title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: UNLV research and economic development activities increased for the fourth consecutive year, according to the fiscal-year-end report from the Division of Research and Economic Development. Research awards rose by 7.5 percent to nearly $34.5 million, and proposals increased by two percent. Research expenditures in FY18 totaled $37 million.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: The College of Sciences received the largest amount of award funding among the colleges once again this fiscal year: nearly $15 million through more than 100 awards. Engineering followed with roughly $7.6 million in awards. The College of Education posted the largest percentage gain in award funding in FY16 with a nearly 47% increase from $1,776,332 in FY15 to $2,609,366 in FY16.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: UNLV's economic development activities continue to grow. Sixty-one patents were filed in FY16, an increase of 17% over FY15, and licensing revenue doubled from $126,242 in FY15 to $252,309 in FY16.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: Another measure of university research activity is the number of doctoral degrees conferred, as doctoral programs require a strong research component culminating in the doctoral dissertation. UNLV doctoral conferrals increased nearly 13% in FY16 to 166 degrees conferred. For the 2017–2018 school year, 163 doctoral degrees were conferred.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: UNLV's admissions process is considered "selective" according to "U.S. News & World Report". For freshmen entering fall 2018, 9,527 were accepted out of 11,613 applicants, and 3,947 enrolled. Women constituted 57.9% of the incoming class; men were 42.1%.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: Among freshman students who enrolled in fall 2016, SAT scores for the middle 50% ranged from 450 to 560 for critical reading, 450–570 for math, and 430–540 for writing. ACT composite scores for the middle 50% ranged from 19 to 24. In terms of class rank, 20% of enrolled freshmen were in the top 10% of their high school classes; 52% ranked in the top quarter, and 82% ranked in the top half. The average high school grade point average was 3.31.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: According to the "QS World University Rankings", William F. Harrah College of Hospitality's Hotel Administration program is ranked No. 2 in the world in 2020.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: Lee Business School's part-time MBA program is ranked in the top 28% in "U.S. News & World Report's" 2014 ranking of best business graduate programs.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: "The Atlantic" recognized UNLV's English department as having one of the nation's most innovative master of fine arts programs and one of the top-five doctoral programs in creative writing.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: "Down Beat" magazine, the internationally recognized industry standard trade publication for jazz music, recognized the work of the 2010 UNLV Jazz Ensemble as "Outstanding Large Jazz Ensemble Performance" among graduate college-level jazz bands in their annual Student Music Award issue of that year.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: In 2018, UNLV surpassed New York University as the most diverse university for undergraduates according to" U.S. News & World Report".


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: Much of the student life at UNLV revolves around its Student Union, which houses the offices for its student government and student organizations on its third floor.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: The Consolidated Students of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (CSUN) is the undergraduate student government at UNLV. This body consists of an executive board, a senate of 25 members from all of the colleges at UNLV, a judicial council, and directors who plan and organize events and marketing. CSUN currently has an annual budget of about $1 million, funded through student fees. The senate ways and means committee determines how the CSUN budget will be divided or set aside for items such as student organization funding and scholarships. The final say on spending in CSUN is the senate.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: Together with UNLV, CSUN founded an on-campus preschool in 1974 as part of the College of Education. Both students and staff can use this accredited preschool.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: The graduate student government at UNLV, called The Graduate and Professional Student Association, is separate from the undergraduate student government.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: UNLV has over 350 student organizations. To become official, the organization must become recognized by UNLV's Involvement Center.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: "The Scarlet and Gray Free Press" is the student newspaper on campus. It covers many topics about higher education in UNLV and the state. The paper extensively covers CSUN senate meetings and elections. It is printed twice weekly and posts its articles online. Recently, the newspaper's name was changed from "Rebel Yell" to its current iteration, as the former title was criticized for its reference to Confederate culture.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: Midtown UNLV is an ongoing private-public development along Maryland Parkway, a border street to the school. Development began in 2002 and its purpose is to expand the university to meet the demands of a major university in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The project to improve the "front door" of the university by improving amenities for students and businesses along Maryland Parkway. The goals are to reduce vacant spaces, lower business turnover rates, and create space for the university to expand. Additionally, the project aims to create new housing developments close to campus. Major funding is through state funding sources along with private donations.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: The University of Nevada, Las Vegas has created an Urban Sustainability Initiative that strives to implement sustainable practices on campus and in the larger Las Vegas community. In addition to having two campus buildings in the process of LEED Silver Certification and one building in the process of LEED Gold Certification, UNLV has reduced its use of electricity and natural gas by 38% per square foot since 2001 by retrofitting older campus buildings. In the 2009 edition of the Sustainable Endowment Institute's College Sustainability Report Card, University of Nevada-Las Vegas received a grade of "C".


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: The Science and Engineering building received a LEED Silver rating in March 2009. SEB achieved this rating by using recycled glass, steel, concrete, and wood. More than 60% of the leftover construction materials were recycled. The roof of SEB was made to reflect 92% of sunlight. This reduces the amount of heat absorbed into the building, so reduces energy needed to cool the building. Incoming air to SEB is also cooled through evaporation so the need for air conditioning is reduced. High-performance window glazing also allows light to come in while keeping the building insulated. Occupancy sensors allow lights to automatically turn off when a room is not occupied, saving electricity. Low-flow sinks, toilets, and showers, as well as a drip irrigation system for the native desert landscape, reduce water usage by 42%. SEB also uses a reclaimed water system that captures wastewater, providing 750 gallons of water a day that are used to flush toilets.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: In 2009, UNLV received the Cashman Good Government Award for the campus' sustainability measures for "maintaining consistent energy costs despite substantial campus growth," saving nearly $11 million from 2001 to 2009. UNLV was also recognized for managing the xeric demonstration garden and for its recycling efforts.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: Recent efforts by the university to improve sustainability practices include participation in the Solar Decathlon and creation of a Sustainability Coordinator position to investigate methods for improving sustainability of residence halls.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: Four residence-hall complexes are on the campus: Dayton Complex, Tonopah Complex, South Residential Complex, and Upper Class Complex.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: UNLV has several libraries on the main campus. The biggest is the Lied Library in the center of campus. Opened in 2001, the , $58 million facility is named for real estate entrepreneur Ernst W. Lied.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: Many colleges also have their individual libraries that hold materials more closely related to the college:


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: UNLV's main athletic facilities include Thomas & Mack Center (1983), Cox Pavilion, Buchanan Natatorium, Earl Wilson Stadium, and Allegiant Stadium. These facilities hold home games for UNLV sports programs and have hosted events such as the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament and the National Finals Rodeo.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: In 2007, the recreation center was completed. It caters to the needs of UNLV students' physical and mental health.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: The Mendenhall Center, a training center dedicated for the UNLV basketball program, opened in 2012. The Fertitta Football Complex for UNLV Football opened in 2019.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: Performing arts facilities include the Judy Bayley Theatre (1972), the Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall (1976), the Black Box Theatre, the Alta Ham Fine Arts Complex (1982), and the Lee and Thomas Beam Music Center (2001).


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: In 2007, a new student union was opened. This building offers many amenities for students including a social atmosphere, a diverse food court, conference rooms, a game room, student government offices, and student organization offices.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: One of the newer buildings on campus, the Greenspun Hall, opened its doors in 2008. Home to the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs and the Brookings Mountain West Institute, this five-story, 120,000-square-foot building is home to state-of-the art media facilities. It also houses the campus radio station KUNV-FM, student-run HD2 radio station, and the television production organization UNLV-TV. Certified under the LEEDrating system, the building was named after "Las Vegas Sun" founder and publisher Hank Greenspun. The Greenspun family also donated $37 million to the total cost of the building.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: In 2008, the Science and Engineering Building opened. It was created to serve both the College of Sciences and the Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering in an environmentally friendly manner.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: UNLV supports varsity teams in 16 different sports. The men's basketball team is referred to as the Runnin' Rebels and the men's baseball team is referred to as the Hustlin' Rebels. The Rebels are a founding member of the Mountain West Conference, in the NCAA's Division I. The only exceptions are the UNLV men's soccer team and swim and dive team, which compete in the Western Athletic Conference.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: The school's official colors of scarlet and gray can be traced to 1958, when UNLV adopted as mascot a wolf wearing a Confederate uniform. Scarlet and gray were traditional colors of the Confederacy with its gray uniforms and red-based flag. UNLV's mascot is Hey Reb!, the toned-down version of the original mascot named Beauregard, which was a wolf character dressed in Confederate hat and uniform. UNLV's Hey Reb mascot made his debut in 1983. He received his first makeover in 1997 and second in 2009. Named one of 12 All-American Mascots, he competed for the title of 2004 Capital One Mascot of the Year and made a strong showing by coming in second in online voting. No stranger to national television, Hey Reb has also appeared in two memorable ESPN SportsCenter commercials.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: UNLV's mascot is based on the university's split from their literal Northern rival, University of Nevada (Reno) and not on any direct reference to the actual Confederacy. As UNLV was once a Southern campus of the University of Nevada (Reno) when it became its own university, UNLV was seen as literally the South splitting from the North. UNLV had been seen as the little brother to UNR for quite some time even though Las Vegas has always been the more densely populated city of the two. Thus, the University of Nevada (Reno) Wolf mascot was dressed as a confederate soldier in UNLV colors and made the UNLV mascot as a Rebel to the UNR Wolf Pack which became the main rival of UNLV. The original basketball center court with the wolf mascot is still at the center of campus today. This story is relayed to incoming Freshman during Freshman orientation.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: On June 16, 2020, amid protests of racial inequality related to the murder of George Floyd, UNLV announced removed the Hey Reb! statue in front of the Tam Alumni Center, stating: "In recent conversations with the donor we mutually agreed it was best to remove the statue and return it." The university's president Marta Meana clarified the decision: "Over the past few months, I have had discussions with multiple individuals and stakeholder groups from campus and the community on how best the university can move forward given recent events throughout our nation".


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: UNLV has many traditions in its athletic programs. Each year, the men's football team plays the Nevada Wolf Pack in a football game called the Battle for Nevada. The trophy for that game is the Fremont Cannon. Built by the Kennecott Copper Corp., Nevada Mines Division, the cannon is valued at more than $10,000 and is considered one of the best and loudest, symbols of rivalry in college football. The cannon was permanently silenced in 2000, when Rebel players and fans accidentally dropped the trophy during a victory celebration. Since then, the teams continue the tradition with the victor painting the Fremont Cannon with the inscription of "University of Notta Lotta Victories" or "University of Northern Rejects". UNLV trails Nevada in the series 28–18 after losing the 2020 game at Allegiant Stadium with a score of 31–19.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: UNLV is most known for its men's basketball program. Made famous by Coach Jerry Tarkanian in the 1970s–1990s, the Runnin' Rebels are the third-most winning team in Division I basketball history by percentage, only behind Kentucky and North Carolina (.713, 1037–418 through 2008). The UNLV team is well known for their 1990 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship by defeating Duke University 103–73, which was and still is the largest margin of victory in a championship game. In that same game, UNLV became the first team to break 100 points in a championship game.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: UNLV is also known for its golf program. Led by coach Dwaine Knight, the UNLV golf program has turned out PGA Tour pros such as Adam Scott, Chris Riley, Chad Campbell, Ryan Moore, Skip Kendall, Charlie Hoffman, Bill Lunde and Andres Gonzales. They won the NCAA Division I Men's National Golf Championship in 1998.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: In February 2011, the Rebel men's swimming and diving team won their seventh-straight Mountain West Conference titles. Three Rebel swimmers competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics; Joe Bartoch and Richard Hortness represented Canada and Jonas Anderson represented Sweden.


title: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

text: UNLV has seen many of its former students go on to local and national prominence. This includes many athletes who have excelled at the collegiate and professional levels.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: Loretta Elizabeth Lynch (born May 21, 1959) is an American lawyer who served as the 83rd attorney general of the United States from 2015 to 2017. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to succeed Eric Holder and previously served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York under Presidents Bill Clinton (1999–2001), George W Bush (2001) and Obama (2010–2015). As a U.S. attorney, Lynch oversaw federal prosecutions in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: Lynch is a Harvard Law School graduate. She then practiced law in New York and became a federal prosecutor in 1990, rising to become head of the Eastern District office. She later returned to private law practice until she became the top district prosecutor again. From 2003 to 2005, she served on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York board.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: In November 2014, President Barack Obama nominated her to succeed Eric Holder as Attorney General. In February 2015, the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate recommended her confirmation by a 12–8 vote, with all Democrats of the committee and three Republicans in favor. In April 2015, Lynch was confirmed by the Senate by a 56–43 vote, making her the second African American, the second woman and the first African-American woman to be confirmed for the position. She was sworn in as Attorney General in April 2015. Her tenure ended in January 2017. In May 2019, Paul, Weiss announced that Lynch would be joining the firm as a partner in the litigation department.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: Lynch was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her mother, Lorine Lynch, a school librarian, and her father, Lorenzo Lynch, a Baptist minister, both graduated from the HBCU Shaw University. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded on the campus of Shaw University. As a child, she spent hours with her father, watching court proceedings in the courthouse of Durham, North Carolina. Her early interest in court proceedings was increased by hearing stories about her grandfather, a sharecropper and pastor, who in the 1930s had helped people move to the north to escape racial persecution under the Jim Crow laws of the time. Lynch earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and American literature from Harvard College in 1981 and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1984, where she was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and was a charter member of the Xi Tau chapter of the sorority while at Harvard. In 2017, Lynch was awarded an honorary degree from Duke University.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: Lynch's first job in the legal field was working as a litigation associate for Cahill Gordon & Reindel in New York City. She joined the Eastern District as a drug and violent-crime prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office in 1990. From 1994 to 1998, she served as the chief of the Long Island office and worked on several political corruption cases involving the government of Brookhaven, New York. From 1998 to 1999, she was the chief assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District and headed the Brooklyn office.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: In 1999, she was nominated by President Bill Clinton to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. During her term as U.S. Attorney, Lynch oversaw prosecution of New York City police officers in the Abner Louima case.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: In 2001, Lynch left the U.S. Attorney's office to become a partner at Hogan & Hartson (later Hogan Lovells). She remained there until January 20, 2010, when President Barack Obama nominated Lynch to again serve as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. From 2003 to 2005, she was a member of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: Following the July 2014 death of Eric Garner, an unarmed man who died after being held in a department-prohibited chokehold by a New York City police officer, Lynch agreed to meet with Garner's family to discuss possible federal prosecution of the officer believed to be responsible for Garner's death.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: Lynch's office prosecuted Republican congressman Michael Grimm; prosecuted Democratic politicians Pedro Espada Jr. and William Boyland, Jr.; investigated Citigroup over mortgage securities sold by the bank, resulting in a 7 billion settlement; and was involved in the 1.2 billion settlement with HSBC over violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: While Lynch was U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, she supervised the investigation into senior FIFA officials from its earliest stages. The investigation culminated in the indictment of 14 senior FIFA officials and sports marketing executives shortly after Lynch was confirmed as Attorney General. For her work in the case, which eventually led to the resignation of FIFA President Sepp Blatter, Lynch was presented with the 3rd annual Golden Blazer by NBC Sports' Men in Blazers (Roger Bennett and Michael Davies). (The other winners so far include ESPN's Bob Ley, NBC's Rebecca Lowe, FOX's Rob Stone and former US women's national team captains and FIFA Women's World Cup winners Julie Foudy and Megan Rapinoe.)


title: Loretta Lynch

text: Replacing Lynch, Robert Capers was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York on December 15, 2015, taking his oath of office on January 4, 2016.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: In May 2019, Lynch returned to the private sector and moved to Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. She became a partner in the firm’s litigation department, where she represents individuals, companies, and corporate boards of directors in high-stakes cases, regulatory matters, and investigations.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: In December 2020, Lynch had been hired by the National Football League to help investigate allegations of misconduct among the owners of the Washington Football Team, one of the league's member clubs.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: On November 8, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Lynch for the position of U.S. Attorney General, to succeed Eric Holder, who had previously announced his resignation, pending confirmation of his replacement. She was confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 26, 2015, and approved by the Senate in a 56–43 vote on April 23, thereby becoming the first African-American woman, the second African-American after Holder, and the second woman, after Janet Reno, to hold this office.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: Several Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee including chairman Chuck Grassley, opposed Lynch's confirmation, saying it was important to find out more about Lynch's role in settling a $1.9 billion money-laundering deal with HSBC when she served as United States Attorney in New York. Rand Paul, though not on the committee, opposed her nomination for her support of civil forfeiture. On April 23, 2015, cloture was invoked on her nomination by a vote of 66 to 34. Her appointment was confirmed the same day by a 56 to 43 vote. Her nomination process was one of the longest in the history of the United States, taking 166 days after she was first nominated for the post. She was sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden on April 27, 2015.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: In July 2015, after the Charleston church shooting, Lynch announced the suspected shooter Dylann Roof would be charged with a hate crime. On May 24, 2016, she further announced that the Justice Department would seek the death penalty for Roof.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: On December 7, 2015, Lynch stated the Justice Department would be investigating the Chicago Police Department to see if there was a potential violation of civil rights in the case of Laquan McDonald.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: On March 3, 2016, following the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Lynch said charges would be filed soon against participants in the standoff while appearing in Portland, Oregon to commemorate the community's policing.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: After the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Lynch's name was mentioned as being a potential nominee to replace him. On March 8, a Justice Department spokesperson said Lynch had asked the White House to withdraw her from consideration.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: In April 2016, Lynch took an active role in addressing what she called the difficulty of re-entry into society by felons, writing an op-ed and making public appearances in support of raising awareness.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: In June 2016, in response to the Orlando nightclub shooting, Lynch made multiple appearances on television news shows to highlight the ongoing investigation of the FBI. She said edited transcripts of the conversation between the shooter and the FBI negotiators would be released. On June 21, Lynch traveled to Orlando to both meet with survivors and inquire into the ongoing investigation, also bringing with her $1 million in emergency funding for Florida, Orange County, and Orlando to help pay for overtime and other investigative costs.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: In October 2016, Lynch removed the Brooklyn FBI agents and federal prosecutors from the death of Eric Garner case, replacing them with agents from outside New York. The local FBI agents and federal prosecutors had determined that charges should not be brought in the case, prompting strong disagreement from attorneys in the Washington, D.C. office of the Department's Civil Rights Division. Lynch's intervention has been called "highly unusual".


title: Loretta Lynch

text: In early March 2016, hackers working with Dutch intelligence had reportedly provided a highly classified Russian government document to the FBI. The document, which had "possible translation issues," had purportedly contained a memorialization of an alleged conversation between Lynch and Amanda Renteria. One of the allegations within the document reportedly said that Renteria had been assured that "Lynch would keep the Clinton investigation from going too far." FBI Director James Comey said it was "one of the bricks in the load" that led to his decision to not consult with the Department of Justice before closing the investigation, even though Lynch had denied ever speaking with Renteria, in addition to the FBI determining that the document was not credible.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: On June 27, 2016, Lynch and former President Bill Clinton met privately aboard Lynch's Justice Department jet while it was parked on the tarmac in Phoenix. ABC15 Phoenix reporter Christopher Sign broke the story on June 29, citing unnamed sources. The next day, during a press conference in Phoenix, Lynch denied the conversation was about the Hillary Clinton email controversy or any matters pertaining to it, saying the discussion instead involved personal social topics such as travels, golf, and grandchildren. On July 1, 2016, Lynch swore she would "fully accept" the recommendation of the FBI and prosecutors regarding the email probe, and admitted that she understood how the meeting was raising "questions and concerns", and that she "certainly wouldn't do it again". On July 6, a day after FBI Director James Comey recommended not pressing charges against Clinton, Lynch confirmed the Justice Department had opted to not pursue charges against Clinton and would close the probe into her private email server. On July 12, Lynch testified before Republican lawmakers, on the legal basis of the Justice Department's choice to not prosecute Clinton.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: On June 8, 2017, former FBI head James Comey testified under oath that Lynch had instructed him (during the course of a private conversation) to not refer to the Clinton email scandal as an "investigation" and instead refer to it as a "matter". He also said that the directive, combined with Lynch's discussion on a Phoenix tarmac with former President Clinton, led him to make his independent announcement regarding the Clinton email probe last July. In his closely watched Senate Intelligence Committee testimony, otherwise devoted to discussing the circumstances of his firing, Comey said that tarmac meeting was a "deciding factor" in his decision to act alone to update the public on the Clinton probe—and protect the Bureau's reputation.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: In June 2017, the Senate Judiciary Committee launched a bipartisan investigation into whether or not Lynch tried to interfere with the Hillary Clinton email investigation. The following month, Lynch issued a statement through her lawyer pledging to cooperate with the investigation and denying the allegation she had given assurances to a Clinton campaign staffer that she would limit the email investigation. The Department of Justice Inspector General also investigated the handling of the Clinton email investigation. The Inspector General's report, released in June 2018, called Lynch's tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton an error of judgment for the public perception it created, but found no political bias.


title: Loretta Lynch

text: Lynch married Stephen Hargrove in 2007. She uses her married name, Loretta Lynch Hargrove in her personal life. Her husband has two children from a previous marriage.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Ensenada is a city in Ensenada Municipality, Baja California, situated on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Located on the Bahía de Todos Santos, the city had a population of 279,765 in 2018, making it the third-largest city in Baja California. The city is an important international trade center and home to the Port of Ensenada, the second-busiest port in Mexico. Ensenada is a major tourist destination, owing to its warm Mediterranean climate and proximity to the Pacific Ocean, and is commonly known as "La Cenicienta del Pacífico" ("The Cinderella of the Pacific").


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Ensenada was founded in 1882, when the small community of Rancho Ensenada de Todos Santos was made the regional capital for the northern partition of the Baja California Territory. The city grew significantly with the proliferation of mines in the surrounding mountains. While the Mexican Revolution curtailed much of Ensenada's expansion, the onset of Prohibition in the United States transformed the city into a popular tourist destination for Americans seeking entertainment and alcohol. Ensenada's reputation as a resort town was cemented by the 1950's and 1960's, which saw a construction boom and the city's rise in international prominence outside of North America.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Today, Ensenada is a major economic and cultural hub for Baja California. The city is home to numerous universities, like the Ensenada Institute of Technology and the Autonomous University of Baja California, Ensenada. Ensenada is an important biotechnology hub and is home to numerous research institutions, like the Ensenada Center for Scientific Research. The city is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: At the time the first European explorers arrived in the region, the Yuman people inhabited the region. Yuman tribal groups such as the Kiliwa, Paipai and Kumeyaay still exist. These semi-nomadic indigenous people lived in the bay area and interior valleys of the Sierra de Juárez and San Pedro Mártir. The Kumeyaay had a village where the city is seated on, which was called Pa-tai.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Bahia Todos Santos, which Ensenada now borders, was first reached by sea by the Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo on the vessels "El Salvador" and "Victoria". The city was founded September 17, 1542 under the name "San Mateo". In 1602, while mapping the coast of the Californias in search of safe harbors for returning Spanish galleons from Manila to Acapulco, Sebastián Vizcaíno renamed the city to "Ensenada de Todos Santos". "Ensenada" means "bay" or "cove".


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The first permanent settlement was established by the Jesuits during the 17th or 18th century. After the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1768, the Dominicans took over the representation of Europe in what is now Ensenada. In 1805, José Manuel Ruiz Carillo obtained permission to establish himself in Ensenada, being appointed governor of Baja California and building in Ensenada a house that survived until the final part of that century, despite being briefly taken by William Walker, the self-declared "president" of the Republic of Lower California, in 1853–54.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: In 1882, Ensenada was designated the capital of Baja California, and attempts at developing the area were made by the English Mexican Land and Colonization Company. These were interrupted by the Mexican Revolution, which left the area devastated. In 1915, the capital was transferred to Mexicali, and in 1930, the population of Ensenada was only 5,000. During the early part of the twentieth century, the city's name was shortened from "Ensenada de Todos Santos" to "Ensenada", a change made in order to avoid confusion with Todos Santos in Baja California Sur.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The twentieth-century development of Ensenada was assisted by prohibition, which sent Americans and Canadians south of their border in search of entertainment and alcohol, developing first Tijuana, then Rosarito, and finally Ensenada as tourist destinations. The Hotel Riviera del Pacífico was opened in 1930, briefly placing Ensenada on the international glamor map and was visited several times by President Miguel Aleman, international artists and political personalities.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Ensenada truly began to flourish in the early 1950s, at which time the city's population had risen to 20,000. The hotel finally closed in 1964. It was later reopened as a cultural center and museum. By this time, other hotels had opened, and the population and economy of Ensenada had grown and diversified towards their present status.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: On January 26th, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI created the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ensenada with territory taken from the Archdiocese of Tijuana and Mexicali Diocese, making it a suffragan diocese of the Metropolitan Church of Tijuana.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Many of the terrestrial or marine species inhabiting the surrounding the Greater Ensenada area in the Baja California islands are unique. Guadalupe Island, off the coast of the city, is one of the best places in the world for observing the great white shark. The island has been a wildlife sanctuary since 1975.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The city's offshore is host to an array of aquatic mammals including the gray whale, the Guadalupe fur seal and California sea lion; terrestrial mammals include various squirrel species, otters, the ring-tailed cat, coyote, bobcat, and puma.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: There are no rivers in the city, only surface runoff streams that flow when there is large amounts of rainfall.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Ensenada has one natural fresh water body, the Lagunita pond, located to the north of El Ciprés military air field, and which has ecological importance.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The average rainfall is per year, falling mainly in the winter months. Ensenada has a mild semi-arid climate (Köppen "BSk"), much like the rest of northwestern Baja California. During the colder months from November to February, rainfall is scarce and temperatures average . On the other hand, the warmer months from June to September are the driest, and during this time maintain an average temperature of .


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: For Ensenada's warm summer coastal location, the city's climate is greatly affected by the offshore cold California Current. Due to the current, the late summer and early fall seasons are typically the warmest periods for the city. Santa Ana winds – observed in much of Southern California as well – are responsible for temperature rises at any time of the year. During Santa Anas, wind direction changes and brings warm air from the interior to the coast. Snowfall is rare with the last recent one in January 2007, when the hills south of the city received small amounts of snowfall.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Similar to the South Coast of California, Ensenada experiences the periodic May Gray and June Gloom marine layer effects.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The populace of Ensenada is cosmopolitan in composition. A reflection of the cultural dynamics involved in the city, many ethnic groups and nationalities are present.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The predominant language of the city is Spanish, though English is spoken to a degree in tourist areas and the city center.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The significant portion of the city has developed as a community for "snowbird" tourists from Canada and the United States. Young Californians seeking to escape higher costs of living, yet still be able to work in California, have obtained homes in the area.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Ensenada is the municipal seat of the Ensenada Municipality. The city is made up of the boroughs of Ensenada and Chapultepec.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The city is administered by a city council. Port lands are administered by the Port Authority of Ensenada.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Ensenada is covered by the Third Federal Electoral District of Baja California, which elects 1 member to the federal Chamber of Deputies.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The Emilio López Zamora dam was built in 1976 by the federal government, with the objective of controlling overflow and supporting the water supply of the city.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Ensenada is located some south of the border with the United States, connected via a four-lane toll road MX-1D and a two lane free road, which makes it a natural destination for tourists on short vacations by car. Ensenada's proximity to California also makes it a destination for short cruise ship trips from Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. As of 2005, four cruise lines maintained ships that docked in Ensenada weekly, though, one of these ships—the "Monarch of the Seas", operated by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines—ceased operations in the Pacific in mid-October 2008. The world-renowned Baja 1000 off-road race is held in Ensenada every year in late November, while the Baja 500 race is held in early June. Off-road enthusiasts use Ensenada year-round as a starting point to explore Baja California.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Watersports and ocean proximity have formed an integral part of the structure of tourism and its relation to economics in the city. Ensenada and coastal beach towns of Greater Ensenada have several renowned surfing spots, such as San Miguel Beach, California Trailer Park, Stacks and 3 M's ("Tres Emes" in Spanish), which are located on the north coast of the city. Todos Santos Island is a small island located west of Ensenada (about two hours by boat) and a world-famous surfing spot. A number of surfing contests, such as the Billabong XXL. have been held at Todos Santos Island. Wave faces can reach above on the island and in December 2006 Brad Gerlach, 2006 winner of Big XXL, surfed a wave of .


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Tourists also stop in the city on their way to their destinations farther south in the municipality where windsurfing spots are located. Maritime activities associated with the city also include the global Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race, billed as the world's largest international sailing event, which begins in Newport Beach and finishes in Ensenada. Racing is another yearly tourists attraction; where you can enjoy the Baja 1000 and Baja 500. Whale watching has also developed as a tourist draw in the city due to the gray whale's annual migration from Alaska to the lagoons of Baja California Sur. Between the months of December and March, and back in the months of April and May, whales can be seen from the coast of Ensenada.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The nearby historical mission town of Guadalupe, was revitalized from 1905 to 1910 with immigrant Spiritual Christians, mostly "Pryguny" from the Caucasus, South Russia. After WWII most moved to California to join more prosperous relatives, while many who remained intermarried with Mexicans and live in Ensenada and Tijuana. Two families remaining in the Guadalupe Valley opened museums, a cafe, and participate in wine tourism. The traditional economic activities in Guadalupe are olive and wine production. Currently, about 90% of wine production in Mexico originates in the valleys of Guadalupe and adjacent Calafia. Many local wine producers offer tours and tastings. Every year during the month of August, the beginning of wine harvest season is celebrated in the Guadalupe Valley and in the city of Ensenada with a two-week-long series of cultural and culinary events, all under the title banner of Fiestas de la Vendimia (Wine Harvest Festival). This event attracts people from all over the world.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: There is a street in Ensenada called ""La Calle Primera"" or Adolfo Lopez Mateos ("1st Street"). It's a tourism spot in Ensenada due to its many "Curios" (short for "Curiosidades"—trinkets and souvenirs) shops, restaurants, hotels, bars, and popular clubs such as the Hussong's Cantina, Mini Bar, Shots Factory, Lutzenkirch The Nightclub and Papas & Beer. "La Primera" is a very busy street, filled with tourists and locals. "La Primera" is just one block away from "Ventana al Mar" ("Window to the Sea"), a boardwalk/seawall avenue where an enormous Mexican flag is located. The Ensenada Carnaval is one of the country's largest, as thousands of people gather in the streets for six days and nights. Just south of the city on Highway 1 is located the second-largest of three known major marine geysers in the world, colloquially known as "La Bufadora" ("The Blowhole"). La Bufadora attracts many tourists. The street leading to the viewpoint is a commercial area where a variety of authentic Mexican arts and crafts are for sale; bartering over prices with vendors is customary. There are also seafood restaurants and street vendors selling "churros" (fried pastry with cinnamon and sugar) and other delicacies.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Ensenada is developing scientific research and natural science sectors, with special focus in the marine sciences sectors. Ensenada is claimed to be the city with the highest number of scientists per capita in Latin America. The Center of Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada (CICESE) conducts research in Earth Sciences, Applied Physics, Oceanography, Communications and Experimental and Applied Biology. Further research is conducted on the campus of the Autonomous University of Baja California, Ensenada (UABC), mainly in Oceanography and education areas although there are groups in Physics, Biology, and other related sciences. The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has a research campus in the city. The campus hosts the Institute of Astronomy and the Centre for Nanosciences and Nanotechnology (CNyN). The National Astronomical Observatory (Mexico) is located on the mountains of the Sierra de San Pedro Martir, south of the city.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The city is home to the largest cluster of bio-medical device companies in Mexico and is a developing center that is drawing a growing number of biotech researchers. Unique to the city is that its biotech cluster is near that of another, larger, cluster in San Diego. The proximity of these two biotech clusters fuels their interaction.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The city is not part of any rail transport grid with which it could use to transport cargo and other materials, although there are plans to build a rail line to the United States border in the short to mid-term future that would link it to San Diego–Tijuana. Unlike the larger cities to the north, Ensenada has only six major industrial parks, compared to 26 in Mexicali and 51 in Tijuana, as its economy is more focused on tourism and technology. Fender guitars and Lowrance fishfinders are manufactured in Ensenada.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The Port of Ensenada has a large influence on the civic economy. Ensenada is home to the only deep-water port in the state of Baja California and on the Baja California Peninsula. The port is part of standard shipping routes that directly link it with the Mexican cities of La Paz, Manzanillo, Mazatlán, Acapulco and Lázaro Cárdenas; the American cities of San Diego, Long Beach and Los Angeles; the Guatemalan city of Puerto Quetzal, the Chilean city of Valparaíso, the Japanese city of Yokohama, and the city of Hong Kong. Ensenada is where the Fender standard series guitars and basses are produced.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: In addition to revenue generated by docking cruise ships, fishing accounts for a large part of the economy. More than 90 species of fish are commercially fished in Ensenada; the most important fisheries are tuna, shrimp, California spiny lobster, abalone, sea urchin, sardine, mackerel and seaweed. A large percentage of all catches are exported to East Asia. A tuna embargo imposed on Mexico during the 1990s caused most of the fishing fleet to relocate to the ports of Guaymas, and Mazatlán, further south. To survive, Ensenada's tuna industry has shifted its focus to tuna farming, exporting the highly valued meat almost exclusively to Japan. Ensenada has been known for sports fishing over 50 years. Each year hundreds of anglers head for Ensenada to go fishing and take advantage of the shorter distances needed to travel by sea to get to the big catch.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The municipality of Ensenada has three main agricultural zones: the Guadalupe-Calafia valleys to the north, the Ojos Negros valley to the east and the San Quintin valley to the south. The main crops are grapes, olives, tomato, wheat, alfalfa, asparagus, green onions and broccoli.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: One of the earliest activities in the Ensenada region was gold and silver mining, and some of these mines remain in limited operation. In recent years, very large amounts of gravel have been extracted from creek beds in rural areas and exported for infrastructure works in California in the US. However, this has been a controversial activity, as environmentalists have argued that depleting the creekbeds will decrease the amount of water that is absorbed by the soil during the brief rainy season, negatively impacting the agriculture. As of November 2005, the extraction of gravel remains unchecked. Said extraction activities have been linked to former Governor Ernesto Ruffo.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: With UNAM's research headquarters, the Marine Sciences Department of the UABC and the thriving CICESE scientific institute in town, Ensenada boasts the highest concentration of scientists and science students in all of Latin America, chiefly in the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, geology and oceanography. Fittingly, Ensenada has been coined "the City Of Science". Ensenada's four main institutions have a dominant focus on marine and agricultural biotechnology, nanoscience and nanotechnology, information and communication technologies, oceanography and marine science, optics and applied physics, and economic development.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Ensenada's diversity as a city is in part attributed to Spanish, Russian, and American influences. Spanish missionaries and Russian settlers began the growth of the wine industry in the city. Reminiscent of this time period are Russian museums in the city.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The city is known for its festivities and laid-back atmosphere, the city hosts many events including the Wine Harvest Festival (Fiestas de la Vendimia) and Ensenada Carnaval. The Wine Harvest Festival celebrates the wine harvest season and in the city and nearby Guadalupe Valley, a series of events takes place.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Typical food in Ensenada consists of fish tacos, which originated in the city, shrimp tacos, and ceviche. These dishes are usually accompanied by avocado and salsa. Another dish characteristic of the port city is carpaccio. The city's Mediterranean climate allows for the cultivation of grapes and olives, which in turn make wine and olive oil, respectively. Development of such foods complement Spanish, Italian, French, and Mexican dishes in Ensenada.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Ensenada maintains no professional sports teams in association football, basketball, or baseball, but is known for its water sports. The city has sports fishing venues, and swells that are known for drawing professional surfers.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: In addition to its watersports scene, the city is known for a place of biking, both cycling and motorsport varieties. The Rosarito-Ensenada bike race ends in the city. The Baja 500, which starts and ends in the city, and Baja 1000 – both races that take their names from their distance in miles – are motorsport races that begin in the city.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Ensenada is served by three major newspapers. These are "El Vigia", "El Mexicano", and the "Gringo Gazette North" All of which cover local news, sports, business, jobs, and community events, though the Gringo Gazette is the dominant paper that publishes in the English-language. Since the 2013 "La Jornada" and El Frontera newspapers began to be distributed in the city. Also there are other options exclusively on-line as Ensenada.net, El Septentrión and "Plex".


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The city lies at a crossroads of major federal highways on the Peninsula that lead to the northern centers of Los Angeles, San Diego, and Mexicali and south to Cabo San Lucas and La Paz. The junction occurs at the meeting of Federal Highway 1 and Federal Highway 3. The main roads of the city include Bahia de La Paz and Lázaro Cárdenas, northwest bound, and southeast bound roads.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: The Port of Ensenada is an international deepwater port and the city's major water port. It maintains commercial, industrial, and tourist terminals.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: In addition to the port, the coast around Bahia de Todos Santos is dotted with numerous marinas, including Marina Baja Fiesta, Marina Cruiseport Village, Marina Coral, and Marina Baja Naval with docking facilities for pleasure craft and commercial and sport fishing vessels. In order to comply with United States cabotage laws, many cruise ships operating between Pacific ports in the U.S. call at Ensenada en route.


title: Ensenada, Baja California

text: Ensenada has three sister cities as designated by Sister Cities International, including relations formalized between other cities.


title: Far from Heaven

text: Far from Heaven is a 2002 independent period romantic drama film written and directed by Todd Haynes, and starring Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, and Patricia Clarkson. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where Moore won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, and cinematographer Edward Lachman won a prize for Outstanding Individual Contribution.


title: Far from Heaven

text: The film tells the story of Cathy Whitaker, a 1950s housewife, living in wealthy suburban Connecticut as she sees her seemingly perfect life begin to fall apart. Haynes pays homage to the films of Douglas Sirk (especially 1955's "All That Heaven Allows", 1956's "Written on the Wind", and 1959's "Imitation of Life"), and explores race, gender roles, sexual orientation, and class in the context of 1950s America.


title: Far from Heaven

text: In 1957 suburban Connecticut, Cathy Whitaker seems to be the perfect wife, mother, and homemaker. Her husband, Frank, is an executive at Magnatech, a television advertising company. One evening, Cathy receives a phone call from the local police, who are holding Frank. When she picks him up, he says it is all a misunderstanding, but it turns out that he has been exploring the illicit underground world of gay bars in Hartford. In the midst of all of this, one day Cathy sees an unfamiliar black man walking in her yard. He turns out to be Raymond Deagan, the son of her late gardener, who is taking over his father's accounts.


title: Far from Heaven

text: Frank often stays late at the office. One night when he says he is working, Cathy decides to bring him dinner, and she walks in on him passionately kissing a man. He confesses to having had "problems" as a young man and agrees to sign up for conversion therapy. However, their relationship is strained, Frank's work suffers, and he increasingly turns to alcohol. Cathy runs into Raymond at a local art show and, to the consternation of onlookers, initiates a discussion with him about modern painting. After a party, Frank attempts to make love to Cathy, but he is unable to become aroused and accidentally strikes her when she tries to console him.


title: Far from Heaven

text: The next day, Raymond catches Cathy crying and asks her to run some errands with him. She agrees, and they wind up going to a bar in a black neighborhood, where Cathy is the only white person present. They are seen together on the street by a gossipy acquaintance of Cathy's, and the woman immediately begins to stir up scandal. When Cathy attends her daughter's ballet performance, the mothers of the other girls shun her. Frank also hears about Cathy and Raymond and, in response to his anger, Cathy denies having an other-than-professional relationship with Raymond and says she has fired him to quell the rumors. She then tells Raymond that their friendship cannot continue, as it is not "plausible".


title: Far from Heaven

text: Cathy and Frank go to Miami for New Year's to try to repair their marriage, but, at the hotel, Frank meets a young man and has another homosexual encounter. While they are gone, three white boys taunt and physically assault Raymond's daughter, Sarah, partly because of her father's rumored relationship with Cathy, and the girl is concussed by a rock thrown at her head.


title: Far from Heaven

text: Frank breaks down and tearfully tells Cathy that he has fallen in love with a man and wants a divorce. When Cathy learns what happened to Sarah, she visits Raymond, who says he is moving to Baltimore in two weeks, as the rumors have destroyed his business and led his African-American neighbors to throw rocks through his windows. When Cathy tells Raymond she is going to be single and asks if she can come visit him some time, he stoically, but gently, rejects her, saying he has learned his lesson and needs to do what is right for his daughter.


title: Far from Heaven

text: Cathy shows up at the train station to see Raymond off, and they silently wave to each other as the train leaves the station.


title: Far from Heaven

text: Haynes wrote the script for the film envisioning Moore and James Gandolfini as Cathy and Frank, respectively. While Moore joined the project immediately, Gandolfini was unavailable, due his commitments to "The Sopranos". Haynes' next choice, Russell Crowe, believed that the role was too small, and Jeff Bridges wanted too much money.


title: Far from Heaven

text: "Far From Heaven" focuses on several controversial issues of the mid-twentieth century, such as racism and miscegenation, as well as views on homosexuality and escapism during that time period, and presents these issues through the using the cinematographic conventions of a 1950s-style melodrama. Utilizing the nostalgic mechanisms of a polished, period melodrama, the film challenges the typical sanguine nature of the genre in an effort to highlight the central conflicts of its main characters, Cathy and Frank Whitaker, while also simultaneously shattering the wholesome image of American life during this time period, which is typically romanticized in American culture. Haynes employs these tactics and others, such as lighting and music, to highlight these pivotal developments and not only further the plot of the story, but create a sensory experience for the audience that lulls them into what appears to portray an idealized version of 1950s suburban American family life, but proves to be far from it.


title: Far from Heaven

text: Andrew O'Hehir of "Salon" wrote that the film "bears a family resemblance to Sirk's 1955 "All That Heaven Allows"".


title: Far from Heaven

text: Throughout "Far From Heaven", one of the central conflicts faced by the main protagonist Cathy Whitaker comes from her attraction towards Raymond Deagan, the son of her recently deceased gardener, and how it develops in the face of her estrangement from her husband, Frank Whitaker, as he deals with his developing homosexual tendencies. Set in the fall of 1957 in Hartford, Connecticut, the racial tensions emblematic of the era are reflected right away in the first scene Raymond makes an appearance, tending to his father's former duties as the Whitaker's gardener. While Cathy is being interviewed for a society circular in her living room, she notices Raymond mulling around in her yard, and immediately becomes frightened, uneasy by the prospect of an unfamiliar black man. While her interviewer, Mrs. Leacock, suggests calling the police, Cathy walks outside to confront him and learns the circumstances of the situation and how he came to be there, after which she apologizes for her assumptions and demonstrates a capacity to see beyond his race and show sympathy for his father's recent passing. This is an action that is observed closely by Mrs. Leacock through the window, and ultimately makes its way into her article profiling Cathy and her "kindness to negroes".


title: Far from Heaven

text: Presenting this particular issue so early on in the film, there is a clear contrast drawn between Hartford's suburban idyllic autumnal setting and the reality of the social order that dominates the everyday life of the Whitakers and the people in their lives. As Frank's difficulties continue to develop, Cathy finds great solace in befriending Raymond and ultimately comes to develop feelings for him as a result. These feelings, however, prove to be a huge social taboo in this time period, and are met with anger and prejudice in affluent New England. With the developing historical events of the Little Rock Crisis serving as the contextual backdrop to the struggle in "Far From Heaven", it is in this struggle that one of the central themes of the film comes to the forefront, and is continually reintroduced through segregational policies of the era. Over the course of the film, we observe Cathy and Raymond's interactions being highly scrutinized by the different members of their own respective communities, as well as examples of Jim Crow practices that were commonplace during this era, such as being unable to sit next to each other at a local lunch counter. Frank and Cathy's vacation to Miami exemplifies this when a young African-American boy jumps into the hotel pool where Cathy and Frank are vacationing. Not only is the boy swiftly removed from the pool, but the white guests who were swimming at the time rapidly exit the pool area in disgust, mortified that the water and surrounding area had been shared, and therefore tainted, by a Black person.


title: Far from Heaven

text: Rebecca Sherr wrote in her essay "(Not) queering "white vision" in "Far from Heaven" and "Transamerica"":


title: Far from Heaven

text: Implicitly, this scenario illustrates white Americans' fear of black bodies, bodies that for whites symbolize "contamination"; and "contamination" in turn signifies the underlying fear of miscegenation. The camera moves between Cathy's point-of-view looking out at the pool, and then the camera turns and focuses directly on Cathy so that she becomes the object of the gaze. Her eyes remain half-hidden behind sunglasses, which act as shield and mirror. As the unfolding action is miniaturized and reflected—indeed, doubled—on Cathy’s lenses, the message is that this drama turns back on Cathy, illustrating in a rather didactic manner the futility of her desire for Raymond, a black man. The emphasis on parenting here, with a black father and white mother "saving" and disciplining their respective children, further emphasizes the undercurrent of segregation as policing the boundaries of racial reproduction.


title: Far from Heaven

text: Frank Whitaker's burgeoning homosexuality is no doubt one of the more pivotal thematic story elements within "Far From Heaven", as it sets in motion a series of events in the film that ultimately culminate in, not only the estrangement of his wife, but the inevitable failure of his marriage. Characterized as the reliable husband, the successful hardworking businessman, the charming spouse, and the devoted father, he is idealized in a way that assigns him so many demanding roles, it is almost as if he is driven to pursue his homosexual tendencies as a means to escape his taxing everyday life and release his burden and frustration. We witness this early on in the film in his office at Magnatech when lunch meetings and dinner meetings pile up in his schedule, as portfolio season is well underway and his New York office continues to push up deadlines. Much like Cathy, Frank falls short of his exalted reputation, and as he is exploring Hartford one evening, avoiding returning home by taking in a movie, he soon finds himself walking the streets, delving further into the seedy underbelly of Hartford nightlife, where he hopes to find what he is looking for. It is when he notices what appear to be two gay men walking into a basement bar that he finally acts on his impulses and begins the slippery slope of self gratification that ultimately comes to dominate his lifestyle. It is through these humble beginnings that we come to explore with Frank the subversive and hushed nature of the gay community as he begins to act on his desires.


title: Far from Heaven

text: The 1950s is a time of constraining expectations; everyone is expected to lead perfect suburban lives, and those that deviate are socially condemned. Haynes sets this up in "Far From Heaven", where Cathy appears to have a model life: two children, a successful husband, and a suburban home. She is a typical housewife, admired by others: "Women just like yourself, with families and homes to keep up." This is dismantled in the premise, when Cathy receives a call from the police station regarding her husband. Beauty and perfection, here, are forms of oppression. The props are also important to observe as symbols of the 1950s: The television manifests the suburban prosperity that characterizes the time period. Cathy must adhere to the narrow and confining gender roles of the 1950s, just as Frank must suppress his homosexual desires. These characters, disillusioned in their seemingly flawless worlds, ultimately find these symbols as oppressive.


title: Far from Heaven

text: Likewise, Cathy, who finds an escape through her relationship with Raymond, begins to act on her impulses as well, taking us further into the bigoted, prejudiced nature of upper class Hartford society. When Cathy, in the aftermath of Eleanor observing the physical abuse Frank has inflicted upon her, is discovered crying in her yard by Raymond, their relationship becomes even closer, and he extends to her an invitation for a day in the country in an effort to take her mind off her worries, which she ultimately accepts. This invitation, however, sets in motion a series of events that culminates in a romantic evening between the two, which is inadvertently observed by Mona Lauder, a woman whose gossip is notorious for spreading like wildfire. It is through Mona's prejudiced tittle-tattle that Cathy soon finds herself with her reputation besmirched, as even her friends and loved ones are disgusted with her behavior. Frank's revelation of his affair to Cathy, which effectively ends their marriage, is mirrored when Cathy reveals her attraction for Raymond to Eleanor and is summarily rejected, exposing the subtle dichotomy between their respective vices. As Rebecca Sherr notes in her essay:


title: Far from Heaven

text: The "mirroring" technique occurs several times and is a visual clue as to the parallels the film draws between interracial romance and homosexuality. [...] The two instances of "coming out" in "Far from Heaven" produce different narrative trajectories, and the mediating factor of racial difference accounts for these divergent outcomes. This difference in outcome is based in the notion of visibility—racial difference cannot usually be hidden. The film communicates that heterosexual, interracial desire could, in a sense, be seen as even more "queer" than homosexuality, at least in the context of queerness as visible deviance.


title: Far from Heaven

text: Although Cathy finds herself isolated at the end of the film, a divorcée fallen from grace who now devotes her life to her children and her volunteer work for organizations such as the NAACP, she still possesses feelings for Raymond that, though now held back, dominate the subtext of the ending of the film, without either character having to utter a single word in their silent, tear-wrenching farewell. Todd McGowen observes of both Cathy and Frank in "Relocating Our Enjoyment of the 1950s: The Politics of Fantasy in "Far From Heaven"": "The point here is not that they enjoy in spite of the widespread disapproval; it is instead that this disapproval enables and fuels their enjoyment. Their time together has the significance it does precisely because the social prohibition does not permit it."


title: Far from Heaven

text: According to Haynes' director's commentary, recorded for the DVD-release of "Far from Heaven", the film was made in the style of many 1950s films, notably those of Douglas Sirk. Haynes created color palettes for every scene in the film, and was careful and particular in his choices. He emphasized experience with color in such scenes as one in which Cathy, Eleanor, and their friends are all dressed in reds, oranges, yellows, browns, and greens, and also played with the color green by using it to light forbidden and mysterious scenes. This effect was employed both in the scene in which Frank visits a gay bar and when Cathy goes to the restaurant in a predominantly black neighborhood.


title: Far from Heaven

text: Blue is often used in the film to represent Frank and Cathy's failing marriage, as in the scene in which Cathy receives a phone call from the Hartford police concerning Frank and his "loitering" and, later, when Frank and Cathy leave the psychiatrist's office after their first visit to try to curb Frank's homosexual tendencies. It is in the second of these moments that the only profanity in the entire film is used, by Frank towards Cathy, further demonstrating the coldness and bitterness he feels towards his wife, and perfectly in sync with the color palette that envelops them during this scene.


title: Far from Heaven

text: Generally, we can isolate two strategies of colour design in "Far from Heaven". On one hand, Haynes makes straightforward and adroit use of classical convention in a fairly subtle and un-ironic way. On the other hand, moments of strong stylisation reveal a self-consciousness of form that announces its artifice. The film's articulation of an autumnal orange motif exemplifies how Haynes reawakens dormant Hollywood conventions in a rather delicate expressive manner. The more overt manipulation of coloured lighting, however, offers a test case. Red and green lighting broadcasts its artifice and its reference to Sirk, activating an awareness of form that Haynes nonetheless manages to align with our sympathy for his characters. In his extensive use of blue light, though, Haynes exploits conventional motivations and the melodrama's generic tendency towards stylisation to exact a sincere and direct affective charge from colour temperature, in much the way filmmakers had done between the late 1930s and 1960s. His project of self-conscious reference may, in fact, open room for Haynes to renew the classical convention in an emotionally direct way. It is this play between citation and invocation of colour scoring that makes "Far From Heaven" so compelling.


title: Far from Heaven

text: In addition to the color scheme, Haynes used shots and angles appropriate to Sirk's films and era, and the script employs over-the-top, melodramatic dialogue. In driving scenes, the filmmakers employed the rear projection process commonly used in older films, even reusing a plate from Sirk's "Written on the Wind" for one shot of Cathy driving to her daughter's ballet recital. Cinematographer Edward Lachman helped created the appropriate "look" by using the same types of lighting techniques, lighting equipment, and lens filters that would have been used to film a melodrama in the 1950s, and Elmer Bernstein's score is reminiscent of those he had composed 40 and 50 years earlier. Also, supervising sound editor Kelley Baker used Foley to make the sounds of things in the film such as rustling clothes and footsteps more prominent in a way similar to films from the 1950s.


title: Far from Heaven

text: In the director's commentary, Haynes noted that he was influenced by Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film "". Both films portray feelings of alienation and awkwardness, which is conveyed by, for example, sometimes lingering on a character for a few seconds longer than is comfortable for the viewer before cutting to the next scene.


title: Far from Heaven

text: "Far from Heaven" has received high acclaim from critics since its release. It holds an 87% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 221 reviews, with an average rating of 8.20/10; the site's critical consensus reads: "An exquisitely designed and performed melodrama, "Far From Heaven" earns its viewers' tears with sincerity and intelligence." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 84 out of 100 based on reviews from 37 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Far from Heaven

text: Jonathan Rosenbaum called the film a masterpiece and considered it a companion of Haynes' earlier film "Safe" (1995) in its use of "the same talented actress to explore suburban alienation in comparably gargantuan consumerist surroundings". Regarding the casting of Raymond, Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" wrote that "Haysbert brings a Poitier-esque dignity and poise."


title: Far from Heaven

text: The film was nominated in four categories at the 75th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role (Julianne Moore), Best Original Screenplay (Todd Haynes), Best Cinematography (Edward Lachman), and Best Original Score (Elmer Bernstein). At the Venice Film Festival, it was nominated for the Golden Lion, while Moore won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress and Lachman won a prize for Outstanding Individual Contribution.


title: Far from Heaven

text: "They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?", a website that gathers various critics' polls, found "Far from Heaven" to be the 56th most acclaimed film of the 21st century. In August 2016, BBC Magazine conducted a poll on the 21st century's 100 greatest films so far, with "Far from Heaven" ranking at number 86. In 2019, "The Guardian" ranked the film 13th in its list of the best films of the 21st century.


title: Far from Heaven

text: Theatrical songwriting team Scott Frankel and Michael Korie worked with Richard Greenberg on an Off Broadway-bound musical adaptation. The musical opened at Playwrights Horizons in Spring of 2013. Kelli O'Hara starred in the central role.


title: Far from Heaven

text: The film did extraordinarily well in the "Village Voice"s Film Critics' Poll of 2002, where "Far from Heaven" won for Best Picture, Moore for Best Lead Performance and Haynes for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Lachman's work in "Far from Heaven" also won Best Cinematography by a wide margin, while Quaid, Clarkson, and Haysbert were all recognized for their supporting performances, placing second, fourth, and ninth, respectively.


title: Far from Heaven

text: "Far from Heaven" was the last film scored by Elmer Bernstein. The soundtrack album's runtime is 42 minutes and 53 seconds.


title: Ship breaking

text: Ship-breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for either a source of parts, which can be sold for re-use, or for the extraction of raw materials, chiefly scrap. Modern ships have a lifespan of 25 to 30 years before corrosion, metal fatigue and a lack of parts render them uneconomical to operate. Ship-breaking allows the materials from the ship, especially steel, to be recycled and made into new products. This lowers the demand for mined iron ore and reduces energy use in the steelmaking process. Fixtures and other equipment on board the vessels can also be reused. While ship-breaking is sustainable, there are concerns about the use by poorer countries without stringent environmental legislation. It is also labour-intensive, and considered one of the world's most dangerous industries.


title: Ship breaking

text: In 2012, roughly 1,250 ocean ships were broken down, and their average age was 26 years. In 2013, the world total of demolished ships amounted to 29,052,000 tonnes, 92% of which were demolished in Asia. As of January 2020, Alang Ship Breaking Yard (India) has the largest global share at 30%; followed by Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard (Bangladesh) and Gadani ship-breaking yard (Pakistan).


title: Ship breaking

text: The largest sources of ships are China, Greece, and Germany respectively, although there is a greater variation in the source of carriers versus their disposal. The ship-breaking yards of India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan employ 225,000 workers as well as providing many indirect jobs. In Bangladesh, the recycled steel covers 20% of the country's needs and in India it is almost 10%.


title: Ship breaking

text: As an alternative to ship-breaking, ships may be sunk to create artificial reefs after legally-mandated removal of hazardous materials (though this does not recycle any materials), or sunk in deep ocean waters. Storage is a viable temporary option, whether on land or afloat, though most ships will be eventually scrapped, some will be sunk, or preserved as museums.


title: Ship breaking

text: Wooden-hulled ships were simply set on fire or "conveniently sunk". In Tudor times (1485–1603), ships were dismantled and the timber re-used. This procedure was no longer applicable with the advent of metal-hulled boats in the 19th century.


title: Ship breaking

text: In 1880 Denny Brothers of Dumbarton used forgings made from scrap maritime steel in their shipbuilding. Many other nations began to purchase British ships for scrap by the late-19th century, including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan. The Italian industry started in 1892, and the Japanese industry after the passing of an 1896 law to subsidise native shipbuilding.


title: Ship breaking

text: After suffering damage or disaster, liner operators did not want the name of a broken ship to tarnish the brand of their passenger services. Many Victorian ships made their final voyages with the final letter of their name chipped off.


title: Ship breaking

text: In the 1930s it became cheaper to "beach" a boat by running her ashore – as opposed to using a dry dock. The ship would have to weigh as little as possible and would run ashore at full speed. Dismantling operations required a rise of tide and close proximity to a steel-works. Electric shears, a wrecking ball and oxy-acetylene torches were used. The technique of the time closely resembles that used in developing countries . Thos. W. Ward Ltd., one of the largest breakers in the United Kingdom in the 1930s, would recondition and sell all furniture and machinery. Many historical artifacts were sold at public auctions: the Cunarder , sold as scrap for , received high bids for her fittings worldwide. However, any weapons and military information, even if obsolete, were carefully removed by Navy personnel before turning over the ship for scrapping.


title: Ship breaking

text: In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic crippled the cruise-ship trade, cruise vessels began to appear more frequently in ship-breaking facilities.


title: Ship breaking

text: Until the late-20th century the majority of ship-breaking activity took place in the port cities of industrialized countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States. those dismantlers that still remain in the United States work primarily on government-surplus vessels.


title: Ship breaking

text: Starting in the mid-20th century, East Asian countries with lower labour costs began to dominate ship-breaking. As labour costs rose, centres of the ship-breaking industry moved – initially from countries such as Japan and Hong Kong to Korea and Taiwan and then to China. For example, the southern port city of Kaohsiung in Taiwan operated as the world's leading dismantling site in the late 1960s and 1970s, breaking up 220 ships totaling 1.6 million tons in 1972 alone; in 1977 Taiwan continued to dominate the industry with more than half the market share, followed by Spain and Pakistan. At the time, Bangladesh had no capacity at all. However, the sector is volatile and fluctuates wildly, and Taiwan processed just 2 ships 13 years later as wages across East Asia rose. For comparison, depending on their profession, shipbreakers in Kaohsiung earned from (day labourer) to (torch operator) per day in 1973.


title: Ship breaking

text: In 1960, after a severe cyclone, the Greek ship "M D Alpine" was stranded on the shores of Sitakunda, Chittagong (then part of East Pakistan). It could not be re-floated and so remained there for several years. In 1965 the Chittagong Steel House bought the ship and had it scrapped. It took years to scrap the vessel, but the work gave birth to the industry in Bangladesh.


title: Ship breaking

text: Until 1980 the Gadani ship-breaking yard of Pakistan was the largest ship-breaking yard in the world.


title: Ship breaking

text: Tightening environmental regulations resulted in increased hazardous waste disposal costs in industrialised countries in the 1980s, causing the export of retired ships to lower-income areas, chiefly in South Asia. This, in turn, created a far worse environmental problem, subsequently leading to the Basel Convention of 1989. In 2004 a Basel Convention decision officially classified old ships as "toxic waste", preventing them from leaving a country without the permission of the importing state. This has led to a resurgence of recycling in environmentally-compliant locations in developed countries, especially in former ship-building yards.


title: Ship breaking

text: On 31 December 2005 the French Navy's left Toulon to be dismantled in Alang, India – despite protests over improper disposal capabilities and facilities for the toxic wastes. On 6 January 2006 the Supreme Court of India temporarily denied access to Alang, and the French "Conseil d'État" ordered "Clemenceau" to return to French waters. Able UK in Hartlepool received a new disassembly contract to use accepted practices in scrapping the ship. The dismantling started on 18 November 2009 and the break-up was completed by the end of 2010; the event was considered a turning point in the treatment of redundant vessels. Europe and the United States have had a resurgence in ship scrapping since the 1990s.


title: Ship breaking

text: In 2009 the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association won a legal case prohibiting all substandard ship-breaking. For 14 months the industry could not import ships and thousands of jobs were lost before the ban was annulled. That same year, the global recession and lower demand for goods led to an increase in the supply of ships for decommissioning. The rate of scrapping is inversely correlated to the freight price, which collapsed in 2009.


title: Ship breaking

text: The decommissioning process is entirely different in developed countries than it is in third world countries. In both cases, ship-breakers bid for the ship, and the highest bidder wins the contract. The ship-breaker then acquires the vessel from the international broker who deals in outdated ships. The price paid is around $400 per tonne and the poorer the environmental legislation the higher the price. The purchase of water-craft makes up 69% of the income earned by the industry in Bangladesh, versus 2% for labour costs. The ship is taken to the decommissioning location either under its own power or with the use of tugs.


title: Ship breaking

text: In developing countries, chiefly the Indian subcontinent, ships are run ashore on gently sloping sand tidal beaches at high tide so that they can be accessed for disassembly. In the beaching method, no external source of energy is used to pull the ship, as opposed to the dry dock method of ship recycling where a ship is brought inside dry dock by consuming huge energy. However, maneuvering a large ship onto a beach at high speed takes skill and daring even for a specialist captain, and is not always successful. Next, the anchor is dropped to steady the ship and the engine is shut down. It takes 50 labourers about three months to break down a normal-sized cargo vessel of about 40,000 tonnes.


title: Ship breaking

text: Before the decommissioning begins, various clearances and permissions are obtained from regulatory, pollution, and customs authorities after a thorough inspection is conducted by them. The ship recycling process then begins with the draining of fuel, hydraulic fluid, coolant, lubricating oils and firefighting liquid. Any kind of waste such as plastic, garbage, or oily sand is sent to waste treatment facilities, like the Common Hazardous Waste Treatment Storage Disposal Facility (CHW-TSDF) set up by the Gujarat Maritime Board in Alang. Any usable oil is sent to government authorized refineries where used oil is chemically treated. The next steps entail recovering unused and partially spent materials, disposal of bilge water, recovering and obtaining reusable materials, and safe disposal of bio-hazardous materials like asbestos and glass wool. Each of these materials are inspected and sent to regulated waste treatment facilities or to buyers for further use and processing.


title: Ship breaking

text: In recycling yards in the Indian subcontinent, specifically in Alang, upgraded facilities such as 100% impervious floors with drainage systems, heavy lift cranes, yard and vessel-specific training for workers, and the development and implementation of Ship Recycling Facility Plans and Ship Recycling Plans (as per IMO’s guidelines in Resolutions MEPC.210(63) and MEPC.196(62)) have been implemented.


title: Ship breaking

text: In developed countries the dismantling process should mirror the technical guidelines for the environmentally sound management of the full and partial dismantling of ships, published by the Basel Convention in 2003. Recycling rates of 98% can be achieved in these facilities.


title: Ship breaking

text: Prior to dismantling, an inventory of dangerous substances should be compiled. All hazardous materials and liquids, such as bilge water, are removed before disassembly. Holes should be bored for ventilation and all flammable vapours are extracted.


title: Ship breaking

text: Vessels are initially taken to a dry dock or a pier, although a dry dock is considered more environmentally friendly because all spillage is contained and can easily be cleaned up. Floating is, however, cheaper than a dry dock. Storm water discharge facilities will stop an overflow of toxic liquid into the waterways. The carrier is then secured to ensure its stability. Often the propeller is removed beforehand to allow the water-craft to be moved into shallower water.


title: Ship breaking

text: Workers must completely strip the ship down to a bare hull, with objects cut free using saws, grinders, abrasive cutting wheels, hand held shears, plasma and gas torches. Anything of value, such as spare parts and electronic equipment is sold for re-use, although labour costs mean that low value items are not economical to sell. The Basel Convention demands that all yards separate hazardous and non-hazardous waste and have appropriate storage units, and this must be done before the hull is cut up. Asbestos, found in the engine room, is isolated and stored in custom-made plastic wrapping prior to being placed in secure steel containers, which are then landfilled.


title: Ship breaking

text: Many hazardous wastes can be recycled into new products. Examples include lead-acid batteries or electronic circuit boards. Another commonly used treatment is cement-based solidification and stabilization. Cement kilns are used because they can treat a range of hazardous wastes by improving physical characteristics and decreasing the toxicity and transmission of contaminants. A hazardous waste may also be "destroyed" by incinerating it at a high temperature; flammable wastes can sometimes be burned as energy sources. Some hazardous waste types may be eliminated using pyrolysis in a high temperature electrical arc, in inert conditions to avoid combustion. This treatment method may be preferable to high temperature incineration in some circumstances such as in the destruction of concentrated organic waste types, including PCBs, pesticides and other persistent organic pollutants. Dangerous chemicals can also be permanently stored in landfills as long as leaching is prevented.


title: Ship breaking

text: Valuable metals, such as copper or aluminum in electric cable, that are mixed with other materials may be recovered by the use of shredders and separators in the same fashion as e-waste recycling. The shredders cut the electronics into metallic and non-metallic pieces. Metals are extracted using magnetic separators, air flotation separator columns, shaker tables or eddy currents. The plastic almost always contains regulated hazardous waste (e.g., asbestos, PCBs, hydrocarbons) and cannot be melted down.


title: Ship breaking

text: Large objects, such as engine parts, are extracted and sold as they become accessible. The hull is cut into 300-tonne sections, starting with the upper deck and working slowly downwards. While oxy-acetylene gas-torches are most commonly used, detonation charges can quickly remove large sections of the hull. These sections are transported to an electric arc furnace to be melted down into new ferrous products, though toxic paint must be stripped prior to heating.


title: Ship breaking

text: At Kaohsiung in the late 1960s and 70s, ships to be scrapped were tied up at berths in Dah Jen and Dah Lin Pu, at the southern end of Kaohsiung Harbor. There were a total of 24 breaking berths at Kaohsiung; each berth was rented by the scrapper from the Port Authority at a nominal rate of per square foot per month, and up to could be rented surrounding a long berth at a time. A typical 5,000-ton ship could be broken up in 25 to 30 days.


title: Ship breaking

text: The process began with "cleaning", a process in which subcontractors would come on board the ship to strip it of loose and flammable items, which were often resold in second-hand shops. After that, the cutting crews would start to dismantle the hull, stern-first; large sections were cut off the ship and moved via cranes and rigging taken from previously-scrapped ships. Because the scrapping at Kaohsiung was done at the docks, scrap metal was placed on trucks waiting to transport it to Kaohsiung's mills.


title: Ship breaking

text: The Basel Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal of 1989 was the first convention to environmentally govern the ship breaking industry. It has been ratified by 187 countries, including India and Bangladesh. It controls the international movement of hazardous wastes and for their environmentally sound management mainly through consent for the shipment between the authorities of the country exporting the hazardous wastes with the authorities of the importing country.


title: Ship breaking

text: Though the Basel Convention has notably reduced illegal exports of hazardous wastes to countries that are unable to process and dispose of them in an environmentally sound manner, it has failed to define the minimum standards of recycling soundly. It also completely ignores important aspects such as workers' safety and falls short in overcoming bureaucratic barriers when it comes to communication between exporting and importing countries. Furthermore, the decision to scrap a ship is often made in international waters, where the convention has no jurisdiction.


title: Ship breaking

text: The "Ban Amendment" to the Basel Convention was adopted in March 1994, prohibiting the export of hazardous wastes from OECD countries to non-OECD countries. The Amendment will enter into force 90 days after it has been ratified by at least three-quarters of the 87 countries that were Parties to the Convention at the time it was adopted. Croatia deposited the 66th ratification in September 2019, and the Ban Amendment will enter into force on December 5, 2019, twenty-five years after it was adopted. However, the European Union has already enacted the Ban Amendment unilaterally through the European Waste Shipment Regulation, which incorporates the Basel Convention and the Ban Amendment into European Union law. Since February 1993, the European Union has incorporated the Basel Convention into European law. In 2006, the European Union replaced its previous regulation with the Waste Shipment Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 (the WSR), which also unilaterally implemented the Ban Amendment, prohibiting the export of hazardous wastes from European Union member states to any developing (i.e. non-OECD), countries and regulating their export to OECD countries through the Basel Convention's prior informed consent mechanism. When the European Commission attempted to apply the WSR to end-of-life ships, it encountered numerous obstacles and evasion.


title: Ship breaking

text: This is because, in enforcing the Ban Amendment, the European Waste WSR considers it illegal to recycle any ship that has started its last voyage from a European Union port in Bangladesh, China, India, or Pakistan, i.e., exporting EU State, regardless of the flag the ship flies. Simpler terms, these four non-OECD countries have consistently recycled around 95% of the world's tonnage. In fact, according to a study conducted by the European Commission in 2011, (at least) 91 percent of ships covered by the WSR disobeyed or circumvented its requirements. The European Commission admitted publicly that enforcing its own Waste Shipment Regulation to recycle ships had not been successful. The Commission, unable to wait for the HKC to take effect, began developing new legislation to regulate the recycling of European flagged ships. This led the European Commission in 2012 to propose the development of a new European Regulation on Ship Recycling.


title: Ship breaking

text: To overcome the difficulties of the Basel Convention in terms of the inordinate time and effort required in gaining the consent of all countries involved in its due time, and to highlight regulations that this convention left out, its governing body requested the International Maritime Organisation for a newer convention in 2004. Thus, the Hong Kong Convention came into existence. In essence, the Convention aims to ensure that ships, when being recycled after reaching the end of their operational lives, do not pose any unnecessary risks to human health, safety, and the environment. The convention covers regulations including:


title: Ship breaking

text: With much more sound standards of ship recycling, easier implementation, and better supervision, the Hong Kong Convention was finally adopted in 2009. However, the Convention will only come into universal force 24 months after the date on which the following conditions are met:


title: Ship breaking

text: As of 30 November 2021, 17 countries have acceded to the HKC, making up 29.77% of the world's merchant shipping by gross tonnage, with a combined maximum annual ship recycling volume of the States at 2.6% of the gross tonnage of the combined merchant shipping of the same States. This leaves the second and third conditions yet to be fulfilled for the HKC to enter into force.


title: Ship breaking

text: Nearly 96 of India's 120 operational ship recycling yards have achieved Statements of Compliance (SoC) with the Hong Kong Convention by various IACS class societies – including ClassNK, IRClass, Lloyd's Register, and RINA. In addition, a yard in Chattogram, Bangladesh has also become the first one to achieve an SoC by ClassNK in January 2020, having first achieved a RINA SoC in 2017. Furthermore, to encourage the growth of India's vital ship recycling sector, in November 2019, the Government of India acceded to the Hong Kong Convention for Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships and became the only South Asian country and major ship recycling destination so far to take such a positive step


title: Ship breaking

text: Most recently, in March 2012, the European Commission proposed tougher regulations to ensure all parties take responsibility. The aim of the EUSRR was to facilitate the early ratification of the Hong Kong Convention; however, it differs from the HKC in the way yards are authorised and in its list of inventories of hazardous materials, or IHM. Under this regulation, if a vessel has a European flag, it must be disposed of in a shipyard on an EU "green list." The facilities would have to show that they are compliant and regulated internationally to bypass corrupt local authorities.


title: Ship breaking

text: This list, as of 11 November 2020, comprises 43 yards, including 34 yards in Europe, 8 yards in Turkey, and 1 yard in the USA. The list excluded some of the most major ship recycling yards in India and Bangladesh, which have achieved SoCs with the HKC in various class societies. This exclusion has led to many ship owners changing the flag to evade the regulations, and many excluded countries to strive towards bringing the HKC into force as the universal regulation, arguing that it would be irrational if international shipping were regulated by multiple and competing standards.


title: Ship breaking

text: 70% of ships are simply run ashore in developing countries for disassembly, where (particularly in older vessels) potentially toxic materials such as asbestos, lead, polychlorinated biphenyls and heavy metals along with lax industrial safety standards pose a danger for the workers. Burns from explosions and fire, suffocation, mutilation from falling metal, cancer, and disease from toxins are regular occurrences in the industry. Asbestos was used heavily in ship construction until it was finally banned in most of the developed world in the mid-1980s. Currently, the costs associated with removing asbestos, along with the potentially expensive insurance and health risks, have meant that ship-breaking in most developed countries is no longer economically viable. Dangerous vapors and fumes from burning materials can be inhaled, and dusty asbestos-laden areas are commonplace.


title: Ship breaking

text: Removing the metal for scrap can potentially cost more than the value of the scrap metal itself. In the developing world, however, shipyards can operate without the risk of personal injury lawsuits or workers' health claims, meaning many of these shipyards may operate with high health risks. Protective equipment is sometimes absent or inadequate. The sandy beaches cannot sufficiently support the heavy equipment, which is thus prone to collapse. Many are injured from explosions when flammable gas is not removed from fuel tanks. In Bangladesh, a local watchdog group claims that one worker dies a week and one is injured per a day on average.


title: Ship breaking

text: The problem is caused by negligence from national governments, shipyard operators, and former ship owners disregarding the Basel Convention. According to the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, workers who attempt to unionize are fired and then blacklisted. The employees have no formal contract or any rights, and sleep in over-crowded hostels. The authorities produce no comprehensive injury statistics, so the problem is underestimated. Child labour is also widespread: 20% of Bangladesh's ship-breaking workforce are below 15 years of age, mainly involved in cutting with gas torches.


title: Ship breaking

text: There is, however, an active ship-breaker's union in Mumbai, India (Mumbai Port Trust Dock and General Employees’ Union) since 2003 with 15,000 members, which strikes to ensure fatality compensation. It has set up a sister branch in Alang, gaining paid holidays and safety equipment for workers since 2005. They hope to expand all along the South Asian coastline.


title: Ship breaking

text: In the world’s largest ship recycling destination, Alang, safety awareness drives with hoardings, posters, films as well as training programmes for different categories of workers under the Safety Training and Labour Welfare Institute, safety evaluation by external teams, Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) including gloves, gumboot, goggles, and masks are provided to workers to mitigate the hazards of their work. In addition to this, GMB has also included regular medical examinations of workers exposed to bio-hazardous materials, provision of medical facilities at the Red Cross Hospital in Alang, mobile medical vans, and health awareness programmes.