title: Eisenhower's farewell address

text: Eisenhower's farewell address (sometimes referred to as "Eisenhower's farewell address to the nation") was the of Dwight D. Eisenhower as the 34th President of the United States, delivered in a television broadcast on January 17, 1961. Perhaps best known for advocating that the nation guard against the potential influence of the military–industrial complex, a term he is credited with coining, the speech also expressed concerns about planning for the future and the dangers of massive spending, especially deficit spending, the prospect of the domination of science through federal funding and, conversely, the domination of science-based public policy by what he called a "scientific-technological elite". This speech and Eisenhower's Chance for Peace speech have been called the "bookends" of his administration.


title: Eisenhower's farewell address

text: Eisenhower served as president for two full terms from January 1953 to January 1961, and was the first U.S. president to be term-limited from seeking re-election again. He had overseen a period of considerable economic expansion, even as the Cold War deepened. Three of his national budgets had been balanced, but spending pressures mounted. The recent presidential election had resulted in the election of John F. Kennedy, and the oldest American president in a century was about to hand the reins of power to the youngest elected president.


title: Eisenhower's farewell address

text: As early as 1959, Eisenhower began working with his brother Milton and his speechwriters, including his chief speechwriter Malcolm Moos, to develop his final statement as he left public life. It went through at least 21 drafts. The speech was "a solemn moment in a decidedly unsolemn time", warning a nation "giddy with prosperity, infatuated with youth and glamour, and aiming increasingly for the easy life."


title: Eisenhower's farewell address

text: Despite his military background and being the only general to be elected president in the 20th century, he warned the nation with regard to the corrupting influence of what he describes as the "military-industrial complex".


title: Eisenhower's farewell address

text: He also expressed his concomitant concern for corruption of the scientific process as part of this centralization of funding in the Federal government, and vice versa:


title: Eisenhower's farewell address

text: Although it was much broader, Eisenhower's speech is remembered primarily for its reference to the military-industrial complex. The phrase gained acceptance during the Vietnam War era and 21st-century commentators have expressed the opinion that a number of the fears raised in his speech have come true.


title: Eisenhower's farewell address

text: The speech has been adapted as an oratory for orchestra and orator. The speech was depicted in the opening of the 1991 film "JFK".


title: Pushkar

text: Pushkar is a city and headquarters of Pushkar tehsil in the Ajmer district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is situated about northwest of Ajmer and about southwest of Jaipur. It is a pilgrimage site for Hindus and Sikhs. Pushkar has many temples. Most of the temples and ghats in Pushkar are from the 18th century and later, because many temples were destroyed during Muslim conquests in the area. Subsequently, the destroyed temples were rebuilt. The most famous among Pushkar temples is the red spired Brahma Temple. It is considered a sacred city by the Hindus particularly in Shaktism, and meat and eggs consumption are forbidden in the city. Pushkar is located on the shore of Pushkar Lake, which has many ghats where pilgrims bathe. Pushkar is also significant for its Gurdwaras for Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh. One of the bathing ghats is called Gobind ghat built by the Sikhs in the memory of Guru Gobind Singh.


title: Pushkar

text: Pushkar is famous for its annual fair (Pushkar Camel Fair) featuring a trading fete of cattle, horses and camels. It is held over seven days in autumn marking Kartika Purnima according to the Hindu calendar (Kartik (month), October or November). It attracts nearly 200,000 people. In 1998, Pushkar hosted about 1 million domestic (95%) and international tourists over the year.


title: Pushkar

text: Pushkar is in centre-east part of Rajasthan, on the western side of Aravalli mountains. The nearest airport from Pushkar is Kishangarh Airport in Kishangarh, about northeast. Pushkar is about from Ajmer, connected via Pushkar road (Highway 58) which goes over the Aravalli Range mountains. Ajmer is also the nearest major railway station.


title: Pushkar

text: Pushkar is near some of the oldest geological structures in India. Microliths near Khera and Kaderi suggest the region was settled in ancient times. The Aravalli hills near it have yielded Mohenjodaro-style artifacts, but the connection is unclear as these items may have been transported later. Sites near it have been sources of ancient Brahmi script inscriptions, considered pre-Ashokan near village Badli. Local excavations have been a source of red ware and painted gray ware confirming ancient settlement.


title: Pushkar

text: Pushkar is mentioned in the "Ramayana", the "Mahabharata" and the Puranas suggesting its significance in historical and religious tradition of Hinduism. The city is mentioned in many texts dated to the 1st millennium. These texts are not, however, historical. The earliest historical records relating to Pushkar and Ajmer are found in Islamic texts describing the raids and conquest of northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent.


title: Pushkar

text: The region finds mention in Mohammad Ghori's 1192 CE conquest related records, in the defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan. Thereafter, Pushkar and nearby Ajmer find mention in historical records related to Qutub-ud-din Aibak. It was regained by Hindus under the Chahamanas of Ranastambhapura in 1287, but regained by the Delhi Sultanate in 1301 and remained in Muslim control for many centuries. Akbar made the nearby Ajmer one of the provincial capitals, and it remained a part of the Mughal Empire until 1712 CE. The Muslim rule brought destruction as well as cultural influences. Aurangzeb's armies destroyed the Hindu temples along the lake. The cattle and camel trading tradition brought merchants from Afghanistan. With the collapse of Mughal Empire after Aurangzeb, Pushkar was regained by Hindus and became a part of Jodhpur State under the Rathores of Marwar who rebuilt the temples and ghats. Several important temples were rebuilt by the Rajputs, Marathas, Brahmans and wealthy Hindu merchants. The Brahma temple was rebuilt by Gokul Parak Oswal, the temple of Saraswati was rebuilt by the Purohit of Jodhpur, the temple of Badri Narayana was rebuilt by the Thakur of Kherwa, the temple of Varaha which had been destroyed by Jahangir was rebuilt by Maharaja Bakht Singh of Marwar and the Maratha Noble Goma Rao rebuilt the Shiva Atmateshwara Temple. In 1801, Pushkar came under British rule and remained a part of the British Raj until 1947.


title: Pushkar

text: According to 2011 India census, Pushkar had a population of 21,626. The town had 11,335 resident males and 10,291 females. Children in the 0-6 age group constituted 13.95% of the population. About 80% of the population including all age groups was literate (90% male literacy rate, 70% female). The town had over 4,250 houses, or about 5 residents on average per house.


title: Pushkar

text: Pushkar fair continues for five days and these five days are a period of relaxation and merry-making for the villagers. This fair time is the busiest time for them, as this is one of the largest cattle fairs in the country. Animals, including over 50,000 camels, are brought from distant places around to be traded and sold. All the camels are washed and adorned, some are shorn to form artistic patterns. Some camels, horses, and cows are colorfully decorated.


title: Pushkar

text: In addition to the animal trading market, Pushkar in parallel holds a festival of folk music and dances, ferris wheels, magic shows, horse and camel races and various other traditional sports and team entertainment competitions. While the Pushkar fair is held around the Kartik Purnima that typically overlaps between late October and early November, other seasons feature other sports and festivals for pilgrims who visit the sacred lake.


title: Pushkar

text: Pushkar is a sacred pilgrimage site for Sikhs as well, according to Gurmukh Singh, with Gurdwaras dedicated to Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh. These have historic roots, with the Guru Nanak Gurdwara in the eastern part of the town called Guru Nanak Dharamsala, a name common for Sikh shrines before the 20th-century. The Sikh Dharamshala is a two-storeyed building consisting of a central room, surrounded by a verandah.


title: Pushkar

text: The second Sikh temple is dedicated to Guru Gobind Singh marking his visit after he left Anandpur Sahib. Pandit Parmanand took an oath on the holy cow on behalf of Hindu kings and Muslim priest, Qazi Syyed Wali Hassan took an oath on the Quran which was handwritten by Aurangzeb. They promised that if Guru ji leaves Anandpur Sahib then he will not attack Guru ji and everyone can move out of Anandpur Sahib peacefully. The place he stayed in and the lakefront next to it is now called the Gobind Ghat. It has a memorial inscription and this shrine was built with the sponsorship of the Maratha Empire, after the widespread Hindu-Muslim wars in the final decades of Aurangzeb rule and the collapse of the Mughal Empire. The shrine has an old hand written copy of the Sikh scripture, the "Guru Granth Sahib" and a "hukumnama" believed by Sikhs to have been written by Guru Gobind Singh. Both these have been preserved by a Pushkar Brahmin priest, a descendant of the priest whom the Guru met. The "hukumnama" is on a "bhoj patra", a method of recording letters in the 18th century.


title: Pushkar

text: Holi takes place in March and it is one of the most important festivals in the Hindu calendar. It represents the triumph of good over evil and the coming of springtime. Holi celebrations happen all over India and involve huge jubilant street parties. During Holi, Bhang (ancient Indian cannabis edible) is served in Pushkar, which is known to have some of the best Bhang in India.


title: Pushkar

text: Ajmer is the nearest tourist attraction that lies outside the city boundaries of Pushkar. Located 27 kilometres away from Ajmer, there is Kishangarh, famous for its miniature paintings, more popularly known as Bani Thani.


title: Pushkar

text: Pushkar Lake – The prime attraction of Pushkar is the Pushkar Lake which is considered sacred like the Mansarovar Lake in Tibet. Pushkar has become a place of Hindu pilgrimage because of this holy lake. Legend has it that this lake was consecrated to Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe when a lotus dropped from his hand into the vale and a lake emerged in that place.


title: Pushkar

text: Old Pushkar – Old Pushkar lake is rebuilt and is located around 5 km from Pushkar Lake. According to the ancient texts, Old Pushkar has equal cultural and religious significance for the pilgrims.


title: Buddhist deities

text: Buddhism includes a wide array of divine beings that are venerated in various ritual and popular contexts. Initially they included mainly Indian figures such as devas, asuras and yakshas, but later came to include other Asian spirits and local gods (like the Burmese "nats"). They range from enlightened Buddhas to regional spirits adopted by Buddhists or practiced on the margins of the religion. Notably, Buddhism lacks a supreme creator deity.


title: Buddhist deities

text: Buddhists later also came to incorporate aspects from the countries to which it spread. As such, it includes many aspects taken from other mythologies of those cultures.


title: Buddhist deities

text: A Buddha is a being who is fully awakened and has fully comprehended the Four Noble Truths. In the Theravada tradition, while there is a list of acknowledged past Buddhas, the historical Buddha Sakyamuni is the only Buddha of our current era and is generally not seen as accessible or as existing in some higher plane of existence. The Pali literature of the Theravāda tradition includes tales of twenty-nine Buddhas, which are Sakyamuni and the twenty-eight Buddhas who preceded him.


title: Buddhist deities

text: Mahayana Buddhists venerate numerous Buddhas, more so than the Theravada tradition, including Maitreya and Amitābha, who are seen as beings of great wisdom and power who preside over pure lands that one can travel to after death. Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions also recognize five primary Buddhas: Vairocana, Aksobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitābha, and Amoghasiddhi. Each is associated with a different consort, direction, aggregate (or, aspect of the personality), emotion, element, color, symbol, and mount. Other Buddhas besides these five include Bhaisajyaguru (the Buddha of medicine) and Nageshvara Raja (the king of the Nāgas). There is also the idea of the Adi-Buddha, the "first Buddha" to attain Buddhahood. Variously named as Vajradhara, Samantabhadra and Vairocana, the first Buddha is also associated with the concept of Dharmakaya.


title: Buddhist deities

text: In Tibetan Buddhism, several female Buddhas are also recognized, such as Tara, the most popular female Buddha in Tibetan Buddhism, who comes in many forms and colors. Other female Buddha figures include Vajrayogini, Nairatmya, and Kurukullā. Some historical figures are also seen as Buddhas, such as the Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna and the figure of Padmasambhava.


title: Buddhist deities

text: In Theravada Buddhism, "bodhisatta" is a term used mainly for Sakyamuni Buddha before his awakening. It is also commonly believed that the future Buddha, Maitreya (Pali: Metteya) currently resides in Tavatimsa Heaven, and this figure is one of the few bodhisattvas who have a prominent place in Theravada.


title: Buddhist deities

text: In Mahayana Buddhism, a bodhisattva is any being that has aroused bodhicitta (mind of awakening) and is thus working towards full Buddhahood. Bodhisattvas who are seen as powerful and highly advanced are highly venerated in this tradition. In the East Asian Buddhist traditions, which are mainly Mahayana, major bodhisattvas include: Guanyin, Maitreya, Samantabhadra, Manjushri, Ksitigarbha, Mahasthamaprapta, Vajrapani and Akasagarbha. Others bodhisattvas include Candraprabha, Suryaprabha, Bhaiṣajyasamudgata, Bhaiṣajyarāja, Akṣayamati, Sarvanivāraṇaviṣkambhin and Vajrasattva. The most popular bodhisattva in the East Asian pantheon is Guanyin (the East Asian form of the Indian Avalokitesvara), who is also believed by Buddhists to take on numerous manifestations, among which are several other bodhisattvas such as Cundi and Cintamanicakra. In addition, Buddhist traditions in different countries have also absorbed native deities into their localized Buddhist pantheon, sometimes as Bodhisattvas. Some examples are Guan Yu in Chinese Buddhism, who is venerated as Sangharama Bodhisattva (Chinese: 伽藍菩薩; Pinyin: "Qiélán Púsà") as well as a deity, and Hachiman in Japanese Buddhism, who is venerated as the Bodhisattva Hachiman (Japanese: 八幡大菩薩; Romanji: "Hachiman Daibosatsu").


title: Buddhist deities

text: In Tibetan Buddhism, a Vajrayana Buddhist tradition, the major bodhisattvas are known as the "eight great bodhisattvas": Ksitigarbha, Vajrapani, Akasagarbha, Avalokitesvara, Maitreya, Sarvanivāraṇaviṣkambhin, Samantabhadra and Manjushri. Other female Bodhisattvas include Vasudhara and Cundi. Followers of Tibetan Buddhism consider reborn tulkus such as the Dalai Lamas and the Karmapas to be emanations of bodhisattvas.


title: Buddhist deities

text: The Wisdom Kings (Vidyārāja) are beings that are venerated in East Asian Buddhism and in Vajrayana Buddhism. They are often depicted with an aggressive or fierce appearance which symbolizes their power to get rid of negative forces. They are therefore an expression of the Buddha's compassion.


title: Buddhist deities

text: In East Asian Buddhism, The Five Wisdom Kings are often seen as emanations of the Buddhas. These five are:


title: Buddhist deities

text: The yidam, or ishta-devata, is a personal meditation deity. The Sanskrit word ' or ' is defined by V. S. Apte as "a favorite god, one's tutelary deity." Though this term is used in many popular books on Buddhist Tantra, the term "işţadevatā" has not been attested in any Buddhist tantric text in Sanskrit. The unrelated Tibetan version of the term, possibly of entirely native origin, is "yi-dam" is said to be a contraction of Tib. "yid-kyi-dam-tshig", meaning "samaya of mind"- in other words, the state of being indestructibly bonded with the inherently pure and liberated nature of mind.


title: Buddhist deities

text: The ishta-devata of Hinduism is an aspect of God for personal worship. In Buddhism, a yidam is a manifestation of enlightenment and may take the form of Sambhogakāya Buddhas, tantric deities such as Dakinis, bodhisattvas, Dharma protectors (Dharmapalas) or other historical figures such as past gurus or religious leaders.


title: Buddhist deities

text: In the Buddhist Tantras, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas often manifest in unusual and fierce forms, which are used in tantra as yidams or meditation deities.


title: Buddhist deities

text: While some of these deities have a hideous and fierce appearance, they are not personifications of evil or demonic forces. The ferocious appearance of these deities is used to instill fear in evil spirits which threaten the Dharma.


title: Buddhist deities

text: Devas are divine beings, though they are not all necessarily wise or on the Buddhist path and hence not final objects of refuge. They have very long lives which have much less suffering than humans, but are not immortal or immune from suffering. Some devas have no physical form and exist in the formless realms. None of them are creator gods, and they are neither omniscient nor omnipotent. With the spread of Buddhism, different cultures have also integrated or syncretized local deities into their pantheon of devas. For example, Chinese Buddhism venerates the Twenty-Four Protective Devas, which include both originally Indian deities, such as Mahesvara (Shiva), Sakra (Indra), Brahma, Sarasvati, Laksmi, Marici and Hariti, as well as a few deities integrated from Taoism, such as the Emperor Zi Wei and Leigong. Guan Yu, who is regarded as a god of war in Taoism, is also regarded as both a bodhisattva and a deva. In Japanese Buddhism, Shinto gods were also syncretized into the pantheon under the honji suijaku theory by being conflated with the Indian deities imported from Buddhism, such as Ugajin and Ōkuninushi.


title: Buddhist deities

text: The Asuras, sometimes translated as Titans or Demigods, are often depicted as enemies of the Devas and fighting them in wars. They are said to have been defeated by the Devas, led by Sakra, king of the gods. They are often seen as being led by strong passions, such as hatred and greed.


title: Buddhist deities

text: Māra (literally meaning "death") refers to either a specific being, or to a class of beings, who are depicted as being antagonistic to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. As lord of the desire realm, Māra is depicted as working to keep beings under his control.


title: Buddhist deities

text: These are the lowest level of divinity. The name refers to the Four Heavenly Kings ("Cāturmahārāja") who rule over this world along with the "assemblage" or "multitude" ("kāyika") of beings that dwell there.


title: Buddhist deities

text: There are numerous otherworldly spirits and legendary creatures found in Buddhist texts and Buddhist mythology. Many of these are shared with Hindu mythology. These include:


title: Buddhist deities

text: The "yaksha" are a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, who are caretakers of the natural treasures hidden in the earth and tree roots. Having been worshiped in India since before the Vedic period, Hinduism adopted the worship of "yaksha" like Kubera. Later their worship was adopted by Buddhism. In Jainism, "yakshas" were worshiped as "shasana devatas" from the beginning.


title: Buddhist deities

text: In Buddhism, it is believed that they reside deep under the Himalayas where they guard the wealth of the Earth. The "yaksha" are ruled over by Kubera, the lord of wealth.


title: Buddhist deities

text: In Burma there exists the popular worship of nature spirits called "nats" which are worshiped alongside of Buddhism.


title: Amarkantak

text: Amarkantak (NLK "Amarakaṇṭaka") is a pilgrim town and a Nagar Panchayat in Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh, India. The Amarkantak region is a unique natural heritage area and is the meeting point of the Vindhya and the Satpura Ranges, with the Maikal Hills being the fulcrum. This is where the Narmada River, the Son River and Johila River (Tributary of Son) emerge.


title: Amarkantak

text: Popular 15th-century Indian mystic and poet Kabir is said to have meditated on "Kabir Chabutra", also called the platform of Kabir situated in the town of Amarkantak.


title: Amarkantak

text: Amarakantaka is a combination of two Sanskrit words, "amara" (immortal) and "kantaka" (obstruction or thorn). The poet Kalidas has mentioned it as "Amarakuta", which later became "Amarakantaka".


title: Amarkantak

text: Amarkantak is located in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India at . It has an average elevation of . Roads running through Rewa, Shahdol, Anuppur, Jabalpur, Katni, Bilaspur and Gaurela, Pendra Road connect it. The nearest railway stations are Pendra road and Anuppur, Pendra road is via Keonchi and only via Jwaleshwar. The nearest airport is Bilaspur Airport (120 km).


title: Amarkantak

text: The Amarkantak Nagar Panchayat has a population of 8,416 of which 4,514 are males while 3,902 are females as per report released by Census India 2011.


title: Amarkantak

text: The population of children with age of 0-6 is 921 which is 10.94% of the total population of Amarkantak (NP). In Amarkantak Nagar Panchayat, female sex ratio is 864 against a state average of 931. Moreover, the child sex ratio in Amarkantak is around 931 compared to Madhya Pradesh's state average of 918. Literacy rate of Amarkantak city is 80.20%, higher than the state average of 69.32%. In Amarkantak, male literacy is around 88.06% while the female literacy rate is 71.02%.


title: Amarkantak

text: The town of Amarkantak is surrounded by a rich variety of flora with medicinal properties. The Achanakmar Wildlife Sanctuary, is located at a distance of no more than 40 km from the town of Amarkantak in the state of Chhattisgarh on the road to Bilaspur. The enchanting lush green forest belt in Amarkantak is a part of Achanakmar-Amarkantak Biosphere Reserve. The forests of Amarkantak are linked with the forests of Kanha National Park. Amarkantak falls on the Kanha-Achanakmar Corridor, a hilly region covered with dense forests. Kanha and Achanakmar are both conserved wildlife parks in India famous for Bengal tigers.


title: Amarkantak

text: "Pinus caribaea", known as tropical pine, was planted in Amarkantak in 1968 on advice of Forest Research Institute, Dehradun on the recommendations of National Commission on Agriculture looking to the future demand of quality pulpwood. This work was undertaken under a World Bank Technical Assistance Project by clearing natural sal forests. The naturalists and environmentalists in India raised controversy over it; ultimately the project of tropical pine plantation was abolished.


title: Amarkantak

text: The Indira Gandhi National Tribal University was established in Amarkantak by an Act of Parliament in 2007, to promote education and research in various aspects of tribal communities and provide higher education to the tribal population. It has 28 departments which offer undergraduate, post-graduation, and PhD programs.


title: Amarkantak

text: The Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya was established here with the aim of nourishing and fostering the rural young. Jawahar Navodya Vidyalaya, Anuppur started in the year 1987.


title: The Coronation of Napoleon

text: The Coronation of Napoleon () is a painting completed in 1807 by Jacques-Louis David, the official painter of Napoleon, depicting the coronation of Napoleon at Notre-Dame de Paris. The oil painting has imposing dimensions – it is almost wide by a little over tall. The work is on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris.


title: The Coronation of Napoleon

text: The work was commissioned by Napoleon orally in September 1804, and Jaques-Louis started work on it on 21 December 1805 in the former chapel of the College of Cluny, near the Sorbonne, which served as a workshop. Assisted by his student Georges Rouget, he put the finishing touches in January 1808.


title: The Coronation of Napoleon

text: From 7 February to 22 March 1808, the work was exhibited at the Salon annual painting display in 1808, and it was presented to the Salon decennial prize competition in 1810. The painting remained the property of David until 1819, when it was transferred to the Royal Museums, where it was stored in the reserves until 1837. Then, it was installed in the Chamber Sacre of the museum of the historical Palace of Versailles on the orders of King Louis-Philippe. In 1889, the painting was transferred to the Louvre from Versailles.


title: The Coronation of Napoleon

text: David was commissioned by American entrepreneurs to paint a full size replica, in 1808, immediately after the release of the original. He began work that year, painting it from memory, but didn't finish until 1822, during his exile in Brussels. The replica was eventually returned to France in 1947, to the original's place in the Palace of Versailles.


title: The Coronation of Napoleon

text: The painting is a subject of "The Public Viewing David's 'Coronation' at the Louvre", a painting by Louis-Léopold Boilly done in 1810, currently housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


title: The Coronation of Napoleon

text: The composition is organized around several axes, and incorporates the rules of neoclassicism. One axis is that which passes through the cross and has a vertical orientation. A diagonal line runs from the pope to the empress. All eyes are turned towards Napoleon, who is the center of the composition.


title: Left communism

text: Left communism, or the communist left, is a position held by the left wing of communism, which criticises the political ideas and practices espoused by Marxist–Leninists and social democrats. Left communists assert positions which they regard as more authentically Marxist than the views of Marxism–Leninism espoused by the Communist International after its Bolshevization by Joseph Stalin and during its second congress.


title: Left communism

text: In general, there are two currents of left communism, namely the Italian and Dutch–German left. The communist left in Italy was formed during World War I in organizations like the Italian Socialist Party and the Communist Party of Italy. The Italian left considers itself to be Leninist in nature, but denounces Marxism–Leninism as a form of bourgeois opportunism materialized in the Soviet Union under Stalin. The Italian left is currently embodied in organizations such as the Internationalist Communist Party and the International Communist Party. The Dutch–German left split from Vladimir Lenin prior to Stalin's rule and supports a firmly council communist and libertarian Marxist viewpoint as opposed to the Italian left which emphasised the need for an international revolutionary party.


title: Left communism

text: Left communism differs from most other forms of Marxism in believing that communists should not participate in bourgeois parliaments, and some argue against participating in conservative trade unions. However, many left communists split over their criticism of the Bolsheviks. Council communists criticised the Bolsheviks for elitist party functions and emphasised a more autonomous organisation of the working class, without political parties.


title: Left communism

text: Although she was murdered in 1919 before left communism became a distinct tendency, Rosa Luxemburg has been heavily influential for most left communists, both politically and theoretically. Proponents of left communism have included Herman Gorter, Antonie Pannekoek, Otto Rühle, Karl Korsch, Amadeo Bordiga and Paul Mattick. Other proponents of left communism have included Onorato Damen, Jacques Camatte, and Sylvia Pankhurst. Later prominent theorists are shared with other tendencies such as Antonio Negri, a founding theorist of the autonomist tendency. Specific currents that can be labelled part of left communism include Bordigism, Luxemburgism, and Communization.


title: Left communism

text: Two major traditions can be observed within left communism, namely the Dutch–German current and the Italian current. The political positions those traditions share are opposition to popular fronts, to many kinds of nationalism and national liberation movements and to parliamentarianism.


title: Left communism

text: The historical origins of left communism come from World War I. Most left communists are supportive of the October Revolution in Russia, but retain a critical view of its development. However, some in the Dutch–German current would in later years come to reject the idea that the revolution had a proletarian or socialist nature, arguing that it had simply carried out the tasks of the bourgeois revolution by creating a state capitalist system.


title: Left communism

text: Left communism first came into focus as a distinct movement around 1918. Its essential features were a stress on the need to build a communist party or workers' council entirely separate from the reformist and centrist elements who "betrayed the proletariat", opposition to all but the most restricted participation in elections and an emphasis on militancy. Apart from this, there was little in common between the two wings. Only the Italians accepted the need for electoral work at all for a very short period of time which they later vehemently opposed, attracting criticism from Vladimir Lenin in "".


title: Left communism

text: Left Bolshevism emerged in 1907 as the Vpered group challenged Vladimir Lenin's perceived authoritarianism and parliamentarianism. The group included Alexander Bogdanov, Maxim Gorky, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Mikhail Pokrovsky, Grigory Aleksinsky, Stanislav Volski and Martyn Liadov. The "Otzovists", or Recallists, advocated the recall of RSDLP representatives from the Third Duma. Bogdanov and his allies accused Lenin and his partisans of promoting liberal democracy through "parliamentarism at any price".


title: Left communism

text: In 1918, a faction emerged within the Russian Communist Party named the Left Communists which opposed the signing of the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty with Imperial Germany. The Left Communists wanted international proletarian revolution across the world. In the beginning, the leader of this faction was Nikolai Bukharin. They stood for a revolutionary war against the Central Powers; opposed the right of nations to self-determination (specifically in the case of Poland since there were many Poles in this communist group and they did not want a Polish capitalist state to be established); and they generally took a voluntarist stance regarding the possibilities for social revolution at that time.


title: Left communism

text: The Left Communists faded as the world revolutionary wave died down in militancy as Lenin had proved too strong a figure. They also lost Bukharin as a leading figure since his position became more right-wing until he eventually came to agree with Lenin. Being defeated in internal debates, they then dissolved. A few very small left communist groups surfaced within the RSFSR in the next few years, but later fell victim to repression by the state. In many ways, the positions of the Left Communists were inherited by the Workers' Opposition faction and Gavril Myasnikov's Workers Group of the Russian Communist Party and to some extent by the Decists.


title: Left communism

text: The Italian left communists were named left communists at a later stage in their development, but when the Communist Party of Italy (PCd'I) was founded its members actually represented the majority of communists in that country. This was a result of the Abstentionist Communist Faction of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) being in advance of other sections of the PSI in their realisation that a separate communist party had to be formed which did not include reformists. This gave them a great advantage over the sections of the PSI who looked to figures such as Giacinto Menotti Serrati and Antonio Gramsci for leadership. It was a consequence of the revolutionary impatience common at a time when revolution, in the narrow sense of an insurrectionary attempt at the seizure of power, was expected to develop in the very near future.


title: Left communism

text: Under the leadership of Amadeo Bordiga, the left was to control the PCd'I until the Lyons Congress of 1926. In this period, the militants of the PCd'I would find themselves isolated from reformist workers and from other anti-fascist militants. At one stage, this isolation was deepened when communist militants were instructed to leave defence organisations that were not totally controlled by the party. These sectarian tactics produced concern in the leadership of the Communist International and led to a developing opposition within the PCd'I itself. Eventually, these two factors led to the displacement of Bordiga from his position as first secretary and his replacement by Gramsci. By then, Bordiga was in a fascist jail and was to remain outside organised politics until 1952. The development of the Left Communist Faction was not the development of the Bordigist current (as it is often portrayed).


title: Left communism

text: The year 1925 was a turning point for the Italian left as it was the year that the so-called Bolshevisation took place in the sections of the Communist International. This plan was designed to eliminate all social democratic deviations from the Communist International and develop them on Bolshevik lines or at least along the lines of what Grigory Zinoviev, the secretary of the Communist International, considered Bolshevik lines. In practice, this meant top-down bureaucratic structures in which the members were controlled by a leadership approved of by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI). In Italy, this meant that the leadership which had formerly been in the hands of Bordiga was given to a body that came into being when the Serrati-Maffi minority of the PSI joined the PCd'I, although Bordiga's group were in a majority. The new leadership was supported by Bordiga, who accepted the will of the Communist International as a centralist.


title: Left communism

text: Nevertheless, Bordiga fought the ECCI from within only to have an article of his which was favourable to Leon Trotsky's positions on the disputed Russian questions suppressed. Meanwhile, sections of the left motivated by Onorato Damen formed the Entente Committee. This committee was ordered to dissolve itself by the incoming leadership led now by Gramsci, who only then opposed Bordiga's positions which had gained prestige after a successful recruitment campaign. With the party Congress of 1926 held in Lyons, crowned by Gramsci's famous Lyons Theses, the left majority was now defeated and on course to becoming a minority within the party. With the victory of fascism in Italy, Bordiga was jailed. When Bordiga opposed a vote against Trotsky in the prison PCd'I group, he was expelled from the party in 1930. He took a stance of non-involvement in politics for many years after this. The victory of Italian fascism also meant that the Italian left would enter into a new chapter in its development, but this time in exile.


title: Left communism

text: Left communism emerged in both countries together and was always very closely connected. Among the leading theoreticians of the more powerful German movement were Antonie Pannekoek and Herman Gorter and German activists found refuge in the Netherlands after the Nazis came to power in 1933. The critique of social democratic reformism can be traced back before World War I since in the Netherlands a revolutionary wing of social democracy had broken from the reformist party even before the war and had built links with German activists. By 1915, the Antinational Socialist Party was founded by Franz Pfemfert and was linked to "Die Aktion". After the beginning of the German Revolution in 1918, a leftist mood could be found among sections of the communist parties of both countries. In Germany, this led directly to the foundation of the Communist Workers Party of Germany (KAPD) after its leading figures were expelled from the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) by Paul Levi. This development was mirrored in the Netherlands and on a smaller scale in Bulgaria, where the left communist movement was to mimic that of Germany.


title: Left communism

text: When it was founded, the KAPD included some tens of thousands of revolutionaries. However, it had broken up and practically dissolved within a few years. This was because it was founded on the basis of revolutionary optimism and a purism that rejected what became known as frontism. Frontism entailed working in the same organisations as reformist workers. Such work was seen by the KAPD as unhelpful at a time when the revolution was thought to be an imminent event and not merely a goal to be aimed at. This led the members of the KAPD to reject working in the traditional trade unions in favour of forming their own revolutionary unions. These "unionen", so called to distinguish them from the official trade unions, had 80,000 members in 1920 and peaked in 1921 with 200,000 members, after which they declined rapidly. They were also organisationally divided from the beginning, with those unionen linked to the KAPD forming the AAU-D and those in Saxony around Otto Rühle who opposed the conception of a party in favour of a unitary class organisation being organised as the AAU-E.


title: Left communism

text: The KAPD was unable to reach even its founding congress prior to suffering its first split when the so-called National Bolshevik tendency around Fritz Wolffheim and Heinrich Laufenberg appeared (this tendency has no connection with modern political tendencies in Russia which use the same name). More seriously, the KAPD lost most of its support very rapidly as it failed to develop lasting structures. This also contributed to internecine quarrels and the party actually split into two competing tendencies known as the Essen and Berlin tendencies to the historians of the left. The recently established Communist Workers International (KAI) split on exactly the same lines as did the tiny Communist Workers Party of Bulgaria. The only other affiliates of the KAI were the Communist Workers Party of Britain led by Sylvia Pankhurst, the Communist Workers Party of the Netherlands (KAPN) in the Netherlands and a group in Russia. The AAU-D split on the same lines and it rapidly ceased to exist as a real tendency within the factories.


title: Left communism

text: Left communists generally supported the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917 and entertained enormous hopes in the founding of the Communist International, or Comintern. In fact, they controlled the first body formed by the Comintern to coordinate its activities in Western Europe, the Amsterdam Bureau. However, this was little more than a very brief interlude and the Amsterdam Bureau never functioned as a leadership body for Western Europe as was originally intended. The Vienna Bureau of the Comintern may also be classified as left communist, but its personnel were not to evolve into either of the two historic currents that made up left communism. Rather, the Vienna Bureau adopted the ultra-left ideas of the earliest period in the history of the Comintern.


title: Left communism

text: Left communists supported the Russian revolution, but did not accept the methods of the Bolsheviks. Many of the Dutch–German tradition adopted Rosa Luxemburg's criticism as outlined in her posthumously published essay entitled "The Russian Revolution". In this essay, she rejected the Bolshevik position on distribution of land to the peasantry and their espousal of the right of nations to self-determination which she rejected as historically outmoded. The Italian left communists did not at the time accept any of these criticisms and both currents would evolve.


title: Left communism

text: To a considerable degree, Lenin's well known polemic "" is an attack on the ideas of the emerging left communist currents. His main aim was to polemicise with currents moving towards pure revolutionary tactics by showing them that they could remain based on firmly revolutionary principles while utilising a variety of tactics. Therefore, Lenin defended the use of parliamentarism and working within the official trade unions.


title: Left communism

text: As the Kronstadt rebellion occurred at a time when the debate on tactics was still raging within the Comintern, it has been wrongly seen as being left communist by some commentators. In fact, the left communist currents had no connection with the rebellion, although they did rally to its support when they learned of it. In later years, the German-Dutch tradition in particular would come to see the suppression of the revolt as the historic turning point in the evolution of the Russian state after October 1917.


title: Left communism

text: After 1926, Italian left communism took shape in exile and without the participation of Bordiga. Contacts between the Italians and the Germans had been made and were developed in France, but the Italian left saw the KAPD's stress on factory organisation as being similar to the ideas of Gramsci's and therefore rejected closer contact. Attempts to work with the group around Karl Korsch also failed. The left faction of the PCd'I was formally established in July 1927 by a number of young militants. This new group had members in France, Belgium and the United States and published a review entitled "Prometeo". It was estimated in 1928 that it had at most 200 militants, but it would seem that while it never had more than 100 militants active at any one time its influence was actually far greater. However, the control of the PCd'I apparatus by the Stalinists meant that attempts to reach other exiles was almost impossible and they were driven back into small circle work.


title: Left communism

text: The Italian left faction was for the rest of the 1930s led by Ottorino Perrone (also known with the pseudonym Vercesi), although it was fiercely opposed to the cult of the personality which was developing in the Comintern around Joseph Stalin in these years and resisted similar pressures in its own organisation. The faction had members in France, Belgium and the United States, but how many in Italy looked to it cannot be ascertained since all communist activities there had been driven underground by the fascist government. The main activity of the faction through these years was the publishing of its press, which consisted of the paper "Prometeo" and the journal "Bilan". With its establishment as a group, the fraction also looked for international co-thinkers. Seeing the International Left Opposition led by Leon Trotsky as central to the non-Stalinist Communist movement, they sought contact with it. However, these contacts were to be severed when agreement on basic principles proved impossible.


title: Left communism

text: The political distance between the faction and other communist currents would deepen throughout the 1930s as the faction declared itself opposed to the tactics adopted by the Left Opposition to broaden its support (i.e. the faction affirmed its opposition to fusion with centrist groups, opposition to entryism and so on). Always opposed to the united front tactic of the Comintern, the fraction now declared itself firmly opposed to the popular front after 1933. Like the Trotskyists, it saw the failure of the German Communist Party in the face of fascism as its historic failure and ceased to consider itself a fraction of the party from the date of its 1935 Congress held in Brussels.


title: Left communism

text: Isolated, the left fraction sought to discover allies within the milieu of groups to the left of the Trotskyist movement. Typically, these discussions came to nothing, but they were able to recruit from the disintegrating Ligue des Communistes Internationalistes (LCI) in Belgium, a group which had broken from Trotskyism. A loose liaison was also maintained with the council communist groups in the Netherlands and in particular with the GIK. However, these discussions were pushed into the background as the attempted fascist coup in Spain led to revolution and civil war.


title: Left communism

text: Immediately after the civil war began, a minority emerged within the left fraction whose members sought to participate in the events in Spain. This minority, including longtime members of the fraction, numbered some 26 militants mainly belonging to the Parisian federation of the Fraction. They travelled to Barcelona to enlist in the workers militias and after a fruitless meeting in September with a delegation from the Fraction back home, they were expelled. The problem for the fraction was that the military support given to the Republican forces by this minority was accompanied by political support (in that the minority wished to halt strikes among loyalist workers in the name of military victory against fascism). According to the fraction, no support could be given to a bourgeois state even in a struggle against fascism.


title: Left communism

text: The question of Spain forced the Belgian LCI to clarify its positions and a split ensued as a result of debate within its ranks. At its February 1937 conference, a minority of the LCI led by Mitchell defended the positions of the Italian left and were expelled. Although less than ten in number, they formed a Belgian Fraction of the Communist Left. It was at this point that the Italian left learned of a group called the in Mexico with very similar positions to their own. It was led by Paul Kirchhoff and had left the Mexican Trotskyist movement. Kirchoff had formerly been a member of the Communist Party in Germany, then a Trotskyist in the United States, but his tiny group would seem to have disappeared at the outbreak of war in 1939. In early 1938, the Italian and Belgian fractions formed an International Bureau of the Left Fractions which published a review called "Octobre".


title: Left communism

text: During this period, the Italian left also reviewed a number of positions which it thought had become outdated. They rejected the idea of national self-determination and began to develop their views on the war economy and capitalist decadence. Much of this was carried out by Vercesi, but Mitchell from the Belgian fraction was also a leading figure in the work. Perhaps most dramatically, they also reviewed their understanding of the Russian Revolution and the state that had emerged from it. Eventually, they came to argue that the Russian state was by the late 1930s state capitalist and was not to be defended. In short, they believed there was need for a new revolution.


title: Left communism

text: Many small currents to the left of the mass communist parties collapsed at the beginning of World War II and the left communists were initially silent too. Despite having foreseen the war more clearly than some other factions, when it began they were overwhelmed. Many were persecuted by either German Nazism or Italian fascism. Leading militants of the communist left such as Mitchell, who was Jewish, were to die in the Buchenwald concentration camp.


title: Left communism

text: Meanwhile, the final council communist groups in Germany had disappeared in the maelstrom and the International Communist Group (GIK) in the Netherlands was moribund. The former centrist group led by Henk Sneevliet (the Revolutionary Socialist Workers Party, RSAP) transformed itself into the Marx–Lenin–Luxemburg Front. In April 1942, its leadership was arrested by the Gestapo and killed. The remaining activists then split into two camps as some turned to Trotskyism forming the Committee of Revolutionary Marxists (CRM) while the majority formed the CommunistenBond-Spartacus. The latter group turned to council communism and was joined by most members of the GIK.


title: Left communism

text: In 1941, the Italian fraction was reorganised in France and along with the new French Nucleus of the Communist Left came into conflict with the ideas which the fraction had propagated from 1936, namely of the social disappearance of the proletariat and localised wars and so on. These ideas continued to be defended by Vercesi in Brussels. Gradually, the left fractions adopted positions drawn from German left communism. They abandoned the conception that the Russian state remained in some way proletarian and also dropped Vercesi's conception of localised wars in favour of ideas on imperialism inspired by Rosa Luxemburg. Vercesi's participation in a Red Cross committee was also fiercely contested.


title: Left communism

text: The strike at FIAT in October 1942 had a huge impact on the Italian fraction, which was deepened by the fall of Mussolini's regime in July 1943. The Italian fraction now saw a pre-revolutionary situation opening in Italy and prepared to participate in the coming revolution. In 1943 the Internationalist Communist Party was founded by Onorato Damen and Luciano Stefanini, amongst others. By 1945 the party had 5,000 members all over Italy with some supporters in France, Belgium and the USA. It published a "Manifesto of the Communist Left to the European Proletariat", which called upon workers to put class war before national war.


title: Left communism

text: In France, revived by Marco in Marseilles, the Italian fraction now worked closely with the new French fraction, which was formally founded in Paris in December 1944. However, in May 1945 the Italian fraction, many of whose members had already returned to Italy, voted to dissolve itself so that its militants could integrate themselves as individuals into the Internationalist Communist Party. The conference at which this decision was made also refused to recognise the French fraction and expelled Marco from their group.


title: Left communism

text: This led to a split in the French fraction and the formation of the Gauche Communiste de France by the French fraction led by Marco. The history of the GCF belongs to the post-war period. Meanwhile, the former members of the French fraction who sympathised with Vercesi and the Internationalist Communist Party formed a new French fraction which published the journal and was joined at the end of 1945 by the old minority of the fraction who had joined in the 1930s.


title: Left communism

text: One other development during the war years merits mention at this point. A small grouping of German and Austrian militants came close to Left Communist positions in these years. Best known as the Revolutionary Communist Organisation, these young militants were exiles from Nazism living in France at the start of World War II and were members of the Trotskyist movement but they had opposed the formation of the Fourth International in 1938 on the grounds that it was premature. They were refused full delegates' credentials and only admitted to the founding conference of the Youth International on the following day. They then joined Hugo Oehler's International Contact Commission for the Fourth (Communist) International and in 1939 were publishing in Antwerp.


title: Left communism

text: With the beginning of the war, they took the name Revolutionary Communists of Germany (RKD) and came to define Russia as state capitalist in agreement with Ante Ciliga's book "The Russian Enigma". At this point, they adopted a revolutionary defeatist position on the war and condemned Trotskyism for its critical defence of Russia (which was seen by Trotskyists as a degenerated workers' state). After the fall of France, they renewed contact with militants in the Trotskyist milieu in Southern France and recruited some of them into the in 1942. This group became known as in 1943 and then in 1944. The CR and RKD were autonomous and clandestine, but worked closely together with shared politics. As the war ran its course, they evolved in a councilist direction while also identifying more and more with Luxemburg's work. They also worked with the French Fraction of the Communist Left and seem to have disintegrated at the end of the war. This disintegration was sped no doubt by the capture of leading militant Karl Fischer, who was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp where he was to participate in writing the "Declaration of the Internationalist Communists of Buchenwald" when the camp was liberated.


title: Left communism

text: The closing stages of World War II marked a watershed in the history of left communism as was true for every other political tendency. Like the Trotskyists, left communists expected the war to end with at least the beginnings of a revolutionary wave of struggle similar to that which had marked the end of World War I. Therefore, strikes in Italy from 1942 onwards were of intense interest to them. Many left communists formerly in exile, in jail or simply inactive due to repression returned to active political activity in Italy. This had the result that new organisations identifying with left communism came into being and older ones dissolved themselves.


title: Left communism

text: If for the Italian Left the end of war marked a new beginning, it also did so for the German-Dutch left. Although in Germany it was the case that the communist left tradition was all but extinguished, surviving only in the form of a few scattered groups holding councilist views, by comparison France saw an interesting development with the beginning of a conscious attempt to develop a synthesis of the two strands of left communism in the form of the , which built on pre-war contributions.


title: Left communism

text: The year 1952 signalled the end of mass influence on the part of Italian left communism as its sole remaining representative, the Internationalist Communist Party, split in two sections: the group led by Bordiga took the name International Communist Party, while the group around Damen retained the name Internationalist Communist Party. The Gauche Communiste de France (GCF) dissolved in the same year. Left communists entered a period of almost constant decline from this point onwards, although they were somewhat rejuvenated by the events of 1968.


title: Left communism

text: Examples of left communism ideological currents existed in China during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR). For example, the Hunan rebel group the Shengwulian argued for "smashing" the existing state apparatus and establishing a "People's Commune of China" based on the democratic ideals of the Paris Commune.


title: Left communism

text: The uprisings of May 1968 led to a large resurgence of interest in left communist ideas in France where various groups were formed and published journals regularly until the late 1980s when the interest started to fade. A tendency called communization was invented in the early 1970s by French left communists, synthesizing different currents of left communism. It remains influential in libertarian marxist and left communist circles today. Outside of France, various small left communist groups emerged, predominantly in the leading capitalist countries. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the Internationalist Communist Party initiated a series of conferences of the communist left to engage those new elements, also attended by the International Communist Current. As a result of these, in 1983 the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party (later renamed as the Internationalist Communist Tendency) was established by the Internationalist Communist Party and the British Communist Workers Organisation.


title: Left communism

text: Prominent post-1968 proponents of left communism have included Paul Mattick and Maximilien Rubel. Prominent left communist groups existing today include the International Communist Party, the International Communist Current and the Internationalist Communist Tendency. In addition to the left communist groups in the direct lineage of the Italian and Dutch traditions, a number of groups with similar positions have flourished since 1968, such as the workerist and autonomist movements in Italy; Kolinko, Kurasje, Wildcat; Subversion and Aufheben in England; in France; TPTG and Blaumachen in Greece; Kamunist Kranti in India; and Collective Action Notes and Loren Goldner in the United States.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: Sangguniang Kabataan (abbreviated as SK; ) is a council meant to represent the youth in each barangay in the Philippines. It was put "on hold", but not quite abolished, prior to the 2013 barangay elections. In January 2016, the Sangguniang Kabataan Reform Act was signed into law which made some significant changes to the SK and initially scheduled new elections for October 2016. In March 2017, the elections were postponed anew to May 2018.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: The SK Chairman leads the Sangguniang Kabataan. A Local Youth Development Council (LYDC) composed of representatives of different local youth groups supports the SK and its programs.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: The Sangguniang Kabataan is the successor of the Kabataang Barangay (KB; ) which was abolished by the Local Government Code of 1991. The author, Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. abolished KB because of allegations that this organization faced.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: Each Barangay houses a Sangguniang Kabataan composed of a chairman, seven members, a secretary, and a treasurer. The Kagawads, or councilors, approve resolutions and appropriate money allotted to the council. The Chairman automatically sits on the barangay council as an ex officio member and is automatically chairman of the Committee on Youth and Sports, one of the standing committees of the barangay council.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: The council represents youth who have resided in their barangay for at least one year and registered to vote. It leads the local youth programs.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: Members of the SK receive payment for serving on the council. Under the Local Government Code, only the SK Chairman receives money but in some areas the practice is that the chairman shares his payment with other members of the SK council. In one barangay, each SK member received 500 pesos per month from the chairman.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: Under the 2016 reform, a new Local Youth Development Council was formed to support the SK programs and to be composed of representatives from different youth organizations in the community including student councils, church and youth faith groups, youth-serving organizations, and community-based youth groups.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: "The LYDC aims to harmonize, broaden and strengthen all programs and initiatives of the local government and non-governmental organizations for the youth sector", said Senator Bam Aquino in October 2015, then chairman of the Senate Committee on Youth and co-author of the reform act.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: Every Sangguniang Kabataan is part of a municipal or city SK association, which are in turn members of a provincial SK association. A barangay's SK Chairman represents the barangay in the municipal or city association. The presidents of the city and municipal federation are, in turn, members of the provincial or metropolitan associations, all of which have their own elected president as well. The presidents of independent cities' and provinces' associations compose the membership in the national association and elect the national president who automatically sits on the National Youth Commission.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: The SK developed out of the Kabataang Barangay, established during martial law by President Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos established the KB in 1975 to give youth a chance to be involved in community affairs and to provide the government means to inform youth of the government's development efforts. His daughter Imee Marcos was chairman.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: Controversy surrounded the KB, including the enforcement of authoritarian rule among youth, opposition of militant youth activity, and the KB's failure to develop youth as a responsive collective. Since then, the KB grew less popular among youth and instead student activism became the trend in youth participation in the country. In June 1986, a study was conducted on the KB and included the following recommendations: abolish the KB; create a National Youth Commission (NYC); establish a National Youth Assembly; and set up genuine youth representation in government. Youth consultations were held, and the KB was abolished by the government. However, then-president Corazon Aquino had already established the Presidential Council for Youth Affairs (PCYA) instead of NYC, which was successful in coordinating with the youth federations to develop future national leaders, but lacked the powers envisioned for the NYC because PCYA merely coordinated with youth groups. A proposal was then crafted by the Congress youth representatives and PCYA's technical committee in 1989 to 1990.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: The proposal that created the Katipunan ng Kabataan (KK) and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) was incorporated into the 1991 Local Government Code (known as Local Autonomy Act or Republic Act No. 7160). It formally abolished the KB and created the KK and SK. The KK includes all Filipino citizens, age 10 to 18 years, who reside in each barangay for at least six months and are registered in the official barangay list. The SK is the governing body of the KK, a set of youth leaders elected by the KK members to represent them and deliver youth-focused services in the barangay.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: The age range of the youth eligible for the KK and SK was reduced to 15 from below 18 due to the changes by Republic Act No. 9164, which amended the Local Autonomy Act, in 2002.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: SKs developed a poor reputation. One youth advocate said he was dissuaded from running for an SK because "Aside from the lack of concrete legislative and youth development programs, I have heard of certain issues raised against the SK like corruption, nepotism, and recurring programs focusing on sports festivals and pageantry only." A 2007 study by UNICEF and the Department of the Interior and Local Government said, "The SK's performance for the past ten years has been generally weak. This is especially true in terms of coming up with legislations, promoting the development of young people, submitting reports and holding consultations with their constituents."


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: Because of concerns that the SK is a "breeding ground for political dynasty and exposing the youth to corruption and the practice of traditional politicians" known colloquially as trapos, Republic Act No. 10632 was enacted in 2013 to (a) postpone the scheduled October 2013 SK elections until some time between October 28, 2014 and February 23, 2015 and (b) leave vacant all the SK positions until new officers are elected. The bill explicitly prohibits the appointing of officials to fill the vacant positions. Sen. Francis Escudero said the vacancies would technically abolish the SK. During this time, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued regulations on how the barangays are to use the 10% of Internal Revenue Allotment set aside for SK activities and mandated the creation in each barangay of a "Task Force on Youth Development". In the place of SKs, ad hoc youth committees were formed.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: In January 2015, as the February 23 deadline approached for the date of the postponed elections, the Philippine House of Representatives unanimously passed a reform bill. Among the reforms are the raising of the age of SK officials from between 15 and 17 years old to between 18 and 21; the raising of the age of voters from between 15 and 17 to between 15 and 21; an anti-dynasty provision that forbids candidates from having a relative in public office that is within the second degree of affinity; and provisions to increase SKs' fiscal autonomy. Immediately after passing the reform bill, the Philippine House passed a bill further postponing the SK elections from February 2015 to October 2016 to be held at the same time as the barangay elections of 2016. In March 2015, a law postponing the elections to 2016 was signed by President Aquino. However, the elections were eventually held in May 2018.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: On January 15, 2016, the Sangguniang Kabataan Reform Act (Republic Act No. 10742) was signed into law which made some significant changes to the SK. It changed the age of the council from 15 to 17 years old to 18 to 24 years old and it forbids individuals from seeking a youth council appointment who are closer than the second degree of consanguinity (having the same grandparents) from any elected or appointed official in the same area. It is the first Philippine law with an anti-political dynasty restriction for elected positions, as permitted by the 1987 Philippine Constitution. The reform also created a Local Youth Development Council to support the SK programs, composed of representatives from different youth organizations in the community including student councils, church and youth faith groups, youth-serving organizations, and community-based youth groups.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: Since 1992, there have been three simultaneous nationwide SK elections held in the Philippines which each term lasting from three to five years due to amendment of the regular 3-year term of the council.


title: Sangguniang Kabataan

text: Except in 1992 and 1996, Sangguniang Kabataan elections have been synchronized with the barangay elections starting in 2002, but in 2013, only barangay elections were held. The term limit for Sangguniang Kabataan officials is usually three years but since the first election, there have been extension of terms ranging from one to two years more in office.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: Terence Oliver Blanchard (born March 13, 1962) is an American trumpeter and composer. He started his career in 1982 as a member of the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, then The Jazz Messengers. He has composed more than forty film scores and performed on more than fifty. A frequent collaborator with director Spike Lee, he has been nominated for two Academy Awards for composing the scores for Lee's films "BlacKkKlansman" (2018) and "Da 5 Bloods" (2020). He has won five Grammy Awards from fourteen nominations.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: From 2000 to 2011, Blanchard served as artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. In 2011, he was named artistic director of the Henry Mancini Institute at the University of Miami, and in 2015, he became a visiting scholar in jazz composition at the Berklee College of Music. In 2019, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), named Blanchard to its Endowed Chair in Jazz Studies, where he will remain until 2024.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: The Metropolitan Opera in New York staged Blanchard's opera "Fire Shut Up in My Bones" in its 2021-2022 season, the first opera by an African American composer in the organization's history.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: Blanchard was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the only child of Wilhelmina and Joseph Oliver Blanchard. His father was a manager at an insurance company and a part-time opera singer. Blanchard began playing piano at the age of five, then the trumpet at age eight after hearing Alvin Alcorn. He played trumpet with his childhood friend Wynton Marsalis in summer music camps, along with his friend Branford Marsalis. In high school, he studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts under Roger Dickerson, his composition teacher and Ellis Marsalis who wanted Blanchard to become a piano player. From 1980 to 1982, he studied under jazz saxophonist Paul Jeffrey and trumpeter Bill Fielder at Rutgers University.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: While studying jazz, Blanchard began touring with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. In 1982, Wynton Marsalis recommended Blanchard as his replacement in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Blanchard was the band's music director until 1986. He played alongside Blakey, Donald Harrison, and Mulgrew Miller, recording five albums from 1984 to 1988. He and Donald Harrison left Art Blakey in 1986 to form their quintet 'The Terence Blanchard/Donald Harrison Quintet' and signed with CBS Records. He left the Jazz Messengers in 1990 to pursue a solo career.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: In the 1990s, after an embouchure change, Blanchard recorded his self-titled debut for Columbia Records which reached No. 3 on the "Billboard" Jazz chart. After performing on soundtracks for Spike Lee movies, including "Do the Right Thing" (1989) and "Mo' Better Blues" (1990), Lee wanted Blanchard to compose the scores for his films beginning with "Jungle Fever" (1991). Blanchard has written the score for most of Spike Lee's films since, including "Malcolm X" (1992), "Clockers" (1995), "Summer of Sam" (1999), "25th Hour" (2002), "Inside Man" (2006), "BlacKkKlansman" (2018), and "Da 5 Bloods" (2020).


title: Terence Blanchard

text: Blanchard composed the score for Spike Lee's four-hour Hurricane Katrina documentary for HBO entitled "" (2006). Blanchard appeared in front of the camera with his mother to share their journey back to find her home destroyed. He also created a 2007 album titled "A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina)" in which he recreated some pieces used in the documentary, as well as creating more pieces along with his band, to provide audiences with the opportunity to sympathize with those who had been affected by Hurricane Katrina.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: Blanchard has also composed for other directors, including Gina Prince Bythewood, Ron Shelton, and Kasi Lemmons. "Entertainment Weekly" proclaimed Blanchard "central to a general resurgence of jazz composition for film." In a 1994 interview for "DownBeat", Blanchard said: "Writing for film is fun, but nothing can beat being a jazz musician, playing a club, playing a concert".


title: Terence Blanchard

text: He has recorded several award-winning albums for Columbia, Sony Classical and Blue Note Records, including "" (1994), "Romantic Defiance" (1995), "The Heart Speaks" (1996), "Wandering Moon" (2000), "Let's Get Lost" (2001) and "Flow" (2005), which was produced by pianist Herbie Hancock and received two Grammy Award nominations.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: Terence Blanchard's 2001 album "Let's Get Lost" featured arrangements of classic songs written by Jimmy McHugh and performed by his quintet with vocalists Diana Krall, Jane Monheit, Dianne Reeves, and Cassandra Wilson.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: In 2005, Blanchard was part of the ensemble that won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for his participation on McCoy Tyner's "Illuminations", an award he shared with Tyner, Gary Bartz, Christian McBride and Lewis Nash.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: Blanchard was a judge for the 5th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers. In 2009 in the Disney movie, "The Princess and the Frog", Blanchard played all of the alligator Louis' trumpet parts. He also voiced the role of Earl the bandleader in the riverboat band.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: Blanchard's opera "Fire Shut Up in My Bones" with a libretto by Kasi Lemmons had its world premiere at Opera Theater of St. Louis in 2019, and, on September 27, 2021, had its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, opening the company's 2021-22 season. It is the first opera by a black composer in the entire 138 year history of the company.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: In December 2002, Scarecrow Press published "Contemporary Cat: Terence Blanchard with Special Guests", an authorized biography of Blanchard written by Anthony Magro.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: In the fall of 2000, Terence Blanchard was named artistic director of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (formerly Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz) at the University of California Los Angeles. Herbie Hancock serves as chairman; Wayne Shorter, Clark Terry and Jimmy Heath were members of the board of trustees. The conservatory offers an intensive, tuition-free, two-year master's program to a limited number of students (only up to eight per every two years).


title: Terence Blanchard

text: In his role as artistic director, Blanchard works with the students in the areas of artistic development, arranging, composition, and career counseling. He also participates in master classes and community outreach activities associated with the program. "Out of my desire to give something back to the jazz community, I wanted to get involved. In fact, I've always said that if I wasn't a musician, that I would like to be a teacher. So I was glad to get involved and to be a part of this unique program that fosters such an open and accessible environment."


title: Terence Blanchard

text: In April 2007, the Institute announced its "Commitment to New Orleans" initiative which includes the relocation of the program to the campus of Loyola University New Orleans from Los Angeles. Blanchard had passionately lobbied the Institute to relocate saying, "After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was shaken and its musical roots were threatened. I grew up in this city and learned about jazz here at Loyola with other young jazz musicians like Wynton and Branford Marsalis and I know that the Institute will have a great impact on jazz and in our communities. We are going to work hard to help jazz and New Orleans flourish once again."


title: Terence Blanchard

text: In 2007, the Monterey Jazz Festival named Blanchard Artist-In-Residence, citing him as "one his generation’s most artistically mature and innovative artists and a committed supporter of jazz education." The Monterey Jazz Festival 50th Anniversary Band featuring Blanchard on trumpet will make a 54-date, 10-week tour of the United States from January 8, 2008, to March 16, 2008. Rounding out the band will be saxophonist James Moody, pianist Benny Green, bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Kendrick Scott. The special ensemble will also feature jazz singer Nnenna Freelon.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: In December 2007, the Terence Blanchard Quintet performed the movie music of Spike Lee and Terence Blanchard with an orchestra and singers Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kurt Elling, and Raul Midón at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: In November 2008, he was a guest on "Private Passions", the biographical music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: On February 10, 2008, Blanchard won his first Grammy Award as a bandleader for "A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina)" in the category of Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. His two other Grammy Awards were as a sideman for Art Blakey (1984) and McCoy Tyner (2004).


title: Terence Blanchard

text: Blanchard composed original music for Stephen Adly Guirgis's Broadway play "The Motherfucker With the Hat", which premiered at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on April 11, 2011. The show is described as "a high-octane verbal cage match about love, fidelity and misplaced haberdashery."


title: Terence Blanchard

text: On January 20, 2012, the film "Red Tails" was released nationwide in the United States. Blanchard served as the composer of the original score, marking the first time he has worked with executive producer George Lucas.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: Blanchard's album, "Breathless", with his new band, The E-Collective, was released by Blue Note Records on May 26, 2015. Featuring Maroon 5's PJ Morton on three cuts, and JRei Oliver, Terence's son, on spoken word, the core band consists of Fabian Almazan on keyboards, Charles Altura on guitar, Donald Ramsey on bass, and Oscar Seaton on drums. Cuepoint, on the web publishing site, Medium, published Blanchard's essay, "Using Music to Underscore Three Words: I Can't Breathe" which details Blanchard's revulsion by the death of Eric Garner and how the subsequent "I Can't Breathe" campaign inspired the series of songs the E-Collective created for the album.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: On November 9, 2019, Blanchard performed alongside Lady Gaga as a special guest during her Jazz and Piano show in Las Vegas, Nevada.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: On June 15, 2013, after a workshop with , Blanchard premiered his first opera, "Champion", at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. It is about the life of prize fighting boxer Emile Griffith from St. Thomas, with a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winning Michael Cristofer. It starred Denyce Graves, Aubrey Allicock, Robert Orth, and Arthur Woodley.


title: Terence Blanchard

text: On June 15, 2019, Blanchard's second opera, "Fire Shut Up in My Bones", with a libretto by Kasi Lemmons, was premiered by the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. The opera, based on the 2014 memoir of the same title by Charles Blow, was expanded with added dance sequences and a larger role for the part of Billie, Charles's mother, and opened the Metropolitan Opera's 2021-2022 season. It will close the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2021-2022 mainstage opera season. Blanchard is the first Black composer to have an opera performed at the Metropolitan Opera.


title: Serena Scott Thomas

text: Serena Harriet Scott Thomas (born 21 September 1961) is an English actress and documentary producer. Her television roles include Diana, Princess of Wales in "" in 1993. Her film appearances include "The World Is Not Enough" (1999), "Hostage" (2005), "Brothel" (2008), and "Inherent Vice" (2014).


title: Serena Scott Thomas

text: Scott Thomas was born in Nether Compton, Dorset. Her mother, Deborah (née Hurlbatt), was brought up in Hong Kong and Africa, and studied drama before marrying her father, Lieutenant Commander Simon Scott Thomas, a pilot in the Royal Navy who died in a flying accident in 1966.


title: Serena Scott Thomas

text: Scott Thomas is known for her portrayal of Diana, Princess of Wales, in the television mini-series "" (1993), and for playing the lead in the TV film "Harnessing Peacocks" (1993) and Dr. Molly Warmflash in the James Bond film "The World Is Not Enough" (1999). She played a villainous "watcher" in the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode "Revelations" (1998) and also starred in the short-lived series "All Souls" (2001), as well as playing Bruce Willis's wife in the film "Hostage" (2005). She appeared on the television shows "Nip/Tuck" and "N.C.I.S." and starred in the film "Brothel" (2008). She played the role of Carole Middleton, mother of Kate Middleton, in "", a biopic of Kate's romance with Prince William.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Alfonso X (also known as the Wise, ; 23 November 1221 – 4 April 1284) was King of Castile, León and Galicia from 30 May 1252 until his death in 1284. During the election of 1257, a dissident faction chose him to be king of Germany on 1 April. He renounced his claim to Germany in 1275, and in creating an alliance with the Kingdom of England in 1254, his claim on the Duchy of Gascony as well.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Alfonso X fostered the development of a cosmopolitan court that encouraged learning. Jews, Muslims, and Christians were encouraged to have prominent roles in his court. As a result of his encouraging the translation of works from Arabic and Latin into the vernacular of Castile, many intellectual changes took place, including the encouragement of the use of Castilian as a primary language of higher learning, science, and law.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Alfonso was a prolific author of Galician poetry, such as the "Cantigas de Santa Maria", which are equally notable for their musical content as for their literary merit. Alfonso's scientific interests—he is sometimes nicknamed the Astrologer ("el Astrólogo")—led him to sponsor the creation of the Alfonsine tables, and the Alphonsus crater on the moon is named after him. He also sponsored the work of historians, who for the first time placed Spain—he would have called it that—in the context of world history. As a lawmaker he introduced the first vernacular law code in Castile, the "Siete Partidas". He created the Mesta, an association of sheep farmers in the central plain, but debased the coinage to finance his claim to the German crown. He fought a successful war with Portugal, but a less successful one with Granada. The end of his reign was marred by a civil war with his eldest surviving son, the future Sancho IV, which continued after his death.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Born in Toledo, Kingdom of Castile, Alfonso was the eldest son of Ferdinand III and Elizabeth (Beatrice) of Swabia. His mother was the paternal cousin of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, to whom Alfonso is often compared. His maternal grandparents were Philip of Swabia and Irene Angelina. Little is known about his upbringing, but he was most likely raised in Toledo. For the first nine years of his life Alfonso was only heir to Castile until his paternal grandfather king Alfonso IX of León died and his father united the kingdoms of Castile and León. He began his career as a soldier, under the command of his father, when he was only sixteen years old.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: After the accession of King Theobald I of Navarre, Ferdinand tried to arrange a marriage for Alfonso with Theobald's daughter, Blanche, but the move was unsuccessful. At the same time, he had a romantic relationship with Mayor Guillén de Guzmán, who bore him a daughter, Beatrice.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: In 1240, he married Mayor Guillén de Guzmán, but the marriage was later annulled and their issue declared illegitimate. In the same period (1240–1250) he conquered several Muslim strongholds in Al-Andalus alongside his father, such as Murcia, Alicante and Cadiz.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: In 1249, Alfonso married Violant, the daughter of King James I of Aragon and Yolande of Hungary, although betrothed already in 1246.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Alfonso succeeded his father as King of Castile and León in 1252. The following year he invaded Portugal, capturing the region of the Algarve. King Afonso III of Portugal had to surrender, but he gained an agreement by which, after he consented to marry Alfonso X's daughter Beatrice of Castile, the land would be returned to their heirs. In 1261 he captured Jerez. In 1263 he returned Algarve to the King of Portugal and signed the Treaty of Badajoz (1267).


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: In 1254 Alfonso X signed a treaty of alliance with King Henry III of England, supporting him in the war against King Louis IX of France. In the same year Alfonso's half-sister, Eleanor, married Henry's son Edward: with this act Alfonso renounced forever all claim to the Duchy of Gascony, to which Castile had been a pretender since the marriage of Alfonso VIII of Castile with Eleanor of England.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: In 1256, at the death of William II of Holland, Alfonso's descent from the Hohenstaufen through his mother, a daughter of Philip of Swabia, gave him a claim through the Hohenstaufen line. Alfonso's election as German king by the prince-electors misled him into complicated schemes that involved excessive expense but never succeeded. Alfonso never even traveled to Germany, and his alliance with the Italian Ghibelline Lord Ezzelino IV da Romano deprived him of the initial support of Pope Alexander IV. His rival, Richard of Cornwall, went to Germany and was crowned in 1257 at Aachen.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: To obtain money, Alfonso debased the coinage and then endeavored to prevent a rise in prices by an arbitrary tariff. The little trade of his dominions was ruined, and the burghers and peasants were deeply offended. His nobles, whom he tried to cow by sporadic acts of violence, rebelled against him in 1272. Reconciliation was bought by Alfonso's son Ferdinand in 1273.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: In the end, after Richard's death, the German princes elected Rudolph I of Habsburg (1273), Alfonso being declared deposed by Pope Gregory X. In 1275 Alfonso tried to meet with his imperial vicar in Italy, William VII of Montferrat (who had succeeded Ezzelino) and his Ghibelline allies in Piedmont and Lombardy to celebrate the victory against the Guelph Charles I of Anjou and be crowned in Lombardy; he was however halted in his imperial ambitions in Provence by the Pope who, after a long negotiation, obtained Alfonso's oral renunciation of any claims to the Holy Roman Empire.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Throughout his reign, Alfonso contended with the nobles, particularly the families of Nuño González de Lara, Diego López de Haro and Esteban Fernández de Castro, all of whom were formidable soldiers and instrumental in maintaining Castile's military strength in frontier territories. According to some scholars Alfonso lacked the singleness of purpose required by a ruler who would devote himself to organization and also the combination of firmness with temper needed for dealing with his nobles although this is not a view taken by all. Others have argued that his efforts were too singularly focused on the diplomatic and financial arrangements surrounding his bid to become Holy Roman Emperor.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Alfonso's eldest son, Ferdinand, died in 1275 at the Battle of Écija against the Moroccan and Granadan invasion armies, leaving two infant sons. Alfonso's second son, Sancho, claimed to be the new heir, in preference to the children of Ferdinand de la Cerda, basing his claim on an old Castilian custom, that of proximity of blood and agnatic seniority. Alfonso preferred to leave the throne to his grandsons, but Sancho had the support of the nobility. A bitter civil war broke out resulting in Alfonso's being forced in 1282 to accept Sancho as his heir instead of his young grandsons; only the cities of Seville, Murcia and Badajoz remained faithful to him. Son and nobles alike supported the Moors when he tried to unite the nation in a crusade; and when he allied himself with Abu Yusuf Yakub, the ruling Marinid Sultan of Morocco, they denounced him as an enemy of the faith. A reaction in his favor was beginning in his later days, but he died defeated and deserted at Seville in 1284, leaving a will, by which he endeavored to exclude Sancho, and a heritage of civil war.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: In 1273, he created the Mesta, an association of some 3,000 petty and great sheep holders in Castile, in reaction to less wool being exported from the traditional sites in England. This organization later became exceedingly powerful in the country (as wool became Castile's first major exportable commodity and reported a trade surplus, called "white gold", as the wool amount was critical to the health of the population during the winter), and eventually its privileges were to prove a deadly wound in the Castilian economy. One side effect of the quickly expanding sheep herds was the decimation to the Castilian farmland through which the sheep grazed.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: The original function of the Mesta was to separate the fields from the sheep-ways linking grazing areas.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: As a ruler, Alfonso showed legislative capacity, and a wish to provide the kingdoms expanded under his father with a code of laws and a consistent judicial system. The "Fuero Real" was undoubtedly his work. He began medieval Europe's most comprehensive code of law, the "Siete Partidas", which, however, thwarted by the nobility of Castile, was only promulgated by his great-grandson. Because of this, and because the "Partidas" remain fundamental law in the American Southwest, he is one of the 23 lawmakers depicted in the House of Representatives chamber of the United States Capitol.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: From a young age Alfonso X showed an interest in military life and chivalry. In 1231 Alfonso traveled with Pérez de Castron on a military campaign in lower Andalusia. Writing in "Estoria de España", Alfonso describes having seen St. James on a white horse with a white banner and a legion of knights fighting a war above the soldiers of Spain. This vision of a heavenly army fighting in Jerez and participation in military campaigns likely left Alfonso X with a high degree of knowledge and respect for military operations and chivalric knights. Alfonso's respect for chivalry can also be seen in his writing of Spanish law. Spanish Chivalric conduct was codified in the (2,21) where he wrote that knights should be, "of good linage and distinguished by gentility, wisdom, understanding, loyalty, courage, moderation, justice, prowess, and the practical knowledge necessary to assess the quality of horse and arms (, 21,1–10)." These efforts to make a codified standard of chivalric conduct were likely meant to both encourage strength of arms (prowess) and to restrain the use of violence for only just (state-sponsored) usage.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: King Alfonso X developed a court culture that encouraged cosmopolitan learning. Alfonso had many works previously written in Arabic and Latin translated into vernacular Castilian in his court. Alfonso "turned to the vernacular for the kind of intellectual commitments that formerly were inconceivable outside Latin." He is credited with encouraging the extensive written use of the Castilian language instead of Latin as the language used in courts, churches, and in books and official documents (although his father, Ferdinand III, had begun to use it for some documents). This translation of Arabic and Classic documents into vernacular encouraged the development of Spanish sciences, literature, and philosophy.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: From the beginning of his reign, Alfonso employed Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars at his court, primarily for the purpose of translating books from Arabic and Hebrew into Latin and Castilian, although he always insisted in supervising personally the translations. This group of scholars formed his royal scriptorium, continuing the tradition of the twelfth-century Escuela de Traductores de Toledo (Toledo School of Translators). Their final output promoted Castilian as a learning language both in science and literature, and established the foundations of the new Spanish language. This evolved version of the Castilian language also acquired significant relevance in the royal chancery, where it came to replace Latin, which until then had been the language commonly used for royal diplomacy in Castile and León.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: The very first translation, commissioned by his brother, Fernando de la Cerda—who had extensive experience, both diplomatic and military, among the Muslims of southern Iberia and north Africa—was a Castilian version of the animal fable "Kalila wa-Dimna", a book that belongs to the genre of wisdom literature labeled Mirrors for Princes: stories and sayings meant to instruct the monarch in proper and effective governance.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: The primary intellectual work of these scholars centered on astronomy and astrology. The early period of Alfonso's reign saw the translation of selected works of magic ("Lapidario", "Picatrix", "Libro de las formas et las ymagenes") all translated by a Jewish scholar named Yehuda ben Moshe (Yhuda Mosca, in the Old Spanish source texts). These were all highly ornate manuscripts (only the "Lapidario" survives in its entirety) containing what was believed to be secret knowledge on the magical properties of stones and talismans. In addition to these books of astral magic, Alfonso ordered the translation of well-known Arabic astrological compendia, including the "Libro de las cruzes" and "Libro conplido en los iudizios de las estrellas". The first of these was, ironically, translated from Latin (it was used among the Visigoths), into Arabic, and then back into Castilian and Latin. Most of the texts first translated at this time survive in only one manuscript each.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: As an intellectual he gained considerable scientific fame based on his encouragement of astronomy, which included astrology at the time and the Ptolemaic cosmology as known to him through the Arabs. He surrounded himself with mostly Jewish translators who rendered Arabic scientific texts into Castilian at Toledo. His fame extends to the preparation of the Alfonsine tables, based on calculations of al-Zarqali, "Arzachel". Alexander Bogdanov maintained that these tables formed the basis for Copernicus's development of a heliocentric understanding in astronomy.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Because of this work, the lunar crater Alphonsus is named after him. One famous, but apocryphal, quote attributed to him upon his hearing an explanation of the extremely complicated mathematics required to demonstrate Ptolemy's theory of astronomy was "If the Lord Almighty had consulted me before embarking on creation thus, I should have recommended something simpler." Gingerich (1990) says that a form of this alleged quotation was mentioned (but rejected) as early as the 16th century by the historian Jerónimo de Zurita, and that Soriano Viguera (1926) states that "nothing of the sort can be found in Alfonso's writings." Nevertheless, Dean Acheson (U.S. Secretary of State, 1949–1953) used it as the basis for the title and epigraph of his memoir "Present at the Creation."


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Alfonso also commissioned a compilation of chronicles, the "Crónica general", completed in 1264. This chronicle sought to establish a general history and drew from older chronicles, folklore and Arabic sources. This work enjoyed renewed popularity starting in the sixteenth century, when there was a revival of interest in history; Florián de Ocampo published a new edition and Lorenzo de Sepúlveda used it as the chief source of his popular romances. Sepúlveda wrote a number of romances having Alfonso X as their hero.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Alfonso's court compiled in Castilian a work titled "General Estoria". This work was an attempt at a world history that drew from many sources and included translations from the Vulgate Old Testament mixed with myths and histories from the classical world, mostly Egypt, Greece, and Rome. This world history was left incomplete, however, and so it stops at the birth of Christ. The main significance of this work lies in the translations from Latin into Castilian. Much like his chronicles, the ability of Alfonso's court to compile writings from a variety of cultures and translate them into Castilian left a historic impact on Spain.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Alfonso X is credited with the first depiction of an "hórreo", a typical granary from the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The oldest document containing an image of an "hórreo" is Alfonso's "Cantigas de Santa Maria" (song CLXXXVII) from XII A.C. In this depiction, three rectangular "hórreos" of Gothic style are illustrated.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Alfonso also had the "Libro de ajedrez, dados, y tablas" (""Libro de los Juegos" (The Book of Games)") translated into Castilian from Arabic and added illustrations with the goal of perfecting the work. It was completed in 1283. The Libro de juegos contains an extensive collection of writings on chess, with over 100 chess problems and chess variants.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Alfonso X commissioned or co-authored numerous works of music during his reign. These works included "Cantigas d'escarnio e maldicer" and the vast compilation "Cantigas de Santa Maria" ("Songs to the Virgin Mary"), which was written in Galician-Portuguese and figures among the most important of his works. The "Cantigas de Santa Maria" form one of the largest collections of vernacular monophonic songs to survive from the Middle Ages. They consist of 420 poems with musical notation. The poems are for the most part on miracles attributed to the Virgin Mary. One of the miracles Alfonso relates is his own healing in Puerto de Santa María.


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Violante was twelve or thirteen years old at the time of her marriage to Alfonso; she produced no children for several years and it was feared that she was barren. Alfonso almost had their marriage annulled, but they went on to have eleven children:


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: Alfonso X also had several illegitimate children. With Mayor Guillén de Guzmán, daughter of Guillén Pérez de Guzmán and of María González Girón, he fathered:


title: Alfonso X of Castile

text: With María Alfonso de León, his aunt, the illegitimate daughter of the King Alfonso IX of León and Teresa Gil de Soverosa he had:


title: Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937

text: The Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, frequently called the "court-packing plan", was a legislative initiative proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court in order to obtain favorable rulings regarding New Deal legislation that the Court had ruled unconstitutional. The central provision of the bill would have granted the president power to appoint an additional justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, up to a maximum of six, for every member of the court over the age of 70 years.


title: Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937

text: In the Judiciary Act of 1869, Congress had established that the Supreme Court would consist of the chief justice and eight associate justices. During Roosevelt's first term, the Supreme Court struck down several New Deal measures as being unconstitutional. Roosevelt sought to reverse this by changing the makeup of the court through the appointment of new additional justices who he hoped would rule that his legislative initiatives did not exceed the constitutional authority of the government. Since the U.S. Constitution does not define the Supreme Court's size, Roosevelt believed it was within the power of Congress to change it. Members of both parties viewed the legislation as an attempt to stack the court, and many Democrats, including Vice President John Nance Garner, opposed it. The bill came to be known as Roosevelt's "court-packing plan", a phrase coined by Edward Rumely.