his case was being reviewed by the Placer County District Attorney. On May 3, he was sentenced to 20 days in jail and community service. Artest spent only 10 days in the jail, as the judge stayed 10 days of the sentence, and served the remainder in a work release program. On July 14, 2007, the NBA suspended Artest for seven games at the beginning of the 2007–08 NBA season for his legal problems.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: In 2007, Artest was forced to relinquish ownership of his dog, a Great Dane, for malnutrition and neglect.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On September 16, 2011, Artest's name was officially changed to Metta World Peace. "Metta" was his first name, and "World Peace" was his surname. "Changing my name was meant to inspire and bring youth together all around the world," World Peace said in a statement released after the name change court hearing. His publicist, Courtney Barnes, said that World Peace chose Metta as his first name because it is a traditional Buddhist word that means loving kindness and friendliness towards all.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: In the years after the brawl in the Palace, Artest was prescribed antidepressant medication, which he flushed down the toilet. He wore just his boxer shorts in an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live". He then went to Santhi Periasamy, a psychologist who helped him turn his life around and whom he thanked publicly when the Lakers won the 2010 championship.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: World Peace and Kimsha Hatfield started an on-and-off relationship when they were 15 and 14. Their first child Sadie was born in 1997.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: Eventually the two married in June 2003 but divorced in 2009. Kimsha was a cast member on VH1's reality TV show "". The two have three children together: Sadie, Ron III, and Diamond. Ron III also became a professional basketball player. World Peace has another son, high school basketball player Jeron, with his former high school girlfriend Jennifer Palma. He put a brother through law school and became a grandfather with the birth of his eldest daughter, Sadie's, first child.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: On May 4, 2020, World Peace announced that he had changed his name once again to Metta Sandiford-Artest, combining his last name with that of his wife, Maya Sandiford.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: Sandiford-Artest has his own company, The Artest Management Group. The company helps athletes with tax preparation and also has a film division.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: He also has an interest in mathematics which started in high school, and which he uses in developing a sports app and in taking analytics classes at UCLA.


title: Metta Sandiford-Artest

text: In the late 1990s, Artest became a close friend of American-born Irish basketball player Jermaine Turner. The pair met on the playgrounds of New York and played together in tournaments at Rucker Park.


title: Great Smog of London

text: The Great Smog of London, or Great Smog of 1952, was a severe air pollution event that affected London, England, in December 1952. A period of unusually cold weather, combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions, collected airborne pollutants—mostly arising from the use of coal—to form a thick layer of smog over the city. It lasted from Friday 5 December to Tuesday 9 December 1952, then dispersed quickly when the weather changed.


title: Great Smog of London

text: The smog caused major disruption by reducing visibility and even penetrating indoor areas, far more severely than previous smog events, called "pea-soupers". Government medical reports in the weeks following the event estimated that up to 4,000 people had died as a direct result of the smog and 100,000 more were made ill by the smog's effects on the human respiratory tract. More recent research suggests that the total number of fatalities may have been considerably greater, with estimates of between 10,000 and 12,000 deaths.


title: Great Smog of London

text: London had suffered since the 13th century from poor air quality and diarist John Evelyn had written about "the inconveniencie of the aer and smoak of London" in "Fumifugium", the first book ever written about air pollution, in 1661. However, the Great Smog was many times worse than anything the city had ever experienced before: it is thought to be the worst air pollution event in the history of the United Kingdom, and the most significant for its effects on environmental research, government regulation, and public awareness of the relationship between air quality and health. It led to several changes in practices and regulations, including the Clean Air Act 1956.


title: Great Smog of London

text: A period of unusually cold weather preceding and during the Great Smog led Londoners to burn much more coal than usual to keep themselves warm. While better-quality "hard" coals (such as anthracite) tended to be exported to pay off World War II debts, post-war domestic coal tended to be of a relatively low-grade, sulphurous variety (similar to lignite) which increased the amount of sulphur dioxide in the smoke. There were also numerous coal-fired power stations in the Greater London area, including Fulham, Battersea, Bankside, Greenwich and Kingston upon Thames, all of which added to the pollution. According to the UK's Met Office, the following pollutants were emitted each day during the smoggy period: 1,000 tonnes of smoke particles, 140 tonnes of hydrochloric acid, 14 tonnes of fluorine compounds and 370 tonnes of sulphur dioxide which may have been converted to 800 tonnes of sulphuric acid. The relatively large size of the water droplets in the London fog allowed for the production of sulphates without the acidity of the liquid rising high enough to stop the reaction, and for the resultant dilute acid to become concentrated when the fog was burned away by the sun.


title: Great Smog of London

text: Research suggests that additional pollution-prevention systems fitted at Battersea may have worsened the air quality. Flue gas washing reduced the temperature of the flue gases; so they did not rise but instead slumped to ground level, causing a local nuisance.


title: Great Smog of London

text: Additionally, there was pollution and smoke from vehicle exhaust, particularly from steam locomotives and diesel-fuelled buses which had replaced the recently abandoned electric tram system. Other industrial and commercial sources also contributed to the air pollution.


title: Great Smog of London

text: On 4 December 1952, an anticyclone settled over a windless London, causing a temperature inversion with relatively cool, stagnant air trapped under a layer of warmer air. The resultant fog, mixed with smoke from home and industrial chimneys, particulates such as those from motor vehicle exhausts, and other pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, formed a persistent smog, which blanketed the capital the following day. The presence of tarry particles of soot gave the smog its yellow-black colour, hence the nickname "pea-souper". The absence of significant wind prevented its dispersal and allowed an unprecedented accumulation of pollutants.


title: Great Smog of London

text: Although London was accustomed to heavy fogs, this one was denser and longer-lasting than any previous fog. Visibility was reduced to a few metres, with one visitor stating that it was "like you were blind", rendering driving difficult or at times impossible.


title: Great Smog of London

text: Public transport ceased, apart from the London Underground, and the ambulance service stopped, forcing individuals to transport themselves to hospital. The smog was so dense that it even seeped indoors, resulting in the cancellation or abandonment of concerts and film screenings, as visibility decreased in large enclosed spaces, and stages and screens became harder to see from the seats. Outdoor sports events were also cancelled.


title: Great Smog of London

text: In the inner London suburbs and away from town centres, there was no disturbance by moving traffic to thin out dense fog in the back streets. As a result, visibility could be down to a metre or so in the daytime. Walking out of doors became a matter of shuffling to feel for potential obstacles such as kerbs. This was made even worse at night since each back street lamp was fitted with an incandescent light bulb, which gave no penetrating light onto the pavement for pedestrians to see their feet or even a lamp post. Fog-penetrating fluorescent lamps did not become widely available until later in the 1950s. "Smog masks" were worn by those who were able to purchase them from chemists.


title: Great Smog of London

text: There was no panic, as London was infamous for its fog. In the weeks that ensued, however, statistics compiled by medical services found that the fog had killed 4,000 people. Most of the victims were very young or elderly, or had pre-existing respiratory problems. In February 1953, Marcus Lipton suggested in the House of Commons that the fog had caused 6,000 deaths and that 25,000 more people had claimed sickness benefits in London during that period.


title: Great Smog of London

text: Mortality remained elevated for months after the fog. A preliminary report, never finalised, blamed those deaths on an influenza epidemic. Emerging evidence revealed that only a fraction of the deaths could be from influenza. Most of the deaths were caused by respiratory tract infections, from hypoxia and as a result of mechanical obstruction of the air passages by pus arising from lung infections caused by the smog. The lung infections were mainly bronchopneumonia or acute purulent bronchitis superimposed upon chronic bronchitis.


title: Great Smog of London

text: Research published in 2004 suggests that the number of fatalities was considerably greater than contemporary estimates, at about 12,000.


title: Great Smog of London

text: Environmental legislation since 1952, such as the City of London (Various Powers) Act 1954 and the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968, led to a reduction in air pollution. Financial incentives were offered to householders to replace open coal fires with alternatives (such as installing gas fires), or for those who preferred, to burn coke instead which produces minimal smoke. Central heating (using gas, electricity, oil or permitted solid fuel) was rare in most dwellings at that time, not finding favour until the late 1960s onwards. Despite improvements, insufficient progress had been made to prevent one further smog event approximately ten years later, in early December 1962.


title: Great Smog of London

text: The Great Smog is the central event of season 1, episode 4 of Netflix's show "The Crown." The representation of the air pollution was regarded as reasonably accurate by critics, although the political importance and the chaos in the hospitals were thought to have been greatly exaggerated.


title: Great Smog of London

text: An episode of "The Goon Show" entitled 'Forog', broadcast on the BBC Home Service 21 December 1954 was a thinly veiled satire on the killer fog crisis. The script by Eric Sykes and Spike Milligan concerned the statues of London's monuments, who could only get up and move about the city undisturbed at times when it was enveloped in a characteristic smog. Government-sponsored scientific research sought to dispense with the choking fog, to the annoyance of the statues.


title: Great Smog of London

text: The D.E. Stevenson novel "The Tall Stranger" (1957) opens with a dense "fog" that penetrates indoors and endangers hospital patients, in a reference to the 1952 smog event.


title: Great Smog of London

text: Kate Winkler Dawson's book "Death in the Air" (2017) interweaves the story of the Great Smog of London with that of serial killer John Christie.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: Chow Yun-fat (born 18 May 1955), previously known as Donald Chow, is a Hong Kong actor. He is perhaps best known for his collaborations with filmmaker John Woo in the five Hong Kong action heroic bloodshed films: "A Better Tomorrow", "A Better Tomorrow II", "The Killer", "Once a Thief" and "Hard Boiled", and in the West for his roles as Li Mu-bai in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and Sao Feng in "". He mainly plays in drama films and has won three Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor and two Golden Horse Awards for Best Actor in Taiwan. Chow started his career in movies in 1976 with Goldig Films.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: Chow was born in Lamma Island, Hong Kong, to Chow Yung-wan (), who worked on a Shell Oil Company tanker, and Chan Lai-fong (), who was a cleaning lady and vegetable farmer. Chow grew up in a farming community on Lamma Island, in a house with no electricity. He woke up at dawn each morning to help his mother sell herbal jelly and Hakka tea-pudding (客家茶粿) on the streets; in the afternoons, he went to work in the fields. His family moved to Kowloon when he was ten.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: At 17, Chow left school to help support the family by doing odd jobs including a bellboy, postman, camera salesman, and taxi driver.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: Chow's life started to change after college when he responded to a newspaper advertisement, and his actor-trainee application was accepted by TVB, the local television station. He signed a three-year contract with the studio and made his acting debut. Chow became a heartthrob and familiar face in soap operas that were exported internationally. According to his filmography, Chow made his debut in 1976 in various movies produced by Goldig Films, including "Hot Blood" (入冊).  Goldig Films was founded by Gouw Hiap Kian and produced or distributed over 100 movies from 1972 to 1982. Goldig also invested in properties, including a cinema, and financial investments with substantial assets since  the 1990s.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: Chow's first film contract was an exclusive acting contract with Goldig Films (note page 3). Chow appeared in the 1980 TV series "The Bund" on TVB. The series, about the rise and fall of a gangster in 1930s Shanghai, was a hit throughout Asia and made Chow a star.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: Although Chow continued his TV success, his goal was to become a film actor. However, his occasional ventures into low-budget films in the 1980s after ones by Goldig were disastrous. Most of Chow's movies produced by Goldig Films under exclusive contract in the 1970s achieved high gross revenues of over HK$ 1m per movie. These figures are higher than ones Chow acted in the early 1980s, including "Modern Heroes" (江湖檔案), "Soul Ash" (灰靈), "The Bund ("上海灘), "The Bund Part 2("上海灘續集) . Note gross revenues under list of movies .


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: Success finally came when he teamed up with film director John Woo in the 1986 gangster action-melodrama "A Better Tomorrow", which swept the box offices in Asia and established Chow and Woo as megastars. "A Better Tomorrow" won him his first Best Actor award at the Hong Kong Film Awards. It was the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong history at the time, and set a new standard for Hong Kong gangster films. Taking the opportunity, Chow quit TV entirely. With his new image from "A Better Tomorrow", he made many more 'gun fu' or 'heroic bloodshed' films, such as "A Better Tomorrow II" (1987), "Prison on Fire" (1987), "Prison on Fire II (1991)", "The Killer" (1989), "A Better Tomorrow 3" (1990), "Hard Boiled" (1992) and "City on Fire" (1987), an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs".


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: Chow may be best known for playing honorable tough guys, whether cops or criminals, but he has also starred in comedies like "Diary of a Big Man" (1988) and "Now You See Love, Now You Don't" (1992) and romantic blockbusters such as "Love in a Fallen City" (1984) and "An Autumn's Tale" (1987), for which he was named Best Actor at the Golden Horse Awards. He brought together his disparate personae in the 1989 film "God of Gamblers", directed by the prolific Wong Jing, in which he was by turns a suave charmer, a broad comedian, and an action hero. The film surprised many, became immensely popular, broke Hong Kong's all-time box office record, and spawned a series of gambling films as well as several comic sequels starring Andy Lau and Stephen Chow. The often tough demeanour and youthful appearance of Chow's characters has earned him the nickname "Babyface Killer".


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: The "Los Angeles Times" proclaimed Chow Yun-Fat "the coolest actor in the world". In the mid '90s, Chow moved to Hollywood in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to duplicate his success in Asia. His first two films, "The Replacement Killers" (1998) and "The Corruptor" (1999), were box office failures. In his next film "Anna and the King" (1999), Chow teamed up with Jodie Foster, but the film underperformed at the box office. Chow accepted the role of Li Mu-bai in the (2000) film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." It became a winner at both the international box office and the Oscars. In 2003, Chow came back to Hollywood and starred in "Bulletproof Monk". In 2004, Chow made a surprise cameo in director Dayyan Eng's Chinese rom-com favourite "Waiting Alone", it was the first time he was in a mainland Chinese film. In 2006, he teamed up with Gong Li in the film "Curse of the Golden Flower," directed by Zhang Yimou.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: On 24 July 2001, Alex Gouw (Gouw Hiap Kian) published a statement in South China Morning Post with some clarifications about a TVB interview with Chow Yun-Fat.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: In 2007, Chow played the pirate captain Sao Feng in "". However, his part was omitted when the movie was shown in mainland China, where, according to Chinese unofficial sources, government censors felt that Chow's character "vilified and humiliated" Chinese people.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: In 2014, Chow returned to Hong Kong cinema in "From Vegas to Macau". For the part, he lost 13 kg within 10 months.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: In 2015 and 2016, Chow reprised his role as Ken in the sequels "From Vegas to Macau II" and "From Vegas to Macau III".


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: In 2018, he co-starred with Aaron Kwok in "Project Gutenberg" which earned him another Best Actor nomination at the 38th Hong Kong Film Awards.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: On 26 June 2008, Chow released his first photo collection, which includes pictures taken on the sets of his films. Proceeds from the book's sales were donated to Sichuan earthquake victims. It is published by Louis Vuitton.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: Chow has been married twice; first was in 1983 to Candice Yu, an actress from Asia Television; the marriage lasted nine months. In 1986, Chow married Singaporean Jasmine Tan. They had a stillborn daughter in 1991. Chow has a goddaughter, Celine Ng, a former child model for Chickeeduck, McDonald's, Toys 'R' Us and other companies.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: In 2014, Chow was the second-highest earning actor in Hong Kong, earning HK$170 million (US$21.9 million).  In 2018, Chow’s wife Jasmine Tan informed various Hong Kong media the figure HK$ 5.6b of Chow’s net worth, which was not verified by any third party. Chow also said he would donate 99% of his wealth to charity via setting up a foundation to help those in need. There have been no other reports on who controls the foundation and its ultimate beneficiaries.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: Despite his wealth, Chow lives modestly. He is frequently seen at food stalls and on public transportation. In interviews, he has said he plans to leave his fortune to charity.


title: Chow Yun-fat

text: In October 2014, Chow voiced support for students in the Umbrella Movement, a civil rights movement for universal suffrage in Hong Kong.


title: Anne Meara

text: Anne Meara Stiller (September 20, 1929 – May 23, 2015) was an American actress and comedian. Along with her husband Jerry Stiller, she was one-half of the prominent 1960s comedy team Stiller and Meara. Their son is actor, director, and producer Ben Stiller. She was also featured on stage, on television, and in numerous films and later became a playwright. During her career, Meara was nominated for four Emmy Awards and a Tony Award, and she won a Writers Guild Award as a co-writer for the television movie "The Other Woman".


title: Anne Meara

text: Meara was born on September 20, 1929, in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of parents of Irish descent, Mary (née Dempsey) and Edward Joseph Meara, a corporate lawyer for American Standard. An only child, she was raised in Rockville Centre, New York, on Long Island. When Anne was 11 years old, her mother committed suicide.


title: Anne Meara

text: When she was 18, Meara spent a year studying acting at the Dramatic Workshop at The New School and at HB Studio under Uta Hagen in Manhattan. The following year, in 1948, she began her career as an actress in summer stock.


title: Anne Meara

text: Meara met actor-comedian Jerry Stiller in 1953, and they married in 1954. Until he suggested it, she had never thought of doing comedy. "Jerry started us being a comedy team," she said. "He always thought I would be a great comedy partner." They joined the Chicago improvisational company The Compass Players (which later became The Second City) and, after leaving, formed the comedy team of Stiller and Meara. In 1961 they were performing in nightclubs in New York and by the following year were considered a "national phenomenon", said the "New York Times".


title: Anne Meara

text: Their often improvised comedy routines brought many relationship foibles to live audiences. Their skits focused on domestic themes, as did Nichols and May, another comedy team from the Chicago Compass Players project during that period. "They were Nichols and May without the acid and with warmth," notes author Lawrence Epstein. They also added a new twist to their comedy act, he adds, by sometimes playing up the fact that Stiller was Jewish and Meara was Catholic. After Nichols and May broke up as a team in 1961, Stiller and Meara were the number-one couple comedy team by the late 1960s. And as Mike Nichols and Elaine May were not married, Stiller and Meara became the most famous married couple comedy team since Burns and Allen.


title: Anne Meara

text: After some years honing the act, Stiller and Meara became regulars on "The Ed Sullivan Show", with 36 appearances, and other TV programs, including "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson". They released their first LP in 1963, "Presenting America's New Comedy Sensation: Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara Live at The Hungry I", which became a hit. By 1970, however, they broke up their act because it was affecting their marriage: "I didn't know where the act ended and our marriage began," complained Meara in 1977. Stiller agreed, fearing, "I would have lost her as a wife."


title: Anne Meara

text: During the 1970s, Meara and Stiller wrote and performed many radio commercials for Blue Nun Wine. She had a recurring role on the sitcom "Rhoda" as airline stewardess Sally Gallagher, one of the title character's best friends. She also had a small role as Mrs. Curry opposite Laurence Olivier in "The Boys from Brazil" (1978).


title: Anne Meara

text: In 1975, she starred in her own series, "Kate McShane", on CBS. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1976; however, the show was canceled after ten episodes.


title: Anne Meara

text: Also, in the 1970s, Meara provided narration for segments of the educational television series "Sesame Street" consisting of scenes from silent films.


title: Anne Meara

text: Meara costarred with Carroll O'Connor and Martin Balsam in the early 1980s hit sitcom "Archie Bunker's Place", which was a continuation of the influential 1970s sitcom "All in the Family". She played the role of Veronica Rooney, the bar's cook, for the show's first three seasons (1979–1982). During that time, she acted in the movie "Fame" (1980), in which she played English teacher Elizabeth Sherwood. She also appeared as the grandmother in the TV series "ALF" in the late 1980s. "The Stiller and Meara Show", her own 1986 TV sitcom, in which Stiller played the deputy mayor of New York City and Meara portrayed his wife, a television commercial actress, was unsuccessful. From 1999 to 2007, Meara guest starred in "The King of Queens" (where her husband played Arthur Spooner), first as Mary Finnegan, then as Veronica Olchin (mother of Spence, who was played by Patton Oswalt). Veronica and Arthur were married in the series finale.


title: Anne Meara

text: Starting in October 2010, Meara and Jerry Stiller began starring in a Yahoo! web series called "Stiller & Meara" produced by Red Hour Digital, a production company owned by their son Ben Stiller.


title: Anne Meara

text: She accepted a role in the off-Broadway play "Love, Loss, and What I Wore" with Conchata Ferrell, AnnaLynne McCord, Minka Kelly, and B. Smith. She taught a technique and scene study class at HB Studio until her death.


title: Anne Meara

text: In 1995, Meara wrote the comedy "After-Play", which became an off-Broadway production. In her later years, she portrayed recurring roles on the television shows "Sex and the City" (as Mary Brady) and "The King of Queens" (as Veronica Olchin). During the 2004–05 season, she appeared in an episode of "".


title: Anne Meara

text: She was the consulting director of J.A.P. – The Jewish American Princesses of Comedy, a 2007 off-Broadway production that featured live stand-up routines by four female Jewish comics juxtaposed with the stories of legendary performers from the 1950s and 1960s: Totie Fields, Jean Carroll, Pearl Williams, Betty Walker, and Belle Barth.


title: Anne Meara

text: In 2009, Meara wrote her personal life reflections in a New York-focused online blog titled "Mr. Beller's Neighborhood -- New York City Stories". In it, Meara recalled her mother's death and her childhood experiences at Catholic boarding school.


title: Anne Meara

text: Meara was born, baptized, and raised a Roman Catholic. She converted to Judaism six years after marrying Stiller. She insisted that she did not convert at Stiller's request, explaining, "Catholicism was dead to me". She took her conversion seriously and studied the Jewish faith in such depth that her Jewish-born husband quipped, "Being married to Anne has made me more Jewish". They discussed how they met and their early career during a guest appearance on the TV game show "What's My Line?" in 1968.


title: Anne Meara

text: Stiller died on May 23, 2015, at her home in Manhattan at the age of 85, having suffered multiple strokes.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Women's empowerment (or female empowerment) may be defined in several ways, including accepting women's viewpoints, making an effort to seek them and raising the status of women through education, awareness, literacy, and training. Women's empowerment equips and allows women to make life-determining decisions through the different societal problems. They may have the opportunity to re-define gender roles or other such roles, which allow them more freedom to pursue desired goals.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Women's empowerment has become a significant topic of discussion in development and economics. Economic empowerment allows women to control and benefit from resources, assets, and income. It also aids the ability to manage risk and improve women's well-being. It can result in approaches to support trivialized genders in a particular political or social context. While often interchangeably used, the more comprehensive concept of gender empowerment concerns people of any gender, stressing the distinction between biological and gender as a role. Women empowerment helps boost women's status through literacy, education, training and awareness creation. Furthermore, women's empowerment refers to women's ability to make strategic life choices that had been previously denied them.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Nations, businesses, communities and groups may benefit from implementing programs and policies that adopt the notion of female empowerment. Women's empowerment enhances the quality and the quantity of human resources available for development. Empowerment is one of the main procedural concerns when addressing human rights and development.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Several principles defines women's empowerment, such as, for one to be empowered, one must come from a position of disempowerment.


title: Women's empowerment

text: They must acquire empowerment rather than have it given to them by an external party. Other studies have found that empowerment definitions entail people having the capability to make important decisions in their lives while also being able to act on them. Empowerment and disempowerment are relative to each other at a previous time; empowerment is a process rather than a product.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Since the 1980s, the push for neoliberalism prioritizes competitiveness and self-reliance as a measurement for economic success. Individuals and their identifying communities that do not meet society's favored neoliberal standards are looked down upon and prone to lower their self-esteem. Some groups who do not fit the preferable neoliberal image are the lower working class and the unemployed.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Specifically, neoliberalism has negatively impacted women's self-worth through its welfare reform policies. Mary Corcoran et al. theorize that conservative welfare reformers believe welfare dependency is the cause of poverty. This leads welfare reformers to widen the criteria for an individual to qualify as a welfare recipient, limiting the number of people dependent on welfare. These criteria include: work requirements and time limits, rapidly pushing women into the labor market. The active push for women to enter the labor market reinforces the notion that single mothers and unpaid care laborers are unproductive to the American economy. In consequence, women are forced to settle for low-paying unstable jobs while having to manage their maternal and domestic responsibilities. Scholars believe welfare reform's underlying purpose is to disempower women by suppressing women's agency and economic independence. Women can counteract neoliberalism's social implications and welfare reform by creating opportunities for women's empowerment, like job training.


title: Women's empowerment

text: In addition, policymakers are suggested to support job training to aid into entrance in the formal markets. One recommendation is to provide more formal education opportunities for women that would allow for higher bargaining power in the home. They would have more access to higher wages outside the home; and as a result, make it easier for women to get a job in the market.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Women's empowerment and achieving gender equality help society ensure the sustainable development of a country. Many world leaders and scholars have argued that sustainable development is impossible without gender equality and women's empowerment. Sustainable development accepts environmental protection, social and economic development, including women's empowerment. In the context of women and development, empowerment must include more choices for women to make on their own.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Strengthening women's access to property inheritance and land rights is another method used to economically empower women. This would allow them better means of asset accumulation, capital, and bargaining power needed to address gender inequalities. Often, women in developing and underdeveloped countries are legally restricted from their land on the sole basis of gender. Having a right to their land gives women a sort of bargaining power that they would not normally have; they gain more opportunities for economic independence and formal financial institutions.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Race has an integral impact on women's empowerment in areas such as employment. Employment can help create empowerment for women. Many scholars suggest that when we discuss women's empowerment, discussing the different barriers that underprivileged women face, which make it more difficult for them to obtain empowerment in society, is important when examining the impact of race in connection to employment. Significantly examining how opportunities are structured by gender, race, and class can transpire social change. Work opportunities and the work environment can create empowerment for women. Empowerment in the workplace can positively affect job satisfaction and performance, having equality in the workplace can greatly increase the sense of empowerment.


title: Women's empowerment

text: In the case women have the opportunity to settle for stable jobs, Women of color encounter a lack of equal accessibility and privileges in work settings. They are faced with more disadvantages in the workplace. Patricia Parker argues that African American women's empowerment is their resistance to control, standing up for themselves and not conforming to societal norms and expectations. In connection to power, feminist perspectives look at empowerment as a form of resistance within systems of unequal power relations. Within the societal setting of race, gender, and class politics, African American women's empowerment in the work environment "can be seen as resistance to attempts to fix meanings of appropriate identity and behavior, where such meanings are interpreted as controlling, exploitative, and otherwise oppressive to African American women." When talking about women's empowerment, many scholars suggest examining the social injustices on women in everyday organizational life that are influenced by race, class, and gender.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Another methodology for women's economic empowerment also includes microcredit. Microfinance institutions aim to empower women in their community by giving them access to loans that have low-interest rates without the requirement of collateral. More specifically, they(micro-finance institutions) aim to give microcredit to women who want to be entrepreneurs. The success and efficiency of microcredit and micro-loans are controversial and constantly debated. Some critics claim that microcredit alone doesn't guarantee women have control over the way the loan is used. Microfinance institutions don't address cultural barriers that allow men to still control household finances; as a result, microcredit may simply be transferred to the husband. Microcredit doesn't relieve women of household obligations, and even if women have credit, they don't have the time to be as active in the market as men.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Political empowerment supports creating policies that best support gender equality and agency for women in both the public and private spheres. Methods that have been suggested are to create affirmative action policies that have a quota for the number of women in policy making and parliament positions. As of 2017, the global average of women who hold lower and single house parliament positions is 23.6 percent. Further recommendations have been made to increase women's rights to vote, voice opinions, and the ability to run for office with a fair chance of being elected. Because women are typically associated with child care and domestic responsibilities in the home, they have less time dedicated to entering the labor market and running their businesses. Policies that increase their bargaining power in the household would include policies that account for cases of divorce, policies for better welfare for women, and policies that give women control over resources (such as property rights). However, participation is not limited to the realm of politics. It can include participation in the household, in schools, and the ability to choose for oneself. Some theorists believe that women bargaining power and agency in the household must be achieved before they can move on to broader political participation.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Women will be less likely to be selected to lead and be involved in politics to make decisions. Women have been unable to become leaders in their communities due to financial, social and legal constraints. Organizational and cultural limitations also affect women in the fields where men are dominant. Those industries include science, engineering, finance and much more.


title: Women's empowerment

text: António Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations mentions that women can gain knowledge, wisdom, and insights only if they are included equally in all aspects of society. Equal representation of women contributes to peace, reduces conflict, and support long-term sustainable development.  United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) raises the concern gender equality in party policies and platforms, and commits to take actions for supporting the presence and influence of women in political parties.  Erin Vilardi, the founder of VoteRunLead points out that it is an opportunity to create real change but to recognize social inequalities in women's access to political office despite the number of women who are standing up to volunteer on campaigns and run for office themselves.


title: Women's empowerment

text: According to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to increase the participation of women in politics:


title: Women's empowerment

text: Digital skills can facilitate women's engagement with local government and increase their decision-making power in their communities. The Women-gov project in Brazil and India, for instance, has helped women improve their understanding of and communication with local government via ICTs. In Brazil, the project trained female community leaders to access and utilize online data on government health services to better respond to public health concerns in their communities. In India, the project worked with women's collectives to establish women-run, internet-connected community information centres to facilitate applications for government assistance (including welfare and entitlements), which in turn improved linkages between the collectives, local authorities and public institutions.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Women with digital skills are better able to make their voices heard on local issues and influence the outcome of decisions that affect themselves and their communities. Digital skills can also empower women to participate in political movements. For instance, the anonymity of ICTs may allow some women to avoid limitations on freedom of speech in repressive societies, while collective mobilization through online networks can enable women to campaign on gender-based issues. Studies show an Iraqi women's group used a multimedia campaign, including an online component, to successfully lobby the Kurdish regional government to outlaw the practice of female genital mutilation. Images taken on mobile phones and distributed via social media have called attention to domestic violence in China and influenced media treatment of court cases on forced abortion.


title: Women's empowerment

text: According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, there are seven success factors to empowering rural women through ICTs:


title: Women's empowerment

text: The regulatory role of governments (at local, national, regional, and international levels) is crucial in addressing infrastructural barriers, harmonizing and making the regulatory environment inclusive and gender-responsive, and in protecting all stakeholders from fraud and crime.


title: Women's empowerment

text: As a progressive society, standing for women's rights and empowerment, we must stop viewing culture only as a barrier and an obstacle to women's rights. Culture is an integral and huge part of diversity and a medium that seeks to ensure women's equal opportunities. It recognises their freedom to take pride in their values, whether they are orthodox or modern in nature. This is not to say that centuries of abuse clothed in the spirit of culture should be allowed to continue, let alone be celebrated. Undoubtedly, traditions cloaked in the idea of empowerment should be objected to in light of feminism. For example, some research indicates that women only have an equal chance to have their written work published in peer-reviewed journals if the sex of the author is absolutely unknown to the reviewers. This is a result of historical habitual culture which has led to lack of representation of women in literary and therefore, strongly demonstrated why all cultural legacies cannot and should not be celebrated or encouraged.


title: Women's empowerment

text: There is a need for equal cultural rights for women to be acknowledged and implemented which would in turn help to reconstruct gender in ways that would rise above women's inferiority and subordination. Furthermore, this would significantly improve the conditions for the full and equal enjoyment of their human rights on the whole as argued by the UN expert in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Shaheed continues to add that the perspective and contributions of women must transcend from the margins of cultural life to the centre of the process that creates and shapes cultures around the globe today. “Women must be recognized as, and supported to be, equal spokespersons vested with the authority to determine which of the community’s traditions are to be respected, protected and transmitted to future generations.”


title: Women's empowerment

text: Feminism is defined by the movement's goal of creating women's empowerment. Two methods feminists use to facilitate a sense of women empowerment are consciousness-raising and building relationships with the women participants and their external oppressors.


title: Women's empowerment

text: To create women empowerment, feminists commonly use consciousness raising. When raising consciousness, women not only become knowledgeable about their personal struggles but how it is related to political and economical issues. Raising consciousness allows marginalized individuals to see where they are placed in the larger social structure and pinpoint the root of their oppression. Awareness of their problems will initiate self-mobilization which precisely creates empowerment.


title: Women's empowerment

text: However, scholars Shane Brady and Mary O'Connor have pointed out the term “raising-consciousness” may be misunderstood and offensive to participants. Using the term “raising-consciousness” inflicts the notion that the marginalized community is not aware of their oppression and how to deal with it.


title: Women's empowerment

text: In addition, feminists, specifically feminist organizers, focus on building relationships as a medium for creating women empowerment. Scholars claim that building relationships results in empowerment because the increasing presence of power gaps in society are due to the lack of relationships that are needed to bridge them. When it comes to forming and maintaining relationships, there needs to be a balance of both collaboration and conflict between the two parties. Conflict commonly arises in situations where community members attempt to build relationships with external power figures like government representatives. Fostering a space for collaboration as well as deliberation of conflicting ideas is important because sorting out disagreements allows for the formation of trust between the parties. In addition, conflict individually benefits the women participants because it fosters problem-solving skills and opens them to a new pool of knowledge and perspectives on society. Scholars observe that building relationships has a depoliticizing tendency as the activity does not directly challenge the oppressive structures affecting women. A specific observation of this depoliticizing tendency is story telling. When building relationships, feminists encourage women participants to share their personal experiences involving gender oppression, rather than deliberate about strategies to approach the oppressive system.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Women empowerment can be measured through the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), which calculates women's participation in a given nation, both politically and economically. GEM is calculated by tracking "the share of seats in parliament held by women; of female legislators, senior officials and managers; and of female profession and technical workers; and the gender disparity in earned income, reflecting economic independence". It ranks countries given this information.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Some critiques of GEM is that it is not concerned with factors regarding society, such as gender, religion, cultural context, legal context, and violations of women's rights. Gender empowerment measure attempts to make a consistent standardized approach to measure women's empowerment; in doing so, it has been critiqued that the GEM doesn't account for variation in historical factors, female autonomy, gender segregation, and women's right to vote.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Other measures that calculate women's participation and relative equality include the Gender Parity Index (GPI) or the Gender-related Development Index (GDI). The GDI is a way in which the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) measures the inequality between genders within a country. Some critique of this measurement is that, because GDI calculations rely solely on the achievement distribution between males and females of a population, GDI does not measure gender inequality; instead it measures absolute levels on income, education, and health.


title: Women's empowerment

text: A more qualitative form of assessing women's empowerment is to identify constraints to action. This allows for the identification of power relations between genders. Because this is a participatory process, it facilitates conversation on gender discrimination. Comparing constraints on women at a later time also allows for any changes or expansion to be better identified. The evaluation of the development of women's agency allows for an evaluation of actions taken. These assessments must also be based on the action taken by women, and not external groups. External groups can help facilitate women's empowerment, but cannot bestow it on them.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Many of the barriers to women's empowerment and equity are the result of cultural norms. While many women are aware issues posed by gender inequality, others have become accustomed to it. Many men in power are hesitant to disrupt societal norms that are unfair to women.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Research shows that the increasing access to the Internet can also result in an increased exploitation of women. Releasing personal information on websites has put some women's personal safety at risk. In 2010, Working to Halt Online Abuse stated that 73% of women were victimized through such sites. Types of victimization include cyber stalking, harassment, online pornography, flaming, and especially sexual harassment in the workplace. It occurs most frequently in business, trade, banking and finance, sales and marketing, hospitality, civil service, lecturing, teaching, and education. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), sexual harassment is a clear form of gender discrimination based on sex, a manifestation of unequal power relations between men and women. The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is urging for increased measures of protection for women against sexual harassment and violence in the workplace. 54% (272) had experienced some form of workplace sexual harassment. 79% of the victims are women; 21% were men.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Studies show that women face more barriers in the workplace than men. Gender-related barriers involve sexual harassment, unfair hiring practices, career progression, and unequal pay where women are paid less than men are for performing the same job. When taking the median earnings of men and women who worked full-time, year-round, government data from 2014 showed that women made $0.79 for every dollar a man earned. The average earnings for working mothers came out to even less—$0.71 for every dollar a father made, according to 2014 study conducted by the National Partnership for Women and Children. While much of the public discussion of the wage gap has focused around women getting equal pay for the same work as their male peers, many women struggle with what is called the "pregnancy penalty". This occurrence is difficult to measure, but the possibility of having a baby can be enough for employers to disrupt women's pay. Women are put in a position where they need to make the decision of whether to maintain in the workforce or have children, which has led to the debate over maternity leave in the United States and many other countries in the world.


title: Women's empowerment

text: In March 2016, tech career website Dice released a study of more than 16,000 tech professionals that found that when equivalent education, experience and position are compared, there is no pay gap and there has not been one for the last six years.


title: Women's empowerment

text: The pursuit of gender equality remains a global challenge. With long-standing gender gaps continuing across countries in all sectors of social and economic life. The Pursuit of Gender Equality: An Uphill Battle was released at the Women's Forum in Paris to highlight the issue (according to a global OECD report).  Understanding gender inequalities and removing the particular barriers are the only ways to establish a sustainable management.


title: Women's empowerment

text: There are three significant gender imbalance that pose challenges in managing a sustainable environment:


title: Women's empowerment

text: Land is important to cultural identity and ensures resources for daily survival such as food, housing and income.  Despite playing a significant role in using land for food, income and household resources, women account for 13.8% of land globally. They are also face numerous legal and social obstacles in all facets of their land rights (such as to sell, manage or control). This lead to the reason why women find it difficult to participate in activities due to unsure land rights. According to the study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), women's access to land promotes investments and managements.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Women's responsibilities at home make it difficult to take part and engage in decision-making.  As this indicates that women's needs, priorities and skills are being ignored when managing resources and making decision. This affects empowerment in community and the power to create changes.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Human Rights Watch claims that a lot of women all across the world are faced to toxic environment at work where they encounter a variety of unwanted sexual acts.  This effects women in a long-term, from physical and mental health to public engagement.  A barrier to women's growth value and a factor in the discrimination of jobs based on gender is the fear of enduring violence at work.


title: Women's empowerment

text: People engage in public debate and make demands on government for health care, social security and other entitlements. In particular, education empowers women to make choices that improve their children's health, their well-being, and chances of acquiring survival skills. Education informs others of preventing and containing a disease. Such education empowers women to make choices that can improve their welfare, including marrying beyond childhood and having fewer children. Education can increase women's awareness of their rights, boost their self-esteem, and provide them the opportunity to assert their rights.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Education is not universally available and gender inequalities persist. A major concern in many countries is not only the limited numbers of girls going to school, but also the number of educational pathways for those that step into the classroom. There are efforts to address the lower participation and learning achievement of girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.


title: Women's empowerment

text: In some parts of the world, girls and women are attacked for attending school, and societal efforts to stop this may be lacking.


title: Women's empowerment

text: The Internet is often a source of empowerment for women through its creation, dispersion, and utilization of hashtags on social media. Growing Internet access in the late 20th century provided women with various tools to empower themselves. Women began to use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for online activism. Through online activism, they are able to empower themselves by organizing campaigns and voicing their opinions for equality rights.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Blogging emerged as one tool for educational female empowerment. According to a study done by the University of California, Los Angeles, medical patients who read and write about their disease are often in a much happier mood and more knowledgeable than those who do not. By reading others' experiences, patients can better educate themselves and apply strategies that their fellow bloggers suggest.


title: Women's empowerment

text: With the easy accessibility and affordability of e-learning (electronic learning), women can study from the comfort of their homes. They learn skills that help them advance in their careers.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Examples of online activism having an impact include a 2013 online campaign which led to Facebook taking down various pages that spread hatred about women. The campaign was started by 100 female advocates. In 2017, when the #AintNoCinderella hashtag emerged, it went viral after Varnika Kundu (a 29-year-old woman in India) was driving home past midnight on August 4 when she was followed and harassed by two men in a SUV. Kundu was blamed for being out late at night, especially by the BJP government Vice-president Ramveer Bhatti. This led to women across India and other parts of the world to share pictures of themselves out late at night with the hashtag "#AintNoCinderella" to show that women do not have a particular curfew they must follow.


title: Women's empowerment

text: The UN came out with a set of goals called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to help make the world a better place. Of the 17th, the fourth goal works to allow access to education for all people. A large effort has been made to include women in schools to better their education. The fifth goal focuses on empowering women and girls to achieve gender equality through equal access to various types of opportunities (health care, education, work, etc.).


title: Women's empowerment

text: Domestically, the U.S. empowered women through passings of laws such as allowing women to vote in 1920, banning discrimination based on gender in 1964, banning discrimination against pregnant women in 1978, etc. The inclusion of women in politics allowed for more gender equality. The first female speaker of House, the First Lady to run for president, first women to serve on the Supreme Court, and the first female Vice President were monumental events that provided insight into the developing social acceptance of women in power.


title: Women's empowerment

text: The U.S. provides foreign aid to third world countries in various forms, one of which is by providing education programs. There are bills in Congress that work to ensure education to girls. One is the Protecting Girls' Access to Education Act. These bills are enacted with the belief that proper education will pull girls out of poverty and reduce exploitation of them.


title: Women's empowerment

text: Another action taken on by the U.S is the PEPFAR program, initiated by the Bush administration in 2003. The U.S. spent more than $1.4 billion in funding sub-Saharan Africa during the duration of the program. This program was taken into effect in response to the global HIV/AIDS crisis, and it promoted abstinence among young girls and women. There was a partnership with DREAMS, and its main purpose with PEPFAR was to allow both girls and women to develop into Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe women. There are criticisms that this program did not do much to reduce HIV-risk behavior, and critics such as John Dietrich expressed concern that the context of aid enforced Western beliefs of choosing abstinence before marriage.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a private, 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization founded in 1912. BBB's self-described mission is to focus on advancing marketplace trust, consisting of 97 independently incorporated local BBB organizations in the United States and Canada, coordinated under the International Association of Better Business Bureaus (IABBB) in Arlington, Virginia.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: Better Business Bureau is not affiliated with any governmental agency. Businesses that affiliate with BBB and adhere to its standards do so through industry self-regulation. To avoid bias, BBB's policy is to refrain from recommending or endorsing any specific business, product or service.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: The BBB rating system uses an A+ through F letter-grade scale. The grades represent BBB's degree of confidence that the business is operating in good faith and will resolve customer concerns filed with the BBB. BBB's ratings are explained on its Ratings Overview page. BBB employees evaluate a business's behavior when assigning a rating.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: According to BBB, nearly 400,000 local businesses in North America were accredited as of July 2022. BBB prospects successfully vetted businesses to become dues-paying 'accredited businesses' that pledge and continue to adhere to the BBB Code of Business Practices. In return, BBB allows accredited businesses in good standing to use its trademarked logo in marketing materials.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: The concept of the Better Business Bureau has been credited to several court cases, such as "United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola", initiated by the government against a number of organizations, including the Coca-Cola Company in 1906.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: In 1909, Samuel Candler Dobbs became president of the Associated Advertising Clubs of America, now the American Advertising Federation (AAF), and began to make speeches on the subject. In 1911, he was involved in the adoption of the "Ten Commandments of Advertising," one of the first codes of advertising developed by groups of advertising firms and individual businesses. Similar organizations in succeeding decades, such as the National Better Business Commission, Inc. of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World (1921), and the National Association of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (1933), merged to become the Association of Better Business Bureaus, Inc., in 1946. In 1970, the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) was established by a merger of the Association of Better Business Bureaus and the National Better Business Bureau. The Council of BBBs included the Philanthropic Advisory Service (PAS), which advised donors about national charities. PAS later merged with the National Charities Information Bureau to form the BBB Wise Giving Alliance.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: In 2019 the Council of BBBs split into three entities - the BBB Wise Giving Alliance (advice for donors to charities), BBB National Programs (national industry self-regulatory programs), and the International Association of Better Business Bureaus (BBB's self-governing organization.)


title: Better Business Bureau

text: Each BBB is overseen by its own board of directors and chief executive officer. Each must meet international BBB standards, which are monitored by the IABBB. The IABBB is governed by leaders of local BBBs, as well as several independent subject matter experts such as academics and legal experts. BBBs are chiefly funded by local accredited businesses, which also make up BBB boards of directors. A study by a business school dean at Marquette University found that ninety percent of BBB board members are from business.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: Businesses that move from one BBB jurisdiction to another may need to apply for BBB accreditation in the new BBB location unless they have a system-wide accreditation. IABBB is funded primarily by membership dues from BBBs, which vary from year to year.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: BBB handles complaints from consumers about their marketplace experiences with businesses, and also publishes customer reviews both positive and negative. The organization provides dispute resolution through procedures established by the International Association of Better Business Bureaus, and implemented by local BBBs. Usually, disputes can be resolved through mediation; when appropriate, low- or no‑cost arbitration may also be offered and provided through the BBB. BBB acts as a neutral party when providing dispute resolution services.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: Complaints about the practice of professions like medicine and law are usually not handled by BBB and are referred to associations regulating those professions. BBB does not handle complaints that have gone to court or are in the process of going to court as the complaint is already being handled by an alternate entity.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: If BBB receives a consumer dispute, BBB contacts the business in question and offers to mediate the dispute. A business does not need to be a member of BBB to use its mediation services. BBB accreditation, or membership, is completely optional for a business to accept and participate in through the payment of dues. Past complaints allege that BBB compiles ratings based upon their ability to collect money from businesses, and not entirely upon business performance. However, since 2010, no relationship exists between a business's rating and its accreditation status.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: Until 2008, BBB rated companies "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory." On January 1, 2009, BBB moved to a new system based on a school-style A to F rating system. The 16 factors have been posted on each business profile since the program's inception and the details on the points awarded as well. Initially there was a 17th factor worth 4 points for businesses that were Accredited. That process was changed in November 2010 in response to criticism in the media and from the Connecticut attorney general who accused BBB of using "pay to play" tactics. The Attorney General of Connecticut demanded that BBB stop using its weighted letter grade system, calling it "potentially harmful and misleading" to consumers. In response, the Council of Better Business Bureaus changed the BBB ratings system to cease awarding points to businesses for being BBB members, and to institute closer monitoring of BBB sales practices.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: If a business chooses not to provide basic information, such as size and start date, BBB may assign a not-rated (NR) rating. An "NR" rating due solely to a company not providing information would state: "BBB does not have sufficient background information on this business."


title: Better Business Bureau

text: A business is eligible for BBB accreditation if it meets, in the opinion of BBB, "BBB Standards for Trust". There are eight BBB Standards for Trust that BBB expects its accredited businesses to adhere to: build trust ("maintain a positive track record in the marketplace"), advertise honestly, tell the truth, be transparent, honor promises, be responsive (address marketplace disputes), safeguard privacy (protect consumer data) and embody integrity.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: In 2010 ABC's "20/20" reported in a segment titled "The Best Ratings Money Can Buy" about the irregularities in BBB ratings. They reported that a man created two dummy companies which received "A+" ratings as soon as he had paid the membership fee to the BBB of the Southland, serving the Los Angeles area. They also reported that business owners in Los Angeles were told that the only way to improve their rating was by paying the fee. In one case a "C" was turned to an "A" immediately after a payment and in another case a C‑minus became an "A+". The chef Wolfgang Puck said that some of his L.A.-based businesses received F ratings because he refused to pay a fee. These allegations led to procedures against the BBB of the Southland from the BBB system. On March 12, 2013, the Council of Better Business Bureaus expelled the Los Angeles-based Better Business Bureau of the Southland, the largest local BBB, claiming that the group had not met the Council's "standards relating to accreditation, reporting on businesses, and handling complaints." The Los Angeles chapter disputed the charges and continued to operate under the new name of Business Consumer Alliance. From March to November 2013, BBB continued served the four-county Los Angeles area via a "Virtual BBB" staffed by volunteers from other BBBs. The effort won the American Society of Association Executives "Power of Association" award. In November 2013 the Council of Better Business Bureaus reassigned the Los Angeles area to three established California BBBs.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: In 2011, a "New York Times" columnist described a complaint from a consumer that the Austin chapter of the Better Business Bureau refused to resolve complaints against companies if customers do not pay a $70 mediation fee.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: On August 16, 2011, the then-named Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) announced the formal integration of operations in the United States & Canada, effective immediately.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: According to the statement, integration marks the way "for an improved customer experience for those who purchase goods and services across the border". Stephen A. Cox, President and CEO of CBBB, said: "The U.S. and Canada remain each other's largest trading partners. We are really one North American marketplace, and the BBB system now reflects that. Not only will it be easier for consumers to check out businesses in either country, it will be simpler for them to file a complaint or resolve a dispute." The move was supported by the Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus (CCBBB). "Given the advances in technology and the globalization of services, it no longer makes sense to maintain two separate systems," said M. Jean Lemyre, chair of the CCBBB. "The vast majority of consumers initially contact BBB through the Internet. Aligning BBB services into one integrated system will be more efficient for businesses in Canada, and will ensure that consumers continue to receive the high quality of services they've come to expect from BBB."


title: Better Business Bureau

text: The then-named Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) revoked the BBB name & trademark from four Canadian Better Business Bureaus. The CBBB said it made the move to withdraw trademark authorization from the offices in Hamilton, Windsor, Montreal and St. John's after determining these four Canadian offices did not meet the defined standards of operation.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: CBBB realigned the boundaries of its affected Canadian offices and folded them into larger offices. Hamilton has been gathered under the banner of the BBB's Kitchener office, while the territories in SW Ontario (including Windsor) are now part of the Western Ontario region based in London, ON.


title: Better Business Bureau

text: The Hamilton, Montreal & St. John's offices have also changed their names or closed following what they termed a takeover by the U.S.-based Council of Better Business Bureaus. The Hamilton, Ontario BBB adopted the name Canadian Businesses and Charity Bureau. In May 2012, the Hamilton organization was locked out of its office by its landlord in a rent dispute and ceased to operate. The Montreal BBB changed its name to L'Office de Certification Commerciale du Québec or Québec Commercial Certification Office, while the BBB in St. John's, Newfoundland closed. These areas have since been picked up by others, and as of August 2022, all of Canada is served by 10 BBBs.


title: David Burtka

text: David Michael Burtka (born May 29, 1975) is an American actor and professional chef. He is known for his acting roles in theatre and television shows such as "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Play About the Baby". After his role on "How I Met Your Mother", Burtka gained media attention for dating Neil Patrick Harris, whom he later married in 2014.


title: David Burtka

text: Burtka was born in Dearborn, Michigan, the son of Deborah A. Zajas (died 2008) and Daniel Burtka. He is of Polish descent. He grew up in Canton, Michigan, and graduated from Salem High School in 1993. He trained in acting at Interlochen Center for the Arts, obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan and had further training at the William Esper Studios.


title: David Burtka

text: Burtka made his television debut in 2002 with a guest role on "The West Wing". This was followed by guest appearances on "Crossing Jordan."


title: David Burtka

text: Burtka made his Broadway debut as Tulsa in the 2003 revival of "," which starred Bernadette Peters. He played The Boy in the American premiere of Edward Albee's "The Play About the Baby," for which he won the 2001 Clarence Derwent Award for most promising male performer.


title: David Burtka

text: In 2004, Burtka originated the role of Matt in the musical "The Opposite of Sex" and reprised the role in the work's East Coast premiere in the summer of 2006.


title: David Burtka

text: Burtka appeared in seven episodes of "How I Met Your Mother", playing "Scooter", the former high school boyfriend of Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), who still had not gotten over their breakup. Burtka made a cameo appearance, in "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas," as himself; in it, he also shared a scene with Neil Patrick Harris, in a part that was much like his character from "How I Met Your Mother."


title: David Burtka

text: Burtka starred in Osiris Entertainment's 2013 film "Annie and the Gypsy," and had a featured role in the 2014 film "Dance Off."


title: David Burtka

text: Burtka returned to Broadway in a comedy play, which David Hyde Pierce directed, titled "It Shoulda Been You." In the play, staged in late April 2015, he assumed the role of a Catholic fiancé of a Jewish bride, who was played by Sierra Boggess, whose wedding day is disrupted when her ex-boyfriend shows up at the wedding. Additional cast members included Tyne Daly and Harriet Harris.


title: David Burtka

text: Six months after Burtka's first "How I Met Your Mother" appearance, allegations arose that the actor had received the part because of a romantic relationship with one of the show's stars, actor Neil Patrick Harris. Speculation around this story eventually led Harris to acknowledge publicly that he himself was gay in a cover story in "People Weekly" Magazine. Burtka made no public response to the story, though later Harris stated that he and Burtka were moving in together.


title: David Burtka

text: Burtka and Harris attended the Emmy Awards in September 2007 as an openly acknowledged couple for the first time, an appearance that Harris discussed on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."


title: David Burtka

text: On February 4, 2009, Burtka and Harris appeared for the first time on stage together, singing a duet from "Rent" at a benefit for The LGBT Community Center in New York. The two actors had been together since April 2004. Harris customarily referred to Burtka as "my better half" and "an amazing chef." Burtka and Harris became parents to fraternal twins who were born in October 2010, via a surrogate mother.


title: David Burtka

text: Burtka, although not the biological father of his ex Lane Janger's children, who had also been born via surrogate, has remained close to them over the years.


title: David Burtka

text: Following the passage of the Marriage Equality Act in New York on June 24, 2011, Burtka and Harris announced their engagement, stating that they had proposed to each other five years earlier but had kept the engagement secret until same-sex marriage became legal in their state.


title: David Burtka

text: According to Harris, Burtka quit acting full-time to become a professional chef. He graduated from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Pasadena in the summer of 2009; afterwards, he began running a Los Angeles catering company that he called "Gourmet M.D." Burtka did continue to act, including in "It Shoulda Been You" on Broadway in 2015.


title: David Burtka

text: Burtka's first cookbook, "Life is a Party", a collection of recipes and tips on entertaining, was published in April 2019.


title: War on drugs

text: The war on drugs is a global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States. The initiative includes a set of drug policies that are intended to discourage the production, distribution, and consumption of psychoactive drugs that the participating governments and the United Nations have made illegal. The term was popularized by the media shortly after a press conference given on June 18, 1971, by President Richard Nixon—the day after publication of a special message from President Nixon to the Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control—during which he declared drug abuse "public enemy number one". That message to the Congress included text about devoting more federal resources to the "prevention of new addicts, and the rehabilitation of those who are addicted" but that part did not receive the same public attention as the term "war on drugs". Two years prior to this, Nixon had formally declared a "war on drugs" that would be directed toward eradication, interdiction, and incarceration. In 2015, the Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates for an end to the War on Drugs, estimated that the United States spends $51 billion annually on these initiatives, and in 2021, after 50 years of the drug war, others have estimated that the US has spent a cumulative $1 trillion on it.


title: War on drugs

text: On May 13, 2009, Gil Kerlikowske—the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)—signaled that the Obama administration did not plan to significantly alter drug enforcement policy, but also that the administration would not use the term "War on Drugs", because Kerlikowske considers the term to be "counter-productive". ONDCP's view is that "drug addiction is a disease that can be successfully prevented and treated... making drugs more available will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe".


title: War on drugs

text: In June 2011, the Global Commission on Drug Policy released a critical report on the War on Drugs, declaring: "The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world. Fifty years after the initiation of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and years after President Nixon launched the US government's war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed." The report was criticized by organizations that oppose a general legalization of drugs.


title: War on drugs

text: Morphine was first isolated from opium between 1803 and 1805, and hypodermic syringes were first constructed in 1851. This was particularly significant during the American Civil War, when wounded soldiers were treated with morphine. This led to widespread morphine addiction among veterans of the war.


title: War on drugs

text: Until 1912, products such as heroin were sold over-the-counter in a form of cough syrup. Doctors also prescribed heroin for irritable babies, bronchitis, insomnia, "nervous conditions", hysteria, menstrual cramps, and "vapors", leading to mass addiction. In addition, laudanum, an opioid, was a common part of the home medicine cabinet.


title: War on drugs

text: The first U.S. law that restricted the distribution and use of certain drugs was the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914. The first local laws came as early as 1860. In 1919, the United States passed the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, with exceptions for religious and medical use. In 1920, the United States passed the National Prohibition Act (Volstead Act), enacted to carry out the provisions in the law of the 18th Amendment.


title: War on drugs

text: The Federal Bureau of Narcotics was established in the United States Department of the Treasury by an act of June 14, 1930 (46 Stat. 585). In 1933, the federal prohibition for alcohol was repealed by passage of the 21st Amendment. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt publicly supported the adoption of the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act. "The New York Times" used the headline "Roosevelt Asks Narcotic War Aid".


title: War on drugs

text: In 1937, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed. Several scholars have claimed that the goal was to destroy the hemp industry, largely as an effort of businessmen Andrew Mellon, Randolph Hearst, and the Du Pont family. These scholars argue that with the invention of the decorticator, hemp became a very cheap substitute for the paper pulp that was used in the newspaper industry. These scholars believe that Hearst felt that this was a threat to his extensive timber holdings. Mellon, United States Secretary of the Treasury and the wealthiest man in America, had invested heavily in the DuPont's new synthetic fiber, nylon, and considered its success to depend on its replacement of the traditional resource, hemp. However, there were circumstances that contradict these claims. One reason for doubts about those claims is that the new decorticators did not perform fully satisfactorily in commercial production. Production of fiber from hemp, requiring harvest, transport and processing, was a labor-intensive process. Technological developments decreased the labor required but not sufficiently to eliminate this disadvantage.


title: War on drugs

text: On October 27, 1970, Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, which, among other things, categorized controlled substances based on their medicinal use and potential for addiction. In 1971, two congressmen released a report on the growing heroin epidemic among U.S. servicemen in Vietnam; ten to fifteen percent of the servicemen were addicted to heroin, and President Nixon declared drug abuse to be "public enemy number one".


title: War on drugs

text: Although Nixon declared "drug abuse" to be public enemy number one in 1971, the policies that his administration implemented as part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 were a continuation of drug prohibition policies in the U.S., which started in 1914.


title: War on drugs

text: The motives behind Nixon's campaign against drugs are disputed. John Ehrlichman, who was Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under Nixon, was quoted by Dan Baum as saying in 1994:


title: War on drugs

text: The veracity of the quote has been questioned by Ehrlichman's family, while Vox senior correspondent German Lopez has suggested that Ehrlichman was either wrong or lying. According to Lopez:


title: War on drugs

text: In 1973, the Drug Enforcement Administration was created to replace the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.


title: War on drugs

text: The Nixon Administration also repealed the federal 2 to 10-year mandatory minimum sentences for possession of marijuana and started federal demand reduction programs and drug-treatment programs. Robert DuPont, the "drug czar" in the Nixon Administration, stated it would be more accurate to say that Nixon ended, rather than launched, the "war on drugs". DuPont also argued that it was the proponents of drug legalization that popularized the term "war on drugs".


title: War on drugs

text: The presidency of Ronald Reagan saw an expansion in the federal focus of preventing drug abuse and for prosecuting offenders. In the first term of the presidency, Ronald Reagan signed the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, which expanded penalties towards possession of cannabis, established a federal system of mandatory minimum sentences, and established procedures for civil asset forfeiture. From 1980 to 1984, the federal annual budget of the FBI's drug enforcement units went from 8 million to 95 million. According to historian Elizabeth Hinton, Reagan was a strong proponent of criminalizing drug users during his presidency in the 1980s; she wrote that "[he] led Congress in criminalizing drug users, especially African American drug users, by concentrating and stiffening penalties for the possession of the crystalline rock form of cocaine, known as "crack", rather than the crystallized methamphetamine that White House officials recognized was as much of a problem among low-income white Americans". Support for Reagan's crime legislation was bipartisan. According to Hinton, Democrats supported his legislation as they had since the Johnson administration, though Reagan was a Republican.


title: War on drugs

text: In 1982, Vice President George H. W. Bush and his aides began pushing for the involvement of the CIA and U.S. military in drug interdiction efforts.


title: War on drugs

text: The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) was originally established by the National Narcotics Leadership Act of 1988, which mandated a national anti-drug media campaign for youth, which would later become the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. The director of ONDCP is commonly known as the drug czar, and it was first implemented in 1989 under President George H. W. Bush, and raised to cabinet-level status by Bill Clinton in 1993. These activities were subsequently funded by the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act of 1998. The Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998 codified the campaign at .