title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Díaz moves between several styles in the novel as the narrative shifts to each of the characters. Oscar's speech reflects an autodidactic language based on his knowledge of fantasy, 'nerd' literature and his speech is filled with phrases such as "I think she's orchidaceous" and "I do not move so precipitously", whereas Yunior "affects a bilingual b-boy flow" and intersperses it with literary language. The story of the De Léon family is told and collected by the fictional narrator Yunior and the "New York Times" critic Michiko Kakutani has described the voice of the book as "a streetwise brand of Spanglish". He often gives his own commentary and analysis on the events he is relating in the story and sometimes reveals failings in his own life, both as a narrator and a person: "Players: never never never fuck with a bitch named Awilda. Because when she awildas out on your ass you'll know pain for real."


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: His informal and frequent use of neologisms can be seen in sentences such as a description of Trujillo as "the Dictatingest Dictator who ever Dictated" or his description of the effectiveness of Trujillo's secret police force: "you could say a bad thing about El Jefe at eight-forty in the morning and before the clock struck ten you'd be in the Cuarenta having a cattleprod shoved up your ass."


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: "Oscar Wao" also oscillates between English and Spanish. Yunior peppers the English-speaking novel with Spanish vocabulary and phrases and certain English sentences are built with Spanish syntax: "Beli might have been a puta major in the cosmology of her neighbors but a cuero she was not."


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Oscar lives his life surrounded by the culture of fantasy and as Oscar describes them, "the more speculative genres", and the language of these cultures is strewn throughout the book along with Spanish. Brief phrases relating to games like Dungeons & Dragons and tabletop role-playing game terms are used as common colloquialisms: "He [Oscar] could have refused, could have made a saving throw against Torture, but instead he went with the flow."


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao contains several of the hallmarks of Latin American Magical Realism. The novel's plot is intricately bound up with the notion of Fukú Americanus, which is "generally a curse of doom of some kind; specifically, the Curse or Doom of the New World". The reliance on Fukú, and its counterpart Zafa gives the novel a fantastical element which show magical realisms part in the plot, as the narrative follows the impact of the supernatural curse. This is coupled with other supernatural elements such as the man with no face and the mongoose.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: The fantastical elements of the novel take place in both New Jersey and in the Dominican Republic. This combination establishes a real world setting for these events which blends the natural with the supernatural, another attribute of Magical Realism.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: In addition of the fantastical elements of the novel, Oscar Wao also includes a degree of political critique, in the discussion of the Trujillo dictatorship of the Dominican Republic, as well as a portrayal of metafiction, in Oscar's own writing on fantasy novels. Both political critique and metafiction are typical features of Magical Realism.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Díaz also hints at the novels Magical Realist elements by claiming that Fúku was popular in places like Macondo, which is the fictional setting for One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which is seen as one of the most prominent Latin American Magical Realist novels.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao can be used as an example of speculative fiction. "Speculative fiction" is a sub-category of fiction that deals with ideas that are not directly real, but rather imaginative or futuristic. The plot of this novel skips from past to present and focuses on different characters' stories at various times to convey the long-lasting impression that Rafael Trujillo's dictatorship in the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961 left. To emphasize the brutality of the past, the novel blends aspects of sci-fi and fantasy with horror as well as popular culture. By combining all of these elements, Diaz creates a work of speculative fiction that holds various social critiques.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: The novel uses history to set the scene and create its social and political commentary. The basis of all of the problems that arise in this novel is the US-sponsored dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo that lasted for over thirty years. Junot Diaz surely includes Trujillo as a character in the story, but limits his representation to descriptions that come from Yunior's perspective. Because of this, Trujillo has an important role in the story, but is ultimately weakened due to the given perspective. Diaz creates irony using this strong dictator as a minor character and focusing on the characters that would have otherwise been marginalized. This arrangement destabilizes established power hierarchies, putting more emphasis on the seemingly least powerful characters and taking power away from the most prominent and infamous characters.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Furthermore, when Trujillo is referenced by Yunior in his narration, the descriptions are entirely negative. Yunior's references show little respect and are meant to belittle Trujillo's presence in the story. By actively disparaging the brutal dictator, Diaz breaks social and cultural norms about how common people function in a power hierarchy. Yunior is given the power to represent Trujillo which lessens Trujillos dominance in the power scale, allowing the novel to have a strong stance against the dictatorship, stripping Trujillo of the meaning behind his title. Overall, making Trujillo the minor character allows Trujillo to be seen as more of a joke than a strong leader while also enforcing the seriousness and long-lasting effects of his power.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Throughout the novel, Diaz uses metaphors and symbols to present Dominican history as well as the fuku curse. Lola is Oscar's older sister, and her daughter serves as a symbol of the potential to break the fuku curse. Lola's daughter is a character that holds the future for the De Leon family and symbolically the entire Dominican culture. She symbolizes the Dominican identity struggle of growing up with two cultural ties, that of the Dominican Republic and that of the United States. Although in the story her character does not know her own role, she must accept and embrace her Dominican culture to break the curse. This sense of uncertainty towards this fantastical curse allows the novel to speculate as to how it can be broken. The curse itself is meant to be a defining factor of Dominican culture. Diaz ties in Lola's daughters character with breaking the curse to show that the future of Dominican culture is to be defined by aspects others that a history of oppression and colonization. The idea that an individual has the power the change the effects of the curse in their own life is a way for the novel to show that Dominican culture can be changed in a way that marginalized people can have power.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Although Yunior is the narrator of the story, and everything that is said comes from his perspective, the story revolves around the unlikely hero, Oscar. Oscar is a shy, overweight teenager who loves to read and write science fiction and fantasy and is searching for love. He is constantly deemed not masculine enough by those around him, and he does not follow the norms of his Dominican culture. He too is affected by the fuku curse that stems from a long history of oppression, and the only way for him to break free is to acknowledge his own culture while also adapting to his new surroundings in the United States. Oscar's character's love for science fiction allows Diaz to intertwine metaphors from the science fiction realm such as that of "Watchmen". This reference allows Diaz to propose the question of whether or not it is just to 'save humanity' by killing a human and make parallels to Oscar's decision running away with Ybon as well as the future of Dominican culture and history. By referencing "nothing ever ends" on page 331 in the novel, Diaz proposes that the past cannot be changed, but must ultimately be accepted to create a better future and reclaim the culture.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Oscar's story is not the only one that Yunior tells. Yunior covers multiple generations of the De Leon family history to emphasize the transgenerational struggles and the inheritance of the fuku curse. Because of the way that the story is narrated, the readers get a comprehensive view of the cultural factors that surround Oscar that ultimately lead to his tragic death. Diaz shows that the mistakes made in Oscar's family lead to Oscar's fate, providing a cautionary tale for the future of Dominican culture in a fantastical context. Furthermore, Yunior recounts the stories and history of a family that is not his own. He is invested with the telling of their story, but is simultaneously reserved. He even admits that as the one telling the story, he holds a certain amount of power. By reconstructing the De Leon family story, and not letting the characters speak for themselves, Yunior subconsciously follows the 'Trujillan model of narration', suppressing their own stories for his own mental gain whether it be a recreated connection to Lola, his ex-girlfriend or Oscar, his friend.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Even when talking about Oscar, Yunior does not focus on the fact that he is nerdy and does not hide it, but rather makes allusions to science fiction and fantasy works that Oscar would be familiar with. Yunior also shows that he and Oscar were not so different after all, but the difference was in the fact that Oscar was not able to hide the fact that he was an outcast while Yunior was able to fit in while keeping his unique qualities and interests to himself.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Mongooses appear throughout "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" as guardians of the family. Historically, the mongoose was imported from Asia during the 18th century. Mongooses were imported to tropical islands such as the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Hawaii. Used to protect sugar cane fields from rat infestations, mongoose were pivotal in the DR's growing sugar economy. While the mongoose is transplanted from Asia, it retroactively becomes a "norm" within the DR's plantation system. While the mongoose guides Beli, its presence is necessary for sugar production. The mongoose is known for its sociability and cunning. Like the de Leon family, the mongoose is an immigrant, an invasive, non-native species. The mongoose was transplanted westward to the Dominican Republic, just as Oscar's family was forced out of the Dominican Republic. Díaz has stated the importance of the mongoose as being alien, creating an other-worldly quality to its assistance. Furthermore, in a footnote, the mongoose is described as "an enemy of kingly charriots, chains, and hierarchies... an ally of Man", suggesting the mongoose's importance in helping the de Leon family not just for their misfortune but also as a means of undermining Trujillo's oppression.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: At the most superficial level, the mongoose can be equated with the zafa, the counter-spell to the family's fukú. For example, when Beli is beaten in the canefield, a "creature that would have been an amiable mongoose if not for its golden lion eyes and the absolute black of its pelt" motivates Beli and sings to her to guide her out of the canefield. The creature acts as her protector, saving her after the atrocities just committed against her. The mongoose further stops a bus directly in front of her, preventing her from being hit and providing her transportation to safety. Similarly, Oscar remembers a "Golden Mongoose" which appeared just before he throws himself from the bridge and again when he is beaten in the canefield for the first time. In the canefield, the mongoose talks to Oscar and saves him just as Beli was saved. Furthermore, just as the singing mongoose leads Beli to safety, a singing voice leads Clives to Oscar.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: This symbolic relationship is heightened by the transient nature of the mongoose, disappearing as suddenly as it appears. Each time the mysterious animal appears in a time of dire need, the narrator includes a disclaimer on the accuracy in the visions of the creature. In the case of Beli in the cane fields, the narrator shares that whether her encounter with the mongoose "was a figment of Beli's wracked imagination or something else altogether" cannot be determined (149). Whether or not this creature is a figment of the young woman's imagination, it led her to safety and provided hope in a situation where death seemed imminent. In having this character take on such a surreal nature with characteristics not found in most mongooses, such as the ability to talk and vanishing in the blink of an eye, Díaz establishes an uncertainty that mirrors the controversies over whether superstitions exist. While the encounters with the creature may or may not have happened, their significance in the book still holds strong just like the superstitions, because "no matter what you believe, the fukú believes in you" (5). The connection between a superstition and a magical character is more easily followed than one with an ordinary animal, highlighting the mongoose being a zafa against the de Leon's fukú.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: The re/appearances of canefields in Oscar Wao are symbolic. The scenes of physical violence against Beli and Oscar are set in this specific, geographical space of the sugar canefields. Sugar was introduced to the Dominican Republic and Haiti, then Hispaniola, through colonialism. Sugar and canefields were so important to the Spanish as they fueled their wealth and the creation of a white elite, and thus plantation economy, in Hispaniola.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Brother murder is a central theme. The grandfather Abelard's name makes it clear that the homonym cane/Cain is no coincidence.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: They first appear when Beli is kidnapped and taken to be beaten in a canefield. Here, the canefields are surrounded by the context of the Trujillato. After (unknowingly) becoming involved with Trujillo's sister's husband, The Gangster's men assault Beli there. The canefields are thus a violent space where Trujillo's henchpeople also take care of business. As written in footnotes, the Mirabal sisters were murdered there, too. In this section of the book Yunior says, "Canefields are no fucking joke, and even the cleverest of adults can get mazed in their endlessness, only to reappear months later as a cameo of bones". Much later, after Oscar returns home to La Inca's to try to be with Ybón, he also ends up assaulted in a canefield, but this time by the Capitan's friends. A lot of the emotions and the atmosphere laid out in Oscar's canefield scene parallels Beli's.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: The canefields in the Dominican Republic are a space made significant through their history of slavery and violence—a racialized space. Canefields are where enslaved Africans were forced into labor and dehumanization. These Beli and Oscar canefield scenes are haunted by the displacement and violence against enslaved Africans, the displacement and genocide of indigenous folks, and also the revolts and resistance to these systems.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Beli understood how advantageous appearance is in the social situations of the Dominican Republic, but not until she had undergone major physical and psychological changes. Beli desired the same romantic experience as Oscar, despising school in her early years from being "completely alone" (83). Her loneliness derived from her "defensive and aggressive and mad overactive" personality that pushed people miles away from her. Unlike Oscar, however, her predicament reversed, becoming not one of a lack of power, but an abundance. She had to choose whether or not to take advantage of her new curvaceous body which puberty had generously bestowed upon her. With these new curves she was thrown into a world where she could get what she wanted, where she was given attention without having to ask for it. Her model-like body presented her with the relationships that she could have never attained otherwise. After recovering from her initial shock of the metamorphosis, she discovered how "her desirability was in its own way, Power" (94). She had been presented with a magical sceptre that allowed her to satisfy her desires. Asking her not to abuse that power was akin to, as Díaz says it "asking the persecuted fat kid not to use his recently discovered mutant abilities" (94). By using her appearance, she gained a complete understanding of the influences of her body.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: The power of appearance in the era of Trujillo can not be underestimated, as seen by its dangerous consequences in the de León family history. Abelard Luis Cabral, Oscar's grandfather, learned this first hand after repeatedly refusing to bring his first-born daughter Jacquelyn to Trujillo's events. Trujillo's rapacity towards women knew no bounds, employing "hundreds of spies whose entire job was to scour the provinces for his next piece of ass" (217). Trujillo's appetite for ass was "insatiable" (217), pushing him to do unspeakable things. His culture of placing appearance above all else does nothing to deemphasize appearance in Dominican culture, seeing as in a normal political atmosphere people follow their leaders, much less in the tightly controlled Trujillan dictatorship. Abelard, by withholding his daughter's "off-the-hook looks" (216) from Trujillo, he was in effect committing "treason" (217). His actions eventually resulted in Trujillo arranging for his arrest and eighteen-year sentence, where he was brutally beaten and treated to an endless series of electric shock treatments (237). During his imprisonment, Socorro committed suicide, Jackie "was found drowned" in a pool, Astrid is struck by a stray bullet, and his third child is born (248–250). Abelard and Socorro's third child, a daughter they name Belicia, was born "black", a terrible thing for the Dominicans, who viewed having a child of "black complexion as an ill omen" (248). They felt so strongly about this that Yunior, offering his own opinion, comments "I doubt anybody inside the family wanted her to live, either" (252). She eventually was tossed around the extended family and eventually "sold", yes "That's right-she was sold" (253). All of these tragedies as a result of the desire for a beautiful young lady, a by product of the preeminence given to physical appearance.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Even under Trujillo, however, the power of appearance is called into the question, as appearance's power ultimately takes second place to the power of words. Cabral is incarcerated, tortured and almost destroyed at least in part as a result of words he has spoken and written, and Trujillo has Cabral's entire library, including any sample of his handwriting, destroyed. As Trujillo never attempts to sleep with Jackie, the narrator and reader are left to wonder if at some level the motivation for this family ruin has to do with silencing a powerful voice.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Yunior and Oscar are character foils that illustrate two different types of masculinity: if Oscar's nerdiness, fatness and awkwardness make him the antithesis of Dominican hypermasculinity, then Yunior, as a Don Juan and a state school player who can "bench 340 pounds" (170), is the embodiment of that identity. They also have completely opposite values: while Yunior cheats habitually and can't appreciate even the most beautiful and loving women, Oscar is faithful and sees beauty in a middle-aged prostitute; while Yunior doesn't value sex for anything other than physical pleasure (at least not at first), Oscar refuses to go to brothels (279). Yunior's masculinity echoes that of Trujillo, who in his violent actions and lust for women, also embodies Dominican hypermasculinity.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Despite their differences, Yunior and Oscar become important to each other and develop an unusual friendship. As Oscar has no father or brothers, Yunior is the only male with whom he can discuss his romantic yearnings; Yunior is his access into masculinity. As for Yunior, Oscar models an alternative form of masculinity and ultimately pushes him to reexamine his ideas about manhood. VanBeest points out that in spite Oscar's lack of machismo, he possesses "other masculine traits that Yunior admires." For example, Yunior envies the way Oscar can develop friendships with women (like Jenni) and talk to them about non-sexual topics. He also respects Oscar's writing style and his ability to "write dialogue, crack snappy exposition, keep the narrative moving" (173). Finally, although Oscar dies in the end, Yunior admires how he was able to achieve real intimacy with a girl by being loving, faithful and vulnerable. VanBeest argues that Oscar "succeeds in educating Yunior, indirectly, in the responsibilities of manhood; after Oscar's death, Yunior claims that it is Oscar's influence that encourages him to stop following the dictates of el machismo and finally settle down and get married." At the end of the novel, Yunior manages to develop a healthier form of masculinity that allows him to love others and to achieve intimacy.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Through Yunior and Oscar's friendship, Díaz critically examines Dominican machismo and shows how it can lead to violence and an inability to connect with others. Through the figure of Oscar, he explores alternatives to hypermasculinity. If "fukú" is "[the] manifestation of the masculine ideals imposed on the Dominican Republic herself," then is Oscar the zafa of this fukú.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Throughout the novel, violence is transmitted from the system of colonialism and dictators to the domestic sphere and perpetuated through the generations. Virtually all the relationships in the book – Trujillo and Abelard, Beli and the Gangster, Beli and Lola, Oscar and Ybón – are marked with physical or emotional abuse. Violence is an aspect of the "fukú" or curse that haunts the Cabrals and de Leons.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: At the very beginning of the novel, it is explained that zafa is the "one way to prevent disaster from coiling around you, only one surefire counterspell that would keep you and your family safe" (7). In this way, zafa can be read as an undoing of colonialism because as fuku brings misery and bad luck, zafa has the potential to foil it and restore a more favorable balance.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Although by the end none of the characters seem to have escaped the cycle of violence or the effects of fukú, Yunior has a dream in which Oscar waves a blank book at him, and he realizes that this can be a "zafa" (325) to the family curse. Yunior also has hope that Isis, Lola's daughter, will one day come to him asking for stories about her family history, and "if she's smart and as brave as I'm expecting she'll be, she'll take all we've done and all we've learned and add her own insights and she'll put an end to it [the fukú]" (331). Thus, the empty pages in Yunior's dreams signify that the future has yet to be written despite the checkered past, in both his life and in the painful history of oppression and colonialism in the Dominican Republic. On the other hand, Isis potentially coming to Yunior to learn more about her uncle represents gaining an understanding of the past, which is key to decolonizing and pinpointing the structures that are systematically oppressive. Yunior implies that storytelling is a way to acknowledge the past and its influence over one's life, a way to make sense of what has happened, and is the starting point for healing.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: With the absence of any embodiments of white characters to emphasize the lasting impact of the colonial imaginary, the mysticism behind the fuku and zafa become that much more convincing. When interpreted as magic instead of as the literal actions of white people, the fuku and zafa transcend human beings and remind us that even when colonialism is not particularly obvious, it is a force that looms over all, and its effects must first be confronted before anyone can take action accordingly, as Yunior's dream suggests.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: ""For me, though, the real issue in the book is not whether or not one can vanquish the fukú—but whether or not one can even see it. Acknowledge its existence at a collective level. To be a true witness to who we are as a people and to what has happened to us. That is the essential challenge for the Caribbean nations—who, as you pointed out, have been annihilated by history and yet who've managed to put themselves together in an amazing way. That's why I thought the book was somewhat hopeful at the end.""


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Comic books, science-fiction, and fantasy literature all play an important role in Oscar's upbringing and identity, and each is incorporated into the novel to reflect the world he lives in. Díaz has said that to dismiss the novel's reflexivity with fiction and fantasy is to do to the novel "exactly what Oscar suffered from, which is that...Oscar's interests, his views of the world, were dismissed as illegitimate, as unimportant, as make-believe", and that the novel asks the reader "to take not only Oscar seriously but his interests seriously."


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: The novel opens with the epigraph: "Of what import are brief, nameless lives…to Galactus?" Díaz has said that this question can be read as being directed at the reader, "because in some ways, depending on how you answer that question, it really decides whether you're Galactus or not." In the Fantastic Four comic book however, Galactus is asking the question of Uatu the Watcher, whose role is played out in Díaz's novel by the narrator Yunior, indicating to Díaz that the question is both a "question to the reader but also a question to writers in general."


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Early in the novel, Díaz aligns Oscar with comic book superheroes: "You want to know what being an X-man feels like? Just be a smart bookish boy of color in a contemporary U.S. ghetto...Like having bat wings or a pair of tentacles growing out of your chest." Díaz hints at possible latent abilities or qualities Oscar may possess that will reveal themselves or develop later in the novel.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: The novel describes the history of relationships between dictators and journalists in terms of comic book rivalries as well: "Since before the infamous Caesar-Ovid war they've [dictators and writers] had beef. Like the Fantastic Four and Galactus, like the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, like the Teen Titans and Deathstroke"


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: There is also a strong suggestion that the fantastical element of Oscar's life is a powerful method for him to relate to other people and to the world around him. When he examines his own body in the mirror he feels "straight out of a Daniel Clowes book. Or like the fat blackish kid in Beto Hernández's Palomar." Oscar's vast memory of comic books and Fantasy/Science-fiction is recalled whenever he is involved in the text, and his identity is multiform, composed of scraps of comic book marginalia.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Díaz creates a distinct link between human beings' performative nature and the masks required to express it, and the masks worn by superheroes. When Oscar meets Ana, one of the many women with whom he falls in love, he notices different aspects of her life and "there was something in the seamlessness with which she switched between these aspects that convinced him that both were masks". Díaz connects the removal of masks with both the intimacy that springs from vulnerability and the concept of identity, hidden or otherwise. Oscar's infinite capacity for empathy and connection with other human beings is a superpower in its own right. Contemporary masculinity and contemporary power structures leave no room for vulnerability, but for Díaz, "the only way to encounter a human is by being vulnerable." The "man with no face" who reoccurs in several parts of the novel can also be read as a sort of mask embodying the fukú.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Díaz frequently uses references to works of science-fiction and fantasy. These references serve both to illuminate the world that Oscar lives in and create a parallel between the supernatural events in fantasy literature and the history of the Dominican Republic. In the opening pages of the novel, the narrator quotes Oscar as having said "What more sci-fi than Santo Domingo? What more fantasy than the Antilles?" One of Díaz's frequent references to J. R. R. Tolkien comes when he describes Trujillo: "Homeboy dominated Santo Domingo like it was his very own private Mordor." In another section, Felix Wenceslao Bernardino, an agent of Trujillo is metaphorically described as the Witchking of Angmar.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Near the end of the book Diáz comprehensively links the fantasy world of Middle-Earth with the world of the Dominican Republic and the novel.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Twice in the novel the mantra "Fear is the mindkiller" is repeated. The phrase originated in the Frank Herbert novel "Dune" and Oscar uses it to try and quell his own fear near the end of the story, to no avail.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: Also, Díaz references Stephen King on a number of occasions, including a reference to Captain Trips, the fictional virus that wipes out mankind in The Stand, as well as two references to its characters, Harold Lauder, compared to Oscar, and to Mother Abigail, compared to La Inca. Likewise, there is a mention of being "flung into the macroverse" by "the ritual of Chud", a nod to the ending of It.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" was widely praised and appeared in a number of "best of the year" book lists. The book won the John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize, the Dayton Peace Prize in Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. "New York" magazine named it the Best Novel of the Year and "Time" magazine's Lev Grossman named it the best work of fiction published in 2007, praising it as "a massive, heaving, sparking tragicomedy". In a poll of American literary critics organised by BBC Culture (the arts and culture section of the international BBC website) in 2015, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" was voted the twenty-first century's best novel so far.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: In a 2009 poll by "The Millions" a panel of writers, critics, and editors voted "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" the eighth-best novel since 2000, and readers ranked it in first place.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: A staged version of the novel, called Fukú Americanus, was adapted by Sean San Jose and co-directed by San Jose and Marc Bamuthi Joseph through San Jose's Campo Santo theatre company in 2009. The production received mixed reviews, with critic Robert Hurwitt stating that "'Fukú' doesn't show us how that works or what the curse has to do with anything ... for that, you have to read the book."


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: In 2019, Repertorio Español produced "La Breve y Maravillosa Vida de Oscar Wao", a Spanish-language adaptation of the novel at Gramercy Arts Theatre in New York.


title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

text: The novel's film rights were optioned by Miramax Films and producer Scott Rudin in 2007. Director Walter Salles and writer Jose Rivera ("The Motorcycle Diaries") were hired by Rudin to adapt the novel. According to Díaz, Miramax's rights on the book have since expired.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The Philippine tarsier (Carlito syrichta), known locally as mawumag in Cebuano and other Visayan languages, and magô in Waray, is a species of tarsier endemic to the Philippines. It is found in the southeastern part of the archipelago, particularly on the islands of Bohol, Samar and Leyte. It is a member of the approximately 45-million-year-old family Tarsiidae, whose name is derived from its elongated "tarsus" or ankle bone. Formerly a member of the genus "Tarsius", it is now listed as the only member of the genus Carlito, a new genus named after the conservationist Carlito Pizarras.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Its geographic range also includes Maripipi Island, Siargao Island, Basilan Island and Dinagat Island. Tarsiers have also been reported in Sarangani, although they may be different subspecies. <includeonly>Tribal people like the B'laans and T'bolis have been, for a long time, reporting sightings in the province of Sarangani. Unfortunately, these reports were merely discarded as a hoax until March 30, 2002, when a pair of these tiny nocturnal mammals was captured in the mountainous areas of the municipalities of Maitum and Kiamba and was brought to the public, proving that this species exists in this coastal province.</includeonly>


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The tarsier is named for its elongated "tarsus" or ankle bone. The genus Carlito is named after conservationist Carlito Pizarras.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The Philippine tarsier is known as "mawumag" in Cebuano and other Visayan languages, and "magô" in Waray, It is also known as "mamag", "magau", "malmag", and "magatilok-iok".


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The Philippine tarsier is the only member of the genus "Carlito" and a member of the family Tarsiidae. Three subspecies are presently recognised.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Previously all living tarsiers had been placed in the genus "Tarsius", but a 2010 taxonomic revision by Shekelle and Groves placed the distinctive Philippine tarsier in its own genus, "Carlito".


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The Philippine tarsier was introduced to Western biologists in the 18th century through the missionary J.G. Camel's description given to J. Petiver of an animal said to have come from the Philippines. Petiver published Camel's description in 1705 and named the animal "Cercopithecus luzonis minimus" which was the basis for Linnaeus' (1758) "Simia syrichta" and eventually "Carlito syrichta", the current scientific name.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The IUCN taxonomic note lists two subspecies, but the non-nominate one is poorly defined at present, so the species is treated as a whole. "Tarsius syrichta carbonarius" and "Tarsius s. fraterculus" were recognized by Hill (1955) as weakly defined subspecies. Niemitz (1984) found the differences to be insignificant based upon comparisons with museum specimens. Musser and Dagosto (1987) felt that the available museum specimens were insufficient to resolve the issue, but mentioned that Heaney felt that a single male tarsier from Dinagat might be distinct. Groves (2001) did not recognize any subspecies of "C. syrichta", but Groves and Shekelle (2010) recognized the subspecies "C. s. fraterculus", "C. s. syrichta", and "C. s. carbonarius" when splitting the species of "Tarsius" into "Carlito".


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The Philippine tarsier measures in height, making it one of the smallest primates. The small size makes it difficult to spot. The mass for males is between , usually lighter for females, somewhat heavier than other tarsiers such as the pygmy tarsier. The average adult is about the size of an adult human fist.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The female tarsier has multiple sets of breasts, but the only functional set is at the pectoralis. The other breasts are used as anchor points for the newborn tarsiers. The gestation period lasts 180 days, or 6 months, after which only one tarsier is born. The newborn tarsier is born with much fur and eyes open. Its body and head length is about 70 mm, and its tail is around 115 mm long.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Like all tarsiers, the Philippine tarsier's eyes are fixed in its skull; they cannot move in their sockets. Instead, a special adaptation in the neck allows its round head to be rotated 180°. Their eyes are disproportionately large, having the largest eye-to-body weight ratio of all mammals. These huge eyes provide this nocturnal animal with excellent night vision. In bright light, the tarsier's eyes can constrict until the pupil appears to be only a thin spot. In low light or darkness, the pupil can dilate and fill up almost the entire eye. The large membranous ears are mobile, appearing to be almost constantly moving, allowing the tarsier to hear any movement.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The Philippine tarsier has thin, rough fur which is colored gray to dark brown. The narrow tail, usually used for balance, is bald except for a tuft of hair at the end, and is about twice the body length. Its elongated "tarsus", or ankle bone, which gives the tarsier its name, allows it to jump at least 3 m from tree to tree. Its long digits are tipped with rounded pads that allow "C. syrichta" to cling easily to trees and to grip almost any surface. The thumb is not truly opposable, but the first toe is. All of the digits have flattened nails, except for the second and third toes, which have sharp claws specialized for grooming.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The Philippine tarsier is primarily insectivorous, its diet consists of insects, spiders, small crustaceans, and small vertebrates such as small lizards and birds. "C. syrichta" preys on live insects, particularly crickets and grasshoppers. Upon seizing its prey, the tarsier carries it to its mouth using both hands.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The Philippine tarsier, as its name suggests, is endemic to the Philippine archipelago. "C. syrichta" populations are generally found in the southeastern part of the archipelago. Established populations are present primarily on the islands of Bohol, Samar, Leyte and Mindanao. It has also been found on various isolated islands within its known range, such as Maripipi Island, Siargao Island, Basilan Island and Dinagat Island.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The Philippine tarsier's habitat is the second-growth, secondary forest, and primary forest from sea level to . Its habitat also includes tropical rainforest with dense vegetation and trees that offer it protection such as tall grasses, bushes, and bamboo shoots. It prefers dense, low-level vegetation in secondary forests, with perching sites averaging 2 m above the ground.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Early studies showed that the Philippine tarsier has a home range of 1 to 2 hectares, but more recent research shows that home ranges averaged 6.45 ha for males and 2.45 ha for females , allowing for a density of 16 male and 41 female tarsiers per 100 ha.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Both males and females are solitary, but will occasionally cross paths at night. They travel up to 1.5 km across the forest and the optimal area is more than 6 ha.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Besides human hunters, feral cats banished from nearby communities are the species' main predators, though some large birds are known to prey on it, as well. Because of its nocturnal and arboreal habits, the Philippine tarsier is most likely to fall prey to owls, or to small carnivores which it can encounter in its canopy homes.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The Philippine tarsier is a shy, nocturnal animal that leads a mostly hidden life. During the day, it sleeps in dark hollows close to the ground, near tree trunks and shrubs deep in the impenetrable bushes and forests. It becomes active only at night; with its keen sight and ability to manoeuvre around trees, it is able to avoid humans.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: It is arboreal, habitually clinging vertically to trees and capable of leaping from branch to branch.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The Philippine tarsier is solitary. However, populations and individuals have been found to have either monogamous or polygamous mating patterns.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Three different audible calls have been documented. One is its "loud call"—a piercing single note. The second sound is a soft, sweet, bird-like twill, a sound of contentment. When several tarsiers come together, the combined effect of this chirping is a locust-like sound.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: These mammals can also vocalize in an ultrasound frequency range of 70 kHz and can pick up frequencies above 90 kHz. This form of vocal communication is used as a distress call made by infants when they are separated from their mothers. It is also the call made by males to their mates during mating season.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Tarsiers also communicate through a scent from the circumoral gland located around the mouth, which the female uses to mark her mate. The males mark their territory with their urine. Tarsiers perform tactile communication through social grooming, removing dead skin and parasites, a behaviour observed in females on adult males, as well as in females on their offspring.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The Philippine tarsier's gestation period lasts about six months, while the female's estrous cycle lasts 25–28 days. The mating season lasts from April to May. The males deposit a mating plug in the female's vagina after intercourse. The female gives birth to one offspring per gestation. The infant is born with hair and with its eyes open. The females carry their infants in their mouths. A newborn can already cling to branches and in less than a month after birth, it can start leaping.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Newborns are breastfed until 60 days after birth. After two years of age, the tarsier is sexually mature and able to reproduce.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: In 1986, 1988, and 1990, the Philippine tarsier was assessed as endangered by the IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre. On September 13, 1991, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued DENR Administrative Order Number 48 (DAO 48), which also listed the Philippine tarsier as endangered.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: In 1996, it was assessed as lower risk/conservation-dependent by Baillie and Groom-bridge. In 2000, the IUCN assessed the Philippine tarsier as data deficient, which means that inadequate information was available to make a direct or indirect assessment of its risks of extinction based on its distribution and/or population status.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The most recent IUCN red list assessment, in 2008, classified the Philippine tarsier as near threatened. This classification is based on an estimated significant decline over the last three generations (about 20 years), but less than 30%, due to habitat loss and because of poaching for the pet trade.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: The Philippine tarsier is listed in Appendix II of CITES, and the U.S. ESA classifies it as threatened.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: A Tarsier sanctuary is maintained in the town of Corella (Bohol). Run by the Philippine Tarsier Foundation, it has a visitor centre and habitat preserve/sanctuary of 7000 m in a natural forest.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: For the past 45 million years, tarsiers have inhabited rainforests around the world, but now they exist on only a few islands in the Philippines, Borneo, and Indonesia. In Bohol, the Philippine tarsier was a common sight in the southern part of the island until the 1960s. Since then, the number has dropped to around 700 on the island according to the Philippine Tarsier Foundation.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Due to the quickly growing human population, which causes more and more forests to be converted to farmland, housing areas, and roads, the place where the Philippine tarsier can live its secluded life is disappearing. The dwindling of Philippine forests—the Philippine tarsier's natural forest habitat—has posed a grave and significant threat to the survival of the Philippine tarsier. Indiscriminate and illegal logging, cutting of trees for firewood, "kaingin" or slash and burn method of agriculture, and human urbanization have encroached on the habitats of the tarsier.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Paradoxically, indigenous superstition, coupled with relatively thick rainforest, particularly in Sarangani province, has apparently preserved this endangered species. Indigenous tribes leave the Philippine tarsiers in the wild because they fear that these animals could bring bad luck.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Tarsiers in the Philippines have been sought out as pets or sold for trade, despite their low survival rate outside of their natural habitat, where they feed on live insects. Displays by private people in Loboc, Bohol tend to diminish the lives of tarsiers. Further, some feel that the display of captive tarsiers might encourage tourists to acquire them illegally as pets.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Tarsiers do not do well in captivity. Life expectancy decreases by 2 to 12 years (if taken from the wild), as compared to the 24 years the tarsier can live to in the wild. The tarsier can develop sore eyes, which is an indication of a poor diet. Also, the lighting usually used in captivity can cause long-lasting damage to the eyes. Another danger of captivity is the creature's tendency to commit suicide. Because the tarsier is often shy and nervous, many activities associated with captivity (such as camera flashes, being touched, and being kept in an enclosure) stresses the animal. Such stress leads to the tarsier hitting its head against objects, thus killing it because of its thin skull.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Several laws have been passed to protect and conserve the Philippine tarsier. DENR Administrative Order No. 38, Series of 1991 (DAO No. 38) included the Philippine tarsier among the national protected wildlife species and proposed its listing under Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Moreover, the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group had given the species Conservation Priority Rating 4, which means that the species is highly vulnerable and threatened by habitat destruction and/or hunting.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Republic Act No. 7586, otherwise known as the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act of 1991 mandates the establishment of appropriate sanctuaries to preserve and protect the Philippine tarsier.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Proclamation 1030 was enacted on June 23, 1997, declaring the Philippine tarsier a specially protected faunal species.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Also, legislation at other local levels includes provincial ordinances and proclamations (Bohol Province), municipal ordinances (Corella), and Barangay ordinances (Canapnapan, etc.).


title: Philippine tarsier

text: On July 30, 2001, Republic Act No. 914, also known as the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act, was enacted. The law provided for the conservation and protection of wildlife resources and their habitats, including the Philippine tarsier, and its inclusion as a flagship species.


title: Philippine tarsier

text: Two groups are involved in the conservation of the Philippine tarsier: Endangered Species International (ESI) and the Philippine Tarsier Foundation. ESI works in Mindanao Island where the conservation group created a tarsier sanctuary, planted endangered trees to reforest tarsier habitat, and conducts research and educational activities. In partnership with local groups and government, ESI established the tarsier trail including a viewpoint on habitat. Interpretative boards about plants and animals found in the sanctuary are displayed.


title: 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships

text: The 18th World Athletics Indoor Championships were held from 18 to 20 March 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia.


text: Ethiopia headed the medal table, with 4 gold medals, despite winning only nine in total. United States, second on gold medals won with 3, won the most medals, 19.


text: Kosovo had one representative at the championships, Gresa Bakraqi who competed at women's 1500m event. Due a long-standing dispute over the country’s independence from the host nation Kosovo's, flag was not shown on the big screen and not been included on the official competition website ran by the Organising Committee and hosted on the World Athletics domain.


title: Ballantine's

text: The Ballantine's flavour is dependent on fingerprint malts from Miltonduff and Glenburgie, blended with 50 single malts and four single grains. The brand has won many accolades and awards for its products.


title: Ballantine's

text: The world's second highest selling Scotch whisky, it has historically been strong in Southern Europe.


title: Ballantine's

text: Ballantine's Scotch whisky can trace its heritage back to 1827, when farmer's son George Ballantine set up a small grocery store in Edinburgh supplying a range of whiskies to his clientele.


title: Ballantine's

text: In 1865 George delegated the store's operation to his eldest son, Archibald, while he opened a larger establishment in Glasgow. Here he concentrated on the wine and spirit trade, catering to clients that included the Hindu Royal Family. He also began to create his own blends. These inspired additional demand, drawing second son, George junior, into the business. Trading as "George Ballantine and Son Ltd", the firm added a bonded warehouse and began to export their Scotch. George senior retired in 1881 and died 10 years later at age 83 with George junior taking over.


title: Ballantine's

text: Business thrived under George junior, and the family sold out profitably to the firm of Barclay and McKinlay in 1919. Building on the reputation and goodwill of the "Ballantine's" name, the new owners focused on developing it as a brand for their blended whiskies. When increasing resources were needed to compete fully in the growing world market, the internationally experienced Canadian distilling concern of Hiram Walker Gooderham & Worts acquired Ballantine's in 1937. The next year the company received the Grant of Heraldic Arms featured on their bottles, recognising George Ballantine & Son as an "incorporation noble on the Noblesse of Scotland".


title: Ballantine's

text: The new owners' first task was to secure fillings, to which end the Miltonduff and Glenburgie Distilleries were purchased, and a massive new grain distillery – the largest in Europe – built at Dumbarton.


title: Ballantine's

text: During the 1960s the company turned to Europe - at that time an unexplored market for Scotch whisky – and by 1965 had secured such a strong foothold there that it resolved to gear the home trade to supporting the overseas business.


title: Ballantine's

text: Strong distribution and the popularity of Scotch whisky in the mid-1980s were key influencers in growth. Ballantine's was named the number one brand in Europe and the third largest in the world in 1986 with the oldest product Ballantine's Finest. In Korea, Ballantine's is the clear number one in the super-premium category with its ever-popular Ballantine's 17 in addition to 21 and 30. In 1988, the Company became part of the global beverage conglomerate Allied Domecq.


title: Ballantine's

text: In 2002 the large Dumbarton Grain distillery was mothballed, with production shifting to the Strathclyde Grain distillery in the Gorbals of Glasgow. In 2005 Ballantine's was acquired by Pernod Ricard. Ballantines still maintain a large bonded warehouse complex in Dumbarton East and a bottling plant to the North of the town.


title: Ballantine's

text: In 2006, Sandy Hyslop was appointed as Ballantine's Master Blender – the 5th Master Blender in Ballantine's 180-year history.


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: Certified Management Accountant (CMA) is a professional certification credential in the management accounting and financial management fields. The certification signifies that the person possesses knowledge in the areas of financial planning, analysis, control, decision support, and professional ethics. There are many professional bodies globally that have management accounting professional qualifications. The main bodies that offer the CMA certification are:


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: Since the Canadian body merged with the CPA Canada in September 2015, there are only 2 global bodies that offer the CMA certification, IMA (USA) and ICMA (Australia). However, the certification pathways for the two bodies – in terms of entry requirements, study syllabi and experience requirements are very different and will be explored next.


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: The U.S. based Institute of Management Accountants USA is one of the two global bodies that offers the CMA Certification. Only authorized partners of IMA can provide coaching to students for CMA USA. CMA (USA)-certified professionals work inside organizations of all sizes, industries, and types, including manufacturing and services, public and private enterprises, not-for-profit organizations, academic institutions, Government entities (USA), and multinational corporations worldwide. To obtain certification, candidates must pass a rigorous exam, meet an educational requirement, experience requirement, and demonstrate a commitment to continuous learning through continuing professional education (CPE).


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: Prior to 2010, the CMA exam was organized into four parts: Business Analysis, Management Accounting and Reporting, Strategic Management and Decision Analysis. Since 2010, the exam has been condensed into two four-hour parts, covering largely the same material as the former four part exam with added emphasis on financial planning, analysis, control, and decision support.


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: Each exam consists of descriptive questions and two 30-minute essay questions. Candidates are given 3 hours to complete the multiple choice section and one hour to complete the essays. Candidates must show their work for the essay questions in order to receive credit. Parts 1 and 2 of the CMA exam are scored on a scale of 0–500 with a candidate's raw score converted to a uniform scaled score against all exam candidates. On this scale, a score of 360 represents the minimum passing scaled score.


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: In addition to successfully passing the exams, CMA candidates must fulfill education and experience requirements in order to be certified:


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: 2. Two continuous years of professional experience employing the principles of management accounting and financial management including:


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: 3. For certified CMAs, 30 hours of CPE credits, including two hours of ethics, and annual IMA Membership are required to maintain active status.


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: The Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA) is an Australian organisation operating globally, focused on management accounting. A management accountant applies his or her professional knowledge and skill in the preparation and presentation of financial and other decision-oriented information in such a way as to assist management in the formulation of policies and in the planning and control of the operation of the undertaking.


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: Management Accountants therefore are seen as the "value-creators" amongst the accountants. They are much more interested in forward looking and taking decisions that will affect the future of the organization, than in the historical recording and compliance (scorekeeping) aspects of the profession. Management accounting knowledge and experience can therefore be obtained from varied fields and functions within an organization, such as information management, treasury, efficiency auditing, marketing, valuation, pricing, logistics, etc.


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: ICMA (Australia) is committed to scholarship and quality education at the lowest possible cost to its students. The educational objectives of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA) are therefore to further the development of management accounting education in the universities and business schools of Australia and Internationally, to encourage research into the application of management accounting theory and practice, and to provide continuing professional development for its members.


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: In order to achieve the above objectives, the following educational programmes have been implemented by the institute.


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: These certifications are only open to degree holders. Those holding an accounting/finance degree (or equivalent professional qualification) are exempt from all four stages of the Technician-level program and can advance directly to the CMA program. Those holding a non-accounting/finance degree or professional qualification need to undertake a Graduate Conversion program (Stage 4) prior to undertaking the CMA program


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: Students who have obtained a non-accounting degree, or are full members of recognized professional non-accounting bodies (e.g., Chartered Institute of Marketing) would have satisfied the broad educational objectives to enrol in the Graduate Conversion programme -which is to complete Stage 4 of the GMA programme prior to undertaking the CMA program. A student completing the Graduate Conversion programme is eligible to join as a Graduate Management Accountant (GMA).


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: A student completing the Graduate Management Accountant (GMA) program and having 3 years or more of business experience is eligible to join as an Associate Management Accountant (AMA). Such students can enrol for the post-graduate level CMA program at any time; but must successfully complete this program and also accumulate 5-years of business experience to be eligible to join as a Certified Management Accountant (CMA).


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: The CMA program from Australia is designed as the first post-graduate level management accounting qualification in the world. There are other unique aspects to ICMA's Education program. It was the first professional body in the world to embed its CMA subjects within master's degree programs in accredited universities; and allow those universities to examine students internally.


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: The CMA Preparatory Program is only open to those with a university degree in accounting or finance; or an MBA, or a recognised professional qualification in accounting/finance. Those not meeting these entry criteria need to complete the Graduate Management Accountant (GMA) or GMA Conversion program first.


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: [A student must obtain a 50% pass grade, in the final assessment to pass the subject. Students obtaining less than 50% in the final assessment would Fail the subject.]


title: Certified Management Accountant

text: In addition to passing the two subjects, one needs to have 5-years of business experience to qualify as a Certified Management Accountant (CMA).


title: Steve Smith (American musician)

text: Steven Bruce Smith (born August 21, 1954) is an American drummer best known as a member of the rock band Journey across three tenures. "Modern Drummer" magazine readers have voted him the No. 1 All-Around Drummer five years in a row. In 2001, the publication named Smith one of the Top 25 Drummers of All Time, and in 2002 he was voted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Journey on April 7, 2017.


title: Steve Smith (American musician)

text: Smith received his first drum kit at age two and in 1963 he began taking formal lessons with local Boston area drum teacher Bill Flanagan, who played in big bands in the swing era. Smith got his first "real" drum set when he was 12 years old. On many nights, Steve could be heard practicing in a small shed in the backyard of his Harvard Street home. Smith performed in the usual school band program and garage bands while in his teens, including Clyde, a South Shore sensation, but also began to broaden his performing experience by playing in a professional concert band and the big band at local Bridgewater State College.


title: Steve Smith (American musician)

text: He graduated from high school in 1972, and at 19 he joined the Lin Biviano Big Band, playing with them for two years. After high school, Smith attended the Berklee College of Music and studied with Alan Dawson. In the early 1990s, he studied with Freddie Gruber. He recorded and toured with jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty in 1977–78. He was the drummer on the Focus album "Focus con Proby" (1978) and played with Ronnie Montrose. From 1978 to 1985, he was the drummer for the rock band Journey. He left the band in 1985 but returned in 1995 for the band's comeback album "Trial by Fire". In the interim, he played with Journey offshoot The Storm. In 2015, he rejoined Journey again, but was terminated from the group (along with bassist Ross Valory) in March, 2020.


title: Steve Smith (American musician)

text: Since 1977, Smith has led his own jazz group, Vital Information. Drummer Neil Peart of Rush invited him in 1994 to perform on "", a tribute album to Buddy Rich, who inspired both drummers. Smith recorded the song "Nutville" and was invited for the sequel tribute album, "", for which he recorded "Moment's Notice". He recorded two albums with Buddy's Buddies, a quintet composed of musicians who played with Rich. In 2007, Smith and Buddy's Buddies were renamed Steve Smith's Jazz Legacy. The band pays tribute to many great jazz drummers in addition to Buddy Rich. In 1989, Smith headlined the Buddy Rich Memorial Scholarship Concert held in New York City, performing a duet with drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith. Smith released two albums, "Very Live at Ronnie Scott's Set One & Set Two", for Tone Center, recorded at Ronnie Scott's club in London.


title: Steve Smith (American musician)

text: In 2001 "Modern Drummer" magazine named Smith one of the Top 25 Drummers of All Time. During the following year, he was voted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame. In 2003, his DVD "Steve Smith Drumset Technique – History of the U.S. Beat" was voted the No. 1 Educational DVD of the year.


title: Steve Smith (American musician)

text: He has worked as a session musician for Mariah Carey, Andrea Bocelli, Elisa, Vasco Rossi, Zucchero, Savage Garden, Bryan Adams, Zakir Hussain and Sandip Burman. Additionally, he has played with jazz musicians such as Steps Ahead, Wadada Leo Smith, Tom Coster, Ahmad Jamal, Dave Liebman, Larry Coryell, Victor Wooten, Mike Stern, Randy Brecker, Scott Henderson, Frank Gambale, Stuart Hamm, Dweezil Zappa, Anthony Jackson, Aydın Esen, Torsten de Winkel, George Brooks, Michael Zilber, Steve Marcus, Andy Fusco, Kai Eckhardt, Lee Musiker, Howard Levy, Oteil Burbridge, Jerry Goodman, Tony MacAlpine, Hiromi Uehara and Bill Evans.


title: Steve Smith (American musician)

text: Smith endorses Sonor drums, Remo drumheads, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth drumsticks and Drum Workshop hardware and bass drum pedals.


title: Hans Raj Hans

text: Hans Raj Hans is an Indian singer who later became a politician. He is a member of Bharatiya Janata Party and a recipient of the civilian honour of Padma Shri.


title: Hans Raj Hans

text: He sings Punjabi folk and Sufi music as well as in movies and has also released his own 'Punjabi-pop' albums. He has worked alongside other artists, such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in the movie "Kachche Dhaage".


title: Hans Raj Hans

text: Hans Raj Hans was born in the village of Shafipur, near to Jalandhar, Punjab, India. Hans did his graduation from DAV College, Jalandhar.


title: Hans Raj Hans

text: As a youth, Hans learned from music director Charanjit Ahuja. Then he started singing Punjabi folk, devotional and Sufi music. He worked with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, in the movie "Kachche Dhaage".


title: Hans Raj Hans

text: Hans joined the Shiromani Akali Dal party in January 2009 and in May of that year, he contested the Jalandhar, Punjab, India constituency.


title: Hans Raj Hans

text: He joined Bharatiya Janata Party on 10 December 2016. He defeated and replaced Udit Raj as the candidate representing North West Delhi in the 2019 Indian general election.


title: Bun

text: A bun is a type of bread roll, typically filled with savory fillings (for example hamburger). A bun may also refer to a sweet cake in certain parts of the world. Though they come in many shapes and sizes, buns are most commonly round, and are generally hand-sized or smaller.


title: Bun

text: In the United Kingdom, the usage of the term differs greatly in different regions. In Southern England, a bun is a hand-sized sweet cake, while in the north of Ireland and Northern England, it is a small round of ordinary bread.


title: Bun

text: Buns are usually made from a dough of flour, milk, yeast and small amounts of sugar and/or butter. Sweet bun dough is distinguished from bread dough by being enriched with sugar, butter and sometimes egg. Common sweet varieties contain small fruit or nuts, topped with icing or caramel, and filled with jam or cream.


title: Nudity and protest

text: Nudity is sometimes used as a tactic during a protest to attract media and public attention to a cause, and sometimes promotion of public nudity is itself the objective of a nude protest. The use of the tactic goes back to well published photos of nude protests by "svobodniki" in Canada in 1903. The tactic has been used by other groups later in the century, especially after the 1960s. Like public nudity in general, the cultural and legal acceptance of nudity as a tactic in protest also varies around the world. Some opponents of any public nudity claim that it is indecent, especially when it can be viewed by children; while others argue that it is a legitimate form of expression covered by the right to free speech.


title: Nudity and protest

text: Even in places where public nudity is tolerated, it is still unexpected enough that its use by activists as a deliberate tactic is often successful in attracting publicity from the media. For example, on July 19, 2020, a young woman wearing only a face mask and stocking cap, later dubbed "Naked Athena" by reporters, confronted police in Portland, Oregon, during George Floyd protests. Despite the deployment of pepper balls and tear gas, she posed for police for several minutes before they withdrew. Photographs of her action went viral.


title: Nudity and protest

text: Some nude activism is not to promote a particular cause, but rather to promote public nudity itself, or to change community perceptions of the naked human body, or as an expression of a personal desire to be nude in public.


title: Nudity and protest

text: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has used nudity to draw attention to its anti-fur campaign. Between 1992 and 2020, PETA ran their "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" campaign featuring celebrities, actors and models. In 2020, PETA discontinued the campaign after a majority of fashion houses and high street stores stopped using fur.


title: Nudity and protest

text: On 29 June 2016, Cambridge academic, Victoria Bateman walked into a meeting of the Faculty of Economics while naked in protest against the results of the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. She had written on her breasts and stomach "Brexit leaves Britain naked".


title: Nudity and protest

text: Groups used nudity to protest the Iraq War. Groups using their bodies to form words and symbols to convey their message included Baring Witness.


title: Nudity and protest

text: In some parts of Africa, women have used stripping naked on purpose as a curse, both historically, and in modern times. The idea is that women give life and they can take it away. The curse initiates an extreme form of ostracism, which anthropologist Terisa Turner has likened to "social execution". The curse extends to foreign men as well, and is believed to cause impotence, madness or other similar harm. The threat has been used successfully in mass protests against the petroleum industry in Nigeria, by Leymah Gbowee and Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace during the Second Liberian Civil War, and against President Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast. In 2002 in Nigeria, members of the Niger Delta Women for Justice occupied a platform for oil extraction run by ChevronTexaco in order to protest against negative consequences of oil extraction and missing labor rights. When the military arrived to remove the protestors, the women threatened the soldiers to naked curse them. The soldiers did not touch the women.


title: Nudity and protest

text: A group of about 16 women bared their buttocks and stormed into the offices of the African National Congress (ANC) in Tshwane. The women were protesting against the outcome of an ANC Tshwane branch general meeting. The women claimed bouncers, armed with pangas and firearms, stormed the meeting and stopped them from participating in the voting process to elect the new branch committee.


title: Nudity and protest

text: To demand fuller implementation of the United States legislation Title IX, the 1976 Yale University women's rowing team held a naked protest. Pointing attention to their inadequate training facilities were more than a dozen team members, including Christine Ernst, Anne Warner and Ginny Gilder.


title: Nudity and protest

text: In November 2011, a transgender woman from Morristown, Tennessee was arrested and jailed for 21 days for indecent exposure after removing her top in the parking lot of her local department of motor vehicles after they refused to alter the gender designation on her driver's license from male to female. This was despite the fact that the U.S. federal government Social Security office already had done so. As it is legal for a man to go topless in public and since the Tennessee Department of Public Safety refused to recognise her as female, Ms. Jones decided to protest her treatment by going topless, stating "if I was a male, I had the right to, when I stepped out the door, take off my shirt... It's not right for the state to ask me to be both male and female. A choice needs to be made. They cannot hold me to both standards."


title: Nudity and protest

text: In June 2017 more than 100 women stripped naked in front of the president's palace, Casa Rosada, in Buenos Aires, Argentina to protest against violence against women.


title: Nudity and protest

text: Following the Arab Spring in the early 2010s, women in Islamic counties made personal protests opposing the restrictions on their freedom by posting nude photographs of themselves on the internet. Aliaa Magda Elmahdy an Egyptian and Amina Tyler from Tunisia fled to Europe to escape legal and religious threats.


title: Nudity and protest

text: On 8 February 2017 artist Rick Gibson walked naked in front of the Vancouver Law Courts in the middle of winter to protest Canada's ban of genetic engineering of the human genome. He walked nude in downtown Vancouver for 11 minutes, 45.75 seconds in a light rain and a temperature of .


title: Nudity and protest

text: Not all people who engage in public nudity see themselves as nudists or naturists or belong to traditional naturist or nudist organizations. Several activists, such as Vincent Bethell, claim that associations with naturism or nudism are unnecessary. Others will point out that many people who participate in events such as clothing-optional bike rides or visit clothing-optional beaches do so casually and without association or formal affiliation to groups or movements. Activist Daniel Johnson believes that labels and affiliations overly complicate a relatively simple phenomenon, alienate others from a fear of over-commitment or undesirable stereotypes, and thus get in the way of integrating nudity into everyday life.


title: Nudity and protest

text: World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) is an international clothing-optional bike ride in which participants plan, meet and ride together "en masse" on human-powered transport (the vast majority on bicycles, and fewer on skateboards, rollerblades, roller skates) to "protest oil dependency and celebrate the power and individuality of our bodies". This represents one of the few events that combine elements that could be described as pro nudity and pro cycling (as well as environmental).


title: Nudity and protest

text: Many of the political rides have their roots from Critical Mass and are often described or categorized as a form of political protest, street theatre, party-on-wheels, streaking, public nudity and clothing-optional recreation and thus attracts a wide range of participants. Since 1996 Critical Tits has been hosting a "raucous topless bicycle joyride" on Friday afternoon at the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada.


title: Nudity and protest

text: The Spanish movement, Manifestación Ciclonudista Mundial has had rides predating WNBR (since 2001) and has since spread to other countries in Europe.


title: Nudity and protest

text: The protest group FEMEN (founded in 2008 in Ukraine) regularly stages topless protests against sex tourists, international marriage agencies, sexism and other social ills. These protests received worldwide press coverage in 2009. Since late 2011 FEMEN operations became not limited to Ukraine and they have demonstrated in other European countries including non-Ukrainian protesters. FEMEN justifies its provocative methods stating "If we staged simple protests with banners, then our claims would not have been noticed". FEMEN receives small financial backing by individuals. In January 2012, three members of the group staged a topless protest at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In October 2013 FEMEN had its largest membership in France (30 FEMEN France local activists in January 2013). In October 2012 the organization claimed it had about 40 activists in Ukraine, and another 100 who had joined their protests abroad.


title: Nudity and protest

text: A group led by Avril X called UrbaNudismo has led several casual nudity excursions in high visibility public urban environments in Brazil as well as some Western European countries.


title: Nudity and protest

text: In 1969, in Denmark, 300 individuals participated in a naked "wade-in" at a Danish beach, which helped push forward a reform of public policy. It is now allowable to be naked at any public beach in Denmark with only two major exceptions: Holmsland Klit and Hennestrand. The remaining 4,700 kilometers of Danish coast are clothing-optional.


title: Nudity and protest

text: The short-lived Naturist Lifestyle Party in New South Wales, Australia, aimed "to bring naturism into the public eye, and to get an equitable allocation of public resources to those who support the naturist lifestyle." Gerald Ganglbauer convened Free Beach Action NSW, a lobby group for naturism in New South Wales.


title: Nudity and protest

text: Robbert Broekstra (now deceased) was involved in a group called "Friends of Nature". They would often go for naked excursions on public lands, sometimes in urban areas, often taking pictures. He was also involved in INIC (International Naturist Information Center). He authored the book "Robbert Broekstra's Nude World" and his group appeared in "Naked Travels 1", by Charles MacFarland.


title: Nudity and protest

text: The Freedom to be Yourself campaign (TFTBY or FTBY) was founded in 1998 by Vincent Bethell. The group, according to Bethell is about "the right to be naked in public". Supporters of TFTBY organized several grassroots naked protests in public in London; protests also took place in Brighton, Bristol, Birmingham, Coventry, and some in the United States.


title: Nudity and protest

text: Terri Sue Webb is an activist living in Bend, Oregon, who was one of few activists in the United States active in the TFTBY campaign. She has been imprisoned and released multiple times for public nudity. On several occasions she has remained nude while incarcerated, often resulting in a much longer jail sentence. There has been quite a bit of media coverage of her activities. Daniel Johnson went nude with her in public on two occasions in 2001 and 2002.


title: Nudity and protest

text: Vincent Bethell made legal history in January 2001 by being the first defendant to stand trial naked in a UK court. The trial was at Southwark Crown Court London. Vincent was naked throughout this court case, and was found not guilty. Stephen Gough, also known as "Steve Gough" and "the naked rambler", is an activist from Eastleigh, Hampshire, famous for walking the length of Great Britain from Land's End to John o' Groats in 2003–2004 and again in 2005–2006 (that year accompanied by his girlfriend Melanie Roberts), with nothing on except boots, socks, rucksack and sometimes a hat. He has been arrested several times and put in prison in the course of his rambles. In his last walk he was only arrested twice in England, and released almost immediately, but due to the different legal system and laws in Scotland, he was arrested many more times after crossing the border and spent time in HMP Edinburgh, then moved to HMP Barlinnie Glasgow in June 2008.


title: Nudity and protest

text: Richard Collins has been cycling naked through his home town of Cambridge, England for some time. He has been organizing several protests on the TFTBY Stop Segregation discussion group (no longer in existence). Richard has been arrested numerous times and released, although he was convicted of an offence under section 5, Public Order Act 1986, in Bournemouth, England, on 13 June after his nude cycling attracted complaints approximately 12 months earlier. Richard says: "My outings are NOT protests as such but 'activities'. Simply me having fun! And exercising my right to nude freedom!"


title: Nudity and protest

text: The topfreedom movement has challenged the law in a number of countries, especially in North America and in Europe, on sex equality grounds arguing that the present public indecency laws discriminate against women. The movement advocates equal rights for women to be topfree in the same circumstances that a man is permitted to be bare-chested.


title: Nudity and protest

text: The Topfree Equal Rights Association (TERA) is a Canadian organization which endeavors to assist women who are having legal troubles exercising their rights to be topfree. Their website states that they serve both Canada and the United States. The organization also aims to inform and educate the public about topfreedom, and to change laws against topfreedom in North American jurisdictions. GoTopless goes further and organizes demonstrations to protest against the legal and public attitude to the inequality. In Sweden, Bara Bröst is active in advancing topfreedom, as is Topless Front in Denmark. In France, the feminist collective Les TumulTueuses has the slogan: "My body if I want, when I want, like it is" ("Mon corps si je veux, quand je veux, tel qu'il est").


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: The Siege of Khartoum (also known as the Battle of Khartoum or Fall of Khartoum) occurred from 13 March 1884 to 26 January 1885. Sudanese Mahdist forces captured the city of Khartoum from its Egyptian garrison, thereby gaining control over the whole of Sudan.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: Egypt had controlled Sudan since 1820, but had itself come under British domination in 1882. In 1881, the Mahdist Revolt began in Sudan, led by Muhammad Ahmad who claimed to be the Mahdi. The Egyptian army was unable to suppress the revolt, being defeated in several battles and retreating to their garrisons. The British refused to send a military force to the area, instead appointing Charles George Gordon as Governor-General of Sudan, with orders to evacuate Khartoum and the other garrisons. Gordon arrived in Khartoum in February 1884, where he found it impossible to reach the other garrisons which were already besieged. Rather than evacuating immediately, Gordon began to fortify the city, which was cut off when the local tribes switched their support to the Mahdi. Approximately 7,000 Egyptian troops and 27,000 (mostly Sudanese) civilians were besieged in Khartoum by 30,000 Mahdist warriors, rising to 50,000 by the end of the siege.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: Attempts by the defenders to break out of the city failed. Food supplies began to run out; they had been expected to last six months, but the siege went on for ten, so the garrison and civilian population began to starve. After months of public pressure, the British government reluctantly agreed to send troops to relieve the siege. With the relief column approaching, the Mahdists launched a night assault on Khartoum. They broke through the defences and killed the entire garrison, including Gordon. A further 4,000 male civilians were killed, while many women and children were enslaved. The relief expedition arrived two days later; realising they were too late, they withdrew from Sudan. The Mahdi then founded a religious state in Sudan, the Mahdiyah which would last for fourteen years.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: The Khedivate of Egypt was nominally a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, but came under British military occupation during the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War, making it a "de facto" British protectorate. Egypt was mostly left to govern itself under the Khedive, including in its possession of Sudan, which the British regarded as a domestic Egyptian matter.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: A revolt had begun in Sudan in 1881, when Muhammad Ahmad claimed to be the mahdi – the redeemer of Islam prophesied in the hadith scriptures. This Mahdist revolt was supported by many in Sudan, both for religious reasons and due to a desire for independence from Egypt.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: The Egyptian Army attempted to suppress the revolt, but were defeated by the Mahdists in November 1883 at the Battle of El Obeid. The Mahdi's forces captured the Egyptians' equipment and overran large parts of Sudan, including Darfur and Kordofan. However Egypt still maintained several strong garrisons in Sudan, including at Khartoum.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: The defeat brought the Mahdi Revolt to the attention of the British government and public. The British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, and his War Secretary, Lord Hartington, did not want British troops to become involved in Sudan. If Egypt fought the war itself, they were concerned that the expense would prevent Egypt from paying the interest on its extensive debts to Britain (and France). The British put pressure on the Egyptian government to evacuate all their garrisons in Sudan, abandoning it to the Mahdists. The British soldier Major-General Charles George Gordon, a former Governor-General of Sudan (1876–79), was re-appointed to that post, with orders to conduct the evacuation.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: Gordon's views on Sudan were radically different from Gladstone's: Gordon felt that the Mahdi's rebellion had to be defeated before it gained control of the whole of Sudan. The Mahdi claimed dominion over the entire Islamic world, which led Gordon to believe that the revolt would not end with control of Sudan, but would attempt to conquer Egypt and perhaps the wider region. Gordon was also concerned by the fragility of the Egyptian army, which had suffered several defeats by the Sudanese. Gordon favoured a more aggressive policy in Sudan, as did the imperialist author Sir Samuel Baker and Sir Garnet Wolseley, who had commanded British forces in the 1882 war. Gordon published his views on Sudan in "The Times" in January 1884.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: Despite this, Gordon was commanded to evacuate Sudan, which he agreed to do. He was given funds of £100,000 in credit and was promised "all support and cooperation in their power" by the British and Egyptian authorities. On his way to Khartoum with his assistant, Colonel John Stewart, Gordon stopped in the town of Berber, Sudan to address an assembly of tribal chiefs. There he made a major mistake, by revealing that the Egyptian government planned to withdraw their troops from Sudan. The tribesmen became worried by this news, which caused their loyalty to waver.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: Gordon arrived at Khartoum on 18 February 1884, finding it was safely occupied by a garrison of 7,000 Egyptian troops and 27,000 civilians. However three smaller garrisons, at Sennar, Tokar and Sinkat, were under siege by the Mahdists. Rather than evacuating Khartoum immediately, Gordon declared his intention to extricate the other garrisons, and set about administering Sudan. His first actions were to reverse several policies introduced by the Egyptians since he had last been Governor-General five years earlier: arbitrary imprisonments were cancelled, torture was halted and its instruments were destroyed, and taxes were remitted. To enlist the support of the population, Gordon re-legalised slavery in Sudan, despite having (unsuccessfully) attempted to abolish it in his previous term. This decision was popular in Khartoum, but caused controversy in Britain.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: Seeking to bolster Khartoum's defences, Gordon then attempted to secure reinforcements. He requested a regiment of Turkish soldiers from the Ottomans, who were still the nominal overlords, which was rebuffed. He then asked the British for a unit of Muslim Indian troops, and later for 200 native British soldiers. These were also refused by the Gladstone cabinet, which was still intent upon evacuation and adamant they would make no military intervention in Sudan.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: Gordon began to resent the government's policy, and his telegrams to the British office in Cairo became more acrimonious. He declared himself honour-bound to rescue the garrisons and defend the Sudanese in Khartoum; it is unclear whether this was a deliberate attempt to delay the evacuation (or avoid it entirely). On 8 April he wrote: "I leave you with the indelible disgrace of abandoning the garrisons" and added that such a course would be "the climax of meanness".


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: Knowing that the Mahdists were closing in, Gordon ordered the strengthening of the fortifications around Khartoum. The city was protected to the north by the Blue Nile and to the west by the White Nile. To defend the river banks, he formed a flotilla of gunboats from nine small paddle-wheel steamers, which had been used for communication along the river, by fitting them with guns and metal plates for armour. In the southern part of the town, which faced the open desert, he prepared an elaborate system of trenches, makeshift Fougasse-type land mines, and wire entanglements. The surrounding country was controlled by the Shagia tribe, which were thought to be hostile to the Mahdi.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: On 16 March Gordon launched a unsuccessful sortie from Khartoum, with 200 Egyptian troops dying in the fighting. By early April 1884, the tribes north of Khartoum had risen in support of the Mahdi, including those Gordon had met at Berber. The tribesmen intercepted river traffic on the Nile and cut the telegraph cables to Cairo. Communications were not entirely halted, as individual messengers could still get through, but this effectively began the siege of Khartoum. The city could rely only on its own food stores, which were expected to last five or six months. By this time, the combined forces besieging Khartoum and the other garrisons were over 30,000 men.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: From April onwards, Khartoum was cut off. With no supply of money to pay the troops or facilitate trade of food, Gordon used his credit to issue a series of promissory notes, a form of siege money. Communication with Cairo was maintained through couriers, who took several days to make the trip. Gordon also contacted the Mahdi, who rejected his attempts to negotiate a peaceful evacuation. As the siege dragged on, food stores dwindled and starvation began to set in, for both the garrison and the civilian population.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: In September, the besieged forces in Khartoum made an attempt to reach the garrison at Sennar; the expedition made it out of the siege lines but was defeated by the Mahdists at Al Aylafuh, with the loss of 800 garrison troops. By the end of the month, the Mahdi moved most of his army to Khartoum, away from the outlying garrisons, more than doubling the number around the city. On of 10 September 1884, the civilian population inside Khartoum was about 34,000.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: Gordon's plight excited great concern in the British press, and even Queen Victoria intervened on his behalf. The government ordered Gordon to return to Cairo, alone if necessary, but he refused, saying he would not abandon the city. In July 1884, Gladstone reluctantly agreed to send an expedition to relieve Khartoum. The relief force, 1400 British troops led by Sir Garnet Wolseley, took several months to organise and did not enter Sudan until January 1885.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: By then the situation in Khartoum had become desperate. Food supplies had been expected to last six months, but the siege had gone on for ten months. With supplies running low, many inhabitants died of hunger, and the defenders' morale plummeted.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: As they advanced into Sudan, the relief expedition was attacked at the Battle of Abu Klea on 17 January. Although the Mahdists managed to break their infantry square, the British troops managed to recover and repel the attack. Two days later, the relief force was attacked again at the Battle of Abu Kru but managed to drive off the Mahdists. The Mahdi, aware of the British advance, decided to assault Khartoum before they could arrive.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: On the night of 25–26 January an estimated 50,000 Mahdists attacked the city wall just before midnight. The Mahdists took advantage of the seasonally low level of the Nile, which allowed them to ford the river on foot. The details of the final assault are unclear, but hearsay accounts were that by 3:30 am, the Mahdists had outflanked the city wall where it met the Nile. Meanwhile another force, led by Al Nujumi, broke down the Massalamieh Gate, despite taking casualties from the land mines and barbed wire obstacles laid out by Gordon's men. The defending garrison, weakened by starvation and low morale, offered only patchy resistance. Within a few hours, the garrison were slaughtered to the last man, as were 4,000 of the town's male inhabitants. Many women and children were enslaved by the victorious Mahdists.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: Accounts differ as to how Gordon was killed. According to one version, when Mahdist warriors broke into the governor's palace, Gordon came outside in full uniform and disdained to fight; he was then killed with a spear, despite orders from the Mahdi to capture Gordon alive. In another version, Gordon was recognised by Mahdists while attempting to reach the neutral Austrian consulate in the city, who shot him dead in the street.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: The most detailed account of his death was given by his servant Khaleel Aga Orphali, when debriefed by the British in 1898 (13 years later). According to Orphali, Gordon died fighting on the stairs leading from the first to the ground floor of the west wing of the palace. Gordon was seriously wounded by a spear that hit him in the left shoulder, but continued fighting with Orphali beside him. Orphali stated that:"With his life's blood pouring from his breast [...] he fought his way step by step, kicking from his path the wounded and dead dervishes [...] and as he was passing through the doorway leading into the courtyard, another concealed dervish almost severed his right leg with a single blow. Orphali claimed he was then knocked unconscious, waking unharmed several hours later to find Gordon's decapitated body near to him.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: However he died, Gordon's head was taken to the city of Omdurman, the Mahdi's headquarters, where it was shown to Rudolf Carl von Slatin (a prisoner of the Mahdi who had worked for Gordon during his first term in Sudan). After it was shown to Slatin, the head was brought to the Mahdi. According to some sources, the rest of Gordon's body was dumped in the Nile.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: Advance elements of the relief expedition arrived within sight of Khartoum two days after it fell. After discovering that they were too late, the surviving British and Egyptian troops withdrew. The Mahdi was left in control of the entire country, with the exceptions of the city of Suakin on the Red Sea coast and the Nile town of Wadi Halfa on the Sudan-Egyptian border, which were garrisoned by the Anglo-Egyptian force.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: After his victory, Muhammad Ahmad became the ruler of most parts of what is now Sudan and South Sudan. He established a religious state, the Mahdiyah, but died shortly afterwards in June 1885, possibly from typhoid. The state he founded passed to Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, his chosen successor.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: In the immediate aftermath of the Mahdist victory, the British press blamed Gordon's death on Gladstone, who was accused of being excessively slow to send relief to Khartoum. Gladstone had never wanted to get involved in Sudan and felt some sympathy for those Sudanese who sought to end Egyptian colonial rule. He declared in the House of Commons: "Yes, those people are struggling to be free, and they are rightly struggling to be free". Gordon's failure to conduct an immediate evacuation had not endeared him to Gladstone's government. However among the British public, Gordon was seen as a martyr and a hero. Gladstone was rebuked by Queen Victoria in a telegram, which was leaked to the public. The public outcry over Sudan soon weakened, firstly when press sensationalism of the events began to diminish, and secondly when the government announced that the war in Sudan had cost Britain £11.5 million from its military budget. Gladstone's government fell in June 1885; he regained power in December following the 1885 UK election, but lost it again in another election in 1886.


title: Siege of Khartoum

text: Fighting continued between Egypt and the Mahdists over the following years. Complex international events led to further European expansion into Africa, compelling the British to take a more active role in the conflict. The Anglo-Egyptian forces steadily regained their control over Sudan. In 1896, an expedition led by Herbert Kitchener (who had sworn to avenge Gordon) was sent to reconquer the whole country. On 2 September 1898, Kitchener's troops defeated the largest Mahdist army at the Battle of Omdurman. Two days later, a memorial service for Gordon was held in front of the ruins of the palace where he had died. Fourteen years after the Mahdist capture of Khartoum, the Mahdist Revolt was finally extinguished at the Battle of Umm Diwaykarat in November 1899.


title: Princess Raiyah bint Hussein

text: Princess Raiyah bint Hussein (; born 9 February 1986) is the younger daughter of King Hussein of Jordan and Queen Noor. She has two brothers, Hamzah and Hashem, as well as an elder sister, Princess Iman. She is a half-sister to King Abdullah II of Jordan.


title: Princess Raiyah bint Hussein

text: Princess Raiyah attended the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales and received her undergraduate degree in Japanese at the University of Edinburgh. She took a year abroad studying at Ritsumeikan University in Japan. She received a postgraduate degree in Japanese literature from Columbia University.


title: Princess Raiyah bint Hussein

text: Currently, Princess Raiyah is a graduate student studying a PhD in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures on "the reception of medieval warrior narratives in Japan and the Arab World and their impact upon the construction of national identities" at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).


title: Princess Raiyah bint Hussein

text: Princess Raiyah took part in official visits to Japan in 2007 and 2008, and accompanied King Abdullah II to the country in April 2009. In 2008, she formed part of a Jordanian delegation on an official visit with King Abdullah II to South Korea.


title: Princess Raiyah bint Hussein

text: On 5 November 2019, the court announced Princess Raiyah's engagement to British-born journalist Ned Donovan, son of writer Tessa Dahl and Patrick Donovan, maternal grandson of Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal, and paternal grandson of Francis Patrick Donovan and Maria Kozslik. His half-sister is the model Sophie Dahl, who is married to the singer Jamie Cullum.


title: Princess Raiyah bint Hussein

text: The pair married on 7 July 2020 in the United Kingdom with the permission of King Abdullah II, after their planned wedding in Jordan was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Princess Raiyah bint Hussein

text: Princess Raiyah is reportedly very close with Talulah Riley, who referred to Raiyah as “my brain twin and most beloved voice in the universe” in the acknowledgment section of one of her novels.