title: Religion in New Zealand

text: In the following decades, Christianity declined somewhat in percentage terms, mostly due to people declaring themselves as having no religion as well as by the growth of non-Christian religions. The five largest Christian denominations in 2001 remained the largest in 2006. The Catholic and Methodist denominations increased, but the Anglican denomination, the Presbyterian, Congregation and Reformed denomination, and undefined Christian denominations decreased. While smaller groups, there were larger percentage increases in affiliations with other Christian denominations between 2001 and 2006: Orthodox Christian religions increased by 37.8 percent, affiliation with Evangelical, Born Again and Fundamentalist religions increased by 25.6 percent, and affiliation with Pentecostal religions increased by 17.8 percent.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Despite strong affiliation to Christianity by New Zealanders throughout the country's history, church attendance in New Zealand has never been high compared to other Western nations. Research by the Bible Society of New Zealand in 2008 indicated that 15% of New Zealanders attend church at least once a week, and 20% attend at least once a month.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: According to the 2018 census, 10.1% identified as Catholic or Roman Catholic, 6.8% are Anglican, 6.6% are Undefined Christian, 5.2% are Presbyterian, 1.3% are Māori Christian, and 8.6% reported affiliation to other Christian groups.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Hinduism is the second largest religion in New Zealand after Christianity, with over 123,000 adherents according to the 2018 census, constituting 2.63% of the New Zealand population. The number of Hindus in New Zealand grew modestly after the 1990s when the immigration laws was changed.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Islam in New Zealand began with the arrival of Muslim Chinese gold prospectors in the 1870s. The first Islamic organisation in New Zealand, the New Zealand Muslim Association, was established in Auckland in 1950. 1960 saw the arrival of the first imam, Maulana Said Musa Patel, from Gujarat, India. Large-scale Muslim immigration began in the 1970s with the arrival of Fiji Indians, followed in the 1990s by refugees from various war-torn countries. In April 1979 the three regional Muslim organisations of Canterbury, Wellington and Auckland, joined together to create the only national Islamic body – the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand. Early in the 1990s many migrants were admitted under New Zealand's refugee quota, from war zones in Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Iraq. Since the 11 September attacks there was a spike in conversions to Islam among Maori prisoners in jail.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: In the 2018 census, 61,455 people, identified themselves as Muslim constituting 1.32% of the total population making it the third largest religion in the country.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in New Zealand, at 1.13% of the population. In 2007 the Fo Guang Shan Temple was opened in Auckland for the promotion of Humanistic Buddhism. It is the largest Buddhist temple in New Zealand.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Most of the Buddhists in New Zealand are migrants from Asia with significant New Zealanders converted to Buddhism ranging from 15,000-20,000.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: The history of Jewish people in New Zealand begins in the 1830s with the earliest known settler Joel Samuel Polack. Prominent New Zealand Jews in history include 19th-century Premier Julius Vogel and at least five Auckland mayors, including Dove-Myer Robinson, and a chief justice (Sir Michael Myers). Former Prime Minister John Key is of part Ashkenazi Jewish descent, although he did not practice Judaism.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: The Jewish population in New Zealand increased from 6,636 in the 2001 census to 6,867 in the 2013 census. However it decreased to 5,274 in the 2018 census, possibly because of security concerns by Jews over the "digital-first" online census format introduced that year.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: The majority of New Zealand Jews reside in Auckland and Wellington, though there is also a significant Jewish community in Dunedin which is believed to have the world's southernmost permanent synagogue. In 2018 census, 0.11% of the population identified as Jewish/Judaism.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: The first Baháʼí in the Antipodes was Englishwoman Dorothea Spinney who arrived in Auckland from New York in 1912. About 1913 there were two converts – Robert Felkin who had met 'Abdu'l-Bahá in London in 1911 and moved to New Zealand in 1912 and is considered a Baháʼí by 1914 and Margaret Stevenson who first heard of the religion in 1911 and by her own testimony was a Bahá'í in 1913. The first Baháʼí Spiritual Assembly In New Zealand was elected in 1926 and their first independent National Spiritual Assembly in 1957. By 1963 there were four Assemblies. In the 2006 census 0.07% of respondents, or 2,772 people, identified themselves as Baháʼí. In the 2018 census 0.05% of respondents, or 2,925 people, reported an affiliation to the Baháʼí Faith. There are some 45 local assemblies and smaller registered groups.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Traditional Māori religion – that is, the pre-European belief system of Māori people – was little modified in its essentials from that of their tropical Eastern Polynesian homeland, conceiving of everything, including natural elements and all living things, as connected by common descent through whakapapa or genealogy. Accordingly, all things were thought of as possessing a life force, or "mauri". Very few Māori still adhere to traditional Māori beliefs — 3,699 respondents to the 2018 census identified themselves as adhering to "Māori religions, beliefs and philosophies".


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Sikhs have been in New Zealand for more than a century, with the first arriving in Hamilton in the 1880s. There are now about 40,908 Sikhs in New Zealand, constituting 0.88% of the country's population. Sikhism is the fastest growing religion in New Zealand with the Sikh population in New Zealand having quadrupled since 2006 Sikhs have a strong presence in Auckland, and especially in South Auckland and Manukau, with the current National Party's Member of Parliament for Manukau Kanwal Singh Bakshi being a Sikh.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: There were thirteen gurdwaras (the Sikh place of worship) in New Zealand in 2010. The largest, Kalgidhar Sahib, is situated in Auckland at Takanini.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Although New Zealand is a largely secular country, religion finds a place in many cultural traditions. Major Christian events like Christmas and Easter are official public holidays and are celebrated by religious and non-religious alike, as in many countries around the world. The country's national anthem, God Defend New Zealand, mentions God in both its name and its lyrics. There has been occasional controversy over the degree of separation of church and state, for example the practice of prayer and religious instruction at school assemblies.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: The architectural landscape of New Zealand attests to the historical importance of Christianity in New Zealand with church buildings prominent in cities, towns and the countryside. Notable Cathedrals include the Anglican Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland, ChristChurch Cathedral, Christchurch and Saint Paul's Cathedral, Wellington and the Catholic St Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland, Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Hamilton, Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Palmerston North, Sacred Heart Cathedral, Wellington, Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Christchurch, St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin. The iconic Futuna Chapel was built as a Wellington retreat center for the Catholic Marist order in 1961. The design by Maori architect John Scott, fuses Modernist and indigenous design principles.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Christian and Maori choral traditions have been blended in New Zealand to produce a distinct contribution to Christian music, including the popular hymns Whakaria Mai and Tama Ngakau Marie. From 1992 to 2014 New Zealand hosted one of the largest Christian music festivals in the Southern Hemisphere, the Parachute Music Festival.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Religion has played and continues to play a 'significant and sometimes controversial role' in the politics of New Zealand. Most New Zealanders today consider politicians' religious beliefs to be a private matter.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Former Prime Ministers John Key and Helen Clark were agnostic, as is current prime minister Jacinda Ardern.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: A large number of New Zealand prime ministers have been professing Christians, including Jenny Shipley, Jim Bolger, Geoffrey Palmer, David Lange, Robert Muldoon, Walter Nash, Keith Holyoake, and Michael Joseph Savage. Former Prime Minister Bill English is Catholic and has argued that religious groups should contribute to political discourse.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Sir Paul Reeves, Anglican Archbishop and Primate of New Zealand from 1980 to 1985, was appointed Governor-General from 1985 to 1990.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Murray Smith was a member of the New Zealand Parliament from 1972 to 1975. His interest in governance continued when he later enrolled in the Bahá’í Faith and contributed in national and international roles within the Bahá'í Community.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Christian political parties have usually not gained significant support, a notable exception being the Christian Coalition (New Zealand) polling 4.4% in the 1996 general election. Christian parties have often been characterised by controversy and public disgrace. Many of these are now defunct, such as the Christian Democrat Party, the Christian Heritage Party which discontinued in 2006 after former leader Graham Capill was convicted as a child sex offender, Destiny New Zealand, The Family Party and the New Zealand Pacific Party whose leader, former Labour Party MP Taito Phillip Field was convicted on bribery and corruption charges. United Future was more successful, and although not a Christian party, had significant Christian backing.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: The two main political parties, Labour and National, are not religious, although religious groups have at times played a significant role (e.g. the Rātana Movement). Politicians are often involved in public dialogue with religious groups. The Exclusive Brethren gained public notoriety during the 2005 election for distributing anti-Labour pamphlets, which former National Party leader Don Brash later admitted to knowledge of.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: At the discussions leading to the Treaty of Waitangi Governor Hobson made a statement (albeit one which had no particular legal or constitutional significance) in defence of freedom of religion—sometimes called the 'fourth' article. In 2007, the government issued a National Statement on Religious Diversity containing in its first clause "New Zealand has no official or established religion." The statement caused controversy in some quarters, opponents citing that New Zealand's head of state, then Queen Elizabeth II, is required to be the supreme governor of the Church of England. However, Elizabeth II did not act in that capacity as the Queen of New Zealand. A poll of 501 New Zealanders in June 2007 found that 58% of respondents did not think Christianity should be New Zealand's official religion.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: There has been increasing recognition of Māori spirituality in political discourse and even in certain government legislation. In July 2001 MP Rodney Hide alerted parliament to a state funded "hikitapu" ("tapu"-lifting) ceremony at the opening of the foreign embassy in Bangkok. It was revealed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade had a standard policy of employing Māori ritual experts for the opening of official offices around the world. The Resource Management Act 1991 recognises the role of Māori spiritual beliefs in planning and environmental management. In 2002 local Māori expressed concerns that the development of the Auckland-Waikato expressway would disturb the "taniwha", or guardian spirit, of the Waikato River, leading to delays and alterations to the project.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: Before March 2019, blasphemous libel was a crime in New Zealand, but cases could only be prosecuted with the approval of the attorney-general, and the defence of opinion was allowed; the only prosecution, in 1922, was unsuccessful. In 1967, Presbyterian minister Professor Lloyd Geering faced charges of heresy brought by the Presbyterian Church, but the trial became stalemated and was abandoned.


title: Religion in New Zealand

text: The New Zealand Parliament opens its proceedings with a prayer. In November 2017 Christian language, including reference to Christ, was removed from the prayer.


title: Engineer's Ring

text: The Engineer's Ring is a ring worn by members of the United States Order of the Engineer, a fellowship of engineers who must be a certified Professional Engineer or graduated from an accredited engineering program (or be within one academic year of graduation to participate). The ring is usually a stainless steel band worn on the little finger of the dominant hand. This is so that it makes contact with all work done by the engineer. Rings used to be cast in iron in the most unattractive and simple form to show the nature of work. The ring is symbolic of the oath taken by the wearer, and symbolizes the unity of the profession in its goal of benefitting mankind. The stainless steel from which the ring is made depicts the strength of the profession.


title: Engineer's Ring

text: Starting in 1970, it was inspired by the original Canadian Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer ceremony which began a century ago in 1922. Canadian engineers about to graduate are invited to attend the ring ceremony by the The Corporation of the Seven Wardens in order to take the oath known as the Obligation of The Engineer. Only those who have met the standards of professional engineering training or experience are able to accept the Obligation, which is voluntarily received for life.


title: Engineer's Ring

text: The required oath, taken immediately before accepting the Engineer's Ring, is known as "The Obligation of the Engineer" and is as follows:


title: 1989–90 NBA season

text: The 1989–90 NBA season was the 44th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Detroit Pistons winning their second NBA Championship, beating the Portland Trail Blazers 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals.


title: 1989–90 NBA season

text: Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its conference, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. The division champions are marked by an asterisk. Home court advantage does not necessarily belong to the higher-seeded team, but instead the team with the better regular season record; teams enjoying the home advantage are shown in italics.


title: Glipizide

text: Glipizide, sold under the brand name Glucotrol among others, is an anti-diabetic medication of the sulfonylurea class used to treat type 2 diabetes. It is used together with a diabetic diet and exercise. It is not indicated for use by itself in type 1 diabetes. It is taken by mouth. Effects generally begin within half an hour and can last for up to a day.


title: Glipizide

text: Common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, low blood sugar, and headache. Other side effects include sleepiness, skin rash, and shakiness. The dose may need to be adjusted in those with liver or kidney disease. Use during pregnancy or breastfeeding is not recommended. It works by stimulating the pancreas to release insulin and increases tissue sensitivity to insulin.


title: Glipizide

text: Glipizide was approved for medical use in the United States in 1984. It is available as a generic medication. In 2020, it was the 49th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 13million prescriptions.


title: Glipizide

text: Glipizide sensitizes the beta cells of pancreatic islets of Langerhans insulin response, meaning that more insulin is released in response to glucose than would be without glipizide ingestion. Glipizide acts by partially blocking potassium channels among beta cells of pancreatic islets of Langerhans. By blocking potassium channels, the cell depolarizes, which results in the opening of voltage-gated calcium channels. The resulting calcium influx encourages insulin release from beta cells.


title: Glipizide

text: It was patented in 1969 and approved for medical use in 1971. Glipizide was approved for medical use in the United States in 1984.


title: Elfriede Jelinek

text: Elfriede Jelinek (; born 20 October 1946) is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She is one of the most decorated authors writing in German today and was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that, with extraordinary linguistic zeal, reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power".


title: Elfriede Jelinek

text: Next to Peter Handke and Botho Strauss she is considered to be the most important living playwright of the German language.


title: Elfriede Jelinek

text: Elfriede Jelinek was born on 20 October 1946 in Mürzzuschlag, Styria, the daughter of Olga Ilona ("née" Buchner), a personnel director, and Friedrich Jelinek. She was raised in Vienna by her Romanian-German Catholic mother and a non-observant Czech Jewish father (whose surname "Jelinek" means "little deer" in Czech). Her mother came from a bourgeois background, while her father was a working-class socialist.


title: Elfriede Jelinek

text: Her father was a chemist, who managed to avoid persecution during the Second World War by working in strategically important industrial production. However, many of his relatives became victims of the Holocaust. Her mother, with whom she had a strained relationship, was from a formerly prosperous Vienna family. As a child, Elfriede attended a Roman Catholic convent school in Vienna. Her mother planned a career for her as a musical "Wunderkind". She was instructed in piano, organ, guitar, violin, viola, and recorder from an early age. Later, she went on to study at the Vienna Conservatory, where she graduated with an organist diploma; during this time, she tried to meet her mother's high expectations, while coping with her psychologically ill father. She studied art history and theater at the University of Vienna. However, she had to discontinue her studies due to an anxiety disorder, which resulted in self-isolation at her parents' house for a year. During this time, she began serious literary work as a form of therapy. After a year, she began to feel comfortable leaving the house, often with her mother. She began writing poetry at a young age. She made her literary debut with "Lisas Schatten" ("Lisa's Shadow") in 1967, and received her first literary prize in 1969. During the 1960s, she became active politically, read a great deal, and "spent an enormous amount of time watching television".


title: Elfriede Jelinek

text: Despite the author's own differentiation from Austria (due to her criticism of Austria's Nazi past), Jelinek's writing is deeply rooted in the tradition of Austrian literature, showing the influence of Austrian writers such as Ingeborg Bachmann, Marlen Haushofer, and Robert Musil.


title: Elfriede Jelinek

text: Jelinek's political positions, in particular her feminist stance and her Communist Party affiliations, are of vital importance to any assessment of her work. They are also a part of the reason for the controversy directed at Jelinek and her work. Editor Friederike Eigler states that Jelinek has three major and inter-related "targets" in her writing: what she views as capitalist consumer society and its commodification of all human beings and relationships, what she views as the remnants of Austria's fascist past in public and private life, and what she views as the systematic exploitation and oppression of women in a capitalist-patriarchal society. Jelinek has claimed in multiple interviews that the Austrian-Jewish satirical tradition has been a formative influence on her writing, citing Karl Kraus, Elias Canetti, and Jewish cabaret in particular. In an interview with Sigrid Löffler, Jelinek claimed that her work is considered an oddity in contemporary Austria, where she claims satire is unappreciated and misunderstood, "because the Jews are dead." She has stressed her Jewish identity as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, claiming a continuity with a Jewish-Viennese tradition that she believes has been destroyed by fascism and is dying out.


title: Elfriede Jelinek

text: Jelinek's output has included radio plays, poetry, theatre texts, polemical essays, anthologies, novels, translations, screenplays, musical compositions, libretti and ballets, film and video art.


title: Elfriede Jelinek

text: Jelinek's work is multi-faceted, and highly controversial. It has been praised and condemned by leading literary critics. In the wake of the Fritzl case, for example, she was accused of "executing 'hysterical' portraits of Austrian perversity". Likewise, her political activism has encountered divergent and often heated reactions. Despite the controversy surrounding her work, Jelinek has won many distinguished awards; among them are the Georg Büchner Prize in 1998; the Mülheim Dramatists Prize in 2002 and 2004; the Franz Kafka Prize in 2004; and the Nobel Prize in Literature, also in 2004.


title: Elfriede Jelinek

text: Female sexuality, sexual abuse, and the battle of the sexes in general are prominent topics in her work. Texts such as "Wir sind Lockvögel, Baby!" ("We are Decoys, Baby!"), "Die Liebhaberinnen" ("Women as Lovers") and "Die Klavierspielerin" ("The Piano Teacher") showcase the brutality and power play inherent in human relations in a style that is, at times, ironically formal and tightly controlled. According to Jelinek, power and aggression are often the principal driving forces of relationships. Likewise "Ein Sportstück" ("Sports Play") explores the darker side of competitive sports. Her provocative novel "Lust" contains graphic description of sexuality, aggression and abuse. It received poor reviews by many critics, some of whom likened it to pornography. But others, who noted the power of the cold descriptions of moral failures, considered it to have been misunderstood and undervalued by them.


title: Elfriede Jelinek

text: Her novel "The Piano Teacher" was the basis for the 2001 film of the same title by Austrian director Michael Haneke, starring Isabelle Huppert as the protagonist. In April 2006, Jelinek spoke out to support Peter Handke, whose play "Die Kunst des Fragens" ("The Art of Asking") was removed from the repertoire of the Comédie-Française for his alleged support of Slobodan Milošević. Her work is less known in English-speaking countries. However, in July and August 2012, a major English language premiere of her play "Ein Sportstück" by Just a Must theatre company brought her dramatic work to the attention of English-speaking audiences. The following year, in February and March 2013, the Women's Project in New York staged the North American premiere of "Jackie", one of her "Princess Dramas".


title: Elfriede Jelinek

text: Jelinek was a member of Austria's Communist Party from 1974 to 1991. She became a household name during the 1990s due to her vociferous clash with Jörg Haider's Freedom Party. Following the 1999 National Council elections, and the subsequent formation of a coalition cabinet consisting of the Freedom Party and the Austrian People's Party, Jelinek became one of the new cabinet's more vocal critics.


title: Elfriede Jelinek

text: Many foreign governments moved swiftly to ostracize Austria's administration, citing the Freedom Party's alleged nationalism and authoritarianism. The cabinet construed the sanctions against it as directed against Austria as such, and attempted to prod the nation into a national rallying ("Nationaler Schulterschluss") behind the coalition parties.


title: Elfriede Jelinek

text: This provoked a temporary heating of the political climate severe enough for dissidents such as Jelinek to be accused of treason by coalition supporters.


title: Elfriede Jelinek

text: In the mid- to late-1980s, Jelinek was one of many Austrian intellectuals who signed a petition for the release of Jack Unterweger, who was imprisoned for the murder of a prostitute, and who was regarded by intellectuals and politicians as an example of successful rehabilitation. Unterweger was later found guilty of murdering nine more women within two years of his release, and committed suicide after his arrest.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: William Brewster (1566–6710 April 1644) was an English official and "Mayflower" passenger in 1620. In Plymouth Colony, by virtue of his education and existing stature with those immigrating from the Netherlands, being a Brownist (or Puritan Separatist), Brewster became senior elder and the leader of the community.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: William Brewster was born in 1566 or 1567, most probably in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England. He was the son of William Brewster and Mary (Smythe) (Simkinson) Brewster and he had a number of step-brothers and step-sisters, including James, Prudence, Henry, George, and Edward Brewster. His paternal grandparents were William Brewster (1510–1558), and Maud Mann (1513–1558), from Scotland. Their other children were: Fear, (vicar) Henry, Prudence and Thomas Brewster.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: Beginning in 1580, he studied briefly at Peterhouse, Cambridge, before entering the service of William Davison, ambassador to the Netherlands, in 1584, giving him opportunity to hear and see more of reformed religion. Brewster was the only Pilgrim with political and diplomatic experience. With his mentor in prison, Brewster had returned home to Scrooby for a time, where he took up his father's former position as postmaster in 1590. The historian Stephen Tomkins argues that William and Mary became puritans in the mid/late 1590s, judging by the names of their children, which became much more puritan after Jonathan. It appears their daughter Fear, born about 1606, was named after her great-aunt Fear Brewster, who died unmarried about two years after William's daughter Fear was born.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: Following the campaign led by Archbishop Bancroft to force puritan ministers out of the Church of England, the Brewsters joined the Brownist church led by John Robinson and Richard Clifton, inviting them to meet in their manor house in Scrooby. Restrictions and pressures applied by the authorities convinced the congregation of a need to emigrate to the more sympathetic atmosphere of Holland, and Brewster organised the removal. Leaving England without permission was illegal at the time, so that departure was a complex matter. On its first attempt, in 1607, the group was arrested at Scotia Creek, but in 1608, Brewster and others were successful in leaving from The Humber.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: Robinson's church lived for a year in Amsterdam, but in 1609 one of their fellow Brownist churches there, led by John Smyth, became the first Baptist church. In the controversy that followed, Robinson and Brewster decided to take their church to Leiden.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: William lived near St. Peter's church (Dutch: Pieterskerk) in Leiden with his wife and children. His son, Jonathan, was a ribbonweaver. William was chosen as assistant and later as an elder to Pastor John Robinson. He was still an elder when he traveled to Plymouth Colony in 1620.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: In Leiden, the group managed to make a living. Brewster had struggled for money in Amsterdam, but in Leiden he taught English to University students. In 1610–11, Robinson and Brewster acted as mediators when the Ancient Church, the oldest Brownist congregation in Amsterdam, split into two factions following Francis Johnson and Henry Ainsworth, but they failed to reconcile them.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: In 1616, partnered by Thomas Brewer and assisted at first by John Reynolds and then by Edward Winslow in late 1617, Brewster printed and published religious books for sale in England which were proscribed there. The press was prolific, printing "seven books against the regime of the Church of England in 1618 alone." In 1618, Brewster's press published "De regimine Ecclesianae Scoticanae," by the Scottish minister David Calderwood, which was highly critical of James VI and his government of the Kirk. They followed it up in April 1619 with "Perth Assembly". King James ordered an international manhunt for the writer and printer, but when his men eventually discovered the culprits, Brewer was protected by Leiden University while Brewster and Calderwood both went underground. According to the historian Stephen Tomkins, Brewster handed himself over to the Dutch authorities, who refused to send him to his death in England and so told James that they had arrested the wrong person and let him go. He judges that Brewster's printing operation 'came close to ruining his church's plans for America'.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: Brewster, along with Robinson, was a prime mover in the decision to sail for North America, and a principal organiser, but once he was in hiding, the Separatists looked to their deacon John Carver and to Robert Cushman to carry on negotiations with the appropriate officials in London.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: In 1620 when it came time for the "Mayflower" departure, Brewster returned to the Leiden congregation. He had been hiding out in Holland and perhaps even England for the last year. At the time of his return, Brewster was the highest-ranking layperson of the congregation and would be their designated spiritual leader in the New World.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: Brewster joined the first group of Separatists aboard the "Mayflower" on the voyage to North America. Brewster was accompanied by his wife, Mary Brewster, and his sons: Love Brewster and Wrestling Brewster.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: Among the people boarding the "Mayflower" were four unaccompanied children from Shipton, Shropshire. They were placed as indentured servants with senior Separatists William Brewster, John Carver and Robert Cushman, on behalf of Samuel More, husband of the children's mother, Katherine More. The children were placed without their mother's permission after four rancorous years between the Mores over charges of adultery against Katherine and her longtime lover, the children's alleged father. Two children were placed with William and Mary Brewster.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: The "Mayflower" departed Plymouth in England in September 1620. The 100-foot vessel carried 102 passengers and a crew of 30 to 40 in extremely cramped conditions. During the voyage, the ship was buffeted by strong westerly gales. The caulking of its planks was failing to keep out sea water, and the passengers' berths were not always dry. On the journey there were two deaths, a crew member and a passenger. After being blown off course by gales, the "Mayflower" made a landing at Cape Cod. Finding the area near Provincetown occupied by indigenous people, the ship's company decided to continue exploring along the nearby coast. The group arrived in the area near present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, on 21 December 1620. In the space of several months almost half the passengers perished in the cold, harsh New England winter.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: When the passengers of the "Mayflower" landed at Plymouth Colony, Brewster became the senior elder, and so served as the religious leader of the colony; in the colony, he became a separatist leader and preacher, and eventually, as an adviser to Governor William Bradford. Brewster's son Jonathan joined the family in November 1621, arriving at Plymouth on the ship "Fortune", and daughters Patience and Fear arrived in July 1623 aboard the "Anne".


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: As the only university-educated member of the colony, Brewster took the part of the colony's religious leader until a pastor, Ralph Smith, arrived in 1629. Thereafter, he continued to preach irregularly until his death in April 1644. "He was tenderhearted and compassionate of such as were in misery," Bradford wrote, "but especially of such as had been of good estate and rank and fallen unto want and poverty."


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: Brewster was granted land amongst the islands of Boston Harbor, and four of the outer islands (Great Brewster, Little Brewster, Middle Brewster and Outer Brewster) now bear his name. In 1632, Brewster received lands in nearby Duxbury and removed from Plymouth to create a farm there.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: In 1634, smallpox and influenza ravaged both the English and the Indians in the region. William Brewster, whose family had managed to survive the first terrible winter unscathed, lost two daughters, Fear and Patience, now married to Isaac Allerton and Thomas Prence, respectively.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: About 1590 or 1592, William Brewster married a woman named Mary, whose surname is unknown, although researchers have proposed Wentworth and Wyrall, along with a handful of children—all of which have been disproved with documentation, as summarized in the 2014 'silver' volume on William Brewster published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. No formal record of the marriage of William Brewster appears in the preserved marriage records of Nottinghamshire Archives. Clandestine marriages and marriages without banns or license before an officiant were not unknown in Nottinghamshire around 1590–96. Thus it is possible one of the following officiated at the marriage about 1590-92 of William Brewster: 1) his uncle Henry Brewster, vicar of Sutton-cum-Lound 1565–94; 2) John Naylor, who was vicar of North Clifton 1588-1626+ and was involved in a clandestine marriage 1 December 1591; and 3) Thomas Hancock, curate of Headon until 1592 when curate of West Retford, and who was presented in 1592 for marrying R. Southworth in Scrooby Chapel without banns or license while curate of Headon. The extensive search for further information on Mary continues, and the number of researchers includes Jeremy Bangs, Director of the American Pilgrim Museum in Leiden, Holland; Caleb Johnson; and Louise Throop.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: Their first surviving child, Jonathan, was born on 12 August 1593, according to "The Brewster Book" in the handwriting of Jonathan, and reproduced in the 2014 'silver' volume on William Brewster published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. The first three known children were born in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire. A more comprehensive list of children is as follows although there were possibly children born 1591, 1595, 1597, and 1602, who would have possibly died in the plague of the autumn of 1603 and the winter of 1603–4. Others born 1604 and 1608 may also have died young:


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: Three of the "Mayflower" pilgrims, including William Brewster, took responsibility for children of Samuel More, who accompanied him and others as indentured servants:


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: In addition to these, Jasper More, age 7, was assigned to John Carver as a servant, but died of a "common infection" in Dec. 1620 while the "Mayflower" was in Cape Cod Harbor (several weeks after Elinor). He was buried ashore in the area of what is now Provincetown, where a memorial plaque bears his and the names of four others "who died at sea while the ship lay at Cape Cod Harbor" in Nov./Dec. 1620. Finally, Elinor More, age 8, was assigned to Edward Winslow as a servant, but died in November 1620 soon after the arrival of the "Mayflower" at Cape Cod Harbor. Her burial place is unknown, but may have been ashore on Cape Cod similar to her brother Jasper. With many others who died that winter, her name appears on the Pilgrim Memorial Tomb, Cole's Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts.


title: William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)

text: William Brewster died on 10 April 1644, at Duxbury, Plymouth Colony. He was predeceased by his wife, Mary Brewster, who died in April 1627, aged about sixty. Brewster's body was buried at Burial Hill in Plymouth. A memorial stone exists there for him, which states that it is in honour of "Elder William Brewster, Patriarch of the Pilgrims and their Ruling Elder 1609–1644". The burial place of his wife Mary is unknown. William Brewster was characterized in a 1992 biography as the "father of New England" and a ""sine qua non" of the entire Pilgrim adventure, its backbone, its brain and its conscience."


title: KF Tirana

text: Klubi i Futbollit Tirana (KF Tirana) is an Albanian football club based in the country's capital city, Tirana. The men's football club is part of the multi-disciplinary sports club SK Tirana, and is the most successful in Albania, having won 54 recognized major domestic trophies. They play their home games at the Selman Stërmasi Stadium in Tirana and they play in the Kategoria Superiore.


title: KF Tirana

text: The club was founded on 15 August 1920 as Sport Klub Tirana (in English: Sport Club Tirana), but then, they name changed to Shoqata e Futbollit Agimi (in English: Agimi Football Association) and they had since participated in all the top tier national championships ever held in Albania. However, the ninth-place finish in the 2016–17 season relegated the club to the Albanian First Division (second-tier) for the first time in their history.


title: KF Tirana

text: They have competed under the name of SK Tirana between 1927 and 1947, when the communist regime forcibly renamed the club "17 Nëntori Tirana", "Puna Tirana" and "KS 17 Nëntori". In 1991 KF Tirana retook its pre-1947 name and was divided into two branches, the multi disciplinary SK Tirana and the football branch of KF Tirana.


title: KF Tirana

text: KF Tirana is the most successful Albanian team in European competitions, having progressed from the first rounds on 13 occasions (once directly by draw, without playing) since making their European debut in the 1965–66 European Cup. They reached Round of 16 in European Competitions four times, three such in the European Cup (now Champions League) alone in 1980s. The club also holds the record of being the highest ever ranking Albanian club according to IFFHS, having been ranked 31st in the world in 1987, following good results in their 1986–87 campaign. In addition, KF Tirana is an ECA member.


title: KF Tirana

text: Tirana was officially founded on 15 August 1920. The first coach was appointed Palok Nika. The first name of the club was "Sportklub Tirona" which was later changed into "Futboll Klub Tirona". The team played their first official match in October at Shallvare against Juventus Shkodër.


title: KF Tirana

text: Tirana played their first international match against Yugoslav team Crnogorac Cetinje from Montenegro in 1925. On 16 August 1927, which was the seventh anniversary of the formation of the Agimi Sports Association, the club's name changed into "Sportklub Tirana", which would be commonly referred to as SK Tirana. On that day the president of the club was Teki Selenica.


title: KF Tirana

text: in 1930, Tirana took part in the first officially recognised football competition held in Albania, organized by newly founded Albanian Football Association. The team dominated the tournament, reaching the final after winning five matches, drawing four and losing just one, to finish joint top, along with Skënderbeu Korçë, albeit with a slightly better goal difference. Tirana faced in the championship final Skënderbeu Korçë, who refused to play as a sign of protest against the bias of the competition and the Albanian Football Association towards Tirana. The club was named champion after the games were awarded 2–0.


title: KF Tirana

text: The following season, the club introduced new players such as goalkeeper Vasfi Samimi, Sabit Çoku, Muhamet Agolli and Halim Begeja. The championship format changed as it divided the teams into two groups. Tirana was placed in Group A and managed to finish 1st after collecting five points from three matches. In the final against Group B winners Teuta Durrës, the team drew 1–1 in the first leg at home but managed a 3–0 win in the second one to retain the championship title.


title: KF Tirana

text: Tirana continued to dominate the Albanian football even in the next season, despite the fact that the championship format was changed once again. In a group where every club would play each other twice and the winner would be decided by who finished top of the league, Tirana had it easy as they finished the championship unbeaten, winning five matches and drawing three, winning the title for the third consecutive year, which further cemented their place in history as the first club to dominate football in Albania. The club lost the title for the first time in history in 1933, finishing in a disappointing third place out of six, behind Bashkimi Shkodran and the winners Skënderbeu Korçë. It turned out to be a transition period as team bounced back firmly in the 1934 Championship, finishing five points ahead of runners-up Skënderbeu Korçë in a seven team format.


title: KF Tirana

text: In the next years, Tirana managed to win the 1936 and 1937 championship, guided by ethnic-Albanian forward Riza Lushta who was named top goalscorer in both years. This was the last pre-World War II competition held by the Albanian Football Association as there was no championship held in 1938 and World War II broke out in 1939.


title: KF Tirana

text: In 1939, Albania was under Italian invasion; Giovanni Giro, a loyal trustee of Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, was in charge of organising the first football competition under Victor Emmanuel III, which was called "Turneja Kombëtare E Footbollit Për Ndeshjet E Trofeut Të Liktorit" (National Tour of Football for the Matches of the Lictor Trophy). Tirana participated in the tournament, eliminating 9–0 on aggregate Dragoj Pogradeci in the first round to reach the semi-finals. In the semi-final, the team played Skënderbeu Korçë, beating them 3–0 to reach the final against Vllaznia Shkodër. In the final played at the Shallvare field in the capital on 30 September 1939, Tirana won the trophy by winning 6–5.


title: KF Tirana

text: A similar tournament was held in the next year by the fascist regime, this time in a group format where teams were divided into two groups based on geography location. Two of Tirana's most important players Kryeziu and Lushta left Albania for Italy to join Bari and Roma respectively. In the first match, Tirana drew 2–2 with Vllaznia Shkodër, and then won 3–0 at home against Elbasani. The rest of the campaign did not prove to be fruitful as Vllaznia finished top of the group ahead of Tirana and reached the championship finals, where they defeated Skënderbeu Korçë 11–1 on aggregate to win their first national championship, to this day unrecognized by the Albanian Federal Association.


title: KF Tirana

text: The championship was not held in 1941 but returned in the following year, which also had three clubs from Kosovo. These clubs from Kosovo competed in the northern section along with the reigning champions Vllaznia Shkodër and Tirana competed in the new middle section group and the southern clubs competed in their own group. In a bizarre ruling, only players born between 1921 and 1925 were allowed to participate in the competition, meaning that only players between the ages of 17 and 22 were allowed to play. However, this rule was not followed by most clubs and senior players did participate in the competition. Tirana reached the semi-finals after winning 5–1 versus Elbasani and drawing 1–1 against Teuta Durrës. In the semi-final, the team faced Prizreni; the first leg ended in a 2–2 draw while the second one was won by Tirana 2–1. The team thus reached the final once again where they faced Vllaznia Shkodër on 29 June. The regular time ended in a 1–1 draw, leading the Italian referee Michele Carone then asked both sides to play extra time of two 15-minute halves, but Vllaznia declined. Two days after the final had been played the match was awarded 2–0 to Tirana along with the title.


title: KF Tirana

text: The club won two out of the three National Championships that were held during World War II, but in March 2013, Albanian Football Association made a decision by refusing to recognize them, stating that they were not legitimate, since they weren't organized by the AFA, but by the fascist regime.


title: KF Tirana

text: Following the end of World War II, footballing activities resumed as they had done before the war under the guidance of the Albanian Football Association. In the championship of 1945, Tirana was placed in Group B. The team topped the group easily, collecting 16 points from 10 matches, thus reaching the final where they faced Vllaznia Shkodër once again. They lost both matches 2–1, thus missing the opportunity to win another championship.


title: KF Tirana

text: Under communist regime led by dictator Enver Hoxha, Tiran would quickly become a victim as in early March 1946 the ruling communist Politburo had instructed the club to change its name to 17 Nëntori in honour of the Liberation of Tirana which took place on 17 November 1944. In the following decade, the club was subject to appalling treatment by the regime, and this was highlighted by the creation of a privilege system for the newly created communist backed teams Partizani Tirana and Dinamo Tirana.


title: KF Tirana

text: The following decade would unroll in the same suffocating atmosphere, becoming even heavier after the foundation of two system-privileged teams that would follow the experiences of their sisters in the former USSR, former Yugoslavia, and the other eastern European countries: Partizani, the Defense Ministry team and Dinamo, the Internal Affairs Ministry team. Dozens of Tirana's talented players were "convinced", against their will, to play for either Partizani or Dinamo. As a result, "17 Nentori" struggled to stay at the top during the years 1947–57, however the team managed to gain some of the lost ground during the second part of the 1950s after replacing in part some of the first choice players of its line up.


title: KF Tirana

text: From 1958 to 1964 Tirana kept on producing some good football and finishing the championship almost always at the third spot. These years were a prelude to what was about to happen later: Tirana reexperienced its pre-war glory spell under the services of the unforgettable coach Myslym Alla. At the end of the 28th national championship Tirana became champions of Albania more than twenty years after their last title.


title: KF Tirana

text: The team repeated the success the year after, but this was an obvious challenge to Partizani's generals and Dinamo's secret service bosses.


title: KF Tirana

text: It was 24 June 1967. Tirana and Partizani played their derby of the 19th round of 1967 Championship . Match had just been played in full and finished 2:1. Fans were peacefully leaving stands and, as players had already left the pitch and were heading towards dressing rooms, two of opposite players have just had a verbal exchange which ended there and then.


title: KF Tirana

text: It was a huge surprise to see the paper headlines the next morning: "Due to direct decision of AFA, Tirana and Partizani forfeit the match 0:3, are deducted 3 points each and will thereafter lose by default remaining matches!"


title: KF Tirana

text: Many were asking: "what went wrong, match was played in the pitch, it produced lots of emotions and fans acknowledged the final result. What did teams do to receive such a harsh treatment?"


title: KF Tirana

text: However, it became clear days after: the decision to expel both clubs was taken directly from Ministry of Affairs and passed to AFA for execution. Since Partizani was out of title fight due to a huge point gap and the only way that Dinamo could get the title was punishing Tirana - table leaders at the moment, they finally found the excuse in that minor verbal exchange two players had after the match. Truth is they just couldn't support the fact that KF Tirana was about to achieve the 3rd title in a row, instead of Partizani or Dinamo. The day championship trophy was handed, Skënder Jareci, the manager of Dinamo, wouldn't take it on the traditional lap of honour, citing that Dinamo didn't truly deserve that title!


title: KF Tirana

text: By forfeiting that match and losing the subsequent 3 remaining matches, Dinamo would automatically gain enough points to overtake Tirana and win the title. It was a disgrace for Albanian football, such that even UEFA still refrains to recognize the champions Dinamo for that year. The next season, because of the disqualification farce, Dinamo were denied entry to the European Cup by UEFA; their opponents, Braunschweig, received a walkover and eventually reached the quarter-finals.


title: KF Tirana

text: After this, Tirana won the championship two years in a row in style, losing only two matches in 1968 and only one during the 1969–70 season.


title: KF Tirana

text: During the seventies, Tirana struggled hard to stay at the top, the best result being the second place and the worst the thirteenth. Yet the club won the national cup twice. The generation of older players came to the end of their careers and this could only mark the end of a highly successful era. However the unsuccessful spell would not last long this time. Tirana won the championship at the end of the 1981–82 season, and they went on to win the title three other times during the eighties, in 1984–85, 1987–88 and 1988–89 and the Albanian Cup in 1982–83, 1983–84 and 1985–86. The club was also successful in European club competitions, reaching there the round of 16 four times in the 1980s, alone in the European Cup three times. Many of the team's players made up the core of the Albania national football team, such as Agustin Kola, Arben Minga, Shkëlqim Muça and Mirel Josa.


title: KF Tirana

text: In August 1991, less than a year following the fall of communism in Albania, Tirana regained its old name, and likewise the whole Albanian society, went through a period of profound changes. Almost all the best Albanian players left the country and went abroad looking for a richer team who could hire them. But it seems that the club simply could not stand being too long from the leading spots. The team returned to the winning ways by winning the Albanian Cup in the 1993–94 season, defeating 1–0 on aggregate Teuta Durrës. Shortly after, in January 1995, the team won also their first Albanian Supercup trophy, defeating 1–0 Teuta Durrës at Qemal Stafa Stadium. A couple of months later, they clinched their 15th championship by finishing 12 points ahead of the runner-up Teuta Durrës.


title: KF Tirana

text: This championship was followed by another one in the 1995–96 season, as Tirana won it just one point ahead of Teuta Durrës once again. The team also clinched the cup in that season, completing the domestic double for the second time in history. Another domestic double followed in 1998–99 season. In the following years, Tirana continued to dominate the Albanian football, winning 10 out of the last 18 Albania's championships. The team also dominated in the domestic cups, adding to their trophy cabinet three Albanian Cups and five other Albanian Supercups.


title: KF Tirana

text: Following a successful 2006–07 campaign which saw the club win the Albanian Superliga comfortably, the team begun to struggle for results. They begun the season by getting eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by NK Domžale. Despite winning the Albanian Supercup versus Besa Kavajë, Tirana managed only a 6th-place finish their worst finish since 1993. In cup, the team lost the final to Vllaznia Shkodër.


title: KF Tirana

text: In the following season, Tirana bounced back; inspired by striker Migen Memelli, who went on to score 30 goals, Tirana managed to win the championship for the 24th time in history. In cup they reached another final, only to be defeated again, this time by Flamurtari Vlorë. In the next years, Tirana experiences mixed fortunes, being unable to win the championship but remaining on top in domestic cups, winning the Albanian Cup in 2010–11 and 2011–12, and three other Albanian Supercups in 2009, 2011 and 2012. There was also major controversies off the field between club's chief and president in the 2010–11 season, which led to a delay in paying the players' wages and even some players not receiving their wages.


title: KF Tirana

text: On 12 October 2011, Municipality of Tirana city council voted through a unanimous decision to change the status of the club from a municipality owned to a shareholder own one, under the name KF Tirana Sh.A, with the municipality of Tirana initially holding a 100% stake in the club but with the possibility of any future private sponsors and donors to own stocks in the club.


title: KF Tirana

text: Starting from 2013, Tirana entered in a period of disappointments. In the 2013–14 season, the team was seriously in risk of getting relegated for the first time in history. By the end of December 2013 the team was ranked in the last position with only 10 points from 13 matches, 7 points away from the safe zone. However, with Gugash Magani as manager and a strong transfer market, the team bounced back and eventually finished in 6th position, escaping the relegation only in the penultimate match. On 26 June 2014, the Tirana city council approved a proposal to give private donors a 66% stake in the club's assets for the next 18 years, which at the time fell in the hands of Refik Halili and Lulzim Morina, which enabled such donors to invest in players, facilities and youth teams.


title: KF Tirana

text: Tirana begun the 2014–15 season with high expectations, challenging for the title in the first part of the season. In the second part, however, the team declined and ultimately finished in 5th position. In cup, Tirana was controversially eliminated from Laçi in the semi-final 1–0 on aggregate. Laçi eventually won the final against Kukësi, leaving Tirana without Europa League football once again. The club was relegated during the 2016–17 season. From title contender halfway through the season, Tirana fell continuously to dramatically succumb to relegation for the first time in their history. Ilir Daja was sacked on 1 November following a goalless draw against Vllaznia Shkodër, and was replaced by the returned Mirel Josa. The club also broke the relationship with the fans after allowing with their lifetime rivals Partizani Tirana to play at Selman Stërmasi Stadium; they opposed such an agreement and subsequently abandoned the matches for the entire season as a result. Tirana then endured a 15 winless match streak before winning 2–0 against Korabi Peshkopi. Their relegation was officially confirmed on 27 May following a goalless draw versus fellow relegation strugglers Vllaznia Shkodër. In cup, Tirana did much better, winning their 16th trophy on 31 May after defeating 3–1 Skënderbeu Korçë at Elbasan Arena. This meant the return of Tirana in European competitions after five years.


title: KF Tirana

text: Tirana retained most of their players ahead of the new season. The club appointed former Brazil international Zé Maria as the new manager. The team eliminated from the UEFA Europa League by Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv In September 2017, Tirana won another trophy, their 11th Albanian Supercup after winning 1–0 against Kukësi. They also set a record by becoming the Albanian First Division side to win the Supercup. In the league Tirana dominated with hammering results in either home or away matches. Club's goal of a quick promotion in Superliga was reached with three spare rounds to play. Tirana won their first ever Albanian First Division title on 16 May by winning 2–0 against the Group A winners Kastrioti Krujë.


title: KF Tirana

text: Tirana won the 25th championship in the 2019–20 season which was also the club's 100th anniversary. It was the first title after 11 years. During the season the team recorded two wins against Partizani, ending the negative record of 18 winless matches against them; the 5–1 win in February 2020 was the biggest since 2005. Ndubuisi Egbo took charge of the team starting in the 13th matchday; he was highly praised for his work and also become the first African coach to win a league title in Europe. In cup, the team managed to reach the final but was defeated 2–0 by Teuta.


title: KF Tirana

text: Fresh from winning the title, Tirana was also successful in Europe, collecting over 1.5 million Euro reward from participation, advancing as far as the play-off stage of Europa League. With a healthy budget and having already players with a champion trophy and quality in their hands, club had the golden opportunity to start a cycle of domination for years to come. Club, however, failed to create such a status. They could not avoid key players parting ways and did not replace them with same or better elements. The COVID-19 pandemic also contributed negatively in many ways. Squad sustained many players' injuries and absences on the way as well, due to lack of substitutes. Thus, results were disappointing, especially at the first half of the season. Coach Egbo and director Laçi parted ways with the club at the ugliest possible way, even though they were the main key to success, radically changing Tirana within 2 years from promotion straight to the highest title. It was the day Tirana was eliminated just at the second round of the Cup from an inferior opponent, the moment that club found the "alibi" to sack them.


title: KF Tirana

text: The shameful way of Cup elimination did not at all make club reflect positively in the championship and the January players' market did not add to the team's quality, since January usually offers little alternatives. Despite efforts and better results in the second half of the season and led by an ambitious coach such as Shehi, Tirana ended 5th in the League and failed European participation.


title: KF Tirana

text: Coach Shehi was promptly approved to continue with Tirana for the new season. This time, club did not make the previous mistakes in approving and approaching players from distance or video clips. Also they stopped seeking African players and ended their cooperation with agent Como. The recently appointer director, Osmani and director of academy, Muka played a great role in finding new players, mostly within the Superior League, North Macedonia and Kosovo. The new players also signed long-term contracts. Starting from talented Seferi, an affirmed forward of the previous season and also Xhixha arriving from KF Laçi as a free player at the end of his contract. Other significant players such as Ennur Totre, Vesel Limaj, Visar Bekaj, Ardit Toli were also assigned with the club.


title: KF Tirana

text: It was, nonetheless, a great merit of coach Shehi in managing the group of new arrivals, merging it with the existing lot and making it function perfectly well. Shehi also must be given the other merit of promoting players from the academy. Names such as Gjumsi, Përgjoni, Nikqi, Beshiraj, etc., left their mark in the success and promoted themselves as a bright future.


title: KF Tirana

text: Subsequently, results arrived. Tirana created a steady point difference with the rivals, particularly winning the key matches. The positive side was also how team reacted even after the few defeats, showing character, quality and power. White and blues took the lead at 4th round and did not let go until the end. The point difference went to 16, at which point Tirana had the luxury to relax and allow draws or defeats, trying to give minutes to more young players in the pitch. Tirana won the championship for the 26th time, with 3 rounds to spare. Now club could peacefully work on preparations towards their European adventure, as well as consolidating the remaining contracts and the future team for the incoming season.


title: KF Tirana

text: Focused fully in the championship progress, Tirana failed again in the Cup participation and for the second consecutive season were eliminated before even reaching the quarter finals.


title: KF Tirana

text: The club's first home ground was the Shallvare, located in the centre of Tirana where today is the existing Shallvare block, acquired by the club prior to their formation in 1920. The also field served as an amusement centre for the youth of Tirana to enjoy, and it was a popular gathering place where various games were played during religious holidays. Before its use as a football ground the site was use by the Ottoman garrison as a playground, and in 1916 it served as a runway for the Austrian-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops. The club played their first game at the Shallvare in 1920 against a team made up of the occupying Austrian-Hungarians. In 1925 there were changing rooms built at the ground, and in the early 1930s there was an athletics track built around the football pitch. The administrator of the ground was the football referee, Besim Hamdiu (Qorri), who only had one assistant in the maintenance of the ground. The ground did not have a main stand or seating area for spectators, but rather a two storied building that was constructed in 1923 by a member of parliament Masar Këlliçi . The building stood 50 metres away from the football pitch and was located in line with the middle of the pitch, with its balcony facing the field and the Dajt mountains. The ground was also used for other sporting events as well as military parades, one of which the president and later king Ahmet Zogu attended in 1927. The ground was destroyed in 1951 and Soviet–style apartment blocks were built onto of it instead.


title: KF Tirana

text: The home ground of KF Tirana is Selman Stërmasi Stadium, which is shared with city rivals Dinamo Tirana and Partizani Tirana. However, most derby and significant matches are played at the national team's Qemal Stafa Stadium; the stadium is also used if the Selman Stërmasi Stadium is unavailable as it is used by three different teams. The club has expressed its desire to rebuild the current Selman Stërmasi Stadium into a modern complex with around 15,000 to 20,000 seats. They want it to be Albania's first modern post-Communism stadium without an athletic track around the field, which they hope will provide more atmosphere and attract more fans. However, it has not yet been decided when this will be built but it is rumoured to be the club's 100th anniversary present in 2020.


title: KF Tirana

text: KF Tirana plays most of its official and friendly games at the Selman Stërmasi Stadium in Tirana. The Selman Stërmasi Stadium was built in 1956 and was previously named the 'Dinamo' Stadium until 1991 when it was permanently given its new name. The Football Association of Albania and the club decided to name the stadium post mortem after the eminent KF Tirana player, coach and president, Selman Stërmasi.


title: KF Tirana

text: The stadium has a capacity of 12,500 (8,400 seated). In December 2014, another phase of reconstruction was started, involving a new pitch, central main covered stand, central fans stand including two extra rows extension, broken or missing seats replacements/repairs, interior facilities, general lineaments and a shopping center just under central seated. The internal facilities include general repairs, a press conference room, journalists' corner and modern showers. The side fans stands will temporary be shut and covered by advertising boards. It is still unclear when will stadium scoreboard and clock be fitted.


title: KF Tirana

text: The main parking area is located at the front of the stadium, which leads to the entrance. The whole external part of the stadium is surrounded by a 2.7 M (9 ft) rail fence.


title: KF Tirana

text: The club's training ground is called the Skënder Halili Complex and it is located off Rruga e Kavajës, near the Birra Tirana factory. The training complex was posthumously named after Skënder Halili, who was one of the club's most notable associates, both during his playing career and after. The complex features a full sized natural grass football pitch, as well as a smaller astro turf fan along with dressing rooms used by senior team as well as some of the youth teams. In December 2014 work began on both the Skënder Halili Complex and the Selman Stërmasi Stadium in order to fully renovate these grounds to be used by the club, and at the training ground the training facilities were all improved which included the dressing rooms and even the single stand that holds a small number of spectators for those wishing to attend training sessions and even occasional friendlies that are played at the ground.


title: KF Tirana

text: Tirana is considered to be one of the most supported football clubs in Albania, and its supporters also formed the first Ultras group in the country in 1986 called


title: KF Tirana

text: Ultras Tirona. The group was forced to operate illegally as the communist regime did not allow such organised groups to function. However, despite this, its supporters used games as an outlet to show their dissent against the regime in place and following the fall of communism in Albania they became more organised and attracted more supporters in the late 90s and early 2000s. During the mid-2000s, younger supporters began to emerge on the scene and felt that the older Ultras Tirona did not entirely represent them, which led to the younger supporters forming a new Ultras group called the Tirona Fanatics on 8 January 2006.


title: KF Tirana

text: Tirona Fanatics are widely regarded as a right wing tifo-group, whereas Ultras Guerrils are mostly associated with the left due to their history.


title: KF Tirana

text: The group quickly rose in membership and became the most organised supporters group in Albania, following Tirana home and away, including European games. On 20 May 2015 the majority of the founding members of Tirona Fanatics decided to hand over the management of the group to younger supporters. The group has partnerships with


title: KF Tirana

text: The fans have three main rivals. Vllaznia Shkodër, the oldest derby in the country, with the matches between them called the All-time Albanian derby. The other rivalries are the Tirana derbies with Dinamo Tirana and Partizani Tirana. However, since 2010s, they have developed a fierce rivalry with Skënderbeu Korçë since the latter side's rise to prominence.


title: KF Tirana

text: Klubi i Futbollit Tirana B is an Albanian football club based in Tiranë. It was founded in 1932, but was dissolved before it was refounded again on 22 January 2013.


title: KF Tirana

text: The KF Tirana Reserves and Academy () are the reserve team of KF Tirana, They play in the North section of the Albanian U-19 Superliga and Albanian U-17 Superliga.


title: KF Tirana

text: Tirana are the most successful and decorated club in Albania, having won 26 league titles, a national record. The club's first trophy was also the first Albanian National Championship, held in 1930, which was also the first official football competition in the country. The club also holds the record for the most Albanian Cups (16) and Albanian Supercups (11). The club's most recent trophy was the 2021–22 Kategoria Superiore won on 7 December 2022.


title: KF Tirana

text: Since the Kategoria Superiore began in 1930, KF Tirana have played 2060 Superliga matches, scored 3382 goals and conceded 1840. The club has collected so far 3065 points, won 1059 games, drawn 536 and lost 465. The club's goal difference is +1542 and the winning difference is +594.


title: KF Tirana

text: In addition to being the leader team in all domestic competitions, KF Tirana have also given the best performances in Europe among Albanian squads winning 13 ties in Europe (including once directly by draw, without playing).


title: KF Tirana

text: They reached Round of 16 in European Competitions four times, of which three times in the European Cup (now Champions League) alone in 1980s, making it the Albanian team to have progressed farthest in any European competition.


title: KF Tirana

text: White and blues hold the all-time record for the highest IFFHS ranking of an Albanian football club, being ranked as high as 31st in the world in 1987, as result of good results preceded 1986–87.


title: KF Tirana

text: In their European path, Tirana have played against "big guns" such as: Ajax, Bayern Munich, etc. Drawn against teams such as Dinamo București, Ferencváros, CSKA Sofia, Young Boys, Utrecht, Dinamo Zagreb, IFK Göteborg, Malmö FF, Standard Liège, Red Star Belgrade, etc.


title: KF Tirana

text: In one of few team's best performances (the 2004–05 season) after having passed FC Gomel of Belarus in the first round 2:1 on aggregate, KF Tirana played against Ferencváros in the second round. Having lost the first leg 3–2 at home, Tirana led 1–0 in Budapest; however, they were unable to score the one extra goal they needed, having missed a penalty and hit the woodwork twice, and were eliminated on away goals, the tie finishing 3–3 on aggregate.


title: KF Tirana

text: After the victory in Tbilisi against FC Dinamo Tbilisi 0–2 with the goals of Agustín Torassa and Marsel Ismailgeci in the first round of the Champions League, they are eliminated by Crvena Zvezda in the second round 0–1 in Tirana Air Albania Stadium , moving to the Europa League in the third round, which was qualified by lottery for the Play-off against BSC Young Boys, a match played in Bern where they were defeated 3–0, failing to qualify for the group stage of the Europa League.


title: KF Tirana

text: Tirana have had numerous presidents over the course of their history, some of which have been the owners of the club, others have been administrators and honorary presidents such as Bamir Topi and Fatmir Frashëri. The president has historically taken sole charge of the club, except for the period between 2007 and 2008, when was the presidency was formally vacant and numerous donors managed the club. The club have had a total of 13 president and 15 presidencies since 1920, with only Bamir Topi and Refik Halili having held the position on two occasions. The longest serving president is Selman Stërmasi who took charge of the club for 24 years between 1936 and 1960, whilst the shortest presidency belongs to Fatmir Frashëri, who took charge for one year between 2004 and 2005. Here is a complete list of club president from when Bahri Toptani took over at the club in 1920, until the present day.


title: Magnetic reluctance

text: Magnetic reluctance, or magnetic resistance, is a concept used in the analysis of magnetic circuits. It is defined as the ratio of magnetomotive force (mmf) to magnetic flux. It represents the opposition to magnetic flux, and depends on the geometry and composition of an object.


title: Magnetic reluctance

text: Magnetic reluctance in a magnetic circuit is analogous to electrical resistance in an electrical circuit in that resistance is a measure of the opposition to the electric current. The definition of magnetic reluctance is analogous to Ohm's law in this respect. However, magnetic flux passing through a reluctance does not give rise to dissipation of heat as it does for current through a resistance. Thus, the analogy cannot be used for modelling energy flow in systems where energy crosses between the magnetic and electrical domains. An alternative analogy to the reluctance model which does correctly represent energy flows is the gyrator–capacitor model.


title: Magnetic reluctance

text: Magnetic reluctance is a scalar extensive quantity, akin to electrical resistance. The unit for magnetic reluctance is inverse henry, H.


title: Magnetic reluctance

text: The term "reluctance" was coined in May 1888 by Oliver Heaviside. The notion of "magnetic resistance" was first mentioned by James Joule in 1840. The idea for a magnetic flux law, similar to Ohm's law for closed electric circuits, is attributed to Henry Augustus Rowland in an 1873 paper. Rowland is also responsible for coining the term "magnetomotive force" in 1880, also coined, apparently independently, a bit later in 1883 by Bosanquet.


title: Magnetic reluctance

text: In both AC and DC fields, the reluctance is the ratio of the magnetomotive force (MMF) in a magnetic circuit to the magnetic flux in this circuit. In a pulsating DC or AC field, the reluctance also pulsates (see phasors).


title: Magnetic reluctance

text: It is sometimes known as Hopkinson's law and is analogous to Ohm's Law with resistance replaced by reluctance, voltage by MMF and current by magnetic flux.


title: Magnetic reluctance

text: Its SI derived unit is the henry (the same as the unit of inductance, although the two concepts are distinct).


title: Magnetic reluctance

text: Magnetic flux always forms a closed loop, as described by Maxwell's equations, but the path of the loop depends on the reluctance of the surrounding materials. It is concentrated around the path of least reluctance. Air and vacuum have high reluctance, while easily magnetized materials such as soft iron have low reluctance. The concentration of flux in low-reluctance materials forms strong temporary poles and causes mechanical forces that tend to move the materials towards regions of higher flux so it is always an attractive force (pull).


title: An American Tragedy

text: An American Tragedy is a 1925 novel by American writer Theodore Dreiser. He began the manuscript in the summer of 1920, but a year later abandoned most of that text. It was based on the notorious murder of Grace Brown in 1906 and the trial of her lover. In 1923 Dreiser returned to the project, and with the help of his wife Helen and two editor-secretaries, Louise Campbell and Sally Kusell, he completed the massive novel in 1925. The book entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2021.


title: An American Tragedy

text: Clyde Griffiths is raised by poor and devoutly religious parents to help in their street missionary work. As a young man, Clyde must, to help support his family, take menial jobs as a soda jerk, then a bellhop at a prestigious Kansas City hotel. There, his more sophisticated colleagues introduce him to bouts of social drinking and sex with prostitutes.


title: An American Tragedy

text: Enjoying his new lifestyle, Clyde becomes infatuated with manipulative Hortense Briggs, who manipulates him into buying her expensive gifts. When Clyde learns Hortense goes out with other men, he becomes jealous. Nevertheless, he would rather spend money on her than to help his sister, who had eloped, only to end up pregnant and abandoned by her lover.


title: An American Tragedy

text: Clyde's life changes dramatically when his friend Sparser, driving Clyde, Hortense, and other friends back from a secluded rendezvous in the country in his boss's car, used without permission, hits a little girl and kills her. Fleeing from the police at high speed, Sparser crashes the car. Everyone but Sparser and his partner flee the scene of the crime. Clyde leaves Kansas City, fearing prosecution as an accessory to Sparser's crimes.


title: An American Tragedy

text: While working as a bellboy at an exclusive club in Chicago, he meets his wealthy uncle Samuel Griffiths, the owner of a shirt-collar factory in the fictional city of Lycurgus, New York. Samuel, feeling guilt for neglecting his poor relations, offers Clyde a menial job at the factory. After that, he promotes Clyde to a minor supervisory role.


title: An American Tragedy

text: Samuel Griffiths's son Gilbert, Clyde's immediate supervisor, warns Clyde that as a manager, he should not consort with women working under his supervision. At the same time the Griffithses pay Clyde little attention socially. As Clyde has no close friends in Lycurgus, he becomes lonely. Emotionally vulnerable, Clyde is drawn to Roberta Alden, a poor and innocent farm girl working in his shop, who falls in love with him. Clyde secretly courts Roberta, ultimately getting her pregnant.


title: An American Tragedy

text: At the same time, elegant young socialite Sondra Finchley, daughter of another Lycurgus factory owner, takes an interest in Clyde despite his cousin Gilbert's efforts to keep them apart. Clyde's engaging manner makes him popular among the young smart set of Lycurgus; he and Sondra become close, and he courts her while neglecting Roberta. Roberta expects Clyde to marry her to avert the shame of an unwed pregnancy, but Clyde now dreams instead of marrying Sondra.


title: An American Tragedy

text: Having failed to procure an abortion for Roberta, Clyde gives her no more than desultory help with living expenses while his relationship with Sondra matures. When Roberta threatens to reveal her relationship with Clyde unless he marries her, he plans to murder her by drowning while they go boating. He had read a local newspaper report of a boating accident.


title: An American Tragedy

text: Clyde takes Roberta out in a canoe on the fictional Big Bittern Lake (modeled on Big Moose Lake, New York) in the Adirondacks, and rows to a secluded bay. He freezes. Sensing something wrong, Roberta moves toward him, and he unintentionally strikes her in the face with a camera, stunning her and accidentally capsizing the boat. Roberta, unable to swim, drowns, while Clyde, unwilling to save her, swims to shore. The narrative implies that the blow was accidental, but the trail of circumstantial evidence left by the panicky and guilt-ridden Clyde points to murder.


title: An American Tragedy

text: The local authorities are eager to convict Clyde, to the point of manufacturing additional evidence against him, and he repeatedly incriminates himself with his confused and contradictory testimony. Despite a vigorous (and untruthful) defense by two lawyers hired by his uncle, Clyde is convicted, sentenced to death, and after an appeal is denied, he is executed by electric chair.


title: An American Tragedy

text: Dreiser based the book on a notorious criminal case. On July 11, 1906, resort owners found an overturned boat and the body of Grace Brown at Big Moose Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York. Chester Gillette was put on trial, and convicted of killing Brown, though he claimed that her death was a suicide. Gillette was executed by electric chair on March 30, 1908. The murder trial drew international attention when Brown's love letters to Gillette were read in court. Dreiser saved newspaper clippings about the case for several years before writing his novel, during which he studied the case closely. He based Clyde Griffiths on Chester Gillette, deliberately giving him the same initials.


title: An American Tragedy

text: The historical location of most of the central events was Cortland, New York, a city situated in Cortland County in a region replete with place names resonant of Greco-Roman history. Townships include Homer, Solon, Virgil, Marathon, and Cincinnatus. Lycurgus, the pseudonym given to Cortland, was the legendary law-giver of ancient Sparta. Grace Brown, a farm girl from the small town of South Otselic in adjacent Chenango County, was the factory girl who was Gillette's lover. The place where Grace was killed, Big Moose Lake, an actual place in the Adirondacks, was called Big Bittern Lake in Dreiser's novel.


title: An American Tragedy

text: A strikingly similar murder took place in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1934, when Robert Edwards clubbed Freda McKechnie, one of his two lovers, and placed her body in a lake. The cases were so similar that the press at the time dubbed the Edwards/McKechnie murder "The American Tragedy". Edwards was eventually found guilty, and also executed by electric chair.


title: An American Tragedy

text: The novel is a tragedy, Clyde's destruction being the consequence of his innate weaknesses: moral and physical cowardice, lack of scruples and self-discipline, muddled intellect, and unfocused ambition; additionally, the effect of his ingratiating (Dreiser uses the word "soft") social manner places temptation in his way which he cannot resist.


title: An American Tragedy

text: This novel is full of symbolism, ranging from Clyde's grotesque description of the high gloomy walls of the factory as an opportunity for success, symbolizing how it is all a mirage, to the description of girls as "electrifying" to foreshadow Clyde's destination to the electric chair; Dreiser transforms everyday mundane objects to symbols.


title: An American Tragedy

text: Dreiser sustains readers' interest in the lengthy novel (over 800 pages) by the accumulation of detail, and by continually varying the "emotional distance" of his writing from Clyde and other characters, from detailed examination of their thoughts and motivations to dispassionate reportage.


title: An American Tragedy

text: The novel has been adapted several times into other forms, and the storyline has been used, not always attributed, as the basis for other works:


title: An American Tragedy

text: In 2005, the book was placed on "Time" magazine's list of the top 100 novels written in English since 1923.


title: David Ochoa

text: David Ochoa (born January 16, 2001) is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Liga MX club Atlético San Luis. Born in the United States, he has represented both the Mexico national under-21 team and U.S. national youth teams.


title: David Ochoa

text: Born in California to Mexican parents, Ochoa was introduced to the sport at a young age by his father, who also played as a goalkeeper. He played youth soccer with AC Brea, gaining national attention at the 2015 Dallas Cup youth tournament, where he helped his team win the U14 tournament. He drew attention from Mexican clubs Guadalajara and Monterrey and American clubs LA Galaxy and Real Salt Lake.


title: David Ochoa

text: In April 2015, he earned his first US youth team call-up to play for the United States U14 team. He joined the Guadalajara youth academy, but was unable to play in competitive matches due to Mexican regulations requiring his parents to be present since he was a minor. During his time in Mexico, he also trained with the Mexico U16 team. Afterwards, he returned to the USA, joining the Real Salt Lake Academy.


title: David Ochoa

text: Ochoa appeared for USL side Real Monarchs on April 22, 2018 in a 2–0 loss to Tampa Bay Rowdies, becoming the second-youngest goalkeeper ever to debut in USL.


title: David Ochoa

text: On August 8, 2018, it was reported that Ochoa was training with Manchester United and had further trials planned with clubs from Spain and Germany.


title: David Ochoa

text: Ochoa signed with Real Salt Lake on November 28, 2018, ahead of the 2019 season. Ochoa was loaned to the Real Monarchs for his first season and won the USL Championship, defeating Louisville City FC on November 17, 2019 in Louisville, KY. In 2019, he played in the MLS Homegrown game at the 2019 MLS All-Star Game.


title: David Ochoa

text: Ochoa was fined for kicking the ball into the stands during an April 24, 2021 match against Minnesota United FC. He recorded his first Major League Soccer shutout on May 15, 2021 against Nashville SC.


title: David Ochoa

text: Ochoa was eligible to play for the United States or Mexico. Originally called up to the Mexico under-16s, Ochoa instead opted to play for the United States at multiple youth levels.


title: David Ochoa

text: Ochoa has been capped at under-16, −18, and −20 levels for the U.S. and has also been a member of the under-17 residency program. On August 25, 2018, Ochoa made multiple penalty saves in the final of the 2018 Vaclav Jezek Tournament in helping the U.S. under-18s to winning the tournament.


title: David Ochoa

text: On December 1, 2020, Ochoa was called up to the United States senior team by head coach Gregg Berhalter for the friendly against El Salvador on December 9, but was replaced by San Jose Earthquakes goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski after Ochoa was diagnosed with a right quad strain.


title: David Ochoa

text: Ochoa was named to the final 20-player United States under-23 roster for the 2020 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship in March 2021. Ochoa started three games for the under-23 team during Olympic qualification. The United States failed to qualify for the 2020 Olympics after losing 2–1 to Honduras; Honduras scored their second goal after Ochoa played an errant pass that ricocheted off Luis Palma and into the United States goal.


title: David Ochoa

text: On May 24, 2021, Ochoa was named to the United States' roster for the 2021 CONCACAF Nations League Finals.


title: David Ochoa

text: On August 2, 2021, Fox Sports reported that Ochoa had submitted and filed a one-time switch with FIFA in order to make a full move to the Mexico national football team.


title: David Ochoa

text: On October 9, 2021, Ochoa made his Mexico U21 debut in a friendly match against the Romania U21 side.


title: David Ochoa

text: On April 21, 2022, Ochoa received his first call-up to the senior national team by manager Gerardo Martino for a friendly match against Guatemala.


title: David Mabuza

text: David Dabede "DD" Mabuza (born 25 August 1960) is a South African politician who has been Deputy President of South Africa since February 2018. He was the Deputy President of the African National Congress (ANC) from December 2017 to December 2022 and was previously the Premier of Mpumalanga from 2009 to 2018, throughout the presidency of his former political ally Jacob Zuma.


title: David Mabuza

text: A native of rural Mpumalanga and a teacher by training, Mabuze's initial engagement in politics was through the Black Consciousness movement, while he was a student, and then through teachers' unions; he was chairperson of the South African Democratic Teachers Union, an affiliate of the influential Congress of South African Trade Unions, from 1988 to 1991. After the end of apartheid in 1994, he joined the Mpumalanga provincial legislature as an ANC representative and took up a series of ministerial posts in the Mpumalanga Executive Council. He was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee for the first time in 2007 and was ANC provincial chairperson in Mpumalanga from 2008 to 2017, throughout his premiership.


title: David Mabuza

text: Mabuza's politics have been described as populist. Through a rigorous recruitment drive, he increased the size and influence of the Mpumalanga branch of the ANC and, with Ace Magashule and Supra Mahumapelo, was part of the so-called Premier League that helped engineer the outcome of the ANC's 54th National Conference. At the conference, held in December 2017, Mabuza was elected Deputy President of the ANC, serving under Cyril Ramaphosa. When Ramaphosa ascended to the national presidency after Zuma's resignation in February 2018, he appointed Mabuza to succeed him as national Deputy President.


title: David Mabuza

text: David Dabede Mabuza was born on 25 August 1960 at Phola near Hazyview in what became Mpumalanga province. His parents were farmers. He matriculated at Khumbula High School, also in Mpumalanga. He earned a teaching diploma, specialising in mathematics education, from the Mgwenya College of Education in 1985; he was also secretary of the Black Consciousness-aligned Azania Student Organisation (AZASO) from 1984 to 1985. While studying at the University of South Africa for his Bachelor of Arts in psychology, which he earned in 1989, he began work as a schoolteacher. He taught at KaNgwane Department of Education from 1986 to 1988 and was Principal of Lungisani Secondary School, also in Mpumalanga, from 1989 to 1993.


title: David Mabuza

text: He also continued his political engagements: he was chairperson of the National Education Union of South Africa from 1986 to 1988, treasurer of Foundation for Education with Production from 1986 to 1990, and a co-ordinator of the National Education Crisis Committee from 1987 to 1989. According to journalist Ferial Haffajee, Mathews Phosa recruited Mabuza into the United Democratic Front in 1986. From 1988 to 1991, in the penultimate phase of apartheid, he chaired the South African Democratic Teachers Union, an affiliate of the influential Congress of South African Trade Unions.


title: David Mabuza

text: After South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, Mathews Phosa, the inaugural Premier of Mpumalanga, appointed Mabuza his Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Education in the provincial government of Mpumalanga. Mabuza served in that position until 1998, when Phosa fired him after a scandal in which it emerged that the province's 1998 matric results had been fraudulently inflated by twenty percentage points. Pursuant to the 1999 general election, Mabuza was elected to the Mpumalanga provincial legislature and was reappointed to the provincial executive under Premier Ndaweni Mahlangu, serving as MEC for Housing between 1999 and 2001. In 2001, he left his provincial positions to serve a three-year stint in the national Parliament; he returned to the Mpumalanga legislature from 2004 to 2007. During this period, he became known to the province's civil servants as "the Hurricane", "for his sporadic ireful outbursts when things go wrong".


title: David Mabuza

text: Over the same period, Mabuza ascended through the provincial ranks of his political party, the African National Congress (ANC). He was Chairperson of the Nelspruit regional branch of the ANC from 1994 to 1998 and a member of the ANC Provincial Executive Committee in Mpumalanga from 1998 to 2006; he became provincial Deputy Chairperson of the ANC in Mpumalanga in 1999 and again in 2005, though in the interim he lost a 2002 election for the position of provincial Secretary. The "Mail & Guardian" said that he used his time in the national Parliament to build national political networks in the ANC. He also reportedly ingratiated himself with two successive provincial chairpersons – Mahlangu and his successor Thabang Makwetla – by campaigning for them and positioning himself as their deputy, while planning as early as 2005 to run for the provincial chair himself in 2008.


title: David Mabuza

text: Ahead of the ANC's so-called Polokwane conference in December 2007, Mabuza supported Jacob Zuma's successful campaign to replace incumbent Thabo Mbeki as President of the ANC. At the conference, Mabuza himself was elected for the first time to the ANC's National Executive Committee, the top executive organ of the party.


title: David Mabuza

text: After the Polokwane conference, he returned to the provincial executive once more: he was MEC for Road and Transport from 2007 to 2008, Leader of Government Business in the provincial legislature in 2007, and MEC for Agriculture and Land Administration from 2008 to 2009.


title: David Mabuza

text: In August 2008, he was elected provincial ANC Chairperson in Mpumalanga, beating Lassy Chiwayo with 388 votes to Chiwayo's 305. He and an informal slate of allies, who were also elected to the party's provincial executive, ran an "Mpumalanga First" campaign that was described as populist and xenophobic insofar as it entailed castigating Mabuza's predecessors for giving government jobs to people from outside the province, especially from urban Gauteng. The campaign was supported by local branches of the ANC Youth League, South African National Civics Organisation, and Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans' Association. Mabuza's victory was also linked in some analyses to his support for Zuma: his predecessor, Makwetla, was one of several pro-Mbeki provincial chairs who were replaced with pro-Zuma figures during that period. Others, however, thought the Zuma–Mbeki rivalry was irrelevant in Mpumalanga.


title: David Mabuza

text: As provincial Chairperson, Mabuza became the ANC's presumptive candidate for Premier in the 2009 general election. On 6 May 2009, after the ANC won the election, the ANC caucus in the provincial legislature elected him Premier of Mpumalanga. For much of the next decade, Mabuza held both positions concurrently: he remained Premier until February 2018, and he chaired the ANC in the province until 2017, winning re-election in 2012 despite an attempt to unseat him. The "Business Day" said in 2018 that he had "run Mpumalanga with an iron fist". Among other things, he centralised decision-making power in his office through the so-called Rapid Implementation Unit. He was also well known for his initiative to construct a handful of large boarding schools in the province's rural areas.


title: David Mabuza

text: Mabuza maintained his support for Zuma, who had been elected as President of South Africa in 2009; he endorsed Zuma for re-election to the ANC presidency ahead of the party's 53rd National Conference, saying, "Hands off our president". At that conference, held in December 2012, Zuma was re-elected but Mabuza himself did not secure direct re-election to the ANC National Executive Committee; however, he remained an ex officio member of the committee in his capacity as a provincial chairperson.


title: David Mabuza

text: In the mid-2010s, Mabuza launched a successful campaign to expand the ANC's membership in Mpumalanga. Between 2012 and 2017, Mpumalanga, one of South Africa's smaller provinces, jumped from being the ANC's fourth-largest region to being its second-largest (behind KwaZulu-Natal). This meant that the province would be allocated more voting delegates at the ANC's future National Conferences, and would therefore have more influence over leadership selection and policy determination in the party. According to journalist, Norimitsu Onishi, Mabuza "attracted legions of new A.N.C. members with government contracts, cash handouts and even KFC meals", but some of his opponents claimed that the Mpumalanga leadership had artificially inflated its membership figures.


title: David Mabuza

text: Mabuza shared both tactics – his outspoken support for Zuma and his drive to increase provincial ANC membership – with two other provincial ANC leaders, Supra Mahumapelo of the North West and Ace Magashule of the Free State. The informal alliance between Mabuza, Mahumapelo, and Magashule – although they denied it existed – led journalists to begin calling them the "Premier League", because all three were the Premiers of their respective provinces.


title: David Mabuza

text: In September 2015, Mabuza collapsed and fell ill. Although it was initially reportedly that he was suffering from severe fatigue or a stroke, he told "City Press" that he had been poisoned. Vusi Shongwe acted as Premier while Mabuza took two months' leave to recover from his illness. Upon his return, he gave himself the nickname "The Cat" for his ability to survive attacks by his opponents.


title: David Mabuza

text: It later emerged that Mabuza had travelled to a state hospital in Moscow in October 2015 to receive specialised medical treatment, and that he had travelled there on a private jet owned by the Gupta family, which at that time was alleged to be involved in state capture under the Zuma administration. A spokesman explained, "The premier was gravely ill and was not in a position to easily walk or carry himself on to a national airline". According to Mabuza, the use of the Guptas' jet had been offered to him by Duduzane Zuma, President Zuma's son, who was a business associate of the Guptas. He said that he did not have any other relationship with the family and that the favour would not create a conflict of interest.


title: David Mabuza

text: Ahead of the 54th National Conference of the ANC, which would elect Zuma's successor to the ANC presidency, Mabuza and the other members of the Premier League were viewed as the primary "kingmakers", both because of the large number of voting delegates allocated to their provinces and because of their apparent influence over the votes of the ANC Women's League and Youth League. Mabuza, with the second-largest number of delegates, was viewed as particularly powerful, especially as he declined to endorse whole-heartedly either of the two frontrunners, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa. Initially, Mabuza was assumed to support Dlamini-Zuma, who had the endorsement of President Zuma, her ex-husband. This was especially plausible because the other Premier League members were aligned to her and because her supporters seemed to view Mabuza as her informal running mate. However, his commitment to the Dlamini-Zuma campaign became less certain as the conference approached, and Mabuza "play[ed] both sides".


title: David Mabuza

text: Instead, he launched what he referred to as a campaign for "unity" in the ANC: indeed, he reportedly encouraged ANC members in Mpumalanga not to nominate presidential candidates but instead to vote for "unity"; about a third of them apparently spoiled their ballots by writing the word "unity" across them. The unity campaign gave Mabuza leverage with both frontrunners. In the week of the conference, he was described as the conference's "wild card" and "most powerful man", with the most power to sway the ultimate outcome. He had also received strong support for his candidacy for the deputy presidency and the "Business Day" expected him to be elected as ANC Deputy President regardless of which side prevailed in the presidential race.


title: David Mabuza

text: When the conference began, on 18 December, it was announced that Ramaphosa had won the presidency and Mabuza the deputy presidency. He had beaten Lindiwe Sisulu, Ramaphosa's running mate, by 2,538 votes to Sisulu's 2,159. In fact, of all the so-called Top Six leaders elected, Mabuza had won both the most branch nominations and the most votes.