title: Cost curve

text: With only one variable input (labor usage) in the short run, each possible quantity of output requires a specific quantity of usage of labor, and the short–run total cost as a function of the output level is this unique quantity of labor times the unit cost of labor. But in the long run, with the quantities of both labor and physical capital able to be chosen, the total cost of producing a particular output level is the result of an optimization problem: The sum of expenditures on labor (the wage rate times the chosen level of labor usage) and expenditures on capital (the unit cost of capital times the chosen level of physical capital usage) is minimized with respect to labor usage and capital usage, subject to the production function equality relating output to both input usages; then the (minimal) level of total cost is the total cost of producing the given quantity of output.


title: Cost curve

text: Since short-run fixed cost (FC/SRFC) does not vary with the level of output, its curve is horizontal as shown here. Short-run variable costs (VC/SRVC) increase with the level of output, since the more output is produced, the more of the variable input(s) needs to be used and paid for.


title: Cost curve

text: Average variable cost (AVC/SRAVC) (which is a short-run concept) is the variable cost (typically labor cost) per unit of output: SRAVC = wL / Q where w is the wage rate, L is the quantity of labor used, and Q is the quantity of output produced. The SRAVC curve plots the short-run average variable cost against the level of output and is typically drawn as U-shaped. However, whilst this is convenient for economic theory, it has been argued that it bears little relationship to the real world. Some estimates show that, at least for manufacturing, the proportion of firms reporting a U-shaped cost curve is in the range of 5 to 11 percent.


title: Cost curve

text: Since fixed cost by definition does not vary with output, short-run average fixed cost (SRAFC) (that is, short-run fixed cost per unit of output) is lower when output is higher, giving rise to the downward-sloped curve shown.


title: Cost curve

text: The average total cost curve is constructed to capture the relation between cost per unit of output and the level of output, "ceteris paribus". A perfectly competitive and productively efficient firm organizes its factors of production in such a way that the usage of the factors of production is as low as possible consistent with the given level of output to be produced. In the short run, when at least one factor of production is fixed, this occurs at the output level where it has enjoyed all possible average cost gains from increasing production. This is at the minimum point in the above diagram.


title: Cost curve

text: where P is the unit price of using physical capital per unit time, P is the unit price of labor per unit time (the wage rate), K is the quantity of physical capital used, and L is the quantity of labor used. From this we obtain short-run average cost, denoted either SATC or SRAC, as STC / Q:


title: Cost curve

text: Within the graph above, the Average Fixed Cost curve and Average Variable Cost curve cannot start with zero, as at quantity zero these values are not defined since they would involve dividing by zero.


title: Cost curve

text: Short-run average cost (SRATC/SRAC) equals average fixed costs plus average variable costs. Average fixed cost continuously falls as production increases in the short run, because K is fixed in the short run. The shape of the average variable cost curve is directly determined by increasing and then diminishing marginal returns to the variable input (conventionally labor).


title: Cost curve

text: The long-run average cost (LRATC/LRAC) curve looks similar to the short-run curve, but it allows the usage of physical capital to vary.


title: Cost curve

text: A short-run marginal cost (SRMC) curve graphically represents the relation between marginal (i.e., incremental) cost incurred by a firm in the short-run production of a good or service and the quantity of output produced. This curve is constructed to capture the relation between marginal cost and the level of output, holding other variables, like technology and resource prices, constant. The marginal cost curve is usually U-shaped. Marginal cost is relatively high at small quantities of output; then as production increases, marginal cost declines, reaches a minimum value, then rises. The marginal cost is shown in relation to marginal revenue (MR), the incremental amount of sales revenue that an additional unit of the product or service will bring to the firm. This shape of the marginal cost curve is directly attributable to increasing, then decreasing marginal returns (and the law of diminishing marginal returns). Marginal cost equals w/MP. For most production processes the marginal product of labor initially rises, reaches a maximum value and then continuously falls as production increases. Thus marginal cost initially falls, reaches a minimum value and then increases. The marginal cost curve intersects both the average variable cost curve and (short-run) average total cost curve at their minimum points. When the marginal cost curve is above an average cost curve the average curve is rising. When the marginal costs curve is below an average curve the average curve is falling. This relation holds regardless of whether the marginal curve is rising or falling.


title: Cost curve

text: The long-run marginal cost (LRMC) curve shows for each unit of output the added total cost incurred in the long run, that is, the conceptual period when all factors of production are variable. Stated otherwise, LRMC is the minimum increase in total cost associated with an increase of one unit of output when all inputs are variable.


title: Cost curve

text: The long-run marginal cost curve is shaped by returns to scale, a long-run concept, rather than the law of diminishing marginal returns, which is a short-run concept. The long-run marginal cost curve tends to be flatter than its short-run counterpart due to increased input flexibility. The long-run marginal cost curve intersects the long-run average cost curve at the minimum point of the latter. When long-run marginal cost is below long-run average cost, long-run average cost is falling (as additional units of output are considered). When long-run marginal cost is above long run average cost, average cost is rising. Long-run marginal cost equals short run marginal-cost at the least-long-run-average-cost level of production. LRMC is the slope of the LR total-cost function.


title: Cost curve

text: Cost curves can be combined to provide information about firms. In this diagram for example, firms are assumed to be in a perfectly competitive market. In a perfectly competitive market the price that firms are faced with in the long run would be the price at which the marginal cost curve cuts the average cost curve, since any price above or below that would result in entry to or exit from the industry, driving the market-determined price to the level that gives zero economic profit.


title: Cost curve

text: Assuming that factor prices are constant, the production function determines all cost functions. The variable cost curve is the constant price of the variable input times the inverted short-run production function or total product curve, and its behavior and properties are determined by the production function. Because the production function determines the variable cost function it necessarily determines the shape and properties of marginal cost curve and the average cost curves.


title: Cost curve

text: If the firm is a perfect competitor in all input markets, and thus the per-unit prices of all its inputs are unaffected by how much of the inputs the firm purchases, then it can be shown that at a particular level of output, the firm has economies of scale (i.e., is operating in a downward sloping region of the long-run average cost curve) if and only if it has increasing returns to scale. Likewise, it has diseconomies of scale (is operating in an upward sloping region of the long-run average cost curve) if and only if it has decreasing returns to scale, and has neither economies nor diseconomies of scale if it has constant returns to scale. In this case, with perfect competition in the output market the long-run market equilibrium will involve all firms operating at the minimum point of their long-run average cost curves (i.e., at the borderline between economies and diseconomies of scale).


title: Cost curve

text: If, however, the firm is not a perfect competitor in the input markets, then the above conclusions are modified. For example, if there are increasing returns to scale in some range of output levels, but the firm is so big in one or more input markets that increasing its purchases of an input drives up the input's per-unit cost, then the firm could have diseconomies of scale in that range of output levels. On the other hand, if the firm is able to get bulk discounts of an input, then it could have economies of scale in some range of output levels even if it has decreasing returns in production in that output range.


title: Cost curve

text: For each quantity of output there is one cost–minimizing level of capital and a unique short–run average cost curve associated with producing the given quantity. The following statements assume that the firm is using the optimal level of capital for the quantity produced. If not, then the SRAC curve would lie "wholly above" the LRAC and would not be tangent at any point.


title: Cost curve

text: Both the SRAC and LRAC curves are typically expressed as U-shaped. However, the shapes of the curves are not due to the same factors. For the short run curve the initial downward slope is largely due to declining average fixed costs. Increasing returns to the variable input at low levels of production also play a role, while the upward slope is due to diminishing marginal returns to the variable input. With the long run curve the shape by definition reflects economies and diseconomies of scale. At low levels of production long run production functions generally exhibit increasing returns to scale, which, for firms that are perfect competitors in input markets, means that the long run average cost is falling; the upward slope of the long run average cost function at higher levels of output is due to decreasing returns to scale at those output levels.


title: Cost curve

text: There is some evidence that shows that average cost curves are not typically U-shaped. In a survey by Wilford J. Eiteman and Glenn E. Guthrie in 1952 managers of 334 companies were shown a number of different cost curves, and asked to specify which one best represented the company’s cost curve. 95% of managers responding to the survey reported cost curves with constant or falling costs.


title: Cost curve

text: Alan Blinder, former vice president of the American Economics Association, conducted the same type of survey in 1998, which involved 200 US firms in a sample that should be representative of the US economy at large. He found that about 40% of firms reported falling variable or marginal cost, and 48.4% reported constant marginal/variable cost.


title: SSV Jahn Regensburg

text: Sport- und Schwimmverein Jahn Regensburg e. V., commonly known as SSV Jahn Regensburg, Jahn Regensburg, SSV Jahn or simply Jahn is a German football club based in Regensburg, Bavaria. The club is based on a gymnastics club founded in 1886 as "Turnerbund Jahn Regensburg" which took its name from Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, whose ideas of gymnastics greatly influenced German sport in the 19th century. The football department was created in 1907.


title: SSV Jahn Regensburg

text: The footballers left their parent club in 1924 to form "Sportbund Jahn Regensburg", in 1934 they were combined with two further sports clubs, "Sportverein 1889 Regensburg" and "Schwimmverein 1920 Regensburg", to "Sport- und Schwimmverein Jahn 1889 Regensburg", today commonly known as "SSV Jahn 1889 Regensburg" with the departments athletics, boxing, futsal, gymnastics, handball, kendo and nine-pin bowling. The football department separated in 2000 and is called "SSV Jahn Regensburg".


title: SSV Jahn Regensburg

text: SSV Jahn play their home games at Jahnstadion Regensburg since 2015. The club colours are white and red, the team's most common nicknames 'Rothosen' (Red Shorts) and 'Jahnelf' (Jahn Eleven). Jahn currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the German second division, having been promoted from the 3. Liga in season 2016–17.


title: SSV Jahn Regensburg

text: The merger in 1934 to form SSV Jahn Regensburg strengthened the football side somewhat, but mostly produced only indifferent results, from 1927 in the Bezirksliga Bayern, coming second as its best result in 1930. In the Gauliga Bayern, one of sixteen top flight divisions formed in the re-organization of German football under the Third Reich in 1933, "Jahn" lasted for only two seasons before being relegated in 1935. It returned in 1937 and their best performances were consecutive third-place finishes in 1938 and 1939 after which they languished as an uncompetitive mid-to-lower table side.


title: SSV Jahn Regensburg

text: The club spent most of the period between the end of World War II and the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963 as a "yo-yo team" bouncing up and down between the Oberliga Süd and the second division. Regensburg played the early 1960s in the third division before making their way back to the Regionalliga Süd (II). By the mid 1970s the team began to falter and by the end of the decade had become a third and fourth division side, even playing three years in the Landesliga Bayern-Mitte (V) in the late 1990s.


title: SSV Jahn Regensburg

text: In 2000 the football team left to become an independent club and were joined by players from SG Post/Süd Regensburg in 2002. Regensburg has recovered to some degree and has played in the Regionalliga Süd (III) since the turn of the millennium with a single season in the 2. Bundesliga in 2003–04. However, the club faced financial difficulties and narrowly avoided bankruptcy in 2005. After sinking to the fourth division Oberliga Bayern in 2005–06, Jahn achieved first place in the following season and were promoted again to the Regionalliga Süd. Due to a reorganisation of the leagues, Jahn had to finish in tenth place or higher in order to stay in the third division, which is now the new 3. Liga. Jahn struggled to do so but finished ninth in the end and gained entry to the new league.


title: SSV Jahn Regensburg

text: The club played its first two seasons in the 3. Liga close to the relegation zone but then improved to the point that it came third in 2011–12 and qualified to play against the Karlsruher SC in the promotion round to the 2. Bundesliga. Draws in 1–1 at Regensburg and in 2–2 at Karlsruhe meant Jahn's return to second level after eight years according to away goal rule.


title: SSV Jahn Regensburg

text: The "Jahn" finished last in the 2. Bundesliga in 2012–13 and was relegated back to the 3. Liga, finishing eleventh in 2013–14. In 2014–15 they also finished last in the 3. Liga and were relegated back to the Regionalliga. In the following season, they made the first place in the Regionalliga Bayern and faced the Regionalliga Nord champions VfL Wolfsburg II in the play-offs. The club defeated Wolfsburg II 2–1 on aggregate and immediately returned to third level for the 2015–16 season. Another great season followed in the 3. Liga, with Regensburg finishing third. Like in 2012, they were promoted via the play-off, defeating 1860 Munich 3–1 on aggregate.


title: SSV Jahn Regensburg

text: SSV Jahn Regensburg II (or "SSV Jahn Regensburg Amateure") made a single season appearance in the southern division of the Amateurliga Bayern in 1962–63, the last year of the league being divided into two regional divisions. An eleventh place in the league that season was not enough to qualify for the new single-division league and the team also did not become part of the new Landesliga Bayern-Mitte.


title: SSV Jahn Regensburg

text: A lengthy period in the lower amateur divisions followed until 2002, when the merger of the first team with SG Post/Süd Regensburg allowed the reserve side to take "Post's" place in the Bayernliga, where the team played from 2002 to 2006. In 2006, the first team's relegation meant, they had to move down one level even so they finished eleventh this season. After three average seasons, the side became a promotion contender again, finishing second in 2010–11 but losing to SpVgg Bayern Hof in the promotion round.


title: SSV Jahn Regensburg

text: At the end of the 2011–12 season, the club qualified directly for the newly expanded Bayernliga after finishing third in the Landesliga.


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: Mother's Milk is the fourth studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released August 16, 1989, by EMI Records. After the death of founding guitarist Hillel Slovak and the subsequent departure of drummer Jack Irons, vocalist Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea regrouped with the addition of guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith. Frusciante's influence altered the band's sound by placing more emphasis on melody than rhythm, which had dominated the band's previous material. Returning producer Michael Beinhorn favored heavy metal guitar riffs as well as overdubbing. Frusciante perceived Beinhorn's taste as excessive, and as a result, the two constantly fought over the album's guitar sound.


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: "Mother's Milk" was a greater commercial success than the band's first three albums, peaking at number 52 on the US "Billboard" 200. It received widespread airplay for the three singles which included the cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground", "Knock Me Down" and "Taste the Pain", and it became their first gold record in early 1990. Although it was not met with the same positive critical reception that its predecessor "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan" (1987) had garnered, "Mother's Milk" was the first step for the band in achieving international success and, according to Amy Hanson of AllMusic, "turned the tide and transformed the band from underground funk-rocking rappers to mainstream bad boys with seemingly very little effort."


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: After Red Hot Chili Peppers received a record deal with EMI Records in 1983, the group established themselves as a prominent funk rock band with their 1984 debut album "The Red Hot Chili Peppers". Disappointed with the results of the production, vocalist Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea replaced guitarist Jack Sherman with founding member Hillel Slovak, who had quit his band, What Is This?, several weeks before. The group's George Clinton-produced second album, "Freaky Styley" (1985), was Slovak's first effort with the band. "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan", which was released in 1987, saw original drummer Jack Irons return after he too left. The album, a critical success that peaked at number 148 on the "Billboard" 200, is the only Red Hot Chili Peppers album the original members recorded together. Shortly following the ensuing tour, Slovak died of a heroin overdose and left the rest of the group in complete shock; Irons, citing an inability to cope with the death, quit. Kiedis and Flea, similarly devastated, were determined to persevere despite the loss of two key members. In September 1988 they chose DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight, a friend of Clinton's and former member of the funk band Parliament, to replace Slovak on guitar; D. H. Peligro, formerly of the punk rock outfit, Dead Kennedys, replaced Irons. The new lineup made it through three shows before the band felt McKnight didn't fit and he was fired. McKnight was so angry he threatened to burn Kiedis's house down. McKnight however was with the band long enough to record "Blues for Meister", the first Chili Peppers song featuring Flea on lead vocals and only song to feature Peligro as well. The song would appear a few years later on "Out in L.A.".


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: The band wasn't without a guitarist for very long. In October 1988, Kiedis and Flea found a replacement for McKnight in teenage guitarist John Frusciante. Flea had originally directed Frusciante to audition for the band Thelonious Monster. An avid Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, Frusciante was, according to Flea, "a really talented and knowledgeable musician. He [Frusciante] knows all the shit I don't know. I basically know nothing about music theory and he's studied it to death, inside and out. He's a very disciplined musician—all he cares about are his guitar and his cigarettes." Frusciante was also not very familiar with the funk genre: "I wasn't really a funk player before I joined the band. I learned everything I needed to know about how to sound good with Flea by studying Hillel [Slovak]'s playing and I just took it sideways from there."


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: With Frusciante in place and Peligro still on drums, the band embarked on a small tour and began writing music for the next album. It wasn't long though before the band felt they needed to part ways with Peligro as well, who had his own drug problems. Peligro, who helped co-write "Stone Cold Bush," "Taste the Pain" and "Sexy Mexican Maid" for the "Mother's Milk" album, was fired in late November 1988. Kiedis said it was one of the hardest things he had to do because they considered Peligro a good friend.


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: The band was now once again without a drummer and were forced to hold open auditions. The last to audition, Chad Smith, was a six-foot three-inch tall drummer who, according to Flea, "lit a fire under our asses." Kiedis later said the audition with Smith left "[the band] in a state of frenzied laughter that we couldn't shake out of for a half an hour." Smith came from a different background than his three bandmates. Kiedis, Flea and Frusciante were more into the punk-rock scene while Smith was into classic rock and heavy metal. Smith was officially hired in December 1988 and played a handful of shows with the band to finish out the year.


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: Unlike the stop-start sessions for "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan", where Kiedis would frequently disappear to seek drugs, pre-production for "Mother's Milk" went smoothly. Many of the songs had already been written, and some were even recorded by the time the band started pre-production in January 1989. "Taste the Pain" was recorded before Smith joined, and it featured Philip "Fish" Fisher on drums. The band recorded basic tracks at Hully Gully studios in Silver Lake; songs like "Knock Me Down" were formed from jam sessions without any input from returning producer Michael Beinhorn. According to Flea, the Hully Gully sessions bore fruit: "We played hard and fast more than [at] any other time in our career, I think. A lot of chops were going down [...] we played constantly, got to know each other, and came up with a record." Kiedis and Flea recognized that Frusciante's presence had become a significant influence on the band's new material as the Hully Gully sessions were proving to be extremely productive; Flea recalled that "[Frusciante] was an immense new element to the sound of our band and a big opening up for us."


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: The band entered the Ocean Way Recording studio in Hollywood in February 1989 to record "Mother's Milk". "It was weird when I first joined the band because we recorded the album after I'd been in the band for just a few months and Chad had actually been in for just two weeks", Frusciante recalled. "I was still a little bit confused about my position and we were just like four individuals. Music is all about welding people into a unit and with all the touring we've been doing we're now like an eight armed cosmic octopus!" Beinhorn pushed the Chili Peppers to produce the best possible takes for each of the record's thirteen tracks while the band hoped to obtain a hit record.


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: Although there had been stress and conflict during the recording of other Chili Peppers albums, the sessions for "Mother's Milk" were uncomfortable thanks to Beinhorn's incessant desire to create a hit. He recalled that he and the band were at odds, saying, "Suffice to say that I had a very intense personal relationship [with the band] and somewhere along the line I fell out with [them]." Beinhorn constantly clashed with Frusciante over guitar effects. According to Kiedis, "[Beinhorn] wanted John to have a big, crunching, almost metal-sounding guitar tone whereas before we always had some interesting acid-rock guitar tones as well as a lot of slinky, sexy, funky guitar tones." Frusciante was frustrated with Beinhorn's attitude, and he resented his playing on the record, thinking that it was too "macho". Kiedis recalled that, in the end, "I couldn't tolerate his direction any longer. He was trying to squeeze something out of me that I wasn't feeling, and we got in a fight and I knew that I was done with him."


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: In March 1989, the Chili Peppers embarked on a two-month tour to break-in the new lineup. The "Positive Mental Octopus tour" saw the band play small venues throughout the United States, including several concerts on the East and West Coasts. At this time, Frusciante began asserting more energy and his ego "got a little swollen," according to Flea. "He was running around being rude to girls and getting them pissed off. But that's to be expected, I mean, shit, you're 18 years old and you want to get laid really bad and all of a sudden you're in a band, the girls want to fuck. You're bound to go crazy." Another incident, following a performance at the George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, caused legal repercussions; a student accused Kiedis of engaging in sexual misconduct and indecent exposure. Kiedis was subsequently arrested and released on bail pending a trial that was to be set for a later date.


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: The band's style of music developed with the arrival of Frusciante; producer Michael Beinhorn observed, "It was apparent early on that John was the perfect guitarist for the band—he brought the elements of songwriting and composition to the band which they'd never truly had prior to his involvement. I believe that John is a pivotal figure in the Chili Peppers, being that he is such a distinctive songwriter." Frusciante altered the band's sound by introducing melodies, harmonies and more-complex song structures. In contrast to the group's previous albums, which featured groove and rhythm-based songs, "Mother's Milk" contained melodic compositions that reflected the new guitarist's influence. Per music journalist Jeff Apter, most of the record, due to Beinhorn's presence, is composed of heavy metal guitar riffs and excessive layering.


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: "Mother's Milk" features an array of musical styles in its 13 tracks. Among the songs that surfaced from the Hully Gully sessions in early 1989, "Knock Me Down" became one of the most radical shifts in style for the band. The introspective lyrics, which analyze the death of Hillel Slovak and the devastating effect drugs can have on life, were a new approach for Kiedis, who primarily wrote of sexual intercourse and a hedonistic lifestyle. Kiedis did not, however, want the track to be associated with "anti-drug" sentiments, claiming, "[the song] is about letting your friends know that you need help and then being willing to accept the help of others when you need it, whether it's from drugs, or from a number of other personal problems." According to Apter, the song "Knock Me Down" was "clearly the most important track the band had ever laid down; it proved that these Peppers were more than knuckleheads with socks hanging off their cocks." Musically, the track integrates the Chili Peppers' typical punk influences, but asserts heavier emphasis on melody and harmonics that lead into more alternative territory. "Knock Me Down" was originally recorded to be a duet between Kiedis and Frusciante, but the song was remixed before being released as a single; the new mix inadvertently emphasized Frusciante's voice instead of Kiedis's.


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: "Higher Ground" became another song that helped the band achieve international success. Originally written and recorded in 1973 by R&B singer Stevie Wonder, the track was, according to Flea, a perfect cover for the band: "[...] the lyrics are great. Especially as far as the situation that the band has been in, as far as state of mind, for the past few months. That song is really about raising and uplifting yourself spiritually." Flea said the band covered the song to pay homage to Wonder and the important role he played in popular music. The cover begins with a funk bass-line, followed by multi-layered heavy metal guitar progressions and effects-treated vocals. "Higher Ground"'s chorus features backing vocals from an array of friends and engineers who worked on the record; the individuals' competence in singing was irrelevant to the band because they sought to achieve a sense of unity. "Mother's Milk" was composed of a variety of songs that expanded the Chili Peppers' repertoire. The instrumental "Pretty Little Ditty" was one of the few songs that featured no guitar layering; Apter notes that the song is "a dreamy, sweetly stoned instrumental featured deft picking and strumming from Frusciante, intertwined with blasts of trumpet from Flea." The eclectic track was originally intended to be more than three minutes long, but was cut to just under two minutes before the album's release. The song "Punk Rock Classic" contains an improvisation of "Sweet Child o' Mine" by Guns N' Roses. "Taste the Pain" reflects a more meditative and melodic theme, similar to "Knock Me Down." Frusciante introduces psychedelic guitar progressions in the verse, while the lyrics touch on themes of love and loss. Other tracks such as "Stone Cold Bush" presented topics of prostitution while "Punk Rock Classic" was, in retrospect, an emulation of typical punk rock songs by Black Flag and The Germs—bands that were influential to the Chili Peppers.


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: "Mother's Milk" features a black and white photograph of the band sprawled across the arms of a proportionately larger topless woman, with her nipples covered by a rose on the right (which appears colored), and Kiedis standing up on the left. Controversy arose when the model Dawn Alane claimed the band did not notify her that she was the one chosen to be on the cover of "Mother's Milk". Furthermore, several national chains refused to sell the record because they believed the female subject displayed too much nudity. A more strictly censored version was manufactured for some retailers that featured the band members in far larger proportion than the original. The cover of the record was influenced by a promotional poster Kiedis had from the 1960s of Sly and the Family Stone, in which frontman Sly Stone held a miniaturized band in his palm. When Kiedis was finding shots of the band to use on the cover, Frusciante initially refused every photograph Kiedis showed him but settled on one of him sitting down laughing. "Mother's Milk" was affixed with an "explicit language" warning sticker that, according to Kiedis, "Doesn't bother me. Our lyrics are very explicit, whether it's about sex or friendship or love for life in general." The cover booklet of the record features a painting by Hillel Slovak. Following the album's release, a limited number of promotional posters were issued with the model's breasts exposed. Dawn had no knowledge of the pressing and sued the band, winning a $50,000 settlement.


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: The singles for "Mother's Milk" followed a similar artistic theme. The cover of "Knock Me Down" featured the band shirtless, in front of a photograph of an elephant in an African setting. "Higher Ground" was similar in that all four members — photographs of which were taken from the music video — were printed in front of a large image of Kiedis's face. "Taste the Pain" featured the band together with a red and yellow background with the Chili Peppers' asterisk adjacent to the typeface.


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: A promotional 12" titled "For the Thrashers", which contained four songs from the album, was released to radio stations to promote the then forthcoming album in the weeks leading up to its release. Director Drew Carolan shot a promotional video for "Good Time Boys" which was released on the 1989 Hard 'n Heavy Vol. 2 collection. The video, which has never been released elsewhere by the band or even acknowledged as an official video, featured the band performing the song with cut away scenes of the band being interviewed discussing the album and their sound. Carolan was also hired to film the music videos for album's first two singles, "Higher Ground" and "Knock Me Down" before the release of "Mother's Milk". The initial premise for "Higher Ground" was to have the song's original writer, Stevie Wonder, sit in the lotus position as the Chili Peppers dance around him; however, Wonder declined to be in the video. Kiedis gave full creative license to Carolan on the condition that he "make us [the band] look like the Gods of Funk." While the video for "Higher Ground" was intended to be upbeat and exuberant, "Knock Me Down" was filmed to be more poignant; Carolan recalls, "It was a very special track for the band and it needed to be treated with the utmost care and respect. Anthony and Flea just wanted it to be real soulful with a sense of urgency." The videos took a day each to complete and were filmed with relatively small budgets, but the outcome, as Jeff Apter notes, "[B]ecame key elements of [the album's] success." "Knock Me Down" is notable for featuring an appearance by actor Alex Winter, who would co-direct the video for the band's third single, "Taste the Pain". MTV introduced the band's videos into their daily rotation, highlighting the band as up-and-coming and "one to watch".


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: Although more commercially successful than the band's previous albums, "Mother's Milk" received mixed reviews from critics who were unimpressed with the excessive distortion found throughout the album. However, it was praised as well; Amy Hanson of AllMusic called it "a pivotal album for the Red Hot Chili Peppers," and believed that "if anyone doubted the pulsating power that leapt from the blistering opener, 'Good Time Boys', it took only a few bars of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' outrageous, and brilliant, interpretation of the Stevie Wonder classic 'Higher Ground' to prove that this new lineup was onto something special. Wrapping up with the aptly titled and truly punked-out 'Punk Rock Classic' and the band's own punched-up tribute to 'Magic Johnson', "Mother's Milk" was everything the band had hoped for, and a little more besides." Steve Morse of "The Boston Globe" called it a "high-octane fusion of metal, funk and rap—sort of Prince meets Jimi Hendrix in the Twilight Zone," while noting that "Knock Me Down" combined "electrifying musicianship". "The Toronto Star" commented that the Red Hot Chili Peppers were "the Mothers of Invention for the 1990s." In 2005, "Mother's Milk" was ranked number 359 in "Rock Hard" magazine's book "The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time".


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: While Carly Darlin of the "Orange County Register" found the album to be "an energetic and fun restatement of the RHCP whiplash funk attitude", she believed that "with the exception of the dreamy instrumental 'Pretty Little Ditty', it doesn't break any new ground." She continued by saying that, if anything ""Mother's Milk" is a slight step away from the party-funk grooves of the last two albums and a return to the band's punk-rock roots. They even reprise the cover of Jimi Hendrix's 'Fire', which they did as a B-side for their 'Fight Like A Brave' 12-inch two years ago." Furthermore, Mark Jenkins of "The Washington Post" said "the polite term for albums like 'Milk' is 'eclectic', but it really sounds as if the band is unraveling [...] Considering the circumstances, it's not especially surprising that the album seems to be looking for someone to give it directions." However, Jenkins did believe Frusciante possessed "solid metal chops and means to show them off." "Village Voice" critic Robert Christgau mocked the band's ability to promote empathy and found the guitar layering in "Mother's Milk" to have been done improperly: "punks who loved Hendrix and P-Funk way way back, they're finally cashing in on their good taste, and though unbelievers dis their sincerity, execution's the problem. They didn't have the chops to bring it off then, and by pushing the guitar up front they sound even cruder now. But they're perfectly nice fellas, really—mention 'compassion' in the very first verse."


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: Released on August 16, 1989, "Mother's Milk" peaked at number 52 on the U.S. "Billboard" 200, and number 32 on the U.S. Cash Box album charts. The record failed to chart in the United Kingdom and Europe, but climbed to number 33 in Australia. "Knock Me Down" reached number six on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks whereas "Higher Ground" charted at number eleven; the latter of the two ultimately proved to be more successful, however, by influencing foreign charts at number fifty-four in the UK and forty-five in Australia and France. While "Taste the Pain" did not chart in the U.S., the single reached number twenty-six in the UK—the group's first Top 40 single in the region. The success the Red Hot Chili Peppers achieved with "Mother's Milk" was something the group had been working towards since the release of their debut album; Apter notes, "After five hard years, several departures, sackings and one tragic death, the Peppers were now much more than a hometown sensation." The band had played numerous concerts before the album's release and aired new songs weekly to generate interest in it. "Mother's Milk" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in late March 1990—it is now certified platinum—and was the first Chili Peppers album to ship in excess of 500,000 units. In 2003 the album was re-released through EMI; all tracks were completely remastered and an additional six songs were included as well as hand written liner notes from Flea.


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: "Mother's Milk" instantly garnered more attention than the band's previous records and, as such, the venues the band performed in were able to accommodate far larger crowds. For the first time the band also upgraded to a full-fledged tour bus and added backup musicians and singers. Longtime friend, Keith "Tree" Barry was added to play horns and backup singers Kristen Vigard and Vicki Calhoun (who appeared in the video for "Knock Me Down") also joined the tour. When the band hit England, roadie Robbie Allen (nicknamed Rob Rule) would open for the band providing a comedy performance in which he would pretend to cut off his own penis. Allen would later become one of the band's backup singers on the One Hot Minute tour. The album's official launch, however, was held in New York City at a club called Tramps; following this, Red Hot Chili Peppers embarked on an introductory European tour which included a free show in Amsterdam's Dam Square that attracted over 10,000 attendees. On September 8, 1989 the band commenced their North American leg in Seattle. The leg saw an overwhelmingly positive response from critics across the country; following a concert in Portland, journalist John Foyston of "The Oregonian" noted the "Hollywood-based quartet fomented an audience reaction that had to be seen to be believed. The stage-divers started rushing the stage from the moment the band walked on. Once on stage, it was an issue of luck and chutzpah." Todd Caudle of the Colorado Springs newspaper "The Gazette" said the Chili Peppers' performance at the Colorado Indoor Sports Complex was "the kind of place where kids could be kids, and no one cared if soft drinks stuck to the floor and the rafters shook with a stunning barrage of decibels. People in the audience, steeped in sweat and pressing against the barricade in front of the stage, threw their arms up in unison and barked out approval of one fast, furiously-played song after another."


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: By the end of the leg, the band members were having trouble adjusting to their newfound fame as virtually every concert on the tour was sold out and "Mother's Milk" approached 500,000 units sold. "Spin" reported that following a show in Atlanta, Flea invited a woman to his hotel room for sexual intercourse, but locked himself in the bathroom upon arriving because all he could think of were his wife and daughter. Kiedis ended a two-year long relationship with actress Ione Skye, and Frusciante, looking back on the tour years later, admitted, "I was totally abusing the situation [...] partying and screwing a bunch of girls. At 19, I might have looked like a stud but I was a weakling inside. I wasn't proud of who I was then." Shortly before the end of the North American leg, the band filmed a performance at the Long Beach Arena, which was released as "Psychedelic Sexfunk Live from Heaven" in 1990. A concert at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium on New Year's Eve 1989 attracted over 10,000 attendees and was considered by band photographer Tony Woolliscroft to be "the biggest [concert] I had seen them play at that point. It gave me a handle on how hard the band had worked in the USA in the years prior to this."


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: The tour continued in the United Kingdom, where the band was receiving less attention; Kiedis complained after several shows there, "We're huge in the States and it's sort of frustrating and confusing that no one knows who we are here." It was not until after their return from the UK that "Taste the Pain" was released as a single and subsequently charted at number twenty-nine there. In March 1990, the band was asked to perform on MTV's coverage of Spring break in Florida. At the event, Flea and Smith attempted to engage the audience by jumping from the stage; the situation got out of hand, and the two were alleged to have sexually assaulted and verbally abused a female audience member. They were arrested several days later on charges of battery, disorderly conduct and solicitation to commit a lascivious act, but released on $2,000 bail. Smith and Flea's arrest worsened Kiedis's impending charge in Virginia from the "Positive Mental Octopus" tour. He was convicted of sexual battery and indecent exposure and sentenced to pay a fine of $1,000 per charge.


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: The Chili Peppers wound up the "Mother's Milk" tour with a variety of performances that included the 1990 Pinkpop Festival and several other large-scale concerts. Once complete, the band rested, and Frusciante and Flea organized a short-lived side project called H.A.T.E. with Fishbone vocalist Angelo Moore and L.A. Guns drummer Nickey Alexander. EMI capitalized on the recent interest in the Chili Peppers by releasing a music video compilation VHS called "Positive Mental Octopus", which was named after the tour, in 1990. That same year the band also released "Show Me Your Soul", a song that was originally a b-side on the "Knock Me Down" single, on the soundtrack to the hit romantic comedy film, "Pretty Woman". The song was a minor hit for the band and a music video was made. For unknown reasons the band also recorded a cover of the Bachman–Turner Overdrive song, "Takin' Care of Business," however the song would never be released.


title: Mother's Milk (album)

text: Chad Smith made the announcement on January 29, 2014 that EMI was planning to release a 25th anniversary version of the album sometime in 2014. Smith said some "extra stuff" would be included on the release although it is unknown if the extra material will be unreleased songs or the bonus tracks released on the previously remastered version of the album. In an August 2014 interview with "Rolling Stone", Smith discussed the anniversary and legacy of the album saying that a remastered version was still in the works and that he gave the ok to include a live show recorded in Cleveland, Ohio that likely will be a bonus disc. However, he thinks that all of the outtakes from the record have already been released although there might be a few things that the band left unfinished that could be released. , EMI has yet to re-release the album.


title: Tulku

text: A tulku (, also tülku, trulku) is a reincarnate custodian of a specific lineage of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism who is given empowerments and trained from a young age by students of his or her predecessor.


title: Tulku

text: High-profile examples of tulkus include the Dalai Lamas, the Panchen Lamas, the Samding Dorje Phagmos, the Karmapas, Khyentses, the Zhabdrung Rinpoches, and the Kongtruls.


title: Tulku

text: The word སྤྲུལ or 'sprul' (Modern Lhasa Tibetan ) was a verb in Old Tibetan literature and was used to describe the བཙན་པོ་ btsanpo ('emperor'/天子) taking a human form on earth. So the "sprul" idea of taking a corporeal form is a local religious idea alien to Indian Buddhism and other forms of Buddhism (e.g. Theravadin or Zen). Over time, indigenous religious ideas became assimilated by the new Buddhism; e.g. "sprul" became part of a compound noun, སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་'sprul.sku' ("incarnation body" or 'tülku', and 'btsan', the term for the imperial ruler of the Tibetan Empire, became a kind of mountain deity). The term "tülku" became associated with the translation of the Sanskrit philosophical term "nirmanakaya". According to the philosophical system of "trikaya" or "three bodies of Buddha", nirmanakaya is the Buddha's "body" in the sense of the bodymind (Sanskrit: "nāmarūpa"). Thus, the person of Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, is an example of nirmanakaya. In the context of Tibetan Buddhism, "tülku" means the corporeal existence of enlightened Buddhist masters in general.


title: Tulku

text: In addition to Tibetans and related peoples, Tibetan Buddhism is a traditional religion of the Mongols and their relatives. The Mongolian word for a "tülku" is "qubilγan", though such persons may also be called by the honorific title "qutuγtu" (Tib: "'phags-pa" and Skt: "ārya "or "superior", not to be confused with the historic figure, 'Phags-pa Lama or the script attributed to him, ("Phags-pa" script), or "hutagt" in the standard Khalkha dialect. According to the "Light of Fearless Indestructible Wisdom" by Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal: the term "tülku" "designates one who is 'noble' (or 'selfless' according to Buddha's usage) and used in Buddhist texts to denote a highly achieved being who has attained the first bhumi, a level of attainment which is truly egoless, or higher."


title: Tulku

text: The Chinese word for "tülku" is "huófó" (活佛), which literally means "living Buddha" and is sometimes used to mean "tülku", although the Dalai Lama has said that this is a mistranslation, as a tülku isn't necessarily a realized being.


title: Tulku

text: Higher Vajrayana practitioner can be reborn as a "tülku", who have attained siddhis and mastered the bardo of dying, bardo of dharmata or bardo of becoming.


title: Tulku

text: Valentine summarizes the shift in meaning of the word "tülku": "This term that was originally used to describe the Buddha as a "magical emanation" of enlightenment, is best translated as "incarnation" or "steadfast incarnation" when used in the context of the tulku system to describe patriarchs that reliably return to human form." Also meaning "emanation body".


title: Tulku

text: The tulku system of preserving Dharma lineages did not operate in India. The first tulku line of Tibet is the Karmapas. After the first Karmapa died in 1193, a lama had recurrent visions of a particular child as his rebirth. This child (born ca. 1205) was recognized as the second Karmapa, thus beginning the Tibetan tulku tradition.


title: Tulku

text: Tibetologist Françoise Pommaret estimates there are presently approximately 500 tulku lineages found across Tibet, Bhutan, Northern India, Nepal, Mongolia, and the southwest provinces of China.


title: Niña

text: La Niña (Spanish for "The Girl") was one of the three Spanish ships used by Italian explorer Christopher Columbus in his first voyage to the West Indies in 1492. As was tradition for Spanish ships of the day, she bore a female saint's name, Santa Clara. However, she was commonly referred to by her nickname, "La Niña," which was probably a pun on the name of her owner, Juan Niño of Moguer. She was a standard caravel-type vessel.


title: Niña

text: The other ships of the Columbus expedition were the caravel-type and the carrack-type . "Niña" was by far Columbus's favorite. She was originally lateen sail rigged "caravela latina", but she was re-rigged as a "caravela redonda" at Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands, with square sails for better ocean performance. There is no authentic documentation on the specifics of "Niña"s design, although Michele de Cuneo, who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage, mentioned that "Niña" was ""about" 60 toneladas" (60 tons), which may indicate a medium-sized caravel of around in length on deck. Often said to have had three masts, there is some evidence she may have had four masts.


title: Niña

text: "Niña", like "Pinta" and "Santa María", was a smaller trade ship built to sail the Mediterranean sea, not the open ocean. It was greatly surpassed in size by ships like of the Hanseatic League, built in 1462, in length, and the English carrack , built during the period 1420–1439, weighing between 1,400 and 2,750 tons, and long, in both weight and length.


title: Niña

text: On Columbus's first expedition, "Niña" carried 26 men, captained by Vicente Yáñez Pinzón. They left Palos de la Frontera on 3 August 1492, stopping at the Canary Islands on 12 August 1492, and continued westward. Landfall was made in the Bahamas at dawn on 12 October 1492.


title: Niña

text: On 14 February 1493, in the east of the Azores, a storm threatened to capsize "Niña", and at Columbus's instigation, he and the crew took a series of vows to perform certain acts including religious pilgrimages upon their return to Spain. "Niña" reached Lisbon, Portugal, on 4 March 1493, and arrived in Palos de la Frontera on 15 March 1493. On the first voyage to America, the crew of "Niña" slept on the deck but adopted the use of hammocks after seeing Native Americans utilizing them.


title: Niña

text: In September 1493, "Niña" joined a grand fleet of 17 ships for the second voyage to Hispaniola, becoming the flagship for an exploration of Cuba. She was the only ship to survive the 1495 hurricane, returning quickly to Spain in 1496.


title: Niña

text: "Niña" was then chartered for an unauthorized voyage to Rome. She was captured by a pirate corsair when leaving the port of Cagliari and brought to Cape Pula, Sardinia. The Captain, Alonso Medel, escaped with a few men. He stole a boat, rowed back to "Niña", and made sail, returning to Cádiz.


title: Niña

text: In 1498, she returned to Hispaniola as advance guard of Columbus's Third Voyage. She was lying in wait at Santo Domingo in 1500. In 1501, she made a trading voyage to the Pearl Coast on the island of Cubagua, Venezuela, and no further log of her is found in historic archives.


title: Niña

text: A replica of "Niña" was built by the Spanish government for the Columbian Naval Review of 1893. Along with replicas of "Santa María" and "Pinta" she participated in the review.


title: Niña

text: A replica of "Niña" (based upon theory; there are no known contemporary likenesses of any of the three ships) now sails around the world.


title: Niña

text: The 4-masted replica "Niña" was built 1988-1991 by engineer and naval researcher John Patrick Sarsfield, British naval historian Jonathan Morton Nance, and a group of master shipbuilders in Bahia, Brazil who were still using design and construction techniques dating back to the 15th century. They built it from heavy, teredo-resistant Brazilian hardwoods using only adzes, axes, hand saws, and chisels. The sails were designed by Nance using square main sails and two aft lateen sails as were used by ships of this size at the end of the 15th century. The crew of "Niña" say that it can make about , which is quicker than older designs of the era. The replica weighs 75 tons.


title: Niña

text: In 1991, the replica sailed to Costa Rica to take part in the filming of "", and "Niña" has visited hundreds of North America ports to give the public a chance to see and tour the ship. The vessel continues to visit ports across the Eastern to mid-United States along with its sister replica ship, "Pinta". On 16 September 2020 the ship went adrift after her dock broke up in Hurricane Sally at Pensacola, Florida. Her anchor line later snapped causing her to go ashore in Pensacola Bay near the Maritime Park, Pensacola. The replicas of "Niña" and "Pinta" were built in Valença, Brazil using the same methods as the 15th century Portuguese.


title: Niña

text: Other replicas are located in Andalusia, Spain (at El Puerto de Santa María and at the Wharf of the Caravels in Palos de la Frontera). A replica had been harbored in Corpus Christi, Texas in the United States, but it sank on April 23, 2017—from Hurricane Harvey.


title: Niña

text: On September 25 of the same year, the caravel "La Niña" was part of the flotilla of Columbus' second voyage. Already in the new lands, she left as captain of an exploration trip in which the southern coast of Cuba and Jamaica were discovered. On June 30, 1494, during the return of this trip, "La Niña" hit bottom and suffered damage.


title: Niña

text: In the summer of 1495 at the port of Isabela, in Hispaniola, a cyclone damaged the "Niña," and sank all the other moored ships. The caravel "Santa Cruz" was then built following the model of "La Niña" to replace the sunken ships. The "Santa Cruz", also known as "La India", was the first ship built in America by the Spanish. On June 11, 1496 the vessel returned to Spain with Columbus on board, as flagship.


The First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland are the joint heads of government of the Northern Ireland Executive and have overall responsibility for the running of the Executive Office. Despite the different titles for the two offices, the two positions have the same governmental power, resulting in a duumvirate; the deputy First Minister is not subordinate to the First Minister. Created under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, both were initially nominated and appointed by members of the Northern Ireland Assembly on a joint ticket by a cross-community vote, using consociational principles. That process was changed following the 2006 St Andrews Agreement, meaning that the First Minister is nominated by the largest party overall, and the deputy First Minister is nominated by the largest party in the next largest community designation.


title: First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland

text: On 17 June 2021, despite a letter from the Democratic Unionist Party chairman and other senior party members, DUP leader Edwin Poots nominated Paul Givan as First Minister and Sinn Féin re-nominated Michelle O'Neill as deputy First Minister. On 4 February 2022, Givan resigned as First Minister, which led to O'Neill automatically ceasing to hold office as deputy First Minister.


text: The First Minister and deputy First Minister share equal responsibilities within government, and their decisions are made jointly. The First Minister is, though, the first to greet official visitors to Northern Ireland and shares the same title as their counterparts in Scotland and Wales. Specifically, they are tasked with co-chairing meetings of the Northern Ireland Executive, "dealing with and co-ordinating" the work of the Executive, and the response of the administration to external relationships.


text: The First Minister and deputy First Minister agree the agenda of Executive meetings and can jointly determine "significant or controversial matters" to be considered by the Executive.


text: Two junior ministers assist the First Minister and deputy First Minister in carrying out the work of Executive Office. They are jointly accountable to the First Minister and deputy First Minister. The incumbent junior ministers are Gary Middleton (Democratic Unionist Party) and Declan Kearney (Sinn Féin).


text: As originally established under the Northern Ireland Act 1998, the First Minister was elected by the Assembly on a joint ticket with the deputy First Minister through a cross-community vote. It was created to enable the leaders of the main unionist and nationalist parties to work together, with guaranteed joint representation of both main communities. For the purposes of a cross-community vote, MLAs were designated as unionist, nationalist, or other.


text: This procedure was used on 2 December 1999 to elect David Trimble (Ulster Unionist Party, UUP) and Seamus Mallon (Social Democratic and Labour Party, SDLP). Following several suspensions of the Northern Ireland Executive, Trimble was not re-elected on 2 November 2001 due to opposition from other unionist parties. He was subsequently re-elected alongside Mark Durkan (SDLP) on 6 November 2001; on that occasion, three Alliance Party of Northern Ireland MLAs redesignated from 'other' to 'unionist' to support Trimble's nomination.


text: Following the St Andrews Agreement in October 2006, the appointment procedure was changed to allow for:


text: This procedure, which removed the need for a joint ticket between the unionist Democratic Unionist Party and the nationalist Sinn Féin party, was used to appoint Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness on 8 May 2007. It was again used to appoint Peter Robinson (DUP) alongside McGuinness on 5 June 2008 and again on 12 May 2011, and to appoint Arlene Foster (DUP) alongside McGuinness on 11 January 2016, also to appoint Foster alongside Michelle O'Neill on 11 January 2020, as well as to appoint Paul Givan alongside O'Neill on 17 June 2021.


text: The new rules from 2006 also state that, if the largest party of the largest designation happens not to also be the largest party in the assembly overall, then the appointment procedure would be as follows:


text: The Minister of Justice is now the only Northern Ireland Executive minister elected by cross-community vote. All other ministers are party appointees, with parties taking turns using the D'Hondt method.


text: The First Minister or deputy First Minister may also appoint another Northern Ireland Executive Minister to exercise the functions of the office during a vacancy; currently for a continuous period up to six weeks.


text: In the Irish language, the literal translation of these positions is "Céad-Aire agus an leas Chéad-Aire". The titles appear in both English and Irish in published literature by the North-South Ministerial Council, one of the "mutually inter-dependent" institutions laid out in the Good Friday Agreement, along with the Northern Ireland Assembly.


text: Various ways of translating the titles "First Minister and deputy First Minister" into the Ulster Scots dialects have been attested in official communications, including , , and .


text: The second position has been written as "Deputy" or "deputy" First Minister, due to differing preferences by civil servants (and potentially ministers), although the capitalisation of the title has no constitutional consequences in practice.


text: The first two holders of the office, Seamus Mallon and Mark Durkan, were both referred to during their periods of office as "Deputy First Minister", with a capital 'D'. In the Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement, which established the executive in Northern Ireland, the two positions are spelt "First Minister and Deputy First Minister" (with a capital 'D'). This was also adopted in 1999 for the logo of the OFMDFM. Several weeks after Martin McGuinness took up office as Deputy First Minister in 2007, civil servants in his department began asking the Assembly's Hansard team to replace the capital 'D' with a lower-case 'd', pointing out that the title was spelled this way in the Northern Ireland Act 1998, the legislation which established the office. Some believe that the case was changed to highlight the fact that the position holds the same power as the position of First Minister, but a spokesman for McGuinness said that neither McGuinness nor his advisers had asked for the change. Speaker William Hay ordered the change and the capital 'D' was no longer used in Hansard references.


text: Officials edited the department's archive of press releases to make that change (despite its use by Mallon and Durkan when in office) but the capital 'D' still appears in some places, and a spokesman confirmed on 20 March 2008 that the office had "no plans" to change the OFMDFM logo. However, the Assembly committee that scrutinises their work is now listed as the "Committee for the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister". Ultimately it was decided that McGuinness should be the deputy First Minister, unless all the other letters in the title are in capitals. Confusion isn't completely resolved however; if McGuinness wrote to the Assembly committee that scrutinised his work, his note would have a letterhead that comes from the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, but he would get a reply back from the Committee for the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister.


text: Sinn Féin started using the phrases "Joint First Minister" and "Co-First Minister" in 2009 to describe the deputy First Minister to highlight the fact that the First Minister and deputy First Minister operated in tandem. Martin McGuinness used the term Joint First Minister himself when he arrived for a meeting of the North/South Ministerial Council in February 2009; the DUP denounced the term as "republican speak" and it is not used in legislation. Jim Allister, the leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice, long called Robinson and McGuinness "the joint first ministers", to highlight the joint nature of the office and to demonstrate his opposition to the power-sharing arrangements.


text: With the restoration of power-sharing in 2020, Sinn Féin started describing the position as "joint head of government".


text: Following a referendum on the Belfast Agreement on 23 May 1998 and subsequent the Northern Ireland Act 1998, the Northern Ireland Assembly was established in 1998 with a view to assuming devolved powers from the Westminster Parliament. On 1 July 1998, David Trimble (UUP) and Seamus Mallon (SDLP) were nominated and elected First Minister and Deputy First Minister designates respectively. Eventually, on 2 December 1999, power was devolved and Trimble and Mallon formally took office as joint heads of the Northern Ireland Executive.


text: On 6 November 2001, Mark Durkan (SDLP) became Deputy First Minister after Seamus Mallon's retirement. The Executive and the two positions were suspended between 15 October 2002 and 8 May 2007 following a breakdown in trust between the parties.


text: On 8 May 2007, Ian Paisley (DUP) and Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin) were appointed First Minister and Deputy First Minister respectively in line with the agreement between their two parties on 26 March 2007.


text: Paisley stated his intention to resign on 4 March 2008. His deputy as DUP leader, Peter Robinson was ratified as Democratic Unionist Party leader designate on 17 April 2008 and became First Minister on 5 June 2008. Arlene Foster succeeded Peter Robinson as DUP leader on 18 December 2015, and as First Minister on 11 January 2016.


text: After more than 20 DUP MLAs and four DUP MPs signed a letter "... voicing no confidence in her leadership", Foster resigned as party leader on 28 May 2021, and as First Minister in June 2021. Her successor as the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Edwin Poots, said he would not become the First Minister. Instead, DUP MLA Paul Givan was nominated for First Minister by Poots. Despite concerns by Sinn Féin that an Irish Language Act would not pass, following talks with the British government they agreed to renominate Michelle O'Neill for deputy First Minister. However, 24 of the DUP's 28 MLAs voted against Givan, leading to Poots' resignation as party leader.


text: Separately, between 12 February 2000 and 30 May 2000, and 15 October 2002 and 8 May 2007, however, devolution was suspended, and along with it the offices of First Minister and deputy First Minister. The Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister became the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. There were also two 24-hour periods of suspension on 11 August 2001 and 22 September 2001. to allow timetables for negotiation to restart. Devolution was suspended from 10 January 2017 to 10 January 2020.


text: During the periods of suspension, the Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland assumed the responsibilities of the First Minister and deputy First Minister.


title: Zaheer Abbas

text: Syed Zaheer Abbas Kirmani PP, (in Punjabi and Urdu: سید ظہیر عباس کرمانی; born 24 July 1947), popularly known as Zaheer Abbas, is a former Pakistani cricketer. He is among few professional cricketers who used to wear spectacles. In 1982/1983, he became the first batsman to score three consecutive centuries in one-day internationals. Sometimes known as 'the Asian Bradman', Zaheer Abbas is regarded as one of the finest batsmen in the history of cricket. In August 2020, he was inducted to the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.


title: Zaheer Abbas

text: Abbas made his Test match debut in 1969; in his second Test he scored 274 against England, which is still the sixth-ever highest score by a Pakistani batsman. This was the first of his four Test double-centuries; only two men from Pakistan (Younis Khan and Javed Miandad) have scored more. The last was an innings of 215 against India in 1983, the first of three centuries in consecutive Tests, and his hundredth first-class century; Abbas and Geoffrey Boycott are the only two batsmen to have scored their hundredth first-class century in a Test match.


title: Zaheer Abbas

text: Abbas had great success in first-class cricket, and is the only Asian batsman to score one hundred first-class centuries. He had a long stint with Gloucestershire; joining the county in 1972, he remained there for thirteen years. During that time he scored over a thousand runs in the majority of his thirteen seasons. He also made over two thousand runs in a single season on two occasions for the club (1976 and 1981). During those thirteen years at Gloucestershire, he played 206 first-class games, scoring over 16,000 runs. He averaged 49.79, hitting 49 hundreds and 76 fifties. Abbas is the only player to have scored a century and double century in a first-class match four times, finishing each of the eight innings not out.


title: Zaheer Abbas

text: Sunil Gavaskar, the former Indian Test captain, once said while commentating that the Indian players would often say to Zaheer, ""Zaheer Ab-bas karo"", which means "Zaheer, stop it now" in Urdu and Hindi, referring to Abbas' free scoring.


title: Zaheer Abbas

text: Abbas had two stints as captain of the national team in 1981 and 1984. He retired from international cricket in 1985, and has officiated as a match referee in one Test and three ODI matches. He has also worked as the manager of the national team. Zaheer was one of the player who was famous for his title. Zaheer Abbas was called Asian Bradman. In 2018 Government of Pakistan awarded him Sitara-e-Imtiaz. In 2015 he became ICC president, the third cricketer after Colin Cowdrey and Clyde Walcott, to hold the post.


title: Zaheer Abbas

text: Zaheer Abbas held the record for scoring the most runs by any batsman in a 4 match bilateral ODI series (346 runs) from 1982 to 2015. The record was broken by Hashim Amla of South Africa in 2015.


title: Miljenko Matijevic

text: Miljenko Matijevic (born November 30, 1964) is a Croatian-American singer, best known as the lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Steelheart. He has a big following in South Korea and has worked on several South Korean TV series. He has also released several soundtracks for South Korean TV series. In 2010, he did a tour with Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger of rock band the Doors, singing the parts of the late Jim Morrison.


title: Miljenko Matijevic

text: Matijevic was born in Zagreb in 1964. He lived there with his brother and grandparents until 1970 when his parents collected him from Croatia and moved with him and his brother to Scarsdale, New York. When Matijevic was 7, the family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut. Michael's brother, John, learned to play the guitar and Michael would often sing along, particularly country music, as that is what their father enjoyed. When Michael was 9 he joined the local church choir. However, the biggest change was when Michael was 11 and discovered Led Zeppelin.


title: Miljenko Matijevic

text: After being seen playing at a local club in the band The Mission, Don Stroh, owner of Showcase Studios, called Matijevic saying he should come in and rehearse with a band in his studio. This is where Matijevic first met Chris Risola and James Ward, along with Jack Wilkinson, and Red Alert was formed.


title: Miljenko Matijevic

text: Jack Wilkinson was eventually replaced by John Fowler on drums and Frank DiConstanzo (formerly of Rage of Angels) was added as a rhythm guitarist. Michael soon devoted all attention to the band, and not his college work. He, John and James left for Los Angeles in the hope of getting a record deal, despite having no contacts. However, within a month, the band had a record deal.


title: Miljenko Matijevic

text: Their first album, "Steelheart", released in 1990, sold over a million copies and was supported by a world tour. The follow-up, "Tangled in Reins", released in 1992, was supported by a tour in Europe and Asia.


title: Miljenko Matijevic

text: At the end of their U.S. tour in 1992 opening for Great White, Steelheart was invited to open an additional show for the band Slaughter. On Halloween night, at the McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado, Steelheart was performing "Dancing in the Fire" from the "Tangled in Reins" album when Matijevic was involved in a serious accident. Matijevic decided to climb a lighting truss which was for some reason improperly secured. He failed to climb the rig and also failed to dodge the 1000 pound piece of equipment, which hit him in the back of the head, driving him face first into the stage. The outcome of the accident was a broken nose, cheekbone, jaw, twisted spine, and severe memory loss. Matijevic found the strength to walk off the stage and was immediately taken to the hospital. The incident marked the end of the original lineup of Steelheart.


title: Miljenko Matijevic

text: Steelheart reformed with a new lineup and released the album, "Wait", in 1996. The band released the album "Good 2B Alive" in 2008. In 2010, Michael did a tour with Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger of rock band The Doors, singing the parts of the late Jim Morrison.


title: Miljenko Matijevic

text: Steelheart released the album, "Through Worlds of Stardust", in 2017 and the live album, "Rock'n Milan", in 2018.


title: UR-100N

text: The UR-100N, also known as RS-18A is an intercontinental ballistic missile in service with Soviet and Russian Strategic Missile Troops. The missile was given the NATO reporting name SS-19 Stiletto and carries the industry designation 15A30.


title: UR-100N

text: Development of the UR-100N began at OKB-52 in 1970 and flight tests were carried out from 1973 through 1975. In 1976, the improved UR-100NUTTKh (NATO designation SS-19 Mod 3) version entered development with flight tests in the later half of the decade. The rocket's control system was developed at NPO "Electropribor" (Kharkiv, Ukraine).


title: UR-100N

text: The UR-100N is a fourth-generation silo-launched liquid-propellant ICBM similar to the UR-100 but with much increased dimensions, weights, performance, and payload. The missile was not designed to use existing UR-100 silos, and therefore had new silos constructed for it.


title: UR-100N

text: The missile has a preparation time to start of 25 minutes, a storage period of 22 years, and 6 MIRVs.


title: UR-100N

text: The UR-100N reached initial operating capability in 1974, and by 1978 an inventory of 190 launchers were reached. In 1979, the UR-100UTTKh became operational and by 1983 had replaced many older missiles and reached a maximum inventory of 360 launchers. This had fallen to 300 by 1991, and with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many in Ukraine became property of that nation. 170 remained in Russia, although treaty obligations required the rearming of the missiles with single warheads. As of 2018, the Strategic Missile Troops had 20 (or more likely just 10) UR-100NUTTKh in active service. Recent political developments have led to rearmament of the missiles with the "Avangard" hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) (NATO designation SS-19 Mod 4) On 27 December 2019, the first missile regiment armed with the "Avangard" HGV officially entered combat duty.


title: UR-100N

text: US Air Force National Air and Space Intelligence Center estimates that as of June 2017 about 50 Mod 3 launchers were operationally deployed.


title: UR-100N

text: The UR-100N forms the basis of the Rokot space launch system, which was used in several successful launches in the 1990s and early 2000s (decade), and one failed launch of the ESA CryoSat satellite in 2005. After the failure, Rockot launches were suspended. Once the cause was unambiguously identified and corrective measures implemented, Rockot returned to active service on 28 July 2006, with the successful launch of an earth observation satellite for South Korea.


title: UR-100N

text: The START I treaty was signed by the Soviet Union in 1991. The treaty required the Soviet Union to begin the process of dismantling nuclear warheads and the launchers used for UR-100N missiles. The Soviet Union had 300 100NUTTH missiles stationed in both Russia and Ukraine: 130 deployed in Ukraine and the rest scattered around Russia. After the fall of the USSR, Ukraine claimed ownership of all the missiles locating in its territory. Ukraine then began dismantling launchers for the UR-100N missiles in compliance with the START 1 treaty. Nuclear warheads that were deployed in Ukraine were also dismantled following terms of the treaty.


title: UR-100N

text: The Strategic Missile Troops are the only operator of the UR-100N. As of March 2020, 2 silo-based UR-100NUTTKh missiles with Avangard HGV are deployed with:


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: Criticism of the United Nations has encompassed numerous arguments regarding various aspects of the organization, such as policy, ideology, equality of representation, administration, ability to enforce rulings, and ideological bias. Often cited points of criticism include: a perceived lack of the body's efficacy (including a total lack of efficacy in both pre-emptive measures and de-escalation of existing conflicts which have ranged from social disputes to all-out wars), antisemitism, appeasement, collusion, promotion of globalism, inaction, abuse of power by nations exerting general control over the Assembly, a number of legislative decisions seen as abandonment of, among other things, the prevention of armed conflict clause(s) detailed in the Charter of the United Nations, corruption, and misappropriation of resources.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: In 2004, former Israeli ambassador to the UN Dore Gold published a book called "Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos". The book criticized the organization's moral relativism in the face of (and occasional support of) genocide and terrorism, which occurred between the moral clarity of its founding period and the present day. While the UN during its founding period was limited to those countries that declared war on at least one of the Axis powers of World War II, and were capable of taking a stand against war, the modern United Nations has, according to Gold, become diluted to the point where only 75 of the 184 member states during the time of the book's publication "were free democracies, according to Freedom House." He further claimed that this had the effect of tipping the scales of the UN so that the organization as a whole was more amenable to the requirements of dictatorships.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: The UN General Assembly decided to hold a moment of silence in honor of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il following his death in 2011. Western diplomats criticized the decision. An official at the Czech Republic's UN mission said the Czechs did not request a similar moment of silence for Václav Havel, the playwright-turned-dissident who died a day after Kim.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: The United Nations Population Fund has been accused by American politicians, such as Ronald Reagan, of providing support for government programs that have promoted forced abortions and coercive sterilizations. Controversies regarding these allegations have resulted in a sometimes shaky relationship between the organization and the United States government, with three presidential administrations, that of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush delaying or withholding funding from the UNFPA and other UN agencies.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: The UNFPA provided aid to Peru's population control program in the mid-to-late '90s when it was discovered the Peruvian program had been engaged in carrying out coercive sterilizations. The UNFPA was not found directly involved in the scandal but continued to fund and work with the population control program after the abuses had become public. The issue played a role in the Bush administration's decision in 2002 to cut off funding for the organization.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: There has been criticism that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States), who are all nuclear powers, have created an exclusive nuclear club whose powers are unchecked. Unlike the General Assembly, the United Nations Security Council does not have true international representation. This has led to accusations that the UNSC only addresses the strategic interests and political motives of the permanent members, especially in humanitarian interventions: for example, protecting the oil-rich Kuwaitis in 1991, but poorly protecting resource-poor Rwandans in 1997.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: Any country may be elected to serve a temporary term on the Security Council, but critics have suggested that this is inadequate. Rather, they argue, the number of permanent members should be expanded to include non-nuclear powers, which would democratize the organization. Still other countries have advocated abolishing the concept of permanency altogether; under the government of Paul Martin, Canada advocated this approach. One of the main criticisms belongs to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He has expressed his objection to the UN Security Council's permanent membership system with "World bigger than five" sentences on the UN General Assembly.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: Another criticism of the Security Council involves the veto power of the five permanent members. As it stands, a veto from any of the permanent members can halt any possible action the Council may take. One country's objection, rather than the opinions of a majority of countries, may cripple any possible UN armed or diplomatic response to a crisis.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: As part of the Soviet Union, Russia vetoed 90 resolutions between 1949 and 1991. As of July 2019, USSR and Russia vetoed 141 times, United States 83 times, UK 32 times, France 18 times, and China 14 times. John J. Mearsheimer noted that "since 1982, the US has vetoed 32 Security Council resolutions critical of Israel, more than the total number of vetoes cast by all the other Security Council members." Since candidates for the Security Council are proposed by regional blocs, the Arab League and its allies are usually included but Israel, which joined the UN in 1949, has never been elected to the Security Council. The Council has repeatedly condemned Israel, but has never managed to pass any significant interventional actions against the country, especially regarding its part in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On the other hand, critics contend that, while Israel has the United States to rely on to veto any pertinent legislation against it, the Palestinians lack any such power. Apart from the US, several resolutions have been vetoed by Russia, notably attempts to impose sanctions on Syria during the Syrian Civil War and to condemn Russia's own annexation of Crimea in 2014. In the case of the latter, Russia's lone veto overruled the thirteen other votes in favor of the condemnation. Russia vetoed a UN resolution condemning the USSR's shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in 1983. The veto has been singled out as a threat to human rights, with Amnesty International claiming that the five permanent members had used their veto to "promote their political self-interest or geopolitical interest above the interest of protecting civilians." As of 2014, Amnesty International has suggested that a solution would involve the five permanent members surrendering their veto on issues of genocide. Some see the fact that veto power is exclusive to the permanent five as being anachronistic and unjust, given that the United Nations is meant to equally represent all its member states. Aside from criticism directed towards its biased nature, others have pointed out that the veto makes it difficult for the Security Council to solve issues. Whilst addressing the UN General Assembly on the Russian annexation of Crimea, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the following regarding the inefficiency of the veto "In every democratic country, if someone has stolen your property, an independent court will restore justice, in order to protect your rights, and punish the offender. However, we must recognize that in the 21st century our organization lacks an effective instrument to bring to justice an aggressor country that has stolen the territory of another sovereign state."


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: The practice of the permanent members meeting privately and then presenting their resolutions to the full council as a "fait accompli" has also drawn criticism; according to Erskine Barton Childers, "the vast majority of members – North as well as South – have made very clear...their distaste for the way three Western powers ["the UK, US, and France"] behave in the Council, like a private club of hereditary elite-members who secretly come to decisions and then emerge to tell the grubby elected members that they may now rubber-stamp those decisions."


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: In this case, the United Nations has received some criticism in its gender-inclusivity and its reception of feminist viewpoints. While at the large scale the UN provides outlets and aid to women through UN Women and the Sustainable Development Goals, the reality is that the UN is still very male-dominated. While it has achieved gender parity in its employees at the two lowest levels of responsibility (P-1 and P-2), equal representation has not yet been achieved at any levels higher than these. Senior leadership as of 2015 was made up of 78% men, and parity is not expected for another 112 years based on current trends. Both the percentage of appointments made and the likelihood and speed at which employees are promoted mirror the trend above; parity achieved at low levels while at the D-2 level women see roughly a quarter of what their male counterparts do.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: One reason attributed with the slow progress is that there are no methods to hold the UN accountable to its proposed changes due to its size and the different approaches taken within the different subsidiaries of the organization.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: Other critics object to the idea that the UN is a democratic organization, saying that it represents the interests of the governments of the countries who form it and not necessarily the individuals within those countries. World federalist Dieter Heinrich points out that the powerful Security Council system does not have distinctions between the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches: the United Nations Charter gives all three powers to the Security Council.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: According to Yigal Palmor, former spokesman of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the multi-sections system of the UN prevents individual players or those who don't have geographical friends from participating in the United Nations System. He says that Israel is the only UN member, in the whole UN system, that has been prevented by the UN from playing the game like everyone else. Palmor asserts that due to the multi-sections system of the UN, Israel is being systematically excluded from all geographical sections and groups, and due to that Israel can't even apply to most of the UN councils. Israel originally should belong to the geographic section of Asia, but due to objection from Arab and Muslim countries in the region (such as Iran, Iraq etc.) it has been excluded, since its establishment. From time to time Israel has been accepted in the "Western countries and more" sections, but it is very limited. Israel became part of a regional grouping (the Western European and Others group) temporarily in 2000, gaining permanency status in 2014, 65 years after becoming a U.N. affiliated country.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: According to a study by Ilyana Kuziemko and Eric Werker, there is a strong connection between the distribution of foreign aid payments and rotating membership of the United Nations Security Council. Regarding the US foreign aid expenditure, ODA (Official Development Assistance)—receiving countries which hold a rotating seat of the UNSC experience on average a rise of 59% in payments ($16 million); concerning financial support from the United Nations, an increase of 8% ($1 million) is being detected. This rise in payments does however not apply the whole time: Kuziemko and Werker used a "New York Times"-Index to differentiate between important and unimportant years. The more the UN and the UNSC were mentioned in "The New York Times", the more important the year was considered. The Korean War in the early 1950s, the Congo War in the early 1960s, and the numerous peacekeeping missions in the 1990s were decisive events. During unimportant and medium important years, ODA-receiving countries with a seat in the UNSC did not experience a significant rise in aid payments. During important years however, an increase of 170% could be detected ($16 million more). Regarding UN payments, the difference also exists, but is not as high (53% more financial support or $8 million during important years). One of the reasons could be that it is easier for the US to quickly distribute money, while aid payments of the United Nations mean a lot of bureaucracy beforehand.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: Kuziemko and Werker believe that this increase in payments does not happen because the ODA-receiving countries on the security council are able to use the chance and raise awareness for their problems. As soon as the country's time in council is over, the financial aid drops to the level prior to the time serving on the United Nations Security Council. However, the financial aid payments are noted to have already risen the year before the two-year term on the UNSC.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: The increase of aid payments is especially high regarding financial support by the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). During years with a high importance measured by the "New-York-Times"- Index, UNICEF offers 63% more funds to ODA-receiving countries serving on the UNSC than before they had a seat. Kuziemko and Werker argue that since its founding in 1947, the head of UNICEF has always held US citizenship. Therefore, the executive directors may be the long arm of the US government and pursue the interest of the United States through UNICEF. A similar, although not as significant increase can be seen regarding the distribution of aid payments through UNDP.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: It is impossible though to say if the increase of foreign aid payments by the US or by the UN have changed receiving countries' voting behavior, as they would never admit being open for bribery.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: While the UN's first and second Charter mandates require the UN: "To maintain international peace and security... (and if necessary to enforce the peace by) taking preventive or enforcement action,"


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: due to its restrictive administrative structure, the permanent members of the Security Council themselves have sometimes prevented the UN from fully carrying out its first two mandates.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: Without the unanimous approval, support (or minimally abstention) of all five of the permanent members of the UN's Security Council, the UN's charter only enables it to "observe", report on, and make recommendations regarding international conflicts. Such unanimity on the Security Council regarding the authorization of armed UN enforcement actions has not always been reached in time to prevent the outbreak of international wars.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: In 1962, UN secretary general U Thant provided valuable assistance and took a great deal of time, energy and initiative as the primary negotiator between Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, thus providing a critical link in the prevention of a nuclear war at that time.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: A 2005 RAND Corporation study found the UN to be successful in two out of three peacekeeping efforts. It compared UN nation-building efforts to those of the United States, and found that seven out of eight UN cases are at peace, as opposed to four out of eight US cases at peace.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: Also in 2005, the Human Security Report documented a decline in the number of wars, genocides and human rights abuses since the end of the Cold War, and presented evidence, albeit circumstantial, that international activism – mostly spearheaded by the UN – has been the main cause of the decline in armed conflict since the end of the Cold War or due to the fact the US and USSR were no longer pumping up oppressive governments after the Cold war ended.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: The bureaucratic dimension of the UN has been a cause for frustration with the organization. In 1994, former Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UN to Somalia Mohamed Sahnoun published "Somalia: The Missed Opportunities", a book in which he analyses the reasons for the failure of the 1992 UN intervention in Somalia; he shows in particular that, between the start of the Somali Civil War in 1988 and the fall of the Siad Barre regime in January 1991, the United Nations missed at least three opportunities to prevent major human tragedies. When the UN tried to provide humanitarian assistance, they were totally outperformed by NGOs, whose competence and dedication sharply contrasted with the United Nations' bureaucratic inefficiencies and excessive caution (most UN envoys to Somalia operating from the safety of their desks in Nairobi rather than visiting clan leaders in the field). If sweeping reform was not undertaken, warned Mohamed Sahnoun, then the United Nations would continue to respond to such crisis in a climate of inept improvisation.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: Critics and even proponents of the United Nations have noted that in most high-profile cases, there are essentially no consequences for violating a Security Council resolution. An early example of this was the Bangladesh Liberation War and the 1971 Bangladesh genocide committed by the Pakistan Army on Bangladeshis. Critics of the UN argued that the UN was completely ineffective in preventing the genocide, and that military intervention by India was the only thing to stop the mass murder. Another such case occurred in the Srebrenica massacre where Serbian troops committed genocide against Bosnian Muslims in the largest case of mass murder on the European continent since World War II. Srebrenica had been declared UN a "safe area" and was even protected by 400 armed Dutch peacekeepers, but the UN forces did nothing to prevent the massacre. In the 21st century, the most prominent and dramatic example is the War in Darfur, in which Arab Janjaweed militias, supported by the Sudanese government, committed repeated acts of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the indigenous population. As of 2013, an estimated 300,000 civilians have been killed in what is the largest case of mass murder in the history of the region, yet the UN has continuously failed to act against this severe and ongoing human rights issue. At the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key heavily criticized the UN's inaction on Syria, more than two years after the Syrian Civil War began.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: In 1967, Richard Nixon, while running for President of the United States, criticized the UN as "obsolete and inadequate" for dealing with then-present crises like the Cold War. Jeane Kirkpatrick, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan to be United States Ambassador to the United Nations, wrote in a 1983 opinion piece in "The New York Times" that the process of discussions at the Security Council "more closely resembles a mugging" of the United States "than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving."


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: Issues relating to the state of Israel, Palestinians and other aspects of the Arab–Israeli conflict occupy a large amount of debate time, resolutions and resources at the United Nations. The former Secretary of State of the United States, John Kerry, has accused the U.N. Human Rights Council of focusing disproportionately on allegations of abuses by Israel, and Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, admitted that there is a biased attitude against Israel at the UN, although he retracted later. Other critics such as Dore Gold, Alan Dershowitz, Mark Dreyfus, Robert S. Wistrich, Alan Keyes, and the Anti-Defamation League also consider UN attention on Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be excessive. According to Wistrich, "a third of all critical resolutions passed by [the UN] Human Rights Commission during the past forty years have been directed exclusively at Israel. By way of comparison, there has not been a single resolution even mentioning the massive violations of human rights in China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Syria, or Zimbabwe."


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: The adoption of UNSCOP's recommendation to partition Palestine by the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 was one of the earliest decisions of the UN. Noted lawyer Alan Dershowitz, after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the UN defined the term "refugee" as applied to Palestinian Arabs fleeing Israel in significantly broader terms than it did for other refugees of other conflicts. The UNHCR, responsible for all refugees but the Palestinians, limits refugee status only to those who fled/were dispossessed of their homes and lands; by contrast, the UNRWA, responsible for Palestinian refugees, extends refugee status to descendants of the original refugees.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: In 2007, United Nations Human Rights Council president Doru Romulus Costea said that the UNHRC had "failed" in dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: The UN has sponsored several peace negotiations between Israel and its neighbors, the latest being the 2002 Road map for peace. The controversial Resolution 3379 (1975), which equated Zionism with racism, was rescinded in 1991. Noted Robert S. Wistrich: "on the same day Resolution 3379 was adopted, the General Assembly decided to establish the 'Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.' With a large budget at its disposal and acting as an integral part of the United Nations, it has for more than thirty years done everything within its power to establish a Palestinian state in place of Israel."


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: The UN has been accused by Dershowitz, human rights activists Elie Wiesel, Anne Bayefsky, and Bayard Rustin, historian Robert S. Wistrich, and feminists Phyllis Chesler and Sonia Johnson of tolerating antisemitic remarks within its walls. Israeli delegates to the UN "have been treated to a sickening litany of anti-Semitic abuse at the General Assembly, in the UN Human Rights Commission, and sometimes even in the Security Council" for decades.


title: Criticism of the United Nations

text: UN conferences throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s often passed resolutions denouncing Zionism. These conferences often did not have anything to do with Middle East politics. UN documents of the period systematically denied the existence of the Jews, Israel ancient history, the Holocaust, and the notion that Jews deserve the same rights granted to other groups. Wistrich described the 1980 World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women in Copenhagen in his book, "A Lethal Obsession":